Guncart Christmas

Jose, Dina Might, Princess Shock'n'awe and I have exchanged Christmas gifts for years. This year Jose actually listened to me and built me a new guncart. Why would I need a new guncart you might ask. Well if you've every shot TVR then you know the answer to that one.



Our very first guncart was a milk crate and a hand cart. that didn't last long so we built a nice big 4 gun guncart with enough storage to hold everything 2 people would need for shooting. We were sharing gear and thought the one guncart approach would work, and it did for a while, but Jose took all of the stuff we learned building the first guncart and put it to work on his very own guncart and I inherited the first one. It's served me well, but it's a lot bigger then I need and I find myself filling it with unnecessary stuff. Lugging that sucker up and down the hill at TVR has made me long for a small, light guncart.



Jose met the challenge and put this one together for me for Christmas. It is exactly what I was looking for and I can't wait to give it a go. it holds 2 long guns and has enough storage for ammunition and a few other things, but not much else. It also comes with pneumatic wheels which make a huge difference when pushing the cart over rocks, ruts, and gravel.



I've been thinking about a few add-ons, but I think I'll shoot with it for a while before I make any additions or changes. And
of course Jose has already started his own using the experience and knowledge he got building mine.





If Jose would get off his keaster and start posting he might one day put up the guncart plans for this little beauty. Of course that would be after his post on the new Biesleys.

Dean, Roy and Don

I am a huge fan of Dean Martin, and of course since I shoot B-Western I've gotta show some love for ol' Roy Rogers. I can take or leave Don Rickles, but as you'll see he's the one that makes this classic little skit very, very funny.

Nicky Blaine's, Birthdays, and Padrons

Yesterday for my Birthday Jose and I went to my favorite little place called Nicky Blaine's Cocktail Lounge. It's in the center of Indianapolis right at the circle. You'll find this in the basement, fitting for an establishment that throws back to a speakeasy.

The bar is dark, and by that I mean dark leather furniture, dark wood work and dark lighting. What's not dark is red. When you walk in you are greeted by a hostess dressed as you would expect in a nice dark cocktail dress. She leads you to a table which is surrounded by wingback chairs or love seats, very comfortable. Then the whole night you are waited on by a true cocktail waitress. She pours your drinks and cuts and lights your cigar...that's right I said cigar. You see this place is a rarity nowadays. It's a martini and cigar bar. It offers some of the finest cigars and you are even allowed to smoke in the place...that just isn't allowed in Indiana anymore. Oh and I almost forgot, live Jazz.

So I treated myself to my favorite cigar a Davidoff Millenium Pyramid. It's was rated as a 93 from Cigar Aficionado and well deserved. The surprise of the night was the Padron 1926. I had read several very good things about the Padron 1926, but had never had the opportunity to try one. I saw it on the menu, but was scared by the "market price". I asked and while expensive it wasn't out of the world, so Jose and I each lite one up.

This was a full bodied cigar which I don't typically enjoy, but it was so flavorful and had such a mild finish for such a strong cigar that I quickly found myself falling in love with it. The Padron 1926 line was introduced to commemorate the 75th birthday of Jose O. Padron and also got a 93 from Cigar Aficionado. Only 16,000 of these are produced every year which explains the "market price" on the menu. I liked this one so much I think it will become my new Birthday Cigar! How fitting for a Padron designed for a birthday to be my new birthday cigar.

Six-String Justice

This year my family got me some great things for Christmas, but this was unexpected, and surprisingly not bad. My musical tastes run towards classic southern rock, blues, and a few 80's power bands, but it's nice to have some cowboy music to listen to just for mood music. I love "The Outlaws" and Marty Robbins, but a friend once said "If I hear Cool Water again I'm shooting somebody!" so this is a nice change of pace. Maybe I'll pick up some more in the future.

If you are interested you can get Six-String Justice and more by Zerf and others at Drovers Mercantile.

New Main Match Gun?

Hey, do you think they would let me use this for my main match pistol? I especially like the grips!



