Buried Spitfires.

P-38s under the greenland ice sheet.  WWII German fighters entombed below the asphalt at the Berlin airport....now this:  20 Submarine Spitfires buried in their shipping crates.  These may actually see the light of day again!

  A little more: Doolittle Raiders at the Dayton Air Force Museum.

Hawk snatches, kills and eats chihuahua.

This happens more often than you think.  We kept our Jack Russell VERY close at Shiprock, as two Golden Eagles were nesting on the rock.  Our neighbors here in Tyler lost a Chihuahua to a Redtail and other neighbors had to watch as their mini daschund left screaming in the grip of another hawk at lakeside.  Terrible thing for everyone.

  OK, Obama might not think so, but a terrible thing in the opinion of MOST people.

The Moon and Venus.

I put my tripod in the side yard at dusk and used a Nikon 500mm reflex lens along with my 18-200 zoom.  This image is desaturated in iPhoto, enlarged a bit and the shadows opened up.  I kept the ISO down to 250 and wash shooting around 1/2 second.  The day lit side is blown out and stars are beginning to pop out.

  The 500 mirror lens was in a box of stuff I bought to resale on ebay.  It's kind of a specialty lens but I might keep it.  Pretty extreme and it does fit on the Nikon D300.  I'll probably never shoot a roll of film again with my 35 but I do keep some around, along with enough lenses to entertain myself.

  There were two bats chasing each other around the sky.  They crossed my field of view pretty often.   Glad to have them around- eat those bugs!

The Moon and Venus with the 200 zoom.

First shot of the evening, just warming up.

African Dinosaurs!

Get these folks some cell-phones!

Tyler Gunshow, April, 2012

Tyler Gunshow this last weekend.  It's grown again into a two-room extravaganza.  There is some fluff stuff, jerky, hunting leases and jewelry mixed in, but not much.  It's mostly guns.
  There aren't many deals floating around.  I did pick a Garand bayonet that has spent a year away being reparked after I bought it on Ebay.  (Now what am I going to do with it?  Might put it on the Garand when we stack them at Camp Perry and go to the pits during the National Matches.)  The guy next to my friends finally sold his Vetterli Rifle.  (I always had a bit of lust for an early Vetterli for the wood and the checkering.)  I put a P17 up for sale and sold a scoped Anschutz that had lurked around in my closet for a long time.  There was an old sporterized 1903 Springfield still laying on a table: 350.00.  I've got a weakness for old rifles but can resist until they mark it down to 150, then I am going to resist some more.  Who needs a 30-06 with a 4-power Weaver on it anyway?  The most interesting rifle in the world, a 1941 Johnson Automatic, made an appearance.  Parts gun, though he said it was original.  7500.00.  Ha.
  Couple of beautiful Krags in original form.  A Russian target pistol in .22 short.  Quite an education and very calming to walk around that many good people looking at that many guns.

  Saw folks I was glad to see, got a little consulting done on a couple of items.  Good show.

I'd just as soon leave it in the Gulf, alive, but what a fish!

Top of the apex predator. Evidently never seen by anyone ever before. Sorry it's gone from the water. Be pretty amazing to know the whole history on a fish like this. 20 footer could be 30-40 years old.

High Pay, Outdoor Work, and every now and then you get to blow up a few cows.

When Katie and I were at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2010, we bumped into a few guys going to a government sponsored fire school. They were busy cutting down a tree near the parking lot at Point Imperial overlook. I noticed they were young, outfitted with the latest safety gear, radios, vehicles, et. Turned out they were from New Jersey, going to an outdoor fire school to get federal certification to do this or that at high pay with wonderful benefits. Most of them were standing around with flags watching a couple of other guys look a dead pine over. They had been out West four weeks at that point.
Notice- the North Rim is a tough reservation to get. I'd reserved rooms several months early and sweated a bit that they wouldn't be available. These guys were there longer than tourists are allowed to stay, paid and fed to be there. I saw some of them in the bar later that evening.
I know we all DO work for the various governments, but we should have all been census workers or firemen. Great pay, wonderful benefits, immune to many laws, access to all kinds of great places and early retirement.
And you might get to blow up some cows.

Video from the TSRA Highpower Rifle weekend.

Just a little run of rapid fire. How many of my videos start with: "Is the line ready?"

Bee talk.

I just know a couple of bee stories but these folks know all about bees.

Japanese Libertarian.

Like a lot of folks, he just wants to be left alone.

Texas State Rifle Association Highpower Rifle Championship

TSRA NM Team guy Keith Stephens won the match for the third time. He's closing in on David Tubb's number of wins.

The Fairchild babes. A trend is popular when it starts attracting good looking women, so there you go.

...and has rugged, handsome men: David Guthrey and his grandson.

Junior Team Winners. Clayton Rogers, Misty Skelton, Coach Chris Chesney on the end.

Overall class winners.

Misty Dawn in her camo walking cast and safety gear.

Bailey Fairchild gets her game-face on at 200 offhand.

Shawn Taylor with a Captain Morgan vibe going in his hat.

Randy Schiebel ponders the deeper meanings of deeper meanings during a parachuter cease fire at 300 yards.

Clay Hefner ponders a nap. (OK, MANY folks have emailed telling me this is NOT Clay Hefner, it's Gregg Foster. You know what? It doesn't matter........)

