More Help For Beginning Shooters Courtesy Of Ruger Firearms

The videos by Ruger just keep popping up on YouTube, and they make an interesting and informative post every week. I manage to learn something from every one of them.

I still have a bit of video from the Rendezvous to post, and I have collected photos from the Packing Rat, Bea, and myself to make a slide show of GBR activities. Stay tuned.

Earnest or Full Swing, Illinois

You can count on hearing the U of I Extension saying every year that the harvest has started in Earnest, or that it is in Full Swing. I am not sure if they are trying to be funny, but it always gets a few laughs.

No Worries!

Bea and a couple of her friends will be taking a concealed carry class later this week up in Iowa.  Although shooting is not actually required in the new Iowa concealed carry law, the instructor for their class takes everyone to the range and wants them to shoot at three yards, seven yards, and fifteen yards.  They will be shooting a total of thirty rounds, and he wants them to be able to score at least 80% on a 12" x 28" target.  Bea was worried about that, so she ran off thirty rounds the other day at fifteen yards, and put twenty-nine in the target.  Not bad for shooting offhand, through tri-focals.  Expect an update after her class.

Operating Lessons For The Model T

The first video is published by the Henry Ford Museum, and it teaches you just about everything you need to know to make your Ford go. The museum wimped out and put a starter in this 1916 car to prevent cranking accidents. The second video shows how the crank will spin backwards if you forget to retard the spark. The proper way to crank one of these engines is with one hand only, and the thumb should be on the same side of the crank as your fingers. You want your hand to break free cleanly if the engine kicks, so your arm and hand are out of the arc when the crank comes around. Hang on tight, and sooner or later you will have a broken wrist.

Mondays Just Won't Quit

Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola

This Johny Marvin song was recorded in the UK in 1928, and shared with us by 240252.

Weekend Steam

This weekend we are going via YouTube to Scotland, to see the machinery in the Waverly. According to the information with the videos, this ship was built in 1946, with a triple expansion engine, and feathering paddle wheels. The videos are of varying quality, but are all fun to watch.

Crankin' It Up

Here is the flip side of last week's record by Vaughn DeLeath. "I'm A Doggone Struttin' Fool was also recorded in November of 1921, and this disc has seen hard use on both sides.

Not My Victrola Fall Equinox Full Moon Special

This 1908 Columbia may be the first recorded version of this old favorite. Posted by MsMartyBob.



This record by Ada Jones and Billy Murray was made in 1909, and posted by edmundusrex.


Twenty years later, after electric microphones were in use, the song had not changed much. edmundusrex also posted this version, by the Hal Kemp Orchestra.



Ruth Etting made this recording in 1931. Thanks go to bsgs98 for sharing this great old record.

Draw!

Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2010 from CS Tactical on Vimeo.

CS Tactical has posted a great video of activities during the recent Rendezvous. I think you will really get a kick out of the quick draw action at the end of this presentation.  We went into this contest with most assuming that it would come down to Molly and Derek, but it soon became apparent that there were other contenders.  You can see the results over on Mr. Completely.

Hinge Failure

We are revisiting hinges in this post to have another look at the theory that a hinge will turn a tree if it is left thicker on one end.  If a hinge is aimed where you want it, and it holds together, that theory is totally wrong.  A hinge will make the tree fall at 90 degrees to the face; unless it fails.  This elm had a bit of side lean, and I made the hinge thin on one end, and even thinner on the other.  The extra-thin end was on the light, or tensioned side of the tree.

I made the tensioned side thin enough that it pulled apart (Failed) when the tree was turned loose.  Because of this failure, the tree did fall slighty toward the lean instead of going where the hinge was aimed.  In this photo you can see that fibers pulled out of the stump...

...and here you can see that fibers also pulled out of the butt end of the tree.  Normally, you want the hinge to be about 10% of the tree's diameter in thickness, or a little less.  You can leave one end on the thick side if it is the tensioned side of the tree, and the side lean is near your limit.  If you think the side lean is at or over a safe limit, work out another plan to drop your tree.  Don't play games trying to turn a tree with a bad hinge; it will become a dangerous, unguided missile.

Quantifying A Good Time

Just how much fun was Gun Blogger Rendezvous V?  It's hard to place a value on good times, but I think we found a way to put a number on it.

We did lots of shooting, of course.

We got to admire the hardware that others brought, and tried out some guns that were new to us.

We made a lot of new friends...and shared some good meals.!

But when we got home we found a way to put a value on it that any shooter can understand.  Because we traveled by airline, we had to weigh our ammo before we flew out of Cedar Rapids.  We re-weighed when we unpacked, and found that we had launched 8 1/2 pounds of lead downrange on our trip!  Sounds like a very good time, indeed!