MWG: FREE AR-15 Magazines

MWG: AR-15 Magazines, Ruger 10/22 Magazines & Mini 14 Magazines

H/T: Earthworm

The MWG Company is . . .

the manufacture and distributor of the 90 Rounder High Capacity Magazines for the AR-15 / M16 & Mini 14, the 50 Rounder magazine for the Ruger 10/22 and quality gun accessories such as Rifle Scopes and Rifle Stocks for the discriminating shooter in the competition, varmint and tactical disciplines.

Earthworm sent me the link, because I'm the only blogger he knows. (Poor Earthworm, must watch television when he could be reading Geek-length purple prose about IPSC shooting here at Cogito Ergo Geek.)

If I link to the MGW website on my sidebar, and write a daily entry and hyperlink it to their website, they will send me two new AR-15 magazines for free.

Here's the deal:

MWG Company is giving away 100 AR-15 MAGAZINES to people who have a Blog and link to our site. That’s correct, use your first amendment right, speaking your mind in your Blog could get you a 2 FREE 10 Round or 5 Round AR-15 MAGAZINE (a $36 Value with free shipping). Simple just add the keyword “AR-15 MAGAZINES” to your side bar and one daily entry and hyper link it to http://www.mwgco.com.

Once you have added the link to your Blog, E-mail us the URL of your Blog, Name and Address to webmaster@mwgco.com. We will review your site and if your one of the first 50 people who meets the rules we will mail you a 2 FREE AR-15 MAGAZINES .

That Simple!

The Rules:

1. You must have a Blog that has a been active for over 3 months.
2. The key word “AR-15 MAGAZINES ” must be linked to http://www.mwgco.com
3. The key word “AR-15 MAGAZINES ” must be viewable on the side bar through out the site and one daily entry.
4. E-mal us the URL of your Blog, Name and Address at webmaster@mwgco.com. Please include if you want a two 10 Rounder, 5 Rounder or combo.

Participating Blogs:

nothingspectacular	the griz lives on	RedneckAsianGunfanatic:
Justins Guns And Stuff	gandalf23	Ry Jones
tjic.com	SayUncle	The Smallest Minority
TriggerFinger	Mostly Cajun	Hell In A Handbasket
comedian	one-in-a-row	lewisofarabia
AngryLittleAsianBoy

Okay, I think I've pretty much accomplished most of it. Now all I have to do is to email them, and let them send me the magazines (a $36 value). Kewl.

Only problem is, I don't have an AR-15. Earthworm doesn't, either. He said if I sent them to him, he would give it to his local 'Junior Program'.

More kewl ... they have a Practical Rifle Junior Program in Jersey?

But that's a lot of trouble.

Tell you what. When I get the magazines, I'll toss them in my range bag (or in the GeekJeep) and bring them with me to local IPSC matches. The first one who comes up to me at an IPSC match and says "Hey, Geek, I have an AR-15, give me the magazines!" gets them.

I won't hold them for anyone, and it only works if I have the magazines with me.

You won't know when I have them, and I have no idea how long it will take MGW to decide to send them to me.

I'll announce the winner here, and maybe even include your picture (if you're the winner, and if you don't object to having your picture taken. Of course, if you DO object, you're a wuss and I'll tell the world about it. Think it over.)

I figure MGW is doing this to announce their website. I'm doing this for the same reason, to know who's reading my website.

I'll keep you posted, and maybe I'll even tell you when/if I receive the magazines.

On the other hand, maybe not.

And if I don't receive the magazines in what I consider a 'reasonable time', I'll let you know about that, too.

In the meantime, you can practice saying the secret phrase. Remember, if you don't say the magic words . . .

"Hey, Geek, I have an AR-15, give me the magazines!"

. . . I'm not obligated to give you the magazines.

Croc Match Videos I

For months, I've been threatening to post IPSC Match Videos online.

I have software and an IP which allow me to post photos, but the movies are a lot more complicated.

Now, thanks to Brian B. (whose name I can't spell correctly), I have access to a IP who not only provided the server but also a lot of coaching so that The Geek can share videos with everyone.

(H/T to SWMBO, who actually filmed movies at the 2005 Croc Match.)

Right now, I have about 200MB of movies, mostly from the Croc Match. Here are the first few videos. Please download the files and save them on your PC, rather than attempt to view them directly. In this case, "BandWidth" IS a serious consideration, and when the files are accessed in any way other than 'download', it makes the data access run slower for everyone.

Be advised that the maximum download rate is something like 97 KB/s and these files run from 7 to 15 MB. I'll try to keep you informed about the subject, the file size, and the significance of each video.

THE DOORS

This is a 62-round-minimum, 310-point Comstock stage which requires the competitor to do a LOT of movement, keep track of rounds shot and rounds remaining in the magazine, and find the very best solution to the shooting problem based on his or her own strengths . . . and magazine capacity. The back wall, built with orange perforated snow-fencing, features ports which are partially blocked by doors. In the far right and left hand corners of this back array, Pepper Poppers are situated at extreme angles. When they are shot and knocked down, they move the doors to partially obscure one port and completely open another port right next to it. When you are shooting a 10-round max capacity class (Limited 10 or Production), you are forced to do a 'standing reload'. Also, the arrays which feature the Pepper Poppers also have 4 IPSC targets, which means that you need a minimum of 9 rounds to successfully engage all targets. Even if you're shooting a hi-cap gun, you require a minimum of 17 rounds to complete both adjacent arrays without reloading.

Designed by Marty Lee, this stage challenges the competitor to not only keep track of round-count and perform reloads ONLY when needed, but because it requires a lot of movement it tempts the competitor to push the 180-line when moving backwards to engage the three sloped targets hiding behind barrels at the uprange end of each side. Whether the competitor if moving uprange or downrange, it's entirely possible to DQ on this stage because it is loaded with 180-traps.

Besides that, it's a HUGE stage. In future posts, we'll see gun jams, DQ's, and competitors searching their pockets for that last magazine in order to complete it.

But first, let's watch the match winner, and the winner of Production Class, as they work their similar-but-different approaches to this Monster Stage.

(Look at the videos, or the still at the end of the post, to get a 'feel' for the stage. The still-pictures of Yong Lee and Darrion Holliwell were taken on the Jungle Run stage, and are included only to identify them.)


The first video (I'll only include two, as a trial) is Limited GM Yong Lee shooting the stage in Bay 4 at the 2005 Croc Match. Click on this link to download it.

(Same file available from the URL shown below)

http://jerrythegeek.arpc-ipsc.org/5CrocV/HPIM2211.MPG

(File size 8.28MB, download time 1:30 at 97 KB/s,Video time 43 seconds.)

Well, that went well. You'll have to look at a lot of videos to see THIS stage run any faster. Actual run time was 21.96 seconds for 283 points, and since Yong Le won the stage he was awarded the maximum 310 points.



Here's what it looks like when shot in Production Division. The shooter is Darrion Holiwell, who rode down from the Seattle area to shoot this Oregon match.

http://jerrythegeek.arpc-ipsc.org/5CrocV/HPIM2210.MPG

(File size 8.48MB, download time 1:30 at 97 KB/s,Video time 43 seconds.)

Can you see the awkward choices the Production Shooter has to make in deciding when to reload? About 9 or 10 seconds into the stage, he has to make a reload to shoot only four (4) rounds at two IPSC targets (not visible in the film.)

Darrion completed the stage in 36.81 and earned 274 pounts for a stage total of 179.0563 points and a 38th place for the stage.

For comparison, I completed the stage (shooting Open with hi-cap mags) in 27.22 seconds and 274 points, but I racked up 70 points in penalties for missed shots which earned me a stage score of 49th place and 162 stage points.

No videos exist of my run on this stage. It cost me a lot to make them disappear, but it was worth it.

Future posts will eventually NOT display the entire URL, but will only show the highlighted link to the file. Just click on it, follow the instructions on the pop-up. If your browser doesn't support this click-and-download option, please email me (address at the bottom of the page) and let me know. I don't mind showing the URL, it just makes the post seem kind of cluttered.

Here's a look at the stage without all the action:

October Blogmeat

FLYING WITH AMMO
Publicola has done his homework on recent TSA regulations concerning flying with ammo. Seems there are existant laws that still apply. Of course, that doesn't mean that you can figure out how to put your handloads 'in the original package'.

