Bring In The Clowns

Cartoon Riots in Pakistan Leave 2 Dead

You can make up your own captions for this picture. Here's mine:

Try to find the clown in this picture.





Answer: All of them.

(Note: Ronald MacDonald is reported to be recovering nicely, one billion burgers at a time. We wish we could say the same for Austin Attorney Harry Whittington.)


UPDATE:
I posted this on 2/14. By 2/16 the image was missing, leaving only a link to my image-hosting service ImageShack.us

If you don't see the image at all, it may be because ImageShack has a policy of removing images which draw complaints from people who consider them 'offensive'. In that case, please contact me (contact information available at the bottom of this page) and I will post in on the server that I use.

Okay, I probably should have hosted the photo myself in the first place, but ImageShack is extremely easy to use. Now that it has disappeared, I'm using them again just to see if they are deliberately taking it down.

The (Muslim) Empire Strikes Back!

Caricature publisher reported to police - Aftenposten.no

Aftenposten.no (Norway) is one of the news sources I regularly check; the only reason I don't have it listed on my sidebar is that I run across it in references listed on OTHER news sites so often that I rarely go directly to that english-version website.

You may have heard that Norway is not in good odor with the Muslim Community these days, because of their association with the so-called "Anti-Muslim Cartoons". (I use the phrase "so-called" advisedly, in the sense I define below.)

Last week, in an action greviously under-reported by the American Press, the Muslim Community struck back. What weapons did they use? The legal process in their adopted country.

The Muslim Al-Jinnah Foundation will charge the editor of the Christian weekly Magazinet, the journal that published the controversial caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in Norway, with endangering Norwegian lives.

Interesting that the Muslims are prepared to press charges against a media outlet which is exercising it's right to Free Speech, rather than against the people who respond to that speech with murder, arson, and assorted mayhem ... all of which are illegal in most countries, including Norway. Perhaps these actions are not illegal where Khalid Mohammad (see below) came from.

Editor Vebjørn Selbekk and Magazinet staff had no immediate comment on Thursday.

I, however, have a few comments. Read on ....

The organization delivered charges to Moss police station at noon on Thursday.

"The police must take Vebjørn Selbekk and put him in a safe place," Al-Jinnah leader Khalid Mohammad told Aftenposten.no. Mohammad emphasized that this remark was not meant as a threat to Selbekk, but rather to the threat Selbekk posed to others.

Mohammad said that Selbekk had endangered Norwegian lives and interests around the world by the provocative decision to publish the caricatures.

Veiled threats, crocodile tears. Mohammad isn't concerned about Norwegian lives. He's concerned about Norwegian freedoms, and is determined to undermine them in every manner he can.

"It is frightening that one person through so-called freedom of speech can cause such damage that he nearly sets two worlds up against each other. There are limits for what expressions are acceptable, also in a democracy. This is a case for the police, it cannot be solved by the masses," Mohammad said.

"so-called freedom of speech" ... I'm appalled. using the modifier "so-called" strongly implies that the expression is of dubious validity. There's nothing dubious about the freedom of speech, which Mohammad is taking advantage of here. It's just that he doesn't like the product of Free Speech, so he's trying to take it away from people who sn't think like HE does.

I presume (from his name) that Mohammad isn't a native Norwegian. If he was, his name would be Vebjørn Selbekk or some other collection of consonants and squiggly marks and crossed ohs. So this Mohammad character has immigrated to a new land, presumably because he likes it better than his home country, and now he wishes to change it to look just like the last place he lived. Is this the picture of an immigrant, or is it the picture of a viper at ones breast?

Selbekk and Magazinet are also being accused of blasphemy.

"But this is really also treason," Khalid Mohammad said. "He has damaged Norway abroad. Not least, the publication has resulted in Norwegian soldiers in Afghanistan being injured. We feel for them," Mohammad said, and also noted that innocent Muslims in Norway now feel unsafe, and hat (sic) they face greater danger.

Norway recognizes another freedom: the Freedom of Religion. Consequently, "Blasphemy" (a term which rates right up there with "Miscegenation" for odious implication) is not a legally actionable offense. Rather, it's only illegal in theocracies. Apparently, Mohammad wants to establish a body of case law supporting a change in the entire legal, religious and cultural structure in his adopted homeland.

Treason ... probably IS illegal in Norway. But I doubt it includes printing cartoons of dead terrorists who learn, once they have reached a state of endothermic morbidity, that they have been lied to and there ARE no virgins eagerly anticipating their arrival in Heaven. (Although you have to admit, there may be a certain intellectual consanguinity between the Norse concept of Valhalla and the Muslim version of Heaven.)

I honestly can't picture Mohammad worrying about the well-being of Norweigan soldiers (very few of them, presumably, Muslim) in Afghanistan. The Norwegian Soldiers in Norway are probably outnumbered by Muslims almost as much as those in Afhghanistan, which is where the real danger lies.

We can't help but feel concern for the Innocent Muslims in Norway, though, and I'm glad Mohammad politely mentions them in passing while his obvious worry is for the vile non-Muslim native Norwegians whose last name doesn't start with "AL-".

Khalid Mohammad said that the Al-Jinnah Foundation is an international network that seeks out Muslim communities when there is danger of unrest.

"Then we tell them that peace is the best road to take. Protests shall use legal means. That is in keeping with Islam," Mohammad said.

Apparently, subterfuge and misdirection are part of the political judo available to the Mohammads in Norway. Khaløid (I changed the spelling of his name to better fit within the Norwegian community ... I'm sure he appreciates that) obviiously has been doing his homework, boning up on Norwegian Law so he could use it against his benefactors.

Norway being essentially a Socialist Society, three will get you five that Khaløid Mohammad is, one way or another, on the Public Dole. This is doubtless one of the reasons he immigrated to Norway; so he could undertake a Fifth Column attack on his adopted country.

But two will get you nine, Khaløid is a very well trained agitator and is doing just what his masters 'back home' sent him to do: undermine the sovereignity and peace of another European nation.

I'm not very sure of my spelling of foreign words, such as "Norwegian" and "Mohammad". But I'm real sure about the spelling of "Quisling". Norway would be well-advised to slap this honest-to-Allah traitor in irons and leave him there to rot. His ingratitude toward the country that took him in when he came begging at their door is dispicable. His protests that " ...peace is the best road to take. Protests shall use legal means. That is in keeping with Islam" is particularly reminiscent of the Koranic admonition that it is permissible to lie to an enemy in Dar Ul Harm, or the house or land of the enemy "for any jihadi". By his words, he has marked himself as an enemy of Norway and of civilized people the world over. (See also here.)

The rats are coming out of the woodwork, and at least it makes it easier to identify them. The question now is what Norway will do with their vermin.

. . .

This is not a diatribe against Muslims. It's a diatribe against terrorists.

Terrorists are most often defined by their slaughter of innocents, but they have many tools. Their goal isn't to kill people, but to assert their will over the population by any means available. They use the tools that work in the culture they mean to suborn and overturn. In peaceful, rule-of-law socialist countries such as Norway, they attempt to undermine the law by using the law against law-abiding citizens. Their goal is to subtly (or not so subtly ... whatever it takes!) alter the culture until they have established legitimacy of their barbaric version of culture. Think of them as parasites, it's a fair analogy.

One of their tools is 'reasoned discourse'; although it's (here) clumsy and obvious, there are people who believe that they have a right to be heard, however wrong they are. These people are called "dimmi" ... eventually.

<>One of their tools is treason. Subtle, slow, but inexorable treason. Not treason by individuals who have, by right of birth, reason to love their country. We speak of treason by individuals who have deliberately infiltrated a country, professing affection for the country and its culture, for the sole purpose of working from within to destroy that culture and replace it with another.

Thus, this is also an diatribe against Quislings.
The last Quisling Norway had to deal with was native-born, and they executed him by firing squad.

Mohammad should have taken this historical precedent to heart before he decided to sell out Norway to its current brand of occupiers.

I only hope that Norway still has the intelligence to recognize a traitor, the heart to withstand his insidious predations, and the guts to do the right thing.

2006 Albany February Match

Saturday last (February 11), we competed in the Albany (Oregon) club match and were pleasantly surprised by the clement weather. Coming off a 38-day cycle of unremitting RAIN, we woke up to high cloud layers which didn't present any raindrops at all. If this is Global Warming, I'm all for it!

