I took a nap as soon as I got back from the Pin shoot. I was totally wore out! It's been a long season and I think all of the matches are starting to take a toll on the shooters, and many of us are starting to burn out a bit.
I shot so many different guns in so many classes I pretty much lost track of a lot of what happened, but it seemed like every time I went up to the line I was up against good ol' Evil Al! We've really had some good close matches this year!
In the Centerfire class Al dusted me off pretty good, but I at least stayed close. In revolver class I turned the tables and narrowly edged out a win over Al, but lost in the finals to Chris, Tony the Kid's dad. Good enough for a second, though!
Rimfire Optical sight was sort of a blur, but I remember some close matches with Al, Rainy, and in the finals, none other than KeeWee! I think that's the second final I've had against her this year! I managed the win, but we kept first and second in the family! How cool is that!
Rimfire iron sight turned out to be a three way horse race between Mountain Man Phil, JimP, and myself. There were a number of REALLY close tables, but I snuk through, with Phil second, and Jim in third.
All things considered, we had a grand day, the weather was rain free and mild, and there were lots of close matches.
Just a quickie before heading out to CWSA for a bowling pin shoot today.
There is still time to get registered for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno. You can download and print the Registration Form from the Rendezvous website (click the link at the top of this page), fill it out, then Priority Mail or FEDEX it to me. I have to have it by Wednesday at the absolute latest. THEN EMAIL ME AND LET ME KNOW YOU'VE SENT IT. I can get your dinnner reservations in if I know you will be going.
You all made short work of the last quiz, so here's a new one. I'd rate these as all fairly easy, but I'm working on some tougher ones for future quizzes.
As usual, extra credit for additional information beyond just identifying the character.
Here's a short excerpt from an email I received from Akafuze, a good friend, regular commenter, shooter, and otherwise cool dude:
With this bluebird weather , there may not BE a hunting season - but I promised my 14yr old grandson that I would take him. He passed the S/T test 71/72.
We were scouting out the Weyerhaeuser tree farm on Saturday - he actually asked me - get this - "Grandaddy, do you have any more hunting stories?". What's a fella supposed to do.
He proceeded to shoot the head off a grouse - I breasted it out and he took it home to cook for dinner.
So that's where the next generation of NRA members is coming from - so I'll be working in a good cause, while you are ogling the topless. (.... at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous -- Mr. C.)
More details are falling into place for the Reno Gun Blogger Rendezvous. At the Saturday night banquet we will be having both a door prize drawing, and a fund-raising drawing. The fund raiser will work like this: There will be 52 unmarked white envelopes. Inside each envelope will be a single playing card. You buy the envelopes for ten bucks a piece, as many as you want. Charles Brown, head honcho at Hi-Point has also randomly selected three cards and put each of them into individual sealed envelopes. The envelopes are marked 1st., 2nd., and 3rd. Once all 52 cards have been sold, we will open the three envelopes. If your card matches the one marked as 3rd, you win a $50.00 gift certificate from Natchez Shooter's Supply. If your card matches the card in the envelope marked as 2nd., you win a beautiful leather range bag from Brownell's.
If you are the lucky person holding the card that matches the card in the 1st. prize envelope, you win a brand new Hi-Point 9mm. pistol from MKS Supply and Hi-Point! Please note that if you are not legally allowed to own a handgun, you should not enter, as we won't give it to you! The Hi Point pistol will not be at the Rendezvous, and you will need to have your favorite FFL holder contact Hi Point to arrange the transfer. We'll help you with those details, so not to worry!
After the main drawing, we will then draw from a list of those attending the Rendezvous for the remaining door prizes. There will be gift certificates, hats, shirts, and more from Remington, Nosler, MidwayUSA, and Master Blaster Bullets, so there will be a good chance that everyone will win something. The first 30 attendees will also get a free small bottle of Brownell's new Friction Fighter gun oil!
