LONG winter.........

[edmehlig]

Wow I believe a friend of mine from the Marines lives up that way. He said he lives about 20-25 miles from Walnut Grove that was on TV “Little House on the Prairie “.

 

[ENCORE50A]

I'll just say I've never seen the mess like we have now. We're still under a winter storm warning until 8:00pm this evening. Roads are closed, all activities canceled, businesses are closed and of course all schools. Even the snowplows are getting stuck.
It would be one thing if the snow was dry, but its extremely heavy wet snow for us. You can't shovel it, its so heavy. It snowed/sleeted, rained all day yesterday and other than making a place for the dog to go out and filling bird feeders, we stayed inside. AND... its still snowing this morning. I have a lot of work to... attempt ... today

 

[ENCORE50A]

6 more hours cleaning up. Warmed up to 35° and with the blacktop warm, we got it cleaned up, again. We ... might ... be getting a little reprieve from this stuff. Temp has dropped back to 30°

 

[ENCORE50A]

Never seen anything quite like this in my 66 years. Its snowing hard again this morning They're saying one more round coming. There'll be no shooting around here for quite some time. One huge problem is that the ground is soft under this mess. I have to give credit to the electric company, as we've been very fortunate to not lose power. The road crews aren't having it easy though, working long hours while trying to open up the roads.

 

[jims]

I would think that would be difficult for wildlife after this much time.

 

[Idaholewis]

It’s snowing here right now, Hopefully it doesn’t last! I’ve had a full diet of snow this year

 

[ENCORE50A]

I would think that would be difficult for wildlife after this much time.

The MI DNR has already made some comments about the possibility of does stressed from this, along with hen turkeys might be having an issue.
We have deer coming up in the evening eating sunflower shucks and thistle seed from the ground under our bird feeders. Feeding of any kind, even recreational is illegal, but if they take from under the bird feeders there's no problem. Turkeys show up right after daylight and remain all day, picking up anything that the Pine Siskin drop. On a positive note, it'll be awhile before I have to worry about bears....

 

[Idaholewis]

I would think that would be difficult for wildlife after this much time.

The MI DNR has already made some comments about the possibility of does stressed from this, along with hen turkeys might be having an issue.
We have deer coming up in the evening eating sunflower shucks and thistle seed from the ground under our bird feeders. Feeding of any kind, even recreational is illegal, but if they take from under the bird feeders there's no problem. Turkeys show up right after daylight and remain all day, picking up anything that the Pine Siskin drop. On a positive note, it'll be awhile before I have to worry about bears....

I bet that will be rough on the Turkeys, they should have been Laying their eggs preparing to Set on them. Around here, the End of April through May is a fun time to Hunt the Old Gobblers, Most of the Hens are Setting on their eggs, The Old Gobblers are eager to Run to a ‘Lonely Hen’ Call.

 

[ENCORE50A]

I would think that would be difficult for wildlife after this much time.

The MI DNR has already made some comments about the possibility of does stressed from this, along with hen turkeys might be having an issue.
We have deer coming up in the evening eating sunflower shucks and thistle seed from the ground under our bird feeders. Feeding of any kind, even recreational is illegal, but if they take from under the bird feeders there's no problem. Turkeys show up right after daylight and remain all day, picking up anything that the Pine Siskin drop. On a positive note, it'll be awhile before I have to worry about bears....

I bet that will be rough on the Turkeys, they should have been Laying their eggs preparing to Set on them. Around here, the End of April through May is a fun time to Hunt the Old Gobblers, Most of the Hens are Setting on their eggs, The Old Gobblers are eager to Run to a ‘Lonely Hen’ Call.

I believe you're correct on the turkeys, its going to be really rough. I have a dozen long beards all year long, but when winter starts the hens disappear. They showed up about 1.5 weeks ago like every spring. Toms are in full strut, but its just a little early yet for here. These toms here rarely gobble. Only at first light before they leave the roost will you hear them. Once they fly off the roost, they're as quiet as can be.
I don't hunt them anymore, just can't get used to spring hunting, plus its to easy to whack one with a shotgun. The neighbor normally gets one with his crossbow over on his place. I had a friend and his son come over and setup a pop-up in the woods. First day they seen some toms, but not close enough. Next day bright and early, I hear a bang/bang, very close together, almost one shot. Next thing I know, they're walking up the lane to the house each carrying a long beard. The toms came through, the dad said on "3" and they both took their birds. Honestly, I wish someone would whack some more of them. They CRAP all over the place!

