I have not posted in a while, but have been checking on the forum.

Alabama, turkey season opened and I hunted every day. Forgive me because I didn't even think about taking a hand gun. I was invited by a friend of mine to come turkey hunt in Mt and ID the first 10 days of May. He called me back just before the deadline for spring bear applicatgion in MT was due so I took the bear ID test and bought a bear tag. I packed the shotgun for turkeys and .44 mag for black bears. We spent the first several days hunting in eastern Mt for turkeys (killed a meriam) and then headed back to Missoulla. We hunted in the evening for bears, spot and stalk. Finally we found a beautiful cinimon colored black bear about a mile away. We set off on the stalk and got within 50 yards of the feeding bear. I had the pistol on my pack, hammer back and cross hairs on the boiler room. Just before I pulled the trigger, I asked Hunter (my frinds son) How big is he. I'll be the first to tell you I am a novice bear hunter, have shot one in Maine and that was it. He said about 120-140# I said "Boo-Boo" and he said yes. At that point it would just be killin to me. I didn't need to kill a small bear just because I liked the color. I eased the hammer down, holstered the gun and we went back to the truck. We tried to stalk on 2 other much larger bears the next day, but the wind would shift or murphy's law would kick in. My friend kept telling me, just take the 7mag and get you a bear. I just laughed and said I wanted to do it my way. Well we went to ID and turkey hunted for a couple of days and saw a nice BIG bear while turkey hunting one evening, but I didn't have an ID Tag. It was an awsome trip. They run 3 bear baits just over the pass in ID and have been baiting them now for about 4 weeks.(still 3 feet of snow at their baits when I was there I guess I'll go back next year just on a bear hunt in ID. I still have the MT tag and it's good for a fall bear too, so I will probaly head back out there this fall to do some upland hunting and try to fill my bear tag. Oh yeah in eatern MT I had a blast shooting prairie dogs with my .44 and then had to take out the long gun (yes I sinned). Guess I'll have to take the contender next time.LOL I need a bigger barrel for bear though.

Well now it's 96 degrees in Alabama and I spent way too much time on the range. this evening I'm headed to a friends propert to hunt some hogs. I've go the thermacell and snake boots. They are hitting a wallow just after the sun sets. It could be fun. We have no other critters to shoot now, so hogs is it.

LOL I spent the last couple of days re setting the loading bench, now it's time to play with some new loads.