Carnival of Cordite #63

Welcome, all, to this week's Carnival of Cordite. Gullyborg of Resistance is Futile has been running the Carnival almost every week for a year, and needs to take a break. I have agreed to step in and keep the fires burning, so to speak.

The decision for me to go ahead and host this week's Carnival wasn't finalized until less than 24 hours ago, so this edition is being put together in kind of a hurry to still get it posted by Friday night. This issue will also be a little light as to the number of submissions, as full request for submissions didn't get out in advance as it normally has been done.

If this issue of the Carnival isn't up to your standards, then lower your standards! If that thought sounds familiar, it paraphrases a message on the sidebar of Gut Rumbles by Rob Smith, better known as AcidMan. We lost Rob this last week, and he will be missed for his colorful and outspoken storytelling. Our condolences to his family.

Things are moving right along for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous to be held in Reno on October 6th., 7th., and 8th. To help promote the event, Fodder at Ride Fast Shoot Straight came up with this church sign.

For more information on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, how to make your room reservations, and how to register for the Rendezvous, have a look at the website for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous.

Not actually a blog post, but a great resource, is the website for the Civilian Marksmanship Program, where the gummint will actually sell you a real life 'Assault Rifle'!! There's even a number of hints and tips to get the most accuracy out of your Garand.

Everyone should, at some time in their life, spend some 'Quality Time" with a M1 Garand!

Spank that Donkey mentions the CMP program in his post cited below, and that reminded me that I hadn't plugged the CMP program lately, so I decided to add it in.

Civilian Marksmanship Program

Speaking of rifles, and being as it was recently Father's Day, Bruce over at Mass Backwards got a Ruger 10/22, then a scope mount for it, then a scope, and finally a gun cabinet to store it in!

Bruce's Ruger 10/22

Finally, Bruce designed some special targets to shoot with his 10/22. I won't spoil it for you, but if you aren't too fond of the New York Times or the UN you will want to download and print out a set of these for yourself!

Meanwhile, AlanDP at Blognomicon has a hunting story and info on another (almost) obsolete cartridge.

AlanDP also has an interesting post on the The .25 Stevens Rimfire cartridge.


Azreel at Free Spirit Mind has a review of the Walther G22 for your reading pleasure.

Walther G22

It looks like Winchester isn't going to disappear completely, as a bidding process has been set up to sell the assets and the name. So far there a have been a dozen bids. Xyba at Once More Into the Breach has the whole story on the possible fate of Winchester.

Countertop at Countertop Chronicles has a great story about a puking kid, a cop, guns, and more, quite a combination! It seems that we seldom hear about the good that law enforcement officers perform on a daily basis, only the bad stuff. This one is the kind of story you like to read...

Countertop also has a post up on Democrats and Guns.

Unfortunately police officers aren't all of the same cloth, so to speak, as the one Countertop met up with. Ronocracy has the story.

Bull at The Bull Speaks! has a post about an American Hero coming home. He also discusses these:


If you aren't familiar with these, they are called "challenge Coins". His post gives you the whole story.

Bull also issues a challenge to the news media.

To the News Media Industry: A Dare. Here's a short excerpt. You should read the whole story.

"I dare you, in the name of all Gods (including yours- “Filthy Lucre”) to, for one week, report on what is going RIGHT in the World.

Do you think that it would kill us, or you, to hear about some local river now clean enough for kids to play in due to Community Action? How about how low income families operating pet rescues out of their homes - and on their own dime! What about kids raising funds for parks and recreation in their hometowns? When did you last report on a local blood drive? A family reunion with six generations in attendance? Some kid cutting grass to help out at home? Where did all of the mid-America heroes go?"

Posse Incitatus has info on a a fake gun rights group and an in depth dissection of the left's latest fake grass roots gun right organization: The American Hunters and Shooters Association.

Speaking of bogus goings on, Rofasix has a story about the lynching of a man's character in the press, Dr. Takasugi, because of his guns. You should read "The Lynching of Dr. Takasugi"

Spank That Donkey speculates on if James Webb running for senator in Virginia, will attempt to ban "assault Rifles". His post also covers a lot of other gun related stuff and has a number of good links.

Mr. Completely (That's me!) and KeeWee of KeeWee's Corner have been busy, first, attending the local Friends of the NRA Banquet and then shooting in a Bowling pin match. There's also a post on using the Taco Grip, commonly used in silhouette shooting, for other types of handgun competition. Although there is nothing dangerous or illegal about using the Taco Grip on a handgun, one club, after seeing it in use, decided to outlaw it anyway. I guess that's sort of a back-handed compliment, I think!

That's it for this week's Carnival of Cordite. KeeWee and I will be in Alaska taking care of some business, and getting in all of the fly rod salmon fishing we can possibly manage.

The next two Carnival of Cordites will be hosted over at Spank That Donkey, and I'll be back in three weeks to host the one after those two.

See you at the range........

Breaking Carnival of Cordite News

Gullyborg, over at Resistance is Futile, has put on most of the weekly Carnival of Cordites for the last year, and is ready to take a break. He and I had been discussing how I could step in and help keep the show on the road, so to speak, possibly as a co-host, trading off the hosting, and each of us doing about half of them. It's a lot more work than you'd think, putting a Carnival together, and I can certainly understand his fatigue.

I have agreed to host this week's Carnival of Cordite.

The following two weeks I will be in alaska and will only have limited computer and internet access, so I won't be able to host those two carnivals, but I think we've got that covered, I hope! I will then be able to do the Carnival the following week, unless, of course, Gullyborg feels like doing one, but that's up to him. For now, he needs a break.

I realize that this is really late notice, but if any of you have any submissions you want in this week's Carnival, please send them directly to me at

B L O G (at) W H I D B E Y (dot) C O M

Be sure to put Carnival of Cordite Submission in the email title so I get it sorted into the correct mail folder.

If you can add a couple of sentences that describe the subject of the post that I can use when putting the Carnival together, that would be helpful.

I need them here no later than tomorrow morning 10am PST. I will do my best to get the Carnival together and have it posted by tomorrow night.

Thanks to all, and I'll do my best to make you proud!

e-Postal Handgun Matches to continue

Marc at Ninth Stage and JimmyB the Conservative UAW Guy, have agreed to host the next two e-Postal handgun matches.

Marc will do the July match, and JimmmyB will host it for August. As soon as I have any more details, I'll get 'em posted!

Let the Fun Begin!

e-Postal Handgun Match Feedback

I got an interesting email from Rivrdog regarding his take on the e-Postal handgun matches. He had tried to post it as a comment, but Blogger apparently ate it, so he emailed it to me, and here it is:

What I was going to tell you was your postals have become like bracket-racing at the drags, and how many fans go to see bracket-racing versus the real (NHRA) thing?

When your eyes stopped accomodating, you chose to outfit all your weapons with electronic or tunnel sights.

When my eyes stopped accomodating, I chose to practice point-shooting by instinct.

