Virtual Squirrel Season

Be sure and plan some time during September for the e-Postal contest. Click on the target in the post down the page to print your target, read the rules, and take someone to the range with you to share the joy. OR, Click Here.

The contest runs through the first weekend of October!!! Don't miss out!

Not My Victrola

This week we are borrowing a real video from another YouTuber, mackie270. "A Quarter To Nine" is a fantastic Al Jolson number from the 1935 movie, "Go Into Your Dance." This clip features Ruby Keeler, who, in the lingo of her time, was known as a "Hoofer." I have listened to this song for many years, and this is the first time I have seen the movie clip that goes with it.

Here It Comes Again!

Back To The Old Grind!

Revisiting The Big Fairbanks

We videoed the big Fairbanks at Boonville again this summer. I zeroed in on the ignitor, which is a neat gizmo for lighting off an engine. Ignitors were very common in the early part of the Twentieth Century, when engines ran at low RPMs. I read somewhere that sparkplug ingition is mechanically simple, and electrically complicated; and ignitors are electrically simple, but mechanically complicated. With sparkplugs, the coil is actually two coils, a primary and a secondary. Ignitors require only a single set of windings. There is a set of points that closes in the cylinder when the rod pushes on the ignitor arm, and the points pop open when released, making a spark at the same time. An electrical engineer could probably explain what happens with the coil when the points close, and then break the circuit. Anyway, it is fascinating to watch. During the last part of the video, Duane closes the mixture valve on the carburetor and lets the engine die, then cracks it open again and lets the engine run. I think he has practiced this a few times.

Weekend Steam

This Keck engine was pulling the Baker fan at Pinckneyville during the recent steam and gas show. It developed a knock, which caused some looking and diagnosing, then adjustments. They had it running quietly again in short order. Greasy gloves transmit heat well; watch for the engineer to figure that out.

Crankin' It Up

This week I pulled out some records I had previously posted that were recorded with the old microphone. I re-recorded them to the hard drive with the new mike and replaced the uploads on YouTube. This record was made by A C Eck Robertson in 1922.

Mr. Completely's September e-Postal Contest!

September is a great time of year, with cool mornings and evenings perfect for squirrel hunting. When I lived in Eastern Kentucky I loved getting up early and hitting the hill as the sun came up, while dew dripped from the leaves, and trying to slip up on squirrels that usually spotted me before I spotted them. We are going to see with this contest if everyone is ready to go on a real squirrel hunt. The object is to hit the kill zones marked on the squirrels without wounding any game.

This is a 200 point match for pistols, requiring you to shoot two targets. Click on the photo for the link to the pdf, and you can print it, or download it. You will need two targets for each pistol you shoot, and one for each rifle. Shoot one target at 25 feet, (or the nearest distance at your range) offhand with your pistol, four shots for each squirrel, for a total of twenty shots. Each shot touching the kill zone is worth 5 points; and a shot touching the squirrel, but not touching the kill zone is minus 1 point. The second target is to be shot at 50 feet, with your arm(s) or pistol supported by shooting stick(s), tripod, side brace, or any combination of those to simulate braces you would utilize in an actual hunt.

If you want to shoot the match with a rifle, shoot one target at 25 yards with shooting sticks to support your rifle. Shoot four times at each squirrel, worth a total of 100 points for all twenty shots. We don't want any wounded game, so dial in your sights beforehand. You need to submit only one target for each rifle you enter.

Classes:

Handguns:
Class I: Rim fire with iron sights

Class II: Rim fire with optics

Class III: Center fire with iron sights

Class IV: Center fire with optics

Rifle:
Class I: Rim fire with iron sights

Class II: Rim fire with optics

Class III: Center fire with iron sights

Class IV: Center fire with optics

This contest is a good one to share with novice shooters, so please take a new shooter to the range with you, and send along photos of your shoot that would be suitable to post.

The way you prop or brace your firearm is up to you, except, please do not shoot from sandbags from your bench. Make it simulate a field expedient rest to help you make a difficult shot.

Scan or photograph your targets and e-mail them to: truebluetravelinman (at) gmail (dot) com.

If you have difficulty downloading the target, please send an e-mail to me, and I will e-mail the pdf file directly to you.

Please send targets in by Midnight, September 30. (Extended through the first weekend of October!!!!) The pdf is courtesy of Engineering Johnson; Thank You EJ!

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!! The contest is extended through the first weekend of October. More time to shoot!!

International Hit-and-Miss At Pinckneyville

This beauty is an International Harvester hit-and-miss gas engine, restored and displayed by a husband and wife from southeast Missouri. Watch closely, and you can see the latch for the governor catch and release the exhaust push-rod.

Common Interests

Jack is one of my tree growing friends. He started planting trees more than forty years ago, a few years before I did. These are some shortleaf pines he planted about 1967. That's his lovely wife, Beth, by his side.

I ran into him recently and stopped to check out his ride. This old Dodge would probably fit right into a Rat-Rod rally, but it is all original.

Jack's father bought it new in 1952, and it has never been retired because it has a hydraulic lift for the bed, making it a very useful vehicle around the farm.

It has been updated to twelve volts to make starting easier.

The heater core sprung a leak, so it is a fair weather vehicle now, with no heat for the cab and defroster.

Jack said it was OK to post these pictures, just so I don't give people the idea that he would sell this old beauty. A new one-ton truck with a lift would cost a pretty penny, and he plans to keep driving his father's old truck. Pretty nice, isn't it?

Completely Recommended!

Molly Smith is a young shooter and blogger who competed on a squad with Mr. Completely recently at the Rimfire Steel Challenge Championships. Her link is going over on the left sidebar in the growing list of blogs as The Molly Minute. Molly is impressing the other shooters at contests, and I bet she will be a top competitor in the years ahead. She and her family plan to attend the GBR at Reno; go sign up at one of the links and make your travel plans so you can meet this remarkable young woman, and lots of good gun bloggers.

Photo by KeeWee, and stolen from Mr.Completely.