wolc123

I plan on keeping shots under 20 yards. Don’t you think # 6 high brass lead and full choke would do the trick from that range ?

Bill, if liked eating dry cardboard a little more, I could forget about the “sport” part, but I can’t. Turkeys are 98 % about the sport for me and 2% about the meat.

The main reason that I took that .410 last spring when I hunted from my pop-up over there, was it handled easier inside of it (my 12 gauge 870 with 28” barrel was too long). I also read of many on here that prefer hunting with a 20 gauge. I didn’t get any shot opportunities with it then. I have also hunted other species of small game with that .410 for 34 years, and I am very confident with what I can do with it. I think my chances of wounding a bird would be considerably greater with my 12 gauge. Most importantly, I have already killed a turkey with that 12 gauge and found very little “sport” in it. Add that all up, and it seems stupider for me to use the 12. That said, I will consider it since I will be hunting that spot from my open-topped tree blind this year, which does not have the tight-space issues that the pop-up blind has. Maybe I will flip a coin and let that decide if I will go for my first spring Tom with the 12. I also have (2) crossbow options for the pop up blind but there is no doubt I will use my Barnett Recruit there. It handles way easier than my front-heavy, much wider and longer Centerpoint sniper. If I do manage to kill a Tom with my .410 out in the field, I may try for the second one from that tree blind, with my Sniper crossbow. I designed that tree blind specifically for that crossbow. I’d like to use a turkey “for target practice” from it, before I risk a shot on a far more valuable (to me) deer.

I have not killed a spring tom yet, but I am going to try both a field and woods this year, over at my folks place. They have been watching a flock over there, feeding out on a clover plot, almost every day. Plan A is to set my hen decoy out in that plot 45 minutes before sunrise, 15 yards from the tree blind that I killed 3 bucks out of over the last 5 months. I am hope to pop a Tom from that nice comfy padded chair, with my single shot .410, using a 2-1/2” #6 Remington express cartridge. In like deer hunting, where meat is my biggest priority, I am only in this bird game for the sport. It seems too easy to kill a turkey with a 12 gauge pump gun and a 3” cartridge, based on a fall hen turkey that I managed with that combo a few years ago. Plan B, or for my second bird, I am going to set my ground blind up in the woods back near my “trailer park” location. NY state setback laws won’t allow me to use a gun back there, since there are about 6 double-wides within 400 feet, and I only have permission from one of the owners (the one I park next to). The last time I deer hunted back there after Christmas, I saw a big Tom turkey fly down out of a tree. Hopefully, he is still there and I can get him with my crossbow. It is legal to use there and way more “sporting” to kill a turkey with a crossbow. I have not seen any signs of turkeys at home last year or this year, so I probably won’t even go out here unless I see or hear one. Two years ago I, I heard lots of gobbles and had one sneak in on my silent, in a field edge blind, and I never got a shot off. Those that I hear at home don’t come in to my calls, and that which came in, did not gobble. I don’t need no more of that.

Happy birthday Otto.

I did about 5 minutes of food-plotting this afternoon, frost seeding a couple pounds of clover over at my parent’s place . The deer and turkeys have been hitting this plot pretty hard lately. I seeded the front half today and I plan on disking up the back half, and putting in a wheat/clover mix, in Early September.

Thanks for the suggestion Bill. My wife and I watched it a few nights ago. I figured she would like it because she liked “gotta call Saul” and the lead was the same guy. I thought it was very entertaining, but quite far-fetched. It reminded me of the old cowboy and Indian movies, where none of the Indians is able to hit anything, with their guns or bows. Old Jim, from “Taxi”, and his shotgun, was my favorite part. I wonder if the writer was the same as “Breaking Bad”, and “Gotta call Saul” ? There were lots of similarities. They really hit the Russian mob hard in that move (like the Indians in the old westerns or the Mexican cartel in “Breaking bad”), so it probably gets really good ratings, since the Ukrainian invasion.

