Government True-isms:

Government True-isms:

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress....
But then I repeat myself. - Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. - George Bernard Shaw

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man ....which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. - G Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. - James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. - Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. - P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. - Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. - Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. - Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! - P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. - Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! - Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. - Mark Twain (1866)

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. - Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. - Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. - Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. - Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. - Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

There is no distinctly native American criminal class...save Congress. - Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. - Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. - Thomas Jefferson

I guess we should just be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for..........

Hat tip to Fuze!

e-Postal match "Speed Kills" Results

The results are all in, the points all figured out, and it looks like JimmyB has returned to form. Not too many entries this time, and no revolvers entered at all.

Here's the scores:

Class 1 - Rimfire

Name Score Time Bonus Total Caliber Gun Class

1. JimmyB 124 15 25 149 .22 Ruger MK. II Rimfire
2. Mr. Completely 114 14.49 26 140 .22 High Standard 106 Rimfire
3. KeeWee 101 20.28 20 121 .22 High Standard Sport King Rimfire

Class 2 - Centerfire

Name Score Time Bonus Total Caliber Gun Class

1. Elof 71 21 19 90 9mm. Beretta Cougar Centerfire
2. Ben 66 18 22 88 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire
3. Amir 80 43 0 80 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire
4. Ben 55 20 20 75 9mm. Beretta Cougar Centerfire
5. Tony 56 32 8 64 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire
6. Tony 36 24 16 52 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire

Class 3 - Revolver (No Entries)

Class 4 - Time Only

Name Time Caliber Gun Class

1. (tie) Mr. Completely 14.49 .22 High Standard ML-106 Rimfire
1. (tie) JimmyB 15 .22 Ruger MK. II Rimfire
3. Ben 18 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire
4. Ben 20 9mm. Beretta Cougar Centerfire
5. KeeWee 20.28 .22 High Standard Sport King Rimfire
6. Elof 21 9mm. Beretta Cougar Centerfire
7. Tony 24 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire
8. Tony 32 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire
9. Amir 43 .45 Springfield TRP Centerfire

Realistically speaking, since JimmyB was using a kitchen timer set to 5 seconds on each shot string, it is very likely that he actually had the fastest time too, but there is no way to know for sure. In all fairness, I'd call it a tie.

Thanks to all who entered. The next e-Postal handgun match will be up in a few days!

A New Club Record?

John, Mario, and "Evil Al", with Larry Shooting.

Mario scoring, Al timing, and John in the box.

The third stage, with Roy shooting and Al timing.

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The rain went away overnight, and we had a nice day for shooting, with partly sunny skies and mild temperatures. This match was comprised of three different setups, or "stages", each with five steel plate targets of different sizes, and arranged at different distances. One of the five plates was painted yellow, and you had to shoot it only after shooting each of the other four plates once. You could shoot the white plates in any order, but the stop plate had to be shot last. Each shooter shot each stage five times, and the slowest time of the five was thrown out. The remaining four scores were added up along with the other stage times to determine the winner. If you miss a plate and then shoot the stop plate there is a penalty. If you shoot from the wrong position there is a penalty. All penalties are additional seconds added to your time.

All went along smoothly, with "Evil Al" running off and hiding in terms of times through the first two stages. I decided to only shoot the rimfire optical sight (Rimfire Open) today, and skip the iron sight class. The long barrel on my High Standard pistol is most suited for targets that are fairly close together, and the farther apart they are, the slower it becomes, and these were quite far apart. Even so, after the first two stages I was in second place. Al was so far ahead that he could just about stop for coffee in the middle of the third stage and still win all the marbles.

Ah yes, the third stage! Nightmares are made of things like this! The third stage, as shown in the lowest picture above, required that you shoot the to large rectangular plates from the rear box, then move forward to the closer box and shoot the two round plates, then finish by shooting the stop plate.

Did I mention that words and phrases like "graceful" "agile", and "fleet of foot" have, to my knowledge, never been used in any description of me. That's why I like matches where I can just stand in one place and shoot at stuff!

It appears that I may have established a new club record for the number of penalty points assessed in a single stage of a steel match. In fact, the scorer and referee weren't quite sure exactly how many penalty seconds I actually collected in the one run.

Here's what happened, as best as I can remember, as it was something of a blurry nightmare. I got ready to shoot in the rear box, pistol in one hand pointed at the ground in front of me, my other hand above my shoulder in a "half surrender" position. The buzzer goes off, and I shoot the first big plate, then miss the second one. By then I was already moving to the forward box and couldn't get stopped, so I shot one of the smaller plates from the front box, then remembering that I hadn't shot the second large plate, I shot it. Oops! Gotta shoot THAT one from the rear box, so I attempted to run backwards (!) to the back box, which I managed to do without falling down, and then shot the second big plate. Then I shot the other small plate and the stop plate, but then I remembered that the second small plate and the stop plate had to be shot from the front box, and I was now back in the rear box again, and by then I was laughing so hard I could hardly shoot, so I gave up and emptied the magazine into the stop plate! Fortunately I got to throw that one score out, or the timer and referee would still be adding up penalties! Everyone agreed, it was by far the most entertaining run of the day!

I guess I'm lucky I don't have to make a living at this, I would have starved to death a long time ago!

Blade Chevy Comes Through for Dan

True to their promise, Blade Chevrolet of Mt. Vernon, Washington delivered the 1996 Buick to Dan McKown on Friday.I just got off the phone a few minutes ago after phoning them up and thanking them for doing such a nice thing to help out a great guy like Dan.

As you have probably noticed, some blogs have advertising, and some do not. I do not have any advertising, nor is advertising space or product endorsements available. If I like a product or business, I will say so, but I have no qualms about pointing out problems with products either.

Blade Chevrolet could not have purchased the space above to run their logo. It is there because I believe they deserve recognition for their actions. I called them to say "Thank You" for their generosity. If you feel like it, you can thank them too. The phone number is 1-800-726-6949

Engineering Johnson Blog

The first thing I thought about was Joe Huffman and Boomershoot. How about you?

As I was looking through Technorati seeing who might have a link up to the blog, I came across a really good blog called Engineering Johnson. You should go back through his archives, as the posts he has up right now are travel posts with pictures of his recent travels around the world. Good reading and viewing for sure, but it's easy to think that's all that he blogs about, which is definitely not the case. I came across the above 'Windows Wallpaper' along with a few others in the archive.

