DAB III AAR

Pretty sparklies.  I almost don't want to shoot them.

Photo Credit - Duh*

First off, thanks to Bob for hosting this event at his private gun club.  Man that place is awesome.
We had a really great time at Dallas Area Blogshoot III.  Only three fifths of the BAR clan originally intending on going made it.  Belle and Bootsie both caught some type of crud and went down for the count.
So it was yours truly, Sonnage and Duh* representing BAR at the shoot.
While my childrens haven't become avid shooters, I'm pleased that when invited they are always game for a bit of shooty goodness.
We spent more time shooting pistols than anything else.

We brought a few hand toys with us.  The most "amusing" was the Taurus .44 mag revolver Sonnage brought with him.
It has a very light frame.  Shooting cowboy action loads out of it was not so bad.  The recoil from the  "real" loads was horrific.





On to the pics:
Duh tries out Belle's Glock 26                                     Sonnage shoots the XDm

Those two are so calm, cool and collected handling firearms, I had to ask if they were having a good time.  A positive response brought a smile to my face.

It wasn't all business at the range though.
Wait, what? What are you doing back there child?

 

Range rules prohibited The Redneck Engineer's .50 cal party favor, but Bob brought party balloons.

                 
     

Those buggers just won't sit still in the wind and let you shoot them.  We had a little game of "one shot"  to see who could pop the most balloons with a handgun.
Srsly? I missed? stoopid wind.

The Redneck Engineer brought a 9mm carbine with him.  I didn't mention this to him, but prior to the Great Ammo Shortage of '13 I'd periodically been shopping for a 9mm carbine.  This one had a red dot site on it too! I've never shot a red dot sight in real life. Man that was cool!  That's your's truly shooting at steel targets.
The sight was having some issues.  TRE said he thought the battery was about to crap out.  It was off by one full steel target to the left. So I just adjusted and aimed one steel target to the right. Plink. Plink. Plink.
The far right target was the more challenging to hit, as I had to eyeball the offset.









I learned that while my son had been taught to shoot a rifle by his Grandfather, my daughter had never shot a rifle  before.  Our gracious host acquiesced to my request to provide a bit of tutelage to Duh in the fundamentals of rifle shooting.


Ugh.  I was trying to get a good pic of Bob S. and Duh stepped right in the way.
Duh shoots one of Bob's .22 LR rifles.













Later, My son and I brought out the .22 LR Ithaca saddle gun to do some plinking at steel targets.
That little rifle is older than he is, by quite a bit. I think I bought that when I was 18 just because I thought it was cool.  I had no real idea at the age of 18 as to what I was going to do with it.
This might be the 4th or 5th time it's actually had rounds run through it.
Now I know.  It was so my future son and I could flatten lead on steel disks....some day.

Belle's Tokorev didn't make the trip.  Someone, ahem, didn't maintain her rifle properly after the last time it was shot.  In a word, RUST.  Rust in bad places. Shame. Shame. Shame.  If she doesn't do better, I'm taking possession of said rifle.
Having a plethora of 7.62 x 54R ammo, I brought that to cycle through Bob's Mosins.
I brought way more than I was willing to shoot.

Not shown in the photo are the bayonets on most of those Mosin Nagants.  I found those pointy sticky things to be a bit intimidating.  They were long enough to protrude through the back side of my rather portly figure.

I shot one of Bob's Mosins twice.  I have an exquisite sore spot lingering on my right shoulder as I type this post.
When you shoot a Mosin Nagant, you know you've shot a RIFLE.













In parting, I'll leave you with a video of my reaction to shooting "real" .44 mag loads out of a very light framed revolver.

*  When my grand daughter was learning to talk, she couldn't say "Amanda" and referred to my daughter as "duh".  That moniker stuck for quite a while, but has faded into disuse as the grand child grew and could handle three syllable words.  I'm still kind of fond of the nickname though. It is completely inaccurate nick however.  Duh is not duh.

The first half century

Happy Birthday Bob! The big five oh.

He was celebrating his birthday today at the blog shoot.  At least that was the rumor going 'round

I neither confirm nor deny that I've actually met Bob.

More on DAB III in a little while. I'm off loading pics right now.

My Cat the Assassin

I'm wallowing in self pity today as Kx and offspring are at DABIII without me there.  It seems that I developed a bit of a stomach bug Friday night and felt awful all day Saturday but I do feel a little better today.

I'm really hoping that everyone is having the great time that I had anticipated having, as I know that everyone that I've met previously are simply wonderful people and I'm just sad that I'm not there to partake in some therapeutic shooty goodness.

The culprit?  I'm thinking that it's Miss Kitty.

You see, this crazy feline loves to stick her nasty paw in my water glass when I'm not looking and then lick the cold water from her paw.  It would be cute, however, if I don't know she's doing it well, ill effects are sure to follow.

Some time back I was getting sick about once every couple of weeks.  One day I had stepped away and when I came back, I caught her in the act. She really drives me crazy sometimes.

