"You gotta eat right if you want to be a shooter!" Many years ago an old timer told me this & I've never forgot it. We were on a late season elk hunt, snow was falling, with several inches already on the ground & the temps were in the 20's. My sleeping bag was calling but I had to stay & listen as the old Scudder detailed his magic for becoming a shooter.
As we sat around a blazing campfire the old boy leaned forward, pulled a handloaded smoke out of his mug, set his tin coffee cup on the ground & with eyes crackling gave me some hard earned advice that is worth passing on.
Several years ago Callshot (Canshoot) wanted to get started into handguns, he had a couple but hadn't shot them much & so the journey began. He bought a Kimber Gold Match 40 caliber, he got a Redhawk 41 maggie with a scope on top, then came a Bisley 45 & then a 44 special Flattop, he was on his way.
Over a period of 8-9 years he became an excellent shot but it didn't come easy, he just wasn't eating right! Finally I got him headed in the right direction, now we have yummy Burritos a couple of times a week, maybe a little Chinese food, & we get fried chicken & mashed taters at the deli at least once a week. In the afternoons we order up a couple of Huckleberry milkshakes & head out, looking for ground squirrels, badgers, rock chucks, etc. Usually I drive.
While we are hunting we always work on a large 3 lb coffee can full of sunflower seeds, these really help a new shooter who's trying to learn the proper technique for shooting in the field. We always take MY seeds!
I know that the sunflower seeds have a great deal to do with Callshots improved accuracy because usually by the end of summer my can is almost empty & Callshot finally starts to hit a few squirrels. Shooting & spitting is becoming a lost art...but he's getting the hang of it.
Today was finally a decent day although it was windy. Callshot had to go to town & I had the sunflower bucket all to myself, I knew I'd score!
I had 2 guns with me, my 6 1/2" 32 maggie stoked with 100 gr home cast SWC's over 3 grs of WST, this load runs about 950 fps & is minute of ground squirrel & really warps their wiskers. The other gun was my OM 4 5/8's 357 maggie, my every day load is 5.2 grs of 231 & the 173 gr Keith slug (358429) can't remember the speed but its faster than either one of us.
Nursing a cold lemonade & doing some serious seed spitting I got into some squirrels even though the wind was making things pretty rough. Our ground squirrels are about 7" tall when standing & maybe 2 1/2" wide, although many are smaller than that, not much of a target when you're shooting offhand & the wind is whistling through your Crocs.

This was my first squirrel, also the longest shot of the day, about 31 yds as he sat it the top of a sagebrush. They do that a lot when they hear something, they will climb to the top of the brush for a better look, this one should have kept his head down.



Ruger 357 maggie, new pair of Crocs & a fat ground squirrel.



This is a beautiful little area, maybe 6,000 acres, the spawner trout will be working up this stream right away.



Another view of one of my favorite squirrel haunts.



I got 5 of them but was only able to retreive 3, I really hate to stick my hand down in some of these holes.



My OM 357 maggie with a very nice set of walnut stocks & my Barranti Mountain Companion holster, doesn't get any better than that.



A squirrel is sort of easy to hit if its standing, when they are down on all fours its very difficult. This one was sitting on an old fence post, I sent one of Elmers finest right through his eyeball, about 18 Croc steps.



My can of seeds looks pretty good right now, in a couple of months Callshot will have spit some of them out the window & most of them on my floor....but by then it will be almost empty & I'll gurantee he'll be shooting better & hit one. "Gotta eat right if you're going to be a shooter"



Dick

LOL! Great post, Dick!

Eating right is GOOOOD, but I suspect a bottle of Jack is in there somewhere!

Nice grips on the 357!
Peter.

Lest you think he's kidding, let me tell you, my good friend Dick can eat! Here we are last week, with several eaters-in-training on the Whittington Center after an enormous pulled pork BBQ dinner ... all of us about to explode.

Seconds after this photo was taken, we turned around to spot a nice cinnamon color phase black bear coming out of an arroyo about 200 yards away.

Ken reminded me that the only westerner in the photo was the guy wearing the baseball cap! Oops, left my "real" hat in the cabin.
5 good friends in that photo, Jeff Hoover, Mike Barranti, Ken O'Neill, Glenn Swaggart & myself, Sixshot. Our good buddy Fermin must have taken the photo. Also present was Henry Garza, Fermins's older brother, one of the neatest guys on the planet. Great fun!

Dick

Dick that is some incredible scenery,and a great tale.If I get out that way again I'll have to find someone to let me see if I am minute of a squirrel,but I'll be sure to eat right until then.

quote:

Originally posted by cottonstalk:but I'll be sure to eat right until then.

