Do The Unexpected

 I didn't realize that Jim Wilson was still writing.

Do The Unexpected  Make the bad guy play by your rules.

Good advice.  Don't let the bad guy make the rules.

Totes and Cat5

 We borrowed a members horse trailer to move the ranges to the shooting venue. M portable ranges are built out of 3/4 steel tubing that assembles very quickly.  From a bare floor, I can have a 6-target competition range assembled in about an hour.  The targets are wired for scoring, and the footprint of my range is 40' X 24.  I normally carry a dozen CAT5 cables, 75' long for each range. It is amazing how much stuff is needed to move a range from one spot to another.  Steel tubing, backdrop material, tables chairs, timers, targets, extension cords, ladders, tape, paper, computers, printers.  I can fill a 16' horse trailer and we did.

Three days of shooting, then break it all down and stuff it back in the trailer. No matter how carefully I plan, when it is time to leave, at some point we are simply throwing stuff into boxes and loading on the trailer.  That's where we were Sunday afternoon.  Monday and Tuesday turned into a weather disaster, and the past two days were spent unloading the trailer, sorting boxes and putting stuff away.

The club member cane by yesterday afternoon and got his horse trailer.  It's out of the shop now, and I an start putting together my home range. I spent a goodly portion of yesterday in inventory, straightening out tangled CAT5 cable.  Interestingly, I only lost one and it was shot in half.  I could put a connector on each end, and have two short cables, but Amazon sells it cheap, and my time is worth something, so that is a decision I'll make soon.

Putting on a major match is a huge hassle, and generally I vow to never do it again.  But, a week later, I'm already thinking about next year. There is a small subset of people in the organization who put on these matches.  I talked with a few of then this week, from Texas, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky. the main topic of conversation is how longer we will be able to continue to host major events.  The actuarial tables are not kid to any of us.

We'll see what happens next year.

Aftermath

 Pineville, LA took a hit yesterday.  A massive line of thunderstorms passed through yesterday about 11:00 m.  Power went out almost immediately.  No power, no internet.  About 3:00 pm, the cell towers started dropping off line.  

With the power off, the red lights don't work. Accidents occur, and no one can call 911.  With the routine darkness that occurs daily, that becomes a problem.  A dark state highway out of town, a single red light at an intersection, and disaster happens.  

The power crews, God bless them, worked diligently solving problems and the lights came on at my house about 10:30 last night. The internet was a bit slower, coming on about 10:30 this morning.  We are up and running, and now we start the cleanup. I hear that two tornados touched down and some folks lost their homes.

As for Belle and PawPaw, she is cooking lunch and I'm about to put the generator away.  This was good practice for hurricane season, which starts June 1. I need to buy some more gas cans, and I think I'm going with jerry cans.

Weather

 Bad thunderstorms this morning, and the power is out  I'm running on generator power in the shop.

A good friend reports that we had a tornado pass to the south of us, within a half-mile.  Power lines down, it's a damned mess.  Trees across the road, and another neighbor reports that he saw shingles in the air.  Someone lost a roof.

Belle went to town to get a bucket of chicken. This is good practice for when hurricane season cranks up in a couple of weeks. For the time being, we are safe.

Indy 500 parade lap Blackhawk helicopters! 2025

Did y'all see this?  Two Army Blackhawk helicopters did the parade lap at Indy this weekend.

That's cool, right there.  I don't care who you are, that's cool.

Memorial Day

 We loaded the trailer with two ranges o Wednesday, and short for four days, then yesterday, we loaded the trailer with two rages ad brought it back to the shop.  Lots of good shooting, lots of good camaraderie, and now it's time to sort out the detritus and put everything away.

The shoot was amazingly glitch-free.  Part of that stems from the fact that I am a firm believer in spares, spare lights, spare sensors, spare Cat 5 cable.  We used a few spares, but the glitches only shut us down for minutes. I give that credit to my crew, who is both knowledgeable and nimble. I have a truly magnificent crew and I couldn't do it without them.  They are truly an amazing bunch, each offering their labor ad expertise freely, from scorekeeping, to computer tech, to organization skills, to simple brute labor.  I give then all the credit.

