wildcat junkie

BTW: Max is my "one great dog" too. I feel that if a man has one dog as good as Max in his life, he is very fortunate. I'm sure your Springer holds the same place in your heart. I got him as a "freebie" just before Christmas in 2004. he was 15 months old. That "free" dog ended up costing me thousnd$ in equipment, flight pen material, birds & double barreled shotguns before it was over. For his own safety in case of having to spend a night in the woods, he lived in a 2 room insulated dog house before he retired. Headed Home after a hunt.

Habitat is the key. I had to keep feeders going to get birds to stay. If I could have afforded to develop some food plots, winter shelter & such they would have stuck around. Feeders suck because predators key in on them while food plots spread the birds around. Good habitat also reduces predator loss. If I didn't feed, the birds would migrate to the North for some reason. I would see them in the neighbors field, then on the road to the north picking grit, then no more. A (very) few would sitck around & they became quite wild. New York winter weather is nothing harsh to a Pheasant. They survive quite well in the wild in North Dakota for cripes sake. They are perfectly capable of surviving St Lawrence Valley winters if the have the proper shelter habitat. Freezing rain is death on them though. I saw wild birds frozen to the ground in Illinois back in the late '60s. I had my own Springer back then.

BTW: On that 100% success day, the clients missed several birds before they got the hang of it. Max made about 15 successful points that day for 8 birds harvested. There were also hold over birds so the 8 that were released may or may not have been harvested. I count 100% success as 1 bird harvested for every bird released. Some of he birds would survive for weeks, on a few occasions over a year on birds that I could identify as those that I hadn't released that season. A melanistc hen was an example of that & I heard roosters crow occasional for a few years after I quit. There were usually a few holdovers around after the season commenced.. Predators do get most of them, but the longer they survive, the better they get at avoiding predators. My birds knew what predarors were as I had to string a solar powered electric fence wire around the pen to keep coyotes out. I would often find their tracks in the snow around the pen. They soon learned not to get too close to the wire though. Hawks & owls would get some of them in the pen. They fly over to get the birds to flush, then they hit them when they are against the net. I would find severed heads & some feathers but no bodies. One Cooper's Hawk got its feet tangled up in the net & died there.

Read my post again. 70% was with my dog. Some client's that used their own dogs had 0% success & few much better. I only saw 2 "client" dogs that were able to "hunt" anything besides a food bowl. So just because your dog didn't recognize pheasant scent it was the birds' fault? Do you really think he would have done better on "wild" birds? My dog could scent & point wild grouse 40-50 yds away. It took me a while to realize that & circle farther ahead for the flush. On my birds I had to train the clients to stay at least even with the dog as it cast & quickly cut off the bird from 2 side to keep it from running & flush within range. Max would point the birds & hold as long as he could waiting for us to pin the bird down before repositioning himself if need be. He was a very good dog. At 11 years old, he is now retired & laying on the coach. I bought chicks of the the smaller "Kansas Ringneck" variety because they were explosive when they flushed & would fly much better than the bigger Mongolian birds which were like chickens. Some ill trained clients dogs would catch the big fat Mongolians. I never raised any more. My flight pen was located far away from the house or barn & there was only minimal contact as I feed & watered them every 5 to 6 days. It was also challenging to catch them with a large net even in the narrow confines of the pen and they had blinders on in the pen. Don't judge every preserve with what you may have experiened at another. I didn't run my preserve for profit & actually lost money. It was mainly done for my dog's benefit. I did everthing possible to have challenging flight characteristics from my birds.

I ran a licensed shooting preserve for 5 years on my place. I would raise & release about 100 Pheasant every year. They were released as paid for an hour or so before the hunts. We averaged about a 70% success rate over my Britany Max. It was this young man's 1st bird hunt & it was very satisfying to make it a success for him & his father. They had 100% success rate that day. With only 2 exceptions, over client's dogs, it wasn't nearly as good as far as birds released vs birds harvested. It's far from a sure thing & "canned hunt" is not a fair decription.

Ya know I never thought of it that way. Kinda like "lynching".

