More Game Cam Pictures

After the search for the deer I missed on Saturday, I walked over to the game camera to change cards. I looked at it for the first time, just minutes ago, and the photos that are on the camera are instructive.

If you'll recall the post, I missed that deer at 7:45 a.m., then went looking for him at about 8:15. At about 11:00 a.m., we went back to look, to insure that I hadn't hit and wounded the deer. At the end of the search, I went to the camera and took out the card.

It seems that after I had stumbled around the side of that hill, then left to go get help tracking, more deer came out on the pipeline.

 There's two in that photograph, standing still in broad daylight.  You can click for a bigger photo, but they look like does, to me.

Then, at 11:05, here comes my gypsy caravan to search the woods.

Don't we look a sight?  There's five adults in that Mule and we had to have one fellow sitting in the bed.

Then a half-hour later I walked over to look at the feed block I had put out.  That old geezer coming behind me is the lease treasurer, Bobby.

I love game cameras.  They show what's possible.

Deer Chili

Tonite we made the first pot of chili from the deer I got several weeks ago.

Just like your regular chili, but with venison instead of ground beef. Wonderful.

That's not the reason I hunt, but it is one of the benefits.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we found some time to relax on the back porch. With the cold front moving through, the dog needs his sweater and he sat pleasantly still while I took this snapshot.

He's been well-fed this week. After Christmas, we both should go on a diet.

Dang it!

I missed one this morning. At about 7:45 I looked up and saw a deer step out of the woods, to the east of my pipeline. I saw horns, but I couldn't tell you if he was a spike or a 10-point. His nose was down, probably tracking a doe, and he was moving at a steady walk. By the time I got the rifle up, his nose was entering the woods, so I put the crosshair on his shoulder and squeezed one off. He bolted.

I thought I heard the bullet strike, so I poured another cup of coffee, then waited a half-hour. Climbed down from the stand and crossed the creek to where I had last seen him. I expected to see him piled up in the edge of the woods, but no luck. I found the track where he had bolted, and made a thorough search for blood or hair. No luck. I made a big loop through the woods, trying to cut his trail. No luck.

SO, I went to the camp and got help. My sister-in-law had heard the shot from her stand 300 yards away, and she thought that she had heard the bullet strike. Five of us went back and conducted another thorough search, at times on hands and knees. My pocket GPS showed that from the stand to where we found the tracks was 170 yards, give or take five yards, which is still the longest shot I've ever attempted at a deer. The rifle is sighted to be 1" high at 100 yards and down 1" at 200 yards, so I'm not convinced that ballistics caused a problem. After an hour, we called it quits. I'm convinced I didn't hit that deer.

After two thorough searches, no blood, no hair, no indication that I did anything but scare the living hell out of him. He probably didn't stop running until he got to Georgetown, and I've missed a deer for the first time in 10 years.

Just damn!

Out of Coffee

It turns out, we're out of coffee, so I've got to make a trip to the store in a few minutes to rectify that oversight. Milady is a wonderful, kind, loving person until she wakes up and finds that we have no coffee in the house. Hell hath no fury like a woman who can't make coffee... I believe that's the quote.

Also, the temps are diving with the passage of the cold front, and I'm going to be back in the deer stand at daylight. The low is predicted to be 26 by-God degrees. While I'm out, I'm going to pick up another bottle of propane for the heater in the box stand.

I know, I know. I bought a heater for my box stand last month, and it's a hell of a lot easier to stay on a stand if you're warm.

Just for the record, I don't do Black Friday.

Shooting in the pasture.

Today after lunch, as is our tradition, those in the family so disposed retired to the pasture to do a little shooting. We started with rimfire rifles and targets posted at 50 yards.

Here's a rare photo of PawPaw. I'm the fat guy on the right. I'm coaching grandson Quinton, while his Dad observes.

After the rimfires, we took out pistols and let the novices explore. Here, niece Rachel engages a 10 yard target with her mother's snubnose. All told, we blew through several hundred rounds of .22LR, some .38 special, 9mm, .44 special, and .17 HMR. It was quite an afternoon.

In this pic, my nephew, Trey is trying on a lever action Henry in .22LR. Tomorrow morning he and I are going to the lease. We've got a front moving through and I'm hoping that he makes meat. No, he won't be using the .22. He'll be using his Howa 1500, in .270 Win. I"m putting him on a stand that's been producing deer for several years. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Many Thanks

Thanksgiving is a big deal in our family, as it is in many families across the country. The whole family tries to come home for the holiday, and that makes for some huge meals.

