Pygmy

It's a garter snake. Or it WAS in it's former life... It's probably a liberal Democrat now.

Just remember, Real; you're supposed to put the potato down the FRONT of your shorts, not the back like you did last time...

Larry's story brings to mind the episode of The Sopranos when Tony and Christopher cut up Ralphie in the bathtub.

Maybe SO, but I still stand up when I do it ! It's our BIRTHRIGHT ! To do otherwise requires immediate revocation of one's Man Card....

Locally, split up the back of the front legs , ring around BEHIND the ribcage, and split up the center of the top of the neck to where it is convenient to cut/saw the spine. Let the taxidermist deal with the rest. In the boonies, where the cape may not get to a cooler in a week or two, , do the same thing and then extend the top cut to near the antlers, Y out to the antlers, ring carefully around the antlers, skin the face, paying close attention around the ears, eyes and tearducts. The tearducts can be tricky and they are tough for your taxi to repair..remember they are nearly always DEEPER than you think. When done flesh the cape as closely as possible. Turn the ears and split the lips/nose..Salt well, making sure to rub it in around fleshy areas such as the lips and nose..Roll the cape up...let sit for a day or so and then shake off the salt and moisture and allow to drain by spreading out on bushes or whatever is available..After a day or so, salt well again and then roll up in a meat bag and keep in the shade until you can get it to a cooler or freezer. Other than that I don't know much about caping.

If I was a GIRL, we might work out a BARTER system... NAAAAW, Forget it...If I were female I'd be so ugly it would take a hundred years to pay that rifle off.. Besides that, I don't think I'd ever get used to sitting down to pee..

The large cartridge is a .50 BMG.... NICE find on the old Mauser...Resist the urge to "clean it up"..That might reduce the collector's value.. A gentle rubdown with some gun oil should be sufficient.

Took the .17 MachII for a short walk this morning..Got a grey and a black, first rifle kills of the year. NO bot fly larvae....So far the warble score is two grubs for 11 squirrels.

The first thing I do is to roll up the window, unload and case the rifle and tell Bubba to hide the spotlight under the blanket in the back seat.

Have fun, Thuggy....Nuthin' like a new toy !

I turned that into a lake trout rig.... Some of y'all who are familiar with Fingers Lakes trout fishing may remember the multiple leader Seth Green trolling rigs..Many old Victrolas were modified to into "reels" to accommodate the line for trout rigs... A rod was not used...The fisherman would hold the line in his hand and when a trout was hooked, the Victrola spindle was used to wind in the line.

I once dated a girl who had 3 breasts.. The one in the middle of her back made it handy for slow dancing.

I was an avid crow hunter back in the 60's and 70s...I started out calling them by mouth, then I switched to an Olt's closed reed call ( which would "freeze" up in the heat of battle) and then the old guy who ran the local sporting goods store bought a Johnny Stewart electronic caller, which he would rent out for $5 per day. It used 45 RPM records and took a dozen D batteries to run.We finally had access to HIGH TECH... In about 1973 a buddy of mine bought a caller similar to the one we rented...We killed lots of crows over it. I remember several times when we shot over 50 in a day....During March and September back in those days, no game seasons were open, so all we did was hunt crows..I would estimate that I have probably shot close to 1000 of them in my lifetime... I love wingshooting, and to a wingshooter, crow hunting is about as much fun as a fellow can have with his clothes on. I haven't shot crows in years. Now I feed them in my backyard. I DID go out last fall with a couple of old buddies and we shot a couple dozen just for old times sake...It was still a lot of fun, but I don't shoot many critters anymore unless I intend to eat them, or at least sell their pelt.

In the years since squirrel season has opened Sept 1 I have noticed the trend... The first week of Sept about half the bucks I see have shed...By mid month nearly all have shed. Just as an item of passing interest...In 1994 I hunted caribou in NWT about 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle the first week of September...We saw literally 1000s of caribou...At the beginning of the week, most of the bulls still had velvet. At the end of the week, nearly all of them had shed.

I got 3 this morning....No bot fly larvae.... Damn skeeters about ate me alive...<<NOTE TO SELF....REMEMBER BUG DOPE NEXT TIME>>....

Beautiful buck.....Nice taxidermy work !

Nearly all in the treetops..I saw only one squirrel on the ground and the rest were all in the treetops, scampering around, jumping limb to limb and knocking down nuts. There are cuttings from hickory nut hulls all over the ground under several of the trees. It is an ideal location. The hickory grove is at the base of a hillside which consists of several hundred acres of mature hemlocks and hardwoods. The squirrels can travel to the area from hundreds of yards around, without even leaving the treetops.

Yeah, Paulie...Usually by late September they are all gone. I went to my "honey hole" hickory grove this morning. Got there and leaned against my favorite tree at 7:00 AM. By 8:10 I had my limit of six greys, with 8 shots.. 6 clean kills and two clean misses , both at the same squirrel. I have to do that now and then to keep myself humble..<<GRIN>>... By 9:00 AM I had them all skinned , disjointed and in a Walmart bag. The cleanings stay in the woods for the critters. Out of 6 squirrels, two had botfly larvae, one per squirrel..A couple of others had scars where the warbles had already emerged.

Happy birthday !....REALLY...!

I'm going to take the old Model 12 16 gauge for a walk tomorrow down in my favorite hickory grove...

I looked at my buckwheat today...I planted it four weeks ago today and it is now two feet tall and beginning to blossom.. The deer are nibbling on it a little, but are hammering the new seeding clover ( I planted it a year ago) alongside it.

Kathy knows he's a good catch.. He still has some of his hair, most of his teeth, and all of his social security.

I'll be good.....<<GRIN>>.... Nice fish, Eagle....I love STRIPERS.....hehehe... I don't get down to fish for them very often anymore...I caught my first one off a jetty by the Destroyer Piers in Newport RI back in 1971 on a chunk of cut mackerel. For several years a few friends and I made an annual trip down to Niantic, Conn and fished for them in the sound and on the race.. Good fighters and excellent eating, as opposed to blues which are AWESOME fighters,but not so good to eat.

I have been fortunate in that recovery rights have never been an issue...I have always had good relations with my neighbors. One of my buddies grew up hunting PA public land where if a deer ran 100 yards there was a good chance somebody might be putting his tag on your deer before you got to it. He wants his deer to drop RIGHT THERE and could care less about some meat damage, probably because he doesn't butcher his own deer. He aims for what he calls the SWEET SPOT, which is right where the shoulders, spine and the base of the neck come together.