Ramba Premieres!

We won the trophy for Best Special Effects, but lost to a "Saw" spoof and "Edward Scissorhands is Black," the Audience Choice Award winner.

3-Gun Fun in the June Sun

Instead of mixing pistol and rifle for the two Carbine stages, I made them rifle-only to give the long guns an extra work out. Jon and I brought out our .308 Thumpers to contrast with Ron's (pictured) and Big Bob's "mouse guns." Jon's brother Chuck brought out his Garand, chambered in .30-06 as the Old Testament God intended. Bob squeaked ahead of me in both courses of the match.

The first stage was run-and-gun, albeit against difficult targets, some hiding behind no-shoots. The pistoleros must have hated it because the match director put them out at a challenging distance. They would get their chance to spray on other stages. The second stage required four targets engaged from the left shoulder and four from the right. Pistoleros engaged four targets left-handed and four right-handed.

Rifle Video

Shotgun was in my normal mixed format. Our first stage featured five poppers to be engaged with birdshot and three paper targets to be engaged once with slugs or twice with the grounded handgun. The second stage was a brain work-out, requiring two shots from pistol, then two shots from riotgun, repeat until all steel is down. All loaded weapons had to be grounded safely, or be disqualified. The RO dished out penalties for taking more than two shots (that one got me) and in Chuck's case, less than two shots. Pistoleros had a different game: two hits on the left side targets, then two on the right, lather, rinse, repeat.

Shotgun Video

Ramba

For once, my blog slowdown wasn't caused by a mountain of schoolwork! This weekend, I was neck-deep in the 48-Hour Film Competition hosted by the Loft Cinema here in Tucson. My old classmates and I had two days upon receipt of a movie title to whip out a movie spoof and submit it. We got "Rambo." Score! My armorer skills were in demand and I brought every pair of BDU pants and green T-Shirt I had in my closet. Unfortunately we had a big shortage of Asian extras who would probably fit in my old uniforms; instead we squeezed my mostly strapping Hispanic classmates into whatever would reasonably fit. After hanging all Friday night to help conceive and write the screenplay, I loaded up the production truck and came back on no sleep to help shoot the movie (we had three of four cameras running most of the time). After we wrapped after Saturday midnight, I recognized the symptoms of impending exhaustion and pulled my truck into a parking lot between the I-10 and I-19 on-ramps and closed my eyes. Time passed.

I felt bad about bailing out on my teammates the next morning, but once I got all my footage transfered and helped transfer the others, I wished them well and returned home to a long nap and a mountain of unfinished homework. I've since learned that there's been a problem with the disc we submitted. I hope they fix it... I look forward to sharing "Ramba" with you all.

Update: They didn't even use any of my footage! Seems they overlooked the folder it was in --things like that happen when you're on a short deadline and haven't slept all weekend. I have a copy of what we sent in for the contest, but I'll wait until after the premiere on the 29th to upload it. I'd like to get together afterwards and build an unrushed Director's Cut, because I know I had some unique footage on my tape.

BIG UPDATE: "Ramba" premieres Tuesday night at the Loft Cinema on Speedway. Movies start showing at 7 pm. Cheer us on! I'll upload the movie for you all Wednesday and a Forgotten Cameraman's Cut shortly afterwards.

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky: Scroll down for new stuff.

Got a better caption or photoshop for this pic from the BinkerMom? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! If you're lucky, I'll be too busy to blog and you'll keep your ad up for weeks!

Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL. You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even your spare Lehigh Valley IronPigs nose.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

WINNER!

Anonymous wins with:

I'm ready for my close up Mr. Serling.

Other Contests

Support your Local Gunfighter
Military Times
Outside the Beltway
RT’s Ponderings
V The K
Wizbang

Me Lub You Long Time

h/t Woof

Seriously, I've had a life-long crush on Min Kae-kyong, a Korean torch-singer with an incredible set of pipes. I wish I could find more early 80s stuff.

Doh!

hat tip to Cousin B

Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest

Sticky: Scroll down for new stuff.

Got a better caption or photoshop for this unsourced pic? You could win a coveted Blog Ad on my side bar! If you're lucky, I'll be too busy to blog and you'll keep your ad up for weeks!

Leave a caption or photo link in comments, or Email a pic to me at the address in my profile. If you're sending a large animation, please provide a hot-linkable URL. You need not own a blog to win! I'll advertise your favorite charity, web site, or even some of those damned shoes in your closet.

Check out the links in Drinks Ordered for photoshops!

Judging begins Monday p.m.

WINNER!

ExurbanKevin of ExurbanLeague wins with:

Despite hundreds of dollars in makeup and hours spent in front of a mirror, Roberta STILL couldn't get rid of that annoying Adam's Apple.

Other Contests:

Support your Local Gunfighter
Blogs4Bauer
Military Times
Outside the Beltway
RTs Ponderings
V The K
Wizbang

Signs, Signs....

Quick!

Head on over before all the Birthday Cake is gone!

That Guy Should Blog!

No, Sh*T, Sherlock!

One of my gunny FaceBook friends puts up lots of pics from rifle matches and mentions he's doing a calendar shoot at a firearms museum. That guy should blog, I think to myself. Well, duh!

Heavy Metal

I hope you all had a splendid Memorial Day weekend! Besides enjoying the "Band of Brothers" marathon on Spike TV, I tried to make up for missing the Pima 3-Gun Match by capturing some match footage that was languishing in my tape library. Jon and I are switching back to our Heavy Metal gear for 2010 (and the 2011 Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun), so it's time to dip into the supply of .308 and .45 that I've been hoarding for a few years. I still need to re-zero the SOCOM-16 and see if Box o' Gun needs some more gunsmithing. At the latest Cactus Match, I substituted the step-brother Colt (Enhanced) Mark IV with good effect, so I might end up shooting that, since BoG is still in need of a Robar coating or something similar.

Here's the previously unpublished footage from the 2009 Superstition Match: