wolc123

Who are we to complain about this ? NY has always been one of the richest states in the Country. Tis better to give than to receive. I am thankful that our governor has given us this golden opportunity to spread some of our hard-earned wealth amoung some of the less financially fortunate states. I’m really looking forward to visiting some of those little mom and pop gun shops in southern PA, MD, and VA over the next few years. At the same time, she has made it more difficult for criminals here to get ammunition for their guns. She should consider running for national office. The country is badly in need of such a forward thinking leader with a proven track record of results.

No problem reusing the sabots and bullets that you pushed thru. The ramrod doesn’t hurt them like the powder charge does when it goes off.

No rain in the forecast until noon today so I switched back to my favorite gutting knife: Still no deer in legal hours though. Must be too hot for then yet. They have definitely been working over the turnips pretty good back here in the middle of the night:

Last Holiday season, wet powder cost me a doe. My neighbor was out hunting the same blizzard that morning and it cost him the biggest buck he ever saw on New Year’s Day. He still brings that up almost every time I see him.

See prior post

Depends, do you feel lucky ? If you have a removable breech plug, I would recommend removing that and pushing them out. You can save them for later use on the target range. For hunting, I would prefer to know that my powder charge has not been compromised, with any moisture.

The knife was a Christmas present from my brother in law. He’s the main reason I’m still hunting so hard. I’ve got enough meat in our freezer for my own immediate family, but I’d love to get another one mostly for him. He makes the best jerky from grind using 1/2 venison and 1/2 beef. He does not hunt but he does raise beef cattle. I feel especially obligated to try and get him some more ground venison because he also gave me about 5 pounds of that premium 50/50 mix jerky as a birthday present. That likely used up most of the (6) packs of grind that I gave him earlier this year, to try and pay him back for the fresh “leftover” rr corn seed he recently gave me. I haven’t got to try much of that yet, but our (2) daughters have been devouring it. The hunting has been tough for me so far this Holiday season, mostly because of my lack of standing corn, warm conditions, and full moon. All of that seems to make the deer most active in the middle of the night. I’m trying to minimize the pressure on the approximate 100 acres of family land that I have sole access to hunt. There are a total of (11) stand locations so I’ll have to do at least (3) “repeat” hunts. I am only (4) hunts into the (14) I had planned for the week and no repeats yet. I’m hoping the heavy rains of the current stretch will wash away any traces of my presence in a few of those stands, so the later “repeat” hunts might be a little more effective than they would have been without the rain. I thought I was going to be able to avoid any “repeat” hunts this week, because I had planned on (3) down at my buddies southern tier camp. Those plans fell thru, when his aunt died and the wake got scheduled for the day we were to go. He also informed me that his rr corn crop also failed this year (my own old seed went bad -taking out mine), so those (3) hunts likely would not have been productive. He has not seen a deer on his place since opening day of gun when he was able to fill his only doe tag.

To prevent condensation issues, I would recommend leaving your ML outside in an unheated area, maybe locked in your garage or barn. Lots of hot/cold cycling is asking for problems. I leave mine out in my unheated pole barn and transport it in the unheated bed of my truck under the fiberglass cap. I can lock it up in both of those spots. I loaded on the first day of the earlier ML season, and I am confident it will fire on New Year’s Day. That process worked perfect for me on our first Holiday season two years ago. New Year’s Day hunt, 2022: As far as the finger condom goes, don’t take it off until you shoot it off. I learned that lesson the hard way last year. It works for snow also. I hunted the Christmas blizzard of 22 without it, and snow got into my muzzle. That melted inside the barrel and dampened my powder charge, saving the life of a big doe on December 26.

I got to use that knife tonight, but not in the way I wanted to. My hands got cold and I used it to open up a pack and get a fresh hand warmer.

No, not one bit. There are no laws against it.

I was just the slightest bit relieved that no deer showed up today. I’d prefer not to have to fire up my deer fridge in late December to properly age a carcass. The forecast is showing no more 50’s in the forecast after today. It looks like good, skin-on hanging weather, in our insulated garage, for the rest of the Holiday season.

