Post by zeus on Oct 31, 2015 12:00:59 GMT -5
Warning, long read.....
As I’ve grown older and moved to the bigger cities over time, I have come to realize just how lucky I had it growing up on the farm back home. As you are there, you enjoy things that you take for granted and never seem to be aware of it until they aren’t there anymore. Hunting/Shooting is definitely high on that list. I grew up shooting every day from the time I was about in 1st grade until I was almost out of college. Even in college, we had a great range about 10 minutes from the school and I rented a nice hunting cabin as my residence situated on about 300 acres 15 minutes from school. Again, didn’t know just how nice I had it.
Fast-forward about 15 years, and we live in a land of concrete. I’m fortunate to have an awesome friend about 45 minutes away with a great range that I am able to get to every now and then as time allows to check loads and sight in new scopes etc. Its so bad lately, that our schedules are now both so crazy that we don’t even get to meet for lunch as much as we would like. Hopefully, they will level out soon. I love our lunches to talk about life/family and guns. My work schedule is a little hectic most weeks and when its not, I have about 50 items on the “need to finish” list at the house, which is pretty awesome ☺ However, I’ve still managed to get out and hunt a little in Mississippi when I have time and W Kansas usually once a year. Not near the field time of days past to test bullets etc. but I’ll take what I can get some days. Most of my bullet testing is done on hog ranches or around the swamp in MS when I’m down there. We try to get out a couple times a year to a ranch about 4 hours away for hogs since they can’t be hunted in Kansas at this time. As some of you may remember, I took my son last December for the first time. He was strictly an observer, as I wanted to slowly ease him into the sport. As I explained, he has not had the opportunity to grow up in the same atmosphere as I did and I have not pushed him to the hunting fields. I figured when he wanted to join, he would talk with me and express interest. That started last Fall when he started wanting to shoot with me. His interest in the hog trip was expressed shortly after and we made plans to go. I guess in my mind, it would be easier for him to see someone shoot at a hog than a “pretty” deer. Of course, one of the buddies on the trip shot a fallow deer right out the gate so that idea went away really fast! However, to my surprise, he was fired up and ready for more so we continued on. He saw several hogs taken on the trip and was with me when we shot the fallow doe with the 30 Herrett.
The result of that trip was that he really wanted to go again and he expressed more interest in shooting. What I learned through the process is that his shooting abilities are WAY better than I ever imagined. He has been like a sponge listening and learning yet slightly apprehensive to new rifles. I started him on a 22 with a red dot to get him used to the trigger control and watching through the scope. Then we moved to the 6.5 JDJ carbine. This barrel was built by SSK for Gabriel about 5 years ago. Mr. JD suggested an arrestor brake to knock out all the recoil as we knew we were fitting it for a small kid. The beautiful wood Bullberry stocks on this gun were replaced with a cut down set of synthetics from Bullberry and it was topped with a Leupold VX3 2.5-8. When the barrel arrived, on the right side of the barrel, Mr. JD had inscribed it “Custom made for Gabriel by JD Jones” Gabriel saw this when we were shooting it one afternoon and asked me about it. I explained whom JD Jones was and that the barrel was made just for him. He thought that was pretty cool and after shooting a few shots with it one day and walking down to the target, he turned to me and declared “Mr JD Jones sure builds a great shooting gun!” That, I had to pass on to Mr. JD the next day.
To say this rifle is accurate would be a gross understatement. Its one of the most accurate rifles I’ve ever fired which is a big statement. It’s very short overall being a single shot and has no recoil. The one concern I had was concussion with the brake. It’s really not bad at all to start with but to even help with that more, I use plugs and muffs with him and that makes it all go away. I use both as I saw a lot of kids over the years were flinching but it was from the blast and noise more so than the recoil. When he finally was big enough to shoot it the first time, I was much more nervous than he was, I can assure you. BUT, when the gun fired, he hit the bull dead center at the 75 yards we were shooting that day. He had a huge grin when we walked down to the target. He has shot some groups at 8 years old that would embarrass a lot of adult shooters ☺
He asked me about two months ago if he could go and shoot a hog. I didn’t hesitate in telling him yes, as long as he thought he was ready. I’ve been waiting 8 years for that question to be asked! My only question to him was which gun he wanted to use. He responded with “My JD Jones gun of course”. I figured the hog ranch would be a good place to start as far as building confidence while being somewhat a controlled atmosphere. We drove down this week and were able to finally make the first hunt come to fruition. I have been traveling a lot lately but had a couple of days open up and he was out of school so it was a good time to make the trip.
