philoshop

Wooly, yer supposed to be cutting back on the nicotine! Let me know if you come up with any new flavors.

Welcome to the site Phil.

No license required unless you're actually hunting, or somehow assisting someone who's hunting.

Welcome to the site Rachelle. Not sure how to interpret most of your post, but congratulations on quitting smoking, and on the 'big one' you got last year. Smoke-free for 9 weeks now!.

Just shootin' the bow right now. Another week or so and the clothes and gear will be hung in the woods out back for a little air. Mainly keeping my fingers crossed, hoping the deer stick around for another month before moving away to find the harvested grain fields. The farmers all planted late around here, so maybe the harvest will be a little late as well.

Heavy things moving fast will hurt when they hit you. (motion) An hour spent talking to a pretty woman seems like a minute, but a minute in the dentist's chair seems like an hour. (relativity) Laughs aside, I'd be happy to take somebody into the woods and give them a few pointers. 8f and 8j. PM me.

It'd be nice to see them stay in BFLO.

Don't get frustrated, and keep at it. It's a steep learning curve for sure, but as long as you're learning a little every time you go out, you'll eventually get the hang of it. Having a mentor will speed things up considerably. Best of luck

The safe act makes no distinction between rimfire and centerfire ammunition. The thumbhole stock on my target 10/22 made it an 'assault' weapon.

It's more about the fit of the gun than the caliber when it comes to 'felt' recoil in a handgun.

10 rnd mag is perfectly legal. You're only allowed 6 squirrels, so you if you load the magazine with 7 rnds and use one as a sighter you're good to go.

I've trained myself to always draw with my trigger finger behind the trigger, actually pushing the trigger forward. Having shot with my fingers for many, many years, I found it almost impossible to retrain my brain to keep my finger from occasionally putting pressure on the trigger of a mechanical release during the draw. Even the release-to-fire setup didn't work for me, but I haven't had an inadvertent release since. It acts like a safety: my finger doesn't move to the 'active' position 'til I'm ready to shoot. One less thing to think about when the adrenaline is going.

Yep, she's the scout. Being debriefed at Deer HQ as we speak.

I tread pretty lightly the first part of the season. Even more so now with the extra two weeks. I have six stand sites on three properties, so I'd rather not burn anything out before the rut gets into full swing. If the itch gets to be unbearable, I'll still-hunt/scout the edge of a standing cornfield or other thick area away from my stand locations. I've come face-to-face with some real bruisers like that over the years, but I've never been able to get off a shot. This year I'll probably take the camera on these recon missions. Surest way I know of to get a great 'shot' opportunity is to leave the killing gear at home. lol

Ouch!! Glad you weren't hurt. Good luck on the repair or replacement.

There are several threads with lots of good info on this topic in the Reloading section of this site. It's a sub-section under the Guns and Rifles heading.

You can do the tote thing using charcoal as well. It's dirty but it works to get rid of all kinds of odors pretty quickly. Then you just have a bbq when you're done.

Sweet!

Show up to a bird hunt in England with your semi-auto or pump shotgun and see what kind of looks you get.

That's a heck of a chicken coop!! Thanks for the nice pics.

Even if it was legal I wouldn't bother actually setting bait out for deer. On the other hand, using 'bait' is a big part of my hunting strategy. Stands of nut and fruit trees, harvested grain fields, and doe bedding areas during the rut are where I put most of my stands. I'll let the farmers and Mother Nature do the work of setting out the bait.

Very nice! I sent the link off to some of my Syracuse friends for you. Hope you get a great turnout.

It'll be my first time in the woods as a non-smoker in about 40 years. That alone has got me pumped up. I'm excited. Best of luck to everyone!

As far as ballistics go, an object of a specific mass at a specific velocity will have a specific energy at a specific range. It's entirely physics and mathematics. Energy = .5 x mass x velocity squared. Roughly. What happens to that object during flight depends on a number of variables, most notably the actual physical dimensions. A truckload of feathers fired from a cannon isn't going to go very far before it loses its velocity. No velocity=no energy. A dense object will fly faster for a greater distance. Farther away and still going fast=more energy farther away. What happens at the end of the flight when the object hits something, terminal ballistics, has to do with the velocity at the moment of impact and the construction of the object. In order for the flying object to do the most damage to whatever it hits, it needs to convert a great deal of its velocity to energy very quickly. This is why bullets are built to expand in diameter, to 'mushroom' when they hit something. The bullet has done its job getting there as quickly as possible and now it has to stop spending energy flying and leave as much as it can at the target. Lots and lots of other variables for sure, but these are the basics. If an object can be counted on to accurately hit a target with enough velocity, and then to turn that velocity into an appropriate amount of destructive energy, I don't really care what that object is made of. I'd be happy with bullets made from parts of politicians. Then again: not very accurate, will fall apart under the least bit of pressure. can't grasp the concept of 'down range', and will likely veer off on a tangent at the moment of truth. They are, however, exceedingly dense.

As Doc said above, you first have to put yourself where the deer will be. This means scouting,especially before the season. Once you've found a promising location, basic woodsmanship skills play a big part. Are you actually being as still and quiet as you want/need to be? Constantly jerking your head around at every little noise you hear is a natural human reaction that has to be consciously unlearned. If you find that you can't sit still for any length of time, I would recommend a ground blind. Are you paying attention to your scent and where it's going in the woods. Even a slight breeze at your back is generally a bad thing, whether you're on stand or walking in to the stand location. You have to respect a deer's nose. He can tell what you had for breakfast before you even get out of your car. In general, keep the wind in your face at all times. Be confident and keep a positive mental attitude. Sounds silly, but you can't walk into the woods thinking that you're wasting your time. You've worked at finding a good spot and honing your woodsmanship and shooting skills, now go out there with a can-do attitude. Your time will come. Best of luck.