The 3 most expensive component were the stock, 3-position safety & the action in that order. The 3-position safety isn't necessary & it costs more than 3X that of a 2-position wing safety (which the action already had anyway) but I think it adds a lot to the user friendlness & class of the rifle. The same goes for a nice piece of wood. Here is a cut & paste from another thread on AR forums about the rifle. I don't have that much in it considering. $135 for the action $45 for the barrel $60 for Dennis Olsen's work $200 for the stock. $135 for the 3-position M-70 type safety Probably less than $100 for the rest of the sundry items. Less than $700 & lots of work. The only thing I "farmed out" was the barrel contour & crown. The Barrel was exceptional. No tool marks in the grooves & a polished chamber. It makes me wonder just where it came from. It torqued right up to minimal headspace & the throat is short. Seating the bullets for 3.060" cartridge OAL puts the ogive about .010"-.015" off the lands. I think its a "keeper". As you see it, it weighs about 7 1/2# including the 3-9X42 Kahles scope, Leupold rings & sling. As much as a new wood stocked "factory" rifle, but so much more satisfying IMO. "Something you don't see every day".

if a deer gets directly downwind of you, you're busted anyway, but reeking of gasoline would probably get you busted a few second quicker which might make all the difference in whether or not you get a chance for a shot. That being said the gas smell on the soles of your boots will also most likely tip off any deer that crosses your path. It would probably best to at least not gas up in your hunting boots.

I hang by the head. After the deer is dead & gutted here is little "pooling" of blood. That might not be true if the deer was immediately hung within a few minutes of the kill. Since it will usually be a hour to several hours after the kill before the deer is hung I don't think that it would be a factor. I like for the blood in the thorax cavity to drain out through the reamed butthole. Hung by the hind legs it collects in the neck unless the deer is split from stem to stern. I do like to skin them hanging from the rear hocks. It seems easier to me. Hang it any way you want.

And he calls me "crazy"!

My 2 cents worth? Get 150gr bullets in whichever brand you choose. Deer are lightly built animals & rapid expansion in the lungs trumps any ill perceived need for deep penetration. A pass through is nice for blood trails, but any energy that remains after the bullet passes through is wasted. Ideally, the bullet would pass through to create maximum blood trail & fall to the ground with all energy spent a short distance beyond the deer. 30/30 is a 150yd cartridge at best so lighter bullets will still have plenty of energy at those ranges. the LRs will retain more energy than the CLs at all ranges. The best of both worlds. rapid expansion & high ballistic coeffecient for energy retention. Energy increases at the square of the velocity so up to 150yds the higher Mv of the 150gr bullet will out perform the heavier bullets which retain more energy for longer shots.

I'm playing devils advocate here. Isn't sitting on the stand with a loaded weapon "pursuing game"? And yes hunting outside of legal hours is what i am talking about, not having a loaded weapon persee. And, as you say, many people do it so why not extend the hours as many other states have done to reduce the number of people that are breaking the law anyway? In the SZ or other places where extreme hunting pressure is what gets the deer moving, the extra 1/2 hour in the evening would have ittle affect on success. On my property which is subjected only to low pressure hunting by a few hunters, deer move more naturally. That last 1/2 hour of daylight can be your best chance to kill a mature buck. Sometimes, when they are rut crazed, they move at all times of the day. I killed a buck last year at 2:15 PM, this year at 3:30 PM. When they are cautious, they move during the last hour of daylight & the closer it gets to dark, the more likely they are to show up.

Of all the insanely ludacrous posts I have seen, stating that most hunting fatalities are intentional takes the cake. As far as penalties not being stiff enough. Criminally reckless homicide is not a slap on the wrist. It's no more or less severe than if one went out & killed someone with a motor vehicle under negligent circumstances. As it should be.

For the light hunting pressure up here there are still a lot of fatalities. At least 5 near my area from 1999 to 2007. It wouldn't surprise me that if hunter densities were taken into account, the number of fatalities in the NZ isn't as high or higher "per hunter hour" than in the SZ.

Just ignore him. He isn't worth responding to. It only excites his feeble brain.

Now I think you may have stumbled onto something. It makes perfect sense now.

