e-Postal Closing Extended (a little)

To give you a little more time to get your entries in, I've extended the closing deadline 24 hours until Tuesday April 1st., at midnight. If you didn't get the targets scanned, you've still got time to get them in.

The "shootin' Part" of the match is closed, but this is to give everyone a little more time to get their entries in.

CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot - 03/29/08

All day Friday it was snowing wet sloppy snow, and the weather forecast didn't look really great for Saturday, but they said it should at least be not snowing. Saturday morning the wind was cold and damp, not the kind of weather you'd prefer for spending the day outdoors.

None the less, KeeWee and Mr. C., the fearless pin shooters, loaded up the van with enough guns and ammo to open a small gun shop and headed to the CWSA range in Coupeville, WA. CWSA shoots a lot of different classes, so if I want to get in a lot of shooting I need to enter several classes. Glutton for punishment that I am, I planned to enter every class, and enter two different guns in the rimfire optical class. Rimfire optical and big bore revolver are my favorites, but I enjoy them all.

John D. from the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver club and blogger Mad Rocket Scientist were both planning to give pin shooting a try too, so the more the merrier.

John showing that when a 10mm. Glock speaks, the pins pay attention!

We start out the day by everyone shooting four tables of pins against the clock, the three best times added together, and those totals used to determine your first round opponent. That way everyone shoots their first round against a similar skill level shooter. That makes for lots of close matches.

In qualifying I noticed that I was shooting fairly quickly, but I was missing a lot, too. In fact, by the end of the day I was almost out of .45ACP, I had about 15 rounds left! I also noticed that I seemed to be getting a lot of lucky rolls. Marginally placed shots that may or may not actually take the pin off the table were usually getting the pin off the table. Some days the pins will roll for you, and other days the pins won't leave the table no matter what you hit them with.

When we got into the matches themselves, there were lots of really close tables, and even several tables so close they were deemed as ties and were shot again to break the tie.

It was great to see Lou G. AKA "Mad Gun" back shooting again after a long recovery from breaking has left arm last December. By the end of the day Lou was stiff, sore, and tired, but the ear to ear grin let us all know that Lou was back, and couldn't have been happier. All of the usual suspects were there, including Dean, Rainy, "Evil Al", Chris, Tony, Larry, Larry, (sometimes we have four Larrys), KeeWee, myself, and the rest of the gang.

Pin shoots at CWSA are a social event as much as a shooting match, and we all enjoy getting together and swapping stories, rumors, jokes, and tall tales. It's not about winning and losing. It's about having fun spending a day with a bunch of friends and getting in a lot of shooting too! Having John and Mad Rocket Scientist shoot with us was great too, as they are both great shooters and a pleasure to be with!

After shooting all of the centerfire classes, including Optic Sight, Iron sight, Revolver, and Big Bore Revolver, we swapped out the full sized pins for 6" tall pin tops for the rimfire classes. When the full size pins get shot up too badly, we bandsaw off the top of the pin and use them for the rimfire classes.

Scott , Rainy, and Mad Rocket Scientist in a close match.

In the qualifying part for the rimfire classes lots of good times were being turned in. In qualifying my Volquartsen barreled High Standard, I had three good runs, and the gun seemed to be almost on auto-pilot. It was almost like whenever the red dot was on a pin the gun fired all by itself, and I was just watching it all happen through the sight! Since I had one run to throw away, I decided to push the speed a little bit and see what happened. Usually when I try this I would miss the first two are three pins and the run would pretty much be a disaster. One of the keys to pin shooting is to be sure to hit the first pin. If you miss the first one the rest of the run usually falls apart, and even if it doesn't, you still have to pick up the pin you missed. To be sure I get the first pin, I always hold on the first pin for just a fraction of a second to be sure of my sight picture. For the remaining pins the gun is actually moving as I shoot. This time I went for a snap shot at the first pin and nailed it, sending it flying. I swept across the remaining four pins, trying to accelerate as I moved across them. Four more shots, and the table was clear of pins! When Al announced the time I just about fell over! As long as I've been shooting pin tops at CWSA, I can't remember anyone ever getting below three seconds for a run, and I had just shot a lucky 2.85 seconds! Fastest time ever shot at CWSA was 2.43 seconds, and that was with a centerfire pistol shooting full size pins. I still can't believe the time. I may never see a time like that again, but what a rush to shoot it!

