Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills

I was drawn for a muzzle loading hunt in the Santa Rita Mountains which I have frequented for the last 34 years and have taken a few deer over the years.

Very little sign was seen where I usually hunted that coincided with not seeing much in the way of deer. I slow walked and glassed (not in that order) some of my super duper secret areas to no avail. Where did the deer go? It is no concerning that deer were not seen right away but it is of concern that little or no deer sign ( you know, poop and tracks) was there. Food/water was good in these area. One area I snuck up to the following day was a bedding area that usually looks like the deer had quite a party. No sign - none. I did find sign of illegal traffic in these particular areas. Looks like the illegals are busting the bedding areas on a regular basis.


Nice view out towards the Baboquivari range.

 






Might rain today.


My usual areas are between 6,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation where you have some nice pin oaks and other goodies for forage. Most of this was on the west slopes. The following day found me kicking around down in the washes and amid the ocotilla. There I found sign and did see a few does. The last days of the hunt were spent driving the Bull Spring Road (not maintained for public use) and hunting Josephine Canyon area. Very little sign. One area where we have camped previously was near the stream and every day deer would walk through camp on their way to water and forage the benches. We called them the 11 o'clock does as you could just about set your watch by them.

I sat a hillside above this area glassing, saw nothing and decided to try something different after a few hours. Coming down the hillside I had to take a leak, took of my gloves and noticed my wedding band was missing. I have lost enough weight that my ring was loose. Crap, I forgot to take it off and put in on my key ring! The next few hours were spent searching without accomplishing anything. Usually, when you are distracted doing something else with the rifle slung, you briefly see a nice deer without the opportunity to shoot. We call that luck - bad luck that is. Did not find the ring or get surprised by that turty point buck.

The next weekend after my season was over, I returned to the place with a friend. We both took discriminating metal detectors and searched the places I had been that particular day. We also searched down hill of where I was on that one steep hillside as a bounce could be possible that could put that ring 20 yards downhill. No ring. I may go back for another pass with the metal detector.

Thar's gold them thar hills but no deer!

Win 24 Part III

Well, the Winchester Model 24 SxS is finished or I thought it was. I found a slight crack in the forearm wood. It looks that it could be glued and clamped. I don't know if the glue will end up showing on the outside which would require refinishing the piece.
First coat of Minwax Antique Oil Finish. A bit of sanding was done after this coat to try to take out some of the scratches and dings. Probably removed about 80% of the marring on the stock but it is a field gun from 1939. I decided to not sand that much wood off for the scratches. The dings will remain until I decide that it is really needed to make this look that pretty. Dings will require some sanding, steaming, drying, sanding and recoating.

Time for coat number two.

Back together again!

There will be a short wait while waiting for pheasant season!

I Hear My Name Being Called

I like to fish. I am sure that you asking yourself if that is supposed to be some grand revelation on a biblical scale! Well, it is probably not a revelation of any sort to those who know me. While working on the furniture for the shotgun and smokepole, this swam into view.

Note the boat in the background.

 These strange objects became visible through the murky depths while hanging things up to dry on the porch. This a fish cleaning board, stainless steel fillet glove, and an old scrub pad that seem to be reaching obscurity and overgrown by the Queen's Lace.

The view of these objects and implements brought a twinge of nostalgia as the fish have been without me for a couple of years. Life gets in the way sometimes.

In the evenings when the wind has dropped and it is almost dark, I hear faint voices from the darkness that was upon the face of the deep. I have I heard, "Don, where have you been? We are lonely. Come fish the tranquil waters."

Regardless of whether the voices come from the deep or from deep inside my head, we have lively conversations! Got to go fishing soon!!!!!

O.K. Corral Goes Hot!

Two hurt when live bullets used in Arizona Old West show

Well that reenactment got a little more real when someone went with live ammo instead of blanks! Looks like the pre-show weapons check has to get a bit more serious.

Win 24 Part II

 

 

 

It's alive! Even without the aid of the Wee Free Men, I was able to re-assemble it only to find that the left barrel still did not work right. Pulled the stock again so that I could see the inner workings and the left sear was not engaging all the way. It had actually moved as far as it mechanically could. The right was tight.

I was checking to see the chokes on the barrels as they are on the underside and not visible when assembled. Odd, the front trigger was on the full choke and I remember that modified was first up before. I looked at the triggers again and there is a slight difference of about a millimeter or so in the height of the "bump" (technical term) on them where the sears ride. Could it really be that simple? Drifted the pin out, swapped triggers, pin back in and it works as it should! It is a bit tight from having the cerakote applied but that will wear in. Not bad for a shotgun made 1939. We are ready for hunting.