Here's something else I found there:

a = b
a^2 = ab
a^2-b^2 = ab-b^2
(a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b)
a+b = b
2b = b
2 = 1

How long did it take you to figure it out? He's got a few more of these in last month's archive.

If you have a few minutes, go have a look at his blog.

I'm adding him to the blogroll for sure, as I know I'll be back!

Memorial Day

Brigit Smith touches her husband's new marker at Arlington
Cemetery. (U.S. Army Photo)

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Memorial Day; It's not about car races, BBQ's, or pistol matches. It's about remembering the people who, by giving their lives, allowed us to have the freedom and liberty we now enjoy.

People like Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith, an engineer Soldier who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Iraq. It is the first Medal of Honor given since Somalia in 1993 , and only the third awarded since the Vietnam War.

Here's his story. You should go read it, and be thankful that people like these still exist.......

Steel Match Rained Out

The CWSA Steel Challenge match was rained out today, and for good reason. It's re-scheduled for tomorrow, and the forecast is for much better weather, maybe even a little sunshine. Fortunately it's only a 20 mile drive, so when I got there and found out it was rescheduled, it's no big deal.

I did get a chance to stand around with Al, Lou, John, and some of the other usual suspects, though, and get in some gun BS'ing, which made the trip worthwhile.

I'll be there tomorrow, and hopefully I'll remember the camera AND the coffee, along with the guns and range box.

A full report will follow.......

e-Postal Match "Walk the Line"

I mentioned a few days ago that the latest e-Postal match called "Walk the Line" is now posted at Carnaby Fudge for your shooting pleasure. This match is a test of how accurately you can shoot along a horizontal and vertical line. Variations to either side of the line are bad, and the closer you can come to forming a perfectly straight line the better.

The target for "Walk the Line"

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There is a second part, for bonus points called "Cold Fire" and it brings up an interesting concept. When you are sighting in your rifle, you shoot and adjust until it's shooting where you want. It's also warming up as you are shooting it. When you take your rifle out hunting, it's stone cold when you take that shot at the deer, or whatever you're after.

How many of you go back to the range a few days after sighting it in and re-test it cold, right out of the case? Not everyone, I'll bet!

In the bonus round of this match you must shoot your rifle in a completely cold condition. No warm-ups, nothing!

The "Cold Fire" Target

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Here's the classes, something for everybody!

Class 1: Rifles with unmagnified sights and optics.

Class 2: Rifles with magnified optics.

Class 3: Handgun with unmagnified sights and optics.

Class 4: Air Rifle, any optics

Class 5: Joke class. Spitwads, potato canon, paintball, airsoft, sling shot, lawn darts, archery, but no flaming tennis balls (against federal regulations, I kid you not).

For the full set of rules and to download the targets, here's the link.

Participation has been light in the e-Postal matches, particularly the rifle matches. If you all aren't interested in entering these matches, then they will be discontinued. No point putting them on if nobody shoots them.

If you haven't shot one of these so far, maybe it's time to give it a try!

Dan McKown gets a car!

I sure do like writing posts that are good news, rather than bad, and today I've got some good news for you. Dan McKown, who most of you by now know is the fellow who took it upon himself to intervene when a nut case started shooting people in a Tacoma Washington mall last Fall. Although Dan ended up getting shot five times in the process, his intervention probably saved some lives, as no one else was injured. Unfortunately one of the shooter's bullets hit Dan in the spine, and Dan is now confined to a wheelchair.

Because of his injuries, he can no longer drive his car, and must get a different one that can be set up with hand controls. Dan had to give up his regular job due to his injuries, and has a goodly pile of medical bills to boot. Obviously buying a new car was out of the question, or even a good used one.

Here's the good news part: Blade Chevrolet in Mt. Vernon, Washington has donated a 1996 Buick to Dan, free and clear! They even put a good set of tires on it, and filled the tank to the top to get him underway! It that cool or what!!

If I was looking for a new or used Chevy, I guarantee you they'd be the first place I'd call. Definitely a class act, in my opinion!

Speaking of telephoning, the telephone number of Blade Chevrolet is

1-800-726-6949

If you happen to live in Washington, or Oregon, or Ohio, or Texas, or Virginia, or Massachusetts, or Vermont, or wherever, why not just give them a call and thank them for donating the car to Dan McKown. It's even toll free, so why not! I'm sure they are not expecting this, and this will probably make their day!

If you are a blogger, you might just put up a little post and encourage a few more folks to telephone? (hint- hint!)

If you do give them a call, come on back and leave a comment.

THANKS!

Oak Harbor Falling Plates Match

Well, I did it again, ran off to a match and forgot to take the camera. Unfortunately KeeWee had to work today and tomorrow, so my backup camera/photographer wasn't there either. At least I remembered to take the gun case and range box so I had the stuff so I could compete, and I DID remember the thermos of coffee. The weather looked a bit threatening, and the coffee was definitely a good thing to have!

When the weather looks like it might rain the "fair weather" shooters stay home, but the really good shooters will always be there, rain or shine, and such was the case today at Oak Harbor. The best shooters from three different clubs converged on the Oak Harbor Sportsman's Association range for a Falling Plate match.

The rules are just about the same as the hanging plate matches, with 4 different distances; 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards, shooting at 7" diameter steel plates. There are 6 plates, and you have between 6 and9 seconds to take 6 shots. The farther the distance, the longer the allowed time. You shoot 3 groups, or "shot strings" of 6 shots at each distance, for a total possible score at each distance of 18 hits, times 4 distances, for a total possible score of 72 points. There were four different classes; Iron Sight Rimfire, Optical Sight Rimfire, Iron Sight Centerfire, and Optical Sight Centerfire. I skipped Iron Sight Rimfire for a change, and only entered Optical Sight Rimfire with My High Standard ML-106 and entered Optical Sight Centerfire with my Taurus model 66 revolver.

The best price I could find on cheap ammo for the Taurus turned out to be Remington hollow point .38 Plus P's, way more power than needed, but the price was right, so what the heck!