I can still carry a combat weapon to defend myself with, and while I won't shoot the buttons off the bad guy's shirt like you will, I will make him dead sooner than you will.

This extends, somehow, to postal matches.

Back to the bracket-racing analogy. You take your street-legal rod to the bracket races, and they put you on the line next to a Super-Comp car with a trick engine, fancy tranny and trick Traction-Masters with 14 inch gummyslicks. The tree greens for both of you, and even though your green was first, he passes you at the half-way mark. The math whiz in the booth does the math and says you won the race, even though you were looking at his trunk deck receding in the distance before the finish line.

That's the feeling we get shooting the postals against the super-comp guns. You design the postals with tiny targets, and they are perfect for your red-dotted guns. You then give us handicaps (classes) where we are theoreticaly equal in our class. We may be equal, but always, in the back of the mind, we know that we will never be able to cut the wings off the flies like you can. It's just not competitive, dispite the handicaps you give us in the rules.

Add that feeling to the fact that your ARE a gen-you-wine pistol master, and the "why try" becomes the ruling thought.

Basically what's happened is that you've turned yourself into a niche shooter. You ARE the master of the niche, but everybody else feels ill at ease in your niche competing with you, so they don't. When you try to widen the niche a bit, it's still YOUR niche, and you are still the niche-master.

How about it, shooters? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.....

I Hate Morning Decisions

It's been uncomfortably hot the last few days, and night before last it was difficult getting to sleep. Since it doesn't get this warm very often around here, no one bothers to install air conditioning in their homes.

I finally got to sleep around two am, and was dozing away blissfully when around 4:30 I hear this loud howling and yapping right outside my bedroom window. A dang coyote!

The first thought to appear in my foggy and sleep deprived brain was to dump 30 rounds of .223 from the Mini 14 in the general direction of the noise, then go back to bed. Then I considered perhaps five quick shots of 00 buck from the 12 gauge Mossberg. Wouldn't have to aim quite as carefully, maybe.

Then, as I woke up a bit more, I remembered that it was only a couple of hundred feet to the neighbor's house. Shooting at the coyote is probably not a very good idea, after all.

By then the coyote had shut up and disappeared into the brush.

I went back to bed.

Like I said, I hate morning decisions anyway.....

e-Postal Handgun Match Flyswatter II Results

For whatever reason, we only got a total of five people entering the e-Postal match, with a total of nine entries.

This was an extremely difficult match to score a lot of hits, and the last time I used this target in a e-Postal match the overall top score was only 9, and that was out of 35 or 40 entries.

JimmyB's score of 10 was so close to being an 11 that I had him re-check the target. It was a matter of thousandths of an inch away from the black! NateG's score of 10 with a revolver is also outstanding, and probably would have won the class if there had been 30 entries in revolver.

Here's the results:

RIMFIRE

Name Hits Caliber Gun Type
1. Mr. Completely 11 .22 High Standard ML-106
2. JimmyB 10 .22 Ruger Mk. II
3. NateG 7 .22 Springfield 1911/ .22 Conv.
4. Mrs NateG 4 .22 Springfield 1911/ .22 Conv.
5. KeeWee 2 .22 High Standard Sport King

CENTERFIRE

Name Hits Caliber Gun Type
1. NateG 3 .45 Springfield 1911

REVOLVER

Name Hits Caliber Gun Type
1. NateG 10 .38 S&W 686
2. Mrs NateG 5 .38 S&W 686

Due to the lack of participation, this will be the last e-Postal handgun match until more shooters become interested in entering.

CWSA Bowling Pin Match

The weather was spectacular, with temperature approaching the high 80's, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Fortunately there was a bit of a cool breeze to keep it a little more comfortable. It was a bright day, and seeing the red dots in the sights became a problem.

KeeWee and I showed up at 9am. and got signed in. She planned to shoot the new High Standard 103 Sport King/Sharpshooter with a red dot sight in the rimfire optical class, and being a glutton for punishment, I entered my Taurus model 66 .357 with a red dot sight in the revolver class. I also entered a 12" barreled High Standard ML-106 with a red dot in the optical sight rimfire class, my Smith & Wesson model 422 with a red dot (one of those inexpensive Barska's) also in rimfire optical, and a 7" barreled High Standard Military in the rimfire iron sight class.

After the centerfire auto's finished qualifying, it was time for the revolver qualifying. You shoot four tables of pins against the clock, and the total of your 3 best tables determines your first round opponent. LouG had loaded up some .38 ammo to try, and I decided to shoot one cylinder full in qualifying and see how they worked. Although I managed to get the pins off the table, it was like throwing marshmellows at the pins! Today Lou broke some of the ammo back down, and found out that the harder new bullets we were trying weren't getting enough crimp. Anyhow, I went back to my Remington Plus-P's from Wallyworld. I'll say one thing for Remington, they certainly didn't go stingy on the amount of powder in those Plus-P's. My Taurus has now been nicknamed the "Raging Bullock"! It IS kinda noisy!

On one of the qualifying tables I saw something I'd never seen happen before. I put a bullet clear through a pin, leaving a dark grey mark on the front, and it didn't even fall over. It barely wiggled! Bowling pins aren't solid all the way through, and have some empty spaces in side them so they balance just right for bowling. I apparently hit one of those pockets just right with one of those light fast bullets and it went straight through the pin.

After determining everyone's times and first round matchups, it was into the matches themselves. I didn't pay too much attention to the auto-loaders, but Pete from Custer knocked Evil Al out in the first round in the optical sight centerfire class. Then Pete came up against Kim, also from Custer, and an excellent shooter. Two tables later Kim was also relegated to being a spectator. Pete was shooting well, and went all the way to the final, and won that easily too. Nice shooting, Pete!

Evil Al usually dominates the centerfire revolver class, and he timed in fastest, coming up against BillB, the guy who knocked me out of revolver class at the last shoot. Bill is a good shooter, but up against Al, just about no one survives that! Bill pulled out some great shooting, and retired Al from the revolver class! WOW! Since this was only my second time shooting pins with the Raging Bullock, my times weren't all that good in qualifying, but respectable. John, who is now a rimfire regular, decided to give revolver class a try, and we met in the first round. Great, I figured, another new shooter like me so it should be close, and it was! We both gave it our all, and I narrowly pulled off the round win.

The way the byes worked out, I ended up against BillB in the next round. I figured I was doomed! My only hope was if he had to reload, and I was careful to get all five pins with ,my first 6 shots, I might stand a chance. Bill is twice as fast as I am, but if he reloads and I don't, it could be close! On one table he didn't have to reload, and I didn't either, and he won the table. On the next table we both had to re-load, but I had left fewer pins from the first six shots, and narrowly won the second table. On the deciding table he had to re-load and I didn't, and although I missed the first pin, I got all five with the next five shots to take the table.

