After the first Democrat debate on CNN, I’ll get sick to my stomach if I get deep into “gun politics” today. Jim Webb, thanks for recognizing the need for individual self-protection among the citizenry. I wish you had mentioned how successful the Richmond project in your state, Project Exile proved to be in getting real criminals with guns off the street through proper prosecution and actual punishment instead of the symbolic legislation your opponents were pushing. Sanders, Malloy – need we remind you that “the Second Amendment ain’t about duck hunting”?
That said, though – to get off the politics before my gorge rises – hunting is ONE of the very good reasons for responsible firearms ownership, and I haven’t addressed it much here lately. Hunting season is upon us, as I noted in Backwoods Home magazine’s current issue.
My own schedule won’t allow me afield this year, darn it. Too late for me, but not necessarily for you.
What are you planning to hunt this season? Where? With what? And do you have any favorite game recipes to reveal to our readers?
You’re invited to share here.
I’m heading “up nort” tomorrow night for my annual grouse hunting trip. Can’t wait to get the heck away.
Some of you might want to check out the thought’s of Eric Pratt, at this website: http://cqrcengage.com/gunowners/home?
Sorry Mas, won’t be hunting anything on four legs this year, but should any two legged critters try visit our home, I’ll surely take a pot shot, or more, at them!
Paul
Well, bow season (for deer and bear) started Oct.1 and I’ve been out a few times (seen nothing yet). This weekend muzzleloader starts; I’ll be using my flintlock longrifle. It has gotten me eight deer over the past ten years. Then it’s on to rifle season ’till early Dec.; here I’ll be using a Marlin 336 in stainless steel, with .30-30’s that I load myself and open sights. Either in between or after deer/bear season is done I want to get out for squirrels with my Henry .22lr . Finally, maybe some grouse and rabbit hunting with a Remington 870 to round out things.
All I have to do now is find the game I’m after 😉 .
Hello mas!
I hunt with a 60 Lb. Bear bow, a TC muzzleloader, a Dan Wesson 10mm, and a Win model 70 30-06. Hard. Usually 3 deer per season, but if the herd seems thin, I limit my take. We hunt here on the farm, See how at longridgedeercamp.blogspot.com
I hope to hunt deer on a plot of land we own in rural TN.
I hunt black powder with a .50 percussion by Dixie Gun Works “TN Mountain Rifle” which I enjoyed all the years I lived in upstate NY.
I just saw a “Kentucky Rifle” .50 again but flintlock on gun-broker.com and went for it. It’s built by Connecticut Valley Arms which makes sense since I just moved to TN??
Oh well. The deer won’t care.
Whit
For the last 4 years I’ve been able to “fill my freezer” with some delicious meat from a red deer using my traditional long bow. This year I was in a motorcycle accident and injured my shoulders enough to prevent me from doing so again. The ranch I hunt, even though normally restricted to archery hunting. Made an exception to allow me to use my Ruger Bisley 45 Long Colt to do the deed. My hand loads are equivalent to heavy 44 mag. rounds, so I have confidence that given the opportunity I’ll be able to come home with “that smile” again.
You might say I’ll be hunting for future hunters. I have half a dozen Texas Hunter Education classes scheduled.
When I do go after deer I have a break-action H&R Ultra Rifle in .308, with a Springfield .308 scope. It keeps me humble.
Hunting is, in my estimation, a much more enjoyable topic than idiot “gun violence, gun free, et al” tirades by antis… That mess gets exhausting, yet I tire not as that’s what they’re going for. My principles never erode!
Nor does the desire to be afield, by the looks of things.
My thoughts can be summed up simply – There is no such thing as “gun violence” nor “gun kindness”, they are inanimate objects. Anyone whom thinks legislating against, restricting or banning an inanimate object will somehow stop the criminal misuse of said inanimate object is surely crazier than a bag of snakes!
