One in a row....

2009-07-12T00:29:00.002-07:00

Phoenix Tea Party

2009-04-16T21:53:00.009-07:00

Pictures of the Phoenix Tea Party on April 15th, 2009 - text descriptions to follow when I have time.

Spring Grand - Day 3

2009-02-18T17:38:00.004-07:00

Breathing makes all the difference.

In case you didn't figure it out from the short post yesterday, I felt like crap. Up until today, it's been cold, windy, and cloudy all the time, so naturally I caught a cold. Monday night I went through an entire box of kleenex just trying to keep my sinuses clear enough to sleep. After dinner Tuesday night I gave up and went to town for some cold medicine. Two tablets of DayQuil washed down with three fingers of Jack Daniels put me to sleep just fine. This morning I felt a million percent better.

Today's events were doubles (two targets, not two shooters) in the morning and handicap in the afternoon. My starting bank for doubles was at the farthest point on the grounds from where I'm camped, so I wimped out and drove the truck. It was nice to drive instead of hike, but I could have done without knowing that it was 43 degrees outside. Sometimes the 'information center' gives you information you really don't want. Maybe I should get one of these:

The entire doubles event was a comedy of errors. There were quite a few cancellations, so squad 64 (my squad) was the third squad to shoot. Normally it would have been 90 minutes after the start of the event before we were up, but not today. The target thrower (or 'flinger' as SWMBO calls it) broke on the first pair of targets that it threw, so the first squad of the day moved to the next trap in line while the club mechanic fixed the broken machine. When our turn came up, we realized that we were short one person: our squad leader. We waited a few minutes and eventually he came hustling down the line. Everything went fine for the first 40 targets, and then we got out of synch. It was my turn to shoot and the person to my right shot at my targets, which made the person after him proceed to shoot. I called a cease fire and we started over again with my shots. Thank goodness I hit both of them.....

Our second doubles trap started out well, and then another (different) person on the squad shot out of turn. Most people don't watch the other shooters shoot.....they watch the targets and know that it's their turn by the voice of the person in front of them. All of our target calls sounded so similar that it really screwed everyone up. (Sidebar: very few people actually call for the target by saying "Pull" - any spoken word will trip the voice release, so everyone comes up with their own personal call. All of ours were close variations of "UP!")

After we got the shooting order sorted out again and were proceeding, a dog appeared on the firing line. It was a beautiful Golden Retriever, frantically looking for a bird to retrieve. The poor thing was desperately running up and down the firing line, obviously wanting someone to tell him to fetch. With all these guns going off, there MUST be a bird to fetch around here SOMEWHERE!! Everyone stopped while the embarassed owner got the dog's attention long enough to bring him to heel. As far as I know nobody was upset about it....we've all had dogs.

I ended up with a score of 96 out of 100, with all of the missed targets on the first trap.

In between events it was time to do some work on the trailer. The solar panels that charge the batteries were set up for a ground mount. This works fine camping in the boonies, but with trailers racked and stacked like they are here there just isn't enough sunshine at ground level to make everything work. I had maybe 1 hour of sunlight on the panels. They'll charge in any light, but a couple of cloudy days combined with the shadows resulted in very sub-standard charging. The batteries were only showing 11.9 volts this morning, so a new solar panel mount was in order. I re-wired everything from the charge controller on the panels to the battery connections using 4 gauge wire and moved the mount up to the top of the slide out by standing on the siderail of the truck bed and lifting everything into place. I would have liked to have the panels on the actual roof, but I couldn't reach that high. This increased the output of the panels considerably. Let there be light! More importantly, let there be an electric water pump so that I can bathe!

The afternoon handicap wasn't nearly as entertaining as the morning doubles. The usual Tucson afternoon wind came up just before we began to shoot. I managed to eke out a score of 91 and was very happy with it..........especially because I won $55. Not having to split the pot 20 ways would have made the payout over $1000, but once again: never bitch about a small pot.

It's time to cut this short. There's a beer calling my name............................

Spring Grand - Day 2

2009-02-17T15:59:00.002-07:00

Cold.

Cloudy.

Windy.

Crappy light.

That pretty much sums up my day.

It actually went pretty well.......I broke 99/100 this morning in the singles event and 92/100 this afternoon in the handicap. The 99 was worth $14.50 in prize money after the 32 way split. As my Dad always said, "Never bitch about winning a small pot."

Spring Grand American - 2009

2009-02-16T16:48:00.013-07:00

Hello all - It's February and that means it's time for the Spring Grand (or Spring Fling as my wife calls it) at the Tucson Trap & Skeet Club.

This is the largest trapshooting competition held in Arizona. I tried to reserve one of the 210 RV spaces in November of 2008 and couldn't.....they were all full. As a result, I'm camping in the "no electric" area with about 50 other people at the east end of the parking lot. There are water and sewer connections, but no power. I fell asleep to the soothing hum of generators last night.

My usual shooting partner was called away to Chatanooga on business, so I'll be alone until Friday when Greg and the kids come down from Phoenix. I drove the rig down Sunday afternoon and managed to get it backed in with the help of the gentleman in the RV parked behind me. The parking wasn't exactly graceful, but it wasn't too bad for my first time with a 5th wheel.

Here's home for the next week:

I thought I would be in good shape arriving on the Sunday before the competition began, but it was wall to wall RV's when I got here. As of Sunday afternoon, there were a total of 31 RV spaces empty out of the 210 improved and 50 kinda-improved spaces.

The view to the east:

The view to the west:

I thought that the F-350 was a pretty bitchin' tow rig until I ran into this guy:

But, like everything else, there's always someone with a bigger one:

There are usually 850 to 1000 competitors at this shoot, so of course there have to be vendors to cater to their shooting needs. Gunsmiths, stock makers, clothing, shooting "stuff", and, of course, guns for sale. All of the firearms dealers here are licensed dealers, which means that even though they are selling out of a tent you still have to fill out the 4473 form and pass the NICS check.

I don't shoot until tomorrow, so for the moment I'm roughing it in the lounge.

I'll put up more pictures and scores Tuesday evening. Until then, try to live like this guy:

New shooter retention - Class C and D

2008-03-09T22:32:00.002-07:00

I'll flesh this post out more over the next few days, but I wanted to throw it out here as it sits. This is my response to a thread on www.trapshooters.com about how to increase participation in trapshooting.

Gentlemen -

I also 'grew up' shooting 3-hole, 50 yard targets, and as someone who is struggling for that last .5 on my singles average to make AA I agree that today's targets are easier and that it is frustrating to know that singles have become a 'miss and out' contest. Having said that, I don't think changing the target presentations will help increase participation.

Those of you who know me will remember that I usually am accompanied by a small contigent of "new" shooters at most shoots. (not blowing my own horn, just stating the facts) Two of these shooters are my own kids who are competitive for the category trophies, two others are kids who will be competitive for category trophies in the next year or two, and two are adults who don't qualify for any special category. What these shooters all have in common is that NONE of them are competitive for class trophies....even in D class. Both of my kids have 90% singles averages (Class C) but have never once won a class D trophy. A review of the Class C and D winning scores from the Spring Grand (found here: http://www.aztrap.com/Scores%202008%20TY/TU%202008%20SG.htm) reveals the following winning scores:

Event 1 preliminary singles
Class C 98 (4 way tie)
Class D 96 (2 way tie)
Event 3 Beaudry RV singles
Class C 99 (2 way tie)
Class D 98
Event 7 Tucson singles class championship
Class C 99 (3 way tie)
Class D 98
Event 11 Spring Grand American singles championship (150 targets)
Class C 149
Class C RU 147 (2 way tie)
Class D 147
Class D RU 146

As a class A shooter who wants to be AA, I would have been happy to post any of these C and D class scores. Quite frankly, I only broke a 145 in the championship so I wouldn't have even gotten the D runner-up trophy.

Other people has pointed out in earlier posts that it is disheartening for new shooters to see the long list of perfect scores in the top classes. In my experience, new shooters are interested in THEIR class, not the top classes. The top class scores are where they want to be. The disappointment comes from seeing D class won by a 98. This is what chases them away. They feel that they are not competitive in even the bottom class, and unless they are shooting just for the love of turning money into noise they'll walk away.

In my opinion, the handicap committees have become too dependant on the software used to pull a shooters average from the ATA database. This purely numeric average does not give any information as to known ability or the persons current level of shooting. I've seen it happen at every shoot I've been to......the shooter presents his plastic card and average card, the plastic card is swiped through the card reader or the number is typed in, and the class is assigned based on the year-to-date average without the actual average card ever being opened.

At this point in the argument someone is going to tell me to sit in the chair and do the work before I open my mouth. My response is that I will be happy to assist with the handicapping at any event I attend....but I guarantee that the shooters will not be happy with me.

If we are going to start applying the known ability rule tightly, such as once you have shot a score of 95 or better you simply cannot be put in D class again that year, that direction needs to come from the top. It can't just be one uptight, former D class shooter that doesn't like the way the current system works.

There have been suggestions to implement a 'Hunter' class below D class to welcome new shooters. I think that would be a great idea. I also think that the best thing we can do to bring in AND RETAIN new shooters is to "clean up" the C and D classes so that the newbies don't think they have to be perfect to win the lower classes. Leave the targets soft so that the scores are high....just get the high scoring shooters out of the low scoring classes.

Other ways to bring in new shooters would be to partner with local gun stores and give away (yes, give away) one free round of trap/skeet/sporting clays with the purchase of every new shotgun. Yes, it will cost the clubs 25 clays for each of these people. How many people do you know that drive all the way out to a club and then only shoot 25 targets? Get them out there...they'll come back if you have a decent club. We may only get one shooter out of every hundred to ever shoot registered targets, but that would be one more than we have today. Consider it an investment.

On that note, how many clubs advertise outside of shooting related publications? Get your name out....don't preach to the choir.

Start an SCTP program. Donate your old equipment to the kids. If your local state association isn't a 501C.3 non-profit, perhaps the ATA could arrange something using its’ non-profit status to provide a tax deduction for the donated equipment.

Have "tune-up" days before bird season. All of the rifle ranges around here offer sight in services before deer season. Do something similar before bird season but tune up the shooter instead of the guns. Put 10 of your experienced shooters on the line as coaches. Reserve a couple of traps for the tune up group so that they aren't embarassed by the "professional" shooters.

There are hundreds of ways that we can increase participation without opening the target presentation can of worms. This post has become a novel, so I'll shut up now. Anyone who wants to talk further about this is welcome to contact me by email at shotguncoachATyahooDOTcom.

Len in Phoenix
Lead Instructor, Buckeye Sportsman Club SCTP

Spring Grand results

2008-03-09T22:21:00.002-07:00

Hello All

Team Buckeye went to the Spring Grand American in Tucson last month. There were no trophies, but we did have 4 shooters post their personal best scores while we were there. Our best finish as a team was when I tied for the AA class trophy in one of the preliminary doubles events (two targets....not two shooters) with a score of 99/100. I lost the shootoff, but I know precisely why I did so: it's difficult to shoot with your head up your butt.

Our next major competition is the AZ state championships at the end of March. See you there!

Len
_

It's for the children

2008-01-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Breaking the silence for a good cause. Go here, read and donate if you can. I don't know Chris and Mel personally but I've enjoyed their blog for quite a while and went through something similar (though not nearly to the extreme they have) when I was divorced. I won sole custody of my children. I pray that they can beat this and say the same thing soon.

Here's a quick sinopsis (courtesy of Gwa.45 and Kim DuToit:

The short story:---------------------

Cliff Notes: Mel’s ex-husband has been trying to get custody of the kids for years. Every argument he’s made has been tossed out on its ass. Now he’s appealed to the 9th Circuit in SanFran, asking for the case to be transferred to CANADA. The argument he’s using is that Chris and Mel have an “unsafe environment” for the kids because of their guns. Needless to say, the GFW argument has failed in AZ, but in Canada?

Chris and Mel need about $30K in the next couple of weeks to pay their lawyer to go to SF and argue their case. Please help them.---------------------

{Cliff's notes cribbed from Kim duToit}

Give these folks a hand, money is nice but prayers are welcome also.

LS --

I'm not dead yet

2007-05-21T23:10:00.001-07:00

Good lord.....has it actually been six months since I posted here? Damn.

Ok - here's the short version: between work, family, coaching, and shooting I simply didn't have time to blog. I know it's a cop out, but something had to be dropped from the schedule and blogging was it.

What's happened in the meantime? The big news is that Team Sullivan traveled to the Arizona State Trapshooting Championship and brought home 10 trophies. Nathan got one, I got two, and Kathy won the other seven, including the Sub Junior state championship for singles and doubles trap and the Sub Junior High Over All.

The other big news is that after 17 years of two packs per day, I have quit smoking. I'm approaching the end of day 4 without a Marlboro. That's why I have the extra time to blog......it's amazing how much time I spent just smoking. Not smoking while I did something else, just smoking.

I promise I'll be back soon. In my newfound spare time I also need to replace the 20,000 shotgun shells we used this season (5,000 in one week!). Even at 300 per hour on the RCBS reloader, that's more than a few hours.

In the meantime, go to Eject! Eject! Eject! and read Bill's latest masterpiece, "You are not alone"

_

Only my child

2006-12-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

Most teenagers have their first experience with being carded and removed from a store for attempting to make an underage purchase at a liquor store, or perhaps at a convenience mart trying to buy cigarettes, or something of that nature.

Not my child. Kathy had her first experience while doing her Christmas shopping at a slightly different retail outlet: Sportsman's Warehouse.

You have no idea how happy I am about that. :-)

__

Competition

2006-12-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

No....I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I've just been terribly, terribly busy. We did make time last weekend to attend the first SCTP fun shoot of the season in Tucson. A few other people came as well:

Everyone had a good time, and the 5 kids from Buckeye that attended took home a combined total of 9 trophies, including a first place finish by James in the 5 stand event.

Good job crew!

As promised......

2006-10-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Per my earlier promise, here are the Bullwinkle slippers in action:

Oddly enough, I shot better (98/100) wearing the slippers than I did without them. Maybe I should wear them all the time..........

Here's a sneak preview of what's on the way in the near future:

That's my boy

2006-09-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

Any trapshooters reading this will immediately know what this picture means. For all the other folks out there, it is a tradition in the trapshooting world to shoot a persons hat on the occasion of their first perfect round....25 out of 25. My 12 year old son Nathan broke his first 25 straight on the second trap of the morning handicap event at the Red Mountain Trap and Skeet Club on Sunday morning.

I was shooting on a long yardage squad two fields away when Nate did the deed, so I didn't get to watch. I knew immediately afterwards, though. I'm not sure which tipped me off first - the hole in his hat or the mile wide grin.

There were actually two kids from our SCTP group that shot their first 25 straight yesterday: Nathan and Brandon. Brandon got his in the second handicap event of the day. All of the kids were so excited that it was infectious. Even the grumpy old fogeys were smiling, and most of the conversations I heard started with the words "I remember..."

At last year's Arizona state shoot I made a deal with both of my kids. To fulfill my obligation, now that Nathan has broken a perfect 25 in competition, I will shoot my next competition event wearing these:

Look for me and my moose slippers on the line at Red Mountain on October 21st.

_

Opening Day

2006-09-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

Labor Day means different things to different people........around my house it means opening day of dove season. Once again we attended the juniors only hunt sponsored by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The picture above was taken about an hour before sunrise. The young man on the right is Pedro, a member of our SCTP team who came along for his first taste of bird hunting.

As always, a grand time was had by all. Unfortunately I was too busy spotting and retrieving birds for the 3 kids to take any pictures besides this one. Pedro took first blood of the hunt with a wonderful crossing shot. Nathan took the "feathers and feet" award when he popped a dove with his full choke barrel at a distance of about 6 feet.....it looked like someone had turned a pillow inside out in the air. We weren't able to find a big enough piece take home. Kathy won the precision shot award by very neatly removing only the head of a flushing dove without touching the bird anywhere else.

