European Anti-Gun Petition - Act Now

The anti-gun forces in Europe are getting all wound up again trying to justify more gun restrictions beyond what they already have. Their premise is that by making firearms more restricted for law abiding citizens, that will slow down the criminals and terrorists. (Sound familiar?) They have a petition out to gather support for more restrictions. It only takes a couple of minutes  to fill it out, so go fill it out right away. 

The petition closes June 17th., so do it now before you forget. Bloggers, please post on this. Lets make it viral and swamp their contrived survey with common sense. The last thing Europe needs is even more restrictions on firearms.

Thanks to Ray Carter at the Second Amendment Foundation for sending this my way.

 Here's the original email from

Simone Ciucchi – FISAT President -Bologna, Italy:

 

Dear friends and gun rights activists,

Joining the call of British Shooting Sports Council we ask to IAPCAR and all gun rights association in its organization, to participate to the online survey organized by European Union Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom.

The menace to semiautomatic firearms in private hands is IMMINENT, as the online survey maliciously suggests a possible link between private possession of firearms and their us for criminal or terrorist purposes, being nothing else than another attempt to disarm honest citizens for the sake of added “firearms security”.

The questions are utterly misleading.

Question C.2 suggests that the list of prohibited firearms should be extended (it is understood that the Commission is referring to semiautomatic rifles and possibly also to semiautomatic shotguns and handguns).

Question C.4 pursues the mandatory use of locking devices in firearms (imagine the impact if this was made retrospective).

Question C.7 would provide a justification to introduce compulsory mental health tests and suppress the current derogation that allows people under the age of 18 to hunt and sport-shoot if they have parental permission or guidance.

We can expect for sure that the various anti-gun EU associations will take action to orchestrate a deliberate number of answers resulting in a public call for tighter gun control.
Deadline for participation is June 17^th 2013.         

This can’t happen and we ask you to take part to the online survey in the following steps:

Please follow the following steps:

1. Go to:  http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=ReduceFirearmsRisk
2. Choose your language in the icon that is in the upper right part of the screen.
3. Indicate your country, whether you are an individual or an organization and your name or the name of your organization.
4. Answer the questions by clicking on option “1” for each one of them. You do not need to answer the optional questions that request additional comments (questions B.4, C.11, D.5 and E.6).
5. After having answered the questions, as a security measure to avoid computer-generated replies, you will have to type in the numbers and/or letters that will be displayed in your screen and validate them.
6. Your answers will have been submitted by then. You can view them and/or save them as a PDF.

All of the European associations, especially Swedish ones, can contact the proposer of this survey in the person of European Commissioner Ms. Cecilia Malmstrom which can be contacted at these sites, possibly to explain her that firearms of private honest citizens are not to be confused with the ones of criminals and terrorists:

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/malmstrom/contact/contact-me_en.htm

https://twitter.com/malmstromeu

https://www.facebook.com/MalmstromEU

Swedish citizens in particular can also contact her party, Folkpartiet liberalerna (Liberal People's Party), to let them know what you think, at the following site and email:

http://www.folkpartiet.se/  --  info@folkpartiet.se

While EU citiziens can contact Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (A.L.D.E.):

http://web.cor.europa.eu/alde/contact-us/Pages/default.aspx

Asking their respective national parties NOT to support Maelmstrom initiatives, you can find various parties members of ALDE at the following page:

http://www.alde.eu/alde-group/alde-across-europe-map-member-state/

We thank you for your help, immediate action is necessary for the protection of our common gun rights.

Best regards,

Simone Ciucchi – FISAT President

May 2013

Bologna, Italy

2013 Gun Blogger Rendezvous Info

2013 Gun Blogger Rendezvous VIII Information Sheet:

Once a year Gun Bloggers, Gun Blog Readers, gun writers, shooters, gun association folks, and industry representatives from around the country gather in Reno at the Silver Legacy Hotel & Casino to visit, socialize, compare notes, discuss everything firearms related, and get in three range days covering everything from long range rifle, steel shooting, Cowboy Fast Draw, and more. At the Gun Blogger Rendezvous there is something going on from breakfast to well into the night! 2013 will be the Gun Blogger Rendezvous’ Seventh Anniversary. 

The Rendezvous also raises money for Project Valour-IT, a division of Soldiers Angels, through a raffle of firearms and shooting sports items donated by our sponsors. Project Valour-IT buys voice actuated laptop computers for injured servicemen, who, due to the nature of their injuries, are unable to operate a computer using a conventional mouse and keyboard. This allows them to communicate with their family and friends, directly from their hospital beds, and has been shown to significantly increase their rate of recovery.

We also give out a large number of door prizes and  promotional items to our attendees. Our sponsors, in return, get a lot of positive Internet exposure through the Gun Blogs and stories about the Rendezvous.

Some of our current and previous year  include Ruger, Gunbroker.com, Cabelas, MKSSupply/HiPoint, Crimson Trace, Comp-Tac, Springfield Armory, Dillon Precision, Brownells, National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), The NRA, The Second Amendment Foundation, and more.

