Cammenga Magazine for AR15

Cammenga :: Tactical Gear for Today's Enthusiasts =

H/T Say Uncle (click to see the very impressive video), via Traction Control (who intends to stock this item ASAP)


The Cammenga easy-load magazine for AR rifles seems like a dream come true for USPSA Multi-gun competitors.

The price is right (just $39.95 for a 30-round version of the magazine, if I understand correctly) and the ease of loading could be advantageous in a Multigun match where the competitor is required to do a lot of rifle shooting.

I don't shoot Multigun (or "3-gun", which is an alternative version of the rifle/shotgun/pistol competition), but I've seen a few Major Matches and as is true at all major matches, just reloading magazines can be a drain on your limited stores of energy by the end of a busy match day.

In fact, if Cammenga offered an STI Pistol version of this magazine in the 170mm size, I would be buying a couple of them. Especially at that price!

Grouchy Geek - No Club Matches in July

The Columbia Cascade Section in NW Oregon is one of the most active sections in USPSA. If not THE most active section.

And I'm sick of it.

Let me explain.

The May through September period of every year is the "Competitive Season". This is when the weather here in Oregon is sufficiently clement as to draw a lot of shooters out of their lairs and onto the range.

The problem is, there aren't any cheap 'club matches' for us to shoot during the best time of the year.

Multi-gun matches. Sectional tournaments. Area matches, National matches, Special matches (this month -- August -- it includes a Glock Match, while next month is the Single Stack tournament.)

I'm looking at the section calendar, and in July there's exactly ONE club match ... at Dundee. I got to the point where I was desperate to shoot a match, so I paid $90 for a late sign-up at the Section match, and actually got to pick up my brass!'

whoop whoop!

So this month (August) we're looking at the three weekends normally scheduled for club matches.

Albany, 2nd Saturday -- Glock Match
Dundee, 4th Saturday -- no club match, they're setting up for the Croc Match over Labor Day Weekend.

And Tri-County, 3rd Sunday -- no match, 'cause they can't find anyone with the energy or initiative to run the match.

Okay, I can't blame Tri-County for that. It's a labor-intensive thing, to run a match. I'm not an administrative kinda guy, I'm in no position to criticize other folks because they don't want to design stages, set 'em up, all that stuff.

But there are folks who enjoy that sort of thing. Where are they?

They're putting on Major Matches.

So okay, I'm a curmudgeon. I'm just here to shoot. When I can't afford to shoot major matches a couple of times a month, I just . . . don't . . . shoot.

I'm really happy for the Section that we are attracting a lot of shooters from outside our section.

But it looks like I'm going to have to drive out-of-state to shoot a means-nothing, just-for-fun, club match that doesn't cost me $60+ in match fees. With the price of gas, I'll spend that much just getting to the match, and maybe that much more driving home again.

If this section becomes any more successful, I can't afford to shoot.

Is it just me?

I Have Always Been Geekish

While I've had so much free time over the past several days, besides reading a few books I've done some painful reminiscing.

One of the painful memories was of a Psychology 101 class I took in the Winter of 1963/64 at a Community College in Eastern Oregon

The instructor was an actual practicing Psychologist, who was teaching the class as a way to augment his income.

(There isn't much of a 'practice' for a Psychologist in Eastern Oregon. In a community composed of farmer and wheat ranchers, most of his prospective customers didn't go looking for a Psychologist when they found themselves in a Mid-life Crisis. They just went out to the field and drove a combine for 12 or 18 hours while worrying about how they were going to pay for the combine, then went home to bed as the best way they could think of to kill time until they could get back in the saddle for the next day of harvest.)

My father was a millwright, and had about the same attitude toward psychological crises as his neighbors. But he also ran a small gun shop in this garage where he converted military rifles -- usually a 1903-A3 -- into the latest hot wildcat caliber and put a beautiful custom stock on it, then let me shoot it long enough to sight it in and fall in love with it ... his eyes weren't any better than mine are now ... and then he sold the sonovabitch out from under me to some rich wheat rancher who was going through a mid-life crisis and just HAD to have the latest hot-rocket wildcat caliber Cadillac of a rifle.

Pop spent most of his evenings in his gun shop, usually talking to prospective customers. He did the work on the weekends, when we weren't out varmint shooting. A lot of his week-night company didn't really have the money to buy a Burnett Special, but they dearly loved to talk about guns.

One of that category ... came out to talk at least once a week, never bought anything ... was this Psychologist. I can't remember his name now, but I saw him there for a year before I took the Psychology class and I was only surprised when I got to my first night at the class and saw who the teacher was. I had no idea that he was a teacher or a Psychologist, and it was two or three weeks into the class before I realized he was A Professional Man. I had never to my knowledge met anyone with a college degree, and I was surprised that this guy actually had a Masters. But I was unimpressed by the guy. He had a walleye, and in class you couldn't tell who he was looking at. Helluva nice guy, but I had never given him a second thought when I saw him in Pop's gun shop. I figured him for just another working stiff, like the farmers and mechanics I saw every night as I tried to make myself small in the corner of the shop so I could listen to the talk of these Real and Not-So-Real Men.

About halfway through the Psychology class, this Not-So-Real-Man, the Psychology 101 teacher, started to talk about how our life experiences color the way we see the world.

As an example, he suggested "What happens when you shoot a gun?"

Then he pointed to me, sitting in the front row as if I was an eager student, and asked me to answer the question.

He had never spoken a word to me before that moment, in the shop or in class,and I never had spoken to him. It was as if he had pushed the GO button and I was an automaton. Entirely unrehearsed, I began to speak with the determination to give the best explanation I could provide about a phenomenon which I could address with some authority.

"When you pull the trigger of a firearm, you release the stored energy of a compressed spring which impels a sharpened rod known as the 'firing pin' forward. The firing pin strikes a primer on the base of the cartridge with sufficient momentum to dent the soft metal, driving the cup of the primer against an inverted cone and compressing the primer medium, which is highly sensitive to impact, between the cup and the cone. The primer medium ignites under this condition and this fiery gas is injected into the body of the cartridge through a 'flash hole' in the base of the cartridge."

I went on to describe the components of the primer medium and compare it with the 'explosive' (or "fast burning") properties of the gunpowder, the rapid but controlled expansion of gasses, pushing the bullet or shot charge down the barrel, the effect of rifling on a bullet ... in short, I provided enough detail description of the process to take up two or three minutes of extemporaneous discussion about exactly what happens when you pull the trigger of a firearm.

Nobody said a thing while I was talking, and after the teacher was sure I was done he nodded his head and pointed to someone else.

Someone who hadn't fallen asleep during my speech.

"What happens when you pull the trigger on a gun?"

I'm sure the teacher chose the next person as carefully as he had chosen me, because the answer he received was: "The gun goes bang, a bullet either hits the deer or misses it". Or words to that effect. No more, probably less.



That was the moment when I realized I was A Geek. No, I didn't have the word for it ... only several years later did I understand that a pedantic over-explainer could be defined by a single word ... but I knew. I knew.

Fortunately, by this time I was familiar with the phenomenon of personal embarrassment. This was just the first time it didn't involve kissing a girl in a public place. But that's another story.

