SHOT Show Report Number Something or other.......

Lisa Munson in action.

The size of this show is hard to believe. I've spent the last several days here, and there is still maybe a fourth of the show I haven't seen. The number of booths and the number of people I've seen and met with is amazing. I just met Larry Potterfield, owner of Midway USA. Yesterday I ran into Lisa Munson, whom I haven't had a chance to visit with in a couple of years. It looks like I may be setting up some lessons with Lisa to improve my competition shooting.

Thanks to the horrible weather in Western Washington, I have decided to change my flight home from today (Friday) to Sunday. This should allow the weather to warm up and for the rain to melt most of the snow. I was really not looking forward to driving from the airport in Bellingham to the South end of Whidbey Island in the snow, a drive of about two and a half hous on good roads. It's a bit ironic that I will have one day extra here in Las Vegas to kill, since I'm not a gambler and I'd really much rather be back home working on getting the new milling machine going and making parts. There certainly are folks who would be tickled to have an extra day here, but I'm not one of them.

The show is just a couple of hours from closing, and the press room is mostly empty. In a  few minutes I'll be meeting up with Nelson Dymond of the Ruger Rimfire Series, and John Allchin of Allchin Gun Parts to go get some lunch. All things considered, the NSSF has done an outstanding job of putting on one of the largest trade shows in the world.

I hope I can be here again next year.................

Day One - SHOT Show

Early Monday morning I headed out the door towards Bellingham, WA to catch my Alaska Airlines flight to Las Vegas and the SHOT Show. The weather forecast  was for snow and ice most of the way, and that's pretty much how it was. Actually, the conditions weren't all that bad, but the scary part was the other drivers who didn't have a clue as to how to drive in those conditions.

When I finally got onto the airplane, our flight was delayed while they sprayed de-icer all over our airplane, as it had about an inch of snow on it. Once de-iced, off we went, and it was an uneventful flight to Las Vegas. Once in Las Vegas, I caught the shuttle to the Stratosphere hotel. I had nothing scheduled for the rest of  the day so I just wandered around the hotel and casino. I had a deluxe Carl Junior's burger for dinner, then hit the sack for the night.

This morning I caught the shuttle  to the Sands Convention Center. I checked in at the media center, and then wandered into the Press Room  to check it out. 

Signing in and getting my Press Credentials.

Partial view of the Press Room. Thanks to Budweiser for sponsoring it!

I have met a number of folks I know already, and met a few bloggers I haven't met in person. I even met some of my friends from Holland and the European Steel Challenge. I'm curre3ntly using the free WiFi here in the press room.

I think I should head out and start cdhecking out the show itself!

UPDATE: It's almost 3:30 and my feet are not at all happy! Lots of talking, and concrete floors aren't helping, but it's not a surprise as it's about what I expected.

NEWS: I met Mr. Tanfoglio in person and he told me that Tanfoglio will be importede and sold under the Tanfoglio name, sepatate from EAA! WOO HOO! You can expect to see a whole lot of Tanfoglios in the near future in this country. With new importers and distributors (and especially support) they are going to be very good gun for the money, and a very good gun overall. Yay!!


More later....................

Off I Go...............

Tomorrow in the early hours I'm heading out, driving about two and a half hours North to the Bellingham, WA. airport, where I will catch an Alaska Air 737 for a two and a half hour flight to Las Vegas. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I will be wandering around the SHOT show, and Friday I fly back home, returning to Bellingham, and driving back home, getting home Friday evening.

I will be attending as Press, and I hope to bring back some interesting stories for this blog. I should mention, however, that I am not an "Equipment Junkie", and I will be focusing more on the SHOT Show experience, more than individual hardware. Of course, if anything cool and shiny does catch my eye (inevitable, I suspect) a post on that will be written, for sure.

There a a number of Gun Bloggers attending, and I'm sure I will meet a lot of them while I'm there. Dan and Caleb from GunUp.com have arranged a number of blogger meetings at some of the manufacturers booths, so that should be interesting, as well. I'm sure I'll also meet up with a number of shooters and industry folks I know, so it should be a lot of fun.

Stay tuned, I'll post when I can..........

Kitsap Steel Challenge Report

Yesterday I got the chance to venture over to the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club in Bremerton, WA. for a full eight stage Steel Challenge match. I had to be out the door at 5am to be able to be there just a little bit late at 8:20am for sign up and the shooter's meeting. It was raining and snowing when I left home, and didn't look to promising for the rest of the day. After two ferry rides and some driving, I arrived at the range. It was close to freezing, a wind was blowing, and it was raining. It didn't look like it was going to be a very pleasant day weather-wise, but since I hadn't shot since late October except for a few rimfire rounds a couple of days ago, I definitely needed the practice to get back to where I was last Fall.

About midway through the match the rain stopped, and a lot of the cloud cover went away. The wind stopped blowing too, and that by itself makes it seem a lot warmer. With a bit of sunshine peeking through it was still cold, but in comparison, almost balmy!

My first few stages weren't too good, as I was clearly rusty! As the day progressed and the weather improved, so did my shooting, and by the end of the match it was going much better. Not great, but better! Usually after a match I hang around to help put away the targets and target stands, but since the weather was starting to close back in and snow was forecast, I decided to head home as quickly as possible. It was a good thing I did, as part way home it started snowing pretty good, and it was sticking. It was snowing enough that I passed a snow plow going the other way, and he was plowing. Fortunately the snow was coming from a relatively small cell, and ten or twelve miles later I was out from under it and it wasn't snowing.

By the time I got home my back was really starting to hurt, as drawing from a holster uses some muscles that apparently don't get used for too much else, and they were really getting sore. Once home I lay down on the heating pad for a while, until it started hurting less. Once the pain had subsided, went out like a light. It had been a very long day, and I was bushed..........

