A Good morning to All !
Yesterday was a fun sort of day ... sort of .... I wanted to sight in a new T-Bolt 17 HMR . went to the "Room " to find the other half of base for my shooting rest . wound up cleaning "Room " for 4 hours . finally found other half of rest last night . It's a thing I built a few years back . Has 2 pieces . A main bag rest and a add on rear bag rest . Can be used either way . I took it apart a few years back and stashed the tail in the "Room " some where . The "Room" is my spot in the house that I built just for me .... well that lasted till the paint was dry . Wife likes it for storage of ...potatoes , oranges , tulip bulbs , paper towels , toilet paper (all bought in BULK ) My "Room " shrunk ! My "Room" is only 6'4" X10'4" In it is ... 2 gun safes , reloading bench with cabinet on top , old kitchen cabinets with counter top across end , shelving built for ammo , reload supplies , etc. Room for one person to work . Not heated so it makes for great cold storage of the afore mentioned potatoes ,tulips, etc. etc.
I was still seriously vacuuming out the dead spiders , when good friend John comes along .
He has with his two grandsons ages 11 and 13 . Also had his old winchester pump .22 and his dads old Remington bolt.22 Both around 50 years old.
The boys wanted to shoot gophers so we went down to the range to sight in all the rifles . I keep a
"6 pack "of Iron Gophers @ the range for entertaining guests .
The Adults sighted in their new toys while the boys ran the spotting scope and binoculars .
After we got the 17's on paper good enough , we let the boys shoot a few rounds @ the Iron gophers . Once the felt comfortable with the open sight rifles and were hitting good solid shots @ 25 yards on the gophers we decided to go look for the real thing .
Also fired off a couple of clips through the "Ruger Charger " Banana clips of 25 rounds . Fun action for all on the flipp'n iron gophers . Boys thought that was a hoot to shoot . The Grandpa also . The smiles on the boys faces was neat . Wish I had taken pictures .
With all sighted in we took a little road trip in search or the mighty Richardson Ground Squirrel .
First stop was down the road 1 1/2 mile . 2 gophers out in a pasture . 3 shot rule applies . If you miss 3 times it's some one else's turn . After both boys missed 3 shots , Grandpa John did the 17 HMR trick to them . Up the road another 4 miles to a grain bin sight . Quite a few gophers around there so the boys got to get in a bit of practice . Grandpa John did not get to shoot much as the boys picked up on the targets and did a good job . They both have their own scoped rifles @ home and are good shots with them , using the open sights was a challenge that they were up to . After about 5 gophers there we drove up to a road that goes through a couple sections of pasture . Shooting left and right the boys got quite a few . The weather got a bit cooler and a bit of breeze picked up . It was right raw out side. This old mans eye water in those conditions . (not to mention a running nose to boot )
we wandered down to the ranch house and turned around and shot our way out .
Last stop was the grain bin sight again . The wind let up , seemed like it warmed up and a dozen more gophers went to MREC, MR EH . (Meals ready to eat , Coyote , Hawk)
Longest shot (for the boys)was 100 yards with the pump Winchester . The 11 year old was on a hot streak . Nearly every shot fired from 25 to 75 yards was a hit .
I have a bale counter mounted to suction cup on windshield . Unless a definite hit is seen the boys had to go bring back blood spoor to call it a hit .
All told we got 35 . Boys got most , I shot 2 to try out the sighting in of the 17 Savage.
Home by 6 PM . Happy boys , they had a delightful afternoon .
Mean while the vacuum was still waiting .....
