The Range is Hot

95-Fahrenheit right now today at 2:00PM (UPDATE: 101.4 today at 4:00PM), and tomorrow when we go out to set-up steel targets it will be a bit warmer down there it the box-canyon with no wind…
Sunday it will be 75-degrees at 6:00AM, and about 85 when the Match starts at 8:00AM — and wearing the Cowboy gear you must wear, it should get interesting. No short-sleeve shirts, no shorts, or nuthin’ – plus you got the hat, so pack some cold water in that ice-chest.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

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Hobby Cart Update

Went down to the local feed-store and got some leather spur-straps to secure the rifle and scatter-gun. “Youth” size, $4.99 – and I flipped the hinge around because it interfered. Also paint.

Meanwhile over at Cemex the Basilite terrace block came-in and we put the five-foot diameter circle down out in the pasture. 20-blocks to a course. Looks like a fire pit but it’s not. We’ll see what happens when it rains and all the water comes up through there. There will probably be some settling and maybe I’ll add another course.

In Memory and Thanksgiving

The morning sky sixteen years later was remarkable and the day dawned cool. God protect the families who lost so much, and our Nation.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, yesterday we started with an old Danish .30-06 ammo box, a $29.97 hand-cart from Home Depot, and a couple of 16″ wheels and a piece of 1/2″ rod from Tractor Supply (wheels, the most expensive parts)…

Sawzall got the axle off and drill press got the holes drilled for clevis-pins.

Grinder smoothed out the ends.

Bolts hooked-up the old ammo box, and a caster kept-up the front end high, necessitated by the bigger wheels as the axle moved up 4-3/4″ inches.

A bit of scrap bolted up to a cross-member and notched for the rifle and shotgun.

Wheel detail:

Got me a Cowboy Action Shootin’ Cart. There are still some refinements to be completed.

Dos Vaqueros

I missed my Blogversary last Monday. Got the new 5-1/2 inch Stainless Vaquero out of the State’s 10-day wait clutches. So now I have a Light and a (short) Dark one. The matching Altamont grips look swell too. Now I don’t have to worry about multiple and various calibers at the loading table, it’s all one thing: .44-40 WCF.
Too bad about the Gunblogger Rendezvous, it seems to have gone away and I’m missing that get-together with fellow Gunnies. Except now I have new people to meet at my new Club.

Hit the Deck

First good day out in the afternoon sun (after 2:00PM) on the chaise. Solar…mmmm… Quietly dozing, basking in the warmth – hey Dickhead! If you drive the narrow, blind-corner, quiet mountain road frequented by pedestrians at 20+ over, should I NOT judge you, asshole? Craphead in little white POS Civic thinks he’s a rally driver. I should get my sling-shot and try to hit the speeders.
Funshow tomorrow, Guage-Kata Saturday down in Ione.
And then there’s the Cowboy Action Shootin’ – seems like you need TWO sixguns. Sheesh, am I made of money? I need to get a job to pay for all this recreation crap. This is not in the budget The Budget. Actually, not much is.
UPDATE: Wild Bunch seems a possible alternative to deep-pockets SASS, but the rifle requirement (“Rifle must be chambered in a pistol caliber of .40 or larger”) appears to be driven by capturing rollover SASS types. Why not shoot an 1896-1898 (“…rifles manufactured during the period from approximately 1860 until 1899…”) 34-40 Krag? Got one of those. And the shotgun is just a pain. I should paint the Mossberg brown with a rattle-can.

No Empty Holster

It’s not like I need to fill this with another Colt or Colt-clone – unless I go Cowboy. Would it be asking too much for Colt to re-introduce the New Service series – or just better if someone more reliable did it, like Ruger?


UPDATE: Meanwhile we meet an old guy who had logged many hours in a B-29 over Korea, and then became early-involved as an electronics tech in the Space Program, and knew the first seven astronauts. He had to move to Houston, then Florida, and then back to SoCal.
You know the type in the old black-and-white TeeVee reels: smoking nervously while wearing a white, short-sleeved dress shirt and necktie, with a buzz-cut and steel-glasses. During launch he had to monitor the instruments he’d installed, the accelerometers and vibration measurement… Now he carries an oxygen accumulator and fights for breath, and his small retirement winery with 16-acres of 20-year old grapes needs more caretaker than he could provide – so his ex-Air Force son was coming up from Vegas in HIS retirement to help. But the view is from the Sierra to the Coast. Amazing.