Well, well, well, this San Juan hunt just keeps getting more and more interesting.

My workouts are going very well and my left knee has completely quit aching.  I suppose I have finally found out the doctors were right all along…get some exercise!  I feel a whole lot better as well.  After just one week I have gotten better at the workout I have decided on for both leg strength and cardio.  Today I went up a couple of notches to a program called “Canyon Run”.  It’s a 30 minute baby that starts you off walking at a pace of 2.0, incline 1 (Duh) and about 7 minutes into it you are jogging at 4, incline of 5….10 minutes later you realize you were running at a pace of 6 and an incline of 8…10 minutes of running time!  Boy howdy was I ever sweating.  Then of course it slows down but still has you jogging at 4 up inclines varying from 4 to 8 again.  It doesn’t slow down past 4 until the last 4 minutes.  A very good workout for legs and cardio if you ask me.  I think from now on I’ll mix the two best ones I’ve found so far and alternate them.  They are both 30 minute workouts and do the speed and the inclines.  Good stuff!

Well, now after the qualifying (or not) at the range for the cow elk hunt, Weasel and I went on over to Smithfield and picked up Black Arrows, rocking horse.  He is lending it to us for the rendezvous and the plan for it is included in the Mountain Man Limpics and the Booshway Shoot.  We brought it back and I put a wrench to it to make sure it will hold up under the pressure.  It looks really good!

Black Arrow had planned on pulling off a special shoot using it this year, but his health got in the way.  HOWEVER!  He did take me up on the use of my Homeless Mountain Man Trailer and WILL BE AT RENDEZVOUS!!!!!  We are very glad he and his bride “Sly Mouse” will be there!  Good times will be had by all!

So, after the horse is on the lawn I looked over toward Windy’s place and see a good friend Cody standing there.  I called him on the cell and told him there was something he had to see…over he came.  The “pony” was a hit and he had a million questions about it.  Like always I invited him to attend the rendezvous but he said his wife’s family have their own deal and he feels obligated to attend that event.  Family life begins with a happy wife!

So, small talk leads to smaller talk and pretty soon we are talking about the upcoming hunts.  He told me when the drawing was taking place and he realized it was the last day to apply, he went on line to do just that and it was then that he realized his combination license had expired and he had no time nor money to buy one and so he had to let the application go undone!  Bum deal right there.

But his uncle and his dad both got their applications in and both drew their deer tags and his uncle drew out on a Limited Entry elk tag!  Happy times!  Cody and his dad are both planning on going with his uncle to help with the elk hunt.

Well a couple of weeks ago, his dad got a call from the DWR saying they had a tag turned in and he had the option to turn it down or take it!  Of course he took it (sound familiar?).  I asked Cody where the tag was for and he said the same area that his uncle drew…some place that starts with an “S” and the hunt doesn’t start until sometime in November!

He is going to check with his dad, but could it be that they both have the late San Juan tags also?  That would be great!!!!  A chance to meet his famous uncle and a chance to hunt with his dad (I like his dad) and him!  I’ll keep you posted on this “possible” change of events!

Bears Butt

August 22, 2013

I have to tell you, I mentioned the fact that I have got to get myself into some sort of shape for this bull elk hunt that’s coming.  I have plenty of time, but I need to get after it.

Both yesterday and this morning I did a 30 minute workout on the wifes tread mill.  Hers has an option where you can dial in a “mountain hike” and off you go.  It starts out at a speed of 2.5 and an incline of 1 and before it’s over you are jogging up a 6 incline at speed 4 and maintaining that for over 5 minutes.  The cool down time takes the last 5 minutes and by the time I’m done, I’m sweating like a fool, my legs are burning and I’m dizzy as all heck.

Am I out of shape or what?  I’m very glad I started when I did.  My game plan is to get used to this type of work out for a week or so and then start to put on more bulky clothing, like I’ll be hunting in.  Heavy boots, jacket, back pack with stuff loaded into it.

I changed things up a bit this morning after the tread mill deal, I know I need to stretch after the workout and so this morning I stretched by laying on my stomach and getting into push up mode, pushing my hands away from the head of my body so as to stretch the calf muscles out.  While in that position I went ahead and did 10 push ups and then held my body up until my arms turned to mush.  Game over for that workout.

