Marksmanship

 Lucas is my 11-year-old grandson.  He started CMP competition this year through the 4H club at his school.  They do position shooting with .22 rifles.

Lucas went to his first competition yesterday and performed well for his first time out.  He scored 254 out of 300.  Not bad at all.  He didn't qualify for State, but he put in a good showing, and there is always next year.

We may have a marksman in the family.  For all you guys who think you can shoot, get off the bench, put your butt on the ground, and see where your bullets go.

The Way He Thinks.

 Christmas music in the background.

Grandson:  "PawPaw!  What caliber was it?:

Me, looking confused:  "What caliber?"

Grandson:  "You know, the cartridge in the pear tree."

I like the way that boy thinks.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

Deer Down

 Grandson Brett tagged his first deer today on the family lease, a middling doe, taken with a Ruger American in 7mm-08,

His dad claims that Brett did it right.  Took his time, squeezed the shot, and  dropped the deer in her tracks.  Very good job,

Aviation

 Grandson Elyas is in for a visit.  He and his folks live in Los Alamos, NM, and cane in for a week to see family.  Elyas has expressed an interest in aviation.  My buddy Termite is an aviator, so I asked Termite if he would show Elyas around.

The weather wasn't conducive to flight, but we did get to hang out in the hangar and explore Termite's Cessna 172.

It was time well spent.  Elyas got to ask a bunch of questions, and explore a small airplane.  He wiggled the yoke and waggled the rudder petals, and went over all the instruments on the panel.  It was a morning well spent.

Thanks, Termite!

Grenadier

 Where to begin?  The Army has this thing called theM203 grenade launcher, a direct off-shoot of the older M79 grenade launcher.  The M79 is a stand-alone weapon and the M203 is an accessory for the M16.M4 platform.  They both launch 40mm grenades.

I can train a monkey to use one of these things, and anyone can become competent, but some folks really shine with it, able to put those grenades exactly on target every time.  They have a knack for it, and those are the guys you want on the grenade launcher.

Grandson Quinton is a PFC in the National Guard.  He has drill this weekend, and crashes with us when he's at drill, because his unit is just a couple of miles down the road.  He came in last night and told me that he spent the day on a 203 range, as range support.  After they had trained the unit they were assigned to train, they switched sides and got to qualify with the M203, and burn up excess ammo.  I asked him how he did.

"PawPaw", says he, "I hit everything I aimed it at.  Qualified expert the first time out."

I told him that a good grenadier could put a grenade through a 12" window at 150 yards.

"Yeah", he says.  "I did that easy."

Hun!  Quinton is a grenadier.  How about that?

New Sights on the Shield.

This is an update.  I left this here for a couple of hours this morning, and went about other business, like installing the XS DXT2 sights on my SW M&P Shield.  I needed the video to get my grandson on the right track.

Grandson is a school-trained 91F (Small Arms Repairer).  The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hey, Slick, want to put some sights on a pistol?"

Him: "Yeah, we did that in school."

Me: "Great!  Sit your butt down here and weatch this video so that you can see the process for this pistol."

Ten minutes later we were out in the shop, putting soft jaws on the vise.  Thirty minutes after that, the sights were installed.

Now, I have the same sights on my 1911 and my little Shield.  Serendipitously, after the tools were put away, we were able to enoy a noon meal of Red beans and rice, fried squash, and cornbread.

Now, I'm in for the afternoon.  We have another proect planned for tomorrow.

Quinton is Home

My grandson, Quinton returned last night from Fort Lee, VA.  He got here about 10:00 pm last night and we chatted a bit before I retired to bed.  Quinton is 18 years old, and chose to become a Small Arms repairer, MOS 91F.  He is currently enlisted in the Louisiana Army National Guard.

After he dropped his bags, we talked for a bit abut what he had worked on and learned.  I asked him which is favorite gun was, and he gave me a two part answer.  He said that his absolute favorite gun, from a maintenance standpoint, is the old M2 machine gun.  I concur.  It's been a favorite or everyone who ever fired it or worked on it.  It's a fairly simple design, robust and easy to understand.  It's been a favorite of GIs since 1933.

He told me that the most interesting gun he worked on was the M777 howitzer.

And, when asked the opposite, which he liked the least, he told me without hesitation, he detested the M9 pistol.  He claims that it's a complicated bit of kit, with lots of springs and maintenance problems.  He did tell me that he's a fan o the M17/M18 pistol recently adopted.  From a maintainers perspective it's simple and intuitive.  He says that he likes that pistol a lot and is thankful that the M9 is on it's way out.

