I just got back today from my somewhat annual camping trip. I usually go up alone and spend three days testing out a variety of equipment. For this trip I
selected my newly scoped Mosin 1891/30. I had an ATI mount installed and dropped a 4X on it. With iron sights I got really great groups, using Soviet 148 gr
milsurp, usually around 1" at 60 yards. I was also testing out some water purifiction tabs, chlorine based, I also brought with me some archers tree steps
to see if I could find a use for them. I also tested out my ALICE gear which I had replaced all the clips with 550 cord.
I get dropped off about three miles from where I do my testing. I walk up a creek to get there using those cheap water shoes you get at Wal-Mart which I have to say are great to have with you if you expect to have to get your feet wet and are going to be more than one day.
During the hike up the Mosin was long and cumbersome and was a real pain, walking the creek I actually had to strap the thing to my back which I dont like to do.
Three miles later gaining 700 feet in elevation I reached my training zone, heavy timber with a few clear cuts and some unused logging roads. I passed by the camp site I had used about two years ago and set about finding a place to lay my head and stash my gear for the next few nights.
So here I am tired and walking the outer edge of a CAT trail when I see some piping on the ground. It spiked my interest, I checked the pipe to see if it was cold, it wasnt. I looked both ways and found that the pipe which was partially hidden went on for quite some time. So here I am thinking, "I have a rifle that has not been sighted in and my back up weapon being a .380 I brought just to scare away a bear if I had to, which I may tell you are EVERYWHERE up there.
So the pipes are more than likely some marijuana operations irrigation system. I kept going and found a campsite about a quarter mile from the piping and stashed my gear. I would have probably left but I had no ride home, I get dropped off and picked up three days later.
My whole intention was to sight in the rifle and engage some paper targets from 1-300 yards away. Now I am faced with a dilemma, should I actually shoot my weapon to get it sighted in or maintain silence and keep a low profile. I pondered the question for a while weighing my options. I could leave the area and find a new place to camp a few miles away risking running into another set of hoses and being even more wiped out than I was. These operations are all over so I couldnt be to sure. My other option was to do a recon using all the stealth I could muster and find out whether or not this was an active grow and recon the rest of the area to make sure there wasnt another grow in the area.
I hydrated and cammied up. I stashed the Mosin and locked and loaded the little .380. Going into a possible bad situation with a K-Bar and a Kel-Tec. Whoopie.
You are probably wondering why this topic is in the Milsurp semi-auto section, I thought it appropriate because I kept wishing I had my SKS.
Using all the stealth I had I made my way through the brush and hoping to intersect with the pipe. I sniffed, looked, and listened. Almost to the pipe now. I see the bottom half of a man in a thick stand of timber. I stop and crouch lower, no not the bottom half of a man, a pair of pants hanging on a log. I scan, I see empty plant carriers strewn about. I see a mound of trash in the thick stand of timber. No one around. I make my way carefully to just outside the stand. No one had been there for a year. I follow the pipe for about 400 yards and find two 6 foot in diameter 6 foot deep pits with plastic at the bottom, stagnat water inside. This took some major work. I found shallow depressions in the earth all over showing where the plants had been grown.
Once I had secured the area I went back to inspect the trash. From the heaping mound of trash half buried I found that this grow had been worked by Mexicans from the types of food, the dates on the food packages told me that this grow had been last years 2008. Funny because I was supposed to go to this area last year and do my campout but I had to cancel.
I counted the number of plant containers, you know the six pack of those little black containers that stores sell live plants in. Around 120.
At dark I finished my area search and returned to my camp. I hadnt found another grow within a mile but I still didnt start a fire, paranoia. I leaned back against a tree and pulled my sleeping bag up and thought to myself. "What if I had come up last year?" Last year I was planning on bringing my SKS, probably would have been a good thing too. It also occured to me that I a stand up guy out to get away and do some plinking may not be safe to do so in the woods. This fact totally got me angry.
I know I started a thread a while back about this subject and I am in no way trying to rekindle any kind of debate about the mission here.
I do think it is sad however that I can not go where I please in the woods without worrying about coming into contact with one of these grows. In fact last week LEO's got into a shoot out with some Mexican Nationals while doing a recon one county away. Two officers wounded, one dead grower.
I tell my girlfriend when she drops me off for my trip, "There is more danger downtown than in these woods." Not anymore.
I did get the Mosin sighted in by the way. I still need to get used to the trigger, pulling a few shots. I wish I would have had my SKS. There was no distance that I could not have used my SKS to engage targets that I had come across in this terrain. The archers screw in tree steps where of great benefit by screwing them in low and using them as a rifle rest while prone, the Katyndn or whatever chlorine tabs where a welcome change from the iodine I am used to. The ALICE gear preformed without hitch and was much more comfortable and also was lighter feeling using the 550.
