All About Pocket Knives

Well the boys and I played with some grownup toys this afternoon after church. I had my three, and the three neighbor boys across the road. We had a variety of shotguns, a 191, and a 12 gauge Shockwave.

Jackson was a dead eye with the old Browning A5 16 gauge on the clays, and Parker, the middle boy, couldn’t miss with my old Springfield 16 gauge double barrel. We all had a ball.
(All the guns were unloaded in that picture)

For the record here is what 1/8 #4 shot at 10 yards dies out of the Shockwave and the second is federal OO buck at the same distance. Either one would give a feller a bad day.

jerryd6818 wrote:

Colonel26 wrote:

Paladin wrote:A Happy Birthday to the young man. Be careful with the knife and don't carry it to school with you.
Just thinkin' but that might not be the problem in Kentucky that it is in Texas. I think in most school districts around here to carry a knife to school is almost a guaranteed suspension.
Anyway, Happy Birthday and many more to you.

Ray

In some schools it’s a big deal, mostly the big city schools. But not in most of them. Everybody is packing a “folding pencil sharpener” or two where I teach, admin, teachers, and students.

For some reason he’s all excited about being 13, lol. I just wonder where the time went!

Just five more years and he'll be ready to fly the nest. It will seem like forever to him but not to mom and dad.

treefarmer wrote:Hey Wade, just think, 3 more years and it's a drivers license, then your truck insurance probably goes up.
Tell the young man, Happy Birthday and take special care of the "yeller soddie"!
Treefarmer

I don’t even want to think about all that. I asked my momma once when it all slows down. She said it doesn’t! Where does the time go?

I fell like I should be Jackson’s age and my daddy should be my age!

Dinadan wrote:

doglegg wrote:I think the men were probably boys for a little while. Good job FFF.

I bet you are right. I remember that one of the best things about having a small child was that I could have fun playing and everyone just thought What a good dad! instead of What a freak!

Mel......now you went and spoiled it, everybody's gonna know!
jk....lol.

Right side up.

Thanks Jerry.....I woulda changed it but it wasn't flipped upside down on FB...or on my laptop....and if you click on it, it flipped
over anyhow....

Colonel26 wrote:Well the boys and I played with some grownup toys this afternoon after church. I had my three, and the three neighbor boys across the road. We had a variety of shotguns, a 191, and a 12 gauge Shockwave.

Jackson was a dead eye with the old Browning A5 16 gauge on the clays, and Parker, the middle boy, couldn’t miss with my old Springfield 16 gauge double barrel. We all had a ball.

B90FBE0B-4658-4FD1-8146-320611A1B861.jpeg0046A315-1BA0-4560-B910-D48E883B52DA.jpegA21F7369-1C97-4EFB-B081-6C527751977D.jpeg
(All the guns were unloaded in that picture)

For the record here is what 1/8 #4 shot at 10 yards dies out of the Shockwave and the second is federal OO buck at the same distance. Either one would give a feller a bad day.

8B28F99C-A498-4FD9-9F50-35A0E6EBB971.jpeg9DBC061E-D843-4F6B-93E4-C2F2D1A527E4.jpeg

Those boys all can't wait till next time.

TripleF wrote:and if you click on it, it flipped
over anyhow....

For some reason, it doesn't do that on my rig.

Here's another one for all you kids. Took this picture this morning. Who can find the "critter" in the picture? Anybody know what it is?

Ken

I give up Mumbly. Unless there is a cacoon hanging from the foreground twig. Spent long minutes with a magnifying glass; came up zilch.

Armadillo? Just right of center, about 2/3 down?

edit: closer look, looks like just rocks

There is a dark snake just to the right of the picture center? I am not familiar enough with snakes in your part of the world to hazard a guess as to what kind?

I'm seeing a gator. If I keep looking I expect I'll soon spot a leopard.

Thanks Dan. I would have looked at that picture until my eyeballs fell out of my head a week from Wednesday and never picked that out.

Dan got it. There is a large Texas rat snake climbing through the branches. It looks just like a branch or a vine. I was clearing some brush along the fence row when I saw it. Probably would not have seen it if it hadn't been moving.

