Pygmy

Looks like a decent 2.5... He'll be a nice buck next year..

I don't think that there is any argument over the fact that released/escaped pet cougars could or have existed in NY... I believe that there a few documented cases..In at least one case the cat had been declawed.. PROBABLY not a bad idea if you have a pet pumacougar..Imagine what one of those suckers could do to your favorite COUCH... .... The main point is that there is no proof of any breeding population of cougars in the wild... And the stubborn allegation that the state has clandestinely stocked them is ludicrous... Pure unadulterated BS...

As rifles go, the 7MM mag is not that bad..Certainly easier on the shoulder than any pump shotgun with slugs... As previous posters have said, with a decent pad and stock design, it is not bad at all... Jack O'Connor used the 7mm Rem mag a lot ( inspite of his affection for the .270) and he once wrote that one reason for the 7mms popularity is that it is the heaviest ( recoil) rifle that many shooters can handle without developing a flinch...The 7mm mags I have shot kick about like a 30-06 with heavy bullets... In my opinion,heavy recoiling rifles start in the .300 mag/.338 Win class... All that said, I am not a big fan of the 7 Mags.. In my opinion , most hunters are better served by a cartridge in the .270/.280, 7mm08 , .308 class, which will do everything we need to do at the ranges that most of us shoot, and do it with considerably less muzzle blast and recoil...

Jean... Welcome to our forum and thank you for posting... The hound in the picture appears to be a bluetick....They are very popular here in the US for hunting raccoon and fox... What cartridges are favored in your hunting area..??.. I understand that any military round is illegal in France, but that some US chamberings such as 300 Winchester mag are quite popular..

Tiger....I have fished the river over the last 40 years from the Pa border to Wellsville, but I have never fished the derby.. I guess I just prefer to fish the stream when it is less busy...

Yeah, I know what you mean... I had a tang safety M77 in .338 Win with the hard red pad and it was BRUTAL to shoot from the bench.. I stuck it in a synthetic stock with a better pad and had it ported... That tamed the recoil down significantly, but it it was LOUD and it still kicked pretty bad.. I peddled it and bought a CZ 550 in 9.3 x 62...I still get good performance with relatively heavy bullets and flat enough trajectory for the odd 300 yard shot on big game... And I don't get beat up nearly so badly at the bench... ??? ....

Bubba... Yes the .300 savage is truly a classic deer cartridge, and was extremely popular in NY and PA until the .308 Win and it's offspring became available... It is a step up in performance from the 30-30 / 32 Special and was available in a very handy lever action.. The Savage 99, as well as several bolt actions and pump guns... Personally I tend to prefer chamberings that are a little different...That's why I have never hunted with a .270, .308, 30-06 ( except my Garand M1) or 7mm Rem Mag... EVERYONE hunts with one of them... : ...... Nearly all of my rifle big game hunting has been done with the 7MM08, 7 x57, .280 Rem and 9.3 x 62...

Okay... I have talked to a few people whom I know to be reliable who say they have seen them....I really believe that that have seen what they THINK were cougars... I have also seen some pictures on the net that people thought were cougars that were obviously bobcats or even housecats.. One good friend of mine, who is a retired state trooper, and whom I would trust with the life of my DAUGHTER, showed me a picture of one that his brother in law took.. It was BLACK and had a red collar....To him it was a radio collared black panther...To me it was very obviously somebody's large black housecat with a red collar... I hang out in an American Legion post where people talk of seeing them on a regular basis.. If you challenge them, you may get your nose flattened.. I'm sorry to be a skeptic, but I need to see a carcass before I am convinced...The last one that was authenticated in New York was in 1894, except for perhaps a couple of DECLAWED cats that were determined to be released or escaped domestic cougars... I don't intend to insult anyone on this forum, but I must say that the great majority of people that have told me that they saw cougars were not experienced woodsmen, but people that would not know a cougar from a bobcat or a fisher if they saw one..

I see 'em ALLL the time.. Every time I go in the woods they are hanging around in the trees, snarling and hissing at me and SCREAMING LIKE A WOMAN...!!.... Durn Pumacougars, anyway....Too bad the durn state STOCKED 'em, to eat up the COYOTES that they stocked to eat up all the DEER... WE'd have some proof, except every time someone kills one, a black stealth helicopter shows up and makes off with the carcass.. Boy the state must spend a lot of TIME and MONEY monitoring all of those pumacougars in the state 24 hours a day..

Entertaining article....Trampled on a few sacred cows, such as the ever popular 7MM Rem Mag... My own pet cartridge, the .280 Rem, made the list, also... ... I must admit the .280 would not be so appealing to me if I were not a handloader.... I wonder what the Canadians think of his opinion of the .303 Brit, however..??.. That round may have killed more deer ( and moose) in Canada than all other chamberings combined...

