Pygmy

Corning is less than 20 minutes from bath on I-86...Less than half an hour from Hickory Hill campground. The Rockwell Museum, which has a super display of western art and modern and antique firearms, is also in Corning and well worth a visit..... Then there is The Glenn Curtiss Aircraft museum in Hammondsport, which is the birthplace of American Aviation...It's just a few miles from Bath on Rt 54..

Welcome aboard, Pilgrim ! I spent a couple of years living aboard a Navy destroyer home ported at Ft Schuyler, Bronx, right across the river from Bayside.....Of course, that was back when Moby Dick was a minnow....Last time I was in Bayside I was on a business trip in 1977 and stopped to visit a former shipmate who lived there...Son of Sam was still running around shooting people at the time..

Nice snapper shot, Wooly !! It's a GOOD thing that snappers don't have TEETH !

There ya go, Expresso... Looks like you have to shoot them with with a gun or a bow... That's the way I have taken ALL the turtles that I have harvested, because I NEVER do anything illegal.

I have cut the heads off snapping turtles early in the morning, hung them all day by the tail, and butchered them in the evening... The legs were STILL waving and trying to push the knife away after 8 hours or so of being headless..If you want to eat turtle it's just something you get used to. No need to eat rubbery turtle...Simply simmer them in water until the meat is fork tender, or slow roast them in an oven... Here's my favorite recipe.... Take one turtle, cleaned and disjointed into 5 pieces, 4 legs and the neck... Dip in eggwash and roll in Italian breadcrumbs... Brown pieces up in a heavy skillet with butter... Place turtle pieces in a roaster with a little water, cover and roast in a medium oven about two hours until the meat is VERY fork tender..Remove the cover, turn up the heat a bit and allow the meat to brown before serving.. I have never served it to ANYONE who didn't like it.. Another VERY simple way to cook it is to simmer the meat in water until it is fork tender, and then brown it in a skillet with butter , salt & pepper.. very good also...

P.S. Be careful when you handle them..They are generally not in a very good mood and their neck is LONGER than you may think.The safest way is a gaff hook in the jaw..You can also pick them up by the tail, but be sure that you hold them far enough away from your body so they cannot grab your leg or some OTHER vital organ..

That's the way the "turtle guys" around here do it. Chicken gizzards or freezer burned venison are popular baits, but probably any fish or meat would work. When you first catch the snapper he will smell AWFUL....Most guys place them in a washtub or something similar with only an inch or two of water to purge themselves...They dump them out once a day, hose them down and put in some fresh water..After a week or so, most of the stink is gone from them.. When you're ready to butcher, dump the critter out in the lawn and apply a .22 bullet midway between the eyes..This calms them down enough so you can cut off the head and butcher them. There is a thin seam along the side of the shell and you can run a filet knife up it and easily separate the top of the shell from the bottom..The HARD part is skinning out the neck and 4 legs...The skin seems GLUED to the meat. You have to cut it every inch of the way. The meat consists of the 4 legs and the neck, with the muscular neck being the biggest piece of meat. There isn't enough other meat in the shell to bother with. The neck is white meat, the massive front legs have both light and dark meat, and the hind legs are dark meat.. Dressing one is somewhat of a chore. I've never seen it done in much less than half an hour per turtle.

VERY cool, Dinsdale....!!

Oh yeah, one more thing, VJP.... Testing my ability as a hunter to successfully hunt ANYTHING is not one of my priorities... I hunt because I ENJOY hunting..Trying to meet a CHALLENGE or testing my abilities is of no concern to me..

You sound like someone who's never done it... I have done it BOTH ways... Most of my hunts have been DIY self guided...I did 5 Alaska trips and my partners and I purchased NOTHING except hunting licenses and air transportation to and from our destination...We did the planning, research, picked the spots and when we were hunting we did EVERYTHING on our own, including butchering and packing the meat back to where an airplane could get to it..Most of my western hunts for elk, mulies and pronghorns have been DIY also. Some hunts ( such as MOST Canadian big game hunts) require hiring a guide and/or an outfitter if you are a nonresident. I did a few of these because if I wanted to in NWT, for instance, it was my only choice... A couples of theses hunts were VERY physical...I always made my OWN decision what animal to shoot, and never once felt pressured by a guide to shoot any specific animal..I also helped with the butchering and the meat packing. One advantage of a guided hunt is being able to interface with some folks from different lifestyles... Newfies are a hoot... Want a treat ? Spend a week with a full blooded traditional Inuit named George Konana, who flew hundreds of miles SOUTH from his home to our hunting camp 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle.. Now that I am older and am not physically capable of doing some DIY hunts, I would NEED the help of a guide for some hunts requiring packing heavy loads over rough country..

