80 grain Sierras at 200 yards.

 A three inch group with R11 and a four inch group with Betsy.  The target is a 25 yard pistol bulls-eye.

  Just an excuse to post a photo.  Two groups with two different rifles, both shot out of a rifle rest at 200 yards with a Leupold 16X target scope.  I didn't try to put the groups in the middle, just tried to keep them on the paper.  I held inside the 1 1/2 inch X ring at 200 without any problem.  I estimate holding a 3/4 inch group at 200 yards which would be 3/8 MOA. (Minute of Angle)  I don't hold this well with iron sights, my own eyes and a sling.

  The hold and trigger break were very good on each shot.

  A three inch group at 200 will be a six inch group at 400 and about a eight inch group at 600- minimum.  Environmental effects will factor in to open it up.  The bullet slowing down will open it up.  Any little variance in bullet weight, powder load, case capacity, et, et will open it up.

Mother's Day

 Sutton Eagle Cam is back on.  Chick is getting big and dark-feathered.  Nearly as big as the adults.  Still one rotten egg on the nest.

Daily Deercam

  Coyotes crossing the motion cam and going up the creek.

  After Mother's Day lunch I dropped by the TMA woods.  I haven't seen the Moccasine since he shed his skin but the pool near his root ball had a Southern Snapper submerged at the entrance.  Not a trace of a beaver so the water is low and as clear as I have ever seen it.

  I set my watch.  He didn't take a breath for 32 minutes at least, probably because he spotted me at the same time I spotted him.  Hard for a hot-blooded simian to outwait a 100 million year old reptile design.  And I didn't start today.  

  Rabbit, hawk, little fish.  Blooming yucca on the pad pushed up long ago along the frontage road for a building site that never got used.  I walked down to the beaver dam site and it's now a very solid sandbar that backs up a big pool, but that's it.  

White Deer

  White deer in Wisconsin.  I've got the Paul Caponigro photo Running White Deer upstairs that I have had for 20 years or more.  I think that photo was made in Ireland in 1967.  Never seen a white deer in East Texas. 

Midway = Christmas

  Midway see-through, extended, Weaver mount, all-aluminum rail on the AR with my Leupold 16X Target scope.  Is this cool, fast and cheap...or what?  Equally cool and borrowed, though not as precise, scope and mount on top.  

  All over the country, thousands of times a day.  Some folks may fret or worry over it, but for me and others it's just like a mysterious bearded man in red bringing you what you WANT. 

 Like magic.  Like fairies.  (I guess..)  From a mysterious workshop far to the North.....wonderful gifts.

  In the mailbox today, early, (like all real gifts), for 13.00 including shipping AND an NRA round-up to support the gun-terror that grips this nation:  a Weaver rail adaptor for the carry handle on my AR.  Kind of makes a chin-gun out of the AR but I can overcome with a little bench technique.  This is just to check group size, not a permanent mount.

  I'm going to take both ARs out and shoot 80 grain Sierras at 500 yards with a this scope and a dead-calm day.  See what the group size looks like.

  Cheap as heck from Old Saint Mid, or borrowed from a friend for free.  I love Texas.

  Gosh, suppose the government, who hates gun stuff and capitalism....worked HALF as well as Midway....it would be a wonderful-er world!

Update:  No shooting today though it would be perfect.  Crawfish Boil and voting instead.  Pulled the brass from yesterday out of the tumbler.  Sure have some flat primers on the 80 grain cases....

Update II: Thi is a six inch Leapers.  6.49.

Rifle Testing

  Borrowed scope on the AR to check group size.  Shot pretty well but not a very clear scope.

  Leupold 16X on the match rifle to check group size.  Scope has focus so you can set it clearly.

  A windy warm day today.  84.  Feels like summer and the 20-30mph wind out of the SSW has whipped up a haze.  Awful.  

  I put a Leupold 16X target scope on my match rifle and a mounted a borrowed  fairly cheap scope on one of my ARs and went to the range to shoot off the bench.

  The match rifle shoots OK and that scope is preferable to the one on the AR.  The Leupold 16X is a real target scope.  80s shot 1 1/2 inch group at 100 yards.  69 Sierras opened up a little at 200 yards in a swirling wind.

  I need a dead calm day.  When my scope base comes in I'll reshoot the ARs with the Leupold.   Can't really trust this scope enough to get perfect data.

  Hogs rooting up the lawn of the 100 yard range.  I'd pour out corn and deploy about six leg-hold traps on chains.  Hope they have a plan.

