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?