wolc123

Given the current supply issues with bh209, I would recommend going with pyrodex or t7 powder for the short term anyhow. Cleaning is no problem with those, using a foaming bore cleaner and a bore snake. T/C, CVA, Traditions and others all make good 50 cal in-lines. There are likely good deals to be had now, at the close of the season. Find a .50 cal that you and the kid like and work up a good load for it in the off season. I use a T/C omega, but I would probably go with something a little lighter (like a T/C encore) if I were shopping for one for a kid these days. There is barely any perceivable recoil from a ML, compared to a slug gun, so an average 12 year old could handle most of them and your scope should work fine.

It looks like it was about an hour and 15 minutes per a recent note that my wife must have added (see hand written recipe card on prior page). I have (3) deer hearts in the freezer now and will keep trying for another, until 20 minutes past sunset tomorrow. I also have a couple of beef tongues in the freezer that will go in the kettle.

I pulled the plug on the morning hunt at 11:00, with no deer seen. I think I will have much better odds of seeing one later this afternoon, back by the good corn.

That was just a brief passing shower. I put the snare drum back up and now it has just about stopped again. I was able to move the support up a few inches during the previous lull, so at least it’s not bumping my head anymore. The tree umbrella works pretty good in light winds, like we have today, but not so hot on windy days when the rain comes in sideways.

Maybe the nocturnal deer will come out early.

It stopped raining here, so I took the umbrella down, and still no deer.

I think I did finally manage to kill a deer from under my tree umbrella during the early ML season up north this year, but the rain had stopped by the time she offered up a shot. I will see if I can pop one from under the “snare drum” today. Good, steady rain falling right now. Keep you powder dry folks. Note the finger condom is in place.

Bass fishing to. Man I hope Heaven is like it is here in NY.

I got into my new front tree stand at home about 20 minutes before sunrise. Did not spook any deer on the short walk back . Plan is to stick it out here until 1:00, then go have a bowl of soup in the house. I don’t expect to see anything this morning as the closest corn plot is pretty well consumed but there is some decent winter wheat in shooting distance and this stand is very comfortable. I am more confident in the afternoon hunt here, when I will head to a centrally located stand that I have not used since the September early antlerless season. It is in range of a good corn plot and another field of winter wheat. I hope that I can get to it without spooking any deer, which happened on my last two attempts to hunt that area.

Add that to the fact that our current whitetail population is at or near an all time high, and it gets very clear why it is important for us to at least make an attempt to fill our tags. I am very glad I was born in NY, where tag filling is getting easier every year. It must suck for those folks in the states with growing hunter numbers and dwindling game populations. I feel sorry for the poor bastards.

If it is a half ton, then it’s probably the 5.3 liter. I am brand blind, and I think most anyone would be, if they were in my shoes. I bought my first new GM truck, because my dad worked there, so I got the employee discount. That was a 1988. I drove a used 1979 prior to that, which had been a “company truck”. There were a few more in between those, and the two 2000’s that we have now. I have used vehicle types other than pickups, as my daily drivers since about 2005, so I haven’t been able to wear those last two out. I never looked at another brand, since none of the GM’s gave me any serious trouble, and any other brand would have cost me more money. Some of my friends have Fords , and I don’t have any problems with them. I don’t have any experience with Dodge/Ram, other than the chassis on a motor home that my parents had with a 44O cu inch engine. It always made that characteristic Chysler “not today not today not today” sound when the starter was cranking. We listened to that quite a bit one night at a local ice cream shop, when the ballast resistor failed, and dad had to get his GMC pickup and tow it home. Fortunately, it always worked good on long trips.

I did not see any deer from the trailer park stand tonight, but my parents saw one come out at 4:30, into the clover plot that I had hunted over until 1:30. They couldn’t see any antlers but they said that it looked pretty big. I am thinking it was forky and not the bb. I wouldn’t have shot him yet anyhow, unless he had already dropped his little salad forks. I used my last vacation day today. If my buck tag makes it thru tomorrow’s paid hunting holiday at home, then it will be game on for forky, New Year’s Day afternoon, back over at my parents place. They want me to come back over and cut up a tree that is partially blocking a trail, so I will take care of that first. I will probably skip the early morning hunt on New Year’s Day, and do some late morning chainsaw work over there instead.

You are quite clueless. The only trucks that I ever bought were GMC and Chevy. I alternated between those for a few years. My first was a 1979 and the last 2 (still have) are 2000’s. None gave me a reason to even consider . another make. All but the last 2 had the 5.7 motor, which was good but I’ll take the 6.0’s I run now over those any day of the week and twice in Sunday’s. I have yet to be stranded somewhere by my pickups.

Nothing all morning. Late lunch with parents and up in trailer park stand with crossbow for the evening shift. New seat I made the other day fits good anyhow. Crossbow makes a good tape measure for straight measurements but won’t work for chest girth.

$ 30 to Amazon for a new # 12 blade and 3/16” screen was a good investment for me this year also. The old ones, that I had in it the last 20 years, plugged a few times last year but no troubles this year. Now if only I could get another to pass thru it.

I am going to try and stick it out, until about 1:30, so that I can at least say that I gave the “deerless” 10-2 period an honest attempt. Not even a squirrel has stirred since 9:57. I would have gone “deerless” last year without this grunt call. I had to “settle” for a 2.5 year old. I think the older ones are too educated for those.

I thought they were way overpriced when they first came out. I think I jumped in when the cost dropped to less than $ 5.

There is hope for all of them though.

I struggled a bit with mine, the first year I had it. Proper cleaning is very important, after every use. Fouling, from prior deer, prevents proper function on subsequent ones. Proper turning until engagement is also important. It gets easier to use, after you develop the “feel”. It also makes a good drag rope handle, after you clean the deer poop off of it, or to drag an un-gutted deer to a clearing before the regular “intended” usage.

Distant second:

Probably the most important reason to kill and give a deer away, that you don’t plan on eating, is to help manage the herd. I know you think you are pretty smart, but the DEC is staffed by professionals, who most likely know a lot better, what is best for the deer, and other people besides just hunters. Maybe you have not been personally touched by tragedy, but no animal has caused more harm to people, in the lower 48 , than the whitetail deer. A father was taken from his family, when one crashed thru the window of his delivery van, in my home town a few years ago. In the future, if enough hunters display your kind of selfishness , the DEC may find a better management tool than us hunters. Right now, we (some of us anyhow) are the best that they got. Now please, I beg you, get out there and do your part over the next 2.5 days. If you want to do it with cash, instead of meat, you can also give that thru the venison donation coalition, wherever licenses are sold.

They have both complained about too many pictures of it on here, so what you call a goad, I see as an apology in advance. I didn’t want to hurt those guys feelings any more than I already have. I thought I would try being extra nice to them, since I am feeling so blessed and peaceful out here today, enjoying the Holiday season. I guess it’s true what they say about no good deed going unpunished.

Not goading, I looked for a better pic of that truck, but that’s all I could find. Good luck with your new one. Maybe you or one of our resident photoshop experts could edit the little buck out of the picture ?

Man, if only my parent’s little forky would leave his little salad forks in the woods somewhere, and step out looking like that. I’d have a dmp tag for him, and I could get him set up on the same freezer shelf in deer Heaven where most of one of his little brothers currently resides: He would also be close to Grandpa, who is now taking up the whole lower section.