Mesa Verde

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Mesa Verde National Park is the location of abandoned Native American cliff dwellings.

Although people had lived in the area for thousands of years the cliff buildings were used for less than 100 years. People left the area by 1285 due to a long lasting and severe drought.

In the upper left corner of the picture below you see a dwelling across the canyon from where Barb and I toured “Balcony House” as seen with the naked eye.

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Below is with a 300 mm lens (~6X).

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Below is a close up of the dwelling in the picture above.

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Steel match results

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I was expecting the worst when I went to Whidbey Island for the monthly steel match. I have been very busy recently and hadn’t shot a pistol in nearly a month. After I arrived I realized I had left my race holster at home. My centerfire shooting was all from an inside the waistband holster and my draw time showed this.

 

I was surprised to do as well as I did. I did quite well (I won) with iron sighted rimfire pistol and decent (second place) with iron sighted centerfire pistol:

 

Name Division Seconds
Brian Lawson RF-RI-O 42
Brian Lawson RF-O 44.08
Steve Mooney RF-RI-O 44.99
Steve Mooney RF-O 51.36
Steve Mooney RF-O 57.44
Joe Huffman RF-I 63.54
Theo Newstad PCC-O 67
Scott Bertino RF-O 69.14
Jim Dunlap RF-O 69.93
Scott Bertino RF-I 73.31
Theo Newstad RF-O 80.17
Rev Barchenger RF-O 83.17
Dave Shupe CF-O 83.29
MAC RF-RI-I 84.11
Bruce Barchenger CF-I 84.27
Joe Huffman CF-I 86.34
Brian Lawson CF-I 89.46
Theo Newstad CF-I 91.12
Dave Shupe RF-O 92.05
Bob Austin CF-I 92.27
Bruce Barchenger CF-I 94.32
Larry Languille PCC-I 116.05
MAC CF-I 124.95
Dennis Bohling CF-I 151.76
Linda Pickering CF-I 165.21

RF-RI-O: Rimfire Rifle Optics

RF-O: Rimfire Pistol Optics
RF-I: Rimfire Iron sights
PCC-O: Pistol Caliber Carbine Optics
RF-RI-I: Rimfire Rifle Iron sights
CF-I: Centerfire Iron sights

PCC-I: Pistol Caliber Carbine Iron sights

 

Quote of the day—Bacon @Baconmints

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You can be tough, you can be brave or you can buy a bunch of guns like a scared little coward. Your call. #tinycockclub #bokbok #fuckthenra

Bacon @Baconmints
Tweeted on December 23, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

Via a Tweet from BFD‏ @BigFatDave.—Joe]

One round short

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I just finished reloading a few rounds for my next pistol match and ran my round counting program to report on the total number of rounds I have ever reloaded. By complete coincidence the total was one short of a nice round number (from a computer programmer’s viewpoint):

223.LOG: 2027 rounds.
22LR.log: 0 rounds.
3006.LOG: 467 rounds.
300WIN.LOG: 1351 rounds.
40SW.LOG: 40054 rounds.
45.log: 0 rounds.
50bmg.log: 0 rounds.
9MM.LOG: 21636 rounds.
Total: 65535 rounds.

Bryce Canyon

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It was foggy when we started our hike through Bryce Canyon. This gave the area a surreal feel at first. But the fog burned off and we got some great long distance views as we finished. The hiking book Barb brought claims the Queen’s Garden and Navaho Loop trail is reputed to be the best hike in the U.S. if not the world. After hiking through almost unbelievable geological formations this is a believable claim.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

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Sea level to 9800 feet

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Barb and I were on vacation for the last week. Friday (October 16th) we left home about noon and drove to West Port, Washington (on the coast) to visit friends for the weekend.

I saw a couple stickers on a car that indicated I was near “my kind of people”:

WP_20151017_12_36_00_Pro__highresWP_20151017_12_36_07_Pro__highres

On Sunday morning we drove to the Seattle-Tacoma airport and flew to Las Vegas, arriving about 7:00 PM. We then drove to Brian Head, Utah arriving about 2:00 AM local time.

It was an interesting drive from Las Vegas to Brian Head. Just getting the rental car was an adventure. We “got a good deal” on a Jeep (I need lots of headroom) via Fox Rent A Car. When we checked in they told us it was an extra $10/day for a second driver. So much for the “good deal”.

We loaded all our stuff into the Jeep and started to leave when I noticed the low tire pressure light was on. I reported it and they said to take a different Jeep. We loaded our stuff into and started the car and the “Oil Change” light came on. We reported it and checked out the only small SUV remaining, a Rav 4. By adjusting the seat to the lowest position I could sit in by tipping my head to the side just a bit. And it smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. We were discussing going to a different rental agency when another Jeep, freshly washed showed up. We inspected it, found nothing wrong, and moved all our stuff into it and drove away. It wasn’t until two days later that we discovered the right rear door would not lock. We won’t be renting from Fox Rent A Car again.

