I vote for Tenn!  

MM,  would we blow you cover staying at your place?   Somehow I think our normal shenanigans wouldn't play too good in some of the theaters you live in and just think of what our tall tales would do, even the true ones ....

WD has no history to be worried about, he's never ridden on the wild ride.

Example:  Speeding -- you never break the speed limit, right?    

And if we ever told what you really were doing when you shredded the primary crank splines on your sportster, would it jive with your home story very much at all?

Planning is easy,

WD, here is your seasonal weather pattern tool all adjusted to your zip code.

http://www.usa.com/38011-tn-weather.htm

All you have to do is tell us when you want us there, then the boys can ring in on if they are gonna go or not.



Me, I need to hitch a truck ride with somebody headed from this way thereabouts so I will chime in when my ride shows up.

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Example:  August has the least rain with average temps for the area code being a mathematical 80 with highest readings averaging 90^o and a low of 70^o -- however, the average humidity in this period is 85%.

September is more moderate all the way around, take 10 away from all of the above numbers.  Still plenty warm enough at night 60^o for a light sleeping bag.  Humidity is 10 points less as well.

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WD, you don't happen to have a little shooting range set up on your place, do you?   I know Lancer likes to shoot, and that would be late enough in the year for him to mebbe be able to come.

I like those wings on the smilley face !    I'll say ,  I doin't lie near as much as my Speedometer does ....

Being WD is in west TN mabe some of the folks from the middle states might make the ride.

The sooner I can get a date on the planner the more permant it is .

We get a couple of warm dry weeks about the last of March---first of April  every year  ....  but I'm OK with later in the year too.   The last of May I'm usually gettting Hay up and there are some HOT Dry weeks about then also.

The cold is here now... ice/sleet last night, woke up to snow this morning. Less than an inch but it will have the county shut down. The "bubba mobiles" (street spec monster trucks) are absolutely useless if the pavement isn't clean and dry, and they are very common around here. I have only rear wheel drive pickups, they handle it just fine. So do the bikes.

Drifter Doug (coworker from out west, lives on our place now as gamekeeper/farmhand) and I are going to try and get the BIG trailer moved to the pond. But it has been parked since early 1942 (1930s single axle semi trailer), so no promises. Needs a couple floor boards replaced and some windows.  Plan is to add a small woodstove, composting toilet, chest of drawers, table and some bunks. Also have a 1920s built outbuilding we'd like to move down there and add bunks to. More amenities will be going in as time/budget allow, Lisa wants a beach volleyball court put in. Pond banks are going to be squared off and reinforced, pond will be deepened, boat launch will be deepened and formalized...

You guys set a date. Doesn't matter to me.

September time frame has me hopeful.
ironbutting it out there would leave my butt in a sling for the time I was there, so trailerin' it there would be a must.  And if I could pick someone on the way would make it a hole lot easier.

 
To celebrate our coming together on a site and getting a sorta date selected, I have begun to put me together some WD rounds -- yeah, I'm off for two whole days so I had to go find me something to do.

My caliber of choice in my approaching old age is a light 7mm-08 rifle.  Today I am putting up light 120 grain Sierra Pro-Hunters over IMR 4895 powder to give me about 3,000 fps out of my 22" tube.

Odd bullet, the 120 grain Pro-Hunter.  It has some history behind it.

It was originally intended for the 7x57 Mauser as a light coyote type "varmint bullet" but in the '60s-'70s folks began to put them into the new 7mm Remington Magnums and at 3,300+ fps the cup and core construction began blowing up like a hand grenade on impact.  

Tore some yotes flat in two it did.

Numerous complaints (actual letters back then no less) prompted Sierra to start using the cut down jackets from a heavier 7mm Rem Mag hunting bullet so the bullet would expand more normally at high speeds for the 7mm Rem Mag folks too (folks shot coyote for the hides back then, remember).

But, by cutting the longer bullet's core jacket short to make the little bullet (it was thicker at the tip accordingly) they made a bullet that held together too well to be called "varmint bullet" any more, even at 3,300 fps it expanded and mushroomed in a controlled fashion.

What they stumbled upon was the precursor to the bonded controlled expansion bullets of the 90's.   Push it faster, the mushroom gets bigger.  Expansion starts at 1,900 fps and total blow up fragmentation begins at 3,500 fps.

And in a 7mm-08 it is a wimpy shouldered old man's dream bullet.   It is light and fits the throat real good while sitting pretty on the powder charges with no compaction.  

I can load it to 2,600 fps and it is a lovely little plinker round that can kill a deer if one happens by.   The expansion isn't extreme, but that means the little bullet still makes it all the way through the deer at the lower launch speed (can you say balanced expansion?)

And at 3,000 fps MV it can fly 250 yards and be cooking at over 2,100 fps when it hits a deer.   If one comes close in real close, I go for the behind the shoulder lung shot, at 100+ yard distances a shoulder breaking shot is good to keep them where you shot them.

Being old school cup and core, the bullets are always reasonably priced.  And, since it isn't modern or popular with the prairie dog varmint shooters (because it ISN'T a blow up bullet) it goes on blem sale about every other year when the stock on hand gets all ugly & tarnished.

Last set of 3 boxes came from a store inventory liquidation, I paid like $8 for a box of 100.

Tarnished shoots fine fer me .....