My dear friend, Amber informed me that she thinks that Miss Kitty is an assassin and is trying to kill me.  Considering her lack of affection for anyone with two legs unless she's hungry, I'm prone to believe it!

Take care y'all and will catch you Dallas Area Bloggers at the next shoot!!

Road trip

Sonnage and I.
I don't see much of him these days.
Hanging in the hotel watching tv.
Killing time till DAB III.
Man I needed this break.

blogshoot ammo

Best thing that has happened all week. The ammo order for the DAB III (blog shoot) came in.
Belle bought her AR at the first gun show we hit right after obummer's re-election.  I think it's made all of one trip to the rifle range. We'll be taking that to the shoot.
My hope is that some generous soul at the shoot will help us sight it in.
I grew up shooting shotguns and iron sights. I don't be knowin much bout opticals.  Belle is in the same boat.
We made an attempt at adjusting the scope the one time we took it out.
I made it worse I'm pretty sure.

I Found That to be Quite Cathartic

Belle's post that is.
It's why I've not bothered to post about Global Worming, or Politics, or the Gun Grabbers, or the recent Scandals,  since the last Presidential election.
I'm still not sure that I really give a shit anymore.  Just enough folks in our half of the political spectrum elected to vote Libertarian, or not bother to vote at all that The Won got a second term. 3% or so.
3 effing percent.
We hang together, or we hang separately.
Good job morons.
Those of you that are actual opinion leaders out there in the blogosphere should be more careful about what you write.  Such as, " well my state is going republican anyway so I'm going to vote my conscience and vote Libertarian."   Meanwhile Cletus in a swing state reads that and sez "hell yeah, me too!" while dribbling a bit of beer as he feels under his ass for the remote.

On a more positive note; it appears my egregiously expensive order of .223 will arrive in advance of our departure for DAB III.


I'm beginning to feel all better again. I do believe I've reconnected with my inner child  asshole.
The BAR editorial board can go fuck themselves.
And I mean that in the most politically correct and loving way :-)

Silence is sometimes frustrating

Yes I know that I've been pretty silent these past months here on BAR.  The fact of the matter is I've been doing other things (as TBG hinted) and basically have just stuck my head in the sand.

Part of the reason for this is that I'm angry.  So angry that a part of me doesn't trust myself to blog about it because I don't really feel like going through an IRS audit (said tongue in cheek... sort of).

I'm angry that I constantly feel the need to have to explain to buttheads WHY I have a right, endowed by my creator, to defend my own life, and lives of those whom I value.

I'm angry that my government wants to make it has hard as possible for me to defend myself.

I'm angry that my country, which was once the land of opportunity and promise, is now becoming the land of blockades and excuses.

I'm angry that we've allowed grown men and women become more and more dependent on the state, and less motivated to rise above the bondage of dependency to a level of personal achievement and success.

I'm angry that our society has determined that it's okay to just get by, that it's okay to shirk responsibility, that it's uncool to work hard to make a living rather than keeping with the values that we are each responsible for our own actions, that we alone are the determinors of our own fate.

I'm angry for the fact that I am constantly forced, by the point of a gun, to give my earned money to those who neither earned it, nor deserve it.

I'm angry that my (and i say that loosely) President is incompetent and corrupt, yet isn't forced to take responsiblity for his failings.

I'm angry that in an effort to sway public opinion about guns that this administration allowed guns to go across the border and then lost track of them.

I'm angry that this adminstration allowed terrorists to overrun our embassy and then LIED about it so that Obama would get re-elected.

I'm angry this administration has wire tapped the press (though it's comical to watch the media defend it while feigning outrage).

I'm angry that the second party couldn't find someone better than Mittens to oppose him.

I'm angry that....................  ugh!!!

See???    This is why I've been silent, I really haven't had many positive to things to say lately so I figured that silence was better.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest....   well not all of it but  a lot of it....    I am ready to resurface...   maybe.....  

I know one thing is for certain.........   DAB III Can't get here fast enough!!

 

Traffic tickets

I've had a grand total of two in the 37 years I've been driving. I can assure you it's not because I always abide by the speed limit.
Proud Hillbilly's post about her long commute and lost keys got me to thinking about my bi-weekly drives to Austin and my own daily commute.

I get this funny, "something's not right feeling" sometimes when I'm booking it down the highway.
I've learned to listen to that quiet voice that tells me to back off the throttle just a bit.  70 might be better than 80.

It happened on the way home from work tonight. Left late, after the rush hour traffic was done and done, but there was a wreck on 290  that was messing things up so I elected to take the tollways to get past most of it.