 I will pull it apart again later when I am ready to do the stock on the Hawkins kit BP rifle and do them both with the MinWax Classic Oil Finish. Steam a few dents out and new finish on this walnut stock will complete this one.

I now know more about the innards of a model 24 than I ever really wanted to.

Winchester Model 24 SxS

I have my father's old Win 24 SxS. It is not a highly valuable SxS like some others. This one was made between 1939 and 1958. It was designed to be an affordable SxS to compete with the Stevens 311 and the Savage/Fox Model B. About 116,200 were manufactured.

Most of the blue was gone from it but it still worked and looked pretty good if you kept it oiled up. I did an original clean-up on it when I got it out from under Dad's bed. It did not look like it had been touched in decades. It was open and there were dust bunnies in the barrels. I do believe that was the first time that I ever blew dust bunnies out of 12 gauge!

I have decided to keep this one of Dad's and fix it up a touch. The metal has been redone in cerakote black. I will do the stock up with the Minwax Antique Oil Finish. Well...........I got the gun back and the left barrel does not cock and it did before it went in. The finishing shop was embarrassed as they were giving up on it and did not charge me for the work. Nice dark black finish but non-functional. An order to Numrich went out for every spring, replacement sears and cocking levers.

Sunday morning was a good time so apart it came. Everything is reassembled except for the last plate that goes in which secures both firing pin/springs and the release level spring. It is still apart for the moment. The keeper holes on the spring shafts are not far enough back. You have to compress all three springs to be able to get the mounting bolt in. I think that this requires about five really little and exceptionally strong hands. I will post some after pictures as soon as I get this complete.

Were are the Wee Free Men when you need them?

Dove Hunting

I had mentioned in an earlier post (Now For Something Entirely.....Cheap) that I had picked up this Leinad Cobray FMJ 45LC/410 derringer and was going to try my hand during dove season.

The second day of the season I decided to give it a whirl. There are always some of the doves that fly low along the brush/tree row by where I hunt. I found a nice little spot, put the 20 ga shotgun down, and stood there waiting to ambush a dove. One finally flew by that I took a shot at. The first thing that I realized was that I missed (like that's a big surprise). I then thought, "Dang, that was loud!". While my ears were still ringing the third thought was that it was a good thing that I had a good grip on it as this thing really kicks and moves. What a hand and ear full. My ears rang like it was a .357 revolver. I have shot one of the .357 and a 44 Mag without ear protection in my youth. The .357 was the worst. I decided pretty quick that hearing protection was required back then.

I decided that I would not try this again until I had a set of electronic muffs on that I could wear with my hat. I am not giving up sun protection. I want to be able to hear as many times you can hear the dove's wingbeat from a distance. I did not try again this season but I will get better prepared for next season so that I might gather some bragging rights about taking a dove with a derringer!

Body Anomalies

Transgender woman says TSA detained, humiliated her over body 'anomaly'

TSA screeners thought and set the machine for female. That "anomaly" was Mr. Wiggly showing up. Hahahahaha! I have no compassion for her stupidity. What did she think was going to happen aside from confusion.

I only start here as a segway to a similar topic. TSA scanners suck to go through. I have gone through the scanner twice in recent travels and got to get felt up after both. The second time the agent asked if I wanted a private screening. "Huh, what? No, just go for it.", I said with a smile. He seemed a little tense. 

He had me turn around at one point in the touchy feely session and I could see the readout screen. Every place that I have loose skin shows in a different lighter color. This is probably due to the density difference without muscle inside a couple of folds of skin. I have some loose skin on my lower abdomen and upper inner thighs from loosing the 130 pounds. Heck, I have more places than that but those are the ones of notice. All of these areas showed up on the scan and he felt all of them up. I imagine it was the upper inner thigh area (woohoo) that prompted the question on private screening. I could also see my Mr. Wiggly just fine on the screen (JK).

I asked him if he had seen that appearance before and he said no. OMG he actually spoke to me! I told him about the weight loss and what he was looking at and patted down. He commented that it made sense. I told him to have a nice day and that I enjoyed our little date. He actually smiled and had to catch himself from laughing. He would not want to give away that he had escaped the procedure of surgically removing his sense of humor as a job requirement.

As a warning to any people that go through with a substantial weight loss program, you will get flagged at the scanner for the loose skin anomaly. Be prepared for the following session of feel-me-up.

