wolc123

You got lucky, if you depended on it during that “October storm” that I mentioned. I was down in Charleston SC for work when that one hit. It hit much harder, west of Rochester, closing the Buffalo airport and knocking out the power to the Erie county water pumping station. I changed my return flight to Rochester, and had been up for about 24 hours straight, when I rolled into our driveway in a car that I rented there. I would have been up another hour, had I drove over to my dads house to get his generator (he never lost power), but I depended on my water backup and hit the sack. When I woke up, about 8 hours later, the water was 4 ft deep in the basement, flooding and extinguishing two furnaces, the hot water heater, and our freezer (lost some fish but thankfully not much venison). Fortunately, everything worked when it dried out and I plugged it back in. I had a bunch of ammo under water. I checked one round from each box and they all fired. I had a similar issue, but a lot less flooding, with a battery backup pump. It just didn’t have the capacity to keep up, but that was before I reran the discharge line from our sump. Now, the average pump cycle time is way less than it was, during heavy rains. You will never convince me to get another water or battery backup sump pump. Frequent basement checks, a backup AC pump, a generator full of gas, and a clear sump discharge line, have permanently corrected most of my basement flooding issues.

I like the beer idea. I will try one with my last can of Spring Bock, next weekend. I got to make room for some Ruby red Kolch, which I just saw at the market, for $9.99 a 12. That tastes a lot better to me, after we get a little more sun. It looks like it will be a wile for that yet, based on the forecast.

Also one of my favorite cuts because they taste great, out of the crock pot, and making them saves a lot of butchering time, compared to trying to trim out all the neck meat. Our menu is set for this weekend, but I think I will pull one of the 3 left in the freezer out and toss it in the crockpot next weekend. I made (2) from my old buck last year, and another from my young buck on New Year’s Day. The one from last year’s young buck was terrific. My only worry about smoking, would be that they might get too dry. That would piss me off, because they are so good, out of the crockpot.

Regardless of the materials of construction, a water back up pump requires an certain pressure to function properly. A widespread power outage, such as the “October storm”, that I mentioned in my earlier post, may take out the power to the water pumping station , rendering your water backup pump less than useles. They are good for when your primary pump wears out I suppose. I sold mine cheap at a garage sale the spring after the October storm that flooded my basement. I’ll never own another water or battery backup sump pump. A false sense of security is far worse than no security.

I can’t take the heat. I don’t think I could even survive long in the summer in PA, let alone anyplace south of the Mason Dixon line. I feel sorry for those poor bastards that live year-round down there and deal with all the traffic. The hordes of southerners that I see, up in the Adirondacks, and on the St Lawrence river, over the summer really seem to bask in our almost Heavenly climate. The only weather I don’t like, in upstate NY, is March, but we are almost thru that now.

The crock isn’t big enough for both pumps (my backup pedestal pump is 3/4 hp). I rerouted the discharge line (2” pvc) and ran it out the back of the house, where it slopes away pretty good, and connected it to a drain tile that runs to the creek further out back. That has reduced the cycle times of the pump significantly, compared to when it was plumbed into a line that ran towards the road. I have tried various means of “backup” over the years, including a battery model that lacked the capacity to keep up with inflow. The one that screwed me the worst was a water backup, during the legendary “October storm”, about 16 years ago. That storm was so widespread, that it took out the power at the County pumping station on Lake Erie, which dropped city water pressure to a trickle. All that trickle of water did was add to my flooded basement. Having a spare, big AC pump, all set up and ready to go at all times, and a generator and plenty of gas available, and checking on the basement every day, has been working well since my last flood. The only time I worry about it at all now, is when I am away for a week up North for the early ML season. I call my wife each day then and ask her if she can hear the sump pump cycling from our bedroom. So far so good.

Our current sump pump is a Rigid 1/2 hp stainless steel submersible from Home Depot. They usually last me about 3-4 years and currently come with a 5 year warranty, that renews each time you bring one back. They stocked some other brand as their “premium” line for a while. I keep the box with the receipt in it on a shelf near the pump. They have never given me any trouble at the Home Depot return counter, when I brought in my worn out pumps. The first one actually came with a lifetime warranty. I have been running those for about 20 years. I keep a pedestal pump on standby for backup, for when the main submersible fails.

For me, the turkeys are mostly just an excuse to go visit my parents, who are getting up in years, and often need help with stuff and checking up on. lts also relaxing sitting in that comfortable blind for an hour or two and listening to the woods wake up. It also costs me a lot less money for gas to turkey hunt than it does to take my boat out fishing. If a hunk of dry cardboard shows up and offers me a shot, that’s just a nice bonus.

