Hank Ellis

With times being a bit difficult expect to see more of it. Non shooter sees brass on the ground and all he sees is money for the taking. What's scrap brass going for these days? 75 cents a pound? Like picking up spare change.

So is there some side effect that loses the beer gut. I'm interested.Seriously however. I'm wanting to get some eye correction done. Just got back from the range and I'm PO'd and frustrated. I was trying to shoot an iron sight rimfire handgun from a rest at a 0.375" dot at 25' to try a new ammo for groups. Sights were way fuzzy and I could barely make out the dot on the target. Groups were hopeless. Time to either poop or get off the pot. Go Open or get my eyes fixed.

I joined AARP when I turned 50 last year. I will not renew. Except for the discounts I see no benefit to joining. Sniff around and you can get over 50 benefits somewhere else. The biggest one I use is hotel discounts. I've yet to have to show a card to get it. Besides their stance on 2A, and medical issues, I've got a problem with their business practices. My elderly aunt who was a member of AARP died two years ago. When her membership renewal came up I wrote "DECEASED" across the form and mailed it back. In return I got a complementary 1 year extension on HER membership. She's dead and still a member. Guess she votes too. And when THAT membership expired it was extended again. Still get the magazine and newsletter in her name. One way to pump up your numbers. My aunt didn't like revolvers but I do. I asked Elliot Aysen at one of the matches whether my 686 could be pressed into service in Revolver Division and he stated that it was a bit difficult for it to make Minor. Get a 625 and be done with it. So, what does a tricked out 625 go for?

I've found that Green Tag is a bit better than Standard Velocity. However the performance gain for the price paid isn't there. For $7 for 50, I expected better. Another one that I was disappointed with was CCI Select. $6.50 for 50 and it shot no better than Standard Velocity.Remington rimfire across the board is junk. Misfires are very common. Stuff won't chrono below a SD of 20. Only one did. The Thunderbolts. It printed 2 MOA groups (0.357") at 50'. Only Remington rimfire I'll pull the trigger on is the Remington/Eley line. Aguila is one that surprises me. Cheap and it works. The Subsonic line (HP and SP) both do very well in my guns. Aguila Standard Velocity gave identical performance to CCI Standard Velocity. I've got some Fiocchi sitting on the shelf that needs to be printed for groups to see how it does.

Y'all convinced me. Remington 700P it is.uscBigDawg: Sorry for hijacking your thread.

3-gun will be alive and well. Phasor rifles were often seen. In the pilot for Enterprise a farmer blasted a Klingon with a OU pulsed weapon. Didn't kill him but left a nasty hole. Should have used buckshot pulses instead of birdshot pulses. Wasn't impressed with the velocity of the load either. When you can see the load going downrange it ain't going fast enough. Lock time is probably pretty good however. Heavy Metal will probably go away however. I mean when there is no recoil whether running Major or Minor and the only difference between Major rifle from Minor rifle is whether the whole popper or just the calibration area of the popper is vaporized to a slag heap, what's the point? I remember one episode where the bad guy was a collector of the most rare things in the universe. One item was an unopened Mickey Mantle bubble gun package. Another was a Romulan disruptor that was banned by treaty as being too inhumane. Slow, painful tearing apart of your molecules.Dug around and found out that it was a Varon-T disruptor made illegal by the Federation. Gun bans in the 23rd Century. Damn.

Fed Auto Match had a few lots where the bullet crimp was very loose. Accuracy as well as velocity was all over the place.Take a look at www.rimfirecentral.com and do a search for 'bad automatch' in the 22 Ammunition section. A couple threads there where the bad lots are exposed. In a nutshell anything with a lot number of 1BW4xx is suspect. Federal will make good on it. These bad lots were discovered nearly a year ago and they still pop up at Wal-Mart. My batch of AutoMatch gave me 0.7 MOA at 50' (0.118") average with the worst group still sub-MOA.

Technological innovation? Kinda like going from black powder to smokeless powder? I remember one episode where the bad guy was a collector of the most rare things in the universe. One item was an unopened Mickey Mantle bubble gun package. Another was a Romulan disruptor that was banned by treaty as being too inhumane. Slow, painful tearing apart of your molecules.

www.lagator.org is the place to go. Besides the SC match on Saturday there's a USPSA pistol match on Sunday in Gonzales hosted by East Ascension Practical Shooters. Be there at 0800. Hammer down at 0900. Toddrod: Can't make Thib. Got a ATA Trap shoot on Saturday but I'll see you Sunday at EAPS. Back in the house after the storm. Reloading equipment still hasn't showed up but I've got enough ammo to get me through a few matches.

