Here are parts 1 and 2 of a two part video series on Dissasembly and Reassembly of the Ruger Mark II, semi-automatic, target pistol. Part one is a video showing how I disassemble it and part two shows reassembly. Both the disassembly and reassembly are somewhat complex, not anything like taking down, and putting back together, a Glock 19 or Beretta 92FS. Yet, truth be told, if you know the steps to follow, it is not as terrible as some people make it out to be. I know the steps only by way of the manual. I strongly recommend getting yourself a Ruger Mark II manual before trying this. My guess would be that Ruger may still have them and if not you probably could find a copy for sale at GunBroker.com or a similar website oir maybe even for free on the Internet.
Note, I pretty much read the appropriate parts of the gun's manual each time I take my Ruger Mark II apart and each time I put it back together again. I do that even though I have owned said pistol for 20 to 25 years now. In recent years, I probably only have shot it about 4 to 5 times a year. Over its lifetime, probably on average only 10 times per year at most. I disassemble it maybe 2 or 3 to 4 times a year for a good cleaning; ar other times, it gets a quick cleaning without disassembly. While I can disassemble and reassemble other firearms that I shoot as seldom as I do the Ruger MK II, such as my Beretta 70S, without assistance of a manual, I would never get it right until about the 4th or 5th try, with the Mark II, if I was not using the manual. Some people still find it difficult even when assisted by the manual but it really is not too difficult to get right for anyone who can follow instructions well, at least not with a fairly well fired gun. Newer, less fired and less broken in, Ruger Mark IIs can be difficult but still not too bad.
The first video is pretty brief, well at least for a video that I have made. It lasts somewhat over 6 minutes. I also made the second one this evening but it came out much longer, well over 15 minutes. I redid it several times and the shortest I could get it, and get it right, was just under 13 minutes. It may be a long video on how to reassemble this pistol but please bear in mind that reassembly is usually the more problematic of the two operations. I think some folks will benefit from the detail I go into. I may try to shorten it, that is to redo making the video but this time to to have it come out a couple to few minutes shorter in duration without losing any of the details of the proper reassembly. For now though, you are stuck with the almost 13 minute longer version of the reassembly video.
For those of you who may think the video one is too long, at almost 13 minutes, all I can say in my defense is that this video will be helpful to others who maybe have more patience than you. They would be those who have had a hard time fiddling with their Ruger Mark II's in their attempts to take 'em down for cleaning and then struggle even more trying to get 'em slapped back together. I don't think 12 minutes and 52 seconds will be too long for them on the reassembly side.
Why on earth Sturm - Ruger ever manufactured a pistol that was and remains so much fun to shoot but can be such a pain in the butt, for some folks to maintain, is beyond me!
All the best,
Glenn B
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
23 YEARS SINCE I HAD A SMOKE...
...AND LAST YEAR, I GOT TONSILAR AND LYMPH NODE CANCER ANYWAY. GO FUCKING FIGURE!
LIFE IS SWEET WHILE YOU CAN ENJOY IT OR ARE EVEN WELL ENOUGH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. JUST BELIEVE ME ON THAT, AND START ENJOYING IT MORE NOW BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS IN STORE FOR YOU.
(I found out I had cancer on August 10th, 2011, if I remember right, but the date really does not matter, believe me on that too.)
All the best,
Glenn B
LIFE IS SWEET WHILE YOU CAN ENJOY IT OR ARE EVEN WELL ENOUGH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. JUST BELIEVE ME ON THAT, AND START ENJOYING IT MORE NOW BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS IN STORE FOR YOU.
(I found out I had cancer on August 10th, 2011, if I remember right, but the date really does not matter, believe me on that too.)
All the best,
Glenn B
New Additions To The Blog List
This young lady, Cher, and her husband (unbeknownst to me at the time that they were a couple) were both at the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. She took some awesome video and photos and shot guns pretty damned good too. Besides that, as can be seen from her two (2) blogs, she enjoys beers and ales among other things! If only I could get my frau to do likewise!
Her blogs can be seen at the following links and are now on my blog roll (or will be once I am not overly imbibed):
http://cher-homespun.blogspot.com/
http://stuffbycher.blogspot.com/
All the best,
Glenn B
Her blogs can be seen at the following links and are now on my blog roll (or will be once I am not overly imbibed):
http://cher-homespun.blogspot.com/
http://stuffbycher.blogspot.com/
All the best,
Glenn B
Thursday, August 16, 2012
THE ONLY ONES
Every time I hear it out loud, or read printed words, calling a law enforcement officer (LEO) one of THE ONLY ONES if he or she has an accidental discharge, whether or not due to negligence, I get a little fired up. You see, to compare every LEO to the DEA agent who shot himself after saying in essence 'I am the only one, I know of, qualified in this room to handle a firearm' is ludicrous. As a matter of fact, they way the whole ONLY ONES thing is often stated, it makes it appear as if that DEA agent, and every other law enforcement officer in the United States of America, made the statement that only LEOs are qualified to carry firearms. That was not the meaning of the DEA agent's statement at all, listen to the video, you have to be a raving anti-law enforcement person to arrive at such a conclusion. The DEA agent was in effect just telling the children in the class that they should not handle firearms if not in some way qualified or instructed in how to do so, his meaning was pretty obvious or should have been even to a moron. All that aside, yeah, he did something very stupid in how he shot himself, I would bet he never does it again because pain can make you smarter.
All that I just said though does not explain why it gets me miffed when I hear references to THE ONLY ONES in that sarcastic or outright friggin nasty manner in which term is usually conveyed. Nope, it is not even that anyone says it with sarcasm or with anger or nastiness that gets me fired up. What gets me fired up is that the same disrespectful shitheads who group all LEOs together as some anti-gun rights group of ONLY ONES, never for a moment even consider that those same officers are truly, just about (and I said just about because there are some rare folks who are not LEOS that would do this) face the danger every day of being run over, attacked by animals (both two legged and 4 legged), beaten, tabbed, gunned down just because they are law enforcement officers in protecting you and yours. No this is not a debate so please do not start one and don't tell me how you should be free to own guns to protect yourself. If you know me at all, you know I think we should be free to own Abrams tanks to overthrow a tyrannical government if need be; I truly believe that was the intent of the inclusion of the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights - to assure the people kept the power over the government and not the other way around as it almost seems now.
No, this is about something else. It is about a class of people, not the bad apples, but the 90% or more who are truly good guys in law enforcement. A class of people who rush to shooting, stabbings, muggings, 9/11 catastrophes, to help those in need and possibly to face life threatening situations. And it is about they to whom it seemingly does not matter that they indiscriminately use the term the ONLY ONES to insult and demean LEOs who quite frankly may not, for even a second, deserve that term applied to them, in a negative manner, no matter what the incident in which they are involved. To those name callers, it does not matter if the LEOs are liberals, conservatives, libertarians, gun haters, gun lovers, lifetime NRA members, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters - they just know that if a cop, or other LEO, fucks up with a gun - he must be an ONLY ONE. How immature and how sad that such a view point exists in light of incidents like this:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/16/13315235-two-louisiana-deputies-killed-in-ambush-shootings?lite
You know, when I think of these apparent ambush style cop shootings, and when I think of officers who died in events like the destruction at the World Trade center on 9/11/2001, and when I think of cops delivering babies, or pulling people out of car wrecks, or federal agents risking their lives to try to stem the flow of illegal aliens and narcotics at our borders, or an undercover federal agent setting up terrorists for the fall, or a cop climbing a tree to rescue a darned cat, or any other number of things that most other folks would not do in a million years, because they think it is an LEOs job to put themselves in Harm's Way, well then that is when I think that yes indeed - law enforcement officers do deserve the title of THE ONLY ONES. Yeah sure, cops enforce the law but nowhere in any job description I have ever seen for an LEO does it say they have to put themselves in danger to save any one's sorry butt. Yet they do it all the time, and while some gun bloggers acknowledge this, I never have heard certain so called hard core pro-gun bloggers give these cops a nod of approval. They sure do slam them if ever they have a chance and an accidental discharge of a firearms seems all they need whether they know the facts surrounding it or not. All without knowing the officers stance on gun control at that.
As a matter of fact, the person from whose mouth I most recently heard the words THE ONLY ONES used in a somewhat negative manner against LEOs also had recently mentioned that he, in essence, quite possibly would not act like a cop in a situation where others (besides himself or his family) were being harmed by an evil doer. He would protect his family and himself and leave the rest to the cops. I am not saying I blame him, it takes a certain type of individual to guard the flock beyond your own immediate family. (By the way, no names, this is no attack on the person who said that, it is just a reiteration of something to give an example of what I am saying from real life. Please, no one take any offense to me using that example.) Nope, most people, even those who are 100% pro right to keep and bear arms, those who carry every day, those who consider themselves ready for action against bad guys, quite possibly would not help other citizens in dire need in such cases. Yet, LEOs are expected to go out of their way to do so each and every day. In fact, LEOs do that each and every day. Still, they are only considered THE ONLY ONES if they screw up. What a joke but not a funny one.
