Monthly Archives: February 2016

Noreen ULR .50 BMG Field Test

by Woodsbum

Yesterday I got a chance to take out my Noreen ULR .50 BMG and sight it in after swapping back out of the 20 MOA rail. This was the first time I really got to realize the accuracy of this rifle. The 20 MOA rail had me hitting so far above the target at 200 yards that it was really impossible to sight in. Before I get comments, I will mention that even bottomed out on the elevation and using the furthest mark on the reticle, I was still having to Kentucky windage my shots. It now is sporting the original 0 MOA rail. When I get really into distance shooting I will swap back out and get i zeroed at 500/600 yards as the rail seems to dictate…..

Since it was a beautiful day, I had some great company and I was off work for the week, I took off to the hills with about $200 worth of ammunition and a bunch of targets. The only problem that I did have was the same issue I am well known for……  Camera….

.50 BMG Setup

.50 BMG Setup

To start off I measured out a distance of 28 yards and set up a target. Once I was on paper at this range, I moved over to my other target set at about 225 yards. Here is the one picture I got of the target as I was sighting it in. The two low ones were as I was adjusting elevation.

Sighting in at 225 yards

Sighting in at 225 yards

As you can see, the rifle is quite accurate. The first shot I took after getting on paper at 28 yards was the hole in the white. I adjusted a touch to get on paper and really see what was going on to get the next hole up. I then set my adjustments at did the next two holes. The windage variance is due to one click right on both groups. The wind stopped so I went back left by one click to see if the wind was blowing the bullet any. This is why I have the similar two holes just above the bull.

Unfortunately, my camera guy ended up deleting all the following groups from his phone. My wife only took pictures of us firing and not the target, so this is what I have of how well we shot. I can only say that this bad boy will cut holes and is minute of beer can at 225 yards.

Another interesting thing to note about this setup is that this rifle really has no felt recoil. The springs for the stock are incredible and a lot of recoil is diminished by the compensator and heavy barrel. This is one of those rifles that you can shoot all day without your shoulder getting sore.

The only thing that I discovered about this rifle that could be considered a bad thing is that the cheap American Eagle ammo I was using requires you to lube it before you shoot it. I am not sure if I somehow didn’t clean it enough last time or it somehow it just decided to hold onto the rounds more today. If you did not use some sort of oil, the empty case seemed to stick. It was bad enough that I had to use a stick to beat the bolt handle so I could get the empty extracted on two occasions. After I sprayed the cartridges with RemOil I had no issue. The RemOil is what I had on hand so it got used.

I have quite a few firearms and between all the guns that my family owns, we really have quite the arsenal. The reality is that this rifle is the most pleasant, accurate and most fun to shoot firearm that I have ever had the pleasure of firing let alone owning. Noreen, I applaud you and am a big fan. This monster would be worth every penny at twice the price.

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Rawhide Mora Sheath

by Woodsbum

It has been several months of me procrastinating, but I finally got motivated for long enough period to finish my friend’s knife sheath. Believe me when I say that it was not an easy feat. We are in the middle of the rainy season and I still have a lot of new Netflix series unwatched, not to mention some Captain Morgan Reserve that isn’t going to drink itself.

Lack of motivation and inebriation opportunities aside, I did get the sheath finished. For this build I did a few things differently. Instead of making a complete leather liner I cut out the plastic from the original sheath and then used leather for the top portion to make it snug. The first attempt didn’t work as well as I had anticipated so I ended up having to take it all apart and trim the thickness of the liner. Interestingly enough, the inner liner didn’t have to be stitched once I had the old one wet formed and waxed a little. It really holds its shape well.

Rawhide Mora Sheath

Rawhide Mora Sheath

In future builds I might do something similar from now on. If I take the leather I am building the liner out of and wet it, form it, and bind it to keep it in shape, and then wax it when it is done I can easily just use rawhide over the top as an exoskeleton of sorts. This keeps the rawhide smooth and allows it all to stay tight without the liner binding up on me after the rawhide constricts during drying.

