Archive through February 02, 2009

[bbowman]

Kraig and Art;

Thanks for the ego boost! This is my best deer to date so I'll spend a few bucks and have him mounted. He's only a seven point with a 15 1/2" spread, but he has a lot of mass. All my hunting friends say he's a good deer by their standards;estimated at 6 1/2 years old,which is rare where I hunt.
Don't have a side veiw,maybe this will help.

And to show that I'm not one-dimensional...

...I got this 5 1/2 lb. largemouth on opening day of bowseason. Not a huge fish, but I was fishing for bluegill using an ultra-light spinning outfit with 4 lb. test line and a 1/8 oz BeetleSpin lure! She drug my Gheenoe around for about 15 minutes! It was a blast.
As you can tell,I enjoy my time off. I only hope you fellows get to spend as much time doing the things you enjoy!
Art; I'll post pics of 'ole Red(my '85 Yota)later!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bobby, that works, I just wanted a better look at those long tines.

 

[aschumacher]

Hunters, keep your eyes open this season, some strange animals been seen!
This was in my back yard.

 

[bbowman]

Nice pics Allen!
Would that be a Mallargator?

 

[aschumacher]

Bobby, your correct! But if I were to see one flying at me I'm not sure if I would shoot at it or head for cover !! (<font size="-2">think some type of chain gun would be appropriate!</font>)

 

[bbowman]

Well....it's that time of year again!
A good three year old bird.11 inch beard,1 inch spurs,weighed 21 lbs.He was pretty sneaky,but he couldn't resist my Billy White slate call!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bobby strikes again, nice one!

 

[bbowman]

Grrrrrrr! Just when you think you're gettin' good, you miss a dead bird walking! Called a bird across two fences and a highway;I was so happy...,then mother nature took over. For a dumb bird they sure can be smart!

!

 

[bbowman]

My turkey hunting has been a bust. Missed two birds(?),and yesterday I shot one of the birds that I had previously missed. Hit him and he ran off! Should be in Wisconsin by now!
However,I did call up this nice bird for my good friend.This is the OTHER bird I missed;been after him all season. 22lbs.;10-1/2" beard with 1-1/4" spurs.A good three year old. Now,...I'm gonna' take a nap!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bobby, nice job calling in that bird for your friend! I'll keep an eye out for that other bird!

My turkey hunting season this spring is May 20-24. I hope to at least see a turkey while hunting. Saw a big hen in the road about 50 yards north of my driveway this morning. It crossed the road toward my property then started to pick some gravel off of the shoulder. When out in my yard in the mornings I usually hear the toms gobble this time of year, but so far this year I have not heard any.

With a hen in the area the toms can't be too far off. I may have to see if I can call one in. Wasn't planning on hunting in my yard but if I can get them to come in I'm open to it.

 

[bbowman]

Thanks Kraig! I live in town,but if there were gobblers in mine or my neighbors yard,I'd be on 'em!LOL! Just 'cause they ain't gobblin don't mean they ain't there! This boy has gobbled one day and was tight-lipped the next,so maybe yours will bust loose soon.
Just a 5 day season? What is your state limit? We are blessed in Alabama;March 15th thru April 30th,and we can take 5 birds,gobblers only!Last year I took 4,and I should have limmited out this year. That bird I sent your way would have been my fifth! Oh well,there is always next year! Good luck and let me know how you do!

 

[bcarl]

Bobby,

I missed a nice bird here in PA on the first day, April 25th, but I made up for it this morning. Nice 2 year old - 18 lbs, 9 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs. He hung up for me about 100 yards out, but a cackle brought him in. And then he came in quiet behind me and was about 10 feet from the decoy before I saw him.

Bruce

BTW - do those 'Bama birds have a southern drawl in their gobble?

 

[bbowman]

Bruce;

Congrats on your bird! I can tell by your story
Yankee birds ain't no different than Southern birds! Sneaky,ain't they?

And yes;Southern birds do have a drawl.....gaawbel,gaawbel!

Don't feel bad about a miss..,I use a Com-N-Choke
XX Full choke,and at twenty yds,it throws a tennis ball size pattern. I use that as my excuse for missing two birds this year! LOL!

Good luck the rest of the season!

 

[jlhayes]

I have to agree with Allan on the strange ones, chased this out of the feeder this morning.

 

[bbowman]

My buddies went to the Gulf on Sat.,and tore up the red snapper and amberjack. I couldn't go,...,poor me!

So to get even,I went to my little pond in Barbour County,ALABAMA(gotta use the Forrest Gump voice for effect),and caught a dozen fat bluegill in 30 minutes, in the rain,using my favorite ultra-light rig with a Beetlespin lure.That'll teach 'em to leave me home!

.

