Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Good Times with Pops

Spending some time with my folks in Pennsylvania this week. Dad got transferred to PA a few years after I moved to Alaska, so I don’t know a soul in this state besides my parents. Made it a point this year to come down here, hang out with the folks, and let them show off their grandkids. It’s been a great time!

I’ve been shooting a bunch with Dad, this week. Takes me back to my youth, gleefully shooting his guns and burning up his ammo. 😁


Funny story from this week...
At 70 years old, Dad is the youngest in his group of friends. They were all sitting around talking about their various medical escapades (colonoscopies, knee & hip replacements, back surgeries, eye surgeries, cancer treatments, etc.), all trying to one-up the others as the most awful stuff they’ve had done....think Grumpy Old Men.

My dad pipes up, “You know, when I was two days old I got circumcised, and I couldn’t walk for a year after that!”

Holy [bleep]! I haven’t laughed that hard in forever.

Sounds like a good time with the folks. Your story reminded me of this old Monty Python skit:

That is so awesome! Enjoy every second of your visit. Have a safe trip.

Wow, what a coincidence. The same dam thing happened to me!

Where at in PA?

Dan have fun with your dad, life is short and grandkids need time with your parents. Ill adopt them part-time if you need help! Kurt

North-central PA, not too far from the Ridgway Rifle Club. In fact, we shot some silhouette targets there the other day. It’s pretty cool smacking 200m chickens with a .22 pistol.

Dad is mostly a shotgun shooter, so next time I’ll have to bring a rifle down to play at longer distances.

I have a house in Sullivan County a little east of there. I do have a friend who lives about 20 or 30 minutes from Ridgeway.

If you were in Ridgway you are not very far from one of my favorite gun shops Elk County Ammo & Arms over in St. Marys.

I stop in when I get back in PA which will be in a few weeks looking for a new camp/retirement home somewhere in Mckean or Potter county.

Dan, say hi to your parents and the wife and kiddos for me.
Enjoy your time with your parents.

Just got home, and I figured that I'd share some pics form our trip.

We flew into Buffalo, NY and spent some time at Niagara Falls. We'd never been there before, and the weather mostly sucked, but it was impressive none-the-less. We made sure to grab some chicken wings at the Anchor Bar, home of the original Buffalo Wings, while we were in the area.



Spent some time at the Ridgeway Rifle Club. It's an impressive facility with a 100yd rimfire silhouette range, a 200 yard rifle range, pistol range with 4 bays for simultaneous operation, a 1000 yard range. All that for $45 annual dues!

Dad and I spent some time shooting 200m chickens with his Hammerli collection (Dad made the scope mounts). The Diamondback was mostly just there for looks. She couldn't hang with Swiss watches, in the accuracy dept.



I didn't bring a rifle down with me, and Dad is mostly a shotgun shooter. We shot a lot of trap, skeet, and sporting clays during this trip, but next time I'll bring some of my rifles down, so we can do some long-range stuff. We did visit the 1000yd range during one of their monthly Varmint Benchrest Matches, though:





Here are the VBR targets. I don't know if you can read the distances in the photo, or not, but the crows are shot at 850 yards; the groundhogs at 900, bobcats at 950, and coyotes are shot at an even 1000 yards.

Here's another look at the 1000yd coyote target:



With 32 shooting points, and several relays, they had a hell of a turn-out. Lots of folks coupling up a pair of spotting scopes for better, long-range peepers:



They do a rimfire version of the VBR competition, as well. Here is the 40-yard crow target:


Here are the rest of them. I don't remember the various ranges, but the coyotes are the furthest target at 100 yards.

We also spend some time in Dad's shop, while we were visiting. I'm not much of a wood worker, but Dad dabbles a bit . Here are some of the cutting boards he has made this past winter:



He showed me how to run the wood lathe, and I made a batch of fish bonkers while I was there. He had plenty of maple, black walnut, cherry, and ash to choose from. Pretty fancy pickins for fish bonkers, but Dad says it's all pretty much firewood to him.



Anyway, it was a great trip. We saw and did lots of neat things (yes, some kid-stuff too), and had a lot of fun. I'm anxious to get back there to try out some of the stuff we didn't have time for, this go-round.

Good stuff. Enjoy your folks while you can. I've been an orphan for almost 50 years now. --- Mel

Good trip, Dan.