My double action revolver shooting, when trying to shoot quickly, could politely be described as "Needs Improvement". Since I was shooting for the fun of it anyway, I decided to shoot it single-action, and although I may run out of time, at least I would hit some of the plates, at least once in a while! That's about how it turned out. Against good shooters shooting double-action, and against good shooters shooting semi-autos, I managed to hit 52 of the 72 plates, good enough for, well, ....... dead last. Even so, I had a ball shooting it, and I made some of the loudest noises of all the shooters with those Plus-P's. I figure I was also the top scoring left handed shooter shooting a Brazilian revolver! Hey, you take what you can get, right?

As I said, the weather kept the fair weather shooters away, and the field was loaded with good shooters. To put my score of 52 in perspective, the Oak Harbor club classifies shooters into either A, B, C, or D class, depending on their scores in previous matches. My score of 52 puts me into the A class for future center fire matches!

Terrible Tom (you remember him!) was clearly the guy to beat in just about every class. Tom makes it look really easy. He not only won the center fire Iron sight class, but he was second in center fire Optical Sight class, shooting his iron sight gun! Tom was either first or second in every class, if I remember correctly.

The RimFire Optical Sight Class was my best hope, but there wasn't a bad shooter in the bunch. At 10 yards there wasn't a single miss between the top four or five shooters. At 15 yards I think it was still a 4 or 5 way tie! At 20 yards, there were a few misses, but many. No one missed more than 2 out of their 18 at that distance. At the end of the 25 yard distance, a few more misses, but not many. A perfect score was 72. Final scoring was 72, 71, 70, 70, 68 for the top 5 shooters.

I knew I had shot fairly well, and didn't think I had missed any, but I hadn't been following the scores on the scorer's clipboard. When I walked over and took a look, I read down to my name and read across the page. It was a solid row of 6's across the page! A perfect score! WOOO HOOOO!

Right behind me was Terrible Tom with 71, then I think it was Evil Al and a fellow from the Marysville club. With the adrenaline, the competition, the waiting between rounds, it's so easy rush a shot and miss a plate or five!

What a fun day! However, tomorrow is a Steel Challenge match at the CWSA range, and most of those same shooters are going to be there. I'm not much of a steel challenge match shooter, and tomorrow, I'm in BIG trouble..........

Stay tuned!

Blog Alert - Two Matches This Weekend

Blogging will be a little light for a day or so as I'm off bright and early to Oak Harbor for their falling plate match. Just for the heck of it I think I might skip the iron sight rimfire class and shoot my Taurus 66 .357 revolver in the revolver class, if they have a revolver class, of course. I really should shoot it more often as it shoots really nice. I don't shoot it well enough to shoot it accurately double-action, so I'll shoot it single action. Maybe they'll think I'm one of those SASS shooters! (Probably not......)

I'll Shoot the High Standard .22 bowling pin race gun in the optical sight rimfire class for sure. Shooting iron sight rimfire too would make three classes and that's just a bit much, even for a shootin' junkie like me!

On Sunday is the CWSA Steel Challenge match. Steel Challenge is not something I practice, and I really should make an effort to do so, as just about any shooting helps your entire shooting ability, one way or another.

Don't forget to get out and shoot some targets for the e-Postal matches (see the top of this page for info). Entry closes for both matches midnight on Monday.Very few entries have come in so far, so it's wide open for you all to gather up some bragging rights. Not only that, they are both fun and challenging targets.

Go for it!

How Gun Magazines Write Articles

Here's an excerpt from a hilarious post over at OX Rant:

Instruction From The Editor To The Journalist:

Frangible Arms just bought a four page color ad in our next issue. They sent us their latest offering, the CQB MK-V Tactical Destroyer. I told Fred to take it out to the range to test. He'll have the data for you tomorrow.

Go read the whole story here!

(All "Snort and Spew" warnings apply......)

CWSA Silhouette Match - I Hate Chickens!

Between working, shooting, and getting things set up for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, I've been getting a little behind in the match-blogging. Last Saturday I shot in a bowling pin match, and figured I'd get a bit caught up on Sunday. However, the weather forcast was for a nice day, and I decided "What the heck!" I'll go shoot the CWSA handgun silhouette match just for fun.

The rimfire silhouette matches at CWSA are more of a target shoot, as speed is not a consideration. You have all the time you need, and more. You shoot at little black outlines of pigs, chickens, rams, and something else, I forget what it is. You can see how often I shoot silhouette!

Each page has five critters on it, and you get three shot strings of five shots to put three holes in each critter for fifteen possible points. Then the target distance is increased and you shoot fifteen more shots at a new page with a different critter. You end up shooting a total of sixty shots. The critters are small and hard to hit.

I got to the match as the rifle portion was just underway, so I took some pictures. Since everyone shoots at the same time, I wasn't able to shoot and take pictures of the handgun match, but it's basically the same.

LouG with his rimfire rifle

Part of the rifle firing line

This young man had a grand time, and even loaded his own magazines. No one 'noticed' that he was shooting from a bench rest...........

When we got to the handgun match, we all hung our first targets and fired away. After the first page, we stopped to total the scores, move the target stand back, and hang the next target page. To my amazement I was only one point behind two really good shooters, both shooting Thompson Contenders, and I was shooting my High Standard bowling pin race gun with an unmagnified red dot sight! Part of my short-lived success was because the first and closest distance was ten yards, and I'm sighted in for 25 feet, so I was pretty close to being sighted for that distance.

As the day progressed and the targets moved farther away, the Thompson's moved farther and farther ahead. In the end I wasn't even very close, but I stayed with them for the first round, anyhow! I even ended up one "critter" ahead of "Evil Al", and that in itself is always fun! He beats up on me often enough it always makes my day when I can sneak past him!

It was a fun day shooting a match I seldom shoot and getting a chance to BS with all the usual suspects..............

Mid-Week Joke......

Buford walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had. Buford said, "Shingles."

So she wrote down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.

Fifteen minutes later a nurse's aide came out and asked Buford what he had. Buford said, "Shingles."

So she wrote down his height, weight, a complete medical history and told Buford to wait in the examining room.

A half hour later a nurse came in and asked Buford what he had. Buford said, "Shingles."

So the nurse gave Buford a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, and told Buford to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor.

An hour later the doctor came in and asked Buford what he had. Buford said, "Shingles. "

The doctor asked, "Where?"

