Interesting Range in France

French Range on Top of A Mountain

While checking out Manfred's blog "Armes Et Tir Passion" I came across an interesting range in Nice, France. Shooters being somewhat ingenious by nature, when they wanted to set up a range, they took land that was available, but in this case it was on the top of a mountain. In fact, possibley the highest mountain in the vicinity, judging by the antenna tower on the top of the mountain along side of the range.

Now my French is limited to ""Chevrolet" and "Rendezvous" and I barely speak English, speaking American instead, but it was interesting cruising around their site looking at the pictures. The main page has a slide show part way down the page with a lot more pictures of their facility.

....... and they shoot pins, too!

Wrens in the Carport

FEED ME ! ! !

In a previous post I mentioned that I had discovered a wren's nest in the carport in a cardboard box stacked next to the garbage can, and underneath several other boxes. I was afraid that I might have disturbed it when I moved a couple of the boxes. I put everything back as close to "As Was" as possible, and crossed my fingers that momma bird would return, as there were several small pinkish eggs in the nest.

I checked today and sure enough, the eggs have hatched and there are now at least three little wren chicks in the nest, maybe more. I can't get very close to the nest to take a good picture, but I did the best I could.

I know that they mature really quickly, but I wonder how long it takes from hatching to being able to fly for wrens. Anybody know?

Natchez Shooter's Supply To Sponsor GBR-II

I have just received word from Natchez Shooter's Supply that they will be generously supporting this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous through the donation of gift certificates, and possibly some hats and shirts.

Natchez is another company with whom I have dealt with in the past, and have always found them to be courteous and helpful. If you don't have a Natchez catalog, give them a call at 1-800-251-7839 and get one on the way. They have a huge amount of stuff, and while you're at it, thank them for their support of ther Gun Blogger Rendezvous. It never hurts to say "Thanks!"

The Rendezvous greatly appreciates their generous support! Thanks, guys!!

Washington Legislative Report - Wrap Up

I just concluded the final Olympia Lawmakers/Bloggers Conference Call for this session of Washington state legislature, and it was a bit depressing. With the Republicans outnumbered roughly two to one, it was just about impossible for any Republican ideas to make any headway at all.

At the start of the session, the Republicans identified four main categories of legislation that needed some action; Tax Relief and Spending restraint, Transportation, Health care, and Education.

Tax Relief: No tax reform legislation passed. Legislation to establish property tax growth as had been approved by the voters but overturned in court was not allowed to even be voted upon.

Spending Restraint: The new budget will not only wipe out the 2 billion dollar surplus, it will put us roughly 2 billion dollars in debt, and not one penny of the surplus will be returned to the taxpayers. Voted in the largest budget increase in history for this state.

Transportation: No legislation to resolve the Alaskan Way Viaduct problem in Seattle, although they DID talk about it a bit. Voted to borrow a lot more money to pay for cost over-runs on current transportation projects.

Education: They voted to spend more money on the State Colleges, while still allowing in-state tuition for illegal aliens. We now have a standardized curriculum for sex education for our schools, although there is no standardized curriculum for math, English, history, or any other subject. No action was taken on standardized testing in K through 12 education to see if the students are actually learning anything, but a study group was formed to study the issue. I believe this is the 18th. study group to address this issue.......

And finally, a Global Climate Change Task Force was created by this year's legislature. Perhaps they should just pass a law outlawing global climate change?

Was there any good news? Not very much. The law to restrict private gun sales at gun shows died in committee, which is good, but it should have never been in the legislature in the first place.

It must be incredibly frustrating to be a Republican legislator in this state............

e-Postal Match #2 - "GOLF"

Azreel at Freespiritmind is known for his creative and often difficult target designs in the e-Postal matches, and this month's e-Postal match lives up to his reputation.

There are lots of different classes, and it involves both off-hand and supported shooting modes to give you plenty of challenge. There are no limits to the number of shots you can take, but you have to hit the hole, just like golf. Oh, there are also penalties assessed for hitting sand traps, going out of bounds, and hitting the water hazard, too!

Here's the link to the post with the rules, and the link to download the target is also there in the post.

F O R E ! ! ! !

Idol Gives Back - My Thoughts

I watched the American Idol "Idol Gives Back" telethon last night, and I commend them on their concern with the death and poverty in Africa. Unfortunately, they missed the point by a mile when they skipped/overlooked/ignored the real root causes of the problems in Africa, and failed to address those problems. Now don't get me wrong, any humanitarian efforts to help these people that can actually have an effect should be done, if at all possible and feasible.

Lets take a quick look at the three main issues; malaria, AIDS, and poverty. Malaria, as we all know, is transmitted by mosquitoes. Kill off the mosquitoes carrying the disease, and malaria pretty much disappears. There are two basic actions to get rid of the mosquitoes, pesticides, and draining the swampy areas that are the mosquito breeding grounds. Draining swamps often requires heavy equipment, not always available in the African outback. Spraying with pesticides, however, can be done easily, cheaply, and effectively, using DDT. According to Africa Fighting Malaria's website, only two countries in Africa are using DDT to control malaria, South Africa and Zambia, and both are having spectacular results.

From AfricaFightingMalaria's website:

"But international political pressure against DDT deployment is undermining wider use. There is even a United Nations treaty--the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants--which restricts DDT production, trade, and use, making it more expensive. In effect, disease control is being sacrificed for the sake of an international environmentalist agenda. Worse still, aid agencies, especially the U.S. Agency for International Development, have pressured countries not to use DDT, implicitly conditioning even non-malarial aid on halting DDT use."

"Environmental ideology ought not to be driving malaria control strategies. Developing countries need to be able to use technologies that are appropriate to their levels of development. The anti-DDT eco-imperialism actively pursued by the WHO, the Global Fund, and USAID shuts off a number of development options for these countries, keeping them poor and unhealthy."

You should go read the entire article on their site. You will come away with a completely different view of the malaria problem in Africa. Idol Gives Back wants to send them medicine for treating malaria once they have contracted it, and mosquito netting to keep them from getting bit by the mosquitoes. Netting won't keep you from getting bit, it just reduces the number of times you DO get bit. Just about anyone from Alaska can tell you that.

AIDS is killing millions in Africa. I suspect very few of those got AIDS from shooting up with dirty hypodermic needles. That leaves one other method of getting AIDS. Idol Give Back could buy a lot of condoms with all that money they collected last night. Will they buy any at all? I have my doubts, but we'll see....

Lastly, poverty. This is almost entirely the fault of the governments of the individual countries. When you start out with huge natural resources as Africa has, you almost have to work at it to fail and remain a third world country. Even if you have very little for natural resources, you can still have a high standard of living, as Japan has so clearly shown.

Have you noticed that there don't seem to be very many communist governed countries that have a high standard of living? Not too common under iron fist dictatorships, either. For the most part, the keys to economic success and a high standard of living seems to be capitalism and basic freedoms, as then there is an incentive for people to figure out a way to succeed.

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the Idol Gives Back telethon will do a little bit to help a relatively small number of people currently suffering and dying in Africa, but by not addressing the root problems, there will be little change in the grand scheme of things, which is a shame, as their efforts are certainly well-intended........

High Five Target

Since I turned in a "High Fives" e-Postal Match score of 98, I figured I better post a picture of it so you'all would believe me! Now, hitting the 1/2" center with a .22 with a red dot sight from a bench rest at 27 feet isn't all that hard, primarily it's a matter of not rushing what you are doing and let the gun do it's job. Offhand, however, is another story. This was an amazingly lucky target. I doubt I could match it again in ten tries!

I fired three or four shots from the bench, and a couple off-hand just to loosen up, then shot the target. This was my first try at the target, and as I said, a whole lot of luck went into this one. Sometimes things just fall into place and you shoot better than you really can shoot.