Yep, they truly are THE ONLY ONES but in a very different context than what most folks mean by it when they say it. When I say it I mean it in a very positive light.
Sure, there are LEOs whose heads are so far up their asses they are truly beyond hope - probably should not be cops just because of bad attitude but my bet is that copy is not going to ask you if you are pro-gun or anti-gun if he is saving your life from drowning, pulling you out of wreck, giving you a ride to the hospital, getting an attacker off of you, helping your wife have a baby, or whatever.Try to remember, please, they are citizens too and they do have the right to their political opinions and their own convictions, and they certainly do not have to be the same as yours or mine. There are also bad LEOs. Let's face it, some could probably have done quite well as members of any hate group of which you can think and some are outright criminals.
The truth is though that the great majority of LEOs are good guys and gals and they do not deserve being slammed in a discriminatory manner without knowing anything about them other than maybe one had an accidental and maybe even a negligent firearms discharge. Why not also give them their due and honor those who serve so well, to protect us, to help us, to uphold the law (remember we vote in the jerks that legislate those laws, the LEOs just enforce them) and who face serious an sometimes even life threatening danger on an all too frequent basis. Why not stop using such a derogatory term as THE ONLY ONES in reference to any LEO whom you pretty much know nothing about. If he is a rabid anti-gun person and truly believes that only cops are qualified to own guns, fine - fire away. But again, why is it I so rarely hear praise for the good things LEOs do from the same folks the likes of whom so frequently slam the police at every chance they get.
All the best,
Glenn B
All that I just said though does not explain why it gets me miffed when I hear references to THE ONLY ONES in that sarcastic or outright friggin nasty manner in which term is usually conveyed. Nope, it is not even that anyone says it with sarcasm or with anger or nastiness that gets me fired up. What gets me fired up is that the same disrespectful shitheads who group all LEOs together as some anti-gun rights group of ONLY ONES, never for a moment even consider that those same officers are truly, just about (and I said just about because there are some rare folks who are not LEOS that would do this) face the danger every day of being run over, attacked by animals (both two legged and 4 legged), beaten, tabbed, gunned down just because they are law enforcement officers in protecting you and yours. No this is not a debate so please do not start one and don't tell me how you should be free to own guns to protect yourself. If you know me at all, you know I think we should be free to own Abrams tanks to overthrow a tyrannical government if need be; I truly believe that was the intent of the inclusion of the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights - to assure the people kept the power over the government and not the other way around as it almost seems now.
No, this is about something else. It is about a class of people, not the bad apples, but the 90% or more who are truly good guys in law enforcement. A class of people who rush to shooting, stabbings, muggings, 9/11 catastrophes, to help those in need and possibly to face life threatening situations. And it is about they to whom it seemingly does not matter that they indiscriminately use the term the ONLY ONES to insult and demean LEOs who quite frankly may not, for even a second, deserve that term applied to them, in a negative manner, no matter what the incident in which they are involved. To those name callers, it does not matter if the LEOs are liberals, conservatives, libertarians, gun haters, gun lovers, lifetime NRA members, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters - they just know that if a cop, or other LEO, fucks up with a gun - he must be an ONLY ONE. How immature and how sad that such a view point exists in light of incidents like this:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/16/13315235-two-louisiana-deputies-killed-in-ambush-shootings?lite
You know, when I think of these apparent ambush style cop shootings, and when I think of officers who died in events like the destruction at the World Trade center on 9/11/2001, and when I think of cops delivering babies, or pulling people out of car wrecks, or federal agents risking their lives to try to stem the flow of illegal aliens and narcotics at our borders, or an undercover federal agent setting up terrorists for the fall, or a cop climbing a tree to rescue a darned cat, or any other number of things that most other folks would not do in a million years, because they think it is an LEOs job to put themselves in Harm's Way, well then that is when I think that yes indeed - law enforcement officers do deserve the title of THE ONLY ONES. Yeah sure, cops enforce the law but nowhere in any job description I have ever seen for an LEO does it say they have to put themselves in danger to save any one's sorry butt. Yet they do it all the time, and while some gun bloggers acknowledge this, I never have heard certain so called hard core pro-gun bloggers give these cops a nod of approval. They sure do slam them if ever they have a chance and an accidental discharge of a firearms seems all they need whether they know the facts surrounding it or not. All without knowing the officers stance on gun control at that.
As a matter of fact, the person from whose mouth I most recently heard the words THE ONLY ONES used in a somewhat negative manner against LEOs also had recently mentioned that he, in essence, quite possibly would not act like a cop in a situation where others (besides himself or his family) were being harmed by an evil doer. He would protect his family and himself and leave the rest to the cops. I am not saying I blame him, it takes a certain type of individual to guard the flock beyond your own immediate family. (By the way, no names, this is no attack on the person who said that, it is just a reiteration of something to give an example of what I am saying from real life. Please, no one take any offense to me using that example.) Nope, most people, even those who are 100% pro right to keep and bear arms, those who carry every day, those who consider themselves ready for action against bad guys, quite possibly would not help other citizens in dire need in such cases. Yet, LEOs are expected to go out of their way to do so each and every day. In fact, LEOs do that each and every day. Still, they are only considered THE ONLY ONES if they screw up. What a joke but not a funny one.
Yep, they truly are THE ONLY ONES but in a very different context than what most folks mean by it when they say it. When I say it I mean it in a very positive light.
Sure, there are LEOs whose heads are so far up their asses they are truly beyond hope - probably should not be cops just because of bad attitude but my bet is that copy is not going to ask you if you are pro-gun or anti-gun if he is saving your life from drowning, pulling you out of wreck, giving you a ride to the hospital, getting an attacker off of you, helping your wife have a baby, or whatever.Try to remember, please, they are citizens too and they do have the right to their political opinions and their own convictions, and they certainly do not have to be the same as yours or mine. There are also bad LEOs. Let's face it, some could probably have done quite well as members of any hate group of which you can think and some are outright criminals.
The truth is though that the great majority of LEOs are good guys and gals and they do not deserve being slammed in a discriminatory manner without knowing anything about them other than maybe one had an accidental and maybe even a negligent firearms discharge. Why not also give them their due and honor those who serve so well, to protect us, to help us, to uphold the law (remember we vote in the jerks that legislate those laws, the LEOs just enforce them) and who face serious an sometimes even life threatening danger on an all too frequent basis. Why not stop using such a derogatory term as THE ONLY ONES in reference to any LEO whom you pretty much know nothing about. If he is a rabid anti-gun person and truly believes that only cops are qualified to own guns, fine - fire away. But again, why is it I so rarely hear praise for the good things LEOs do from the same folks the likes of whom so frequently slam the police at every chance they get.
All the best,
Glenn B
The New Dogs In The The House...
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| Abby and Chloe |
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| Chloe goes exploring. |
They are sisters and are both long haired Chihuahuas (we think they are long hairs, I suppose time will tell). Abby was a gift to my wife from our daughter's fiance. He knows whom to smooze or so it seems but he is taking chances on whom to oppose - as in me - who absolutely did not want a fifth
As things would have it, we get to watch Chloe and Gizmo, the really hairy one in the pics, which is daughter's and future son-in-law's first dog. Man it was crazy enough around here with 4 dogs, now we have 5 and when the other two visit we have
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| Abby greets Roxie. |
In the meantime, regardless of vet bills, paying no or little attention to madness and mayhem doggy style and probably some pee and poop on the floors, there will be a lot of puppy love going on around here in the immediate future.
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| Lucy the fearful, barks at everything. |
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| Pepe sleeps through it all. |
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| Gizmo, looks more Spitz than Chihuahua. |
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| Roxie the gorilla. |
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| Mimi, leader of the pack. |
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| Time for a nap. |
All the best,
Glenn B
Making Up For Spent Ammo
Wow, I am gunna guess and say that Brendan and I shot up about 1,500 rounds of ammo at the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot this past weekend. That may not seem like an awful lot of ammo to some people but I think it was more than a mere shot in the dark. When you consider that Brendan probably shot at least 75% of it, probably 90% of the pistol ammo we shot, well you can figure that he got some shooting done!
