April 13th - Vernon Camp

This weekend we pulled the trailer out near Vernon Res and had another over night camp.  Friday night was nice weather, but Saturday morning was pretty cold so we didn't stay very long.  When we were driving home, Kaylee asked if we could take a break from camping for a little while.  We had gone on overnight camps for 3 weeks in a row and she just wanted to play with her friends!  Good times.

April 5th - Diamond Fork Camp

While Karen was in Arizona helping her mom, I decided to take the kids camping up Diamond Fork.  While going up the Diamond Fork road I was worried that I'd hit a dead end and not be able to turn around, but it ended up not being a problem.  While we really missed not having Karen with us, we still had fun going on hikes, riding bikes and rolling Tonka trucks down a hill in our camp.

March 29th Mercer Canyon Camp

We pulled the trailer over to Merer Canyon for the and had our first camp of 2013.  We ended up across the road from the old Mercer Cemetery which was really cool to check out.   This was just a quick over night camp, but we had a bunch of fun together.

3/9/2013 - Ready for Spring

Technically this isn't the first time I've had the dirt bike out of the garage this year, but therein lies the magic of video because you can tell it anyway you can imagine it.  This project only took about 10 minutes to film and about 45 min of editing afterward.  It was a fun project to do on a Saturday that was too windy, muddy, and cold to get outdoors very much.  Enjoy the video.

3/2/13 Cherry Creek Ride

Today I went riding with Sam Oldham and a few of his cousins.  We rode near Cherry Creek, which is in the Little Sahara area.  It was quite muddy and snowy, so most of the ride was fighting the snow and mud, but we did find a dune area where we could play and have some fun.  I took the Nikon D600 with me in the backpack, along with the GoPro Hero 2 camera so that I could record some of the fun.  The guy doing the biggest hits in the video and still pics is Will Oldham.  The only footage of me in this video are the first person shots from the chest mounted GoPro.  We got beat to death fighting the mud and snow.  The ride started out pretty cold with the wind, so we were wearing a few extra layers.  By about noon, we were all pretty warm and sweating.  We were all covered in mud by the time it was all over.  It was quite a workout today!

1-1-2013 - 1K at the Bottoms

So... everyone knows that the best way to ring in a new year is to drag something about 36,000 inches away from the truck, then go back to the truck, and try to poke holes in it, right?  Of course you knew that.  Everyone does.  Hello 2013, meet my 308.  Hello paper, meet 2013 and my 308.  Well, now that we are all acquainted, Paper, could you be so kind as to run over there about 3000 feet and hold still for a little while? There is something that 308 and I would like to show 2013.  Thanks, that will be great!

Today Karen, Kaylee, Konnor, Kase, and Dad came to the bottoms to ride snowmobiles and shoot.  Even with the cold (about 20 degrees), I only needed 90 clicks of elevation on the Vortex PST scope (1/10th mil clicks).  The gun was Savage 308, and bullets were my handloads of 175gr. Sierra BTHP, being pushed by 45 grains of Hogden Varget, with CCI 200 primers (average 2750 fps).

Can you see the truck in the distance at 1000 yards? 

There was enough of a breeze that I was having a little difficulty with "windage" today.

6 Shots in the paper or on the cardboard. 5 of them were part of a 6 shot group about 10-12 inches across.

12/31/2012 - Sunset at the Bottoms

Tonight was the last blast of 2012.  One of the things we did to celebrate was drive down to the bottoms (Dad, Konnor and Me) to let Konnor shoot my .22 rifle for the first time.  I guess it was fitting that Grandpa was there because he's the one that gave the rifle to me, and he's the one that taught me how to shoot.  Things have a way of coming full circle like that sometimes.  While we were standing out on "The Point", it was beautiful!  Very fine snow crystals were floating down ever so gracefully. The sun was making them sparkle in a way almost too magical for the words I know to describe. There was a really peaceful calm, as is so often the case, when we are at The Bottoms in the winter time.

Dad, Konnor, and Me on the Point.  This was Konnor's first time shooting a rifle.  He's 4.5 years old.

