wolc123

Just use a fractional read tape measure, that should get you close enough:

You should be ok for a while yet, according to the basic survival “rule of 3’s”. Almost anyone, in any weather conditions, can go 3 seconds without thinking, 3 minutes without breathing, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food.

I thought about switching to bh209, but stuck with t7 and replenished my supply of that last year. Cleanup is no problem with t7, using Traditions foaming bore cleaner, and the 50 gr pellets are much more convenient to use than loose powder.

I haven’t been there in about 40 years, but that use to be the place to go for seafood.

Back to the good stuff:

Best neck roast I have ever had . 3.5 yr old 9-point, aged 9 days hanging hide-on in our insulated garage and vacuum-sealed prior to freezing. A frozen roast was placed in a programmable crockpot with potatoes and onions and a Ruby Red Kolsch this morning. 8 hours on low then “keep warm” for 2 hours. The best part is, that buck made two of those roasts, so we get to do this again. Plus there is leftovers from the first one for lunch at work tomorrow and more for another “special” meal later this week.

If you all strike out with those, I bet I could get them with my hand tied bucktail jigs. That is the only thing that I know bass will eat in a snowstorm:

That’s a very good idea, getting out there a few days early. It would have been nice for us to have done that, rather than arriving the evening before our first hunt, but we were limited on “vacation days” from work. (5) of us split up with two trucks (the locals, and the one we drove out there). One crew would go in from the top each day (long truck ride, short hike), and the other from the bottom (short truck ride, long hike). We alternated days hunting from both spots. We stayed in a condo near a big ski resort where the local worked as a maintenance mechanic. We got cheap “pre-ski-season” rates during big game rifle season. All the mule deer were killed by the bottom crew, but the elk that we saw were up high (and none had the required four points on a side). Had we killed anything up high, it would have been tougher, uphill drags to the truck. As mentioned, I didn’t care for the taste of the mule deer, but I know others have liked them, and I suppose the taste is highly dependent on when and where they are killed. The local, who we hunted with in Steamboat, doesn’t like them from that area anytime. He killed the biggest one when we were out there (a 6x 5 that had to be 3.5 or older), and gladly sent all of it home with us, not even wanting to keep a back strap for himself. We also brought back my buddy’s 2.5 year old 4x4 (which he had a shoulder mount made from), and my spike. We mixed all the meat together and split it up between (4) of us when we got home. For all I know, most of what I got might have came from that older buck. Maybe the spike would have tasted better. Hopefully, you get into some elk. I have never heard a complaint of how they taste no matter how old they are or where or when they are killed. Being a pure meat hunter, I don’t know if I would ever be willing to kill another muley, based on taste alone. I also don’t care for the looks of their racks or shoulder mounts (elk are pretty nice looking though).

That’s pretty high. The first day will be the toughest, because you won’t yet be acclimated to the altitude. Combining that with overloading, makes for a double whammy, that will suck some fun out of the experience. How heavy is your rifle ? It would be worth the risk to go in light the first day, (maybe leave the spotting scope and other items that are not absolutely necessary). You could work your way up each day, carrying a little more weight. That would make your hunts more enjoyable, and increase your odds of success. I still vividly remember my first day hunting the Western mountains, and how I was thankful just to get back to the truck, with all the stuff I had carried in with me. I could have stumbled within 50 yards of a big 6 x 6 elk for all I know, and not even seen it through my steamed up glasses, as I was sucking wind. By the end of the week, and after loosing the “unessentials”, I was acclimated well enough to drag a gutted mule deer 5 miles out of some brutal terrain. That said, I’d never drag out another whole mule deer carcass, and most certainly not an elk. Cape it, cut off the meat, tie as much as you can carry to your pack frame, and make multiple trips if necessary. So yes, don’t leave your pack, just leave as much of the “extras” as you can, at least on the first day.

