I’ve been helping film the T.P. Outdoors Adventures TV show for several years now with Bill Petrus and each show really is an adventure. On one of the first shows I filmed, I thought I was filming Bill get eaten by an alligator. True story! Thought I was going die myself a time or two but we’ve all survived so far.
Our most recent adventure was typical. We tried to cram a nutria shoot, bow fishing, Frog Giggin, and Red Fishing into two days. Why? Because sleep is over rated.
Turns out, its harder to find the nutria during the summer when the grasses in the marsh get thick so we focused our attention on frogging instead. Our friend Rafe Antill in Houma put us on the frogs after showing us around the marsh and showing us some on going alligator farming operations. That part was pretty interesting.
We caught a lot of frogs
The rest of the adventure was not nearly as productive as the frogging. from Houma, we set off for the Leeville/Golden Meadow area for some bow fishing and red fishing. We had an overloaded air boat and not so ideal wind and water conditions which made it very tough (i.e. we almost sunk the boat) bow fishing.
It became clear that it just wasn’t safe to proceed with bow fishing so we called it a short night and hoped for better luck the next morning where Brock Miller had some Hobie Kayaks lined up for us from The Back Packer out of Baton Rouge. Brock may be young but he is already an accomplished tournament angler having won multiple tournaments including Ride The bull at the age of 16. Now in college Brock is even more experienced and was a great guide for this crew of novice kayak fishermen.
Unfortunately, the wind and water conditions persisted into the next day making for tough fishing, but I was pretty impressed with the way the Hobie Kayaks handled the water. They provided a very stable platform for such a little boat and the Hobie Mirage ST pedal Fins made them a lot of fun to scoot around the marsh in as we fished. All in All, our group caught three or four keeper fish and we had a great time. Would love to do it it a gain but for the rest of the story, you’ll have to stay tuned for an upcoming episode of T.P. Outdoors Adventures.
While the fishing and what not may not have been as productive as we’d like, I did end up with quite a few great images of south Louisiana. For more of these, view my gallery below.
Hunting season is almost over so now is the time to book your spring fishing trips.
I just wrapped up a new website for Johnny Whatley’s Guide Services. Mr Whatley is currently guiding on DeGray Lake near Arkadelphia, Arkansas where he’s had a lot of success with hybrid and striper fishing.
On my end, this project involved creating a website, creating content for the site, as well as designing a new logo and graphics for Johnny Whatley’s Guide Service. More content will be added in the future so check back often.
If you need help with your companies online presence, contact us today.
In the south, winter takes different forms. Sometimes its bitterly cold and wet. Other times its pretty mild and wet. Wet seems to be the norm though and by January, it’s supposed to be cold.
This weekend started out in the upper 50s – low 60s. Quiet warm for January. That was before the front moved through. With in a few hours, an over night storm system would bring High winds and a deep chill. The temps dropped in to the 20s and deer season is almost over. Bill Petrus with T.P. Outdoors called and we setup another hunt. Surely this would get the deer up on their feet.
Bill Petrus hauling a deer blind we primarily use for special needs hunters.
Bill is a good friend and client. We work on a lot of stuff together but our favorite is the T.P. Outdoors Adventures show. We both love getting to take military veterans and special needs kids outdoors. Bill does a lot to help other people and has a lot of fun doing it along the way. He had a couple of kids lined up and one more hunt this year.
Bryce Buchanan has hunted with us many times. He’s taken a few deer on our show and even gone catfish noodling with us in the past. He’s a really cool kid and always fun to hunt with.
We also had Tylar and his dad Kevin Kelly with us. Now Kevin was on our show earlier this year but this time it was Tylar’s turn.
I hunted with Tylar and Kevin. Tylar got to harvest a doe earlier this year with bill but this time we were after his first buck.