Arrangements are underway for transportation to and from the range on Saturday for a day of shooting. We will be renting a vehicle of appropriate size for the range run, and the cost will be split up amongst the riders.
If you are thinking about going,there is still time to get registered, but you need to get going right away so you don't miss out! Email me at:
b l o g (at) w h i d b e y (dot) c o m
and I'll fill you in on what you need to get registered.
Here's the latest quiz to identify fictitious personalities from early radio and television. These vary from pretty easy to fairly hard, so have at it, and leave your guesses and additional info in the comments!
1. Mr. Conklin
2. Rochester
3. Lamont Cranston
4. Senator Beauregard Claghorn
There you go!
Note: Eddie in Ireland suggested some characters for future quizzes, and one of the above four was indirectly part of his suggestions.
We're back from the Inter-Club Challenge Match, and it's been a long and tiring day. KeeWee kept score, and I did my best to hold up the 4th. position on the CWSA team.
We started out on the Bowling Pin range, shooting four tables worth of pins against the clock. I think everyone was kinda tight, and no one shot very well, considering how I've seen most of these folks shoot pins in the past.
The Taurus PT-92 Econo Race Gun shot reliably, but I was having a hard time hitting the pins squarely. I also seemed to be getting a lot of smoke out the barrel. It almost looked like I was shooting black powder in it! After I shot, Tom from Master Blaster Bullets suggested that the .355 diameter bullets were too small for the Taurus (and Beretta) barrels, and I should go up to . 356 or even a .357 diameter bullet.
Apparently the Beretta design barrels have really deep rifling and a bigger bullet is often needed to get good results. Too small a bullet diameter allows gases to go past the bullet and you don't get the velocity or the accuracy. Since I had only gotten the Taurus ready to go late last week I hadn't had much time to experiment with bullets and powder and so forth, so I was using pretty generic spec's. To add to the bullets not having much velocity or accuracy, on the first table the very first shell managed to land inside of my glasses and started to burn my cheek. I have no idea how it happened, as I keep the bill of my hat down on top of my glasses and it got inside of the right lense and I shoot left handed! Go figure. That sure does disrupt your concentration, though!
After the pin shoot stage, CWSA was dead last, with Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club second, and Oak Harbor in first.
We then went over to the pistol range and shot two Steel Challenge match stages. For the steel targets I had switched at the very last minute to a 147 grain bullet to make a louder noise when the targets were hit. The 147 was also slightly larger, so I had decent accuracy and very little smoke. Again the Taurus cycled without a hiccup.
After shooting two stages, we adjourned to the clubhouse for BBQ'ed burgers, hot dogs, and cake for desert. Larry and Steve did us proud in the food department, and no one went away hungry!
After lunch it was back out to the pistol range for the final steel challenge stage. It was more to my liking, with big targets in close! Everyone seemed to enjoy the last stage the most.
After the final stage was complete the scores were added up, and CWSA had managed to pull past Holmes Harbor to take a solid second place, but didn't gain enough to catch the Oak Harbor team.
We weren't first, and we weren't last! For the last few years CWSA has been getting stomped in the inter-club matches, so it feels good to put in a good solid showing, even if things didn't go exactly as planned.
Next year's Inter-Club Challenge will be hosted by Holmes Harbor, and they get to pick the match rules. It will probably be something like 100 yard silhouette, or something like that! Of course, they DID just build their own set of steel challenge targets and stands.........
Bud and Jim were a couple of drinking buddies who worked as aircraft mechanics in PITTSBURGH . One day the airport was fogged in and they were stuck in the hangar with nothing to do.
Bud said, "Man, I wish we had something to drink!"
Jim says, "Me too. Y'know, I've heard you can drink jet fuel and get a buzz. You wanna try it?"
So they pour themselves a couple of glasses of high octane hooch and got completely smashed. The next morning Bud wakes up and is surprised at how good he feels. In fact he feels GREAT! NO hangover! NO bad side effects. Nothing!