That put me into the final against young Tony, who is getting better every time he shoots. Tony could see what I was doing, and realized that his "Slow and Accurate" was a whole lot faster than mine, and if he took a little time the match was his, and that's exactly what he did. I speeded up a little and pushed him a bit, but he shot smart and walked away with the marbles in the revolver class. I managed a second place, and couldn't have been more surprised to have gotten that far!

Tony is becoming a force to watch as he continues to improve both in the mental and the skill part of the game. Great Job Tony!

The rimfire pin top classes were also a lot of fun, with a number of close matches. I got my revenge on young Tony in rimfire optical as we met up in the final and I was able to turn the tables this time. Not by a lot, mind you, but just enough!

KeeWee came within tenths of a second of making her second final in a row, but trouble seeing the red dot when shooting into the sun cost her a little time and she was slow on the final pin against JimP. Overall she ended up 4th. Not bad at all!

We all had a grand time and the weather was wonderful! What a great way to spend a day!

NOTE: For more reports and match information check out LouG's blog Mad Gun

R.I.P - AcidMan

A bright light in the blog world has gone out. Rob, also known as AcidMan, the author of the Gut Rumbles blog was found deceased this morning slumped over on his couch. No drugs or alcohol were present, and he did not shoot himself, according to the short post on Gut Rumbles written by his daughter Sam. Rob was a great story teller, and will truly be missed.

A word from Lt. Cotton

Found this letter on the Powerline blog, and it's worth reposting in case you missed it:

A word from Lt. Cotton

Lt. Tom Cotton writes this morning from Baghdad with a word for the New York Times:

Dear Messrs. Keller, Lichtblau & Risen:

Congratulations on disclosing our government's highly classified anti-terrorist-financing program (June 23). I apologize for not writing sooner. But I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I spent the last four days patrolling one of the more dangerous areas in Iraq. (Alas, operational security and common sense prevent me from even revealing this unclassified location in a private medium like email.)

Unfortunately, as I supervised my soldiers late one night, I heard a booming explosion several miles away. I learned a few hours later that a powerful roadside bomb killed one soldier and severely injured another from my 130-man company. I deeply hope that we can find and kill or capture the terrorists responsible for that bomb. But, of course, these terrorists do not spring from the soil like Plato's guardians. No, they require financing to obtain mortars and artillery shells, priming explosives, wiring and circuitry, not to mention for training and payments to locals willing to emplace bombs in exchange for a few months' salary. As your story states, the program was legal, briefed to Congress, supported in the government and financial industry, and very successful.

Not anymore. You may think you have done a public service, but you have gravely endangered the lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here. Next time I hear that familiar explosion -- or next time I feel it -- I will wonder whether we could have stopped that bomb had you not instructed terrorists how to evade our financial surveillance.

And, by the way, having graduated from Harvard Law and practiced with a federal appellate judge and two Washington law firms before becoming an infantry officer, I am well-versed in the espionage laws relevant to this story and others -- laws you have plainly violated. I hope that my colleagues at the Department of Justice match the courage of my soldiers here and prosecute you and your newspaper to the fullest extent of the law. By the time we return home, maybe you will be in your rightful place: not at the Pulitzer announcements, but behind bars.

Very truly yours,

Tom Cotton
Baghdad, Iraq

An excuse for a party - with guns.

From Castle Arrgghhh and The Mudville Gazette:

An excuse for a party - with guns.

[John of Argghhh!]

Public Service Announcement:

Bored with the same old dull, "sit in chairs listening to bloggers earnestly discuss how important they are kind of conference?"

(Hey, I was there, I was as self-important as anyone, and lord the Press made sure we knew about YearlyKOS!)

Interested in attending about the most dangerous gathering of bloggers since YearlyKos? The Gunblogger Rendevous!

Well, dangerous if you're Sarah Brady, or The Senators SchuBoxerClinStein!

C'mon, Blogs, guns, booze, and gambling. Pretty much what we're fighting for around the globe, ain't it? At least *the bad guys" think so.

SWWBO and I are going to try to be there, too - client willing and the creek don't rise.

For the success if the Gunblogger Rendezvous it is extremely important to get your Rendezvous Registrations in as early as possible. We need to plan well in advance to that we secure a banquet room of suffcient size to hold everyone, and the only way we can plan for it is based on registrations received.

All registration money sent in goes into a special escrow account, and is sent on to Circus Circus as one check 60 days in advance of the Rendezvous. If we do not have enough registrations in by September 1st., the event will be cancelled. You need not worry about losing your money if not enough people register, as every penny will be returned from the escrow account back to the people that sent it in.

I really don't think that's going to happen, and I'm expecting a really good turn-out for the Rendezvous, but in planning for the event, I want to make sure all bases are covered.

We've also got some other announcements in the wings regarding the Rendezvous, but won't be making the announcements until confirmation and final details are determined.

Did I mention that a "Really Big Rifle Organization" was working on the details for their involvement?

I'll keep you posted!

Got Ambushed

Haven't had much time to get any new posts up. Just plain got over-run with workload and other issues. Hopefully things will be better soon......

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Church Sign!

Fodder over at Ride Fast & Shoot Straight put this together.

The word is getting out, Reno's the place to be on October 6th., 7th., and 8th!

We'll see you there!

The TACO Grip

Silhouette shooters, each with a slightly different variation of the Taco grip. All pictures can be clicked on for a larger view, all picture credits (except the last one) to the International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Shooting Association.

A "Low Elbow" version of the Taco.

Another Variation.

Another Taco grip, but hanging onto the scope, rather than the barrel.

An international shooter from New Zealand, with his forward hand under, rather than over, but still a Taco variation.

Mr. Completely's Taco grip.

---

Most people outside of the handgun silhouette shooting world have never heard of the Taco grip. The basic difference is that the main hand is on the pistol grip in a normal manner, but the second hand is holding the barrel or the scope, instead of being wrapped around the primary hand holding the grip. In just about all forms of handgun competition this is an acceptable practice, as how you use your second hand is more or less up to you. The only exception that comes to mind is handgun bullseye competition, where you must hold the handgun with only one hand.

Each grip and stance combination has its own advantages and disadvantages, and a savvy shooter will select a grip and stance most suited for the type of competition at hand. The Taco grip, for example as used by silhouette shooters is quite accurate, but it is also quite slow if you are shooting several targets and must do so quickly. The Taco grip also works well at keeping the muzzle rise to a minimum, which partially offsets the slowness when speed is a concern.

When I first started using the Taco grip, a couple of things became immediately apparent. First, it's harder than it looks. Second, it really IS slower. I also noticed that my groups were tighter, so I decided to see what I could do to build on the accuracy and overcome the slowness.

The position of the weak-hand elbow is important. The lower you have it, the more stable you become in the vertical plane, but the less stable you are horizontally. Also, the lower your weak- hand elbow, the harder it is to move the gun to either side quickly. The higher the weak-hand elbow, the easier it is to move the barrel to either side, but vertical stability suffers.

