Rocky65

I joined this site a while back, but haven't been on it for a long time. So, figured I would re-introduce myself. I live in Ohio and do some hunting and fishing here since I own a section of river front property. But I do most of my hunting, fishing, and trapping in Illinois where I own land. I primarily enjoy hunting small game such as rabbit, squirrel, raccoons, but have also done some deer hunting. I also fish for catfish, bass, bluegill, etc. and also catch turtles and frogs. I joined the site to learn more about hunting and fishing traditions in Europe, especially Great Britain. I look fo

I have wanted to get a .22 hornet for foxes and coyotes. But since the .17 hornet recently came out i have been thinking about going with that instead. For those of you that how used both, how would you compare them? I know what the ballistics are and what the advertisements for the .17 say. But, what about people that have experience with both under actual shooting conditions?

There are various regulations of how traps can be placed. Most of my sets are in water. I will place a leg hold trap under a few inches of water and dig a small hole about 6 inches into the bank and put the bait at the back. The bait cannot be visible. In other instances I do "blind sets' which are also in water, but at a point where animals are moving long the back and are forced to walk in the water at some point by a log or rock. Thats for raccoons, mink, and muskrat. For otter or beaver i place the traps at the bottom of their slides. With these type of sets you generally avoid catching no

My parents and I do handmade walking sticks and canes (see "Dutch Flat Walking Sticks" on facebook for some examples). With sassafras, we tend to keep the bark on and hand finish it down very smooth. Adding some varnish produces a very rich dark red color. With hickory, we peel the bark off and after the wood dries we do a series of coarse to fine sandpaper finishing of the wood. The end result is often a bright white with the surface as smooth as glass. Willow works quite well with the bark off as well.

Lots of truth to that. My land is in a well-settled area of Illinois and very tame compared to many other areas of the country, but we still have coyotes. bobcats, and panthers in the area. Wild hogs and wolves are probably not far behind. The day I see a bigfoot, I think I will just start staying at home.

A lot of states allow the larger calibers (.357 or bigger) for game such as deer, bear, and wild hogs. The .22 pistol comes in handy for hunting raccoons at night or for trapping when you catch something that is a little too big to club.

Welcome aboard Rocky65! I take it your trapping season starts soon, you must be looking forward to getting out, and setting some traps! There is no trapping season over here! As said already, most trapping done in this part of the world, is done to keep problem species in check! When it comes to gray and red squirrel, unfortunately there is no natural ballance occurring here, and red squirrel numbers are very low, and grays are everywhere! Therefore, we must trap gray squirrel all year round, to try and reduce numbers,! Or ideally, eradicate them altogether! No hope of that

Me too. I mostly hunt with a shotgun or a .17 HMR rifle. But use a .22 pistol sometimes. 6.5 , .22lr , shotgun ..... ........PISTOL.....we can only dream mate ..!!!!.. I know, too bad about that. Things were getting pretty bad here in that regard, but the tide has turned the other way over the last several years. I just inherited a .44 magnum Ruger Redhawk. Going to fire a few rounds this weekend and will pop off a few in your honor.

Sounds like Carp fishing is popular there. We have had Carp and Buffalo fish here for quite a while. More recently Asian Carp have been introduced and have become a problem in some areas.

Up until the 1970s we used to have almost all Grey squirrels in Illinois. Then the Fox squirrels began moving westward and crowding out the greys in the 1980s. Seems like the population has about balanced between the two over the past 20 years.

Me too. I mostly hunt with a shotgun or a .17 HMR rifle. But use a .22 pistol sometimes.

There are all sorts of newts and salamanders here. I've never seen the ones with teeth. But we have others that are called mud puppies. They are great bait for catfish. We also use small frogs for catfish or bass bait. When I catch bullfrogs to eat, i use the heads to bait juglines to catch snapping turtles. Any fishing for turtles over there?

They usually won't let us trap or snare game animals such as rabbit and squirrels over here.

I'm from American and just joined here. I do a lot of trapping: mink, muskrat, otter, raccoon, bocat, fox, coyote, possum. We trap these to sell the fur or to reduce varmint problems. I'm curious how common trapping is over there and is there a lot of it done for the purpose of selling fur. If so, what are some examples of prices paid for particular furs?

Here in the U.S. it always helps to play up the fact that (if it is true) you have a child whom you want to get involved in hunting. I currently don't let anyone but family or close friends deer hunt on my land. But if someone brings up the fact that they have a child that they want to get involved in hunting, it is very hard to say no. In fact, I never had said no under those circumstances. But that just two cents worth from a Yank.