The Hobo Brasser is Snow-Birding in Texas again. I received this email from him a couple of days ago. The say that" Old Dogs can't learn New Tricks". That may be true, but anybody who's a shooter knows that any excuse to shoot somebody else's guns is a good excuse.
Well last Sunday it was either drive 320 mi round trip to Corpus Christi @ 2.79/gal or shoot Cowboy in McAllen. There is a local small, but very active cowboy group here. I know all of them, because they all shoot speed steel and some shoot IPSC. Three of them offered to let me use their guns. A no brainer huh?
They had four stages and in all it took about the same length of time as an IPSC match. Each stage had 10 rifle, 10 pistol and 2-4 shotgun. The guns I borrowed were a Marlin model 1894, two Ruger Bisleys and a model 94 shotgun with a short barrel. The rifle and pistols were in .38 spl. I supplied my own ammo.
On all stages the course description called for one on each and repeat with the pistols. My very first pistol target, I double tapped for a procedural. Old habits don't die they just surface at inopportune times. Cowboy scores time+ so I had 15 seconds added to my time for this and a miss I had on another stage. I finished 3rd overall out of 14 shooters and was 7 secs behind 2nd place. 27 behind first place.
It was a lot of fun. Cowboy requires you to remember things like how many shots on each target and a sequence to shoot them. I got a shotgun target out of sequence, but was not penalized when several people pointed out that the walkthrough was not specific enough.
I'm not rushing out and buying new guns and lord knows I cannot afford the clothes, but all said, I will be doing this again next month.
Talking to the shooters, all friends from other disciplines, I learned some interesting things about cowboy guns. Most, if not all, cowboy guns do not run smoothly off the shelf. They have to be tuned. Even double barrel shotguns. Uberti rifles are way over priced. Two people have them and said they had to tune and polish and keep working on them. On guys said he will not have another one. The most popular rifles are Marlins and the pistols are 90% Ruger's of one model or another.
Next month I'll wear my cowboy boots and maybe get a cheap hat (I left my good one at home-in Oregon). Ah well, next Sunday is speed steel and at the end of February I will drive to Corpus for the Texas State Carbine Championships which I will shoot with my CX4.
There's more there than I ever wanted to know about SASS, but it appears that the Good Ol' Boys in Texas aren't too proud to let a Dude shoot with him. Suppose he wore his Air Jordans to the match?
If not, you may not be aware of the angst which accompanies the lack of documentation.
I received an email tonite:
I was looking at your site and noticed that you have an early model pro-point on one of your rifles. I have the same model scope on my Rem 7615 and it was working really well until I lost the battery (Took it our for storage) Anyway no one seems to be able to tell me what batttery the scope takes. I was wondering if you could help.
Mick from Melbourne
I replied:
As nearly as I can tell (I have the box around here somewhere, but I'm too lazy to trash the garage to find it), the scope is a PP1.
It uses two batteries, and they're different!
The first battery is an "LR50". I can't tell you the manufacturer offhand, but the one I have is made in China. Isn't everything? It's about 7/16" in diameter and 5/8" long. (All dimensions are estimates.)
The second battery is designated "LR52". Same diameter, but the OAL is less than the diameter. I would guess 3/8".
I can't give you the voltage (or wattage, ohms or whatever) and I don't know if it matters how you stack them ... I suspect not. I have been putting the longer LR50 in first (flat/positive side 'down') and the shorter LR52 on top (also flat/positive side down.) ... I have just tested this by inserting the batteries in the opposite order. That is, I put the short (LR52) in first, then the long (LR50) on top. I couldn't get the dot to work. That may be because I messed up the very simple test, or else it may honestly indicate that it matters which battery you insert first.
I removed the batteries and put the LR50 in first and the LR52 on top, and the red dot was visible when I turned the scope on.
My conclusion is that it may NOT make a difference, but I can definitely say that if you put the long battery in first and the short battery in on top, the scope should work.
Just in case you were wondering ...
UPDATE: 26-AUG-2007 According to The Hobo Brasser, his Pro Points (obviously newer than my PP1) use the CR2032 battery. I'm thinking this is the same as the battery used by the OK Sight, which means it's about the size and shape of an American quarter.
I know, this description may be of limited value to Mick in Australia.
Albany Rifle & Pistol Club is hosting the 2007 Oregon State Championship for the Single Action Society.
This is an annual event at ARPC for a couple of reasons. First, the sport is very popular in the Mid-Willamette valley of Oregon, and second the facilities at ARPC lend themselves quite nicely to Major Matches. Lots of bays with lots of room; lots of fields for lots of parking, dinner tents and vendor areas. Easy freeway access, within 90 drive of major airport, etc etc etc. (Shades of Yul Brynner abound here.)
SWMBO and I spent a couple of hours today (Saturday 8/18/07) walking the range, talking to the competitors and doing a lot of shooting ... using "Open Division" type compact video cameras.
The results of our picture taking can be seen at the "Shootout at Saddle Butte" album on Jerry the Geek's Video Shooting Gallery. So far, we've only posted 81 and two edited videos. We still have a few videos to edit and post here, plust we expect to spend a couple more hours tomorrow (Sunday) on the last match of the day to see what happens at "The End Of The Trail".
This sport, briefly, looks little like IPSC but the denizens of the Cowboy Corral sound a lot like IPSC shooters:
"Don't get too in interested in this, it's addictive!"
"I started this because (name your spouse, friend or co-worker) liked it. I stick with it because the people are so darned nice."
Abbreviated post tonite. You can spend the day looking at the pictures, clink the link.
More Sunday night, perhaps I won't get around to editing and posting all of the pictures for a couple of days.
There's more there than I ever wanted to know about SASS, but it appears that the Good Ol' Boys in Texas aren't too proud to let a Dude shoot with him. Suppose he wore his Air Jordans to the match?
