Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Birth of a deer camp

Hey Fluffy!

Were you driving north on 35W this afternoon? Near Lino Lakes about 1:40 PM?

If you were, I saw you.

nope,not me.farthest north I get is snelling/university.
Im curious,though,why did you think it was me?

Because it looked like you and he was driving a new 2wd Toyota Tacoma. Not too many guys have one of those AND look like you.

gee whiz, a 2WD Tacoma driven by Fluffy? That outta stop traffic!

Sorry to hear you went deerless Stan. I am confused....SC has very liberal bag limits for deer, yet it doesnt sound like you have many deer. How does that work?

We are right in the middle of picking out guns for our Pheasants Forever banquet. Anyone (Stan?) have any idea on what is really in demand in the $200-$450 price range? Any good ideas on something that someone will see and say, Ohhhhh, I need to buy a ticket to that raffle? For example, NOBODY will see an 870 Express and get excited. I know in that price range it is a little tough, but we have our higher priced guns pretty much done already.

Nope. Unless it's a muzzle loader I can't think of a new gun in that range that makes my socks go up and down.

Why such a low price. Get 1/2 the guns and make em good ones...

It took 3 years but I was finally able to convince the others when I was on the board for the NWTF many moons ago. We sold nearly 2x the tickets for half the guns because they were guns people would use.

Scrap 5 of the guns and get a couple Citori's or Beretty O/U's.

I'm with TZ on this. When I was a PF board member, we wrestled with the same issue. And since many of the attendees had been around a long time, and many that were the biggest spenders also had deep enough pockets to buy much of what they wanted, I always advocated more exotic stuff. Side-bys and single-shot rifles, etc. but we never really got brave enough of as a group to take the leap. Now, I personally find the PF banquets pretty boring because it's the same ol' stuff every year. Makes it hard to get my money out of my wallet.

In the cheap end of the spectrum, something that might be different would be, perhaps, a half-decent air rifle for instance. Not sure what make or model, but it would be something that a person might not have but would be willing to throw down a Jackson on a raffle ticket for it.

Brent

Berrettaman,

How about a decent 22, like a 10-22 or a S&W 15-22?

Jeff

Has anyone here ever gone to a banquet where a raffle item was a nice vintage rifle, and not some new-in-the-box modern thing?

I am probably in a huge minority here but I would rather buy tickets for something old, made well, used but well cared for than something new. I'd much rather have an old Marlin 93 than a a new 336 Rem/Marlin for instance.

Someone I know is, for instance, a great fan of Ithaca 37s n 16 gauge. There are many available in excellent shape but well used. Not too expensive. I would throw down green for something like that long long before I would toss money at a chance at a new 870 for instance.

Just an idea.

That's a good idea if you have to stick to that price.

Hasting gun show this weekend!
Think Ill go see how much a box of 22 ammo costs this week.
Any bets?

Berettaman,a good item for a gathering such as that is an S&W .22 caliber AR.The model sells for around $425.It went over really good at our Friends of the NRA dinner auction this year.

Stan in SC

Gun raffle today, KofC. Bayfront Convention Center downtown Erie. Starts at noon. In the area stop and say hi.

Well guys, I am in your camp. But like Brents PF chapter, the guys dont want to take the dive and get really nice guns. Now in our defense, we have a Browning Silver Auto ($1000), a Browning Buckmark .22 ($600 or so) and some type of pistol, and we havent decided on our dinner gun yet (but that will be over a grand), so there will be some nice ones and we need the cheaper ones for our general raffle (just cant put much $ into the 7 guns on the general.

We will have a couple Ruger 10/22s there for sure. Sometimes we do a Henry Golden Boy .22 Lever. Other ideas? How about other prizes? In TZs words, what other prize would make your sox go up and down? Oh, we already have an iPad2 and our banquet package from corporate has some nice stuff. We have quality things at our banquet...we try really hard to have a bunch of stuff you cannot get at Cabelas or Fleet Farm. We have a custom carving of a fish coming too and a German Shorthair puppy will be there. Oh, a $300 DeWalt drill too. Didnt do the custom fishing rod this year for the first time ever as it kind of ran its course.

Where are you buying guns? You should be able to get two Buckmarks for $600!

Tell you the truth, the guns the banquets sell now don't do anything for me. I usually spend my $ on the auction stuff.

How about some sweet knives, USA made tool kit, dog training gift certificate?

A raffle on a tool gift certificate a place like WoodCrafters would get me movin'.

But here is another idea. I was in at least 6 gunshops today looking for .22 long rifle ammo. We found 4 boxes total, and they were not what I wanted. However, that's a nother story.

We stopped in Gander Mt. and I saw a super skinny .410 O/U. I don't much like O/Us actually but it looked interesting and I played with it a little bit. It as really darn solid and handled not bad at all. It was only $639 as I recall and I thought it was pretty much a steal at that price. I wouldn't buy one at retail but I'd invest a pair of Jacksons on 2 raffle tickets for it.

I'd also recommend a CZ .22 bolt rifle. Quality guns at a very good price. Much more interesting than a 10/22.

Brent

Where the heck is Dave?

He's not fishing so I'm positive that he's working on the tin chicken.

Am I right ND?

I'm keeping warm by the woodstove.



Yesterday we used a 45 year old belleview winch mounted on a 36 year old truck to drag a 17 year old polaris snowmobile out of the bushes behind the shop. And I do mean drag, it came sideways for the entire 100 ft drag.

We then used the plow blade on ole yeller to push the snowmobile into the shop. (then we pushed snow for us and our neighbors)

Needed to thaw that old snowmobile out and get it running. 1996 polaris XLT special with xtra 12 suspension.

It needed a recoil rope and a voltage regulator along with regular seasonal service.

It needs a new recoil rope pretty much once a year, because that SOB has been punishing me for all the years I've owned it. That rope does NOT pull easy, but it does get pulled a LOT.

We got the old sled put together and Nate was out smashing snow drifts with it last night. We serviced the other sleds as well, greasing bearings, checking chain tension and fluid levels etc. Applying new trail stickers and all that. I finally got to take my new sled for a ride last night, I really like it.

Pam was busy cleaning the shop while we were fixing on sleds yesterday. I can actually walk around in the shop without tripping on stuff now.

It was -20 degrees here this morning, supposed to get even colder tonight.

I have 4 of the 5 snowmobiles up and running. Number 5 sled needs some drive parts, possibly an entire chain case assembly.

Big Joe learned to ride a big man sled today.



Joe's got the controls.





Meanwhile, Nate is rockin the big triple.



As Joe masters the massive fan cooled twin cylinder with it's 27 year old air and fuel smashing power plant scooting him around in the yard.





[img]http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e364/northerndave/album%202/IMG_8089.jpg[/img]

His face was stuck in smile mode and he rode the sled till it ran out of gas. lol!