Daveboone

Ten days in South Africa in the Eastern Cape region come April, split between the wifes critter peeking and a modest hunt list. Our first time "away" vacation in thirty years.

I love squirrel hunting, really havent in years. I just havent found a recipe for them I like, but the squirrel cacciatore does sound good. I have lost all my old stand by areas, but I guess I should be able to head down to the finger lakes national forest and find some.

The Short Happy Life of........

Next acquisition....A current quality reloading manual. Do not just try to get by with what you find on line. Speer, Hornady, Nosler, all make a good manual, but in particular Speer is pretty much the industry standard, and covers a very wide range of projectiles. Do NOT take as gospel any recipes that are offered to you. Projectiles/ cartridges are very specific to powders and loads, and I would be very surprised if .243 and 30-06 used the same powders due to the vast difference in case capacities and bullet caliber. The manual will not just give you the appropriate loadings, it spells out how and why for the different procedures. There are no shortcuts to safe and quality loads.

I had never saved them, but with recipes I have seen for shanks over the past couple years I am eager to try them. Unfortunately, I have to wait..at least another nine months!

After I posted last, I looked that up and was surprised...just as Oudoorstom mentions, any dog can be used. For a long time only certain breeds ( I know dachsunds were one) could be used. I wonder what the original mind set was?

Oh, by the way....any dog being used to track deer in NY MUST be on a lead, and what breeds can be used are also spelled out in the regulations.

I had a 1/2 blue tick/1/2 beagle hound for a number of years. When a pup, we made/bought drags (heavy canvas throw ) which we sprayed with rabbit scenting spray. I had the kid take the drag for a run through the woods, and with the dog initially on a lead, followed the scent. Early on, lots of scent, small circles. over time, make a point of skipping over logs, little streams, etc. so the scent is broken, then use less scent. Be sure you yourself are using rubber boots and are relatively clean so he doesnt get used to following your scent. There are numerous dog training web sites to find the stuff. Scents are available for most anything, but of course you could also use skins, etc. I used the same basic procedure on my Setter to start. Before you start worrying about scents though, make sure you get your basic discipline commands down....sit, stay, come, etc. Beagles are about as bull headed as you can get when they are on a scent. No matter what, no matter how po'd you are for his stubborness, failure to respond, what evern...DO NOT spank/disciplen the dog for not coming! You praise him heavily for obeying. Otherwise, he will simply learn that when he does come to you, wtf....he is getting disciplined anyway.

In particular what I like about his show is he doesnt actively promote products, although there are times I am curious about what his equipment is. My favorite episode is a recent one where he is flintlock hunting in Pennsylvania snow for white tails..very unsuccessfully, but still obviously having a great time. I love flintlocks (building my 2nd one currently) and would have loved to know more about what he was using.

Where were you hunting deer with dogs?

We used to do real well on bunnies without dogs around the finger lakes, but certainly the increase in predators (coyotes, hawks, etc) has thinned them out or made them much more wary. As a kid it we would track bunny tracks...which seemed to be everywhere, for hours.

What we take for granted now, huh?

Favorite pistol to shoot...by far, Colt 1911 45 acp. Favorite revolver...tougher. My Smith model 28 has probably the finest revolver action ever made, but for sheer shooting enjoyment, ergonomics, it would have to have been my Ruger .357 Blackhawk, though i shot my .44 Ruger single action Super black hawk just as well.

The boss system has been around for over twenty years. i remember when they came out it set the industry on its ears, but havent seen or heard much about it in a long time. I dont think they can make a crappy round shoot great. Still need to find what round performs best, and then the boss system helps stabilize it more as I recall.

I find my game cams more entertaining than TV, but I am perfectly ok with not using them during hunting season. I have certainly used them to my successful advantage, but like to think I have enough woodsman/hunter skills not to need mug shots of my victims.

Dang if I remember off hand...sure you can google it.

My guess is for the mount it will boil down to what you can find. Not a lot of demand for 94 mounts ever, less as years go by. The 30-30 performance arc really is best optimized out to about 100 yards...not that they havent been used further, and especially as the woods gun they were designed for, no great magnifiction needed. My favorite scope magnifiction for the woods is 1.5 -5. I am very partial to the Leupold 1.5 x 5 vx3. It is as good as it gets for early and last light. I know guys who love a fixed 2.5 or four power.