Then the phone rings. It's Jim. Jim says, "Hey, how do you feel this morning?" Bud says, "I feel great. How about you?"
Jim says, "I feel great, too. You don't have a hangover?"
Bud says, "No that jet fuel is great stuff -- no hangover, nothing. We ought to do this more often."
"Yeah, well there's just one thing."
"What's that?"
"Have you farted yet?"
"No " "Well, DON'T, 'cause I'm in Denver ."
The best joke of the week, and it's from Uncawho....
Damiphino was visiting from Billings, so yesterday afternoon we loaded up and headed out to the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club range for a little shooting. He brought some of his cowboy action and cowboy fastdraw pistols, and I brought my Taurus 66 race revolver and my Taurus econo race gun project gun. The weather was rainy and miserable, mostly, but the shooting stations are covered so everything stayed dry. It was a good way to spend an afternoon. He came up with a few small changes in my single action shooting that both increased speed and accuracy.
The econo race gun is now shooting reliably, and the lack of accuracy seems to trace back to the particular bullet I was using. I have switched to 115 Gr. Master Blaster bullets and it improved greatly. I wish I had more time between now and the Inter-Club match this Saturday to fine-tune the loads for best accuracy. Hopefully the moly coated lead bullets will put a more visible mark on the steel plates so I can tell if I hit it or not. My Peltor electronic hearing protectors block loud sounds well, but since the "ding" of the steel plate and the gunshot are so close together, I can't hear the ding a lot of the time. I may go back to non-electronic hearing protectors and take a little of the sound foam out to see if I can keep the noise limited and still hear the plate. This afternoon is our last team practice, so I better get it figured out soon!
I've made a few more small changes in the 9mm. Taurus project, including moving the red dot sight forward about half an inch to give a little faster access to the slide if I need to clear a jam in a hurry. This meant I had to build an extended muzzle blast shield, as the smoke from the compensator would fog up the sight after ten rounds or so. I got that built and installed last night. I also loaded up another 150 rounds of 115 GR. Master Blasters to try today at the practice. So far one of the best shooting 9mm. rounds I've found has been the Remington 115Gr. hollow point bulk packs from Walmart! On a bowling pin it hits even harder than the Winchester 147Gr. white box hollow points. Apparently Winchester isn't putting much powder behind the bullet!
Since I barged my Plymouth mini-van down from Juneau, I've been driving it around, getting some miles on it and seeing if it needs any work. Last week the brakes failed, and the pedal went nearly to the floor. I ran it into the barn, jacked it up, and found a broken brake line on the right front wheel. I pulled the wheel and looked a bit closer, and the outer CV joint boot was also torn. It appears that the freight company, when they tied the van down on the barge, got a tie down strap over the brake line and CV joint boot.
The best way to fix the CV joint boot is to get a rebuilt axle with new boots already on it. That way you don't have to take the axle apart. It seems there are several different non interchangeable axles that could have been used on this model. The auto parts guy said I should pull the axle and bring it in for positive identification, then they'd get the right one the first time. Probably a good idea, but I'm really short of time, so I ordered a split boot kit to get it back on the road until later in the Fall when I could swap out the axle and do the job properly.
The parts guy checked with his warehouse, and the kits were out of stock and wouldn't be available for some undetermined time. The parts guy called around and found one on the shelf at another auto parts chain store about 30 miles away in Oak Harbor. I would be about ten miles from there at the CWSA practice for the Inter-Club match, so I could go pick it up. This was last Thursday. I picked up the boot kit and brought it home, only to discover that the special adhesive used to join the two halves of the boot had been robbed from the kit. CRAP!
The next morning I telephoned the store in Oak Harbor and asked if they could put another kit onto their delivery truck and drop it off at my regular parts store on my end of Whidbey island. After several minutes of negotiation, he finally agreed to do so, as long as I had my local store telephone him and verify that it was OK. SHEESHH!