The Bluebird of Happiness Fried My Computer

We had a little bitty power outage in my neighborhood last Sunday -- only about eight hours or so -- and when they got the power up the power surge fried my Mother Board!

It didn't do the Bluebird a lot of good, either.

Here's the Good News: I 'had a feeling' about this, so I bought a brand new Laptop the week before. In part, this was so I could have a backup computer in case my el-cheapo refurbished 3-year-old desktop (aka "My Baby") ever bit the dust.

Good timing, you say?

Here's the Bad News: I had got the laptop the previous Monday. By Wednesday I was convinced that VISTA Operating System was a whole lotta sucking going on. Thursday I started looking for someone to do the technical stuff involved in replacing VISTA with XP. Friday I got the laptop (and a $100 copy of XP Home, on disk, which you can't hardly find in Corvallis anymore) to the lady who agreed to do the job.

But she couldn't get at it until last night, which is why I have been suffering from Blogging Withdrawal until today.

Which is why I can FINALLY get back to blogging again, now. Well, I also had to buy an Optical Wireless mouse ($32.95 at Staples) to avoid using the ever-to-be-cursed touchpad these flat monsters come with.

Total outlay, just a little bit more than I paid for the Desktop a few years ago.

But was I happy? Nooooooooooo!

While I was talking to the guy at the PROFESSIONAL Technical Johhny store (the computer hospital, where I probably should have taken the laptop), I casually asked him about an ACER computer I had seen at Tiger Direct dot com. Found out why TD won't answer any trouble calls on an ACER desktop after 30 days of purchase; mainly, because their innards are all proprietary and if something goes wrong the only recourse is to box it up and send it to ACER. Not good.

"So, what kind of desktop package can you put up for me with say, 2GB memory and a 250GB HD, kinda set up for multimedia/internet and real fast but has XP Multimedia OS?" I casually asked.

We ended up agreeing on just over $700 for the new puter, with a memory-chip bar (so I can put SD chips from the Geek DigiCam directly into the box for downloading files) and also install the HD from my old desktop as a second HD. Also, prepared to accept a router for when I want to use my laptop (now designated GeepPuterJr) at home in a WiFi Internet connection. He 'threw in' the cost of the post-mortem he had already done on the old GeekPuter, and promised that GeekPuterII would include no proprietary components, a better power supply so it would resist power surges better, and would be ready by next Monday at the latest.

Since I couldn't buy either a new STI Open Gun or repair the Porsche (blew the transmission 2 years ago) for that kind of money, I figured it was the right way to make sure my children will be really sorry when I die because there's nothing left in the "Mad Money" account at the bank (also known as my Primary Checking Account).

Tonite I'm typing this on GeekPuterJr, and I've convinced myself that investing in GeekPuterII was a wise investment. This teensy keyboard is really hard to type with. I've already rewritten this a couple of times because the keys are so close together my fat fingers keep hitting the wrong key. That never happens with a standard keyboard.

I've thought of so many things I could be blogging about over the past few days, I've forgotten some (most) of them by now. But at least I can check my email, see what the weather will be like tomorrow, and read the other bloggers that I like to keep up with.

Shamelessly Stealing The Best From Other Blogs

"Doing the work that Americans Won't Do", I read the blogs so you don't have to.

No, that's not really true. I read blogs because I'm endlessly fascinated by the serendipitous finds that crop up when you read a LOT of blogs by people who read a LOT of news, blogs, etc. Usually it's the sort of thing that newspapers may use as fillers on a slow news days, but gets a lot of read anyway because it's ... interesting. At other times, it's an opportunity to get a fresh slant on a situation or event that has been endlessly reported, but an iconoclastic mind asks questions that you wish you would have thought of.

So for a change of pace, here is a sampling of my web surfing for Thursday, August 2, 2007:

England Invaded by Evil Guns! Armed Bobbies Stand Guard!

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels a rant coming on every time the Brits do another Something Stupid regarding gun-control and/or treating their citizenry as untrustworthy subjects.

Alphecca writes about a decision to 'temporarily' allow members of the British Shooting Team to actually use guns while practicing for the Olympics. But they require that armed policemen stand guard in case something-or-other bad happens. (Why don't they do this in subways -- uh, 'the underground'? Well, there was this thing with a Brazilian running to catch a train last year and that turned out badly, so ....) Read the comments. All of them.
Hat tip to The Truth Laid Bear.

I'm a BA-A-A-A-D Geek

Traction Control was fooling around with XHTML Validation Software, and just for fun decided to run it against his Blog Roll.

This is a 'program' that evaluates the entire (?) body of posts on a blog, searching for errors in HTML code. In the approximately 110 blogs in his blog roll, this blog ends up 18th from the end with 456 errors. That puts me somewhere between The Other Side of Kim (437) and The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (523).

I'm not only okay with that, I'm fairly well satisfied. My primary purpose here is, and has always been, to write about things that interest me. That's usually IPSC/USPSA competition, then about RKBA issues, and then about things that are of general interest. Sometimes, I just can't get to sleep until I WRITE something. I assume that you notice that from time to time.

A beneficial side-effect is that I've learned some HTML coding techniques in the process. That all goes straight to hell when I try to copy a body of text from a MSM article and it's so imbedded with ads, fonts, tables, etc. that I get tired of trying to strip out the excess HTML and say "anything that doesn't show up in the readable text ... ignore it!". I suspect that this is often the case with some other bloggers, too.

When you're more interested in context than HTML code, you either hire someone else to build and run your blogsite or you just let your attitude run the show.

That's acceptable in Blogging.

If you try the same attitude in, say, Politics, you end up looking something like this:


Of course, I don't write nearly as well as the above-cited blogs, but I try to compensate by avoiding F-bombs.

Don't Take Your Gun To Town, Allison

Also thanks to Traction Control, I found this article on TownHall by a young woman who is described as " ... a junior political science and English major at Virginia Tech and a Summer 2007 intern at the Young America’s Foundation headquarters in her hometown, Herndon, Virginia.

Yes, that Virginia Tech. She talks about being twenty-something, female, and walking to her car in a remote D.C. parking lot late at night armed with nothing more effective than a purse-sized Pepper Spray. Especially frustrating when she has a perfectly good .357 sitting at home, and the only place she can use her Concealed Carry license is at the family cabin in the mountains.

Michael Yon: Read this guy instead of Al Qaeda dispatches

Actually, the AL Qaeda dispatches seem to be the primary news source for the American Press. I don't know why the MSM are more eager to accept the AQ version of events than that of American sources (U.S. Army, Michael Yon, etc.) but I guess that's just part of the fun for Liberal American Press. Hey, if it makes "That Clown" GW Bush look bad, no other reason is necessary for them.

But Michael Yon ... is an incredible reporter. He not only tells the story as he sees it, he is there 'even when there is no fighting going on' and reports the hearts-and-minds part of American involvement in Iraq.

Look at the Bread and a Circus, Part I of II article he posted on July 31. Read the whole thing, look at all the pictures, and pay especial attention to his actual Fisking of an Al Qaeda-related 'insurgent' news release.

It's so important that I've moved Michael Yon's website to "I Read Every Day". He doesn't publish every day, but when he does it's something that you don't want to delay reading.