We arrived at the ranch and set up the gear down at the range. I wanted to have him shoot from the BogPod rest. We had dry fired in the house with it but never had the opportunity to shoot live in the field. I set up the plate at 115 yards and put a small dot on it for him. I double-checked the sight in prior to him shooting it and it put the bullet in its normal location so I put him on the trigger. His shot was a perfect hit which he was quick to point out was better than mine of course…..His load for the hog was a 125 grain Partition over 33.5 grains of Varget in fireformed cases of course. Velocity is in the 2700 fps range if I remember correctly. After discussing bullets at length a while back with Mr. JD, I’m comfortable with this load on anything he and I will hunt with this gun.
He now was more ready than ever in his mind. His shots were on the money and he was prepped to get his first hog. We went to eat lunch and made plans to head to the hog area of the property about 1:30. I figured that would give him plenty of time to find one. Originally, my plan was to set up a blind and wait for one to cross through one of the bottoms. We decided to stalk instead due to the cooler weather and the wind. In the past, with those conditions, I’ve found them to hunker down in the deep ravines so after discussing options with Justin, my usual guide on the property, we opted for the stalk. We hit a lot of the usual ravines and saw a few smaller hogs bedded behind logs but nothing through the binoculars that I wanted to try to sneak up on. There was one hog that we startled and was a shooter hog but my son was not happy with the angle of the shot so he wanted to pass. Prior to the hunt, I saved a bunch of pictures of hogs at different angles to help explain where to aim in different situations. We would go through them and he would explain where to aim and why. There were two pictures with more of strong head on/slightly quartering angle. I told him it was best to wait for a better angle on that shot and that we wouldn’t take it most likely. He was quick to remind me that I told him he would have to take that shot. I was impressed that he recognized this so quickly in the field and personally decided to pass.
We were on the backside of the property when we located about 6 hogs down through the trees in a bottom area. There were a lot of trees of course in the way but it did give us a few minutes to watch without them spooking. Justin and I agreed that the larger of the hogs in the group looked like a shooter so I set up the BogPod to have a clear view. The amount of patience that my son showed was pretty incredible. He waited until the shot was clear in the background with the moving hogs before he tripped the trigger on the little 6.5. I gave him the go ahead to shoot when he was comfortable with the angle and his hold. He told me his hold was good as he followed the hog through the trees with the scope. I was so nervous and watching through the binoculars waiting for the shot to break. At this time, the hog was about 65 yards out and it was moving back and forth through the openings in the trees. It turned facing to our right and was slightly quartered with the shot rang out. The hog collapsed at the shot and rolled a couple feet down the hill into the bottom. It never moved! I looked down at my son who was still looking through the scope at this time (don’t tell him its almost impossible but I have been telling him to try and watch the bullet strike through the scope to keep him from developing a bad habit of lifting his head as I’ve seen countless other do…so far, its working great). When he heard me say that the hog was down, he looked up at me with a huge snaggle-toothed smile and gave me a high five. Justin was as happy as I was that it dropped on the spot. We made our way down the rocky hill and the hog got larger as we got closer, sometimes, it seems to go the other way. It was a big hog, a really big hog. It’s hard to tell from the pictures but the hide on this hog was a great color. Honey tips like you would expect from a pure European bloodline with a silver snout. To be honest, in hunting this property in the last 5 years or so, this is the best-looking hog I have seen. The bullet placement was perfect, low tight behind the right shoulder line and it exited about 3-4” below the ear on the offside. It took out the top of the heart, destroyed one lung completely and came so close to the spine as it comes down low from the shoulders that the hog never took a step. He was thrilled! He told everyone at the ranch about his JD Jones gun and how the hog didn’t run, and what all he hit as the bullet passed through the hog. His poor mom, who is not a hunter, has had to hear very graphic details since the hunt. Afterwards, he challenged everyone to games of pool and had hot chocolate while watching TV that evening and replaying his shot countless times in conversation.
He woke up the next morning not wanting to leave. While at the same time wanting to know when he and I could go deer hunting. I told him it would be a few days but he is definitely ready when I say its time to go. He finished out his trip shooting the 6.5 Creedmoor from Apache Machine. The size of this gun has intimidated him so I was happy he finally tried it. We found some cardboard to throw on the damp ground and he settled in behind the “Chameleon”. The confidence from the prior day at the range seemed to have him ready. I set up a water bottle and he told me which letter he was aiming at. He called both of his shots perfectly at 125 yards so I put the lid on the board and told him to shoot that and he could take it home for his souvenir shelf in his room. After this shooting session, I guess I’ll need to get another light recoiling long-range gun as I think one of my favorites may be claimed!!
I told his mom last night that I am almost certain that the few other trips I have to make there this year will be taken with him in tow. I figure my price per trip just increased by one hog minimum each trip ☺
However, it appears that I have a new hunting buddy to accompany me to the field. I put him in for an antelope tag this year but of course he didn't draw which I knew would be the case but it starts the process. I am looking forward to many trips west of here hunting whatever we can in the future as well as many hours in MS chasing deer.