We hunted for a couple of hours, then caught the hay wagon back to base camp where we had pancakes, eggs, and sausages prepared by the great folks from the Chandler Rod and Gun Club. After breakfast we took an outbound hay wagon to a different station and continued hunting 'till almost noon.

If you have kids under 17 and live around Phoenix, I highly recommend this hunt. Check your spring hunt regulations for next years schedule!

_

Dear Diary,

2006-08-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

I'm introducing something new to our SCTP team this year: the shooting diary. Not all the kids are ready for it yet, but I think that our third year group is ready and will benefit from it. For anyone who hasn't used one, a shooting diary is simply a formalized way to keep track of your shooting experiences. Good performances, bad performances, things you've learned, experiments, anything that may make a difference in your final score. Trying a new color of shooting glasses? Write down how they work in your diary. You may find that on cloudy days you shoot better with yellow lenses and on bright days purple lenses work better. Your diary will help organize this information and keep you from having to reinvent the wheel each time you shoot.

I use an "anything goes" method in my diary....and by anything I really mean anything. I have the normal stuff like ammunition type and weather descriptions, but I've found that at this point in my shooting career little things really do make a difference. For instance, I've discovered that I shoot better when I wear shorts. Why? Because I can feel the wind blowing in the hair on my legs and read slight changes in direction or intensity sooner than other competitors. I've learned that eating chorizo before I shoot gives me heartburn by the time I get to the third trap. I've learned that the back of my knees need more sunscreen than my arms. I've learned that pulling the trigger with the very tip of my index finger instead of the pad or knuckle gains me an extra target here and there. I've learned that on windy days I score higher with #7 1/2 shot, but on calm days #8 gives me better scores. I've learned that Winchester wads work better for me than Claybusters. I've learned that even though I must eat lunch, I should eat about half of what I would on a non-shooting day. I've even learned that the music I listen to makes a difference: I score better at trap if I listen to Boston's first album on the way to the range, but when I'm shooting IPSC Pantera works better.

I've already started Kathy and Nathan with their diaries, using pages copied from my original U.S. Olympic Training Center diary. (Yes, dear reader, at the tender age of 15 yours truly was shooting at the US OTC as part of the NRA junior olympic development program. I never made it to the olympics, but it was a hell of an experience.) It should be quite interesting to see how this one plays out. Kathy took to the diary thing like a duck to water. She has a 3 page list of goals that she reads every time she goes to the range, and has really jumped on the "anything goes" method. She's already figured out that if she wears spaghetti strap tops her shooting vest chafes her neck, and that her hair needs to be braided and not just in a ponytail. She's tracking her scores vs. the type of shoes she wears and what she eats for breakfast. Last night she spent almost an hour working on a written description of the target flights we were dealing with on Sunday and the solutions she came up with to handle it. (Variable tailwind with the trap set to throw regulation height with the wind blowing but without enough spring tension to make the target float. She called the "woo-hoo's" because they would climb and fall so fast.)

Nathan's diary is much simpler. Where Kathy has 3 pages of goals and a detailed plan of how to reach each one, Nathan has two words: Beat Kathy. Instead of lengthy descriptions of how he feels when he shoots, Nate sticks to simple, hard facts. That's cool.....it's his diary and he can keep it the way he wants. I caught him checking his diary before he changed his choke tubes on Sunday, so I think the boy will do fine.

If you've never used a shooting diary I highly recommend that you try one for 6 months or so. You'll be surprised at how much information you gather while your shooting that you forget by the time you get home.

_

Littleton shot maker - shot performance

2006-08-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

Now that my automatic pellet hole counting accessories have returned from summer vacation, I'm able to bring a little more information to the table concerning the performance of the shot produced by my Littleton shot maker. Most of the patterns have been counted, but I don't have all the data compiled as of yet. Here is a quick comparison of four loads patterned through Nathan's new Carlson full choke. (Remember, we're trapshooters here. Any choke is good as long as it's full)

Load A 1 ounce "factory" #8 magnum shot @ 1200 fps 70%
Load B 1 ounce "home made" # 7 3/4 wheelweight shot @ 1200 fps 72%

Load C 1 1/8 ounce "factory" # 8 magnum shot @ 1200 fps 63%
Load D 1 1/8 ounce "home made" # 7 3/4 wheelweight shot @ 1200 fps 69%

Hmmmm.......the home made shot produced higher pattern percentages both times. Does that mean it's better? Not necessarily.

The home made shot is slightly larger than the factory #8 shot, so there are fewer pellets per ounce. The 1 ounce, 70% pattern of factory shot contained 286 pellet strikes. The 1 ounce, 72% pattern of home made shot contained 265 pellet strikes. So, an increase in pattern percentage of 2% actually means 21 fewer pellets in the 30" target circle. With the 1 1/8 ounce loads, the 63% factory shot pattern contained 290 pellet strikes. The 69 % pattern of 1 1/8 ounce home made shot contained 288 pellet strikes.

Percentages lie. Therefore, a high pellet count means a better load, right? Not necessarily.

Assuming that there is an even distribution of pellets within the target circle (there isn't) and assuming that the pellets don't lose any velocity before they reach the target (they do), the #8 factory pellets in a 1 1/8 ounce load produce a pattern density of .41 pellets per square inch. (290 pellets in a 706.86 square inch circle) A standard clay target has an area of 14.19 square inches, so the factory shot gives us 5.82 pellets per target. At 3.42 ft/lbs per pellet, that is 19.904 ft/lbs of energy per target. The home made shot has a pattern density of .41 pellets per square inch and 5.78 pellets per target, but because the larger pellets carry 3.58 ft/lbs of energy we get 20.69 ft/lbs of energy per target.

Pellet count isn't everything. Therefore, high pellet energy on the target means a better load, right? Not necessarily.

Out of all the calculations and assorted geek speak above, the only one that really matters to me in choosing a load is the pellets per target number. All of the loads listed above have over 5 pellets per target, so for my purposes they are all good loads. Why? Because it takes 3 pellets to break a target. This can be demonstrated by the very scientific method of wandering around in the target landing area and picking up unbroken targets. Quite a few can be found with one pellet hole in them, several will be found with 2 pellets holes in them, but there simply won't be any with 3 pellet holes.

So which one of these is the best load? I have no clue yet. The statistical sample is too small. To really determine which is the best load, Nathan needs to shoot a minimum of 1000 targets with each one.

I'll get back to you on that next summer. {wicked evil grin}

_

Getting ready

2006-08-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

It's almost time for another SCTP season to begin. Time to set up meeting agendas, class schedules, competition schedules, training diaries, memberships, and registration forms. Time to gather the earplugs, glasses, shell bags and hats. Time to clean and lube all the target throwers and test all the guns.

Somedays I don't think human cloning is that bad an idea......I could use some help.

_

Shotmaking - field test

2006-08-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

It's back to school time for 3 of the 4 people here at the ol' ranch, so to show that our priorities are correct the kids and I went out last Saturday to Red Mountain do a little shooting with the home made shot. I know that I still haven't gotten all the pattern data posted yet, but it's more fun to break clays than it is to count itty-bitty holes.

I'm happy to report that all of us shot over our average with the "new" shot. I ended up with a 97x100 for the day, so I'm quite happy with the performance. I've loaded and shot all of the first batch, but we'll be making more this weekend.

Back to counting itty-bitty holes...........

__

Customer Service

2006-08-07T21:44:00.000-07:00

I've run into two problems with my new RCBS 'Grand' progressive shotshell press. The first issue was that the primer transfer bar wore through and broke due to a mis-aligned primer drop tube before I got the press. I corrected the setting on the drop tube and the transfer bar still worked, but due to the crack it would bounce the primer out of the track every once in a while. I called RCBS customer service to order the new part. I explained the situation to the lady who answered (third owner of the press, breakage due to incorrect settings, etc) and gave her the part number that I needed. She then asked for my name and shipping address, and then told me that the part would ship out the following day. When I asked how much the part would cost, she simply told me "It's covered under the warranty. Thank you for using our products."

Awesome customer service and product support. RCBS and Dillon are setting the examples that the rest of the world would do well to emulate.

Oh yeah....the other problem: the darn thing loads so fast that I've run out of empty hulls. I suppose that's a good thing. {big grin}

_

New toy

2006-08-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

This is why I haven't posted much for the last few days:

Welcome to The Grand by RCBS.

As always, there is a story behind any new acquisition. One of my shooting buddies recently upgraded from this machine to a Spolar Gold. He sold the press to another of my shooting buddies who used it for a few weeks and then realized that the green press clashed with his "all blue" reloading room. That shooting buddy upgraded to a Dillon SL 900 last weekend and sold the RCBS press to me for $200. Such a deal!

Both of my buddies pooh-poohed this press because it will only load about 400 rounds per hour. Considering that I've been using a 100 round per hour MEC Sizemaster for the last 20 years, the new RCBS seems just fine to me. {grin}

I haven't gotten rid of the MEC, but I think it will be retired to load development and short runs of hunting loads. I've loaded more in the last few days just playing with the RCBS machine than I did in the last two weeks on the MEC. Woo-H00! More time to circle and count little holes......

_

Carlson's choke tubes....patterning

2006-08-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I began the process of patterning Nathan's Citori with the new Carlson choke tubes. I shot 26 patterns, so I'm going to be counting itty-bitty holes for quite a while. Here are the first set of pattern stats for my standard 1 ounce load of #8 shot:

Modified : 256 pellet strikes 62.5%
Improved Modified : 284 pellet strikes 69.4%
Full : 286 pellet strikes 69.9%
Extra Full : 289 pellet strikes 70.6%

Not much difference in the top 3 chokes, huh? This is without any load development for this particular gun....this load is the one I use for 16 yard singles in my BT-99.

When I get the other patterns counted I'll publish the rest of the data.

_

Speedy service

2006-07-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Guess what I got today:

Eleven days ago, I mentioned here that I had just sent Nathan's Citori off to Carlson's Choke Tubes to have a set of interchangeable chokes added. The completed barrels and choke tubes were waiting for me when I got home from work today. Shipped on the 13th, received on the 19th, and back in my hands on the 24th. Fantastic turnaround. The package contained my bubble wrapped barrels with two tubes installed, four other tubes in their packages, the empty packages for the tubes in the barrels, two keychain universal wrenches, a universal speed wrench, a detailed receipt, and a stack of catalogs to be passed out to the students in my SCTP group.

After fondling the tubes for a while (the choke tubes for those of you with dirty minds), I broke out my calipers to see what I could learn about them. I had requested standard thickness tubes but had also given previous authorization to install thinwall tubes if they were required. I received thinwall tubes. It appears that the main reason for the thinwall tubes in this case probably wasn't the thickness of the barrels themselves but the separation between the barrels. The machined barrels still have plenty of material in the barrel wall, but the installed extended length tubes are close to each other. Really close. One piece of paper (.0045") will fit between them but two pieces of paper (.009") will not fit. Most importantly they seem to be parallel within my ability to measure. That's somewhat important. {big grin}

The tubes themselves are slightly longer than the Remington "Remchoke" tubes that I have for the SCTP 1100's. Where the Remington tubes are only marked with the common designation (imp cyl, mod, full) and only marked on the side of the tube, the Carlson chokes are marked with the actual restriction on the side and an abbreviated common designation on the visible portion of the tube. I like that......no more sticking a dime in the barrel to see what choke is installed.

The inside diameters of the tubes measured as follows:

Skeet marked .725 measured .723
Improved Cylinder marked .720 measured .719
Modified marked .710 measured .709
Improved Modified marked .705 measured .702
Full marked .700 measured .697
Extra Full marked .690 measured .689

The tubes appear to be well machined, with a beveled edge at the barrel/tube interface to prevent the wad from hanging up on the tube itself as it goes by. The notches in the forward end of the tubes (for the tube wrench) are rather sharp, but we're very careful and safety conscious when dealing with the muzzle of our guns anyway, aren't we? The machining in the barrels appears to be clean and sharp, with nicely cut threads and no burrs or chatter marks. So far everything indicates quality work done by competent professionals.

The only disappointment in the whole deal is the keychain style universal wrenches that were included with the package. These are the common "T" style wrench, but with a twist: instead of a square projection to stick into the tube these have a rounded projection. When combined with the thinwall tubes there just doesn't seem to be enough bearing surface to obtain a positive engagement. The first time I tried to use one of these it slipped, rounding off one of the notches on the improved modified tube and taking a chunk out of my knuckle. Both of the universal wrenches went in the bottom of the tool box for emergency use only.

universal wrench

The other wrench included with the package was much nicer. This was a universal speed wrench with a very different design. The wrench consists of a handle with a free-spinning knob, a thumbscrew, and a rubber covered threaded rod. When the thumbscrew is tightened the overall length of the threaded rod is reduced, making the rubber covering expand to fill the inside of the choke tube. One simply sticks the rubber rod into the tube, tightens the thumbscrew, and turns the handle. MUCH nicer than the other wrenches. My only concern with this design is the posibility that grit on the rubber may scratch the inside of the choke tube. This isn't a show stopper....anyone who can clean their shooting glasses should be able to keep the rubber on their choke tube wrench clean.

speed wrench

Overall I am very pleased with the service provided by Carlson's. They do quality work and the delivery time is simply amazing. What makes it even better is that the cost of the entire project (machining, 6 tubes, wrenches, and return shipping) was only $285.

Look for patterning results to be included with the continuing coverage of the Littleton shot maker saga.

Final shot prep and initial testing

2006-07-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

The last installment of the shotmaking saga left our hero counting pellets and weighing shot charges. Today I actually managed to put some pellets on paper with the new loads, although not as many times as I would have liked. Don't take that wrong.....the patterns were good, I just didn't get to shoot enough of them. I had to work as an RSO at the range today, so I was only able to fire 3 shots at the paper. I suppose I could have stayed after everyone else left, but with the temperature hovering around 115 degrees and having been at the range since before dawn I was finished for the day when we closed up at noon.

Before we cover the patterning, I want to step back a bit to the final finishing step in the shotmaking process. The shells I loaded last time were done with untreated shot. The bare metal oxidized to a pretty greyish blue color as it dried and had a somewhat grainy texture. My original intention was to split my first loaded batch into groups of finished and unfinished so that I could pattern the shot both ways and try to quantify the effects of surface finish on the pattern. It wasn't until I had half of my original supply loaded that I realized it needed to be split into thirds, not halves.......I had missed an important step in the finishing process that needed to be tested.

I was sitting in the garage, staring at the bucket of shot, lubricating my synapses with a bottle of RedHook ESB and a pastrami sandwich, trying to decide what the best way would be to apply a thin coating of graphite to the unfinished shot. We're eventually going to use a cement mixer to do large batches, but at the moment I didn't have a cement mixer handy. The most common method of small scale graphite application that I have seen mentioned on the web is to simply put the shot into a bucket, add a few poofs of graphite, and swirl the mix around until the shot is coated. That was way to simple for me.....there had to be a more complicated, time consuming, cumbersome, and expensive method available. My gaze wandered over the assorted equipment in my loading area and settled on my brass tumbler. Aha! A way to spend lots of time coating the shot and make a boatload of noise at the same time!

That was when I realized that there was an intermediate finishing step that I needed to test. By running the shot in the vibratory tumbler I would not only be coating it with graphite, I would be peening the shot as well........much like the old rock polishers that we had as kids. What would be the result of simply peening the shot in the tumbler without any graphite? Would it soften the edges and drip marks? What would happen to the coating of oxidation? Inquiring minds want to know..........