And HEY! Go spend a tenner on his paypal box. I did.

(American) Robbery Victim Knifes His Attackers

Robbery Victim Knifes His Attackers | WKBW - TV Buffalo, New York/a>

Fifty-year-old Buffalo, NY native Bobby Lipscom, beset by two attackers during his 1am 'walkabout', pulls a pocketknife and does his Benihana thing on them.











After the twenty-something shredded wannabes scuttle back into the shadows, the cops wander onto the scene prompted by a 911 call, and pick up the pieces.

There's a poignant after-action report here:

Police arrived and arrested 22-year old Corvair Harge and 21-year old Jason Tyus. The two men face charges for second degree robbery, but first they're healing from their stab wounds. Both were at ECMC Saturday night, one in critical condition and the other in stable condition. Lipscom did not need any medical treatment. Police says his attackers likely did not think he had a weapon. "Probably to a certain extent he probably did surprise his attackers by having the box cutter knife," says DeGeorge.

(Emphasis added)
One wonders what the gun-control laws are like in Buffalo. Well, it's New York State, so they are probably draconian. (Could someone please look this up for me? It's late, and I'm tired.)

Here's the really, really good money quote:

Police say they have no plans to charge Lipscom for stabbing the two suspects.

(Actually, he didn't 'stab' them; he slashed them. Repeatedly.)

Good on you, Bobby! Sorry you missed the jugular, but it was a nobel effort.

Think about this in contrast to Our English Friends. If this happened in London, England rather than in America, our hero would be doing hard time and the "fun-loving lads, who were just out for a bit of a lark, loik" would have been allocated government funding to sue him.




.

Red's Gun Shop: Not Threatening to ATF agents

Gun-shop owner gets 'breath of fresh air'

Here's another story in the continuing saga of Red's Gun Shop (Idaho) and the ATF.

You may recall that last week I included the then-latest word on the six-year battle royale in "Gun Control Is Bursting Out All Over". (Look under the sub-heading: "Idaho")

At that time Red's was being audited (3 ATF agents reviewing 2-1/2 week's records vs the previous audit, one agent reviewing 5 years worth of records).

One of his 'supporters' showed up at the shop during the audit and began filming the ATF agents. Shortly after, they left precipitously. Not long after that, Red's manager Ryan Horsley, who had never tried to hide that he was blogging about the ATF audits, was informed that.

... the agency went to court with a report that its inspectors "suspended" their work at the store recently because of the "threat to the inspectors' safety created by Ryan Horsley, the Manager at Red's.

This week,

Federal authorities have agreed to tell a judge in Idaho that the "threat" from a gun-shop manager they had complained of probably wasn't anything significant ...

The implications of this admission is that the ATF, whose agents are exceedingly bold when they're auditing the records of a store, reveal themselves to be physical cowards when they are threatened by nothing more than an attempt to video-record their machincations.

The infractions for which ATF was prepared to shut down a small business are reportedly no more important than abbreviating the name of a town in the small blanks available on forms used to record data of firearms purchasers. It comes as no surprise to most of us that minimal confrontation causes them to run like cockroaches when the kitchen light comes on.

And what happened to the videos?

I don't know. I can't find them on Manager Horsley's blog.

But I find a lot of other interesting 'stuff' there, and you might, too.

In the meantime, here's Horsley's video statement:

Competitor Profile in the news: Gene Morin

The News-Review - Outdoors

The Roseburg, Oregon, newspaper/news website recently ran a profile article on Oregon shooter Gene Morin.

We like to see shooting sports portrayed as a legitimate sporting activity, and in this case we learned a lot about Mr. Morin that we didn't know.

We know Gene as an IPSC competitor, but this article showed us The Other Side of Gene -- as an ICORE competitor.

Most of us in Oregon who compete in IPSC are accustomed to Gene being a major competitor with an Open or (as in the recent CCS Sectional Tournament, where he won A-Production and was 2nd overall Production Division) a Production Gun shooter.

Thanks to Trey for pointing us toward this news article.

Kind of Cheating

I post a lot of videos on YouTube, for a lot of reasons ... not the least is to provide public exposure to situations which occur during IPSC competition. (It makes it easier to show the videos on this blog, too, because it's a one-click access to the video and it downloads quickly.)

Because I've deliberately left the 'comments' section open to anyone, I receive some interesting viewpoints from people who watch the videos.

On February 12, 2007, I posted a video showing USPSA competitors shooting a single stage at Albany Rifle & Pistol Club (ARPC) in Oregon. I thought it was of general interest because the final scene showed a gentleman who was "Match Disqualified" (DQ) after he pointed his pistol toward the spectators during a reload.

Most of the several hundred viewers seemed to have understood the point of the lesson; IPSC competition shares a common theme with many forms of competition, including racing with cars, boats and airplanes. Unlike the 'like themed' competitions, IPSC has embedded a 'belt-and-suspenders' approach to safety.

IPSC (especially as practiced in USPSA, the United States Practical Shooting Association), has embedded a set of 'safety rules' which, if once violated during competition, will be immediately enforced by disqualifying the competitor from further participation in that match. The idea is bipartate:

1. If you break a safety rule, you have demonstrated that you are not operating in a state-of-mind which is conducive to future 'safe' participation. We will remove you from the match.
2. You don't have to actually cause harm to yourself or anyone else; the simple demonstration of mental lapse which MIGHT HAVE caused injury is sufficient to be declared an 'unsafe competitor'.
   

Compare this to, say, NASCAR -- where you're still permitted to compete in a race even though you 'almost' crashed your car into the grandstands.

One of the safety rules of IPSC is that if the muzzle of your firearm moves beyond pointing downrange to point uprange, where the spectators are, you are removed from the match.

Okay, that's the 'short course' of IPSC safety, and the reason why this video is important.

However, moving right along to the point of this discussion, some people just don't 'get it'.

Instead, they pick up on points of interest which were not expected in the original presentation.

This is the case here, when one viewer of the cited video commented:

"should not need a red dot with a pistol, kind of cheating."

Huh?

My first impulse, to say "you don't get it, dude!" lasted less than a second. With only a little thought, I had to admit that this view was absolutely, 100% correct.

Using a red dot with a pistol (electronic dot sight, like this and this) IS 'kind of cheating".

But the commentor didn't go far enough.

The "red dot" is only one of four characteristics of pistols used in Open Division ... and only that Division .. which separates it from all other divisions in IPSC competition. Here are the four ways that Open Division is "kind of cheating":

1. Allows "prototype" firearms
2. Allows ANY sights, including 'red dot' sights
3. Allows the use of compensators, or 'weight attached to the muzzle for the sole purpose of minimizing the 'muzzle-flip' or other sort of recoil
4. Allows extended double-stack magazines (exceeding 140mm in length) -- may allow magazines which allow in excess of 25 rounds, depending on the case circumference, magazine follower design, etc. as long as the magazine does not exceed 170mm in length.

Yes, when compared to other competitive decisions, these 'conveniences are "kind of cheating".

In fact, there are a few other characteristics which one typically finds in 'Open (division) guns', and if you go beyond Pistol Competition and begin to consider "Multigun" competition, the list of special exceptions becomes almost unwieldy.