Last year we raised approximately $6,000 for Project Valour-IT, and this year, we hope to do even better. Every penny we can make from the Rendezvous goes to Project Valour-IT.  Even the event organizer (that’s me) pays to register for the Rendezvous!

Dates: September 5^th., 6^th., 7^th., & 8^th.

Location: Silver Legacy Resort/Casino in Reno

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Website:  http://gunbloggers.blogspot.com

Contact:      Mike Gallion

                     2704E Gabelein Rd.

                     Clinton, WA 98236

                     magaero@whidbey.com or blog@whidbey.com

                     360-321-6258

Shipping destination for raffle and door prizes, excluding firearms:

(For firearms we prefer to use certificates instead of the actual gun, and then transfer straight from the manufacturer to the winner, but we will be glad to do it however the manufacturer prefers.)
Please do not ship any packages to arrive at the Reno Cabela's store prior to August 23rd.  due to limited storage space availability at Cabela's.

                Cabela's / Reno
                8650 Boomtown rd.
                Verdi, NV 89439
                ATTN: Gun Blogger Rendezvous / Jamie

KC Eusebio Wins European Steel Championships

KC Eusebio, shooting for Team GLOCK, won the European Steel Championships held this last weekend in Winterswijk, Holland. ESC13, as it is called, is one of the largest, if not the largest steel match in the world, with over 200 entries and many countries represented.

KC won both the Open division and the Rimfire division, and had it not been for some gun problems, he may well have taken the Limited division too.

In other news, Mr. Completely missed two medals by one spot. Maybe next year........

Pollen Count

I heard that the pollen count is so high this Spring that the druggies are trying to change their meth back into Sudafed.......

Busy, busy, busy......

It's been really busy around here lately, and combining that with not having much to say, the result is a pretty quiet blog. There are now so many great bloggers out there, just about anything I think of to blog about, someone else already had the same thoughts and wrote a great post about it! Rather than turning the blog into a blog aggregator, just linking to those other blog posts, and considering how little time I've got available, I will be posting far less often, at least for a while.

So, what's keeping me so busy? Trying to pay the bills is at the top of the list, of course, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. I am now match director for two six stage steel matches a month at my local club, and I'm also working hard trying to get the club to expand the facilities to what could be truly a world class facility.

I am keeping busy organizing and coordinating the Gun Blogger Rendezvous set for Reno in September. You have no idea just how much time something like the Rendezvous can take until you actually organize one yourself! If any of you want to help, I really need some help in publicizing the Rendezvous. We need to get a few more bloggers out there.!

I am shooting a steel match just about every weekend, and sometimes two. For example, on Friday KeeWee and I will take our mini-RV and drive across the state to Yakima for theYakima club's big match of the year. It will be an eight stage sanctioned Steel Challenge match. I will shoot my High Standard/Volquartsen/OKO rimfire racer in Rimfire Open, and my 9mm. Tanfoglio Gold Custom/OKO in the Open Division. KeeWee will also shoot a High Standard/OKO in Rimfire Open.

As soon as the match is over, and even before the results are posted, we leave Yakima for Ssherwood, Oregon, for the Man of Steel Championships, held the next day. Man of Steel will be a nine stage match. After that match, we drive home, getting back late Sunday night.

Wednesday morning I climb about the airport shuttle for an hour and a half ride to Seattle Tacoma Intl. Airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam. I get into Amsterdam at 8:30am local time, Once there I catch a train (actually three trains, I think) to get to Winterswijk, which is South East of Amsterdam close to the German border. Friday and Saturday I will be shooting in the European Steel Challenge championships. On Sunday I will be able to watch the other shooters, and get a chance to visit with everyone a bit. Sunday afternoon/evening  I will probably leave Winterswijk for Almere, a suburb of Amsterdam, if I can find a ride with someone. Otherwise, I will probably take the train on Monday morning to Almere. Once in Almere I will hang out with my friend Wim and also work on some business possibilities. Tuesday morning early I head back to the Amsterdam/Schiphol airport for the long flight back to Seattle. I get back Tuesday night.

On Sunday there is a club championship match in Puyallup, Washington that I hope to shoot. The next weekend I am putting on a steel match on Saturday, and another one on Sunday. There is a match just about every weekend through Fall!

With all of the matches, there is also a lot of time spent keeping the race guns running, ammo testing, reloading, and other mechanical  work. Magazines need to be cleaned, batteries changed, lenses cleaned, guns cleaned, and so forth.

One of the keys to any success, beyond equipment preparation, is practice. To be competitive you have to spend a lot of time on the range. The top shooters will go through sixty thousand rounds in a season! I don't shoot anywhere near that much, but I do go through a lot of ammo.

FIOCCHI, the ammunition manufacturer, has signed me as a sponsored  shooter. They only sponsor three rimfire competitors, so being one of the three is quite an honor. Unfortunately, they don't have any ammunition for me yet, as they are not only sold out but back-ordered well into the Summer. That will certainly help a bit financially once it becomes available. Part of the deal, though, is that I can't sell any of it, it's only for shooting by me. Once things loosen up, though, I plan to start stocking and selling FIOCCHI products.