I divided my remaining shot into two groups and placed one batch into the tumbler without any additives. One hour later I had this:

The unfinished shot is on the left. The peening process actually did a fine job of polishing the shot. In fact, it did such a good job that I was tempted to skip the graphite process altogether. The oxidation had disappeared and was replaced with a black, shiny finish that looked exactly like factory produced shot. The next batch of shot was tumbled for an hour with two poofs of graphite. The shot from that batch had the same smooth, hard finish but wasn't nearly as shiny and left behind a slight graphite residue when handled. Both types flowed and rolled quite a bit more smoothly than the untreated shot. At this point I'm upset that I loaded as much of the unfinished shot as I did.

In my last post I mentioned that the pellet count and total weight thrown by my one ounce charge bar was lower with our homecast #7 3/4 shot than with factory #8. The same held true for 1 1/8 ounce loads. The average pellet count was 420, and the average weight was 470 grains - roughly 1 1/16 ounce. If we do go into mass production with this setup I will customize a bar just for this shot so that we get a full 1 1/8 ounce charge. For now, this is close enough.

Today at the range I fired 3 test patterns, two through my BT-99 and one with the modified barrel of Kathy's Citori. Nathan's gun is still at Carlson's, so it will have to wait until next time. My first shot with the BT was pulled to the right, so that pattern was set aside. It looked good, but was obviously off center and part of the pattern was missing off the side of the paper. The second shot was well centered, as was the shot with Kathy's Citori. Before everybody starts griping let me say that I know that one pattern does not constitute a thorough test. It's what I had time for and it at least will let me know if I should proceed or not.

Here is the pattern data for Kathy's gun, with the pattern results from Winchester factory loaded AA target shells as a comparison:

12 gauge Browning Citori, 28 inch "modified" choke, actual restriction .025

Winchester AA light target 2 3/4 dram, 1 1/8 ounce, #8 shot
total pellets: 460
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 303
pattern percentage: 66%

Reload, Winchester AA hull, Winchester 209 primer, 17.5 gr 700X, Winchester WAA12 wad
1 1/16 ounce # 7 3/4 homecast shot, peened and graphited
total pellets: 420
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 302
pattern percentage: 72%

With the BT-99 the results were even more interesting:

12 gauge Browning BT-99, 32 inch "improved modified" choke, actual restriction .030

Winchester AA light target 2 3/4 dram, 1 1/8 ounce, #8 shot
total pellets: 460
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 349
pattern percentage: 76%

Reload, Winchester AA hull, Winchester 209 primer, 17.5 gr 700X, Winchester WAA12 wad
1 1/16 ounce # 7 3/4 homecast shot, peened only
total pellets: 420 total
pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 376
pattern percentage: 89%

Yes, that really does say 89%. This is where that off-center pattern that I fired earlier comes back into play. I couldn't believe that I really had just produced an 89% pattern, so I went back and counted the pellet strikes in the off center pattern. Even with part of the pattern obviously off the paper it still came out with 360 pellet strikes or 86%.

I don't know why the pellet count in these patterns is so high. Perhaps the ungraphited shot is clumping in the barrel and not spreading out until farther downrange. Next weekend I'll do more testing with the graphited and un-graphited shot and try to duplicate these results. For now they are so far off the scale that I have a hard time believing that it is credible data..........except that I have the pattern paper sitting in front of me.

note - the big black dot is not a clump of pellet strikes....it's just a big black dot that was on the paper. There are 3 pellet strikes in the black dot.

Stay tuned folks, this is getting interesting!

_

Almost in production

2006-07-17T22:16:00.000-07:00

A pictorial essay of yesterday's activities. Full explanations and lots of detail to be added tomorrow evening. Y'all come back now!

Ok....time to edit this post and fill in the gaps. As I mentioned earlier here and here, my partners and I have acquired a Littleton shot maker. Last Sunday Greg and I fired up the machine for the second time to move the project farther ahead. It turns out to be a good thing that we are making small production runs with a trial setup rather than proceeding directly to the full production line, because each time we run the machine we are identifying and solving more issues related to shot making. Eventually we'll have all the bugs worked out and can move on to a permanent installation.

Last time I mentioned the lead muffins that we are using in the process but I didn't have a picture. For those of you who have a limited imagination, this is what they look like:

lead muffins

Even though I've been calling it the second run, this is actually our third attempt at producing shot. What I didn't detail in my last post was a failed attempt in cooling the antifreeze solution by adding water to it. The resulting 75/25 mix of antifreeze and water did not work well. The shot produced in this solution was.......well, I guess "broken" would be the best way to describe it. It looked like the pellets had shattered when they hit the coolant. It could be that the outer skin was flash cooling fast enough that the molten core caused the pellets to explode in the water, but I'm not enough of a metallurgist to know. All I know is that it didn't work worth a darn. That entire batch went back into the pot to be remelted and recast.

This time around we went back to a 100% antifreeze coolant solution and our "broken" shot problem disappeared. We also refinished the drop plate per the instructions. The first time around we didn't have any 600 grit sandpaper on hand and we attempted to make it work with only a 150 grit finish on the drop plate. For this session we started by sanding the plate with 180 grit paper, followed by 400 grit paper, then 600 grit paper. The difference in the final finish was quite noticeable and did in fact solve our puddling problems.

Note to self: follow the instructions first....it saves time.

Here's what the machine looks like when it's actually dropping shot. The little drops on the plate just above the antifreeze are blobs of lead rolling down the plate on their way to becoming shot.

production run

Two issues were identified during this run: First, one of our hot-torqued drippers began leaking again, and second, the heating element is not able to keep up with the demand for molten lead. Since the offending dripper has leaked during both production runs, I'm thinking that it probably needs to be removed, thoroughly cleaned and re-installed after refinishing the mounting surface on both sides. The dripper still works, it just drops a blob every few seconds in addition to the shot. This is what is producing the oversize chunks that appear in the next few pictures.

The melting rate of the unit is going to be a little more difficult to fix. We're running all of the molten lead through the drippers before the "fresh" lead at the top of the pan melts and replenishes the working puddle. We've experimented with placing the muffins in different spots around the pan hoping to find a "hot spot" but that didn't help. We still end up lifting the machine to halt production and waiting for the muffins to melt. This isn't by choice....the lead level actually gets low enough that the machine stops dripping. We may end up having to keep the dutch oven muffin casting process running during our shot making sessions just so that we can add a dipper of molten lead to the machine every once in a while. I'm sending a copy of these posts to Mike Burgess (the owner of the company), so perhaps he can offer some advice in this direction.

After about half an hour of production time (not including melting time), the temperature of our coolant had risen to 150 degrees and the coolant itself was beginning to steam. We shut everything down at this point and went inside for some grilled tri-tip beef that had been marinating for several days, fresh green beans and pine nuts flambe'ed in bourbon, linguini with alfredo sauce, and a wonderful Australian cabernet........followed by irish coffee for desert. By the time we finished the lead had hardened and both lead and antifreeze were at a "bare hands" safe temperature.

scooping out the ammo bucket after 30 minutes of production

We scooped the shot out of the ammo bucket and into a sieve using a ladle, washed it with Simple Green and rinsed it for several minutes in fresh water. Greg has two industrial stainless steel sinks in his garage as part of the beer making operation, so cleaning and rinsing the shot was quite simple. The sieve shown above has adjustable handles that expand to fit over the sides of the sink, leaving the sieve itself hanging in the middle. It's just a simple matter of grabbing the overhead water hose and spraying while stirring the shot.

In our final design we're planning on having several stacked, vibrating screens to sort the shot by size. For experimentation purposes, we drilled holes in two pie pans. The first pan was drilled with a 7/64" drill bit (.109") and was used to separate the big blobs from the leaking dripper and any shot bigger than a #7. Shaking the shot through this pan went very quickly and did a fine job of removing the unusable chunks from the mix. Once the leaking dripper is fixed I expect the amount of shot caught in this pan to drop to almost nil.

caught by the .109" sorting pan

The second pan was drilled with a 3/32" (.094") bit. Number 8 shot is supposed to be .090" and number 7 1/2 should be .095", so within the margin of error produced by hand drilling the holes this step should keep all of our usable shot "legal" for target shooting purposes. All of the sanctioning bodies for American clay target sports require #7 1/2 or smaller shot. The final sorting area will eventually be set up to sort the shot into 4 groups: bigger than 7 1/2, 7 1/2, 8, and smaller than 8. The 'smaller than 8' group was left in the mix this time....mostly because we didn't feel like drilling any more damn holes.

caught by the .094" sorting pan

Sifting the shot through this pan took quite a bit longer than the first pan because the holes kept getting plugged with shot. The shot retained by this pan would be fine for hunting, but we tossed it back into the melter.

The finish-sorted shot looked like this:

ready to shoot

I should point out that these pictures were taken of different batches at different times during the sort, so the ratio of rejects to good pieces that appears in the pictures is not accurate. We ended up with about 30 pounds of usable shot and a partial pie pan of rejects.

The shot that we are producing now averages out to be around #7 3/4........between # 7 1/2 and # 8. We haven't quite gotten the "round" thing down yet and are producing somewhat egg shaped shot with little dimples in them. I understand that the dimple is a normal thing and will not change the performance. The effectiveness of the egg shaped shot remains to be seen. I shot my first 100 straight using shot from a Littleton shot maker from a 23 yard handicap in 1987, and backed it up with a 97 from 24 1/2 yards later that same day. I'm not too worried about the performance, but Greg remains uncertain about it. Patterning and broken clays will tell the true story.

This evening I loaded two boxes of the new shot just to see how it works. This batch was left without graphite on purpose just to see what affect the graphite has on overall performance. I'll coat some of the shot with graphite tomorrow evening and load some comparison shells. The uncoated shot worked just fine through my Mec Sizemaster with no problems dropping and no evidence of clumping. Three shot drops were weighed and counted, producing the following results:

shell 1 - 420.4 grains - 373 pieces
shell 2 - 423.1 grains - 376 pieces
shell 3 - 416.0 grains - 370 pieces

The shot bar used for this test was optimized to drop 435 grains (just a hair under 1 ounce) of #8 shot. Our shot is dropping a little light in overall weight, and the pellet count corresponds with the #7 3/4 size estimation. Number 8 should have 409 pellets per ounce and number 7 1/2 should have 345 pellets per ounce. The 6 pellet max variation between the three shells doesn't bother me at all for practice ammo, and I expect this variation to decrease as our production methods begin producing more consistently sized shot.

Patterning will commence on Sunday. Stay tuned!

Owha tafoo liam

2006-07-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned at the end of last summer, I've had........ummm......difficulties with my ex wife getting the kids back home at the end of her summer visitation. (For more info, just read the posts from last summer. I'm really proud of myself for not whining and moaning all summer long about how much I miss my kids this time.) After having had it happen so many times you would think that I would know better. I didn't. I was stupid and actually thought that this year would be different.

Hence the title of this post. Just say it quickly and you'll figure it out.

The excuse this year is that the alternator in her van gave out. According to her, by the time she buys the alternator and has it installed, she just won't have enough money to bring the kids home. She called this evening to tell me that I had to buy the plane tickets. Again.

To be really truthful, this isn't much of a surprise. After being burned so many times in the past I would have been surprised if it had turned out the other way and she actually had managed to bring the kids home without any drama. At least this year she had the courtesy to give me enough advance notice that I could get the cheap plane tickets instead of the "oh crap, gotta travel tomorrow" tickets.

One thing makes it all worthwhile: the way Kathy and Nathan reacted when she told them. She told me about it when I called to inform her of their itinerary. Apparently, earlier today, before she called me, she told the kids that because of the alternator replacement she was going to have to cancel their trip to Six Flags, that she wouldn't be able to bring them home, that she wouldn't be able to get married in Oak Creek Canyon like she had planned, and that she was going to have to call me to ask for money for plane tickets. The kids didn't cry, they didn't yell, they didn't gripe at her, they weren't even angry...........................

They both laughed in her face.

I think perhaps they understand much more about what kind of person their mother really is than she gives them credit for.

PS: Do the math on everything that was cancelled due to the alternator going bad. Someone on the other side of the country doesn't add and subtract well. My children certainly do.

_

2006-07-16T22:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Phoenix....

Carlson's choke tubes part 1

2006-07-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

As you may have guessed from my passion (obsession?) with clay target shooting, there are several shotguns laying around my house. My "social gun" is a Remington 870P, my hunting gun is an Ithaca 37, the SCTP practice guns are Remington 1100's, but all of the serious target guns around here are break open Brownings. I shoot a BT-99 for singles and handicap, a Superposed for doubles, and the kids shoot slightly different versions of the Citori.

Kathy has informed me in no uncertain terms that she thinks sporting clays is "just for fun" and that she would rather clean toilets at the bus station than shoot skeet. Trap is her game. Period. End of discussion. Therefore, the fixed chokes in her Citori (.025 and .035 restriction) are just fine for what she does.

Nathan, on the other hand, enjoys every shooting game imaginable. If it involves turning money into noise, he likes it. His Citori also has fixed chokes (.010 and .020 restriction), but for him that is too limiting. He needs more variety if he's going to shoot everything from skeet to long yardage trap handicap with the same shotgun.

That's how Carlson's choke tubes come into the picture. Carlson's has an excellent reputation and a lifetime warranty, plus their turnaround time is reputed to be lightning fast. I called this morning and had a very nice conversation with Scott. He answered all of my questions, asked a few questions of his own, and made a several recommendations, such as using their extended length sporting clays tubes instead of the standard flush tubes for target shooting. The machine work to thread Nathan's barrels for interchangeable tubes would be $175 with 3 tubes included in that price. Additional tubes would be $29.95 -- $5 lower than the advertised price on their web site. I don't know if this was a package deal or if he just felt sorry for me, but I didn't argue. In the end I ordered 6 choke tubes : Skeet 1 (.005), Improved Cylinder (.010), Modified (.020), Improved Modified (.025), Full (.030), and Extra Full (.040).

Scott says that the machine work will take about two days of shop time. I sent the barrels out today, so the machine work should be finished next week and I should have the barrels back well before the end of the month.

Stay tuned for a full report on the quality of Carlson's work and a full patterning report on the new tubes.

_

Construction

2006-07-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, "This would be a great place for a trap field."

OK....so maybe it didn't quite work out that way.

As I've mentioned before, I'm the lead coach for the Buckeye Sportsman Club youth SCTP team. One of our major challenges is the fact that we don't have an actual clay target range to practice on. We shoot at a rifle range using portable throwers, hay bales as trap houses, and shooting stations marked with spray paint on the dirt. We do have our own private section of the range, but it's just bare dirt....no amenities at all. The picture below pretty much says it all.

Things are beginning to change. One of our team parents donated his time and his tractor to level off our range a few weeks ago, and yesterday three of us started laying out trap fields. We began by driving a stake to signify the center of the trap machine and then measured 48 feet (16 yards) back from the stake to locate the center of the forward edge of station 3. Station 2 was located by using two intersecting lines - one line coming from the main stake and extending 48 feet towards the shooting line, and the other line coming from station 3 and extending 9 feet to the left. The other 16 yard stations were located using the same method, all keyed off of station 3.

The handicap stations were laid out by running a string line from the main stake to an additional stake driven about 30 yards uprange, touching the flags that were set to mark the 16 yard stations. A tape was then attached to the main stake and run to the secondary stake, again touching the 16 yard marking flag. More flags were set at 3 foot intervals moving uprange from the 16 yard marker.......rinse, lather, and repeat 4 times. At the end it looked like this:

field 1

Once the flags were all set we had to shoot a round on the new field....just to see how it worked, of course. I'm happy to say that I broke the very first target thrown from our soon-to-be Field #1.

We also took the opportunity to flag the stations for a second field in an as yet uncleared area to the left of Field 1. Field 2 is level, but needs to be cleared of some brush before we can proceed.

field 2

Next step: concrete forms. Stay tuned!

