Video of our end of summer shooting trip

First I apologize for how long this video took to upload, but there has been an ongoing family emergency that started at the beginning of the Summer and has taken a turn for the worst over the last month or so.  Due to that videos and blog posts have been few and far between.

I finally got the video up of Eric, Ryan, and I doing some shooting at the Indianhead Rifle and Pistol Club.  I brought my NAA Mini Revolver, Remington 870 Express Magnum in 20 gauge, Browning 20 Weight in 12 gauge, and my Remington 597 (we don't have any video of us shooting that).  It was fun, but we were all trying to rush through it due to me having to go to work that afternoon.  The last scene in the video with Eric shooting my mini revolver we were using .22 shotgun rounds or whatever you call them.  They are about the only kind of round that makes that gun fun shooting.  Other than that you can't hit the broadside of a barn with it, as you can see trying attempting to hit something with a regular .22 round in the video it is not very accurate.  I plan on making some more videos with the guns I own describing them a little then shooting them.  Here is the video enjoy.

I used my new laptop which had Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum on it and for some reason when it uploaded the video to YouTube it didn't upload the video in HD even though from what I understood I had it set up for HD.  The video saved in HD to the computer and in the program it said the video was in HD, but it didn't upload to YouTube that way.  If anyone knows how to get around this let me know, if not looks like I'm back to getting used to Open Shot on Ubuntu.  I find using Sony Vegas so far is more of a struggle to me.  The best way to describe how it works for me is this wonderful old Mac vs PC video.

Yeah that is basically how I feel trying to work with Sony Vegas.  Also Sony wtf is this Vaio Gate thing that is on the top of my screen that magically shows up when I'm up there it is quite annoying.  Alright I'm done ranting now everyone enjoy the videos.

What is coming up on Quad Survival

Well Summer is already over and I didn't get to do hardly anything I wanted to.  The big things I wanted to do such as get a better camera for Quad Survival videos and make more Quad Survival videos didn't really happen.  That sucks, but I tried and I apologize to anyone looking forward to more videos.  I will put up a short video of when Eric, Ryan, and I (Jared) went to the Spooner gun range.  I will just have to wait till my new laptop I ordered comes in this one is on its last leg.  As you can guess the fact I need a new laptop is the reason I am not getting a better camera for the videos yet.  I'm back at school in North Dakota and will probably be putting up some videos about the guns I own within the next few months as well.  If I have the spare funds I will do a little bit of trapping and have some videos on that too.  For sure though expect a short video about us shooting at the Spooner Gun Range, some videos about the firearms I own, and another ice fishing video come Winter.  Until then I will leave you with some pictures from us shooting guns at the gun range.

Me shooting my NAA mini

Eric shooting my NAA Mini

Me shooting my 597 with red dot

Eric and I taking Trapper's Education

This last Friday and Saturday Eric and I took the Wisconsin Trapper's Education course at the Brill Area Sportsman's Club.  The course was only $12 so I figured why the hell not, and Eric decided to sign up too.  For the $12 we got a trapping license, a subscription to two trapping magazines, and lunch.  For that price you just can't go wrong.  I decided to make a trip of it since I got the time off from work and go camping for the class.  So, I stayed at the Waldo Carlson Park on Red Cedar Lake.  I took my brother's 2 man tent since I wanted to pack light.  I brought a sterno can like thing for heat to cook my food in case I didn't have a fire ring, because I didn't know anything about the campground.  It's a good thing I did too the campground was somehow actually worse than just camping in the woods.  There were some RV spots that were level, but other than that the campground was on a hill and did not have much space per campsite.  I was stuck on the side of a hill within a few feet of the road to get into the campground.  It was a horrible place and didn't even have a fire ring.  It was not enjoyable sleeping on the side of hill and even worse being so close to a road you could feel and hear every vehicle that went by.  The showers at campground cost $1 for 5 minutes which is expensive as far as pay showers go.  The campground was packed and I know it wasn't for the campground, so it must have been the lake.  Either way I did not enjoy my time there and if got the chance would for sure not go back.

Trappers Education was long, but fun and full of interesting things I learned.  The first night of the class was all ethics, laws and bookwork.  The second day was the fun one though.  Eric and I learned how to set every different kind of trap we could think of and different sets to make for catching animals.  It was fun, because it was all hands on and full of fun.  I even learned how to put animals up for sale.  The instructors for the class were so knowledgeable it was almost beyond belief.  I had some really quality instructors.  They got me excited to go trapping and I hope I can find some cheap traps and get trapping.  The one complaint I had is I hoped they would have a list they could give us of all the local fur buyers in the area with contact information.  The stressed each person traps a different way, and the way to learn how to trap is to get out and do it, so hopefully I will do just that.  Hopefully The Brill Area Sportsman's Clubhouse is really nice and even has AC!  Their trap and skeet range is also nice even having lights for night on it.  Their shooting range was a little less nice but still acceptable.  What really surprised me though was the fact that dues were only $20 a year for such a nice facility.  Anyway here are a few pictures of my camping experience and trapper's education.