Buford said, "Outside on the truck. Where do you want them?"

Hat tip to Uncawho!

June e-Postal rifle Match is now up!

The June e-Postal rifle match is now up at Carnaby Fudge. I will get a more complete post up on it in a few days, but if you want to have a look and go shoot it right away, here's the link.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Room Reservations

The contract has now been signed with Circus Circus in Reno for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and a block of rooms has been reserved for us. The room rate is $89.00 per night, double occupancy. This does not include the taxes, which are over 20%, between sales tax and other local taxes. There is free wireless internet available in all of the rooms, the hospitality rooms, and even at the dinner itself.

To reserve your accommodations give them a call, and be sure to quote the group code "IGBR".

Toll free number: 800-648-5010
Group Code: IGBR
Cutoff date to make reservations: Sept. 6, 2006

This is ONLY to reserve your room. You still have to register for the Rendezvous itself, which is done separately by downloading, filling in, and sending in the Rendezvous Registration from HERE.

You do not have to be a blogger to attend the Rendezvous. If you are a regular reader of the gun and Mil blogs and follow our goings on, you are also welcome to attend. On the registration form just write "Not a blogger" where it asks for your blog's name. Who knows, after attending the Rendezvous, you just might decide to start blogging yourself!

Once you make your reservations, please send me an email at

b l o g (AT) w h i d b e y (DOT) c o m

and let me know, so I can get you on the email notification/update list.

Thanks, and we'll see you in Reno!

Full Auto Glock With Dual Drum Magazine

Full Auto Glock With Dual Drum Magazine

You gotta go check out this video! This looks like a whole lot of fun, I want one! The picture above doesn't show it, but the magazine has dual drums. His arm is blocking the view of the left one. You will definitely watch this one more than once.........

Hat tip to MaryS!

Highway Construction Traffic Flaggers

The two lane road on the way to the Homes Harbor Rod & Gun Club range has always been narrow and winding for several miles and this year the county decided to widen it out and re-pave it. This, of course, means one lane traffic and flaggers controlling the direction of travel on the one usable lane.

The flagger-person had the "STOP" side of their sign facing me, so I pulled up and stopped, waiting for their signal to procede. I was the lead car of the group of cars behind me, waiting for our turn. The flagger turned his sign around to show the "SLOW" side to me, and motioned me to procede, which I did.

About a quarter of a mile down the road there was another flagger standing in the middle of the road with the "STOP" side of his sign facing me. I pulled up close to him and stopped, waiting for clearance to continue. Up to this time this particular flagger was staring off into the distance, and wasn't watching the oncoming traffic.

When he heard me stop, he waved me to continue on, and gave me a dirty look as to say "What the heck are YOU stopping for?" He looked right at me, and when he did, I pointed at the sign he was holding, clearly proclaiming "STOP".

Did he turn the sign around to "SLOW"? Nope! he turned it sideways so it could not be read from either side, and waved me to continue on! I guess if you turn it sideways it means "Continue on, if if you are comfortable with that, but you don't have if you don't want to. It's OK which ever you choose, and you are a good person, either way......."

SHEESHHH! A politically correct liberal highway flagger. We're doomed.............

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration

We've had the entire corporate staff of Completely Castle hard at work arranging all of the details for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, with the exception of KeeWee, who's been busy in Completely Gardens, and Rocket the cat, who was smart enough to go find a quiet place to take a nap.

The rest of us (me?) have been working like crazy, and it's really starting to come together nicely. All of the details for Rendezvous registration have now been finalized.

Here's the details:

Registration for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous is $50 per person. This covers the following:

1. Use of the Circus Circus Tahoe Hospitality Room on Friday and Saturday night from 5pm to 11pm. We can bring our own beverages and munchies as we like. This will give us a common meet-n-greet/ hangout for our private use.

2. A sit-down dinner in the Private dining Mandalay rooms 4 & 5 (combined capacity 150) That's it in the picture. There will be three menu choices, Roast Prime Rib of Beef, Barbeque Salmon, or Chicken Mesquite.

3. The balance goes to covering (partially) the travel, accommodation, and dinner expenses for our Guest of Honor Dan McKown and a buddy of Dan's who will be traveling with Dan as Dan is confined to a wheel chair. Any leftover funds will be donated to Dan McKown's medical, recovery, and rehabilitation fund.

Here's the procedure for registering for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous:

1. Download and print out the registration form from HERE.

2. Make out a check for the registration amount to GUNBLOGGER RENDEZVOUS.

3. Mail the registration and check to:

Magaero Systems / GBR
P.O. Box 490
Freeland, WA. 98249

All checks will be deposited into an escrow account at Barrett Escrow in Freeland, Washington for safe-keeping until time to send it as one check to the Circus Circus.

Be sure to keep a copy of the registration for your records. I will confirm receipt by email, so if you don't get confirmation within a week, drop me an email at

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

and let me know so we can track it down.

If you will not be able to attend, but would like to contribute towards Dan and his friend's transportation to and from the Rendezvous, their hotel room, and their dinner, you can note that on the Registration and send a check to help out with those expenses. As I said above, any extra funds will go to Dan's recovery fund.

I should have the information on the Circus Circus hotel room reservations for you in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Ammo Can Carnival #1

There's another gun related carnival starting up, with links to other interesting gun related posts around the blogosphere.

It's called the Ammo Can Carnival, and you can click HERE to go have a look.

E-Postal Matches

Just a reminder that the e-Postal matches "Speed Kills" for handguns, and "Cricket" both for rifles and handguns, close at midnight on Monday the 29th., so you've got this week and this weekend, to get some targets shot to enter.

Here's the links to the rules and targets:

e-Postal Rifle/Handgun match "Cricket"

e-Postal Handgun match "Speed Kills"

I've had a chance to shoot both with a couple of different guns, and I plan to use a couple of others to shoot a few more entries. Both matches are challenging and test your skills, but they are a lot of fun, too!

Don't forget, get your entries in before next Monday night!

Good Luck!

FEMA GOLD'N TICKET

(Click for larger view)

Hat tip to Bill for this one!

Rivrdog turns in his Guns!

Rivrdog went down to the local gun buy-back program and turned in a couple of his guns.

He's got an interesting post up about it, and it's well worth having a look, even if he DOES pick on my Jennings pistol.......

