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Post by Russ Koon on Aug 10, 2021 11:30:26 GMT -5
just remembered another skinning option that I though looked like it would be a good one. I saw a commercial version of a device that would hold the squirrel by the feet for skinning. I even duplicated it as best I could by twisting up a diy version from a coat hanger, but I did it during the offseason and never got around to testing it. My guess is it would have been an improvement over the standing on the tail method, but the slit across the back method would still win on fresh kills.
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Post by Russ Koon on Aug 10, 2021 11:08:13 GMT -5
I normally take a few more fox than grays, overall. Probably close to the same number of shot opportunities, but those darn grays are always moving, and seldom are as curious as the foxes. 8^)
The skinning method I mentioned as my favorite was learned on mostly grays, as we were hunting in bigger woods near my buddy's place and the grays are much more prevalent there. I did keep on using it when hunting in my home areas, and found that I still preferred it there on both species. I suspect it would probably compare a little less favorably if the skinning was delayed until I got home, as the method depends more heavily on the loose skin of the fresher kill. I never intentionally delayed the skinning to test the theory, though. Getting older now, and I really enjoy having them ready for the fridge as soon as I get home, not standing between me and my nap.
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Post by Russ Koon on Aug 10, 2021 0:29:42 GMT -5
What esshup said above, X2!
Very much worth your time to research the gutting and skinning methods and equipment before you need to use them. And the job is done much quicker and easier when done as soon as possible, preferably as soon as you pick them up from the forest floor.
There are two main methods for skinning. I used the "step on the tail and pull on the legs" method for many years, but after a hunting buddy showed me the "slit across the back, get your fingers under the skin and pull both ways" method, I switched to it. Seemed a bit quicker to me. It's mostly personal preference, but after a bit of practice, I was getting a squirrel done that way in one minute flat, skinned, gutted and in the zip-lock bag and the soft cooler with the frozen drink.
The meat tastes better to me when it's cooled out quickly, and it's great to get home with them ready to put in the fridge or freezer without having to deal with them after rising early to get them and walking the hills enough to start wearing down, then facing the chore when you get home and are dealing with a hide that feels almost glued to the carcass instead of being loose and easy to slip off.
Often I've also reaped a bonus of getting an opportunity to take a second squirrel while I'm finishing dressing the first one. Especially when they're working on hickory nuts, they can be very impatient to get back to their breakfast and if you move quietly to retrieve one and skin it, you'll often hear more cuttings coming through the leaves and hitting the ground before having that one in the bag.
A regular pocket knife is sufficient to get the whole job done. I usually carry my Buck 110, and like it because of the locking blade for safety, but there are many other choices that work as well, and are lighter to carry. I've meant for many years to include a good pair of kitchen/game shears, but haven't bought them yet. Probably would be worth the cost and weight in clipping off the feet and tail. If I get those shears, I'll probably also get a smaller lockblade than the Buck.
whatever your knife choice, it's very much worth the time and effort to get it SHARP before season, both for safe handling and doing the job quickly and cleanly.
There's a bit of a learning curve to it, and I remember thinking that a couple of my first year squirrels may have had more hair on them when I was done than they had when I started. It gets better quickly with practice.
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Post by Russ Koon on Aug 9, 2021 10:00:51 GMT -5
For most of my hunting life, I shopped the army surplus stores for my outer layers. The ripstop BDU's were very durable, light in weight and available at about the same price as the cheapest jeans and work shirts at Walmart. I usually just got them in a large enough size to wear at least one layer of good underwear and after the thermal fleece stuff became available I'd double up on that for cold weather. Camo didn.t matter at all except I wanted the underwear to be a drab or brown color.
For colder weather outerwear, I liked an insulated coverall, and usually wore some Walls that were very reasonable. A decent fluffy vest and good hat gloves, and a few chemical handwarmers in my pockets for extreme days got the job done at little expense.
These days, most of my hunting is either in a blind or a tree stand, so I just want something black for the popup to make any movement harder to see.
I don't bowhunt in any significant rain, but I do usually have a poncho in the truck in case I need to do some bloodtrailing on a wet day or for the drag out.
