Beagle Puppies

It has been a few years, but our first batch of puppies appeared last night.
My good friend Nick went by the kennel to feed and checked in on Wilma and there they were.
We had thought she had another week to 10 days left before she would have dropped, but it seems everyone was healthy
5 in all, 3 females and 2 males
Wilma is from great deer stock, and one of the better dogs in the pack. We have 2 young Red Tick female beagles now, as well as the tri color female, so it seems we will only be keeping a male puppy.
That's OK, because as soon as the news got out that my hound had puppies, a few guys were asking about when they could see them so they could make a claim to them.
Good stock deer/ rabbit dogs are like gold around here

Big Jay's 8 Point

I am a little slow in getting these pics on here, but one of the guys in our group got an 8 pointer this past Saturday, the first day of black powder season in our corner of Virginia.
The Deer was about 3 years old, and dressed at about 130 pounds.
The rule for the section of land that Jay was hunting was antlers only outside the ears, and this one just made it into that category. The plan is to allow the deer to mature into larger bucks to be able to harvest larger racks in the coming years

The days of tossing a rope across a branch to skin out have evolved to such creations as this now.

I have to say, it looked a lot easier than the way we used to do it.

At our club, we took 5 deer on opening day between 7 hunters, so that was not bad odds, a few of the guys had taken deer during bow season, so the meat has started getting packed away in the freezers, so it is looking like a good year so far.

Deer Season In Virginia

Here in Virginia, Deer season is in full swing.
Bow season has been in for a few weeks, and Black Powder season comes in in just a few days.
Due to an auto accident back in 2008, I have not been able to pull a bow back, or been able to fire a rifle or shotgun for a few years, but fortunately I have my older sons that know how to use my stuff, and keep the freezer full.
I still am active down at the hunt club, and keep track of the patterns of the rut, and feeding and bedding of the Deer.
It seems that this year the deer are not as concerned with the corn and soybeans in the fields.
There is a large surplus of acorns in the woods this year, to be specific, White Oak acorns, which any sportsman knows taste different

They are much sweeter than the Red oak and Pin oak, and the woods are loaded with them.
How do I know they are sweeter ? I have tasted them.
I believe the harsh Winter last year killed of many squirrels that would have removed many of these acorns by now, and my younger sons have not seen many squirrels out this year, so to me it is adding up to a great season.
This does not mean that the deer will not wander out into the cut bean fields, but as long as food is plentiful in the woods, they are more likely to stay in the woods, which will mean a better hunt for those that scouted a tree stand a month or so ago.
Word from the guys down at the club is that the Does are still running in packs of 8 and 10, and there are few scrapes, so that means the rut will begin mid October

More Of The Ford Ranger

My brother sent me the link to the vids of his run last weekend.

He finally got his hydraulic steering done, so he was pumped up.

From what he explained to me, the pit had a sharp drop in the beginning and was rutted to the left. The staff had set up the run so that the larger tire class would run first because the hole was so sloppy.

The top vid he was proud of, everything worked out great, and he seems to be having a lot better luck mechanically, until .........

It seems he broke an axle shaft at the start, and got twisted up in the hole.

He had a blast, he says his wheel speed is around 70 mph at the line, so now he is going to swap the gears, front and back, and get the wheel speed up to around 130 at the line.

He is running a 3500 rpm stall converter, and says he has his rev limiter at 8000. Thanks to the MSD box.

He did have a company approach him about using their high octane fuel, was going to sponsor him, send some stickers for advertising, and around 30 gallons of fuel, but we have not seen it yet.

He does use a K&N air filter set up with a foam ring that he washes with oil. he has a few of the rings that he changes between runs and cleans them when they get back to the shop. The parts store that sells him the rings and the cleaning oil said they would give him a discount if he put their sticker on his Ranger, so he has it on the back.

I think I am going to get pictures of the sponsor stickers on his Ranger and post them here to help them out.

Here is a vid of Lil' little Paul in his Ford Bronco

I hope I can get out of this chair soon and see him in person

Ford Ranger Run

I did not get to see all the runs my Brother made at the Fredericksburg Fair, but they did post this run.

From what I was told, he had broke his shifter cable, and had to make the run in third gear, low lock.

Still not a bad run considering he could not turn the motor up in the first two gears.

He has it back in the shop this week, removing the steering linkage, and making it a complete hydraulic steering set up. He explained to me that he can save some weight, and make the front wheels easier to turn in the pit.

I am hoping to stop in for a look and some pics later in the week