Quote Originally Posted by red state View Post
Sorry for the late reply....just got back from your neck of the woods....had a great burger at Firebirds and then the flourless brownie at BoneFish. Up really too late for going hunting in the morning.....but we'll see. I shot really well at 40 yards today but was pulling to the left with the practice tip. I most ALWAYS shoot a broadhead and almost NEVER a practice tip but It was muddy today and I shoot at a small floating (sometimes rocking) target that is dangled from a sting (which the arrow always penetrates my pond levee whether I'm dead on or not. Just didn't want to get my broadheads all muddy and it was good to see that my practice tip shoots a hair to the left while my broadheads tend to shoot just a bit to the right. I know....I know, I have some adjusting to do but it is so irrelevant as to the "kill zone" that I'll leave it be (for now).

I agree entirely.....I also squirrel hunted with a 22 and refused to do anything but HEAD shots. My dog would tree them (had a very nice, high priced dog that I trained) and I often times didn't even need a gun cuz of how fast that blame dog was. It took quite a lot of breaking to get that dog to settle down. My grandpa had one of the best but he had to get rid of him because he could never break him of going from dead squirrel to the next squirrel in the next hollow. He simply wore my pa out. HA!!! We have a few good dogs now but nothing like the ones we had back when. My dad had some of the BEST beagles in the country (if not the world) and folks as far as Florida to the South East and NJ to the North East. If I'm not mistaken, Idaho was also in the mix to buy dad's bloodline or mix their bloodline to ours. At one time, dad had well over 50 beagles! We never got into squirrel hunting dogs but dad had MANY trophies (over 100) that his dogs won. Dad always had a green thumb, an eye for hunting dogs and a steady trigger finger for long distance shots. The furthest I've ever taken a deer was at 420+ yards and that is a long distance for the SOUTH and for two bucks fighting over ONE doe's attention. I took the bigger buck and he was certainly busy trying to run the other buck off. In the process, he was keeping me extremely busy in getting everything just right before squeezing off a round...or two....or three. HA!!! Yeah, I missed the first two shots but nailed him clean on the third. I even have that long distance bullet. It almost went completely through him and when I rolled him over to see the exit wound.....saw only a tumor-looking protrusion. When I touched it with my knife, the bullet popped put. I mounted the mushroomed lead with the buck's antlers.....as well as some dice. HA!!!

As for the pistols....I wouldn't want to shoot them or the high priced shotguns that some of my friends shoot BUT they shoot those $10,000.oo guns all the time. One friend (from Texas originally) shoots two. One is a composite OLYMPIC looking gun with high-teck everything (including those custom cheek rests that are micro tunable and the other is a gorgeous hunting looking gun with gold trigger and beautiful engravings. My Browning is beautiful but it is only a $700 to $1,000 dollar 12 gauge that I turkey hunt with. It has two loping bucks on one side and two tom turkeys engraved on the other side. the shells come out the bottom (as all shells should). I simply can't see paying 10grand for a gun of any type but I'm sure there are those who think we are KraZy for spending the money we spend on "regular" guns. My rifle is an expensive firearm with a scope that costs as much as some guns do. That glass can be as expensive as diamonds in some cases but a good glass is a good thing to have. HA!!! I've never liked ANY firearm without a scope. Even my turkey gun has a scope. It comes off when skeet shooting and such but for hunting....I always want the best that allows for little mistakes. I believe I and the game I hunt deserve a good clean kill.

Well, time to hit the hay....may even go out in my short pants and flip flops int he morning....supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's and that is too hot to be walking around in camo. HA!!!
I only practice using the broad heads the last two weeks just before season starts. Always shoot a bit different than the field points do. Kinda boring shooting deer with a rifle ,no sport in at all for me. Just far too easy. With a bow its not easy. Makes it a challenge. I was once hunting on the ground and got two shots at a big buck. Shot over the buck both times! Even with my aiming lower the second shot my arrow went right over but seemed to nick his fur the second time. Man that sucker took off like a scalded dog. I was shooting my heavy bow and only found one arrow. The other stayed in the woods unless I hit the buck and didn't see it but I could find no sign of blood , was starting to get dark so cut short my arrow finding mission. I had put a new string on that bow the day before and found I had misjudged setting the nock points on the string. Reset them and the high shooting stopped. Dogs, my brother had some of the best rabbit hunting dogs I've ever seen. All beagles except Queenie the very best dog was a daschound mix, half beagle /half daschound. Queenie never lost the trail. Always listened for her yelp even when the other dogs were coming from another direction, the rabbit would always be just in front of Queenie. I hadnt hunted with my brother for about 5 years and his good friend Rex started rabbit hunting with him . Third hunt out Rex shoot Queenie instead of the rabbit . SEEMS QUEENIE WAS ONLY ABOUT 3 OR 4 FEET BEHIND THE RABBIT EMERGING INTO THE CLEARING AND REX NEVER WAS A GREAT SHOT. My brother dearly loved that dog, took it real, real hard. Sold his other dogs and never rabbit hunted again. That was about 14 years ago. Never hunted with Rex again either. -Tyr