A Season of Change

It appears that five months have elapsed since my last post!  I have a great excuse for not writing.  He looks something like this...

 Yes, the Woods Hippie tribe has expanded its ranks by one.  As of this writing, the little guy is seven weeks old and has already enjoyed his first hike in the woods of Burlington, CT and has tasted some delicious squirrel stew (albeit processed into breast milk by Mama).  So, I haven't had much opportunity of late for grand outdoor adventure, but plenty of grand life adventure!  I can't really ask for much else.

Although, it would have been a blast to be able to ski on some of that freak October snow.

The venerable Coleman stove was impervious to the power outage.

As I alluded to above with the stew reference, I have been hitting the small game hunting season with some regularity, and the squirrels have made some tasty fare.  Don't knock it till you've tried it!  Squirrel really is a flavorful meat and an elusive quarry, too.  Forest greys are much more wary than your average suburban squirrel.  My setup of choice has been my Remington 870 12 gauge shotgun outfitted with a full choke, shooting no. 6 game loads.  The tight choke allows for longer shots in oaks still loaded with foliage, and I don't have to worry about the consequences of sending a .22 slug skyward in the relatively populated areas in which I hunt.  That, and the scattergun gives me options should I flush a stray pheasant or partridge.

I'll leave you with a few scenes from a Connecticut small game hunt...

Think snow.

New Toy

Simmons scope on a Marlin 25N .22 rimfire rifle.

This weekend I picked up a Simmons .22 Mag riflescope for my trusty .22 rimfire rifle.  I've been shooting the rifle with the stock open sights for the last 15 years so I figured it was time for an optics upgrade.  The scope is relatively inexpensive, less than $50, and comes with mounting rings.  I was impressed with the quality of the metal construction of the scope body, and the coated optics will be sufficient at the yardages afforded by the .22 long rifle round.  The magnification is adjustable between 3x and 9x, and the optics feature a quick focus to fine tune the image to the shooter's eye.  The friendly staff at Dick's Sporting Goods mounted and boresighted the scope.  OK, the staff was friendly because he happens to be my cousin and I would tell his mother if he behaved otherwise.

First shots with the boresighted scope are to the right of the quarter

I dropped by the local indoor range to dial in the scope.  The first seven shots landed about two inches wide and a half inch tall of the target at 25 yards (the maximum distance at the range), but this isn't bad considering some scopes won't even land lead on the paper at first.  I fired off another dozen rounds or so while incrementally adjusting the windage and elevation on the scope.  I quickly moved the shot group exactly where I wanted it and ended up with half-inch groups dead center on the target.  Coincidentally, the orange target is roughly the same size as a squirrel's head, so hopefully Mrs. Woods Hippie can look forward to a tasty pot of squirrel stew since Connecticut's small game season runs through February.  Perhaps Savage can post up a good squirrel recipe to go along with his venison creations... 

The end result.  7 shots in a half inch group.

The true test, of course, will be a moving target in the field without the advantage of a climate-controlled bench rest.  I shot several rounds free-hand at the range and let's just say that the game will have a sporting chance.

Do you trust this man?