BLACKFORK

Killer Joe Piro.

2012-01-24T13:36:00.000-08:00

Bought this image off Ebay out of a newpaper archive. Nine bucks or so. I used it in a lecture yesterday to get my intermediate photo class started. It was taken in June of 1942 and at the time it was a state of the art image-making and distribution. Shot by a news service for distribution and sales to newspapers, et. I used it for the historical information about the process and also talked at length about the image.

Turns out, the guy in the Navy uniform is "Killer Joe" Piro who went on to become a famous and constantly relevant dance instructor on the East Coast. He's listed in Wikipedia, for goodness sakes. He was the model for the part played by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Travolta isn't born yet but Killer Joe already has his dance move down. He invented a dance to go with a Smirmoff Vodka drink called the Mule. Help the dance moves in "Mad Monster Party." Was photographed by Avedon.

I just thought I was buying a photo of a drunk Coast Guardsman dancing with a hefty blonde at a USO. What a world.

Tyler Gunshow, January 2012.

2012-01-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

When I drove around the corner into the fairgrounds I thought that Obama had declared martial law and I had just missed it. The parking lot, which is considered crowded when it is half full, was nearly full to capacity. Today set a record for the folks who run the gunshow.
Inside it was the same. Shuffling room only. I wasn't really looking for anything, just going for the heck of it. It was heck.
Took a few bits and pieces back to sell through my friend Alan Bain. I need to sell a few rifles just so I can squeeze into my rifle space but I didn't take anything out.
What a crowd. I think Texans sense that the country is in real trouble and it is expressed in moments like this.

TSRA was running a booth. First time ever.

Big Gun.

2012-01-18T19:29:00.001-08:00

http://youtu.be/xohy9gWz7kk

CSS Hunley.

2012-01-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Yes I know, this is a machine of war used by racist haters. That aside, it's a really neat project on a legendary submarine long lost. There is at least one more Confederate submarine somewhere in Lake Ponchatrain.

More CSS Hunley. I always wondered where it was. Too bad they didn't find it earlier. Remarkable project.

USS Monitor. Another famous ship, now found and mostly lifted from the bottom.

Account of the battle of the Merrimac attacking ships in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Odd thing about Gun People.

2012-01-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

I've noticed this.

Via the always excellent Sayuncle.

Calvin Broadus gets it.

2012-01-09T06:42:00.000-08:00

If I could push a magic button and turn the top 200,000 workers in the Mexican drug cartels into Catholic Nuns....how long do you think it would be before the drug trade resumed? Three months? Six months? A year? Is there anyone who thinks it would NOT rebuild itself?

Obama admits selling drugs in his books. Or the books someone wrote for him. You would think that would give him a perspective on the problem. (Isn't it cute in retrospect how Clinton couldn't even admit to inhaling? Oh my, the innocence of those years!)

It's way past time to end the drug war. We've tried it for 50 years and gotten...what? We've destroyed the Bill of Rights and created a police state. We've destroyed several countries around the world including Mexico. We've wiped out the legitimacy of our law enforcement agencies. We've spent a fortune and packed the jails, splintering families and tearing apart the lower income class and culture in America. On the plus side.......anyone?......anyone?

Veracruz fires their whole police force.

BAFTE and Justice department ship guns into Mexico, lander money and escort drugs into the US.

Snoop Dogg wants to puff up a big bong in the White House with the One!

The Taliban and Al-Queda are financed with the profits from the sales of __________.

I'm not even hitting the high points. Listen, I know it seems a little counter-intuitive, (The Children!!!!), and believe me, the budget and "fun" factor in the drug war for the LEO culture..I understand. (It IS fun! Big fun!) But it doesn't work. Isn't doing the same thing over and over and over the definition of insanity?

Update: Calvin gets BUSTED!!!

Send ten Bucks to a cute blonde with a gun.

2012-01-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a good idea!

Leopard attacks folks in house.

2012-01-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness nobody had a gun or this endangered animal could have been hurt!

Panola County Gun Club January 2011 Highpower Rifle Match.

2012-01-08T01:46:00.000-08:00

Looking downrange across scenic Lake Sepaugh at the 500 yard line.

27 folks and a good mix of people young and old, experienced and beginner. Perfect weather for refining no-wind zeros. Hardly any drift at all and it never picked a direction. What mirage there was at 600 just flowed back and forth without much interest. The overcast light made for good vision, though it was the 50 round match we shoot this time of year instead of a longer 80 round. New berm wall and bench were installed plus the 500 yard berm has been extended across the range.

The new pit wall and berm.

Justin Utley won it with a 494X24. Half of his rounds went in the X ring. He fired his match rifle. Seemed to work pretty well. I shot a pedestrian 488X14 and was second so it wasn't close. Tommy Laing shot a 1903A3 30-06 with some reloads. It was an OK 1903 Springfield and fun to watch HIM shoot it. He's got a Louis Lamareux front thick front blade on it. Ron Leraas fired his Garand for the first time since the 60s. I hope they both got it out of their systems.

Dave Wilson called the match and Roger and Karl helped on the line. All in all a good start to the year. Panola hosts a mid-range match tomorrow.

Evan Hess and Justin Utley in the pits.

Robertson. Geneva brought the family dog, a fresh Chihuahua named Smokey who doubled his mileage walking back from 600 yards.

Match Director Dave Wilson giving the results.

The Hoggs.

The Former Marines are as cranky as ever, with good cause.

Start of the long season....

2012-01-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

First rifle match of the year and the first shot fired in competition for me since the TSRA Garand/Springfield/Vintage/Pistol Leg match in October. I hunt deer through the fall and take a break. Ready to roll but it's a long trail with a lotta Sierra MatchKings sent downrange through NEXT October.

Season kind of runs from here,(with a trip to Houston for the NRA Regional weekend), to the Mid-Range Championship at Camp Swift in March, then the Highpower Rifle Championship in April, Panola in Early May, slight break with a lot of communication, work and practice until Camp Perry for 10 days, then the Service Rifle Championship back at Swift and finishing with the October TSRA Garand/Vintage weekend. Panola matches every month. TSRA Convention weekend in February.

I'll shoot Match Rifle through the High Power Championship, then switch to AR15 for the run-up to Camp Perry and the CMP National Matches. I've been loading 69 Sierra and have 500 rounds ready to go. Still working on LR ammo, so might be a little tweaking to be done. Changing to Bergers...probably, maybe.

Big treat tomorrow to have Evan Hess at the range with us. Get to catch up on his trip to Afganistan, Georgia news, wife and the girls, et.

Going to really miss Rick Crawford this year.

Hawk-killed and eaten squirrel.

2012-01-05T14:22:00.000-08:00

Inside-out squirrel.

This morning a hawk, probably a Red-tail adult, sat in the top of a Sweet Gum tree across the street. The yard and that particular tree was full of squirrels. He was craning his neck around watching. There were at least 10 fox squirrels in circulation. I think he waited until he saw a squirrel on the ground digging and preocuppied, then attacked from overhead.

This is all that remains. He turned the skin inside out and ate the squirrel. The bones coming out the legs are the HIP bones. (Notice the ball and joint sockets on the end.) The feet are inside. Same with the tail- we are looking at the stump of the tail sticking out. The whole squirrel tail is inside. Looks like he ate it all. Just the skin, tail and leg bones left.

Blackfork's Real Top-10 New Years Resolutions.

2012-01-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

I'll straighten this out for all you youngsters given my lofty status as a double-distinguished shooter of doetags and a certified veteran of 60 years of riding the planet around the Sun. Kids, this is what your resolutions for 2012 OUGHT to be. Period.

For 2012, in order.

1. Resolution # Uno: Live through the year. Everything else hinges on this. Come cancer, heartbreak, diabetes, death of sig/other, peasantry, shingles, et. Buckle that seat belt, put extra mags and a water bottle in the car and be determined to live through the year. You can't tell WHEN exactly but there will be a test.

2. Notice: Just notice what is happening in front of your face as well as inside you, in your imagination, in your mind-talk. Notice. Otherwise you are a piece of furniture.

3. Pay your own way: Nobody does it for you, you have to do it for yourself.

4. Let go: Give stuff away or sell it. DON'T buy something on purpose. Reduce the pile of American stuff. Let people go as well to be as they are. Shake free of some of those attachments. Like the fellow giving Breda an M1 Carbine, give someone an unexpected gift.

5. Don't let go: Love your old knife, old rifle, stack of books, internet, photo of yourself in the first grade. Love the stuff of life that you DON'T let go. Love your job, your hunting blind, your cutting board in your lovely kitchen. Reality and the universe is MADE of stuff. Love and relish the sensation of the fabric of life from flowers to the skin of your significant other.

5. Do something: Pick out a goal and actually DO it. Might be time to run that 10K or Marathon. Anything worth doing is worth doing...even badly. Make a list of difficult stuff and check it twice.

6. Care about something besides your own appetite. Even if it's the dog, have some direct fondness and responsibility for someone else.

7. Buy a piece of art that costs more than 200.00. Put it in your living space as a reflector of your creative self and imagination. If it doesn't resonate enough, sell it and buy one that does.

8. Have a real friend. At least one person with whom you can let the mask come off completely. I'm talking audible gas. You aren't in the universe alone.

9. Prepare for the end: Nobody gets out alive so don't count on number Uno up above. Write a will and realize the clock is ticking.

Have a HAPPY 2012......if the lord lets you live! If he doesn't, well, there's always that.

Updated: Yes I know there are only nine of the top ten. You've got a secret, don't you? Fill in the blank.

Tough, ugly doe tags.

2012-01-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

Behind the shoulder. Ears still ringing.

Between the eyes. Much easier to process out.

A grisly business shooting doe tags up at Clarksville. Used my Remington 700 and M852.One behind the shoulder shot and one between the eyes. 102 and 122 lbs live weight. That's healthy down here. The 122 is the top for this season. Taking her apart, even her bones were more solid and heavy. Saw several bucks, lots of little deer, some turkeys, shot a pig in the gloaming and found it the next day when we spooked two coyotes off the carcass back in the brush. Most of the time was spent skinning and butchering deer. Lots of knife work with vintage knives and a little fruit pickers folding knife I fancy. Seems like Dr. Sneed and I were busy every second from dawn until dusk. Perfect hunting weather and very good to let the does hang.