What is your usual point of aim on a turkey with that setup, when the shot offered is from the side, and from the front. I expect some of my turkey hunts will be with my crossbow and 125 gr NAP spitfire broadheads.

The USS Alabama museum in Mobile is pretty cool and relatively cheap. They have an SR-71 jet in the hanger section there, that I always wanted to see up close, and finally got the chance. As far as the government admits, that is still the fastest plane ever made. The Alabama battleship itself is ok, but the lower decks were not yet open to the public when I last saw it, a couple years ago. Work was in progress though, so maybe they are now. They have weapons and weapons platforms from all branches of the service on display there, mostly US stuff, but also some foreign.

Never been to New Orleans but there are a few places on the way that are very good. Hit O’roark’s in Gettysburg for some corn beef and cabbage for sure. If you drive thru Pasquagula MS, hit Bozos seafood, Felix’s fish camp in Mobile AL is very good also.

This is my tree-blind Brian. The platform is 48” square and 9 ft above the ground. It has a 3 ft high barnwood wall, so just my head is visible from the ground as I am seated on a padded swivel office chair. The wall makes a great gun rest. I killed a hen with my 12 gauge from a similar blind behind our place a few falls ago. I have tried calls a little in the spring but had no real success with them. I get a few answer gobbles but nothing shows and the spring before last, a big gobbler came in without making a sound and caught me by surprise so I couldn’t get off a shot. I will bring the call, but I hope I don’t need it on that clover plot. I am hoping that a gobbler or jake notices my decoy out there and gets within 30 yards. I will definitely use the calls from my pop up blind, on the back side of those woods, when I hunt that location. I need to use my crossbow back there though, because it is within 400 ft of some buildings owned by others. I saw a big gobbler fly down from a tree, after Christmas, while I was hunting the Holiday ML deer season back there (with my crossbow).

I plan on patterning that gun over the next few weeks, and establishing it’s effective range. Depending on how it goes, my first shot at a bird will be with a high brass, lead, #7-1/2 or 6, and the other (4) in the tube will be #4’s, hopefully to be used as “finishers” from in close if needed. Or follow up shots if the first don’t connect. It sounds like my range for the first shot might be 30 yards or so. My current plan, is to set my hen decoy in the clover plot, about 20 yards from my tree blind before sunrise, and not call at all. If no birds come out , after a half hour or so of sunlight, then I may try a few soft yelps, then shut up for another half hour. I prefer the “pure ambush”, so they have no clue where or when my shot is coming. That’s the way I killed a hen a few falls ago. I had a similar plan last spring, but the turkeys stopped feeding in that clover plot about a week before the season opened then, and I never saw or heard one in 3 or for hunts over there. Maybe that was fortunate, since I was armed with my .410, because my 870 12 gauge was too long for my pop-up blind. This year, I have a nice roomy tree-blind, so I won’t suffer from that limitation . I also frost seeded some more clover last weekend, so hopefully, that plot will hold the flock a little longer.

That would be a perfect gun for me to carry, when I am checking the traps in my corn in the late summer and early fall. I carry my Ruger 10/22, but I got to go back to the house for a shotgun, when I catch a skunk.

The only autoloader shotgun , that I have ever fired, was my Dad’s Recoil operated Browning sweet 16, and I only shot it twice. We were hunting a friends deer camp one opening weekend, about 35 years ago, back when deer season opened on Monday. We got to camp on Saturday evening. Sunday morning, a couple of my younger buddies and I went back to check on our stands, and dad let me carry his Browning, in case I ran across any grouse. My scoped Ithaca deerslayer wouldn’t have been so good for that. Sure enough, I saw two and shot both, just as they disappeared into the leaves. My buddies heard the shots, and were surprised when I showed them the two dead grouse. That gun fit me real well, but I never fired it again. Nobody saw any deer the next morning, and a few of the older guys blamed me for scaring them all off, by shooting them two grouse. We didn’t get invited back to that camp for quite a while. Those grouse sure were tasty though. On Thanksgiving of that year, I killed a big 9 pointer, on our farm. My dads buddy and one of his other friends were standing out in front of their barn down the road, when I drove by with it in the back of my pickup. I pulled in so they could check it out.

Not a real big trout guy, but I am wanting to try for some Brookies, up at my in-laws in the Adirondacks, on Easter weekend. I heard that they are very good eating, and I am eager to try some. The lake up there was recently stocked with some good sized ones. They had to put in bigger ones so they didn’t get wiped out by the bass. It was too miserable on the ice last month for me to try very hard for them, so I can’t wait to try on the open water.

