Pygmy

Awesome trip, my friend..Nothing wrong with reds and silvers.. I love Alaska...I've fished halibut and salmon out of Homer and Juneau and salmon, leopard rainbows, grayling and dolly varden in the Mulchatna River and several tributaries. Those barndoor halibut are awesome..I have had them nearly take the rod away from me when my drag was set a little too tight. Imagine catching a 100+ pound bluegill.. After you land one of them, you sit down, wipe the sweat off your brow, and hope that ANOTHER one doesn't bite for awhile...

Geeze, Larry, your title scared me.. I thought somebody named VITO might have whacked him.. Glad to hear he's OK....<<grin>>...

I personally think it is a pretty sad state of affairs when anyone even suggests the regulation of the sale of CORN, regardless of what it says on the outside of the bag or on the store display. Sort of reminds me of GUN CONTROL, in a way...

Good luck Griz... I'm sure you and your bride will have a great time. Looking forward to your ( always excellent) post hunt report and pictures. << Pygmy turns GREEN with envy >>...< grin>....

It is really very simple.. MANY, if not MOST shotgun hunters use a pump or auto with a 5 shot mag capacity. This results in lots of projectiles flying around when the deer begin running. MANY, if not most rifle shooters use scoped bolt action rifles.. Certainly fast firing rifles such as autos and pumps are available, but I'll bet if you poll rifle shooters, 15 out of 20 will shoot bolt actions. with the remainder divided between pumps, autos , levers and single shots. In any rifle legal places where I have hunted, the volume of fire is MUCH less than what I have listened to in 50 years of shotgun hunting here in Steuben County NY. Since rifles were legalized, a single shot is the norm, rather than the 5 shot volleys that were so common when everyone was using shotguns. A safe hunter is a safe hunter with any weapon, and an idiot is an idiot with any weapon. It's just that with rifles, there is a lot less lead flying around. Statistics show that accident rates are about the same with either weapon. Personally, I feel safer being in the woods with hunters armed with scope sighted rifles, rather than fast shooting pumpkin slingers.

The 700 trigger is really a pretty good, finely adjustable trigger if adjusted properly by someone who knows what he is doing, all factory practices( like laquering the adjustment screws) aside.

One of The Mermaid's flower beds had a bumper crop of garter snakes this year. She wanted me to kill'em, but I refused. So far I have caught six of them, including a BIG ol feller, and transplanted them. I've been turning them loose on my ex-wife's property...<<GRIN>>....

I had one real problem rifle, a tang safety Ruger M77 in 7x57. I tried all kinds of things to get it to shoot, to no avail. I finally sold it to a guy who did all of his hunting in the woods and didn't CARE that it shot patterns at 100 yards rather than groups. The first year he used it he killed a 10 point wallhanger !..LOL..

Cool pictures, Wooly. I've seen it twice...Once years ago on the river flats near Erwin, NY and this year opening day of gobbler season in Ontario. I once saw two groups of gobblers ( perhaps about a dozen in each group) get into a free for all, but as I remember that fracas involved a lot of agressive purring, spurring and wing flapping, but no "necking"...

I have been dogless for the last few years, due to social ( as in marital) issues. I never kept or trained a dog specificically for turkeys, but I used my springers and labs a number of times over the years for that purpose. I never had a dog that was trained steady enough to sit still( or be bagged) while I called a scattered bird to the gun. I always had to take the dogs home after the flush and come back to call up the birds. One time after a flush, by the time I had taken the dogs home and returned (less than an hour), my partners had called up and killed 3 birds. It is a great way to get a good flush in the fall, and would be a wonderful way to hunt if you had a properly trained dog.

I have also heard to NEVER buy a used horse from an Amishman...<< big GRIN >>....

The only scope I ever had that was a real lemon was a Redfield.. That was back around 1980.. Could be just a co-incidence.

Winchester M70 lightweight push feed in .280 Rem with a brown laminate stock. I bought it in 1988 for $289 from either Grice or Ron Shirk's...I can't remember which. A buddy of mine bought one just like it ( they are within 10 digits of the same serial #) on the same order. I worked up loads for both of them side by side..His was easy to get 1"-1 1/4" groups with..I had to struggle to get mine to group under 2".. Despite that, it has been a great rifle, and I can never remember missing a shot with it unless I screwed up, which certainly has happened a few times..<<grin>>....

I'm going to have to gag down some fresh walleye filets.. Had a good morning on the river yesterday morning...

Bubba's post makes the most sense to me... Use the rifle within it's limitations and enjoy it, or send it down the road. The rifle that I have killed more game with than any other is perhaps a 2 MOA rifle day in and day out. A lucky group might go 1" or 1.5", but 2 inches is the norm.. Still, I've killed everything from woodchucks to Alaskan bull moose with it, at ranges from point blank to 400 yards.. I'm taking it to Colorado this year for mule deer, despite the fact that I have a couple of other sub MOA rifles I could take.. It's just a KILLER...<<smile>>...

Hey...39 ain't bad for 18 holes... Is it ??? I dunno...Never played the game..

Sporting clays ?

I drove up on the property this morning to replace a set of bearings on my discs. There were two hens there , probably the same two I saw during gobbler season. One hen had one pheasant sized poult. The other hen had about six smaller poults, perhaps only 2-3 weeks old.. A few is better than none...

Looks like the result of using a light, frangible bullet ( like a 150 grain ballistic tip) at magnum velocities. A heavier, more stoutly constructed bullet would not be as explosive. One of the nastiest wounds I have ever seen on a deer was from a 22-250 and a 55 grain varmint style bullet. It must have blown 2 pounds of meat off the buck's neck, but did not break it. The deer required a tracking job and a second shot.

Yeah, Growie... The deer seem to be in fine rig...Fat and happy ! DYSLEXIC ?? Did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic amnesiac ? He lay awake all night wondering if there really IS a dog.....

Yeah..The deer are walking through knee deep clover and buckwheat to eat the soybeans on my plot.. Damn things oughta be SHOT !....<<grin>>...

Do they prey exclusively on Pygmies ?? Maybe I better LAY LOW !

Nice group !! She's a shooter for sure.

There you go, Wooly..Wearing shorts again... I think you're just trying to get Paula excited... Maybe you should invest in some Kevlar leotards...<<grin>>....

I'll bet you never imagined that I was that tall and handsome....