Monday, October 6, 2014

"Failure To Fire" Is Going Offline

One of the more, uh...."interesting" webcomics has published it's final episode today.

Yep, "Failure To Fire" is going dark.

The author might do a few "afterword" comics, but for the most part he's decided to close up shop and get on with his other projects, and life in general.

I don't remember when I first started reading "Failure To Fire", but it sure was a fun ride while it lasted.


Sunday, October 5, 2014

NRA Basic Pistol Class AAR

Well, we taught another 14 people the NRA Basic Pistol class yesterday.

We started with 15, but one young lady vanished after about an hour. She's an LPN, so we figured maybe she was called in to work or something.

As usual, we had quite a wide variety of people, from Patent Attorneys to web designers, to a retired Navy Officer who brought her son with her.

 Some of the students had prior shooting experience and were taking the class to improve their skills, while others had never handled a gun before.

They were all very interested, followed directions well, and we had no safety or firearms handling issues at all.

After the classroom session was over, we headed out to the range to let the students get some hands-on practice.

The basic format of this is to fire 20 rounds at a blank sheet of 8-1/2x10 paper, then 20 rounds at a target, and then 10 rounds at a fresh target for scoring.

The blank paper is used so we can get a feel for the students handle the gun, and correct any errors they might have with stance, grip, and sighting in. I always tell them to try and hit the center of the paper, and then use you first hole as a target and try to get the rest of the rounds "in the same hole", or if you're really off, then try and get your next shot closer to the center.

We had one little Ruger Mark-II malfunction (magazine wouldn't go in), and some ammo problems, mostly failure-to-feeds. The lead instructor told me the Mark-II's are a bit finicky about what ammo works in them, and with 22LR still being a bit scarce, we just try and live with it.

We also saw a bunch of stove-pipes which I assumed was from limp wristing, but after instructing the student who was having the problem to grip the pistol tighter, the problem lessened.

The 20 rounds on a target went well, with ALL of the students shooting 100% in the black target area, and a several getting 100% in the orange bull's eye!

Te retired Navy Officer had some problems with her stance (she was shooting her own pistol, a Taurus clone of a Beretta 92), and once I corrected her, she came right on target.

The 10 rounds on target was a bit different, as the students felt some "pressure" for being in competition.

Two scored 100%, so we had a 3 round shoot-off, with one young lady getting 100%, and the guy she was up against getting two in the orange, and one on the edge.

All-in-all, it was a great day, and we trained 14 more people in the proper handling and the basics of shooting.


Friday, October 3, 2014

"An OBLIGATION To Defend Ourselves"

Latest from Bill Whittle.

He says the title of this post at 3:03 into the video.

I'm going to assist with another "NRA Basic Pistol" class tomorrow.

Hopefully it goes as well as the last one I helped with.


Coming Soon To A City Near YOU!

Enough said.......

When I got my flu shot yesterday I asked if it also protected against Ebola.

Half the staff busted up, and the other half didn't know what to make of it.



Thursday, October 2, 2014

James May at the Edge of Space

"Top Gear" (the English one, not that poseur American version) is one of my favorite TV programs.

One of the presenters, James May, is an avid Space enthusiast.

He did a spectacular show a few years ago on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings.

He's also one of the few civilians to get a ride on the trainer version of the U2 aircraft, and did a film about it.

It's quite entertaining in a low-key sort of way, and I found it quite enjoyable to watch.

These days, 70,000 feet isn't considered the "Edge of Space", but he also explains that.

Enjoy!



Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Knives

I've almost always carried some kind of knife. I'm not a knife aficionado or anything, but in all the jobs I've worked at, having a decent knife, in your pocket, has come in handy more times than I can count.

I really like my Benchmade knives, but sadly they need to be sent back to sharpen, as I just can't seem to put a decent edge on them.

Something else I need to learn!

My second most recent purchase was a Gerber. A nice, sharp knife with a "Tanto" blade, but I just HATE that damn stupid mechanism they have on it to fold the blade back in. It takes both hands for a clumsy doofus like me to fold the blade back, and that's just unacceptable for me.

So, I recently purchased a nice little SOG knife. It has assisted opening, and a release button like my Benchmade knives, so I can easily fold it back when I finished using it.

It's one of the "Rescue" knives, with a blunt tip, perfect for sawing through seat belts and such without putting a 22 stitch wound in the person you're trying to save!

And I've also got some serious "Survival" knives that I keep "just in case", and a sweet little Cold Steel tomahawk, just in case the Zombies show up.

So what brings me to talk about knives?

This hilarious post over at Tam's place.

Genius that woman is!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Shit You See At The Range

Found this over at "Every Day No Days Off", and it's absolutely hilarious.

I'm sure some of you have seen the video, and if you hang out at a range long enough, you'll see it in person.

During last week's training class, I was joking with the Range Master about how he'd always said if you worked at a range long enough, you'd see a wide cross-section of weirdness.

He laughed and said "Yeah, about two weeks".


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Busy Wednesday Again

Spent most of the day on the Iowa again, reading documents, and tracing down wire markers.

We're beginning to get a handle on how some of the cabling is done, and thanks to our good friends on the Missouri, the New Jersey, and the Midway, we're slowly getting our own set of manuals for the transmitters, receivers, antenna couplers, and most of the other equipment we have.

Long day, lots of running around, and I'm beat.

G'Night, all!

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