I feel great and I can feel my hips are the worst.  I can’t imagine packing out 75 to 100 pounds of meat without it breaking down your body big time if you aren’t in some sort of shape (besides round) and have endurance and some stamina built in.

I’m not keeping track of weight as that is not my goal, my goal is to be able to hike a mile up the mountain without stopping at perhaps a 3 mph pace.  I think if I get to that point I’ll be in good enough shape to pack out a bull elk.

Bears Butt

August 16, 2013

Yesterday was a very hot day, right at the 100 degree mark, but that didn’t discourage Sherry and I from making the trip up to the Logan Gun Range to try out my newly bore sighted Ruger.

I was feeling very confident on having the barrel floating and the scope bore sighted with the Bushnell bore sighter.   Remember that I had used the lazer sighter first, got the scope in on top of that little red dot out at 25 yards and then put the Bushnell guy in the barrel and adjusted the scope over to zero using the grid system that is built into the Bushnell.  Also, remember that I started moving over to zero from 6 squares right and 3 1/2 squares up (it’s important that you remember this).

I took plenty of time putting the cross hairs on that bulls eye out there at 100 yards and slowly moved the trigger until the gun went off.  I just knew that when I put my eye to the spotting scope there would be a hole very near the center.

My eye pressed closely to the eye piece of the spotting scope and the paper was just as clean of holes as when I stapled it on the back board.  My eye scanned the large cardboard backing for holes…none….I looked at the wooden frame around it….no holes!  Where in the heck did that bullet go?

I sat back down at the rifle and out of frustration picked it up and sighted down range through the scope.  My mind was racing…now what?  I could throw another round down range, but it would go where the last one did and I still wouldn’t know where the barrel was pointing.  And then I remembered reading about the old fashioned way of bore sighting, that’s right, looking down the center of the barrel.

I positioned the rifle so it would be easy to look down the open breech at the target and then slowly raise my head and see where the cross hairs of the scope were looking.  To my surprise the scope cross hairs were pointing very much low and to the left of the target, like OFF THE PAPER entirely!  I employed Sherry to do the adjustments as I held the rifle in place.  She slowly moved the left/right adjustment until the vertical “hair” was under the vertical line of the target.  I kept checking “through the bore” and then the scope.  This took a few minutes.  And then the same for the horizontal “hair”…pretty soon the two worlds came together.  Time for another shot.

The shot was made with the same precision as the first one and when the eyeball was put up against the spotting scope there was a hole, high on the target and directly above the bulls eye!  I was becoming a happy guy.

I lowered the reticle (see I’m getting better at the scope stuff) and fired another round.  The bullet hit 1.8 inches above the bull!  Now we are getting places!  I pulled the next shot and it hit about 5 inches high and to the right.  My next shot hit just to the right of the one above the bull about 2 inches.  I was pretty happy about all of this.  Sherry convinced me to let the barrel cool and take one last shot.  I waited about 10 minutes and fired one more, it printed right under the last one!

My thoughts now went to the holes on the paper.  All of them are either right above the bull or to the right.  I need to move the vertical reticle to the left a bit…I move it ever so little and then fired shot number eight!  2 inches high and 1 inch left of the bull.  That could have been me moving as even on 9 power it’s hard to hold that scope on the target exactly.  I’m sighted in!

The ride home was pleasant with lots of good thoughts running through my pea brain….I remembered what I was going to do once I got home…put that Bushnell bad boy bore sighter back into the rifle and check the position of the cross hairs against its grid.

Looking through the scope, the cross hairs were on the Bushnell grid at position 5 squares right and 4 1/2 squares up!  That’s one square left of where it was after lazer bore sighting and one square up.  I could have saved myself a whole lot of pain and bullets had I just left the scope set at the lazer sight in position!

So, for all you Bushnell bore sighter believers and followers of good equipment…I’d chuck the Bushnell type and get myself a good old lazer bore sighter and save yourself head ache and frustration and bullets.  Especially when bullets are $1.50 each!

Bears Butt

August 16, 2013

Today is Thursday and Sherry wants to go with me to sight in the old Ruger.  Remember I sanded down the stock and bore sighted it.  It will be very interesting to see if it will print holes one on top of the other like it should.

Ever since I bought the rifle it has been rather erratic and for a quality rifle it hasn’t been spot on like I expected it to be.