_

Our Declaration

2006-07-04T00:03:00.000-07:00

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

_

First try.....shotmaking

2006-07-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, my partners and I have acquired a Littleton shot maker. Sixty percent of the cost of our reloaded shotshells goes towards the shot itself, so this is the "best bang for the buck" (hee hee) in reducing our ammo cost. We're going to build a production line rack for the shotmaker, but prior to final assembly of the rack we needed some quantifiable data about exactly how the shotmaker works. Sounds good, doesn't it? Actually, we got tired of waiting for the rack to be built and wanted to make some shot, so we kludged together a tabletop setup just so that we could play with it.

I'm short on time right now, but I'll be back later to edit this post and fill in more details.

tick tock, tick tock

Ok.....as with any bullet casting, the first step is to clean the lead. Actually, I take that back.....the first step is to sort the good lead from the junk. We're using wheelweights collected from local tire shops as our lead source. The used weights come to us in 5 gallon buckets, mixed with old lugnuts, used rubber valve stems, broken sockets, and a myriad of other metallic junk, including stick on wheel weights that contain selenium and cannot be used for casting.

After sorting the good wheelweights from the junk, the weights go into the melting pot.

Our melting pot is an old cast iron dutch oven mounted on a steel tripod with a large single propane burner underneath. This arrangement is rock solid even with over 100 pounds of lead in the dutch oven. It takes about half an hour to melt that much lead, but large batches will help keep our final product more consistent.

A couple of quick notes about safety: in the picture above, there is a bare hand adding lead to the pot. Before you start sending nasty grams, please also note that the stuff in the pot isn't liquid yet. As soon as the lead actually started to melt, we put on our safety gear: welding gauntlets, leather welding jackets, eye protection, and hats to prevent sweat from dripping into the pot. Some folks will also notice that the melting pot appears to be inside a building. It is. What doesn't show in the picture is the 5000 cfm evaporative cooler that is blowing behind us and sending all the fumes out the open door. We may look stupid, but we try real hard not to act that way.

This is the way we were dressed for the rest of the day:

The tripod is set so that the work is done just below waist level. Using long handled utensils (think barbeque tools), the operator doesn't have to stoop over and has a perfect view of the metal without having to ever place his face over the pot. The blue rack in the background of the picture above is similar to the one we're building for the shotmaker. This one happens to be for home brewing beer........30 gallons at a time. Another hobby for another time.

We cleaned and drossed the lead using the beeswax method. I've heard of using sawdust, but I've never tried it.

final dross

The shotmaker has a much smaller melting pan than our dutch oven, so we needed an intermediate step for the lead. This was accomplished by casting 2 pound lead muffins in old cupcake pans. A single batch of wheelweights in the dutch oven yeilded 60 of the 2 pound muffins. I didn't think to get a picture of the muffins, but hopefully your imagination is good enough for you to visualize what a lead cupcake would look like.

Here's a picture of our trial setup:

The shotmaker is on a table, the ammo can is full of Sierra antifreeze, and the bus tub is there to catch the overflow from the ammo can as the shot displaces the liquid. The ingots in the pan are some left over lead cast in a Lyman ingot mold. The operational theory of this setup is:

the shotmaker is turned on
the lead melts in the pan
one operator carefully lifts the shotmaker up while a second operator removes the boards underneath
the shotmaker is placed level on the table
the molten lead flows down the sloped melting pan, out the drippers, rolls down the small ramp (hard to see in the picture), and is quenched in the antifreeze

That's how it's supposed to work.

Our first problem was encountered when we switched the unit on. Nothing happened. After verifying that we did indeed have power to the unit, a voltmeter was fetched and we took our new toy apart. A few minutes of poking around revealed a bad fuse holder - power went in but didn't come out. Greg reached into his grab bag for the necessary parts and had the unit rewired and powered up in less than 5 minutes. Not a big deal, but it is rather disappointing to have a $300 piece of equipment sidelined by a 50 cent fuse holder.

Our second and third issues showed up when we started actually producing shot: 3 of the drippers were leaking and one was puddling on the ramp. The leaking drippers were fixed by tightening them with the unit hot (they were installed cold). We were called to dinner before we could find a solution for the puddling dripper, so that is first on our agenda for our next session. The puddling dripper is what produced the large blobs in the picture below.

Even with the blobs from the wayward dripper, the first batch came out pretty well. The shot averages .095" (# 7 1/2) which is slightly larger than the .090" (# 8) that we wanted, but that is probably due to excess head pressure at the drippers since we had the pan full. As I recall, the melted lead is supposed to just touch the top of the drippers.....we were way past that. Our final production rack design includes a sorting station that consists of stacked seives to separate the shot into 4 groups:

larger than # 7 1/2 -- remelt and recast
# 7 1/2 -- my handicap loads
#8 -- all other loads
smaller than #8 -- remelt and recast

That's the true joy of casting your own projectiles....all your screwups can go back into the pot to be used again.

I haven't loaded any of the shot yet, but as soon as I do I'll post the pattern results.

New project

2006-06-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

As both of my readers know, I do a lot of shotgun shell reloading. Here in Arizona, the price of shot has gone up to $20.99 per 25lb bag, making it the most expensive component of all. To help counter this (and keep everything affordable), two of my friends and I have purchased this machine. We've secured a reliable supply of lead wheel weights and are in the process of designing and building a production line stand for it. The idea is to have a "soup to nuts" production line that will handle the initial melting and cleaning, casting, washing, drying, sorting, and quality control.

We expect to have the first batch roll off the line sometime next month. The manufacturer of the machine has asked for as much feedback as we are able to provide, so stay tuned for lots of details!
_

Edit: Welcome FreedomSight readers! Check here for the latest update on our first batch.

Gardening

2006-06-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

For the first time in my life, I am growing a garden. Up until recently I thought it was just a big pain in the butt, but now that the plants are bearing fruit I've been forced to change my mind. The potatoes were ok....not really different from store bought potatoes....but the zucchinni is to die for. Tonight I had fresh picked zucchinni (5 minutes from the plant to the skillet), sauteed in olive oil with onions and garlic, seasoned with oregeno, basil, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Absolutely amazing!

The jalapenos and anaheim peppers are almost ready to harvest, the corn should be ready in another week or two, and tonight I found my first watermelon hiding under one of the corn stalks. Good eats comin'!!

_

volume vs. weight

2006-06-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

As my long time reader (Hi Cary!) knows, I am an avid reloader. I still shoot factory shells occasionally, but the vast majority of my shooting is done with ammo assembled by my own pudgy little hands. Over the years I've developed a preference for powder measures that use a bushing system as opposed to an adjustable measure. I have an adjustable measure that I use for load development, but as soon as I find a load that I intend to shoot a lot of I switch to a bushing measure for consistency. Why? One word: visitors. Visitors are the scourge of any person who uses tools that can be adjusted. The mere sight of an adjustment knob creates an uncontrollable urge to twiddle with it in most people. I use bushings simply because they can't be screwed with.

( This is great Len....you go away for 6 freakin' months and come back to tell us about knobs. Gee, thanks. )

Anyway.........my reliance on bushings was recently put to the test when I purchased a new lot of IMR 700x powder. The two 12 gauge loads that I use most are 17.5 grains of 700x with 1 1/8 ounces of shot (MEC #28 bushing) and 16.1 grains of 700x with 1 ounce of shot (MEC #27 bushing). Remember, these are weights thrown in my bushings...not the factory guesstimate of what the bushing will throw. I think my #27 bushing is slightly undersized, but that's beside the point. The point is that these two bushings always have thrown exactly what I wanted, every time I wanted it, for years. Until my last powder purchase, that is.

I've heard tales about people who buy a new lot of powder and find horrible differences between the new lot and the old lot, but I've never experienced it. Ever. I habitually weigh the first few throws out of a new lot just because of the magazine and internet horror stories, but it has never been an issue before. So there I was, new keg of powder in hand, setting up to load a batch of shells, when I decided to weigh a shell at random out of the new lot. Zero the scale, drop the powder, empty the shell into the pan, adjust the scale to 17.5 grains.........and watch in amazement as the beam bangs into the stop. What the heck is this? Re-zero the scale, throw another powder charge, put it on the scale........BAM! The beam slams into the stop again. That bushing has thrown the proper amount of powder for so long that I did this 3 times before it occured to me that I should actually move the balance weights on the scale and find out what was in the pan.

16.5 grains. One full grain less than normal. Now what should I do?

I pulled out the bushing to verify that it really was the #28 bushing with "17.5 700x" written on it in black marker. It was. I replaced the bushing and weighed 3 more charges. They all came out to 16.5 grains, plus/minus .1 grain.

After much head scratching I changed the setup on the press to my 1 ounce load to see what came out of that bushing. Instead of the 16.1 grains I was expecting I got 15.3 grains. Lovely. The bushings hadn't changed, so the density (fluffiness?) of the powder must have changed. Should I press on with pride and keep using the same bushings I always have? Should I change to a different set of bushings that throw the actual weight I was used to? Research on the web and in my reloading manuals resulted in support for both methods. Some shooters swear by the volume of powder....others by the weight. There was only one thing to do: load some samples, break out the chronograph, and find out what was what. Everything stopped on the reloading line until I had a chance to test the new loads.

The results were quite surprising:

Old load 17.5 gr 700x 1 1/8 oz #8
avg velocity: 1170 fps
standard deviation 5.54

New load 16.5 gr 700x 1 1/8 oz #8
avg velocity: 1197 fps
standard deviation 5.26

Old load 16.1 gr 700x 1 oz #8
avg velocity: 1166 fps
standard deviation: 6.83

New load 15.3 gr 700x 1 oz #8
avg velocity: 1206 fps
standard deviation: 3.78

Hmmmm......less powder (by weight), but both loads are faster. I suppose it's possible that IMR changed the formula for 700x, but I really don't know. What I do know is that I'm going to keep my same bushings in the machine and just act like I know what I'm doing. I broke a 95/100 with the "new" 1 ounce load on the same day I did the chrono testing, so I have no complaints there. I guess I'll just shut up and shoot.

How can this help people out there in internet land? That's simple: trust no one. In the age of the sub-$100 chronograph, there is no reason for any reloader to not have one. Don't assume that the velocities in the reloading manuals are what you are getting. Don't believe any of what you read on the internet or in magazines of how a certain load will perform. Buy a chronograph and use it. Test your load in your gun under the conditions where you shoot. That's the only way you'll really know what is going on.

I'm back

2006-06-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

My schedule has been so full for the last few months that something had to go, and blogging was the thing that went. Things have slowed down a bit around here, so I should be able to start blogging regularly again. Maybe I'll even get back on Benjamin's blog roll............

_

$399

2006-06-13T00:03:00.000-07:00

.........in case you were wondering, that's how much it costs to enter 3 hunters in the fall deer and elk tag drawings here in Arizona.

_

First time....

2006-06-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my friend and assistant coach Greg Naff.......Greg ran his first 25 straight at trap today at Red Mountain Trap and Skeet club.

__

Letter to the Prez

2006-05-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Dear President Bush:

I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family,
and I would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across
the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few
arrangements. I know you can help with this.
I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports,
immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the
same way you do here.
So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that
I'm on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting
the following:

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might
need, whether I use them or not.

3. All government forms need to be printed in English.

4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.

5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the
flag pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.

7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy
access to government services.

9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won't make anyeffort
to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the
memo from Pres. Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all
police officers speak English.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals
on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not
want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes,
and don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.

13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice
and never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might
place on the economy.

I know this is an easy request because our government already does all
these
things for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am
sure that Pres. Fox won't mind returning the favor if you ask him
nicely. However, if he gives you any trouble, just invite him to go
quail hunting with your V.P.

Still kicking

2006-03-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's been dark around here for a while, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been exciting. My father had a heart attack a few weeks ago (he's home now and doing ok)......two days after his heart attack my great aunt fell over dead in the bathroom.....last weekend was the Arizona SCTP trapshooting championship (more on that when I have time).....next weekend is the Arizona SCTP skeet championship......and tomorrow the kids and I start shooting in the Arizona state ATA trap championship.

I'll be back....

A gentlemen's sport

2006-03-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

I've often bragged about how competitive shotgun shooting is one of the last remaining examples of a "sport of gentlemen." Yes, there is the occasional asshat, but over all people who participate in shotgun sports are high class folks. I thought I was going to be proved wrong last Saturday, but, as usual, I turned out to be correct.

Saturday was the final SCTP "fun shoot" of the year for the Arizona teams. "Fun shoots" are just that.....get everybody together and shoot for fun. Prizes and trophies are given out (that's part of the fun), but it isn't really a competition. Just fun. We had 180 kids show up at the Ben Avery Clay Target Center to shoot trap, skeet, and sporting clays. Just after lunch, one of the other coaches came to relieve me from the stand I was working with the news that a gun was missing. Not a club gun....a privately owned gun. That's bad. It turned out that the missing gun belonged to one of the kids from my program. That's worse. The gun was a Remington 11/87 12 gauge that had been a 16th birthday present and had only been fired 100 times. That's sh*tty.

I rounded up the kids who were finished shooting, and with the help of parents, other coaches, and the range staff we searched the entire grounds 3 times. No shotgun. Everyone agreed that this kind of thing just does not happen at trap and skeet clubs. The most likely explanation was that a parent had seen the gun in a rack, mistakenly identified it as belonging to his/her child, and had taken it home without first checking with the child to verify that it was the correct gun. We (the Game and Fish coordinator, the range manager, the father of the young man whose gun was missing, and I) were reasonably sure that a phone call would come in over the course of the next few days from someone with an extra shotgun, but to observe proper form and shut up the mother (she did not take it well at all) of the young man, the shotgun was reported stolen.

Two tense days went by during which I received several calls from parents and other coaches who wanted to set up a fund to replace the missing birthday gun. Finally, yesterday at about 4pm I got the call we all wanted: a person had called Ben Avery wanting to know if there was a gun missing. The overzealous parent theory was close to the truth. It turned out to be an overzealous friend who had picked up what he thought was a shotgun belonging to one of his shooting partners.

A few phone calls and a meeting in the parking lot of a McDonald's later, the gun is back home where it should be. All's well that ends well. It would have been very easy for the person who took the gun to simply leave it in the safe and not say anything, but that wouldn't have been the gentlemanly thing to do.

__

Catching up......

2006-02-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

As my reader (Hi Cary!) may have guessed, I've been a bit busy for a while. The time for the state SCTP championships is approaching, which means extra practice sessions (every weekend now) and extra paperwork. I have lots of stories to tell.......stolen guns, trophies won, recovered guns, friends back from the dead, thank you's, shout outs, and opinions galore.

More to follow.........

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Saving money

2006-02-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Attack Cartoons - a fantastic idea of how the U.S. military can save money:

Your average smart bomb costs two or three million dollars. Whereas, for the price of a handful of cartoons, we're getting them to burn thier own cities.

I've always wanted to be a defense contractor.

Go check out the rest of the site.......

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Cheney hunting accident

2006-02-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, Dick screwed up. Keep one thing in mind while you listen to the MSM feeding frenzy: Teddy Kennedy has killed more people than Dick Cheney.

_

Welcome to our world

2006-02-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

Per Nyholm, a writer for Jyllands-Posten newspaper, has figured out what it is like to be an American:

We are being pissed upon

I think it was the long departed H.C. Hansen, one of the great Danish statesmen of the last century, who – as the communists were demonstrating in front of Christiansborg [the Danish Parliament] – cast his gaze across the palace square and remarked: “I will not be pissed upon.”

Then he did what was necessary.

I feel that currently my beloved country is being pissed upon rather too much. Denmark has not been neglecting its duties on the international stage. We have supported poor people with acts and advice, we have worked for peace, we have sent soldiers, policemen and experts to all the far flung corners of the world. We have democracy, a rule of law and a welfare state. Not all is perfect, but we harbor no malice towards our fellow men.