CWSA Bowling Pin Handgun Match

Mr. Completely with a Smith & Wesson 422/Barska red dot up against "Evil Al" and his Smith & Wesson model 41 in the Optical sight class.

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Ben and Tony going at it in one of the semi-final matches in the iron sight class.

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Mr. Completely and Mountain Man Phil in the other iron sight semi-final.

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Mr. Completely and Ben in the iron sight final.

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The weather started out looking a bit threatening, but the rain stayed away, and it wasn't too cold, so for this time of year it wasn't a bad day for a pin shoot.

Since the 42mm. Simmons red dot sight had been taken off of my S&W 422 to be mounted onto the new High Standard Sport King I'd set up for KeeWee, I needed to get something else mounted. I've been talking up the value of the 25mm. Barksa red dots in previous posts, so I decided to give it a try. Time to practice what I preach, I guess!

I entered my usual long barreled High Standard and the S&W 422 in the optical class, and another High standard with a 7" barrel in the iron sight class. Everyone seemed to be having a hard time getting up to speed in the qualifling and no one shot very quickly. I ended up with the two fastest qualifying times in optical sight, and fastest time in iron sight, but the times were really slow.

In a single elimination match it's a lot easier to make the finals if you don't have to shoot against the fastest shooters in the first round, so sometimes perhaps some folks don't shoot quite as fast as they can in qualifying. I always try to shoot as fast as I can shoot in qualifying, as I look at it as a chance to get "dialed in" for the real matches. If you DO manage to have fast qualifying time, no one can accuse you of sandbagging, either!

In the first round of optical sight class I came up against my nemesis and arch-rival, "Evil Al". No one makes you work any harder than Al, and today was no different. It was close, but Al took the first round.

Then my S&W 422 and I were up against JimP. Jim and I have always had some really close matches. I narrowly got past Jim to advance to the next round, where who was waitin, but "Evil Al" again!

The S&W/Barska combinationwas working well, shooting with a "Taco" grip. Al won the first table, but not by much. I narrowly won the second table. Al then won the third and deciding table by a margin that must have been barely hundredths of a second. At first I thought it might have been a tie it was that close!

KeeWee, shooting the new High Standard Sport King 103 won her first round match-up, but then narrowly lost in the second round. A combination of some ammo feed problems combined with being a little un-familiar with the gun cost a little time, but it was still close. By the next pin shoot she should have it dialled in!

"Evil Al" cruised on to the finals, and chalked up another victory in the optical sight class.

A couple of new faces were at the shoot in the iron sight class, young Ben, and his Father. In one of the early round match-ups Papa came up against young Ben. Ben beat him, and Papa couldn't have been prouder of his son! It was a great moment!

In one of the semi-final matches Ben came up against young Tony, an already good but rapidly getting better shooter. Tony had earlier finished second to "Evil Al" in the center-fire revolver class, beating some decent shooters along the way. Ben went on to retire Tony for the day, and put himself into the finals.

I worked my way up to the semi-finals, where I ran into Mountain Man Phil. I don't know what it is about Phil and I, but we seem to always bring out the very worst of each others shooting! We both managed to stumble, fumble, and bumble our way through the match-up, with me barely getting the win. Had Phil not had a mis-fire, it could have gone either way.

That put me into the final against young Ben, who was clearly on a roll and gaining momentum! Ben got a little bit "Over Adrenalin'ed" on the first table and tried to shoot too fast, and missed some pins, allowing me to win the first table. I went over and had a talk with him.I told him he was shooting well, but he had to calm down and shoot as he had been doing, and to not try to shoot too fast. He apparently took my advice, as he beat me on the next table! I figured I'd given him enough advice for one day. (You gotta beat these kids when you can, because not too far down the road they become dang near impossible to beat!) The final table for all the marbles was close. Ben shot well, but missed a few pins with his first shots, and I shot one of my better tables, giving me a close win.

After the match I congratulated Ben on his shooting and told him that he not only shot well, but that he was only going to get better! Ben and Papa were both a couple of happy campers!

Overall I ended up third in optical sight, and first in iron sight. KeeWee was fourth in optical sight class.

It was a really good day at the range.........

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All of the photos were taken by KeeWee, that's why I'm in some of them! (Some dummy forgot to bring his camera!) For a picture of KeeWee and the High Standard have a look here.

Off To The Range Again!

I had originally planned to catch up on some blogging today, and that may still happen, but not until a bit later. I got up this morning and the sky was blue and the sun was shining, looks like a beautiful day. Blogging can wait!

It's a great day for a range trip!

I usually don't shoot silhouette matches as they aren't as much fun as pins and plates and steel and that kind of stuff, but every so often I will make an exception. Today looks like the right kind of a day for it.

Off to CWSA for a silhouette match, back later!

Hi-Point 9mm. Carbine - Another Opinion?

Hi-Point 9mm. Carbine

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I got an interesting comment from an anonymous gun expert responding to my review of a while back on the Hi Point 9mm. Carbine, and I thought I'd post it, for my response, and to give you readers a chance to respond too......

Anonymous Comment:

1. 9mm is NOT an acceptable deer cartridge. You would have to be retarded or starving to try to take a deer with this rifle. Taking a 9mm on a deer hunt is completely unethical, as any deer you shoot is more likely to never be recovered and die slowly of infection over the next few weeks.

2. Hi-points are pieces of junk marketed to criminals. The sporting goods store I work in has stopped taking special orders of these guns because of the high number of "denies" we get back on NICS background checks of people trying to order these guns. Usually we receive a deny back from NICS less than 1% of the time ( I was bored one day and counted) with Hi-Points products we get a "deny" back 20%+ of the time. I have a very strong suspicion that all these positive reviews I have seen of Hi-Points online are coming from a few select very questionable sources with a profit motive.

I do have a couple of observations. I grew up in a rural area with lots of deer, and lots of hard working but low income families. A number of these families ate a lot of venison. Most of the time it was taken at night with a .22 rifle. Although technically this was poaching, the locals and the game warden looked the other way, since these families needed the venison to feed their families, and nothing was wasted.

A well-placed 9mm. will drop a deer. A poorly placed 30-06 won't. 9mm. definitely has more knock down power that bow hunting, yet responsibly done by a skilled hunter, bow hunting can be very successful.

