wolc123

I guess we might find out after May 1st. I had to put two of those 3” 12’s into a hen to kill her a couple falls ago. I am think that the scoped 16 might be able to take out a tom this spring with one shot. Just a few more weeks to go and I am ready.

I sure as heck ain’t in it for the meat (even “farm raised” turkeys taste like dry cardboard to me) and I have already killed one with an extra full choke 12 ga & 3” #5 load, not finding much challenge in that. If I can punch one of my spring tags with that 16 gauge, then I will try for the other one with a crossbow. I am ok with limiting my maximum range to 25 yards. Part of the challenge is getting them in close. I think I did use that modified barrel for grouse one time, about 40 years ago, firing about 15 shots at about 10 birds and not so much as knocking a feather off of one of them. It is high time that I gave it another chance. The Weaver 1-1/2 power scope ought to help with a turkey. That gun, with it’s deerslayer barrel and that scope has never failed to put a deer that I have shot it at, into my freezer. All those missed grouse were with the bead sight on the modified barrel and one missed buck was with the open sights on the deerslayer barrel.

That is my plan.

I took the deck off the mower this morning and power washed the underside and removed the blades for sharpening. I will get the oil changed and get everything lubed up and ready if and when we get some rain. After lunch, I am going to try and patch up a few ruts, that I made with this bigger tractor when I moved snow piles off the end of the driveway that my daughter used last winter. I thought the ground was frozen, but apparently it was not. I picked up a bucket full of dirt from a pile, on my way back from the target range this morning. I will pack it into the ruts and throw down some grass seed. It looks like there is lots of rain in the forecast over the next week but none today or tomorrow.

I patterned the Ithaca 16 ga model 37 Featherlight with it’s modified choke barrel today. As far as I know, this may have been the first or second time that barrel was used. No scope adjustment was necessary, as the first few shots with big paper indicated that the shot pattern was well centered on the 1.5 Weaver scope’s point of aim at 25 yards. These Federal #4 high brass duck & pheasant loads came out on top, putting an average of 4 pellets into a 2.5” circle at that range, so they are what I am going with. There is (15) left in the box, so I should be good for a few years of turkey hunting. I will set my hen turkey decoy up about 20 yards from my blind and hope that a tom gets in closer than 25 yards. I tried various others including high and low brass Remington # 6’s, high brass Win #5’s, all of which averaged less pellets in the circle at that range. High brass # 7-1/2’s averaged 6 pellets in, but I don’t want to pick all them little lead pellets out of a turkey. Only the high brass Federal #2’s put no pellets in the circle at 25 yards. I will carry a few of those while hunting, in case a point blank “finisher” is needed.

I like that idea. I should have done it last year. It was dark, by the time I got the guts out of him, but I had half way decent snow. Back tracking would not have been overly difficult. Based on all the corn in his stomach, I have a pretty good idea of where he came from.

Your lacking the best one, an Ithaca model 37. Mine, in 16 ga weighs about 2/3 what my brothers 12 weighs and packs almost the same muzzle energy. That’s why it is such a hard kicker but you don’t even know you are carrying it most of the time. I like my dad’s Browning sweet 16 and it seems very well proportioned between a 12 and 20, much like my Ithaca pump. It might help explain why Remington went belly up if they made their 16 ga 870 weigh as much as their 12 ga.

I saw some new birdshot on shelves at Runnings 2 days ago and Swede seems interested on this thread. Do you like 16’s or do you prefer the 20’s ?

I always write the purchase date on the box of those and use the oldest ones first. I also carry a few mix/matched 12 ga sabots while hunting in case a finisher is needed.

There is something in them Ruby reds that makes them taste a lot better outside when the sun is shining. I am going to pick some up next time that I go to the market. Hopefully, there will be some sun out on the water over Easter weekend up in the Adirondacks. I am also going to try slow cooking a neck roast with one in the crockpot. The one I did with a Spring Bock a week ago was excellent, but that turned out to be a hind quarter roast, from a button buck. I don’t know if a half of a nine-Point neck with a Ruby red will be as good, but I will find out. If you do go thru Mobile on your way, the USS Alabama museum is worth a stop. It’s just past Felix’s fish camp, which is my favorite seafood place in the Southeast.

Hopefully, they have that early September gun season again this year, so I can start restocking the freezer with those. I have plenty of ammo now. Maybe I’ll try for one with my 16 gauge this year. A Hornady 12 gauge sst and .50 cal ML xtp’s were both good for one last season, but I am ready for a change. It might be 40 years, since I killed a bb with my 16. Since you brought up deer, I was glad to see that you wised up and got a .270 this year. That is an almost infinitely better deer round than a .243. If I were to pick up another deer rifle, it would be a toss up between one of those, or a .308.

I bet the trollers put a lot more hurtin on the walleyes than the spearers.

