Today I enjoyed the outdoors. I chose to carry......

Happy Thanksgiving my THR Friends.
View from my back door this week.


My carry for the week is my 442 & my ball retriever. Didn't see any cottonmouths the ball retriever is nice to redirect them.

Enjoyed Saint Anastasia State Park.





Next Thanksgiving should include a morning deer hunt in Wisconsin if plans hold true.

A warm 74 degrees. Took a quick 5 mile hike to burn some calories before eating



Pretty sure thats a pile of digested crawfish shells from bird droppings under a tree

Mars5l said:

A warm 74 degrees. Took a quick 5 mile hike to burn some calories before eatingView attachment 1040249

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Pretty sure thats a pile of digested crawfish shells from bird droppings under a tree

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Little gun with a big knife

Although it has yet to snow in the area, I went back to the spot requiring a 750' elevation gain up a straight gulch from the canyon. Mostly because it's a pretty quick drive.



I travelled a little lighter than usual today, with a large fanny pack, a Fallkniven F1, and the new G20 with even newer sights from Dawson Precision. I tested them earlier in the day, and they're pretty close. More shooting will confirm that though.


Down on the opposite side of the ridgeline I found what I believe is an old bear den. A day bed, maybe. None of the sign was particular fresh however.


There are a few dark areas in the rock faces that may be caves. I'll have to go check those out next time. This was the one I got closest too today, but I still had to zoom to get the shot. Hence the poor quality.


What was a fresh deer carcass last time I was up here, is no longer so fresh. More like picked clean.


I honestly have no idea if a Coyote can chew through deer ribs, so I don't have a good idea which predator/scavenger may have done this.


There did not appear to be any obvious prints around, though the grass is pretty flattened. And no new scat that I could see. So I really have no idea. But the sun was setting. And I decided, weapons light or no, I'd prefer to avoid any after sunset encounters.

There's more to explore yet!

@Mars5l & @WrongHanded (along with others) you guys are making me jealous with those nice fixed blades. The hikes and scenery are awesome too.

WisBorn said:

@Mars5l & @WrongHanded (along with others) you guys are making me jealous with those nice fixed blades. The hikes and scenery are awesome too.

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Regarding fixed blade knives, although I've not tried everything the world has to offer, the Fallkniven basic VG10 series (F1/S1/A1) are pretty great. I really don't have anything bad to say about them other than they're not very pretty. They're also not terribly expensive for what they are.

The views are either cheaper, or far more expensive. Depending on your current location.

WisBorn said:

@Mars5l & @WrongHanded (along with others) you guys are making me jealous with those nice fixed blades. The hikes and scenery are awesome too.

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Im not a huge fixed blade guy, prefer pocket folders, but it seems keen to have a good fixed blade while hiking. Mine is more on the large side, it mostly gets used now for trails that end up with fallen trees or over grown vegetation. Most of my carry knives are Buck brand

This is about as fall as we get in my area of Flroria for color changes. We had a mild cold snap so now everything is kinda just dying. Not exactly pretty in Florida when it comes winter time. Did come across a wild hog. He was to far ahead to get a picture with my phone, but was ready to draw if he decided to get closer and charge

Mars5l said:

Im not a huge fixed blade guy, prefer pocket folders, but it seems keen to have a good fixed blade while hiking. Mine is more on the large side, it mostly gets used now for trails that end up with fallen trees or over grown vegetation. Most of my carry knives are Buck brand

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Buck is one of a few brands of knives that it's hard to go wrong with.
Has anyone ever had a bad one ?

WisBorn said:

Buck is one of a few brands of knives that it's hard to go wrong with.
Has anyone ever had a bad one ?

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Nope. But I've never had a particularly good one either. They may make better knives in better steels than I have experienced....but I haven't experienced them.

Today I went to a place that I've not been in over a year, due to the fire and subsequent road closure. It was very disappointing to see what was a quite fertile little valley - and home (based on previous sign and sightings) to Mule Deer, Elk, Moose, and Black Bear - had been heavily burned. But I'll spare you the ugly reality and show you some of the nicer scenes available.

It's not totally destroyed. And I expect most of the Aspen to rebound. There's already new shoots rising.


The new G20 needed a loose front sight tightening and the lock tight setting. So I took the .44 Redhawk instead, with the A1 for support.


The old logging road has become much more obvious in areas where it was being overgrown. But this spot atop the ridge looked this clear before the fire.


This view on the way back was the best one of the day. There's still some rich forest and waterways down there. I nosed into it before I left, and found more Elk sign than I've seen previously. It's nice to know they're still in the area.

