Unstrung bows

This morning I crawled out of bed early, not to carry my bow into the woods for a hunt....only to unstring it. That act always means the closing of a hunt or a season, and in this case it was both.

Fortunately I did extended my season by hunting a friend's property in Alabama. It's a beautiful place that's loaded with deer and it gave me my first deer with a longbow. Something that has been much harder for me than tagging deer with my recurve. Not sure why as the mechanics of shooting both are very similar. However, the stars aligned and a healthy doe got a little too close.

But of course I'm bummed that deer season is officially closed for me now and I have no more options until this fall. Guess I'll have to make do hunting pigs until turkey season gets here....

Tis’ The Season Of Tradeshows

January marks the end of deer seasons across the country. For manufacturers in the hunting and shooting industry, January means trade shows, and lots of them.

January 6-8, 2011 hundreds, if not thousands of bow-geeks invaded Indianapolis for the Archery Trade Association Show (ATA).

I hung out with my buddy Carrie Z from Bowcast. If you have never heard of her or Bowcast, be sure to check them out! Carrie and I set out on a quest to find the latest and greatest the bow industry had to offer.

Carrie and the crew from Bowcast put together the video below, it gives you a small taste of what ATA 2011 offered. Stay tuned for coverage from the 2011 SHOT Show!

Finally Filled a Tag

I finally filled a tag this year! With a zip tie in hand, I tagged a nice Abies Procera, more commonly known as the Noble Fir.

Every year the USDA Forest Service offers Christmas tree permits for $5. I always wanted to try “the Griswold family Christmas tree” outing, but procrastination gets the best of me year after year and I usually end up getting a tree from a local U-cut.

We loaded the truck Sunday afternoon; a good handsaw, warm clothes, water and survival gear. We stopped at the Estacada ranger station to purchase a permit for the Mt. Hood National Forest.

The ranger gave us a topo map of the area, pointing out units where he saw good Douglas and Noble fir trees. After coming up with a game plan we got in the truck and started our trek to the wilderness. I made one last call before we got out of cell service:

“Hi Mom it’s me, we are going to the Mt. Hood National Forest to get our Christmas tree. We are going to be along fire road 4016, if you do not hear from me by 9 o’clock tonight, call the search party. No, really, call the search party.”

We zigzagged what seemed like forever on logging roads. The higher up we went, the hairier the road conditions got, thank goodness for four-wheel drive! We finally made it to our location circled on our topo map. No trails and knee-deep snow, we found ourselves in a winter tree-hunting wonderland.

I realized that when at a U-cut place or a Christmas tree lot, much time is spent finding the “perfect” Christmas tree. You usually narrow it down to two or three choices and do a side-by-side comparison.

When out in the wilderness, the first one that meets your criteria is the one that gets the axe! Finding the tree is the easy part, packing it out and getting it on your vehicle is the hard part!

After setting the tree up in the house last night (it touches our 18-foot ceiling), I had a sense of pride similar to that when I hunt. I didn’t go to the store to buy my tree; I scouted in on a map, went out in the wilderness and cut it down with my two hands.

Babes With Bullets Rifle Camp

Shooter make ready...Stand by...BEEP!

And with that, my heart starts racing. I quickly aquire my first target, two shots fired, I move onto several more in the vicinity placing two shots on every target. Feet shuffling, finger on the trigger I get to my next target, it is a hostage situation. I place my crosshairs on the head….CLICK.

Without a second thought, I rack the slide clear the jam and two shots to the head. I then move past a wall. Now is the time to change magazines. I don’t miss a beat as I pass through a doorway that activates two moving targets, each get two shots. I stop, assess that all targets have been shot. I drop my magazine, clear my chamber and show a safe firearm to my timer who happens to be Kay Miculek.

Kay has won several USPSA National Women’s Open Championships, three-time IPSC world champion, 13 time USPSA National Women’s Multi-gun Champion and the list goes on and on.

“25.8 SECONDS” she yells. I follow her fast pace through the course. “Two alpha, alpha Charlie, two alpha, two Charlie, one alpha and ouch, one Mike” she yells to the scorer following behind us. No, I’m not at a match and I am not at a tactical training center. I am in Louisiana attending a Babes With Bullets Rifle Camp.

Nikon is a sponsor of the rifle camp. Smith & Wesson is also a sponsor and provides M&P15s. Nikon tops them with the new M-223 1-4x20 riflescope with the Point Blank Reticle.

I am not going to lie, I expected us to be spending all of our time learning about functions of the modern sporting rifles and shooting paper the rest of the time. Boy was I wrong! We were shooting three yards out to 100 yards. We were shooting prone, off-hand and on the ground. We were moving, working through malfunctions and strategizing when to change our magazines.

It was intense, but I loved every minute of it. The campers were from every walk of life and from around every part of the country. Most had some sort of shooting experience, while others competed at their local ranges in 3-gun competitions and were looking to improve their times and scores.

I learned how to score a match, how to maximize those five minutes to analyze a course and strategize how to move through it and engage all targets. I have never had any experience shooting competitively, but after this camp, I now have the desire to compete with my AR at the local range!

CO Hunt a Success

I just returned home from a great mule deer and antelope hunt in Colorado.

WinchesterAmmunition, Browning/Winchester Repeating Arms, Mossy Oak and Under Armour teamed up to host a cold, snowy, successful hunt.

We hunted in Craig, Colo., with Dick Dodds of Elkhorn Outfitters (www.elkhornoutfitters.com).

We tested a variety of calibers in Winchester's Power Max Bonded line and their new Power Core 95/5 line, which is a lead free (copper/zinc) product that will be available in 2011.

• Power Max Bonded: 270 Win, 270 WSM
• Power Core 95/5: 30-06 and 300 WSM

The animals were taken from 80 yds to 400 yds and the ammo performed great. Not to mention, the guys we were with could shoot. Most of the shots were taken around the 200 yd mark.

We were able to recover a few of the bullets. Here's the 300 WSM Power Core 95/5 bullet that was recovered from John Taranto's (Outdoor Life) mule deer.

As you can see, all four petals are still attached and are rolled back perfectly. Nearly 100% of the weight was retained from this shot.

We are only days away from launching Winchester's 2011 new product line, so keep your ears and eyes open for the latest information about their new product.