not bad for a wednesday

[fiver]

dang it's hot up here it probably made close to 80 today.
the day started out pretty good though.
I got Little girl and her husband to go fishing with me this morning. [we left the boat at home and went up trout fishing]
I figured we would fish to about 11 then come home which as it turned out was pretty good figuring.
we got down to the reservoir after looking at a couple of my regular spots only to find the water level is up about 8' too many.
but I knew a couple of hidey holes we could get down and fish through the weeds at and they turned out to be good spots.
they are right on the edge of a drop off with two higher points on either side so we had options on water depth by casting to the left or right a bit or by throwing out a bit further.

the SIL kills me when it comes to outdoor stuff, he wants to go do it but doesn't have any skills to draw from so it is kind of a comedy of errors with him.
[he is finally at the point where he actually can hook and reel in a fish, but he ain't got the get them on the bank or in the boat part down just yet]
he hooked into a nice 4-5 lb fish and got it all the way into shore then broke his leader off trying to lift it.
which somehow lead to him standing in the lake up to almost his armpits.
[he did get a new cell phone out of the deal ]

Little girl got the last fish of the day as I was getting everything ready to pack up since I had my limit [a nice 4+ lb rainbow] and actually got hers into shore and in the freezer. [did not amuse her husband]
we only ended up catching 2 that were under 14"s and everything else was 18+ [2+lbs] which lead to a pretty hefty stringer to bring home even with just 6 fish on it. [I got 9 total]

they took off to go over to the tourist town for the afternoon and I took a short nap before going down for the Wednesday night shoot.
I ended up shooting 98 out of 100 [still don't know how I missed the one target] the guy's on the squad said it just come out of the house almost got to the apex and nose dived into the ground for some reason [shrug]
I have been self fitting the old SKB a bit at a time and it is starting to feel [and shoot] pretty comfortable at this point, especially since I finally have the duct tape and spandex off the stock.
now I just need to get the single barrel chopped off, new sights fit to match the other barrel and get it threaded for choke tubes and I'll be in business.

 

[Intheshop]

Relatively freezing here (Va mnts.).Don't heat the spraybooth anymore.....bygone era of cabinets and furniture.So,it's hit and miss with the weather.Been 50's at night....spraying at 70 takes waiting 'til lunch or so.Not complaining,well maybe,but got things to do.Watching paint dry or NOT,ain't one of them.

Sposed to be in the 90's here,in a few days.We've been bustin 3D foam hard with the hot rod recurves.Bring on the heat,haha.The city boys can't keep the sweat outta their eyes.

 

[RBHarter]

In the 90s all last week and weekend . 92 yesterday , 96 Tuesday supposed to be 68 tomorrow .

 

[Intheshop]

Fiver,check your PM's.Got a Ford in the shop,might be of interest on the speed front.

 

[smokeywolf]

I better not let Mrs. smokeywolf read this thread. She's been going through "fishing withdrawals" lately. We've not camped nor gone fishing in nearly a decade. She loves fishing. Our honeymoon was a two day tuna fishing charter out of San Diego.

 

[fiver]

heck throw it up in here, it's just a conversation thread anyway.
[as most of mine are ]

this year has been a slow fishing year for me.
I have been spending more time working on shot gun stuff and getting in some varmint shooting here and there.
I wait all year for fishing season to come then spend it doing this and that jumping back and forth.

 

[Intheshop]

I've got some pretty big bow shoots coming up.The "problem" is practice.It's just not the same as competition.Been at this for over 40 years.

I love practicing with firearms because of the balance between dry fire and live fire.And have a whole program on things to work towards.

But a "dry fire" on a bow?....uhh,yes we've done destructive testing but other than that,it ain't good.We did have one on a Hoyt recurve a few weeks ago.The bow came through here for some custom bits,got delivered at a hugeass trad bow shoot.The customer dry fires it.....right in front of a BUNCH of folks.Ooopps...

So,no "real" practice shooting bows for me.If it ain't for score or for money,what's the point?

Edit;make that 50 years...thank goodness for my Gbabies.

 

[fiver]

that sound is unmistakable too.
fwoooaapp.

even for the shot gun stuff you don't even have to pull the trigger.
just mounting, swinging and re-mounting the gun over and over is helpful.
you can work on eye alignment, face touch, shoulder position, foot position, weight shifts, peripheral vision, soft focus, and just lifting the weight.
it's amazing how you can lose the face and shoulder point in just a couple of days, especially if your switching between guns for different games like going from trap to sporting clays.

 

[Intheshop]

Fiver,don't laugh but I watch more YouTube vids on shotgun clay shooting than ALL others combined.Prolly closing in on a hundred videos.And I rarely shoot shotguns.Have few pretty nice ones too.Real nice 20g O/U Browning Citori,yada,yada.

