More Hi Standard Pictures

Hi Standard Supermatic Citation with a 7 1/4" fluted target barrel, and a 5 1/2" LMP target barrel with a Simmons 42mm. red dot sight.



Custom 12" Target barrel with a Leupold 40mm. scope. Rather accurate......

Hands Off My Home

The folks over at Eminent Domain Watch have just put up a post about a group called "Institute for Justice" who have just launched a campaign, called "Hands off my Home", to fight eminent domain procedings. The full post is here.

"The Hands Off My Home campaign will empower ordinary Americans to fight back against eminent domain abuse and to stop this un-American alliance between tax-hungry politicians and land-hungry developers."

We'll just have to watch and see where they go with this. It sounds good so far.

War winning, a wider view

Rivrdog has written an excellent post on winning the war on terrorism, with a historical perspective. You can read the whole thing here.

Here's acouple of short excerpts:

"Idealist soldiers are very difficult to defeat, because unlike soldiers projecting only political-military force, the idealists will ignore limitations on risk."

"Political correctness has never won a war. Every victory in war is underpinned by winning strategy coupled with patriotic committment."

It's well worth reading, go see for yourself...........

Eminent Domain Watch

For those of you following the Eminent Domain issue, there's a blog that is keeping up to the minute on all the latest developments, called Eminent Domain Watch.

You might want to have a look, particularly the section of the Rush Limbaugh transcript concerning what the little guy can do.......

READY -- SHOOT -- AIM (?)

The "Kelo-Souter-build a hotel on Souter's land" movement is headed off in the wrong direction at full speed, seems to me. Somewhere in the Constitution of The US of A it talks about the law being applied equally to everybody.

Either you are AGAINST the taking of private private property for use by other non-governmental entities, or you aren't. You can't have it both ways.

If the law is applied equally for all, it shouldn't make any difference WHO the private property belongs to, only that the property is privately owned.

Going off full speed to encourage the taking of Souter's property only supports the court's decision, rather than opposing it, regardless of what you think of Justice Souter.

Don't lose sight of the big picture...............

Anybody Wanna Buy a Swamp?

A lot of bloggers have been all over the 5th Amendment deal about the government seizing private property. If you think you actually OWN private property, I've got some bad news for you. You don't. You are RENTING it from the government. If you don't believe me, go read this, then come on back and we'll continue.

Anyhow, the main thing this decision does is to make it easier for the government to evict you from the place you are renting from them. Until now, you had to do something wrong, like not paying your property taxes, to get evicted. Now all they have to do is claim some sort of community benefit, and you are "down the road".

The other, and under-reported part of this story is the 'Just Compensation' part. Lets say someone owns a zillion acres of worthless swamp land like they used to sell by mail out of Florida. He hires a biologist to find some endangered whatever living in the neighborhood, and BINGO, it becomes of benefit to the community to create a "Lithuanian Snail Fungus" habitat preservation area, and a wheelbarrow full of taxpayer's money gets spent to buy the swamp.

More public money gets poured into grants to fund monitoring of habitat, habitat replenishment, and study after study to determine the health and size of the Lithuanian Snail Fungus population.

Meanwhile, the ex- swamp owner, and his brother-in-law the mayor, are living the life of Riley. (William Bendix - Remember?)

I've been there. I've watched it happen................

Hi Standard Supermatic Citation - Rim Fire Race Gun

Hi Standard Supermatic Citation Military with 12" Volquartsen barrel.

A couple of years ago I picked up a Hi Standard Model "B", in need of a few parts and some TLC. (I will probably do a post on the Model "B" one of these days, just not today.) Anyhow, I really liked how well it shot. It was as accurate as you could ask, a great trigger, and reliable too. However, the magazines only held nine rounds, and when you were allowed ten in a pin shoot, that was a disadvantage.

The main reason I started looking for a different race gun, though, was so I could mount a red dot sight on it. With lousy eyesight, a red dot is a gift from heaven!

When I heard that a 5 ½" bull barreled Hi Standard was for sale locally, I went over and had a look. After a little negotiating and agreeing on a trade-in for my nearly new Smith & Wesson 9mm. Sigma, the dark maroon original Hi Standard box, and its contents, followed me home.

The next day, I headed out to the range to try it out with its stock iron sights. I was almost immediately faster and more accurate than I had been with the old Model "B". The season was about over, so I competed a few times with it, and steadily showed improvement as I got more familiar with it. I found that a barrel weight helped keep it down, and got me to the next pin a little quicker. I was really starting to LIKE the gun!

The Hi Standard Supermatic Citation Military has a push button barrel quick release, so changing barrels is really easy. I ordered a LMP Hi Standard 5 ½" target barrel from Brownell's, along with the scope mount. A little browsing on Ebay got a Simmons 42mm. Red dot coming too. Since the scope mount bolts only to the barrel, you can sight in, swap barrels back and forth, and never need to re-zero. How cool is that!!

Once all the goodies arrived, I installed the scope mount, well loctited, and mounted the red dot sight. If you've never used a red dot sight, it takes a little getting used to. It's not like a scope. The dot moves around inside the sight, and if you are used to cross-hairs that stay in the middle, this initially seems weird. Worse yet, if you aren't fairly well lined up with the sight, there's no dot at all, and you think you forgot to turn the dang thing on! Don't worry, though, as you will quickly get past this, and begin to appreciate red dot sights. Really!

After a few trips to the range, and a few pin shoots, I was starting to get competitive. The guys were no longer talking about timing me with a sundial! I was even starting to take a table or so from the fast guys once in awhile.

One day, while ordering some more goodies from Brownell's, the sales guy mentioned that I should have a look at the Volquartsen 12" stainless steel and carbon fiber composite barrel in their catalog. That barrel must have stayed in the back of my mind for several months before I finally ordered one. What a barrel! It's as light as a 6 ½ " inch barrel, very accurate, and with the compensator built in, the muzzle rises almost not at all.

And how it shoots? Outstanding! A joy to shoot. Great trigger, out of the box. Excellent accuracy. Military angle grip, so it's more in feel like a 1911. The controls are not exactly standardized, with the slide release on the right side, but that's not a big deal. Magazine release on the front bottom of the grip is also a bit different, but it's ambidextrous, and with a little practice can be very fast to change clips. The gun is bigger and a little on the heavy side for a 22, but it's built to stand up for thousands and thousands of rounds. It feeds, chambers, and extracts flawlessly, provided you have good clips.

Field-stripping couldn't be easier. Lock the slide back, push the barrel release button, lift off the barrel, release the slide and slide it forward and off the frame. Couldn't be easier.

Down-sides? A good used Hi Standard is going to set you back somewhere around $600, maybe more. Is it worth it? Yes, absolutely. You pay more when you buy it, but you'll probably get all of it back when you sell it, if you've taken care of it. You really do get what you pay for.

Hi Standard is back in business down in Texas, so you can get parts if you need them, paying for them is another story. You also can't always get the same answer twice from the Hi Standard folks. It depends on who you talk to, I guess. That being said, you probably won't need much in the way of parts anyway.

Would I recommend a Hi Standard like this for plinking, You bet. Club competition? Absolutely. National Championship level competition? Don't know, I've never been there, but Hi Standard has. Hi Standard is the only U.S. made 22 to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

If you plan to shoot in Western Washington, however, PLEASE buy something else. I don't want to have to shoot against you ……

UPDATE: For a couple more Hi Standard pictures, click here.

Hillbilly Religion

Haven't swiped anything off of Countertops' blog in some time, but I had to give in to the temptation for this one.....

Hillbilly Religion:

A pompous minister was seated next to a hillbilly on a flight across the country. After the plane was airborne, drink orders were taken. The hillbilly asked for a whiskey and soda, which was brought and placed before him. The flight attendant then asked the minister if he would like a drink.

He replied in disgust, "I'd rather be savagely raped by brazen whores than let liquor touch these lips."

The hillbilly then handed his drink back to the flight attendant and said, "Shit, me too. I didn't know we got a choice."

Mr. Completely's New pin gun??

Could this be Mr. Completely's new race gun?

Nope, but for more info and another cool gun pic head on over to Rivrdog's place and have a look....

