A Day At The Range

I went to the range Sunday for a refresher of a course called "Tactical Pistol I" that I'd taken a couple of years ago. It runs two consecutive weekends, 7 hours each day, for a total of 14 hours. It's split 50/50 classroom/range time, and it's time well spent. I feel that being a firearm owner carries with it the responsibility of being properly trained, and my local range offers some excellent training, from the NRA "First Steps" classes up to the "Tactical" classes. Had a great time, saw some friends I haven't seen in a while, honed my skills, and picked some some tips.
They had the entire "right" end of the range closed yesterday, which are the lanes my girlfriend and I generally use. The backstop/trap at the far end has become somewhat degraded over the years, and some of the steel plates are misaligned and dimpled *just enough* to cause ricochets. NOT dangerous, but it's annoying to get 'tickled' from time to time with the occasional little bits of spent rounds. The Range Master said they're going to shutting down for about two weeks in the near future to install all new steel down at the far end, along with some other upgrades. It's been 25 years since the range was built, and I've read that it's generally accepted the backstop/trap should be replaced every 10~15 years. The bad news is that it's going to cost $120,000 for all the work. The good news is that they'll have a State-Of-The-Art backstop/trap, and it will be rated for "full bore" rifles up to 308/7.62 caliber.
This brings up another subject, and that is to support your local range if you're lucky enough to have one, as if you don't, they might not be there in the future! I tend to do the same thing with all the local businesses in my area. Sure, I could save some money buying my soda at the supermarket down the street, but I buy it from the little Mom-and-Pop market next door to my apartment. I could save some money buying all my electronic stuff online, but I'll always check my local purveyor of all things electronic (Torrance Electronics) first. I used to do the same with computer items, but all the local stores that had competitive prices have all gone under, and few of them ever had the latest stuff. I don't mind paying an extra couple of bucks for the item, but when they're DOUBLE the going online price, I shy away.

Adam Savage on Wired.com

"Mythbusters" is one of my favorite programs. Here's an interview with Adam where he explains his philosophy on his personal projects.
I about fell over when he said that the experience of doing the project was more important than the finished item.
AKA..."Getting There Is ALL The Fun", something I find myself experiencing. When I finally finish up my Drake "Twins", I'll have a State-Of-The-Art 1965 Amateur Radio Station. It won't hold a candle to "Lab" measurements of my current State-Of-The-Art, Software-Defined transceiver, but then it won't be as "sterile", either.
And I will have had a LOT of fun honing my radio skills all over again.
http://www.wired.com/video/foratv/foratv/13312836001/mythbusters-cohost-adam-savage-on-obsession/16494275001

ARRRRGH! One of "Those" Days!

NOT a good day for electronics! I bought a Seagate "FreeAgent" portable hard-disk to get stuff off my workstation at my "day job", and it was DOA out-of-the-box. They said the dreaded "Reduction In Force" words last week at our All Hands meeting, so I've been bringing home personal tools, books, and other junk since then. I figured I'd better get my music and mission pictures off my workstation while I have the chance, since the "layoff" protocol is to hustle you out the door the day before payday with about 10 minutes warning if you've been released. A bit of Googling revealed that these things are JUNK. When I first plugged it in, it popped up as an "Unknown Device" in Windows. Not only did windows not know what it was, but it declared the device to be a "Malfunctioning USB Device", an error message I've never seen before, and I've seen most of them. After screwing around trying different USB ports, getting the software directly from Seagate, and searching the Web, I gave up, and packed it back up. I took it back to Best Buy, got a store credit, and bought a Western Digital unit. Got back home, turned on the home theater, and was just about to open the box and look at the new drive, and WHAM! My entire home theater system shut down, accompanied by a strange whistling noise. Turns out the batteries in the UPS I run it on finally gave up the ghost, and the UPS shut down. I guess I deserved that one because it's been squawking at me for a couple of weeks to replace the batteries. I farted around trying to decide if I wanted to buy the battery pack from APC (serious bucks!), from a different online vendor (much better pricing, but shipping LEAD-acid gel cells kills you!), or just get replacement batteries from good old Torrance Electronics down the street.
Since T.E. was closed for the day, I went back to Best Buy for a new UPS. It's not a pure sine wave UPS, but since all the stuff plugged into it has switching power supplies, it shouldn't hurt anything. I'll swap out the new one with the original one after I get new batteries, and give the one I bought tonight to my girlfriend who is just using good surge protectors for now.

