Go big or go home!

This was our motto these last two days during the LRTR (Long Range Tactical Rifle) class that I attended.  Most of the first day consisted of book work.  Converting MIL to MOA.  Using UTM rulers to map our position on a Quad Map.  Using GPS and MIL reticles to calculate target range.  Factoring and calculating in your angle, wind velocity and wind value.  After book work the rest of the first day was zeroing the rifles, and practicing ranging targets.  Two of us were using .308's, and one person brought their .338 to use.

The next day we spent shooting all around the range at different targets.  Using our MIL reticles, GPS, and rangefinders to find our ranges.  Then using all the book work we had learned to calculate our elevation, angle, and wind to get us in the boiler room.  We ranged and fired on the following targets; 169yds, 225yds, 331yds, 425yds, 555yds, 709yds, 863yds, 1,115yds, and 1,660yds.

I knew it was possible, but I never knew all the logistics involved in long range shooting.  There really is a lot of calculating to it.  None of us were able to get on target at the 1,660 yard mark as we didn't have enough elevation left in our scope turrents, and we had to use the MIL reticle for holdover after we were maxed out.  The most important spot for wind calculations is when the bullet leaves the rifle.  That is where it has the most impact on the round, and why it makes sense to calculate for it from where you shoot.  When we drove out to the mile target we found that the wind was actually blowing the opposite direction at about the same velocity.  I don't think even if we had the elevation to get there we could have predicted the left to right and been able to hit it.  We calculated that at the 1,115 yard mark our bullet had 43 feet of loft in it's travel...amazing.

This was a great experience, and the teacher was a real professional, and very knowledgeable.  I'm very glad that I did this class as it has really been an eye opener to me on hunting and long range shooting.  I never thought I would shoot over a thousand yards.  But be assured, I would never shoot that far on an animal I was hunting, although a 500 yard shot on a critter with the right ballistics is not out of the question with today's optics.

Melting away

Spring is here and the ice is melting away...so ends another ice fishing season.  We had a great time this year though.  We had pretty decent conditions every time we went.  Which is great news when you have kids.  How amazing to see how thick the ice really was when they ran into this ice rift at Cascade Reservoir.

Some days you get lucky and are able to haul in some nice fish.  Below is a nice rainbow that my daughter caught.  One of the things I love about ice fishing on Cascade, you just never know what type of fish or what size of fish will be coming through the hole, it could be a trout, a perch, or a salmon, that's why when you hear "flag up", your running!

We caught five nice trout this day, and had quite a few broken lines till the girls were able to figure out how to play the trout for a while to wear them out before pulling them up to the hole.

In recent years the perch have really started prospering.  They are plump with eggs and are referred to as "Jumbo Perch".  Usually we are lucky enough to pull up a few of these while we are out.

Those that do ice fish know that when the bite is on it is crazy!  But when it isn't, things can get really slow and can humble a person very quickly.  It's a good time to do some thinking...or napping!

Ice fishing seems like it's a lot more of a social event then other types of fishing, especially if you have multiple groups of fisherman all hanging out in the same spot.  Unlike soft water fishing this is actually a welcome thing.  A good time to share stories and make new friends.  It is very quiet out on the lake during the winter.  There are no boats racing around, no campers screaming from the campground, nobody's loose dog running around barking it's head off.  If you haven't been ice fishing I suggest finding someone that does and ask if you can tag along,  It may or may not be your cup of tea, but you will never know until you try it.  Until next hard water season...soft water and tight lines!

Flame on!

Spring and warm weather are upon us, and yesterday was a great day to be outside and enjoy the outdoors.  I took the girls shooting for a little while out on some BLM land.  Then we decided to break out the grill and have our first barbecue of 2012.  For the most part we've always had propane gas grills.  After our last move our Brinkman decided to go into early retirement.  Maybe it was a sign.  Since we didn't have the money to buy another elaborate grill I ended up getting a Weber charcoal grill.