Right at daylight, we had a nice mainframe 8pt and it was tough getting Tylar to wait till there was enough camera light available to shoot his deer but as soon as I gave him the go ahead, he let it rip. Made a great, ethical shot with his dad’s Ruger 270. His deer didn’t run far. As we soon discovered, it actually had a split brow tine and another kicker making it 10 scoreable points.
Although I didn’t get to watch Bryce harvest his deer, he was also successful. It came down to the last few minutes of available shooting light but they made it happen so both kids were able to harvest deer.
This was a great hunt to end deer season with. I’m sure we’ll be filming lots of other turkey hunts, frogging alligators and all kinds of other crazy antics for the next season of T.P. Outdoors Adventures. You can watch for the full story behind this hunt around July when our new season of the show kicks off.
Gibson’s stores were once a dominant retail chain store. They carried a variety of merchandise but sporting goods is what I remember most. Rumor is that Sam Walton once inquired about opening a Gibsons franchise before starting Walmart. A series of ownership changes and a bankruptcy in the early 90’s almost ended Gibson’s stores. However, there are a couple of remaining stores in Texas. We once had a Gibsons Discount store here in El Dorado, Arkansas.
My First Rifle
It was the early 80s and I was just a young kid. I went all over with my Popaw. He was one of my heroes. One afternoon we went in to Gibson’s and that’s where I saw it. A Nickel Plated Rossi Pump action 22. The thought, “you’ll shoot your eye out with that thing kid” runs through my mind now but I thought it was the coolest gun i’d ever seen. It was shiny and it looked like the perfect size for me. My papaw used a similar rifle to ward off squirrels from his pecan trees. Many days we’d pull up to his house and he’d be standing outside under the carport waiting on one to come out. With my own Rossi, I could do it with him. For now, though it was a wish list item.
A couple days later, when we went over to visit, I was surprised with that very 22 Rifle. It wasn’t Christmas morning, but it sure felt like it to me. We went out to shoot it and before he and my dad would let me shoot it, we had to clean it. It was there that I learned the importance of properly taking care of a new rifle.
My first Rifle
The thing about a new rifle is that, like any new toy, you want to go play with it as soon as possible, but you can’t let the eagerness to go shoot get a head of proper gun safety and maintenance. Now Lets skip forward a few years. Say 30-35 years.
The Christensen Arms Ridgeline
My dad is now retired. Like my popaw, he spends most of his time with his grandkids. Although he doesn’t hunt much anymore, he wanted a new precision rifle to play with. Several years ago, he purchased a Remington 700 VLS chambered in 6mm remington. The 6mm Remington has long been a favored round in our family. Although not as widely know as the 243 Winchester, the 6mm rem actually predates the 243 and offers slightly improved ballistics and the same bullet. The 700 VLS is a beautiful gun but its heavy bull barrel proved more weight than Dad wanted to carry so, he never really shot it.
With the wide popularity of the 6.5 creedmore, he decided he wanted to give it a try. Dad and I stopped by T.P. Outdoors in Monroe, LA to talk about some custom guns.
After talking with a gunsmith and discussing several options as well as pricing some Dad initially decided to go with a custom built rifle. Then, T.P. Outdoors got in some new Christensen Arms rifles. These rifles have been on order for months and they came in just days after placing his order for a custom rifle. After looking at the new Christensen Arms Ridgeline and finding out nothing had been ordered yet or started on his custom gun, Everyone agreed that the Christensen arms would better suit his needs and at a slightly lower price with more features. We’ll call it perfect timing.
The Christensen Arms Ridgeline has many of the features dad was looking for right out of the box. It’s pretty much a custom rifle right from the factory. It features a bedded stock, and a fluted bolt in a 700 clone action with a carbon fiber wrapped barrel. We’ve shot carbon fiber barrel before on a Ruger 10/22 and love the performance. This one is no exception. It makes for a very light gun at 6.3 lbs which was dads number one concern. He wanted the performance of a heavy barrel but not the weight and fluting only does so much. The carbon fiber dissipates heat 300 times faster than an all steel barrel of equivalent weight. It also comes threaded for you suppressor guys out there. If you don’t have a suppressor, it comes with a thread protector and a ported muzzle break so all of your bases are covered.
