Porcupine!

Well, I got a call from Cathy around 1:00 this afternoon with the news that the dogs had a run in with a porcupine. We've had this happen a few times with Jake several years ago but thankfully porcupines are not really common around here, especially up on top of the canyon rim.

Cathy was able to get the dogs loaded up and took them to the vet to get the quills removed. Theoretically you can do it by yourself, but holding down a 100+ pound Rottweiler while you are torturing it by pulling quills out of it's face isn't my idea of fun. The vet puts them under anesthesia and pulls them out while they aren't feeling a thing. If it was a matter of 5 or 6 or even 10 quills I might try it, but our dogs didn't just run into the porcupine, they tried to EAT the porcupine.

Here's Baby at the vet.
And Pedro.

We are babysitting a dog for a friend and he must not have tried to eat the porcupine, but he got close enough to get some quills in his face.
Well, the last time our dog Jake got into a porcupine a few years ago we took him to the vet and got them removed and within a month he had another run in and ended up worse the second time than the first. Our current dogs appear to have less intelligence than Jake ever had so I started thinking that it was pretty important to find that porcupine and remove it so the dogs didn't have another run in with it once they got back from the vet so I decided to head home and see if I could find it.

I got home around 2:30 and rode around on my 4 wheeler looking for it, but after about an hour decided I wasn't going to be so lucky. Eli woke up from his nap around 4:15 and we decided to go riding around on the golf cart to see if we could find it. We don't have just a ton of trees around the property so of course we were looking in the trees for a porcupine. Eli kept telling me that he saw a porcupine around every corner, but he was pretty adamant at one tree that there was a porcupine in it. I told him there wasn't one in the tree and tried to get him to show me where it was. I ended up getting out of the cart and looking and low and behold there was a porcupine in the tree! (Of course it wasn't anywhere near where he was pointing).

I had brought my .22 pistol so I shot the porcupine out of the tree and brought it back to the house. Here it is in the golf cart once we got back to the house.
I guess this is the first animal that Eli was actually out there with me when I shot it. He seemed to think it was pretty cool.
I pulled the guard hairs off and am going to try to find someone who wants them. There is a market for the quills, but I didn't think I had the patience to mess with pulling them out. As many quills as the dogs had in their faces you would have thought the porcupine would have been bald, but really it still had the vast majority of it's quills, just a few small bald patches.

Well that's about it for now I guess. Hopefully we don't have to mess with another porcupine for several more years.

Nathan

Rock River Arms Predator Pursuit is here!!

Picked my rifle up from my FFL this week! Took about 6 weeks from when I ordered it.

It's a Rock River Arms Predator Pursuit with a 20" heavy match grade barrel and a 2 stage national match grade trigger. It has the RRA Hi-Rise scope mount and is topped with a Nikon Monarch 4-16x 50mm scope with the BDC reticle. I had an extra stoney point rapid pivot bi-pod setup since I bought a prone and a kneeling version so I hooked that up on it too.

Here it is:

I was surprised at how compact it is. Just about the same size as my Ruger 10/22, just weighs about twice as much with the heavy barrel!

I was able to make it out this afternoon to get it sighted in. I spent a little over an hour sighting this bad boy in and I'm VERY happy with it.

Started out at 25 yards, then went to 100 yards and ended up shooting 40 rounds total. I was shooting the cheap 100 round Federal Value Pack 55gr FMJ from Walmart.