Going To The SHOT Show!

Much earlier this year one of my sponsors said they were going to send some gun bloggers to the SHOT Show. I was told that I'd be one of the ones to go, for sure. Unfortunately, that sponsor wasn't able to afford to send any bloggers to the show after all. I just figured I wasn't going to get there at all, because of the cost.

However, after talking to some folks I know in California who are going, they made some suggestions, encouraged me to go anyway, and even helped to line up a room mate to share the hotel cost. I researched airfares, and it turns out that both Alaska Airlines and Allegiant fly direct out of Bellingham, WA. to Las Vegas. Allegiant offers some really low fares, but after you add in all of their bizarre extra fees and charges, it ends up with Alaska being basically the same price, and with Alaska you get to ride on relatively new Boeing 737's instead of DC-9's of unknown vintage, but old, for sure. There's a saying in Alaska "If it ain't Boeing, I AIN'T GOING!" and I feel that way too.

They have a media day at the SHOT show on the day before the show opens, but that's already filled to capacity, so I won't be able to go to that. I will get to see the show itself, though, and that will take several days. I think I read somewhere that the show floor itself is 600,000 square feet. My feet hurt just thinking about it!

Anyhow, next Monday is travel day to get there, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be spent seeing the show and covering it for the blog, and Friday will be travel home day.

It should be really interesting to finally make it to the SHOT Show.

Note: For those of you unfamiliar with the SHOT Show, it is the Shooting, Hunting, and outdoors industry trade show put on every year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. For more info, check out shotshow.org

Updates, Misc., Etc.........

Since just before Christmas when I ended up in the hospital until now there has been so much going on that I've barely had time to live it, let alone blog about it!

Shortly after Black Bunny was crippled by the (expletive) daughter of our (expletive) neighbor, I had a tooth get abscessed. It was a tooth that had been root-canal-ed, but that we hadn't got crowned yet. Unfortunately, it split into two teeth, each with one root. Doctor Bob, my dentist, suggested pulling it out and putting in a titanium stud. After about six months, he'd make a new tooth and mount it to the stud. We'd been talking about doing that for some time, but the abscess meant it was decision time. Regardless, the tooth, both parts, had to come out to resolve the infection. It was already hurting pretty badly, and two hours in the chair getting it completely removed didn't help. The pain was beyond what over the counter stuff would control, so he prescribed some stronger pain pills and sent me home to heal up. The next night another tooth started hurting, even worse than the pain from the extraction. Since I had some pain pills, I keep it to a nearly bearable level until the next day when Doctor Bob arranged to have a look at the second tooth to go nuts in two days. The second tooth had been partially root-canal-ed and crowned maybe eight or ten years ago. Dr. Bob pried off the crown and cleaned out the inside where the infection was cooking away, put in some special stuff to keep it from flaring back up, and put the crown back on as a temporary. Two places going crazy, one on the upper and one on the lower jaw, was generating quite a lot of pain, so I spent a couple of days trying to balance the effects of the pain pills with keeping the pain down to a bearable level. Finally the pain diminished enough that over the counter stuff was strong enough, and now the pain is pretty much gone, although the area where to tooth was pulled is still a little sore.At the same time as all the dental adventures I was also helping a number of liquor store clients with hardware and software tech support.

The wall and the door on the left is new, along with the new sheet rock and insulation on hte other walls and ceiling.

The new controllers are about the size of a PC, but this was state of the art in the early 80's.

Had to figure out a way to keep the heat from going up the stairwell. This seems to work well, and it's actually quite convenient.

I don't have the coolant and tank hooked up, or the shields to keep the coolant contained, but it's not far off now.

 In my spare time (!) I was working to get everything up and running with the new milling machine in the expanded machine shop in the barn. The new wall is fully in, insulated, sheet rocked, taped, sanded, and painted. The other walls are now furred out, sheet rocked, taped, and painted. The same with the ceiling. Two new 220 volt circuits are now wired in, complete with the sockets in and all trimmed out with cover plates, etc. I wired in two separate circuits, one for the spindle motors, and one for the rest of the controller system, so they would be isolated from each other.   Two more 110 volt outlets are also installed. Two doors are now hung, and everything is painted, caulked, and trimmed. The floor now has three coats of epoxy paint. In short, the carpentry part is just about complete.

The CNC milling machine has two main components, the milling machine, and the GE 1050 Controller, which actually runs the milling machine according to the CNC computer file you have loaded into the controller.

 The controller and milling machine are connected together by four huge wire bundles that go from one to the other in an overhead steel raceway. To separate the milling machine from the controller so they could be separately moved, a huge number of wires had to be disconnected from inside the controller and the wire bundles lashed to the milling machine for transport. We documented everything so I could put it all back together once it was in it's new home. It took the better part of a day to get the wire bundles back into the controller and get them all connected. Before I powered it up I triple-checked all the connections, and it all looked perfect. Once I powered it up, though, it didn't want to fully start up. More checking found one pair of wires that, going by the documentation, could be hooked up either of two ways. One wire was black, the other green. Looking really closely with a flashlight, I saw some very faint writing of the letters "GR" behind the connector with the black wire on it. That had to be it! I swapped the wires, and tried it again. This time it started up and all of the display and controls seemed to be working. In checking it out, though, I found that the spindle would go up and down and the table would move in and out, but the table would only move to the left, but not to the right. I theorized that the X Axis (side to side) servo wasn't getting all of it's control signals, so it would only move one way. Each servo has it's own controller circuit board in the controller, so I decided to have a look at the X Axis controller board. To get to the controller board you have to remove a big cooling fan, and then a big aluminum cooling fin assembly. Sure enough, inspecting the board closely with a flashlight revealed three blown resistors on the board. When this board was manufactured they were hand assembled with a soldering iron, so replacing the resistors shouldn't be to tough of a job. I disconnected all of the servo board wiring and put in a spare board. No one locally had any resistors like I needed, so I ordered some, and swapped in the spare board. I can repair the original board  when the resistors arrive next week. This time, when I powered it all up everything worked just like it should!

