Hunting in the snow

[22250Rem]

Do you have a crossbow? That’s legal during ML as well.

..... Don't currently have a crossbow but I use my buddies Excalibur crossbow when I occasionally hunt with one. Road I live on is the boundary between two WMU's. I can bow hunt the woods next to me but can't crossbow hunt legally until I walk across the road. Was in the woods this afternoon and saw the deer tracks and where they were headed. That's another great thing about snow cover.

 

[Highland Lofts]

We get about 130 average for Cows, ones with no calf can be 150 and VERY fat.....160-200 for Bulls in Winter, who tend to be pretty skinny after rut and sorta stay skinny all winter.
Pre rut Bulls are up to 250 lbs of fat and meat, and are most desirable.

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When I lived back in New York a friend went on a caribou hunt up in Nova Scotia on a guided hunt. He said they needed to dress them off really fast because they would bloat right up from stomach gasses. I'm sure it was because what they feed upon.
The whitetails we harvest are actually good eating .
I like making venison jerky, we took some boned out meat to a meat processing place and had Italian Sausage, kilbasa and venison snack sticks made up this year. We could of cleaned up on the whitetails this year but I tried to get my grandson set up on them

What's your go to method of preparing your caribou?

I'm sure the back straps are frying meat. Ground meat for hamburg, chilli and speggti sause. Steaks and roast.

You must lead an interesting life where you live, definatly different then what we live down yonder.

If you guys need any reloading stuff i have lots of extra and can generally get stuff others can not get.

 

[caribou]

I start with skinning them first, depending on time of year, sometimes I leave them in the skin to protect the meats from flys or sands , until I get it to where Ill cut up. Sometimes ,your trying to get the skin off asap because its freezing to the meats.
We get a couple meals off the carcass until the rigurmortis go's. If its freezing out, we will bring in a leg or two and let them thaw and the meats relax, so its not chew chew chew...
In the Fall, when freeze up is occurring and prime Bulls have been caught in the river with an instant death of .22lr scrambling their brains, not exiting and wounding any others, picking out Prime Bulls......Then taking them to the river side to clean them in chilling waters and taking that home in a boat by the load is the best way to have Caribou meats.
Fat, healthy and Prime, pre rut. let those hang and freeze/thaw a couple times, and later take them into the house and thaw them , there's few meats better..
Same for Cow Caribou in mid March, prime and fat, as the fetus in them wont accelerate its growth for another month, the females are the only "Fat " out there and we get a 1/2 dozen in Spring, just for good nutrition.
The heart, tongue, liver and kidneys, along with belly meats and the brisket (cut up into pieces) make a first couple meals you can enjoy before the carcass is "Ready''
In summer wie will eat about 1/2 the animal and dry the other half for snacks.
Depending on season, sometimes they are cut up for drying or quartered and a pelvic roast and the back bones with or without backstraps, sometimes long ribs , sometimes cut short while frozen to fit in a pot.
We roast most quarters whole, but cut at the 'elbow' or 'Knee" to fit in an over, or we make steaks or cut it up frozen and raw and dip in fish, seal or whale oils and munch. The backstraps are usually sliced thin and fried, then served as a snack.
The rib meats , with or without ribs, of a fat bull are most tender and excellent. That and the tongue are my favorites.

Caribou is my favorite food. Cant buy it in a store.
My preferred rifle for such is the Finn M-39, but some vision changes in the last few years have brought me to peeps, so maybe Ill see what kinda peeps a guy can put on a Mosin rear sight.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

It would require drilling and tapping, but that could be done to mount a peep on a 91/30 or M39 with a "hex" receiver.

Same could be done on the cocking piece. Although, when cocked, the cocking piece does have some wiggle. Playing around with a 91/30 I just happen to have out, it seems that the cocking piece, when cocked with the bolt, not pulled back by hand, seems to return to the same place, wiggle-wise. ?

Just some random thoughts.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I just ordered one of them conibear spring setters for $65 free shipping. I need to order a 330 conibear trap and try it out. If it is as easy as you did in the video i will buy several as gifts for my kids & brother.
It will be $65 well spent a few times over.

