It’s not as sinister as it looks. Dealer sorted out the problem in one day.
But I thought it might cue discussions of the “Now we know why people don’t talk about Glocks giving trouble” type.
Guns
Springbok pot
I got this recipe from Van Rensburgs Foods.
Fry two large onions in a knob of butter until brown. Remove from pot.
Brown springbok skenkels (shin) in batches. Add onions back in. Add boiling water to cover meat halfway.
Simmer for an hour, add 10ml salt, 60ml Worcestershire sauce, 10 peppercorns, 10 cloves.
Simmer for half an hour, add four cubed potatoes, four carrots sliced into 1cm chunks, 75gr currants, 75gr sultanas.
Simmer for half an hour, add a few shakes chutney.
When the carrots and potatoes are done, serve (with rice works well).
Gore alert: Don’t click on “more” if you’re a sensitive viewer who believes that meat grows in polystyrene containers in the shops.
A Girl and Her Gun
A Girl came into guns fairly late in life, after being vehemently anti. She went on to write a post heard ’round the world.
I started this blog as a journal to my daughter, who being raised by me, believed guns were bad and scary, so now that I was carrying one, well, it rocked her world.
I wanted her to see the struggle I went through and how I came to carry a gun. I didn’t want her to think it was casual or that she couldn’t trust me or my opinions. I was very nervous that she would doubt everything I said because I had changed my mind on an issue I felt so strongly about.
I had no idea when I started this journey that I would change so much. That I would actually enjoy shooting or that it would become a passion of mine and I had no idea how my daughter would feel about me or guns.
Truvelo
This is Ralf Gebert of Truvelo. I worked for him, briefly, back in… 1988 or thereabouts — holiday work when I was studying. That’s before they started building these toys.
The top rifle is a 50 BMG (although everyone at this show calls it 12,7 x 99 mm) and the bottom two are babies — 308 Winchester and 338 Lapua.
I’d like me some of these but (1) expensive (2) what do I use it for stupid question (2) expensive.
But nice.
The biggest rifle on display, in 20 x 110 mm Hispano. Longer than the Solothurn (20 x 105 mm), shorter than the Lahti (20 x 138 mm) (for UC fans).
This would take some serious explaining to CFR to get a licence. I don’t like saying impossible, but in this case the word is probably appropriate.
Curator Needed, Part Four…
To follow up on Tamara‘s Curator Needed, Part III…
Aside: I still have to tell all of y’all (both of you) about the teardrop trailer I built and then dragged up to Etosha for the school holidays. But that’s not important right now.
Just north of Windhoek there’s a little town (most towns in Namibia are little, and there are not so many towns either) called Okahandja, and there we passed a military museum. I was kind of sad that we didn’t have time to visit.
But after checking out their web page, I’ve changed my mind.
Some gems include:
“DFSH 41: The gun is made out of brown wood and black metal. It has openings at the end of it, where bullots will come out when it is used.”
“60MM Mortal: Its made out of metal, plastic and leather and its green in colour. It has a metal object fixed on it, where it can stand.”
Yes, thank you. I go to museums to glean these arcane and obscure bits of inside knowledge, carefully researched and tastefully presented to discerning visitors from distant climes.
IDPA postal shoot
The IDPA postal shoot consists of four stages (this year, at least) which are shot by IDPA members all over the world, as standardised as possible, and then collated to give you an idea of how much you suck compared to… well… the world.
We shot it today at FBGC. And I sucked*.
In the order we shot it in:
Bike Crash (Stage 3). Lying on your weak side, with the firearm on the ground in front of you, and three targets mounted horizontally to simulate dogs, 7 – 14m away. My grouping was excellent. My aim, notsomuch.
2-0, 2-2, 2-2 (means two shots on target, in the zero zone on the first target and in the -1 zone on targets two and three, for two points down on targets two and three), raw time 6.95.
Bucket Brigade (Stage 2). Starting with a bucket in your weak hand, two targets on the move strong hand only, then two targets (with a no-shoot (hostage)) 7m away through a gap, then two more targets around a corner, 8 1/2m away, with another no-shoot.
2-2, 1-5, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0, 2-1, raw time 21.34. Pretty good, except for the one handed on the move with bucket in hand first two (two shots in the -1 zone on first target, only one shot on the second target).
Dinner Interruptus (Stage 4). Start sitting down, both hands on table. Four targets, two 10m away, two 21m away. The bottom half of the front two targets is blocked out, so a shot there is a miss. And the two back targets flank a no-shoot.
3-2, 2-6, 3-7, 3-5, and a hit on a non-threat. Ouch. I need to practice my shoot-sitting-down a bit. Raw time 22.46.
