Life moves fast!

Man, we’ve been on the road a lot in the last 2 months! Most recently we went to Texas Tech in Lubbock to see my daughter graduate! It was neat to watch the ceremony and look back on the years she’s been in there, but how the heck 4 years has gone by escapes me! I guess that’s what happens when we get older-they say it does anyway. Fact is, the ‘older’ folks warn us about time moving more quickly as you get older, but we don’t listen because usually, well, we’re younger and think we know about all that. Well...they’re right. So four years ago we dropped off our little girl with mixed emotions of hope, anticipation, excitement, and some sadness too. It’s a strange feeling that everybody’s parents could tell you about…sort of. Overall it’s a positive expectation of a bright future ahead!

My daughter’s degree is in Interior Design, with a minor in Architecture. The interior design program at Texas Tech is extremely demanding, and in that field, their program is one of the finest in the country. Now I should mention a word of caution here. You see, while your kids are off learning, you as a parent can’t help but learn things too! Things such as an understanding that Interior Design is not all about picking paint colors and fru-fru decorations! In fact, my daughter was quick to point out (in a most annoyed way) ‘DADDY, WE’RE NOT PILLOW FLUFFERS!’.  There was a very heavy CAD component, understanding of ADA, building codes, fire, electrical and general local codes where applicable, as well as structural information and probably some other things I forgot. The architects may design the overall building structure, but the interior layout including even such things as outlet locations and door locations for internal spaces, and so many other things, right down to the furniture, and yes, color and decoration schemes, all are part of the job of an interior designer. So wow, I sure never knew all that beforehand!

Four years. Man. I remember something getting in my eyes as we left Lubbock that fall-must have been the dust out there. Funny it wasn’t a problem on the way in… So began lots of weekend trips of either us heading out there or her coming home. A surprise birthday trip that first fall, and the subsequent event centered road trips there on out. I even got to fly to Lubbock to do an emergency repair on her car so she could come home at one point! I’ll mention here that I hate car alarms-worthless pieces of crap that annoy everybody and disable your car when they malfunction is what I say. Anyway, a free plane ticket, a view from a few thousand feet in the air, some minor surgery and viola! We were on the road home with time to spare! We got first hand images of crazy flooding one year. The football field, most of campus, water was everywhere and DEEP! Then there was a haboob. Yes, haboob is what I said. Quit snickering, this is a college level event! The word ‘haboob’ has an Arabic origin and simply means dust storm. BIG dust storm! We’re talking, stay inside, don’t open any doors or windows, and hope you can figure out what your car looks like afterwards when everything in the parking lot resembles giant piles of red dust! We went to a corn maze, got apple butter from an orchard, made all our trips through Benjamin,  where slightly west they actually have road signs warning of wild hogs crossing the highway! The roadside views of spectacular country and huge ranches like the 6666 (four sixes) and the Pitchfork, the cattle, the horses, cowboys (real ones) wild pigs, coyotes, deer, Betty Boop painted on the side of an old gas station.. All the things that are really cool but you begin to view as commonplace when you make so many trips back and forth. We’ll be missing all that stuff!

To be technical, we will likely have one or more road trips to Lubbock still in our future. The Interior Design program is actually slightly longer than four years, so my daughter has a few more classes to finish up over the summer, at which point she will get her diploma and officially be transitioning into the job market. We look forward to that next chapter as well as welcoming her back home at least for a while as she searches for that first career step. Congratulations to the class of 2012!

Going to the dark side. Again.

I think I’ve finally hit on the magic combination for actually KEEPING an AR15. I’ve bought, sold, built, borrowed and hunted with AR15’s for over 10 years. During that time I’ve put up with them hanging up on every stinking thing that I wear, walk through or sometimes even just stand near. I’ve cursed the improper fit (for me) of most of them, and general uncomfortable feel compared to my beloved bolt action rifles. However, those reasons were never really the overriding factor for me deciding that I just didn’t want to hunt with an AR. It’s the caliber. Jeff Cooper called the black rifle a ‘mouse gun’. As far as I’m concerned, he was right, and my thought process was ‘why am I putting up with these shortcomings for a rifle that I don’t feel confident shooting anything larger than coyotes with’? The venerable .223/5.56 will certainly kill pigs and deer, but the limitations of the cartridge make me feel that it is inadequate as a hunting round for the animals I pursue in north Texas.