The OKO Red Dot Sight business is growing very slowly as I just don't have the money to promote and advertize them. It's a shame, really, as they are truly outstanding, particularly in terms of accuracy and quick target acquisition.I am in the process of building a brand new website for the OKO sights and the Magnum Mount Sight mounts I make. That should help.

So, that kind of sums up where I've been, what I've been up to, and why there hasn't been much blogging going on.

e-Postal Match "The Mess Re-Visited" Scores

Even though it's early in the year and the weather outside isn't as pleasant as it is a bit later into spring, we still had a good turnout for our March e-Postal Match, "The Mess - Revisited". Both Billl and Carteach turned in some spectacular scores, with only 3 points separating them! WOW! Very nice shooting

NAME	CLASS	GUN	CAL	SCORE
Billll	1	Ruger Mk. 1	.2LR	188
Carteach	1	S&W K-22	.22LR	185
danno	1	Ruger 22/45	.22LR	85
Mike B	1	Ruger Mk. 1	.22LR	79
True Blue Sam	1	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	70
danno	1	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	17
Mr. CCBCC	1	Ruger Single Six	.22LR	15
Mr. CCBCC	1	Ruger 22/45	.22LR	15
Mr. Completely	2	High Std / OKO Dot	.22LR	250
True Blue Sam	2	Ruger Mk III / Red  Dot	.22LR	125
Mrs True Blue Sam	2	Ruger Mk III / Red  Dot	.22LR	45
Mr. CCBCC	3	Browning Hi-Power	9mm.	10
danno	3	Browning Hi-Power	9mm.	0
Mike B	5	Ruger SP 101	.38SPL	41
Patrick Butler	5	Colt Det. Special	.38SPL	25
Mr. Completely	7	High Standard / Leupold	.22LR	190

Jimmy B already has the next e-Postal match in the series already underway over at The Conservative UAW Guy's blog, So go check out the match HERE!

Whidbey Land Slide

West Side Whidbey Island Landslide. Pic. from Seattle Times

 Thanks to everyone for their concern. The landslide was perhaps fifteen miles from us, and we are in no danger whatever.Ever since the ice receded from the Puget Sound Basin, high bluffs have been sliding down onto the beaches. In fact, these bluffs are called "Feeder Bluffs" because they constantly feed new sand and gravel to the beaches. It's called "Beach Replenishment". From the top of those bluffs the view out over Puget Sound is outstanding. So, lots of folks build fancy houses near the edges of those bluffs. Eventually, though, the bluff slides, and houses get destroyed. Notice how close the houses are to the edge where it didn't slide.

One thing that helps to hold the bluffs in place is the roots from the trees growing on the faces of the bluffs. Trees, however, block the view, so people cut down the trees. It takes ten or fifteen years, but eventually the roots rot away, and the bluff becomes even more unstable. The worst conditions for these slides to occur are after a hard freeze, where the ice crystals open up and loosen the soil, followed by a heavy rain that soaks in and turns everything into thick soupy mud. The water also adds a lot of weight to the soil, and away it goes. Although there was no heavy rain just before this slide, there had been a really unusually heavy freak snow storm that dropped almost a foot of snow in that exact area. It was also very warm to be snowing, around forty degrees, and the snow mostly melted quickly. That probably added the weight to the soil and encouraged the slide.

Presidents and the National Debt

I came across this on the 'Net, and  was wondering if some of you may have some idea if this is true, or is this false and part of some sort of dis-information campaign. It just doesn't pass the "smell Test" for me.....

March e-Postal Match "The Mess Revisited"

The e-Postal match to start out the 2013 season is going to be interesting, to say the least! None of those boring old concentric circles for us, by golly! I'm sure that some of you will apply yourselves and figure out a strategy for shooting this mess, but I've got no idea exactly how you should approach it. Should you go for the high value areas and risk getting penalized if you miss, or should you play it safe with the lower value spots? Who knows?

Good luck, be safe, and have fun!

This month we have seven classes, so there's a place for just about everything. It's time to drag out all those handguns that have been resting all Winter and limber 'em up!

TARGET: The same target is used in all classes. Do not try to print out the target from the above image. The target should be downloaded from here:

Click here to Download the PDF file "The Mess Revisited"

It is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

CLASS ONE: Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

CLASS TWO: Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

CLASS THREE: Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

CLASS FOUR: Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

CLASS FIVE: Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, iron sights.

CLASS SIX: Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, optic sights, no magnification.

CLASS SEVEN: Any handgun with no more than a 14" barrel, any sights, scopes, laser, whatever. This class is primarily for target pistols.

If you have something interesting to shoot that doesn't quite fit in the above classes, go ahead and enter anyway.

DISTANCE : 25 feet, or Ten yards, which ever is available at your range.

SHOOTING POSITION: Standing, un-supported, off-hand, one or two hands on gun permitted.