This particular milling machine has two spindles so you can machine two identical parts at the same time, so it has two separate 3hp. 3 phase 220 volt motors. The controller, the controller circuitry on the milling machine, and the servo motors all run on 220 volt single phase. Since I don't have 3 phase power available, I have to produce it myself. In the old days there were two ways to do it. You could use a converter that was basically a single phase electric motor driving a 3 phase alternator. This worked well ,but it was (and still is) quite expensive. The second way was to use a single phase to 3 phase converter box which "manufactured" a third phase using capacitors and so forth. It worked, but your 3hp. motor would only produce 2hp., so you either had to go to bigger motors, or live with less power. Now there is a much better way to get your 3 phase power, and it borders om magical! There is now a device called a Variable Frequency Drive" or VFD for short. The one I got is about the size of a lunch box, and through digital electronics not only converts single phase to three phase, it also lets you select the output frequency of the three phase power. Standard is 60 cycle (OK, Hertz, if you insist!!), but with a VFD you can select any frequency up to 200 cycles! Since the motor speed is determined by the frequency, the VFD then becomes a motor speed control as well. You can even hook up a potentiometer and a knob and mount it on the front of the machine so you can change motor speed simply by turning the knob. Tonight I powered up the VFD for the first time, and it does exactly what it says. In addition, it also has a built in "Soft Start" feature where it gradually, over a second or so, brings the motor up to speed. This is a lot easier on motors and equipment. All that is left now is to mount the VFD on a heavy duty bracket, and then connect the three phase wiring from the mill to the VFD. That should probably happen tomorrow sometime.

All that remains for the milling machine then will be for me to learn how to program it and start making sight rails and mounts for sale. I've got some good designs I've developed over the last few years, and getting them into production will certainly help to keep food on the table...............

Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2012 Dates Announced

The contract is now signed for the 2012 Gun Blogger Rendezvous. The dates will be September 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th of September. This is the second week in September, as usual. It is also the same weekend as the Reno Balloon Races.

The Rendezvous will be at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino in Reno, where it's been for the last few years. We will be moving a few doors over to a larger Hospitality Room, but only a few doors away from where we were last year. The new location has the possibility of opening up into a larger size, which allows us some growth area for the future. Plans are to follow the basic schedule of last year's Rendezvous, but there will also be a few changes, and possibly some new things too, but it's still; way too early in the planning stages to make any announcements about that.

Every year I get a few emails asking why the Rendezvous can't be held on a different weekend, as that weekend conflicts with (fill in the blank). Reno has some sort of major event going on almost every weekend, and hotel prices vary widely depending on the demand for rooms. The week after the Rendezvous is the Reno Air Races, for example, and it's tough to get a room at all, let alone a group of rooms at a discount. Later in the month the weather starts getting colder, and it starts getting miserable at the ranges when we go shooting. Earlier in the year it seems that just about everyone is busy just about every weekend. In short, we are on the dates we're on because it's the best compromise, taking all the different factors in to account. If the dates happen to conflict with something for you, we're sorry about that, but there isn't a single day in the year that doesn't conflict with something for somebody, so we try to pick the best possible dates we can get.

Someone always asks "Why not put the Rendezvous in (his home town)? ", or "Why not move it around to a different city every year, like the NRA Convention?" The short answer is that it's an amazing amount of work to put on an event like the Rendezvous, and where the NRA has a good sized staff on the payroll to organize the convention, the GBR has only an unpaid staff of KeeWee and I, along with the much appreciated help of a few blogger volunteers. To move to a different city  means re-inventing just about every detail, and moving it every year means starting almost from scratch every year, and that's way more work than I can handle.

We all hope that the Gun Blogger Rendezvous dates will work into your schedule and that we'll see you in Reno in September. If you've never been to the GBR, perhaps this is the year to give it a try! We always have a grand time, and for spouses not so interested in the gunny side of the Rendezvous, there's also lots of other things in Reno to see and do, so come to Reno in September, and have a ball!

Black Bunny Report

"Black Bunny"

Wow, where to begin! There's been so much going on lately I hardly know where to start. I guess I'll start with the Black Bunny story, at least the background and where we are now.

As those of you who have ever been to Castle Completely have found out, we have several wild but very tame and friendly rabbits living around the place. They will eat out of your hand, and even follow you around to see what you are doing. I had no idea rabbits were so curious! The rabbits around here are a mix of wild cottontail and escaped/released domestic rabbit genetics. Our house rabbit "Bun", who we have raised from a severely injured little ball of fur, is now a big healthy girl, and brings a lot of joy to our household. Bun looks like a really big cottontail with longer ears.

Anyhow, to get back to the story, a couple of years ago a nearly solid black rabbit showed up. With the exception of a few white hairs on his forehead, he's solid jet black. It didn't take long before he had become the friendliest of all the outside bunnies by far. He would come in the front door to see what you were doing, jump into your car if you left the door open, and even follow me around n the shop and barn. We would feed him oats, which he would devour as fast as he could! He also loved to have his forehead petted, and he would stand there for as long as you kept petting him. After the second year, he had worked his way up to being an Alpha Rabbit, and had established his family's own territory or turf, so to speak. We named him "Black Bunny".