Here is a short list of other 'exceptions' which do not apply to "Open Division" guns, but which may apply (and be very important) to other Divisions:

1. Production Division: all guns score as 'minor', regardless of actual power factor. Some holsters restricted, some handguns restricted, only 10 rounds allowed in magazines, first shot must be double-action, holsters and magazine carriers must be positioned behind the point of the hip, 1911-type handguns specifically excluded, magazine 'bumpers' or extensions specifically excluded, magazines must not exceed 140mm in length, no comps, barrel weights, barrel ports, optics or or any kind of electronic sighting device;
2. Single-Stack Division: only 1911-type handguns permitted, only 8-round magazines allowed, holsters and magazine carriers must be positioned behind the point of the hip, magazine 'bumpers' or extensions specifically excluded, magazines must not exceed 140mm in length, no comps, barrel weights, barrel ports, optics or or any kind of electronic sighting device permitted;
3. Limited Division: no prototypes allowed (500 guns must have been SOLD to qualify), magazine limited to 140mb, no comps, barrel weights, barrel ports, optics or or any kind of electronic sighting device.
4. Open Division: Forget all that stuff. Magazines may not exceed 170MM in length.
   

There are other restrictions on most of the Divisions, and I am deliberately ignoring Revolver Division. Also, Limted 10 Division allows everything that Limited Division allows, except that no more that 10 rounds must be loaded into your magazines. (Some other over-simplification is suggested by this list of qualifications, but they are too technical to fit in here.)

Point One is that competitors in each division, as determined by the equipment they use, competes only against competitors using similar equipment. That is to say, Open Division guns only compete against other Open Guns.

Point Two is that ... yes, Open guns ARE "Kind of Cheating!"

The compensator is unique to Open Division. This helps to reduce 'muzzle flip' because it exhausts the gasses from burning powder to keep the muzzle from rising as much. The consequence is that it is MUCH easier to take the second shot faster. However, an expert experienced shooter using other types of firearms can learn to manage muzzle-flip by timing his second shot in accordance with the amount of time required for the barrel to align with the aiming point. The difference in 'split time' (time between the first and the second shot) may be only a few hundredths of a second.

The extreme high-capacity magazine is unique to Open Division. However, there are very few stage designs which don't present the opportunity to competitors in 'other divisions' to work in a reload during movement. USPSA and IPSC rules prevent stage designs requiring more than 9 rounds from a single shooting position or location. This presents an ammunition management problem only for SingleStack and Revolver Division firearms .... but they are NOT competing against other divisions, so the Shooting Problem is shared by all similar competitors.

The use of Prototype firearms is unique to Open Division. There is no requirement here to use only firearms which have been 'sold to 500 customers', which means that this division is the 'test bed' of features which may or may not be made available to future firearms. This is the way that IPSC and USPSA act as 'test beds' for new designs and features, in order to encourage firearms manufacturers to improve the firearms market to the benefit of future customers.

Finally, the 'red dot' sights (also known as "Electronic Dot Sights" or "EDS") is a special case.
All other divisions mandate the use of Iron Sights. These are characterized by a front sight (usually a metal post sited at or near the muzzle of the gun) and a rear sight (generally, a horizontal bar in which a 'slot' is cut near the center of the sight.) The front sight (post) is positioned equidistant between the limits of the 'slot', or 'notch' in the rear sight to determine that the gun is pointed at the correct lateral alignment with the target. The target is typically placed above, and adjacent to, the front sign; the front sight is aligned vertically with the top of the rear sight. When this target alignment/sight alignment combination is correctly positioned, the sights are correctly aligned with the target and (barring other extraneous influences, such as inappropriate grip and trigger manipulation, etc.) the shot should hit the target.

The 'red dot' sight design is somewhat different.

To over-simplify, if you put the red dot on the target, the bullet should hit where the dot appears on your sight.

There is no need to aligh the red dot sight with a secondary (or tertiary) alignment; there is no 'notch' in the rear sight, there is no 'top' of the rear sight. In fact, there is not rear sight!

ALL the shooter need do is to find the red dot in the sight, put it on the place where he wishes the shot to hit, and SQUEEZE the trigger! If the dot is correctly positioned and the grip on the gun is correct and the shooter does not pull the sight off the target at the moment of shot ignition, the bullet will hit the target where the dot shows it should hit.

This is not only 'cheating', but experientially magic!

Is the use of a 'Red Dot' sight cheating?

Yes!

----

There's a little more to the discussion of "Red Dot" sights.

First, everyone who is using a 'Red Dot' sight is competiting against everyone else who is using a 'Red Dot' sight. That is, all are competing in Open Division, which is the only competitive division which allows this kind of sight.

If you are wrestling against people who are 180-200 pounds, and everyone who you wrestle is in that weight range, is it 'cheating' if you weight 200 pounds? No, I don't think so. (If you only weigh 180 pounds, you may be at a slight disadvantage. The solution is to bulk up, isn't it?)

More important, in IPSC competition it may be that the people who use 'Red Dot' sights are thos who due to age or infirmity are no longer able to correctly align two sights (front and rear) accurately, consistently and quickly.

This is the situation in which I found myself, three years ago.

I have competed in Limited, Limited-10 and Production for 20 years, until I realized that I was no longer able to see well enough to consistently align the front and rear sights with the target.

I was fortunate in being able to acquire the use of an 'Open Gun" (with 'red dot' sights) which permitted me to continue competing in IPSC competition.'

I didn't do well, but I'm still turning in decent scores in spite of my visual degeneration.

So, while it may seem to be 'cheating' to some people, I have managed to avoid being so depressed by my physical disability that I had discontinued attending IPSC competition in the USPSA.

It doesn't bother me that some people consider this 'cheating'.

I am cheating. And it has served me admirably.

If you take offense at my use of the 'red dot' sight, I invite you to come shoot against me. I'll let you use the same pistol (although you'll have to provide your own ammunition ... I'm not a complete fool) and we'll enjoy the competition on a fair basis.

NB: Tinyurl link for this article is here.

Can you hear me now?

The LawDog Files provide the links to a 3-part story, the real face of "Public Service"

I'm tempted to refer to this as 'a morality play in three acts', but this would diminish the story and would be a disservice to the interlocking stories of a LEO, an Ambulance Driver, and the ER nurse in a small-town hospital.

All three authors describe a tragic vehicular accident and the consequence of bad judgement.

In the process, we are given an inside look at the courage and dedication of people who have dedicated their lives to serving their fellow man. The professionalism of the "Public Servants" is demonstrated, as is the excellent writing ability of the authors.

One thing the three parts of the story make clear is that there are often "not enough resources, not enough HANDS!" If you're like me, when you read the story you will be struck by the willingness of all participants to make heroic efforts to save lives.

It's difficult to talk about this without undermining the story, which is well told and fascinating on several levels.

Just ... click on the Lawdog link above, and follow the thread of the story. When you're done, if you appreciate what they have written, please tell the authors.

If you don't appreciate it, don't tell me. I have no traffic with people who have no soul.

And yes, as many people have commented to the authors, it may be something that parents of adolescent children may recommend to the ones they love.

Letters: AirSoft

Another letter from the Geek Mailbox:

My name is Caelyn, I am the creator of the Tactical Airosft Pistol Speed Shooting system.