There is still hope for all of them. It seems that high gas prices have finally caused “the cook” to regret his Biden vote, based on his posting of a non-complimentary Biden picture on the political humor thread. All we need now is for VH, BM, and lefty to come to their senses.

Most of them, that don’t get hit by vehicles or killed by coyotes , probably end up getting killed by other hunters. They travel pretty far, after the local does get knocked up or killed. I love those “surprises”, when they show up unexpectedly. I am very thankful that the peak-rut travel period lines up with crossbow and gun seasons in NY.

Other species should be in other sections don’t you think ?

Sweet looking ride. Makes me want to get my summer Silverado out on the road. We got some heavy rain today, which hopefully washed most of the salt off of the roads. Maybe I’ll take it over to my folks place tomorrow, and top off the gas tank, now that it seems to be down a few cents.

I was really surprised how good it was. I liked the flavor of that beef heart better than most of the beef steak that I have had (I like venison steak better than beef steak most of the time, and ground venison way better than ground beef all of the time). I wonder if all the packs that he gave me were heart. They butchered 4 or 5 angus steers, at his dad’s place down in a West Virginia, a couple weeks ago. I really like pickled deer heart, but I might have to try doing one or two this way in the fall. If they open up crossbow for 55 plus on October 1, keep the September early antlerless gun season, and the Holiday ML season, then I should have a great shot at filling all (7) of my tags. That would give me a few extra hearts to experiment with.

No genny on tap ?

The main building is 36’ x 50’ with 12’ wall. It has (2) 10’ x 25’ porches, (1) of which I am eventually going to enclose, then add another 10’ x 25’ porch to the back of it (for firewood storage). My buddy put up the shell (Stockade building), in 2018, and I am finishing the interior (when I have time). This barn is replacing (2) 36’ x 46’ x 16’ barns that my great great grandfather built in 1883. I dismantled the one that was on the site of this barn, and repurposed much of the original post and beams and old American chestnut lumber for interior loft and shops. I am plugging away at dismantling the second old barn, and hope to be done with that by fall. The other one had to go, before I could build this new barn, but there is no great hurry, to get the second one down. The “18” , up inside the peak, is from great great grandpa’s old barn (that is still barely standing) and I tried to match the text with a jigsaw, to make the “20”. You can still see a little bit of the old “83” siding board stuck up there under the peak on the old barn.

As it turns out, what I thought was a 3 pound pack of beef liver was actually a slab of beef heart. I was all set up for liver, so I cooked it exactly as I do that: Rolled in spiced flour (cayenne pepper, etc) and fried in olive oil, with onions, done medium rare. I made just half of it, because I thought it could benefit from a weeks aging in the fridge, so I will make the rest next weekend. That’s the first time I have had non-pickled beef heart. It was pretty damn good. More flavor than beef steak, but same texture. It was so good, that I ate the whole pound and a half.

I worked on my boat a little bit this morning. I am wiring my pole barn, and it is stowed right under where I wanted an overhead light. Rather then try and move the boat, I set up an extension ladder inside of it. After lunch, I am going to get out on my camper (makes a great scaffold), and finish up the last high overhead light.

I cut one out, but I can’t recall how or if I cooked it. They are very small, compared to beef tongue, and I can always get that. I have quite a few friends and family, that raise beef cattle, and they always have plenty of spare “parts”. I am thawing out a big hunk of angus liver right now. I hope it’s ok, because my buddy froze it, the day it was killed. I traded him a pack of venison blackstrap and a pack of grind for it. It is best to age liver for 10-14 days, just like the rest of the carcass, to let rigor mortis pass. He gave me 3 vacuum sealed packages of liver, each about 3 pounds, and the split heart. I will fry up about half of a package today, and save the rest of that package in the fridge until next weekend, if it is tough.

I will probably be carrying it all of this season, because I seem to have misplaced the sheath for my sharpfinger.