PENNY ALCOHOL BACKING STOVE
Mark Jurey *(no, I've never heard of him either) tells us how to make a perfect "Penny Alcohol Backpacking Stove" out of three beer cans. H/T Waddcutter.

Yes, I've read the directions. No, I don't understand them. But I appreciate the "First, drink three Heinekins" part of the directions. Apparently, you can't follow the directions without the beer.

(Is this anything like the classic directions for Hassenpfeffer? "First, catch a rabbit.")


CARNIVAL OF CORDITE
Gullyborg is hot to trot with some fascinating links (including some Birdman Weapons Systems stuff that I haven't seen before . . . and much that I have) and a sh*tpot of Gratuitous Gun Photos. Check it out here. It's worth it if only just for the pictures. No, I didn't contribute this week. Again.




WTF?

Canoe has it's photoday picture up, here's a piece of it.



Naw, The Geek isn't showing this! It's a fly in the ointment!

Go here to get the whole thing, and shame on you!



Tanks For The Memories

Am I the only one who is interested in Tanks?

I mean, besides The Donovan, who is the (h/t) source for this website.

Photos of WWII ("The Big One") tanks, gratuitously displayed and lovingly detailed.
I'm liking this, it's on my permanent bookmark.

Here's a sample:



BookBinder

Finally, here's a link that proves you can get information here that you can't get anywhere else.

There's probably a reason for that.

Uh, no, I'm wrong. This is (h/t) from Ghost of a Flea.

You can make book on it.

Target Taper Alternative

The Unofficial IPSC List has noted that CED offers a different target taper, which is, in the minds of some people, superior to that previously sold by TargetTaper.COM.



The "Quick Patch" target taper (above) sells for $79.95, compared to $44.95 for the T-4000 Target Taper (below).

One advantage of the Quick Patch model is that it " . . . will handle most brands of full size patches available on the market today." The pasters shown in the Quick Patch picture looks like the kind of pasters which you can get from Target Barn for hand-patching targets.


The price from Target Barn for these pasters is $3.50 per two rolls of 500, making it competitive with the price from CED.

I have to admit, I do prefer these pasters because they're bigger than those used by the T-4000 Target Taper. It doesn't make much difference usually, except that the larger pasters make it EASIER to completely mask a .45 caliber bullet hole. Why? The pasters for the T-4000 are easily 3/4 inches on one dimension, but only about a half-inch on the other. The Target Barn pasters mentioned above seem to be about 3/4 inch square.

Also, the larger patches provide more area to stick to the cardboard, and may stay on the target more reliably when sloppily applied.

On the other hand, the patches sold by CED for the T-4000 cost just $2.50 for a 1000-paster roll. Compare this to the $3.50 price for 1000 of the larger pasters, which cost 40% more.

The Quick Patch gun costs about 80% more, the patches used for the Quick Patch cost 40% more.

(Also, you can buy a new T-4000 plus 25 rolls of tape [12,500 pasters] for $92.95 in the "Club Kit". The same price will buy you a new Quick Patch $79.95 and $13 worth of pasters . . . 3,000 pasters and you have a dollar left over to fritter away as you please.)

On the other hand, those who have used both prefer the Quick Patch for ease of use, and I have already cited the advantages of the larger pasters.

I suppose your choice will be a matter of personal preference. I've managed to get along fine with the T-4000 for three years, and after going through about 100 rolls of pasters the taper is still working fine, so I probably won't change. However, The Hobo Brasser has been experiencing problems with the tape jamming in his T-4000 for several months, and nobody can figure out what the problem is.

On the other hand, he has feeding problems with his Caspian, too.

Target Taper

Last week I ordered another box of brown target tapes from targettaper.com



I bought my Target Taper from them about three years ago, and it has worked great. I use a box of tapes (25 rolls, $50) in a little less than a year.

I was down to my last four rolls of tape, so I went to the website at http://targettaper.com/ and put in my order. They have an online order page, which I used, but I didn't give them my credit card number because I noticed it was an unsecured website. I wasn't comfortable with sending my credit card number when it isn't an encrypted transaction. Instead, I clicked "I'll Send A Check" and completed the order, then printed the order. I wrote out a check for $50. Then I thought again, and sent an email describing the process and a warning that this was NOT a second order, to the email address displayed on the web page (creativesales@ridgenet.net, which I note is no longer active) with a copy to myself. I printed out THAT document, and stuffed all the paperwork and the check into an envelope and sent it to the address given on the webpage. It was so fat, I put two stamps on it.

Job well done, what?

This morning, as I was walking to my office from the parking lot, I got a call on my cell phone. It was someone from Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED), and he wanted to talk to me about my Target Taper order!

The story is, CED has been selling the Target Taper and tapes here "for years", according to the guy on the phone, and they finally just decided to buy the silly old company. Unfortunately, my order came in right in the middle of finalizing the project (I love these managerial buzz-phrases - don't you?) CED told me that the Target Taper (TT) guy was suppose to take his website down, or stop people from ordering there, or otherwise no longer sell the product, but he doesn't seem to have got around to that little detail yet.

As a consequence, CED did receive my order, but the TT guy got my check. That is, CED assumes he got my check.

But TT had been selling the tapes for the stated cost of $50 (CED charges $49.95), and didn't bother to tell you what the Shipping and Handling charges (S&H) will be. CED is much more businesslike, so they're charging the $49.95 plus NINE DOLLARS S&H from Pennsylvania. They don't mention that S&H charge until after you have completed the order, by the way. I just tested it, I didn't take the test transaction down to where they ask you how you're going to actually pay for the bloody thing.

So, here's were we stand right now: Me (GEEK ), Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED), and the old business Target Taper (TT):

• CED has GEEK order, promises to ship immediately
• TT has GEEK check, and isn't saying anything to GEEK or to CED
• GEEK has no tapes, no money, but fine promises
  
• CED trusts GEEK about the check, but will bill said GEEK for the S&H
• CED will negotiate with TT to get the check
• GEEK will believe it all when he sees it

The bottom line is some GEEK advice:

Don't sent any orders to TargetTaper.com

Target Taper makes/made an excellent product, but since they're apparently no longer in the business of selling that excellent product, I would STRONGLY advise you to take your tape gun orders directly to the CED website, do not pass go, do not send money to TT. You may send your order to TT as long as the website remains active, which it is at the time of this writing . . CED is obviously receiving the orders . . . but unless you're just so lonely that you'll do anything to get an 8:30 am phone call from a vendor asking "WHERE THE HECK IS MY MONEY?" (in the very nicest way of course) you might seriously consider taking your business directly to the new owner and pay the S&H like a gentleman.

Once again, this link will take you DIRECTLY to the place where CED will sell you all the tapers and tapes you could use:

http://www.cedhk.com/show.php/Object605

Yes, I realize I could have said all of that in about three terse sentences and a link.
But what's the fun in that?

Administrivia

GOOD NEWS!

Kim du Tuit may have closed his website, but there is a "new website" under the name "The Nation Of Riflemen" available. There has been no transitional message, but the 'look and feel' of the original website has been preserved.

So have the politics, the attitudes, the gratuitous gun pictures, the photos of sultry movie-type babes, etc etc etc.

I don't know who the 'new editor' is, but I have a sneaking suspicion that his background is "African American" and his initials are KdT.

YMMV.


MORE GOOD NEWS!

I've added the Day By Day Cartoon to this weblog. As a courtesy to those with modem access [envision smug GeekSmirk here], I've placed it in the FOOTER, so that access to the most recent post(s) will not be delayed while the DBD image is downloaded and displayed. Just scroll to the bottom of the page. I see no reason to EVER click on the link (see the sidebar on the right) but I'll leave it there anyway.


INCIDENTAL SIDE NOTE:
As this weblog evolves, I've added more and more links, options and helpful tools such as the 'look up your IPSC classifier record" function in the sidebar, and links to books & movies (even sometimes music albums) which I've found interesting.

I would sure like you to believe that I do this as a service to you, assuming that you have similar interests to my own. That's partly true, but I've found that I often call up my own blog when I want to access a frequently viewed website and I don't care to look through my browser history log for the URL. In fact, I've cheated the Columbia Cascade Section out of some traffic to that website (sorry, Mark) by linking directly to the Match Results websites of the clubs in that section. I did this when my only online access was via AOL/Modem, and I didn't care to wait for the background . . . however scenic . . . to load. Since this website is ALWAYS up when I'm browsing, it's a lot quicker and easier to click ONE link instead of following the CCS website framed webpath.

