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Last August  me and the Cajun (my bride of 31 years) and my grand daughter Taylor took a trip down to Leakey Texas to visit my friends Will and Linda Bourland. In addition to running the Frio Canyon Exxon Station which doubles as hunting headquarters in town they also operate a multifaceted facility that provides hairdressing, tanning, shopping and much much more.    
Those of you that know me realize I could give a rats derriere about all that stuff but it gives the women folks comfort and provides them something to do while Will and I go hunting.    
Getting down to business, that's a Remington 700 BDL I bought in October 1967 from the Gibson's store in Dallas, Texas for a hundred and ten dollars. My dad knew the manager from one of his previous jobs, he had worked for Sangar Harris and Roland Ellis and was in display, layout and advertising for Montgomery Wards. What was important was dad knew the sporting goods manager and he had over sixty of those brand new fancy 3006 rifles and he took us into the back room and opened every box and showed me the wood. When he opened the box on this one I knew it was mine. At fourteen years of age, that was just about the neatest thing that had ever happened to me. I was working at the Mecca Restaurant on Harry Hines Blvd at Lombardy Lane and I earned a $1.25 cents an hour starting and based on my good efforts quickly rose to $1.35 and hour washing dishes, scrubbing pots and cleaning the floors, walls, restrooms and anything else Mr. "Roy" Austin could find for me to scrub. Roy was just retired from the United States Navy and he had been the top cook on a flat top and ran a very strict kitchen. He was one of the finest men I have every known in my life and he was an outstanding friend and role model for me. In later years when I would sneak up to see him in my squad car it would cause quite a fuss in the kitchen when the white policeman came to the back door of the restaurant looking for Mr. "Roy" at four o'clock in the morning well before opening time.  May God rest his soul until I see him on the other side. Now it was the second Saturday in October and Roy Redding the owner of the Mecca tried to give me two tickets to a football game when I got off work around 11:30am (we went to work at 2:30am on Saturdays). I told him I was much too busy for anything like that, I was going to get my deer rifle and go sight it in at the range. Later in the day when I told daddy I had turned down tickets to the Texas OU Red River shoot out, he was just a little bit miffed. I quit counting the number of deer harvested with that rifle many years ago. Suffice it to say its my all time favorite for anything smaller than a nilgai or elk and bigger than a jack rabbit. Several friends have used this rifle to make those unmakeable shots at unbelievable distances including Will. Will and I were varmint hunting the bottom half of the ranch and spotted a raccoon in a tree at about two hundred yards and all you could see was his face peeking over the limb about seventy five feet up in the top of a big hardwood. Will was convinced it was too far, too tight and not worth the effort and I assured him he could do it with this special rifle. Of course when that coon flipped over backwards out of the top of that tree spinning through the light, we whooped and yelled and our special friendship was ratcheted tighter.  I knew right then he would keep me around just to tell this story Hahahahh, it was a fantastic shot under the conditions and would make any rifleman proud.  Of course the Choctaw Ken Fletcher shot a gobbler in the neck at three hundred and fifty yards with this old rifle and I have to keep it hid from him every time we go hunting.    
So what did the gun doctor (Doc Jones) do to this masterpiece of art from Remington. Well he put a gentry muzzle break on it and now it recoils less than a 243. Even shooting my favorite load a 165 soft point sierra bullet with 54 grains of 4350 or just buying the Federal Premium Gold loads off the self it recoils less than a 243 shooting a fifty grain bullet. As I get older this little modification is more important and with the girls growing up, they appreciated the lack of recoil. In addition to the muzzle break doc added a PACHMAYR Decelerator  pad, together with the break Doc and I both think these reduce the felt recoil somewhere between fifty and sixty percent. (This replaced the PACHMAYR white line). Doc also did his magic on the trigger and its a crisp three pounds and he performed a Pillar Bed on it. I was nervous  while Doc was performing these upgrades but it was really  money well spent and it kept my old friend and first rifle in tune with the times. I shoot this rifle every chance I get and I am still trying to wear the barrel out. If I do, I am calling Remington and asking them to replace it, but as long as its still busting nickels and dimes at a hundred yards I guess I will just keep on hunting with it. That pretty knife was made by Will and another fellow with horn off the ranch next door. So far I cleaned a black bear, this axis buck and three doe with it. Its not my favorite knife buts its moving up the list......    
     
 Well I have to run and the crazy part is we were hawg hunting and Will made me harvest this Axis Buck and gosh it was great eating! I never did see any pigs that trip! Will did send my lard butt up a stand without a pin in the top and I nearly killed myself falling 14 feet. Just like all the hunter safety statistics say, falling is a very serious hazard while hunting. Be sure and check those stands, make sure they are pinned, nailed, tied down and the materials are in good shape, not rusted, rotted or weakened by the weather. Be Safe Out There ! Capt Jack    

 

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Last modified: July 26, 2008

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