One of the other things that we "re-learned" by looking at the GPS while we were there and then confirming using these photos and Google Earth... is that it's possible to shoot from near the entrance gate (my initial shooting position) to "Marble Hill" (Approx 1800 yards), and then over to a hill slightly to the right of Marble Hill, to a distance of 2000 yards.  Someday I would really like to accomplish hits at that distance.  Without knowing the topography really well, it's difficult to see just exactly where these land marks are, so I'll see about posting a picture later with an arrow showing where they are.  Just know that 1000 yards is a long way, and 2000 yards is even further.  In fact, from what I can tell, it's about twice as far. I think my mind just exploded.  "The Point" is a good midway point between the shooting position I'll take on the road, and the 2000 yard target area to the right of Marble Hill.  The Point will make a good spot to reach out to 1000 yards which I should be able to do tomorrow on 1/1/13.

Amazing Sunset with "The Point" and "Marble Hill" in the distance taken from the initial shooting position near the entrance to the bottoms.

Keep and Bear...

Meet the newest addition to my "close at hand" home defense...  7 shell capacity of 12 Gauge Double Ought Buck Shot.

Bedroom Arsenal: .308 Win. (Proven to 1000 yards), 12 Gauge Pump (close range), AR-15 (Mid-Range), .40 S&W (short range), 2 High Intensity Flash lights.

“Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.” – George Washington

“You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” – Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” – Ben Franklin, 1759

“I like gun control. If there’s a gun around I want to be in control of it.” -Clint Eastwood

" … the right to defend one’s home and one’s person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law.” – Martin Luther King

”One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”
~Thomas Jefferson

”The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”
~Alexander Hamilton

”The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.”
~James Earl Jones

”Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.”
- Unknown

”Make good scouts of yourselves, become good rifle shots so that if it becomes necessary that you defend your families and your country that you can do it.”
~Lord Baden-Powell

”To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
~George Washington

”An armed society is a polite society.”
~Robert Heinlein

”When seconds count between living or dying, the police are only minutes away.”
~Phillip Van Cleave

“There’s no question that weapons in the hands of the public have prevented acts of terror or stopped them.”
~Israeli Police Inspector General Shlomo Aharonisky

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin

Men trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest.
-- From the Declaration of the Continental Congress, July 1775

The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
-- Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story of the John Marshall Court

"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
-- George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.
-- Hitler, April 11 1942

"Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power."
-- Yoshimi Ishikawa

Reloading on the Bench I built in March

Back in March of this year, I build a heavy duty bench that I can use for reloading bullets and working on stuff in the basement.  Last night I finally got around to reloading my first batch here at my house.  For this round, I reloaded 308 bullets with 178 grain Hornady A-Max tips, CCI 200 Primers, and 45 grains of Hogden Varget powder. Here are some pics of the set up.

7/21/12 - Mill Canyon Trail Ride (AF Canyon)

 Lower Mill Canyon trail Head parking lot.

 

After the ride at Tibble Fork Reservoir

Lower Mill Canyon Trail Head

Tonight I decided to load the family up in the truck, along with the bike, and head out for a ride.  Konnor and I went camping (just the two of us) last week up above Silver Lake, and we discovered that there are trail heads for riding dirt bikes up near Tibble Fork Reservoir, so I decided to start my exploration of the AF Canyon trails from there. 

This picture shows the view from the Mill Canyon Spring.  It's about 5.5 miles up from the trail head. The ride up trail 040 was amazing.  It was awesome single track through thick pines and aspens.  Tons of tight switch-backs, roots, rocks, creeks, and steep hills.  It's definitely not a beginner trail.  A lot of it is intermediate, but there are a number of spots that are advanced riding while you weave your way up steeps slopes dodging tall rocks and roots, all the while making sure that you don't clip a handle bar on a tree!  It was tons of fun.  Once I got here, I pulled up the pdf map of the trails and noticed that I could catch up with trial 157, and then connect with 041 which would talk me back down to Tibble Fork Reservoir when Karen and the kids would be waiting. 

 Every so often you get signs like this letting you know where are

 Trails 157 and 041 proved to be just a beautiful, and just as fun.  I'd say they are both intermediate trials with elements of advanced sections mixed in.  Ironically, the only pictures I took were when the trial widened out, so you can't see how tight the single track is... you'll have to take my word for it.  All told, the ride ended up being a little over 11 miles and took me about an hour since I stopped to check the map a couple of times.  It was a really fun introduction into this massive trail system.  I know that there are trails that can take you all over the mountain and also up into the Alta/Snowbird area.  I can't wait to check more of this mountain out.