Sippican Cottage: My Father Asks For Nothing

Wow....just wow.
Pardon me while I tear up.
My father was a Navy SeaBee in the South Pacific during WWII. He quite possibly helped build the airstrip where this man's father took off and landed. My Dad never wanted to talk about it, either, except for an occasional comment he made while we watched "Victory At Sea" on Sunday afternoons.
Every time I read a story or post like this, the final line from "The Bridges At Toko-Ri" comes back to me.

"Where do we find such men?"

Sippican Cottage: My Father Asks For Nothing

The Most Dangerous Man In America

No, it's not me with my new Sig! This article is well worth the read. This guy is another Obama idealog who has his sights set on "regulating" things most of us hold near and dear.
H/T to The Liberty Sphere for finding it!
http://wwwtmrcom.blogspot.com/2009/03/opinion-most-dangerous-man-in-america.html

P226 At The Range

OK, this is the first time I've done this, so go easy on me! I used my Bushnell range finder to set the targets at the indicated distances, 5yds, 10yds, and 15yds. Point Of Aim was the dot on the front sight placed as close as I could on the middle of the orange center of the target.This was the first time the pistol was fired, and the first time I've _ever_ fired a Sig of any type. I found the double action trigger pull to be heavier and longer than I'm used to (DUH!), and the single action pull to be a bit longer, but not much heavier, than I'm used to with my Kimber's, another big DUH! The gun felt extremely well balanced in my hand, and recoil was no issue at all. I've got large hands, so wrapping my paws around the double-stack grip was no big deal, and maintaining a proper grip was easy. The ammo I used was Reminton UMC 165gr "MC" #L40SW4, and the bullets looked like plated or jacketed semi-wadcutters with a little raised circular 'bump' on the flat nose of the bullet.
I'm sure I'll improve as I shoot this one more, and I really like the way it feels and works in my hand. It's a beautifully made pistol, and racking the slide gives a satisfying "THUNK", like closing the door on a well made car.

What's In *YOUR* Range Bag?

Besides your ear and eye protection, what else do you like to keep in the range bag?
I always take several extra magazines, some specialized 1911 tools, some Gun Butter(tm), Birchwood-Casey "Barricade" wipes, extra batteries for hearing protectors, and a little Bushnell laser rangefinder. On days I take training classes, I'll take a second bag with my holster, belt, pouches, and ammo.

A Well Balanced Diet

My son insisted I post this picture. He was over the other night to return my Dremel, and went looking in my kitchen cabinets for a snack. I heard him roaring with laughter, and went in to see what busted him up. He asked me why I had ammo in the soup/snacks cab, and I told him it was because the other ones were full, along with my ammo cans, and it seemed like a good place to put them until I could free up some more space.
He just laughed and said "Dad, that's just so you!"
Gotta love kids......

SIG!

Ahhhh....picked my P226 tonight. Man, is it made nice! Going to spend some time reading the manual, field-stripping it, cleaning it, getting to know it, and practicing loading/unloading it with dummy rounds. That's something I do with every firearm I own, and one of those things that was passed down to me. It's quite a bit fatter-in-the-hand than my beloved 1911 pistols, so that's going to take a little getting used to, and I'm sure my grip will be different on it. It's also got a *very* different trigger pull than I'm used to with my 1911's. Oh, well....looks like a good reason to spend more time at the range!

Taking Chance....

....Is the name of an HBO movie that's been running this week. I saw it tonight for the first time, and it's quite good. It's the story of a Lt.Col in the Marines taking one of our fallen soldiers back home to his final resting place. I hadn't seen Kevin Bacon in anything since my son and I went to see "Hollow Man" 9 years ago. He gave quite a performance. Seems the critics were split on the movie, some seeing it for what it is, and others seeing it for what they thought it should be.
Just make sure you have a full box of Kleenex with you.
God bless our soldiers!

Still No Soup......

By my R-4B is coming along nicely. Did the mod to the PTO yoke, cleaned all the old gunk/grease off the tuning screw and dial gears, and FINALLY got the damn main tuning knob off. Then I pulled the front panel, and I'm busy using cotton swabs, Q-Tips, old toothbrushes, little short "acid brushes", and bore-cleaning patches to clean the chassis.
It's not fun, but should look reeeeal purty when I'm done.