Good work, Growie ! Another place to consider is Cameron State Forest south of Bath, unless you are afraid of rattlesnakes.. Lots of good hiking there as long as you watch where you step.

Nawww....If you tried to run over my buddy Gator with a bulldozer, he'd SHOOT your Yankee ass...

That was true 30 years ago...At that time you could easily do a DIY Alaska moose / caribou hunt for 2-3 K...A guided sheep or grizzly hunt ( guides are required for NR AK hunts for sheep, grizzly and goats) could be had for about 5K.. For 5K you could go to Africa, have deluxe accomodations, and shoot a whole BUNCH of unique and exotic critters.. Nowadays, a good guided AK hunt for sheep, moose or grizzly is probably going to cost you 20K door to door. I haven't priced African hunts lately, but I'll bet you could do a pretty nice hunt there for several species for half that amount.

The sap from cow parsnip is toxic/caustic also... A friend of mine in Alaska got into and she has permanent scars on her legs...

How do you tenderize a gator ? Run over him with a bulldozer 3 or 4 times ?

Not to many nest and poult predators, such as ravens, hawks and owls are federally protected, and thus "untouchable" by state regulations..

I was fortunate enough to do quite a few hunts when I was younger and had more cash flow. I've hunted moose&caribou in Alaska five times, all unguided, and have hunted several Canadian provinces and several western states for moose, caribou,pronghorns, elk and mule deer. Sheep and grizzly have always been out of my price range...I have been around grizzlies quite a bit..On one Alaska supercub drop hunt for caribou, my buddies and I saw 13 of them..Never had the urge to shoot one though, unless he was being a PITA around camp. At one time, mountain goats were on my short list, but time and money ran out and I no longer could handle the terrain. I would love to do one more Alaska or Canadian moose hunt, but I would have to go guided because I can no longer do the "bull work",< pun intended> to butcher and pack the animal, and guided moose hunts are WAY out of my price range now.. I have been banking elk preference points in Colorado for the last few years and I might do one more elk hunt (ML or rifle) if I find the right hunt.

Given favorable nesting and brood rearing habitat, three major factors control turkey numbers... Weather, weather, and weather... The average hatching date in NY is June 11th, or thereabouts.. As long as we keep having unseasonably wet, cool weather in June, we will continue to have depressed turkey numbers.. Shoot all the coons,foxes, coyotes, skunks, possums and armored dildos that you want, and it is not going to increase turkey numbers nearly as much as two or three consecutive good hatches would.. Perhaps we should encourage Al Gore to postpone his global warming process for a few years until turkey populations rebound..

I have never used them, but they have an excellent reputation for performance on game. I currently run Barnes X , TSX and TTSX for all my hunting loads in the 3 rifles that I use the most, a 7mm08, a .280 Rem, and a 9.3 x 62.

A six pound .416 ?? You couldn't PAY me to shoot that beast..!! If a bear was trying to eat me, I think I'd throw the rifle away and take my chances with my KUNG FU skills on the bear...<<grin>>...

I agree with you 100%, Ants. However, the fact remains that if a person owns a .22-250 and wants to hunt deer with it, their is no ethical reason why he shouldn't, as long as he uses suitable bullets and is capable of executing proper bullet placement.. Am I endorsing .22 centerfires as ideal deer cartridges for the average deer hunter..??...Hell NO !! But if Joe Sixpack has a 22-250 and is aware of its limitations ( such as not taking Texas heart shots) and wants to kill a deer with it, I have no problem with that.

Good post, Curm.... I agree....Who the heck STARTED this s**t, anyway ??

Ruger # 1 in .303 British.... A few were made on special order for the Canadian market a few years back.... They sold quickly.

Go back 120 years or so.... Deer were being killed cleanly with cartridges that were MUCH less powerful than a 22-250 on a regular basis...32-20....38-40...44-40 plus many others in both blackpowder and early smokeless powder chamberings..Those were state of the art deer cartridges in those days.. Do you suppose deer have become TOUGHER in the last 100 years ?? The same thing applies now as applied then...Shoot a deer in a vital area within the effective range of your firearm....DEAD DEER...