As per Hunting – it’s why I haven’t been on the internet much lately, which is a great thing. That said, when someone goes forth via multiple media venues and creates such a consistently strong and interesting output as what you’ve done in your career Mas, it is much appreciated and deserves positive feedback. As such I enjoy the opportunity to tell you so directly via your blog here and this is why I am interested in commenting. I don’t comment as much as I’d like perhaps and I definitely get in no where as much time afield as I would like and that is a fact!
Hunting – I have seen Whitetail Deer: Mule Deer, Elk, many non-game species, Coyote, Squirrels, Turkey, Doves and Grouse lately. All up close and personal.
2015 – I have been blessed with many meals of Ruffed Grouse and have not yet harvested any of the others as of this writing. I was hoping to take a Turkey this year, though that doesn’t look like it will be happening. There are still all the aforementioned plus many more to get after (Black Bear, Cougar aka Mountain Lion, Wolves, Snowshoe Hares.. I always feel like I’m leaving someone out here, I’ve presently developed a distaste for listing game species for I love them all and don’t wish to appear to rank any species above another).
I do not plan on Hunting Mountain Goats, Sheep, Elk or Moose this year. Nor Grizzly Bears, no Bison plans either.
I didn’t take a single Dove this year. Soon I hope to get after some waterfowl.
I consider myself very fortunate to have Hunting opportunity! I will be very pleased with my 2015 season if I can get a Whitetail (Buck or Doe) and another beautiful bird or two!
As for recipes – I suggest a traditional roast Grouse. Ruffed Grouse roasted with it’s legs sitting on fresh rosemary and with dried, crushed juniper berries (6-8 per bird) in the cavity under the breast meat. Bacon, butter or Black Bear lard can be added to outside of the bird for additional color and flavor as well as to prevent dryness of the meat.
Another fine idea is to do a bit of a mash with mushrooms, onions, garlic, bacon, and dry white wine. I start with a bit of butter in the pan and add minced garlic and onion. Next goes minced bacon and then the mushrooms. Diced breast meat of Grouse is added and when it nears being done (which doesn’t take long – my prime statement for any Wild Game/Venison cookery is to not over cook! That said predatory animals/fur bearers should be cooked to well done, just in case) white wine is added and is all simmered up. There’s many things to do with this concoction – Having it on a bun as a sandwich is nice… So is just eating it right up as is. Switch the white wine to red and it this mash idea works great with Waterfowl.
I wish you all an excellent, safe, enjoyable season afield. Happy Hunting!
Cougar and coyote with .45 Colt Ruger Blackhawk and .303 British SMLE or 12-gauge Win. Model 12. Recipes not an issue here. Plenty of criminals around, too, but no tags available.
In years past have used bow, crossbow, 7mm Remington and 243 this year I will take my new Henry big boy steel in 44 mag I always have my Glock 23 .40 on my hip as backup.
Don’t bow hunt (now open in Michigan) but I will be out there in November for the gun hunt. Need to get some venison in the freezer soon!
And rattlesnakes. Just bagged one before dawn with snake-shot from .45 Colt, plus .357 shot for insurance purposes. The snakes definitely seek warmth when evenings start to cool in the fall. Man, was I lucky I have photocell/floodlight along my brick walk. This was a well-camouflaged and coiled diamondback about 18 inches long, coiled along the side of the walk. Could have ruined my day. No sign I even woke up the neighbors, though. Love that .45 Colt CCI snake shot. Blam! Reptile DRT.
My hunting is limited to 1″ stick-on orange dots, which seem to be in abundant supply this season.
Doubt if this year will pan out with any trip for Whitetail in NYS. Laws here are too screwy. Will most likely sit back until Spring 2016, then look into a relocation to Maine. The older I get, the more I cherish some peace and quiet. Hopefully, some younger hunter will have an excess of venison that will be available.
At the moment, my oldest grandson is 12 years old, the same age that I started accompanying my father and his brothers on deer hunts, and I will be trying to get my daughter to calm down and let him start going with me when the time comes, to watch how to field dress a buck, and give him a bit of participation with the harvest so that he learns respect for the animals and the hunting tradition. The younger grandson will be ready in a few years. My eldest granddaughter has expressed an interest and there too, from hoof-to-table, there is much to be taught. My uncle started me off with an axe and a felled pear tree. I thought it would be like cartoons and chopped immediately but it was sore muscles and sweat, toting wood. He was on the USS Hornet in WW2, and taught me hard work and team work, while building up my body to hold a steady bead, and to drag out a deer. In relection, it built Character.