  Brass is tumbling.  I wish I had thought of this before.  With a little help and a radio I can shoot at 500 with 80 grain Sierras, which ought to solve any mysteries.

Tracking Madly

  Michael Yon is still at the tracking school in Borneo.  Pretty useful and interesting stuff, especially the team tracking and urban tracking.

  I have several areas that Yon refers to as "track traps".  You can always see who is around by checking them.  One hunting area I used to have access to had a wide clay pad where an oil derrick had drilled.  I checked it every morning and evening coming and going from the blind.  When it rained it would dissolve and reset and you could start timing tracks from a known hour and day.

Smith County: Crime Capitol of Texas

 Looks like we lock up 4.22 per 1000, one of the highest in Texas.  Maybe I need to carry TWO bad guns instead of one.  I had no idea I lived among such a criminal class!

Sack of brass.

 258 cases of brass on the wall.  This is the fifth reload for most of these cases.

  Even with two events cancelled by rain this last weekend, I've got a big sack of .223 brass that just came out of the tumbler.  Took three sessions.  I must have picked up some extra brass.  I shot 36 in the team match, 68 in Infantry Trophy and 88 on Saturday.  I'm going to sit down and count the cases in this gallon ziplock.  Shouldn't have more than 192 pieces.  

  Sure was fun shooting it, even badly.

  Ordered a carry handle six-inch scope rail for my ARs from Midway.  They have quite a selection, though reading the comments warns you off several.  I'm not going to use it for a permanent mount, just to have the capacity to put a scope on an AR to check group size at the local range.  I wasn't happy with the 600 yard ammo once again.  I ruined some OK scores with bad long range shooting.

Update:  The actual count is 258.  Someone is short some brass.  All cleaned and sized now.  I guess I am officially a brass hog.

Adjusting.

  Mary Burton in April, 2006.

  Still a hole, and will be for a while, across the street where Mary Burton lived.  Very odd to look across to an empty house.  She was my neighbor for 30 years.

  Here's a typical Mary story:  Tyler is widely recognized as paradise.  Who lives in Paradise?   God.  If God lives in Tyler, then he lives in the Azalea District, the old red-brick street area.  IF God lives in Tyler in the Azalea District then he lives on the oldest part of it: Lindsey Lane.  If God lives on Lindsey Lane....then who is it? And isn't it a little like God to be not a man, but a woman...just to be contrary, the way God is known to be?   This made for a short list with Mary at the top.

  When asked directly if she was God, Mary would reply: "What do you think?"  When you sat back and thought it was obvious that Mary, in fact, WAS God.

The Fleas come back to Lindsey Lane.

  We have a little grey persian who is the best cat, (of some pretty good cats) that I have ever lived with.  I comb her several times a day when she jumps in my lap at the computer.  I use a comb with wire metal teeth, close set, that combs out dirt, hair and even fleas.  In the height of the flea season I can kill ten a day off her head and neck.  It's very satisfying and keeps them from ever getting a foothold.  

  The local numerous squirrel population is the source.  She's an inside-outside cat.

  By the first of the year I usually have the fleas totally wiped out, and as none are breeding outside, she gets a few months of flea-free life.  The last flea came off in late February.

  I keep combing through the non-flea months.  She likes it and it cuts down on the shed hair.  I've combed off enough fur to stuff a sofa off this little eight pound cat.

  Yesterday I killed the first flea of the year with the comb.  It's the Spring Fleaquinox!

  I don't know what you do to celebrate the Fleaquinox.  Just hunting and killing fleas is fun enough.

Update: So far just the one.

Panola Regional and Sunday rain-out.

  Kayte Foster pulling targets.

  200 yardline during sitting rapid.  Four relays so this is a quarter of the participants.

  The 200 yardline during the first relay of the Panola NRA Regional Match.

  Overhead view.

  L-R Medalists Michael Carter (Gold, 778X32), John Rhynard, (Bronze), and Keith Stephens, (Silver, 778X28).

  Team Day on Friday had nine four-man teams.  Saturday could have squeezed in one more shooter when someone didn't show.  Panola was close to range capacity. with four relays on 16 targets.  63 shooters.  

  Sunday the rain moved in during the early morning hours and made range conditions impossible.  The EIC/LEG match was rescheduled for Sunday during the TSRA High Power Championship at Camp Swift in three weeks.  The Pistol LEG was cancelled.

  Working on videos.

Update:  Videos up!  Team day and the Saturday  NRA are online on the Blackfork6 Channel.