Crazy experience- the glare backed me up in the blind on the first deer. I had to put a foot up in my chair and brace my knee on my elbow to get the scope out of the sunlight and glare I was looking into. Inadvertently got the muzzle of the Remington 700 inside the blind with me. When the trigger broke I thought the gun had blown up. All-fiberglass stand. Sound was probably the loudest thing I had ever heard. No ear protection. Usually it isn't an issue with one shot and the rifle out the window. Still recovering.

Update: Frank Cirillo, NYC stake-out team leader who was in more modern gunfights than anyone else said he looked for three things when recruiting team members: They had to shoot competition, reload ammo and have hunted and killed big game. When he found someone who did that he had found his guy.

Update II: It's a little known fact that deer are actually vegetables. They are also free-range, organic and low-salt. These are harvested with traditional methods and wise land-use practices. So there.

The Gunnies New Years top 10 Resolutions

2011-12-29T15:04:00.001-08:00

1. I promise to buy a new firearm this year.

2. I promise to shoot more. (JD)

3. I will get laid at Camp Perry. (anon)

4. Going to make a beach/bikini/full auto video for youtube. (Katie Foster.)

5. I will get Bigfoot on deercam.

6. I will finish building out my AR. (Windy Wilson)

7. More range time with friends. (NRO)

Any further ideas?

Cheetah dead at 80.

2011-12-28T06:51:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first to say it: He died too soon. Gone to the great escarpment in the sky.

He lived longer than most humans and influenced generations of Americans to aspire to rugged outdoorsy, manly, armed self-sufficiency. Cheetah was at heart American, redneck and Texan. Imagine the Tarzan character created during the times of ball caps and duct tape. (Cheetah! Get cooler!) If he had been created earlier we would have won at the Alamo. ("Cheetah! Get Fannin! Umgawa!")

He saved Tarzan's life many times over for just bananas and a few yucks. If you were stuck in some god-forsaken jungle inhabited by cannibals and animists, who would you rather have along: Mr Ed, Rin Tin-tin, Lassie, Flipper, Trigger, Big Bird, Old Yeller, Alf or Cheetah?

When I was a kid we kept an eye out for any handy vine to swing across the creek on. We said we wanted to be Tarzan but in truth were a little scandalized by his outfit. Secretly we all wanted to be Cheetah.

Update: Already, his story dissolves into a mystery.....

Yeti gives us the finger.

2011-12-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

Legendary finger finally tested. It's some old Buddist Monk, most likely. Too bad.

They have nearly made it.

2011-12-22T19:13:00.000-08:00

Just a few more days and the main season will be over. These guys are probably home free.

Bobcats.

2011-12-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

Long walk from where one cat is to where the other cat is, so I'm assuming they aren't the same cat. They must know each other though...

Deer crossing fence.

2011-12-18T09:35:00.000-08:00

Does going through the wire. I'm surprised, but never really had a cam on a fence before.

I figured they would just hop it. Guess they go through holes in the brush smaller than this.

Little buck following. He was gone by the next frame. I don't know if he went over or through.
Going to point the camera down slightly with a twig behind the top. He's a 1 1/2 year old. Just a kid. Probably legal, but just barely. I've passed on him.

DailyDeercam

2011-12-13T06:35:00.000-08:00

Butler Creek.

Not much new or fun off the cams though I did a big circumnavigation of the swamp yesterday. Never done that. Moved one cam from the little knoll to up on a hillside where I never go- it replaced acam which got blinky when I moved it. I guess I need a couple new cams. Got three dead Moultires and three live ones.

Little buck going over a fence.

Coyote on the close cam. Ex coyote now, with regrets. I'm sure she was here looking for rabbit sign. They will be happier.

Never, ever have walked all the way around the old flooded beaver pond, now a cattail swamp. I did yesterday. It was the only season I could have made it through. Took a hour. Some parts so thick I had to push and arm through and then follow it. Beautiful sloughs down near the creek. No crossings except a temporary one over a fallen river birch. That won't last long.

Sat in the stand in the fading light. A little yellow coyote that I had glimpsed several times made the mistake of cutting across the pasture through the weeds. Should have just watched but I picked up the rifle.

WWII Knife.

2011-12-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

Used this a bit in field dressing and skinning four does. Fun to use these old knives. Dr. Sneed had to sharpen both knives a couple of times per deer. Nice to have a fresh blade. He used a spring-loaded, V-shaped, jigged-up, plastic sharpener that we bought at a gun show. Crazy looking but it really works great.

Getting started.

2011-12-12T10:07:00.001-08:00

Placking away with .45 in an EIC Pistol match at Camp Perry in 2007.

Justin Utley should have gotten his Pistol medal today as well, though he probably won't mention it to anyone.

Just for the record, both of us think the Distinguished Rifleman's Badge, with the all-day matches and wind reading at 300 and 600 yards is MUCH harder than the little .45 minute pistol LEG matches. The pistol matches are even usually shot from under a roof! Rifle is really tough. Pistol: just stand around in the shade for a few minutes with your hand in your pocket.

Distinguished Pistol Badge # 1511

2011-12-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

Distinguished Pistol Badge laying on my canvas coat where I pin all my medals.

Close up of the back. They engrave your name, number and year. One of a kind.

Glad to get it in hand. Somewhere down below is my post on men wanting to be known as being cool under pressure. Watched the Cowboys and the Giants play last night and it was more of the same. Eli and the Giants are cool under pressure. Romo and the Cowboys aren't. So the Giants won and Eli gets the big rep. Romo doesn't.

The Excellence in Competition Matches run by the CMP, both the Pistol and Rifle LEG matches, are exquisitely designed to crack the human psyche. Humans AREN'T cool under pressure. They crack. Freak out. Flake out, Make excuses, Blame equipment and conditions, et, et, et. The reason that these kind of awards are so coveted in the little universe of service rifle and pistol shooting is that they distinguish the folks who, at least momentarily, overcome that. I watch it several times a year during EIC matches. Folks completely blow a match in the first stage- offhand at 200 yards. or they shoot unbelievably well until the last stage when they have a spectacular melt down. In shooting competition, its on the target in in the score for everyone to see.
Think of the actor, Bob Hope. Famous, beloved and played many movies as the guy who flaked out under pressure. It's funny to watch. His sidekick, Bing Crosby played the OTHER guy, the guy who was cool under pressure. Both are archtypes that audiences aspire to or fear to be. Steve McQueen vs Richard Pryor. Bill Murray vs Chevy Chase. Tony Romo vs Tom Brady.

Once again, to the few women that read this blog: Men want this more than ANY OTHER THING: To have a rep as being cool under pressure.

Up to Clarksville for a little doetag shooting.

2011-12-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

The lunar eclipse finishing up on Saturday morning.

Rough business. Pulled the deer back into the field after finding her below the hill on the edge of swamp. Shot from the front. Bullet exit can be seen.

Doetag shooting with Remington 700 in .308. No blood trail. Bullet in from the front between chest and shoulder, mostly chest breaking multiple ribs and blowing out interior, exiting abdomen on right side.

Dr. Sneed, deer murderer and scientist. Big blood trail and several bloody lay-downs but not until she got into the woods. 30 yards or more with nothing. Tuft of hair at the spot where she was shot.

More doetag shooting. 120 lbs live weight. Through and through with a .308. No blood trail, just a tuft of hair at the site of the hit.

Kid reading book in the kitchen at the ranch house.

Shooting any kind of live animal, I try to remember to notice EXACTLY where the animal is standing when I break the shot so that if I have to track it, I have a place to start without thrashing around or guessing. It's VERY hard to remember that when an animal is moving and you are trying to get a good break on the trigger. I try to notice a tree or branch where they are and the then notice the LAST place I see them when they run. I rarely get both. My mind just gets busy.

We had to track Dr. Sneeds deer out of a big green pasture where it hardly left a trace. He had marked a tuft of hair. There was one little spot of blood about ten yards away, then nothing. I had the Good Doctor stay at the tuft, dropped my hat at the spot of blood and walked a line into the trees where I picked up a good blood trail. We found her about 60 yards further on.

I marked my first deer exactly where she was when the trigger broke. No blood. I started by angling down into the woods where I had seen her last and she was there. No blood trail at all though the M852 went between her left shoulder and chest from the front, blowing up a patch of ribs as big as a hand, exiting from the abdomen on the other side and pulling out a couple coils of little intestine. No blood trail.

Second doe was shot side to side with M852 match ammo in .308. Tuft of hair at the site where she was. Six deer ran so I lost her but they all went the same direction. No blood trail. I was zigging and zagging in the grass when I saw her laying dead in the open. Big exit wound on the shoulder. I backtracked from where I found her. No trace of blood.

Doe skin-tag close-up.

2011-12-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

Never seen anything quite like this.

Daily Deercam.

2011-12-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

Big doe and three yearling fawns. Two of them may be nubbin bucks. In the rain.

Little doe with black dot skin tag behind her eye.

Another shot of the same doe. The skin tag seems to be growing.

Rabbits in the rain. Welcome to some corn.

First mature buck of the season. Rut must be over and he is wandering looking for does in heat in the middle of the day.

This was about as good as it got, though I didn't see many of his generation. None in person. Year and a half. MAYBE 2 12 year old. Wasn't a good antler year, though locally they did have water and an operational creek bottom.

Over 500 images on my cam. Doesn't take long to download them or edit. I just saved eight or so. I went out at about 4 and sat until the moon was throwing shadows. Had a big doe and a fawn come browsing through at about 4:20. Two raccoons in the dusk. The coyotes close across the creek tuned up and another pack just up the creek joined in just as it got dark. 39 degrees. Nearly a full moon tonight. I scattered corn after I got down, swapped cam cards back in the brush by the light of my iphone.

Coon tracks.

2011-12-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

I GUESS this is a line of raccoons walking in a line and all stepping in the same spots through the leaves in the bottom of the creek here on Lindsey Lane.

Could be Bigfoot!

The Blackfork Guide available as ebook.

2011-12-04T17:45:00.001-08:00

1.99. Worth it.

Distinguished Tatts.

2011-12-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

Certificate signed by the Governor...or his autopen.

