Bubba Fett

I've been knocking rats out of trees since I was about 10, with my Crossman 760. Now as an adult I use my Remington 597. They're delicious dipped in eggs and breadcrumbs and fried in shortening. My 12 year old Nephew came out with me for the first time this year, using his Ruger 10/22. Seems like they're always scarce when we are out hunting for them, but put me in the woods with a deer grunt call and the squirrels will swarm.

A dear friend owns an old farm near Franklin, TN. Growing up, I remember us busting Quail when we were walking along the fences or the railroad tracks and fishing in the creeks. I hadn't seen one in years, though, until Dad and I busted a pair of them when we were checking trail cameras up on the farm a few weeks back. We thought they were big pigeons or doves when we first saw them, but the distinct features on their head gave them away. No pictures of them on the cameras, sadly, but we've seen them a few times out in the hay field. The best we can figure is the hunting pressure we've been putting on the coyotes has given them a chance to make a go of it? Or maybe they're just passing through? Whatever the case, they're fun to listen to while we're waiting on 'yotes or tending the trails and cameras.

See, it's posts like this one that make me think it's time to add some old wheel guns to my safe... That's a beaut.

Dad's been looking for a rattle bag to try out. If you've still got it and are sure you want to get rid of it, let me know.

The last few weeks dad and I have been seeing a doe alone in one of the fields. She is clumsy when she runs and is almost always alone. Finally got a trail camera picture of her today. Camera faces the setting sun (poor placement, I need to move it) so I cropped out the terrible lens flare effect. It looks like she has an injury on her head and her eyes are red and watery. Should we give her a season to see if she recovers, or is she a risk to the other deer (and/or cows!?) on the property? Should we look for her to get her out of there? And if we do harvest her, is the meat safe?

Thanks for the awesome feedback. I'll probably still get the .410 for rabbits and squirrels but keep an eye out for a full choke 12 before I tackle turkey.

So I Googled this and found a lot of people saying that .410 is a perfectly reasonable gun for turkey and a lot of people saying anything less than a 12 gauge 3" high brass will make the birds laugh at you and call your mom rude names. So I thought I'd ask you fine folks, given my situation. I've never hunted for turkey. I've chased rabbits and squirrels since I was 12 and and four years ago got permission to deer hunt on a property. Now that my nephew is 12 he's also enjoying chasing rabbits and tree rats. Since he steals my .22 for this, I've been considering picking myself up a .410 for hunting those littler critters. The property owner where I deer hunt has been telling me about all the turkey, and after seeing them on trail cameras I let him convince me that 30-something isn't too late to learn to hunt turkey. But can I use the same .410 for turkey that I'd use for squirrels and rabbits? If it helps, I'm a grade A certified cheapskate, so I'm looking specifically at the Hatfield $100 .410 at Walmart. If I'm aiming for the head, it seems like a .410 would do the trick if I'm patient enough to let them get close. Am I dreaming? I couldn't live with myself if they called my mom rude names...

Very nice!

Really looking forward to it this year. It's my first year hunting out of a stand. Last year we did a guided pig hunt in Georgia and really liked the stands they had, so after ground hunting for three years dad and I both bought stands for deer season. Trail cams don't have any monsters on them, but lots of good activity. And the monster I got last year wasn't on any cameras either!

I mostly carry in Kydex or nylon pocket holsters these days. But back when I carried in leather, I'd take the gun out every night. I was always nervous of the gun corroding if left in the leather, so I'd wipe the daily grime off and put it up in my safe and put the holster in a basket on top of the safe to air out. Even in kydex and nylon I still take it out every night and wipe it off, though with my pocket guns I put them back in the holster in the safe.