Match Director Mike McCarter, who designed and set up the match only to spend the rest of the day at WORK . . . presented a six-stage match which can only be described as a "Hoser Match", because most of the targets were easy to hit and easy to see. This which encouraged us to run&gun as quickly as we could, and therefore screw up by the numbers Big Time.

Which we did. Results are available here.

There were 64 competitors at this match, which has to be some kind of record for a "don't-mean-nothin', just come out and shoot for the fun of it" match.

The first indication that this was to be an atypical match was when Ed D. suggested that I not take photographs of him, even though we were squadded together. He had seen the photos I took a couple a months ago, the last time we were in the same squad, and announced that he didn't recognize the "fat old man" he saw. I agreed to that condition, because frankly I don't recognize the fat old man I see in pictures taken of me at IPSC matches. After all, the pictures I take depict us at our most vulnerable moments, and the embarassement factor is high. Some of the most interesting videos show us when we make mistakes, and I don't blame anyone for objecting to this sort of imagery.

We're all friends here, and while we come to shoot, we don't necessary expect to be 'shot' at our worst.

Unfortunately, I managed to fall into that trap myself.

While we were engaging the Classifier, TAKE 'EM DOWN CM03-03, I was filmed missing the T4 target (far right-hand side) incompetently. Instead of putting two shots into the edge of teh A-zone,k I put them into the penalty target which overlapped the shoot-target. I scored two misses, and two no-shoot penalties. Because I didn't call the shots as misses, and didn't even notice them until I was far downrange to Box B where I was to shoot three Pepper Poppers, I just continued my run and finished with a decent time (9.45 seconds) and a terrrible score (41 points minus 40 penalty points = ONE point for the stage!).

I ended up the lowest score of the day, except for the single DNF score which garnered zero points because the competitor didn't actually even shoot the stage.

I missed really fast, but that doesn't peel the banana.

SWMBO was right there with the camera, and I'll present the video soon. Unfortunately (or fortunately, from my personal point of view) you can't see the no-shoot hits. This distracts from the impact of the video. I can't say that I'm disappointed. When I get around to editing and posting the film, I'll link to it here. In the meantime, you can assume that I did what I said I did, and I present it here if only to serve as a good example of someone who engaged a difficult target in a risky manner (already leaning to "get out of the shooting box quickly"), gambled, and lost.

In the words of Marlon Brando, in "On The Waterfront": I could have been somebody. I could have been a contender ... instead of a palooka, which I am."

All of that is true, but the weather was fair and the companionship was excellent. I don't mind losing to people who are better than I am. I had a GREAT time, and this day will be remembered not because of the stages I screwed up on but because of the company I kept.

And if Doug S. ever reads this, I have a few words of encouragement:
Get a GOOD gun for your wife, and let her shoot it competitively. She spent all day taping targets. Such enthusiasm should not go unrewarded. It took SWMBO three years of observing, brassing and taping before she said "SCREW THIS! GET ME A GUN!"

I will guarantee that SWMBO will happily spend as much time as is needed to coach your good wife, and she will beat you at a regular club match before the year is out.

And that will be one of the best days of your life. There is no day better than a day at the range, and there is no day at the range so good that it can't be improved by the companionship of your wife.

Quail 1, Veep 0

USATODAY.com - Cheney shoots at quail, hits hunting companion

Okay, Children, here's your gun-safety test for today:

Which is more dangerous: a politician with an agenda, or a politician with a gun?

If you ask Austin Attorney Harry Whittington, I bet he'll go for Door Number Two.

According to the USA Today account, Whittington managed to drop behind the group of quail hunters which included Vice President Cheney, put himsef between the 'line' and the sun, and when a quail broke between them VP Cheney scored at least One Bravo, One Charley hits on the attorney's head and chest with a shotgun.

Good thing for Whittington that Cheney was using Quail Loads. He (Whittington) is in the hospital with with a face-full of what we presume are number-8 shot strikes in the tender areas of his upper torso.

I like Cheney's politics, generally, but I would never go hunting with him. I value my eyesight too highly to risk it for the dubious honor of hunting with the VP.

Oh, sure, this stuff happens. It happened to me once, when I was a teen-ager. I went rabbit hunting with some friends, and one friend skipped a .22 Long Rifle round within yards of me while shooting at a jack rabbit.

I refused to continue the hunt, and I never went hunting with him again. Life is short enough already, there's no need to worsen he odds of honorable retirement by hunting with people who don't keep in mind the three rules of gun safety. (If you have any doubts about what they are, go read Xavier Thoughts.)

"Katharine Armstrong, a prominent Texas Republican who witnessed the incident on her family's 50,000-acre spread in South Texas", said "these things happen."

Well, yes, they do. But they don't happen to people who are more concerned with gun safety than they are about bagging a quail.

Actually, Xavier's comments about this incident are much more non-committal than I feel is justified. (No criticism intended toward Xavier ... he treats it very much 'tongue-in-cheek', which I suppose is possible if you still have a working tongue with which to speak after you have been shot in the face.)

Maybe Whittington, the victim, was somewhere on the hunting field where he shouldn't have been. Maybe it's true that 'these things happen.' But 'these things' should NOT happen, and to make your press-release spin emphasize that 'it was a shotgun, not a rifle' is just a shoddy way to minimize the political fall-out of an incident which has absolutely nothing to do with politics.

It's a matter of gun safety. There is no compromise possible in this area. I'm appalled at the mere attempt to minimize the possibility of egrigious damage due to the gun-handling of the Vice President.

Strangely enough, I tend to judge people by their demonstrated judgement. I watch people, and I judge them on whether or not I would be comfortable hunting with them. Cheney fails the sniff test here. That the victim (for so he is) was 'in front of the sun' is no excuse; if the shooter can't tell for certain that it's a safe shot, he shouldn't take the shot.

There's no justification for a hunter to shoot when he isn't certain of his 'backstop'. If you don't have that basic safety rule firmly in mind, you shouldn't take the stop.

I've violated some safety rules in my time.

Once I failed to "Unload and Show Clear" correctly at an IPSC match. Nobody got hurt, but I was wrong.

Six months (or more) ago, I talked about Grumpy Old Men, hi-lighting the time I almost shot my father's leg off because I just didnt' have a good understanding about the Rules of Gun Safety.

In fact, I even spent some time discussing how a LEO could experience an Accidental Discharge, and still not be personally responsible for it.

So I accept that shooting accidents can happen to "the best people":, and I thoroughly understand the causes and that the un-expected always happens when you least expect it. (Otherwise, it wouldn't count as an "un-expected occurrance.")

Doesn't matter.

VP Cheney mucked up, and it's a mistake for the incumbent spin-machine to pass it off as a "Shit Happens" event. It irresponsible to treat the incident that way, and it undermines what SHOULD be the message of the shooting "community" when it tries to portray itself as a responsible, safe activity.

Lesson #1: shooting can be dangerous to innocent bystanders.
Lesson #2: we exercise our sport with full understanding of the consequences.
Lesson #3: when one of our members screws up, we're the FIRST not to tolerate a lapse in judgement.
Lesson #4: Any lessoning of the acceptance of responsibility from the person holding the gun is not acceptable.

Nobody ... repeat, NOBODY ... is exempt from the high standards which we impose upon the practitioners of our sport. Any attempt to offer mitigating or extenuating circumstances for what is so patently a violation of basic safe gun-handling rules is simply unacceptable.

Because he is a politician, Cheney should volunteer for a safe-gun-handling class immediately. The NRA offers them for a reasonable cost. The price of NOT admitting that his gun-handling skills are less than they should be is not only politically unacceptable, it is practically unacceptable as well.

I wouldn't go hunting with him. Would you?

H/T: Fish or Man

NRA bill would OK guns in cars at work in Florida

MiamiHerald.com | 02/08/2006 |

TALLAHASSEE - The National Rifle Association is pushing a bill that would penalize Florida employers with prison time and lawsuits if they prohibit people from keeping guns in their cars at workplace parking lots.

But the proposal is facing stiff opposition from a group just as powerful in the state capital as the NRA: Florida's biggest business lobby.

Mark Wilson, a vice president of Florida's Chamber of Commerce, which represents 136,000 businesses, said the proposal, to be voted on today in a House committee, is ''an all-out assault'' on employer-employee relations that intrudes on private property rights.

