Pygmy

Good article.....In over 50 years of blood tracking deer, I have seen several of these myths busted dozens of times... Two of the most durable, AND most false, are " a badly hit deer doesn't go uphill" and a badly hit deer goes toward water... If you have followed many bloodtrails, you will know that both of them are pure BS... When I was a youngster, I used to enjoy following bloodtrails...Now the only bloodtrails I like are WIDE and SHORT...I have followed too many of them that did not have a dead deer at the end...

Hehehehe..Reminds me of a story, Chas.... Quite a few years ago, when coyotes began to be common here in Steuben County, my ex-wife's sister decided she needed a donkey to protect her sheep herd from coyotes, even though she had never had any predation from either coyotes or dogs.. She got a donkey and put it in with her sheep...The donkey started killing her sheep, so my wife brought it to our empty pasture...My nephew decided to keep a few young stock in the pasture, thinking they could hold their own against the donkey...The donkey savaged the cattle, kicking them and biting large chunks of flesh from them.. Nephew moved the poor, abused cows out,,, Some of my wife's liberal , academic type friends ( she is a schoolteacher) convinced her that donkeys are social animals and NEED another animal in the pasture with them, or they feel bad or something. What it REALLY is , is that the wretched things need something to TORMENT, or they feel their time here on earth is wasted.. SOOOO, my (ex) wife bought another donkey...They co-exist nicely, kicking and biting huge chunks out of each other and generally have a grand time..If some other poor creature, like a cat or a dog, has the bad judgement to get into the pasture, they kill it, if they possibly can.. Donkeys live many years, and my ex wife will probably have the evil creatures as long as she lives..She deserves them....Hehehehehe.. I pick on my daughter, telling her that someday she will inherit her mothers donkeys....She has assured me that if that day ever comes the creatures will go directly to the glue factory.. She is as fond of them as I am.....<<smile>>....

Hard to tell, Chris....

As far as I know, it IS legal for a citizen to shoot dogs that are attacking livestock. Wild deer ? No, unless your are a LEO....

Fifty years ago in the southern zone, only conservation officers and other police officers could legally shoot dogs chasing deer. A citizen could legally shoot dogs that were attacking his livestock, but not because they were running deer. I know it occurred, but the people who did it were in violation of the law the same as they are today and would be subject to criminal AND civil litigation. Years ago it was legal for a citizen to shoot dogs running deer in the northern zone, but to my knowledge it has never been legal in the southern zone, regardless of what one's inbred grandfather or simple minded uncle used to do.

There's only about an inch and a half of hooch left in that jar as we speak.... Towmorrow, it will probably be gone....THANKS, Culver !! Good stuff...

Thanks for the sentiment, Val...It was just one of those things that happen in life.. House is long gone...So is the wife... I must admit I miss the HOUSE...

I once had a cheap electric smoker I was getting pretty good at smoking fish, and was turning out some good quality product with it.. Then I burned my house down with it...( No fault of the smoker). My wife wouldn't let me use it anymore.....In fact we bulldozed a big hole on the property and buried it with the remains of the house... True story...

Mary sounds like my kind of girl... I like 'em fully feathered.....<<grin>>.....

They left out Elmer Fudd.....He is an avid hunter of ducks and wabbits...

Not only can too much tequila cause you to not shoot, it can result in your not being able to get your gun up... Fur coats....SMILE...I have seen a few PRIME pelts in my day....<<sigh>>.....

Double post..Sorry..

We have all read such classics as " Here I sit, broken hearted.." on ****house walls... What about some original ones you've read over the years..? Several come to my mind from a place in Addison named The Ritz Cafe'...It has been closed for years and the building now houses a church, of all things...<<smirk>>... These date back to the early 1960s... " Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light". " Please do not pee on the floor. The janitor has holes in his shoes.. " Stand closer....That ain't no WINCHESTER you're holding.."

We have all read such classics as " Here I sit, broken hearted.." on ****house walls... What about some original ones you've read over the years..? Several come to my mind from a place in Addison named The Ritz Cafe'...It has been closed for years and the building now houses a church, of all things...<<smirk>>... These date back to the early 1960s... " Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light". " Please do not pee on the floor. The janitor has holes in his shoes.. " Stand closer....That ain't no WINCHESTER you're holding.."

