Hunt Essentials

Marlin Cross-Bolt Safety Replacement Kit

Bobby Freeman — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:24:03 +0000

If you have a Marlin lever action rifle, you’ve probably forgotten to take the cross-bolt safety off at least once. The way the cross-bolt safety is designed, instead of the safety preventing you from pulling the trigger like on most rifles, the hammer still drops but is stopped before it contacts the firing pin. So what you end up with is the gun not going off, and a loud snap that scares off whatever you were shooting at. It only took that happening once before I started digging around on the internet for a way to disable or take it out. What I found were two options:

1. Put a 009 rubber o-ring(7/32″ ID, 11/32″ OD, 1/16″ Width)in the red recess on the fire side of the safety. They sell a package of 100 on Amazon for about $7: http://amzn.to/xqBM5e

2. Clyde Ludwig makes a cross-bolt safety replacement kit that replaces the safety with a machined & blued piece that looks like a screw. It’ll run you $9.95 + $3.00 in shipping, and you just mail a check to:

Clyde Ludwig

P.O. Box 318

Bridgewater, SD 57319

Just a reminder, removing or altering your safety voids your warranty and more than likely makes you liable if someone gets hurt as a result.

I went with the cross-bolt safety replacement kit because I think it gives my 1895 Cowboy rifle a more authentic/cleaner look, and is a more permanent solution; I didn’t want to be replacing o-rings for the life of the rifle. If you’re not stopping every step of the way to take pictures like me, it’s about a 10 minute job that even a beginner can do. The kit comes with directions, the machined and blued safety replacement, and the right size allen wrench for the set screw you’ll need to remove. Below are the step-by-step installation instructions included with the kit, with pictures and a few tips added by me:

1. Be sure rifle is unloaded.

2. Open lever, look in chamber and make sure rifle is unloaded.

3. Using a straight slot screwdriver, remove the tang screw and slide off the butt stock.

4. Remove the 5/64 allen head set screw on the left side of the receiver. Be careful no to lose the small ball and spring under it.

(the yellow dot of paint is covering the set screw)

(the yellow covering the set screw is not loc-tite, from what I can tell it’s just yellow paint so that Marlin can tell if you’ve altered the safety. Pretty sure this step is the point at which you likely void the warranty on your rifle)

(set screw removed)

(original safety)

5.With the set screw spring and ball removed, place the hammer at half cock. The safety should fall out of the right side of the receiver.

(hammer depressed)

(hammer at half-cock)

6. Insert safety replacement in the right side of the receiver and align the detent hole with the set screw hole, lower hammer completely. Hammer should touch firing pin; if not rotate the safety replacement until it does.

(replacement safety partially inserted)

7. Replace the ball, spring, and set screw. A small amount of thread lock may be used on the set screw if desired.

8. Replace butt stock and tang screw. This completes installation.

(finished installation)

There’s an old Wisconsin address & phone number for Clyde lingering on some forums & this post at leverguns.com, but his current/new address & phone number are:

Clyde Ludwig

P.O. Box 318

Bridgewater, SD 57319

If you’d like to talk to him before you mail off the check, his phone number is: 605.729.2029

Call after 6:30pm CST

Dove season is just around the corner!

Bobby Freeman — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:01:39 +0000

Dove season is just around the corner in Texas, and TPWD put out a helpful 2011-2012 dove hunting regulations PDF map that displays the season dates and daily bag limits for each of the four zones in Texas. Below are the details for each zone, and make sure you play by the rules otherwise it will cost you: a per bird fine + civil restitution per bird + court costs + potentially your hunting gear, including firearms. The exact fine and civil restitution amounts aren’t published and set by local authorities and TPWD, respectively; but according to the lucky few posting on forums you’re looking at about $150-250/bird fine and $15.50-$50/bird civil restitution. Fire, Ready, Aim!

