Hunting season is ramping up, yet I’m a few thousand miles too far away to be concerned with such things. Finding good venison jerky shouldn’t be too hard in about a month though, so that’s good news for me (read: boxes should definitely contain jerky, of the venison variety if at all possible.) In light of yet another missed season, I’ve decided to start looking at rifles again. It dawned on me not too long ago that I haven’t purchased a firearm in around two years. My first reaction was to look for the brigade shrink, and make sure I wasn’t a screw loose somewhere. Then I realized that I hadn’t really had any time since we got back from OIF3 for any new purchases. Heck, I haven’t even shot the $2000+ custom 1911 I had built during OIF3 more than maybe 1000 rounds.
Where Texas is concerned, I’m doubtful anything walking my state can’t be killed quickly with a well placed round from my Winchester 1894 in .30-30. That said, my 1894 will remain my go-to rifle for hunting, at least in Texas. One day though, I plan on making a trip to shoot some of North America’s larger game, like Elk. In light of that fact, I’m going to pick up a Savage 110GXP3 in 7mm Remington Magnum. Put that round where it needs to go, anywhere under about 500m, and it packs more than enough punch to be very effective. The Simmons scope that comes will that Savage will likely disappear in short order, in favor of a Leupold, but it’ll work for punching holes in paper to build up a good 7mm Rem. Mag. load.
In other news, the route I posted below is looking like it’ll be tons of fun. Before I take off, I’ve got some work to do on the SV. Namely the addition of hard luggage, and the crafting of some brilliant way to carry my photography equipment AND a tent. There’s also the fact I’ll be covering around 10,000 miles, and my current tires/chain/spockets have around 7000 miles on them already. There’s no way the tires will make the entire trip, so I’ll likely replace them before I even start, and plan on changing them out again when they look like they’ve had enough of a beating. I’ll probably buy a chain and sprocket set, just to keep in my luggage in case I decide they need to be replaced. Should I have time to ride, before I clear out of the Army, I’ll hit 14,000 on my bike before I leave – which should cover everything else mechanically speaking when I have the 14k-mile service done. New brakes, checking the torque on all my bolts, a tune up, and a few other odds and ends should get me well prepared to head off. Hopefully I don’t run into any mechanical problems along the way. The SV has been great for the last 13k, and hasn’t given me any trouble at all, so hopefully the next 10k go by just as smoothly.