I was going through the stats on my Youtube video page and noticed that one of those ho viewed my ETAPSS demo video there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMDhus90MAU

Had gotten there through a link from your blog. I tried to find the link on your blog but couldn't find it.

I wanted to thank you for the link. I just hope you had linked it as something interesting, rather than something to make fun of. I have had quite a few eal steel practical shooters giving me shit over my videos. Real Steel is the term used by airsofters to refer to real firearms.

In the end I was forced to close down my range, because of a lack of interest in the airsoft community or the real steel community in southern Ohio (Actually a gun store in Cincinnati refused to let me put up flyers in their store because they were afraid my range to take their bussiness). A lot of them SAID they thought it was a great thing, but not enough of them ever showed up to practices or competition, for me to be able to pay rent.

Anyway,

Thanks Again

Caelyn

Truth is, I never heard of this person or this video, this YouTube page or this "Shooting System."

(Here's the video)

________________

I get a lot of what I consider "spahm" links (deliberately misspelled) and I usually delete it unread, or at least ignore it after reading it.

In this case, I decided to to feature it. If it leads to some folks who go to the website ... if you can find one ... it's not my problem. But this video demonstrates a LOT of unsafe gun-handling, including pointing the gun in an unsafe direction which would never be accepted in IPSC/USPSA competition. This is "Not Having A Clue" central.

Here's my response to the email:
__________________________

Dear Caelyn,
I never linked to your YouTube website, to my knowledge, but it's possible that I may have visited it. I've shot AirSoft guns before, and they're a lot of fun. I don't own an airsoft, but that's a matter of personal preference. When I pull the trigger, I like it to go *BANG!*, not *pfffttt!*. But that's just Me.

Interesting comment in your email:

"I just hope you had linked it as something interesting, rather than something to make fun of. I have had quite a few real steel practical shooters giving me shit over my videos. Real Steel is the term used by airsofters to refer to real firearms."

Nobody likes to give the impression that they're bigoted, but when I viewed your video I was decidedly convinced that Air-Soft was NOT a good way to learn about safe gunhandling.

Here's why:

Your shooter enters an 'alley' to engage targets, and in retreating turns 180 degrees and runs uprange with his pistol clenched against his belly.

I do not believe that he managed to keep the muzzle of his pistol pointed safely down-range.

IPSC competitors don't like to see the muzzle of a weapon ... and if you don't treat an AirSoft gun as a weapon you will never achieve acceptance from IPSC competitors.

When he's shooting an 'air-soft', it's not an issue. Everybody knows that the pellet of an AirSoft isn't going to hurt anybody.

But when you're packing, for example, a .45ACP with a 230-grain bullet pushed to 800 fps, that 'pellet' is going to pack some serious hurt.

AirSoft folks don't seem to be terribly concerned about the direction their muzzle is pointing, or the consequences of pointing their muzzle in a direction which might conceivably endanger a spectator.

I believe that this is the difference between AirSoft competition and what you define as "real steel". And it's a significant difference.

As long as AirSoft shooters don't treat their pistols as Lethal Weapons, IPSC and other "real steel" shooters will not take them seriously. Well, AirSoft shooters obviously don't take themselves seriously, so why should we?

Thank you for your contribution, and I WILL post your email and your video on my website.

But only as a good example of a bad example.

"You People" (and I use the term advisedly) don't take firearms safety, and good gun-handling, seriously. What you do is encourage folks to play with toys, because playing with toys is what you do.. And you expect your participants to be treated with the same respect of those of us who respect 'real guns'?

And then you complain that 'real steel' people don't take you seriously.
I am unable to express the contempt I feel for you and your ilk. You put the entire group of competition shooters in a bad light. You show no respect for the lethality of guns, yet you expect we who shoot real guns to respect you ... you, with your unsafe gun-handling skills.

Although I admire your dedication, and do not fault your determination to acquire acceptance, I question your training and acquisition of skills necessary to achieve your goals. (NB: not part of the original email.)

I strongly advise you, who seem to desire acceptance, to treat your sport as if you were shooting 'real guns'. When you consistently demonstrate real gun-handling safety, then you may reasonably expect to be treated with the respect to which you obviously desire, but equally obviously are not willing to aspire.
I'm not making fun of your sport. Rather, I am appalled.

Short version: clean it up, or give it up.

Your Choice.

Jerry the Geek

Gun Control Is Bursting Out All Over

San Francisco (h/t Sondra K)
'Frisco (they hate it when you call their poxed Bagdad-on-the-Bay that) has enacted new gun laws.

The laws -- which gained final approval from the Board of Supervisors -- would restrict both the sale and possession of firearms.

Specifically, they would prohibit the possession or sale of firearms on city property, require firearms in residences to be in a locked container or have trigger locks and require firearm dealers to submit an inventory to the chief of police every six months.

The last provision is intended to allow city officials to know how many guns are sold, though there is only one gun shop in the city.

"We're pleased that, as soon as the mayor signs this, San Francisco has the strongest anti-gun laws in the nation," said Nathan Ballard, spokesman for Mayor Gavin Newsom. The mayor sponsored the legislation, along with Supervisors Sophie Maxwell and Ross Mirkarimi

(emphasis added)

Sounds like just another 'feel-good' law, doesn't it?

"It is silly feel-good legislation with no teeth," (Supervisor Aaron) Peskin said.

This comes on the heels of an especially Draconian proposition from a couple of years ago:

While the mayor has praised these new restrictions, he only expressed tepid support for Proposition H in 2005, which would have required gun owners to surrender their weapons to police and would have made it illegal to buy and sell firearms and ammunition in the city.

Voters passed the proposition with 58 percent in favor, but it is tied up in court after the National Rifle Association challenged its constitutionality. Newsom said the vote amounted to a "public opinion poll."

Cheers for the NRA!

_______________________________________

BOSTON (Reuters) - A planned Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in America by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons -- from Uzi submachine guns to M-16 rifles.

There is some local resistance to the effort:

Local Democrats say the event is in poor taste amid a spike in violent crime in Manchester and seeks to glorify the use of machine guns for political gain. The right to own guns has come under heightened scrutiny since the April shooting at Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 people.

"It is downright offensive," Chris Pappas, the Manchester Democratic party chairman, told the Union Leader newspaper.

"Local Democrats". Yeah, right. Since when have they supported the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

__________________________________________

Idaho:
In the continuing story of Red's Gun Shop vs BATF, the BatMen (and women!) have been videotaped while 'auditing' the paperwork of firearms transfers.

<>They scrammed, but fast! Then they filed a notice in district court that " ... (t)he inspection was suspended due to the threat to the inspectors' safety."

The threat was that their audit was being filmed by a customer of the store.
<>According to Red's Gun Shop manager Ryan Horsley:

"The person in question who photographed them was a 70-year-old man in a Hawaiian shirt who is balding (Sorry, Al) and has a broken foot. Yet three inspectors felt that they were in danger," he [said].

________________________

Virginia:
The Hampton Beach (Va) "Pilot Online had a store about a man who wore a .45 pistol in 'open carry' to a concert, was arrested by the police, and was subsequently released when the judge determined that he was entirely within his rights to 'open carry' because Virginia State Law declared that local jurisdictions were not allowed to enact gun-control laws in contravention to State law. However, the story link (10 hours later) was "not found". One wonders why the story was quashed.

