^ Lol! I sure wouldn't want to tangle with a Lynx up in the top of a tree! But I don't think I'd go chasing a coon up there, either....those things can mess a person up. My grandpa used to coon hunt a lot, and although I never got the chance to go with him, I don't see him climbing up into a tree after one!

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Could you hire one of these for a weekend?
It might save a lot of time and money in the long run.

Might be useful for the neighbor's pasture to the east of us. The land isn't cared for. We don't know who owns or manages it.
Picture from last weekend. Our truck is our land, next to the property fence line. I'm standing on the neighbor's land. It took me 4.5 hours to chop the 4-6 foot tall thistles with a shovel. Unknown hundreds of plants near this NE property corner. Didn't kill the thistles, of course, but hopefully none of the flowers had viable seeds.


Worked for a few hours on Wednesday, to prep for this holiday weekend's weed spraying marathon. I clipped the flowers here on our SE property corner. Will spray them this weekend, then chop. We just bought a new ATV and 15 gallon sprayer, to supplement our side-by-side with a 55 gallon sprayer on a trailer. I've likely switched from tree season to weed season for awhile.


Weeds suck. But they really suck in such wet years.

Bulls hate bullthistles.
We would too, if we were hung like bulls.

quote:

It took me 4.5 hours to chop the 4-6 foot tall thistles with a shove

That sounds awful . Would a battery powered hedge trimmer work better, or maybe an industrial-sized, gas powered string trimmer? Dealing with that mess makes cutting my neighbor's overgrown trash trees back from the stop sign and weeding my garden this morning seem like a piece of cake. I'm not sure what I'd like less...being a bull and getting hit in the dick by those things or having to spend hours chopping them with a shovel .

It sucked. The biggest stems (trunks?) were about 3" in diameter at the ground. I took brief breaks at 40-45 minute intervals to suck down fluids and sharpen the shovel with a hand file. As in knife blade sharp. Even then, my feet were sore the next day from almost taking running jumps at the shovel blade to cut through the stems.

I didn't take any thistle spines in the privates, but do have some poke marks in my arms and legs.

fritz, I'd have been tempted to let my sprayer stray over the fence line about twenty feet by accident. But then, I'd have probably started a range war with the neighbor, suitable for a modern day sequel to Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923.


So, last Sunday, after ending a good cen terfire rifle session with an incredibly dumbass mistake, I had enough time to re-shoot the pearl match, beginning with another dumbass mistake.
S&W SSR drawn from holster, 10 feet 158Gr .38 Specials, and speedloaders.

Shot 6 of 8 in, , gee that first four were loud. Looked at the cases on the ground, oh, crap, those first 4 were my expensive .357 Magnum Gold Dot carry loads.
Ack! The lower one of those two in the same hole near the tip was supposed to be in the right ... circle. Hello of a flinch, eh? And I forgot to write the time on the target.

Target two: 8 of 8 in 11.62 seconds, and target three: 7 of 8 in 11.71 seconds (all with .38 practice loads).

Nice work Richard. That hurts about the Gold Dots, especially since they seem to have disappeared from the market in the past few years. The 135gr short barrel is my snubby load of choice, and I'm on my last box. Can't find them anywhere. That's a great run at 11.62 clean!

I give up! Went to the outdoor range Friday. Had everything set, measured distance to target at three meters, secured my holster and mag carrier to my belt, loaded four rounds into two magazines, grabbed my timer from my bag. No wait, My timer’s not in my bag. WTH? Long store too long, but my timer is still hooked up to the charger at home. Count me at the bottom of the list on my own challenge. So freakin’ sad! What’s the next one? Maybe I’ll do better because I can’t do much worse.

^ We've all had those days! I've gone to the range before and then discovered that I forgot my mags .

As for what we're doing next, I'm open to suggestions!

I'm trying to come up with something original but my low displacement, single cylinder idea engine is vapor locked. It'll have to sit for a bit.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
I'm trying to come up with something original but my low displacement, single cylinder idea engine is vapor locked. It'll have to sit for a bit.

No huge rush by me, I'm working the next two days, and the rest of today is going to get eaten up by driving to O'Hare to pick up my wife and daughter. That's supposed to be a 2.5 hour trip one way...when I dropped them off last week, it took four. To add insult to injury, it doesn't look like they billed my EZ pass, and when I went to the website to try to pay, there was no record of my plate, so I couldn't pay. I'll probably get a bill 2 months from now with a bunch of late fees . I hate Chicago.