I forgot what I was missing, but was quickly reminded as the smell alone brought back wonderful memories of barbecuing in the old days.  There may be those that might contest my next statement, but my meat cooked a lot more evenly and tastefully then  my gas grills ever did.  The taste is off the charts, just ask my kids, they never want to see another gas grill again.  I pity the fool that hasn't had the experience of tending to and being rewarded by cooking over briquettes.

Going back to basics seems to be a reoccurring trend around here.  As you can tell, it breaks my heart.

Exercising and eating well

I'll start off by saying I am not a health nut by any means, nor am I a fitness expert.  I'm just an average Joe trying to make the best choices I can with the lifestyle I lead.  A few years ago we made a choice in our home to stop eating crap.  Granted there is still quite a bit of it going on but we've reduced it by at least 75% which is a huge endeavor considering we are a family of seven.  We can do better, and we are slowly working that way.  You can check out my wife's blog over at Tales from a Misfit Housewife for all the lowdown on how things happen around our homestead.  I'll just sum it up by saying we try and buy free range meat as often as we can, and limit our eating out as much as possible, get lots of fruit, and some vegetables, although I've never been a fan personally, I try and choke them down.  I'm more of a meat eater.  We got our own egg chickens last spring, and this spring we will start our garden beds.  It's been two years since we've been to a fast food place such as McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, etc.  We have been to restaurants which I'm not saying are any better but with having to pay more this really keeps us from eating out very often, mostly just special occasions.  Wild fish and game helps fill the voids too which is very helpful.

Since I don't go to the gym, and mostly do as much exercising at home that I can do as well as watching my eating, I needed to look for some help.  So I found a few programs that helped make keeping track of these things a little easier.  One tool I use is myfitnesspal, which I use to keep track of my calorie intake.  It also tracks carbs, fat, protein, sodium and sugar, among other categories you can choose.  This is all based on items people have already entered in by using the nutritional information on the item.  It is a huge database, chances are that it's already in there if your eating or drinking it.  If not then you can add it, or do a quick calories and enter it in.  You can really customize this to your needs, whether it's maintaining or losing 1-2lbs a week.  There are also apps for the iPhone and other smart phones so you have no excuse to not get your data entered even if your out and about.  Another tool I like to use is runkeeper.  This is useful for tracking your walking, hiking, or running.  It offers some easy setup to get you going. Once again apps for the iPhone and other smart phones are used, or you can buy their own gadgets to use.  I use it as a compliment to enter my exercise into myfitnesspal.  There are plenty of ways to do it without having to have a smart phone, but the apps are free...and we all know that free is good!

So those are the two tools I really use to help me with maintaining weight and exercising.  These are only tools though, you have to personally make the commitment and keep yourself dedicated to it to see results, it doesn't take much to get off track take it from me.  Life is too short to waste it eating high fructose corn syrup and mono sodium glutamate.  I won't deny that food that has that stuff in it taste really, really good.  But it's not good for you at all.  Your body was meant to eat fruit, vegetables and meat, not processed garbage.  I think I may have started getting into a rant.  I hate to see anyone out there ruin themselves, stay healthy, and stay fit and I hope to see you around in our western lands.

Miserable is memorable

Some of my most memorable times in the outdoors have been my most miserable too.  I'm not sure if it's that way with anyone else.  I relish in those memories now, but I'm pretty sure at that given moment it was anything less then misery.

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to take my youngest daughter ice fishing for the first time.  I picked Horsethief Reservoir as I knew it was a great fishery and I didn't want her to get skunked on her first outing.  It was cold when we pulled into Cascade around 8am, and only about 10 degrees without the wind chill.  As we headed up into the mountains it quickly dropped into the single digits, leveling out at 5 degrees as we pulled into the parking lot, I refer to this as cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.  The coldest weather I've been out ice fishing in, in a very long time.  Face mask, hand warmers, toe warmers, layers upon layers, my daughter reminded me of Ralphie from A Christmas Story.  My youngest daughter is pretty tough though, a lot tougher then I give her credit for I guess, maybe because I've always thought of her as the baby.  She loves to fish though, trout is her second favorite food...only to lasagna.