Hmmmm.. Since the 270 and 30-06 are so similar, it seems odd that there would be feeding/ejection problems with one and not the other... Also, the .308 was developed to replace the 30-06 , and one of the reasons was because the short action cartridge was supposed to funtion better in semi auto/fully auto actions.. I'm wondering if these feeding/ejection problems might be co-incidental, rather than specific to a cartridge..??..

Nice pelts, Bub... What are the mink bringing this year..??..

Kimber.. Yeah... Wish I could AFFORD one... .... Defintely nice rifles... Another reasonably priced quality rifle is the CZ.... They make a full stock model that is short and reasonably light ( a little over 7 lb)... And they are SHOOTERS... I have one in 9.3 x 62 that thinks it's a varmint rifle... I have never heard of anyone buying a CZ that did not group well.. They are available in several good deer calibers, .243, 6.5 x 55, .270W, .308, 30-06... Nice walnut stocks, too...

Helluva shot....!!...Good work, guys... Nice video... ;D ... ;D ... ;D ...

The Remington Model 7 is an excellent choice if you want a short, light bolt action... My favorite deer rifle is a Rem 700 Mountain rifle...It's a little longer than the M 7, but it's still light and compact enough to be a handy wooods rifle.... It's a nice compromise between a standard weight rifle and one of the real compacts like the Rem M7 or the Ruger ultralight..

It's minus twenty here in beautiful downtown Addison... I remember a couple times in my 60 + years it got that cold here, but not many... I'll borrow a quote from Bob Hope when he was performing a USO show in Alaska years ago... " It was so cold here today that I saw a MINK wearing a FAT LADY..".... ....

Hmmmm...Sounds strange to me, because up here in Steuben Co. carrying concealed is common.... Personally I try to avoid anyplace where I can't carry..I haven't been in Westchester Co. since 1977, and that was a business trip, except to land and take off at the airports... One notable place I go often where I can't carry is Canada...

Sounds like the two stage triggers on Mausers and other older military rifles.. Take up the slack, then squeeeeze.... The squeeze is usually accompanied by lots of CREEP.... ....

With that combo you should be good to about 35-40 yards....That's further than the average shot at a rabbit, considering the heavy cover they prefer... One way to be sure is to pattern your gun...If you can put 6-8 pellets in a six inch circle at a given range, say 40 yards, that's plenty good enough coverage to kill a bunny rabbit.. I have shot plenty of bunnies with 7 1/2, but it leaves a few too many pellets in the eating meat for me , so I prefer #6 shot.. I have tried heavier shot, such as #4 to reduce meat damage..It kills them well, but the bigger pellets seem to drag a lot of hair into the shot wounds... Sixes seem to be the best compromise for me..

What choke is your barrel and what loads you are using...??... Rabbits are easy to kill.. It only takes a few #6 pellets to kill one... A 12 gauge gun with a modified choke and a field load of # 6 shot ( 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 oz.) most guns will kill a rabbit cleanly out to 40 yards or so... A full choke gun will do the same out to around 50 yards, and an improved cylinder choke will kill them from 30-35 yards..

That's FUNNY right there..I don't care WHO ya' are... ... ... ...

Cool....Thanks for sharing... Although many bucks have shed thier antlers, it is not unusual to see them with thier headgear intact at this time of year... Over the years, I have seen them still sporting thier antlers in february and even M...arch

Good story, Doc, thanks for sharing....I'll bet that by the time packed out you were glad that you didn't get 3 or 4 moose.... A friend of mine did a moose hunt years ago,somewhere in Canada... He told me... " We were having a great time, and then some dumb SOB shot a MOOSE.."... ... I've done 5 DIY hunts in Alaska, 4 drop camps and a float trip...I would LOVE to do it again, but I would need 2 or 3 strong young fellows to do most of the bull work...A friend of mine who loves moose hunting and loves Alaska was going to go with me a few years ago.. We had the hunt pretty well planned, had picked an area and talked to an air taxi provider... Then we had a soul searching discussion and realized that we were a little too old and fat to attempt it... :-[ .... Those hunts were ballbusters 20 years ago when I did them, and I was in the best physical condition I had ever been in, and they damn near killed me... ..... A man has GOT to know his limitations.....

In most places in Canada an American citizen is required by law to hire the services of a guide or outfitter to hunt big game.. That limits the ability to do a DIY hunt there for moose, elk, caribou, sheep ,goats or grizzlies... I think there are some execptions for deer and black bears in some areas.. In Alaska and most of the lower 48, DIY is legal for most species ( with a few exceptions) and it is a very rewarding way to hunt and generally less expensive than guided or outfitted hunts... However, it takes a lot of planning, research and preparation if you hope to have a fair chance of success... You also need to be in good enough physical condition to get your game from the kill site to a place where a boat, airplane or vehicle can get to it after you have killed it... I did a number of DIY hunts in Alaska , New Mexico and Colorado and they are among my fondest memories.. However, that was a few years ago when I was younger and more physically fit...As Harry Callahan once said... " A man has got to know his limitations.."... ...