Now the lessons learned when I was just a kid are now really important. With any new rifle, ensuring its clean and free of any grease or manufacturing defects is important. It’s also important to properly break in a new barrel. This is definitely the case with a new precision rifle with a sub moa guarantee like the Christensen Arms Ridgeline.
The barrel break in process can help increase accuracy by smoothing out the rifling in the barrel and prevents material from being impeded in the steel. It can also help ease future cleaning and maintenance. We still need to run another box of ammo through it, but we’ve followed Christensen Arms recommendations for barrel break we’re already getting pretty good results.
For the moment, we’re shooting Hornady Precision Hunter ammo. Some of our shots have included sighting in the Leupold VX5HD 3-15×56 with FireDot reticle. The scope lets in a lot of light and has been great to shoot so far. Below is two three shot groups at 100yds after sighting in the scope and really trying for accuracy. I’m happy with that and I think most people would be. We tried the Hornady Match Ammo and didn’t get quite as good a results but Dad’s looking forward to playing around with some other ammo to find the best load and going out to some longer ranges.
Hornady Precision Hunter 6.5 creedmore 143 gr ELD-X at 100 yds
Few cons
There are a few very minor things that I’d change about the Christensen Arms rifle if I were building it as a custom gun.
The bolt handle is light and appears to have had some thought put into its design, however, the design leaves some relatively sharp edges that make it a little uncomfortable to work the bolt. This will most likely have some work done to it and be refinished in the future.
The Ridgeline has a standard magazine compartment similar to any other Rem 700 and it works fine. The stock is a very nice, light weight free floated and bedded stock. However, the bottom plate of the magazine and trigger guard does not recess up into the stock like I would prefer. The magazine in my factory Rem 700 BDL in 6mm rem has a much better feel when you hold it in one hand at the mid point of the gun. Although not really a big deal, this leaves a little sharper edge around the bottom plate than you’d probably get on a custom rifle. and its probably a trade off between weight of the thicker stock that may be required to recess the magazine bottom plate.
Popaws Squirrel Gun
Other than a few very minor issues, the Christensen Arms Ridgeline is probably the sweetest rifle I’ve ever shot. Its light weight. It feels great in your hands. The 6.5 Creedmore performance seems amazing and so fun to shoot. It seems like a nearly perfect rifle. Popaws squirrel gun sure has changed a lot over the years. This one has me drooling all over it just like my Popaws old squirrel gun did years ago. Maybe one day I can have a “squirrel gun” that nice too.
Louisiana’s alligator season is in full swing and it’s an annual tradition for many residents. This past weekend, I filmed a hunt with T.P. Outdoors Adventures that has been in the works since the spring.
At the beginning of Tennessee’s turkey season, Bill Petrus and I took the opportunity to chase some spring turkeys with Brian Robinson of GSM Outdoors. That’s where we met country music singer Lucas Hoge. The early spring weather didn’t make for great turkey hunting so there was a lot of time spent talking around the fire. Both Brian and Lucas were intrigued by the crazy antics seen on T.P. Outdoors Adventures and they both said Alligator hunting was a bucket list item for them. You have to be careful what you ask for because this week, Bill and David “swamp donkey” Hanson made it happen.
As with any of T.P. Outdoors Adventures there seems to always be some chaos involved. This week we had engine problems with not one but two vehicles, A vehicle broken into, Multiple flat tires, Brian got Snake bit, Bill got shot, and Hanson almost got eaten alive by a gator. You won’t want to miss this episode of T.P. Outdoors Adventures. Until then, here are a few photos of the adventure and make sure you check out Lucas’ newest hit single. “The Power of Garth” on iTunes
