[maggs01]

Sunday, I took my daughter to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Detroit, MI. It RAINED the whole day so my new FroggToggs raingear got a workout. Then we went shopping at one of those BIG, FANCY shopping malls. The girls had fun and I hung out in Bass Pro Shop for about 2 hours.

I bought a new box of bullets (Sierra Game Kings) for my .243 project (that looks a LOT like Mailman's H&R)

Here's my latest project:

I love the little Handi-rifle, but it's a finicky bugger...

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Hey, Maggs! Did you know there's states where you can't register a pick-up truck unless you hang one of them-thar handi rifles in the rear window gun rack??......................the Mailman

Yep. It's a beaut... finicky, but a beaut.

 

[maggs01]

Wow Cdb, those must be some large trees! Good luck with all that.

3 trees, about 15 feet tall :roll: , 28 bushes, and a lot of annuals :!: :!: :!:

cdb

LOL. That reminds me of a conversation that I had with an old hunting buddy last fall. I hadn't seen him for a few years and we were catching up at a funeral. He was explaining that he's doing some "care-taker" QDM on a 180 acre plot. The owner wanted an orchard (20 or so trees).. My buddy laughed and said.. "At our age, we better be planting some 5 footers, so that we can enjoy them soon."

That just made me laugh...

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

I spent the morning at breakfast with my young friend that I took hunting a few years back. He's home from military school (Norwich) for the week.

We shot 8 bullets through the .243 and the .30-06. It was a great morning.
Maggs

 

[maggs01]

RifleMeister,

That sounds fantastic!

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

I am setting up the Vintage Skeet weekend here in Great Lakes Bay Region. Two clubs... Saturday at one and Sunday at the other.

July 9 and 10, 2016. So, that's been keeping me busy.

I haven't shot in so long, that I took the cap off the Hoppe's #9 and had a good long whiff...

I received my Leupold VX-I back from service today. It was getting a little tough to use the Variable power, so I sent it in for service. They turned it around in under 3 weeks and I only had to pay shipping one way. I am FIRED up to get the old Ruger back on track.

So, not a lot of shooting, but a lot of shooting related stuff going on.

Maggs
oh... and my wife told me to get a new dog before September. (We'll see if I can really make that happen.) SO... I'll be back on track with a pair of grouse dogs.

 

[maggs01]

Bought some new .243 bullets over the weekend. I had never seen them before... 95 grain Ballistic Tip Remington... they were called ETRONX Ballistic tip...

Ever heard of those? I had to sign a receipt that there was no return... SO.... I went to the range... Kind of a funky looking primer... but, I put the first shell into the H&R...

...Click... NO BANGY...
...looks like a light primer strike.....
...TRY another...
AGAIN......Click... NO BANGY...
...%$^*(&^)*&_* RIFLE....

Upon further review of the box... The ETRONX ammo has an electronic primer that was designed to be used in a Remington EXTRONX rifle that was sold from 2000-2003.

SO... I promptly... used my bullet puller.. savaged the BRASS and the Bullets... and LEARNED A LESSON... about reading the box thoroughly before putting my money down...

I'm excited about trying these 95 gr. bullets...
Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Church last night, so over the weekend..... Here's the punchlist.

1. Painted my rack for the back of the truck
2. Cleaned and winterized my Father-in-law's pickup. It's ready for long-term storage.
3. Getting ready to take my daughter's car ready for long-term storage (she goes to college at the end of the week, so we won't need her car until May, 2017)
4. Worked on my other daughter's Sophomore Homecoming Float (High School Football starts on 8/25/2016 !?!?!?)

5. AFTER ALL OF THAT and church last night.... I finally shot the .243 for the first time since June 4th. AND... shot the CZ 20 gauge (my Mailman gun) at skeet. I shot 23 and dropped High 2... TWICE.. :evil:

Tomorrow, my RCBS Neck-sizing dies are coming in the USPS. So, I'll be trying to squeeze an extra .5" group out of the gun. Like a deer is going to be deader... from a .5" tighter group... in my 125 yard shooting lane.