If you are an IPSC competitor and would like to see direct links to interesting websites here, let me know. I'm inclined to be choosey about which links I feature, if only because my sidebar is sometimes longer than the content pages! But I'll certainly consider it and, if it's a webpage that I like to visit, I'll add it to the sidebar and announce it here.

Maybe I'll even give you credit for the suggestion, if it's good, such as:



And if it's totally bogus (or worse, Commercial, I'll give you the Thumbs Down:

Blue Skies in Albany

I shot a match today.

No big deal, I do it every weekend when there's a Club Match. And there was nothing particularly amazing about this match, except for the second match in a row there was NO RAIN!

That may seem like a small thing to you, sitting in your big chair in front of the computer. But it was a very important part of our day, for Those Of Us Who Were There.

I wish I had taken more pictures today, but unfortunately SWMBO was not in attendance (having taken the day off to organize her new home), and I couldn't count on her to do part of the picture-taking chores. I missed her for other reasons, of course, but as it turned out I spent most of my photo-time taking videos . . . which I can't display on this website (nor link to, but that will change momentarily. Or so I am reliably informed by The Webserver Guy, Brian B.)

As a consequence, I can only offer photos of three of the six stages presented today. I'm delighted to be able to do this, because I've just established a credit account with my Image Server, IMAGESHACK, which allows me to gang-load photos. You'll have to bear with me while I abuse this new-bought privilege; it's nice to be able to upload a dozen photos at a time, as I have been doing all evening.

By now, you are aware that the main purpose of this article is to show some pictures of people shooting IPSC. It may not be a Noble Purpose, but I like to shoot and I like to see other people shoot. This venue allows me to relive the events that add such richness to my otherwise mundane life.



The match winner (to nobody's special surprise), Grand Master Rob S., is shown here shooting the "Podium" stage. I believe the actual name of the stage is "HOW FAR?" as is defined in the match results page conveniently provided on the Internet within hours of the end of the match. Just another service of ARPC, and Webmaster Brian B. (who PROMISES that I'll have web hosting for my videos "real soon now".) This was the last stage of the day. There's a podium in for the starting box. You start with the pistol on a shelf in the podium in front of you, and all reload magazines must be taken from the podium. Four IPSC targets. Shoot two rounds per target, reload, repeat, reload, repeat. Twenty four rounds, 120 points, real tough for revolver shooters (of which we had one at the match today.) RO is Norm the Ungrateful.



Here's Trevor O., a school teacher who is an A-Limited and A-L10 shooter in his premiere match as an Unclassified Open shooter. He's using a compensated Glock with a slide-mounted dot-sight in unclassified Open division. He kicked my B-Open butt, as did a number of other competitors today.



In another stage ("Da Ding") you get to shoot through three ports at eight-round arrays consisting of two IPSC targets and three Pepper Popper. Behind the middle Pepper Popper there's a forward-falling US Popper. Very challenging, especially if you don't realize (as Rob S. didn't) that it's not going to fall 'normally'. Here, Caryn S. prepares to beat the snot out of me with a sizzling 13.50 second time. Oh, yeah, I beat her TIME, but I had a couple of misses which pretty much proves ... something. (I think it proves that she's a better shot, and a better competitor, than I am. You think?)



Here's the view through the left port of "Da Ding".



On the third stage (stage 4, "Loud Star", which was the last stage our squad shot today) Caryn is in the starting box and preparing to beat my butt yet one more time. Well, actually this was one of the few stages where I managed to squeak ahead of her, but the final results put her well ahead of me. She's a fine competitor, and I enjoy squadding with her and Rob because they both teach me lessons in competitive shooting which I somehow never manage to learn.

In this stage, you engage four IPSC targets from the starting box, then there are four more downrange (along The Wall, which is the stacked concrete blocks) to engage as you move downrange. When you get to the end of the way, which with a series of vision barriers forms a narrow hall, you find a Texas Star with four plates on the five arms, plus another static plate.

Why is the stage called "Loud Star"? That's because the concrete wall bounces the noise of every shot back at you, only to be turned into a thrumming noise by the visquine barrier four feet away from it. Shooting in this corridor is an exercise in Noise Abatement Gone Wrong, courtesy of Mikey the Mad Stage Designer.

The worst thing about the day was that SWMBO couldn't be there to share the experience. The best thing? NO RAIN!

I almost wish it had rained, so SWMBO wouldn't feel that she had missed a good match.

Good match.

Sorry, SWMBO.

Dundee Mudders

Two weeks ago, I shot a match at the Dundee club. Fourth Saturday, be there rain or shine. You know the drill.

Turned out to be a clear, dry day despite having occured after Labor Day. The rule of thumb in Oregon is that you can expect no weather more clement than 'rainy' after the first weekend in September, but we got lucky.

Except that the creek through the Jungle Run was running full, and the Dundee folks found fit to put a target right above the creekbed in that stage.

Most folks managed to be either faster or slower than the resulting mud spray, but a few of us timed our charge past the target just right so we got the splatter.

Jerry V. was the Best Of The Messed.



Brent R. caught a few drops.


And The Hobo Brasser even found himself wearing the Mud of Glory (click for hi-res . . . there's not enough mud to show up on a thumbnail. One Drop on his shirt, and he considers himself A Mudder. Sheesh!)


I had Jerry V. take my picture, but it disappeared somewhere between here and there. Nevermind, take it from me that I was THERE when the Hit hit the fan.


Those who weren't splattered were either moving too fast or too slow. They didn't get splattered, and I personaly believe that their glee at viewing our splattered shirts is nothing short of schedenfreud. Bad Karma, guys.


Norm The Ungrateful cleverly wore a shirt which didn't show mud . . .




And Rod C. is the Sultan of Smug.



But wait, there's more!

One of our juniors, Chris C., found himself in a very bad place during the Jungle Run. He had a double-charge, or something, which blew up his Glock. Can you say "Ka-BOOM!"? Sure you can.

Chris handled the results of Evil Ammo exceptionally well. Sure, he dropped the Glock into the mud and ate the trip to Dairy Queen (Match DQ), but it turned out okay otherwise. The KaBOOM! jammed the case in the gun, jammed the slide, broke the Mag Release mechanism. When we recovered the pistol from the mud, we couldn't rack the slide to clear the gun. So we bagged it, Chris and this father Jeff took it to the safety area, and with some help from GlockSmiths on the range managed to pull the slide off and extract the barrel. The revealed case wasn't obviously split, but it took some doing to remove it.


(Don't get too worked up about the round-in-the-barrel at the Safety Area. It was impossible to work on the gun anywhere else, and Chris had already been DQ'd. The gun was patently non-functional.)



In a later stage, Chris and his father Jeff are shown with Chad and KC McD. watching other shooters. Everybody seems to be having a good time; perhaps because they are watching someone shoot the Texas Star and they're just glad it's not their turn to deal with the challenge.



Walt and Stephan seem to share this attitude, perhaps because they've already shot the stage and have dealt with the worse the Star has to offer.



It was a good match, a challenging match, and while there were few memorable action photos, we saw a lot of people having fun no matter what difficulties they had to deal with.

That's what we came out for, after all.

Getting muddy was just an added bonus.

UPDATE: Comments-Spammer Alert!

Tyler the Rash Guards Guy ... this sight does not accept comments advertising commercial websites. Especially from YOUR lame website, which has been Geekatized and designated . . .

Croc Match Pix Offer

I've received several requests for copies of the photos which SWMBO took at the Croc Dundee "Banzaii Ballistic" match last month.


I've decided to make them available.


As it stands,

I have over 2GB of photos, mostly stills but also some videos, of the match. This includes the awards ceremony, the shooters' meeting, photos of the stages before the match, fathers & sons, etc. ad infinitum.

The bulk of the pictures are people actually shooting stages. SWMBO tried hard to get at least one photo of everyone, even if they were only in group shots and even if the people weren't actually competing. It's impossible if she managed to achieve her goal, but she took enough pictures that there's at least an even chance that if YOU were there, your picture can be found. Somewhere.



(There are a lot of videos of people either doing very well, or screwing up. Since the eight stages average over 50 rounds minimum, the most common error is forgetting to reload when planned, or for some other reason having to make a standing reload. There's also at least one Match DQ, and at least one "Broken Gun".)

We intend to use a few of these photos to illustrate an upcoming article which we will submit to the Front Sight Magazine. Only a few of the hundreds of pictures will be used, if the article is accepted. And of course, the magazine will not be able to publish videos.

