dawsonscreek

Got a question on caliber vs pelt retention, mainly regarding foxes as I have very little confidence in calling yotes. I used to hunt with a .204 but sold that gun (always seems like a good idea at the time, now I regret). I only ever called in one yote with that gun and it put a teeny hole on one side and never exited if I remember right. Now I have a rifle chambered in 5.56 and was planning on shooting hornady vmax in .223 out of it. Is a shoulder/lung shot with this going to wreck a fox hide? Should I use different bullets, or should I be searching for a new gun?

Well, I educated another fox (potentially the one I already squeaked at) in my back yard last night. While waiting for my girlfriend to get home I decided I would go stand out by the barn, wait for the motion light to turn off, and then let the FoxPro run just for shyts and giggles. A few minutes in and I caught some eyes coming through the tiny woodlot along the road. Never got a positive ID, but it gave me the impression it was a gray fox. Will be actually going out some night next week, will report!

12 minutes ago, Roybee said:

Not much action today. There was so much fog on the water I don't think the birds could see us very well. One week to go...

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Did you hunt Seneca out of Watkins? That truck in the back and your boat looks like the guys that’s pulled us out of the icy ramp. If so, thanks again! 

Hunted Seneca this morning. Mallards did not want to play, but the Gadwall sure did, never expexted see as many as we did. They worked perfect, just bombed into the dekes with no circling. Shotn7 Gadwall and 1 mallard 

Seneca in the A.M., strange that a day with a high of 20 is gonna be “warm”.

13 hours ago, kayslay said:

My dude will put ya on the fish!

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+1 for Eric, never fished with him but I do follow his Instagram and have talked to him there. If fly fishing is what you want, he’s the one.

8 minutes ago, Sk8man said:

While ice fishing the other end of Keuka a couple days ago I was checked out by DEC and he said it was still open water on the Branchport arm but it has been brutally cold the last couple nights....on the other hand it has been very windy as well....

Who knows what last night and tonight will have done to it too. Thanks for reporting Les!

Thinking of duck hunting at a friend's cottage on Sunday and wondering if the Branchport arm has open water right now. The cottage is between The Bluff and Boyd Point. Also, anybody fishing/hunting that area been seeing ducks? Thanks for any and all help.

14 hours ago, WoodieBoater said:

I cant remember if I posted here that he'd point ducks or not. I'm sure there's the potential for him to do it and yeah it'd probably be in a jumping situation. He may have pointed a cripple once, I've seen buddies dogs do that frequently but I wouldn't call it the norm haha. hes pointed mosquitos on my wall, its just instincts

Cool, I grew up with a GSP. She never hunted, but I remember, as a pup, she would always be pointing moths and birds in the backyard. Dad started training her, but never got her on live birds. Sometime down the road I can se myself with a bird dog, and from this post, a griffon is gonna be the first ones I look at!

I think I read earlier that he will point ducks? How does that work, jump shooting near creek/rivers or something. Sounds pretty cool!

This make me want a versatile bird dog, big time. I have never hunted over a bird dog, but really enjoy rabbits with my beagle. I would love to get out on upland birds sometime with a good dog. Seems like Dutch is the perfect sort of dog, likes the couch, likes upland, and likes waterfowl. Very cool thread man!

17 minutes ago, steelydan said:

I don't understand why no thump hole stock. I can understand no semi auto or even no detachable mag( if that's what you meant) but thumb hole stock makes no sense to meMy TC encore is a single shot but has a thumb hole stock

 

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We can have thumbholes, we can have detachable mags, but not both on the same gun. Then, according to Emperor Andy, it is an evil gun designed to kill people.

4 hours ago, LakerTaker said:

 

Nice scope choice. I have a Burris XTR 1-5 with the tactical reticle on my .223 and love the versatility of a true 1 power to 5 power. Scope clicks, depending on the manufacturer, can be based on inch compensation for windage and drop -or- MOA (minute of angle) or Mil (milliradian), both angular measurements. 1 Mil = 3.6 inches at 100 yards. 1/10 Mil = .36 inches at 100 yards. Here is a good article explaining MOA, Mil, and Inch methods:

https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2011/2/18/mil-moa-or-inches/

 

 

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Thanks for the info, that will be very helpful!

Put a new scope on my MVP, I had a cheapo 6-24x but really wanted something low power for close range plinking but that had the ability to be 200+yd scopenif I wanted it. When the temps are a little more enjoyable I will get it zeroed. Can anyone explain to me what 1 click = .1 mil means? I am not familiar with what a mil is. 