This morning, I did some bookkeeping and counted the coin.  After lunch, I'm going to kick back, relax, and remember absent friends.  That is what today is all about, and I'm going to lift a glas to those who can't be with us today.  I am blessed because of their sacrifice.

It Begins

 Later today I am meeting my crew and beginning the prep work to turn a venue into a shooting range. We will proep the venue today, install the range tomorrow, and begin shooting on Friday.  As the old folks  used to say, I'll be "bowed up like a cutworm" until Sunday afternoon late.

Blogging will be sparse until this is over.

AI

 Listening to someone recently, may be Joe Rogan, saying that in five years we won't be able to tell the difference between reality and AI generated media.  He's probably correct.  Especially us old farts who may not be as tech-savvy as the youngsters, and whose eyes are getting dimmer.  I get it.

But then again, the past several years have been good practice.  Listening to the likes of Jake Tapper and Morning Joe, you would have never believed that there was anything wrong with Joe Biden.  Now, with the tell-all books coming out, we're supposed to believe that they were witless idiots rather than competent journalists.  We were supposed to believe then, rather than our lying eyes. And we are supposed to believe then now, too.  They can't have it both ways.

On the other hand, why limit them?  They can be both witless idiots and liars at the same time.  Both then and now. It cuts the Gordian knot of their narrative in a truly simple way.

Oh, and about Joe's cancer diagnosis.  I talked to a bunch of friends yesterday.  Friends my age.  A PSA test is simple, routine, and almost universal in men of a certain age.  I get one twice a year.  Anyone who believes that Joe just found out that he has cancer is much more gullible than I am. They have known this for a while.  The timing of this news tells you everything.

Biden Has Cancer?

 Many sources are reporting that Joe Biden just got a devastating cancer diagnosis.

As much as I detest the man and his politics, I can find no joy in this news. No one deserves this.

That is all.

Geese

About two weeks ago, there were eight goslings in this hatching.  Now, I only count five.

 Nature at work.

Slime ball

James Comey, the inveterate slime-ball who came to prominence and national attention after laying out a case against Hillary Clinton, and then saying she should not be prosecuted, is back in the news after posting on Instagram what some say was a call to assassinate President Trump.

Comey was the head of the FBI and was fined by Trump in 2017.  In this latest incident, he posted what appeared to be some seashells arranged in a manner to spell out 8647.  In gang-land parlance, 86 is code to "remove" someone, and 47 is President Trumps president number.

Comey denies everything, and has since deleted the Insty post. 

You can view a clip here.

That Target

 Second son came into the shop with the target Lucas used to test the rimfire ammo, and it brought hack a memory form my early career.

That target is marked: US Army Official 50 Foot Smallbore Rifle.

During the early 80s I was standing in a unit arms room and saw a box of targets.  I asked the armorer if I could have a few and he handed me a whole box. There were probably 1000 in that box.  Nice targets, on good card stock, and I was glad to get them. I thought that they had been lost during moves and divorces, but evidently they survived.  

Now a whole new generation i learning to shoot on them, and that is a good thing.

I did a search on the Google and can't find them.  Probably the Army is using a different target these days.  I did find them on eBay, where they are marked as Vintage and wildly over-priced.

Ammo Test

The weather finally moderated and we got to do some ammo testing.  Grandson Lucas shoots on a 4-H rifle team, .22LR, and it is a fine program.  Shooting .22LR ammo takes the handloading equation out of the marksmanship program.  The best scores come with the best anno, tailored through your rifle and your ability to shoot.  Therefore, we test rifle ammunition.

Luke's rifle started life as a Ruger 10/22.  It has been heavily modified, with a Boyd stock, a Kidd barrel, and various other parts to increase accuracy and reliability.  It's a ice setup and his Dad has become quite the Ruger mechanic

The ammo in today's test was some SK rifle match ammo and some Federal Automatch rifle ammo.  I got the Automatch from Wideners.  As in all things, the target tells the tale.  Weather was moderate at 80F with calm winds.  The shooting done from a patio bench at 50 yards. Lucas was wearing eye and ear pro, and all shots were captured on a Lab Radar chronograph.

