Winter Ski & Shoot - Alaska

[HighUintas]

No national secrets here. These are the Airboss Extreme Cold Weather Mukluks. View attachment 805092View attachment 805093

I'm not sure I'll ever get to do something that necessitates wearing those, but I sure hope so. Thanks!

 

[HighUintas]

@Marty minimum order qty 5000 I'll never be wearing them

 

[B_Reynolds_AK]

@Marty minimum order qty 5000 I'll never be wearing them

Group buy?

 

[Winternews]

Looks awesome, solving a lot of the limitations with Stegers. Hope they make it into production. Thanks.

 

[brolo]

Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska

@Marbles, @Marty joined me for an overnight ski & shoot in the local mountains.

With the current snowpack and weather not being very conducive to regular backcountry activities, we took advantage of this to get in some long range shooting reps in challenging conditions.

We toured appx. 4 miles over a pass and up a drainage with no other backcountry users present to a safe shooting location on State Land. Micah on backcountry skis, Marty on snowshoes & prototype cold weather boots from his work and me on my Splitboard setup.

All used EXO K4’s of differing capacities.

View attachment 803936

View attachment 803935

Reactive wind slabs were present, failing on near ground facets. Another group triggered this D1 slide while skinning up, shortly before we came upon it. It reinforced the fact that even with a shallow snowpack, wind loading can create dangerous conditions. We all carried a beacon, probe and shovel & practiced safe backcountry travel, including spacing out & choosing low consequence travel routes.

View attachment 803938


@Marty brought out the HNT 26/AnTi X 6 CM that I put together last season.

View attachment 803941

I was shooting the new Tikka HNT 26 223

View attachment 803942


@Marbles with his Tikka 223 in a Rokstok.
All guns topped with the Maven RS 1.2.

View attachment 803943

The guys set up their shelters, Seek Outside DCF Eolus & HMG Ultamid 2.

My wife, who is out of the country at the moment, checked the cameras at our house. Apparently I hadn’t secured a gate properly for the house bunnies.. so after an Inreach message from her, I skinned all the way back out in the dark.

The next morning I toured back out to meet the guys, getting in some decent miles on the splitboard.



View attachment 803944View attachment 803945View attachment 803946

Day 2 brought increasing winds and snow. We climbed several hundred feet up the side of the drainage to shoot.

My 223, shooting ADI 55 Blitzkings at 3000 fps, absolutely hammers out to 500 yards. Ridiculously accurate. However the low B.C. caused the drop to fall off dramatically past that, for example 7.0 mil’s correction at 700 yards.

@Marbles 77 TMK handloads performed much better from his 16” barrel out to 700 ish yards.

@Marty with his 6 CM shooting factory 108 ELD-M’s was able to stretch it out properly to 900 + yards.

We did not bring in steel, so generally the targets were small patches of snow on rocks, which provide both a great contrast to aim at, as well as splash from the impact on the rock.

My BR4 performed great, however Marty’s new BLR10 RF’s were easier to hold steady and get a range in the gusty conditions.


View attachment 803948

Continued..

Love it, looks like an awesome trip!