Thursday Update

It looks like Gustav is picking up steam. This one might be a bad storm, and it's looking like it'll enter the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, after it ravages Jamaica and parts of Cuba. The storm track is still not nailed down, but folks from Brownsville, TX to the Florida panhandle have been told to make preparations.



For the State of Louisiana, Governor Jindal is in emergency mode, preparing for the worst and lining up state resources. I know personally of a buddy of mine who has been activated in the Guard, and the deputies in our agency have been told to stay by the phone in case we're needed to assist in any way.

This is the big story for Louisiana for the next several days, and whatever Obama and McCain might do or not do is of piddling concern. We've been through hurricanes before and the residents of Louisiana are very good at hunkering down if they're given the heads-up.

Of course, this storm might miss us entirely, but it's going to hammer somebody and the indications are that it's going to be a big one.

To my favorite bloggers on both corners of South Louisiana, the Oyster and Mostly Cajun. Get ready. Be safe. Hunker down.

Acclamation, huh?

I see that the Democrats nominated Barack Obama as the nominee from the Democratic Party, by acclamation.

Hillary made the motion.

Sen. Hillary Clinton motioned to cut the roll call short saying, "With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."

Hmmm. Hillary made the motion, did she? I wonder what to make of that?

Well, hell. The convention is over, right? Obama's been nominated. Everybody can go home.

Look, not that I'm picking on the Democrats. I think the Republicans ought to have a phone-in convention. Let everyone vote on an Instapundit poll. We know that McCain is the nominee. Why delay the inevitable?

Let the games begin.

In Comments

Lots of great comments about the .45-70, and it's probably proper that I respond to some of them.

jpg said, in part:

Just remember - - the army issued the .45-70-500 load for the full infantry rifles, but found the horse soldiers did a lot better shooting the .45-55-405 load through their carbines,. Please - - Give us full details of shooting the 500 grainers in the Handy Rifle.

I'm using Hodgdon 777, a 3.4 cc dipper is enough that I have just a little compression (under 10%) when I seat the bullet. That load works fine in my Sharps. Of course, all rifles are individuals unto themselves, so we'll see. I see in my .45-70 drawer that I've got about fifty Lee 405 grain bullets that I cast about four years ago. I may have to give them a chance. They didn't shoot worth a damn in the Sharps, but this rifle may like them.

George asks:

Seriously, though, isn't there a difference in the quality of the recoil when loading with black powder? I've never loaded cartridges with it, but I hear that black powder gives more of a PUSH than an impact to the shoulder. Any truth to that?

That's been my experience too. My Renegade, which shoots 90 grains of black or Pyrodex with an (approx) 400 grain maxi-ball. The recoil is a shove. In my Sharps, with the above-mentioned load, the recoil is more of a push than a kick. As long as I can sit up straight at the bench and let my upper body rock with the recoil, I'm okay. Still, about 15 shots is all I'm good for with that rifle from a seated position.

But Junior (who knows whatof he speaks) tells us.

My 22" 45-70 Handi weighs 6 lbs 12.4 ozs w/o sling. The recoil is comparable to a 300 Weatherby. Of course, you can take off the butt plate and fill the cavity beneath it with about 2 lbs of lead shot and lessen the recoil. But shooting standing up the recoil is tolerable.

When I quoted the Handi at 7 lbs, I was using the printed data. If you tell me it's not quite that, I believe it. But, we're going to hunt that bottom this year, come hell or high water.

Driving Traffic

Not that I much care, but I'm getting about 200 hits a day here at this blog, according to Sitemeter. The stats for this blog are found at the little icon in the right sidebar, and anyone can look at them.

Over at the other site, the sitemeter there told me that I was getting 1600 hits per day. Maybe so. But I'm convinced now that most of those hits, as opposed to the 200 or so I get here every day, were spam. I was getting a lot of spam comments, sometimes three or four hundred a day. It was a real pain to keep the spam out of the blog.

One thing I've learned, is that if you link to CNN, they'll link back. That drives traffic. This article is about something Dennis Kucinich said today, something about McCain and Bush and ... well, no one gives a shit. No one with any sense gives a shit. But, the simple link will draw traffic. Again, not that I care, but I like playing with CNN. That one link is worth a couple of hundred hits. Maybe some of them will look around and become regular readers. Although, I can't imagine that anyone who cares about Dennis Kucinich would read a blog by a gun-loving grandfather in Louisiana.

I'd rather have the gun lovers reading the blog, but those guys aren't good about linking, and they aren't good about commenting. I get 21 comments from CNN readers about Joe Biden, but I can't get two comments about a .45-70. Sheesh!

H&R 1871

I went to the pawn shop today and asked to look at the H&R Handi-Rifle in .45-70. It's new in the box and I quibbled with the counterman for a few minutes. It's on layaway. He says that he wants to be at the range when I touch it off the first time.

I reminded him that I'm going to be using black powder cartridge loads and that the recoil shouldn't be that bad. However, physics won't be denied, and starting a 500 grain slug at 1300 fps is going to have some recoil. There's some when I start that load from the 10 lb Sharps and this 7 lb Handi should be fairly interesting to shoot.

Now, I have to talk with Mr. Brownell and see if he'll send me a peep sight for it. I'm thinking the Williams WGRS ought to serve me just fine.

MADD

I was doing street-level law enforcement when MADD opened its first chapter in north Louisiana. The Louisiana legislature had recently tightened up the DWI laws and MADD was coming to the courthouse to make sure that the judges applied the new sentencing provisions.

That's been a while back.

Nowadays, MADD is just a temperance movement, one that's been instrumental in the loss of civil rights for the 18-21 year old crowd. They get no links from me. However, a group of college and university presidents came out in favor of lowering the drinking age from 18 to 21, and the MADD mothers started spamming the good educators. Something about email chains and presidents getting hundreds of identical emails.

It's one thing to email a public servant and register outrage. It's something else to send hundreds of identical emails. Spam is spam. Hundreds of identical emails is spam. All spammers should die a horrible death.

Of course, the Madd mothers are directly responsible for the sissification of their college age children. When I was growing up and got college age, a great portion of my generation took their senior trip to Viet Nam. If anyone made the argument that an 18 year old could vote, execute a contract, buy a car, get married, join the Army, go to Viet Nam, but couldn't buy a drink, that person would have been laughed off the block.

Nowadays, it's just considered natural that 18-year-olds are children. The 18 year olds put up with it, so they've been sissified. It's a damn shame. We used to treat the 18-19-20 year old crowd like adults, but now they're just big children.

It's a damn shame.

Sunday night musings

It's going to be an interesting week, but not because I give a damn what happens in Denver. The result is pre-ordained. They could do it by mail.

Next weekend should begin to tell the tale. The presumptive nominee has a lot of explaining to do, and his apparatus is so focused on the agenda this week that they're not in the loop about the weeks after. The Republicans intend to get inside his OODA loop, put him on the defensive, and squash him politically. It ought to be a lot of fun to watch.

Over at No Quarter, they explain the opening salvo of the general campaign. Basically, the Democratic Party didn't vet Barack H. Obama, so the Republican Party will.

The strength of the ad is its accuracy. Unlike the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s ads, there is no available counter-argument. Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist. Obama’s political career was launched at Bill Ayers’ house. Obama did serve on the Woods Fund board with Ayers. The ad hits Obama hardest on his self-proclaimed good judgment. As law professor Steve Diamond states, Obama wasn’t just friends with Ayers, he wasn’t just a guy in the neighborhood, he was Obama’s benefactor for 20 years.

As an aside, I don't know that anyone ever proved that anything the Swift Boat veterans said was a lie. In this age of internet fact-checkers, it's tough to float a lie that survives. It's much easier to hope that no one notices an inconvenient truth.

In military operations, there is a place called the Assembly Area. It's a safe zone where a unit can organize, resupply, plan, rest, and prepare. Nearby is another place called the Line of Departure. That's the place from whence the attack begins. No Quarter carries the metaphor a bit further.

But there is a very strange air about Republican operatives. In the last three weeks, I’ve talked to real insiders in VA, GA, AL and here. They all remind me of a unit waiting to cross the line of departure on an attack. Quiet, determined, last cigarette, last “can of peaches out of the ration,” radio checks, confident. They all use the term “safely nominated” when referring to Obama. That is weird.

They can’t wait to start taking Barack apart on the issues the media chose to ignore up to this point. And when the attacks intensify Joe Biden’s foreign policy expertise won’t matter one whit.

