SmallCaliberCentral

This year's trip was full of surprises, some good, some bad. After our flight, and 4 hr drive to our lodge, we
discovered that one of our best pd ranches had been sold. That was bad enough, but seems the new owner didn't welcome pd shooters. Our other "best" ranch was wet from recent rains, and his ranch was out of bounds for several days. Luckily, our guide had been doing his homework, and had located several new ranches.




This ranch was pretty productive, but the rain also put a lot of the best shooting areas out of reach. We always expect wind in Montana, and in most cases, can be dealt with. This year, we were met with shifting winds and wind gusts, apparently from passing storms. Unfortunately, I didn't read the manual on shooting in wind gusts, so my accuracy suffered! The lasts two days were really disappointing, the wind was not our friend.
Luckily, we had a range rignt by our lodge, and here I am checking zero on my Cooper Varminter...204 of course!

I did manage to get a few hours of decent shooting, and made shots of 461 yds and 472 yds with the .204. After the weeks shooting, my Varminter clicked over 2400 rounds, and the Phoenix 1600.
This was one of the beautiful sunsets we had in big sky country.

Thanks for the story and pictures, Keith! I'm sorry to hear about your top spot being sold, but am glad that you were able to salvage the trip. You know, we can solve such issues by organizing a group buy on an offical .204ruger.com prairie dog ranch!

Sad part about it is that it was more than likely someone from outside Montana that bought it because it was so wonderful, but now wants to lock it up and not share like the old owners.
We tend to see a lot of that here in Montana.
I had a lot of places that I shot on when I was a kid but now the new owners will not let anyone on their land.