Pin shoot schedule - 2005

A number of folks have mentioned that the'd like to come on out and give pin shooting a try. The Central Whidbey Sportsman's range is located on Central Whidbey Island, in Western Washington state. For specific driving directions, drop me an email.

Center fire classes include AA and A semi-auto pistols, and revolvers, and shoot full size pins. Rim fire has two classes, optical sight, and iron sight. You can enter the rim fire optical sight class with an iron sight gun, but not vice-versa. Center fire starts at 9am., and rim fire about noon. No full metal jacketed bullets are allowed, as the can bounce back at the shooters.

Pin Shoots for the rest of 2005

• July 23rd.
• July 30th.
• August 7th.
• August 28th.
• September 10th.
• September 18th.
• October 8th.
• October 22nd.
• November 6th.

It never hurts to send me an email to verify scheduling and times, either.

If you can make it, you'll have a lot of fun........

Jerry runs thru the jungle.......

JerryTheGeek over at Cogito Ergo Geek competed in an IPSC match over at Chehalem Valley Shooters Club, home of Dundee Practical Shooters, this last weekend. The new "Jungle Run" stage was added, and Jerry's got the pictures!
Here's the full story.

IRAQ -- One year down - Progress Report

I love a post that doesn't spend paragraph after paragraph rambling all over the place. Murdoc Online has a very well written post that summarizes the Iraq situation. I just wish the MSM would re-print it on the front page of every newspaper. Here it is in it's entirety:

"In one year, I think that the Iraqi government has come farther than I expected. The elections went far more smoothly than I expected. We've seen more determination and willingness to compromise than I expected. We've seen more support for the new government among the Iraqi people than I expected. We've seen more resilience among Iraqi police and military forces than I expected. We've seen more outcries for democracy, inspired at least in part by Iraq, in other places than I expected.

Unfortunately, we're also seeing more terrorist activity in Iraq than I expected.

It's a long road. But it's the right road."

If you agree, or even if you don't, go here and leave him a comment......

UN highlights Brazil gun crisis

Excerpts from the BBC:

"The UN has urged lawmakers to approve plans for a referendum in October on whether to ban the sale of firearms."

"The UN and disarmament groups are using shocking statistics to put pressure on Brazil's parliamentarians. "

"Recent legislation puts strict limits on the number of people authorised to carry guns."

"Over the past year, more than 300,000 weapons have been handed into the police in return for cash as part of a pioneering disarmament scheme."

Let's see if I've got this straight. There's lots of violent crime and shootings going on, so the solution is to take the means of protecting themselves away from the law-abiding citizens, who are often the victims.

The criminals, of course, aren't going to turn in THEIR guns, you can be sure.

YUP, that oughtta work!!


Hey, I've got an idea! Why don't they pass a law making it illegal to shoot people, and then enforce it?


Here's the whole story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4628813.stm

A "Well Equipped" TEC-22

Steve, up in Alaska, sent along a picture of his "Well-Equipped" TEC-22.

In Alaska, if you jump through enough hoops, you can actually LEGALLY own a set-up like this. Like I said, this gun is in ALASKA, as I don't wan't a bunch of guys in sunglasses and dark suits on my front porch looking for it. Anyhow, the sunglasses are sort of a tip off that "you ain't from around here", not to mention the white socks.

The sound when firing this configuration is mostly the sound of the bolt cycling. It sounds a little like a pellet rifle, and about as loud. It doesn't go "PFFTTTT" like in the movies, but none of them sound like that.

It IS great fun to shoot, however.

Mr. Completely's Postal Match Prizes

Mr. Completely has made an executive (?) decision, and has decided to award prizes to the following postal match contestants, in no particular order.

Countertop

Firehand

Rivrdog

DAMIPHINO

Click here to read their entries. Countertop, Firehand, and Rivrdog are also excellent bloggers, so if you click on their names, you will be magically transported to their blogs, for your amusement and amazement. DAMIPHINO is not YET a blogger, but I suspect it's only a matter of time......

I understand that all of you have finally made bail, and Firehand's physical therapy is progressing well. In fact, he may soon have partial use of his shoulder, now that most of the bruising has subsided.

You will each have a choice of any one of the following three prizes:

1. One Extra large Mr. Completely T-Shirt
2. One Large Mr. Completely T-Shirt
3. 50 rounds of empty .22 brass, in original box.

Email me which one you want, or I'll choose for you, and you KNOW what you'll get then....

DAMIPHINO and Countertop, I also need your mailing address.

Thanks to all of you, it's been a whole lot of fun.

Maybe I'll come up with something this Fall, if you are all up to it!!

By Ourselves, For Ourselves

AnalogKid at Random Nuclear Strikes has been doing a great series on emergency (as in SHTF) preparedness, titled 'By Ourselves, For Ourselves".

He's just released Part 7, fucusing on grouping together, also known as ‘Safety in Numbers’.

The archives for the entire series are in two sections, with part one through part five here, and part 6 and beyond here.

If you haven't been following this series you ought to get on over ther and have a read. It could save you life!

Laughing too hard to hit anything!

A couple of center fire shooters hard at it. Dean's got a pin on its side. Not a good thing, as if you don't hit it square with your next shot, it just spins around, and won't go off the table. (click for larger)


Al and Dennis, a two of our fastest wheel-gunners, in serious competition. Kelvin refereeing. Yes, those stripes on his sleeve are for marksmanship! (click for larger)


Dean putting his wheel-gun to work. One pin down, one on the way, three to go. (click for larger)


KeeWee and the Beretta, getting a sight picture, before sending the pins flying. (click for larger)

KeeWee and I just got back from the pin shoot in Coupeville, and it must have been all of you pulling for us, as we came out purty dang well, considering!

We compete in the rim fire pin top classes, not cuz we're cheap, but, well, 22 ammo sure does cost less than center fire stuff.!

Anyhow, in the optical sight class, I entered two guns, my Smith & Wesson model 422, and my Hi Standard Supermatic Citation.

KeeWee entered the optical class with the Beretta U22 Neos. I timed in with the 422 in second, and fourth with the Hi Standard. I had a couple of rounds fail to fire with the Hi Standard, and lost some time there. KeeWee timed in some where around sixth.

Once the competition started for real, I managed to narrowly squeak by Al in The first flight, and narrowly past JimP in the second flight. Due to the quirks of byes, I ended up shooting against myself, and when that happens, you pick the gun to continue with from there, and put the other one away, so the Smith & Wesson went back into the case.

The real action was in the third flight, where KeeWee kicked some MAJOR butt!! Keep in mind that she's been shooting, let alone competing, for less than a year. (I keep trying to claim credit for the coaching and gunsmithing, but no one's buying it!)

She dusted off LouG in the first round, and did so convincingly. Lou's a darn good shooter, and was looking a little long in the face, being whupped by a newcomer. KeeWee then went on to blow away RaineyL, and Rainey's no slouch , either. KeeWee was on a roll, putting LarryF in the dust with ease. By then everyone was cheering and clapping, rooting for KeeWee.

You all can see where this is heading, huh? Yup, it was KeeWee up against Mr. Completely for all the marbles. I DID manage to get by her this time, but I know it's not always going to happen that way, and there will be days when I figuratively become another notch in that cool little Beretta. Not today, however.

NO ONE takes KeeWee for granted any more, she's a tough competitor, and if you make a mistake, she'll eat your lunch, you can COUNT on it!

The iron sight class was a complete riot. I've never in my life seen such a bunch of screw-balls. We were all laughing so hard it was hard to shoot with tears in your eyes! Just about every table could have gone either way, but it ended up with Mr. Completely and PhilW in the final, with Phil taking the prize. We were both laughing so hard neither one of us could hit anything, and even the spectators were practically rolling on the ground laughing.

The iron sight final was without a doubt the poorest display of marksmanship I've seen in a long time. Phil had kicked me in the shins just before the match, figuring that might rattle me, but I countered by blowing in his ear and smiling at him. I KNOW it rattled him, but just not QUITE enough. Phil shot terrible, I shot even worse. Phil won...........