Anyhow, after the qualifying ,we went into the matches themselves. Just like in centerfire, there were a whole lot of really close matches. I had loaned my tricked up S&W 22A .22 to Mad Rocket Scientist for the match, and although it took him a little bit to get used to the light trigger, he figured it out and shot it very well. I already knew that John D. was an excellent .22 shooter, and particularly with iron sights, so it was no surprise when he ended up second in Rimfire iron sight class, almost winning the class.

It was a long day filled with a lot of fun match ups, and by the end of the day everyone was about worn out. The weather hadn't rained on us at all, and the sun even tried to peek through a couple of times.

After the match Jon, his wife Jeannette, KeeWee, and I headed up to Oak Harbor to our favorite Mexican restaurant for a good meal and a great end for a perfect day.

(Click here for match results)

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For a hilarious write-up about the pin shoot, check out Mad Rocket Scientist's post HERE!

e-Postal Match Reminder

This month's e-Postal match closes Monday night at midnight, so don't forget to email in your entries. If you posted your target pictures on your blog or website, you don't need to send me the pictures, but you do have to send me an email with the rest of the entry information, scores and the URL where you posted the pictures. The entry email is the only way I know who has entered and their entry info. Just putting it on your blog or website isn't enough, as I may have missed your post.

Good luck, and send 'em in!!

Looks Like a Fun Weekend

KeeWee and I have got a busy, and hopefully fun weekend in store. Today we're off to CWSA in Coupeville for the second bowling pin shoot of the year, and it looks like it's going to be a good one.

Lou G. of Mad Gun Blog has just about got his left arm working properly again after breaking it in December, so he's going to be shooting most of the classes today, including shooting his new Magnum Research Picuda in Rimfire Optical.

Mad Rocket Scientist from the blog of the same name will be coming over from Everett, WA. and giving pin shooting a try for the first time. He's bringing a .45 and I'm loaning him a tricked up optic sight S&W 22A race gun for rimfire optic class.

John D. from the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver club will be there too, shooting his Rugers in rimfire and his 10mm. Glocks in centerfire. Add to that the usual suspects, derelicts, and neer-do-wells that frequent our pin shoots, and it looks like we're in for an interesting day! I'll let you know how it turns out.....

Sunday Barb and Joe Huffman are coming over to Whidbey for lunch, some conversation, and whatever else we feel like doing. If we get to the range kinda depends on the moment, but we've got lots to shoot if we decide to go.

Better go get some breakfast, then hit the road for Coupeville. The bowling pins are waiting.......

Helo Aerobatics - Oh My ! ! !

You've got to watch this one! Holy cow!!

Click HERE to play the video

Found this over at Blog Idaho, Retired Geezer's place. His son, "Flyin' Brian" flies one of these Bo-105's, too. Not quite like in this video though, I hope!

VBS.TV Goes to Front Sight Academy

VBS.TV got the opportunity to attend some firearms training at the Front Sight Academy in Pahrump, Nevada, and put together a four part series on the experience.

Check it out:

4 Part Series on Front Sight on VBS.tv

Part 1 of 4 - http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1460774120

Tactical firearms training in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Part 2 of 4 - http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1460763090

Jesse's shooting partner is terse, but supportive.

Part 3 of 4 - http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1465378645

A not too surprising consensus on the importance of the second amendment.

Part 4 of 4 - http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1463310997

When someone's at your door, screaming "Where's my drugs?" you should be on the ready.

Some Thoughts on e-Postal Match Design

Now that we are entering out third year of e-Postal Handgun matches, I've learned a lot about the actual design of the matches. I thought it might be useful to try and suggest some ideas that worked, and some that didn't quite work out as planned.

One thing that just about every match had in common was that it was harder than it looked. The legendary "Fly Swatter" target looks like you could hardly miss, yet I'm sure it has nearly brought grown men to tears! A little of the "Harder than it looks" is OK, but if it's too difficult, a lot of entries end up in the garbage can instead of being sent in, as some shooters think they have shot poorly, when in reality, it was just plain difficult to score very well, and they had actually done just fine.