On the inclined entrance ramp to the Westpark tollway not a car in sight in front of me. One thing my little Scion tC will do is climb hills.  A little tweak on the gas pedal drops it into 5th gear and it actually accelerates, going up hill.  It pisses off pickup truck drivers tailgating me. They do catch up eventually though.*
The speed limit in the first few miles of the tollway where I get on is 55. I was at 70 and climbing before I got to the top of the hill.  As I was coming to the merge where it becomes two lanes and the speed limit bumps up to 65.
 I got that funny feeling and my foot reflexively backed off the throttle.
I was decelerating from about 72 to 70 as I blew past an unmarked, and I mean "unmarked" PoPo SUV sitting on the right shoulder.
White.  No Markings.  No antennae. Very dark tinted windows.
I did make out a light bar in the back window as I got closer. The dead give away was the driver's window down and the radar gun. Of course by the time I saw that, the brain is saying, " well, I'm screwed."
So I just held it steady at 70 and kept going, watching my rear view mirror to see if the PoPo lit it up.
He didn't, so after I got over the next overpass I drove like one of my great aunts the rest of the way home.**


*  If I happen to run up behind someone with out of state plates. I've written about this before people! If you are going to bunch up and drive slow, do it in one freaking lane!

** Actually, the cops down here tend to work speed traps in pairs. Not seeing another after a few miles I ramped the RPM back up.  Hey. I haz to get home and gots to grocery shop on the way.

Ammo Shopping

Dalllas Area blogshoot III is coming up next weekend.
I've scrounged a box of 9mm the few times I've hit the pistol range over the past few months.

Periodically I've been checking Gunbot and cringing at the prices and out of stock notifications.
Things seem to be settling down a little, or should I say my fellow Americans seem to be freaking out and hoarding a little less.  Prices are still high, but availability seems to be improving.

You can have spare time or money, but typically not both at the same time. As the glacial pace of blog posts attests here at BAR, spare time has been nonexistent.  Money on the other hand is less of an issue as long as I don't collapse from fatigue.*

So I bit the bullet and ordered some .223 and 9mm for the shoot next weekend.









* My mantra for the next week: "I will not stress about work at the blogshoot. I will not stress about work at the blogshoot. I will not stress about work at the blogshoot".  I figure if I repeat that to myself about ten thousand times over the next week it might work. The copious amount of recoil therapy at the shoot is sure to help.

Company Tournament tonight

Lets see how bad I can screw this up.
And, no, I have not been drinking.
Much.
Yet.
Stupid camera phone camera.

Bacon wrapped Bacon

In Nashville last week I had one of the best pork chops I've ever tasted. If you ever get invited to "The Standard", take the opportunity.

One challenge I run into cooking chops is they tend to dry out.  I think "The Standard" found the solution.   Without a doubt, this is not a heart healthy meal, but certainly soothing to the soul.
I've got some black eyed peas queued up for a side.

Two strips of thick applewood bacon wrapped around each chop, and a bit of Tony C's cajun seasoning on top.
We'll see how it comes out; got about 30 more minutes in the oven.
























Update: came out good. Left the chops in the oven a bit long, but bacon heals a world of hurts.

I Earned every freaking one of mine

I'm not giving them back.

Researchers find a way to reverse gray hair

I wear my gray hairs as a merit badge of accomplishment. After all, I've never been this old before.

Cities with the worst traffic

Srsly? Boston ranks tenth and Austin, TX ranks 4th for the worst traffic? A 25.8 minute average commute time?  This can't be right. This has to be a ranking based on who whines the most and loudest about traffic. 25.8 minutes.

Austin traffic is nothing, and I mean nothing compared to other cities I've driven. Fear not though, hippies. Austin is providing bike lanes all over the down town area as I type, and soon free green bicycles (they are actually painted green) will be available for your use in the down town area. Just grab the closest available government provided bike and ride to your next destination.  Grab another and ride to the next. Utopia!  I haven't seen the signage yet, but I'm sure your benevolent government has signs all over reminding  you to hydrate thoroughly during those 105 degree August days.

I wonder how long it will take for all the green bikes to be stolen and sold for scrap metal. Good thing they aren't made of copper.

Houston didn't even make the top 10 in the list.  I didn't look close enough to determine who did the study, but they were apparently totally baked when they did it.

.

No NRA for YOU!

Well, more specifically...me.
Belle and I thought we'd at least hit the exhibitions on Saturday. I mean, really, it was in our backyard for crikey's sake.
Instead, I worked. And worked, and worked Saturday. Sunday was better. I only worked.
I'm still not caught up from this past week.
This is getting old.
Now I'm off to read my favorite bloggers to get a vicarious thrill from their NRA convention posts.

Good thing I flew out of Hobby

Got home this evening from Nashville and Belle tells me some dipshit walked into terminal B today at Bush Intercontinental and popped a few rounds into the ceiling with an AR.

Cop confronted him and told him to drop his weapon.  It's unclear as to whether the cop dropped him, or he shot himself, or both.

My tin foil hat is beginning to vibrate.  The frequency and similarities of these events seems too coincidental.

I bet he's a

right wing home grown bible clinging tea party terrorist who dislikes obama and paying taxes.

Mentally ill liberal gun control advocate that played too many video games and went off his meds.

There. I saved at least 5 days of the 24/7 news cycle, so you can go back to pointing and laughing at Lindsay Lohan.