I did find good socks to be worth the higher cost. Made all the difference in foot warmth and all-day comfort when I began buying the thickest ones I could get that were Merino wool with only a small percentage of nylon or other material added, and went up a half size on my boots to keep them from being too snug.
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Post by Russ Koon on Aug 7, 2021 9:38:59 GMT -5
Yep, the same government that calculates the cost of living adjustments also determines whether it should continue minting pennies that cost somewhere north of 3 cents each to make and distribute several years ago. Haven't seen the figures recently but with the actual cost increases over the last few years, it's probably more than an nickel to make a penny now.
They excuse the continued waste by claiming that the "public" wants the pennies to remain in circulation! Meanwhile, in the real world, the little trays near the cash registers in most restaurants and filling stations have gradually disappeared as most of the public has changed to paying at he pump or the drive-up window with their cards, largely to stop messing with carrying a pocketful of coins (and handling money since the pandemic began). Hmmm....Kinda makes you wonder.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jul 31, 2021 10:22:15 GMT -5
It depends a lot on the location, the history, and the height.
I've been picked off when hunting at fifteen feet in a climber, and killed a good buck when at ten feet up in a skinny little tree, when the buck was distracted by the doe he was following, even though the rut was still a couple weeks away.
I hunted a few times at 25+ feet with a climber, and had does right under my stand and after a while I tried to get their attention without making any noise, and couldn't do it, even by standing up, waving my arms waving my bow around. It got very uncomfortable being that high when the wind picked up, and the shot angles on anything that was in range got pretty steep, so I usually stayed down around 18 feet with the climber as a good compromise between the advantages of being higher and the disadvantages. The height of your stand above the deer's normal line of sight as they approach is another factor.
I think deer pick up on the possibility of people sitting in trees after they've seen them there a few times, so the prior use of the area by hunters in stands is also a factor.
Most of my time in a tree has been in climbers. I've always suspected that there is less evidence of something strange in the area when there is no ladder or steps that smell like people down there at their nose level, but I can't prove it. Probably becomes a normal part of their familiar trail after a couple weeks of being there, though.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jul 26, 2021 10:27:27 GMT -5
Tried a few crossbows while rehabbing from a stroke I had 11 years ago. As my rehabbing the left side (bow arm) strength and stability progressed, I sold the ones I had bought (used) to experiment with. I did buy yet another one, new, about three years ago and practiced enough with it to get sighted in and confident that I could responsibly hunt with it if I really needed to use it in the future. It has remained at the ready in a closet since, but will probably only be put to use in a situation like a very cold late-season sit.
I practice a lot on a year-round basis with my compound, and will be hunting with it again this fall. I prefer it because of the quiet shots that have very seldom spooked deer. The only two that I can recall spooking at the shot were looking at me at the time and already tensed up and suspicious. Several have been mortally wounded without realizing they were in danger.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jul 15, 2021 10:15:41 GMT -5
Depending on your furnace make and model, on most it's quick and easy to reach the start capacitor, and remove it to check it or just replace it. You might need a fan motor replacement, which is a little more complicated. but I'd say it's definitely worth checking the capacitor out to see if that's the cause of the failure.
I had never taken much of anything off our old reliable Goodman in the last 18 years, and when mine showed the same symptoms, I studied some U-tube vids and dove in. Mine turned out to be one of the more difficult ones to reach the capacitor on, but it still wasn't a bad job. On most furnaces, the blower motor is visible once you remove the outer doors of the unit. On mine the motor was hidden behind a sheet metal plate about 16" square which had to be removed to access the motor and capacitor, and that required the removal of several wires and small components, but they were almost all simply un-bolt and bungee-to-one-side details that were not as formidable as they had first appeared to be.
Most important thing is to make SURE the power is off to the unit before sticking a hand inside it.
Like yours my blower motor spun freely and without making any suspicious noises, and when I took the capacitor off, it was noticeably bulged on the end with the connections. A quick trip to Shorty's HVAC supplies in West Newton, and about twenty bucks later, I was putting it all back together. The heating season was mostly over when the capacitor quit, but we've been using the blower in the "On" setting much of the late spring and summer, and it continues to run reliably.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jul 10, 2021 12:14:21 GMT -5
I remember reading an article by Jim Dougherty a few generations ago about calling predators. He took a position watching a trail crossing, and made a series of calls with a fawn-in-distress mouth call. A muley doe and a coyote came the crossing at the same time from opposite directions, and that doe stomped the coyote to death with no doubts about the outcome from the beginning.
