Off to See the Wizard…

…er, well, off to the center of the universe Phoenix, anyway. As I noted below, I’m going to attend this weekend’s NoR shoot at Ben Avery. I don’t own a laptop, and I didn’t borrow mine from work, so no posting until I get home Sunday, if then.

Hope to see you there!

What She Said.

Tam said:

It makes one look like a savage to say so, but if your house burns down, blows over, or floats away, it’s not the job of the federal government to fix it for you. Charity is one thing, but federal tax dollars coerced at 1040-point from a single working mother of two in Dubuque (and then filtered through a morbidly obese federal agency) to rebuild your bungalow in Destin is not charity, okay? It’s extortion.

Perpetuating a Stereotype.

Scott at Rules for Rulers sent me a link to something kind of interesting (in a “haven’t seen one of those in a while” way.) A true, dyed-in-the-wool Million Mommy, unabashed, and willing to display her deliberate ignorance and spread her disinformation on a gun board.

Damn, but these women are getting rare. We’re going to have to put them on the endangered species list soon.

Anyway, “Randy” went to a site by the name of Bastards, Inc., to a post on the evil high-capacity armor-piercing tank-destroying jumbo-jet-downing FiveseveN pistol, and proceeded to villify the NRA and champion the Brady Campaign (she’s a high-level member if you believe her posts) before a somewhat restrained and, to be honest, condescending crowd. But not hostile! Well, not very hostile.

Seeing as the posts in question date back to February of 2005, perhaps by this time some semblance of reality has sunk into Randy’s little pointed head.

But I doubt it.

A Question for You Cast Bullet Guys.

I’m using Mt. Baldy Bullets’ .452″ 270-SAA bullet in my .45LC loads and it has an advertised Brinell hardness of 11-12. Now, I know that hard-cast bullets and heat-treated bullets with hardnesses of 18 or more won’t expand, but with a hardness of a relatively soft 12, would this bullet expand in ballistic gelatin at velocities of 900fps or so?

Slow Suicide.

The upcoming elections don’t promise much to give anyone hope. From Transterrestrial Musings, a comment that pretty much says it all:

I pretty much have to wear a gas mask when pulling the level for the Republicans these days, but it would take an armored hazmat suit for me to vote for most Democrat or third-party candidates these days.
Posted by John Irving at April 19, 2006 07:32 AM

I’m strongly tempted to stay home this time, and try to watch with detached bemusement as we as a nation commit slow suicide.

Maybe I should just become a AnarchoCapitalist and pop a

A Nice, Relaxed Day.

The NoR shoot is coming up next weekend, so I’m spending some time this weekend doing some loading in preparation. I loaded 11.5 lbs of .45 Colt ammo (that sounds somehow more impressive than “200 rounds”), and 200 rounds (so far) of 75 grain Hornady .223 ammo. I’ll load a couple hundred more tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll also manage to do 300 .45 ACP rounds, too. I’ve still got about 400 rounds of .30-06 on en bloc clips in bandoleers, so I won’t have to load any of that.

In the midst of that, I cooked up a damned fine batch of pinto beans, made a trip to the grocery store and (among the regular supplies) got some corn meal and buttermilk so I could make cornbread to go along with it. I also baked a couple dozen Tollhouse cookies (storebought dough, on sale. Better than pre-packaged, not as good as from scratch – but they’ll do.)

If you’re interested, here’s the schedule for the NoR shoot next weekend:

Friday: Dinner, 7:00 PM MST at the Buffalo Chip Saloon and Steakhouse, 6811 E. Cave Creek Rd, Cave Creek, AZ 85331

Directions to the Buffalo Chip Saloon and Steakhouse are available at the website.

Menu, all you can eat:

Smoked Beef
Pulled Pork
Smoked Chicken
Cowboy Beans
Country Slaw
Buns

Cost will be $9.95 plus tax and gratuity; beverages are not included in the price.

Saturday: The Range opens at 7:00 AM MST. Shoot til lunch.

Ben Avery is a public range and shooting stations are first come, first served. We want to get there early and secure some benches together.

How we’re handling lunch is still up in the air.

Shoot some more after lunch.

Saturday evening: Meet at 7:30 PM MST at the Buffalo Chip Saloon and Steakhouse for Dinner and Guest Speaker Alan Korwin who is confirmed, and then have some libations and tell lies. (I would appreciate it if anyone who witnessed me shoot clay pigeons in the air with my 1917 Enfield would show up to corroborate my story!)

Menu, all you can eat:

Flat Iron Steaks
Smoked Chicken
Cowboy Beans
Country Slaw
Honey Butter Biscuits

Cost is $19.95 per person plus tax and gratuity. Beverages are not included.

Sunday: Shoot til lunch. Maybe a picnic at Pioneer Village?

Shoot some more.

Go home tired and happy.

I think I’m going to run out of ammo early on Sunday. That’s why I’m also bringing a 500 round box of .22’s.

C’mon up and join us.

It Would Be More Effective If They Used the Right Word

Driving home tonight I saw yet another vehicle with this bumpersticker on it:

I just did a little checking. You can buy a variation of that sticker from numerous vendors.

They all have the same mistake, though. Every single one I found.

It would be just a little more effective if they used the possessive form of it – “its,” rather than the contraction “it’s” – as in, “it is” or “it has.”

Now, just who is it again that’s the idiot?

He Died Doing What He Loved…

Scott Crossfield, X-15 test pilot and another of “The Right Stuff” fraternity, is dead. He died Thursday in the crash of his single-engine Cessna 210A. Weather is suspected to be a possible cause. Crossfield, 84, was the pilot-in-command and only person on board.

I hope I’m still capable of walking if I make it to 84.

RIP, Mr. Crossfield. The world is a smaller place.