Final scoring showed Mr. Completely taking first and third in the optical sight class, with KeeWee bringing home second place. In rim fire iron sight class Phil W won it, with Mr. Completely second. Not a bad day's outing at the range.

You can't say WE don't have a lot of fun, when WE go shooting, by golly!

Blog Alert - Gone Shootin'

Won't be posting anything until this evening, as Keewee and I are off to a pin shoot at CWSA in Coupeville, Washington.

You can expect a full report when we return. Until then,

bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang
bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang
bang-bang-bang-bang!

Cajun First Aid........

Boudreaux and Thibodeaux and dey friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night, Boudreaux returned alone, staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck.

“‘Ey, Boudreaux, where’s Thibodeaux” the others asked.

“Mais, I t’ink he got a heart attack or sumthin’. He’s a couple of miles back up the trail,” Boudreaux replied.

“Oh, no, Boudreaux! You left Thibodeaux laying out there helpless and carried the deer back?” they asked.

“Mais, yeah, I had to t’ink about dat. It was a tough call,” nodded Boudreaux. “But I figured no one is going to steal old Thibodeaux!”

I was about due for a good laugh, and a big thanks to Mostly Cajun for a great story!

Wake Up Arabs! America is Not the Enemy!

There's a really excellent article by By Nadine Al-Baydar (A Saudi writer), over at Watching America.com . If you've never checked out Watching America, it's english translations of news articles from all over the world. There's a whole lot of Anti-American stuff over there, but not all of it.

Here's a couple of excerpts from her article:

"Did the Arabs lift a finger to help the people of Kosovo when they were suffering from Serbian persecution? They gathered a few donations, but it was America who saved Kosovo. The Arabs did nothing to aid the women of Afghanistan when they were forbidden an education, and when the Afghani people were robbed of the chance for a normal life. America had to come in and rid the region of the backward Taliban regime.

The fear that the Arabs had for the prestige of their governments was more important to them than the injustices that the Iraqis were living under. Not one Arab government condemned the Halabja massacre and the Iraqi loss of life. It was America, and only America, who toppled Saddam’s regime, while the Arabs stood by denouncing the American intervention in Iraq.

Many Arabs and Muslims view America as evil. They curse America and hurl insults at it. Some even bomb it and terrorize it. But America doesn’t have the time to curse back; it is too busy finishing the job it came to do in the Middle East. "

"While Americans are out saving Arabs from themselves and building a better life through knowledge and hard work, all Arab nations can do, either due to 'stupidity or the lack of brains altogether,' is complain of an, 'American Zionist conspiracy' that aims to destroy their nonexistent power."

Here's the whole article: Wake Up Arabs! America is Not the Enemy!

Grab a cup of coffee and go have a read. It'll give you a refreshing perspective on the Arab situation, particularly in contrast to the main stream media............

Caption Needed -- Number Two

How would YOU caption this? (click for larger)

Hat tip to Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

The Old West - some truth.....

Firehand over at Irons In The Fire has an interesting post about the old West, and our misconceptions about how it REALLY was.

"There has been so much crap written about that period in our history, it's sometimes hard to sort through it. From the stuff written at the time(violence sold newspapers then, too) to current movies and historical writings, you have to dig through it to try to get to facts."

You can read the whole post here.

Maybe if we encourage him, this will be the start of a series of posts on this topic.

A entire website to fisk?

Here's a website that's actually kinda amazing:

http://dontblamemeivoted4kerry.com/

I think you could fisk the entire site, from top to bottom, one slogan at a time.

I would keep all throwable objects out of reach, however.........

Carnival of Recipes - YUM

The Carnival of recipes is up over at Note-it Posts, just in case any of you are getting hungry........

Thought for Today

You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, "My God, you're right! I never would've thought of that!"

--Dave Barry

Try this in Mexico

Enter Mexico illegally. Never mind immigration quotas, visas,
international law, or any of that nonsense.

Once there, demand that the local government provide free medical care for you and your entire family.

Demand bilingual nurses and doctors.

Demand free bilingual local government forms, bulletins, etc.

Procreate abundantly. Deflect any criticism of this allegedly irresponsible reproductive behavior with, "It is a cultural U.S.A. thing. You would not understand, pal."

Keep your American identity strong. Fly Old Glory from your rooftop, or proudly display it in your front window or on your car bumper.

Speak only English at home and in public and insist that your children do likewise.

Demand classes on American culture in the Mexican school system.

Demand a local Mexican driver license. This will afford other legal rights and will go far to legitimize your unauthorized, illegal, presence in Mexico

Drive around with no liability insurance and ignore local traffic laws.
Insist that local Mexican law enforcement teach English to all its officers.

Good luck! You'll be demanding for the rest of time, or soon dead, because it will never happen.

It will not happen in Mexico or any other country in the world except right here in the United States.

Hat tip to LouG.....

Monday humor - a little early.....

A little "EN ZED" humor for KeeWee, blatantly and shamelessly stolen from Curmudgeonly Skeptical.

Carnival of Cordite #19 - OBOY - OBOY- OBOY!!!!

The Carnival of Cordite #19 is up. Tons of cool shooting, gun, and RKBA posts, all referenced from the one location. Here it is : Carnival of Cordite #19

Hold all my calls, I'm going to be in a "Meeting" for a while...........

Renting from the government

For those of you who think you own real estate, I've got bad news for you. YOU DON'T OWN SQUAT! Actually, you are RENTING it from the government. "Not so, you say! I've got the deed right here."

It doesn't mean a thing. As I said, you are renting your property from the government. No, they don't call it rent, they call it property taxes.

"But I paid a lot of money for this place." Yes, you probably DID pay a lot of money, but you are NOT buying your property. You are paying for the privilege of renting the property from the government.

If you rent a house, and you stop paying the rent, what happens? The property owners institute legal proceedings, and eventually you get evicted.

What happens if you stop paying your property taxes? The property owners, in this case the government, institute legal proceedings, and eventually you get evicted.

Sounds kinda similar, doesn't it! The only difference is that in the second case, you have a financial stake in the rental, since you had to pay for the privilege of being the renter. When you "sell" your property, you are actually only selling the privilege of renting it from the government to the new renter.

Until yesterday, as long as you paid your rent, the only way you could get thrown off your land was by eminent domain by the government itself, and you would be compensated something similar to fair market value. The government would have to show that THEY needed your property for THEIR use, and for the good of the people (whatever THAT means). Maybe to build a road, fix an intersection, build on to the county courthouse, that kind of thing.

The Supreme Court has now changed that. If the government wants to take your farm and build a factory to create more jobs, even if it's for a private business, they can now do that. If the government wants to take your factory, tear it down, and plant rutabagas, it can do that, provided it can show that additional rutabaga farming would be a benefit to the community, or even if it could show a community benefit by the removal of your factory!

What if the local government decided that one part of town had too many Mexicans, Baptists, farmers, Republicans, gun-nuts, or whatever, and getting rid of them would be a benefit to the community?

It kinda opens the door for some real "Community Cleansing", doesn't it..........

Ultimate Race Gun ?

Bowling pins, WATCH OUT!

"Milkor USA, Inc. has just introduced a brand new U.S.-made long-cylinder model 40mm multiple grenade launcher (MGL) called the MGL-140.

The MGL-140 40mm grenade launcher is specifically designed to fire a new family of advanced and, in some cases, hyper-lethal LI/LV 40mm munitions.

The MGL-140 will fire six rounds of these unique munitions in 3 seconds at ranges up to 400 meters (437.6 yards) and effectively covering a minimum destruction area/zone of 20x60 meters. Or, the weapon can engage specific targets with pinpoint accuracy at up to 150 meters."

Does this look like a lot of fun, or what!! For the full story, go here.

Thanks and a hat tip to Murdoc Online for the info.

Carnival of Cordite #18 is BACK up

Carnival of Cordite #18 was up, then it disappeared, now it's back up again here. If you tried to go there and couldn't find it, go try it again. It should now be OK.

Something about moving servers, or serving movers, or something........

Bowling Pin Shoot This Sunday 6/26/05

KeeWee and I are off to a bowling pin shoot this Sunday at Central Whidbey Sportsmens. If you are in the Western Washington area and would like to give this a try, we'd love to see you. If you have any questions drop me an email.

