Pygmy

I have never been inside a Rem semi auto rifle, but I have a lot of experience with thier semi auto shotguns... With the shotguns ( 1100s and 11-87s) often they get more dependable after firing a few shots and wearing off the "rough edges"... I suspect that making sure the bolt and gas system is clean is essential... It is with the shotguns....Another issue with the rifles that does not affect the shotguns is the magazine.. I don't think that going to a heavier bullet will affect the chamber pressure a whole lot, especially with factory loads..Chamber pressures with factory loads are generally kept within a certain level, regardless of bullet weight.. I doubt that going to a heavier bullet will cure your functioning issues..

Spur length...Less than 5/8...jake.... 3/4 to 7/8... Two year old... 1" to 1 1/8" 3 year old.... 1 1/4 and up, 4 year old or older... Anything over 1 1/4 is defintely an old trophy gobbler...Compare them to a 140 " or bigger whitetail buck...... I've killed over 100 myself and seen many more that friends have taken...My personal best is 1 7/16" and I have seen damn few that went an honest 1 1/2" or more..

Good work calling that guy across a road, Larry... CONGRATS...!!... Looks like another nice fat two year old...

They are henned up big time.. I heard 5 or 6 gobblers on the roost opening day, but most only gobbled 2 or 3 times and then zipped lip as soon as they hit the ground... I hunted all last week in Ontario and it was the same story.. The first two days of NY season I had 3 gobblers respond to my crow call later in the morning, but not one of them would answer my turkey call..

Congrats, Grow... Nice fat two year old..

Eddie, Please accept my most sincere condolences.... I understand your feeling of loss...I lost my Mom a couple of years ago at age 85...

Don't put some overpowered monstrosity if a variable scope on a short barreled rifle... It ruins the balance of the rig , is too bulky and unwieldy and makes a nice handling hunting rifle look and handle like crap... If you feel you MUST have a variable,go with the smallest and lightest high quality 1.5 -6 or at the most 2x7 scope you can afford... For deer hunting in the woods, a 1.5-4 would be a good choice also.. Whatever light gathering qualities a 50 mm objective might give you is not worth the extra weight and bulk.. Ever look through a Leupold Fixed 4X ( 33MM) under low light conditions..??..You would be amazed at the clarity and definition...

Noodle..I have been out twice... Both times I fished small tributaries to a larger river...I did OK...Landed 9 wild browns with several between 16 and 18 inches...I also lost nearly as many from fish hooking up and running me under banks, trees and stumps and then breaking off.. I cancelled my annual opening weekend trip to PA last weekend due to high water... I'll be starting to hunt gobblers Monday ( Ontario opener) so probably the next trout fishing I do will be afternoon fishing with dry flies in May....

Yeah, Bob learned to make his box calls from the late, great Neil Cost, who was one of the masters... I bought my box from him about 10 years ago for $75.. He even called me on the phone and let me listen to different boxes made from different wood sources... I have met Bob in person at the NWTF national Convention, and he is a fine gentleman.. He is presently selling his box calls for $125 , which in this day and age is a bargain for a fine quality custom box... Several of my hunting buddies heard my Harwell box and immediately ordered one for themselves... Bigtom.... ;D ... ;D ... ;D ....

Legendary turkey hunter, Ben Rogers Lee, said that a good woodsman would kill more turkeys that a good caller... Of course, many of his gobblers may have had shot in the soles of thier feet... : ....

I agree with the above posters..The Ameristep doghouse blinds have worked fine for me in the 2-3 years that I have been using them... They set up easily and I have bought mine on sale for $60 -$70.... For years and years I have been sitting against trees and killing turkeys...I'm beginning to like sitting in my little blind on a comfortable seat and not worrying about having a gobbler spot me scratching my nose...

I am in Steuben County, right along the PA border...Haven't been in central, NY, but it has been a long, hard winter and a late spring, so I doubt that they they are ahead of us up there... Around here, lawns are just starting to green up..The woods look pretty much like winter... Last year, by the first of May, the foiliage was like mid month, and by mid-May, it was almost like summer...Big difference this year.. Good luck on the youth hunt..

Probably be more like a limerick... I once wrote a turkey hunting limerick based on " There once was a man from Nantucket"... However, since this is a family forum, I won't share it... ....

