quite an experience with the lever rifle

shortly after getting my new lever action marlin rifle i decided I'd put a red-dot aiming device on it.

after mounting it and make a preliminary sight in using a bore sighting laser i headed out to the desert to where my son lived at the time in order to do a live fire sight in. where he lived at the time, we could just drive down the road a half mile and shoot, legally.

we loaded up the rifles and some soft drinks on that day and headed out to begin sighting in mid-morning. we took the marlin and his 10/22...he was going to "plink" while i sighted in the red dot.

the area is ideal for shooting. it's a dry river bed with banks that are fifteen to twenty feet high and composed of sand cliffs nearly perfectly vertical; a perfect back stop for ANY kind of fire arm. the area is accessible via dirt road that gives way to a ramp that leads down into the riverbed.

this area is laced with history. we located carvings in rocks dated 1849 and 1870. there was native American activity here long before the advent of the white man. there is the ruins of a native American settlement within sight of where we were shooting that i knew of and discussed with an archeologist that was also familiar with it, who says they (archeologists) believe to date back nearly ten thousand years; I've taken numerous pictures of the site. the Mormon battalion came thru this area in 1849/50 (?) on their famous infantry march from Ohio to California. the Butterfield stage route of 1849 passes thru here also and has several stage stops in the area.in all...very humbling at times.

after we arrived at the site and got comfortable and got things going, i began by firing one shot at a time at a target I'd set at fifty (50) yards. after a number of rounds, the carbine was "laying them right in there". my son was happy with the results of his 10/22 and all was well. after a while and a number more rounds we decided it was time to go.

while we were there, we'd noticed the sound of a vehicle that sounded as though it was going back and forth on the paved road we had entered between shots. we mused that it was probably the game warden looking for the source of the shots being fired.

on the way out, we discovered that was true. it was indeed a game warden.

he roared down the road towards us as we approached the paved road throwing on his red lights.

oh, boy...this is gonna be fun i said out loud. we had legally owned firearms that were properly secured and unloaded as per California state law, NO game in our possession or in our vehicle and current hunting licenses and proper ID. no deer or big game tags for bobcat or turkey, though. the fact of the matter is quite simply, we were not hunting. we nothing to worry about or to hide.

he approached our vehicle after i stopped and DEMANDED to know if we'd seen any deer to which i responded, correctly so, "no sir, we have not. we're not looking for deer. we're not hunting." he was obviously very nervous about the whole scene. "got any guns in your truck?" he asked "yes sir, i do." to which he responded "may i see them?" to which i replied "do you have a search warrant?"...silence..."no i don't but since you told me you do i have the right to search"...he was very obviously getting more nervous. i told him i would open the rear of my truck and stepped out of the truck and opened the tailgate of my truck. the two rifles were encased. i will remove them i told him and got the keys to open the cases.

"are they unloaded?" he asked "yes, they are" i answered.

when i opened the case for the carbine, he looked sort of puzzled as i picked up the the already open, action, carbine and presented it to him. he cycled the action twice to ensure it was not loaded and asked "what is this?" pointing to the Tasco, Pro-point, red dot. i told him what it was. "how does it work?" he asked.

we walked to the side of the truck and i turned it on and showed him and explained the settings of it. he took the carbine, shouldering it and looking thru the scope and scanned the surrounding area. he open the action, handed it back to me and said "that's pretty cool. i might like to have one of those. you guys have a nice day."

i suspect we had been stopped by a 'rookie' game warden. he grinned and waved as he drove away.

we had a really good dinner that evening of BBQ burgers 'n' corona's chuckling about a game warden who had never seen a red dot aiming device. we believe he may have believed it was a nite vision scope at first.

well...we all gotta start somewhere...i hope his job is easier and better now and he got his red dot.