Pictures and a full report the first of the week.

Wish us luck!!!

Intratec TEC-22 Rim Fire Race Gun

Intratec TEC-22 ready to go.


Field-stripped


Here's the trigger mechanism and internals.

Intratec tec-22 - Rim Fire Race Gun

I'm sure you are already wondering what the heck a TEC-22 is doing in here with all the other "more conventional" rim fire race guns. Well, I actually entered this TEC-22 in a couple of iron sight class bowling pin top competitions a few years back, just for the fun of it. Actually got a second place it, to everyone's consternation. (They've FINALLY stopped calling me "The old guy with the UZI!")

The TEC-22 has a lot of really neat things about it. First, of course, is it's looks! All black, boxy steel with a short little barrel, large capacity magazine. What's NOT to like! Just OWNING one is enough to set off the gun-banners.

When I first picked up a TEC-22, I was pleasantly surprised by the feel of the grip. It doesn't look too fancy, but it seems to fit your hand well, although it's a little slippery. Very comfortable, in fact. The sights, although large and crude (like some of my shooting buddies!) do the job. If you have lousy eyesight to start with, BIG sights are appreciated. The TEC-22 uses standard Ruger 10/22 magazines, and that gives you lots of magazine capacities to choose from.

The TEC-22 is the second easiest semi-auto there is for field stripping. The easiest is the Jennings 22. It would disassemble itself in your hand, sending parts in all directions when you fired it.

To field strip the TEC-22, just push in the button on the back of the frame just below the rear sight and lift up the hinged top of the receiver. Pull the slide back about half an inch, and lift it, the guide rod, and spring out as an assembly. That's it! You can field strip it and reassemble it in ten seconds!!

How's it shoot? The trigger pull is average, but is easy to work on, and pull can be lightened to suite your preferences. I think a wider trigger would also improve the feel. Shooting from a rest, it's more accurate than I would have expected, considering the short barrel. I wouldn't expect too much at fifty yards, but that wasn't it's intent to start with. The sights, although not fancy, seem to do the job OK. The rear sight is adjustable for elevation, and the front sight adjusts for windage. One of these days I might just mount a red dot sight on my TEC-22. That could be a really fun combination!

I have had failure-to-eject problems once in a while, but I suspect part of this is due to the gun still being a little tight, and possibly my selection of ammunition. Come to think of it, cleaning it more often would also help, I'll bet!

Final Impressions: I find the TEC-22 to be one of the most fun 22's I've ever fooled around with. It's not the most accurate, not the most precisely built, and certainly not the most sophisticated from an engineering standpoint.

However, it's a whole lot of fun to shoot, and that's what it's REALLY all about, isn't it!

As long as you don't mind being called the old guy with the UZI.......

US Schools dumbed down - No, not reely....

UPDATE: For more info on this see Rivrdog's post here.

I see in our local newspaper that this year's graduating class at the local high school has six valedictorians. The total graduating class is less than one hundred and fifty. These valedictorians all had a perfect 4.0 grade point average for all four years of high school.

When I attended the same school back in the early sixties, it was very unusual for a student to get a 4.0 for a single quarter, let alone for all four years of classes. Something, obviously, has changed.

Are the students somehow miraculously smarter now, with higher IQ's? I doubt it.

Are the teachers and their methods much improved? I doubt that, too. I graduated from a college that cranked out lots of teachers, and I knew a lot of those folks that were in teacher ed. It was the case then that if you were on the edge of flunking out, and you weren't a jock, then you transferred over to the teacher ed. , and your grades miraculously improved. Some of those who graduated could barely read and write, really! The school superintendents and principals now running our schools are from those college graduating classes.

Maybe, just maybe, it's a lot easier to get good grades compared to how it had been in the past. I remember reading a statement by a fairly high federal government administrator that they had set a goal that by year 2000 ALL graduating high school seniors in the United States would have at least an 8th. grade education.

I've paid in a lot of money in taxes to educate our kids. I want my money back......

Jerrythegeek's IPSC match report

Last Sunday JerryTheGeek at Cogito Ergo Geek attended an IPSC match at Tri County Gun Club (TCGC) in Sherwood, Oregon.

"First, for some reason I was ON. It was probably the best performance I have ever turned in, and at my age probably the last time I will ever shoot as well, in the 22 years I've been competing in IPSC."

Sounds like you had a good day! Jerry has a full report and a couple of pictures here.

Now if he would just post a few MORE pictures!!

Gunblogger's at Truth Laid Bear

N.Z. Bear over at Truth Laid Bear, some of the folks who keep track of blog rankings within their TTLB Ecosystem, have just launched a Gunblogger Community here.

It will highlight the newest and most popular gunblogger posts for you, with direct links to each. The Gunblogger community administrator will be SayUncle

This is a GOOD thing............

GUNS OF THE PIONEERS

Rex Macbeth (?), Mankato MN

If you are about ready to have a look at some cool gun pic's, Rex Macbeth of GUNS OF THE PIONEERS has some juicy stuff on his website.

Some are antique and collectible, some are replicas, all are for sale, and all are worth a look.

Tell him Mr. Completely sent you.

Logging with shotguns

Steven's double barrel twelve gauge

Back somewhere in my early years in high school, after managing to not shoot my eye out with assorted bb guns, and 22 rifles, I was finally allowed to take over the shotgun, and what a shotgun it was!

It was a Stevens double barrel side by side 12 gauge. After what I HAD been shooting, this glorious weapon was truly awe inspiring. The barrels looked like they were three feet long, and the bore was large enough to fire civil way cannonballs. And TWO triggers! Reloading was fun, too. The ejector made a little "poing!" noise as it launched the empties out of their chambers. How cool is THAT!

One Fall afternoon I was out walking through the woods, purportedly deer hunting, but in reality, just looking for things to shoot with that marvelous Stevens. I had already learned that if you shoot a deer, then you've got a whole lot of work ahead of you, and like most teenagers, work was something to be avoided whenever possible.

As I rounded a bend in the old logging road, I saw Vic, a high school buddy coming the other way, carrying a rifle. I suspect Vic was on the same mission I was, looking for stuff to shoot at. "Look what I got!", he says, holding up his rifle for me to see. "It's one of those British .303's, just got it!". (Was it an Enfield? I can't remember). Vic showed me all the details, pointing out this thing here, and that piece there.

"Watch this!", he says, chest filled with pride over his new rifle. Taking aim at an alder tree, maybe four or five inches in diameter, Vic fires, and the back half of the tree is splintered out and mostly gone. Pretty impressive!

The Stevens was loaded with double ought buck. I had no idea what it could do, but I figured I better give 'er a try, if for no reason other than to save face.

I took careful aim a bit below where Vic had shot, and pulled both triggers at the same time. BA-WOOOM!! Roughly a ten inch section of the tree was just gone! For an instant the upper portion of the tree just sorta hung there in space above this frayed out stump to which it used to be attached, then, in slow motion fell to the ground.

"Timberrrrrr!!" I hollered, enjoying the moment to it's fullest. Vic, of course, wasn't enjoying it nearly as much.

I tried my best to cheer him up a bit, saying that I had shot twice, to his single shot, and his .303 had a lot better range that my shotgun, but it didn't cheer him much.

Thinking back on it, I feel kinda badly about it. Not REAL badly, however, but a little bit.

If logging was done with double barreled shotguns, instead of axes and chain saws, I probably would have been a logger...........

This is Scaled Composites' Proteus aircraft, with Chuck Coleman at the helm, carrying tSpace's 23 percent-scale spaceship mock-up. Proteus is a fully reusable expandable flexible mission aircraft, the center fuselage section is replaced with different modules depending on the mission.

Varifrank has some great pictures and info on Scaled Composites and Transformational Space Corp. doing some really cool stuff for NASA. Varifrank's post is here. There's also more pictures and information at wired.

Pretty amazing!!

Global Warming - A modest proposal

Dr. Roy W. Spencer, a Principal Research Scientist, University of Alabama, has looked at the global warming issue, and has come up with a proposal to solve the problem. According to Dr. Spencer:

"Global Warming is a greater threat to humanity than terrorism, nuclear proliferation, celebrity trials, and editorial bad humor, combined. It is time to put petty partisan politics aside, and unite for the common good of humanity."

