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Topics - zoniezonie

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Around the Campfire (General Discussion) / Peak 44
« on: February 27, 2025, 09:17:50 AM »
257 brought up an interesting question Peak 44 rails,   any one here use them ?  I don't keep up with a lot of this stuff anyway I did a little looking and found Peak 44 and Weatherby have the same address in WY.  I wonder if this is a Weatherby off shoot going into different accessories ? in any case might take a look at Peak 44 website and  see what they have to offer, some of the rifle stocks look pretty nice.

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I usually go down to the little local swap meet on Saturday's,  I found a nice fiberglass stock from a guy I've bought stuff from him before like some old Bamboo fly rods,  my son and I were down there 2 weeks ago which he rarely goes and saw a nice fiberglass stock and thought I saw it,  I didn't probably talking with the folks I see down there and chat with, anyway last Saturday I saw the stock just by chance and really didn't pay attention too it,  the guy told me just take it and I said I got to pay you something so I gave him 5 bucks and went on shopping,  really it is a nice stock maybe a little paint, no dings,  and that's about it , I figured I could make it fit some rifle down the road if I wanted.  started looking at it when I got home and noticed the white line spacer , white diamond on the grip cap and sure enough a Weatherby butt pad.  got a couple rifles this might find a home on.   

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Around the Campfire (General Discussion) / New Hobby
« on: March 31, 2024, 08:31:25 PM »
My son and I have a new hobby machining and fabrication more so on his part, he has an old Van Norman vertical / horizontal milling machine 3 phase for some time now, he just bought a newer Sharpe vertical mill w dro  3 phase and Baileigh engine Lathe w dro 240v,  both newer models from a retiring friend.  I picked up a 3 phase industrial chop saw w stand, also we picked up an old Key cutter 3 phase for cutting woodruff keys and axle splines if needed smaller but still 800 to 900 lbs my guess.   he's been building a gantry crane last 2 days to get the equipment off the trailer he already has the  I beam , trollies and 3 ton & smaller  chain falls.  we wouldn't really need to build a gantry except it's totally muddy around the barn so this first gantry is going inside the bldg.  down the road another larger gantry is going to be needed this time with vehicle spindles and tires will be needed with a bridle to pull into different areas outside like in front of the garage or barn where this taller gantry is needed not so much weight capacity wise more for pulling engines and that kind of stuff.  I'm looking at a small quality hobby lathe  w dro with ability to convert to collets mainly for small things,  I'll take my time on this one to find exactly what I need.  we both have welding stuff minus a tig machine,  plasma cutter and industrial drill sharpeners he has ,  along with the presses, engine stands, etc,   little by little we will keep adding stuff.   broke a leaf  spring on my 18 ft open car hauler / side by side trailer coming home with the lathe and mill onboard.  had the leave the trailer at his friends house until next day when we bought 4 new spring sets  and replaced the bad one in snowy weather got home and replaced the springs on the other side and found another  broken  from age and fatigue, lucky it happened where it did.  down the road he wants to add a forge  and other tools and I'm also looking for another large engine lathe. thankfully we have a concrete floor in the barn so we can get the Johnson bars out with small diameter steel round stock under the equipment to move them around,   to be honest I get tired of waiting on people / companies saying they can do things, parts aren't in or available, or can't get to it for how ever long, so we will do it ourselves if we can.   old school machinist / machining  is a dying breed  especially for one off stuff,  the kids that  learn and pick this trade up are going to make bank if they wanted .   I also picked up a laboratory grade microscope made by Olympus, and old tool and die maker  friend who is now passed  used for inspecting his work now I know why he had it kind of fun looking at all the imperfections. 

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Check out www.olympus-arms.com.     look for info on you tube video's,   pretty cool.  a work in progress in the right direction I think for certain applications.  IMO  If this pans out which I can't see that it wouldn't, the technology of recoilless rifles/cannons has been around for more than a century, this just needed the right people.  eventually I could see this going into caseless ammo,  multiple cartridges smaller and larger going up to  the big boy's,  military applications for sure,  really long range mega cartridges, Handguns, shotguns, etc.  One gun applications with barrel swaps are  talked about and if you really wanted down the road it could be made into what looked like a  more traditional sporting semi auto hunting rifle.  technically you could most likely make it into a straight pull bolt action rifle  with a little thought.   

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I have used a lot of different powders at one time or another but to be honest there are only a few I would not want to be without, most of the powders I would choose are multi-caliber powders that may not be the best performers in all calibers  but good enough to  get the job done without a lot of fuss.   What are your thoughts ? 

Handgun / shotgun powders ,  HS--6 for heavy shotgun and some medium heavy handgun cartridges  I prefer HS-7 but it's not made anymore but have enough to get by.   Red dot for shotguns and small handgun cartridges,    Win 231 or HP-38  small caliber handgun powder and lite loadings for large handgun cartridges.   unique for shotgun and handguns,  H-110 or Win-296 for magnum handgun and small rifle. 