Here's the first 2 targets. On the left is shooting at 25 yards, then I moved out to 100 for the one on the right. I didn't even think about bore sighting it. I already had it assembled so I just shot it and luckily it hit the paper with the first shot (the one on the bottom). I adjusted the scope and it looked pretty much good to go. Moved out to 100 yards and shot 3 times and could easily see it hitting high with the Monarch scope on 16x so I adjusted it and then gave it 10 shots pretty in pretty quick succession. Next 2 targets. I cleaned it after the first 18 shots and shot my 7mm Rem Mag Browning A-Bolt while I was waiting for it to cool down with the copper bore cleaner in it. That's the target on the right. Then after I got it cleaned I shot a single with the PP on that target. Then I shot 5 shots with the PP on the left target.
Last 2 targets. I adjusted the scope and shot the first 2 rounds in the target on the left and could see it was off, so I adjusted it and shot 3 more times on that target. I guess the PP already lived up to it's accuracy claim because that 3 shot group ended up right at 3/4"! I decided it was good to go and shot 10 more shots at the target on the right. Nothing spectacular, but without the one on the top the group was under 2" for a 10 shot group, not terrible by any means for cheap factory ammo on basically a brand new gun.
Didn't have a single misfeed, and I could have put a 2' diameter shallow bucket and caught nearly every single piece of brass. I had 2 that ended up about 2' from the pile. The placement of the pile was perfect as well, about 6 feet to my right and 2 feet behind me.

Lastly, this wasn't shot at a range with a fancy benchrest setup. I shot it on my property in a caliche pit. I have a wooden bench made out of an old picnic table and I was using an old futon type pillow for a rest. The wind was light and variable so that was nice.

I'm VERY happy with this gun so far! I've got a few more different brands of ammo that I want to try, and I need to get a badger tach latch put on it sometime as well.

I guess I'm an official card carrying black rifle owner now! That's my initial report.

Nathan

P.S. - It really was fun to shoot!

Trying to pattern a shotgun for Turkey.

Well, Turkey season starts Saturday so I've been trying to get things ready to do a little Turkey hunting. I have a Mossberg 835 12 gauge shotgun that I'm wanting to pattern to be able to shoot effectively out to 40 yards. It came with a full choke already so I was hoping that it would work without having to change anything else.

Monday evening I went out and shot some paper plates at various yardages hoping I could get out to 40 yards with a good pattern. I should have used a larger target, especially after seeing what happened when I did use a larger target, now I probably need to go back and shoot the stock choke again just to make sure. Anyway here were the results. The top left was at 25 yards and the bottom 2 were at 40 yards. The top right was the last shot and it was at 35 yards and was pretty much a clean miss. Shooting 3 1/2" Magnum 12 gauge shells at paper targets actually hurts. So after researching several different chokes, I bought a Primos Jellyhead and a Truglo Gobbler Stobber to try out. They have colorful names if nothing else! I also bought another box of shotgun shells to try out as well. Some Remington NitroTurkey shells that were also 3 1/2" Magnums.

I used some packaging paper from work to give me a larger target so I could see the hits better and drew some 8.5" by 11" squares on it and put tape in the middle. The packaging paper is 24" tall. I thought I was going to be able to shoot 3 times on each target, but I changed to only 2 times on each target after seeing how wide the spray of the pellets was. All shots were at 40 yards measured with a rangefinder.

This is with the Truglo choke. Winchester Supreme 3.5" #5 shot on the left and Remington NitroTurkey 3.5" on the right. Both shots with the Remington NitroTurkey in the Truglo choke ended up pulling left. Could easily have just been poor aim though, I was mimicking actual conditions using shooting sticks and the wind was blowing pretty good.I didn't bother to draw a circle or a square on any of the other targets, just the tape where I was aiming. I think you can still get a pretty good feel for the pattern though.

This target was both with 3" Hevishot 1.5 oz. Left was the Truglo and right is the Jellyhead. Again, not a for sure because I wasn't on a bench, but every shot with the Jellyhead ended up a little high. Both of these shots are with the Jellyhead. Winchester supreme 3.5" #5 on the left and Remington 3.5" NitroTurkey on the right. Both shots were a little high.
On this one, I used the Jellyhead with the Winchester supreme 3.5" # 5 on the left and the Truglo with Remington 3.5" NitroTurkey on the right. Again the Jellyhead was a little high and the Remington NitroTurkey out of the Truglo was a little to the left.
Last target I stuck with the Truglo and shot Winchester 3.5" #5 on the left and the 3" Hevishot on the right.
When it is all said and done I think I'm going to go with the Truglo with the Winchester 3.5" #5 for now. I'm probably going to try a few more with a better target and make sure it is hitting where I want it, but it seemed to be the best pattern out of all of them. I might try a couple shots with the stock choke as well just to make sure my first test shots with the paper plates were actually showing the true pattern and weren't actually misses in one direction or the other.

