I'm Touched

 I now have glasses that corrects my seeing 2 instead of 1 red dot, and eliminates the ghosting of cross hairs. The astigmatism in my dominate eye changed dramatically. Unfortunately I've not had the opportunity to hit the range since. I still want to tune the barrel of the cut down Ishapore, recheck the grouping from the K31, and try different loadings through the newly converted 6.5 Grendal.

But that's only part of why this post. 

A former coworker and shooting buddy sent me the following. It touched my heart.

I’ve been meaning to say something to you for a long time, and I’m finally at a place where I can say it straight (read sober)..

When we worked together, you spent a lot of time trying to teach me things I didn’t really understand back then. I was drawing pictures, getting things done, but I didn’t fully grasp what you were showing me. You were patient with me anyway, and you gave me more of your time and trust than I probably deserved at the time.

Somewhere along the way, years later, it finally clicked. I could actually see what you had been trying to teach me. Not just how to draw something, but how it works, how it holds together, how one thing affects another. Once I saw it, it changed the way I think. One day I saw an image in my mind, yep, tolerance stack ups…”well, I’ll be damned, is it really that easy”?

I wrote something a while back, and I realized recently that a lot of it came from what you tried to teach me. I’m including it here. It’s my way of saying—I got it. It just took me a while.

There’s also something else I need to say. I didn’t treat you the way I should have. You stuck your neck out for me, and I showed up in a way that made you look bad. And the last time we spoke, I was out of line. That’s on me.

The truth is, you were a better friend to me than I was to you, and I wanted you to know that.

I don’t expect anything from you. I just needed to say it, and to thank you for what you gave me. It mattered more than I ever let on.

New Glasses

 So I now have new glasses on order. My very dominant eye (right) has a big change and the beginning (very small) cataract. I dismounted and brought one of my red dots with me to the eye doctor. The new prescription will fix the double dot issue, but I'll still see a little tale on the dot. I can live with that.

I think I'll have to migrate away from red dot sights in the future. My vision issues seems to have less of an impact with an optic that has a heavy cross hair. In fact I just purchased an optic for my 6.5 Grendel AR build with a heavy plex reticle.

Old Eyes

 I thought about taking the 454 lever action on the pig hunt but changed to the Enfield at the last minute. That turned out to be a good decision. The Enfield has a heavy plex reticle while the 454 has a red dot on it. When home I looked through the red dot and saw 2 red dots. It turns out all 4 of my red dot optics have 2 dots. I knew my vision was getting worse, but I didn't realize it was getting this bad. Have an eye doc appointment next week.

Wild Pigs

 Late last week I joined my eldest and his son on a wild boar hunt in South Carolina. My son stayed with his son of 15 the whole time. I never got a shot , but the grandson harvested a 160 pound pig. He said the shakes got him after the shot. Very normal for an inexperienced hunter. I'm quite happy the youngster not only got a shot but brought home the bacon as well.

Years ago I got 2 Russian boars, one about 200lbs the other 450lbs. I think they're going to consider going to Tennessee next time, and maybe hunt some Russian boars.

Talking Heads

 I've had my fill of the talking heads claiming truth without giving any proof. For instance, if ICE is operating illegally, explain how and what law is being broken. Also if operating legally, what law allows their actions.  Being humans, it's likely that some individuals have stepped over the line. That's not what I'm talking about. We shouldn't be considering that a few represents the whole.

The same talking heads continually jump to conclusions without having the whole picture concerning the actions of individuals. I don't want to hear your propaganda.

Little Piggy

 Next month I'll be joining my eldest and his son on a wild pig hunt. I'll be deciding between a 7mm Mag, Brit 303, 454 lever action and 454 revolver. I have others, but those are my first choice. Years ago I took a Russian boar at under 50 yards with the 303.

When my schedule and sort of decent weather coincides I'll be hitting the range to evaluate first shot  alignment to the scope. Both bolt guns are MOA or better, but I haven't looked at first shot in years. Both 454 units are 100 yards or closer for me. On a good day, farther. The lever action has a red dot sight, and the revolver wears a 2X scope.

There's a possibility I'll wear the revolver in a chest holster and carry one of the bolt actions.

If the 2 bolt guns above don't satisfy, I have scopes on a 6.5mm mauser, 308 Enfield, and Swiss K31. The 6.5 and K31 shoot nice small groups, but they're not zeroed. The best I have so far is 1-1/4" from the 308., and it's not zeroed.

Drive Time

 Drove the Boss to King George Virginia late last week to spend time with great grand children, and the first birthday of one. Mapquest and Google both show 3 different routes all less than 8.5 hours. I have a GPS that's set up for when I'm pulling our 5th wheel camper, which we didn't take on this trip. It picked one of those 3 routes and estimated 9 hours of drive time. I was driving, without trailer, 5mph to 7mph over the speed limit. It was still about 9.5 hours of drive time. After about 8 hours of driving I found it hard to retain focus. I think I'll be spending the night between here and there in the future. Too many hours behind the wheel for this old man.

When planning a trip pulling the trailer I usually use Mapquest with about 6 hours driving or less between stops. It always takes a little longer but I'm driving the speed limit and don't have an issue with focus.