Andy:
Yeah, I love the Leupold, it's an awesome scope. My elk hunting partner shoots a .300 weatherby, with the boss system. It does reduce recoil by quite a bunch. It actually shoots pretty tame for a .300, actually rather friendly in fact. However, it barks louder than hell, and once you fire, there's no question who it was that shot! Even at a distance, I can usually tell if it was my partner that shot or not, provided he's not a couple miles away. It has a rather distinctive sound, unmatched by any other. From the sounds of what the others in your area shoot, that would definately be something different.

Funny you mention that about the Honda guys. I went to the local Honda dealer yesterday to see what they wanted for the 60" Moose Plow. He said it was $369 for the plow, then the mount was extra, and they also charged a set-up fee. He asked what it was going on and I told him an AC 500. He said "A What?" I said an Arctic Cat 500 Automatic. He immediately got rather nasty with me, said that OH, he couldn't get a blade to fit that machine, if I didn't have a Honda, it wouldn't fit. I said well, I could get the mount anywhere, I just wanted to know the price of the plow, he got nasty again and said well, he doesn't offer plows for Arctic Cat's, and he didn't even know where to get one, that they were crap machines, he couldn't figure out why anybody would even buy one.

After a few choice words about his attitude, I had to leave. Couldn't believe the nerve of that guy.

Anyway, good luck with the new rifle purchase. If you end up with the .300 Browning, I think you'd be happy having the boss system on it. May be hard on the ears, but it sure saves a lot of stress on your shoulder.

Mike

 

What an ***. Sounds like a guy at a local polaris dealership around here. He is so negative, he even downplays his own stuff.

The .300 is still just a thought, though if I have cash in hand in the future and the feeling hits me, I will get it. Basically, I guess I'm just finding out what I want so if I get the urge, I won't have to look around later on. I will just go and get it.

 

Mike,

I went to Moose's website & searched for all dealers in my area & then started making calls to shop for the plow. Most of them quoted the same retail price that Moose puts in their catalog but I talked to one guy who sounded like he would deal so I asked for a discount & he agreed. He gave me a 10% discont for one plow & 15% discount for two. If the shop orders more than $500 worth from Moose the freight is free, so my total, (with a roller fairlead, bottom mount, Push Tube, 60" Plow, and sales tax) was $374.95 each. The shop ended up being a little hole-in-the-wall place that did repairs on motorcycles (not an ATV dealer!!) & I'm sure if I ever need anything worked on, that's where I'll go first.

By the way, the Plow setup looks awesome, very tough. I've put the plow together and set it under the Cat, but I haven't actually bolted it on yet. The bottom mount has ears that hang down about 2 inches right under the foot pegs, so I didn't want to lose the ground clearance before hunting season. I might go out again this weekend so I'll install the mount after that.

Any way, my advise is to call around a little to find a deal on the plow & leave those a**hole dealers to selling junk to people who don't know any better!

Lance

 

Way to go Cowboy! Out here we have been having miserable weather, so either you stumble on a bunch of deer hiding in the trees, or you don't see one all day. I only saw 2 deer within shooting range, and they were on the move. I first saw them on an open field, but before I could maneuver around them, they got to the trees. Either had to take a 300 yard running shot with no rest (I was in a dip & just kneeling made them disappear) or try to find them in the trees. I walked for 2 hours & never found them, they just kept going ahead of me.
We are kind of in a bad situation here. One neighbor allows no hunting, and in the last 2 years, the land on the other 2 sides sold & no hunting there either. I don't mean by me, I mean by no one at all. Any sign of hunting activity, and the deer all hop the fence. We don't own much land, a spooked deer can likely run clear across it in a minute or so. What really sucks, though is all those who allow no hunting (2 of the 3 are waiting a couple years to 'grow' a trophy for themselves) just have grass. I am the only one with a cornfield. This summer when things got dry, the only green thing was my irrigated corn...blasted things ate quite a bit of it. To top it off, now that it turned cold & windy, the deer are hiding in their hills, where I can't go. I guess that's what happens when land sells to people who live like 3 states away.
Good job & happy hunting.

