Shooting House for the Range

I've been meaning to make some improvements to my shooting range ever since I went to the shooting school up in Michigan.  That range was awesome.

The first step was to get some gravel so that Van could build a pad for the shooting house.

The next step was the delivery of the house.

Van still has a little tweaking to do with the location and anchors.

And then some more gravel in the floor.

I'm planning to add a couple of shooting benches, a work bench, rifle rack, sitting bench and possibly a back window for cross drafts.

He's also working on the target area and devising new ways to support the targets and steel plates.

I did some shooting just sitting off sticks.  Trying to decide whether to use my 6.5 CM or my 30-06 for the upcoming mule deer hunt.  I've got the 143 grain ELDX for the 6.5 and 165 grain CX Superformance for the 30-06.  I had decided on the 6.5 and have the suppressor on it,  Then I stumbled on the CX loads in Cabela's.  I really like the penetration of those copper bullets.  I also shot the 375 H&H to get ready for Africa.

The 30-06 was shooting way high so I dialed it down 2 MOA and now it's about right.  The 6.5 is low and I thought I left it 2" high last time I shot it.  And the 375 is 2" high at 100,  All of these groups were off sticks and were nothing special.  It was the hold not the rifle/load.

I also made a last pass thru the pumpkin patch.

And I started to harvest the butternut squash.  There's still more out there.

The pile for distribution in Mason.  Most friends already got some - need to move some more.

Update to this post - there was an eclipse this weekend. Joan caught this photo thru the broken clouds from the farm. 

Eric was in Park City Utah and this is what it looked like from his angle. 

The brassica in the driveway plot is my best food at this point.

They've been hitting the turnips pretty hard.

Joan out for a look at the leaves turning.

The dogs like to come with me on the camera tour.

They love it.

We found this poop of the week.  I'm guessing coyote.  It was a pretty varied diet.

We actually had a little off and on rain this weekend.  View from the main field stand on Saturday night.

I wanted to hunt the driveway but the wind wasn't right for it.

So I spent a couple hours in the main field.

It was a decent evening.

I had several pairs of does out and at last light s couple small bucks.

But thru the binos I could see some bucks in the driveway field.

This is what the camera picked up over there while I was in the other stand.

Sunday morning I tried the pond stand.

It was pretty quiet.

The clover is going a little brown from the lack of rain.

There's a stripe of green down the middle where the pond leaks water.

I did have one little buck come out to visit me. A couple short videos. Little Buck 1  Little Buck 2

On the trailcams, most of the usual suspects.

Turkeys of course.

And the deer were everywhere.

Some buck sparring activity already.

Hence the name - whitetail.

I think we need to take a few more does this year.

And the coyotes.

Sometimes in groups.

I think 4 in this shot. Maybe 5.

The rut is coming.  Things should be hot and heavy in a couple more weeks.