Unfortunately, our neighborhood also has some very unpleasant people living nearby. A couple of their kids drive up and down our narrow one lane road at fifty miles per hour, or even faster. Along our little road there are rabbits, quail, pheasants, deer, and other small creatures. Most of us drive slowly and watch for them, but not the neighbor kids. A little over a week ago Kelly, the sheet rock guy, was just getting out of his truck when he saw the neighbor's daughter roar by. As soon as she had passed, Kelly heard an animal screaming in pain. He walked out to the road and looked, but the screaming had stopped, and he couldn't find anything. Kelly told me about it, and I went looking too, but couldn't find anything. I went back to work in the new machine shop, and about an hour later I was walking back to the house when I spotter Black Bunny in the driveway. His hind quarters were dragging behind him, and he was pulling himself towards the front porch with his fore legs. He was trying to get to me for some help.

I picked him up and took him into the house to see how badly injured he was. There was no blood or obvious wounds, but he was definitely in shock. I bundled him up in a warm towel and put him in a big box so he was at least as comfortable as possible, in spite of what must have be terrible pain. It looked like it was either a broken lower spine, hip, pelvis, or some combination of all. It didn't look like he'd make it through the night, but I figured all I could do was try to give him a chance, even if it was slim, or even if he ended up having to be put down later.

I was up just about every hour all night checking on him, and it was obvious to me that he knew he was badly hurt, he recognized me, and he appreciated my efforts to comfort him, even if the odds were not good. By the next morning he was pretty much out of shock, and he was even starting to eat and drink a bit. Every so often he would move the wrong way and the pain would be intense, and he would panic. I would calm him down and he would relax again. Over the next few days he learned what positions hurt, and he learned to avoid them. He was also getting better at getting around, and his right rear leg looked like it might be starting to function a bit. That was a good sign, as it could mean that the spinal cord was intact.

By Saturday he was eating and drinking well, and his vital signs looked good. On Monday we made an appointment to go see Dr. Bishop, the vet. Black Bunny was again a little trooper, riding on my lap wrapped in a large towel. He was alert, ears up, and looking out the windows watching everything go by, just like a dog or a cat! When we got to the vet's, the power had gone out, so they couldn't take an x-ray. We went back home again, and they said they'd give me a call when the power came back on. A few hours later they telephoned, and we headed back over to the vet's office. Again the little rabbit impressed me with just how tough he was. The x-ray showed that he was in better condition than I had feared, but still pretty badly injured. His back and spinal cord looked fine. A small spur on one side of a lower back vertebra was broken, but other than being painful, that would not be a problem and would heal by itself. The big injury turned out to be a badly dis-located hip joint. That explains why he's dragging one rear leg.

We've decided to wait another week and let some natural healing to occur, and for some of the swelling and inflammation to go down before making any further decisions. Sometimes dis-located hips can be put back together. We'll probably have a much better idea next week. We'll just have to cross the bridges as we come to them, but for now I'm keeping my fingers crossed......

Finally, Some Good News!

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment with the doctor to get the results of the prostate biopsy. Everything pointed heavily to it being cancer, and even the doc was pretty well convinced that was the case. Nothing else quite fit the results of the various tests. However, the only real test for prostate cancer is a biopsy, and then you know for sure. To my amazement, and the amazement of the doctor, no cancer was found at all! All they could come up with was some prostate inflammation, but no indication of any sort of bacterial infection. With a bacterial infection your white blood cell count goes high, but my white cell count was perfectly normal. The doctor's final diagnosis was that the only thing that fit was some sort of extremely rare viral prostate infection. Viral prostate infections are so rare the doc couldn't remember the last case of it he saw! Anyhow, it now looks like this whole mess was some sort of virus, and it seems to have now run it's course, and now all I have to do is get recovered from it. The really really good news, though, is no sign of cancer, and if it had been there, the biopsy (12 samples taken) would have found it!

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for a good result, and all of those of you who have left comments and sent emails of support and encouragement. Hearing from you definitely helped to make it a bit easier to get through the worst parts of it all.

Thanks Again!

 - - - -  Mr. C.

Diagnosis?

The doctor's have been stumped, but now they have possibly figured out the details of my recent illness! Brocolitis! Yup, Brocolitis! Brocolitis is a fairly common viral infection caused by the virus know as Broc-coli. It can be difficult to diagnose, as not all symptoms are always present, and it seems to be more common with men. Many women seem to have a natural immunity to the disease. Some of the more common symptoms in men include wearing Birkenstocks, an obsession with granola, an unusual development of their sensitive side, and driving an older Volvo station wagon, often with one front fender a different color.

It seems that a few weeks ago I was at the grocery store with KeeWee, and I spent a few minutes standing in the produce section as she was picking up some kale for our rabbit, "Bun". When leaving the store I must have forgotten to use the hand sanitizer lotion, and some of the Broc-coli must have followed me home.

Fortunately, the broc-coli virus is pretty weak, and once diagnosed, is easily defeated with common and readily available treatments. One of the best medicines of all in "Pop-Tarticillin", and it's available over the counter in most grocery stores. It comes in several tasty flavors, and regular doses will also prevent the infection in the first place. During shooting season I carry a supply of Pop-Tarticillin in my range box, but as the shooting season is pretty much over, I had been lax in taking my preventative doses on a regular basis. I'm sure this had something to do with the sudden illness.

I will make a point to be much more conscientious about it in the future.......

---

Actually, I will hear the results of my prostate biopsy late this afternoon to find out if it's cancer or not. The Doctor figures it's highly likely that it is, but without the biopsy it's only speculation.

Yet Another Update.....

I'm feeling quite a bit better, but having lost almost 18 lbs in one week, combined with the fever, dehydration, and other fun stuff, I'm still really weak and worn out. I can work for a few hours at least, but then I've got to rest or take a nap. I went in for a prostate biopsy today to determine if I've got cancer or not, but they say everything so far points that way. I won't have any results until next Tuesday. KeeWee was able to book a last minute flight to New Zealand to go see her family. She's leaving this Saturday, and coming back Christmas day. I really felt bad that she had to delay her trip home, but now she'll get to go after all, and was able to get the same price as before.

