Kato, if you have a ground blind, use that rather than trying to perfect your camo. Fleet Farm has some cheapos on sale for $40 right now. Other than that, try to set up on the edge of the woods where they are roosting and an open field. They'll fly down from their roost and go out in the field to chase the womenfolk.
There is a Mill's just down the road from me right now, thanks. I did some deer hunting in a blind this past fall and felt it had some pros/cons of course, but I can see that being more advantageous for turkeys on flat land. I did some spring cleaning in my basement and got all of my camo and blaze gear together, I already have enough to be covered from head to toe so I'm not gonna be buying anything. Finally found the turkey choke for my 870 too. Side note on that, I collected all of my random shotgun ammo together and it turns out I have enough for the next couple of years. A nice thought. When I hunted deer on this land last fall one of the places I sat was in a rock pile in the middle of a dairy pasture, facing south at a wooded hillside. The hillside has been partially logged so there's open pockets now. Turkeys roosted on that hillside and I know they travel along that woodline (saw tracks) and there's another woodline I know is popular for them too. Some of the property was just covered in turkey tracks and shit. I'm hunting the May 1-5 season and I'm not sure what days my friend can hunt with me. Would it make sense to scout a day or two ahead of the season, locating them, or dive in on the first day? This is that rock pile with me sitting, facing the hillside the turkeys were on. This is another woodline in the property, there were turkey tracks along that cow trail. That trail intersects in a corner with another woodline running perpendicular to it, which you can see in the photo. A road bordering the property is just to the left of the frame there. When I first visited the property, over two dozen turkeys piled across the road into the property along the perpendicular woodline.
If you use the blind make sure you get that barrel out the window. I took a kid deer hunting and he failed to get his rifle barrel all of the way out of the window and damn near made me deaf.
Thanks, can't get complacent about that. Reminds me of the one time I shot a semi-automatic .308 in a mostly closed barn and was partially deaf for the rest of the day.
I have a pair of Howard Leight Impact earmuffs now and they are wonderful. The amplify anything under 82 db and filter out anything higher.
I have some Ryobi electronic muffs that I've worn shooting and am a fan of, but so far they limit the sound too much and are too wind-sensitive for hunting in the woods, at least for me. Waterfowling may be a different story, I haven't tried them waterfowling yet and definitely will because it was my brother's Mossberg and a 3 1/2" magnum that really hurt my right ear two years ago. If I could quietly slip them on in the blind that could probably work. If I can use them, I will.
Remember it is always cheaper to bring me your reel before you take it apart, it is always a nice treat to get them delivered in a zip lock bag with a note that says "my friend" took it apart and wants you to fix it.
Let me guess, Okuma? Oddly enough, I know exactly what I'm looking at in that in that picture and how to put it back together. I completely disassemble, clean, lube, and reassemble all of my Shimanos and Abus every year. It's easy once you do it a few times and a good skill to have. It also looks like the soft washers are glued to the main gear. That should be fun.
It is a Daiwa Procaster and lucky for me all the parts are were there, he also gave me an Ambassadeur 6500c that was missing 4 parts. My issue with doing the Daiwa is I am charging him 20 bucks to put it back together and clean and lube it and the reel itself is worth maybe $20 but it has some sort of sentimental value and he just has to have it. It is a good skill to have, I started doing reel repair for a saltwater place in Phoenix 3 years ago so I could get discounted fishing gear and it has turned into a 500-600 reels per year deal, it pays for my fishing and people love to have me on their boat. The reason I get to fish in Cabo so much is because I do all the service on the reels on my friends boat, in exchange I fish for free and get to stay on his boat not a bad exchange for knowing how to take shit apart, lube it and put it back together. If you can do your own reels and are comfortable tearing them down you should consider doing it for others if you have time, there is a huge demand and not a lot of guys who do it, ordering parts is easy and all the schematics are all online, with freshwater stuff it is a lot of replacing the pawls and worm gears on level winds and cleaning and lubing.
Those Ambassadeur's are a breeze. It's a good thing easy to take apart and fix because they need a lot of repairing. It seems like I go through at least 2-3 pinion yokes every year. I just had the Shimano tech observe me while I took apart and cleaned my Calcutta 400 te yesterday. I'm comfortable doing it, but not comfortable enough to do it at home unsupervised with a few drinks in me. The difference in quality and design between the Shimanos and Abus is lightyears apart.
I would agree with you on Shimano stuff, they are by far the best reels on the market, they are more expensive but worth it. That Calcutta 400 is a work horse, a lot of guys use those in salt water and they hold up well.
I've messed with my Shimano spinning reels a little, but I don't take apart much. I know my limitations, unlike a friend who has brought a couple of guns to me in boxes before. Dewercs what lubricants do you use in them?
I use Penn synthetic reel oil, and I use it because they give it to me for free, for parts that need to be greased I use a high temp marine grade grease. I don't know if it is the best oil ever put it certainly works for both salt and fresh water. Prior to getting the penn oil I used to use pneumatic tool oil, and that stuff works very good as well. I would tell you that the worst thing I have seen put in reels is that hot sauce brand lube, it sucks because it gums shit up. For all my cleaning I use rubbing alcohol, it is a great cleaner and it evaporates pretty fast so you can spin your bearing in it and let it dry for a few minutes and re lubricate them.
I will never take apart another spinning reel. I just always end up losing pieces or completely forgetting how they go back together. Those things are complicated as hell. As far as the hot sauce, a lot of guys up here use it for their ice fishing reels because it's rated for a lower temperature.
I only did it after I'd bought a second reel to replace the first one, since it started to feel really slow during a weeklong fishing trip. It was a Shimano Sidestab 1000 and I'm glad nothing was springload since I took it apart over a tray and not in a bag. Since it was a less expensive reel to begin with maybe the internals were less complicated? I don't know. My Shimano Sedona reel is working just fine and I have zero intentions of messing with it. I've just used my firearm lubricants (CLP oil and XHP lithium grease with moly) on the reels and they seem to work fine. Then again I am not fishing daily or on saltwater.
Must have been my lucky weekend. Took down two gobblers and neither hunt lasted longer than 30 minutes. The one on the left weighed 22lbs, had a 9.5" beard and 7/8" spurs. The one on the right weighed 20lbs, had a 8" beard and 1-1/4" spurs. Damn near decapitated the one on the right.
Which season are you going? I'm going season E, which is May 6-10. I figured if I went during walleye opener there would be a lot fewer people out there. We went the same weekend last year, we were the only ones on a big plot of public land.
Season D (May 1-5), zone 508. I'll be hunting on a private 80 acre plot and am the only person with permission to hunt it, so we'll see how that goes. Where did you hunt last year? Anyone else thinking about mushroom hunting too? The weather is a little cruel right now, dropping snow when I'm thinking about morels. I'm probably going to make a trip or two to hunt with my dad around our old go-to spots but want to check out some new areas along the Minnesota River valley once it warms up.
I went last year with my brother. It was our first year hunting turkeys. We were only able to hunt Friday night and Saturday, but we saw 14 birds. We had a tom strutting for a group of hens, but he was about 60-70 yards out and wasn't responding to my calls. With a 20 mph wind, it was an impossible shot. Later that day, we had 4 hens within 10 yards of our blind. This year, one of my teammates is coming with us. He was a guide for an outfitter in KS, so hopefully we get some birds. I've never hunted mushrooms, though. I wouldn't know where to go or what to look for. I'd do it if I had someone to show me the ropes.