We could call it the Jon Carter from Mars Category. I bet Smiley would dig it.

It's from this pretty cool website, Hat tip to Tam for this one.

B Movie Bonanza

Are you looking for a way to pass the time this holiday season? Since the shooting year is over in most places north of the Mason Dixon many of you are surfing the web and looking for cowboy stuff to pass the time until we start throwing lead down range in the spring. Boy have I got just the thing for you. Check out this little fun site. They have all of your B-Western Cowboy needs until the Judge shows back up for the "bling" category. And if you want a little Horror, Sci-Fi, or Kung Fu they got that as well.

Turn the lights down low, grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy!

The Judge Mint Day Story

Mint Day first stumbled on the scene quite literally as an extra in WESTERN ROUNDUP (1929). Listed in the credits as Gilbert O’Day he made little impact on the film, but a big move on the leading lady Dina Might.

By the end of the year he co-starred with Dina Might in GUNS FROM THE BORDER (1929) as “Mint” Day and never looked back. His publicist refused to provide background information for Mint Day saying only that a mysterious cowboy with no past sold more tickets than a law school dropout from the Midwest.

Mint Day made 11 movies from 1929 - 1931 all of them for Monogram Pictures and most opposite the lovely Dina Might. TRAIN TO ABILENE (1930), GHOST PASS (1930), OVER THE VALLEY (1930), DYNAMITE TRAIL (1930), CROSSED BADGES (1930), UNDER A BAD MOON (1931), THREE ON A MATCH (1931), HOMEWARD WAGON (1931), AND LONSOME HOMBRE (1931). All were of the western faire with Mint Day saving the town/girl/wagon train/fort from destruction from Indians/cutthroats/rebels. Only GHOST PASS (1930) had a substantially different feel from a first time writer/producer Al Hitch (pseudonym for Alfred Hitchcock).

In 1932 Mint Day signed with Republic Pictures and dove headfirst into the western serial. The first 15 part serial SIXGUN JUDGE (1932) not only gave Day movie star status, but also his moniker “Judge”. For the rest of his movie career he would be “Judge Mint Day”. He went on to star in 6 more serials for Republic before dropping out of Hollywood altogether. Little has been heard from Judge since his departure from the movie industry. Still married to Dina Might he purchased a horse ranch in the Sierra Nevada’s and lived a quiet and happy life.

Territorial Governors Summit - 2007

1. Change Classic Cowboy to require Chaps and Spurs at all times and drop the other clothing requirements to three choices. The wording was changed, by amendment, to either chaps, chinks or botas and spurs. Discussion was mostly concerned with heat and the added safety factor of wearing spurs. Speakers felt that if these things bothered a shooter, then they should not shoot in this category.

Voting result: Failed.

2. As of now you may get as many Minor Safeties as you incur. Change the rules to limit Minor Safeties to one per firearm.
Discussion was on both sides of the issue. Some felt a double jeopardy situation is created by allowing more than one penalty for the same single violation. Others felt that the current rule was not being enforced properly, and that all infractions or safeties should be awarded regardless of double jeopardy.

Voting result: Failed.

3. As of now you are not committed to the stage until the first round goes down range. Change the rule to read a shooter, if properly started, is committed to the stage once the timer sounds.
Discussion, it was felt that there was only a small group of people that took advantage of this type of restart. Some felt that there was no need to change this rule and that the situation could be resolved with good stage design starting with an action that was required for the stage like closing a door or handling a prop. Others were in favor of the rule to mean that once the timer beeps, you are committed, no matter what.

Voting result: Failed

4. The largest maximum shot size allowed is a #4. Change the maximum shot size to a #7 1/2 .
Discussion, many felt that there was no need to change this rule. Clubs can still have their own size requirement.

Voting result: Failed

5. Proposed New Long Range Optical Category with rules as follows:
No length or power limitation on the scope. Scope tube body to be 3/4" or less in diameter and any ocular or objective lenses, adjusting or assembly rings to be less than 1" in diameter.
No internal scope adjustments for windage or elevation.
Mounts are to be of a traditional style of the period, and contain the windage and elevation adjustments for the scope in either, or both, the front or rear mounts. No click adjustments in the mount. Either dove tail mounting or scope block mounting is allowed.

