Hi all, well day after tomorrow is the opener for doves. So with this opener, I guess it's time to start this thread again for this year.
Every year we see some great pictures of the members here and their dogs, family, friends and of course game. I know this year will be the same.
I do have one request. Please keep this thread on track. Please, no personal attacks or sarcastic comments to those who post in good faith. Let's just have fun with this one.
I wish everyone here a successful,fun and above all safe season!
First time ever dove hunt. Those little buggers can really move and have no idea how to fly in a straight line. Only got 6 for 20 shots. A 110 year Fox A grade beater.
First dove shoot on the sunflower field. Lots of birds, but not the easy, in your face birds you usually associate with opening day. Fast birds, high flyers, way more mature birds than is the norm for this early in the season. Usually I kill a much higher ratio of juveniles to adults than yesterday. My two grandsons are growing up on me. Jackson (16) on my left and Lane (13) on my right. Lane bagged 9, and Jackson and I each got the limit of 15.
The next generation is coming along nicely, too. The afternoon's take in the background , 297 birds.
And, what the cleaning table looked like a few minutes later. A dozen sets of hands can make short work of a pile of birds.
One of the strangest dove hunts I've ever had. Some didn't realize they were dead, and three thought they were pheasants. Well, more after the pic parade. Birds were indeed thin, but the Mojos were instrumental in scratching down ten opening day, with a quartering in double on these two fellers, which is the Texas daily limit on whitewing.
I often shoot the camera better than the gun, and there were about the same number of "targets" for each this trip:
Beautiful country, and great pics! None of that scenery looks familiar, nothing except that rattler, unfortunately. Them bad boys don't respect "your camp", do they?
I will no longer be dumping cleaned dove carcasses in the latrine pit. This feller had ingested and passed one from one placed in the pit opening day. Day two I was getting ready to lean down and put more in. I saw him just before leaning over, and just before he sounded. First time I had one sound off. Not something I wanna get used to. Was carrying a new to me .40 cal, and had not yet picked up rat shot for it. Hornady self defense rounds are expensive, but seemed appropriate (especially when that's what's in the gun).
Stan, google Knox City Tx. We are just West of there on the Brazos River. Storms came through last night and this morning was just lovely.
As to the strangeness of my hunt: the scrub in the field is really thick, as our farmer decided to stop farming, and the field lie fallow this year. One thing it did for me was to allow me to get to within 15 yards of two that landed in the field- closest I've ever been. Was beginning to wonder if I had not marked them well. They got up together, and I killed the first one; the second one disappeared against the foliage behind him, but when he cleared the tree line I dumped him too. About an hour later, three seemed to come out of nowhere, and landed three yards from one of the Mojos. Ha! Rinse and repeat. Walked carefully up to where they landed- nothing. Circled around and around in bigger arcs until I was convinced a black hole had swallowed them. Just then I saw a dove fly out from the edge of the scrub next to the two track. Never seen dove run like a pheasant- at least not that far. Guess I don't get out enough.
As to birds that don't know they're dead (another similarity to longtails), I had a quartering incomer heading directly for me. A bird heading directly to me or directly away is my one shot I often miss. I was a little low with the right barrel, and he was stunned, starting to flair. I absolutely crushed him with the left barrel, at only about 15 yards. Dropped like a stone, hitting top dead center of a 6" diameter fence post with an audible thud, bouncing off to land on the ground next to the fence. I walked the forty five feet from my dove stool to find- nothing. Not even a feather. I literally walked back to the stool after several minutes of searching, shaking my head with my mouth open in disbelief. This hunt was the "Day of the disappearing Dove."
Found five points while picking up birds? Dang! That must be the best place for them in Jawja.
SRH
Well I was looking for points harder than I was looking for dead birds...Geo
Originally Posted By: wingshooter16
Dropped like a stone, hitting top dead center of a 6" diameter fence post with an audible thud, bouncing off to land on the ground next to the fence. I walked the forty five feet from my dove stool to find- nothing. Not even a feather. I literally walked back to the stool after several minutes of searching, shaking my head with my mouth open in disbelief. This hunt was the "Day of the disappearing Dove."
As Roger Pinckney says, "Sometime a man jes' got to shake he haid."
Here are a couple pictures from 3 days of teal hunting and teaching an old dog new tricks. He had never retrieved a duck or done a water retrieve. he thought decoys were his for the taking, but we figured it out eventually.
We had a good dove opener. Had a new Parker and a new dog. Highlight was the dog getting the lay of the land on things. He wasn't sure what was going on, but knew it was something fun.
I have no idea how to post pics anymore. Someone can tell me or I can email to them to post.
Well, we went after them little grey acrobatic aerial shuckers and jivers again this afternoon. I used the Verona 28 ga. with 30" barrels today. My shooting wasn't anything to write home to Mama about, but did manage too scratch down a limit, and one more ring-necked dove for good measure. Man, it was hot.......94 degrees when we took the field at about 3:20 pm. I sucked down two bottles of Lipton citrus flavored green tea when it was over, and cooled down a bit, but days like this take it out of me more than they used to. I'll never quit tho', as long as I'm able to walk in and out of the field. Lordy, how I love it!
Pics later today.....we had a great day yesterday here in the mountains. Took my friend and his son out to our public lands for near my house. We had a great time and I managed to bag a very respectable buck with my William Moore belted ball rifle. The rifle was built between 1838 and 1845 or so. First blood with it and I was amazed at the penetration. Good times and we have added a new hunter to our ranks with my friends son, he loved it! And the pictures, my friends son with my deer and me, the deer and the Moore rifle. I am tickled!
Stan, great pictures and stories. They still have not cut any of the fields I hunt here in central N.C.. Looking at the huricane coming this way. I remember one year recently we had a huricane come in and every dove left and didn't come back till late season.
I tried this morning and though the Elk were bugling we could not ever get really into them. My friends have both deer and Elk tags and will return next weekend. No Elk tag for me and I am tagged out so I play guide now. Still plenty of fun and looking forward to trying to get them into some animals next week.
Geo. The ball has a ring around it which mechanically locks it in to the rifling. This picture shows the concept quite well. They have a reputation as to be hard to get to shoot but mine is very accurate.
Only shot I had Geo. He was looking at me and quartering on. Full penetration and exited the opposing rear leg. Just hammered him but he did all his bleeding inside. Did not go that far but was not that easy to find either.
Hi all, well my first post on this thread. Yesterday was our Grouse/Hun opener, it just plain sucked. High winds (25-30), hot (80's) dry and dusty. Saw birds, but no shots, they were just too wild.
Anyway, today was different, still warm and humid, but winds about 8-10. I was able to limit and my son Jim got one also. Didn't see a lot of birds, but they are still in there old haunts as in past years.
Anyway, here's my 3. I was using my 16b John Wilkes
Jim with his, he was using his 12ga Victor Sarasqueta 3EC and one hot and tired Raina!
Only shot I had Geo. He was looking at me and quartering on. Full penetration and exited the opposing rear leg. Just hammered him but he did all his bleeding inside. Did not go that far but was not that easy to find either.
The last buck I killed while sport hunting was much the same. Shot him in the neck at 80 yards from an elevated position with a 237 gr. patched roundball and 120 gr. of 2F. Buck was 200 lbs. plus, but the ball coursed lengthwise, and diagonally, through him and exited under his right hind leg. Bled out inside and piled up within 50 yards. Also hard to trail because he didn't bleed to the outside much at all.
I really like that buck and that rifle. I had a belted ball here and had a mould made for it. There is a guy in England that makes very nice moulds for belted ball guns and sells them very cheaply. Can't remember his name at the moment.
MD2, Beautiful gun. I am guessing 1890’s English sidelock? Tell us more! BTW nice pile o’doves.
Thanks Owen for the compliment and interest in the gun. I could write an entire article about the mystery surrounding this gun and its condition but that is a discussion for another thread. A Webley & Scott SLE 16 bore. Built in 1906. Has 30” barrels and in 1961 was re-proofed for 2 ¾” chambers. Most likely the chambers were lengthened as part of a very well done restoration. Current condition would suggest it has not been used very often. The original chokes were IC/Full and I had them opened to Skeet/IM. The stock was bent to my measurements and the LOP is 14 5/8”. Weight is 5 lbs 15 oz.
It’s a beautiful light weight 16 bore SXS that has spent too many years resting in its old hard case. A gun that handles this nice is truly a pleasure to shoot on passing doves (or any other game birds).
Wound up the early dove season yesterday afternoon. As hurricane Florence pushed it's way inland past us through South Carolina, we had temps in the upper 70s, light rain, and winds gusting to about 30 mph. Just the right conditions for an afternoon of great sport with doves!!
Decided to take the Westernfield/Browning 20 that I bought from Lloyd last year. I had shot a few clays with it, and replaced the bead to help get the pattern down a little lower (which worked perfectly), but it had been sitting waiting. I promised Lloyd it would see dove fields, so I decided yesterday was the time to fulfill that.
The birds were flying very high and fast. The leads it took on some were just phenomenal. I remember seeing what looked like 8-9 feet on several that I scratched down. The modified choke, with 1 oz. shot, worked great. We went too late. The field owner said we would take the field at 3. We should have been there at 12:30. I know the birds fed early because of the impending weather, but before it was over the little pumpgun managed 13 down. I paused for a break to snap this poor pic. Sorry for the quality of it, but I had something else on my mind.
One pumpgun is enough for me. I don't have enough sense to operate one. I missed several easy chances at doves yesterday because I had either forgotten to shuck it or had short-stroked it.
OK, I’m slightly jumping the gun here, as the Ruffed grouse season has just opened in Ontario and I won’t be able to go to my favourite spot until later in the week...
I’ll be taking this Charles William Lancaster 12-gauge under-lever centre-fire gun, possibly built as a base-fire, with the conical base-fire strikers replaced by normal centre-fire ones. Or it was built as-is to use the early Pottet/Boxer or Schneider/Daw centre-fire cartridges. I’ll never know, as the Lancaster order book simply records it as a '12-bore under-lever centre-fire'. The damascus barrels have 2 1/2" chambers and have been nitro-proofed for 1 1/8 oz loads.
This particular gun was built in 1864 for Colonel Sir Thales Pease KCB, and the action is Lancaster’s 'slide-and-tilt' type, where the underlever moves the barrels forward before they can swing on the hinge. If you haven’t had the chance to handle one of these, the action face is not at the normal 90 degree angle to the flats. Instead it is at an acute angle, making for a very strong closure once the barrels have slid back into place. Lancaster favoured nose-less hammers, and the locks are non-rebounding.
As to the action design, there is much history behind it. Albert Henry Marie Renette of Paris obtained two French patents in 1820 for exterior-primed (capping breechloader) guns with slide-and-tilt actions, some seven years before Casimir Lefaucheux patented his hinge-action capping breechloading gun, which led the way to his pinfire invention in 1834. In 1853 Renette's son-in-law and partner, Louis Julien Gastinne, obtained French patent No. 9058 for this breech action on a hammer gun, intended to use the new internally-primed centerfire cartridges. The prolific patent agent Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford patented the design in Great Britain, receiving patent No. 2778 of 1853. This is the patent that was later assigned to Lancaster and first used for his base-fire cartridge, and the story behind ‘Charles Lancaster’s Patent’ marked on his guns – though the patent was never taken out in his name.
The end result is a beautifully balanced gun, with measurements that suit me. One hundred and fifty-four years after leaving Lancaster’s Bond Street shop, it is still in the field!
Yes, King, the cotton is unscathed. The Carolinians took the brunt of the storm. They are the ones whose crops, homes, businesses and property took the licking. They will need the help of their neighbors in recovering..........and grieving.
Hi all, well here's the game for this weekend. One Sharpie. So far it's been a poor season (at least for us!). Have not seen many, even in my old Honey Holes. Well, as they say, that's why they call it hunting!
Dove shoot on my brother's farm in Middle GA this afternoon to end the first season. Cut Millet burnt over. Several limits on the field, but I shot lousy again and was a couple short. All Mourning Doves.
This particular field is near the Upson County Airport where the Atlanta Skydiving Club jumps every weekend. When the doves weren't flying it was fun watching the daredevils. They're so high, you can't see them jump when the plane flies over and the skydivers just materialize when the chutes open...Geo
This particular field is near the Upson County Airport where the Atlanta Skydiving Club jumps every weekend. When the doves weren't flying it was fun watching the daredevils. You can't see them jump when the plane flies over and the skydivers just materialize when the chutes open...Geo
Mallards parachuting through timber can sometimes give me trouble. How much lead on the skydivers?? Gil
Comes back in on my b'day, Mike. There's also a flyer shoot that weekend, 'cross the river. Decisions, decisions ? Not................I'll be combining peanuts if it's dry enough.
Took my 102 year old friend out this weekend while scouting a new cornfield. Back in the saddle after too long an absence for both of us. Migration is looking very hopeful for this coming weekend.
Greg, it works better for me if I rotate it before I send it to my email account.
Thanks, SRH
In retrospect, that may be unclear. What I do is take a pic with my cell phone, send it to my gmail account, download it, then upload it to photobucket, and have it available for posting to a forum. Sorry for being so vague.