Since most of my shooting matches involve shooting for speed at bowling pins, which are tall and narrow, horizontal accuracy and speed of movement are more important than vertical accuracy. Through trial and error, I have found that having my weak-hand elbow as close to horizontal as possible seems to work the best for me, as you can see in the lower picture.

I have also modified the more traditional taco stance into a slight crouch. For me it feels a bit more compact and stable, and I don't have to raise the pistol quite as far to get it to shooting position.

Is the Taco grip a huge advantage that makes you unbeatable? Nope! In fact, when time becomes a factor, or targets are spread wide apart, it's more of a liability.

There are a lot of grips and stances, and you match them to your type of shooting. Just remember that no matter what grip and stance you use, it still ALL boils down to trigger control.

Without good trigger control, your stance and grip don't make too much difference.......

If You Can't Beat 'em, Outlaw 'em!

I just got this email from the Oak Harbor Sportsman's Association regarding their falling plate matches.

I had won their last two rimfire optical sight matches, although the scores were fairly close. I use a two handed silhouette style grip which although it is a little slower, is a little more accurate, at least for me.

Here's the email:

After a lot of consideration I have come to the conclusion that I need to make a rule change for our falling plate matches. I strive to conduct matches that are as equatable, fair and as level a playing field for everyone participating as I can. I also don't want the matches to turn into some type of equipment race. Therefor I have made the decision to add a rule that requires shooters using 2 hands to have both hands touching, in a conventional pistol grip. I don't like adding rules but if I don't do it I'm convinced that at the next match we will have some showing up with Ruger 10/22s with pistol grip butt stocks or folding stocks and that would change the match to something we never intended it to be, and would create some hard feelings among some of the shooters.

(last paragraph has been omitted, as it was about a different subject)

Jim

Here's my reply:

Jim,

Since I am the only shooter in rimfire with a 2 hand silhouette style grip, your rule is obviously written with me in mind. It's true that some people feel that a 12" long barrel and a 2 hand grip is the reason I have the success I am sometimes lucky enough to enjoy.

The real truth is that I shoot between 20,000 and 30,000 rounds a year in practice. The grip and stance is NRA legal and I keep both elbows out from my body to comply with the NRA guidelines. The grip is basically taken from NRA silhouette shooting.

As to your fears that a bunch of people will copy my method, I can only add that I have been shooting this way for years both at Coupeville and at Custer, and no one has copied it yet.

I shoot for the fun and the fellowship, and if you take it so seriously that as soon as someone wins a couple of times you change the rules to outlaw that shooter, then I am afraid you have lost sight of why these matches are held in the first place.

I am disappointed, but I will respect your new rule and no longer attend your matches, and you will no longer have to compete against me in rimfire optical.

Should you win the next match, however, you will also know that you had to use the rule book to win, rather than your shooting ability.

Personally, I'd rather lose on the range than win using rule changes......

If any of you want to fisk his email, feel free to do so in the comments.

---

UPDATE: Jerry the Geek at Cogito Ergo Geek has a post up on this issue HERE.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Range

The Palomino Valley Gun Club is the home club at the Washoe County Parks Department Regional Shooting Facility.

A shooter's eye view down range.

Covered shooting stations and benches.

Plans are coming together for getting in some range time at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this October in Reno. The Washoe county Parks and Recreation department in Nevada has a great shooting facility with target stands out to 200 yards, then steel targets on out to 900 plus yards! Their facility is located about 20 miles out of town on 560 acres of land. It looks like a perfect location to go get in a little shooting during the day on Saturday.

The home club at the range is the Palomino Valley Gun club, and their website has more details about their club and the range itself.

I'll be in contact with the club and make sure they are all invited to come to the Rendezvous too.

The more the merrier!

Carnival of Cordite #62 is Up!

The latest Carnival of Cordite is now up at Spank That Donkey, and there's lots to see and read over there.

Here's the magic "Click ME" to take you there!

Friends of the NRA Banquet

Saturday night at the Holmes Harbor Rod and Gun club was the Friends of the NRA Banquet and Fund Raiser Auction. I got there a little early, but even so the place was nearly packed. There must have been close to 200 people there for the dinner and auction!

I got a chance to visit with Jeff Daily, our regional NRA rep. and talk a bit about the Gunblogger Rendezvous, but Jeff was pretty busy running the fund raiser, so we didn't have much time to visit.

I walked around and had a look at all the cool stuff in the auction, and two things caught my eye. There was an absolutely beautiful Winchester Model 94 NRA engraved commemorative limited edition in .44 magnum. There were some very nice shotguns that were truly something to behold, but I don't know much about shotguns beyond home protection basics, so I'm sure I failed to fully appreciate what was there.

The prime rib dinner was wonderful, and huge servings to boot. KeeWee and I could hardly walk we were so full. After the dinner they had the drawing for the door prizes, but we didn't win anything, and since we couldn't afford to bid on the auction stuff and had to get ready for the next morning's plate shoot, we slipped out the door and headed home.

The Fund Raiser was a huge financial success, but I don't know exactly how much was raised.

The model 94 went for two grand, if that gives you any idea!

CWSA Hanging Plates - Dingin' The Dishes!

KeeWee and I are back from the CWSA hanging plate match, and we had a grand time of it! The wind was a bit blustery, but it wasn't too cold, and at least it didn't rain. Being Father's day may have affected the turnout, as the number of shooters was down a bit below average. When the weather looks marginal, or there's a holiday, the good shooters still all show up, however. It seems that it's only the middle shooters and newer shooters that stay home!

Steve, John, Evil Al, Rainey, LouG, KeeWee and I all showed up at 9am., along with some other shooters. Mark and Lisa from Shoreline came over to give it a try, although Lisa decided to watch one first before giving it a try. Mark however, jumped right in and was very respectable somewhere around 4th. in the Optical sight class with his Smith & Wesson 22A. Not only is Mark going to be one to watch, I know for a fact that Lisa shoots better than Mark does! They may make it back for next week's pin shoot to give a pin shoot a try.

I shot both the iron sight and the optical sight rimfire classes, and in iron sight I finished one plate behind Evil Al, who took all the marbles. I think he was just fooling around, though, 'cuz he can run away and hide from me when he tries!

Once again I was "snake-bit" in the optical sight class, although I still ended up OK. I've been trying all year to put together a perfect score of 72 out of 72, and something always seems to happen to spoil it. Today was no exception!

At 10 yards, I hit 18 out of 18. A good start, but there's a long way to go!

At 15 yards, again, 18 out of 18. 36 out of 36, half way home.

At 20 yards, the first shot string of six shots, six for six. Then disaster struck. The second string of six, BANG, DING, BANG, DING, ......... silence ....... Stove pipe! Yank the slide back, clear the fired casing, snap off a quick shot that misses, and the buzzer goes off. Time expired. DANG!

"Shooter - Load and make ready".

