Pygmy

Interesting question.... I have gun hunted 45 years and I bowhunted perhaps 20 years...I have lost a few over the years with rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader and bow, but I have not kept track of how many... I have killed between 100 and 120 deer in that time period... Most of my hunting buddies that have killed a fair number of deer have lost a few also, including some who I admit are better and calmer shots than myself.. We all try to make clean kills, but if you spend enough time in the woods, sometimes bad shot happen... I feel as bad about my unrecovered deer as the next guy, but if you hunt long enough, it's gonna happen..

Hehehehehe... Yeah, Slowhand... Years ago it seemed like whenever I heard a noise I couldn't identify in the woods..It turned out to be a turkey.... After hunting them for 45 years, I think I have heard MOST of thier sounds, but I suspect that they will still surprise a few more times..

The kee kee is an effective call, but remember that those poults want to get back together with thier Mama..I usually just hen yelp.. It will call in hens, poults, and once in awhile even a gobbler... If you happen to be lucky enough to scatter a flock of gobblers, You need to know how to do a gobbler yelp...The cadence is slower than a hen, perhaps about 2/3 the speed, and they tend to yelp fewer notes...Limit your strings to 3 or 4 yelps.. One thing that gobblers often do that I have seldom heard hens do is to give a SINGLE yelp...Single coarse clucks work also..Gobblers often regroup with just an occasional cluck....

Nope...I never saw more than 3 or 4 together...Often the birds will use one big one... That was an interesting observation...Thanks for sharing..

I killed my first fall turkey in 1965... If you are a bowhunter, listen for birds to fly up to roost in the evening when you are bowhunting... When you hear some, go back the next morning before daybreak and scatter the flock off the roost.. Then sit down in the same general area and start giving hen yelps...Chances are you'll get an answer ( or several)... You'll have a ball...Often you will have several birds coming in from different directions.. When they get close ,remember.. They are still turkeys and very wary..You must limit your movements if you are going to get a good shot.. Those fall poults will spook at movement almost as quickly as a spring gobbler will..

My slug gun is a Rem 1100 12 gauge with a fully rifled cantilever barrel... It wears an old El Paso Weaver steel tube K 2.5 X.. The whole rig weighs 10 pounds... I shoot 2 3/4" Win BRI standard velocity sabot slugs which have a relatively mild recoil compared to many of the other slug loads available.. The combination of a heavy, gas operated gun and relatively mild loads gives me a fairly light kicking gun, for a slug gun..I can shoot it quite comfortably from the bench... The felt recoil is less than many 20 gauge slug guns that I have shot..

I always would shoot my slug gun off the bench before season... I do the same with my hunting rifles...They seldom change, but it gives me confidence...

Dinsdale...Good luck on your muley hunt this year.. Please keep us posted on the results and details.. I have read about the Blasers for a number of years on the forums... Definitely a high quality, accurate, and functional firearms system... The walnut on your rifle is GORGEOUS, but being a fan of classic bolt actions, ( read MAUSER) the action would take me a little getting used to... .... Thanks for sharing the info.. I believe that is what the original poster was asking for...

Most states that I have hunted in specify that only expanding bullets be used on big game , but I am not sure about NY...I'll be interested in what you learn... Many states allow the use of FMJ for varmints, furbearers and such....

I'll admit to having killed whitetails ( and caribou and coyotes) with a .338 WM and a 9.3 x 62 with 250 and 270 grain bullets...If I had a .458 mag and wanted some trigger time with it, I would not hesitate to take it deer hunting.. However, to get back to my original post, that is a far cry from calling a .338 WM with a 6x24 scope a "perfect deer rifle"... ...

Hehehehehe..You know how THAT goes... Come deer season probably all I'll see is SQUIRRELS.... ....

Or was it squirells in the deer woods..??... I was hunting squirrells this morning in one of my favorite spots...I shot 4 bushytails... Should have limited out except for some SLOPPY shooting on my part... However, I saw SIX bucks from the same stand....I know they were different bucks because five of them were close enough so I could count points with the naked eye....There were 3 smallish 8 points, a 5 point and a three point..One other buck passed on the fringe of my visibility, but I could see that he had a bigger rack than any of the rest..He was already poilished white...Of the six bucks, three still had velvet and three were bare... And fortunately, I DO have permission to hunt deer on the property... ;D ... ;D ... ;D .....

Lawdwaz...You should be ashamed... Hunting deer with a "barely adequate" caliber.... .....

