Home Security System

HOW TO INSTALL A HOME SECURITY SYSTEM IN THE SOUTH

1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots.

2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo magazine and your NRA magazines.

3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazine.

4. Leave a note on your door that reads:

Hey Bubba, Big Jim, Duke and Slim, I went for more ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell from all the blood.

Anyways, I locked all four of 'em in the house. Better wait outside.

--- Credit to LouG

CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot 07/29/06

It's been a busy two days, with a bowling pin match on Saturday, and a Steel Challenge match today. Next week it will be two matches again, a hanging plate match on Saturday, and another bowling pin match on Sunday.

KeeWee and I started out early on Saturday morning to head up to the CWSA range for the pin shoot. KeeWee planned on shooting the High Standard she's been shooting lately in the rimfire optical class, and I planned on shooting the Taurus model 66 revolver in the Revolver class, then shooting both my long barreled High Standard and the Smith & Wesson 422 in the Rimfire Optical class, and a High Standard ML-106 in the Iron Sight class. The Taurus Econo Race Gun project isn't quite ready for the Centerfire Optical class yet, but it's getting close.

A bunch of shooters had made the trek down from Custer to shoot today, so there was a good number of shooters in the Centerfire Optical class. Remember Gerald, the pin top wizard I've mentioned in the past? He now shoots centerfire optical too. In qualifying he set a new CWSA record, shooting five pins in 2.39 seconds! You had to see it in person to realize just how fast that is! WOW! With that sort of speed Gerald walked through the competition without a lot of trouble, and won the class.

Qualifying for the revolver class was something of a surprise, with me timing in only tenths of a second behind LouG. "Evil Al" was having some sort of problem (I didn't see what it was), and was not in his usual fastest time position. We only had five revolver shooters, so it was going to be a quick elimination. I shot against LouG in the first round, and narrowly made it to the second round, where young TonyC knocked me out of the running.

I didn't get a chance to follow the rest of the match-ups, as I had to get ready for the rimfire shooting, the overall winner was Al with TonyC second.

There were only two shooters signed up for the rimfire iron sight class, JimP and myself, so we just shot a few tables against each other for the fun of it.

Rimfire optical qualifying put me and my long barreled High Standard in the first round up against Kim from Custer who was shooting her Smith & Wesson model 41. I managed two fast tables, and moved into the next round with the High Standard. My other first round matchup was against Pete from Custer, the third fastest qualifier, also shooting a Smith & Wesson model 41.

I got him on one table, we tied on one table, but he got me on the other two, and my 422 was through for the day. That matched me up against Pete again in the next round, but this time I got to shoot the High Standard, and two tables later Pete was retired for the day.

JimP was also having a good day, having knocked Gerald out in the first round, then beat Rainy to advance. KeeWee had lost her first round matchup to LouG. Evil Al had been having ammo problems in qualifying, but he changed to different ammo, and that seemed to have solved the problem.

It was now down to the final four, Al, LouG, JimP, and myself. meeting LouG in the quarter finals, and ending Lou's day. Al turned Lou into a spectator, and I managed to retire Jim for the day. Now it was for all the marbles, Evil Al and I were the last two standing, so to speak.

"Shooters to the line."

"Load and make ready."

"Ready on the Left?"

"Ready on the right?"

"Standby!"

At the sound of the beep I raised the High Standard, put the red dot on the first pin top, and squeezed.

SILENCE!

The only sound was of Al shooting away and sending the pin tops flying!

I lowered the gun to see that I had forgotten to drop the slide! Quickly I released the slide and got off a couple of quick shots, sending a couple of pins from the table, but Al had already cleared his table as my second pin went down!

HOO BOY............

Against the fastest overall shooter in the club, I just gave him a one table head start! Talking about digging yourself a hole and jumping in headfirst!

As we walked to the second set of tables, I had time for a couple of deep breaths, then try to get re-focused on the next table. I thought to myself, "Don't give it away, make him earn it!"

The buzzer went off, and I shot the five pin tops off the table, only a few tenths of a second faster than Al. Not by much, but enough!

Now it was one table each. It's times like these that make the sport so much fun. Al was shooting his best, I was shooting my best, and it was all down to the final five pins. Talk about adrenalin!

The final and deciding table turned out to be a mirror of the second table, with my last pin hitting the ground only a fraction of a second before Al's touched the ground. I had pulled it out!

Al and I have had some classic battles at pin shoots, and this was one of the very best ever!

What a day!

Blog Alert - Goin' Shootin'

KeeWee and I are off to Central Whidbey Sportsman's for a pin shoot today, then back to CWSA tomorrow for a steel challenge match. Posting will be a little light!

The weather's looking good for today with a bit of fog, which will most likely burn off early in the day, so it should be a really nice day for a pin shoot.

We'll keep you all posted, but in the meantime, how about YOU break away for a little range time too?

You have my permission, if anyone asks.........

Carnival of Cordite

C A R N I V A L

O F

C O R D I T E

I S

U P

A Bad Day That Went Well.........

Sometimes things just go wrong. You can't expect everything to go right all the time, but you can always hope for the best case scenario rather than the worst when it happens.

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Juneau I made arrangements with Alaska Marine Lines to barge my Plymouth Mini-van down to Seattle. Juneau is completely surrounded by rugged mountains and there are no roads to or from Juneau, so everything either goes by air or by water, so driving it to Seattle wasn't a choice.

I bought the van several years ago when I was still running my fishing guide service in Juneau. It was in excellent condition, reliable, and saved me a bunch of money compared to renting a vehicle. Now that I've stopped guiding, it was time to bring it home.

I got a phone call a few days ago from AML that the rig had arrived in Seattle and was ready to pick up. Yesterday was KeeWee's day off, so we jumped in her car, caught the Washington State Ferry to the mainland, then drove to Seattle to pick it up and bring it home. AML was efficient and organized, and it only took a few minutes to complete the paperwork and get ready to go. Due to their rules, you can only ship a vehicle with a quarter tank of gas or less, so I had brought along a five gallons of gas, and I dumped that into the tank in preparation for the drive back to Whidbey.

Traffic through Seattle usually sucks, and KeeWee hates driving in traffic under any circumstances, but the drive to the ferry dock was uneventful, even if a bit stressful. We bought our tickets for the ferry back to ride back to Whidbey, then pulled into the holding area to wait for the boat. The boat arrived and unloaded, and they started loading the cars. When it was getting time for me to drive aboard, I turned the key to fire up the mini-van, and was greeted by total silence. NOTHING! I jumped out and went to the car behind me to tell him that I couldn't get started, and to pull out and around me. He rolled down his window and hollered at me that we were about to get onto the boat! (I wonder if his mother was a blonde?) I told him that I had a dead engine and I thought he might just like to know that, so he could pull around. "Uh.........oh.......". Sheeeshhhh! Mainlanders. It must be the flouride in their water, or something.