Practice shot from the BogPod
Just after the shot watching the hog through the scope
random deer from the ranch,
As I’ve grown older and moved to the bigger cities over time, I have come to realize just how lucky I had it growing up on the farm back home. As you are there, you enjoy things that you take for granted and never seem to be aware of it until they aren’t there anymore. Hunting/Shooting is definitely high on that list. I grew up shooting every day from the time I was about in 1st grade until I was almost out of college. Even in college, we had a great range about 10 minutes from the school and I rented a nice hunting cabin as my residence situated on about 300 acres 15 minutes from school. Again, didn’t know just how nice I had it.
Fast-forward about 15 years, and we live in a land of concrete. I’m fortunate to have an awesome friend about 45 minutes away with a great range that I am able to get to every now and then as time allows to check loads and sight in new scopes etc. Its so bad lately, that our schedules are now both so crazy that we don’t even get to meet for lunch as much as we would like. Hopefully, they will level out soon. I love our lunches to talk about life/family and guns. My work schedule is a little hectic most weeks and when its not, I have about 50 items on the “need to finish” list at the house, which is pretty awesome ☺ However, I’ve still managed to get out and hunt a little in Mississippi when I have time and W Kansas usually once a year. Not near the field time of days past to test bullets etc. but I’ll take what I can get some days. Most of my bullet testing is done on hog ranches or around the swamp in MS when I’m down there. We try to get out a couple times a year to a ranch about 4 hours away for hogs since they can’t be hunted in Kansas at this time. As some of you may remember, I took my son last December for the first time. He was strictly an observer, as I wanted to slowly ease him into the sport. As I explained, he has not had the opportunity to grow up in the same atmosphere as I did and I have not pushed him to the hunting fields. I figured when he wanted to join, he would talk with me and express interest. That started last Fall when he started wanting to shoot with me. His interest in the hog trip was expressed shortly after and we made plans to go. I guess in my mind, it would be easier for him to see someone shoot at a hog than a “pretty” deer. Of course, one of the buddies on the trip shot a fallow deer right out the gate so that idea went away really fast! However, to my surprise, he was fired up and ready for more so we continued on. He saw several hogs taken on the trip and was with me when we shot the fallow doe with the 30 Herrett.
The result of that trip was that he really wanted to go again and he expressed more interest in shooting. What I learned through the process is that his shooting abilities are WAY better than I ever imagined. He has been like a sponge listening and learning yet slightly apprehensive to new rifles. I started him on a 22 with a red dot to get him used to the trigger control and watching through the scope. Then we moved to the 6.5 JDJ carbine. This barrel was built by SSK for Gabriel about 5 years ago. Mr. JD suggested an arrestor brake to knock out all the recoil as we knew we were fitting it for a small kid. The beautiful wood Bullberry stocks on this gun were replaced with a cut down set of synthetics from Bullberry and it was topped with a Leupold VX3 2.5-8. When the barrel arrived, on the right side of the barrel, Mr. JD had inscribed it “Custom made for Gabriel by JD Jones” Gabriel saw this when we were shooting it one afternoon and asked me about it. I explained whom JD Jones was and that the barrel was made just for him. He thought that was pretty cool and after shooting a few shots with it one day and walking down to the target, he turned to me and declared “Mr JD Jones sure builds a great shooting gun!” That, I had to pass on to Mr. JD the next day.
To say this rifle is accurate would be a gross understatement. Its one of the most accurate rifles I’ve ever fired which is a big statement. It’s very short overall being a single shot and has no recoil. The one concern I had was concussion with the brake. It’s really not bad at all to start with but to even help with that more, I use plugs and muffs with him and that makes it all go away. I use both as I saw a lot of kids over the years were flinching but it was from the blast and noise more so than the recoil. When he finally was big enough to shoot it the first time, I was much more nervous than he was, I can assure you. BUT, when the gun fired, he hit the bull dead center at the 75 yards we were shooting that day. He had a huge grin when we walked down to the target. He has shot some groups at 8 years old that would embarrass a lot of adult shooters ☺
He asked me about two months ago if he could go and shoot a hog. I didn’t hesitate in telling him yes, as long as he thought he was ready. I’ve been waiting 8 years for that question to be asked! My only question to him was which gun he wanted to use. He responded with “My JD Jones gun of course”. I figured the hog ranch would be a good place to start as far as building confidence while being somewhat a controlled atmosphere. We drove down this week and were able to finally make the first hunt come to fruition. I have been traveling a lot lately but had a couple of days open up and he was out of school so it was a good time to make the trip.
