A Virgin Video!

  My God, it's a miracle!  The TSRA Garand Championship Video is up and it's never been viewed.  On the Blackfork6 Channel.

 

 Update:  As shooter and TSRA NM team member Karl Schultz would, (and does) say "Favor LEFT Got-dawg it!"

TSRA Calendar....2009

 Keeping an eye out for 2009 calendar photos.  Here's Nez Rongero and the Flag during the Garand Championship.  Nikon Coolpix 8700.  Polarizer.  Big Tiff file.  I thought Nez had the Championship won with a 287 until Mark Woodard shot a 289.

  I waited and waited on this photo hoping the guy behind the flag would move.  Nez has one round left in his belt pack.  I was afraid he would complete the string and be gone so I went ahead.

  My Garand was shooting better with a new Criterion barrel from the CMP North store, but still not shooting as well as I hoped.  Didn't come close to cleaning the 200 yard prone slow fire target, and that's the basic test.  97, I think.

  We shot the HXP 69 30-06 bought at the CMP North store.  I didn't hear anyone bragging about it but I didn't hear any complaints or see any tracers.

Update:  I hope I made a big enough point about the wonderful-ness of taking your old rifles out into the sunlight and shooting them for score.  My 1943 Springfield 03-A3 has been at this match last year, Camp Perry twice, killed a deer and now is back here at Temple, Tx.  It's still sweating cosmoline.  Pleasure to be around these old guns.

Update II:  Nice series of a guy shooting a Krag in the prone rapid.

Doc Range

  What else could someone named RANGE do for fun but shoot.  He's 87 I think.  He brought the kids, most of whom are in their 60s.  His grandson was along.  He's in his 40s.  

  His cane hangs in a notch cut in the side of his shooting table.  

  Doc Range, ( a veternarian from West, Texas),  has shot competitively for....fifty years or more.  We had a couple of old guys, including one with a Camp Perry, 1972 patch on his jacket.  1972 was 36 years ago.  I think Doc Range mentioned something about a match in 1952.

  Update:  Dr. Loyd Sneed from the TAMU affiliated Diagnostic Testing Lab came down to shoot his 270 bolt gun off a bench at 200 yards and got to meet Dr Range who knew everyone Loyd ever heard of in the Vet business.

TSRA Garand, Carbine, Springfield and Vintage Championship.

  If you have never shot an M1 Carbine, which is likely- I mean, they made six million or so of them but lots of them were lost, destroyed, left in jungles, ditches, tossed in lakes, dropped in seas, et, et..6 million carbines down to a couple million today, say maybe a top of four...in a world of 3.5 billion...what are the odds?  Not good.  That you have shot one.  But I did.  Yesterday.  For score.  It's fun.  Like a date with an ugly woman fun.

  It's a little rifle.  Made as a pistol replacement it was so light, semiauto and hi-cap, (15 shot mag was 1942-state-of-the-art), that Airborne troops snapped it up.  Lotta rounds out quickly.

  Whatever.  Anyway, I have a couple.  CMP guns that were re-arsenaled in 1953 and stored since then.  New, nearly.  Early features, especially the barrel bands and great wood.

  But they don't shoot well.  Sure I killed a deer with one and they shoot OK...but not match quality.  The late barrel band with the bayonet lug secures the barrel much better. 

  So I struggled with a Standard Products through the 4o round match.  100 yards.  Five sighting shots, 10 slow fire prone, 10 rapid fire prone, 10 sitting rapid fire and 10 standing.  I shot two 90s and two 85s.  Dropped 50 points.  I would break a shot and sometimes it would be on one side and sometimes on the other.  Was shooting Remington UMC ammo from WalMart.  It grouped better than the Lake City I had.  That's not saying much.

  350 out of 400.  About fourth place.  Don Tryce won with a 462.  He jokes about having a National Match Carbine.  He's won it before at least once.

  Speaking of National Match Rifles, Gaby and Crawford tore my 1903A3 apart Friday night and fixed the old creepy trigger.  Crawford stoned the tool marks off the surface of the bolt cocking lug, (you could feel every one as the old trigger creeped along through the second stage) and Gaby ground a little height off the engagement sear.  Now it's one of the best triggers I have.  Never underestimate having access to Gun Gurus.  The Springfield needs only a new C Stock to be complete.  With the new wide front post and slick trigger it's quite a different rifle.

  Mark Woodard won the Garand Championship with a real score. 289 (out of 300).  Don Tryce won the Springfield Championship. (beat me by a point)  I won the Vintage Rifle for the third year in a row with my K31 and some Swiss GP11 ammo.  46 folks shot at the Temple Gun Club and most folks shot more than one rifle.  David Guthrie shot a Swede in the Vintage match.  (I beat him by a point)  Couple of Krags on the line.  P-17 Enfields were common.   TSRA Directors Ken Gaby and Rick Crawford ran an efficient match on the 200 yard line at the Temple range.  Video up soon.  Photo is Bill Aten shooting his P17.