Two-Gun Steve:
I make my .45 shot cartridges out of .303 brass, cut full length for the cylinder. They hold a LOT of shot!
And gave me an excuse to buy an Enfield.
7.62x54R works as well, hence my Mosin…
My hunting this season will be in my refrigerator, and my favorite recipes involve a microwave and frozen stuff.
The last time I went hunting was with dogs, a plugged riot gun, and a cold drizzle. Not fun.
Petercat: Thanks for tip. Major useful for me.
My Gramps would take me squirrel hunting (until I was big enough to shoot I was the retriever). He’d cook ’em up when we got home:
Quarter them, dredge in a little flour, salt and pepper, and brown them on both sides
Remove from the pan (a big cast-iron fryer) and scrape up the brown stuff while adding a few diced onions
Mix up a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup with some milk
Put the quarters back in the pan, cover with the soup mix, and put in the over for about an hour
I remember it as being delicious. I haven’t been squirrel hunting for over 40 years, and my urban neighborhood is overrun with the bushy-tailed tree-rats. Maybe it’s time to start again…
Two-Gun Steve:
You have to swage the end of the brass down about half an inch from the mouth so that the brass will fit all of the way into the cylinder. I run my brass about that far into a .44 magnum sizing die, and the brass goes into the cylinder with a bit of light finger pressure.
With the case mouth even with the front of the cylinder, the cases will hold a lot of shot!
I have to pass on this one.
I never really was an enthusiastic hunter. I liked the comradery of being out on an early morning with a bunch of guys. Stamping our feet in the frosty, snowy ground, with our breath steaming in anticipation of the hunt, but the kill was usually less thrilling.
I remember a deer hunting trip in Texas many years ago when I discovered a deer carcass with it’s head missing and the meat left to rot in the sun. Kind of turns you off on hunting.
In Illinois there is very little public land available for hunting. That leaves one with the opportunity to kiss a farmer’s butt for permission to hunt his property. I believe southern Illinois may have some public land. But that would be a 7 hr. drive. Wisconsin has a $160 fee for a non- resident deer license. Of course a successful hunt (Kill) is not guaranteed.
I wasn’t brought up on wild game so I prefer that juicy beef steak. I know, I know, where that beef came from. There is a feed lot just over the hill from my house where they fatten up the beef prior to being shipped out for slaughter.
I am fully aware that hunting is the most efficient and humane way of keeping the herd under control. But, that assumes that the hunter can make a humane killing shot.
Take this dentist in WI that went to Africa to kill a lion with a bow. What are the chances that a humane quick kill would result? I read in the gun magazines all the time where the author has a new rifle or cartridge or bullet and they go to Africa to see if the new whiz-bang can kill. One author in particular nearly always has his picture standing with something dead. I have to wonder what his wedding pictures look like. His initials are C.B., by the way. I believe that we know enough about terminal ballistics to predict how a bullet or cartridge will perform. I can see it now where the editor and writer sit around discussing where they can go for a tax deductible trip and kill something. Yes, I am aware that the hunter gets the trophy and the villagers get the meat, and the government gets the money.
Well, I have had my rant. I live in the country and I can hear the shotguns banging away now.
The best way to stop criminals from going to gun stores and gun shows and stopping them from getting guns from private sales……
When they are convicted of their felony….put a no guns allowed tattoo on their shoulder.
What does this do…
One of the two ways criminals get guns is through straw purchasers….the one technique used is the felon goes into the gun store with the straw buyer and points out the gun he wants….
The tattoo on the shoulder stops this cold. The gun store, the gun show, could have a policy of asking all customers to show their shoulders before they are allowed in the store………..
Right now..there is no way to tell if the guy at the counter is a felon without running a background check.