Having mostly used shotguns , It always amazes me when anyone even mentions recoil concerns with any center-fire rifle or pistol. it was a big eye opener for me , when I fired my neighbor’s Ruger #1 .458 win mag a few times. The recoil of that thing was nothing compared to my 16 ga Ithaca featherlight. My Ruger 77 30/06 is fairly heavy and it’s recoil seems comparable to my .410. I also thought that the recoil of my buddies .44 magnum pistol was almost negligible, compared to the time I tried a pistol grip on my short barreled Remington 870 12 ga. My wrist was sore for weeks after firing a few slugs with that.

I am going to use the hardest kicking gun that I own for turkey hunting this year, my Ithaca 16 gage featherlight. I have not noticed the kick from it, when shooting at game, but I sure have on the target range. I usually use a pin-on recoil pad for that, which tames it very well. It kicks so hard, because it is extremely light, basically built on a 20 gauge action, but it fires shells nearly equivalent to 12 gauge loadings. I like it most because it has killed everything that I have shot it at, since I put the 1.5 Weaver scope on it 40 years ago. I also like that it is so light, that it is hardly noticeable to carry. An extra bonus these days, is that I have a nearly inexhaustible supply of ammo for it. I am looking forward to getting some use out of my “hardly used” modified choke bird barrel for turkeys this year. That 1.5 Weaver scope should be kick-ass for that, having always put the slugs almost exactly where I wanted them, on dozens of deer, in the 10-40 yard range. It surely ought to be able to center a shot pattern, right on a turkey’s head and neck.

Sometimes there’s more to it than simple math. I think my odds of a quick clean kill would be considerably higher, with my scoped 16 gauge and modified choke, than it would be with my single bead 12 gauge, with extra full choke. I don’t really owe the turkeys anything, but they owe me for the clover they have been eating that I intend for the deer. I don’t want to wound one though, nor do I want to spend any money on ammo, therefore the 16 gauge is what I will use. I am sorry if your feelings get hurt by my not heeding your advice.

Thanks Pygmy, I am glad I hung onto that barrel. It is S/N matched to the rest of the gun. Apparently, they were hand fitted back then, and not easily interchangeable with other recievers. At least that’s what they told me at Johnson’s when I tried to trade it for something else that I thought I might actually use.

I’ll get on that as soon as the weather breaks. There is a roll of 36” paper back in the blind on my range. When it gets dry enough, I’ll drive back there with the Ithaca 37 and modified barrel and see what it can do at 15 to 30 yards with various loads. I am hoping that I won’t have to adjust the scope too much to center the pattern. I really like the old Weaver 1.5, and that combo (with a cylinder bore deerslayer barrel and slugs) has never failed to kill a deer that I have shot it at from ranges of 15 to 120 yards.

What do you turkey experts think of a 16 ga with modified choke and 2-3/4” lead shot for turkeys ? Ought to be about the same payload as a 20 ga 3” which I hear some are using.

You just gave me an idea Otto. My grandpa’s old 16ga Ithaca model 37 pump has bottom eject and a tapped receiver with a Weaver 1.5x scope. It has a cylinder bore deerslayer barrel on it now, but I also have an unused, 26” modified-choke barrel for it. Pygmy wants me to use my 12 Gauge Remington 870 for turkeys, but I wanted to try my .410 Winchester single shot. Maybe I will compromise, and use the 16 gauge, for the first one anyhow. A big advantage there, is that I have a bunch of ammo for it (boxes of high-brass lead 7.5’s, 6’s, 4’s, and 2’s). I also have lots of slugs for it, so getting it sighted back in for deer after turkey season is no issue. it’s about time to pull that slug barrel and give it a good inspection anyhow. I killed a nice buck with it, out of my new tree blind on grandpa’s old farm last year, so maybe I can kill a turkey from that same blind with it this spring. It will be fun patterning it, with that scope, and maybe drawing some blood with the unused barrel. Hopefully, I won’t have to clean the snow off the scope lenses first, like I had to for the buck. Question for Buckmaster: What is you estimate on effective turkey kill range for scoped 26” modified-choke 16 gauge high-brass 2-3/4” lead and what shot size do you think would be best ? My guess is 25 yards with # 4’s.

I’ll set my decoy at 17 yards (right about where my clover seeder is) and I will be shooting from 12 ft up (platform is at 9’ with 3’ wall/gun rest), so gravity should help me a little.

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 ?