e-Postal Match "High Fives" rule Update

Merle pointed out that since the "High Fives" e-Postal match will be shot entirely on one sheet of paper, and the tie-breaker will be the total of the five off-hand shots, how can you tell for sure which five were the off-hand shots?

That's a good point. To resolve this, I have slightly modified the rules so that the tie breaker will be the score of your five lowest scoring shots. That does pretty much the same thing, and if, after that you are still tied, it gets posted as a tie.

CWSA Steel Challenge Match Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first Steel Challenge match of the year at the Central Whidbey Sportsman's Association. That is, unless it's raining heavily, then we'll have a falling plate match, but the weather forcast looks pretty good, so I'm betting on a Steel Challenge match. Being a glutton for punishment, I've decided to enter four classes, Rimfire Open, Rimfire Limited, Revolver, and Centerfire Open. That ought to make a full day of it!

According to what I've heard, the Custer Sportsman's range is under about eight inches of water, so they have cancelled their shoots for a while. That means that a bunch of them are likely to show up tomorrow for our steel match. If that's the case, we should have a big turnout, and it could be a long day.

I don't usually do all that well at steel challenge matches, but the best way to improve is by doing it, so we'll see if this helps any!

I'd kinda like to go shoot in the World Steel Challenge Championship in California in August, but I would like to be shooting well enough that at least I'm not dead last. Next to last, that'd be OK, but I hate being absolutely last......

Anyhow, off to bed, as I've got a whole lot of brass to empty tomorrow!

e-Postal Handgun Match "High Fives"

NOTE: I have revised the tie-breaker rule below:

This month's handgun match "High Fives", is a real challenge. The object is to get the highest score you can with 10 shots, 5 fired from a rest position, and 5 fired from a two handed standing position.

This "High Fives" has five classes. Depending on the number of entries, sub-classes may also be recognized.

If there are three or more black powder handgunners out there that are willing to enter, I'll create a class just for them.

TARGET: The same target is used in all classes.

The target can be downloaded from here:

HIGH FIVES Targets

It is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

CLASS ONE - Rimfire Iron Sight: Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, non-optical type sight.

CLASS TWO - Rim fire Optical Sight: Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, any sight.

CLASS THREE - Center fire Iron Sight: Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, non-optical type sight.

CLASS FOUR - Center fire Optical Sight: Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel, any sight.

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

No paint ball guns!

DISTANCE - All Classes: 25 feet, or Ten yards, which ever is available at your range.

FIRST TARGET SHOOTING POSITION: Standing, un-supported, off-hand, one or two hands on gun permitted.

SECOND TARGET SHOOTING POSITION: Any shooting position - bench rest allowed. No gun vises or clamps. We are testing your skills, not the guns!

PROCEDURE: Five shots, one at each bull, un-supported. Five shots, one at each bull, support permitted. Ten shots total. Two, hopefully, in each ten ring. All shots on the same paper target sheet.

SCORING: In each class you are allowed ten shots total. The maximum match entry score is 100 points. Touching the ring counts as in the ring.

Ties will be decided based on the the total score of your five lowest scoring shots. on the un-supported target score. If it's still tied, it will be posted as a tie. You can shoot the match more than once if you don't like your score and want to try again.

Mark your score on each target with a legible felt pen, along with the class and type of gun used. Don't write your name on the target, only the name you want to appear in the results, as your target may get posted on Mr. Completely.

STRATEGY: This one's simple. Hit all the bulls!

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

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

PRIZES: Nope, it's just for the fun of it and the bragging rights!

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

1. Your score for each target page and the total of both pages.

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

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

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

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

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

Please put "High Fives Entry" in the email title so it goes into the correct mailbox!

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

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

Be sure to include the URL for your website pictures.

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

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

All entries must be received by Midnight on Monday, April 23rd., and results will be posted within seven days, or less.

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

Have fun!!

---

BLOGGERS: We would greatly appreciate your help in promoting the e-Postal Match series through your blogs. Thanks!!

JimmyB's 2nd. Blogaversary -- WOO HOO !

It's JimmyB's second BLOGAVERSARY, so go swing by The Conservative UAW Guy and leave him a comment of congratulations.....

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Contract Signed

Today I signed and sent off the contract with Circus Circus in Reno for next October's Gun Blogger Rendezvous, AKA GBR-II. The good news is that the room rates will be exactly the same, and we have added Thursday night and Sunday night special hotel rates, too. Sky Tower room rates will be $89.00 per night for Friday and Saturday nights, and $49.00 per night for Thursday and Sunday nights. We will also each receive a VIP package which gives us discounts in the Circus Circus restaurants and stores, two free drink coupons, and a voucher for one free slot tournament entry. Also included is one free "fun book", but it doesn't say what exactly that contains.

The Tahoe room will be our hospitality room, same as last year, except that we will also have it available on Thursday and Sunday, as well as Friday and Saturday. We will also have free wireless internet available for our attendees. Our banquet dinner will be on Saturday night, the same as last year, in the Mandalay room, as last year.

The group rate identifier codes for the discount room rates has not been set up yet, but it should be available soon. As soon as it is assigned, I'll get a post up so you can book your rooms. Registration information for the Rendezvous itself will be posted soon, once a few more of the details are sorted out.

It looks like this year's Rendezvous will be an international event, with a number of French shooters and bloggers planning on attending. Now we need some Canadians, Brits, Aussies, and other countries to send along a few shooters and bloggers to join in on the fun!

It's gonna be a blast, so circle the dates on your calendar now, October 11th., 12th., 13th., and 14th. in Reno.

