cas

I've always liked and use the expression "I gave him the bad news."

Complain about recoil? How do you think the turkey feels!?!?

I can't find one gun that does everything. Every time I buy one, it stops being "the next one" and "the one most desired" and something else takes that spot. I've have a $44 red dot on my single shot 10ga for 25+ years now. Holding up to those 3 1/2" 10ga loads just fine. Helps that I only fire it once every few years those. Great guns to shoot, poor guns to carry IMO. Too fat to hand carry, you need to shoulder sling it, which is something I do not do nor want to. Mine's been the "oh yeah, I need to sell that" gun for about a decade now.

I like that option. I have a pair of camo Carhartts I use, along with a few real "hunting pants", but even those are not the silly paying for the name brands. I just can't see overthinking (and way over paying) for warm weather pants.

Guns wise, my interest is only in the traditional (or quasi) ones. Unfortunately I'm at the point where my eyes no longer agree with that. So while I can still shoot my traditional sighted guns at the range, with good light and/or glasses, it doesn't really work well in the woods. The reason I didn't take a small buck this season, last few legal minutes of shooting time, I just didn't feel confident in what I could see of the front sight to take the shot. One of the rifles I just bought is a Pedersoli Tryon, but someone had already put a tang sight and a fiber optic on it, so I could buy it without feeling bad about defiling the rifle. Still up in the air what to do with it It's a mid twist .50, but I bought it intending to have it re-bored to a slow round ball .58 (really wanted .62 but I don't think there's enough barrel). Of course I know I need to shoot it as is first before I do anything, it might be amazing as is and it wouldn't be right to change it without knowing first. Of course a bolt action rifle I ordered in the fall finally cam in, so the muzzle loaders kind of got put on hold. lol

Don't need anymore challenges? The whole idea is more challenges! I bought two more sidelocks this month, sure didn't need em, but what the heck. I hunted a muzzleloader season this year for the first time in ages. I swore them off because of all the walmart warriors I was running into. Did all my muzzleloader hunting during the regular gun season after that. But I took advantage of the "holiday hunt" this year and had a glorious time. Beautiful conditions. Hunted with my non-PC New Englander the whole time. Flintlock only came out for a quick photo.

Seen similar on at least two different women, mmm... "down yunder"

It would be cruel and unusual punishment to make someone live with me. For both of us.

After hunting, what I usually do is unpack the vehicle gradually over the course of many weeks. I bring it all in and stick it in the living room. Then over the coming weeks and months, I look at it and say "I really need to put all that away." Now here's the key. At some point, that changes to "Well I'm going to need a lot of that for turkey season in a few months." (If I'm planning on going for coyote in late winter/early spring, even better.) "Doesn't really make sense to put it away now." That gets me through mid June, where I start all over again. "Man, I really need to put all that away. But September IS only two months away...."

My father doesn't hunt much anymore, but he goes out briefly every year. He brings his single shot 12ga and his .308 each year, and never takes out the .308 The last slug gun I bought (didn't really need either, but nothing new there), I think I shot it once. Took it to the range to sight it in. Doing do so I decided it needed a better recoil pad. Took the gun apart and cut the stock for the thicker pad. That very night I learned the state had changed my zone to rifle. All these many years later, the gun is still disassembled and the stock has no pad. I need to finish it, because, well... I need to finish it. lol But I need to finish it so I can at least take it hunting once. I still have one of my grandfather's slug guns I've never fired. Every year I think about taking it to hunt with just because, but I don't because I still own a few rifles I've never hunted with. I will eventually though, much of where I hunt a rifle or shotgun or pistol, it really doesn't matter terrain/cover wise. My flintlock, I've hunted with a handful of times, but never in muzzle loader season. Now that I think about it, I have several shotguns I could deer hunt with that have never been and likely won't.

This is all good news, they should be easier to find now, just listen for the sniffling and the coughing.

I think in large part deer do what they normally do, when they normally do it. Whether the sun is shinning or not due to what season it is doesn't really matter to them. See a lot of deer in the late afternoons and evenings in the summer? Sure, but in December it would have been dark four and a half hours ago.

