Pygmy

stickin8s.. I sent you a PM but am not confident I did it right due to the changes on the forum. Did you get my PM ? Let me know if you didn't and we'll either make arrangements on this forum or by telephone.

There are some classic knives.. Fasteddie...I'm not surprised that an old GYRENE like yourself carries a Kbar. <<grin>>... The Schrades and Buck 110's are classics also. I have a Buck 110 that my ex-wife bought me on our first Xmas together 40 years ago. I sure don't miss her, but I'd feel TERRIBLE if I lost that knife !! I have backtracked several times and pawed through gut piles to recover that knife. In September of 1989, I used that knife to butcher TWO big Alaska bull moose in one day by myself, while my partner hiked back to the river for more supplies before we spent a week packing the moose back to the river we were floating. The blade is honed down to about half of it's original depth.. I have retired it because I have other knives and would not want to chance losing it. The two knives I use most often now are a Buck fixed blade zipper and a 3" Puma Folder.. I bought the Puma for my Dad in the late 70's for about $40. he used to to skin coon for a few years, and then when he passed away in '94, I re-inherited it. It takes an edge faster than my Bucks and seems to hold it nearly as long.. An equivalent Puma today sells for $150-200.. I have a number of fixed blade Case knives and a few others that I use at odd times.. My favorite filet/boning knife is a cheap RADA. It has filleted thousands of fish and boned out and cut up plenty of deer, along with a few caribou, moose, elk, antelope and wild hogs..

Noodle...That is a wonderful post... You have a few years on me, but I am also in my 60s..I still have my first hunting license and it cost $3.25... As I read your post, one word comes to me....Freedom.... Being in the woods, and not having to mind a clock or worry about our day to day responsibilities.. That is a TRUE and TOTAL sense of freedom, even if it is only a few hours, or a day. And it is a WONDERFUL thing... I hope you and I have a few more seasons to enjoy this freedom, My Friend..

I finally settled on a consistent load for my .280 with the barnes 140 TTSX... For some reason I could not get a consistent load with RL-19. I tried RL-22 and things came together. My current load is 58.0 of RL-22 with the 140 Barnes TTSX. It groups around an inch at 100, which is STELLAR for my M70 .280... I have not graphed it yet, but I expect velocity at around 2900 FPS or a bit more. My rifle shoots 140 Nosler ballistic tips with 59.5 of RL-19 at a little over 3000 FPS.. If you use this load, please take the usual precautions and start a few grains low and work up. This load shows no pressure signs IN MY RIFLE, but I suspect it is close to max, because if I go higher, I start to see some slight cratering on the primers.

Sorry, Girlfriend...I've owned property all my life, possibly more than you, if you want to compare acreages... And I remember when property owners were NEIGHBORS, before all the flatlanders moved in and bought up the farms in little chunks, and started defending thier property lines like they were national borders. As far as the agressive landowner is concerned, It was 9:00 am in the morning and I was parked along the road listening for a turkey to gobble. The road frontage was posted, but I could listen to property from that spot that I had permission to hunt. I was NOT on his land. As far as spotlighting goes, as I say, I don't even own one, but many of my friends who live and have grown up here in this rural area carry them in thier vehicles and considering spotlighting a recreational activity. As long as it is legal, I support thier right to do. I'm sorry that you feel so threatened by it but I guess that is your problem.

10-4...I'll send you a PM later today and we'll set something up.

Sounds like those fellers were just trying to " Get your goat", and they succeeded. That's what happens when you are in the habit of harrassing people on a public road doing nothing more than looking at "your" wildlife. I don't even own a spotlight, but I have been hassled by overzealous landowners a number of times. One idiot came very close to looking down the bore of my .45. He approached me aggressively and I wondered if I was going to be attacked. As far as spotlighters being poachers, sure, some of them are. However many of them are just excited about the upcoming season and like to look at deer. As long as they do not go on private property and do nothing illegal, I see nothing wrong with it.

