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I booked a 3 day cow elk hunt with Black Mountain Outfitters Inc., https://www.bmohunts.com They have around 500,000 leased acres to hunt on. There were about 25 hunters in camp for the weekend with the majority doing cow hunts. They had a combination of bunk houses and campers to put all the hunters up in. It is a scheduled 3 day hunt. We really lucked out on the weather. Lows were in the mid teens to highs in the low 40's. Great hunting weather. The previous weekend the lows were around zero with several inches of snow. The first couple of pics are of the property, bunk houses and lodge area where we would meet and eat. Saturday morning was the first day of the hunt. We left the lodge about 5:15 and made it to where we were going to hunt just before sunrise, about 6:40. The guide left me at the truck and he hiked up on a knob to glass some flats. As soon as started glassing he waved at me to hurry and get up there. He spotted a bull and about 10 cows about 1.5 miles away. He said they will feed in this direction and lets get a move on and try to cut them off. The guide is young and in shape. I am just the opposite. We took off at a fast pace always trying to keep a line of scrub bushes between us and where the elk were. It about killed me trying to keep up with him. He would stop every so often and let me catch up. We finally get as far as we can with the cover. We had covered a little over a mile. I was sucking air, my lungs were burning, my knees were burning, snot was running my face but it was all that good kind of hurt. The video says the first shot was about 700 yards. We doubled checked it and the last bush we could shoot from was 600 yards. I tried to get my breathing under control but rushed my first shot and it was low. My second shot was also a little low. I hit her right where the legs meet the shoulder. I was a couple of inches low and forward of where I wanted to hit. The shot broke both of her front legs. I was sick. I hate making bad shots. She was not going anywhere so I was able to get closer and put a finishing shot through her neck. We got her gutted and then the real work began. We were supposed to have a third guy with us but he decided to go with another group. So the guide and I had to get this 400lb elk into the back of his truck by ourselves. As you can see from the pic I got a little bloody. I was exhausted after loading the elk. Being exhausted never felt so good though. Since I knew I was probably going to be bringing meat back I drove to the lodge. It is in Pie Town, NM which is a 20 hour drive. I left Thursday about 6 pm and drove straight through. I got there Friday afternoon. Met the other hunters and guides then we all had dinner. Went to bed and got up at 4 am Saturday morning. We had breakfast and then headed out to hunt. I killed the elk by about 7:30. We got back to lodge and got the elk skinned and quartered and put in cooler. I took a shower, packed my things, grabbed some lunch and was back on the road by 1:30. Got home this morning about 10. TL:DR - Drove 42 hours round trip for a 2 hour hunt and loved every minute of it.

How many of you remember the TV series “The Virginian”? The Virginian was played by James Drury. Our first-born daughter likes the reruns of the old western. They had a Cowboy Way Festival in Ardmore Oklahoma in 2017. We took our RV and drove out here and met James among other old western stars of yesteryear. Our grandson Cody went with us. Our daughter even got him a black western hat, red shirt, and outfit like the Virginian wore in the TV series. They have a Virginian Posse fan club. Prior to our getting there She posted Cody’s picture on the posse page and several made comments about Cody. As it turned out many were looking for Cody after we arrived. When we arrived and on Thursday night our daughter took Cody to a restaurant, in Ardmore, to eat. We stayed behind and set up our campsite and decided to attend the Friday thru Sunday festivities. After they arrived at the Restaurant they were seated and someone yelled out, “Is that Cody”? To their surprise it was James Drury. He was 84 at that time. He recognized Cody from the picture our daughter posted on the posse web site. James got up, came to their table, and shook Cody’s hand and welcomed them to the festival. Long story short, they had a Bosman’s dinner at the end of the festival on Sunday night. He told the director he wanted Cody to sit at the Bosman’s table and eat dinner with him. James Drury passed away in May of this year. Last week, a kind Lady wrote, on the Posse Web page, of her memory of that 2017 dinner as she sit beside Cody at the Bosman’s table that night. Here is her memory. Flashback to 2017, sitting across from Mr. Drury at the dinner table in Ardmore, OK I asked Mr D; What keeps you going, other than your beautiful morning and evening star(his Wife)? He looked at the entire table, and said; Each and everyone of you, then he looked at Cowboy Cody, who was sitting next to me with his family, and said, Especially you! I remember the smile on his face when he said that. It was priceless. He really, really enjoyed IMO being with all of us, and “most of all Cowboy Cody” that night. One of my most wonderful memories of Our Ramrod…. This spring after Cody learned of Mr Drury’s passing, he cried for days. Still does some times. He called me and told me “My Friend James Drury died Pop Pop, and every time Cody sees a rainbow in the sky, he says My Friend James Drury is happy. Cody is 28 now and has Downs Syndrome. Takes a Special Man to befriend someone who is challenged. Just like when King David(of the Bible) showed kindness to Mephibosheth (2nd Samuel 9). Read it, and your go and do the same.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/sensible-compassionate-anti-covid-strategy/ I get a copy of Imprimis every month, and almost always the articles are thought-provoking. No less this one, with an interesting take on a Covid strategy. I think it's worth the five or six minutes it takes to read.