Several years ago, Milady and I decided to host a family dinner the night before Thanksgiving. The clan gathers at my mother's house for the traditional meal and sometimes she feeds upwards of forty people. That's a lot of prep work and we thought that we could share the burden just a bit and feed everyone the night before, with non-traditional Thanksgiving food. The gathering has become quite a hit, and last night we fed over 30 people. Thankfully (again, I have much to be thankful for), Milady and I love to entertain and we've spent considerable energy learning how to set the house up for a crowd of folks.

The menu was Turkey and Sausage Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Garlic Bread, Garden Salad, and various desserts. We had people eating in the kitchen, in the living room, the garage, and the back deck. Thankfully (I have much to be thankful for), the weather cooperated.

That pic above is one of my gorgeous, intelligent nieces (I have much to be thankful for) trying to dodge the camera.  You'll notice my tools in the back wall.  Yeah, we were eating in the garage last night.

I fed over 30 folks last night, and there isn't much left over.  (Again, thanks are in order).   In another hour or so, we're heading over to my Mother's to do it all again. 

Y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Shooting with Matt

My second son and I had planned to do some shooting this morning, so we went out to my Mother's place where we have a 100 yard berm.

Matt's rifle is a Savage 111 in 7mm Remington Magnum. They called it the varmint model when we bought it, and it's got the Accutrigger and a heavy barrel in the old pillar bedded stock. We were trying to decide how many rounds he's got through that barrel and as far as we can recall, that barrel currently has about 400 rounds shot through it. Matt had re-adjusted his scope, to compensate for the eyeglasses he currently wears and needed to make sure that the rifle is still zero'd. That rifle has always shot well with our handload of 64.2 grains of IMR 4831 and a 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet. CCI Large Rifle Magnum Primers light it all up.






That's a composite target, created by stapling one target over another. The first three shots hit in the lower left of the group, then he adjusted the scope, stapled another target, and fired for the white diamond. Even with adjusting the scope, all six shots fell into 0.890. Each of the individual 3-shot groups are under 0.500. I'd say that rifle is adjusted for 100 yards.

I took my Savage 10, in .243. From the post yesterday I realized that I hadn't fired that rifle since March, 2009 and wanted to make sure that the scope was still looking where the bullets fall. I like my hunting rifles to be sighted an inch high at 100 yards. With the ballistics of this little bullet, according to my ballistic program, it should be within an inch of the aiming point to 200 yards and down just 8 inches at 300 yards.; The longest shot I can make from my deer stand is about 175 yards, so I should be fine with this load.

Now, it's time to clean up and run some errands. I've got a lot of cooking to do tomorrow and I'll need to get ready. If I don't talk with y'all tomorrow, have a great Thanksgiving.

Six years with the .243 Winchester

Sometime shortly after WWII, the Army started toying with a rifle cartridge shorter than the old, venerable .30-06. In 1952, Winchester standardized the new round for sporting cartridges, the .308 Winchester. (The .308 Winchester actually pre-dates the Army cartridge which was standardized as the 7.62X51 T65 cartridge in 1954, but that's a military history story).

A gun writer of the times, Warren Page, started tinkering with the cartridge and necked it down to 6mm, calling it the .240 Page Pooper. The guys at Winchester saw its potential and standardized it in 1955, calling it the .243 Winchester. Page designed the cartridge as a dual-purpose, deer and varmint cartridge. It's been a huge success, although it never took off as a varmint round. Here in the United States, we like to shoot varmints with .22 caliber ammo, either rimfire or centerfire.

In 2004 I was walking through Wal-Mart and saw a rifle in the rack, I happened to glance at the price and it was low enough that I couldn't walk past. I asked to see the rifle and it was a Savage Model 10, in .243. A package rifle, it had a scope mounted, so I took out my checkbook and brought it home. It's got the tupperware stock with a floated, sporter barrel. You can see today's version over at the Savage website. Savage calls it the Model 11 FXP3 and the rifle they sell today is just exactly like the one I have. It's been in the catalog for seven years, so it must be a fairly popular model. Today it lists at $659.00, but I paid about half that much at Wal-Mart on a late season close-out.

I brought the little rifle home and started playing with it, using various powders and bullets. I wrote it up for Castbullet and you can see my article at the link. The little rifle shot alright, but was prone to vertical stringing as the thin barrel heated up. Also, I wasn't impressed with the package scope that came with the rifle. It was a bargain-basement Simmons, and while they're good for some things, I didn't think that it matched the potential of the rifle.

