Bowling Pin Shoot – Tucson, Sunday October 10

At the Tucson Rifle Club Action Range. Classifying starts at 0800 (8AM).

Pistols only, .38 Special caliber or heavier. We will also have a .22 rimfire class, so bring ’em!

Course of fire:

Five standard bowling pins placed on a 4′ x 8′ table approximately 42″ high. For “Major” calibers (.40 S&W or higher) the pins are placed 12″ from the front edge of the table. For less powerful centerfire calibers, the pins are placed 18″ from the back edge. For .22 rimfire, pin tops are placed on the back edge. In all cases the targets are spaced 18″ apart across the 8′ width of the table.

The shooter starts from the “low ready” position, 25 feet from the front edge of the table. At the sound of the timer, shoot all five pins off the table.

Each shooter will have five three (3) timed solo runs to establish a handicap. After all shooters have been timed, shooters will be paired off in competition. Slower shooters will receive a handicap advantage. Two tables, two shooters. At the sound of the first beep, the slower shooter begins. At the sound of the second beep, the faster shooter begins. Whoever clears their table first, wins. Best two out of three determines the set winner. This way revolver shooters have a chance against semi-autos, stock guns have a chance against race guns. I determine the handicap delay. If I think you’re sandbagging, I’ll disqualify you or adjust your handicap to suit.

This is a double-elimination match. Losers from the first round will compete against each other, winners will compete against winners. Competition will continue until there is only one shooter left who hasn’t lost twice. The .22 class will be separate from the centerfire classes.

Cost to shoot is $10 for the first gun, $5 for each additional gun. A dollar from each entry goes into a pot. At the end of the match, a random drawing will occur. Out of those still present, someone will win the pot. The winner of the match just gets to be king of the hill for the month.

Bring enough ammo!

Hope to see you there!

New Shooters

During Saturday’s festivities, Bill Brassard talked about what the National Shooting Sports Foundation does. Among its many functions, the NSSF is active in getting people into the shooting sports. This is crucially important, as the political power of the gun rights movement is dependent on a populace that is not ignorant of firearms. England’s gun control experience is a history of making gun ownership more and more rare by making legal acquisition and possession progressively more difficult and expensive until only a tiny percentage of the population there has actually seen a firearm “in the wild” as it were, much less fired one.

Familiarity is what we have to preserve. As Teresa Nielsen Hayden once put it so brilliantly:

Basically, I figure guns are like gays: They seem a lot more sinister and threatening until you get to know a few; and once you have one in the house, you can get downright defensive about them.

Amen.

A lot of us in the gunblogging community are in on this idea. Shortly after I started TSM I put up the invitation at the top of the sidebar. I wasn’t the first, but I’m far from the last. A couple of years ago, Mulligan from Do Over set up a web page (also linked at the bottom of my offer) where he lists at present about sixty people around the country (and one in Canada) most of whom make essentially the same offer I do: we’ll provide the range fees, targets, protective gear, firearms, ammunition, and instruction. All you have to do is show up.

We need to add to this list. Will you help?

THIS is How You Shoot “Smoke-n-Hope”

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf

That’s “Millisecond” Molly Smith, 14 year-old 2010 World Steel Challenge Champion in both Lady’s Iron Sight Revolver and Junior Revolver. She won six of eight stages to take the overall championship with her S&W 627, and you can see why. On the round where she missed the stop plate once, her time barely broke four seconds!

As someone observed, normally it would be considered kinda creepy for so many old guys to be filming a 14 year-old girl, but we all want to grow up some day to shoot like she does!

I Could’ve Used This a Couple of Weeks Ago

The latest update from the upcoming Gun Blogger Rendezvous (Sept. 9-12, Reno, NV):

As the Gun Bloggers Unite this month in Reno Nevada, MidwayUSA would like to extend our special appreciation for what they accomplish in shooting industry. First, we would like for each Blogger to receive a special gift from MidwayUSA when they arrive at the Rendezvous. Second, we would like to extend some exclusive discounts for each of the Bloggers and their respected communities/following to take advantage of. We hope these exclusive discounts help as many people and Bloggers as possible to enjoy the shooting sports industry.

Mr. Completely, would you please forward the following promotion codes and guidelines along so that people can start saving on shooting and outdoor gear.

1) Place regularly priced in-stock products in your shopping cart and receive:

* $10 off a Purchase of $100 or more – Use Promotion Code 19410
* $50 off a Purchase of $500 or more – Use Promotion Code 59410
* $100 off a Purchase of $1,000 or more – Use Promotion Code 109410

2) Enter the promotion code in the box entitled “Promotion Code” on the shopping cart page.
3) You will see the discount on the Confirmation page before placing your order
4) Remember, this promotion code is valid for orders placed on MidwayUSA.com.
5) Limited to one per Customer and one promotion code per retail order.
6) Offer cannot be combined with Birthday, Special or Dealer Pricing.
7) Offer not valid on MidwayUSA Gift Certificates, Nightforce, Sale and Clearance products.
8) Offer valid on regularly priced products only.
9) Hurry, offer ends at 11:59 PM CT September 15, 2010.

Cool!

Oh, and here’s a list of blogs and websites that will have representation at this year’s Rendezvous. More of y’all need to pull the trigger and come on up!

Random Nuclear Strikes
True Blue Sam
Traction Control
The Smallest Minority (Me!)
The Molly Minute
The Packing Rat
Our Gun Thing
(Yes, we’re being “infiltrated” by a gun-owning Lefty! Come show him the error of his ways!)
The Clue Meter
Anthroblogogy
AR15.Com
NSSF Blog
NRA Blog
* Joe’s Crabby shack (Inactive)
CS Tactical
* Gunup blog (launching soon)
Mr. Completely
Keewee’s Corner

Hell, all we need now is Oleg Volk and his cameras. And, of course, YOU. You don’t need to BE a blogger, just read one or more of us. We don’t bite! And we’ll let you shoot our guns!

OK, Now I Get Terry Pratchett

Most (if not all) of the cool people other gun bloggers have raved about Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books. Some time ago I picked up the first couple of the series, The Colour of Magic, and The Light Fantastic.

And they didn’t do it for me.

I’ve mentioned that to a couple of people, and they were surprised to hear it, but a couple of others advised me to delve further into the 38-book series. Thursday afternoon I picked up Night Watch.

I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep since then.

Last night I did a four (4!) hour Vicious Circle, signing off early (!) so I could get up this morning and go shoot a USPSA match. But I picked up Night Watch again, and read until I couldn’t hold my eyes open. I finished it this morning.

I think I’ll just take the 5R and the M25 to the range and do some load testing instead. And I may drop by Bookman’s on the way home.