 

Lance:
Man, sounds like you got a good deal on that plow set-up! Nice to know there is still people out there who do care. I really wasn't planning on buying a plow for a while yet, but thought I'd stop in to see the prices. One thing I know for sure, I'll never go back there again!

Best of luck with the hunt!

Farmr:
Hey, good to hear from you, it's been a while! How's everything going? Sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances with your neighbors, that really sucks. I'm sure that's exactly what they're doing. Closing hunting so that over the next couple years, the deer will know that it is a "safe" area, that way they'll stick around there, grow nice and fat with some huge racks, then the owners will then allow hunting for themselves only. What a crock. Hope you're able to work something out there. Maybe get to know them and work a deal or something, who knows, they might even let you hunt as a friendship deal.

So how long does your season last, and how many deer are you allowed? Are they either sex, or buck only? Out here, it's 3 pt. minimum in the area's I go, and the late hunt is 3 pt. minimum, whitetail only, so we're pretty restricted. Only allowed one deer, and the hunt is usually only a week long, including both weekends. I'd heard that a few places back east allow a several deer, but don't know if that's true. If it is, I'd assume you guys have tons of them back there. How big do they usually get? It all varies over here between species. Even just the east side and west side of the state make a difference. Body size will be smaller, but racks will be larger in some areas, kind of funny that way, but I guess it all depends on the nutrients available to them to determine growth and development.

Well, better get to class, hope all is well, and best of luck with your hunt!

Mike

 

Our neighbors are either gonna hunt it themselves or have a 'fee hunt' thing going. Already tried to talk to them about maybe both of us being able to cross the fence. I was told 'only if you want to pay the regular fee'. I thought we could just swap hunting rights, but no go. To top it off, he is leasing the rights off other neighbors. Turns out they sign the papers, get a fair sized check, and when they read the fine print they can't even carry a rifle on their own land!!! Unless they pay the hunting fee, that is. Seems he buffallowed several people with all the legal mumbo-jumbo in his lease. Times are tough out here right now, so I can't blame people for wanting a few extra dollars, but as soon as word got out you couldn't go on your own without paying the fee (few hundred dollars for a deer hunt, several hundred if you get one) he couldn't get any more. Too bad his leases were for 7 years.

Deer season lasts 9 days. Starts the 2nd Sat of Nov., ends the 3rd Sunday PM. Limit is one per tag, 2 tags per person, 3 if you go archery in certain areas where they are a problem. Mainly small areas in the suburbs of the bigger cities. 70% either sex this year. It changes year to year to keep population stable.
The deer around here are generally large in body size, but not record rack size. My sister-in-law got one of the bigger bucks I have seen in the area and it field dressed at about 250 pounds. The muleys get big here, especially the corn fed ones! Whitetails run about 100 pounds dressed out, 150 or 175 for a real big buck. I consider field dressed with the innerds removed, but the head, legs & hide still on. If the wind dies towards evening I may walk out to a wooded canyon that juts into the cornfield. Wish me luck!

 

Farmr:
Man, sounds like you've got a real _sshole for a neighbor! Is that kind of crap even legal??? Man, if some neighbor of mine tried to tell me I couldn't hunt my own land without paying him a fee to hunt, I'd give that guy a real country *** whoopin! Seems that with all the neighbors you've got, you'd think they'd be able to revoke that type of deal, or better yet, maybe even run him off. I knew a couple of really nice families up in this area with some sizeable land. One of their neighbors moved out, and the people that moved in were absolutely terrible. Tried doing the same type of thing that you mention, but also tried putting restrictions on all sorts of other things.

They even went as far as to say that the couple horses one guy had, as well as the few cows the guy on the other side had smelled too bad, and he didn't like waking up to that smell in the morning. Man, I don't know about you, but if you want to live in the country, you take the good with the bad, besides, a couple horses and a few cows don't hardly smell at all, I don't think anyway!

Anyway, the people went back and forth in court and with the police with the new "californians", and eventually they were voted out of the area, forced to move. The land went up for sale, as did the house, and the two closest neighbors both split the land, buying up equal halves, so to keep somewhat of control over the situation. The house was split from the deal, and sold separately, with no land.

