e-Postal Match "Frequent Flyer"

It's time to get the e-Postal Handgun Matches cranked up for another season. Will this be the year that we get a winner from Canada, or perhaps Israel? We had a class winner last year from France, and you can be sure Manfred and his bunch will be entering again this year. Will this year be the year that Denise or one of the other ladies take all the marbles? It almost happened last year, and this might be the year!

The first match of the season is fairly straight-forward, with a special bonus target thrown in for fun. If you've never shot the "Flyswatter" target before, you are going to be surprised at how something that looks so easy can be so difficult. Bonus points are going to be hard earned!

Here's the rules:

TARGET#1: Five separate bulls all printed on a single 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper.

TARGET #2: The second target is the "Flyswatter" target we all know and love!

The targets can be downloaded from here:

"Frequent Flyer Target #1"

"Frequent Flyer Target #2"
(Targetz.com, It's target number 20015)

These targets will print out perfectly on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. You may need Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print the target, as it's an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

CLASS ONE: Rimfire - Iron Sight. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.

CLASS TWO: Rimfire - Optic Sight. Any rimfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.

CLASS THREE: Centerfire - Iron Sight. Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel. Optical sights such as red dots, lasers, or scopes are not allowed.

CLASS FOUR: Centerfire - Optic Sight. Any centerfire handgun with no more than a 12" barrel. Red dots sights, lasers, or scopes can be used.

If there are four or more entries in GSSF Civilian class (stock Glock) or SASS Cowboy Revolver (1873 SAA or clones - non-adjustable sights) I'll add the class.

No paint ball guns or shotguns!

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

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

PROCEDURE:

The targets must be shot in pairs. You cannot shoot several target #1's, then shoot several target #2's and put together the best two. You can shoot the pair of targets over again, but you cannot mix and match for a better score. You can only submit one target pair per shooter/gun.

1. Shoot target #1 first. Shoot two shots at each of the five bulls on the first target, for a total, (hopefully) of ten holes in target #1.

2. Shoot target #2. Take ten shots at target #2. Try to hit as many flies as you can. Each fly counts for one point. You cannot count any fly twice no matter how many times you hit that particular fly.

You can shoot the match more than once if you don't like your score and want to try again. We want to see just how well you can do!

SCORING: Touching the black counts as a hit, both on the rings and on the flies.

Each small target on target #1 has a perfect score of (2 x 10) or 20 points, times 5 small targets for a score of 100. Only two shots can be counted in each small target, even if you hit it more than twice. Count the two best scoring hits on each bullseye, if there is a third hit on a particular bullseye it does not count.

On target #2, each fly hit counts as one point, for a total of ten points if you hit ten different flies with your ten shots. Shooting a "Flyer" is normally not a good thing, but here ten flyers will get you ten bonus points!

Perfect score would be 100 points from target #1 plus 10 points from target #2 for a total of 110 points.

Mark your individual scores for each small target, target #1 total score, target #2 total score, the total score for both targets combined, and the name you want to use when listed in the results all on target #1 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.

ALTERNATE ENTRIES: If for whatever reason you cannot shoot the match in the manner described, shoot it anyway and send in your entry, but be sure to tell me what you did so I can include that info in the results.

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.

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 target #1, target #2, and your total target score.
2. The name(s) you want used when we post the results
3. Gun description - Brand, model, semi-auto, revolver, caliber, barrel length, and type of sights.
4. Class:

Class One - Rimfire Iron Sight
Class Two - Rimfire Optical Sight
Class Three - Centerfire Iron sight
Class Four - Centerfire Optical sight.

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 "Frequent Flyer 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 9 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, March 31st.Results will be posted within seven days, or less.

The basic schedule is for one e-Postal match a month, starting on the first Monday of the month and ending on the last Monday of the month.

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

be safe, and have fun!!

Who Would YOU LIke To Meet at GBR-III ?

I asked myself who would I like to meet at this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous. My short answer would be "Everyone on my blogroll!", but I decided to try to trim it down a bit. First, I excluded everyone that I have already met in person. That shortened the list a bit, but not by much. Then I pruned it down a lot more by mostly including bloggers that I have communicated with on more than one occasion in the past, people I've "Almost" met, but not in person. By this point I could see that it was a lot harder to make up the list than I had originally thought. My original plan was to get it down to a list of ten, but that just didn't happen. Anyhow, here's my list. I believe several of these folks are working on plans to make it to GBR-III, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

If you are a gun blogger, who would YOU like to meet at the Rendezvous?