SCORING: In each class you are allowed ten shots at the target. Touching a line counts as the higher value. For example, a hit that touches the center 25 but also touches the surrounding white area is scored a 25. If a shot touches the black 10 on the right side, overlaps into the -5 area, and also touches the line between the -5 and the 1, you get  the 10. For a shot to score, it must at least touch the outermost ring, or else it's a miss.Ties will be decided based on the highest number of hits solidly in the black 25 point spot and not touching the edges.

Mark your score on each target with a legible pen, along with the class and type of gun used. Don't write your name on the target, only the name you want to appear in the results, as your target may get posted on Mr. Completely.

I suspect that this target will be, like most of the e-Postal matches, a lot harder that it looks. Don't throw away your targets is disgust when you think you did poorly. Send them in! You will probably be surprised to find out that you did a lot better than you thought.

STRATEGY: Beats me.........

MULTIPLE ENTRIES: You can enter more than once, in fact, it is encouraged. Shoot everything you own, and everything you can borrow! Take a buddy to the range, get him entered, then borrow his gun and enter that! The only restriction is that you can only enter once for any given gun, in any individual Class. You can shoot the target as many times as you like, and send in the best one.

Different calibers in the same gun count as one gun. For example, .38SPL and .357MAG are considered as one, as would be .44SPL and .44MAG. Different guns of the same caliber and barrel length can be entered.

PRIZES: Nope, it's just for the fun of it and the bragging rights!

SUBMITTING YOUR ENTRY: Take a digital photo of, (or scan) your targets, and email the picture, along with:

1. Your score.

2. The name you want used when we post the results.

3. Gun description - Brand, model, semi-auto, revolver, black powder, caliber, barrel length, and type of sights

4. Class: Class One, Two, Three, four, five, six, or seven.

5. Anything interesting or unique about your entry that other shooters might enjoy hearing about.

Email it all to b l o g (at) w h i d b e y (dot) c o m

If you can't scan or send target pictures, send everything else to me in an email, and we'll arrange for either fax or snail mail for the targets.

The rules are subject to revision as needed, should the need arise.

All entries must be received by Midnight on Monday April 1st. (April Fools Day seems appropriate)  and results will be posted within seven days, or less.

If you have any questions, leave the question in the comments to this post, or send me an email, or both.

Have fun!!

2012 West Coast Steel Champioships Video

Spring is not so far down the road, and with Spring comes a new season of Steel Shooting. Here's a video from last year's West Coast Steel Championships in Piru, California on American Trigger Sports Network to get you pumped up about the new season!




Yes, that's our favorite revolver shooter, Molly Smith, doing the interviews!

Fluffy?

 Every so often I get an unsolicited email like this one, but somehow this one is even farther out there than most!

 
You have drawn my attention to a site of acquaintances. I hope, as I shall like you. How I to you in a photo? The truth - pretty? But in a life I more nice!!! And as I cheerful, kind, sociable and fluffy! I like to go in for sports, read books, to listen to music. I love winter and summer. I do not love spring and slush. If I have interested you, with pleasure I shall tell about myself more in the following letter. I wait for the answer on XXXX@XXX.RU. 


Wherever she lives, they have four seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Slushy! And she's Fluffy? Really?

Welcome to Gun Blog "Spooky Luke's Ammo Locker"

I suppose I am going to get part credit blame for getting Spooky Luke into blogging, as I helped to set up his blog, Spooky Luke's Ammo Locker. He's just getting started and there are some rough edges to iron out, but if this post (coffee spew alert) is typical of what we may see in the future, it's worth taking the time to have a look once in a while.

Drop by and leave a comment and welcome Luke to our world!

Weaponized Fish In Use

In response to my previous post about "Weaponized Fish" a commenter suggested this video:

Weaponized Fish

According to the FBI, the number one weapon in murders is some sort of blunt instrument. A club, hammer, or bludgeon of some sort.

I understand that under the new proposed "Assault Weapon" ban, you will no longer be allowed to freeze a whole salmon, as it becomes "Weaponized", an "Assault Fish", so to speak. After all, the only reason you would freeze a fish is to turn it into a weapon!

It is unclear if smaller fish such as herring or sardines when frozen are exempted, or if they are classified as ammunition.

High capacity magazines are also going to be banned, so if you have any old Sears catalogs kicking around, you better get rid of them as it could be a felony unless you turn them in.

Gun Show Danger?

Holmes Harbor Steel Match Results - 01/27/2013

Early on Saturday morning it didn't look too bad weather-wise, with a bit of blue sky peeking through in places. A lot of shooters got up, looked at the sky, and decided to come and shoot the match on Saturday. However, it was a trick! By match time it was raining, and it rained all day. Fortunately it wasn't too cold, just wet.  Sunday morning was the opposite. Right after dawn it looked lousy, with low clouds, fog, and rain. On top of that, it was cold. I think a lot of shooters had a look at the weather early Sunday morning, and went back to bed. Again, it was a trick! By match time, even though it was a little colder, it stopped raining, and held off just about all day. We got a little drizzle, but that was about it. Everyone stayed home on Sunday, except for a few of us die-hards! Even so, we all had a great time, and didn't get wet, like on Saturday.