Here's some thoughts from previous matches:

1. Don't make it so difficult that it discourages people from sending in their entries.

2. If using concentric circle type targets, many rings of narrow width are better than a few wide ones. This way small variations in accuracy will show up as variations in total score.

3. Split optic sight centerfire , iron sight centerfire, optic sight rimfire, and iron sight rimfire into different classes. Other classes can be fun, too, like air pistol, revolver, snubbies, saturday night specials, whatever! Encourage entering with several different handguns.

4. Make the targets printable on a standard 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper from a PDF file.

5. Keep the distance at 25 feet to 10 yards, as that is a comfortable distance for most shooters, and most ranges can accommodate that distance.

6. Including some strategy into the target design can add a challenge. For example, multiple sized targets with large ones of low value and small ones of high values. That way you have to decide if you want to take the easy safe scores or risk going for the smaller high value target even though missing it scores you a zero, or even a penalty.

7. Rather than just a plain old basic target, try to incorporate a theme into the match design, something that sets it apart from standard target shooting.

8. Keep the scoring system simple.

The whole idea is for the e-Postal matches to be fun shooting for shooters of all skill levels shooting all sorts of handguns, from antiques to the latest and greatest.

Of course, these ideas can be used to put together a fun shoot/contest out at your club range too, so feel free to have a go at it, too.

For You Folks With Cats.......

Those of you with cats will understand and get a chuckle, those without cats, not so much..........

Thanks to Uncawho for sending this along!

The Mail Lady Must Hate Me!

1,000 bullets, 47 lbs. I DO like BIG bullets!

The mail delivery lady must hate me! The bullet order from Cast Performance arrived to day in one of the U.S. Mail "All you can fit in the box" Priority mail packages. It weighed in at 47 pounds! She actually managed to drag the box out onto her route and put it in my mailbox for me. That's greatly appreciated as it saves me a fifteen mile round trip to pick it up at the post office.

This is only my bullet order for the bullets I don't shoot in large quantities! The .38 SPL 158 Grain Hollow points, the .45 ACP 230 Grain Hollow points, and the 9mm. 147's that I use lots of, and order in multiple thousands lots, I usually get from Rainier Ballistics.

Maybe I should leave her some flowers in the mail box, or something.................

CWSA Rimfire Falling Plate Match 03/09/2008

(Note: This post is a bit late, as I wrote it and saved it as a draft, then forgot about it..........)

Nothing to it, just knock down the big ones first,
then shoot down the little one.
Oh, and do it in less than two seconds! Piece of cake...............

Sunday just didn't start off on a good note. Some days you wonder if you should have just slept in! KeeWee spilled a bottle of face lotion to start the morning, and it was one thing after another from there. Once we got to the range KeeWee discovered that the magazines for her High Standard race gun hadn't found their way into her range bag, and there wasn't enough time to drive back to the house to get them. Her High Standard uses the slant grip type magazine, whereas my High Standard has the military grip angle like a 1911, so the magazines won't interchange. Bummer!!

I did happen to have my Smith & Wesson 422 rimfire race gun with me, so she decided to give it a go with the 422.

The falling plate matches involve a lot of shooting as it's a round robin format where you shoot three runs against every other shooter entered. We had a relatively small turnout with only twelve shooters (I think the threatening weather had something to do with it), but even so, that means everyone gets to shoot 33 times against another shooter. That makes for a fairly busy morning! My first opponent was Chris C., Tony's dad. I think Chris is possibly the most improved shooter in our club, and he was really shooting well today. In fact, he beat me two out of the three runs, putting me in the hole immediately. "Evil Al" was also shooting really fast too, and guess who I came up against in my third matchup. Yup, Al! Al got me two of the three runs too. My chances were sinking like a stone. Then I noticed something. The top five shooters were ALL beating up on each other. Mike F. and Tony C. were also shooting well, and even Al was losing a table here and there, too. KeeWee was having a bit of trouble shooting the unfamiliar S&W, but she was winning a few, too. Lou G. was shooting well, too, considering he's spent the last several months recovering from a badly broken forearm.

As we neared the end of the round robin, there were four or five shooters within a point of each other. I had started to get my act together, and hadn't lost another table since the first four, but I still had a couple of tough opponents to go. Today the steel gods were smiling on me, and I managed to run the table without losing any more points after the initial four losses.

