Warren

I have been fishing with Tom Burke "Cold steel sport fishing.com for many years. I highly reccomend him. Attached is one of the salmon from this last October. The other picture is Tom and me.

Great topic. Back in March my weight was approaching 230. When I had my army physical back in 1971 I was 155 lbs. That's 75 lbs difference. I decided I needed to lose some weight and on August 9th I was 199 and later that morning I was rushed to Vassar Hospital because I was having multiple heart attacks and required emergency cardiac stents installed. I am in cardiac rehab now so I will be in shape for Nov 16th. If I hadn't lost the weight I would not be here. This movitated me to retire and I thank the Lord each morning that I am able to hunt another deer season. Warren

I had these guys do a hog for me last March, they are in Red Hook (Dutchess Co) http://www.malafysmeatprocessing.com/home

Anyone have any experience with the Burris Fastfire sight? I have a Ruger 41mag and my older eyes can't see the iron sights anymore. I have tried a 2x handgun scope and it shoots fine but I would prefer something smaller. These sights are not cheap (in the $250 range). Would they help for deer hunting or would I be wasting my money? Thanks fastfire.bmp

eagle rider I had the same handgun and took 3 N.Y. whitetails with it ( a doe and two 4 pointers). I used 158 gr JSP and broadside shots. All stopped on the far side under the hide. Shots were about 15, 40 and 60 yards and the deer ran about 30 yards. I think a 180 gr hard cast by Double Tap Ammunition would work better. I used that load on a 130 lbs European boar. Warren

Praying for Sydney

Sorry guys but I 100% agree with adkbuck, I understand and agree with the message but you would never see me walking around with a shirt like that. Just more fuel for the liberals to use against us.

Joe Red Thanks for posting the link. It motivated me to rejoined the NRA last night.

nybuckboy The NAA 22mag is a single action 5 shot. I have the PUG and I changed out the small grip for the bigger Black Widow grip and it fits my hand perfectly. This gun fits in your front pocket and you don't even know it's there. Recoil is nothing and is fun to shoot. See if you can find the model with interchangable cylinders so you can shoot 22lr and 22mag. I have owned all kinds of handguns from 44 mags down to 25acp and there have always been times when they were left behind because of their size or weight. The NNA eliminates that problem.

Like others have stated, both guns you listed are good. Ruger makes the LCP in 380 and the LCR in 38 special. Both very light weight. Have you looked at a North American Arms 22mag? The NAA 22mag PUG is very easy to carry and won't be left at home or in the car like other handguns.

Listing the family information (kids) of the Journal News employees in my opinion is wrong and not necesssary. At this point I'd rather see a list of companies that advertises in this news paper and get them to pull their advertisements.

Kevin Tag is in the mail. Glad someone can get some use out of it. Warren

Kevin Email reply sent

I'm done for the season and have an unused 3P doe tag for anyone who could use it. email me at [email protected]

Opening day was surprisingly quite. Half the number of cars compared to previous years. 4 of us hunted and one got a beautful 8 pt and the other got a doe and a big 6 pt. We were dragging out 3 deer before 10. Yesterday I walked up on a bear and got within 30 yards of him and aimed and said to myself - bang your dead - and let him go. It was really cool to see him. At the same time my buddy jumped a monster buck, so there are some out there.

Does anyone have any knowledge or expeirence using the M1 Carbine on whitetails? I have an old WW2 carbine that shoots so nice and is spot on at 40 yards. I've taken deer with open sighted handguns in the past but the old eyes can't see the sights on the handguns as well as I can on the M1. On paper it has better ballistics than most modern handguns. Will it do the job out to 75 yards? How about on black bears?

13Bvet I know your frustration. Many years ago when I was living in Ohio, my buddy and I stopped at a farm and an old man sitting on the porch gave us written permission to hunt his farm. The place was perfect and loaded with fox squirrels and deer. 2 weeks later we went squirrel hunting and scouting for the up coming deer season. Got back to the car and was meet by a middle aged guy. Told us we couldn't hunt there and after we showed him the written permission we explained that the old man had past away. Dad 6424 --- you might want to edit your comment. It gives everyone the impression that you are a jerk.