Gotta get my concentration back onto the next six plates. Deep breath, exhale.

"Shooter ready?"

Focus! Aim for 1 inch above the bottom edge of the plate to compensate for the distance.

"Ready"

The buzzer goes off and I come up on the first plate. I was a little impatient, and shot just a fraction too soon and just slightly under the plate. I moved across the remaining four plates, this time remembering where to aim, and got the four of them OK. Good shooters don't let the last shot mess up the next shot, but it's really hard to do!

18 more shots to go, this time from 25 yards. The rest of the shooters finished their turn at 20 yards, and we moved the shooting station out to 25 yards.

At 25 yards it went smoothly, 18 for 18, and I ended up with a 67 total. 67 plates hit, two flat out missed, and three shots not taken....

When the scores were tallied up, KeeWee, John, and Mark were in almost a dead heat for 3rd., 4th., and 5th., and I don't remember exactly who finished where. Al had missed a few along the way, and I ended up ahead of him by a plate or so. You'd think I'd know better than to beat Al the week before a pin shoot!

There was a lot of really close shooting, and everyone had a grand time! What a fun way to spend the day.....

Blog Post of the Year?

SondraK goes to a Support the Troops Rally and runs into a couple of liberal moonbats with hilarious results! I wish I would have been there to hear the conversation first hand. Be sure to read the comments too, as some of the pictures in the post have been photoshopped, again with hilarious results!

Gone Shootin'

KeeWee and I are off to CWSA for a hanging plate match today. Will Evil Al be unbeatable after his success in Idaho? Will Terrible Tom blow everybody away, as he is prone to do? Will Mr. Completely not completely embarrass himself? Will KeeWee's new race gun put her up at the top?

Full report this evening, plus some late breaking Reno Rendezvous news and a report on last night's Friends of the NRA Banquet.

Stay tuned!

Random Nuclear Strikes Hacked

I don't have any details at the moment, but AnalogKid's blog "Random Nuclear Strikes" appears to have been hacked big time. There is both Arabic and English writing and a couple of email addresses ending in ".FR".

As I get more information I'll keep you updated......

Hummer H3 Marine Memorial in Paint

All of these pictures can be clicked on for a larger view:






MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON , Calif. ( March 2, 2006)

Karla Comfort received a lot of looks and even some salutes from people when she drove from Benton , Ark., to Camp Pendleton , Calif., in her newly- painted, custom Hummer H3 March 2. The vehicle is adorned with the likeness of her son, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. John M. Holmason, and nine other Marines with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division who where all killed by the same improvised explosive device blast in Fallujah, Iraq, in December.

For Comfort, having the vehicle air brushed with the image of the 10 Marines was a way to pay homage to her hero and his fellow comrades who fell on Iraq 's urban batt lefield. "I wanted to let people know (Marines) are doing their jobs honorably, and some of them die," said the 39-year-old from Portland, Ore. "I don't want people to forget the sacrifices that my son and the other Marines made."

Leading up to her son's death, Comfort had received several letters from him prior to his return.. He had been deployed for five months, and Comfort "worried everyday he was gone until she got the letters and found out the date he was coming home," she said. Marines knocked on the front door of her home in Farmington, Mich., at 3 a.m. with the dreadful news. "I let my guard down when I found out he was coming home," she said. "There are times that I still cannot believe it happened. It's very hard to deal with."

Comfort came up with the idea for the rolling memorial when she and her two other sons attended John's funeral in Portland, Ore. "I saw a Vietnam (War) memorial on a car, and I said to my son Josh, 'we should do something like that for John,'" she recalled. "He loved Hummers."

She purchased the vehicle in January and immediately took it to Airbrush Guy & Co. in Benton, Ark. , where artist Robert Powell went to work on changing the plain, black vehicle into a decorative, mobile, art piece. "I only had the vehicle for two days before we took it in," she joked. Two hundred and fifty man-hours later, Powell had completed the vehicle. The custom job would have cost $25,000. Out of respect for Comfort's loss and the sacrifices the Marines made, Airbrush Guy & Co. did it for free. Comfort only had to purchase the paint, which cost $3,000.

"I love it," she said. "I'm really impressed with it, and I think John would be happy with the vehicle. He would have a big smile on his face because he loved Hummers." Comfort gave Powell basic instructions on what to include in the paint job. But in addition to the image of her son in Dress Blues and the faces of the nine other Marines, there were several surprises. "He put a lot more on than I expected," she said. "I think my favorite part is the heaven scene."

On the left side of the vehicle, a detail of Marines are depicted carrying their fallen comrades through the clouds to their final resting place. The American flag drapes across the hood, the words, "Semper Fi" crown the front windshield and the spare tire cover carries the same Eagle Globe and Anchor design that her son had tattooed on his back. "All the support I have been getting is wonderful," she said.

Comfort decided to move back to her hometown of Portland , and making the cross-country trip from Arkansas was a way for her to share her son's story. It's also her way of coping with the loss. "Along the way I got nothing but positive feedback from people," she said.

"What got to me was when people would salute the guys (Marines). It's hard to look at his picture. I still cry and try to get used to the idea, but it's hard to grasp the idea that he's really gone."

Support America and Support the Troops

Thanks to Uncawho for the full sized pictures

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Status - We're Getting There!

Things are falling into place for this October's Gun Blogger Rendezvous. This is going to be one heck of a lot of fun!

• The basic hotel room reservation and Rendezvous Registration mechanisms are in place, and registrations are starting to come in. We have an outstanding Guest of Honor in Dan McKown, whom you will enjoy meeting in person.
  
• We have a hospitality room set up both Friday and Saturday nights as sort of a blogger hang-out.
  
• The details are just about finished for the banquet Saturday night.
  
• The Gun Blogger Rendezvous web site/blog is up, where you can find all of the info on the Rendezvous, without having to wade through mountains of unrelated posts.
• Donations and support from industry folks are starting to come in.
• A really BIG national organization (you know who) is looking into how they want to participate.
• I am in the process of lining up a place to shoot on Saturday during the day.
• We have a volunteer looking into activities for the spouses that come to the Rendezvous who aren't interested in the range, but are interested in other Reno activities.
• KeeWee and I have bought our plane tickets, and we'll be heading down to Reno on Thursday, in case any of you are considering going a day early.
  

In short, a lot of the heavy lifting has now been done. To all of you shooters, blog readers, and bloggers, here's where I really need your help. We need to get the word out in as many ways as possible about the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. Bloggers, we need a blog-burst of publicity so that everyone knows about what's coming up. If you do a post on the Rendezvous, please let me know and I'll put in a link for you in the "Friends of the Rendezvous" blogroll.

I can do all of the other stuff to bring this together, but I need everyone's help to get the word out. If you are a blog reader or shooter, round up a couple of friends and start making plans to attend.

Most of all, try to figure out a way to break free for the weekend and come join us in Reno. It's early enough still to look for the discount airfares. Some folks are looking at car pooling and driving to the Rendezvous, both to share expenses, and to bring the favorite arsenal along!