My advise to the Democrats: You still have time to dump this guy and nominate someone respectable. Broker the convention.

Biden??

I wonder what Obama was thinking when he picked Biden as his VP?

Isn't Biden the guy who called him "clean"? What's Obama trying to do, balance the ticket by having a guy who makes unintended racial comments? I don't get it. Maybe, he's trying to reassure white voters whose hearts are in the right place but occasionally make a racial gaffe.

If Obama is trying to fix Washington, shouldn't he have chosen someone who hasn't spent the last couple of decades inside Washington? He's been a Senator since 1973. Lessee, that's presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush. Oh, yeah, Biden is a Washington insider.

Maybe Obama was trying to get someone with foreign policy experience. So why would he pick the guy who wanted to partition Iraq? That plan was so bad that it united the Iraqis in loathing it. It was a horrible idea.

Isn't Biden the guy, along with Senator Murtha, who slandered the Haditha Marines? So much for supporting the troops. I wonder when he is going to apologize to those guys? Better question is who's speech is he going to use?

CNN says that Biden will give Obama "old-school cred". Whatever that means. It looks to me like Biden gives McCain plenty of ammunition to use against Obama.

As far as I'm concerned, they're just two Yankees, Obama and Biden. When's the last time two Yankees were elected on the same ticket?

The .45-70 Govt cartridge

The .45-70 Govt cartridge is one of the legal cartridges in Louisiana this year for the primitive weapons hunting season, as long as it is used in one of the approved rifles.

If I hunt the special season and decide to use a cartridge arm, the .45-70 will get the nod, for two reasons. First and foremost is that I have it. There is a fair amount of .45-70 brass on my bench. The second reason would be that I've done the load development for it. I've got a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't work for the old government warhorse.

Junior has done all the Handi-rifle work and shows here how to get the most out of the Handi-Rifle. I've done load development for the cartridge and know how to load like the old-timers loaded. Click on the links and enjoy.

If you want the flavor of the old cartridge, you should try loading it with black powder or a substitute like Pyrodex. It's very cool to shoot the old warhorse with something approaching the original load. It also gives you an idea of the late 1800s, which was an exciting time in firearm and cartridge development.

Of course, you could just go down to the store and buy a box of whatever flavor cartridge you prefer. That's another option. When you do, save your brass. One of these days you'll want to load some blackpowder. Everyone who shoots the cartridge does eventually.

Youth rifles

So, I've been thinking about youth rifles. Something light, and short, and handy. Something that carries a serious caliber, like .30-30, or .243, but in a package that a kid can handle. With a price tag I can handle.

Looks like the Handi-rifle is the ticket. For about 250 US dollars, I can get just about any caliber that I thing a young'un can handle. Or, I can get one in 45-70 and use it instead of the Renegade to hunt during the primitive season. I'd use my Sharps, but that thing is too heavy and long to carry around in the thickets and trees where I hunt. The Sharps is a plains rifle.

Louisiana expanded its primitive weapons season this year, to include:

Approved single shot breech loading primitive weapons:

· Sharps rifles or replicas
· Remington Rollingblock rifles or replicas
· Ballard rifles
· Maynard rifles or carbines
· Burnside carbines
· Frank Wesson rifles
· Farrow rifles
· Remington Hepburn rifles
· M1873-1888 Springfield (Trapdoor) rifles and carbines and replicas
· Snider (British) rifles and replicas
· Wesson & Harrington 1871 rifles
· New England Firearms or Harrington & Richardson Handi rifles in caliber larger than .38
· Winchester M1885 Hi Wall or Lo Wall rifles or replicas (Also Browning B78 or 1885) .38 or larger
· Knight KP-1 in caliber .38 or larger
· CVA Optima Elite in caliber .38 or larger
· Traditions Pursuit break-open single shot in .38 caliber or larger

I've killed a few deer with my Renegade. During the '80s I was so confident of my ability with that rife, and with the area I was hunting, that I carried my Renegade as my main rifle. I've even sniped crows with the light, small, 230 grain roundballs. It helped keep my eye in for deer season, and if you've never seen what a 54 caliber ball will do to a crow, you've missed a sight. But I digress.

If the state of Louisiana is going to let me hunt with a cartridge firearm and call it a primitive weapon, who am I to argue? No more powder, caps, and possibles to lug around. Pick up the rifle, drop a few cartridges into the pocket, and head toward the woods. They're taking all the work out of it.

It's Biden

Joe Biden. Senator from Delaware, will be Obama's running mate.

Regardless of who wins, we will have elected a Senator for President. It's been a while since that happened. Carter wasn't a Senator, Reagan wasn't a Senator. Clinton wasn't a Senator, and neither of the Bushs were Senators. It's been a while since we had a Senator ascend to the Presidency.

The US Senate is a deliberative body, probably the most prestigious deliberative body in the world. Still, participating in a deliberative body is different than running an executive office. Neither of the contenders have much experience running an executive office.

Next week begins the Democratic showcase in Denver. It'll be quite the media event, I'm sure. Not much of substance will be decided (we already know who the nominee and the running mate are), but it'll be a talking-head lalapallooza. I feel like Hillary's PUMA's are going to make some noise, but barring any unfortunate circumstance, we know the outcome of the event. Obama will be nominated, give a speech, and start campaigning his ass off. I'd love to see a brokered convention, with fistfights on the floor, but that ain't likely to happen.

The Republican convention, later in Minnesota, will be just as bad. We already know the result. There's not going to be much in the way of surprises. It's going to be a four-day media event, carefully scripted, carefully covered. They could do it over a weekend, but that would only be a two day event.

Both parties could save a lot of money, and have a mail-in convention. Have the delegates send their ballots via US Mail and count them from a rented office somewhere. That wouldn't be much of a media event, but it would achieve the same result at far less cost.

Or, you could get all the delegates together, all in one room, and do a vote. Quietly. No hoopla. Lend some dignity to an event that has become a media circus. Wouldn't that be instructive. To quietly, with dignity, nominate a candidate for president. The delegates could steal into town. Quietly meet at a small, discreet venue, conduct their business in a single evening, and steal out of town.

Are they High?

No, but they plan to be. Some headlines just write themselves.

It seems a group of folks is asking the Denver cops to not make any marijuana arrests during the Democratic Convention.

Really.

DENVER - A panel convened to implement a voter-approved Denver ordinance making possession of small amounts of marijuana the "lowest law enforcement priority" voted Wednesday to approve a resolution urging police to refrain from making arrests or issuing citations during the Democratic National Convention.

Mason Tvert, leader of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, said city police and prosecutors are ignoring the will of the voters. He said the city still requires violators to show up in court, which he warned could clog the court system

"After the Democratic National Convention ends, there will be hundreds of marijuana cases all showing up at the same time," Tvert said.

I don't know what to say about this article. It's simply too weird.

Evidently, the guy hasn't had much luck in making marijuana... legal. Here's the deal. We've heard all the arguments on all the sides about making marijuana legal, or making it illegal, or whatever. The simple fact of the matter is that the cops don't get to make the laws. The legislature makes the laws. If the leges go into session and pass a law taking marijuana out of the criminal code, I probably wouldn't be bothered one way or the other. There are plenty of laws on the books for me to enforce.

However, the leges aren't about to do anything to make marijuana legal, in this state anyway, because they know that they wouldn't be re-elected. Whether marijuana is legal or not is a question for the legislature, not the police.

Hat tip to Flopping Aces for the story.

Well, heck!

I've been blogging over on my private account, the PawPaw's House hosted by Verio. Over the last several days I've been having trouble accessing my accounts over there and I've learned that my site traffic is in excess of what is allowed on my little piddly account. I'm getting 1600 hits per day, so I've decided to come back to Blogger. I'll take a few days for things to calm down, but as soon as I can get online over there, I'll move the traffic to this site and decide what I'm going to do with the verio account.

Who knew when I started this blog that I'd be getting so much traffic on a little blog that I started for my own amusement?

Just damn.

New Posts

New posts are up over at the Wordpress site. Go see them.

I'll probably be completing the move to the new site in the next several weeks. I'll continue to update here. In the meantime, you might start adjusting your bookmarks to the new site.

Wordpress

I've been playing with a new (to me) program and I've set up a site in case I want to get away from Blogger. You can see it here. I'm not ready to move yet, but I've published a posting at the new site about practical rifle marksmanship.

Give it a read, and tell me what you think about the new site. It's rough right now, but hopefully I can learn enough to move to the new site and get away from some of the problems I've had with Blogger.

