Bill Whittle To Cheer You Up

With a lot of the recent political goings-on, it's been really easy to get depressed. Here's Bill Whittle to cheer you up a bit, and entertain you too.......

HHRGC 11/25/2012 Steel Results

It was a little foggy and cold in the morning, but as the day progressed, a bit of sun peeked out, and best of all, we didn't see a single drop of rain! We ran the same six stages that we ran yesterday, and everyone had a ball, especially on one of the stages that I made up just for the match. I LOVE stages that are big, close, and fast!

Here's the results for the match:

Name	Class	stg 1	stg 2	stg 3	stg 4	stg 5	stg 6	total
Mike Gallion	RF-O	9.26	9.37	11.59	14.94	9.93	6.14	61.23
Ron Wigger	RF-R	11.45	11.93	14.46	15.34	11.41	6.18	70.77
Josh Hansen	RF-R	11.80	14.77	14.92	13.84	12.31	5.84	73.48
Ron Wigger	CF-P	19.12	18.22	19.51	19.49	11.65	6.24	94.23
Jennifer Kelly	RF-O	17.82	14.76	20.12	21.98	13.55	8.72	96.95
Mike Gallion	CF-O	18.07	15.23	20.97	19.76	14.44	16.02	104.49
Josh Hansen	RF-I	20.87	19.45	32.15	25.44	18.33	6.93	123.17
Ron Wigger	CF-SA	36.83	22.97	23.62	24.73	18.13	14.78	141.06
Michael McIerney	CF-P	30.44	27.51	33.04	30.21	16.64	13.89	151.73
John Hamilton	CF-L	24.11	24.97	44.82	34.40	19.65	17.65	165.60
Bob Kolesar	REV-I	29.01	25.28	42.07	30.84	21.09	20.25	168.54
Jeff Sparks	CF-L	23.31	30.78	47.30	41.18	22.86	11.86	177.29
Jim Dyment	CF-L	27.70	34.50	37.98	40.66	24.88	20.15	185.87
Brian Lawson	RF-I	28.86	31.32	70.05	41.50	23.89	19.24	214.86
Thomas Alldredge	RF-I	120.00	120.00	28.92	28.33	10.72	7.47	315.44

Next month, December 22nd. and 23rd. we'll be back out at Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun for more fun on steel! Why not join us?

For schedules, reports, and results related to Action Pistol Shooting in the Pacific Northwest and South Western Canada, Northwest, check out South Whidbey Action Pistol.

Shot My First Turkey

Steel Match This Weekend At HHRGC

This weekend at Holmes Harbor rod & Gun Club there will be a six stage steel match on Saturday, and another full six stage steel match on Sunday.

Entry fee is $5 per gun, and you can enter up to 3 classes if you want. Setup is at 8:00 am each day, with signup at 9:00am. Shooter's rules and safety meeting is at 9:45am. The match end time will depend on the number of shooters and the weather, but around 2 to 2:30pm should be a pretty good guess.

After the match a number of us will be retiring to the club's restaurant and bar :The Pine Tree Room" for after match food and refreshments. Feel free to join us!

I was out on the range this afternoon, and the large mud puddle at the far end of bay three is just about gone, and at it's deepest it's only 3 or 4 inches deep. If the rain is minimal, it should be just about gone by Saturday. If not, we just shoot over it! The range is in very good condition, particularly considering just how hard it rained.

I have built a moveable target stand out of heavy PVC pipe and put it in bay one. It uses two 1x2's four feet long as uprights. They are exactly 18" apart, so if you want to shoot at a target or pie plate, bring a piece of 18" wide cardboard maybe 24" tall or more, your staple gun to staple the cardboard to the uprights, and whatever target or pie plate you want for a target. A USPSA/IPSC target fits perfectly.

PLEASE do not shoot up the 1x2 uprights. They are not a target. Put your targets between them on the cardboard. Do not staple your target directly to the uprights. Thanks!

The PVC pipe stand seems to work well, but it was over $20 in pipe fittings, so I am working on a less expensive version out of 2x4's and PVC pipe. Once I get enough of them built, those of you wanting to practice for USPSA, IDPA, IPSC, or SASS will have the target stands to do so.

We still need a few more of the plastic barrels, so if you come across any, please bring them down to the range, or drop me an email and I'll arrange to have them picked up.

