Those of you who follow here on a regular basis know that I recently went on a deer hunt and bagged a nice little 8-point using a borrowed 30-06. That experience hooked me! Anyway, after that, MDB suggested that a rifle of my own may make a great Christmas/birthday present.
Who could argue with that?
So, as I do with all such purchases, I started researching, reading up on the different calibers available and the pricing structure of different manufacturers, including Mossberg, Ruger, Remington, Weatherby, and Winchester. After looking online and checking ads at different stores around town, I decided that the Remington 770 would be the best gun for me and I decided that the 30-06 would be the best caliber. Did you know that the 30-06 Springfield was used during WWII in the famous M-1 Garand rifle? Did you know that the venerable M-14 also used(s) the 30-06 and that that very rifle is making a comeback with the US Marine sniper service because of the power and reliability of the cartridge? How could such a well-known and renowned cartridge go wrong?
Anyway, Part of the research I did took me to a local gun show. The place was absolutely PACKED!!! You literally could not get down the relatively wide aisles without turning sideways! I found out that the .308 cartridge is basically the same as the 30-06 except that it uses less brass for essentially the same sized bullet. I also asked about business in general and found out quickly that gun sales are brisk and getting brisker! Each vendor offered the same reason; the election of Obama!
Apparently, the gun-owning and using public is VERY concerned that after Obama gets in office, their gun ownership rights will erode quickly and they may not be ABLE to purchase a gun as easily as they can today.
Well, I thought "Dan, that's one gun show; only one single anecdote." Knowing statistics as I do, I know the size of the sample determines the accuracy of results in most cases, so I didn't think too much about it. After all, these guys are TRYING to convince people to buy guns; what better way than to make people afraid that their 2nd amendment rights will be taken away! Anyway, as I said, I had decided that a Remington 770 would be the best gun for me and, lo and behold, Academy Sports and Outdoors has them on sale this week for a mere $429! So I called the local store and found out that they had ONE left, so I asked them to hold it for me and went down there this afternoon!
MADHOUSE!!!
At the gun counter, there must have been 50 people lined up or waiting for their background check to run through! I asked the guy if it was unusually busy today and he said "No, it's been like this every day for at least a month and there doesn't seem to be any sign of a let-up!"
A larger sample, folks!
As I waited for my own background check to clear, I must have heard the name "Obama" 100 times! Apparently, the guy at the gun show was right! People are scared to death that their 2nd amendment rights are going to be attacked and they want to get their guns NOW before it's too late!
I only wanted to get my own gun to deer-hunt with! Well, we're heading back to God's country on Friday, so I'll report on any further baggings afterward!
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Odds and Ends
Occasionally, my mind just sort of wanders. Sometimes, wandering isn't such a good thing!
Politics is on the agenda, of course. Its hard to tell what Obama is going to do and what he's not going to do, but the Democrat majority in Congress has already set its sights on a few things that have been out of reach until the most recent election, such as the "Fairness Doctrine," federal law that would supercede concealed carry laws in the states, tax increases, and nationalized health care, just to name a few.
For years, talk radio, which is primarily conservative, has been a giant burr in the Democrats saddle. Talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and others, have given voice to the so-called silent majority and allowed them to bolster their opinions, few or none of which are available on the so-called "major" television networks. Since conservatives control the one outlet that the Democrats didn't want, they don't want the conservatives to have that voice, either! Look at the constant outrage over "fair and balanced" reporting on Fox, the network that now leads all others just because it leans conservative and mirrors the opinions shared by most Americans. In any case, Democrats are going to attempt, via the so-called "fairness doctrine," to silence talk radio!
Good luck with that, Democrats!
There is a reason those programs are so successful; people LISTEN to those shows and CALL those shows! Not only do they call and listen, they call and listen in record numbers! When Congress gets a load of the uproar that their attempted attack will generate, I have a feeling they'll decide to let that sleeping dog alone.
Then again, Democrats aren't too bright when it comes to this sort of thing, so they probably won't, much to their own detriment!
States passed concealed-carry laws as a hindrance to gun violence perpetrated by criminals, using the idea that law enforcement personnel cannot be everywhere and the possibility that there COULD be someone at the scene of a crime who's carrying a firearm other than the criminals may very well serve to give pause to those considering such crimes. I've not seen statistics to suggest that violent crime has been reduced in those states, but I haven't heard anything about gangs of gun-toting vigilantes taking the law into their own hands or violence randomly perpetrated by legally-carrying individuals, either. I know that liberals think that guns are responsible for death in this country, but those are the same people who'd like to deny that KNIFE violence in the UK is at epidemic proportions. Of course, carrying a gun in the UK is against the law, so, following the logic forwarded by the Dems, wouldn't it stand to reason that violent crime there would be practically nil? I hate to parrot worn sayings, but its not guns who kill people; its people who kill people and, quite frankly, someone who's bent on killing someone else will do so whether it be with a gun, a candlestick, a knife, a rope, or almost any other lethal object they can carry.