Rifle powders,  Tac for smaller to medium rifle cartridges, Hodgdons or Imr 4895 both great powders from small rifle cartridges up to 458 win mags,  H-4831 or Imr 4831 for  270 / 30-06 class cartridges, H-1000 for larger magnums such as 300 Wby, 

There are a few powders I didn't list in the above  I hope they don't get discontinued lists that I like such as Reloader 17,  Varget, H-4198,  blue dot, Imr-7828, Reloader 22, Norma MRP , Lil' gun, green dot, occasionally Retumbo. 

I do use other powders these are the one's I have a preference and feel the most comfortable with. 

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This last years Deer and Elk hunts were a disaster,  Hunted Kaibab 12Aw early Deer hunt ,  seen little bambi's almost every day little stuff nothing worth shooting.  Way too many people, previous fires moved the Deer out, even the local loggers were not seeing Deer in any numbers and we didn't see any big ones and we were up there before opening day and left the day before closing hunting non- stop from way before daylight and getting back after dark each day, and we covered most of the whole unit.  Guys I talked with said they would never hunt this early hunt again and I agree.   Our Bull Elk hunt was even worst Unit 9 later hunt,  again too many hunters ,  hunted every day except the  last day afternoon.   Elk in small numbers seen a few nothing we could get on, same thing up before daylight and back after dark and I only seen one Bull that was taken a nicer Bull to be honest we knew going in it was going to be a hard hunt,  weather was warm,   It wasn't hard there just wasn't Elk,  a few and that was it and we covered the whole unit with the exception of the far western boundry in the open flats which we could see.   I will never hunt this unit again either.  I think if it had snowed a lot it would have pushed the elk into the unit. Hell we got bigger and far more Elk where I live, so there isn't a need for me to travel.
Now for the bad part we lost my son's old 1 ton diesel truck and my 18 ft hunting trailer in an accident the trailer got away from him and jack knifed on the freeway in front of a semi and got hit ,  I was behind him in my 3/4 ton Dodge truck  towing a car hauler trailer with my sxs Honda 1000-5.  I got out of the way and stopped up the freeway a few hundred yds , I honestly thought it killed him , but he walked away without a scratch,  no one was hurt in any vehicle,  his truck wasn't as badly hurt as we first thought , bent frame, front clip  are toast, the trailer is going to be crushed at the metal yard.  trailer tagged the steel flat bed on my son's truck and pretty much destroyed the trailer in the process another semi clipped the side of the trailer not as bad as I thought in any case neither are going to be replaced were't worth any money anyway.  AZ  Highway patrol and tow company were absolutely great,   first class and professional all the way.   Anyway not going to buy another trailer for hunting  I'm getting too old and trailers too expensive especially for Toy Haulers I wouldn't get the use out of it,  so we are either going to hunt out of our house locally,  buy a new tent (I have an old one which is pretty ragged) or stay in a motel and have a hot shower and TV.  Probably a lot cheaper to just stay in motels than buying new gear.  I did pull the 4 burner propane stove/oven out of the trailer  the next day and later  built a short stand for it with little pots and pans storage and 3/8" plywood  wind break for outside or tent cooking came out very nice. will hold a 20 pound turkey in the oven along with baking pies and biscuits and such.  My Dad had one and was the camp cook for the younger guys so I got the idea from what he had.   I was actually looking at a 16 ft poly canvas Bell type tent with stove jack,   4 season  tents easier to put up and won't mildew so bad as Army canvas and a little lighter weight  to move around and set up.  I'm seeing a lot more of these Bell Tents locally in long term hunt camps so they must be pretty decent tents.  I would go with a Kodiak / Spring Bar 10 x 14 but I think it's a little small for us, and doesn't have a stove jack.   Wall tent would be nice for 2 guy's to set up maybe 13 x 16 or there about's nothing smaller.  Wall tents just for me to set up are a pain  especially in bad weather.  I'm looking for easier / faster  set-up.  We have a pretty decent 13 x 13 shade canopy we can  tarp the  sides on and  cook in with 2 larger wooden portable heavy duty tables for cooking stuff, works real well when anchored down with re-bar stakes and good rope   in the wind.   We are going to tow an 18 ft  car hauler trailer with Honda sxs behind  the truck the trailer is also set-up with a chest freezer on the front ran by a generator to keep any boned out meat from spoiling in our AZ heat.  Generator had frame damage in the accident my son thinks he can build a new frame  for it I don't know. 