Where was that luck last weekend at the pin shoot when I couldn't have hit the berm with a shovel?

High Five Target

Since I turned in a "High Fives" e-Postal Match score of 98, I figured I better post a picture of it so you'all would believe me! Now, hitting the 1/2" center with a .22 with a red dot sight from a bench rest at 27 feet isn't all that hard, primarily it's a matter of not rushing what you are doing and let the gun do it's job. Offhand, however, is another story. This was an amazingly lucky target. I doubt I could match it again in ten tries!

I fired three or four shots from the bench, and a couple off-hand just to loosen up, then shot the target. This was my first try at the target, and as I said, a whole lot of luck went into this one. Sometimes things just fall into place and you shoot better than you really can shoot.

Where was that luck last weekend at the pin shoot when I couldn't have hit the berm with a shovel?

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Reservations Info

Things are cruising right along in preparation for this year's Rendezvous. We have now received the group code from Circus Circus so you can book your rooms and get the discount group rates. This year we set it up so you can get special rates for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Several folks last year didn't head home until Monday, so the Sunday night rate will prove handy this year.

The room rates for Thursday, October 11th., and Sunday, October 14th. are $49 per night. The rate for Friday October 12th., and Saturday, October 13th. are $89 per night. All room rates also have an additional tax added to the price. Included in the room rate is free wireless internet (usually an extra $10 per day) and a package of coupons for some freebies and discounts. The room rate also covers the hospitality rooms for us for all four nights, so we have a common meeting location for our group.

To book your accommodations, telephone Circus Circus reservations at 1-800-648-5010 and give them the group code of

IGUN07

If you have any problem with getting your room reserved, let me know, but you shouldn't have any trouble. JimmyB, The Conservative UAW Guy has already got his reservations in and it went smoothly.

When you get your reservations in, please send me an email at

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

And let me know so I can put your name on the list, and get you mentioned on the blog as planning to attend.

You will also need to register each person attending the Rendezvous to cover the Saturday dinner. I will have the Rendezvous registration information posted in a few days.

As last year, any money raised by the Rendezvous beyond immediate expenses will go to help others in need. Last year we helped Dan McKown.

Remember, the Gun Blogger Rendezvous is not just for Gun and Mil Bloggers. Anyone with interest in shooting sports, blog readers, and anyone else who would like to meet and hang out with a bunch of right wing gun totin' wackos bloggers with similar interests, go for it! We'd love to see you there.

Keep checking in for more information as it becomes available.

e-Postal Match "High Fives" Results

Class I - Rimfire Iron Sight

	Name	Score	Caliber	Handgun Type
1	Ahab	93	.22WMR	EAA Bounty Hunter
2	CrebralFix	93	.22	Ruger 22/45
3	Ahab	91	.22	Walther P22
4	Mr. Completely	89	.22	High Standard SC 106
5	Kim DuToit	85	.22	Colt Officer's Match Rev.
6	US Citizen	84	.22	Ruger MK-III
7	Davebo	76	.22	Ruger MK-II
8	Fodder	75	.22	Colt SAFrontier Scout
9	Mr. Completely	65	.22	JC Higgins Mod 88 Rev.
10	Merle	59	.22Mag	Ruger SSS 9 1/2"
11	US Citizen	51	.22	Ruger MK-I
12	Davebo	41	.22	Ruger MK-I

Class II - Rimfire Optic Sight

1	Mr. Completely	98	.22	High Standard SC 106
2	JimmyB	94	.22	Ruger MK-II
3	KeeWee	87	.22	High Standard SK 103
4	US Citizen	78	.22	Smith & Wesson 22A
5	Merle	60	.22	Ruger MK-II

Class III - Centerfire Iron Sight

1	Ahab	86	.38	Ruger GP 100
2	Sailor Curt	84	.45ACP	Ruger P97
3	Ahab	83	.38	Taurus Tracker
4	Ahab	81	.32ACP	1935 Beretta
5	Kim DuToit	75	.45ACP	Springfield 1911
6	US Citizen	74	.45ACP	Kimber Pro Carry
7	JimmyB	64	.45ACP	Norinco 1911
8	Fodder	63	.45ACP	Colt 1911A1
9	JimmyB	50	9mm	Glock 19
10	Merle	40	38/200	Enfield No. 2 Mk. I
11	Merle	39	.45ACP	Colt Combat Commander
12	Merle	30	9mm.	Walther P38
13	Merle	22	9mm.	FN Lightweight Hi Power
14	Merle	19	7.62x25	CZ-52

Class IV - Centerfire Optic Sight

1	JimmyB	85	.45ACP	Colt Series 80 Gold Cup 1911
2	Mr. Completely	84	.38	Taurus 66 Revolver
3	Mr. Completely	78	.480	Ruger Super Red Hawk
4	Mr. Completely	65	9mm.	Taurus PT-92

---

All Entries by Score

1	Mr. Completely	98	.22	High Standard SC 106
2	JimmyB	94	.22	Ruger MK-II
3	Ahab	93	.22WMR	EAA Bounty Hunter
4	CrebralFix	93	.22	Ruger 22/45
5	Ahab	91	.22	Walther P22
6	Mr. Completely	89	.22	High Standard SC 106
7	KeeWee	87	.22	High Standard SK103
8	Ahab	86	.38	Ruger GP 100
9	Kim DuToit	85	.22	Colt Officer's Match Rev.
10	JimmyB	85	.45ACP	Colt Series 80 Gold Cup 1911
11	US Citizen	84	.22	Ruger MK-III
12	Sailor Curt	84	.45ACP	Ruger P97
13	Mr. Completely	84	.38	Taurus 66 Revolver
14	Ahab	83	.38	Taurus Tracker
15	Ahab	81	.32ACP	1935 Beretta
16	US Citizen	78	.22	Smith & Wesson 22A
17	Mr. Completely	78	.480	Ruger Super Red Hawk
18	Davebo	76	.22	Ruger MK-II
19	Fodder	75	.22	Colt SAFrontier Scout
20	Kim DuToit	75	.45ACP	Springfield 1911
22	US Citizen	74	.45ACP	Kimber Pro Carry
23	Mr. Completely	65	.22	JC Higgins Model 88 Rev.
24	Mr. Completely	65	9mm.	Taurus PT-92
25	JimmyB	64	.45ACP	Norinco 1911
26	Fodder	63	.45ACP	Colt 1911A1
27	Merle	60	.22	Ruger MK-II
28	Merle	59	.22Mag	Ruger SSS 9 1/2"
29	US Citizen	51	.22	Ruger MK-I
30	JimmyB	50	9mm	Glock 19
31	Davebo	41	.22	Ruger MK-I
32	Merle	40	38/200	Enfield No. 2 Mk. I
33	Merle	39	.45ACP	Colt Combat Commander
34	Merle	30	9mm.	Walther P38
35	Merle	22	9mm.	FN Lightweight Hi Power
36	Merle	19	7.62x25	CZ-52

---

The entries are now in and the scores are entered, and here's the results of "High Fives", the first e-Postal handgun match of the year. We had a great turnout for the first match of the season. We had a lot of very close scores, and the Rimfire Iron Sight class ended up tied between Ahab and Crebralfix, each with 93 out of 100. The tie was broken by going to the highest score for each shooter's worst five shots, and it was still almost a tie, but Ahab squeaked out the win by only one point on the tie breaker! That's close,

If winning was based on who has the most fun, and if who ever shoots the most and enters the most has the most fun, then Merle is clearly the winner, but Ahab wasn't far behind!

Scanning down the list of handguns used, you see there was a wide variety, it looks like a little bit of everything got dragged out of the safe for some limbering up! That's what these matches are all about. Bring out all of those guns you haven't shot for a while, head out to the range, and have some fun. There's no money on the line, just the pure enjoyment of sending a little (or a LOT) of lead down range.