Shot my first woodchuck (with my mom of all people) when I was 9 or 10. First year deer hunting was at 16. So that's 42-43 years of hunting? Odd how youth and perception of time works. How the time between 9 and 16 still seems so much longer than between 16 now.

Weirdness. I went to a local NRA rah-rah BS event once. I was siting at the end of a row, with the last chair in the row empty. At some point during a speech, someone came and sat down next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I can see lots of motion, like he was rocking in his chair. Lots of hand motions, gesturing and waving, but no noise. This is really odd! So when I can do it as nonchalantly as possible, I look to my right to see what this strange person is doing. And when I do, I realize it's Wayne LaPierre! He was practicing his speach I guess, in his head. He wasn't speaking, wasn't making any noise, but he animated as all get out. lol Weird.

I bought one to try turkey hunting years ago, bring it every year, never try it. (for the flies) Mostly it's been used in my driveway, laying under cars.

Wondering who the pole manufacturer is? lol At one time I was told there were actually surprisingly few manufacturers of flag poles in the country. (when I briefly worked for one of them long long ago)

Step 1. Target illegal gun dealers, get media on board. Step 2. Make anyone who sells a gun an illegal gun dealer.

China could pretty much beat us without firing a shot. We got just a glimpse of reality with the covid shortages. Just imagine them shutting off the flow completely and for good.

Another case of New York feeling inadequate. Trying ever so hard to keep up with California. Think about the condors! Oh wait...

Maybe the 'yotes ate all the ones that gobble? In the "old days" (old meaning just a few years ago), I'd go out before sunrise and just stand in the yard. Then listen for the gobbles from the surrounding hills and decide which way to go. Often there would be two or three directions to choose from. Those days are gone. In all seriousness, sadly if I do the math of gobblers vs howls/yelps heard over the last three years it would be 1 to... hundreds?

No, it's the public's uninformed PERCEPTION of African trophy hunters that make us look bad. Someone paying many many many tens of thousands of dollars to a country's game commission to take an animal, money which goes towards conservation and protection of all the other animals,is decidedly NOT a bad thing. As a side off topic turn, for as few elephants as there are left in Africa, there are still too many elephants in Africa. (too many people, not too many elephants). Sadly they're their own worst enemy, remnants of another age. They reproduce slow (two year gestation), pretty much destroy/kill everything they eat, and are very inefficient at that. (75% of what they eat comes out the other end the same as it went in). So sadly as much as we may like having them around, there's really no place for them in a modern world inhabited by so many people.

Man that's some steep hill!

This is a topic I do not understand, mostly because of the conflicting information. Some people/websites say eat them before they flower (as in this thread). Others say after they bloom. Last year I steamed a whole bunch of their leafs (with some other vegetables), all picked from plants with full bloomed flowers, they were not bitter. This spring I picked some, all pre-flower and they were terribly bitter to to point of being uneatable. I'm starting to wonder what is fact and what is people's incorrect ideas. (I have no good answers)

Bought it, sucked all the value out of it, while mostly ignoring it. Now they want to sell the name and the rights, but nothing tangible. That may actually be a good thing for true T/C fans, maybe some small entity can buy it and start producing what made them great, instead of plastic bolt actions. Slim chances are better than none.

Warm weather or cold weather, toe socks. lol I bought a few pair of toe socks when I started working large shooting matches, walking all day long. My feet stayed dry and blister free. My feet are always drier and always cleaner at the end of the day when I wear them. I've had occasion to wear them for extending periods of time , work related "state of emergencies", where I ended up wearing them several days straight without being able to take them off. Yeah my feet still smelled, but my feet were miles less stinky and nasty than they would have been with regular socks. I have some regular toe socks, and in recent years have bought many pairs of these wool liners. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW7RHEY Turkey hunting in the spring I wear them under regular socks. Deer season I wear them under heavy wool socks. I have dozens of polypropylene sock liners that I never wear anymore since I started buying these. Warm, dry, clean, blister free. I've sold a bunch of hunters on them on shooting/hunting forums. (I get lots of PM with questions as no one wants to ask openly lol) Yes, your hunting buddies may laugh at you and will question your manhood, but they are great. lamo If they weren't a so expensive, and more importantly a big pain in the butt to put on compared to regular socks, I wouldn't wear anything else.