I didn't think to ask him if he was trained on the 1911.  He's out a Camp Beauregard right now, turning in paperwork and meeting his new bosses.  He will hang his hat here until college starts later in August, or whenever they decide to open the dorms.

Graduation

Belle and I graduated another one tonight.

Honor Grad, 3.59 GPA, with two academic scholarships.He'll be attending Louisiana Tech University in the fall.

Indulgence

A couple of weeks ago, grandson Lucas was eating lunch with us, the standard Sunday dinner.  I had made an apple pie for dessert.  Nothing to it, easy-peasy.

After Lucas had hammered his piece of pie, he asked me if I knew anything about chocolate pie.  I allowed as how I did not, but I'd think on it.  Over the past days I've been cogitating about an easy, no-bake chocolate pie, and I think I mght have it.  Someone else may have already discovered this recipe, but great minds think alike.

PawPaw's Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:
1 can 14 oz, sweetened condensed milk
1 box instant chocolate pudding
1 tub, 8 oz whipped topping (think Cool-Whip)
1 pre-made graham cracker pie shell.  I chose chocolate.

Prep.
Mix the pudding and the condensed milk in a large bowl.
Add whipped topping and mix thoroughly
Put mixture in pie shell.
Put it in the freezer till tomorrow.
Makes one pie.

If that doesn't suit him, he can come up with his own recipe.  It's not like I indulge him or anything.

First Ride

We all remember our first ride.  Mine was a 1960 Ford Falcon that I got about 1969.  Today, grandson Zch got his first ride.  My mother had been driving a Toyota sedan for about 15 years and decided to upgrade to a newer model.  She passed down the car to me, for grandson Zach.

Zach lives with us, for lots of reasons, and he's a senior in high school.  He doesn't ask for much, and we do what we can for him.  He doesn't have a driver's license yet, but is in driver's ed  He'll get his license next month after he completes the course.

The car in question is a 2004 Toyota Camry.  It's fairly bare-bones, but was top-of-the-line in 2004.  It has A/C, the heater works, it has a radio and a cassette tape deck.  I wish that it had a standard 4-speed, but the transmission is automatic.  He seems to like it.

It's fairly low-mileage for a 16 yea old car, and I believe that it has another 100K on the drive train if he takes care of it.  I know that it has been cared for.

Sometime around the 1st of the month, my insurance is going up.

Good Question, Slick!

So, grandson Lucas and I were heading to a burger shop for lunch today, when he turned to me with a deep philosophical question.  "PawPaw!  How come when a woman goes to a beauty shop and spends $250.00, and you can't tell they did anything, but when we go to a barber shop and spend $10.00, everyone knows we got a hair cut.?"

My first thought was to ask him where he's getting a hair cut for $10.00, but I deferred.  "I don't know, son, why don't you ask your grandma?"

The questions kids ask.

Zero-ing the AR

I bought an AR-15 several months ago and realized that although we had mounted a sight and had been tinkering with it for several months, we have't zeroed it.

I needed to rectify that problem, and my grandson, who is going to Army Basic training next month, needed the experience.  So, we grabbed some mags and ammo and headed to the range this morning.

Grandson has chosen the MOS of 91F (Small Arm Repairman) to begin his military career, and I'm sure that some of that training, bot in Basic and in AIT will revolve around the M4 Series weapons.  I've been teaching him standard disassembly and basic maintenance, and it was time to see if he could shoot the darned thing.  I had downloaded and printed this target so that we could start at 25 yards and have a close 100 yard zero.

Afte three shots, an adjustment, and three more shots, we went down ange to change targets.  He took his time, gave me three good shots and after the range went cold, we went down to find this target.

Not bad for someone new to the AR platform.  We brought in the target butt, and I told him to pick out a dirt clod on the 100 yard berm and see if he could bust it.  He did, then started picking out oher dirt clofs on the berm to get a feel for running the AR.  Unfortunately, this range doesn't allow for position work, but hopefully we'll find time before he leaves to get out to another range and work on positions.

It was a great morning for PawPaw and grandson.  He finished high school yesterday and he's ready to launch.  He plans to do Basic and AIT, then come back here for college.  He's in the National Guard, which will help pay for his education. 

As for me and Belle, we're going to hate to see him go.