CWSA Hanging Plate Match 03/25/07

Even the night before the match, no one knew if it was going to be a rimfire hanging plate match, or a round robin rimfire falling plate match. If it was raining on Sunday morning, we would go to the pin range and take advantage of our new shooting station and staging area shelters, and shoot a falling plate match. It the rain had stopped during the night and the range wasn't too muddy, we'd go to the 75 yard range and shoot the first CWSA hanging plate match of the year.

When KeeWee and I arrived, we could see that cars were starting to park at the 75 yard range, so a hanging plate match it would be! For such threatening weather it looked like we would have a reasonable turnout, particularly since it was early in the year. We had a number of new shooters, including Mac, Wayne, and Wayne's son Mike. (From now on referred to as "Big Mike").

We would shoot two classes, rimfire optical sight, and rimfire iron sight. Each shooter would shoot three six shot strings at each distance, 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards. The plates would be 4" diameter at 10 yards, 5" diameter at 15 yards, 6" diameter at 20 yards, and 7" diameter at 25 yards. You have six seconds to fire each six shot string at the plates. You get one point for each plate hit, for a perfect possible score being 72 plates.

Just as we started shooting, it started to rain. Not heavy, but wet enough that I put the camera away, rather than getting water into it. That's why there's no pictures.

By early afternoon we had all completed our shooting and it was time to add up the scores. In optical sight class, my unconventional Taco Grip and silhouette based stance lends itself well to this type , since speed isn't as much of an issue as is accuracy. I managed to pull off the win, followed by LouG and "Evil Al" in third. When was the last time you saw Al as low as third? Lou was having a good day, and managed to get a few more plates than Al. KeeWee and Rainy ended up tied. Talk about a close rivalry! At last week's falling plate match KeeWee outscored Rainy by one half of a point. Those two are always neck and neck.....

The big story of the day was the iron sight class. Big Mike, Wayne's son, had fired one round through a 9mm. several years ago. With the exception of some rimfire rifle shooting as a lad, that's his TOTAL handgun experience, except for last Thursday, when I took Mac, Wayne, and Mike to the range for a little handgun practice before the match. We went over some of the basics as to range safety, grip, stance, and so forth. Everyone shot 6 or 8 magazines full of ammo. That was it.

At the end of the 10 yard segment, I had a one plate lead over Big Mike in second place. After the 15 yard segment, I had picked up one one plate for a two plate lead. The tables turned on the 20 yard segment, with Big Mike hitting three more plates than I, to give him a one plate lead going into the final distance. It now boiled down to 18 shots from 25 yards to decide the winner, and I was one plate behind.

I had an exceptionally lucky run at 25 yards, (with me, iron sight class ALWAYS involves a lot of luck!) giving me just enough plates to pull off the win. Congratulations to Mike on a really fine day of shooting, and I can see that it's only a matter of time until Mike's going to be big trouble for the rest of us at CWSA!!

Everyone had a little bit of "First Match of the Year" problems, but everything went smoothly under the expert guidance of LouG, our shoot coordinator.

After the match, Wayne, Mike, KeeWee and I headed up to Oak Harbor for a good Mexican dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

What a fun day!!

Wish you could have been there to share the fun................

72 Virgins, Just As Promised........

Kinda gives you one more reason to try to get to heaven, just so you can watch the terrorists arrive.........

CWSA "Plate" Match Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning KeeWee and I will be off to the CWSA club range at Coupeville, Washington for a handgun match, but we won't know for sure what it will be until we get there. The schedule calls for a Rimfire Hanging Plate match, which is held near the backstop berm end of the CWSA 75 yard range. If it's raining, though, since there's no weather protection at that end of the range, if it rains it gets muddy, and you end up getting soaked.

If it IS raining, we have a dry alternative. We move the match to the CWSA bowling pin range and shoot a falling plate match instead. The pin range has brand new steel roofs over the shooting stations and the spectator/competitor areas just behind the shooting stations. With the new steel falling plate targets we don't even have to come out from the weather protected areas to reset targets, as that is done with the pull of a rope.

The nature of the two types of matches is completely different. The hanging plate matches require only modest speed, but good accuracy and consistency. Falling plates, on the other hand, require a lot less accuracy, but all the shooting speed you can muster. In short, practicing for one messes you up for the other! Even shooting a pin shoot the day before a hanging plate match makes the hanging plates a lot more difficult, as you have to force yourself to slow down and be accurate.

It should prove an interesting day...........

More On Washington State Gun Show Bill SB 5197

I mentioned in a prewvious post that Senate Bill 5197, thew gun show "loophole" bill, was in the Senate Rules Committee and had been added to the "X" file. According to some Olympia folks in the know, that means that the Rules committee has round filed it, as far as taking any action on the bill. Although this is good news, the bill is never really dead until the legislative session is over. The bill can be brought to the Senate floor for a vote at any time, if enough senators vote to do so.

At the moment our (not really elected) Governor has several brush fires to deal with which are probably taking up most of her (and her arm-twisting team's) time.

For example, the mess with the state department of corrections releasing 3,500 felons per month back into the community, and doing almost nothing to monitor them. The head of the department of corrections has a plan, however, that should make us all sleep better at night. His plan is to increase monitoring of those released felons all the way up to where they actually would monitor as many as 25 percent of them, once a year. He maintains that since SOME of the corrections officers have as many as 40 (!) felons to monitor, there just isn't enough staff to do any more than that.

Lets do some simple math, shall we? If we figure four weeks to the month, that would work out to ten felons per week to check up on. That would be two a day. That doesn't sound too difficult to me. You can probably check up on most of them with a phone call, maybe even require them to phone in on a regular basis?