Do you reload?

 

[sixgunner455]

Pretty sure there’s a peep sight that replaces the rear leaf on a MN.

 

[caribou]

I just ordered one of them conibear spring setters for $65 free shipping. I need to order a 330 conibear trap and try it out. If it is as easy as you did in the video i will buy several as gifts for my kids & brother.
It will be $65 well spent a few times over.

Do you reload?

Im glad I showed you this I do want to reload, again, after years with a small house and a big family, all but one is grown and moved out, but the 15 year old can keep her hands off of stuff, so its time to build me a little bench

Pretty sure there’s a peep sight that replaces the rear leaf on a MN.

Yep, Ive seen advertisements, and Im lookin'

 

[stillquietvoice]

Went out muzzle loader hunting today. Did some slipping and sliding on the roads, but arrived without too much of an issue. Got all of my gear on and started walking toward an old logging road, snow was piled up from being plowed, started over the snow pile and sank to my waist. Like getting caught in quick sand took 10 minutes to get out. Keep the muzzle clear up in the air. Once I was out I laughed at myself for getting stuck. Well I walked up the main rd to state game land line and entered there, minus getting stuck, snow was high at the roads edge, but inside the woods it wasn't as bad, just over the top of my boots. Believe it or not there were deer tracks everywhere followed a lone set for about 200 yds and set up neat a 3 path convergence.
Didn't see any deer but know they are still out there waiting for next season.

 

[Highland Lofts]

It doesn't take to much room when you only do a could of calibers. With the way things are you might want to buy primers, powder, bullets if they are available in your area.
How far are you from stores that sell reloading stuff and ammo.

 

[22250Rem]

Yep, Ive seen advertisements, and Im lookin'

Check out Mojo sights, at www.mojosights.com , they have some nice looking, adjustable, peep sights for Mosins, including Finn M39's with an adjustable peep that replaces the rear sight and uses a second peep in place of the front sight for a two peep setup. Was looking at them last summer for my 91/30 but got a no gunsmithing mount for a scout scope that I had sitting around. They're up around 100 bucks IIRC but they look like a quality product, even though I have zero experience with them. That setup with 2 peeps was very interesting and something my older eyes got real interested in, but I wound up using the Leupold 2.5x scout scope cause I already had it here.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Bert
Did you go over to Afton hunting? There is a lot of good hardwoods over there. If I were younger I'd like to get dropped off on one road and still hunt it to the next road over like we did over at Bumbs Creek State Forest.

That deep snow definatley makes it harder to hunt.

 

[Johnm1]

It doesn't take to much room when you only do a could of calibers. With the way things are you might want to buy primers, powder, bullets if they are available in your area.
How far are you from stores that sell reloading stuff and ammo.

My first reloading bench was mounted to a child's desk that fit in a closet behind bi-fold doors. It was the best set up i have ever had. At the time I only loaded for 38/357 and later 45 ACP. Keep it simple and it can be done with very little floor space required. Now, if I could only follow my own advice. Gotta clean the bench.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Pretty sure there’s a peep sight that replaces the rear leaf on a MN.

There is, but a peep really works best when it's close to the eye. It will still "work" way forward, but you won't really get the full benefits of a peep. Remember there are two benefits or advantages to a peep, a sight picture that is easier to "see" or align, and putting a peep in it's usual place, as far back as possible, increases the sight radius quite a bit.

Even as far back on the receiver as you could get one, that's still too far forward, to my mind. (but better than the original rear-sight location) I think that mounting a peep on the cocking piece would work, but of course that involves drilling and tapping, and I'm not positive that the cocking piece returns to the same place from shot to shot. The one on the 91/30 I have out at the moment, seems to. Yeah I know...."seems". !!!!