I also intend to make some of the photos and videos available online, when I have worked out the details of establishing a host server (in process, I received confirmation that the storage WILL be available, up to 10GB . . . but that's in the future and I don't intend to include more than a select few of these pictures there.)

That means that most of these pictures won't be seen by anybody else, and it seems as if there is some demand for copies from people who competed at the 2005 Croc Match.



So if YOU have any interest in acquiring a set of these pictures (probably either 3 or 4 CDs, depending on how many are left after I edit out the few out-of-focus and redundant pictures), let me know by emailing me at
jerrythegeek@comcast.net

If there is enough interest, I will make copies and send them to you.



To pay for materials, postage, and our time in photographing and editing the photos and cutting the CDs, I will ask for a nominal contribution of . . . mmmmmm . . . ten dollars. Does that sound fair? That will cover the cost of materials, and postage, and won't begin to pay for my time in duplicating the CDs. I don't have a duplicating service available, these CDs will be duplicated one at a time using Roxio. This is a cottage industry, at best. We're all amateurs here.



No guaratees that you will even be in the photos, folks. And, since I don't have releases from anybody for display of their images, these are NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR DUPLICATION, AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED BY ANY MEANS FOR PUBLIC DISPLAY! (All images copyright 2005 by Jerry the Geek.) The people in the photos will not be identified, nor will the stages.

To make it interesting, and to fill unused space on the 700MB CDs, I'll probably include the match results and (if I can find the) the stage descriptions. Perhaps some public-domain videos of firearms-related 'incidents' may be included also. These last will be 'stuff' I have downloaded from the web, because I found them interesting.

I also have two CDs of pictures taken by other people: Ron Downs and Norm Bright. If they give me their permission, I will include some or all of the images they have provided me, as well. This will add at least one more CD to that package.

If you are interested, and have emailed me asking for a copy, I'll send you my snail-mail address. You can send me a check for ten dollars ($10 US) and I'll send you the set of CDs.


Jerry the Geek

Airhead Oregon

Methamphetamine addiction is problem in Oregon.

According to the Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal in a September 16 article, 75% of inmates in the Marion county (Salem) jails and work-centers "reported problems with meth addiction".

Apparently the efforts of state and local police to shut down Meth Labs are insufficient to stem the flow of methamphatamines to your friendly neighborhood Crystal addict.

So what did Oregon do?

Having no better targets, the Oregon Legislature (which meets every two years, and need to do SOMETHING to justify their office) has decided to limit the supply of precursor chemicals upon which meth labs depend.

They passed a law which required retailers to take Sudafed and Drixoral, and any other decongestant which includes pseudophines and methamphetamines, off their shelves and only sell them directly over the counter. To buy these cold remedies, the consumer must ask for the OTC medicine by name and present ID. The purchase is entered into a log, along with the identifying number on your driver's license or other such appropriate photo ID.

That doesn't seem to be cutting down on the supply to the meth labs, so the Oregon legislature passed ANOTHER law, which will come into effect in 2006. This law "requires people to have prescriptions for cold and allergy medications that can be converted into methamphetamine."

In a recent interview with MS-NBC, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski had an interesting exchange with the hosts, Ron Reagan (may the REAL Ronald Reagan rest in peace) and Monica Crowley :

MONICA CROWLEY, HOST CONNECTED COAST TO COAST: Well governor, you’re come up with a creative way to combat this problem, you’ve signed into law legislation that would require people to have a prescription for what was formally an over-the-counter medication.

Tell us how this works, lets say someone has a cold and they need, say, Sudafed, are they going to have to go to their doctor and get a prescription?

KULONGOSKI: The answer to that is yes, let me just tell you that about 18 months ago, I created a meth task force in this state composed of the law enforcement community, prevention specialists, correction, and they came up with a report at that time and I went to the board of pharmacy over about a year ago, and I asked them to put all of these pseudoephedrine cold remedies behind the counter where the pharmacist would actually keep a list and require an I.D.

There wasn’t a prescription required at that time, but the legislature had just met, and one of the requests that we made to them was to make pseudoephedrine listed under our system as a class three drug, that would require a prescription.

Now one of the things I have to tell you already, there are over 40 new products without the pseudoephedrine chemical in it that are utilized for colds. So the pharmaceutical industry can actually address this issue quite easily, because they are already coming out with products that do not have pseudoephedrine in them.

REAGAN: Now governor, as well meaning as these steps are, you know that you are going to have critics out there, saying aren’t you inconveniencing the wrong people here. You’re inconveniencing the pharmaceutical companies I suppose to some extent, and just cold and allergy sufferers. And the methamphetamine users and makers are going to break into drug stores and just steal the stuff if they can’t buy it. How do you respond to that?

KULONGOSKI: Well my answer is, if you’re asking me if this is an inconvenience to some of our citizens than yes, I’ve never denied that, but let me suggest to you is one of the ways that we can address this epidemic is asking for a shared sacrifice of all of out citizens. You know the difference between what the states do and what the federal government does is very critically important to each of the states and by that I mean when our children are impacted the most are by these home meth-manufacturing labs.

Where the children of these parents are subject to abuse and neglect, they’re crawling around, they’re living in this environment where this meth is cooked, these children’s lives are being destroyed, it’s a tremendous cost to all of us as citizens, the cost to us is about 15-20 thousand dollars to clean up one of these home grown meth labs. The fact is, they’re showing up in our corrections system, I just talked to the director of the department of corrections, and hi budget is being strained by what is referred to as meth mouth -- this stuff is battery acid, it eats you teeth out -- and these people are showing up in our corrections system, are we are having to pay the cost to have to put implants into their mouth.

So what I’m trying to suggest is in fact, the best thing for all of us is to share in the solution to this problem on the local level. The federal level, that’s what I’m waiting for, I want a much more aggressive posture by the federal government to tell both the pharmaceutical companies, and these other countries that produce these major

Essentially, what Ted The Med is saying is that:

1. This Meth thingie is costing Oregon Voters a lot of money, and
2. We don't know what to do about it, so
3. We've passed laws which inconvience the voters and
   
4. Cost them money when they have to use their insurance co-pay to get prescriptions
5. Just so it looks as if we're doing something to solve the problem, even though
6. We're not, actually.
7. PS: I hope to GOD the voters are dumb enough to buy this Big Lie.
8. Just to make sure, we're not going to let them actually VOTE on it.

So, the citizens of Oregon will not only have to produce identification in order to buy Sudafed and Drixoral, but now they will have to go to a doctor and get a prescription for a LIMITED amount of what was originally an Over The Counter medicine. When they go to the Doctor, they had BETTER have insurance (even though the Oregon Medical Insurance for People who Don't Have A Job, such as retireees, has been discontinued because it was 'too expensive'). And even if they have insurance, it's going to require that they "Co-Pay", which means a minimum amount of money for the doctor visit . . . probably about $10 to $15 . . . will come out of the pockets of the "patient" who has a cold or allergy problem. This is the kind of problem which previously has been resolved by the patient saying "Damn! I"ve got a cold, but I've got to go to work. I'll just pop down to the drug store and buy some Drixoral. My nose will quit running, and I can go to work without a hankie."

Now the same person has to get a doctor's appointment, to get a prescription, and the same OTC medicine which use to cost $5.99 for a week's supply costs two or three times as much because of the need to co-pay the visit.


But HEY! It's all in a good cause, right?

And it's just our personal contribution (according to Ted the Med) as Good Citizens in order to Stop The Meth Problem ... which the combined forces of Federal and State Law Enforcement Agencies haven't made a DENT on in the past five years!

So, even though the prescription requirement isn't active yet, how's it working so far? I mean, the new law prevents the Drug Dealer Army from buying Sudafed off the shelf, so this should cut down on the amount of Meth available to drug dealers, right?

That should cut down on the amount of Meth available to the Oregon Addicts, right?

Wrong!

Washington pair nabbed on I-5 with meth cache - September 30, 2005

A routine traffic stop on Interstate 5 led troopers to a six-pound stash of methamphetamine and cash Thursday morning.

At 7:46 a.m., Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Bill Matson stopped a 1995 Ford Explorer heading northbound on the freeway near milepost 39 just north of Medford. He had clocked the Explorer traveling 84 mph in a 65 mph zone, police said in a news release.

The driver, Victorino Santos-Andres, 18, of Lacey, Wash., could not produce identification, prompting Watson to take him into custody.

