Quote of the day–Ronald Reagan

Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don’t have that problem.


Ronald Reagan
[I have had this in my collection for quite a while but never had the appropriate occasion to use it. Today I saw it printed on a tile at the restaurant at Middle of Nowhere. The owner is a former Marine.


While I was at Middle of Nowhere I put 1000 rounds of .40 S&W and 500 rounds of .22 into steel plates. I have a couple sore fingers and I’m tired of standing but I also trimmed about 0.1 seconds per plate off my time and I can shoot weak handed a lot better.–Joe]

Real Men…

…and women should have available, and know how to use, either a micrometer or a good caliper that reads in thousandths of an inch and/or hundredths of a millimeter.  I don’t see how a person could get through life without one.  They’re cheap and they last a long time.  A set of hole gauges and snap gauges is good also, but the calipers are essential.


That’s in my book.


Jeff Cooper wrote about some other things;



Before the young man leaves home, there are certain things he should know and certain skills he should acquire, apart from any state-sponsored activity. Certainly the youngster should be taught to swim, strongly and safely, at distance. And young people of either sex should be taught to drive a motor vehicle, and if at all possible, how to fly a light airplane. I believe a youngster should be taught the rudiments of hand-to-hand combat, unarmed, together with basic survival skills. The list is long, but it is a parent’s duty to make sure that the child does not go forth into the world helpless in the face of its perils. Shooting, of course, is our business, and shooting should not be left up to the state.


Or something like that.  I recall he had learning to handle a motorcycle in there too.


My son took it upon himself to row a boat across Hood Canal a few weeks ago without telling anyone.  We saw him heading over, until he disappeared from sight.


I was miffed.  That is, until I remembered some of the crazy things I did at that age (16) like piloting a canoe (two canoes, four people) up one side of Priest Lake in Idaho, by moonlight, and then navigating up the channel to Upper Priest Lake by starlight (after moondown) then landing and setting up camp on a low cliff.  We figured flashlights were for sissies, back then.  Nowadays I carry one.  Must be getting soft.


But I digress.  Being able to measure the difference between .678″ and .710″ can be pretty important, and it’s not complicated.  This sort of thing comes up often while talking to customers.  Most of them have the tools and the skill, but a disappointing minority do not.

Are you into reloading?

If you are into reloading in a big (and I mean BIG) way I have just the deal for you.

I received a phone call and follow up email from Marc Coury:

From: Marc J Coury
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 5:22 PM
To: JoeH@boomershoot.org
Subject: RockTek/Marc Coury-Ballistic Solutions-50 Cal Powder

Joe,

Just left you a voice message after hanging up with Ron Gilbert. He said to give you a call immediately regarding this powder.

As I mentioned, Ballistic Solutions, Inc., has been manufacturing small arms ammo and sniper rifles for 15 years. Our CEO, Jeff Semko, is a sniper instructor and has consulted for Homeland Security and many law enforcement agencies. We’re currently in process of re-locating our production facility onto the Tooele Army Depot in Utah. We also have a contract with Tooele, marketing their demil and other military surplus: powder, brass, projectiles, heck, you name it.

I’ve attached a detailed overview of what we currently have for sale – we’re down to 45,048 lbs. from 190,000 lbs. of Winchester 50 cal pulldown: 872 & 867.

The powder is stored at Tooele and is packaged in DOT approved, mil spec containers, so we can have it shipped out as soon as a wire transfer clears. We had it priced at the low-end wholesale of [call for details–it is awesome price–Joe]/lb.

However, as we need to make room in the bunker, if someone wants the entire remaining lot it’s theirs for [even more awesome price–Joe]/lb.

That’s a substantial loss for us, but a gain to the buyer. As you know, retailers are selling it between $8.50 – $11.75/lb., with smaller reloaders paying up to $25.00/lb.

If you or anyone else can use it, you know where to find me!

Best,
Marc

Marc J. Coury
Ballistic Solutions, Inc.
Satellite Office:
2715 W. Coast Highway, Suite: A
Newport Beach, CA. 92663
TEL: 949.645.3815 FAX: 949.646.8746

You don’t have to buy it all. You can buy it in quantities as small as three pallets (6,480 pounds). Call Marc for the details.

Video from the private party

Barron gives us video and some nice stills from the private Boomershoot party.

Boomershoot private party

Some people from work followed me back to Idaho on Friday night.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Breakfast Club in Moscow with Tim, Barron, and Janelle.


Hiep and Priyanka walking into the restaurant. Photo by Sharath.