Special credit goes to JimmyB for how well he shot, considering he had to shoot with his back to the target and wear a bucket over his head while shooting........

We also want to welcome new e-Postal match shooters Davebo, and Kim DuToit. Glad you guys got the chance to shoot some entries, it sounds like you had a good time.

The number of excuses submitted this match was exceptional, and I'll share some of the best ones in a future post for everyone's enjoyment. Some were brilliant!

Thanks to everyone who entered. The next match will be announced shortly.

Stay tuned!!

CWSA PIN Shoot 04/21/2007

When KeeWee and I headed out the door to drive to the Central Whidbey Sportsman's range for the bowling pin shoot, the weather was kinda gray and not too promising, but as the day wore on, it steadily improved.

I decided to shoot several classes; Centerfire Optic, Revolver, Big Bore Revolver, Rimfire Optic (two guns entered) and Rimfire iron sight. Needless to say, I was kept pretty busy reloading magazines and getting gear ready to go for the next class.

Some shooters came down from Custer, too, so it was a multi-club meet. We all shot four tables of pins against the clock, and our slowest time was thrown out. Our first round opponent was determined by our times. Gerald from Custer set a new CWSA record on one table with a time of 2.47 seconds! WOW, that's fast! His combined time for three tables was under 8 seconds.

Here's a video of Gerald shooting a sub-three second qualifying table:




He's not only hitting them quickly, he's hitting every one in exactly the same place. It's amazing to watch.

Once the qualifying times were added up, it turned out that Gerald with his 38 Super had posted the fastest time, and his time with his .45 was second. Unless someone would to switch with him, he would have to retire one of his guns and not get to shoot it in the match. No one wanted to meet Gerald in the first round, particularly as fast as he shoots, as it would be just about guaranteed that you would be knocked out in the first round.

I had qualified down around 5th or 6th, with a 13.39 second total time, with my 9mm. Taurus Econo Race Gun. I have always enjoyed shooting against Gerald, although the results were usually the same every time. None the less, it's always fun to go up against the "Big Dog", so I volunteered to shoot against Gerald and his 38 Super in the first round. He had driven a long ways to get to our match, and it would be a shame not to get to shoot both of his guns.

Gerald on the left, with Mr. C. on the right, LouG running the timer.

The first table I shot absolutely the fastest centerfire time of my life, 5 pins, 5 shots, and not much over 3 seconds. WHAT FUN! Did I lose the table, well, yeah, but not by very much! Had Gerald knocked just one pin over and required a second shot I would have got him! WHOOOEEEEE!

The second table was also close, as you can see in KeeWee's picture above. It was also very close. Unfortunately I was now knocked out of the Centerfire Optic class, since it's a single elimination format.

Revolver class was a similar outcome. Evil Al pretty much dominates the revolver class the way Gerald does in centerfire. No one wants to shoot against Al in the first round, so sometimes other shooters don't shoot quite as good of qualifying times as maybe they could have done (was that tactful?) so they get to shoot against slower shooters in the early rounds. Even though I shoot my revolver single action, I still ended up with the second fastest qualifying time and got to shoot against Al in the first round. I shot the best I could, but Al was just a bit too fast for me. I didn't get clobbered, but I wasn't close to winning, either!

We only had two big bore revolvers on hand, so LouG and I duked it out three out of five just for the fun of it. Lou with his S&W .44 Magnum, and I with my Ruger Super Red Hawk .480. It turned out to be the only tables I won all day......

Rimfire Optic sight pin top class only had four shooters, five entries since I entered two guns, my long barreled High Standard, and a S&W model 422. By now it had been a long day, and most of the other shooters had gone home. KeeWee beat Lou, Al beat me twice (I couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a 2x4, ugly, very ugly.....), which put KeeWee against Al in the final. Although Al won the final, KeeWee was right there, and wasn't far away from the win. It was close.

It was a long day, and on paper I didn't do very well overall, but for a very brief time I was shooting almost on a level with Gerald, and that was great fun!

Big Shootin' Weekend

Shootin' season is now upon us, and this weekend KeeWee and I are off to the CWSA range on Saturday for a bowling pin shoot. Sunday we're back to CWSA again for a hanging plate match, unless it's pouring down rain, then it will be a falling plate match instead, so we can stay under the shelters on the pin range. Either way, we've got lots of shootin' in store this weekend!!

Full reports when we get back..............

Squirrely Visitor

We looked out the den window this morning and there, trying to figure out how to get to the bird feeder, was this squirrel. We see chipmunks every so often, but squirrels are much less common. I watched him for about ten minutes until he finally gave up and scampered off.

You just never know what you are going to see in the yard!

Iraq Patton Doctrine

This one's for Rivrdog!



Thanks to MaryS for the heads-up!

Smith & Wesson Model 22A

Now that my BAG Day purchase has arrived, and I've had a chance to play with it a bit, I figure it's about time to get a post up on it.

Smith & Wesson Model 22A .22 Caliber Semi-Automatic Pistol.

I ordered the model with the 7" barrel. A full length sight rail is standard, along with target sights. There are not very many cross slots machined in the sight rail, so mounting a red dot sight may require having one additional slot machined in the rail. I machined the slot with a milling machine, then re-blackened the aluminum with Brownell's Aluma-black, which did the job and kept it from looking like a "Bubba Job."

The barrel is removable with the push of a button, almost exactly the same as on the later push button take-down High Standards. It works well.

Barrel removal push button.

The slide and barrel are steel, and the frame appears to be an aluminum casting. The model 22S is very similar to the 22A, but the frame is stainless steel, rather than aluminum. The rubber grip feels a little boxy in your hand, but not bad at all. The adjustable rear target sight is better than average.

Field stripping the 22A is easy, so regular cleaning doesn't require a lot of fooling around to get it back together. To strip it, you remove the magazine, lock the slide back and verify the chamber is empty, push the barrel retention button, lift the front of the barrel a few inches, and lift it off the frame. The slide and spring can then be lifted off, and you are ready for cleaning. Reassembly is also straight-forward. Reinstall the slide and spring. There is a small hook on the bottom rear of the sight rail that engages the top of the frame near the rear of the slide. Hook that into place, then lower the barrel down, push in the barrel retention button, and lower the barrel the rest of the way onto the frame. If it's fully seated, the barrel retention button should be back out to it's normal position. Release the slide and let it drop against the barrel a couple of times to be sure everything is seated, and you're finished!

Magazine release button in the front of the grip.

The magazine release location is somewhat unusual. It's in the front of the grip, the same as on the Models 622, 422, and 22S. Once I got used to the location, I really started to like it, as it's easy to find with the tip of your middle finger, and you can push the button without releasing much of your grip. When you push in a magazine, it pushes against a spring loaded pin that allows the disconnector to engage the sear. When the magazine is out of the gun, this makes it unable to fire. A side benefit of this is that when you push the mag release, the spring loaded pin launches the magazine out of the frame very nicely.

One of the first things I did was take it apart, look inside, and see what I could do to improve it. Mass produced products in the lower price ranges often don't have the fit and finish one would expect from a more expensive product, but that doesn't keep you from doing a little polishing and fitting yourself. Sometimes the results can be amazing from just a little attention to detail, making a pistol have a completely different nature and feel.

A rough (pun intended) rule of thumb is that there isn't much inside a pistol that works better rough rather than smooth, particularly with parts that slide against each other. There are places where sharp edges are important, such as the hammer and sear, so don't go rounding stuff off unless you know what you are doing. In fact, if you aren't pretty sure of what you are doing, talk to a gunsmith before doing anything. You should also keep in mind that any polishing you do may, and probably will, void any warrantee, and the factory will probably refuse to work on it if it needs repair.

