Arrived at the camp around 3 p.m. Friday WOODTICK. It was a cool 97 degrees with 72% humidity. I shot the X7 on Friday, and the Mustang and Renegade on Saturday. Frankly, it was miserable. I began to ask myself "why are you doing this if you're not having fun?".Sweat in the eyes, underwear soaking wet, etc. Returned home Sunday morning without even shooting Sunday.

The barrels wouldheat up with the first couple ofshots and just would not seem to cool down (if you consider returning to ambient temperature of 97 'cooling down'.) By the fourth shot in a stringsabots that weretight in the air conditioned house, and 'fairlytight'for the first shot or two at the range, began to slide down the bore with the weight of the range rod. Groups with the X7 were so bad I thought my scope had gone south, and swapped it out with the scope on my Renegade. Nothing changed with the swap-out. Three-inch 50 yard groups and six-inch 100 yard groups.

The only joy I had was with the Renegade Saturday afternoon. It seems that patched balls don't care how hot the barrel gets. I shot a 5-shot group with 85 grains of GOEX FFFgand got what I expected - all in one big hole at 50 yards. Then a 5-shot group with 85 grains of Pyrodex P, which didn't do as well ( 2& 1/2" group ) and clearly had less "oomph" than the same load of GOEX. Then a 5-shot group with 85 grains of T7 FFG with the barrel so hot I could hardly hold it. This was the first time I shot T7 in this barrel and was rewarded with a decent one and a quarter inch group.

I think my range sessions are about over until September. If I could walk out the door and shoot a few shots and have short range sessionsit would be one thing. But driving 83 miles for a couple of day long shoots is just not worth it in July and August in South Louisiana.