“Cup” Standards (Stage 1). For this one you don’t need concealment, but hey, who cares. Three targets 10m away, two of them flanking the inevitable no-shoot. Two shots each, then another six shots strong hand, then another six shots weak hand. With a revolver**, this needs two reloads. All timed as one string.
6-0, 6-0, 6-0. Damn I’m hot. Except that I also plugged the non-threat. Twice. So if you know I’m around, try not to get taken hostage ‘cos I’ll prolly end up taking you out as well. Raw time 33.47, I also need to practice my reloads.
Next week we’re doing the SADPA postal. Looks like it might be even more fun.
* I suck a whole lot less than I used to, and a whole lot more than I will in future, but I suck.
** Taurus Model 66 (357 Magnum) stainless, 3″ barrel, shooting 38 Special SWC reloads (158 gr at about 920 fps).
Edit, 2013-01-14: I’m #11 out of 38 SSR MM-level shooters.
SADPA postal shoot
The SADPA postal shoot consists of four stages, shot by local IDPA shooters, to get an idea of where you rank. You can shoot multiple times, but only the first score you submit counts — which leads to some people shooting and then tearing up their score sheet because of completely missing the 15m target. But Richard Dews is a rather large fellow so we don’t argue with him.
Anyway, I shot it on Saturday at FBGC and I sucked. But maybe less so than last week. This time I shot both the revolver (SSR) and my 1911 (CDP).
Modified Bill Drill (Stage 1). Three targets at 5, 10 and 15m. Six shots at each target. Boring :-) Except I completely stuffed up the 15m SSR stage and got 22! points down. SSR raw time 19.35, CDP raw time 21.84 with 8 points down.
Standards #708 (Stage 2). This was a fun one. Six targets from 4m to 25m, with no-shoots in front of the front two targets. I really thought I was going to plug the no-shoots but I managed not to. And I even hit the 25m target a few times. SSR 36.91, 10 points down, CDP 35.83, 12 points down. Both revolver and pistol required two reloads — I’m only marginally slower with the speed loaders, but that’s just because I’m way too slow with magazine changes.
Seated (Stage 3). Four targets, all 5m away. One no-shoot. Tactical sequence, which means one shot to each target and then empty the magazine at them. 12 shots, that’s one reload for the revolver as well as for the pistol (7 round magazine, so I started with 8 shots in the gun). SSR 18.03 and one point down, CDP 18.89 and 4 points down. Gotta work on those magazine changes.
Quick Standards (Stage 4). This one was… weird. Seven shots at 3m… and yes, you can miss at 3m, but only if your brain comes undone, like mine (of course) did. Note to self, seat the bloody magazine properly. I can’t think of any real-world scenario where I would draw with my strong hand and then transition to weak hand only — but then, IDPA is a game. SSR 6.49 no points down, CDP 6.89 and two points down.
I figure that when the nationwide results get published I should probably look for my name on the last page or two…
Even More Dedicated
My Dedicated Hunter certificate came today. To get this, I actually had to study — there’s a test on animals and habitats and ethics and all kinds of stuff, there’s also a shooting test (Impala target at 100m sitting, 200m prone, 50m standing, three shots at each distance).
I am now a Dedicated Hunter, Dedicated Collector and Dedicated Sport Shooter in terms of the Firearms Control Act.
Now I can apply for the 300 Winchester Magnum Howa 1500 I bought a few months ago.
Pew pew pew
Took the Garand, the Auto-5, the Browning Semi-auto 22, the Norinco JW-21, the Freedom Arms 454, and four Spanish pistols to the range, along with two pups of the female persuasion.
The Freedom Arms has a new front sight blade, it was terribly high with the old blade, now it looks like I can come up a few clicks at 50m, so that’s all good. That’s why I went, to check the difference the new front sight made. The rest was just fun.
Practicing for the shotty, which kicks a bit more than a 22.
Norinco 22 levergun — copy of the Winchester 9422 — fun little gun, as is the Browning.
Three diminutive 1911 rip-offs. Star in 9mmK, Llamas in 32 ACP and 22LR. The 22 is straight blow-back, the other two are toggle-link.
Star Model B. Almost a full-size 1911 rip-off.
Fun was had.
Someone’s tax dollars at work
No, not mine, I don’t pay tax in dollars…
So over on http://billnelson.senate.gov/ there’s a poll, “Would you favor reinstating the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004?”.
Two things wrong here, (A) I can vote, and we have our own set of gun laws so my opinion is worthless, and (B)…
25 + 25 = 1903?
(H/T to Kevin, except when he voted there were 23 yes and 27 no, 1745 total votes.)