Post by Otony on Sept 10, 2014 21:00:52 GMT -5
........I just picked up an Armi Sport 1842 Springfield .69 smoothbore for a very good price. I've been looking for a good used one for a couple of years and kept arriving a day late or a dollar short. Finally found a clean, unfired NOS for about 300 bucks south of retail.
This will be for one of the kids eventually, but for now I intend to clean problem deer out of our orchards using buckshot. Local Fish & Wildlife officer is very amenable to issuing deprivation tags since it costs the state so much to replace a producing tree. Just an FYI, but if deer in Washington destroy a crop tree, the state repays the value at what the tree can be expected to produce over its useful life! That adds up to some serious ducats, friends! Last year we lost two trees, and had three more seriously damaged that managed to recover nicely. I let the state slide on the first two, as those were year old saplings, but had we lost the other three and made a total claim, it would have been more than $20,0000! Yup, fruit trees are valued at roughly $4000 apiece!
Chaining our dog in the orchard has been fairly effective, but the deer eventually realize he can't go beyond a certain point. This year I've installed motion detector sprinklers, but only where we have young trees. I'm also trying a small electronic device that has a blinking pair of red lights that is supposed to mimic predator eyes. I have a half dozen of these scattered about. Unfortunately, deer are smart. Within two years they typically figure out your scarecrows, and then it's time for new measures. Thus the deprivation tags.
We've been asked to use either bow & arrow or buckshot due to having a small farm (4 acres), and while I have a couple of nifty modern 12ga shotguns that would work perfectly, using a .69 musket seems like a lot more fun. I also picked up an Excalibur crossbow for the same purpose. All I need is a hint of an excuse for a new toy apparently.
Right now I have a free doe tag, to see if eliminating one of the ladies will drive the marauding big buck off. And I mean big. Fish & Wildlife doesn't want to see the buck destroyed, as his genetics are so superior. Easily the largest bodied whitetail I've ever seen.
Otony
This will be for one of the kids eventually, but for now I intend to clean problem deer out of our orchards using buckshot. Local Fish & Wildlife officer is very amenable to issuing deprivation tags since it costs the state so much to replace a producing tree. Just an FYI, but if deer in Washington destroy a crop tree, the state repays the value at what the tree can be expected to produce over its useful life! That adds up to some serious ducats, friends! Last year we lost two trees, and had three more seriously damaged that managed to recover nicely. I let the state slide on the first two, as those were year old saplings, but had we lost the other three and made a total claim, it would have been more than $20,0000! Yup, fruit trees are valued at roughly $4000 apiece!
Chaining our dog in the orchard has been fairly effective, but the deer eventually realize he can't go beyond a certain point. This year I've installed motion detector sprinklers, but only where we have young trees. I'm also trying a small electronic device that has a blinking pair of red lights that is supposed to mimic predator eyes. I have a half dozen of these scattered about. Unfortunately, deer are smart. Within two years they typically figure out your scarecrows, and then it's time for new measures. Thus the deprivation tags.
We've been asked to use either bow & arrow or buckshot due to having a small farm (4 acres), and while I have a couple of nifty modern 12ga shotguns that would work perfectly, using a .69 musket seems like a lot more fun. I also picked up an Excalibur crossbow for the same purpose. All I need is a hint of an excuse for a new toy apparently.
Right now I have a free doe tag, to see if eliminating one of the ladies will drive the marauding big buck off. And I mean big. Fish & Wildlife doesn't want to see the buck destroyed, as his genetics are so superior. Easily the largest bodied whitetail I've ever seen.
Otony