I've seen two, both at the National Matches. One on a shoulder and one on a calf. (human leg muscle, not a baby cow.) The tatt on the calf seemed very odd to me, but there you are. The freshly Distinguished Clay Hefner got a new Distinguished Badge shoulder tatt he was showing off at Panola while I was in Dallas. Photo as soon as I see him.

Last week I got a second place medal for being second in the Terrell Pistol Leg match and a letter telling me I had a Distinguished Pistol Medal coming. Also got a Governor's 20 pin and certificate signed by Governor Rick Perry for being in the top 20 finishers at the TSRA Service Rifle Match, (2nd, overall). Piling up the junk medals here.

Distinguished certificate arrived, making it a little more official. Still no medal.

Saturday: Texas History

2011-12-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

The redhead and I loaded up the dog and drove to Fair Park in Dallas to see the Dallas Historical Society Texas History exhibit. You can't see it. Today is the last day. The weather is changing and we drove through the spitting rain to Dallas. At Fair Park we threaded our way around to a parking lot at the Hall of State. The Dallas White Rock Marathon is today so a steady flow of skinny middle aged folks were coming into the plaza to pick up their race packets. Hardly anyone in the exhibit.

The Hall of State was built in 1936 for the Texas Centennial. It is very impressive with murals, carvings and mosaics. The exhibit was configured badly and poorly lit but the items were impressive. Stephen F. Austin's hatchet and surveying tools. Houston's hat, broken pistol, walking canes and some laurel leaves from the tree where he accepted Santa Anna's surrender at San Jacinto. (Houston wrote love letters to a woman during the revolution and sent her some pressed leaves). Santa Anna's captured snuff box from San Jacinto and his vest captured in the US/Mexican war. (all in all he didn't do very well against the Nortes) Bowie's knife from the Alamo. Crockett's fiddle and derringer. Fannin's watch he gave the Mexicans before they executed him, shooting him in the face while he sat in a chair. Arrowheads. A Kiowa deerskin shirt. A cannonball from the Alamo. Many items from La Salle's La Belle supply shipwreck in Matagorda Bay. Spanish sword and spurs. Great stuff. You just needed to bring your own flashlight.

White Rock Marathon start. Only 50,000 folks in Texas during the 1836 revolution. 25,000 folks in the marathon and half marathon.

Evening hunt.

2011-12-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

Drove out to the lake to drop off sacks of corn and scatter a couple pounds of Rye seed in front of the corner where I hunt most. Big rain expected. That ought to sprout the rye. It was 5:15 when I wrapped up and I started to leave but then decided to sit for a bit in the tree. Ten minutes later two does walked right under me. There was another deer back in the woods- I could hear it but it wouldn't come out of the treeline.
The two does headed straight for the scrape but approached it with caution- the camera was missing. They acted like they expected to be flashed! They both nosed around, licked branches, sniffed things that didn't look sniffable and broused at stuff that didn't look especially edible. I sat until after full dark- half moon on top of clouds. They spooked at something out in the field and came pounding back past my tree.
Never got to see whatever was in the woods.

Daily Deercam.

2011-12-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

Still getting in a little hunting action now and again. Interesting stuff on cam...but no big bucks. Been a strange year. I jumped a nice buck and doe this morning from under the tree I sit in but didn't get a good look. Not much on the cam.

Moved cam to the other side of the creek in an area where I never hunt. Deer highway. I set it up at a place they jump a wire fence. We'll see.

A doe in heat. There must have been a big enough buck right there. Wonder if the IR cams and the invisible flash will make the big bucks less camera shy?

Little buck with an antler torn off at the base. He'll be easy to spot next year, with just a lump or a palmated antler growing in.

Very alert does early in the morning.

Another doe walking like there might be a big buck close.

All the ruckus CAN'T be about bucks this size. Little year and a half bucks shouldn't even be breeding if there are some real monsters around.

Weaponized Santa.

2011-11-29T05:28:00.001-08:00

Iv'e done this, but usually include a dead deer.

Daily Deercam.

2011-11-26T05:08:00.000-08:00

Does at the scrape and cam.

Funny business.

In the woods, everyone is a critic.

Corn spreading.

Little bucks on cam. I haven't seen a live deer in a week, though I got snorted at from downwind sitting in the bottom across the creek yesterday afternoon. All I saw was an armadillo and a few squirrels. A hawk had a shot at a squirrel in the brush. He missed but left the local woodpeckers and squirrels complaining for quite a while.

Octopus.

2011-11-24T08:02:00.001-08:00

Like I said.

Daily Deercam.

2011-11-24T04:24:00.000-08:00

There's a deer way in the back.

Crows flying from cam to cam eating corn.

Solitary doe out checking the scrapes. I'd bet she's in heat.

Bobcat out doing Bobcat things.

Doe checking out the cam tree.

Crows having an early Thanksgiving.

Little buck who is the son of the one I shot last year. Walking past the cam in a heavy rain.

Little buck at the scrape and corn pile just across the creek.

Not seeing any deer in person the last few times out. My impression is that they are across the creek. Haven't seen a shootable trophy buck on any of my cams all season, though I know they are out there. Rattling has had indifferent results: only one small buck actually came in to being rattled up, though I did panic some does a couple weeks back. Hard hunting but no results. Typical deer season.

Creek was up for a day but yesterday I marked a trail over into an area where I never go. Ought to put a tree seat up over there. Plenty of sign. Second rut cueing up. Rarely hear a shot from a deer rifle these days.

Zipped on my Swiss coveralls more than 20 times. Carried my new rifle once, relying on my old reliable Ruger 7X57. Fell off a wet bare pine log two days ago that I normally stroll along on when crossing through the pixie sticks- an area where a bunch of big pines died and fell a few years back. Spilled a little corn but didn't even give myself a bump. Certainly happens quickly. Before you can blink you are on the ground. Was wearing standard 5.11 boots. Just didn't appreciate how slick those pines can get. Corn mostly gone yesterday when I walked down the same tree. Creeks back down after the rain. All the trail sign is reset by the rain.

Deercam Mysteries.

2011-11-21T10:24:00.000-08:00

Here's what you usually get with this cam.

Sat for a bit last night across the creek. Just some screw in steps and a green walmart chair in the fork of an Oak tree. Watches the scrape where I usually have a little corn shaken out. The cam has seemed to be a reliable cam. I hunted until I could see Jupiter shining in the East. It had gotten dark under the trees but I could still see a little with my scope. Crosshairs still clear enough.
Just as I decided to climb down, the gamecam flash went off. I put the rifle up to watch and it went off twice more. I couldn't spot anything but there are two big pine trunks between me and the actual scrape. Cam waited a minute and did three more flashes, 20 seconds apart. I waited a bit more and then came down in the full dark.

Something snorted at me but it didn't sound like much. No stampede. I went to the cam with my reader, pulled the card for a look.....and had NOTHING on the card. No files. For some reason the Moultrie didn't make a photo, though it fired the flash six times. Weird.

I didn't get blank files....I got NO files. Nothing on the card. Wonder how often this happens?

I at least expect THIS much!

In-town acorns.

2011-11-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

Impressive for a year when you are 19 inches behind on rainfall totals.

Daily Deercam.

2011-11-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

Little buck on the cam at 10:07.

I'm along at 10:13.

Walked a huge circle around the bottom checking sign and was in several places I haven't set foot in years. The drought still has the creeks very low and the deer can cross the creeks and tributaries where normally, they don't. Great trees down the bottom. There is a giant pine and an oak that would be some kind of a record. Need to move a few tree seats around and hunt the far side more.

Used a mapquest aerial photo printed off the net. It was very up-to-date. Photo taken in the last six months. The digital revolution is here. I want a drone with thermal imaging broadcast capabilities so I can find the deer every morning.

Deer moving at mid-day. I was six minutes behind a little year and a half old buck on the cam across the creek.

Took Sunday morning off and drank coffee at Cafe Tazza with my wonderful wife. 73 degrees. In the summer, this would be chilling. Feels muggy instead.

Royal Navy Field Gun Competition.

2011-11-18T17:18:00.001-08:00

You don't see this kind of stuff every day.

Courtesy of Cousin Wallace.

Deerhunting so far.

2011-11-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

Busy this beautiful cool morning but back out this evening. Up to 19 times out.

Lot of hours in the tree, trekking, hauling corn, downloading cards. Not any shooting. Yet.

AIM K31s and older Swiss rifles.

2011-11-16T15:10:00.000-08:00

AIMSurplus has a new shipment of Swiss rifles. Seems like they have every model. Always wanted a 1911 but I do have many old rifles already. Hard to justify another one. My K31 has won all the vintage stuff that can be won, so I doubt I would switch. Fun to look at though....

The Walking Idiots.

2011-11-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday, the Cowboys beat the Buffs...then we got another edition of the Walking Dead. Last week they were camping out on an anti-gun zealot's plantation. In the face of all reason and sanity, they disarmed. This week, the hot chick who wanted to off herself and couldn't be TRUSTED with a gun now has...um...gotten into it. She tries a prone 300+ yard headshot off the roof of the busted RV they drag from week to week, (wouldn't you have the latest, bestest, armored-up RV?), with a scoped Remington 700. No cheek weld, no natural-point-of-aim, no nothing but she actually grazed the walker....who turns out to be one of the team who has fallen off his horse, stabbed himself with his own arrow, come to with a walker eating his leg, hallucinated his brother and walked home.

Moral: When you come walking home late during the zombie epidemic, walk briskly!

Daryl's flashback showed white people to be stupid, ignorant, corrupt, manipulative, racists, but never mind that: The anti-gun headman who gives off stranger and stranger vibes has a locked barn full of zombies. I bet it makes milking time sporty.

Poor asian guy gets tasked with all secrets. He HATES secrets. He knows about the pregnancy, sex with the farmers daughter and now the barn full of shambling stiffs. Good deal.

Oh, the BIGGEST event of the whole series was the FIRST funny line of the whole script: The hot chick is blurbling about shooting Daryl in the head. Dale says "Hey babe, we've ALL wanted to shoot Daryl now and then."

Watching The Walking Dead is like watching the Cowboys. You better not expect much.

Busted Antler.

