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Man that will bring stars to your eyes. Always heard of getting hit with a scope eye piece, just seemed like a silly thing to have happen. Fortunately, I was wearing glasses, otherwise it would have probably hurt worse.

Kind of strange the way it happened. I installed a new scope on my Dad’s 30-06 and of course the positioning did not suit him. I patiently worked with him and by the time we were done, the scope was moved back as far as possible. I don’t know if his neck is getting shorter or maybe the eye relief on this particular scope is different. Probably his neck because when I put the gun up, I have to move my head back a little.

Anyway, he got it sighted in at the make shift range we put together at the farm. It was a long 50 yards and I promised that I would throw a couple down the range at the 100 yard mark when I got a chance.

I finally got that chance and set up my shooting bench (see product review, this issue), checked the distance with my Yardage Pro (see review) and it showed it to be 97 yards. close enough. Had a real nice little group going when, this flame throwing, muzzle jumping thunder stick popped me in the face. The cross piece above the nose rest on the glasses left a nice little slice about half an inch long across my forehead. Surrounding counties, heard the gun and the ensuing string of verbiage.

I guess I could blame Remington, isn’t that the way things are done these days? See, my Ruger 77 MKII Target with the 26 inch barrel and beavertail forend, that I shoot all the time, does not jump off of the front rest when it goes bang, so I don’t hold it down. However, Dad’s 700 Remington does jump. I was not holding it down.

The next shot fired took some extended concentration. When no more blood was shed, I got over it but I learned a lesson. Let the short necked cuss shoot his own gun. There were a couple of other lessons here but I bet you have already figured that out.

Sore

Bill Wade

Side Note:

The string of stitches on a co-workers forehead this week reminded me that it could have been worse. The stitchee was introduced to shooting over the weekend when the shooting party handed her a scoped 50 cal muzzleloader. When the gun slid off her shoulder under recoil, her forehead was formally introduced to the eyepiece. She told me she would like to try shooting again sometime but maybe something with a little less recoil and no scope. Sounds reasonable to me.

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E-MAIL HAVOC

As I put the finishing touches on this Ezine, my hard drive let out a squall and sounded as if it had thrown a rod. After several reboots, I finally made it to a DOS prompt. Copied everything I could onto my second hard drive and hosed off the ailing drive.

The results left me with an old address book that I am certain has errors and a demolished Inbox full of messages I can no longer retrieve. Please drop me a note and let me know of address changes or deletions or refresh my memory of any conversations that were ongoing.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Thanks

Bill Wade

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Last issue, Ron Roberts shared his cleaning routine that included stainless tornado brushes. Hind sight being what it is, I should have questioned Ron on this before publishing it. I myself have used tornado brushes but stopped using them a couple of years ago after reading the lists and comments about the potential damage they can do. I passed on to Ron the letters from concerned readers and I am certain that Ron will not be using stainless brushes in the future.

It is one of those deals, just because they sell it, does not mean it is a good idea. My understanding is that the stainless brushes can actually scratch the barrel.

Bronze or Nylon brushes would be the way to go here.

Bill

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Sharp Shooter Bench

One more new product that I took to the Prairie Dog Conference, I wanted to tell you about.

A folding shooting bench, worth it’s weight in gold. It measures basically 40x27x4 when folded and weighs 22 pounds.

The folding legs are much like those found on those long folding tables but it is not quite that simple. They are staggered so that it folds pretty flat and it has an integral seat on one set of legs.

The locking mechanism is much more ridged than that of standard table legs, and there is absolutely no movement.

The seat and the top are both particle board with Formica surfaces and a rubber or plastic cap on the edge. The bench is designed for right handed shooters and to my knowledge, is not offered for left handed shooters, unfortunately.

I have only 2 complaints about the bench: The top length and height. It had to be designed for the "average shooter" and it had to be designed "weight conscious." However, my ancestors blessed me with 34 inch arms and a tall frame. This makes the length of the top, front to back, just a tad short, say 2 inches. Then the distance from the seat surface to the top surface is a couple of inches short, causing me to have to hunker down a little more than I would like. For a person about under 6 feet tall with 32 inch arms, it should be a better fit.

I am planning to make a large cloth case for it, just to keep it from getting beat up and I may try raising the top an inch or so with a block of plywood.

Price: $99

Bill Wade

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