I also put a Limbsaver recoil pad on the shotgun and while it still kicked like a mule, I don't think I could have shot 10 times at paper targets with the factory recoil pad on there.

Not very exciting, but hey, no one ever said this blog was exciting!

That's it for now, who knows, maybe I'll have a Turkey on the ground Saturday.

Nathan

Country Living.. Very wet winter for around here.

I've been meaning to post some pictures of our muddy roads several times this winter and just haven't gotten around to it. I finally did take some pictures after our last rain that we got and am actually going to get them posted.

Overall, we really enjoy living out in the country. About the only negative is the fact that the roads can be difficult when it rains. We live 2 miles off pavement with 1 1/2 miles of that being county roads and 1/2 mile of that is our driveway. Believe it or not, our driveway is not the problem, the county roads are.

After a big rain or even worse, a steady rain or even worse than that, melting snow, the roads get pretty bad. This year has been the worst year in the 11 years that we've lived out there.

I've posted pictures like this of the muddy roads before.

But this time after they dried up a bit and the ruts were still there, I got out and took a picture to show how deep those ruts actually are!

In case you haven't measured one recently, a coke can is just under 5" tall. That would mean that the ruts are between 10" - 12" deep here. We didn't do anything special to make the ruts deeper or wider than any other time, we just drove in them to get back and forth to the house until the road dried up enough and then we straddle the ruts until the county grades the road again.

Thankfully the county does grade the road fairly regularly after a big rain or snow, but it is very important to get that first set of tracks in as straight as possible so you can straddle them after it dries up. When it is still wet, the road is strictly one lane as there is no way you could get out of the ruts to pass someone if you tried. You actually don't even need to hold onto the steering wheel, the wheels just bounce back and forth and it feels like you are inside a pinball machine almost. It feels that way whether you are trying to steer or not.

There is no doubt that we would have been unable to get back and forth to the house this year without both of our vehicles being 4 wheel drive. My company vehicle is a Chevy Trailblazer and when the ruts get deep like they are in the picture, it ends up dragging high center periodically. If you are in the ruts, that means the road isn't dry enough to straddle the ruts so it basically just plows through the mud, but this year has been a chore to keep the vehicles even remotely free of mud. On both vehicles we've had to wash the wheels to get the mud off several times because the mud stuck to the wheels was causing them to be way out of balance and the vehicle would be shaking violently at anything over 50 mph.

Spring is here, so hopefully no more snow, but I haven't hear whether this is supposed to be a wet spring and summer or not. They said that this was going to be a wet winter and they definitely got that right!

That's it for now. Nathan

My 2009 Mule Deer is back from the Taxidermist!

Well, the title pretty much says it all! I got my 2009 New Mexico Mule Deer back from the Taxidermist!

Here is the living room the way we currently have it. Hopefully one of these days I'll have a trophy class whitetail to go with him, along with a pronghorn and an elk!

That's it for now, very happy to have him on the wall. The taxidermist doing my bobcat said I should be getting it back in 2 or 3 weeks so hopefully it will turn out good too.

Nathan

Flesh eating beetles!!

Well, I broke down and bought me some flesh eating beetles!!!

To be specific they are dermestid beetles and they are commonly used to clean the skulls of animals for European style mounts. They sound pretty scary, but they pretty much can only eat the flesh when it is drying and decomposing. You have to skin the animals head in order for them to feed on it. The biggest danger they pose if they get loose is that they might try to eat any leather that is around the house!

Anyway, I ordered some beetles online from a guy in Kodiak, Alaska of all places. I guess they must have the perfect climate for growing these beetles, because he sells a lot of them and is about the cheapest place that I found and came highly recommended on top of that.