7/13/12 - Konnor and I Camping on Friday the 13th

Even though I knew it was going to rain, I really wanted to get out camping.  Karen had a "cul-de-sac reunion" that she went to with Kaylee and Kase, but Konnor and I went in search of a camp spot up American Fork Canyon.  We didn't have a ton of time to check out different spots, but we ended up about a mile or so above Silver Lake Reservoir.  It rained on us while we were driving up, and the rain continued till a little while after we had the tent set up.  It's a decent camping area that we found.  It's unimproved but it must be a favorite spot for many people because it's quite well used with lots of pull out spots along a creek leading into Silver Lake below.  In the tent, we watched a movie on the iPad after getting back from the "Bear Hunt" that Konnor wanted to go on.  We had donuts for breakfast and had some more fun in the creek hunting for cool rocks.  On the way down the mountain, I found one of the trail heads for riding dirt bikes in the area.  It will be a blast to get back up here for more camping and dirt biking.

6/13/2012 - Because I Can

 Need I say more?  The target was set up for 60 yard shots from the backyard, but then I figured this shot might be fun from about 65... and 3 stories up... from the master bedroom.

5/12/2012 - 1000 Yards with Dad

Dad stayed over night and we hit the range at about 5:45 a.m.  We took the Savage .308 with my special hand-loads that I've been using lately.   It was a clear morning with a very light breeze from right to left. Dad and I walked up the hill at 1K and set up the target.  He then stayed right there so that he could call out my shots.  I drove back to the shooting position and set up for the shot. about 3 minutes after the sunrise it was 46 degrees, and the station pressure was 24.86.  I used 90 clicks in the scope (due to the heavier air), and shot 2 shots.  Both of them appeared to be high to me, so I had Dad walk over and check it out.  We used our phones and he showed me (I watched him through the scope with the bolt open) where I had missed high and left.  I then dropped the Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 scope 1 click, and held about 18 inches right for wind correction. I fired a shot and had him check it out.  It landed in the cardboard, so now I knew what had to happen. I then took 3 more shots in quick succession.  Those are the 4 shots along the top in the picture.  I took 1 more click out of the scope (now at 88 clicks like the previous outing), and shot the bottom 2 shots you see under the bulls eye.

Now that we had things dialed in pretty well, Dad set up a clay pigeon for me to hit.  I've never tried trap shooting at 1000 yards before, but it was fun.  Overall, I took 6 shots at the clay pigeon and hit all around it.  I wasn't able to break it this time, but I'll try again!

It was fun shooting at that range with Dad there.  He got pretty brave after a few shots and was only standing about 25 feet away from the target!  It was pretty crazy, because even at about 12x (the scope setting I used for most of the shots) I could see him standing there just inside my field of view in the scope!  He said it was much louder than he though it would be.  Dad said that the impact noise of the bullets were somewhere between a .22 LR and a 9mm pistol.  Then 1.5 seconds later, he would rear the report of the rifle.  As expected, since the .308 is still super-sonic (especially my reloads) at 1000 yards, he couldn't hear anything before the bullets impacted. 

4/21/2012 - Bang on Target at 1K

Success again at 1000 yards.  Today I used my .308 Savage, 175 gr Sierra BTHP, 45 grs of Hogden Varget Power, with CCI 200 Primers.  It was 55 degrees and 25.45 on the station pressure.  I used the Vortex Viper PST 4-16 power scope.  I was a beautiful morning with very little wind.  I dialed 88 clicks of elevation into the scope (1/10th Mil clicks on this scope), and it was bang on.  I took 6 shot, and all of them found the cardboard.