Amen to that!

quote:

Lest you think he's kidding, let me tell you, my good friend Dick can eat! Here we are last week, with several eaters-in-training on the Whittington Center after an enormous pulled pork BBQ dinner ... all of us about to explode.

Seconds after this photo was taken, we turned around to spot a nice cinnamon color phase black bear coming out of an arroyo about 200 yards away.

Do I have to label this picture? Left to right, Good beer, no beer and no Jack just grass, good beer, lots of Jack, light beer, no Jack, good beer and some Jack.

Well BFR, there were a few beers consumed by this group but only a few, all of us went to shoot mostly but we did party a little bit. I'm an old Mormon boy so I don't drink except for lemonade. Now eating is a different story, get out of my way when the grub hits the table. You can tell from the photo that 3 of us are pretty good size. I'm 6'2" & weigh 280, Hoover the guy on the opposite end is also 6'2" & goes about 300 (college wrestler) Ken O'Neill in the middle is also a good sized guy & can slick up a plate with the best of them (almost) Fermin, the guy taking the photo is also built like a tank, probably goes about 240 & strong as a bull. Him & Hoover keep us in line, they are both in law enforcement.
Glenn, the guy to my right is a young rooster & very bright (engineer) who makes the BBQ & is it ever good! Barranti (hidestretcher) is the second from the left, he's the smallest of the group but can eat like me & Hoover.
There was actually very little drinking going on at any of the cabins....but lots of eating!

Dick

quote:

Well BFR, there were a few beers consumed by this group but only a few, all of us went to shoot mostly but we did party a little bit. I'm an old Mormon boy so I don't drink except for lemonade. Now eating is a different story, get out of my way when the grub hits the table. You can tell from the photo that 3 of us are pretty good size. I'm 6'2" & weigh 280, Hoover the guy on the opposite end is also 6'2" & goes about 300 (college wrestler) Ken O'Neill in the middle is also a good sized guy & can slick up a plate with the best of them (almost) Fermin, the guy taking the photo is also built like a tank, probably goes about 240 & strong as a bull. Him & Hoover keep us in line, they are both in law enforcement.
Glenn, the guy to my right is a young rooster & very bright (engineer) who makes the BBQ & is it ever good! Barranti (hidestretcher) is the second from the left, he's the smallest of the group but can eat like me & Hoover.
There was actually very little drinking going on at any of the cabins....but lots of eating!

Dick

Great Dick but I speak from experience, even more then shooting.
Too many look like me except the skinny guy!

Forgot to mention, I can't afford Jack. It is just a dream drink for me.
But if you have any BBQ secrets, I am all ears.

quote:

Originally posted by bfrshooter:
Forgot to mention, I can't afford Jack. It is just a dream drink for me.
But if you have any BBQ secrets, I am all ears.

I'm calling BS on this statement! You can afford it, you just don't feel like going out and getting it and facing the public!

quote:

Posted 20 June 2011 17:19 Hide Post

quote:
Originally posted by bfrshooter:
Forgot to mention, I can't afford Jack. It is just a dream drink for me.
But if you have any BBQ secrets, I am all ears.



I'm calling BS on this statement! You can afford it, you just don't feel like going out and getting it and facing the public! Big Grin

Now you know how Carol feels about drinking! To ask for more money for a good bottle can get nasty so cheap stuff gits a bare passing handout.

LOL! So true!

Now I know why you are so darned cantankerous...

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Now I know why you are so darned cantankerous...

Is it clear now??



DAMNIT, JIM!

Great story, thanks for sharing.

Dick ,you can probably whip me in a Pistol shootin contest,but a local watering hole has all you can eat ribs Weds.,and he crys when he see`s me walk through the door!!!!!

Tell yall what I'm more scared of, is getting my hand to close to of their plates.

P.S., I think I'd fit right in w/ you fellas, just have to scoot over a bit to fit me in! Oh and I'll bring my own fork, napkin and SBH 44 mag.

Dick.....damn I love your stories and your photos.
Some day, before I get the wooden suit, I have to get up your way....I am sure that a few days of shooting with you will be a real learning experience for me.
I believe I told you that my brother now lives in Boise and I am keen to visit him and Taffin if I can get up that way. From what I recall you're not too far from them.

Now about eating....if you really want great eats, you need to go to Argentina with me...I am heading down Monday and will try to send you some photos that will make you hungry....

Bill, be sure to visit the Elmer Keith Museum inside Cabelas in Boise if you get there.
Ken