My son and I attended the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot (our first) and all I can say is I wish I had attended the first four of them also. It was a great day of shooting. I figure we went through about 300 rounds of 5.56x45mm, 350-400 rounds of 7.62x39mm, 450 rounds of 9mm, 200-300 rounds of .45 ACP, 100 rounds of .22 WMR, 150 rounds of .22 LR and lastly - about 10 rounds of .35 Remington. My son truly enjoyed shooting 4 of my pistols, the: Beretta 70S (.22 LR), Beretta 92SB, Beretta 92SF, and Remington R1-1911. He liked the 9mms and the .45 so much, that after shooting the Beretta 70S, (.22LR), he declined shooting my Ruger MKII and went back to the 9mms and .45 for the rest of the afternoon. All that does not include the canon shot, since he also got to fire off a canon for which someone else was nice enough to supply powder. The figures above are my best guesstimation at this point, we may have shot as few as about 1,300 rounds or as many as about 1,700. To get an accurate count, I will have to tally what ammo I have left in the ammo cans that we took to the bloggershoot.
Shooting that ammo up does not badly deplete what I have stored away but it does lessen the amount by about 1,500 rounds and at least some of it should be replaced. I am in no great hurry to replace it, except maybe for the .45 ammo and the 9mm ammo. I already placed an order for 500 rounds of 9mm. I placed an order for 10 boxes (500 rounds) of Aguila 9mm, 124 gr., FMJ, ammo from Sportsmansguide. Even when sold by the box, they beat everyone else on price when I used a $10 off coupon code along with my club membership discount. It was a bargain $113.19 shipped.
Now that I think of it, I should have ordered .45 ACP before ordering 9mm as the need is more critical for that caliber. I'll probably order some .45 ACP next month. I think I will let my son save up some of his money for some 7.62x39mm and some 5.56x45mm. Then again, I recently bought some of both, anticipating the bloggershoot, and did not shoot as much as I bought so, we actually now have a little more than I had before I ordered those. No need for me to get any more right now.
Being that I just wrote a blog-post about keeping guns happy (aka: keeping them clean), I am going to have to get down to some serious gun scrubbing this evening or tomorrow. These are not my carry guns, the carry gun - my Glock 26 was cleaned as soon as I could get it done within reason (which wound up being the morning after we got home from the bloggershoot - no facilities to get it done safely at the shoot and time had run out for our stay). That late cleaning, along with the television show I mentioned here, were what got me to thinking I need to clean my guns, at least my carry gun, right after I shoot it and while still at the range whenever possible.
All the best,
Glenn B
My son and I attended the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot (our first) and all I can say is I wish I had attended the first four of them also. It was a great day of shooting. I figure we went through about 300 rounds of 5.56x45mm, 350-400 rounds of 7.62x39mm, 450 rounds of 9mm, 200-300 rounds of .45 ACP, 100 rounds of .22 WMR, 150 rounds of .22 LR and lastly - about 10 rounds of .35 Remington. My son truly enjoyed shooting 4 of my pistols, the: Beretta 70S (.22 LR), Beretta 92SB, Beretta 92SF, and Remington R1-1911. He liked the 9mms and the .45 so much, that after shooting the Beretta 70S, (.22LR), he declined shooting my Ruger MKII and went back to the 9mms and .45 for the rest of the afternoon. All that does not include the canon shot, since he also got to fire off a canon for which someone else was nice enough to supply powder. The figures above are my best guesstimation at this point, we may have shot as few as about 1,300 rounds or as many as about 1,700. To get an accurate count, I will have to tally what ammo I have left in the ammo cans that we took to the bloggershoot.
Shooting that ammo up does not badly deplete what I have stored away but it does lessen the amount by about 1,500 rounds and at least some of it should be replaced. I am in no great hurry to replace it, except maybe for the .45 ammo and the 9mm ammo. I already placed an order for 500 rounds of 9mm. I placed an order for 10 boxes (500 rounds) of Aguila 9mm, 124 gr., FMJ, ammo from Sportsmansguide. Even when sold by the box, they beat everyone else on price when I used a $10 off coupon code along with my club membership discount. It was a bargain $113.19 shipped.
Now that I think of it, I should have ordered .45 ACP before ordering 9mm as the need is more critical for that caliber. I'll probably order some .45 ACP next month. I think I will let my son save up some of his money for some 7.62x39mm and some 5.56x45mm. Then again, I recently bought some of both, anticipating the bloggershoot, and did not shoot as much as I bought so, we actually now have a little more than I had before I ordered those. No need for me to get any more right now.
Being that I just wrote a blog-post about keeping guns happy (aka: keeping them clean), I am going to have to get down to some serious gun scrubbing this evening or tomorrow. These are not my carry guns, the carry gun - my Glock 26 was cleaned as soon as I could get it done within reason (which wound up being the morning after we got home from the bloggershoot - no facilities to get it done safely at the shoot and time had run out for our stay). That late cleaning, along with the television show I mentioned here, were what got me to thinking I need to clean my guns, at least my carry gun, right after I shoot it and while still at the range whenever possible.
All the best,
Glenn B
Another Reason To Keep Your Guns Happy
Quarterly firearms qualifications were over for the day for my agency. It was a hot one, most of the shooters were miserable, covered with sweat and probably with their fair share of lead dust and powder residue and they just wanted to go home but they still had some work to do policing up the spent brass shell casings. As they were doing so, one of the other firearms instructors, Pete G, got on the loud speaker and reminded them, in a loud, booming but very gleeful voice that: "A clean gun is a happy gun" (one of his favorite sayings) and then reminded all of them that cleaning equipment was available for them to clean their guns before leaving the range. Less than half of them did so. Heck, I was one of the instructors and I have to admit, I did not always clean my guns before leaving the range. I often did it at home the following day - shame on me because I knew better than to go back out on the street with a dirty gun.
There are varying reasons that you should keep your gun happy, or in other words keep it clean. The first and foremost is so that it operates properly. When we shot for pistol qualifications, we also always shot a good amount of rounds for tactical training. I am going to guess that each of us fired at least 300 to 500 rounds on any given qualification day, that all through one pistol. If someone had a secondary handgun, then they may have fired from 50 to 100 rounds though it too. One of the best ways to assure that Murphy will butt in when you need your gun to be in 100 percent working capability is when you have not taken the time to properly maintain your firearm with a good cleaning including any called for lubrication. Carbon deposits, brass shavings, copper fouling, unburnt gunpowder particles, lead buildup, oil residue can all go a long way to prevent a firearm from functioning properly. All it takes is one malfunction, at a critical time, and you could wind up the loser in a gunfight.
While maintaining proper functioning of a defensive firearms is the primary reason to clean your guns, you also want to clean them even if you only use them while target shooting or hunting and you want them to stay clean even if you never shoot them such as could be the case with a firearms collector. Cleaning and properly lubricating them keeps them not only in good working order but in good cosmetic order too and thus keeps their value up.
I was recently watching a new crime drama called Longmire. It reminded me of a reason, not often thought about, to keep your guns clean. Sheriff Longmire and one of his deputies were working on a murder investigation and he picks up a gun, then rubs his finger over the bore with a twisting motion, then looks at and I think sniffed his fingertip. The deputy is looking at him quizzically. He explains to the deputy, if it comes off smelling like oil, it has not been fired recently but if it comes off covered in powder residue and smelling like burnt gunpowder then it has been fired (at least since the last time it was cleaned). Now, while the sheriff's methods are mostly balderdash, stuff for television audiences put into the show by moronic imbeciles who make movies, there is some truth in what was depicted and having cleaned your guns, right after shooting them at the range, could potentially save you some trouble with the law.
Let me give a brief example, nothing as heinous as a murder. Say that have a nasty verbal altercation with someone. It could be a neighbor, relative or even a spouse with whom you do not get along, or maybe just a stranger in a public place. Let's use the stranger for our purposes. For some reason, you get in an argument with a peckerwood in the parking lot of your local Wally World. Maybe you inadvertently cut him off or he you, or whatever. It gets heated, a lot of yelling and screaming is done but you both finally get in your cars and drive away out of the parking lot - coincidentally or not - going in the same direction. Then you turn different ways and you cool; down and forget about it. All the while, during the confrontation, you were armed, carrying a pistol; in a strong side hip holster under your jacket. You never even thought of using it, the guy was just a blowhard. You drive home and have a beer.
Sometime, later that same day, after the altercation, when you are at home, the front doorbell rings, then there is a loud banging on the front door as if someone is knocking with all his might. Then your skin crawls as you hear someone yell loudly "POLICE, OPEN THE DOOR". You walk to the door and open it and there are 4 or 5 officers outside. They are not very friendly looking either, they mean business. They ask if they can come in. Maybe you let them in and maybe not. You ask what is going on and they explain that a citizen has made a complaint against you, saying the two of you had an altercation in the parking lot, then he said that after you both drove away, you pulled out your pistol and fired a couple of rounds in his direction on the road. You are in shock. You deny it. You tell the officers yeah you had a verbal altercation with a peckerwoodLongmire did for his television audience. His finger comes away with carbon on it, the gun has not been cleaned since you fired it at the range last week. It appears to have been fired recently.
