One of the most important things I learned early and taught my younger son is that tracking starts before the shot is taken.
If you've the time and , 'Mark the Spot of The Shot' in your mind, and follow through with 'The Last Place You Saw That Deer'.
And that toilet paper I insist you carry with ya, well that doesn't just save you a sock and cold toes when Nature's #2 calls, it does double duty for marking blood as you track.
Oh for sure on marking that spot.
I do that but then I get down on the ground and always like "ugh" hahahhaa
The place I used to hunt we had access to those little flags that the city/county uses when they come to mark off underground pipes and wires on your land when you need to do some digging so you don't hit the stuff under ground. About 5 of those and you can mark a line and just keep taking that back 2 flags to become the leading 2 flags and have a path to stare down to see about direction changes or not in addition to what memory was telling you when you watched the animal run off.
I have a solution for nature calling. I don't eat or drink much of anything before the morning hunt and then make sure to have some sort of restroom break before the evening hunt. My brother... he'll drink coffee right before going out and chance suffering hahahaha
Two Savage rifles in my house,
my preferred deer rifle is my 16/FCSS .308 Weather Warrior, which on bags does damned fine as a 1 MOA target rifle.
And a 93 .22mag in a Boyds stock that is an absolute laser beam and was my younger son's favorite rifle for shooting games when he was a kid.
I'm basically switching over to all Savage rifles unless its a specific rifle like my lever action Marlin 30-30, or some kind of WWII rifle.
It's just sooooo easy to work on the Savages and I already have all the tools. Also that thread in head spacing just requires some headspace gauges and applying some best practices and boom, amazing head space accuracy!
I have been tempted a number of times to get a boyds stock but often for all that money I can't get over the fact that they don't offer full pillar bedding (only a rear pillar and not both pillars.. what the hell hahhaa). I have come across other stock options that offer pillar and full block bedding for less money. Hell the Savage Accustocks come that way and the added cost isn't even what the cheapest raw boyd stock costs, but yeah them boyds stocks are so pretty and tempting!
I'm a fan of the Savage Accustocks for everything you get in one but the suckiest thing is that basically all my accustocks look the same and currently happen to be the same color (FDE). There is pretty much just 2 color options so it makes it a pain to just look at my rifles and at a glance know which one is which hahhaha. I like for them to be instantly identifiable.
Last year I did buy all the stuff to paint and then hydrographic film dip the stocks so they look different and badass. I just have never gotten around to playing with that project and I need to wait for summer time for the water temps to hydro dip. This will fix the fact that all my Accustocks look the same.
Another thing is that the Savage Accustocks all come with METAL trigger guards and magwells where other non accustock options (especially less expensive ones rifles) can come with plastic trigger guards and magwells.
The rifle I just bought had a pillar bedded Hogue stock BUT the trigger guard and magwell were plastic. So basically that undoes the whole point of pillar bedding allowing metal-to-metal fastening with the action screws if the trigger guard and magwells are plastic and the head of the action screws tighten down on them hahaha.
Metal trigger guard and magwell are on the way though :D
This little purchasing experience and chasing down the metal trigger and magwell, has now taught me that it costs more money buying a Savage 110 model rifle that seems like it is a great deal (lower cost) and then buying all the other metal parts and other parts and then improving the stock than to just spend another $150-$250 on a Savage 110 model that already has the parts included hahahha.
Now I'm gearing up to do some simple work to stiffen and shore up the Hogue stock as well as action bed the thing so everything fits snug as a glove. The base Hogue stock is not as bad as people on the internet make it out to be and all Hogue sotcks come with pillar bedding at a minimum so that's nice.
Finally, I think I talked myself into doing a barrel swap on it with a Shilen select match barrel because I think I can sell the current barrel (its a medium heavy barrel and is muzzle threaded) for about 60-70% of what the Shilen barrel will cost and I can pick up the Shilen barrel in person to avoid shipping costs! Talk about getting a super low deal on world renown barrel quality :D
I swapped to a Shilen barrel on my Savage 110 in 308 and when I worked up the load the 1st 3 shots were all on top of each other at 100yds making just one ragged hole. The next 2 shots moved to have a total grouping just a hair over 1/2 inch. That was the 3rd load in my ladder and I was done. The other 2 unfired ladders got pulled back apart hahahaha.
I fire from a sight/shooting vise like the following so I know I'm minimizing my impact on the shot and can trust my load groupings.
I'm rambling again but I'm glad to see another Savage owner that gets it :D
Yay! Finally got an invite to a friend's (Dave) pond which had been 'No-Fishing Allowed' while his newly stocked additions settled into their new home.
We get to fish his main 5 acre pond and some smaller ones which already have, Florida Largemouth Bass, Crappie, Bluegill, Blue Tilapia, Grass Carp, Channel and Yellow cats and Spotted Gar stocked.
So a month or so back he had biologists come in and do another assessment of his ponds.
Ponds are in great shape and the fishes health/growth is awesome.
Two weeks ago he added 200 12-16" F1 Largemouths, 2000 .5" Bluegill, 200 3" Red Eared Sunfish, 3000 Golden Shiners and 5000 Mud minnows.
And Dave said he has a guy growing out 500 American bullfrogs for him, still tadpoles right now.
WOW!
Those F1s are aggressive and hit lures like a bug hitting a windshield... BAM!
And they fight too, lot's of fun.
My younger son and I had a blast catching and releasing them today.
And I even found Dave's new rule of, 'Barbless Hooks Only', to make C&R even easier.
But man, you'd better not let even a little slack get in the line.
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Fantastic fishing and story! That is going to be some more fun to come in the future :D
luvcatchingbass
