Wouter's Blog – Page 38 – On the cutting edge of cocking about.

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…

2012-11-11 by wrm Guns 0

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.

2012-11-03 by wrm Guns 1

Remouillage

Is French for “how can you throw that away?”. (not really)

Basically, you make stock. You then take the meat and bones, add fresh onion and carrots, and make stock… again.

Sure, the second stock is kinda weak, but it makes a damnfine not-so-clean rice (dirty rice has chicken livers. This is not it).

I started with cheap chicken. Four breasts, on the bone. On the braai for a few minutes, then into the slow cooker with onions, carrots, pepper, allspice… you know the drill. Don’t forget a tablespoon of vinegar.

Cooked overnight, drained. Back into the slow cooker, fresh onion, fresh carrot, water.

For the rice, fried an onion in oil, added the rice, fried that in the oil, added some white wine, stirred a bit, added the stock, boiled ’till done, added fried mushrooms. Some people would call this risotto, but real risotto is different. And more work. And I like my grains separate.

2012-11-01 by wrm Foooooood 0

Impressed

We all dread having to deal with Home Affairs — replacing an Identity Document or renewing a passport is seen as a schlepp.

But I had to do it, so I got there this morning at 07:41 (wanted to be there at 07:30 when they open, but traffic), got ticket #26.

Yes, they have a system where you get a ticket, which is logged on the system, and then they call you to the correct desk. Which means that one desk can be serving number 6, the other desk number 36, while you, number 26, are sitting reading your kindle (Shiver on the Sky, BTW, and I think it jumped the shark halfway through so I stopped reading it).

It also means that the fellow you need to see deals with number 6, 11, 24 and then 26, because all the other numbers are waiting in a different virtual queue.

I was out there by 08:30. Impressive.

I shall have to stop calling them “Infernal Affairs” now.

(My new drivers’ licence application at Fish Hoek traffic department was equally painless)

2012-10-25 by wrm Farting around 0

Chicken Paprikash

Made this recipe last night. Yum.

Firstly, you need decent paprika. I bought half a kilo from House of Goodies. Red = good. Brown = crap.

Mix some* flour and some* paprika. Coat the chicken (in this case, four drumsticks, four thighs) in this mix and fry in oil, in batches. Remove, fry some* onion, cayenne pepper, a bit more* paprika, salt. Add chicken back in, add (homemade, I think this was the seekrit ingredient) stock, cook.

Add creme fraiche at the end, with the leftover flour. This didn’t thicken the sauce as much as I would have liked.

Serve with mash, although it also goes damn well with sourdough bread.

* The recipe gives quantities. I see that more as a guideline.

2012-10-21 by wrm Foooooood 1

New tails

Two much anticipated additions to the household. Currently known as “the black one” and “the shy one”.

Proposed names have been Pip and Squeek (but that would probably need to change to Heffa and Lump if they’re anything like the other male cat in the house), Westley and Vizzini, Scylla and Charybdis — but these ones definitely don’t come when you call them so what’s the use.

2012-10-15 by wrm Farting around House 1

Brainworm

It bothered me all night.

Hazmat Modine‘s Bahamut (featured as an instrumental on So you think you can dance) sounds like something I’ve heard before… but what.

And the answer is… 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P.

It also reminds me of Clare Fader’s Cabin Fever and there’s some Tom Waits-like bits in there as well. That’s expected. But 50 Cent? Wow.

2012-10-12 by wrm Farting around 0

Namibia trip

So we saddled up the teardrop, and headed north, half past six one Saturday morning.

First sleepover was Grunau, a tiny little place known pretty much as an overnight stop where the great North road (B1) crosses the great West road (B3). I had booked (and paid for) the house-in-town advertised by Grunau Chalets, but when we got there they’d given that to someone else, banking on completing the new units by the time we got there… they didn’t.

So the kids slept in the teardrop, and management gave me a sixpack of beer rather than some kind of a refund. And since (1) we all slept over, so I got what I wanted in the first place and (2) beer places were closed (Namibia stops selling beer at 13:00, not 17:00 like I’m used to on a Saturday) all was good.

(Like the road, this post is a bit long, so here’s a cutline for you)

2012-10-09 by wrm Uncategorized 5

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.

2012-10-07 by wrm Farting around Guns 0

I thought he was taller

No, it’s not JayG… it’s Neal Stephenson, an intellectual giant if not a physical one.

He was here, in Cape Town, and the publicity was… nonexistent. I heard of it on talk radio, and only because I nipped out to buy some ally over lunch hour or something. The discussion was lead by some fellow with a consonant for a surname who was trying to make himself appear clever, and who now and then allowed Neal a word edgewise.

But it was worth it, I got to meet the man and get a signed copy of Reamde.

2012-09-25 by wrm Geek 1