Jaeger

Our group has 5 Tikka T3's. On fellow shoots a synthetic stainless in .270 and loves it. My hunting partner has a wood stocked T3 in .260 rem. and it is a tack driver (he would hunt with it but likes his sako .308 better). He also just got a heavy barrel stainless T3 in .204 to play with, love reloading. I have a T3 stainless lite in .204 for the same reason. My favorite Tikka is my T3 compact lite in .308 win. Its a blued gun with a 12 1/2" length of pull and a spacer to bring it out to 13 1/2". It is a tack driver with 168 Amax's and my hunting bullet a 165 grain Woodleigh. The shorter LOP helps my because of my size but I only used it in the late season where it really helps when wearing a lot of heavy clothes, helps get the full field of view through the scope in the late seasons. May try carrying it during begining of the northern zone rifle season. It weight 6 7/8 lbs. with a 2-7 redfield and mounts and will be a joy up and down in the Adirondack's.

I've read all four of Asbell's books, Instinctive Shooting, Instinctive Shooting II, Stalking and Still hunting and Advanced instinctive shooting. He also has a video/dvd that tracks and was produced at the same time as the first book. The 3 on instinctive shoot build on each other as he develops his theories of the hows and whys instinctive shooting works so well. Breaks down instinctive shooting very well. Highly recommended. The Stalking and Still hunting book will send tree stand hunters into fits!!HaHa It is also extreemly well written and a great read. G. Fred Asbell also gives an instinctive shooting clinic with Black Widow Bows in Missouri, see either of their web site. I went to it and it was the best weeks vacation I've ever had. If you love to read and love or want to shoot purely instinctively, they are in my humble opinion a must read.

Hi, my hunting partner and I use Muzzleloaders during the early northern zone season and in the late southern zone season. The early northern zone season lets us scout for the rifle season there and the late southern season helps us to try and fill all our tags. We love venison! Have a lot of steak and get sausage made. Give a lot of the sausage to the landowners as thanks. I try to bowhunt. I'm trying a crossbow this season so I can hunt that last 14 days of the archery season closer to home. I can give all sorts of reasons to "justify" the need to fill tags, but truth be told, I just love the excuse to spend all that extra time in the woods!!

Hi, I just recently purchased a Barnett Vengance cross bow with the reverse draw limbs, the limbs/cams mounted backwards. And yes, I bought it because I have to be different. My question is, the assembly looks a little off. The cables running from the cams pass through a slot in the front of the bow, but are slightly stressed against the upper surface of the slot and not free in the center of the slot. Also, the string that powers the bolt is about 1/4 inch above the flight track. I'm wondering if this is correct since everything I've read says to wax the flight track and my string is not hitting it. The store I bought it from assembled it so going back there probably won't help and Barnett customer service is almost impossible to get through to. Should the cables be centered in the slot and should the string ride closer to the flight track? It may be correct but it looks "off". Any advice from experianced xbow shooters would be appreciated.

I bought the gun because I loved my buddie's Black bear in .308 and wanted something slightly bigger in caliber in its' short action. I had to wait almost a year for one to come on the market. But, mated with a Vx-6 1-6, with a true open eyes 1power at the low end, is an almost perfect gun for our mountain hunting where shots are rarely over 150 -200 yds. Compact and hard hitting. And yes, factory ammo is hard to find and expensive. New brass is practically unavailabe at most vendors, Midway, etc. I do reload and settled on a 200 gr Woodleigh bullet. For brass, I purchase factory ammo. In my particular gun, it likes 200-210 gr bullets and hates 185's or 225's. It fits between the .308 and .358 (just as hard to find) and carries the inherent accuracy of the .308 family, .243, 260rem, 7mm-08, .308 and .358.

And again, I'm not trying to be eletist. I shoot longbows but I am not good enough to consider myself a great longbow shooter. The best vacation I ever had was when I went to the Black Widow Bow''s Instinctive shooting clinic in MO. given by G. Fred Asbell. We learned how and why to hold the recurve and longbow differently to make them shoot well.

Excellent statement. A "longbow" is a bow that has a straight grip and is shot with the heel (fleshy part) of the palm down on the handle. A "recurve bow" is generally considered a bow with a pistol grip handle that is shot with the bow balanced in the web of the hand between the thumb and fore finger, much like a compound bow. How the bow is placed on the handle of the bow changes thing greatly and how it is shot. The term "recurve" commonly refers to the type of limbs, straight limbs vs. recurved limbs. Many modern so called longbows are actually straight limbed recurves since they have a pistol grip handle and are held and shot like a compound, with the bow balanced in the web of the hand between the thumb and forefinger. An example of a recurve or curved limb longbow is Black Widow's PSR series, they have curved limbs but a straight grip and are shot exactly like a classic longbow, with the heel of the hand down on the full length of the grip. There is nothing delicate about shooting a longbow, it is not balanced between the thumb and forefinger like a compound. As Asbell puts it, you grip the full length of the grip of a longbow, grab and hold it hard, pull the string back and make it shoot where you want to or it will kick your can! Basically, a recurve has a pistol grip and curved limbs and is gripped between the thumb and forefinger and a longbow has a straight handle or grip and is gripped with the entire length of the shooting hand. Because of this it takes a lot more practice to become a longbow shooter. Hope this helps.

Hi, I'd like to get a feel for how many of you are longbow shooters? Traditional archery is coming back, and stick bow shooting is fast and fun. While instinctive shooting is used in both, recurve and longbow shooting is very different in how we hold and shoot the bow. Nothing delicate about shooting a longbow! Any other heel down longbow shooters out there? I shoot a 42lb Bighorn Bowhunting long bow and have a 29lb training longbow to practice form. (I'm not an elitest, I also shoot a 60lb Martin recurve, a 50lb Hoyt ram hunter compound and a new Barnett Vengence crossbow) But shooting a long bow is different, it's almost spiritual. I hunt quieter when I carry a long bow and feel more a part of the woods. Do any of you know what I'm talking about with the longbow?

I just got a new hunting rifle. It's a sako black bear in .338 Federal and shoots like a dream. Does anyone else hunt with a 338 fed? It's a .308 winchester necked up to .338 with a 200 +/_ grain bullet at about 2500 fps from my 20" barrel.

Hi, I'm new to this site and looking around it. I live in the Northern Catskill with my drahthaar Schatz and we hunt the Catskills and the Adirondacks. Basically, I hunt just about everthing and I was fortunate enough to get a lifetime everything license back when they were affordable! I look forward to participating on this site. Regards, Jaeger