While I had the 22A apart I smoothed up a lot of sliding contact areas. I also did a bit of trigger work to get the trigger pull down a bit. The hammer, hammer strut, and hammer strut spring can be a pain to re-install unless you have some sort of a strut spring compressor tool. I would recommend not removing those parts unless absolutely necessary.

After I got it all reassembled, I headed to the range to see how it shoots. The 22A has a reputation for being picky as to ammo, so I brought a good assortment of brands to try. I discovered that 22A's do not like hollow points, or more specifically, any squared off bullet nose, as it will catch in the little square holes in the front of the magazine where the magazine retention button engages the magazine, and the bullet will not come up past that point. It usually seemed to happen most often when you start with a full magazine, and after the first round was fired, the stack would fail to feed from there. If you load only eight or nine rounds, it seemed to feed OK, but would still jam once in a while. I tried it with five different magazines and they all had the same problem.

More rounded nose bullets, such as CCI Blazers, Mini-Mags, and CCI Standard Velocity all worked well, with the Mini-Mags and CCI Standard Velocity ammo working the best of what I tested.

Magazine retention button engagement holes in the magazine.

As you can see in the picture, the more squared off bullets like the two on the left gave most of the feeding problems. The one on the right gave no problem at all. Ideally you want a long taper on the nose of the bullet with a small diameter radius on the tip.

Regular jamming in the magazine with the two on the left.

Once I figured out the ammo, I could get down to some shooting. The stock trigger wasn't all that bad, but it did respond to a little bit of a trigger job. Accuracy was decent, and far better than just about all of the shooters out there. In close to 500 rounds of ammo fired, there was not a single stove-pipe. If it chambered it, it fired it, and it ejected the casing without problem.

The Smith & Wesson Model 22A is a very reasonably priced .22 pistol, and it gives you a lot for your money. A little investment of time and gunsmithing expertise can make it noticeably better, without having to by any aftermarket parts. The red dot scope makes a nice addition, particularly for those of us without eyes like eagles, and the feel and balance with the red dot in place is good.

With the exception of the hollow point magazine feeding problem, I was very satisfied with the 22A, and would recommend it as a good plinker/club level match pistol for anyone. It is one of the least expensive .22 auto pistols on the market, and gives you a lot of value for the money.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced .22 pistol, you should definitely give the 22A a hard look. It might be just what you're looking for......

e-Postal Match "High Fives" Reminder

Midnight Monday night, April 23rd. is the close of the first e-Postal Handgun match of 2007. So far only one shooter has submitted entries, excluding myself. This is the last weekend for you to get your entries shot and entered, so when you head out to the range this weekend (you ARE going to the range this weekend, aren't you?) be sure to take along a stack of High Fives targets and as many handguns as you can pack with you!

To get the rules and download the targets, click this:

e-Postal Handgun Match "High Fives"

Have fun!!

Virginia Tech Massacre

Our prayers and condolences go out to the families in Virginia, right now. It's a terrible tragedy.

As there are lots of folks out there in the blogosphere analyzing yesterday's shooting, I'm not going to go over all the same ground. I do, however, have a couple of observations.

1. If gun control laws actually worked, this would not have happened.

2. We are now hearing the same old arguments for tighter gun control laws. If they would only remove the word "gun" from their arguments and substitute "Student Visa" they'd have a lot stronger argument.

3. A bill authorizing concealed carry in Virginia just died in committee in the Virginia legislature. How ironic.

4. It's easy to second guess the campus cops. Wait until the facts are in first.

KRRC Fun Steel Match - 04/14/2007

5:30am comes awfully early for someone who's a night person to start with, but when the alarm went off I dragged myself out of bed and made an attempt to become one of the living. Not exactly 100% successful, but I did the best I could! Anyhow, if I was going to catch the 7:15 ferry from Whidbey Island over to Port Townsend, and make it to the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club's monthly Fun Steel match, it had to be done.

I loaded up the guns, gear, and coffee, and headed out the door for the ferry dock, a 20 minute drive away. The ferries often have more cars waiting than what the boat will carry, so you have to be there at least 30 minutes early, sometimes even earlier. I managed to get on the 7:15 boat, and 30 minutes later drove off the boat into Port Townsend. From there I drove South, then headed back East across the Hood Canal Floating bridge to get to the Kitsap Peninsula. From there it was perhaps another 30 minutes to the KRRC range, near Bremerton, Washington. I arrived at the range just about 9am, as planned.

JohnD, our Match Director, loading some magazines.

Shortly after I arrived I met JohnD, the match director, whom I had met last year here at the KRRC range. We got signed up, had a shooter's meeting, and split up into two squads. Our squad consisted of JohnD, JohnM, and myself, but since each of us were shooting two classes, in effect we had a squad of six shooters. One squad started on stage one, and we started on stage four. The stages were all unique, and none were hard to shoot, if you shoot slowly, but of course this match is scored on time, so the stages got a bunch harder when you hurry. There were a total of six stages, and you shot each stage five times against the clock ,with your slowest time thrown out. That means I shot each stage five times with my High Standard .22, then five more times with the Taurus PT92 9mm. Econo Race Gun. Total runs came to sixty for me for the day. That's a fair amount of shooting!

Stage four (?), put one shot on each target as fast as you can!

As we walked to the far end of the lower range area, it was raining lightly, but as we started shooting the rain stopped, and the weather started getting better. Even the sun was starting to peek through. By stage five it was getting downright pleasant, and by stage six jackets were taken off.

On this stage you have to shoot each round target twice, and the square one once, in whatever order you prefer.

By now the weather was getting downright balmy, and it was T-Shirt weather. As we walked from stages 4, 5, and 6 to the upper range area for stages 1, 2, and 3, we passed the parking lot, so I dropped off my heavy jacket, since I didn't figure I needed it. BIG MISTAKE!

Hit any five rimfire, or knock over any five for centerfire. This is a regular falling plate rack.

Once we got set up and underway on stage one, the blue sky disappeared, the clouds turned dark, and it began to rain. Everyone, and everything, got drenched. Shooting a red dot sight with water running down the glass is a challenge, to say the least! Everything got wet and slippery. I went to pick up the plastic ammo box with my rimfire ammo and magazines inside, and the oil on it mixed with the water made it slippery, and it slipped out of my hand, dumping my magazines and ammo into the mud and sand. OH JOY! I cleaned up everything as best as possible, and we sloshed our way through the final two stages. Just as we finished the final stage, the rain let up and turned into a light drizzle.

Range box and gun case, covered in mud and water.
(Click for enbigalizing)

I loaded everything back into the van, Grabbed a cup of coffee from the thermos, and turned on the heater to dry out a bit. JohnD, DebbieK, and I headed down to the 19th. Hole pub (must be a golf course nearby?) to add up the scores and get something to eat.

We had a chance to visit, swap stories, and just have a pleasant "wind-down" period. What a great way to wind up a match!

As the saying goes, "Time, tide, and the Washington State Ferries wait for no man" so I climbed into the van and re-traced my patch North up the Kitsap peninsula, West across the Hood Canal bridge, and North to Port Townsend. I arrived at the ferry dock a half an hour before the 5:15 boat, but it was already full, so I had to sit in the van until 6:45 for the next ferry. Bummer!

Eventually I did manage to get back onto Whidbey Island and home.

But wait, I have a case full of water-logged guns to clean. Again, OH JOY! I filled a plastic pan with Hoppe's and submerged and sloshed all the magazines to displace to water. I field stripped the pistols and gave then a good cleaning and oiling. by then my eyes were starting to cross from fatigue, so I took a hot shower and hit the sack.

Went out like a light.......