There are long range riflemen who use specialized gear and regularly kill deer and other big game animals at ranges in excess of 500 yards.. Guys have been shooting "mountain to mountain" in parts of Pa for years, and with the specialized rifles, rangefinders and optics they use, they do it very efiiciently.. I have no problem with that.. However, most of us mere mortals, using factory issue rifles and scopes, and shooting from field postions rather than benchrests, have a much shorter practical range... I have killed a couple of game animals at 400 yards and a few more at 300 or a bit farther, but I was always shooting from a dead solid postion, usually prone with a bipod.. I also know how much my bullets are going to drop all the way out to 400..That comes from actually shooting groups, not from a ballistic table... However by far most of my shots have been inside 250 yards, and I will not take even a relatively close shot without a steady rest...

Actually, a .338 Win Mag is not an ultra long range number..Trajectory with 225-250 grain bullets is similar to a 30-06 with 180 grain bullets... It is designed for killing large, tough game animals at normal ranges, say, from point blank to 400 yards.. And there's nothing WRONG with shooting deer with a .338, if you so desire...It's just that something that powerful is not required. Many lesser rounds will kill deer just as efficiently at just as long a range with much less recoil and muzzle blast... Calling a .338 a perfect deer rifle is ludicrous... Also, I can't imagine a worse optics match for that rifle than a 6 x 24 variable... Scopes in that range are usually target or varmint models, and tend to be long and heavy ....I can't imagine needing that much maginification in a big game scope...A good quality ( such as Leupold) fixed 4X would be MY choice, and most hunters would probably opt for a variable no higher powered than a 3x9....

I saw an add in the Corning Leader classifieds this morning.... It advertised a Howa 1500 in .338 Win Mag with a 6 x 24 scope... The add said it was a "perfect deer rifle".... He must hunt some pretty BIG, TOUGH deer.... .....

It's too bad, but there is simply no dove hunting tradition in NY... Most hunters have never hunted them and really DON'T care... It makes it REAL easy for the anti's to fight it... The guys down south appreciate it.. We raise the doves up here and then they SHOOT them when they migrate south.. ;D ...

A good source of info about shotguns is www.shotgunworld.com. They have forums that are specific to difference brands ( Browning, Ithaca, etc. etc. etc.) and will help you identify guns, year of manufacture, value, and other info...

I would suggest checking some of the online gun auctions and see what the guns you are interested are selling for.. Try www.gunbroker.com or www.gunsamerica.com.. Do a search on your guns..

Doc... Sorry it hasn't happened yet... .... BUT I can give you a VERY good deal on an XP-100 in .260 Rem.... ...

I haven't shot the Maxi-hunter, but I have shot the regular maxi-ball ( 370 grain)and the Great Plains bullet which I think is around 300 grains..They both shoot pretty well...The reason I tried the No Excuses 460 was for an elk load...It shoots great in my Hawken with 80 grains of XXX Triple 7... I killed a 6x6 bull elk with it in Colorado and have shot several whitetails with it since then here in NY.. Prior to that, most of my whitetails were shot with PRBs... The No Excuses conical loads very easy, groups very well in my rifle and performs well on game..I'd highly recommend it...

My primary whitetail rifle is a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 7MM08 with a 2x7 Burris...I shoot handloads featuring the Barnes 120 TSX.... My open country rig is a Winchester M70 lightweight in .280 Rem with a Leupold fixed 6X.. I shoot handloaded Nosler 140 Ballistic Tips... My heavy game rifle is a CZ-550 in 9.3 x 62 with a fixed 4X Leupold...My handloads feature the Barnes 250 grain TSX.. I also hunt whitetails with my M1 Garand, using en-bloc clips altered to hold 5 rounds.. My muzzleloader is an early 70s vintage .50 cal. T/C Hawken with a tang mounted peep sight...I shoot either patched round balls or No Excuses 460 grain conicals...

Good news, Bill..Glad to hear you are doing well.. Old age AIN'T for sissies, but it beats heck out of the alternative.... ...

That's one of the problems with communicating within this medium ( internet).. Without being able to hear voices and study facial expressions and body language, it's often easy to misinterperet another person's meaning... Remember the old old Gary Cooper line...?.. " SMILE when you say that, PARTNER.." .. ..

Daveboone..You must be in the northern zone..We already have that in the southern zone... The late ML season runs concurrent with the late bow season, immediately following gun season...Been that way for at least 20 years..