sdkidaho

Idaho Fish and Game have an excellent website. Easy to use, easy to find what you are looking for, informative. But man, they are s-l-o-w to get their regs up to date. I believe waterfowl opens up in October for us, and here it is the 11th of September and they "still" don't have the 2005 waterfowl regs posted.

I'm going to give waterfowl a try this fall. Are chest waders a must? I may or may not have a dog that will retrieve, so that is yet to be determined, so should I plan on having a pair of waders to retrieve birds? And what kind do any of you prefer? I see there are the stocking feet kind, and then you wear whatever boots, and then the booted kind so you don't have to wear boots as they are built in. And they range in price. Greatly. From cheap to "expensive". Any preferences? [ 09-11-2005, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: sdkidaho ]

Just watched the episode with you fellers. Good stuff.

This was stated by Tucker in another thread, but for people that don't know any better this is good information. I, am one of those people. Originally posted by tucker301: My typical post-session maintenance is as follows, and I've never had a hang, even with 7/8 oz. loads. 1. Remove forend cap and separate barrell and forearm from receiver, removing bolt group as well. 2. Clean barrel with snake using Hoppes Elite Field Cleaner. Run snake through until bore is shiny and clean. 3. Using a clean cotton cloth and a small amount of cleaner, wipe off all surfaces of bolt group, trigger group, and internal receiver surfaces. Make sure all residue and dirt are removed, especially from the back end of the receiver where the fork engages the cycle mechanism. 4. Apply a drop of Benelli oil to all friction and pivot points, then wipe until all excess oil is evenly and thinly dispersed on all surfaces. NEVER leave anything to the point of dripping with oil! 5. Inspect all parts for wear and re-assemble. 6. Check action for proper function and dry fire once, cycle action by hand and dry fire once more to relax spring. 7. Wipe down all external surfaces with oiled cloth, then follow with dry cloth. The only other maintenance I've ever done was to clean the cycle mechanism, fully disassemble and clean the bolt group, remove and clean the trigger group. All of those are cleaned and oiled in the exact same manner as the routine parts, but I only do them if they've been exposed to undue moisture or excessive dirt. Otherwise, it's maybe three times a year. This is all very simple and basic stuff, and I'm sure you already knew it, but it never hurts to overkill with good info. So, for us novice types, I think this is good info. Is this what you would do with a new shotgun as well? Meaning, one that is new out of the box and unfired, or would you do something different? Also you listed a few items there: -Snake -Hoppes Elite Field Cleaner -Cotton cloth -Benelli Oil -Oiled Cloth and Dry Cloth (assuming cotton again) Anything else? And the Hoppes cleaner and Benelli oil, are those the only ones you would use? Or how about stuff like the Inhibitor line of products? These are probably basic questions, but to be honest, I've never "really" given my shotgun a good cleaning, and I'm all for some good step by step instruction like we received above.

Hmm, very interesting. I'm sure I could find a hawk call and give that a try. Thanks for the input.

Definitely excited to get out there with Uli rather than without. Went out Saturday afternoon and we were in some prime area for grouse and saw absolutely nothing. It was nice to get out in the woods, but I know we walked over some that just huddled up and stayed hidden. A Chukar is about as big as a Ruffed Grouse We have both kinds in Idaho, the Chukar Partridge and the Hungarian (Gray) Partridge. I have the Huns right out in my field quite often, but I've never come close enough to one to get a shot off as they are really flighty.

Uli hadn't been retrieving very well, but the trainer worked quite a bit on that with him last Friday while I was there. Today he called me, very excited, and told me that he retrieved and delivered to hand. Very cool I can't wait until he's ready to go out with me!

Went out today with the trainer (for my GSP). I have to say it was almost as fun as actual hunting. When we arrived, the trainer was still working with another one of his clients. This guy has a black lab that he uses for upland birds and I have to say I was very impressed. I went out with them and he just worked a pattern in front of us, looking for some Chukar that they had planted a while before. Once he found one of the birds he stopped, pointed, then flushed it. The first shot from one of the other guys was a miss and so I shot as the bird came past my side and I knocked him down. Granted it was a pen raised bird, but he got up and took off like he really wanted to get the heck out of Dodge. Anyway, shot my first Chukar The rest of the afternoon we just trained with pigeons, but I was able to knock a few of those down as well. It was a great afternoon watching the dogs work and getting to shoot my 20 gauge Nova. Grouse opened yesterday. I'll be in the woods tomorrow afternoon and Monday I'm hoping.

From another thread that I asked about barrel length:

28"

I ran into this too. I think it was due to the length of the brass on the shell. I notice that some are fairly short. Wish I had taken better notice of what shells they were from Federal, as all I ever see on the Benelli shows is how great Federal is - yet my one experience with a box of 25 rounds sucked royal. So much so that I haven't bought any since. My problem was slightly different than yours. After firing a shell I could pump the gun, eject it, chamber another round, fire it, and that round would be stuck. Literally. I had to take the barrel off to get the shell out each time. It was do this to at least every other shell, and sometimes one right after another. Switched to Remington and haven't had a problem since. As for your other problem, sorry, no clue here. I'm sure some of the other guys will chime in shortly with some good advice though. Best of luck.

Whip up a version for upland game while you're at it!

Or push'em all back north.

I'm no expert but I would guess that it might affect them for the time that the weather is too incliment for them to traverse the area. Otherwise I would expect them to continue on as they normally would. Bad weather is bad weather to them. They all live outside anyway, after all. It might alter flight patterns during the times the storms are in the process of blowing themselves out, but... like I said, I'd guess they would go back to normal there after. Opens Sept. 1st for us. This morning was "cold", so that means by tomorrow (Aug 31st) all the doves will be gone to Mexico!

Something I thought some of you waterfowl hunters might like to keep, maybe to see later in the season how things went: Waterfowlers Journal

Still looking forward to when the show airs. Keep us posted!

I was thinking 35, but twice as much certainly can't hurt in this instance.

Cool. Thanks man.

Where? I've done some hunting around here, but I am sorely lacking when it comes to knowing where to go that is public access.

Outside of Idaho Falls. Born and raised in Wyoming, though - north of Jackson Hole.

Oh so now I'm a safe old freak???

Well, you see, there was this other thread where some feller was too afeared to ask you about some thing or another, and since he was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof, I'll ask for him, but leave him nameless since I assume the retribution for this question will be -quite- severe. Anyway, here is what old nameless wanted to know: Just ignore the "Originally posted by ..." information, it's most likely wrong anyhow. So, girly, what time is it anyway?

I'll ask her. We all know she likes me best anyway.

Dove starts Sept. 1st for us. What that means is that August 29th we'll have our first fall freeze, and on August 30th all the Doves will leave the area. Otherwise... yeah, they live in my driveway and torment my dog by staying "just" out of reach.

How this translates out for me, is that it's worth getting the 3.5" if you think you'll be graduating to it some day anyway. At least this way you have the option without having to buy another gun. And there is nothing saying that you "have" to shoot 3.5" all the time as the gun will shoot the 2.75" and 3" as well. Multi-use. Good stuff. [ 08-26-2005, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: sdkidaho ]