2011-11-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

I think this is the bigger deer below. Broken antler from fighting. We haven't seen him in person yet.

Hunted all weekend. 13th outing was this afternoon in a T-shirt and 82 degrees of a Texas November. Just tree-sat. No rattling. Didn't see a thing. first time out I carried my newer rifle, a Remington 700 in .308. Sat until I could see stars. Big armadillo, squirrel action, late thrashing in the woodline like an owl taking a rabbit. Usual stuff. Jupiter up in the East. I could see four moons with my 10 power Nikons. Saturn up in the West and low. Clouds took it before I could get a good look.

Back out in the morning. Maybe 14 is the lucky number.

Daily Deercam

2011-11-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

2 1/2 year old buck.

Another, slightly bigger 2 1/2.

Back to buck number 1.

Bucks making the rounds. The bucks don't go into rut until the does are in heat so it must be on but I haven't seen orphaned fawns or solitary does. Doe and two yearling fawns came past me twice this morning and didn't pick up any bucks in an hour and a half sweep of the ridge and creekbluff. I rattled and the does eased off. They didn't want any part of fighting bucks.

Yesterday at mid-day a nice 2 1/2 was at both ends of the cam line.

Daily Deercam

2011-11-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Nice buck just under the hill.

Another earlier nice buck. Might be the same one.

New profile photo for facebook.

Finally some rubs appearing on small trees. In fact, I am setting up the decoy in the middle of a bunch of fresh ones. Also have the first real shootable bucks on cam. Maybe things are picking up.

Heading out for 8th session. Probably going across the creek to rattle near a big scrape that is cameraless. Haven't been in that tree since last year.

Cousin Wallace surveys deer guns.

2011-11-08T16:53:00.000-08:00

My 7X57 Mauser single shot Ruger in the tree.

Wallace put out an email asking about deer rifle selections. Here's the result:

Whew! This turned into a can-o-worms to keep up with...but it was fun! Some folks did an admirable job of listing all the details I had originally asked for, others left out a lot of stuff which made for a less than complete survey. Nonetheless, I gathered some interesting data to share with ya'll. A total of 38 hunter's info was collected. Several listed more than one rifle they intended to use so the numbers dont always come out right on my listings. Like I said, it got confusing. Some neglected to list the scopes they were using but it seems Leupold was the most often listed with 3 X 9 models also the most popular. Just about all other brands were listed with Nikon making a strong argument for being 2nd most popular.

Rifle action type was very one-sided bolt action (no surprise there) with a few autos, pumps, levers and a couple of single-shots too.

Rifle brands were likewise not always listed but of those listed Remington was the most popular with 19, of which 9 were Rem M700's. (Rem 721, 722, M7, 760 also listed). Ruger and Savage tied with 5 each listed. Only 3 M70 Winchesters (might have been more but they werent specified). Two Steyrs and one each for FN, TC, Mossberg and Weatherby.

As for calibre, not surprisingly the old .30-06 Springfield was tops with 11 listing it. The great old .270 Win was next with 9. The .243 Win was third with 6. Five hunters used the .223 Rem (a couple mentioned only for wild hogs in an AR15). Tied with 2 each were the .257 Roberts, 7mm-08 Rem, and .30-30 Win. There were a bunch of calibres mentioned only once. Those include: 6mm PPC, 6mm Rem, 6.8SPC, .250-3000 Sav, .25-06 Rem, 7X57 Mauser, .280 Rem, 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Rem SAUM, .300 Win Short Mag, .300 Weatherby Mag, .32 Win Special and 12 ga slug. Surprisingly, no one listed any muzzle loaders...and that's OK as I didnt ask for ML stuff.

Well folks, thanx for all the help and I hope ya'll enjoy seeing what others use in the happy hunting grounds. I was surprised at the lack of magnums. Although it's mostly silly to think you need a magnum to slay a whitetail, if thats what you like, then by all means use one. I know there are quite a few other folks out there using various magnums...or at least the 7mm Rem Mag used to be very popular. I also expected the .308 to be more popular. It too is used a lot, just not listed here. Variety makes for an interesting array of hunting rifles.

As for handguns, I got everything from 9mm Luger, .41 Mag, .45 ACP & .44 Magnum....no real pattern.

I tried to keep up & not leave anyone out. If I did, it was unintentional. As always, I welcome your comments and thanx again for your participation.

Wallace

Postscript: I love deer season because you get to DO something with a firearm. It is a lot like competition. You don't just have them to hang on the wall or stuff in a safe. You actually carry them around to USE. It's fun, going armed with some purpose.

Daily Deercam

2011-11-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

Sitting in the tree while rainstorms blew in and out. I was on the dry side. That helped. Damp by the time I came off after 10. Nothing but some squirrel squabbling. The big squirrel wins. (Moral: Don't just support the right to arm bears. Squirrels need guns too!)

Bucks on the two cams near me. They are moving around. Nothing big enough to shoot but, like Bigfoot, they are out there, somewhere...

The decoy busy decoying. Nothing seen it yet, but every time they saw it last year they reacted. Maybe I should pull the horns.

In the rain.

View from the tree. You can see the big scrape. Decoy is under the oak at the top right. Decoy can be seen by a pasture I can't see.

Ruger in the tree. Had to pull the sock off to dry everything out when I came in today.

Little buck was at the gamecam when Sneed and I walked in Sunday morning. We saw the flash going off.

OK buck on the cam just off the hilltop.

Doe in the scrape.

Raining hard right now. Glad to be home and drying out.

Pickles. Ready-to-Eat.

2011-11-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

P.R.E.s. I've had these. Not bad. Breda ran into them. Waterloo, Wisconsin.

Walking Dead anti-gun idiocy.

2011-11-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

First, lets ban guns on our property because....well, just because we need to warn folks that we are mentally ill, even if we seem older, wiser, experienced, et. First they were rare and hard to find....(in Georgia...riiiiiight.). Now they are just....bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad guns. Never mind that they are the only tool...oh heck. I won't even continue that rant. Bad guns!

Then let's lower one of our most valuable folks on a hemp rope down a well containing a zombie to rodeo him out....somehow. It will work out.

Then let's continue all characters slobbering in introspection and existencial angst. No wonder the little girl split to hide out and eat sardines. It would take a week of that to get the taste of this bunch of losers out of your mouth.

Uncleanche! Thanks!

Seriously, when are we going to see the episode where they cross paths with the three chicks and one gay guy who set up machine guns on a roof, crank up the classic rock and strobe lights and mow down zombies while drinking tequilla shots and dancing all night, then climb their 4-WD Ramchargers over the mounds of bodies to do it again?

When asked why one of them, a spandex blonde who prefers a M249 belt-fed, blinks and says: "They're rotting to pieces in front of our eyes. This isn't going to last forever, you know!"

The one-handed guy shows up and the gay guy shoots him graveyard dead as he utters his first sentence.

This sorry sad sequel could ROCK, if the writers weren't mentally ill.

Sunday Night.

2011-11-06T17:23:00.000-08:00

Across the creek to rattle and sit in a really terrible stand. Awful ergonomics. It's like double-left-handedness. Even the screw in steps up force you off to one side. Needs adjusting all over. Hard to get in and out and not comfortable when you do. Luckily, all the stuff to fix it is already in the tree. Board, hammer, nails. If I do.

Low batts so nothing on the cam but no corn left either. Great place to hunt but they have to come right to you. Site is right below the tree. Pistol range. Sat until darkness fell and waited until the moonshine was stronger than the night and walked out in the gloaming. It really IS a black and white landscape at night. You just see the big shapes and outlines. Traversed out of the thick brush across the bottom, treaded the pixie-sticked fallen pines and up over the old indian village. Jumped a deer off the other old camera site/scrape in the darkness and they thumped and crashed.

Saturday morning the neighbors shot once. Someone East of the Loop 49 construction shot twice, then once more. Probably a young buck circling back. They did the same thing this morning. A young, dumb buck AND an unzeroed rifle. Or yanking the trigger in the grips of buck fever.

4th hunt of the season. First weekend is over.

Not much.

2011-11-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

A warmer morning. Donuts from the Filipinos and we walked in. Sneed spotted the gamecam flash going off. There was a little buck at the cam. Too many toys. Decoy, a board and hammer for the blind, clutters for some brush, rattling horns, forgot the little card reader. Too dang many toys. Sat through the morning with only a glimpse of a yellow coyote up the treeline and an acrobatic squirrel.

Back out this evening. It's typical deerhunting.

Cousin Wallace fires up the locals:

2011-11-06T03:12:00.000-08:00

Arrived @ the happy huntin' grounds this morning and sat in my new blind. Saw a couple of young bucks and a doe. Nothing big enuff to shoot. Wind blowing a gale....

Didnt have too high of hopes this afternoon as the wind was hoopin' it up about 25 mph. Went anyhow. Fairly early I see a couple of spikes & watch them for over 30 minutes. Pass the time reading a Shooting Times magazine. I notice dust drifting by & look towards my feeder. HAWGS! Bunches of hawgs! I wish now I had taken a photo or at least tried to get a head count but I was intent of blastin' the nasty rascals.

I picked out a biggun and stuck the M700 ought-six out the gun port. Range was 109 yards. I sent a 150gr Win Silver-Tip through his ornery hide, just behind his shoulder. The pack exploded like a covey of quail. I rapidly cycled the bolt and sent another round but didnt connect. They were quickly in the thick liveoaks, never to be seen again. The big boar never showed any sign of being hit. I did not hear an impact. I immediately climbed down to go check for a blood spoor. Deep tracks were all I found at the point where he had been standing. No blood, no hair. Began to search the thick liveoaks in the direction he ran. Wished I had had my .44 Mag revolver w/me as the scoped bolt-action .30-06 didnt exactly make me comfortable should I have to shoot an angry wounded wild boar in close quarters.

I spent quite a while searching the thick liveoak & was starting to second guess myself as I had found no blood spoor and didnt have a good indication of where he went. I kept telling myself there was no way I could have missed & couldnt believe this rascal was able to run very far. Finally, after about 15 minutes I found him. He had made it about 75 yards. My bullet had struck exactly where I intended, he just was a tough critter to stop.