 

[Idaholewis]

ENCORE50A, LOL! Turkeys can be a nightmare if they get use to hanging around your place! It is unreal the mess they can make, the old saying ‘eat everything in front of them, and poop on everything behind’ I believe was made up for Turkey’s! :lol:

This is a really small town, 1 Grocery Store, Hardware, Pharmacy etc. And everything is pretty much in the same Parking Lot. The folks that live behind the Pharmacy started feeding the Wild Turkey’s, this was about 3 years ago, There must have been 40-50 Regular Turkey’s EVERY day, You can only imagine the mess in the entire parking lot! Which also ended up inside the Businesses from Customers shoes! :lol: I was in the Pharmacy 1 day and seen a BIG Tom Strutting around just outside the window, i said ‘That is a DANDY Tom Bird right there!!’ The Gal helping me looked up with ZERO expression on her face and said ‘Yes he is, and he is FULL of $hit!! LOLOL! The City got all over that family for feeding the Turkey’s, I haven’t seen them there for 2 winters now.

 

[ENCORE50A]

Boy oh boy...... are these warmer sunshiny days welcome! I was able to get the path open to the bench, but it might be a couple days before I can get to the backstop to hang a target. Thank Goodness!
Just received my 10 pk. order from Harvester. :yeah:

 

[Idaholewis]

ENCORE50A, That is a DANDY Gobbler in the front!! Those must be RIO? They look a little Darker than our Merriam’s, We don’t have Many Rio’s here, predominantly Merriam’s.

 

[ENCORE50A]

ENCORE50A, That is a DANDY Gobbler in the front!! Those must be RIO? They look a little Darker than our Merriam’s, We don’t have Many Rio’s here, predominantly Merriam’s.

They are all Eastern. I just took that photo through the back door before posting it. The other toms were hanging outside the bird feeder area, so I zoomed in on him. Most all are like the one in the photo, but we have two much larger hanging around. They both look like they're sporting baseball bats for beards.

 

[ENCORE50A]

With a week of temps in the 60's and today at 88°, we still have over 3' of snow piles along the driveway. Winds of 18 gusting to 31mph might just bust up the lake ice. Last Saturday was the walleye opener and guys were standing on 10" of ice using tip ups!

Sad news about the club's ranges. Was told that everything is about a foot under water, with nearly 2' on the 600yd range. The range roads still have 2' of snow covering them. It'll be June.........

 

[Idaholewis]

It'll be June.........

And Sadly, before you know it we will be starting ALL over going back the other way! Late Springs are a BUMMER!

 

[ENCORE50A]

It'll be June.........

And Sadly, before you know it we will be starting ALL over going back the other way! Late Springs are a BUMMER!

I don't mind winter, knowing it'll be here every year but, that also means hunting season

I guess June won't be that bad, maybe the stock I ordered in Feb. will be here by then, along with Luke's new (being designed now) breech plugs for the UF rifles. Hopefully it'll be game on then

 

[Idaholewis]

I guess June won't be that bad, maybe the stock I ordered in Feb. will be here by then, along with Luke's new (being designed now) breech plugs for the UF rifles. Hopefully it'll be game on then

I have ALWAYS been a BIG Remington Fan, If i were gonna go with a nice Current inline Muzzleloader this is likely the route i would go.

 

[ENCORE50A]

I guess June won't be that bad, maybe the stock I ordered in Feb. will be here by then, along with Luke's new (being designed now) breech plugs for the UF rifles. Hopefully it'll be game on then

I have ALWAYS been a BIG Remington Fan, If i were gonna go with a nice Current inline Muzzleloader this is likely the route i would go.

Mine's not the Remington, just the acton on the Ultimate Firearms Inc. BP Xpress. Luke hasn't perfected the new breech/ignition system for them yet, but is currently working on it.

However, the Remington Ultimate Muzzleloader, RUM, with the plug Luke already perfected, is going to be one heck of a rifle. Heavier than most might want for stalking, but a perfect stand or shack rifle. With rifle prices as low as $632 and add a couple more to have the ignition/bp changed and one will end up with an excellent long range rifle, also capable of shooting BH209.