Okay, we've lost this one already. They've played the PropertyRights Card.

Wait a minute, this doesn't work for private citizens. Why should it work for businesses?

Do we have property rights? According to the US Constitution, we do.

According to the Supreme Court, we don't.

With other business groups expected to join in, the widespread opposition to the NRA bill sets the stage for a rare power struggle between two of the Legislature's mightiest lobbies. And some political observers predict that, for one of the first times in recent history, the NRA will lose in the Legislature of a state where one of every 49 people has a concealed weapons permit and an estimated six million own firearms.

And Big Business has 49 out of 50 legislators in their pocket.

Anybody want to make a prediction on this one?

Here's mine: the NRA is counting on Roberts and Alito to be firmly entrenched by the time this reaches the Supreme Court of the United States, and they have a feeling that if they don't win the issue, they may score broader points vis-a-vis the whole Second Amendment thingie.

On the other hand, the NRA "leadership" (hah!) has consisted of a bunch of lunkheads for the past twenty years, with the possible exceptions of Jeff Cooper and Charlton Heston.

Cooper (85 next May 10) is pretty broken-down now, and Heston (82 next October 4) is in an advanced state of senility, but between the two of them they STILL have more guts, gumption and good sense than the entire current NRA-BOD.

They might be able to pull off a hat-trick like this, but I don't think the Ninnies at NRA can do it.

Bill sponsor Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican, said he filed the legislation to prevent ''back-door gun control.'' In the past two years, he has successfully sponsored bills limiting lawsuits against gun ranges, preventing cops from compiling electronic lists of gun owners and expanding people's rights to use deadly force if they feel threatened outside their homes.

''We just disagree that the business community's private property rights trumps my Second Amendment rights,'' Baxley said, noting he doesn't personally support carrying firearms in the workplace.

Under the bill, if business owners ban guns in cars on workplace parking lots, they could get sued and charged with a third-degree felony, punishable by a maximum five-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine. The bill has an exception for places like schools, where guns are banned by law.

(I don't know, maybe I'm over-rating the NRA. What do you think?
Do they really believe they can get, say, a ConicoPhillips Distributer thrown into jail?)

The measure was inspired by a case out of Oklahoma in 2002, when a dozen paper mill workers were fired after bosses found out they had guns in their cars. Oklahoma lawmakers passed a law similar to the Florida proposal, and business owners sued in federal court. Among them: ConocoPhillips. The NRA then launched a boycott, replete with billboards saying, ''ConocoPhillips is no friend of the Second Amendment.'' Since then, four states have passed laws like Oklahoma's, seven are considering them, and five killed the idea with relatively little debate, said Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Oh oh, The Brady Bunch!
Hmmm ... perhaps it comes down to whether our Ninnies can beat their Nincompoops.

It's going to be an interesting show to watch.

Anybody got Popcorn?

Family

My son lives in Colorado, and works nights. His wife, Alysha, works during the day. This must be rough on them but they seem to manage. At least it allows them to spend plenty of time with their three children: Lizzie, Connor, and Jake.

Last night Alysha had put the kids to bed and took her bath, then went to check on the children before she went to bed.

She found little Jake, their youngest at 16 months, in a 'coma', and turning blue.

She picked him up and forgot all of her CPR training. She patted him on the back, shook him, patted him some more and finally got him breathing again. She called for an ambulance, then called Ben at work to come home. She went with Jake to the hospital while Ben stayed with Lizzie and Connor.

The doctors decided that Jake had some kind of virus, like a cold, and while they could do no more about the virus than they could a cold, they could treat the symptoms and monitor his condition. They medicated him against sinus infection, cleaned accumulated mucus out of his nose and mouth, and put him in an oxygen tent.

(Incidently, Alysha had taken Jake to the doctor yesterday, to check on what seemed to be an incipient cold. The doctor prescribed some cold medication with Codiene, but they hadn't filled the prescription yet. The doctors this morning told her that if she had given that medicine to Jake, the Coceine would probably have prevented her from ever being able to wake him up again.)

Today the other children were being watched over by family members while Ben and Alysha were in the hospital. Late this afternoon they took Jake out of the oxygen tent long enough for Alysha to hold him. This evening, the hospital released Jake and, as of 40 minutes ago (when I talked to Ben), he was resting comfortably.

Ben said they were all trying to get some sleep, so please call back tomorrow, preferably sometime after 11. He sounded tired, so I kept my conversation short. I just told him how proud I was of Alysha for saving little Jakes life.

--

This probably sounds like a fairly coherent account, but it wasn't the way I got the news.

The first word I had of the crisis was when my mother called a little after 7pm tonight, saying that she got the news this morning from Ben's mother, only that he had been found in the crib, in a coma, turning blue, Alysha got him breathing and to the hospital, he seemed to be all right but they were watching him. The other kids were okay, Ben was at the hospital and probably couldn't take calls because they wouldn't let him have his cell phone 'on' there.

Mom had decided not to call me at work, because there was nothing I could do and I would probably just worry about him all day.

SWMBO came by after her Jazzercise class about a half-hour after I had talked to Mom, and when I told her what had happened she advised me to call Ben. She said if I didn't, I probably would worry myself sick and never get to sleep tonight.

Later my daughter, Jennifer (pregnant with HER second child) called to flesh out the details a little. She said I should call Ben, and if he was not in the hospital he would have his cell phone on and I could talk to him. If he was at the hospital, they would make him turn the cell phone off and it wouldn't bother anybody. She said that if I didn't call Ben, I would worry myself sick and wouldn't get any sleep at all tonight.

Why does everybody think I'm such a worry wort? What makes them think that my grandson's near-death experience would upset me so? Hah! They think they know me, just because they are my family.

And finally I called Ben for the summary, and the good news that the crisis was over.

My heart took a few jolts this evening, and you can imagine my feeling of helplessness at being 1000 miles away when we came so close to losing this beautiful child.

I'm coming down from my little panic attack now, I'll probably be able to sleep tonight after all. Writing this is just a nervous reaction, a way for me to step back a little bit and regain my equilibrium. And maybe, until I can talk to Alysha directly, it's a way to say how proud I am of her.

She did everything just right. She saved a precious life. She is my hero.

Thank you, Alysha.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, my loving family, for also watching over the doting grandfather.

How To Film IPSC Matches

I've recently been getting a lot of hits from Google searches about "How To Film IPSC Matches".

SWMBO and I have been doing a lot of that over the past several years, and those of you who have seen the results are probably painfully aware that our "on-the-job training" hasn't always produced pictures of the highest quality or greatest interest.

Still, we have evolved some guidelines that we hope to apply in future photography, and they may help you when you're shooting pictures while other people are shooting action-pistol stages.

The principles group themselves into five natural categories:

(1) Remember who wants to see the pictures, and why:

• People don't want to see YOUR friends; they want to see THEIR friends, or people they know
• Most important, they want to see themselves
• Photograph everybody, whether they are big-names or not, but be sure to photograph people who can be expected to perform well
• People want to see match winners, or stage winners, or the competitors who are most likely to provide a challenge to these people
• Sometimes, photos are used as training aids. It's a good idea to look for people who demonstrate the best approach to a given shooting problem; it's also frequently useful to photograph people who make mistakes, so they (and others) can learn from their mistakes
• Mistakes are often in the small things. Be sure to get the "small things" ... see below
  

(2) General rules for good action photograph:

• Put PEOPLE in your pictures! A photograph that just shows the targets, or the stage, is without interest. Remember, you're there to photograph PEOPLE. While it's often a good idea to take photos of stages to show their design, or props, it's boring.
  
• Try to film with the light source behind you.
  
• NEVER try to take photographs when you're looking into the sun. It won't turn out well.
• Be unobtrusive in your photography. Don't try to position yourself in a good place if it may interfere with the shooter or the Range Officer. Above all, don't be a nuisance, don't be a source of concern to the RO who may think you're in danger of being run over by the competitor.
• Ideally, the competitor should be unaware that you are filming, although it is a VERY good idea to get permission of the competitor before you publish photographs.
• Make sure you have a high-quality photograph; use a high-density digital camera, or a film with a speed appropriate to both action AND high quality. This is often a difficult balance to achieve, but while grainy pictures are often disappointing, blurry photographs are usually unusable. Film is a poor second choice, because you need to ....
  