Hehehehehe...If the poor critter had got a full view of me, I'd probably be guilty of animal cruelty. Actually, I had been losing chickens on a fairly regular basis and had set the wife's 1100 LT 20 in the corner of the kitchen by the back door with a magazine full of magnum 6's for quick and easy access.. I was awaked by the sound of a chicken squawking and bounced out of bed in my altogether and padded out into the kitchen and looked toward the chicken coop, which was about 30 yards from my back door and was illuminated by a security light. I saw the fox bouncing around the coop. I picked up the shotgun and cycled a round into the chamber and cracked the back door as quietly as I could. The fox heard the noise and stopped right outside the door of the chicken coop and looked toward the house. MERCIFULLY, all he might have seen was the muzzle of the 20 gauge extended out the small opening in the door. At that time, the lights went out for him, and I went back to bed. Living in the country and sleeping in the buff all my life, I had a few other adventures, like being charged in my bathroom by a huge rat that was fleeing from my 2 dogs, and capturing a very lively weasel brought into the bedroom by my cat in the middle of the night, but I'll leave those tales for another time.

Growalot.... I'm very happy to hear that your kittycat is OK...Those critters are pretty resilient and resourceful as far as survival skills are concerned.. As far as armament in nighttime encounters with coyotes and other varmints, I would HIGHLY recommend using your turkey gun with heavy shot, such as #4 buck rather than a rifle. MUCH easier to hit a moving target at night with a load of shot.. Did I ever tell you that I once shot a red fox at 3:00 AM in my pajamas that was trying to get into my chicken coop? Actually, neither the fox nor I were wearing pajamas... I sleep buck naked and shot the critter out my back door. Neither the fox nor I were wearing anything but a smile. Sorry to trouble you with such a visual, but rest assured, the fox was not smiling after the fact.

Geeze, growalot, you seem like a nice girl, but your posts sound like a textbook case of paranoia... Are you sure EVERYONE, including the DEC is out to get you..?... I can only imagine your TERROR of the thoughts of those horrible criminals casting LIGHT BEAMS from a public road across your treasured property... Sends SHIVERS up my creaky old spine....

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... I much prefer a nice "classic" style stock in oiled walnut and blued metal over some of the fancier styles, such as the Weatherby MkV. In my opinion, if PIMPS hunted, they would hunt with Weatherbys. As I say, tastes vary.. To me, a thing of beauty is a classically stocked mauser in nice walnut . Some guys like blondes...Some like brunettes..

Newfoundland has the highest density of moose in North America, and on the average, the highest success rates. The moose are not big, compared to Alaska-Yukon moose. In Alaska, the minimum spread for a legal moose is 50", for nonresidents in most areas. That would be a SUPER trophy in Newfoundland. However, in AK, good guided hunts start at 10K, and that does not include little details such as licenses and tags, travel expenses, and getting your meat and trophies home.. Unguided drop hunts can be done for less , but success rates are much lower and these days, logisitics for getting meat/horns home are very unfavorable. By the way , Biz-R- Oworld, I was doing unguided DIY moose and caribou hunts in Alaska when you were still a sparkle in your daddy's eye. Newfoundland is the place to go if you want to shoot a MOOSE.. If you want to shoot a BIG bull moose, it is not the place to go. My hunt cost $4200....We got 5 moose for 7 hunters....Not too bad, IMO... There are many places in western Canada and Alaska where you can get fairly high odds of shooting a BIG bull moose, but you you are going to spend TWICE that amount, minimum, and possibly 3 or 4 times that amount.. My pockets aren't deep enough for that. Since you seem to be an experienced continental hunter, perhaps yours are. I could not afford my first out of state big game hunt until I was 39. Now that I am retired and on a fixed income, I probably can't afford many more.

