It was a dark and stormy night...

(Photo by Jonathan Way)

August 18th, 2009. It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the greenbelts (for it is in Highlands Ranch that our scene lies), rattling along the trees, and fiercely agitating the dog walker that struggled against the darkness.

And lo, upon coming to the intersection of the path on the greenbelt and Highlands Ranch Parkway, the lone dog walker of two canines came upon a pack of coyotes on the prowl. The wild four-legged beasts were undetermined in number at that point, but as a separate pack of coyotes opened up with their wailing further up the greenbelt where the dog walker had just passed, the song dogs near him opened up with their ghastly howl.

Sage, the smaller, but bolder, white Husky mix dearly would have loved to get closer to the pack (which was 50 feet away at this point), and as they decreased their howls, the walker could hear them growling and 'talking' amongst themselves, as Ilse, the larger, but more intimidated White Shepherd, pulled at the leash in the opposite direction, wanting to vacate the scene as soon as she possibly could, only stopping to stand and growl at the dark shapes in the grass.

Time seemed to stand still, as the pack sized up the walker and the two dogs (for it seemed to the walker like a staring contest with a blind man) and eventually he was able to get his Husky moving towards the Parkway and away from the dark menace. Upon crossing Highlands Ranch Parkway, behind him he could hear the yelps of the pack, and, going only a quarter-mile from the intersection (where the stoplights were alternately blinking red and yellow, indicating that it was after midnight), the walker saw four dark shapes running along side him, between 50 and 75 feet from the winding twisting path.

One of the coyotes stopped where Sage had his leash fully extended out into the field, and the walker imagined that the song-dog was calculating whether it could lure Sage away from the walker to go and play, and, become the evening meal for the pack. The walker was able to get Sage moving again towards home, and after trailing for a bit, the pack of coyotes ran off, only to be heard again as the walker entered his house. The dogs stopped and gazed towards the open space across the street from his house, but, a quick tug at the leash and an open door where a dog biscuit was waiting for them was enough to get the dogs in the door, shutting out the night.

New Huskemaw Optics

See more pictures by clicking this link

I finally traveled north to get my new Huskemaw Optics scope. For those who are not in the ‘know’ – a Huskemaw Optics scope is a scope that is built to your specific rifle, for 1 specific load (bullet, brass, primer, powder). It’s main feature is a drop-compensating turret, that you can dial in to just about any range between 200 and 1000+ yards. It also has built-in windage marks for 10 – 30 mph cross wind (depending on target distance). See more about the Huskemaw scope by clicking this link

Thursday morning, June 12th, I left around 10:00 AM to Worland, Wyoming. It was a great drive, especially going through the Wind River Indian Reservation and Boysen state park just south of Thermopolis. It’s gorgeous country through there, especially the Rainbow Terraces. I arrived in Worland about 6:00 PM and checked into the hotel. I then realized I forgot my digital camera so went and purchased an additional one – always good to have a backup!

Friday morning, June 13th, I checked out at 6:00 AM to drive the hour it takes to get to Burlington, Wyoming, home of the Long Range Store. The place where they build their rifles is in a converted green metal warehouse with three garage doors. There are no signs, no advertising out front. My only description to go on was “look for the building across the street from the post office with 3 garage doors.” Being that it wasn’t a very big town, I only passed it once, and confirmed that I had left the town of Burlington after that last building.

I knocked on the door. Ernie (didn’t catch his last name) greeted me at the door. It was 7:00 AM and he was the only one in the shop. He indicated that the rest of the crew would be along shortly.

After finding my rifle amongst all the other rifles they had (I was the only one who had an aluminum case) he gave me a quick tour of the scope itself, how to make the adjustments, etc. Then Mike Davidson showed up, and shortly followed by Jeremy Winters and Aaron Davidson. We talked about hunting, what tags we had applied for in the 2009 fall season, the show itself, and other general stuff. Mike and I then headed off to the ‘range’ where I would start shooting my rifle. We headed south of Burlington to some private ranch property where they had permission to shoot, and I hopped in Mike’s Suburban to ride the rest of the way down there.