• Shoot a LOT of pictures. You never know what is going to be important until you look at the results. You can feel good about throwing away a hundred pictures if the 101st is a keeper.
• Compose your photos so you have both the competitor and the target, or at least components of the stage, in the frame. When you have to make a choice, film the people!
• Use other elements of the stage ... the RO, props, trees, shadows ... to frame your primary subject.
• The best photographs illustrate a point. This is good, this is bad, this is exciting, this is colorful, this is fast ... the point isn't as important as making it visibly obvious.
  

Going back to the first rule, why should you include people in your photograph? Here are two pictures of an object ... a stage prop which includes a target array (two plates in the Tiger's 'eyes', and Pepper Poppers bordered by white-and-green penalty targets in the base):




Which of the two pictures is more interesting? Which gives you more information about the prop ... size, and the effect on the competitor?

Clearly, the photo on the right shows how big the prop is; and the dubious expression of the person in the photograph helps to establish that this is an intimidating target array. (The Pepper Poppers do not show up in the small-size version of this picture, so ALWAYS make a full-size version available so your audience can see the important details. This is a point that you should consider when you're publishing photographs.)


(3) Special guidelines for shooting still photographs:

• Take more pictures!
• Try to imply action with your timing; look for photos which show the slide cycling, the gun in recoil, brass flying through the air, a steel target falling down ... anything that implies motion or action.
• Shooters in motion are more interesting than shooters standing steel. Capture the shot that shows a shooter moving, with the body leaning at an acute angle, or one or both feet off the ground.
• Look for shadows that provide a more dramatic effect.
• Look for contrasts; put a shooter against a dark background, so the shooter and the gun (and brass!) show up better. Avoid action shots against a complicated, mottled background that may camouflage detail.
  

To illustrate that last remark, here are two consecutive photos of the same competitor on the same stage:

In the photo on the left, you see the face of the shooter, the gun, brass flying through the air (see the full-size version of the picture), and a good portion of the stage including targets. The shooter contrasts with the berm, as does the brass, so both show up well.

The photo on the rightshows little of the shooter, or the stage, and you get no impression of ACTION. The shooter is out of focus and blends in withe the RO and the background.

(4) Special guidelines for shooting videos:;

• ALWAYS edit your videos. Get rid of footage that doesn't enhance the performance you're trying to depict. Ideally, the film starts at the Beep of the Range Officer's clock and ends with the last shot.
• Sometimes, the most interesting part of the video is what happens before competitor starts or after the competitor stops shooting at targets. Let the camera run extra time, just so you don't miss the best part of the stage. You can always cut it, but if you haven't filmed it you don't have the option.
• Try to film EVERYBODY! The most interesting things (when somebody falls, when they bobble a reload, when a steel target is hit fairly but doesn't fall) never happened if you don't film it.
  

(5) Special technical guidelines, to make your photos and videos more readily available to your audience:

• Film is good, digital is better. Get a digital camera, of at least 3 megapixels density. Five megapixels density is better yet. You can crop still photos, you can convert your MPG to WMV format and reduce density, but if you don't CAPTURE the detail you can't PUBLISH the detail. Note: Ten Megapixels density will probably be more than you can use. See below.
• Get extra data chips for your camera, and be prepared to swap them out when they get full. A 1GB chip will hold MOST of a full day's shooting, if you're not filming every moment of every competitor's performance. Get two of them, and always delete files from previous sessions before you start the next one.
• Get at least one extra battery; preferably two of them. Always recharge your batteries the night before a match. Expect to run out of battery power (or memory space) at the most important/exciting moment in the match. Keep your replacement memory and batteries on your person, NOT in your camera bag.
• To save battery power, it's often better to keep the camera 'on' between photos if you expect to use it within five minutes or so.
• Use your zoom feature to center on your subject. Whether you use a tight zoom to fill the frame with images of the competitor, or open it up to capture both the competitor and the stage (or targets), pick a setting before you start filming and keep it there. It's distracting to have the camera zooming in and out during a competitor's run.
• The last rule is a guideline; sometimes it's permissible to zoom in or out, but you need to be very good at it to prevent losing the most important part of the film while you're searching to re-acquire your 'target'.
• Whether you plan to post your film on the Internet, or send it by email, it is discouraging to your audience when they have to wait for several minutes for the film to download. You may find it preferable to convert your MPG files to WMV files of 50% or lower density, just to get the movie to their screen. If you can present a higher-density version as an alternative, that's fine; if their interest is captured by the low-density version, they MAY choose to download another version. But probably not, unless it is "their" performance they will be viewing.
  

Note that you can use the "Windows Movie Maker" software (available as part of your standard software package on new Personal Computers with the XP operating system) to edit and downsize your videos.

Good shooting, and good luck.

Hitler Jugend

Nassau County students could earn as much as $100 next school year every time they turn in another student for having drugs, alcohol, weapons or tobacco on campus.

Spearheaded by the Nassau Alcohol, Crime and Drug Abatement Coalition, the program has tentatively been titled "Safe Schools," and it's planned to start in every high school and middle school in Nassau County in August if approved by members of the Nassau County School Board.

"This program empowers the child to create a safe environment for themselves," said Susan Woodford, vice-president of NACDAC.

Woodford is working on the program with other members of NACDAC, including Fernandina Beach Police Officer Marty Scott and local school officials.

According to Scott, the program would allow students who report on fellow students to remain anonymous; awards would be given for information that leads to an arrest.

Welcome to Nassau County, Florida, where your friends can burn you for cash.

This is not a new concept, and in fact this program has already been enacted in other American counties.

It was, in fact, enacted (in slightly different form, but with more far-reaching consequences) in 1930's Hitler Germany.

The target age-group was the same, and many of the aims were the same. Although the current incarnation is to "(empower) the child to create a safe environment for themselves ...", the tactics and priorities are identical:

1. Transfer adolescent allegience from the family or peer group to The State;
2. Undermine the definition between non-Statist groups (family vs peer group) to the benefit of State-defined programs, to the point where The State is defined as the ultimate authority and peer-group;
3. Establish a simplistic and personally rewarding relationship between the adolescent and The State;
4. Start with "wrong" activities being clearly defined in terms which have already been identified as "counter-productive", leaving no opportunity for opposing opinion and taking as granted that the defined activities, as the first step, and set up a relationship which can later move on to political "wrong" activities'
   
5. Create an environment of mistrust between children and peers and/or families, which may later be expanded to the benefit of to-be-defined Statist goals.

Is this the 21st Century's bid to re-enact the concept of antidisciplinarianism, or is it just an attempt to teach our children to compromise their natural loyalties for Statist goals?

The basic concept -- to encourage children to police their own environment for their own benefit -- may not be unworthy. But the techniques are, in that they use financial gain as the motivation. How big a step is it from earning a hundred bucks to rat out your cigarette-smoking friend, to earning the gratitude of The State for turning in your politically incorrect parents for using wrong words in reference to socio-political groups?

Hey, Kid. Over here. Yeah, come over here into the shadows. How would you like to earn a hundred bucks? No problem, I've got it right here, in cash. All you got to do is snoop around until you find one of your buddys with that Eeeeevil cigarette-smoke stench on 'em, and boogie up to the Principal's office. Just pony up a name, a description, and the big bucks are yours.

And your friend? He'll never know it was you. If you're real careful, you can finger the whole rat-bastard bunch of those second-hand-smoke killin' monsters. What do you care if they figure out who's turning them in? They won't be around any more. We'll bust them, and ship them out to the Anti-Smoking Education Camp. Isn't that A Good Thing? If they cared about you, they wouldn't be smoking, fouling up the air that you breathe. They're trying to do it to you, why shouldn't you do it to them first? And remember, we're gonna PAY you for doing a public service. Go buy an IPod on us. We'll take care of you. All you have to do is ... say, does your Dad smoke? Does he smoke in the house?

Yessssss my precioussssssss .......

To you, it may seem petty to view this not-so-new program as the harbringer of odious and oppressive police-state tactics.

To others, this may be a clarion call to shut down the unilateral measures invoked by the State before they invade you home, your childrens' schools, before 'they' can make it seem only right for your children to turn in their best friend or their family members for activities which were previously considered only marginally self-destructive.