"Enough probable cause was then established to lead us to search the vehicle," Watson said.

An OSP drug dog named Cookie was dispatched to the scene. Cookie aided troopers in the discovery of six pounds of methamphetamine and around $6,000 in cash hidden in the vehicle’s rear storage compartments, officials said.

OSP drug enforcement officials estimate the value of the drugs to be between $30,000 and $40,000.

Santos-Andres was arrested on charges of manufacturing, possession and delivery of methamphetamine. He was also cited for failing to carry a driver’s license.

He was lodged in Jackson County Jail, where he remained late Thursday in lieu of $68,000 bail.

The passenger, Baltazar J. Vazquez, of Olympia, Wash., was arrested on charges of manufacturing, possession and delivery of methamphetamine. He was lodged in jail, where he remained late Thursday in lieu of $75,000 bail.

Officials from Immigration and Naturalization Services determined that both men are illegal aliens. They told troopers that they were returning to Washington from California, Watson said.

"It’s one of the larger seizures of the year so far," OSP Lt. Gregg Hastings said.
OSP troopers have lately seen an increase of drug trafficking on Interstate 5, particularly in Southern Oregon, Hastings said.

OSP is concerned with the number of daytime drug busts in the last few months. Until recently, most drug finds have been at night, Hastings said.
"This is just more evidence that drugs are being transported around the clock in this state," Hastings said.

Got that?

" . . . drugs are being transported around the clock in this state . . ."


Legal folks-with-a-cold are now being required to jump through hoops to buy cold and allergy remedies, and it's only going to cost them more in the future. In the meantime, because of the Open Borders policy of the U.S. Governement, Meth is being "transported around the clock in this state."

This sounds like something that the Feds should be addressing. So what's their contribution?

To Fight Oregon's Growing Meth Problem

Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) today announced that the U.S. Senate has approved legislation they championed to stop the creation, distribution and use of methamphetamine. The Combat Meth Act, which Wyden and Smith cosponsored along with U.S. Senators Jim Talent (R-Mo.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), has been included as part of the Fiscal Year 2006 Commerce, Justice Science (CJS) Appropriations legislation. The CJS appropriations bill now moves to a conference committee to work out differences between it and the House version of the bill. The Combat Meth legislation will provide resources and tools to help law enforcement officials and prosecutors to pursue and punish producers and distributors of Meth, increase community awareness of the Meth problem, and establish new treatment options. The Oregon Department of Human Services has reported that Meth use is the biggest drug problem facing Oregon child welfare today. Meth is the second-most treated drug addiction among Oregon teens.

"The deadly problem of Meth is eating away at the social fabric of our state, and today's action by the Senate is a big step forward in rebuilding that fabric in a variety of ways," said Wyden. "Fighting Meth use and distribution requires a multi-pronged approach, and the Federal government needs to do its part to support the good work of communities throughout Oregon to make headway in fighting this pernicious epidemic."

Yeah, Ron Weyden (D-ORE) and Gordon Smith (R-ORE) are taking the fight to the hallowed halls of Congress.

I've got a lot of faith in those two yahoos.

PS: Did I mention that Oregon is a "Blue State"?

UPDATE: Comment-Spammer Alert!

In the final chapter of Les Audacious, Avaricious, Avalance of Advertising from Our Old Friend Femme, after today I will no longer merely disable these comments which have been submitted for no better purpose than to promote commercial websites. I'll just delete them ... immediately, and permanently. I've let a few of them hang around in limbo, but they DON'T DIE IMMEDIATELY and I'm getting tired of dealing with them.

Of course, I've been having some fun at their expense, but I don't think I want to let the embedded links stay in the comments any longer than necessary.

This is the last step before requiring the application of technical security issues.
I only pray it works.

Bob Hope Says It all

H/T to Extreme Wisdom (who strives to present "The Best" to bloggers everywhere, and whose espoused goal is to be linked to by Instapundit).

Too bad, you've been linked to by The Geek.

It's an 8mb film clip, and I refuse to provide the direct link to the film clip. It's such a good commentary on DemocRats, and the comments are so worth reading, I'll let you get it from the original source. He deserves the credit, you deserve access to the comments.

Note: Brian B. suggested today that he can provide video hosting on an Albany Rifle & Pistol Club (ARPC) URL. If this works out, I'll include this and other political/RKBA/IPSC videos for your future enjoyment.

I'll keep you informed.

Note #2: Turn the volume UP!

Comcast is UP!

Finally!

I have a new Internet Provider. No more dependence on the irascible AOL connection.

There will be a few days delay in setting up separate email accounts for my various activities (not least because we're still spending all of our spare time getting SWMBO moved in), but I should be changing the email address for this weblog soon.

In the meantime, I have a couple of hours scheduled today for trying out my new hi-speed internet connections. Vroom!

After I become more familiar with the capabilities of the Comcast service, I will be making some minor changes. I don't know what all of them will be, yet, but as I establish new fancy internet options I'll be announcing them here.

One of my priorities is to establish online file hosting, so I can make a few of the many IPSC videos available. Right now, I understand there is a 25mb limit to storage. This is clearly inadequate to my needs in the long term, as some of the videos I wish to share are seven to ten mb in size. I'm hoping to get up to 5GB established, and even then the videos will probably be available for a limited period of time as I replace them with newer/more interesting/more pertinent videos.

This will not be a feature that is universally useful. Having spent my entire online life under the crushing burden of slow modem access, I'm painfully aware that downloading anything much more than 1 or 2mb is just not worth the effort. However, for those who do have hi-speed access, download Geek videos should be no more difficult than that encountered at hosercam, for example.

I'll keep you advised.

Dinner and a Move

You may have noticed that I have been remiss in making entries here.

It's not that I lack things to say, or the will to say them, or the energy to do all this typing. It's just that my time has been focused, lately on 'family matters'.

Specifically, SWMBO is moving.

She recently started a new job here in Corvallis. Rather than commute from her present home in Salem (about 45 miles each way . . . very expensive in time and also in money with the current cost of gasoline) she chose to relocate. The new employer didn't offer to pay relocation expenses, so we have to move her household the least expensive way.

She spent two weeks packing up everything that she could in the evenings after work. That was awkward. The first week of packing, she was trying to wrap up as much at work as she could, and since her replacement was not available she had to document procedures at here job.

The second week (last week) she started her new job. Now she not only had to continue packing at night, but learn a new job and put in a commute before she could even get to packing. And you know how hard it is to pack a household when you're still living there.

By last weekend, the very worst of the packing was done. We worked together Saturday packing the china cupboard, most of the dishes, renting a truck, etc. Sunday we had two helpers for about two hours each, which was just enough to get the truck loaded with everything that had been packed plus all of the furniture. At 3pm we were ready to drive to Corvallis, but we didn't have anyone to help us unload the truck.

Waterbed, armoire, 3-piece corner sectional, console television, china cabinet & hutch, antique dining-room table, eight chairs, bookcase & books, desk, computer cabinet, weight bench, gun safe . . . we moved it all using only an appliance hand-truck and a piano dolly. Fortunately, there were only two steps up the porch. Unfortunately, the front door blocks the master bedroom door when open, so moving furniture into the bedroom (including especially the waterbed frame and the armoire, was frustrating and back-breaking work.

We worked until the the furniture was unloaded and the light failed at 7pm, then broke for dinner. SWMBO offered to pay for dinner, but we were to tired and dirty and sweaty to do more than stop by the closest Dairy Queen for chicken strips. Then back to work carrying in the boxed items. Three computers with printer, books, glassware, family antiques, and we were so tired by the time we got done we forgot what we had packed and didn't have the energy or initiative to actually read the labelling on the boxes. We just piled them where-ever we could find room.

There was no way we could put her apartment together, and we didn't finish until 10pm, when we dropped the rental truck off at the local U-Haul lot. Then we drove back to Salem to recover my jeep and pick up a few changes of clothing and toiletries; SWMBO will be staying at my apartment until we complete the move.

We both left for work at 7:30, got off at 5pm and drove back to Salem. We hung all of her clothes on a cross-bar in the Jeep, then packed the rest of the room with boxes from the kitchen and front room, the weight set, a large plant basket and odds and ends.