It has brought down two deer and an elk, but I’m not so sure those weren’t just accidents.

I need it to be consistent and bring home two more elk this year.  Not much time left to play around with it.  Next Wednesday will be our qualifying day for the antlerless elk tag we have up at Deseret Land and Livestock property and I have to have the rifle I’m going to use to qualify with.  If something happens and I’m unable to get it to print consistently, I’ll have to resort to my muzzleloader, which wouldn’t be a bad deal anyway.

Bears Butt

August 15, 2013

Well, I’ve just about exhausted the reading about how the Ruger No. 1 rifles were planned and put together and how some people have glass bedded their barrels, while other have installed set screws under the mounting bracket and how others have put a bit of pressure on the forward part of the stock etc. etc. etc.

I suppose to all the gun enthusiasts who enjoy this sort of thing that in the interest of putting bullets on top of each other at the range these things are very important.  As for me, I just want a rifle that will hit what I aim at consistently.

In all my reading one thing seemed to keep coming up and that is that nothing should impede the movement of the barrel when it is fired.  What that means to me is that the barrel must be completely free from contacting any part of the stock.

Yesterday a good friend stopped by and wanted to see my rifle.  The first thing he did was pull a dollar bill out of his wallet and tried to fit it between the stock and the barrel.  His first comment was…It ain’t floated!

We took the forearm off and this is what we saw.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the barrel has been rubbing very hard against this part of the forearm.  The other thing to notice is the depth of the barrel chamber below this “Lip”.  That is a full 1/8 inch of lip on this stock.  Apparently, Ruger either intended for the barrel to have this wood touch the barrel, or the manufacturers of the forestock didn’t have their tooling set properly.

So, after all  my reading I found where “somewhere” someone said that Ruger had intentionally wanted to have a 12 pound “up pressure” on their barrel from the forearm stock.  That doesn’t make any sense to my way of thinking.  Maybe some pressure, but not 12 pounds!  And even some pressure would impede the barrels movement, I would think.

So, I went to work with my dowel and sandpaper.  Sanding a little and checking with a dollar bill.  Sanding and checking.  Sanding and checking.

Pretty soon I had the lip completely off.

And while checking with the dollar bill I had to keep sanding to get the barrel completely free floating and ended up sanding the entire barrel channel.

Back on the rifle it didn’t change the looks one bit, and I sure hope that the floating barrel will produce the kind of groupings I hope for.

Next week it will be back on the range to see if I ruined the gun or not.

Thinking of what I have done by removing that much wood and taking away that much pressure from the barrel.  My thoughts are that the rifle will shoot a whole lot lower than it did on my last range escapade.  Is my thinking correct?

Bears Butt

August 5, 2013

I’m sorry folks, but I messed up and deleted my images files and of course when I did that my pictures went with it!

Bears Butt

August 14, 2013

The last message I had in this category was having sanded my rifle forearm about 1/8 of an inch to get it away from touching the barrel of my rifle.  Since then the rifle has been in storage and waiting patiently for my return.

I borrowed two different bore sighters from Fat Duck today and employed them both just to see the difference.

Don’t get me wrong because I don’t know which one will get me on paper the best but here are my results.

One is a Cabela’s brand Lazer jobbie that has multiple caliber adapters and could fit into most any caliber gun.  You attach a small plastic tip to the end of the pointer and insert it into the muzzle end of the barrel and then turn it until it’s tight.  Turn on the light and you are ready to go.  It is a simple thing and worked rather well if you ask me.  The down side was I could only scope out to 25 yards with it, which according to all the web sites I’ve been on is plenty of distance and the additional 75 yards you will shoot to zero the rifle should still allow the bullet to hit paper.

So, I took my time and really fine tuned the scope to that little red dot out there at my measured 25 yards.  The scope wasn’t that far off considering what I had done to the stock.  The instructions said that if I did this the bullet would hit the paper out at 100 yards.

I was happy with what I had done and so I put the thing away.

Just out of curiosity I then got out the Bushnell bore sighter, found the insert that fit my 7 mm and set it up according to the instructions.  After getting the scope cross hairs lined up with the sighter system cross hairs (horizontal and verticle) but not necessarily exactly one on top of the other so that the cross hairs aligned, I counted the squares that my scopes cross hairs were off from the sighters cross hairs.  Each square represents a 4 inch distance from the center of the bore of the rifle at 100 yards.