I used to open carry a 1911 in a leather holster OWB. Generally, I wear a polo shirt tucked into either jeans or cargo shorts and with a bigfoot gun belt I found that the most comfortable way to carry. I still do find this the most comfortable, but after two years of it I got really sick of the attention it draws. For better or worse, it feels like everyone asks about my gun like that. After I had the cops called on me while I was shopping for produce at a local grocery store, I decided to rethink my carry method. Apparently armed robbers like to stock up on strawberries and bananas before they stick up the joint. The cop was amazing about the whole thing, but I just didn't like the attention. So I bought one of those "tuckable" IWB leather and kydex holsters and started either leaving my shirt untucked or wearing a light jacket as weather allowed. At first I was really excited about it. But more and more I found myself not carrying because this was such a pain to take in and out. Frankly, it was just uncomfortable. It dug into my side when I was driving, made me look and feel lumpy and I wasn't confident in my ability to draw from a IWB holster. Plus (and this was probably just a me thing) my gun would slide loose in the holster when I'd use the toilet, and with IBD that's a big concern. I tried an IWB Kydex holster but it had many of the same issues (thought, admittedly, had better retention). So it was time to rethink again. I switched to a smaller gun, a Bersa Thunder 380. Then, I changed up my wardrobe a bit to wear more shirts I could leave untucked to CC the smaller gun. I was honestly surprised how even a token effort to cover it up with a T-shirt and a smaller/less noticeable gun stopped the attention. Especially with a kydex holster. Call me old fashioned, but I'm not a big fan of the way Kydex looks compared to leather. Some of the cool patterns you can get on Kydex now make it a bit better, but it will never replace leather for me aesthetically. But the way a good Kydex holster carries is just amazing to me. It has a lot of the advantages of a IWB or tuckable holster - stays tight against your side, easily concealed under a shirt, light, etc - but is much more comfortable and outside your waistband, so your pants fit better. For a while, this became my carry method. I'd half-a** conceal both the 1911 and the Bersa under a t-shirt or untucked polo everywhere except work. During that time, I only noticed being noticed (read that three times fast) with a good Kydex OWB "concealed" with a t-shirt over it twice and both of those were while sitting in a restaurant where my shirt rode up a bit. But I found myself carrying less and less this way. For one, the Bersa is my wife's gun and she should be carrying it. The 1911 is heavy and even with a good holster and belt it was a pain in the neck strapping the holster for either gun on after work (where I can't carry). So I started pocket carrying the Bersa and I really liked it. This inspired me to buy two small guns that I switch out - a Raven .25 and an LCP. This has been how I've been carrying the past 6 months or so. I am amazed it is so easy to toss one in my pocket and go wherever I am going during the week. Because of that, I tend to pocket CC one of those guns just about everywhere I go. On weekends or when I'm hunting, I'll still half-conceal either the Bersa, the 1911 or the LCP (in pretty much that order of likelihood) OWB in a Kydex or leather holster but during the week I'm far more likely to toss the LCP in a pocket of my cargo pants/shorts and head about my day. It doesn't limit my wardrobe nearly as much, I'm not constantly worried about printing (find one tech-savvy 30-something that DOESN'T have weird lumps in his pocket, and I'll show you a Tech-savvy 30-something that's up to something!) and it is far more comfortable than IWB. So there's your long answer to CC or Open - I CC but only because it's more comfortable and less hassle than dealing with a confused and skittish populous with a gun on your hip.

The upper came from Daytona Tactical. It's my second upper from there and dad has three. This one is from the kit with the 20" barrel, but we added a MSI muzzle break we had bought for our 300 blackout to replace the one it came with. The Hogue grips and butt stock were a gift from my wife! What do you want to know about the upper? I'm pretty sure it's a DPMS.

Not as cool as Grandpa's rabbit gun, but I thought I'd show off my budget AR10. Dad and I built a matched pair. Bought 80% lowers and machined them ourselves from Daytona Tactical, upper from the same place. I put a cheap Amazon bipod and a UTG scope on mine to keep it "budget" themed and I've been surprised so far with the quality of the UTG. The real test will come in November, when I take it up on the mountain in Kentucky and really stretch its legs against long distance pie plates. For now I'm holding about 2" groups at 100 yards with cheap ammo. Doesn't sound like much, but for me that's an accomplishment! The bipod took some "hardware store MacGuiver" action to get solid, but it was just for fun anyway.

In 1950, my great grandfather (mom's grandpa) bought a 12 gauge shotgun at Sears for $24.88. Some time in the late 50's, he gave it to his son (my grandfather) to rabbit hunt with. And by all accounts, he did just that. Frequently. Even after someone stepped on it in the 70's, and he had to wrap 2 rolls of electrical tape around the stock to keep it together. Then, in 1976 he put it in his bedroom closet after a hunting trip and never took it out again.The gun sat in the back corner of that closet until August, 2017 where my grandmother found it and passed it on to me. I never met the man, but I'm proud to own a part of his life. The gun was covered in rust and brown paint when it was handed to me. Steel wool and Hoppe's solvent solved that problem. The broken stock was beyond my ability to repair. Ebay solved that problem. I'm going to look into repairing the original stock at some point in the future for display. The gun was recalled by J.C. Higgins after an issue with the locking lugs failing on the bolt, so I won't be shooting the gun much. But I'm still glad to be able to shake hands with Grandpa whenever I open the gun safe!