It seemed like my 7mm Remington Ultra Mag took to that Huskemaw scope and load like a fish takes to water. Mike asked me how far I’d like to shoot for my 1st shot. I said a conservative “500 yards.” He then picked out a rock with the spotting scope that had kind of a black mark about 4 inches wide on the face, in a range of hills at 525 yards away. We then agreed on the distance (I used my range finder as well for comparison). We checked the wind – there was none to be had. So, I held right on and did a dry-fire. I didn’t tell him that this was my very first time ever firing the rifle! The dry-fire went well, so I loaded one of the custom bullets, took aim, and squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit low and to the left. He said to give him another one – so I did. The bullet impact was less than a few inches from my original impact. So, we adjusted the scope a couple of clicks up and to the right, and squeezed off a round. I took a piece of the ‘black’ off – it turned white. I was right on target.

The second rock we selected was at about 675 yards. The wind/mirage was indicating about 3 miles per hour, so I held about one minute of angle to the left, with the windage marks in the reticle, and squeezed. A puff of dust indicated a direct hit.

One Minute of Angle is approximately 1 inch at 100 yards, or 2 inches at 200 yards, etc. An accurate rifle is a rifle that shoots “sub-MOA” or, will shoot less than 1-inch groups at 100 yards. So, at 1000 yards, you have a good rifle if you can get 3 bullets in a 10-inch circle. Each windage mark is one minute of angle, and the reticle tells you where to hold based on a 10-mph wind, when the scope is at 20-power. For example, a 10 mile-per-hour wind at 300 yards might tell you to hold at 1 minute of angle, or 3 inches, opposite the direction of the wind flow. However, at 900 yards, it might tell you to hold 3 minutes of angle for a 10 mile-per-hour wind, or 30 inches. If it’s a 20 mph wind, you can reduce the scope’s power to 10, and hold at the 3rd minute of angle mark, because now each windage mark indicates 2 minutes of angle, and the hold would be 60 inches, or 5 feet, opposite the wind direction.

The 3rd target was at 957 yards. My range finder couldn’t pick up the distance, but his did. I looked through his spotting scope and saw the rock I thought he had indicated, and dialed the distance on my drop-compensating turret. The wind/mirage was negligible, then shifting again to probably about 3 mph. He said to hold a little more than a half-minute for the wind, and also because of the rotation of the earth, at 1000 yards, the bullet is affected by about 1 inch (the spiral of the bullet with the effect of the earth’s rotation during the distance it takes to travel that distance – at least, that’s how I understood it – if we were shooting in Australia it would be about 1 inch in the other direction). So, I took aim and squeezed the trigger. It hit low. He said to try it again. The bullet hit in the same place. We then discussed which rocks we were talking about – He was indicating a rock that was about 2 feet across. I was aiming at a different rock about a half-minute wide (which was about 4-6 inches wide at that distance). He said to dial my scope in to 960, as it was farther away than the rock he had picked out. Now that we were on the same rock, I again held just inside the 1st windage mark, and squeezed off a round. You could distinctly hear the ‘crack’ of the bullet impacting the rock after about second or two.

I smiled. Mike gave me a high-five. He said it was so nice to have someone out there who could actually shoot well. He said he gets a lot of people out there who think that just because they have a fancy new scope on their rifle that they can now shoot well. However, if you’re a bad shot, a greater distance just compounds poor shooting.