One post for the last two days.
I made a couple of trips to my hunting grounds in hopes of finding the buck I shot and knocked down on opening morning of our gun season. I'm carrying my bow,, but not planning to shoot anything else.. I'm hoping to find my buck, dead or alive.
Day 1:
I've been all over our property and most of the neighbor's too. No luck.
I asked this guy what he knew, but he wouldn't talk.
besides my xbow, my leetle fren' was clipped inside my bibs.
Day 2: Sunday evening. Another woods ¾ mile from my stand.

I have a blind in this woods that I haven't hunted yet this season.
I chose to carry my recurve today as had had a bit of hiking to do in order to collect my trsilcam cards. The recurve is so much easier to carry than the xbow.
.
Several nice rubs in the area.
fresh scrapes too.
I sold 60 oak trees from this property last January. This Bur Oak was 24ft to the first limb .1100bf.
I stumbled upon this dinosaur along the way.
I chose to also carry my 1911 in a shoulder holster as a bit of research into using it in a more outdoorsman role.

Enjoyed a little walk in the woods of VA today. Nice temps mid 50s.


My 442 in my front pocket. If you don't have one of these little carry guns you should give it a hard look.

Thought I'd go bigger than the M65 today.

This thread is awesome. I don't have any current pics to share, but here's a couple shots from a whitetail deer hunt in southern Ohio several years ago. I carried a Lyman great plains rifle that I built from a kit. It was a day trip and I was a little more serious about the wandering than the hunting.It amazes me how much longer the snow lasts on the shaded side of a ridge. The area has a lot of rock formations, some giant sycamore trees, and some wood peckers that are sponsored by Stihl.

redneck said:

This thread is awesome. I don't have any current pics to share, but here's a couple shots from a whitetail deer hunt in southern Ohio several years ago. I carried a Lyman great plains rifle that I built from a kit. It was a day trip and I was a little more serious about the wandering than the hunting.It amazes me how much longer the snow lasts on the shaded side of a ridge. The area has a lot of rock formations, some giant sycamore trees, and some wood peckers that are sponsored by Stihl.
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Great pictures!
Is the Lyman a flintlock or percussion? Hard to tell on my phone.

The lyman is a percussion gun. Takes no.11 caps and is a .54 slow twist.

These pics are from trail riding in Zaleski State Forest. I carried a government sized 1911 in .45 acp that I built on a sarco frame from random parts I gathered together. The slide and barrel were also a sarco kit, but I abandoned a lot of the smaller internal parts and used name brand stuff. Sadly you can't trail ride around those areas without bumping into a tweaker or otherwise shady character at times. We averaged about one questionable encounter a year when we were really riding a lot, but never had cause to clear leather. Really no critters to be worried about from horseback in Ohio.

Horses and Dutch ovens and black powder!.....where do I sign up!

redneck

I carried a government sized 1911 in .45 acp that I built on a sarco frame from random parts I gathered together. The slide and barrel were also a sarco kit, but I abandoned a lot of the smaller internal parts and used name brand stuff.

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Found that out the hard way as well when I was working on building an Essex frame. The Sarco parts kit was mostly worthless and I ended up replacing it with quality parts from established manufacturers. Initially I went with a Springfield Armory .38 Super slide and barrel assembly. I gave the slide to a friend of mine who was in need of another .38 Super and the Essex frame set awhile until I found a very nice TacSol .22 conversion kit for it.

Beautiful gun.

I kind of used the sarco parts as a practice run to learn how things worked and tried to make the gun work with all of them first. I think the thumb safety was the only thing I could't make functional. I'd have to go back and look stuff up now but I think I ended up replacing the thumb safety, grip safety (came with a GI I radiused the frame and put a beavertail on) , disconnector, hammer and sear. Mostly ed brown or cylinder and slide parts. The mag that came with the sarco frame was a complete no go as well.

My gun is a bit loose but it is reliable and as accurate as I am.

Trying to get The Dude (he was looking skeptical) to go for a walk with me on a drizzly PNW day. He sighed and then came along (guess he had nothing better going on). No sights to show off, just down my rainy road. But I carried the hog-leg, just because. Took longer to dry everything than our walk lasted..

Before I left hunting camp- Truck was packed, Quads on Trailer, Cabin cleaned up, Water tanks Emptied…..

Took a short walk down by the Damn.

686+ Pre lock with a Fallkniven Idun. Could Survive very well with those two items, some various ammo and something to make a spark.

Lnf Crzr said:

686+ Pre lock with a Fallkniven Idun. Could Survive very well with those two items, some various ammo and something to make a spark.

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That's a pricey and pretty knife. I really like Fallkniven but never found my way to the Northern Lights series (though I've considered it). How do you like it?