3/24/2012 - It's Been Too Long

After shooting last August, I ran out of hand-loads so I was out of commission for a little while.  I got so busy with work and life (finishing my basement took a lot of my time), that it took at long time to get back out to the rang.  I'm back after a 7.5 month hiatus.  A couple of weeks ago, I built a bench that I can use for reloading.  I'll have to post some pictures of it later.   Last night, I estimated what I thought the temperature and the station pressure would be for this morning.  The ballistics calculator suggested 92 clicks on Dad's Vortex PST scope with 1/10th mil clicks to get to 1000 yards.  This time, I took my little weather station so I could get an accurate reading on the station pressure and temperature. at about 7:30 a.m. it was 52 degrees and 24.75 station pressure.  This meant that the air was significantly less dense that what I had foretasted, so I shouldn't need as much elevation in the scope. I decided to use 90 clicks.  All told, I shot 8 shots.  It did appear that one of the shots was high, but on the other shots, I couldn't see anything.  I wondered if that was just because I was making direct hits directly behind the target.  That made sense in my mind since the ground isn't really dusty yet, so you wouldn't expect to see too much of a spray of dirt.  As you can see from the pictures, only 1 of the 8 shots made it to the cardboard.  The other shots all seemed to pulverize a rock that was just above the target.  You could see 4-5 distinct spots on that rock where I had hit it.  That meant that it was a good grouping, but for 52 degrees and 24.75 pressure, I should have used 88 clicks on the Vortex Viper PST Scope.  Gun: Savage 10FP, 308 cal.  Hand-loads of Sierra 175 gr BTHP, Lapua brass, 45 grains of Hogden Varget powder, CCI 200 primers.

8/2/2011 - I Now Have Witnesses of 1K

Tonight I tested out the new scope that Dad bought.  It is the Vortex Viper PST (Precision Shooting Tactical) 4-16X50.  I needed to sight it in.  The pic below shows the last 6 six shots I took while sighting in.  I used some of my older reloads that were 168 gr bullets with IMR 4064 powder. All these shots were taken at 100 yards. After sighting the target down the bore with the bolt removed, I produced the very tight group of 3 shot just under the number 7 on the tape.  Then I moved the scope 2 clicks (this scope uses 1/10 MIL clicks) to the left and produced the 3 bulls-eye shots.  I was pretty impressed with the gun, scope, and hand-loads at that point.  After all, as you can see, they are .5 MOA groups.  I used a quarter to cover them up, but I could have also used a nickel.

There we 2 guys and 2 girls that pulled up to shoot about the same time I was setting up.  I'm sure they were confused as to why I had the four-wheeler there to go check my target when I was only shooting at 100 yards.  It became more apparent, I'm sure, when picked up the target and drove it another 900 yards away!  Before leaving the house, the ballistics calculator at vortex.com suggested that I would need to use 89 clicks (1/10 MIL clicks) up from Zero to reach 1000 yards given the conditions which were approximately 85 degrees, 25.25 pressure, and 8 percent humidity, while using my newest, hottest loads that produce about 2750 fps. I went for 90 clicks to start.  From what I could tell after making 4 shots, it appeared to be very close laterally, but a bit high.  I then removed 2 clicks from the scope (so it was now set to 88 clicks) and shot 4 more shots fairly quickly since it was getting dark.  By this time, I had garnered the attention of the other people shooting.  They came over and asked how far I was shooting and asked a bunch of other questions.  They said that from what they could tell they thought that my first few shots looked high, and then the later shots didn't show much of a spray.  By this time, it was getting quite dark, and I went over to retrieve the target.  When I got back to the truck, they were very interested in seeing if I was able to make any hits.  As you can see from the picture, only 1 of the first 4 shots landed in the paper.  After making the adjustment in the scope, all of the remaining 4 shots found pay-dirt in some form or another.  It was awesome to finally have someone out of the range to witness some decent shots.  Funny thing is that if I had listened to the computer and used 89 clicks, this would have been spot on!