You can see how I forced the over layer to constrict and thus hold onto the main sheath by shear friction.

Side View - Notice the forced shrinkage.

Side View – Notice the forced shrinkage.

A few things that I have discovered about rawhide:

  • You can adjust the shrinkage of the rawhide with use of a heat gun. If you want it to constrict tighter just dry the wet rawhide with the old Warner.
  • Dying it is almost impossible, but getting it to soak up color while it is getting ready for working gives it a nice even color. I used coffee on this build but I am thinking about using some fruit juices and wine for some added shades on my next builds. I think some red wine in coffee would give an almost mahogany color.
  • The more rugged the rawhide looks the better the finished product. I like how the inner part of the rawhide is textured. It gives a very interesting and rustic look to the sheath.
  • Layers of different rawhide cuts and textures also gives it an interesting look.

I am thinking about doing something out of rawhide for my Marlin 1895 to hold a few additional rounds. I think I can do a rawhide cover with leather liner that will lace up one side and hold 8 to 10 cartridges. If I do, I will try and take more pictures of the actual build process. These last couple knife sheaths were fairly basic so a final description seemed to suffice.

As I do more projects and find soaks that will color stain the rawhide in interesting manners, I will update you. I will also do a few builds that have more pictures of the process. If you have been reading my site very much at all you know I am very bad about taking pictures. Someday this may change, but if you have any questions I can try and answer them for you here.

Thanks for looking and if you get a chance, try out some projects yourself.

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Roast Venison

by Woodsbum

Here is a great recipe for roast venison (deer). Technically any wild game is venison, but for this purpose we will be using deer. Unlike many roasts, this recipe seems to be almost like breaded deer prime rib when it is done.

  • 3 lbs round deer roast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ground red pepper
  • 1 stick of softened butter (real butter)
  • 2 cups of dry bread crumbs.
  • 1 cup dried apples
  • 1 teaspoon sage
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 2 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 1 cup hot water

Ensure to use these preparation steps before starting.

Wipe cleaned and prepared roast with damp towel and then rub all sides with the salt and peppers. Whip the butter until it is light and fluffy. Spread the butter over the meat. Combine the bread crumbs with the remaining ingredients and stir to moisten the crumbs.

Put the roast on a large sheet of heavy aluminium foil and pat the dressing over the roast. Fold the foil over the roast to seal it and tuck the ends under so that it is completely covered. Roast at 325 degrees for about 2 hours. If you want the edges to really crust (as I do) just push the foil down on the sides to expose the roast.

When you cook/serve it just take the dressing from the roast, slice the meat and thicken the drippings into a gravy.

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Tips for Cooking Wild Meat

by Woodsbum

Cooking wild meat seems to be one of the many questions that I get on a regular basis. For some reason people don’t know that much about cooking game animals. It might be due to a drastic decrease in the amount of hunters. Maybe it is due to the decrease in the amount of people that can actually cook something that didn’t come in cellophane. No matter what the underlying cause, I hope these tips might help any of you out that are fuzzy on how to prepare and cook game.

Before I start I want to toss out this disclaimer: I am not a chef. I am also not a food preparation or cooking expert. I am just a slightly overweight guy that loves food and has been cooking for himself since he was a teenager. Since I grew up very rural and lived off a lot of wild game, I had to learn how to prepare it where nonhunters would eat it. This is not an easy task, but I have now gotten to the point where some of my preparations have wild game that is almost 100% undetectable to the common city dweller..

This list is not all inclusive, but will give you a little bit of a foundation from which to work from. As times goes on I will include some recipes and meal preparation ideas to assist you in creating some great meals.

The first item I will address is the common response when talking about wild game: “It just tastes too gamy.” This “gamy” taste is usually connected with meat that was not properly cleaned and drained of blood. Although old timers tend to like the flavor that wild meat tends to have, the average grocery grazer has no interest in anything that tastes out of what they consider normal. To keep this taste from overwhelming your dishes you need to follow the following steps.

Several of these tips are associated with grilling or hot smoking. Others are in reference to stewing.

