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Tis the Season
I was sitting in the shop today lubing and sizing some 225438HPs for the Hornet and spring blackbird season and it dawned on me. Tis the season for the wood bees to start coming out. With the warmer winter here, there should be a good crop this year and I will self impose a daily bag limit of 100 upon myself to prevent overshooting the herd.
Have .38 cases sized and need to make wads and procure a new package of grits.
You fellers be thinking about this and getting ready. Just like the opening day of dove season./beagle
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For us around here its Mud Daubers, and we have lots here. I don't care what it is, if there's an opening they're in there just packing those mud nests.
I have yet to do it, but those rice loads sound pretty good. Thing is though, I'm not going to use the SPEER shot capsules. And when I do things I like to be on the unique side of things.
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Shot a wood bee a couple of weeks ago, started using a 357 Ruger service six last year and can get a lot more walnut media in them compared to 38 spl. These wood bees are the only thing I hunt anymore. No bag limit here, been shooting them for seven or eight years and there are always plenty to shoot every year. Plenty of old barns and wood sheds to shoot them at. Even made up a set of dies to pack the wad over powder and one to pack the overshot wad, speeds up the loading process. Usually load and shoot a couple of thousand every year. Better than dove hunting, no game to dress.
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We hunt with C&B revolvers, BP, rice and newspaper wads. Good, good fun! I've been known to break out the ML rifle for 'long range' work. :bigsmyl2:
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I miss the good 'ol days when I had a back yard where I could shoot wasps with my .38 snub. I would load 1 gr bullseye, a case full of ground walnut shells, and enough tissue crammed tight on top to hold it together. Those nests would turn into into confetti :-)
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The back yard safari , seams like fun .
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Got a hundred rounds ready and waiting for warmer, sunny weather. Should be a good season this year with the more or less mild winter./beagle
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I need to decide on my load had a few bees out today time to get some loaded up.
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Cool and rain so far, shot less than 100 rds so far. Eighty degree temp will bring them out. Suckers can sure change directions fast. Happy hunting.
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Went to load up some .45 today and couldn't find and walnut hulls I thought I had around here I guess now I will dig around and see what else I can find maybe get the scale out and compare cream of wheat, steel cut oats and what ever else I can find.
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Had a good shoot today. They were out thick. Popped 100 rounds of .38 through my Blackhawk. Bag...60-75. Still coming when I ran out of ammo. Next loads will be in .357 cases for a heavier payload. One red wasp in the mix./beagle
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`Wood Bee`? Is this a Southern term for a bumble bee? I`ve been around a lot of different types, but have never heard this term name. Somebody tell this `Yankee` what this bee is.Robert
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Wood bees look a lot like bumblebees but they are not the same. The bore holes in old dead wood, branches, stumps, etc. that they use for nests.
I have never hunted insects with a gun but I have hunted flies with a slingshot loaded with salt. When I was a kid my granddad paid us a bounty for tomato worms collected from his tomato patch. I discovered it was more fun to shoot them with my Red Ryder but too costly so I took to using dried okra seed. At tomato worm range they worked okay.
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Oh yes...bee season! I've only shot one this year so far, but I'm one for one. I use 357 mag case, Hodgdon Clays, wads cut from cerial box, and grits. I only have a few loaded rounds left from last year so I need to load a bunch more. The wife thinks I'm half nuts, but it's a blast!
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They also bore holes in Salt Treated Wood [Decks, Fence Etc ] here in Virginia. They go through it like butter and will weaken it if left unchecked.
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Carpenter bees............wood boring machines............in point of fact, as I write this, I've a roofing crew re-doing my place. In the course of replacing some flashing they attempted to remove some of the cedar trim that surrounded areas in a clear story..........stuff was so full of holes from their chambers that I'm probably out another grand in just the woodworking alone!!
Hell, at least I can eat the deer that pilfer my garden, wish I could get the resident herd of turkeys interested in these bees, only thing that seems to attack the damn things is pileated woodpeckers, and THEY do more damage than the bee's!
Anyway, far as wing shootin' 'em goes, I stuff a light charge of BE in my old 6" 629....top it with rice and have at it.....all the while putting up with complaints from my wife. Actually good point shooting practice, but in truth a tennis racket is just as good till the things figure out your range capability.
You want some of these in Michigan, lemme know, I'll air express collect, a batch!
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Dog, that would make you the most popular man in Michigan!
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About time to make your carpenter bee loads. Bought a 38 spl cylinder on ebay and bored the throats out to accept a .357 maximum brass shell and can get 20 grs of walnut media in them over 3 grs of titewad, should give me more range and density to hunt with this spring. Have lined up a couple of other guys to hunt with. Let the fun begin.
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Loaded some loads last fall and I'm ready to roll with about 200 loads. After much testing, I've decided the tumbling media is the way to go for me. Gives maybe a foot more range than the grits. On a good note, I was digging through my dies and came up with a wad cutter die that I thought was .458". Turned out it was a .360" and I immediately settled down and ran out about 500 .360 wads for future use so my wad supply is built up. Come on warm weather./beagle