We're going to have a lot of fun - come join us!!

Thanks to all for the help!!

BBQ Time!

It's BBQ time, and Fug's got a post up on everything you need to know to do it right!

Check it out!

e-Postal Match Reminder!

Here's the target for the "Flyswatter II" match. All you have to do is shoot the flies. It's harder than it looks!

Just a reminder about the e-Postal matches currently underway. They both close on Monday, the 26th., so if you can only get to the range on the weekends, you only have two weekends left to get your targets shot and entered.

The number of entries has been quite small for the last couple of e-Postal matches, so this may be the last two e-Postal matches. Only having one or two entries in a class is just not enough to justify continuing the matches.

So grab your rifles, pistols, air guns, evil assault rifles, potato guns, or whatever you've got and head out to the range and empty some brass!

You needed a good excuse for a range trip anyway, right?

VALOUR-IT - A short Story

So there you are, just another ground pounder walking the dusty streets of Basra on a civil patrol, not really looking for the bad guys, just making sure everything is calm.

It’s oppressively hot, and you feel the sweat dripping down your spine beneath your Interceptor body armor. The sun beats down on your kevlar helmet, and a thought flits through your memory that this is kinda like last summer’s football camp, between your junior and senior year in high school, when it was so damned hot, but the coach made you practice anyway. As your eyes flit over your surroundings, you wonder whatever happened to that pretty girl that used to work at the internet cafe just down the.......

WHAM!

Half-remembered sounds, and a miasma of blurred images is all you remember. You remember the sounds of your buddy, as he held you, telling you to hang in there, that everything will be all right. You remember hearing Doc’s voice, not the happy go lucky “sailor voice” that joined in the din of spirited conversation back in the FOB, but the low and intense voice of a medical professional as he works on saving a life. You hear the platoon sergeant’s voice as he talks on the radio, imploring the folks on the other end to get a Medevac bird at his position - right now!

Things get kind of woozy after that, but you know that you were in a helicopter, and later you hear that they had to bring you back from the dead three times… When you wake up, you are in a hospital room. They tried to liven the place up, but there’s no way to disguise the fact that you are in a place where really hurt troopers go. I’m not dead, you think, and then, I still have my eyes…

Your nose itches from the flow of oxygen from the mask over your face. It’s natural to reach up to scratch, and miss your face. You look down your arm, and see a swath of bandages were your wrist used to be. You look down your other arm, and find that it ends at about your elbow.

Oh God…

Despair…

Oh, man, what am I gonna do?

You were going to go to school next year, when your unit rotated back to the States and was deactivated. You had everything set up. You were going to be a computer programmer… Now I don’t have any hands. What do I do now?

The doctors and nurses come and go, barely noticed in the haze of meds dripping into your body. They tell you that your wounds have been stabilized, and that you’re out of danger.

A couple counselors come to talk to you about your recovery and rehabilitation, and what to expect…

And then another person comes into your room, carrying a laptop computer…

A few hours later, on a computer sitting in a study somewhere in the Mid-West, right next to some publications left behind by the Army Casualty Notification team, a new e-mail pops up.

“Dear mom and dad, you have probably heard that I was injured pretty bad, but at least I am alive. I am writing to let you know that I am okay. I am using a computer with my voice, because I cannot type, but at least I can e-mail…”

VALOUR-IT: Giving wounded war-fighters another kind of voice. Please be generous…

The above story was written by Sgt. B of The Gun Line
Hat tip to Semper Gratus - Be Grateful You Are An American

Circus Circus Donates Dan's Accommodations!

I've got some more great news! As you know, Dan McKown will be our Guest of Honor at the Rendezvous in Reno in October. When the good folks at the Circus Circus heard that Dan was our Guest of Honor, they offered to provide his room for both nights at no charge! The had already heard of Dan and his story, and decided it was the least they could do to show their appreciation.

Since any money beyond the direct cost of the Rendezvous will go directly to Dan's recovery and rehabilitation expenses, this is good news indeed!

Thank You, Circus Circus!

StreamingOutdoors.TV with Kim

Kim, Du Toit of Another Side of Kim, is now going to be doing a weekly video on Streaming Outdoors.TV.

According to Kim "I’ll be putting on a weekly show from now on—a cross between range reports, gratuitous gun pics, hunts and just general shooting fun. All this will take place at some of the world’s greatest shooting destinations."

His first segment is there now, and lots more to come. You should stop by weekly to see what he's up to!

Check it out!

Banks Lake Weekend

The annual Fishin' Club of Whidbey Island's Spring weekend outing and campout to Banks Lake is now over. (sigh....)

Getting there was interesting, to say the least! We had bright sunshine, gusty winds, heavy rain, hail, and just about everything else except a tornado, although I did see a dust devil or so! The weather was mostly a large number of squalls, and you'd be getting hammered by hail only to drive a quarter of a mile and the road was bone dry. Drive another half a mile and it would be pouring so hard you could barely see to drive. It certainly wasn't boring!

Banks Lake is in the Eastern part of Washington State, in what is basically desert. Being from the Western part of the state, the scenery is a huge change for us. Tall trees, snow-capped mountains, and Puget Sound are replaced by sage brush, long canyons, or Coulees, sheer rock cliffs, and good sized man made lakes. Banks lake is a storage reservoir for Grand Coulee Dam, and is also the source of irrigation water for the Columbia River basin reclamation project.

Every year we reserve one end of a resort, so we have all of the campsites on the lake to ourselves.

Three of our club boats on the beach right in front of our campsites.

In addition to the bass, walleye, and perch fishing, one of the big attractions is our club's potluck dinner on Saturday afternoon. Tons of food, fellowship, fish stories, sunshine, what more could you ask?

Great food, great people! Fred's probably telling another fish story!

Eating until we could barely walk!

Grand Coulee dam with water going over the spillway. Very unusual!

Usually Grand Coulee dam drops most of the river water through the turbines to make electricity, but this year there is so much water in the river that they can't run it all through the turbines, so they are letting a lot of water over the spillway. Sometimes that doesn't happen for years. It makes an incredible roar that you can hear for miles.

Columbia river valley below Grand Coulee dam.

KeeWee with a fine mess of yellow perch!

Since this is a fishing club, we definitely DID go fishing. High winds and rain kept us off the lake for much of Saturday, but we all still got in some rod time. KeeWee and I caught a number of small mouth bass on light tackle, which is a whole lot of fun. We also went after some yellow perch to bring home for dinner.

Yellow perch for dinner YUM!!

I've had the very best Alaska salmon and halibut, sturgeon, Ling, rockfish, cod, and a number of other highly touted fish, but for pure taste yellow perch and their close cousin the walleye, are hard to beat for taste! Boneless fillets battered and deep fried, what a treat!

It was a fantastic trip, and we all had a grand time. I just wish it wasn't such a long drive, but it was certainly worth it!

