m gardner

Food goes through a deer fairly fast, in 6 to 8 hours. So they need to get up and put more food in their bellies about 6 hours after they last fed. The smaller ones usually feel the urge first. If they laid down ay first light add 6 hours and you can expect to see some movement for at least 20 minutes or so. Mark

Look at Midway USA and Graff and Sons for deals on reloading stuff. The cheapest I've found here is Sportsman's Warehouse. Try some Hodgdon Varget powder. I like it here because it isn't very sensitive to the temperature extremes. I liked IMR 7828 SSC when I lived in Colorado but I get point of impact changes here with it. Hodgdon has loads for Barnes bullets on their website. They own IMR powder now too. Mark

I've got a pair of Danner Army Issue desert boots I use. They are plenty warm enough with a good merino wool sock. Rubber boots I take it are for scent control? I don't think I want them around Cholla's. I wear a pair of Danner Grouse Hunters when it's wet. Mark

The Hornady SST's are some of the most accurate wind resistent bullets I've shot in my 270 win. But on the downside, they aren't great game bullets. We shot some small to large deer with them and there are better bullets to kill critters with. I used H1000 powder and the 150 grainer to shoot prarie dogs at extreme long ranges. They would shoot into one hole at 200 yards in one rifle I owned. Mark

Here are some loads from www.hodgdon.com website. I use their 110 grain TSX bullet ahead of 50 grains of Varget. It's fast and flat. Varget appears to give the same velocity as 4831 from the data. It's a favortie powder of mine and has proven to be consisitent and accurate. I believe the grooves are there so that the bullet has less bearing surface so that you can attain greater velocity with the same pressures. It's hard to engrave a monometal bullet into the rifling. Mark 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon H1000 .277" 3.230" 57.0 2716 42,100 PSI 60.0C 2846 48,200 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX IMR IMR 7828 SSC .277" 3.230" 55.0 2815 48,700 PSI 60.2C 3083 62,400 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Winchester Supreme 780 .277" 3.240" 55.5 2882 52,900 PSI 59.0 3028 60,000 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon H4831 .277" 3.230" 54.0 2747 45,500 PSI 60.0C 3025 59,000 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon Hybrid 100V .277" 3.240" 52.2 2994 55,700 PSI 55.5 3144 63,100 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX IMR IMR 4831 .277" 3.230" 52.0 2822 46,600 PSI 57.0C 3113 61,700 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon H4350 .277" 3.230" 51.0 2905 52,500 PSI 55.5 3111 63,500 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon H414 .277" 3.230" 48.0 2840 50,400 PSI 52.5 3059 62,100 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX IMR IMR 4350 .277" 3.230" 50.0 2824 48,900 PSI 55.0C 3104 62,800 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Winchester 760 .277" 3.230" 48.0 2840 50,400 PSI 52.5 3059 62,100 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX IMR IMR 4007 SSC .277" 3.230" 48.0 2810 49,300 PSI 52.0 3037 61,500 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon H380 .277" 3.230" 47.0 2810 51,900 PSI 50.8 2989 61,600 PSI 130 GR. BAR TSX Hodgdon Varget .277" 3.230" 44.0 2849 54,800 PSI 48.0 3013 63,200 PSI

Ya gotta love that!

The president is elected by the electoral college not by the popular vote. We were never trusted with that responsibility. Some officials are appointed by other officials and not elected like Supreme Court Justices. We elect the rest and try to balance out any insanity by doing so. The senators and representaives that are up for re-election need to be looked at and that's where our concentration needs to be because we do elect them by voting. Mark

I believe that the electoral college will elect the president, not the popular vote. It's always been that way. All we can do is to elect who we can to tip the scales towards some sort of sanity. Mark

The 10 mm was adopted by the FBI and promptly loaded down because they couldn't handle the recoil in a standard size service pistol. I think it makes a great hunting caliber for mid sized game but not a self defense round. It is also a high pressure round which means it will eat up your pistol quicker. So won't the 40 or 9mm. The 45 ACP operates at low pressure and is easy on the gun. It's got a reputation for stopping fights quickly too. Mark

I shot tons of prarie dogs at hideous distances when I lived in Colorado. During that experience I learned that things start to get iffy much past 300 yards. The wind is your worst problem. It can blow several directions during the flight of the bullet. I've shot some bedded big game animals out to 500 yards, but had all the time in the world to do it and waited for the wind to die. Standing or feeding animals can move and cause you greif. One muley buck I shot in the head at nearly 400 yards across a canyon. That's all I could see. Trying to find the animal or find sign of a hit is your next problem. Walk a quarter mile or more, across rough terrain without someone guiding you to the spot and see how you do. I like to keep it under 300 yards if at all possible. That's a real long ways for most of us. As for ethics. Ethics are something people make up and subject to change. Mark

I have a bunch of bullets for a 6.8 SPC Rem. and while loading for my 270 winchester I got the idea that the 110 grain Barnes Tripleshock would be fun to try. I came up with a load of 50 grains of Varget and a standard CCI primer in my winchester cases. I don't know how fast it is going(probably close to 3400) but it groups consistently into 5/8 inch or less at 100 yards. I think it will kill a Coues deer and I'm trying it. Virtually no recoil and no holdover out to 350 yards on a 6 inch target. It recoils little enough that you can watch the bullet hit. The wind seems to not bother it much either. It's a pretty long bullet being monometal. I've always considered 300 yards long range so I guess it's my long range load. Mark

119 7/8. Nice buck!

I grew up walking and observing nature up close. You usually don't see much driving by, even at low speed. I learned to hunt and gather from expert woodsmen and they always traveled light and walked. I don't understand the mentality of the overequipped sportsman. I know they have a goal and are competitive. But I learned to see everything and love the journey as well. I'm different anyhow. I let some small bulls walk during the elk season that's going on now and shot a large cow instead. I was taught to shoot meat and be grateful and thankful for it. I can still see the delight in the old people's eyes when I was young and brought good meat home. I guess an ATV just isn't peaceful enough to bring back that memory like walking for miles on end does. On my last long walk I expect to see my grandfather and grandmother smiling in hopeful expectation once again. Until that day, Mark

I used them in a 270 for awhile just for something different to do. I found that if I cleaned the barrel down to bare metal first they shot well. I found that Kroil and a brush worked well for cleaning tha Moly out of the barrel afterwards. There were horror stories of the Moly trapping moisture against the barrel metal and ruining barrels, but I always clean mine after shooting anyways so I can't report on that. All I noticed about reloading was that the moly scrapped off if you didn't have a good chamfer on the case neck. Mark

The best load I ever found for my leverguns was Speer's 170 grain flat point and IMR 4895 powder. Shot a considerable number of deer in the Adirondacks with it. Mark