Just got my new call sign... K7WBY. The first two "K7" designate my stations area location and the last three... WBY denote the best rifle made on this planet.


Other operators around the world will recognize that this is a special call sign and when I'm asked what it means, I will tell them that I own several Weatherby rifles and I'm extremely proud of them. And then, of course, I'll direct them to the Weatherby website.


Pretty cool huh?

Winter is early this year unless you consider snow in late September normal. We have a hard freeze tomorrow morning so I'm shutting down and draining the irrigation system today. The lawn will still need another mowing but this freeze should put it in dormant mode for the duration.


We had a mild summer by comparison. We only hit 100 once or twice which compared to last years 100+ record stretch was a welcome event. I got so much done this summer that I really feel comfortable heading into the winter for once. I'll be putting the Quad up for the winter in the new shed along with the lawn mower and the new Jeep will have a home in the garage. Whohoo, no more scraping ice and snow!


I opted out of Tags for Muley's this year and just bought points but now I'm thinking that might have been a mistake. The deer are already coming down out of the mountains. The wild horses are down out of the hills too, we had a few visit last night. They left the evidence on the street. The city has a crew that comes by and cleans it up if we call them which is nice. We just have to shovel it into the street.


Just heard the weather report and there's chain controls on the mountain roads. I was going to try to do the Rubicon trail one more time with the new Jeep but that's out now. Bummer.. When I was at the dealer buying the new Jeep I showed them my trade in Jeep pulling a fairly new sissy Jeep up Cadillac hill on the Rubicon. They were surprised to say the least. In reality it wasn't the Jeeps problem it was the driver and spotter. The spotter kept saying go left, go right and the driver didn't know who's left or right.. At the top of the hill I told them next time, say passenger or driver side. They did fine after that.


So anyway, winter is here, enjoy it's beauty if you're prepared or suffer if you're not.. LOL..


Steve

Is the search by caliber option gone on the redesigned website? In the past you could pick a caliber and it would show you all the rifles that were available. Now you have to pick a rifle and then see if it comes in the caliber you want. To me, that's bassackwards. Why do I have to go through each and every model to find out if it's available in the caliber I want? When I could select the caliber and see the offerings I could compare features and make a buying decision. Now, I get frustrated going back and forth and often find myself with pencil and paper. A well planned website should not make you do that. If I'm impulse buying I loose the urge quick.

I was a Radioman in the Navy and when I got out I got my FCC Ticket but I never really got back into it so it expired and the classes all changed. Recently, my neighbor decided to get into it because he's big into public service. I thought about it and decided what the heck, I should be doing some public service also. I take my Technicians and General tests on the 7th of September. I already have my shack put together and have a mobile in the Jeep.


I put a 8 band HF antenna up on the new shed I built. Ground rods are in and 90 feet of coax in 1-1/2" EMT (plastic). I also repurposed a direct TV dish mount and put up a VHF Ground Plane. There's several repeaters in the area and I'm able to hear them all which is pretty nice. I'm also building a Yagi with a dual rotor that will go up somewhere.


It was the wrong time of year to dig a ditch in Nevada but the rocks (lot's of rocks) are mostly in the 1-2 foot range from the surface. I had to break out the engine hoist a couple of times but the missing rocks meant that I had to go scrounge up dirt during the back fill. On the upside, I now have a new rock garden in the back yard. LOL


I'll have my ticket and call sign around the middle of next month and I'll post it up here in this thread.

Watch out folks, spammers have hit the Nation. Do not respond to anything they post.

Even though snow is predicted for Thursday, fire season is just around the corner. We've already had one fire caused by evil target shooters (news media sucks). Out here in the desert the wind can gust to 50mph in the blink of an eye and the grasses and tumbleweed are already dry enough to burn.

Because we have so much open range, private gun ranges are few and far between but with a little smarts, you can shoot safely in the open range and not cause a fire and touching off the gun control freaks. This doesn't just apply to shooting on BLM land it's good for many target practice situations.

1. Carry a shovel and a 2 gallon garden sprayer with water and a capful of dish detergent mixed in. The soap breaks the surface tension and allows the water to stay on the fire longer. Some say it doesn't help but I think it does.
2. Don't shoot steel targets. A small chip of steel can fly a pretty good distance and still be hot enough to ignite a fire. (most common cause around here).
3. Don't shoot rocks.. You're an idiot if you do just because of the ricochet problems but they can also break off small chips that are super hot and might ignite a fire.
4. Do not shoot steel ammo. California first switched from lead to steel but when the fires started happening during hunting season they banned it and now shoot copper only. Copper only is probably the best choice and most environmentally friendly. BLM is doing studies right now in our area to see how much lead is in the soil of desert gun ranges. I have a feeling that Nevada is next on the list for banning ammunition with lead in it.
5. Shoot with a back stop. It not only keeps the distance your bullet can travel to a minimum past your target but if a fire does start, odds are pretty good that's well it will be. Even if the backstop is 1000 yards out, it's better than none at all.
And Finally....
Use your head.. if it's hot, the wind is blowing and humidity is down, you are at high risk for a fire without shooting. Don't be the guy that burns down a forest or town. Shooting can wait for another time.

I picked up this little jewel yesterday after doing a little research. What I found was that many of the Russian SKS's were turned back into the Armory and then refurbished with new parts and sold to importers. Mine got a new bolt carrier, bolt and bayonet and a used stock. They were re stamped with the original serial numbers except for the stocks. All of the parts were original Tula parts. Stocks were gathered from existing stocks from rifles that could not be restored and a few new stocks were available also. Mine is not a new stock but it is in pretty good shape.


I want a fun range gun so I'm putting it in a lightweight over molded adjustable stock so I can get a length of pull that fits me a lot better and I'm changing the gas tube because it's one of their weak points. I'll keep all the original parts so I can put it back together again. There are no more SKS rifles being made anywhere so the import industry for these has dried up. What's here is here and there are still a lot around. You can't get them for 100.00 anymore, mine was 450.00.



There are a lot of Chinese and a few others floating around but if you want an original SKS then you go in search of a Russian.


My next quest is for a Turkish M38 1938 Mauser 8mm x 57 which is pretty close to a 30-06 and with a little work can be turned in to wonderful hunting rifles. The 1938 Turkish Mauser has the German Mauser M98 action.. If that sounds familiar, it should, I think it was one of Roy Weatherby's choices when he first started sporterizing rifles. I think he used actual German Mausers then because they were readily available. The actions are sold on GunBroker but typically do not have the bolts or the bottom metal. The best way to get a matched set is to go for the Turkish Mausers. So when I get this one, it will be a project gun and yes, I plan to chamber it in a Weatherby cartridge.