I am not too fond of the 110’s either. They are tough to clean and don’t hold an edge so well. I have gutted 5 deer with mine (3 early ML does and 2 Adirondack bucks). It was a gift from my father in law. I feel obligated to use it, when I am hunting at his place. He got it for me at an antique store. He always checks to see that I am using it. As soon as I get home, I ditch it for my preferred Shrade sharpfinger. He is all smiles here, because I used “his” knife and he got to use his new tractor to haul her back from the woods:

I have a vacuum-sealed beef heart and two tongues in the freezer. Not sure what am going to do with them. The heart is cut in half, which I suppose makes it easier to vacuum seal, without trapping air. We had enough deer hearts this year, so my wife didn’t pickle the beef tongues for me on Valentine’s Day, like she usually does. Maybe I will try making a beef heart and tongue stew in the crockpot. Yum, doesn’t that sound good ? Do you have a recipe for the stew ?

Seems odd to put in that much nitrogen. I think fusion is a blend of clover and chicory. Clover fixes its own nitrogen (gets it for free from the air which is mostly made up of nitrogen), so I aways minimize or eliminate any nitrogen that I add with fertilizer to any clover plot.

Yes, all “8’s” hanging over our bar: 8 point buck, 48 lb coyote, 48” musky (they only had to be 44” to keep in the upper Niagara river then, now it’s 54”, but that was the longest I have ever caught), 38” northern pike, and 28” walleye. I killed them all, but only ate the buck. I wonder if taxidermists eat any of the fish that they mount ? I caught the pike and walleye by accident, while bass fishing. The musky was intentional, after we broke off 3 smaller ones on one of my favorite drifts, while trying for bass. I finally landed a 36 incher (on a 1/4 oz bucktail jig and 8 lb fluorocarbon line that was doubled up for the last foot). After landing that one, I switched to my heaviest rod , which was loaded with 14 lb test mono. I doubled up the last foot and tied on a 1/2 oz weedless, rubber-skirted bass jig, with a big rubber lizard trailer attached. The 48 incher hit that on our next drift. The muskies were on fire on the river like I have never seen, on that mid-summer weekday afternoon, about 20 years ago. I have caught at least one a year out there by accident every year since then and at least 10 years before, up until last year, when we didn’t land any. I suppose most of them have got weakened and swept over the falls by now, after having slime rubbed off of them by folks taking pictures and such. I try to handle them gently and release them unharmed, but I don’t particularly care for them. They are very stinky, but my biggest problem with them is what they do to the bass. One time, one came up and pulled a nice smallmouth off my line, while I was fishing in a bass tournament. I think they hit the bass pretty hard, based on my own personal observations.

Turkey buck (my skull size aging method indicates 3.5 yr old):

For sure they hang out together and provide mutual benefits regarding each others survival. The turkeys sense of smell is lacking and the deer’s eyes and ears ain’t all that great compared to the turkey. I killed one of my largest antlered bucks, right in the middle of a flock of turkeys. I was wearing orange camo that afternoon, as I sat up in my tree stand, about 10 ft above a patch of thick brush in the middle of the woods. Had not my Lord and Savior, pushed the Bible that I was reading at the time out of my hands, I never would have climbed down (gun loaded but safety on) 5 minutes before sunset. As soon as I reached the ground, the flock of turkeys landed in that brush patch. Then I saw the big buck’s head and neck pop out from behind a big tree, less than 15 yards away. He caught my 16 gauge slug at the base of his neck, with two minutes of legal light left. Had I stayed up in that tree until sunset, like I usually always did on opening day of gun season, those turkeys would have spotted my orange camo from a mile away. That wise old buck would have died somewhere else, sometime later. That wasn’t the first time that I saw deer and turkeys together, and I doubt it will be the last. That was the incident that proved to me that Jesus really does decide where every sparrow falls, just like it is written in the Good Book. Hunting, fishing and life in general has gotten way easier for me, since I figured that out.

Does this mean you now regret casting your vote for this guy ?