Not to mention the possible damage to the hibernation habits of the siberian snow snake.

Go read his solution here.

WARNING: DO NOT have a mouth full of coffee when reading this, the coffee will end up all over your keyboard and monitor!

Hat tip to Acidman for this.....

Blogs of Interest and Cogito Ergo Geek

If you've never visited Jerry the geek's blog, Cogito Ergo Geek, you might want to go have a look, if for no other reason to have a look at this video. How NOT to stick up a convenience store. The bozo almost gets himself shot, before scampering out the door!

Jerry and I are also is trying to track down Pacific Northwest and British Columbia gun bloggers, so if you are aware of any, drop either, or better still, both of us an email.

He's also got a short review on a few of the NW gunblogs he's found so far, including a review of Mr. Completely's blog. Have a look here.

LOTS of Handgun Videos

Getting a lot of positive feedback on the handgun competition videos. Here's a link to keep you going with shooting videos for some time. Go to Hosercam.com

Y'all don't have to thank me, it's part of the service.......

Finally made it to number one, sort of..........

click for larger view

Guess what? Yahoo! Search list us as number one if you want to know about a Beretta Neos with a bull barrel!

Yeah, I know it's not that big of a deal, but humor me, OK?

Team Infidel doing what they do best!

Team Infidel ready to rock & roll


Now THAT'S a serious job of reformatting!

The guys over at Anarchangel had a bit of fun combining a bunch of shooting with a computer or so. The full post is here.

I wonder if the next Mr. Completely's Postal match should be a team event. If so, these guys would probably be the favorites. Especially with Firehand still being a bit stove in from the last one............

Letter from Paul E. Galanti to Sen. Durbin

Senator Durbin,

As one who was held in a North Vietnamese Prison for nearly seven years and whose definition of torture and bad treatment is somewhat at variance with yours, I deplore your senseless comments about alleged "barbaric treatment" at our terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo.

Your remarks comparing Guantanamo to the regimes of Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot are outrageous. I tried to think of why a rational human being could make such an outlandish statement but I keep coming up short. I thought I'd seen it all when Howard Dean performed his infamous scream in Iowa but your diatribe yesterday eclipsed Dean's moment of Hannibal Lecter lunacy. And your moment of pique will be infinitely more damaging to members of our Armed Forces serving in harm's way.

I noted, when searching for your contact information, that the first item Google came up with was al Jazeera's joy at your comments. You, sir, for having aided and abetted the enemy in time of war, have been relegated in my mind to the status of Jane Fonda and your colleague, John Kerry as contemptible traitors.

I hope not too many of our valiant members of the Armed Forces have to suffer for your stupid comments. Shame on you.

This is copied to to the Chicago Tribune's Letters Editor. It is blindcopied to my family members from Illinois and to several military blog groups to which I subscribe.

Sincerely,

Paul E. Galanti
Commander, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
__________________________________

That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it.........

Tip of the hat to LouG for sending this along. Thanks!

Og's postal match reminder

Thanks to AnalogKid at Random Nuclear Strikes for reminding us that entries for Neanderpundit's bi-weekly postal matches must be sent in by this Sunday night.

Here's the basic rules:

High powered rifle, scope up to 20 power, 100 yards. Ninety points max, one shot per bullseye, nine shots, ten points each. A round in or touching a bullseye is a hit, everything else is a miss.

Killiards! 22 rifle, up to 4x scope, 25 yards. Fifteen shots. One shot per billiard ball. More than one hole per ball counts as a zero. Bullethole may be anywhere on the ball. 120 points max.

You download and print out the targets from his website, go shoot, then send in your scores. No prizes, it's all just for the fun of it....

Carnival of Cordite #18 is UP - YAAAAAAY!!

Looks like lots of good and tasty stuff this week over at the
Carnival of Cordite. Head on over, and plan to be there for a while....

Cows with guns

If things were getting just a bit too serious for you, Rivrdog has come up with a great video for you. Cows with guns.

Thanks, Rivrdog!!

Beretta U22 Neos accuracy

Sealkiller's Beretta U22 Neos with 7.5" barrel and a scope

Since the question has come up about the accuracy of the Beretta U22 Neos, here's some follow-up info and a range-report from Sealkiller, shooting at 25 yards from a bench with a sandbag, using a Beretta NEOS Inox DLX with a 7.5" barrel and Wolf Match Gold ammunition.

Report was found in one of the forums at Rimfire Central.

Go here for the full series of pictures and report.

Montana Shooting Sports Celebrity Pin Shoot

The following was shamelessly lifted from the MSSA website:

"Every year, the Montana Shooting Sports Association holds a bowling pin shoot to raise funds for political action. The web page for it is http://www.mtssa.org/pinshoot.phtml It is held on the fourth Sunday in July. This year, that will be on Sunday, July 24th. It will be held at the Deer Creek Range in Missoula, beginning at 10 AM.

This is how it works. There is a 4-foot by 8-foot table, four feet high, 21 feet from the shooter. The 8-foot edge of the table is towards the shooter. There are five standard bowling pins on the table, set one foot from the front edge of the table, and one foot apart, edge to edge.

The shooter starts with the barrel of his or her firearm touching a wooden rail in front of him. On start signal, the shooter shoots all the pins off of the table - the pins must clear the table to score (except in the .22 events, where the pins only must fall over).

The idea is to see how quickly you can clear the table of pins. The shooter gets three runs at the table. Only the best two runs count for score - one run is a throwout.

This is MSSA’s only fundraising event of the year, so please, come burn some powder with us, have fun and help us raise funds for political action. If you need to know how to get to the Deer Creek Range, email MSSA at mssa@mtssa.org"

If you are anywhere near Missoula, or if you've got the time to get to Missoula, you might want to give this a try. It's for a good cause.

You might even run into Mr. Completely and KeeWee, although they are much closer to being just characters, rather than being celebrities!

A letter from the "Blue Staters"

There's a brilliantly well fisked letter from a "blue stater" over at Resistance is Futile. One of the best posts of the day. It starts out:

"We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us."

Read the whole thing. It should put a smile on your face, it did for me. Here's the link to it.

What would YOU do?

Acidman over at Gut Rumbles poses an interesting hostage situation question:

"Some thug is holding one of your loved ones hostage with a pistol pressed firmly to your loved one's temple. "

What would you do? Acidman discusses the options and explains what he would do. Hopefully you will never have to face this situation, but reading this post might just give you a better chance of a good outcome.

Read the whole post here.

Firehand gets to the range

Additional info: Firehand has added some pictures to this post, you might want to look again.

Firehand over at Irons In The Fire has posted a good range report on his latest shooting outing. Some good info on rimfire ammunition in there too. Click here for his report.

It sounds like Firehand's shoulder bruises have finally subsided from the last Mr. Completely's Postal Match.

I guess I'll have to think up something for the next one. Hmmmmmmm.........

Web Browsers - grumble grumble......

It has come to my attention that when I write posts in MS Word, some weird HTML crap occurs causing Internet Explorer (exploder?) to display bits of HTML garbage between paragraphs. The problem does not occur when you view the blog with Firefox.

I have gone back through all previous posts and checked them for garbage in Internet Explorer, and edited the posts to clean them up. I'll check all future posts with both browsers to make sure they're OK.

One more reason to go get Mozilla's Firefox web browser. It's free, and you can get it here.

More illegals = More Congressmen ???

You already knew that currently, under the 14th Amendment, Congressional seats are apportioned by the number of people living in each state. That means that states with large numbers of non-voting aliens, legal or not, get more votes in Congress.

"Congresswoman Candice Miller of Michigan this week introduced House Joint Resolution 53, which proposes an amendment to change the way Congressional seats are apportioned, by only counting the United States citizens of each state as measured by decennial census."

That sure sounds like a good idea to me.

Gullyborg has the whole story at Resistance is futile.

