Gun Blogger Rendezvous Hotel Reservations

All the details are now sorted out for the discounted  hotel reservations at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino in Reno. I have arranged for group rate pricing for not only the three nights of the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, September 9th, 10th, 11th, but also the preceding Wednesday the 8th, and for Sunday the 12th. This way you can arrive a day early and leave on Monday for home. I'd recommend staying the Sunday night if you can, as Sunday will be the Cowboy Fast Draw Intergalactic Blogger Championships, and you won't want to have to rush off right after the event. Millisecond Molly and KeeWee are already "Talkin' Trash" since Molly narrowly edged KeeWee at the Fast Draw match last year, and KeeWee is "Goin' fer gittin' even!" You won't want to miss it!

To reserve your accommodations  at the Silver Legacy for the Rendezvous, give the Group Reservations department a call at 800-687-8733 and give them the group code of GBLOG10. Their room rates are reasonable, and considering that the room rates include the use of the Hospitality Room for the Rendezvous, it's a pretty good deal. Yes, there are cheaper places to stay in Reno, but I really recommend staying at the Silver Legacy as you miss out on quite a bit if you aren't actually "On Site" for the Rondy.

2010 Gun Blogger Rendezvous Registration

The 2010 Gun Blogger rendezvous Registration Form is now available to download and mail in. The link to it is at the top of this page, or click on

GUN BLOGGER RENDEZVOUS 

REGISTRATION FORM

The registration costs the same as last year, thirty bucks, and every penny not used in running the Rendezvous goes directly to Project Valour-IT, also just like last year.

If you are planning on attending this year's Rondy, it is a big help to me if you can get your registrations in fairly early so I can properly plan and prepare for the number of folks attending. If our attendance if significantly larger than last year I will need to reserve a larger hospitality room, and if I don't know we need a bigger room until June or July the bigger rooms will probably not be available. 

If it looks like you may be attending or you are hoping to but aren't sure yet, please send me an email and let me know, too.

I'll have information up very soon for you on making your room reservations at the Silver Legacy and how to be sure you get the group rate discount. 

There's a lot going on between now and the middle of September, but it will be here before you know it, and it's an event like no other, one you really won't want to miss.

Hope to see YOU there, too..............

e-Postal Match Reminder

Time is running out to get your entries shot end sent in for the first e-Postal match of the year "Seein' Stars". The match entry deadline is Midnight Monday, March 29th, so this is your last weekend to get out to the range and shoot the match. There will be a $50 gift certificate from Cheaper Than Dirt awarded by random drawing from all the entries (excluding the host for the month, of course).

Here's the link to print out the match instructions and to download the targets.

You better get on it, as you sure don't want to miss out on the fifty buck certificate, and getting out and doing some shooting isn't such a bad thing, either....

Gun Blogger Rendezvous V Update

There's lots of interesting things going on, but a lot of it can't be announced until it's confirmed. That stuff will get announced as soon as I have confirmation. For now, However, I have the following announcements:

I talked to Quick Cal Eilrich, the head of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association, and we are planning to have another Cowboy Fast Draw Match for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous participants like the one that was so much fun last year. Some young whippersnapper blogger from California (CALIFORNIA???) kicked everyone's butts last year, so this year we're a'gunnin' for a rematch (cue Clint Eastwood spaghetti western sound track...). On the ladies side, the match between Millisecond Molly and KeeWee was worth the effort to get there all by itself. It was a "Best of Five" and it went back and forth, with Molly narrowly pulling off the victory. This year, however, some of the other cowgirls are lookin' to settle the score... (OK, turn off the sound track. Thanks)

I talked to Bill Brassard of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and NSSF intends to be involved as a sponsor again this year. Bill was able to attend in person last year, and schedule permitting, hopes to be there again this year for all the fun.

We had  an inquiry from Ireland regarding attending, and I've gotten emails from several other folks who are interested in attending for their first GBR this year. It looks like we're going to have a good mix of the regulars along with a number of new faces.

Plans are to have two range days, one on the longer distance target range, and a second day shooting handgun steel. The third shooting event will be the Cowboy Fast Draw activities.

Stay tuned, it's going to be a blast!

Paul Bunyan Steel - Some Days You Get The Bear, and Some days...

It's a couple of hours drive  to the Paul Bunyan range in Puyallup with one ferry boat ride included, and it didn't start raining until I was within about ten minutes of the range. It rained on and off (it seemed like if I was on the line shooting it was on, otherwise it was only drizzling.) Fortunately there was enough shelter at the individual stages that we kept reasonably dry.  One well placed drop of water on a red dot sight in just the wrong place at just the wrong time turns the tiny red dot into something that resembles a large ominous red jellyfish. It didn't really matter that much though, because the way I was shooting it was pretty obvious that I couldn't possibly have been using the sight anyway!

