Annual Caribou hunt

[mdeland]

Gary, The barrel is an xx Douglas cut and crowned at 23 inches. The metal finish is a draw filed, sanded , sand blasted with 70 grit garnet sand and then gone over with glass beads to smooth it up. I then use the Neidner cold rust blue for the satin finish. Lots of work but very durable and non reflective. The stock is Clifton Kevelar classic and instead of checkering I use rocker panel paint which goes on in small clumps to make a durable rough texture finish. The 1x4 Leopold has been a little gem for me . I also like the smallish 2x7 Leopolds which I have on other rifles.
The load with the 210 Nosler is 64 grains of H-414 and with 225 Hornady 65 grains of IMR 4350 if memory serves correctly.

[mdeland]

I found the flip up leaf of a peep sight in my spare parts drawer, machined a ledge in the rear S&K scope mount, drilled and tapped two seating screws and loc-tited them in place. The front sight is a banded ramp with removable blades up front. If the scope gets bonked there is a small Allen wrench electrical taped to the sling for scope removal . The rear peep is flipped up and your in business for dead on at 50 yards.
The folded down aperture does not interfere with loading or unloading in the least.

[Glen Ring]

Really, really cool!! Thank you for posting all that info. NO high fences..NO food plots, just pure hunting and fishing .

[Michael Johnson]

Mike, we flew Alaska Air from Seattle to Fairbanks. From there we rented a pick-up truck and drove to Tok,AK. We stayed at the motel by Fast Eddies the night before and the night after the trip.Good times!

[mdeland]

Yeah Glen and this year" NO" Caribou

[Glen Ring]

No caribou....NO problem. I guess the adventure is all encompassing..the kill is only a small part of it. I think relaying a good time in a hunt or at A Rifle match , we need to show prospective shooters and hunters that it's not about the kill or the possibility of some kind of award..it's the TOTAL experience.

We have more women hunting and shooting now than ever and it's because ethical teachers have shown them it's all about the EXPERIENCE!!

My wife Jeanne doesn't hunt..but she has seen me harvest deer and helps me process them. She had never shot a rifle until about 10 years ago...and because of good , far sighted shooting folks that showed her it's not about the winning it's about the experience, last year she was the National Silhouette match director.

We all need to keep promoting our passion as a total experience and just ignore those few that think blowing out someone's candle will make theirs brighter.

Keep on Rockin, hunting and writing here about it.

[Kurt]

Mike I like your country up your way. I been there several times and never get enough of it. I always take the Alkan Highway through British Columbia and the Yukon and take side trips through the Klondike. Going with a cruise ship you never see the country. Alaska is not for everyone.
I been through your hunting grounds through Chicken and the 40 mile area took the right fork and headed to Dawson and the left fork toward Circle several times. Once to Kayak the Yukon back in 2001 and a few times later on with Carolyn to show her the country.
Where it really gets interesting is when you get away from the hard roads that are gravel mostly but get on the tractor tails and get into what I call the bush. A 4x4 ATV is the best or you better have a very good hydraulic winch with a very long cable on your truck LOL those little pines will pull right out of the ground LOL.
I been to the end of most highways but there are a couple more I want to take.

I guess they like stop signs instead of putting up paper targets

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but the country side is awesome

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The last trip up we were 145 miles NE of Fairbanks past Circle in the bush when we woke up smelling smoke.

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it was time to get out with only one way out.
I saw the largest Caribou heard north of Chicken one year at the Glacier areaI ended up in the middle of them before they passed by.
Carol has been bugging me to head back up. There is more to see.

Kurt

[mdeland]

