Pictures of Labradors

Bought a brand new Nikon D3100 the week we picked up our little yellow Labrador retriever Inara. I've taken hundreds and hundreds of photos. I've posted many of them on my Flickr page, but I also created a new Squidoo lens, Pictures of Labradors. I'm pretty happy with the camera and really enjoyed sharing the pictures on Flickr.

Inara's been doing great. She's training mostly very well. Only reason it's "mostly" is we've been having a bit of challenge in potty training her -- mainly, us being consistent with getting her into a routine. But, it's been fun, and she sleeps longer at night each day. 

Benelli Nova Pump Review

Last spring, I bought my first shotgun. Actually, I bought it twice. My first priority was something tactical for home defense. I got a really good deal on a major manufacturer's entry level tactical gun with a laser and light. I loved the package, but the shell extractor on the bolt tended to fowl against the receiver when cycled home. Never even took it out to fire it. So, I returned it and after four weeks screwing around with Firing Line, got them to replace it and got a tactical Benelli Nova Pump 12 gauge. 

It's been superb! Put in a mercury recoil absorber, a gel pad, and it shoots great. Next upgrade will be Hi Viz or tritium night sights. I've written up a review on Squidoo at Nova Benelli -- Awesome Benelli Nova Pump tactical. 

Inara -- our new yellow Labrador Retriever

We picked up our new yellow Labrador retriever from Jeff Rooney at Ruffwinds Retrivievers Saturday. Our little puppy was named Inara after we watched her play awhile at home. We had a great first day, a long night, and then a fantastic second day. She did even better last night. As she's going to be a gun dog, and she's going to be a fairly energetic lab (though you can't tell from this picture), we're crate training her and that's going well. I've lots more pictures on line at Pictures of Labradors. 

Snow in the forecast -- got the snow blow ready?

We've had a couple of small snow storms so far this year. The forecast for Thursday shows a third on its way! It's going to be cold with a 70% chance of snow. So, got the snow thrower ready to go -- here's a picture of Kristi using it last year. Of course, that means I won't need it, but it's good to be prepared.

I put together a Squidoo lens on how to buy a snow blower -- check it out at New Snow Blowers. It could be a good year to invest or upgrade. According to ExactaWeather.com:

"With low solar activity levels, changes to the Gulf Stream, the negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the general trend for a much colder winter [in the 2011/12 season] after the onset of last year's La Niña, this winter could prove to be a record breaker with extremely cold temperatures and exceptional levels of snow for many parts of the US."

Playing Risk during Thanksgiving Holiday

My family and I usually play some board game or the other during long weekends, holidays, and vacations. We play several, but this last weekend we took some time to play Risk -- The Game of Global Domination. I know lots of people don't like this game, but we've got it down to a level of art and science that lets us reliably complete games in less than three hours. We put on some good music, put out a few nice snacks and drinks, and get down to some friendly dice throwing. This weekend, I was crushed. My wife and sone duked it out with my wife winning the game in the end. We had a great time!

Colorado Pronghorn 2011 -- A Bust, but Fun!

I've never hunted before this year. Been a pretty avid fisherman off-and-on, and love fly fishing for trout in the Colorado Rockies, but not hunting. But, I like shooting and I figured this year I'd start out learning. However, I figured this out in... August. So, that limited my choices on what to attempt this year. Fortunately, the Colorado Division of Wildlife does give some choices to those of us who fail to plan well. Over the counter bull Elk is one of the most well known, but they are also pretty good at posting what unused tags are out there. After some research, I chose to try pronghorn (also known as antelope) and chose to stay close to home and hunt a unit near Hugo Colorado. I optimisitically picked up tags for two does.  I scouted my unit in late September and posted the story under Camping in Hugo Colorado.

I did all sorts of preparation and research. Worked on my rifle skills, as I'm sure you all have read by now. After packing up, my strategy was simple. As I didn't know what I'm doing (still don't), I decided to let the first two days go and start on Monday morning. I had been studying maps and Google Earth for days and had several areas well scoped out, and I had done what I could on my scouting trip to see those.

I left very early Monday morning and was on the trail just before sunrise. On the way down, I saw several pronghorn next to the highway on ridges back lit by the lighening dawn sky. That got my hopes up.  It was cool in the morning, around 40F, but as the day wore on, it got up to 90F. I walked probably five or six miles that first day -- and didn't see a single pronghorn. I did have an encounter with a rattle snake, but that's about it. I left in mid-afternoon to go set up camp in Hugo again.

