# Just ot of the box review and first outing.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Access Denied

Read it here then.
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/small-game-predator-trapping/404621-icotec-gc350.html

 Al


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

nice read sounds like you stirred up a yote but he never showed himself , just got the deer all running


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Have never seen deer act that way while calling. But we never call that loud. I did it mostly to see if I could get the speaker to crackle or sound raspy.
Put it on the scale today 1.6 pounds Not much really.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Heard crows across the road working the corn field I figure. Decided if I could get them to see what was going on so took the call up in the pine trees where the crows some times will come and set. Took about 5 minutes and I had 4 crows and in 10 minutes had about 10 flying about. I should have had the shot gun handy.

the pine trees are 134 yards from where I was at on my front porchwiththe remote.

 Al


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

soooooo... do ya eat those crows? Here we have crow season... can't shoot them outside of it, unless you can prove crop damage.

I had been thinking about building me a caller.. no remote, just a speaker and a small battery powered amp.. I'm after coyotes.. They don't bother my place, but they do hurt the deer population around here.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

We eat some of the crows, no they don't taste like chicken.

Here you go with a couple recipes.

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=155994

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=156002

For some reason I am not being allowed to copy and past here any more.



I built my home made caller per sdhandgunners thread a whole 7 pages.
I even some where in those 7 pages updated the components prices that will probably be higher even today.

http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20626

My case was a hyway find.



Painted with rustolum stone finish.



The radio shack amp.



Opened up to get the 9V battery connector and snip that speaker wire.



Side view finished.



Front view.



rear view.



I started with a Apple shuffle MP3 player to hold the sounds. Bad choice, first you need I tunes on your computer to up load the sounds to it. You have to remove every thing off the player and remember the tracks the sounds are on you want to use cause there is no display.

Changed out to a Sanza Clip and it is way better. I added a inline volume to the patch cord, added in a 50' patch cord so I could get it a bit farther away from me. With out the MP3 player I have about 35.00 in it. 
You can get free sounds from varnintal's web site, Westernriver web site and others if you search the web.

I found with the Sanza I can set the caller away from me and select the track I want played starting with 2 minutes of silence and select repete and walk off about 100 yards in rough terrain so it is sort of remote. Just not able to control the volume remotely.

 Al


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I found a place to hunt coyotes today , the farm I cut wood at has been having a lot of coyotes as close as the back yard recently


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Good luck and do a good job and word of mouth will open up other places to hunt coyotes and some times other critters.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

My friend Eric calls Sunday afternoon and was wanting me to join him Monday morning on one of the farms we coyote hunt on.
I met him in the drive way to the silos we were told to use and not be in the way. We have hunted this farm several time before and is I think the 5th farmer to call us to get rid of the coyotes had gotten so bold they were coming into his feed lot during the day. We decided we would set up on a hill about 300 yards from the feed lot over looking a grassy swale. There is a fence line running north south on top of the hill and a corner where one goes east and west. It ranged out to 182 yards from the hill top to the edge of the grassy swale.
Eric says for me to walk my call down the east west fence line about 100 yards where I set it in a clump of bushes in a stone pile.
Go back up the hill join Eric who indicated I should set to his left about 3 feet away and watch the far north side of the swale. Start the call going with a Female coyote sounding a bit horny I think.
Was about to call it a set and pack up when a coyote peeks out of the grassy edge to quickly be joined by another and then 2 more. I toss a small stick at Eric so he looks and sees them. He indicated I should take the first two and he would take the last two. Well my220 swift spoke and the first coyote does a couple spins and collapses, I can not see the second coyote in my scope and I heard Eric's Cheetah bark the second time. I never did find that second coyote Eric said later it had spun and ran back into the grassy swale.
Eric had shot the last one then swung to the third one and got both. His 742 works real nice for collecting doubles.

All 3 were females about 40 to 45 pounds one was really old with broken teeth and badly stained. this warm weather has the hides looking awful and tom won't take them even if we skinned them and sew the holes up so we drag them off into the swale food for other critters. We walk back to the trucks and Eric asked what all sounds are on my new caller. When I tell him there are a couple of crow sounds one a crow owl confertation and a crow in distress he says we should try them since we had seen a couple crows fly over. We walk into another field that had been a corn field and set up in the fence line under some bushes with the call about 50 yards away. Bet it wasn't 10 minutes and we had around 10 crows flying around making a racket looking for that owl and the other crows. By the time we shut the call off there were probably between 25 and 30 crows flying around. What would we have given for a shot gun

 Al


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I would love to see a pic of that 742 , my first rifle was a 742 bought it when I was 14 still have it I though about trying it for coyote , since hides aren't worth anything right now it wouldn't matter that I would be using a 30-06

can I ask what the 2 of you are using for optics


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I am running a Simmons 6x18 50 on the swift rarely get it above 10x how ever.

Eric has a Bushnell Elite 4200 series 6x24 tactical on the 742.

Erica found this beat up POS at a gun show, all his friends including me told him he had gotten ripped off at 150.00 for it. I don't think there was one spot of bluing left on it.
He did have a return policy if a gun smith told him it could not be safe to shoot.
He took it to a well known smith about an hour from us and was told it was in fine shape for firing the 308 it was chambered for.

He gave the smith the go ahead to strip it down went and got the wood work a week later.
they settled on a 22 cal barrel from Bartlein barrel company ported id, did the work on it so it uses a 308 case necked down to 22 cal.
Reblued the whole thing, Erica worked on the wood work sanding steaming and sanding some more and got it looking like new again.
Looks beautiful and he will hardly let us get with in 10 feet of it for fear we will drool all over it. He was not happy the first time we went coyote hunting with it. Cussed for close to an hour almost all the way home because the brass was hard to find in some deep grass. He sat down and made a brass catcher for it and now is happy.
I'll see if I can get a picture some day, as I said we don't carry un need weight when chasseing coyotes.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Here is a picture of Eric's 742 with a scope he put on while working up loads and breaking the barrel in.