Some days you find yourself making shots that you normally wouldn't be able to make. However, to maintain the balance in the universe, every one of those days has an evil twin lurking in the shadows to drive you screaming away from shooting sports and into something else entirely. Sunday was one of those days. The whole day kinda felt like it was just a bit out of sync somehow. Sometimes when a day goes that way it's because you are trying to shoot just a bit faster than you can shoot. If you slow down a bit and your accuracy makes a big improvement and your times actually get better, that's what's going on. On Sunday if I slowed down the accuracy didn't improve I just got slower!  Days like that can be frustrating, but there's also a good lesson to be learned on days like that. Even the very best shooters have days like that too, but they don't let it rattle them, they stick to their game plan, and slog their way through the day, making the best out of it they can. Sometimes their day will pull itself together as the day progresses.The important thing is that they keep doing the things that got them to where they are and stick to it. In short, they give the day a chance to salvage itself. If you get rattled or start making big changes to your technique trying to fix the problem, you are making it impossible for the day to get better, you are only compounding the problem. When you have one of those days, focus on your fundamentals, and hope for the best.

Sunday it was one of those days all day long.............

Steel Shoots - One Last Saturday, One Tomorrow

Last Saturday I ventured over to KRRC for a fun steel match, and this month the weather gods were much kinder to us than they were last month. In fact, the weather was quite nice for this time of the year, but when the wind would come up it was still cold.

Of the six stages, three of them were straight out of the Steel Challenge rule book, two of them were set up by John, the Match Director, and one of them was designed by some sort of fiendish madman, at least to hear all the shooters describe it after the match.  Actually, it wasn't that bad, but  the two stages that immediately preceded it were large targets, very fast, and didn't require very much accuracy. The stage in question, though, was much smaller targets, and they were fairly far down range and spread to the full width of the bay. To add to the challenge, there were two barrels stacked up directly in front of the shooter's box. If you positioned yourself in either corner of the shooter's box, however, you could see all five targets, but you had a large blue barrel right next to and slightly in front of you. It was quite a distraction, although if you could ignore it, it wasn't really in your way. In short, you had two fast stages followed by a slow stage with distractions and which required you to aim carefully. There was some talk of a lynching party, but after a bit they seemed to calm down. John is taking seriously  the suggestion that he stay out of dark alleyways for a while, though.....

I just finished cleaning and servicing my High Standard rimfire race gun for tomorrow's steel match at the Paul Bunyan club's range in Puyallup. This last week I finally machined a new compensator for my Volquartsen barrel. The old one was in fine condition, but I had some design ideas I wanted to try out to see if I could further reduce muzzle climb. The old compensator reduced climb by porting gasses in all directions to reduce recoil, which reduces climb. My new compensator directs the gasses primarily upward, but slightly off center, as the gun, at least for a left handed shooter, tends to rise slightly to the left. Since the new compensator is also much lighter than the original Volquartsen unit, the new compensator doesn't have the luxury of the extra weight to hold the muzzle down. In fact, if the muzzle rises no more than with the original, it's a success  as I've at least lightened the front of the gun, which should make it slightly more nimble. After several hundred rounds of testing there appears to be a 20 to 30 percent reduction of muzzle rise, combined with a much closer to vertical rise. I ran out of time as to bench rest testing it for absolute accuracy, but I expect it should be the same. Testing it by shooting steel targets, it seemed to be as accurate as it's always been. Tomorrow at Paul Bunyan will be a good test in actual competition.

Now if I could just remember to only pull the trigger when the red dot is on the white plate, otherwise wait until it is. It sounds easy, but it's not...................................

A woman had just returned to her home from an evening of church services , when she was startled by an intruder. She caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables and yelled: "Stop! Acts 2:38!" (Repent and be Baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven.)

The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done.

As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar: 'Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you.'

 "Scripture?" replied the burglar. "She said she had an Ax and Two 38s!"

Hat tip to LocoCasino.......

European Steel Championship News

I've been watching the airfares every day for the last month or so, and they haven't budged a nickel in that time. Today the flights dropped almost $200, so I bought the  tickets to Amsterdam. Compared to last year's cost of $611 per ticket, this year's price of approximately $1,100 per ticket is still a lot.

Thanks to unsolicited pledges from several readers and bloggers we have raised $750 towards the trip, and to those of you who have offered to help, you have no idea just how much we appreciate it. The total cost of the  trip is estimated to be somewhat over $3,500, and we will cut corners wherever we can to keep the cost down as much as we can. I had hoped for a little help from a particular barrel manufacturer and a particular  .22 pistol manufacturer, but no luck. We are just thankful for what help we get, and we promise to represent the US of A in a positive manner.

My goal is to finish in the top five in rimfire open, and if I keep practicing every day and have a few breaks go my way in Holland, it's a possibility. Not promising  anything but to do the best I can, however!

I've received emails from some of the folks we met last year, looking forward to seeing us again. The feeling is mutual, as it was one of the nicest groups of folks you could ever want to meet.

I've got to keep focused on practice, and on preparation for the Man of Steel Championship coming up  in early May on Oregon. That's only about ten days before we leave for Holland, so let's hope everything runs OK and nothing breaks!

Windows 7 - Time Will Tell.....