Shotgun Shells

I was at Momma's today, bushhogging. When I finished up, she said she found something that Daddy had hidden and she went looking in the closet.



A full box of Winchester Western #6 lead shot in 16 gauge. These fit the Model 12 shotgun that I inherited.



If I'm interpreting the store sticker correctly, these were stocked in September of 1982 and sold for the price of $6.47 at Howard Brothers, a local retailer that pre-dated Wal-Mart. I don't understand why Dad had these hidden. They're still legal for upland game, although not for waterfowl.

These shells are still in fine shape, and there's no doubt in my mind that they'd fire if I loaded them in the shotgun. That's not likely to happen, though. I think I'll keep them with the shotgun to be passed along when the time is right.

Muscadines

Momma has had muscadine vines since she and Daddy moved to Deville. This morning after church we went over to Momma's so that I could diagnose a broken tractor. As my son and I saw what was wrong (belt had slipped off pully), Milady wandered out to the vines with the grandsons and started pickin muscadines. By the time we fixed the tractor, she had picked two gallons of grapes.

This afternoon, she made jelly. I've got ten pints of homemade muscadine jelly behind me on the counter, jelling.

Heh-heh. Life is good.

In the Mail

I find in the mail today, a badge.

This is a replica easily found on the Internet. It seems that the administration of Kansas City at one time decided that they needed an officer to inspect the various brothels that serviced the cowboys who brought cattle in from the drives.



That had to be a good job for a single man. A married man would have had distaff problems holding the job.

I collect badges. Normally non-replica badges from little agencies. I find them at flea-markets and antique shops. Still, this one will find a prominent place in my collection. Thanks, Junior.

Who is Qualified?

We're having an election in October, and a plethora of public officials have to stand for re-election. We're electing statewide officials, and parishwide officials and the campaigning has begun.

The question on everybody's lips is Who's Qualified? In Louisiana, it ain't that simple. Right now, none of them are qualified because the qualifying period hasn't begun. There are a bunch of folks who have announced, but the qualifying period isn't until September 4-6, 2007. Right now none of them are qualified.

Then, it's just a matter of attesting to some fairly simple prerequisites. For example, lets say that Candidate X has announced for Sheriff. He's lived in the parish for the past 20 years, but never spent a day of it in law enforcement. Candidate X's only job for the past 20 years has been running a honky-tonk. On September 4th, he goes down to the Clerk of Courts office and pays a qualifying fee, attests that he has been a resident of Louisiana for two years and a resident of the parish for one year. He signs the form and he has qualified for Sheriff. His name will be on the ballot and if he can get a majority of the votes, he'll be Sheriff.

Now, lets say that Candidate Y has also announced his candidacy for Sheriff. He's also lived in the parish for 20 years, but all of his career has been in Law Enforcment. Lets say that he retired from the City police, then went to work for the Sheriff's office and attained a great deal of success as a modern police officer. Let's further say that some emergency takes him away from the parish during the qualifying period. Due to circumstances purely beyond his control he is not able to appear at the Clerk's office during the qualifying period, pay his fee and sign the form. He is not qualified, and his name will not be on the ballot. Nothing Candidate Y does will change that fact. He ain't qualified.

It sucks. He can run again next time. The lesson here is that being qualified for the job doesn't mean the same thing in politics as it does in the private sector. There is no great career progression for political office. It all boils down to who goes to the Courthouse and pays the fees. If you want your name on the ballot, nothing else matters.

You can see the qualifications for candidates, from governor to constable, here. It's a .pdf form, so be warned.

Hell, in Louisiana, you don't even have to be a Medical Doctor to be the Coroner.

Ranges

In the hustle and bustle of ordinary life, it's hard to find ranges where the general public can shoot.

It appears that Fort Polk, LA hosts a MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) range for its soldiers. The website says that it's open to the public. It hosts archery, shotgun, pistol, and centerfire ranges with berms out to 500 yards. The website says:

Hunters and marksmen not assigned to Fort Polk are welcome to use the Wildlife Management area and Recreational Shooting Complex if they follow a few basic guidelines. These rules are designed to make access to available leisure activities more convenient, while assuring the safety of the post population and its visitors.

In accordance with JRTC and Fort Polk Regulation 190-3, unloaded firearms must be separated from ammunition and will not be easily accessible to the driver or occupants. The weapon must be in the trunk of a car, in a truck tool box, camper, or bed. The ammunition must be in a separate location.

The Shooting Complex is open on Wednesdays - Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Shooting Complex can be reached by telephone at 337-531-6591 or 337-531-5350.

I'm going to have to look more closely into this range. I've been wanting to try my hand at shooting past 100 yards.

$3 billion

Three billion dollars. That's a lot of money. Hopefully, enough.

It seems that the Senate, in a weird conjunction of common sense and paying attention to the people, voted to supplement $3,000,000,000 for border enforcement, saying:

“There is hereby appropriated $3,000,000,000 to satisfy the requirements set out in section 1002(a) and, if any amount remains after satisfying such requirements, to achieve and maintain operational control over the international land and maritime borders of the United States, for employment eligibility verification improvements, for increased removal and detention of visa overstays, criminal aliens, aliens who have illegally reentered the United States, and for reimbursement of State and local section 287(g) expenses. These amounts are designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 204 of S. Con. Res. 21 (110th Congress).”

Michelle Malkin is all over it. And Harry Reid even admitted he was wrong.

Newspapers

Newspapers are going through changes. The internet has changed the way we get our news, although there are still people without internet service, or those folks who don't care a whit about the internet.

This post ain't about that. Used to be, newspapers were wrapped with a rubber band. A simple rubber band. A lot of households had a drawer or a bowl or something that collected these rubber bands. No one ever needed to buy a rubber band if they subscribed to the newspaper.

Although I read my news off the Intertubes, my lady still insists on reading the paper with her coffee. She subscribes. I've been going out and getting her newspaper every morning, and I've noticed that whatever the weather the newpaper now comes wrapped in a plastic bag.

I needed a rubber band the other day and couldn't find one in the house. I had to go to the store and buy a bag of rubber bands. In 50-something years, that was the first box of rubber bands I had ever bought for household use.

Thanks, newspaper guys.

Antiquing

We went antiquing yesterday. My lady and my daughter-in-law enjoy such things, and there are certain items I look for, so I enjoy it too, but not enough to plan it.

We started the morning in Natchez, MS, on Franklin Street, the center of antique shops in Natchez. We quickly learned that the antiques on Franklin Street are priced for a level of consumer that our pocketbooks won't support. While it was fun to browse, the level of the shops there was so very retail. The shop owners were very knowledgeable, knowing the history of most of the pieces. Still, $25,000 for a four-poster bed is a bit much.

After lunch, we went to the Deep South Winery where Milady picked up a case of wine. You can, of course, click on the pictures for a larger version.



Then, we got on Highway 61 and headed south, toward St. Francisville. We stopped in the little town of Woodville, MS and hit a few shops that were closer to our style. We prefer the musty little shops that combine antiques in a flea-market atmosphere. Milady stumbled upon an anitique badge for my trifling collection and my son found some books in a bookrack in the back of one store. We tried to quibble, but quibbling wasn't on the menu. Posted price was posted price, so we made our decisions and traveled on.

If Charleston is considered the birthplace of the Confederacy, then Woodville is one of the incubators. Woodville, MS touts itself as the boyhood home of Jefferson Davis.

In St Francisville we stopped at a lovely old church with a magnificent cemetary. We took snapped some photos as we refreshed ourselves among the stately oaks and contemplated the lives of the people populating the graveyard.



Then, we took the ferry from St. Francisville back to our side of the river and turned north, for home. A case of wine, some trinkets, a couple of books and a chance to spend the day with my son and his wife. It was a good day.

Fire-building

I'm an Eagle Scout. I've built a lot of campfires in my time. Eagle Scouts pride themselves on being able to build a fire in any weather, any conditions with nothing more than what we find on the ground and two matches. We're tested on it. The test is often in less than what one would consider ideal weather conditions. You only get to fail this test once. One tip is that preparation is 95% of fire-building. Don't strike the match until you've gathered everything you need, have sorted your firewood into tinder, kindling and fuel, and have everything close at hand.

I've even used something called a featherstick.

Yet, until this morning when I went over to the LawDog's place, I had never considered using steel wool as firestarting material.

Go thence, and be enlightened. He'll even teach you to make a featherstick.