It was a beautiful evening and I was able to set up camp in a beautiful location. I hunted around doves without luck at dusk and called it a early evening. 

Next day, I was on the trail very early. Still no luck. There were a couple of big game access areas that I hadn't checked, so as the tempteratures broke 85F, I drove around checking those out. Around 2pm, I realised that the wind had really picked up and I needed to race back to check on my camp. Good thing, too. Driving through the State Wildife Area, I found my dining fly a full mile from camp hung up in a barbed-wire fence. Having retreived that (mostly still in usable condition, which is amazing), I arrived to camp to find my dome tent bowed in from sustained wind. I tried to bolster the tent and parked the 4Runner as a wind break. I hoped the wind would die down as I took a short nap. I didn't, but I did successfully hunt for Chukar. After I bagged a bird, though, the wind was picking up more and I realised I needed to move. I packed up and moved camp to a more sheltered, but still very windy area. I cooked dinner using the truck as a wind break and slept in the 4Runner.

Wednesday found my in another area of the game unit. And, it was a good day. I had two stalking oppotunities on small groups of pronghorn. These didn't end successfully, but I did learn a lot and had a great time. The first group I spotted from about a mile away in sage brush on a ridge. I navigated behind hills on what was still a very windy day. I got to about 400 yards to where they eventually bedded down and realized I needed to get around them. Planned my route out but, when I came out above where they had been, they'd taken off. I think some of the cows I had to pass through must of gotten skitish enough that they spooked the pronghorns. I found their tracks and they were at a full run when they left. 

Second group was a surprise. I was walking along a dry riverbed. I picked up my binoculars to look through the brush and cottonwoods and literally saw a buck's head filling the glass as I brought them to my eyes. He was only about 100 yards away looking at me. He spooked of course and he, another buck, and a doe ran several 100 yards into open ground. I knew I couldn't get close enough to them -- absolutely flat ground and almost no sage brush. But, I gave it a try. And, it worked, sort of. I got to about 350 yards. But, the highway was behind them up an incline probably half-a-mile. I had kept trying to change the angle, but they didn't cooperate. I could have taken the shot, but just wasn't comfortable -- I could see cars and trucks going by in the scope and that seemed like a really bad idea. In my manuevers to get to a better spot, they finally spooked and were gone. And so was I. I was out of time and needed to work the next day.

I may hunt the same area next year. If I do, I'll stay longer into Thursday and Friday. I'm sure I would have gotten a doe then. Or, perhaps I'll see if a farmer or rancher will let me hunt the areas next to the ranches I was on -- that's where most the pronghorn went after opening day. Never-the-less, I had a great adventure and can't wait to do it again!

 

 

Tikka T3 -- Awesome

Been some time since I was able to post. I've been very busy and I've got lots of things to post! New rifles, food, camping, games -- so much good stuff going on!

My last post left off as I wondered whether my father-in-law's Springfield had issues or if I needed some remedial marksmanship training. My wonderful wife told me the only way to find out quickly was to go get a new rifle. We went in to Sportsman's Warehouse to check out some of the pre-season bargains they had going. After trying several rifle and scope sets, we decided that the bargains weren't the way to go. They all had one or more of three problems: less than optimal optics (OK, they were pretty bad), rough and non-adjustable triggers, and rough actions (bolts just didn't work smooth). Working with the sales rep, we moved up and started looking at Remington, Savage, and Sako rifles and Nikon and Leupold optics.

In the end, I most liked a Sako Tikka T3 Lite .30-06. Sportsman's Warehouse mounted a Nikon Bushmaster 4-9x scope on it for me. They did a nice job, too. When I got it out to zero at the range a couple of days later, I hit just outside the X ring on my first shot and most of that was because of the 20mph breeze we had going. Just a bit of work and I had consistent groups out to 200M without any problem! Which made me feel good. I do need more practice, but I was happy.

As you can see from the pictures, this is a beautiful weapon. Stainless steel. Very smooth action and trigger. The Bushmaster scope is superb. Together, they weigh on about 8lbs. Which brings up the main challenge. Even shooting 150 grain soft points, this rifle has some serious kick. That's definitely going to take some getting used to -- target reacquistion is tough even keeping both eyes open. Gotta get some more practice in!