Saturday morning on the deer lease. I took the tractor this morning and mowed the three feet of weeds and brushy plants that have grown up in my shooting lane in the last several years. This is my first year on this particular lease, but the older members tell me it is a good location, just that it is tight and hard to get to. They all prefer box stands on long shooting lanes.
This one is small and narrow. While on the tractor this morning I used my GPS device to measure it. While not nearly as accurate as a Total Station, my little device opines that it is 333 feet from the stand position to the back wall of the shooting lane. That is a perfect distance for the .30-30 rifle.
The stand sits in a pine plantation where the trees are about five years old. It is a snarled mess of briars, pine trees and woody volunteer plants with a smattering of young hardwoods. The thicket grows in an almost impenetrable wall against the sides of the lane and the cleared area is only 25 feet wide (five passes with a bush-hog).
I noticed two game trails traversing the lane as I mowed it. We'll have to see later if the animals will use it during the winter. As the weather moderates, I'll plant it with rye grass and wheat. I used to plant a mixture of rye and wheat over my pastures for winter green feed and found that the mixture of the two plants provides forage until late in the winter. Deer love it, especially during a harsh winter. The combination of the rye grass with the wheat grain is a siren song for animals of all types.
When I came in last night I stumbled over a box containing a Ram-line stock and Firesights for that latest Mod 94 I bought. By midnight I had them installed. Williams is packaging a Foolproof receiver sight with a firesight front bead and that is the combination that now sits on the Winchester. The stock is the Cadet version, with 12.5 inches length of pull. It is designed for younger shooters, but I like it because I tend to creep the stock of a normally stocked rifle. I am considering using that stock as a template to cut down the wooden stock I took off the rifle. The stock on my Antique Carbine has always felt just a little long. Cutting it down and installing an inexpensive recoil pad might make that little rifle a lot handier.
We'll see.
Pawpaw, that pine plantation will be crawling with deer on cold days in which the sun is shining. The sun will heat those dark green trees, and to a deer entering them it's like us coming out of the cold into a warm house.
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