I hope the PD hunt is excellent. That's a lot of fun. I'd like to do that again.
Questor Jr did some good work back in March with his first spot and stalk hunt at a preserve. He took an eating sized hog and a mouflon. He used his Tikka .308, which is a fabulous rifle for the money. It's the lightweight synthetic stainless left-handed model. Really sweet. Ammo was 150 grain Speers downloaded about 200fps in velocity to keep the recoil low. Bang. Thump. Very effective. I was hoping that this would be a good hunt for getting him past the buck fever stage. Afterward, he told me it wasn't a very challenging hunt. I agreed with him, and then in typical parental fashion found a tactful way later to remind him that his shot on the hog didn't hit where he was aiming (but killed the animal instantly anyway) and that it took two shots before he even hit the sheep (before the third one killed it instantly.) Hopefully it was a quantum leap for him. Our next hunt together, if there is one, will be for pronghorn. It's a great first guided hunt. But that's strictly optional. I feel I've done what I needed to do to get him into hunting. The rest will be largely up to him.
But I think he will probably find other interests. I sold some guns that were no longer being used and one was a Kimber 45, a good one. I offered him the unlimited use of the gun but he just wasn't interested. So I sold it.
On the same hunt I used yon 44 S&W 629 with Nosler partitions on an eating sized hog. I wasn't impressed with the bullets. May as well go back to using good hard cast bullets and get the better penetration. The first shot took the top of the lungs. Two follow-up shots went to the neck. The neck shots took the hog down, but did't kill it right away. A better first shot would have helped. I had forgotten that the vitals of a hog are lower than they seem because of the ridge of hair on the back of the animal. I was about 3 inches higher than I would have liked to be.
Florida was a fishing extravaganza. We trailered our 14 foot aluminum yacht, the HMS Questor, to the gulf and fished for a little of everything. Questor Jr still won't handle sharks. Can't understand why. In fishing I like the unusual, and got a good bit of it one day when big gafftopsail catfish were taking topwater plugs in 12 feet of water. I was having a ball. Usually a saltwater cat is an occasion for swearing at the bait stealer, but these were bigger fish, around 7 pounds. I've only occasionally caught cats on topwater baits before. This was a rare treat. Another big treat for me was catching my first pompano from the surf. Quite a great fish.
Jr had never been to the South before and this was a good orientation. He's not used to seeing black people in any numbers, and he had to adjust his hearing to understand what people were saying. Fathers Day, on our way down, he took me out for breakfast in Selma, and we talked about how important the civil rights movement was, and how we were in the seat of it then. We also discussed how delicious the ham was, as it can only be in the South.
How far are you from the north-south interstate that runs through B'ham?
