PA Long Range Season

[Ken 30 378]

Well hi Ken, I actually do remember you, or maybe it was your dad? I know about Larry and John, and frankly im about there myself. John was the first guy I ever saw using twin spotters in a bracket. Probably 1973, he was standing on the road glassing on Nanny run. I stopped and talked with him about them.
At that time they both hunted out of the camp on top of Grove hill. As I recall we met last on Boyer run, (Masons Hill) and Larry was with you?

YOBUCK, IF Larry was hunting I was most likely with him, I did shoot a nice eight pt from that lookout. As for the brackets, Jon gave me all the drawings for them and I redesigned them and built 21 sets of them back in the day. Sold all of them through a sporting good store in York, I am still using them. Larry has just sold his camp in Sinnemahoning for health reasons, Jon is not good, no one came up to his camp this year. My wife and I have a place next to where Larry was up off of 120, if you know where his cabin was. I can shoot from 400 to 1100 right off my deck. I cant drag them anymore so I do a lot of glassing! Larrys dad Raymond Smith started hunting what they called "long range" back in the 50's, they used Dick Thomas dots in their scopes. I have one of their early scopes (far cry from now). They were using 300 H&H back then. Many many funny stories that will all be lost before long. It was nice reading the posts about years gone by, and nice talking with you.

 

[yobuck]

Hi Yobuck, you seem to be one of the few people that are the original long range hunters from Pa. and any stories you have would be appreciated.
Joe

Hi Joe, I miss seeing you on the PA site, but cant even bring that up at all anymore let alone log on.
I was always pretty much convinced im not liked there by somebody. lol.
As for L/R hunters in PA, im at this point probably one of the oldest living, but certainly not one of the early ones. Modern day long range started when who ever it was figured out how to dial for distance.
At that point none of the modern day scopes even existed, at least as for having the ability to dial.
Except, those very few target type scopes like for example Unertle. And those couldn't be used very well either until somebody figured out that scope block spacing was the key. For sure the varmit hunters were the logical ones to get a handle on all that and not deer hunters. They were the followers, not the leaders in that area, and Im about a third generation follower. lol
I do wish I had the opportunity to meet a few people who were gone before I arrived on the scene, like Alex Hoyer for example.

 

[drags]

Hi Ernie good to hear from you I still go on the Pa, site and wish you could get on there.
I didn't hunt l/r this year as were lost our spot over at Irishtown and I sure miss it but I am still groundhog hunting not l/r though the most I can shoot is about a little under 600 yards and that's only on one of my farms. I do shoot in the groundhog shoots and help run the one at the Lawrence Co. Sportsmen Club we shoot 100,200,300,400, and 500 yards, I shoot a 6mm dasher and 6br in these shoots. We are going to shoot a few 1000 yd. matches at the Harry Jones in WV I would like to go to Williamsport but that is 4 1/2 hours for me and WV is only 2 1/2. I think Howard Wolfe's son Bob is still doing rifles and if his metal work is as good as his stock work I would think he is top notch, if I was to get a 7x300 wby or 30x378 wby or another old timer I would have Bob do it but I am getting long in the tooth I'll be 77 tomorrow and every year is a bonus. Right now I am using Dave Bruno in Dayton Pa. for my competition rifles. I was talking to my youngest brother yesterday and he still has a 7x300 WBY built by Howard Wolfe and was shooting at a 1000 yard range near us and he said he was getting out to a 1000 yards with a lot less clicks then some of the other shooters with there modern (they think) l/r rifles.
Keep in touch
Joe

 

[YZEATER]

Drags. Can you send me some info on the lawrence Country shoots? I'm only an hour from new Castle.

 

[drags]

www.shootlcsa.com is the website you can go there to get information. We shoot 2 matches per month April through October we have a short range match 100,200,300 yards and long range match 300,400,500 yards and we have custom and factory classes the short range match is on Saturday's and the long range is on Sundays. If you need more info PM me your phone number and a good time to call and we can discuss the match.
Drags

 

[YZEATER]

Thanks. My buddy and I started doing some Precision rifle shoots at my local club and would like to go to some other places.

 

[yobuck]

Hi Ernie good to hear from you I still go on the Pa, site and wish you could get on there.
I didn't hunt l/r this year as were lost our spot over at Irishtown and I sure miss it but I am still groundhog hunting not l/r though the most I can shoot is about a little under 600 yards and that's only on one of my farms. I do shoot in the groundhog shoots and help run the one at the Lawrence Co. Sportsmen Club we shoot 100,200,300,400, and 500 yards, I shoot a 6mm dasher and 6br in these shoots. We are going to shoot a few 1000 yd. matches at the Harry Jones in WV I would like to go to Williamsport but that is 4 1/2 hours for me and WV is only 2 1/2. I think Howard Wolfe's son Bob is still doing rifles and if his metal work is as good as his stock work I would think he is top notch, if I was to get a 7x300 wby or 30x378 wby or another old timer I would have Bob do it but I am getting long in the tooth I'll be 77 tomorrow and every year is a bonus. Right now I am using Dave Bruno in Dayton Pa. for my competition rifles. I was talking to my youngest brother yesterday and he still has a 7x300 WBY built by Howard Wolfe and was shooting at a 1000 yard range near us and he said he was getting out to a 1000 yards with a lot less clicks then some of the other shooters with there modern (they think) l/r rifles.
Keep in touch
Joe

4.5 hours would be a long ride just to shoot 10 shots Joe. Id be more inclined to drive to Ridgeway
and do the steel targets from a bench match. Lots more shooting, and at least for me would be more fun. Members can shoot there every day if they want so long as there isn't a match, but of coarse not at the steel targets.
WV has every thing PA has as for the type hills, but I believe access could be more of an issue. I drive right thru some great areas there on my way back and forth from FL to PA. Call me sometime and we can BS, 772 205 2158.