Is this the Eye of the Needle, or the Camel's Nose under the tent of Personal Privacy?

freedom vs blasphemy

The recent brouhaha about the political cartoons posted in a Norwegian newspaper opened up an international can of worms. Reason has a good write-up about it in a "hit and run" blog here, and gleefully add follow-up comments here and here and there.

They also mention the US Joint Chiefs of Staff's objection to a Toles cartoon here.

There are also links to the "offending images" in the cited articles, although if you haven't yet seen the Muhammed 'cartoons' you can find them reprinted in the Brussels Journal here, or here.

I have decided to neither host the cartoons, nor to display them here, out of deference to the only Muslim friend I have; a Lebenon-born immigrant named Issam with whom it has been my pleasure to work for the past ten years. I haven't discussed this issue with Issam because I'm inclined to judge him as an individual, and I don't think he's the type to threaten to kill people because they have offended him. I assume he's typical of most muslims, and I consider him my friend although he is certainly not an admirer of President Bush. (Most of the people with whom I work on a university campus are not admirers of President Bush, and I decline to discuss politics at the office; instead, I discuss politics here. It's a lot less stressful than declaring jihad on Liberals or others who don't agree with my political philosophy.)

I've looked at all of the cartoons, and frankly I don't understand the point of half of them. Most of them aren't obviously depicting the Prophet Mohammed (spelling varies, I'll use this because it's more familiar to me), but it's fair to assume that at least some of them do. Many of them obviously link muslims to violence, and considering the upsurge in violence caused by muslims, that seems fair to me, too.

However, I will provide a link to the Toles cartoon, in case you have never seen it, and a direct link to it here.

The images which muslims find offensive were originally commissioned and published by a Danish newspaper last September. I'm still unable to completely understand why the Danes did this, but I assume that they were trying to build circulation by publishing something controversial (Human Events suggests, in the above link, they did it to send the message that "we cannot be intimidated." That didn't work very well, I think.) Nobody paid much attention to them at the time, and it was not until the Norskis (who don't like that name) republished them in January ... presumably for the same reason ... that they appeared on the Event Horizon.

If I do understand at least part of this correctly, Muslims don't believe that the image of the Prophet Muhammed (Mohammad?) should ever be printed, as it is disrespectful. And when the image is presented in a deliberately disrespectful manner, it is considered blasphemous. Even when the cartoons are reproduced by a muslim editor to counsel moderation. In one case, the Jordanian goverment called for sanctions against a newspaper there which reprinted the images.)

And Norwegian Muslims want their government to establish "anti-blasphemy laws" against this sort of thing.

Anti-blasphemy laws? In a secular country? What IS the world coming to?

I don't know if they're right, but in the particular circumstances it appears that these 'cartoons' are deliberately disrespectful and incinderary. Muslims the world over are outraged, and I don't really blame them. Well, perhaps except for the anti-blasphemy thing.

One man's "blasphemy" is another man's "freedom of speech", and I've probably been too long an American citizen to believe that "blasphemy" is a justification for "hardline muslims" to occupy embassies in muslim countries; or for threats against the life of Danish or Norwegian nationals. As for burning the national flag of home countries of newspapers which published the images . . . well, people burn national flags all the time and frankly I believe it has become a legitimate expression of disdain. If you're an American, the sight of another flag-burning doesn't quite have the same shock value it once had, so go ahead and burn them. We'll make more. (Well, actually China will make more, and we'll buy them from the Chinese because they're so CHEAP! But don't get me started.)

"Blasphemy" is just one more step on the slippery slope which leads to assassination of movie-makers. I admit, I'm no fan of Michael Moore or Bareback Brokeback Mountain, but that's just because I'm not interested in the story of two lonely cowboys so lame that they can't get a date with a good-looking heifer on a Saturday night. I'm voting with my pocketbook, folks; I'm not threatening to assasinate movie producers

Let's compare the muslim reaction to images of their prophet, to the American reaction to the Toles cartoon.

Toles showed a person in a hospital bed, with no arms and no legs. The chart at the foot of the bed was labelled "U.S. ARMY", and the graph displayed was down-hill (a negative prognosis?) A figure labelled "Dr. Rumsfield". He says: "I'm listing your condition as 'battle-hardened'." The obvious implication is that the U.S. Army has suffered grevious wounds, and the Secretary of Defense refuses to acknowledge that it is no longer capable of continuing to function.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America pooled all of their power and . . . wrote a letter protesting the cartoon.

That's it.

Muslims threaten to kill people, Americans write a letter.

It's an amazing coincincence, if you believe in coincidence, that TWO cartoon-related incidents occurred within a couple of days of each other. Also, to compound the coincidence, consider that the Tole cartoont provided a perfect opportunity for the American government to demonstrate a civilized response, in direct contrast to the response of muslims the world over.

I don't really believe that Toles drew the cartoon at the behest of our government, but neither would I be surprised if he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for performing a great and valuable service. It set up a beautiful reposte, at no cost to America except for a measured response of righteous indignation.

When the Muslim world begins to understand that threats of violence, or violence itself, is not an acceptable response to insult (even an insult to your religion), then they will be ready to join the rest of civilization in building a world which allows different viewpoints to exist. Until we, and they, reach this point we won't have a reasonable chance of survival.

A couple of days ago, I read an article about a Muslim website for children, in which Hesbollah essentially demands the return of Seville to Muslim hegemony. I was surprised to learn that Muslims ruled Seville for a thousand years, and was even more surprised that this terrorist group has now decided that they could begin pressing their claim to a land and a people which they had controlled through right of conquest.

THIS is the most disquieting event in recent weeks, to my mind. A people so blind to the right of others to practice their own religion and culture in peace, is a people who are capable of any injustice in furtherance of their own agenda.

It may not be enough for us to provide examples of 'measured reaction', but ultimately it's encouraging that someone had the good sense to take that step, anyway.

Of course, the madmen who are orchestrating this violence-fueled drive to rule the world on their terms won't even notice what's going on. I hope that there are a few muslims left who CAN see it, though.

It won't solve anything by itself, but at least it's a small step in the right direction.

Oh, yes; one more thing:
If you're a newspaper editor, and you have decided to demonstrate that you "cannot be intimidated", you might consider that the attention you generate by deliberately provoking a group of extremist may have repercussions more extreme than you expect, and that they targetted group might just land some innocent people in deep doo-doo. I'm talking about Danish companies whose products are currently being boycotted by muslims, and the burning of embassies.

Muslims the world over are joyfully indulging in the opportunity to spank western butt.

Hey, Danish Editors ... maybe you CAN be intimidated.

"You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance."

XL650: .38 Super

AsI mentioned in the first half of this 2-part series about the Dillon XL650 reloading press, after 9 years of usage I had accumulated set-ups for several calibers ... specifically, 9x19, .45acp and 10mm pistol calibers.

A2K and STI:f
In 2000, SWMBO and I flew to Watervleit, NY, for the A2k Aware Match (Aware, 2000). My online (Unofficial IPSC List) friend Patricia LeGere was the MD, and her husband Warren was the Range Master for what turned out to be one of the best organized match I have ever attended, USPSA Nationals not withstanding.

We had volunteered to work the match, as Range Officers. SWMBO was a RO, and I had been a Certified Range Officer (CRO) since 1997. Still, this was the first Major Match we had worked, and we were pretty excited about both the match and the trip. We had never flown cross-country with guns, gone to a match farther from the Pacific Ocean than Nevada, or in fact been to New York at all. And, in point of fact, we had never met Pat or Warren, although I had been corresponding via the Internet with Pat and a group of like-minded IPSC competitors such as Arnie Christianson, Troy McManus, and Pete Goloski (Julie's father).

We got on a plane in Portland, Oregon on a Wednesday morning and spent the entire day flying. This is not one of SWMBO's favorite ways to spend the day, so by the time we landed in Albany, NY, via Atlanta (don't ask) she wasn't feeling well at all.

SWMBO spent the next day in bed, and in the can. I walked across the street from the motel (reservations and payment courtesy of AWARE) and had breakfast, then walked back in the rain where Pat was waiting to take me to the range.

We spent two days helping set up the stages, and Warren LeGere taught me everything I now know about stage design and construction. The man is a literal genious, and I'm disappointed that the LeGere's have burned out and are no longer running AWARE matches.

The match was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but Friday was the RO match. We had brought only one gun ... the 10mm STI Edge ... with four magazines, one belt (which didn't fit SWMBO all that well), and a ton of 10mm ammunition.