One old Eagle tip. If you're ever in the deep woods, lost, in the rain, cold and miserable. If you can find a cedar tree, you're in like Flint.

Liquid Alox

Back when I started casting bullets, Lee Precision sent me a little bottle of liquid in an order for a bullet mold. Lee Liquid Alox.

Alox, of course, is one of the ingredients in the NRA standard bullet lube, which is 50% beeswax and 50% Alox. It makes a great stick bullet lube that has been used by thousands of cast bullet shooters to shoot millions of bullets.

Alox is a proprietary name of the Lubrizol Company. They make it in a variety of properties for a variety of purposes. Mr. Lee buys Alox in barrels and packages it in the familiar little bottles that he ships all over the world. Over the years, we who wonder about such things have decided that Lee is probably buying Alox 2138F and repackaging it in those little 4 oz bottles.

I've used Liquid Alox since I cast my first bullet. It works. Purely and simply, it works really well. The downside is that it's messy, in that to use it you dip or dunk the bullets in it, then set them out on a piece of wax paper to dry. It dries overnight into a waxy coating that sticks to the bullet. When I am casting pistol bullets, I normally shoot them "as cast" with no sizing. After the bullets have cooled, I put them in a zipper bag and squirt a little Liquid Alox on them, then knead the bag till they're all coated. Then I pour them out on a piece of waxed paper and let them dry on my bench. I've got a bunch out there right now, drying.

Rifle bullets get pushed a little harder than pistol bullets, so they get two coats. After casting, I apply Liquid Alox like I do for pistol bullets. After they're dry, I seat a gas check then apply another coating of Liquid Alox to cover the sized bands. After they dry, they're ready to load. I'm able to drive cast bullets over 1800 fps through my rifles without leading.

Many shooters have tried to make a better bullet lube, hoping to extend their range, or get that extra velocity, or induce some property that is important to them. Bullet casters are experimenters and I wouldn't give a hoot for a bullet caster that hasn't at least once tried to improve on his lube. There are many published recipes on the web and there are many secret recipes for bullet lube. Some are wonderful, some are not. It's the quest that's important and the furthering of knowledge that's important. The do-all, magic formula that lets the bullets fly at light-speed, with extreme accuracy is the quest.

For day in, day out use, I've been unable to improve on simple liquid Alox.

Half Shaft

PawPaw is going to be mechanic-ing today. Stepson's girlfriend has a Dodge Neon that needs a half-shaft. I'm going to walk stepson through the process. It ain't rocket science, but it is mechanics.

My second son is an ASE certified Dodge mechanic. He considers Neons as disposable cars. I tend to agree with him. He doesn't want any part of this job. Not because it is beneath him, but because he does them for a living.

I'm really not looking forward to this job.

.264 Winchester Magnum

If you crawl around gun shops long enough you get the inside track on some deals. My favorite counterman has told me that there is a rifle in hock that I might be interested in. It is a Remington 700 Sendero, with that good Remington fluted barrel, mounted with a Leupold 3X9 VariXII scope. He tells me that the rifle will be out of hock by the middle of August and that if I want it, he can guarantee me a very good price on it.

Well, hell. Decisions, decisions.

The .264 Winchester Magnum is one of four magnums (.264, .300, .338, and 458) introduced by Winchester during the late 1950s. It was designed as the ultimate long distance big game cartridge. In its most standard load, it throws a 140 grain bullet at 3100 fps with a muzzle energy (ME) of 2850 ft/lbs. This is good ballistics, but it takes 77 grains of powder for that velocity. It isn't a terribly efficient loading, yet it is certainly a flat-shooting cartridge and uses those wonderfully efficient 6.5 mm bullets.

The .264 Winchester Magnum has a reputation as a barrel-burner. With the powders available when the cartridge came out, I don't doubt that it had trouble with barrel erosion. With the good powders available today, barrel erosion shouldn't be much of a problem. In the old days, the barrels started burning out somewhere past 1000 rounds. If I buy this rifle, I probably won't shoot it more than 20 rounds per year. Even if I shoot 50 rounds per year, it would be 20 years before I'd need to rebarrel it. One of the kids would probably have it by then.

The 6.5mm cartridges never really caught on with American shooters, yet the bullets routinely offer good ballistic coefficients and great downrange performance. Guys who like the 6.5 like them a lot. Remington recently anointed a 6.5 wildcat, making it a factory cartridge based on the .308. They call it the .260 Remington and my sister-in-law used one to take a nice deer last year.

However, my .30-06 shoots a 150 grain bullet at almost 3000 fps using 52 grains of my surplus 4895, for a ME of about 2800 f/p. Sighted 3" high at 100 yards, it's just 4" down at 300 yards. 300 yards is the outside limit of the range that I'm going to pull the trigger on a game animal.

Any deer hit with a 6.5 bullet at 2850 f/p versus a .30 bullet at 2800 f/p ain't going to know the difference. It won't matter a whit to the deer.

Yet the question remains. Do I want that Sendero? In the end, it'll really boil down to the price. Sometimes, a good deal is hard to pass up. Then again, I might just save my pennies and wait on the next deal to come around the corner.

What do y'all think?

More on cast loads

jpg asks in Comments:

Question: Have you ever weightd the contents of that 2.2 cc dipper? I have a couple of scales but no Lee dippers. And my insulin syringes only hold a max of 1 cc ;-)

Yeah, jpg, I have. The short answer is that the 2.2 dipper holds 27.5 grains of my lot of surplus 4895. Your mileage and your 4895 might be different.

However, 4895 is really easy to use for reduced loads, using either cast or jacketed bullets. The Hodgdon site tells us that:

For years, H4895 has been the top choice by cast bullet shooters. For this type shooting, loads are reduced even more than the hunting loads listed herein. To create loads of this type for target and plinking, we recommend our 60% rule with H4895. By taking the maximum charges listed in our Annual Manual with any given cartridge and multiplying it by 60%, the shooter can create a 1500 to 2100 fps load, depending on the bullet weight shown. This works only where H4895 is listed. Do not use H4895 in a cartridge where it has not been shown.

I have found that this 60% rule works with my surplus 4895 as well as canister grade IMR 4895. I can't recommend this practice due to liability concerns, but I haven't gotten in trouble in practice.

The Hodgdon manual lists 46.7 grains of H4895 as the top end load for a 175 grain bullet in 30-06. 60% of that is 28 grains of powder. My 2.2 cc dipper loads really closely to that at 27.5 grains.

Using dippers instead of weighing individual charges makes sense for me on a couple of counts, not the least of which is that powder is hydroscopic, that is, it retains moisture. 28 grains of powder might be different in dry Arizona than it is in humid Louisiana, but 2.2 ccs is the same everywhere, even Texas.

Try cast bullets in your .30-06. They're generally less expensive than jacketed, they are useful as practice and plinking loads, and even as hunting loads when the hunter limits his shots to reasonable ranges. There is something satisfying about taking an animal with a bullet you cast yourself, in a cartridge you loaded yourself.

Shooters that make cast bullet loads for the .30-30 tell us that the 311041 at 1750-1800 fps does just fine when used on whitetailed deer. My cast loads with the 30-30 gives me an average 1880 fps out of my 20" carbine. That same load gives me an average 1794 out of my 22" barreled 30-06. From either rifle, it's a good load for 125 yards, which is plenty of range for the north Louisiana woods. If I need a beanfield gun, I'll take something else.

Richard C. Reid

You may remember Richard C. Reid, the shoe bomber who tried to take down an American Airlines flight with a bomb in his shoe. Reid pled guilty in 2002, but in his statement, said that:

After admitting his guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his "allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah," defiantly stating, "I think I will not apologize for my actions," and told the court "I am at war with your country

He's been sentenced. In 2003. If this is old news to everyone but me, I apologize. I had never seen the transcript of sentencing. The presiding Judge, William Young, sentenced him to three life sentences plus 110 years, then gave him a verbal smackdown in the sentencing statement.

You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether the officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier. You are not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.

You can read the whole thing at the Snopes page dedicated to Urban Legends.

Bushhogging

I was bushhogging yesterday at Momma's house, cleaning up some tall grass and briars in a couple of acres that are infrequently used. Several years ago, Daddy planted pine trees on that area and I was about 80% finished when I got the exhaust stack of the tractor tangled up in some limbs. The tractor in question is a small International 244. It's a 24 horse tractor with a 3 cylinder Mitsubishi diesel.