I then agreed to help them shoot a stack of rifles that they had – all were 7mm or 6.5x284 rifles. Some were left-handed shooters, some were right. These were all of their $4500 and $6000 rifles that they were asking me to help them ‘break in’ (there are may different methods of breaking in barrels – the link is just one method). How could I pass up that opportunity? So we set up a sticker board 100 yards away with 100 1-inch orange dots. I would shoot the rifles – 5 rounds through each, then hand them back to Mike as he cleaned, and I shot another rifle 5 times. We kept them rotating – Mike was scrubbing the barrels with KG-12 cleaner and a nylon brush, then passing a patch through at the end of a tipped Jag. These jags are apparently better than the old loop you put a patch through. The Jags provide a more even pass through the barrel to remove copper fouling, powder, etc. He would pass the nylon brush through what seemed to be 100 times to remove all the copper fouling from the barrel (20 passes per bullet). This process is called barrel break-in, and if not done properly on new barrels, performance will be affected until enough rounds have gone through it, and enough times cleaning it, so that the barrel gets into a ‘sweet spot’ and can always be consistent. I guess when you’re paying $4000+ for a rifle, you want it to be properly broken in and ready to go when you receive it. They were also using a Bore Guide – which is a device you put into the rifle when you take the bolt out. This ensures that you don’t get a bunch of grit and oil in the action when you pass the nylon barrel brush up and down the barrel to remove the fouling. Needless to say, when I got home, I ordered some Tipton 7mm Caliber Rifle Nylon Bristle Bore Brushes and some Tipton Individual Ultra Jags, and a Hoppes Universal Bore Guide w/Three Interchangeable Tips For Bolt Action rifles. The bore brushes I already had were metal, and, with the cleaning agent, it would show fouling on the white patch even if the barrel was clean. Nylon will take care of that.

Ernie came out to join us, and he was doing the same process with a stack of rifles as well. After probably 50-75 rounds, my shoulder was saying it was time to go. Plus, I had to make my way to Rapid City for dinner with my Uncle Andy and Aunt Marcia, and the drive was about 6 hours from Burlington. Ernie asked if I had 5 rounds left in me. I said sure – I didn’t want to seem like a wimp, but there might have been a little hesitation in my voice…. So he hands me a 6.5x284 and a box of nice Berger bullets. You see, when we were breaking in the ‘stacks’ of rifles, we weren’t using the Berger bullets, we were using a cheaper bullet and all the rounds were reloads. So, I took aim, and the 1st three bullet holes were stacked one on top of the other. Mike said I was just showing off. I made an adjustment to the scope, put the other two just to the left of the first 3, and called it good.

We then went back to my vehicle as Mike explained how they liked to shoot their .50 BMG at long distances, and how he really disliked it when clients sent in the big 338 Magnums and Ultra-Magnums. He thought they should charge more due to the physical abuse they take from those rifles.

As we arrived back at the shop, Mike was telling Aaron about my ability to shoot, and about the targets and everything. He then told him about how I helped break in the guns. All the guys in the shop laughed. Apparently they’re always happy to have someone volunteer to take the pounding instead of them! I bought a few more boxes of ammo, and ordered a Caldwell Wind Wizard (electronic wind measuring device), and bade the guys at The Best of the West goodbye, thanking them for having me up and allowing me to shoot at their range, and for the marvelous work they did getting the scope on my rifle. It was great to have personal 1-on-1 coaching from Mike, and I’m now ready for some long-distance hunting.

Here are the specs on the bullets:

Bullet: Berger 180 Grain VLD
Powder: Hodgdon Retumbo 91 Grains
Primer: CCI 250
C.O.A.L 3.665” (Combined Over All Length)
Velocity 3145

The shooting conditions when they sighted in my rifle:
Sight in range: 100 yards
Far target range: 695 yards
Far target drop: 33 clicks
Altitude: 4400 feet
Temp: 70 degrees

My scope markings are set for 30 Fahrenheit at 7000 feet. For every 1000 feet in elevation difference, it will affect it by 1 click at 1000 yards. For every 20 degrees difference, it will affect it also by 1 click at 1000 yards. The best I should do is, if I can, take a practice shot when hunting and adjust from there, so that I know I will be on when I shoot my animal. Additionally, because of the length of the bullets, I checked to make sure I could load them in my magazine and feed them into the barrel. Thankfully, I could. It would be most unkind to turn my rifle into a single-shot. But then again, maybe I already did.