 

[maggs01]

67Galaxie,
Sounds like a great time! Good job!

My weekend was busy. Moved my daughter to her college dorm room on Friday, Sunday was tied up with my other daughter's dance activities.

Saturday, in between rain storms, I did shoot the .243. I have checked and rechecked the ogive on this rifle and it seems "un-realistically long"... so the last sets of bullets that I've reloaded are set to C.O.L. recommended by the reloading books.

Over the course of the three sessions, I've settled on the Federal Fusion (95 gr) and adjusted the scope for this load.

Here is the 100 yard target that I shot on Saturday. The bullet in the upper left, was the first bullet of the day. I took my time and decided that I was going to adjust he scope for this bullet and use this factory load for a hunting load, so I adjusted the scope. The remaining three bullets were fired over the next 20 minutes.

My reloads for this rifle don't seem to be working out too well. I've purchased Neck sizing dies, thinking that might help, but to no avail. I'm NOT sure how to proceed with my reloads, these Fusion seems to be my best bet. Next week, I'll probably adjust so that I'm an inch high or so...

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Maggs, if those are 1" squares, that's a pretty good group, well under a moa. I'd take that in a hunting rifle in a heartbeat, especially with factory ammo.

Thanks Yornoc3.

Those are 1" square. This is from a H&R Handi-Rifle.

I was hoping to recreate the load with my reloads. I'll know more after the session at the range.

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

This was a great weekend...
Friday night, high school football!
Saturday, shot the rifles, hung out with my Father in Law and watched "Unforgiven" and went to Saturday evening Church service.
Today, fished (quit early to shoot), shot the new-to-me A5, shot the .243, mowed lawn, heard about my nephew's Canadian Bear hunt.

It was a great weekend.

The rifle likes the Federal Fusions, but I haven't been able to recreate with my reloads.

One of these holes is from my .30-06

Today's target looks like this:

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Good luck RifleMeister

 

[maggs01]

Jac63,
That looks amazing!... so, how long in the smoker and what temp? Can you give out those kind of details?

 

[maggs01]

The 2few hunting stories always made for great reading. I remember one of the antelope stories that kept us all laughing and coming back for more.

Post counts were up!

 

[maggs01]

Nice going Davide! Glad to see you're still chasing stuff!

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Hi,

Sitting at home alone waiting for the Mrs. to get off work and come home. She has to work tomorrow, so not much Happy New Year here. Or Anniversary either. 26 years together.....

Dalee

Congrats on the anniversary! My wife works in the healthcare industry, so, she typically (ever other year) has to work on the holidays. (22 years for us...)

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Congrats to you and Bode.

Today, I had a chance to introduce a young man and his dad to trap and skeet.

His family has always deer hunted, but nothing to do with wingshooting. He is a freshman in high school and just found out about the Trap team.

So, I spent the afternoon with two new shooters, two 870 wingmasters, and two boxes of shells on station 7 on the skeet range. We had a ball.

After that we went to the Trap field and shot one round of Trap, so the young guy knows what Trap is, prior to his first practice on Wednesday.

Both dad and the young shooter are looking forward to the Trap season.

 

[maggs01]

...Several times all that activity would cause the bird to flush and we'd have to mark it down and hunt it again. ....

WOW... That type of "restraint" is the reason that your dogs behave so well.

It's always a challenge for the folks that I hunt with to... "NOT SHOOT at wild flushes".

Sounds like it was a great day "in spite of the" doggy challenges.

Maggs

 

[maggs01]

Great job,67galaxie!

 

[maggs01]

Found a beautiful early post war Model 31 Remington pump, Skeet model with a solid rib in superb condition; 16 ga. Bought it.

Nice find!! posting pics of that beauty???

Maggs