7/9/2011 - Exploding Targets

6/27/2011 - 1000 Yards - Yes... my Reloads shoot pretty well too

 Tonight after family home evening with the Karen and the kids, I headed over to the shooting spot.  The sun had just peeked below the mountain, and the conditions were almost ideal for shooting.  I say "almost" because I did have a little bit of the cool evening breeze going from right to left. Tonight I was shooting the Savage 308 with my personal hand-loads.  175 gr Sierra BTHP, Lapua brass, 45 grains of Hogdon Varget powder, along with CCI 200 primers. With the conditions that I estimated I would see upon reaching the shooting range, the ballistics computer suggested that I should use 120.5 clicks in the Vortex Viper Scope.  I dialed up 121 (even though 2 days ago, 121 wasn't quite enough) and took the first shot.  I was surprised just how much the wind had pushed me off to the left.  It was an entire Mil left, and a bit high to boot!  I took 2 clicks back out of the scope, held exactly 1 Mil to the right and fired the second shot.  From what I could tell, this one was just a bit high.  After taking one more click out of the scope (so now I was at 118 clicks), I produced some really good shots in the target.  I actually shot them at a faster pace than I have ever shot before, because  I didn't want to miss the window of what I felt was consistent wind.  I was also battling mosquitoes the entire time, which was pushing me along faster than normal.  I felt that it was really good practice, having to hold a wind correction, and focus on the shot with the pests flying in my ears and biting me everywhere. After having made that last correction in the scope, I was pretty sure things were dialed in, so I was blasting away at about 3-4 rounds per minute.  In total, I fired 8 shots, and 6 of them are in this picture.  The first two were the ones I used to get the shot set up.

 

 

6/24/2011 - Testing My Metal..(well, lead really)

Now, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking that these are pretty boring pictures.  I guess you're right, they are kind of boring.  I'll do my best to explain why I even uploaded them.  In the top picture, that is a "cold barrel" shot right in the bulls eye.  The next two shots decided to share a single hole together, and the fourth shot is the one off to the left.  This was shot at 100 yards with my newest hand loads.  They are Lapua Brass, with Sierra BTHP 175 gr bullets.  CCI 200 primers, with 45 grains of Hodgon Varget power pushing the 308 bullets.  I almost forgot to mention that this is the Savage 10FP rifle, with the Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44 scope.  This particular load is hotter than any that I have shot before from this gun, so I wanted to check the zero point.  As you can see it wasn't far off, but after making this 4 shot group I dropped the scope 2 clicks for good measure.

The Second picture is the target that I had set up at 1000 yards.  After checking my zero, I sent some shots down range.  I went shooting much later than normal (it was about 10 a.m.), and I was quickly reminded why I like to shoot either early morning, or just before dusk.  Yes, it was a little breezy.  So much so, that the bullets were being pushed 2 to 3 feet off the right hand side of the target.  Luckily with the time that it takes the 308's to get out that far, I can reacquire the sight picture most of the time to see some dust spray up.  I used a ballistics calculator online before heading out, and with the faster muzzle velocity (these are going about 2750 fps, see earlier post), the computer suggested using 121 clicks, so that's what I tried.  It was actually really close for 25.10 on the pressure, and about 75-80 degrees, with very low humidity. I shot about 6 shots, while trying to aim into the wind.  Although only one shot is actually recorded on the cardboard, there was a decent little grouping in the ground, off to the right of the target.  Some of those shots looked like 121 clicks was enough to reach the distance, but I think I might give use a couple extra clicks given the same situation.

6/11/11 The Chrony Results Are In

Today Konnor and I went to see how consistent my most recent 308 hand-loads are.  Here are the results.  It appears I have made a round that is 138-117 fps faster (taking my avg. speeds compared) than the Black Hills Match ammo (comparing today's two 10 shot strings against a string of 8 that was shot on 5/7/10), and more consistent (my Extreme Spreads today were about 40 fps, while the Black Hills Match was 60.99).  Obviously I would have to put more Black Hills Match ammo through the Chrony to confirm, but these results are promising.

10 Shots - 175 gr Sierra BTHP, 45 Grains of Varget Powder, CCI 200 primers, Lapua Brass

Low: 2731
High: 2770
Avg: 2751
Extreme Spread: 39.39
Standard Deviation: 14.03

2770
2755
2754
2745
2770
2747
2761
2740
2731
2732

10 More Shots - 175 gr Sierra BTHP, 45 Grains of Varget Powder, CCI 200 primers, Lapua Brass

Low:2716
High:2758
Avg: 2730
Extreme Spread: 41.47
Standard Deviation: 13.00

2736
2739
2723
2716
2739
2758
2728
2719
2725
2718


10 Shot of Lenny's Guns-n-Ammo - 175 gr Sierra BTHP Custom Ammo

I forgot to store the exact figures, but this is what I wrote down real quick from memory:


Low: 2642
High: 2692
Avg: 2670
Extreme Spread: 50
Standard Deviation: 17-19