I managed to stop the tractor before any irreparable damage was done to the tractor or myself. I say irreparable because I managed to break the exhaust stack. Well, hell!

Those of you who have driven small tractors across brushy fields and lots know that somtimes limbs strike the exhaust stack. In most cases, the limb bends and the tractor proceeds and no note is made of the incident. In one case out of a thousand, the limb doesn't bend, the exhaust bends and the old welds break and the limb catches the driver across the forehead. It's exciting if you don't get on the brake quickly enough. In this case, my cap was brushed from my head and managed to take a trip through the bushhog. It was an old cap. I retrieved it later, some the worse for the experience.

So, now this morning I have to find a muffler shop that'll put together what I ripped apart. I better get busy.

311041 Loads

Regular readers know that I like the Lyman 311041 bullet in the .30-30 WCF. I keep a couple of hundred cast and ready to go and when my supply gets low, I cast some more. The 311041 is a bullet that falls from the mold at a nominal 0.311 inch. I lube it with Lee Liquid Alox, add a gas check and size to 0.309, then lube it with Liquid Alox a second time. Ready to load in the case, it weighs 173 grains.

This morning, after I was finished bush-hogging at my Mothers place, I set up a target at an estimated 75 yards. I say estimated, because I know where the 50 yard mark is in that pasture and I walked past it about 25 yards.

I took out the Winchester 94 that lives under the seat of the truck and loaded it with my cast load of a 311041 over a 2.2cc dipper full of surplus 4895 with a CCI primer. This load gives me an average velocity of 1877 fps, with an SD of 22.7. It is an accurate load when I do my part.



That's one four shot and one five shot group with a sight adjustment. The last group is above the target, which is about where I wanted it. My ballistics calculator tells me that this load should be good for deer out to 175 yards, which is a lot farther than I'm willing to shoot at a deer with iron sights.

The next target is the same load, just in a different caliber. It's the same 311041 bullet with the same 2.2cc of surplus 4895 and the same CCI primer. It's loaded in the .30-06 caliber. This load will be shot from the Remington 760 with the red dot sight. It gives me an average 1794 (Sd 33.8) from the 22 inch barrel on that rifle.



I need to move that sight left four clicks, but otherwise, it's ready to go. That load from that rifle should be good out to 125 yards or so. I believe that the red dot sight helped shrink the group size from what it would have been with iron sights. The load lost a little velocity in the transformation from .30-30 to .30-06 but either of them are capable of dropping deer sized game at 100 yards.

For the record, both these targets were fired from a standing supported position, not the bench. I'm through with the bench until the hunting season is over. I'm confident that I have two winners here. Now I only need to do final sighting with the bolt guns and I can quit obsessing over the firearms and loads and start obsessing on getting my hunting area ready for the season.

We've got about 105 days before the start of the deer season.

Rainy Monday

Whaddya do when it's a rainy Monday afternoon and you're tasked with entertaining two young boys?

That's simple, start puttering on the bench. In a few minutes, they'll come and ask to help.



That's the elder one helping me by flaring brass for .45 ACP reloads. His younger brother helped by decapping 50 rounds. When you're doing batch processing, it helps to have a couple of young'uns doing mindless chores. They're not ready yet for capping or charging or seating bullets, but the time will come... the time will come. In the meantime, they're learning to operate the press under adult supervision. Afterwards, a supper of chili dogs, some day old birthday cake, and I sent them home all sugared up.

I'm sure their Momma appreciates it.

Brilliant!

Here's why they'll never win. In California, the gun-fearing-wussies (GFW)in their heavily Democratic legislature have so crafted a law that defines an "assualt weapon".

12276.1. (a) Notwithstanding Section 12276, "assault weapon" shall also mean any of the following:

(1) a semiautomatic, centerfire rifle that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any one of the following:

(a) pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon.
(b) thumbhole stock.
(c) folding or telescoping stock.
(d) grenade launcher or flare launcher.
(e) flash suppressor.
(f) forward pistol grip.

Yet, some California shooters have crafted a stock for a common hunting rifle that complies with the law and allows the shooters of California an opportunity to enjoy the firearms that our Founding Fathers protected and our hunting brethren in many other states enjoy.

They call it the U15 stock and it does away with that most frightening, child-killing, bullet spraying, part of the rifle: the pistol grip. For your edification and appreciation, I show you the California legal hunting rifle.



While waiting for gasps of appreciation and cheers of adulation to die down, I'll mention that this stock modification makes the common AR15 legal in California. It isn't a bunch of gun-nuts trying to get around the California law, it is a bunch of shooters trying to comply with the law. You'll notice that the rifle in question doesn't have a pistol grip stock. Nor does it have a grenade launcher or a flash suppressor. (That thingy on the end of the barrel is a muzzle brake.)

It is ugly as a Tuesday hangover, but it certainly complies with the law. No longer will California shooters be made an instant outlaw by possessing a dreaded pistol grip. Pistol grips, as you know, are designed to instantly change the mental fortitude of a reasonable sane person into one who would stalk schoolyards and rob banks. People possessing pistol grips might even conduct drive-by shootings. It's all about how a rifle is designed, not how it's used. And, the stock is reasonably affordable, just $228.00, plus shipping. I can see that they're going to sell a boat-load of these things.

Bushmaster and DPMS ought to contract it as an accessory that can be added at the factory. Were I the marketing guy for Bushmaster, I'd order a couple of hundred and ship the completed rifles to stores all over San Francisco.

I'll close with a quote from the unstoppable Kim duToit, where I got the story.

5:00 Monday

**UPDATE** I was wrong. Senator Vitter says he's going to Washington to do the important work that Louisiana needs him to do.

Vitter didn’t take any questions and preemptively answered any questions about a possible resignation by saying that he was eager to continue his work in the U.S. Senate.

Original Post below:

Your Right Hand Thief links to an article that says our Senator, David Vitter is going to make a statement at 5:00 p.m. today from Metarie, LA.

Vitter, R-La., scheduled a Monday 5:05 p.m. CDT appearance in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, where he was to issue a statement. It was unclear whether he would take questions.

Hell, I wouldn't take questions. I'd simply resign. Hopefully, Senator Vitter will do the same.

Then, our governess, the Queen Bee herself, could appoint a Senator until we could get an election going. We have a statewide election in October. That would be plenty of time for the players to get ready. Qualify in late August, run in October, runoff if necessary in November.

I've never been much of a political pundit, but I put the odds at 60-40 that David will resign this afternoon.

It would be the right thing to do.

In a couple of hours, we'll know if I am right.

Red Dot sights

I've been playing with a low-end Simmons red dot sight. I've never had any experience with these type sights and I thought it was time to get acquainted. The price was certainly right, under $40.00 at Midway USA.



I mounted it on a Remington Model 760 pump action rifle in .30-06. .30-06 is a fairly serious caliber, a benchmark of rifle cartridges. I wanted to test the sight against recoil with a common cartridge. It has held up well so far, with the sight holding zero after a hundred or so rounds of ammunition.

This is not a scope, it's a sight. It is not designed for precision work, but for quickly shooting at targets of opportunity. The red dot subtends 5 minutes of angle, which is 5" at 100 yards. The sight has 11 settings for brightness on the rheostat, which makes the sight useful during bright sunshine and during total darkness.

Using the sight on a police range, I was routinely able to make head shots at 50 yards on a man-sized silhouette. I had the rangemaster turn the target away, then present it for two seconds. I put the rifle at the low ready position and when the target presented itself, I came to the offhand unsupported position and fired one round. Head shots were easy in the time allowed. Two seconds. The target reset after two seconds. If I had tried this at 100 yards, I'm confident that the shot would be successful.

This isn't a precision scope. It is a quick sight. The red dot presents itself against the optical plane and once adjusted for the ammo used, it is a simple matter to place the dot on the target and squeeze the trigger. It is very fast.

Parallax, you ask? Oh, there's plenty. The red dot moves around as you look through the sight, but your brain (that magnificent ballistic computer between your ears) tries to center the red dot through the sight. I suspect that at 100 yards, it might have as much as 24 or 36 inches of parallax, so I took some photos to show how the sight works.



Here's a photo through the sight. The red dot is out of center and is high in the sight. It appears against the base of the tree in my neighbors yard.



This photo shows the sight out of alignment with the red dot at 8:00, almost out of view. The red dot is nearly obscured by the body of the sight, yet it is still on the base of the tree.