Fishing for seagulls

Back when I was in college, I was getting along on a very small budget, and after rent and food, there wasn’t a whole lot left for entertainment. Then, as now, I loved to fish, and always had a fishing pole or so at hand. One day, probably sitting in one of those dull humanities courses they force you to take, I came up with an idea.

Just down the hill from the house that three of us were renting was a fish market. I walked down to the market, and asked them if they had any pieces of halibut skin I could have that were left over after filleting.

“Sure”, the man said, and handed me a couple of pieces of halibut skin trimmings. “What do you want them for?” he asked. “Got an idea.”, I replied, “Gotta try it out first to see if it works, though. If it works out, I’ll stop by and let you know all about it!”

I walked back to the house, grabbed my spinning rod, and jumped into the car. A few miles South of town there was a place I could park, and then hike out to the railroad tracks that ran along the shore of Puget Sound. (For those of you familiar with Western Washington, it was the Chuckanut drive area, South of Bellingham). Anyhow, after reaching the tracks, it was only a short hike along the shoreline to sort of a rock jetty that had been built to lead out to a train trestle.

Standing on the rocks, I tied a single small hook to my line, and then buried the hook deep inside a piece of the halibut hide. Halibut hide is tougher than leather, and once the hook was well buried, it wasn’t coming out. I made sure the point was thoroughly covered, so nothing could actually get hooked.

Raring back, I cast the halibut hide out as far as I could, and almost immediately a seagull dove down and picked it up in his beak. “Fish On! Err, well, gull on?”. It can only be described as a cross between fishing and kite flying! The gull would take line, and I’d try to play him back in, and back and forth it would go.

Eventually I would work the gull in to about ten feet from my rod tip, and the gull would drop the halibut hide. Casting back out, it was only seconds before another gull would pick up the halibut skin, and again the fight was on. Sometimes I’d have the same gull on two or three times. The gulls didn’t seem mind at all, in fact, I think they kinda got a kick out of it too.

And some folks thought college in the sixties was all sex, drugs, and rock & roll……

Handgun Video's - Whoooeeeee.....

You gotta go check out this video, and this video too. These are courtesy of The Custer Sportsmen's Club in Bellingham, washington.

UPDATE: Found a whole bunch more videos here.

(KimG, if that's you doing the shooting, would you post some more info and details? Thanks!)

Note: I couldn't get them to play, so I right clicked on the link and downloaded them to my hard drive. They played fine from there.

Hat tip to Carnaby at CarnabyFudge for finding these. I've even shot at Custer, and didn't know about these. Drop me an email, Carnaby, I don't have your email address.....

Browning Buckmark .22 Rim Fire Race Gun

Browning Buckmark .22

I've always liked the looks of the Browning Buckmarks. The heavy barrels, the full length scope mount, the military angle grip, some absolutely beautiful grip panels, all add to the esthetics. The Browning reputation for fine quality firearms certainly doesn't hurt either!

When the opportunity arose for a good deal on a Buckmark, with red dot scope, and in like-new condition, I jumped at it.

As I do with any new firearm, I took it home and disassembled it fully, cleaned it, lubed it, and became familiar with it's inside workings.

One thing I didn't like was that if you have a scope on it, the scope can cover up the rear-most scope rail socket headed mount screw. The rail has to come off the remove the slide. That means you have to re-zero the scope every time you remove the slide for cleaning. Not a big deal, but a minor aggravation.

A second thing I noticed was that the slide movement wasn't very smooth. It wasn't really very rough, but it just wasn't that Browning "greased glass" sort of smoothness. Granted, this was nearly a new Buckmark, so that certainly was a contributing factor. While I had it apart, I polished the sliding surfaces on the slide and frame, and it was noticeably smoother. Still not as smooth as I would have liked, but a lot better than it was. Putting two or three thousand rounds through it probably would have improved it even more. It was definitely decent, just not what I would expect from something from Browning.

A third snivel, (and all of these things I've mentioned here are very minor snivels) is the grip panels. If you have fairly small hands, the grips shown in the picture make it feel like you are hanging on to a two by four. That being said, I have to admit that once I got used to them, it felt better, and I was almost starting to like them. Go figure! Anyhow, changing to different grip panels is no big deal, and some of those fancy ones from Browning are works of art.

"So stop sniveling at tell us how it shoots!" I was impressed by how well it shot. From a bench rest it was clearly more accurate than I am. It chambered most anything I threw at it, and mis-feeds just didn't seem to happen. With a red dot on it, rapid fire was very good, and it seemed to come up on target easily. Unfortunately, I didn't get to shoot much over a brick of ammo through it before I made the mistake of letting a buddy of mine try it out.

It was sorta like a part of his hand! I probably shouldn't have sold it to him. Then I made another dumb mistake and showed him the "Taco" grip. Now I've got to shoot against him! Dumb - dumb - dumb!!

Overall impressions: The Buckmark is a handgun I have no problem recommending. They're great for plinking, reliable and accurate enough for club competition.

For a look at the entire Browning Buckmark line, go here and have a look.

If I weren't shooting Hi Standards, I'd probably be shooting Buckmarks. I liked it a lot!!

Musta been SOME 4th of July party planned

Michigan State Police have confiscated 130,000 pounds of illegal fireworks at a Bangor Township residence. Two forty foot containers full!
The whole story is here.

It seems that any firework that explodes or flies is illegal for use or sale in Michigan. No firecrackers, bottle rockets, roman candles, buzz bombs, etc.

What kind of a 4th of July would THAT be? Sure glad I don't live in Michigan.

It seems that the police aren't sure how to store or dispose of the fireworks. If they'd just deliver the two containers to me, I'm sure a few buddies and I could solve the problem, and have a whole lot of fun doing our civic duty.

Any of you want to volunteer to help?

Hat tip to MURDOC for the story.

BB Gun Science project banned ....HUH?

"AMHERST, Mass. - Two middle school students who spent months working on a science project to prove how dangerous BB guns can be were disqualified from the state middle school science fair because BB guns are too dangerous."

Get this:

"The scientific review committee does not consider science projects involving firearms to be safe for middle school students....''

BB guns AREN'T firearms. No fire, not a firearm. (sigh!)

Read the whole article here.

Hat tip to AnalogKid over at Random Nuclear Strikes for this one.

Joke for your Monday, a bit late......

A furniture dealer from Arkansas decided that he wanted to expand the line of furniture in his store, so he decided to go to Paris, France to see what he could find.

After arriving in Paris (this being his first trip ever to the French capitol), he met with some manufacturers and finally selected a line that he thought would sell well back home in Arkansas.

To celebrate the new acquisition, he decided to visit a small bistro and have a glass of wine. As he sat enjoying his wine, he noticed that the small place was quite crowded, and that the one other chair at his table was the only vacant seat in the house. Before long, a very beautiful young Parisian girl came to his table, asked him something in French (which he did not understand), and motioned toward the chair. He invited her to sit down.

He tried to speak to her in English, but she didn't speak his language so, after a couple of minutes of trying to communicate with her, he took a napkin and drew a picture of a wine glass and showed it her. She nodded, and he ordered a glass of wine for her.

After sitting together at the table for a while, he took another napkin, and drew a picture of a plate with food on it, and she nodded.

So, they left the bistro and found a quiet cafe that featured a small group playing romantic music. They ordered dinner, and after he took another napkin and drew a picture of a couple dancing. She nodded, and they got up to dance. They danced until the cafe closed and the band was packing up.

Back at their table, the young lady took a napkin and drew a picture of a four-poster bed. To this day, he has no idea how she figured out he was in the furniture business . . . .

Tip of the hat to CRASH for this!

Speaking of too much sun........

We can all blame Steve in Juneau for this one.......

Banks lake weekend report

Looking down the beach to the South from where we were camped.

For those of you who think Washington state is all big trees and rain, well, it just ain't so. The Eastern half of the state is mostly desert, as you can see by the cliffs across the lake. The land is great for agriculture, once irrigated.

Banks lake is a thirty mile long man-made lake, and is fed from the Columbia river. It's the primary source of irrigation water for Eastern Washington.



A nice mess of yellow perch from Banks lake. This was Friday night's dinner. YUMMMM!

Went back out to the same spot on Sunday morning and got a bunch more. Filleted them out last night, and that's dinner for tonight!


