This is the earliest I’ve tried to return to camp in 20-some seasons. A good deal of it is because I’m retired now. In the past, I had to wait until the weekends. Last year, I was still feeling the chemo and had to wait until someone else could go down with me.

Every year, I start looking for a day with highs of at least 50F and no precipitation. Last year, that was late February. Some years, it’s been the 3rd weekend in March.

The place was intact when I got there. The winter had been mild and there was not much out of place. A dead mouse greeted me at the door. That’s always a good sign. The indoor temperature was 40F. The outdoor temperature was 60F. I had to run the fans for a couple of hours before I could turn on the heaters. I puttered about what was left of the afternoon, and finally retired to the porch and waited for Blacksmith to show up. We went for pizza.

As soon as I opened the door Thursday morning, I was greeted by a gobbler out behind the tobacco barn. That was a certain good sign. I went around back to The Thoughtful Spot and watched for the sunrise. There were gobblers down in Hootin’ Holler going off. Nobody was overly effusive, but I still saw it as a good omen.

223 Rem Small Game Loads

I got down to the bottom of the list of reloading projects and still had two weekends to go before thinking about this trip. I began to conceive of using the .223 REM as a cheap plinking vehicle, basically mimicking the velocity of everything from 22 LR up to 221 Fireball with reduced loads. I had some Bullseye on hand and started asking questions on 24hourcampfire.com

On the Cheap 223 Small Game Loads

Here’s the table I cooked up as a reference:

I didn’t have my chonometer with me. 5 grains of Bullseye gave me roughly 22 LR velocity. 12 grains got me up to the level of a 22 Hornet.

These aren’t very good groups. 12 grains of Bullseye (.22 Hornet) gave me the best group less the one flyer. With it back up to 60F, the weather was getting quite wild and I was taking 24 MPH gusts at the bench. The 22 bullets got tossed around a bit. I had to move the loading operation inside and did up my loads in the living room.

GP100– Trying out some loads

I had some fun Friday AM with the new GP100, trying out the myriad of 357 Mag loads I cooked up.

• 158-grain lead SWC
• 148-grain Berry’s DEWC
• 125-grain cast lead Lee 358-125-RF
• 125-grain Berry’s JHP

They all went bang pretty well.

Foxtrot Charlie und die Schweine

FC’s all hot to come turkey hunting this spring. I wrote him an email about hearing the gobblers. He is in Germany, helping a buddy with a feral swine eradication program

What I wouldn’t GIVE for 60 degrees & seeing game!

It’s been more dreary here since 2/3/24 than Cincy had been before our departure.

Yesterday we did 3 hunts, and saw no hogs. Well, from a shooting standpoint. . .  then we’d position the hunters on hochsitz around them, and let bearers with dogs flush the hogs toward the waiting jaegers.  Yeah, well those fish kept escaping the barrel. 🤦🏻 

The last hunt was at 11 pm last night in a steady rain in low 40 degree weather with a not-so-delightful breeze.  I spent > 40 min trying to figure out my thermal monocular, finally breaking down & googling the company’s troubleshooting guide. I was almost too embarrassed to tell Ready & his son I’d inadvertently put the lens cap back on… 🤬

They’d found some hogs, but couldn’t get them to meander to my spot. We dragged in at 1:30 am, and layed out or clothes & eqt to dry.

I guess he’s doing a good job decimating the local 🐗 populations, cause we’re not seeing many. 

But I got on the stand yesterday am, and got all the goodies out of my pack, and loaded the rifle, and began to glass… and I realized that I was hunting boars in the friggin 🇩🇪 forst! How cool is that?

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