When the scores were totaled up my 29 points was good enough for the win, with Chris and Al tied with 28, right behind me. Chris and Al then had a 2 out of 3 shootoff to decide second place. Three very close tables later Chris had an ear to ear grin, having got by Al by fractions of a second on two of the three runs to clinch second place. What a great finish to a fun, fast, and furious rimfire falling plate match.

After the falling plate match KeeWee and I drove to Oak Harbor to try out a new fish and chips place, then to pick up some floor tile to replace a piece of carpet that was ruined by an over-flowed drain that flooded our basement last week, and finally we swung by the DQ for our "After Shoot" ice cream.

A great way to spend the day, I'd say.............................

Good Computer Tech in Newport News?

One of our regular visitors and e-postal match shooters is in Newport News, Virginia, and is thinking about having a new computer built. Do any of you know of a business that can do that for him at a reasonable price, do it properly, and stand behind it (in English) in the Newport News area? Preferably this should be a shop you have personally dealt with and have been satisfied with their work and how they run their business.

Any of you have any suggestions?

Not a lot of news - Not enough "Snooze"

Work load and other stuff have been interfering heavily with blogging lately. A lot of the gun bloggers have been covering the Heller case, and the coverage and analysis have been excellent. I haven't written anything about it as much greater blog-minds have been doing a far better job than I could ever do anyway. One sidebar observation however, is that the founding fathers really had their heads on straight when they set up the legislative, judicial and executive branches as independent entities. Imagine where we would be if it was up to congress to interpret the constitution.

The five new bays are now finished at the CWSA range in Coupeville, and the hydro-seeding has been completed too. We didn't expect to be able to get them done quite so quickly, but now we can start using them for our steel matches. The order has been placed and work is underway to get a bunch more steel plates and stands so we can set up lots more stages.

Some of the feasibility work has now been done to look into putting on a regional level Northwest Steel Championship match, possibly at the end of August. We are looking into a "Club Team" format for the match, with teams rather than individual shooters competing for the team title. Nothing has been finalized, and the decision hasn't even been made to go ahead with the match or not, but that decision should be made soon. If it gets the "Green Light" I'll be getting the info posted as soon as it's available.

I finally got a chance to do some of the much need maintenance on the Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun. The extractor was about worn out at the start of last season, but I didn't have one at the time, so I touched it up a bit with the Dremel and it lasted most of the season. Last week over at Kitsap's fun steel match it failed to extract a couple of times, so the writing was on the wall, it's time to swap out the extractor. I had ordered a new one a while back, so I polished it up a bit and installed it. It should be ready to go for the season.

Saturday, March 29th. CWSA will be putting on the second Bowling Pin Shoot of the year, so come on over and give it a try. There are a number of classes, both rimfire and centerfire, so there's bound to be a class for you. Just leave your full metal jacket bullets at home, as they tend to bounce back at you, particularly with lightly loaded .38's and 9mm's. Hollow points, plated bullets and lead bullets are all OK.

Don't forget to get your entries in for this month's e-Postal match, time is running out!

Irish Eddie Checks In!

Irish Eddie has sent me a lot of good pictures and jokes over the past few years, and for the last few months I hadn't heard much from him. I just got an email explaining what he's been up to and why I haven't heard from him lately. He's also got a few good book recommendations that I thought I'd pass along:

You may have noticed my absence from the net over the past 5-months. I was visiting friends in Florida for most of the winter and didn't have much access to the Internet. I'm returning soon to Ireland for the summer so my net time will definitely improve. I did do lots of reading the past couple of months while relaxing on a lawn chair in the sunny, 80 degree Florida weather.

Four good books I'd recommend are:

1) Marine Rifleman by Col. Wesley L. Fox (ret)/ISBN: 1-57488-425-5

2) Top Sergeant by Sgt Major William G. Bainbridge (ret)/ISBN: 0-449-90892-5

3) Good to Go by US Navy former SEAL Harry Constance/ISBN: 0-688-15249-X

4) Walking Point by Chief James Watson, SEAL (ret)/ISBN: 0-688-14302-4

This last one gets off to a slow start. BUT the Chief gives a really good account of his Vietnam duty along with some really good info on some weapons the SEALs used that I never knew existed. He has a lot of good things to say about the "Stoner"-M-63.