A nice smallmouth bass from Banks lake.

These smallmouth bass are sure fun to catch! This one was about three pounds. On light tackle, you have a real fight on your hands. We also caught a few largempouth, but mostly smallies. Our biggest smallmouth was five pounds, and our biggest largemouth was roughly four pounds.

Every year our fishing club, the Fishin' Club of Whidbey Island, does a weekend campout at banks lake. This year we had maybe twenty-five people show up. We caught fish, got sun-burned, told fish stories, caught more fish, had a big potluck dinner, and generally had a grand time.

Hope your weekend was as much fun as ours was!!

Carnival of Recipes #43 is also up

Carnival of recipes? For those of you who like to EAT as well as shoot and fish, go check out the Carnival of Recipes #43. Same sort of a deal as the Carnival of Cordite, but it's recipes instead of gun p0rn.

Makes me hungry just reading the recipe names. Go look here.

........burp...........

Back from fishing.....

Just got back a couple of hours ago from three and a half days at Banks lake in Eastern Washington, tired, sun-burned and smelling of fish.

The mess of perch I brought home are filleted out and in the fridge waiting for tomorrow's dinner. YUM!!

I'll get some pic's and more details up tomorrow, in the meantime, off to the shower, then to bed, to dream of jumping bass!!

Carnival of Cordite #17 is up

Carnival of Cordite #17 is up, and you can find it here. Lots of good gun stuff. Go have a look!!

Smith & Wesson SW9VE

Smith & Wesson SW9VE

James Rummel has a review and range test of the Smith & Wesson SW9VE over at Shooter's Carnival. For the whole story, go here and have a look.

I had one of the early 9mm. Sigma's and couldn't get used to the trigger pull. If you are considering buying one of these, be sure to try it on the range first, but maybe it was just me.......

Blog Alert - I'm going fishing!!

This is the shoreline and camping area on the North end of Banks lake where we'll be staying.


In addition to the fishing, the Saturday potluck is also a highlight.

I'm 'outta here' bright and early Thursday morning to drive my luxurious motorhome, towing my big bucks bass boat, across the Cascade mountain range to the Eastern part of Washington state. Destination: Coulee Playland Resort at Banks lake.

Every year our fishing club, the Fishin' Club of Whidbey Island, goes over to banks lake for a weekend of sunshine, bass fishing, walleye fishing, partying, eating, and just generally kicking back for a few days.

I won't have any internet access at all, so no blogging until I return either late Sunday night, or Monday morning.

You all TRY to behave yourselves while I'm gone, you hear!!

D-Day Essay by Varifrank

As you wander around the blogosphere, every so often you come across a blog written by a writer so talented that you find yourself re-reading the piece a second time. Varifrank is one of those writers. His post on General Eisenhower and D-Day is a must read.

"Despite all of his preparations, despite all of his planning, with all of the valor and bravery of the men under his command, he knew the truth. Despite his being the most powerful military leader in the history of mankind and in command of the largest force of free men under arms ever assembled, he and the rest of the western world were taking the biggest risk in the entire war and it could all go horribly wrong."

I wish I could write half as well. Go read the whole thing here.

Postal Match Entries

Front of Mr. Completely's match target.


Here's the back side.

Here's the entries for Mr. Completely's Postal Match. After you finish reading through the entries, be sure to click on the COMMENTS dingus at the bottom of this post and vote for your favorites!! That will determine the final grand and glorious champion!

RIVRDOG'S ENTRY: Preliminary Score 200 out of 100 possible points!

Since I'm one of the few Police Triple Masters hereabouts (Master in Revolver, Pistol and Shotgun), I'm going to stand on my creds by revealing the scoring on the last shotgun qual I did before I retired.

00 Buck, 97 (1 pellet outside of scoring area out of 45) Slugs, Possible (6" group, combo of kneeling and offhand). Total of 10 rounds, 5 00-Buck and 5 Slugs. Timed fire. Combat reloading. The scoring area is anything inside the 4-ring (except the head) on a standard silhouette.

2 buckshot rapid-fire at 15 yards, reload with 3, fall back to 25 yds, fire 3 buckshot timed fire, reload with 3 slugs, fire them timed fire, fall back to 50 while reloading, drop to kneeling, fire two slugs timed fire.

You have to do this course scoring at least 96 for three consecutive quals to be a Master. I finally put my three together just as I retired and was never awarded the device, but it would have been awkward to wear it along with the two handgun devices on the uniform shirt.

I suppose that there is a Rifle Master qual, but I've never seen it shot or even offered as a course. The pistol and Revolver courses are the usual Tactical Pistol Course and Tactical Revolver Course, scoring at least 96, three times running.

Rivrdog

REFEREE'S DECISION CONCERNING RIVRDOG'S ENTRY:

The referee's decision is that a 3 point deduction for breaking the rule allowing you to break the rules is in order, hence the score of 97. However, the fact that you were able to break the rule about not posting your results in the comments, even BEFORE that was one of the rules shows exceptional skills, aptitude, and perception. That's a 3 point extra credit bonus, so I'll put you down for a perfect 100! Since Rivrdog shot his entry in a much more structured and work related environment, severely limiting his ability to whoop, holler, and carry on, I have also awarded Rivrdog 100 bonus points for doing his best under the circumstances! Well Done!


DAMIPHINO'S ENTRY: Preliminary Score 200 out of 100 possible points!
Scored by Referee as follows: 102 points for the age of his shotgun, and 98 points for creativity.

In the "spirit of the game" I went out to the back yard to try my Cowboy Action shotgun. It's not quite a civil war cannon but it is a 102 year old Model '97 with a short barrel. Tried a paper target at 7 yards. three rounds and the paper kinda went away.

How about a score for creativity? I had some old tires out back and thought why not! Did you know that if you stand a tire up with the tread facing you, you can shoot for distance. If you get it rolling on the first shot and are fast on the next couple you can get some pretty good distances.

Maybe a game like shuffle board with truck tires and a 12 gauge. The skeet guys just about went nuts up at the range.

DAMIPHINO
*********************************************

COUNTERTOP'S ENTRY: Preliminary Score 200 out of 100 possible points

The arsenal - an old 12 gauge Spanish double barrel side by side shotgun. A great bird gun if I ever did fire one. Winchester target shot (Walmart special).

The Target - 100 yard site in target, 5 empty cans of soda, 2 intact cans of Sam's Choice Cola (adequately warmed in the late afternoon sun/heat).

Distance:
For the sight in target - 10 yards, 5 yards, 1 yard
For the empty cans - 10 yards, 5 yards, 1 yard
For the intact cans - 10 yards, 5 yards, (no 1 yard shot as I had no desire to wet myself with sticky brown water)

Total Shots - Umm, I don't remember - more than 14.

Rate of fire - quick two round bursts, followed by slow reload times

Spirit of the Rules - I forgot to include that fat nazi from Flint, Michigan (5 point penalty)

Scoring - 100 - a hell of a lot of fun and to watch the paper target burn from being shot at less than 1 yards after being shredded by multiple shots at 10 and 5 yards was glorious. While it was burning, we shredded the empty cans too. They didn't burn from the less than 1 yard shot - but there wasn't much left of them. I'm awarding myself 5 Bonus points for the Sams choice Soda selection.

Lots of fun to see a warmed up soda blow itself up. It was safe at 10 yards, rather dangerous at 5 yards, but suicidal at 1 yard (unless you have a swimming pool or lake to jump into right away - I didn't feel like being coated in the crap while continuing to shoot and clean up and drive home, plus I didn't want it on my gorgeous shot gun).

Fun quotient - 100!!!

Countertop
*********************************************

FIREHAND'S ENTRY: Preliminary Score 200 out of 100 possible points

(In the spirit of the matter, I took my chosen sub-cannon (Benelli Nova SP) to the range with five boxes of slugs.)

Powder burns on the target? I spit on your powder burns! I moved that (somewhat scary) smurf out to a respectable distance to perforate.

Great mayhem was caused, with large and (imagined) bloody holes in the paper! Repeatedly I dared the punishing recoil (dammit, that hurts!) to puncture the target, and my result?