Been buckling down on the mount from a low position.Then,take that info and applying it to riflecraft and recurves.The shotgun folks seem to have the best grasp on "fit".Heck,got a nice little collection of books on their fitting processes.Smooth,smooth,smooth...consistency of mount,burn a hole in the target is about 90% of shooting traditional bows.

Going to a new to me,and new'ish in general,3D tomorrow.Last week was stupid steep mountain course.One of the champs I was shooting with was carrying a Leupold 1000 range finder which calculates all the "cuts" on the angles.Wasn't doing him or the other national champ "that" much good.They both gap shoot and it gets tricky at extreme angles.Like a bell curve,they shoot better,away from the ends of the curve.

They're just wanting revenge tomorrow,haha.....knowing the topography of where we'll be.It's gonna be WAY more flat.I'll get some midday practice today in with the lower #'s bow(identical 1970,take down Bear's)....it's 4# or so lighter.Then tomorrow shoot the heavier 49# er.

They'll be sniggling at the longer shots,so that's the mission today....work on 30 yd,flat shots with the 46#.

 

[RBHarter]

I shot a 48# Bear 58" Grizzly for a while . 50 yd on a paper plate with a 32" cedar 4" turkey fletches and a 125 magnum without the bleeder was touchy if I didn't get locked in the full draw . I did kill a 58yd snow goose with that set up once . It definitely improved my shotgunning in terms of the unconscious second level target focus . It probably helped my pistol shooting the most .

Stock fit is probably 60% of good control regardless of long gun cartridge or action ......
The tombes I've revisited with the AR platform and optics ......

 

[Intheshop]

RB,I'd go right much more than"60%",but that's just how I see it?

I've been very lucky buying books/manuals over the years.Lots of 1st edition furniture books.But how it relates to this....got an autographed John Bianchi book for 3$.Got an ORIGINAL,greasy finger printed manual for our '47 Norton surface grinder from a guy who's dad bought out that co's grinder division.But the best?was a shotgun,"fitter's guide" written by some real famous guru on the subject (too lazy to go find it,haha)...but this was his original personal copy,before it went to publication.For 20$ or so?

Abstract;If you stood behind an archer shooting fingers....and with slow motion filming,watch the string go through a series of oscillations from side to side.It gets cleaned up with a release aid....

This,IMO...is happening when we cut a CB "loose" from a rifle.It starts with any bad juju in the fire control systems....but gets amplified by an ill fitting stock.Which is or sort of explains why free recoil and wide bttm BR rigs generally"track better".It's easier to see on bows because of the speeds involved.OK,where's #3 Phd physics/math son when you need him...doh.But just because it happens faster with our rifles,the physics possibly make the torque reaction worse,in it's impact on the bullets flight.

Get your CB's started as straight as possible,with everything that goes with that.Cartridge run out,action CL to barrel interface....followed with a fitted stock that tracks in a predictable manor,every time...day in,day out.

It's human nature to "think" we are doing a better job than what actually "may" be.Soft science enters the equation here.Practice objectivity when critiquing your own performance.Like a chrono puts numbers on our ammo...slow motion film,and a coach(friend watching) can help put "numbers" on our shooting habits.

 

[RBHarter]

I took 1/8 off the BPS butt stock and "fixed" the cast . It made all the difference . It's a lot easier to do a shotgun that is meant to be done than a rifle that's for certain and sure .

 

[Intheshop]

RB,to "bump" a bow limb it takes steam and a feel that sorta only comes from intimate knowledge of not only the process of building limbs but core woods and maybe a little epoxy running through your veins?It's used as a "cheater" way of tuning out impulses set in,usually by the shooter...but sometimes the limb itself.Deep subject.

It's with that in mind,that bending shotgun/rifle stocks comes into focus.Like chiropractor'ery....you might not want to see it happening.

 

[Intheshop]

Look up tru ball releases.I'll be shooting against some of those boys tomorrow.It's our backyard.

 

[fiver]

the fitment of a rifle is pretty darn important.
you really notice it after you shoot a couple of them in the same caliber with the same full powered J-word ammo.
you got that one that just smacks your nose or cheek.
the one that tries to tip you over or bangs you sharply in the shoulder.
and finally the one you really like to shoot and can shoot well.
they are all producing the same physical recoil.

 

[Ian]

A while back I got sidetracked on utoob watching videos of some boar hunters in Croatia or some such place. Those guys were snap-shooting running pigs at 50-75 yards through little breaks in the beech tree forest....with 7mm Rem Mag bolt rifles, and taking out three or four in rapid sequence. One video had an interview with one of the shooters who is obviously a professional, and he commented heavily about the importance of rifle fit. I never thought about it that much regarding a traditional bolt-action hunting rifle, but the way these guys were using them they might as well have been shooting low-house crossers at twice the normal range, so the fit thing really makes sense. In the videos there was some slow-motion footage and you could actually see the lead the shooters were giving the pigs and where the bullets were striking, all in all I was VERY impressed.