Before I went over to my co-worker’s place to attempt the failed repair on Saturday, I made a pit stop.
A local small chain sporting goods store had a Labor Day sale that extended to this last Saturday. I had been looking at the add all week trying to talk myself out of purchasing it.
But it was such the deal and I was tired of going “ghetto” to the rifle range.
Those who remember my last AAR from Boomershoot 07 should remember that the wind kicked up as we were packing up and that the wind had finally collapsed the shelter we were using. That poor cover had taken a beating throughout the weekend and finally gave up the ghost as we were transporting the rifles to the truck.
I had left my spotting scope on the tripod, intending it to be the next item stored, but fate was not having any of that. The tent came down and took both the scope and the tripod the remaining six feet to the ground, and not gently. The result was that the base which connected the scope to the tripod was broken off.
The first real problem though, was that that base was part of a ring system that let me rotate the spotting scope 360 degrees so that I could view the angled eyepiece from any direction: Left, right or even upside down.
Gorilla Glue is wonderful stuff, but with barely 1/32 of an inch of contact area, it just couldn’t handle the weight, so there was a ring of black duct tape connecting the parts together. The scope was black, so I’d hoped the tape would “blend in”.
The second real problem was that there was a leak somewhere and any hint of moisture in the air started the fogging process. Just in a pie slice of the objective lens, but it got progressively worse as the moisture increased. It’d probably work fine in AZ, but for a guy who lives in Washington, this meant no use in any season except summer.
So I bought me some new glass
Its a Leupold Sequoia 15-45×60 and its dreamy.
My old rig was a Brunton 20-60×90, and while it makes this scope look teeny, I’d found that I never shot at a long enough distance to need the 60x. Not even at Boomershoot. 60x was just too much to use under 1000 yards. You could get your view all set up, look up and then look back down and had to readjust to find what you were previously looking at. Oh sure, you could count the splinters on the top of the Boomer stakes, but that was not what you were there to do.
I think I’m going to enjoy this.
Btw, even without adding shipping, I saved more than $50 from the price in the above link. That’s why I had to buy it.
Who rates scopes, Phil. I have to buy a spotting scope, and need to develop a short list, but I don’t want to buy by price. I would prefer to buy by experience.
do you know if any of the birding people, who are as heavy a user of spotting scopes as gunnies, have a system to rate them?
No one that I know, RD, but this one got good reviews from folks I’d seen at 07. Look for it on sale round Christmas time.
Ahhh…the need to spend, spend, spend to get ready for Boomershoot…a fine addiction! I spent some bux on the last one, and looking over everyone elses’ goodies convinced me that I really must invest in the “good stuff” to succeed. I unfortunately will be skipping ’08, but hope to be back and fully geared up for the ’09 event, if all goes well, Joe keeps it up, etc.
Good for you, keep accumulating the gear, for as Boston’s Gun Bible points out, “Buy cheap, buy twice, buy quality, buy once (for a lifetime’s use). Only the rich can afford to buy cheap throw-away gear.”
-Drool- I would have little use for such a thing in the dense woods around me but if it goes boom or has anything to do with such things I want one.
D, I have over 5000 pounds of ammonium nitrate in my shed for future Boomershoots. Although I plan to use more explosives in 2008 than 2007 I’ll still have more than enough for 2009 and 2010. So, yes there are definite plans for future events.
But there is a downside to missing out on a year. After I have selected a date and have the website software ready to accept new entries I first tell my volunteers to select the positions they want, then a couple days later I tell previous year’s participants sign up is open. They get a couple days before I tell everyone else. They sign up and tell their buddies who sign up and the “general population” gets notified after most of the positions have already been taken.
The April 2008 event filled up in June of 2007. Plan on being ready to really jump on it in mid May if you want to participate in Boomershoot 2009.
Bleh. I would have loved to come this coming year, but my schedule is not going to allow it. I am not entirely sure I will be able to know my schedule a year in advance for the 2009 one either… Of course, I am not sure if I trust myself or my stubby-barreled rifle when it comes to hitting something 375 yards away, so the point may be moot.
Sign up 11 months in advance then cancel a couple weeks prior to the event if you find out you can’t make it. The refund policy is here.
There are solutions to the problem of inadequate equipment and/or skills too you know. [Joe’s evil plan revealed.]
Wow, I honestly did not realize your cancellation policy was that lenient… Going ahead and reserving a slot and then figuring out my schedule later is stsarting to sound like a good idea to me!
And I cannot say as thought I knew about any solutions for slightly lacking hardware or wetware… Always kind of assumed it was a “BYOG” event.
It is a BYOG event. The solutions are to invest the time and money to improve the wetware and hardware.
My “evil plan” is to encourage people to acquire the skills and equipment…