I'm picking up some side jobs doing tree removal. Keeps me in shape, used to the heat, and used to carrying something roughly 12-15 pounds (my trusty Stihl 462cm) around for extended periods of time. Run a chainsaw with a 28 or 32" bar all day and carrying a 9 pound gun will start to feel light!
Also working on load development, and working on toasting my 257 weatherby barrel to have an excuse to rebarrel to a faster twist haha. Something I've been testing is the difference in velocity between freshly loaded rounds, and rounds that were loaded 4-6 months prior. In about a month I'll be testing my N570 loads of 257 weatherby. Last time I did this test, velocity jumped 100fps and had sticky bolt lift, so I find it a very important part of final load development for any gun used in warm weather, that is often not thought about, nonetheless tested. I find that any compressed load tends to have powder bridging and pressure spikes, but it is especially true with so called "stable" stick powders like H1000 if it is loaded above 98% load density. Anywhere between 80% and 98% has 50fps spikes at most, but it's something I like to test to be on the safe side. Since my 257 is my antelope gun and might see some warm days, I want to get it locked in for worst case scenario being a safe pressure and moderate velocity jump at worst.
