I’m looking for a few guys in the 12-18 age range to be beta-readers for my new book. It’s basically done, but I can always use more input. If you are (or know) a YA male who is looking for a story about a young man doing adventurous things without a lot of angsty naval-gazing or silly romance garbage, but with more independent / libertarian themes than most current offerings, head on over to The Stars Came Back for details.
As I said on Sunday I shot in three-gun match as well as the pistol match. I then said:
I haven’t seen the results from that yet but I expect I came in the top three or so. Maybe 2nd.
I was partially wrong:
| Place | Shooter | Division | Points | Time | Hit Factor |
| 1 | Joe H. | Open (but iron sights) | 261 | 106.93 | 2.4408 |
| 2 | Adam M. | Limited | 214 | 94.18 | 2.2722 |
| 3 | Steve P. | Tactical | 156 | 81.21 | 1.9210 |
| 4 | Velle K. | Limited | 251 | 133.12 | 1.8855 |
| 5 | Don W. | Tactical | 198 | 116.56 | 1.6987 |
| 6 | Roger W. | Limited Major | 238 | 147.19 | 1.6170 |
| 7 | Jesse W. | Tactical | 152 | 123.47 | 1.2311 |
| 8 | Terri B. | Open | 242 | 281.8 | 0.7878 |
I had based my estimate on my time. I knew my hits (points) were good but I didn’t know they were that much better than everyone else.
I was a little annoyed that even though I had iron sights on everything I was put in open division simply because my shotgun had detachable magazines. Other people with scopes on their rifles were not in “Open”. I got the last laugh on that though. Adam had his rifle scope fail. It literally broke with internal components displaced and visible through the ocular lens. He was left with attempting to look under the scope along the barrel as best he could, seeing where his hits were, adjusting, and shooting again. He shot fast but had poor hits.
Unless something is done and done soon, dangerous people will continue to get their hands on guns.
Amy Schumer
August 4, 2015
After ‘Trainwreck’ shooting, Amy and Charles Schumer join for gun control
[She (and long time anti-gun politician Charles Schumer) plan to:
… introduce legislation that would offer incentives to states to share histories of domestic violence and mental problems with the Justice Department, which administers background checks for gun purchasers. It would also fund mental health care.
An first thought one might think this shouldn’t be a problem. But “domestic violence” includes “allegations of unwanted physical contact”. Presumably this includes attempting to physically taking a knife or car keys from the hands of someone threating to commit suicide.
Similarly with “mental problems” can include depression after the loss of family members and well as being the victim of years of domestic abuse. People with no indication of being a threat to others are denied their specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.
And these bans are for the life of the accused. Some minor incident that happened 50 years ago with no further indication of any problems and these people are unable to legally purchase or own a firearm.
These infringements must not be tolerated.
And that doesn’t even address the fact background checks cannot ever be any more effective than bans on recreational drugs keep high school dropouts from getting high.—Joe]
Just too many violent guns.
What makes a gun want to be violent?
Gary Patton
August 4, 2015
Comment to New York Times: Gun control and the GOP candidates
[Nice!–Joe]
Somebody always pays. ALWAYS. Maybe not now, maybe not in obvious ways with a bill in the mail, but there is always a cost when the government does something. Some spending is reasonable, the cost known, understood, and generally agreed to and agreed upon. We can quibble over particular programs or numbers or actions, but nearly all serious people agree that some government spending is a cost we should bear, and paying taxes for it is the way to get it done.
But virtually nobody in politics at the national level is addressing the big-picture elephant in the room. We have a huge official debt (national, state, municipal), staggering future obligations (SS, other retirement plans, etc), and are running an absurdly large annual federal deficit. Simple mathematics says it cannot continue. That which cannot continue, won’t. Continue reading
@JoeHuffman @gunpolicy Nice try gun nut, luckily it is not up to the small dick association.