A more diligent search found the story here:

We won't post the whole story, in the hopes that THIS link won't disappear. However, in the interest of preserving the news, we'll post the main text of the story:

______

Chester Szymecki Jr. was waiting for some music to start at Harborfest when a sheriff's deputy approached.

It was a warm June afternoon, and thousands of people wandered on and off the tall ships moored around Town Point Park. Szymecki had come from Yorktown with his wife, their three children and two children from their neighborhood.

Szymecki had brought along something else, too - a .45-caliber handgun in a holster on his belt.

The deputy asked Szymecki whether he was a police officer. He said no. And then, he said, uniformed city police began closing in. They gave him a choice, he said: Leave the event or face arrest. When he tried to say that there must be a mistake, he was disarmed and led away, handcuffed, he recalled.

Szymecki was charged with violating a local ordinance that the City Council had passed in May, which set up rules to govern Harborfest. Among them was a provision banning handguns and other weapons.

There's just one problem: A few years ago, the General Assembly barred localities from enforcing laws governing the carrying of firearms. That meant state law prevailed. And in Virginia, "open carry" is legal.

Localities today generally do not have the authority to restrict guns, said Mark Flynn, director of legal services for the Virginia Municipal League. A state law last amended in 2004 says localities cannot adopt or enforce laws regarding the purchase, carrying, possession, storage, or sale of firearms.

Szymecki was given a summons and released. When he showed up for court June 22, the case was withdrawn at the request of an assistant city attorney.

The case has enraged the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights group that has successfully challenged local gun restrictions around the commonwealth. Szymecki is a member. In the past the group has protested Norfolk's attempts to prevent the carrying of weapons in city parks.

Philip Van Cleave, the president of the league, says members plan to crowd the City Council chambers in protest at a future date.

The ordinance, he said, was "a huge mistake."

City Attorney Bernard Pishko said the city is not attempting to challenge the state law by imposing restrictions on handguns.

Pishko described the gun ban in the Harborfest ordinance as an oversight, a "housekeeping" issue. "This is one that we missed," he said. An ordinance governing Afr'Am Fest in May contained the same restrictions on weapons. Both ordinances were in effect only for the few days the events ran.

Pishko said his office has since advised police that "the only gun laws in effect for Norfolk are those in effect for Virginia."

Szymecki said the incident has changed the way he views the police. He said he plans to file a lawsuit and have a "neutral court" decide whether police violated his rights.

IF the link above still works, it's worth your while to click on it. The comments (59 as of this writing) are a fascinating commentary on the public opinions concerning 'Open Carry' vs "Concealed Carry' in Virginia.

They are especially poignant in the context of the April Virginia Tech shootings.

Here's one example of the comments ... just the latest one:

When some idiot decides to take the life of you or a family member that you can always call the police. I'm sure you will still be alive by the time they get there. The law states you can carry a firearm in public as long as it's displayed. Get over it.

The King Amedment .. protection for anti-terrorist whistle-blowers?

According to the Center for Security Policy, a federal law providing protection for Americans who report "suspicious ... and frightening behavior" will be enacted. See Sondra K for context.

This applies to "The Flying Imams" who were booted off an airplane earlier this year because they were acting like a bunch of lunatics. Fellow passengers were alarmed by their behavior and reported it to the air crew. The result is that the Imams were removed from the airplane. Consequently, the American Islamic leaders vowed to engage the people who reported them in a civil suit, as a means of retaliation for actions ("report suspicious activity ...") which had been encouraged by U.S. Federal Governmental Agencies.

This law would protect such 'whistle-blower' activities, when the result of a 'good faith' concern, from civil penalty.

Some Americans thought the actions of the Imams were part of an attempt to test the system of anti-terrorist measures in the United States.

Letters, we get letters ....

I received an email today from one of the competitors at the R&R Racing NW Challenge 'Multigun Match (July, 2007) who was featured in previous posts and on Jerry the Geek's Video Shooting Gallery:

Jerry,

I can't tell you how happy I am to have found your site! Thank you for all your work photographing the stages and publishing them. I didn't know you were videoing me as I shot stage 7. I'm glad I didn't or I would have had stage fright!

I've never watched myself shoot on video before. Very interesting. I don't appear to be moving as fast as I feel like I'm moving at the time! Maybe that's why my times are usually about double that of the winners! Ha! I don't expect to get much quicker as I get older, either. I need to be thankful that I can even move!

Thanks again! Hope to see you at another match.

Joe Durnbaugh

PS: You even spelled my name right! Thanks!

PPS: You wouldn't have a complete list of the ROs would you? I knew several, but one of them I'll be damned if I can remember his name! I have CRS disease (can't remember shit) real bad!

Tell you the truth, Joe, I'm a charter member of the CRS Survivors' Club and I couldn't tell you all of the RO's names either. Maybe we can get some of the other readers to help out here.

Here are the names I remember for sure, although I'm not willing to guarantee that I have the right stage numbers/names assigned to the ROs:

1. Scott Hawkins
   
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. Steve "The Shipster" Shippey - president-elect of ARPC
6. Gary Taylor
7. Bill Salberg
8. Craig Salman
   
9. Bob Higbie
10. Brent Reddaway

This doesn't include the Assistant RO's, and truthfully there were very few stages where more than one volunteer Range Officer was available.

Joe, I really appreciate your determination to recognize the fine folks who volunteer their time and their energy and their Melanin to work these matches. Your implication that they are the really important people at any major match is bang-on.

I haven't said this enough, and I never will, but THANK YOU to the Match Staff for your contribution to The Game.

(And if any of my readers would be kind enough to identify the other Range Officers at this match, I will post the names here. Lord knows they don't do it for money, 'cause they don't get paid. They deserve at least the recognition and our public gratitude.)

PS: Joe, I would never have figured out how to spell your name if not for the help of the Stats Team, Heidi and Dan.

UPDATE: July 29, 2007 (6:30pm PDT)
Brian Berkley informs us that the RO on Stage 1 is Retired Army Special Forces Command Sergeant Major Scott Hawkins.
Ed Dailey identifies Craig Salman as the RO on Stage 8 and also provides a correction in that "... no stages in this match were 'thrown out'." That last was my misunderstanding, and I apologize for the error.
Thank you, Ed and Brian. All corrections have been applied to the article.

Again, match scores are available here.

eBetts dot com - when you really need your legs broken

Real Story:
My cell phone rang while I was working at my desk and I didn’t recognize the phone number. So I take it outside (personal call, right?) and answer the phone.

Some guy with a guido-sounding voice says “Mr. Geek? Mr. Jerry The Geek? (nah ... he used my real name.) My name’s David Carducci and I’m with eBets dot com. You recently had an online transaction with us and …”

Right now I’m thinking that I’ve been hacked, someone has stolen my identity, they’ve been using it to lay bets on an online gambling website and losing a lot. Now this guy is going to threaten me to pay up or else he sends the leg-breakers to see me!

So I explained: “Listen, pal, I don’t know who you are and I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about.”

He sez: “Didn’t you just buy two batteries for an HP camera and a fast battery recharger from us?”