I did as he asked, and they still failed to get it onto the truck that day. I phoned again the next morning and he promised it would be on that day's truck. I went over and picked it up and brought it home. I opened the package to discover that yes, the glue was there, but the instructions and the two metal clamps had been robbed from THIS kit. The other kit, which I had sent back, had the clamps and instructions.
Another phone call, and they agreed to send the instructions and the clamps back down on today's truck.
I got an email from JohnH mentioning some archived articles at Hobby Gunsmith about building a Taurus PT92 race gun. The author was going for more of a "Limited Class" gun, rather than an "Open Class" gun, so most of his efforts were directed towards accuracy, trigger, and sights.
It's an interesting series, and has some good pictures and instructions for basic tear down and so forth.
Just a short post: I'm off tomorrow morning bright (?) and early (!) for the CWSA Steel Challenge match. It's going to be another busy day as I'm shooting three classes, rimfire open, centerfire open, and revolver open. In between shooting, reloading, and dealing with Mr. Murphy, I'll try to take a few pictures, but we'll see how much time I have for photography.
Next Thursday is the last team practice for the CWSA Inter-Club Challenge Team, and the Match is on Saturday. I'm going to be in panic mode for this next week getting everything ironed out and ready for the match. This is going to be interesting.......
The Gun Blogger Rendezvous has been consuming most of my spare time, but it's falling into place quite nicely. We could still use a few more folks attending, and there's still time to register, so if you're still on the fence, it's time to join the fun! You can get all the details for registering by going to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous site by clicking the link up at the top of this page.
Anyhow, that's what's been going on, and why posting has been a bit light of late.
Two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble. In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull from the stockyard in a far town so that they can breed their own stock. They only have $600 left.
Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, "When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home."
The brunette arrives at the stockyard, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599 - no less. After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news.
She walks into the telegraph office, and says, "I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive it here so we can haul it home."
The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, "It's just 99 cents a word."
Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette only has $1 left. She realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word.
After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, "I want you to send her the word 'comfortable'."
The operator shakes his head. "How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable'?"
The brunette explains, "My sister's a blonde. The word's big. She'll read it very slowly........."
Although the Circus Circus room rate deal closed last night, if you contact me right away we can still get you in on the Rendezvous and banquet.
You are on your own as to accommodations, but I'd call the Circus Circus anyway and see what they've got available. That way you can crawl back to your room from the Hospitality room, if need be...................
NEWS FLASH: Speaking of the hospitality room, we have added a Thursday night hospitality room fo those coming in on Thursday.
By golly, it's getting to where it's starting to be competitive! The extraction problems have been resolved. The extractor was quite worn form a whole lot of shooting over the years, and a little sharpening with the Dremel solved the problem. A new extractor is on the way from Taurus, though, as this fix may not last. I'll put in the new extractor and spring, and keep the old one as a backup. Feeding seems to be working smoothly after polishing the feed ramp and recontouring it a little bit. Hollow points over 1.118 in length are a little dicey, but everything else seems to feed without problems. The trigger shoe I made up widened the trigger and moved the face of it forward about 3/16", so it feels like it's about where it ought to be. Accuracy seems to be much improved with some of the slop elimination, both between the barrel and the slide, and between the slide and the frame. I'll have to take some new pictures to show some of the changes. The next project is an ambidextrous safety, since I shoot it left-handed.
I shot it yesterday afternoon at bowling pins and on two practice Steel Chalenge stages, at a practice sessio nfor the County Inter-Club Challenge Match, and it worked without a burp all afternoon. I was able to shoot a five pin run in 3.7 seconds, which although nothing earth-shaking, is at least in the high three's, which is very encouraging. On the steel, I managed a number of runs also in the upper 3 second range, which for me at least, is also encouraging.