Thank you. It's a 1916 Field Grade with Twist Barrels, it had been a 'closet queen' from a high dry environment when it came to me. Thus the 30" barrels were in like new condition although someone at some point decided to polish and lacquer the receiver. It makes a great companion and a neat project to restore at some point in the future. For me, there's something warm and fuzzy about using a field grade for it's intended purpose. Looks like lots of rain coming this weekend so the 'pretty ones' will probably stay in the safe....for now.
In retrospect, that may be unclear. What I do is take a pic with my cell phone, send it to my gmail account, download it, then upload it to photobucket, and have it available for posting to a forum. Sorry for being so vague.
I use the Photobucket app and upload directly from my phone.
Thanks for that reminder, Steve. I have the PB app on my phone but have never tried that. I guess I just like the big monitor screen on my Apple much better than the little screen on my Droid. I may try it next time, tho'.
Hey all, well today was our duck opener. But, not a very successful one for my son and I. We had plenty of birds come in, prior to shooting time, but like the old cartoon, as soon as it was time, they were gone! Saw very few today, but we did manage to get a couple. Guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.
My birds (2 teal and 1 mallard) and my Bernadelli Italia
Jim with his "contraption" a Mossberg Regal and his blue and greenwing teal
Hey all, well today was a much better duck hunting day. Cool, cloudy and a nice wind. Far cry than yesterday. The birds were moving today and I had a great time with my son, just me and him. Boy I'm lucky!
Anyway, I managed to limit out, was using my Merkel 147 today
Jim got 4, but used his Yildiz O/U instead of that pump of his.
Great pics. Love the limestone fence post area of KS. It has been a while but I have spent many pleasurable hours in that region.
That's a fence post, eh? I was about to ask if was a buffalo rub. Edges too sharp for that, I guess...Geo
Used to have slate fence posts in eastern PA. The farmers originally set holes in the slate slabs for split rails, then switched to wrapping barbed wire through the holes. Wire was always nasty, rusty and hidden in brush. Don't know if this one was from PA, but it's what they looked like. https://www.flickr.com/photos/peachhead/14971167709
Owen the Z-R is a standard 28” double trigger ejector gun I bought here it fits me perfect. It was a special order by a Rockafellow nephew , according to G&H , came with papers an an English stock.choked .16/.24
Hey all, went duck hunting this weekend, Saturday was a good day for me. I was able to limit (all Greenwings!) but Jim didn't connect. Today was pretty poor. Not much flying or moving, very quite, Jim got 2 and I got 1. Still, it was great to get out with my son and enjoy his company and above all his wit! A good weekend well spent!
Too bad about N Dakota pheasants Greg. We don’t have any quail in west Texas this year likely due to drought. The Michigan Ruffed Grouse appear to be down as well (I had a poor hunt last week in lower MI), people are saying due to West Nile Virus. Just a bad year, I guess. Is what it is, I suppose. One thing I noticed about the grouse we did find, they were wilder than the dickens. Couldn’t hardly get a shot at one. I guess Mother Nature makes the birds extremely wild when numbers are low. Survival of the fittest and all....
This is my new favorite picture of the year. It is also Gus's first goose, a wounded one at that. It took a lot of work to bring it to bag, but he did it. He could have used SCUBA gear though.
On the way back to the truck he busted about 14 pheasants -12 of which crowed. The rooster population is looking surprisingly good.
People do not think of the deep South as Canada Goose country. Yet, due to the introduction of non-migratory Giant Canadas (aka Golf Course Geese), we have an open season on them down here which basically is any time any other waterfowl season is open. The goose season coinciding with the early teal season ended recently.
67galaxie and another buddy and I have been watching a flock of about 100 'town birds' feeding in a green peanut field close to town. The peanuts are not turned yet, so we didn't want to shoot in the field. We discovered a nearby farm pond where they were dropping by to pass the mid day and have a sip to wash down the peanuts.
Morning of the last day we went out to the pond at 8:30 with six floater decoys and my goose call. There was heavy equipment parked next to the pond edge where the owner had been doing some excavation work. We hid in plain sight among the equipment. I sat on a stool between the blade and the body of a bull-dozer.
Promptly and according to schedule, the geese began leaving the field and coming to the pond at 9:30. A few calls to get their attention on our sparse decoy spread and a turn into the wind for landing brought us face to face with about 40 of them. We dropped two on the first pass and those birds were followed up by three more flocks of 5 to 10 each. All decoyed as hoped. We picked up 5 which was enough. These were Big birds.
Temperature was about 90 by the time we started shooting. Not exactly a snowy Canada shoot on the Saskatchewan prairie, but nevertheless a real honest satisfactory goose hunt over decoys...Geo
A picture of two 67galaxie shot with his A Grade Fox:
Been enjoying some nice dog work on WC this season. Had the H&H Royal 16 bore in the woods on this outing and took a pair from a nice dog point. The third bird for the daily limit would happen later in the day after missing more pointed birds than I care to admit.
Sorry, the photos are already on computer...and resizing is no issue. The difficulty is that I want to use Google Photos as the host. Not sure why the image will not behave and show up in my post. I've used it (Google Photos) to post images on many other discussion boards, without difficulty.
My son with a family heirloom Remington 141. Great gun with great history and stories to boot. PA has a doe only youth season and my son thought that was a perfect time to take the old girl afield. CHAZ
Today I was finally able to get a couple roosters. These are my first since the season opened 2 weeks ago. Been seeing very few birds this year. In my neck of the woods they are way down. Still, nice to get out and enjoy the nice weather (for a change!) with my son and my faithful Raina.
I spent the last two weeks in Saskatchewan; just returned last night. Mostly a waterfowl trip, but we saw a lot of Huns and Sharptail. Bagged a chicken but the Huns eluded us. Good news is there were lots of upland game birds, much better than last year...Geo
Yours truly with a banded hen Pintail:
Friend with his HE Grade Super Fox and Crane:
Another shot of the Super Fox with a Mallard downed with Kent 1 1/4oz Bismuth. We nicknamed the Fox "Bo-Peep" because it killed so much farther than our steel shot:
This bruiser stepped out the bush and walked within 40 ft. of my car window one afternoon while we watched the birds for our next morning's shoot:
The next day we went by the butcher's for a steak and found them cleaning this one. I never fully appreciated how BIG these things are!:
I took my Ithy 'doodle gun' out today, but on the way to the woodcock covert, I passed through a pheasant field. I threw some B&P #6 in my pocket just in case...
Dismal waterfowl scouting trip east of Jamestown this PM. Loaded up dog, binoculars, my 12 ga Western Field 30", and drove about 50 miles. I glassed seven of my old favorite diving duck lakes, some several miles long, and looked at about 50 smaller semipermanent wetlands while looking for a migrant Great White (Tundra Swan). Did not see any divers or swans. No geese seen. An isolated bay of one large lake had about 10k Mallards concentrated well off shore. Saw one skittish flock of 25 in one small basin, and a handful of Gadwall in another. Maybe a dozen Ruddy Ducks and a few Pied-billed Grebes rounded out the aquatic birds. The lakes are suffering from extremely high water levels and there are almost no submerged plants. Since water levels got so high, all the lakes have fish populations and have been heavily used by White Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, Western Grebes, gulls, and other carnivores since the mid-90's, but I saw none today. Most of these lakes were once full of sago pondweed, principal food of swans and Canvasbacks and nursery for shrimp and other invertebrates eaten by migrant Lesser Scaup and many other ducks. All that remains now are a few clumps of Water Milfoil weighted down with algae in the muddy, nutrient rich water. I suspect the glyphosates and other herbicides killed the aquatic plants. The wet meadows surrounding nearly all wetlands in this area are regularly sprayed with the same chemicals used to kill both broadleaf and grassy weeds and this wetland zone has all but disappeared, replaced by bare soil or dead crop residue from previous growing seasons. They will be sprayed with pre-emerge formulas this coming spring. The meadows are the first to receive runoff water from the cropped uplands and are important feeding areas for our breeding waterbirds as well. Next trip will be in more hilly country west of town, but I’m afraid conditions will be no better, as most of the hayland and pastures have been converted to bean and corn fields.
Yesterday, I saw a surprisingly large number of mallards and other "big ducks" in central and western Nebraska. Not many in eastern Nebraska or Iowa however. Not sure that counts for much, but I did not expect to see that many that early or that far west.
Hey all, well went out today solo, just me and Raina. Managed to get one, but did see more than in past hunts (good sign!). Problem was, they were spooky today, just wouldn't hold point for long. Raina did well, so not her fault. Got pretty windy, so we cut the day short. Just happy to get one.
My new to me lightweight Churchill has been introduced to the northern woods this year, and has been a delight to carry. It has replaced my BSS-sidelock as my new bird gun. Karl
This afternoon, sunflower field, .70" rain yesterday, cool and windy today, AE Fox 16 with 30" barrels, 1 oz. loads of no. 8s, limit of 15 doves with 20 shells. First real shoot with this gun on a dove field. It's a hammer, but learned quickly I have to shoot it differently from my bigger guns. When this one hits the shoulder and the cheek, I trigger it. No long, smooth swings. "See the bird, mount the gun, kill the bird." Worked today, anyway.
She's a sweet little long-legged thing.
SRH
P.S. Notice the difference in the coloration of the two left doves in the "front" row. Both are big, grown, mature doves, but the left one is shaded a buff brown color on the back, while the one beside it has a distinctly bluer head and tail. I've never had this explained to me, but I revel in the spectrum of beautiful colors of the birds as I retrieve them. Regardless the colors, all can do aerobatics that will screw the gunner into the ground at times.
Thanks Mike for posting the photos for me. This hunt was October 19 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. My hunting buddy and I had a great day, both harvesting the 5 bird limit, all shot over points and out of the air. It was a special day for sure. It’s been awhile since I have gotten the limit, but this day was a 1st where both myself and my hunting buddy each got the limit on the same day. A blizzard moved in the next day and I believe the birds could sense inclement weather coming, and were in a feeding frenzy. You got to have luck to kill birds and the Grouse Gods were smiling on us that day. I’m going to savor it for awhile.....days such as that day are few and far between! The black and white pointer is ‘Jill’, my best bird dog ever and I was shooting my old faithful Browning superposed 20 ga.
Buzz, Looks like you hade a great time up there. I was there the previous week and it was wet most of the week. Nice job on the limits! As far as wood goes, pretty is as pretty does. Karl
It never ceases to impress me how well the grouse program in Michigan works. The numbers you guys show are incredible. Even though the state bird of Pennsylvania is the Ruffed Grouse, there is little to no management done to increase numbers or create great habitat for them. Every once in a while they will select cut a small area of public woods, but its never enough. It's really tough hunting. I wish they would jump on the bandwagon and follow a similar program as Michigan. Sadly, the big money maker in PA is white tailed deer (who, ironically would also benefit from clear cutting), and they seem to be more interested in building "food plots" than improving grouse habitat.
Kudos to the Michigan DNR and a very well done to all of you who hunt there with such success!
Karl, fine looking gun. RAR, can't see the gun, but the results speak for themselves. Who is the maker? Buzz, Jill looks up to the task for a day to remember. Stan, that's about as good as it gets on doves. Caleb, form follows function and that old pump is functioning just fine. How much choke did you leave in the gun? Gil
At the risk of being further shunned, I must admit I left no choke in the gun and have been using different loads to achieve my desired patterns at range...
I'm always amazed at the patterns from an open choked gun using quality loads in the 20-30 yard range. I do feel blessed by Michigan's effort to enhance grouse hunting. The GEMS sites that I've visited in the U.P. and Lower Pen. have been productive. I'd hate to see our season shortened as per other states. Karl
OTOH, I had another good afternoon. Immediately after church this morning a friend asked what my afternoon plans were. "Queen" was standing there and I looked at her and asked her what my afternoon plans were. She smiled and said I didn't have any. He asked if I could shoot doves one mile from my house at 2:00, to which I immediately replied in the affirmative.
Decided to take the 32" LC Smith 16 ga. with full choke in both barrels. Turned out to be a good choice, as the guns were few and the birds were scattered out over a big area. I was on a corner with no guns at all on two sides. We went to work, and when the dust settled we had a limit. Little bit tougher shooting today, and such was reflected in the 15 for 22 ratio. The same RIO 1 oz. loads of 8s worked very well again today.
It was a sunny afternoon with a brisk, dry west wind, so it's back to work on the peanut combines tomorrow. Two great hunts made possible because of a little .70" rain. I guess there is a silver lining in every dark cloud.
Well, it took longer than I had hoped, but today was a good day and Sir Thales Pease's 1864 Charles Lancaster breech-loader had a successful outing on the property.
Went out in search of pheasants, but harvested this nice duck instead with the old Purdey. It was a long 40yd shot with the back trigger, full choke throwing 1 1/16 oz #5’s RST.
Nice gun Owen. I'm surprised the mallard drake has not finished his molt yet. The ones I shot in Saskatchewan a couple of weeks ago were still in their brown phase as well...Geo
Nice gun Owen. I'm surprised the mallard drake has not finished his molt yet. The ones I shot in Saskatchewan a couple of weeks ago were still in their brown phase as well...Geo
Looks like a hen to me. Wouldn’t a drakes bill be bit more yellow than that?