If they were not going to arrest you before, they are probably at least strongly considering it now. You will be, at the very least, going to the station for questioning. My guess though it that you are about to be shackled. Why? Little did you realize it, but as you were motioning with your arms while discussing matters with Mr. Peckerwood, you gun was exposed for a split second and he saw it. As he drove out of the parking lot, he saw something else too, your license plate number and he wrote it down. Being the antagonistic type that he is, he decided to call the police and make a false claim against you. Maybe he was drunk, maybe he was a psycho, maybe just an asshole but the truth is that people, for whatever reasons, make false allegations against others pretty frequently.
You may be able to explain it all away and good investigative work should show your gun had not been fired that day - but do you want to depend on someone else to be doing good investigative work to get you off the hook. Then again, maybe it will not all be so easy to explain away. Maybe you went shooting out in the sticks, not at a commercial range, maybe you have no witnesses, maybe it was just the day before and the fouling and powder residue are all pretty fresh. You are going to have a serious problem. While you are facing a problem caused by a false allegation, it would be much less serious a problem if you had cleaned your gun right after shooting it. I would also point out it would be less of a problem if you had kept your mouth shut, did not hand them the pistol and called a lawyer but as I said, they may have come with a warrant and found the gun anyway. A clean gun would only have meant one of two things, you cleaned it once you got home after taking a shot at the guy or it was already clean and had not been fired since last cleaned.
Now while I set this up so it could go either way, and so you could mull this and that and maybe even try to debate the issue with me by saying the guy should have just not let the police inside or not given them the gun and not said anything - how about something a little more exigent. How about a situation in which the guy calls the police, 2 minutes after have the altercation, from his cell phone while in his car. They pull you over, a few minutes later, while you are still driving home. They approach guns drawn, this is a felony car stop. They ask if you are armed and you say yes and that you have a pistol permit but they pull you out of the car and pat you down. They take the pistol, they do the Longmire School of Investigations 'has the gun been fired recently test' and you wind up getting arrested on the spot. Had it been a clean gun, the outcome may have been very different, such as them asking if you would not mind coming down to the station instead of you getting a new set of bracelets or even letting you go. If you have to go in, going in voluntarily is much less stressful than going in shackled. Thus you would have some time to think straight about what to do (such as CALLING A LAWYER) before you get to the police station.
You decide which evidence you would want to present then decide on whether or not you want to keep your gun happy!
All the best,
Glenn B
There are varying reasons that you should keep your gun happy, or in other words keep it clean. The first and foremost is so that it operates properly. When we shot for pistol qualifications, we also always shot a good amount of rounds for tactical training. I am going to guess that each of us fired at least 300 to 500 rounds on any given qualification day, that all through one pistol. If someone had a secondary handgun, then they may have fired from 50 to 100 rounds though it too. One of the best ways to assure that Murphy will butt in when you need your gun to be in 100 percent working capability is when you have not taken the time to properly maintain your firearm with a good cleaning including any called for lubrication. Carbon deposits, brass shavings, copper fouling, unburnt gunpowder particles, lead buildup, oil residue can all go a long way to prevent a firearm from functioning properly. All it takes is one malfunction, at a critical time, and you could wind up the loser in a gunfight.
While maintaining proper functioning of a defensive firearms is the primary reason to clean your guns, you also want to clean them even if you only use them while target shooting or hunting and you want them to stay clean even if you never shoot them such as could be the case with a firearms collector. Cleaning and properly lubricating them keeps them not only in good working order but in good cosmetic order too and thus keeps their value up.
I was recently watching a new crime drama called Longmire. It reminded me of a reason, not often thought about, to keep your guns clean. Sheriff Longmire and one of his deputies were working on a murder investigation and he picks up a gun, then rubs his finger over the bore with a twisting motion, then looks at and I think sniffed his fingertip. The deputy is looking at him quizzically. He explains to the deputy, if it comes off smelling like oil, it has not been fired recently but if it comes off covered in powder residue and smelling like burnt gunpowder then it has been fired (at least since the last time it was cleaned). Now, while the sheriff's methods are mostly balderdash, stuff for television audiences put into the show by moronic imbeciles who make movies, there is some truth in what was depicted and having cleaned your guns, right after shooting them at the range, could potentially save you some trouble with the law.
Let me give a brief example, nothing as heinous as a murder. Say that have a nasty verbal altercation with someone. It could be a neighbor, relative or even a spouse with whom you do not get along, or maybe just a stranger in a public place. Let's use the stranger for our purposes. For some reason, you get in an argument with a peckerwood in the parking lot of your local Wally World. Maybe you inadvertently cut him off or he you, or whatever. It gets heated, a lot of yelling and screaming is done but you both finally get in your cars and drive away out of the parking lot - coincidentally or not - going in the same direction. Then you turn different ways and you cool; down and forget about it. All the while, during the confrontation, you were armed, carrying a pistol; in a strong side hip holster under your jacket. You never even thought of using it, the guy was just a blowhard. You drive home and have a beer.
Sometime, later that same day, after the altercation, when you are at home, the front doorbell rings, then there is a loud banging on the front door as if someone is knocking with all his might. Then your skin crawls as you hear someone yell loudly "POLICE, OPEN THE DOOR". You walk to the door and open it and there are 4 or 5 officers outside. They are not very friendly looking either, they mean business. They ask if they can come in. Maybe you let them in and maybe not. You ask what is going on and they explain that a citizen has made a complaint against you, saying the two of you had an altercation in the parking lot, then he said that after you both drove away, you pulled out your pistol and fired a couple of rounds in his direction on the road. You are in shock. You deny it. You tell the officers yeah you had a verbal altercation with a peckerwoodLongmire did for his television audience. His finger comes away with carbon on it, the gun has not been cleaned since you fired it at the range last week. It appears to have been fired recently.
If they were not going to arrest you before, they are probably at least strongly considering it now. You will be, at the very least, going to the station for questioning. My guess though it that you are about to be shackled. Why? Little did you realize it, but as you were motioning with your arms while discussing matters with Mr. Peckerwood, you gun was exposed for a split second and he saw it. As he drove out of the parking lot, he saw something else too, your license plate number and he wrote it down. Being the antagonistic type that he is, he decided to call the police and make a false claim against you. Maybe he was drunk, maybe he was a psycho, maybe just an asshole but the truth is that people, for whatever reasons, make false allegations against others pretty frequently.
You may be able to explain it all away and good investigative work should show your gun had not been fired that day - but do you want to depend on someone else to be doing good investigative work to get you off the hook. Then again, maybe it will not all be so easy to explain away. Maybe you went shooting out in the sticks, not at a commercial range, maybe you have no witnesses, maybe it was just the day before and the fouling and powder residue are all pretty fresh. You are going to have a serious problem. While you are facing a problem caused by a false allegation, it would be much less serious a problem if you had cleaned your gun right after shooting it. I would also point out it would be less of a problem if you had kept your mouth shut, did not hand them the pistol and called a lawyer but as I said, they may have come with a warrant and found the gun anyway. A clean gun would only have meant one of two things, you cleaned it once you got home after taking a shot at the guy or it was already clean and had not been fired since last cleaned.
Now while I set this up so it could go either way, and so you could mull this and that and maybe even try to debate the issue with me by saying the guy should have just not let the police inside or not given them the gun and not said anything - how about something a little more exigent. How about a situation in which the guy calls the police, 2 minutes after have the altercation, from his cell phone while in his car. They pull you over, a few minutes later, while you are still driving home. They approach guns drawn, this is a felony car stop. They ask if you are armed and you say yes and that you have a pistol permit but they pull you out of the car and pat you down. They take the pistol, they do the Longmire School of Investigations 'has the gun been fired recently test' and you wind up getting arrested on the spot. Had it been a clean gun, the outcome may have been very different, such as them asking if you would not mind coming down to the station instead of you getting a new set of bracelets or even letting you go. If you have to go in, going in voluntarily is much less stressful than going in shackled. Thus you would have some time to think straight about what to do (such as CALLING A LAWYER) before you get to the police station.
You decide which evidence you would want to present then decide on whether or not you want to keep your gun happy!
All the best,
Glenn B
Blow Hard To Fill Those Blimps...
...instead of blowing hard to make it sound as if the government is doing something new to combat illegal immigration and other smuggling across our borders and you just might accomplish something worthwhile using a government employee's hot air. It seems that Customs and Border protection and the Department of Defense are blowing their horns talking about the great new tool for law enforcement that the military is giving or lending to CBP and that they are about to deploy along our southern border. The thing is, while the particular Aerostats may be newer than what CBP already had in use, the use of blimps and aerostats to surveil our borders is nothing new. The aerostat has been in use for at least 15-20 years along the soutern border, the now defunct U.S. Customs Service had at least a few of them.
So why would the military giving them to CBP just happen to be big news now. Think about it, it is an election year. I would bet my bottom dollar that politics and nothing else drove the Defense Department to make this seem like something new so the Obama Administration can claim some sort of credit for thinking up the idea. Pay attention to see if Obama, or blabbermouth Biden, bring it up in any speeches or news conferences before the election.
All the best,
Glenn B
So why would the military giving them to CBP just happen to be big news now. Think about it, it is an election year. I would bet my bottom dollar that politics and nothing else drove the Defense Department to make this seem like something new so the Obama Administration can claim some sort of credit for thinking up the idea. Pay attention to see if Obama, or blabbermouth Biden, bring it up in any speeches or news conferences before the election.
All the best,
Glenn B
Finally Ordered A New Computer
Now that my pension checks are coming in the full(?) amount, I went ahead an shopped around for a new computer. I had been debating a laptop or a desktop and decided on the laptop because I like the portability of them and that far outweighed the power capabilities of a larger desktop for what I will mostly be doing with the laptop. Still, I did not by a wimp laptop but got one of mid range power for a laptop. It is an HP dv7t Quad Ed. It is equipped with:
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 memory [HDMI, VGA]
• 12GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Microsoft Office Home Student 2010 + Adobe Acrobat X Standard
• 6 cell + 9 cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 17.3-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad
Since HP offered a one year interest free payment plan, I opted for that way to pay. That will make it somewhat easier on the retirement finances.
I figure this laptop will have enough power to do some gaming, I hope so anyway. I have not played games on a PC for a long time but would like to get some sci-fi action/shooter type games for it. Something along the lines of Doom (a dead giveaway clue that I have not played PC games in a long while). Maybe Crysis, if the system can handle it. If not, then just blogging, doing photo editing for the blog, web surfing, and maybe some milder games.
All the best,
Glenn B
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 memory [HDMI, VGA]
• 12GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Microsoft Office Home Student 2010 + Adobe Acrobat X Standard
• 6 cell + 9 cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 17.3-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam
• 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad
Since HP offered a one year interest free payment plan, I opted for that way to pay. That will make it somewhat easier on the retirement finances.
I figure this laptop will have enough power to do some gaming, I hope so anyway. I have not played games on a PC for a long time but would like to get some sci-fi action/shooter type games for it. Something along the lines of Doom (a dead giveaway clue that I have not played PC games in a long while). Maybe Crysis, if the system can handle it. If not, then just blogging, doing photo editing for the blog, web surfing, and maybe some milder games.
All the best,
Glenn B
Monday, August 13, 2012
THE FIFTH ANNUAL NORTHEAST BLOGSHOOT IN PICTURES
Except for these few words and the captions, this blog post is full of pictures and just about nothing else.
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| Two nice folks enjoying all the gun nuts! |
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| Hmm, I wonder if the targets we used are too small? |
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| Guns to the left of us. |
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| Guns to the right of us. |
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| Guns in front of us. |
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| Guns behind us. |
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| A Shooter eager to start shooting. |
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| Oh yeah, who says you were on line in front of me! |
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| Man In Skirt Driving Stake Into Evil Doer, next thing you know men like him will be carrying and shooting pink and yellow guns! |
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| Women loading for her life because man in skirt walks up next to her and starts shooting pink and yellow rifle. |
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| Man responsible for bringing the pink and yellow rifle. At least he as not wearing a skirt. |
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| Man in skirt admiring real guns. (Yes, the pink and yellow one was real too, very-very real.) |
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| Old Man With Guns. |
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| How could he not notice the guy next to him with THAT gun! |
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| Real Man With Guns. |
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| Happy gal shooting. |
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| He-man shooting an American gun, a 1911. |
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| Some wimp shooting an imported gun. |
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| I had better shut up, he shot that imported gun pretty well! |
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| Scary Black Guns! |
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| Talk about scary, heck man, there were even cannons. |
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| "One more wise crack about me and that colorful gun and I'll give you one guess where I am going to put this hand cannon!" |
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| What was left of the most shot at target. (Or how they should have dumped OBL!) Should have worn a raincoat! |
Brendan shooting the 1911.
Speed Shooting the 1911
Man, he learned fast.
Man, he learned fast.
Running out of ammo can be fun!
Undercover PETA activist threatens to expose gun owner
who is filming himself torturing a cute cuddly animal.
THE BIG BANG THAT ENDED IT ALL
All the best,
Glenn BTHE FIFTH ANNUAL NORTHEAST BLOGGERSHOOT IN WORDS...
...was the first that Brendan and I would attend. (Note, this is a long post, if you prefer, I will also post one with pretty much just pics.)
To say that I was anxious about going is an understatement, I barely slept on Friday night, waking many timers during the night wondering if it was time to begin the trip. As it turned out, I awoke, for the final time, at about 0500, at least an hour and a half early. I had all of our gear, with the exception of Brendan's guns and gun gear bag, ready to be packed away into the Corolla. At least that is what I thought.
I went through this, that, and some other things and by 0630, the time I had planned as my wake up time, I had things just the way they would go into the trunk. I went up to wake Brendan just before 7 and took my turn in the shower. Surprisingly he was up by 0730 or so, right after I asked my wife to go wake him while I started to load the trunk with guns, ammo and gear. By that time Brendan was pretty much ready to go - thanks for the help! Oh well, he was up until at least 1 or 2 AM with his drinking buddies having a different sort of a blast than we planned to have at the Bloggershoot.
We left the house by about 0815, not bad considering we had planned on leaving by 8. We got to the Holiday Inn in Manchester, NH at about 1330. The ride was pretty much uneventful and that was a good thing. It took us about 5 hours and 15 minutes to get there because we hit some traffic. Once there we ate lunch and dinner at KC's Rib Shack and did some shopping for target backers (cardboard shipping boxes from Staples).
Come Sunday morning, After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we got the car loaded pretty quickly, all we had taken out for the night were the 3 guns cases and some personal stuff. Then we were off, Brendan driving and me navigating. As my knuckle-headiness would have it, I set us off in the wrong direction for 4 miles before we realized we had headed out wrong. We lost about 10 minutes or so because of that. Once we got it right, the 10 or was it 20 or maybe 50 miles or there about from the hotel to the suPer SeKrit location of the range went pretty quickly despite the downpour. Man, it was raining hard and looked as if we would have a soggy day of shooting. Brendan did not want to shoot in the rain and who could blame him, it was raining that hard.
We got to the suPer SeKrit location, late but not that late. The rain had slowed to a slight drizzle by then. With about 15 minutes, it had stopped altogether. I would say that it took another hour or so and the sun was out, that got some applause. It was just after that when things got going.
Jay, from MArooned, gave a bit of a spiel about range etiquette and the like and thanked Jack and Debbie for having us to there place for the shoot. I do not remember if Jack fired the cannon just before or after that but the cannon going off was the official opening of the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. Yep, the firing of a cannon and one that I understand Jack made himself. I did not have my camera ready for the opening shot but as you will see later, I sure had it ready for the closing shot and had it ready for some pics of guns to the left of us, guns to the right of us, guns in front of us and even guns to the rear of us. We were surrounded by guns and I enjoyed walking around before and during the shoot to look at all of them.
Then it was time to shoot. There were 3 to 5 shooters on the line at once, shooting at targets set on a backstop said to be 50 yards from the firing line. I am guessing the range might have been shorter, in my estimation, but who cares. We were there to shoot not to measure the range.
As for the actual shooting, 3 -5 folks would step up to the line or close to it and start blasting. After seeing a few people a couple to a few feet behind the line while others were right up on it, I recommended that everyone stand with toes on line so all muzzles were definitely over the line and so muzzle blast would not be an issue. It went over well and only a few folks needed a reminder when shooting after Jay made an announcement to do it that way for safety. Each person shooting usually fired a mag or three worth of ammo, then moved out of the way for the next shooter. The rotation worked very well, I think everyone got a lot of range time. Speaking of everyone, I figure that in all there must have been 25 to 30 folks show up for the event. The number of shooters started out slow, built up, then trailed off until the end when about a dozen of us remained.
There was quite the selection of firearms at the shoot. Everything from a Röhm (RG) rimfireBloggershoot. It was a pretty impressive collection. Had the zombie apocalypse broken out, we would have been ready for it. While it was great see that wide a variety of guns and great to see others shooting them, what was truly the best thing was that the owners allowed others among us to shoot them. There were some operational full auto guns such as a full auto AR that Brendan got to fire. That one was brought by Wally of YorkArms up in Maine. I got Brendan on video but for some reason my camera recorded it at super fast speed (this ruined most of the videos I took while there, early on and later on the camera recorded normally). A few shooters, Brad, Alan and Mark, shot my Remington R1-1911 and Brad also shot the Beretta 92FS. Both Brendan and Jay got to shoot my Beretta 92SB, the gun that got me the moniker Ballseye. Brendan
also shot my 92SF, Remington R1-1911, and my Beretta 70S. He turned down a chance with the Ruger MKII preferring to shoot more with the Beretta 92FS and the 1911.