I honestly can't come up with the words. I am heartbroken. I am angry. I am not ashamed to tell you that I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes. Y'all.... Mikey literally spent some of his last hours reaching out on TGO for a connection to the outside world. You all were his community. You were his lifeline beyond the four walls of his hospital room. Please don't ever forget that. Don't misinterpret TGO to be just another gun forum. This place is literally home to many of us. Damn it. I just can't.

Finally wrangled up my wife a Model 70 with probably the finest trigger I have seen to match my model 70. 1953 M70 in 257 Roberts in a standard grade with a Weaver K4 atop it. Goes very well with my 1950 M70 in 30-06 dressed in SuperGrade with a Leupold Vari-X III 3.5-10 I (I mean my wife) has always wanted a 257 Roberts and was preparing to start rebuilding a 98 Mauser chambered in it when this jewel popped up.

You'd be amazed at how many people screw that up! They buy, make a little and get itchy, so they sell, then watch it go up, buy again, rinse and repeat several times, and then really load up the truck at the top and get on the heavy equipment non-stop down elevator. I've seen hundreds of people do that in my 40 years on Wall Street. Those folks are great --- after all, the rest of us do need liquidity!

Hipower, it is just a story about an somewhat famous person humbling himself, and extending friendship to one who is less fortunate. It is what God wants all mankind to do. Cody and our first born actually went back and seen Mr Drury in 2018. He remembered Cody and asked him to sit in his booth with him as he signed autographs and other things. Cody considered him to be his friend. They were going back in May of this year, but James passed away in April at 84. I posted this story here to encourage others to do the same. If you see someone less fortunate, reach out to them. Be a caring human being.

You might be crimping too hard which can expand the shoulder. The .30-30 is notorious for this. Remove the depriming pin and run a loaded round through the sizing die again. Then see if it chambers.

Since your resized but unloaded brass chambers properly, and since you've seated bullets much deeper than spec, that leaves me to believe that the bullets are expanding the necks of your brass. When your reloaded ammo won't chamber, are there land marks on the bullet? I'm betting not with deeply-seated bullets. If not, then it's unlikely that the bullets are running deep into the lands. You might carefully measure the neck diameter of a few factory loads that chamber properly, then measure the neck diameter of a few of your reloads that do not. If there's a difference, then either your bullets are too large or perhaps your bullet seating die isn't crimping properly. Have you tried more than one brand of bullet? (I've never had a problem with factory bullets, but I suppose it's possible.) One possible solution is the Lee factory crimp die. They're not expensive, but they seem to do a really good job of making sure a reloaded round is concentric and "unbulged" for lack of a better term. Good luck!

Nobody forced those kids to take out those loans. The problem is that many of them wasted the money on worthless degrees that won't earn them a living. Think liberal arts. They just wanted to be in college to party and have fun not to actually work hard, study and learn. Now they're buried in debt and just want to whine about it. My oldest got a 2 year Associates Degree from State Tech in computer science. He now makes a good living at it. Most of his education costs came from grants. Yep, free money you don't have to pay back. You just gotta be smart enough to know where to apply for them.