Here, the dot is low in the scope, yet it still presents against the base of the tree. The rifle wasn't moved as I shot this series. I took these photos against a stationary rifle. I feel confident that if I had to engage that tree, the bullet would have hit the target, even if I didn't center the sight in the picture.

However, our brains try to automatically center a dot in a circle. So, a quick movement, the dot would center and the shot would be made. It takes longer to write about it than to do it, and I find this sight to be extremely fast.

This sight would probably be just the ticket for fast snap-shooting at short range, in a still hunting scenario where the targets present themselves quickly. It doesn't take the place of a good scope, and shouldn't be interpreted to be the best sight for deliberate, long range fire. However, many times shots present themselves at ranges under 125 yards and this sight might be useful at the beginning and end of the hunting day, and in deep woods where a front sight isn't always visible.

There is the problem of batteries, though. I'm still using the original that came with the sight, but I'm careful to turn the sight off when I'm not carrying the rifle. Good practice would probably demand that I obtain a couple of spare batteries before hunting season.

Birthday

We hosted a birthday party today for my mother-in-law, the unsinkable Miss Reba.

She turned 86 and she's still getting around and keeping her own house. Two years ago she broke her wrist working in the yard. Then, she fell while digging a ditch and was stove-up for a while. But, she's all healed and doing well.

She's still enjoying a toddy, occassionally.



I hope when I'm 86 I'm still able to hoist a magnum from the ground to my waist. And I hope Miss Reba continues the same exercise plan for many, many years to come. Miss Reba got clothes and jewelry and candles and bottled spirits. Not a bad birthday at all.




For today, a number of us cooked and we gathered at PawPaws house for the festivities. We had beans and tater salad and green salad and grilled chicken and sausage and pork tenderloin. It's been all cleaned up now, the kitchen is straight and the guests have departed. The grandsons are still in the pool.

Pawpaw needs a shower and a nap.

Happy Birthday, Reba.

Rain

Gene Hill once wrote that rain may be the oldest sound to reach the porches of man's ear.

As I write this, a glass of tea sits at my elbow. My head and shirt are wet and it's raining outside. What the weatherman calls a local thunderstorm. It's a gentle rain, pattering on the concrete outside, cooling the afternoon and settling the dust.

I like rainstorms like this, whether I am in the woods or in town. The world seems to take a breath and get under cover while the rain rearranges the day. The lightning crashes and the rain falls in sheets only for a little while, then settles into a gentle dousing, wetting everything thoroughly. Were I a paleo-hunter-gatherer, I would adjust my schedule, looking for game in the sheltered areas that exist in every woods. I'd move slowly, letting the rain hide the sounds of my movement and stopping frequently, scanning the gloom under the conifers for my prey. On the morn, I'd track for half a day, knowing that all the tracks are as fresh as the rain.

As it is, I am a modern suburb dweller, so I stand under my carport and drink my tea, watching a honeybee take refuge under the bumper of the truck. I'm intrigued because I haven't seen any evidence of beekeeping here, yet standing on the concrete drying her wings, sits the undeniable evidence.

The wind is out of the west and the rain is moving slowly east. It'll be over soon.

Budget under the knife

I see that Governor Blanco has cut $65 million from the state's $30 billion budget. She targeted such things as:

The governor late Thursday issued vetoes to House Bill 1 that actually don't affect many projects or programs. The largest cuts, $46 million and $18 million for barrier island work, could be restored if the state sells the remaining portion of a tobacco settlement instead of waiting for tobacco companies to pay it over the next 20 years.

I see she also veto'd $40,000 for the SugArena and $75,000 for scholarships for the Southern University Marching Band.

Before we start thinking that the Governor is getting all conservative on us, we've got to remember that $65 million dollars is not even a quarter of a percent of a $30 billion budget. $65 million sounds like a lot of money, and I'm sure I could live on it without too much trouble, but $65 million for a state government ain't much money.

It's a start, but it ain't much.

School Daze

The Town Talk reminds me today that we have one month left before school starts in Rapides Parish.

Classes for students begin on August 13th

Well, hell.

Don't call the Thunder

There is an old saying, "Don't call the Thunder, unless you're willing to ride the lightning." It's always seemed to me to be very analogous to "Men in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks."

Poor old David. He got himself caught involved in prostitution. He apologized. The blogosphere went frothy. It seems David campaigned as a conservative, family values sort of guy. Then not one, but two madams have named him as a client. This morning, it sucks to be David Vitter.

If his wife has forgiven him, then I'm apt to forgive him. Sexual dalliances being what they are, I understand the nature of forgiveness and reconciliation.

There are others though, that ask other questions.

Did he commit a crime? Short answer, yeah, solicitation of prostitution is a crime, although a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions and not prosecutable after one year.

Did he lie to us when first confronted about it? Yeah, he did. Much like Clinton lied about his blowjob.

Did he sire a child out of wedlock. I don't know? Is he paying child support to anyone?

There are some that maintain that David's whore-chasing was all prior to his legislative career, and that's where the problem comes for me. David Vitter called the thunder when he began his legislative career, following Bob Livingston's revelation of sexual misconduct. As we're reminded by Michelle Malkin:

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) first got his start in Congress after replacing former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA), who “abruptly resigned after disclosures of numerous affairs” in 1998. At the time, Vitter argued that an extramarital affair was grounds for resignation.

Well, if an extramarital affair is grounds for resignation, then soliciting prostitutes is more fertile ground for resignation. Then, David called for Clinton to resign after the infamous Lewinsky scandal, saying:

“I think Livingston’s stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Clinton should resign as well and move beyond this mess,” he said. [Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12/20/98]

Dammit, David. If sexual escapades were grounds for resignation in 1998, they are grounds for resignation in 2007.

I am disappointed in my Senator. Severely disappointed. I don't think that a person's sexual inclinations should be political fodder. I don't think that what goes on in any given bedroom is fair game for the political rodeo.

However, when David began his career, he called the thunder. I hope he's ready to ride the lightning.

Training

It seems that my brethren are going through training. I got recertified in June.

Long-time readers of this blog know that I am an SRO at a school in Alexandria. I don't normally talk about law enforcement in this blog, except in a broad-brush manner. While I'm happy to talk about the career and I'm happy to tell stories from my past, I don't talk much about the job at hand for the same reasons I don't talk about the day to day activities of a marriage. I'm too close to it to be objective.

However, the Town Talk covers it, and these guys do one of the most thankless jobs in law enforcement. You won't find an SRO being named LEO of the year. You won't find an SRO getting a promotion for doing the job. It ain't blue lights and high speed chases. Most of the time, the job is fairly low-key.

It's like being a sheep dog. Watching a herd. Knowing that you can sit on that hill all year, overlooking the herd and have nothing happen, but that without warning you might be in the fight of your life because someone is trying to hurt your sheep. No one is going to hurt my sheep. Not on my watch.

The training is important, not so much for the skills that are imparted but for the mental activity that accompanies it. Some call it wargaming, some call it brainstorming, I call it "What If?". What if someone gets out of their car waving a gun? How will I respond? What if someone tries to take the principal hostage? What a goblin is just around the corner with a baseball bat? I spend a good portion of my day playing "what if" as I walk the halls. It's a good mental exercise and the training helps me understand the appropriate response.

I'm glad that the guys and gals are going through the training. It's a blessing for them and a blessing for the kids they'll be watching in another six weeks.

Vitter and the Madam

I see in the Town Talk that David Vitter's telephone number was found in old records of the D.C. Madam. David may have been patronizing prostitutes. The Senator says:

"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in the statement. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

For myself, I know that there is no activity more corrosive to the trust that bases a marriage than adultery. If David's wife can forgive him then the matter is properly between them. I don't have a dog in that hunt.

Monday!

It was Monday all day today. We started off by fulfilling a promise to the congregation that I would go somewhere and buy eight new tables for the church hall. So, by 10:30 we had the tables delivered to the church and Momma and I were drinking soft drinks at her table. I went home for nap time.

After the nap I mowed for an hour on the empty lot beside the house. Then Milady decided that the red-brown pavers were soaking up too much heat and were tough on the grandkids feet. (This from a woman who used to walk barefoot across the black asphalt streets in LaSalle Parish). These pavers lead from the pool to the pool house. Milady wants light colored pavers there. So, PawPaw took up the red-brown pavers and moved them to a sandy area adjacent to the pool. Tomorrow at daylight I'm going to get up and go buy some light-colored pavers to put down so that the kids can walk from the pool to the crapper without harming their delicate little feet. That should take most of the morning.