International Division:

Moral Flexibility - Mugwug - Canada

Armes et tir passion - Manfred - France

DoubleTapper - DoubleTapper - Israel


United States Division:

Blog Idaho - Retired Geezer

Countertop Chronicles - Countertop

Random Nuclear Strikes - Phil and David

Carnaby Fudge - Carnaby And Stickwick

The Ten Ring - Denise and Yosemite Sam

The Other Side of Kim - Kim

Call Me Ahab - Ahab

Mostly Cajun - All American - Dale

Free Spirit Mind - Azreel

Captain of a Crew of One - Sailor Curt

End of Part One.

I just can't get everyone on the list that I want to be there, so in a week or so I'm going to put together part two of this list.

If you aren't on the list, you'll probably be on the next one. There is no particular ordering or ranking here, it's just in the order that I got the links together.

Man, there's a lot of good gun bloggers out there!

Help With Free Mammograms

I got an email from Mary S. asking for my help in getting people to click on a button to help to provide free mammograms. As you may have noticed, Mary has sent me a lot of good stuff that finds it's way on to the blog.

Mary's email:

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Go Here and Click on the big pink button.

She asked me to send her email on to ten others. I think we all can do a lot better than that. Go click the pink button, then leave a comment that you did so.

My goal is to see 100 comments to this post in the next few days saying you "Clicked the Button"

Bloggers: If you can help get the word out on this, it would be really appreciated. Thanks!

e-Postal Match Series About To Start - Yippeeee!

The e-Postal match series is about to start, with the first match getting underway in a few days. For those of you who have been in the series for the last two you may remember that the last two years I started the series with the "Fly Swatter" target. You will be relieved to hear that I'm going to do something different this year for the first match. (Threats of a possible lynching party if I used that target again DID influence my thinking a bit on this one!)

The plan will be for one e-Postal match a month through next Fall. Each match will be hosted at a different blog. The bloggers who have hosted e-Postal matches in the past will be given first shot (heh!) at hosting a match this season, so if you hosted last year and want to do one again this year, drop me an email or leave a comment. Danno, a regular competitor in these series, has an idea for a match based on 9 Ball pool, so if one of you would like to get together with him and use his ideas for a match, let me know. I know nothing about 9 ball pool and would be a poor choice to work with him on it!

For a lot more info on e-Postal matches, check out this link from last year.

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Dates Set

I just got off the phone a few hours ago with the folks at the Reno Circus Circus, and the dates for this year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous are now locked in. Reno's a fun town, and the Circus Circus has been really been a lot of help in getting everything organized.

The basic format and schedule will follow previous years schedule.

Thursday - October 9th.

Thursday will be travel and arrival day. The hospitality room will be open Thursday evening for informal gathering.

Friday - October 10th.

Friday morning will be free time to explore or do what ever you like. Friday after lunch will be "Show and Tell" and more, followed by meeting with the NRA folks (if they can make it - haven't heard either way yet). The hospitality room will be open well into the night (or morning?)

Saturday - October 11th.

Saturday will be range day, and Saturday night will be the group dinner. This year we are going to try something a little different for dinner. It will be an all you can eat pizza feed provided by the Rendezvous in the hospitality room. Soft drinks will also be provided. The pizza place downstairs makes excellent pizza, so we'll just order up whatever kinds of pizza you like!

Saturday night will also be Hospitality Room BS sessions into the wee hours, like always!

Sunday - October 12th.

Sunday morning many of us will meet for breakfast in one of the local restaurants for final farewells, as many of you will be leaving on Sunday. A number of us will stay on for Sunday and get in a little more exploring and sightseeing, stay Sunday night, then leave for home on Monday. The hospitality room will be open also on Sunday night.

That's the core agenda, but there's a lot of time between now and October, so things may get added or adjusted in the mean time.

I should have the hotel group code in a few days so you can book your rooms and get the discount rates. I'll post it here and also email it to last year's attendees.

Registration for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous will be required as in previous years, but since we will be spending less on Saturday's dinner, you can expect a reduction in the registration cost. Any profit realized by the Rendezvous after expenses will go 100% to a worthy cause yet to be determined.

Registration info will also be posted here, and emailed to last year's attendees, as soon as it's finalized.