Nice gun Owen. I'm surprised the mallard drake has not finished his molt yet. The ones I shot in Saskatchewan a couple of weeks ago were still in their brown phase as well...Geo
Looks like a hen to me. Wouldn’t a drakes bill be bit more yellow than that?
Looked at the picture again. Olive yellow beak with no black mottling still indicates drake to me. Hens are more yellow-orange and almost always mottled black.
Still, there's no indication of green breaking out in the head, its mighty late in the Fall so I could be wrong...Geo
You can get into a lot of trouble shooting transgender ducks in most states. Worst would be California where they make you eat tofu for a month as punishment.
I’ve seen a lot of hybrid ducks which I thought at first this might be one but if it is a hybrid it’s 1/1024 like Senator Pocahontas.
I'm sorry Owen, but you are going to have to take your duck to a veterinarian to solve this difference of opinion over whether its a boy or a girl. Good thing its a mallard because they're one of the very few ducks with observable genitalia...Geo
Could be a cross between a black (duck) and a mallard. That could account for the greenish yellow bill and the coloration of the neck and head feathers. A black drake's bill is greenish/yellow. The coloration is much more mallard hen than black duck, IMO. But, you never know how those crosses come out.
Here's my black drake for comparison. The bill is actually much more greenish than it appears in this pic.
Stan, the presence of Black Ducks is a thing of the past in this area. I remember the late season Black Ducks with red legs being fairly common here on the coast. The emergence of the Mottled Duck falls short in replacing those Black Ducks.
Yes it is, Gil. I took that one in AR several years ago. AFAIK I have never seen one here in GA in my lifetime. Yet, my Grandaddy drifted the Savannah River for ducks in the 20s, 30s and 40s and told me of seeing many, many black ducks.
Blacks are special to me. They represent something that I cannot quite put a finger on. A time past. Kinda like the special place the few coveys of wild bobs here hold. I think I just identify with them, in a way. I feel like an artifact myself, but I'm okay with it.
This is a mallard hen close to full plumage. By no means is it a drake. I grew up and still hunt in pot hole Saskatchewan where these ducks are bred and born and I hunt them in the fall. I get all sorts of ducks that are not in full plumage and difficult to identify but over time we get better at it.
After two days of frustration on public land, we were able to hunt our friends’ private land today and I limited out almost immediately on some wild roosters. There were three dogs in the field and mine pointed 8 of the 11 birds taken. It was a day to be proud and be thankful for the opportunity presented to harvest God’s bounty.
A humorous exchange at the beginning of the hunt as my companion unsheathed his 3” magnum camo pump. My friend : “whatcha huntin this year?” Me “this old Purdey”. “Sounds foreign.” “ It is.” “I had a Lefever once” “Oh?” “Yeah, shot a 1450fps pheasant load in it and the dang thing locked up, had to break it over my knee to open it and it was all torn up.” “Sorry that old gun failed you.” “Yeah, bummer”
Only one bird taken yesterday, but it was a thrilling flush out of a snow bank in a shelter belt. 6” of snow on the weeds made walking difficult. Neither the high temperature of 18 nor the15-20 mph winds deterred the hammer Boss.
Hey all, this weekend was our deer gun opener. It was windy, cold and plenty of snow showers. Not the best of weather, but my son Jim and I managed to fill our tags (we only had does tags this year again). So it was a successful opener.
Here's Jim with his. He shot his on Friday (Opening day), it was a button buck so legal. He was using ha Remington Model 7 in 7mm-08
My doe and me. I was using a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 7mm-08. I shot mine on Saturday
Good Gravy Geo! Those are some nice looking bucks. I was thrilled to tag my first archery buck this year (it is very hard to juggle archery hunting and bird hunting - bird hunting usually wins). It looked nothing like those monsters however. Congrats to your son for sure. Well done!
Greg, it is nice to see you and your son hunting together and both of you bringing home meat. You are a lucky guy! I am too come to think of it!
My boys have been my main hunting companions since before they could even think about carrying guns. I don't hunt with them that much anymore, but they still see to it that my ground blinds are put up right and within 50 yards of where I park the truck...Geo
NICE buck. Would like to see more pics of different angles if possible. It is rather unusual and if from my part of the world we would speculate if it was a cross between a whitetail and mule deer.
Tamid, that could certainly be possible where you live - in mulie country. However, it looks to be pure whitetail to me. Solid mainbeam with tines projecting up rather than splitting/branching the mainbeam. I could be wrong, but I shouldn't think there are any mulies anywhere near GA?
My number three son, Trent shot this nice one on my middle GA farm yesterday afternoon. That's the fourth big buck taken this week. I'd say the middle GA rut is in full swing. Come the first of December however they'll all disappear back into their bat caves or wherever it is they go...Geo
p.s.: I don't think there's any chance that big one I posted from last weekend is a Muley cross. We don't have any. We did catch a Fallow deer on our cameras a coupla years ago though so who knows.
My upland hunting has been so so this year, especially after my setter took off and was lost in the central Oregon wilderness for a week. I searched days, hiked 20 miles, and nothing. Thankfully, elk hunters found him on horseback at the bottom of a canyon a week after he left. He was emaciated, but he'll be fine after much vet care and r&r. So much for upland hunting this year.
That said, I've had some great waterfowl hunts this year. I finally connected on snipe! I went out and targeted them, and they are hard to hit little buggers. Harder than dove in my opinion. This is my 1890's 6.4lb Lefever damascus 12:
Also went on a guided duck hunt last weekend. Four of us got mallard limits in about an hour. Best duck hunt I've ever had. I shot a f/xf Husqvarna 310as 12 I picked up the week before, and I LOVE the way it shoots. Was using ITX reloads. Fantastic duck gun:
They are 29.5". I have a 16ga mod. 100 hammer gun that also has 29.5" barrels, and I had a mod. 44 with 31.5" long damascus barrels. I do seem to shoot the longer barrels better than the shorter 27.5" ones.
I've been looking for BOTH of those guns! Simpsons seems to have stopped importing neat guns like that and seem to have changed over to mostly consignment these days. Big disappointment. Great taste in guns btw.
I've been looking for BOTH of those guns! Simpsons seems to have stopped importing neat guns like that and seem to have changed over to mostly consignment these days. Big disappointment. Great taste in guns btw.
Thanks! I'm not into Lugers and military stuff either. Hopefully they'll get another shipment of euro doubles soon. I have bought and sold many guns from them.
I was using #4 Bismuth by RST in the Schaefer, I also had my old Browning A5 Magnum along and was using 3 inch Kent #2 bismuth in it. I shot two geese with the Schaefer and number 4 shot, one dropped dead and the other flew a couple hundred yards(due to my poor shooting)he landed on the water and couldnt fly after landing I had to shoot him again on the far shore. The number 2 shot in the Browning A5 worked excellent as well.
Great pics Ross. Love the old guns. In the blind is exactly where that Schaefer belongs :-). Nice of you to put it to work, I bet it felt right at home.
Hey all, well here's my Thanksgiving bird. My son Jim and I went out for our annual Thanksgiving day hunt. Saw birds (not many) but we only managed to get one. Was a great day, topped off by a wonderful dinner.
South Dakota trip was a ton of fun as usual. Took this decent 4x4 Whitetail with the .375 H&H I built at about 8 paces. Turns out it was enough gun. Found some incredible bird hunting(my goodness I had forget just how good private land can be) and helped my nephew bag his first buck. More pics tomorrow.
Note that Steve said "4x4", that's the Western method of counting points. 8-point would be the Eastern Count. Had it been a 7-point I do not recall for sure with the Western count whether you list the smaller or larger side first but I believe it would have been a 4x3 in that instance. Steve can likely give us the lowdown on that, but it does seem he knows how to count. In total agreement, that's a nice buck.
So I hunted birds three days on my neighbors ranch in SD. Wow is all I can say. My older dog Lucy came up lame after putting a bird in the bag on the first day. The youngster Tucker and I had to get it done by ourselves. For a two year old he handled the volume of birds very well, in range and focused, excellent nose and a very good retriever. Tucker is going to make me a fine bird dog. A couple of limits and a wonderful trip.
Hey all, well, I went out today solo, wonderful day weather wise, sunny, 45 and mild winds. But, few birds, I did manage one and alas flat out missed one, oh well!
Anyway, I used my 12b H&H Royal (can't rotate the pic, sorry for that!)
The old tractor in the picture appears to be a Farmall Regular, made in the mid to late '20s. I.m not as much up on old trucks, what's the truck in the other picture. Both made good backgrounds for the pics, excellent photo work as well as the dog work & shooting.
Miller, The gentleman who allowed me to hunt his land collected Farmall tractors. I would guess he had eighty or so along with a few McCormick Deering and an early John Deer or two. His father beautifully restored a M12 Farmall.
The truck is a 41 Chevy and he has another full cab for it.
Thanks for the kind comments but really all the credit should go to the land owner. I have had Springers for twenty years now and that is some of the best bird hunting I have experienced. His good taste in old iron makes for a wonderful back drop for photos. The 39 Ford pick up will make a good picture if I am lucky enough to hunt the place again.
Hey all, this weekend is the end of our Deer Gun Season, so we tried to fill my daughters tag. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to. My son Jim and I did some bird hunting as well. We saw birds, but without a dog it was tough. I did manage one. Weather wasn't the best, cold and windy. But being with the kids was a success for me.
That is all national forest, the emphasis on the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker in its native longleaf habitat has lead to increased habitat management that the bobwhite is piggybacking. Heavy prescribed burning and thinning is returning old forest into savannahs of yesteryear...
In 1946, my Father bought a Remington model 241 Speedmaster semi auto .22 rifle. While it was a very expensive gun for a 17 year old orphan, it lit a fire for marksmanship in my Dad, that led him into the Marine Corps, the next year, and a career that lasted 30 years. The War was good to my Dad, and he had more money than ammunition. I gave the gun to my Son a few years ago, shortly after Dad passed. It has a cantilever scope mount, which is about the only way to keep a takedown rifle on the bull season to season. Chris and I hunted grouse in Pine county this day, and while we saw no birds, we took some time to plink with the old gun. It is always a good day when you get some time to poke holes in a few empty beer cans with your boy.
On the same trip, Chris graduated to the much modified by me 20 gauge Mossberg youth shotgun, leaving the .410 version to his Mother. I expect her to graduate from that gun as well.
Chris has been told the Beretta Silver Snipe his Grandfather bought in 1964 will be his when he grows into it, not long, at this rate. Sharp eyes will note a model 1912 on the bed cover, the gun I carried that day. My eye has not yet recovered from surgery to repair a detached retina, and I figured a single barrel might give me a slim shot at a bird. That didn’t come to pass, however.
Good for you both! That picture brings back so many memories of my youth, wandering the woods and fields around here with either a .22 single shot Remington 33, or my J C Higgins .410 S x S. Nothing much finer than a boy, his dog and his first rifle.
But, just wait until you have grandkids to teach fieldcraft to. It only gets better.
I too have one of the 241 Speedmasters. Mine also came down through the family. Not it's my wife's gun, or so she likes to think and I am good with that. They are infinitely superior to the Browning patent they are built from. I imagine yours is a long rifle, but I know there were some that are shorts only. Gallery guns I guess.
Not a great picture, but my wife with her 241 Remington and dinner.
Stan, Chris was born when I was 44 years of age, and, while I don’t doubt the wisdom of what you say, Granchildren might be a bridge too far for this guy. Time will tell.
However, I enjoy the hell out of my boy. Some gifts are treasure.
Brent, You wife is adorable. You are a lucky man. Tell her I said so.
The biggest problem with the Browning Automatic .22 is that it is tiny, and too light. Neither gun is a standout, accuracy wise, mostly due to the takedown feature. The gallery model, in .22 short is tough to find, and usually beat senseless.
Either of my Remington .22’s, a model 552 or model 581 will shoot rings around the 241. But, the 241 can shoot “minute of orange” good enough for what we do with a .22.
This is an early gun, with a mahogany stock. The barrel has been shortened an inch or so, and given a target crown. The scope is a Weaver Marksman 4X, about the same vintage. The combination shoots better than I can.
If one turns up in your orbit, I suggest you think twice before you pass on it.
They bang around a little bit. I’ve had a few hit me over the years, but, not enough that I’d consider it a fault. The autoloaders only get 3-4 rounds loaded in them, I work hard on making each of them count. I have shot lefty for 50 years or so, but that may be changing if the vision in my left eye doesn’t recover.
I was looking thru some old pics and found some of my old lab that is gone now. First pic is in Yuma on a late season dove hunt. Second pic is the day we got her as a 10 month old and she found my hat comforting while on the long drive home. The rest are hunts she made. Builder (Milt) is in the one pic of the roosters on the tailgate. I may have posted these before. If so, sorry if I spammed the thread.
