A (Mother's) Day At The range

The girlfriend and I spent several hours at the range today. Both her sons are grown, and only the youngest is still in the nest, but he has a gf of his own, so he's out quite a bit. Anywhoo...I asked what she wanted to do this weekend, and besides going to the Star Trek movie, she wanted to go to the range. So, we stopped back at my place, picked up "her" revolver (A S&W Custom Shop TRR8), my Sig P226, my Marlin 1894, and six boxes of ammo. She does quite well with her revolver, and I suggested she try my Sig. She didn't care for the trigger (I don't like it, either), but the recoil and muzzle blast didn't bother her a bit. She wasn't hitting quite as good as she does with the TRR8, so we went back to shooting that one for a while. I got the Marlin out, explained how it worked, and fired a few shots at the target, which I had moved all the way out to the end of the range, about 50 feet. My first shoot was almost dead-center, and the next five were "9 Ring" or better, pretty darn easy to do with a rifle at 50 feet! I let her try it, and after a few shots she put it down and said she wasn't used to holding something heavy in a position like that, and gave it back to me. All in all, we had a great time, ran into one of my instructors, and she got to fire a few different guns today.
The highlight of the day (for me, anyway) was when she turned to me as I was putting the rifle away and said "Honey, if we're ever in the middle of nowhere, and you have to use your guns, I know you'll be able to put food on the table, and keep us safe".
Gee, and a year ago she had "Terminal Flinch" every time we went to the range and somebody else let off a big bore pistol!

Star Trek

Well, the gf and I just returned home from watching the new Star Trek movie, in IMAX, no less.
It definitely had moments of brilliance in the acting, and the SFX were extremely good, but I thought (HERESY!) the plot was a bit thin in spots. I won't go into it because I don't want to spoil it for anybody who's planning on seeing it, so, NO SPOILERS!
The actors were superb for the most part, and I could see them "aging into" the characters on the original series. The first time Kirk sat in his chair, crossed his legs, and propped one arm on the armrest, you *knew* it was Kirk. The actors who played Spock and Dr. McCoy were just as good, and Captain Pike was great.
This was the first time I've seen a theatrical release in IMAX, and while it's not quite the same as seeing an IMAX *film* on the seven story high screen ( they use a DLP...Digital Light Processor instead of 70mm film ) at the California Science Center, it's better than any other "movie" I've ever seen. They made a big deal out of the 12,000 Watt sound system, but I didn't think it sounded any better than a good THX movie.
If you like Star Trek, by all means go see it. heck, even if you don't like Star Trek, but do like a good summer action movie, go see it!

INDY!!

Ahh....forgot it was May! Woke up this morning, flipped on the Boob Tube, and the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500 is on.
Justin Wilson was the first guy up, and stalled the car twice before he got a little more aggressive with the clutch, and came roaring out with the wheels spinning. I've always been a car-nut and auto racing fan. Mostly "Sports Cars", and I used to compete in the SCCA events back when I lived in the midwest. I used to follow open wheel racing in the U.S., and after the USAC/Indy Car split I mostly followed the USAC "Champ Car" series. it's too bad they split because it did some serious damage to the open wheel series here in the U.S. it's hard enough for most people to keep track of the various types of auto racing here (NASCAR? USAC? Indy Car?, NHRA? DUH!), and TWO open wheel series was just too much, and they both suffered. Now that they've merged again, it'll be interesting to see if they can get their momentum back.

Obama and ACORN GPS Marking EVERY Front Door in America?

Now THIS is scary!
H/T to an anonymous poster on Sipsey Street Irregulars.
Article here: Canada Free Press

A Day At The Range

Ahhhh...I feel so relaxed after putting 350 rounds downrange!
Practiced my presentation from close-ready, my trigger pull and reset, emergency reloads, and worked to improve my stance. I tend to 'blade off' a bit too much, so I'm trying to maintain a more 'square' stance. Of course if I was shooting from cover I'd take whatever stance I needed to prevent exposing more of myself than necessary, but that's not 'target' shooting. Went through a bunch of SEB targets, and I can get three, quick shots into the upper box, all within a few inches of each other. Still can't quite do a couple of slower shots smack into the upper triangle after the first three, but almost all of them are either on the edge, or in the triangle.
Hmmmmm..."How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall?"......PRACTICE!
And I can drill the circles, boxes, and triangles along the sides without problem.
I also ran into a friend of mine I hadn't seen in several years. I never knew he was into shooting, so it was fun to catch up on old times, and do some gun talk.

"Unintended Consequences"

After finishing "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, and "The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry" by Brock Yates, I started in on "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross. I'm only a hundred or so pages into it, but it's quite good so far. I'd never heard of it until I got involved in blogging and started shooting again. They tend to go for over $100 at Amazon, so I shopped around a bit and found one on eBay, brand-new, still shrink-wrapped, for $60. Since then I've seen them for anywhere from $25 to $160.
It's one of those books I think should be in every RKBA person's library, so shop around and grab one.
Here's a little background courtesy of the Wikipedia.

Time to head out to the range for a little practice!

Gunney Money!!

Kent McManigal has some beautiful coins about ready to go into production.
Get your orders in so he can meet the minimum!
H/T to "Days of our Trailers"!
http://kentmcmanigal.blogspot.com/
http://www.dullhawk.com/dubloon.html

PSALM 2008-2012

Not sure where this came from, as I received it in an email.
I'll be happy to credit the writer if I find out who it is.



PSALM 2008-2012

OBAMA IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT.

HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL FACTORIES.

HE RESTORETH MY FAITH IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

HE GUIDETH ME IN THE PATH OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

YEA, THOUGH I WALK THRU THE VALLEY OF THE BREAD LINE, I SHALL NOT GO HUNGRY.

OBAMA HAS ANOINTED MY INCOME WITH TAXES.

MY EXPENSES RUNNETH OVER MY INCOME.

SURELY, POVERTY AND HARD LIVING WILL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF HIS TERM.

FROM HENCE FORTH WE WILL LIVE ALL THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES IN A RENTED HOME WITH AN OVERSEAS LANDLORD.

BUT, I AM GLAD I AM AN AMERICAN, I AM GLAD THAT I AM FREE.

BUT, I WISH I WAS A DOG AND OBAMA WAS A TREE.

WHOO-HOO! 1000 Visits!

Yeah, well....I know it's *nothing* compared to the rest of my friends out here, but I figured it would take a year to hit 1000.

I'll Take "Things That Go BOOM!" for $1000 Alex...

I had a very good friend during my College years who was studying Chemistry. He got his B.S., M.S., and PhD (Summa Cum Laude, no less! VERY smart guy.) in some type of Chemistry I'd never heard of, and went on to do Great Things(tm) in some obscure field. I haven't been in touch with him since 1977 or thereabouts, so I hope he's still doing well. He's the guy that hung the "Doctor Jim" moniker on me, as I was the Go To Guy on campus if your car was ailing, or you needed some serious Electronic mischief performed most discretely.
So here's to you, Dr. Paul D. Tyma, wherever you may be.
Tip 'o the hat to Blunt Object for finding this one.
It's a hoot!
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/

"Day by Day" Sidebar Getting Redirected?

Hmmmm....first noticed this on the days leading up to April 15th. My side window with the current "Day by Day" comic strip displays correctly, but clicking on it does NOT take you to their website.
The HTML code doesn't appear to have been changed, so all I can guess it that it's a redirect being ordered at some point.
Annoying as all HELL, so I've removed the "Day By Day" widget.
Anybody else have a similar problem??