They loaded the boat, including KeeWee, and off it went without me. By luck, my friend Luke had been a few cars back of me in line, and he pulled out of line to miss the boat and give me a hand. Jumping it didn't make any difference, so we did a little trouble shooting, and narrowed it down to most likely a starter relay, the starter solenoid, or maybe the starter. Unfortunately the starter is buried way down behind the engine where you can't get to it to use a jumper cable directly to it to bypass everything else and get started.

We decided it made more sense to go rent a tow dolly and tow it the rest of the way home, then fix it where we've got a shop and tools. Luke headed off towards the U-Haul place to look for a dolly. Probably less than five minutes later he was back, and right behind him was a car hauler type tilt flatbed truck from Simmons towing from Whidbey Island! Luke saw him in line waiting to buy his ferry ticket and got him out of the line to come load up the mini-van. It only took a couple of minutes to load the van, then buy tickets for the ferry.

KeeWee was by now over on Whidbey, and she parked along the side of the road to see if we made it on the next boat. When she didn't see us on that boat, she headed home and fired up the computer, then went to the Mukilteo Ferry Cam and watched us load the van onto the truck, so she knew we'd be on the next boat. The ferries run every 30 minutes during the day, so it wasn't a long wait. I had a good time riding in the truck talking fishing and shooting with the driver, who I happened to know. 45 minutes later the van was parked next to my barn. WHEW!

Luke showed up shortly thereafter, and KeeWee, Luke and I all went over to a local cafe for a late lunch and to catch up on the latest news.

For all the various ways that this whole day could have gone wrong, it really went well, considering.......

UPDATE: I traced it down to the starter mounted solenoid not firing. Unfortunately, with the turbocharger and its plumbing on top of the starter, the engine block in front of the starter, the axle under the starter, and the cross member behind the starter, you can't get to it without pulling the starter, which is a pain. It turns out that at some time the solenoid had been replaced, and they had tightened two of the terminals only finger tight. It took 30 seconds to fix the problem, and half a day to get the starter in and out. Now it works fine. Glad that's done!

Redneck Weiner Roasting

For you redneck wannabees, just be sure you use the metal rake, not the plastic ones!

Hat tip to MaryS!

Missoula Pin Shoot Trip 2006 - Part 2

After a fun evening of music and a somewhat too warm night's sleep, the sun came up and it was time to get the old act together! After making sure everything was loaded up, Gary, Ty, Michael, KeeWee and I all headed to the East side of Missoula to the Deer Creek Range. We parked the RV in the shade, and helped out a bit in the final setup. KeeWee and I had a quick breakfast, and started to get the gun cases and range box out and ready to go.

As we were getting set up and ready, "Evil Al" and Rainy Lindell drove in, just returned from the World Handgun Championships in Montrose, Colorado. Just after they arrived, Al Slader, also from the CWSA club on Whidbey Island rode in on his Goldwing. How cool! We had five shooters from CWSA here for the pin shoot!

Gary called the shooter's meeting to order, so to speak, and went over the safety rules and basic rules and procedures for the match. That's Ty Marbut in the Blue shirt, with KeeWee to his right, then Rainy in pink, and Evil Al in the shadows at the right edge.

"Any safety rules violators will be hung from that tree over there....."


There was a special class for 9mm., nine pins as fast as you could shoot!



Justin Ritter (11?) shot in several classes, and missed out winning the .22 rifle class by only .17 of a second.


Mr. C. going after some pins with the 9mm. Taurus Econo Race gun. Note the water soaked wash cloth under my hat, trying to keep cool!


"Evil Al" Lindell in the double action revolver class.


Ron Hunter with the 12 Gauge pump, with Jason Ritter timing.


Jason timing and KeeWee shooting.

The weather just got hotter as the day wore on, but everyone drank lots of liquids and tried to keep in the shade as much as possible. There were six "iron men" who shot in all eleven events to compete for the overall match winner. In spite of having to run the match, Gary Marbut also managed to put on a masterful performance to take over all honors.

It was great to see the family involvement at the match. In a couple of cases there were three generations of the same family competing. Brothers, sons, Grampas, everyone having a great time.

The single action revolver class was won by Jason Ritter. I was shooting my Taurus Model 66, and although I was hitting the pins fast enough, my Plus P ammo wasn't hot enough to always take the pin off the table on the first shot, since the pins were set on the front of the table. The really successful shooters were shooting either .44 Magnums, .44 Special, or or 45ACP in their revolvers, and using BIG bullets. Even with having to reload a couple of times, I managed a fifth place, much to my surprise.

The double action revolver was won by Gary Marbut, with "Evil Al" who also had to reload twice, managed a very respectable 4th in class.

The .22 Pistol class was tightly contested, and Central Whidbey Sportsman's Association did themselves proud, taking 1st., 2nd., 4th., 5th., and 11th. Al Lindell was 2nd., Ty was 3rd., KeeWee shot some of the fastest times she's ever done for 4th., and Rainy Lindell was 5th. Al Slader came in at 11th. I had the fastest combined time for two tables of five pins per table at 5.54 seconds, which was also the fastest time of the match. My fastest individual run was 2.57 seconds, but Ty Marbut with a .22 rifle shot a 2.27 for overall fastest single run of the day.

The 9mm. 9 pin class was a lot of fun to shoot, but this was the first outing with the "not yet ready for prime time" Taurus 9mm. Econo Race Gun. I suspect that there's something a bit loose in the sight, as even from a rest it didn't always shoot where it was pointed. I wanted to try it anyway for some further evaluation as to what else needed to be done. Over all I'm pleased with how it's coming along, and especially with it's reliability and ability to chamber and shoot just about anything you throw at it. In the 9 by 9 class I ended up in the middle of the pack, with an 8th. place finish.

After the awards ceremony it was back on the road again. We drove straight from the range back through Idaho, and then into Washington, stopping at a rest area just West of Moses Lake for some sleep. The next morning we drove the remaining way home, covering the last leg in a bit over five hours.

It was a very long weekend, with lots of heat and road miles, but the Pin Shoot was great fun, and we plan on being there again next year.

Even so, it sure was great to be back home!

The Other Iraq

From The Other Iraq website:

---

Saddam Hussein's goal was to bury every living Kurd.

He failed.

