stubborn1VT

You have my respect for your years of service. Best of luck in your retirement. Hope you make the most of it.

The Spankees have one less loss. Mathematically, you are correct. I'm okay with the Sox having already played those 4 games, and won 3. It's a grind. I'm glad both teams are competitive. I like that both teams are young. It's good for baseball. I still don't like "Dirty" Sanchez or "Spiker" Austin.

Between my own research, and some suggestions from Growalot, I mixed up my own seed blend. It is similar to WI Extreme. I haven't checked on it since the start of May. Now I'm curious. The chicory did well where I planted it in the woods. I wish I could work plots, now that it's dry enough. Work is insane right now. No fishing, no plot work, no rest for the wicked. That chicory looks good Cory. Hope the deer enjoy it. I came close to taking a tom out of my woods plot, but the hen led him away. It was cool to see him using the plot as his strut zone.

Touchy? If I want a 30-30, I will buy a 30-30. 400 yards is enough for me. You do know that numbers go up really high, so the deer killed with a 30-30 can be counted, right? The OP asked for the best caliber for the AR platform. The Blackout isn't it. If you want to limit yourself to 200 yards that's fine, but I think I'll shoot as far as I damn well please.

My buddy built an AR in 300 Blackout for his son. He likes it well enough, but it's a glorified 30-30 as far as I can tell. Not a long range caliber IMO.

I've had does spook at house cats before. The cat was out hunting the field edge and had that predator posture. Cleared the field. Kind of a PITA, but just a cat doing what cats do.

I may be in the market for a new hen decoy. It would have to be portable, packable, fairly realistic, and reasonably priced (cheap). Anyone have a favorite? I have had mixed results with decoys, and I'm usually a "run & gun" hunter. However, with the woods being so open this spring, it helps to give old Gobbleface something to look at. The foam decoy I'm using now is almost 20 years old, and has seen better days! What do you all use?

Good luck out there. I'm tagged out, and tired. Glad you and your daughter are out. Glad you aren't posting in Chinese.

Good food and better beers, but the Pig is spendy! Or maybe I'm just cheap.

Live from the Chinese laundry? Those bastids need to find a new hobby!

Despite his best efforts, my brother killed half a dozen fawns last year while mowing. He tried walking the fields before he mowed. It helped, but not enough. Last year was particularly bad because it was so wet and the first cut got mowed so late. He felt terrible. We're hoping he can get going earlier this year.

I went and "guided" my buddy's son. He's 19 and getting back into hunting. We got out at 4:30 and walked in on a roosted flock at the home farm. 3 toms and a bunch of hens in the flock. I could also hear 3 other toms hammering on the roost. I set him up behind a huge white pine and put an old decoy out 15 yards to his right. I backed up 25 yards and got down behind another pine. They were gobbling steady, but didn't hear them fly down. As soon as a tom gobbled on the ground, I gave them some soft talk on the old slate. I could see a line of hens headed down the snow machine trail, so I shut up until they were out of sight. I cut at them pretty aggressively and got them coming, then just scratched in the leaves. A couple of two year olds came to investigate. They were so busy trying to look for me behind the pine tree that they didn't even notice the decoy. He shot the first bird at 27 paces and floored him. His first regular season bird. 9" beard, 3/4" spurs. I was surprised. He only weighed 15.75 lbs. Is that what happens to toms during the "turkey rut"? He was pretty excited. Birds were still gobbling to the south, so we took a run at them. I called in a hen to less than 10 steps and she took off like a helicopter and that was the end of that setup. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I have ordered a replacement digital camera from the Amazon.

I ended up grafting some old varieties onto M111 rootstock. At this point, 50% of my grafts took. It could be better, but I learned quite a bit. The rootstock I ordered was quite a bit smaller than I expected, so I had to collect scion wood a second time. The day I grafted I ran outside and snipped off a piece of the Honeycrisp I got at Tractor Supply 3 years ago. It took! The other successful grafts were out of an old tree of unknown variety. Now I just have to nurse them for a year before I can plant them in the ground.

Woman: "Are you a doctor?" Wooly: "No ma'am, but I'll take a look at it for you!"

Hope you get close to one of those.

I can't wait to see what you come up with when you start taking it "seriously". You have enormous talent Wooly!

I cut into bite-sized chunks and marinate. Equal parts olive oil, soy sauce and maple syrup. Then I add black pepper, garlic, or diced ramps. It doesn't have to soak long. Fry in a pan for about 8 minutes. Serve with brown rice or stuffing. I have also started making "turkey fingers" with Oven Fry. Serve with fries or sweet potato fries and your choice of dipping sauces.

That's lame TF. Sorry about your luck. I sat on the porch again. Didn't hear a gobble, but did hear at least 4 rapid fire shots in the dark. Definitely shotguns. Definitely two shooters. I saw 3 toms in a pasture in that direction yesterday. I'm guessing everyone else saw them too...

You can always measure his chest. I hear there's a great tape for this from PA!

I might feel differently about chasing birds if I hadn't tagged a 2 year old on opening day. No camera, and he was wet. I'm really ready to be done just yet.

Bird gobbled plenty, but half mile up the valley on posted ground. I have tried calling birds across the posters, but they won't leave the beef pasture and come into the dangerous woods. Besides, they almost always have hens with them. I will leave them be for now, but check in on them later when they might be feeling a bit more desperate.

I had big plans to hunt, but at this point I will probably just take my coffee out on the porch and have a listen. Have to work later for some out-of-state folks. Good luck out there! Show Moog how it's done Dan! Mornin' TF. Hope the birds want to play this morning. Wonder how the gobblers are feeling after last night's thunderstorm.

I grafted 8 apple trees on to M111 rootstock about a week ago. Waiting to see if the grafts take. I don't know the variety of any of the trees I grafted, but they are all good producers from places that I hunt. None of them are crab apples. 1 is an old variety that was planted on the family farm before my grandfather bought the place. 1 is a yellow apple that is growing on the roadside. An old timer told me they make really good cider. 1 is a heavy producer of small, red apples. The people who planted them twenty years ago have since moved away. The last is a very old tree that is on my Mom's lawn. It produces huge apples, and I suspect it might be a Wolf River. We'll see if my grafts are successful. If so, I will plant them in pots and keep them in a nursery, then plant them this fall or the following spring. It's a long process, but hopefully it will be worth it. Why didn't I think of doing stuff like this twenty years ago?

I will go and glass on Monday evening. I do that partly to see what's around, but mostly so that people see my truck. I will hunt there even if I don't see any birds. Pretty sure I will be able to hear something on that hillside either way.

I went to the farm to drop off some firewood for my brother (there's still snow there) and to clear a food plot for a friend. We heard a tom while the saws weren't running, but I never saw a bird. Did some driving around and saw almost 20 deer, 3 woodchucks and a young bear. As soon as I left town, my buddy drove by the farm and saw 2 toms and 8 hens. I will be over there for opening day. I'm starting to think that buying a popup blind might be a good plan. I hate hunting out of them, but it would help me stay in the woods when it was too wet to work outside.