Remnar Joins Shamanic Dream Team

Remnar and his squirrel

Albert Soady: “And Remnar? Well, he turned out pretty much the way you’d expect for somebody goes by the name of Remnar.”

Well, the new guy arrived at camp Saturday night, and we all retired to the Thoughtful Spot for a conclave. Amid the gathering gloom, an approaching hurricane remnant, and bottles of Loch Lomand and Suntory, we got down to the Special High-Intensity Training necessary to turn our friend into a full-fledged member of the Shamanic Dream Team. As I suspected, weekends will be somewhat problematic from his end.

The first major thing decided was his callsign. I think it was Moose that just offhandedly called him Remnar, ( a reference to Escanaba in Da Moonlight). NewGuy had recently watched this movie at our insistence to get him filled in on some of the details of camp life. Sure enough, NewGuy responded with a quip about bringing the pasties. In a flash, we had his callsign. He is now Remnar.

Remnar has some good hunting stories, but he was still deer-less. He’d also never been up the tree– always hunted from ground blinds. We’re fixing that. It was resolved that he would buy his first stand and we would endeavor to place it at an auspicious location in two weeks. We have found such a place this AM. We also reviewed other blind locations. He will have access to Midway, Lazy Boy, Hollywood and a few promising un-named locations for setting up his ground blinds as he sees fit.

A goodly amount of single malt, provided by Remnar, was consumed last night, and added to the gemuetlichkeit, as we consumed mass quantities of bovine ribeye before retiring to our racks.

Moose, Angus and Remnar went out Sunday AM to hunt squirrel. Remnar and Angus both managed to bag a squirrel before the rain hit. We spent the latter part of the morning touring the farm in depth and deciding on a stand location.

Remnar has his father’s Glenfield as well as his own Winchester 94, both in 30-30. We got him sighted in, along with a bunch of other various shooting chores. Meanwhile, Moose’s companion MooseChick, looked on in her usual winsome manner.

Thompson Center Compass

One of those shooting projects was getting my new Thompson Center Compass sighted in. I’m using 139 grain Hornady SP’s over Varget. Even with this starting load I was getting under a 2-Inch group at 100 yards with velocities up around what you would expect for a 270 Winchester. This rifle will be replacing the Model 44 in the rotation this year. I figure I can use it at treestand distances this season and then really wring it out over the summer for next year.