Pretty simple question, folks.  I'm considering a spotting scope for some longer range work, since my last spotter finally gave up the ghost.  It was an el cheapo I got just for range work, and it was only marginal at that.  I'd like to consider a better piece of glass moving forward and I've narrowed it down to a few.  The big question remaining is, angled or straight.  I've tried both, and really can't figure out which one I like best.  The angled were better in the store, in terms of view and comfort, but then again, they were also the higher end stuff (Meopta, Zeiss, Swaro) and the eye relief was so much better.  I'm wondering if a straight scope with good eye relief would be comfortable, as I like using my scope at the bench and one that could do double duty at both the bench and on hunts would be the idea for me.  I can't afford two decent spotters.

Let me know what you use, and why.

In the spirit of Chaplain Kramer's post about Hendershots, I thought I'd post a quick blurb about Carter's Country in Houston.  I don't know if my experience was the norm or not, but I can't imagine I'd ever need to darken their door again.  I happened to be in Houston this past Wed/Thurs for business.  The whole trip was jam packed with meetings, and I figured I'd be rushing the whole time.  So, when my Thursday afternoon meeting cancelled at the last minute, I found myself with a couple of hours to kill.  A quick google of gunshops in Houston brought me to a link to Carter's.  Well, I headed over that way.  When I arrived, I thought it would be a good trip, because the store looks a bit western on the outside, and seemed to have a good "feel" for a gunshop from the parking lot.  The smell of barbecue from the joint next door didn't hurt, either.  Well, I went inside, and all I can say is, what a waste of my time.  The guys behind the counter were all in a foul mood, and it took going back and forth between three different guys (counter, gun repair window, back to the counter to a different guy) to get an answer to a simple question regarding whether or not they had the scope rings I was looking for in stock.  When the third guy looked at me as though I was from Mars and said, without even checking inventory, that they didn't have any Weatherby mounts or high scope rings in a single dovetail set, I just muttered thanks and headed for the door.  I did notice that prices seemed to be about 40-50% higher than the local places in Huntsville.  And, I was the only customer in the place.  I hope they find some manners before they find unemployment, but I won't be back in there.

I've been in gunshops across the country, in small towns and big cities.  It's one of the perks of being a road warrior.  Most of the shops I've been in have been great.  Only this one and maybe a couple of others have not been.  This one was by far the worst.  I think I could have waved a wad of $100's and said I was interested in the Dakota rifle on the wall, and they'd have been indifferent.  The market will take care of them, I'm sure.  I did notice that BassPro has a store in the Houston area.  And, surprise, they had scope rings!  I didn't have time to drive over there before my flight, but if I'm in Houston again, I'll likely go there first.  And that's a shame.

For reference, my birthday is coming up, so the title seemed fitting.

Right now, I'm sitting in about 45deg weather, hiding in the grass overlooking a small pair of greenfields as I type this on my iPhone. It's a beautiful day, The sun is setting, and I'm hoping to see a nice buck or a fat doe come into the field in the next hour. So, all in all not a bad afternoon.

But, the best part is, there's a nice doe on the ground already. I saw her from about 350yds or so, while I was walking in. I stalked to within 185yds, where I had a clear shot, and she obliged me a broadside shot which went through both lungs. For whatever reason, she just jumped an then walked a little farther, so a second shot was sent that dropped her in her tracks. Chalk up the first kill for my 30-06 Colt Light Rifle! (I know it's not a Weatherby, but at least it was made at the Saco Defense plant where the first US Mark V's were made…)

This is my second year trying stalking on top of the mountain my lease is on. Last year I stalked a doe from 800yds but ended up so amped up I missed the 150yd shot. Today, I was still shaking and amped up when I got in position, but I steadied myself and made the shot this time. I'm feeling much better about stalking these days.