And there we have it.  The SK Rifle Match shot marginally better on a 10-shot string. but the Automatch wasn't no slouch. The Automatch had an Extreme spread of 44 with a Standard Deviation of 15.5.  The SK RIfle Match had an Es of 27 with a Sd of 9.4.  Both groups hovered around an inch at 50 yards, which will put him inside the 10-ring of the target he uses at competition.

Lucas will have to make up his mind.  As for myself, I have some Federal Automatch ammo and I think I'll sight ny rifle in with it at 25 yards in case a varmint needs some persuasion 

9*1*1

 The 911 telecommunications system, developed in the 1980s is probably the best system for enabling people to contact the police  Dial 911 and you are connected immediately.  The dispatcher can natch you call to the service you need, whether it is police, EMT, or fire.  It's a great service, but it is easily abused.

I've been going ddown the rabbit hole on Frank Sloup's channel and it is a frequent meme.  The citizen doesn't like the cop they are dealing with, and calls 911 to try to get another cop.  Some states have enacted legislation to make it illegal to call 911 in that situation.

At the turn of the century, I retired from state-level policing and went to work for the local sheriff, who was putting School Resource Officers in every school.  I had already had 20+ years of high-level police work and thought that working in a school would be a nice change of pace.  And it was.

In the immediate aftermath of hurricane Katrina, our school district had to absorb a population of displaced students.  IT wasn't their fault, and they needed to be in school, yet there was a friction.  A dynamic.  SOme of these kids were traumatized by the experience, in unfamiliar surroundings, and there was a time of settling in, at least a the high school where I worked.  One morning during a class change, I was called about a disturbance in the math department.

When I arrived, I found two teenaged girls involved in a good, old-fashioned hair-snatching. With the help of a coach, we separated then and took them down to the office.  The principal called the parents.  This wasn't a real big deal, and I didn't intend to get involved in a law-enforcement capacity. I was just going to be the adult in the room.  Keeping the peace.

One Dad showed up, totally outraged. He took one look at me and announced that he wanted the "Real Police, not some School-house Cop".  I was marginally amused while he called 911 and requested police assistance. My call sign was RP920.  Then, I got a call on the radio.

Dispatcher: "920"

Me: "Go ahead"

Dispatcher: "Citizen called, requesting you in the main office of your high school"

Me: "10-4.  I'm on scene, Code 4, but may be going 10-15 shortly. (that is police-talk for "yeah, I know.  Everything is fine now, but I may have to arrest this sonofabitch soon.)

I looked at Dad, who was deflating quickly. "Now, sir, you called 911 and they called me.  How can I help you?"

He calmed down, and no, I didn't have to arrest him.  His daughter was suspended for instigating the fight. After a couple of months, they moved away, presumably back to New Orleans.

Don't abuse the 911 system.

Escalation

Sometimes you make a traffic stop and it just goes sideways. This Florida deputy didn't want to make an arrest, but the driver forced the issue.  What could have been a simple  ticket turned into ta full-blown booking.  Seriously, sometimes it 's just easier to cooperate.

Hummingbirds

Yesterday afternoon, Belle and I were enjoying the back patio when a hummingbird flew into sight and hovered within ten feet.  Looking our direction, probably to remind me that the feeder was empty.

So, I grabbed one of the feeders, went inside, cleaned it, made sugar water, and filled it.  Came back outside and hung it on the Shepherds hook.

I haven't seen that little zoomer since.  I don't know what his problem was, but the feeders are full and he has vacated the airspace.

There is a purple martin house on the other end of the yard, and they must have fledglings in the nest, because the birds are giving the cat hell. The cat is spending a lot of time under patio furniture.

Redemption Tour

 it's Friday and I've been doing things various and sundry.  So, it's Friday afternoon and I have lit the smoking lamp and poured myself a beverage. Watching the news, I see that Joe Biden (may he rest in peace) was on The View yesterday, launching a redemption tour. Trying to make his reputation less miserable than it is right now.  And doing himself no favors.

