day 2

Today we took our lab back up into the forest for a walk and some swimming/retrieving, and on the way we drove the road where I saw the ghost chicken last night. Sure enough, at the same spot in the road there was ghost chicken, but with three of his friends! Another white leghorn (?) and two more exotic roosters. My guess is that somebody had a bunch of roosters he didn't want and dumped them. They should do alright as ferals until it snows in January.

No deer sniping today, but I did manage to get out of the house for some gun shopping. First a little gun shop that recently (February) opened up in the town just north of here. Nice guy, very talkative. He tried to interest me in a used Remington 742 that he had on consignment. I said I'd think about it.

Then off to Bass Pro (or Bastard Pro, as some of the local goose hunters like to put it). Got to talk to a real gun guy for over an hour. He walked me through the entry level bolt action guns. I'd been thinking that a Remington 700 special purpose synthetic would do the trick, but he disabused me of that idea after saying he'd been a factory certified Remington repair smith for over 25 years. Nope, he liked the Weatherby Vanguard in synthetic and also the Beretta Tikka T3 lite. So that's where that decision is likely headed.

My thinking is that it would be nice to have a rifle for some of these potentially longer shots down the vineyard rows, plus enhance the probability of a one shot instant kill at those slightly longer ranges. With my slug gun, instant kills using sabots are generally within 50 yards or so, or at least that's been my experience.

Anyway. That's confessions of a deer sniper.