Hey Chuck, The beard is almost all white now. I remember when you got her. She was a lot of fun. I remember when you got the red truck too. Some good times. Do you still go out to that farm in SD? Milt
My personal opening day for geese December 1. Usually some snow on the ground. Today was about 30F and slight snow with a nice wind. My fair weather friends thought it was too cold and stayed in so I slogged it out alone. My waterfowl hunting is a comradory affair but sometimes not a bad thing to do solo. Pics of Huck my 10 year old lab who is a retired field trial dog and a tricked out Citori with 26" barrels. (click on pics to enlarge)
Hey all, went out solo today and had fun with a hammergun. Took my 12b J. Harkom out and managed to get a couple. Sad thing is I lost one. He was hit, but got into some real thick cattails and Raina wasn't able to find him, hate doing that! But all in all a good day, beats work!
Our "new" Brittany Spaniel pup, Lady GAGA, is 14 months old, and this is her first hunting season. She has been training for months, but just started actual bird hunting. She is a very fast runner, and covers a lot of ground, but usually stays within 80 yards or so.
This past weekend she had her first successful pheasant hunt. She succeeded in pointing a pheasant, holding while I flushed and shot, and then she retrieved it. We will still work on further training, but she is off to a good start. With more time in the field, she should get even better.
Lot more than that skinny one I posted a pic of last season. I'm happy to report that none of us got Mad Cow from eating that one. I don't know the weight, but I think were safe from CWD on this one...Geo
A few pictures from our annual out of state trip. This one was to Kansas, ended up being a father-son trip, from two different families. This was the first trip for my son. Birds were smart and the weather went to crap, but still a worthy trip...
Nice big animal but I wouldn't think over 200 lbs.
I was going to say 200-205 hog dressed, having weighed a few in that size range. And that is a very large whitetail buck. A butcher shop near me advertises a free basic cut and wrap for any deer dressing out over 200 lbs. I'm certain they don't have to butcher many for free.
Good camera work. My son was a little younger when we started chasing roosters together in Kansas. Great memories, and kudos for making and capturing your own.
Nice big animal but I wouldn't think over 200 lbs.
You can estimate live, field dressed, and butchered weight of a deer from its girth behind the shoulders. You can google for the formula or you can look up the Pennsylvania Game Commission and purchase one of their calibrated tape measures for about a dollar.
The same method is also used for other species as well. Some measures require nose to tail base length, but most ungulates are just girth.
Those girth measuring game weight estimating tapes aren't very accurate at all. Look for an old Stillard scale for a more accurate way to weigh game animals. These are antique single beam balance scales that come in various sizes, and were used to weigh produce, grain, cotton bales, hogs, etc. They typically came with two counterweights, and the beam had two scales such as 0 to 50 lbs in 1/2 lb. increments with a 2 lb. counterweight, and 0 to 400 lbs. in 2 lb. increments with an 8 lb. counterweight. Very small versions may only go up to 20 lbs. and the largest one I have will weigh up to 800 lbs. But I recently saw a huge one that went up to 1600 lbs and used a 16 lb. counterweight on the high side. I didn't buy it because I don't anticipate weighing any Kodiak bears or Cape Buffalo.
I have one of those, keith. I never knew the name for it, Stillard, we always just called them "cotton scales". They are extremely accurate.
When I was a kid growing up here on the farm Grandaddy would take me to the cotton field late in the afternoon for "weighing up". Many of you probably remember the scene, but I will describe it briefly, as it is etched indelibly in my mind. All along the ends of the rows on the edge of a cotton field, the "turnrows", would be big burlap sheets spread out on the ground and piled high with freshly picked cotton. Each hand would have several sheets for the cotton they had picked during the day. Then, the four corners would be pulled up together and tied in two knots.
Grandaddy's scales were not mounted on one of those tripods with one very long leg that acted as a lever, he preferred a sassafras pole about 8 feet long. The scales were tied in the middle of it and two men would lower the pole and scales over a sheet of cotton, Grandaddy would place the hook on the bottom of the scales in the knotted sheet, and the men would lift it off the ground, placing it on their shoulders and standing motionless as Grandaddy balanced the beam with the "pea" weight.
There would be much loud joviality as different hands tried to guess what each sheet held. Grandaddy knew close to what it would be, by experience, and if it was too heavy would have to search the bottom of the sheet for rocks or citrons, which might have been placed there to cheat the scales. That hardly ever occurred, because this was the happiest time of the year for the tenants and hands. They could potentially make more money picking cotton than they could any other job on the farm, all year.
I have the scales, the old sassafras pole, and many of Grandaddy's little pocket notebooks where he recorded the day's weight picked by each hand. They bring back wonderful memories of playing with the hands' children, Grandaddy, and a time when everyone of all colors were more appreciative of what they have, and were willing to work for it. Some of my good friends, even now, are the children and grandchildren of those hands that lived here on our place. Thirteen households of people at one time.
My, how times have changed in the old cotton field. Nowadays one six-row cotton picker can pick more cotton in a day than over 1300 field hands could have done in a day. And when it is ejected from the picker it is wrapped in a waterproof, plastic wrapped roll, holding almost four bales by weight.
Pardon my rambling. I'm getting reminiscent in my autumn years, I guess. SRH
No need for 'pardon', Stan. That was a post that should ring a memory bell with many of us, especially in the South. I still have one of those old cotton baskets around here somewhere...Geo
One other quick incident that happened with a set of those scales. I found a set in an old barn when my younger brother and I were kids, and decided to weigh my brother with them. I hung them, shakily, from a joist and proceeded to pick my younger brother up and hang him by his rearmost belt loop of his pants. Just about the time his weight was taken by the contraption I had rigged up something turned loose and the whole affair came down on top of my brother's head, the edge of the beam ripping open his forehead. Well, that was another trip to the doctor to get "sewed up", and another round of punishment for me.
Stan; Wonderful story. Although I did not have to travel far to get into cotton country the area I grew up in had virtually no cotton. Much of it was pasture land for raising beef cattle with the major cash crop being Burly Tobacco. I well remember those hanging balance beam scales but had never heard that name either. I did a google search on it & seem the spelling is Stilliard & it was stated it was a "Corruption" of the term Steelyard (Portable scales). I have heard those balances called steelyards. I thought perhaps Stilliard was an early brand name, sorta like Crescent, but doesn't seem to be the case.
Mark,I also really enjoy hunting in the snow. I'm not sure if it's because a lot of people stay at home and I can usually get some solitude, or because it just feels old-worldly and classic, but I like it.
Great pictures and is that perchance one of your Huskys? I like your personal touch of the painted chukar on the forend by the way.
Mark,I also really enjoy hunting in the snow. I'm not sure if it's because a lot of people stay at home and I can usually get some solitude, or because it just feels old-worldly and classic, but I like it.
Great pictures and is that perchance one of your Huskys? I like your personal touch of the painted chukar on the forend by the way.
Yes, it just has a different feel to it. Birds seem to hold tighter too, and I like hunting in cool weather. Yes, that's my main upland gun, my mod. 100 Husky 16. The chukar forend is fun. I'm going to do the same with a Husky duck gun I have. I'm thinking about re-doing the butt stock on this 16 this off season by including a skylined scene of some friends I hunt with and a dog or two, in subtle sepia tones. Something to look at other than just wood grain. Fun.
I hunt in a lot of snow - or I did in the old days when we had snow. Bird hunting can be pretty productive during the early part of the hardwater season when the cattails are passable.
But shooting birds from snowshoes can be a bit challenging shooting, and it can be hard to see when the winds start edging into the 20 mph region, not to mention it's hard on the hands, especially the trigger finger.
On the other hand, we don't run into much competition out there.
I never fished that far out but have fished the Salmon River outside of Pulaski, NY. Very hard to fish there because of all the salmon fisherman (snaggers). Hooked a few but could not keep them upstream from me, once they headed downstream I broke them off. Some nice browns there too.
I never fished that far out but have fished the Salmon River outside of Pulaski, NY. Very hard to fish there because of all the salmon fisherman (snaggers). Hooked a few but could not keep them upstream from me, once they headed downstream I broke them off. Some nice browns there too.
Oh yes...once they start ripping with the current they're not stopping with light lines. I've yet to tie into one of those big lake run browns...
Opening day woodcock. We found 8-9, but only could get shots on two. The areas they were in were particularly thick and weren't our usual rivercane brakes. Hardwoods are still in full leaf which made the shot opportunity slim. Abby and Willa on the ground the whole day. Briers took toll on Abby's ears. Willa was unscratched. Both dogs did a whole lot better than their owner. Floyd's death ray Ithaca SKB 20; my MF Ideal 16. Last photo is of a lion's mane mushroom. These are a bonus in our woods this time of the year. It weighed 3 lbs. and the Dexter knife is for scale with a 12" blade. Gil
I know the reason you couldn't hunt the cane patches. River is supposed to hit 16.9' at Burton's Ferry by Monday, and it's raining steady here right now. Supposed to tomorrow, too.
Mike, fit is fine; twin to my other 302 which I shot a lot last season. Ideal "safety dyslexia" screwed me up on the easiest shot of the day or rather I screwed myself. Gil
IMO, using the safety on an Ideal is just not doable. I vaguely recall someone had figured another easier method to keep it "safe" under hunting conditions. Maybe something with the under lever? Anyone recall?
The lever can be lifted on the Darne, slightly opening the action and it can't be fired. The Ideal's safety is aft of triggers and locks the triggers by sliding forward for safe, and back for firing, counter to a top mounted tang. Tang safety's are great for snap shooting. Gil
Geo, I'm standing on the road with Abby and Willa locked down in the briers in the same place we found a bird last year on opening day. Last year, I had to crawl in from the other side to flush the bird for Floyd to shoot, which he did. This year we had the exact same situation, same place, and Floyd reciprocated, going in to flush the bird while begging Abby to do it for him. Those cat briers show no mercy. Abby and Willa held staunch (that's why I pay'em the big bucks) and Floyd flushed it out and it flew down the road, straight away with me pulling on locked trigger after I thought I'd taken it off safety. I had just loaded the gun for the shot. I hunted dove the day before with an English double. "You weren't ready for that bird???" I kept my mouth on safety after he said that.
Darne guns were produced by several different regimes over most of 150 years. If you have ever had the chance to dismantle a very old gun, say pre-WWI, and compare it to anything built post WWII, you will see differences in engineering and parts. My own experience says the older the gun, the less critical the position of the lever out of battery is. My own R10, post WWII gun, the lever needs to be fairly high out of battery. The opening lever up trick works on the very great majority of them, and all Charlins, by design. Some will require the lever to be quite a ways out of battery. It is critical to test your gun, and have a clear idea where the lever is when the gun can’t be fired. There is a position where the ejectors will come into play, without the gun firing, but, it is spooky close to where the gun will actually fire, recoil finishing the closing of the action. I DO NOT use the triggers to activate the ejectors on live ammunition, and you shouldn’t, either.
Scroll down to the last photo. That's my 6 yr old, 90 pound GSP Sam. He held that point for 10 minutes while I took photos and waited for my buds to arrive. Then I shot the bird!
Gil, sorry you lost that bird, but hats off to you for hunting (I gather) using the method many of us abide by, taking the safety off on the mount. The fly in the Ideal ointment AKA the safety is well known: the one on my No. 5 barely works, the one on my 314 not at all. I have found that jamming my bang switch tight against the underlever as I carry is very effective in keeping that finger completely out of the trigger guard, and takes a definitive movement around and then in to reach a trigger.
I have no doubt there are those who would politely and otherwise decline to hunt with anyone who does anything other than taking the safety off on the mount, and I respect that. I treat my Ideals like pigeon guns: do my best to follow (to me) the most crucial of all gun handling safety rules (muzzle in safe direction), and rely most on the safety between my ears.
Satisfying to me to see a lovely French gun taking woodcock- most appropriate.
Monday was a bust as a top covert was a foot underwater. We did flush one bird with no cigar (us, not the bird) when we found him in a briar tangle off an elevated road. Abby and Willa on the ground. Today, Floyd's Britts Sadie (6 years) and Pop (9 years) were on the ground. Pop is a huge Brittany at 55 lbs. We found a few birds and then moved to a new location. Pop is very direct and ponders the situation before moving. We were walking down a wide shouldered woods road with thick pines on the right. Pop was strolling down the middle of the road ahead of us, not a care in the world. Sadie was busy on the left side. Floyd was talking about Pop being tuckered out. It was as if he heard us. He was about 25 yards from the woods. He walked, did not trot or run, to within 5 feet from the edge and with a minimum of movement, locked down. Bird # 2 in the bag. The switch was thrown. For the next hour and a half he and Sadie were involved in over 10 flushes. One time three birds got up. Of course, all escaped and not a cut feather. Thick woods, briers, vines, leaves still on the trees (from the Book of Botanical Excuses), made it a challenge. At times it was difficult to get a gun up. It was quite a day. Floyd's 20 ga. Ithaca SKB 100DR (Death Ray) and my 16 ga. A. Ilsley. I shot enough to let the birds know whose side I was on. Gil
Scroll down to the last photo. That's my 6 yr old, 90 pound GSP Sam. He held that point for 10 minutes while I took photos and waited for my buds to arrive. Then I shot the bird!
No doubt a dog that's never hunted a wild quail will do that...