I never got to witness such a battle myself, but did get to see a "posse" of muley does take off after a coyote that had sneaked in too close the herd one morning in North Dakota. Those mommas chased that coyote all the way to and over the top of the wheat stubble field that was a good quarter mile away. The coyote appeared to be at full speed the whole way, and the does couldn't seem to gain much on him. Don't know the outcome of that one, because they all disappeared over the ridge and didn't return while I sat there about ten minutes.
Did get to see a lone doe stand up out of her bed a hundred yards or so down an open slope from me and noticed as she took a look around and her posture suddenly changed as she she locked in on something off to my right. Looked where she seemed to be looking, and there was a single coyote coming with apparently not a care in the world, but about a second after I spotted him, he locked up in mid-step, as he noticed the doe. Thought for a second I might see some drama there, but the coyote wasn't interested at all in trying anything with the lone doe, and he just slowly turned around and went back almost the direction he had come.
That theory about rabbits mimicking the distress call of a fawn is interesting. I'd never read of it, but it would make sense from an evolutionary standpoint.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jul 1, 2021 10:37:20 GMT -5
Too adventurous for me!
I have been thinking about a minimalist overnight stay in a stand. I remember someone talking about having spent the night in his climbing recliner-style stand a few generations ago. Don't recall if he ever did it again or if it was successful in getting him a good shot.
And I remember considering the possibility again a few years ago while spending a morning in my brother's two-person ladder stand.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jun 25, 2021 10:34:18 GMT -5
Hadn't heard until now. Very sorry to hear. Dave was a member at the Morgantown Archery Club and we'd shot together there a few times and had talked at the clubhouse often. Always looked forward to seeing him again when going to a shoot there. He'll be missed by many.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jun 6, 2021 9:48:53 GMT -5
We had a barn owl that would do a similar number on our barn cat's kittens. Our first suspect was a neighbor dog, but we could never find any evidence, and further inquiries revealed that barn owls tend to do a fairly neat job of removing the heads and most of the skin of their victims before feeding the carcass to their babies.
Major difference in your case would be that the owl pretty much did the skinning and removal of heads and usually feet and much of the skin in one tidy little area, and usually only one kitten per night was taken. Timing was similar, with owlets in the nest.
Presence of barn owl doesn't leave a lot of evidence, as they are generally pretty quiet and don't build very noticeable nests. Maybe a trail cam or two would catch one in the act.
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Post by Russ Koon on Jun 3, 2021 19:01:49 GMT -5
Happy Birthday, old friend, and thank you very much for this great site!
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Post by Russ Koon on May 31, 2021 9:12:16 GMT -5
Anyone else read "Brave New World"?
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Post by Russ Koon on May 25, 2021 9:15:00 GMT -5
I'd also say treestands were the most important factor. They certainly were for me. I'd bowhunted for almost twenty years with only a few very great opportunities that should have resulted in my first kill. Became very familiar with the a sudden white flag disappearing quickly over the next ridge.
Looking back, the improvement in my success rate after going up a tree may have been almost as much due to my inability to get the tree to carry me quietly over the next ridge when I got tired of watching where they weren't. elevating my scent trail and placing my draw movement above their normal sightline also helped, I'm sure, but after I had hunted from a stand for a few years, I finally got the message about holding very still for a very long time, and my ground kills improved quite a bit.
Putting sights on my old Bear Kodiak a few years later helped a good bit, as I just never could develop consistent distance estimation while wearing my strong prescription glasses. In my case, that was also a great help to hunting accuracy.
Quite a few years later, switching to a compound from a recurve with sights wasn't really that much improvement. I tested extensively, bringing the heavy and not very pretty Jennings four-wheeler ( that was a bow, kids) to all my practice sessions, and the difference in accuracy was only really noticeable in the first half dozen shots. The Kodiak took a little warm-up, but the Jennings put the first arrow where I was aiming, no matter which one I began with. Before season came around, the Jennings was starting to look prettier all the time.
