Cactus October 2013 Multi-Gun Halloween Match

 Was nice going back to where I used to design stages and discover they've finally adopted a 3-Gun item on the menu instead of only charging a la carte per gun.  Recognized some of our classic Halloween stages... sometimes the oldies are best.

Jon treated Piter to a Full-Auto shot at the match.  After that put a smile on Piter's face, he put a smile on the paper plate and won the Match Art Contest.

AZ State Sub-Gun Match

This weekend I shot the muy fun ASSM hosted by the Rio Salado Sportsmen's Club Full Auto Division. I haven't gotten the Uzi tweeked yet, so I brought my semi-auto 9-AR, and competed in the Semi-Auto Division. Not that I could afford the copious ammo expenditure involved in competing in the FA Divisions (FA guns cannot be Selected to Semi), so I saved some bucks there.

I joined Jon and Big Bob on Squad 1 (somehow designated the Super Squad) and brought my DSLR instead of the usual FlipCam or iPhone to shoot video. I even went ahead separately in my own car since I had to leave straight from the range to get back to Tucson in time for the premiere of "The Reaper Strikes Back" at the Tucson Terrorfest Horror Film Festival that night.

I got some cool moonset pix for my troubles, but since the range is shaded by a great big mountain at sunrise, the sunrise was less spectacular.  I forgot to get pics of the sunlit mountains later, which will be a detriment to one of my photo assignments for class.

The match had a Clint Eastwood Movie theme and was a blast and a half to shoot!  I hope this match doesn't become too popular, since the Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun Match I've been blogging about over the years has been filled merely seconds into the on-line registration deadline today.  Wonder how many slots will be sold on eBay....

The Binker Strikes Back

I haven't shared any pix of my niece, "The Binker," in quite a while. She is growing into a smart, outgoing young lady. Last year, between chipmunk videos, I recruited her to star in my summer vacation movie "The Reaper Strikes Back."

Last night, it premiered at the Tucson Terrorfest Horror Film Festival with a favorable audience reaction. I recorded it on my smartphone so the Binker can enjoy the experience too.

This summer's production, "Ready When You Are, C.B." is in post-production.


Update:  Dammit, I lost the video transferring it from my iPhone! 

Fun with Swords and Fur Bikinis

Because I can't post about guns ALL the time!

Click to enbiggen.

A Little Gunny Goodness

Katyusha MoonFox

Obligatory Gun Post

I'm still taking college classes, albeit in the Digital Photography realm instead of Film/Animation.  Even so, I keep my finger on the pulse of the film scene by making movies (shorts) with friends and classmates and by hanging around in the Digital Arts/Film lab with my homies.  My class meets the same night as the Advanced Cinematography class (which I've taken twice), so I found out after the first night of class that my script wasn't the one chosen for the Western they're shooting this year.  Turns out the other rejected student script was written by a guy I met on a student set last year who just happened to have been stationed at my old intelligence unit in Korea.  Small world!

Anyway, Derek is a fellow firearms enthusiast and managed to get himself assigned as Armorer for the film (I was Armorer for all three Pima productions I helped make).  First thing he asked me after Night One was whether I had any guns capable of firing blanks the school could use.  If you'll recall an old post of mine, purpose-built blank-firing guns are good for theater, but suck royally on film because they look fake and in the case of Westerns, don't generate the pleasant cloud of gunsmoke we all expect.

So I said, "Yeah, a .38 (pictured, top) and a .44 Ruger."  I knew that wasn't optimal, because we'd have to manage two different calibers of blanks and since they come in lots of 50, we'd have to buy lots more than we'd use.  I say "we" as the Production, as I had 50 smoke blanks on hand, but they were full-power... not what you want to use around a bunch of actors, crew, and a horse or two.    

We toyed with the idea of using black powder cap-and-ball revolvers without the "ball," but since we'd never done it before, decided to go the safe route by using commercially made low-power smoke blanks.

Since there were two separate guns slated to be shot shooting in the movie, I decided I needed to pad my inventory.  These (pictured, middle and bottom) arrived today.  I also ordered a rubber gun replica from blueguns.com because, "Pima, you're not dropping, sliding, or throwing my FUSKING GUNS!!"  Yeah, all of those were called for in the script. 

BTW, the new guns are Uberti.  With these and all the cap-and-ball revolvers I have, I should be knighted in Italy for keeping their industry alive.