Today, thanks to the assistance of the United States and her allies, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan are able to live in a free and democratic region with free markets and prospects for a bright and promising future.

We wanted to say THANK YOU to each and every one of you.

---

You might want to go have a look at the short video spots there. It might just remind you of what this is all about.......

Hat tip to "Mad Gun" LouG!

Missoula Pin Shoot Trip 2006 - Part 1

KeeWee and I had the RV all loaded and ready to go, so when she got home from work we could hit the road for Missoula. We caught the 6:30pm Washington State Ferry from Whidbey Island to the mainland, a 20 minute ride, and we were on the road.

A Washington State car and passenger ferry.

Just after we got off the ferry, traffic was stop and go for a few miles to get past a traffic accident. Normally that isn't worth mentioning, but this one was a little different. A local police car had rear-ended another car, going right under it, and the car's rear bumper was almost to the cop car's windshield. It would have been a good picture for a caption contest, but somehow I don't think the cops would have appreciated anyone stopping for pictures!

A quick stop for fuel to top up the tank, and it was time for some driving. I-405 through Bellevue, Washington can be a real nightmare if you try it a few hours earlier, but we timed it just right, and the traffic wasn't bad at all. Just past Bellevue we changed over to I-90, which goes straight to Missoula. Our route took us over Snoqualmie Pass, then through Moses lake. Just past Ritzville we stopped to re-fuel, then on the road again, passing through Spokane, then a short ways after, we entered Idaho. Roughly a half hour past midnight we pulled into a rest area near Coeur D'alene, Idaho, for a few hours sleep. Even in the relative cool of the night it was too warm and humid to sleep very well.

Roughly 520 miles, each way. (maps.yahoo.com)

We were up early with the birds, time for some coffee. There was a bright red trailer marked U.S. Marines 'Pappy' Boyington Detachment, Coeur D'Alene Idaho parked in the rest area, and they were giving out free coffee, with donations welcome. KeeWee and I both got some coffee and donated to their efforts. I had a good conversation with the two guys running the trailer, and we talked about Pappy and the Marines. It turns out that Pappy was born in Coeur D'Alene. I'll have a full post on the Coeur D'Alene Detachment in a few days.

After coffee and conversation, we were back on the road to Missoula. We made a quick food stop in Coeur D'Alene at a Denny's for a hearty breakfast, then back onto I-90 headed East.

Looking down Gary's driveway. You have to click it to get it larger to really apreciate it.

Perhaps three hours and a couple of mountain passes later, we rolled into Missoula. It was hot. REALLY hot. Hair dryer blowing in your face hot. I telephoned Gary Marbut, the President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, and got driving directions to his place. Gary's house sits up on top of a ridge just a short ways out of town. What a view he has from there. Gary, son Ty, and grandson Michael were all busy getting some re-loading finished up, ammo boxes filled, guns cased, and everything packed for tomorrow's shoot.

Even the entry gate to the range is impressive!

Later that afternoon we all drove out to the Deer Creek Range to get the setup done for the match. Seven pin tables and seven shooting stations had to be assembled and set up in position. All of the tables got new wooden tops. As we were loading and unloading the truck and packing stuff around, I was really starting to feel the heat. "Don't be a wuss, I thought" and kept on working. Then I noticed I wasn't the only one the heat was getting to! I was still hot, but I felt a little better about it, anyhow!

After setup was finished, we headed back through East Missoula towards Gary's place. The temperature was starting to drop a little, but not much.We passed a "Time and Temperature" sign as we went through East Missoula that said it was 106 degrees! no wonder I was so dang hot!

We stopped at a McKenzie River Pizza place in Missoula and had a wonderful dinner of cold drinks (in quantity) and pizza. I don't know how widely the McKenzie pizza restaurants are distributed, but if this one is typical, they have wonderful pizza, worth giving a try!

Mr. C., Gary, and Ty. A little rock, a little folk, a little pop, a lot of good times! Sounded pretty good to me!

Back up the ridge to Gary's place, for a few last minute preparations. It turns out that Gary, Ty, and Michael are all guitar players. The living room was filled with guitars and amplifiers. Very cool! Gary is a fine guitar player and singer, and Ty is a wonderful guitarist. I have been accused of impersonating a guitar player in the past, but that usually doesn't slow me down. We rocked our way into the night, and had a great time.

Since the next day was going to be a long one, we finally turned in to get some sleep before the big pinshoot tomorrow.

(end of part 1)

UPDATE: KeeWee at KeeWee's Corner has her post up on the Missoula Expedition too.

Carnival of Cordite #66

Welcome, all, to this week's Carnival of Cordite, Edition #66. Again this week there weren't a large number of submissions, but lots of good ones across a wide spectrum of topics. We'll hit the legal and political stuff right off the top, and save the guns and gun pr0n for last, kinda like dessert!!

We'll start out with a post by Trainer at Because I Say So who has a post on the "Smart" handguns under development, and a New Jersey Smart Gun Update. Here's an excerpt:

As police in Philadelphia struggle to stop a scourge of shootings, some New Jersey engineers say they are closing in on a "smart" solution: a gun that can be fired only by its owner.

The prototype, developed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, has pressure sensors embedded in the gun handle that recognize a person's unique grip.

So much for taking your friends out to the range and shooting each others guns. Sounds like a really dumb idea, but that's just my opinion.............

Speaking of state gun news, Say Uncle has a post on Gun Violence in New York, and gun confiscations in California. There's also a bunch of links to other firearms related posts around the internet, almost a mini-carnival in itself. Check it out!

Zendo Deb of TFS Magnum has a post shredding a Boston Globe article on women and shooting. The Globe article tries to discredit women shooters, the NRA, and is full of negative digs at shooting in general. Deb straightens them out!

On the international scene, James R. Rummel at Hell in a Handbasket, had a post up last week about firearms seen in French action films. A French reader saw his essay and was kind enough to share his knowledge by email. The first part discusses the guns used by French security forces. James says "The last part of the Email paints a grim picture of how gun control has pretty much disarmed the populace even though crime is out of control throughout most of Europe. Law abiding citizens are forced to arm themselves with plastic beanbag guns, giant double-barrelled plastic toys that resemble something you might buy your kid at the Disneyworld Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop." You might want to go read the whole post here.

How about some shooting match stuff? Here you go!

Jerry The Geek at Cogito Ergo Geek has been doing a great job of filming a lot of IPSC action, and has the videos available on either YOUTUBE, Jerry The Geek's Video Shooting Gallery, or both. All the links and info you need are all found in his post titled Get 'er Done (2) - videos redux

Speaking of matches, Marc, wheelgunner of some note and proprietor of The Ninth Stage, has the ePostal Pistol Match for July posted. If you like pepperoni pizza and handguns, this one's for you! Here's this month's ePostal pistol match target and rules.



Another interesting event is coming up this October in Reno, the Gun Blogger's Rendezvous. Fodder at Ride Fast and Shoot Straight saw this on his TV! Could it be real? Check the whole post here.

For more information on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, check out the Rendezvous website here.



DAMIPHINO has two good posts up at Mr. Completely. First, The Cowboy Fast Draw World Championships, and second, a post with several sequential pictures of Quick Cal, the overall world champion, and how he does his fast draw.

Want to see just how fast you are? You need a good shot timer. Check out the review of the Pocket Pro timer at Mr. Completely's place. (That's me!) If you are looking for a fast gun at a bottom end price, you can check out the Econo Race Gun progress report.

James R. Rummel at Hell in a Handbasket has a little handgun history for us with his post about the Tokarev pistol, a Soviet Magnum autoloading handgun which was first issued to Soviet troops in 1930. "What is remarkable about this gun is the .30 caliber cartridge, which was loaded to .357 Magnum power levels a good 5 years before Smith and Wesson first offered their first Magnum revolver."



For a firearm of a somewhat longer nature, check out Firehand's report on a Polish .22 caliber training rifle at Irons in the Fire.

Fug at Fugger Nutter has a great post up on when hobbies collide, in this case, guns and gardening.

Gullyborg at Resistance is futile sends along this bit of gun pr0n that sort of gives it a whole new meaning! Check this one out...... found over at Right wing News.

Gullyborg has been taking a little vacation from running the Carnival of Cordite, but now he's ready to get back to it, and will be hosting the next Carnival of Cordite over at Resistance is Futile. Be sure to get your submissions in as early as possible so he doesn't have to put it all together at the last minute.

As for KeeWee and I, we're leaving this afternoon to drive our land yacht (opulent, luxurious, bordering on ostentatious) to Missoula, Montana for the annual Montana Shooting Sports Association Celebrity Bowling Pin Shoot and fund raiser for Montana legistative activities.

Hope you all have a good weekend, and that it involves getting in a little range time too!

Tough Shot

MaryS sent me this picture, but she didn't have any further information about it. I don't know if this is a training exercise, or a real situation, but it's pretty impressive, regardless!!

Goin' To Missoula - Gonna Shoot Some Pins!

KeeWee and I are off to Missoula, Montana for the weekend, so blogging will be non-existent from Friday night until Monday night at the earliest.

Once a year the Montana Shooting Sports Association puts on a Bowling Pin shoot as a fund raiser for their legislative activities in support of hunting and shooting sports in Montana.

The shooting is done against the clock, rather than head-to-head, as pin shoots are often done. What makes this shoot so much fun is the variety of classes to enter. Rimfire pistol, rimfire rifle, semi-auto centerfire pistol, single-action revolver, double-action revolver, pump shotgun, semi-auto shotgun, hunting rifle, assault rifle, and full-auto. Yep, they even shoot machine guns at the pins! Kinda makes you want to move to Montana, doesn't it?

It's a long hot 12 hour drive from Whidbey Island, so we plan to try to get out of here either Friday evening after work, or very early Saturday morning. Evil Al and Rainey will be stopping by the shoot on their way back from the Montrose, Colorado World Handgunner Championships so if you're there you can get a chance to meet some of the folks I write about on a regular basis, along with KeeWee and I. There will be autographed pictures of Mr. Completely available too! (.....that's a joke, son!)

The range is called the Deer Creek Shooting Range, and it's in East Missoula. If you take the East Missoula exit from the freeway, then turn left and go under the freeway, that will take you to East Missoula. Go a short ways, then down a hill, then take a hard right onto Speedway. Go about a block ,then turn left onto Deer Creek Road. Go about a mile, under the freeway, then across the railroad tracks. Just past the tracks there is a large gate and sign for the range.

This is a fun and informal event to raise money for a good cause. The people are great, and the shooting is a blast, so even if you have to drive a ways to get there, you're bound to enjoy yourselves.

For me it's 12 hours on the road each way just to be there, but I wouldn't miss it for anything!

e-Postal Handgun Match for July

MMMMMM!! Pepperoni Pizza -- My Favorite, and it comes in three styles, Precision Pizza, Quick Pizza, and Blazing Pizza!

Head on over to The Ninth Stage, read the rules, download the target, and have at it! You've got until July 31st. to get your targets and scores in, so check it out!!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous on TV!

Fodder over at Ride Fast Shoot Straight has outdone himself this time. His "Church Sign" was a hoot, and I couldn't believe this one when I saw it. He's got another one here. Both Fodder and "The Commandress" will be at the Rendezvous, so I'm really looking forward to meeting them both.

Very Cool!

Rex Macbeth - July 14th, 2006 -- R.I.P.

A while back I did a post on Rex Macbeth and his business, Guns of the Pioneers in Mankato, Minnesota.

Norske Neil, proprietor of the Left Handed Poets Corner left me a comment today that Rex had passed away on July 14th.

Rex Macbeth -- July 14th., 2006

I never had the chance to meet Rex in person, but both meeting him, and visiting his business would surely have been quite a memorable occasion!

I have taken the liberty of reproducing the poem about Rex that was written by Neil and posted on his blog.

Rex Macbeth had a way with words,
Writing poetry with ease,
He wrote hundreds of poems for R & R Tire,
Radio ads in his own voice.

Rex Macbeth loved the Old West,
Outlaws like Frank and Jes-se,
His oratory of the James-Younger gang,
Brought it to life for me.

Rex loved the guns of yesteryear,
He knew them all by heart,
He bought and sold them every day,
Each had a story he would impart.

Rex had fun with cars and guns,
He loved his family too,
He will be missed by young and old,
Our Poet/Historian is now western lore.

May God bless his family as they mourn,
May He bless Rex’s memory,
Let’s not forget, life is very short,
Our time of grace, may soon flee.

Neil Lillo
July 14, 2006

Our condolences go out to Rex's family and friends, it sounds like he will surely be missed.....

KT Ordinance Update

The following post has been reproduced in its entirety, as it originally appeared on Says Uncle. I first met Rick Celata, owner of KT Ordinance, a year ago in Missoula at last year's annual bowling pin shoot. Rick is a master machinist, and he makes partially completed lowers for AR-15's. They are 80% finished, and the purchaser then does the final 20% of the work on the lower. According to the laws as I read them, this is completely legal. None the less, Rick and KT Otdinance got raided, basically shutting down his business, and wiping him out financially.

An effort is being made to raise some money to help Rick with both living and legal expenses.

Here's the story:

---

KT Ordnance Update Posted by SayUncle

Via Publicola, Claire Wolfe has an update and fundraising info:

WITH A LITTLE HELP from Andy Lochridge, Gary Marbut, JPFO, Debra Webmistress of the Dark, and the wonderful people of TCF, we’re going to help Rick Celata of KT Ordnance out of the dire straits Our Beloved Government put him into.

The first part of the fundraiser is a simple “pass the hat.” I didn’t realize it until a couple of days ago, but the BATFE and FBI essentially blew away ALL of Rick’s income. (Yeah, they can ruin a person and put a family with pre-school kids in peril without even charging anybody with a crime. That’s what they’ve tried to do with Rick.) Once he’s got enough to keep the phone connected and the lawyer from walking out on him, we’ll follow up with eBay auctions.

JPFO says:

You’ll recall our alert regarding the BATFE raid on KT Ordnance, manufacturer of 80% frames that — when fully finished by you — can be used to make AR-15 rifles. Owner Rick Celata, who had suspended sales after the raid, has informed us that his lawyer indicated he should return to production.

The info for contributing is here.

---

I've met Rick, and he's no terrorist or gang-banger building illegal weapons. It seems that he's read the law, and stuck to it, but got busted anyway.

That just isn't right.......

Time for a Laugh....

As a young minister, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a grave-side service for a homeless man, with no family or friends, who had died while traveling through the area. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there. As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost; and being a typical man I did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late.

I saw the crew, eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and stepped to the side of the open grave, where I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them long but this was the proper thing to do.

The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I poured out my heart and soul. As I preached, the workers began to say "Amen," "Praise the Lord," and "Glory." I preached and I preached, like I'd never preached before: from Genesis all the way to Revelations.

I closed the lengthy service with a prayer and walked to my car. I felt I had done my duty for the homeless man and that the crew would leave with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication in spite of my tardiness.

As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another, "I ain't never seen anything like this before.. and I've been putting in septic tanks for over twenty years."

Thanks to KenS for the joke!

There's Gonna Be A Party.........

GUN

BLOGGER

RENDEZVOUS

The pieces are all falling into place for the upcoming Gun Blogger Rendezvous nicely. We've got special room rates at the Circus Circus - Reno, and we now have a special half price rate for Thursday for those of you wanting to arrive a day early and have a little more time to spend in Reno. Hospitality rooms will be available both Friday and Saturday nights as a common meeting area for all of you. The big banquet will be Saturday night.

The agenda is deliberately very flexible with the exception of the Saturday dinner, so you will be able to see and do what ever most interests you. There's a ton of things to do when you are in Reno, so you'll have no shortage of activities while you're there.

The Rendezvous is October 6th. 7th., and 8th., so the hustle and bustle of Summer is over. This get-together can be the perfect break from the old routine before Fall and Winter get here.

One thing though. You DON'T have to be a blogger to attend. This Rendezvous is for gun bloggers, mil bloggers, blog readers, shooting sports enthusiasts, and anyone else who would like to take a break and spend some quality time with some other folks with the same interests. If you are reading this blog, you are more than welcome to come to Reno and join in the fun!

The Rendezvous has it's own website with all of the latest details, info, how to register, how to get the discount room rates, and a whole lot more.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Website

The most important thing for the success of the Rendezvous is YOU being there! The more the merrier, and bloggers can be notoriously merry, given the chance! You definitely won't want to miss this one!

If you are a blogger, please help get the word out. I can get the rest of the Rendezvous details taken care of, but for the publicity part, I need help from all of you, as I can't do that part without your help.

This is the first annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous and we want to get it off to a good start.

Thanks for the help, and I hope to see you there!

Carnival of Cordite #65

The latest Carnival of Cordite is now posted at Spank That Donkey. Go have a look!

Another Fun Day at the Range!

Today was even a nicer day to be at the range shooting than was yesterday, with no wind and warm sunshine. I got to the CWSA silhouette match a bit early so I could watch the rimfire rifle shooters go at it. That also gave me time for a relaxed cup of coffee, sitting in the sunshine, and taking life easy!

The CWSA rimfire silhouette matches use 8.5" by 11" paper targets each with 5 black outlines of pigs, chickens, rams, or boars, depending on the distance. You take 15 shots, 5 at each outline, from 10 yards. The next target is tacked up, and the target stand is moved out to 15 yards for another 15 shots. Then the third target is put up, an the target stand moves to 20 yards for 15 more shots. Finally, the last target is put up and the distance goes out to 25 yards for the last 15 shots.

Each hit on one of the "critters" counts as one point, so your score is the total number of hits out of the 60 shots fired. Since speed is not a factor, the single shot Thompson Contenders with a telescopic sight are the handgun of choice.

Since this is a club level match, most shooters were just shooting their favorite .22 pistol for the fun of it. There were only two Contenders with scopes today, and since I was shooting my High Standard bowling pin race gun with an unmagnified red dot sight, I figured I'd see if I could make the Contender shooters sweat a little, even if the results were pretty much a foregone conclusion.

After the closest target, I was only one point behind the leader, but as the targets moved farther out, my scores progressively dropped. To Dennis, however, with his Contender, the distance didn't seem to make much difference, and he pulled farther and farther away as more targets were shot.

When the final targets were shot and the scores added up, Dennis was in a league by himself, with a score of 45. I managed to hit 31, good enough for a distant second place! Far better than I expected. The rest of the scores were only a point or so apart on down the list, so a lot of decent shooting was going on today. Dennis, with his scoped Thompson Contender was on form today, and he probably would have won regardless of what he was shooting!

Even if you don't have a chance, it IS fun to try and sneak up on them once in a while!

e-Postal Match Links

To clean up some of the seldom used links on the right sidebar I've put all of the e-Postal rifle and pistol match links into one post, and then put just a link to that post on the sidebar, rather than all of the individual links. This is that post.....

e-Postal HANDGUN Matches

• e-Postal Match #8 - "Speed Kills!"
• e-Postal Match #7 - "KILLIARDS"
• e-Postal Match #6 - "VORTEX"
• e-Postal Match #5 - "Seein' Stars"
• e-Postal Match #5 UPDATE
• e-Postal Match #4 - "Seein' Spots"
• e-Postal Match #3 - "Jack-N-Jill"
• e-Postal Match #2 - "Snub-or-Not"
• e-Postal Match #2 - NEWS #1
• e-Postal Match #1 - "Fly Swatter"
• e-Postal Match #1 - NEWS #1
• e-Postal Match #1 - NEWS #2
• e-Postal Match #1 - Rules Updates

e-Postal RIFLE Matches

• e-Postal RIFLE Match #7 "Cricket"
• e-Postal RIFLE Match #6 "Head Shot"
• e-Postal RIFLE Match #5 "Tight Groups"
• e-Postal RIFLE Match #4 "Black Death"
• e-Postal RIFLE Match #3
• e-Postal RIFLE Match #2
• e-Postal RIFLE Match #1

Juneau Trip - Part II

Pictures just don't do justice to how rugged the terrain is around Juneau. In places it goes straight from the beach to 6,000 foot mountain tops without any foothills or flat land at all. The city of Juneau sits at the foot of the Gold Creek valley, where gold creek flows into the Gastineau channel. If you click on the pictures you get a larger view that shows the ruggedness a little better.


