Headin' South of the Border....

The test prototype pin table

Rivrdog and KeeWee

Rivrdog checking out KeeWee's Beretta U22 Neos

Part of the arsenal of the day

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KeeWee and I are now back from Portland and Rivrdog's stompin' grounds, and we had a grand time of it. The drive from Seattle to Portland was uneventful, except for some REALLY heavy rain South of Kelso.

If you haven't driven I5 South from Seattle lately, be advised that they've dropped the speed limit from 70 to 60 around Chehalis, and the State patrol was out making up for budget shortfalls, it appears, and with a lot of success.

We met up with Rivrdog in early afternoon, had a quick lunch at Schloss Rivrdog, then headed out to the Douglas Ridge Rifle Assn. range just a bit East of Portland. It had also been raining heavily in Portland, and there was 6" or more of water standing in places on the range.

We set up the test pin table, and set up five pins. We had an assortment of rimfire and centerfire handguns, and spent the afternoon blazing away at the pins with great enthusiasm. The range setup will work out nicely for a pin shoot, and the tables should work well too.

For easy of transport and setup, we have gone from a full table, as is often used in pin shoots, to more of a reinforced sawhorse type of pin table. The pins are only 12" apart, instead of a more common 16" spacing. The distance to the pins is 25'.

We may start referring to this configuration as a "Speed Pins" pin shoot, as the closer spacing and lack of a full table depth will result in times considerably faster than you might expect at a regular pin shoot, like at CWSA or Custer.

By the way, if you make it to the March 11th. pin shoot, don't let Riverdog fool you with his, "too old, can't see, can't shoot anymore routine". It' BS! He won't be an easy match. I HAVE done my best to teach him as many bad habits as I could, however, but don't count on that helping too much!

After sending lots of pins flying, we packed up our gear and headed over to the rifle range to give Rivrdog a chance to shoot my red dot equipped Hi Point 9mm. carbine. It was getting dark, so we didn't have a lot of time, but from the bench neither of us had any trouble making a finger sized single hole with ten rounds at roughly 40 feet. Definitely in the 1/8 MOG (Minute of Goblin) range.

By then we were running out of daylight and body warmth, so we headed back to the Schloss, picked up the REAL boss of the schloss, then headed out to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Back to the schloss for some sleep, then up in the morning for a good hearty breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Rivrdog, then KeeWee and I jumped into our opulent RV and headed back to the People's Republic of Washington for a day spent installing a computer system, and then some employee training.

Following that, four plus hours on the road, back across the Mukilteo ferry to Whidbey Island, and home.

I was probably asleep before my head hit the pillow.........