A man's meal Beanie Weanies

My cooking setup

My campsite.  See how bad it is.

The skinning and fleshing station

What to have with you while trapping

Look at all the different kinds of traps

Spaghetti and meatballs

My campsite again

The sweet patch I got for graduating

Quad Survival's camping trip aka Ryan's tent shakedown

A few weeks ago Eric, Ryan, and I (Jared) went on a two night, wait O.K. two nights for me one night for Ryan and Eric camping trip on the Namekagon river at the Earl Landing.  I have camped at the earl landing quite a bit and I typically enjoy the experience.  In fact I had already camped there once this Summer.  The Earl landing has free campsites with a fire ring and picnic table and has a 3 night limit per spot on camping.  You can go to the landing and sign up ahead of time for a campsite if you want on a sheet of paper and so far I've had no trouble with people in my camp site I have signed up for (I hope that continues).

The main reason we went camping on this trip is that I had a few days off in a row, Eric really wanted to go camping, and Ryan got a new tent and wanted to try it out.  We ended up picking this location after talking Eric out of some crazy location where none of us could carry our gear to or something like that.  Anyway we got to the camp site early in the morning and set up our tents.  I put in my two crayfish traps and Eric put in his new minnow trap.  Eric and Ryan then decided to go fishing and I went tubing with my friends down the river.  I don't know what they did while I was gone so I can't write to much about it.  I got back from tubing and checked my crayfish traps and low and behold I caught a shiner minnow.  Not really what I wanted to catch so I let him go.  Eric and Ryan did a little bit more fishing and Eric came back with some smallmouth bass.  One of them was pretty nice as you can see in the picture.  Anyway, as true men Eric filleted the bass and we had a good old fashioned fish fry.  Eric added to the fish fry though some venison nuggets fried up which were amazing and the best food on the trip.  After that we decided to sit around the fit and I guess just talk.  Eric and Ryan decided they would have a long night discussing intellectual things.  I think they went to bed around 3 A.M.

The next day was rough for Ryan and Eric.  I checked my crayfish traps and caught a little turtle and let him go.  I spent most of the day convincing Eric and Ryan to stay another night, but they had enough camping for one day or something.  By afternoon I got Eric and Ryan going and we went to Hayward saw some sweet cars visited a friend, but that doesn't have to do with the outdoors.  We had venison nuggets again and I tried to convince Eric and Ryan to stay another night again, but they would have none of it and started packing up.  Just as they started packing up I turned on my weather radio and there was a storm coming in something like 5 minutes.  I informed Eric and Ryan and then went to my car and checked on my phone to confirm indeed a thunderstorm was coming.  Eric and Ryan decided to keep taking down their stuff anyway and ended up getting stuck in the storm.  Since my tent was the only one left up they all dove in it for the duration of the storm.  After it ended Eric and Ryan packed up and left.  I went to Spooner, got some food, went back to the tent, and spent the night in there sleeping with storms off and on.  In the morning I pulled my crayfish traps and they were empty.  I'm beginning to think crayfish don't exist anymore.  I then picked up my campsite and went to work.  That was the end of the camping trip.

The camping trip was pretty fun and the view from out campsite was as always beautiful.  Free camping and beautiful views reminds me of why I love Wisconsin.  Within the next few days I'll put up a blog post of Eric and I's next adventure which we did this last weekend.  Look for that soon until then here are pictures of our camping trip below.

My Tent

Ryan's new tent

Eric's overpriced hippie REI tent haha

The campsite

Eric and Ryan Fishing

Rough Morning

Breakfast

The boring way to start a fire

Being caught in a storm

My tent survived the storm and is the last tent set up

Campsite

Sitting around the fire

Sitting in the river

Ryan dressed quite interesting in front of his tent

caught inside due to the storm

The view of the river

Sitting in the river again

The bass Eric caught

End of camping burn everything fire

Eric making din din

What I have been up to lately (Jared) ps help me figure out how to catch crayfish

Well sadly my summer has been busier than I wanted it to and I'm not having much time to get some outdoor videos or pictures to you guys.  I do have some outdoor stuff we have been up to.  I purchased a crayfish (yes in Wisconsin we say crayfish not crawfish, crawdaddy, or crawdad) and have veen trying fo two weeks to catch a crayfish on Shell Lake quite unsuccessfully.  I've tried two different baits: canned cat food and chicken fat.  Also I've been putting the trap in anywhere from less than 2 feet to now 4 feet of water in rocky areas.  The trap is the square one from Frabill and I cut the opening in it per Wisconsin regulations.  So if there is anyone out there reading this that traps crayfish or whatever they call them in your area want to give me tips or tell me what I'm doing wrong feel free to in the comments sections.

