TigerOnThe Hill

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My tax burden just took another hit

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Actually your tax burden just took a DOUBLE hit. Going forward, you and many other taxpayers will be paying taxes to support BOTH the victim and the accused shooter (since she'll most likely end up in prison).

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The women offered families a $300 to $1,500 monthly kickback to get their kids enrolled in the fraud scheme.

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I didn't read the entire article, but I hope those accepting the kickback/bribe are expelled from the US.

Which means Beto lost by over 6% and according to the Main Street media, TX would turn blue w/ his election. After all, he was supposed to be a formidable candidate who had raised a lot of money and Cruz was said to be unpopular. Despite all this, it wasn't really a contest. The media likes to play up the Democratic candidates in TX races and push the narrative that TX is turning blue so they to have a story to tell and to help w/ Democratic fund raising. Talarico is not as strong a candidate as Beto was. In addition, this is not Paxton's first rodeo. He's won a state-wide election before, more than has Talarico. Talarico has had some very extreme views that'll end up damaging him. Despite the narrative we'll constantly see about how Talarico is going to win, I agree w/ others that the race will be called 5 minutes after the polls are closed. I don't think it'll be close.

That's actually not a bad idea. I'm half joking when I ask whether their power grid could handle the extra demand for electricity if they had widespread implementation of AC units?? :confused:

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Hiring a lawyer is not always an expense. It's an investment.

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Yeah, but when you hire a lawyer to bring a suit and lose, it becomes an expense. :lol:

I like to go on 2-3 prairie dog hunts annually in the OK panhandle. A few weeks ago I went on the first hunt of the year. A group of young men in their late 20’s have gone with me on a number of hunts. I affectionately refer to them as the “Young Guns.” On this hunt. This year a fourth “Young Gun” came on the hunt, his first.

Travel to OK went well. I left in the afternoon after having a tooth pulled that morning. Once the sedation wore off, I loaded the truck, hit the road and drove to OK where I stayed the night. I went a day ahead of the "Young Guns" and scouted the dog towns. The “Young Guns” like to stop at gun stores and pawn shops as they drive through OK so they arrived to late to shoot. I took my usual prairie dog handguns and suppressors: 17 Remington Fireball Mini-Howa, 20 VarTarg Mini-Howa, 223 Rem Ackley Improved Rem XP-100 and Nosler Custom Handgun in 22 Nosler. The guys brought a wide selection of rifles in 204 Ruger, 222 Remington, 223 Remington, 22-250, 220 Swift, 22 Creedmore and 243 Winchester.

The scouting day well although I did’t really set up for an actual shoot at any of the towns. Winds were pretty calm and ranges fairly close so I was able to kill about 34 pd’s. The other guys arrived after dark.

We all hunted all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Thursday: The wind was very strong, gusting >40 mph. Winds like that not only blow the bullets around, but also makes your gun bounce around. In addition, dogs don’t seem to move as much in strong winds. I was disappointed one of my newer towns didn’t seem to have many dogs so we moved to some of the older towns. The day was sunny and hot at 100 degrees. I shot a little over 100 rounds and made a fair number of shots. The 223 AI accounted for nearly half the shots.

Friday: A beautiful, but hot (104 deg) day, with winds gusting infrequently to only 20 mph. Before hunting, I stopped by the feed store to visit and buy some snacks. The feed store has been the source of most of the pastures I hunt. I had one of my busiest days ever, shooting over 200 rounds. The The 17 RFB and 223 AI took nearly 2/3 the shots. A thunderstorm came in late so we left the pasture a little early. We saw smoke from a number of range fires near the end of the hunt. On the way home we drove by a grass fire. Once we got to town, I saw more traffic on Main Street than I’d ever seen as everyone was driving to put out the fires. The next morning we saw a Deputy Sheriff at breakfast at the convenience store and he said there had been 30 range fires that day..

Saturday: The last day of the hunt is always bittersweet. The winds picked back up, gusting to 30 mph. I again shot a little over 100 rounds. Our usual towns had been shot kinda hard by then so dogs were hard to find. That afternoon I got permission to hunt for the first time a pasture I’d been watching for a few years. We capped off the end of the day with a really good hunt at the new town. The prairie dogs are a nuisance to the landowners so they are usually happy to grant permission. The problem is being able to talk to them. No one has a land line phone anymore. The cell phone numbers listed on the ‘net are never correct. If you happen to find a good number, they don’t answer the unknown caller. Voice mail is usually full or not set up, and if you can leave a message, they rarely respond. Texting is usually fruitless.

