cas

My late "update", nuffin. Six days, didn't hear a gobble. (add that to the 12-14? days last year) I haven't heard a bird gobble since May 1, 2019. I did see a few hens three days in a row, but no company. Of course I saw birds all over the county, just not where I hunt.

We used to know a guy who would hang his hunting coat in the barn with the cows. I guess the deer were used to the smell. Him too.

Zero reason to do it anymore, especially today when we live in a world of basically dirt cheap, accurate, reliable rifles from several manufacturers. They aren't making any more surplus Enfield's or Mauser's and they will never be worth less than they are right now... unless you spend a couple hundred bucks to make them worth a couple hundred bucks less. (that don't make sense, ya know spending $250 to make a $500 worth $225. What you're losing is about what a Ruger America, or Savage Axis, Howa Hogue, T/C Compass, Icon or Venture costs)

Caliber doesn't effect recoil* I'm seeing lots of confusing suggestions here. Guys are suggesting 300gr .45 bullets. They are going to recoil MORE than say a 173gr .50 cal round ball would or a 220 grain .54 cal round ball. If you're concerned about recoil, use loose powder, because you sure don't need 100grs of powder to kill deer. Who knows, 100 grs may shoot best. Or it may shoot the worst. Or it may shoot no better than 60 grs. Using pellets you'll never know. * (to really nit pick, it does... smaller calibers actually have more recoil if all things are equal. Smaller hole, higher pressure, more jet effect. But it doesn't really effect enough to apply here)

Yeah... I'm going to "chance it" and pass. I already had Covid and for me it was nothing. Had I not lost my sense of smell, ever so briefly, I'd have thought I had a very mild cold. I have a feeling work is going to try to force me to get it. They can go #@%^ themselves.

The term "standard" hasn't really applied in a long, long, long time. I learned how to drive one in my sleep. Honest. We owned several in trucks when I was younger but I never drove them. Then I bought my first car, a three speed. Two nights in a row I dreamt I was driving one of the trucks. After that I got up one morning and drove my car like I'd been doing it a long time.

I'd sworn off the muzzle loading season for over a decade due to all the hooples in the woods, but I was all set to go this past weekend. Then a small matter of 3 feet of snow happened. Damn! While the guns are still out, I'm going shooting.

Drives? I thought gun hunting on LI was "sit right here and don't move!" ?

The best kind of hunting dog is like the best kind of boat.

I was hoping the early predictions would hold true, the island would get clobbered and up north wouldn't be bad. I end up with 6-8 inches of wet snow, and north got pounded. Not looking good for hunting this weekend. Do I drive 5 hours to see just how bad it is? lol

I bought a Wraith a couple months ago, sold it right away. Wasn't working for what I wanted to do with it. Anyway... make sure you turn the IR off when you're done. Otherwise it'll get real hot and unhappy and you won't know it with the naked eye.

I'm sold on toe warmers. I guess age and circulation issues caught up with me. Woo linerl toe socks, very expensive wool outer socks and very expensive winter boots... and my toes still get cold fast. Not so with the toe warmers.

Damn it I'm going hunting this weekend no matter what. I may spend all of saturday digging out the bottom of the driveway after the plows mound it up for three days, but I'm still going! Need someone in Otsego county to tell me the total accumulation when it's all done.

"Because NY" Heaven forbid we make laws easy to understand. I look at my yard and a half of tags and my head spins.

I don't have many pictures that aren't printed photos in a drawer somewhere. Muzzle loaders (real ones ;) ) are something to drive me crazy. Even though I rarely shoot them these days (eyes), when I see ones for sale that I like they drive me nuts wanting them. I know someone right now with a whole collection of uncommon, quality rifles for sale, but I've been able to maintain my self control and not buy any of them. (because I know I'm unlikely to shoot them) . That said, I did buy a T/C "Hawken" in .45 caliber from an acquaintance last month, simply because he only wanted $100 for it. I haven't shot it, and don't know if or when I even will. I bought it with the idea of finally making a muzzle loading "SBR" / canoe rifle of sorts, but I may just give it to my nephew instead. My first rifle as a CVA Kentucky rifle kit I made 35+ years ago. Somewhere along the line I bought a long brass tube sight and that was the only thing I could thing of putting it on. (a regret) Of course at the time it made it illegal for hunting. I think I only shot it twice since then and it's sat in the corner for the last 30 years. My ML interests turned to an 1863 Springfield and that became my main shooter for many years. A few rifles came and went, bought and sold, one stolen. I still have a T/C New Englander that was my main hunting rifle when I still bothered to hunt the muzzle loading season. Got into flintlocks with a T/C Pennsylvania Hunter. Sold that and bought a Pedersoil Mortimer, which is a beautiful gun and I really need to shoot it more. I hunted regular gun season with it a few times. But about that time the BPCR bug hit me and my interests swang that way for quite a while. Then my eyes started turning on me and my ability to hunt with what I really wanted to started to dwindle.

Yes but that doesn't mean it's the best thing in regards to meat quality. It's the only option for the greater distances. (and for cooling purposes in warmer climes.)

Yes... but we won't tell you, there's too much competition now. ;) Old or not, this is valuable info. The tax auctions seem do be dominated my real estate brokers with money to spend, then quick flips.

Photo tolls, E-Zpass Fragments of a story i know, sorry. My father's coworker was contacted by SOMEONE from some .gov entity (don't recall whom) after a trip out of state (to which state I can't recall). They were told EZ-pass was how they knew. What became of it I don't know. Maybe he had to quarantine before he could go back to work (and how my father heard the story)

I've taken a couple deer with the .45-70. Only shoot handloads, first was with a Remington 300gr JHP from my stubby Marlin. I used that bullet because that's what I shot in my 12" .45-70 Contender pistol. (used to hunt with that as well, never got anything with that barrel though) After being less than impressed with that bullets performance on a doe, I switched to 405gr JFP handloaded to an impressive click. That did a lot better IMO. The Marlin has a 2x scope mounted in the scout position, zeroed maybe a smidgen low at 100 yards.

I once smelled my friend's cologne almost 300 yards away. He wasn't a guy who put it on heavy, and he hadn't used any on the trip, it was just residual of some piece of clothing. The night before his hooded sweatshirt was hanging on a chair near where I was sleeping and I could kind of smell it. The next day hunting I got the slightest hint of it so faint I wasn't even sure it was real, and not some sort of sensory memory thing. That night I learned he had been hunting the woods up the hill from where I was. It wasn't just my brain playing tricks on me. So if I could smell that faint residual scent, imagine how far the critters could smell him. Now how they would or wouldn't react to that smell is anyone's guess.

Forget the deer, if it's too warm I can't stay awake. :)

I used electronic muffs ONCE. Every leaf that fell sounded like a twig landing. Every squirrel running sounded like a grizzly bear. Everything was loud, but pinpointing it's direction was tough. That night laying in my bunk my ears were ringing and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized it was the muffs. Never used them in the woods again.

I bought a deer sled off Amazon the year before last. (not a Jet sled). Paid for itself that year.

Don't take this the wrong way.... but spotlighting critters aint as easy as most people think. lol

There's your problem, you're thinking "hunting". That's not what it's about.