 

[wcompton]

It's that time of year again - been at the range quite a bit working up a load for the custom 243 I'm putting together. Finally found the dope that worked:

I'd have been satisfied if it was only a 100 yard group - this one was at 200.

Antelope season in South Dakota is in full swing, I leave Friday and will camp for the following week. Supposedly the population is down, I've been told by some to simply tear up my tags and get a refund. We'll see what next week brings.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Wyatt, what brand/model 243? That's some nice shootin'! Best wishes for a successful hunt.

I need to find time to get out and do some shooting, I have a Ruger, MKII, .338 Mag to sight in. I put a new Nikon 3-9x40 scope on it last fall and have not even shot it yet.

I don't need to use it any time soon, I'll only need it IF an opportunity for elk hunting comes up. Sure wish that would happen...

I have other rifles for white tail. I need to re-sight in my Browning A-Bolt, .223 WSSM for 200 yards instead of the 100 yards is sighted in for now. I want to get a coyote with it. This is one fun little rifle.

Ruger .338 Mag.

Browning .223 WSSM.

.223 WSSM cartridge detail.

 

[wcompton]

Kraig-
It's a Remington 700 action with some goodies from HS Precision, TSR, Farrel, and Nikon. The toughest part was finding the right combination of cartridge components, I tried a multitide of bullets, 9 different types of primers, 10 different cases, 5 different powders. I think this winter I'll be re-barreling with a Kreiger barrel, haven't decided if I'm going to stick with a standard 243 or move up to a 243 Improved.

How's that 223 WSSM work? I've heard the WSSMs have a tendancy to feed poorly, but I bet it's a joy to shoot. Some of the velocity numbers I've read, do you reload for that?

 

[kmcconaughey]

Wyatt, sounds like a nice setup! Wow, that's a lot of testing various cartridge components, I don't think I'd have the patience to go through that. I have a hard enough time testing two different grain bullets in manufactured cartridges.

I don't think I could do reloading, I'd probably blow myself up.

The WSSM feeds OK it just doesn't like to extract very well, the neck expands and it tends to stick in the chamber. Perhaps it'll get better after it's shot more. So far only one box of 64 grain Winchester cartridges have been through it. It IS a lot of fun to shoot!

This past spring the local Sportsman's Warehouse went out of business and I snapped up every box of .223, 64gr WSSM they had at a nice discount, probably should have bought the 55gr as well. My father won this rifle at a 2006 Sheep Foundation fund raiser, not sure how many dollar's worth of tickets he bought...

 

[kmcconaughey]

I decided to give myself an early birthday present (Sunday was my birthday) of a Friday off of work and a couple days at the cabin to do some small projects and to hunt some ruffed grouse.

I had to stick around home until around 10:00 am Friday, the cabin is a two hour drive north. Once I got to the cabin and unloaded my gear I headed out onto the 40 to do some grouse hunting, I also brought with two trail cameras to put up and leave through the deer season. I got the cameras put up and then concentrated on grouse hunting. Our 40 has a real nice mixture of pines, oaks, birch, tamarack, spruce and so on. The land is about 3/4 upland with the remainder being wetland with a very free flowing spring hole. The grouse were real flighty and I could hear them jumping up but only got a glimpse of one and that was when I was fighting my way through some Tag Alders along the wetland area and had my left hand holding some branches and was stepping over a larger branch. Why is it grouse seem to know when you are in a position to not be able to easily shoot?

I decided that I should let the grouse rest until Saturday morning and that I should get some projects done.

First project, I replaced a light fixture on the generator shed.

Second project was to put up an old flag pole that my brother got from one of our cousins who was going to throw it out. My brother picked up a new flag and some brackets, I picked them up from him to haul up and install.

Third project was to sand the sharp edges on the wood dowels on the new log coat hook/gun rack that we built. Here's a photo my brother took a month or so back of me installing the dowels. We put single 3/4" dowels in the top log for coat hooks and dual 5/8" dowels in the lower log for combination coat hook gun rack. I was all by myself this weekend and didn't take any photos of this project so I dug back into my archives and picked out one.

Saturday morning was beautiful but a bit foggy, so I waited until some of that burned off before I headed out hunting.

Not far into the woods a grouse jumped up and flew right in front of me across from left to right, big mistake on his part.

The gun is a Beretta S56E, 12 gauge O/U. My father bought this back in the late 60's or early 70's. When I started grouse hunting in 1972 it became "my" gun. It fits me better than any glove, even those in the photo. I jumped several more grouse on the 40 but they again were real flighty and were jumping so far out I could only hear them. I decided to leave the grouse on the 40 for seed and head off to some other grouse hot spots I knew of. The other spots held lots of grouse, all of them flighty. I sure miss having a hunting dog. I was not able to get any more. At least I know that there are plenty out there.

Sunday I had grouse for my birthday dinner.