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My Home Page |
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My Pheasant Hunting Page |
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My Motorcycle Page |
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My Work Page |
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I will use this page to post and share a few scrap book type photos of various topics. These will be changed out frequently to match my mood and current events. |
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This is a snap taken at our prairie dog safari this summer. Clint is shooting his ugly little Savage with John spotting for him. You see, Fords do have a purpose in life. |
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This is another shot from that same trip. When Eric and I hunt together, we share the same bench and take turns spotting for each other. The spotter looks over the shoulder of the shooter and calls the hits / misses. The spotter should also be on the look out for the next target. There are no rules re: the number of rounds you fire, normally the shooter quits right after making a spectacular hit. I like to tell jokes to Eric, just enough to get him giggling when he should be holding still for the shot. He likes it when I do that.
Eric and I both hit our first shots of the year this year. That is always a good omen. He even got his with an audience.
A good spotter tells the shooter how far over / under or right / left you have missed the target by. Eric usually just says "you missed". Gotta love it. |
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Evening is often the best time to go shooting. Try to find a hillside that will be in the sun, shoot towards it. Prairie dogs show up nicely against the grass. The wind usually dies down a bit later on as well. |
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Another image from the hunt. Deer hunting and pheasant hunting involve a lot of effort. Not so with prairie dogging. This is the collection of guns and benches and rests that we had set up on a valley. We set up around mid morning and stayed there all day. This spot was way too much fun. As you can see, Mike really knows how to relax and get comfy.
I think this is also the scene of the forgotten ammo incident?
If I'm not mistaken, Mike's trigger finger was getting fatigued at this site as well.
Behind Clint's bench... ammo by the half gallon. He loads up so much ammo fora prairie dog trip that he doesn't bother to count rounds. He just puts them into a bulk half gallon container. That whole concept still cracks me up.
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Mike spotting for John. |
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Last light of the day. LONG shadows. IMHO - the BEST conditions to shoot. |
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THE JEEP. My cousin's run around vehicle when we were growing up. Originally my grandad's main form of transportation. that big iron pipe around the front was his 'bull pusher' Riding with him was more fun than a trip to Six Flags. Cousin Boo would drive, I would ride "shotgun". Literally. Together, we were a jack rabbit killing machine. Jacks are so scare now, I let them go any time I see them |
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My uncle Robert in the Miller, SD 4th of July parade. His restored Cushman scooter. It was last tagged in the 50s. My sisters and I bombed around on this scooter growing up. It was nick-named the Maxi Bike. Robert restored it a few years ago. |
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My dad - Frank. 80 yrs young. He rode the Builder's Cashway float. He still gets more work done in a week than I ever thought of doing... |
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This is my truck gun. Rem 788, .22-250, Leupold VariXII 3-9 Fixed Objective. Harris bipod, Uncle Mikes sling. Out of box stock. Stock trigger, stock barrel, factory wood stock, unbedded action. The only mods have been to remove the factory sights and run a set screw into the holes. It rides in a Rugged Gear overhead rack and stays with me all the time. |
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Inside the cab detail of the Rugged Gear, single hook, screw mount. I made quite a few modifications. The white spacer was needed to gain the extra length capacity. The butt plate on the gun is up next to the head liner. I had to shorten the rack and bring the mounting screw holes closer together in order to match the frame of my Chevy. |
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| Range results for my truck gun. Rather than show a bunch of blood and guts photos. |
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Results of my load's Alex Test. One water bottle at 100 yards. 50 grain Starke's at ~3600 fps. I think this is the back side of the bottle. The front had a bit of a slice in it. |
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This is the Joe Test. The standard method of showing how good a rifle shoots is to put a dime next to the group. The running joke is "yeah, but you missed the dime" Well, when I went to the range, it was 1 shot, 1 dead dime. I know I only winged it, but dimes are pretty easy to kill and the entire dime is in the vital zone. Felt lucky to have found the damn thing. |
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The last group I fired with this gun as equipped - shot in perfect conditions at 100 yards. I was just checking zeros and adjusting the scope. The 3/4" circle is drawn with a standard drafting template and is only an indication of group size. Soom folks just get way too anal about claimed groups and how to measure them. I just don't have time for it. I do a best fit with a circle template and go from there. I did shift the group over and down a bit before I left. Verified the scope setting by hitting the dime above. |
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New vs Old. You've seen the commercial... "I like new things, especially when they get old." These are our basic pheasant hunting tools. A garden shear to clip wings and legs off. An old knife of dad's. Hand made using stacked airplane windshield glass (plastic?) for the grip. The dark shotgun is the Browning BPS we won at last year's Pheasants Forever banquet. The light one is Eric's grandmother's shotgun... Built in 1961 or so - Browning Auto 5 Light 12. I've been carrying it for the past 10 years. It fits me like a glove. Eric is still trying to get used to the safety location on the BPS. Last year, one rooster got away while he searched for the safety. Same thing happened this year at least once. I'm surprised the trigger has held up as hard as he has squeezes it when that happens. I've offered to let Eric carry the Auto 5 but he won't. I love old guns. Especially old guns that have been in the family. |
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Every winter, I shoot indoors at the Sioux City Rifle and Pistol club. They have several league shoots over the winter, the first of which is an NRA 300 bullseye league. Below is my "best" target - you didn't think I would show you a bad one did you... This target was shot with a Colt Python that has a Weaver 2X scope. Targets are 50 feet from the firing line. This is not one-handed NRA style. Most use a two hand grip. I use a joeniv custom Weaver stance. Target scored a 95 - my best for the year. |
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I took Moonboy's Ruger heavy barrel to the range to get it ready for an upcoming coyote hunt. I want to burn thru some factory ammo before I develop a hand load for it. I took three different factory selections. As you can see, it is pretty easy to get that gun to shoot a 1" group. I "settled on the 52 grain HPBT from Winchester (lower right scan) and adjusted the scope settings. The upper left image is my zero check target. I love it when a rifle puts a bullet where you aim it... I'm anxious to see what this gun will do with handloads! |
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Sis in law Karen, niece Amber and brother Mike at Amber's graduation. |
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Moonboy in his dorm room chair. All of his worldly goods are packed in the boxes. |
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We all gathered in Brookings at the Beef Bowl to watch Moonboy perform with The Pride of the Dakotas marching band from SDSU. |
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Aunts Jane & Julie went over and checked out the band when they were in the stands playing. Moonboy did his best to ignore them, hoping they would go away. They didn't. |
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