Back to Corvallis to unload and discover that the water heater was draining from the overflow valve into the catch basin. We had found it doing that Sunday when we first entered the place, so we shut off the power to the water heater and turned off the water intake valve. A morning call to the landlord resulted in a promise to get it fixed, but whomever fixed it clearly didn't know what he was doing. We didn't bother shutting it off this time, as there didn't seem to be any danger of overheating or flooding. Just one more irritation, but nothing serious as we still are nowhere close to being able to start unpacking, let alone providing a place were SWMBO could actually live. We'll call the landlord again tomorrow morning.

This night we finished by 9pm. Again, we are both tired and dirty. Again, we settled for fast food; this time it was sandwiches at ARBY's, which in conjunction with our vast assortment of muscular aches and pains must surely be the purest example of adding insult to injury.

SWMBO had asked last night how she could ever repay me for helping her. Money, I told her. You can repay me by paying me. How much? Should she pay me the same rate she payed the two Sunday helpers? No, I just want two dollars. I may be cheap, but I don't work for free.

Tonite we had a running bet about who irritated whom the most when we got tired and frustrated and cranky. As a result, SWMBO ended up paying me a five dollar bonus. I was feeling flush, so tonight I bought dinner. SWMBO checked her pocket book, and announced that she had seven dollars left.

Perfect, I said. Just enough to hire me for another day and aggrevation pay. I think she's getting the best of this deal. She can afford to get a day's work out of me, and still has enough left over to pay the penalties.

The aggrevation isn't anything serious, it's just that she has her own way of packing, and loading, and unloading, and stacking boxes and moving them on a hand truck. Those ways aren't necessarily my ways, but it's her furniture and her move so she's the boss. We do it her way MOST of the time.

The aggrevating thing is that she's almost invariably right. I could forgive almost anything else, but I insist that she pay for being right.

I've got to go now. It's almost midnight, I have to get up at 6:30 and put in another day at the office, then again spend half the night packing and moving.

Here's the good thing: I think she's running low on cash. By the time we get the last load into her new home and the old one cleaned out, I figure she won't be able to afford the aggrevation penalty. When we start actually arranging furniture (which I hate even more than moving), I figure she will have to concede at least a few minor points to me.

I'm looking forward to that.


UPDATE: Comment-Spammer Alert!

Femme is up to her old tricks. This website does not accept comments from commercial website. I've visited her website, looked at her photo, and I can see that it is the product of a PhotoShop Make-over. In fact, I researched it on the World Wide Web and here is the proof:

VPC - Combat Shooting Video Transcript

VPC - Combat Shooting Video Transcript

Several months ago (Saturday, January 15, 2005) I posted a summary describing the way that the Violence Policy Center (VPC) twisted reality to suit their own purposes. The name of the VPC piece was "Gold Medal Gunslingers", and it was a real piece of work.

VPC worked overtime to put IPSC competition in the worst possible light.

IPSC didn't help. Darth Nick had led the fight to include IPSC competition as a "demonstration event" at the Olympics, hoping against all odds that the IOC would allow IPSC to at least show that this was just another shooting sport. You know, 'nothing happening here, move on'.

The worst possible result would have been that the IOC rejected the proposal entirely and with snotty disdain, so of course this is what happened. Thus the title for the VPC series "Gold Medal Gunslingers". They rained on our parade of pistol shooters, and took full advantage of our collective naivette.

This political push from IPSC was the progenitor of the "Classic" target, which was proposed because some regions objected to the politically incorrect "Metric" ('looks like a person') target. The whole thing was a major boondoggle, and the best that can be said about the entire affair is that IPSC leadership seemed to be trying, at least, to make Practical Pistol Competition acceptable to the world-wide audience.

What a bunch of Maroons. But I digress.

This opened the door to criticism from organizations which had a hidden agenda of making money by publically denegrating competitive shooting (and all other kinds of shooting & firearms ownership.)

Thus, the entrance upon the world audience of Gold Medal Gunslingers.

That was in the year 2000.

Here it is 2005, and VPC has revived the attack on IPSC.

The link provided at the top of this article is a compendium of quotes taken from IPSC training videos. It features some of the best-known IPSC practitioners, and without much commentary . . . simplyl by sly selection of quotes . . . attempts to make IPSC look silly.

I think you have to be already pre-disposed to believe that private ownership of firearms is an indication of cultural maladjustment, if this attack is to succeed. But we know that there are plenty of people who are predisposed to think the worst of anyone who owns a firearm, and I expect that this feeds their sick fantasy.

Got look at the site, see what you think, and report back here. Tell us what message YOU think the VPC is attempting to deliver.

UPDATE: Comment-Spammer Alert!

Femme, you fickle french filly, I've told you once and now I'm telling you twice. Do NOT spam the comments section. This website does not accept self-promoting comments from commercial websited. Your comments are being Geekasized, and your website rated.

Your rating is:

September Blog Meat

Time for another Monthly Blog Meat. This is where I defer relating embarrassing personal foibles, eschew ranting about abrogation of civil rights and/or IPSC rule books, minimize Geek-Length Musings and instead share with you some of the interesting things OTHER people say, or do.

You may think I do this because I'm too lazy to write anything original, and in large part you would be right. More important, though, it's because sometimes I'm just a poor but honest reporter of news, situations, events and opinions I discover in my casual surfing of the Internet.

Let's get started, shall we?

One in a row....: Explanations

Hat tip to Geek with a .45 for this short story about one father's effort to explain the consequences and ramifications of the New Orleans Gun Grab. Elder Geek is correct, it's difficult to resist the temptation to give away the punchline.

Kim Du Toit is GONE!
That's right, the link over there on the sidebar is no longer operative. Kim took a sabbatical from blogging a week or two ago because his new job no longer allowed him the personal time to maintain his prodigious blogging output. Instead, he posted 'The Best Of' from his archives.

Then, yesterday, it was just . . . gone! Apparently he locked it up, because attempts to open that URL returns a 403 "Directory access is forbidden" screen.

Tonite, however, Elder Geek provided this link. There's a forum available with a format (and URL) which looks hauntingly familiar. Given that the first post is dated 12/24/04, the huge number of posts and bloated hit-counter, it must have been running for some time although this is the first time I have ever heard of it.

Which only proves my own ignorance. [sigh]


Geek Blog DOWN!
Yup, I was offline last night. Saw that right off. I mentioned it to The Hobo Brasser, told him how much I was going to miss it, sniffed a couple of times and then realized I had nothing to say so I wasn't missing much.

I did send a Trouble Report to blogger.com, however. This evening they confirmed my suspicions that they had a server error and this compromised several (though not all) blog accesses. They say it was cleared up by midnight, but i was in bed catching up on my reading. I finished "Banker" by Dick Francis, one of my favorite easy-reading mystery writers, this morning. Thanks, blogger.com, for giving me a guilt-free night off.


Presidential Pee!


According to one of my favorite tell-it-like-it-is sources, snopes.com, POTUS actually did (probably) ask 'permission' to leave the room at a UN meeting last week. Actually, it was a question of protocol, but as far as I'm concerned any man with such a sever regard for protocol under . . . ahem . . . uncomfortable circumstances deserves my vote.

News Two Hours Old: God Is My Co-Pilot

After three hours of tension and fear a passenger airplane landed safely at LA International Airport despite landing gear which would not retract because the nose-wheel had locked perpendicular to its normal attitude. I got home from work just in time to hear the live broadcast on the radio describing the landing. Disaster adverted, Al Queda apparently not involved.

With 146 souls on board, who are now alive due to the experience and skill of the pilot, I can only say "Thank God!"

Can I say that without the ACLU forcing me to a Supreme Court confrontation?

Screw 'em. "Thank God" I say, and "Thank God" is what I mean.

(And thanks to World Net Daily for the link.)


Can't We All Just Can't Get Along?
John Wayne Bobbitt (was there a more appropriate surname?) is up to his old tricks.

After being arrested last weekend for spousal abuse, Bobbitt posted bail and filed for divorce.

This article is only of interest to people who just can't resist the lure of bad puns.

Knock yourself out. Here's my punchline:
(Some men need SOMETHING to abuse, I guess, even if they can't indulge in 'self abuse')


Fish (or Man) Walks?

Last December I mentioned the case of a Washington (state) resident who was arrested for open carry of a firearm.

The latest news, dated July of 2005, suggests that charges may be dropped because the laws which the Ellensburg, WA, Police applied to arrest him may have been contradictory to other law and common sense, and badly written.

Nobody seems to be tracking this, and FISHORMAN isn't posting very often these days, but it seems worthy of at least a brief follow-up.

Jeff Cooper for September, 2005
The Colonel is UP!