I talked to the sheet rock guy about putting up the ceiling in the expanded machine shop, and he may be able to do that for me by the weekend. I may have to give him my main air compressor to pay for the job, but I do have a smaller compressor I can get by with for now. The local recycling center has free part cans of paint, so I can probably pick up a few gallons and mix them together to paint the walls and ceiling. Then I can finish up wiring the 220v circuits and we should be ready to power up the new mill. Then, all I have to do is figure out how to program it, and then write the code to make some parts! Hopefully, some of those parts will sell........

Condition Update - bleh......

Not a whole lot to report right now. Still feeling really weak, and it looks like with my immune system weakened, I managed to pick up a head cold too. The cold seems to be slowly going away, though. The cause of the original high fever is still unknown, although some sort of virus is suspected. In trying to identify the source of the fever, they found some prostate problems that need to be dealt with, although the prostate issue is causing no symptoms at all. The urologist is strongly suspecting cancer, but until a biopsy is done, we won't know for sure. The biopsy is next Tuesday. A week later we should see some results. Other than that, not much to report.....

Back Home.....

Last night I was released from Harborview Med Center to come home. I am pretty comfortable, as Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen are keeping the fever away. Full diagnosis and treatment have not been determined, as we are awaiting additional test results.

For full updates and further info check KeeWee's Corner, as she is keeping everyone up to date on my condition.

Not Feeling My Best.................

I'm sitting here on the edge of the bed in my hospital room at Whidbey General Hospital. Actually I feel pretty good right now, but that's just because of the drugs that are holding my fever down. Without them I would be probably in a coma right now. It looks like a very rapid onset case of kidney and urinary tract infection and possible blood infection too. For the whole story, check out KeeWee's Corner

Things aren't too bleak, however, as the doctor here at the hospital is also not only a shooter, but a handgunner, and he  shoots IDPA!Having an action pistol shooting doctor is a good sign, I think.

I got a phone call from True Blue Sam's MOM Bea an hour or so ago. Yep, the same Bea who comes every year to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous!

Fixin' Up The Shop Part 2

Once we got the new milling machine into the barn, the work was just beginning. I already had a small area walled in and insulated and heated to keep my lathe, mill, and other machines from getting cold and attracting condensation, and then rusting. Now that the mew CNC mill is in place, I have to wall in the area, wire, insulate, and sheet rock in the expanded machine shop room.

First, a new wall needs to be framed up.

Fortunately, there is already an overhead beam that makes a good place to attach the top of the new wall.

A used door I had kicking around gets framed in and mounted in the door. With the new wall, I need a way to get to the rest of the barn.

The first sheet of rock in place.

Then the second sheet.

One wall sheet rocked. I added a couple of outlets on the wall while I was at it. Can't have too many outlets in a shop!

I had to frame in a second door on the stairway up to the upper storage area. This door will keep the heat from escaping up the stairs and out of the machine shop.

The walls will all need to be taped and sanded prior to painting. To get a good enough looking job it takes me several more coats that what it takes the pros, but I work a lot cheaper......

In addition to the new partition, I still have two outside walls of the pole barn constructed building that need to be furred out, insulated, sheet rocked, taped, and painted. Here's the wall behind the new mill getting furred out with 2 by 2's out of the misc. lumber pile.

To be continued............

Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil - First Impressions

Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil

 The excellent gun blog   Empty Mags   has agreed to give Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil a try, and he's got a "First Impressions" post up. This weekend he's going out to the range to give it a through workout. Here's a pull quote from his first impressions:

It is extremely slick, and has even made the sound of charging the AR somewhat more quiet. There is absolutely no felt friction between the bolt carrier and the receiver when sliding it in and out by hand. So far, I’m impressed.

You can go HERE to read the entire post. While you're at it, you might want to wander around his blog a bit and see what else interesting you might find there.........

To get your very own bottle of Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil, it's for sale at

Magnum Shooter's Supply

Which is, of course,  a blatant plug for my On Line Shooter's Supply store!

Milling Machine Report

Last Saturday was the first part of the "Move The New Milling Machine" project, and although it took us a while, everything went smoothly. Jeff, the previous owner of the mill, rented a four wheel drive fork lift to do the heavy lifting and moving on the departure end of the move.

There are three major components of the mill, the GE 1050 controller, the many boxes of tooling, and the milling machine itself.

We had to move everything out the back door of Jeff's shop, across his back yard and down an area of sloping lawn, through a gate, out onto one street, then a few hundred feet up that street to a T intersection, then left at the intersection and a few more hundred feet to the flat bed truck.

The first part to move was the GE 1050 controller. This is the unit that accepts the CNC file from it's nearby computer, which gets the CNC file through a network connection from another computer. The computer then reads the CNC file, also called "G-Code" and actually controls the milling machine, moving the table, controlling the spindle, turning on the coolant, and so forth.

The controller weighs roughly 500 pounds. It is normally connected to the milling machine by several large wire bundles that are carried overhead through a wire raceway.

The next, and biggest, was the EX-CELL-O milling machine. This beauty weighs in at roughly 2 1/2 tons! The fork lift was up to the job, picking it up without much trouble.

Going across the back yard.

Down the hill in the back yard towards the gate.

Backing through the gate and out onto the road.

Lifting the mill onto the 4x12 wooden beams on the truck.

After we got the milling machine trucked to my barn, I arranged for a forklift and driver from the local lumberyard to unload everything from the truck and set it inside the barn doors on the floor.