PawPaw got his exercise today, moving pavers out of the way so I could put down more pavers. It's an exciting life.

Preparation

My buddy Junior reminds me that we have 104 days before the start of the muzzleloading deer season in Louisiana. Archery season begins before that.

In the heat of July, it's hard to think about deer season, but you're likely to have a better season if you begin preparation now. This is nothing hard, or onerous, just common-sense ideas to make your opening day a truly memorable affair.

Decide on your deer load. If you reload, it's time to pore over the load charts and targets you've been shooting and decide on one load per caliber for each game animal you're likely to chase. If you don't reload, still settle on one brand and loading.

Sight in your rifle using that load. Then, get away from the bench. Practice from field positions you're likely to use. For Louisiana's pine woods, I'm going to practice snap shots at 50 yards, and I'm going to practice deliberate shots at 100 yards. If I were hunting Idaho, or Missouri, or Kentucky, I'd practice the shots I'd likely use in those locations.

Practice with your hunting loads. If you can only afford one box of ammo, practice with 15 of them and save the other five for hunting. Those five shots will be plenty if you are ready for the hunt.

If you can't get to the range and practice as much as you'd like, (and who can?), then practice at home with a safe rifle. Make the rifle safe and practice sighting on something that won't cause the neighbors to get squirrely. I stand in my carport and sight on a stop sign at the end of the street. I crank the magnification all the way up and practice holding the crosshairs on that sign. At nine power, it is amazing how much muzzle wobble is apparent in the sights. Practice your positions and try to use your sling. Practice getting the sling into a hasty firing position and getting the crosshairs on the target. I've been doing this for two weeks and it's amazing how much better I was than when I started.

Start gathering gear. Find that hunting knife and make sure it's sharp. Get out your compass and walk around the yard with it. Find your hunting hat. If you want or need new boots, now's the time to start breaking them in. If you need new maps, now's the time to order them.

Hunting season is coming. A little preparation now will make all the difference when that big mossy-horned buck steps out into the light. Get ready.

Live Earth Hypocrisy

It looks like the Live Earth concerts were not a total bust at focusing attention on how humans generate carbon. It turns out that the attractions are generating it at a monumental rate.

The Live Earth event is, in the words of one commentator: "a massive, hypocritical fraud". For while the organisers' commitment to save the planet is genuine, the very process of putting on such a vast event, with more than 150 performers jetting around the world to appear in concerts from Tokyo to Hamburg, is surely an exercise in hypocrisy on a grand scale.

Yeah, I thought so, but some of the numbers are revealing.

The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who specialises in such calculations. Throw in the television audience and it comes to a staggering 74,500 tonnes. In comparison, the average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.

In comparison, my household of three produces approximately 29 tons per year. (Yeah, yeah, we're talking British tonnes versus American tons, but you get the drift. COnverted to metric tonnes, I get a household figure of 26 tonnes per year, which is still under the average.)

When the folks who say it is a crisis start living and acting like it is truly a crisis, then I'll start worrying. As long as they're jet-setting around, trying to get me to reduce my carbon footprint then their whole career looks to me like one huge narcissistic hypocrisy.

Guns found in Library

It seems the maintenance man was working at the University of New Orleans library and found a set of guns. The article gives us no clue as to what kind of guns they were.

When a maintenance man was changing light bulbs Wednesday in the University of New Orleans' library, he found two items on a shelf that were obviously out of place: a pair of single-shot revolvers.

I've been playing with guns a long time and I've never heard of single shot revolvers. Revolvers, by their very nature, have more that one shot. The most common revolver is the standard 6-shooter.

The Times-Picayune gets it wrong, not once, but twice when they tell us that:

"If I were going to a gunfight, I wouldn't be going with a single-shot revolver," Harrington said.

I wouldn't either.

This is a simple case of a reporter, having no clue, not bothering to check the facts.

The Library Chronicles wonders if they can be had on Interlibrary Loan?

Wet, Wet, Wet

It's raining outside and has been raining all day long. While it's not as strong as they've been getting in north Texas, it keeps the ponds full and the kids inside. When you've got four grandkids hammering their way through a toy box inside that isn't a sound that PawPaws love. Grandmas love it, but PawPaws just sit near the computer and grumble.



It's rained every day this month. June was one of the wettest on record. North Louisiana is getting its share of rain. I took advantage of a three hour sunshine period yesterday and mowed the grass in the front yard. It was either that, or hire a hay-baler next week.

And, at noon, I'm still in my pajamas, which for me, is decadence overwrought. Nothing to do today but watch the steady, unrelenting drizzle. I do have some .30-06 brass that needs depriming and sizing. I might put on bluejeans and go into the garage. Or, I might just keep my pajamas and watch a movie.

Grandma took the kids to see a movie. They'll be back about noon, when the mommas are scheduled to pick up kids. Grandma works tonight, so PawPaw will be without adult supervision.

Savage Model 10 FLP

I got the Savage out of layaway on Tuesday and gave it to Joey on Wednesday.

His rifle, a Savage Model 10 FLP in .308 Winchester. This is the law enforcement rifle, a heavy barreled, short action, left hand turnbolt. He intends to punch holes in paper with it and maybe do a little hunting, but it's going to be mainly a target rifle. A 500 yard target rifle. It should be uniquely suited to that purpose. The rifle was designed as a police marksman rifle and has good reviews from every source I've found that reviews such rifles. I told Joey that I'd buy the rifle, but that he is on the hook for a scope and mounts. This rifle deserves a good scope.

This is the fourth Savage I've bought. I have two, the standard 111 FHNS in .30-06 and a standard Model 11 FNXP3 in .243 Winchester. Both of mine are capable of good hunting accuracy, in the range of 1", although with my old eyes, 2" off the bench and 3" using hunting positions are more like the accuracy I expect.

My second-son Matt has the 111 FV, basically a heavy barrel long action in 7mm Remington Magnum. Savage cataloged it for one year, several years ago and I was able to find one. Matt's rifle, off the bipod, is capable of 1/2 accuracy with good handloads. We've settled on a load of 64.2 grs of IMR4831 under a 140 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Remington brass, CCI magnum primers. This load is the standard for this rifle and the groups keep getting smaller. With less that 200 shots through the rifle, I suspect that the barrel is just now getting broke in and half-inch groups are probably as good as this rifle will do. Still, this is a full-house 7mm Magnum, throwing a 140 grain bullet at 3025 fps. That rifle ain't no slouch, either in the power or the accuracy department.

Joey's got a couple of boxes of ammo for his rifle and instructions on how to break it in. I've got a feeling that this is going to be a very accurate rifle.

One Fly

Our house, our home has a semi-open floorplan. Not as open as we would have liked, but in all things of life we make compromises and in the floorplan of this house, we made a compromise. The way the house is laid out is that the carport door is literally fifteen feet from the back door. The carport door is, like in most American homes, the most used door in the house.

We joke to one another that when the front doorbell rings, there is a stanger outside. Everyone who is not a stranger comes in through the carport. As we've made changes to the yard, we've managed to make our backyard an oasis of sorts. There is a lot of family traffic through the back yard. We entertain there when the weather allows.

Louisiana is host to a variety of insect life, of both the crawling and the flying varieties. There are houseflys in Louisiana and it seems that no matter what we do there is always one fly in this kitchen. As I blog this post there is one fly buzzing about, pestering the crap out of me. I intend to kill the little bastard and yes, I own a fly-swatter. It is on the table next to me as I type.

As I reflect on my life, it seems that the fly has become a metaphor for my personal outlook. Instead of focusing on the fact that I live in a nice house in a Great State in the best country in the world, I sometimes focus on the flys.

Something is always going to pester me, whether actually or metaphorically. I can't ignore the fly, simply because it aggravates me, but I shouldn't let it dictate to my psyche.

There's a moral here somewhere and I'll let someone else figure it out.

Haircuts.

I get mine free. I sit on a stool in the carport and my wife or daughter cuts my hair. Sometime the grandkids are around and we get them on the stool too. Three cuts for the price of one.

John Edwards, on the other hand, pays for his haircuts.

For four decades, Joseph Torrenueva has cut the hair of Hollywood celebrities, from Marlon Brando to Bob Barker, so when a friend told him in 2003 that a presidential candidate needed grooming advice, he agreed to help. The Beverly Hills hairstylist, a Democrat, said he hit it off with then-Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina at a meeting in Los Angeles that brought several fashion experts together to advise the candidate on his appearance. Since then, Torrenueva has cut Edwards's hair at least 16 times.