If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will carry guns!
Well, I've got bad news, Barack! I've got a constitutional right to own and BEAR a firearm. The only business in America that's really doing very well at all right now is the retail gun trade and YOU created that boom with your rhetoric, pandering to the left-wing of your party and their insatiable appetite for a communist state in America! Gun owners, and potential gun owners have RUN to gun stores to buy their weapons before you try to outlaw their sale!
Oh, and, by the way, (before a bunch of revisionists start trying to tell me that the 2nd Amendment only applies to the National Guard), I know that the first clause of the 2nd Amendment says "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state..."
Uhhhh....in the days when this country was founded (when the Constitution was written!) armed citizens WERE the militia! Therefore, in the context within which it was written, a militia WAS an armed citizenry!!! So I don't want to hear that the 2nd Amendment wasn't talking about an armed citizenry; that's EXACTLY what it was talking about!
Tax increases are coming, you may as well get used to it. I know Obama promised that taxes are only going up for people who make $250,000 or more, but, let's be serious. How many people MAKE that much money versus how much are all of his gigantic spending programs going to cost?
That's what I thought; it doesn't add up!
It doesn't really matter what Obama promised anyway! The Democrat-controlled Congress is going to forward their agenda and the far from mandate-earning Obama is going to go along to get along! He'll get his tax increases because his hero, Bill Clinton, got similar increases and managed to ride the good policy of his predecessors into prosperity. I really don't believe that America is ready for an all-out takeover of the health care system, though.
If he wanted to help health care along, he'd abolish Medicare and Medicaid and get the government out of the equation altogether so that the free market can operate on a level playing field again, but I know that'll never happen just like I know that if the government takes over the way he wants it to, Pandora will never get the lid back on THAT box again, either!
Think about the things that are screwed up right now and in nearly every case, government invention is the reason it's screwed up in the first place! Health care is messed up because the government sets pricing structure for a large percentage of the market, forcing health care providers to seek their profits from those of us who are NOT on Medicare or Medicaid. If they'd just get out altogether, providers would have to compete for business once again and that competition would lower the prices for everyone!
Supply and demand, baby! Supply and demand!
Banking is screwed up in part because of all the "fairness in lending" regulations imposed by the government! If banks could simply loan money to people who have the ability to pay them back, there probably wouldn't BE a banking crisis right now! But we live in a world today where the government is the jackboot that every citizen fears! If an accident happens at work, you have to worry about OSHA showing up and fining you! If you accidentally underpay your taxes, you can bet your last nickel that Uncle Sam will charge you more in penalties and interest than the original amount of the tax by the time you're finished! I could go on and on, but most everyone knows how screwed up the government is and most of us feel powerless to do anything about it other than electing a continual stream of clones to go to Washington telling us they'll do one thing when they go and then watching them get swallowed up by the tide of corruption and bad policy that Washington has become! I'm ready for a change all right, but more big government isn't the change I'm looking for, Barack!
Here's what I'd like to see; government run like a business! If someone isn't doing their job, fire them! If someone's job becomes antiquated, retrain them to do another one or lay them off if they can't be retrained! That's what happens every day in the real world! Why doesn't it apply to a government position? When revenues are down, companies pare back expenses, they don't increase their spending by a thousand times! Every agency in government needs to account for every nickel of tax money they get! If they're not spending it on a Congressionally authorized expenditure, it needs to be eliminated! I'm convinced that I'm paying plenty of taxes already. I'm convinced that most Americans are paying plenty of taxes already! I'm also convinced that the government is fat, and lazy, and spends WAY too much money and that it could and should get by on a lot less!
There; I'm done ranting! I hope Obama does effect change and I pray that it looks more like what I described and much MUCH less like what I think its going to look like!
Politics is on the agenda, of course. Its hard to tell what Obama is going to do and what he's not going to do, but the Democrat majority in Congress has already set its sights on a few things that have been out of reach until the most recent election, such as the "Fairness Doctrine," federal law that would supercede concealed carry laws in the states, tax increases, and nationalized health care, just to name a few.
