Last evening, after dinner I took a little Jeep drive over to the corral where the entrance into Six Mile Canyon is located.
Today wasn't rainy out, but there were plenty of clouds. The Six Mile Canyon Road was dry and the culverts were passable.
I stopped at the corral and took the following photos:
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| Above, the Jeep where Six Mile Canyon Road branches off. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Yesterday afternoon, I took a drive in Six Mile Canyon. The weather was nice with a few clouds and some wind. But otherwise it was sunny.
I saw a couple of other vehicles driving in the canyon and one camper. It was a relaxing drive.
Naturally, I took a few photos.
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| Above, the Jeep at the corral. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
I headed over to Six Mile Canyon of the Cibola National Forest. It was still warm and there was some sunlight even though it was cloudy out.
I first stopped at the old corral at the entrance to Six Mile Canyon and took some photos. Then I headed into the canyon. There was one other vehicle in the canyon (it was a side-by-side) but it was heading out.
So far, I haven't seen any cattle in the canyon this year, but they are probably in another section of it.
After a drive of a few miles, I turned around so that I can head back home.
I noticed that gasoline at the Flying J went up in price. It was $3.59 the other day for unleaded regular. It it at $3.79 today. I thought prices would be coming down now that the Iran war has ended. I guess the oil companies haven't gotten the memo.
Some photos:
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| Above, the Jeep in Six Mile Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
After having my usual Sunday breakfast at the Silver Screen Restaurant at the El Rancho Hotel and doing some grocery shopping this morning, I relaxed on the deck with a beer (Alien Amber Ale, of course!).
When I was done with that, I decided to take a drive into Six Mile Canyon of the Cibola National Forest.
I saw only one vehicle there and he was leaving the canyon. I headed in.
After a little while, I noticed a big black cloud coming in from the Southwest. We're nearing Monsoon Season and I know they can (and do) produce heavy downpours. It was getting windy and some rain drops started falling as it approached.
I decided to make a u-turn near where the windmill is located and head out. I don't need to get drenched and possibly have the road washed out.
Other than that, I enjoyed the drive, even though I had to cut it a little short.
Some photos:
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| Above, today at the corral and Six Mile Canyon entrance. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Today has been a relaxing one.
I took a little recreational drive in the Jeep around our subdivision and over to the corral at the entrance into Six Mile Canyon.
It was cloudy out and the forecast has possible thundershowers today.
I cut my drive short as it was beginning to sprinkle. We can sure use it! Monsoon season begins there later this month. It is hoped that we get a good amount of rain here.
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| Above, the Jeep in Six Mile Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Tomorrow is the start of this year's Memorial Day weekend.
As has been my usual custom, I plan on spending it at home. Many others will likely do the same since gasoline prices has jumped.
There was a time when my family and I would head to the Mother Lode region of California for Memorial Day weekend and camp in Columbia, a gold rush mining town. It still is a mining town, except it is mining tourist dollars. We camped at the Marble Quarry RV Park. It is so-named as it is near a marble quarry.
I will probably take a Jeep drive or two into Six Mile Canyon of the Cibola National Forest. It is located right next to our community in Jamestown, New Mexico (nice and handy, eh?).
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| Above, yours truly with the Ruger 10/22 yesterday. Photo by Larry Lucier. |
Yesterday, I had some difficulty with my Ruger 10/22 rifle. I have a Bushnell scope on it, but it wasn't hitting where the cross hairs were aimed at.
Obviously, I have to adjust, or zero, the scope.
I found a website explaining how to do scope adjustments. It is from NRA Women.
It starts with:
Though most of us utilize a riflescope on our hunting or long-range precision rifles, few of us (myself included) truly grasp the real complexity of our optics. We know to turn this dial to do one thing and turn the other dial to do another thing, and that’s about it.
Truth is, that’s really enough for most of us. Studying optics gets you deep into the weeds very quickly, and most of us don’t need to know exactly how the image we’re seeing through our scope is produced. But knowing just a little bit about what’s going on inside that scope will help you better understand why and how your dials work the way they do.
First, a quick primer on what those dials (called turrets) do.
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| Above, the scope with the turret caps on. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, the scope's elevation turret with the cap off. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, the windage turret with the cap off. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
This post is for my future reference and for those who have to adjust their scopes.
To read more, go here.
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| Above, yours truly with the Ruger 10/22. Photo by Larry Lucier. |
It was a nice day for plinking at the shooting area. The only issue was that it was a little windy.
Joining Larry Lucier and I was Victor Gomez.
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| Above, Victor Gomez and his revolver. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
All three of us just shot .22 caliber ammunition. It is a lot cheaper these days.
We all had a good time. I have to get my Bushnell scope on my 10/22 adjusted (or zeroed). I would aim perfectly at the target but kept missing. The targets were probably too much further away as well. I did much better with the .30-30 Winchester during the last shoot. I basically couldn't shoot the broadside of a barn today.
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| Above, Larry Lucier shooting his Henry .22. lever-action. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
We tried to go to Denny's for coffee afterwards, but they were closed with yellow fire warning tape draped across the main entrance. It has been closed off at least since Tuesday.