Graeme Rodgers @graemenrodgers
Tweeted on July 31, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]
I shot a match at the Lewiston Pistol Club today for the first time in years. In my squad I shot far better than anyone else but that didn’t hold true when extended to the other two squads. I did place first in the Senior category and I came in 4th out of 22 overall:
| Place | Name | Member # | Class | Division | PF | Lady | Mil | Law | For | Match Pts | Match % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mcintosh, Adam | A42720 | M | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 434.6087 | 100.000 % |
| 2 | Ervin, Dylan | A87751 | A | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 410.6277 | 94.482 % |
| 3 | Meredith, Scott | A87873 | B | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 398.5651 | 91.707 % |
| 4 | Huffman, Joe | TY29386 | B | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 360.0485 | 82.844 % |
| 5 | Stone, Will | A89845 | D | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 358.8812 | 82.576 % |
| 6 | Piper, Steve | A88114 | B | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 345.5529 | 79.509 % |
| 7 | Stratton, Sean | A83500 | B | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 342.5806 | 78.825 % |
| 8 | Wood, Don | TY25263 | B | SS | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 307.4082 | 70.732 % |
| 9 | Wisniewsk, John | U | LTD | MINOR | N | N | N | N | 287.5903 | 66.172 % | |
| 10 | Watson, Roger 1(L10) | A75534 | C | L10 | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 286.1616 | 65.844 % |
| 11 | Moore, Bill | TY67422 | C | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 267.5720 | 61.566 % |
| 12 | Humann, Jodi | L3876 | D | PROD | MINOR | Y | N | N | N | 255.6300 | 58.818 % |
| 13 | Watson, Jesse | U | LTD | MINOR | N | N | N | N | 248.9564 | 57.283 % | |
| 14 | Kolde, Velle 2(LTD) | A29239 | U | LTD | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 241.0669 | 55.468 % |
| 15 | Wisniewsk Jr, John | U | LTD | MINOR | N | N | N | N | 225.5390 | 51.895 % | |
| 16 | Watson, Roger 2(REV) | A75534 | B | REV | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 212.4302 | 48.878 % |
| 17 | Simmons, John | FY75133 | C | LTD | MINOR | N | N | N | N | 198.5667 | 45.689 % |
| 18 | Cogburn, Gene | U | OPEN | MINOR | N | N | N | N | 189.1096 | 43.513 % | |
| 19 | Mangels, Kim | A91015 | U | LTD | MINOR | Y | N | N | N | 157.5848 | 36.259 % |
| 20 | Binkley, Teri | OPEN | MAJOR | N | N | N | N | 114.5484 | 26.357 % | ||
| 21 | Stratton, Savanha | U | LTD | MINOR | Y | N | N | N | 36.1257 | 8.312 % | |
| 22 | Piper, Renee | U | LTD | MINOR | N | N | N | N | 27.1287 | 6.242 % |
I probably didn’t get high enough Hit Factor on the Classifier stage to push me back up into the solid B class but since I started shooting with this club back in the mid ‘90s I considered it a win for me if I came in ahead of Don Wood. I accomplished that goal today so I’m pleased.
There was also a three-gun match after the USPSA pistol match. I shot it in as well. I haven’t seen the results from that yet but I expect I came in the top three or so. Maybe 2nd. Some of the other really good shooters had equipment problems. I had one failure to feed with my shotgun but other than that everything ran really well.
It was really nice to visit with people I hadn’t seen in years and catch up on things with everyone.
I should have taken pictures. I don’t know why I didn’t. Maybe because it was hot. I know that part of the time I was not feeling well. Drinking another half liter of water seemed to fix that problem so after that I drank a liter or so at each stage of the match. Did I say it was really hot?
Hillary is so ideological that she seems oblivious to the reality of gun-control politics. She seems doomed to repeat her husband’s political error.
Larry Pratt
Executive director of Gun Owners of America
July 29, 2015
The dark reason why guns are virtually guaranteed to be a major issue of the 2016 campaign
[Every indication I have about Hillary is that she is a hardcore Marxist. And that is almost for certain going to mean individual gun ownership is a blocking issue to her goals.—Joe]
@FoxNews @seanhannity All life is precious. Their is no heirarchy of value. Animal life is as important as human life. #JusticeForCecil
Joanne Mitchell@joannemsv
Tweeted on July 29, 2015
[If she really believed this she wouldn’t defend her child against a predator intent on eating it. And what is her definition of “animal life”? Does it include parasites such as leeches and tapeworms? Does she wash her fresh fruit and vegetables before eating them? Does she carefully sweep the path ahead of her so she doesn’t step on any insects?
Sometimes you just have to shake your head and walk away. Someone this mind boggling stupid isn’t even worth arguing with.
One would have thought this sort of mindset would have been hardwired out of existence a million years ago. It certainly doesn’t exist in the wild. What sort of mental illness creates someone so ill adapted to reality?—Joe]
Hunting is a coward’s pastime. If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.
Ingrid Newkirk
PETA President
July 29, 2015
PETA Wants Lion-Hunting Dentist Killed
[This is what they think of hunters. If they think this of hunters then don’t think for an instant that the guns hunters use are safe from them if they gain enough political power.—Joe]
Alder wood with Laurel Mountain Forge Cherry stain. The alder sucks up a ton of the stain, darkening it to a deep, deep maroon/black cherry color. The wood also soaks up the Watco Danish oil finish like crazy. The photo is after the first application, and it will take several more to achieve a good seal and a semi-gloss or high satin glow.
Three or four applications of Danish oil to go
For handguns. Apparently it’s “not an NFA item” because it doesn’t actually attach to the handgun. SO if you duct tape it…
It seems like an OK idea on the surface. Some will of course say that if you “learn to shoot” you won’t need it, that you should be able to get the gun’s inherent accuracy, or near to it, in practice without that kind of support. That’s a nice theory I suppose.
My problem with it would be that the sights are now that much closer and I already have a hard time focusing on the front one as it is unless I’m wearing special corrective lenses or looking through a small aperture. So now I’d need a Glock with a peep sight, which would suck when used at arms length. That or a reflex sight. Or one of those pasty apertures you can stick on your glasses.
Jimmy Kimmel proved once again that not only is he one of the funniest men on TV, but he is also one of the most descent.