For years, talk radio, which is primarily conservative, has been a giant burr in the Democrats saddle. Talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and others, have given voice to the so-called silent majority and allowed them to bolster their opinions, few or none of which are available on the so-called "major" television networks. Since conservatives control the one outlet that the Democrats didn't want, they don't want the conservatives to have that voice, either! Look at the constant outrage over "fair and balanced" reporting on Fox, the network that now leads all others just because it leans conservative and mirrors the opinions shared by most Americans. In any case, Democrats are going to attempt, via the so-called "fairness doctrine," to silence talk radio!
Good luck with that, Democrats!
There is a reason those programs are so successful; people LISTEN to those shows and CALL those shows! Not only do they call and listen, they call and listen in record numbers! When Congress gets a load of the uproar that their attempted attack will generate, I have a feeling they'll decide to let that sleeping dog alone.
Then again, Democrats aren't too bright when it comes to this sort of thing, so they probably won't, much to their own detriment!
States passed concealed-carry laws as a hindrance to gun violence perpetrated by criminals, using the idea that law enforcement personnel cannot be everywhere and the possibility that there COULD be someone at the scene of a crime who's carrying a firearm other than the criminals may very well serve to give pause to those considering such crimes. I've not seen statistics to suggest that violent crime has been reduced in those states, but I haven't heard anything about gangs of gun-toting vigilantes taking the law into their own hands or violence randomly perpetrated by legally-carrying individuals, either. I know that liberals think that guns are responsible for death in this country, but those are the same people who'd like to deny that KNIFE violence in the UK is at epidemic proportions. Of course, carrying a gun in the UK is against the law, so, following the logic forwarded by the Dems, wouldn't it stand to reason that violent crime there would be practically nil? I hate to parrot worn sayings, but its not guns who kill people; its people who kill people and, quite frankly, someone who's bent on killing someone else will do so whether it be with a gun, a candlestick, a knife, a rope, or almost any other lethal object they can carry.
If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will carry guns!
Well, I've got bad news, Barack! I've got a constitutional right to own and BEAR a firearm. The only business in America that's really doing very well at all right now is the retail gun trade and YOU created that boom with your rhetoric, pandering to the left-wing of your party and their insatiable appetite for a communist state in America! Gun owners, and potential gun owners have RUN to gun stores to buy their weapons before you try to outlaw their sale!
Oh, and, by the way, (before a bunch of revisionists start trying to tell me that the 2nd Amendment only applies to the National Guard), I know that the first clause of the 2nd Amendment says "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state..."
Uhhhh....in the days when this country was founded (when the Constitution was written!) armed citizens WERE the militia! Therefore, in the context within which it was written, a militia WAS an armed citizenry!!! So I don't want to hear that the 2nd Amendment wasn't talking about an armed citizenry; that's EXACTLY what it was talking about!
Tax increases are coming, you may as well get used to it. I know Obama promised that taxes are only going up for people who make $250,000 or more, but, let's be serious. How many people MAKE that much money versus how much are all of his gigantic spending programs going to cost?
That's what I thought; it doesn't add up!
It doesn't really matter what Obama promised anyway! The Democrat-controlled Congress is going to forward their agenda and the far from mandate-earning Obama is going to go along to get along! He'll get his tax increases because his hero, Bill Clinton, got similar increases and managed to ride the good policy of his predecessors into prosperity. I really don't believe that America is ready for an all-out takeover of the health care system, though.
If he wanted to help health care along, he'd abolish Medicare and Medicaid and get the government out of the equation altogether so that the free market can operate on a level playing field again, but I know that'll never happen just like I know that if the government takes over the way he wants it to, Pandora will never get the lid back on THAT box again, either!
Think about the things that are screwed up right now and in nearly every case, government invention is the reason it's screwed up in the first place! Health care is messed up because the government sets pricing structure for a large percentage of the market, forcing health care providers to seek their profits from those of us who are NOT on Medicare or Medicaid. If they'd just get out altogether, providers would have to compete for business once again and that competition would lower the prices for everyone!
Supply and demand, baby! Supply and demand!