And yet Denmark is being pissed upon. The spokesman of the US State Department is pissing on Denmark, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs is pissing on Denmark, the President of Afghanistan is pissing on Denmark, the Government of Iraq is pissing on Denmark, other Muslim regimes are pissing on Denmark. In Gaza, where Danes for years have provided humanitarian aid, crazed Imams encourage people to cut off the hands and heads of the cartoonists who made the drawings of Mohammed for the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Excuse my choice of words, but all this pissing is pissing me off.

What is going on? I am not referring so much to the threats against Danish citizens and Danish commerce. Nor to the burnt down Embassies. I am thinking of a word that keeps popping up whenever the Mohammed cartoons are mentioned.

That word is BUT. A sneaky word. It is used to deny or qualify what one has just said.

How many times lately have we not heard people of power, the Opinion Makers and others say that of course we have freedom of speech, BUT.

They have said it, all of them, from Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, to our own Bendt Bendtsen [a Danish Politician]. Once we had to be sensitive to the easily hurt feelings of the Nazis, then came the Communists, now it is the Islamists. The reason I say ‘Islamists’ is that I do not for a moment believe all the world’s Muslims are pissing on us. I think we are dealing with thugs, fools and misled people. Those are the ones we have to deal with, and then the chickenshit politicians.

The cartoons are no longer something Jyllands-Posten can control. They have already been manipulated and misrepresented to the point that few know what is going on and fewer know how to stop it. This affair is artifically being kept buoyant in a sea of lies, suppressions of the truth, misconceptions, lunacy and hypocrisy, for which this newspaper bears no blame. The only thing Jyllands-Posten did was provide a pin-prick which has made a boil of nastiness erupt. This would have happened sooner or later. That it happened more than four months after the publication of the cartoons, raises a question of its own. Are we dealing with random events or with a staged clash of civilizations? One might hope for the former yet be prepared to expect the latter.

That is why I say: Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Speech. There is no but.

Initially I was doubtful of the timeliness of publishing the cartoons. Later events have convinced me that it was both just and useful to do so. That they are consistent with Danish law and Danish custom seem to me less important than this: that we now know that remote, primitive countries deem themselves justified in telling us what to do. Unfortunately we must also note that governments close to us are agreeing with them in the name of expedience.

It was right and just for this newspaper to launch an offensive for Freedom of Speech, and useful, as we have now acquired new knowledge. Welcome to a brave new world where even our Prime Minister – in spite of his laudable firmness – must gaze out upon a scorched political landscape. True, his friend in Washington, George Bush, has uttered the customary condemnation of the torching of our embassies, but his State Department alludes to us as being the guilty ones in this case. The suggestion that Danish troops might contribute to democratization is buried under the charred remains of our diplomatic representations in Beirut and Damascus.

Perhaps it is time we started mopping up this mess. Perhaps Editor-in-Chief Carsten Juste ought to remove his apology which has gone stale sitting so long on the front page of our internet edition and which does not seem to interest the madmen. Perhaps our government ought to announce to Mona Omar Attia, the strange Ambassador of Egypt, that she is persona non grata.

Perhaps the ambassadors that have been called home to fictitious consultations in the Middle East should be told that they may spare themselves the cost of the return ticket.

In so far as possible The Lying Imams probably ought to be expelled. And then we ought to make an effort to support those Muslims who in a difficult situation have proven themselves to be true Citizens.

We, for our part, have no wish to be a burden to the Arab governments. We will happily withdraw our soldiers, policemen and diplomats. If they think our money smells, we will retract our aid. Our trade must make do as well as it can. We promise to not bear a grudge and, in time, we will be glad to return, but we are through with the hypocrisy. We have better things to do than being pissed upon at our own expense.

Cut down our activities in the Middle East. The world holds plenty of other opportunities.

Welcome to our world, friend.

via lgf_

Cheap for a reason, part II

2006-02-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

In this earlier post I showed examples of how bad the wads are in "Estate" brand shotshells, along with the assumption that such screwed up wads would not help the patterns. I now have actual pattern data to support that theory. The Estate factory loaded shells were patterned in my kids guns and compared with Winchester factory loaded target ammo. Same day, same guns, same choke tubes, same distance.....just different shells.

12 gauge
Browning Citori, 28 inch "modified" choke, actual restriction .025

Winchester AA light target 2 3/4 dram, 1 1/8 ounce, #8 shot
total pellets: 460
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 303
pattern percentage: 66%

Estate Super Sport Competition load, 2 3/4 dram, 1 1/8 ounce, #8 shot
total pellets: 460
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 147
pattern percentage: 32%

20 gauge
Remington 11-87, 26 inch "full" choke, actual restriction .028

Winchester AA target, 2 1/2 dram, 7/8 ounce, #8 shot
total pellets: 359
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 234
pattern percentage: 65%

Estate Super Sport Competition load, 2 1/2 dram, 7/8 ounce, #8 shot
total pellets: 359
total pellets impacting in a 30" circle at 40 yards: 153
pattern percentage: 42%

The 20 gauge was not as bad as the 12, but both sucked. Additionally, the 12 gauge shells had a pronounced "clumping" of shot that would move around the patterning board with each shot.....no two "clumps" were ever in the same spot.

I highly encourage anyone shooting in competition against me or my team to use Estate shells.

_

Rage against the cartoon

2006-02-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

I know this has been covered very well in other parts of the web, but I didn't want to miss my chance to be in the next fatwah. Here is the famous (infamous?) Danish muhammed cartoon:

I know I didn't capitalize "muhammed".....it's on purpose. A sign of absolutely zero respect. IMHO, muhammed wasn't a prophet, he was just another lazy con-man who came up with a hokey religion so that he wouldn't have to do any real work.

There. Put that in your camel and smoke it.

_

Let there be light

2006-01-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, dear reader. I haven't shut things down........I've just been busier than a one armed paper hanger. Blogging will resume shortly.

And now, a man with 3 buttocks!

_

Yes, Virginia

2005-12-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

The following editorial appeared in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun. It was written by one of the editors, Francis Church, as a response to a letter from an 8 year old girl.........

Is There a Santa Claus?

We take pleasure in answering at once thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor--

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

-- Virginia O'Hanlon, 115 West Ninety-fifth street.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

____

Merry Christmas to all!

Blogiversary

2005-12-21T23:02:00.000-07:00

One year ago today, I sat down to do my part in proving that a million monkeys pounding on a million keyboards will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare.

So far it isn't working out - the Shakespeare thing, not the blog. I enjoy the hell out of blogging. My only regret is that I don't have enough time to write as much as I would like to.

Happy Blogiversary's also to Wadcutter and Jerry the Geek, who both started blogging this month last year.

_

The kids are alright

2005-12-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last night the family and I went out after work to attend the "Winter Holiday Concert" at the kids' school. Kathy is part of the 8th grade choir, so as parents we didn't have much choice. If either of my readers have children, they will understand perfectly. If your kid is in the band or choir, you go to every concert - no matter how horrible they sound in the beginning.

As is the case with most schools where the parents are actually involved, the parents all pretty much know each other. The crowd of usual suspects was gathered in the auditorium well before the beginning of the concert. We were there 30 minutes early and noticed something odd about this concert: no programs. Casually listening around the room, I found that most of the conversation centered on how sad it was that the kids weren't allowed to actually celebrate Christmas at school anymore. I would be willing to wager that you can't find the word 'Christmas' anywhere in the official literature of the school your children attend unless it is a private religious school. Even this concert was the "Winter Holiday Concert" - not a "Christmas Concert" like we had when I was in school. The consensus of the crowd seemed to be that we would hear Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and a whole bunch of obscure, non-denominational winter festival music, with several Kwanzaa songs that our predominantly white and hispanic population had never heard of thrown in for good measure. All in the name of tolerance and diversity, of course. Tolerance of everything except traditional Christian values and ideas, that is.

The kids took the stage a few minutes late (which is normal at every school function I've ever seen), followed by their twenty-something music teacher who thanked the crowd for coming to the Winter Holiday concert and introduced the 5th and 6th grade choir. As expected, we were treated to some surprisingly good renditions of Rudolph and Jingle Bells (sung as a round...the new teacher is much better than the tone deaf idiot they had last year) and then the kids and the teacher seemed to pause on stage. A hush settled over the crowd as if everyone knew something was coming. The teacher raised her arms, and on the down beat a chorus of pure young voices welled out from the stage.

Silent night, Holy night...

I've never seen the audience at a middle school choir concert burst into applause at the beginning of a song before. It was wonderful.

From that point on, it was a genuine Christmas concert. Between the two choirs and the school band we were treated to 'Do You Hear What I Hear', 'Joy To The World', 'What Child Is This', 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', 'Deck the Halls', 'God Rest You Merry Gentlemen', 'Feliz Navidad', and a joyous (and somewhat defiant, I might add) combined choir and band rendition of 'O Come All Ye Faithfull.'' There were a few unknown winter festival songs thrown in to show that the teachers really could teach, but overall this was the closest thing to the Christmas concerts I remember from my youth that I've heard in years.

It was wonderful. The kids enjoyed it. The parents enjoyed it. Isn't that what's supposed to happen?

Afterward my wife and I made a point of thanking the band and choir teachers for having the guts to actually put on a Christmas concert. The young lady said that they "went as far as they could without getting into trouble."

That statement makes me both sad and proud......sad that we have allowed the pc police to invade our culture as far as they have, and proud that there are still people who will push the envelope to do what they think is right.

Who ever thought that singing Christmas carols would be considered pushing the envelope?

Merry Christmas, y'all.

_

The only way to win.....

2005-12-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

The 20 year old son of one of my friends has managed to get himself into trouble. For the last year or so he has been dating an 18 year old girl with a 2 year old child (not his). The father of the child has fled the scene and won't have anything to do with the young "lady".....probably the smartest thing he's ever done.

The particular young "lady" has been taught that the proper way to get what she wants is to throw a massive fit. Yes, I said taught. Her mother acts exactly the same way. Bow down to my every whim or I will go berserk. For the last 6 months these fits have been getting progressively more violent. The young man has come home to his parents house with bruises, contusion, scrapes, and cuts. Blood has been drawn on numerous occasions. They have broken up several times, but for some reason they keep making up.

To date, he has made 3 mistakes. (Four if you include ever dating this chick to begin with)

First, he never reported any of these incidents to the police. He didn't want to get her into any trouble, and "it wasn't that bad."

Second, he kept going back. Everyone who knew of the situation advised him to drop her like a hot rock, but he's young and in love and knows everything. Besides......if he loves her enough he can make things right. Yeah, sure.

Third.................................he tried to defend himself the last time she attacked him. He pushed her away while she was attacking him and she ran into a cabinet, leaving a mark. You can probably guess how this turned out. The neighbors had already called the police to report the yelling match next door. The cops show up, he answers the door beat to hell and bleeding in several places, the cops see a mark on the girl and he goes to jail. He's out of jail now, but still facing trial for domestic violence with a minimum sentence of 180 days in jail, 3 years probation, and a $5000 fine -- plus a lifetime of misery. She doesn't even have to press charges. In Arizona, the cops are required to make an arrest in cases of domestic violence and the state will press charges.

Beware guys, the feminazi's have managed to convince the politicians and the courts (is there any difference anymore?) that all men are guilty until proven guilty.

As an aside, I predict that this will actually make things worse for women in the long run. Sooner or later, the more unsavory portions of society are going to figure out that the jail time is the same for a bruise as it is for a broken arm. At that point, their line of thinking will be "If you're going to jail anyway, you might as well make it worthwhile and really beat the snot out of her." This is wrong. I'm not advocating this position. I'm just making an observation here.........

Anyway, here is my advice: at the first sign of trouble, walk away. Not the second time, not the third time, the first time. If anything other than voices is raised, walk away. Don't defend yourself unless your life is in danger. If your life is not in danger, just let them beat on you until you can get out the door. If they do anything at all that is even remotely threatening, walk away.

And call the police as soon as you are out that door.

If you're dating and in a public place, walk away. If you're dating and at her residence, walk away. If you're dating and share a residence, walk away. You can always buy more stuff. Stuff is not worth it. If you're dating and she is at your residence, walk away. Call the police, ask to have her removed, and file charges against her for trespassing.

If you're married the advice is the same: walk away. Just go. Leave everything. Call the police to report the threat (or actual occurance) and file for divorce as soon as the court opens in the morning. Use the police report in the child custody hearing, get custody of your children, and make her pay you child support.

If you're thinking that this sounds very much like the advice given to women who are victims of domestic violence, it is. Men can also be victims of domestic violence, but with a twist. After they are victims at home they become victims of the courts.

The only way to win this game is not to play.

Don't ever give a violent woman a second chance. There will always be more women. If you can't find another woman, turn gay. Just don't ever give one a second chance. They'll ruin your life and laugh about it. Don't think of it as turning tail and running. Think of it as saving your life. The deck is stacked against you and you will not win. The only way to handle this situation is to have every guy in America walk out every time some tricked up bitch decides that she can get away with hitting/scratching/biting/throwing/whatever. Walk out. Every time. After enough guys have gotten up and walked away perhaps they'll figure out that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and that the women should start playing fair.

Probably not.

I sure am glad I'm not bitter over my divorce.

_

Good night Tookie

2005-12-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

In just over 60 minutes, Stanley Williams will be executed.

This is a good thing.

All the lefty, tree-hugging, liberal moonbats who are crying for Tookie tonight need to remember one thing: the death penalty is not a deterrent. It's a punishment.

If you kill people, we'll kill you right back. Stupid hurts. Of course, if they wanted a "deterrent" they would put the executions on prime time TV with 'twitch by twitch' commentary.

I'll bring the popcorn.

_

ps: - Amid all teeth gnashing and hair pulling of the msm and liberal elites about how horrible it is that Stanley is actually going to pay for his crimes, our local rag is running a story about a porn star at a city council meeting as top billing. HA! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Tookie.

pps: - wasn't there a skit a few years ago (SNL? SCTV?) where the governor's wife forgot to cook dinner, so she asked a condemned prisoner to hold the roast while he was in the electric chair?

-

7 wonders meme

2005-12-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

The 183cm, 88kg, gen-X honky dude over at Wadcutter has spewed meme on me....the seven wonders meme. Ok, here we go:

Seven things to do before I die:

Finish building the 1911 80% frame that I've been working on for two years
Win the Grand American Handicap
AA 27 AA - trapshooters will understand this one - right now I'm B 26.5 A
Build a snowman with my grandchildren
Quit smoking before my lungs fall out my ass
Drive the Rubicon Trail
Tell my children and my wife that I love them every day

Seven things I cannot do:

Swim
Spend more than a few minutes with my ex-wife
Put up with stupid people
Play the mandolin
Watch a Jane Fonda movie
Vote for a Democrat
Sing tenor

Seven things that attract me to......(my wife):

She's intelligent
She's open minded
She puts up with me
She's one hell of a cook
She's fair
She can't stand stupid people either
She's more of a mother to my children than their biological mother ever was

Seven things I say most often:

It's FM (f*cking magic)
Pull!
Did you take your moron pills today?
Please pass the gravy
Please reboot and try again
Turn down the TV
I love you

Seven books (or series) that I love:

the Deryni series - Katherine Kurtz
anything by Heinlein
the Survivalist series - Jerry Ahern
the Matt Helm series - Donald Hamilton
Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
the Brownells catalog
anything by Robert Ruark

Seven movies I watch over and over again:

Last of the Mohicans
Office Space
Armageddon
Wind
Saving Private Ryan
Die Hard
Gladiator

Seven suckers I want to infect:

Benjamin
Cowboy Blob
Jerry the Geek
Cary
Simon
Kirk - if he ever gets away from work again
Banagor

cheap for a reason

2005-12-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Our SCTP team is provided with 100 free shells per month per student. The shells are Estate "Super Sport" shells in both 12 and 20 gauge. I've noticed that Kathy and Nathan's scores improved greatly when they used my reloads instead of the Estate factory shells and became curious. Cutting apart one of each gave me at least part of the answer. The Estate shells use a two piece wad assembly instead of the one piece wad commonly used by Winchester and Remington (and by me when I reload). I haven't patterned the Estate shells yet, but I plan on doing so at the first opportunity. The tilted, smashed post on the Estate wads does not inspire great confidence in me. I'll post the results after I pattern some of them.