About 2007 I found a scope on sale at Midway USA. It is a Simmons scope, but all the literature I could find on this scope told me that it was an exceptional value at an unbelievable price point. Simmons calls it the Whitetail Classic. It's a 6.5X20X50 scope with an adjustable objective lens, and I bought one at my son's urging. He's got one on his 7mm Magnum heavy rifle and it's stood up well to the rigors of the recoil that rifle can generate. Surprisingly, you can still order one today for about $100.00. It's not a Leupold, nor a Schmidt and Bender, but it's a great scope. The 164 reviews at Midway USA give it a 5-star rating. I think it's a great value on an inexpensive sporting scope. I'm not generally a fan of high-magnification scopes on a hunting rifle, believing that 6X is more than most folks need. Still, I bought the scope and mounted it on the rifle, telling myself that I wanted to wring the very best out of a bone stock rifle I bought on sale. Three years later, that scope is still mounted to that rifle

Even with that scope, the rifle wasn't shooting like I wanted it to. At the end of 2007 I was three years into the caliber and wasn't sure what I wanted to use it for. It's a bone-stock rifle and I upgraded the scope, but really wasn't getting the groups I wanted to get from the rifle. Along about that same time, I found a sale for blemished bullets. They were 6mm caliber, 100 grain, standard lead and gilding metal hunting bullets, but the seller wouldn't identify the manufacturer. Still, I ordered 500 of them and when they came to my door I took out all my catalogs and did an online search. After much research, I believe that the bullets were manufactured by Hornady, but I have no real proof, just an educated guess. Still, they were wonderfully uniform and if anyone can see the blemishes on them, that person has better eyes than I do.

One day in 2008 I was browsing around and found a reference to using Reloder 22 powder with 100 grain bullets in the .243. So, I loaded a batch and took the rifle the next time I went to the range. I fired several and looked through the scope to see a small, tiny group on the paper. Hmmm! The next time I went to the range, I took that rifle again, but I set up the chronograph. I fired a group and looked at the chrony screen and thought I was getting an error, so I reset the machine and shot another group. Damn! I was getting over 3100 fps from that load, with my barrel and rifle. And the groups were tiny. And the SD and ES were small.

Since then, I've shot some tantalizingly small groups with that rifle. Some three shot groups that measured well under 1/2 inch. That target above is fairly representative of what I can do with the rifle on a good day, with five shots well under an inch.

Still, I haven't taken the rifle to the game woods and it is time to see if it will take game. I believe I'll clean the .30-06 and use this rifle for the rest of the season. It should be just perfect for the smallish whitetail deer we see in this part of Louisiana.

Whadd'ya think?

Sunday Morning Dawg

Have you ever felt like this?

That's the way I felt all week. I'm glad my wife is out of the hospital.

Venison

I made meat today with my Savage 110. At 8:45 a.m., I saw movement on the hill facing my stand and put the scope on a doe. I couldn't tell if she was facing toward me or away from me, so I watched her for a minute until I figured out that she was feeding in my direction. When she looked up, I put one in at the base of her neck. Bang, flop. I waited ten minutes, then crossed the creek and climbed the hill toward the deer. She tried to get up and I put another into her neck. I should have waited another ten minutes. The frothy blood in her mouth told me that I had made a lung shot and she'd probably have bled our in another few minutes.

She's a two or three year old doe, in good fat, and wasn't in heat yet.  She field dressed about 100 lbs. On autopsy, we learned that the Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet entered the base of her neck, cut the top of the right lung and departed through the tenderloin. She's at the processor's now and I'll pick her up in a few days.

Home again

I got Milady out of the hospital late this afternoon. Her lung has expanded properly and she was told to make an appointment with her primary care physician in a week. When the nurse told us that, I snorted, and the nurse looked at me like I was crazy. We explained that Milady works for her primary care physician and she'll probably talk with him or his wife several times next week.

We're home and all is right with the world.

More TSA stupidity

I was surfing the High Road and was led to Red State, where we learn of another TSA outrage. This time against returning American soldiers. Here's the punch line:

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

It seems that this was a military charter out of Bagram AFB and the GIs were returning to the US with rifles, pistols and machine guns. They landed in Indianapolis to let off some National Guard Troops and TSA decided that they couldn't have nail clippers, even with rifles hanging from their shoulders. The soldiers handled it with a lot more grace and dignity than the TSA handled it. Go to the link above and read the whole exchange.

TSA is off the rails and should be de-funded completely.

Wondering

The one critter who's really not sure what is going on with Milady is the dog. She's been in the hospital now for 48 hours and he's looking for her everywhere.


