A Day To Remember

It's Memorial day. I thank god every day for the soldiers I've known.

My cousin Matt, who served most of his time in the Marines overseas, fighting in that hellhole of a sandbox.

My friend Joe, who watched as dear friends died and could do nothing about it because of enemy fire.

My friend Caleb. God smiled on him and he has no lasting scars. Or maybe he just hides them better than others....

My brother, Who loaded explosive weapons onto planes.

My Dad. God, the stories that man can tell. He taught me all the important lessons about Honor and Courage. I will always hold him up as the standard by which I measure myself.

Remember the soldiers in your life. Pray for the ones overseas to make it back. Pray for the ones at home too. May they not be haunted by their sacrifice. Show them you love them, and that their sacrifice counts.

Range Trip

So I got off work last night, and the wife and her mom are heading out the door with the boy in tow.

She says "We're going shopping. Wanna go to the range, and we'll have dinner in a few hours?"

Damn yeah!

I quickly cobbled together a target stand from scrap lumber, as I was lacking one last time, changed into a t-shirt and shorts, and saddled up.

130 rounds of .38 special later, and I was out of ammo. The target stand was so thrashed that I just threw it away, and the S&W 638 was absolutely filthy. My hands had powder residue all over them.

I can produce some pretty good double action targets from 7 yards, when I take my time and aim.

I started working on quick sight aquisition and fast double taps. I've never really practiced defensive shooting before, so this was new to me.

Basically, I left with a reality check. Speed counts, and frankly, I don't have it. I can shoot good, or I can shoot quick, but I can't do both.

While I had a blast (who DOESN'T like range time?), I'm trying to figure out how to improve.

Anyone know some good practice drills for speed while retaining accuracy?

Old Damned Guns

So before I get started, I just want to apologise for the formatting of these pictures. I sent them from my phone, then went to my computer to write this post. Long story short, there's some formatting issues.

So I met an old friend today, and she mentioned her grandma's gun. Being a gun nut, I became very interested in what she was saying. Apparently her grandmother used to shoot competition skeet, and my friend inherited her gun. She also mentioned that it had an extra barrel. I asked if I could see it, and she brought out a crumbling old canvas and leather soft gun case. I couldn't believe what I pulled out. It was a Winchester model 12 chambered in 20ga., and it had a modified choke forend and a full choke forend. The bluing was pretty much gone (about a 40% finish), and it had a healthy coating of surface rust, but the bores had no pitting, and all of the rust looked cosmetic. I told her that it was a really great gun, but it badly needed cleaning, and that I'd be happy to do it for her. It took about 2 hours to clean, but it polished up beautifully. Like my Grandpa's model 12, it had seen some hard use, but it's still in great shape. Before I cleaned it, I called my dad and asked a few technical questions about the gun, and we searched it's serial number. It was made in 1913, and the receiver and both barrels all have the same number. My father informed me that you couldn't just order a second barrel for the model 12, because it had to be hand fitted, so having 2 matched serial number forends probably adds significant value to the gun.

And while I was there, My friend's husband gave me another gun.

His dad was playing as a boy in upstate New York in the summer of 1927. He found this rifle on a pile of wood in a field. As it was obviously non-functioning, he brought it home as a play gun. It passed to his son, and now has passed to me.

It appears to be a civil war era Springfield muzzle loading rifle. It's badly rusted, and it's a carbine. parts of the stock are dry rotted, and I have no idea what to do with it, but It's pretty cool that I'm probably holding a piece of the civil war in my hands.

So here's my questions: Any idea on a value for the model 12?

And what exactly should I do with the (?) Springfield?

64

That's what 64 meat pies looks like. And it only took 6 hours.

Now to cook and eat!

UPDATE:

Nancy asked in comments for the recipe. My dad graciously provided it. You can find it here.

And Nancy, I'm always interested in a new (or in this case old) drink recipe!

Enjoy everyone! I know I will!

Meat Pies

Meat Pies are an old north Louisiana tradition. My Dad's wife (also known as Momma) has one of the most amazing meat pie recipes ever devised. I love it, but there's a problem with it.

Everyone else loves them too.

