Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters RIFLE LOONY NEWS went out today

To all subscribers to our quarterly on-line magazine, RIFLE LOONY NEWS, the latest issue is now posted, so they can "pick it up on" riflesandrecipes.com.

My stuff includes feature articles on what to include in handloading notes, prairie dog hunting (not just rifles and shooting, but techniques to take more PD's), and my primary test-rifle for scopes, a super-accurate Heym SR-21 in .300 Winchester Magnum. There'll also a "Handloading Hints" column about decoppering agents in smokeless powders. "Rifle Loony Lit" will look at famous zoologist William T. Hornady's first book, 1885's TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE: the Experiences of a Hunter and Naturalist in India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula and Borneo--when Hornady hunted extensively for many species, including the wild ox called gaur, orangutans(!) and Asian elephants.

Eileen opening "What's Up?" article is, typically, about several things, but primarily a real adventure with rejuvenating cast-iron frying pans. Her "Good Eats" column on game recipes is about 10-Minute Mexican pizzas with fresh venison chorizo, and since hunters do not live by meat alone, her "Cookie Corner" is about cheescake dipped in butterscotch and salted nuts.

And there's a lot more!

Begs for an article contrasting arshini with artillery mils at least for the complete military collector.

Yeah, that would be a real crowd pleaser!

I love the line about Richard Mann bringing his own moonshine because he was worried that there wasn't any good booze in Ireland. Holy cow! Where's that boy been???

That hunt occurred 10 years ago, and at that point Richard hadn't traveled all that much. But he's made up for it considerably since then!

Now that IS funny!

Yes it is--and it was especially funny because he discovered the virtues of Irish whiskey the first night everybody on the hunt got together, at an 800-year-old castle that had been converted to a hotel. Our two Irish hosts, John and Liam, were generous enough to buy us drinks of Midleton, considered by some to be the finest whiskey in Ireland. It retails for about $150 a fifth, and drinks in the castle/hotel bar were $20 apiece.

But Richard liked it so much John and Liam kept buying. Eileen and I went back to our room around 10:00. Richard started for his room an hour or so after we left. John and Liam closed down the bar in the wee hours.

The castle, like many, had been added onto over the centuries, and consisted of several long wings on two levels. The rooms had names, not numbers, and you really needed to remember which turns to take to get there. Luckily, the hallways were full of old artifacts, such as suits or armor, old game mounts, paintings of knights slaying each other with plenty of gore, tapestries of country scenes, etc. For instance, Eileen and I had to take the first stairway to the right from lobby, then turn right at the glass case, filled with a mounted otter eating a mounted trout. I can't remember the name of our room, but it was several doors down from the otter, on the left.

In Richard's condition, however, he got totally lost--and for some reason still had his luggage with him. He ended up hiking the halls for at least a couple of hours, looking for his room--where John and Liam found him after they closed down the bar. They got Richard settled, then went to bed themselves.

Then we all got up early and went hunting....

I found the article on prairie dog shooting to mirror what we figured out after a couple of trips. I started with a 22 rimfire and .223, 22-250 and 243 and now use the 17 and 20 calibers almost exclusively. I initially was disappointed with a factory Savage .204 Ruger that pierced primers on factory ammo after the ammo was in sun for a while. Took a few years for me to try that cartridge again. Now use both the 20 Vartarg and 20 Tactical and just had a 17 Fireball put together for this years shoots. 17 Hornet is a mainstay. I still have difficulty calling it hunting but to each their own.The A-17 ammo does shoot flatter in my bolt action Anchutz 17 HMR than the original Hornady ammo. The people I shoot with typically shoot off elevated rotating benches but do some wandering around and shooting off sticks and stools if terrain permits so that part might qualify as hunting!

Another great issue. I'm out of wild pork but will make the campfire pig hunt next year so the Greek Isle Sausage (as Moira and I are big fans of Gyro, or as we call it "lamb spam") is certainly on the menu.

We just returned from 10 wonderful days in Ireland, including Cork, and while it was great, western Ireland and Galway truly was wonderful. I did some trout fishing at Longuevillehouse which was really great but would love to go back and hunt some time. My Grandfather went many years ago for pheasant and took the Win 101 I inherited and would love to take it back but Fallow would be equally fun.

Glad you liked it!

Didn't make it to Galway, but our hunting was along the border region between County Galway and County Offaly. It was far more rural than around Cork, and we had a great time there. Together the two parts of the trip made a great combination. The estate where we deer hunted was crawling with pheasants, due to the efforts of a bird-shooting club that was a separate operation than the deer hunting. Our Irish host Liam hated them, because they interfered with deer stalks! They made me itch for a shotgun.

Was invited back by both by Liam and the estate owner, Lord Rosse, to do some fishing, but there have simply been too many other trips in other places.