youp50

There are guys that fish out of Black River Harbor in Upper Michigan that love the outriggers when its rough. They set up kind of like a really long arm downrigger. Some days the fish can't take the spoon being pulled up and away with out grabbing it

You may find that the knob positions the spool in the direction of the spools axis. If it is favoring too tight, the line will bunch up on the right side of the spool and too loose will bunch up on the left.

Up this way they are called lawyers, slimy, ugly, bottom feeders that wrap themselves around you, Not much of a fillet on the small ones. I always soak them in salt water to pull the blood out. Minnesotans go a little goofy over them. Call them eelpout and have ice derbies targeting them. There is a hoop net season on a couple of rivers in the westcentral UP, I have some buds that net them under the ice. They like the livers. Claim the livers have aphrodisiac powers. The fish have a big liver that's for sure. I haven't been able to convince myself to eat the livers. I consider them in the same food class as sweetbreads.

I have had trust issues with Big Jon mounting plates. I have never had one fail. I bought a boat where the owner had a board with three BJ electric downriggers mounted on two mounting plates. He never had it fail. I still have trust issues with threaded aluminum holes. Do the math; 3 riggers, six rod and reels, 3 dr weights, releases, baits, speed/temp probe. Maybe in your case. 2 talora roller rods and tekota reels, divers, baits, wire line. One tekota, tx-44 board, 300 feet copper. Its a lot of cash hanging on 4 quarter inch tapped holes in aluminum. Make or have someone make SS mounting plates for you. Again, I have never had a Big Jon plate fail me. I would pull your truck home with 4 quarter inch SS tapped holes.

I bought a Remington Model 7 CDL. My wife claimed it. Its a handy little gun from a ground blind. The slender barrel heats up and starts to wander after two shots, first two are good, don't remember shooting more than twice . I found a bunch of Nosler 140 gr solid base bullets and put them on top of some Varget. Also have some Barnes 140 gr TSX over Varget that work well on bear. Remington reduced recoil loads for grankids. Its an easy gun to look at.

Great to see your lad involved. I recall my oldest son trapping muskrats at 10 years old. I went with him to set and the first check. He managed to get his finger firmly held by a 1 1/2 longspring. He squealed and pleaded with me to get it off. It was hard, but I talked him through it. He was to run the line by himself and removal of ones digits from a trap is a needed life skill. Enjoy your time with your little man, won't be long and he will be a big man.

No to the spin jags. I do have two jags I use, one factory made to fit the Barnes 250 TMZ, I do not recall where I ordered it from. The other is a custom job to fit the Hornady 4500. I tend to follow the rifling down as push the load in. I have a 'custom' palm swell, an adapted steering wheel spinner knob. It takes approximately 50 pounds to load my ML, more as the barrel fouls. The palm swell decreases the marks left in my hand from seating bullet and sabot. Blackhorn 209 is interesting powder, it has been explained to me how it exhibits many progressive powder characteristics. Never sunk in, so I cannot pass on the info.

Do you index your sabots? Best done in the winter, the process involved is to recover the spent sabot and learn where to put the sabot splits to ride over the grooves. The winter makes finding black sabots easier. The practice is to fully engage the sabot petals onto the lands of the rifling. Or to place the splits over the grooves.

I probably have 50 or 60 Barnes TMZ 250 gr bullets left. Years ago retailers would sell off old stock at deep discounts. I think the last 54 fan me around 35 cents each. (Those days are gone. Not sure why they were marketed in 18 round packages.) My particular ML does well with the old smooth yellow sabot. An email to Barnes and I had a couple hundred or so delivered to the door, no charge. I like to shoot my ML for the fun of it. Just doesn't make much sense to use up my Barnes to burn powder. I do shoot 300 gr bullets. I have some Barnes Original 300 gr bullets that have been documented deadly at over 400 yards. Hard to beat a standard cup and core 300 grain hollow point .458 bullet at 2200 fps. Kills dead, plenty of penetration, less cash. I save 50 to 60 bucks a year at the range with them. (Not the Barnes Original, they are as spendy as the mono copper bullets.) I also have a Savage ML10. I have had 300 gr over 2600 fps on my low end non-certified chronograph. Kicks way too hard. If you are not satisfied with the accuracy of the Barnes copper bullet, try knurling them. Lay the bullet on a flat bastard file and roll it back and forth with another file. It will be a bit tighter in the bore of your ML and has been proven to enhance accuracy.

... and the asking price is?

Muzzle loaders kind of rainbow down range. Many shots needed to decide how much and which powder, then you have the shots required to determine trajectory. A very economical and perfectly adequate terminal performance can be found in a 300 gr .458 cal bullet. Hornady, Speer, or Sierra should be available for around 50 cents a pop. Orange HPH sabots around a quarter each. Better than a buck and a quarter a pop for Barnes.