sailinghudson25

Welcome to the club...... The high chancellor got me more into muzzleloading when the safe act popped out. Everything can be ordered online. Powder, bulleys, guns, parts. Got a 54 Cal lyman gpr flintlock, 2 hand built 45s, one caplock, and one flintlock built by me, a 64 Cal Thompson center pa rifle, and building a 54 Cal early reading flintlock with huge D profile barrel. I may go caplock, not at the point where I need to start cutting the lock into the stock.

I think you're fine. Hunting rifle is a small fraction of the equation in hunting. Bring that big 06 just incase. I hunt all day with a homemade 54 cal early Reading styled flintlock with 41" barrel. You'll be fine with that 06 if you ever need it. My gun is about 9.3lbs with a D profile barrel. If anything, buy a muzzleloader if you dont have one. I commonly bring a muzzleloader as backup, or a cetnerfire rifle as backup to my muzzleloader. One good gun, one good scope, one good scope mount. Gun is reliable. If your 243 doesnt have all 3, make it right 1st. Comfortable clothes, good treestand, GPS, good binos..... MAke sure thats good before adding gun after gun. Not a backup gun really... MY main rifle is a 450 marlin BLR with 1.5-4.5 scope. Backup is a remington 700 in 30-06, or a bring the 270 win one. Both with 3-9x. One better for medium range, the other better for farther out. If you feel you need more guns. look at 270 win. Light kick, easy to find ammo, ammo is affordable, and still can take down moose or elk just fine too. Tikka R3 if you got the cash. Almost everyone makes a decent gun these days on the cheap. Savage I'd look into 1st in my opinion.

Seen them shoot good. Go for it. Seen one with a not great trigger. I cleaned it up for him. Literally, clean and relube, worked great afterward.

Treestands and camera. Easy Easy thing....... Make them camo. Take a new treestand and give it a camo pattern. Then add a vine along a side or two. Much harder to see it 50+ yards away. Trail camera straps....... Why haven't they been camo yet? A bit of spray paint makes them much harder to spot at distance. Leaning a few sticks helps too. Treestand theft.. A few feet of large diameter chain and a nut/bolt. Tigthen the bolt with the right wrench good. Then take a size bigger wrench and screw up the hex head.

Thinking of booking a camping trip in early may. Do they stock trout there? Can you access the parts of the creek that may have them there?

I went, fished monday through thursday from 3:30 to 5pm. Monday and Tuesday were duds, water quality. Caught a nice 20"+ Walleye and a steelhead at the lewiston docks. Caught them on a kwikfish lure with a 1oz egg sinker ahead of a 2ft or so leader. Caught them on an eddy current right near the docks. No luck on thrusday. The water quality was best wednesday. Monday and tuesday were cloudy. The wind was kicking the lake Erie shores making the river water dirty. The water flow can change pretty quickly. This is from the power plants. I was noticing eddy currents and upcurrents from rocks there for awhile, then calm down pretty quickly. Going back this saturday for new years.

Deer interested in recently harvested beans. I got 2 plots I can hunt. Huge cornfield not harvested yet. Travel tor path points back to houses...... Or this harvested soybean field.

Plant what you like for the whole general area. It doesn't grow up in a spot here n there. A.) No big deal, deer eat plenty of stuff we call weeds. I was hunting the edge of 400 acres of corn last year. Shot a big 8 eating the weeds on the edge..... or. B.) Wait till end of summer, scratch up the soil with what you can. Then put in wheat, oats, or italian Rye. It'll enjoy the extra moisture. If you can't scratch it up, spread it and roll it in with whatever will drvie through it. I like using an ATV aired up to 10psi.

Saltwater sheephead. Great tasting fish. Tough to fish. Very mild to feel the bite. They hold close to structure too. Somewhat like tog to fish. They like small crabs like reen and asian crab. Shrimp and clam can catch them too. Got to hold the rod in your hand and have a steady boat yo feel the bite. Brining the surf rod with 30lb braid, and just bought a 9ft salmon rod to match my penn spinfisher 5 3500 with 14lb fire line. Got those juhr flatfish baits, smaller swivels, a bag of 5 split shot, Berkley power eggs. #6 egg bait holder hooks. A few cleo spoons, and a couple of those steelhead jigs. A red jig head with 2 red beads for a body and a bit of red feather for a tail. Got plenty of vibra lures. My freshwatwo favorite

Howdo you rig for the plant pier? Float, weight, and jig. Steelies are on the bottom? OR they can be anywhere in the water collumn where an eddy is.

sheepheads are there? Like the saltwater ones. IS the plant daytime only, you know the hours?

I am going to be at niagara falls 1st week of december. Is it too late for any good fishing in there? Also, what do you advise for lure or bait at the fishing pier by the plant? I got the usual assortment of striped bass fishing gear. Weights, rigging, spoon, bucktails, 11 and 9ft medium surf rod 1/2-3oz range w/30lb braid. Got a 50lb and 80lb braid with heavier 10ft rods for chunking. Thinking a slider rig with a bank sinker and a kwiskfish or spoon. What size bank sinkers and what size spoons? Colors?

9 years is a good long life. Get another YUASA. Get a trickle charger if you dont have one already. PAid about $65 for mine. OTherwise, buy a cheapie and swap it out every 3 years, same price. FYI you can buy a pull start kit for that 420 rancher

Just like to hear what you guys do to make hunting there better besides planting food plots. What I have done and/or are doing. -planting shrubs the deer enjoy eating, red dogwood, willows, and will be trying green briar next year. Also plant spruce trees to promote cover. -I take care or my mast trees and browse. Clearance the trees for light, lime and fertilize them, and I prune, cut out competition, and keep the browse deer like from getting too tall. -I mow the brushy edges and bedding areas once every 3 years to keep them from turning to forest, I mow with the brush hog on high. I do strips of 2 passes each year, then leave the next 4 passes for next 2 years to mow. Where the deer tend to go everywhere, I have made nicer paths for them to travel. Cut down travel lanes, fertilizer the brose along it, and even made it easier for them to cross swampy areas a bit better. Basically make your own funnel spot. Hinge cutting the right stuff in the right place makes a huge difference. Another thing or two I have done is planting willows in really wet swampy areas. I have also turned nature my way a bit by replanting fallow areas. The areas where my club hunt have wide ATV trails. We have planted hairy vetch and let it go to nature. It's still motly hairy vetch. Also, the vetch adds nitrogen to the soil and it is low pH tolerant and doesn't mind sandy soil.

Nice new tractor. R4's make a great make shift cultipacker. Don't go too nuts with plot size. Deer love brushy edges. Keeps them motivated to come in earlier, instead of sitting on the edge debating till dark to go out or not...