What Caliber for Armadillo?

Texas man shoots armadillo, gets hit in face by bullet ricochet

Bullets bouncing off of armadillos happens more frequently than I would have thought. Cruise the web a little and you can come up with headlines like:

Man Shoots Armadillo, Bullet Hits Mother-In-Law
(That's what he told the police anyways)

Seems that the ricochets that I saw involved a 38 revolver and 9mm pistol. It is obvious that a larger caliber is required. I would bet that a 44 mag would take care of the critter and that it would also ruin your meal of leprosy on the half shell!

But just in case you are undeterred by the animal hosting leprosy, I have some untested recipes.
ARMADILLO 'N RICE
BAKED OR BARBECUED ARMADILLO
ARMADILLO IN MUSTARD SAUCE
ARMADILLO WITH SKUNK STIR FRY

Just kidding, I made the last one up although I do have another untested recipe for Steamed Skunk. 
Bon Appetit!

Now For Something Entirely.....Cheap

With dove season rapidly approaching, I needed something with which to defend myself from the close-range doves that occasionally come to close for a regular shotgun. I thought that one of those Bond Arms derringers would be the ticket until I saw the prices that they are getting. They are right proud of those derringers! Frugality demanded that I widen my search for something that would be more agreeable to my wallet. Lo and behold! What did I find but this.......really ugly, cheaply made, inexpensive, and strong, derringer - the Leinad Cobray FMJ 45LC/410 derringer. The pistol barrel has about an 1" or so of rifling and will accept only the 2.5" .410. I already read that the 45LC will keyhole in about 10 yards and that the shot will cover 30" at about 7 yards.

There is nothing smooth about this gun. I bought it along with the conversion kit to turn it into a ugly, cheaply made, and inexpensive single shot shotgun. The kit has a small frame style stock and a smooth bore barrel that will accept 3" .410 along with the 45LC.  

This one is not really any good as a CCW. There is no half-cock setting. The safety is a transfer pin that blocks the hammer back a almost full cock and requires both hands to take the safety off. One hand is needed to pull back on the hammer and the other to push the safety. It is definitely not safe to carry with the hammer down as the firing pin will be right on the primer. I already saw where some ingenious person had "solved" this safety issue. He took a strip of metal and inserted it between the hammer and frame. It was bent at the top so that it did not drop into the gun. I made some out of 1/4" brass strip and it works great. You can load the gun, put the strip it, and lower the hammer. You are now in a safe, loaded condition where you can draw, pull the hammer back, flick your wrist to kick the strip out, and pull the trigger. Look out doves, here I come! Wonder if I could get a daily limit with one of these.......

Diet of Hope VI

Here I am, pinning up my Gold Heart for 100+ lbs weight loss. I am down 122 lbs total and I think that it is time to go for stabilization and call it good. Great plan and wonderful people!

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling, Keep those Doggies Rolling!

I believe that I have covered the highlights of our trip to Okinawa. I returned from Okinawa, went to work for three days, flew to San Angelo, helped pack Daughter #1's stuff in her SUV, drove to Colorado Springs, and then flew back to Tucson! Daughter #1 had asked for company on this drive to her next clinical as part of the DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) program at ASU. We jokingly refer to this as the "good" ASU (Angelo State University). I will fly back to Colorado Springs in mid August and reverse the trip. Rolling........

After that quick run, I really was having a bit of travel lag. There seemed to be a longer adjustment period to get accommodated to the normal sleep schedule. This is probably because I was up longer on the return trip from Okinawa. I was up the entire trip and we arrived back in Tucson midday. I think that I stretched the trip time an additional 6 hours or so making for a grand total of 32 hrs awake. Just a bit to long for this cranking old man.

I had no real lag problems going to Okinawa. We stayed up the whole trip there, arrived about 9PM, got a bite to eat and went to bed. Easy.

I see that the McMann Roadrunner Gun Show has a new venue in Tucson, Sabbar Shrine. It is July 11th & 12th. I will be in Chandler on the 10th & 11th for the Red Cross of Constantine Southwest Regional meeting. Rolling......... That means that I can go to the show on the 12th as we will return to Tucson that morning. Rolling.....

Okinawa Day 12 - 14

We went South to go to the Naval Underground (Japanese Headquarters) and then to the Peace Memorial Museum. 

 The Naval Underground was interesting in that it was the last bastion as the Japanese retreated South from US forces. The headquarters was formally more central in Shuri. They used the Okinawans as forced labor to excavate the tunnels. It was all done by hand.

