NDR- What a BLAST!

[Dave Parks]

I spent half the day today visiting with my old friend Johney Myers (the guy I helped with the building of his log home a 3 years ago). Johney had picked up a new LRER (long range elk rifle) and wanted me to be teh forst to shoot it. I figgered what the heck, ya only live once!

It was a SWEET littel 35 pound bolt action 50 BMG with a custom 12-28 variable 88 MM sniper scope (same as the ones used in Iraq). The muzzle blast is enough to take you out if you were standing to one side, but the is almost NO RECOIL. It felt about like a 20 ga. shooting lowbase 7-1/2's.



After I shot it and told Johney (left) there was no kick, it was his turn. As our friend Dave (manager of the local Hardware store) hands Johney a round of .50 Cal. BMG ammo, Johney looks at me with that "are you B.S.'ing me look". He thought I was just kidding him about there being no recoil....too funny.

 

[Dave Parks]

Here I am getting ready to shoot the first shot out of Johney's new LRER. I told him to get me some toilet paper for my ears, which he did. He asked me if it would really help with the noise? I told him "No, it's to soak up the blood, before it gets all over his back deck".




I don't care who you are, You won't be able to get a good picture of the gun going off. The muzzle blast is so damn load that there is no way you can hold the camera steady......it's awesome! Johney did his best to get the photo, but's it's still a bit blurry. You can see a little smoke though.



Next it was Johney's turn.



Here Johney aims at a white target he's placed up at the range I built him 200 yards from the back deck of the log cabin.



As you can see, I'm even worse that Johney at trying to keep the camera still when that beast goes off close to you. But man are they fun to shoot!

Dave

 

[Dave Parks]

Here's some of the mounts that Johney had done in the past two years. A bobcat and a badger.


Johney's moose he got in BC Canada in 2005.



Some of you will remember this big black bear. It was shot just minutes after Johney had shot a big mountain lion just a hundred yards from where he spotted this bear. It took me until 2 am to get the lion and the bear skinned out and ready for the taxidermist, that was a long afternoon and eveing. This bear scored 20 5/8" and I know it weighed over 500 pounds. I took over 100 pounds of fat off of it.



Another shot of his BC moose



There was a spot in the mater bedroom where the master bathroom is that had a large shelf-like area. Johney asked me when we were building the cabin what would look good there? I knew a gu who had an old mini-duck boat that was so old it was about to fall apart. I took Johney to see it and we decided at 10 foot it would look pretty neat up on that shelf in the master bedroom, so the guy gave it to Johney and get this....Johney's wife loves it up on that shelf in THEIR master bedroom! Too cool.



Dave

 

[Dave Sikorski]

WOW...I think I need a LRER. I don't think I could shoot off the back deck though.

Great mounts too.

Thanks for sharing Dave.

-D

 

[Mike Repp]

WOW that is awesome deffinitly want one of those! At 35 lb I dont think I would want to lug it too far but then again with that combo you would be able to reach out and touch em! Nice mounts, nice place he has there. Are your ears still ringing?

 

[Lee Harker]

Where's the cougar mount? I can't believe you only had kleenex in your ears when you touched that behemouth off. Did it help at all? Standing behind Bezubics Weatherby 338/378 when it went off was awesome..I can only guess what it was like when that .50 went off..probably would have made my nose bleed. Did you hit the target? Was the barrel burning hot after each shot? I see Johnny has his finger wrapped around it in the pic. Were you shooting millitary ammo? I always wanted one of those semi auto big 50's..nowhere to shoot one around here.

 

[george wilson]

elk hunting from a mile away - almost doesn't seem fair! lol

i wonder if there is anything left to eat after being shot

 

[Rich Alley]

Does that rifle come with a mortar crew and forward observer?

Thanks for the insight and pics!

 

[Shermie]

wow !! to cool !!man you guys have the life

 

[Dave Parks]

Shooting the big "50" was a lot of fun and we look forward to taking it over to a spot in eastern Oregon where we done long range shooting for several years.

Lee, Johney had that cougar skin tanned and it is on the rail upstairs that looks down onto the living room. He already has a full body mount of one he shot a few years ago. It is on the wall in his sporting goods department at his store in Rogue River.

The TP in my ears probably didn't help much, but my ears don't ring anymore....too many years of shooting a .44 mag S&W I guess. As for hitting the target....I don't know? Ot was the first time the gun had been shot. Johney had one of those lazer cartridge gizmo's that we tried using to bore sight it with, but I could not see the red dot at any distance over 10 yeards. So, we were really shooting it to see what it would feel like.

If you think about what a .50 BMG round is...........it's nothing more than a .30-06 that has been enlarged. The barrel on this single shot bolt action is over an inch in diameter, so all things being equal....the barrel does not get any hotter than a shooting an '06. After four shots the barrel was arely warm.

We were shooting hollow-point hunting loads in it. I imagine Johney will be getting a reloading press for it an have me start loading hunting ammo for it.
BTW that FBM lion he has at his store will be coming home soon, he has sold his business (general store, pharmacy & sporting dept.) and as soon as the new owners get their FFL Johney will be official retired. He leaves next week for his place in Loreto, Baja to oversee the building of his home there. There are now more than 600 Americans living in Loreto now. Infact he just bought a Sea Swirl 23 foot Striper from a neighbor that never used it much down there. The boat has only 40 hours on it and it's now sitting on it's trailer in Johney's worshop/garage in Loreto. A 2300 Striper is on the cover of Cabela's 2007 Salmon-Steelhead catalog I noticed.

Ya, Johney has been on a buying spree lately, he bought some property 15 miles south of Pueblo, CO. and a new 38' 5th wheel travel trailer for a portable hunting camp and is waiting for me to get a place in Montana so he can slap a Cabels's cabin on it for his visits with us. He's been working hard since becoming a pharmacist right after his tour of Vietnam back in the '70's. He worked and saved until he got a Thrifty Drug Store franchaise, built it up and sold it to buy his own business 15 years ago in Rogue River. Now he's 49, retired and pretty "well healed" as they say. As long as I've know him, he's been one of the nicest guys and hardest hunting persons's I have known. He was the first person to show up at the hospital when I had my stroke and he really took over as my doctor while I was in there. I can remember him telling them what drugs to give me adn I'm sure he was significant in my early recovery. Friends like that are priceless IMO.

Dave

 

[Joe Friday]

Wow. That's a great cabin! It is my dream to have a place like that someday, too. Thanks for posting those pictures.