Pygmy

Well, I finally got around to shooting Lyle's Browning. I set up a target at 25 yards and by trial and error with the rear base adjustment, I got close to center. Then I moved the target out to 100 and fine tuned the zero using the internal adjustments in the scope. It is VERY sensitive, and moves farther than it should per click, so I moved back and forth over the bull a couple times ! The post/crosshair recticule is also somewhat of a challenge for precision shooting, but I finally got it tuned in. My last 3 shot group measured just over an inch using Remington 150 grain Coreloct factory loads..The group was centered 2 inches above POA, so that should put him "minute of deer chest" with a center ribcage hold out to 250 yards or a tad further. I'm returning the rifle to Lyle today along with the target and 16 empty casings. All in all, it is a pleasant rifle to shoot. Perhaps Lyle will decide to sell it to me cheap <not LIKELY tho..hehehe>... Of course the first thing I would is replace the rings and bases, take off that old 3x9 Redfield and slap one of my 4X Leupolds on it...< GRIN>.....

Memorable hunts..?.. There have been so many over the last 40 years...I'll recount one that comes to mind. Opening morning...I was hunting a patch of woods across the road from my house. It is about 16 miles square,( 4 miles by 4 miles) and at the time I had permission to hunt nearly all of it. I walked about 1/2 mile from my house across a hayfield in the dark to listen for roost gobbles. Sure enough a bird gobbled on the roost about 200 yards into a hemlock hollow..I set up on him and he flew down and came right in..Jake...I let him walk away.. There was another bird gobbling perhaps 200-300 yards away.I hurried down the ridge and set up on him. He was on the ground by then, but responded well. in about 20 minutes he was strutting in front of me. He had a full fan, but NO visible beard. I had to let him walk. I spent the morning there...The wind came up and made it tough to hear... About 11:00 AM I was walking along a woods road and heard a gobble.. CLOSE.. I set up and clucked a few times on my box call... Here came the same jake that I had passed up at daylight, walking down the road looking for the hen. I shut up and he walked away gobbling. When he was a couple hundred yards away, I heard ANOTHER bird gobble, close to him.. I started calling aggressively..the jake came RUNNING down the woods road past me...I let him go...About ten seconds behind him came an adult gobbler. He stopped beside a stump about 15 yards away and I shot him...He was a nice gobbler, 9" beard, 19 pounds, probably a 2 year old. I looked at watch...It was 11:45 AM...

NICE bird, Growie... Perhaps you and I should run off to Bora-Bora together.. Do you suppose they have turkeys there..??....<<grin>>...

My first experience with CZ firearms was a CZ 452 in .17 hmr that one of my buddies owns.. I borrowed it a couple of times for squirrel hunting...Very accurate and well made. Then there came a time, back when I was hunting Alaska,when I decided to replace my abusive Ruger M77 .338 with another medium caliber round that would do the same job but not beat me up so badly. I bought a CZ 550 American in 9.3 x 62....The rifle is very well made, good fit and finish, and groups under an inch at 100 yards with 250 grain Barnes X bullets. It also kicks less than the .338... Since I bought it, friends of mine have bought CZ rifles in .308 and 6.5x55..they are tack drivers also...I have read a lot on hunting forums about the CZ rifles and the reports are always the same...Good quality for the price and superb accuracy.

Good luck in Kentucky !! I hunted there for 3 seasons and killed 5 gobblers, until the landowner , who had given my buddy and permission to hunt his 400 acres, decided to lease the property, so our honeyhole went away. It was near Glencoe and was without a doubt the best gobbler hunting I have ever experienced. The birds there were slobs.. My buddy killed 3 24+ pounders., including a 26 pounder.

I killed my first spring gobbler 40 years ago. However, I took my best overall bird here in NY last year. He weighed 22 1/4 pounds, had a 10" beard and 1 1/4" SPURS... He's my second heaviest NY gobbler, the heaviest being 22 1/2 pounds. My heaviest birds were killed out of state, a 23 pounder in Virginia and a 24 pounder in Kentucky. My best spurs came on a NY bird , 1 7/16" taken here in NY. My longest beard is 10 1/2", from a NY fall gobbler. Most beards was a 4 bearded Kentucky gobbler. I also have taken 5 or 6 double beards, all here in NY.