The trip home went well. I left for home after the hunt with plans to get a hotel room around Oklahoma City. Before finding a room, I stopped at a number of hotels, only to discover all were sold out. At the last stop I discovered it was the weekend for graduation at the University of Oklahoma.

I was generally pleased with my equipment. In 3.5 days I took about #405 shots. The 17 RFB was confined to calm weather since it’s light bullets don’t do well in the wind. The 20 VarTarg was the only one to disappoint me. After removing a stuck case, I couldn’t make a shot, even what should been easy ones. I hope to figure out this weekend what happened. I shot the 223 AI (50 gr bullets) and 22 Nosler (55 gr bullets ) when the wind kicked up. On Friday, the wind was calm enough for the 15X binoculars. At one point, I found when the scope was set at 15X and held into the wind, bracketing the pd with the horizontal ballistic hashes, I was able to make a number of hits. I planned on modifications on my Bog Deathgrip tripod, but the parts didn’t arrive in time.

I'm hoping to make pd hunts in June and September.

They “Young Guns” shooting


Rangefire


223 Rem AI

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Really wishing Serna was a fan of sliding mitts right now.

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Or slide feet first.

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Have you considered a 12v fridge? I’ll never do the ice chest dance again. Something like this 21qt fridge from Iceco might be exactly what you need. I swapped my ice chests for a 48qt single zone and will never go back.

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I've not considered that. How long does it stay cold after being unplugged? :confused:

I returned yesterday from a prairie dog hunt. I'm reviewing some of the new pieces of equipment used on this hunt.

Engel 13 quart cooler. I bought this last year to sit on the passenger seat, keeping drinks and snacks handy on hunting trips when I’m traveling alone. I’ve also taken it on shorter road trips w/ my wife. It’s been on 4 prairie dog hunting trips (10 hour drive one way and 12 hours/day of sitting in the cab while I’m hunting.) Sadly to say, I’m disappointed in it. Even after pre-c00ling overnight before the trip, everything was starting to melt bad after about 4 hours. I’ll admit it has some desirable traits (nice size, strong suitcase type handle, very sturdy metal latches and a nice shoulder strap), but it doesn’t keep things cold. I’ve done more research on small coolers since and it looks like none consistently get good reviews for keeping things cold.

Vortex 15X56 binoculars. I bought these last spring on an impulse when I found a refurbished pair at a really good price. The optics are good for a $180 pair of binoculars. They function well. The biggest drawback is trying to stabilize them in the OK wind that’s frequently strong. When the wind gets above 15-20 mph, I pull out the 12X binoculars.

Igloo Overland 72 cooler. This is my first rotomolded cooler. This hunting trip was my first time to use it. I took one of the landowners ~$100 of boudin and seafood as a “tip” for sharing his prairie dogs w/ us and I didn’t want it to ruin. I precooled it w/ 3 gallons of frozen jugs the night before the trip. I covered the food w/ 42# of ice during the trip. When I delivered the food, I had to use a sledge hammer to break up the ice covering it. The last 2 days of the hunt the thermometer in the truck maxed out at 104 and 106 degrees. I emptied it when I got home, finding it was all water and no ice, but it was still only 46 degrees. It has study handles, rubber latches and a drain plug that’s attached to the drain by a strip of metal. The only drawback, it has no wheels.
Magellan 92L Waterproof Gear Box. I bought this nearly 2 years ago to transport my hunting handguns. Since then it’s been on 6 prairie dog hunts and 2 deer hunting seasons. I made 4 different compartments using 1” thick foam from Amazon. All four of my pd hunting guns fit, w/ the suppressor attached. It has rolling wheels, sturdy handles, latches and a gasket in the lid. I attached old cloth belts to the handles making it easier to pull. Sitting in my truck cargo box, it’s been water tight….well except for the one time it fell onto it’s back and stayed in that position overnight during a heavy rainstorm.

According to AI, the average low IQ of immigrants from Somalia and Haiti puts them in the category of having a mild mild intellectual disability.

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None of her "platform" is remotely possible. State run healthcare? dream on.

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I agree. But political promises don't have to be "possible." They just need to attractive enough to the voter to garner their vote.