As it stands now, the land is open to the public, to hunt for free. Both families decided they had had enough legal garbage, and didn't want to do that anymore. All they ask is you stop in and tell them you're going to be hunting, make sure they're not harvesting anything, and promise not to shoot their equipement. Pretty good deal for everyone, as it turned out. They've got a few deer on their ground, but mostly a lot of birds, so the bird hunters are always out there, and always seem to do quite well.

Very sorry to hear of your situation, I'm not sure how you're able to handle it, but I know I wouldn't be able to stay "friendly" all that long. I get a rather short fuse when it comes to stuff like that. Best of luck in your hunt, however you are able to work it out. Maybe you'll be lucky, step off your back porch and drop a nice big 5x5, trying to get friendly with a little doe out in your field. That would be great!

Oh, and about that little trip thing I was planning on taking next spring-I'm affraid I'm going to postpone it for a bit. I graduate in December, as planned, but two of my ag teachers decided that I need to stay till May, to get another degree. I am still graduating in December, but I filed for a second Bachelors degree in Agricultural Management. I'll only need 5 more classes, and should be able to do that in one semester, so I'll go back from January till May. Then, as I graduate in December with an Animal Science degree with a Business Minor, I'll also get an Agricultural Management degree in May, then be done with school for good, I hope.

I'm still planning on heading out that way to ride, as I mentioned earlier, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to do that now. Might be towards the end of the summer, or even the beginning of fall. I'll be sure to let you know though, as I find out for sure.

Take care, and I hope you are able to resolve some of those issues. Best of luck with the hunt!

Mike

 

I hear you. Some city slicker wants to move out into the country, then complains about animals that were there for 100 years.
I am going to try to meet our new neighbor face-to face. I think one reason he didn't want hunters is he doesn't know anybody. For all he knew, I could be some so-and-so from Chicago claiming to be from the neighborhood. Also, he basically just got possession of the land. Talking to him he seemed like a decent fellow, just this landowning thing was new to him. I actually think he was worried about liability or some ordinance or something. Him, I think I will get along with.
My OTHER neighbor, on the other hand is quite the individual. We were going to walk my Dad's land, starting from the road that runs between Dad's and his land. Because of the snow, we couldn't park in the ditch, just the edge of the road where the snowplow went. We picked the widest part of the road, where we would be easily seen, to be out of the way. The neighbor stopped & told us we had to move. I said we were on the shoulder as best we could be & there was plenty of room. He replied that a tandem axle feed truck was going through to his place any minute & it was our tough luck if he hit a pickup. I asked when, & he said it was following behind him maybe 10 minutes. So we moved off to a driveway, walked about a mile to get back to where we started from, and never did see that feed truck.
This is the same guy that won't let us drive 100 feet into his pasture to get a calf of ours that we can see from the road (it is HIS place, not ours), whom I once caught driving through my CORNFIELD in late spring (corn was about 12-15 inches tall) following TRACKS that went from his place into mine. If he would have had the decency to call I could have told him we already caught his cow. We just got her shut in the corral when we heard some noise in the corn. It was him. My only regret was we weren't irrigating yet & he hadn't gotten stuck. His wife is a sweet lady, though, so I try to be nice. I met her in town once & she said to stop by sometime & wondered why no one seems to visit them...hmmmm...I think now they are married long enough she is figuring it out.

 

I know this has nothing to with hunting but we got a real "nice" neighbor to.I was waiting for my little sister at the bus stop.She gets dropped off right by the highway and its a long walk home.I was on our 300ex and sitting so close to the gaurdrail my tires where almost rubbing.The road is more than wide enoguh for 2 full size trucks to go down.Anyway my nice neighbor who drives a GEO metro a little bity thing.Pulls up and just sits right in front off my blasting the horn.He had the whole Dang road!!I put the 300ex in reverse and back away and go into the grass.He drives away with an angry look on his face.I got him back though.I took my 300ex's air box lid off when it had a cracked header pipe.It was LOUD.And at mid night that night drove by his WOT mutiple times till all the some lights came on inside.He came up the next day to our house to tell my dad and my dad had some choice words with him about how he always pulls out in front of my parents.The road makes a T and he just pulls right out in front of them.needless to say when we saw him at walmart tonight he looked at us and glared.

moded out 86trx250r
97 300ex
90 blaster
96 warrior