Cal gets his 15 minutes

Here and here.  Shot close to his personal best at Presley's but missed third by a few points, #1 and #2 at indoor nationals were there.

Off to Presley's Midwest Open this weekend

Cal's first major tournament of the year, he's been working hard.  Made this arm guard for him.

Don Branson Memorial Turkey Trot

Cal shot a Joad 600 round last weekend at the Don Branson Memorial Turkey Trot.  Don was the founding coach for Chicagoland Joad.  They asked Cal to shoot the first arrow, a nice honor for Cal and he X'ed it out in front of a crowd.

Shot some trap, the three of us

Sign on way to archery club

Grace & TJ

Aromatherapy

From .223 to .54

My Dad made the .54 caliber Hawken rifle, forgot to add powder third shot out, made for a short day.

First archery tournament of season

He shot good, not all were as good as this, but massive improvement.

Grace onboard her new shareboard, TJ

Horse Bow

Gentleman at Kishwaukee Archery Club let us shoot his Saluki horse bow.  They are built based on a bow that the Mongols used from horseback 800 years ago.

Shooting .22s

Sister's boyfriend fishing in NY this week

Outside Kishwaukee Archery Club last night

60 degrees out...

Tuesday night at gun club

Shot some archery and then a little trap as the sun was going down.  Lucky dad.

Rainy day at Kishwaukee

We shot some trap yesterday and then up to Kishwaukee.  He's shooting his best scores, need to pick up another 10 points or so on the Vegas target in the next few months.

Cal working with some new arrows.

We've upgraded his bow, his release, his sights, the last thing left was his arrows.  Like anything else, you can spend a ton of money on arrows.  The more expensive they are, the more uniform they are to each other +/- grams, the better they will group.  TAZ archery put together these which are a happy medium.  These are indoor shafts, the thickest ones you can shoot under current rules.  In archery, if the arrow touches the higher scoring ring, you get that score.  There is an incentive to shoot the fattest one you can.

You might like this...

website, Garden and Gun.

Nice weekend here

Friday afternoon we headed up to TAZ Archery in Woodstock for Cal's new arrows.  Spent at least an arrow tuning his bow to the arrows and made some changes to his sights.

Saturday was Kishwaukee Archery Club's pig roast.  A member killed the pig Friday, put it in the smoker at 6AM Saturday and it was served in the afternoon.  Great time and Cal sighted in his bow for 20 yards then beat me in a shoot-off.

Sunday was SCSC's Member shoot.  Cal and I shot the pistol and rifle first, fun.  Then we went over and shot the archery, we both shot 25 but his group was a lot tighter than mine.  Plus you shot six arrows and they counted the best five, I had to shoot all six, Cal was done at five arrows.  Fell in with a couple of other father/son pairs and shot sporting clays and skeet.  Cal did great for his first time out.  Trap was last, Cal broke a solid 18 which is an excellent performance for his third round out.

Busy weekend coming

Broke a 19!

His first real round of trap.

Made this to hold fishing pliers

Cal shooting some skeet at SCSC

Ever hear of hobo nickels? Me neither.

The Indian Head or Buffalo nickel was introduced in 1913 and was a popular carving medium during the Depression years among out of work artists, i.e. hobos.  Popular cause the Indian head was large and thick and the coin's relatively low value.  It was also popular cause the head was a male with larger features that could be more easily modified.  Once carved, the nickel could be traded for food or lodging.

Original Buffalo nickel.

Hobo nickel.

Modern interpretation.

What does this have to do with trapshooting?  Nothing.  I just like handmade stuff.

Quote

I read a great quote over on trapshooters.com re: trapshooting that I thought was highly accurate, "... its a test of mental and financial stamina."

Roosevelt's Guns

I just listened to an excellent Dan Carlin podcast that talked a lot about Teddy Roosevelt. Very interesting man, he packed a lot into 60 years. Here are some of the guns he owned in his lifetime.

This pistol was recovered from the USS Maine, sunk in Havana harbor, he carried it up San Juan Hill.

Kept this one on his nightstand at the White House.

Colt M1902 Stocked Semi

An AH Fox bird gun.

Winchester 1894 with suppressor he used to kill varmits. Suppressed so he wouldn't bother the DuPont and Tiffany families that lived nearby.

An 1886 Winchester rifle known as the tennis match gun because he used winnings from a tennis match to purchase the gun.

Archery update

Cal's been taking lesson's from Tim Zimmerman at TAZ Archery up in Woodstock, he's shooting a dedicated target bow now. Its a Hoyt Ultra Elite with limbs cut down for his dimensions and restrung. He didn't shoot much outdoor this summer but he's been practicing for the upcoming indoor season.

Checkering on Kim Rhode's new DT11 (Wenig)

Back

Finally figured out why I could not upload photos to the blog. What good is a blog without photos? So here goes:

Been fishing a lot. I only live a few block from the Fox River and all its small mouth bass.

Been taking yoga class on Sunday, who would have thought. Also been shooting a fair amount. I shot the summer Wobble league and did ok. No ATA targets this year, next year I would like to go to the Grand again.

Haven't post in awhile....

... thanks for checking back in. Been fairly busy. Got out to the club to shoot some trap last weekend. Felt good, it was fun again. Didn't shoot all that well but started smoking some 16 yard targets after a few rounds. It was great to see my shooting friends again. Have been shooting a ton of archery. Cal won his class in the Illinois State Championship and in the Joad State Shoot.

Tried Back Tension Release

I tried to shoot a borrowed back tension archery release last night for the first time. First arrow went straight into the wall above the bale. When I could draw it back correctly, it felt pretty good but its going to take a lot of practice.

Looking for a belt?

I found these guys, very nice quality.

Some Trap

Saturday was nice here, went and shot a little trap for the first time in awhile.  Didn't shoot very well but ended up with 23 at 16 yards.  Pretty rusty.  Nice to see my friends from the gun club.   Sunday, we got up and went to a 3D shoot at Kishwaukee.  Cal had a good time, 30 targets, among them a baboon, frog, alligator, and a mosquito.  Its a whole different game from range estimation to knowing where to shoot the animal.