One of the things about shooting at the Bloggershoot was that you also shared targets. The back stop was less than 20 feet wide probably less than 15 feet wide at that. So, there were not too many targets set up to shoot at and with people rotating turns at taking shots, the targets got a lot of hits (or misses). I guess no one, except Brendan, realized I had set up 4 small exploding targets, little stick on jobs, on the backstop. I say so because when he got the first one to go off with a loud bang and a big puff of smoke, those shooting or watching were pretty surprised. Brad, asked, "WHAT WAS THAT" and I joked that we were shooting exploding bullets. I explained what they really were and others tried shooting them. I got the next one, making it go off with a loud bang, shooting with he Marlin 25MN. When I looked at it later, there were 7 bullet holes in that particular target. It only got hit in the right spot to make it go off on the seventh shot. Since the Marlin mags hold 7 round, I had to wonder if I had hit that little 2 inches square all 7 times. Probably not, I guess someone else shooting a 22 had put some rounds into it, but it is nice to imagine I had hit it all 7 times. In all, we set up 8 exploding targets, I think only 2 of them exploded. The remainder had hits on them but not in the center, where they need to be hit to go off. Then again, maybe one or two others had been hit, I did not count how many I found unexploded.
Some other memorable things for me at the shoot were:
Jay's hand cannon or more properly his handgonne. It pretty much looked like an old time billy club, or better still the butt end of a boat pole for salt water fishing, with a metal piece on one end. That metal piece, maybe 2 inches long, was the barrel. Add black powder, I suppose some wadding, and a ball, then insert fuse, point in safe direction, light fuse and BANG with lots of smoke and sparks.
The full auto AR, which a lot of folks got to shoot was pretty impressive. I did not bother asking to shoot it and Brendan asked me why I had not. As I told him, I was too busy enjoying watching him shoot and instructing him how to shoot the pistol and then seeing him do pretty well with it. That was enough fun for me but of course I did shoot my guns too.
A full auto 9mm which Debbie had some fun shooting, the recoil really surprising her.
Several Mosin Nagants making loud thunder and lightning flashes in broad daylight.
A Schmidt Rubin, which I truly regret not asking to shoot. I think that one was brought by Bubblehead Les.
Mark's (aka: Libertyman, a very nice fellow) .50 caliber handgun. Brendan shot that one, I declined because, by the time I was asked, my right shoulder was acting up.
Our Marlin 336 (It probably is only memorable to me because I could not hit a target of about 12"x12" with it. Well, I could not tell if I hit it, so many people were shooting the same target that I had put up that it was impossible to tell! That only means I have to hit the range soon, here in NY, with the 336.)
My Romanian AK-47 WASR which did not double-tap or triple-tap even once (must be fixed?).
Jay's .22 caliber Colt revolver circa the 1920s.
Jay's handgonne.
And, of course, that homemade cannon.
Then there were the memorable folks who attended, many of them bloggers, I wish I could name everyone but such is my memory (I even had to steal some of these from Jay's blog):
Jay over at MArooned, Jack (aka: Doubletrouble) and Debbie our hosts, Mark, aka: Liberty Man, Les aka: Bubblehead Les, Thot from Bending Spoons (the owner of the Röhm (RG) in 22 rimfire), Brian from upstate NY (I think aka: Zercool), Cherr of Stuff By Cherr (who took lots of pictures), Brad_in_MA, Alan, Pedium from Random Geeking, Old Windways, the redheaded girl smiling while shooting, that gals mom(?) who was teaching her to shoot, the young lad shooting the small 22 rifle (maybe a Cricket), that young boy's dad(?) who was showing his and to shoot and doing well, the lady shooting the old side x side shotgun, and plenty of others. Jay's blog post about it list many more names: http://www.ma-rooned.com/2012/08/fifth-annual-northeast-bloggershoot-aar_13.html. I got introduced to so many folks my head was spinning and there is no way my muddled middle aged memory will remember of those names.
The most memorable things for me though were Brendan shooting and me there with him to help him along with pistol shooting and him firing the cannon. He did pretty darned good for an almost first time pistol shooter. He shot my Beretta 92SB once, a single or maybe two shots when he was quite young. Then he shot my Glock 26 and a .40 S&W Sig while we were out in AZ in, what was, 2009 or so. Before the Bloggershoot, that is about all the pistol shooting I know of him doing. As you can see from his target, set up at about 5 yards, he did pretty good at it. I have known some shooters who do not do as well and they have been shooting for 15-20 years. I think there is a marksman waiting to be developed. Now if only he would apply for his pistol permit so I could teach him here in NY.
I can only guess at the most memorable things for Brendan. He had fun though that I know for sure. And to think, he almost did not come because of a bad tendon problem (apparently because a doc prescribed him Levaquin) but decided he could stay at home in pain having little fun or enjoy the day immensely regardless of the pain. He is a trooper, he chose the latter. On the ride home, he thanked me a few times for bringing him along, and he told me he really enjoyed himself but I am getting just a bit ahead of myself.
Much like the show not being over until the fat lady sings, the Northeast Bloggershoot was not over until the big gun fired. Just as it had opened the day for shooting, the cannon was to be fired once again, this time to bring the bloggershoot to its end for this year. I wanted to be there for it but I also wanted Brendan, who was antsy to leave, to want to stay until the end. I am usually not so bold to ask for a favor like the one I am about to relay to you. It was near the end of the shoot, well after 5, our car packed full and Brendan just wanted to go. He probably wanted to get the drive over with and see his girlfriend. He kept saying we should leave and asking if I was ready. I told him I did not want to go until they fired the cannon. I just wanted us to be there from start to finish and only then say our goodbyes. Brendan took a seat but did not seem happy. I was wondering what to do to keep him in a good mood for the next 15 minutes or so that it would take before we left when I suddenly had a brainstorm. I walked over to Jack and asked, in a whisper because Brendan was close by, if there was any way he could let Brendan fire the cannon for the closing. Much to my surprise, Jack said sure he could fire it.
Then I went over and Brendan was really wanting to leave. I told him we had to wait because there was something he would want to do before leaving. When he asked about it I told him he would be firing the cannon. His response was basically a very shocked: WHAT and a why and how can I do that.
In a short while it was time to end the day. Jack loaded the cannon and told Brendan to find a lighter. Jay supplied the lighter, a BBQ lighter, he had been using on his handgonne. Brendan took it, lit the flame, touched the flame to the fuse in the hole, stepped back and BANG. The Bloggershoot had come to an end and I got it on video! Luckily, my camera recorded that video at normal speed which it had not done with most of the videos I recorded of the Bloggershoot, they came out in super fast mode. Those videos that should have lasted a few to several seconds were over in a second or two. I have been unable to get them at just the right speed to play back. Oh well, that is disappointing but at least I have a couple to a few, that came out okay, and are worth putting up on my YouTube channel.
Then we said our goodbyes to everyone still there and headed home. We made it home in 4 hours and 20 to 25 minutes. Not bad because we missed a turnoff and wound up on 395 south through CT which, I think and so did Brendan, was a blessing in disguise because the road was great with virtually no traffic. Had we not hit traffic on I-95 later in CT, my guess is we would have been home in less than 4 hours.
In closing, let me say all I said above in just four words:
It was a blast.
Remember, there more pics in a pretty much purely pic blog post about the shoot.
All the best,
Glenn B
To say that I was anxious about going is an understatement, I barely slept on Friday night, waking many timers during the night wondering if it was time to begin the trip. As it turned out, I awoke, for the final time, at about 0500, at least an hour and a half early. I had all of our gear, with the exception of Brendan's guns and gun gear bag, ready to be packed away into the Corolla. At least that is what I thought.
I went through this, that, and some other things and by 0630, the time I had planned as my wake up time, I had things just the way they would go into the trunk. I went up to wake Brendan just before 7 and took my turn in the shower. Surprisingly he was up by 0730 or so, right after I asked my wife to go wake him while I started to load the trunk with guns, ammo and gear. By that time Brendan was pretty much ready to go - thanks for the help! Oh well, he was up until at least 1 or 2 AM with his drinking buddies having a different sort of a blast than we planned to have at the Bloggershoot. We left the house by about 0815, not bad considering we had planned on leaving by 8. We got to the Holiday Inn in Manchester, NH at about 1330. The ride was pretty much uneventful and that was a good thing. It took us about 5 hours and 15 minutes to get there because we hit some traffic. Once there we ate lunch and dinner at KC's Rib Shack and did some shopping for target backers (cardboard shipping boxes from Staples).