About 4 or 5 years ago one of my hunting buddies was still hunting in Streling for deer on the last weekend of the season. He was about 1 to 1.5 miles back and it was in the middle of the afternoon when he spotted a black bear less than 100 yards away feeding. He shot it with his 35 Remington. Field dressed at about 160 lbs. He has dragged out many whitetails but said this bear was like brigging out a bag of blobber, hardest thing he even had to do. The following year I was hunting with my brother-in-law off of Ironwood road on the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. We went up the hill just at light and saw 2 other hunters a few hundred yards away. We split up and I went up the hill. At about 8am he shot at and missed a nice size bear. A week into the season and not far from 4 hunters and this bear was feeding like there were no worries. Last year my other buddy saw a big bear on opening day but too far for a shot. My numbers might be a little off but something like 3 bears were taken last year and 8 the year before. I have yet to see a bear but I have on occation seen a lot of bear sign.

I have a similar gun but in 41mag. The first picture shows my typical group at 25 yard, iron sights. It's not the gun's fault, It's my aging eyes, just can't see the sights like I use to. I put a scope on it (I hate scoped handguns but I felt I needed a better group) and it group about 2.5" out at 40 yds with a bench rest. In my opinion, if you are keeping them in 2.75" at 25yds then your good out to 40yds. Have you handgun hunted before? If not, then after you first kill you will be hooked. Good luck this season.

I agree with d-bone20917 I don't see the need to carry a handgun and a rifle at the same time. Just doesn't make sense to lug the extra weight. Leave the rifle at home and hunt with just the handgun.

If your planning to hunt in Sterling or West Point then storing your cloths in corn may not be the best idea. There are not too many corn fields in those area. A better choice might be storing your hunting cloths in leaves and/or pine needles. I usually just wash my cloths and hang them outside most rain free days. The smell of corn might be a strange smell to the deer back in the hills. No matter what you do, it all comes down to wind direction.

That's a good suggestion, joe12, I had forgotten about West Point. It's been a few years since I hunted there. If I remember right, they have the area sectioned off with limited access to each section. You need to check in and select an area that is not full and check out when you are done hunting. This might give you more info http://www.ocshooters.com/Hunt/West-Point/west-point.htm

No need to get there the night before. We usually arrive between 5 and 5:30 and have an hour hike to our spots. Just in case you aren't aware of it, be advised that you need a hunting permit and you need to do it before Sept 30th to be able to hunt the opening weekend. We hunt the sothern end of the park but we have had reasonable success off of Ironwood road. I've taken a few does there and my brother-in-law missed a bear. I would suggest you find an area near some thick cover or natural funnel and try to stay there all day on opening day. 2 years ago I had a nice 8 point wander past me at 11:30 only to spot me as I was putting on an extra sweater. Once you get in about a 1/2 mile or so and wander off the fire roads you should not be bothered by other hunters.

Joe12 I'm quite sure it wasn't you. The guys I saw were what I call slob hunters. I doubt that any of those guys would even be on a site like this. This was a large group of maybe 15 to 20 guys pushing the entire mountian. It ocurred a few years ago on Hog Mtn just off Ironwood Dr. We were on the top of the hill (which I don't consider being far back from the road) at sun up and those guys came crashing thru making all kinds of noise at about 7:30AM. I've been deer hunting over 40 years and that was the most uncomfortable I have even been. A few guys pushing deer is always good for everyone hunting that day, get the deer up and moving, but what i expeirenced was way too unsafe.

I have been hunting Sterling Forest for the last 5 or so years only during the gun season and I have not expeirenced any unpleasent or unsafe hunters except for one time. The only time I felt unsafe was one Saturday morning near the end of the season when a bunch of jerks did a deer drive (sorry Joe12 if you were one of them). They marched up the entire hillside and there was shooting all over the place. Sounded like a bunch of rabbit hunters. There were 3 of us posted on different hillsides and these guys marched right thru our areas like they owned the place and we were tresspassers. They came busting by and would look at us and see us and just keep on duing what they pleased reguardless of how it effected our hunt. I can understand a deer drive on private land but not on state land. Most hunters I have meet are encouraging and helpful. Deer sightings are slim. As an example, last year I hunted 8 days and saw a total of 5 deer. Three of those were on opening day. If you haven't hunted there for a while be advised that 1/2 of the park has an antler restriction. Also, last year the ticks were very bad. So keep checking yourself. There are some nice bucks in the park. I saw (what I what I would call) a really nice one on the powerline opening day and he was spotted again by other hunters the last weekend of the season. 2 years ago the were about 100 deer taken (about 50/50 bucks to does) and 8 bears. Last year thwere were about 75 deer taken (50 bucks, 25 does) and 3 bears. My numbers are not exact but it gives you and idea. I wish you all the best in this years hunt.