Assistance From The State, New Scope Set Up

 I have always used the Ohio State Forrester in my region to advise and assist me.

In the past, I have worked with Lee and Brad on invasive species control and timber stand improvement (TSI). I also took Lee's advice and installed a warm season grass prairie plot. Lee has retired and Brad has apparently also moved on, so I made contact with Gavin who is a new addition to the department.

We had a quick tour and then went to work marking up trees for removal on 3 acres of an oak stand.

Now I've got my work cut out for me. I really appreciate the expertise from these guys.

We also looked at a few special areas where I had questions.  One was this stand of young white oaks.  I wondered whether I should be picking the winners in this competition.

Gavin said yes so I later picked three to save and also girdled some adjacent poplars that were competing.

Ever since my last New Mexico hunt where I shot an elk at over 600 yards using the guide's gun, I have been considering switching to a dial scope on my gun.  My South African PH, Arnold, has been telling me about these Swarovski Z5 scopes with a ballistic turret (BT).  I sprung for one to replace my existing Vortex on my 30-06.

It's a pretty neat turret system where you can zero your scope, set the zero stop, and then assemble some external rings with color markers that you set for whatever distance you choose.

Some scope manufacturer's achieve this same result by selling custom cut turret caps.  But every time you change bullets, ammo brands, or location, your custom turret may be off. The Swaro system lets you adjust for these things yourself.

I zeroed my scope at 100 yards and then set a green dot for 300, a yellow for 400, and a red for 500.

This is my sight in at 100 yards - my eyeball bore sighting had me on paper at 100 yards.

After I got that set, I shot this 5 shot group.  Not sure why it was off to the right - don't think that there was much wind.

I got the 2.4x -12x version that has a 50mm objective.  I picked medium height integrated base/rings.  They were supposed to be good up to 50mm objective.  It was pretty tight and I would have liked the scope back just a little more but I didn't have clearance for that.

Anyway, I set the rings up based on the GeoBallistics app for my Barnes 168 grain load.  I moved back to 220 yards and dialed per the app.

Elevation was perfect - little bit of horizontal stringing (me I'm sure). I've still got to verify the longer shots.

Then I got Eric and my rifles cleaned.  Downward tilt to avoid junk in the action.

Last week I found a dead deer in the pond - this week it was a bass.  Related?

I did some more of my invasives control this week.  Multiflora rose and autumn olive were the main targets.  It never ends.

The dogwoods are in their glory right now.

I had the bush-hog out cleaning up a few areas and I was chased in by the rain.

Some shots from last week.

It's a climb up to this camera.

This was an interesting shot.  It appears to be a coyote slipping under the electric fence into the orchard. No evidence that he got zapped.

Most of the photos of the coyotes are a blur - they are always on the move.

Nice fox shot.

And a bobcat.

The bucks are starting on this year's antlers.

The does are starting to show a little bit.

Having some minerals.

It's prime time for turkeys and they are active.

Did you notice the foreground in this one?

They do come in to clean up at the birdfeeders.