Come Sunday morning, After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we got the car loaded pretty quickly, all we had taken out for the night were the 3 guns cases and some personal stuff. Then we were off, Brendan driving and me navigating. As my knuckle-headiness would have it, I set us off in the wrong direction for 4 miles before we realized we had headed out wrong. We lost about 10 minutes or so because of that. Once we got it right, the 10 or was it 20 or maybe 50 miles or there about from the hotel to the suPer SeKrit location of the range went pretty quickly despite the downpour. Man, it was raining hard and looked as if we would have a soggy day of shooting. Brendan did not want to shoot in the rain and who could blame him, it was raining that hard.
We got to the suPer SeKrit location, late but not that late. The rain had slowed to a slight drizzle by then. With about 15 minutes, it had stopped altogether. I would say that it took another hour or so and the sun was out, that got some applause. It was just after that when things got going.
Jay, from MArooned, gave a bit of a spiel about range etiquette and the like and thanked Jack and Debbie for having us to there place for the shoot. I do not remember if Jack fired the cannon just before or after that but the cannon going off was the official opening of the Fifth Annual Northeast Bloggershoot. Yep, the firing of a cannon and one that I understand Jack made himself. I did not have my camera ready for the opening shot but as you will see later, I sure had it ready for the closing shot and had it ready for some pics of guns to the left of us, guns to the right of us, guns in front of us and even guns to the rear of us. We were surrounded by guns and I enjoyed walking around before and during the shoot to look at all of them.
Then it was time to shoot. There were 3 to 5 shooters on the line at once, shooting at targets set on a backstop said to be 50 yards from the firing line. I am guessing the range might have been shorter, in my estimation, but who cares. We were there to shoot not to measure the range.
As for the actual shooting, 3 -5 folks would step up to the line or close to it and start blasting. After seeing a few people a couple to a few feet behind the line while others were right up on it, I recommended that everyone stand with toes on line so all muzzles were definitely over the line and so muzzle blast would not be an issue. It went over well and only a few folks needed a reminder when shooting after Jay made an announcement to do it that way for safety. Each person shooting usually fired a mag or three worth of ammo, then moved out of the way for the next shooter. The rotation worked very well, I think everyone got a lot of range time. Speaking of everyone, I figure that in all there must have been 25 to 30 folks show up for the event. The number of shooters started out slow, built up, then trailed off until the end when about a dozen of us remained.
There was quite the selection of firearms at the shoot. Everything from a Röhm (RG) rimfireBloggershoot. It was a pretty impressive collection. Had the zombie apocalypse broken out, we would have been ready for it. While it was great see that wide a variety of guns and great to see others shooting them, what was truly the best thing was that the owners allowed others among us to shoot them. There were some operational full auto guns such as a full auto AR that Brendan got to fire. That one was brought by Wally of YorkArms up in Maine. I got Brendan on video but for some reason my camera recorded it at super fast speed (this ruined most of the videos I took while there, early on and later on the camera recorded normally). A few shooters, Brad, Alan and Mark, shot my Remington R1-1911 and Brad also shot the Beretta 92FS. Both Brendan and Jay got to shoot my Beretta 92SB, the gun that got me the moniker Ballseye. Brendan
also shot my 92SF, Remington R1-1911, and my Beretta 70S. He turned down a chance with the Ruger MKII preferring to shoot more with the Beretta 92FS and the 1911.One of the things about shooting at the Bloggershoot was that you also shared targets. The back stop was less than 20 feet wide probably less than 15 feet wide at that. So, there were not too many targets set up to shoot at and with people rotating turns at taking shots, the targets got a lot of hits (or misses). I guess no one, except Brendan, realized I had set up 4 small exploding targets, little stick on jobs, on the backstop. I say so because when he got the first one to go off with a loud bang and a big puff of smoke, those shooting or watching were pretty surprised. Brad, asked, "WHAT WAS THAT" and I joked that we were shooting exploding bullets. I explained what they really were and others tried shooting them. I got the next one, making it go off with a loud bang, shooting with he Marlin 25MN. When I looked at it later, there were 7 bullet holes in that particular target. It only got hit in the right spot to make it go off on the seventh shot. Since the Marlin mags hold 7 round, I had to wonder if I had hit that little 2 inches square all 7 times. Probably not, I guess someone else shooting a 22 had put some rounds into it, but it is nice to imagine I had hit it all 7 times. In all, we set up 8 exploding targets, I think only 2 of them exploded. The remainder had hits on them but not in the center, where they need to be hit to go off. Then again, maybe one or two others had been hit, I did not count how many I found unexploded.
Some other memorable things for me at the shoot were:
Jay's hand cannon or more properly his handgonne. It pretty much looked like an old time billy club, or better still the butt end of a boat pole for salt water fishing, with a metal piece on one end. That metal piece, maybe 2 inches long, was the barrel. Add black powder, I suppose some wadding, and a ball, then insert fuse, point in safe direction, light fuse and BANG with lots of smoke and sparks.
The full auto AR, which a lot of folks got to shoot was pretty impressive. I did not bother asking to shoot it and Brendan asked me why I had not. As I told him, I was too busy enjoying watching him shoot and instructing him how to shoot the pistol and then seeing him do pretty well with it. That was enough fun for me but of course I did shoot my guns too.
A full auto 9mm which Debbie had some fun shooting, the recoil really surprising her.
Several Mosin Nagants making loud thunder and lightning flashes in broad daylight.
A Schmidt Rubin, which I truly regret not asking to shoot. I think that one was brought by Bubblehead Les.
Mark's (aka: Libertyman, a very nice fellow) .50 caliber handgun. Brendan shot that one, I declined because, by the time I was asked, my right shoulder was acting up.
Our Marlin 336 (It probably is only memorable to me because I could not hit a target of about 12"x12" with it. Well, I could not tell if I hit it, so many people were shooting the same target that I had put up that it was impossible to tell! That only means I have to hit the range soon, here in NY, with the 336.)
My Romanian AK-47 WASR which did not double-tap or triple-tap even once (must be fixed?).
Jay's .22 caliber Colt revolver circa the 1920s.
Jay's handgonne.
And, of course, that homemade cannon.
Then there were the memorable folks who attended, many of them bloggers, I wish I could name everyone but such is my memory (I even had to steal some of these from Jay's blog):
Jay over at MArooned, Jack (aka: Doubletrouble) and Debbie our hosts, Mark, aka: Liberty Man, Les aka: Bubblehead Les, Thot from Bending Spoons (the owner of the Röhm (RG) in 22 rimfire), Brian from upstate NY (I think aka: Zercool), Cherr of Stuff By Cherr (who took lots of pictures), Brad_in_MA, Alan, Pedium from Random Geeking, Old Windways, the redheaded girl smiling while shooting, that gals mom(?) who was teaching her to shoot, the young lad shooting the small 22 rifle (maybe a Cricket), that young boy's dad(?) who was showing his and to shoot and doing well, the lady shooting the old side x side shotgun, and plenty of others. Jay's blog post about it list many more names: http://www.ma-rooned.com/2012/08/fifth-annual-northeast-bloggershoot-aar_13.html. I got introduced to so many folks my head was spinning and there is no way my muddled middle aged memory will remember of those names.
The most memorable things for me though were Brendan shooting and me there with him to help him along with pistol shooting and him firing the cannon. He did pretty darned good for an almost first time pistol shooter. He shot my Beretta 92SB once, a single or maybe two shots when he was quite young. Then he shot my Glock 26 and a .40 S&W Sig while we were out in AZ in, what was, 2009 or so. Before the Bloggershoot, that is about all the pistol shooting I know of him doing. As you can see from his target, set up at about 5 yards, he did pretty good at it. I have known some shooters who do not do as well and they have been shooting for 15-20 years. I think there is a marksman waiting to be developed. Now if only he would apply for his pistol permit so I could teach him here in NY.I can only guess at the most memorable things for Brendan. He had fun though that I know for sure. And to think, he almost did not come because of a bad tendon problem (apparently because a doc prescribed him Levaquin) but decided he could stay at home in pain having little fun or enjoy the day immensely regardless of the pain. He is a trooper, he chose the latter. On the ride home, he thanked me a few times for bringing him along, and he told me he really enjoyed himself but I am getting just a bit ahead of myself.
Much like the show not being over until the fat lady sings, the Northeast Bloggershoot was not over until the big gun fired. Just as it had opened the day for shooting, the cannon was to be fired once again, this time to bring the bloggershoot to its end for this year. I wanted to be there for it but I also wanted Brendan, who was antsy to leave, to want to stay until the end. I am usually not so bold to ask for a favor like the one I am about to relay to you. It was near the end of the shoot, well after 5, our car packed full and Brendan just wanted to go. He probably wanted to get the drive over with and see his girlfriend. He kept saying we should leave and asking if I was ready. I told him I did not want to go until they fired the cannon. I just wanted us to be there from start to finish and only then say our goodbyes. Brendan took a seat but did not seem happy. I was wondering what to do to keep him in a good mood for the next 15 minutes or so that it would take before we left when I suddenly had a brainstorm. I walked over to Jack and asked, in a whisper because Brendan was close by, if there was any way he could let Brendan fire the cannon for the closing. Much to my surprise, Jack said sure he could fire it.