We about burned up this year Kurt. Something like 150 fires going in the state at the same time. There were several mornings that I could not see the mountains East of town from my house which takes a whale of a lot of smoke to hide. The Swan lake fire across the inlet has been burning all summer long and the prevailing wind drives it into the Anchorage bowl. Very little rain this year and they say the Swan lake fire won't be completely out till snow fall this winter. Be great moose range in the next few years as the browse comes back and will wipe out the Spruce beetle in the area for a decade or so which is part of the never ending cycle up here.
The Matanuska valley was full of smoke clear up to Sheep Mountain about 100 miles north. Tok and Chicken were clear this year though.
I had to rent a Skid-steer with a grapple bucket and knock down all the beetle kill spruce for a 100 foot circle fire break around our cabin up in Willow this June. Bald as my head now and looks rather strange. We are going to reforest the property with Siberian Larch next spring.
Was talking to my pastor last night at Friday night meeting and he said they found caribou every where at the end of Chicken ridge not 30 miles away from where we hunt them. All they had was moose tags! He said they took 4 wheelers back on the ridge about 35 miles and the goofy caribou were walking right up to them.
The word is the 40 mile heard is doing really good this year and is probably why the wolves are so plentiful. Pastor Pat said he saw lots of them on Chicken ridge even hearing them howl during the day which I've never heard before.
Time to do some wolf shooting this winter me thinks! My new 6mm/284 would be perfect medicine for them as would be the .270 Win or 257 Weatherby.

[mdeland]

Yup, that is absolutely true Glen! AK isn't for everyone. My dad visited once before he passed and told me he couldn't see why I was so intrigued by it. I just smiled and said that was fine with me as it will stay less crowded that way. I think there is still less than 1 million folks in a state 2.5 times larger than Texas ! I'm told Anchorage area lost something like 100,000 residents over the last few years in the post oil boom economy which is good news to my ears.
Yeah, we have A hole sign shooters here as well. Usually new imports that bring their bad habits with them. When I first got up here in 1971 ( pre pipe line years) you could leave your stalled vehicle along the road and no one would bother it. Don't do it now or it will likely be trashed when you return.
Tree hungers show up and want to bring in there liberal ideas and change AK into the same crap place they ran away from. About poop there pants when they see a brown bear chasing a moose through their yard or down the street! They tend to soften their view when the reports of another bear killed human makes the news though.

[Lumpy Grits]

Gary, The barrel is an xx Douglas cut and crowned at 23 inches. The metal finish is a draw filed, sanded , sand blasted with 70 grit garnet sand and then gone over with glass beads to smooth it up. I then use the Neidner cold rust blue for the satin finish. Lots of work but very durable and non reflective. The stock is Clifton Kevelar classic and instead of checkering I use rocker panel paint which goes on in small clumps to make a durable rough texture finish. The 1x4 Leopold has been a little gem for me . I also like the smallish 2x7 Leopolds which I have on other rifles.
The load with the 210 Nosler is 64 grains of H-414 and with 225 Hornady 65 grains of IMR 4350 if memory serves correctly.

Thank You for the details
Does sound like many hours went into it.
Do you have much of an issue with rust on that metal finish?
Gary

[Kurt]

Taking the left fork toward Circle should be Eagle heading cross country towards Circle but the 70 mile river got in the way.

[mdeland]

Niedner rust bluing is the most durable and attractive blue job ever devised in my opinion. Thomas Shelhammer used it exclusively at Neidner guns in Dowach Michigan in the 1940-50 period, this outfit was in business. They made some of the finest classic sporter's out their at one time.
I caustic hot salt blued guns for probably 25 years before finding the formula and method for doing this rust blue process but after trying it out on my guns I stopped using the commercial method completely. I rust blue and brown everything now because the quality and durability is so much superior to hot salt bluing.
It is very time consuming and technically hard to produce repeatedly but when accomplished correctly yields the finest of rust bluing in both appearance and durability .
I got the bluing fluid formula and protocol from Roy Dunlop's book which I consider to be one of the best I have ever used.
The fluid is comprised of both Nitric and Hydrochloric acid which really bites into steel and probably is the main reason for the durability.
It is just as attractive on double guns and pistols as bolt guns.
Last few years I've been rust browning barrels and Niedner bluing actions and receivers which makes a subtle contrast that looks just about right to me. I iike the Laurel Mountain Forge formula for browning barrels.

[mdeland]

Gary, that rifle doesn't have a lick of rust on it and it is 15-20 years old. The sand and bead blast finish makes small dents in the surface the retain both blue and oil to prevent corrosion. I use the same finish when I case color actions as it retains the case color better for the same reason. It also knocks down some of the Gawdy color one gets from charcoal case coloring. I much prefer the subtle coloring of blues, reds and creams from the bead blast finish.
You will need to enlarge these to see the colors better. Click on picture then click on the spy glass icon.

[Yellowhouse]

I'd sure like to see a pic of your fold down peep setup!

[mdeland]

Blade has brass face and is removable with the press of a detent on the top back side.