We drove to the Boomershoot site and I told them the history, told lots of stories and gave them a tour. They found some .50 BMG bullets and seemed quite thrilled. The picture below is from on top of the berm where the 700 yard targets are placed looking back at the hay field to the shooting line.


Janelle, Barron, Tim (just barely visible behind the grass), Hiep, Sharath, and Priyanka.

I gave them a safety briefing on the chemicals (which consists mostly of telling them not to eat, drink, or snort anything) I had the people from Microsoft weigh the chemicals and my staff mix the explosives and package it into targets:


Sharath, Priyanka, Hiep.


Janelle, Tim (barely visible–he doesn’t want his picture taken because cameras will steal your soul), and Barron.

We ate lunch then placed the targets in front of the large berm at the tree line.


Sharath, Priyanka, and Hiep putting stakes in the ground for the targets.

One of the targets had something special on it (see also here).

I gave safety and basic firearm instructions while Tim, Barron, and Janelle placed the targets on the stakes. Sharath had never shot a gun before. Hiep had only shot one once and that was after he had three years of military instruction in Vietnam. Priyanka shot a gun for the first time last September and then in March took her parents (visiting from India) to the range on her own and taught them to shoot.


Targets ready for engagement. Photo by Sharath.

We then got back a few feet and let the visitors shoot the targets. There were many smiles and much exaltation.


Joe and Hiep. Photo by Sharath.

Hiep once told me he didn’t think private citizens should possess firearms. Only the police and the military should have access. I should ask if he still thinks that.

Boomershoot is a tool for teaching people from all over the world the joys of guns and explosives–the joy of freedom.

Quote of the day–Priyanka

I can eat cake any day. This is the only time I can blow one up.

Priyanka
July 17, 2010
She said this a few minutes before blowing up, instead of blowing out, her birthday cake.
[The white cardboard box contains two pounds of Boomerite.

In the original of second picture (taken by Sharath) you can see bits of the cake high in the air. We were unable to find any of it later.

I expect Barron and Janelle will have video before long. I was playing range safety officer and didn’t take any pictures while the rifles were out of their cases.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Priyanka

Boom!

I think I got it now.

Boom!

Yeah. I got it.

Priyanka
Shooting boomers at a private Boomershoot party.
July 17, 2010
[She was having trouble at first. Lots of misses and almost no booms. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. She did fine with dry fire. The gun stayed steady enough for the range we were at (almost entertainingly close). I think there was a problem with her sight picture even though I went over it several times with her. And it wasn’t like was the first time she had shot a gun either. She did pretty well the first time so I was perplexed why she was having trouble this time. She is a smart woman and she eventually figured it out on her own.

I’ll ask her more about it when I see her at the office on Monday.

Update: Priyanka reports she was concentrating on properly placing the post (front sight) of the AR-15 on the target and was neglecting to center the post in the rear peep sight. I’ll have another QOTD from Priyanka and pictures from the event on Monday.–Joe]

How can that be?

The human brain is amazing. I sometimes look at the things people can do and I have difficulty believing it is possible. I even look at the things I can do and am amazed.

Here is a USPSA stage I shot in April. You have to draw from the surrender position and put 10 rounds on 8 different targets with a mandatory reload in the middle of the string of fire. How long should that take?

Here is my score:

Stage Name A B C D M NS P LS XS XH AP Time Total Points Hit Factor Stg Pts
2P Paper Poppers 7   3                 6.90 47 6.8116 50.0000

6.9 seconds. Right off that bat you can say the average was less than one second per shot. Then you start figuring in the time it takes to draw and reload the gun. Even being generous (I don’t think I am this fast) on my draw and reload by subtracting out 1.25 and 2.25 seconds yields 3.4 seconds for the remaining 8 shots or and average of 0.425 seconds per shot. How can someone even move the gun from target to target that fast? At that speed acquiring a sight picture and squeezing the trigger happens someplace far away from conscious thought.

What is even more interesting is that my score is only 68.6611% of the score by the best shooters. Assuming they get all ‘A’ zone hits (this maximizes the time) they had to do it in a total of 5.04 seconds. Subtracting out 1.0 and 1.5 seconds for the draw and reload and we have 0.3175 seconds per shot.

Buy a solar energy system get a free gun

I’m not sure I would take the gun over the $400 cash discount but I would give them a serious consideration over their competitors for being gun friendly.

