Spring Bud Break

Spring in the Vineyard

Spring has sprung in the Vineyard and the vines are waking up, that means Bud Break. Bud Break is when the new shoots bud and start to grow. This is when the work starts in the Vineyard. 

 Spring is also a time that the wildflowers are in bloom. The Vineyard if flush with new life, buds, wildflowers and lots of weeds! 

So the job of weed management has begun. This time of year I spend a lot of time mowing. I mow in the vineyard to keep the weeds down in the rows. But I also mow several other areas of the property. 

 We have many roads on the property that we use for the ranger, tractor, and walking. These all get mowed in spring to control tics and keep the fire danger down in the summer when everything drys out. 

 Here are a few of the freshly mowed roads. 

Pistol Reloading

Pistol Reloading

Every few years I get a call from a friend that has inherited some reloading equipment or supplies and does not know what to do with it. I usually offer to help them learn how to load their own ammunition but in most cases they just want me to take it away so they don’t have to dispose of it. 

Most of the time there are a few cans of old powder that I end up having to burn, and some miscellaneous bullets and brass. But sometimes I end up with something really useful. Well this week it was the latter. 

This week I got a call from a friend that had a bunch of pistol components. There was a lot of 38 Special Brass, Bullets and Powder. Given that my Wife has recently shown an interest in Pistol Shooting this could not come at a better time. 

I am a little anal with my reloading. I like to sort my brass by manufacture, clean and organize all of my components. In among all the components were around 100 primed cases of mixed manufacture. Having that disorder just would not sit with me so I decided that I should load them and shoot them. 

First order of business was to select a load, so off to my library of reloading manuals to select a load. 

 There were several old canisters of Unique powder. Although they were both old they both smelled good so I decided that I would use them to build my first load. 

There was also several thousand cast wad cutter bullets. First I measured them to confirm that they are .38 caliber and they were. 

 Then I weighed the bullets to confirm that they were what I thought the were, 148 Grain. 

 After that I set my powder measure to the appropriate charge weight, confirmed that it was set correctly with my scale. 

 Given that the brass was already primed, I set off loading the powder charges with my powder measure. 

 After loading the powder charges I visually checked each one to make sure that they all had one charge of powder. This is why it is very important to have good lighting at your reloading bench. A double charge or a missed charge can rake havoc on a gun! 

 Here is the primed, charged case ready to seat the wad cutter bullet.

 And after seating, and crimping.

 Here is my first batch. I wanted to go shoot these before I loaded more. So down to the range I went. 

I am not a very good pistol shot. But for my first group I am happy with this. I will load up some more and spend a little more time at the range! 

Irrigation System

Vineyard Update - Irrigation System

I appoligize to the readers of this blog that are interested in Shooting and Hunting. This is an update on some of the Vineyard work and my be boring to you. But I bet that there is someone on the internet that would enjoy reading about my irrigation system woes. 

It is Spring time and the vines are starting to wake up so it is time for me to get to work in the Vineyard. My irrigation for the grapes is all controlled with timers and solenoids so I can set specific watering profiles for different times of the year. 

The past few years I have had problems with the solenoids failing. I thought that it was the sun so I built this box to cover them. But they are still failing. 

When the system fails it is not apparent until the vines start changing color and at that point I have already done damage to the crop. 

 To make matters worse, something has decided to eat the wires that control the solenoids. So even if they are still good they don't turn on. 

So I decided that I would replace all the solenoids and put something on the wires to keep the varmints from chewing on them.  Here is the outcome of my efforts, new solenoids and jacketing on the wires to help deter varmint vandalism. From here on out I will replace them every few years as a matter of preventive maintenance. 

At this point I would like to mention how much I like the Polaris Ranger 570 Mid. It is a really useful tool in the Vineyard. It is small enough and maneuverable enough that I can go anywhere in the vineyard. But it also has enough carrying capacity that I can use it as a mini pick up truck. 

 So far it has proved to be a really useful tool and I am really happy that we bought it! 

Shotgun Shell Loading

Shotgun Shell Loading

I have loaded Rifle and Pistol Cartridges for over 20 years. As a matter of fact some of my Rifles have never seen a factory Cartridge. But until now I have not seen the need to load Shotgun Shells, they have always been readily available and inexpensive. 

Well, with new Legislation in California that has changed. Two pieces of legislation made me decide to load my own Shotgun Shells. First, California is going to be Lead free next year. The problem is that the commercially available lead free ammunition for upland hunting (Quail and Dove) is Steel. From the few boxes that I have been able to get my hands on they pattern very poorly. 

Second, California now makes you buy ammunition from a State Licensed Ammunition Vendor, eliminating internet sales. Due to the rural nature of where I live this makes it very difficult to find good quality ammunition and makes it almost impossible to get Bismuth or Tungsten Ammunition. 

So I got this equipment with the intent of eventually loading my own Bismuth or Tungsten upland loads. 

 I decided to get a Single Stage Press. I don't see myself loading high volumes of Cartridges so a Single Stage Press is a good option for me. I chose the MEC Sizemaster, it seemed to have all the features that I wanted (Collet Sizer & Primer Feed). 

I spent the last few weeks researching loads and buying my components. I decided to load some Lead Cartridges first to get the hang of things before I made a mess of expensive Bismuth or Tungsten. 

 After I selected my load from the reloading manual I had to select a bushing for the shot and check the powder weight with a scale. MEC provides a bushing table that will tell you what bushing you need for a particular powder weight in a specific powder. I was looking for 18.2 grains of Clays. Sure enough their powder busing recommendation was spot on.

So at this point I am all set to start loading. I decided to use some spent Federal hulls for my first go around knowing that I would screw a few up and have to do some adjusting.

 Here is my first shell in the 1 position, the sizer collet. In this position is gets sized and the old primer gets knocked out. 

 From there it goes to the 2 position, Priming. In this position a new primer is pressed in.

 Then it goes to the 3 position, where it gets Powder. 

 Then a Wad

 And finally Shot

 From there it goes to the 4 position, pre-crimp. In this position the crimp is started. 

 Then on to the 5 position, final crimp. At this point the Cartridge is complete, 

 It did not take long for me to complete 25 Cartridges. So it was time to go shoot them and see how they would do. 

 I decided to pattern them first, Here is a shot of my homemade pattern board. I put a piece of paper on it and set it at 30 yards and fire a shot. 

Here is the pattern from the first shot. 20 pellets are in the 5" center circle and 344 are in a 30" circle. The pattern has a few holes in it but in general I am very happy with the results. 

From there I went to shoot some clay pigeons. I ended up breaking 22 out of 25. Overall I am really happy with how this turned out. I may play with powders and wads a little then I will start working on some Bismuth loads. More to come in the future. 

Easter

Easter Egg Shoot

What do you do with two dozen dyed Easter eggs?  Well, if you are my family you shoot them. 

As we were dying eggs the other night my family was discussing what to do with two dozen eggs and my son came up with the idea to shoot them. Everyone thought that was a wonderful idea. So we started out new tradition of shooting Easter eggs. 

 We set some Eggs up close to shoot with 22 Rimfires, and some at 100 yards to shoot with a .223. Because nothing says Easter like a 50 grain Ballistic Tip ripping apart an egg! 

 Mom smacking a few with her 22 Rifle. 

 I brought out the .223 to shoot some at 100 Yards. 

The Kids could not resist shooting them at 100 Yards either, they shot really well and consistently disintegrated eggs at that range. 

 Mom decided that a pistol was the proper tool for the job, don't mess with this mamma she is deadly with that thing! 

 Thanks Easter Bunny! Making memories!