Friday's Forward Assist

With Fall comes the introduction of 'sub-seasons': football season goes into full-swing (on all levels), festivals pop-up in abundance (around here, the big ones are the Big Bone Salt Festival, the Kentucky Wool Festival and the Renaissance Festival), bow season kicks off with rifle season right around the corner and it's also the time frame that I consider 'build season'.
We have officially waved goodbye to the brutal humidity of the Ohio River Valley's Summer months and are welcoming, with open arms might I add, the Fall season with its endless cool breeze, beautiful colors and the plethora of Autumnal events that come along with it. My favorite Autumn event, personally, is hunting season.
If you're with me in the 'hunting season rocks' category, then we have a few things in common: we need to figure out when we're hitting the stand ( letting the wife and everyone know these dedicated dates), where that stand will be and what tools and gear are we packing out for each respective hunt. This, the planning phase, is where things get creative, each decision you make now can, and likely will, have a considerable impact on how your Fall season turns out.
For me, this is where my mind always takes me into 'I need a new rifle' mode, the wife and my wallet tend to disagree with this notion, especially since opening the safe door is like popping a can of biscuits (the gift and the curse of working in the firearm industry). I find that the most budget friendly way to optimize your hunting loadout and finding the proper tool to land that monster buck who's been teasing your trail cams is to build your own -or- begin putting some custom work in on a rifle that already belongs to your arsenal.
Location: The 'where' holds the greatest value for me in this decision-making process. I guess I would be what you could consider a non-traditional hunter, I'm not what I would consider, a seasoned hunter. As a matter of fact, my first time ever hunting was a little over three years ago, it was a mountain lion hunt in Montana. I had been 'hunting' prior to that but it was all inclusive with my time serving in the Marine Corps, as an engineer, we 'hunted' explosive devices to keep our infantry brothers out of harm's way from Point A to B and we hunted terrorists all along the way. This year, the two hunts that I am looking at include whitetail in Ohio and potential for an elk hunt in Arizona.
Why does location hold such a heavy impact? Well, simply because different states tend to have different rules and regulations when it comes to hunting. For instance, hunting for a predatory animal, such as a puma, in a state like Montana is common. The mountain lion population is at a level that has an impact on farmers and maintaining their livestock. In some states, where the population may be at a low level or at a level not high enough to have significant repercussions, mountain lions may be protected and may not be available to hunt at all or tags are dealt via lottery selection, much like elk tags in Kentucky.
Another key-note regulation to look at based on location is what cartridges are legal for your desired destination. Kentucky only requires, for modern gun, that the cartridge be centerfire, while states like Indiana, Ohio and Michigan require a straight walled cartridge. This year, for my whitetail hunt in Ohio, I'm going .350 Legend. Not a new round to the world (introduced by Winchester in 2019), but a new round to me, I only recently discovered it as I watched our engineers develop Anderson's newest series, the two .350 Legends, Sharpshooter and Marksman.
This cartridge has peaked my interest because I am a .357 fan, actually one of the first weapons I ever had the opportunity to fire was a .357 Magnum revolver, the .350 Legend's projectile is .357. Although this round is not designed to reach out and touch something at long-range it does have an effective range of 250 yards and from experience, is dead-locked on target from 100 yards. I love the idea of this heavy projectile with intense force behind it, a true 'one hitter quitter' and this relieves the angst of my prey suffering in their last moments, which is very important to me.
Self-Inventory- At this point, I need to take inventory of what I already have stowed away in the safe and contemplate how I can make this work for my planned hunts this year. In my case, I have a few complete AM-15 Lower Receivers and the one that I'm thinking about in particular is my lower fitted with a Magpul PRS Lite Buttstock and the 'ol' faithful' Hogue Overmolded Grip. These options hold the most weight for me because I know that I am going to be shooting stationary (from tree stand) and I want my lower receiver to optimize shooter ergonomics. I want to be as relaxed and comfortable as I can be in my shooting position and every little component should coincide with this notion, I love the full adjustability of the PRS Lite and the rubber grip of the Hogue suits my hand perfectly.
Based on my analysis and internal inventory, for this season, I am going to be putting together a .350 Legend Upper Receiver. October is the month, like, the month! In October, I am going to do my upper build, which won't take long at all- I just love building and it's becoming a fairly routine activity for me at this point. I'm going to have to do some research and look into what optics I'm going to run (most likely via Primary Arms, love their optics and variety of options) or if I'm sticking with what I already have, then, getting to the range.
Time- Hitting the range at this time of year is crucial. Getting that zero, getting dialed in while becoming comfortable with your hunting tool will become a key component when reflecting on this year's season. No pressure, but it's going to make or break your hunt, you don't want to look back on this hunting season and think 'did I really have my rifle zeroed in? Did I rush it?' Next thing you know, you missed a trophy buck at 50 yds. because you didn't want to look 'amateur' at the zero range with your friends. This is the time of the year to refamiliarize and get as comfortable as possible with your rifle, I recommend shooting as much as you can prior to hitting the tree stand. The more comfortable you are with your tools, the more precise you will be and the confidence will translate into results.
Check in with us next week as we look into the BYO (Build Your Own) Series!...