Bigfoot....foot found.

Finally they found a piece of him.  Good deal.  And another guy in San Antonio shot one this year and has the body on ice.  Lotta Bigfoot news!

Mont St Michele North Shore Video.

  Photographing along the North Shore at Mont St Michele.

The Abbye was closed and the tide low.  Put on the rubber boots and went for a stroll with the cam in the wind.  Great place!

  

Cousin Wallace goes to the Dallas Gun Show.

Sallied forth to the Dallas Market Hall gunshow yesterday morning with a couple of pals. Left my abode @ 05:00 & arrived about 07:45 to get a good parking spot.

 

Opened @ 09:00. Nice to be in such a big structure w/lotsa tables of goodies.

 

Wasnt particularly looking for anything specific. Kinda wanted something new to play with....maybe an affordable ( yeah, right) Browning Hi-Power, a long barrelled S&W 686, S&W M27 with 8 3/8", Something new in .45 Colt, some kinda match grade 1911.............who knows, just open to something interesting.

 

Well, I found a Hi-Power that I liked...$750...wasnt sure I liked it quite that much. Likewise with a S&W 6" model 687 seven-shooter...

 

My pal bought two 1873 Springfield Trapdoors, one is a beauty w/shiney bore. Also two ATI model 1911's....made in Phillipines, look to be of pretty good quality, $500 each. A M37 Ithaca w/long bbl & poly-joke and finally a .22LR copy of the German Stg44 Sturmgewher (sp). Neat looking repro...looking forward to trying that out! Also saw 2 real Stg44's on display, not for sale.

 

Saw two G43 rifles, neither as purty as mine and neither had a scope or scope mount. $2600 for one & $3000 for the other.

 

Kinda wanted to find some powder and/or reasonable primers. What powder they had was priced OK for these days but there was none in the medium burning rate popular for service rifle calibres (.223, .308 & .30-06). They either had too fast pistol/shotgun burning rates or too slow, magnum rifle types. Most was about $28/lb but saw some W760 for $25/lb. Only suitable burn rate I saw was BL-C2 & it was $48/lb. Most primers $4 to $5 box.

 

Plenty of .223 & 7.62X39mm ammo available....if you had the $$$! The cheapest .223 I remember seeing was $70/100 or seventy cents/rd. Some was higher. Even bullets were high....30 calibre 168gr match was common for $35/box (some higher).

 

Plenty of pistols available as well as ammo. Pistol prices wernt as high as one would xpect but ammo wasnt cheap! .22 rimfire was common but priced pretty high. Usually about $7/box of 50.

 

.45 Colt $50/box ( that's a dollar a round for those of you who couldnt figger that out.)

 

.44 Magnum $60/box ( $1.20/rd)

 

.45ACP avg about $40/box for 230 ball

 

9X19mm seems to be down a bit at about $30/box....saw some a bit cheaper & some a bit higher.

 

Lots & lots of AR15's.....prices coming down a bit....saw lots of tire kickers, not so many buyers. Plenty of magazines for same & they are coming down in price too. Off brand complete lowers w/collapsible stocks for as low as $225, not bad. Model one sales had a humongous supply of all types of uppers but they were priced way higher that what I figgered was fair.

 

Plenty of AK47 look-a-likes........$850 & up.

 

Quite a few M1 Garands ... avg about $995

 

M1 Carbines usually $995

 

M1903 & 1903A3 ...saw several $695 for beat up & up to around $900.

 

K98 Mausers....$450 - $750 depending on condition & markings.

 

Tons of other stuff....lots of accessories. Way too many knives for my taste. Gun cases, gun safes, optics of every flavor. Night vision, you name it......

 

There were lotsa folks there but getting around wasnt as bad as I've seen it in the past. It was rare that I had to wait to see something on a table.

 

After walking around for 5 hours, I finally bought an 8-rd Wilson Combat magazine for my 1911 for $29..........not disappointed but wished I could have found more stuff.

 

Wallace  

Gaston Glock getting divorced?

I don't currently own a Glock, but the M19 is be best all-around pistol....ever.  Wonder what his new girlfriend looks like? 


  Ok, then.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

  Boston is the biggest Marathon race in the US and probably in the world.  The bomber's timing was off- probably the crowds were bigger at the finish about an hour earlier when the 3 -hour marathon folks were finishing.  At least one bomb didn't go off.  God bless the people injured and affected by this awful act.

  That said I was struck by several commentators, (Greta, Hannity, others), who thought that this terror attack might persuade runners to swear off running marathons.  They don't know fact one about the marathon running crowd.

  Marathon runners know about goal-setting, training and physical suffering in a way that few amateur sportsmen do.  They know about it intimately.  If you haven't been through this process, (which takes years to achieve), you can't appreciate how mentally tough these runners are. At the 5K mark you are happy and optimistic.  At six miles you are just getting warmed up.  At 10 you are in the groove.  At mile 13 you begin to wonder what is wrong with your world view.  At mile 15 you've gone crazy.  After Mile 17 you can't do math in your head to figure out how much distance is left.  At mile 20 you are considering sucking blood from the necks of the spectators.  At 22 you eat a stick slathered with petroleum jelly lubricant for your crotch and nipples thinking it might be nutritious.  You enjoy it, but spit most of it at a fat guy standing on a corner for the entertainment value.  At mile 24 you are just....pissed off.  At mile 25 you are wandering like a person stranded in the desert for a week.  At mile 26 you are giving the finger to screaming thousands.  At mile 26.19 you are trying to beat one...more...person...to the finish line.  At mile 26.2 you start walking and wonder about your life in the universe.

