September 1, Good morning Montana

[Double D]

Well another rainy drizzly day here in Cut Bank...sure hope the folks got the crops harvested...in the fields that have been harvested, maybe this will cause a bit of sprouting of the dropped seed.  Good for the deer, but might be more useful closer to October.

Gonna have to dig out the deer rifles and get them up to speed. Wife shoots a .243 that I cut down to fit her. It has a 11/5 inch lenght of pull. I normally do the sight in for her and then she finishes it off.  Hate shooting that stubby little thing as it bites me.  She says what's the problem..fits her just fine.  That's the secret get the gun fit to the shooter. 

I don't think I will be ready to reload by deer season so I will have to see what I have ammo for.I think I have 100 rounds of 338/308 AI, if so that will be my gun.  I have had good sucess with gun in the past. I built the gun on a Ruger 77 action; the old one with the tang safety.  2001 used it on Elk in the Sweetgrass Hills and A muley buck and white tail doe down on the flats.  The 200 grain Nosler Ballistic tips at 2500 fps sure seems a good combination for deer and elk. Accurate and good expansion at the slower velocity. Good large wound with limited meat lost.

I took the rifle to Africa in 2002 and also had goods success with it.  Took Kudu, Zebra, Wildebeest, Impala, Mountain Reedbuck and Springbok with the gun.

Only had one animal that required a second shot and that was the cow elk I shot in the Hills.  Bad shot placement, I spined her. No fault of the cartridge.

[Cottonwood]

I'm glad I don't have that worry right now, I suppose if I lived on your side of the rockies I would have kept my other centerfire long range rifles like the .243 Win and 30-06 but with more of my hunting done in the dark woods a good 30-30 and or my prefered Marlin 1895G in 45-70 is plenty.

But, most of my hunting this year will be with a S&W 629 6" .44 Magnum handgun at the pretty much the same ranges that I bowhunted at.

[Graybeard]

Speaking of rain, Gustav has I believe by now made landfall not so far from New Orleans. Wonder if this time it will wipe the city out for good?

We're getting clouds and wind now dunno when the rain will show up in my part of Bama. If they are right on the track and it keeps heading west we might not see too much rain from him at least for now. I'd as soon get none as we still need to get the metal on the roof of my barn side shed.

Matt was over until dark last evening and we got the roofing felt over the OSB so it should weather a rain OK if there isn't too much wind but the chances are there will be lots of wind. He is heading back over this afternoon some time to see if we can get the metal down before the storm gets here. Maybe it will keep on heading NW and you guys up in MT will get some rain from it.

[james]

Talked to my brother from Thompson Falls. He was heading to east MT to do some bird hunting then back to Lewistown to open bow season for elk on his ranch.  This is a busy time of the year.  My buddies and me are packing for our annual pilgrimage to Colo. for muzzleloader elk. We'll dove hunt  here in AR next weekend before we head out for Colorado. I cleaned some brass in the viberator but it was too hot to set up the press to deprime it in the garage. I'm looking forward to the cool mountain air.