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Bald Eagles like fresh groundhog meat

I was asked in a PM but choose to answer here. Today's 10 kills ranged from 35 to 410 yards which is fairly typical. 10 shots for those 10 kills but it doesn't always work out that way. Longest kill this year was 977 yards. That took 3 shots (from a rotating Calwell bench) but that was partly due to my rangefinder not wanting to cooperate.
 
6XC and 6SLR. The 6XC is a Savage Target Action RBLP, Criterion barrel with 1555 rounds down the tube. The 6SLR is the same action with a Bartlein barrel with 1307 rounds down the tube. I also have a pair of Brux barrels waiting for when these barrels go south. Sightron 10-50x60 scopes on both rifles.
 
A week or two ago, while going to a property I oversee, a bald eagle was feasting on a road kill, probably a possum or racoon. The bald eagle was surrounded by about 6 buzzards, but they were all about 10 ft or more away, making a circle. I did not get a picture, as I have become somewhat anesthetized to the sight of bald eagles (sad to admit it). My sister raised hell with me for not taking the time to stop for a picture.
 
I've been lucky to get out on the prarie dogs 2 or 3 times this spring. The Eagles were all over my kills.

I managed a 745 yard hit with the 6x47 Lapua. Pretty sure considering the size of the target that's probably my best shot ever.
 
I just took some pictures and a 10 minute video of 2 eagles sitting in a tree over the preceding nites groundhog kills. The pics are too big for here. I took them thru my Swarovski spotting scope with a Phoneskope adapter at close to 400 yds. They turned out great.
 
I was asked in a PM but choose to answer here. Today's 10 kills ranged from 35 to 410 yards which is fairly typical. 10 shots for those 10 kills but it doesn't always work out that way. Longest kill this year was 977 yards. That took 3 shots (from a rotating Calwell bench) but that was partly due to my rangefinder not wanting to cooperate.

I left Monday for upper Pennsylvania for an extended shoot on hogs. I returned home late yesterday after not even pulling out a rifle. The rain has been relentless for some number of weeks including downpours every day. Hay has not been cut at all and without it the hogs have had no interest AT ALL in newly planted wheat and corn. There was some alfalfa but too high by far to show any critter. I saw maybe 6 squished in the road and another 4 on the edges as I drove in to some fields, but NONE in the field at all.

Rain is expected for at least the rest of the week and the same called for the following week. I hope to return between the 21st of this month and July 1. It was an expensive lesson at 14 mpg and Penn gas at $2.49 to $2.75, with days spent surveying likely spots for later. Unfortunately, I do not have any local help in following the cut.

Most of the picture perfect places were in huge open areas and I have doubts that the hogs will work out serious distance from woods which could be 1 mile or more in some cases.

This was an expensive lesson in jumping the gun, Probably a $500 one.
 
While the bald eagle is a beautiful bird...I get pissed off at them every year when duck and goose hunting.
When there is a bald eagle around there will normally be no ducks or geese around either. While out goose
hunting one year I watched a bald eagle take down a Canada goose in mid air...about hour or so I went
down to where the eagle was and just about all the goose was consumed. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes
I wish there was a season on them. :mad::rolleyes:o_O
 
While the bald eagle is a beautiful bird...I get pissed off at them every year when duck and goose hunting.
When there is a bald eagle around there will normally be no ducks or geese around either. While out goose
hunting one year I watched a bald eagle take down a Canada goose in mid air...about hour or so I went
down to where the eagle was and just about all the goose was consumed. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes
I wish there was a season on them. :mad::rolleyes:o_O
I think there is just shoot one and have it found out .
You will find the award is A few Year of vacation and a sever relief of your bank account .
I sure wouldn't say I. Was even shooting close around them . lol Larry
 
Today, I had the enjoyment of watching another Bald Eagle feed on one of my groundhog kills. It is also interesting how all the buzzards disappear when the eagle makes his appearance. 10 g'hog kills today, 27 so far this week.View attachment 1011640
Keep feeding the eagles. Here in Michigans UP I continuously see them on deer carcasses on the shoreline. Definitely an easier meal than fishing.
 
I think there is just shoot one and have it found out .
You will find the award is A few Year of vacation and a sever relief of your bank account .
I sure wouldn't say I. Was even shooting close around them . lol Larry

I hear ya....In this country you'd be better off shooting a human than a bald eagle!...LOL. :D
 
While the bald eagle is a beautiful bird...I get pissed off at them every year when duck and goose hunting.
When there is a bald eagle around there will normally be no ducks or geese around either. While out goose
hunting one year I watched a bald eagle take down a Canada goose in mid air...about hour or so I went
down to where the eagle was and just about all the goose was consumed. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes
I wish there was a season on them. :mad::rolleyes:o_O


Pretty ironic. I'm not trying to start anything but you're mad at an eagle for killing and eating something you would like to kill and eat?
 
Pretty ironic. I'm not trying to start anything but you're mad at an eagle for killing and eating something you would like to kill and eat?

Dang right!!! There are enough predators taking away the very things I hunt and enjoy! Ya take these predators
out of the equation and there will be more for us hunters....simple! ;)........oh snert gives a great example...
thank you snert..:D
 
Bald eagles? Up in the logging camps I worked in BC, they were commonly called $hit hawks by the locals, as they were virtually everywhere along the rivers. As common as ravens in that country.

However now in the lower 48, with the passion at the bench with an accurate rifle, we have created a food source for the local birds here that have quickly learned that when we show up in the field, they roost on the irrigation pivot pipes and just wait for a lull in the shooting in order to start chowing down on fresh ground squirrel meat.

We even have a flag to celebrate the event.....



I think they like the black flag.....sort of a chow call. :D
 
Bald eagles? Up in the logging camps I worked in BC, they were commonly called $hit hawks by the locals, as they were virtually everywhere along the rivers. As common as ravens in that country.

However now in the lower 48, with the passion at the bench with an accurate rifle, we have created a food source for the local birds here that have quickly learned that when we show up in the field, they roost on the irrigation pivot pipes and just wait for a lull in the shooting in order to start chowing down on fresh ground squirrel meat.

We even have a flag to celebrate the event.....



I think they like the black flag.....sort of a chow call. :D

Ya gotta love a part of the states where hunting and shooting for the sheer fun of it can be accompanied by the Stars n Stripes and a flag like that! I've been to places where that display would have brought out 400 "kitty hat" rodents.

God bless the Free States! (Not a political thread...just exhulting in good old fashioned freedom)
 

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