The Yugos don't really have much collector value. As you stated, they were "late to the party" & there are lots of them that were unissued. Now, if the K98 is numbers matching, you might have something. Tell me about that one. Do the numbers all match? What are the markings on the front receiver ring? One other thing. All 98 mausers large or small ring have interchangable parts aside from items that vary in length like bolt bodies, firing pins. Even the extractors interchange. You can collect upgraded triggers, safeties. etc & they will work on any 98 Mauser you end up with for your "sporter". Scope bases will interchange between all large rings, but not small ring 98s of which there are few.. Of the small ring 98s, only the Mexican Mausers are sought after. They are small ring, small barrel shank thread. Other small ring 98s are large barrel shank thread & the front receiver rings are too thin to make them a good candidate for modern high pressure cartridges.

Here's some "post mortum" PIX to give some idea of the effectiveness of the 8X57 when loaded to "adult" pressure with a 200gr Speer Hot Core bullet.. Shot was straight on from about 90-100yds. 1st, the heart. After pulverizing the lungs, this is what it did to the liver on the way through. Wasn't much of a blood trail but then again, the pump wasn't functioning very well. It was a short walk to the dead deer.

Better yet, I'll see if i can get my sone to pose in camo, in the brush on that hillside with & witout a blaze orange hat. If you want to talk "nannie state" & oppressive regulation, I think it's bull$hit that I have to quit hunting during the very best times, when there's still plenty of light, because the state thinks I lack proper judgment. Seems far more "opressive" to me that requiring that I wear a blaze orange hat.

New York has an 80% voluntary BO usage, mostly in the SZ. Hardly anyone wears BO in the NZ, at least now where I live on the northen edge & even with low hunter densities there are fatalities. If hunter densities were taken into acount for the number of fatalities between SZ & NZ, it might be interesting. NOBODY wearing BO has been shot in New York during Big game season in the last 10 years. Therefore ALL of the shooting occurances have been to those not wearing BO. Bottom line. People screw up. I don't want to become a statistic because someone didn't see me.

I killed the biggest (weight) buck of my life in a steady rain on election day of 2004. 219# dressed, 46 1/4" around his chest. He had me patterned & had given me the slip for 3 years since I grazed his neck in 2001. But I stayed in the covered tri-pod stand hoping the rain would ease up. At about 10:10 AM he must nave figured I had gone back to the house as usual & went for a stroll. For some perspective, I stand 5'10 & weghed about 285# in that picture. Bottom line is that deer are in the woods rain or shine & they often move in the rain as long as it's not a downpour.

As in NONE in NT State during big game season over the last 10 years shot while wearing blaze orange. All of the shooting victims were not wearing blaze orange. http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/9186.html

Dimensionaly, the M48 Yugo is the same action as the VZ500 I used. Both are Yugoslavian "Intermediate Length" large ring 98 Mauser action. They're just a little too short for '06 length cartridges, but perfect for 8x57, 7X57 or any of the 57mm case variants like 6mm Rem or 257 Roberts. Also great for .308 based cartridges & it allows a little more leeway for cartridge OAL than Rem 700 short actions & their ilk.. Magazine box length for the M48/VZ500 is 3.235" with no room for expansion. K98 box length is 3.325" with room to expand to about 3.415" with the skilled use of nothing more than a mill file. If your Yugo has a good throat it would make a nice full stock sporter. Just weld on a bolt handle, mill down the rear bridge, D&T for scope bases & install a Beuhler safety. Once the sight sleeves are removed from the barrel, the rear sight portion can be tapered quite easily. Maybe a better butt plate for the stock & whittle away. I have a single stage trigger from the VZ500 action you could have as well as a Beuhler safety to get you started, Just pay the shipping which wouldn't amount to much. Here's the military stepped barrel with just the rear sight area tapered. Not a good picture, but if you look closely you might be able to make out the "steps".. For $60 + shipping Dennis Olsen of Montana will do my custom sweep radius contour. He has about a 1 week turn around. DO NOT have the steps turned out with a straight taper. you will end up with a noodle for a barrel that will shift impact when the barrel warms. Been there, done that.

I was getting excellent results with 200gr Partitions but I tried 200gr Speer Hot Cores because the Partitions are so expensive. The Hot Cores cost about 1/2 the price, they group every bit as good as the Partitions & at anything less than about 3000fps Mv, the Partitions aren't needed. When you run low on Partitions give the Hot Cores a try.

Your phone probably cost 2X as much as my camera.