Original scope mounts of either the Cataract or Malcom style or variations thereof, or replicas or derivative conforms to the criteria of the paragraph above.

This rule matches exactly with the NRA Rifle Silhouette Rules. March 2005.
Discussion, several examples were on display. If passed, it would add only one category "Optical" for long range rifle side matches. There appeared to be a lot of support for adding the optical sight category for long range side matches.

Voting result: Passed

The SASS Wild Bunch has made the decision that rounds must now meet the following restrictions.

Effective at State level and above matches. Clubs can still maintain stricter requirements (like a 650 minimum) but it should be in match material in advance.

Goes into effect at EOT 2008.

The minimum velocity must meet at power factor of 60. Power factor is calculated by multiplying the bullet weight times the velocity and then divided by 1,000.

A 100 grain bullet traveling at 600 fps has a power factor of 60 (100 X 600) / 1000 = 60.00.
A 77 grain bullet traveling 800 fps has a power factor of 61.6 (77 X 800) / 1000 = 61.60.
A 200 grain bullet traveling 400 fps has a power factor of 80 (200 X 400) / 1000 = 80.00.

The maximum velocities are not changed.

Black powder rounds, in black powder categories, already have their own standards. The rule would be applied to smokless powder categories only. If a shooter is using black powder rounds in a non-BP category, they must meet the power factor requirements.

A challenge of the loads can only be made by a match official. They will take five rounds and use the shooters gun. If any pass, then the ammo is OK.

It was announced that it would not change the KD rules at all. The old calibration is still valid and there are no plans to change that.

They have made a tentative (not in stone yet) ruling on the penalty.

It would be a 30 second Spirit of the Game penalty starting on the stage the rounds were tested.

Match officials could be the only persons that could initiate a test.

The official would take the shooters gun and five rounds of ammunition (pistol). They would pull one round out to remove the bullet for weighing.

They would fire the other four. Currently, if any pass, the loads are ruled OK. The muzzle of the gun would be raised 80 degrees prior to firing each round, so the powder would be at the rear most section of the case. This would give the highest result.

These are results from the phone calls I made to Vegas. I have not received the actual report.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Til next time,

Vaquero Hayes

Thunder Valley, 2007

The shooting season at TVR finished last weekend and this morning in my mailbox I received the final standings for the year from Redneck Rebel. I was happy with my final standing finishing 9th out of 42 shooters that meet the minimum 6 match requirement. Jose finished 13th and Copper Finished 15th so all managed to make the top 15. That's pretty decent and all of us seem to be getting better every year. I guess that's all you can ask for.

Jose has really started to figure out the rifle and when he switches to a shotgun belt instead of the bandoleer he is going to pick up his time considerably. Copper needs to learn to attack the stage and "shoot" faster. His transitions are excellent and his shotgun is very smooth. I need to get my 87 up and working well and I'm going to have to do some practice or both these guys will probably beat me next year. It's nice to have people pushing you.

TVR 2007:

Judge Mint Day; 9th overall, Average Stage = 29.305

Jose Gigante; 13th overall, Average Stage = 30.931

Copper Quincy; 15th overall, Average Stage = 31.363

What Time Is It?!?

I saw this picture that Carey Kid took at the November TVR match and thought is was an awesome photo that made Redneck Rebel look like Howdy Doody sittin' on my knee. Redneck may be much much smaller than I am, but there's not a cowboy I respect or admire more, nor one with a bigger heart. He owns TVR and is also El Presidente of the range, he does such a wonderful job of making sure his shooters are happy and is continuously tweaking this or that.

For instance, it has helped me greatly that he Gigantized the stages so that I don't have to bend down to shoot through the windows. I can't express how I appreciate that as the first range I started shooting at was run by a short cantakorous runt of a man who refused to acknowledge us big folk.