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

I'm not nearly as rabid about flowers and gardening as KeeWee, but I do appreciate all the colors and landscaping that gets done. Here in Western Washington, and specifically the Skagit river valley North of Seattle, is world famous for tulips. LOTS of tulips, millions and zillions of tulips in colors and shapes you've never seen before.

Every Spring the local growers put on a tulip festival, and KeeWee spent the day checking it out a couple of days ago.

She brought back 87 pictures, and a bunch of tulip catalogs. It's going to take several posts to show the best pictures from her tulip trip, but you can see the first post and some of the pictures here.

April 15th = Buy a Gun (BAG) Day

Smith &Wesson Model 22A with the 7" Barrel.

April 15, notorious for other reasons, also has a good side, as currently being promoted by Cowboy Blob. The idea is that on April 15th. you should go out and buy yourself a gun. Not a bad idea, provided you continue to buy the guns you normally would have purchased anyway. For pete's sake don't hold off your purchase until the 15th., though! BUY ANOTHER GUN just to celebrate BAG day!

If anyone asks, "Why are you buying ANOTHER GUN?", the best reply I've ever heard is "Because I can!". Think about that for a moment. Consider just how many places in the world there are that you CAN'T go out and buy a gun.

My BAG day purchase (it should arrive just about on the 15th.) is a brand new Smith & Wesson Model 22A .22 caliber pistol with a 7" barrel, along with five magazines. I have been working with several new shooters, and they have been looking around for a good mid-priced .22 to use in pin and plate matches. The basic parameters I was looking for were as follows:

7" Barrel
Weaver type sight rail for red dot sight mounting
Iron sights
Ease of disassembly for cleaning
Parts Availability
Price under $400 with four magazines.

There are a lot of good .22 pistols out there with decent reliability and accuracy, but after doing some research, it narrowed down to the Browning Buckmark Hunter and the Smith & Wesson 22A. Both designs draw heavily on the High Standard design, which, of course, traces back to the original Browning .22 auto pistol. Removal of the barrel on the Buckmark requires removing two allen screws holding the sight rail. Field stripping the 22A requires only pushing the barrel retaining button, lifting off the barrel, and removing the slide. With a little polishing and tuning, either the Buckmark or the 22A should fill the bill nicely as an entry level/mid-level rimfire race gun.
After I get a chance to break it in and dial it in a bit, I'll get a post up on how it turns out.......

Wren Nest in the Car Port

When I went out to the car port to cut up some cardboard boxes for the garbage, I had a surprise. I had a pile of boxes piled up behind the garbage can, and I had cut up two or three boxes when I noticed a bird nest in the corner of one of the boxes.


At first I thought it might have been an old swallow nest that had fallen from the rafters, but when I looked a little closer I could see a bunch of tiny pink eggs in the nest. I carefully took a couple of pictures, then did my best to put some of the boxes back roughly where they had been covering the view of the nest.


Both KeeWee and I have been rattling around in the car port from time to time with garden stuff, garbage for the garbage can, and other disturbances, so perhaps this disturbance will be ignored too. Fortunately the box and the nest weren't touched or moved, so it should be OK. I did not know that wrens have pink eggs.

UPDATE: Momma wren is back sitting on the eggs, so I didn't disturb her. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the chicks when they hatch.......

Kitsap Fun Steel Match Saturday, I Hope!

Last year at the Kitsap Fun Steel Match.

Man, has it been an entire year since I got over to the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver club for one of their Fun Steel matches? Apparently it has, as here's the post from last Spring's trip. The Kitsap bunch put on a great match and keep everything fairly easy and informal, so it's an excellent match for newer shooters, while still being plenty challenging for the faster folks.

Since last year's appearance at Kitsap, I've made two unsuccessful attempts to return for their matches. One trip was foiled by the fog shutting down the car ferry until it was to late to get there in time to enter, and the second attempt was stymied by too many cars trying to make the same ferry, and I was too far back in the line, so I missed the boat, literally!

This Saturday I will make another attempt, and KeeWee has to work, so if there are any of you local shooters in my neighborhood that would like a ride, let me know. I've got room for about three more shooters in my van.

I'm looking forward to the trip!

LTC Guy Lofaro's After Dinner Speech

This transcript of an address by LTC Guy Lofaro is a bit longer than I usually post, but every word is worth reading............

Dining-in speech at U.S. Military Academy by LTC Guy Lofaro:

"Let me say before beginning that it has been my pleasure to attend several dinings-in here at West Point and hence I have some basis for comparison. You people have done a fine job and you ought to congratulate yourselves. In fact, why don't we take this time to have the persons who were responsible for this event stand so we can acknowledge them publicly.

I guess I am honored with these invitations because there exists this rumor that I can tell a story. Cadets who I have had in class sometimes approach me beforehand and request that, during my speech, I tell some of the stories I've told them in class. For the longest time I have resisted this. I simply didn't think this the right forum for story-telling, so I tried instead, with varying degrees of success, to use this time to impart some higher lesson - some thought that would perhaps stay with one or two of you a little longer than the 10 or 15 minutes I will be standing here. I tried this again last week at another dining in and I bombed. Big time. Of course, the cadets didn't say that. They said all the polite things- "Thank you, sir, for those inspiring words" - "You've provided us much food for thought" - "We all certainly learned something from you tonight, sir." And I'm thinking - yeah - you learned something all right. You learned never to invite that SOB to be a dining in speaker again.

So in the interim I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I would say to you to night. What can I say that will stay with you? And as I reflected on this I turned it on myself - what stays with me? What makes a mark on me? What do I remember, and why? How have I learned the higher lessons I so desperately want to impart to you? Well - I've learned those higher lessons through experience. And as I thought further, I realized that there's only one way to relate experience -that is to tell some stories. So I'm going to try something new here this evening. I'm going to give you your stories and attempt to relate what I've learned by living them. I'm going to let you crawl inside my eye-sockets and see some of the things I've seen these past 18 years.

Imagine you are a brand new second lieutenant on a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula. You are less than a year out of West Point, and only a few weeks out of the basic course. You are standing at a strict position of attention in front of your battalion commander, a man you will come to realize was one of the finest soldiers with whom you've ever served, and you are being questioned about a mistake - a big mistake - that you've made. You see, your platoon lost some live ammo. Oh sure, it was eventually found, but for a few hours you had the entire battalion scrambling. Your battalion commander is not yelling at you though, he's not demeaning you, he's simply taking this opportunity to ensure you learn from the experience. And you do- you learn that people make mistakes, that those mistakes do not usually result in the end of the world, and that such occasions are valuable opportunities to impart some higher lessons. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you see your platoon sergeant emerge from behind a building. He's an old soldier - a fine soldier though - whose knees have seen a few too many airborne operations. He sees you and the colonel - and he takes off at a run. You see him approaching from behind the colonel and the next thing you see is the back of your platoon sergeant's head. He is now standing between you and your battalion commander - the two are eyeball to eyeball. Your platoon sergeant says, a touch of indignance in his voice "Leave my lieutenant alone, sir. He didn't lose the ammo, I did. I was the one who miscounted. You want someone's ass, you take mine." And you learn another lesson - you learn about loyalty.

