airedale

I have friends from all walks and do not like to put labels on anyone to denegrate, to me it does not make a difference how much money one has or the home they live in. Be you rich, poor or in the middle somewhere I don't much care, it is about the life one lives and how they go about treating other folks. Good people are just good people no matter what their means or background is. Al

Getting the trigger done so that it is light and crisp was the best single improvement I did on any of my pistols. Shooting with one hand makes a bad trigger much more pronounced and will pull you off target. I have been out of the competition loop for many years but I know the old Ruger Target pistols with a little tweaking and with good ammo would shoot in the same hole at 50 feet from a rest. There was a local pistol smith that installed Clark steel triggers adjusted down to a couple of pounds, very crisp with zero over travel, don't know what options the newer Rugers have. A set of target grips that fit your hand may help put your gun in better position for both holding and sighting and add to your score and unless you have razor sharp vision a good optical sight will help add points also. I did not go crazy on fancy match ammo, CCI standard velocity grouped fine and was almost totally reliable with just a couple of misfires during many years of matches. And of course any practice reaps huge benefits, I did a lot of practice just dry firing on a snap cap. Al

I never miss LOL. Just for the record I would not own any firearm that shot so far off on the second shot or third shot from the first that it would cause a miss. Al

All true but when I am Deer hunting with a muzzleloader that is what I stick to, the Coyotes will get their day another time. Al

You are totally right, while there is no doubt shooting 3 or 5 shot groups gives a good overall assessment of a firearm's overall accuracy the fact is the first shot placement out of any hunting firearm is the most important one, I can think of only a couple of times when I shot more than once at a Deer. Where your gun places that bullet on the first shot out of a cold clean barrel is an important one to note. Al

I shot Bullseye for 10 years and it was one of my best teaching lessons on learning marksmanship and increasing my abilities to shoot all firearms better. especially sight picture and trigger control. As they say "practice makes perfect" and I did a lot of that increasing my scores slowly and incrementally each year and eventually hit the wall and knew I was going no farther score wise no matter how much more I practiced. It was fun and something to do in the winters along with making some good friends. Good luck and keep at it DB, you will have good and bad matches, as time goes on hopefully your scores improve and go up with practice and experience. Al

That I would not do, there are morons in this world that will dismantle your vehicle to get at a gun case. The way the laws are these days you would probably get the blame for leaving a weapon unattended. If I had to have a secondary backup firearm on the same day I would carry an appropriate handgun which I do sometimes myself when hunting small game with a shotgun. Al

Put me in the old sidelock camp, shoot 45 cal lead TC maxi balls over 75 gr of pyrodex in both the Cherokee "middle"and the TC Hawken top with stainless green mountain barrel. Bottom gun is a 50 cal CVA Hawken kit gun my boys got me and I put together, it is a wall hanger. Al

Congrats to your Son, a big time and worthwhile accomplishment in my book. Al

Those old Conetrol rings and bases pictured above are about as clean looking as it gets and were a touch of class on a fine rifle in their day and today for that matter. I mounted a scope on one of my Dad's rifles using the Conetrol system, it was a sweet looking setup. Al

I use both the plastic and metal ammo cans that have rubber gaskets to store ammo, as long as it is kept fairly cool and completely dry it lasts for a very long time in fact I read not too long ago some of the very first modern ammo manufactured that was stored under ideal conditions for many decades fired reliably. I fired some Varmint ammo I loaded some 40 years ago a little while back, it was completely reliable and grouped pretty much the same as it did the day I loaded it. Al

You got that right Dan, I just hit the big Seven O and am not half the man I once was. Hope it was just some kind of a minor fluke deal and a speedy recovery back to normal. Al

I see them at night on the bird feeders. Cleaning out my Blue Bird nest boxes one spring I reached in a accidently grabbed a sleeping Flying Squirrel, scared the Hell out of me, let out a scream that would have made Fay Wray proud. Al

The Henry single shot looks to be a fine rifle and by all reports of very good quality, a 243 would be a good choice. I have been on the hunt for one of these in a 45-70 for myself. Al

The 25-06 is one of my favorites, a very good dual purpose Varmint-Deer cartridge especially on the Deer side, you can really reach out and touch with the right setup. Al

The disabled or elderly card is one thing that is fairly valid when the arguments are made for full inclusion but it is statements like the above that piss traditional archers off, it insults the intelligence of anyone who has had any meaningful experience using both implements. To try and imply that there really is no advantage in the overall ease it takes to become proficient in the use of a crossbow over a traditional bow is ridiculous. Al

"Natchez Shooting Supply" and "Ballistic Products" are two outfits that have treated me right. Al

Rinella has one of the few hunting shows I will watch on occasion and it is one of the better ones I think. I have found myself becoming somewhat soft of late when it comes to making kills, something to do about getting old I think. I feel the same way many times not taking the shot and letting the animal walk, the satisfaction putting myself into a pretty sure position of making the kill by calling, stalking or picking the right stand is good enough some days. Al

You need to do spend some serious time traveling around the country, for the last three months it has rained or snowed just about every day and winter ain't even here yet.

You will surely not go wrong with that scope it is first class al the way. I think I would go even lighter and more compact myself sticking to the theme of that lightweight rifle. My favorite big game scope is the regular 2x7 Leupold, it is reliable and will do everything need be for most big game hunting. Al

Happen to have an old Herter's catalog from 1972 sitting here on my desk, the range finder I have was $25.47 back then. Al

Really don't know how much they cost, my Dad got that 1000 yarder for me as a Christmas present. Al

I have an old 1000 yard ranging range finder like the one pictured below and back in the day they were about the only ranging device available. They claimed 99% accuracy at 100 yards and the accuracy percentages went down as the distances increased. Out to say 400 to 500 yards they were accurate enough to make good range estimation for a shooter and rifle that was capable of such shots in the field. Used it mostly for chuck hunting. One of the good features was the sighting monocular is of good optical quality, detachable and like a binocular can be used stand alone for identifying things at a distance. When I want to travel light in the field I still use the monocular on occasion today. I have not messed around with mine in a good many years and have never tested it side by side against my Bushnell Legend laser range finder but I can say with some certainty the modern laser is better all the way around. Smaller and lighter, much easier to use and more accurate especially at long distances. Al

Back in the day the areas I hunted in the Southern zone mandated the use of slugs, I tried them all looking for the best possible accuracy. It was before the use of rifled slug barrels and most shotguns fired open choked smooth barrels to get the best accuracy. I have not used slugs in years as I have been hunting the Northern zone for the past thirty something years. This thread got me poking around through my ammo and I found a bunch of different slug brands laying around that I have tried. I noticed that I have both the Brenneke style wads Stormy pictured, the 12s have the pedestal and the 20s a solid wad. The best shooting traditional slug I found was the old 7/8 ounce Remingtons, my Winchester Super X1 would lay them on top of one another at 75 yards, they discontinued them in the late 70s and went to one ounce slugs which did not group as well for me in my slug gun. Al

Believe it or not there are still pumpkin balls available for handloading, they should be fold over star crimped in the hull like bird shot or crimped with an over the top card so there is no rolling out the barrel. The accuracy is probably similar to the old revolutionary war muskets, LOUSEY! Al