How hard can it be...........

Bore Sighter Left In Barrel - OUCH!

All things considered, the bore sighter stood up rather well!


Kinda artistic, don't you think?


Perhaps you could make it into a table lamp?


Maybe you could just leave it on the bench, quietly sneak out to your car, leave, and never return, hoping no one recognizes it as your rifle..............

2007 e-Postal Handgun Match Schedule

I now have the starting and ending dates established for this year's e-Postal Handgun match series. The name is a little misleading, as some of the e-Postal matches will also be open to various other classes of firearms including rifles, air guns, and whatever else the individual blogger running that month's match may choose to include, and that alone could prove to be interesting in itself!

Each match will be designed by a different gun blogger, and it will be hosted on his blog. The basic concept is that a target is designed or selected and made available for download. From the host's blog you get the rules for the match, and how to get the target. You shoot the match per the rules, then scan or photograph your targets and email them to the host blogger. When the e-Postal match closes, the host blogger then sorts out the scores and posts the results on his blog.

What do you win if you win? Well, the match, that's it! No prizes, just bragging rights.

Typically each match will be announced on the first Monday of the month, and will end at midnight on the last Monday of the month. The September e-Postal match may be extended a few weeks to the last day of the Reno Gun Blogger Rendezvous so additional entries can be shot in Reno, like we did last year.

Anyhow, here's the schedule:

April 2nd, START
April 23rd. END
Host: Mr. Completely

May 7th., START
May 28th., END
Host: FreeSpiritMind

June 4th., START
June 25th., END
Host: Captain of a Crew of One

July 2nd., START
July 23rd., END
Host: The Conservative UAW Guy

August 6th., START
August 27th., END
Host: Carnaby Fudge

September 3rd., START
September 24th., END
Host: What Would John Wayne Do?

October 1st., START
October 22nd., END
Host: Traction Control


We are considering a special rule this year, however, that JimmyB, the Conservative UAW Guy, will not be permitted ammunition, must shoot standing with his back to the target, and must wear a milk bucket over his head, just to even it up a bit........

Olympia Has X Files !!

The following was taken directly from the Washington State Legislature's website pertaining to SB 5197.

Check out the last entry, "Senate Rules "X" file. Boy, does that give you grounds for speculation! Will the bill be secretly be brought to the Senate floor by little gray men with a flying saucer? Will Mulder and Scully be there?

I didn't even know they HAD X Files in Olympia. Granted, I've suspected some of the legislators were possibly recent arrivals from some other planet or dimension, or something, but REAL X Files, WOW, how COOL is THAT!!

SB 5197 - 2007-08

Regulating the sale of firearms at gun shows and events.

History of Bill as of Wednesday, March 21, 2007 7:36 PM

Sponsors: Senators Tom, Kohl-Welles, Kline, Fairley, Murray, Weinstein, Regala, Jacobsen
Companion Bill: HB 1026

2007 REGULAR SESSION

Jan 12 First reading, referred to Labor, Commerce, Research & Development.

Feb 8 Public hearing in the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce, and Research & Development at 3:30 PM.

Feb 27 Executive action taken in the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce, and Research & Development at 1:30 PM.

Feb 28 LCRD - Majority; 1st substitute bill be substituted, do pass.
Minority; do not pass. Passed to Rules Committee for second reading.

Mar 21 Senate Rules "X" file.

Calling Mr. Zumbo

A week ago, (03/14/2007 to be exact) I sent the following email to Mr. Jim Zumbo at

jim.zumbo@huntingcampjournal.com

inviting him to attend the Bun Blogger's Rendezvous next October in Reno. I thought he might enjoy the chance to hang out with some gun bloggers for a couple of days. As of today I have had no response from Mr. Zumbo. To be fair, it is entirely possible that the above email address is no longer a good address, but the email did not come back undeliverable, either. If any of you have a known good email address for Mr. Zumbo would you please forward this email or a link to this blog post so he would get it? Thanks!

Email to Mr. Jim Zumbo:

Mr. Zumbo,

As the coordinator of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous coming up in early October in Reno, I would like to personally invite you to attend. It's a great opportunity to spend a few days hanging out with gun folks, get in some range time, and get the chance to meet and swap stories with the top shooting sports bloggers in the world. It will be held at the Circus Circus hotel and Casino, and special room rates will be available for Rendezvous attendees.

To find out more about the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, here's the website:

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Website

Hope you can come join us in Reno!

Mike
AKA Mr. Completely
##

When I hear back from Mr. Zumbo, I'll post his reply for you...........

Honest, We're Just Out Here Fishin'

This 2000HP European drug runner boat was used to run cocaine across the English Channel. It was finally caught by helicopter! On board, 300 kgs. of cocaine.

No wonder they could afford all those Yamaha outboards.

Thanks to Chuck for the picture.

Fred Thompson Prez Poll

I came across an interesting poll at Sparklit.com. The poll seems to be a list of just about all of the "Declared" or "Considering it" Republican presidential candidates. The poll is already closed, and it only had 4608 votes, so it certainly can't be considered on the same level as the big national polls, but even so, the results are a bit of a surprise. It doesn't say just how the notice of the poll was distributed, so there is no way of knowing the demographics.

It does make me want to look deeper Fred Thompson's politics, though.......

CWSA First Ever Rimfire Falling Plate Match

The weather wasn't quite as crummy as last week, as 23 hardy rimfire shooters converged at the Central Whidbey Sportsman's Assocuation range in Coupeville, Washington for the very first Rimfire Falling Plate match ever held at the CWSA range.