Thanks. The other two I've been looking at are the Rem 700 and Savage 10FP. I'm looking for something I can use out of the box or with minimal home gunsmithing. I know, I know. Do a search. I just can't decide on what to get.

Depending on the scope that's about right on the price. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the cheap bulk packs at Wally World and anything made by Remington. Spend the extra bucks and get decent rimfire ammo. Wolf Match Target is a well known standard that works well in most rimfires. Eley Target in the new yellow box also is good. Both are just under $5 a box. www.championshooters.com is the place to go.200 with a 22LR rimfire? A bit ambitious. I do my position practice at 50ft and 50yd. If the conditions are right I give 100yd prone a go. At 100 you've got about 8.5" of drop with a 50yd zero to deal with. It's a lot tougher than you think it is. 300yd prone with my AR is lot easier than 100 with my tricked out 10/22. Either way, you'll like the CZ. FWIW: I've been following this thread for a while. My range is getting a couple of 600yd lanes up and running. Of course this means I have to get a new gun to shoot on it. I've been looking at a couple of entry level rifles learn the game. There's one that has my attention available at http://www.snipercentral.com/entrypackage.htm. Got a quote of $850 minus scope. What do y'all think?

+1 on the CZ. Mine is a 452 American. Way more accurate than it should be for the price. Sub MOA with $2 a box ammo. 1/2 MOA using moderate price ammo. Only negative is that magazines are not easy to find and are somewhat expensive for what you get.Another to take a look at is the Kimber 82G available from the CMP. Got one of those also. Haven't had a chance to ring it out. Others on rimfirecentral.com report 1/2 MOA once you find what your gun likes. For $600 you get a match rifle that is only 1 step below an Anschutz out of the box. Comes with match aperature sights. Mounting a scope is easily doable. To scope the rimfires take a look at the Mueller APV. Lotsa scope for $130.

Rich did the work on my XD-40 Tact Production gun. Top shelf and fast turnaround. As for triggers, when the topic of the 3lb trigger for Production came up Rich said it wouldn't be a problem to take it up to 3lbs on triggers he's done. Just a simple spring change.

3.15 Clays. 180 Montana Gold, 735 fps, 132 pf 3.00 Clays, 180 Precision Delta, 736 fps, 133 pf 3.20 N310, 180 Montana Gold, 740 fps, 133 pf 3.15 N310, 180 Precison Delta, 733 fps, 132 pf Tried the 180 Precision black bullet. They actually weigh around 187gr. At 705 fps they would make 132pf. A bit too slow for my taste and the holdover for those 50yd shots was a bit much. Got a box of the 170s to try. The XD-40 runs an 18lb spring as stock equipment. It wouldn't run reliably with 40 Minor. Went to a 16lb spring and all was well. Going lower risked it not going into battery if I limped wristed it all or shot weak hand. In addition the spring will naturally weaken over time and those failure to battery issues will pop up again. I've gotten into the habit to simply retire the spring every 6 months.

Compared the timestamps of the ATC transcripts and the video from CNN. It's far enough off that there has to be an error. Looks to me as if the the FAA needs to reset their clocks. The mayors office video shows first water contact at 08:24.40 which jives with the Con Ed video timestamp. The FAA is off by 5 minutes give or take some. Although the ATC tapes are interesting, I'd really like to hear the CVR recording. Did the training work? Was CRM (Cockpit Resource Management) used as it should have been? What can we learn to improve the next time? What I did glean from the tape was that responses were calm, short and to the point. A clear sign that the pilot was doing his first priority ... fly the airplane. An old aviation ditty goes like this. "Aircraft fly by the laws of Bernoulli, not Marconi." More information is available at the NTSB Press Release site. This is the same place the news networks get their information. http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2009/090121.html http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2009/090124.html http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2009/090204.html http://www.ntsb.gov/pressrel/2009/090206.html

I grew up in the midwest. Remember those ice storms. Not fondly. Although one of the strongest memories as a kid was standing outside and listening to the sounds of limbs cracking, breaking, and falling from the weight of the ice. Know what you're going through. Same poop. Different storm. During Gustave there were 825,000 without electricity across Louisiana and Mississippi. Main problem there was that the main transmission lines took the hit. Once those were back online within a week a good chunk of the power was back on. As I recall from my youth, repairing lines from ice damage is a lot tougher than from wind damage. It was literally door to door as the destruction was so complete. Linemen are a different breed. None of them should ever have to buy a beer in their life. Hang in there. Stay safe. Stay warm.

