Sunday, September 07, 2014

Long Bike Sunday...

...then shopping at a garden store in Ft. Collins...barely thought about guns at all, not even the LC9 I was carrying. Came back to the Bunker and sorted through music for the podcast this week. Now I'm sitting at home watching "Outlander" and having a Leupold's Navy Strength Gin with a Fever Tree Tonic and a little lime, bemoaning the fact that this time last year I was headed to Africa. I'd so hoped to go for buffalo this year, or that damn gemsbok I walked away from on the long shot. I'm a much better rifleman now than I was last year at this time. Poorer, too. Hence, no Africa trip this year.

Strangely enough, I dream about Africa, something my friend Dwight Van Brunt, who used to run Kimber, warned me would happen. At least in November I'm going to Texas to work with my Ruger Guide Gun .300 Win Mag at longer ranges.This week I need to mount a scope on the Ruger American .22, stick a suppressor on it and thin the rabbits a bit. Only fair, since I removed the big snakes. Plus, we're having a really bad tularemia year here in the High Country, and I can do without all these bunnies.


7 comments:

RParker said...

Down here in the Republic of Texas we're finally getting some rain. Of course that means that the ranges are mudpits and not particularly suitable for shooting. Had to cancel on going to a High Power match today for lack of wanting to deal with 95 degrees and 95% humidity.

Texas is the opposite of the high country in terms of when the shooting seasons come into full swing. From June through September nothing much happens because summer has teeth and shooting is abysmal and unpleasant. Slow and languid, we seek the shade and the cool. Summer is the time of doom and gloom here. Fall is a time of rebirth, of temperatures suitable for human and animal activity. Especially shooting and hunting. That slight nip in the morning air is the promise of life down here.

Thanks for the vicarious experience of Africa, Michael. I've been reading Hemingway, Patterson, Ruark and Capstick for a good while now and I hope to infect myself with the Dark Continent before I shuffle off this mortal coil myself. Someday.

_DonWorsham_ said...

Which scope for the Ruger American .22?

Anonymous said...

According to people who should know, Fredrick Selous, Samuel Baker White, Robert Rourke, etc, once you've been to Africa, you HAVE to go back.
I think it has to do with the dormant fever virus's in your blood stream. LOL.
Tom Bogan
Laconia NH

Jerry from pcola said...

MB
You let the secret out-- fever tree IS the best
Tonic!

Anonymous said...

I've been dreaming about Africa since I began reading Capstick's books. You're fortunate to have had one safari in Africa. Africa has a hold on so many peoples imagination.
Gerard

Anonymous said...

After self-medicating on British Malaria medicine, you can settle back and watch a little Trader Horn. That should help with your African dreaming...

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/496390/Trader-Horn-Movie-Clip-Baboons-Lad.html

David said...

Still saving for an Africa plains game hunt, maybe in a couple or three more years...and already thinking about the buffalo hunt I'm going to do after that!