Five 6" disks, and one 4" disk. The smaller plate, called the Stop Plate, is actually painted yellow, but in the picture they all look white.

The brand new plate racks were clamped to the rear of the tables that we normally use for bowling pin shooting. The object is to knock over all of your plates before your opponent does. You can shoot the plates in any order you like, as long as you shoot the "Stop Plate" last. Once the plates are knocked over, a pull of a rope stands them back up for the next time.

The round robin match format meant that everyone would get in a lot of shooting. If there are 16 or less shooters, everyone shoots against everyone else three times. Since we had more than 16 shooters, we broke it into two groups and everyone in each group shot against everyone else in their group three times. Each shooter gets one point for winning a run, or one half of a point for a tie. After the group shooting was over, the points are added up to determine the group winners.

Mark shot some very good tables. He's improving every time I see him shoot.

The group totals showed the amazing "Evil Al" had mowed down the competition, winning every single table he shot in his group. Although we didn't have any timers going, I would estimate that he was shooting all six plates in between 2.5 and 3 seconds just about every time. WOW!!

It's not easy to get a picture of Al, he just moves too fast for my camera! Here he is ready to win another table.

I had a whole lot of really close tables, that today went my way, and I ended up by dropping only one table to Johann, and winning all the rest. Fortunately I was not in Al's group!

KeeWee shot some amazingly fast tables, easily beating a number of shooters and putting pressure on some faster shooters that were a bit surprised at how fast she was shooting!

Now it was time for the grand finale, 3 out of five, to decide the overall match winner.

"A hush fell over the crowd......."

(Actually, just about everyone had packed up and gone home, as it was wet, rainy, windy, and getting miserable.)

The first table was actually closer than I expected, but Al got me by about half a plate. At least he hadn't completely blown me away! The second table I actually managed to edge him by just a fraction.

The third table Al got bit by an ammunition gremlin and had a round fail to fire. By the time he cleared the round and resumed firing, I had taken the table. Even with Al losing time by having to clearthe round, I still just barely beat him! Dang, Al's fast!!

The fourth round. I was ahead two tables to one. If I could get lucky just once more, the match was mine. I tried to shoot just a little bit too fast, missed a plate, and Al put round four in his pocket.

Now it was winner take all, one table to decide the match. All I have to do is shoot probably faster than I've ever shot in my entire life, but hit every plate too. Yeah, right.....

I did the best I could, and didn't make any mistakes, but Al is Al, and he was not to be denied. I was close, I made him work for it, but he proved once again why he wins most of the matches at CWSA.

Now some folks get upset when they lose, but I wasn't upset at all. I knew I had shot my best, and just got beat by a better shooter. I was happy I was able to make it to the final, and more importantly, I managed to make Al sweat a little, and that's almost as much fun as winning!!

It was a grand day, excluding the weather, of course, with lots and lots of shooting. I went through well over 200 rounds of ammunition. There were lots of really close matches, and everyone had a great time.

KeeWee and I can hardly wait for the next one!

---

KeeWee has a post up with a couple of more pictures HERE.

Mad Gun has a post up on the match HERE.

'Puter Mods!

My friend Uncawho tells me that he plans to spend a good portion of St. Patrick's day using his computer, now that he finally has it all set up just the way he likes it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Everybody!!

Gun Show Bill 5197 Dead - For Now......

Good news from Olympia, Washington, and the Washington State Senate concerning Senate bill 5197, the bill to require all private party gun sales at a gun show to be done through a FFL holder, has died in the rules committee. Yesterday at 5pm. was the deadline for bills to get voted out of committee, and 5197 didn't get voted out!

YAAAAAAAAY!!

Now, that being said, any bill that dies in committee can be brought to the Senate floor by a vote of the Senate. Our (not really the) Governor and her people are pushing really hard to get this bill passed. The more conservative Democrats who come from the more rural areas of the state don't want to vote for this bill against the wishes of their constituents, but they don't want to go against the Gov either. The best of both worlds for them would be for the bill to not get out of committee, which is how it now stands.

The bad news, and why we should not be celebrating yet, is that the Senate can bring the bill to the floor of the Senate at any time by just voting to do so. If it goes to the floor, with a Democratic 2/3 majority, it would, in my opinion, probably pass.

The good news is that the Gov is currently up to her eyebrows in two big controversies, the first being the Department of Corrections releasing 3,500 felons a month back into society and not monitoring them, and the second controversy is a battle over a overhead viaduct through downton Seattle that is falling apart, and needs to be either refurbished, or replaced with either a tunnel, a new viaduct, or surface streets. The least expensive approach, refurbishing the current viaduct, would cost half a billion dollars less than the next least expensive alternative, but the Gov refuses to even consider it. With all that going on, hopefully she will have all her troops working on those problems, and leaves the gun show bill alone.

We'll just have to wait and see.......

Falling Plates - Something New at CWSA

At Central Whidbey Sportsman's Association we are always willing to give new types of competition a try. For example, last week at our first bowling pin shoot of the year we added a new big bore revolver class. This coming Saturday, March 17th., we will be having our very first Rimfire Falling Plate match.

There are a lot of different ways falling plate matches are run, but the one thing they all have in common is the use of steel targets that are hinged on the bottom so when you hit them they fall over, and a pull of a rope sets them back up for the next round.