It's a few months later and you are one of two soldiers left on a hot PZ on some Caribbean island. There's been another foul up - not yours this time, but you're going to pay for it. It's you and your RTO, a nineteen-year-old surfer from Florida who can quote Shakespeare because his Mom was a high school literature teacher and who joined the army because his Dad was a WWII Ranger. The last UH-60 has taken off on an air assault and someone is supposed to come back and get you guys. But the fire is getting heavy, and you're not sure anything can get down there without getting shot up. You're taking fire from some heavily forested hills. At least two machineguns, maybe three, maybe more, and quite a few AKs, but you can't make out anything else. You and your RTO are in a hole, hunkered down as the bad guys are peppering your hole with small arms fire. Your RTO is trying to get some help - another bird to come get you, some artillery, some attack helicopters - anything. But there are other firefights happening elsewhere on this island involving much larger numbers. So as the cosmos unfold at; that particular moment, in that particular place, you and that RTO are well down the order of merit list. You feel a tug at your pants leg. Ketch, that's what you call him, Ketch tells you he got a "wait, out" when he asked for help. The radio is jammed with calls for fire and requests for support from other parts of the island. "What we gonna do, sir?' he asks. And all of a sudden, you're learning another lesson. You're learning about the weightiness of command, because it's not just you in that hole, it's this kid you've spent every day with for the last five months. This kid you've come to love like a kid brother. There is only one way out and that's through the bad guys. You see, you are on a peninsula that rises about 100 feet from the sea. The inland side is where the bad guys are. You figure you are safe in this hole, so long as they don't bring in any indirect fire stuff, but if they come down off those hills, onto the peninsula, then you're going to have to fight it out. And that's what you tell your RTO. We either get help or, if the bad guys come for us, we fight. He looks at you. You don't know how long. And he says only four words. Two sentences. "Roger, sir. Let's rock." Appropriate coming from a surfer. Then he slithers back down to the bottom of the hole. Staying on the radio, your lifeline, trying to get some help. You are peering over the edge of the hole, careful not to make too big a target. You're thinking about your wife and that little month-old baby you left a few days ago. It was two o'clock in the morning when you got the call. "Pack your gear and get in here." You kissed them both and told them to watch the news. Hell, you didn't know where here you were going or why, but you were told to go, and you went.

Then all of a sudden it gets real loud, and things are flying all around and then there's a shadow that passes over you. You look up and find yourself staring at the bottom of a Blackhawk, about 15 feet over the deck, flying fast and low, and as it passes over your hole you see the door gunner dealing death and destruction on the bad guys in those hills. It sets down about 25 meters from your hole, as close as it can get. You look up and see the crew chief kneeling inside, waving frantically to you, the door gunner still dealing with it, trying to keep the bad guys' heads down, who have now switched their fire to the bird, a much bigger, and better, target. You look at Ketch and then you're off - and you run 25 meters faster than 25 meters have ever been run since humans began to walk upright. And you dive through the open doors onto the floor of the Blackhawk. There are no seats in the bird since this is combat and we don't use them in the real deal. And you are hugging your RTO, face-to-face, like a lover, and shouting at him "You OKAY? You OKAY? You OKAY?" but he doesn't tell you he's OKAY since he's yelling the same thing at you -- "You OKAY? You OKAY? You OKAY?" And then the pilot pulls pitch and executes a violent and steep ascent out of there and had you not been holding on to the d-rings in the floor and the crew chief not been holding your legs you might have fallen out. Then you're over the water, you're safe, and the bird levels out, and you roll over to your back and close your eyes - and you think you fall asleep. But then you feel a hand on your blouse, and you open your eyes and see the crew chief kneeling over you with a head set in his hand. He wants you to put it on so you do. And the first thing you hear is "I-Beamer, buddy boy. I Beamer." You were in I-4 while a cadet, and that was your rallying cry. And you look up to where the pilots sit and you see a head sticking out from behind one of the seats. He's looking at you and it's his voice you hear, but you can't make out who it is because his visor is down. Then he lifts it, and you see the face of a man who was 2 years ahead of you in your company. He tells you that he knew you were there and he wasn't going to leave an I-Beamer like that. And you learn about courage, and camaraderie. And friendship that never dies.

It's a few years later and you've already had your company command. You're in grad school, studying at Michigan. You get a phone call one night, one of the sergeants from your company. He tells you Harvey Moore is dead, killed in a training accident when his Blackhawk flew into the ground. Harvey Moore. Two time winner of the Best Ranger Competition. Great soldier. Got drunk one night after his wife left him and took his son. You see, staff sergeants don't make as much money as lawyers, so she left with the lawyer. He got stinking drunk, though it didn't take much since he didn't drink at all before this, and got into his car. Then had an accident. Then got a DUI. He was an E-6 promotable when this happened, and the SOP was a general-officer article 15 and a reduction one grade, which would really be two for him because he was on the promotion list. But Harvey Moore is a good soldier, and it's time to go to bat for a guy who, if your company command was any sort of a success, played a significant part in making it so. And you go with your battalion commander to see the CG, and you stand at attention in front of the CG's desk for 20 minutes convincing him that Harvey Moore deserves a break. You win. Harvey Moore never drinks again. He makes E-7. And when you change command, he grabs your arm, with tears in his eyes, and thanks you for all you've done. Then the phone call. And you learn about grief.

And then you're a major and you're back in the 82d - your home. And one day some SOB having a bad week decides it's time to take it out on the world and he shoots up a PT formation. Takes out 20 guys. You're one of them. 5.56 tracer round right to the gut. Range about 10 meters. And you're dead for a little while, but it's not your time yet - there are still too many lessons to learn. And you wake up after 5 surgeries and 45 days in a coma. And you look down at your body and you don't recognize it - it has become a receptacle for hospital tubing and electronic monitoring devices. You have a tracheotomy, so there's a huge tube going down your throat and you can't talk, but that thing is making sure you breathe. And there's a tube in your nose that goes down into your stomach - that's how you eat. And there are four IVs - one in each arm and two in the veins in the top of your feet. There is a tube through your right clavicle - that's where they inject the high-powered antibiotics that turns your hair white and makes you see things. But disease is the enemy now and it's gotta be done. And there are three tubes emerging from three separate holes in your stomach. They are there to drain the liquids from your stomach cavity. It drains into some bags hanging on the right;side of your bed. And they've shaved your chest and attached countless electrodes to monitor your heartbeat, blood pressure, and anything else they can measure. They have these things stuck all over your head as well, and on your wrists and ankles. And your family gathers around, and they are like rocks, and they pull you through. But there's also a guy, dressed in BDUs, with a maroon beret in his and, who stands quietly in the corner. Never says anything. Just smiles. And looks at you. He's there every day. Not every hour of every day, but he comes every day. Sometimes he's there when you wake up. Sometimes he's there when you go to sleep. He comes during his lunch break. He stays an hour, or two, or three. And just stands in the corner. And smiles. No one told him to be there. But he made it his place of duty. His guard post. You see, it's your sergeant major, and his ranger buddy is down, and a ranger never leaves a fallen comrade. And you learn, through this man, the value of a creed.

And every four hours two huge male nurses come in and gently roll you on your side. The bullet exited through your left buttock and made a hole the size of a softball. The bandages need to be changed. Take the soiled wads out and put clean ones in. And a second lieutenant comes in. She seems to be there all the time. She's the one changing the bandages. And it hurts like hell, but she, too, is smiling, and talking to you, and she's gentle. And you know you've seen her before, but you can't talk - you still have that tube in your throat. But she knows. And she tells you that you taught her Military Art History, that now it's her turn to take care of you, that she's in charge of you and the team of nurses assigned to you, and she won't let you down. And you learn about compassion.

And then it's months later and you're still recovering. Most of the tubes are gone but it's time for another round of major surgeries. And you go into one of the last, this one about 9 hours long. And they put you back together. And you wake up in the ICU one more time. Only one IV this time. And when you open your eyes, there's a huge figure standing over your bed. BDUs. Green beret in his hand. Bigger than God. And he's smiling. "It's about damn time you woke up you lazy bastard" he says. And you know it's your friend and former commander and you've got to come back with something quick - something good. He's the deputy Delta Force commander, soon to be the commander. And you say "Don't you have someplace else to be? Don't you have something more important to do?" And without skipping a beat, without losing that smile he says "Right now, I am doing what I consider the most important thing in the world." And you learn about leadership.

