Same Old Story, Different week

The Kramer Open was pretty good this year.  Unfortunately we didn't have the number of shooters as we have had in the past but that's OK.  I didn't shoot my best score ever but it wasn't too bad, 83 out of 100 nailed.  It's been a year since I have shot so there's is little to complain about.  Sporting Clays is quite fun and can be challenging.  We used to shoot in a league at Wild Marsh, 500 birds per the league season, 100 per month and could be shot anytime within that month.  It was pretty handy because one wasn't on a set schedule, you could shoot at your convenience and if you did not like your score you could reshoot the course however you had to use your latest scores.  The course is set up almost like golf.  You have 8 stations within each course and 7 of the 8 would be 6 targets thrown execpt 1 would be 8 targets for a total of 50. Usually we shoot 2 courses then add up the scores.  I started shooting trap with my old neighbor Roger Weber and used a Browning A5 12 gauge shotgun. Although it was a nice gun I honestly could not hit anything with it, scoring and average of 16 out of 25. Getting into the sport I moved up to a Over/Under Browning Citori realizing I had bought an upland game shotgun, I could us it for dual purpose, sport shooting and hunting grouse and pheasants.  Quite honestly I never really got into the hunting part of that statement and did most of my shooting at the range.  A number of years back I joined some of my friends in the sporting clays and used my Upland game gun.  It was Ok with my average around 68/100.  I was really getting into it and felt that the only way of improving was to get a gun with a longer barrel.  A guy at work dealt in guns and he

Citori 525

ended up getting me an Over/Under made specifically for Sporting Clays, a Browning Citori 525. It is a very nice gun, has a fully engraved reciever, hand oiled stock finish, and a nice case.  With 32 inch barrels it was amazing how much better I shot as my average went up by 8 birds, 76/100.  I think that the course we shoot for the Kramer Open is set up for higher scores because my average is another 7 - 8 birds higher than my league average was, and I only shoot once a year now.  It is a lot of fun and I wouldn't mind getting on a team to do the 500 bird league again, we'll see.  There are a lot of good shooters that attend the Kramer and if you want to be in the top tier one better shoot higher than 90, I did that once.

Sirius weather overlay on the GPS.  Here is a line of thunderstorms

I did get the boat back and have begun to put it back together for my trip next week.  It got move up a day and we are now leaving next Tuesday, coming back on Saturday.  I have noticed a few more scratches in the boat, and have the estimate to fix the area on the bottom where a rock scraped it as I dropped Pete off on shore to do his business.  We are going to have to figure something elese out that is safer and easier on the boat.  Frankie's put in the new dash pieces that were destroyed last June when they ripped off my electronics.  They also replaced a power pedestal under warranty, one of my back side decals got messed up on Minnesota Opener, they took that of but the new one that came in was too small.  Everything looks pretty good, at least good enough to make the trip.  I don't know if this is a good idea or not but I have removed the screws that are used to flush mount my HDS12 and 9 into the main console and front dash and replaced them with tamper resistant torx head stainless steel screws.  I guess if someone wants them that bad they will figure out a way however the lock that held my gimbal mounted HDS 9 did it's job and I ended up only having to replace the bent gimbal rather than the entire unit.  Joe Dusenka is Frankie's son and he always treats me right.  When they replaced the electronics, one of the things they replaced was my Sirius/XM module as the thieves cut off the connector end.  These modules are not cheap but are super nice to have in the boat as it will give you a weather overlay on your GPS screen.  Also, something really nice, there is a lightning alarm that will sound when it detects lightning within a 6 mile distant from the boat.  I asked joe to see if he could fine me a bad Ethernet cable and maybe I can repair the broken module.  Well, he didn't forget and in the boat was a cut off cable end.  I am going to try and repair it because I think my brother Steve could use a nice upgrade in his boat, we'll see if I can get it to work.

There is a lot of work to do before Tuesday, the garden is about done, my tomatoes look like crap.  I need to spend some quality time reassembling my Ice Cabin.  Boat needs to get packed and ready, where the time goes these days, I have no idea!