#	Name	Class	stg 1	stg 2	stg 3	stg 4	stg 5	stg 6	total
1	Mike Gallion	RF-O	10.54	11.61	12.44	13.90	12.84	9.88	71.21
2	Larry Davis	RF-O	11.70	11.95	13.79	15.81	14.84	10.11	78.20
3	Blake Koszarek	RF-R	13.05	13.20	13.72	16.98	12.03	11.69	80.67
4	Larry Davis	RF-I	13.40	12.40	15.58	19.21	15.70	12.77	89.06
5	Jennifer Kelly	RF-O	14.77	18.37	17.87	24.34	23.09	15.85	114.29
6	Steve Blazina	RF-I	21.17	23.19	23.14	26.82	20.10	14.53	128.95
7	Steve Blazina	CF-P	27.80	24.38	29.04	27.96	21.69	18.04	148.91
8	Russ Blazina	RF-I	57.72	41.83	45.34	67.84	39.12	120.00	371.85
9	Russ Blazina	CF-LR	58.91	57.99	99.82	89.03	60.91	120.00	486.66

All six stages on Sunday were identical to Saturday, so comparing times between the days is a fair comparison.

February 23rd. and 24th. we'll be back at Holmes Harbor rod & Gun Club for two more days of steel shooting, and I'm working on a surprise or so for next month's matches.

Stay tuned!

Holmes Harbor Steel Match 01/26/2013 Results

	Name	Class	stg 1	stg 2	stg 3	stg 4	stg 5	stg 6	total
1	Mike Gallion	RF-O	11.08	11.11	12.77	16.23	12.07	11.57	74.83
2	Steve Mooney	RF-R	14.78	10.72	14.74	17.53	12.46	10.22	80.45
3	Larry Davis	RF-O	16.67	12.87	11.62	14.33	13.07	12.09	80.65
4	Blake Koszarek	RF-R	17.15	11.55	15.09	12.98	12.49	12.48	81.74
5	Steve Mooney	RF-O	14.54	12.72	15.90	14.83	14.30	11.12	83.41
6	Mac McInerney	RF-R	13.72	16.63	15.50	17.27	14.80	11.27	89.19
7	John Davidson	RF-O	16.08	15.98	17.50	17.74	15.72	11.29	94.31
8	Larry Davis	RF-I	16.39	17.80	16.41	17.75	16.98	10.71	96.04
9	Mark McDaniel	RF-O	14.33	15.00	23.44	21.69	18.55	13.75	106.76
10	Thomas Alldredge	RF-I	17.48	21.21	19.64	19.35	17.81	13.45	108.94
11	Mac McInerney	RF-O	19.34	16.02	25.17	19.64	17.05	13.09	110.31
12	John Davidson	CF-P	16.93	18.73	22.40	20.32	15.56	23.69	117.63
13	Dan Lavaty	RF-R	19.20	20.07	20.41	26.18	18.59	16.50	120.95
14	Dan Lavaty	RF-O	18.01	21.62	22.36	23.79	20.02	15.74	121.54
15	Thomas Alldredge	CF-P	19.14	20.39	24.11	19.97	19.75	19.34	122.70
16	Allen Vautier	RF-I	21.03	17.80	24.89	23.36	23.11	16.07	126.26
17	Jeff Proctor	RF-I	23.82	22.11	25.79	30.58	21.53	15.26	139.09
18	Thomas Alldredge	REV-I	20.07	31.28	32.86	29.12	27.09	25.67	166.09
19	Dave Ihnen	REV-I	31.09	34.76	30.52	33.87	27.23	45.39	202.86
20	Dave Shupe	RF-O	18.59	120.00	19.46	19.37	19.90	15.77	213.09
21	Dave Ihnen	REV-I	30.65	29.34	17.47	37.03	62.77	38.45	215.71
22	Jim Dyment	CF-P	60.02	41.93	56.72	40.11	40.63	37.30	276.71
23	Jim Montgomery	RF-I	63.84	42.18	79.18	44.77	48.99	29.04	308.00
24	Steve Murphy	RF-I	60.41	38.18	47.17	68.64	59.67	34.70	308.77
25	Dave Shupe	CF-P	120.00	120.00	40.44	43.07	33.08	26.70	383.29
26	Mike Muzos	RF-I	47.84	89.13	53.76	104.08	39.12	51.59	385.52

Leaky Pipes

I got this in an email from a friend of mine, and I don't know the original source of it, so I can't give credit where credit is due, but it's certainly a good read.

 

I've got a leak in the pipe coming into my hot water heater. It is in the foundation so it is hard to fix. So, I've turned down the temperature in my hot water heater. It doesn't fix the problem, it wouldn't have stopped the water that has already leaked, and I know my foundation will continue to decay from the water that is still leaking, but hey, I've done 'something' and it makes me feel better about the problem. I don't even want to think or talk about what really needs done because it is hard to fix.

We've got young people going on rampages and massacring children. I'm going to make it harder to buy guns. It doesn't fix the problem, I acknowledge that it wouldn't have stopped the killing that has already happened, so I know it won't stop any more killing, but it makes me 'feel better' that I've done 'something.' I won't even talk about the real problem because it is too hard to fix - and it might mean I have to admit I have some culpability in the problem.

