Riflescope Blog: Expert's reviews, news, notes on rifle scopes, hunting optics, shooting, binoculars, night vision sights, gun accessories, and more
Thursday, December 31, 2009Happy New Year
Hope Christmas was great, and have a Happy New Year! God bless you and yours!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Merry Christmas with Steve's Slow-Cook Venison Stew!
Not many foods can thaw a cold winter chill like a hot hearty stew made from meat with an animal you have taken. This is how I built my last batch of elk stew, courtesy of an animal taken this October in Colorado with the Burris company.
Steve's Slow-Cook Venison Stew:
In a large slow cooker, add the ingredients in the following order:
A few carrots cut into one inch pieces, or baby carrots.
A few ribs of celery in one inch pieces
Several red potatoes cut into one inch chunks
A few parsnips cut into one inch chunks (this is a secret that really takes stews over the top)
A cup or two of chopped onions (I use both red and yellow)
Lots of chopped garlic
A few bay leaves
A couple tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
A tablespoon or so of dried thyme (one of my favorite herbs, always dried from my garden)
A tablespoon or so of dried basil (from my garden)
Black pepper to taste ( I like pepper so I put in a couple tablespoons)
A couple pounds of any well trimmed venison cut into one inch pieces
A couple large cans of whole tomatoes with juice (I use our frozen garden cherry tomatoes)
Several cans of beef broth
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cold water
You can determine your own exact recipe according to your tastes, and size of cooker. Remember to crush the herbs to release more flavor. Do not stir the pot. Make sure the fluid covers all the ingredients and is pretty close to the top of the cooker. Put the temperature on low and forget about it for 8 or 10 hours.
Scoop out the meat and vegetables and place in a large covered serving bowl, leaving the liquid in the cooker. Discard the bay leaves. Turn cooker to high and cover it. Whisk the flour and water in a small bowl until smooth. Add a cup of the cooking liquid and mix well. Stir the mixture into the cooker and mix again. Keep it covered and cook for 15 minutes. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables and enjoy with a hearty crusty bread. I always make wheat bread from scratch to go with this special treat. The stew freezes well. I have used variations of this recipe with whitetail, mulies, pronghorn, caribou, and now elk. It's a simple recipe that you can modify to your desires.
I took the preceding picture last night from some thawed leftovers. It was accompanied by raw cow's milk french bleu cheese with seasoned rye crackers, 12 grain bread and cold grape juice. Life is good. Enjoy!
Docter Shawn's Weatherby with Nikon Monarch Riflescope and Leupold Scope Mounting System
A week or so after I fell coming down a mountain on my last elk hunt I discovered I buggered my knee. Wasn't getting better, so I had to see someone. I filled out the form at the doctor's office, and in the paperwork under the explanation of how the injury happened, I put "fell while hiking." When I finally saw the doctor and he asked me exactly what happened, I said "fell while hunting" instead of "fell while hiking." He looked at me strangely and said, "Hunting, huh? Did you kill anything?" I thought, oh, crap. Here it comes. Another anti hunter. Instead he said, "I grew up shooting javelinas with a handgun in Texas", so I knew I was in like flint.
Anyway, surgery went okay, and during my first check up afterwards I left his office with his new Weatherby Vanguard in .270 Weatherby, one of my favorite cartridges of all time. I told him I would fix him up. I installed a Nikon Monarch 2.5-10x42 with the BDC reticle (a best value, quality riflescope), and mounted it in lapped Leupold Dual Dovetail rings and bases. I also cleaned and polished his bore and crown, disassembled his whole gun and went over every part and torqued the action screws to the proper inch pounds. Boresighted it with my Leupold Zero Point boresighter. Gun looks good. Walnut stock. A bit too pretty for me, but very functional. Butler Creek flip up caps rounded it out, although Nikon has been shipping adequate flip ups of their own design lately.
Sometime when it's not 20 below like it is today I'll invite Docter Shawn to my range, maybe with Chuck the vet and Jerry the instructor. No substitute for trigger time.
Thanks again to Docter Shawn for cutting out the extra knee parts that I ruined. God saw fit to give me two knees, so I have a back up.
Pearl Harbor Anniversary, BLACKHAWK, Leupold, and Bushnell Weather Stations
December 7th, Pearl Harbor day, was the anniversary of the day I joined the Navy, thirty years ago. Dad was old Navy also. He asked if I had my flag up at home, and the answer was, "Yes, Sir!". Of course it stays up 365 days a year. Dad was just invited to Washington, DC to tour a bunch of sites with 99 other WWII veterans. He was asked to wear a uniform if he still had one and could. He got into his dress blue top, but had to get his wife's help getting out of it, and the pants somehow shrunk many inches since he last had them on in the 1940s. This is a curious phenomenon, and I have experienced it myself over the years. Many of my pants exhibit this same attribute of shrinking with age. I guess modern technology still hasn't figured out how to stop this from happening.
Mike Noell and the guys from BLACKHAWK! were in the other day for a visit. Had a blast downtown after our meeting was over. Things got loud. Had fun. Good food and drink and company. I remember something about Demi Moore. I poured myself into my hotel room like a soup sandwich, and before I knew it it was time for work again. I don't know of another business that is run as well as BLACKHAWK!, and every person I am aware of there is top quality, same as their products. Top quality people as in hire them immediately if you ever get the chance.
L3 (best known for EOTech Holographic Weapon Sights) and Electro-Optical systems (formerly known as Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Thermal Eye, etc.) were in yesterday and we had a good meeting about new products and the night vision and thermal imaging industry as a whole.
Leupold/Redfield was in this morning and I saw the new products. This is the perfect time to reintroduce Redfield properly, not like some lame ducks that tried it before. The riflescopes are made in the US, and the marketing will be aggressively pointed not only towards Redfield with all their excellent attributes, but also against imports. Redfield will take the shooting world by storm this year, mark my words. The scopes look really great, and the prices are shockingly affordable. Buy them at OpticsPlanet within a week or two.
We just got a ton of Bushnell Weather Stations in stock. We bought a closeout, and the prices are fantastic. I'll be buying a few for gifts this year. Take a look at them.
Hope your hunting season is going well.