My Sky Color

A forty something Dad, Husband, Engineer guy living in Western Oregon. Reflections on all things in life. A few technical things and whatever else comes along.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

An interesting letter in the Australian Shooter Magazine this week, which I quote:

"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington,DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period.

That means you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S., than you are in Iraq."

Conclusion: The U.S.should pull out of Washington.


(Borrowed from http://hollys-hystrionics.blogspot.com/)

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Monday, October 05, 2009

Deer Camp 2009


The younger C love shooting and hunting. He always wants to be able to participate in activities that he isn't old enough for. We figured out this year that as a 9 year old he could fill my tag under the Youth Mentoring program. So we have been working on shooting rifle bigger than a 22 LR. He used a .243 with a 3-9x Leupold scope. We did some shooting with it so he wouldn't be worried about the recoil and would be confident on hitting his target.


We hunted at our favorite place that is 2000 acres of private land in Eastern Oregon. We camped out this year. When we were driving home there was 2 inches of snow on the ground in some places. This is the coldest it has ever been in around 12 years of hunting here. Of course it is the year we camp out.


Our hunting buddies had spotted a group of about 10 deer when they can in before day light to our camp so we headed there first to see what we could find. We spotted this buck in the bunch. He and I crossed a fence and snuck to a rock pile for him to have a good shot. The buck was between 50 and 75 yards away. He started by sitting down and resting his elbows on his knees for a steady aim. He realized he was too wobbly so we set up the bipod and had him sitting on the ground. His first shot was a hit but a little low. As you can see in the photo it hit low but broke the sholder on the off side. The deer took off on a three legged run. He laid down a short distance away and C shot again but missed. I led him to a better vantage point for a finishing shot. In the mean time the buck had moved to a fence line. Our friend had been watching us and had his rifle ready. He had a shot and took it, as we didn't want the deer to cross onto the neighbor's property. Even though he had a little help Little C was ecstatic with his success.


He and I did all of the gutting and skinning work together. He gagged at one point due to the body cavity guts smell and almost lost breakfast. It was the cleanest gutting job I think I've ever had so that was good. I told him I gagged on my first one too. Little C likes to do the skinning so he did a good job on that.


It started raining and snowing and didn't quit until midnight on Saturday. We spent some afternoon time reading Tom Brown Jr. stories and taking naps. We had hoped to do some frog shooting after the hunting was over but the cold and rain drove them all into hiding. It was a good time. DMP

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Dizzing Heights

The boys and I have found a spot on the Columbia River Gorge that is really an amazing view point. It is a sharp ridge of rock that juts out from the cliff. My estimates are that it is about 300 feet high. I am estimating based on how high we are from the tops of the tress in the valley below.
If you look closely there are 17 elk down in the grassy area below. They are probably a mile away. We watched them for a while through 10x binoculars. There were two or three bulls and they were chasing the cows around. It was pretty neat to observe them and they weren't headed for the next county.

Here's the youngest on top of the world. I will say that this is not a place to stumble or hang out at during a high wind. It is a pretty neat spot to visit and observe without fighting the crowd.
DMP








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