He sure was ugly! Not even sure his momma would have would have loved his face. About two thirds black and one third white. Shaped like a buffalo. Big shoulders & head and smallish hind quarters. Nasty tusk about 1.5" long and SHARP! Not something you would want to encounter if he decided to charge. After a few photos with the I-Phone I hoofed it back to get the Gator to drag him out of the area.

After I got back to my hanging tree I winched him up and weighed him. 190 pounds. Lotta hog! Good riddance! Too big to try to eat although he didnt smell bad. Smelled like maple bacon. The vultures & coyotes will eat good.....

Wallace

Deer Season 2011.

2011-11-04T16:13:00.001-07:00

This doe was on my other cam near the house. He saw the cam and turned in his tracks.

Look how blocky he looks compared to the 1 1/2 year old youngster.

Tomorrow the tree-sitting and treeline-watching begins. Dr. Sneed is driving up right now. We'll be in the woods in the morning. Not much on the deercams but little bucks and does but I'm sure the big ones are around.

Panola is shooting the monthly Highpower match. Hate missing that. I'll only shoot once if I shoot at all. Over there they will get to shoot standing, sitting, prone, 200, 300 and 600 yards. Big fun.

Nothing this morning but some rioting does. Beautiful starlit skies early. Very impressive. I hadn't been in my pine tree since I shot a nice buck out of it last year. My pillow had been sapped on and the screw-in climbing lugs have sunk into the bark.

Back this afternoon. Nice buck on cam below the hill and across the creek. A lot of very alert looking does.

Deliberated over rifles.....finally packed my 7X57 Ruger single shot. Left the new Remington 700 leaning on the bookshelf.

Daily Deercam

2011-11-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Working the overhanging branch. Little scrapes ringing every tree that has overhanging branches. Those scrapes will consolidate soon.

Doe and two fawns from this year. They are leaving tracks running through the area. Looks like a deer stampede.

Two young dumb 1 1/2 year olds. They are not legal to shoot because of antler width. Let's hope that saves them. They look like they are ready to clack antlers.

Working a scrape.

Mature doe and two fawns from this year eating corn. She'll go into heat and leave them behind soon.

Data flowing in. Much activity, tracks, running tracks, does in packs, little bucks bopping around, coyotes. No trophy bucks at all. I'm sure they are around. Rifles are zeroed and set and a front is rolling in in the next day or so.

Remington 700 in .308 ready to roll.

2011-11-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

Scope rail. Low scope rings. Cheekpiece. Camo sock. Cotton web USGI sling not attached. Zeroed 2 inches high at 100 yards.

Here it is from a couple of weeks back.

Limbsaver recoil barrel damper.

2011-11-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

Anyone know if these things work? I've never seen anything like them on competition match rifles in highpower.

Calling Rick.

2011-10-31T13:27:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of us, I had all of Rick Crawford's numbers on my cell. The other day I happened to notice his name in the contact list and hit the call button. It rang through to his voicemail and said he was "presently unavailable". Seems fair.

But he's called back twice. Maybe I should text him.

He probably called to congratulate Justin and I on going Double Distinguished.

Dressing up the Remington 700.

2011-10-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

I'll post a photo soon. The Remington got lower scope mounts, sling swivels, some DIFFERENT sling swivels, a higher cheekpiece and a camo shotgun sock cut down to fit. Now I have to re-zero with the new scope rings. Have some Sierra bullets on hand and plenty of brass but no .308 dies. Just going to zero with USGI M852. Just need three rounds to hunt through the season. Will probably use my Ruger #1 and some 100 and 60 year old rifles.

Cousin Wallace and his 30-30.

2011-10-31T09:45:00.001-07:00

An email from Cousin Wallace:

Finally got a bit of spare time yesterday to go to the range & check zeros on several rifles and revolvers. Fine tuned the Rem M700 in calibre .270 and my designated short range wild boar smashing Ruger .44 Magnum carbine. The M700 in .30-06 had already been zeroed & was a stellar performer.

I finally shot up all the handloads I had prepared for my Marlin 336 using the old Hercules Re 11 and, believe it or not, decided I'd just shoot factory Winchester 150gr Power-Points this year as I had a couple of boxes and didnt have the time to work up a batch of handloads using a different powder. I havent used factory ammo to hunt with in about 40 years! ... at least it is loaded w/my prefered .30-30 bullet that I use in handloads anyhow.

Some young whipper-snappers may chuckle when I mention using a lowly .30-30 to hunt with. I understand. I remember thinking the same thing in my younger days. Why in the world would someone want to use something so ancient, so mild, so short range, so unimpressive looking as a .30-30? Well, there just so happens to be quite a bit of appeal in it ... at least for me. My late father used to hunt with one just like it. It has that "classic" deer rifle look to it. Mine is very accurate. It is pleasant to shoot. Lots of nostalgia. It's a handy size with it's 20" barrel. It has enough range for most shots around here. It has reliable penetration. It doesn't bloodshot meat as bad as hi-vel rifles. Placed in the right spot, it kills very effectively. I've killed my 2 best bucks with it and dropped my biggest wild boar with it as well. It has fast repeat shots if you get into a heard of wild hawgs. Lots of positive points to the old deer slayer if you get to counting.

Now, it wouldnt be my all around choice if I could only own a single rifle. I only use it if walking around or sitting in a stand where my shots will be a max of 150 yards and more likely, 75 yards or so. I have another old classic, a K-4 Weaver scope mounted which is just perfect for it, looks good & does what it needs to do. David Guthery made an excellent point the other night whilst we were visiting over the phone. The old experienced guy sitting on one side of a pasture with his .30-30 will probably kill his deer just as dead, and have just as much fun as the guy with his .300 Weatherby Mag and 4X18X56mm scope sitting in a blind watching his feeder 100 yards away....the guy with the expensive Weatherby may have a higher "cool factor" and be able to impress his buddies more but is it really more enjoyable ruining your eardrums and bruising your shoulder just to be "cool?" To each his own.

I still enjoy hunting with my cherished .270 & .30-06. No doubt they are better all around performers & I'd feel confident hunting anything I'll ever have the chance to hunt. Many critters have been laid low with these over the years. To each his own. If you have grandpaw's old thutty-thutty dont be embarrased to get it out and give it a try, you might be surprised. It's worth it for nostalgia reasons alone....

As always, comments welcome!
Wallace

Daily Deercam

2011-10-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Doe digging in a fresh scrape on the new cam.

Little buck on the same scrape.

Deer dancing.

Not a shootable buck in this whole stack of photos. 1 1/2 year olds.

Coyote.

See the deer legs way back in the background?

Bigfoot!

Youngster wondering what in the heck is fixing to happen!

Everything checks the scrapes. Here's a bunny. Camera and flash picking and freezing a moment.

Getting close to the final countdown. New cam running. Scrapes scattered all over. Buck poop in several. (It's scattered, loose and the pellets are deformed.) Stands are all sittable. Got to walk one board out and cut the arm off a plastic Walmart chair. No big bucks. Many little ones and does bopping around.

Rifle and pistol sorting.

2011-10-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

Loading a few rounds of .45 match, though I can't think of why. I took 115 round to Terrell and loaned or shot every single round. Mitchell Hogg and Dan Pate shot my pistol and ammo plus I loaned some out. By "loaned" I mean gave. Good for folks to shoot the match. Came back absolutely empty.

When I was loading and practicing the last few weeks, I remember looking at the couple of boxes of 100-count 230 grain Sierra FMJ MatchMasters and thinking I ought to be Distinguished before I shot it all up. Have about 75 FMJs left in a green Sierra box.

Using a scale, trickler and Harrel turrent press. Slow, but what else do you have to do? I run the ammo factory making one load or another all the time.

I didn't pick up any brass in the pistol match. It had been loaded a few times and was done. All Federal or Winchester range pickups. One round didn't have any powder and the primer drove the FMJ into the edge of the rifling of the barrel during the 50 yard slow-fire. (The symptom was that the bullet didn't seem to fire and then the next round wouldn't go into battery.) I punched away at it with a wooden dowel until someone handed me a brass rod and I beat it out with my stapler. The slug was still in the pistol box and the brass in the bullet box. I just resized, reprimed and reloaded it.

M1 Carbine back together. Might stay that way. Five rifles need cleaning.

Raining, reloading and watching the 6th game of the series. Thursday night in Tyler. Gun show this weekend.

Doe with birthmark.

2011-10-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

Some sort of mark right behind this doe's eye. I've seen it several times on cam. May get to see her in person. Nobody shoots does in this county so no telling how old some of them get.

Getting Ink.

2011-10-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

Justin and I got a mention in the Tyler Paper.

Arming up for Bambi.

2011-10-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ruger with a nice buck from 2009. I'll be in a big Oak right above this very spot.

Cousin Wallace made a list of the hardware he's going to pack in the naem of chicken-fried backstrap. I was impressed with the power and the historical arc of his shooting irons.

I'm going to pack the Ruger #1 7X57 for bucks here in Smith County, maybe pack the new Rem 700 for does up in Red River county and lug around a few historical bolt guns while guiding.

Anyone else got any ideas? Email a photo to Blackfork6@aol and I will post your hardware here.

Kragged doetag.

Springfield 1903A3, my Camp Perry and TSRA target rifle.

Daily Deercam

2011-10-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

Three little bucks.

Fresh worked scrapes popping up all over.

No big bucks on the cams, but I have half the cams this year.

Coyote eating corn. That's kind of a new one. Had a coyote hunting mice in the big pasture at about 6:15. Sunlight on him. Katie and I were in the 4-runner and watched him through binocs.

Doe alerts for several frames like this....

Then greets a yearling fawn.

Notes from the TSRA Garand/Springfield?M1Carbine/Vintage weekend.

2011-10-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Some Swiss guy's rifle at Terrell.

1. The Terrell club was a great host. Alan Wilson, Dave Wilson, Karl Schultz, Roy Plumlee and others put on a wonderful set of matches.

2. Ammo Issue: We got CMP ammo issued in 30-06. The first day was mostly HXP 77. The second day I got WRA 56, St Louis Arsenal 54, HXP 63, HXP 68, HXP 70, HXP 72, HXP 77. Quite a range. I didn't get to fire Springfield so I brought some home. I took some back after sorting and got ten rounds of HXP 77, though now I kind of wish I had that WRA 56 and the SL 54 back. There was some grumbling about the inconsistant ammo.