KeeWee has two posts up on the Banks Lake Weekend with a lot more pictures, HERE, and HERE.

B-17, B-52, and maybe a B-24

A B-17 and a B-52. What a great picture! Click on it for a bigger view.
Is that the bottom of a B-24 vertical stabilizer?

Thanks to Mary for the picture!

Project Valour-IT

Project Valour-IT currently needs to buy 11 more voice actuated laptop computers. These computers are supplied at no cost to injured servicemen who, due to injuries to their hands and arms, are unable to use a conventional computer's keyboard amd mouse.

These computers allow our wounded servicemen to communicate with friends and family, important for them while they are recovering from their injuries.

If you've wanted to support our soldiers, but you weren't sure how, please take a moment and donate to project Valour-IT. If you can only spare a few bucks, thats OK, every little bit helps. More than that, of course, is always welcome, too!

Bob Munden Fast Draw Video

KeeWee and I are back from our three day mini-vacation, a little road weary but none the worse for wear. We're a little bit sun and wind burned, and I've got a mess of yellow perch in the refrigerator for tonight's dinner.

I'll get a post and pictures up on the trip later today, but for now I thought I'd let you know about an amazing video of Bob Munden demonstrating his fast draw and doing some trick shooting. A baloon at 200 yards with a .38 snubbie! Yup, he does that too! You are going to want to watch this more than once!

Here's the link:

Bob Munden Shooting Video

Thanks to Xavier at Xavier Thoughts for coming across this one and pointing it out!

"Death Tax" Repeal Fails in Senate

The repeal of the "Death Tax" has narrowly failed i nthe senate. Two Republicans (Chafee and Voinovich) voted with the Democrats while four Democrats (Baucus, Lincoln, Nelson [Ben] and Nelson [Bill]) voted with the Republican majority and the American people.

Here's how the vote went:

YEAs 57 (Good Guys!)
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Roberts (R-KS)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Warner (R-VA)

NAYs 41 (Losers)
Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting 2 (Air wasters)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Schumer (D-NY)

Thanks to LouG for the vote info.

We're Off To Banks Lake

Is this Mr. Completely's new bass boat?
Picture 'borrowed' from Blog Idaho

This weekend is the Fishin' Club of Whidbey Island's Annual Spring weekend outing to Banks Lake in Eastern Washington. Here's some pictures from previous Banks lake outings.

KeeWee and I are due for a break, as we've either been working, or at one or even two matches every weekend since the weather got good enough to get out and go shooting.

We reserve a row of campsites right on the beach at Coulee Playland Resort for the club. You can actually pull your boat right up into your campsite! Fishing is mostly largemouth and small mouth bass, but there's also walleye, rainbows, crappies, and yellow perch. Fish a bit, sit in the shade a bit, maybe take a nap, just generally do as little as possible for two and a half whole days!

No blogging at all for three days, but we'll be back on Monday.

FISH ON!!

Eddy Brown Memorial Metal Match

7th Annual Eddy Brown Memorial Metal Match
June 3rd and 4th, 2006

People from Canada, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Idaho came to shoot the steel and have a good time. There were 55 total shooters with various classes and ages from Junior to Super-Senior.

The Spokane Practical Pistol League that puts on this match each year does a great job. Saturday started with a Shooters Meeting and signing up in a squad of 8 people. Seven different stages were set up and you rotated to each stage until you shot all seven. It was organized and run smoothly with everyone finishing up around 3pm.

"Evil Al" tearin' 'em up!

While we waited for the score sheets to be calculated, prizes were given out to all shooters many that were donated by the different sponsors. These prizes included a tumbler, lots of ammo, pouches, gift certificates, shirts and hats. The big prize that went to the first number drawn was to one of our group from Western Washington and was an AR-15 in .223 caliber. After all the prizes were handed out, the plaques were given to the winners of the match.

Al, Kim, and Robin with their award plaques.

The three that came from Western Washington all placed.

Robin Taylor 1st in Limited Class
Kim Gorham 1st in Women's Class
Al Lindell 2nd in Revolver Class

Sunday featured a Man-on-Man shoot-off with various scenarios, one including a can of pop! It was a triple elimination which gave everyone plenty of shooting. The ending matches were very close with some fast shooting.

It was a great match with everyone leaving with a smile on their face. What a way to spend a weekend!!! It's drag racing with a handgun.

Thanks To Rainey for taking the pictures and writing up the story. You too are now a blogger!

New Elements Discovered

The development of personal computers has had far reaching effects, particularly in our knowledge of the physical world. Entirely because of the new PC's, several new elements have been discovered and added to the Periodic table. Unfortunately these discoveries did not get much coverage in the media, lost behind far more important stories concerning the latest pop stars and daytime television shows.

To help bring this important information to the forefront, as a Public service I have compiled a short list of these new elements and some of their characteristics:

Element 116: Cantaffordium.
Shortly afer Cantaffordium was discovered, it was quickly adopted as a primary component in many of the newest state-of-the-art computer components, particularly CPU chips, but to a lesser extent, also in other computer components. Cantaffordium has a relatively short life, as it turns into Unobtanium in less than two years.

Element 117: Pentagonium
Pentagonium is very closely related to Cantaffordium, and is produced by high velocity bombardment of Cantaffordium with a large number of dollar bills. The only known user of Pentagonium is the US government, and they won't say what they are using it for. Rumor has it that it is being used in the manufacture of hammers, screw drivers, and toilet seats, but that is only an unsubstantiated rumor.

Element 118: Proprietarium
Proprietarium has been heavily used lately by a number of computer manufacturers in the production of their own unique computer components, particularly motherboards and power supplies. The use of Proprietarium makes it difficult for consumers to obtain repair parts from any source other than the original manufacturer.

Element 119: Windozium
Windozium is an extremely unusual element. It's primary characteristic is the ability to slow things down. In laboratory tests it was able to slow down light from its usual 186,000 miles per second to just over 4 miles per hour. Windozium ore is mined primarily in Redmond, Washington. The slow movement of traffic on I-405, once attributed to too many cars and not enough traffic lanes, has now been conclusively linked to the proximity of I-405 to the Redmond open pit Windozium mines.

Element 120: Unobtainium
Although only discovered in the last few years, Unobtainum is now fully in the main stream, with more and more items being produced from this material. It also seems to be heavily concentrated in areas involving replacement parts for mechanical devices over two years old. It is thought that this is primarily caused by the large number of items initially manufactured from Cantaffordium, and the Cantaffordium then degrading into Unobtainium.

The preceding has been a public service science report from Mr. Completely Labs......

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Updates

Things are moving right along nicely in the preparations for this October's first annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous. By getting started early that should greatly reduce the amount of last minute panic!

The Rendezvous is open to all gun bloggers, mil-bloggers, and any one else interested in guns, shooting sports, gun regulations, and the right to keep and bear arms. It is also open to gun and gun accessory manufacturers, shooting associations, and any one else who would enjoy hanging out with a bunch of gun nuts for a weekend in Reno!

