Pima Tactical

Another beautiful day in Catalina's Mt. Lemmon foothills! It didn't occur to me until during the match that I'd for once be competing against the new shooters (Tactical Iron guys) I'd taken under my wing over the past few matches. I'd be overjoyed if they beat me by showing marked improvement--but after my horrible first stage, I was worried that my early match performance would stink up the range...and the rest of my effort. Must Beat the New Guys, At Least!

The stinky stage was diabolical: engage three targets with pistol, then drop prone(!!!) and engage seven stationary clay targets with riotgun(!!!). Oy, we pumpgunners were hating life, and my missing twice required me to reload. Don't try to reload an empty 870 through the bottom! A Failure to Neutralize with pistol made this stage even suckier.

Our next stage was all shotgun on steel. Russell (left) had some cycling issues with his new Remmie 1100, but did pretty well. Jeff was slower on reloading his borrowed 1100 (they both shot 870s last time). I blasted through the stage rather well, but fumbled with the same empty-gun brainfart as last stage. I pulled even with Russell, timewise.






The next two stages were rifle-only, which I saw as the only chances I had to make up lost ground. On the first stage, Jeff was too careful on the close targets, Russell racked up a buttload of FTNs, and I cleaned the mofo! with a respectable time! For the next stage, I was near the bottom of the order, so I got to watch lots of approaches to the stage. One of the eventual class winners shooting behind me noted that I was the first in our squad to use the first shooting port as a rest when shooting the headshots downrange. I had one FTN in hardcover, but a darned good time.


The last stage was pistol-only...14 IPSC metric targets, most of them painted with some degree of hardcover. Jeff (left) ran his Ruger through its paces methodically, while Russell tried to wail away with his Glock. Russell's FTNs would nullify his faster score. I cleaned this stage and IIRC, beat Russell minus his penalties.

After we tore down the stages, they announced the results; I was at the very bottom...of the top half of TI shooters (we had more than a dozen)! The New Guys were well near the bottom of our class.

I guess it turned out that I needn't have worried about getting beaten by the new shooters...gotta wonder how much that worry motivated me to shoot me better. Ya think I could drum up that motivation without having a bad stage next time? Or maybe beat Jon on one of his good days?

Hey, We hear Ya bangin' around out there!

How 'bout a Raisin before Ya go?

Y'All Be Careful Out There!

Never Mind....

[/Emily Latella voice]

I told you my place was cluttered. My supply of Wolf 55-grainers is not so skimpy as I intimated...I found another case! Oh, fraptious joy! Too bad I already dug the Colt out of the back of the gun safe. Tactical Iron, I said, and so shall it be!

Hmmm...do I really need to shoot the Para? The Glock 22 has been idle for almost a year....

Mantelpieces

The latest photo Meme is from Fodder at Ride Fast & Shoot Straight: the mantel gun (gun on Display Duty). Like a good gun owner*, any operable firearm not locked, loaded, and hidden for immediate action is safely locked away in a steel cabinet or gunsafe (unless you stop by the night before a Range Day--you better come with advance warning!). That being said, I keep my Benjamin Sheridan .20 cal pellet gun on a bedroom shelf, since the safe and cabinets are a tad too crowded to squeeze in a quasi-gun. I moved it to my dusty "mantel" for the Photo Op.


My only other "ornamental" gun is the .44 cal. 1858 Remington New Army reproduction I keep to make the Saloon look nice and cheesily Western (if you can see it through the clutter).

I've got lots of "museum pieces" blogged about before that deserve to be viewed and admired for the history they represent. It's a shame I have all that nice "furniture" hidden away under lock and key, but that's the world in which we live.

*A good gun owner keeps loaded guns hidden in the house? My Saloon and Hermit Palace does not see rugrat or yard ape traffic. If you're in my house, you're either a good friend or about to hear the snick of a safety. Or a BOOM.

H/t to Tam.

Decisions

The Pima Tactical (3-Gun Match) is Sunday and I've been waffling over my long-gun choice...what a luxury! Once I bought the Bushmaster Shorty, I never again went back to my Colt HBAR or the occasional Daewoo K1A1. I never went back to competing with iron sights since I slapped the Reflex II on the Bushie (until I started shooting Heavy Metal with the SOCOM). This week, I decided I'd either shoot HM again, neccessitating a mid-week Range Day to ensure all my SMM3G problems were fixed, or trot out one of the ARs. The Bushy is set up the way I like it and has scored me some prizes at Pima in the past, but my supply of Wolf 55-gr. is not infinite. It could last me most of the year, but I've also got most of a case of Wolf 62 grainers sitting around, but the Bushy hates it.