Lesley Savage
July 29, 2015
Jimmy Kimmel chokes up talking about dentist who killed Cecil the lion
[Yes, that last word is exactly as spelled in the original article as of 7/29/2015 8:44 AM PDT. Layers of editorial oversight… And some sort of Freudian slip?
There also is a hint of Markley’s Law in the article as well:
The big question is, why are you shooting a lion in the first place?…Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things?
Demonstrating the mainstream media is continuing its descent into oblivion.—Joe]
I received an email today with a discount code (5% off) for certain gun safes. The code is “FatMarble4u” and is valid for the “Fatboy Jr.” safes in burgundy and grey marble at gunsafes.com.
The prices on their website include shipping, or as they put it, “free shipping”.
We need to make sure that certain types of guns used to kill people, exclusively, not for hunting, should not be sold in the United States of America.
Bernie Sanders
July 26, 2015
Bernie Sanders: Racism, Economic Inequality are ‘Parallel Problems’
[Don’t let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns. And don’t let Sanders become president.—Joe]
But don’t grab a weapon, not even pepper spray! “They all sound like a good idea, but again, we don’t know how the burglar will react to seeing an armed person.” No, but we can probably predict how he will react to the impact of 1.25 ounces of 00 buck.
David Hardy
July 26, 2015
Home invasion: some useless advice
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
@andreajmarkley @bob_owens @BigFatDave they have small penises, so more guns = pure penile penetration pleasures
SanXiTang @atx787
Tweeted on July 22, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from BFD @BigFatDave—Joe]
We weren’t in the mood for an all day adventure so we found a hike that was less than 10 miles away from home and less than three miles round trip with little elevation gain. We ended up selecting Around the Lake Trail.
Lakes are generally nice so there would be a view better than just the trail and the woods, right? Well… generally that is true. But this hiked ended up being, in the words of Barb, “notably non-memorable.”
It wasn’t bad in any way. It just wasn’t anything great.
One of the main attractions of this hike was a short branch of the trail called “Bus Trail”. This was the bus. I suspect its history is less interesting than all the bullet holes might suggest.
I’ve seen bigger and nicer ponds than this lake.
I’m sorry. This doesn’t qualify as a “lake”. This is a wet spot which should be drained and made into a meadow.
A fair amount of the trail was close to being a sidewalk.
Then there was the section of the trail that is fenced in.
This might be fun for kids of the appropriate age but we didn’t bother to check it out.
We did have fun with a short game of “Where’s Barb?”
There was some scenery that was pleasurable to look at and it was certainly better than a walk around the neighborhood.
USPSA matches frequently have stages which can be shot many different ways. It’s a thinking game almost as much as a shooting game. What is the best way to shoot this stage? And the best way depends on the shooter. Can they easily make long distance shots? Can they run and stop quickly? Can they shoot better over or under obstacles?
One of my biases has always been to run to a set of targets and shoot them from close up rather than shoot from a distance. I consume time running but I can shoot a lot faster and get better hits when I am close to the targets. But there is a tradeoff. If there is only one target then almost always it is going to be better to take your time and make one or two carefully aimed shots rather than run 50 (or more!) feet to hit a full sized USPSA target. So how do you know when you should run and when you should just shoot?
I’ve always just sort of guessed and sometimes had dramatically great results. So much so that I have had better scores than Master class shooters and the shooters who followed me would shoot it “my way” rather than the way others had been shooting it before me.
But how can one know which is the better way, without shooting the stage both ways, rather than relying on intuition? I decided to do some tests. I reserved a bay at the local indoor gun range and placed a bunch of USPSA targets at the end of the range. I then moved back various distances and tried shooting the targets various ways.
In each test I shot carefully enough to get all A-zone hits.
At 15 yards I found I could run to about one yard away from the targets and then get a single shot on the first target in about 3.5 seconds. The second shot on a target required about 0.20 seconds. As I moved parallel to the target line the transition to each new target required 0.40 seconds. From 20 yards the run time was about 4.4 seconds with, of course, the same splits on the targets as I moved parallel to the target line.
From a low ready position at 15 yards it took me about 1.3 seconds for the first shot with splits of about 0.55 seconds regardless of whether it was the same or a different target. From 20 yards it was about the same acquisition time for the first target but with splits of about 0.95 seconds.
I also tried shooting at the same time I moved toward the targets. This took much longer than either of the other methods.
From this information I made a spreadsheet that allowed me to explore the decision as to run and shoot or just shoot. The results surprised me. I expected that at greater distances it would be require more targets to make it more worthwhile to just stand and shoot rather than just shoot. But that wasn’t the case.
At 15 yards I should run and shoot if there are five or more targets. Otherwise I should just stand and shoot. At 20 yards I should run and shoot if there are only three or more targets.
It turns out the time to run goes up linearly with the distance but the additional split time (compared to shooting from one yard away) goes up at a faster rate. I was going to extrapolate from these two data points to different ranges but with the split time varying in a non-linear fashion I need more data to be able to do a proper extrapolation.