We usually take at least one out of state road trip a year. I’ve got plenty of deer ammo now, but I’m planning on stocking up my .22 rimfire and .410 shotgun ammo supplies, down in southern PA, next summer. The further you get from the NY border, the better deals you can find.

I love the Woolrich outfit. My grandfather (on my mom’s side) was a pretty small guy. His old one fit me ok, until I outgrew it in my later teens. For 40 some years, I have been struggling with various other modern material bibs and jackets. All of them were bad, compared to the old Woolrich. I didn’t realize just how bad that modern stuff was, until I tried out this one that my wife got me from a friend of hers from work, whose father had recently passed away. Besides no longer fitting me, my grandpas old Woolrich stuff was very well used, when I inherited it. This “new” one seems to have been hardly used and it fits me just right (size 50 jacket while grandpas old one is a 40). All the button holes in grandpas were badly worn and most of the pockets had holes in them. I still have grandpas old one and maybe, if our daughters ever have boys, I’ll give it to one of them. It’s also a little moth-chewed along the lower edges of the jacket. I cut the sleeves off of another old one that my wife had found for me at an antique store (about size 45). It was a little too tight on the arms for me, but now works ok, as a vest. I used that wool vest, under my modern-material outer jackets, when it was rainy out. I’ll get her to patch the lower edge of grandpas old one, with that cutoff sleeve material from it(which I saved), if any grandkids ever want to wear it. She could probably also sew up the worn out button holes and holey pockets while she is at it. I grabbed that big knife today because it was new and stainless. I’m sure I’ll be missing my Shrade Sharpfinger and its little notched “belly opener”, if I need to gut one with it. As big as it is, it’s still lighter to carry than my other stainless Gerber hunting knife. I’ll probably change out to that one for the rest of the rainy days this week. I don’t like its heft, but it has a waterproof nylon sheath, and a belly opener notch.

The new binocular harness is pretty sweet. Hopefully, I’ll get to try out one of my other Christmas/birthday presents later today. Now this is a Knife:

There’s no need for that, He’s just got to learn to work that lever a little faster on the original and maybe replace the oem one with a “big-loop” upgrade:

Mayden voyage for it tomorrow on opening day of Holliday ML season. My brother in law got me a big old Bowie style knife that I’m going to bring along too.

Heck of a nice day for Jesus’s and my birthday. It feels like 70 degrees out in the sun. Great day for some target practice with the old Red Ryder. I killed the heck out of this Ruby red can. Ralphie ain’t got nothing on me. Santa was good to us this year. Our kids got a lot. I got plenty: a signed T-shirt from my favorite NCAA basketball star, plenty of socks and underwear, some WW 2 and Civil War books, a nice binocular harness, and a fine deer rack. It is about as symmetric of an 8 pointer as I have ever seen. At least it will be after I fix up the busted brow tine later this winter.

Happy birthday Jesus.

Happy birthday Jesus

My father in law has one of those large black Jet sleds up at his place in the mountains. Ive never used it on a deer, but it does work great for ice fishing. When I get out on the ice, I sometimes take everything out of it and stand it up in the flat end, for a windbreak. It is so big and bulky, that it seems like it would be tough to get into most of the spots that I’d need to drag deer out of. I did kill this heavy Adirondack buck down in a gully up there back in 2014, and there’s no way I could have got that sled in there. Manually dragging that one, about 100 yards through the thick brushy creek bottom to where I could get to it with an ATV, was as hard as I’ve ever worked for a deer in NY state. If I ever kill another bigger one down there, I’d probably break it down where it dropped, and just haul out the meat. You might want to consider that for your gully spot.

I always pack light. 3 ft of nylon rope and a butt-out tool work ok dragging, especially if there is a little snow. I have very rarely needed to drag one further than about 50 yards, to where I could get at it with a tractor, field-car or ATV. When I’m hunting the mountains, in areas without atv or tractor access, I try and do it mostly at higher elevations, such that the drag will be downhill. The farthest that I ever dragged a deer (when I was in my early thirties) was about 5 miles thru the Rocky Mountains. I’m in my late 50’s now, but in as good or better shape than I was back then. Staying in decent physical condition does not take that much effort, and it makes a lot of sense for more than just keeping the ability to drag out a deer carcass. If it’s getting harder for you to drag out a deer, consider getting yourself a stationary bike and/or a rowing machine and get yourself back into shape. If you’re so “stove-up” now, that you don’t think you could drag a 150 pound deer carcass out of a particular spot, you probably should not be venturing there alone for any reason, anyhow.

