Saturday November 29

We all (Mike, Gary, and I) decided that it was going to be a fun day this morning. We got a late start but finally got off around 10am or so. First stop was the Blue Anchor in Twin Bridges for a brunch. I had a couple of the toughest pancakes I have ever eaten. I had to cut off hunks with a knife as the old side of the fork just wouldn’t cut them. There was plenty of butter and honey/ raspberry syrup to go with them and boy did they stick to the ribs.

Next stop was to the horse trainers corral. Mike has a couple of nice colts that he is boarding there and working them in the covered arena. Gary is a very knowledgeable horse trainer as he works with the wild horses and has several of his own that he has trained. I had been up very early that morning so I took advantage of the back seat of Mikes cruiser to take a nap. Mike has  about $150 in this old Chevy luxury car and it is a really nice ride. The paint and body are rough (to put it very nicely) but it just glides down the road.

The main objective of the day was the famed Ennis Gun Shop. We took the northern route by way of Harrison/ Norris which is where I lived in the Tobacco Root Mountains back in 1970, I lived in a log house at the foot of the mountains and was snowed in for the winter. It is a really beautiful place but I sure don’t want to be snowed in up there anymore. I am too old for those kinds of adventures anymore. It was a beautiful day so we could see the mountains and there was just enough snow on them to bring out the highlights.

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We finally made it to the gun shop and what a nice store it is. It is called the Shedhorn and there are over 500 rifles and handguns for inspection. Mike and Gary crawl the gun racks with a critical eye for the ‘sleepers’ while I wandered around enjoying the variety of nice wood and metal work. Mike is always on the lookout for a left handed bolt action for me as he thinks I NEED a bolt action. I don’t like bolt actions and I think it would be hard for me to learn to use a left-handed bolt. I really don’t want a bolt action, but for Mike who builds/sells/shoots bolt actions, he is determined to outfit me with one. He didn’t have any luck with me on the three rifles that were there.

Mike has  been on the lookout for small 22 rimfire rifles for his grandsons and picked up a nice little CZ kids rifle. It is just as cute as can be and has nice open sights and is clip fed. Gary couldn’t keep his hands off a new Marlin lever action in 38-55 and finally decided he was going to take it home. This is a rifle that is used a lot now for the Cowboy shoots that is getting to be quite popular. Gary doesn’t compete in those events as it is somewhat hokey in that you have to wear old time cowboy attire and have a cowboy nickname. I am sure it is a lot of fun but dressing up and playing cowboy is too much for this old boy. I am not much into group activities either.

I found a really nice 2X7 Leupold scope. It was used but impossible to tell it from new at a very attractive price. I have wanted a really nice 22 scope, so I am now the proud owner.

On the way out of Ennis the boys bought a couple of sixpacks, I got a cup of tea and we all got a snack for the road. We went over the pass to Virginia City and I had to tell some of the stories about my grandfather being sheriff there and my dad growing up there. VC was almost deserted with all the businesses closed for the winter. There must have been a bar open and I think the convenience store/gas station was open. We  went down the gulch to Alder and the gulch is nothing but huge piles of rock left from the dredgers. This was one of the richest if not the richest drainages ever mined.

Mike took one of the back roads on the way home to see if we could find a nice big doe or maybe a large buck for hamburger. Mike needs a couple of big ones to fill out the freezer. We were just pulling into the final driveway when mike said that maybe just a short hunt on the hill could be productive. About two hundred yards up the hill we came across a nice big doe with her fawn. Gary jumped out with his new rifle to lay her down. We were waiting for the shot when Gary informed us that he was jammed up. Somehow the new rifle doesn’t have the correct chamber specs. After Gary trying to get his gun unloaded finally gave up, Mike grabbed his .223 out of the rack and put one between the eyes. She went down like a sack of spuds. Mike had to borrow my pocket knife to unload her guts and we tossed her in the trunk. Mike said that the trunk will hold about six does. Those old cars really had a huge trunk and it sure can come in handy. I would imagine the bumper might hang a little low with six does under the lid.

All in all, a very fine day in western MT.

The cabin that we have been working on has the metal on, the door hung, and we got the cabin wired. The inspector came by and Mike had to only fix a couple of minor things which took him about 15 minutes.

We now have to do a little fencing and hope the weather holds.