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 The wife, 2 dogs and a 5th wheel camper made it home from Utah in one piece. So now I need to rest from our 'vacation'. We were away for about a month, and saw some truly magnificent country.

There were a few 'bumps' along the way.

Had to get a local tech to get the trailer AC running during our Moab stay.

Heading back on I-80 we spent 3 nights in Rawlins Wyoming. One night the temperature dropped to the mid 20s F. The propane furnace barely produced any heat at that elevation (7,000 ft).

The high, gusting cross winds in Kansas and east Colorado wore me out.

Came within a few feet of smashing into a small car on I-80. One trying to enter, came next to the one in front of me, then both hit their brakes. My brakes locked, then I managed to swerve around them. Thankfully there was no traffic to my left.

Traveling

Recently I pulled a 5th wheel camper from Ohio to Grand Junction Co across I-70. Found the road condition from marginal to just terrible. Last fall I was on I-70 from the Ohio state line to Indianapolis. Pavement was so bad I busted a band in the front tire of the truck. This time I refused to drive I-70 on that stretch, using SR 40 instead. The farther west, the pavement improved to just tolerable.

In all of Kansas and eastern Colorado had to fight strong gusty cross winds. It was so bad I drove well below the speed limit to maintain control. Damn that was tiring.

Extraction

 A couple weeks ago my dentist found a cavity below a crown that extended to the root of the tooth. We'll be traveling for about a month starting the first part of April, so this was a concern. I had a choice between extracting the tooth or taking antibiotics the whole time we'd be away. Years ago I had a tooth become infected while on vacation. Something I never want to repeat, so yesterday I had the tooth removed with a small part of the bone. The gum should be healed by the time we leave, but I'll still need to be careful because the bone won't be healed for a few months.

In about 3 months I'll get a bridge created across the empty space anchored by the 2 adjacent teeth. Those teeth both have crowns that need attention.

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Hopefully I'll be able to get back to the initial ammo testing with the K31 before we leave.

Swiss K31

 Took the Swiss K31 with the Hi-Lux LER scout scope to the range. I loaded 3 bullet weights as a first determination as to what weight I should do additional testing. I have 150, 165 and 180 grain bullets, I arbitrarily picked IMR 4350 for the 180, and 4064 for the other two. Three shot groups at 100 yards with the 150 and 180 grainers were about 1-1/2 inches. That was about as I expected. for an old military bolt action. The 165 grainers were quite a pleasant surprise, with a group of about 5/8 inch and 2 in the same hole.

I will repeat the test, but I expect similar results. If that happens it'll be the easiest and quickest load determination I have ever experienced.

Ishapore Continued

 So after a lot of looking I found and ordered a scout mount made to fit Enfield No1 MkIII which is the same as my Ishapore but with a different chambering. I thought this would be the solution to my scout scope mounting issue. But I was wrong. The new mount would not fit down between the ears because one side of the ears was not parallel. Using a rotary tool I ground away the inside of one side until the new mount would fit. Every thing is now good? Nope.

As it turns out a mounted scope is at an angle to the barrel. At just 25 feet there's barely enough cross hair adjustment to align with a laser bore sighter. The thickness of a business card on opposite sides of the mounting rings fixes that issue. This is only a temporary way to measure the angle that needs correcting. Back to the gunsmith it goes.

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On the bright side, the same company makes a scout mount for my Swiss K31. It's a very solid mount and fit very well. I mounted a Hi-Lux LER scope, and found the combination very satisfactory. I'll be working on hand loads now.

Ishapor Scout

 Several years ago I acquired an Ishapore Enfield that had been chopped up. The barrel was shortened and the wood poorly modified. I couldn't hit squat with it due to the shortened sight radius and old eyes. I had a gunsmith make a scout scope mount, and attached a Nikon long eye relief scope. The best I could get was 1-1/4" group at 100 yards with handloads or factory ammunition.

Not satisfied I recently took it to a different gunsmith to have the barrel threaded for a muzzle device. The idea is to choose the best grouping ammunition, and tune the barrel harmonics, by the position of the device to improve consistency. So far I've not been able to test this out.

The rifle was disassembled to thread the barrel, as was the scope base. As it turns out, the base was not well made. It uses the pin in the original rear sight and can move horizontally at least 0.015 side to side. It can move far enough to be beyond scope zero adjustment. A redesign is in order. 

I probably could buy a scout rifle for less money than this will eventually cost. But I'm enjoying the project.

Fire & Hearing

 For most of my life I expected, at some time, California would drop into the ocean. 

Never thought that it would burn to the ground.

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I knew for a time that I've lost some high frequency hearing. The Boss has wanted me to get my hearing checked for a year or two. I sometimes have trouble understanding what she says, especially when she's not looking at me. This week I went for a hearing test and learned a couple things. My high frequency hearing is absolutely terrible. That means that some words or parts of words I can't hear, so at times comprehension is a problem. 

I'm now wearing hearing aids programmed to amplify high frequency sounds. The amplification will be increased over time, maybe for a year or two, to give my brain time to adjust to the new stimulus. I'm now hearing some minor sounds that I don't remember hearing before.