I'm not a real Cowboy, but I play one in the movies.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Late Shooting Day
Match Banquet tonight.
Gonna try Jon's Bushy lower with my POF upper at the public range during a break to see if the problem reproduces. POF says they'll take it to the shop if it does (also suggested lubing the buffer...there's a noticeable hitch in the cycling that's still there after lubing). Even lubed their no-lube-needed bolt. Cross yer fingers!
Problem gun not pictured. Well, I have been having some bugs with the SOCOM...and a few last-round FTFs with BoG (center), but I already expected to finish near the bottom anyway.
Had an early day today and for a brief moment I held the fastest stage time on Stage One. Our second shooter fixed that. Oh, wait, the range staff shot yesterday. Never mind.
I did pretty well for a fat, old guy shooting in the Heavy Metal class. Jon wowwed lotsa folks with his focused zeal, speed, and concentration. Stage Three included the infamous mine car ride Youtubed at a few blogs in the past (from Rio Salado's USPSA Regionals, methinks).
See the study in contrast Monday when I wrap up the match. With video!
The day started off well. Make good time through traffic, signed in at Rio Salado, and toured the stages as the range staff were shooting it. Looks like a lot of FUN! Some scary "separator" scenarios bound to make ya pay severely for a hiccup in yer giddyap.
Jaunted back to Jon's, grabbed some guns and got in some practice at Ben Avery. Ugh. Found what may be some mag problems with the SOCOM, but it could have just been dirt. Saved some rounds for Bob and his son who both enjoyed the lil thumper.
Then, the suck started. I brought out BoG2 and prepared to dirty it up some (and sight in the iron and optics) and discovered to my dismay that I'd bought a very expensive sorta-bolt-action rifle! It went semi-auto about three times, so I know it's not a replay of the SKS gas problem. I'll try to corner one of the POF-USA guys at the match this weekend. Jon's doing a good job at calming me down, especially regarding changing the spelling of POF. After dinner, we went back to Ben Avery for the Thursday Night Match, but a big wind and some rain blew over part of the stages and everybody bailed. Wasn't I just talking about how the weather was so unseasonably sucky at the match last year? Didn't the weatherman say this weekend was going to be beyooootiful?
On another blog, I just saw a meme all about movies. The first question really got me thinking:
1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
I don't think I've ever seen a movie that many times! Even "Ghost Rock," which I was required to watch with friends and family to point out where my scenes were, didn't make it to double-digit showings. I've re-read books I like many times (but not up to 10 times either), but I don't have the same patience for movies. My DVD collection still has over a dozen titles I haven't seen yet! Ya never know when I'll wake up and have a sudden urge to watch Kill Bill or Lonesome Dove!
2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.
Don't go to the theater much any more, but even back when I did, re-watching even a great movie just irked me senseless. Weirded out a friend from out of town when I wouldn't go see Starship Troopers with him because I'd already seen it two days earlier.
3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Excluding pr0nstars? Toshiro Mifune.
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Barbra Streisand.
5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
The Princess Bride.
6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs
Grease. South Pacific.
7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with
CB don't sing.
8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Lord of the Rings, all three.
9. Name a movie that you own.
Ran.
10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Fred Thompson!
11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
Porky's.
12. Ever made out in a movie?
Not very well.
13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.
Kill Bill.
14. Ever walked out of a movie?
Nope...never go to one unless I'm sure I'll like it..
15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Beaches. At the drive-in. With a tall, buxom brunette I should have been making out with.
16. Popcorn?
Not at the theater.
17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Haven't gone since Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
18. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
19. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
War. Samurais. Samurais at War.
20. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
Batman. At the drive-in.
21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Beaches. The tall, buxom brunette's fault.
22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Akira.
23. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?
When I was a kid, I saw parts of Hitchcock's The Birds from behind the sofa. Not a big fan of the Suspense/Horror genre.
I'll be humping some ammo tonight! Jon wants to do some long-range rifle practice after match registration tomorrow, plus shoot the Thursday Night Fun Match at the league...so I gotta packs lotsa spare ammo. Gonna be gun-cleaning fools tomorrow night.
Jeepers! Did my taxes tonight...and it's not even April yet! That's never happened before. Gonna take my Buy a Gun Day refund and sock it away for vehicle insurance, road trip gas bills, and emergencies.