I'd better get back to looking for deer…

Well, the wife and kids left Saturday morning to go to Illinois for a week, and I'm bacheloring it at home.  Saturday was "emergency fix the truck's brakes" day, since I heard grinding on the way home Friday night.  Got that done, along with an oil change and tire rotation, and still had time to get to the loading bench and build a few rounds in the evening.  I loaded up some 300Wby with 180gr E-Tips and RL22, as well as H1000.  I also loaded up, on the advice of many folks here, some 30-06 with 168gr Nosler BT's and H4350.  Nothing too special on either one - just max feedable length for COL on the -06 stuff, and about .030" under that for the 300Wby E-Tips, in an attempt to duplicate the results from my 270Wby and E-Tips.  Sunday afternoon was rainy, so I junked around the house and got a few chores done, watched a good movie, and played with my very large, very lonely-without-her-kids, dog.  Yesterday after work I had about 3.5hrs to get to the range, set up, and shoot.  So I piled a bunch of guns in the truck, along with all my supplies, and headed out.  Here's a list of what I was working with:

243Win Browning BAR - Nosler Custom 85gr Partitions, Federal 100gr Blue Box
30-30WCF Win94 - 170gr Hornady, Win748, last two sets for load workup (a project I started too many years ago and just never finished)
270Wby Mark V synthetic - 130gr E-Tip over IMR7828ssc (my hunting load, just checking zero on this one)
30-06 Colt Light Rifle - 168gr Nosler BT over H4350 - this is the first load workup for this rifle
300Wby Mark V Stainless Synthetic - 180gr SST's over a max charge of H1000 (finishing an old workup), 180gr E-Tips over H1000 & RL22
8x57 Rem 700 Classic - 180gr Nosler BT's over IMR4895 (checking zero on this one after missing a doe at the end of the season)

So, I set up the chrony and actually had the rifle section of the public range completely to myself.  Of course, it was 97deg when I got there, and I tied a bandana around my head to keep the sweat out of my eyes.  But I was finally at the range (first time since hunting season ended!).  First up was the 300Wby with the 180gr SST's.  They shot well, and show promise.  Velocity is a little shy of the 3200fps I was wanting, and the group is bigger than I want, at 1.7", but it's two together and one outlier, so I think seating depth tweaks will straighten this one out nicely.  It's the group to the upper right of the center bull, below the top righthand target.  Scope adjustment was the order of the day for this rifle, but I did give it a thorough cleaning recently.



Next up was the 30-06.  I took the advice of several folks here, and went with 57, 58, and 59gr of H4350 (I have a manual that pushes it to 60gr, but I heard so many good things about 59gr I just stuck with that).  Well, 57gr is the bottom left group on the above target - just over 1", and acceptable, for sure.  58gr is the two-shot group on the lower right of the same target.  I had a primer fail on me...hmmm.  59gr is the sweet spot, for sure, at 2900fps, here's what it did.  I was puzzled at the move from left to right of groups with this one as I shot through the workup.  I have to give 8 clicks adjustment on the 59gr load, and I'm going to re-test it in the next few weeks to be sure, but I certainly like the results!



I went through the 30-30, and accuracy was about what I expected - around 5" for six shots at 100yds.  Overall, not bad, and certainly minute of deer out to the 200yd range limit.  I also found that the max load was a waste of powder, in that it simply added powder burned but plateaued in terms of velocity.  If I choose to swap up to these 170gr's, I'll drop back to about 1.5gr lower, which was still 2200fps+ with the 170gr.  No pressure signs, and the primers looked just like the ones at the start charge, and the last factory rounds I fired in this gun.  You can see the groups on the upper and lower right hand side:



Also on the above target, the 243Win Nosler Custom ammo is in the center bull.  I was disappointed in the groups, but I think the rifle's forearm screw is too tight, and will be addressing that shortly.  On the other hand, the Federal blue box put in a tidy little group right at 1.5" in the upper left.  Worst case, I can deer hunt with the remaining 17 of those this year if I carry that rifle afield.

The 270Wby gave me the expected performance, producing a group with my 130gr E-Tips that was small with the exception of a called "low-right" flyer as the first shot.  I knew I pulled it when I touched it off.  If I hadn't, I'd have a nice sub-1" group from this load, I suspect.  Lower left target on the above set.