Ironically, it was a bee that cased a friend of mine to take the opposite stance on cabbed tractors. He will never own another one, after an unfortunate accident, which nearly totaled his. He was pulling a manure spreader down the road, when a bee somehow got into the cab. As he was swiping at it, he knocked down a can of ether that he kept in the cab, to assist in cold starts. It hit the floor, discharged and filled the cab with fumes. He lost control of the tractor snd rolled it into the ditch.

Do you regret your Biden vote at all right now ?

It is good to see the 16 gauge lincreasing popularity. I think it is the perfect sized shotgun, and definitely the best looking. 20 gauges look too thin, with those skinny little barrels, and 12’s look way to fat. The lines and proportions of a 16 gauge shotgun is just right. I admit some bias, because a 16 gauge was the first shotgun I ever hunted with. My dad used his browning sweet 16, while I carried his Ithaca, damascus barreled, 16 gauge double, that had a broken spring on one side. I used it as a single shot. I can’t recall killing any rabbits with it that first year after Christmas, when I turned 14. My grandfather passed away the next year, and he left me his Ithaca model 37, 16 gauge featherlight pump gun, and his J Stevens 16 ga double. That pair has accounted for more deer, rabbits, and grouse, than all of my other weapons combined. I have not killed a grouse with any other gauge of shotgun, but I did bag a couple with my dad’s sweet 16 Browning semi-auto, the only two times that I ever shot it.

The Red man is right, to expect a little from you, America.

Sounds like the natives are getting restless. I sure am glad they are not targeting the bass.

It could be poverty, worsened by the current “out of control” inflation, that is driving this. I don’t think the casino revenue is distributed to all of the native Americans. Those who are not getting a piece of that action might be driven to use other means of providing for their families. Is the hatchery on the reservation ? I would rather see them use the spear than the “square hook” (aka gill net) out on the lake because those don’t discriminate between fish species.

I am gearing up, just swapped out the “deerslayer” barrel for the modified choke, on my 16 gauge, Ithaca featherlight. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate for some range/patterning time this weekend. I looked at my ammo supply. I have high brass lead shot # 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7-1/2. I will dial it in with the 6’s at 25 yards (I have the most of those), then check the others. I only have a few of the # 5’s, which is what I used in 12 gauge, 3” from an extra-full choke on my only turkey, several falls ago. I am going to guess that I will use a # 6 for the first shot, a # 5 for the second, and follow those up with (3) # 4’s in the tube. I will bring along a couple # 2’s , in case a finisher is required.

Did you find that down there or bring it with you from home ? Have you hit Felix’s fish camp in Mobile ?

I used to love spearing suckers in the local creeks, up until they banned it, about 25 years ago. We would always wait for that first warm spring rain, to bring them up the creeks. The last time I went, I got my only double (two big lake-run suckers) with one jab. The lake-run suckers had a red stripe down the side. I speared only suckers and one carp. The carp run came later than the sucker run, and in much lower quantity. Their scales are like armor, compared to a sucker. I remember seeing a few northern pike, while spearing at night with lanterns, but they were very easy to identify and avoid. I can’t recall ever seeing a walleye or any other fish species. I mostly speared in Murder creek, in Erie county, but hit the shallows of Tonawanda creek on the Erie/Niagara border a few times. We would usually bury the suckers under apple trees for fertilizer, but my uncle would grind the meat and make fish patties from it. I never ate any. I don’t have a big problem with the native Americans spearing walleyes. Hopefully, they stay away from the bass. They probably will, because “bass are not very good eating” according to most folks.

You might want to keep checking Runnings (Lockport) for 16 ga slugs. There was a guy by the ammo shelves there today, who said they had some, the last time he was there, but they didn’t have any today. They had a few 25 round boxes of 16 ga birdshot, not sure what size. They still have a (2) box per day limit on ammo sales. They had a halfway decent selection. No 30/30 rifle ammo, so I picked up (2) boxes of 12 ga. , 2-3/4 oz, Hornady SST slugs. I was running low on those, but should be in decent shape now. They were going for $ 14.99 a box. Had I not found those 12 ga SST’s, then most of my shotgun hunting this year would have been with my 16 gauges. I am fairly well stocked with those slugs. I would be willing to trade 12 gauge, 2-3/4” Hornady SST’s, if you are interested, for 4/5 oz 16 ga Remington sluggers. I’ll give you (2) of those 16’s for each Hornady SST 12. I also have lesser quantities of Federal and Winchester 16 gauge slugs, if you would prefer those, for the same deal. I am in northern Erie county. PM me if you want to make a trade. My sluggers are maybe 18 years old, but they have been stored properly and are still working very well. This was the last one I fired (day after last Thanksgiving). This fella caught it for me in his rib cage:

Smart move on the larger, open station tractor with shuttle shift rather than the smaller one with HST. If my full time job was outside I wouldn’t mind a cab, but as long as I work full time in a climate controlled factory, you couldn’t pay me to own a cabbed tractor. I can’t wait to get “outside” on a tractor.

R1 tires are the way to go, unless you will be operating on pavement most of the time. R4 tires, that come on about 90 % of compact tractors, are far less effective on soft ground, mud, or snow.