Riflescope Blog: Expert's reviews, news, notes on rifle scopes, hunting optics, shooting, binoculars, night vision sights, gun accessories, and more

In Riflescopes 101 class the other day I impressed upon the students the importance of safe gun handling. Most of these folks have never had any experience with firearms. Some have never been in the same room with a gun. I listed my credentials that give me the authority to handle guns in the classroom venue, and also gave real-world demonstrations about safe gun handling.

As a very small boy I was taught never to point a gun at anything I didn't want to shoot. If I ever pointed even a toy gun at our bird dog or my brothers (curious, always in that order) I couldn't go hunting with Dad on the weekends. This was the worst punishment ever in fall and winter when seasons were open. For the rest of the year my punishment was to be grounded off the motorcycles. That was almost as bad. Not that I didn't get spanked...I certainly did. And deserved it. It just didn't make that much of a difference.

I learned from a young age about guns and hunting. Bird scent and gunpowder have been in my nose since I was born. There are funny pictures of my Dad holding pheasants over my head in my crib just after birth, with his favorite old humpback Browning crooked in his arm. I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

Inner city kids today will probably never get to their grandparent's farm to milk cows or gather eggs or get chiggers or run from a brahma bull or fish in a farm pond for snappers and bluegulls as big as dinner plates. They won't make butter or ice cream or run over a copperhead with their bike. Sad. Progress doesn't always make things better.

In my next class I'll teach about reticles, red dots, and lasers.

The puppy in the picture is an eight week old Radical Lee von Dundee, my best friend.

Our annual training classes started again with Binoculars 101 taught by Jne. Great class taught by a true expert. The next class is Riflescopes 101. I have to prepare some guns and vises and tools, and cases to carry it all in. I opened my downstairs closet to choose a few cases. Fred Flintstone must've packed it the last time, because when I opened it some Pelicans swooped out and attacked me. I have a couple of the superb Pelican 1750 gun cases that have been on different hunts in countries and continents. I rely on them when hard use is a certainty. This year for a couple elk hunts I plan to mail them to my destinations in Idaho and Colorado. I trust UPS more than I trust baggage handlers.

Otherwise, business as usual. Been fixing a couple guns for friends. Repaired a major plumbing problem in my house. My freezer went down and I lost ALL MY GAME MEAT including my waterfowl and upland birds and my fish, including my salmon eggs for bait. I replaced the unit with a new one. There's nothing quite like scooping up rancid semi-coagulated blood with a dustpan. On the way out the garage last week my garage door broke. Fixed it. Then my heat pump went out. Took a day off and replaced that yesterday. My good friend Daryl came in from Norway for a few days and I enjoyed some shenanigans with him. Congratulations to him and his lovely woman Turid with their first pregnancy. Volunteer food packaging at the church coming up. Fixed some solar lights for My Shirley. Smoked a big ham for Easter with all the fixin's. Shot some guns. Lots of other stuff I've forgotten about in the last week or two. Sometimes my mind is like a steel sieve. Spring is finally here. Took the hog to work today for the first time this year. Ran great in the 60 degree weather. Lots more miles to come. Rubber side down, and watch for people that try to kill you.

Jerry and I have been friends for about 20 years. He is a quality human being and one of the nicest men that My Shirley and I have ever had the privelege to know. He is a fellow NRA certified instructor, and teaches basic pistolcraft for up to three students at a time several times a week at our local range. He's also my hunting partner, and as a matter of fact, saw my current dog's first point before I did. Radical Lee von Dundee loves Jerry. We've also slayed a lot of Canadas together.

Jerry has taken some time off from the trap range and has a bug to shoot some rifles. He bought a Winchester model 70 Heavy Stainless Varmint in 22-250 about 15 years ago and never used it. He has tasked me with assembling a complete shooting package for him with target and prairie dogs being the main use, and coyotes second. This is a giant heavy barrelled gun of almost 11 pounds with a push-feed action and substantial fiberglass stock. The trigger is heavy but clean. I may lighten it or replace it. I disassembled the gun and cleaned and lubed it, polished any rough edges, removed some rust from the magazine box and ran some lapping compound through the bore. I don't do too much polishing in a new bore, generally. I like to see how the gun shoots first. No tools are required to disassemble the bolt in a model 70, and I cleaned off the gummy old lube from inside it and replaced it with powdered graphite that won't get chewy in extreme cold. I do this with most of my bolts.

There were money constraints, as well, like usual. I started with Burris 2 piece steel XTB bases and locktited them in like I always do. For rings I chose Burris 30mm XTR rings, as well as a Picatinny ring top so he could later install a laser, mini red dot, or flashlight if he wanted. This could be very useful for quick, in-your-face shots when a high-magnification scope is the only other sighting option. The rings were chosen after the scope, of course, and after a lot of consideration I chose a Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50 with side focus and the new BDC reticle. This reticle is new for 2009 and is not even available yet, but Joe Hamilton from Vortex had one from a small sample batch he received for testing. Cool. The Viper riflescopes are underapreciated and a best buy in a quality scope with excellent glass and performance. The power ring is as smooth as you can get, and the audible and tactile windage and elevation adjustments are repeatable and crisp. There is an excellent zero-reset feature on the turrets, as well. Just pull the turret up when you're sighted in and reset to zero without a wrench. I also wanted a 50mm objective lens because this is certainly not a carry gun anyway (or at least I don't want to carry it any way) and the bigger glass translates to a larger exit pupil.

I also have to choose for him a rangefinder and bipod. More work to do, and I'll keep you informed as we progress.