My scope said that my bullet would hit 6 squares to the right and 3 1/2 squares high!  People, that’s 24 inches to the right and 14 inches high!!!!  I would have to be shooting at a refrigerator box layed on its side in order to hit it!

I was sort of beside myself at the difference between the lazer and this other one.  I ponder splitting the difference and moving my cross hairs half the distance to this systems zero, but then said, what the heck and moved my cross hairs to the center of the systems cross hairs.

While reading the instructions it said that if the scopes cross horizontal hairs fall below the horizontal cross hairs on the system that it will hit 4 inches high per square at 100 yards.  So in reality what I saw was my scope would hit 24 inches to the right and 14 inches low, because the scopes cross hairs were above the systems horizontal cross hair line.

Not being a scope shooter, this is crazy thinking to me.  It makes sense to me that if I see the cross hairs above it should be aiming above and if it’s right it’s right and if it’s left it’s left.  The paperwork said nothing about if the scope cross hair is to the right of the vertical that it would hit left of the target at 100 yards and so I trust that common logic hold true here and that right means right and left means left.

I have still not wrapped my head around the high means low and low means high stuff.

So, whenever I do finally get to the range to shoot, I’ll have you on my side about which bore sighter was the more accurate.  Remember I was 6 squares to the right and 3 1/2 squares high, in my view.  Don’t get confused with the 24 inches right and 14 inches low stuff.  When I get finished zeroing my rifle I’ll put the Bushnell system back into the bore and look again at the scope settings as compared to the systems cross hairs and report just where I had to move the scope to zero it.  We may find that the lazer was the king and we opted for a queen (or Joker).

Bears Butt

August 13, 2013

Concerned about my Ruger number 1 rifle and it’s lack of consistency in hitting the target where I am trying to make it hit, I put a thread out on my favorite outdoors forum, Utah Wildlife Network.  Check them out sometime.

Anyway, it didn’t take long for one of the older members of the forum to come back with the fact that the forearm mounting screw just might be too tight.  I don’t know these pork gun issues as well as perhaps I should and so I went on line to see if I could find anything out there to support this guys claim as one of my rifles possible  issues.

What I found was that a whole bunch of Ruger No. 1 owners have experienced the same thing as I have and that the mounting screw seems to hold the key to making them more accurate.  More pressure means some tension against the barrel, which when fired, causes the movement of the barrel to be inconsistent…harmonics it’s called.

I kept digging and found an article printed in 1977 in Rifle Magazine.

http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/ri51partial.pdf

It was around that date that Sherry picked up my Ruger rifle and so to have an article written at that time explaining the issue makes a lot of sense.  The Ruger No. 1 rifle was like the coming out of an old rifle action, the falling block, and putting it on a new fangled stock and in modern calibers.  I fell in love with the lo0ks of the rifle and the fact that it was a single shot rifle made it even more intriguing, since I’m very big on saving bullets and making that one shot count.

So too for others who bought the rifles in various calibers and I’m sure some of them have never fired their guns, they just bought them to say they have them and to show them off to their buddies.  But for those of us who bought them to use them, we quickly found that although they could produce some tight sighting in patterns, the consistency in those groupings  from year to year was lacking.

I worked with a fellow who also bought a Ruger No. 1 in 308 caliber about the same time as I got mine and his comments were that his first shot fired at the range would go wherever it wanted to go and then after that the bullets would begin to pattern.  Mine is the same way and so I don’t clean it if I am planning on using it within a month or so.  Did Soda Grizz learn this the hard way too and that is the reason he doesn’t ever clean any of his guns?

Bears Butt

August 4, 2013

Weasel and I headed out to shoot our rifles again today.  We went to the Three Mile Creek range West of Perry…they were open, but had no range master.  I called the Box Elder County Sheriffs office and asked them if it would be ok to shoot without the range master present.  They said no.

So there we stood for 45 minutes waiting for no-one.  Meanwhile another shooting enthusiast came and we left him after he had been there over a half hour.  We decided to head over to the Logan range.