If you are planning to attend, it is important to get your Rendezvous registration and room reservations in as early as possible so we can plan and adjust for the amount of folks attending. We need to have a fairly good idea how much space we'll need, how big of a dining room to reserve, and so forth.

Click here for info on room reservations

and

Click here for Rendezvous Registration

Keep checking back regularly, as new information on the Rendezvous will be posted here on a regular basis.

Writing Tips From Engineering Johnson

Here are some very good and excellent writing tips to help you all write better and clearer so understanding what it is that you wrote becomes easier for some of us who are not such gifted and talented writers of things like that for us to do......

Writing Tips:

1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.

4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

5. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat.)

6. Be more or less specific.

8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

10. No sentence fragments.

11. Don't use no double negatives.

12. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

The preceding tips was stolen in its complete entirety verbatum and exactly as written without any changes from Engineering Johnson

e-Postal Match "Fly Swatter II"

A portion of the actual target

The very first e-Postal match I put on was "Fly Swatter", and we had so much fun with it I decided to revisit it, but with some changes. Here's the new rules:

Target: Download it here:

Or go to http://www.targetz.com/fun01.htm It's target number 20015

This target will print out perfectly on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. You may need Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print the target. If you do, it's available for free here.

Distance: 25 feet or ten yards depending on what target stands are available at your range.

Handgun Type: Any handgun with a barrel not over 12" long.

Shooting Position: Standing, un-supported. One or both hands on the gun.

Sights: Any type of sight provided there is no magnification.

Caliber: Any caliber.

Procedure: You get twenty shots per target. If you don't like your score, throw the target away and shoot another one! We want to see what's the very best you can do. From my experience, after about three tries, you start getting worse!

Scoring: Hitting any part of the fly counts as a hit, and counts as one point. Hitting the same fly twice still only counts as one point. You can only count each fly once. A perfect score would be one shot per fly for twenty points. Ties will be posted as ties. Don't be discouraged if you don't shoot as well as you think you should do. The highest score in the first Flyswatter match was 9 flies! This is a lot tougher than it looks.

CLASSES:

CLASS ONE: Rim fire. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, any sight.

CLASS TWO: Center fire. Any centerfire (non-revolver) handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, any sight.

CLASS THREE: Revolver. Any revolver with no more than a 12" barrel, any sight.

CLASS FOUR: Air Pistol: Any air or spring powered pistol, any sight.

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

Different calibers in the same gun count as one gun. For example, .38SPL and .357MAG are considered as one, as would be .44SPL and .44MAG. Different guns of the same caliber and barrel length can be entered. A .22 conversion on a .45 frame counts as a second gun, so you can take off the conversion and shoot the .45 too.

Prizes: Nope! Just bragging rights.

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

1. Your score.

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

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

4. Class: Class One, Class Two, Class Three, or Class Four.

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

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

Please put "Fly Swatter II Entry" in the email title so it goes into the correct mailbox!

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

If you have a blog or a website, you can post the target pictures on your site, then email me the rest of the information (items 1 through 5 above) excluding the pictures.

Be sure to include the URL for your website pictures.

This works well, saves some email bandwidth, and helps to publicise the matches.

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

All entries must be received by Midnight on Monday, June 26th, and results will be posted within seven days, or less.

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

Bloggers: Your support in promoting this e-Postal match is greatly appreciated. If we don't get a decent turn-out in this match, this will be the last one. Thanks!

Have fun!!

Mad Gun Joins the Gun Blog World!

Last Fall LouG and I got the basics and template set up for his blog, but he was gone travelling around the country visiting assorted "inlaws and outlaws" for a few months. Now he's back in town, and has started posting to his new blog "Mad Gun".

He's got a post up on last week's Steel Challenge match, and one on Saturday's CWSA Pin Shoot. Lou is a great story teller, and I can hardly wait to see what he writes about next!

If you get a moment drop by and leave him a comment welcoming him to the Gun Blogger Community. He's a great addition!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous - Background Info

Being as I blog every day, and read other blogs daily, it's easy to lose perspective on the blog world. The reality is that most folks don't quite know what a blog actually is or what they do. When it comes to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, an understanding of blogging and the "Gun-Blogosphere" is essential to understand what the Rendezvous is all about. Here's a quick run-down and a few definitions to get everyone up to speed:

BLOG: The name is a shortened up word that originally was WEBLOG. A blog is an internet web page, and is viewed by using the same web browser, like Internet Explorer or Firefox, that you use to view any other web page. Where most web pages don't change too much on a day to day basis, blogs are often updated with new articles, called POSTS, on a daily basis.

Blogs usually have one or more themes, the topics that the blog author (BLOGGER) writes about on a regular basis. Blogs are also interactive. Blog posts usually have a COMMENTS section following each post. Blog viewers can contribute their thoughts and information on the subject of the post for other readers to see.

For example, a blogger could write a review of a particular product, and mention that the product had a problem and some function didn't work properly. A reader could respond that he also had one of the products, and found a simple solution to fix the problem.

Bloggers often use a "Pen Name" rather than using their real name, but not always.

A group of blogs with common or at least overlapping areas of interest is called a COMMUNITY. There are blog communities for cats, humor , politics, recipes and a lot more.

The Gun Blogger community is made up of well over one hundered different bloggers from across the United States, Canada, and around the world, all interested in, and blogging about shooting sports, guns, competitions, firearms safety and education, and laws and regulations concerning firearms ownership and use. Most of the gun Bloggers read each other's blogs on a regular basis, and often exchange information on topics of shared interest. Every so often gun bloggers in a local area will get together to head out to the shooting range, visit, and generally have a fun outing.

Most of the gun bloggers "know" each other through their blogs, and through email communications, but have never met in person. That's why the first annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous is going to be held in early October. It will be a chance to meet other bloggers, perhaps get out to a local range for a little shooting, and honor someone deserving of recognition, as our Guest of Honor.

The Rendezvous will not be attended just by gun bloggers. It will be open to anyone with an interest in shooting sports. Shooting organizations, gun manufacturers, accessory manufacturers, any one with an interest is welcome to attend.

If you are a manufacturer or a shooting sports related business, how should you think about the Rendezvous if you are thinking about participating, either as a donor sponsor, attendee, or both?

As an analogy, this of a large international media organization with tens of millions of readers every year, and over one hundred "Branch Offices", each with it's own publication. Imagine that each "Branch Office" has complete editorial control over it's particular publication. Now imagine that forty or fifty of those branch office editors will all be gathered at one place where you can meet them one on one, hang out, have dinner, talk guns, maybe go shooting, and in general get to know these editors on a first name basis. That's the opportunity that the Gun Blogger Rendezvous can provide to you and your business.

Not to mention, of course, that it'll be a lot of fun, and you can write it off!!

What a country......................