If you have a straw purchaser at the counter with a felon, you check their shoulders and if the one guy has a tattoo…you can ban both of them from your store….straw purchasing will then have to change……..
This idea would have saved Badger Mountain from their current law suit that may cost them 6 million dollars….had the clerk simply been able to ask both people at the counter to see their shoulders, he would havd seen that one of them had the anti gun tattoo and could have asked both of them to leave.
Or better yet, screened for the tattoo at he door of the store.
Same with the private sale….if you want to stop felons from getting guns from private sales…this is the best way…any private seller can just check the shoulder of the buyer and tell immediately, without a universal background check, if the buyer can legally buy the gun….
This tattoo on the shouldeer actually does what the anti gun extremists want….it keeps felons from buying guns in person…..
And it does not target normal gun owners.
In fact…you could do away with 95% of background checks…..you walk into a gun store, you ask to buy a gun, they look at your shoulder and if it is clean, you can walk out with the gun right then and there…..no background check is needed….
If for some reason you already have a shoulder covered in tattoos…then you would have to go through the current background check system…..
But for most people…no more background checks needed……
this also goes to the new law proposed in California for background checks for all gun purchases…….this would make that unnecessary in 95% of the purchases if California succeeds in passing that law.
You go in to buy ammo…..they look at your shoulder and immediately know you are not a felon, no background check needed, no papework, no days of waiting for the check to go through, no paper trail…no manpower increases or fee increases…
Please keep writing/printing your articles. They are very interesting and contain good information.
My husband and I will be hunting deer in Missouri this November. He has a Ruger 270 and I a Savage 243.
Petercat: What do you use or recommend for powders, primers, & wadding? I have used Unique powder quite a bit with .45 ACP, with good results. Have you encountered any issues other than sizing? You seem well satisfied with your product. In what models of .45 (“Long”) Colt have you fired your shotshells? Good thing I have been saving all my brass. I really like the general utility of .303 British and .45 Colt, and to use one to make extra-skookum shot-shells for the other will be a real bonus. Thanks again.
Next month will find me afield along the Missouri river breaks in central South Dakota with two of my three sons and my 22 year old daughter. The boys are accomplished hunters and having them along ensures I don’t have to drag anything out (I carry the rifles and supervise). They dive right in to the field dressing chores as well. I don’t mind doing that, but I take satisfaction in they way I trained them. My satisfaction comes from being with my daughter and sharing her excitement at the moment when a deer is sighted and she prepares for the shot. The actual kill is anti climactic, and anyone who doesn’t experience a moment of sadness shouldn’t be hunting. But the taking of game is as old as humanity itself and is natural and good.
There are those who have “evolved” beyond that experience and have forgotten from whence we came. They are poorer for that loss and have no idea what we experience and the simple pleasures and satisfaction available only to those of us who can reach back into time and connect with a more primitive version of ourselves.
The moment I wait for each year is when I am standing outside the pickup, rifle in hand and the soft click and snap of cartridges being loaded into the magazine followed by the solid feel of closing the bolt behind a live round with the prospect of hair in the scope instead of paper.
Two-Gun Steve:
I have a Ruger Blackhawk with a seven-inch barrel. I generally don’t give load information, (I was amazed to find out what a huge difference in shot spread a small difference in powder weight would give) but a good starting point would be the low end of a heavy bullet load. I use WW231, as it is a ball powder that flows well through my measure.
For rear wadding, I use leather cut out with a hole punch, with a piece of plastic from a Pringles lid in front of the shot, and a heavy roll crimp to hold it all together.
The Pringles lid is clear, which lets me see what size shot each shell has.
I don’t use enough shot to buy a bag, I just buy a box of 12-GA shells and dissect them.
Hmm… What can I do with a bunch of primed shotgun bases? I’ll think if something fun. Maybe a black powder cannon?
I’ll be in central Missouri this year, looking to take my first deer with my Vanguard S2 in .308. We’ll be hunting on land my brother’s family and I leased. Hopefully, I’ll get some venison to take home to Illinois.
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