The mill dwarfs my poor little Towmotor fork lift. I had hoped the Towmotor could at least slide the mill into place. We  tried for several hours, but it was a case of if it lifted the mill, the rear wheels would lift off the floor, and you had no steering. I was able to drag it farther into the building though, and then we hooked several chains to it and pulled it closer to it's destination by hooking the chain to an excavator outside of another side door into the barn.

I figured if I could get it close, I could move it the final few feet and rotate it with come-alongs. Even the come-alongs wouldn't slide it! I machined four pads out of Delrin plastic and put them under the four feet on the mill, and that made it slide a lot easier. I was then able to pull it into place.

Now it's almost in place, except for turning it 45 degrees and moving it closer to the wall.

The dual spindle milling machine heads.

The mill has now been angled and pulled back into the corner. I've left myself just enough room for access to the various machine panels and electrical boxes, and also left just enough room to be able to insulate and sheet rock the walls. A new wall will be built on the left side of the machine directly under the overhead beam that you can just see in the upper left corner of the picture. The wire raceway and the controller are approximately in position.

Although the machine was built in the early 70's, it's been well maintained as is still very accurate. A number of upgrades have been done over the years. Although it's old technology, it will still make very accurate parts. I've got the first 24' of aluminum angle and bar stock on the way, and we (the mill and I) should be making chips in the next week or so, I hope!

I do still need to wire in a circuit to get 220v. 1 phase power to near the machine, where a VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) solid state converter will turn the single phase power into 3 phase to run the spindle motors. The rest of the machine runs on 220v single phase.

It's been a lot of work so far, and it's taken a lot of time to get this far, but we should be making and selling some pretty neat gun stuff not too far down the road!

Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil

Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil

It's been really busy around here this year, traveling around the Western US and to Holland for matches, working on new products for Magnum Shooters Supply, and planning for future growth of the business. Within the next week or so we should have our new (to us) CNC milling machine installed and operational, so we can start manufacturing some gun specialty parts in house. Watch for announcements on this in the near future.

One new product we are introducing is "Mr. C's Super Sekrit Gun Oil". I've developed this formulation based on both synthetic and petroleum components, combined with some special lubricating molecules that make the oil extremely slippery. I refer to those special molecules as my "Special Herbs and Spices". Several people who have experimented with the new gun oil have commented on how it seems to make the slide feel like it's on ball bearings, compared to their previous lubricant. You really can feel a difference! I've been running it in the Tanfoglio for testing ,and it works very well.


If a few of you gun bloggers out there would like to give this stuff a try and then write up a review of it, email me and I'll send you some to play with. Make sure you include your mailing address and the name of your blog.

More Nuze..............

We had a good time over at the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club's full 8 stage Steel match this weekend. It's a great club, and we always have a lot of fun there. We went over on Friday afternoon so I could help a bit with setup, both Friday afternoon, and also on Saturday morning before the match, when we put the steel targets on to the target stands. The weather held out nicely for us, and it was mild and rain free all day. I had a particularly good day, both with the Tanfoglio 9mm. Gold Custom race gun and also with my High Standard rimfire racer. Both sporting OKO Red Dot sights of course! I ended up with personal bests with both guns, good enough to win both Rimfire and Centerfire! More importantly though, shooting the Tanfoglio is starting to feel a bit more natural as the individual operations are becoming more ingrained. The most difficult parts have, at least so far, been getting the gun out of the holster and getting the first shot off quickly, and allowing a little more time for the sight to settle onto the next target.I'm getting better at it, but I still need a LOT of practice!

It's now looking like we will be able to get the milling machine loaded onto a truck and bring it home late on Saturday. We will probably get it unloaded and into the barn early on Monday morning when we can get a fork lift here. Once we get it into the barn I've got a fork lift inside we should be able to move it into it's new location and start hooking everything back up, including running a 220V circuit to it. I've got a brand new VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) box to convert the 220V single phase power to 3 phase to run the spindle motors. The rest of the machine runs on 220V single phase. Hopefully I can get everything set up and wired in a day, and then I can start experimenting with programming it and doing some test machining.

On Sunday I'm planning on taking a day off and heading down to Puyallup for some steel shooting at the Paul Bunyan club. If you are in the area, come on down and shoot some steel!

Off To KRRC / Milling Machine Update

This afternoon Keewee and I are off to the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver club for their last full 8 stage Steel Challenge match of the year. They will still be shooting steel every month, but this is the last "8 Stager" until January. The season is winding down, and it's been a busy one, for sure. I'll do a recap in a later post and cover where all we went and how we did.

The milling machine is still sitting in the current owner's shop over in Mukilteo, actually between Mukilteo and Hwy 99. The big hold up is getting a fork lift to lift it on to the truck. Even though all of us involved in moving the mill are experienced fork lift drivers, none of us has a Washington State Fork Lift Driver's License, and the rental yard won't rent us a fork lift unless we have a licensed driver! Luke, who's helping with the move, has been running every sort of heavy equipment you can imagine for most of his life, and has run fork lifts capable of lifting 120 tons. That's a BIG forklift! We've got the truck lined up, and a fork lift at my shop available to lift the mill off the truck, where my smaller fork lift can move it around in the barn. We just can't get it onto the truck in it's current location. What a pain.............

Heck with it for now, I'm going to Bremerton and do some shooting!

Idaho, and Back!

Since my last post, KeeWee and I have driven to Nampa, Idaho, near boise, for the Idaho State Steel Challenge Championships. We left for Idaho last Thursday morning and got as far as Huntington, Oregon, where we stopped for the night. We parked our mini-land-yacht behind a hedge on the back side of a very small park that's maintained by the local Lion's Club. Behind the park was a large area with some train cars parked on the far side, a few hundred yards from us. What I hadn't noticed was that there were two main line set of rails barely a hundred feet from us. It looked like a large parking lot, and the rails weren't raised above the surrounding ground level at all, so they were just about invisible. During the night, though, we found out that there were quite a few big freight trains traveling that set of tracks! We were so tired, though ,that we barely heard them!