We have all read such classics as " Here I sit, broken hearted.." on ****house walls... What about some original ones you've read over the years..? Several come to my mind from a place in Addison named The Ritz Cafe'...It has been closed for years and the building now houses a church, of all things...<<smirk>>... These date back to the early 1960s... " Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light". " Please do not pee on the floor. The janitor has holes in his shoes.. " Stand closer....That ain't no WINCHESTER you're holding.."

I have had good luck with the Sweet's...It is pretty aggressive, and dissolves the copper fairly quickly..Just don't leave it in the bore for extended periods of time and make sure you clean it out after using it, to avoid the possibility of etching the bore..

Steuben Jerry....Stop in the Campbell Legion sometime and mention the subject...There are several patrons in there who seem to see mountain lions on nearly a daily basis, and some of them are your neighbors....hehehehe....

I don't think it is any worse than with regular jacketed bullets, Shawn.. Since Barnes started making the banded bullets, thus reducing the amount of bullet bearing surface that contacts the rifling, excessive fouling has been reduced, at least in my rifles. I'm not a real clean freak with my rifles...I run a few patches with Sweet's 7.62 through the bore every 20-30 rounds and I have not seen any noticeable decrease in accuracy due to fouling. However, I,m talking acceptable ( to me) hunting accuracy, not benchrest accuracy..

Hehehehe...Outrageous as this sounds, I'm betting that you could walk into most any bar in upstate NY and find at least 2 or 3 people who could not only RELATE such a tale to you, but would be perfectly willing to FIGHT about it if you told them they were full of it....

I think if you contact Barnes they can tell you minimum velocity for reliable upset of their different products. My loads use relatively light for caliber bullets ( 120 and 140 grain in 7MM, 250 grain in 9.3 MM) pushed as fast as I can safely push them while maintaining good accuracy. I have never used them in reduced loads. My 7mm08 and .280 Rem loads are around 3000 FPS MV with the 120s and 140s respectively, and the 9.3 load is around 2500 with the 250 grain.

The only Barnes I ever recovered came from a similar situation, except it entered from the REAR end of a caribou and was recovered just under the skin on the brisket. Don't ask me why I shot a caribou in the ass..I don't want to talk about it..... The fact remains that the 250 grain 9.3 MM bullet traversed a 300-400 pound caribou from stern to stem and retained 100% of its weight...And the caribou didn't go anywhere either..

Also just like the 120 grain TSX from my 7mm08 that I used to kill my buck Monday afternoon... I currently use Barnes X type bullets in all of my hunting rifles except my 30-06s, mainly because I have a supply of standard spritzers loaded for my Garand and my 03-A3. However, I plan to use up the lead bullets at the range and the NEXT box of .30 cal projectiles will be 150 grain TSX or TTSX... I have killed a variety of game animals now from coyotes to moose with the Barnes bullets in 3 different chamberings, and they have done a great job every time. I could care less if some of the energy is "wasted" on the landscape beyond the animal...Energy alone does not kill animals, destruction of vital tissue does. I want a bullet that expands, maintains it's weight and exits, leaving two holes, and the Barnes bullets do that much more often than standard cup and core bullets, or fast expanders such as ballistic tips..

Absolutely....a NP is designed to expand VERY quickly and do a lot of damage while shedding its forward portion, but then the partition keeps about 65 % of the bullet weight intact to give deep penetration..If you happen to recover a NP( I have one that went through about 2 feet of Alaskan moose) there probably will be NO lead left on the front part of the bullet. I have heard stories of NPs "penciling" through an animal with out expending...Total BS, probably from someone who lost an animal due to poor shot placement and never really knew WHERE the bullet struck... In many cases the entrance wound from a NP is bigger than the exit..They ALWAYS expand ( provided there is sufficient terminal velocity) and the core of the bullet usually exits, at least on broadside shots.

In my experience this is not unusual performance from standard cup and core bullets... I have recovered a number of shed jackets from DEAD animals over the years... If you want to be sure to have a nice. pretty mushroomed bullet ( which you will seldom see because it will exit on most shots) pay the extra $$ for premium bonded bullets such as NPs, or monolithic bullets such as Barnes or similar products... OR just keep killing your deer with standard bullets and quit worrying about such things as "bullet failures" that result in so many dead deer...

Happy birthday Al, you old fart !!