The first GBR went very well, and it was even better the second year. This year's Rendezvous is going to be the biggest and best yet, so it's time to circle the dates on your calendar and start making plans to be there.

There are going to be a number of new faces from the gun-blogosphere this year, along with most of the regulars.

You really don't want to miss this one!

Uberti 1873 SAA Grip Refinished

Before refinishing the grips

Uberti 1873 SAA with refinished grips.

One thing about the Uberti 1873 Millenium I just bought is that the finish on the grip was terrible. It looked like a cheap varnish dip job. It was rough, and it even had bubbles in the finish. The edges of the wood didn't quite match to the grip frame either, giving it kind of a sharp edge.

Fortunately that's easy to fix. I removed the grip frame and removed the wood from it. About twenty minutes with some paint stripper and most of the bad varnish was removed. (Be sure to wear gloves or you may end up removing some skin, too!)

After stripping the varnish, I gave it a good hand sanding with 320 grit sandpaper. I sanded the sharp edges a bit, while I was at it. Once it was nice and smooth I applied some Minwax brand wood stain. The color is called "Jacobean". I wiped it on and let it sit for a bit, then wiped it off. Not quite dark enough, so I gave it another coat and let it sit for about ten minutes. You want it to be a little bit darker when you are applying the stain, as it will lighten a bit as it ages. Wiping of the second coat, it looked a million times better than before. I wiped it down with a little Hoppe's to get it cleaned a bit, then oiled the wood heavily with gun oil. I wanted to let the wood soak up as much oil as it could.

After letting it sit for a while, I wiped it off and polished it with a paper towel, then reassembled the gun.

As I said, it looks and feels a million times better.......

Mr. C. Sells Out........ (?)

Due to an overwhelming demand I have decided to make the "Mr. Completely T-Shirt" available for all of those of you who have been clamoring for one of your very own.


Well, actually, no one has really ASKED for one YET, but they could, and I want to make sure no one is disappointed!

Be the envy of your friends and neighbors, the ladies will be impressed, for sure! Wear it anywhere and be the center of attention! No need to thank me when that good looking blonde walks up to you at your office Christmas party and asks "Do you actually KNOW Mr. Completely?"

For every shirt sold I get a buck eighty or some princely sum like that, so you will actually be contributing towards my ammo fund for the upcoming season, and at the price of ammo and bullets, I need the help, believe me!

So when that blonde asks if you know me, you can reply "Sure I do, I'm one of his sponsors!"

There you go...............

To get your own shirt, go here.

Moon Eclipse (clickit to biggit)

With our usual cloud cover here in the Pacific Northwest we miss out on a lot of the moon eclipses.

Tonight we had clear skies, at least where the moon was, so I leaned up against the barn and took a couple of pictures. Not too bad with not much of a telephoto and no tripod.......

Uberti 1873 SAA Millenium 45 Colt

Uberti 1873 SAA Millenium 45 Colt

KeeWee and I hit Costco yesterday for some food, and since it was only a couple of blocks away, swung by the new Sportsman's Warehouse in Burlington. I needed some media for my case tumblers and I also needed a bunch more primers and .22 match ammo.

We grabbed a shopping cart, and I headed to the firearms stuff area. I grabbed some CCI Standard Velocity .22 ammo, put it in the cart, and headed over to the gun counter to see what the Uberti 1873 Single Action Army replicas were going for. I saw one of the new semi-matte finished ones on the wall, and I asked if I could have a look at it. The sales guy took it off the wall, pulled it to half cock, flipped the loading gate open and spun the cylinder verifying that it was unloaded. (That's how it's supposed to be done!). Leaving the loading gate open, he handed it to me to look over. The glass bead blasted brass grip frame had a nice non-slip non-glare finish, and it looked good. The heat treated hammer showed the varied blue coloration from the heat treating. The rest of the steel parts had been sand blasted and it looked like they had been satin finish powder coated. The wood, however, had a cheesy looking shiny varnish finish that detracted from the overall appearance of what was otherwise not a bad looking pistol.

Then I noticed the price tag. I did a quick double-take to see if the description on the tag matched the gun, and it did, so it wasn't a switched tag. I asked the salesman if I could put it on layaway and pick it up on Sunday at the "Friends and Family" special shopping session coming up this weekend so I could get an additional discount. He looked at his computer screen for a minute or so, and then told me that the price had gone up and that they were in the process of repricing a bunch of the guns as we spoke. If I waited until Sunday it would have to go for the $360 price that was going into effect as of today.