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Around the Campfire (General Discussion) / Off to Kaibab Deer hunting
« on: October 21, 2021, 08:56:11 AM »
My son and I are leaving this morning for our deer hunt in Arizona  North Kaibab 12AW .   We both have Muley tags,  we may stay for the next 10 fays depending upon what we see,  son is taking his Weatherby nation Members 257 Wby and I'll be using my 300 Wby,  with another 300 Wby as a spare.  Normally I would not  take this large of a caliber the deer are big and   possible long shots so what the hell.  We both have Mtn Lion tags  and we have seen them on prior hunts in this area.  I think it will be a mad house for thru the weekend and then settle down next Tusday or Wednesday after most people have gone home.  Not cold enough right now to move them off the plateau to migrate to lower elevations so we will hunt high at first and cruise around and look at different areas anyway got to go now son just started his diesel.

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Just got back from Ca bottom fishing rented the whole boat for a couple  of day  trips,  no over night trips  covid restrictions.  22 of us were suppose to go I think 19 showed up.  great fishing my son and I came home with around 70 + pounds of good filets between the 2 of us.   Getting the canning pressure cookers ready for the up coming hunts my son and I leaving next week for an Early Kaibab Deer hunt north rim of the Grand Canyon,  and a month later we both are hunting Bull Elk just south of the south rim of the Grand Canyon,   big bulls hard to hunt if we get one I'll be happy.  Bought an extra 10 dozen pints and quarts jars and and roughly 300 lids and a few rings.  Might have to break out my mom's old pressure cooker,  I really don't like using that one.   My son won't can his deer or elk we will butcher them and  get a couple vacuum sealers going on his game.   We will pressure can most of  mine it just stays longer and I like the taste you can shred it and make tomales, great taco's, & burritos,  really good beef stew or you can snack on it right out of the jar.    Every now and then I'll can some fish generally the worst tasting fish I'll can, trout comes out like rich Salmon Patties.  Next time I Tuna Fish it's all getting canned except for some I'll give away to friends who like Ahi.  Other fishes like Dorado and Wahoo  we filet or steak out.   My wife has been in a canning mode lately Hatch Green chili's ,  sweet potatoes,  green beans,  green chili salsa. 

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One way to increase bullet fps performance is to increase barrel length.  I'd like to see Weatherby come out with a short falling block action with a lightweight carbon wrapped barrel in about 30 "  and still keep the overall rifle length down vs a typical bolt action which are long to begin with.   Mark V's have been around for a long time and they're great,  but I think we need to  look out side the box for something new.  Long range shooters typically  don't cycle the action very fast anyway but they do like bullets with high bc's and more fps isn't a bad thing either. 

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We were talking about what we got drawn for this year results just came out for Arizona  Fall Deer.  My son and I were both drawn for  Arizona 12AW  Kaibab early  Mule Deer hunt which is a good thing because we were both Drawn for Unit 9 Bull Elk late hunt.

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We had a discussion awhile back as to where New Weatherby ammo was being made,  we were looking at the new Boxes and nothing said it was made in Sweden by Norma so the question came up where is the new Weatherby ammo actually made ?   I called Weatherby this morning and the good customer service people at Weatherby said nothing is made by Norma anymore.  ALL new ammo is loaded in the USA and I'm assuming @ Weatherby,  Brass is a mixture of Hornady and Peterson,  Bullets of course are listed,  Powders are Proprietary and no information is given out.    I sure like the Norma brass I've found it lasts quite a long time 15 or so re-loadings in our 257's and that's a pretty hot load.   The Norma Brass in our 300's out lasts Remington brass .  Hornady Brass in my other calibers has been quite good,  Peterson Brass I don't know anything about must be pretty good.   I hope that Weatherby's new brass suppliers  brass will last  for many re-loadings, I'm sure it will.     I would be curious as to what cartridge brass is made by Hornady and what cases are made by Peterson.

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We were talking about endo/bore scopes and the bore snake came up in the conversation so I did  a little reading on these new little flexible shaft bore scopes.  I nixed the bore snake because I wanted a 90 degree camera and ended up buying on E bay a Teslong NGT100 V2 ,  0.2 " diameter with a 48 " cable.  We were talking about having a unit that came with it's own screen as not to go thru the hassle of trying to figure out how to download the apps to make the non screen bore scope versions work on your computer and android phones.  So I pulled the trigger and bought the non screen version because it was cheaper and I didn't want to throw away money on something I didn't like. Boy was I surprised  it was simple to set up for a non computer person like myself.  plugged in the borescopes USB  my computer with USB 3.0 ports and windows 10.  Instructions with the unit are pretty basic.  Now it's loaded on my computer and when I get the nerve I'm going to install it on my Andriod Phone or have some one better with these new phones help me out.  I don't think this unit is set up for I Phones yet maybe I wrong.  Anyway I thought my 300 wby was copper fouling clean as a whistle,  I don't think so I could plainly see the fouling in the bore,   not much copper but enough to see I was not getting 100 percent of the copper out either.  Some heat checking in the throat area and some other not so good metal heat fatigued.   It's a little hard to get use to a flexible shaft instead of the rigid types, but for 58 bucks I can live with it. 

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