Regards,

Irish Eddie

Here's a picture I recently received from Eddie:

These men are installing bollards to stop cars parking on the pavement outside an Irish sports bar. They are cleaning up at the end of the day. How long do you think it will be before they realize?

Good to hear from you again, Eddie!

Murdoc and The Gun Blogger Rendezvous

From Murdoc Online talking about the Gun Blogger Rendezvous:

"50-50 that Murdoc can make it, but even if he does you should still think about going."

Great line!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration Info

It's time to get your registrations sent in for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, coming up October 9th, 10th., 11th., and 12th. at the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino in Reno.

The registration form is HERE in a PDF file.

Download the Registration form, print 'er out, write out a check, and mail it in! Any registration money collected that is not used for the direct expenses of putting on the Rendezvous will be donated to a worthy cause to be named later.

Here's the info for making your hotel reservations and getting the special Gun Blogger Rendezvous room rates.

One of the many highlights of the Rendezvous is the chance to hang out with the other bloggers and gun nuts in the hospitality room, set up every night of the Rendezvous. BYOB, BYO Munchies, BYO stories and tall tales.....

Here's some of the photo highlights from last year:

Incredible buffet breakfasts!

JimmyB wondering which one to shoot next?

Chuck Ziegenfuss giving KeeWee some pointers on rifle shooting.

Dirtcrashr showing one of his favorites at "Show & Tell".

Glen and Ashley from the NRA meeting and swapping ideas with the gun bloggers.

The biggest highlight of the Rendezvous is getting a chance to meet and spend some time with some of the smartest and nicest people you would ever want to meet. Having our own explosives expert on hand isn't actually necessary, but you never know.......

If you are a Gun Blogger, Mil Blogger, blog reader, shooting sports enthusiast, gun collector, e-Postal match shooter, are in the shooting sports trade, or all of the above, you should seriously consider making the pilgrimage to Reno for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. Of course, if you are in the shooting sports trade, you can write the whole deal off as a business expense! What a deal!

Each year's Gun Blogger Rendezvous has been better than the last, and this year should be no exception, as it sounds like there will be a number of new faces attending this year. I'll have more on that in a following blog post.

Hope to see you all in Reno!

Time To Book Your Rooms For GBR-III

We have now received the group code from Circus Circus so you can book your rooms for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous 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. Quite a few 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 9th., and Sunday, October 12th. are $49 per night. The rate for Friday October 10th., and Saturday, October 11th. are $89 per night. That's for two people to the room, so bring someone else along to share the room, the second person in the room doesn't cost you any extra. 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. This year each room will get a coupon for one free buffet breakfast, too.

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

IGBR08

The should be able to make your reservations if you just tell them you're with the Gun Blogger Rendezvous and the dates.

If you have any problem with getting your room reserved, let me know, but you shouldn't have any trouble.

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 and other stuff. Registration will be significantly lower than last year! YIPPPEEEE!

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. Tweo years ago we helped Dan McKown ,and Last year we helped Project Valour-IT.

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.

Texas Limo

Texas Limo

I wonder if US Citizen over at Traction Control has one of these?

Probably...........

Are You Ready To Try Pin Shooting?

Chris and Mr. C., dead even in the revolver class.

If you've been thinking about joining in on the fun at a bowling pin shoot, Saturday, Mar. 29th at Central Whidbey Sportsman's Assn. range in Coupeville is the place to be on Saturday, March 29th. You want to be there at 9am. for signup. After signup each shooter will get to shoot four tables of five pins each against the clock. Your three best times are added together, and this total is used to match you up with someone of about the same speed in the first round. That way the new shooters get to shoot against other shooters of similar skill level. It's a single elimination format, with each matchup being two out of three with the winner advancing and the loser being magically transformed into a spectator!

We shoot a number of different classes:

Optic sight centerfire
Iron sight centerfire
Revolver (any sight)
Big bore Revolver (.429 bore minimum)
Optic sight rimfire
Iron sight Rimfire

Revolver shooters can shoot both in the revolver class and the centerfire class. The rimfire classes use 6" pin tops instead of full size pins. No FMJ bullets allowed, but plated (like Rainier) or jacket hollow points, or lead are all OK.

