Pygmy

LOL @ Joe..!!.. If the birds are stil lin thier family flocks, as they should be until at least early winter, it is easy to tell by comparing thier size to each other.. The jakes should be taller than thier mother.. They will have longer necks and legs.. The jennies will be smaller than the adult hen, and tend to be more grey and less black than the jakes. It is easiest to tell when for sure when you have the bird in hand. The jakes have black tipped breast feathers and the hens/jennies have buff colored tips on thier breast feathers,

I am sincerely sorry to hear about your loss, Grow... A friend of mine has pygmy goats ( no joke) and has lots of coyotes on his land, but he has two Great Pyrenees that live in the pasture/barn with the goats, so he has no predator problems.

Better yet, send Hilary over to Afghanistan and let her live there under the rules of the Taliban ( regarding women) for a couple of years... THEN ask her about "war crimes"...

The act is nothing new.... In WWII, marines pried gold teeth out of dead Japs with thier bayonets...It was worth $35 an ounce.. It Vietnam, friends of mine took grisley trophies from dead Gooks.. I know guys who sent detached ears and fingers home, among other things.. War is a brutal event....Shit happens.. Re-arranging DEAD enemies is probably one of the LESSER evils.. The difference today is the technology that results in the EVIDENCE of such things.. Should this behavior be considered acceptable...?...Nope.... Should these warriors ( who probably have witnessed more horrors than most of the readers on this forum) be held criminally liable for doing what many warriors before them have done..?...Nope...

Probably the first shower they had in years..

If you find any Ithaca SKBs ( made in Japan) they are very high quality and often a good price... The CZs are excellent quality also..

WOW..!!.. Those are some beautiful bucks..Congrats to both of you..

Damn, Growalot... It's no wonder that you are so popular with your neighbors..

Elmo....The short answer to your question is there is NOT a significant ballistic OR accuracy advantage to a longer barrel as far as shooting shot loads are concerned . In my humble opinion, a shorter barrel has better handling qualities for most small game hunting applications. Keep in mind the fact a side by side or O/U double is considered ideal for most upland applications with a 26" barrel. A double gun with a 26" barrel is about the same length as a pump or auto with a 23 or 24" barrel, due to the length of the action..

I had an Ithaca 49 in .22 LR... Cute little rifle, but mine was not very accurate, at least not compared to the Winchester M69 I owned...I eventually peddled it, along with its saddle scabbard. I had forgotten that they made them in .22 magnum..

My 11-87 has a 21" barrel, and a 28" barrel... I bought it as a turkey gun with the short barrel and then eventually bought the 28" barrel just for waterfowl.. In the OLD days, you needed a 28 or 30 inch barrel to completely burn the powder , and there was significant difference in velocity between a 20" and a 30" barrel.. Nowadays, with modern fast burning shotgun powders, the difference is not significant, at least out where the rubber meets the road. The game will never know the difference. Most loads burn thier powder in 18" or so. As far as ACCURACY is concerned, the only difference is the fact that the longer sighting plane of the longer barrel is somewhat more precise. However, with shot loads, and the fact that they get wider at longer ranges, that is a questionable advantage. We're not talking benchrest shooting here. I have used my 21 " barrel on my 11-87 to do some of the best wingshooting I have ever done. I shot my one and only lifetime TRIPLE on ducks with it, and have shot numerous triples on geese with it.... In my opinion the handling qualities of the shorter barrel far outweigh any advantage that the longer barrel might have, in most hunting situations.

Paula...The most important thing is getting Chester AROUND rabbits... Find areas with very dense cover like multiflora rose, wild grapes, etc. where you see lots of rabbit tracks. Take your time and let him sniff around. Don't be in a hurry. You are better off spending more time in GOOD cover than trying to do a lot of walking and covering a lot of ground. Often it helps to get out early in the morning.. Rabbits are more active at night, and chances of him coming across a fresh track are better then. Once he smells a rabbit, it's up to him...Let him do his thing. Be patient. His instincts should take over when he smells a bunny.. Good luck...