With that ordeal out of the way, I'll have lots of time tomorrow to clean guns and G.I. Party the Ferret Room. Not that I'll use that time for that purpose...but it's there.
Pony up with a caption or photoshop and you could win the highly coveted Blog Ad in my sidebar! Show that Rodney Dill guy he's not all that, plus or minus a bag o' chips!
Winner! There were plenty of good ones this week, but Chris Muir's Oleg Volk-inspired Sam Calendar pic fit this week's motif so well, I couldn't resist. So he gets the Blog Ad this week!
The NBA West totally rocks! Why don't the East teams just change their names to the New Jersey Generals?
Some guns I like to shoot, some guns I like to have. Forty-four Magnums fall into the latter category.
Women are Evil. Men are Pigs. There's some kind of cause-effect relationship there that I just haven't ever figured out.
Steel Panthers: MBT must have based its (80s-era) South African forces on Kim du Toit, cuz their snipers and recce commandos really rock! I don't know why I say that, because I don't know whether he's a good shot or not. For Jon: Confirmed: If you have any number of Valkiri rocket launchers, the computer will kill one of them in the very first round. Update update: Okay, I've only got anecdotal evidence for that...what works for the Cubans doesn't seem to apply to Yugoslavs.
Ferret poop doesn't stink.
Foamy earplugs are recyclable. Just throw them in the wash and put them through the dryer with your ordinary clothes.
The Girl from Ipanema was blind! That's why she doesn't see!
Not tagging anybody, but if you're running with it....
Woo-hoo! The Practice Match results are up! Jon was top Shotgunner and #2 Rifleman out of a very large showing. I was #6 out of eight Pump-gunners, but I beat two Auto-gunners! I beat five out 14 carbine shooters, one of which was Jim the SOCOM-16 Fan. Keep in mind that I was shooting all Heavy Metal, including an single-stack .45. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned (Jon: "You can shoot the no-shoot three times and still smell like a rose if you're fast enough!").
Not a bad performance for me on one hour's sleep! I got as much sleep in the truck at the rest stop than I did in Jon's muy comfy guest bed. I need to relax...insomnia and a nervous stomach plague me before matches and there's none bigger than next week's.
This is the match as submitted to the Course of Fire Committee. I may update it later to reflect changes, but at least you've got something to read on a Sunday morning.
(Pistol) Starting Position: Standing in Box A, normal ready.
On start signal, engage T1 under the stick. Advance to Box B and engage T2 through T7. Beware of no-shoot behind T2/T3 (Shoot-throughs count!) Advance to Table C and flip one of three notecards to identify the no-shoots and engage T8 through T11.
(Pistol/Rifle) Starting Position: Standing in Box A, rifle at port arms.
On start signal, engage T1 and R1 through R5 under the stick. Advance to Box B and engage T2 through T7. Beware of no-shoot behind T2/T3 (Shoot-throughs count!) Advance to Table C, safely ground rifle, flip one of three notecards to identify the no -shoots and with pistol engage T8 through T11.
(Pistol) Starting Position: Seated at Table A, hands on knees.
On start signal, engage P1 and P2 and T1 through T6. From Box B, engage P3 through P9.
(Pistol/Shotgun) Starting Position: Seated at Table A, hands on knees. Loaded shotgun grounded on Table.
On start signal, with pistol engage P1 and P2 and T1 through T6. Safely ground pistol and from Box B, engage P3 through P9 with shotgun.
(Pistol) Starting Position: Standing at Table A, strong hand raised above shoulders, waving side to side (to signal "shooter ready" instead of a head nod).
On start signal, engage T1 through T9 with two shots to the body and one to the head from behind Table or charge line B.
(Rifle/Pistol) Starting Position: Standing at Table A, rifle in weak hand port arms, strong hand raised above shoulders, waving side to side (to signal "shooter ready" instead of a head nod). On start signal, engage T1 through T9 with two shots to the head with rifle. Safely ground rifle and with pistol engage T1 through T9 with one round to the body from behind Table or charge line B.
(Pistol) Starting Position: Seated in (comfy) chair at Table A, arms folded across chest.