 

[yobuck]

YOBUCK, IF Larry was hunting I was most likely with him, I did shoot a nice eight pt from that lookout. As for the brackets, Jon gave me all the drawings for them and I redesigned them and built 21 sets of them back in the day. Sold all of them through a sporting good store in York, I am still using them. Larry has just sold his camp in Sinnemahoning for health reasons, Jon is not good, no one came up to his camp this year. My wife and I have a place next to where Larry was up off of 120, if you know where his cabin was. I can shoot from 400 to 1100 right off my deck. I cant drag them anymore so I do a lot of glassing! Larrys dad Raymond Smith started hunting what they called "long range" back in the 50's, they used Dick Thomas dots in their scopes. I have one of their early scopes (far cry from now). They were using 300 H&H back then. Many many funny stories that will all be lost before long. It was nice reading the posts about years gone by, and nice talking with you.

Hi again Ken, well the year we last spoke was the same year you killed that buck in Grindstone.
That spot was one of the ones (created) in that area by the Rankin bros from Pittsburg. Both very good friends also, and no longer hunting either.
I also remember Larrys dad, he came to Larrys camp the first few years Larry had that place.
Larrys brother in law also, if I recall was Amos? poor guy got sick and died fairly young with cancer. Same with Larry Kepp, one of my early mentors, died at 42 with same thing. As for Dick Thomas,
(Premier Reticles), thanks to Larry I got to meet him also, and he is yet another tragic story.
But a short story about how that meeting came about. We were on our lookout on Nanny, and I picked up a decent buck over there. I got the others with me on it, and then my son got on the gun and found the deer. But before he could get things ready, the buck dropped and started sliding down the hill, then we heard the shot. Awhile later 2 guys were making there way to the deer, and I recognized one to be Larry. When he got to the deer he looked it over then turned around and held up 7 fingers for the others to see.
That evening I went to his camp and busted on him over shooting (our buck), and he introduced me to the shooter, who happened to be Dick Thomas.
I had spoken with him by phone several times with regard to having dots installed, but it was nice to actually get to know the guy.

 

[drags]

4.5 hours would be a long ride just to shoot 10 shots Joe. Id be more inclined to drive to Ridgeway
and do the steel targets from a bench match. Lots more shooting, and at least for me would be more fun. Members can shoot there every day if they want so long as there isn't a match, but of coarse not at the steel targets.
WV has every thing PA has as for the type hills, but I believe access could be more of an issue. I drive right thru some great areas there on my way back and forth from FL to PA. Call me sometime and we can BS, 772 205 2158.

Hi Ernie, I'll call next week, what is a good time to call.
Joe

 

[6.5x47hunter]

Hi Ernie! I am due to call and chat too!

 

[yobuck]

Hi Ernie! I am due to call and chat too!

Hi Mark, it would be good to talk again, evenings are best, otherwise I could be at a job site at some lake checking out tackle .

 

[Ken 30 378]

Hi again Ken, well the year we last spoke was the same year you killed that buck in Grindstone.
That spot was one of the ones (created) in that area by the Rankin bros from Pittsburg. Both very good friends also, and no longer hunting either.
I also remember Larrys dad, he came to Larrys camp the first few years Larry had that place.
Larrys brother in law also, if I recall was Amos? poor guy got sick and died fairly young with cancer. Same with Larry Kepp, one of my early mentors, died at 42 with same thing. As for Dick Thomas,
(Premier Reticles), thanks to Larry I got to meet him also, and he is yet another tragic story.
But a short story about how that meeting came about. We were on our lookout on Nanny, and I picked up a decent buck over there. I got the others with me on it, and then my son got on the gun and found the deer. But before he could get things ready, the buck dropped and started sliding down the hill, then we heard the shot. Awhile later 2 guys were making there way to the deer, and I recognized one to be Larry. When he got to the deer he looked it over then turned around and held up 7 fingers for the others to see.
That evening I went to his camp and busted on him over shooting (our buck), and he introduced me to the shooter, who happened to be Dick Thomas.
I had spoken with him by phone several times with regard to having dots installed, but it was nice to actually get to know the guy.

Hi yobuck, I do remember the year Dick Thomas was at camp with Larry, when I had my FFL I had a lot of scopes done for guys by Premier Reticles. I know Larry kept a hunting journal of everything that happened every season every year since he started hunting. I am sure these stories are all recorded there and many more. They were great times!

 

[Smeigh1961]

Ken, couldn't help but enjoy the story. My wife actually found this website so I had to join. I sure miss those days...

 

[yobuck]

Ken, couldn't help but enjoy the story. My wife actually found this website so I had to join. I sure miss those days...

By the name, i assume you are related to John?