airedale

Has to be a chore to bring up three, and they look nice and healthy. Al

Nice, you are laying them in there pretty good. Al

I am not there yet, have changed some scopes and have to resight some rifles and test handloads, should be ready by opening day. Al

They need standing water to reproduce, and it does not take much, anything that can hold water will be a breeding ground so try and eliminate that. As far as keeping them away there is all kinds of stuff like candles, lanterns that burn citronella oil that help some, ThermaCell works pretty good. The wife purchased a light for her gazebo that draws them in and traps them with a fan, it does work half way decent.. Then there is good old fashioned insect repellants. Al

I unequivocally agree!!

Back when I hunted the southern zone I had a place where I made a somewhat permanent blind much like Doc, just using limbs, and brush making a corral. It was about 4 feet high and had a couple of convenient stumps to sit on inside. I would have the ground cleaned up to bare dirt, It was probably 15 feet in diameter so I had plenty of room to sneak around in and reposition if I had to. I would go down a few weeks before season and refresh everything getting it ready. I also have an Ameristep throwdown wall type that I use mostly for varmint hunting, it is not really made for a permanent setup, more for hunting on the move but it works well. Al

That is the weird part, I have never seen anything quite like it. Al

Yikes!!!

They seemed to get a slow start in my neck of the woods this year, in the spring I did not see many at all. There are a few around now and I was watching a little guy yesterday going over a hanging flower basket on my front porch. Al

Personally, I do not do anything too radical to break in a new rifle, I do feel after a few rounds are put through a new barrel they will settle in and start shooting their best. I use tips I got from old time bench rest guys. At the range I make sure not to overheat the barrel and do not scrub a barrel hard, I will run a patch with a small amount of good solvent over a somewhat loose fitting brush down the bore every 10 shots or so, I always unscrew the brush after it exits the muzzle and then run a clean patch to wipe out any fouling residue left behind. Rimfires just get a solvent soaked patch every now and then wiped out with a clean patch, I do not use brushes on their barrels unless I have a leading problem which if it does happen is very infrequent and many times ammo related. Black powder is a whole different game, I have actually used a drill attached cleaning rod with a plastic brush to scrub out the crud that builds up in those barrels. Al

Wow!

Some interesting thoughts. Al Why Shooters Break In New Rifle Barrels The theory behind barrel break in is that cleaning the abrasive residue out of the bore after each shot allows the bullet which follows to flatten out or scour away all the tiny nicks, dings, and imperfections that are part of most bores, making the barrel smoother and less apt to pick up copper fouling. That’s the theory. Based on my experience, I have doubts. Gunsmith John Blauvelt, who has installed more barrels than most, wrote me: “On a rough factory barrel it may have some merit. But on a custom hand-lapped barrel it is not needed…. I don’t think that scrubbing the bore with a copper brush does anything except loosen carbon fouling…. A few shots and some J-B Compound is not a bad thing for a new factory barrel, but those long sequences of one shot and clean for 20 rounds and then 3 shots and clean for more are excessive.” I’d go further than that. I’ve yet to see a really rough barrel that was improved by any kind of break-in procedure. Barrels are made of steel. Bullets are made of copper, or gilding metal alloy, which is mostly copper. How is copper going to wear away steel? The only thing you can do with bum barrel is unscrew it and replace it with one whose bore does not look like the surface of the moon. There’s no correlation between bore smoothness and accuracy. I’ve seen horrendously rough barrels that shot extremely well, although cleaning them was a nightmare, and if you didn’t clean them, they would quickly lose their accuracy. Which brings us to the final point. Whether you break in or not, it’s an absolute truth that if you let your barrel collect powder fouling and especially copper fouling, you’ll quickly have a non-shooter, no matter how the rifle started out. This applies to factory horrors and the best custom barrels alike.

The boy is growing like a weed, put away the canvas bumper and introduced him to retrieving a real bird today (a frozen French Partridge I had in the freezer) and he took right to it and did great. Al

Like you I find if they are cooked up the same they pretty much taste the same. Al

Old reliable is all sighted in, Remington 541 S, bought new in the late seventies and one rifle I will not part with, if I do my part she can put one in a Squirrels ear at 50 yards. Al

Technology in rifle scopes is really getting to be something, the new Burris Eliminator 6 is at the top of the heap. It was not too long ago when taking extreme long range shots at game was considered to be somewhat unethical, now they are commonplace. With great strides in rifle tech along with superb ammo and these fancy scopes some of the shots made on game are really something. Al

Season is coming up in a few days, the population around here seems to be pretty good. After getting some mowing done this morning I will be checking zero on a couple of my 22s today so I will be ready. Al

I had some pretty fair days shooting pigeons, they are actually pretty good eating. I do not see pigeons like I use to. These guys on the Airedale board got into them pretty good, a pigeon shoot is a great way to get a dog practice on retrieving, these two were about worn out after this hunt. Al

Your brother's problem will be deciding on who will get shot LOL! Al

They look to be some kind of canine, probably dog or coyote. Al

The game animals seem to know when it is open season and when they are being hunted. Back when I was hunting and training Coon dogs I would be running into Deer all the time. I always made sure my dogs were broke off from running them and they just would give way to me and the dogs and run off for a 100 yards or so and watch the festivities. One night my brother and I were out training and I had three dogs make tree and were treeing hard, as we walked in to the tree I saw a set of eyes shining about 35 yards from the tree the dogs where treeing on. A closer look revealed a big Doe just laying on the ground watching the dogs. I thought something was wrong with her being so close to the dogs with all that racket going on. I went over to have a look see and she got up and bolted off looking perfectly fine. I think as long as we kept our distance she might have stayed right where she was. Bottom line, I was in those woods night after night with my dogs and when Deer season came around I never had much problem getting in there, finding and killing a Deer, they stay home. Al

Nice job, looks great. While you have that lift use it to clean your chimney from the top down. Al

Well I got the 6.5X300 Vanguard out on the range today for initial testing of a handload for function, pressure and accuracy. The muzzle brake came in the mail this morning so I got that installed, yesterday I adjusted the new Timney trigger down to 1 3/4 lbs pull weight, it is crisp and it is sweet. I also changed the Simmons scope out and put the Leupold 6X18 on. Started shooting with the lead sled but once I got close I switched over to my big bag rest as she bucks pretty good but not unbearable. Took my time and waited between shots to get the barrel cooled down, the barrel cooling fan worked out great. Overbore rifle barrel throats can be washed out a lot quicker if you get them real hot and by not letting them cool down some. It took a few shots few shots get in on the bullseye and I then fired a three shot group that was decent. According to the Garmin they were exiting just under 3400 fps. The loading was not max but close. I have a couple of more bullets I can try but I think I am going to settle on these new Sierra Gamechangers. I also might put up a few loads with the Ramshot Magnum powder and give it a try and see if I can tighten things up a bit, but for a skinny sporter weight barrel she grouped pretty well. So far so good! Al

Democrats and anyone that votes for them! Al