Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

I haven't used my 17 as I figured it would blast the little bugger to bits. Doesn't it make rabbit hamburger??

I even use my 17 for shooting squirrels, there is not as much damage as you would think. I try to head shot them but I shake too bad to get the head every time. ( you add another 30 years on and see if you are a steady as you are now)....

However. I only eat the hind quarters of the squirrels, there is just not enough meat on the rest of them to make it worth while. (IMHO)







Sorry I over slept this morning and did not get here for the early morning round of coffee, I will buy the next round. I have an excuse though. The last two nights I have had terrible knee pain and took my pain pills. They tend to knock me out. My DW thinks I should tell the Dr it is time for the knee replacement, I want to hold off about 5 years before I do that.

 

[KlopKlop]

I even use my 17 for shooting squirrels, there is not as much damage as you would think.  I try to head shot them but I shake too bad to get the head every time.  ( you add another 30 years on and see if you are a steady as you are now)....

However. I only eat the hind quarters of the squirrels, there is just not enough meat on the rest of them to make it worth while. (IMHO)







Sorry I over slept this morning and did not get here for the early morning round of coffee, I will buy the next round.  I have an excuse though. The last two nights I have had terrible knee pain and took my pain pills. They tend to knock me out.   My DW thinks I should tell the Dr it is time for the knee replacement, I want to hold off about 5 years before I do that.

Are the 17 HMR rounds all copper? I have only found my WSM rounds in tipped hollow point (aka had a plastic tip). I suppose as long as I only hit the front half it would be ok on a cottontail.

Ps it is an oversleeping kind of day today.

 

[gofeedthegirls]

Are the 17 HMR rounds all copper? I have only found my WSM rounds in tipped hollow point (aka had a plastic tip). I suppose as long as I only hit the front half it would be ok on a cottontail.

Ps it is an oversleeping kind of day today.

I have always used the hollow points.

 

[gofeedthegirls]

Also, a head shot is quite doable on a cottontail, within an reasonable distance of coarse.

 

[KlopKlop]

Also, a head shot is quite doable on a cottontail, within an reasonable distance of coarse.

My bMag has a 10x scope that came on it, so yes, it should be reasonably easy if I was close.
My 22 works just as well in close range and is kept the most handy for predator prevention

 

[gofeedthegirls]

Back to chickens,

To those of you who dont/wont butcher your chickens what do you do when they get to that age where they stop laying consistently? Do you let them pass due to old age? Is there a chicken retirement home place you can send them too?

The reason I ask is this, the chickens I have now I consider my egg laying "pets" so when the time comes in a few years where they start losing their keep Im not sure what I will be able to do. They are dual purpose breeds and would fill the freezer nicely, but when I decided to get chickens it was for eggs and a hobby, not for meat. I feel like I owe it to these birds to go through their cycle but I also dont want to be around finding my birds dead of old age either.
I have no problems butchering animals and I plan on buying some CX next spring for that purpose.

 

[duluthralphie]

My bMag has a 10x scope that came on it, so yes, it should be reasonably easy if I was close.
My 22 works just as well in close range and is kept the most handy for predator prevention

I keep my 17 handy and ready to go for predators. I want to reach out a little further with accuracy than the 22 allows me. I have a 4x16 variable scope. BUT unless I use a bench or sandbags the 16 is useless.

I think I have regular and the red tipped hollow points. I have no idea where I got any of them. I am one of those guys that if I was ever arrested the media would say he was found with 20,000 rounds in his basement.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Ahh I was thinking they were more like my little white rock I had. She was definitely not a CX either. I guess I was just pointing out my best cross and how fun it was. I have a EE that is a cross with ED, the partridge Chanticler and a EE hen. It is an interesting bird, looks like an EE kind of, but a very think body like Ed is. However, I am thinking it is not a girl, so it's usefulness will mainly be as a space holder in freezer camp.

The whole Easter Egger thing gets a bit muddled for some, but the don't have a "look" really. There are some common color traits of big hatchery EEs, but they really only share one common trait, and that is that somewhere in their blood is a Blue egg gene. It depends on what rooster that is used in a mating that determines which way the color will go on the eggs. That is why to make EEs, I use a pure Ameraucana rooster over whatever hens I want to put in the mix. Unfortunately, for me, this year that meant mostly Black EEs. Some have red leakage, and some come out barred if they are out of the Marans, but those are all males. I did have one that was going to look like BLRW, but I sold it. Stupid me, but probably would have been a cockerel The fun of making EEs is that you don't really know what you will get until they hatch and start growing. I am trying to get some Wheaten and Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas so that I can start adding more color to the Easter Eggers. I will probably put one of my retired from pure breeding Welsummer hens in the EE mix this coming year too.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Back to chickens,

To those of you who dont/wont butcher your chickens what do you do when they get to that age where they stop laying consistently? Do you let them pass due to old age? Is there a chicken retirement home place you can send them too?

The reason I ask is this, the chickens I have now I consider my egg laying "pets" so when the time comes in a few years where they start losing their keep Im not sure what I will be able to do. They are dual purpose breeds and would fill the freezer nicely, but when I decided to get chickens it was for eggs and a hobby, not for meat. I feel like I owe it to these birds to go through their cycle but I also dont want to be around finding my birds dead of old age either.
I have no problems butchering animals and I plan on buying some CX next spring for that purpose.

GFTG: I hear what you are saying. At 3 1/2 years at this...I have 3 birds I know that are not going to lay eggs for me again. And 2 girls that lay eggs rarely. I have kids that are attached and Okay...I'm a bit attached to. But as time goes on and Minnie posting her chicken porn on here...I'm feeling less akin to the free loaders I have on board. Haha...You may change your mind when the time comes. By rights and by old timey ways that's what you do...when they are done being productive for you egg wise...you take their final gift to you. It's up to you of course...but that's what most would do. It's a different mind set though for many these days. I "have" already sewn the seed with my kids that we should consider those 3 for the chopping block...and they have taken into consideration...

If you decide to keep them you may find they run into issues, nonetheless...internal egg laying, reproductive cancer of some sort, some odd infection. Predation. I've lost a few here and there this way.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Oh is he the white one with red on his wings? If that is him he is cool looking. I have one CX hen (Betty white) that will be part of the breeding program and i look forward to seeing the results of mixing colorful Roos over a white hen and seeing what kind of meaty splash I end up with

You may end up with some all white birds, depending on what those colorful boys really carry. I would expect some that are white with red leakage at different degrees, kind of like Ralphie got with his Rainbow and Bert crosses. But seeing that the white is the hen, it may come out differently. Maybe I will look that up. Hmmm, probably in January sometime