Gunfest mk III Pre-run

[IXNAYXJ]

Last Saturday, myself, Ian (Slacker87XJ), Jay (pSYCedXJ) and Matt (Matt_West) took a drive out to Tinkham road off I-90 to see if the snow had melted enough for us to reach our Gunfest proving grounds. For the first time in recorded history, Ian actually beat other human beings to a location where there was an agreed upon meeting time.

Not that he was on time, but Jay and I were running late. So imagine my surprise when I get a phone call from Ian asking if we could drive down Tinkham Road and look for Matt, as he also was not at the meeting spot. No problem.

I stopped at the first Tinkham Rd. exit and aired down (all four tires in about 1.3 minutes, thanks to me Rimrock Supply Rapid Air Deflators) to about 12 psi, perfect for sliding around bumpy gravel roads.

I came around one of the corners and saw, out of my passenger window about 1/4 mile ahead, Matt's rig in the ditch:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII041.jpg

I pulled over and found out that his drag link had worked itself loose and robbed Matt of his steering. He was lucky he went off the road to the right side, as off to the left was a 100 foot deep ravine.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII044.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII045.jpg

I called Ian and told him of Matt's issues, and he met us there, performed some Slacker black magic, and we were back on our way:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII048.jpg

Once we started gaining altitude, Ian and I were amazed how different things look without a half-dozen feet of snow on them; the last time we had been up here was for the Hypothermia Run. Some of you may even recognize this picture:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Hypothermia%202007/CIMG0876.jpg

It shows Ian standing next to the tops of the gate posts guarding the Seattle Watershed. Here is Ian standing next to those same gate posts...neither of us realized just how deep the snow actually was:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII050.jpg

Last snow of the year...so we thought:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII052.jpg

One of my favorite places to take pictures:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII056.jpg

On the way to the top:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII059.jpg

Very steep and dug out section that proved harder than it looked. I actually got hung up here for a second (you can see the look of disbelief on my face) before finally powering through the snow.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII064.jpg

Things were going well, until we got to this section:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII070.jpg

The snow wasn't that deep, but the angle was such that it would have been very scary to try to cross. Couple that with the 1000 foot drop off on the low side and it wasn't worth trying. Instead, we put the snow bank to good use:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII075.jpg

Fun trip as always, and though we didn't make it to our goal, we still have a great time getting our t-cases into low range and killing an invading army of clay pidgeons...pics of that to follow.

-----Matt-----

[IXNAYXJ]

Now that this forum has been established, I figured I'd post up the rest of the pics that weren't allowed in normal NAXJA circulation:

Our range:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII073.jpg

Ian with his Sig (note spent casing):

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII076.jpg

Me shooting a seriously kick-ass AR:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII078.jpg

Another shot of this really nice rifle:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII079.jpg

Jay with his AR/M4:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII081.jpg

Matt West shooting his Remington 700:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j160/ixnayxj/Gunfest%20mk%20III/GI-JohnandGunfestIII082.jpg

There were a few other rifles and pistols there (a couple HK's, another Sig, my M1A SOCOM II, another AR etc), but we were having too much fun to take pics. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pics. Also, once the snow melts all the way (sometime in July, we anticipate) we'll go up there for the full Gunfest in true NWC tradition, so stay tuned for the full report on that trip.

-----Matt-----

[OverlandXJ]

Looks like a good time! I would have liked to fire a few rounds out of those awesome pieces. :cheers:

You had this ole man reaching for his glasses with the pic of the clays, i was WTF till i kept reading. Thanks for sharing.

Oh, glad Matt escaped serious damage to that fine looking Woody.

[Blkxjkrawler]

Nice Matt, I was wondering what all those clays were for in the original post;)
looking forward to GFmkIII
-Ryan

[planefixer]

Nice pics Matt.Looks like a damn good time.

[IntrepidXJ]

looks like a lot of fun :) thanks for sharing!

[RichP]

I used to do that with the neighborhood kids, take them shooting at the range and shoot at clays on the ground and water balloons. They always had a ball, case of soda, chips, pretzels, etc, couple of bricks of federal .22's and some yard sale $20 22 rifles. Kinda miss that now that they are all grown up, most were 8-12 years old. Caught flack from the old timers at the club but I usually responded with 'these are the ones who are going to carry on from you guys'...