Pygmy

you're not? ??? No, actually I am not... My father was an Armenian Dwarf and my mother...... DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT MY MOMMA..!!!... I gave up the breechcloth and the bone in my nose because guys kept trying to HIT on me when I stopped at the expressway rest stops.. I look pretty normal now for an old, short ,fat white guy.... I carry my poison dart blowgun CONCEALED these days..

Larry.. One of my buddies has a CZ in HMR ..I love the gun, but was too cheap to buy one...Would have got the Savage in Mach II , but they don't chamber it in the shorter round.. The CZ is a real class act...

My reaction was the same... Figured Toruk-Matko was probably a Kung-Fu expert... But then, I suppose PYGMY conjurs up a vision of some little black fellow wearing a breechcloth, a bone in his nose and carrying a poison dart blowgun.... ??? .....

Some of you may have seen that I recently sold a .17 HMR rifle in the classifieds... It was my main squirrel rifle..Here's the reason I sold it... It has been replaced.. It was a great shooter and I hated to part with it, but that round is rather destructive on the eatin' meat of the little rodents... A few days ago I became aware of another rifle for sale, in .17 Mach II....I was interested in that chambering in a squirrel rifle, because inside 100 yards it shoots essentially as flat as the .17 HMR along with the gilt edge accuracy of the magnum, bit it doesn't tear the little critters up so bad.. Anyway, it followed me home.. It's a New England Arms single shot with a composite stock and a bull barrel.. Cute little devil...It's relatively short and light, but the heavy barrel gives it enough weight to steady it up a little.. Currently it has an El Cheapo 4x scope on it.. It seems clear enough..I'll give it a try and if I am not happy with the results I'll put some better optics on it.. Now I just need a calm day so I can shoot it and see how it groups...

My 16 gauge 11-48 had a 28" modified barrel and threw a pretty good slug, considering the fact that it just had an "apple-on-a-stick" raised bead.... I shot several "firsts" with that gun... Shot my first limit of 4 grouse...Shot my first red fox...Shot my first ducks... After using it for a couple of years, I traded it for a Winchester Model 59 12 gauge... Funny co-incidence..That M59 (which I still have) is AWFUL with slugs.. You could shoot it inside a room and miss all 4 walls, the ceiling AND the floor... ??? .....

I have always been fond of the 16 gauge... My very first shotgun was a 16 gauge single shot, labeled Eastern Arms Company...It was a "hand-me-down gun in my Dad's family..After I used it a couple of years it went on to one of my younger cousins, etc. etc. My second shotgun was also a 16 Gauge, a Remington model 11-48 autoloader... I raised a steer and sold it for $123.... Used $85 of the money to buy the 11-48, used... I've bought and sold a few 16s over the years and am presently down to one...It is a Winchester Model 12 , full choke, made in 1936.....

GEEEZE, Wooly.. Glad you got out ok..Could have been a life threatening situation..

Les-B-Hens...... ... I've never seen that phenomenon myself, but a good friend of mine who is a "no BS" kind of guy told me about calling in a hen that strutted and gobbled... I guess turkeys suffer from sexual identity crises too....

Sweet Old Bill.....SOB..... ... I never would have made THAT connection....<<chuckle>>.... We're learnin' a LOT on this thread.... ....

Deadly looking rig, WNY...Hope she shoots as good as she looks...

Thanks, everyone..Lots of good suggestions...

If your rifle shoots 180 grain bullets accurately ( which it appears to do) there is no reason to use another load... It is certainly not overkill for deer, and also would work fine for elk or moose if you ever had an opportunity to hunt them.... Trying to decide between 150, 165 or 180 grain loads for deer in a 30-06 is basically splitting hairs... Any loads in these bullet weights that group well in your rifle will perform well from point blank to 300 yards... Just sight in at about 2-3 inches high at 100 yards and hold center on the ribcage from just off the muzzle to 300 yards and the critters will die.. Pretty simple... ...