It's been an interesting week, and that has a lot to do with the lack of posts.  For the last week I've been busy building, loading, configuring, and tweaking a new computer. Part of the challenge and large amount of time consumption is the result of installing Windows 7. As far as I can see, Windows 7 is basically Windows Vista - Release 2, with most of the really obnoxious stuff everyone complained about either tamed down or turned off.

I wish I had a buck for every time it told me I don't have the right permissions to do whatever I was trying to do. At times it was eerily bordering on "I'm sorry, Mr. C., but I can't do that......" sort of experience. Granted, my setup and requirements are fairly complicated compared to an average home computer, and there is a lot of older software I needed to keep functional. At last, I finally have all the essential stuff working.

I considered just going with XP, but that's means I'd be two operating systems behind, and it would just be that much sooner until I had to go through the whole mess again. So far, now that I've got WIN7 tweaked and tuned a bit, it seems to run just fine. Considering that just about every version of Windows sucked when it was first released, I think WIN7 should continue in that direction, and may actually turn out to be OK  in the long run. In fact, it might even be pretty good. Time will tell.

Up until Windows ME, you could always reinstall over the top of your current Windows version when Windows got messed up. When you did this, all of your files and software would still be there and usually still functional. From Windows 2000 on, it's not that simple. In theory, the system restore would allow you to change your computer back to just before it got fouled up, but usually when the computer was messed up, so was system restore, and it wouldn't work.

If I wasn't locked in in such a way that I have to stay with some version of Windows I think I'd give Linux a try. However, that's not a viable option for me, so WIN7, here we go.................

Hi-Skor 700-X Data for .308/7.62x51?

Do any of you have any experience loading .308/7.62x51 using Hi-Skor 700-X powder? I haven't found any reloading data for it and I've got a can of 700-X I'd like to use up in the Garand. I don't use the 700-X in anything else I load, so it's just sitting on the shelf. If any of you can point me to some load data I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Speaking of e-Postal Matches

It seems like a lot of the other gun bloggers are doing a fine job of covering the high profile "In The News" gun issues of the day including McDonald, Starbucks, and a bunch of other stuff. I've been really busy trying to get other stuff done, and most of those bloggers are much better writers and deeper thinkers than I am, so you aren't missing much anyhow. However, in the wild and wacky world of Internet e-Postal matches, lots of good things are happening. Our Mr. Completely's e-Postal Match series is all "Hosted Up" through November, as you read in a precious post. Cheaper Than Dirt is also running an all season long "Zombie Blaster" e-Postal match as I mentioned in the post below.

A new e-Postal match series, promising one match a month, is up and running under the banner of "Nashville Online Handgun Postal Match". The rules are along the lines of the Mr. Completely rules, so you should feel right at home. This month's match has a St. Patrick's Day theme, so go check it out!!

There are also some other handgun postal matches going on from time to time, and our good friend Merle, regular e-Postal match shooter, has just wrapped up an e-postal match over at the Ruger forum.

As I check out some of the other postal matches, I'll get more info up here for you all.

Most of all ,though, don't forget to get out and shoot this month's e-Postal match "Seein' Stars", hosted right here, kicking off this year's Mr. Completely series. Don't forget, every entry in this month's e-Postal match "Seein' Stars" gets you into the random drawing for the fifty dollar gift certificate from Cheaper Than Dirt. Since the drawing is random, your score has no effect on your chances to win the gift certificate, so why not shoot every handgun you've got and up your odds of winning?

Cheaper Than Dirt's e-Postal Match

In addition to donating fifty dollar gift certificates to be awarded by random drawing at each month's e-Postal Matches, the good folks at Cheaper Than Dirt are also running a season long e-Postal match. The Match is already underway, and it ends in November, so you can't complain about not having time to get out and shoot it, can you! Like most of us, however, we will still wait until the last minute, rush around to get some targets downloaded and printed, and then rush out to the range to get our entries shot. Human nature, I guess....

Anyhow, the Cheaper Than Dirt e-Postal match is a great chance to practice your handgun zombie blasting, so click HERE, download your targets and rules, and head out to the range.

Those zombies are getting restless, so you better get on it!!

2010 e-Postal Match Schedule

The e-Postal match series hosts have all been confirmed. Most of the hosts also hosted a match last year, so we can expect some truly challenging (and possibly evil!) matches.

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

Typically each match will start on the first day of the month, and will end at midnight on the last Monday of the month.

What do you win if you win? Well, the match, that's it! No prizes, just bragging rights. However, this year Cheaper Than Dirt has generously donated a $50 gift certificate to each month's e-Postal match, to be awarded by random drawing to one of that month's entrants.

Anyhow, here's the schedule:

• March - Mr. Completely
• April - The Conservative UAW Guy
• May - Sand Castle Scrolls
• June - Random Nuclear Strikes
• July - Captain of a Crew of One
• August - Curtis Lowe Blog
• September - True Blue Sam - The Travelin' Man
• October - Traction Control
• November - Armes et tir passion

Each match starts on the 1st. of the month, and end at midnight on the last Monday of the month.

Happy Shooting !