I shot the RO match on Friday Morning, all 12 stages, and it was a blast. I was squadded with Michael Chludenski and "Tillman" (a vendor, darned if I can remember his first name offhand), and a third guy who I can't remember at all. Embarassing, but it was a while ago and I'm old so I can be forgiven these lapses of memory as easily as I can be forgiven for this diversion from the main theme.

I had no problems with the match, other than it was so challenging that I was often not able to shoot up to my class.

SWMBO shot the match in the afternoon, and had a couple of problems. In stage 4, she dropped her fully loaded 140mm magazine during the Load and Make Ready, and the RO there courteously picked it up and handed it to her, so she stuck it in the gun and assumed the ready position.

Did I mention that the surface at the Watervliet Gun Club is sand? No? Well, it's a funny thing what sand does when it gets inside a hi-tech pistol. It stops it, right now. SWMBO got off 3 shots in a twenty-something stage with a lot of tiny Steel Plates, and had to fight the gun for the rest of the stage, before she finally realized that her time was going to be so long that it didn't matter how many targets she hit, or even shot at. She quit about half-way through the stage, and if she didn't zero the stage it was close enough.

We had been cleaning the gun every other stage, because the hard-cast bullets and cheezy Unique powder combined to foul it pretty fast. The gun had been cleaned (and oiled) before this stage, but we cleaned it again as well as the magazine, and wiped down any ammo that had been in a magazine that was in the gun. Sand was everwhere. That's when I realized that, with a tight slide-to-frame fit, you can't afford to compete with anything but the best powder and bullets available.

The point of this trip down memory lane is that Dave Skinner, President and CEO of STI International, was running a table in the vendor tent, and while Sandie was drooling over a hard-chromed STI Tru-Bore with pink grips, I was finally meeting personally another denizen of the Unofficial IPSC List. I found Dave to be personally charming, technically competent. For example, he told me that "a gun is a machine. It needs oil to work right. Oil on a gun is good; more oil is better.")

He's also a brilliant reconteur, and our evenings around the campfire in the court of the match hotel will remain among my favorite memories. (This impression may be, in part, because one of the benefits of voluteering to work the match for per diem, match fees and lodging, and in recompense for our having paid over $1000 for our travel expenses, Pat had offered to provide all the Crown Royale I could drink around the campfire.)

When I got back to Oregon, I contacted the vendor which Dave had recommended and bought the first of many cases of Montana Gold (200 grain jacketted) bullets for the 10mm. I also ordered a four-pound keg of Vihta Vourhi N320, which works just FINE in the Edge without fouling the frame rails ... and it is a fine-grain powder, so it measures a lot more accurately than did the egrigious Hercules Unique. The only problem is, it's not available 'locally', so you have to look around for a reliable supply. The bullets can be ordered directly from Montana Gold, and I've found that they are an excellent company to do business with.

SHIRLEY:
The next year, 2001, SWMBO and I attended the Area 1 tournament in Washington. We realized that we couldn't reasonably share a gun here because we would be competing in the same squad. Consequently, SWMBO opted to shoot The Beloved Kimber (rather than the S&W 659, which made holes too small for her to see) and I shot the Edge.

To our delight, we were squadded with a lot of people that we had known either well or peripherably, including Jim "Bumstead" Boemler, Dave Skinner, Steve "Zippy" Zopfi, Randy "Randomly Hitten'" Witten, Mark "Hobo Brasser" O'Shea, George "Earthworm" Jones and his son Bryan "Inchworm" Jones. (George and Jim had come to Oregon in previous years to compete in both the CCS Sectional and the Dundee Croc Match. Mark and Randy are locals, and Steve lives in Washington and was not only a friend of Jim's but also an IPSC List subscriber.)

During the match, Dave watched SWMBO fight the recoil of The Beloved Kimber ... the only pistol I own which works better with cast lead bullets and chunky powder than with more sophisticated ammunition components ... and commented that it was a shame that I made such a nice girl fight the old clunker. The first evening of the match, we took over Bumstead's house for an impromptu BBQ, and somebody (I think it was Witten) brought along a couple of bottles of spirits. One thing lead to another, and by the end of the evening Dave had made us an offer we couldn't refuse on a slightly used hard-chrome STI Tru-Bore race gun.

Being sober enough not to ignore a generous offer, I not only said yes, but "Hell Yes!". And forgot about it, because Dave had put his nose in the neck a couple of times that night, and I didn't think he would remember it the next day.

Imagine my surprise when, next week, I took legal posession of a beautiful STI Tru-Bore race gun with a hard-chrome finish, powder-blue grips, a "Parrot" OK sight, one 10-round magazine, two 140mm magazines, and one 170mm magazine ... all STI manufacture, of course.

Dave is a man of his word, which is demonstrated daily by his business practices. You buy an STI, you've got not only one of the finest competition-quality pistols on the market today, you get a warranty that rivals that of Dillon itself. It breaks, send it back. They fix it, and send it back to you. Dave has become a friend, but he's a friend to every customer of STI. Everybody gets the same deal, although admittedly the Custom Shop has been pretty busy as their customer base has grown and turn-around time may occasionally been as strained as any of the better gunsmiths. Still, it's an all-American gun, and to misquote Jeremiah Johnson in reference to the Hawkens Rifle, "Hell, it were a genuine STI, and you can't get no better."

During this process SWMBO and I became Marketting Representatives, authorized to possess and use extended-capacity magazines for the purpose of demonstrating the product for LEO, Military and other potential customers. We were agents for the manufacturer, and thus authorized the same privileges as the manufacturer in regards to hi-cap magazines under the then-current laws regulating hi-cap mags. [whew!]

I was in a position of put-up-or-shut-up, so I ordered a case of Montana Gold 115 bullets, a thousand Winchester .38 Super cases, and a keg of Vihta Vourhi N350 powder. I was going by the load data of Jeff Maass's reloading page, and my own prejudice of quality components. Nothing but the best for SWMBO. Also, from Dillon I ordered a Safariiland belt combo and three Safariiland magazine carriers.

Talking to local folks who used the .38 Super, I heard that many people preferred the .38 Super Comp brass rather than the ordinary .38 Super. I asked Dave about that (by email), and with typical Skinner candor he replied laconically: "Why you want to make it more complicated? The regular super brass works just fine, don't muck it up by spending more money on that Super Comp stuff." As usual, Dave was right and the gun ran just fine with .38 Super brass ... from any vendor, the gun didn't care as long as it was the rimmed case. (The extractor was tuned to that brass, and does NOT like the rimless .38 Super Comp brass. Didn't then, doesn't now, and we haven't changed the extractor yet.)

Looking at the Dillon catalogue, I realized that I could load .38 Super using the same Lee Dies that I had been using for the 9x19 cartridge. I didn't bother investing in special dies, just changed the seating depth on the second die and the charge on the powder measure, adjusted the crimp die, and started loading .38 super ammunition. I think it took me about 10 minutes to get the right combination. After that, I spent a couple of hours of range time with a chronograph to determine the best powder charge, and the gun ran like the proverbial fine Swiss watch.

Loaner:
The next year, I had some serious problems with the Columbia Cascade Sectional match. On one difficult stage, I had more penalty hits on close-set no-shoot targets than I got on the scoring targets. Well, it was a tough stage and I was under considerable competitive pressure. But a couple of weeks later, I happened to pick up my WWI 1911 and discovered that I couldn't see the sights. Looking again at the Edge, I found I couldn't see more than a blur where the sights should be, either.

I began a correspondance with Dave, asking him what changes he recommended to change the 10mm Edge into an Open gun. I mentioned that I was considering mounting a dot-sight, swapping the 10mm bull-barrel for a compensated barrel (I knew STI could build me one, or a competent gunsmith could thread the existing barrel and install a screw-on compensator.) I also asked about required changes to the slide and even the ejector.

Dave replied that he would hate to see me "muck up" a perfectly good gun, and made me another offer on a gun they had in their shop which had been built as (apparently) a prototype of the Competitor.

Thus I ended up with another .38 Super to load for, albeit with a Scheumann Barrel and the necessary blast shield to protect the C-more sight.

