17cal Fan
Silver $$ Contributor
Trip number 12 (in a row) annual excursion to MT. I always take too many pictures so this year I cut back. None of the scenery pictures ever do Montana justice. You can't get your brain around it or describe it to anyone. I love it up there, don't think I could live there but believe it is some of God's finest work. We got rained out one day but that's how it works some times.
The next day we went in on the Side by side and used the tripods. Interestingly at some point that day I decided I would rip the scope off my 17 Fireball and smash it with a hammer when I returned home. It's a Bushnell Elite 4500 6-24x40 with side parallax. That day, it was clear as a bell out to 150 with the power cranked up. Clear as a bell to infinity on low power. But see a dog at 250 and it looked the scope was missing the front lens. Fought it all day long but have never had a problem with this scope. That evening, sitting around the BBQ grill swapping lies, we all had the same scope issues that day. 3 completely different scopes. Decided it had to be moisture related. The next day I texted a friend of mine about it and he confirmed our suspicions. Then when I got home my wife asked if we saw the smoke from Canada. We had not noticed but on the last day late in the afternoon I could see a haze and assumed it was dust. So now I'm not sure exactly what the problem was but I decided not to smash the scope.
Wind was another enemy we fought and lost but I didn't carry all that ammo just to bring it back home. So bad hit ratios prevailed. Burned up just under 1000 rounds in 5 days. Didn't have dense towns to work on but we found plenty of dogs to shoot at. But moving around burns up time, also how it works sometimes.
The rig all assembled in the field.
My brother on his bench at the back of the ladder rack.
Some long shots here but fun for sure.
A scenery shot I couldn't pass up.
My bench top (front bench on the rack) detail. This is a cannibalized desk chair apparatus that allows infinite adjustment in the angle of the chair (bench top in this case) and it works very well.
The next day we went in on the Side by side and used the tripods. Interestingly at some point that day I decided I would rip the scope off my 17 Fireball and smash it with a hammer when I returned home. It's a Bushnell Elite 4500 6-24x40 with side parallax. That day, it was clear as a bell out to 150 with the power cranked up. Clear as a bell to infinity on low power. But see a dog at 250 and it looked the scope was missing the front lens. Fought it all day long but have never had a problem with this scope. That evening, sitting around the BBQ grill swapping lies, we all had the same scope issues that day. 3 completely different scopes. Decided it had to be moisture related. The next day I texted a friend of mine about it and he confirmed our suspicions. Then when I got home my wife asked if we saw the smoke from Canada. We had not noticed but on the last day late in the afternoon I could see a haze and assumed it was dust. So now I'm not sure exactly what the problem was but I decided not to smash the scope.
Wind was another enemy we fought and lost but I didn't carry all that ammo just to bring it back home. So bad hit ratios prevailed. Burned up just under 1000 rounds in 5 days. Didn't have dense towns to work on but we found plenty of dogs to shoot at. But moving around burns up time, also how it works sometimes.
The rig all assembled in the field.
My brother on his bench at the back of the ladder rack.
Some long shots here but fun for sure.
A scenery shot I couldn't pass up.
My bench top (front bench on the rack) detail. This is a cannibalized desk chair apparatus that allows infinite adjustment in the angle of the chair (bench top in this case) and it works very well.
