Who Cares?

 It may be the oldest argument in the hunting world.  The subject of countless campfire discussions. The old .270 vs .30-06 argument.  Folks have been arguing this since 1925, which reminds me.  This cartridge is 100 years old.

The basic truth is that I have autopsied lots of whitetail deer. They can't tell the difference.

There are small differences in the performance of each cartridge, but both are absolutely up to the task. If you deliver a well-constructed bullet into the vitals of any medium game, the fun is over and the work begins.

So, Happy Birthday to the .270 Winchester.  It's been 100 years and still going strong. It's one of the greatest cartridges ever developed. Is it any better than its parent .30-06?  The deer, or for that matter the elk, certainly can't tell the difference.

We're Back

We are back.  Just rolled in a hour ago.  Spent a week visiting with our CFDA family and our Missouri family.  We had a ball, hugged a lot of necks.

This week, Kent Rollins is talking about two old recipes, Mac and cheese and SOS.  I've got to try that Mac and Cheese recipe. I  didn't know that it was invented prior to the Civil War.

Shooting with Billy

 Today, the Randolph County Rangers, a CFDA club, hosted a 10-year anniversary shoot.  Their head honcho, Diamondback Billy, is much beloved in the sport and hosted a good time at his club house.

We spent time with shooters from Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, refreshing old friendships and catching up on the latest rumors.

I did get to watch Jackass Jiles, one of the fastest shooters in our sport, hit a 0.915 (which is excruciatingly slow).  Oh, we laughed.  On his next shot, he redeemed himself, hitting a 0.295 (which is exceedingly fast).  In our game, we start with the revolver holstered.  When the light comes on, we draw, cock that single-action revolver, and fire.  If the bullet strikes the target, you get a time. To manipulate a single-action revolver to unholster and strike a target in under 1/3 of a second is phenomenal.

In the ladies division, Belle took a minor trophy and got a cash award. Once again, my lady has proven that she is a Professional Gunfighter.  She had been paid cash for her skills.  I, on the other hand, finished comfortably in the middle of the pack.

Tomorrow after breakfast, we head north to Missouri to visit with family for a few days before we head home.

Pocahontas, AR

 We are in Pocahantas, Arkansas for an invitational shoot tomorrow We were invited. I did not realize how much crop agriculture there is in northwest Arkansas.  

It's after harvest time and the farmers are burning off the stubble.

That's a smoke funnel, rising from a field several miles from the highway.

We are in the hotel, ensconced for the evening.  We start shooting tomorrow at 9:30

Leftovers

 Yesterday, Belle was hungry for chicken, so I found some boneless chicken breasts, pounded them flat, cut them into strips, the rolled then in seasoned flour, an egg wash and panko crumbs. Fried then golden brown with mashed potatoes and cream gravy.

Only problem, I cooked way too much. This morning, I was hungry for a jambalaya for lunch, so I took those leftover chicken strips, cut them into morsels, then added sausage and made my basic chicken and sausage jambalaya.  Except I didn't have any Rotel tomatoes.

Oh, damn.  That fried chicken jambalaya was the best I've made in a while.

I don't know what we're having for lunch tomorrow.  Like Scarlett O'Hara, we will worry about that tomorrow.

No Way

 I've been peripherally watching the YouTube riflemen talk about the latest and greatest rifle cartridges. 

The topic that seems to be bantered around is heavy bullets in common bore sizes. When we increase the weight of a given bullet, it gets longer in the bore.  That requires a faster twist to stabilize the bullet. Of course, with a long skinny bullet we get better ballistic coefficient.  That translates into greater energy downrange.

I ran into this problem when I was working up loads for the .243 Winchester.  The standard 1:10 barrel would stabilize bullets up to 100 grains, but when I started playing with those lovely long, skinny 107s, I started having stabilization problems.  No problem, just back down to the 100 grain bullets and place your shot.

 Other folks have talked about the demise of the .270 Winchester. Like this clip from Ron Spomer. It seems that the Western hunters wanted a faster twist in the .270.  And, it appears that Browning is offering a 1:7.5 twist.  That's fine, that's all well and good.  The .270 Winchester is far from dead. There is no telling how many thousands of them are in closets, safes and gun racks across the country. The .270 Winchester ain't going anywhere.

Wild and Wooly

 Haven't been posting much.  Things are wild and wooly in a good way. A family event over the weekend, and this week spending time with a grandson who is in town for a week 

We're leaving on Friday for a week out of town, and when the day gets done, I realize that I haven't posted.  We're good, we're real good..  

Right now I'm trying to figure out the safety interlock on a Cimarron single action revolver.  The old Colt SAA had a well-known feature of allowing the firing pin to rest on a live primer. That is why the old-timers generally carried five in the cylinder and let the firing pin rest on the empty chamber. Nowadays the manufacturer of Colt clones are tying to idiot-proof the gun and are putting an interlock that only lets the firing pin protrude when the trigger is firmly to the rear.

I have one that is causing me grief, and a new shooter came by with the same gun and the same problem.

I have to figure this out.

Optimum Sucks

 Optimum is my TV and internet provider. They suck.

Internet went out about 7:00 pm last night.  I was watching an old movie online.

It is currently 0840 local and the internet is still out.  I'm connected on a mobile hotspot.

I called it in, and the answering machine told me that there is an outage in my area. I already knew that. No word on when it might be fixed, no indication of any sense of urgency. This is becoming a regular thing.  For no apparent reason, the internet connection goes tits-up.

Optimum sucks.