Here's his website - http://www.bonesandbugs.com/

The beetles arrived today and thankfully the box was intact and they only took 5 days to get here in relatively mild temperatures. The beetles were packaged in a cottage cheese cartoon inside the box and appeared to have made the trip in good shape.

Here's the box that they arrived in.

If you look closely he punched very small holes in the lid so the bugs could get some air, but they were small enough that none of them were able to get out. Included with the beetles was a very nice 4 page write up on how to care for the bugs once they arrived as well as how to use the bugs to clean skulls.
There are supposed to be 1,000 total bugs in the cartoon. I didn't try to count them. There are adult beetles as well as larvae that look like little worms. In the instructions it states that the fluffy stuff the beetles are packaged in is called frass. It is made up of digested flesh, chewed up Styrofoam (that's what they bed in), and shed skin from the larvae when they molt. Sounds yummy and smells worse!
Here's where I'm setting them up for now. Hopefully they won't be able to climb the sides of the tub very well, but I'm not 100% sure about that yet. The net is more to keep other insects out than it is to keep the beetles in. The shredded paper is for bedding material and the black plastic dish is where I'm going to put the skulls for now. I may switch to something else though. The idea behind the plastic dish is in case teeth fall out of the skull when they are cleaning it, this way I won't have to be digging around in the "frass" looking for a tooth. Also this will keep any wet or damp things out of the bedding and prevent any chance of mold.
Here's when I dumped the beetles in. There were a lot of them that's for sure. I should have taken a little video clip because pretty much everything was moving. You could hear them rustling around in the paper.
I added some wet paper towels for them to drink from and some ham to get them started. I don't want to start them on a skull right away because all my skulls have been outside and everything I've read says about the worst thing you can do is introduce fly larvae into the colony. I don't think any flies are out right now to lay eggs in the skulls, but I'm going to put the skulls in the freezer for 24 hours before feeding them to the beetles to kill any fly eggs just in case.
Here's the plastic tote with the netting over the top. Hopefully it will do a good job of keeping the beetles in and keeping any other bugs out.
I'll probably post some updates on the first few skulls that I clean. I tried the boil and scrub method and just didn't seem to be able to get the hang of it. Hopefully this will work out, if not I guess I'll have to get better at the boil and scrub method.

Right now the beetles are in the garage. They need a pretty narrow temperature range from about 60 to 80 degrees to get the best results. I can get fairly close to that in the garage, but I'm not sure if Cathy is going to let me keep them in there long term. If they start to stink, I'll probably have to move them out to the barn and I'm not sure they will make it through the summer out there. I've got 3 pig skulls, 3 deer skulls a bobcat skull and a coyote skull that I would like to get cleaned and even if that's all that I get done before the colony dies off I will be way ahead of what it would have cost to have someone else clean the skulls for me.

It will be interesting to see how it works out.

That's it for now.

Nathan

2nd pig of 2010, a big one!

Made a very quick run down to the land yesterday to try some hog eradication. If you want to skip the novel and go straight to the pictures they are down there a ways!

It was a beautiful day in West Texas, I was at the office working on some stuff I needed to get done, but it was 60 degrees, sunny and most importantly, the wind wasn't blowing. Looking out the window I couldn't take it anymore and decided I would run down to the land. Work could get done later. I Left the house at 2:00 and made it down to the land at 3:30, and was in the blind by 3:45.

About 4:45 a medium sized boar showed up and was checking out my protein feeder. It is fenced off to keep the pigs out, but he still seemed interested. I took a 175 yard shot with a rest and he took off running. Shot at him again on the run and when he got to the brush he slowed up and I thought he might have been limping. I had felt pretty good about the shot, but was 2nd guessing myself. I left the blind and worked downwind of him and looked around and didn't see a thing. Walked along where he had gone into the brush and didn't see any blood. Went back to the protein feeder about 200 yards away where I had shot and couldn't find any blood. Decided that I must have missed and went back to the blind about 5:30.

