A rifle

[Kurt]

Hey Jim,
That is a great idea maybe I can put a spring seat in the wagon and I can ride in it.
My foot I broke last Sept is still getting my attention walking. Sure is slow healing.

[JKR]

Kurt,
Maybe I could ride with you. I’ve scheduled a hip replacement for April.
Jim

[Kurt]

I will build a bigger buckboard and harness a Belgian up.

[beltfed]

Jim,
I am surpised at a hip replacement at your young age. I suppose ,
related to your profession?
I have been going along with my replacement right hip in 2016 plus each shoulder
had arthroscopy for torn tendons.
All that had led to my retiring from OTC Hi Po. Just could not endure positions.
Now, I have gotten back to kind of shooting prone with Stix, but no way sling shooting unless a very light rifle
I sympathize with your looking at that hip surgery in April, near the beginning of shooting season.
I managed to time my hip job for late August.
Arnie

[JKR]

Arnie,
It was a very hard decision for me to make!
I might go back to the easy life of a pistol shooter for the season. Form what I understand so far, prone or setting with the rifle isn’t advisable.
Jim

[beltfed]

Jim,
I found that, once I went thru a very good Physical Therapy program, as my hip replacement healed over the winter and into the next season, the hip is not a problem with Prone shooting over crossed stix.
It is still a bit of strain, though on my repaired shoulders, particularly with the needed wiping routine with the BP rifles. That procedure has been helped by reducing the number of wiping strokes with bore critters.
Also, I have no problem with the hip shooting the 100yds .22 Palma matches at my Rapids club, since we can shoot that one from a Bipod or from a rest or crossed stix

Also, one of the guys that shoots the winter 22 long range matches showed up
only a month or 6 weeks after his hip replacement and shot the match. I actually told him he was nuts, but he did ok. even left his cane in the car.
Arnie

[Gunlaker]

Kurt why not sell the rifle, or maybe just sell the barrel and put on a new one. When Shiloh built my recent Tollofson rifle it took a heck of a long time. Someone who wants one will probably pay a good price skip the multi year wait. I bet they don't even announce another bull barrel run for 3 or so years.

Chris.

[Kurt]

Chris that crossed my mind, but I don't sell my rifles.
When I had this barrel put on I dropped it off at the shop and shot the Quigley and spent time up in the Big Horns for a couple weeks where it was cool at 9000 ft and shot the MT 1000. Then I stopped at the store picked up the rifle and drove home.
I can put the pull barrel back on but I keep thinking when I get old I might want to use this heavy .44-100 for long range because of it's low recoil.
Plus my Daughter and two of my Grand Daughters shoot.
My Son is a shooter but his work gets in the way now, but he will retire soon so this might change for him.

[Gunlaker]

That makes sense :-). I prefer to keep my rifles too, although I will get rid of 1 or 2 of them this year. Recoil reduction is the main reason I bought my 16lb .45-2.6". That and maybe stiffness of the super heavy but short 30" barrel might be a good thing. I'm not sure yet.

Chris.

[Kurt]

Chris,
As much as I hate to admit it I think my 82 years are starting to take effect on me.
Last year at the Quigley it was very hot, 115º and I was dumb enough to get out and shoot in that heat with a light .45-2.6 and I developed torn retina in both eyes. I didn't notice this till the morning of the match by looking up at the sky light in the camper in the early morning dawn. the dim light disappeared and reappeared and a dark red halo around the black spot when I scanned across it I closed one eye and it did it again as well as the second eye.
This happened at the Baker shoot a few years before also when I used the .50 and the .45-90 but just the right eye.
The Optometrist asked what I did before this happened and I told him that was shooting a heavy recoiling rifle and it was hot around 115º and he said that this might what caused it by the temperature raised the pressure of the jell and caused the problem, but he said I cant say for sure because your the first that I have had telling me this and the red halo is very unusual.
Right now unless it's very bright out looking through the apertures I can barely see the black bull on the target. I'm forst to shoot now with a scope and even this is tough because of the black spot in the center vision is hard to see through.
I guess when it gets hot I will shoot the.38 or the .40. Maybe all the time now no matter what the temp is.