A Zone Rifle Opener this Saturday!!!

Buckhunter1955 · Aug 10, 2021

Good luck to all this week end. It's going to be hot as hell, but our group has been getting together for the opener for 30+ years. It started with just my brother and myself with a couple good friends and has grown to include sons and a future daughter in law. I'll try to add to my collection of "Bone".

Snoopdogg · Aug 10, 2021

Congrats and good luck for a successful opener.

Cahunter805 · Aug 10, 2021

Good luck everyone! Will be HOT for sure.

Buckhunter1955 · Aug 10, 2021

Here's a couple more photos from different years, and I still can't find one with everyone present.

Buckbrush · Aug 10, 2021

That's a heck of a redwood there. Nice bucks too!

usafvet · Aug 11, 2021

How big of a tree stand do you have lol

heywouldya · Aug 11, 2021

Great pictures! Hopefully, I can get my youngest daughter on a buck this weekend. Good luck to you all.

buckmster28 · Aug 13, 2021

good luck A zoners!

DoubleDropMuley · Aug 15, 2021

You take every deer to that tree for pics ? Nice, don’t hunt Cali but good luck to all that do?

Buckhunter1955 · Aug 15, 2021

We do it’s the centerpiece of our camp.

DoubleDropMuley · Aug 15, 2021

Sweeet!!

Buckbrush · Aug 18, 2021

Any of you A zoners get one killed? Pics please!

Hntndux · Aug 19, 2021

The only thing I have to show for enduring the 90+ heat was 2 rattlesnakes.

Buckhunter1955 · Aug 19, 2021

He's not hanging yet, but he's on the hit list. Coastal A Zone Blacktail.

Cahunter805 · Aug 19, 2021

Buckhunter1955 said:
He's not hanging yet, but he's on the hit list. Coastal A Zone Blacktail.

View attachment 50006

Such a cool looking buck. Can’t wait to see him on the ground.

eelgrass · Aug 19, 2021

Buckhunter1955 said:
He's not hanging yet, but he's on the hit list. Coastal A Zone Blacktail.

View attachment 50006

What we call a big Pacific Forked-horn. He'd look nice under the Redwood tree.

Buckhunter1955 · Aug 20, 2021

eelgrass said:
What we call a big Pacific Forked-horn. He'd look nice under the Redwood tree.

For the longest time I would tell people that the "Old Timers" called that type of buck a "Pacific Buck". I'm almost 66 now and I've become the Old Timer. I'll do my best to take his photo by the Redwood Tree.

Cahunter805 · Aug 20, 2021

BH- Any other pictures of that buck? I bet he looks crazy head on. Awesome buck!

eelgrass · Aug 20, 2021

Buckhunter1955 said:
For the longest time I would tell people that the "Old Timers" called that type of buck a "Pacific Buck". I'm almost 66 now and I've become the Old Timer. I'll do my best to take his photo by the Redwood Tree.

I'm an "old timer" from Humboldt Co. Born and raised here. 72 now. I was logging those old growth Redwood trees back in the 1960's.

Buckhunter1955 · Aug 20, 2021

Eel, I'm your neighbor to the south, Mendocino Co. I too worked in the woods, 2 years setting chokers on a yarder for Masonite, and 10 years falling timber mostly in yarder ground. I got out of the woods in 1989 and have been growing wine grapes for the past 32+ years in the Anderson Valley. We have killed several "Pacific Bucks" over the years.

eelgrass · Aug 20, 2021

Buckhunter1955, I worked for Simpson from 1968 to 1973 setting chokers, working on the landing and running Cat for the last year. You timber fallers have my utmost respect. A tough dangerous job. Then I worked 31 years in a sawmill in Eureka as a saw filer.

OutdoorWriter · Aug 20, 2021

eelgrass said:
Buckhunter1955, I worked for Simpson from 1968 to 1973 setting chokers, working on the landing and running Cat for the last year. You timber fallers have my utmost respect. A tough dangerous job. Then I worked 31 years in a sawmill in Eureka as a saw filer.

Are you sh!ttin' me -- 31 yrs. filing saw teeth????? ?

eelgrass · Aug 20, 2021

OutdoorWriter said:
Are you sh!ttin' me -- 31 yrs. filing saw teeth????? ?

LOL! That's the job title but there is much more involved. Much more.

eelgrass · Aug 20, 2021

OutdoorWriter said:
Are you sh!ttin' me -- 31 yrs. filing saw teeth????? ?

Every saw filer starts out as a fitter, and the fitter is the one who actually sharpens the saws. The saw filer supervises the fitter. The filer benches the saws prior to sharpening. Benching means leveling and tensioning the saws. Both band saws and round saws need to be tensioned so they run true when up to rpm. (it gets complicated). A good benchman is hard to find. It's almost an art.

The best way to describe what a saw filer does would be to give you an example. Every sawmill cuts lumber over size to start out with and the lumber is then sent through the planer which planes the lumber to a standard finished size.

If something goes wrong and the rough lumber comes out too big or too small, it's the saw filer's job to figure out why and fix it. That involves checking the saws to make sure they're right. (I could write a book on that alone). If the saws are right then you look at the machine centers up in the mill. You look for worn guides, guide pressure, worn bearings, feed tables, band saw strain, band saw wheels and tracking. It's the filer's job to work with the maintenance crew to get it fixed.

When things are running smooth it's a great job. When there's a problem, the pressure mounts.

Bluehair · Aug 21, 2021

Cool thread.

OutdoorWriter · Aug 21, 2021

eelgrass said:
LOL! That's the job title but there is much more involved. Much more.

Geez, I should hope so. Filing saw teeth every day would be about as boring as stuffing pimento into olives by hand.

OutdoorWriter · Aug 21, 2021

eelgrass said:
If the saws are right then you look at the machine centers up in the mill. You look for worn guides, guide pressure, worn bearings, feed tables, band saw strain, band saw wheels and tracking. It's the filer's job to work with the maintenance crew to get it fixed.

12pointer · Aug 21, 2021

eelgrass said:
I'm an "old timer" from Humboldt Co. Born and raised here. 72 now. I was logging those old growth Redwood trees back in the 1960's.

Small world, my Father was logging those Redwoods in the late 40s. I've got 8mm silent movies of Him on a dozer.

My Grandfather owned 1500 acres 2 miles south of Laytonville on highway 101, 1000 acres on the west side of the highway and 500 on the east side. When my father got married it couldn't support 2 families so He went to work logging.

Grandfather sold the west side in the early 50s and gave the 500 acres to my Uncle, He sold it to Bud Sloan in 69.

I wish it would have stayed in the Family, had great black tail hunting.

eelgrass · Aug 22, 2021

12pointer said:
Small world, my Father was logging those Redwoods in the late 40s. I've got 8mm silent movies of Him on a dozer.

My Grandfather owned 1500 acres 2 miles south of Laytonville on highway 101, 1000 acres on the west side of the highway and 500 on the east side. When my father got married it couldn't support 2 families so He went to work logging.

Grandfather sold the west side in the early 50s and gave the 500 acres to my Uncle, He sold it to Bud Sloan in 69.

I wish it would have stayed in the Family, had great black tail hunting.

I imagine those ranches have turkey and elk on them now too. I almost always see both when driving through. Laytonville is a cool place.