Pygmy

Of 19 of my personal hunting friends, here is the breakdown.. 30-06.....4 .270 Win...4 .243 .... 3 7mm08....2 25-06.... 2 .260 Rem.... 1 .270 WSM.... 1 30-30.... 1 .300 Win mag.... 1 Action types Bolt....16 Pump.... 1 Lever.... 1 Single shot.... 1 Bolt actions definitely rule here..It is interesting to note that there is not a single .308 Win or semi auto in the bunch. This certainly varies with locale..I once hunted in an Adirondack camp with 20 hunters...the rifles were OVERWHELMINGLY 30-06 and .308 Remington pumps and autos...I think there were only two bolt actions and two levers in camp..The rest were pumps and autos.. I sometimes hunt in New Brunswick with some friends who are locals there.. Most of them use Remington autos in .308 or 30-06, and they have lots of fun arguing among themselves about which is better..LOL...

My first was shot with a paper cased Super x 12 gauge slug from a Winchester M37 single shot. My first deer with a RIFLE ( PA) was taken with a 7 x 57 175 grain factory load from a sporterized M 1895 Chilean Mauser.. I had bought the rifle for $35 from a surplus store, and my dad and I shortened the barrel, cut down the stock and I had the bolt altered and safety replaced.. In other words, we BUBBA'd the hell out of it.. Nonetheless it shot well and I shot several bucks with it.. I wish I had it today in its original, unaltered condition, because it was a fine specimen.

Nope..I only have one and it is Long Branch 1944....

Yeah, I hear ya, Pal !! Yesterday I spread a half ton of lime and fertilizer by hand...Well, not EXACTLY by hand,,I used a shovel... The beer sure tasted good when I got home afterward...

I have suffered significant hearing loss in my left ear and some in my right ear... FORGET trying to hear things walking in the leaves.. I can't hear it until the critter is right on top of me, and then I have no idea what DIRECTION it is in.. I'm a little better on gobblers, but often the bird has to gobble several times for me to figure out what direction it is in.. I have been out with people with NORMAL hearing and invariably they hear birds that I cannot hear at all.. Want to hunt with a person who can hear REALLY well ? Hunt with a woman..Most of them have not been exposed to the gunfire, chainsaws , loud engines,and other machinery that has ruined the ears of many males.. My Mom was nearly 86 when she passed, and she was legally blind, but she could still hear a mouse fart 100 yards away.

Not quite true... The Barret .50 cals are semis, and there are many M-14s taken out of mothballs and set up for sniper use.. Other countries use them too, such as the Dragonov used by some eastern European countries.

All of my centerfire hunting rifles are bolts.. Being a handloader, it's much easier to keep track of my empties.. I love my M1, but I hate chasing all over the landscape looking for brass..

My Graf& Sons catalog lists the Hornady 205 grain .330 bullet at $29/100....

SEVENTY- FOUR ??? Nobody's THAT old !!! Happy Birthday, you old fart !!....<<grin>>....

Congrats on your new toy, Willis.. I KNEW you'd have to buy one..hehehehehehe... How does the bore look? I assume that you have to have the proper clips for the rifle to operate is a repeater ? A 200 grain bullet at 2300-2400 fps is nothing to sneeze at..That will handle any non-dangerous game as long as the accuracy is there.

Cool...Must have been a late brood..The young ones should be about as big as their mother now.. I saw a late brood this morning myself..A hen turkey with 8-10 poults about the size of pheasants..

The acorn crop is better than average here this year, both red and white... The apples are LOADED...

What Airedale said... For many years I hunted gobblers EVERY morning during season as long as I had a legal tag, and if my tags were full I would look for people to take out and call for them. I felt it was a SIN to miss a day of deer season as long as I had time off ( including before and after work) and was not tagged out. I also hunted waterfowl, pheasants, grouse, woodcock, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, coon, and LOTS of crows.. I traveled all over the USA and Canada to hunt deer, elk, moose, caribou, antelope, wild hogs, waterfowl, turkeys and pheasants.. Now that I'm older I occasionally miss a morning of spring gobbler season or deer season without feeling guilty about it...<<grin>>...

I've used Stoney Point shooting sticks for years, but my pair is about whipped and I want to upgrade.. Been reading lots of reviews and at the moment I'm leaning toward the Bog Pod Red leg bipod. I use mine inside my popup blind and also when standing for deer.

That sounds high....Last I knew you could do it easily for 5K but that was a couple of years ago.. That's for moose..If you decide to add caribou that adds big bucks fast..

I'm in the market for a new gun rest..I've used a pair of Stony Point shooting sticks for years, but their usefulness is limited and they are about whipped..Got 'em held together now with duct tape.. I'll probably invest in a good set from Primos or Bog Pod, but I haven't decided which one to get yet..

LOL !!..Actually, Moog, I DO have a fixed 4x on my squirrel rifle, but I was hunting with a scattergun today.. With the heavy foiliage and the way the squirrels bounce around WAY up high in the treetops this time of the year, it is difficult enough to get a decent shot with a shotgun, much less a rifle..I think only ONE of the squirrels I shot this morning offered a stationary shot that I MIGHT have made with a rifle. I used my 1936 vintage Winchester Model 12 16 gauge with 1 oz. Remington game loads of #6 shot. It is full choke and it pops the squirrels out of the highest treetops with authority.

The expiration date is printed on your license. My 2014-2015 license expires 9/30/15, so it is valid for September.

Squirrels or beers ??

Back in the day when there were numerous chucks around the local hayfields, I shot a number with my K98K 8mm and my M1 Garand...I also have used my Yugo and my M1 to dispatched a couple of sick coons and several porcupines

Here's my report...I went to my favorite hickory grove this morning.. I shot my first squirrel at 6:55 AM...By 8:45 I had my limit of 6 grey squirrels. Before cleaning them I did grub check...One squirrel had 4 grubs in him. Two others each had a scab where a grub had recently emerged..The other three were clean.. SO, if I count the scars, it averages out to one grub per squirrel.. BTW, by 9:15 I had them all skinned and disjointed..Once skinned, it was impossible to see where the grubs had been...

Better check the New Brunswick draw again... Odds for NR are more like 20-1 or a little higher..I've been applying for 14 years and have drawn once..I have a buddy who has drawn 3 times in 15 years, but he's a lucky SOB.. Still, the odds are better than anywhere in the states.. If you REALLY want to kill a moose, save your $$$$ for 2 or 3 years and then go to Newfoundland..Over the counter tags, high success rates, and the Newfies are a HOOT !!

This is a bit off topic, but let me tell you a sad story about a couple of SMLEs. My buddy Gator in Canada had two them and they were both beauties. One was a WWI vintage (1915) #1, and it was one of the cleanest, nicest specimens I have ever seen.. The other was a late Long Branch manufacture #4, never issued..When he got it it was still in the mummy wrap. This was when the gun registration was in effect in Canada, and guns were selling cheap, because many people who owned them did not want to go through the hassle and expense of registering them..Gator offered to sell me BOTH rifles for $300. I planned to use the unissued rifle as a shooter, and I wanted the #1 just because it was such a nice historical specimen. I looked into buying them and importing them into the states...Because of the fact that they were MILITARY rifles, there was so much hassle and expense on the US side that I decided it was not worth it..<<<SIGH>>>...

Tell y'all what I'm gonna do... I'm hunting in the morning...If I get some squirrels I'll keep track of how many grubs they have in them and report back here..

I usually set them aside and serve them up as a side dish...