Because they are made from scratch, it takes a little lead time to make a batch. About 2 hours to be exact. Because everyone loves them, and because when I make some, I want to have enough to freeze some, I make triple batches. So it takes a good 4 hours lead time to make meat pies.

That's why I only make them every 4 or 5 months.

I've chopped veggies, cooked filling and set it aside to cool. Now, I'm going to take a break and rest before making the crust. I'll cook them about 5 this afternoon. I'll try to post pictures.

And Momma, thanks for the recipe! Being a good cook is a blessing and a curse!

The Taberna

So I went to work in the taberna last night, and the Miller Light seemed... dark.

And the Sam Adams seemed light....

Apparently someone crossed the lines changing them, and between figuring this out and clearing the lines, we ended up with two 16 oz glasses of Sam Adams.

My boss asked me if I wanted to 'Dispose' of them while I made a new batch of snangria... which also needs quality control testing.

Have I mentioned that I like my job?

Squee!

Jay G. added me to his blogroll! I almost choked when I saw that. I've been reading over at MArooned for a while, and I really respect his views. He's part of the reason I'm getting my concealed carry permit. He's part of the reason I chose a j-frame smith for a dedicated carry gun. He's part of the reason that I took up blogging.

And I'm on his blogroll. That kinda makes my day.

The Legacy Model 12

A few weeks after my Grandfather's funeral, I drove over to spend an afternoon with dad (and to scam a meal off of momma!), and upon getting there, he took me to the guest room. He reached into the closet, and pulled out a gun. As he handed it to me, I could feel the years and stories tied up in the old workhorse. From the chips in the stock to the worn-away bluing on all the angles, I just knew that I was holding decades of history. It was easy to see the hard use the gun was put to, but you could also see the love that was put into the care of it.

"That's your Grandpa's duck gun" my dad said. "It's yours".

It was a solemn moment. I didn't really know what to say. After a few moments, I asked where he got the stock. It's a dark cherry red with a thin wrist, and it has a duck on the wing carved into the right side.

"Your grandpa made it. A friend of his carved the duck."

My grandfather was an excellent woodworker. As I type this, my feet rest on an oak coffee table he made, and the cherry gun cabinet that resides in my brother's home is a true work of art. Still, I never fathomed that he could produce shotgun furniture of this quality.

"It's Beautiful." I said.

"Yeah, he always used one of those slip-on butt pads on the gun, and after 20-odd years of hunting in the swamps of Louisiana, enough water had pooled under it to rot the bottom of the stock. So he made a new one." said dad.

Some time passed, and last Thanksgiving, we had our annual after-lunch shoot. I brought the duck gun along, and as my brother was shooting some skeet with it, my Grandmother walked out.

"Is that Papa's gun?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Would you like to know why he bought a 16 gauge?"

"Yes Ma'am!"

At this point everyone around fell quiet. My brother lowered the gun and set it on the table. There was 10 or 12 of us, bothers, cousins, dad, and uncles. We were all listening as the matron of the family spoke.

"His brothers had 20 and 12 gauges. He bought a 16 because he was tired of them always borrowing his shells."

There was dead silence for a moment. Grandma's lips curved up into a faint smile.

The field filled with our laughter.

Yeah, that sounds like something Grandpa would do.

Decisions, Decisions...

So my wife tells me that she stepped outside Monday evening to water her garden, and the neighbor asks "Does your husband like guns, an' shootin', an' huntin', an' stuff?"

"Actually he's going to get sworn in at his new range, right now."

"Great! See, we have this men's only night at our church. We call it the Beast Feast! We get together and we eat a bunch of wild game, and shoot archery, and shoot skeet, and have a raffle. it's a lot of fun. it's towards the end of June. You think he'll wanna come?"

"Yeah, he probably will."

It sounds like a lot of fun. It'll be a bunch of guys getting together to cling to their guns and religion! AND eat meat!

So now I have to decide if I want to bring my Grandpa's Winchester Model 12 16ga. (It's fun to shoot, beautiful, and the ammo is as hard to find as hen's teeth), or my trusty Mossberg 500 20ga. (I've been shooting it regularly for 11 years, and ammo's relatively cheap, but it is a rather plain beast).

