Pre-hunting season is upon us!

  One of the biggest reasons I shoot is for hunting - I grew up in a hunting family and every fall, we'd tramp out into the woods and (hopefully) bring back game. My father is far, far better at it than I am. I shot my first deer when I was 11, my second at 13, and then... nothing. I'm 35 and haven't connected with a big game animal in almost 23 years. I'm hoping to change that...

  So, new state, new group of shooting friends, and I'm going hunting. Two different camps this year, deer and elk.

  Dear season is sometime late September (depending on where you go), and elk is late rin October/November.

  Preparations have begun! I've picked up maps for two of the units I'm looking at for hunting. I'll study them carefully and lead expeditions to scout them out. A day in the woods with friends is always a blast.

  I'm also starting to load up some ammo for my venerable Remington 760 in .30-06. It's a tiny, vengeful god that speaks great fire from the bore and punishes the wielder. Only the pure of heart and dedicated of intent may use it safely.

  Misremembering the recipe for the gun, I bought the wrong powder AND the wrong bullets. I meant to get IMR4064 powder and Hornady spire points, and instead came home with IMR4350 and a box of Nosler AccuTips. How I got so confused, I'll never know. I just need to smile and take my medicine - working up a ladder test to see which rounds are the most accurate for my purposes. At least I got the bullet weight right - 165gr. I'll post results from the ladder test.

  Reloading will get its own series of posts, I'm still pretty new to it and have rookied just about everything I can. I got a case stuck fast in the depriming die(got it unstuck with the RCBS stuck case remover), I failed to seat a primer fully (got that fixed when I got the depriming die unstuck), mashed the necks on some cases... spilled powder. It's been one big Learning Opportunity, but I'm enjoying it.

Nothing but footprints?

  One of my biggest pet peeves with shooting culture is the crap that gets left behind at shooting sites. For some reason, jerkoffs think that they can haul a bunch of garbage out into the woods, blast at it all afternoon, then casually stroll away without picking up after themselves. This is squarely against what my father and the Boy Scouts taught me - Pack it in, Pack it out. Take only Pictures, Leave only Footprints... Isn't that what we, as the supposed Stewards of the Wilderness are supposed to be doing? What the hell possesses someone to bring a 1960's era console TV out into the woods, blow it to hell, and leave it out there? Are the magical forest sanitation gnomes supposed to sweep it up when you aren't looking?

  When my posse of friends go out in the woods to make sudden loud noises, we have a rule. You pick up all YOUR material, including targets and spent cartridges, but you *ALSO* pick up a reasonable amount of left-behind trash. Usually, this amounts to a garbage bag per vehicle, which is a tolerable amount.

  For some reason, the waste that really sets me off is all the spent brass that's left around. What the fuck, guys? I've kept all of the brass we've picked up in the last three outdoor adventures we've had and last night, I brought it out to look at, sort, and be vocally pissed about while doing so.