......Because THIS is Clay Hefner.

Paul Leberge waits for people to quit talking so he can tell another story.

Michelle Boyd keeps it real.

The line on Sunday before the rain.

Dave Wilson drives the bus.

Travis Rogers looks down AT the 200 yard line.

The whole Hogg: Six and a half feet of Mitchell Hogg firing offhand.

Nez Rongero firing his M1A.

All the Boys are scattered worldwide but Michelle Boyd was right on the 200 yard line.

At Camp Swift this weekend. Friday was 4-man team day. 50 shots each for an aggregate score. The championship began Saturday. It was for a two-day score over Saturday and Sunday. About 100 folks were shooting in four relays. The wind was up and standing scores at 200 plummeted. It came right up the range from the South. I think I shot 300 yards with no wind on the rifle in a gust. Only came off 600 with 1 1/2 minutes right wind. Sunday threatened 100% chance of rain by 11:00. Dave Wilson and Ken Gaby called the match on Sunday after everyone finished the 200 yard line and saved us and the targets a good soaking. The Sat-Sun total was 900 points. Keith Stephens won the Championship for the third time in the last four years. Congrats to Keith and thanks to everyone who worked and helped put on the match. Alan Wilson, Keith and Karl Schultz did a good job entering the results and posted them yardline by yardline.

Match Director Ken Gaby. A lot of work gets done just so shooters can show up and shoot.

Roger Lankford waits for a cease fire in a Paul Leberge story.

TSRA Highpower Director-to-be Rick Tanner.

The pits.

Close-up of the camo walking cast. We are in Texas...no doubt.

Karl Schultz and Stan Jaroz.

Clay Hefner, Texan and competitor.

TSRA Director Karl Schultz.

Junior shooter.

They are never going to pry our rifles from our cold dead hands: Junior shooter waiting on 200 rapid fire.

Stan Jaroz and his M1A

Clayton Rogers, the Magnificent.

Appleseed Veteran Lauren Lecren.

Skelton shooting offhand....nearly barefoot.

Warren Vandiver up front and Clayton Rogers in the back.

Alan Wilson firing his match rifle offhand.

Overcoming your equipment.

David Keys plotting shots.

Karl Schultz on the line with Alan Wilson scoring.

.45 vs Kevlar Vest.

Cousin Wallace tests the vest.

Well, I've been entertaining/educating myself again at the range. Last Saturday I went to test some 6.5X55mm Swede loads and carried a couple of handguns to "plink" with after running the test loads over the chrono. After I finished testing the M96 Swede I grabbed the handguns for some fun.

I have an old discarded kevlar panel from long expired body armor that stays at my range. Body armor isnt warranted after 5 years so isnt approved/guaranteed for duty use after the expiration date. Somehow I ended up with this panel about 3 or 4 years ago & it has laid out in the sun/weather ever since. Over the yeras I have shot the panel with various calibres and bullet types, mostly handgun. Most 9X19mm, .357 Mag/Sig, .30 Carbine, etc will penetrate about half the layers and stop. The bullets typically will be mushroomed and display a cross-hatch pattern where the fibres of the Kevlar resisted the relative soft projectile.

Since I had my beloved S&W M1911 with me and some 230gr Hardball rounds, I hung up the old vest panel on the fibreboard target backer and backed up about 5 yds before shooting a spot that hadnt been damaged on the panel. Mucho to my surprise, the big & heavy bullet bounced off!!! It didnt even penetrate a single layer of the old expired body armor. This was with a plinking load that Clocked just over 760 fps from my 5" barrel....about what you would get from one of the short/chopped .45 carry pistols popular today. The bullet was very slightly mushroomed as you can see in the attached photo. Thinking this just couldnt happen with a full power 230 hardball load, I again put the vest against the target backboard and shot it again, this time with a full power 230gr Hardball at about 850 fps. Same result...just mushroomed the bullet a bit more. Not even a single layer penetrated.

Now, I still love the old .45 and it will guarantee a .45 calibre "leaking hole" in somebody....if they arent wearing armor. I do have to say I was disappointed in it's lack of penetrating ability though. It knocked the crud out of the panel and caused a dent about an inch in dia & half-inch deep in the fibreboard that was behind the panel. It would have hurt & bruised a person pretty bad even though there was not a single layer pierced. With that being said, I believe the heavy .45 bullets will penetrate BETTER in some mediums. I've been to 3 wound ballistic seminars and believe, based on my observations, the .45 will do better when encountering automotive glass than some of the lighter/faster calibres. No bullet does what it is otherwise designed to do when it hits glass. It becomes a shapeless "glob" and the heavy glob of the .45 seems to be deflected less...at least that's been my observation.

As crooks get more sophisticated and sometimes wear body armor, it's something folks need to keep in mind. ( I'm thinking the guy at Tyler, Smith Co courthouse that enguaged the madman with his .45 and failed to stop the guy before the gunman killed him. He was eventually killed by riflefire by Tyler patrolmen shortly afterward...correct me Robert L. or Justin U. if I'm wrong). We recently (about 2 weeks ago) arrested a felon in possession of body armor so it's getting more common.

Anyhow, thought you gun nuts might find this interesting. As always, comments welcome.
Wallace