This picture of downtown Juneau was taken from Douglas Island, across the Gastineau channel from Juneau.


The Mendenhall glacier is fed from the Juneau ice fields, not visible in the picture. The Mendenhall glacier is receding, and only perhaps fifteen years ago it was clear out to the edge of the waterfall on the right. The Mendenhall has been receding steadily for the last three hundred years or so. Other Alaskan glaciers are steadily growing.

If I have the time I like to go visit Montana creek, which empties into the Mendenhall river. The water is clear as it's not fed directly by a glacier. It's a beautiful area, but just packed with bears.


The North Douglas boat launch on Douglas island, a short distance from where we were staying.


A few miles South East of Juneau is Sheep creek. When the tide goes out in Juneau, it really goes out. Where I'm standing would be under 16 or 17 feet of water at high tide.


Another one of my favorite spots in Juneau is Kowee creek, which is actually about 40 miles out of town at the end of the road. The whiteish green color of the creek (really a small river) is caused by the finely ground glacial flour in the water. With the right gear and at the right time of the year, this is an amazing place to fish for salmon.

Every year Juneau is visited by approximately 900,000 visitors, and they mostly see all the same sights on their visit. I've tried to pick out some pictures of some of my favorite spots that most visitors wouldn't have the chance to see.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Note: For a lot more picture of our trip, check out KeeWee's post here.

CWSA Hanging Plate Report 07/15/06

Today's weather was just perfect for a hanging plate match. Not too hot, blue sky, sunshine, just the kind of day you would want to spend at the range!

KeeWee and I showed up a little bit early in case a hand was needed, but everything was well under control. For what ever reason, the turnout was really small today, which was a shame with it being such a beautiful day!

Evil Al and Rainey are off to Montrose, Colorado for the STI/World Handgunner Championships. If you are at the Montrose shoot and you see a tall guy with a white ponytail shooting a revolver, go ask him if he's the famous "Evil Al" from Whidbey Island! It'll make his day! I don't know where JimP was, but I suspect he just slept in, as he's prone to do. Not having Jim at a shoot to pick on just isn't right! Phil and his dog Jake made up for it, however. (Jake's the good-looking one).

KeeWee and I were both a bit rusty, not having fired a shot in about three weeks, since we were up in Alaska fishing and goofing off. KeeWee is finally getting the new High Standard Sharpshooter figured out, and shot the best she's ever done with it at a plate shoot, ending up second in the optical sight class.

The highlight of the CWSA plate shoots isn't so much the shooting, although that's a part of it, but rather, it's the chance to sit around with a bunch of friends and talk over the topics of the day, the news, guns, bad jokes, and so forth, not to mention the good natured picking on each other that's become an integral part of our plate and pin shoots.

Some folks take club level competition way to seriously, and end up missing out on the fun. That's kinda sad....

After the plate shoot LouG asked me if I was going to shoot the Handgun Silhouette match tomorrow. Shooting a rimfire bowling pin race gun with a red dot sight against the trick Thompson Contenders with scopes is giving up a lot, but who cares!

"You bet, Lou, I'll be there!"

Weekend Joke of the Day!

An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it.

One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table three objects: a Bible, a silver dollar, and a bottle of whisky.

"I'll just hide behind the door," the old preacher said to himself, "and when he comes home from school this afternoon, I'll see which object he picks up. If it's the Bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be! If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a businessman, and that would be okay, too. But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good drunkard, and, Lord, what a shame that would be."

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's footsteps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room. He tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them.

Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink.

"Lord have mercy," the old man whispered, "he's gonna be a Congressman!"

Thanks to FUZE for the story.....

On The Road Again.....

Up with the birds this morning, getting ready to head out to the CWSA Hanging Plate shoot in Coupeville. I haven't fired a shot since before KeeWee and I left for Alaska, so I expect to be a bit rusty!

After the plate shoot we'll walk over to the pin range and get in a little "Tune-up" for next weekend's Montana Shooting Sports Assn. Annual Celebrity Pin Shoot in Missoula. If all goes well I may be able to try out the Taurus Econo Race Gun Project gun in it's first competition. I guess I better figure out how to shoot it first, though.....

Have a good weekend, get out to the range, and have fun!

More later.........

Juneau Trip Pictures - Part I

I have finally got my eyeballs more or less re-focused after a long day and not enough sleep, so here's the first batch of pictures from Expedition Juneau '06.

We started out journey in this Cessna Turbo Caravan belonging to Kenmore Air. It carries 9 passengers in amazing comfort, considering the overall size of the airplane. It cruises at 190 kts, which isn't too shabby either. When I win the lottery I might just buy one of these for the fun of it!

This is looking East across Useless Bay on Whidbey Island. In the distance is Cascade Moutain range. If you look really close you can see my place. It's the one just in front of the red barn.


Our path took us right down Seattle's shore line at 24oo feet. It was a little hazy, but still quite a view. You can see Seattle's trademark Space Needle, and upper right you can see the stadiums where the Seahawks and Mariners play. In the distance you can see Lake Washington. In the upper right hand corner, partially obscured by clouds, you can see Mount Rainier. Yes, it IS that big! You can click all of the pictures for a larger view.


'Coming over the fence' into Boeing Field. To the left, behind the pilot's sun visor, is a fully restored Boeing B-17 taking off. Dang visor!


A short shuttle van ride took us from Boeing Field to SeaTac Internatioal where we boarded a Boeing 737-400 for Juneau. It wasn't too cloudy, and the scenery was like this all the way to Jueau.

Once we got close to Juneau we decended below the tops of the mountains on either side of Gastineau channel between Douglas Island and the mainland. That's not an illusion, you really DO fly that close to the mountains.

As we taxied towards the terminal the Mendenhall glacier is visible behind the airport and a bit up the valley. Not a lot of flat land hereabouts!

