The Drip and the Dip

The Man sure has a boner for the Kennedys. Join in!

Woohoo! Number 2!

Sass Approved

Maybe not SASS, though.

One of the unique aspects of SASS approved Cowboy Action Shooting™ is the requirement placed on costuming. Each participant is required to adopt a shooting alias appropriate to a character or profession of the late 19th century, a Hollywood western star, or an appropriate character from fiction.

Emphasis mine. Who's to say what's appropriate?

Brazenly rustled from Mad Ogre.

Hot Lynx

If you haven't been following John Donovan's progress in bringing home the ex-USS John Rogers from Mexico, check it out.

The Trainer went to the range this weekend!

MrCompletely overcomes a brainfart shootin' pins.

"Stop the Sensitivity" and "Hezbollah Love Children - Dead Ones" at Blackfive

Air Force Generals SLASHED!

Oh, the Humanity! Human Rights Violations in America!

Smash talks to Code Pink...so we don't have to.

Jerry the Geek filmed the 2006 USPSA Multigun National Championship. After I win the lottery and buy an RV....

Yellow journalist puts words in cop's mouth. No surprise.

Curmudgeonly & Skeptical Rodger is back from vacation and posting up a storm.

Blogger pumps on the ground in Israel. Hat tip to Vinnie.

DaGoddess rubbed elbows with Heroes this weekend.

The Desert Cat made a rare sighting in Tucson this weekend...a river!

Hell in a Handbasket: The USAF is the Master at mid-air refueling. Now they're patenting a mid-air rearming system...Cool! Also, Assault rifles of the IDF.

Heh. Ike Turner on the Shehag.

Lawdog on Qana: The Israelis may be sneaking up to take a look into the Abyss, but Hezbollah got there first, took a long look, liked what they saw, and took up residence.

To be continued....

Zoomie Pr0n!

Ghost of a Flea sprinkles some great fighter pr0n in with his pop culture blogging. Those of you with high-speed internet are blessed.

You Want Proportionality?

Bring up that subject during prisoner exchanges!

I didn't think so....

You Slept In!

Yes I did, Lenny. It rained all night again...I can only imagine what the Bowman Road Wash looked like.

Thanks, Lady!

Where'd all this rain come from? The thunderstorm started around midnight and continued all night, with steady rain until noon; cleared up by 2 pm. Last year after a similar storm, I showed up for one of the rare 5th Sunday Pima Tactical matches, only to learn that the set-up crew had cancelled it the day before due to heavy rains. Pima sets up the non-cardboard stuff the day before, but since access to the club range crosses a few dirt washes, they were "washed out."

I hope this one isn't cancelled. I'm meeting Billy Budd from dormant blog American Dinosaur to show him how much fun practical shooting is. In the Arizona Monsoon Heat. Well, he's more of an Arizonan than I am...if this falls through, we might have to explore Cowboy Action Shooting together...I think that might be more up his alley. Heck, even if this match goes off as planned, we might have to try that.

I'm psyched about trying Cowboy Casual next month. I've dug up a 100-round box of .38 Special FMJ (verboten in Cowboyland), a camo neckerchief, and my boonie hat...my aim is not to make fun of SASS-gunners, but the casual observer might think so; I'm just trying to eliminate all the cowboy stuff that's insinuated itself into my idiom...like the suspenders and hat. Those are two very practical pieces of gear (especially when all that heavy stuff on my belt starts to pull my pants down). I'll probably shoot up my .44 Magnum lead reloads too. Why not?

Carnival of Cordite Number 67

Up at Gullyborg's!

Only in Japan

The Original Chicken Hawks

Sick, but true.

Finally Found a Job

It's not so bad.

Ex-USS Oriskany

Nobody guessed it. Nobody tried. Nobody likes me. Guess I'll go eat worms.

Ever See An Audi Taxi?

Sorry...couldn't resist the pun. Or the cool pic.

Creeping Cowboy Cred

Open Letter to the Cactus League
(Actually an Email to the 4th Sunday Match Poobah)

As long as I'm designing summer-roundcount multi-gun stages, why not try to attract some Cowboy Action Shooters? A few bloggers I know [Mad Ogre 7-14-06 for one...scroll down] lament the fact that they'd like to try the sport but are put off by the Cowboy Fashion Nazis and would just like to concentrate on the guns. I'll bet even some hardened Cowboys would like to get in some practice wearing shorts and sneakers in the Valley of the Sun...NO DRESS CODE! HintHint: Rio Salado Cowboys shoot on 1st Saturdays. Cowtown shoots 1st Sundays. Ben Avery ACSA = 2nd Saturdays.