I grabbed my carry permit, driver's license, and VISA card from my wallet. I told him to write it up! He decided that since the new price was supposed to be in effect, but that it hadn't been repriced yet, he'd better check with the department manager to be sure. Mike, the department manager was summoned, and we got the green light. I could have it at the price on the tag.

We filled out all the forms and they called in the verification to make sure I hadn't shot anybody important recently. I hadn't.

While they were getting the verification I went looking for tumbler media. None in stock at all. Winchester Large Pistol primers. None. CCI Magnum Pistol primers? None. No large pistol primers at all! I grabbed just about all of the Federal Small Pistol primers they had. Surprising, as those are usually the hard ones to find. It looked like some small gun shop is stocking his store by cleaning out entire shelves full of primers.

As we were finishing up the paperwork KeeWee showed up with a good deal she found on some slippers that she had been wanting. We went up to the check out and paid for our new goodies. One of the clerks carried the Uberti, now wrapped up and in its original box, out the front door of the store and then handed it to me. Apparently the idea is that if they carry it for you until you are out of the store you won't be able to load it and start shooting while you are still IN the store. I'm not sure if I quite understand that, as all I have to do is walk back into the store and whatever they have accomplished has now been negated. Maybe it's a liability/legal hair they are splitting. I suspect that probably half of the people in the Sportsman's Warehouse are packing anyway, so I would predict a quick and well ventilated demise for you anyway!

Anyhow, after SW we headed down to Costco to stock up on food. After filling the shopping cart and checking out we loaded everything into the car. Then back into Costco for hotdogs for lunch. Great hotdogs! After lunch it was a 45 minute drive back to Oak Harbor for a quick trip through WallyWorld. I needed more batteries for the Red Dot sights and also for the hearing protectors. KeeWee made another big score with a full length down coat with a hood. It had the regular price tag of $44.50, but was marked down to $5.00!! She tried it on and it fit perfectly. WOOOO HOOOO!

After Walmart we swung by DQ for a couple of banana cream pie blizzards, then another 45 minute drive home.

It was nice to get home, as I'm still nowhere up to speed after being rather sick with my lung infection, and I was pretty well worn out.

It was a long day, but we had some fun and got some great deals..........

Walking Scoot? uh.........I guess

It looks like someone put a whole lot of engineering into this one. It actually seems to "Walk" fairly well.



It's got to be a mechanical nightmare under the hood, though.....

Hat tip to c00lStuff.com where I came across this.

Walkin' The Walk

A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as She missed her chance to get through the intersection with him. As she was Still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.

The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to The police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the Door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your Car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, And cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do" Bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker and the Chrome-plated fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

A big thanks to Uncawho for the story.....

Ruger Mini 14 Ranch Rifle in 6.8SPC

Ruger Mini 14 All Weather Ranch Rifle in 6.8SPC

While walking past the magazine rack in the local grocery store a very familiar looking rifle caught my eye. The Ruger Mini 14 is a great lot of fun to shoot, but lets face it, .223 is .223. Just about everyone EXCEPT our military have figured out that it's a great prairie dog round, but it's just too small to have any serious knock-down power.

The 6.8SPC round, jointly developed by the Marine Corp and Remington, if I remember correctly, is just what the Mini-14 needed. It shoots flat, has decent power, and is quite accurate, too.

Currently Ruger is only offering the 6.8SPC chambering in their all weather matte stainless ranch rifle version. One of the early complaints about the 6.8SPC was ammo cost, but if this Mini-14 catches on, a much greater demand should encourage ammunition manufacturers to start producing it in sufficient quantity to bring the price down to a reasonable point.

Time will tell, but it looks like Ruger has made another smart move................

If You Gotta Take a Knife to a Gun Fight.....

If you gotta take a knife to a gun fight, then I guess this is the knife to take. Pretty ingenious, but I would sure want to be careful drawing it from the holster.

Thanks to Dave Smock at Dave Smock's blog for sending this my way. Dave has sent me some cool other stuff too, but I just haven't got it posted yet.

Thanks, Dave!

Being Sick Sucks!

Oh Joy! Just what I didn't want to happen went ahead and happened anyway. After getting myself totally run down working all hours of the day and night between my regular job and writing some new software, I seem to have come near someone at just the perfect level of contagiousness. Not only that,their specific bug seems to target my lungs. I don't need that, believe me, my lungs already suck and it doesn't take much to make me really sick, as in call the ambulance sick. Don't want that..........