I immediately put in an order for "replacement" 140mm and 170mm magazine tubes, springs and followers. NOT a manufactured magazine (illegal under then-current laws, and the vendor didn't have my documentation which stated that I was an "agent" for the manufacturer). I bought the magazine base-pads from another vendor, and was able to assemble completely legal hi-cap magazines for the pistol. I admit, the gun was so fun to shoot, I went a little crazy for a while there.

The Scheumann (I'm probably not spelling that correctly) barrel had an entirely different reaction to the load which I had been using for SWMBO's ammunition. I experimented with the loads, and found that the 7.9 gr VV N350 load with 115gr MG bullets was just a little light for that barrel. I increased the powder charge up to, eventually, 10 grains of VV N350 powder, and the Scheumann barrel handled it just fine!

Unfortunately, in SWMBO's gun it was just a little too hot, because the end-of-the barrel compensator didn't release the excess gas as quickly as the holes-in-the-barrel Scheumann barrel did. We saw not only flattening of the primers on rounds fired through that pistol, but in some cases the primer metal actually flowed around the firing-pin hole and over the boundary of the primer cup until it overlayed the base of the cartridge! Decidedly too hot for that gun. Finally, I settled on an 8.0 grain charge of powder, which seemed to be a usable compromise between the two guns.

In 2004, one year almost to the day from when I started using this load, I cracked the slide. STI was very nice about replacing both the barrel AND the slide, and I was able to get rid of the Scheumann Barrel. I was glad of that, because the blowback from the compensating ports was so powerful that I had already spent a few uncomfortable sessions in the Dentist's chair. I had cracked a tooth, which had to be ground down and capped. I wasn't happy about this, but I felt it was worth it to be shooting an Open gun and besides, it was an old tooth and I didn't actually LOSE it, I only had it replaced with the cap.

I note parenthetically that the people in my Section who had been working local matches as Range Officers were glad to hear that I had replaced the Scheumann barrel with a 'regular' barrel. They were being buffetted by the muzzle blast, whether I was shooting the "Loaner" gun or SWMBO was, even more than we were.



Now it is two years since my last change to the load data for the .38 super ammunition, which we shoot between 20,000 and 30,000 rounds per year.

The load has remained consistently at 8.0 grains of VV N350 behind a 115 grain MG Jacketted Bullet. (I won't supply the Over-All Length of the load, because I don't want to tempt anyone to assume that this load will work as well, or as safely, in their gun as it does in ours.) Our load chronograph consistently at about 171PF at major matches, and I don't expect to change it in the near future.

I should note, however, that the Dillon XL650 is getting old and has shown some wear.

Last Summer I replaced the Link Arms - a forged-steel connection between the body of the press and the cyliner. One of them broke, and I replaced both of them while I was doing my mechanical duties. Other parts which have broken include the platform assembly, and the entire Primer Feed Assembly. (Early models of the Primer Feed Assembly failed to protect the operator and the machine, and they were capable of mis-feeding the primers. I once crunched a primer while reloading 9mm ammo, and the primer blew up ... along with several other primers in the primer feed tube. Dillon replaced the entire assembly without change, as they have replaced all other parts of the reloading press, and I have experienced no other problems with this portion of the press.)

The Dillon XL650 is prone to cycling problems with small primers, and I can load ammunition using large primers much faster. The primer disk doesn't seem to align as perfectly and as consistently with the primer punch with small primers as it does with large primers. To illustrate, if I have a constant source of components (including loaded primer feed tubes) and I'm feeling energetic, I can load 1000 rounds of .45acp or 10mm in about one hour, on a good day. Conversely, I load about 400 - 500 rounds of .38 Super in an hour. This is entirely due to the occasional problems conversant with using smaller components, both the primers and the cases (which sometimes don't 'drop' as perfectly as they should when reloading .38 super brass, but which almost always align perfectly using the large .45acp brass.)

My machine is about 15 years old now, and many parts have been replaced. I'm not a good mechanic, so my maintenance is not as good as it should be. I need to send it back to the factory so it can be reconditioned. I've been putting it off for three years now, because I just don't want to miss any club matches because I haven't loaded enough ammunition ahead of time to carry me through the period when the press is not set up and ready to reload.

But I can send it back to Dillon any time I want, and as long as it isn't during the winter (when most people send their loading press back for refurbushing), I can be confident that it will come back to me as good as new, and with a minimum of time lost.

It's just . . . hard for me to face the prospect of not having my XL650 already mounted on my loading bench, and ready to use.

I've grown accustomed to relying on it, and any time I want to spend a half-hour at the bench, I know I can load up enough ammunition to carry me through another club match.

That kind of reliability is hard to find, but I've found it from Dillon and STI.

Life is good.

2006 CCS Major Match Schedule

Columbia Cascade Section

Billing itself (rightly!) as "The Hottest Section in the USPSA", Columbia Cascade Section (CCS) in Oregon announced today the latest committment to host a major match:

The Multi-gun National National Championships

Here's the entire list, taken directly from the Section website:

Six (Yes 6!) major matches this year.

June: Area 1 Championships at the Newly Improved Tri-County Club, Sherwood, OR

July: The Tenth Annual Oregon Single Stack Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

July: USPSA Multi-Gun National Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

Aug: Columbia-Cascade Section Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

Sept: Crocodile Dundee Banzai Ballistic Challenge Match (Crazy Croc) Dundee, OR

Sept: The Second Annual Oregon Glock Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

(Please inquire of Mike McCarter at nomikes@hotmail.com for details.)

I've written about the CCS Sectional, the Single Stack Championship, and the Croc Match during the past year. I haven't attended a 3-gun or multi-gun match, or a Glock match for that matter; and it has been a couple of years since I attended an Area 1 championship.

Like most people in the section, I'm very excited about the huge list of major matches which are being presented locally this year. This is the most ambitious year yet for this energetic section, and full credit should be given to Section Coordinator Mike "Mac" McCarter.

This boisterous line-up of IPSC and IPSC-type competition wouldn't have been possible without the extensive and expensive range improvements which have taken place at the ARPC and Tri-County ranges. I've mentioned them here before, in greater detail, but I can summarize them briefly: twelve bays at ARPC, THIRTEEN bays at Tri-County. Both ranges include four or five bays measuring about 100 feet on a side, and all bays are (or will be, by this summer) deeply graveled to make them all-weather usable.

The huge bays are supplemented by a number of smaller bays, which allows them to present a variety of stage designs using the available range area most efficiently.

Incidently, Tri County Gun Club is presenting it's Second Annual All-Shotgun ("Shotty") match this weekend, February 4, 2006. I attended the first annual Shotty last August, and came away with a killer shoulder bruise that took weeks to recover from. I'll probably be unavailable for this year's match, as I have to take my car into the Les Schwab tire store to fix the flat I found when I started out for the Dundee IPSC match last Saturday. Too bad, because I would like to attend the match just to take some photographs for the Geek Shooting Gallery! But I don't think I can make it up there in time for the 9am starting time, and I don't have a 'practical' shotgun.

Here's the blurb from TCGC club rep Rich Whitten:

The next IPSC 3-Gun match is this Saturday, and will be an all shotgun match. You will need at least 61 games loads and 10 buckshot - no slugs required. Setup starts at 7:30 AM, and the match will begin at 9AM.

If you're interested, you can email Rich at richard.d.whitten@intel.com

Back to the Major Match Schedule.

I'll be competing in at least the Croc Match, the Sectional Match, the Single Stack Match and the Area 1 match. However, I may be working the Area 1 match as an RO, if I can talk SWMBO into doing the same and we get to work a stage together. And of course, I'll be there with my trusty Geek-Cam for as many matches as I can manage

[sigh]

It's going to be a great competitive year in Oregon. If you can find the time, and if you're at all interested in competing in some of the most innovative matches in America, come on up and join us.

By all means, if you see us at the match, stop and say hello to SWMBO and me!

January '06 at Dundee

Winter matches are the time to try out new stage designs. In the Columbia Cascade Section, stages are often "Steel Heavy" because the rains make it necessary to put protective plastic bags over cardboard target, to keep the rain from soaking them so badly that we can't score the targets. One of the major problems is that when cardboard gets wet, the tape we put over the bullet holes often doesn't stick very well. There are few more frustrating experiences in IPSC competition as having to reshoot stages because the Range Officer (RO) just can't tell which bullet hole is yours, and which belonged to a previous competitor.