Hope to see you all this weekend, Saturday November 24th (Day after tomorrow!)  and Sunday the 25th  for some steel shooting!

Mike
##

A Funny For The Day

A man and his wife were awakened at 3:00 am by a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push. "Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3:00 in the morning!" He slams the door and returns to bed. "Who was that?" asked his wife. "Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers."Did you help him?" she asks. "No, I did not, it is 3:00 in the morning and it is pouring rain out there!""Well, you have a short memory," says his wife. "Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself!  God loves drunk people too". The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pounding rain. He calls out into the dark, "Hello, are you still there?" "Yes," comes back the answer."Do you still need a push?" calls out the husband."Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark. "Where are you?" asks the husband."Over here on the swing set," replied the drunk.

Holmes Harbor Pistol Ranges

Yes, here in Western Washington State it does rain a lot, but really heavy rain is quite unusual. Over the last couple of days the rainfall has been way heavier than we are used to seeing around here.

I just got back from checking on the new pistol bays at Homes Harbor Rod & Gun Club, and everything got a good soaking. I took a shovel and re-routed some of the runoff water to minimize erosion of the access road, and other than one large mud puddle in bay three, everything looks OK. The ground right now is totally saturated, and high winds are forecast for tonight, so I am expecting some of the looser trees to go down, and also expecting some power outages. One of the trees that was swaying pretty far over is right behind bay three where we would like to expand the back of the bay, so if that tree goes down that saves us some work!

Next Saturday and Sunday, November 24th and 25th, we are planning on running a full six stage steel match each day, so come on down! There will be no stages requiring movement, so wear warm and waterproof boots and bring your rain gear. We will have a rain shelter set up in each bay, so even if it rains you will have some protection from it. Setup at 8am., Signup at 9am., shooters safety and rules meeting at 9:45, and match starts at 10am. We should be all done and in the restaurant for lunch and hot coffee by 2 or 2:30!

See you there!

Mike GAllion Shooting Tanfoglio 9mm. In The Rain

Here's another video from the rainy steel match. This is Mike Gallion shooting a Tanfoglio Gold Custom 9mm, Open class race gun from under a popup shelter.


You can clearly see the gasses from the compensator being directed upwards and blowing mist and fog off of the rain shelter. 

Ruger 22/45 Tactical Rimfire Race Gun

My friend Nelson down South of here in California has put together one of the nicest looking ruger rimfire race guns you are ever likely to see!

Click on the picture to fully appreciate how nice it is!

Nelson started with the Ruger 2245 Tactical, then added the Voquartsen Trigger Group, Allchin Compensator, Hogue G10 Grips and an OKO Red Dot Sight.

Nice!

Matt Mitchell Shooting Under An Umbrella

At the Steel Match held a few weeks ago on Saturday at Holmes Harbor rod & Gun Club on Whidbey Island in Washington State, it rained a lot! Fortunately between portable popup shelters and umbrellas, we managed to keep relatively dry, and have a good time at the match.

video Credit: Larry D.

Matt Mitchell was there shooting his major power factor GLOCK Open class race gun. To get up to major power factor, you need to load a 9mm. pretty hot. When you do, the compensator produces a lot of upward directed gasses. This not only makes the compensator work, but it also produces interesting results if you happen to be under a wet umbrella!

Bellingham Shooter Wins Steel Challenge World Shoot-off

Bellingham Shooter Wins Steel Challenge World Shoot-off

Frostproof, FL -- Bellingham youth Keith Neher narrowly "made the cut" at the recent Steel Challenge World Championships in Frostproof, Fla. Having finished 42nd overall, Neher shouldn't have qualified, but shooters above him didn't show, giving Neher the No. 31 spot -- out of 32 shooters eligible.

Paired with the legendary Eric Grauffel of France, together, Grauffel and Neher steamrolled the other 15 teams on the match's last day.

Head-to-head competition in Steel Challenge is rare, giving Neher and Grauffel a distinct advantage. While Grauffel is new to Steel Challenge, he shoots in head-to-head shootoffs in Europe from time to time. 18-year-old Neher is a product of Custer Sportsmen's Club's "Team Gotta" -- a Scholastic Steel Challenge youth team that cross-trains in head-to-head events like bowling pins and falling plates.