So there you have them. Some stories. I've tried to let you see the world as I've seen it a various points in time these 18 years. I hope you've learned something. I certainly have."

Thanks to Rufus for the transcript.

e-Postal Handgun Match Reminder

With all the other Spring activities taking your attention, don't forget that there's an e-Postal handgun match underway, so be sure to take a handful of targets out to the range and shoot 'em full of holes! (Well, as many holes per target as the rules allow, anyway!)

Ahab at What Would John Wayne Do? got out to the range last week to shoot the match targets, and has a post up along with pictures of how he did.

Pretty dang good, I'd say!

To get the rules and download the targets, click this:

e-Postal Handgun Match "High Fives"

Have fun!!

(A big Thanks to those bloggers who have mentioned the match on their blogs. If you haven't put up a post to publicise the match yet, your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!)

Brownell's To Co-Sponsor Gun Blogger Rendezvous

We are very pleased to announce that Brownells is again going to be one of our sponsors for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous coming up in October. Most of you out there already know about Brownells, but if you don't, here's the short version: Gun parts, gun tools, gun stuff, gun accessories, and all the gunsmithing goodies you could imagine, and to top it off, Brownells is a family run organisation run by some of the nicest folks you would ever care to do business with! I buy from them regularly, and highly recommend them as a premier gun goodies source!

If all goes according to plan, Larry from Brownells is going to try to attend the Rendezvous, so we can meet him in person. Hope he can make it!

41 MPG

The following was swiped from Phils's place, Random Nuclear Strikes:

A 2006 study by Clemson University found that the average American walks about 900 miles per year.

Another study by the American Beer Institute found that American’s drink an average of 22 Gallons of beer per year.

That means, on average, Americans get 41 MPG.

Not bad!

CWSA Falling Plate Match - 04/07/2007

Yesterday the weather was absolutely beautiful, partly sunny, and temperatures in the low 70's. Last night at sunset it still looked promising for a good day today. This morning we awoke to a gray overcast sky, and a little bit of light rain. Not nearly as good as yesterday, but still, not a bad day for a pistol match, by golly!

If you are unfamiliar with the Rimfire Falling Plate matches, scroll down the page two posts and there's lots of background info and pictures to get you up to speed.

KeeWee, LarryW, and I all jumped into my state of the art super luxurious German transportation and headed off to the CWSA range. (OK, it's a Plymouth mini-van, but Daimler IS German! Close enough.....)

Larry is an old friend and retired gunsmith who lives a few miles from us. Larry and I had put together a Browning Buckmark and Red Dot combo for him this last week, and he hadn't had much of a chance to figure out how you shoot with a red dot sight yet. We'd fix that today! Larry is 89 years young, and he shot well for his first time out with a new setup.

LarryW gets his first shot off.

We had a some of shooters visiting from the Custer club, since their range is still flooded, so we had a good turnout of 23 shooters. Not bad at all for a small club like CWSA. "Evil Al" was the match coordinator, and he split the shooters into two groups. Each group would shoot against each member of their own group for three tables. After both round robin's had been completed, the top scoring shooter from each group would shoot against each other, 3 out of 5 table, to determine the match winner. The second highest scorer from each group would shoot it out, again 3 out of 5, to determine 3rd and 4th place.

Brandy has a one plate lead.

MikeF on a roll. He's only been shooting for a couple of weeks! I attribute his success to an outstanding coach and gunsmith (heh!)

With the round robin format, you get in a whole lot of shooting, and you are shooting every few minutes, all day long. Each shooter shot head to head against another shooters at least thirty times, and our group had one more shooter, so we all got thirty three tables. That's quite a bit of shooting, and several shooters figured they each had used close to 300 rounds of ammunition.

With the constant shooting all day I didn't have a whole lot of time for taking pictures, but I did manage to get a few. The fact that the camera was full didn't help, either....

As I watched the individual matches go by, it was really apparent just how closely matched all of the shooters were. There were lots and lots of really close tables, often with only a plate or less difference between the winner and the loser. The bugaboo of shooting the stop plate early bit a few shooters, too. It's really hard to shoot three plates in a row, then skip over one, shoot the remaining two, then come back for the stop plate. The temptation to pull the trigger when you see the stop plate pass in front of your sight is tough to overcome!

By early afternoon the round robin rotations had been completed, and the score cards were turned in and added up. Evil Al had the best score in group one, with Kim from Custer second. I had the best score out of group two, with Tony the Kid in second. KeeWee had shot well all day, and was easily in the top third overall, but the final results haven't been posted yet. Larry was a bit rusty, not having done any competitive shooting in quite a while, but he did well for his first try at falling plates, and more importantly, he had a whole lot of fun, which is what it's all about! New shooter MikeF shot exceptionally well, well up in the standings overall, and Wayne, Mike's dad, also shot very respectably, particularly considering he's also a new shooter.

Once again it was Al and I, head to head. This time, three out of five for the match. Al shoots a well set up Smith and Wesson model 41, and I was shooting my Volquartsen barreled High Standard Supermatic Citation.

The horn sounded, and we shot as fast as we could go. Al shot an amazing time and beat me solidly. I had shot my fastest table of the entire day, possibly my entire life, and got trounced! YOICKS! (I talked to another shooter after the match who had been running a timer, and he said that I was shooting sub two second tables.)

I knew that I couldn't shoot much faster, so I concentrated on trying to do another run the same, and hope for the best. If Al keeps shooting like his first table, no one's going to beat him today!

The second run I narrowly managed a win, but it was close.

The third table Al got bit by the stop plate bug. When you are shooting as fast as you can you really don't have the time to see if you hit all of the plates, at least the last couple of them, you just assume you did, and shoot the stop plate with your sixth shot.

There's a magic thing that happens when you are shooting in competition, and I suspect there's something similar in most competitive sports. You get into a "zone" and it's almost like you become a spectator, watching the match through your red dot sight. When the dot appears over a plate, the gun magically fires all by itself, all you have to do is watch it as it happens! My last run was one of those magic runs. The horn went off, the red dot magically leaped from plate to plate, and the High Standard went off at exactly the right time. Six shots, six plates, and the match was over. I was so full of adrenalin my heart was pounding like a bass drum! It was an amazing, and somehow humbling experience. Words really fail me in describing just how it felt, but it was incredible.

Tony and Kim has another battle royal for third place. Kim won two, Tony won two, and Kim took the fifth and deciding table for third place.

Al and I have had some wonderful match ups, and this was no exception. I had managed the win today, but it's usually the other way around. It doesn't get any better than that!

After helping to sweep up the brass, (we figure close to 7,000 rounds!), we packed everything back into the van and KeeWee and I took Larry to the Tyee Restaurant in Coupeville for three plates of beer battered halibut and chips. It was excellent!

After a great late lunch, we headed home.

........ then I took a nap. I was bushed!

---

KeeWee's post on the match is HERE.

Mad Gun's post on the match is HERE.

Off To The Match

KeeWee and I are off to the CWSA Rimfire Falling Plate match this morning in Coupeville, Wa. Last I heard the Custer Club's range was still under water, so we may see some Custer shooters today. Although it's high overcast, it doesn't look too much like rain, so the weather might just cooperate today. I'll try to get some pictures and get a full post up for you all either tonight or in the morning, depending on when we get back.

Maybe today would be a good day for YOU to head out to the range, too! Take along some e-Postal match targets and shoot some entries, maybe? The entries are starting to come in, so join in on the fun!!