"Hi-points are pieces of junk marketed to criminals."

Can you show me an example of Hi-Point marketing their rifles to criminals? I saw a Hi-Point ad in a NRA magazine, visited their website, talked to a couple of other shooters, and ordered one for myself.

Do criminals use Hi-Points? Yes, but they also use Smith & Wessons, Glocks, Berettas, and just about everything else, too.

I have a very strong suspicion that all these positive reviews I have seen of Hi-Points online are coming from a few select very questionable sources with a profit motive.

I don't make a dime off of blogging or from my gun reviews. I enjoy shooting my Hi-Point carbine, and have let a number of other folks shoot it too, and everyone who has shot it has enjoyed it. I don't think it's ever had a mis-feed or stove-pipe, and nothing mechanical has ever failed.

The Hi-Point carbine is a great way to get in a lot of center-fire plinking just for the fun of it while keeping the cost as low as possible.

How about it, shooters, anything to add?

Blown Cover!

Two al-Qaeda terrorists met in a busy Los Angeles restaurant after they had successfully slipped across the border and into the United States.

The first terrorist started to speak in Arabic. The second shushed him quickly and whispered:

“Don’t blow our cover. You’re in America now so speak Spanish!”

Thanks and credit to Eddie in Ireland. Thanks, bro!

CWSA Pin Shoot this Saturday

With all the different types of matches being shot this year at Central Whidbey Sportsman's Assn., there aren't as many pin shoots as there have been in the past. It's been six weeks since we've had one, and this Saturday is the next one. Then it's two weeks until the next one, and then three weeks until the one after that.

These pin shoots aren't at all serious, and they are lots of fun. Come on over and give it a try!

For more information, email me at

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

Hope you can make it!

Sounds Like A Fun Friday Night!

Comedy Kaleidoscope With Dan McKown

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A few posts back I announced that our Guest of Honor at the Reno Gunblogger Rendezvous would be Dan McKown. Due to Dan's injuries, he is now wheelchair bound, and has had to give up his day job. Dan, a man of many talents, is also a comedian and is the organiser of Comedy Kaleidoscope, a Western Washington comedy troupe. Like all of us, Dan still has to make a living and pay the bills, including a pile of medical bills.

On Friday night, June 2nd. in Tacoma, Washington, Dan and his comedy troupe are doing a comedy show at the Temple theater. A portion of the proceeds will be going to Dan's Recovery fund. If you are in the western Washington area and would enjoy a good evening of comedy, here you go!

If you can't make it to the show, the show will be professionally filmed, and a CD will be available. I'll keep you posted on it as to when it becomes available and how to order it.

If you would like to contribute to Dan's recovery fund, donations to the recovery fund may be made at any Bank of America branch. Dan is also seeking the donation of a dependable two-door sedan that the state Department of Labor & Industries has offered to make handicap-accessible for him. If you have a vehicle that you would like to donate to Dan, contact me directly at

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

and I'll give you a hand with the details.

And Yes, that's Dan in the center of the poster!

Xavier's Pawn Shop Shopping Secrets

Xavier at Xavier Thoughts has an excellent post up on his Pawn Shop Shopping Secrets. If you cruise the pawn shops regularly, but seldom find any bargains, or wonder why the good deals are often at some pawn shops and not at others, Xavier has some insight into how they work.

Xavier's blog is just full of good information, and if you aren't reading Xavier's blog regularly, you should! He even takes some of the best gun pr0n picture out there! The picture of the pawn shop sign was 'borrowed' from his site.......

Cowboy Fast Draw National Championships

Here's DAMIPHINO's report from the Cowboy Fast Draw National Championships:

All pictures can be clicked on for a larger view.

The crowd at the safety meeting Friday morning before the start.

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Eight of the ladies, Prickly Pear is number four in the brown hat. All eight lights come on at once but you are actually shooting against one other person in an elimination.

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Yours truly in the number eight spot. I actually took this round with slow times but accurate. Fast is fine but accurate is final. The gun looks to be pointed low but the shot was already fired and the gun is starting to be returned to the holster.

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Another shot by the ladies, each shooter has a judge behind them to watch that the gun doesn't move before the light comes on and also for safety.

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Wanna see my fast draw again? The guy in the brown hat and blue shirt has actually drawn, fired and reholstered before the others have gotten the shot off.

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Getting into the finals, there was a pretty good crowd of people watching.

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Prickly Pear walking down to clean her gun after having won a round.

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Well, the Cowboy Fast Draw National Championship for 2006 is now in the books. It was held at the Sportsmans Warehouse in Meridian, Idaho over the weekend. Quite an event! There were 53 men including yours truly and 21 women including the family boss Prickly Pear. Hey, it isn't real bright to argue with a lady who does fast draw.

For those who haven't seen a fast draw contest, the Cowboy version is done using stock single action pistols, most commonly Colt single action Peacemakers or one of the many clones in 45 Colt. The amunition is wax bullets over about 3.5 grains of black powder substitute and shot at a 2 foot target 21 feet away. Muzzle velocities are in the range of 750 to 800 FPS. Since the rounds are so light they pretty much run out of oomph at 50 or 60 feet.

You have to hit the target to get a time and you are shooting against one other person in an elimitation. For more info and some videos check out

http://cowboyfastdraw.com/

As the field starts to narrow down to the top shooters it starts to get pretty intense with times in the .380 to .48 ranges and that is to draw the gun, cock it, and fire. Not to mention hit the target. Most of the rest of us are in the .6 to .7 times but you can beat even the best if you have a higher hit rate.

In one of the pictures you can see the nearest person looks like he is just starting to draw while the second person has his gun out. Actually that isn't how it really is, the guy in the brown hat and blue shirt has already drawn and fired and is reholstering his pistol. The guy in the maroon shirt fired just after the picture was taken. It is really hard to get a picture when the fast ones are firing. The blue shirt is Ron M. and he took almost all the marbles last year, National, World and several State championships. This year he took fourth.

The last man standing was "Quick Cal", that's his SASS alias, and he has been doing fast draw for 30 plus years.