Part II will be posted in a day or so.......

KeeWee's Juneau Pictures

We finally got back in the front door at roughly 2 am. this morning. It turned out that the short 20 minute shuttle flight back to Whidbey Island was cancelled due to fog, so we got a two hour ride in a passenger van instead. Groan.......

KeeWee has been busy getting some of the pictures posted on the Juneau trip, and has now got part #1 up here. She's got some great pictures! You should go have a look and follow her upcoming series, particularly if you've never been to S.E. Alaska.

While you are there, drop down one post and wish her a Happy Blogiversary, as KeeWee's Corner is now one year old.

I've got a bunch of stuff to post on the trip too ,but for today I'm just flat too tired to post much. A good night's sleep should get me back up to speed though, so lots more to be posted in the next few days.

Gotta get rested up for the CWSA hanging plate match this weekend.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

....snork.....

The Meaning of Life.........

A lot of us will or have prayed and asked for some meaning, some direction in life. Now, after many prayers we have an explanation for life.

On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten"?

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did"?

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty"?

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."

But man said, "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back. That makes eighty, okay"?

"Okay," said God, "You asked for it."

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you. Now go forth.

WOOF!

Hat tip to Griff!!

Quick Cal and The Cowboy Fast Draw

We did a previous post on the Cowboy Fast Draw World Championships in Deadwood. We showed pictures from the competition, and some of the individual matches. Quick Cal, the over-all world champion, (by .002 seconds) , was kind enough to show us the steps involved in his quick draw.


This picture shows "Quick Cal's" engraved gun in his fast draw holster. Note the deflector plate at the bottom of the holster. His is an add on but a lot of them are now built into the holster and/or covered with leather. One lady shot in the holster (boot) on a draw and did some damage to the side of her leg. She now has a deflector! Even though they are wax bullets, at 800 fps they can really hurt even with heavy pants on.


Here's the grip at the start of the draw. The hand can be touching the gun with the thumb on the hammer but the trigger finger must be straight and outside the holster and trigger guard.


The gun not quite out of the holster but note that the hammer is fully cocked and the thumb is slipping off the rear of the hammer while the trigger finger is starting into the guard. You can see how if the timing isn't right the gun can go off at the wrong time. A shot in the boot is automatic loss of round.

The grip established with the gun coming up and the finger is on the trigger.


This is the money shot, so to speak. The gun is level on target with the trigger being pulled and the hammer starting down.

---

Many thanks to Cal (Quick Cal) Eilrich for his help in getting the draw pictures. Cal is one of the true champions in both fast draw and SASS shooting.

It is impressive to know that Cal does that whole sequence and hits the target in under 4/10 of a second. WOW!

Photos an story credits to DAMIPHINO!

Juneau Report III

KeeWee and I had a bunch of errands to run yesterday, but we still managed to get in some fishing too. Started out down at the Alaska Marine Lines Barge freight terminal to make arrangements to barge my van back to Seattle. In reading the fine print on the paperwork, it says that if you deliver a vehicle to them to be shipped and it has more than 1/4 tank of gas, they will drain it down to 1/4 tank, keep the gas, and charge you for doing it! Talk about a license to steal!

From the barge terminal we drove down the road past the cruise ships towards Thane to take a picture of a cruise ship going up the Gastineau channel towards Juneau. Man, those are big!

From there we went back past the cruise ship docks and by now the cruise ships had started pouring tourists into the tourist end of Juneau. The sidewalks were almost shoulder-to-shoulder with people.

A couple of miles past the docks is the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. The chum salmon run was now starting to show up along the beach in numbers, so we stopped and fished for a few hours. I wanted to pick up a couple of good sized chums for filleting and smoking when I get back home. I caught four, and had a couple of others on for a while. I kept one nice one about 16 pounds. I filleted it on the beach, and figured I'd skin it and de-bone it when I got back to the house.

After fishing we met up with Charlotte at the electric company office and walked out behind the power company equipment yard to see the eagles that hang around there. Sometimes there will be 40 or 50 of them there, but this time there was only one big one sitting in a tree watching us. Perhaps they too were gone fishing!

I left KeeWee with Charlotte so the two of them could go ride up the Mt. Roberts tram to see the view of the Juneau area from above. I headed back to the house to get the salmon fillets vacuum packed and frozen.

Today's project is to head out the road about 40 miles to Kowee creek to see if the pink salmon run there has increased, since a little rain will bring the fish into the river.

Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun Report

You've probably been wondering about the 9mm. Taurus PT92 "Econo Race Gun" project I had posted about a while back. Well, between working, fishing, and setting up KeeWee's High Standard rimfire race gun, I haven't had time to do much with it.

Taurus PT92 9mm. Econo Race Gun Project

The Simmons sight shown in the picture has gone to another gun, and I have temporarily replaced it with a 25mm. Tasco red dot sight. Although the Tasco seems to work well, it's just too small for fast handgun target acquisition, at least for me. I suspect another Simmons will be going back on to the PT92.

The last time I had the PT92 out to the range, I could see that the front end of the sight mount needed to drop just a little bit to get the sight to zero and still be in the middle of its adjustment range. I shimmed it down about .015, and that seems to be just about right.

The single action only conversion seems to be working well. The trigger return spring can be much lighter with single action only, and it's just about perfect. I think I may make up some sort of a trigger shoe to effectively move the trigger a little farther forward, as it feels like it's too far back. I haven't figured out how to make the magazine release easier to use yet, but that's also on the list of things remaining to be done.

I've made some small changes to tighten up a few things and improve the accuracy, and they seem to have helped.

15 rounds rapid fire at 25 feet.

Here's the target that was my first attempt at rapid fire with the Taurus. This was 15 rounds at right around 2 rounds per second. The distance was 25 feet. Not good enough to win any see-gars, but encouraging enough to make me think I'm on the right track.

So far it's been a fun project, and it's rewarding to see it coming along as it is!

Carnival of Cordite #64 is up!

It's up, and here's the link:

Carnival of Cordite #64

Juneau Update II

Yesterday was a day of varied delights. I started out the morning tying a few flies to replace the ones lost on the last fishing outing.

Here in Juneau I use a fly that I came up with ten or twelve years ago. For me, the main requirement for a salmon fly was that first, it really catches fish, and second, it's really simple and easy to tie. This fly has only four parts, the hook, green tinsel, white calf tail, and thread. OK, five, if you count the cement I put on the thread so it won't come unraveled. (For those of you that tie flies, that's a Mustad #8 9672 hook.)