Burgers

Grandson Quinton comes in from school ad finds me in the shop..  He's hungry.  Wants a burger, so we fire up the stove.  I'm not firing up the griddle for one burger.  What does he want on the burger?  From bottom up:  toasted bun, quarter-pound hamburger patty, hashbrown patty, cheese, fried egg, tomato, lettuce, mayo, mustard, and salsa.  Topped with the toasted bun.

He ate it with a fork.

Pizza, Something

I have to launch some grandchildren in another year or so, and one of my missions is to teach them the basics of puttering around the kitchen,  Earlier today I had stopped at the grocers and picked up some french bread and a small pack of pepperoni.  When Quinton got home from school this afternoon, he met me in the shop and we made an after-school snack.

Slice that french bread length-ways and slather on some good garlic butter, then run it under the broiler to toast.  After it toasted, drag it out, add some leftover spaghetti sauce, some pepperoni and grated cheese that we always keep on hand.  Back in the broiler until the cheese melts and everything looks toasty.

I

I don't know what you call it, but it's good.  He ate half, and put the rest back for later.  And, we have another loaf of bread if we get peckish later on.

Conversations

Noticed one of the teenage grandsons had scratches all over his arm.  "What the hell happened to you?

"I was petting a stray cat, then I tried to pick it up, and it went off on me."

"You couldn't turn it loose?"

I was trying to turn it loose."

Valuable life lesson.  Sometimes you want to pet something, and find out it's almost impossible to turn that thing loose, as bad as you want to.  This time it was just a stay cat.  Net time it might be something more dangerous, like a psycho-chick.

That's a valuable life-lesson, right there.

Comicpalooza

We're in Houston.  A year ago, we promised grandson Zach that we'd bring him. To something called Comicpalooza.  It's this weekend, so we drove up this morning, and got rooms at the Hilton downtown, across the street from the Convention Center.  Very Convenient.

We let Zach bring a buddy, and they're across the street at the Convention Center.  So far, I've seen Iron Man, and Wonder Woman.  Wonder Woman's lariat didn't glow, so I don't think she was the real deal.  This Hilton is huge, and Belle and I did some wandering about, trying to get our bearings.  I dobt we'll go very far this weekend, I hate driving in Houston.  I'll be using my maps to try and figure out what we can do that is within walking distance.

Adventures in Bouyancy

Several years ago, Belle bought a drink pirogue to use at gatherings.  The idea is to fill it with ice and cold beverages and let the guests help themselves.  That's all well and good, but before long, the grandkids had it in the swimming pool.  It does look like a boat, after all, but it won't support a kid.  That doesn't mean that they stop trying.



Yeah, these two are going to be maritime engineers, for sure.

Watching Grandkids

The name of this place is PawPaw's House, after all, and it's summertime and we're watching grandkids this week.  The older one lives in Baton Rouge and is spending a week with us, the younger one lives down the road, but PawPaw learned a log time ago that it is easier to watch two grandkids than it is to watch one.  They tend to entertain each other.

Of course, there is nothing like a refreshing morning swim, and we happen to have a pool.

We're inside now and dried-off.  The kids are playing with digital devices for an hour or so, then we need to go to the grocer and pick up a few things.

Zach is at band camp, which began today, so we'll need to pick him up later this afternoon.  This week this place is truly PawPaw's house.

Grandsons

I've got my work cut out for me, but so do they.  We're hosting two of the younger grandsons this week, along with two of the older.    So, I have teenagers and young'uns.  It's going to work out just fine.

There is this place in the house that we call The Toy Room, and the young'uns  mentioned that it was hard to move around in there.  Fifteen years of toys and detritus in there.  So, PawPaw figured they are the hands-on experts to sort through the clutter and tell me what we need to discard or retain.  They decided that Lego was too valuable to discard, but six large trash bags later ad they're sill sorting.  That room is getting much lighter.  And, it's their stuff they're sorting.

We decided Tex-Mex was the best option for lunch, so we went down to the local oint, one that Belle and I frequent. 

We're cleaning out the toy room and the kids are making the choices on what to keep or what to retain.  This is great stuff.  I may be able to walk across that room in another hour.

Grndkids

We served Sunday lunch, as we do every Sunday.  Youngest grandkid Lucas had wit him an AirSoft pistol that he wanted to shoot, and after lunch, we lost track of him.  We found him and some of his cousins in the barn, shooting his AirSort at the was bullet range.



It looks like they've figured out how to turn the range on and set the sensitivity to accomodate their needs.  Cool!  Who knew that AirSoft would trip the sensor on a wax bullet target?

Next, they'll be shooting Nerf guns at the targets.