Well They Won't Clean Themselves!

 

I stared at the guns and they stared at me. Impasse. "Well, we're not going to clean ourselves," and I had to admit the dirty beasts had a point so I set to. First up? An old Remington 700 ADL with a Redfield Lo Pro Accu-Trac scope, the reticle comes with a rangefinder of sorts and looks like this:

Hey, it shoots more than well enough. I call it "Shoulder Breaker" and I think the scope it came with from the pawn was issued in Vietnam. Glass is way better now but I've kept this optic because it fits with the gun's vintage and works.

Next stop, a "Desmond" or "TuTu," in the States it's known as a Twenty Two. This one's a Ruger American bolt with a fixed 4 power Hawke scope. I hadn't heard of "Hawke" until I bought the gun and the scope at Gebo's, now sadly shut. Whatever, an inexpensive solution, totally capable of shooting a shotgun shell off its perch at 50 yards.

Last but not least, a simple, lightweight AR with a cheap Primary Arms red dot, Fortis hand guard (light and easy), Hyper Touch trigger, Ballistic Advantage barrel, ancient CMMG BCG and Magpul this and that. Pretty much my go-to AR. Just a lot of fun to shoot, swift to target, light, and well accurate enough. 

And now they're clean. Unlike, say, our First Family.

Shoot straight,

LSP

The Range is Hot

Keen-eyed readers of this well known mind blog will have noticed that it's been raining in Texas because the state hasn't paid George Soros' hated Weather Tax. We prefer to stand free of that and other NWO, Green Globalist carry-on. 

With that in mind, two Top Experts drove over from Dallas to the Compound, in search of a shoot.

We set up at Chandler's, somewhere between Whitney and Waco and tested out a couple of rifles, a Remington 700, a Winchester Featherweight and a Sako nice-as-you-like-I-want-one. All chambered in 30-06, the American round. How did the weapons shoot? 

Right on the money. The Sako was new and topped off with some kind of German optic which the Experts wanted to sight in. They did; well done Team. A beautiful rifle and all the more so for its variable trigger. 

On one setting it's light enough and crisp; on another, achieved by cocking the rifle and pushing the trigger forward, it's super-light, maybe 1Ib. Just touch it and BOOM, off flies a mighty 30-06, 180 grain bullet. Nice work, Sako.

The Remington 700 did well too, cheers, pawn shop, sending rounds down range with far more accuracy than the operator warranted. Breathe, LSP, you'll be a better shot.

Shoulders battered by mighty cannonry, we headed for home and here's the thing. Time spent at the range is never wasted. At the very least you'll get some fresh air and the chance to reconnect with your marksmanship. 

Who knows, maybe that'll prove useful in the hunting field and elsewhere.

Your  Old Pal,

LSP

Stand Up

Wake up! Make your weapons ready, climb into the Ranger and head off for action. That meant driving through the predawn brush to several deer stands and waiting for pigs to come in to corn, molasses and delicious grape Kool Aid powder at around 100 yards.

It was beautiful to be out in the field in the first light and exciting in the stand. That sounds strange, why would waiting around in a small room, some 50 feet in the air, be exciting? Consider the anticipation; would the porcuswine menace take the bait or not, will you get that shot? I tell you, it gets the adrenaline up and we knew the swine were there, no doubt about it; plenty of fresh sign and evidence of rooting. So we waited, in the still Texan dawn.

A Typical Texan Sunrise

And saw lots of deer, more deer than you could shake a Leupold scope at, which was good. It proved the bait was working and there's a satisfaction in getting your cross hairs lined up for a perfect shoulder shot, even if you don't take it.

There were turkeys, too. One minute you're glassing a deer and the next there's something gray in your peripheral vision, on the ground by the corn. Pigs! Or was it? Closer inspection revealed a tribe of turkeys, strutting and pecking at the delicious Kool Aid corn. But no pigs.

Come on, Pigs

Then it was back to the compound on the Ranger for breakfast, weapons hot and ready for random swine, who cleverly stayed out of our way. Still, it pays to be on the look out because you never know when the tusked furies will appear on their snorting path of destruction. Scope covers off, gentlemen.

On The Road

So that was the pattern for four mornings, and while we didn't see any pigs it was all a first for the kids and big adventure in itself. But that's not all.

Stay tuned,

LSP

Hands up Don't Shoot!

On second thoughts, no, shoot a lot. Today that meant taking a sporterized SMLE and a Remington 700, 30-06, down to the range for a quick dial-in before next week's hog hunt in West Texas.

100 Year Old (almost) Lee & Younger Shooter

We started with the venerable Lee, which was made in 1917 and saw several "refits" before ending up as a porch project at the Compound. It shot well, for a rifle that's nearly 100 years old, and I like to imagine its history, as indicated by a cacophany of stampings on the receiver. Hopefully it'll bring down a pig or two.

Shoot That Gun

The Remington 700 was next up and performed flawlessly, a far more accurate rifle than I am and a lot of fun to shoot. It's topped off with an old Redfield scope with a built in range finder, which I always forget how to use. Youtube, come to the rescue!

Plinkers

Satisfied that both rifles were on to minute of hog, we finished off with some gentle .22 plinking against steel plates and a couple of ice tea cans. Take that, plate, and you too, can. We have your measure.

Kindly Old LSP

Then, parched by an afternoon with guns in the fierce Texan sun, the team fell back to base for some refreshing drinks of Global Cooling and the satisfaction of a successful evolution.