On start signal, engage P1 through P9. From Box B, engage T1 and T2 and P10 through P15.
(Shotgun/Pistol) Starting Position: Seated in (comfy) chair at Table A, arms folded across chest. Loaded shotgun grounded on table.
On start signal, engage P1 through P9 with birdshot. With slugs or pistol, engage S1 through S3 with one round. Safely ground shotgun when appropriate. From Box B, engage T1 and T2 and P10 through P15 with pistol.
Kevin Kline, you Magnificent Bastard...I read your book! Well, I didn't exactly read any book you may have had published...but your marriage to Phoebe Cates just blew the wind out of my sails. Yessirree, I'm hard-wired to lust after brown-eyed brunettes...okay, maybe some redheads too...heck, I should have retired in Korea...but I didn't. When Koreans bleach their hair, it comes out red instead of blond.
Blondes, get over it. I've only ever been ga-ga over one of your type and her penchant for Marine Biology (heh) caused me to lose interest. Just enjoy the pics.
I didn't suck as bad in the ACTS match as I thought! I had the 3rd best pistol-only stage (One) and the best Stage Two (rifle only) out of the bunch! Not bad for a fat old guy!
It's been raining off and on all day today. Lisa the Biker Chick gave me a heads-up last weekend that she might feel well enough for a range trip Friday, which might be the last time I get some long-range practice before the annual 3-Gun match next weekend. I hope this stuff lets up; not so much for my own comfort, but so it doesn't discourage LtBC from hobbling out to the range with me. Offer still open to Billy Budd if he can make it.
Pray this stuff doesn't hang around to bother us in Mesa next week.
Update: Sh*T. So LtBC has one cankle...waaah! She backed out and it's raining cats and dogs tonight. I need to go anyway, but might end up going Saturday morning if the weather still sucks. Sunday, I'll be doing the Cactus 3-Gun Practice Match at Ben Avery (nothing further than 100 yards...probably less 'cuz I designed the stages...blogging that later, natch.) so this is my last chance at shooting 200 yards.
Do they supply a tan Sharpie to color in the untanned circle left by their product? Or do ya have to move it around? Sounds like too much trouble...like anybody's gonna be checking out my ass for tan coverage.
Yeah, I'm always the first to make an "A-Team" joke whenever someone brings a Ruger Mini-14 to a match...but I do it with a smile on my face and genuine concern for the shooter's progress in the game. My gun collecting started long before my gun-game shooting habit did, so when I first started to compete, I already had an AR in the safe...and a Mini-14 that got less and less range time thanks to the EBR that was so much more fun (and accurate). I haven't even been tempted to compete with it once, since I have only a 5-rounder and a 20-rounder for magazines.
I'm always curious when I see a Mini-gunner show up at a match...don't they know how cheap AKs are now? Chances are they have the Mini because it's always been in the family or it was all they find/afford when they decided to get into practical shooting. Okay, maybe they hero-worship Face and B.A. These are the shooters you need to pay attention to; not because they're likely to beat you -- they're likely to beat themselves, get discouraged, and maybe quit the sport. I have fun even when I do badly, because I know it's only me holding me back. I'm not sure I would enjoy it so much if my noodle-thin barrel started warping out of true from the heat of rapid fire (at least, that's the reason I heard for the 14 being only marginally accurate). So, I watch the rare Mini-gunner, offer encouragement, maybe advice, and maybe humor: "What do you mean, you suck? A-Team guns are designed to miss! I'm shooting a precision military weapon...I suck!"
Update: I've been edumicated by commenters! I wonder if the new barrels can be fitted to the old rifles? Not that I would bother....
Fits sez:
Ruger at long last addressed the accuracy issue, and all new 14's with serial numbers 580XXX and above have the new barrel that early word says is a tack driver.
Greg sez:
Indeed. Owners of the new 580 series are reporting about 2 -2.5 MOA, some even less, out of the box.
The older Minis are more variable. They can be made reasonably accurate for very little expense.
The Perfect Union BBS is probably the best site out there for Mini-14 tips, mods and discussion.
BTW, the barrel doesn't really warp out of true from normal rapid fire, it is so thin that it has a rather high amplitude. This results in poor groups and expansion from heating causes your POI to rise, worsening the problem.
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Match Banquet tonight.