Neither Prickly Pear or I managed to get into the top places but we both managed to weed down the field a bit before we got weeded ourselves. Regardless we had a heck of a good time and met a bunch of new friends. Both SASS and Cowboy Fast Draw have some of the best folks you could ever hope to meet. I had a problem with one of my pistols and within seconds there were a half dozen people trying to help fix it along with several offers of a spare gun to use.

Next month we jump in the Land Yacht and head for the World contest in Deadwood South Dakota.

DAMIPHINO

e-Postal Rifle Match "Cricket" Entry

Not too bad, considering that I couldn't even see the target!

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Well, I got MOST of them on the target, and ALL of them on the paper, at least! This target was shot at 50 yards with a Remington 513-T rifle and iron sights. The object was to score 3 hits in each of 6 wedges, the 15, 16, 17, 18 ,19, and 20, plus 3 in the bull. The outer band counts as a double hit, and the inner band counts as a triple hit. The darker center bull counts as a double hit. Scoring is based on how many shots you need to hit three of each. Perfect score would be 6 triples plus 2 double bulls, for a total of eight shots. You are limited to 30 shots, and I used all thirty of them!

With my reading glasses on so I could actually see the sights, the target was a fuzzy white rectangle against the target stand. I could just barely make out the largest ring, but that was about it. I kept a duplicate target on the bench next to me for reference, and I just aimed at general areas of the target, hoping to hit a few of them at least.

Of the total possible hits (21), I managed to get 16 of them, with 2 triples and one double. Somehow I'm not expecting any calls from any target rifle manufacturers wanting to hire me to demo their products, but I had a lot of fun shooting it, and it just goes to show that the old saying "If you can't see it, you can't hit it" isn't always the case!

Drag out your rifles and handguns and get your entries in. I'm sure you can do better than this!

HERE'S the rules and how to get the target downloaded.

I have already shot the target at 10 yards with a handgun with better results. Next is to give it a try at 100 yards, but this time I get to use a scope.

That should help............

Gun Blogger Rendezvous - BIG NEWS!

We've been talking for some time about lining up a guest speaker for our Saturday night dinner at the Rendezvous, but I wasn't quite comfortable with it being just a guest speaker. I really wanted someone more along the lines of a "Guest of Honor", someone who could perhaps say a few words after the dinner, but that wasn't the main reason for their attendance. Someone who, through their actions, in some way managed to make the world a better place for all of us. Someone who embodies the American spirit, the kind of a person who made America what it is today.

Once I had redefined it in this way, one name instantly came to mind. Brendan (Dan) McKown. Dan has agreed to be our Guest of Honor!

If the name rings a bell, but you just can't quite place it, Dan was the fellow who was shot five times while trying to stop the nut-case who was shooting up a mall in Tacoma, Washington. It's easy to second-guess the situation after the fact, particularly when you only have parts of the story, but the bottom line is that several people were shot, then Dan intervened, and was himself shot several times. Most importantly, no one else was injured after Dan intervened. Dan is now confined to a wheelchair.

Dan is a man of strong faith, and of many talents. He is a stand-up comedian and the founder of a comedy troupe. He has a book well underway. When the situation arose where he could have sought a safe place, or put himself at risk for the safety and protection of total strangers, he chose to take the risk. That makes Dan a hero in my book, and I'm pretty strict on definitions when it comes to something like this.

There is a good article in the Seattle P-I newspaper about Dan that you should read so you will know a little bit more about what sort of a guy Dan is. We need more people like Dan.

I will be posting more information and details as they arise.

Stay Tuned!

It's My Blogaversary!!

Exactly 365 days ago I ventured into the blogosphere, figuring if I could manage to get fifteen or twenty people to stop by every once in a while I'd be a roaring success. I envisioned days or weeks with no other traffic other than myself checking to see if there'd been any traffic.

By midnight tonight Mr. Completely will have welcomed approximately 120,000 visitors! WOW!

It seems a goodly number of folks wander by on a semi-regular basis, and for that I'm thankful. I try to pass on good information not always available elsewhere, cool pictures, and bad jokes that you may not have already heard. I also try to post entertaining match reports of various types so you can see and read about KeeWee and my adventures in the club level shooting sports world. I have also been hard at work keeping the e-Postal rifle and pistol matches going. The current project now taking a lot of my time is coordinating and arranging for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous to be held in Reno the first weekend in October.

To commemorate this occasion, I purchased a High Standard Model 103 Sport King, which I am getting set up for KeeWee to use in competition. (she loves it, by the way!)

To all of you great folks who faithfully read my blog, all I can say is

Thank You, All!

The pleasure is mine.....

Legend Of The Motorcycle

Just your everyday knock around town Vincent......
(all pictures - click for larger view)

Laverda - At one time the world's fastest production motorcycle.

Most likely the only one on his block?
Pretty amazing engineering and craftsmanship!

The first annual Legend Of The Motorcycle Meet took place at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay just south of San Francisco, California on the 6th of May 2006. Classics restored to better than new, customs, experimentals, something like 150 bikes on display. Fortunately, someone posted lots of pictures.

You will definitely want to bookmark this site, as there's way too much to see in only one visit!

Thanks to the folks at Bevelheaven for the pictures, and to NickN for the heads-up on the site!

Carnival of Cordite is UP!

Here's the link thingie:

------ CLICK ME ------

Picture credit to SaysUncle from this post a while back.

Simmons 42mm. Red Dot Sight

Simmons 42mm. Red Dot Sight on a Smith & Wesson Model 422

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Adding a red dot sight to your handgun, rifle, or shotgun doesn't make you a better shooter, but it sure does allow you to shoot better, particularly if your eyesight isn't quite what it used to be. When I decided to give a red dot a try, there weren't quite as many different ones on the market as there are now, but I still had a fair number to choose from. My first red dot sight was a Simmons 42mm. In fact, although I have four or five of them, the one in the picture may well be the first one I bought.

One of the first things you will find out when you try a red dot sight is that they don't work like telescopic sights. Technically you could argue that calling a red dot sight a scope is a misnomer, as there is to "telescope" to it at all. Red dots have no magnification. Where a telescopic sight has a vertical and a horizontal line (The crosshairs) a red dot sight has, well, a red dot! The crosshairs are always in the same place when you look through a scope, with the cross-point right in the middle of the circular field of view.