North Zone:

Sept. 1 – Oct. 23, 2011 and Dec. 23, 2011 – Jan. 8, 2012

SHOOTING HOURS: One-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
DAILY BAG LIMIT: 15 mourning, white-winged, and white-tipped (white-fronted) doves in the aggregate, to include not more than 2 white-tipped doves.
POSSESSION LIMIT: Twice the daily bag limit(obviously except on opening day)

Central Zone:

Sept. 1 – Oct. 23, 2011 and Dec. 23, 2011 – Jan. 8, 2012

SHOOTING HOURS: One-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
DAILY BAG LIMIT: 15 mourning, white-winged, and white-tipped (white-fronted) doves in the aggregate, to include not more than 2 white-tipped doves.
POSSESSION LIMIT: Twice the daily bag limit(obviously except on opening day)

South Zone:

Sept 23 – Oct. 30, 2011 and Dec. 23, 2011 – Jan. 23, 2012

SHOOTING HOURS: One-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
DAILY BAG LIMIT: 15 mourning, white-winged, and white-tipped (white-fronted) doves in the aggregate, to include not more than 2 white-tipped doves.
POSSESSION LIMIT: Twice the daily bag limit(obviously except on opening day)

Special White-Winged Dove Area:

Special Season Dates: Sept. 3, 4, 10, 11, 2011

SHOOTING HOURS: Noon to sunset.
DAILY BAG LIMIT: 15 white-winged, mourning, and white-tipped (white-fronted) doves in the aggregate, to include not more than 4 mourning doves and 2 white-tipped doves.

Regular Season Dates: Sept. 23–Oct. 30, 2011 and Dec. 23, 2011–Jan. 19, 2012

SHOOTING HOURS: One-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
DAILY BAG LIMIT: 15 mourning, white-winged, and white-tipped doves in the aggregate, to include not more than 2 white-tipped doves.
POSSESSION LIMIT: Twice the daily bag limit(obviously except on opening day)

Photo courtesy of Emmett Tullos III

Ozone You Didn’t

Bobby Freeman — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:18:10 +0000

Ozonics came out with an ozone generator which in their words is a “revolutionary odor elimination technology.” If you answer yes to any of the following questions this post is for you…

Do you currently wear any brand of magnetic or ion absorbing/producing necklace or wristband?
Have you ever paid $500 for a starter kit to an amazing opportunity to be in business for yourself and capitalize on a trillion dollar market?
Have you ever tried to help anyone collect their foreign lottery winnings?

I see a couple reasons it is a waste of your money:

It really does produces high enough volumes of Ozone (O3) to actually mask your odor, however it is actually dangerous to your health. The EPA came out with a special report on ozone generating devices and in their own words “The same chemical properties that allow high concentrations of ozone to react with organic material outside the body give it the ability to react with similar organic material that makes up the body, and potentially cause harmful health consequences.”
Ozone is not an odorless gas! So while deer may not know what they are smelling is in fact ozone, or your wife’s favorite vanilla candle; they do know that the past 5 yrs they’ve walked down that exact trail it hasn’t smelled like that.
The last and more likely option is that it doesn’t actually do anything. Producing ozone in any material quantity requires a lot of energy and the tiny D-cell sized rechargeable battery it uses doesn’t give me a lot of confidence, or have any information about actual mAh. Probably because you’d realize it’s smaller than the battery in your cell phone and start to question things. On the bright side of things if it’s not doing anything at least it’s not hurting your hunting!

Burris Eliminator Laserscope is the Caddyshack Putter of Hunting

Bobby Freeman — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:00:14 +0000

It looks utterly ridiculous and will no doubt make you the laughing stock of your hunting camp, but who cares if you can hit an ant at 1,000 yards. I applaud the Burris engineers for mashing a scope and rangefinder together and the solid engineering it took to do so, but I keep waiting for Arnold Schwarzeneger to yell “GET DOWN!” At $849, the high-end price of the scope doesn’t fit the CaddyShackness of the actual product. What are your thoughts? Would you hunt with it?

Dove Decoys…Quackery or The Business?

Bobby Freeman — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:00:50 +0000

For the past couple years I refused to admit that dove decoys really did exist, and that anyone was dumb enough to actually buy them. But it appears I was wrong, I hear story after story about their effectiveness and for $50 you can’t go too far wrong. Odds are you spent more money on gas and beer for the trip than the decoys will cost you anyways. As soon as I get done making fun of myself for hunting next to a plastic tree I just staked in the ground, maybe I’ll actually shoot my limit…who am I kidding…I’ll make it interesting and try to butterfly net them as they land on my fake tree!