Here's how we are going to run the CWSA Rimfire Falling Plate matches:

We will set up the plates on the bowling pin range tables on the pin range. There will be five plates to each table, four 6" round plates, and one 4" round plate. The 4" plate, called the "Stop" plate, will be painted black, and the other four will be painted white. The location of the stop plate will be different at each match. The distance from the shooting stations to the plates will be approximately 30 feet. Shooters will start from a low ready position, the same as at our pin shoots. The competition will be head to head, with the first shooter knocking over all four white plates, then the stop plate, winning the table. The format will be a round robin, so every shooter will get a chance to shoot against every other shooter. This means you will get a whole lot of shooting in, so you will want to bring at least 200 or 300 rounds! Final standings will be determined by the number of tables won.

I suspect that this will turn out to be a very popular match, not only because of the large amount of shooting you get to do, but for the great practice it will be for other types of handgun competition.

All the fun starts at 9am. this Saturday, but DO NOT BE LATE! Once the round robin schedule is made up for the match, we can't add in a late entry. Show up late, you get to be a spectator, it's that simple!

See you on Saturday!

THE STRING AND THE SPOON

A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an organization.

Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.

When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?"

He explained, "The restaurant's owners hired a consulting company to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."

As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it with his spare. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen, instead of making an extra trip to get it right now." I was impressed.

I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly. Looking round, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies! So, before he walked off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?",

"Oh, certainly!" Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also found that we can save time in the restroom by tying this string to the tip of you know what. We can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent."

I asked "After you get it out, how do you put it back?"

"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use the spoon."

Hat tip to KeeWee and her friend Linda!

Sodium Disposal in Lake Lenore

Lake Lenore is now one of the best fly fishing lakes in Washington State. I've caught a number of cutthroats around 6 lbs. in Lenore, and one of my favorite spots is just to the left of where the sodium went in. I'll bet there's quite a hole hollowed out in the bottom of the lake right there!

Thanks to Akafuze for the video.

CWSA First Pin Shoot of the Year

All pictures can be clicked on for a bigger view

Rainy and I, Centerfire Optical Sight - First Table.


Rainy and I on the second table.


Chris and I, Revolver class, tied on our first table.


Chris and I, Revolver class, very close on the second table.


Chris and I, Revolver class, very close again on the third table.


Tony thumping me solidly in revolver class. He's already finished! SHEEESHHH!!


LouG and I on the first table of Big Bore Revolver. It was close!

---

Saturday morning the weather looked really lousy, with high winds and rain. Saturday was also the first pistol shoot at holmes Harbor Rod & Gun club, and the Custer Club was also shooting a handgun match, I think. All of that combined to produce a really low number of shooters at our first pin shoot of the year. The good news about the weather was that although it was raining and blowing both to the North and South, at the CWSA range it was only windy, and not very cold, so it wasn't a bad day for shooting at all!

"Evil Al" had caught a terrible cold or something, and was just to miserable to shoot, although he stopped by to handle the initial shooter's meeting. Shortly thereafter he went back home to recuperate. Rainy and LouG did a fine job running the shoot, and everything went smoothly. After getting through shooting the tables for time to determine the first round matchups, we got right into the matches.

I didn't get much time to watch the Centerfire Iron Sight class, but LarryF, with an injured left shoulder, was shooting his CZ75 one handed, and I think he ended up second in the class.

Centerfire Optical Sight class, usually one of the bigger classes, only had two of us sign up, Rainy with her new 9mm. STI, and me with my Taurus 9mm. Econo Race gun. We decided to go ahead and shoot it anyway, and my "Budget Blaster" prevailed, two tables in a row.

Revolver class had a better number signed up, but still only seven or eight shooters. LouG met Tony the Kid in the first round, and was quickly turned into a spectator. I met up with Chris, Tony's dad, and pulled off a mild upset, and Chris usually beats me. The bad news, however, is that now I got to shoot against Tony. I was really close on the first table, but the second one he smoked me big time. I even shot a pretty good time, at least for me. Usually only Evil Al beats up on me that badly! Tony ended up winning the class handily.

In the new Big Bore Revolver class we had three shooters, LouG, AlS, and myself. Lou had fastest qualifying times with his Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 magnum, followed by me with my Ruger .480 Super Red Hawk, and AlS right behind with his Ruger Red Hawk .44 Magnum. I went up against AlS in the first round, and progressed to the final against LouG. Now LouG is a good friend, and a darn fine shooter. He has shot his .44 in pin shoots in the past and has done well with it.

Our first table was very close, but I narrowly got the pins on the ground first. The second table, we both threw caution to the wind and shot as fast as we could. Lou got his 6 shots off faster that I, but left one pin laying on the table. and I had one shot to go, with one pin standing, one rolling towards the edge, and one on its side. The rolling pin continued to roll, and finally rolled off the table. YAHOOO! The best I could do was to get one of the remaining pins off the table with my last shot to make it a tie table with each of us leaving one pin on the table. There was no hurry, all I had to do was hit the one standing pin squarely. With everyone watching, this was not a shot I would want to miss! To my great joy the 370 grain hard lead bullet found the body of the pin, and it went sailing off the table.

The pins were re-set, we re-loaded, and got to do it all over again. The last table was close, but I narrowly squeaked out a win to take the first Big Bore Revolver class at CWSA. What a ball! By down-loading the ammo a bit so it wasn't painful to shoot, the big bore revolvers become really fun to shoot, and big lead bullets really send the pins flying. I hit one pin and it must have gone four feet straight up, end over end!

We had better numbers of shooters in the Rimfire optical classes, with several new faces giving pin shooting a try for their first time. By this time of day I've started to lose track of individual matches, but in the Rimfire Optical Sight class I entered my 12" barreled High Standard and my Smith & Wesson 422. In the semi-final I ended up against myself, and retired the 422. The final was a blur, and I don't remember who I shot against, although I do remember that I did manage to pull off the win. By now I had shot a LOT of tables!