The 300Wby/180gr E-Tip/RL22 loads gave me nice velocities, and no pressure signs at 3200+ with mid-charges.  Interestingly, the recoil with the start charge was as expected, but the recoil from the mid-charge that gave me the velocity I wanted could only be described as punishing in comparison.  It wasn't prohibitive to the point I could not shoot it, but it was uncomfortable in the heat, at least.  Accuracy was not good (see upper bullseye groups on the first full target above) although I suspect it could be better with some seating depth tweaks, as these groups look strung much like the first E-Tip groups from my 270Wby, which improved dramatically with COL changes.

Final group for the day was just for fun - but aren't they all? - as the sun was winding down and my chrony stopped reading consistently.  So I pulled out three rounds of an old standby load for my 270Wby - 82gr of AA8700 and a 150gr Speer Hot-Cor, with Norma brass and Fed215 primers - and put out this little three shot zinger:



This isn't the first "sub-caliber" group for this rifle/load combo.  It's not even the second.  But it still gives me great pleasure to shoot off three rounds at the end of a 3hr shooting session and get these results.  It clears my mind and settles my soul.  And that's what group therapy is for, right?

I'm heading out to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area this week for business. I'll be in town Mon-Wed (7-9 Feb). Would love to catch up with any members in the area for coffee, beer, or whatever. PM me and we can work out the details.

A friend in Norway ran across this rifle:



which is labeled to be a Vanguard Fibermark, and said to be pillar bedded like the Mark V Fibermark.  It was a new gun, available from a dealer.  I'm wondering if this is a special run, or something done for overseas but not here?  My friend has not had a chance to physically inspect the rifle yet, so it could just be a very nicely painted tupperware stock and the dealer doesn't understand what it is, but that seems illogical, as it would be difficult to mistake that for a Fibermark as it doesn't have the solid black stock.  Anyone from Weatherby want to chime in on this and help us understand?

I much prefer neck sizing, but on occasion when I don't have a neck die for a particular cartridge, when my neck sized cases are tight to chamber, or when I need case body reduction for something like a lever gun, I'll perform a partial full length resize.  I'm sure there are lots of folks on here doing the very same.  I learned how somewhat by accident years ago when I started loading, as my only rifle at the time was a Win94 in 30-30WCF.  Because the lever gun just doesn't have the camming ability of a bolt gun, I could not neck size.  A friend of mine discovered he got misfires with neck sized 7-30Waters cases in his contender, because the break-action would not cam shut the case well enough consistently.  Why only partially size the case?  To prolong case life and prevent case head separation due to repeated sizing down and blowing back out of the brass.

My process is simple enough. I can generally set up a sizing die to partial full length size (pfl size) brass for a given rifle, and not have to fool with the die again, as long as I don't load with that die for a different rifle.  I start with full length sized virgin brass most of the time.  Either that, or once fired factory brass.  Either way, I get brass that's been fired in the rifle I'm loading for.  I go through cleaning, but not prepping.  Then I lube eight or ten cases, and screw the die down to about flush with the top of the press opening.  I put the first case in, and run it up into the die, pull it out, and check the amount of the neck that's been sized.  I run the die down on this case until the whole neck has been sized, but without the shoulder being touched (which can be seen on the case when you pull it out of the die).  Invariably, this case is a tad longer at the shoulder than a fired case, due to the squeezing down of the case body causing it to lengthen a bit at the shoulder, and won't chamber without serious effort.  Adjusting the die down a quarter turn at a time, I size a new piece of brass each time, wipe it down, and then test chamber it in the rifle.  When I get a partially sized case that will chamber with a slight "crush" fit (which feels just a tad harder to close than normal, right at the camming over point of the bolt closing), I know I've found my mark.  I lock down the die lock ring, and then size the rest of the brass, checking every so often to be sure they chamber consistently.

There are tools made to measure once fired cases, and you could use the standard of .001-.002" of shoulder setback to adjust the sizing die, and I have some of those tools, but I started setting up my dies this way long before I had the measuring tools, so I did not include the steps where I measure.

I'd be curious to hear other folks' take on the process.