So, do some research, find out if your woods are home to this type of activity and be very careful where you decide to go if it is.
I get dropped off about three miles from where I do my testing. I walk up a creek to get there using those cheap water shoes you get at Wal-Mart which I have to say are great to have with you if you expect to have to get your feet wet and are going to be more than one day.
During the hike up the Mosin was long and cumbersome and was a real pain, walking the creek I actually had to strap the thing to my back which I dont like to do.
Three miles later gaining 700 feet in elevation I reached my training zone, heavy timber with a few clear cuts and some unused logging roads. I passed by the camp site I had used about two years ago and set about finding a place to lay my head and stash my gear for the next few nights.
So here I am tired and walking the outer edge of a CAT trail when I see some piping on the ground. It spiked my interest, I checked the pipe to see if it was cold, it wasnt. I looked both ways and found that the pipe which was partially hidden went on for quite some time. So here I am thinking, "I have a rifle that has not been sighted in and my back up weapon being a .380 I brought just to scare away a bear if I had to, which I may tell you are EVERYWHERE up there.
So the pipes are more than likely some marijuana operations irrigation system. I kept going and found a campsite about a quarter mile from the piping and stashed my gear. I would have probably left but I had no ride home, I get dropped off and picked up three days later.
My whole intention was to sight in the rifle and engage some paper targets from 1-300 yards away. Now I am faced with a dilemma, should I actually shoot my weapon to get it sighted in or maintain silence and keep a low profile. I pondered the question for a while weighing my options. I could leave the area and find a new place to camp a few miles away risking running into another set of hoses and being even more wiped out than I was. These operations are all over so I couldnt be to sure. My other option was to do a recon using all the stealth I could muster and find out whether or not this was an active grow and recon the rest of the area to make sure there wasnt another grow in the area.
I hydrated and cammied up. I stashed the Mosin and locked and loaded the little .380. Going into a possible bad situation with a K-Bar and a Kel-Tec. Whoopie.
You are probably wondering why this topic is in the Milsurp semi-auto section, I thought it appropriate because I kept wishing I had my SKS.
Using all the stealth I had I made my way through the brush and hoping to intersect with the pipe. I sniffed, looked, and listened. Almost to the pipe now. I see the bottom half of a man in a thick stand of timber. I stop and crouch lower, no not the bottom half of a man, a pair of pants hanging on a log. I scan, I see empty plant carriers strewn about. I see a mound of trash in the thick stand of timber. No one around. I make my way carefully to just outside the stand. No one had been there for a year. I follow the pipe for about 400 yards and find two 6 foot in diameter 6 foot deep pits with plastic at the bottom, stagnat water inside. This took some major work. I found shallow depressions in the earth all over showing where the plants had been grown.
Once I had secured the area I went back to inspect the trash. From the heaping mound of trash half buried I found that this grow had been worked by Mexicans from the types of food, the dates on the food packages told me that this grow had been last years 2008. Funny because I was supposed to go to this area last year and do my campout but I had to cancel.
I counted the number of plant containers, you know the six pack of those little black containers that stores sell live plants in. Around 120.
At dark I finished my area search and returned to my camp. I hadnt found another grow within a mile but I still didnt start a fire, paranoia. I leaned back against a tree and pulled my sleeping bag up and thought to myself. "What if I had come up last year?" Last year I was planning on bringing my SKS, probably would have been a good thing too. It also occured to me that I a stand up guy out to get away and do some plinking may not be safe to do so in the woods. This fact totally got me angry.
I know I started a thread a while back about this subject and I am in no way trying to rekindle any kind of debate about the mission here.
I do think it is sad however that I can not go where I please in the woods without worrying about coming into contact with one of these grows. In fact last week LEO's got into a shoot out with some Mexican Nationals while doing a recon one county away. Two officers wounded, one dead grower.
I tell my girlfriend when she drops me off for my trip, "There is more danger downtown than in these woods." Not anymore.
I did get the Mosin sighted in by the way. I still need to get used to the trigger, pulling a few shots. I wish I would have had my SKS. There was no distance that I could not have used my SKS to engage targets that I had come across in this terrain. The archers screw in tree steps where of great benefit by screwing them in low and using them as a rifle rest while prone, the Katyndn or whatever chlorine tabs where a welcome change from the iodine I am used to. The ALICE gear preformed without hitch and was much more comfortable and also was lighter feeling using the 550.
So, do some research, find out if your woods are home to this type of activity and be very careful where you decide to go if it is.
Redwings [don't really] suck!!!! 
Absolutely!