The real problem isn't guns. The real problem isn't games or movies. The real problem is a decay in our culture that we've allowed to permeate the thinking of our children. And you are all responsible in some way.

I see kids walking around with their pants hanging off their bottoms like they got them as hand-me-downs from a short chubby cousin, shoe laces missing like they just got out of county lockup, and gang sign tattoos showing like they have 'street cred.' Very few of these are poor kids from 'the hood.' They are middle and even upper class children whose parents can afford to dress them better. Parents who could demand better behavior, but 'enable' their children to worship poverty and crime. Who let their kids listen to rap music performed by celebrities who's claim to fame is their 'street cred' - their criminal activity and 'gangsta' associations. Our culture is one that worships poverty and crime. We worship drug using, wife beating, immoral celebrities. And even if we don't personally, we tolerate it and 'enabled' our children to emulate that behavior. (The President has even entertained these 'celebrities' at the White House.)

But nobody wants to talk about that. We want to blame the guns. We want to blame the games. We do not want to blame ourselves for allowing our children to grow up thinking poverty is good and crime is the way to succeed. It is OUR fault. We are responsible for raising a generation of unmotivated, uncaring, insensitive young adults. But we don't want to address the real problem because we would have to acknowledge our responsibility for it. No legislation by the government can fix the problem of irresponsible parenting.

So, we won't fix the problem - but we'll 'feel better' that we've done 'something.'

SHOT show Day 4 - winding down

It's Friday morning, I am sitting in the press room, and I can see by looking at the people here that it has been a long four days. There are only perhaps half of the crowd here that has been here each day for the last three days. I'm sure a lot of people came for three days and have returned home today so they would have a weekend when they got back to the house.

It is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel where I am staying to the shot show and this morning, I had the opportunity to walk with and visit with Joe Waldron from the Second Amendment foundation. That is one of the most interesting parts of the shot show, the opportunity to meet interesting and knowledgeable people in the industry and get the word firsthand, so to speak, rather than hearing things second or third hand from unreliable sources.

The cost of everything here in Las Vegas is very expensive and food is no exception. The typical cost for a buffet meal is $20-$22 per person, and some are even more than that. Last night after the show, when I went foraging for dinner, I found a Denny's nearby. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the Denny's prices were the same as they are at all of the other Denny's that I've ever been to, and I was even more pleasantly surprised at just how good my dinner last night was. Instead of spending $25 or $30 or $40 for dinner at the other restaurants in the area, I had a senior special chicken fried steak meal for $8.99. It was good! Needless to say, I will be back there again tonight for dinner.

I have just about finished my cup of coffee, and it is time to pack up my gear and head out to the show floor. There is no Internet access at my hotel, or, I should say at $10 a day there is no way I'm going to pay that for Internet access at the hotel! I will probably get one more post up later today,and then, I probably won't have anything to post for a day or so as I will be traveling to get home and then sleeping to recover!

SHOT Show day three report two

It is rather hard to explain in words just how large the shot show actually is. The above picture was taken from one corner of one of the halls where the show is set up.if it looks like there are ceiling lights clear to the horizon, that's not far away from the truth. As I said, this is only one corner of one of the display halls. There is no doubt that although I will have put four days in trying to see all the show, there will still be a number of things that I miss.

SHOT show day three report one

After a pretty good but rather expensive breakfast with my friend Nelson the two of us walked to the shot show. I went directly to the press room and set up the netbook computer to see if I could get it to go online today. After some fiddling around and eventually removing or disabling at least data encryption now it seems to log on and work like it should. I have no idea why it worked just fine on the first day yesterday it wouldn't work. Who knows. At least it is running, I can now check my emails,and I can get a post or so up from time to time to let everyone know how the show is going.I have contacted most of the businesses companies and people that I had on my list of contacts that I needed to make and I have only three or four left to go. I should be able to get all of the rest of the business transactions completed today and any loose ends at turn up handle them tomorrow. Time to put the computer away, and head down to the show floor.

 More later.….

SHOT Show day two report

Day two at that shot show went pretty much the same as day one,except that I forgot to take my camera with me, so no photos today. I started the morning in the press room with a cup of coffee and set up the computer to get onto the Internet to get my first blog post of the day posted. For some reason, I could get a connection to the Wi-Fi Internet and it showed a strong signal, but it did not want to send or receive anything. Very puzzling. I tried several different things, but it did not want to cooperate.I finally gave up, packed everything back into my camera bag, and headed downstairs to the show.

The size of the shot show is mind boggling. It is said that there is a total of 15 miles of files if you measured every single aisle from end to end  and front to back. Not only is there a lot of walking to be done in the show itself, it is also a fairly long walk to get from the hotel to the show and back again.my feet held up pretty well for the first day of the show, but today, the second day, it was a different matter. It feels like both feet are solid bruise on the bottoms! I decided to return to the  hotel room, take a couple of ibuprofen, and propped my feet up. Getting off of my feet plus the ibuprofen has made quite a difference. We have a "Wi-Fi hotspot" here in the hotel room, and I tried connecting to the Internet with that, and it works just fine. I have no idea why it would not connect in the press room. I have now managed to read and answer some of my emails, and put together a short post so you all would know that I had not disappeared here in Las Vegas!