Gee, I hope they'll forgive the CFN crack.

Mixing cowboy gunners with Cactus range officers is going to involve some compromise, mostly upon the cowboys' part. Some rule modifications [I'm suggesting]:

Since we still don't have a 3-Gun Division, we can add to rifle and shotgun divisions, if the computer can handle it. I can't see somebody shooting all four stages pistol-only (even though sixgunners carry two pistols), but we can write the stage descriptions to accomodate it if you think we should...they can still register as Revolver. Even if we can't add a Cowboy Rifle and Cowboy Shotgun Division, if the shooters register with their SASS nicknames, it will be blatantly obvious on the [website] scoresheet.

All [Cowboy] guns must conform to Single-Action Shooting Society specifications, but there are no bullet [except for existing ban on steel-core or AP] or ammo power limitations! (Cowboys normally don't shoot cardboard, and our steel gets hit by .38 Super FMJ all day long.)

Starting position for shooters who show up with crossdraw holsters will be "loaded handgun on table, pointed downrange."

No reholstering during the stage; before switching to another gun, the empty gun must be grounded on the table, pointed downrange.

Cowboy guns require one hit to neutralize. [There were no Emergency Rooms in the 1880s.]

Six-guns can be loaded to the maximum safe level; transfer bar safety guns can hold six, while replica guns without modern safeties must be loaded with the hammer down on an empty chamber. We'll program in a maximum of 11 pistol targets (modern guns can handle one miss, reproduction gunners suck it in unless they can reload and shoot within 10 seconds, the penalty for a FTE and FTN). Revolvers must be shot dry before grounding, although a live round may be unloaded if the stage is finished with the sixgun in hand. RO must supervise shell ejection to ensure sixgun is empty and safe. [Hadn't mentioned this to Terry, but why stop at 11? Let's let the buckaroos reload on the clock!]

No rifle caliber restrictions! Most cowboy gunners have the requisite pistol-caliber long guns, but this gives them--and newbies--a chance to trot out the old .30-30 lever-action deer gun.)

*If we want to allow black-powder revolvers*, we can designate an RO to supervise the powder and ball loading in the Safe Area for the on-deck BPgunner; the uncapped sixguns are then holstered and stay holstered until it's time to shoot. Capping must done in the shooter's box under RO supervision.

Well, what do you think? I don't think we're gonna lose (m)any USPSA shooters to the Cowboys over this, but we just might bring in some sixgunners looking for a practice format, even on a non-member basis. Of course, we should change the web site to reflect this. [...] [If not] thank heavens for word of mouth. A little updating could get Google and other search engines working for us. Also we should publish the rules modifications, once y'all finalize them...and my blog does have a good size metro-PHX-area readership. [Okay...maybe a dozen readers...so far.]

If you give the okay, I'll even be the guinea pig next 4th Sunday. Hope to hear from you soon.

[Cowboy Blob]

The Stage Slave
Okay, Readers, especially you Cowboys...any ideas?
Here's another view, though I don't think it'd work well with the Cactus League, but the IDPA guys might welcome it.

Update: At top is some draft promotional material. Bumped to the top for now.

Women Just Don't Understand

Arizona's getting a Cabela's this week!

h/t to Vox.

Well, I'm not gonna brave the Opening Day crowds either. In fact, I'll probably still save my annual pilgrimages for the Hamburg PA store.

That's Right! It's Hump Day!

Gunny for Geeks

Attention KisPer Shoppers

PhotoShoppers, that is.

Funnier stuff here.

After New Orleans....

Casual Cowboy Poster Girl?

Maybe...but I'd have to Photoshop some shorts onto her.

I floated the idea to the Cactus Mailing List today, and the response is Luke warm (Luke Air Force Base is in Phoenix!!) so far.

Snap into a Slim Jim!

Cactus Gun Pr0n

Thank Heavens for Cloud Cover

Boy, were we relieved that temperatures never reached the record 120-something broached yesterday in the Valley of the Sun. One-oh-five? Bah! Our mini-squad of three contained two USAF Survival School graduates, but also a pasty-white-skinned redheaded teenager (yep, stepchild, even) and an overweight, out-of-shape transplant to the Sonoran Desert (that would be moi).







We sallied forth coated with sunscreen and stayed well-hydrated. I'd loaded a six-pack of frozen water bottles into a mini-cooler and Jon brought a gallon jug of water, in addition to personal water bottles we all carried. Nomex gloves protected off-hands from hot-hot black guns and lead-blasted target steel. My pistol was uncomfortable to handle with a bare hand, but that wasn't even a distraction after the starting buzzer sounded.