  Marathon runners have suffered.  They have run miles and hours at pain levels that would hospitalize average folks.  A mere bomb at the finish line, or machine guns along the route, mad truckers flattening folks at mile 9, Nazis with machetes at a the halfway point...nothing...is going to stop them.  Did you see the man who got blown off his feet by the bomb.  Bill Iffrig.  He's 78.  He got up and finished the race.  I'm sure he knows his exact finish time.

  The 10,000 folks left out on the course would have been much happier if officials had moved the finish a few blocks and kept clocking folks in.

  I guarantee that some of the folks who lost limbs will run a marathon on prosthetics in the near future. I doubt ANYONE will change their mind about road racing because of an act of terrorism.

Stanley Marsh 3, Cadillac Ranch Artist under arrest.

This kind of stuff has been bubbling around for a while so I'm not surprised, but still disappointed.  The Cadillac Ranch is one of the great artworks of Texas.

Katie walking out to the ranch just West of Amarillo.

Tourists.

Every year there are less and less of the cars.  They were basically intact when Marsh buried them nose down.  The sculpture has been moved away from development once.

It's an interactive evolving artwork.  Won't last forever.

Wiki posting.

Work Day at Panola County Gun Club.

Lot of these work days going on at Texas ranges right now.  I noticed Bayou Rifles had one scheduled.

  We had a nice group of folks and really worked the range over.  Getting ready for the April NRA Regional Match late this month.  We always re-cardboard the targets and paste targets on them, at least 16 short line and 16 600 yard targets.  That's a lot of work.  Plus folks cleared lines, cleaned firing point numbers, chopped brush on the berm, rebuilt target frame cable and pulleys, sorted out all the pit supplies in the ammo cans and swept, hauled, sorted, etc.  Thanks to everyone who worked for their good works!  You can't pay for this kind of stuff, ever.  Dave took us out to eat at the Jalapeno Tree afterwards.

Youngster out of the local Texas Rat Snake population.  They used to live in the berm timbers and we would see them in the spring and summer.  Harmless, unless you are a rat or a bird.  Mark McFadin in possession for a minute.  We let her go.

The Lecrens.

Fresh 200 yard target faces with unskilled labor.

Alan Long locks them up.  Nine new frames.  I've been doing this 13 years and haven't ever seen a new frame built.  This year we built nine.  Let's hope they last as long as the ones they replaced.

Hopi Masks sold under protest in France...

The Hopi say these are stolen and sacred.  Sounds right to me.

AUX!!! Pickpockets!!!

I'm not surprised.  Louve staff goes on strike.  Inside the crowds around the famous art pieces are so close that it would be easy.  They are mostly after phones but happy to get anything, I expect.  We had a couple take a run at us, two young men with clipboards outside the Louve.  They got you rolling on the clipboard- with pen in hand, and then eased around beside you.  I could see mine shaping his hand for a dive into my open jacket zippered pocket.  As soon as he got set I would move a half step away and he would have to start the whole sequence over.  After three tries Dr. Yorke had enough and offered to beat his ass.  They left.  Fun to watch the process.  I'd hunt them if I was a local with a little suppressed .22 inside a briefcase.  That would be sporting.

Pickpockets in the Louve.

Chinese.

Mona crowd.

Imagine working this bunch.

Inside the I.M.Pei pyramid.

Gun store ambling.

Went out today to a going establishment: The Noonday Gun Trader.  They do a hell of a business.  Three folks working and all busy.  Many firearms in the counters and on the walls.  I like old beat-up guns so there wasn't much for me to look at.  They had a lot of plastic guns and a lot of taurus and stainless revolvers.  One old nickeled Colt Army .38 without much wear.  Mostly I looked and remembered what wonderful guns I had at home.  My friend bought 181.00 worth of .44 ammo, (two box minimum so I had to buy two for him), and was tempted by a SKAR in .308. for about 3K.  Expensive stuff.  I'm sticking with my gunbroker K22 and whatever ammo is in the stash.

  Somewhere I have a 1905 Swedish Carbine that needs a sling and some shooting.  Nearly forgot about that!

  Crazy time to be buying guns or ammo.  The government has gotten all up into our business in just about every way it can.

Point du Hoc at Normandy Beach.

Video.  Very impressive place.  If I ever go back I will take my rubber boots and flashlight.

Karl Schultz Legs out!

  At the Bayou Rifles Regional weekend.  Leg/CMP Match was today.  50 shots, no sighters from 200 offhand to 600 prone.  Lotta wind.  Karl got the 10-point LEG and finished his Distinguished Rifle!  Dan Ramsey legged out as well.  Roger Lankford and John Ilzhoeffer also got 8 points.  Congrats to everyone!

  Big news for me also was that Bailey Fairchild LEGGED out at Camp Swift last October, but we didn't know it.  Paperwork foul-up- two of the folks that we thought got points turned out to have shot too many matches that year, so they got pulled.  That moved Bailey up.

  Congrats all around!