So it looks like the Colt will come off the bench. I'll have to do a lot of playgunning around the house with the shades drawn this weekend to get used to the extra weight up front. I took off the cheap Tasco scope and Delta cheekpiece (just range toys that would slow me down), determined to shoot Tactical Iron for the first time since I've been to Pima. I could put a Reflex on the HBAR, since I can sight it in in my living room, but why bother? Tac Scope is usually the largest class at Pima; with Tac Iron, I might be able to beat a smaller pool of shooters, but not be in danger of being only shooter in the class, as can happen with Heavy Metal.

The other two guns are no-brainers: Para P16-40 and Remmie 870.

For reader Dan: the Pima Tactical is held at the Pima Pistol Club range near Catalina AZ on Fifth Sundays.

If Only....

I'd rather not have a door at the waterline...but that's guvmint planning for ya.

Image as found (I didn't blank the logo).

HEh

*snork*

Not Just America, Miki

WTF

Lightning Stuff

Interesting historical docs and accounts about one of my favorite airplanes.

H/t to the Propwash Gang

Badge of Honor

I never noticed the lack of Google hits looking for Drawn Together articles until Daniel at LoboWalk mentioned that he'd been banned by Google. I did a quick search on a string sure to find my humble blog, and whaddyaknow...I could only find references on other sites but not my own. Time to change search engines.

Update: Google won't find me, but Google Images will! Good to know peoples' Princess Clara fix won't be denied.

Determined

Determined not to write much today. You want words? Go read Kevin Baker.

What Kind of Dog Are You?

At a site advertising a Brit dog comedy. Cool Flash interface: Click "Game."

Great! Because I don't like Guiness!

Bass (66% dark & bitter, 33% working class, 100% genuine)

So the deal with this test is that each taker, based on his or her scores, is assigned a beer that fits their personality (Corona, Bud Select, and so on), and along with the personality description, there's a poster or an ad for that beer. As you can imagine, most of the images feature booty models, sports cars, or, maybe even more depressing, retro kitsch. It's a testament to Bass Ale, and therefore to YOU, that when I went to look for ads for Bass, all I found was this. An ad from 1937. Bass is legit, and if your scores are true, so are you. I tip my glass to that. Personality-wise, you have refined tastes (after all, Bass is kind of expensive), but you know how to savor what you get. Your personality isn't exactly bubbly, but you're well-liked by your close circle of friends. Your sense of humor is rather dark, but that's just another way to say sophisticated, right? Cheers.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 39% on dark You scored higher than 8% on workingclass You scored higher than 58% on genuine

Link: The If You Were A Beer Test written by gwendolynbooks on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test H/t to CUG

Amuse Yourselves

Reposted Just Because

A Case in Point

Yesterday's Wapsi Square comic featured the little Aztec (Mexican) God of Alcohol handing out birth certificates and Social Security cards to the three chimera of the Ancient apocalypse...
trust me, start from the beginning of the comic.
Great! Illegal aliens with the capability of destroying the world. What could be wrong with that?

Does This Look Like a 3-Gun Match to You?

Didn't think so.

Probably explains the light turnout more than people confusing the 4th Sunday of the month with the last Sunday of the month (when there's a 5th Sunday).


I've been the "bug" in the league's ear to get a 3-Gun program going, but there is still much to be done, including actually advertising the match as a multi-gun format. I'm also railing to the powers-that-be for equal fee pricing for 3-Gunners who shoot four stages; we take it in the shorts compared to pistol-shooters who run the same four stages. Heck...we should get the discount! Rifle holes in cardboard require smaller pieces of tape to cover...and #6 shot is easier on steel targets than .38 Super from a race-gun. It can't be the extra litter from the larger brass and shotgun hulls, because I know we picked up more than our share at the match Sunday. But am I bitter? No, I'm just whipping up multi-gun stages for the amusement of the half-dozen of us who know of the match by word-of-mouth.