Larry...The dick doc gave me some little blue diamond shaped pills to rejuvenate my "hooter"... Now I have lead in my pencil again, but I don't have anyone to write to.. ...

I remember reading that it is legal for a nonresident to transport a handgun THROUGH NY to and from sanctioned shooting events.. However, there is no way that a nonresident can obtain a NY pistol permit, so there is no way that you can legally hunt with your handgun in NY..

Let's see...I just loaded my vest..I'll be driving up to Ontario this weekend to hunt the opener April 25th... I have a Bob Harwell custom box, walnut striker and butternut sides... Sweetest box call I've ever used.. I have a Lynch Foolproof box that I bought in the early 70's for $17 at Henyan's Sporting Goods in Corning.. I never leave home without it, during turkey season.. I have a Cody slate that I use only for clucking and purring.. I have half a dozen mouth calls, mostly Knight & Hale... I have a Quaker Boy open reed crow call that I like cause it's LOUD... No need for an owl hooter..Those Canadian gobblers never even HEARD a barred owl... ;D .... I used to owl by natural voice, but as I grew older, my HOOTER wore out... : ....

I don't rely a whole lot, but have been using them along with a pop up blind in certain setups over the last few years... I have had adult toms spook from gobbler decoys ( even jakes) so I usually just put out two hens, a bobble head and a Sceery inflatable, both in feeding positions..I have had better luck with feeding decoys than I have with the head up alert decoys... The motion of the bobble head is a definite plus... They work best where the gobblers can see them from a distance...In the area where I hunt in Ontario it is as flat as p*ss on a platter, and I often set up on the edge of cedar pastures where the turkeys can see the decoys from long distances...I have had birds strutting and gobbling to my decoys that were far enough away that I could SEE them gobble, but not hear them..

You can get away with a lot in pitch darkness... I have a friend that limits out on gobblers every year with a recurve..He uses a custom made portable blind and often sets it up in the dark within full view of a roosting gobbler... I have inadvertantly sat down within 20 or 30 yards of a roosting gobbler in the dark, and then had him gobble on the roost at daylight... It helps if the terrain and underbrush is such that you can walk without crashing a lot of brush, snapping sticks or whatever, but roosting turkeys are used to hearing deer and other critters walking around in the dark... Use your head.... Be as quiet as possible and don't try it on a moonlight night, but on a dark night you can often get pretty close without spooking a bird..

Check out heli-hogging on youtube.... Looks like a real hoot..!!...

The destruction those things are capable of is incredible... I have hunted them several times on a friend's deer/turkey lease in Georgia.. They put up low electric fences around thier food plots...The deer and turkeys step over it, but it keeps the hogs out.. Once in awhile a fence fails and the pigs get into the food plot..It looks just like it has been plowed up with farm equipment.. They do the same thing in the woods ...

The damage to the habitat is the worst thing about them..They really tear things up... I've hunted them in Georgia and one of my partners has hunted them in Georgia, Florida and Texas.. Nobody likes the damn things, and they really so a lot of serious damage... We sure don't need them here in NY... They ARE fun to hunt and good to eat, however..The older boars are strong and are best left in the woods for the coyotes, but the young boars and the sows are excellent...

The meat cutting shop where I had my pronghorn cut up out in Casper ,Wyoming 2 years ago had a sign on the wall......BUNGHOLE REMOVAL FEE....$25.....

Probably the shot cup keeps the shot from deforming as much, along with the buffer you use... Do you use a poly buffer..??.. Years ago when shot buffering first became common, some reloaders used flour as a buffer..

G-Man... What do you use for an over shot wad..??.. Dinsdale...I have hunted a lot with the 28 gauge, a Spanish made S/S choked mod/full, and a Rem Sportsman 48 autoloader with a Cutts Compensator... As I said before, they killed crows, small game and upland birds as well as the 20 gauge, for all practical purposes... They are nice light, fast handling guns...Ammo is damned expensive, though..

Yeah, I don't even remember any domestic companies loading 28 gauge slugs as late as the 80s..The few that I have ( actually the only ones I have ever seen) are in Remington Express green paper casings probably loaded in the 40s or 50s.... As you say, perhaps if that Taurus revolver gains any popularity, perhaps there will be some slugs available... I'm not sure who would WANT one of those monstrosities, though.... ??? ... ...