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| Above, the .22s I will be shooting with today. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Today's the day that we'll be heading to the Cibola National Forest shooting area to do some target shooting.
This time, I am limiting my guns to two .22 caliber rifles: the Winchester 62A (inherited from my maternal grandfather) made in 1947 and the Ruger 10/22 (made in 1983).
I was holding off packing for the shoot until this morning as it looked like it might rain in the area. That would render the roads to the shooting area as too muddy. But, no rain came (even though we had a 60% chance forecast) yesterday. So, we're good to go.
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| Above, the shooting area a few years ago. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
It looks like this coming week will be a nice warm one.
With comfortable temperatures in the 70s, it looks like good plinking weather at the Jamestown/Cibola National Forest shooting area. The only issue may be wind, but it doesn't look like the winds will be much.
According to the National Weather Service, the weather in Jamestown looks like this:
Sunny, with a high near 77.
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| Above, McGaffey Lake today. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
To get to McGaffey, I took Six Mile Canyon Road through Six Mile Canyon. The weather was pleasant (although a little windy) and the road was in good shape.
Once I got to McGaffey, I noticed that McGaffey Lake was pretty low. We hadn't received much precipitation this year. Hopefully the monsoon season (that starts in June) will add much more water to it.
Outside of trucks hauling dirt or gravel, I was the only one in McGaffey. I did drive around some ranch areas to the east. But turned around as the trucks were kicking up too much dirt.
Still, I had a great time during this drive and did take a few pictures.
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| Above, at the windmill. |
For the first time this year, I took a Jeep drive into Six Mile Canyon of the Cibola National Forest.
This was my first opportunity as either the culverts along the road were too muddy or I was out-of-town. It was cloudy out with some wind.
I saw one camper in the canyon during my drive. I made a stop at the windmill and found that a solar panel was added to it.
Naturally, I made use of the stop for a photo opportunity.
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| Above, the gate to Six Mile Canyon is open. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
I am happy to report that the gate is open to allow vehicles (ATV, side-by-side, Jeeps) into the canyon.
So now I can drive the Jeep into the canyon and drive all the way to McGaffey Lake.
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| Above, the Jeep inside national forest property off of Mustang Road. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Yesterday was perfect. It was about 70° outside, so it was neither cold nor hot. It was a good day for some more Jeepin'.
I took a drive up the hill from home and reached Mustang Road, an east-west side street. It tapered off as a hilly dirt road.
I drove it for a bit and reached a barbed wire fence that had a sign indicating that it was national forest property on the other side. There was an opening in the fence at that point, so I drove in.
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| Above, the national forest property beyond the fence opening. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Up ahead was a square area (photo above) that had some sort of border that was of sheet metal. It may have been some sort of corral at one time. It looked as if it hadn't been used for a long time. I drove around it for a while then headed back out though the opening I came in. I think this is a part of the Six Mile Canyon area of the Cibola National Forest. This was the first time I had driven in it. As the canyon was still closed to vehicles, I didn't feel it was prudent to continue driving in it. I could have gotten a citation from a patrolling ranger.
Still it was fun driving in an area I hadn't been in before.
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| Above, after getting home, I fired up the mini bike. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
After getting home, I fired up the mini bike. It had been over a month since I last did so. It took a while to start, but it eventually fired up.
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| Above, the Jeep at the windmill in Six Mile Canyon. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
We're fast approaching when Six Mile Canyon (our playground) of the Cibola National Forest is open to vehicles. Officially, the canyon is closed to vehicles from December 15 until March 31 for the winter season.
It will be nice to be able to drive the Jeep into the canyon to explore or take a drive up to the McGaffey Lake recreational area. I last did so in November.
As it has been a relatively dry winter season, wildfire restrictions will likely continue. Several of us Jamestown residents have cleared brush and cut down trees for wildfire safety. A wildfire can't spread if deprived of fuel.
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| Above, before his mishap, Larry shooting his pistol. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
It was reasonably warm outside with very little wind.
I started out shooting my Winchester 62A .22 pump action rifle and Larry started out with his .22 Henry lever-action rifle. Neither of us could hit the broadside of a barn when we had the targets set at 50 yards, so we moved them in to 25 yards. We did much better then.
After that, I switched to shooting eight one-gallon jugs of water with my Winchester 94 .30-30. It was fun watching them explode. Larry switched to a .22 cal. pistol.
That's when we started having a couple of mishaps.
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| Above, yours truly holding the Winchester 94 and the shredded shooting bag. Photo by Larry Lucier. |
It started with me shooting the Winchester 94 from my table with my shooting bags. Somehow, the barrel of the rifle slipped off right when I was firing and it blasted the larger of the two bags to pieces. I thought for sure that I would thereafter be the butt of jokes over this. But, something a bit worse happened.
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| Above, Larry showing his wounded index finger. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Larry was shooting his .22 pistol and somehow his left index finger went over the gun's muzzle and the round grazed his finger. It was a small cut with powder burns around it. It was a good thing that it was a .22 and not a larger caliber.
We continued shooting for a little while more and then packed up and later met up with "Uncle Bob" at Jerry Cafe for dinner. Naturally, we had a good conversation about our shooting mishaps.
As it is said, sh*t happens!