Decisions, decisions...

Dryers

Would you believe that this little 1and a half inch long hunk of copper and plastic could burn out and cause me to completely disassemble my dryer? Can you believe that I spent 3 hours trying to figure out what the problem was, cussing the whole time? Can you believe how sheepish I felt when I finally discovered the source of my frustration?

UPDATE

Would you beleve that a replacement costs 19.92? Would you believe that you can bypass it with a wire connecter? would you believe that I did?

One more Picture

For some reason, this one didn't load. It's a typical target for the day, from the 638. If you look, it's about as good a group as from the Taurus.... It was an interesting range day.

Range Pictures

7 shots with the Tracker. A typical target

5 shots with the 638. Weak hand, no glasses. My glasses were getting so sweaty they kept sliding off my face. one round didn't make it on the paper, and one (by complete luck, I'm sure) hit center of bulls eye.

Best group from the 638, with one called flier.

Some Spent Ammo

Shot Brass

The Guns I brought- A Taurus 627 Tracker, 4 inch barrel, 7 shot, and a Smith and Wesson 638 Bodyguard

Hang with me...

I do most of my blogging from my smart phone. It's portable, easy, gets Internet access just about anywhere, and has a decent camera.

However....

I went to my new range today for the first time, and I brought my new gun, which hadn't been fired before. Next thing I knew, I had so much stuff to talk about that I just knew I'd need a full size keyboard and some spare time. So I went ahead and sent the pictures in a separate post via my phone, and am actually going to write the report here, and hopefully merge the two posts into a single understandable document.

First, my new range.

Overall, I like it. they are super serious about safety (a big plus in my book), they have a nice clubhouse, they allow up to 3 guests per member, and everyone is friendly. The biggest drawback is that none of the ranges have roofs. In a Florida summer, when the difference between direct sunlight and shade is a good 10 degrees, a roof is a godsend. Also, they had no target stands available, so I ended up finding a few discarded 1x2's and cobbling something together. It was inconvenient, but I'll know to bring my own in the future.

Now, as for the new gun...

I got a Smith and Wesson 638 Bodyguard. I've taken my concealed carry course, I submit my paperwork to the state on the 29Th of June, and this seemed like it would be a great carry gun. Boy, am I happy with the purchase. The little thing is more accurate than I am, considering it's basic sighting design. One thing I did notice was that it works best when you sight the center of the bulls eye to sit on top of the front sight. I've always aimed by placing the front sight on what I'm aiming at. This isn't a problem, but it will require training to make it second nature. I shot three different hand loads today (thanks, Dad!), and discovered that the 158gr. cast SWC over a mild load of unique works very well in the little gun. Further, After shooting 100 or so rounds through the 638, I had almost no fatigue.

At around 100 rounds, I decided that I wanted to switch to my Taurus for a control group. It felt HUGE in my hand! the size difference between the two guns is really pretty amazing. Anyway, I ran 4 or 5 cylinders through the gun, and realized that the difference between the two guns, as far as grouping goes, was negligible! I've been shooting the Taurus for 7 years now, and it has a 4 inch barrel and adjustable sights, and when firing both guns double action, the group size was about the same... very interesting, indeed.

Both guns fired significantly better with single action, but this is to be expected. At the end of the day, though, I have a new gun that I'm extremely satisfied with, and that I will need to practice with much more in order to be able to reach it's full potential, as it is more accurate that I am.

Also at the end of the day, I have two guns that need cleaning......

Pot Roast

I had a busy night tonight, what with getting sworn in at my new range, so this morning, I decided that I wanted to have dinner ready for the wife when she got off from work. About noon, I seasoned a sirloin roast wiith tonys, garlic powder, mrs. Dash, tobasco, and worchestershire. I seared it in a cast iron pan, and used the leavings, along with some oil and flour, to make a roux. I put said roast and roux in a stew pot with chopped potatoes, carrots, onion, celery and garlic. Then I simmered it on a medium-low heat till about 4:30.

I served it with my wife's fresh-baked bread.

Good times!

