Tag: blogging

Southern/Central Arizona Blogshoot (Bumped AGAIN))

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Exurban Kevin and I have been discussing another Southern/Central AZ blogshoot. As previously, it will be held at the Elsy Pearson Public Shooting Range just off Trekell Road and I-8, just West of I-10 near Casa Grande. We’ve selected Saturday, January 5 as the target date (no pun intended.)

Same as last year, the range opens at 7:00AM. There are no rangemasters. There are no chairs – bring something to sit on. The firing line is covered and there are concrete shooting benches, however.


And the city has porta-potties out there on a permanent basis, so we don’t have to rent our own (but bring your own TP just in case.)

The rules are pretty simple:


No explosives, no .50BMG rifles, clean up after yourself, don’t be a dick.

The rifle range is 300 yards deep with the first berm at 200.  The mountains that form the ultimate backstop are another 300 yards out and farther.  The ground there is reinforced concrete disguised as sun-baked clay. Forget about any target stand that needs to stick into the ground, it ain’t happenin’. Steel and targets that don’t need taping are best. And the benches are funky-shaped. Regular camping chairs are marginal, stools are better. I bring a folding chair, a target stand made of 2″ PVC pipe, and my steel swingers. I also have some .22 rimfire rated rolling targets made of steel.

I recommend you bring:  water or other non-alcoholic beverages (no alcohol on the range), sunscreen, ear and eye protection.  Ladies, don’t wear anything low-cut or open-necked.  Yes, I’m sure it looks lovely, but you don’t want to catch hot brass down in there.  OPTIONAL:  Something to shoot with, and something to shoot AT.  If you’re a reader or a non-gun blogger interested in coming to a off-the-cuff funshoot, please come on down!  I imagine most of us will be bringing multiple firearms and lots of ammo, but if you don’t, well, I’m willing to let people shoot my stuff (with my ammo), and I’m willing to let them shoot at my targets.

We’re planning on trying to have a cookout at the range.  Last year’s was meh, but my burgers were pretty good.  Hope to see you there!  Chime in in the comments if you’re considering coming.

14-Hour Workday

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Six-and-a-half of it in my truck – 400 miles again.  Pulled out of the driveway at 0410, got to the job site at 0730, left the job site at 1300, got to the Phoenix office at 1630, left the office at 1720, got to the hotel at 1750.  Have a class to teach tomorrow, so I need to be in the office at O’dark-hundred to actually put together a lesson plan and presentation.  I was supposed to do that today, but got pulled off to go to (jobsite) to look at a problem with a piece of equipment.  Problem still not solved.

Sleepy.  No more blog for you.

Gunsmithy Update

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I hate roll pins.  Lost the one for the bolt catch tonight.  Damn, those little suckers can fly!  Everything else is together.  I discovered the rings I had for my Tasco ProPoint are WAY too low for the rifle.  Ordered some more stuff.  It’ll be 3-5 days until I get it all in.  Maybe some bloggy this weekend.

Anyway, it’s past my bedtime.  G’night!

Quote of the Day – Boundaries Edition

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So there I was, buck naked in front of an attractive woman I had met an hour before, one female friend holding my junk out of the way and a male friend holding my hand in solidarity, and the thought struck me:

There went the last of your boundaries, AD. That’s not good. A grown man should have boundaries.

Ambulance Driver, Blogorado IV: The Recap

Remember when I said I really want to attend a Blogorado some day?

Maybe not….

Quote of the Day – We’re Winning Edition

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From A Girl and Her Gun:

About an hour later TSM and I are chit chatting with a woman and out of no where she whispers “Are you preppers?” Up until this point I had not mentioned guns, self defense, zombies…nothing. She said just the way I spoke made her wonder. Anyway she and her husband are and she writes for a small prepping blog. I forgot exactly which one or I would link it. During the course of that first conversation about guns, I mentioned working for John and she told me her friend is a firearms instructor and handed me her card. Turns out her friend is one of The Pistol Packing Ladies. The blog came up and she said, Oh, I have read that.

The whole rest of the night was spent discussing guns, fighting, knives, politics and self defense. She is not a women that is going to let anyone mess with her. She shared a couple of very cool stories. Her daughter is being raised to be a strong, confident, young lady, who knows her worth and is hundred percent willing to fight for herself.

Another lady there was a former police officer and she is looking to buy a gun. Lots of fun talk about that. She has actually had a bit of trouble where she lives and with a husband who travels, she is getting more serious about an improved home protection plan.

When we left the host said, well, I have never been to a party where the women spent the entire night talking about knife fighting.

Just a point of clarification – in this case “TSM” is a TLA for “The Sexy Marine” – AGirl’s better half, not “The Smallest Minority.”

(*sigh*)

SandCastle Air

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For the first six Gun Blogger Rendezvous, I drove from Tucson to Reno.  It’s about 15 hours each way, if you average 55MPH over the trip including stops for food and fuel.  I can do that in one shot, but that’s about my limit.  This year I got an interesting offer.  Danno from Sandcastle Scrolls was going for the first time – and Dan owns a plane.  A plane that cruises at 200MPH.  Specifically, this plane:


Pretty, isn’t it?  It’s a 1967 Cessna 310, with two Continental fuel-injected 471 cubic-inch six-cylinder boxer engines rated at about 260Hp each.  At 200MPH, they burn about 25GPH for an average fuel economy of 8MPG – not bad at that speed.  As Dan reported on his blog,

We fired up the #1 engine at 10:27 local and shut them down 3:26 later on the ramp at Carson City.  (note flight time is not the same as engine time.  Engine time includes taxi time at each end while flight time is from take off to landing.)

Beats the hell out of 15 hours.  Including idling, run-up, takeoff and landing, we burned about 91 gallons each way.  At well over $5/gal.  Ouch.  Still, the scenery from 8500 to 10,000 ft ASL is a lot nicer than it is at ground level over Nevada:


Trust me, the desert is MUCH prettier from the air.  And you don’t get to do this – our approach and landing at Carson City:

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Dan’s been flying about 25 years.  He greased the landing at Carson, and did it even better on our return to Chandler.  Not a bad way to travel!  And without blogging, I’d never have gotten this chance.

Oh, and the speed?  Here’s the proof:


That’s from the GPS on my Blackberry.