Thats all I have to say on that matter! Almost! I pulled my game camera card from in front of my favorite stand last week end. Despite my lack of luck, right through the end of the season ...when I was hunting, through last week end the deer population is outstanding from the looks of it. I have pics of six different bucks different sizes and too many does and smaller deer to count. Once the snow starts settling in and before it gets too deep, deer hang in our area off the edge of the Tug. I just couldnt be there at the same time they were. It should be a banner year next year as long as the winter holds reasonable. We are also lucky that the hemorhagic fever that did so much damage only a few miles away didnt affect us.

Two years ago I was up to 250 lbs (6'1" tall) Knees and hips hurt, poor endurance. I have a horrible sweet tooth and love to snack. I have two cups of coffee in the a.m. and no caffeine the rest of the day (energy drinks are poison to me!), and i really dont care for soda. I went cold turkey on day time snacks. No donuts/baked goods or candy. I love milk and would drink several glasses a day. Cut it out for just one small fruit juice glass before bed...a lifetime habit. Lets face it, we dont need snacks no matter how we justify it( if otherwise healthy). Probably the healthiest snacks you can eat the no carb snack...fruit. I am down under 230 for over a year now. I desperately want to get to 220 . My knees and hips dont hurt any more, and I do not get mid afternoon "lag". A lot of that is caused by caffeine withdrawal. Get away from it! I am a firm believer in a big breakfast...eggs, toast, fruit every a.m. (5:30-6 a.m.) with no snacks before lunch. I love ham/bacon/ leftover steak /etc. with my breakfast, but the funny thing is when i dont have it or when I only eat one egg and slice of toast, I dont feel less full/hungry later.

Look into it sooner than later. Africa (especially SA) is much more affordable than what most folks think. Other than airfare, our 10 days in SA for both of us with four species (pretty common plains game) time split between hunting and day trip stuff, is less than a one week Newfoundland moose hunt.

No sharks for us. No bridge jumping, no night clubs, we are spending as much of our time as possible off the beaten track. We are spending a day deep sea fishing, and are looking forward to getting a tour of the owners sheep ranch (no comments) and farm, and have some down time planned for some beach combing along the Indian Ocean, which one of our hunting properties borders. We absolutely are looking forward to the local foods, and the guide knows I want to sear some game tenderloin over a camp fire, just as I would venison at home. I hope we have a chance to check out one of thier gun shops. Ten days are going to go by very quickly.

Google searches online, reference follow up, He actually contacted me in reference to some questions I posted on another forum. I contacted over twenty references, many of whom were repeat customers, all of which responded enthusiastically. He is a small outfitter compared to many, very personally oriented and the whole trip is 100% around what we want to do, and we are the only party present.

real deal black powder is very forgiving with measurement...I would think the sustitutes would be the same. Doubt it will be noticeable in any way.

The Benoit (sic?) family in Maine is recognized as being top level wilderness trophy white tail deer hunters. They put hundreds of hours a year in year round scouting, woods cruising, target practice and simply researching deer, which they hunt exclusively by tracking in snowy winter conditions. If you were to measure success by how quickly or how often you shoot big deer, they would fall flat on an average. On the level of woodsmanship and deer hunting knowledge...couldnt be measured. Myself, it would be a horrible season to shoot a buck on opening day. I want to hunt all season long and get my deer on the last evening...which happened a surprising number of times. This year...no meat. passed on shots, then missed a difficult shot behind me. I stopped hunting saturday night before the sunday closing, without seeing much for days. Yesterday I checked my game camera. Gobs of deer all over my stand area sunday a.m. and pm! Thats the game!

After over five years of planning and delays, we are a go for our (wife and I ) long planned trip to South Africa...Eastern Province out of Port Elizabeth. She had always wanted to do the animal viewing thing, and I have long dreamed of Kudu since reading Ruark as a kid (and many times since). Only a very modest package for impala, wart hog (only if with exceptional tusks,) Kudu...which is my primary, and surprisingly enough my wife insisted on me getting her a zebra rug! Okie dokey! We are split five days being a tourist (including visiting Addo elephant reserve, deep sea fishing, big cat rehabilitation, visiting street markets among others, and five days in the field. Using my guides .270, which greatly simplifies the travel plans. We are in the "pulling all the stuff together" phase, to be sure we dont miss anything, and to minimize our packing. Of course once back, I will post highlights. Hopefully this will compensate for my poor showing for the past fall deer hunting.