...it seems I have not blogged even a single post since Tuesday last until this very moment. Cannot say I have been too busy, well not as far as I recall, but I was somewhat preoccupied with other things. I had planned to go upstate to the Cascade Valley State Forest on early Thursday to get in a partial day of deer scouting on that day and then some more on Friday before heading further north to Geneva, NY. Yes there was another Hessney Rod & Gun auction on Saturday with the preview from 3-6PM on Friday. I was busy all day Wednesday getting ready for my planned departure on Thursday.
Then my boss called me on Thursday morning and asked me to cover for someone who had a family emergency. So, I went to work and lost Thursday. I did get away fairly early, about 620 AM on Friday. Great ride to Geneva - nope I did not stop to do any deer scouting since I was driving the whole 300 plus miles that day. I got there plenty early and went exploring in Auburn, NY a town about 30 miles east of Geneva but where my motel was located. Most of the damn hotels in Geneva were booked and the few with rooms were just was too expensive with their summertime rates. I am a sort of a Motel Six kind of a guy for overnight stays - cheap and clean with hot water is usually fine with me but no chance of that near the Finger Lakes in the summer. Anyway, I had a good time in Auburn and then stopped at Bass Pro Shops, on the outskirts of town, as I headed to the auction preview in Geneva.
I won't bore you with the details and will just say they had a higher ration of new guns than used and older ones at this auction than usual. That was to be expected as a dealer had shut down shop, in anticipation of moving to a new location in about 6 months or so, and was selling off stock by way of the auction. I got a few new acquisitions. A Savage Model 111 Long Range Hunter in 300 WIN MAG (what a steal at about 33% lower than the lowest price I could find on it), a Glock 30 45 ACP pistol (another great bargain price close to the same as above percentage-wise), a Winchester Model 290 semi-auto rifle in 22LR and a Mossberg Model 395T 12 gauge bolt action shotgun; it's similar to my recently purchased Mossberg 395SA but while the 395SA is a slug gun, the 395T has a 28" barrel full choke. I also picked up a pistol case and some ammo. Expensive couple of days for me and once again will need to sell some guns to recoup the cash I used to pay for these.
I think that the Savage Model 111 may become a keeper. I have a fairly limited knowledge of different caliber ammunition, especially when it comes to rifles and pretty much had never really known anything about 300 WIN MAG before looking it up prior to the auction as I was doing my homework on the auction items on which I was planning to bid. I was impressed by the few things I read about it. Funny, I never heard almost anything about it before; yet, all the articles I read said it is one of the, if not the, most popular big game caliber(s) in the USA. If what the author of this article says is true - I have no clue why I never heard more about it before except that I just wasn't listening. I looked up the ammo on some dealer's sites to see how much it goes for and I was happily surprised to see it can be had at fairly inexpensive prices as compared to something like 35 Remington. Shooting it will have to wait a bit though. I am not only going to have to buy ammo for it but also a decent scope and right now I am broke. Having to work all of this week will help with that though.
Back to the weekend - the drive home after the auction was a good one. I made a stop at cascade Valley Forest, not to deer hunt but to fish for a little bit. Then I was off to home and had a fairly good drive. except for a slowdown on the Tappan Zee bridge, looked like a pick-up tuck's engine had been on fire - foam all over the front end when I passed it. After that clear sailing, amazing for NY - especially the part of the trip through NYC.
As for the new guns, I'll take some photos of them sometime this week or next weekend as my schedule allows and then post them here.
All the best,
Glenn B
Then my boss called me on Thursday morning and asked me to cover for someone who had a family emergency. So, I went to work and lost Thursday. I did get away fairly early, about 620 AM on Friday. Great ride to Geneva - nope I did not stop to do any deer scouting since I was driving the whole 300 plus miles that day. I got there plenty early and went exploring in Auburn, NY a town about 30 miles east of Geneva but where my motel was located. Most of the damn hotels in Geneva were booked and the few with rooms were just was too expensive with their summertime rates. I am a sort of a Motel Six kind of a guy for overnight stays - cheap and clean with hot water is usually fine with me but no chance of that near the Finger Lakes in the summer. Anyway, I had a good time in Auburn and then stopped at Bass Pro Shops, on the outskirts of town, as I headed to the auction preview in Geneva.
I won't bore you with the details and will just say they had a higher ration of new guns than used and older ones at this auction than usual. That was to be expected as a dealer had shut down shop, in anticipation of moving to a new location in about 6 months or so, and was selling off stock by way of the auction. I got a few new acquisitions. A Savage Model 111 Long Range Hunter in 300 WIN MAG (what a steal at about 33% lower than the lowest price I could find on it), a Glock 30 45 ACP pistol (another great bargain price close to the same as above percentage-wise), a Winchester Model 290 semi-auto rifle in 22LR and a Mossberg Model 395T 12 gauge bolt action shotgun; it's similar to my recently purchased Mossberg 395SA but while the 395SA is a slug gun, the 395T has a 28" barrel full choke. I also picked up a pistol case and some ammo. Expensive couple of days for me and once again will need to sell some guns to recoup the cash I used to pay for these.
I think that the Savage Model 111 may become a keeper. I have a fairly limited knowledge of different caliber ammunition, especially when it comes to rifles and pretty much had never really known anything about 300 WIN MAG before looking it up prior to the auction as I was doing my homework on the auction items on which I was planning to bid. I was impressed by the few things I read about it. Funny, I never heard almost anything about it before; yet, all the articles I read said it is one of the, if not the, most popular big game caliber(s) in the USA. If what the author of this article says is true - I have no clue why I never heard more about it before except that I just wasn't listening. I looked up the ammo on some dealer's sites to see how much it goes for and I was happily surprised to see it can be had at fairly inexpensive prices as compared to something like 35 Remington. Shooting it will have to wait a bit though. I am not only going to have to buy ammo for it but also a decent scope and right now I am broke. Having to work all of this week will help with that though.
Back to the weekend - the drive home after the auction was a good one. I made a stop at cascade Valley Forest, not to deer hunt but to fish for a little bit. Then I was off to home and had a fairly good drive. except for a slowdown on the Tappan Zee bridge, looked like a pick-up tuck's engine had been on fire - foam all over the front end when I passed it. After that clear sailing, amazing for NY - especially the part of the trip through NYC.
As for the new guns, I'll take some photos of them sometime this week or next weekend as my schedule allows and then post them here.
All the best,
Glenn B
1 comment:
Have fun with the .300 Win Mag. My buddy got a Ruger M77 in .300 for a Caribou hunt. I shot it once, and it not only had the tendency to want to knock you over, but the report was amazing! Not only that, the range has pea gravel on the ground, along with a lot of .22 brass, and steel 7.62x 39. All around the gun, when my buddy fired it, the pea gravel would jump about a foot off the ground. Word to the wise. You don't need a .300 Win Mag for Caribou. Maybe for the Brown bear. I took my BAR in 7mm Mag and shot my 'bou from 20 yards... after working up a load I could put on a Nickel at 200 yards. Oh well, I got a sweet load anyway.
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