To put this project in perspective, there is no way this will ever be comparable with a $4000 dollar STI race gun, but it's an attempt to come up with an economical low budget race gun for fun shooting at the local club level. So far I have spent roughly $315 dollars on the project, including buying the gun itself. I've also spent quite a few hours tinkering with it, making bits and pieces, and figuring out ways to improve it. It's been a lot of fun!
Of course, to make it fair, the STI should have to remove $3700 dollars worth of parts first, and then see how well it shoots!
Photo credit to Digger History a site dedicated to the history of Australian and New Zealand military history.
Ode to a STEN Gun Click HERE to hear it read with a "Proper" accent!
You wicked piece of vicious tin! Call you a gun? Don't make me grin. You're just a bloated piece of pipe. You couldn't hit a hunk of tripe. But when you're with me in the night, I'll tell you, pal, you're just alright!
Each day I wipe you free of dirt. Your dratted corners tear my shirt. I cuss at you and call you names, You're much more trouble than my dames. But, boy, do I love to hear you yammer When you' re spitting lead in a business manner.
You conceited pile of salvage junk. I think this prowess talk is bunk. Yet if I want a wall of lead Thrown at some Jerry's head It is to you I raise my hat; You're a damn good pal... You silly gat!
Written by Gunner S.N. Teed Poem first published ‘The Maple Leaf', a newspaper printed for Canadian troops in Europe.
Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claim that an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed on a sheep and cattle ranch just outside of Roswell, New Mexico.
This is a well known incident that many say was long covered up by the US Air Force and the federal government.
However, you may well NOT know that in the month of March 1948, exactly nine months after that historic day, Albert Arnold Gore Jr., Hillary Rodham, John F. Kerry, William Jefferson Clinton,Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Charles E. Schumer, and Barbara Boxer were born.
That piece of information has now cleared up a lot of things.
I just got word from Larry at Brownell's*, and they are donating a"Deluxe" Signature series leather range bag to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. This is a REALLY nice bag, not some cheapo, either! Brownell's will also be supplying sample bottles of their ""Friction Defense" gun oil for everyone to take home and try. It's a synthetic base oil with both teflon and moly, so it oughtta be pretty slippery stuff!
Best of all, if all goes well, scheduling can be arranged, details sorted out, and iff'n the creek don't rise, Larry is going to do his best to make it to the Rendezvous in person so we all can meet him!
Hope you can be there, Larry!
* You don't have a Brownell's catalog? I'd be lost without mine........
I have just received word from Natchez Shooter's Supply that they will be generously supporting the upcoming Gun Blogger Rendezvous through the donation of gift certificates, and possibly some hats and shirts. He didn't know exactly what they had on hand for hats and shirts, but was going to look around and see what he could find.
Natchez is another company with whom I have dealt with in the past, and have always found them to be courteous and helpful.
The Rendezvous greatly appreciates their generous support! Thanks, guys!!
Wow, it looks like I stumped nearly everyone with the first Character Quiz! I didn't think it was all that hard, but I'll give you all a second chance to redeem yourselves.
I really expected Rivrdog to nail all four without breaking a sweat, but all credit goes to DirtCrashr for getting Percy Dovetonsils.
Here's the answers from Quiz #1:
1. Mrs. Nussbaum - One of the characters on the Fred Allen show, a denizen of "Allen's Alley"
2. Claude Horribly - A Steve Allen Character.
3. Wally Ballou - The roving reporter and winner of sixteen diction awards, from Bob & Ray.
4. Percy Dovetonsils - In DirtCrashr's words "Percy is the coke-bottle eyeglassed, lisping, effeminate, bathrobe wearing funny-mustached character", a wonderful character from Ernie Kovacs.
OK, let's try this with a few easier ones:
1. Gertrude and Heathcliffe
2. Digger O'dell
3. Ethyl Mertz
4. Mortimer Snerd
All of these have provided us with lots of laughs in years past, and these four should be easier to identify compared to the last group.
Don't forget, extra credit for additional information about the characters!
Leave your answers in the comment section below..............