The red dot, on the other hand, can be anywhere in the field of view. In fact, if you don't have proper sight alignment with your eyeball, you can't see the dot at all! It's easy to spot a new red dot shooter, as they raise the gun to the firing position, then swivel it around until they find the dot. They even have a name for this activity, "The C-More Shuffle", named after a red dot sight commonly used in some types of competition. Just as it takes practice to bring up a handgun and have the sights aligned, so it is with a red dot sight. The smaller the red dot sight, the harder it is to find the dot. A small sight on a rifle may be just fine, but on a handgun it could be frustrating.

For my first red dot sight I figured the larger 42mm. size of the Simmons should make it easier to get used to finding the dot, and that proved to be the case. The larger diameter does make parallax more of an issue, but that's not a big problem. After using the sight for a while you get a feel for how much to correct your point of aim.

One common bit of mythology with red dots is that wherever the dot is, that's where you are aimed. Not true! You should always try to have to dot as close to the center of the sight as possible, both when sighting in, and when shooting. As you move the dot towards the edges, the dot is no longer exactly the same as the point of impact. The closer you are to your target and the larger the diameter of the sight, the more pronounced the effect.

The Simmons 42mm. red dot sight has a lifetime warrantee, which is nice. There are several different models numbers with slight variations. Model #800880 is the one I've had the best luck with. The Simmons has a 4 MOA dot size, and 11 different brightness settings. The only other true 42mm. red dot is the BSA, and it is a 5 MOA dot. It's personal preference, but a 4 MOA dot is plenty big!

One feature of the Simmons that I've not seen on any other red dot sight is the mounting system. Where most red dot sights are made to fit the standard Weaver sight rail, on the Simmons you can turn the mounting brackets over and it will also fit directly onto a .22 rifle sized rail. That also means it will fit directly onto the SIG Trailside, which has the narrow rails.

The Simmons 42mm. Red Dot sight is available from a lot of different places, but the best deal I've seen, short of e-Bay, is at Natchez Shooter's Supply where they are showing it for $35.95.

If you are looking for a red dot sight, particularly for a handgun, you can't go too far wrong with the Simmons 42mm. model #800880.

I just ordered another one yesterday..............

Washington - KEEP OUT!

It always rains in Washington, day and night, constantly. Wet, soggy, moldy, no one in their right mind would want to live here. If it's not raining it's blowing, or snowing or something else miserable. If it's not the weather it's the Indian uprisings, or the volcanos blowing up all over the place. The weather forecast for 85 degrees today is a lie!

Best thing you can do is stay away, especially if you are from a blue state.

If you are a gun-toting red-stater, please disregard the first paragraph, and come join us, we need your votes!

It looks like a beautiful day, and I think I'll head over to the range, as I've got some e-Postal match targets to shoot.

..........Mr. C.

Reminders - Assorted Stuff

Just a few short reminders and misc. stuff:

Don't wait until the last minute to shoot your entries for the ongoing e-Postal matches. I have now tried out both of them, and in my opinion these are two of the best ever. You can click on the links up at the top of this page to go to the individual e-Postal match information, to download the targets, and to print a copy of the rules.

There are only three e-Postal rifle matches left without hosts between now and this Fall. Maybe Kim, AnalogKid, and Joe Huffman? (Sorry Joe, but most ranges won't allow exploding targets, dang it!)

Submission deadline for the Rimfire Roundup is this Tuesday night. We haven't had enough rimfire submissions to justify putting a roundup together the last couple of weeks, so send in your rimfire stuff so we can get a roundup together for this week. Thanks!

Things are moving right along on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. From responses so far, it looks like we are going to have a good turn-out of folks from all over the country! There should be an update for you mid-week sometime.

CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot this Saturday, the 20th., and Coupeville, Washington. Here's your chance to give this fun sport a try!

That's it for now!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

KeeWee and I both wish all of you mothers out there a very special and Happy Mother's Day.

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels Navy Flight Demonstration Team
(Click for Larger)

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I haven't posted a Blue Angels picture for a while, so I figured it was about time to rectify that!

Thanks to MaryS for the pic!

Some days you should just stay in bed.....

KeeWee and I got everything loaded into the RV last night in preparation for our trek over to the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club's "Fun Steel" match today. We got up bright (well, maybe KeeWee) and early and headed down the road.

Since we live on an island, we rely on either a bridge or a couple of different car ferries to get to the mainland, otherwise called "Heading over to America". The only bridge takes us off the island in the wrong direction to get to the match, so we were limited to the Keystone-Port Townsend ferry to get us off the island and to the Olympic Peninsula. A short drive from there gets us to the Hood Canal Floating Bridge, which gets us to the Kitsap peninsula. From there it's an easy drive to the range.

The earliest ferry in the morning is 7:15, and it gets to Port Townsend at 7:45. The match starts at 9am., so we only have an hour and fifteen minutes to get there, and it's just over an hour's drive. Close, but do-able! I factored in some extra time to get to the ferry dock a little earlier than normal, since the weather forecast was good, and the tourist season was getting underway.

What I did not know, however, was that the town of Sequim (pronounced SKWIM) also on the Olympic Peninsula, was having a festival and a tractor meet of some sort. The ferry was mostly filled up with trucks pulling low-boys loaded with antique tractors! There wasn't enough room for all the cars and the trucks too, and it's first come first served, so we, and forty or fifty other cars, didn't make the boat. Next boat: an hour and a half later. So much for the Kitsap shoot.

We drove to Coupeville, which was only a few miles, and had breakfast. After breakfast we decided to drive up to the Oak Harbor Sportsman's club to see if they had any matches on today. We did. They didn't.

So we headed back home.

Like I said, some days you should just stay in bed.......

Blog Alert

Blogging will be a bit light as KeeWee and I are off to the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver club near Silverdale, Washington, for a steel match.

I've been working to get the new High Standard Sharpshooter dialled in so she can shoot it for the first time in a match. I've made a number of small modifications, and have a few yet to go.

Damiphino and his better half are over in Idaho this weekend for the Cowboy Fast Draw National Championships, and he remembered to bring the camera this time, so there should be a good report on the Match once he gets back home and gets it organized.

I should have some new posts up Sunday night or early Monday.

Why not drag out your shootin' irons and head out to the range this weekend? It's a whole lot more fun than spending your weekend bent over a computer cruisin' the gunblogs.......