Range Bag

A few weeks ago, my dad found a good deal on range bags. He bought 4 of 'em, 1 for him, and one each for me and my brothers. That's the way my dad does birthday presents, finding something we'd like, and buying it, with little regard if it's actually anywhere near our birthday. One of my brothers had his birthday in February, but me and my oldest brother got early birthday gifts. I won't expect anything from my father in July, but the old man hit it out of the park with my early birthday present, anyway.

I've been using a Dewalt tool bag as a range bag for a few years, and as a improvised bag, it's worked great. It's big, carries a lot, and definitely won't be confused with anyone else's on the line. Everything ends up in the bottom, though, and there's no good way to organize at.

My new bag has tons of pockets and dividers, with dedicated magazine pouches (one of which is an excellent place for a multi-tool, BTW). It carries tons of ammo, you can put 4 handguns in it in different places so that they don't rub and scratch each other.

Verdict? You did great, pop! Thanks for the bag!

New Wheels

Picked up a 2000 model Ford Ranger last night. It's 14 years old, but only has 76000 miles on it. The engine is very clean, with very little buildup under the oil filler cap, and the transmission fluid is bright with no debris in it.  The couple selling it is moving to Japan in 3 weeks, so I got it for a song.

The list of negatives? Well, they're mostly nit-picky stuff, but:

Passenger side bed rail the clear coat is flaking.
No cruise control.
Bad cabin light switch in passenger door.
Small leak in power steering reservoir.

Plusses?

Low mileage
New tires
Extended cab, 4 door
Low mileage
Great price
V-6
Low mileage
Well-maintained
AND
Low mileage

I'm going to the DMV probably tomorrow to finish filing the requisite paperwork, but I'm happy to have a clean little pickup again.

Ammo

I was talking to one of my buddies from work a few days ago, and mentioned that I was low on .38 spl. Yesterday, he brought me 250 rounds, for no reason, except that he's a good guy.

On the other hand, he asked me a few months ago if I could make him an IWB holster for his j-frame.... maybe it's all part of his plan!

Either way, I have a leather project to do in the next week or so, and my ammo cans are heavier.

I'll count that as a win!

Carry Gun, II

More pics of my carry gun.

Carry Gun

I fell down a link rabbit-hole today, and ended up at a post written by Xavier back in 2006 about carry guns. He opined that carry guns were beautiful, not in spite of, but because of all of their hard-won wear. He threw down the gauntlet, and asked others to post photos of their carry guns, and link back to his post. Sadly, all the links were broken, and what I was hoping would be an interesting half hour diversion was just a frustrating search of a bunch of no-longer-used blogs. I, however thought it was a great idea, and decided to post about my daily carry gun.

I bought my S&W 638 brand new for $513 cash in late 2009 or early 2010. A few weeks after purchasing it, I got my CCW, and I've carried it almost every day since (seriously, probably like 5-10 days in the past 4 years I HAVEN'T carried it). In October of 2011, I switched careers and became a cop, so since then, I've carried my duty pistol for 8 to 10 hours each day, but even since then, when I get home and take off my duty gear, I put up my service pistol, and reach for my j-frame. It gets dropped into a pocket until I take a shower and go to bed. On the weekends, I get up, put pants on, and get the little j-frame down to carry. On any given Saturday, Sunday, holiday, or vacation this gun gets carried for 12+ hours, and during the week, it gets carried 4+ hours each day. And as I said, for almost 2 years, it got carried 12+ hours every day.

Weeks after I started carrying it, and I had not yet learned to 'quit touching the gat', I was getting out of my car and dropped it in my driveway, scratching the cylinder. A lot of the finish has flaked off the gun, and between range trips, it only gets cleaned when the lint is so bad in the hammer shroud that it makes me gag looking at it. I've painted the front sight red with fingernail polish, and put some wood grips on it, but basically, this is the beaterest of beater guns.

And I qualify with it every year. And every year, I can smoke the P.O.S.T. course with it.

It doesn't matter what gun you carry, or how bad it looks cosmetically. If it runs, it runs. And I'd rather have this little Smith than a sharp stick any day of the week.

So, in closing, I'll toss the gauntlet down that Xavier did: if you got a blog, take out your carry heater, take a picture of it, and put it out there for the world to see it's beauty. Kindly link back in comments. (Posting from a phone, so there will be more pics in a follow-up post)

Forts Randolph and Buhlow

Yesterday, my wife said that she wanted to go for a hike. After trying to decide where to go for several minutes, I asked if she wanted to go to Forts Randolph and Buhlow. She said she did, and being as I hadn't been there before (which is sad, because it's a relatively new state historic site less than 10 miles from NY house) we took off. Forts Randolph and Buhlow are 2 earthwork forts built in 1864 to watch Bailey's dam on Red River and prevent the Union forces from moving along the river. They were manned with approximately 800 men and artillery. These forts never saw action, and were abandoned at the close of the war. Not being a HUGE fan of the Civil War, I wasn't SUPER excited, but it was a very nice site, with a GREAT interpretive center. Their displays were very detailed, and their information was well-presented and accurate. I saw very few things that detracted from the overall appearance of the center (2 things, a draw-horse built out of modern lumber, and an electric 'fire' in one of the displays. I would have just made a fire-lay with some semi-charred wood, instead of the electric fire, and the modern wood draw-horse... well, they had a correct one in the museum, too, so I'd just get rid or it!), and they probably wouldn't bother anyone that wasn't a bit of a stickler for historical accuracy. They have 2 walking trails that each go around a fort. We walked the Randolph trail, and you can still see parts of the earthwork walls and the ditch in front of the fort. Sadly, the Buhlow trail was closed due to construction. Interestingly, the site of the forts was also the site of the Post Des Rapides, a French supply post in the mid 1700's. Speaking with the docent, he advised that they may try to get a quarterly interpretation of 1700's life to represent the Post Des Rapides life. If they get it off the ground, I'll have somewhere close to go a few times a year, which would be awesome.

Bee Grease

Bee Grease is a roughly 50-50 mixture of lard and beeswax. It's a great leather restorative.

It's amazing what a little polishing and care does to an old pair of shoes.

Hot Buttered Yum, er... Rum

Need a good warm adult beverage on a cold winter day? Try this:

Put 1 teaspoon warm butter in a coffee mug.
Add 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add 1 teaspoon brown sugar
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla
Add 1 shot dark rum
Add 3 shots boiling water

Stir and enjoy!

Oops!

Forgot the picture in the last post...

Wintry Mix II

Same truck, 12 hours later. Wife has to go in to work to feed the doggies (she works at a vet clinic). We were smart enough to put her car under the carport last night, so we don't have to clean and defrost it, first. Also, her work is only about 1.5 miles from the house, so at least she doesn't have to get on any major roads.