Something to try first, if vision is a problem, might be to file the notch in the rear sight, open it up quite a bit. Deeper, wider and square. You can still get good accuracy with a wide, square notch, your eye will still center the front sight in the notch. (within reason) If vision has deteriorated just a bit, then possibly one can get a good sight picture by opening up the notch, just a bit.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

My first reloading bench was mounted to a child's desk that fit in a closet behind bi-fold doors. It was the best set up i have ever had. At the time I only loaded for 38/357 and later 45 ACP. Keep it simple and it can be done with very little floor space required. Now, if I could only follow my own advice. Gotta clean the bench.

Don't need a bench of any kind. Lee Hand Press, dies, priming tool and a scale. Keep it all in a small gym bag or tool box and reload anywhere. Kitchen table or sit on the floor. A bench-mounted press is only needed if you are working with big magnum cases like a .300 Weatherby Magnum, or sizing down bullets, or doing things like making .35 Whelen from '06, .270's from '06, or '06 from .270, or 7mm-08 from .308, or....you get the picture!! Resizing cases for calibers such as .308, '06, 7.62X54R, etc. is easy peasy.

 

[sixgunner455]

There is, but a peep really works best when it's close to the eye. It will still "work" way forward, but you won't really get the full benefits of a peep. Remember there are two benefits or advantages to a peep, a sight picture that is easier to "see" or align, and putting a peep in it's usual place, as far back as possible, increases the sight radius quite a bit.

Even as far back on the receiver as you could get one, that's still too far forward, to my mind. (but better than the original rear-sight location) I think that mounting a peep on the cocking piece would work, but of course that involves drilling and tapping, and I'm not positive that the cocking piece returns to the same place from shot to shot. The one on the 91/30 I have out at the moment, seems to. Yeah I know...."seems". !!!!

Something to try first, if vision is a problem, might be to file the notch in the rear sight, open it up quite a bit. Deeper, wider and square. You can still get good accuracy with a wide, square notch, your eye will still center the front sight in the notch. (within reason) If vision has deteriorated just a bit, then possibly one can get a good sight picture by opening up the notch, just a bit.

I don’t think the cocking piece is a great place to put the rear sight. Probably a non-starter if you want a consistent, solidly mounted rear sight so it will actually be an advantage in accuracy. With the Mojo referred to earlier, there is actually a peep out there that is designed for and works on the rifle. That will do to start with.

However, out on the barrel may not be the most advantageous place for a rear peep. US military peeps from the 1903A3 forward through WWII and then the M16s I was issued, and my own iron sighted ARs, have the peep a lot closer to the eye, taking full advantage of whatever sighting length is available on the particular rifle. The original 1903 had the rear leaf out in the barrel, though, but the receiver was amenable to a redesign to a superior sighting system. With the MN, you have milsurp receiver that was never meant for a peep, and isn’t really compatible with putting a rear sight of any description anywhere but on the barrel: the split rear ring, and the vertical bolt handle when turned to cycle the action really don’t allow for mounting on top because there’s nowhere to put it.

The way to really do it would be to mill off some of the left side wood and drill and tap for a side mount peep, but even then, the straight bolt handle going vertical to cycle and the split rear receiver ring are going to dictate placement to such a degree that you may not get much benefit from the project vs just using a Mojo when all is said and done. The sniper version’s scope attachments required quite a bit of modification to the rifle to get it to work: milling the stock and receiver, drilling and tapping for the bent-over the top mount, bending the bolt handle to clear the little scope and mount.

Doing something similar for a peep, like on a Winchester 94, probably won’t get the peep too much further to the rear than the front of the receiver. I doubt trying to cut into the receiver front, where the barrel threads are, to put a peep on it is going to be a wonderful plan. In any case, whether a side mount or D&T into the front of the receiver is only going to get it back a few inches at best from the original rear sight slot, and that won’t give the benefits of mounting it on the rear of the receiver.

I could be wrong. I’d like to see the end product if I am.

ETA: apparently, there are those with more knowledge than I of how to do little things like drill into rifle receivers. This is for a Rock Solid scope mount, but does show that a rear peep on the forward receiver could be possibly be done.

