Pygmy

Lawdwaz....You bought a Ruger #1 for the 4X Leupold that was on it ? You are indeed my HERO....I'm touched...<<sniffle, sniffle>>... I....I......I LOVE you, MAN !!!! <<big HUG !!>>.....

I used hangons and climbers for 30 years and somehow managed to avoid having a gravity attack. Quit using them a few years back, while I was ahead of the game..All I get into now are ladder stands, or, better yet, enclosed, heated elevated blinds...<<grin>>...

Sounds great, guys...I just finished a fried spam sandwich on crusty Italian bread...( Actually, TWO fried spam sandwiches). Tomorrow is the gourmet delight..Roast rabbit with sweet taters...

For that matter, Doc , you could sustitute the words " on this continent" for "in the state". I have even read that elephants were taken effectively in Africa with 12 bore shotguns using solid ball loads for heart shots. In fact, 12 bore, 10 bore, and 8 bore rifled shotguns using brass casings and solid ball projectiles ( called paradox guns) were relatively common for use in Africa around the beginning of the (last century).

It's tongue in cheek....It's just that EVERYONE has a 30-06, but many people have never even heard of a 6.5 x 57 or a 7 x 64. When I talk about my 9.3 x 62, I often just get blank looks.. Some of us rifle loonies ( and ol' Lawdwaz is as looney as they come) like to play with calibers that are a little bit DIFFERENT than what everybody else uses. The goal is the same, whatever you use...A clean kill on a game animal.

For mid sized game ( deer/antelope) on up, a 30-06 ( WITH APPROPRIATE BULLETS) is never a bad choice for any North American Game.. It may be BORING as hell, but it will get the job done. <<grin>>...

They have been damn scarce in the areas of 8T and 8X where I hunt.

I hunted rabbits yesterday morning with a buddy of mine who owns two beagles. We hunted a property that he has permission to hunt...The owners manage it for deer and have lots of dense brush/ multiflora rose crisscrossed with wide trails on which they plant foodplots .. It was crazy...Nonstop action for 4 hours. The hounds never stopped running for more than a couple of minutes. We do not shoot rabbits unless the dog has circled it at least once, but they were kicking out rabbits as they ran the tracks of others. The laneways provided some sporty shooting because when the bunnies cross them they are moving at about Mach II.. DEFINTELY the most fun I've had with my clothes on in a long time. We ended up with 10 rabbits. We don't normally shoot that many, but as we tried to head back to the truck, the beagles would start another track and we'd have to shoot the rabbit to catch the dogs. After 4 hours there we were two tired old fat guys and two very tired beagles. It was probably the best day I have ever had rabbit hunting, as far as non stop action goes.

I have never owned one, but I have lusted after a Marlin Guide Gun with the ghost ring peep. The Henrys are nice, too, but I don't care for the way they load. They load through the tubular magazine like a .22 tube feed rifle. Seems like the traditional side gate loading port (as on the Marlin or Winchester) would be more convenient. Single shots are cool also..A friend of mine has a Remington Rolling Block in 45/70 that I have enjoyed shooting. The Sharps repros are also rate high on the cool scale, especially with tang mounted peep sights. AND as a devoted fan of western movies, I have always wanted an 1873 Springfield trapdoor carbine, which was the mainstay of the US Cavalry during the Indian Wars.

I hated the split season...It really sucked to kill a bird the first day or two of season and then have to wait 2 weeks to go hunting again, especially if you scheduled vacation for gobbler hunting.

Adjusting the gobbler kill is going to make NO difference in the population. It's like deer..If you want to manage the total population, the hens are the key. If you want more turkeys, protect the hens, as simple as that, Unfortunately, Mother Nature has more to say about it than we do.. A couple of good or bad nesting seasons will determine the population level much more than any bag limits, beard or sex restrictions, or whatever.

Yeah...Or you could give them a REALLY horrible punishment, like strapping them in a chair and making them listen to 3 days of non-stop Barry Manilow albums.. ........AAAAUUUUUUUGH !!.....

A 12 gauge with # 9 skeet loads would work nicely on sapsuckers or most any other woodpeckers. Don't get caught shooting them though, because they are a protected species.

I represent that remark....

Culver wouldn't mess with cows...That's just SICK.... SHEEP, maybe, but not cows....

Without searching all the states' regs, I do remember at least one state where there is a minimum beard length. Alabama. perhaps.. Another reg in at least one state is GOBBLER only... Bearded hens are not legal as they are in many states... maybe that's Alabama also.

I wouldn't hesitate to hunt caribou with a .243 .They are non dangerous and no harder to kill than a deer. If I were hunting elk , moose, or anything with that might eat me, I'd buy or borrow a bigger rifle.

No....

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "animal husbandry"... Actually, I went home with a cow once, but that was at the Cameron Hilton.

I remember that jar of wax..Ray, the owner, made it himself.

Yellow bellied sapsucker. The holes aren't very big and they are always in a line around the tree.

I checked it out, Biz... VERY reasonable prices for this day and age.. It COULD even be the outfit I checked out in '93.. 2x1 guided horseback combo for moose and mountain caribou. They ride just above the treeline and glass UP for caribou and DOWN for moose. I passed it up for a Central Barren Ground caribou hunt at Little Marten Lake in NWT. Never regretted that choice. The NWT trip was the most awesome trip I have ever taken.

I'll always regret never having made it to Creekside after all I had heard about it over the years. Ed Hart's was special when it was a little shop in Cohocton and the old man ran it. After they expanded and built the big store in Bath, it never had the same atmosphere...Thier prices were high on used guns but they had some great specials on new stuff.. I bought a NIB Remington 1100 skeet A grade there in 1973 for $169... Ackleys used to be good but since the new owners took over it's gone downhill...They have just a fraction of the stuff they used to have. One of my favorite local places was Hoffman's gun shop, a little jewel tucked away on a side street off Lake Road in Elmira. Lots of guns and reasonable prices on used stuff..I bought my S&W K22 ( new) there in 1974. Old Mr. Hoffman passed away and the shop has been gone for many years now.

Yeah...Easy to get burned in Quebec... However you can't go wrong with Jack Hume Adventures....Honest and very well organized...

That's DAMN cheap for a mountain hunt, Biz... Most of them are in the 10K range nowadays. Only 20 years or so ago I could have done a moose/mountain caribou combo in BC for 3K. Shortly after that the price started going UP. Not many places to hunt mountain caribou, and they are all in Canada and all guided , as far as I know. Northern BC and the Mckenzie mountins in NWT...Possibly some in Yukon Territory... The Mountain caribou are awesome...Big, both in body and rack size... Caribou are beautiful animals, and they live in beautiful, wild, unspoiled places... They also are my favorite venison to eat, as long as you get them them before the rut, at which time they are inedible. I was fortunate to be able to hunt them several times when the cost was more reasonable...I wish I could afford to hunt them again...