Banking is screwed up in part because of all the "fairness in lending" regulations imposed by the government! If banks could simply loan money to people who have the ability to pay them back, there probably wouldn't BE a banking crisis right now! But we live in a world today where the government is the jackboot that every citizen fears! If an accident happens at work, you have to worry about OSHA showing up and fining you! If you accidentally underpay your taxes, you can bet your last nickel that Uncle Sam will charge you more in penalties and interest than the original amount of the tax by the time you're finished! I could go on and on, but most everyone knows how screwed up the government is and most of us feel powerless to do anything about it other than electing a continual stream of clones to go to Washington telling us they'll do one thing when they go and then watching them get swallowed up by the tide of corruption and bad policy that Washington has become! I'm ready for a change all right, but more big government isn't the change I'm looking for, Barack!
Here's what I'd like to see; government run like a business! If someone isn't doing their job, fire them! If someone's job becomes antiquated, retrain them to do another one or lay them off if they can't be retrained! That's what happens every day in the real world! Why doesn't it apply to a government position? When revenues are down, companies pare back expenses, they don't increase their spending by a thousand times! Every agency in government needs to account for every nickel of tax money they get! If they're not spending it on a Congressionally authorized expenditure, it needs to be eliminated! I'm convinced that I'm paying plenty of taxes already. I'm convinced that most Americans are paying plenty of taxes already! I'm also convinced that the government is fat, and lazy, and spends WAY too much money and that it could and should get by on a lot less!
There; I'm done ranting! I hope Obama does effect change and I pray that it looks more like what I described and much MUCH less like what I think its going to look like!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Well, it's been awhile...
...since I posted anything, so now's as good a time as any!
This is my favorite time of year, and my least favorite time of year. Right after football, I hold open tryouts for basketball. I usually pick up several guys who did not play football, which means they're not scheduled into the athletic period and they don't have physicals, all of which adds to the stress of trying to get the team organized and ready to play the first game, which happens to be this coming Wednesday.
As usual, I've already lost one guy to grades, and two of the guys who tried out and made the team decided to go into off-season instead, so, as far as that part's concerned, it's been pretty normal so far!
Here's the difference; this year, I've got 4 guys who are 6' or better, and several more who are pretty big by 7th grade standards!
It stands to be a good year!
More later....time to eat!
This is my favorite time of year, and my least favorite time of year. Right after football, I hold open tryouts for basketball. I usually pick up several guys who did not play football, which means they're not scheduled into the athletic period and they don't have physicals, all of which adds to the stress of trying to get the team organized and ready to play the first game, which happens to be this coming Wednesday.
As usual, I've already lost one guy to grades, and two of the guys who tried out and made the team decided to go into off-season instead, so, as far as that part's concerned, it's been pretty normal so far!
Here's the difference; this year, I've got 4 guys who are 6' or better, and several more who are pretty big by 7th grade standards!
It stands to be a good year!
More later....time to eat!
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Well, Obama won...
...and America lost.
Ought to give the "gimme-gimme" crowd a thing or two to crow about!
On Wednesday, my kids asked me who I voted for. Like most inexperienced young people, they were ebullient at the thought of "rich-people" financed handouts. I told them that, like most Texans, I voted for McCain. When they asked why, I told them that I don't think that Obama can deliver what he promised without a massive tax increase and, quite frankly, I work too hard for my money to have some pointy-headed liberal confiscate it from me and give it to someone who either cannot or WILL not work as hard as I do for it!
They couldn't disagree!
Despite my philosophical differences with Obama and his party, I intend to reserve judgement until he's been inaugurated and has had time to institute his agenda.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid it may be too late for the country by then, but what's a poor conservative to do?
Here's what I'M going to do!
I'm going to implore the leadership of the Republican party to return to traditional Party ideals; limited government, individual liberty and responsibility, and freedom to pursue financial well-being with little or no government interference. Of course, at the same time, I'm going to insist that they abandon the big government approach of the Bush years and get back to the Reagan approach.
You think anyone will listen?
I didn't think so.
Ought to give the "gimme-gimme" crowd a thing or two to crow about!
On Wednesday, my kids asked me who I voted for. Like most inexperienced young people, they were ebullient at the thought of "rich-people" financed handouts. I told them that, like most Texans, I voted for McCain. When they asked why, I told them that I don't think that Obama can deliver what he promised without a massive tax increase and, quite frankly, I work too hard for my money to have some pointy-headed liberal confiscate it from me and give it to someone who either cannot or WILL not work as hard as I do for it!
They couldn't disagree!
Despite my philosophical differences with Obama and his party, I intend to reserve judgement until he's been inaugurated and has had time to institute his agenda.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid it may be too late for the country by then, but what's a poor conservative to do?
Here's what I'M going to do!