Ryan and I went fishing the other day on Long Lake and caught a ton of tiny perch and panfish, but nothing worth keeping.  During this time he told me about a truck he has been looking to purchase which I find unfair cuz I want a truck. haha.

Eric has been sorta MIA lately and I haven't herd much about him or from him.  I did hear though that he went with a lady on what I believe to be a church sanctioned date to a park.  Anyway wish me luck in getting more free time to show you guys some more outdoor stuff.

First few days of Jared's Summer vacation: Shooting and Fishing with Eric

Well I have been back in Wisconsin for less than week and it has already been amazing.  A few days ago Eric and I decided to go shooting and fishing and it was a blast!  The guns we shot were Eric's new CZ 527 Carbine in 7.62x39, my Remington model 597 .22, and my North American Arms .22lr Mini Revolver.  We shot all the guns on the 100 yard range and then also shot the mini revolver on the pistol range.  It was fun to hit plates at 100 yards with both Eric's CZ and my .22 rifle.  The CZ is a neat gun due to the caliber and the fact you can change the pull of the trigger just by clicking the trigger forward.  We were both able to hit the plates at 100 yards with the CZ and the .22 rifle, I believe Eric did a little better job than me, but oh well.  We even tried hitting the plates at 100 yards with my mini revolver.  That thing has a 1 1/8" barrel and is basically a deep conceal gun, but Eric somehow got surprisingly close to hitting one of the plates.  Eric has a video of me shooting his CZ somewhere and I'll see if I can get it up on YouTube or something sometime.

Anyway after we went fishing on a "secret" lake in Eric's canoe and had amazing luck.  Both of us limited out on Bass and we called in Old Man Rounce to help us clean them.  Fishing in our area seems to be really good this year, if your looking for some fish to eat.  We really only caught one nice Bass, but we got tons of good eating ones.  George is back now in town from California for a few weeks, and he happens to have a new action camera for us to try out.  Since he has a new camera we have an excuse to try it out and make some videos.  Anyway we are glad to have George back with us for a while and I am soooo excited for the summer. Lastly I got a free mountain bike and just got it fixed, so expect some updates of Eric and I mountain biking if I can get in shape.  Here are some pictures of the day Eric and I had.

Eric shooting the NAA Mini revolver aka the Peacemaker

Eric Shooting the CZ 527 carbine

Eric trying the peacemaker at 100 yards

Our Eatin' catch

Old Man Rounce and Eric cleaning the fish

How to set a #1 Long Spring Trap and Update

Well after being busy for a while I finally got to putting up the video of showing how I set a #1 Duke Long Spring trap.  I got sick of the lack of editing options for Windows Movie Maker, so I went out and looked for other options.  I have Ubuntu installed on my computer as well and after searching online everyone seemed to be recommending Open Shot Video Editor.  It is a good video editor for free, but took a little getting used to.  After playing with it for a while I found that my poor old laptop wasn't up to the task to well on doing serious video editing.  It took over 10 minutes for my laptop to render the title for this video alone.  When that happened I realized well let's not try any more fancy stuff and let's just get this video out since it has already taken me so long to do that.  I do like the video editor though compared to Windows Movie Maker.  Also I have not run into any out of sync audio and video issues like I had all the time when using iMovie on the Macs on campus.  You can see an example of that with our 2011 Wisconsin Deer Season Video.  I still have a lot of learning to do with this editor and find out its limitations.  Anyway here is the video on how I set a #1 Long Spring Foot Hold Trap.  I hope you enjoy.

On other updates involving the making of this video I updated Ubuntu from 11.10 to 12.04 and I found the new 12.04 quite frustrating.  It seems like everything runs slower and takes forever.  I watched the system info and it wasn't taking longer, because I was out of spare ram or the cpu's were running at 100%.  It was just slow.  I hope that there will be updates soon that fix these bugs, because at this point Windows 7 is running faster than Ubuntu right now and that is embarrassing.

Now for some sad news.  One of our Quad Survival Members (George) has moved away for greener pastures (better job).  I don't blame him, but this kid has been my best friend since before we were in Kindergarten together which makes him moving across the country quite difficult.  I wish him best of luck and hope he will still be able to come visit once in a while and have some Quad Survival fun with us.  George, as you can remember won the award of Most Badass in the 2011 Black Forest Lodge awards, and also holds the Black Forest Lodge record of driving the trail at one minute and thirty four seconds.  I hope George will show California that Wisconsin is boss.

The last and most exciting news for us is something that all you readers will enjoy.  I am currently in the process of working on a giveaway for the readers of this blog.  Spoiler alert it is a giveaway of something involving Wisconsin.