  • Squeeze out all the blood from the meat. Start by soaking the meat for a period of time and then squeeze out all the blood while running the meat under running water. This removes much of the gamy flavor that people complain about. Some people claim that soaking for at least 2 hours in buttermilk, milk, boiling water, apple cider, or even salt water help. I address the apple cider boiling further down the list.
  • Ensure all the “slime” is off the meat. Wild game tends to have an odd slime on the outside of the meat. Before you cook the meat it is important to either brush off or scrape off this “slime.” Inner cuts of meat will not have this slimy layer so many of you who do not process your own game may not know what I am talking about. The think to remember is that you want the meat as clean as possible. Any impurities will cook off or burn off depending on how you cook (for the most part), but it leaves odd flavors in the process.
  • Use liberal amounts of seasoning. Although frying meat does produce its own flavor, grilling meat tends to do two things: adds smoke flavor to the meat and allows added spices or rubs to drip off. The meat will absorb flavor best (in my opinion and experience) when you first start to see the juices coming to the surface. This happens in two stages. Light juice is visible as the cooking side starts to seal up and the moisture is pushed to the top side of the meat. The second time is when the meat is cooked about 1/2 way through. This is when you see standing pools of juice on the meat. I will cover more on this later on.

    Use liberal amounts of seasoning

    Use liberal amounts of seasoning

  • Don’t use too high of temperature when cooking wild game. If you sear the bottom and don’t allow all the seasoning to be fully absorbed throughout the entire cut a lot of the gamy flavor will come out. You will also get an odd texture that many dislike about wild game. Cook the game slowly and over heat ranges (for light smoke/grill/campfire) around 225 degress Fahrenheit.
  • Only flip it once. Keep your eye on the meat and the way that the juices are accumulating on the top side. If you flip the meat too many times it tends to dry out and toughen up. This also changes the texture and changes it to one that people dislike.
  • If you are cooking an animal that tends to be greasy you can boil it for a short time before grilling, smoking or frying. I like to use apple of some sort for what are commonly considered “trash” or “greasy” animals. Such species include raccoon, squirrel, certain types of duck/geese, and bear when it has been living in and around human settlement. These animals all pick up odd flavors from the food that they eat and raccoons are a great example. I like to boil mine in apple for several minutes before I perform my finishing cooking method. Strong flavored meats such as types of goat or pig can be boiled in beer for a few minutes to remove odd game flavors. Both of these methods help with the slime that tends to form on greasy types of meat.

    Be careful when cooking after boiling meat. It will dry out quickly. I caught this squirrel just before it got too dry.

    Be careful when cooking after boiling meat. It will dry out quickly. I caught this squirrel just before it got too dry.

Watching the juice accumulation on the meat is very important. This tells you where in the thickness of meat that the cooking process has reached. As more and more juice accumulates on the top side of the cut, the closer to the center of the cut is cooked. For example:

  • Small droplets begin to form on the top of the cut on the grill. This means that the bottom side has seared shut and juices are beginning to be pushed to the top side. When this happens it is at the tail edge of when seasoning is pulled into the core of the meat. If you have not already seasoned the meat, you should do so quickly. This is also the point where you will end up with a rare cut if you flip it now.
  • Medium sized droplets of juice appearing on the top of the cut mean that you are getting to the medium rare to medium stage of the cooking process. There will be no real standing “puddles” of juice, but the droplets are starting to be big enough to run and join together.

    Shiny top of meat when it gets to the medium rare stage

    Shiny top of meat when it gets to the medium rare stage

  • Standing puddles of juice appearing on the top of the cut mean that the meat has reached the medium well to well stage. Flipping the cut now will leave no pick and an almost grey color throughout the entire cut. This is also the point where the meat starts to dry out and changes texture. Be vary careful at this point. When it looks like “blood” has started to accumulate on top of the cut you have cooked it too long. If you start to see the juices turning color and becoming less clear in nature it is very important to flip the meat quickly and season the other side before the cut dries too much.