Heck jOe, I shoot birds with it. Did I ever tell you 'bout that Boss gun I once owned? This Ideal is a way better gun and there are no extra holes in the barrels...Geo
Floyd, Abby, Willa and I were lucky to hunt and stay with a friend in Ga on public land and run into 7 coveys during a morning hunt today. We had 5 dogs on the ground at all times. So much for the disappearance of wild quail at least at this undisclosed location. If I said where this was I'd have to shoot myself for stupidity before my friend shot me for telling. Gil
Geo, I haven't seen that many wild quail since the '70s. As for anemic, definitely smaller than the boot and shoot birds, but man alive they sure can scoot. Gil
Hey all, yesterday my son Will came home on Christmas leave from the Army and of course we went out and did our favorite pass time bird hunting! We saw some birds today, but they were on the wild side. My son did manage to get the only bird of the day (I didn't even bust a cap) after our faithful GSP went on a solid point. It was wonderful weather and a pure joy for me being able to hunt with my son Will again!
Here's Will with our Raina. Will was using his Bernardelli Roma 3E
Looking forward to hunting some more with him and my other boy Jim.
Pic of Eva the wonderdog from Sunday's hunt in central Illinois ( 55 degrees!) with custom 16 Fox and Strempel and a composed "after the hunt" game/guns photo ... 1907 Daly 275 diamond grade and Edgar Strempel 16...... Best regards, JBP
One last pic from the SD trip. I had an internet buddy come in to hunt. Some of you may know him but in this post he will remain anonymous. We just call this good old Southern boy scope eye. Despite the blood, fun was had by all parties. His first question when I picked him up at the airport was "where are we going to hunt deer? There is absolutely no place for them to hide out there." It did not take him long to figure out that the prairie may look desolate, it is not.
Pic of Eva the wonderdog from Sunday's hunt in central Illinois ( 55 degrees!) with custom 16 Fox and Strempel and a composed "afer the hunt" game/guns photo ... 1907 Daly diamond grade and Edgar Strempel 16...... Best regards, JBP
Today was the SC opener for doodles. High expectations were doused by high water everywhere. Four flushes, two down. Floyd's Sadie and Pop did the honors. For the first time in 10 seasons, we couldn't find the first bird which went down like a bag of rocks in relatively open cover. We looked hard and the dogs couldn't find it. In keeping with my Francophilia, the tailgate is on a Citroen baguette delivery truck. Our usual suspects:
My Churchill and I finally got a chance to connect today. Being unusually warm here this time of year makes for a pleasant day. Best wishes for all your hunting endeavors. Karl
I shot a goose today that was wounded and flew left to right about 250 to 300 yards from me but over a small rise in the field. Waited 20 min then walked over there with the dog and no bird to be seen. The dog tracked the bird from right to left about 400 yards before catching up with it. Wounded geese go walkabout, fast. And I expect many other species of birds do the same.
Oh man they will walk for days! Its like the beginning of a Shaft movie. I feel your pain
Originally Posted By: Tamid
GlS
I shot a goose today that was wounded and flew left to right about 250 to 300 yards from me but over a small rise in the field. Waited 20 min then walked over there with the dog and no bird to be seen. The dog tracked the bird from right to left about 400 yards before catching up with it. Wounded geese go walkabout, fast. And I expect many other species of birds do the same.
Today was the SC opener for doodles. High expectations were doused by high water everywhere. Four flushes, two down. Floyd's Sadie and Pop did the honors. For the first time in 10 seasons, we couldn't find the first bird which went down like a bag of rocks in relatively open cover. We looked hard and the dogs couldn't find it. In keeping with my Francophilia, the tailgate is on a Citroen baguette delivery truck. Our usual suspects:
Gil,
Great work as always. I would love to know your favorite way to cook your doodles.
Billy filled in for Floyd today and we planned to leave house at 7 am. I had to cancel because Willa had developed pustules on her inner rear thighs. She had the same problem last year and they were infected which put her out of action. Vet prescribed an antibiotic regime and said she didn't have to ride the pines. She believed they were fire ant bites. Billy was able to come and we left at 9. We found 7 or 8 in tight spots that prevented shots on flushes. Birds were skittish and most of the flushes were un-pointed. Billy's predecessor to the Diana grade 20 ga. Superposed, a gun he inherited from his dad. My R10 20. Bird had a bad feather day.
Caleb, my favorite way is to vertically roast them with skin intact and olive oiled, salted and peppered. The vertical roaster is fashioned from a coat hanger. 500 degrees, in the oven or on a gas grill turned up high, preheated with lid down, cooked rare to medium rare. Note the cast iron semi-skillet which prevents broiling. I serve with sauteed chanterelles.
Brent, Cooking woodcock rare is the best way I've found, after overcooking them when I began to hunt them. When cooked just right, they impart a taste like sweet liver. I generally marinate the breasts and legs. You really should come to woodcock country and try it, hunting them is addictive for sure. I can't wait for October! Karl
Brent, Cooking woodcock rare is the best way I've found, after overcooking them when I began to hunt them. When cooked just right, they impart a taste like sweet liver. I generally marinate the breasts and legs. You really should come to woodcock country and try it, hunting them is addictive for sure. I can't wait for October! Karl
As a kid I shot down trees trying to hit them in NE Minnesota. Now and then in the fall, I find them on my property here in Iowa, but I never have a gun in hand expecting them. I need to try harder.
As a kid I shot down trees trying to hit them in NE Minnesota. Now and then in the fall, I find them on my property here in Iowa, but I never have a gun in hand expecting them. I need to try harder.
The woodcock we killed back when quail were here stayed on the ground in swampy bottoms....don't recall ever seeing one in a tree.
I believe you got your cOcks confused "living on Dave's dOle Brentley"....
Steve Bodio on "it tastes like liver" regarding dark-meated game, especially woodcock:
Quoted in full:
I get tired of hearing how dark- fleshed birds "taste like liver"- good LIVER doesn't taste like liver when it is cooked rare, turned over quickly in hot bacon fat and butter. My disgusted French- born gourmand friend Guy de la Valdene, after he read an American recipe for woodcock that involved two cans of cream of mushroom soup and an hour and a half in the oven, wrote (in Making Game in 1990): "As this recipe negates the whole reason for killing the birds in the first place, why not take it a step further and poach the Woodcock overnight in equal parts of catsup, pabulum, and Pepto- Bismol."
GLS; What you call the semi-skillet in the part of the South I'm from we call a cornbread baker. Thin crusty Corn Pone bread is baked on it, my favorite type of cornbread. It's really good with some Jalapenos chopped up in the batter. You can find these at Lodge, down here in South Pittsburg TN, just off !-24 north of Chattanooga. I still have one of these (Brand unknown) that belonged to my Grandmother, but the handle was broken off long before I had dealings with it. It had belonged to my Father's Mother, but she gave it my Mother after her & dad married. I've eaten a ton of pone bread made on that ole baker.
South Dakota was really good this year. I hunted 29 days for pheasants. I got a new pup in October so he was able to get lots of bird contact. He got better every day. I think the bird numbers were double from last year! Weather was cold but wind was down and precipitation was minimal. I love my Charles Daly 16ga. Overall a super season.
Miller, thanks for the correction. I have an unbranded one on the grill as well as a Lodge. I use a Lodge 5 quart Dutch oven for one pot meals. I have my great-grandmother's unbranded large skillet and a smaller one by Wagner Ware, 10.5". I am done with using "non-stick" coated skillets of which water is eventually the only substance that won't stick. Lodge is still the cheapest around, but it takes some elbow grease to remove the pebbly finish on the modern editions. There has been a resurgence of smaller foundries making lighter, smooth-surfaced skillets such as Field which makes a beautiful cast iron skillet and is priced on the lower end of "boutique" skillets. I use the "corn pone" pan for grilled sandwiches and French toast. Anything that doesn't splatter when cooking. Gil
Dukxdog, that's a fine Daly! Your first picture made me cringe seeing the gun posed on a pile of rocks; then I saw the padding. That's the way to do it...Geo
Gil; Can't prove if it is true or not but recently I read an explanation on the rough finish of most new cast iron. Seems as in the old days the sand mold was given a surface coat of extremely fine sand which gave a smooth finish as cast. Some law now says they cannot use that sand. Apparently, those smaller foundries such as the Field you mention are simply devoting a lot more time in smoothing the finish than Lodge does. I have a 9½" unmarked skillet which is very smooth. The only mark on it is a cast in 7 in a triangle at the base of the handle. Somewhere I did find that the 7 denotes the size of the ring on the bottom, thus the size of the opening it was made for on a wood cook stove. This one checks out exactly. I use this skillet almost every morning in cooking breakfast. For some years now since I retired, I cook breakfast every morning & my Wife does the rest of the cooking. We both like using cast iron.
Some of the finest cast iron griddles, frying pans and dutch ovens were made by Griswold. They've been making cast iron cookware since the 1860s, and I think they're still in business. Fine cookware. Unique trademark using a cross inside a circle.
Griswold Manufacturing. Griswold Manufacturing (/ˈɡrɪzwɔːld, -wəld/) was an American manufacturer of cast iron home products founded in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1865 that finally closed in 1957. For many years the company had a worldwide reputation for high-quality cast-iron cookware.
For a number of years Lodge was known as the only US foundry still making cast iron cookware. There are now several smaller companies in competition with them.
Lodge catalogs what we called the Cornbread Baker as a Griddle. Many local names abound. There is now a differential between a Camp Dutch Oven & a Dutch Oven. What they call a Camp Dutch Oven I always just called a Dutch Oven. Their Dutch Oven without the provisions for putting coals on the lid we called a Bean Pot.
Collectors prize the old cast iron which fetch high prices (for old skillets, that is). I had an old footed, flanged lid Dutch oven that provided great camp meals while duck hunting on boat accessible only rice dikes on the Savannah River. An old Cajun family provided a recipe for duck gumbo/stew based upon a roux that I'd make at home. A dug hole with a charcoal fire inside the hole with the oven on top of the coals and with coals shoveled on the lid then covered with dirt was a low tech slow cooker which provided a stick to your ribs meal at day's end when we'd ceremonially dig up the oven for supper. To get a better than factory seal between lid and pot, I'd use valve grinding compound between lid and pot and spin the lid in place until evenly worn. Here's my cast iron cookware. No dogs harmed in the making of this photo. Abby got curious about the woodcock cooking discussion earlier in this diversion.
My 13 yr. old grandson, Lane, strikes yet again. This afternoon he took another good buck off my land. He saw this one as he was walking to his ground blind about 4:30 this afternoon, and took him cleanly with an offhand shot.
Hey all, had a wonderful day today. My sons and I went out this afternoon for a short hunt and did very well. Weather was great and the company the best! Will and Jim were the hot guns today. Each of them got 2 and I managed 1. Raina did very well and is starting to fill the shoes of the old girl (Duchess). We saw more birds today than in previous hunts. They were on the wild side however, still a great day!
Will, Jim, Raina and our birds. Will used his Bernie Roma 3E and Jim his VS 3EC
Have to show off one of my favorite guns, my J. Blanch 12b
Hey all, well today was out annual Christmas Eve day hunt. Didn't do very well, in fact, no birds at all! Saw some, but they were pretty wild. Still I had a great time with three of the best hunting partners I could have, my boys and my GSP.
My Boss hammer and my FIL’s Grant 28 bore boxlock get into some action. We chased wild birds on public land yesterday to no avail. So today we opted for a preserve hunt. Merry Christmas all!
Limit from my Christmas Eve Dove shoot.....Poor picture, lots of shadows....I was rushing a bit as I was going to be late for Christmas Eve plans......But first things first.....
Came upon this field we had shredded last week prior to Friday's opener.....Doves had found it by yesterday afternoon. I was headed back to the Headquarters with the Bird dogs in the back of the rig when I spotted all these birds working..... Quick glance at my watch showed I had maybe an hour of shooting time. I quickly parked and walked back 200 yards to this tree and took a stand, Birds continued to pour in ahead of today's Cold front and I was able to limit in @40 minutes....
Had a 20 bore FN 28" quail gun with me, and several Doves really got the best of me in the wind.....Was able to scratch this limit out in exactly a Box of AA #8's.....Going back Wednesday with a proper Winter Dove Gun and we'll see if I can even up the odds,
Good Eye for a Superposed Buzz.......While I have had a lot of them over the years, I agree with you this later (@ 1972 onward) version is my preference..... Triggers, top rib, and stock dimensions.....All pretty much perfection in an O/U destined for field use....
Floyd got back in town last night from NM visiting family and despite warm temps and threat of rain, we took Pop and Sadie, his Britts, to some new ground and found some birds. We couldn't get Sadie to come out of the dog box and wear the beret which was a gag Xmas gift to Floyd. He in good nature ribs me about my French guns and boots, etc. As a good sport he wore the beret and held a bird shot with my Darne R10 20 ga. We beat the rain by minutes. Floyd's a professional carver by trade and here is a piece I've shown before. Everything is carved and painted by him including the leaves and grasshopper. He shoots as good as he carves and paints.