The shoots are small and fun, but it's a good idea to shoot several classes to get in plenty of shooting. Cash pay out for first and second place in all classes except rimfire and big bore, where the entry fee is less, but it only pays for 1st. place.

If you have any questions, leave a comment to this post, or drop me an email. The email address is at the top of the right sidebar just below the pin top shooting picture.

If you want to make a weekend of it, there are plenty of restaurants, B&B's, motels, and campgrounds available here on Whidbey Island.

Come on and give it a try. Even if you finish last, you still beat out every other shooter who didn't show up!!

Kitsap Fun Steel Match - 03/08/2008

The shooting season is now well underway (Yeah, Joe, I KNOW you guys in Idaho shoot steel all Winter in the snow) and this past weekend was a "two-fer". Saturday I was off to Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club for their monthly fun steel match. Thanks to John, the match director, it was both well run and challenging.

Stage One - The wide angle lens makes it look shorter than it actually was. The right-most target is just barely visible over the shooter's right shoulder.

The basic format was very similar to Steel Challenge rules. We had 25 entries, so we split up into two squads of eight shooters, and one squad of nine. Each shooter would shoot each stage five times against the clock. The worst time was discarded, and the four best times totaled for the shooter's score for that stage. After everyone had shot the stage, the squad of shooters moved to the next stage.

Stage one was a very fast stage, and a good one to get warmed up on. Stage two was a 6" falling plate rack where you had to knock down five plates against the clock. Stage Three was an 18" 24" single plate at ten yards (I think). This stage was how fast can you shoot the plate five times. This stage has always been everyone's favorite. One match last Fall John left the "Drag Race" stage out and there was almost a lynching! Fortunately he promised to bring it back for the next match. I have to admit, it's one of my favorites, too, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to miss the plate when you are shooting as fast as you can go.

We had a total of six stages, so everyone got in a lot of shooting. We had two new shooters visiting from the Gig Harbor club. They both shot very well, but Rob was something to watch. He was having a good day and he was making it look easy, even though he was shooting a .45 1911 with iron sights. Optic sight rimfire shooters are always the fastest, but Rob managed to turn in the second best score of the day, beating out all but one of the open rimfire shooters. At Kitsap the rules dictate that the overall match winner always goes to an iron sight shooter, and Rob ran away and hid score-wise, to take the match overall winner spot. I think he was almost a full time zone ahead of most of us!

We all had a grand time, dodged the rain almost entirely except for a little bit of drizzle, and can't wait to get back for next month's fun steel shoot.

On Saturday, March 29th. Central Whidbey is putting on a Bowling Pin Shoot and I understand John and his wife will be coming over for the shoot. Maybe Rob and his buddy (Dan? - Boy am I terrible at remembering names!) will come over and give us all a lesson on iron sight centerfire pin shooting.

Hope they can make it, and if YOU have been thinking about giving pin shooting a try, why don't you come over to CWSA and give it a try too. (Just don't bring any full metal jacket bullets because of bounce-back. Plated bullets, hollow points, and lead bullets are all OK.)

A Busy Weekend - The Season is Underway!

I have to admit that by last November I was starting to get burned out a bit, shooting one or two matches just about every weekend from Early Spring until November. It was a welcome break to put the gear away for a few months and take a break. Now I'm getting excited to get back into the swing of things. Last weekend was the first match of the year, a bowling pin shoot. Being me, I jumped in with both feet, shooting seven guns in a total of six classes.

This weekend is the first "Away Game", a six stage steel match over at the Kitsap Rifle and Revolver club near Bremerton, Washington. As of right now the plans are to shoot the Taurus 9mm. "Econo Race Gun" in Centerfire Open and shoot my High Standard in Rimfire Open.

With our ferry service all messed up between Whidbey Island and Port Townsend, and with regular morning fog and wind delays and cancellations I think my best bet is to take the ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo, then drive South fifteen miles or thereabouts, then catch another ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. From Kingston it's maybe a 40 minute drive to the KRRC range. If the wind isn't blowing too hard, I may try to catch the Port Townsend ferry back to Whidbey after the match and thereby save fifteen or twenty bucks on ferry fare. Unfortunately KeeWee has to work on Saturday, so I'll be heading to the match by myself.