Where has this past week gone? I've been back and forth to the range several times trying to get the 9mm. Taurus ready for competition, and It's almost there. It's working well with the lighter loads, but heavier bullets and loads and it fails to extract the casing once in a while. I suspect a new extractor and extractor spring will resolve that problem.
Yesterday afternoon was the second tryout session for the CWSA Inter-Club Match team, and they were nice enough to let me be the first shooter since I had to MC our Fishin' Club meeting at 7pm. I still wasn't too confident in the Taurus 9mm., so I tried to qualify both with the Taurus 9mm. and the Taurus Model 66 revolver. I ran through the qualifier stages (almost literally!).
The 9mm. failed to extract a couple of times shooting the 147 grain bullets at the pins, pretty much messing up the times, but it worked fine with the 115 grain plate loads. The revolver worked flawlessly, and I managed some solid but fairly conservative times overall.
The last shot string on the very last stage with the revolver was strange, to say the very least! I had missed a plate and had to come back to pick it up on the third run, so that was my "Throw-away" time, but I didn't dare make any mistakes on the fourth run. Just after firing the last shot on the third run, the red dot went from being a sharply focused 4MOA dot to a giant fuzzy dot something around 50 or 60MOA! The dot was bigger than the plates! Something had broken loose inside the sight, but I still had one crucial run of five shots to make that could mean the difference between making the team or not.
No time to change guns or swap out the sight, and even if I changed the sight it wouldn't be sighted in. My only hope was to cover each plate with the dot and hope I could see on the berm which way it was off, so I could correct my point of aim. That, of course, would only work if I could see the impact, and the dot was so big that would be unlikely! When the buzzer sounded I covered the first plate with the dot and fired, and heard a nice loud "Ding". Four more shots, four more dings! Talk about lucky! Even the time was reasonable, at least for me.
I quickly packed up, thanked everyone for letting me shoot first , then left to go take a quick shower and change clothes for the meeting. No idea how I did overall, but knew I had improved all of my times compared to the first tryout.
I made it to the Fishin' Club meeting with even a few minutes to spare! After the meeting it was home and to bed. It had been a long day............
This morning I got the official call from Al, and I had ended up third overall with the revolver, and had made the team! WOO HOO!
I ordered up a new red dot sight this morning from Natchez Shooter's Supply, and should have it Tuesday. I can mount it on Wednesday and get it sighted in, so I'll be ready to go for the Thursday afternoon team practice. I've got a new extractor, spring, and pin for the 9mm. on the way by Fedex, so that should be here on Tuesday.
When I finish this post I'm off to the range for some rimfire practice as tomorrow is a CWSA hanging plate match, and since I've been shooting everything BUT rimfire all week, I'm sure I've messed up my rimfire technique something awful!
In between all of this I've been working, and getting things set up for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. I'll have more announcements and surprises soon on the Rendezvous, but suffice it to say that if you miss this event, you are going to kick yourself until next October. It's gonna be a ball!
If I didn't waste so much time sleeping, eating, and working, I could just about get everything done........
The hits just keep coming! USCitizen at Traction Control has figured out a new e-Postal handgun match for September ,and this one's golf with a handgun! There's even Lady's tees, regular tees, and Pro Tees. Here's the link to the match, and here's more information on the match.
The results will be announced at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, and will also be posted on the Traction Control site.
JimmyB, the Conservative UAW Guy, has got the results posted for the just concluded e-Postal Handgun match. Thanks to JimmyB for thinking up and hosting the match. It was a toughie!
Congratulations to Billll for some spectacularly good shooting. His WEAK hand scores beat everyone else's strong hand scores, and with his strong hand, he ran away and hid from the rest of us! WOW, just WOW!
I just got a phone call frome the nice folks at MidwayUSA, and they will be helping to support the Gun Blogger Rendezvous with a donation. The details are not yet worked out, but there will be at least a gift certificate involved, but beyond that it is yet to be determined.
