Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Icebreaker V

A couple of unsolicited random thoughts and observations about this event, from my preverted perspective of never having been around such. My first thought after stepping outta the truck and watching these guys clanging stuff WAY the fook out there, was the scene from the movie Dances with Wolves where Costner yanks his boot on, and wanders on out to the line with the rebs plinking at him. Then his buddy yanks him down and says, "I ain't a kidding, these boys is SHOOTERS", just before he jumps the fence on the buckskin horse. Well, that's exactly it. These boys is shooters... The dedication, time, practice and money tossed at this long-range gig just amazes this poor li'l ol' Colorado ranchhand. On the other side of that very same coin, it was shown during the competition that as dedicated as this bunch is, they spend very little time shooting from their hind legs, sitting, or from buffler sticks. I can only recall 2 offhand firstshot hits. That said, I damn sure don't want any of them shooting at ME, from ANY frigging distance, whether they's bellied-down in the grass with bipods, or from ANY other position.....

The other thing I expected, was some very experienced, veteran ol' greybearded-type guy to clean house in the hunters comp. Not so. It surprised me (not really THAT unexpectedly tho, due to the amount of powder those young men burn) that Carl and the Anodizer Kid,(I can't recall his name.grin) could SO thoroughly clean house, kick azz, and take names, from the quality of talent involved.

Carl knows his stuff.

And don't seem a bit bashful about showing it.....

One other thing that struck me, was how shy and polite these guys were. When Pat axed 'who wants to go first'?, I fully expected a testosterone-fueled wrasslin' match, with punches bein' throwed, for that muchly coveted, king-of-the-hill-I'm-numba-one position. It absolutely floored me when noone volunteered after a long silence. I know, I know.... They all loved me so much that they wanted me to do the honors..... Thanks, guys....grin

Well, thanks to Pat and everybody else who did the work to put this on, especially (I forgot his name) who walked out and painted the targets on the other side of the wash at every cease-fire, that had to be a mile round-trip every time out. And Scott for painting everything else, Alan for cooking, and Don (not huntsman) for the coffee, Nick for the wall tent and everybody else who helped put it on.

And especially Carl and the "Anodizer Kid " for making sure huntsman didn't take 1st. 13 hours on the road with him after that would've been too much if he'd won the shootout.

Saturday started out poorly on the trip back, got a flat on the gravel road. Got it changed and patched up in town, and headed home, and the day started to get better. I was clocked at 88 in a 70 mph zone by a young state trooper. He pulled us over, saw the rifle cases in the back and asked if we were hunting and I told him no, we'd just come up for some shooting. Took my license and registration back to his car and took a while, then came back with some papers in his hand.

Then he commented that he was just gonna give me a warning (!!) because I had good taste in hats (Noveske). That was enough to make me want to move to Montana right there.

Then to top it all off, while I was unloading the truck this morning, I found that huntsman had gifted me a pair of custom shootin' sticks.

Thanks Don!!

Did your wife let you in this morning? Good thing we unloaded your camping gear for your night in the garage. I may have forgot some sticks(and groceries), but I damn sure remembered my house keys......

Your house has doors now?

Yeah, but I don't have bushes to hide in. How was the dash in the door when momma came out this morning to pick up the newspaper?

I was in the outhouse, perusing the sports page.

I'm guessing a lot could be learned pretty quick there. Sounds like a good time was had by all.

How's the digits Hunts'.

it for sure cuts down the learning curve. still tender, SLM.

Thanks to all the shooters! It went very smooth, and I'm thinking this was the best out of the five so far...

Pretty sure I tallied 30 shooters on Friday afternoon. Dang good bunch of folks, willing to share ideas, and knowledge, and that's what this get together is all about. A few of us stay on the cutting edge of long range shooting, and are always eager to pass it on....

Congrats to Carl for his first place finish in the little comp we held on Friday afternoon. He scored 25X28, taking home a rifle scabbard. Second place went to Phillip who shot a 19 with his 7MM Remington Magnum, and took home one of our first border stitched rifle slings. There was a tie for third, Don(huntsman22), and Jake both shot 15's. Tip of the hat to all the competitors, it takes a little courage to walk up to the line and perform in front of 40+ spectators...you all did well!

Sounds like good times. I missed out on Alan's coffee and Dons brats too... But I did get to enjoy a weekend of rain/snow/wind at least...

Agreed Pat .... Been to all five and thought the same! Wouldn't miss one !

Thanks again for everything.

Kinda fun shooting hunters comp in the dark .... Grin

My kids and my job will always come first so unfortunately I can't make them all...

Jake had the scope for it. Those last couple guys had a rough go in that bad light.

That's one of many reasons you're a good Dad to your kids Jamie.

It was really nice to see some of you again, and meet others for the first time. Thanks to Pat for organizing the shindig and setting up a fun comp, and to everyone for making it a great time.

I still want a light and heavy pair of 6.5 Saum's, but I will say I was quite impressed by the performance of Don's factory Ruger 6.5 Creedmoor with factory ammo. The combination over-achieved.

Congrats to Carl for schooling everybody.

Did you guys get snow or rain Saturday? Or both?




Travis

Friday was beautiful. t-shirt weather for a while.