KeeWee timed in somewhere in the middle, and ended up against Rainy in the first round, a repeat of the final at the last match of the year. Rainy beat KeeWee by about half a pin on both tables, but it was close.

In the Rimfire Iron sight class I met JimP, my old nemesis, in the first round, for another one of our close rounds. In the next round I met RandyN, a new shooter who was really shooting well. I shot two bad tables in a row, and Randy shot two excellent tables to win the round. Randy went on to win the class handily. (Gotta watch this guy!)

Hopefully with a little better weather our Saturday, April 7th. pin shoot will have a better turnout. If you weren't able to attend, I hope you can make it to one of our next shoots! We have a good time!

Next Saturday, March 17th., will be our first Rimfire Falling Plate match. The rimfire falling plate matches are very similar to pin shooting. The steel plates have to be knocked over, and it's head to head competition. The plates are larger than pin tops. We will use a round robin format rather than a elimination format, so every shooter will shoot against every other shooter. You should bring LOTS of ammo!

Come give it a try!

---

A BIG thanks to KeeWee for taking the pictures, as I was too busy shooting to do much photography!

D.C. Gun Ban Overturned

JUST IN -- This could be big news:

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the District of Columbia's longstanding handgun ban, issuing a decision that will allow the city's citizens to have working firearms in their homes.

In the ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected city officials' arguments that the Second Amendment right to bear arms only applied to state militias.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges held that the activities protected by the Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued intermittent enrollment in the militia."

Check out the entire story at Fox News

UPDATE: It looks like the entire blog world is all over this story!

CWSA Season Opener Pin Shoot Tomorrow

It sure seems like it's been a long Winter, with the snow, power outages, and not a lot of range trips. Tomorrow is "Opening Day" for the CWSA shooting season, and we're hoping for a good turn out. The new larger pin shoot shelters are in place, and a fresh layer or gravel has been spread, thanks to the hard work of LouG, AKA "Mad Gun". The big tree next to the pin range has been removed, before it fell over.

In addition the the regular classes, we will be debuting the new "Big Bore Revolver" class, to see how that works out. This just might turn into one of the more popular classes!

Here's the classes slated for tomorrow's pin shoot:

Centerfire - Iron Sight

Centerfire - Optical Sight

Revolver - Any Sight

Big Bore revolver - Any Sight

Rimfire Pin Tops - Optical Sight

Rimfire Pin Tops - Iron Sight

That should make for a full day of shooting, so be ther at 9am. sharp, and get ready for some pin shootin' ! ! !

Legis-loonies Report

Yesterday we held another conference call with some of the Washington State Republican legislators from the House of Representatives. the current hot topic in the news is the parole release of dangerous felons into our communities, and the department of Correction's failure to monitor these felons. When parole violations occur, these felons are not being arrested and put back into prison. Instead, the DOC is more or less ignoring the parole violations, and letting the felons remain on the outside. Their excuse is that there just isn't enough prison space to re-incarcerate them!

Every time the Republicans have put forth a bill to build more prisons, the Democrats block it. Our "Not Really " Governor even ordered the DOC to stop even considering building more prisons, or even working out plans and costs to do so! "we can't afford to build any more prisons." they bleat, yet we have over two billion dollars of surplus money in the state treasury, even beyond the 1.7 billion surplus put into a rainy day emergency fund.

A house bill was proposed to stop all felon releases until the DOC solves the problem and makes changes to their procedures to keep track of these felons. The bill was blocked from even getting out of committee by the Democrats. Since the bill never got out of committee, a motion was made on the floor of the House to bring the bill to the floor for a straight up or down vote. This bill was also blocked by a straight party line vote, excvept for three Democrats who voted to bring the bill to the floor. The next morning all three of the Democrats issued statements that their votes should have been against the bill coming to the floor, now that they had thought about it over night. That seems to happen a lot to the Democrats......

Another bill discussed was SB5197, the "Gun Show Loophole" bill. Last week we reported that, at least in the opinion of Senator Jim Clements (R), the bill was a dead issue, and would never see the light of day. It now appears that may not be the case. It sounds like there is some serious Democratic in-fighting going on over SB5197. One faction, composed of the Governor and the "Big City Democrats" are pushing really hard to ram this terrible bill through the legislature.

All of the Republicans, and a lot of the Rural Democrats see this bill as a bad bill, and are solidly against it. If this bill comes out of the rules committee and goes to the floor for a vote, it could get really ugly, particularly for the more conservative rural Democrats. They would be in a lose-lose position, where if they vote for the bill, their constituents are going to be really unhappy, and may not re-elect them come next election. If they vote to oppose the bill as their constituents would prefer, they will tick off the Governor and her folks, not a good thing if you want to get any help in the future from the Governor. Sure glad I'M not in that position!

That's the high (low?) points for this week ,and I'll keep you posted as things develop.........

Gun Blogger rendezvous - How it Got it's Name.

The question of how the Gun Blogger Rendezvous got it's name has been brought up several times in the last year or so. Says Uncle thinks we should change the name because it's too hard to spell. Actually, the rendezvous has a lot of history behind it, and with that history in mind, the name was chosen.