 Then we were off to the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum. Photos were not allowed in the museum proper.

There is a field of monuments with the names or the people (including the Americans) who died during WWII on the island. This was a proper lead in to our Memorial Day.

Link to photo album pass = Okinawa

Okinawa– Day 13

Pack it up. We also went over to the neighbors for dinner. It was enjoyable. It finally decided to rain steadily. We have been so lucky in that the weather has been agreeable the whole trip.

Okinawa– Day 14

Off to the airport. I understand the Japan had a 5.2 earthquake about the time we were landing in Narita. We did not even feel it so we were probably in the landing process.

We got the house about 4PM Tucson time and everything was fine. I ran off to the grocery store for lunch supplies after unpacking. I needed to get a few things before I sat down and passed out!

Okinawa Day 11

This day was a loaf around day. We went to the mall for dinner at the Kunigami Fisherman’s Wharf. I had the one person seafood course that had Salad Bar, Garician Boiled Octopus, Seafood Sausage, Seaweed and Anchovy Focaccia (bread), Kunigami Fresh Seafood Paella, and Homemade Teppan Crepe Suzette with Vanilla Ice Cream. All the courses were great! The chef decided to give me extra ice cream helpings probably figuring that I would have help. He was right!

Every so often, I would some teenager snicker behind me as I walked through the mall. I'm not sure why. Couldn't be the hat or that I am 6'7".

Okinawa Day 10

 The Ocean Expo Park was our next stop which contains the Churaumi Aquarium, Manatee Pool, Sea Turtle Pool, Dolphin Lagoon, Native Okinawan Village, and Tropical Dream Center.

There was a large flower shark and many other displays put together with flowers of other sea creatures. Not to worry, I broke that shark so we could ride him around.

We started out heading for the aquarium which is huge and is the only one that is big enough to house whale sharks. 

There are divers in the tank with the rays and whale sharks. One was filming and the other was cleaning the acrylic surface. I wonder if they draw straws to see who scrubs? The big whale shark is 8.5 meters long. The acrylic is laminated to about 60 cm thick. The aquarium introduces an open system in which sea water that is scooped from the ocean enters the aquarium tanks and then is returned to the ocean once again.

 Another aquarium section was the Journey to a Coral Reef which had sections on the Coral Lobby, Life in Inoh (touch pool), the Coral Sea, the Sea of Tropical Fish, Coral Reef World and Freshwater Life.

 No petting the sharks.

Journey to the “Kurosh” exhibited the Shark Lab, the Kuroshio Sea, and Aqua Room. Journey into the Deep Sea was the last exhibit area for the aquarium building with sections for Deep Sea Gallery, Small Marine Life in the Deep Sea, Deep Sea, Ocean Planetarium, Aqua Lab and the gift shop (of course!).

Next we were off to the Manatee section, Sea Turtles and then the dolphin show.

Lastly, off to the Tropical Dream Center! The entrance/gift shop is the Stained Glass Hall.

This is the ceiling!








This is one wall inside the hall.

The grounds were impressive with all the tropical flowers and displays. It rivaled the Botanical Gardens but in a different way as this was a much more intimate arrangement that invite leisure and contemplation.

The view from the top of the Observatory was impressive as it is about 6 stories tall and is already up on a cliff. You did not realize that the courtyard area flowers were in a heart shape until looking down at them.

This was a long but wonderful day.

More photos. pass = Okinawa

Okinawa Day 9

It is raining a bit this morning and mom is still sleeping. We will most likely blow off the Oceanic today and go to a museum to stay out of the rain.

We made it over to the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum. It is split into two section with individual fees for each. 

They had a Disney section on the art side that was quite comprehensive. No further pictures were allowed in the Disney or the art exhibit.

There was also an exhibit on how some of the prints are made using a one-time mold of plaster. The steps involved were interesting:

·       Take a block of plaster

·       Carve it
·       Color with oil based crayons
·       Paint with oil paint
·       Set the plaster in water to loosen the oil
·       Remove from the bath and press the paper to it

There was a large expo on one of the famous artist that used this technique. There was another exhibit that was more permanent featuring a variety of artists.

The other side of the museum covered archeology, mythical, history, and other items of Okinawa. This was very interesting and some pictures were allowed.

Gods that visit villages!

We then went off to Gen to have sushi. They have a whole bunch of Shisa on the roof who all appear to be drinking or partying.

More pictures for your entertainment. pass= Okinawa