I've posted pictures of the Estate 2 piece wads with a Winchester wad for comparison below.

12 gauge wads

20 gauge wads

When to start

2005-12-06T23:07:00.000-07:00

A lot of parents ask me what the right age is to start their kids shooting. There is no magic age....it's a matter of maturity and strength. The young lady pictured below is level headed, mature, safe, and quite a fine shot - even though she's barely taller than her shotgun.

Take your kids to the range....they'll love it!

_

The future

2005-12-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Gun writers, both MSM and Bloggers, frequently choose "the future of the sport" as a topic. Lots of people talk about it, some write about it, I'm working on it.

I have seen the future of our sport. It's called the Scholastic Clay Target Program. The last ATA registered trapshoot I attended had 43 shooters....including myself and my two kids. My copies of the monthly skeet and sporting clays periodicals list competitions with even fewer shooters, including one with only 5! Last weekend the Arizona SCTP had it's first "fun shoot" of the year, and 146 kids showed up to shoot!!!!!!

As usual, the Buckeye Buckshots were there. There are few things in this world more enjoyable for me than to see a bunch of farm kids in muddy boots whip up on the pretty city boys.

The kids took home 10 trophies, including 2 first place age-group finishes! Woo Hoo!

_

Here again, gone again

2005-12-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my extended absence......things have been rather busy around here lately. I hope both my readers had a good Thanksgiving with their families. We had Thanksgiving twice - once with 22 friends (60 pounds of turkey!!) and a second time with just our immediate family. A good time was had by all.

I finally got a chance to hit the range again with my Boomershoot rifle, a mere 8 months after starting the barrel break in. This time I had an assortment of handloads to try out instead of surplus junk. The average center-to-center group size for the day was .776 inches, with a best group of .396 and a worst of 1.047. This is with "starter" level handloads, though. Three kinds of powder and 5 different bullets, all loaded to SAAMI overall lengths. I'm going to take the top two performers (average group sizes .483 and .595) and do some further experimentation. I'll let you know how it works out..........

_

My own little carnival

2005-11-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to have a Carnival of some kind, so I'm going to start my own: the Carnival of the Chronograph. I've got a bunch of chrono data laying around from my load development that might be helpful to others who don't have access to the same equipment, so over the next few days I'll be posting a whole lotta' data.

Data gathering method: Chronograph placed 10 feet in front of the firing line. Ten shot are fired, with the velocity recorded for each shot. Individual velocities are than entered into an Excel spreadsheet for calculation of average velocity, energy in foot pounds (based on the average velocity), standard deviation, and IPSC power factor. I do my testing in the summertime, so ambient temperatures range from 90 to 110 degrees F with humidity in the 10 to 15% range. Handgun shells are reloaded in mixed brand, range pick up brass. Rifle and shotgun loads are grouped by case manufacturer.

Warning: this information reflects performance in my guns and may not be safe in your guns. Buy a reloading manual and read it. Do not load from the data presented here.

Having said that, let's start with everybody's favorite: the .45 ACP

Test firearm: Kimber Classic 1911
bbl length: 5"

185 gr Winchester Silvertip JHP
Factory load
avg velocity: 955.1 fps
standard deviation: 24.95 fps
energy: 375 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 177

185 gr IMI JHP
Factory load
avg velocity: 983.8 fps
standard deviation: 21.57 fps
energy: 398 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 182

185 gr Remington JHP
5.4 gr Winchester WST
Winchester Large Pistol primer
avg velocity: 925.5 fps
standard deviation: 25.81 fps
energy: 352 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 171

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
4.0 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
avg velocity: 748.1 fps
standard deviation: 41.35 fps
energy: 249 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 150

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
4.3 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
avg velocity: 790.5 fps
standard deviation: 26.99 fps
energy: 278 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 158

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
4.5 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
avg velocity: 820.6 fps
standard deviation: 33.84 fps
energy: 299 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 164

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
4.5 gr Winchester WST
Winchester Large Pistol primer
avg velocity: 838.6 fps
standard deviation: 14.65 fps
energy: 312 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 168

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
4.7 gr Winchester WST
Winchester Large Pistol primer
avg velocity: 876.6 fps
standard deviation: 14.39 fps
energy: 341 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 175

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
6.4 gr Winchester WSF
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 880.1 fps
standard deviation: 29.94 fps
energy: 344 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 176

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
5.0 gr Alliant Bullseye
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 896.2 fps
standard deviation: 13.28 fps
energy: 357 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 179

200 gr cast lead semi-wadcutter
5.0 gr IMR 700-X
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 860.3 fps
standard deviation: 24.50 fps
energy: 329 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 172

225 gr cast lead truncated cone
4.0 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 748.9 fps
standard deviation: 17.16 fps
energy: 280 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 168

225 gr cast lead truncated cone
4.3 gr Winchester WST
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 789.4 fps
standard deviation: 14.42 fps
energy: 311 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 178

230 gr cast lead round nose
4.3 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 745.7 fps
standard deviation: 25.55 fps
energy: 284 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 172

230 gr cast lead round nose
4.5 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 807.5 fps
standard deviation: 38.86 fps
energy: 333 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 186

230 gr cast lead round nose
4.3 gr Winchester WST
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 775 fps
standard deviation: 11.93 fps
energy: 307 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 178

230 gr cast lead round nose
5.7 gr Winchester WSF
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 818.5 fps
standard deviation: 11.14 fps
energy: 342 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 188

230 gr jacketed round nose
4.8 gr Alliant Red Dot
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 739 fps
standard deviation: 36.97 fps
energy: 279 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 170

230 gr jacketed round nose
4.5 gr Winchester WST
Winchester Large Pistol primer
average velocity: 777 fps
standard deviation: 7.97 fps
energy: 308 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 179

230 gr jacketed round nose
Sellior & Bellot factory load
average velocity: 858 fps
standard deviation: 6.16 fps
energy: 376 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 197

230 gr jacketed round nose
Winchester factory load (white box)
average velocity: 868.6 fps
standard deviation: 16.35 fps
energy: 385 ft lbs
IPSC power factor: 200

_

Another fine rant

2005-11-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

Banagor has produced yet another awesome rant:

I’m sorry if this comes off a little rough, but I’m pissed off. I’m sick to death of people telling me that we have to understand them and listen to their grievances. How about they try to understand us for a while? Have they ever? Or are the people telling me that I have to be more sensitive to their values simply saying this because they, deep inside where the sunlight never shines, believe as I do: the Muslim world is made up of a bunch of fucking savages who have never evolved beyond the stone age?

Warning: strong language! The quote above is the nice part.

I have to say that I agree. In my younger days, when I still thought I could change the world and make it a better place, I actually believed that if everyone would just talk to one another we could make everything right. Now I know better. My goal at this point is not to improve the world....I simply want myself and my family left the hell alone and I consider it my DUTY to make sure that happens.

By the way: I consider the entire population of the United States of America to be my family. I wonder if bacon grease would foul a barrel?

MOLON LABE

_

Sportsmans Warehouse no-tax sale

2005-11-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

Sportsmans Warehouse is having a no-tax sale through the 18th in AZ, MN, NV, NM, SD, UT and WA. All other locations are having a 6% off sale. Around here "no tax" is damn near a 10% discount. Looks like it's time to stock up again........

BTW: If anyone I know actually reads this, a few of these would work just fine as Christmas presents.

_

San Fran gun ban - plaintiffs wanted

2005-11-16T01:11:00.000-07:00

David Codrea has a link to an attorney looking for plaintiffs to oppose the San Fran gun grab.

_

National CCW Reciprocity

2005-11-16T01:06:00.000-07:00

H.R.1243:

Notwithstanding any provision of the law of any State or political subdivision thereof, a person who is not prohibited by Federal law from possessing, transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm, and is--

`(1) carrying a valid license or permit which is issued pursuant to the law of any State and which permits the person to carry a concealed firearm; or

`(2) otherwise entitled to carry a concealed firearm in and pursuant to the law of the State of the person's residence,

may carry in any State a concealed firearm in accordance with the terms of the license or with the laws of the State of the person's residence, subject to the laws of the State in which the firearm is carried concerning specific types of locations in which firearms may not be carried.'.

The bill currently has 69 co-sponsors (including Reps. Franks and Hayworth from AZ) and has been referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

Via AR-15.com

-

License to reload

2005-11-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

"Great" Britain is at it again: Gun loophole is closed by mother's campaign

"We believe it's totally right that people cannot legally buy the sort of equipment that he used to assemble bullets," he said.
"Bieber made literally thousands and it was always disgraceful that there had been no control on the materials and machines to make these sorts of bullets.
"It's quite right that this ban should be in place."

This is just part of why we are Citizens and they are Subjects.

Hat tip to The War on Guns

Competition

2005-11-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

I firmly believe that if my kids were given a bowling ball and a feather they would figure out some way to compete with each other. Their latest thing is to shoot for score with whatever kind of firearms we happen to have at the range, with the loser having to clean all of the guns used that day. The competition is close enough that it is always interesting.

Last Sunday we had to take a load of clay targets out to the range, while we were there we had to make sure that the backstop would still retain lead. We've been spending quite a bit of time working with shotguns lately, so the kids wanted to change things up and do some rifle shooting. To keep the ammo cost down we left the AR-15's at home and brought 3 Ruger 10-22's instead. After a few hours of practice and instruction, the "who cleans the guns challenge" came out. Ten shots, prone, 100 yard NRA standard targets, low score does the cleaning.

The scores -

Kathy 90 x 1X

Nathan 90 x 3X

Dad 99 x 7X

I haven't had to clean any guns (other than my carry weapons, but that's a different story) for quite a while, but it looks like my 'no cleaning' days may end soon. Those darn kids are getting too good. I'm going to have to make the courses of fire more challenging - soon it'll be 600 yards, standing, iron sights. Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.

Thank You

2005-11-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

To all veterans and current members of the United States armed forces:

Please accept my heartfelt thanks and appreciation for my freedom and the life you have given to my family.

May God bless America and all who defend her.

Semper Fi

Cat blogging

2005-11-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

Four men were bragging about how smart their cats are. The first man was an Engineer, the second man was an Accountant, the third man was a Chemist, and the fourth was a Government Employee.

To show off, the Engineer called to his cat, "T-square, do your stuff."

T-square pranced over to a desk, took out some paper and a pen and promptly drew a circle, a square, and a triangle. Everyone agreed that was pretty smart.

But the Accountant said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said, "Spreadsheet, do your stuff." Spreadsheet went out into the kitchen and returned with a dozen cookies. He divided them into 4 equal piles of 3 cookies each. Everyone agreed that was good.

But the Chemist said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said, "Measure, do your stuff." Measure got up, walked over to the fridge, took out a quart of milk, got a 10 ounce glass from the cupboard and poured exactly 8 ounces without spilling a drop. Everyone agreed that was good.

Then the three men turned to the Government Employee and said, "What can your cat do?"

The Government Worker called to his cat and said, "Coffee Break, do your stuff." Coffee Break jumped to his feet, ate the cookies, drank the milk, shat on the paper, screwed the other three cats, claimed he injured his back while doing so, filed a grievance report for unsafe working conditions, put in for Workers Compensation and went home for the rest of the day on sick leave.

Fair and Balanced

2005-11-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

Something you don't hear about every day: "fair and balanced" discussion of a political hot topic in a public school. My daughter's civics class is discussing the Bill of Rights this week, and yesterday they began working on the 2nd Amendment. The discussion topics included original intent, definition of a militia at the time of the writing, the author's concern about standing armies, the various uses of firearms then and now, and (according to Kathy) a rather thorough discussion of the defensive use of firearms in contemporary society including the various reasons for concealed carry vs. open carry of handguns.

The teacher did not reveal until the end of the class (and even then only when he was asked) that his personal views are anti-gun. It is my understanding that he explained that his personal views should not matter in the discussion and that the kids needed to make up their own mind.

I'm quite impressed.

San Fran gun ban - another take

2005-11-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

A question for those who know more than I: Aside from the 2nd Amendment issues involved with the San Francisco gun ban, does the fact that the newly approved law does not provide any compensation for the people who are required to surrender their personal property to the government offer an opportunity to challenge the law in court?

superhero meme - h/t to Cowboy Blob

2005-11-09T00:49:00.000-07:00

You scored as Maximus. After his family was murdered by the evil emperor Commodus, the great Roman general Maximus went into hiding to avoid Commodus's assassins. He became a gladiator, hoping to dominate the colosseum in order to one day get the chance of killing Commodus. Maximus is valiant, courageous, and dedicated. He wants nothing more than the chance to avenge his family, but his temper often gets the better of him.

Maximus

83%

William Wallace

75%

Captain Jack Sparrow

63%

Indiana Jones

58%

Batman, the Dark Knight

58%

The Amazing Spider-Man

54%

Lara Croft

50%

The Terminator

50%

James Bond, Agent 007

46%

Neo, the "One"

46%

El Zorro

17%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

San Fran gun ban

2005-11-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco vote counters seem to be catching up with themselves....as of 9:19pm they show total ballots at 121,980 with 112,788 votes cast on Prop H.

Votes for the ban are still ahead 64,676 (57.34%) to 48,112 (42.66%) against. Turnout is at 28.47 % so far with a simple majority required to pass the ban.

This is how our rights go away folks. Pay attention.

_

Interesting election results

2005-11-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

The election results for San Fancisco's gun ban, Proposition H, are starting to come in. Unofficial early results can be found here.

Read carefully........

ELECTION SUMMARY SAN FRANCISCO UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
CONSOL SPECIAL STATEWIDE
ELECTION NOVEMBER 8, 2005
RUN DATE:11/08/05 08:04 PM

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 578). . . . . 0
REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 0
BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 9,907

*****other ballot measures deleted to save space******

MEASURE H
YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 21,147 58.67
NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,899 41.33

Did you spot it? How exactly can there have been 21,147 "yes" votes and 14,899 "no" votes if there have only been 9,907 ballots cast so far? Go check the site for yourself....

_

How Empires End

2005-11-08T21:14:00.000-07:00

Pat Buchanan's essay Paris Burning: How Empires End has been getting a lot of attention today. I first ran across a link to it on World Net Daily, then found it again (along with quite a bit of commentary) at La Shawn Barber's Corner, then heard one of our local talk radio hosts discussing it on the way home. The discussion on the radio centered not around the validity of Mr. Buchanan's point of view, but around the question of whether or not the people of the U.S. will fight (both figuratively and literally) to prevent French-style riots from happening here.

As I've said before, I don't think the question is will we fight.......the question is: will enough of us fight?

_

RFSP

2005-11-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

Banagor has a wonderful rant about RFSP up at his site. Go read...it's worth the time.

_

Testing

2005-11-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

We are experiencing technical difficulties. This is only a test. If this had been a real post, there would be content here worth reading.

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A happy Halloween story

2005-10-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

This was a very happy Halloween at my house - more so than usual. Nathan had fun trick-or-treating dressed as a 4 foot diameter Oreo cookie. Kathy had fun handing out candy and flirting with all the cute boys. However, the best part was a family reunion brought about by the local teenage grapevine.

Last night around midnight I was sitting in the garage priming some .223 brass (yes, I still do it the old fashioned way) when I heard my dogs and the neighbor's dogs start the "intruder in the yard" bark. If you have dogs you'll understand what I mean. If you don't you won't. Get a dog. Get three. They're cool.