Update:  I actually went down the line and shot this photo of Bill for next years TSRA calendar, which is supposed to feature more people and less still lifes.  Used a big file.  Handsome devil, his wife says.  I wouldn't argue that point with armed people.

TSRA Garand Championship

 Garand, M1 Carbine, Springfield 1903 and Vintage Military Match this weekend at Temple.

  Just back from the range and zeroing my Garand, (new barrel) Springfield, (new front post),  M1 Carbine, (new ammo).  Not shooting very well.  I can't tell if it's me or the rifles.  I didn't bother to shoot my K31 Swiss.  It's squared away.

  No new re-stocking the Garand, though it was very close.  I want to switch the 1903A3 to a stock with a pistol grip.  The CMP says they are going to start selling them.  Boyds sells them now.

  We'll see how it all turns out.  The chance to shoot your old iron is a wonderful thing!

  TSRA Calendar arrived in the mail.  Looks OK.

Deer Counting

  Our first deer count without moonlight.  Much darker in the woods and fields though the Milky Way looked about the same.  Sky was constantly full of high-flying airplanes tracking over.  You could see the lights winking among the stars.

  More deer.  50+  No big bucks, just a few year and a halfs.  Fawns.

  I took my view camera up to shoot a scene or two of the busted security light next to the roadway.  I tried several different exposing schemes, including double exposures, one for the background and one for the light.  There's a photograph every 200 yards around the ranch.

  In the big field along the creek we saw over 20 deer with the spotlight.  The Bronco has a high bird shooting bench on the back.  That's where I spotlight from while Alan drives and keeps the count.  At the Leaning Tower stand there weren't any Barn Owls, but there were about 12 pigs digging up the newly disced foot plot.  Alan and I have plenty of guns but usually all we have along is whatever he is wearing on his belt.  Tuesday night we had a Nylon 66 with shot shells and, for some reason, some .22 shorts and CB caps.  Alan hand-loaded a .22 short and I shot the nearest pig behind the shoulder.  25 yards out in the spotlight.  He gave a little grunt and trotted off toward the main herd.  We could see the shoulder bleeding in the spotlight and he had a little gimp in his gait.  With an AR or even a tube of .22LR for the Nylon 66 I could have shot half the herd. 

Making a photo

  My photo class at Tyler Junior College is still lurching about in the fog.  I blame the teacher but it reminds me of how hard it is to actually SEE what's in front of your face.  Especially so if you are going to drive it through a camera.  

  Very hard to be simple.

  I had them shoot a portrait of someone else in the class during class. We went outside in a nice pice of light and I posed some folks.  Then we went in the studio and I lit more people so everyone could shoot.  They are still struggling to make their cameras work.  Total disaster.  Of course, the only person not to pay tuition...me... I'm learning a LOT.

  Nothing as easy as it looks.

  I spent the whole work day before class shooting stills to go with a video series that the college is doing.  We were working in Ornealas dorm, a huge new luxury dorm just opened this semester.  They've already had to close the lobbies to activity because the kids were going wild.  The director running the dorm quit and went back to her old job.  Real chaos.  Signs up on every post in the lobby announcing its closure.  Trash.  Noise.  I'm sure it was a riot.

  It gave me a quiet nice place to shoot with lots of varied backgrounds and lighting situations, though it was full of strange colors of light.  And I had 18 subjects, most of them young and photogenic, though there was a drama along with nearly every one.

  The most drama free group I ever photographed was some MHMR folks at a sheltered workshop.  They looked like hell on the outside but had absolutely positive attitudes about their appearance.  To a man they thought they looked GOOD.

  One of yesterdays portraits above.  Window light and a foam-core reflector carelessly clamped to a stand.

Garand Goodness.

  I wonder if he'll make it?  I don't think the chances are very good, though you never know.  I gave plainly illegal advice.  Wonder if he took it or kept wandering around like the idiot he plainly was and ended up shackled in the depths of Smith County Jail while people patted each other on the backs about a good arrest?  Probably never know.

  The Redhead and I met Alan halfway on a highway that is the quickest route to a wet county.  I was collecting my rebarreled Garand.  There's a gift from your higher power.  New barrel, installed, then test-fired and set on Mechanical Zero by a gun guru.  You can't pay for something like that, you just thank God for the blessings.

  We were just a few miles from the county line when I noticed a pickup drifting across the double stripe.  Clear day.  2:30pm.  Very little traffic.  I hardly needed to swerve and I checked him in the rear-view mirror.  He never corrected, drifting all the way across the highway and disapearing over the shoulder with a little puff of dust.

  "Want to see a dead person?" I asked the Redhead as I braked and turned the 4-Runner around.  She didn't, but we needed to go look anyway.

