good pair of binoculars is probably the hunter's most effective tool. My choice in power is seven or eight. I find ten power to be too much except in sheep country. During one moose hunt I took a seven power and a ten power along to test this premise. I ended up using the seven power almost entirely especially in the brush or looking into it during low light levels. As a guide, who can't afford the weight of an extra pair of binoculars during the season I will choose the seven or eight power every time.
Two years ago I bought a pair of the Leica Geovids. These are laser rangefinder binoculars, extremely accurate to at least 1100 yards during the day and greater in the evening when ambient light has less effect of the beam's reflectance. Not only are these superb binoculars optically, the major selling point was the rangefinder. I find that there is nothing so comforting as knowing exactly how far away an object is.
You can argue it many ways about the invasion of technology into hunting but knowing the range, knowing the trajectory of your rifle, and knowing your own shooting ability should give you a better chance of making a clean kill.
I would not trade them for any other binocular. Though they are heavy, any guide or client that borrowed them did not want to part with them. At least one hunter attributed the taking of his bear to knowing exactly how far away the animal was. It was a one shot kill.
ast winter when I was out snowmobiling I ran across a man who gave me a great tip for fire starters. I carry several with me every time I go out during the winter or rainy weather.
Start with a roll of toilet paper and a block of paraffin. Melt the paraffin and roll a cigar sized stick from the toilet paper. I found the process speeded up if I made several folds in the paper, rolling only the last foot or so to keep it tight.
Once you have a couple dozen or have used up a roll of paper, start soaking them in the paraffin. It will take a few seconds for the paraffin to soak through. Take them out to cool on a scrap piece of cardboard. You will have to immerse them briefly several times until the outside is smooth, like a candle.
To use them, scrape a little paraffin off the end to expose some of the coated paper core. Light, and in a few minutes you will have a flame that will give you enough time to get a good fire going.
ore accurately, molybdenum disulfide. This sliding type lubricant has been experimented with regarding bullet performance since before WW2. At first in combination with grease then evolving into its most current form of tumbling the bullets in a stainless steel ball bearing medium mixed with a small amount of moly. After this process is completed a short tumble in another container with bee's wax and stainless balls make the bullets fairly clean to handle.
NECO (510-450-0420, fax 510-450-0421) supplies the kits to process your own bullets. I find the tumbling process works well on protected point, flat nose, or hollow point bullets. If you have a bullet with a lead tip it will become deformed while tumbling.
The real advantages to these bullets are: less pressure, greater velocity, less drop, and less barrel fouling. According to some articles and my personal experience the reloader can hardly exceed safe pressure with these bullets because they are so slick. In experiments with two .375 H&H rifles, one 20" bbl, the other 24" bbl, using IMR 4350 and 300 grain Grizzly bullets I could increase my velocity in each rifle by about 200 fps. I always ran out of room to put powder, resulting in compressed loads but never showing any signs of pressure. I used a chronometer but did not have a pressure indicator. As always, caution should be observed.
Another factor, tested at 1000 yds against uncoated bullets, is that the moly bullets would drop 20" less, given the same loading components, same rifle, same velocity. Later experiments and microscopic examination led researchers to conclude that the moly bullets deformed less. The base of the bullets remained in closer configuration to the original than the uncoated bullets. This factor alone should be of great interest to the hunter.
Lastly, is barrel fouling. Almost every rifle I examine, that the owner has made claims of being clean, has copper fouling. You can run a patch of Sweets 7.62 through the barrel, wait a few minutes, run another patch and it will show up blue. That's copper fouling! This is due to many factors, including improper cleaning, shooting too many rounds through a hot barrel, or a rough barrel.
Most of our hunting rifles don't have match barrels, smooth and shiny, nor do they particularly require them, but to the hunter who wants to optimize his hunting kit moly bullets are the way to go. You must shoot several rounds through the barrel to get a slight coating of the moly before you will see the full benefits. After that, cleaning will not require a wire brush as often. As a matter of fact, several benchrest shooters, who are notorious for cleaning their rifles every ten rounds, are now competing for 100 rounds before cleaning. When "winning groups" are measured in the hundredths this strikes me as a bold testimonial.
If you start loading these slick bullets with previously used data you will find a drop in velocity. This is due to the bullet's slickness and the decreased pressure. You will have to add more powder to bring the velocity and pressure back up and should have no problem exceeding your previous velocity. Keep in mind that optimum velocity for accuracy may not be maximum.
For more information on these kits call NECO or subscribe to Precision Shooting magazine. It's mostly for benchresters and varmint hunters, with accuracy foremost. There have been articles almost every month on moly bullets.
