A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
The right bullet for the job
A
s I continue to
get to know more
and more hunt-
ers and shooters, I realize
just how basic most folks’
working knowledge is
about rifles, ballistics, pro-
jectiles, etc. The maga-
zines and internet are full
of suggestions, pros and
cons and some actual field
performance reports. It can
be confusing. The follow-
ing are some tips about
how to know which bullets
to choose.
An honest self-exam-
ination must take place.
Firstly, where do you like
to shoot your game ani-
mals? Location is just as
important as bullet perfor-
mance. If you’re a “behind
the shoulder” type, most
any soft bullet will pene-
trate the ribs and expand in
the vitals. If you are an “in
the shoulder” type, a thick-
er-jacketed bullet would
be more reliable due to its
increased
penetrative
abilities.
As the
accompany-
ing graphic
shows, not
Dale Valade
all bul-
lets are the
same. Collected by myself
or close friends from game
animals or test media, you
can see various bullets
perform in various differ-
ent ways.
Growing up, I con-
stantly was brow-beaten
with the two schools of
thought. The first school
of thought believed that
ideal bullet performance
occurred when a lighter
bullet penetrated to the
vitals and fragmented, the-
oretically expending all
its energy within the ani-
mal. The second school
of thought was that one
should load a heavy bul-
let that would penetrate the
Contributed photo
Bullets penetrate differently based on their design. Choosing the right bullet that
corresponds with the desired shot placement improves efficiency.
extent of the chest cavity,
exiting the off side, theoret-
ically causing more rapid
hemorrhaging via both the
entrance and exit
wounds.
Neither are wrong in this
case if your chosen bul-
let is compatible with your
idea of perfect shot place-
ment. Lighter, higher-veloc-
ity bullets with thin jackets
seldom penetrate in heavy,
bone dense areas such as
the front shoulder. A bul-
let that splatters on the out-
side of the shoulder will not
provide any kind of mortal
wounding, merely lesions in
the skin and underlying tis-
sue, leaving your game ani-
mal free to escape.
Likewise, heavier, thick-
er-jacketed bullets need
greater resistance for posi-
tive expansion. Thinner tis-
sues such as the ribs do
not provide much resis-
tance, and these heavier bul-
lets commonly pass right
through without providing
much shock. This will still
result in the death of your
game animal, but they may
O utlook
cover 100-200 yards before
piling up.
The over-the-counter
“Power Points and Core-
Lokts” are very basic bul-
lets and feature soft core,
thin jackets designed to
expand in minimal resis-
tance. The “bonded core
and monometals” are engi-
neered to retain weight and
require much more resis-
tance for their expansion.
Some efforts have been
made over the years to com-
bine the quick upset and
deep penetration bullet the-
ories with mixed results.
Each kind of bullet will
be effective on our intended
quarry if we pay attention
to shot placement. What-
ever your idea of perfect
performance might be,
there are likely several bul-
lets out there that would fit
the bill, provided you’re
using an appropriate cali-
ber for your intended game.
If you do experience bullet
failure, consider your shot
placement — likely as not,
you’re using the wrong kind
of bullet for your desired
shot placement. My advice
to you is once you’ve found
a bullet that works, stick
with it. As the old saying
goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t
fix it.”
What’s your go-to bul-
let? Email us at shootingth-
ebreezebme@gmail.com.
Dale Valade is a local
country gent with a deep
love for handloading, hunt-
ing and shooting.
SENI R
We did it! We survived
winter. Spring began at
2:58 p.m., DST March
20. Now, if we can get
rid of the Darn Silly
Time…we will all feel
Rose Coombs
better!
In our lost and found
department is a nice
gray/tan sweater vest; it appeared after the reception dinner for Vera
Clark. So, if you have any information on whose sweater this is, let us
know. We would be happy to return it to its rightful owner.
Tom is still celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, so the centerpieces on the
tables were still green clovers. The first table to line up at the serving
table had a blue hand in among the clover sprigs. Why? Because once
you are in God’s Hand you can’t be “plucked” out, OK?
Our meal was delicious spaghetti and meatballs, a green salad, French
bread and a choice of plain red Jell-O or orange with fruit Jell-O for
dessert. Thanks to Amber and Barbara for a great-tasting meal. The
March birthday recognition meal will be pork chops. Oh boy, oh boy.
Carlos and Jay took care of the home deliveries, Juan led the flag salute
and Jack asked the blessing. We registered 46 diners in all!
The winner of the gift certificate donated by Chuck’s Little Diner was
Cathy Lewis.
Don’t forget that there are activities before and after the meal in the old
hall: Pinochle at 10 a.m. and tai chi around 1 p.m. If neither of those
interests you, you can always settle down in the library with your choice
of books: mysteries, romance, nonfiction, historical, etc. There are still
lots of cookbooks to give away too. If you are still hard up to find
something to do, visit the Senior Sales corner back by the piano. New
things arrive every week!
Lorna and Krystin brought Marilyn Randall, Gordon Sindt and Lois
Wacken from the Blue Mountain Care Center.
We do want to let you know that the board meetings have been moved
to Tuesday mornings at 11 a.m. to make it easier for all concerned to
attend and hear; still on the third Tuesday of the month, though.