Sunday is a different story as KeeWee has the day off, and CWSA is putting on the first rimfire falling plate match of the year. These are always fast and furious, being a head-to-head round robin format. Shooting two or three hundred rounds is not uncommon!

Stay tuned, there will be full match reports the first of the week..........

So you want to be a lighthouse keeper?

Manfred of Armes et tir passion has posted several times about the Bretagne area of France. Apparently it's scenery is spectacular. Apparently also, so are the storms on the coastline.

Here's some video of some of the lighthouses getting pounded by storm waves.



It's amazing that the lighthouses weren't knocked over with such wave energy.

If it doesn't play properly for you, try this link directly to Youtube.

CWSA Pin Shoot & Range Construction

Sunday was a big day at the CWSA range in Coupeville, Washington. On the bowling pin range we had our first pin shoot of the year, and just to the side of the pin range the excavators were hard at it excavating and building berms for five brand new pistol bays.

The excavator and one of the dozers.

It doesn't take them all that long to dig down three feet and build the berms when you have two dozers and an excavator all going at the same time.

The berms aren't up to full height, but the 'floor' is finished.

In spite of all the racket going on with the excavating, Sunday was also the first pin shoot of the year. It was kind of a 'flat light' day, so I knew that the iron sight classes were going to be a struggle. For the first time KeeWee decided to shoot in the iron sight rimfire class with the Beretta Neos, as well as shooting the High Standard in the optical sight rimfire class.

As pin shoots go, we start by shooting four tables of five pins each against the clock for qualifying. Your three best times are added together and that's what's used to determine your first round opponent, the fastest shooters against the fastest shooters on down to the slowest against the next slowest.

Tony C. broke the previous range record of five pins in 2.46 seconds with a run of 2.43 seconds. If Tony hits everything with his first shot, no one's faster. Fortunately for us mortals, Tony misses some!

Today KeeWee grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. I entered every class, so I was pretty busy all day and didn't have much time for picture taking.

Mr. C. shooting the Taurus 9mm. PT92 'Econo Race Gun' Taco style in Centerfire Open class.

This picture was the second table against 'Evil Al'. Al was hitting the pins a little bit low and they were falling forward, staying on the table. A perfect hit on a pin is just below the label and very slightly to one side. That way the pin tips back and also moves back at the same time. Hitting slightly to one side sets the pin rotating so if the pin does fall on the table it may still be rotating enough to roll of the back edge.

Mr. C. and Tony in the Centerfire Optic final.

I actually managed to get past Tony for the win, but only because he missed a couple of pins. He's so much faster than I am that when he has a good run against you it can blow your confidence for the rest of the day!

When we got down to the rimfire classes the weather had finally improved a bit and it was almost pleasant. Not quite, but almost.

For rimfire we saw off the top 6" of the bowling pin and use just the pin top for the target instead of a full sized pin. .22's will send the pin top flying if you hit it squarely. If you don't hit it squarely it's totally unpredictable. It may jump, spin, or roll, and you may end up having to hit a moving target!

In qualifying for rimfire optical I shot my best ever single table, 3.43 seconds, and my best ever three table total, a 3.43, a 3.81, and a 3.81 for 11.05. That's the closest I've ever come to breaking into the ten's. I sure hope I didn't use up all my fast tables fro the year at the first pin shoot! In rimrire iron sight qualifying KeeWee struggled a bit on a table or two, but started to get it figured out on the third and fourth table. Her first opponent was Big Phil, a good iron sight shooter who has won the iro nsight class in the past. KeeWee knocked him out two tables in a row! With a bye she was then into the final, and although she lost, she did very well for her first try at it, and will certainly be a very competitive at future pin shoots.

All things considered, it was a good day at the range. All the guns seemed to run pretty well, and everyone had a good time. LouG., in spite of only recently having had the outside rod removed that was holding his left arm together while the bones set up, did manage to shoot his .38 revolver and not only was he glad to be back shooting, he made Evil Al work plenty hard to beat him!

After the shoot KeeWee and I headed to Oak Harbor to spend our prize winnings on a mexican dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant.

Then home, and a nap.....................

I'm With Stupid...........

I saw this over at Dave Smock's place, and couldn't resist stealing it and posting it here. It seems to me there are a lot of good captions that could be applied to this one.

Any ideas?