I went with (3) buddies, sadly just one is still alive. They had been out there many times previously and shared elk meat with me from those trips. They were all at least a few years older than me at the time. Their usual “pack horse” buddy couldn’t make that trip and they convinced me to go. They took me to 10,000 ft, on the first day. Their good buddy, who lived out there, drove us up “to the top” in his 4 x 4. That drive took a long time, going up all the switch-backs. I definitely remember that day being the second toughest, as far as being able to draw a breath. The worst, was the day I stupidly dragged the spike buck down alone (from about 9000 to 7000 ft ). I had walked up “to the hotspot” myself, from a lower trail head where we had parked the truck, early in the morning. I killed my mule deer on the last day that we hunted. Elk were our primary objective. The afternoon weather was warm and the Elk were still up high in the “dark timber”. None of us saw a legal bull on that trip, but we brought back (3) Muleys. (Elk needed 4 points on a side minimum on our $ 275 otc tags.). A mule deer needed just one point on the $ 125 tag. Earlier in the week, the other guys left their bucks, where they killed them, and got help to go back up and drag them down. Since it was our last hunting day, and my deer was smaller (maybe 150 lb field dressed), I let the other guys keep hunting elk, and I dragged it down myself. Thankfully, it was mostly a downhill drag, and the trail ran along fish creek most of the way. I drank at least 2 gallons of water from that creek on the drag down (after bouncing it around in my canteen a while with purification tablets). A few of the uphill stretches of the drag were especially brutal, and I started one small avalanche going downhill, when the bucks butt snagged on some boulders. It had got warm by the afternoon. I packed the carcass with snow when I was up high. One buddy couldn’t believe that I dragged it down alone. When he saw it lying next to the truck (I was too tuckered out from the drag to try and lift it into the bed by myself), in the late afternoon, he said “what, did you have an adrenaline rush or something”. Having aged considerably, and discovered the real beauty of “free” Adirondack deer hunting, there is no way in hell that I would pay more than $ 100 for another western hunt of any species. I am glad that I did it once when I was young. Without that, it would be easy to take for granted, just how good we have it (deer hunting) right here in the mountains of NY. Until you go out there, you don’t have a clue how much better it is in the Adirondacks, with about 5000 ft less of base elevation (cold hard fact), as well as better scenery and much better tasting deer (in my opinion). I’d say the western elk are almost tied with our whitetails in taste, but the muleys (post rut from that higher desert area) sucked on the table. The meat had the flavor of sage brush. Our buddy, who lives out there, loves coming back here for whitetails, but he feeds mule deer from his area to his dogs (when they have misbehaved). The elk from out there are very good though, and he shoots at least a cow every year. He must get sick of it eventually, because he always loved coming back to NY for some whitetail.

I usually plant wheat and clover together in early September and there is always older clover around those new “mixed” plots. I plant the fields in strips, so there will be straight older clover, young clover and wheat mix, and standing corn in the same fields. The deer are usually on the straight clover from late May until about Mid November. Once the first few gun season shots ring out, they move into standing corn or other thick cover by day. From then till mid May, they seem to like the wheat mix better than the straight clover, when they come out of the cover at dark. Like I said above, they were out 1/2 hour before sunset today. When we had the first good snow cover in early January, the tracks made it real easy to see that they liked the wheat the best: There was not a single track in the strip of straight clover in front of that pounded wheat/clover mix plot.

It was mostly downhill and a relatively small deer (1.5 year old spike). The uphill parts were tough, but the worst part was when a couple dogs devoured the young buck’s heart and liver that I had in a plastic bag. Surely you have heard that story before ? Most of the drag was down a public hiking trail that runs up to fish creek falls, near Steamboat Springs CO. When the two female hikers called off their dogs, they looked at the bloody carcass and said : “ewe , that’s gross”. I told them “I was trying to get Bambi to the vet but your dogs just ate his heart and liver “. Have you ever hunted at high altitude ? The higher you go, the tougher it gets to carry unneeded gear. Maybe Idaho is not as bad as CO in that respect. I carried way too much stuff on my first hunt out there only. You will find out what I mean on your first hunt if you haven’t been up high before. After that first hunt, I carried only the essentials in a Fanny pack. I rigged that with suspenders to distribute heavier loads and used string to roll up outer clothing layers as it got warmer. We were hunting a high desert area so rain gear was not ever needed.