Once again, I heartily encourage reading the comments of The Colonel.

Not only is he pithy and confrontational, but he provides a wealth of information which is not generally available. This is probably due to his longevity and active life-style (I hate that word!) when was a much younger man.

I propose for your consideration the following two comments (Quoted, but not necessarily quoted in full)

First quote: Hiroshima

When we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, there was certainly no reluctance for this dire act. Amongst the men involved in the fight in the Pacific, we gathered the idea that the Nips were simply not going to surrender, and that if we went forward with the invasion of the Japanese homeland, we could expect to suffer about 1 million American dead, at the same time killing about 20 million Japanese. That was the figure that I gathered in my job as an assistant G2 for the landing on Kyushu. It meant to me that the only way that I could avoid being killed in the invasion would be to suffer a critical injury and be evacuated alive - not a pleasant prospect. Historical review seems to agree that Japan had been so reduced by our submarine campaign that, coupled with the B29s, the Emperor might actually have decided to surrender. We did not know this, nor did we suspect it, and we were prepared for a very nasty campaign - on both sides.

Further research discloses the presence of a Japanese policy directive which called for the murder of all American prisoners being held at the time. This comes to the number of 144,000, all to be put to death immediately upon the landing of the first allied soldier on the homeland of Japan. I thought the decision to drop the bomb was fully justified at that time, and I think so even more now. The atom bomb was a dreadful thing, but its use turned out to be an enormous life-saver.

Note that this was included in his September, 2005, contribution. The Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, almost exactly 60 years before the Cooper comment.

Approximately (according to news reports) 80,000 Japanese died in the initial bomb blast on August 6, 1945, and a further 60,000 died from the resultant effects. This estimate of 120,000 Japanese casualties, due to the immediate and post-immediate effects of the American attack on Hiroshima,is markedly less than the slaughter of 144,000 Americans which Cooper postulates.

Other references cite the dead at Hiroshima at 135,000, at Nagasaki 64,000. This is a horrendous casualty count, especially considering that these were predominately civilian casualties.

Compared with the Fire bombing of Dresdon (Germany, estimated at 40,000) . . . there is no comparison in terms of casualties. Yet these wartime actions are all to be deplored.

But who was at fault?

The Japanese deaths at Nagasaki are the sole responsibility of the Japanese authorities.

I don't propose to question the figure of millions of Japanese casualties from nuclear bomb, or the estimated 1 million US casualties (added on to the slaughter of POWs), which Cooper cites.

I only remind us that the Japanese military then in power were responsible for the initial attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1940, and thus were responsible for all loss of life incurred by both American and Japanese citizens afterward.

It is a matter of historical record that Truman considered the deaths of thousands of Japanese preferable to the deaths of thousands of Americans. I expect never to be in the position of making such a fatal decision. It's to the credit of President Truman that he was able to do so, and thus end the war with Japan. It's to the credit of Colonel Cooper that he can so succinctly provide us with the perspective of one of those Americans who could expect to die during the landings on Japanese beaches if Truman's decision had been otherwise.


Second quote: Medal of Honor Recognition

We are delighted to learn that our suggestion about income tax remission for winners of the Medal of Honor has been accepted by various persons of consequence. This is such a nifty idea that we can't see why it has not been acted upon long ere this. It is a no-lose proposition without any negative aspect. Anyone who holds the Medal of Honor has paid in full for his membership in the Liberty Club, and his individual periodic contribution is too slight to dent the budget.

The idea needs important support. The President is the one to act. Write him!

The Colonel. I don't always agree with him, and occasionally I find myself in dramatic opposition to his opinions.
But he is always . . . ALWAYS . . . worth reading.

Go thou and do likewise.

New Orleans Survivors - The Bad Guys?
We resort to The Michael Bane Blog and New Orleans, LA. (NOLA) for the Parthian shot.

THR (The High Road) features an excellent summary of the NOLA Survvors Experience. Maybe, just maybe, having the foresight, resources and courage to stay behind in a disaster and defend your home is NOT the very best choice.

Don't count on your 'friends and neighbors'. When SHTF happens, you may find yourself back in the Bomb Shelter conundrum envisioned in the 60's. It ain't all "Blast From The Past" or "Farhnam's Freehold", but it's bad enough.

. . .

That's it for tonite. Hope you found it as interesting as I did.

New Orleans Flood Map

New Orleans Flood Map

Because the battered state of Louisiana, and the damage to New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrine, are such newsworthy items, I thought you might be interested in this.

I've chosen not to write about The Big Not-So-Easy because everybody else in the Blogosphere is writing about it, or has been. But the flurry of commentary has eased off a bit, and this is entirely non-political.

You can see which areas have been flooded, and where the floodwaters yet remain. That should be enough for anyone.

Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip

While I was reviewing (and responding to) comments tonite, I mentioned Jeff Cooper's "Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip". I had bought this book about fifteen years ago, new, and read it with great interest. Then I loaned it to my father.

A few years ago, I took it to loan to a friend and while my car was parket in a public lot it was burgled. The book was stolen, along with a pack of cigarettes, the cord to an electrically heated coffee cup, some parking meter change, and a pair of sunglasses. Curiously, a 50-cal ammo can with about 1000 rounds of .38 super ammunition wasn't touched.

Given the odd selection of stolen items, I'm guessing that it was kids who made a target-of-opportunity raid on my car. If you're one of those kids, please GIVE THE BOOK BACK! No questions asked, you can keep the parking meter change.

On the other hand, if you're someone who has a copy of the book and have no immediate use for it, I would appreciate the loan of it. I'm contemplating an extended series on The History of IPSC, and the book contains (as I remember) some useful references which I would like to cite.

Amazon offers a copy for $95; Barnes and Noble has it at $200. Other internet book dealers have it listed at even higher (by about ten bucks) prices. As much as I would like to own this book, it's beyond my means at these prices. I've been looking for it in used book stores in Oregon for several years, and haven't seen a copy yet at any price.

Just so you know, I'll boil that last paragraph down to simple terms: it's a valuable book, but the market is small. I probably can't afford to BUY it from you, if it's priced competitively. So I'm reduced to begging for the loan of a copy.

There. I've been as honest as I can be. I lust for the book, but my immediate need is to use it as a reference source. The writings of Col. Jeff Cooper are among my favorite readings, and I have copies of his later volumes. This special volume has information which I would like to use on this website.

If you own a copy, please contact me at the email address encoded at the bottom of the page. I will be happy to reimburse you for shipping charges, and will return the book when my research is completed.

Croc Match Photographs

A couple of weeks ago, we in the Columbia Cascade Section (Oregon) hosted a hi-round-count match called the Croc Match.

This was an annual independent presentation hosted by the Dundee Practical Shooters (Chehalem Valley Shooting Club) featuring 8 stages of 50+ rounds per stage.

It's a colorful IPSC match, highly demanding of both man and machine. Pistol malfunctions are part of the game here, and anyone who can get through the grueling demands of firearms reliability combined with heads-up situational awareness can honestly claim to have accomplished Something Special.

SWMBO didn't compete in that match, although I did. We plan to write and article describing the match to the Front Sight Magazine in the future, so I will write the commentary from the perspective of a participant and she roamed the range for the entire two-day duration taking hundreds of photographs.

The response from other competitors was much more than we had anticipated.

While she was taking photographs, SWMBO talked to a lot more people than I did. She was essentially the reporter in this endeavor. She met a lot of new friends, interviewed them, and took their pictures.

In fact, she took over 650 photographs, along with a significant number of movies (which cannot, of course, be included in the proposed Front Sight Article.)

Here's the problem:
We don't expect more than a half-dozen of the photos, at best, to be included in the magazine article. That's less than 1% of the photos she took.

But the people who competed are writing to say that they are interested in seeing the photos that she took.

In fact, I've received a number of emails asking me directly whether and where the photos have been posted to the internet.

unfortunately, I haven't yet established webhosting for this volume of photographs . . . they are all High Resolution, each photograph taking up over one megabyte of storage. Including the movies (video) and photos provided by other photographers, we have in excess of two gigabytes of photos available . . . all unedited, and none of them organized. (We have between 50 and 100 photos of people who were awarded trophies during the award ceremony; many of these photos are worthy of storage and distribution, but some are of such average quality, due to lighting conditions, that they are of interest only to the award winners and their friends and family.)