3. Used a little suction-cup peepsite thingy on my shooting glasses with the K31 in Vintage. It's one more thing to manage but it does sharpen up the sight picture with the ladder sight.

4. Had a squib in the slow-fire portion of the 50 yard Pistol LEG. Had to drive the bullet out of the barrel and then get back into the shooting. Used a wooden dowel with stapler as a hammer. Took me a moment to figure it out. Primer just drove the 230 Sierra MatchMaster out of the chamber. Have to talk to my loader.

5. Plenty of time in all the rapids with pistol, bolt action rifle, et. 5 shots in 10 seconds with pistol. No problems. Started next trigger squeeze at the top of the recoil from previous shot.

6. Moving from 50 yards to 25 yards in the pistol I didn't reset my sights for the 25 yard timed fire. Group was high in the ten ring and nine ring. Kept me from winning outright.

7. Justin and I ought to have consecutive Pistol Badge numbers. I shot a 261 and he shot a 250. He sucks.

8. 5th win in the Texas Vintage Championship. My rifle has actually won it six times, as I loaned it to Clay Hefner in 2009 and he beat me with it. Maybe it IS the rifle.

9. No problem with recoil. Cheekbone a little sore from riding the back of my thumb but nothing else. Tried to make sure I was squared away.

10. Crazy M1 Carbine match. Handguard jumped off twice and the zero went from 10 ring to way high or way low. Back recoil lug bolt wasn't tight. (I didn't check it because it always tight, you know?) Unknown what is going on yet. When I pulled the rifle out back home the forearm fell off again. Shot 334 or so. 347 won. Ron Leraas.

11. Never got my Springfield uncased. Just no time when you only shoot one day. That means I didn't get a combined score for the Garand/Springfield/Vintage. That's an important match at Camp Perry. Hate to have missed it.

Double Distinguished.

2011-10-24T05:35:00.000-07:00

Utley and I with our .45s.

Vintage K31.

Doc Range showed up. Cool under pressure for 90 years.

If there is anything a guy wants to be known for it is being "cool under pressure." Take away the "cool under pressure" genre and you have very few movies left, hardly any fiction, the BS in bars drops to talk about the weather and folks quit fishing completely. Women take note: If you want to make a significant positive impact in ANY relationship with a man, just mention in front of a bunch of people at a party, sunday school, Thanksgiving dinner or crowded elevator that one of the biggest reasons you noticed your current squeeze is that he is "cool under pressure." Your relationship will ramp up noticeably. Don't get pregnant.

I know, I know. I hear women's eyes rolling as I click away. You want someone sensitive. Someone you can connect with. Some good reliable and predictable man. Guys fake every bit of that to get cute dates. All they REALLY want is to be known as being "cool under pressure."

I promise that this background software runs in the operating system of almost any man out there. Period.

Of course, people are NOT "cool under pressure." They crack, flake out, wilt, crumble, leave, make excuses, break their equipment, run out of gas, start "helping" instead of leading, or some other calamity. Folks end up being "cool under pressure" because they brain-locked and hurtled forward on random momentum.

LEG matches, both rifle and pistol are built to test the "cool under pressure" quotient of the shooters. There aren't any sighters. Every shot counts. You KNOW it counts. The stories are legendary about good shooters melting down at 600 yards, saving rounds in a pistol rapid fire, crossfiring onto the wrong target and so on in these matches. There's just no help. Humans spin up and stroke out under pressure. Rarely are they cool.

Justin Utley and I both finished our Distinguished Pistol Badges yesterday at Terrell. It's a 30 point match at 50 and 25 yards. Just takes a few minutes to shoot. I was second and he was third. We both have the Rifle badge from 2003 or so. The badges are numbered and I think we will be in the 1480s. They have been awarding this badge since 1891. Not many people have won it. Less folks have won both the rifle and pistol, so if it seems like I'm bragging....there you have it.

Folks, I gotta tell you, that Justin Utley kid is cool under pressure. And myself? I'll at least show up and fire all my rounds. Even under pressure.

My mental approach was just to pretend I was already Distinguished. It was inevitable. I could shoot plenty good enough to win. If I didn't win this match I would win the next or the next. It was certain to happen. Nothing to it. Forget about the drama and stress and just shoot the match like it was practice. I was already distinguished, they just hadn't given me the badge yet. Your mileage may vary.

Didn't win the Garand and the forearm jumped off my M1 Carbine twice during that match making for some radical zero changes. I shot Vintage with my little Swiss K31 and beat my National Match score by a point. 5th State Vintage Match win.

Distinguished pistol is shot with a .45 Service Pistol or the 9mm Service pistol. I shot my Les Baer and some handloads.

Having a very cool Monday morning, being double Distinguished and all.

TSRA Garand, Springfield, M1 Carbine, Vintage Pistol LEG match weekend.

2011-10-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

Half the weekend match already gone. They shot today in Terrell. I was fortunate enough to have a nice photo shoot but it cut the weekend in half for me. I won't be able to defend my current Texas Championships in Garand, Springfield 1903 and Vintage. Going to have to pick one or two. I'm most interested in the LEG match for pistol Distinguished points. After that, whatever is left. Got all four rifles prepped and sitting by the door.
The recently Distinguished Clay Hefner shot a nice 287 today with Garand. He's going to be back tomorrow along with Justin Utley. Utley and I have both won the National Vintage Rifle Championship at Camp Perry.
Shooting is never a sure thing. Could come home with nothing more than a sack of dusty brass. Going to be an interesting day at Terrell.

First Days of Fall.

2011-10-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Out the door to walk Lucie up to Katie's studio this morning and nearly turned around and headed back in for a fleece jacket. (Fleece jackets buried in the back of the closet still.) We had a little rain go through the other night. Nice, but the county is still 19 inches behind. Very serious times.

First scrapes are officially open. Little footprints. Going to make a cam run tomorrow and see what I can see. Hope camera #2 is back on. I'd like to start seeing some big bucks.

Daily Deercam

2011-10-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

No deer on the cam. Just too many raccoons.

There are actually new scrapes opened up. The rut has started. I've had a few days of work but been trying to finish a tree stand and keep an eye on the woods. The weather was in the 40s this morning. First time. I guess the long horrible strange summer is over. It started off a little dry but with the hope of a mild season. Then Rick passed, the drought set in, the heat settled and a Hadley Cell sat on top of us from June to late September. We struggled with the loss of Rick but carried on through the worst economy and the worst weather of anyone's lifetime. It was an awful passage. Now I've lived long enough to almost see deer season again. Could be hunting now, with a bow or shooting doe tags with a rifle up North if I had a seconds time.

Armadillos chasing each other in the bottom. They were hopping and running circles all over the place. I guess the Armadillo rut is on. They have their litters in March or so.

Came across the powerline and saw movement on the far hilltop. The fence crossing the top was full of vultures. Must be a deer down up there or dead cow. Long hike across rough ground to find out.

Put one of the balky Moultries back out. It worked perfectly sitting beside the computer. The symptoms were: it wasn't loading photos to the card. I've heard complaints about that.

Daily Deercam

2011-10-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

Red Fox. Hadn't seen one in a bit. Never seen one on this cam. Many coyotes this go-round as well.

Bigfoot.

Two little bucks. They always come and go from the same direction: Up the hill. Not shootable but fun to see.

Dam is being rebuilt at the lake. Two years ago they were burning brushpiles on opening day. Last year they were driving heavy equipment up and down the road beside where I hunt. Always something.

Range day.

2011-10-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

A cute rifle that chanced by at a great price. Probably never fired. It's a divorce spin-off. Probably need some low scope rings rather than the mediums that are on it. Scope came over from my 10/22. Always wanted one but need to sell something I'm not so crazy about anymore to cover it. Anyone want a Colt .32 acp 1903 pocketmodel that's quite functional but kind of beat?

Box of pistols. Les Baer .45 in front. Ruger MkI ,22 that my Dad bought me last century in the middle and a Tam-inspired gunbroker replacement for Dad's stolen K22 Smith and Wesson revolver on the far end. You just never outgrow a good pistol, I guess.

Night rifle. Just took it out in the side yard in the dark and can see the crosshairs just fine. I guess I will have to zero it at night. At least I won't make a big racket doing it.

Out to 31 West Range this afternoon. It's getting a lot of maintenance work now that Bob Dodgen the old owner is gone. The front fenceline is clear. Tree guys were busy chipping wood from cut branches. I set up a little Remington 700 that chanced by as a good deal, boresighted and got it zeroed at 100 in four rounds of precious M852. Last 168gr MatchKing was at a silhouette some guys were shooting at. I picked out a little labeling about the size of a quarter up in the corner and shot a hole through the nine oclock edge of it. Put on one more quarter minute right and cased it.

Worked on zeroing a night vision scope but had trouble seeing the reticle. Nervous with that scope in daylight anyway.

Fired my Les Baer at 50 yards and 25 yards. If I shot these scores I would win almost any match. Just keeping the timing down. The home ammo factory has been cranking out .45 acp match lately.

Occurred to me that I really am an OK shot with most rifles and pistols. Things usually go about where I put them.

Daily Deercam.

2011-10-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Little 2 1/2 old. Related to one I shot last year.

In a couple of years he will be a monster.

Good looking little buck. Hope he makes it through the year. Right on the edge of legal width- antlers have to be as wide as the ears or 13 inches inside.

Here's a smart and experienced doe. No telling how old she is.

I don't think the deer and the raccoons get along.

The little 2 1/2 year old in the top three photos is related to this 3 1/2 old that I shot last year. Same overall antler makeup.

Utley in Tyler Paper.

2011-10-12T09:29:00.000-07:00

We had to call several folks and bring a little pressure to get Justin off so he could come down to Swift and defend his title. I'm tempted to call those same folks up and ask them what the heck they thought they were doing. Letting a rookie patrolman OFF??? Did they think we were serious about getting him loose to come down and kick all our asses for the third time in a row? How about giving someone ELSE a chance?
Tempting.

TSRA LEG Match at Camp Swift, October, 2011.