We arrived at the ranch and set up the gear down at the range. I wanted to have him shoot from the BogPod rest. We had dry fired in the house with it but never had the opportunity to shoot live in the field. I set up the plate at 115 yards and put a small dot on it for him. I double-checked the sight in prior to him shooting it and it put the bullet in its normal location so I put him on the trigger. His shot was a perfect hit which he was quick to point out was better than mine of course…..His load for the hog was a 125 grain Partition over 33.5 grains of Varget in fireformed cases of course. Velocity is in the 2700 fps range if I remember correctly. After discussing bullets at length a while back with Mr. JD, I’m comfortable with this load on anything he and I will hunt with this gun.
He now was more ready than ever in his mind. His shots were on the money and he was prepped to get his first hog. We went to eat lunch and made plans to head to the hog area of the property about 1:30. I figured that would give him plenty of time to find one. Originally, my plan was to set up a blind and wait for one to cross through one of the bottoms. We decided to stalk instead due to the cooler weather and the wind. In the past, with those conditions, I’ve found them to hunker down in the deep ravines so after discussing options with Justin, my usual guide on the property, we opted for the stalk. We hit a lot of the usual ravines and saw a few smaller hogs bedded behind logs but nothing through the binoculars that I wanted to try to sneak up on. There was one hog that we startled and was a shooter hog but my son was not happy with the angle of the shot so he wanted to pass. Prior to the hunt, I saved a bunch of pictures of hogs at different angles to help explain where to aim in different situations. We would go through them and he would explain where to aim and why. There were two pictures with more of strong head on/slightly quartering angle. I told him it was best to wait for a better angle on that shot and that we wouldn’t take it most likely. He was quick to remind me that I told him he would have to take that shot. I was impressed that he recognized this so quickly in the field and personally decided to pass.
We were on the backside of the property when we located about 6 hogs down through the trees in a bottom area. There were a lot of trees of course in the way but it did give us a few minutes to watch without them spooking. Justin and I agreed that the larger of the hogs in the group looked like a shooter so I set up the BogPod to have a clear view. The amount of patience that my son showed was pretty incredible. He waited until the shot was clear in the background with the moving hogs before he tripped the trigger on the little 6.5. I gave him the go ahead to shoot when he was comfortable with the angle and his hold. He told me his hold was good as he followed the hog through the trees with the scope. I was so nervous and watching through the binoculars waiting for the shot to break. At this time, the hog was about 65 yards out and it was moving back and forth through the openings in the trees. It turned facing to our right and was slightly quartered with the shot rang out. The hog collapsed at the shot and rolled a couple feet down the hill into the bottom. It never moved! I looked down at my son who was still looking through the scope at this time (don’t tell him its almost impossible but I have been telling him to try and watch the bullet strike through the scope to keep him from developing a bad habit of lifting his head as I’ve seen countless other do…so far, its working great). When he heard me say that the hog was down, he looked up at me with a huge snaggle-toothed smile and gave me a high five. Justin was as happy as I was that it dropped on the spot. We made our way down the rocky hill and the hog got larger as we got closer, sometimes, it seems to go the other way. It was a big hog, a really big hog. It’s hard to tell from the pictures but the hide on this hog was a great color. Honey tips like you would expect from a pure European bloodline with a silver snout. To be honest, in hunting this property in the last 5 years or so, this is the best-looking hog I have seen. The bullet placement was perfect, low tight behind the right shoulder line and it exited about 3-4” below the ear on the offside. It took out the top of the heart, destroyed one lung completely and came so close to the spine as it comes down low from the shoulders that the hog never took a step. He was thrilled! He told everyone at the ranch about his JD Jones gun and how the hog didn’t run, and what all he hit as the bullet passed through the hog. His poor mom, who is not a hunter, has had to hear very graphic details since the hunt. Afterwards, he challenged everyone to games of pool and had hot chocolate while watching TV that evening and replaying his shot countless times in conversation.
He woke up the next morning not wanting to leave. While at the same time wanting to know when he and I could go deer hunting. I told him it would be a few days but he is definitely ready when I say its time to go. He finished out his trip shooting the 6.5 Creedmoor from Apache Machine. The size of this gun has intimidated him so I was happy he finally tried it. We found some cardboard to throw on the damp ground and he settled in behind the “Chameleon”. The confidence from the prior day at the range seemed to have him ready. I set up a water bottle and he told me which letter he was aiming at. He called both of his shots perfectly at 125 yards so I put the lid on the board and told him to shoot that and he could take it home for his souvenir shelf in his room. After this shooting session, I guess I’ll need to get another light recoiling long-range gun as I think one of my favorites may be claimed!!
I told his mom last night that I am almost certain that the few other trips I have to make there this year will be taken with him in tow. I figure my price per trip just increased by one hog minimum each trip ☺
However, it appears that I have a new hunting buddy to accompany me to the field. I put him in for an antelope tag this year but of course he didn't draw which I knew would be the case but it starts the process. I am looking forward to many trips west of here hunting whatever we can in the future as well as many hours in MS chasing deer.
Practice shot from the BogPod
Just after the shot watching the hog through the scope
random deer from the ranch,