Torrennueva has cut Edwards hair at least 16 times. Well, okay. The guy wants a good style. He's got to look good in front of television cameras. I guess he can get a pass on having a professional cut his hair.

At first, the haircuts were free. But because Torrenueva often had to fly somewhere on the campaign trail to meet his client, he began charging $300 to $500 for each cut, plus the cost of airfare and hotels when he had to travel outside California.

Wait a minute. John Edwards, the senator from North Carolina, the hero of the downtrodden, the protector of New Orleans, the guy who says on his website that he wants to eliminate poverty. Well, he certainly is doing his part by paying for haircuts.

Torrenueva said one haircut during the 2004 presidential race cost $1,250 because he traveled to Atlanta and lost two days of work.

$1250.00 for one haircut? Whoa. That would feed a family of four for at least two months. He's eliminating poverty all right! Question is: Do we want to put this guy in charge of the Federal Budget?

$1250 for a haircut is extravagant. Flying a barber from California to Atlanta is decadent. John Edwards is so concerned about his appearance that he flies a barber from Californa to Atlanta. That is vanity run amok.

John Edwards. Vain, decadent, extravagant. That's just his haircuts. Champion of the poor. Can anyone here say hypocrite?

Semi-Annual Trek

I made my semi-annual trek to Alexandria today to buy liquor.

I bought a bottle of Kentucky Bourbon, a bottle of Canadian whiskey, a bottle of rum, and one bottle of pina colada mix. We will use some of these spirits tomorrow when we host a barbeque.

That amount of liquor will be sufficient for my needs until Christmas, when I'll make another trek for booze, probably in conjuntion with Christmas shopping.

It would be really nice to have the option of buying whiskey in Pineville. As you can tell from my purchases, I am not a drunk. I enjoy a bit of whiskey when I entertain. The nannies here in Pineville aren't going to stop me from having an occasional toddy, but they will make me drive across the river.

Of course, they lose the tax money that goes with liquor sales. If I want beer I can buy it here, and I do because I would rather that my tax dollar stays as close to home as possible, but the nannies in charge would rather I drive across the river. I bet that there are thousands of people who feel the same way I do about liquor in Pineville.

The folks who say that they don't want liquor in Pineville don't represent me. Trying to legislate morality never works. Trying to enact prohibition is a fool's mission. We proved that during Prohibition.

I'll continue to travel across the river and take my tax dollars there until the folks in Pineville, Tioga, and Ball wake up and understand that their little communities have changed since 1980. It's time for a local referendum.

Boating on the Red

I wouldn't put a recreational boat on the Red River right now, not for love nor money.

The Town Talk has an article on the problem this morning. For non-local readers, the Red River drains most of north Texas and southern Oklahoma, then it continues southeast and comes through Shreveport and on to Alexandria, where it meets the Mississippi at a place we call Three Rivers.

There have been massive rains in Texas and Oklahoma. Our rainfall here is above-average and the Red River is swollen. It's not at flood stage, but all the locks are open and the river is flowing nicely.

Twenty or twenty five years ago I was helping a friend run a string of trot lines on the Red River in Natchitoches Parish. The river had not yet been locked and dammed and we were working trot lines along the sandbars in the river catching catfish. I happened to look over toward the main channel and watched a gigantic tree with it's root ball float past, headed downsteam. I asked my buddy about it and he said that the river would undercut big trees that stood along the bank. Occasionally one of those trees would lose to the river, topple in, and float downstream. If two or mote trees fell in together, they would move downstream together with the mass and momentum of a locomotive engine.

In short, getting run over by a root ball would be like getting run over by a train.

That is in addition to the increased current, other debris in the water, and the generalized danger of the Red River at full flow. It's not at flood stage yet, but it's handling all the water that it can handle. Boating on the Red is dangerous right now.

Besides, we in Central Louisiana are blessed with lakes. Here around Alexandria/Pineville, I count... a bunch of lakes. There is Buhlow, Valentine, Stuart, Iatt, Saline, Cleco, Cotile, Kincaid, and Indian Creek, just to name a few. There is plenty of lake water around Alexandria for every one to enjoy time on the water.

Let's be safe this Fourth and remember our friends and family overseas. FOr myself, I am cooking for family and friends and will be busy standing over the barbeque pit and drinking whiskey. Happy Fourth, everyone.

Mary Landrieu and Immigration

A recent article in The Advocate asks if Senator Landrieu's recent vote wasn't a political vote.

The Landrieu vote is perceived by one expert to be the first sign of a delicate balancing act that she will have to maintain during the next year as she prepares to defend her Democratic seat in a state that Bush carried with 58 percent of the vote in 2004.

Sure it was. Mary is a political creature. All her votes are political.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Mary Landrieu seems to be a moderate. She is political enough to understand who put her in office and she makes sure her vote reflects the needs and opinions of her constituents. I could do a whole lot worse with another person in her seat.

I've had my differences with the Landrieu family in the past and with Mary in the past, but I have to admit she does a pretty good job as one of my Senators. She's not as quick to respond to email as Senator Vitter, or Representative Alexander, but I get updates from her occasionally.

Yeah, Mary's got her faults, but the senior Senator from Louisiana listens to me. That counts for a lot.

Folks who would criticize her should cut Mary some slack. If the Repubs don't field a whiz-bang candidate, she's going to be tough to beat. The way she's been voting lately, she suits me just fine.

LDWF Deer Tag Harvest Card

I was digging though my wallet today and found my deer tag harvest card. Issued by the Louisiana Dept of Wildlife and Fisheries, it purports to keep track of deer harvested and requires that we report this information to the Department at the end of the year.

I need to mail mine in. The instructions on the bottom of the card say that we can report it online, but they fail to give us a web address where we can report the deer killed. I've been searching the site for the past half hour, without success.

It's my considered opinion that a reporting site online for the program simply doesn't exist. I have a long love/hate relationship with LDWF, mainly because they print things on the cards, like "Must be returned after deer hunting season for validation, or submitted at LDWF internet site.", then they never bother to set up the internet site. That is basic incompetence. It is my opinion that most of the people who work at LDWF are basically incompetent. It really is that simple.

But, just because the state is incompetent doesn't mean we shouldn't report the deer we killed. Hopefully, some good biologist can use the data we voluntarily report. Of course, if you were trying to skew the data, you'd just make something up and send in bad data, but I'm not going to recommend that. My card is accurate as to sex, type, date, and parish killed. All the blocks are filled in. I didn't kill a deer last year and my card reflects NONE KILLED.

Be sure to mail in your Deer Tag Harvest Card.

Crappy Phones

We sure have sunk to new lows in this country, the things we'll put up with from our phone company(s).

Remember when telephones were indestructible? You could rip it from the wall, bounce it off the floor, use it to hammer a nail, then plug it back in and get dial tone?

Try that with your cell phone. Cell phones are disposable telephones. You can't soak them in water, or coke, or M&M's, from my certain knowledge and expect that they'll continue to function. They have multiple functions. Some have cameras. I've learned that when you combine functions, like camera phone, you get a crappy phone and a crappy camera.

Today, the Iphone comes out. The ultimate function phone. It's supposed to combine file-management, with motion picture, with Internet, with telephone. I bet it sucks at everything. And people will pay for it anyway. Which really surprises me, because up till recently, I wouldn't pay for a phone. Recently, I paid 29.95 for a cool flip phone that isn't as good as the free Nokia I soaked in coca-cola.

I'd pay for a phone that was rugged. A phone I could drop in the pool. A phone I could drop in my pocket and wade through the swamp. A phone that would survive in a pocket with keys and a pocketknife. A phone that could ride on the motorcycle and slide down the road like a pebble. That's a phone I'd pay for. If I want a camera, I'll bring a camera. If I want a computer, I'll bring a computer. I don't need all that in a telephone. I do need a rugged telephone that will survive all that I and four grandkids can put it through.

Sunday Nite

We're back. The ocean is still there, although I saw it through the eyes of children this weekend.

When children first see the ocean they try to put it into perspective, into the perspective of something they know. Their first sighting of the water is excited, overwhelmed, and just a little afraid. Something that big must be powerful. Something that big must be dangerous.

Then, the fear recedes and is replaced with questioning and wonderment and if those questions are answered sufficiently, the adventure with the salt begins.


In this picture, little brother is geared up and headed for the water.



In this one, big brother and Dad whip a floating tricycle to their will.

It's good to be home. We have less than 120 days till deer season.