Here we go!!! First Rondy shoot of the Season...
03-04-2012, 04:28 PM
#1
Boone & Crockett
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Idaho
Posts: 11,703
Here we go!!! First Rondy shoot of the Season...
Finally March 4th and the Hells Canyon Muzzleloaders Memorial Shoot. I have really been looking for this to get here.
It seemed that they planned the timing perfectly it was suppose to be the best day of 2012 so far... In the Valley they were predicting temps of 55*. When I got ready to leave at 8:00 this morning from Moscow - it was like spring, sun shinning no clouds and a little cool 27* but I knew that would warm up.
Loaded up - jumped in the good ole F250 and hit the road to the south - Land of Lewis and Clark and the Nez Pierce. The towns of Lewiston and Clarkston sit opposite sides of the Snake River, Lewiston, ID being on the west side and Clarkston, WA on the west side. This also where the Clearwater River dumps into the Snake River. All was great on the drive south... beautiful driving conditions set the cruise control and worked my way south.
I do not know why I expected the same weather or near the same weather conditions in the valley but I did... perhaps because of the nicknames for the valley is the "Banana Belt". I was traveling from around 2600 ft. of elevation to 700 ft of elevation in short distance of 30-40 miles with most of the elevation loss in the last mile of the trip.
When i got to the top of the Lewiston Grade (elev. 2584') I really got a surprise as the grade drops to 700'. It was a sea of clouds - the whole valley was socked in...
All the way down river to the shoot site. As i entered the cloud cover, I was thinking to myself - it can not be this thick all the way to the bottom - yes it can!
By the time i got to the big bend in the Snake - things were looking up - at least I could turn the winshield wipers off.
I drove up to the shoot site and they had a really nice warming fire going and we all stood around and watched the fog lift off the river and sunshne break through...
10:00 am - time to shoot it was great weather - I shed the coat and geared up.
For the first shoot of the year and this is a small shoot only 10 rifle stations and a tie breaker target on the walking trail. I felt good about my tie breaker shot, but that feeling left in a hurry when I missed a cylinder gong @ 60 yards. I do not know how I missed but the group said 'o so close - just over the top'. Station 2 was an easy shot an old metal milk jug looking thing at about 50 yards... Made that shot then dropped the long range shot at station 3. I should mention that there was a decent breeze blowing right to left across the targets... this will hurt me later.
Picked up station 5 and station 6 and 7 were multi-point targets - I took the middle sized target at both sations and got 2 points for them.
Station 7 & 8 were a breeze and I was on a roll feeling good again. Got to station 9 a 100 yard shot on a big white steel bear... I new I had this one also... MISSED - I could not believe I MISSED. Then the older more wise man in Mountain gear next to me asked, "are shooting a hunting load or a target load?" I replied 60 grains probably a target load??? "A huh" he says... "did ya account for the wind?" NO
ops: So I decided to use my 'colter' chance and shoot the target again - accounting for the breeze... Got it!
Now station 10 is way up the hill - I mean way up there 150-175 yards. Got loaded up, accounted for the breeze and aimed just over the target and bit west of the center of the target. Missed - over the top...
Now for the rest of the story... I decided I was not going down the hill untill I got that target or the next group pushed me off the target.
Loaded and held center mass. I had elevated my Lyman SML 2.5 lines - about 10 clicks or 2 1/2" @ 100, so from my last shoot over the target I thought this would surely do the job... MISS
Right elevation but left of the target. One more time... center of target and held on the right edge of the gong... 
One more pic... Shooting my most reliable 50 cal Renegade with 60 grains of T7-3f, wonder wad, 015 wonder lube patch, and a .490 Hornady round ball. Regular #11 cap for ignition and now sign od a 'crud ring'
I did have fun even though I only do the rifle shoot...
It seemed that they planned the timing perfectly it was suppose to be the best day of 2012 so far... In the Valley they were predicting temps of 55*. When I got ready to leave at 8:00 this morning from Moscow - it was like spring, sun shinning no clouds and a little cool 27* but I knew that would warm up.
Loaded up - jumped in the good ole F250 and hit the road to the south - Land of Lewis and Clark and the Nez Pierce. The towns of Lewiston and Clarkston sit opposite sides of the Snake River, Lewiston, ID being on the west side and Clarkston, WA on the west side. This also where the Clearwater River dumps into the Snake River. All was great on the drive south... beautiful driving conditions set the cruise control and worked my way south.
I do not know why I expected the same weather or near the same weather conditions in the valley but I did... perhaps because of the nicknames for the valley is the "Banana Belt". I was traveling from around 2600 ft. of elevation to 700 ft of elevation in short distance of 30-40 miles with most of the elevation loss in the last mile of the trip.
When i got to the top of the Lewiston Grade (elev. 2584') I really got a surprise as the grade drops to 700'. It was a sea of clouds - the whole valley was socked in...
All the way down river to the shoot site. As i entered the cloud cover, I was thinking to myself - it can not be this thick all the way to the bottom - yes it can!
By the time i got to the big bend in the Snake - things were looking up - at least I could turn the winshield wipers off.
I drove up to the shoot site and they had a really nice warming fire going and we all stood around and watched the fog lift off the river and sunshne break through...
10:00 am - time to shoot it was great weather - I shed the coat and geared up.
For the first shoot of the year and this is a small shoot only 10 rifle stations and a tie breaker target on the walking trail. I felt good about my tie breaker shot, but that feeling left in a hurry when I missed a cylinder gong @ 60 yards. I do not know how I missed but the group said 'o so close - just over the top'. Station 2 was an easy shot an old metal milk jug looking thing at about 50 yards... Made that shot then dropped the long range shot at station 3. I should mention that there was a decent breeze blowing right to left across the targets... this will hurt me later.
Picked up station 5 and station 6 and 7 were multi-point targets - I took the middle sized target at both sations and got 2 points for them.
Station 7 & 8 were a breeze and I was on a roll feeling good again. Got to station 9 a 100 yard shot on a big white steel bear... I new I had this one also... MISSED - I could not believe I MISSED. Then the older more wise man in Mountain gear next to me asked, "are shooting a hunting load or a target load?" I replied 60 grains probably a target load??? "A huh" he says... "did ya account for the wind?" NO
ops: So I decided to use my 'colter' chance and shoot the target again - accounting for the breeze... Got it!Now station 10 is way up the hill - I mean way up there 150-175 yards. Got loaded up, accounted for the breeze and aimed just over the target and bit west of the center of the target. Missed - over the top...
Now for the rest of the story... I decided I was not going down the hill untill I got that target or the next group pushed me off the target.
Loaded and held center mass. I had elevated my Lyman SML 2.5 lines - about 10 clicks or 2 1/2" @ 100, so from my last shoot over the target I thought this would surely do the job... MISS
Right elevation but left of the target. One more time... center of target and held on the right edge of the gong... One more pic... Shooting my most reliable 50 cal Renegade with 60 grains of T7-3f, wonder wad, 015 wonder lube patch, and a .490 Hornady round ball. Regular #11 cap for ignition and now sign od a 'crud ring'
I did have fun even though I only do the rifle shoot...
Last edited by sabotloader; 03-04-2012 at 04:35 PM.