Owen, Following the woodcock south after my season closes up here is on my bucket list. New Year's day is the last day of my grouse season, hopefully the weather cooperates. Karl
Hey all, went out today after Church for a short hunt. We had 8" of snow earlier this week and with the drifting, it covered up a lot of the good cover. So we were limited to where we could hunt for the short time we were out. We did see birds, but wild or hens. Raina did very well today, very happy with her this year. Jim was the only one who managed a bird today. Too bad Will couldn't, his leave is about up and he has to get back to Ft Carson. It was a great day with my sons!
Here's Will with his Merkel 16ga Royal, Raina and Jim with his Victor Sarasqueta 3CE
Jim, Very sorry to hear of Larry’s passing. The lanyard depicted arrived this summer, and was my third order from Larry over the past 10 years. He was always a gentleman in our dealings and really took pride in his craft.
Two grandsons and I last Friday morning in a big blind in the L 'Anguille river bottoms near Caldwell, AR. I took my 32" HE Fox, and killed a full limit that morning........ four mallards, a widgeon and a gaddie. What few ducks there were worked really good. They liked our setup. The #4 bismuth handloads worked great, as usual. That's the blind's kitchen in the background. I've hunted in that blind for the last 20 years. It's the best built floating blind I've ever seen.
We ended the morning with 16 mallards, 2 widgeon and a gadwall. Some of them had been loaded into the other boat when pic was taken.
Pretty fancy blind Stan. I hope those boys appreciate the chance to hunt with their Grand-Daddy in that fine a fashion. Nice bag of birds as well...Geo
They had a ball, Geo. I tried to show them all the sights, too. The pyramid Bass Pro, ate ribs at The Rendezvous, took 'em down to Mack's in Stuttgart, and another duck lodge down near Marianna.
That blind cost the purchaser $38K in about 1996-7. I remember him distinctly saying it cost him more than his first house. It has 8 shooting holes, a dog ramp on each end, and two covered boat slips. It all looks like a big oak tree top that fell in the water, after it's been freshly brushed up each year. Absolutely huge. The reason it has lasted all these years so well is that the bottoms usually dry up in the spring and it sits on dry ground all summer and much of the fall, until the L 'Anguille floods again the next fall-winter.
My gunsmith buddy opened up the chokes on my AYA 10 ga Magnum. Got to take it out today. Not the best hunting day of my life, but it's gotta be in the top 10.
I love pics like that RARiddell. What a great day for him, and you. My youngest grandson killed his first mallard while in the blind with me last Saturday.
I had to resort to somewhat old technology yesterday as I couldn't find my digital scale so I used my 40+ year-old RCBS 1010. Both scales are tag-teaming me, alternately hiding, as I couldn't find the RCBS for two years and then stumbled on it where I put it while unsuccessfully looking for my Lyman digital which I put some place secure after turkey season. I rolled up some woodcock loads for today. I think we'll finally have some cool, dry weather after temps in the 80s when it wasn't raining cats and dogs and snakes. Using a Manufrance (MF) roll crimper, MF adjustable shot/powder dipper, MF 16 ga. shotshell loading block, and Cheddite paper hulls, I loaded few shells for my 1930's MF Ideal 302 16 ga. No, I don' t celebrate Bastille Day. Floyd, Sadie, Pop and I had a good day today on the nicest weather day we've had this year. Gil
No pic, but another 15 bird limit on an early morning dove shoot, with the new FAIR Iside Tartaruga Gold .410 S X S. Beautiful morning, and challenging for a .410. Old, mature doves in a blustery, gusty wind. Shot a bit under 50%.
This .410 thing is a sickness. Ten years ago I'd never have believed I would be choosing a .410 to shoot late season doves. You couldn't knock the grin off my face with a baseball bat when I dishrag a big, mature bird with it at 30 yards.
Stan I am glad you had such a great day. Wish I was there with you. The .410 is a bit of an obsession with me as well. But to be honest, if I was stuck with the ammo, powders hulls of just ten years ago I would not be hunting with one even now. I am sure there is a little more performance that they can squeeze out of a .410 but not that much more. The wimpy factory loads back then did not have enough stream to work much past 20 yards. Now 30 is within reason and even 33-35 under decent conditions. I just have the feeling I am at the point in my life that the range will be going down all too soon. Until then Doves beware.
The WW 3/4 oz. loads have made all the difference for me. Against all conventional wisdom, they pattern beautifully. And kill all out of proportion to how they should.
I have worked up a "very close to 3/4 oz. load" of nickel plated no. 8s that will likely have to wait until next season to be truly tested on doves. I had to try to improve on the WW load, but unless the handload shows me something really special, it ain't going to be worth the trouble. We'll see.
Praiseworthy accomplishment indeed, Stan..... I don't know if it will make me break out my 30" .410 for a try at doves before it expires next week......
The casual September Dove gunner will usually find his comeuppance when he gets his first exposure to a wind blown field of big, wary, well experienced late season Mourners.... Two different games.... I had my hands full yesterday on similar quarry , and was shooting a 32" 20 bore with LOTS of choke...I don't know if time , and or enough opportunities inside 30 yards would have gotten me a .410 limit even if I was performing at your level.....Nice job....
Hello Daryl! The first gun is very rare French O&U gun made by Revolie The second one you know - superbritte The third one is Germany gun without triggers... Regards Marat
Jeff, Floyd, Abby, Willa and I (dog wrangler and flusher) hunted a new place today with good results. Floyd's Ithaca SKB 100, my Darne R10 and Jeff's Uggie, all 20 ga. Beautiful day with an early start to hunt while still cool; easy on both the four-legged and two-legged old dogs. Some good dog work today. Gil
Hey all, well, today was the last day of our bird hunting season. For us, it was a tough one. I have to say it's been the worst season I've had in many a year. Bird numbers were way down, lots of lost cover due to last years drought and the weather was screwy as well. Still, it's always great to get out with my son and of course my Raina. The best part of this season is it was a safe one. No one got hurt, both man and dog. I only hope that this winter will be a mild one and nesting season is good. We need a rebound. Thanks to all who have made so many nice comments and kind words on the pictures and posts that I've made this season. They truly are appreciated! One last thanks to the good Lord and St Hubert for helping us get the birds we did.
Jim and I went out east yesterday to hunt one of friends farm (by Pettibone), they got a lot more snow and drifting than we did. Some areas were dry, but for the most part the snow was pretty deep, tough getting thru in some areas. I did manage one, but Jim didn't connect. I used my 12b Henry Atkin
Today (the last day) it was pretty windy (20+mph). I hunted around around the house and was darn lucky to get a couple. Raina did very well today, even in the wind we had. So a good ending to the season. I was using my 12ga Siace
Thank you Jon and Paul. It is fun. I am still learning about the chokes that came with the gun, C,IC, M and F. The F is .034". That is a very, very tight constriction for a .410, but it shows promise on the pattern plate. Haven't tried it on doves yet. Have only used a combination of IC and M, which has worked admirably so far. A really good shot, which I am not, could get some fabulous results with that F choke tube, based on what I saw on the plate.
The trick for me with these tiny guns is the shooting style employed. I cannot shoot them the same way I do my long barreled 20s or 16s, especially not the 12s. With them I intercept the bird, track it very briefly, then hammer. With the .410s, and even some of my very lightweight 20s or 16s, I find that I must almost snap shoot the bird. Since I am wanting the dove to get closer for a .410 anyway I wait a bit longer, on an incomer, for the bird to get closer before I make my move. The old blues song says, "Never make your move too soon". I remind myself of that when shooting the .410s. When I do make my move to mount I fire almost as soon as the gun hits my shoulder pocket. No tracking, no sustained lead. It's almost an instinctive type of shot, and it works for me with the lil' guns. Trick is, I have to make myself do it that way. It's not natural for me, and by the time I've reverted to that shooting style again I've already racked up a bevy of misses.
Maybe time will help that. I know one thing .............I'm having the most fun shooting doves I've ever had in my life. Here's to a 75%, late season, .410 dove day.
Jan 4th and T-shirt weather in Nebraska. This is my older Springer Lucy and I with her first pointed rooster. She is a great flushing dog but four years ago she started occasionally pointing tight holding birds, usually hens. This was the first rooster that held for a point and we put it in the bag.
Illinois requires non-toxic shot for some of their "public" pheasant hunts. Photo below is from a recent Carlyle Lake pheasant hunt. I handload 1 ounce of #5 NICE shot with a spreader wad, since the Lefever's 30" steel barrels are still original full choke; and most of the shots are over points within 30 yards.
This Lefever went through a full restoration by Buck Hamlin a few years ago. With semi-fancy new wood it is probably nicer that when it originally left the factory. Works fine.
I had one of the strangest experiences yesterday in the woodcock woods. I got an alert from Abby's gps collar that she was on point 125 yards out. As I started hightailing it towards her location, I heard Willa's bell to my left running with another dog, whose or where it came from I didn't know. I closed in on Abby on point and should have seen her standing there. All I saw at 25 feet was her blue collar, the gps unit and her bell on the ground. I thought that dog running with Willa looked familiar. Sometimes you just get lucky.
Today I went with Jeff, Floyd, Pop and Sadie. We downed 6 but only recovered 5. Floyd's gun was AWOL from photo but not from the action. It was a beautiful day in the woods. Gil
Thanks, Karl. Lowpoint of today was Pop rolling in a greasy, decomposing wild hog carcass. We tried washing her down with muddy, water, but he still stunk to high heavens. Gil
Gil, my Scout doesn’t think it’s a good day without some serious carcass rolling. Lol
But the worst by far was getting my two dogs, Ed & Will, home from a park in Toronto after both had been sprayed by Pepe Le Pue. Willie had the skunk juice dripping off her muzzle. I couldn’t smell anything for three days after. Was like my olfactory system had been scorched.
Buck Hamlin does amazing restorations. He has decided to focus mostly on metalwork. I don't think he is accepting new restocking jobs, but is still doing wood stock restorations.
I hunted pheasant with this Lefever again this week; and limited both days at Carlyle, Illinois.
Last hunt in central Illinois before the snowstorm arrives tonight.......Good day for Eva the wonder dog and a 1906 Sauer model XIV E 16 ga. roundtop. RST & Polywad spreaders deliver great patterns for the tightly choked 29 1/2” barrels! Best Regards, JBP
Nope, but I've got a bill to him for $860 dollars now, and growing rapidly as you continue to spew your garbage. Thanks for contributing to my retirement fund.
He’s “sick”. Is that your diagnosis of jOe, Brent ? You have a Ph.D. in ecology, not psychology, right? “Ph.D” stands for what.?.....”Piled Higher and Deeper” ??
You should spend your time learning something about guns since you know jack sh*t about them and stop causing problems here with your liberal agenda. Maybe if you study the guns you could stop with all the dumbass questions and contribute something useful other than your useless liberal agenda push, which the majority of us here, don’t agree with.
Floyd, Sadie, Pop and I did some R&D in a place we've never hunted before. It has potential. Season is out in a week in GA and at month's end in SC. Abby and Willa are in rotation for Wednesday and hope springs eternal. Gil
Closed out the GA dove season this morning with one more shoot on the sunflower field. It has really produced this year, and held the birds constantly since Sept. 1. That is usually not the case, but who's complaining?
I was thinking seriously last evening about taking a bigger bore gun, a 20, 16 or even (shudder) a 12. But, I opened the season with the Dickinson .410 and made the decision to close it with the new FAIR Iside .410. So glad I did. The birds cooperated, in a way, by showing up. But, it was the most challenging shooting of the year because of the bird's speed, wariness and aerobatics. We're not going to be talking percentages here, if you get my drift.
Nice, clean 15 bird limit of big old healthy birds. Don't that little gun look tiny in comparison to those big old birds?
No more new dove pics until September, cross my heart.
Stan, how do you manage the sunflowers to hold birds that long? And how do you grow them at all with so many deer around? I'm able to grow browntop but I can't grow sunflowers. The deer eat them as soon as they come up.
Gil, you've had another great season. Good luck with the rest of it.
Stan, how do you manage the sunflowers to hold birds that long? And how do you grow them at all with so many deer around? I'm able to grow browntop but I can't grow sunflowers. The deer eat them as soon as they come up.
Steve, I really don't know for certain why they stayed in the sunflowers this year so long. They usually don't. But, this year has not been normal. The winter has been extremely wet, but more importantly to this issue, extremely warm. I was told many years ago by some supposedly knowledgeable game officials, that in cold weather, doves can't get enough energy to survive from sunflowers, that they will need a better source of energy, like cornfields or peanut fields. There's been no cold this winter to speak of. Maybe that's part of it ?
Deer? Arghhhh!! They're my nemesis. Our best method to keep them out, so far, has been keeping a heavy band of milorganite all the way around the field until they get almost mature. You have to replace it after every significant rain event, but it helps tremendously. A deer proof fence might be better, but the capital investment up front can be prohibitive.
Deer? Arghhhh!! They're my nemesis. Our best method to keep them out, so far, has been keeping a heavy band of milorganite all the way around the field until they get almost mature. You have to replace it after every significant rain event, but it helps tremendously. A deer proof fence might be better, but the capital investment up front can be prohibitive.
SRH
A 3-wire, stand-off electric fence works pretty well to keep deer out of our garden and orchard. It is pretty cheap and easy too.
There is a better video of this type of fencing, but I can't find it. The spatial configuration is pretty obvious however and that's the key.