A buddy asked me about it earlier today and the answer is simple.  He's broke. The Biden family for years has depended on Joe (may he rest in peace) for money.  Huge cash grabs based on access to a US Senator, or a US Vice President, or a President. That is over now.  As soon as he signed the pardons, his cash flow dried up. They made millions of dollars, but Hunter either sucked it up his nose, or blew it oh hookers.  It's gone. Joe (may he rest in peace) draws a pension now.  A princely sum, I'm sure, but for a man used to the luxury of graft, it is a meager stipend.  

The rumor is that someone is going to give him a $3 million book deal, and that would be throwing money away.  No one is going to read that thing. Any publisher that would give Joe (may he rest in peace) any money is hurling cash into the abyss.

There are a couple of books coming out in the next few weeks that will shed some light on the Biden presidency.  Tell-all books about corruption and dementia. I won't buy those books, either.  the journalists telling these tales should have been telling them all along.  Now, they simply seem as vultures, feeding from a moldering corpse. If these journalists (I'm talking to you, Jake Tapper_ these stories would have been told shortly after the Easter Bunny saved Joe from the crowd.

Pope Leo XIV

 It is reported that the Cardinals elected a new pope on the second day of voting.  The new Pope is Robert Prevost, an American, who will assume the name Leo XIV. 

Ain't that something?  An American pope.  Who'd have thunk it?

Conclave

 Today begins the Conclave of Cardinals, a secretive assembly charged with selecting a new Pope.  I was listening to Megan Kelly's show this morning and she was reporting that the Vatican is using high-tech to try and insure secrecy, to include cell phone jamming and anti-drone technology.  They are also going old school, threatening excommunication to anyone who breaches the secrecy of the Conclave.  This is the way the church chooses a Pope, and we are reduced to watching a chimney.  Black smoke or white smoke That is about as old school as it gets and I think it is grand.

I also hear that Trump's Secretary of Education has sent Harvard a letter, telling them to not bother applying for federal grants.  None will be forthcoming. They are free to be a private school and use their endowment money to promote anti-Semitism.  Or something.

M10 Booker Cancelled

 This may be old news, but I learned this morning that the Army has cancelled the M10 Booker program for a variety of reasons. Evidently, the Army wanted a light tank that was air-droppable.  One video here, and a short reel here. The thing that both cite is the fact that the M10 was not air-droppable.

What the wags compare the M10 to is the old M551 Sheridan.  I have some experience with the M551 Sheridan, and it was not air-droppable either. Or, to be more precise, anything is air-droppable once.  We used to say that if you were going to drop a Sheridan out of an airplane, be sure to drop it where you wanted it, because it would never move from that spot.

There may be ten dozen good reasons to cancel a program.  But, if you want an armored vehicle to parachute from an airplane, you are dooming that program to fail.  Light forces are good for a lot of things, but they will never be heavy forces. 

The conflict in Ukraine has taught us a lot, and we have seen the fielding of new technologies. The problem is that the US Arm is always training for the wrong war.  We might suspect that we will know what the next battlefield looks like, but we won't know until we get there.  And, I'm betting that the future commander will want the option of some heavy forces in his tool bag.

Parachute infantry is useful, but it is not the end-all for a battlefield commander.  The parachute is simply a method to get light infantry on the ground. Once you get light infantry on the ground, the commander needs to sustain them, which means he needs either an airfield or a port. We can bring in supplies either by air or water. Air is faster, but water brings more tonnage.

LINDA RONSTADT - 'Don't Know Much' (feat. Aaron Neville) 1989

Belle and I were talking about this song earlier, and I'm going to leave it right here so I can find it later.

8.6 Blackout?

 I never really understood the hype behind the .300 Blackout cartridge.  Basically, a blown-out 5.56 that would cycle through an AR platform and throw heavy bullets in the subsonic realm.

Now, I see that they have come out with the 8.6 Blackout.  Based on the 6.5 Creedmoor case, it throws a .338 bullet in the subsonic realm. From the article:

Another advantage of the 8.6 BLK has nothing to do with the cartridge at all, but everything to do with the barrel. Unlike .300 BLK and 338 ARC ammunition, which are designed to work with a rifling-twist rate of 1:8-inch, the 8.6 BLK uses a rifling-twist rate of 1:3-inch. This is an incredibly fast twist rate, but what’s it for? Well, it helps better stabilize bullets that are about the size of your little finger, but it also significantly enhances terminal performance.