There aren't many cowboys I'd let sit on my lap, lots of cowgirls, but not many cowboys, Rebel is a rarity.

Sweet!

Ok, This doesn't have much to do with CAS. But if you are anything like me you will really dig this webpage. Blade Runner and Logans Run are a couple of my favorite sci-fi movies. Throw in some classic Star Trek and a couple of wanna be gunsmith's and you've got a recipe for entertainment.



Hat tip to Les Jones

Vanity

My Colt is now represented on KIMSON Handicraft Co., LTD's website showing off the Dragon hand-carved grips for the 1911. I think it looks great. Essentially, he reposted my blog entry on the grips (with my permission) and I am quite proud of the way the old Colt turned out.

Now I just need to find someone to buy my Kimber, because I doubt it'll see much use...

SCOTUS & Parker

For those living under a rock and may not know, the Supreme Court has decided to hear the Parker vs DC case where a lower court ruled that DC's ban was unconstitutional. This is the first time in 68 years that the court will rule on the 2nd amendment, so yeah, its a big deal. David Hardy over at Of Arms & the Law has some thoughts on the question that the court will rule on. He feels pretty positive about wording of the question if you can read anything into it at all and I think you can since they took their sweet time of it.

David also has some thoughts on the timing of when the case will be heard based on the timeline of when the parties have to file and the Court's schedule. Late March 2008. Make that 69 years...

BTW, if you aren't reading Of Arms & the Law, what's wrong with you?

Congratulations Copper!

Well he finally did it. After 3 years of shooting and lord knows tons of practice Copper Quincey managed to beat me last week at Thunder Valley. It wasn't like I shot bad either. I did pretty good with the exception of one stage and Copper shot well the whole match. He finished 15th which is pretty damn good since Vaquero, Indy Kid, Max Montana, Chicago Steely, Drew First, Clyde, Redneck, Cumberland Drifter, and Windy City Kid were all present.

Keep up the hard work, cause I'm not gonna let you do it again.

The Colt Meets The Dragon

Back in August after revisiting Xavier's post about the grips he purchased from Mr. Kim Son in Vietnam, I got to admiring the 1911 grips in water buffalo with the hand-carved dragon on them. I had to have them, you see I like dragons, they've fascinated me be it in my early days of RPG gaming or my love of aircraft. At the time I figured they'd look great on my Kimber Eclipse CLE II (they probably would), but they never got a chance to appear on the Kimber. A month later, I ran across the Colt MKIV at the PVR swap meet and picked it up as I've always wanted a Colt 1911 in stainless. The following week, the dragon grips arrived from Vietnam and thus the Colt meets the Dragon.

The first thing I noticed about the grips when I unpacked them is that the carving reveals the inner beauty of the water buffalo horn and gives the carving an almost golden appearance. I was pretty stoked about getting these grips on my newest baby, so I removed the stock Colt grips and dropped on the Dragons. To say they fit is understating the matter quite a bit. These grips appeared to almost suction onto the frame of the MKIV, I find that the come off just as easy, but there's no wiggle in them even without the grip screws installed. Like Xavier, I find this amazing given that Mr. Kim Son doesn't actually have access to a 1911 frame. The grips even fit over the new over-sized plunger tube I installed.

One thing I had hoped the carving would do is provide purchase to maintain a good grip while shooting and after shooting it last Saturday at PVR, I can say that the purchase is good, not up to snuff with checkered rubber, but then what is? It does allow clothing to slip over and off of the pistol while in carry mode and I don't see it ruining clothes like some of the agressive grips or skater tape will do.

As you can see in the pictures I took, the grips fit the frame VERY well and leave almost no gap with the grips landing just shy of the end of the grip frame. The only thing I find about these grips in particular that I don't really like is that the grip screws don't sit flush with the grips, they protrude a small amount, I don't know if there are screws available that have thinner heads and will sit flush, I might try some of the low profile grip screws to see, but it certainly doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for these grips.