There are concerns about distributing these photos because we haven't acquired releases from the people whose images are depicted. The volume is too great to be manageable without editing, and this editing and image selection takes a lot of our personal time. And we are disinclined to take to time to indiscriminately 'burn' copies of the CD's for general distribution.

Because of these and other factors, and also because we have a proprietary desire to preserve the 'freshness' of the photos for inclusion in future magazine articles, we are disinclined to provide copies of the CDs for general distribution.

However, we acknowledge that some people would very much like to have access to at least a few photos which are of special interest to them. Why? Because they were having FUN at the match!

So here's what we plan to do:

With the permission of the Match Director of the Croc Match, we will purchase webhosting of sufficient server storage to make these photos available on the Internet. It is my hope that we can present them in a format which allows the casual viewer to scan the photos in a 'thumbnail' format, select the photos of special interest for full-screen viewing, and the download the photos for personal storage and use.

If it seems financially and legally feasible to do this, we will announce the availability of these photos on this website, probably sometime in October. If you are interested, you will have a limited time in which you can download the photos before we are forced to remove them to make room for other match photos from other Columbia Cascade Matches. (These might include the Albany Single Stack Match and the Columbia Cascade Sectional, both match having occurred previous to the Croc Match.)

No guarantees are possible now, and this entire 'photo gallery' scheme is dependent on the availability of webhosting at a reasonable price. Please understand that this webhosting is expected to be at my own out-of-pocket expense, and subject to constraints beyond my immediate control. I have been negotiating with section-related webhosting resources (ARPC and CCS both) for inexpensive, plentiful hosting of a photo gallery, and it may happen that the potholes in the road to providing a photo gallery is much smoother than I anticipate.


If I can provide general access to these photos, I will do so. If it turns out to be impractical, it won't happen. I'll regret it, because SWMBO has done a wonderful job of covering the matches photographically.

I'll keep you informed.

Brain Phart From Heck

A funny thing happened to me at the TCGC IPSC match today.

We were on the last stage, which was a truly ODD stage requiring us to haul The Tazmanian Devil Monster uprange on a green garden cart, when I experienced The Brain Phart From Heck.

You know how it goes when you finish a stage. The official range commands are:

If Clear, Hammer Down, Holster. This comes AFTER you are obviously finished shooting and the Range Officer has give the official range command "If You Are Finished, Unload and Show Clear".

I had done that. The Range Officer glanced at the gun (as did I), didn't see any brass showing, decided the gun was unloaded and said the next official range command "If Clear, Hammer Down, Holster".

I did that.

I returned the STI Race Gun in the black Dillon pistol bag, zipped it up, and the Range Officer said the final phrase of the litany: "Range is Clear". At that point, he moved downrange to score the targets. I had stored my first magazine in my magazine carrier rather than to dump it on the ground (don't ask, it was a weird range and I wanted to keep the partially expended magazine because I didn't trust my backup magazine), so nobody had to pick up any magazines from the ground on this 24-round stage.

I was holding the round I had ejected from my 2nd magazine, and grabbed for that magazine from my belt, where I usually place magazines during the "Unload And Show Clear" process.

It wasn't there. I couldn't find it.

Huh?

Did I dump it on the ground? I usually don't do that. No, it wasn't on the ground.

Funny, I didn't remember removing the magazine. That's the first thing I ALWAYS do when I Unload and Show Clear.

Always.

As the light slowly dawned on me, I partially unzipped my range bag to check the gun (you can do that, you just can't touch the bagged gun.)

Oh oh.

I took a deep breath, zipped the pistol bag up again, and shouted out:

"Oh, Mister Range Officer! Mister Range Officer! Excuse me, we need to talk."

The RO was confused, as he had already scored the first target and was starting to score the second target. I said: "We need to get everyone back behind us, and you need to check my gun."

So the RO stopped what he was doing (scoring targets), pushed everyone back, and asked what was wrong.

"You and I have just experienced a Major Brain Phart. We need to get this sorted out before we can do anything else."

He came over to where I was standing, said "WHAT!" I handed him the round I had unloaded, and watched as I move downrange and unzipped the bag.


The magazine was still in the gun.

This time it was HIS turn for a sharp intake of breath. Then he walked me through the entire UNLOAD AND SHOW CLEAR regimen, we got the (empty) magazine out of the gun and into my magazine carrier. I zipped up he bag, he declared RANGE IS CLEAR again, and handed my my last round which I carefully placed into the just-now recovered last magazine.

What had happened was: I shot the first four targets with my first magazine, then placed it in my belt magazine carrier in case I ran out of ammo later, and replaced it with an 18-round magazine.

I engaged six steel targets and one IPSC target, grabbed the prop (a garden card carrying a HUGE stuffed doll representing the Tazmanian Devil Monster), and started dragging it uprange while shooting at IPSC targets 'strong hand only'.

It was a tough stage, because it included features not normally included in IPSC stages. The most difficulty was provided by the need to pull a wheeled cart uprange while engaging targets which could not be engaged until you had moved uprange of them. You couldn't point at the targets until you were uprange of them because that would require breaking the 180 degree line, which would lead to Match Disqualification. And you couldn't wait too long, because there were vision barriers (barrels) which would obscure the targets if you were situated past the point were you could see the target. Finally, you couldn't STOP the cart, because of inertia and the lack of brakes, so you had to keep moving all the time.

I solved this by shooting extra shots at the targets, and thus (thankfully) expending most of the remaining shots in the loaded magazine.

When I finished shooting at the last target, I had only one round left in the magazine. This was according to my cheesy plan. When I unloaded, I dumped my last round, leaving the magazine empty.

Because of this, we (the RO and I) didn't notice that I had somehow failed to remove the magazine. We only noted that there were no bright brass-colored thingies left showing, and assumed that the gun was empty.

Well, it was . . . except for the magazine with it's dull-black finish.

So when I dropped the hammer, there was no KerBANG, and I didn't get DQ'd.

The RO didn't notice that the magazine was still in the gun. The Assistant RO ( the scorekeeper) didn't notice. Even I didn't realize that I hadn't dropped the magazine.

And everybody in the squad just assumed that I had correctly unloaded the gun, even though I hadn't.

I have NEVER failed to drop the magazine at the end of the stage. After all these years, I had assumed that it was impossible that I would NOT do so. This is the kind of routine that you do without even thinking about it . . . it's a matter of training and experience. Right?

Wrong.

I suppose I could have just kept my mouth shut. After all, it was the last stage of the match and the gun was on its way to the car. If I hadn't said anything, nobody would ever have known. Of course I would have known when I got home and found the magazine still in the gun, but I didn't have to say anything.

The funny thing is, earlier in that stage I was the RO, and the guy who was RO-ing me (PacMan), was the shooter.

After I gave the "Load and Make Ready" command, he inserted a magazine in his XP and took a sight picture.

I said: "Excuse me, but according to the current version of the rule book you're not allowed to take a sight picture with a loaded gun."

He turned his head and looked at me, and said "I haven't chambered a round; the gun isn't loaded."

I replied: "I'm sorry; but if there's a magazine in the gun, it's loaded. It's not me, it's the rule book. Look it up."

(N.B.: Yes, that's true: 10.5.13 defines a 'loaded gun' as "... having a live round in a magazine inserted in a firearm.)

I got The Look (as if he was thinking "Jeez, what kind of Range Nazi am I dealing with here?") and I'm wondering if it wasn't justified.

The rule against taking a sight picture with a Loaded Gun is Rule 8.7.1.
This is superseded by US 8.7.1
"Not Applicable".

I'm wondering if I should have mentioned it to the PacMan?

So here are the two questions I have:

1. Should I have mentioned the cautionary note against taking a sight picture with a 'loaded firearm'?
2. Should I have been DQ'd either because I didn't remove the empty magazine from my firearm at UNLOAD AND SHOW CLEAR, or because I partially unzipped my range bag to look for my missing (unloaded) magazine?
3. Should I have been DQ'd for failing to remove my (unloaded) magazine?

I know what I think.

What do YOU think?

UPDATE:
The Unofficial IPSC List kindly points out that those were THREE questions, not TWO.

Dammit Jim, I'm a Geek, not a mathematician!

As for rule 8.7.1, 'Earthworm' (who hates to be called that, but it's the only nickname I have for him and I have a policy against identifying people by name without their permission) points out that there is little justification for distracting a competitor by mentioning an inapplicable rule. Point well taken. Perhaps it wasn't 'legally' wrong, but it wasn't the right thing to do.