My wife has recently started deer hunting with me. She hasn't had a chance to shoot one yet but she is ready to "kill one bigger than yours". She's been sick, with a cold that won't leave, or she probably would have blasted one by now. I bought her a youth model CVA Scout, in 7mm-08, and topped it with a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40.
If she wants to go hunting with me I'm totally up for it. Thankfully she has no interest in deer hunting, but small game stuff and birds? Sure!* I'll take any excuse to buy more camo/guns. *Only if I do the gutting/butchering. Of course.
I have two new guns because of her getting into shooting/hunting. I picked up a Ruger Mark III Target pistol for her to plink with. Topped it with this Tru Glo site and got her two bricks of the 525 rounds of Federal ammo. She's waiting on spring now.
Sooner or later I have to design a women's/youth dimension rifle stock so she may very well be my reason to do it. The one hitch is she loves pink, sparkly shit so I will bet money any handguns will be stainless w/pink grips and if she ever sees a pink stained stock... game over (don't tell her you can dye birch stocks with any Rit color dye easily). But, what's hers is hers and pink guns are still guns and thus better than none. What I need to do is get her hooked on high grade walnut and classic rifles so it'll be easier for me to stockpile spendy blanks and old Mausers eventually.
I hate beginner growing pain mistake bullshit. Happened with the crossbow this year and now my muzzleloader, T/C Hawkens. The first day shooting it went smooth as hell. I guess I didn't clean it out right as I guess the breach still had too much moisture. I went out today, loaded up and damn shit wouldn't ignite. Now I have a .50 bullet and powder stuck in the barrel. I searched my gun room top to bottom and I don't think my dad ever bought a bullet puller attachment. So I have to drive all the way across town to Bass Pro to find one and or a Co2 popper, there are no gun shops that carry this stuff anymore around, I called. Ill have blown at least one of the 4 muzzleloader days. Fuck it would have been a great day for practice today, mid 50's not a cloud in the sky.
I keep lists on me when I'm benchrest shooting... a list of all the equipment I need at the range, a list with every single cleaning step, a list with every motion I need to make for every shot to go well, etc. Sometimes it seems redundant, but I still make stupid, correctable mistakes too and often it's getting complacent when I'm repeating motions or forgetful when packing up. Sounds like muzzleloading is detail oriented enough that just keeping a list of all the stuff you need to do from squeezing the trigger to getting that next load ready to go or related. Just to help as you learn it.
A woodcock my father took down with a single snap-shot in the middle of a bramble thicket near Rome. Old man's still got it. (Dunno about the States but woodcock - the Snipe's hilariously named cousin - are a HUGE deal in Italy, and you're lucky to snag five or six a season if you're VERY good these days) Spoiler And yes, that's yours truly.
You're telling me. With all the bumbling mistakes I've made it's astounding. Sunday I only took out two shots, one in the gun one in a tube. It was getting late so I took a shot at some about 150-200 yards off. Missed both. Got down from my stand and two deer wondered out 50 yards from my stand. Yesterday I took out my climber. To keep down on clunky gear I left some of the tools at my car. The flock of deer I've been seeing exited the woods 20 yards from me and the caps went off but wasn't igniting the main charge. After two caps they ran off. After I got back to my car I picked the nipple out with the tool I left behind. Bam, shit went off first shot. I also lost the metal pin that holds the barrel to the stock, if I can't find it my muzzleloader season will be over. This next year Ill try getting my shit together months before the season starts. Yowwzaa. All in all, the feeling of a .50 cal muzzleloader is amazing. I can see practicing a lot more and using it as a primary gun during regular gun week as well.
This happened on the lake in my home town where I put my fish house. <a class="postlink" href="http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/01/11/semi-goes-into-lake-in-waseca-no-injuries/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/01/1 ... -injuries/</a>
I've been on that highway countless times... has that happened before? It looks like he hit the lake where the bank from the roadway to the water isn't very steep/tall (like across from the campground) and definitely made it out a ways. I can't say I've driven a semi and don't know how they handle but damn that looks hilariously bad.
He forgot to mention he pulled it there himself with a large rope. A personal best before it fell through the ice.
There have been many westbound vehicles that have met a similar fate at that spot. That's right where the road first curves. If it was the summer, he would have smashed all of the campground docks. It's a dangerous curve, especially when the roads are slick. We had a cop go into the lake a few years ago and that was when the roads weren't even slick.
I just made my first purchase to get back into ice fishing. I bought a 10.25" Strikemaster Big Volt electric auger. It will be here in a few days. I had to sell all my gear and truck when I went back to school in 2009 so I haven't got to do much ice fishing. I used to go about every weekend. I got back from a 4 night stay at Lake of the Woods a few days ago and figured it was finally time to start buying some gear again. It's a cool auger, instead of mixing gas I can just run it off a car or ATV battery. If it's too early of ice I still have the trusty hand auger. Plus, I plan on buying a drop down ice house by next winter and having an electric auger that is good at re-drilling holes is ideal. Here's a picture of a few of the fish caught on Lake of the Woods. We caught probably 60 or 70 walleye and sauger total. That is pretty slow for the lake though. The biggest walleye was 23" and we kept them between 14" and 19.5", the max slot size. We kept sauger that were 12+" and I caught the biggest one, about 18". The other picture is of the smallest walleye I've ever caught. I'm not sure that it was even 4" and I caught it on a big shiner minnow. Spoilered for size. Spoiler Spoiler
Nice pick up with that auger. I've been wanting to get an electric or my big house for some time now because the fumes can stink you out of the house for a good half hour. I have a new Strikemaster and an old Jiffy model 30, but no electrics. The only thing to be careful of is that a Vexilar or a boot can easily slip down a 10" hole. I could deal with stepping in a hole, but dropping my Vex would be worse than putting my truck through the ice.
Yeah it was on sale for $90 off from Glenns Army & Navy in Grand Rapids and it came with a free carrying bag, couldn't pass that up. I am going to make my own cord extension for it. My old auger was 10" and I'd never get anything smaller. This one is actually 10.25". I've only lost one thing down the hole, a pair of sun glasses. I have a Marcum GS-X flasher. I just bought the cheapest flasher available that had a zoom feature on it because that is all that really matters. My buddy I went to LoW with has an FL-20 and it's way more detailed but I still see everything he does in 30+ ft of water and my battery lasts at least twice as long.
Glens has some great deals. My brother bought a portable there for about 1/2 of what it would cost elsewhere.
Headed back to Cabo next month for 5 days of hardcore fishing, the mate on the boat I fish on likes to rub in the fact that he fishes everyday and texts me pics of his daily catch. Fixing saltwater reels has paid off well for me and one of the benefits is being able to fish and a badass 52 foot yacht. Can't wait. Check out the second pic, you can see the remora hanging on to the marlin, love using that camera. If you ever go to cabo you can fish with them <a class="postlink" href="http://dreamweaversportfishing.com/cat128.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://dreamweaversportfishing.com/cat128.html</a> if you are not into marlin fishing just tell them what you want to fish for or jump on Jaime's panga for some inshore fun, they speak very good english and fish hard. It is the marlin capital of the world and it is almost 100% catch and release.
If you don't laugh at this, you and I have nothing in common. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.wimp.com/fishingbloopers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.wimp.com/fishingbloopers/</a>
Got into cabo yesterday and jumped on a panga and fished for a few hours, Jaime, the captain is a fucking witch doctor. This was our catch for 2 hours, plus one more yellowtail