I had never met Mike either, but always enjoyed his comments on here. Like someone said we are all getting older and we could be the next to go to our eternal resting place. Prayers lifted for his family and the TGO family that will miss him.

This is my favorite video of Mikey from a few years ago at the Musician’s Hall of Fame induction. You might recognize a few of the folks onstage with him - ZZ Top, Peter Framptom, Randy Bachman... His solos are at about 2:40 and again at 5:20. The whole thing is worth just great.

I have loaded every ammo can to the brim. I still have primers, see photo. I’m willing to let a few bricks of whatever go in a Lend/Lease system. IOW, I will loan a brick and you pay me back when they become available again. Yeah, I know I’m taking a chance they will not.

Not just with the Music City chapter. All the different chapters have their auction online. The sika deer hunt I went on a few months ago I got from the Anchorage AK chapter of SCI banquet. There are definitely some good deals if you look for them.

I was very pleased with the operation. I bought my hunt from a SCI fundraising auction and paid less than list price.

This story doesn't really fit but I think it applies. An NRA instructor I know and have taken two hand gun course from told this story at the last course I took from him maybe 10 years ago when I was still in Western NY. He was early middle age and in good condition so that is the part that doesn't really fit. He was leaving a theater in downtown Rochester with his wife and kids after dark heading for their car on a dark street. Three shady looking guys changed direction and started heading towards them. Now he looks like someone you don't want to mess with but they probably figured 3 of them and he is with his family. He made a quick decision and just slid his coat back showing he was carrying. They instantly changed direction away from them. He ended the story by saying by NYs stupid gun laws, what he did would have been considered brandishing and could have gotten him arrested but he made the decision that taking that chance might save shoot one or more people.

ARK funds really are great performers.

Congratulations Bill. Great pics and an awesome smile on your face. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations. With all that blood, you could be in a horror movie. Lol.

Great job, congrats. That should keep you in venison for some time. Elk steak is some of the best I have had, much better, IMO, than beef.

I bought one from Classic Firearms last year. I concur. It is loud. Loud enough to get other shooters to stop and look around. lol

Congrats! And thanks for sharing your adventure!

Congratulations! Isn't it amazing that the wonderful things in life seem to go by so very swiftly?

Awesome!

Best of the Tokarev style pistols IMO. The safety required for import on those is very well done unlike those found on the Romanians that often effect functionality. They are nice and loud too. Crowd-pleasingly loud.

^^^^^ That was my first thought, neck expanding.

I think my chin hit the desk when I read this earlier. My hope, as with all of his friends and family, was that he was on the road to recovery. Reading all of these comments and watching his videos I understand why he was so well liked. His talent and down to earth personality make him the type of person that will be missed and remembered for a long long time. My sincerest condolences to all of his friends and family.

I admit buddy, I was at first a bit perplexed on this. Just a simple-minded old fool I guess. lol But as I watched and thought on the video...I came to see just why you picked it. It's spot on! And you are right. It is appropriate, and Mikey would have enjoyed it.

Yes, and if you do not have a very thorough understanding of this type trading then DON'T! LOL.

I'll take the vaccine once I get the chance. I'm guessing it will be spring before I'm able to get it.

Yep "free money YOU don't have to pay back". Instead, like all government grants, that money came from the taxpayers. I'm glad your son is a productive taxpayer now. So, in one sense, he IS paying it back. Government has no business making loans. It's vote buying at it's most blatant.