 

[toivo]

 

[Highland Lofts]

I have a frind who is in his 70s that elk hunts with a cap lock rifle. It came with the regular buck horn rear sight. At a hundred yards he was shooting all over the place. Hitting a paper plate maybe once out of ten to fifteen shots.

His son had a peep sight mounted on the rifle for him and he then hit the paper plate almost consistanly.

For his birthday he gought him a blackpowder with a thumb hole dtock with a peep sight installed and really narrowed the group shots down even smaller.

Three years ago I bought both of my grandsons Savage Rascle 22lr rifles. They come with peep sights and the kids do great with them. They would be a great little, back packable little small game rifle

About 45 years ago where I lived in central New York you had to use shotgun only for deer hunting. I bought a old Ithace 16 gauge pump that had a Willians peep sight mounted on it. What a hell of a combination. I dot lots of whitetail deer withat set up until I took the shotgun down to Frank Gabriel (old time machinist/gun smith in Binghamton) and had him drill & tap and install a shotgun scope on it.
I killed truck loads of deer whith this set up and still have that old shotgun. I keep it back at my oldest son's house, haven't shot that gun for close to twenty years. Probably new will again.
I should pick up some 16 gauge slugs for it just in case I want to use it some time down the road.

For out on sleds where things get bounced around I think a peep sight would be the optimum sight for the rifle. They are secure and shouldn't get moved. Where a scope gets knocked around they get out of wack and you miss what you are shooting at or gut shot the animal.
Years ago when everyone had gun racks in the back window of thier trucks a ftirnd had his scoped deer rigle hanging in his gun rack. He did some driving in dome ruff terrain where the rifle got bounced around alot. When he took a shot st a real nice buck he missed it. When the buck was gone he shot at something stationary and missed it. He went home, set up a target and shot at it. His rifle was way out of sight, about a foot one way or the other left or right. Plus it shot real low.
Scoped rifles need to be transported some what secure.

My grandson tripped on a good sized branch under the snow a few weeks ago back in New York while csrrying my H&R 243 handi rifle. He hit the ground pretty hard so the next day we took a ride over to the greene gun club to shoot it.
It was five inches to the right and two inches high from a fall.

 

[caribou]

My biggest problem is the rear sight is a bit out of my focus. I can pull my head back along the stock a few inches and get 'er done, but its not "Normal" and not comfortable.
Well, I do have a Japanese Arisaka thats dead on with long eye relief peeps that were standard for them.
I think the Mojo Mosin rear sight peeps would do fine.
Ive been using an M1A to great effect and I have a sporter'd M1917 with peeps.
I used to have quite a set up of Lymen reloading, but I do have some Lee hand loaders for various calibers, but yes, Im 500 miles and a day long flight from anyone who sells anything remotely hand loaded.
I will say, with D166 and 43.5 Grains Varget in a Norma case with CCI LR primers , to great effect , via the M-39.

 

[Rembrandt]

Couple more snow hunting pics from last weekend.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I have been buying a lot of extra reloading stuff and there are four semi local to me that deal in used reloading stuff so if there is anything you might need I should be able to find it plus I hdve been playing around with range brass.
I picked up a couple hundred pounds of range brass, I bought ninty pounds fron two crack head women who pick up brass.
I bought two hundred & thirty-two pounds and then another five hundred pounds. When I got back to Washington State I traded in some scrape brass for another fifty pounds.
He has another couple hundred pounds or so that I will be picking up tomorrow or Wed.
So if any one needs any brass I should have what you might need.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Rem
That is a nice size turkey. I like them cut into strips, coated with corn meal with some garlic powder, salt & peper. Fried and then squeeze lemon juice on them.

 

[Rembrandt]

Rem
That is a nice size turkey. I like them cut into strips, coated with corn meal with some garlic powder, salt & peper. Fried and then squeeze lemon juice on them.

That sounds delicious....