In all, I think I've been very lucky to have ordered these grips and found a Colt that I've been wanting, perhaps I'm living right, who knows but I know that I'm pretty darned happy with this package.

Sheepdip Inn

Quite the name huh?

Like most strange things, there's a story behind it. The PVR clubhouse is the brainchild of a member who everyone knows as "Smiley" and since he was the main impetus behind the clubhouse, it is only fitting that it be named for or after him. Why Sheepdip? That's his real SASS alias, he goes by Smiley for some odd reason nobody can figure.

Anyway, the Sheepdip Inn is pretty much done, structurally anyways. In two weekends worth of work the entire thing got built by the hard-working PVR members and of course Smiley who not only thought it up, but had the skills to build it. That's always nice to have. I believe the club has about $1,000 in it and a lot of labor. The structure is 24'X16' and is pretty sparse inside, but that'll change when the women folk get to the decorating. As it is, it is a fine place to hold up in cold weather and shoot the bull, have a beer and do some karaoke.

Not Quite THAT Versatile

I know most gunnies think the venerable 12guage is a very versatile firearm and it truly is, but it does have its limits. For instance, don't try to remove a lug nut with double-ought at arms length. I've been frustrated working on a car before, but I usually reach for the penetrating oil or mechanical leverage when I encounter a difficult to remove nut.

3:10 to Yuma

Well I finally managed to free some time up to go see 3:10 to Yuma. It just happened to be the very last showing of the movie in our local theater. I'm glad I managed to go and see it since it met most of my expectations.

In short it's a good movie. If you get a chance see it our pick up the DVD when it comes out. The acting is solid and better then the first version. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale continue to impress me and the best parts of the movie are when these two great actors interact.

The story follows the first movie and I can only assume the original work pretty closely. I need to pick up a copy of Elmore Leonard's short story and see which version is more true to the work. One of the things I really enjoyed about the first version was the fact that the Dan Evans character was pretty much an everyday man. He was down on his luck, but not any more then most people and while he needed the 200 dollars to get by and needed it badly doing the right thing was more important to him. In this version the character is truly beat down with a missing leg from the war and a son with TB and an evil neighbor trying to steal his land. It's almost like Hollywood doesn't believe in the everyday man...what am I saying of course they don't.

The movie adds a few action sequences like a dangerous apache pass that wasn't any more dangerous then Dan Evans ranch and a run in with some other railroad people both of which seemed to be in there for the MTV generation. The only thing that really bugged me about the movie however was the overt approach to telling the audience that putting Ben Wade in the 3:10 to Yuma did not mean that he would get hanged. At one point Russell Crowe has to say that he's broken out of Yuma twice before. It just dumbs it down to much and generally pisses me off.

The action was solid, the acting was great, the costumes and guns were fun and the movie was enjoyable. Ben Foster did a great job playing the part originally done by Richard Jaeckel and definitely stole a couple of scenes. It's not the best western I've ever seen, even in the modern era, but it is well worth the price of admission.

Tags!

For future reference here is a list of Tags used so far;

CAS, non-cas, PVR, TVR, CCW, cap n ball, zombies, 1911, Colt, Gunsmithing, humor, Wild Bunch, Shotgun, reloading, Guns, 97, buying, AK47, Shooting, Fast draw, movies, SASS, Competition, scoring, Westerns, 2nd amendment, video, clothing, Revolver, Grips, Custom, advice, police, safety, defense, Glasses

Wow, that's a mouthful. Perhaps we should limit our tags a little to make them useful. For example make sure that all posts are listed as CAS or non-cas (yes it looks like they are case sensitive) Then we can further divide them into Gunsmithing, reloading, safety, advice, training, Competition, scoring, etc. After that we can put down the type of gun like Revolver, Shotgun, Rifle, or 97, 1911, AK47 etc.

This list is just to help us refer back to what we have already done so we can standardize a little in the future.

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More Zombies!!!

I like they way Oleg thinks. The S.T.A.R.S. patch cracks me up. Wish I could find one.

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