CWSA Falling Plate Match This Saturday

KeeWee has a new favorite match, the rimfire falling plate matches as put on at Central Whidbey sportsman's Association. Next Saturday, April 7th, will be the second CWSA Rimfire Falling Plate match of the year. Bring LOTS of ammo, as it's easy to go through several hundred rounds in one match! You also should be sure to arrive before 9am. to get signed in. Late arrivals can't be added to the round robin format, once the chart has been made up.

For more info and pictures on CWSA Falling Plate matches, check these previous posts:

Mr. Completely Post

Mr. Completely Post

KeeWee's Corner Post

Mad Gun Post

These matches are a whole lot of fun, so come on out and give it a try!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous News

I have received confirmation from the Circus Circus hotel and Casino in Reno, and the Gun Blogger Rendezvous has been approved for next October's shindig! The room rates will be exactly the same as last year, and there will be a few new goodies included. The hospitality room will be available all four nights this time; Thursday, Friday, Saturday after the banquet, and Sunday. I should be receiving the Group Registration Code either tomorrow or Monday, and I'll get it posted as soon as I get it.

I've already booked the flights for KeeWee and I, and we plan to get to Reno around Noon on Thursday, and we plan to fly home on Monday, so we'll have all day Sunday to get into trouble, if we're not already in trouble after Saturday night!

I will check to see if there are any matches scheduled for Sunday. If so, I'll post what I find out.

"The game is afoot!" as Mr. Holmes used to say.........

Pajamas Media Presidential Poll

This week's Pajamas Media Presidential poll results.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Fred Thompson was getting a lot of votes in various presidential polls, even though he hasn't even officially entered the race. A number of other bloggers, including Phil over at Random Nuclear Strikes are also watching the polls, and particularly watching Fred Thompson. I suspect that Mr. Thompson is going to sit back and let the other declared candidates beat up on each other, and then declare fairly late in the game. That could prove to be an excellent strategy, it seems to me.

I've added a linked graphic to the PajamasMedia poll over there on the right sidebar so you can both vote, and see the poll results as votes come in. At the top of the results page you can see the total results from all "Precincts" (blogs) or you can view just the votes from here. This may be fun to watch!

While you're at it, you might want to check out the PajamasMedia blog, there's a lot of good stuff there.....

CWSA Steel Challenge 03/31/07 Report

The Saturday night before the match I talked to LouG on the phone, it was raining pretty good and it didn't look like it was going to be dry enough to shoot a Steel Challenge match, so it was looking like it was going to be a rimfire falling plate match. That sounded fine to me, as you get to do a WHOLE lot more shooting, and a lot less waiting around for your chance to shoot.

Just to be sure, I packed lots of rimfire ammo in case it was a falling plate match, and lots of guns and ammo in case it was a Steel Challenge. As I was driving to the CWSA range, it rained steadily until I got to within eight or ten miles of the range, and the rain had stopped. By the time I reached the range, the roads were even starting to dry out. When I pulled in to the range I could see by where cars were starting to park that it was going to be a Steel Challenge match, as originally scheduled. That's a nice thing about shooting handgun matches at CWSA, we never get rained out. It might not be the match you were originally planning on, but at least you get to shoot, regardless of the weather!

It looked like we were going to have a good turn out, and there were even several shooters down from the Custer club. I entered four classes, Open Revolver, Open Centerfire, Open Rimfire, and Limited Rimfire. That ought to keep me busy all day! I got signed in and my entry fees paid, we had a short shooter's meeting, and then we got right into the shooting. We had two stages set up, "Roundabout" and "Five To Go". All Steel Challenge stages have five plates, one of which is the stop plate, which must be shot only after the other four have been shot. It was all against the clock, and you made five runs through each stage, and your slowest run from each stage was discarded. The total of the remaining eight runs, including any penalties, was your final score. Centerfire class shooters either started with a holstered gun, or held the gun in front of you pointed at a marker on the ground in front of you with your other hand in the air. Although there is very little difference in the time it takes to get off your first from either start position, there is a 1.25 second per run penalty assessed if you are not using a holster. This is to encourage shooters to buy holsters, I guess. Starting ten seconds in the hole makes it just about impossible to be competitive, but I'm too cheap to spend the $300 it costs to buy the special belt and two holsters, so I just take the penalties and shoot for the fun of it in the revolver and centerfire open classes.

Rimfire rules are different, and no holster is required. The start position is a two handed grip with the gun pointed at a marker on the ground 12 feet in front of you.

In case you were wondering, the Open classes are for modified "Race" guns, usually with optical sights and compensators. The "Limited" classes are for more basic, more or less stock guns.

I chose to start the day shooting my High Standard Rimfire Open class gun. I tried to concentrate on being as smooth as possible and not making any bone-headed mistakes. I saved all of those for later! It felt pretty good, but I knew it probably wasn't up to Evil Al's "Full Auto" imitations.

Just for the fun of it, I drug out a box stock High Standard Supermatic Citation I had been working on to cure a random feed problem. It had stock iron sights, and a 5.5" barrel. I shot it much better than I had expected on the first stage, where the plates were fairly large ,but I struggled on the second stage with smaller plates, as I couldn't hear if I had missed a plate or not, and I ended up picking up a couple of penalties. The gun seemed to be feeding beautifully, and that was good news.

Next up was Open Revolver. This time I was shooting my Taurus Model 66 .357 with a red dot sight. I was still having trouble hearing the plates if I hit it or not, and ended up shooting a few plates twice! No penalty for that, but you just waste a lot of time stopping or going back and re-shooting the plate. I think I'll load up a little heavier bullets, and see if that helps in the future.

Finally it was mid afternoon, and time to shoot the Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun with a red dot sight. First, the good news, The Taurus worked perfectly, however, it seemed to shoot exactly where it was pointed when you pull the trigger, and that didn't always happen to be pointed dead center on the plates. I didn't do horribly, but let's just say that I'm not expecting any phone calls from Taurus in the near future regarding sponsorship deals! The stage with the smaller plates was a stage you just want to forget. The second stage, and my final stage for the day, was the larger plates, closer in. Gerald, from Custer, was filling in running the timer when I got to the line to shoot. Let me tell you a little about Gerald. Gerald is not only a super nice guy, he's spooky fast. He holds the CWSA bowling pin record at 2.54 seconds for 5 pins. In rimfire pin tops he's almost unbeatable. He's also the guy who got me started using a "Taco" grip for pin shooting. He's a master of the Taco grip.

I decided "What the heck", and told him I'd decided to shoot the stage with the Taco grip as a tribute to Gerald! To my surprise I shot some of the fastest times I'd ever shot! I think Gerald got a kick out of it, too!

That wrapped up the shooting, and now it was time to find out how everyone did.

In Open Revolver I was somewhere around sixth, and considering the "no holster" penalties, I really couldn't complain! Evil Al won it, followed by Tony The Kid, and LouG in third.

Open Centerfire results were about the same. The good final stage wasn't nearly good enough to overcome the terrible other stage with the 9mm.

Limited Rimfire was a big surprise. Although I had one stage that didn't go too well, I had a second stage that went very well, actually, well enough that I won that particular stage! JimP had two good stages back to back to take the class, with RandyN in second, and wonder of wonders, I had managed a third place with an iron sight gun! I couldn't believe it!!

Open Rimfire was perhaps the most tightly competitive class of all, with Evil Al, Gerald, JimP, Kim, Pete, and Megan all capable of winning the class. Out of fifteen shooters in the class, any one of seven could win it. It was no surprise when it was announced that Al had won it, but to my surprise, I was there in second place, only six tenths of a second behind Al's time. In third place was Gerald. The difference between my total time and Gerald's was one one hundredth of a second! Yup, .01 seconds difference over a whole day's shooting. It can't get any closer than that!

We all had a grand time, got in lots of shooting, and didn't get rained on, even once! Sorry about no pictures, I just didn't have time to take any, and yeah, I also forgot the camera............