Another hurdle I face is getting the Stats folks to use a 3-Gun program with 3-Gun classifications. As it is, pistoleros are scored within their USPSA ranking, and carbine and shotgunners are ranked separately, even though we've been using pistols for part of each 2-Gun stage. Ideally, 3-gunners shooting four stages (two pistol/rifle and two pistol/shotgun) should pay the same flat fee the handgunners pay and be classified by the totality of 3-Gun equipment used:

Open (an Open feature on any one gun puts you in this category)
Tactical-Iron (all Tactical features, including iron rifle sights)
Tactical-Scope (all tactical features, but rifle may have one glass optic)
Heavy Metal (minimum 10-round .44-or-larger cal. iron-sight pistol, 20-round iron-sight .308 rifle, 8+1-round 12 guage shotgun)

I won't hold my breath waiting for this to happen...I'd be happy with just Open and Tactical divisions. I've given some thought to trying something more local on that same weekend, but I'd rather shoot with my friends, even if it costs a whole tank of gas (an issue becoming more relevant with gas prices climbing so high). I've still got 5th Sundays at Pima to keep my 3-Gun fix--I know from the Superstition match that there are plenty of 3-Gunners in the Golden Corridor (PHX - TUC) area...maybe a more formal format will attract some of that crowd to Ben Avery on 4th Sundays.

Not Cowgirls

I have no doubt that Bandidas is going to be an entertaining movie; what's better than prime Hispanic eye candy engaged in a mindless shoot 'em up in turn-of-the-Century Mexico? Even though I'll probably get the DVD, I can't help but wonder if this isn't part of a progressive Hollywood blitz to romanticize illegal immigration in the US.

Plot Outline: In turn-of-the-century Mexico, two very different women become a bank-robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorizing their town.

These women are driven to commit crime by corrupt Mexican thugs...so they're the glamorous protagonists a la Billy the Kidd, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Jesse James. Illegal aliens are driven to invade the US by corruption and economic oppression at home, painted by the progressive Hollywood elite as heroically braving the deprivations of our frontier to take the "jobs no American will do" so they can feed their families and live a better life than they could back home. These "jobs no American will do" include drug and human trafficking, leeching from our welfare and healthcare system, and a long list of misdemeanors and felonies committed by illegals every day...but the Progressive Left sorta glosses over that aspect.

Of course, I might be reading too much into this, especially if this is just a case of Selma and Penelope deciding to play meaty roles where they're more than just exotic ornamentation. I mean, I'll know I'm right when Hollyweird casts Erik Estrada as a migrant agricultural worker who rescues a baby from a burning building, then discovers that a blend of grape leaves and artichoke hearts is an efficant recipe for an herbal AIDS cure.

From the Cactus MailBag

This is a reply posting that I made to the cast bullet e-group I am on, but some of the info may be of interest to all shooters.

David, did you get any explanation of why the prices on primers is
going to go up significantly??


Alex

Alex, I'm not David but just one of those evil gun dealers that are raising the prices that I charge my customers. In a word, everything is rising very fast, price wise and availability is going south. Every time I reorder anything, the price has increased and I get fewer items on my orders. And I can do nothing other than to raise the prices that I charge for what I do get.

This is a 2 part problem as I see it. First, raw materials such as steel, copper, lead and gunpowder is going up, largely because red China and India are buying everything in sight. They are using all of the 'dollars' that we have been sending them in exchange for all the dodads we buy at the great wall of china mart and are spending them back to buy raw materials to do the building and modernization in 5 years that the US took 50 years to do, and on a much larger scale. Take a look at the market prices for these things and compare them to even just a year ago. HUGH increases across the board. Go down and buy some lumber, concrete or other raw material and compare the prices to a year ago. It will shock you if you haven't done this recently. In addition, shipping costs are going up due to increased oil prices.

Two, the US and other world gov'ts are buying ammo like there is no tomorrow. Commercial ammo that is 'always' available isn't this month. Winchester, Federal and IMI are filling a new, LARGE contract for .45, .223 and .308 ammo. 762x39 was not coming into the country for several months, and is only now trickling in. Russia has been filling military orders in other countries instead of shipping it to the US commercial market. An industry insider friend of mine is telling me the smaller ammo makers are already finding shortages as well and expect it to get worse for the rest of the year. They buy their brass 'cups' once a year from Olin Brass Mills and can't increase production this late in the order year since they can't get more raw materials. Magtech was going to introduce .223 and .308 this year but sent out an announcement this week that it will not be coming until AT LEAST mid-2007 due to foreign military orders. ALL ammo makers had an 8% across the board increase on April 1, with another rise of about the same coming in June or July.