We didn't have to go too far out onto the ice, probably only 50-75 yards.  I fired up my trusty Eskimo Z71 with a 10-in auger and went to work punching holes.  I punched the maximum number of 15 holes in a horseshoe pattern in about 15 minutes through at least 18-in of ice.  I'm pretty sure that would have taken at least an hour and a half with my 6-in hand auger.  Actually I'm pretty sure 15 holes wouldn't have gotten punched, and I would have been too tired by the end of it to do anything else, sweaty, freezing, and sore as hell the next day.  Do yourself a favor if you plan on any serious ice fishing, get yourself a power auger.  I got mine from Glen Outdoors last fall when they went on sale at a screaming deal, about $150 off.

The girls had put out the tip-ups next to the holes, and I started baiting them and dropping them.  I didn't expect them to take their gloves off and help with any of this, it was way too cold out.  I only got about half of the holes baited before the flags started tripping, and I never ended up setting up anymore.

The girls were busy pulling them up and I was busy removing hooks, baiting them and resetting them...and of course trying to keep my hands warm.  Not since I worked in Alaska have my hands been so cold, they were on fire they hurt so bad.  But the fishing was good so who cares...you push through it and move on.  There was really no let up, in fact I had to start pulling the tip-ups I did have set so we didn't over quota ourselves.  I ended up just having a couple out as we neared our limit, and the girls were able to take a small break.

I don't ever remember seeing my oldest daughter being so cold, she is pretty warm blooded and a serious trooper when it comes to ice fishing.  She steps it up a notch and really helps out a lot.  She showed no selfishness at all and tried to get my youngest daughter on as many fish as she could get on.  We were only on the ice a few hours.  It was cold and miserable, but looking back now we can all agree it was a great day.

What's in your sole?

I spent last fall becoming intimate with my new Kenetrek Mountain Boots.  These are some great hiking and hunting boots.  You can read all about them on their website.  As great as they are though they do require some break in time.  Kenetrek says you should expect to wear out about 50 miles of boot leather before you see a good break in.  I'm not sure if I've put that many miles on them yet, but there is definitely a difference since when I first started wearing them.  I'm on my second coat of boot wax as well, and that makes a remarkable difference in their comfort factor.

This post isn't about my review of the boots though, but about their insoles.  The out of the box standard insoles that come with the boot are less then impressive.  It's hard to believe how many miles I put on these boots with such flimsy silly soles in them.  As you can see there is no support whatsoever.  I'm hoping they put these in to give the consumer free choice in many of the aftermarket soles out there.

I've done a lot of investigating and research into which soles would be the best fit for my boots.  There is no "perfect" sole for everyone of course because everyone's feet are different.  Some of the finalists though were Lanthrop & Sons High Country Synergy Footbed; Sole Signature EV Ultra; and Superfeet Green.  There may of course be others, but in most of my research these are the ones that came up the most.  The later two are found at REI.  After a trip to the store and getting my hands on them, or should I say my feet on them, I decided to go with the Sole insole.  For my feet, this is what felt the most comfortable.

These insoles are pretty cool as they mold to your feet.  I spent last week wearing my boots to work and had them on all day long, every day.  I can without reservation say this is another tremendous improvement in the comfort level of these boots.  Below are a few pictures I took just taking some comparison shots of the difference between the stock insoles and the Sole insoles.  

It's easy to see why hands down it's worth paying for some aftermarket insoles.  You spend most if not all your time on your feet while your out hiking, hunting, or fishing.  Don't sell yourself short, or have to cut your trip time because of injured and uncomfortable feet. I've also learned another valuable lesson.  Get yourself a pair of boots a season before you will actually want to use them at their full potential, and spend that year breaking them in.  Don't make the mistake of waiting till your in the field to realize they don't fit right (heal slip, hot spots, arch incompatibility).  For those of us that don't get as much time in the field as we would like to, we certainly don't want to waste it fighting our gear.