I would recommend against collectables. The obvious problems are storage, insurance, and the ability to make the right buying decisions at the right price, but the bigger problem is illiquidity. With an ETF, you list click "sell" at market in your Schwab, TDAmeritrade, etc account and within an minute you get an alert that's it's done. Wait until the settlement date and you can withdraw the funds. So, sell on Monday and you can have cash available to trade stocks on Monday or withdraw and have the cash in hand realistically by Thursday/Friday. With a collectable car or vintage gun, the buyer's market is MUCH smaller. It might take months. Plus, there is a major problem for what your heirs would have to do if something happens to you. A friend's late husband collected vintage musical equipment... pedals, speakers, keyboards, etc. He died with a house full of this stuff and his widow had no idea of how to get rid of it. It has been over a year and she still has one entire side of the garage and one bedroom filled with stuff that's worth tens of thousands of dollars, but people want to know it actually works before buying it. It has been a MAJOR hassle that you wouldn't want to leave to your spouse or children. In fact, what survivors typically do is sell it at auction for pennies on the dollar. I'd recommend a portfolio of ETFs. Vanguard is good, but there are others I would recommend as well. That's what some of the professional asset managers use. I know because I held the CFP designation for 34 years before retiring.

I get more riding time in that is for sure.

I'm no gunsmith by any means. But I am a fairly good hobbyist. Pick a project and have at it. Learn as you go and be prepared to make mistakes. Sometimes costly mistakes. Good tools are a must and they ain't cheap. You can find most anything you need at Brownell's. You Tube does have some good videos, but as Xtriggerman said, some are total crap. So take 'em with a grain of salt. Above all, go slow and easy. Test fit often. Its easy to take metal off, but its awful hard to put it back if you take too much. I do mostly handgun work and that is generally S&W revolvers and 1911s. two books I highly recommend are Jerry Kuhnhausen's The Colt .45 Automatic and Smith & Wesson revolvers. He also has several other books on various firearms. With time and patience you can do some very good work with just simple hand tools. This is my DIY pride and joy. A custom S&W .45 Colt snubbie. I started with a bare nekkid frame and the barrel was originally a 6" .45 acp barrel. So I had to cut both ends. But bear in mind that when I built this I had access to a lathe at work and have since retired and can't use it anymore. You gotta learn to work with what ya got.

I have one 8 pointer mounted. He was in full velvet the day after Thanksgiving. My wife has a spike mounted. She went out and shot it just to show her brother she could. She had it mounted so he wouldn’t forget.

Man this sucks Mikey was a great guy first time I met him in person was at Bill's Eastside shop too. I hadn't talked to him in awhile but this made me tear up. He will definitely be missed. This is an awful reminder that people need to take this seriously and do whatever they can to prevent spreading it. Its not fair that he is gone way too soon.

And this is just a few. Mike told me once that the (recording) session work he did put him in contact with the biggest names in the music world, in all types. Now if you knew Mike, you know this wasn't bragging; he didn't seem to like talking about who he knew or worked with just to name drop. Those were just people he worked with. Just any other day or job to him. Playing and making music. That's all Mike wanted, at least outside of his family. Everything he did was for his family. That always came thru in conversation. You just felt and could see the love he had in his life for them. He was a dedicated musician and family man. One who was blessed enough to make his passion his life's work. We should all be so lucky. I'm sure others here knew him better than I did, and are hurt just as deeply by his passing. But I must say that meeting Michael Douchette was a joy. I can say without any reservation that meeting Michael was one of the biggest and best parts of my time in our TGO family. He shone in whatever context you would meet him in. You simply could not help but like the man. He made that impossible. Goodbye my friend. May you have eternal peace and joy playing with that Heavenly Band that needed a great steel guitar player.

Look for the smoking gun

Y’all please keep his wife Lisa in your prayers. She’s not out of the woods yet either.

Yeah, maybe. But maybe they call him "President Trump" because he's already president.

It's because you copied and pasted the whole thing from another site. It brought their formatting over with it. When you do that, our forum will ask you at the bottom of the editor if you want to paste as plain text. Answer YES to that.

If you haven't already started taking vitamin D3, you should start immediately and take a 20,000 IU on day 1 and 5,000 IU daily after that. Some people are advocating 50,000 IU on day 1. Good luck.

I've probably posted these before, but I had them out of the safe and snapped a picture. My father made each of my sons a deer rifle. They are Mexican Mauser actions with Timney triggers and David Miller 3 position safeties. They are both chambered for 257 Roberts. I hope they will appreciate them as much as I do.