These sight in mean a lot at this time of year.  For one, my 7mm was not sighted in the last time because I had forgotten to take a tool to open up the vertical adjustment locator.  After shooting that time, I came home opened up the adjustment port and cranked it down 20 clicks.  I figured at 1/4 inche p/click it would put it down the 5 inches it was too high.

So, back at the range I expected to hit right about an inch high above the 100 yard bull…BLAM….7 inches LOW!  I mean below the paper low!  My mouth dropped open.  I cranked it up 10 clicks, shot 2 shots, and hit about half way toward the bull.  I cranked it up 5 more clicks, shot 2 shots and it was still hitting low, but a bit closer.  I cranked it up 5 more clicks, shot 2 shots and it was just over top of the bull about 2 inches but all the shots I had taken today were to the left about 3 inches.  So I moved the sight to the right about 5 clicks.  Let the barrel rest and cool down a bit and then shot 4 more shots, all of which hit between 2 and 3 1/2 inches high and right over top of the bull.  I don’t think I can do any better than that the way I shoot.  I consider it sighted in.

So, my biggest question:  Why did it not shoot exactly where it ended up shooting last time out?  It was shooting 7 or 8 inches high last week and I lowered the adjustment down those 20 clicks, which should have been 5 inches of adjustment downward.  I shoot and it’s wayyyy low, I end up cranking it up those same 20 clicks and it’s right where I want it…I don’t get it!

The mounts have been checked and they are all tight…Too tight?  Is there such a thing?

I was not resting the barrel on the wooden block, I was holding the stock in my left hand and the hand was resting on the block, so barrel float is still ok (or should be).

Do they make scope adjustments that are in bigger increments going in a downward direction than when adjusting upwards?  I would think not.

I don’t get it!

Anyway, we also had my 17 hmr to put to the test and it too was way out of adjustment, now it is almost a tack driver at 100 yards.

Then over to the 22 range and 50 yards to sight in the Ruger 10-22’s that both Weasel and I have.  Mine required just a bit of adjustment to bring it home at the 50 yard line.  Weasels adjusted in quickly from its newly mounted scope and bore sighting.

So, all the rifles are ready for action.

Bears Butt

August 3, 2013

So you just finished reading “Where to Shoot an Elk”, I’ll tell you the answer…”Right next to the road”!  That’s where you shoot an elk!

So all day long and I suspect from now until the hunt begins I’ll be thinking about this hunt..I’m pumped…All the advise I’ve been given so far is just incredible and I’m sure glad I didn’t listen to some of the Nea-sayers because the “pump me up” people are so adamantly in favor of it, I guess I just can’t think of any reason not to be enjoying this ride.

Not only is the fact there that I could potentially shoot a magnificent animal, but I’ll be in some of the prettiest county in the USA to do it.  So, even if I dont’ fill my tag, so what?  I’ve already been in contact with people that have helped to pump me up and that alone is worth the price of the tag.

Speaking of which, I received it today…Tracker…do you want me to “show you the tag”??

There you go!

Bears Butt

August 1, 2013

Still more information being received about the San Juan Late Elk Hunt and more and more it looks like I made a correct decision on  accepting the tag.  I can’t let you know everything about this hunt and the information I have gotten, but I can tell you my attitude about this hunt is growing more and more positive all the time.  There are some very knowledgeable people out there who know this area very well.

As for me right now, I have a tough decision to make regarding shooting the first bull I see when on this hunt.  Maybe I need to consider my muzzleloader a little more as well.

Yesterday some discussion was had on where to shoot a big bull elk once it’s within range (say under 200 yards).  The key to shooting a big bull, according to my source, is to anchor it right where it stands.  His experience has been perfectly placed shots to the lungs and heart area which resulted in him having to track it for miles before he found it piled up.  This, according to him, happened more than once with one traveling 5 miles before he was able to get a second shot in it to put it down.  Upon cleaning the animals, the first one had both lungs collapsed but no hit to the heart.  The second on had one collapsed lung and no heart hit.  When you think about how big an elk is and the size of the chest cavity, you would have to know exactly where the heart sits in relation to the rest of the vital organs to make that shot especially if you were in a hurry to take the shot.

So, his advise is to shoot higher on the shoulder and hope to break the shoulder bones and possibly the backbone.  I’ll be dreaming about that shot for the next few months.

Bears Butt

August 1, 2013