These guidelines work great for cooking over open flame or frying, but things change a bit when you are going to stew out a critter. When you are making a stew or doing a “critter” with noodles type dinner it is important to keep an eye on the cooking process. You really need to make sure that the meat is really coming off the bone and the striations are separating with ease. Image that point with chili steak that allows you use a potato masher, but the meat doesn’t turn to mush. It is the perfect “pulled pork” spot. That is what you are looking for. Each section of meat coming off the bone stays together, but can easily be pulled apart. For whatever reason wild game tends to become more like a clam when over cooked in a stew and less like beef or chicken. There is a “perfect” spot, but if you leave it too long it doesn’t make it more tender. It shrivels and the texture becomes odd.

Lastly, a lot of the “drippins” that are used for gravy contain much of the gamy flavor that turns people off. If you can drain some of the juices and dilute it with some beef broth people will like it more.

Those are my main wild critter cooking tips. I will keep referring to them as I add recipes. Hope this helped!!!!

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Gift Neck Knife

by Woodsbum

I have been working on a gift neck knife combo for my son in law’s birthday. He does not have any real field knives for camping, hunting or bushcrafting so I thought that a solid neck knife would be the best way to get him started.

When choosing a good field knife, I like to look at how harsh someone is going to be on the blade. My son in law doesn’t do a lot of woodcarving, but wants to get more into hunting. Getting him something that was lighter on the bushcraft and heavier on the camp type chores seemed like a good target. The blank I chose was a MP Classic built by Matt Paul in New York. We have several of his builds and have been very happy with them. Getting a solid blank from Matt was a no brainer since I wanted something to eventually become an heirloom. Because this was going to be my first “outdoor gear” gift for him it was very important that I do a lot of the work to get it built and ready. It might not have been important to him, but I wanted him to know that I was willing to spend a lot of time and energy in creating something that will last his whole lifetime.

When I went shopping for scales I looked for something different, but went with the classic lines of the blank. There was no real shape to the handle so something simple and elegant seemed like the right choice. I chose some paduk that had some phenomenal color and grain. For pins I used some brass stock.

Fitting the handle on a straight lined knife handle is not nearly as easy as one would think. There are no curves or shapes that you can use to hide small imperfections. Everything has to be completely straight and smooth to feel right.

Unwaxed and initial shaping

Unwaxed and initial shaping

To finish the handle I melted in some carnuba wax and polished it. For some reason the pudak soaked the wax up so I didn’t get the high sheen I was expecting. This is okay, however. The lowered gloss of the handle goes well with the sheath I made him.

Waxed

Waxed

To compliment this knife I wanted a sheath that was completely different than what you would normally see. I started off by making a leather liner out of 8 oz leather. Due to my normal picture taking deficiencies, I have had to add this picture of another sheath I am making so you can see the gist of what I did. From the picture you can see that I just did a simple taco sheath without a welt.

Liner

Liner

And then I wet formed the sheath into a Scandinavian style form.

Wet formed liner

Wet formed liner

Once I got this wet formed I wrapped it in rawhide. The process involves a lot of soaking, stretching and is then sewn along the same lines as the liner. The rawhide was left overlapping the liner at the top so that I would be able to hit it with a heat gun and shrink it around the knife handle. In this picture you can see how I shrunk the rawhide to form it around the top of the leather liner.

Top of finished sheath

Top of finished sheath

The back of the sheath, like I mentioned already, is sewn along that same line as the liner. As the rawhide dried it pulled around the lines of the blade.

Back of finished sheath

Back of finished sheath

I finished up the sheath with a leather lace that I whipped onto the ring. For adjustability I added the fisherman’s knot on the side. You can also see how tightly the top of the sheath fits against the knife handle in this picture as well. This will keep water from running down into the sheath and hopefully help protect everything. To keep the blade from rusting I squirted some oil into the sheath and waxed the inside of the liner.

Top of finished sheath and knife fit

Top of finished sheath and knife fit


Hopefully my son in law likes his birthday gift. The sheath is still drying, but I hope to have it completely ready for use by the time I see him on Sunday. Lucky for me, he doesn’t read my site.

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