The weather apps on our phones warned of heavy rains and flash floods all the way to Cedar City. The speed limit was 80 MPH on much of the interstate freeway in Utah but with the heavy rains I seldom drove over 55 MPH.

We needed to get some groceries and according to our research prior to leaving home there was a 24-hour Wal-Mart Super store in town. We arrived about 12:40 AM to find the store was closed. We drove around a bit and found a grocery store which was open. Barb went in and started shopping while I parked the car. When I walked in I was told they were closing in seven minutes. Barb and I coordinated our searches and dashed all over the store picking up various items. It was a bit of a hodgepodge of stuff and few things that weren’t quite what we thought we had grabbed off the shelves but it was good enough and we laughed at ourselves as we went through checkout.

We continued on to our condo at Brian Head, climbing up to 9800 feet above sea level, with the last mile or so pushing slush and snow ahead of the Jeep. We got into bed about 2:00 AM.

The next morning, Monday, we felt ill. I recognized the symptoms. It was altitude sickness. I would get dizzy every time I changed from a sitting or bending over position to standing. I was sometimes gasping for breath. We considered just staying there and getting better before we continued on to the National Parks. Barb looked up the symptoms and treatments on the Internet. Symptoms are similar to having drank too much alcohol and a hangover. Hmmm… so that’s what a hangover feels like. I’ve never had a hangover before. The treatment is to go to a lower altitude. You can avoid it by acclimating more slowly. Gain about 3000 feet per day they said. Great. We exceeded the recommended altitude gain per day by a factor of 3.27. No wonder we were feeling messed up.

All the National Parks we were visiting were at a lower altitudes so we decided to continue on schedule in the hopes of feeling better when we got to lower ground. We went to Bryce Canyon, at an elevation of over 8000 feet, and went on a three mile hike down and then up out of the steep canyon.

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We felt much better…

Details on our adventures with lots of pictures to follow in more blog posts.

Boomershoot 2015 video

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Via email from Ballisticarc:

Quote of the day—rickn8or

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Suppressors ought to be regulated like holsters and scopes.

rickn8or
October 23, 2015
Comment to Hearing Protection Act
[Be careful what you wish for. There are two solutions to the problem as stated.—Joe]

Quote of the day—bayo0786‏ @heyoyayo

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@wallsofthecity Of course we want to take your guns.  And like every other liberal goal over the past 50 years, we will be successful.

bayo0786‏ @heyoyayo
Tweeted on October 22, 2015
[What this guy doesn’t understand is there are lines which must not be crossed.

What you need to understand is that you must never let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Hearing protection act

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Unlikely to pass, but a good idea none the less. The bill would remove the $200 tax stamp on suppressors and make them a normal 4473 item handled by FFLs the way a firearm would be as far as the FedGov is concerned.

Yes, I know they shouldn’t be regulated at all beyond a basic buyer-beware consumer-safety sort of “do they work as advertised” thing, but it would be another step in the right direction. It would also help the economy by increasing demand for something domestically-made.

Quote of the day—David Kopel

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The 2nd Circuit took the opposite approach: Guns that are more accurate and easier to use for “deadly” purposes (whether against home invaders or while hunting) are exactly the guns that may be banned. This is in tension with Heller.

By the 2nd Circuit’s reasoning, inferior guns that are less accurate, less comfortable to use and less useful supposedly enjoy greater constitutional protection. That is a Bizarro Second Amendment.

David Kopel
October 21, 2015
2nd Circuit upholds N.Y. and Conn. arms bans; contradicts Heller and McDonald
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Mike Monteiro @Monteiro

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We are going to take your guns and melt them into whatever fucked up weird machinery is used to harvest kale.

Mike Monteiro @Monteiro
Tweeted on October 20, 2015
[Molon labe Mike.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brief of NRA

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Incredibly, Highland Park exempts devices that would otherwise be prohibited as a “barrel shroud” if they do not allow “the bearer to hold the firearm with the non-trigger hand without being burned.”

BRIEF OF NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC. AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI
August 28, 2015
[This, perhaps more than anything tells us what we need to know about the anti-gun mindset. If you shoot a gun, for whatever reason, they want the shooter to be at risk of being hurt.

This is like demanding that cars must not have doors or seat belts. If they can’t ban all of them then they want to ban all but the ones which put the users at high risk of injury. These are very sick people and should be dealt with accordingly.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Gerald Lee Wolters

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Now the Commander in Chief needs to make these laws Federal with an executive order. Full stop. One nation one policy. Australia y’all.

Gerald Lee Wolters
October 19, 2015
Comment to Federal Court Upholds Bulk Of Gun Control Laws Passed In Wake Of Newtown
[These people live in an alternate reality where they believe we are all subjects of a king or dictator.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

And their point is?

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled:

As to the ban on large-capacity magazines, the court upheld it by again pointing to Newtown and the shooter’s ability to fire “154 rounds in less than five minutes” — an observation that was in line with the lower court’s finding that “large-capacity magazines result in more shots fired, persons wounded, and wounds per victim than do other gun attacks.”