I'm going to implore the leadership of the Republican party to return to traditional Party ideals; limited government, individual liberty and responsibility, and freedom to pursue financial well-being with little or no government interference. Of course, at the same time, I'm going to insist that they abandon the big government approach of the Bush years and get back to the Reagan approach.
You think anyone will listen?
I didn't think so.
Monday, November 03, 2008
catching up
Hello again, blogfans!
Well, it's time to catch up.
This past weekend, I went on my first-ever deer hunt. It was a hoot!
I'll grant you; it's not what I thought it would be. Whenever I've thought about the term "deer hunting" in the past, I thought about quietly stalking the brush for that elusive creature and "freezing" when the prey was cornered, leveling the gun and squeezing off a shot as the startled herbivore stopped to listen and detect the intrusion of an interloper. The reality is a little less dramatic!
In actuality, the hunter hides in a "blind" as deer gather at a feeder that has been stocked with deer candy (corn), waiting for said feeder to "dump" some of said corn at a pre-set time. Naturally, the deer have been "programmed" to gather at a specific time by setting the feeder to dump at the same time each morning and evening. The challenge comes in choosing a deer that is worthy of "harvest" and actually hitting the deer that you're aiming at!
It's not as easy as it looks!
On Saturday, we sat in a blind on a hill, picking through countless fawns, small does, and immature males. One large deer worthy of a bullet came into view, but there were too many cows close by (the rancher wouldn't appreciate the "collateral damage" associated with a ricochet or a poorly aimed shot!) and the wily buck only presented himself for very short periods of time, making a shot at him unwise at best, so no shot was taken.
Later in the evening at a different blind, I took a shot at a nice 8-point buck, but missed (apparently high). Naturally, all of the deer that had gathered scattered wildly at the sound of the shot, so the hunt was over for the evening.
The next morning, we took to the blind again and waited. As before, the gathering of small fawns, does, and young bucks came to the feeder first. None of these were suitable for a shot, so we waited. Then, finally, a stout but apparently somewhat young 8-point buck came into view, so I determined to take a shot at him. I breathed deeply, then let it out. Having missed high last time, I aimed at a point about 2" from the bottom of the chest, and squeezed the trigger. The 30-o6 roared to life and, as I watched through the scope, the deer fell in place.
MDB's brother, who was my very helpful and accommodating guide, suggested that we wait for about 10 minutes to see if anything else came up and, more importantly, to make sure that the wounded buck was dead. It didn't move in all that time.
Meanwhile, a second, much larger buck came up from the left of the blind. This deer was "Bambi's Daddy" to be sure! He had a massive rack of antlers, a large, thick chest, and great definition through his neck and hindquarters. In short, he was a buck among bucks! MDB's brother said "I'll take a shot!", so he leveled the gun, aimed, and fired.
I saw a cloud of dust about 15 yards beyond the great deer as he turned and scrambled for the hills!
We left the blind and searched, just in case he'd been hit and didn't know it, but there was no sign that he'd been injured in any way and no sign of a wounded deer anywhere near the shot.
A real shame!
In any case, we then went to retrieve the deer that I'd shot earlier. It was in the same place it had been all along. He'd dropped at the very spot he'd been standing when shot. Even though I aimed low, the shot hit him in the spine just above his shoulder, instantly paralyzing and killing him. MDB's brother said that we'd missed the hard part because of the spot where I'd hit him. Apparently, it's typical to shoot the deer and then wander around for long periods of time trying to find the spot that it fell. My deer dropped instantly, so there was no long search involved!
Then the hard stuff began!
We had to cut a small hole in the gap behind each hind leg (between the bone and tendon) and sling the deer through it's hind legs so that we could hoist it upside-down from a tree. Then, with the deer hanging from the tree, we had to remove it's male parts, slice it open from pelvis to throat, and remove all of the entrails.
Fortunately, I hit the deer in a place that killed the deer quickly but did not cause any internal damage to speak of, so this process was mainly bloodless and relatively clean!
Once the deer was "field dressed," we lowered it back into the back of the truck and headed for the processor!
I LOVE deer sausage and, hopefully, we'll get plenty of it from 8-point #1!
I can't wait to go again!
When we go to pick up the meat from this one, I hope to get a chance to go for another hunt! Perhaps that big 10-point will be waiting for me next time!
Meanwhile, it would be really cool if I had my own gun next time and a chance to sight it in prior to the morning of the hunt!
MDB says that she's excited! She now has a goal for a birthday present (you know...for the guy who has everything he ever wanted AND a case of chips!) and I couldn't be happier!
Woo-hoo! Life is grand!
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