Gunning at Perry
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Front site - - press trigger

Gunning at Perry

 

I recently had a chance to compete in a Modified Qualification Course for handgun at Camp Perry.  The course was run by Friends of Camp Perry.  It was very exciting!  The weather sucked, but at the push of a button a series of computer controlled targets popped up for five second and then fell over.  There was about three seconds between targets and you never knew which target would pop up next!  There were forty targets, little green guys about ¾ life size, each needing one hit to fall over.  It could be a hit anywhere, which says something about the military concept of marksmanship.  The interesting thing, there was a lag between your hit the the computer taking the target down.  To make sure you didn’t miss, you double tapped anything you weren’t sure off.  It took the Captain 43 rounds to knock down 40 targets.  That a round to target ratio of 1.07.  A perfect score would be 1.00.  There was a lot of good shooting there and everyone hand a good time.  They ran about 250 shooters on Saturday.  You can find out more at  www.friendsofcampperry.org.  I understand their will be a rifle/carbine fun match in late fall of 07.

 

I saw a lot of good shooting and a lot of bad.  One example was the agricultural style: one into the ground in front of the target followed by one into the target.  I stopped watching that guy, I did want any of his Ju-Ju.

 

There were several brass fountains, lots of fast shooting and slow hits.  These folks usually had several empties into the air before they got a hit on the target.  One shooter had a pile of brass, I mean the shooting position was almost solid yellow and he ran out of ammo before the last two targets came up. 

 

We had the focused shooter, who doesn’t remember any mag changes (all done under the clock, no down time for reloads).  I kinda fall into this group.

 

We had the Sussies (rhymes with pussy) shooting .22 with two hands and red dots.  Enough said about them.

 

We also had a single action guy bring 8 05 9 revolvers.  He loaded each one and did New York reloads.  I did know why he didn’t bring one of those old time cowboy guns we use to see in the movies.  Those things must of fired a 100 time before the Lone Ranger reloaded.

 

Several people were just having trouble.  I saw one chick fight to clear her jam when her hard ball .45 ACP double fed.  It took her three targets (about 21 seconds ) to get back in the fight.  I talked to her and found out that not only did her gun jam, but she tore a little flesh getting it back into service.  That why the Captain likes GLOCKs.

 

Camp Perry is a pretty cool place.  Its right under Lake Erie and it’s impact area is part of Erie.  They send boats out to chase the tourists who can’t read map out of the impact range.  Those of you who can, never go into the impact range.

Shooting Yourself
Mood:  incredulous

Most people take aim and shoot at a distant target, but not John Edwards. John takes aim at his foot and lets it fly. BANG! So much for that career.

Elizabeth just got the terrible news that her breast cancer had spread to her bones. It’s a death sentence. While everyone is hoping for a miracle, it’s not very likely. Breast cancer in 2004 and now bone, it’s terrible news. 

Spin this anyway you want, but would any woman in the US vote for a man who would rather run for the nomination for president than spend what time he has left with her. Heck, he could promise to repeal the machinegun restrictions and make CCC legal in all fifty states, make ammo tax deductible, and I wouldn’t vote for him.

Mrs. Edwards say “I don’t look sickly, I don’t fell sickly…” which is a long distance from the inevitable, sadder times ahead. CNN Bill Schneider says, “Elizabeth … may be her husband’s biggest asset.” Why? Bill thinks it portrays John as “(having)..maturity, judgment...required by the President … able to function and focus under very difficult circumstances.” I think Bill had writers block and this is the best he could do.

Most of us see John Edwards as a self-centered jerk that would rather be nominated to run for the office of the president than spend what time he and his children have left with the women he loves and the mother of his children.

We keep all cancer victims in our thoughts and prayers. Especially Elizabeth Edwards. But if John wins the nomination, I'll pray for the nation.

Islam should die
Topic: pissed

Imagine a religion that can justify the killing of children to get to heaven.  No civilized nation would consider blowing up children with a car bomb just so they could get the weapon a little farther inside the target.  Not even the VC.  I find it unthinkable.

 

Nevertheless, that is what radical Islamic insurgents in Baghdad did.  I saw the article first on the CNN website and found a link to an article in The New York Times.  Solders allowed the car to get past the checkpoint because the driver had two children in the back seat.  We westerners value children, who would take their child and strap a bomb on to them?  The radical Islamic a**holes parked the car across from a school, abandoned the children and car before it blew up killing the kids and several others.

 

If you believe that dying while killing your enemies guarantees you paradise, this act makes perverted sense.  It also makes clear why we should be fighting in Iraq and in the near future, Iran. This is a good thing because it is better to fight those battles there, then in Cleveland, Las Vegas or Washington DC.

 

Islam is an evil religion.  Any religion what justifies the killing of children to punish your enemies (most likely someone who disagrees on who’s the historic head of your loopy religion) need to suppressed, hunted down and given a one way ticket to paradise.