For many years I’ve hunted with bolt action rifles of various calibers. I have a ‘blueprint’, so to speak, that all my bolt action rifles fit: good triggers, stainless/all weather materials, exact scope height and placement on the receiver, as well as accuracy enhancing stock treatments such as free floating or glass bedding. My rifles handle smoothly, are accurate from either offhand or shooting sticks, and I can bring them to bear ‘lightning quick’ even when slung on my shoulder. Take that you clumsy AR’s..

But I still had ‘that itch’

Shooting semi-automatic rifles is fun! Being able to fire another round to almost the same point of aim without having to take the rifle off your target, or your hand off the trigger in order to cycle a bolt, is also very good when you may want to shoot more than one pig. Pigs can go from standing still to Mach 5 at the sound of a gunshot, and if you’re not fast, you’ll never get a second shot, whether needed for follow up or another target. I’m pretty decent with my bolt actions but I can’t hold a candle to the speed of an AR15!

So here comes my buddy Glenn with his new AR15, custom built, in 6.8SPC. Now I had read about that cartridge and it sounded like just what the AR15 needed to work well in a field full of variety. I used Glenn’s a few times and even killed a couple pigs with it. I begrudgingly gave it a rating of ‘fun, lethal and fast’-that being the overall package of cartridge and rifle. Still the AR just wasn’t getting me excited as a hunting platform. Of course, Glenn was stacking critters up with his and keeping me abreast of his success as good friends always do. ‘Wow. That thing sure seems to be working for him’ kept rolling around in my head. So I set to the task. I knew it would happen and this time I would be prepared when black rifle fever fully took hold of my OCD induced over analysis and ‘I want-it-itis’!

Going to the dark side

Everybody else saw it coming before I did. Well, I saw it coming but just didn’t want to admit it. I had spent some time badmouthing the AR platform for all it’s damnable traits, and yet here I was waiting my turn to dance with the devil. I felt like a sellout.

So, before I came to my senses,  I ordered an AR15 parts catalog from Brownell’s. Man, those parts sure were sexy sitting there on that page. Just THINK how cool my AR would be if I had THAT flip up sight and this free float hand guard. Oh LOOK, they even have dust covers that can be engraved with logos! You could get match grade widgets and battle worthy gadgets…but WAIT! Stop the OCD. I knew what I needed, the criteria was easy enough! Hunting! Not zombies, not showing off at the range-just hunting. I wanted to carry the rifle in the field without hassle and getting so mad with it that I wanted to throw it in the nearest pond, plus being able to bring the rifle quickly to bear without ripping my shirt off in the process.  Ok, I can focus, really, I can. The solution (configuration) was so easy it almost made me laugh. Instead of a rifle festooned with widgets and flip up devices everywhere, rails on every possible surface to grate against me, and weighing in like the sumo wrestler of hunting rifles, all I needed was a basic service rifle. An Eotech sight with flip away magnifier, a place to mount a light, a decent trigger, 6.8SPC caliber and viola-the little black rifle that could!! No wonder I never saw it coming-it’s too simple!

So now what?

So far I’ve only killed two pigs with my little 6.8. I know the limitations of the cartridge, my limitations, the rifle’s limitations, and I also know that this one rifle will serve me for whatever game I typically pursue. And you know what else? I haven’t wanted to toss this one into a pond! That’s because my rifle was thought out by me from the beginning to be hassle free, match my ergonomic requirements and is topped with a sighting system that has the speed and ease of target acquisition that, as far as I’m concerned, cannot be matched by anything else. If pigs were scared before, they ought to be terrified now!