2011-10-11T19:57:00.001-07:00

There is already an awards video up- this is the actual match video. Fun to watch. Big match with a lot of LEGs given. Eight. Only a few matches nationally give this many EIC Points toward folks Distinguished Rifleman Badges.

At 200 sitting rapid a kid shoots....he's so young that he is barely as tall as his rifle. And he's shooting an M4 Carbine! Texas. Gotta love it.

Rick Crawford gets to lead it off. I'm sure no one will object to seeing his smiling face.

Fire 'em and forget 'em.

2011-10-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

Not talking people here, (though I could do quite a post on getting fired and losing your work family). Talking projects and most exactly: Youtube videos. I've got 160+ videos up. Creedmoor Sports asked for submissions to link shooting videos and I sent them a few, including some pre-caption productions. (Distinguished Rifleman: Billy Atkins, 675 views.) Interesting to look back and see what I've learned and what I quit worrying about when making a video. The latest video, with Ron Leraas face leading it off, has had 41 views as of tonight. It's now out there with a life of it's own. Creedmoor picked up a video of Rick shooting my K31 in the vintage match at Camp Perry in 2010 today, 1400+ views). Now folks will see it over there.
They are like unguided missiles. Fire 'em and forget 'em.

Panola Club Championship.

2011-10-08T18:40:00.000-07:00

Some blasts from the past showing up. Not just John Dunaway and Ron Chatelain but Richard Schultz showed. I blew a chance to win the championship when I decided to clear a jam in 200 rapid and ended up saving a couple of rounds. 20 points in the two shots. If I had shot two eights I would have won walking away.
Shot the Match rifle OK at 600 with a 195X10 and never touched my windage knob. Funny how you can struggle with some slight disharmony in position and then get it sorted out and really get shooting. Took about six shots of the 22 shot string before I felt like I was handling the fundamentals, then it was a walk in the park. A little bit of wind was miraging down the range running right-to-left, left-to-right and then going crystal clear.
I've started having my scorer do my shot plotting. Makes it less distracting for me and gets them involved.
Lunch was catered after the event. Had some new folks on my point and finally just started coaching and teaching to get them up to speed. One of those juniors who doesn't want to look through his scope at 600....and what's the fun in that?
Shot Berger 82 grainers at 600. I keep edging the powder charge up. No pressure signs and they are really flying. Going to edge it a couple more tenths.

TSRA State Championship LEG Match award video up.

2011-10-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

26 hits by lunch. I forwarded it to Creedmoor Sports. They are asking for videos. Sent them about ten. I hope they run them.

Nice video of the folks who got the LEGs and the awards ceremony, but brief as I could make it.

We take hatpins off the hats and pass them down the line of Distinguished Riflemen to the new folks. I don't know anywhere else that does this. We'll see these guys on stage at Camp Perry.

Congrats to Clay Hefner and Jason Michelli. It's a really big deal.

Daily Deercam

2011-10-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

Cute.

Mom and the two kids.

1 1/2 year old.

Same little bucks bopping around, plus a doe with an almost grown pair of twins, a doe and a buck. Cute. This cam is back in the brush and they are there in the middle of the day.

Texas Embassy in London.

2011-10-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

Texas embassy in London. A little bit of history.

Daily Deercam

2011-10-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Two coons crunching corn.

One little nubbin buck early this morning. I poured out some Acorn Rage at this cam, so we will see some Whitetail temper tantrums.

It feels ritualistic- the annual buying of the hunting license. I don't fish or shoot birds so it's the basic Whitetail tags for me. Twenty five bucks. No little plastic covers for the second year. They want to IMPRESS upon us how broke they are at the state, I guess. There are more deer than ever in Texas right now. They could easily be relisted as non-game animals. Never happen of course. Too many state ricebowls would be threatened. The biologist at Clarksville is insistent that we reduce the herd as quick as possible because of the drought. I think the state boys have heard the long-term forcast.

So I'm down the trial with some Walmart deercorn, (The cheapest. Gotta shop for price because of the ethanol corn spike.) Some screw in climbing rungs and a coffee cup full of Acorn Rage. Acorn Rage is supposed to make the big bucks rage. At acorns, I guess. I think it IS ground up acorns and sugar.

Two armadillos on the trail, one missing about 1/3 of his tail. Hungry Coyote. I actually spooked a coyote who loped off with his ears turned backwards to listen for pursuit. He didn't think I saw him, but I did.

One little scrape starting under a now-dead branch over in the edge of a pasture. It's going to take a rain and a cold front to get them going in the rut. Usually the rain resets all the tracks every couple of weeks but when you go months between storms you just get trails full of powder and dust. No sign to be read. This is a very serious drought. They say Friday, maybe. Friday would be nice. Or anytime.

Nailed up a board and cut another in an obscure oak. A childhood education of tree fort building isn't going to waste. If we had these screw-in rungs no treetop would have been safe.

Corn still under one feeder. Very strange. One little nubbin buck on cam. Corn gone the other two cameraless camera positions. I was going to buy a Moultrie at Walmart but they didn't have the model I like. Several friends are bow hunting but it's still too warm and dry and the rut is a week off.

FEMA at Bastrop

2011-10-06T14:05:00.001-07:00

FEMA

Here is a message sent to my wife by one of her fellow choir members who lives in the Magnolia community. It is a bit long, but interesting. My comment to friends about it was that FEMA wants (needs?) everyone to be "Grasshoppers" not ants. (Recall the Aesop’s fable) That gives them power.

Here are some stories about the Tricounty fire in Montgomery, Grimes, and Waller County, Labor Day week, 2011.

My neighbor across the road has a sister named Kenna. Labor Day, when she saw the huge column of smoke over our homes, she left a birthday party at my neighbor’s house to meet with her friend Tara at the Baseball complex in Magnolia. She called the owner of the complex and got permission to use the warehouse there as a staging area for donations for the fire fighting effort.

They put a notice out on facebook that they were going to be taking donations on their facebook pages. That night as they were setting up tables and organizing, News2 Houston came by and saw the activity, investigated and left with the phone numbers and a list of suggested donations.

The facebook notice propagated faster than the fire. By dawn they had 20 volunteers, bins, forklifts, and donations were pouring in. I stopped by with my pitiful little bags of nasal wash and eye wash, and was amazed. There must have been 20 trucks in the lot, offloading cases of water, pallets of Gatorade, and people lined up out the door with sacks of beef jerky, baby wipes, underwear, socks, and you name it. School buses and trailers from many counties around were there offloading supplies, students forming living chains to pass stuff into the bins for transport to the command center and staging areas. If the firefighters had requested it, it was there. What do you give the guy out there fighting the fire that might engulf your home? Anything he or she wants. Including chewing tobacco and cigarettes.

Kenna moved on to the Unified Command Post at Magnolia West High school. She looked at what the fire fighters needed, and she made calls and set it up.

Mattress Mac donated 150 beds. Two class rooms turned into barracks kept quiet and dark for rest. The CEO of HEB donated 2 semi trailers full of supplies, and sent a mobile commercial kitchen at no charge to feed all the workers, but especially our firefighters, 3 hot meals a day. An impromptu commissary was set up, anything the firefighters had requested available at no charge.

As exhausted firefighters (most of them from local VFDs with no training or experience battling wildfires) and workers came into the school after long hours of hard labor, dehydrated, hungry, covered with soot and ash, they got what they needed. They were directed through the commissary, where they got soap, eye wash and nasal spray, candy, clean socks and underwear, and then were sent off to the school locker rooms for a shower. HEB then fed them a hot meal and they got 8 hours sleep in a barracks, then another hot meal, another pass through the commissary for supplies to carry with them out to the lines, including gloves, safety glasses, dust masks and snacks, and back they went.

One of the imported crews from California came into Unified Command and asked where the FEMA Powerbars and water were. He was escorted to the commissary and started through the system. He was flabbergasted. He said FEMA never did it like this. Kenna replied, ”Well, this is the way we do it in Texas.”

Fire fighting equipment needed repair? The auto shop at the High School ran 24/7 with local mechanics volunteering, students, and the firefighters fixing the equipment.

Down one side of the school, the water tankers lined up at the fire hydrants and filled with water. Down the other side there was a steady parade of gasoline tankers filling trucks, dozers, tankers, cans, chain saws, and vehicles.

Mind you, all of this was set up by 2 Moms, Kenna and Tara, with a staff of 20 simple volunteers, most of them women who had sons, daughters, husbands, and friends on the fire lines. Someone always knew someone who could get what they needed – beds, mechanics, food, space. Local people using local connections to mobilize local resources made this happen. No government aid. No Trained Expert.

At one point the fire was less than a mile from the school, and everyone but hose volunteers were evacuated. The fire was turned.

The Red Cross came in, looked at what they were doing, and quietly went away to set up a fire victim relief center nearby. They said they couldn’t do it any better.

FEMA came in and told those volunteers and Kenna that they had to leave, FEMA was here now. Kenna told them she worked for the firefighters, not them. They were obnoxious, bossy, got in the way, and criticized everything. The volunteers refused to back down and kept doing their job, and doing it well. Next FEMA said the HEB supplies and kitchen had to go, that was blatant commercialism. Kenna said they stayed. They stayed.

FEMA threw a wall-eyed fit about chewing tobacco and cigarettes being available in the commissary area. Kenna told them the firefighters had requested it, and it was staying. It stayed. FEMA got very nasty and kept asking what organization these volunteers belonged to – and all the volunteers told them “Our community”. FEMA didn’t like that and demanded they make up a name for themselves. One mother remarked “They got me at my boiling point!” and suddenly the group was “212 Degrees”. FEMA’s contribution? They came in the next day with red shirts embroidered with “212 Degrees,” insisting the volunteers had to be identified, never realizing it was a slap in their face. Your tax dollars at work – labeling volunteers with useless shirts and getting in the way.

The upshot? A fire that the experts from California (for whom we are so grateful there are no words) said would take 2-3 weeks to get under control was 100% contained in 8 days. There was so much equipment and supplies donated, 3 container trucks are loaded with the excess to go and set up a similar relief center for the fire fighters in Bastrop. The local relief agencies have asked people to stop bringing in donations of clothing, food, household items, and pretty much everything else because they only have 60 displaced households to care for, and there is enough to supply hundreds. Again, excess is going to be shipped to Bastrop, where there are 1500 displaced households. Wish we could send Kenna, too, but she has to go back to her regular job.