Middle of Nowhere

Early next month wife Barbara, her sister Susan, and I are going to Sullivan County Missouri. We had ancestors who emigrated west to Idaho from there in the 19th Century. Barb and her sister will be doing some genealogical research. I probably will help them a little bit but I plan to spend quite a bit of time at Middle of Nowhere with my pistol and perhaps a rifle. I wish they had a 1000 (or 1500!) yard range but a couple of plate racks and 100 yard range will keep me busy for a while.

Anyone else in the area with the time and ammo (I plan on shooting up at least 1000 perhaps as much as 2000 rounds) to spend practicing?

General Defensive Rifle class

I took a similar class several years ago and found it very useful. One of the instructors gives an overview of the class given last month and reports on the functionality and reliability of the AR-15 (including piston versions), AK-47, SCAR, Sig 556, and FN FS2000 (mostly useless).

Shotgun versus steel

I participated in a USPSA match at the Lewiston Pistol Club today. After the pistol match we had a shotgun side match.


I forgot to turn on my video glasses for the first string. On the second string I tried some “Low Recoil” ammo. I had to hand cycle every round fired with that ammo. I gave all my remaining ammo of that type to someone with a pump action shotgun.


My third string went well. I probably could have cut at least three or four seconds off my time had I not had so many misses, I had counted my shots so I had not taken the time to drop the hammer on an empty chamber, and I had practiced my reloads. I also don’t think I have fired a shotgun in at least a year. Here is the video from the shooters point of view:




Gunnies be Patient

I’ve seen it before and let it go, but today I ran into several variations of, “Once you get the sights adjusted, this gun is very accurate” in different places on gun forums and product reviews.


Serious shooters should know the problem with that assertion, but not all shooters know it.  These were shooters making the assertion after all.


Accuracy and sight adjustment (or zero) are not the same thing.


(Joe uses the term “sight angle” or “indicated sight angle” which makes more sense when you think about, which of course he has)


Accuracy is the ability of the firearm system (the gun itself, the ammo and the sighting system) to place shots consistently.  The sights could be “off” considerably (bullets impacting far from the point of aim) and that gun is just as accurate as if it were putting your bullets exactly at the point of aim.


The difference is in sight adjustment, but that in itself has nothing to do with accuracy.  Accuracy = consistency.


It has been said that “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.”  — George Orwell  (Thank You, Walter Williams, for pointing that out)


You intelligent men have your assignment, then.  Carry on.

Includes Shoulder Thingy That Goes Up

I haven’t used this gun in a while, so I’ve decided to offer it for sale.


This is the eeeeevil Striker 12, made by Sentinal Arms and sold by Penn Arms.  It has a 12″ barrel and a threaded muzzle with a split shroud-nut/thread protector designed to allow a custom-made, threaded muzzle device if one were inclined to have such a thing made.


It’s a DAO (double action only) twelve shot revolver.  The cylinder is not to be confused with a drum magazine.  It has 12 firing chambers (up to 2 & 3/4″ shells only. you could probably chamber 3″ shells but if you fire them, the rest of your day, and many after, might go poorly).  For some measure of protection from the high velocity gasses that escape the cylinder gap, the cylinder is inside a steel enclosure, which is why it could be confused with a drum magazine.  The Striker’s double action differs from that of most revolvers, in that the cylinder is rotated by a spring and controlled by a simple, beefed-up, clockwork style escapement mechanism rather than by the force of pulling the trigger.  The trigger cocks the enclosed hammer and operates the escapement.  Trigger pull is rather long and heavy.  Even so, it is equipped with a cross-bolt trigger safety behind the triggerguard.


To load; drop in a shell just as with any single action revolver, then press the thumb tab on the back of the boxlock frame to advance the cylinder one chamber, drop in another, repeat until full, then raise the loading gate.  Wind the cylinder by turning the wing nut on the front of the cylinder arbor and you’re ready to go.


You aim it by sighting down the groove in the top strap to pick up the front sight, similar to the 1858 Remington Army revolver.  The cylinder will index clockwise, lowering the loading gate automatically as you pull the trigger back to fire, and then release.  As you pull the trigger again, the first empty is now in position for ejection.  There’s a small, static feature in the back of the barrel, directing gas from the cylinder gap into the just-fired chamber,  which blows the empty out of the gun with no mechanics at all– just gas.  It works swimmingly.  When the last round is fired, you eject the one remaining empty with your off hand using the ejector rod, which is reminiscent of the old West style single action cat-ridge six-shooters.  If the cylinder was wound tight before you started shooting, you still have enough spring energy to load all 12 chambers as indicated above, whereupon you wind it again for shooting.  It will index approximately 27 to 29 times per wind, or thereabouts– I forget.