Oh man … WHEW! They guy was saying eBATTS, not eBETS.

Yeah, I bought the batteries from eBatteries. I had filled out a survey form, indicating that I didn’t know if I was satisfied with the product yet because I hadn’t received it yet (it was a point-of-sale survey, It hadn’t been more than a few minutes since I entered the online order.) The guy only called to follow up, to make sure that I was satisfied with the order and with the quality of the merchandise.

I was so relieved that they weren’t going to kneecap me, I gave him a resounding personal testimonial on the quality of the merchandise and the service and the price and anything else I could think of. He was tickled, after he got done laughing about the leg-breaker line.

I’m much calmer now; I got coffee. Yes, that’s a true story. I couldn’t make this stuff up.

YouTube - FedEx vs. Government Bureaucracy -- Newt Gingrich

YouTube - FedEx vs. Government Bureaucracy -- Newt Gingrich

My great appreciation to "Spicey" O'Shea (the much-better-half of The Hobo Brasser) for sending this along.,

CCS Day 2, Stage 4+

One of the more interesting things about the 2007 Columbia Cascade Section Match was the distribution of stages. It may appear to be imbalanced, but that's not the way it worked out.

Here's how the round-count for the twelve stages worked out:

Stage 1: Vegas Windows ........ 16
Stage 2: For Gun Chick ......... 22
Stage 3: Steel on Shoulder ...... 9
Stage 4.1: Miami Smokin' Fast ... 8
Stage 4.2: Steely Speed in NY ..... 6
Stage 4.3: LVPD Peekaboo ......... 8
Stage 5: Stars over NY ........... 32
Stage 6: Hose Vegas ............... 32
Stage 7: Grisom's Special ...... 32
Stage 8: Miniature - Not ........ 32
Stage 9: From Here or There . 32
Stage 10: In The Glades ........ 32

I'm pleased by the stage names ... can you tell that the stage designer was a LEO? He has included a lot of references to American cities, which give something of a cosmopolitan flavor to the match.

But he's got a lot of 32 round stages on one side of the range, a couple of medium-length stages in the middle, and a slew of short stages over here.

The good thing about putting all of the hi-round-count stages together is that once you get into the 'slow-track', everybody completes the stages at about the same speed. Assuming the squads are all about the same size.

I didn't see a lot of squads waiting for the stages to clear,. I can say that we were a short squad (only 9 people, while the preceding squad had 12 shooters), so we were held up on almost all of the long stages except for the last one. This is probably going to happen on almost any match which includes a small squad following a significantly longer squad. Some of us didn't sign up for the match until a few days before it started, and in fairness it's difficult to balance squad sizes when you have to juggle squadding requests with late sign-ups.

Note that three of the 'short stages' were presented together in one bay. We were to shoot all three stages at one time. That is, a competitor shot stage 4.1, then moved over to shoot stage 4.2, and then completed 4.3. Finally, all three stages were scored (this was usually done as the stages were completed by each competitor, except the 4.3 included a 'hidden' target so the RO had to move downrange to see the hits) and then all targets were pasted, all steel reset. This didn't take up a lot of stage time, and the turnaround times were usually shorter for all three stages than for one 32-round stage.

This essentially turned the three short stages into one virtual long stage. That helped balance the match, and reduced the number of times squads were required to wait for preceding squads to clear a stage.

This could have been an absolute boondogle if the short stages in Bay 4 were presented as individual stages. However, the way it was set up Bay 4 acted as a buffer so that individual squads weren't fed into the first 32-round stage too fast. As a result, the match ran much more smoothly than one would expect.

Well, the squad that started on Stage 5 (32 rounds) and encountered six 32-round stages in a row experienced some wait time. I was on that squad, and we spent a lot of time waiting only because we were much smaller than the preceding squad. All in all, we never spent more than 20 minites waiting to get on a stage, and it wasn't really burdensome. Because of the muggy weather, we were often glad for the chance to sit and cool off, and watch the squad ahead of us. Sure, we were the last squad to leave the range on the first day of the match, but we were still out around 3pm and a six-hour day isn't abnormal for a club match in inclement weather.

I'm inclined to say that the match was deliberately organized to conform to the IPSC directive which suggests x-percent of long stages (stages 5 thru 10), y-percent of medium stages (Stages 1 and 2), and z-percent of short stages (Stage 3, and 4.1, 4.3 & 4.3). But while the match managed to feature a fair representation of all three stage types, I was surprised to observe that it actually worked out to the effect that nobody was delayed to the point that the shooting experience became cumbersome.

Well, some of us old guys got pretty tired before we finished our first day's work, but nobody was complaining. (I did my complaining a couple of days ago, and now I can reflect on the match to its credit.)

All in all, I have to say that Competition Director Chuck did an excellent job of balancing the stages to keep the flow of competitors flowing steadily from stage to stage. I didn't believe it at the time, but he gave us a lot of high-round-count stages without injecting a significant bottle-neck. Given the apparent imperative to provide a lot of high round count stages, that's a considerable accomplishment. I didn't realize this at the time, but the match was better balanced than one might reasonably expect.

So here's a heart-felt 'atta-boy', Chuck. You're as good at runnin matches as you are at compiling prize tables. No higher compliment can be offered.

And for those of us who still don't understand how three short stages can be productively presented in one bay, here's a look at the actual outcome of shooting 'Under Pressure".

(This movie is, of course, available at a higher resolution as a 20mb download from the gallery ... here.)

CCS Tournament - Day 2

Final match results of the 2007 Columbia Cascade Section Tournament are available here.

I realize that my previous post seemed singularly ... curmudgeonly.

That wasn't my intention, but I was hot and tired and footsore from running back and forth across HUGE shooting bays for six hours, so I indulged myself.

Rather than go back and edit all the cranky stuff out of my previous post, I think I'll just let it stand and show you the OTHER Side of the picture.

Yes, it was too warm and humid and I am too old for this stuff.

But I keep coming back for more matches because I love what I do in deep gravel on the weekends.

Why? Why have I been doing the same old thing in the same old places for over 20 years?


Because while it may be more of a challenge than I can meet, and my life may be too sedentary to prepare for this six-hours-of-walking-back-and-forth stuff, but I enjoy the activity and I can't get enough of the good people I meet down here in The Pits.


Just to show that the usual IPSC Match (in USPSA, as performed by The Usual Suspects) is more fun than competition:




By the way, as usual the photos from this match may be viewed on Jerry the Geeks Video Shooting Gallery.

CCS Tournament - Day 1 (Major Match Blues)

We just shot the first day of the two-day Columbia Cascade Section (Oregon) Tournament. I feel like the old Henny Youngman joke: "I just flew in from Vegas, and Boy! My wings are tired!"

This is a 12-stage match, presented in 10 bays. Three stages are presented in one bay - they are quick, short stages (two 8-round, one 6-round) on which I presume each competitor shoots all 3 stages, back to back to back. Or side to side to side, as it were. I'll have pictures tomorrow. We -- the truncated (9-person) "Usual Suspects" squad -- didn't shoot that bay.