This has been their favorite since January. They are starting to hit it about a half hour before sunset now:

I recommend leaving the backpack at camp and just carrying the essentials in a Fanny pack for day hunts. It don’t take too long at high altitude to learn that carrying extra stuff is not worth the extra exertion required. For water, I would go in with a one quart canteen of tap water (that is plenty for all day on unsuccessful hunts) and a small bottle of purification tablets. You will need gallons of water if you have to haul out meat. When I dragged a gutted mule deer carcass, 5 miles thru the Rocky’s by myself (dumb move) in my mid 30’s, I consumed about 2-3 gallons of water. Each time I emptied the canteen, I refilled it and added a purification tablet. They take a while to work but by the time I was thirsty, the tablets got the job done That was faster than stopping and filtering would have been. You can drag or haul while the tablets are working.

That part on the end on the right is a barge that is powered by a 10 hp Honda 4 stroke gas outboard and a min-Kota electric. The lake has a 10 hp max limit. We had a good view of the fireworks at the end of the lake, and drank some beer from it, the last few forth’s of July. It was too cold for cold Ruby reds up there this weekend, but I picked up a 12 on the way home ($10.39 in Brewerton). I will be bringing some up for Memorial Day for sure. I am also going to use one in the crock-pot with a neck roast next week. I need to find out how a mature buck neck roast cooked in Ruby red, compares to the button-buck butt roast that I did a last week, with a Spring Bock.

My 12 ft Sears rowboat got swamped at the dock early Friday afternoon, while I was napping in the in-laws lake house. I probably shouldn’t have left the stern facing the wind, when I noticed it increasing, as we were out working on getting the docks in place in the late morning. The boat contained the $ 5 Mariner electric outboard, that my mom got at an auction, My father in laws medium sized marine battery, a set of oars, two of my fishing rods, two small tackle boxes, needle nose pliers, a tape measure, a 5 gallon bucket, and a flotation cushion, at the time of submergence. I was rudely awakened from my nap by my daughter yelling: “dad your boat sunk”. She was taking a video of it. That was a little more entertaining, after i donned my waders and recovered all the gear. I hooked a long chain to the bow line and my father in law pulled it out of the lake with his tractor. The picture was taken when I had all the recovered gear out and drying on shore. He was worried about his battery, because it was completely submerged for over an hour. Fortunately, it and everything else still worked good this morning. I was surprised that the 50ish year old foam “upright and level” floatation in that old Sears row boat still worked.

Our youngest is out in SanDiego CA having a surfing lesson right now, while the rest of us are up on the Adirondack winter wonderland, at her grandparents place:

Is the freezer shot ? I have heard that new ones will pay for themselves in electric cost savings, but I am not so sure on the dependability, compared to the older ones.

I could not find the perch again. Just this one 16” “snowmouth” bass. I had to pull the plug on the fishing before hypothermia set in. That might be the first open-water bass that I have caught while it was snowing. It didn’t fight as hard today as the ones that size did yesterday morning. It was pretty out there with the snow, but not too comfortable. Hopefully, it will be a bit warmer, the next time we come up here (Memorial day weekend). The $5 electric motor worked very good this morning. I probably could have stayed out longer, if I had used the oars, and generated a little more body heat.

I tried for perch this morning but only caught smallmouth (about a dozen). This 19 incher was the longest. Several, in the 16” range, put up very good fights for low 40’s water temperature. The wind picked up so much, that it swamped my small 12 ft rowboat, while it was tied to the dock. The 50 year old foam “upright floatation”, under the seats of that old Sears boat, still works. We pulled the boat out, full of water, with a long chain and my father in laws tractor. The docks and barge, that we just got into position before the wind picked up, handled the storm very well. My fishing stuff is drying out now. I might go back out a bit a sunset, since the wind has let up.