Sorry, Culver, the rifle is sold... Thanks for looking to you and everyone else...

There's an idea..An Empire State forum Hawg Hunt... ...

Okay, terex...I'm only about an hour away from you... I'll send you a PM.

How is the Starship Enterprise like a roll of toilet paper..??? They both circle Uranus and wipe out Klingons....

I googled it and some video about Capt. Kirk and Spock being gay came up...I am done guessing...LOL Captain Kirk and Spock are rump rangers...??... Damn...There goes a couple more of my childhood heros shot to hell... I'm still bummed out over Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors.... I suppose it could explain how Spock got those EARS, tho.... ??? ....

Don't be so sure... I'll refer to my Captain America Secret Decoder Ring and get back to you....

Hehehehehe... I used that line of reasoning on my EX wife.... I think the key word here is " EX"..... : .....

How did you pick your screen name....??.. Some, such as WNYBuckhunter, seem pretty straightforward and descriptive...Others are less so, like Lawdwaz..... I picked PYGMY because RUNT, SHORTY and MIDGET were already taken... JUST KIDDING.... ;D ...... Actually I was given the nickname " Pygmy" years ago by a hunting buddy of mine, whom I affectionately refer to as " Fungus Face"... It was because at 5'5" , I am "vertically challenged"... We were hunting in Alaska for moose and caribou..When I was packing heavy loads of moosemeat on my back, he called me "The Packin' Pygmy"... Then , when I gassed out the tent after EATING moosemeat for a week, he called me " The Stinkin' Pygmy".... ??? ... A few years later when I began posting on internet forums like this one, "Pygmy" just seemed like a descriptive, distinctive and simple handle, so I have been using it ever since...

My favorite book is "Peterson's".... It uses drawings, but in my opinion it is often easier to identify the birds from it than some of the books that use actual photographs, like the Audubon series..

Any birders out there..??.. For me watching birds adds a lot to my time spent in the woods....I enjoy identifying and watching various species of songbirds, birds of prey, etc. etc. I am nowhere near an expert, but MOST of the time I can identify most of the birds I see, and it is exciting to see and identify a species that I have not previously seen... I also enjoy my backyard feeder and have literally hundreds of birds visit it daily... This winter I have a new addition to my feeder..A pair of Carolina Wrens have been hitting my suet and sunflower seeds....Although a couple of my friends ahve reported having them, these are the first ones I have ever seen at my feeder..

Thanks, VJP... I'll check 'em out...

Yeah... I hear ya, guys, and I really appreciate your input.... However, I am not exactly YOUNG anymore....I'm settled into a nice home with my fiance'...It's a nice place and I have room for a few of my smaller mounts ( up to the size of a mule deer), but it's an older place with low ceilings and there is no room for caribou, elk and moose mounts.. And my mounts are taking up room in a good friend's house ..He has been very patient but I know he would like to get rid of them... He has his own stuff to display.. I thought that if I could a good $$$ from them to go towards a big game hunt, it would be money well spent.. BTW.. I ain't hunting for horns anymore...Just meat and the experience of the hunt.. I sincerely thank all of you for your input.. ....

This afternoon I came around a bend in a secondary road and had to slow down for a flock of about 30 turkeys..They appeared to be gravelling on the shoulder of the road.. They appeared to be a typical flock of hens and poults.... Then I spotted a bird with a long beard..At first glance I thought it was a tom, but as I looked closer it was a hen..She wasn't more than ten yards away, so I got a good look at her.. She had a beard that was at least nine inches long..Maybe pushing ten....And while it was not a real heavy beard, it was heavier than any hen beard I have seen. Probably about the size of an average two year old tom... Over the years I have seen quite a few bearded hens, but most had fairly short, spindly beards.. This old girl had a DANDY beard... She'd make a nice mount for someone who wanted a unique turkey mount... As por MOI, I would just as soon see her survive and raise a few more poults... ....