With Wednesdays 14 inches of snow none of us have been out. Weekend was so warm 80% of the snow melted off but were are supposed to get 3 to 6 inches again Tuesday. Maybe get out in the upcoming week end. So cotton picking muddy hate walking any place that isn't grass, concrete or asphalt. 

 Al


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

that looks very nice , you would never know it had been in rough shape 

I have heard a number of negative things about 742s eating the rails the bolt rides on , I once worried about it until someone more knowledgeable about the issue explained that it was an extraction issue that started it and that it started when people would let the chamber get rust from hunting in wet conditions and leaving it loaded after the season or shooting corrosive 30-06 ammo in it , but that if the chamber is kept clean and everything properly lubricated , it was really a non issue that hunting and sighting in you wouldn't wear one out in a lifetime or two.

I bought the my 742 because , my great grandpa had one in 30-06 that my dad used to shoot his first deer a few years after that most of where we hunt went shotgun only , but my great uncle still has the 742 my dad used and at the time I bought mine was still shooting deer with it . also the safety , trigger and feel was almost identical to my 1100 shotgun so it was easy switching back and forth

at 14-15 when you have a 10/22 an 1100 12 ga , and a 742 in 30-06 , what more could you need but a place to hunt and some ammo


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I reload every thing except rim fire 22lr/22mag which I don't even bother looking for ammo any longer. I like my bolt action rifles and have made it a point to catch the case as it is extracted not letting it hit the ground.
I also like pump and OU shot guns. I have a pair of model 37 that bottom eject which was better for duck hunting as the extracted hull when in the bottom of the boat not out in the water where you had to collect it and dry it for a very long time before reloading them. I belong to a sportsman club and got to see and try several different OU's before I bought one. Mine pop the hull up so you can pick them out not toss them over your shoulder. I get a lot of nice hulls because those guys with auto loaders can't be bothered searching for there slung hulls.

That is why Eric made and installed the case catcher on his 742. He would have to keep forming brass every time he reloaded if he didn't.
And yes it has to be reloaded ammo, you won't see any 22/308 rounds on the shelves at any gun shop.

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

When you talk about "necked down" are you physically shrinking the diameter of the end of the shell down so that it would fit a .22?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Eric's rifle is a 22 cal now. We hand load so you squeeze the case neck from 308 dia to 224 dia. He does it in stages from 308 to 243 to 22 cal.
You buy the bullets in bulk 100 to a box except some brands we don't buy. He can use 308 brass, 7mm08 brass and 243 brass to do this.

 Al


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

fishhead , the process is take a 7mm-08 full length sizing die run a well lubed 308 case into the die it comes out sized to take a 7mm .284 inch bullet , then make sure it is lubed and run it up into a 243 full length sizing die and it is ready to accept a .243 inch bullet , one more trip well lubed into a 22 chetta die and it is ready to take a .224 bullet 

the case will grow in length with all this sizing so you will need to trim for final length , but brass is a very malluable metal and it flows well in a die , just don't try to large of a jump at once and be sure to lube with something like lanolin 

likewise you can go up also , making 358 Winchester from 308 brass

as well as many other larger and smaller cartridges based on the same case in different calibers


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Eric does it all in one step, Lube the case, (we use Slick 50 grease or STP a lot for this step) Insert it in the wildcat die made to do this job (Erica's are rcbs.) Remove the case de grease and check the to make it sure it is not to long and trim if needed.

Place the cases in a shallow baking pan fill the pan with water and heat the case necks up with a torch. Knock them over when hot into the water. that softens the necks up and are not work hardened.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Having been laid up for a couple months I took the time to search some new sounds for my GC350. Ok that went well with probably close to 75 new sounds I could install on new SD cards.
I started with one SD card not one of the cheap off brands but a Sandisk 32gb. Installed the sounds to the card per the instructions and couldn't get any sounds from the caller. Wiped the card clean and reformatted it put 24 new and different from the first attempts, with the same results.
Finally after trying several different times with many different sounds I contacted Ico Tec and asked what they thought the problem was a bad card? With in minutes I got this E mail back from JD.

*It's most likely the 32 Gb card. Do you have a smaller one to try? Most 32 Gb cards are designed for video rather than small files.
Try backing up the sounds that came on the caller to a folder on your desktop then format the original card and add sounds to it and see if that works. If so, I'm 100% it's the 32gb card.*

I had a 2gb card in my camera so I wiped it clean and down loaded the sounds. Worked perfect.
For those of you smarter in electronics you can add up the MB's the sound is and buy a card saving money smaller for them. the original card is only a little over 5MB's.

 Al


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

8 and 16 gb cards are cheap and probably more sound files than you would ever need will fit 

but even a 2gb card when your talking MP3 will be a lot of sounds ,after the invention of the mp3 file but before we had smart phones in the early 2000s my brother had a sony cd player in his car that could read mp3 from the cd he went through and put his entire music collection on a hand full of cds 

a writable cd that could hold 70 minutes of cd music could now hold nearly 700 minutes of audio files


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

The caller takes a standard size SD card. Since it can only hold 24 sounds at a time to match up to the remote one could probably get by with a 10mb card if the knew how to add up all the mb's of the sounds, which I don't know just how to do.

Most MP3 players I have seen hold a good selection of songs and even coyote/crow sounds with out the use of a card and those ai have seen with a card use the mini SD ones.

 Al


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