All that to say, it'll be a few days before I have a chance to shoot again.

Ok, I'll throw this one out there and see what you guys think.

Basically, this is the old Bakersfield PD qual, modified for Sigforum. All stages shot from the holster on a B8 target https://targets4free.com/wp-co...-by-Targets4Free.pdf:

2 rounds in 1.5 seconds at 10 feet (“No one should be closer than that.”)

2 rounds in 2.0 seconds at 20 feet (“The length of a car.”)

2 reload 2 in 6.0 seconds (8.0 for revolvers) at 30 feet (“From the curb to the front door.”)

2 rounds in 3.5 seconds at 60 feet (“From the opposite curb to the front door.”)

The times on this look tough, considering the accuracy standard. Scoring will be totaled using the scoring rings, line-breakers count for the higher value. There will be time penalties assessed...-1 point for every quarter second (0.25) over the allowed time for each stage. If your range won't allow drawing from the holster, shoot it from the low-ready and just subtract one second from the allowed time for the stage.

But wait, there's more. In addition to all the weed control duties, we have pasture erosion issues. Our land isn't flat and a seasonal creek runs through the middle of the property. This year "seasonal" likely means all spring and summer. In the last year we've experienced 3 or 4 rain storms that might occur once in a few decades. Or maybe more. The total rainfall this June surpassed all recorded levels -- as in 150-ish years.

Over Memorial day we stepped up our erosion control efforts for the worst gully erosion -- a tributary to the primary creek. 60-80 acres of neighbor's land drains into gully. We tacked down weed control mesh, placed logs at the lip of the gully, anchored the logs at the lip with rebar spikes, filled in the top of the gully with more logs & branches, and placed wattles upstream of everything.

On July 4, we discovered that our work on the northern arm was washed out completely. The bulk of the southern arm's work held, but needs shoring up. Maybe half of the logs in the southern arm gully got washed downstream. The northern arm's logs were flushed anywhere from 100 to 400 yards downstream. Shit.



The northern arm eroded back about 4 feet since Memorial Day. It's about 8-9 feet deep. Our new ATV in the background provides a little perspective.

We're considered a little different method for the northern arm. 3-4 foot long logs got flushed, so we're thinking longer is better. Maybe 6-8 feet long. Anchored to the ground with auger-type anchors, then tied together with fencing wire -- for the bottom of the gully.

Now it comes down to felling trees, bucking them to workable lengths, and moving the logs to the gully floor. Log weight calculation sites put a 14" diameter 6-foot unseasoned pine log at 290 pounds. Fairly certain I can move that on my own with a bunch of grunting & cursing, but I don't know if that's a big enough log to hold up to water.

But for this weekend, it's back to our regularly scheduled program of weed control. I do like our new Polaris Sportsman ATV, however.

^ Interesting, David, I like it! What distance and how many rounds do you shoot? Is it 36 rounds, one per square?

Fritz, that looks like altogether too much work. The destructive power of nature can be spectacular...and horrible if it's unleashing itself on your property. That's quite the gulley it's cut. Noah just got back from a missions trip in KY where they helped build a new house for somebody who lost theirs in a flood. And when I say "lost", I mean lost...the water ripped it off the foundation and they never found it. The bits and pieces are probably in the gulf of Mexico by now. You can only do the best you can, but if nature wants it, it's gonna take it.

I knew I was forgetting something. The target distance is 10 feet, just like the last one and there’s no limit to how many rounds you want to shoot. If it lands on a line, it goes towards the square that it favors. It might be interesting to put a time limit on it, but not a round limit..

Here is the revised target & instructions:

https://www.icloud.com/icloudd...YQ#Six_x_Six_Squares

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DBGarlikov,

Cool let's give it a try!

The Six X Six Challenge has been updated with the completed set of instructions. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

https://www.icloud.com/icloudd...YQ#Six_x_Six_Squares

Shot it today. I decided this was just begging for a run with the MkIV, so I shot that one first. Toughest part was I had to hold over because the gun is zeroed for 50 feet. Clean 2000pts.



Then I decided that the MkIV was almsot cheating, so it needed shot with some center-fires. Had a couple of line burners with the GP100, but based on my understanding of the rules I'd still score it clean



Finally, the old Beretta 92. Also hit the line a couple of times with this one, but the shots clearly favored the intended squares.:

Nice targets, 92fstech!

I hope to try it today.