There is a hole in the top strap that could be threaded for installation of a custom-made optic mount, if you were so inclined.  That, with an Aimpoint Micro or some such, would make for a nice home defense or truck gun, methinks.


You can get 12 rounds off pretty quick, but at a lower rate than from the more conventional autoloader.  After that, it is a bit slower to load, and then you wind it.  If you fail to pull the trigger all the way back, as happens with the uninitiated now and then, or with weaklings, or when you’re squeezing the trigger and then decide not to shoot, you will have indexed the cylinder anyway, skipping one loaded chamber, leaving a loaded shell in that chamber.


This is one of the very few guns that have both a barrel shroud AND a shoulder thingy that goes up (included at no extra charge).


Push a button on the left side of the grip/boxlock frame, and the shoulder thingy goes up, around, and locks into the deployed position.  Unlike an AK underfolder, the buttplate deploys under spring tension– no extra manipulation required.


This (ahem) exquisite, hand assembled fowling piece is truly just like a work of art– simple, cheap, crude, the government has its hands all over it, and no one really understands it though we all pretend to understand anyway because it’s cool.  I bought it as part of a “You Ban it, I Buy it” program I started back in the ’90s.



I’ll take thirteen hundred for it, which, for transferable, functional art is cheap.  NFA rules, blah blah blah, 200 hundred dollar tax, yadda, yadda..  Yes; in their mighty wisdom, benevolence, and dedication to American Principles, the geniuses at F-Troop have declared this 12 gauge, 2.75″ shotgun to be in the same legal category as towed artillery;




If you live here in Idaho I’m told the in-state transfer of artillery or 12 gauge shotguns is easier, or cheaper, or something.  Plus if you’re local, we can take it out and burn some nitro first (fire before you acquire).  Still; fingerprints, photos, background check, CLEO, wait, etc…for the transfer, just so you know who’s owns this country.


It also comes with a nice wooden alto saxophone case (violin cases are so yesterday) with rugged polymer covering and steel draw-latches, into which it fits like they were made for each other, which they were.  I just never got ’round to lining the bottom of the case with velvet.


It is warranted to be in marvelous condition right now.  Though used, it looks nearly new and functions as new.  There are some minor handling marks, but they wouldn’t put off even the most discriminating, upper-crust Striker 12 aficionado.  It won’t break unless you’re stupid.  Original owner’s manual included.

Quote of the day–Samurai maxim

Tomorrow’s battle is won during today’s practice.

Samurai maxim
[This is true of USPSA, IPDA, and steel challenge matches too. And even more importantly it is true of your encounter with a thug who wants your money or your life.

Note that the maxim has nothing to do with the hardware you carry. The caliber of your gun, the number of rounds you carry, and the terminal characteristics of the bullet are far, far less important than your training and your practice.–Joe]

10% discount on some Olympic Arms uppers

Olympic Arms is having a sale on “alternate caliber” AR’s:

Episode one of Top Shot

I watched the first episode of Top Shot last night. Barb watched about 10 minutes and then got bored and went off to do something else.

I liked it far better than I expected to. I don’t care for reality shows. When I first heard about Survivor back in late 1999 I was about to become unemployed as my contract with Microsoft expired. I thought it might be something I could do well at and I got an application and looked into the show concept further. It was completely different than I expected and I was repulsed. I expected something about working together and making conditions better for everyone on the island. I envisioned the winner being the person who did the most to improve the small “society”. I contemplated the skills and innovation I could bring to the situation. What would I bring with me and what sort of things could be accomplished with the materials on hand. It wasn’t going to be anything like that. It was going to be about getting rid of other people not working together with people. What sort of life lesson is this? It’s total crap.

That said it did cross my mind that Top Shot might be something I could participate in–for about 500 mS. I’m not a “Top Shot”. I do okay in the local matches but I’m just a “B” class shooter. I shoot at a level of about 65% (my current USPSA classification is 65.94% with a high of 68.53%) of the worlds best shooters. I could not imagine that would be good enough and didn’t pursue it.

Then I found out Caleb was accepted. What? I’m on par with Caleb! Oh well, it was at a bad time with our current project (Windows Phone Seven) at Microsoft and I had an obligation to complete that work anyway.

I really should have listened to what Caleb said last night on Gun Nuts Radio about it before making the following comments but I have other commitments for tonight and don’t have the time.