John Pennell

Michelli and Hefner

2011-10-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Distinguished Riflemen on hand during the awards ceremony. Jason and Clay down front.

Jason Michelli and Clay Hefner legged out this weekend. Congrats to both. It's a really big deal. Jason, who flies for a living, said LEG matches were more stressful than any aircraft simulator he had ever been trained in.

Weather and light changes.

2011-10-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

Every season is different but seems like the light and the temperature have really taken a turn for the better the last month. The Photographers Equinox- when tap water runs 68 degrees, must be getting close.

Ordered a big old view camera box. Hard sided. Of Ebay today for next to nothing. Even cashed in some Ebay bucks to make it cheaper. I'm using a box older than I am for my 5X7 Deardorff now. This one older than that. Probably use it for 8X10 lenses and film holders.

Update: Box came in: solid and really terrific. Going to fill it up with lenses and holders.

Daily Deercam

2011-10-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

Little buck hanging around.

Day and night.

Nubbing buck. Just out of spots.

That's his mom. He'll be frantic when the rut is on and she is running all over the place.

Little buck hanging out on the upper cam. Thick brush in there. The corn is bringing him in. It's my last working cam for a bit, so I'm glad to have him. Way too little to shoot but maybe his grandfather is around. Couple of does as well, plus some little nubbin bucks. Coons, jays, squirrels. I've got a chair up in the tree.

Lucie jumped a big armadillo on the trail over and it ran into a hole it couldn't get into. She got to sniff it up close and get it to buck and grunt. Looked like a big male. I'm sure she will check that hole from now on.

Photos from TSRA Service Rifle Championship.

2011-10-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hefner tells a Junior IT team everything he knows....plus a little more, during the Infantry Trophy Match on Friday.

Misty Skelton heads downrange during IT.

Clayton Rogers heads back.

Utley puts on another click of concentration during offhand.

Nez Rongero doesn't bother.

Karl Schultz's AR15.

Karl Schultz brings his rifle up in offhand during the championship. Karl came off the LEG match with another six points in his pocket.

Kim Fairchild keeps a close eye on the shooting by her husband and daughter.

Chris Chesley with his pack of pirates, cut-throats and ninjas. Plus the Rogers,the Hoggs and Robert Davis.

Match Director Ken Gaby ran the match with smooth precision.

Bailey Fairchild, on her way to Distinguished with 6 points.

Chris Chesley.

Justin Burns shoots offhand.

Bransom holds the end of the line.

Bransomness during the LEG match on Sunday.

The prettiest head in Texas.

Texas Service Rifle Championship at Camp Swift.

2011-10-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

October weather was crisp and clean. The match directors and stat folks go there Thursday night and stayed up late working on the paperwork. Ken Gaby, Dave Wilson, Keith Stephens, Karl Schultz and Alan Wilson did an incredible amount of behind the scenes work to get everything sorted and set. Charlie Wallace, Don Tryce and Rick Tanner had the range ready.
Windy on Friday for the Team Matches making some low scores. Jeff Lin, Tony Miller, Alan Wilson and I won the 4-Man President's 100 match by a point over the guard team. 14 teams on the line. Alan, Jeff and I shot the Infantry Trophy and were second by a good margin. The Bent Bores won with a nice effort in switching winds.
110 folks on Saturday for nearly perfect conditions. Scores soared in offhand on a full firing line. Justin Utley had been sprung from his new job with the Tyler Police Dept to come down and defend his title so he was on target 16. He shot a 196 and Keith Stephens shot a 197 offhand. I shot a 194.
Conditions held for sitting but at the 300 yard line the Camp Swift winds started reversing for prone rapid. It never was much but proved to be very unreliable frequently switching during the two 10 shot strings of rapid fire. The leaders all came away with 195s.

By the time we got to 600 the winds were switching, picking up and letting off and dying to dead calm. Very hard to get consistent conditions and several times the whole line would shoot shot far out to the left or right for no reason that could be seen. Very tough and frustrating.

Justin Utley won his 5th Service rifle Championship with a 782. I was second by three points at 779. Keith Stephens was tied with me but one "X" back for third. Rick Crawford would have been proud to see the top scores all piled together.

Sunday, the LEG match opened with enough people on the line for an unprecedented 8 LEGs. The top eight non-Distinguished Competitors would get points toward their badges.
I was on Target 17 with Keith Stephens, Karl Schultz and Rick Tanner. Karl was looking for points as the rest of us were DRs. Conditions were better than Saturday. By the time the dust settled at 600 Clay Hefner and Jason Machelli had legged out. Bailey Fairchild, Justin Burns, Roger Lankford, Karl Schultz, Dan Ramsey and Mauss had won points.

It was a very successful, large and well-run TSRA Championship. The Panola Club Championship and the TSRA Long Range Championship is the next weekend followed by the TSRA Garand/Vintage/Carbine/1903 match at Terrell. There are lots of opportunities to shoot this month!

The brain trust works on match prep late into Thursday night.

Keith Stephens and a Junior Infantry Trophy Team including Travis and Clayton Rogers.

200 offhand during the TSRA Service Rifle Championship.

Winning Junior 4-Man President's 100 Team.

Governor's 20: Top 20 in the TSRA Service Rifle Championship.

A scene to warm your heart: Kid with Assault Rifle on the line at Camp Swift. More please!

People with points: Eight legs worth of Bailey Fairchild, Mauss, Dan Ramsey, Justin Burns, Roger Lankford, Karl Schultz, Machelli and Hefner.

All Distinguished Rifles on deck, including the two newest, Jason Michelli and Clay Hefner.

Cute deer photos of the day.

2011-09-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

A little intra-whitetail jousting.

Stretch.

These little bucks are both 1 1/2 years old. Not legal antler width. They are certainly safe from me and I hope everyone. Fun to have around.

Daily Deercam

2011-09-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

Dumb and relaxed. Rare that I get this photo.

A little sparring between friends.

Four little bucks flowing around my upper cam across the creek. Still got two cams dead with no relief in sight.

Bigfoot.

2011-09-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I did a little Bigfoot compilation off deercam slides with corny titles and cheesy imovie soundtrack music. Built it purely as a hit-collector. Went up yesterday. It's got 80 hits already. It's dumb, but hoping for a real breakout with a slightly different audience than usual. The Bigfoot people really love Bigfoot. Heck, I love Bigfoot. See him all the time on gamecam. Going to start saving those files for Bigfoot II.

Daily deercam: Four little bucks.

2011-09-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

One nubbin fawn and three year and a half six and eight pointers. They look like does with horns. In two years they will be nice deer but this year they will be bopping around in shock over the happenings during the rut. Folks shoot them because they tend to turn up and stand still, though none of them are of legal antler size. Here's hoping they all make it!

They are loving the corn. Probably on all three cams. Two of my cams are currently belly-up. They are taking photos but not putting them on the cards. Never had that happen before. Electronic mystery.

Actually worked on a tree seat today. Put in a couple more climbing steps and found the place for the plastic chair.

Big Snake

2011-09-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

Photo doesn't do justice to the massive heavy body of this snake. He was about 30 inches long. His head was thick and angular. Very impressive snake, but fragile as most of them are. I killed him with a dry stick.

A couple years back I got spooked when I smelled a big snake while crossing the creek at the main ford. Finally bumped into the snake and he was a huge cottonmouth moccasin. I killed him, mostly because I had smelled him so often but never been able to find him. Taking him out of the ecosystem was bound to shift the local pecking order- snakes are very territorial and not big travellers.
Today Lucie and I made the cam run and I smelled another big snake at the same crossing. Couldn't see him.

Carry knife.

2011-09-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Let's see how this works....you just pull the knife you are carrying out of your pocket, put it on the keyboard and take a photo? Seems easy enough.

In this case it's a PAL RH-36 that some WW2 serviceman thoughtlessly ruined by grinding the blade into a dagger configuration. Shame.

Blackfork Studio: Game Cam Tips.

2011-09-20T20:18:00.001-07:00

Now you know everything I know. Plus a little more.

Daily Deercam: First buck of the year.

2011-09-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

Both the spotted fawns are little bucks.

Little year and a half buck getting interested.

Skinny little doe on the same cam.

Can see ribs on the grown does. Dry range conditions for six months. They are usually down a bit, but this seems excessive. Very glad to have corn.

Still having cam problems. Some of them turned out to be on the reader I was using at the computer. It's replaced. I'll keep trying. The cam counter would say there were photos but when the card went in to computer port it would register as 'No photos or video." I changed ports. Helped on one card.

Feathers in Amber.

2011-09-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

Looks like some early Dino or Bird feathers in amber. Pretty neat. Exactly like Jurassic Park.

Work in Progress: How to site your game-cam.

2011-09-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

The dog and I went out with a camera and tripod and made a run. Need a little more tape to make sure I have all the points covered on how to set up a cam for good photos.

Update: It's up! This little deer in the photo has survived as far as I know. Must be a monster by now, but as wily as Bigfoot.

Last run to Clarksville.

2011-09-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

Record night for Armadillos up at Kickapoo Ranch, but not much else. 25 deer, no big bucks. Couple of coons and an opossum. Carried a little .22 but can't bring myself to shoot dillos. Alan has a night vision system that really works well and the Bronco was running so I could see well from the raised seat while he drove. All three surveys done so now the numbers can be crunched and submitted to the state biologist who will issue the permits. The deer numbers have been cratering for three years or more. We used to count in the 50s-70s. This years counts were 32, 11 and last nights 25. Unknown what is going on though those totals do parallel the drought.
Glad to have it done though I only have a small part.

Hunt will be on in about 60 days.

9/11

2011-09-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was in downtown Tyler up in the black tower at Trinity Mother Frances Marketing services. I was dropping off some work and immediately driving to Dallas for a shoot with the North Texas Tollway Authority. John Moore, the media representative kept five TVs and tape machines in his office so that he could monitor and record health care ads for TMF and the competition. I was about to take off when John leaned out of his office and said "you better come watch this." He had all the channels going. The first tower was burning and the coverage just starting. We watched the second plane come in and then the towers fall.
I never made it to Dallas for the shoot.