  The shoulder dropped steeply, too steeply to be seen from the highway above.  The pickup was wedged in the bottom of a shaded creekbed among some hardwoods.   The truck was smoking and honking faintly.  He was already out staggering around and (surprise) talking on his cell phone.  A big healthy looking drunk youngster.  20 maybe.  

  I looked him over for blood and bones sticking out and had him turn around.  He seemed to be fine just drunk and in shock.  Young guy with a polo shirt, jeans and good teeth.  You probably couldn't hurt him with a baseball bat and three tries.  Idiot.  Airbags saved him from anything but a soft beating.  Sore tomorrow.  Plus his truck, or somebody's, was fubared.

  I folded the plastic cover of the steering wheel back to cut off the horn.  The airbags were all smoldering and smoking up the interior.  Half a case of cold Budweisers were loose on the floorboards.  I guess he missed the TV ads they put out about drinking responsibly.  Might have been coming back from a long night in the TOTALLY NUDE! GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! joints on the highway.

  He was calling his dad on the phone.  I looked up at the highway and noticed how concealed the crash site was.

  "You aren't going to pass a blood test," I advised him, "So if you call 911 you are going to be arrested, jailed for a few days and it's going to cost 20.000.00 and plus all the court and parole time.  You need to clean the beer out of the truck and get someone to come get you.  You don't look hurt to me.  I'm leaving now.  Good luck."

  When I looked back from the shoulder above he was tossing beer down the creek about 30 yards from the crash.  Not far enough for even the most inexperienced LEO to miss.

  Probably, he's going to lose his citizenship, end the afternoon handcuffed in a jail cell that smells like sweat, piss and vomit while a weekend judge sets his bail at 50,000.00 and a few of his fellow incarceratos pick him over.  It's a slam dunk with the no-refusal blood draws they are doing, so he would be done.  No voting, no guns.  Lifetime police suspicion from now on anytime he crosses their path.  It can be argued that he deserves all that, and more.

  It might be true, but it wasn't going to be true with my assistance.

  He could have killed someone.  He could have killed himself.  He might already have killed someone.  He might in the future.  Drunks deserve death or anything that happens to them.  All true.  And unknown.

  Wonder how it went?  Every day could have a complete novel written about it.

  We got home safely.  Had a glass of wine with dinner and silently toasted the mingled destinies of men.

Update:  Folks disagree, some with good grace and some so threatened that they seem a little snarky.  That's the way it goes on the internet.  Check the comments.

  Using my normal powers I found out who the kid was and called his cell phone to see if I could get more story.  No return call yet but I'll keep working it.

Shotgun Idiocy

  Now comes Joe Biden to pray for relief from the court of union opinion...and tell us why our guns are safe, safe, safe.....from Obama.  Oh....you say the SHOT guns are safe.  From Obama and the gun-phobic Democrats.  For sporting clays.  That's right.  A political party of LAWYERS.  Better check the fine print.

  Because the Second Amendment is about open, empty shotguns and Sporting Clays don't you know?  Not those death-dealing handguns or those plainly useless for civilian assault rifles and um....any other weapons.

  Hhhaaaaaaaaaccck.  Ptioooeeeeeeeeee!

 The NRA encourages this with all their "PC" official photos of folks with shotguns broken over their shoulders.  Even Heston used to fall for this one.  Cold dead hands indeed.

  Makes Sarah Palin seem like the only real man in the whole race....and she's not a man.

  Shotguns?  SHOTguns?  Bring me my 1911 and my AR15, you.....idiots!

Daily Deercam: The First Buck of 2008

  And it's not a very good buck- a year and a half youngster with a deformed horn.  Across the creek.  Haven't moved the cam.  

  You can see the horn folded down along his cheekbone.

  I've had a couple of deer with this same spike down in front of their left ear.  One ought to be a huge buck by now if he is alive.  Didn't see him at all last year though he was on camera late into the spring of 2007   This could be damage during the velvet phase but it looks awfully familiar.  Usually fabulous genetics in this watershed.

  Doe and her two fawns on my side of Butler Creek.  For the first time, though the weather is very good and range conditions look perfect, they look thin.

  Huge acorn crop coming in a month.  Ike knocked off loaded twigfuls. 

  Big shepherd dog on cam.  Shoot on sight.

Giant Squid Brains.

  Giant Squids have donut shaped brains.  The esophagus passes right through the middle of it.

  Go figure.

  Wonder if they think donut thoughts?

Home Defense Guns.

  One is a 95.00 disasterously sporterized T44 Jap that feeds but bulges cases.  I've got it for gun buybacks at the 250.00 level.  The middle is a precious Vietnam bring-back SKS that shoots left.  It's one of the few rifles in my case that I haven't shot a doe with.   The third is a Smith Enterprized AR Carbine that probably cost 1500.00.  Two-stage trigger and floated barrel.  

  If I had to shoot a burglar I'd use the cheap throw-away gun.

Update:  Anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't shoot anybody over anything, burglar or not.