LED spotlights, the way of the future

Bobby Freeman — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:00:31 +0000

It was just a matter of time and Streamlight just came out with their new Waypoint LED spotlight. If the 8.5 hour battery life, 3 brightness settings, and size and weight half that of incandescent spotlights didn’t win you over I don’t know what will. For now the 210 lumen beam and $80 price tag leave a bit to be desired, but in a few years you won’t remember Justin Bieber or incandescent spotlights ever existed!

Will Cell Phones Make GPS Units Obsolete?

Bobby Freeman — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 08:30:19 +0000

For $400 you can get your hands on the Garmin 62s with an unwhelming 160×240 screen, 1.8 GB of memory, and 18 hours of battery life. It runs amazingly advanced apps like a compass and altimeter, and their software is Windows 95 compatible because it hasn’t changed since then. For the same price, the Samsung Epic 4G has a 480×800 screen, 16GB of memory, 5 megapixel camera, 720p video, and access to Android Market with over 50,000 apps. I understand the arguments that GPS units are more accurate, don’t require a two year contract, and have longer battery life; but I see the battery life and accuracy differences becoming less and less of a factor in the next few years, and you probably already have a cell phone in your pocket anyways. If you don’t agree and would rather have a GPS unit you won’t hurt my feelings, in a few years there won’t be anything more baller than your $400 paperweight…

Get Rid of the Gamey Taste in Wild Quail

Bobby Freeman — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:04:04 +0000

If you’re like me you’ve tried quail in a fancy restaurant…it tasted great…but every time you try to cook the fruits of your last quail hunting trip it’s gamey, dry, flavorless, and you end up making a Totino’s pizza. My lack of cooking skills is almost surely responsible for why mine is dry and tastes like cardboard; however my brother(who has a clue about cooking) shared his secret to getting rid of the gamey taste so common in wild quail. After you clean or breast(i’m lazy) your quail:

1. Toss them in a mixing bowl
2. Fill it up with water
3. Add a couple teaspoons of salt
4. Put the bowl in the fridge overnight and a beautiful little thing called osmosis takes care of the rest; pulling the blood and fluids responsible for the gamey taste out.
5. Dump the salty water and rinse with fresh water

If you’re not going to go cook them the next day, throw them in a Ziploc bag with some fresh water and freeze them, the water in the bag will help prevent freezer burn. Seriously…it’s that simple and the difference in taste is undeniable.

Image courtesy of trixieskips

Cabela’s Arctic Fleece Dry-Plus Balaclava

Bobby Freeman — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:10:16 +0000

You won’t win any fashion shows, but for the price you also won’t find a quality mask that is as versatile in any temperature. This mask had me at hello because it is one of the few that actually covers your neck and keeps it warm, however one complaint i’ve heard is that if you and Barry Bonds take HGH on weekends together, and you have a gigantic melon too, it could fit a little snug(my hat size 7 3/8 and it fits fine). There are four versions of this mask, so which one should you get? Which camo pattern is up to you, but I suggest buying the waterproof Dry-Plus because it only takes getting caught out in the rain once to regret not spending the extra $15. I agree with biologists that deer see objects in black and white, but I also believe that Darwinism has already removed the stupid deer that ignore a 6′ tall blaze orange Popsicle(bright glowing white to deer) trying to hide in the forest; my faith in Scent-Lok® actually working is non-existent after they were found guilty for false advertising. Swing by Cabela’s to pick one up for $34.95, you won’t regret it: Cabela’s Arctic Fleece Balaclava

Picatinny Rail Gun Mount HD Camera

Bobby Freeman — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:06:24 +0000

Christmas is coming early this year as Drift Innovation (@driftinnovation) shot me a tweet that they are indeed working on a gun mount for their HD 170 camera. It looks like we can at least expect a picatinny mount; which should cover you for pistols, rifles, shotguns, and almost any gun. It features HD 1080p video at 30 fps, a built-in microphone, 5 MP photos, a remote, removable battery, and is waterproof up to 0.5 meters. You can grab the camera off Amazon for $329 right now, however the price and time line of the mount have not been released yet. A little more water resistance would have been nice, but this little camera is a giant leap in the right direction toward producing some great kill shots even when you are hunting solo!

Not sure how to add a picatinny mount to your shotgun or rifle?

Rifle: Burris Xtreme Tactical Rings with Picatinny Top

Shotgun: Lite Mount 3-Rail Picatinny Shotgun Mount