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

Little Brothers Ford Ranger

I wanted to post a pic of my brothers Ford Ranger
A 460 powered toy he works on.
He took it to a mud bog up in Smiley Rock, that's near Orange Va, and had some tranny problems, but a new one will be ready on Friday afternoon.
That means an all nighter for him and a couple of his friends to get it back in, hook everything back up, and make a few test runs in the back field because he is racing Saturday morning at the Fredericksburg Fair.
Here is a clip from one of the guy's cell phone that was saved, I will use it as a before, and make the next post an after.............

Cost Of Crabs

We had our Potomac River Festival down here at the beach a couple weekends ago, that is the official kick-off of summer here for us.
It is when all the " come here's " show up and fill the streets and beaches and waterways, and hopefully the cash registers with some much needed tourist dollars

The steamed crabs are a hot seller, and are sold by the bushell and half bushell, and then spread out on the picnic tables at the majority of the rented beach houses for the weekend feast.

For this main reason, I do not get crabs on the weekend, that is, unless family comes down to hang out at the beach. I have a few friends in the business that I can call in advance and get a good price if needed, but try not to do that to often.

I passed by one of the places I get crabs from this past Sunday and saw a sign outside advertising crabs for $95.00 for a half bushell.

I also saw a lot of cars out in the lot waiting for them to come out of the cooker.

I guess if you work all year up in the city, and only get away for a couple weeks a year, $ 95 bucks is worth it for some crabs, but here it is, Tuesday morning, and I have called the same place I saw the sign just minutes ago.

One of the owners, Timmy, has just got off the water and said " yeah, come on in here about 5:30, I get you a half bushell hot for $45 "

I bet they will taste a lot better than the $95 dollar ones

Oyster Roast

Down here, we have a few fund raisers at our hunt club.
This one we helped promote breast cancer.
The main attraction was the roasted oysters. That's my boy and his friends shuckin out some.
We take the raw oysters and lay them on a grill, between two wet burlap bags and steam them until they pop open.
You then insert your knife, twist, and cut the oyster out and enjoy


We also had fried oysters, hush puppies, oyster stew, and bar-b-que.
Inside we had all the good stuff too, potato salad, cole slaw, mac-n-cheese, bean salad, and all kinds of cakes, brownies, and pies



All the members had a job to do, and we stayed busy keeping the food coming

You cant have an oyster roast without some bluegrass, so we had a tent up for the band

After we served a couple hundred folks, it was time for a break

We did have some leftovers, which made for some good sandwiches on Sunday

Poor ole' Thelma came, and helped with the clean up.

She ate so much, we had to pick her up and put her in the truck when it was time to go home

Done With The Snow

Most of the time, when you get the kids out in the snow, you see them smiling and playing and just having a great time.
With a total of 14 days missed from school, and many of those stuck in the house because of the wind and freezing temps, I guess even a little boy can get tired of it.
I took some pics of my brother-in-law working with my 4 wheeler to push some of the mess around, and got this one of my youngest giving me the evil eye

I rigged up a mount for the blade that goes on my John Deere 110, and put a temporary winch mount to raise and lower it.
It did a pretty good job.

Down at the beach was a dull grey scene, and was very windy.

Around here we are expecting a little rain, and some highs in the 50's.

I cant wait till late March to be out there in the water looking for rock fish

Mom's Tree

Mom wanted to get rid of a tree at the end of her driveway, so you know we had to come and take it down

It was right against the power and phone lines, so we had to limb it, and then rope it off near the top

Nick got to do the climbing

And the boy's got to do the clean up, and pulled brush with my Yamaha

Nick and Karl like their Stihl and Husky saw's, and I will agree they are good stuff but I am still using an old Homelite that is nearly 10 years old.

Best $100.00 buck's I ever spent

Season End

It seems that deer season came and went so fast this year. We had many rain days that the dogs could not get a good trail going, and the snow that came in before Christmas kept everyone confined to a tree stand.
With my bad back, and other problems from my auto accident limiting me as to what I can do anymore, the weather put me out of the game more than I wanted, but as you can see, My son, and basset hound Thelma, and I managed to get in on a few drives.
This is what we do when all the others are down in the woods waiting for the dogs to run something past them.

If I do have to get out of the truck and get across a field, or drag a deer, or try to head off dogs, we just hop on the Honda 4X4

I live in an area full of history, and the place where we have hunted since I was a kid is here in Menokin

Besides the time I get with my boys, they get to hang out with their friends. I was sitting back near the wood stove and watched the guys plan a raid on the fridge back in the kitchen to get a mountain dew

I was taught early about life and death, taught how to hunt, and how to handle a gun.

To have respect for any firearm, respect for the outdoors, and respect for the people that owned the land that we hunted on.

I learned to listen to the old guy's when they told me something, and found out that they really did know more than I did

This season I started to realize that I am becoming one of those old guy's