Usually the pigs start moving a little before sunset, but 6:00 rolled around and nothing, some coyotes started making quite a ruckus in the direction that the pig I had shot at went, so maybe I did hit him and the coyotes got him. 6:30 or so and the sun goes down, pretty cloudy so not much of a sunset. 7:00 and things are unusually quiet. I decided that it must be the full moon causing everything to sleep in later. I was about to call it a night when I saw a pig in my shooting lane food plot 300 yards away. It was right at the end of legal shooting light, and having just missed a 175 yard shot I decided to try to get closer. The pig was rooting my food plot and went behind a small cedar tree so it looked like I should have a good chance to get closer.

I was torn between getting there fast since it was getting pretty dark, and trying to be quiet. When I was in the blind I squealed a couple times as loud as I could while looking through the binoculars to see if the pig would get curious and head my way, but it never even looked my way. I could see dirt flying out behind him, so I figured he wasn't going to be paying much attention and leaned toward the get there fast option since it was really getting dark in a hurry.

I was walking down my shooting lane food plot trying to stick to the edge and trying to figure out where the pig was or if it was even still there. It was probably 10 minutes past shooting light but that doesn't really matter for pigs from a legal standpoint, but it does matter from whether you can see them to shoot them or not standpoint. I was about 100 yards away, maybe a little less and I heard the pig and he figured something was up. He moved into the center of the shooting lane and stopped. I had put my scope all the way down on 4x so it would be the most effective in the low light and the moon was up and that was helping too and I could just make the pig out in the scope. No time to really think about it, I just dropped to one knee, aimed and fired.

I heard the bullet hit and the pig went down. I'm not really hip on chasing pigs around in the dark, so I got ready to shoot again if he got up and started walking toward him. He was down hard and wasn't getting up. I recognized him as one of the larger boar hogs that I've been getting pictures of on my trail camera. It had been so dark that I thought it was a black pig, but he is actually a medium to light brown color.

Here's a picture of me with the pig.

I'm not a fan of the field photos where the guy stands way behind the animal so the animal looks bigger, but it almost seems like that is the way this one turned out. I took the picture on a timer with the camera sitting on my fanny pack and I think it must be the wide angle shot from the ground making it look that way. You can tell my arm holding the rifle is bent, and I was actually all the way up against the pig. My right had was actually holding his head up straight.

I was in my company trailblazer so I couldn't haul it up to my campsite and weigh it, but I would guess it right around 250lbs. I've shot 2 other large boars and both weighed in right around the 250lb mark. I always try to get a picture with a cooler in it to help give a better size perspective.

For comparison here's a 150lb pig from last week.
I didn't even notice the cutters until I started moving him around to start processing him. I think he may have the longest cutters of any pig I've shot. His right cutter was broken off though.
When I was cutting him up and getting him in the cooler I was shocked to find my bullet didn't pass through. I'm shooting a 7mm Rem Mag from 100 yards or less. The bullet was just a cheap soft point, but it actually held together really well. I hit him high and hit the spine, but I would have still expected a pass through.

Here's a link to the picture of the bullet. I'm not posting it as an image in the post because it is kind of graphic. If you want to look at it just click on the link.
http://padens.com/v-web/gallery/albums/album07/pig2_bullet.jpg

The bullet is on the right side of the picture and was pretty much intact although it had mushroomed quite a bit. You can see the exit and you can see where the bullet put a dent in the skin trying to get out. Ignore the part where I wasn't wearing gloves, the entire trip was kind of an impromptu thing and I wasn't as prepared as I should have been.

Here's the explanation for why the bullet didn't pass through.

This pig had the thickest armor of any of the large boars that I've shot. It was easily 2" think and that wasn't even high up on the shoulder where it is the thickest. It went all the way down his spine nearly to his hindquarter. This isn't fat, it is almost as hard as bone, like really thick cartilage. The mature boars build up this plate of armor as a defense against the razor sharp cutters of other boars when they are fighting. Really amazing how these mature boars are put together.

Oh well, this ended up being quite the novel. If you read it all, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a pretty fun hunt. Left the house at 2:00 and was back home at 10:30.

Nathan