Another Prairie City announcement: there will not be a combined church
Easter service at the school this year. It was decided that after 25 years,
it was time for something different. So if you were planning on
attending that service you can do something different too. There will be
lots of different services throughout the county, so you needn’t stay
home. Get out and enjoy one or more!
Rom. 12:6 “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” I
Cor. 4:7 “For who makes you different from anyone else?” I Cor. 12:4-
6 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are
different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of
working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”
Spring has officially
sprung! Though, the
dusting of snow on
Saturday night/Sunday
morning wasn’t very
promising. But you can still
Dusty Harris
see the little tulips and
daffodils working their way
up! I wonder how much longer until we have tons of sunshine…
hmmmm.
ready for Easter? I love seeing how festive the stores get with
Prairie City
Seniors
John Day
Seniors
all the decorations and such. Hopefully the weather will be glorious for
Easter service and all the little ones hunting Easter eggs. I think I’ll start
planting in May this year… mid to late? Maybe. It’s hard to plan such
things with the weather being as silly as it has been. All I know is I’m
itching to get outside and spend time in a garden.
On March 21 our greeters were Everett King and Jeanette Julsrud. There
were a total of 48 meals delivered by David and Rodney, and Dennis
and Linda Dickinson. Randy Persinger won the Chester’s Thriftway gift
card, Joe Phippen won the free meals donated by Valley View Assisted
Some news for April 1: meals will be going up $1 for seniors and under so Living and Balbina won the sundae dessert donated by DQ. Our
lunch will now be $5 and $6. Bingo will also be starting at 1:30 p.m. from delicious meal was Polish sausage with onions and sauerkraut, mashed
then on. On March 18 our greeters were Everett and Gregg. There were 38 potatoes with country gravy, bread and ice cream for dessert. Shay
regular and 36 frozen meals delivered by David and Rodney who we
sends out a big thank you for the help when he was out of town to
appreciate so, so much. This week our meal was served by some
Linda, Veanne and Jean! Linda would like to thank Jan Ellison for
volunteers from the First Christian Church; thank you all for being so kind donating items for the silent auction. And I would like to thank all our
and generous. The meal was BBQ chicken pizza, salad, cheese-filled
wonderful volunteers, greeters, workers and attendees for being the best
breadsticks, honeydew melon, and pineapple cherry drop cake.
of the best!
I don’t recall who won the gift card from Len’s Drug so I am sorry for not Hebrews 12:14 “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to
mentioning them! The free meals were won by Jean Willy and the sundae be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
dessert donated by DQ was won by Carol Rowe. Are you guys getting
Our cooks, Terry Cade and
Carrie Jewell, have been
getting pretty creative; they
prepared for our lunch on
March 19 something new
again. We got served
Philly style sandwiches,
Soo Yukawa
French fries, pasta salad
and pudding with whipped
cream for our dessert. We had a bunch of happy people who enjoyed the
lunch, thanks to our great cooks.
We had Jimmy Cole, Linda Blakeslee, Kristi Guimont and Bodean
Andersen greeting everyone at the table. Bodean led us in the flag salute,
made the announcements, and prayed the blessing over our meal, Jimmy
and Linda collected and counted the money and Kristi helped to check in
the guests.
We had a total of 50 guests on the books and 10 takeouts. The winners of
the free meal tickets were Bill Nichols and Dorothy Jordan and Bob
Blakeslee won the gift card to Chester’s Thriftway. Donny Lippert’s aunt
and uncle joined us for lunch from John Day.
We had the K-6th graders come and give us a little preview with some
songs and actions of the upcoming Spring Concert. Their music teacher,
Janessa Pogue, did a great job with the kids. The Monument School Spring
Concert will be held on May 22. I will have to get back to you as to the
time, for I do not know at this moment.
Monument
Seniors
We had something else exciting that happened at the Monument School.
Our girls from Monument School won first place for the SKILS
program when they presented their project in Portland. They will be
heading on over to Nashville! Congratulations to those hardworking
girls; we are very proud of them.
There will be bingo for this last Saturday of the month of March. Bingo
starts at 6 p.m. with the first set of 10 games, then everyone breaks for a
potluck dinner and then will finish the next 10 rounds. Come try your
luck.
So, I took a better look at Tigger and realized that the big tooth mark on
the side of his face was not, and couldn’t possibly have been, Smokey.
It was like a fang mark and the size was not Smokey’s at all. Also, I saw
Smokey and she didn’t look like she got into a tizzy fight with anybody.
She would have had clumps of fur missing or another torn and bloody
ear, but no such thing on her. I think Tigger must have been in a death
fight with a larger animal. I decided to put some Bag Balm on him.
I think the Bag Balm healed him up pretty well; that is, until he decided
to (and this time I believe he was being a big booger and messed with
Smokey) get in Smokey’s space again. I’ve caught him eating up all his
food and then sneaking over to eat the rest of Smokey’s food. He is kind
of on the chunky side so I find it quite amazing that Tigger is able to
catch birds! I found some feathers of a poor unfortunate bird the other
day.
Proverbs 15:8 “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the
LORD: But the prayer of the upright is His delight.”
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