Blue Congressman

Well done, HQ Troop. I'll pretend I didn't hear you teasing Blue Congressman with a squirrel call...

Round in the chamber,

LSP

Church Membership

I was pleased to see some new faces at one of the Missions yesterday, after all, the Church must grow and the more the merrier. Following the Mass, one of the newcomers asked me if I'd like to go out to his lease for some hunting.

"Come on out for a few days," he said, "there's deer and pigs. Just get back to me with a few dates, whatever's best for you!"

I accepted, of course, and thanked him for his kindness, saying that I had a 30-06 that needed some exercise. Then he asked how to become a member of the church. 

"Inviting the pastor on a hunting trip is a very good start."

For some reason there's no ban on Confederate flags here. But that's a different story.

Secede.

LSP

For God's Sake, Get Out And Hunt.

It started off with a Mexican breakfast; Huevos Rancheros, eggs over-easy, corn tortillas and lots of coffee. "Power up," texted a friend, who understands these things and it was good advice, because one funeral, one Mass and a lot of driving later, I was at a ranch in Teague, spotlighting.

And that was a whole lot of fun; driving about the country in search of pigs, coyotes, rabbits and whatever varmint crossed our path. Sure enough, we shot several rabbits and lit up lots of deer, including several bucks. It was ghostly to see their eyes shine out as they bounded off into cover and this was a good omen, because I wanted to shoot a buck in the morning.

5.30 am rolled around with eschatological suddenness and before you could say 30-06, we were heading down a dirt road to a game-camera-proven buck location. The wind was in our favor and we walked in to the cover of a copse, stealthy, senses heightened. Sure enough, there were large deer on a treeline at around 200 yards. Crosshairs on and... they were does, and there's a county ban on shooting them. So no shot.

Still, it was good to see them in the crisp sunrise of a Texan December morning. A bit like Spring, in Canada.

After checking a few other spots, with no luck, my friend shot a duck. I missed one, but consoled myself with a fresh rabbit, a lot of venison sausage (thank you) and the promise of many more hunts to come.

What a good way to spend a Thursday evening and Friday morning! Clean air, good country, the excitement of a hunt, and fun company. Alright, I didn't get my buck but I did get outside myself, which is no bad thing for anyone, and added a rabbit to the freezer. My wild-eyed dog, Blue Spotlight, had a blast too.

I'd say everything about that is right on.

LSP

Ozymandias

By popular demand, I'm posting Ozymandias, which is a poem by Shelley. Shelley was aristocratic, so is Justin Welby, the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, sort of.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away from Welby.

But I'm well-pleased at the performance of my sporter Lee Enfield, which I checked at the range today, prior to a hunting party somewhere in Texas next week. Easier to shoot than the Remington 700 but less substantial.

A Couple of Guns

Shoot on and God bless,

LSP 

Hunt On

Legend has it that most of the world's Auodads live in Texas, as opposed to their native North Africa. That may or may not be true, but it's rare to get an invite to an Aoudad hunt and I wasn't slow to refuse. Good fun at a friend's ranch and a chance to shoot the wiley, skittish, North African mountain goat. So I loaded up the truck with guns and headed south.

Where's the pigs?

The first day we drove about in GWB's truck, scouting around, hoping for hogs and sure enough, a big black pig broke cover in front of the vehicle and out we got, fast as you like. Safety off, shoot! But the animal was moving fast and lived to fight again another day. Same story with a turkey, but this time a shot connected and the bird went down. Brisk business and a good result. Well done GWB.

Turkey

The next day it was Aoudads. We spent some time in a blind but didn't shoot. Long story short; it didn't seem right to take the shot and we packed up, full of Aoudad tension, to break for lunch, the plan being to get out again in the afternoon. I was going to skip, thanks to a deadline, but our Guide, TRF, (Top Ranch Foreman) suggested I come out for "a quick circle." 

LSP

Soon enough we were in the truck and on an Aoudad, half-hidden behind a bush on a bluff at around 150 yards. This was my shot and I didn't have time for another, thanks to the deadline, so it had to be right. I held on the animal's left shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Remember, it's not every day that you get to do this; was the shot on? Well, I didn't see the beast go down.

Well Done CML!

We clambered up the bluff to find out what had happened. I felt I'd shot high and missed but before long we found a significant amount of blood. The goat had been hit, but where was the body? Nowhere, apparently, and I began to think that I'd wounded it, which is a nightmare. But, if it had run off wounded, where was the blood-trail? It wasn't there. A disturbing mystery. 

GWB & TRF

My Wittgenstinian ally, GWB, solved it by looking over the edge of the bluff. Being a fan of formal logic, he'd worked out that the blood-trail must be where we weren't looking. The only place was over the bluff, and there it was, caught in its horns by a thicket; I'll leave you to enjoy the Abrahamic parallel. It wasn't large, but I'd killed it cleanly with a shoulder-shot and it was the animal that presented itself to me. 

MM got the Trophy

For me the hunt was over, but the rest of our party got to work, bringing in successively larger beasts as the day went on. The best went to MM, our hostess, who shot a trophy ram at 200 yards at the end of the day. What a good hunt! 4 shots, none easy, and 4 kills, the last being the best of all and that was as it should be; MM had given the invite.

Huge thanks to MM,

LSP