Needless to say, blogging will be light for a few days.

Mr. Completely Rocks!!!

A cool logo, swiped from their website.......

While wandering around the intarwebz I happened across a Canadian rock band by the name of "Mr. Completely". (Has a nice ring to it, EH?). I went to their website, and found out that these guys are not that far away from where I'm located, here in Western Washington on Whidbey Island. It turns out that they, too, are island dwellers, living on Vancouver Island in Campbell River. Campbell river is already known for great salmon fishing, and maybe soon they will also be known as the home of the band "Mr. Completely".

Can't beat live rock!

They have recorded and released their first CD "Twice on Sundays", and I can't wait to hear the whole CD. Here's a bunch of their tunes on-line: Turn up your speakers, then Click on "Rich Man - Poor Man". That's a good place to start. They do a nice version of "Rising Sun Blues" that's really worth a listen, and "Never Be The One" is really outstanding.

Another live Pic of the band.

If Techno-boomp-thudda-thudda blather is your type of not-really-music, these guys aren't for you, but if you like straight ahead bluesy classic damn the torpedoes rock and roll, I think you're gonna like their sound.

Check out their website, maybe even buy a CD while you're there.........

A Little Range Time

Glock 17 9mm. Early Series

A friend of mine is a writer, and quite a good one, at that. He's retired, or at least retired from his previous job, and is applying himself to his writing on a pretty much full time basis. He's had a few small things published, but with a little luck it's just a matter of time before one of his books makes it into print.Actually, he has several books underway at the same time. I've read a few of his short stories, and although I'm certainly no expert on writing (I suspect you've guessed that already) I really enjoyed how he tells a story, and the way he puts his plots together.

How does this relate to range time, you ask? Well, one of his books, a detective thriller, involves a retired detective teaching a lady news reporter to shoot a hand gun. A cool twist is that she starts out as anti-gun, but circumstances convince her that being able to defend herself might not be such a bad idea after all. Anyhow, Richard, the writer, wanted to get in some hand gun experience with a Glock 17, since that was what was going to be used in the book. I took my 17 and my new 34C and met up with Richard over at the Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club. It was kind of dark and cold/clammy, but with the exception of one other shooter, we had the range to ourselves. The other guy was shooting, for the first time, his brand new custom engraved Smith & Wesson .460 revolver. Now THAT is a hand cannon! He won it at the Friends of the NRA dinner a while back.

I've been so wrapped up in work that I haven't been to the range since the last pin shoot of the year. Was that early November? Can't remember. Anyway, I knew I was going to be pretty rusty. I loaded up a few rounds and took four shots at the target 25 feet away, just to be sure the 17 was cycling OK. All four were in the black, in a nice tight less than one inch group? I kinda stood there with my mouth open in amazement. The guy with the .460 came over to watch, too. With the Glock's odd feeling trigger I considered a 3 or 4 inch group at that distance to be good shooting for me. Without saying anything, I decided to let Richard have at it. A little range safety review and then started loading some magazines for him to empty. Richard has been hunting and shooting rifles all his life, but has never spent much time with handguns. That being said, he did fine, and learned a lot about Glocks to go into his book. Then I tried the 34C to see how it shot. By then the target was getting pretty shot up, so it wasn't too obvious that I was all over the place! Richard gave it a try, and so did the .460 guy. By now we were starting to get cold, so we decided to head home and get warm.

At least I finally got in a little shooting. It's only two weeks to the first bowling pin shoot of the year ,and I better get in some (as in A LOT) of practice, or Evil Al is going to kick my butt all over the range........

Smith & Wesson 627 Question

I received this question in a comment on an earlier post, and I don't have the answer for his question. If you know what he needs to know, leave him a comment below. Thanks!

2 identical s&w revolvers. 1 has a pinned sear ,the other's hammer does not. being a novice and knowing now that it will not be fired much, less than 300rds a year, if i purchase one , which spec should i go with?(if i decide to buy) who rather have a pinned sear or not? pinned sears are old fashion technology, right? just can't decide what would be a better spec. depending on your opinion , i might or might not purchase either set up. your article convinced me you are the man to get an opinion from, if possible. This is a new s&w 627 (performance center built) this question exits from your primary topic but i beg your pardon for an opinion. thanks