Turkey hunting with a dog has always been legal in NY in the fall season.. It is illegal in the spring. I suspect this is because the dogs might do some damage to nests or nesting hens in the spring, which of course, is not an issue in the fall. There is also a lot of other young wildlife around in the spring that dogs could have a negative impact on.

Geeze, Bubba...NZ hunting..I thought you were taking a trip to New Zealand..hehehe.. Littlesunray...Glad to hear that you and your hubby are twitching... ... Youth is a wonderful thing....<<sigh>>..

Of course, the name that comes to mind is Pete Clare's Turkey Trot Acres in Candor NY...They are nationally famous, as is thier main dog trainer/handler. Can't think of his name right now, but he breeds his own strain of turkey dogs ( originally from Virginia) and is kind of the main man in the who's who of turkey dogs. When was hunting turkeys with dogs legalized in PA ? Just asking...Not too long ago it was illegal..One of Pa's many stupid hunting laws..

No Jerry, we didn't make it to Yoken's..Our only stop in NH was the State Liquor & wine store on I 95...Lowest prices on booze I have seen.. The waitress's name tag said LAURIE, so I suspect her name may have been Lauren. She said she worked a summer at The Woodhouse in Corning and her Daddy used to own Sam's in Elmira. She was a downright PURTY little thing...About the same age as my daughter...<<SIGH>>...The restaurant she works at is called The Muddy Rudder. EXCELLENT seafood..Reasonable rates..

Flying into little podunk places like Deer lake, NF, is VERY expensive. I'm sure we could fly to Alaska for less money. It would be even more expensive to air frieght our meat back. One of the advantages of a drive in hunt is that you can bring your meat home without refinancing your house. Besides, Fungus Face and myself were rendezvousing with 5 Canadian friends in NB on the way up. Actually, we outdid the normal success rate..Generally the camp we hunted out takes 4 hunters in a week. We knew we were taxing the resource by hunting 7 hunters ( with 5 guides) out of that camp. That was our choice since we wanted to hunt together. If the weather had been more co-operative and the moose moving, I suspect we would have had a good chance of tagging out, with more bulls killed. I think we did pretty well considering the circumstances.

Are you suggesting that a .243 Win is flatter shooting out of a Weatherby rifle than it would be out of a Winchester or Remington with equal barrel length ? Kinda sounded that way.. Just checkin'.. I have nothing against the .243 Win, or the the .240 Weatherby, for that matter. I asked my moose guide in NF what rifle he uses for moose. Answer....243 Win and he kills a bull every year with it.. I'm not endorsing the .243 as a moose rilfe, but.... As a well known member of this forum has said several times..Headstamps don't kill game, SHOT PLACEMENT kills game..

There are no deer and no grizzlies in Newfoundland. The Island DOES have some very large black bears, but nobody in my party saw one, nor did anyone have a tag. They are considered a nuisance by most Newfies. We were informed that tags were available in camp should someone see a bear and want to shoot it.

No strippers..Turned out that Fungus Face's favorite restaurant simply had VERY attractive waitresses... The food was wonderful, though.. Cool thing..Our waitress in Bangor Maine, grew up in Elmira. Temps varied from just above freezing to the mid 50s. 3 mornings the walkway to the outhouse had ice on the boards. Slippery chit, EH..?.. However, due to high winds and wet weather, the chill factor was quite low on several days.. Had to dress in layers, and still often I would get wet with sweat on the way to the stand, then bundle up and still be cold because I was wet from the inside. One evening I was glad a moose did not appear because I was shivering too hard to make the shot. My boots were Muck Woodies and they served me well...My feet DID get wet due to perspiration, but never got cold. FF shot his bull with Win M70 .300 Win mag. I worked up a load for him back in the early 90s using the Speer grand Slam ( 180) and Reloder 22. Since then he has killed 4 bull moose with 5 rounds and every one was a kill shot. he shot his NF moose twice, but the first shot was a kill shot and the moose had not yet figured out that it was dead. The first shot raked the ribcage and was recovered under the skin on the far shoulder. It was a perfect mushroom. The moose stayed on its feet so he shot it again in the neck, at which time it of course, dropped. My hunting party consisted of myself and FF, and 5 Canadian friends from New Brunswick. The rifles were as such....I had my 9.3x 62... FF and one of the Canucks had .300 Win mags, a m70 Win and a Browning Abolt. The other rifles were a Rem 740 in .308, a TC Encore in 7MM Rem mag, a Browning BAR in .270, and a sporterized #4 Longbranch mark I in .303 British or TREE-OUGHT- TREE as the Newfies would say. The .303 cleanly killed the biggest moose of the trip, which is fitting, since that chambering has probably killed more moose in Canada than any other.