Anyway, the dogs were seriously trying to tell me that something was out there and were doing their best to tear down the wrought iron fence, so I grabbed my Surefire and my Kimber and went out for a look. As I was pie'ing my way around the corner to look into the driveway the intruders made themselves known........by running up and licking my legs. It's too bad there wasn't a camera on me, because I did the most beautiful "flinch so bad you almost fall down" shot refusal I've ever imagined. You know what I mean: a fast moving target has presented itself and the "Front Sight, Press" sequence has begun, but suddenly the brain intercedes and says STOP, causing you to come off the target in a motion that looks somewhat like an epileptic gorilla trying to perform the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies.

Two black Lab puppies, maybe 6 to 8 weeks old, and an adult male black Lab had come for a visit.

The dogs were very obviously friendly and utterly exhausted. I opened the garage up and they all promptly came in and flopped down. Water, food, and a soft, safe place to lie down (the traditional gifts to wandering canines) were provided, and within a few minutes the garage looked like Doggie Jonestown.

All of the dogs were well groomed, appeared healthy, and weren't scared of people at all. These were somebody's pets, not strays. I could see where the adult had worn a collar at one time, but he didn't have it on now. I checked for tatoos and microchips, but no clues as to where the dogs belonged became evident. Now what?

Animals are always welcome at our house, but these dogs had a house and a family of their own. After a meal, a short nap, lots of belly rubbing and scratching behind the ears (on the dogs, not me), and a reminder from my wife that this was how we ended up with 8 cats, 3 dogs, 2 turtles, a fish and a frog, it was time to see if they knew their way home. I opened the garage door and stood back to give them a clear exit. The adult walked out into the driveway and proceeded to cast about in a complete circle, both by sight and by smell, and after a moments hesitation turned and came back into the garage and sat down. He was lost. Time for plan B. I closed up the garage, put out some more food, and let them sleep for the night.

Today we started a muliti-level information blitz in an attempt to locate the missing family. The kids spread the word at school and posted 'found' notices around the neighborhood, while I posted a 'found' notice at the local Petsmart and on Pet 911. As usual, the most effective idea came from my wife. She suggested that we put a 'found' sign in the driveway where all of the trick-or-treaters would see it. Simply masterful. Within 45 minutes of passing out our first candy we started hearing people referring to us as "the people with the dogs." The word was spreading. An hour and a half later, a young man read the sign and informed us that there were people on the next street over asking trick-or-treaters to look for their 3 lost dogs. This fine young citizen was given an extra handful of candy and asked to go back and tell the people that we might have their dogs.

Within 10 minutes a truck pulled up in front of the house. A man bailed out of the passenger door before the truck stopped moving and said "I hear that you may have my babies! Are they here?" He was able to describe the dogs perfectly, so I led him into the garage and witnessed a reunion that only a true dog lover can appreciate. The poor guy was in tears as he was mobbed by the ecstatic dogs. In between barks and sniffles he explained that someone had left a gate open during a party at his house two days ago. He tried to offer me money for taking care of the dogs, but I couldn't take it from him. As an explanation for my refusal to accept his money I took him into the backyard and introduced him to my dogs. He understood.

Lucky, Diamond, and Osita ("little bear") are home. Happy Halloween.

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More KaBoom

2005-10-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

I've been receiving quite a few emails and comments asking for more information about the KaBoom described below. I don't know the cause of the kaboom. I can guess, but that's all it is.....a guess. I did some quick checking on the Vihtavouri website, and IF the powder and charge weights written on the shells are correct it would seem that all of the loads were in the normal "safe" range. That's a big IF, though. It's possible that the reloader mixed up his powders and may have used N160 instead of N560, or something of the sort. I don't know. I wasn't there when the ammo was loaded.

My opinion? I think that is was a SEE - a secondary explosion effect. This is just a guess, though. The crystal ball is cloudy today. I've been told that the rifle is being sent to Browning for analysis. If I get any more info, I'll post it.

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Kaboom - the story

2005-10-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've gotten several emails (and one comment) about the KaBoom pictures below. Here is what I know:

The rifle is (used to be) a Browning A-bolt in .300 Winchester Magnum. I was not present when the explosion occurred....I was at the other end of the range preparing to teach a shotgun class. The situation was well in hand by the time I arrived on the scene. The firing line had been shut down and made safe, all shooters except the injured parties had been escorted off of the range and were waiting in the parking lot, an RSO and a shooter had gone to the highway to flag down the ambulance and guide them to the range, another RSO was working crowd control, and two more RSO's were administering first aid to the shooter and his partner. I secured my section of the range and started working the crowd in the parking lot.

This happened at about 8am, just as parents were arriving to drop their kids off for my shotgun class. Yet again I was (and still am) very happy to teach in a rural farming community. In "the big city" there probably would have been parents turning around and leaving as soon as they saw the ambulances in the parking lot. Out in the sticks the response was quite different - they understand that sometimes bad things happen no matter how careful you are. One father told me "Show them the blood. That'll teach 'em that this is serious shit."

With the kind permission of the injured shooter, my assistant brought the safety glasses and some pieces of the rifle over for a quick show-and-tell with our students.

The safety glasses are particularly interesting:

You'll note that there is no right earpiece. When the barrel thread/locking lug area of the action let go, the bolt came back and struck the right lens of the shooting glasses with enough force to crack the lenses, tear the earpiece off, and knock the glasses completely off the shooter's head. The shooter had some minor cuts where the glasses had been forced back into his face, but the alternative would have been a rifle bolt where his right eye used to be.

You might want to think about that the next time one of us "range nazis" tells you that you cannot be on the range without safety glasses. As I said below, the shooter and his partner walked away with only minor injuries.

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Running deer shoot

2005-10-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

Years ago, some ingenious individual was looking at a couple of steel I beams, a bicycle, a few hundred feet of steel cable, and a few pulleys and said, "Hey Bubba! We could make a cool moving target setup out of all this stuff!".......and a legend was born: the annual Buckeye Running Deer Shoot.

Each year we set up this ancient contraption, attach full size silhouette targets of (what else?) a running deer to it, and shoot at it as the target frame moves between our 100 yard berms. All shooting is done offhand with rifles and pistols that are legal for big game hunting in Arizona. The target is exposed for 10 to 15 seconds, depending on how tired the guys cranking on the bicycle are......or how much your buddies have slipped them to give you an "impossible" target. Five shots cost $3. Ten shooters compete in a "round." The target is scored after each shooter has his or her turn, with the high score receiving $10, second place receiving $5, and the club keeping the other $15. This event has been our clubs #1 fundraiser for many years.

The non-Kaboom pictures below were all taken at the Running Deer Shoot. IIRC, I took second in one event with the beat up old Marlin in the picture, won another event with my crusty old .357 Smith & Wesson, and won another event with my Savage 10FP bolt gun. Nathan held right in with the big boys and took second place in two different rounds. Kathy would have dropped several deer if the targets had been real, but unfortunately the hits didn't add up to a winning score for the groups she was shooting against.

The day always ends with a jackpot round: $3 buy in, 5 shots at a standard smallbore bullseye target at 100 yards, offhand, with a 1 minute time limit. Pot split 50-30-20 between the top 3 scores. I won last year, but this year I pulled my 4th shot completely off the paper and ended up in a 3 way tie for third place. The kids didn't finish in the money, but they both shot well enough that they were in the middle of the pack. That's pretty good considering that they were shooting against adults, most of whom have been shooting longer than the kids have been alive.

Another fun day at the range.

_

2005-10-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Probably the only picture of me that you will ever see here......

_

2005-10-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

The "just my size" rifle.......

2005-10-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

Future boyfriends take note.........

2005-10-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

A happy young lady with her .308

2005-10-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Kaboom

* Not my rifle.......this happened last Saturday. The shooter walked away with only a few scratches and cuts. The "worst" injury was the area where his safety glasses were pushed back into his face by the bolt.

The $5 glasses saved his eye - and possibly his life.

_

2005-10-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Kaboom 2

2005-10-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

Kaboom 3

Not gone....just busy

2005-10-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

Don't worry folks. I haven't been shut down......I've just been busier than a man with one leg at an ass kicking contest.

I'll be back later in the week.

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Sensitive

2005-10-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

In my opinion, this might be a picture of a flower:

In my opinion, this might be a picture of chocolate cookies:

Disclaimer: Any and all opinions and/or views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not in any way reflect the opinions and/or views of any other person or legal entity.

Complaints will be answered in the order they are received.

_

Insensitive

2005-10-04T02:13:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Len and I'm an insensitive prick.

I think I'll start introducing myself that way. It seems that I upset the nice folks at the Surprise Sportsman's Club by expressing my opinions in this post about their range closing. This is what prompted the disclaimer posted below. The rant in question was intended to be a warning to other clubs not to become complacent. Naturally, the rant is what got everyone's attention and not the warning. I was pretty damn hard on them, but the anti's are closing enough ranges as it is without us helping them.

Everything posted on this site (unless otherwise attributed) is MY OPINION. MINE. ALL MINE. I don't pull punches and I don't sugarcoat anything. I call it like I see it. Some people may not like or agree with my opinions and I'm just fine with that. I won't go back and edit my posts to remove things that piss people off. If you disagree with what I have to say, more power to you. Leave a comment. If I'm proven to be wrong I will say so.

In fact, I'm going to give the folks at the Surprise Sportsman's Club an opportunity to set the record straight and prove that I'm an idiot. I will allow any or all of the executive committee of the Surprise Sportsman's Club to log in and post directly to my blog. You will be required to prove your identity before posting to keep the riffraff out. Let's bring it all out in public so that there is no "he said, she said" BS going on. I give my word as a gentleman that your posts will remain un-edited and in their original form. I will reply in another post without ever removing or changing what you have to say.

Please prove me wrong. I am looking in from the outside and giving my opinion based on what the general, non-member public has to work with. Yes, I was harsh on your club. As I said before, I call them like I see them. This isn't the first time I've criticized another club. In my opinion (just mine, not belonging to any legal entity or other person), we as shooters absolutely must be safe at all times. Period. The anti's come up with enough fuzzy statistics, out of context comments, and one-sided "news" stories on their own without us giving them more ammunition, so to speak.

If bullets were in fact leaving the confines of the range in Surprise, then the club management was correct in closing the range until the situation was corrected. In my earlier post I criticized the club for closing due to unproven allegations. I didn't have all the information and my statement regarding that decision was unjustly critical of the club management. There. See how easy that was? Of course this brings up the whole "what did they know and when did they know it?" question, but it would be insensitive of me to ask that.

I think the club is going in the right direction now.

Let me say that again: I think the club is going in the right direction now.

I am very much aware that bitching at the present management about past decisions will not change the current situation. The members of the Surprise club are doing all that they can at this point to open their range again.....looking forward and being pro-active may keep your club from facing the same issues.

_

One man's opinion....

2005-10-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

For the record.......

Any and all views and opinions expressed up to this point in time on this website are those of the author, Len Sullivan, and do not in any way reflect the views of the Buckeye Sportsman Club, its' elected officials, or its' general membership.

Explanation to follow................

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Sporting Clays Instruction

2005-10-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

A message from Jennifer at the Red Mountain Trap and Skeet Club:

Hi,

Red Mountain is hosting a NSCA Level 1 instructor course next weekend – October 8th and 9th. We are in need of some volunteers to come out and be instructed by the coaches. The AZ Game and Fish will be providing shells and the targets, so the cost is free for you. If you or your kids would like to come out either or both days, please let me know. We will be needing shooters all day, both days from 9am-4pm. You don’t necessarily need to attend all day if you don’t want to. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Jennifer

I don't want Jennifer to be bombed with email, so please send me a message at shotguncoach AT yahoo DOT com if you're interested.

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springs

2005-10-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading for a while, you've probably figured out that I carry a 1911. I have several revolvers and don't feel "undergunned" with any of them, but if I had to pick one type of handgun to bet my life on it would be a 1911.

Mandatory tupperware insult: People who carry, carry Glocks. People who shoot carry 1911's.

Springs are vital to the proper operation of a semi-automatic pistol. The gun rags have done a reasonable job of convincing the general shooting public that recoil springs wear out and need to be changed once in a while. IMHO, a worn out recoil spring in a 1911 will usually still function....it will just beat the hell out of your gun while it does it. For my money, the most important spring in a 1911 is the magazine spring. I've spent a lot of time shooting 1911's and watching other people shoot 1911's at the range. I've never seen a malfunction from a worn out recoil spring. That doesn't mean it can't happen, it just means that I've never seen it happen.

The two most common reasons for the malfunctions I've seen are not enough extractor tension and weak magazine springs. When I see someone at the range that is having trouble with their 1911, the first thing I do is to hand them one of my magazines. That usually fixes the feeding problems. Not every time, but well over 80%. In my guns, the first sign of a weak magazine spring is a failure to feed of the last round in the mag. There are no gimme's....one feeding malfunction and I replace the spring.

I also completely disassemble all of my mags once a year and inspect the springs even if they haven't been causing trouble. Since my birthday was this weekend, it was time to strip everything down. I have a dozen 8 round Chip McCormick mags, six 10 round Chip McCormick mags, and a dozen generic mil-spec 7 round mags. The 7 and 10-rounders are mainly used at the range and not for carry purposes, so their springs don't go bad as often as the 8 rounders. The 8's are my primary mags for carry purposes, so half of them are always loaded. Each month I rotate my carry ammunition (by shooting it, of course) and load the other 6 mags when I'm done. That way each set of 6 mags is loaded for a month, then unloaded for a month. At the end of the year each magazine has been fully loaded for 6 months.

I know a lot of engineers who say that it is the number of compression cycles that determines the wear rate on a coil spring. That's fine. Engineer all you want. With 3 of us in the family shooting the several hundred rounds through the 1911's at least twice a month, all of the mags experience a lot of compression cycles. It's the ones that stay loaded all the time that wear out, thank you very much. The ones that get "cycled" and then put away unloaded don't wear out nearly as fast.

This year's inspection revealed 5 springs that were shorter than spec but weren't causing any feeding problems yet. A few minutes online at Chip McCormick's website and 6 new springs are on their way. At $4 each with free shipping it's cheap insurance. The short springs will go in the tool box for emergency spares.

When was the last time you checked your springs?

_

more chronograph data

2005-10-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

Additional chronograph testing........

Winchester AA hull
16.1 gr 700x
Winchester WAA12SL wad
1 oz #8
Remington 209PSTS primer
avg velocity: 1166 fps
std deviation: 15.82

Remington STS hull
19.0 gr Green Dot
Winchester WAA12 wad
1 1/8 oz #8
Remington 209PSTS primer
avg velocity: 1147 fps
std deviation: 6.83

Remington STS hull
19.6 gr Green Dot
Winchester WAA12 wad
1 1/8 oz #8
Remington 209PSTS primer
avg velocity: 1172 fps
std deviation: 14.94

Remington STS hull
20.3 gr Green Dot
Winchester WAA12 wad
1 1/8 oz #8
Remington 209PSTS primer
avg velocity: 1187 fps
std deviation: 28.59

Remington STS hull
21.0 gr Green Dot
Winchester WAA12 wad
1 1/8 oz #8
Remington 209PSTS primer
avg velocity: 1215 fps
std deviation: 12.63

Getting old

2005-10-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
I think I'll go to the range,
And shoot my new .303

-

Range closing

2005-09-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

The Surprise Sportsman's Club (formerly known as the Peoria Rod and Gun Club) has shut down. The following is a complete cut and paste from the September 28th issue of Surprise Today. I'm pasting the entire thing because it's not very easy to read on their website. My comments are below.