Can't comment on trail cams. Bought just a few with good intentions, but never deployed them. The ones that send the images to my computer do tempt me more every year, as my mobility isn't what it used to be. Wore out several pairs of pretty decent boots along the way, but at 76 years, I'll take some the techno-help if it keeps me in the woods instead of on the couch watching TV or playing bacci ball at the senior center. I promise to pass on that big ole "Swamp Donkey" if he wanders by....I've come to enjoy the lighter weight and more tender deer these last several years.
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Post by Russ Koon on May 19, 2021 11:09:07 GMT -5
Really great, Woody! I think that may be the best mount I've ever seen. Maximum inches never really meant much to me, but I appreciate a beautiful set of antlers as much as the next guy, and that buck is beauty!
Great job on the accompanying photos as well.
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Post by Russ Koon on May 16, 2021 10:14:30 GMT -5
Visited with my sis yesterday and saw that their Ring wasn't working. Asked about it, and she said they had turned it off for a while. It was apparently ringing often when nobody had been on the porch, apparently from a bird flying by close to the door, and that there were other problems related to their slow rural internet service. Didn't ask for more details.
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Post by Russ Koon on May 7, 2021 21:53:43 GMT -5
You might want to check on the legality of it here in IN for hunting. I haven't checked it out in the last few years, but I know they were illegal not very many years ago. You could have a rangefinder and use it all you wanted while hunting, but it couldn't be mounted on your bow.
Also, since you mentioned going to 3D shoots, the use of a range finder in competition is also a violation in most cases. Some ranges do have "known yardage" shoots, and sometimes you can just let the range officer who signs you in know that you will not be in competition and they will mark your scorecard to that effect and let you use the RF while shooting. That allows you to practice the use of it while also practicing your shooting while keeping any competitors out there from getting all jacked up about the guy they see using one.
I briefly thought about one of the very early ones several decades back, but decided they were too expensive at that time. Glad I didn't jump in on that neat toy, because it was only a few months later the state regulated against them for hunting.
I think I'd stay with my handheld rangefinder even if they were legal here mounted to the bow. I can drop mine in a pocket and use it to practice range estimation even when I'm just scouting or mushroom hunting. And once I'm in my stand or blind I usually pick out a few reference points and range them just to verify the distance to where the critter will be when he gets to near that point. I've very seldom needed to actually try to range the animal itself here. A few times when hunting out west, but almost never here.
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Post by Russ Koon on May 6, 2021 21:07:57 GMT -5
Looks like two party system has its limitations, too. I've always suspected that we might do better under a three party or even more situation. Looking for evidence to support that idea, though, I see mostly European nations that appear to be messed up about as much as we are, maybe more. I might just be seeing the greener grass on the other side of the fence.
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Post by Russ Koon on Apr 3, 2021 10:41:15 GMT -5
A protective goose defending it's nest always reminds me of the one we had in our back yard. Our lot is on three levels of grass, divided by 8 foot high retaining walls and flower beds that seemed to be good idea when we were much younger and enjoyed working on them, but which were slowly converting to natural vegetation. One spring as I was mowing the second level, I was confronted with an angry momma who had been sitting on her nest that was just over the edge in the weeds. She stood her ground a few feet from her nest and I saw it was pretty full of eggs. I thought it would be a neat picture, so I paused my mowing and went up to the house and grabbed my camera, and told the wife I wanted to try to get a pic of the nest, but I wasn't sure if I could get close enough without having to wrestle the goose with my other hand while trying to shoot. She wanted to help, so she grabbed a slice of bread and followed me out to distract the goose while I tried to get the shot. I kind of suspected that might not be the best plan, but no better one came to mind real quick, so we proceeded.
The momma still came off the nest a few feet and confronted me, even without the noisy lawnmower, and when I looked back to see where my backup was with the bread, she was holding the bread out as far as she could in front of her face and backing up the stairs to the house level, in her flannel nightgown and fuzzy slippers, with the gander hovering like a huge hummingbird just out of arms reach in front of her face, hissing and squawking and apparently showing no interest in the offered bread, either.
I regret not capturing a picture of her being backed up a flight of steps by that gander, but I was laughing too hard to even try to steady the camera in time 8^)
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