A 1:3 twist? I understand that this isn't a cast bullet cartridge, but I've done work with cast bullets that won't stand a fast twist. 

RPM = MV X 720/Twist Rate

So, let's plug inn some numbers. If that bullet is going 800 fps down that barrel, it will be twisting at 192,000 rpm. If that is what it takes to stabilize a long bullet, then that is what it takes, but I'm wondering what the fouling is going to look like.

I don't get it.  I just don't see the utility.  But then again, I'm an old Fudd.  I have my rifle.  But, I hope they sell those things by the carload.  The more people in the shooting sports, the better.

Cinco De Mayo

 Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, is an American holiday based on a Mexican military victory over the French. As such, it is not much of a holiday, but a reason nonetheless to drink beer and eat Tex-Mex food, which is also not Mexican.

As if anyone needed a reason to drink beer and eat Tex-Mex.  It was a busy weekend, and I'm doing as little as possible today. 

A buddy came by, asking about chicken coops.  His wife has some chickens, and she's not educated in the poultry production game. A quick search, and I came up with this, from Tractor Supply.  Not bad for less than $100.

Sunday Tidbits

We spent yesterday entertaining Belle's side of the family.  Good gathering, but we were tired when it was over.  I woke this morning and over coffee checked my email and found that my ammo from Wideners had arrived late yesterday afternoon. 

A case of Federal AutoMatch .22LR.  3250 rounds, packed in 325 round boxes. I've bought other Federal ammo i bulk boxes, and I've often wondered why Federal decided on a 325 round box?  I don't know, but it seems like a random, arbitrary number.  I guess there is a reason, but I can't cipher it out.

Belle ad I live in a subdivision on a small lake. The lake is home to a resident flock of Canada geese, and it appears that they have hatched a bunch of goslings

The resident flock varies, generally between 6-10 adults. The population swells a bit during the migrations, but the resident population is generally under a dozen birds.  They are not much of a problem, they are fun to watch, and I keep reminding myself that those things are edible. Some say delicious.
.

The Frugal Outdoorsman

 After Junior died, his daughter Claire and I talked.  I wasn't interested in running the site, and she wanted to keep her Dads memory alive, so she decided to pay the fees to keep it online, and it is archived.

The whole thing is right here.

All the articles, the stories, the laughs and the lies are still where Junior left them.

So, if you want to know anything about cast bullets, or doing things on the cheap, just click on the link.

Wideners

  Back at the turn of the century, I was doing a lot of handloading and writing at The Frugal Outdoorsman with the late, great Junior Doughty. One of the companies I got powder from was Wideners. They sold all manner of stuff for the handloading enthusiast and were in my bookmarks when I was looking for supplies.  

Over the years, I changed direction.  Junior died, and the old website went into archive.  But, a month or so ago, I got an email from Wideners asking if I would review some ammo.  Sure, I'd be happy to review some ammo.  As it turns out, I have a grandson who is now on a 4-H rifle team. He is always looking for ammo. High-grade, match, .22 LR ammo.  He currently shoots SK red label, which does the best in his rifle, but he's tried Eley and just about everything that we can get at a big box store.

Grandson shoots what started life as a Ruger 10/22.  His dad has become fairly adept at customizing it, and I believe that the only things on that rifle that came in the Ruger box are the magazine and the receiver.  This rifle is custom, and it is sweet. But, I digress.

So, with Wideners offer, I clicked on the ink and found something called Federal AutoMatch.  It's a 40 grain, target grade ammo packed in a 3250 round box and comes in at under 7 cents a shot.  So, I ordered a box and we'll see how it shoots in grandson's rifle. If it beats what he is using now, it will last him a season of competition. If not, we'll use it for varmints and other things.

If you haven't looked at Wideners in a while, give them a look-see.  There are some pretty good ammo deals there.