The next morning, Friday, we drove the last couple of hours to the range, and I help the guys to get all of the targets and steel set up for the match. Friday night we spent the night at the range. Saturday we shot the match, and right after the awards ceremony we drove as far as I could go until exhausted, which was the rest area in Yakima, Washington. After some sleep, we drove the remaining several hours home. It was a lot of long hours on the road, but the match was excellent, we met some great folks, and (except for the driving) had a great time!

How did we do? All of the final results are not posted yet, but KeeWee shot Rimfire Optic class, and ended up Top Lady. I Won Rimfire Optic overall, and shooting my Tanfoglio 9mm. in Centerfire Open Division was Top Super Senior. Since the entire results aren't up yet, I don't know where I placed overall in Open. Our squad was a really amazing bunch, with our squad also winning Centerfire Production, Centerfire Limited, and Overall Match Winner, too!

John Shaw was the overall Match Winner and Limited winner, and he has only recently come out of retirement and started competing again, as his son has gotten interested in competition shooting. With a Dad like John, he's got a super coach, as John won the very first Steel Challenge World championships about thirty years ago, and he's still to this day an outstanding shooter!

KeeWee has a post up showing some pictures from our stay in Huntington, and has a lot of match pictures on the way in future posts.

I'll try to get more posted on the trip, when I get some time!!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Raises over $8,000

We've just about got all of the accounting finished up, thanks to the help of Barrett Escrow, and it looks like the Gun Blogger Rendezvous raised about $6,000 for Project Valour-IT. Added to that is the yet to be determined amount being raised by SIG's generous donation of a SIG 1911, custom engraved with the Soldier's Angels logo, currently being auctioned off at Gunbroker.com. At the moment the price on it is $2,075, and there's still time for it to go even higher. Although the Gunbroker auction didn't happen at the Rendezvous, it was a direct result of SIG Sauer's participation in the Rendezvous as a sponsor, so I think it's OK to count it in there. Regardless, it's more money raised for Soldier's Angels and Project Valour-IT, so it's definitely good news!

I Haven't Really Disappeared!

I can't believe it's been over a week since the Gun Blogger Rendezvous already, and I still haven't got any posts up about it. Granted, KeeWee has a good one up already, as do a lot of the other attendees. Why no posts here yet? Several reasons, but all are a combination of being pretty much exhausted from the Rendezvous and being swamped when I got back home. I'm not sure how it works that way, but you can be all caught up when you leave, be gone for six days, and when you get back you're two weeks behind! Go figure....

Here's some of what I've been up to, though. First, I am still working on getting the Tanfoglio Gold custom 9mm. race gun to where I want it to be. So far I haven't been able to get the loads and power factor down as low as I'd like. I took some weight off of the slide, though, and that seems to have made quite a difference. There is still some ways to go, but it's progressing nicely. I've also been working on getting my draw to first shot times down, and although I'm still not as fast as I need to be, it's steadily improving.I shot a club match on Sunday at Puyallup, and did OK both in rimfire and centerfire classes.

Second, I am in the process of buying and moving  an old CNC milling machine so I can start manufacturing some specialty mounts for the OKO Red Dot sights and also some other competition gun parts. The older CNC milling machines don't cost much compared to more modern machines, but they still can do a very good job. They one I am getting is an Excello two head Vertical mill with a GE 1050 controller, for those of you familiar with that sort of thing. Of course, that means I need to get up to speed on CAD software and G-Code programming so I can run the mill!

Third, KeeWee and I are getting semi-organized for our trek to Boise, ID. for the Idaho State Steel Challenge Championships being held on Oct. 1st. This will be the first Idaho Steel Challenge Championships hosted by this club, and we really want them to have a successful match!

Fourth, I'm still getting the final accounting from the Rendezvous wrapped up, as we want to be sure every single penny is accounted for and everything all adds up as it should. We're just about done on that, though, and we should be able to send out a nice check to Soldier's Angels and Project Valour-IT very soon. 

Finally, I'm shipping out some OKO red dot sights to folks. Shooters are finding out that thr OKO sight is available again, and they are starting to sell. No big volume of sales, but a little growth at a time.

Gotta get back to blogging, though......

Gun Blogger Rendezvous

  T HE 

B E S T 

     E V E R ! ! !

More later.

(I need sleep..........)

Rendezvous hospitality Room Change

 There has been a last minute room change for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous Hospitality room. We are now using the Silver Baron "E" room instead of the Silver Baron "C". It is just a couple of doors over, and there is a Gun Blogger Rendezvous sign outside the door.

Otis Technologies To Sponsor Rendezvous Breakfast

Otis Technologies, maker of some very fine cleaning kits, will be sponsoring the Saturday breakfast at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. In addition, they will also be contributing one of their Elite Cleaning Kits to the Project Valour-IT Fund Raising Raffle at the Rendezvous.

Otis Elite Gun Cleaning Kit.

 Here's the full description of the Elite kit:

The most innovative gun cleaning system in the Otis line of products is the Otis Elite®.

Suitable for an armorer but used by thousands, the Otis Elite® is designed to maintain all rifles .17 to .50 caliber, pistols .17 to .50 caliber, shotguns .410 to 12/10 gauge, and all in-line muzzleloaders. The Otis Elite® contains the world famous item #750 Tactical Cleaning System, and the entire line of bronze bore and chamber cleaning brushes from .17 caliber through 12/10 gauge.