After seeing the first episode I again thought I could have had a chance. Mike Seeklander and his spotter’s performance was pathetic. Yes, as Tam pointed out the 100 yard shot Seeklander failed on is not as straightforward as one might think. But assuming the problem was not with the shooter being incompetent then either the spotter and shooter could have solved the problem had they been thinking. Here is how.

One of the shots was on paper. Use the same point of aim and try it again. If it lands on paper in close to the same place then you know offset in both X and Y from point of aim. Use that offset to put the bullet on target. If it doesn’t then the one on paper was random and you need to find the offset. The spotter should have found a nearby spot of bare ground where the bullet strike could be easily seen and directed the shooter there to find the offsets. If no such bare ground was available then systematically try offset in increments of 1/2 the paper width/height. Get a bullet on paper and confirm the offsets! They may have tried that and it was edited before airing but I was extremely annoyed that I didn’t see it happening. I felt the other team members should have put both the spotter and shooter on the chopping block. They both failed.

This episode also confirmed my hypothesis that if someone brags about how good a shooter they are it is near certain proof they are crap. All the great shooters I have personally met are extremely modest or at least silent about how great they think they are.

If you take nothing more from this post remember this. You can do a quick and dirty zero of your gun with one shot. Aim at something and shoot. Then stabilize the gun while aiming at the same place. With the gun still pointed at the same exact spot adjust the sights until the sights point at the place where the bullet hit.

Video glasses update

As I mentioned before I broke my new video glasses while taking them off. I considered just gluing them but decided to call and see if I could purchase a replacement part. I called the number in the user manual for Global One Sales & Distribution (814-669-1953) and was told they would ship me the new part but recommended I send them in for repair. The camera is in that part of the frame and there are wires going back to the processor and memory card. The cost, including shipping back to me is $40. I sent them in for repair.


He asked me how I broke them. I told him and he said I was for the fourth person to break them taking the glasses off while the lanyard was attached. They haven’t had other people break them at all. I advise not using the lanyard. What happened to me was that I tried to take them off with one hand holding on to the frame just in front of my left ear. As I pulled them over my head the lanyard caught on my right ear and the glasses were pulled as if it were a wishbone. The lanyard had a large moment arm (engineer speak for “big lever”) and the frame could not handle the force.


There are a few other things of note here. 1) I could not find a website for “Global One Sales & Distribution”; 2) The phone number 814-669-1953 (a Texas area code) is associated with a Self-Storage facility in Pennsylvania which has the same address as that which I was requested to ship the glasses to; 3) These glasses have more features (via a comment from wizardpc) and cost less than $75 (I paid $239 + tax for mine from Afton Arms who had a booth at the NRA meeting).

Ma Duce for sale

You can get a crippled, but mostly functional, Ma Duce if you have the money:




Steel Challenge match results

The match results from Sunday are in:




















































































































































Lewiston Pistol Club 
Steel Match– May 23, 2010
Place Shooter Class TX * 5 2 Go TSAR Fadeaway Total Time Down
1 Mike B Limited 17.29 16.96 15.92 18.19 68.36
2 Don W Limited 16.23 21.05 14.67 20.00 71.95 3.59
3 Adam M Limited 18.70 18.63 17.91 17.69 72.93 4.57
4 Roger W Limited 16.54 20.33 16.88 23.37 77.12 8.76
5 Joe H Limited 15.84 20.90 21.67 21.64 80.05 11.69
6 Roger W Revo 18.09 20.39 19.03 25.74 83.25 14.89
7 Mike C Limited 23.85 29.43 26.08 41.11 120.47 52.11
8 Bob U Limited 32.18 30.73 26.92 38.15 127.98 59.62
9 Mike G Limited 31.86 27.17 24.05 46.51 129.59 61.23
10 John G Limited 26.15 41.10 26.79 39.97 134.01 62.06


Yellow indicates the stage winner. I won the first stage and did mediocre on the rest. Since there were four stages and four strings (five actually, but the slowest string is thrown out) per stage being down 11.69 seconds means that I averaged less than three quarters of a second more per string than the match winner. It was a closer match than it might look like.


I came in second on the bowling pin side match:



AdamM:   21.63


JoeH:       23.21


Don W:    25.61


MikeB:     29.40


BobU:      30.33


RogerW:   37.84


MikeC:     42.94


JohnG:     43.30


Had I known there was going to be the bowling pin match I would have brought different ammo. I have some hollow point bullets loaded a little on the “warm” side specifically for bowling pins. As it was the ammo I was using didn’t have as much momentum to transfer and had a greater tendency to bounce off from a less than direct hit. That might have made the difference between first and second place. But there is no shame in coming in a close second to Adam.