Hunter's 6th Birthday

Hunter's Birthday at NASCAR Speedway in Vaughn Mills

My son Hunter turned six today and for the last month all we've been listening to is 'is it my birthday tomorrow? Its NEVER going to be my birthday. Two weeks is too far away.' etc. Well, its here and we took him and 3 of his friends to NASCAR Speedway in Vaugh Mills - I highly recommend it if you're even mildly a NASCAR fan. They have 2 indoor tracks, one for kids and two outdoor tracks, one suitable for adults who like to squeel wheels and slip around turns. Its a lot of fun. Best part is from Monday to Thursday during the day, its $15 for the day - and you have the place almost to yourself, no lineups.

Hunter had a fantastic time, and he's hard to impress.

LRRC Urban Counter Sniper Rifle Match

LRRC Urban Counter Sniper Rifle Match

The good folks at Listowel Rifle and Revolver Club hosted their Urban Counter Sniper Rifle Match this weekend. Boy was I humbled. I wasn't able to take too many pictures because I needed to spend time behind the rifle, but the few I took are here. Since meeting Snowdog on Canadian Gun Nutz, I've joined the Alliston club, which gives me access to a restricted pistol range and a 175m non-restricted rifle range. I've been able to learn a huge amount about shooting and reloading from SnowDog and his sidekick PeterPan (nice nickname Peter!). Not only have they been good enough to take me bear hunting with them, but when this match came up, I was going according to both of them. So, I spent the week working on my ammo (new Norma brass, Sierra 155gr, Reloader-15 @ 44.5gr) and put a new scope on the M70 and spent the better part of a week figuring out how to hit a damn target inside a quarter at 100 yards. I am proud to say I did not come in last, but I don't think my application for countersniper with JTF-2 is going to go through anytime soon.

Thanks to FarmBoy, Reaper, RePete, Popurhedoff, and others who's names I do not know who gave a nervous stranger a warm welcome and a fun day. I'll be there for the next one, I had a blast!

Fall Bear Hunt

Hunting the black bear by the Moon River in Ontario is a patient game.

The last five days have been a blur. After taking the 20 hour Hunter Safety course (a Saturday and Sunday), which is required in order to get a hunting license in Ontario, I passed and then went up north to the Moon River, just south of Parry Sound with two friends with more experience hunting than myself. We got skunked - no bears - but had a great time. On the last day I was treated to the spectacle of my bear bait being stolen by a very industrous and completely fearless "fisher" (http://www.borealforest.org/zoo/fisher.htm). Even after cracking a .308 round above his head into the tree trunk, he simply stuck his head up out of the bucket, looked left, looked right, looked at me 80 meters away, and gave what I think was either a fisher shrug (or more likely the finger) and then dipped back down into the bucket to make off with the goods. It was almost loony-tune-esk. After that I could not begrudge him his meal and just sat back and watched him make multiple trips with his mouth full of food each time.

All around it was a good time. I look forward to going back when the nearby road construction is finished and there is no more blasting going on to scare the animals away.