Alas that I have no camera to record the carnage caused (did you know the wads/sabots will make even more glorious holes?), but the politi- er, target was greatly demolished. I awarded myself points as follows:

100: I remembered to tell you about this great event
25: I used up almost all the ammo, so only a small bonus here
75: For my pain & suffering. Shut up.

Therefore I report the epic score of 200!!

Thus ends my report

Firehand
**********************************************

MR. COMPLETELY'S ENTRY: Not scored.

Considering that as referee for the Mr. Completely Postal Match #1 I have an unfair advantage over the other shooters (not that I MIND an unfair advantage�), I've decided to post my entry, but not score it.

REPORT: Grabbed my trusty Mossberg 500 12 gauge, all tricked out and ready to wreak havoc on man or beast. Short barrel, Ramline composite stock and fore grip, a serious thing of beauty, if you know what I mean.

For a target, I selected "Tom Jones- Live In Las Vegas". Would the low cut shirt, the dulcet tones, the polyester, be any match for my trusty Mossberg? I THINK NOT!!

I stapled up the target, grabbed a couple of dozen rounds of #6 shot hunting loads, (none of that wussy trap load stuff for me, by golly), loaded up, and starting at about 25 feet, ran off five quick rounds.

The target was getting lots and lots of holes in it, but was still holding together. Five more quick rounds, and it was still more or less holding together, although it was starting to look like a screen door. You could clearly see through the target! Can't say much for the music originally inside, but the cardboard must have been high quality stuff.

"Enough of that, sez I.", and moved up to about six feet from the target. First shot, and a nine or ten inch hole appeared in the center. Amazingly, no cardboard on the ground. The center was just GONE! Second shot, and the horizontal two thirds disappeared, except for two small triangular corner pieces on the ground, well behind the target stand.

Not wanting to aim any higher and tear up the target stand, I decided to consider it "Mission Accomplished!"

Why did I choose "Tom Jones, Live in LasVegas"? Well, my "Captain and Tenille" records had already come to an untimely end.

It's amazing how much better you feel after blowing the crap out of something you don't like very much. I recommend it to all of you feeling a bit stressed out.

It'll work wonders, I promise!

Mr. Completely
***********************************************

A BIG THANKS to all the competitors for sending in your entries. You guys are great!

And for all of you loyal readers, don't forget to click on the COMMENTS dingus and vote for your favorite entry. Feel free to vote for your favorite, on whatever criteria you like.

I should warn you, however, that if you fail to vote for Mr. Completely within the next five minutes, and don't send emails to all of your friends asking them to vote for Mr. Completely, then your skin will turn green and your toenails will fall out. Worse yet, you will be audited by the IRS.............. (just thought I'd warn you).

A cannon of beauty!

JayG of Toys in the Attic went for some shooting with some friends, and this beauty was one of the weapons. 1/2 scale civil war cannon.

For more pictures and the full story of the get-together, go have a look here.

Thanks to Countertop over at the Countertop Chronicles for the tip!

Winchester 7mm ammo recall

Thanks to SondraK at Knowledge is Power and and AnalogKid at Random Nuclear Strikes for the info on this......

5/20/2005:
"DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® SUPREME® 7mm REMINGTON MAGNUM 150 GRAIN BALLISTIC SILVERTIP® AMMUNITION THAT HAS A LOT NUMBER ENDING IN VL82, VL92 or VM10.

The ammunition Lot Number is ink stamped inside the right tuck flap of the 20-round carton.

Winchester has determined the above lots of SUPREME® BALLISTIC SILVERTIP® ammunition may contain incorrect propellant.

If you have any questions concerning this SUPREME® BALLISTIC SILVERTIP® ammunition recall, please call toll-free 866-423-5224 (U.S. & Canada), or visit our website at www.winchester.com."

Caption Needed!

Found this over at Les Jones place. Feel free to post a good caption in the COMMENTS dingus. No prizes or anything, but I KNOW you'all are a creative bunch, if anything....

A pun to start the week for you!

A squad car driver was covering a quiet beat out in the sticks when he was amazed to find a former lieutenant on the police force on the beat. He stopped the car and asked, "Why, Mike, this wouldn't be your new beat out here in the sticks, would it?"

"That it is," Mike replied grimly, "ever since I arrested the judge on his way to the masquerade ball."

"You mean you pinched his honor?" asked Pat.

"How was I to know that his convict suit was only a costume?" demanded Mike.

"Well," mused Pat, "'tis life and there's a lesson in this somewhere."

"That there is," replied Mike.

'Tis wise never to book a judge by his cover!"

(The preceding was shamelessly stolen from Grouchy Old Cripple in Atlanta. If you've never visited his site, you really should. I read it every day.)

Mr. Completely’s Alder Smoked Salmon Jerky

I’ve been catching and smoking salmon for most of my life. I grew up on the beach, in, around, and under-foot at a salmon fishing resort, in fact.

Good smoked salmon is truly something to taste. Unfortunately, most of it is terrible, often under-smoked, fishy tasting, and just generally bad. I hate it when a new smoker gives me a sample of his first batch of smoked fish, and I can barely swallow it. You don’t want to discourage ‘em, ‘cause you know they did their best.

I’ll bet Acidman at Gut Rumbles has the same problem with his buddie’s first batches of moonshine. (Wonder if he’d trade some ‘shine for some good smoked salmon? Wonder if we’d get caught? Wonder if we’d end up in jail?) Lessee, where was I?

When I smoke up a batch of salmon, I usually smoke it up into jerky. A couple of chunks in your shirt pocket is great to chew on when you’re fishing. (Warning: Not such a good idea in bear country, for obvious reasons!)

Good smoked salmon, and most fish, for that matter, begins at the time you catch the fish. You should cut a gill and bleed the fish immediately, clean it right then if you have time, and keep it as cool as possible. Putting it on ice isn’t always possible, but do it if you can. Most fish can spoil in a matter of hours, resulting in a strong fishy taste. Maybe good as crab bait, but certainly nothing you’d want to eat.

When you get home, fillet out the fish, and skin it. Just under the skin, along the lateral line, you’ll see some darker colored meat. That’s fat. Trim it all out. Trim out all the bones too, if you can. The size of the fillets kinda determines the final size of the chunks, but I try for between one half and one inch thick, an inch or so wide, and six or eight inches long.

After you’ve cut them to size, rinse them off well, and lay them out on a glass or plastic tray of some sort. I use those big plastic containers from Walmart. Liberally sprinkle rock salt over the fillets, and let it sit for ten to twenty minutes, depending on the thickness and the degree of saltiness you like. Rinse ‘em off again, dry them with a paper towel, and let them sit for fifteen or twenty minutes, and they’ll get a little bit of a glaze. If you don’t see it, don’t worry.

I use a couple of “Little Chief” and “Big Chief” smokers, but there are several similar electric smokers out there, and they all work about the same. Spray down the racks in the smoker with anti-stick stuff like PAM, and cover the racks with the fish. Fill the chip pan with ALDER repeat ALDER chips! Hickory if for smoking pork, mesquite for beef, I guess, but there’s something about the flavor of salmon and alder being a perfect match. Keep the chip pan full of chips, and when the chips are burned down and have stopped smoking, dump the pan and re-fill it. Keep the smoke going for at least the first six hours, or so, longer if you like it smokier.

When the fish starts to look like, well, jerky, you’re done. They will come off the racks easier if you let them cool a bit. It’s not a bad idea to throw the salmon onto some cookie sheets and put them in the oven for twenty minutes at 165 degrees, to make sure any residual bacteria is killed off.

Final thoughts: Good fish doesn’t need a lot of herbs and spices to taste good, and all the spices in the world won’t make bad fish taste good. However, here’s a couple of variations. Try sprinkling brown sugar, or pepper, or soy sauce, or a combination, for that matter, on top of the fish before smoking for a little variety.

Although this is primarily for salmon, it should work great on almost any fish that’s big enough you can get some reasonable sized fillets. What species of salmon do I prefer? For smoking I prefer chum salmon, but they ALL smoke up well.

When you get the batch done, give me a call, I’ll be right over. Dang, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!!