 

[22250Rem]

Spent last Saturday afternoon sitting in the snow against a fallen tree on my low profile turkey hunters seat & a "heat seat" waiting for the squirrels to come out. Wanted to get a squirrel picture with the .22 cal. CZ-455 with snow as a back drop. Plenty of squirrels out during deer season when I was sitting there with a .30-30 or a 6.5x55 waiting on deer. Was on one of the highest hills in Ontario County at my buddies place where the recent snow event left about a foot of snow. Now I'm thinking the snow storm put a damper on squirrel activity because I didn't see one all afternoon. At least I got pix of my seat and the CZ up against a tree. Even without scoring on squirrels it was a pleasant, quiet, relaxing afternoon in the snowy woods. . .. ..Not a bad day at all. Temps even got up into the low to mid 30's with no wind to lower the wind chill factor.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I don’t think the cocking piece is a great place to put the rear sight. Probably a non-starter if you want a consistent, solidly mounted rear sight so it will actually be an advantage in accuracy. With the Mojo referred to earlier, there is actually a peep out there that is designed for and works on the rifle. That will do to start with.

However, out on the barrel may not be the most advantageous place for a rear peep. US military peeps from the 1903A3 forward through WWII and then the M16s I was issued, and my own iron sighted ARs, have the peep a lot closer to the eye, taking full advantage of whatever sighting length is available on the particular rifle. The original 1903 had the rear leaf out in the barrel, though, but the receiver was amenable to a redesign to a superior sighting system. With the MN, you have milsurp receiver that was never meant for a peep, and isn’t really compatible with putting a rear sight of any description anywhere but on the barrel: the split rear ring, and the vertical bolt handle when turned to cycle the action really don’t allow for mounting on top because there’s nowhere to put it.

The way to really do it would be to mill off some of the left side wood and drill and tap for a side mount peep, but even then, the straight bolt handle going vertical to cycle and the split rear receiver ring are going to dictate placement to such a degree that you may not get much benefit from the project vs just using a Mojo when all is said and done. The sniper version’s scope attachments required quite a bit of modification to the rifle to get it to work: milling the stock and receiver, drilling and tapping for the bent-over the top mount, bending the bolt handle to clear the little scope and mount.

Doing something similar for a peep, like on a Winchester 94, probably won’t get the peep too much further to the rear than the front of the receiver. I doubt trying to cut into the receiver front, where the barrel threads are, to put a peep on it is going to be a wonderful plan. In any case, whether a side mount or D&T into the front of the receiver is only going to get it back a few inches at best from the original rear sight slot, and that won’t give the benefits of mounting it on the rear of the receiver.

I could be wrong. I’d like to see the end product if I am.

ETA: apparently, there are those with more knowledge than I of how to do little things like drill into rifle receivers. This is for a Rock Solid scope mount, but does show that a rear peep on the forward receiver could be possibly be done.

I agree, the cocking piece is not ideal, just that it "could" work, and would put the peep close to the eye, and really give a long sight radius. However, it would be a bit of work to find out if it did or did not work.

One could be mounted easily on a "hex" receiver, but that only moves it 4" back from the normal rear-sight location. On the cocking piece, it would give the rifle (on a 91/30, not sure about the barrel length on a M39) a whopping 33"-ish sight radius. !!! But yes and again, no telling if that cocking piece returns to the same spot every time the bolt is cycled.

Caribou, I would suggest, again, opening that rear sight notch up with a file. That "should" put things back in focus, that is if there's any need to use the M39, since you have the M1A.

 

[stillquietvoice]

Bert
Did you go over to Afton hunting? There is a lot of good hardwoods over there. If I were younger I'd like to get dropped off on one road and still hunt it to the next road over like we did over at Bumbs Creek State Forest.

That deep snow definatley makes it harder to hunt.

Yes I was in Afton. I've done some of those still hunts from road to road. Some of it is tough going. Even went down the stream bed, you shoot something down in the bottom it's a hard drag out. There is a power line that hives access to land locked state game land. Steep down hill cross the stream then up the other side, bit can push the whole side hill where I shoty spike this year. Be about a 3/4 mile trek. Or about a half mile from the first road posters could stay put for both drives.