They kill mice and rats so I leave 'em be. Unless I find one in a bluebird house - then they're gonners.

Ken

That is a substantial reptile. They are huggers too if I remember.

Heck fire,I'm still looking for that Armadillo !!! __________even got my glasses out

big monk wrote:Heck fire,I'm still looking for that Armadillo !!! __________even got my glasses out

Just look in the road, usually being circled by buzzards, Texas road bumps.

It was bigger than average size for a rat snake but I've seen bigger ones. This one was approaching 3 ft long.

I've had a love-hate relationship with rat snakes since I was a kid. My junior high science teacher kept one in a glass aquarium-type cage in his classroom, and we would take it out and handle it sometimes. It was very tame.

I've seen numerous different snakes on the ranch, the Texas rat snake being the most common (second is the copperhead). Rat snakes readily climb trees but copperheads stay on the ground. By nature rat snakes are not aggressive but will strike at you if bothered, but ther bite is harmless and likely won't break the skin - no fangs or teeth. Their defensive mechanisms are their ability to make a rattling sound similar to a rattlesnake, which can scare the dickens out of you (as if you're not scared already), and they can emit a horrible smell.

As I said previously I usually leave them be. Last summer one lived in the barn several weeks. I welcomed it for the vermin it would catch, and there must have been enough because I saw it nearly every day for several weeks. I've also heard that rat snakes will kill copperheads. It got to where if I didn't see it I looked for it. It wasn't afraid of me, but I never tried to bother it.

A few years ago I was passing by one of the several bluebird houses I have, and saw a rat snake's tail sticking out of the entry hole. I opened the front of the house and there, along with several still-alive baby birds, sat the snake. When I got the snake out of there it was apparent from the enlarged lumps in its body that it had swallowed two birds. I killed the snake and cut it open. Inside were the mother bird and one baby. Neither had been dead very long. My assumption is the snake entered the house, thereby blocking the exit, and ate the mother, or waited for her to come to the nest. Then the snake was just going to stay until it had eaten the rest. The babies were half-grown but too young to fly so the snake could take its time.

Over the years on the ranch I've had encounters with rat snakes, King snakes, racers, green snakes, bull snakes, water snakes, ribbon snakes, garter snakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, and a few others I couldn't identify. In genearal I try to live and let live. I suppose they're all beneficial but I kill the poisonous ones mainly because of the grandkids. I've had dogs bitten by poisonous snakes but never had one die from it yet.

As for armadillos I kill them all on sight if I can. They're an invasive non-native species here and as far as I know have no redeeming value.

Ken

Wet cool reading Ken. I remember as a kid that my Pa and most of the older men all kept a black snake in the corn cribs to eat mice and rats. We’d catch a glimpse of the snake in Pa’s corn crib occasionally. To a little feller he looked 20 feet long, lol. harmless though.

Got out today to do a little Panfish fishing.. For 3hrs I beat the water senseless.. Apparently the fish weren't hungry.. Sooo.. No fish in the pan!!! John

jmh58 wrote:Got out today to do a little Panfish fishing.. For 3hrs I beat the water senseless.. Apparently the fish weren't hungry.. Sooo.. No fish in the pan!!! John

Hey! That’s how I normally fish too!

Colonel26 wrote:

jmh58 wrote:Got out today to do a little Panfish fishing.. For 3hrs I beat the water senseless.. Apparently the fish weren't hungry.. Sooo.. No fish in the pan!!! John

Hey! That’s how I normally fish too!

Hey, happens to the best of us...

Ray

Colonel26 wrote:

jmh58 wrote:Got out today to do a little Panfish fishing.. For 3hrs I beat the water senseless.. Apparently the fish weren't hungry.. Sooo.. No fish in the pan!!! John

Hey! That’s how I normally fish too!

Where fishing is concerned, I have found that April is the cruelest month! I have not had much luck for the past month, but now it is May and I hope to take my kayak out tomorrow for a couple of hours on a small river. Even if I do not catch anything I will get a good workout paddling up the river.

My experience in fishing in April/May is to use very small lure/bait. Active but not moving fast.

Just another way to not catch fish.

Breathe deeply
Do not give up
A little more remains