My pump shotgun experience includes a 1960’s 16 ga Ithaca model 37 featherlight (which I will never voluntarily part with), A mid 1970’s Remington 12 gauge 870 Wingmaster, that I owned for about 20 years, and a mid 1990’s Remington 12 gauge 870 Express. Several of my friends had/have Mossberg 500’s, which feel “chincy” in comparison. Several of them were held together with baling wire or welds. Most of them still work pretty well though. I like pump shotguns mostly because of their reliability in all weather conditions. I have never handled a smoother operating gun, of any action type, than my old Ithaca 37. All hand fitted, machined components made by skilled gunmakers is tough to beat. My brother has an early 1990’s 12 ga Ithaca model 37, which is not as smooth. By that time, the Ithaca 37 pump had “interchangeable parts”, but they gave up some of that “smoothness” to achieve that. Remington was able to keep most of the smoothness, and keep the parts interchangeable, with their 870 Wingmaster. I used one for trap shooting. It came with an 18” smoothbore deer barrel, with rifle sights. That barrel has brought down each of the 6 or 7 deer that I shot it at, and only one took more than one shot. Although I sold the Wingmaster, I kept the short barrel and I still use it on my Express, when weather conditions are not good for a scope. The first extra barrel that I bought for the Wingmaster was a 34” fixed full choke. That made for a crazy long gun, but it really shot a tight pattern. You could powder clays at 50 yards with it. I missed more than I should have in close though, so I sold it and got a 30” fixed full. That was just right for trap shooting and went with the gun when I sold it. Early in my career, I worked on a recoil absorbing system for shotguns and we bought two 870 Remington Express shotguns to test that system. One was modified with a slide mechanism in the stock and the other was unaltered. I kept that one when we finished the project. It felt just as smooth as my Wingmaster, so I sold that, when I quit shooting trap. I still have the 18” smoothbore rifle sight barrel and the original 28” screw in choke barrel for the Express. I killed my only turkey a few falls ago with that and an extra full choke. For a few years, I used a Hastings a paradox rifled barrel, with a cantilever scope mount, on the 870’s for deer hunting. That was a bust, and I missed a few, killed 4 or 5 (one was my only 10 point) and wounded one with it. Eventually, I determined that the point of aim would change with changing temperature, probably due to the cantilever scope mount. I traded that barrel in towards my T/c Omega. I used the 870 with short barrel for backup, during regular gun season (shotgun zone), for the Omega, and took several “doubles” with that pair over a span of about 10 years. Now I get by with a scoped “3 shot” rifled bolt action shotgun that is as accurate as the Omega but packs three shots, each with double the wallop of the Omega. It is much nicer carrying just one gun.

All catch and release of these bass that were caught “by accident” while I was trying for perch. I couldn’t find any of those this morning. There is a strong west wind blowing out there now. We got the docks straightened out and I put the motor on my father in law’s big party boat. The new waders that I brought up last fall worked good for that. If the wind lets up this evening, I will try fishing again.

First time out on the open water this year. I wanted to try out this electric motor that my mom got, along with some other fishing grear, for $ 5 at the auction at our family reunion. One of my cousins has a lodge up in Canada, and he always brings some type of old fishing gear. Patience is a virtue that I have very little of. Certainly not enough to fish on a windy day with an electric motor. It was ok, when it was calm early, but not so hot after the wind picked up. I was trying for brook trout and perch, but only smallmouth bass were biting. The 16 incher next to the motor was my first, and the 19 incher was the biggest, with about (10) more in between over the first two hours of daylight. All on a 1/8 oz brown bucktail jig. The biggest one didn’t fight all that hard, but the mid-sized ones pulled real good for water temp in the low 40’s. Way better than they did thru the ice, when I was up here in February. I tried fly casting a little bit early with a Royal coachmen, but no dice there. Lots of work to do getting the docks straightened out, but I may try fishing again at sunset if the wind lets up.

I finished splitting the cherry from Sunday this afternoon. It splits quite a bit tougher than ash. I wouldn’t want to do it manually. It made about 1-1/2 face cord. There is about that same amount of cherry still down in the woods over at my parents place, that I got to get in May. It will end up being in the middle of my wood stack, so hopefully it will get burnt during the coldest part of next winter. I will start out with ash and end with ash, which does not make quite as much heat. I usually go thru 6-8 face cords each winter. There is about 4-1/2 face cord cut and split an that stack now. I hope to have about 15 done by June 15. I like to try and stay two years ahead, but I have fallen behind lately, because of too much other stuff to do (new barn building and old barn dismantling).