One of the best articles on the North American "Rendezvous" is on the Bed & Breakfast Inns and Ranches of Wyoming website:

The rendezvous system was the innovation of William Ashley of the American Fur Company. He had been trying for several years to find a good way to retrieve the year's collection of furs, and at the same time outfit his trappers for the upcoming year's operations. When he hit upon the idea of establishing a central meeting site where all trappers and traders could gather to do their business, the fur trade came into its own. Since an animal's winter fur is more valuable than its lighter summer coat, trappers were basically off work in the summer and the rendezvous became an annual party to end all parties. The traders brought in mail, newspapers, and gossip, plus supplies, including raw alcohol which they watered down and flavored with tobacco, ginger, or chilies, then sold as whiskey.

With alcohol as a lubricant, everything else seems to have fallen under the heading of drunk and disorderly behavior. The trappers rejoiced greatly in their reunions with friends rumored dead. Representatives of all the Indian tribes came for the festivities, and their women folk were a major attraction. New recruits, missionaries, artists, newspaper reporters, and other "tourists" traveled west with the traders, and the mountain men and Indians delighted in initiating them into the spirit of things with rowdy welcomes. Tall tales, dirty jokes, feasts, gambling, horse races, fights, wrestling, shooting contests, songfests, and similar activities filled both day and night. A suit of ancient English armor was given to Jim Bridger at the 1837 rendezvous. Trapper Joe Meek tells of borrowing it and parading around camp in fancy dress.

A rendezvous was apparently great fun, unless you happened to be one of the unfortunate souls who got knifed, shot, raped, or as was the case at one rendezvous, bitten by a rabid wolf that rampaged through a group of men rendered defenseless by alcohol. Meek told of seeing four trappers playing cards using the dead body of a comrade for a card table, but whether it actually happened or not is hard to say -- Meek was a better storyteller than he was a historian.

To this day there a a number of clubs around the world that re-enact the rendezvous gatherings of the early 1800's, wearing authentic clothing, shooting black powder firearms, throwing axes, cooking over an open fire, and more. Last Summer I did a post on a local Black Powder Rendezvous at our local gun club.

Fortunately for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous attendees times have changed, and such carrying on would be a bit extreme, even for our Reno! The spirit of the old rendezvous' continues, however, in the meeting of old friends, making of new friends, swapping stories, partying a bit (!), and also getting in some friendly shooting out at the range.

This year's Rendezvous will be held at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Reno in early October.

Hope you can make it!

We're Banned in China !

It seems that the great chinese firewall has blocked Mr. Completely from being accessed by Chinese citizens. I wonder, was it the guns, the politics, or the bad jokes that got me banned?

You can check any URL to see if it's blocked HERE.

Thanks to Retired Geezer at Blog Idaho for finding this!

Melissa Theuriau Invited To Gun Blogger Rendezvous

The Header from Melissa's website.

Last Summer Fodder at Ride Fast - Shoot Straight put together a "TV Picture" featuring Melissa Theuriau to help promote the upcoming Gun Blogger Rendezvous. Melissa is a Television news broadcaster in France, and also does a Sunday night news magazine program called Forbidden Zone. She also has her own website, both in French and English.

Fodder's handiwork.

Through the magic of the internet a number of American Gun Bloggers have now met and gotten to know Manfred of Armes Et Mir Passion, his French gun blog. Manfred and a bunch of other French shooting sports enthusiasts are now making pland to attend next October's Reno Gun Blogger Rendezvous (GBR-II). In the course of varous emails, someone (probably Fodder!) suggested that he should also bring along Melissa Theuriau to the Rendezvous.

With that in mind, Manfred tracked down Melissa's email address and sent her an invitation! The invitation is in French of course, but you can click on the Babelfish dealie at the top of his left sidebar to (crudely) translate the invitation into English. The translation leaves a bit to be desired, but you can read it and get the point, anyway.

I have also sent her an invitation as follows:

As the coordinator of the Reno, Nevada Gun Blogger Rendezvous to be held next October, I would like to invite you to attend our event.

I understand that Manfred from Armes et mir Passion has also invited you to attend, and we would all welcome your attendance.For more information on the Rendezvous have a look at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous website.

We hope to see you in Reno!

If you would also like to encourage Melissa to attend the Rendezvous, you can contact her HERE. The more invitations she gets, the more likely that she would suggest it to the TV network as a good story. Let's hit her email with invitations!!

Who knows, she just might be able to convince the TV network that it would be a good story for her news magazine.

A Joke for the Day

Bubba's sister is pregnant and is in a bad car accident, which caused her to fall into a deep coma.

After nearly six months, she awakens and sees that she is no longer pregnant. Frantically, she asks the doctor about her baby.

The doctor replies, "Maam, you had twins - a boy and a girl. The babies are fine. Your brother came in and named them."

The woman thinks to herself, "Oh, no! Not Bubba; he’s an idiot!"

Expecting the worst, she asks the doctor, "Well, what's the girl's name?"

"Denise," the doctor answers.

The new mother thinks, "Wow! That's a beautiful name, maybe I was wrong about my brother. I really like the name Denise." "What's the boy's name?"

The doctor replies, "Denephew."

Thanks (I think!) to Eddie in Ireland.....

Some Faces of Pin Shooting

Sometimes the pictures speak louder than words. Last Saturday a few of us gathered at the CWSA Pin Range for a little last minute pin practice, load testing, joke telling, story swapping, and all the rest of the usual stuff that transpires when a bunch of friends gather at the range. Here's a few pictures from the get-together. Be sure to click on each to make them full sized.

Glenn tries out the Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun, with good results.


Mark demonstrates that sheer will-power and determination may just give him an edge!


Lisa: "This isn't that hard, in fact, it's fun and easy!"
Mark: "Crap! She's kicking my butt........."

