Dugga Boy

So, I'll admit it. I'm stubborn. I don't like to change things. I'm also very low tech and old school. I hunt deer using a lever action BLR with iron sights. It's done well for me. I rarely have any shots over 50 yards in the woods where I hunt. I like the quick aim, and I like the look. I also love the .358 Winchester round. But my last three deer seasons have been busts. The first of those years I just never saw any deer close enough to shoot. This past year I had a shot on a pair of does that I decided wasn't safe, and then, on the last day, at last light, I took a downhill shot at a doe and shot right over her back. And yes, iron sights probably did me in that day. But that year in between. That was frustrating. It was the last day. It was getting near sundown. It was still before legal sundown, but the shadows were getting long. I was sitting on a little hill we like to hunt on. There is a bluff in front of us, woods behind us, little hollows to t...

My trusty, well worn Renegades Teddy Roosevelt and I have a similar opinion when it comes to Whitetail hunting. It's too sedentary. I do it, because it's the only game in New York, but I don't like the sitting. There's just too much sitting around and waiting. There doesn't have to be--I've actually and some success still hunting--and I've had a lot of failures still hunting too--but, for the most part, Whitetails are hunted from stands, so thats how I hunt them. But not always. This one time, I was walking into the woods. My plan was to still hunt up to the ground blind where I was going to post. It was just after sunrise, but it was over cast and a bit misty. It was bow season, in early October. The place where we usually hunt, there's a power-line trail going up hill side, with woods to either side of that. Because there are some houses near by where we enter, we walk into the woods with our rifles unloaded. There is (or was, it's gone ...

Wear Some Good Hiking Boots The World Fishing and Outdoor Expo last weekend was a lot of walking and a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed the knife booths. There was a rod and gun club there selling old knives, mostly folders -- Bucks, Brownings, Schrades, Victorinox--in other words, the good stuff. I had to be dragged away from fondling them. There was another knife maker there selling Damascus everything--straight razors, skinning knives, swords. The smith was there, and claimed he hand-forged everything himself. Me, I was in the market for a cheap guthook knife. Now, I know--why get a cheap knife? Well, for two reasons. The first is, on occasion, I'm cheap. I try to save my gear money so I can spend money on experiences. The second, and more important reason, is that the knife it was replacing was also cheap. I'd had a bag stolen from me that had my last cheap guthook knife in it, a promotional knife from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation , which had probably cos...

World Fishing and Outdoor Expo The World Fishing and Outdoor Expo is going on this weekend at the Eugene Levy Field House at Rockland Community College in Suffern (and now we know where Eugene went to school), so Yesterday my buddy Big Mike and I braved this: Today's weather is brought to you by Chaos. ...to attend. If you are in Southern New York or Northern New Jersey, GO! It's a nice little show. I's probably 50% fishing, 30% hunting and 20% other stuff. There are great fishing products, boats, kayaks, snow-cat's, rabbits, raptors, outfitters and artisanal root beer. Happiness is a damascus steel straight razor.   Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll sit in a boat with a six pack all day long.  You locked the credit cards in the car, right? RIGHT???  A local petting zoo had brought out several cute and cuddlies, who made a nice contrast to all the stuffed, dead not so cuddly an...