The weatherman was not our friend when we showed up at the Chehalem Valley Shooter's Club (Dundee, Oregon) for our regularly scheduled Saturday match on January 28, 2006. He had predicted up to an inch of rain, and high winds.

Rain is awkward; wind is unendurable. It blows over the cardboard IPSC targets, which catch the wind as handily as sails on a schooner. In extreme situations, it can blow over Steel Pepper Popper targets unless the stage setup crew has set them so 'heavy' that it's difficult for Minor Power rounds to knock them over when hit fairly.

During Oregon Winter matches, you can gauge the wind without ever being out in it. The lowest level is "D", for "Damn, there goes another target". A more severe wind is labelled "S", as in "Oh Shit, targets down ... hold up while we go reset them and add a few more sandbags to hold the target stands in place." The most sever winds, of course, are typified by the expression: "Damn! What the shit? There's another Friggin' Pepper Popper down!"

You can tell how strong the wind is without ever being outside, if you can hear the the jabber.

We got lucky this time.

The rain was intermittent, never very strong, and the wind did not attend. Thank You, Jesus!

We can handle a little rain. We've been learning how to deal with it for twenty years.

In fact, the weather was so clement that not only did we get through the match with no rain delays, I even got my GeekCam out and took a LOT of pictures ... most of them movies.

You can see the movies at Jerrydgeek's Shooting Gallery. In fact, I even have raw film uploaded here.

You can see the scores here.

I didn't film the entire match. We (our 12-man squad, including SWMBO) started out on Stage 5 in the Rifle Bay, followed by Stage 6. I had left my camera in the car because I expected heavy rain. But the weather was so nice, I picked up the camera when we went back up the hill to the Croc Bay and filmed as many shooters as I could for the rest of the day. I was unable to reconcile shooting pictures with meeting my obligations as a squad member, so I didn't get all of the very interesting pictures (such as when Pelican Bill skidded through a turn on Stage 2), but I got enough to make it worth bringing to your attention.

As difficult as it may be for some dedicated CCS readers to comprehend, others may not be entirely captivated by the following play-by-play narrative. However, after you view the videos, please feel free to come back here and read not only the description of the stages but also the evaluation of the relative merits of each stage.

Briefly, here's a description of the stages which I DID photograph:

CROC BAY:
The Croc Bay would be called Bay 1 at most ranges, as it is physically situated at the 'top of the hill'. Dundee gives credit to the unique L-shaped configuration of the bay by giving it a special name.

Today, the stage presented in that bay ("Steel From The Boxes") didn't take particular advantage of the shape of the bay. Instead, it was designed so it could be presented in any bay that was at least fifty feet on a side. Here, you engaged four Pepper Poppers from about 50 feet, plus two IPSC targets (bagged, of course). Then you moved to the right to a corner, represented by a "snow-fence" vision barrier, and after rounding a corner you were presented with four IPSC targets. Finally, you move downrange about 20 feet and engage the five small plates on a Texas Star at 30+ feet. The trick is to be able to engage long-range Pepper Poppers, the paper 'on the move', and have enough breath control to get the tiny Texas Star plates without succombing to the adrenaline rush generated by the time constraints.

Believe me, the Star is tough under any circumstances. And long-range Pepper Poppers are challenging to iron-sighted guns. When you put them together with a run in between, broken by hoser-mania inducing IPSC arrays, it's HARD to get back into the accuracy mode.

Here we see people who clean the initial Pepper Poppers, but who make otherwise unaccountable misses on the Star plates. Also, we see people who can't hit the long-range Pepper Poppers without a reload, but by the time they get down to shooting the Star . . . they knock 'em down by the numbers. I don't claim to understand it, but it's worth the time to look at the videos.

Bay 1:
Stage 1 (Bay 1 - Rainy Day Shuffle) is a technical stage. A 'memory course', you have to realize that you can't see every target from the same place, yet remember which IPSC targets you've already engaged from an earlier position.

The stage requires the competitor to start in the embarassing position of "holding a target over your head to protect you from the rain", a nod to the inclement weather conditions. It also forces the competitor to start from an awkward position, and ensure that the prop be tossed far enough away that it doesn't become a slipping hazard later in the stage.

Actually, it's possible to shoot a few targets from one position (not in the starting box), then move to another position and engage the rest of the targets. It's a 24-round stage, and most Open Shooters with big-stick mags were unwilling or unable to shoot the whole course of fire without a reload -- usually a standing reload. I only saw one person shoot with a single Big Stick, and the was the Amazing SWMBO.

Course description: there are five stacked plastic barrels (vison barriers), and there are US poppers behind four of them at 10 yards from the fault line; they can't all be seen from the same position. There are two Pepper Poppers in mid-range, and they MAY be seen from the same position.

At long-range (15+ yards from the fault line?) there are 5 IPSC targets, which may or may not be seen from the same position; but there are also six small plates on a plate rack which are not only a challenging target array but they tend to distract you from keeping track of how many of which targets you've already engaged.

This stage was, admittedly, not visually interesting. However, it was technically challenging and it certainly bit me badly as I had to admit, at the end of the exercise, that I lost track early-on where I was. It turned out that I was not as confused as I felt, but I did manage to rack up a miss on one of the IPSC targets. Just another reason why I have always asserted that "Steel Is My Friend". (I can tell whether I hit Steel targets ... if I'm standing where I can see them.)

Bay 2:
The stage named "Easy Run" was deceptive because it SEEMED like a 'hoser stage'. Shoot down two 10-yard US Poppers from the starting box, the run up to a four IPSC target array and engage them from perhaps 3 yards. Run around a vision-barrier corner, down an alley, and shoot four more IPSC targets. Turn the corner, shoot 3 more IPSC targets at ranges which vary from 20 feet to point-blank range, depending on how fast you run (or whether you choose to run.)

What's not to like?

First, I managed to miss the second US Popper, so had to back up to re-engage it from the box.

Second, I got a finger-freeze on the last IPSC target in the first array, and had to back up to re-engage it legally from a distance of less than 10 feet.

Because all of the IPSC targets were full-size targets, with no hard-cover or penalty targets, most of us chose to treat it as a hoser stage. The number of D-zone hits was astounding; one A-Open shooter in our squad got SEVEN D-zone hits on the 11 IPSC targets on this stage. Most Open Division competitors in this squad came off the stage swearing that the wanted a reshoot so they could "this time, use the sights!"

And one of the best B-Open shooters managed to spin out on the first turn, going to his knees without, fortunately violating a safety rule. He lost some time there, but still managed to beat all the other competitors in his class.

Incidently, I will note that in this 110-point stage, the highest raw-points score was 107, and none of the targets needed to be engaged at more than 10 feet distance.

Hoser stage indeed!

Bay 3: Paper Poppers

This was the Classifier Stage. CM 03-05 is a 12-round Comstock course. Two IPSC targets in one array, six Pepper Poppers in another ... the Steel targets are bounded by the Cardboard. Engage one array (your choice), reload, engage the other array.

Most of us chose to engage the two cardboard targets first, because we were confident that we could HIT them in a short time. After the reload, we engaged the steel so we could make up misses without having to make another reload. (You sorta had to be there to feel the pressure to go fast!)

This was probably my very best stage of the day, and definately the best Classifier stage I've shot in months. It's a matter of balls-to-the-wall pedal to the metal, and if it doesn't work you're just screwed. One of the ultimate hoser-classifiers, I love to shoot it if only because hope springs eternal within the human breast. On this occasion, I managed to get all A-zone hits on the paper and no misses on the steel, giving me an unprecedented 50 out of a possible 50 points on the stage, in 6.41 seconds including the reload.

Proud as a peacock, I strutted up to the Wailing Wall to learn that I ended up in . . . SIXTH place out of 36 competitors in a club match!

This is a tough stage!

My friend, Norm, had a magazine-drop malfunction which slowed him down to 5.85 seconds. Well, he's an A-Open shooter, and has much higher standards than I do.

He also got some bad hits on the paper, and got only 45 points (raw score).

He bought a 'reshoot', which goes into the classifier database but doesn't show up on the match scores.

He shot it in 5.17 seconds, dropping only one point, which puts him at 85+ percentile. Awesome, and the video is available here. The video starts as he engages the 2nd IPSC target, but shows teh reload and also the last two Pepper Poppers hitting the ground at approximately the same movment.

This could put him up to Master Class, and I hope it does . . . the sandbagging sonovagun!