All smiles...

[Mrs.Cicero]

So... Friday, El Jefe slapped a new scope on his .450 Bushmaster, handed it to me saying, "I don't have time to sight this in before Monday morning, can you do it?"  (I hid my evil grin and politely said, "Suuuure, and I won't even steal your lovely AR, either!  Really!"). I took it over the hill, threw two rounds downrange; the holes were touching, 14 MOA left of target and spot on elevation-wise.  Made the adjustment, threw two more rounds downrange into the corners of the one inch square target, and declared it sighted in.  And I did it sitting on a grocery bag on the ground 'cause I didn't feel like laying in the mud, so don't snark at me about not putting the last two rounds thru the same hole!  I really like the way that rifle shoots - less kick than my 20 gauge and it has a new 2.5# trigger on it that I need to spend some time playing with... when ammo is cheaper... ha.

This morning, El Jefe went out to a stand he had put up just before bow season started (he put it up for his uncle, who got a big doe from it with my crossbow (he just had his shoulder replaced, so the reason he came to visit was to hunt whitetail instead of the mule deer where he lives, and to see if a crossbow would be easier on his new shoulder than his compound) on opening day.  Anyway, El Jefe watched two big bucks (a nice 8pt and one quite a bit larger with 10-12 pts and a much wider rack) fighting it out but trees in the way.  They wander off eventually.  Then the 8 pt comes back around, still not a shot.  Then a doe comes thru with a small 6 point (narrow, oddly forward pointing rack) chasing her.    El Jefe was thinking, "Imma shoot that if it stops 'cause I don't want that weird rack breeding the does around here..."  and the buck stopped still not even 10 feet from his stand.  We got it dragged out, field dressed, and down to the processor 2 miles down the road all before 10AM.  (I've got enough other things to do around here right now (Like processing 20 more chickens myself) that I don't feel like dealing with the deer, too).  Anyway, this is the only day El Jefe had time to hunt this entire season, and it NEVER goes this smoothly, so I'm happy.  

Also, I'm going to use those little 6 point antlers as the handles on a couple pine needle baskets, I just need to head up to the road to collect more needles...

[Walt Longmire]

Nice. I often get asked to sight in rifles for people simply because they don't know how. If it's a bolt gun I start by sighting down the barrel and adjusting the scope until the crosshairs settle on whatever I'm looking at through the barrel. Usually only takes a few shots. Then there are the others that want me to do it because they have a high powered rifle and they are flinchers.