22Plinker

Not sure how many people here visit Three Rivers WMA be it for hunting or other activities, but those that do may have noticed what appears to be a major clearing of trees throughout the 3,000+ acres. I spoke with one of the conservation techs today and he gave me these maps and explained a little about what is going on. They are clearing most of the thin narrow tree-line field dividers opening them up to make more attractive habitat for grassland birds such as woodcock and grouse. At first I was concerned how this would affect deer hunting considering they cut down a dozen apple trees and cleared out seven of my bushcraft blinds. Map 0003-small has already been logged but not completed yet. Map 0004-small is set to begin in the fall and winter of 2017 (yes during hunting season!). As it was explained, any area where they are leaving shrubs they are going to make them thicker but keep them maintained free of wood growth. There is a plan to mow certain fields from summer to fall, but those plans will not be finalized until early July. I will update this when i get my hands on the mowing schedule. Land management also completed herbicide spraying along the western edge of map "0004-small" and they are considering planting food plots in those areas during the spring of 2018 after the logging has been completed. There is also an approved burn permit that will be put in place starting March of 2018 to more efficiently clear overgrown areas.

Chef and Wolc... come on now. Don't turn this simple thread into the playroom for a secret lovers quarel. Let's keep things on topic please. Love and laughs all around

All seriousness. He just called me a dick and packed his stuff up an left. Didn't even put the AR back in the box, just tossed it on the backseat of his truck. Left his brass all over the ground and the two empty plastic boxes on the bench. The handloads i was testing were a bit hot, pushing the 3100fps mark so the compensation at 50y and 250y was virtually zero. at 330 was about -6 inches. It was measuring just a hair under 3 inches low on paper targets at 300 yards. I have no doubt the guy probably thought he was helping, but just made an ass of himself.

Funny I just picked up a rangefinder at basspro last night. We stopped to get ice cream on the way home and I was doing the same thing. I surprised myself at how bad I was at judging distances... although I still haven't ruled out the rangefinder being broken

My 2012 RZR 800 with a plow doing the neighborhood driveways and my son in his 2011 TrailBoss lovingly renamed "SwampBoss" after he missed a turn and drove it down a 12 foot drop off into an irrigation creek.

So... I was at the range today with my .270, doing some consistency testing with different hand loads. A young man shows up with an out of the box AR and a very expensive bench rest setup and begins blowing through a box of 5.56 like it was candy. Then he opens another box and blows through most of that. After making swiss cheese out of his 100 yard targets he proceeds to come over and start giving me "advice". He starts off by telling me that I'm hitting too high and I should dial my scope down about 3 inches... to which i explain what I am doing and that i'm hitting about 2.5 inches high. This is normal since I am sighted in zero at 250 yards. He then begins to tell me i'm crazy that there is no need to have a zero so far away. Is ranting goes on for a good 10 minutes until I cut him off and explain that I have taken game from ranges 12 yards out to 300 and that I sight my gun in specific so that i can easily hit a target at any time between those ranges. "That's not hard, all you have to do is just hold over and under a little." is this guys amazing and brilliant advice. Now I'm starting to get more than just annoyed at this guy so i suggest if he is so great a shot (not so much from what his target looks like) that perhaps he would like a friendly competition. Two shots... 1 at 50 yards (1 inch orange dot) and one at the 6" 330 yard steel gong. No touching of the optics... just hold over the appropriate amount. I wish I had my go pro with me to film this part but I went first... Hit the edge of the orange dot at 50 and rang the gong at 330. He missed the 50 by about 2 inches to the left and hit the dirt low of the gong. He called me a dick, packed up his gear and left. Now I didn't tell this story because I am claiming to be an expert marksman or anything. I am just an ordinary guy who owns inexpensive rifles that likes to hunt. I consider myself an average shot at best. Rather its leading to asking advice from all you fine folks. My question is: Do you do anything to practice judging distances? My son and I have a couple "shooting games" we do when we go to the range together that I think not only helps us be more accurate shooters, but is also fun. The first we play HORSE. Just like the basketball game. When we are on the outdoor rimfire range, we take turns shooting at random things on the range. All legal targets, not things like target frames. "The light colored branch at the 125 yard bank... The dandelion to the left of the 75 yard range. It follows all the same functional rules as the basketball game and we play so the looser buys lunch. The goal is to be able to quickly identify and engage targets at different ranges. The second we play when shooting at the 50' indoor range. We place random sized pieces of green ribbon on the back wall...horizontal, diagonal and vertical. We then settle on small distances from 1 to 10 inches and a direction (4 inches from the left or 6 inches from the bottom). We do our shooting and then measure how close we were. The one who has the greatest error in distance buys lunch. The goal of this is to better estimate hold over and windage on the fly. Does anyone else do anything like this?

It's already ugly. I know of three guys that got tickets already this year for riding during hunting season. They were busted riding the canal between jordan and weedsport.