Also included in this extensive cleaning system are six Memory-Flex® cleaning rods, an all purpose nylon receiver brush, a T-handle bar, three slotted tips, obstruction removers, small and large Patch Savers®, a bore reflector/flag safety, small caliber and all-caliber 100% cotton patches, and two .5 oz. tubes of Otis O85® Ultra Bore® Solvent.

All of the components are neatly stored in a black nylon, rust proof case which includes a lock and keys for additional security. The Otis Elite® now includes the brass scraper tool set, optics cleaning gear and an interactive instructional DVD. With over 40 gun cleaning components, detailed gun maintenance guide, and a lifetime warranty, the Otis Elite® is the Hallmark of Excellence in firearm maintenance.

To say that this kit is pretty nice is like saying the Pope tends to be a bit religious!

Come to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, buy a raffle ticket, and this Otis Elite kit could follow you home!

See you in Reno.................

September e-Postal Match is Now Underway

This month's e-Postal match is now up and running over at True Blue Sams place. Go download the target and head out to the range, shoot 'em up, take a picture, and email it to True blue Sam to get entered.

You probably aren't getting out shooting nearly as much as you should, so here's a great reason to go empty some brass!!

Appleseed Certificate to GBR Attendees

More great news from GG at Girls Love Guns!I've always thought it would be great to attend one of the Appleseed rifle clinics, and maybe this will be the incentive to finally do it!

The following has been "borrowed"  from GG's blog:

HawkHavn of Appleseed has agreed to send Gun Blogger Rendezvous FREE APPLESEED gift certificates. We will be passing them out to all of those who have registered to attend GBR at the Saturday night shin dig. Whoohoo!

HawkHavn will also be sending free targets (who doesn’t love free targets?) as well as Appleseed brochures and business cards. I hope every GBR blogger uses this opportunity to learn about RWVA and its Appleseed program and to attend a free Appleseed shoot. These shoots are amazing.

Still Time To Register / Attend The Rendezvous

There is still time to get your registration in and to attend this year's Gun blogger Rendezvous, but it starts next Thursday, September 8th., so you need to get hopping! If you send your registration Priority Mail (or FEDEX) today or tomorrow, I should get it in time to get you in. If not, or if it only becomes possible to attend at the very last minute, you can still get in. Download and print out your registration and bring it, along with your $30 / per person to the Rendezvous and give it to me directly, and I'll get you in. The Rendezvous is not full to capacity, and one way or another, if you show up, we'll get you in.

2011 Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration Form

Hotel  accommodations group rate pricing "Officially" ended 30 days before the first day of the Rendezvous, but they have been very good about honoring the group rate at the last minute, provided they have the room available. Be sure to contact them right away and give them the group code.

To reserve your room, give them a call at the Silver Legacy at 1-800-687-8733 and give them the Gun Blogger rendezvous Group Code of GBLOG11. When you are making your reservation, you might ask them if you can get a room that faces McCarran Park, so you can watch the hot air balloons from your window. 

See you in Reno!

Driving Directions to the Ranges at the Rendezvous

NOTE: The directions last year weren't very good, and we have re-written them this year to make the route more direct. HOWEVER, until we have one of the Reno Residents verify these directions, they are still only tentative. If there are any changes needed, we will post the changes as soon as we know what to change. The final directions will be available at the Rendezvous.

Driving Directions from Hotel to Washoe County Regional Shooting Facility – Pyramid Range Friday for long Range Rifle and Pistol, Saturday for Steel Challenge Pistol shooting.

• Start at (Silver Legacy) 407 N VIRGINIA ST, RENO going toward E 5TH ST - go 0.3 mi
• 0.3 Turn RIGHT (East) onto E Maple St 131 yds
• 0.4 Take Ramp onto I-80
• Take SR-445 [Pyramid Lake Hwy] exit towards Pyramid Lake
• Follow road towards Pyramid Lake. Watch for sign to range.
• 26.8 (Approx.) Turn LEFT (West) onto Local road(s) 0.7 mi
• 27.5 Turn RIGHT (North-East) onto Local road(s) 43 yds
• 27.6 Arrive Range

SUMMARY
Driving distance: 27.6 miles; Trip duration: 31 minutes    Driving time: 31 minutes

On Friday we will be shooting at the covered Public Shooting range area. On Saturday we will be at the Western Nevada Pistol League pistol bays. These bays are part of the same facility. The pistol bays are in the same area, but to the right of the public shooting area, down a dirt road.

The Pyramid Range

Driving Directions from Hotel to the Sage Hills Gun Club for Cowboy Fast Draw on Sunday.

On Sunday we will be shooting Cowboy Fast Draw at the Sage Hills Gun Club Range in Reno. 7370 Desert Way, Reno, NV. Sage Hill Clay Sports is located on the southeastern flank of the Washoe County basin, overlooking the city of Reno and its southernmost suburbs.

The club is easy to find if you follow our directions and not those of any online mapping service or your vehicle's navigation, its driving directions will dead-end you on the wrong street.

Follow these instructions instead:

• Start at (Silver Legacy) 407 N VIRGINIA ST, RENO going toward E 5TH ST - go 0.3 mi
• 0.3 Turn RIGHT (East) onto E Maple St 131 yds
• 0.4 Take Ramp onto I-80 1.1 mi I-80
• 1.5 At exit 15, turn RIGHT onto Ramp 0.2 mi US-395 / Susanville / Carson City
• 1.7 Take Ramp (LEFT) onto US-395 1.3 mi US-395 / Susanville
• From the 395, exit at Damonte Ranch Parkway and drive EAST.
• Turn LEFT onto Steamboat Parkway.
• Turn LEFT onto Rio Wrangler.
• Follow Rio Wrangler onto the access road and into the shooting facility (we're up on the hill above you).