I got mine back, too... Those little blue diamonds really WORK..!!.. Oh....wait a minute...You said BOONER, didn't you..??... Sorry....My mistake....never mind.... Oh by the way....Great BUCK, partner..!!

<<<SIGH>>>...Another handicapped shooter....Good luck....

"In the fetal position, with drool on our chin..... We broke down and smoked weed with Willie again..." I

Back in the 50s and 60s it was hard to find a production rifle WITHOUT open sights. I have always favored the looks of a bolt action sporter without sights and I never remember a time when a scope failed me..Nowadays they wouldn't do me much good anyway, because of my old eyes. I can stiil use a peep sight efectively, but regular open irons are just a blur to me.

Bill, if you want a Weatherby Mag, you should get one... Personally, I don't want ANY cartridge with a belt...All of the ones I have shot have kicked the snot out of me... Back in my Alaska hunting days, after encountering a few grizzly/brown bears, I decided I needed a BIGGER gun...I got a SMOKIN' deal on a Ruger M77 .338 Win mag, used very little for $225.. I used it a few years...Shot a couple of caribou with it.. I just never enjoyed SHOOTING the damn thing. I peddled the .338 and bought a 9.3x 62. It is just as potent as the .338, perhaps more so, because it handles heavier bullets, albeit the range is somewhat less than the .338. It KICKS, but does not loosen my teeth the way the .338 did... Nowadays my Alaska hunts are over...Any long range work I am capable of can be nicely handled with my .280 Rem..If I get lucky enough to draw a moose or an elk tag, I still have the 9.3, which is capable of dropping a moose or an elk from most any angle..

Thanks, Hector....I knew that back when I was hunting/trapping fur it was legal to shoot mink in the southern zone with a .22, but I had not kept up with the regs and did not know if it had changed.

....Mink...I have picked up a couple over the last few years and given them to trapper friends.

Not me....If there is any hunting for free range feral hogs in PA I am not aware of it. As far as I know the only hog hunting in Pa is on commercial hunting preserves such as the Tioga Boar Farm, which is a high fence operation.

G-Man.... I tried the silent dog whistle years ago but I quit using it because I kept calling in my Mother-in Law...

I t hink you should do a DNA test, Inspector Wooly !

Those teeth look too well developed for puppy teeth. Could they be from some other critter that that the parents brought back to the den ? Road killed coons, perhaps ?

Owling is effective IF it is authentic...Contrary to the opinion of some hunters, it works as well at mid morning as it does at dawn. I have often heard barred owls calling later in the morning. At dawn, I never run a crow call until I am pretty sure that a bird is not going to gobble on his own. If he gobbles then, fine..If he does not gobble I do NOT assume he is not there.. IMHO the greatest value of a crow call is to get a gobbler to sound off when I am trying to make a move on him. Locator calls are NOT a part of my everyday gobbler stratedgy. However they are a tool that comes in handy on occasion, and they have added a few gobblers to my bag over the last 40 years or so.

Happy Birthday, Skillet !! ...31...?? I have JOCKEY SHORTS older than that !! Have a good one, my friend...<<grin>>....

If that were true I'd have vision like a 20 power spotting scope !

Antlers and Genny red eye....You da MAN, Wooly !! Cool find on the TUBBY antler....

Google up USGS for New York.. There are flow charts from a flow station on the Beaverkill at Cook's Falls. These charts are very handy. I use them a lot for the Streams that I fish often, like the Cohocton, Canisteo and Genesse in NY and various streams in PA.

Kick's Gobblin' Thunder has always worked well for me and several of my friends. However there are lots of tubes on the market that I have NOT tried. I always heard good reports on the Undertaker also. A friend of mine in Missouri is a big proponent of the Undertaker. It just so happens that he is a funeral director by profession.

"Small Town"....? Cortland is a METROPOLIS compared to where I come from....<<grin>>... Shucks...I hear the kids up there even wear SHOES when they go to school...

My buddy who lives in Ontario near the north shore of Lake Ontario has noticed a similar phenomenon over the years,Joe. He sees few birds close to his home in the winter and then starts seeing them again in April. His area has similar topography to your area. I have always suspected it had to do with the terrain and cover/feed patterns along the lake plain, or in your case, The St Lawrence River.