Most salmon fishermen when fishing for pink salmon or chum salmon use red, orange, or hot pink colored flies. When they see I'm using a green fly, and catching more fish than they are, it's not very long before they are digging through their fly box looking for something green! This particular fly sort of named itself. Other fishermen would ask me what I was using, and I would reply "That little green thing". That got shortened up to L.G.T. The L.G.T. has now been featured in a book about Alaska fishing guides favorite flies, and several world records for salmon have been set using the L.G.T.

After tying some flies, we headed out to my local credit union for lunch as it was "Member Appreciation" day, complete with BBQ pork sandwiches, hot dogs, cake, and soft drinks. YUM!

From there I stopped by the local sporting goods place to pick up some more hooks and calf tail. Then we headed out to do a little sight-seeing up along Montana creek, a tributary of the Mendenhall river. After walking the creek for a while and taking some pictures, we decided to head over to the visitor's center at the Mendenhall glacier for a little more sight-seeing and picture taking.

On the way back from the Mendenhall we stopped by the DIPAC salmon hatchery to see if any more of the chum salmon run had arrived. It looked like there were now enough fish in the area to make it worth doing a bit of fishing.


This is a picture taken a few years ago of a chum salmon caught by Tony, one of my clients from when I used to guide here in Jueau. This fish was probably around 16 pounds. Great fun on a fly rod!

I'm going to go get some breakfast, tie a few more flies, then go see If I can tie into some of those big chums.....

Pocket Pro Shot Timer

A lot of sport shooting matches today involve the use of a shot timer, from Cowboy Action shooting to steel matches and bowling pin competition. The timer I seem to see the most often at shoots is the Pocket Pro shot timer from Competition Electronics. It has enough bells and whistles on it that I haven't even started to figure them all out, but it remains nice and simple to operate.

The basic operation is you press the button, and after a short interval it beeps. You can pre-set it to beep immediately, or to randomly wait a few seconds. Once it beeps, it "listens" for shots fired and each time it hears a shot it displays the elapsed time up to that shot. If five shots are fired, it will show the total time from beep to the last shot. Pressing the button again clears the screen and starts you with a beep for the next round. This is the basic operation, and it will do a lot more than just this.

The Pocket Pro is powered by a 9 volt transistor radio type battery, and when they suggest using a good quality alkaline battery, they mean it. I substituted a regular 9 volt battery that wasn't alkaline once when I didn't have an alkaline battery at hand, and it went dead in hardly any time at all.

If you use the Pocket Pro outdoors on a hot day, don't leave it in the sunshine. I saw one stop working completely when it got too hot from sunshine, and putting it in the shade to cool off brought it back to function in about 45 minutes.

I made a small modification to my Pocket Pro, and if anyone at the factory is listening, they might want to consider adding this to the timer. I took the headphone jack out of a dead transistor radio and mounted it in a small hole drilled in the side of the timer case. I then wired it in parallel with the start button. I took an old computer mouse apart and rewired one of the mouse's micro-switches to two of the wires in the cord. On the other end of cord I soldered on a phone plug that matched the jack in the timer's case. Now I could start the timer by clicking the mouse or by pushing the button. Putting the mouse on the floor I could step on it to start the timer. Works great!

I understand that they now have a Pocket Pro II model out, and although I have seen one, I haven't had a chance to try it out. I hear it has a louder beep, and has some sort of menu driven setup procedure. If it's anything like the original, it's probably an excellent timer too!

The Mr. Completely Labs rates the Pocket Pro timer as solidly in the ten ring!

Juneau Report

Yesterday KeeWee and I finally managed to get out and do a little fishing. The 7 day non-resident fishing licenses are now up to $55, from $30 last year, and if you want to want to catch a King salmon, there's another stamp you have to buy which was $50 last year,probably a lot more this year, and even then non-residents only get to catch four Kings a year. What a deal!

Let's see, tourism is one of S.E. Alaska's largest industries, and fishing is one of the main attractions for the tourists, and every tourist brings hundreds if not thousands of dollars into the area, so let's raise the cost of a fishing license so high that they all get ticked off and take their vacations somewhere else. Yeah, That's a GOOD idea! (morons.....)

Anyhow, we drove about 40 miles out of town to Cowee creek, a small river at the end of the road. There are no roads out of Juneau that connect with anywhere else in Alaska, they all dead end, and this is as far out of town as you can go, unless flying, boating, or walking.

It's not unusual to have the whole area to ourselves, but yesterday there were a couple of fishermen a bit down stream from us. A big bald eagle was sitting in a tree above us, watching us fish. It's still a week or so early for the main salmon run to show up, but a few fish were in the area.

What is it with some fishermen? A while after we arrived and started fishing, three more showed up to fish. Cowee creek is perhaps 80 or 90 feet across, and I was fishing right along the shore line, no more that 15 or 20 feet out at the farthest. Fish-Bozo shows up and sets himself up right across the river from me and starts casting clear across the river, across my line, and within a few feet of the bank on my side of the river. I pull my line in to avoid getting tangled, and continued fishing. Again he casts across my line, and again I have to pull my gear in. It's not like my side of the river was the only place where there are fish, as I've caught hundreds of salmon right where he was standing. I gave up and went to a different place to fish. SHEEESHHH!

Later,when we were walking back to the car KeeWee saw her first black bear. It was several hundred yards away, but as far as I'm concerned, that's plenty close enough, thank you....

Jennings Parts - Help!

I got the following comment on an older post regarding the Jennings J-22 .22 caliber pistol. The Jennings seems to have a bad habit of coming apart when fired every so often, and the slide spring and the take-down latch are sent flying, and that sounds like what has happened to John, by his comments.

Do any of you know for sure of a good source for Jennings parts? If so, please post a comment for John with the info. I'll send him an email telling him to watch for the comments.

Also, if anyone has found out how to prevent this problem, (besides not firing it) that would be helpful too. Thanks, I know you all can come up with some answers for John!

Hey dude i bought this 22 cal about a year ago and i loved the way it shoots! but now i cant shoot it anymore cause i cant seem to find some parts for it, i need the button part that came out when i shot some cheap 22lrs thru itand it came apart. can you tell me where a man could find some parts for this gun? i have a few other guns but this gun is the best one if i get it fixed. you can send me back some email at (xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx) thanks hope you can help me out, ive tried everywhere to get these parts. the little red button that goes in the back of the gun that shows it is loaded, take down pin i think, it isnt there anymore. thanks for your time. i,ll wait for your reply if you do. good bye, john.

Although there's no denying that the Jennings is not the highest quality firearm ever made, for some reason it's kinda fun to shoot!