adkbuck

Thats a nice rifle. Browning Abolts have Howa barrels and are very very accurate. My 270 Winchester A-bolt is a tack - driver. If you got a decent deal on it, the 7mm mag is a powerhouse. I'm pretty sure they will pay shipping costs. They should also be willing to get another one in 325 wsm.

The Hen's reproductive tract has sperm storage tubules which keep sperm viable for 10 weeks after impregnation. Hence they can start relaying eggs after a nesting failure without remating. Its natures way of insuring the propagation of the species when conditions are not ideal. Although we have fair bit of rain it has been interspersed sunshine and I hope we will have a good nesting and poulting season.

For the most accuracy for the dollar I would recommend either a Browning, Howa or Weatherby Vanguard in 30-06 or 270 Winchester bolt action rifle. They will all shoot around 1 MOA groups and come with garuantee for accuracy. The Weatherby's come with targets fired at 100 yards showing "out of the box" accuracy. If you think you will be hunting big game larger than deer and caribou go with the 30-06. I also have owned 30-30's built by both winchester and Marlin. I have been impressed by the 336 Marlin's accuracy. Although the groups are not as tight as they aforementioned bolt action rifles but still pretty good. As a cartridge the problem is the energy of the 30-30 drops rather off quickly over 100 or 150 yards. If you are going to do a lot of hunting in the deep woods and in mountain country where you make get the occasional long shot and want more power, flat trajectory all combined with fast handling consider the pump action 7600 Remingtons in 30-06 or 270. Their accuracy "out of the box" isn't as good as bolt actions but they are big medicine in mountain country. If you become a handloader you can develop loads give you groups that will rival bolt action rifles.

I agree with you Dave!

No tick problems for me. Hunting and Fishing Southern Onondaga County downsouth and Essex and Franklin County up North. Good advice on prevention.

Thanks you my friends, and all my fellow brother and sister vets. May our country always be free!!

Lets hope this nest and the hen that laid it and their bretheren survive and prosper! Impressed with your bird of a moth!

Congratuations on your good luck! Is it a model 8400? I've heard they are great rifles.

Gooseduster, I have fished Lake Ontario quite often during the last 6 years. While I routinely fished the finger lakes in smaller boats, I waited until I was able to get a bigger boat (currently a 20 foot starcraft) before fishing Lake Ontario. There's a big difference. That lake can get as rough as the Ocean in mighty short order. Those wind and waves will get your adrenaline going. In a 12 footer you are also susceptable to capsizing due to wakes of the larger boats and ocean going ships which will not and often cannot alter course to avoid putting you in their wake. Any wind over 12 or 13 mph will make it difficult to control a small boat even close to shore ounless the wind is coming from the shore. So I would think twice about going beyond the breakwater in all but the most calm conditions. Keep your life jacket on at all times even in the best of conditions.

A right handsome bird my friend. Bravo Zulu....... as we say in the Old Canoe Club.

I have a friend that does a lot of pork butts and ribs and swears by the Weber Performer charcoal fired grill. He is able to control temperature with it very well.

I have a Big Chief smoker and its a real nice little smoker. Very inexpensive as well. I have smoked salmon, venison sausage and smoked kielbasa and they all came out great. I have smoked up to about 35 or 40 pounds of salmon at a time. Does well.

Allblue, A rare 'n interestin' criiter. Nice picture of your bird and the youngin's. Congratulations!

Nice Job WNY Bowhunter. Looks like you shot the Grand Daddy of em all! Thanks for the very interesting documentation and pictures.

Jennifer, Thanks for the great safety recommendations and takiing safety afield seriously!

Powerful big photography Dave! I can remember a day when I was trolling a small lake with my canoe in the early season. I beached the canoe to staighten out a line that had become fouled. When I finished getting it squared away I looked up and their was our beloved national symbol with a 15-inch rainbow in his beak on a stump not 10 yards from me! The are spectacular.

In my experience, they roost just as the sun is on or going below the horizon.

Nice lookin' bird Uncle Nicky. Nice picture takin' too!

I would not hunt wild turkey without a full choke, I heartily recommend a super-full or turkey choke, lots of great screw-in models on the market. The wild turkey is too wonderful a resource to not be killed in an clean and humane manner. Pattern the gun and make sure your sighting system is dead-nuts on and you know how your pattern opnes up with increased range. They have to be hit in the head and neck for a clean kill. Don't shoot unless you are sure you will make lethal shot. Remember you want as few pellets in the body as possible to avoid wasting meat. I attached a pdf file that has a good summary of shotgun chokes and other useful shotgun info. For a good summary of turkey chokes check out: http://www.turkeyand...-shotgun-chokes shotgun_statistics.pdf

Another interesting facet of turkey biology is that once a hen is impregnated her body is able to store the semen for about two months so that if there is a nesting failure she can still produce viable eggs in the abscence of a gobbler.

Cabinboy, Sorry for the lack of bird activity this morning. That's a line I have heard quite a bit in these parts as well this season. Bird numbers are definitely down. Don't get discouraged as thety definitely will be moving around and a gobbler can show up very unexpectedly. On your scope, I have had bad luck with red dot scopes. They are fast but you always have to adjust them for the light conditions. I use two shotguns for turkeys, one has a hi-vis fiber optic peep sight mounted on the rib and the other has a Weaver 1-3X Variable which I keep on IX. The scope is very fast, has a large exit pupil (at 1X its almost 20mm) and a huge field of view. I have had great luck with both set-ups and I love the 1-3X weaver. Its a pretty inexpensive scope.

Cabinboy, Nice looking bird, good luck on #2.

Landwaz, Nice photo. It looks like you take your hunting seriously. Congrats! Thanks Deerthug.

Thanks Pav!

Like him or not, Uncle Ted is an outspoken defender of the basic American right to own a firearm and to hunt and fish. He is unabashedly anti-Obama, anti-socialist-power-hungry government. He was arrested not by Alaskan Fish and Game but by Federal Agents from the US Department of Justice (i.e. Holder and Obama's crew). The illegal and unjust "law" that "he violated" was that "you must stop hunting if you graze an animal with a non-lethal hit" is an affront to any hunter and wreaks of a bureaucratic anti-hunter mentality that is threat to us all. Obviously Obama's minions are out to get him silenced. No matter Ted's past (I served during Vietnam and yes I don't agree with everything Ted says) you have the give the man credit for having the courage to speak against our current powerful and unaccountable leftist government who bit by bit are eroding our constitutional rights as a cancer.