Critters...
Tonasket Silhouette Match, February 2011
Tonasket silhouette match for February 2011
Around here Spring can’t seem to make up its mind whether to spring or not. The temperatures have been hovering around the high teens, low twenties for the last two weeks. As well as rifle and ammunition selection for silhouette shooters, fashion should be at the fore front of their thinking. I’m reasonably confident I committed a serious fashion faux pas today. I was betting it wasn’t going to warm up to 48 degrees by10:30. Arctic Carhartt coveralls and insulated pacs was a very bad choice. I did however layer under all that. Cleat just wore his same old suit and gave me that ‘just do it’ look. On a positive note I selected a fine Marlin rifle in 38-55 with standard barrel leaf rear and (Skinner) post front sights.
The rifle was zeroed at 50 yards and could just reach 200 with those sights and the 240 grain Laser Cast bullet sized .380”, over ten grains of Unique. I think on a couple of the long shots the bullets actually stopped for a snack and then continued on their way. When they arrived, there was no question, critters fell. I paired up with Dave K and we started on rams. Nine died. Dave, shooting a reproduction Winchester 1895 in .270, was right there as well. Rotated down to chickens and killed ten. Dave was with me. I was now really starting to sweat. Dang. Pigs went fairly well too. Dave shot over a few and I missed a couple. I hate missing a pig!
On to turkeys. While Dave was down setting targets, I’m trying to get down to a t-shirt. I’m glad Wet Dog wasn’t there with his propensity to video odd behavior. There’s still several inches of ice under several inches of slushy snow on the range, and all in all, it was slick. It required careful squirming and minimal gyrations on my part to keep from falling on my butt whilst disrobing. I was cooling off which was a relief but the sun picked that time to make a full-on appearance. My shiny new rear leaf sight reflected its brilliance and made it impossible to get a sight picture. More turkeys survived than fell. Dave experienced the same reflection impediment on his rear sight and an equally dismal results.
Another lesson learned. I’ll figure a way to matt the rear surface of that sight. Another fun silhouette match. Missed you Wet Dog. Here are a couple pix. Best Regards. Wind
The rifles…
Around here Spring can’t seem to make up its mind whether to spring or not. The temperatures have been hovering around the high teens, low twenties for the last two weeks. As well as rifle and ammunition selection for silhouette shooters, fashion should be at the fore front of their thinking. I’m reasonably confident I committed a serious fashion faux pas today. I was betting it wasn’t going to warm up to 48 degrees by10:30. Arctic Carhartt coveralls and insulated pacs was a very bad choice. I did however layer under all that. Cleat just wore his same old suit and gave me that ‘just do it’ look. On a positive note I selected a fine Marlin rifle in 38-55 with standard barrel leaf rear and (Skinner) post front sights.
The rifle was zeroed at 50 yards and could just reach 200 with those sights and the 240 grain Laser Cast bullet sized .380”, over ten grains of Unique. I think on a couple of the long shots the bullets actually stopped for a snack and then continued on their way. When they arrived, there was no question, critters fell. I paired up with Dave K and we started on rams. Nine died. Dave, shooting a reproduction Winchester 1895 in .270, was right there as well. Rotated down to chickens and killed ten. Dave was with me. I was now really starting to sweat. Dang. Pigs went fairly well too. Dave shot over a few and I missed a couple. I hate missing a pig!
On to turkeys. While Dave was down setting targets, I’m trying to get down to a t-shirt. I’m glad Wet Dog wasn’t there with his propensity to video odd behavior. There’s still several inches of ice under several inches of slushy snow on the range, and all in all, it was slick. It required careful squirming and minimal gyrations on my part to keep from falling on my butt whilst disrobing. I was cooling off which was a relief but the sun picked that time to make a full-on appearance. My shiny new rear leaf sight reflected its brilliance and made it impossible to get a sight picture. More turkeys survived than fell. Dave experienced the same reflection impediment on his rear sight and an equally dismal results.
Another lesson learned. I’ll figure a way to matt the rear surface of that sight. Another fun silhouette match. Missed you Wet Dog. Here are a couple pix. Best Regards. Wind
The rifles…
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
Wind,
Great report, good to see the pictures. That south wind really picked up, were you guys done before that?
Any idea of what load Dave was using in that 1895?
Fine job you getting 10 chickens, and 9 rams is no small feat either!!!
I've got this Marlin 1889 that I bought from mm93 in .38-40 pretty much ready to try in a match. Ran into a computer problem I'm still working on before I can pay my crew, thought it would be bad to be enjoying myself when there was work to be done. So I missed out.
Dave K sounds like he did well too, he was my spotter last month and did a worthy job.
Who won the match and with what score??????? Saw at least one new shooter up there when I brought my targets up that I hadn't seen before, always good to see new shooters. We're all getting older, hard to recognize but he might've been an old state trooper, one of the good ones!
Hope to be up there next month, thanks for the report.
GEOFF
Great report, good to see the pictures. That south wind really picked up, were you guys done before that?
Any idea of what load Dave was using in that 1895?
Fine job you getting 10 chickens, and 9 rams is no small feat either!!!
I've got this Marlin 1889 that I bought from mm93 in .38-40 pretty much ready to try in a match. Ran into a computer problem I'm still working on before I can pay my crew, thought it would be bad to be enjoying myself when there was work to be done. So I missed out.
Dave K sounds like he did well too, he was my spotter last month and did a worthy job.
Who won the match and with what score??????? Saw at least one new shooter up there when I brought my targets up that I hadn't seen before, always good to see new shooters. We're all getting older, hard to recognize but he might've been an old state trooper, one of the good ones!
Hope to be up there next month, thanks for the report.
GEOFF
Good photos! Glad you guys had fun, it's been an oddball winter for sure - and the snow/ice situation reflects that.
Well boys and girls -- Decided to take the shine off the rear surface of the rear sight this morning. Gave it three firm strokes face down on a new 100 grit belt sanding belt. A new belt has sharp aggressive abrasive material. By running it with the resulting grooves parallel with the ground plane I figured it should contribute to glare reduction. A dip in a cold blue bottle and voila...Here is a pix of one before and the "after" (on the left.). Hope this helps. Best regards. Wind
1 - 6 of 6 Posts
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