I got a good picture of a decent Woodland caribou stag at about 30 yards.. I also saw ptarmigan and spruce grouse, but no pictures.

The trip up to Newfoundland is an adventure in itself... From my home in the southern tier we drove 22 hours to Sydney, at the eastern tip of Nova Scotia. There we boarded a ferry at about 11:30 PM, which took us overnite to Port Au Basques, Newfoundland. We arrived at about 7:30 AM, Newfie time, which is 1 1/2 hours earlier than eastern standard. We drove another 3 or 4 hours north to Deer Lake, where we overnighted in a cabin. The next morning we drove on up past Portland Creek , including 50 KM on a rough bush road, to meet our helicopter, which landed ON the bush road at a predesigned place to ferry us on to camp. It was my first ride in a chopper, so the boys let me sit in the co-pilot's seat up front...VERY cool. The camp was a very comfortable elongated backwoods cabin...It included a guide's quarters, cook's quarters, kitchen, sleeping room for 7 hunters an indoor bathroom, including an on demand water heater and shower, plus two outhouses, which got a lot of use since there were 13 people in camp, 7 hunters and 6 camp staff. The weather was not in our favor....LOTS of wind, which makes moose tend to lay up in thick cover and not move. It was pre-rut, so they were not responding much to calls. Most of our glassing was done from tower stands overlooking large tracts of wilderness. When a moose was spotted, usually it was a mile or so away, although a couple of animals were shot from the tower stands. The moose weren't moving much, so hunting was tough. Still we managed to kill 5 moose for 7 hunters. I was the only one who did not get a shot at a moose..The closest one I saw was about 600 yards away. I did get to make 2 stalks when I THOUGHT I was going to get a shot, but Lady Luck was not perched on my shoulder. Our party killed 3 cows and 2 small bulls. Two hunters missed larger, palmated bulls.. The country is beautiful, but after hunting in many places across the continent, I have to say that Newfoundland is the TOUGHEST terrain I have ever experienced to get around in. The ground is all muskeg, and very spongy, and walking in it is very difficult, even on the level. Every step has its hazards, such as sinkholes, rocks, bogs , roots, twisted brush...If you hunt here you need to be in shape. My guide felt terrible because he could not get a moose in front of me..However, this was not my FIRST day off the turnip truck, and I assured him that hunting is hunting. There are no guarantees.. He worked his butt off trying to get me a moose, but it was just not to be. The accomodations were excellent, the food was very good, and the camp life was lots of fun. I laughed so hard my stomach was sore. I really enjoyed the Newfoundlanders and look forward to visiting the Island again, Good Lord Willing.. BTW..My buddy Fungus Face took a bull, and he shared some of the meat with me..I just had a fine supper of fresh moose steak...

It depends on the chambering and how hot you load it, but I usually get 5-7 loadings out of a casing and most of my loads are close to maximum.With lighter loads you might get several more.

I have 26 rounds of Rem Coreloct 150 grain and 2 rounds of Federal 140 grain. I'd take $20 for the lot. I fish Keuka often and we could probably meet up there somewhere to make the exchange if you want the ammo. I thought I had MORE factory ammo, but when I checked it most of it was once fired casings, which I want to keep for my own use.