Dead Cow Cam: Month off.

Still draws a crowd now and again.

Young nursing coyote.

Coyote starts at the opening.....

...and actually crawls inside the ribcage.

Local possum.

The batteries were at 45% and a moth had cocooned the sensor. Not many late photos. The cow is still an articulated skeleton inside a dried skin. Something dragged it to the treeline but the cam didn't catch it. One leg missing....from underneath.

Zero crows. Hawks haven't shown in a month. No dogs. No pigs. Hard to drag the whole thing. New batts coming.

More Owlfest

Overhead owls in the main tree near the knothole nesting site.

Look at those pink feet!

Two youngest in another tree.

Owl baby count up to five. Seems about right. I'm tempted to help out with the feeding by zapping a squirrel and cutting up into bite-sized pieces with shears.

Screech Owls out of the knothole.

Just for the record, here's the hen sitting in the knothole on a rainy day back in March. Chest and face markings are slightly different than the male and she's a little bigger.

The adult male trying to ignore the crowd.

Grey-phase Screech Owl chick. The fuzzy ball approach to camo.

This is the adult male. He's a little smaller than the hen.

Owl fans shamelessly mugging for FB profile photos.

Calm chick.

Finger transfer in progress. I've known several folks who had pet Screech Owls. One lady sat hers on the window sill while she was washing dishes and a wild one would fly down to visit.

Once I explained how to get a bird to step back on your finger by putting it behind his legs, this young lady INSISTED on holding the owl. I sent them an email file and walked up a real print.

Celebratory owl art.

Monitoring the owl nest in the knothole. Today both adults were in leafy limbs just outside and once we got to looking, three chicks as well. Several folks in the neighborhood stopped by and we had a little owl-fest. Dangerous but inevitable time for the chicks. They can't stay in there forever.

One of the little neighborhood girls spotted a baby down low enough to finger and several folks got to hold it for photos. Owls calm at this age. He popped his beak at us and the adults shifted around a little but everyone back on their limbs and calm by the time we left. Might be another chick in the hold.

Blue, the street cat who was an owl threat died earlier in the spring. Might help the mortality rate on little owls.

Until the Sun no longer sets in the West, I will shop there no more forever.

Out of Varget. Thought I might add a mere pound from Gander Mountain. I figured they would be in the 25.00 range, a rip-off, but still no more than a good lunch. They had the eight pound jug only. Was it 103.00, like we paid a Camp Perry a few years ago? 109.00, like we paid two years back? 134.00, as the Obamamania started? No. 199.99. An insult. And I had to drive all the way down there to be schooled.

No more. I will NEVER darken the doors of Gander Mountain, no matter if Bridgette Bardo is giving away Sierra MatchKings with a matching hat in their store. Never. Done.

Alan is fronting me a keg from his stash. Ordered Lapua Scenar 75s from Sinclair. I SPEND money, reasonable money, on the shooting sports but I'm not going to ever spend another cent at Gander Mountain.

Foster EIC video up.

Nice little video from the Panola NRA Regional weekend LEG match on Sunday. Kayte Foster a teenage Sam Houston State University student, Ron Leraas, a long-suffering EIC pilgrim and Gregg Foster, Katye's dad all legged out at home-sweet-Panola. Nice crowd, great folks and some cool gun handling, plus hat competition. Brought to you by Hefner Roofing, let us shingle your shack!

Panola NRA Regional Match.

Clay Hefner, Tommy Laing and Karl Schultz firing during Infantry Trophy Match.

Infantry Trophy Targets standing up 600 yards away in the rain.

Most NRA Regionals start with a "team day" on Friday. Not everyone can make it but we have a crowd at Panola. 10 teams or so for a four-man 30 shot Presidents 100 team match and as many Infantry Trophy teams.

Team Blackfork won the IT and was second in the 4-man. Good shooting in spots though we struggled in I.T. with my rifle. Ended up shooting standing at 600 yards. I shot three rounds and had two hits. Rifle had extraction problems. Probably the old brass I was using.

Since the rain was blowing in and out we shot the entire IT match off the slab at 600 yards. Our winning score was 608. (Langham/Sepaugh/Alan Wilson) Our 4-man team score was 1123. Team Sabine, (Foster, Rynard, Nash, Stephens) won with an 1151.

Range capacity tomorrow for the 80 shot NRA Regional Match. Shooting my Match rifle.

TSRA Mid-Range Video is up.

On the Blackfork6 Youtube Channel. Lotta good shooting at Camp Swift.

San Jacinto Day

Hard to believe what a reversal of fortunes today represented. Santa Ana had destroyed the Alamo and put the garrison and leaders to the sword. His forces had captured and executed the largest and best equipped Texan army at Goliad. He was merely chasing the last rabble out of the state in back into the woodlands and swamps of the Eastern Texas coast. For all practical purposes the rebellion was over. Santa Ana was entertaining a local beauty, one of a series of conquests during his campaign, in his tent. Then the Texians swarmed across the pasture, into the camp and killing and scattering his army in 19 minutes.

The first news accounts must not have been believed. Disaster had turned into victory. Houston got Santa Ana in hand and forced him into sending orders to withdraw to Mexican troops in San Antonio and elsewhere and signed and agreement not to invade again. Houston sent him home via Washington DC. It took nearly a year and by the time Santa Ana got back to Mexico City his government had long since fallen and been replaced. He was in disgrace.

Amazing times when the rabble turned the tables on the Napolean of the West and won independence for Texas in 19 minutes on a muddy field near Buffalo Bayou.

Daily Deercam

Little buck at the scrape.

Bigfoot panic!

Doe at the scrape.

Nice long deer.

Crabapples up.

Got across the creek today to switch batteries and cards on the cams. Gotten jungle-y in there.

Wilson and Crawford.

Dave Wilson scoring as Rick Crawford fires at 500 yards.

I was squadded on the same firing point as Dave Wilson and Rick Crawford. Very experienced competitors. It is always a learning experience to score them as they and shoot. Crawford shot an 1187X63 for third place overall in Iron sights. Beat most of the folks shooting scoped rifles off tripods, (though they do shoot at a smaller target). Dave was a little behind me. I'm reminded of what excellent people are in the sport and how fortunate we are to know them when I get a chance to spend a weekend shooting with folks like Dave and Rick.

TSRA Mid Range Championship

Smiling David Guthrie and his AR15.

Serious shooting at 600 yards.

Girl Power: Bailey Fairchild at 600.

Sierra Scott at 600 yards.

AR in the F-Class line.

My favorite photo of Ray Diaz.

F-Class shooters at 500 yards.

Guard shooters on day Saturday. We had them training with us for one day.

Jose Neira and daughter Karina.

Firing line at 300. Ray Diaz and his M1A on the end.

Keith Stephens won the Iron Sight overall match with a 1193X73. 73 Xs out of 120 shots. Very well adminstered match as usually with Gaby and Crawford. David Mann was the F-Class Champion with a 1195X77.

Cat Zen

I'm running around like a headless chicken getting ready for a rifle match. Leave the house with the cat asleep deep in the coverlet of the bed. Return a hour later and she's still in there. Some beings know how to manage their lives.

If you aren't keeping up with Molly the barn owl you'll be shocked to see how big and gangly the kids have gotten. Quite a group. McGee brought home a rabbit the other night that wasn't dead and Molly had to get up and kill it on live streaming video. Rabbit was screaming and shrieking, as appropriate. Carlos cut the live feed and went to a slide show. Now the site has a warning banner on the top. In the chat room folks were shocked that owls ate.....meat. I guess they figured Californian Barn Owls were vegetarians.

Blank card on the dead cow cam yesterday. Unknown.