Last hunt in central Illinois before the snowstorm arrives tonight.......Good day for Eva the wonder dog and a 1906 Sauer model XIV E 16 ga. roundtop. RST & Polywad spreaders deliver great patterns for the tightly choked 29 1/2” barrels! Best Regards, JBP
You're right. From personal experiences of friends of mine they do work, and we have looked into them. But, when you start considering putting them on large acreages it gets pretty expensive ..............and bothersome. What they don't tell you is that when it doesn't work for one deer, and they run through it, they drag and scatter the wire all over the place. I tried it on a 12 acre field, which is really small, and it was a disaster. For some reason unbeknownst to me, it works on small food plots but not on big fields.
Trust me, there is no easy answer to the deer problem here, right now. Except CWD, and that doesn't seem to exist in the Deep South.
Closed out the GA dove season this morning with one more shoot on the sunflower field. It has really produced this year, and held the birds constantly since Sept. 1. That is usually not the case, but who's complaining?
I was thinking seriously last evening about taking a bigger bore gun, a 20, 16 or even (shudder) a 12. But, I opened the season with the Dickinson .410 and made the decision to close it with the new FAIR Iside .410. So glad I did. The birds cooperated, in a way, by showing up. But, it was the most challenging shooting of the year because of the bird's speed, wariness and aerobatics. We're not going to be talking percentages here, if you get my drift.
Nice, clean 15 bird limit of big old healthy birds. Don't that little gun look tiny in comparison to those big old birds?
No more new dove pics until September, cross my heart.
SRH
Nice shooting chair Stan. Cabela's? I think I have the same one...swivels?
A 3-wire, stand-off electric fence works pretty well to keep deer out of our garden and orchard. It is pretty cheap and easy too.
There is a better video of this type of fencing, but I can't find it. The spatial configuration is pretty obvious however and that's the key.
You're right. From personal experiences of friends of mine they do work, and we have looked into them. But, when you start considering putting them on large acreages it gets pretty expensive ..............and bothersome. What they don't tell you is that when it doesn't work for one deer, and they run through it, they drag and scatter the wire all over the place. I tried it on a 12 acre field, which is really small, and it was a disaster. For some reason unbeknownst to me, it works on small food plots but not on big fields.
Trust me, there is no easy answer to the deer problem here, right now. Except CWD, and that doesn't seem to exist in the Deep South.
Closed out the GA dove season this morning with one more shoot on the sunflower field. It has really produced this year, and held the birds constantly since Sept. 1. That is usually not the case, but who's complaining?
I was thinking seriously last evening about taking a bigger bore gun, a 20, 16 or even (shudder) a 12. But, I opened the season with the Dickinson .410 and made the decision to close it with the new FAIR Iside .410. So glad I did. The birds cooperated, in a way, by showing up. But, it was the most challenging shooting of the year because of the bird's speed, wariness and aerobatics. We're not going to be talking percentages here, if you get my drift.
Nice, clean 15 bird limit of big old healthy birds. Don't that little gun look tiny in comparison to those big old birds?
No more new dove pics until September, cross my heart.
SRH
Nice shooting chair Stan. Cabela's? I think I have the same one...swivels?
Yes! Good eye. It's the best swivel chair I've ever seen. And, get this. I got it for nothing!! I drove out to a center pivot irrigation system in a field right behind my house about a year ago and it was just sitting there. Someone who evidently did not know who owned the land had left it there. I was thinking just today how many nice ladder stands and stuff I have confiscated over the years. But, this chair is the ultimate. Cabela's doesn't sell them anymore, but I found one offered on eBay for some crazy price. Pretty comfy for this 67 yr. old dude.
Twenty five acres, which is what our sunflower field is, is a small dove field around here. I have shot 60 acre sunflower fields. That's a lot of wire. Thanks for the suggestion, tho'. It may come to that. But, in the meantime I'll keep hoping for CWD.
Stan, sounds like a great morning. That little Dickinson is a fine looking shotgun. A friend has had it with electric fences and he has had ample experience with electric fences, dove fields and deer. On his 30 acre sunflower, benne, corn field in Jenkins County, he built a gated high wire fence similar to what is used in high fence deer operations. It works. It also excludes hogs, coons, etc. He had a shoot Sunday at his other place with 500-600 birds in about 30 acres of corn and sunflowers as the guns went out into the field at 2 pm. They got up and they never came back. Here today; gone today. Gil
Our sunflower 'plots' aren't plots they are any where north of 160 acres usually 620 acres. We don't have a dove season up here but we do have an elk season
I've seen pics of the huge prairie sunflower fields in Alberta, and the pea fields, Tamid. That's a different world. While there are some larger fields here (100 to 300 acres), many are broken up by woodlots or old fencerows into smaller, odd shaped fields. You could never "hem the birds up", doves I mean, to have shoots like we do, in huge fields like that. We've tried for years to shoot big fields successfully, but it almost never results in a good shoot. Guns need to be far enough apart for safety, but close enough together that the doves don't light on the ground between the guns to feed.
A 25-30 acre field, dedicated to sunflower or other crop attractive to doves, works well for up to 15-20 people. And, it can also be shot successfully by as few as 6-8. And, it costs a whole lot less to plant and cultivate than a 100 acre field. It's an expensive proposition, growing sunflowers properly. But, well worth it when you love dove shooting like I do.
SRH
P.S. The best thing to ensure lots of doves on a field around here is to have the only one within several miles, tho' that's out of our control, generally. One of the best dove fields I ever shot over was a little 10 acre field near Summerville, SC that was smack dab in the middle of thousands of acres of pine plantation. There was no agriculture of any kind, and the doves were drawn to that planting like gnats to a dog's rear end. Unbelievable. It belonged to a friend's Dad. He and I killed our limits that afternoon with m/l doubles and black. What fun!! We were the first ones to limit and be off the field. We took a lot of ribbing that day about creating so much smoke.
Stan, You mentioned CWD, above, it is coming. I understand they found a case in Mississippi last year, not that far from the Ala. line. Next year, we won't be able to use anything with natural doe urine in it, artificial will be OK. Importation of nonresident deer is strictly prohibited and "parts" are highly regulated. I dread it. Mike
I'm not sure what to think about CWD, it has been here for years. We had a huge die off in the local Mule Deer populations a dozen or so years ago, not sure what caused it. They have bounced back in a big way now. I know CWD is still here in Colorado but we hear much less about it than we did some time back.
I don’t know if it was CWD but a few years ago we had a big die off in very small areas. Every deer in a two mile area was dead. We are talking several hundred deer. They took samples but I never heard what they decided the cause was. It hit so fast the it burned out before it could spread. It sounded like a viral problem with both short incubation time and rapid death. Had the incubation period been longer or the death phase been longer it could have spread far and wide. It was a bit sad seeing all those dead deer in such a small area. That was just one location but I heard several others occurred. This was back in the Eastern Shore area in MD.
Way to go, Emory! What memories that brings to recall!
If he needs a S x S .410 a little later to carry awhile, I've got a Stoeger Uplander, on which I shortened the buttstock, for my grandsons. They've outgrown it and it sits languishing in the safe. It would really like to be carried by a kid again. He's welcome to use it at no charge. Dings and scratches added to it would only enhance it's "charm". Just let me know.
Excellent. Mine graduated to 20s pretty swiftly, too.
If I may take a little Grandad privilege, and I know it's an old pic, but this one is just so special to me. Grandson Jackson at age 9 with the Stoeger .410 after an early season dove shoot. All 9 killed on the wing.
I surely hope you get that opportunity. We've a newish granddaughter too, Karl, at 6 mos. old. Hope to get to make those memories again with a little "tomboy". But, if she's too girly for all the gun stuff, well that's alright, too. She'll be special in her own way, whatever.
We closed out the Ga.season today in both new and old territory. Abby and Willa did better than we did; lots of great dog work and escapees which isn't a bad thing. It's been a fine season and my 90 year-old mother sure enjoys eating woodcock as does the family. We've got 10 days from today in SC and we haven't been there since opening day. We were lucky to find new ground as high water kept us out of 3 of our prime areas. Gil
67galaxie (Keith) and I helped a friend out with his aggravating farm pond geese this morning. Put up a blind and decoys and called them in. The guns are my G&S Holloway and Keith's A Grade Fox. Bismuth 5's did the job...Geo
67galaxie (Keith) and I helped a friend out with his aggravating farm pond geese this morning. Put up a blind and decoys and called them in. The guns are my G&S Holloway and Keith's A Grade Fox. Bismuth 5's did the job...Geo
Geo,
Is that the farm pond between the peanut fields and the golf course where you shot those Pterodactyl sized geese earlier? Sounds like Georgia may just get some snow and you guys will be in for some northern style geese shooting. Great work and great guns!
Jaeger, I understand your point. Different farm pond, but still non-migratory giant Canadas. Thoroughly wild but likely hatched on a golf course and fledged on a steady diet of pesticide laden mole crickets. Only goose hunt available down here.
Bring on the snow, we rarely see it. Don't worry about me though, I've paid my dues in the frigid vastness of many a Saskatchewan grain field. Cold enough to shock a hot blooded South GA boy anyhow...Geo
I would take that hunt any day of the week. If I may make a suggestion, this is a fantastic way to prepare fat Canada Goose breast. (though I would skip the scotch step unless you like to have some sweetness in the meat)
Had a nice morning with Mills on some new haunts. Beautiful habitat but Abby backed by Willa found only one bird. Mills had the shot and his beauty of a 28 ga. Parker (circa 1903) was golden on the bird. Mills's 6 months old Britt Sherwood photo bombed the picture. Gil
Gil, that VH Parker 28 is a treasure. I'll bet Mills has NEVER missed a woodcock with it. Thanks for sharing.
67Galaxie and I wrapped up the duck season by overlooking the still rain swollen duck hole on the river we usually have such good luck on. We dropped one woodie hen and Stella retrieved. Keith's dog Si wanted to share the retrieve as soon as Stella hit the dry ground, and we were off to the races, with Keith in hot pursuit. A large man, in waders, chasing two yellow labs fighting over a duck through a river bottom is a sight to behold.
Result was one mangled hen not photogenic enough for a farewell to the season pic. Another one's in the book (and I've treasured the memories of about 60 duck seasons) unless we decide to invade Canada for snow geese in April. Probably not...Geo
Gil I have watched many of woodcock during turkey season dance. Even watched one to other day that seemed to be rocking out to some old original rock and roll, but I have never hinted them. I have admired a few but only a few. You are lucky!
Keith, we are lucky to be in an area that seems to be a decent wintering ground for the doodles. Not to the extent that Louisiana has, but enough to keep us busy. We are also blessed without much competition. It takes dogs to be consistently successful and with the decline (where I have I read that word recently?) of wild quail, there are fewer and fewer bird dogs that hunt. All it would take to end our success would be for Eastern Shore farmers in the DelMarVA region to start farming worms like they did grain crops which interfered with duck migration patterns...
Faced with going to an unhunted honey hole from years past, a little too close to newly built residences, and going back to old grounds, but in spots we've never hunted, we opted for dog safety and went back to old grounds. Today was the last day of the season. After seeing a recent video of Louisiana woodcocking in wet pine flats, we tried that and found two birds in a spot we've never hunted. We missed one in an adjacent bottom. Here's the 3 minute video the hunt in Louisiana's pine flats. I wonder how often the hunter has to change the batteries in these dogs. Floyd's Sadie and Pop. Sadie in the photo. "we don't need no stinkin' batteries". Season's end; a good one. Finis. Peeent! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGnyWoWxyKE
While there is one more day of snipe season, this was my closer of snipe and "small" bird season. The Main Event starts next month. I started this morning hunting by myself, and struggled with birds getting up out of range. I ended teaming up with John and Bob who changed plans at last minute to go. Three of us kept them moving from field to field, back and forth. Gun is my 93 year-old Darne R-10 16 ga. which is the toughest 16 I have and that includes my pumps. Gil
What constitutes ‘toughest’ re Darne 16? How do you cook those snipe birds where they are good? Are they delicious, or only kind of palatable? They look similar to woodcock, which are ok, but I usually only want a few bites....then, move on to the Grouse.
Toughest? It'll shoot, extract and eject modern 1 oz. loads; loads that give my old pumps hell, for instance Herter's game loads that I wouldn't dare shoot in my English boxlocks. Steel heads replacing brass heads have caused problems with many older repeater guns and for that matter, some fairly modern, in extracting and ejecting. Last week while shooting snipe with a 1959 M12 16 shooting the same shells, I'd get one shot and then with both hands to force the slide downward to extract and eject which hasn't happened with other ammo. I have a modern 870 12 that gags on RGL but shoots Winchester promos fine. Snipe are at the top of the list of gamebirds for the table IMO--milder than dove with a layer of white fat between skin and meat. Cook them rare to medium rare; overcooked, you might as well have cow liver on a stick. Same with woodcock. Here's some snipe I plucked and cleaned a few years ago:
Olive oil, salt and pepper, roasted quickly at 500 in the oven or gas grill, lid down with indirect heat. I make vertical roasting racks out of coat hangers which can cook 4 dove, snipe or woodcock at a time. Here's two ready to eat woodcock on a roaster:
John, that RBL isn't your old one. That is my 16 ga. It doesn't have near the wood, but it's light enough for carry and has plenty of horsepower. I have developed quite the fondness for the CSMC RBL. I've picked up a 28 and 20 ga also. The 16 ga is the shortest of the bunch with it's 29 in barrels.