I've tried explaining it to him, but I don't think he understands.  He's still looking for her everywhere.

Conversation with my boss

Talking with my principal today, who is a very attractive 30-something woman.

She: "We're flying out on Sunday morning, heading to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my brother."

Me: "Cool! You might get to experience those new scanners, or maybe even the new TSA pat-down."

She: "Oh, Gawd, yeah. I've been reading about those. It might get violent."

Me: "Hey, bring me one of those scanner photos, will you?"

She looked at me like I had dog poo on my shoulder and walked into the building. Oh, well, you win some and you lose some.

In other news, I'm here for an hour to let the dog do his business, which seems to consist of sitting at the back door and whining. Thence to the hospital, then back to the high school for a soccer game. Oh, joy!

Hospitals

If any of you remember my hospital posts, you know that I hate them. Hate them.

Yet, yesterday, the doctor put Milady in the hospital with a collapsed lung. SO, I'm home long enough to wash some uniforms, then I'm heading back to the hospital. No, it's not life-threatening and she's going to be okay, if the hospital doesn't kill her.

Hate them.

For the next couple of days, I'll be distracted, so if y'all get bored, find your Congress critter's website and email them about any-damned-thing. Be outraged. Give 'em hell.

More on the TSA

The outrage and indignation spreads across our country over the new security techniques being used by the TSA.

AP reports that Secretary Napolitano is listening, but her quote indicates the degree of elitism that we all rejected on November 2nd.

"It's all about security," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It's all about everybody recognizing their role."

You bet, Janet. I know my role, and it's to raise hell at you.

It seem that Congress is taking note, too, one of the authors of the original TSA bill is telling airports that they can opt our of TSA screening.

Rep John Mica, one of the authors of the original TSA bill, has recently written to the heads of more than 150 airports nationwide suggesting they opt out of TSA screening. "When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees," Mica writes. "As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law."

Ain't that interesting?

As far as the agency telling us that the machines can't store or save the images, it seems that one used by the US Marshall Service can store and save images. Gizmodo has them, about a hundred images that have been leaked to the internet.

And now, of course, TSA is patting-down toddlers. Disgusting.

The TSA should be defunded now. Immediately.

Bonus Sunday Dawg

With the cold snap, the dog was shivering, so Milady found his sweater and put it on.



Very stylish, don't you think? Well, maybe he's warmer now.

More on the TSA

I was surfing around this morning and came to this link, which is a blogger who says that she was a screener for the TSA, and offers some telling insights into what the TSA thinks of the flying public. Read the whole thing and get angry.

Requirements can and are set up to ensure that everyone who flies is safe. If you don’t like it, then don’t fly. You may not be as concerned as the next guy about the safety or you may be more concerned. Point is the job of TSA is to ensure the entire traveling public is safe not just you. TSA officers don’t care what you as an individual want, they can’t, it just isn’t possible. You may be ok with lax security but what about the next passenger who wants thorough security?

Your right to privacy isn’t being violated at all. You always have the option to drive a car, take a train, grab the bus or start rowing a boat. You do not have to fly, you just want to fly. The minute you decide you want to fly then you have to accept that security is involved and you are going to have consent and submit to it period the end.

I love that last line. Let's read it again.

The minute you decide you want to fly then you have to accept that security is involved and you are going to have consent and submit to it period the end.

Except that we're The People and we don't have to consent. The Congress just learned about our consent.

The TSA needs to learn about our consent as well. I remember when President Bush formed the Homeland Security department and put it under the leadership of a crony named Tom Ridge. We professionals in law enforcement started calling TSA screeners "Ridge's Retards". Nowadays, under the tender ministrations of Janet Neapolitano, I suggest that we start referring to the screeners as "Janet's Jerk-Offs".

I'm renewing my objection to the TSA in general and calling on my Congressman and Senators to defund the TSA. Completely defund it.

Sunday Morning Dawg

The Dawg is more mutt than most people would imagine.  Milady likes to root plants, by the simple expedient of sticking clippings in a vase full of water.  We've got a couple of vases under the hose bib in the back yard.  The water turns a dull brown, sort of a tea of the clippings and the bacteria that grows in open water in warm Louisiana.

The dog loves it.  He'd rather drink from a vase full of brown water than from his own water bowl. 

He also adores mud puddles, but with the drought we've been through, there are very few mud puddles for the dog to slake a thirst. 

I'm one of those guys who likes a good glass of iced tea, so I'm not one to criticize the dog for his taste in tea.  If he likes it, I'll try to keep the vases full.