northernborn

http://vermontbiggametrophyclub.com/yahoo_site_admin/cache/pages/bear_records couple dressed bear weights and their skulls from vt

RFLMBO

neighbors here hunt Wild Hill PReserve in farilee, vermont they keep telling me its as far from a canned hunt as you can get and still be on a 4,000 acre fenced farm. i know i've driven past it since the early or mid 1960s, i think everyone in vermont has shot a boar and a buffalo there from the chit chat in teh coffee shops.

I've shot all my BP moose with only two different muzzleloaders of mine, 50 cal was a .490 Rb 0.005 patch with wonder lube, 70 grains 2F 32 " 1:66 barrel flinter, longest shot was in 2004 on a cow at 90 yards, the other go to flinter is a 62 cal fowler that I used .597" home rolled RB in WW ratio, patched with 0.005 ticking over a 80 grain 3F load with cushion wad and OP card, topped with a OS card split in half. But I body shoot with that load and flinter. I've used that on a couple buffalo with good success out to 75 yards too

where are you located? next time we head out feel free to join us and bring it for some wingshooting, sounds just right for starlings this time of year

did you try calling Doc and seeing if he has any around the shop?

we always hunted with them, mainly for small game and just plinking around, we brought back a bunch from Nam, these are very simple 'yard bows. i'd get a recurve modern one in a minute if they let me hunt everything with it like I can with my muzzleloader, far as I can see harvest is harcvest, you have an open season who cares the manner of take? Utah where I retired to has the right idea on that for fishing, use a pole, a bow, a speargun, if its open season and you can take fish X go ahead and take it, however you want that isnt destructive. I can shoot squirrel with my pistol, rifle, shotgun, bow, or muzzle but not a crossbow...that's ghey. i cant see buying an expensive crossbow to use only on deer in firearms season (counting muzzle since the modern ones are nothing but single shot 30-30s) but I'd get one if they got hteir heads out of the butts and made blanket "any legal weapon" for manner of taking game . those excalibur I think it is recurves look neat, I dont like compounds so wouldnt get a crossbow in one

and even more annoying is tourons who use terms like "dacks" and "dackers" etc, and think it makes them fit in. calling me a "dacker" its the same as calling an italian a wop, a black guy a spook or a frenchman a frog or a canadian a canuck, an NDN woman a squaw ( which is female genitalia), or a mexican a spic...its a great way to start a fight and let us know you ahve no respect for natives or our region. another thing you will learn being inside the blue line is any sign that has "Adirondack" on its name such as " ADirondack Jim's Taxidermy" etc is a sure sign they are NOT locals, we never use the term adirondacks to describe ourselves or where we are from or located. Especially those of us whose familes are here from before the park creations and the APA and lost our lands and homes to imminent domain to create the Park to begin with. course i'm old and grumpy and the first night I couldnt hear loons calling goodnight because of dogs barking and music blasting on the lake I sold our lands and the family house built in 1823 and left the north country in 2006. too many people but yepper its beautiful and hope you enjoy your time there.

coon shaped legs and snout in left photo, mask is clear in second photo.

change is always a pita. Very few hunting partners of mine besides my brothers ever had the same interests as I have to the degree I have. Hunting and fishing every day I end up with a variety of partners, one loves to fish ultra light fly rods and spinning as much as I do and we do that together, he has no interest in saltwater fishing or bowfishing and I have other buddies that live and breath the salt and the bowfishing so I team up with them for those trips, another is a die hard squirrel nut so we hunt together for them, others are only into grouse or BP and so that is when we get together, some only like boating trips, others only big game in the west, I only have one partner who will tag along on any adventure and he works full time now on day shift so we have limited time to get together the last 20 years, as soon as he retires ( could ahve last year the greedy bugger, lol) I expect we will see more of each other as we did back in the 80s 99% of my hunting trapping fishing tracking is done alone or with my hounds along, though I make attempts to involve my friends, If going for bull bluegills with the 1 wt. I call that buddy, same for river smallies pushing 4 pounds, I give the smallie buddy a call, pronghorns, elk moose, crows bowfishing, etc I give the right guy a heads up I am heading out for that which he loves to go after or where he likes to go, but schedules being what they are we can only get together when we can. Some of them find friends to go with more often whose schedules or lifestyles are a better fit and I wish them luck, and I wish you luck adapting to the new hunting scenario too.

ive shot many whitetails and pronghorns with a sako II .243 in the 80s and 90s when it was a favorite of mine to carry. I built the gun for varminting and never had good performance in the 100 gr pills but the sierra 60s (modern number#1500) were deadly. most of our kids start hunting big game with the 243 from age 5 or so up due to its mild recoil, but one boy has never used anything but his 22-250 using #1390 sierras for the last 10 years and sees no reason to change to the 243, ..whatever you ahve confidence in , 400 yard chest and head shots on chucks makes 50 yard shots on deer a gimme, as always shoot more and more often. good hutning.

bobcat. direct registering looks like multiple toes. cats pads shaped nothing like a canine, right side photo clearly shows cat pad shape.