The populations of both predators and prey species tend to be cyclic, and sometimes disease or other factors can affect populations dramatically... HOWEVER...Year in and year out, small game populations depend mostly on three things... Habitat....Habitat, and most importantly , HABITAT. If the food, nesting cover, and ESCAPE COVER is present, the critters will be there.. I have hunted rabbits and other small game for fifty years. Things have changed over the years. In the 60s and 70s, there was a lot of cover due to farming practices, soil bank, etc. etc. and you could go out and walk around and kill rabbits and other small game. These days, due to modern farming practices, land use changes, forest growth progression and other factors, there are fewer places where small game has sufficient cover and habitat to escape predators. Still, there are places out there. You may have to sit down on the ground or lie on your belly to see the rabbit when the beagle brings him around, but the rabbits are still there, wherever there is cover.. Multiflower rose and other real dense, difficult to hunt areas are the places where the bunnies are. You need to do your homework and seek those areas out. Rabbits are there, it is just different from what it used to be. I have a close friend who hunts 1 beagle.. Things have changed here in Steuben County as much as they have elsewhere in the state. Still he manages to shoot from 30 to 40 or sometimes even 50 rabbits per year. Not a single rabbit is shot on the jump, either..We won't shoot one unless it is ahead of the dog.

I am signed up for the NYS Trapper Training course Saturday at the Newfield Rod& Gun Club. I enjoyed trapping YEARS ago but the last trapping license I bought was in the early 1970s, and I have no proof that I ever had a license. Now that I am retired, I'd like to be able to get a license and put out a few sets for fox & coyote, and maybe a few mink & coon sets. I'm looking forward to the course..I'm sure I'll learn some new stuff, and I could use a refresher on my ANCIENT knowledge.. Two adult friends are taking the course with me. They are younger than I am, but hardly kids. One is in his 40s and the other in his 50s. I'm sixty-something. I can imagine that some of the young folks at the course will be wondering what the OLD FARTS are doing there...hehehehe..

Joe..I have used both. Both work, but duct tape seems to stick a little better.. I have also used finger cots ( mini condoms) and cut the fingers off latex or plastic gloves and used them. Of all of them duct tape seems the most durable.

Skillet...No offense, but I don't want to cuddle with you...Unless you are FEMALE, and I don't think that is the case. I may be somewhat twisted, but I am not a rump ranger. I don't have a dog in this fight...I also think that you and Bubba are both good guys and will eventually agree to disagree.. In the meantime, it is time for MY nap.... ... I gotta get some sleep so I can be awake to watch " Hell on Wheels" at 10:00 PM tonite..

Beautiful buck.. Thanks for sharing..Glad to see he survived... If he's got THAT big here in Steuben Co. , he may die of old age..

You defintiely need to check with the DEC.. There are strict regulations involving wetlands and waterways here in NY..

Well, I can understand your asking this question, since the original premise of this thread involved hunting from a blind, where one would be somewhat protected from the weather. My hunting with tape over the muzzle of my firearm involved hunting in wet weather conditions with no shelter involved. I have spent up to two weeks at a time in the Alaska wilderness when my rifle was absolutely soaked every day, and there was simply NO shelter from the weather. However, I've also done a lot of local hunting when it was raining or snowing, and taping my muzzle helped keep the wet stuff out of my barrel..This is especially important hunting with a blackpowder rifle, since the charge is more likely to be compromised by a shot of water down the bore.

I have killed turkeys and coyotes shooting through the mesh windows, but those were with shot loads, of course, I have shot a few critters with duct tape sealing up the muzzle of my rifle, and that has not affected accuracy. It's not exactly comparing apples to oranges, though, since the gas in the barrel probably blows the tape away before the bullet ever touches it. All that said, I would be surprised if the mesh affected accuracy, but I have never done any testing to check it out. Lawdwaz's suggestion is the best one, to find out for sure.

I don't care if you are a highly trained Navy Seal or the US Attorney General.. If you put a pistol to your head and pull the trigger, you get exactly what you deserve.. I do feel sorry for the fellow's family and friends.. What a STUPID way to end a life...

Give me a break, Doe...My feelings toward canines are purely Platonic... Only a PERVERT would fool around with a dog.. Now SHEEP....That's a different matter....I've also been considering sneaking over to Growalot's place and checking out her GOATS... .... They aren't PYGMY goats, are they...?...

T/C barrels in .243 have a twist rate of 1-10". I can't recommend a load for your firearm, since every firearm is an indivual. However , many .243s give good accuracy with 100 grain bullets and medium slow powders such as IMR4350. There are some deer bullets made in 80-85 grain. Nosler partition and Barnes TSX come to mind. Medium burn rate powders such as 4895 or 4064 often work well with this bullet weight. Good luck.

He's a handsome young feller, Paula...Does he run rabbits ?

I Just woke up... How the heck do I get rid of this stupid underlined text..???.. It's driving me NUTS !!.. Spelling is the LEAST of my problems.. All I wanted to say is that I think I am in love with Paula's BEAGLE...