I wasn't actually hunting last night, but still managed to call in a gray fox. Went out to check on the goose sausage in the smoker and could hear something in the crispy frosty grass near the barn, expecting to see a deer I look up and saw the silhouette of a gray fox I could just make it out with the ambient light and the motion light on the house. Give  few lip squeaks and it comes charging straight to me. I let him get to about 40 yards and yelled at him (getting bit didn't sound like a good way to spend the night). I've never seen a critter hit the brakes and turn the other way as fast as he did when I hollered. Might have to make a few sets in my tiny woodlot this winter.

The only yote I ever called in and killed was just at sunset, distress calls. Was using a .204 at the time. Put her down right in her tracks. 

1 hour ago, Ship Shape said:

22 cal? Nice!!


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Yeah, it has interchangeable barrels, that one is .22lr, it’s a tac driver. For deer I switch over to 7-30 waters 

Got out for one of my favorite post-deer season activities today. First time hunting them with a handgun and my first kills with a handgun! Could have easily had my limit but was holding out for the black squirrel I had missed first thing. I’ll be back out a few times, squirrel breakfast sausage on the way!! 

Badass man!

1 hour ago, pap said:

 

I wouldn’t be so quick shoot me in azz!! When some in our family wear the green suits, you believe what you want and I’ll believe what I know. Bull shyt walks and money talks, you probably don’t believe that the auto insurance comp. didn’t back the game com. In importing coyotes either, look what the boys in green are driving, all new vehicles, but yet 5 years ago they couldn’t afford to put a officer in a new uniform which they all have new uniforms. Developments are loosing kitty cat, and little fluffy puppy dogs right of the leash. They hired sharp shooters to clean out the deer in developments, but you can’t shoot my poor deers, so they put the next best thing in there. I don’t know or care where you live but the forest around here you can shoot 75+ yards. It getting out of hand here with the hunters vs. the animal righteous people, why do they have 6weeks of archery hunting, “ out of sight out of mind” and the Flintlock season if your crazy enough you can hunt in total camo. Ask any farmer around here which critter is the most destructive, and if you listen they will tell you a turkey. You’d probably call me a bull shyter if I told you the farmer right behind my house counted 90 turkeys were in the field after they bailed the cornstalks for cattle bedding, now on the rt 209 which is about 2 miles the way the crow flys there was another 30-40 of them. So I used to meet a truck vender in Mt Pocono at 5:30am we meet in the back parking lot where I’d unload my products starter & alternators and he’d pay me, in a box van towards the back where my brother and I herd all these yips and crying dogs, so we went towards the van it became very evident what was in that van license plates from Idaho. Asked the driver what the hell do you have in that truck, can’t say he replied. Hmm. My brother was a very well known contractor, and in a very exclusive golf coarse with lots right on fairways, we had permission to hunt deer but down towards the swamp and sewer plant, we always killed nice buck and does, that same season there were dog tracks over every square inch of that property which we hunted for years, yes we ran across track years ago, but a set here a set there, and everything was gone other than the hide a jagged bones. I also forgot that some of the younger generations know everything and us who were hunting and in the woods while you were still shyting green, spouting false accusations all around just to start rumors. Thanks Dawson for your info, and us dumb azz older guys will just keep to ourselves from now on!!!

I’m not trying to start anything. I have more respect for the older generations than you want to believe. Not once did I claim to know everything or call you a “dumb azz”. I simply tried to respectfully post a reply based on facts that I studied during my time at a highly accredited local conservation based degree program in the Finger Lakes. I’ll leave it at that, I don’t want to argue. Good day, sir

1 hour ago, dukhnter8 said:

I seriously doubt the PA Game commission would stock fishers just to control turkeys. Why would they not allow a higher bag limit if turkeys were out of control. This is along the lines of coyotes and cougars being stocked to control deer.

 

 

 Correct, all false accusations based on opinion and hear-say rather than fact. Fisher are becoming more common, the game Commission isn't releasing them to kill turkeys. Forests are become more mature since the clear cutting of 100+ years past and the habitat that fisher need is returning. Direct correlation.

Definitely a fisher. Fisher are a member of the mustelidae family (weasels) so they have that characteristic for loping gait. The hind feet usually stay right next to each other and the front feet are more or less there for support as they push themselves along with the large hind feet. What you’re seeing is two hind feet directly next to each other and the two front feet at an an angle next each other as he hopped along. A bobcat would have its tracks directly in front of the next, basically walking in a straight line and the distance between the tracks wouldn’t be as far as that. Cats are very aware and careful of where they put their feet, watch your house cat walk around sometime especially if they are stalking a toy. Also cats wouldn’t likely show nail marks in every track. Very cool find! 

Congrats! 4.5 hours till my weekend starts!

9 hours ago, longspurs said:

No movement this a.m. not sure if I want to shoot a doe down there anyway but nice view.

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Is this Conklin gulley?

Finally saw some deer. Bumped three does as I was sneaking in to the woods. Though they were only 30 yards away I couldn’t get them to stop for a shot. Tomorrow is another day!