John, that RBL isn't your old one. That is my 16 ga. It doesn't have near the wood, but it's light enough for carry and has plenty of horsepower. I have developed quite the fondness for the CSMC RBL. I've picked up a 28 and 20 ga also. The 16 ga is the shortest of the bunch with it's 29 in barrels.
It was a guess, but I thought the sun angle may have kept the wood from showing up. Should have known you weren't traipsing around the prairie withe the 32" nine-pounder. JR
Not a Very Good photo, but that is fitting......It was definitely NOT a Very Good bird season......... Last Sunday was the final day of the Texas Quail Season....... Weather was favorable and my dogs deserved an outing.....
I had restricted myself to a self imposed daily limit one third of the State bag limit for this seasons hunts.....I had quit shooting birds on the 15th of January.....Just running dogs for the exercise
There are a couple of dogs in this bunch that may not see another season, so I decided to get out and make some favorable memories..... Pretty nice finish to a poor season.... We hit the ground running at 4:00 pm and found 7 coveys before dark..... I set my sights on taking a dozen for an end of season meal.... I shot them pretty well considering that I was trying to limit myself to shooting only cock birds.....Almost made it clean too. The bag includes 11 Bobs and only a single hen (second bird of a double).....Started out on a roll with the first seven in the bag without a miss....Thought for a minute I might be returning to the form I showed as a youngster..... but averages soon caught up with me, I was having to take more marginal shots as evening approached and I was still short of my goal of a 12 bird bag.....Finished up with 16 empties in my coat......Birds were in good shape and uniformly healthy......
I shot fewer quail this season than in any year since I was 12 years old....that was the '62-63 season.....
Paul, great photo. Hard to tell which are the old dogs except there's a little white/grey over the Britt's eyes. Good day by any standard. It's amazing TX had a population crash after the season ending in 2018. Gil
No turkeys, but, pheasants in Olgilvie, MN. On Friday past:
The boy, dog, a friend, and I went to Pheasant Ridge. I had been promising a trip to the game farm for, well, all winter, but, it would snow about a foot every weekend for the last 5 months, or, be -50 degrees at high noon. The trip was a comedy of errors. The kid forgot his boots (remembered TWO devices, games for both and vehicle charging systems, however) and only hunted about half the day in tennis shoes. The owner’s dog decided to join us early on, and I had to catch the pooch, (8 month old male German Stupid Pointer) walk him through standing corn and sorghum by his collar, and return him to where he belonged, maybe a half mile away. Nice enough pooch, but my Setter was terrified of him. I had my friend Bill along, and some of you might remember a Bruchet Darne R11 that was reviewed in Shooting Sportsman back in the 1990s- that gun, along with Bill, took a swim in a creek that was way deeper than it looked. If you could convince them to build you that gun today, I’d bet it would blow a big hole in 10K. I did not intend to shoot (vision issues from surgery to repair a detached retina) and did not even bring a gun, but, when my kid could no longer stand his wet and cold feet, I took his gun, a Mossberg youth 20 gauge with a 26” barrel fitted by me, and knocked a rooster down that Louise nailed, in what would have been a magazine cover quality point on the edge of standing corn. Next point, I muffed, having forgotten to pump the little 20 gauge. Bill picked up a few birds off Louie’s points, and then we called it quits. It was a beautiful day, and, inspite of everything, pretty fun.
Turkey hunting buddy Billy has a business connection with a European company, Yadloof & Lirpasti LTD, dba Y&L Timberlands (Y&L), which is the largest foreign consortium controlling timberland in Georgia. We were given access to an 8500 acre Y&L tract along the Savannah River, loaded with turkeys, this past Saturday. In an effort to ameliorate the often bitter and contentious discussion of turkey ammo-TSS vs. lead-what better readily available substance than a load consisting of granulated sugar be utilized to sweeten and add to the controversy? Using 5/8 oz. (pellet count in the thousands) which was the most I could cram into the VP92 wad and a Fiocchi 3" 20 ga. hull. Even with what I would consider to be ballistic grade Dixie Crystals Sugar (locally refined cane sugar) with a muzzle velocity of 1700 fps, I knew it would take a close-in shot to be effective. Another downside is that neither Permethrin nor Deet can deter the ants once they discover what's in your pocket. Here's the results from Saturday. My experiment with the sugar shot was successful. Lowcountry swamp bird, 20 steps. Gun is my Baikal MP18 20 gauge. Considering that a 4 pound bag of Dixie Crystals Sugar (Imperial Sugar) at Walmart is $3.37, this beats the cost of lead shot and obviously TSS by a wide margin. Currently not legal in any states but sometimes I can't help myself.
Gil, You can get little packets of cane sugar crystals at Starbucks for free. Look to be about the size of #7 shot. Sounds like maybe right down your alley. We know it’s April 1, but still.....Maybe jOe would be interested too, if he reloads?
Anyone interested in hunting the 750,000 acres in Ga. of Y&L for quail, deer, turkey and woodcock free of charge, a clue to contact Y&L is contained in the full name: Yadloof & Lirpasti LTD . Read Yadloof & Lirpasti backwards beginning with the letter "i" in Lirpasti. Gil
CB, Gil needs to buy that 8 ga Parker in the other thread....I bet he could kill a turkey with sugar cane crystals out of that thing. KaBOOM.
Kaboom is right and I think you are on the right path Buzz. That 8 bore would do the trick. Gil might need a gun bearer though. I suspect his gun carrying muscles have atrophied carrying those little pixie dust pea shooters!
James, The game farm is what it is. But, my son passed his hunter safety course last fall, and missed his first season of actual hunting, instead of just tagging along, on account of me losing the vision in my left eye.
Ted, don't discourage the boy's gaming; the skills he develops with them may support your nursing home bills in the future. Keep him in the woods though, it'll make a better man of him. Best Wishes...Geo
Sounds like the boy already learned one of life’s lesson on his outing with Dad to the bird field. And, that is the FOUR P’s.....prior planning promotes performance. With that, I bet the boy doesen’t forget his boots again on another cold MN winter day.
Ted, an old friend told me that fishing with kids and fishing are two different things. Same can be said about hunting and shooting. However, it sounds like a good day all around.
Today, I went back to where I missed a bird opening day with my 20 ga. I didn't miss him today. Yildiz TK36 single-shot .410, 7/8 oz. of #9.5 SOSAM (Spawn of Satan Anti-Matter). 25-30 steps. I got drenched going after him through Tupelo and cypress swamps. The bike got me about 3 miles in from the locked gate. Old age and treachery...Gil
I've got handlebar gun mounts. With this gun weighing 3.25 lbs., it's just as easy to sling it over my shoulders. I don't like a rough ride possibly affecting the red dot's zero and my body absorbs the jolts better than the handlebar mounts. The crate on the bike rack can carry all gear, lunch, water and a grown bird. Gil
If I find the right places to hunt, I would bike again, but I'd buy a suspension mountain bike. Amazing what they do with bikes today. But then they cost more that really nice guns...
My M500 Cannondale was made between 1993-1999. I bought it used 10 years ago for turkey hunting and have used it also on snipe where the fields are up to a mile and a half from the parking lot. No shock absorbers other than me. Gil
Nice bird Brent. Turkey season just opened here two days ago. It’s snowing this morning. And the season runs through to the end of May. Time yet.
My weekend is taken up with a course and exams to qualify for purchasing a hand gun and/or other restricted weapons. A costly reminder that we have no gun or property rights in Canada, only privileges. BTW if I say I want a hand gun for self defence, that will automatically disqualify me from getting my licence.
Brent, granddad's gun lives another season! Good going. Geo, John scored a nice one. Still going here. According to a biologist, we lost a lot of young birds due to the past two hurricanes. Folks who normally do well are having a time just hearing one. Two and half more weeks....Gil
I got to get crackin'. I slacked off after taking a week fishing in the Everglades. However, I guess I've reached the age where it is OK to live vicariously through the successes of my children...Geo
Brent, granddad's gun lives another season! Good going. Geo, John scored a nice one. Still going here. According to a biologist, we lost a lot of young birds due to the past two hurricanes. Folks who normally do well are having a time just hearing one. Two and half more weeks....Gil
In dressing the bird, I found a couple pieces of shot. No big deal but I was shooting Remington #6 copper plated, and the first piece I found was decidedly smaller and w/o copper.
The copper plate measures about 0.118" which is a bit large for #6 but maybe plated shot runs larger than unplated.
The unplated piece measures about 0.110". There were a few other wounds in the bird, at least two were feather inclusions in the breast that may have been pulled in there by shot, but no shot was found in them. They were partly healed.
In any event, it looks like someone tried but failed to kill him earlier this year, but he came in pretty strong and acting totally normal.
I haven't been posting pictures this year, but I've had a good turkey season so far, getting limits in AL and GA. The little Yildiz 20 gauge continues to work well with TSS#9. This was my last AL bird and had one of the thickest beards I've seen. Good luck to all still turkey hunting.
Had a good morning last week in Wisconsin. Could not keep my eyes open for the life of me and my head was bouncing around like a bobble head doll. Opened my eyes to this tom bumping into my jake decoy, he was all fanned out and drumming and spitting like crazy.
My wife thinks my snoring called him in!!! Congrats to all that have had some luck in this wonderful sport.
The birds here were still flocked up in large groups until about 2 weeks ago. This bird and his buddy wanted nothing to do with a hen decoy the day before. I put out the jake deke the morning I killed him and he came in quiet.
Tunes, nice work and bird. Here's my hunting buddy for today.
I've caught and brought home more than my share of canebrakes, but I never could make myself pick up one of those mean-eyed looking rascals. I can predict a rattler pretty well .......... not them cottonmouths.
67galaxie and I hunted together this morning. We went to a produce farm he has access to. Since neither of us has scored yet this year and both wanted to kill one, we split up and hunted separately.
The season ends tomorrow, but today was my last chance. I set up on a small plowed wheat field/food plot (about ten acres). The temperature was in the 50's with low humidity after about three weeks of near summer heat and moisture. I began hearing birds just before 6:00, including one gobbler across the creek from me. Just at daylight, four hens flew from roost on the near side of the creek down into the field in front of me.
The gobbler had stopped talking when he flew down on the other side of the creek, but he responded to my calling, crossed the creek and came in silent. He got by me where it was my best shot and when I saw him he was strutting at my decoy. He was 55 to 60 yards out in the field at that point. Although he continued moving and strutting he kept that distance the whole time. I was using TSS #7's in my single shot 20ga and probably could have rolled him, but I was sure he'd come on in sooner or later. I try never to shoot at a turkey unless he's within 40 yards, and just didn't have the confidence in the TSS to make the longer shot and risk wounding a bird, so I waited. He finally gave up on my decoy because she wouldn't come to him, and he walked off to join the other hens in the field. Something spooked them at the other end of the field and that was the end of my hunt. Skunked for the year!
I thought I had heard 67galaxie shoot but wasn't sure. We'd agreed to meet at ten o'clock and he showed up with a really nice gobbler. Pix are below and I'm sure he'll tell the story of his bird...Geo
Thanks again for going with me. It's never a dull moment! As mentioned it was a beautiful morning all the way around. I dropped Geo off, hid the truck and walked for what seemed like a mile. I set up in the grey light and hunkered down. The bullfrogs and swamp birds started singing behind me. I called once on a slate and once on a glass pot call since I had put out two hen decoys. At 630am I see a big red head pop up at 25 yards where he had apparently just landed. He walked in beard swinging. The big tom slowed down, mounted one of my decoys and had his way with her. He had that look in his eye that all was right in the world when he finally lifted his head back up. I swear he smiled. That's when I dropped him with a very fine old fox I received from this very group. I was absolutely tickled! Not wanting to mess Geo's morning up so early I hung around in the woods watching the wild quail wake up and then I hiked my so called mile back 20lbs heavier. I napped until it was time to meet up again. Thank you again for going with me.
Good job for you too, Geo, being patient and not trying a shot you weren't certain of. You'd have felt a lot worse had you tried a shot and wounded, then lost him.
No guns involved here, but after my last turkey hunt for the year on Tuesday, I began answering the numerous bobwhite quail whistling around me. I managed to call a number of them up into the thicket I was set up in. I thought the pics below might entertain those of us who believe that gentleman Bob has disappeared forever. See below for hope!:
...Geo
photo credit: these are 67galaxie's phone pix, but I had the same thing going on in my thicket. Bet they disappear by Fall.
Geo, while the turkeys seem to be on the decline around these parts I was encouraged to hear the wild quail whistling everywhere I went yesterday listening for turkeys. It was amazing. I don't recall hearing that many quail whistling in years. Gil
I haven't seen this many wild birds in two places I hunt down here since I was a kid. I'm glad predator hunting is the new cool thing to do I think its helping. Hawks and owls have more rabbits to eat as well
I took my moose a week ago with a 257 AI and thought that was plenty.
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