...and he rode a pale horse: Dick Curry collecting scorecards at the TSRA Highpower Rifle Championship.


Alan Wilson gives a live performance of the Star Spangled Banner.








Colton Anderson, TSRA Junior NM Team shooter.


McCabe.


Travis Rogers salutes himself.


Bailey Fairchild.


TSRA Junior Team Member.


Emily Hogg at the AMU Clinic.


Bailey Fairchild at the AMU Clinic.

Videos up

Infantry Trophy was put up and I added the Service Rifle Championship and now the Awards ceremony. Worth seeing on the Blackfork6 Channel. Leg match to come but I am off to shoot the Garand/Vintage/Springfield/Carbine match....plus the delayed Panola Pistol EIC/LEG match at Terrell Rifle and Pistol club.

Awards ceremony is worth seeing just to hear Rick Crawford and Ken Gaby talk about the different competitions we shoot at the National Matches, the National Postal Team Match and the Elihu Root Trophy.

TSRA Mid-Range video up, Day One.

  First day of the Texas State Rifle Association Mid-Range Championship at Camp Swift, Texas.

 Update:  Day Two loading RFN.  Midnight.  I'm going to bed.

TSRA Mid-Range Championship.

  The winners.  John Rhynard shot his Palma rifle: 593X69.  That's shooting, just dropping seven points over two days.

  Overview of the 101 competitors at the 300 yardline.

 F-O class rifle. (F-O stand for F-class , Open)

  Here's something to chill a progressive's blood:  A dad teaching his kid to shoot.  Lot of dad/kid combos on the line.

  Just home from Camp Swift between Elgin and Bastrop.  Lots of video coming up but here's a little photo sample.

  Course of fire was 20 shots with two sighters from 300, 500 and 600 on Saturday and Sunday.  120 rounds for record, all prone single load and fire.  Four catagories:  Service rifle, Match rifle, F-TR (bipod and scope) and F-O (open class).  Plus we had guard and sniper teams shooting with us.  101 folks plus the 30 or so military.

  20-35 MPH winds on Saturday and cold.  Hardly any wind Sunday but it reversed a lot, giving fits at 500 and 600 yards.  Rick Crawford said he had some five minute windage changes- talking off three MOA left and putting on two MOA right.  I believe it.

  Stayed in barracks inside a Homeland Security concentration camp.  Double wire, guard towers, baracks.  All gates open and nothing manned but there it was.  Work makes you free and all.  Evidently, that rumor is true.

  Lousy shooting.  Worse than last year.  Just can't get used to aperture sights, and it shows.  Best string was a 195X6 or so.  Should have taken my AR15 instead of match rifle.  Fun anyway.

Texas State Rifle Association Convention this weekend.

 TSRA at Mesquite the last weekend of this month.  Gunshow also.  Lots of fun at both.

  Ought to be some news about open carry bills in Texas.  If the TSRA isn't on board, it isn't going to happen.  You could come to the membership meeting and bring it up.

  I expect to see those folks there.

  Update:  Blogmeet anyone?

Chasing La Salle's cannons.

  Rear sight or a fuse measure on the breech of the CSS Alabama cannon.  Marked; "5 Seconds.  10 Seconds" down the lower brass rod.

  Cannon from the CSS Alabama.  About eight feet long.

  Dugout canoe coming out of a nearly 10 year conservation soak.

 

  Cannon from the LaBelle being treated with wax.

  Musket stocks from a case of muskets left behind on the wreck of the LaBelle.

  We couldn't hunt so I headed down to College Station to talk to the TAMU Firearms Museum about photographing the next TSRA calendar out of their collection.  The museum curator was very helpful and accommodating.  The Good Doctor and I also talked our way into the TAMU Nautical Conservation lab for a tour.  I've followed the La Belle and the Mardi Gras Wreck while those projects were being worked so it was exciting to see some of the actual artifacts being conserved, but what I was really after was some of the LaSalle cannons dug up at the site of Ft St. Louis a few years back.

  The lab also had a cannon from the CSS Alabama and a Amerind dugout canoe that was just out of the conservation tank.  I didn't get any photos for the calendar but it was a fascinating tour.  La Salle's cannons from were long gone.

  Looks like we are a go for the TSRA shoot at the firearms museum.  

TSRA Service Rifle Championship Trophy.

  The TSRA has a trophy for the Highpower Rifle Championship, the Ike Lee trophy.  It's got the TSRA Bull on it.  Nice.  But there isn't a trophy for the Service Rifle Championship.  The SR director, Dave Wilson decided that needs to change.  Some inspired folks just bought a statue for the top of the trophy today.  The statue is a Marine running with his Garand under Japanese fire on Okinawa.  Wilburn Spiller has been approached about building the base.  The statue will be at Panola this Saturday during the match.

  The donors plan to donate the entire trophy to the TSRA.  Since they are donating it, they get to name the trophy.  They think the Rick Crawford Trophy sounds damn nice.

  If anyone else wants to get in on the trophy deal, they need to get on the train, because it's leaving the station.

Governor's 20

  The top 20 shooters at the TSRA Service Rifle Championship, October, 2008.  Each shooter gets a commemorative pin and a letter from the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry.  

The Kid

  Kid around the block- the 13-year old son of some friends of mine got interested in Highpower rifle shooting last year.  The TSRA loaded him a rifle, (a brand new Rock River National Match AR15), through the junior program, I made the ammo and coached and next Wednesday he is going to be tossed into an SUV full of other Texas Juniors and go to Camp Perry.

  We went out and shot a little sitting and standing at 200 this morning.  He's not very tight standing but his sitting is coming together.  He shot in the 90s including a 97X3.  We'll get two more practices before he goes to the National Matches.

  Oh, the TSRA pays his way, his housing, his food, his match fees and gives them a little allowance to walk around Camp Perry during this ten day trip.

  Is this a great vacation for a kid or what?

Swiss and Springfield

  Today at the Longview Gun Club.  This photo reminds me that I need to go ease the firing pins down on both these good rifles.