UPDATE: MidwayUSA will be contributing a nice gift certificate, five MidwayUSA caps, and five MidwayUSA t-shirts. (Hope I can win one of the shirts!)
I was thinking about all of the funny and entertaining characters that have been invented by comedians over the years, primarily in the older radio shows.
I've decided to run an occasional quiz giving you the character's names, and let you guess the originator of the character. Any other info you might have regarding the character, the show, and the comedian would also be interesting.
Here's the first group:
1. Mrs. Nussbaum
2. Claude Horribly
3. Wally Ballou
4. Percy Dovetonsils
These are probably way too easy, but we'll see how you do!
Here's the menu for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous Banquet:
09/20/06 NOTE: Since we have less than 50 diners registered, the menu options have been reduced. The Salmon or pork chop dinners are not available, but there is a vegetarian dinner available for those not wanting the prime rib.
The default dinner is:
Roast Prime Rib of Beef, tender roasted prime rib of beef accompanied by Circus Circus's own Jack Daniels au jus.
If you are registered for the Rendezvous, you are set up for the default prime rib dinner. If you would like to change to the vegetarian dinner, send me an email with your request right away and I'll notify the hotel.
All dinners include a fresh house salad, rolls, butter, and dessert. Regular or decaffeinated coffee and iced tea are also included.
If you do not get a confirmation back from me on the menu change, then I didn't get the email, so please send it again. Thanks!!
The cut-off dates for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous are drawing close, so you will want to get your reservations in to the Circus Circus hotel in Reno ASAP.
The hotel gave us a one week extension until midnight, September 14th, but after that the special room rates won't be available. You will still be able to attend the Rendezvous at the last minute provided you have gotten your Rendezvous registration in to me no later that five or six days before the Rendezvous. For hotel reservations you will probably still be able to get a room at the Circus Circus, I'd think, but it would be at the regular rate, whatever that may be.
For info on how to make your room reservations and how to register for the Rendezvous, click on the link at the top of the page to go to the Rendezvous website.
The Rendezvous is only a few weeks off, so it's time to get crackin'!
I just got email confirmation that the chief cook and bottle washer from "Say Uncle" will be attending the Rendezvous. That's another of my "Read Daily" blogs on the blogroll. You DO read Say Uncle, don't you?
I also have got confirmation that KrisB and JillP will also be attending. As far as I know, neither Kris nor Jill have their own blogs, but I know that Kris appears regularly in the comments on a number of the gun blogs.
I first met Kris and Jill at the Douglas Ridge Innaugural Bowling Pin shoot in Portland early this Spring, where Kris dispelled any notions that a .480 revolver can't be fired quickly or accurately. He did both, and made it look easy! As I remember, Jill was shooting a Glock.
Get your rerservations in ASAP, we will soon need to be able to tell the hotel how many dinners we will be needing at the banquet.
Well, I said I wanted to get in a lot of match practice, and boy, did I! I shot enough matches that i can't even remember exactly who I shot against or in which classes. Today was a CWSA Bowling Pin match, and I entered Optical Sight Centerfire, Revolver, Optical Sight Rimfire (two guns - two entries) and Rimfire Iron sight. Glutton for punishment, I guess!
The Taurus PT92 "Econo Race Gun" 9mm. project gun continued to show promise as I learn to shoot it, and keep searching for the perfect loads for it. I qualified third in Optical Centerfire, and won my first round matchup. In the second round I ended up against Evil Al, and the picture below shows that I actually beat him to the first pin! I had a misfire on the second shot, though, and that's what I'm doing in the picture, trying to get it cleared and get some more pins off the table. I lost the second table, but not by too much! Al is consistenty the fastest shooter in the club, so if I can keep within hailing distance, even if I lose, I figure I haven't done too badly!
Evil Al and Mr. C. shoot it out, with LouG running the timer.
