What is a fella to do when there are dead tree trunks to take down and a cold, dark, steady rain falling? It’s not like a guy can just stand around all day with an ax or even take the time to drag out the chain saw. My answer to the need for quick, efficient “tree girdling” in advance of stumping out a dead trunk is to load up the trusty 12GA shotgun and head out into the woods.
Well, that was the plan today anyway … even with extra processing on these photos, it’s obvious that the scene was almost dark as night.
I was home before 5:30, but the cloud cover was so thick and so dark, and the rain had been going on for so long that everything was dark and gloomy and chilling. It wasn’t a good time to set up an extended precision targeting session (as if I could claim any real “precision” at this point), and the dead trees I didn’t get chopped down on Saturday have been creaking and cracking in the back of my mind, so I decided to take a special tool out of the gun closet and venture out– bundled up in rain gear and mud boots– into the cold, drippy, gray-light evening to get some wood cutting done.
On the day I heard, late in 2009?, that Charles Daly was closing up shop (we miss you guys!), I jumped onto gunbroker.com and looked for the best deal I could find on the Field model with stand-off muzzle brake and full pistol grip. And, oy, did I find such a deal!
This was a major add to my collection, especially for home defense purposes. Even with a Taurus Judge and a Kimber .45 and a Bond Arms Ranger II in the house, the addition of a pump shotgun and its classic klink-clatch loading sound was welcome and, as far as these things can be, practical.
I’ve used it very little since the purchase and transfer were completed– just enough to know that it worked, and I bought only a box each of some basic buckshot, some Hornady heavy buck, and one box of Winchester PDX12. Oh my, what a punch that packs.
More than the slugging weight, though, I was really impressed all over again today at what seemed to me to be a very tight pattern made by the Hornady shell on my first shot from about 15 feet. Very tightly packed with no fliers that I could find. This cheap plastic serving tray is about two feet across, and the load went dead center en masse.
That’s a shot o’the day to remember.
I expected a lot more spray, but maybe that’s just because most of my experience is with dual-use firearms which have rifling for .45LC shooting … whatever the case may be, I feel very confident with this weapon after “slugging it out” with that tree.
Anyway, I needed a fast shooting session, and I want to push this tree trunk over by hand or with just a bit of chopping in a few days, so this stripping and center-punching will have it ready for felling just fine.
Here are the shells I emptied. When I take the tree down, I’m going to try to find the 12GA PDX slugs and dig ’em out. I thought there might be a through and through effect, but there is enough life left in the ground level trunk that all of the shot was swallowed up in the tree.
One note about bad timing: I happened to notice– while I was firing into the tree trunk– that ducks/geese were honking overhead. For all I know, the neighbors figure I was poaching, but– I promise, Officer!– I was shooting withered pines not winged poultry. What a worry-wart I can be …
The front sight fiber optic line matched with the rear sight circle was the perfect combination for this low-light situation (and, so, also for home defense), and the shots went exactly where they were aimed. I worked around the tree, and the bark stripped away nicely.
This might have been a day to give up on the idea of target practice, but I got some good experience with my heaviest hitter and was back inside before either of us was soaked through. A warm leather couch for me and a silicon-infused cloth for the shotgun, and we were both doing fine after our workout.
Gun-a-Day 