Shooting range closes for now

By PATRICK O’GRADY Surprise Today

A private shooting range in Surprise has locked its gate and may not reopen, the result of concerns from the county about bullets leaving the facility and the coming end of its lease on the land.
Domenick Iacovelli, president of the Surprise Sportsman’s Club, said Saturday’s closure of the range that serves about 1,200 club members was a precaution as they look at causes and potential solutions for why bullets and shotgun pellets were found on McMicken Dam, one of the county’s concerns with the facility.
"We’re going to address these issues and whatever we can to make it safer," he said.
Making it safer, however, does not mean the club will reopen. Its lease on land owned by the Flood Control District of Maricopa County ends in 2007, and Supervisor Max Wilson has met with the group and told them they would not be offered a renewal.
"We’ve got houses that have moved in there, and houses and a shooting range are not a good combination," Wilson said.
It’s also not a good combination for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office shooting range located next to the club’s. Its lease also expires in 2007 and land has already been purchased for its relocation.
Shooting in the area near the dam — which has long been attractive to hunters, particularly those seeking dove and rabbit — has drawn criticism from Sun City Grand residents. As the development has grown closer to the dam, more residents have complained about shooting noises and pointed to the two ranges.
In meeting with Wilson, club members said they were told bullets and shotgun pellets from their range were found on the dam and workers with the Flood Control District were concerned about their safety.
Larry Timmerman, a member of the club’s board of directors, said club members have heard the complaints and tried to work with local police whenever they heard or saw people shooting illegally in the area.
"A couple of weeks ago, when dove hunting season started, we were constantly calling police because we didn’t want people to think it was us," he said.
The range also has strict protocols for shooting when there are people working on or near the dam in order to keep them safe, Timmerman said.
Club members have operated the range continuously since 1953, first as the Peoria Rod and Gun Club before recently changing its name. They have leased the land from the Flood Control District since 1960.
Timmerman said they learned of the potential for closure about 1 1 /2 months ago from people at the MCSO range. They had received official word that range would be relocating to an area about 5 miles south of Buckeye. When the county failed to contact the club, members started making inquiries, specifically to see what improvements they should make should the 10-year lease be renewed.
Club members and Wilson met last Tuesday and that was the first time they learned of problems with spent ammunition on the dam. They went out to the site and found pellets and some bullets on Wednesday and Thursday, then sent a notice to members that because of liability concerns they were, at least temporarily, closing down, Timmerman said.
The problem is club officials don’t know if the pellets in the area were from the range or not. The area is still a prime spot for hunters despite a Surprise ordinance banning hunting or shooting within city limits. Found along with some ammunition were shell casings that could not have come from the range, Iacovelli said.
"People shoot on the other side of that berm," he said. "They ride SUVs out there and shoot dove."
Just the presence of bullets and pellets in the area, however, was enough of a concern to the club to shut down operations because they would rather find out for sure if the ammunition is from the range and what the club can do to make it safer, Iacovelli said.
With costs in the tens of thousands to install steel backstops, it may be difficult to reopen the range, Timmerman said.
"There’s a possibility that the range may not reopen again," he said.
Wilson said he would like to see the club’s range remain open and locate with the MCSO range in a phased development that would open it to public and law enforcement use.
"That’s one thing we’re talking about," he said.

The range that is referred to as being "an area about 5 miles south of Buckeye" is the Buckeye Hills Shooting Range ........the range where I teach and shoot. We've known that the MCSO was coming for years and these guys are just now figuring it out? Didn't they notice the houses being built directly in their line of fire? Hellooooo. The time to start doing something about it was 10 years ago. Before the houses went in. It was obvious to me years ago that this club was doomed....that's why I never joined. Now that the doors have been closed they will never open again, even without the expiring lease. Their eagerness to avoid any hint of trouble and their desire to appear to be "the good guys" in the public eye by shutting down at the drop of a hat is going to be the final nail in their coffin. Now it's not up to someone else to prove that they are dangerous, it's up to them to prove that they are safe. Ain't gonna happen. Not with strict protocols for shooting when there are people working on or near the dam in order to keep them safe. The very fact that they felt the need to have strict protocols indicates that they had prior knowledge of danger. Case closed. As much as I hate to see any range closed, this one probably does need to go. According to Google Earth, there is a house 1.2 miles away, directly in line with the firing positions.

That's not good.

That house never should have been built, but now that it has been built the range is screwed. The club should have been involved with the town planners to see what was coming and to try to guide the plans to benefit everyone. Even if they couldn't change the plans, they would have gotten a glimpse of what was coming. Hell, they could just look out the window and see what was coming. They were a shooting range in the middle of one of the fastest growing cities in the country. How could they not know what was coming?

They got too comfortable. Now they don't have a place to shoot.

It could happen to you.

_

SCTP - firing up

2005-09-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

Opening day. Most people have some event that they associate with that phrase. It could be the first day of quail season, the first day of deer season, the first day of football, the first day of Christmas shopping........lots of things. Around our house 'opening day' means the first day of the new SCTP season.

Our club begins this year on October 1st with our orientation and sign up day. My available 'blogging time' will probably be rather thin for the first few weeks of classes, but I'll be around.

The Arizona SCTP program is sponsored by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and is open to anyone between the ages of 9 to 18......or 5th grade through 12th grade if you prefer to think of it that way. No experience is required. We provide the guns, ammo, targets, eye protection, ear protection, and instruction. The cost is $25 per year, per student.

If you or someone you know is interested in participating, there are programs available at the Red Mountain Trap and Skeet Club, the Chandler Rod and Gun Club, the White Mountain Trap and Skeet Club, the Ben Avery Clay Target Center, the Tucson Trap and Skeet Club, the Buckeye Sportsman Club (where I teach), and several others around the state the I haven't been able to find links for. If you still have trouble locating a program, contact me via email at shotguncoach AT yahoo DOT com and I will do my best to hook you up with the right people.

Any help spreading the word would be appreciated. It is absolutely imperative that we begin educating the next generation of shooters and voters now. The future of our sport and our right to keep and bear arms depends on it. Remember, our rights will not be taken away - they will be voted away.

_

Retention

2005-09-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

No...not that kind of retention. I'm talking holsters. I've seen many different "tests" for holster retention, ranging from jumping jacks to cartwheels, but I don't think anybody has tried my latest test: the Mosh Pit.

My musical tastes are quite diverse and eclectic. I like a little bit of everything.....opera, country, celtic, jazz, big band, rock, even a little bit of hip hop, but my default favorite music has always been speed metal. Yes, I know that a 36 year old father of two is not the typical metal head, but I enjoy it. The last concert I attended was Iced Earth, Evergrey, and Children of Bodom. This led to some interesting conversations at the t-shirt booth ("What's yer story, man? Yer way to f*ucking old to be here!) as most of the concert goers apparently thought I was either a cop or part of the venue staff.

Humph. I was banging to Judas Priest and Black Sabbath when these punks weren't even an itch in their daddies pants yet. Posers.

But I digress...........

Last night my family and I attended a wedding. The husband-to-be works for the same company that my wife and I work for, but not directly for either of us. "Dotted line reporting" is the term for those of you who also play the corporate game. This was a "young people" wedding, and my wife and I were in a small minority of people who weren't 'age group friends' of the bride and groom and who weren't 'old people' like the parents, grandparents, aunts, etc that always show up for weddings. I guess the gray hair and conservatively cut 3 piece suit made them assume that I was just another old fart.

They are so wrong. I am not just another old fart. I am an exceptional old fart. The jaws started dropping when my wife and I were doing the bump and grind on the dance floor, but when the DJ switched to heavy metal I threw myself (coat, tie and all) into the pit and really flipped everybody out.

Now, at this point in my life I am 5' 10" tall, have a 32" waist, and weigh 210 pounds. The kid getting married is about 5' 8" and weighs maybe 125 soaking wet with rocks in his pockets. He didn't stand a chance. Two other big guys slammed him in a sandwich and I hit him just afterward, popping him out of the pit and into the crowd like a cork from a champagne bottle. It was the most fun I've had in a long time.

Some of you may be asking why I didn't at least take off my coat before all of this. The answer is rather simple: the coat was my cover garment for the evening. I was wearing my Series I (yes, I'm a snob) Kimber Compact CDP, a spare mag, and a Surefire 6P on my belt and needed the coat to keep from scaring the sheep......which leads back to the entire reason for this post: Retention.

I carry all of my Kimbers in variations of the Bruce Nelson belt scabbard. My Series I Classic rides in an Alessi ACP, my Series II Classic rides in a Dillon LTD, and my CDP rides around in a Forward Drop Scabbard from Josh Bulman. The pictures show the Bulman FDS with an extra flap of leather that acts as a shirt protector. I had Josh make my holster without that flap so that the top was clear...just like my other two carry holsters. All three holsters ride in the same belt position and use the same draw stroke. This means that no matter what I'm carrying the act of drawing the pistol is the same every time.

The Alessi and Dillon holsters have served me well in competition, combat shooting classes, and daily carry, so I know that they will keep the pistol where it needs to be. I've carried the CDP in the Bulman FDS for about 6 months now and last night was its' first real test.

It performed beautifully. Not only did it keep the pistol in place, the holster itself stayed exactly in place without any flopping or front-to-back movement. I highly recommend Josh Bulman's products. The holster is on the same quality level as my Alessi pieces, costs slightly less than the Alessi's, and only took 8 weeks from the initial email describing my needs to the finished product arriving at my door. I believe the current wait time for the "big name" holster makers is running 8 months or more for their catalog items. Custom work might be ready in a year if you're lucky. Josh is fast, honest, a true artist in leather, and you actually get to talk to HIM when you place your order.

A far cry from Gwa45's latest shopping experience.

Dumb-ocrats

2005-09-23T02:31:00.000-07:00

As much as I hate to link to the Maricopa Democrats, I just couldn't let this one go.

Go to the link shown above and check the page header....all the way at the top. It says:

Maricopa Democrats - Arizona - 4th largest COUNTY in the United States

Cool. The 4th largest county.

Ok, now go to the page of Shirley McAllister, the Maricopa Democrats Secretary. This page has a neat little animation that says:

Maricopa County
The 5th largest county in the US

Wait....I thought it was the 4th largest county. Hmmmmmm. Let's go check the official Maricopa County website.

And the official word is:

Maricopa County has a land area of 9,226 square miles, of which 1,441 square miles are incorporated (15.6 percent) and 7,785 square miles are unincorporated (84.4 percent). It is the fifth largest of Arizona's 15 counties, and the 14th largest county in the United States. Maricopa County is larger than seven states and the District of Columbia. The county measures 132 miles from east to west and 103 miles from north to south. Twenty-four cities and towns are located within Maricopa County's outer boundaries.

Wow. I feel exponentially dumber for having visited those two pages.

_

One a month....

2005-09-23T02:10:00.000-07:00

I really am trying, but this 'one gun a month' thing is hard to keep up with. Here it is September 23rd and I'm still two behind! Ohhh...the shame.

The most recent new friend came home tonight. A 1948 edition of the Short Magazine Lee Enfield No. 1, Mk III in .303 British. Pics to follow when I have time.

_

Look around

2005-09-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

My family is attending a wedding this coming weekend, so Nathan and I went to get our hair cut last Sunday afternoon. On our way to the barber, we stopped at the local park to drop some clothes in the donation box for a local charity. Nathan was watching the kids playing basketball and was rather surprised when we came to a screeching halt halfway through the lot.....and even more surprised when the Obliviot in the SUV pulled out of a parking place into the exact spot we would have been in if I hadn't stopped.

"How did you know to stop like that?" he asked.

At work I have been known to answer questions such as this one with the phrase "It's FM." This always leads to the second question: "What's FM?"

"What's FM? It's F*cking Magic, that's what it is."

I didn't feel like doing that to Nate at the moment, (not that I haven't done it in the past) so I explained how I knew to stop. "As we were driving up to his parking place, I noticed that his back up lights were on. That meant that his truck was in reverse. I looked at his head and saw that he wasn't looking in our direction. When his brake lights went out, I knew that he was probably going to back up without looking. I stopped because I didn't think he knew we were here. I made a bet with myself that he was an oblivious idiot (Obliviot).....it turns out that I was right."

This led to a lengthy discussion about situational awareness and color codes. We talked all the way to the barber shop, talked while we waited, continued talking while we had lunch at the Subway next door, and finally finished somewhere around the WallyWorld parking lot. I used several examples: the Obliviot in the parking lot, his sister dumping a bucket of ice water on him while he was in the shower, and finally, the parking lot altercation I was involved in last year.

By the time we were done we had made a game out of the yellow-orange-yellow transitions that are normal occurances in city driving. The real comprehension test will come the next time Kathy decides that he needs some ice water to go with his shampoo.

As my old man used to say, "The name of the game never changes. It's always 'Look around, Leroy."

_

Good little sheep

2005-09-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

I've been spending a lot of time talking with my kids lately. Perhaps the old man is becoming garrolous in his old age, or perhaps it's my upcoming birthday that is reminding me that my time on this Earth is finite. I know that I may not have the opportunity to teach the kids everything I know, so the next best thing I can do is to teach them how to think, question, and learn.

Kathy and I were sitting on the back porch last night reading the newspaper together. I found something that I wasn't very happy with, so I asked Kathy a few questions:

"If you knew that a hurricane was coming that would put the entire city under 10 feed of water, and you knew that not all of the people would be able to get out, what would you do before the hurricane arrived to help the people afterwards?"

Kathy thought for a moment, then said that she would buy food, water, clothes, blankets, and pillows to give to the people after the hurricane left. ( I guess she doesn't like wet pillows.)

"Where would you keep all your stuff? The city is going to be full of water."

This didn't require any thought at all. "I'd put it someplace outside of the city where it would be safe."

Next question: "Ok, if the storm is 300 miles in diameter and Phoenix is at the center, how far away would your stuff need to be in order for it to be safe?"

Kathy has always hated word problems (don't we all?), but this one was easy. "It would have to be at least 150 miles away to be safe. Or maybe up in the mountains, but it would be hard to put it all there."

Moving right along, my next question was "Ok, if your stuff is 150 miles away and the storm has blown down all the trees, broken up the roads, covered everything with mud and water, and knocked out all the power lines for stoplights, how long will it take for your stuff to get where it needs to go?"

Kathy has spent a considerable amount of time traveling the backcountry with me in my Jeep, so she has a good idea of how long it takes to travel when there are no real roads to follow. She replied that "It would probably take a couple of days to get it all here."

Ok.....time to set the hook.

"In all your calculations about how much stuff to buy, where to keep it, and how long it will take to move everything, how did you account for the skin color of the people living in the town?"

At this point Kathy looked at me like I had lost my mind and made perhaps the most profound comment I've heard yet regarding hurricane relief: "That's stupid. It doesn't matter what color their skin is. Everything is still going to be wet."

Out of the mouths of babes.

It was time to show her what pissed me off in the first place. I opened the Monday, September 19, 2005 edition of The Arizona Repulsive to page B3, showed her the section titled 'News to Use - A clear, concise current events feature for young readers' and pointed out the section of the article which dealt with the response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The article quotes the well known social commentator Kanye West as if his statements are factual and not opinions.

".....relief efforts were set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

The newspaper also presents the following statement as if it were fact, not a question open for discussion:

Most of those trapped in New Orleans were trapped because they were black and poor.

Oddly enough, this section of the paper does not appear on the AZ Repulsive website. There is a Newspapers in Education section, but the lesson plan displayed on the web page does not match what appeared in the print edition.

Kathy was not very happy when she read the article......and even less happy when she realized that it was intended to be a classroom aid for teachers. She threw down the paper and asked, "Why would they do that? They're not telling the whole story. You can't decide something like that without knowing the whole story."

I answered her question the best way I knew how. I looked her right in the eye and said,

Baa ram ewe
Baa ram ewe
To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true
Sheep be true
Baa ram ewe