The rest of what i made is already in the freezer, so i don't have pics. This is based off my crockpot size (5qt) so adjust amounts to suit your slow cooker size. 2# cubed venison (small cubes preferred) 1.5 cups red potatoes (small cubes or baby potatoes) 1 cup chopped cellery 1.5 cups halved baby carrot 1 large tomato chopped 1 large sweet onion (half or a small onion will work depending on flavor preference) 3 tsp Italian spices 1.5 cups beef broth (squirrel broth works great if you hunt them too) 2.5 cups apple cider 1tsp cloves 2tsp minced garlic 1 small jar tomato sauce (pasta sauce or any red sauce will work) 1) Add veggies and beef broth to crockpot. Turn on High. 2) Brown venison with 1/2 cup of apple cider until cider burns off. Add seasoning to venison cubes towards the end. keep browning the venison after all the liquid is gone for a couple minutes to get a good sear. Don't worry if the meat sticks to the pan, we will be using this in the next step. Add the meat to the slow cooker and turn well. 3) Add 2 cups cider, cloves, red sauce and garlic to the pan you browned the meat int. Simmer for a few minutes or until you get a slow boil. Strain the liquid into the crockpot (to recover the cloves). If you want more garlic you can add garlic back to the cooker at this point. 4) Change slow cooker to Low and cook 5-6 hours.

not just shooting. Twice this year i had people scope me. I don't understand why hunters don't buy bino's. for the most part you get larger field of magnified vision with higher mag than a scope. Hell I carry a cheap pair of 10x that are small, light weight and work great.

vegetable venison soup. slight changes from my grandmothers recipe. apple cider is the key

two years ago I was in need of new boots because i tore a 3 in ch hole in my old pair on buried barbed wire. I picked up a pair of Red Head Expedition Ultra's at Bass Pro. Fairly inexpensive at $59 on sale ($99ish retail), 1000g thinsulate and 14 inches tall they work fantastic! Sitting in my blind at 13 degrees for 7 hours. Thin socks with heavy wool socks over them, my feet were sweating. I got mine 2 sizes larger which fit perfect with dual socks.

welcome to the board neighbor.

18 degrees yesterday and no wind. Never once put my gloves on. Today was 23 and perfect wind direction... was freezing my ass off less than an hour into the sit. Had to move my chair three times to find some relief from the blasted wind. Called it quits at 9:30, wind was just brutal. Good news is i secured nearly 2500 acres of farm land (3 different owners) for next year and it only cost me a backstrap from this years harvest

Filled a doe tag in 8f today and cut my finger while field dressing her. I think that first roast and pot of chili will be worth the wound though

I'll ship you some of the ones that were raising hell over here. Had a fat red that tried crawling into my blind twice. i got a good boot on him the second time. A monster grey and small black decided today was a good day to practice their MMA moves on each other. I swear that grey wa as big as my wifes cat!

Decided to call it early. Right from the get go today was just one bad thing after another. A large dead tree falling less than 6 feet in front of my blind was the final deciding factor to head home. Had a small branch from that tree come straight down through one of the blind windows. Fortunately the window was was open and the branch just stuck in the soft wet ground.

Been here since 6:13. Guys walks up to the opposite corner of the field I am on and plops down on a rock. I shine my flash lite and wave my orange hat. He waves back and still sits there less than 100 yards away. Then he raises his shotgun and scopes me!!! What a dink.

First shot at 6:40 not all that close to me. Just started snowing pretty good. Big flakes. Visibility reduced to just over 100 yards. Can barely see the edge of this field.

33F here in 7F. Feels like 20. Light sleet, can hear it pelting the fold up blind. No vehicles at either parking area near me, but it's still early. Heard an owl in my way in and think I spooked a coyote, just saw a small blur.

Had two hunters walk right in on my son and I today. One had a dog with him and crossed through the field across from me... covered 200+ yards straight towards me. Neither of them had orange. Find it hard to believe they didn't see my 250# Ass wearing orange vest and hat sitting on the edge of a brush line.

Main view this morning. 150 yards straight up the trail and 75-80 yard sight to either side down a creek bed. All sorts of shooting going on around this morning.

Pulled a double shift yesterday to get a three day weekend. Since it's the kids birthday tomorrow, figured I'd spend today in the woods

For those more experienced hunters, i value your opinion on how you think this weekends weather impacted deer movement... positive or negative. I ask because i studied maps, reports, videos etc and figured i picked two decent spots to set up my blinds. Saturday in the cold rain I saw two scrawny doe in the 5 hours in the woods. Today I saw nothing. Just curious if the weather had enough of an impact that the spots i picked out were good... just not in those conditions or if I should try another spot.

With the wind expected I thought briefly about packing my chainsaw just in case it was needed. I decided not to being state land I know you aren't supposed to damage trees. It sure would have been nice to have though. First pic is the tree 300 yards up from where I parked. Having that chainsaw would have been nice the second pic is about 15 yards from where I parked. As I was putting my gear away that sucker came crashing down. Glad I got out of there when I did. Trees are down all over the place in 6k.

One angle from my little blind this morning.