Tomorrow is day three of the show, and after what I hope is a good nights sleep tonight, we will hit it again in the morning.

More blog posts in the morning from the press room, I hope!

shot show report day one part three

It has been a long day. With the exception of the time that I spent in the press room, I spent the rest of the day from 8:30 in the morning until six in the evening walking up and down the rows of aisles in the shot show. The variety of interesting things to look at at the show is absolutely amazing. even having spent an entire day at the show, I have still only seen a small fraction of what is all there to be seen.after the show, I grabbed a hamburger for dinner and came back to the room. I am tired, my feet hurt, and it is time for some sleep.

If all goes according to plan, I will get the next post up from the press room tomorrow morning. But for now, it's lights out.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

SHOT Show Day 1 Part 2

Part of the fun the shot show is all of the interesting people that you see. Here is a pictureof quick Cal Eilrich and yours truly at the cowboy action SASS booth. I got  a chance to visit with Tori Nonaka,  and also, talk to KC Esubio. perhaps the best part of all, was getting a chance to spend some time with Eric
grauffels, talking about the finer points of tuning a Tanfolio 9 mm race gun for steel challenge shooting. it sounds like this may be the year that Eric will also show up at the European steel challenge championships in Holland. Although it is too soon to say for sure, it is very possible that one of the biggest names in shooting will be there in Holland with us this year too.

At the moment I am dictating this in the press room and it is quite noisy in here but even with all of the noise Dragon Naturally Speaking seems to be doing a pretty good job. I am going to go refill my coffee cup, and head back out to the show to see more of the booths for later….
















uick can tell rich and yours truly at the SASS Booth.

Well, here I am at the shot show, sitting in the press room with Jay G, slurping down the first cup of coffee of the day, and bracing myself for the rest of the day seeing the show. When I first came into the press room this morning who did I meet but  Kelly Bachand  who was having a cup of coffee and figuring out which booths he was going to visit today and in which order. Kelly has finished his engineering degree now, and is working full-time,hasn't been shooting much, and recently got married. Kelly is starting up a gun sales business specializing in long-range rifles, something that he knows a lot about.

Jay is sitting next to me, fondling and oak oh site and drooling on it but a, it is an OKO!

I guess it is time to top up my coffee cup, pack up the computer, and head downstairs to the show. It is 8:30, and it's time to go see what's new.

More later.....

Off To The SHOT Show

Tomorrow morning at 4:55 AM I plan to board the airport shuttle bus for the 1 1/2 hour ride to Seattle-Tacoma international Airport. If all goes according to plan, I will be flying from Seattle to Las Vegas, arriving in Las Vegas just before noon  for the SHOT show. for those unfamiliar with the shot show, it is the shooting hunting and outdoors tradeshow held every year usually in Las Vegas. It is one of the largest tradeshows in the world. They say that at last year's show, if you walked up and down every single aisle north-south and East-West, so to speak, and saw the entire show, you would have walked 15 miles.I don't know if that is accurate or not, but considering how badly my feet hurt at the end of the show last year, I suspect it is not far from the truth. I will be attending the show in several capacities, including media, which means gun blogger, dealer, representing Magnum shooters supply, and manufacturer representing MagAero Systems.I am looking forward to seeing a number of people that I only see perhaps once or twice a year and it would will be nice to get a chance to visit a bit, although at the shot show everyone is usually pretty busy.
 
Trying to type on the little tiny keyboard, at least for my fat fingers, of my netbook computer has always been a problem, and I seem to spend more time with the backspace key that on the letter keys themselves. This year at the shot show, I will be trying out Dragon naturally speaking to prepare blog posts, and hopefully, keep everyone posted on how the shot show is going.

that's it for now, and hopefully, the next post will be from the shot show.

Red Skin Potatoes are Racist?

Today Rush discussed some idiot’s article blaming racism for RG3’s injury, singling out the supposedly anti-Native American name, Washington Redskins. Now I ask you, how can it be racist to name the Washington Redskins after a potato?

From Curmudgeonly and skeptical

Misc and more misc......

well, it's been almost 24 hours since I threw the switch on the furnace and it has been working just fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though,  since the furnace had been sitting for a couple of years before I fired it back up. This morning, when the thermostat called for heat, the furnace lit right up and warm the house up nicely.

Right now the weather outside is wet sloppy and rain and a little bit of hail so it is not a nice day to be outside. I just got back from the range, where I went to try a new load for the Tanfolio 9 mm.  Race gun. I had been having all kinds of problems with this load, but on paper, it looked like it should work fine. It turns out that the problem was caused by some old primers that I was using, and the load itself was okay  after all.