Then I went over and Brendan was really wanting to leave. I told him we had to wait because there was something he would want to do before leaving. When he asked about it I told him he would be firing the cannon. His response was basically a very shocked: WHAT and a why and how can I do that.
In a short while it was time to end the day. Jack loaded the cannon and told Brendan to find a lighter. Jay supplied the lighter, a BBQ lighter, he had been using on his handgonne. Brendan took it, lit the flame, touched the flame to the fuse in the hole, stepped back and BANG. The Bloggershoot had come to an end and I got it on video! Luckily, my camera recorded that video at normal speed which it had not done with most of the videos I recorded of the Bloggershoot, they came out in super fast mode. Those videos that should have lasted a few to several seconds were over in a second or two. I have been unable to get them at just the right speed to play back. Oh well, that is disappointing but at least I have a couple to a few, that came out okay, and are worth putting up on my YouTube channel.
Then we said our goodbyes to everyone still there and headed home. We made it home in 4 hours and 20 to 25 minutes. Not bad because we missed a turnoff and wound up on 395 south through CT which, I think and so did Brendan, was a blessing in disguise because the road was great with virtually no traffic. Had we not hit traffic on I-95 later in CT, my guess is we would have been home in less than 4 hours.
In closing, let me say all I said above in just four words:
It was a blast.
Remember, there more pics in a pretty much purely pic blog post about the shoot.
All the best,
Glenn B
Saturday, August 11, 2012
KC's Rib Shack...
...in Manchester was the lunch spot of choice for me and Brendan earlier today. We picked it because we would be meeting with some of the other shooters, for the Northeast Bloggershoot, there for dinner this evening and I figured we ought to at least do a drive by to be able to easily find it for dinner. We not only drove by, we stopped there for lunch. Brendan had a half a rack of ribs and I had a combo lunch plate of BBQ'd pulled pork and beef brisket. Brendan wolfed it down as if it was the last meal the planet. me, well I ate the pulled pork pretty ravenously but only took one bite of the brisket. It was dry as a bone that spent the last ten years in the Mojave sunshine. All the waitress wanted was to get paid, she did not ask how was our meal nor about the pile of brisket left untouched except for one small piece. Oh well..,.
Then back to the hotel for an attempt at a nap. Brendan slept a couple of hours, me ZI tossed and turned much like last night, sleep pretty much eluded me. Tonight, we headed back to KC's Rib Shack. We got there 25 minutes early and sat at the bar for awhile. We each had a Pigs Ear Ale. I thought it was passable, Brendan liked it a lot. About ten to seven, a couple showed up at the bar and mentioned to the barmaid that they were waiting on a group for dinner. I asked if they were waiting on Jay and - yes they were just like us. We only got to introduce ourselves and a waitress came back to let us know our tables were ready upstairs. I paid our bar bill and we headed on up.
While downstairs looked dark and maybe a slight bit dingy, upstairs was much airier and a lot nicer or so I thought and Brendan agreed. Jay was standing at the table when we got upstairs. I recognized him immediately, seen his pictures pretty often on his bog, but I did not recognize any of the other 6 or so folks who were there with him. He made the intros and we grabbed some seats and got to talking. Brendan sat next to Liberty Man (sorry, I am bad at names but remember his nickname) and I sat next to Bryan and next to the couple, on my right, who own the place where we will shoot tomorrow (sorry, I should have the names down by tomorrow). A few more folks showed up and before I knew it there were about 14 of us in all. Dinner, which for me was a Cardiac Sam, was delicious. When the waitress asked, I made sure to let her know that both the meal and the service were better than earlier in the day. She was quite pleased with the compliments. In all, we had a great waitress, really good food and excellent company. I should add there was also some very good brew. When we got upstairs, I changed to an IPA (again, cannot remember the name). It was delicious - much better than the Pigs Ear Ale. Brendan had another Pigs Ear Ale, but this time he had it "bubba sized". It was pretty friggin big but he was not driving so that was okay.
At some point, I guess shortly before we were served, someone pulled a knife out of his or her pocket and tossed it on the table. Somebody else said "Are we playing this game again" and the next thing I knew there were a lot of knives laying in front of me on the table, including the two I had on me - a Victorinox Huntsman (Boy Scout edition without corkscrew - shucks) and a Buck Folding Hunter (the classic one with brass bolsters, wood handles and a 3 3/4" blade). Then some whipped out a camera and took pictures of them all. I mentioned something about throwing a pistol onto the table and someone, I think it was Brian, to my left, immediately said "No, you don't want to that in here" but I was only kidding - really.
Dinner arrived and as I said above, it was an excellent experience, among excellent company. Brendan and I left just after about half the group had taken off. We were both pooped, him regardless of the nap he got at the hotel this afternoon, all because of him spending last night hanging out with his beer drinking buddies. me, I was and am still pooped because I hardly slept last night, either due to me anticipating a cool trip or just due to me not being able to stay asleep for no particular reason I can think of. I am hoping to sleep much better tonight. I have no doubt Brendan will be out like a light pretty soon.
The bloggershoot commences at about 1000 tomorrow morning at a location about 35 miles from our hotel. I am sworn to secrecy, well not rally, but it is obvious that they do not want the location blabbed about. You won't get it out of me!
Will fill you in on how the shoot went sometime soon.
All the best,
Glenn B
Then back to the hotel for an attempt at a nap. Brendan slept a couple of hours, me ZI tossed and turned much like last night, sleep pretty much eluded me. Tonight, we headed back to KC's Rib Shack. We got there 25 minutes early and sat at the bar for awhile. We each had a Pigs Ear Ale. I thought it was passable, Brendan liked it a lot. About ten to seven, a couple showed up at the bar and mentioned to the barmaid that they were waiting on a group for dinner. I asked if they were waiting on Jay and - yes they were just like us. We only got to introduce ourselves and a waitress came back to let us know our tables were ready upstairs. I paid our bar bill and we headed on up.
While downstairs looked dark and maybe a slight bit dingy, upstairs was much airier and a lot nicer or so I thought and Brendan agreed. Jay was standing at the table when we got upstairs. I recognized him immediately, seen his pictures pretty often on his bog, but I did not recognize any of the other 6 or so folks who were there with him. He made the intros and we grabbed some seats and got to talking. Brendan sat next to Liberty Man (sorry, I am bad at names but remember his nickname) and I sat next to Bryan and next to the couple, on my right, who own the place where we will shoot tomorrow (sorry, I should have the names down by tomorrow). A few more folks showed up and before I knew it there were about 14 of us in all. Dinner, which for me was a Cardiac Sam, was delicious. When the waitress asked, I made sure to let her know that both the meal and the service were better than earlier in the day. She was quite pleased with the compliments. In all, we had a great waitress, really good food and excellent company. I should add there was also some very good brew. When we got upstairs, I changed to an IPA (again, cannot remember the name). It was delicious - much better than the Pigs Ear Ale. Brendan had another Pigs Ear Ale, but this time he had it "bubba sized". It was pretty friggin big but he was not driving so that was okay.
At some point, I guess shortly before we were served, someone pulled a knife out of his or her pocket and tossed it on the table. Somebody else said "Are we playing this game again" and the next thing I knew there were a lot of knives laying in front of me on the table, including the two I had on me - a Victorinox Huntsman (Boy Scout edition without corkscrew - shucks) and a Buck Folding Hunter (the classic one with brass bolsters, wood handles and a 3 3/4" blade). Then some whipped out a camera and took pictures of them all. I mentioned something about throwing a pistol onto the table and someone, I think it was Brian, to my left, immediately said "No, you don't want to that in here" but I was only kidding - really.
Dinner arrived and as I said above, it was an excellent experience, among excellent company. Brendan and I left just after about half the group had taken off. We were both pooped, him regardless of the nap he got at the hotel this afternoon, all because of him spending last night hanging out with his beer drinking buddies. me, I was and am still pooped because I hardly slept last night, either due to me anticipating a cool trip or just due to me not being able to stay asleep for no particular reason I can think of. I am hoping to sleep much better tonight. I have no doubt Brendan will be out like a light pretty soon.
The bloggershoot commences at about 1000 tomorrow morning at a location about 35 miles from our hotel. I am sworn to secrecy, well not rally, but it is obvious that they do not want the location blabbed about. You won't get it out of me!
Will fill you in on how the shoot went sometime soon.
All the best,
Glenn B
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