Using that criteria they could also ban six shot revolvers as well as ten round magazines. And I expect, single shot guns. As that is only about one shot every two seconds. Certainly two round magazines would be fail their criteria.

Here you see 12 shots from a revolver in under three seconds:

Hence, using a revolver, people could shoot 154 rounds in less than 40 seconds. Okay, not everyone is Jerry Miculek. And this was pretty much a peak achievement for Jerry. Even multiplying Jerry’s time by a factor of three, which brings it into the range of mere mortals, results in the 154 rounds being fired in less than a minute and a half.

Here I demonstrate shooting 35 rounds in less than 16 seconds with 10 round magazines even though I had to clear a malfunction:

This means one could easily fire 154 rounds in less than a minute and a half.

What these people don’t realize is that the size of the magazine isn’t the critical part of putting a lot of bullets on target. It’s the target acquisition time. If the number of shots fired per unit time were something they were seriously going to restrict they would have to ban cartridges.

Of course they would consider that a valid and worthy goal. But it would be ignored and just as easily circumvented as their existing ban on standard capacity magazines.

So, what’s their point? I have to conclude Ayn Rand has their number.

Quote of the day—obvious-if-you-read-carefully

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The problem are guns being stolen from these wannabes who watch the “Terminator” movie and have too small wee wees and run down and blow their wad on the cool blue steel of a handgun then take it home so they can stroke it and fantasize.  Of course, not bothering to save any money for the gun safe or even a trigger lock.  Then a year later when they are bored of it, they leave it on the dresser in plain sight and the bad guy spies it through the window and breaks in and takes it.

Then a year later the gun is used to kill someone.

What universal checks allow us to do is track the gun back to small wee wee guy who made it available to the criminal element by his irresponsible ownership of it.

obvious-if-you-read-carefully
April 1, 2015
Comment to Gun background check hearing: Does bill close loophole or create unenforceable law?
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

One might also ask this bigot if he has a citation for the research backing up his claim that this scenario is “the problem” and how background checks would improve his imagined scenario.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Steve

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Drones are another word for “skeet”.

Steve
October 17, 2015
Comment to In Post-Debate Push, Hillary Clinton Highlights Gun Divide With Bernie Sanders
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rev. John Buttrick

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We need the president, Congress, governors, councils, legislators and citizens to discuss the options for creating a society where gun ownership is an exception not the norm.

…

∎ We can protect our homes with a network of good neighbor communications and an attitude of welcome to the stranger.

∎ We can learn to participate in and strengthen our democratic society as the way to prevent government from becoming oppressive. (No amount of home firepower can protect us today from a rogue government army in possession of assault weapons, rockets, tanks, drones and overwhelming air power).

∎ We can provide gun rentals at firing ranges for the sport of target shooting.

∎ We can re-evaluate the ethics of hunting for sport while permitting the use of basic rifles and shotguns for hunting food and for predatory animal control in rural settings.

∎ We can work for an economic system that is fair for all people, narrowing the gap between the wealthy and the poor.

∎ We can advocate against all forms of racism and cultural bias.

Gun legislation and/or constitutional amendments may be far in the future. But political, religious and social leaders and every citizen can begin to cultivate a climate that discourages gun possession.

Rev. John Buttrick
October 17, 2015
My Turn: The path to end gun violence
[He’s delusional and/or hopelessly naïve.

But the one thing you want to remember about this is that you should never let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Dan Gross

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This is not a negotiation with the NRA. We don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Dan Gross
President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
October 14, 2015
Gun control group bashing Sanders, Chafee
[H/T .

And what is the typical way of dealing with terrorists?

This is what they think of you and the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. They want you in prison or dead for defending and/or exercising a constitutionally protected right.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

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Statistics on murder are among the most widely available statistics, and among the most accurate, since no one ignores a dead body. With so many facts available from so many places and times, why is gun control still a heated issue? The short answer is that most gun control zealots do not even discuss the issue in terms of hard facts.

The zealots act as if they just know — somehow — that bullets will be flying hither and yon if you allow ordinary people to have guns. Among the many facts this ignores is that gun sales were going up by the millions in late 20th century America, and the murder rate was going down at the same time.

Thomas Sowell
October 14, 2014
SOWELL: The ‘gun control’ farce
[As usual, Sowell expresses things succinctly and powerfully. Nearly every paragraph in this article is worthy of being QOTD here.

What Sowell doesn’t say, no surprise since it’s out of scope for his article, is that increased gun ownership increases the distribution of hard facts to the population at large. And since hard facts are detrimental to the objectives of the anti-gun crowd anything they do which increases gun ownership in either the short term or long term decreases the odds of them achieving their goals. Hence when politicians start talk about restricting gun ownership, and gun sales dramatically increase, they are indirectly their own worst enemy.

Instead of doing “battle” with those who advocate on social media for the restriction of our right to keep and bear arms maybe we should thank them for increasing gun sales and exposing more people to the hard facts of gun ownership.—Joe]