TVR Semi-Annual Pitch-in

Oh yeah, there was a shoot too.

Twice a year (April & November) we're privileged at Thunder Valley to have our brethren from Illinois come join us for a day (or two) of shooting, eating and camping. I'm not exactly sure how it all started, but I'm pretty certain Ellie May (the real range owner) is the main culprit. She is pretty active on the CAS forums conversing with like minded shooters and regaling of stories and managed to arrange for a group of shooters to travel to Indiana and hang out with us Hoosiers.

The whole affair seems to get bigger every year, though the weather kept attendence down this year, we still had 42 shooters and I had the pleasure of shepherding 6 new or second time shooters through the match. Its a challenge to do it, but I find it fun to get people's feet wet and try my darnedest to make sure they have a good time. I think by the smiles I saw, they did (really, its hard not to have fun). This year, and years forth, the April match will honor those shooters who we have posse'd with and have passed before us, we even had a 21 gun salute in their honor.

How'd things go? Well lets just say that while I may not shoot worth a darn, I can eat like a son-of-a-gun. With all the wonderful food from everyone and some spirits concocted by the Illinois bunch, I was extremely content and warm. There's nothing quite like sitting around a fire, drinking and eating and sharing company with some of the finest people on the planet.

You Damn Dirty Ape!

I've been pondering what to write about Charlton Heston's passing. I can't really speak to the man's worth past what I saw on TV and on the Big screen and what he said in the press. One thing is for sure, he was a very passionate man who was strong in his convictions and not afraid to rub those around him the wrong way just because he was an enigma in a land of weirdos and freaks. In short, he shared my love of guns and hatred of Apes and I presume Monkeys, no other like him will pass this way, so go peaceful Mr. Heston, to that grand land with plenty of guns and no Apes.

Dave Hardy of Of Arms & the Law has a roundup.

David Gianatasio of Adfreak says it best.

Early in Apes, Taylor says: “I can’t help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be.” Here’s hoping Chuck finds just that.

What Do We Have Here?

If you answered a S&W M13-3 in 3", you'd win a cigar!

I'm the new happy owner of a gun that is increasingly hard to find at anywhere approaching a decent price and I got it for what I think is a very fair price. As most of the good gun deals you'll have in your life, this one I absolutely fell upon while I was looking into information for a C&R license (what's that? I'll save it for another post). Allan's Armory in FL had some C&R rifles and a section for modern firearms where he had this example of the FBI's former sidearm up for a reasonable price. I called and spoke with Allan and had him ship it to me after we exchanged payment info. Five days later I had it in my grubby paws and last weekend I took it to the range for a run-through.

So off I went with 150 rounds of ammo and my M19-3 for comparative purposes, you can see my attempts met with mixed results. The fixed sights on the M13 doesn't really affect the accuracy too much, the gun shot a bit low, but I liked the sight picture since I see it when I'm cowboy shooting and I think that with some smoothing of the double-action, the gun will be a real winner. As for the double action, it is fine up to the point just before release, there's a pronounced catch in the action, so much so I think it was purposely added to the gun, why? who knows, but it's gotta go.

I have had plans to have my M19 sent off to a good wheelgun smith like Grant Cunningham, but he's not soliciting work and so I've been considering the S&W Performance Center. This M13 does beg to be sent off for their Combat Revolver Package though... Its good to have choices :)

Survivalism Hits Mainstream

So says the NYT Intapundit is all over it with several links discussing survivalism, including Say Uncle's, who as Glenn notices "neglects the zombie angle, somewhat diminishing his credibility." I'm not much for this sort of thing, I'm posting this for Judge since he's off in Hell Porter County Indiana teaching a class this week. I suppose my take on this is pretty unrealistic and simple (and easy) have a good rifle/shotgun/pistol with lots of ammo, thereby you can acquire all the other stuff you need to survive, like CHEEZE-ITs and Beer.

Math Lesson For Hoosier Media

ATTENTION MATH CHALLENGED HOOSIERS!

OK, I don't know if the populous is really this dumb or there is some conspiracy with the in.gov against the math-challenged Hoosiers, but I'm sick and tired of hearing in the media how the raise in the Indiana sales tax from $.06 to $.07 is a one percent increase. While it is an additional one percent, the INCREASE is actually 16.7%, because you see, 1 divided by 6 is .166666666....

So, anytime you hear the talking heads or read in the paper how it is a one percent increase, you can get just as pop-a-vein angry as me.

That is all.

I'll Have That With Extra Lead

This is one of the best lines I've read in a while. Instapundit links to this story about Pizza Hut (ugh) coming under fire for suspending a delivery driver in Iowa for defending himself with a handgun against a robbery attempt. Insty's comment on Pizza Hut's HR VP is classic.

Uh huh. Good thing he didn't listen or he might be being carried by six instead of subjected to mealy-mouthed HR flackery from one.

Indeed!

Kudo's

It looks like we did something right after all this weekend at TVR. As I said our posse ended up with a large group from Southern Illinois that was new to the range. Things started out rough as Jose and I like to run a quick and smooth posse and most of our regulars weren't with us. We had to do a little pushing and prodding to get all of the jobs filled and then we turned around and DQ'd 2 shooters in the first stage. Things settled down after that and by lunch we had a pretty smooth posse running. I didn't think the Illinois group would be very happy with us, guess I was wrong. We got this from Rebel;

Hey Guys: Just wanted you to know that we really made a great impression on the folks from illinois, and the new shooters that were at TVR Saturday. I not only recieved verbal compliments from them Saturday, several sent an email to Thank us for the hospitality....They were very impresssed with the instruction and coaching that the RO's provided.

So I'm happy we managed to teach, coach, and run a safe and friendly match that everyone enjoyed.