Wood Carving

Back when I was a young scout, I thought about getting my wood carving merit badge. Long story short, I didn't. My indian chief neckerchief slide ended up being a very nice pile of kindling.

So when the carpenter at the Spanish Quarter wanted to train me in wood carving, I was a little concerned. He persisted though, and he walked me through the process. We took a quarter section of a log of cherry, and used a froe to whack off a nice chunk. Then he instructed me to take a draw knife and shave the wood down into a reasonably sized block. Then he did something that made a lot of sense - he took out a pencil, and drew a basic spoon shape onto the wood, both on the top, and on one side.

I worked down the block with the draw knife as much as possible, then switched to my carving knife. Next thing you know, I had a basic spoon-shape. I scooped out the bowl with a hook knife, and was feeling so confident at the end that I carved a heart into the end of the handle.

So I carved out a roux spatula to match, and oiled them with butcher block oil. They became a present for the wife.

Now if only it wasn't too late to try that merit badge again....

Musket School Part 2

After lunch, we started learning the Spanish loading and firing drill. It's about a 22 step process. So we drilled. And drilled. And drilled. We were doing pretty good after about 3 hours, so we went live.

A crowd of about 100 people gathered a safe distance away to watch us shoot from the fort green over the sea wall. The cloud of smoke rolled out from our guns and hung over the water as we launched 3 other volleys. I would have loved to get a picture of it, but then I wouldn't have been able to shoot, so ya'll will have to make due with some other pictures I snapped throughout the day.

P.S.- you could tell it was a good program, because they alloted an hour to teaching proper cleaning of the weapons.

Musket School part 1

The National Park Service puts on a good black powder safety program. I -along with 16 others- went for a three hour classroom discussion this morning followed by a lunch.

It was geared to those new to black powder and shooting in general, and while I didn't really learn anything new, refreshers never hurt. What was really cool was all the guns they had to show us. They had: a shoulder-fired cannon, a Brown Bess, a French Charliville, a Spanish Fusil, a Matchlock, and a civil war era Springfield, just to name a few.

Good stuff!

The Taberna De Gallo

Well, my shift ended, and I've got some tip money, a Jack and Coke, and a comfy couch to sit on. Time to mellow out then have a shower. Tomorrow promises to be interesting, as my job is sending me to the NPS black powder class. While I am looking forward to spending a whole day doing nothing but gun related stuff, I'm not sure how much I'll really learn. I've been black powder hunting since I was 14. However, I'll shut up, listen, and try to learn anything I can. After all, I'm gonna get paid to get trained in firearms use tommrow.

Have I mentioned how much I like my Job?

dinner

A picture of my chicken pot pie, done, and about to go into the oven.
I use 1 and a half pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed and sauteed down with tonys, garlic powder, tabasco, and balsamic vinegar. When done, mix with frozen mixed veggies, 1 can each cream of chicken and cream of mushroom, and a quarter cup of milk. Put a pie crust in a cooking dish, put in filling, cover with second pie crust. Bake at 450 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until brown.

It's good eatin.

The pics didn't load in the last post. Here they are.

Tulle Fusil De Chasse

This is my work gun. That's right. I carry a gun at work... Further, my employer provides it for me.... AND when scheduled to give demonstrations, I'm required to shoot it at least 10 times a day. Not a bad gig, being in historic interp., eh?

I know for a fact that this is a reproduction of a french trade gun (fusil de chasse) and that it was patterned after the Tulle models, which were supposedly the finest made. I'm honestly not sure if this is a C or a D model, but it's a nice trade gun.

And yes, I do interpret Spanish colonial. Why do I have a French trade gun, you ask? Simple. I am Militia, so I have a weapon that was bought, not provided by the Military. In the militia, French and British trade guns were plentiful. Go figure. Anyway, enjoy the gun pr0n.

638

I just got a S&W 638 Bodyguard yesterday. I really enjoy it. It's the first Smith I've owned, but I grew up shooting my dad's j-frame. It is nice and light, which is why I chose it for a dedicated carry gun. I pay my dues at my new private range on monday, so hopefully we'll have a range report soon.