We all had a fun time getting in a little shooting. I got to sight in a friend's Ruger Super Red Hawk .454 Casull for him. We used relatively mild loads in it for the pin shooting, but just to see how it would move a pin I tried a couple of full house hunting loads. WOW! After three rounds fired I could see that .454 Casull hot loads can get to be "Not Fun" very quickly.....

Next Saturday is the first CWSA pin shoot of the year, and I am SO not ready. Evil Al usually clobbers me anyway, but I like to try to at least make him work for it! Rainy, KeeWee, JimP, and Lou are all getting faster and faster, and I don't seem to be improving nearly as fast as they all are.

This should be an interesting season coming up...............

THE 5 BEST SMART-ASS ANSWERS OF 2006

SMART ASS ANSWER #5

It was mealtime during a flight on Continental Airline flight. "Would you like dinner?" the flight attendant asked John, seated in front. "What are my choices?" John asked. "Yes or no," she replied.

SMART ASS ANSWER #4
A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and he opened his trench coat and flashed her. Without missing a beat, she said, "Sir, I need to see your ticket not your stub."

SMART ASS ANSWER #3
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?" The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead."

SMART ASS ANSWER #2
The cop got out of his car and the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window. "I've been waiting for you all day." the cop said. The kid replied, "Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could." When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.
SMART ASS ANSWER OF THE YEAR 2006
A college teacher reminds her class of tomorrow's final exam. "Now class, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, No other excuses whatsoever!"

A smart-ass guy in the back of the room raised his hand and asked, What would you say if tomorrow I said I was suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?" The entire class is reduced to laughter and snickering.

When silence is restored, the teacher smiles knowingly at the student, shakes her head and sweetly says, "Well, I guess you'd have to write the exam with your other hand."

Don't you wish you could come with lines like this when you need them?

Hat tip to Luke!

Larry Elder -- My Pick for President

Looking over the front runners for the Republican and Democratic nomination for president, there doesn't seem to be ANYONE who's solidly pro second amendment. Heck, there doesn't even seem to be a conservative in the lot!

As I looked for someone who is a good communicator, well educated, street-smart, and not afraid to stand up and state his position without a lot of "weasel-words" (no offence intended towards Cowboy Blob's ferrets), one person comes to mind, the talk radio host Larry Elder. Now before you laugh this off, go to Larry's website and have a look around. Spend a few minutes seeing what he has to say. In particular, have a look at his Ten Point Plan. Then write down the ten main points expressed by any of the other candidates. (Can you find ten? Didn't think so! )

Now go down the lists one item at a time and see how many match up with your personal politics. I'm not exactly "eye-to-eye" with him on everything, but he's way closer than anyone else.

To have any chance at all, he would have to run as a Republican, but we have "Conservative" Republicans, "Moderate" Republicans, and even "RINO's", so I have no problem at all with a Libertarian Republican. Actually, I kinda like the sound of it!

In today's politics, Thomas Jefferson would be a Libertarian Republican, and that's what we need.......

Note: The picture above is Larry with his mother, otherwise known as The Chief Justice!"

A Little 50 Caliber Goodness!

A custom built 50 caliber long range target rifle.


The pictures don't really do it justice!


Each bullet is individually machined from brass.


Roughly a 3/4" 4 shot group at 200 yards.

When Lee telephoned me and said he was going out to the range to shoot his new 50 caliber long range target rifle and would I like to come out and shoot it, I jumped at the chance. Lee had just picked up this beauty, and was going to do a little ammo testing to find out what loads it likes.

Each bullet is machined from solid brass. They are almost to nice to shoot! Lee wanted me to take the first shot as it takes a few shots to get the barrel "Dirtied-up" and settled down to see what it was doing. The rifle was custom built using a McMillan receiver, and I forgot to write down the name of the barrel manufacturer. The Jewel trigger was set at one ounce! That's not a typo! To say it's light is a gross understatement, when you feel it, it fires! WOW!

We chambered a snap-cap and I fired it a couple of times to get used to the trigger. Then it was time for a live round. At the cost of each round, I only wanted to fire one to see what it was like. The target was at 200 yards, the farthest distance available at this range. I took a deep breath, exhaled, made sure the cross hairs were where they should be, and gently touched the trigger........

HOLY COW!

Not only was there an incredible "BOOM", you could feel the concussion on your face and chest! Due to the weight of the rifle and the compensator the recoil wasn't much at all, particularly considering I was probably slightly in shock from the boom.

I turned it back over to Lee so he could carry on with his load testing, and I logged the chronograph reading as he was shooting. Watching it being shot, I'm not sure if I was actually seeing the shock wave, or just smoke, or both, but there was roughly a six foot diameter ring around the muzzle when it fired, perhaps a rip in the time-space continuum, or something?

It didn't take Lee long to finish up with the rounds he was testing, and he packed up the rifle and equipment to head back home.

I walked over to the pistol range with my .480 Ruger ror a little more load testing of my own. By then my feet were getting really cold from standing in the snow, so I packed it in for the day. KeeWee, who had been sitting in the warm van all this time, and I headed in to the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club clubhouse for a couple of delicious hamburgers for lunch, then headed home.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours, I'd say.........

Light Blogging Today

Today is going to be a bit of a busy day. Work this morning, got a post up on the Senate Gun Show bill, and then a conference call to Olympia at Noon. Then right after the conference call I'm off to the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club range. My neighbor, Lee Rasmussen, will be there and I'll get a chance to shoot his 50 caliber target rifle, the same one he shot a 2.81" group at 1,000 yards at the Nationals. WOO HOO!

Will there be a post? Will there be pictures?

You Betcha!!!