JackstrawIII

Spider-Man reflexes on this guy! I’m impressed.

Wow, your season is really long. I hope you get the chance to bag one. Ps. Good job not shooting the button buck. Responsible deer management is something we all need to be on board with.

A logical, versatile list.

Haha mostly cuz that’s too easy and doesn’t make for a fun mental exercise. But, realistically I think you could argue that there are places on this list it’s not ideal. For the smaller animals, there are cartridges that give you flatter trajectories with less wind deflection and recoil, while making smaller holes in your pelts. For the larger game… if I had an elk at 400 yards (which is the distance most western guides want their customers to be able to shoot) I would not want to be using a 308. I’d want more gas behind the projectile to give me less holdover, less wind deflection, and a bit more smack. Maybe that’s just me, but “ideal” isn’t the word I’d use for the 308 in every situation, though it is very serviceable as an all around big game cartridge. Since I live out east and don’t shoot anything bigger than deer on a regular basis, my nicest gun is actually a custom 308 that serves very nicely… but I’m not willing to say it’s “ideal”. Cool to see all the love for the 7-08 on this thread. A dandy little cartridge and just about “ideal” for deer size game for sure.

I really like the premier series spinning rods. They’re my fav St Croix in this price bracket.

Cool. Any thoughts on the other species?

Hey, the point of the thread isn't necessarily to share what you use. Heck, I kill most of my deer with a 7.62x39... but is it the "ideal" deer cartridge for most scenarios? Absolutely not. Would love to hear what you all think are the ideal cartridges for these species. Thanks!

I recently saw a video featuring a guest appearance by the great Ron Spomer on Backfire's YouTube channel. They each had to choose what they thought was the "ideal" cartridge for hunting a selection of different game animals. I love stuff like this and want to play with you guys. As you look through the list, most of us will not have hunted all these game animals, but you can still play. If you could have the opportunity to hunt that species, and could choose any cartridge, which would you choose? Here's the list. I'm going to keep it blank first, so you can copy and reply to it. Then I'll give my answers underneath. Feel free to explain your choices in as much detail as you'd like. I'm an avid rifle shooter and reloader, and love talking about this stuff. Here we go: - Pronghorn: - Hogs: - Coyote: - Deer: - Elk: - Aoudad: - Black Bear: - Caribou: - Elephant: - Everything: My answers: - Pronghorn: 243 Win (flat shooting, low recoil, good wind deflection in the heavier bullets) - Hogs: 6.5 Grendel (easy shooting, devastating within 200 yards with all copper projectiles) - Coyote: 22-250 AI (classic varmint/predator round) - Deer: 6.5 PRC (incredibly balanced cartridge) - Elk: 300 WSM (gives 300 Win Mag performance in a short action) - Aoudad: 300 WSM (same) - Black Bear: 358 Win (black bear are hunted at relatively short ranges. This thing is a hammer within 250) - Caribou: 6.5 PRC (great wind deflection and energy conservation over long range) - Elephant: 458 Win Mag (I just think it's cool) - Everything: 30-06 (IIRC, in the video they say that this should be an all around cartridge for hunting anything besides the "dangerous 4", which the 30-06 has been doing for 100 years) Ok, let's hear your answers!

Yes ma’am.

I’d go with a slightly larger reel, up to the 3000 size, with an all purpose 7’ medium rod personally. Also, I highly recommend 15lb Suffix 832 line with a short (4 foot or so) leader (either mono, fluoro, or hybrid). That’s a great all around setup for a spinning rod.

Fraying is a risk to any knot and any line. FG is no exception. True, but my point was that (in my experience) the FG wears down much slower than the leader material itself due to abrasion, re-tying knots, etc.

This issue is ultimately exactly why I sold my kayak and got a v hull boat with trolling motor. With that said, you can put a trolling motor on your kayak or use an anchor. Anchor is really the answer, but it’s deeply frustrating if you’re an angler that likes to move around a lot.

Properly tied FG won’t wear out. Never had one fail before I needed to replace the leader anyways.

I tie loop knots on almost everything. Any lure that depends on side to size movement gets a loop knot. Lefty’s loop knot. Super strong, super easy. Hasn’t failed me yet.

Good question. I would drop the fishing conversation for a while and just try to fix the relationship with him. Sounds like there’s something you guys need to talk about. You can never really put yourself in someone else’s shoes, but I think if I were in your position I’d just say something like “hey, I miss hanging with you and I feel like things are weird with us. Did I do anything to upset you? If I did, I’m sorry.” And see what happens. In the meantime, fish with your dad. I desperately wish my dad would fish with me. Take advantage of that blessing.

Price crash has been “supposed to happen” across the board. Guns. Guitars. Boats. Trucks. Hasn’t happened in ANY of those markets yet, unfortunately. I doubt that it will. Prices may drop a bit, but will they “crash”? No.

Almost bought one of these on sale the other day, was gonna run it on my paddletail rod. Would be good for hucking baits way out there.

Same.

I throw big (up to 3/4 oz) spinnerbaits on a 7’1 MH with 15lb line. Your heavy rod would be good for that too tho. Or big buzzbaits.

Had a good day today: Wordle 923 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Mathler 696 2/6 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #201 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦

I drove past Sacandaga yesterday… very foggy indeed. Glad you made it out ok. If you want a fishing buddy sometime next spring, let me know and I’ll drive out 👍🏻

I’ve noted this fact on the forums here before… but I’ll say it again. I fish in upstate NY, and our waters are supposedly full of pike. Whether I’m trying to catch bass, or specifically targeting pike, I just don’t seem to catch them. I just caught my first one this year actually, after hundreds of hours of fishing around “pikey” areas. I don’t get it. I guess I shouldn’t complain… but they’re a fairly appreciated sport fish around here and it’s weird that they avoid me so doggedly.

AJ… that is a SLAMMER walleye. Wow. Very nice. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 To answer the OP’s question, I get bycatch very infrequently. Occasionally I’ll catch a rock bass off a dock, which is ok as I enjoy eating them. Most frequent bycatch is catfish when trying to catch walleye in the Seneca River, but we eat those too and they fight way harder than a walleye and catching them on light gear is fun, so I don’t mind.

This one was so hard that I looked at it for like 5 minutes before making my first guess. Then process of elimination after that. I only started playing like 3 days ago tho, so it was most likely just beginners luck.

Just got my first perfect Connections, it’s a Christmas miracle! Connections Puzzle #197 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 Merry Christmas to all.