Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tonto Arizona gathering 2017...

Well, I am finally back in DogPatch OR....

After visiting my aging mom, in Temecula CA, I didn't feel like dealing with CA Traffic, and LA traffic...

so I went up 15 and then took US 395 all the way back to Oregon. There was QUITE A BIT of snow up around Mammouth Lake...like 10 feet piled up in spots at 8000 feet off the side of the road.

Hit high winds in No Ca north of Susanville....only rain I hit was crossing between K Falls and the Rogue Valley.. and it was pretty heavy, even by Oregon Standards....

Today had to get things squared away after being gone 8 days... as soon as I get this computer squared away, I'll post the pics I took....

Ivan, really missed your presence...some of these events just wouldn't be the same without Miles, Dennis, Kent, Jeff....

and it wasn't quite as good ( no matter how great) when Brian or Ivan aren't there....and a host of other campfire friends...like KayWoodie and Randy ( Oldman 03)....

A lot of guys have gone from being Friends to being Family after 4 or 5 of these campfire get2gathers in AZ and NM....

Glad you made it home all safe and sound, John.

So you gonna get some pictures posted now? Thanks.

What if the Campfire group had a Get-together/Shootin' match at Tonto Basin, and Darby was the only one that showed up?

This is what it would look like:

I made it home to Redding, CA yesterday afternoon, safe and sound. I left home two weeks ago in the rain, and I arrived back home in the rain. I had a great trip and it was nice to get out of the rainy weather and enjoy clear skies and sunshine in Arizona with a great group of guys (and one poor gal, sweet Cheryl) and two teen-age boys and three dogs. I will share some of the pictures of the event.

Miles Patton showed up on Monday, and this is what our camp area looked like:



Then I showed up Wednesday afternoon. The first arrivals on Thursday were David Price, Doug Wynn, and Doug's grandson, Gabe.

Miles had a big pot of excellent stew that fed the few of us for a couple of days until everyone else showed up. Here we are having some of that stew. Left to right: Miles Patton, Nifty-250, and Doug Wynn. Miles can attest to the fact that most of the plants in Arizona have thorns or stickers. He had to wack back some thorn bushes to maneuver his truck and trailer into a good camping spot, and the thorns got his arm pretty good. Look at the blood on his arm in the picture.



Those who arrived later knew they had found the right spot when they spotted this gaggle of gypsies clustered together in one spot.



This is what some of the crowd looked like early on Saturday morning, drinking coffee and waiting for breakfast.

As usual, Kent (KRP) did a fantastic job of seeing that we were well fed, along with lots of help from Cheryl and Dennis.



Left to right: RufusG, RoninPHX, and KRP.



And, of course, there was shooting. Here Michael J. (Roadrunner65, JR.) busts a cap on his first time shooting a cap-and-ball black powder revolver. Looking on is Gabe, Doug Wynn's grandson.

We set up four shooting tables in a line, pointed at assorted targets in clear spots downrange. Here is Joe J, (Roadrunner65) spotting for son Michael, getting sighted-in for the open-sight 22 rimfire match.



Between shooting and eating was some great conversation around the campfire. Here, left to right are, CCCC (Paul), Dennisaz (Dennis), RoninPHX (Ron), Miles Patton (in the hat), and Talus (Jeff P.).

Ron is a veritable encyclopedia of early Arizona history, as he personally witnessed much of it, or knew those that did!

An actual campfire shot with Mudhen (Ben), RoninPHX (Ron), and Miles Patton.




This is Dennis's beautiful dog, Ruby, a veteran of campfire get-togethers. As to breed, I am told she is a Blue Lacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Lacy,
Normally she was very active and on the move. This was a rare time when she took a rest break.




This is a view of the shooting range when everybody was in the chow line behind the photographer.




Seafire stopped at the Cabela's store in Reno on his way down from Grants Pass, Oregon, and picked up a new scope. Here is Seafire, in the green cap and the yellow scope box in his lap passing the scope around for all to check out.

Left to right, is Miles Patton, CCCC (Paul) admiring the interesting reticle (or trying to figure out which end to look through), OWL (Jeff H.) Seafire (John), and the backside of David Price. Show-and-Tell is a fun part of the get-together.

For some reason the dogs thought they should keep a close eye on DARBY (Joe D.).




Discussing the rules for the shooting matches are L-to-R, OWL (Jeff H.), CCCC (Paul), Dennisaz (Dennis) facing away, Mudhen (Ben), and Talus (Jeff P.).

Here is DARBY (Joe D.) getting some practice with one of his fancy rifles in advance of the long-range rimfire shoot.

The shooting table is produced by our own 'fire member, rjencks, (Bob Jencks, in Rhode Island) and info is available at ShootingTables.com.

PM Bob for ordering details, if interested. He also sells the leg brackets by themselves if you want to make your own table.

DARBY again, on the rjencks shooting table.




Before heading back to Oregon, Seafire (John C.) decided to install a new air filter and do a good under-the-hood inspection, including checking his valve cover gaskets, of course (LOL). Seafire and Miles Patton both braved snowy travel weather to attend the get-together, Seafire from Oregon and Miles had snow on I-40 in New Mexico on his way back to Arkansas. CCCC came down out of the snow in Quemado to attend, also.

Here, clanging the gong at 128 yards with their 22s are Nifty-250 (Milo) and Dennisinaz (Dennis) in the back.




The shooting matches were a lot of fun. The long-range 22 rimfire shoot was won by Talus (Jeff P.) shooting his CZ-452 Sporter.

The one-shot prairie dog shoot (146 yds) was won by Dennisinaz (Dennis) shooting a CZ-452 Varmint 22 LR, winning against the centerfire rifles.

The short-range open-sight 22 shoot was won by CCCC (Paul) shooting a Mossberg, I believe.

The evening meal was preceded by the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance, and then a Blessing for the meal. After the meal a not-so-serious award ceremony was held and then a serious toast was made to Ken Howell and others that could not be present with us that night. The group shared strong feelings of fellowship and all looked forward to future get-togethers with our Campfire friends.

On Sunday afternoon some rain clouds started moving in as everybody packed up to leave. I headed 40 miles up the mountains to spend a couple of days with some family in Payson.

When I got up Monday morning and stepped out of my small RV to walk the dog, this is the colorful dawn sky that welcomed me. Arizona has its own unique beauty in many forms.

Looks like a great time was had by all!

The dogs are smart.

Great pics and from the looks of it a great time had by all!

Ken,

You and your troop were missed, but we did talk about you!

No wonder my eras were burnin'!

Gosh, it looks like everyone had a great time. I want to be retired!

A great weekend with a great bunch of guys and gal. looks like the weather was exceptional !

Thanks for posting, Milo.

Forgive me guys, the computer here is dying. I have a replacement on the way. I'll try to get pics posted as soon as I have a computer that cooperates.

I haven't forgotten, but I can't improve on the ones Milo has already shown.. just show you more of folks having a good time.

Off topic, but I just wanted to let the rest of the gang know that there is evidently some real bad flooding down Milo's way in Redding Ca....

one of my wife's friends sent her a video from her smart phone where she and her husband were heading back to Oregon and on I 5 down that way between Redding and Red Bluff Ca, that I 5 was flooded heavily in both directions....

she said she was surprised the CHP left the highway open.. traffic was only able to go about 10 to 15 mph....

hope Milo and his family and home are high and dry and no damage to his property....

we got heavy rain up here, but not like Milo got down in Redding...180 miles south of here...

Looks like ya all had a great time............