 

Unfortunately, this conflict will happen here on the North and South American continents.  Perfectly tolerant people will make excuses for these religious thugs and allow them to gain control of our societies.  Maybe not in my lifetime, but your grandchildren will be faced with “punishment” to encourage them to convert to Islam. 

 

Me, I spent a Sunday afternoon zeroing in my SKS at the range.  It is a simple rifle, durable and sturdy.  No, it does not shoot a half minute of angle at 100 yards, but I can keep all my rounds in a nine-inch circle at 50 yards.  Good enough for close quarter combat.  It uses the same ammo that so prevalent in the world, so I know I can always battle field collect if I have to.  I suggest you pack one way while the anti-gunners, pro-slavers allow it (A man with a gun is a citizen, a man without a gun is a slave).  I am thinking about packing my hollow points with lard.  It is, after all, pig fat.

Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: Flying While Muslim

Flying While Muslim

 

Let me see if I understand this.  I dress like people who claim that our counrty and those of our supporters will be destroyed because their god wants that.  These same people proclaimed in print and electronic media that terror and death will be brought to our doorstep and the rich and poor, innocent and guilty will be slaughtered alike until their beliefs are universally accepted.  I then get on a mode of transportation that by its nature isolates the passengers and robs them of any sense of control.  I travel with three to six other people who also look and dress like me.

 

Suddenly, without warning, we stand-up and start chanting in a strange language.  Panic spreads like wildfire among the passengers who envision their loved one trying to identify them from a torn off earlobe or scorched and flattened ring.  We don’t bother explain, “We're just praying”.  Nor do we even consider not standing and simply pray in silence in our seat.  Afterward, when we're taken off the plane, by authorized members of that society charged with the duty to risk their lives to protect society, but I’m not tortured.  Nobody takes a blow torch to my testicles, rapes my sister or wife in front of me or wires me up to 220 volts and “destructively interrogates” me.  An after awhile I’m released from custody with all my fingers and other body parts attached and functioning.

 

And they have a bitch about that?

 

They're lucky the passengers didn’t jump them, jam some ham in their mouths and grind them into paste.

 

Jihad has always been a fundamental compound of the Islamic faith, as has violence.  While not mentioned as a pillar of faith, it is certainly the floor and roof of this religion.  Let’s say few words about jihad.  I’m told by linguistics, that jihad describes a striving or struggle in the way of the lord.  We have come to associate this word with an uncontrolled, mindless frenzy of violence, words not usually associated with most of our understanding of God.  A better term might be hiranah, which represents the concepts of outlaw.  Let’s not accept the term jihad, but call it as it is: hiranah.

 

These "holy men" are terrorist.  They were flying while hiranah Muslim.  We should have asked them to step outside at 20 thousand feet and be done with them.

The Cartoon Face Of Islam
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Cartoon Drawings of Mohammad
Topic: Islam extreme
The Cartoon Face Of Islam.

How the mighty have fallen. Once Islam was the intellectual center of the world. While Europe decayed into a superstitious, ignorant class structured pool of darkness, laughing called the “Dark Age”, Islam was the light shinning in the darkness. Literature, science, commerce, medicine all flourished under Islam. But now a little ink and paper is all it takes to reduce many of it’s adherents to incomprehensible, foaming at the mouth blather.

I refer to cartoon drawings of Mohammad.

Yes, I understand the proscription against images of Mohammad. Makes sense as one could anticipate the development of a cult worshiping not God but Mohammad. But, really and ink draw with of someone with Mideast features titled “Mohammad” and you want to burned down cities? Draw a cartoon on Moses or Jesus or Buddha and I might think it’s in poor taste, but I not going to get too excited about it.

This is not to suggest we should take these craze people with guns less then serious. It doesn’t take much courage or intellectual brain power to hide behind children and shoot at uniformed men and women. Bit off more than you can chew? You know what I mean: there are three of them and only 8 of you and you’re down to your last 12 human shields. Simple fix, drop your weapons, slitter off in to the darkness and let the Americans provide medical aid while you uncover another cache of weapons. Don’t deny it, you do it all the time.

I use to think we should pack a little pig fat into the hollow point of each rifle and handgun round. The British found out how powerful that was when their opponents in India told their native troops that the paper cases of gun power were oiled with either pig or beef fat. In fact the paper was oiled with petroleum based oil. The devote Muslims and Hindus could not bring themselves to bite the paper and pour the power into the rifles as they were trained.

In the Philippians at the end of the 1800’s we started burying the insurrection leaders, so I am told, in pigskin shrouds. That seemed to stop the uprising.

Now I think we should stamp an image of Mohammad on the base of every bullet we send to the sand box. See what you think when you get to heaven and Mohammad turns you away.

An American Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage.

It’s a word associated with difficult travel, distant places and mysterious customs. What is a pilgrimage but a quest, a journey to understanding and enlightenment? It often has religious overtones: all pious muslins make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Many Eastern Indians travel across the subcontinent of India to bath or deposited the ashes of loved ones in the Ganges River. We talk to our neighbors about their visit to the Holy Land regardless of their faith traditions.