Terry and the League Course-of-Fire Committee whipped up a low-round-count but entertaining practice match. With three guys sharing a wagon, and no one sharing a gun, we decided to shoot shotgun first and leave the rifles in the truck. Here's Stage One.






Stage Two had shotgun steel on the left, pistol cardboard on the right, and a Texas Star that could be engaged from either box with either weapon. I got the essential double popper hit necessary to clean all the steel with the shotgun.








Stage Three was rifle-only and young Piter cleaned my clock. O' course, he has young eyes and optics! I shot from the seated position, but missed some of the required headshots. Jon struggled with a feeding problem.











Stage Four gave me a chance to catch up with Piter. Two poppers to be dropped by pistol, then an array of cardboard at a variety of distances. In rifle/pistol, Piter and I finished with 23 (not 2!) seconds of each other.

Update: Piter just reminded me that results are posted and he had beaten both Jon and me in rifle. He beat Jon by 2 seconds. I pointed out to Optics Boy that my 98.75 second match time beat his 105.66 seconds. I was King of the PumpGunners (and even beat one auto guy)! Jon beat us both handily, but he was using a semi-auto shotgun, so duhhh. Actually, Piter did darned good, but barely got to break in his brand new .45.

Quick, Before the Drugs Wear Off!

Tamara (View from the Porch) Bikini Picture!

Cowboy Blogs

Repost (placed some pics that lost hosting): I get Google hits all the time for "Cowboy Blog" and I'm sure many visitors go away disappointed in my blog's content. For you folks, let me direct you to Cowboys 101, a Resource and History of the Old West page that includes a list of Cowboy-themed blogs, including yours truly.

As my site description says, "I'm not a real cowboy, but I play one in the movies." That movie was "Ghost Rock," a low-budget kung-fu-sexy-Western that went straight to DVD (be sure to check out the review at the imdb site). If you want to know how bad this movie was...it had Gary Busey reciting Shakespeare. Once you tear your expectations down low enough, though, it's kind of a fun movie. It's got cheesy dialogue (thanks to Michael Worth), gratuitous nudity and violence (thanks to director Dustin Rikert and Dan Southworth, actor and fight coordinator), and me (thanks to Mom and Dad)!

The production was so low-budget that they didn't pay the extras, but it was a fun experience and most of the Hollywood folks were nice enough to pose for photo ops with us.



Lindy Teague (of Baywatch) was a nice lady whose part was cut severely in post-production.



Craig Wasson was the evil comic relief. I know he's been in other movies (I haven't seen), but I remember him from The Boys in Company C ("Happy Birthday, General Dearborn" *BOOOM!*).

Some Screenshots:



The guy I'm helping walk had his speaking parts totally out...there went my close-up! That's Adrienne Barbeau (very nice lady) center front.

Besides my nice guy townsfolk persona, I appeared in two other costumes as the second unit director started running out of bad guys (the bad guys were running out, wanting to get paid):



Cowboy purists would poo-poo my shooting style here, but really, my thumb was too short to gain purchase on the hammer without losing grip on the handle, so I cocked with my off-hand.



No one can fault me for stunt work here, though. I think I got shot by Jenya Lano's character. She's hot.

That's her in the middle. Update: (l. to r., Renee Roland (Producer), Crista Sauls, Jenya Lano, Adrienne Barbeau, Peggy Seagren (1990 Penthouse Playmate and Special Assistant to Mr. Busey...yeah, right).

(Photo by Spooky Joe, SASS#24061 - Yes, there were a bunch of CAS guys there.)



On the last day of shooting, they had me fill in for one of the thugs that walked out. I'd shaved my beard down to a Col. Sanders goatee, but you'd never know it. I got to beat some Chinaman ass in my last scene, then got beat up by his brother. Had to take three or four gutpunches until they got it right. That reminds me, I better check the Tucson Film Office site again for upcoming casting calls!

I'm Sorry In Advance

Sweet

USS Enterprise: Ready on Arrival

Think Lil Kim is getting nervous?

Carnival of Cordite 66

Up at MrCompletely!

Once again, I've been a non-contributor. Next week! Maybe!

No Engineers in THIS family

Drainage was not on my mind when I planned the sidewalk; not really sure I can do anything about it. If you raise it too high, it's gonna get hosed by the snowplow in the winter. Look on the bright side, Mom, you're now stomping through clear water instead of grassy mud!

This Must Be Fake

Tigers are the only cats that actually like water.