I have also been experimenting with a guide ride and spring assembly made by Sprinco.  it uses a secondary offer spring in addition to the regular spring on the guide rod. This allows the primary spring to be lighter so that the gun will cycle with a lighter load yet when the slide reaches the end of its travel rearward, the secondary spring  comes into play,  bringing the slide to a stop and absorbing the rest of the energy.  The secondary spring  also gives the slide a bit of an extra push to get it started moving forward a bit more quickly, since it is a stiffer spring.  Eric  Grauffels,  the amazing French shooter, uses the Sprinco guide rod, and was involved in the development and testing.  if it is good enough for Eric's Tanfoglio, then it is certainly good enough for mine!

 I am hoping to give the new guide rod and spring assembly a thorough testing this Saturday at the steel match at KRRC. I hope the weather isn't too ugly, as they are forecasting snow for this weekend.

Installing A New Furnace

about three years ago I decided that our furnace which is close to 50 years old was on its last legs and should probably be replaced. I had been watching craigslist, and I came across a nearly new Thermo pride furnace for sale not too far away from here. A friend of mine and I took his pickup truck and drove to the house where the furnace was located, to have a look.

It turns out that the furnace had been installed in a newly constructed house that had never been finished or occupied. The contractor, who had built the house, decided to upgrade the furnace to a heat pump instead of an oil  furnace, and so  this furnace was put up for sale on craigslist. We checked the furnace over very carefully, and it appeared to be an excellent condition, and had been carefully maintained, even though the house had never been occupied. However, the purchaser of the furnace also had to uninstall the furnace and drag it out of the house. The good news about all of that was that by uninstalling it we also got to keep all of the ducting and connections and filters and fuel lines and all of the other bits and pieces required to put the furnace into another house.

It took us a couple of hours and we had it dismantled and loaded into his truck. When we got it home, I put it out in the barn in a dry place knowing that eventually our current furnace was going to need to be replaced. So far this winter, our oil consumption for the furnace in the house has been getting higher and higher each month and it has become obvious that it's time to make the change.

When this house had its furnace set up the interior walls had not yet been framed, so the furnace was put in place and then the furnace room was built around the furnace. This means that the old furnace would not go out through the door to get out of the furnace room to get it out of the way so that we could move the new furnace in. I dismantled the old furnace into separate pieces and was able to get it out of the furnace room one large heavy awkward chunk at a time. The new furnace was of a somewhat different design and it wasn't as long, but it was about a foot taller which is just fine because we could get through the door and all I would need to do is shorten up the overhead ducting a bit and it should work just fine.

For the last two days, I have been working on the furnace project. I have never done any heating or duct work in the past, although I have done repairs to furnace burners.since it is winter time, obviously, I don't want to be without heat in the house for any longer than is absolutely necessary. Yesterday morning I decided that since the weather forecast looked to be relatively mild and  rainy  it would be a good time to swap the furnaces. By last night I had the old furnace out and the new furnace in place, and all that remained was to manufacture different ducting to fit the new furnace to the old duct work, reconnect the wiring, and reconnect the fuel line.

The duct work was challenging but eventually I got it all in place, and it came out even better than I had hoped for. between the parts from the new furnace and the old furnace I had most of everything that I needed to do the conversion. I did buy a new piece of copper fuel line and I had to buy a seven inch to  6 inch adapter for the stovepipe, and a new copper tubing flaring tool.

Today around noon was the big moment. With the fuel line connected, the stove pipe connected, wiring hooked up, the new ducting in place, and the fuel pump purged of air, it was time to throw the switch.  To my great joy it started up immediately and started making heat.

The new furnace should be much more efficient than the old one and should be able to produce the same or more heat from approximately 25% less furnace oil. In the late 50's, when the original furnace was manufactured, and oil was $.30 a gallon, no one was very concerned about furnace efficiency. With furnace oil costs now approaching four dollars per gallon fuel efficiency of an oil furnace is critical.

The furnace has been running for several hours now this afternoon and evening and has been cycling on and off just as it should and as it is directed by the thermostat. A few hours of operation isn't enough time to be sure everything is going to work as it should, but so far, I am optimistic.

Words can barely describe how nice it is to have the heat back on...….

NOTE: A Couple of months ago I purchased an older copy of Dragon naturally speaking version 11. I wanted to give it a try to see how well it would work for blogging. With version 11 running through the soundcard in my computer the accuracy was not very good. I spent a lot of time editing and fixing misspelled words. Nuance,  the company that produces Dragon naturally speaking software had a special price for Christmas on version 12. Version 12 uses a microphone that connects through the USB port rather than through the soundcard. I thought that perhaps the recognition errors could be reduced by not going through the soundcard and directly through the USB port. At least in my situation, the new microphone that comes with version 12 and connecting it through the USB port seems to work very well. This entire post was dictated using Dragon naturally speaking.

Double Alpha's New Race Holster

Saul Kirsch, head of Double Alpha Academy, has come out with a lightweight plastic race holster based on his more expensive all aluminum framed holster. Using plastic allows a light weight and sturdy holster, yet at a more affordable price. Dave Ihnen, who I shoot with regularly, has done a benchtop review of Saul's new holster. Check it out.