The arrangement was that we shoot 7 stages Saturday, then Sunday shoot the remaining 5 stages. Then there's a free BBQ. I assume that means we have to eat ribs. I hate ribs. I hope they have Kielbasa, but that's probably too much to ask. I'm not a big BBQ fan, which is surprising because I'm a carnivore. Nothing green, please. My friends and family have horrified me with tales of dying a nutrient starved early death for the past 60+ years. I'm still waiting.


We were the 5th squad, so we started out of Bay 5, which held a 32 round stage with two Texas Star targets. Then we went to the Bay 6 and shot another 32 round stage after waiting 20 minutes for the squad before us to clear the stage.

In fact, Bay 7, Bay 8, Bay 9 and Bay 10 also featured 32-round stages, at which we had to wait 20 minutes (more or less) for the previous squad to finish. They had 12 people, and they had 'issues'.

These are The Big Bays at Tri-County Gun Club. Most of them are 20-30 yards wide and 50 yards deep, and the match administration chose to fill most of them from berm to berm and from front to back of the bay. This made for a LOT of walking whether you're shooting, RO-ing, taping or setting steel. By 2pm we were on Bay 10 and my feet were absolutely killing me. I sat on my butt for most of the stage, but with only 9 people in the squad there aren't that many warm bodies to work the stage so I only got to sit down for 4 shooters, and I taped the 'close' targets for 3 of them.


It was an overcast, warm day which should have been perfect shooting weather. Unfortunately, it has rained the past 3 days in Oregon, not hard but daily, so while gravelled bays were not soggy the atmosphere was very humid. I had worn a light long-sleeve shirt under a golf shirt, but I went to my car and changed into a tee shirt for the rest of the match in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the muggy air. There were two 10-minute showers, not what Oregonians call "Rain" but enough that we were more comfortable putting on a light jacket to keep from getting too soaked. After the rain quit, the ground and the people steamed until the worst of the moisture in shirts and pants had evaporated. But you had to keep moving, because to stand still was to create your own personal climate which reminded me uncomfortably of my sojurn at Fort Benning in 1969. It wasn't quite like breathing through damp cotton, and certainly better than the burning summer sun and 90-plus degree temperature we usually expect this time of year, but it was enough for Fat Old Men like me to feel our age.

Our last stage of the day was a 16-round 'almost-hoser' stage stage, which completed my personal downfall. My gun didn't clear the USA holster ... first time in a long while I've had problems with the draw ... and I had a 2-second feeding jam that I still haven't figured out.

The earlier stages in the day were satisfactory for me. I was shooting B-class scores in B-class times, which wasn't enough to win anything but at least I could hold my head up. In the later stages, though, I seemed plagued with every kind of silly little problem I would never have expected. In one stage I blew past a long-distance target. In the Fixed Time stage, my last of four strings ended prematurely when my weak-hand string ended with a !Click! instead of a !Bang! I pulled the cartridge, and it had no primer. I assume it was old brass with an expanded primer pocket, and the primer just fell out of the case while I was shooting the stage.

It could have been much worse. It could have happened on the first round of the string, rather than the last.

We were the LAST squad off the range today. In a 250-round match, we had shot all six 32-round stages (with waits between stages), and a 16 round stage for nearly 200 rounds total. By my count, we will have about 53 rounds to shoot tomorrow, and then we get to wait for the BBQ to be set up. I'll have something to look forward to, while I'm waiting.

This monologue is pretty depressing, isn't it? Nobody likes to hear a cry-baby. But it does me good to get it out of my system, and if I can't tell you ... who can I tell?

GOOD Things!

Actually, so far I very much enjoyed the match despite my personal tribulations.


The 32-round stages were varied, and gave us the opportunity to play hard and long. The first two were pretty much hoser stages, if you ignore that one started out with a string of 8 poppers and two Texas Star arrays. Another was all paper, set up so you could run the whole vertical envelopment without stopping. Another had an inventive mixture of 50-yard and in-your-face paper targets. Still another had you backing up
for the first five paper targets, then running madly downrange to shoot mixed paper and steel on one side, then running to the other side to shoot a mirror-image misture, with a bobber in the center to keep you honest.


The Fixed Time stage had four strings shooting 2 rounds each at 3 targets: six rounds free-style at 50 yards; the same at 40 yards with a reload in the middle; six rounds strong hand at 30 yards, and six rounds 'support hand' at 20 rounds. Par time was 6 seconds. I finished the reload-string at 6.30 seconds, just 1/100 second under the overtime-shot cut-off. I was smug, and although it was pure luck it took the sting out of the disappointment of the primerless-cartridge at the end of the 4th string.

The stage we finished on (Stage 1, Bay 1 - "Vegas Windows") had you start from a box with a holstered, unloaded gun. Two paper targets visible from the box, one was mostly covered except for the B-zone by a penalty target. Through a port on the left were 2 paper, one Pepper Popper. Same through the port on the right, except there was one more paper target to make it a 16-round stage.

The good news is, I did everything right: instead of loading and engaging the obvious targets from the starting box, I use the move-to-the-left-port time to load, took the middle targets with only a moments hesitation for the B-zone target, and hosed the right port targets. But because of the poor draw, and the jam, I got a less than impressive time. The good news was, I provided sight-gag for my squad.

Here's the funny thing. I spend the month of June having gun problems which turned out to be my own fault because I didn't lubricate the pistol adequately, despite my proclaimed advocacy of "if a little oil is good, more is better". I finally got that worked out the last month of June.

Then for the first three weeks of July I didn't shoot a single round. Instead, I've been watching Multi-gun matches and writing about them and publishing photos and videos.

Now I finally get a chance to shoot a match, and the gun works (usually), and I'm so out of shape that I don't have the stamina to bear up under 7 stages in one day.

Ironic, isn't it?

The funniest thing is, I was cleaning and OILING THE BEJIMEZE out of the pistol in preparation for the match, and I had the barrel in the slide and the recoil-spring assembly installed before I realized I hadn't installed the firing pin and spring back into the slide.

Imagine if I had started my first 32-round stage, and realized on the first trigger-pull that I had no firing pin?

Now, THAT would have been funny.

__________________________


So that it will not appear that the "Usual Suspects" squad is infested with a Bad Attitude, I offer this vidoe of our last stage, "Vegas Windows".

If it is not obvious to the viewer, we're old and tired but still having a good time.

Henning Wallgren Shoots Guns

I've never seen him shoot, but Henning is my New Hero.

I tripped over his internet website a few months ago, and linked to it on my sidebar.

Today I found his website for the 2007 Rocky Mountain 300 and fixated on the videos he presented.

(Check out the "Shoot-Off" videos.)

Then I looked at the videos on his 2007 Double Tap Championships.

This is a guy who knows how to follow the shooter closely when he's taking videos, and as a 'video blogger' I appreciate his ability to get 'in your face' (or 'in the back of your head') priorities.


I encourage you to go to the website(s) and look at the videos. Note that some of the videos of the Double Tap match don't download, which is a technical glitch and shouldn't reflect on the host ... but I wish he would clean it up. Also note that a stage which is said to feature Local Hero Yong Lee is either miss-named, or Yong Lee has scrawnied up a bit since I last saw him a couple of months ago. Okay, it's true what they say about the camera taking weight off you. And, he sure shoots like Yong Lee.