I've been stocking up in my shop, where I can, but that won't last long. I'm already the only shop in town with 762x39 in stock, and I'm down to my last 3 cases or so with not much hope for resupply. I haven't been able to get 380 or 45 ball ammo for weeks, except for a little bit of the higher priced varieties. Personally, I've been buying lead and have stashed about 350 pounds in addition to what I had already. That should keep me shooting for some time, with the limited amount of time I get to bust caps these days. I don't have any local scrap yards that will sell it anymore, being a 'hazardous material' and all. I've also struck out at the tire shops I checked with. I am in Las Vegas, a fairly large city, and have been buying it on ebay instead as my only source, since I can't get down to visit Bill in Aridzona. Primers are stored up and powder the same to a much lesser level of course. I bought a few bullet moulds to fill in some calibers I didn't have a mould for and will be casting up and loading for personal use.

So in short, blame it on rising raw materials due to a demand never before seen and competition for primers, powder, brass and bullets with gov'ts that are hell bent on getting us into WW III. That and an increasing demand for guns and ammo from the general population like I have never seen before, in my 25 years of being a gun dealer. Well, except for the rush just prior to the brady crap going into effect, when I had several months of the craziest buying spree I have ever seen. Every day I get in a number of customers that have never had a gun before and are looking to buy their first one. All of my best selling models are harder and harder to get, especially if it is chambered in .45 acp, and often my replacement costs are higher than they were just the month before. I guess the gov't doesn't include gun, ammo and component costs when figuring that there is no inflation. But on the brighter side of things, our IRA's have almost doubled the last few months, since we are totally invested in metals, raw materials, natural resources and energy funds.

[Name and address redacted]

Carbine Challenge

There was a low turn-out for the 4th Sunday Practice 3-Gun and since one of the rifle stages was tabled due to lack of props, we decided to shoot pistol carbines on all four stages, as well as in lieu of rifle. Jon's brother Wayne rounded out the PCC Squad as we enjoyed the sunny, breezy day at Ben Avery.

The League used four of my stages for the match. Stage One ("Damned if You Do") was a Pistol/Shotgun stage. T1 became a stationary target and sharp-eyed folks noted that there were eight paper targets, not seven.





Stage Two ("Freedom of Choice") required the shooter to knock down at least six steel targets with pistol before switching to riotgun. Jon elected to save the plate rack for the shotty--this turned out to be a good move.




Stage Three ("Right Face, March") was the only pistol/rifle stage and not a very robust one, at that(only nine rifle targets). I scored several misses on the headshots.









Stage Four ("Run for it") could be shot entirely with riotgun, or you could transition to pistol if you didn't bring any slugs. We brought slugs! I had a great run, but got sloppy with my last slug...and didn't have an extra handy! The closed box was in my pocket. I won't be that cocky any time soon!



We shot the whole match in 2-Gun format, then put the pistols and shotguns away and re-ran the stages with pistol-caliber carbines. Jon with his little Glock-format Kel-Tec cleaned our clocks...Wayne and I both experienced jams in our ARs; fortunately, Wayne's athleticism and practiced speed made up for most of his problems. I just plodded along.

As I was prepping for Stage Four, I noticed the Holosight was very loose. Rather than tighten it, I removed it and shot the stage using the iron sights. I had a jam or two, but my acquisition was pretty good...just not as fast as with the expensive glass.

GWB, A Man of Vision

Time for another GOP and the City Caption/Photoshop Contest!

Short Range Day Today

Went to Desert Trails this afternoon with the 9AR. Put two mags through it to sight in the new BUIS and EOTech optics...had one brass jam that I hope will be cleared up by a thorough cleaning. Took the last mag over to the steel range (only one steel target remains...this range has gone to hell in the last year), and did double-tap drills. Me likey the Holosight!

So that's my singular advantage over Jon this Sunday. He's B-Class Limited over my C and a faster shotgunner on most occasions--heaven help me if he brings the semi-auto Bennelli instead of the 870.

Well...I'll just have to shoot faster and better!

Cool Page - Dubya Visits Big Abe

Is the USS Lincoln still launching airstrikes against Iraq?

No? Mission Accomplished.

Full Auto Gun Pr0n!

ChuBlogga has much, much more!

Welcome to the BlogRoll!

Calling All Desert Rats

There are only two agave plants left in my neighborhood...I think the javelinas ate all the others. Can anybody identify the plant/weed towering out of this one? I don't think it's part of the agave plant, but it's growing out of both of them.

RIP: Scott Crossfield

The first man to reach Mach 2 has broken another barrier, the mortal one, to slip the surly bonds of Earth.