We all know someone who returned to the “old world” to visit and gain an understanding of the community and country a parent or grandparent was born in. They eat the food and drink the beverages and visit the churches, stores and fields their ancestor knew. They may not admit it, but they were on a pilgrimage.

I recently realized I needed to make a pilgrimage. Not to a religious shrine, but freedom’s shrine. I need to go to Shanksville. Right now, it’s not easy to get to. A temporary area is set up on private land. Flight 93 flew into the recovered strip land from a coal company. Eventually a national park with easy access and paved walk-ways will spring up from the grassy field. But now the spirits of those martyrs and heroes can still be felt.

I suggest you go now, during the winter while the icy wind cuts at your face and your eyes water. Then no one will notice the tears. Go now before a paved parking lot is made and see the field as the hopeful rescuers making futile searches for survivors saw it. Go now before the history reconstructionist have chance to shade what happened and try to make us feel part of the responsibility. Go Now!

Stand by the benches with names on them, by the little name markers and memorials that mark the edges of the public area and stare out at the chain-link fence with the American Flag hanging on it. That’s the crash site. Your can still hear words of the passengers on Flight 93 faintly on the wind. Words like love, honor, duty, self-discipline, devotion and sacrifice seem to stir about the dry grass and move between the tokens left by visitors.

We stand there and wish somehow to be part of it. Not of the dieing or the pain but of the courage and commitment shone by the passengers of Flight 93. Ask youself, could I do it? Knowing some criminal was about to use me as part of a horrendous weapon, could I, me, stand up and help up stop it regardless of the cost? We answer yes, we because we are Americans and that’s what Americans do. So we leave a token to remind ourselves and others that a little part of us was on flight 93.

I stood there, carry gun on ankle, wondering about myself and the people who have make us their sworn enemies. I have a permit for Ohio and Pennsylvania. I carry the rest of tools, a reload, OC spray, pocket flash light and I wonder if these tools would have made any difference to the outcome of four different flights on Sept 11. I believe we have been at an undeclared war for many years and I know that these criminals must be challenged and resisted. I will not give up and wait to be rescued. I will participate in my own rescue. I know that if these tools had been available the results would have been different.

When the officials finished with the crash site, they covered it with soil. The park service will plant grass and carefully mow it. It’s a mistake. We should have left that ugly, scared, burnt ground as it was, a raw, gapping hole as a reminder to ourselves and the world about how heroes sometime need to answer the call.

In time wild flowers would bloom and cover this sacred spot. Wild and free creatures would come and make their homes amid the free unconstrained plants. That would be a good thing.

the jersy notes
Well, I in a place I always swore I’d never be. Yes, that’s right… I’m in New Jersey. It was not my choice. The Captain would never go someplace were he was not wanted and where the presence of hollow point bullet could add substantially to your jail time. A place in which CCW has been denied to its citizens so long, they think it’s a normal human condition. Come on; do you really think God meant for you to be defenseless? I’m here ‘cause I’m attending a training course. Don’t ask. I’m not going to tell you and it really isn’t important. It’s just something to make me better at what I do for a living. I drove from Akron Ohio because airport hassles, delays, collecting luggage, getting a rental or catching a shuttle would take me almost AS LONG as it took me to drive. On the upside when I drive I can bring the kitchen sink if I wanted it. I can stop and stretch my legs when I want and choose what I like to listen to. And there’s no dam’ yuppie trying to squeeze out a few more hours of productive work into his or her busy day. I really can’t complain about them, most of the time there busy, silent and ignore me. Can really fault a fellow for wanting to work hard, but brother, take sometime to relax. Have you been following the FUBAR storm on the Yahoo IDPA discussion group? It’s a few weeks old news by now but I wanted to wait to comment on it. The question seems to rotate around one specific thumb. This thumb consists of the questions “Is IDPA a sport/game? Or is it a place to practice your training concepts?” There are several variations of these questions and a lot of shouting went on over this. If you’re of the mind you might consider reading the posts on this. The captain says it’s silly and distracts from the limited and important time set aside for shooting. Which is better Ford, Chevy or Dodge..Who cares! Should I have 10, 12 or 15 rounds in a magazine? And which is better .45 ACP, 357 SIG or 9mm? Who cares!!! The first gets you to the range, the second determine how often you get to practice your reload and the third doesn’t mater if you hit what you aim at. This is not a new debate… I was listening to a book tape of Louis L’Amour’s “The Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon.” The Bantam audio book had a 1987 copyright date. Louis has his character demonstrates his marksmanship, which by IDPA or any other standard would be most impressive. The other book character comments that sticks don’t shoot back and the real test will be performance under fire. Of course Louis’s character has nothing to fear on that point. IDPA is a game. You get out of it what you put in. As they say, train hard, train often, train seriously and when it’s time, go with what ever you got. .