"This is killing me!" Said proud father Rob Neher as his son's team worked its way up the ladder, knocking off some of the best steel shooters in the world, including seasoned competitors from Japan. Grauffel's job was to mow down a long row of 12 steel plates, while Neher's job was to take down a half-dozen widely-spaced poppers before converging on the stop plate. The division of labor worked perfectly, and the Grauffel/Neher team never lost a bout.

Their victory won both men a "full card" entry into the 2013 Steel Challenge world championships, worth $550 each.

--- Robin Taylor

Originally posted on South Whidbey Action Pistol by Robin Taylor

 

Lots of new stuff now posted on the South Whidbey Action Pistol site, including some match announcements and the results from several matches from around Washington State. Go check it out!

http://southwhidbeyactionpistol.blogspot.com/

South Whidbey Action Pistol will soon be THE place to go for action pistol information in the Pacific Northwest!

Our Future?

I got an email from another shooter who makes some very good points regarding the election. With his permission, here it is in it's entirety:

---

Whenever I approach despondency about the prospects for this country and for my own liberty within it, I focus on the idea that the current path is simply unsustainable.

I personally don’t think it makes any significant difference who won this election. Regardless of which party has been in power, for decades we citizens have gotten more debt, more war, and less liberty. The only difference between the two parties is which personal freedom they want to take away first.

It has to crash and burn at some point, and then if there are enough freedom-minded people that have prepared for it, we can influence the rebuilding.

So I try and view this inevitable rebuilding with optimism – that we can eliminate the parasites that are currently in charge, prevent even worse mental aberrants from taking control in the crash, and return to living by the Constitution that was such an enlightened guideline.

---

I think it's an important distinction to consider the separate the parties by their behavior and as they are actually functioning, as opposed to what they purport to be. Clearly, Jefferson would not recognize the Republicans by their behavior, nor would Kennedy recognize the current Democratic party either.

e-Postal Match Announcement

True Blue Sam, one of our most active e-Postal match participants over the last few years, has agreed to take over the e-Postal match series for next year. TBS has hosted several of the e-Postal matches in the past, and having him take over the running of the series, arranging hosts, and so forth, will take the series to a new level of fun!

He's got a match up and running now for November, so those of you wanting to get in some last minute practice and have some fun before the end of the year, here you go!

HHRGC Innaugural Steel Match Report

It's been almost three years in the making, but last Saturday and Sunday we managed to put on our first two steel matches at my home club, Holmes Harbor rod & Gun. The weather on Saturday was wet, rainy, and sloppy for our inaugural match, but by Sunday it stopped raining, and the ground dried out a bit. The temperatures were mild both days, so cold wasn't an issue, but keeping dry was a challenge. Fortunately we had three pop-up shelters, and a number of umbrellas.

Looking across the three new action pistol bays.

You can tell one shooter comes from some place where it rains. He has his own umbrella mounted to his wagon!

Not only was keeping dry a problem, if you were using a red dot sight, the rain drops on the glass of the sight would make using the sight very difficult. On one run you might have one giant ten thousand MOA red amoeba, and after wiping the lens, you night have a whole swarm of little red dots! Every run was different!

Hmmmm.... Which dot is the real one?

An umbrella overhead definitely helped to keep the shooter and the sights dry, but it was still a challenge!

 Instant cloud of mist!

Compensated guns, particularly with full power loads, would blow enough gases upward from the compensator that it would form a mist cloud above and around the umbrella on every shot.

What's a little rain? This is fun! 

For our first match, particularly considering the time of year, our turn out was great. This group (Except for Thomas in the foreground) drove all the way across the state from Ephrata to help us kick it off in grand style!

As the day progressed, the rain continued to fall at a rate faster than it could drain off.

We also had folks from all across Western Washington shooting. As the rain continued to fall, the ranges started to get muddy and mud puddles started to form.

Compensated guns also were producing some pretty interesting fog and mist clouds under the pop up tents. Check out the "Wallyworld" rain hat!

We had six stages set up. so everyone got in a lot of shooting, but even so, the day seemed to go by quickly.

Matt Mitchell running his Open class Glock.

 

As the match neared it's end, it was really starting to get muddy!

Time to head up the hill to the club's restaurant for some hot coffee and lunch.

The matches seemed top go by quickly both days, and in spite of Saturday's rain, a good time was had by all, there was some really good shooting, and everyone is already looking forward to the next two matches, which will be Saturday and Sunday, November 24th and 25th. We plan to shoot every 4th Saturday and Sunday all Winter, so why not come out and join us?