I’m thinking it is around 1924. I looked it up once by S/N. It was a special model made for youth trap shooting. It’s in decent shape, with the only noticeable defect being the opening break lever has been repaired by braising. It’s a very good shooter. I can’t recall ever missing a squirrel with it, and I also took a few rabbits with it. I definitely missed some clay birds, but not as many as I broke. I don’t think it will take 3” shells. I did tote it on a spring Turkey hunt once because it handles great in a blind, being so short. I wouldn’t shoot further than 20 yards at one of those, with 2-1/2” lead #4’s. If I could find some of those new TSS #9’s in 2-1/2”, I might try that again. The area around my in-laws place, up in the northern zone, seems to be rather infested with turkeys this year.

My grandfather, on my mom’s side, got my old Winchester single shot .410 for her when she was young. I think it was made in the early 1920’s. She never took to it, nor did her two sisters. They didn’t have any brothers, so no one used it much until I came along to liven up my Mom’s Christmas 59 years ago. Ive been shooting squirrels with it for over 40 years (since I turned 14). My most memorable one was that first or second year. Our neighbor, across the street, had an English walnut tree, and folks would come from all over for those and other garden produce, which they sold out by the road. He had a little roadside produce stand, that fit on the 3-point hitch of his 1951 Ford 8n (I later bought that tractor from his widow after he passed). The walnut tree was in the front yard and he parked the tractor and stand under its branches. One day after school, I was over there after the raiding squirrels and I shot one up near the top of the tree. My shot was aimed in a safe direction (away from the road), but the squirrel bounced around a bit on its fall, and landed right on that little stand, between baskets of produce, while there was a customer there shopping. I remember the old woman telling the somewhat shell shocked customer: “he’s been after that one for a long time”. My grandfather had quite a stash of 2-1/2” Remington #6’s, but I gave most of what I had left to my father in law. I mostly used my .22’s for squirrel hunting in later years, so those .410’s lasted me a long time. They have a squirrel issue around their bird feeders and he could rarely hit them with his .22. I let him borrow my single shot .410 for a year, and he bought an over and under double of his own last year. I used to be in a Winter trap league, before we had kids. We would always have a .410 shoot on one week each season. I bought #8’s for that. It was a real challenge with the full-choked .410. You had to get in the birds fast and shoot them close, because of such a tiny and light pattern, compared to the 12 ga. I got pretty good at that and usually finished first on our team on those weeks, while I rarely did so well with the 12 gauge, compared to our other shooters. To this day, I don’t think I ever shot a 24 with a 12 gauge, but I did shoot 4-5 25’s with the big gun. I might have broke 20 birds once or twice as my best scores with the .410, while most of the other guys were lucky if they broke 10. My average score with the 12 was low 20’s, and about mid-teens with the .410.

Well it sounds like there is definitely no law against bringing anmo into NY, from across state lines, for personal use. That means gov Hochul will be getting a small financial gift from me, to help make up for the sales tax revenue that she lost by forcing me to purchase my ammo out of state. It just don’t seem right, enjoying all the benefits of this fine state (world class scenery, fishing, hunting, and summer weather conditions) without paying my fair share. We will have to take the suv on that trip. The tyranny is getting kind of week on our Toyota minivan and I don’t think it will be up to hauling all that extra lead up and down them hills.

I carry a speed loader with (2) 50 gr T7 pellets and a sabot in my right pants pocket, along with (3) 209 primers. I can reload in under 15 seconds. I also carry (4) extra T7 pellets, (2) sabots, and (4) more 209 primers in a small plastic box inside my Fanny pack. I can only remember using more than (1) shot on one ML hunt, and that was probably not necessary. A double lunged doe started to get back up, after her initial fall, and I put her down with a neck shot. If I’m using the ML during gun season, I sometimes bring along a short 12 ga pump-action slug gun for follow up shots, and have taken a few “doubles” with that after dropping the first one with the ML.