I did get a chance to try the video feature on my digital camera, and it seems to work, although it came out a bit blue. There must be a color balance adjustment somewhere, but I haven't looked for it yet. Evil Al was shooting against the clock in the qualifying part, shooting his S&W revolver. The video pretty much explains itself. His time on this run was 3.23 seconds, but I've seen him shoot in the two's. It's still pretty impressive!
Believe it or not, I actually beat Al in the revolver class! Truth be known, however, he had a misfire on one table and messed up a reload on the second table. I just plugged along single-action and tried to hit something with every shot. I think I ended up third or fourth in revolver class, I was too busy getting ready for the next class that I didn't have time to check.
Rimfire Iron Sight class turned out to be the classic matchup between JimP, Mountain Man Phil, and Mr, C. We all three shoot so close to each other that you never know how it's going to turn out. This week, I got lucky, getting by Jim in the final.
By the time Rimfire Optical Sight class rolled around, I was starting to run out of gas, I think! I won my first round matchups with both my High Standard ML-106 and the Smith & Wesson 422. From there on it was becoming a blur, but i think I won a couple more, then ended up against myself and had to retire the 422 for the day to move on. I ended up against Al in the final, and although I tied him on the first table, I lost the next two. Congratulations to Al on some really good shooting. If he would have bobbled, I would have got him, but he didn't!
KeeWee qualified with some of her best times ever, putting her in fifth place in the time trials! That's the highest she's ever qualified, I think. She narrowly lost her first round match, but it was a loss to JimP who's a darn good shooter, and she was right on his heels all the way. She did good!
We all had a good time, and I did just what I wanted to do, get in a lot of "In Match" shooting and push my limits a bit.
No more pin shoots on the schedule for a few weeks, but next Thursday is the second qualifier match for the CWSA four man team for the Inter-club challenge match. In the first qualifier my times weren't all that good, so I need to get to the range and practice a bit between now and Thursday, otherwise there's a good chance of getting bumped from the team.
Yesterday I met with a rep. from Remington and we discussed Remington's involvement in the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. No final decision has been made yet, as they are still considering the options. Remington DID donate a few boxes of ammo, though, and a few accessories too which was a nice gesture and greatly appreciated! Thanks!!
Yesterday I also loaded a few rounds of 9mm. ammo and scurried over to the range to see how it worked in the Taurus 9mm. Econo Race gun. Not as well as I would have liked. Finding the right load can take a bit of trial and error, but I'll find it......
This morning KeeWee and I headed up to the CWSA range for a rimfire hanging plate match. The weather was fantastic, but with the holiday weekend and several clubs all hosting matches on the same day, turnout was light. None the less, we all had a great time, and LouG shot his all time best score. That new Leupold/Gilmore red dot sight seems to be working well for him.
After the match we headed to the optical place to get some defective lenses replaced in KeeWee's glasses. Then we swung by Costco to restock on some food items and have a quick hotdog while we were there. An hour and a half drive later, we were back in the driveway at Completely Castle, and ready for an ice cold soda pop!
Tomorrow morning we're back to the CWSA range for a bowling pin shoot. It's going to be a REALLY long day as I am planning to shoot five classes. With the inter-club challenge match tryouts next week, I need to get in a lot of practice if I want to make the team, and there's no better practice than shooting matches themselves. You can practice all day shooting paper and work out the mechanics part, but competition is the only way to put it all together and see what's left that needs work.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day..............
Good news! The entry deadline for the current e-Postal handgun match "give a Rhino a Hand" has been extended until Monday night to allow folks to shoot the match over the 3 day weekend.
KeeWee started her day early this morning with a call from her brother in New Zealand. Early morning phone calls are seldom bearers of good news, and once again this was the case. KeeWee's mother had passed away. Athough she had not been in the best of health, it was still a shock. We were planning a trip to New Zealand after the first of the year for a visit.
If you would like to offer condolences to KeeWee, you can do so here. Thanks to all of you who have offered kind words of support during this difficult time.
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