Woohoo! We're back in the house! And in a couple of hours it's the Super Bowl on the new flatscreen.The camper that has been 'home' for the last 5 months is scheduled to go tomorrow. I'll be standing in the driveway applauding. Good riddance. Still have a bit of work for the contractors but it's just taking care of a few last details. Granted there is still stuff in boxes all over the place. The stove and reloading equipment haven't arrived yet. Fridge just got delivered yesterday. Fired up the home computer for the first time since the storm an hour ago. Still looking at a lot of work. I won't be bored for the next few months. As soon as the reloading equipment shows up and I get caught up with that then I'll be back at the range throwing Mikes and No-Shoots like before.

And note the item on the glareshield in front of the SIC seat. (In English, the thingy on the right side of the dashboard where the copilot sits.) How much you want to bet it's the checklist and the SIC tossed it there after the landing? Took a hard look at the #2 engine in the photos. The resolution is too bad to make anything out on the #1 fan stage.

I was ground running a Bell 206L a while back and sucked in one of those little green tree frogs. You know the ones. About an inch or so little frog. BANG! Compressor stall. Aircraft yawed a bit from the loss of torque. TOT and N1 fluxuations. Then everything back to normal. Know it was a frog from the few frog parts found in the intake area. Those frogs are a common sight in the summertime and we are vigilant in checking the aircraft and intake prior to start. Even still we still suck one every now and then. Inspection revealed no damage. Did a precautionary compressor wash and went about our business. Can't tell you about the frequency of compressor stalls in heavy iron but in the rotorcraft world they are rare. If we get one we start looking real hard at the bleed valve, if the engine has one. I wouldn't put too much stock in the compressor stall theory. The chance of having both engines flameout due to compressor stalls is lower than winning the lottery. Maybe one engine due to bird ingestion and the other due to compressor stall but even that is so far out there that I'm not putting much stock in it. Either way we're just guessing. The guys with the facts, CVRFDR, and engines will figure it out. Still, one heck of a demonstration of airmanship.

+1 for Frosty. The lastest addition to our brood just showed up at the back door. Feral. Hungry. We never turn away a hungry mouth regardless of the species. Got his strength back and we decided to do the TNR (trap, neuter, release) thing and let him live his life as a feral in the 'hood. Got him trapped, neutered, and released. Didn't take him long to figure out that this feral thing wasn't for him. I've never seen a cat turn around from feral to lap cat in a matter of a few weeks. Now Trey the Stray is my bud. He joins the six other cats in our brood and the occassional litter we foster with a cat rescue organization. Ya done good.

age 60 rule was overturned a little over a year ago. Mandatory retirement age is now 65. How did I miss that one? Granted we fly Part 135 where there is no mandatory retirement age and I'm in maintenance so it slipped between the cracks. Either way, good start. Just as soon revoke the whole rule in my opinion.Thanks for the update.

Random thoughts: The incident will be classed as an accident rather than an incident due to the cost of damage to the aircraft. Wish the media would quit using the term crash in this instance. Forced landing is the proper term. The NTSB will be looking for what went right just as much as what went wrong. Scholars of aviation safety will be going over this one with a microscope. Bird strikes are more common than most people think. In my corner of aviation we have one or two bird strikes a year at my location. But we're into helicopters and we fly much lower than the heavy iron. Even had a bird strike with a helicopter sitting on the ground at idle. Pilot doing his engine cooldown at idle minding his own business. Flock of pigeons came down the flyway, rose up, then went straight down through the main rotor. At least 6 strikes with dead and injured pigeons going everywhere. No damage to the aircraft but took four of us an hour to clean up the mess. Wish I had it on video. Capt. Sullenberger was the right man at the right time. From what I gathered he just loved to fly. As his wife said he "loved the art of the airplane". Well put. Safety geek (not a disparaging term) who owns and runs his own safety consulting company. A 'good stick' we call in the industry. He is two years away from the mandatory age 60 retirement rule. People like this is why I think the rule needs to be revoked. The rest of the crew was well seasoned and obviously did their job well. Hats off to them. Engineers will be looking at this one as well. What made the engine choke and what can we do to help prevent this? A lot of people will be studying this one for a while.

I give the choke on my Beretta 391 clays gun a twist every time I change stations. If I don't it will loosen about a quarter turn after a box of shells. For some reason the chokes in the FN SLP doesn't loosen. I think there's something wrong with it.

I use a Beretta 391 Parallel Target for Trap. I'm not undergunned. Went from having never shot a shotgun in my life to a C class ATA Trapshooter in 3 years. Did switch from a Rem 870 to the Beretta after the first year. The 870 was beating me up a bit. Shooting the auto fixed all that. Besides the pump was just too much of a PIA to use with doubles. I see a whole bunch of high 4 figure and 5 figure guns at the Trap range. You know what? A good chunk of that cash is paying for pretty. Gorgeous wood and engraving adds a lot to the price. None of will help you break birds. I don't care how the gun looks. It's got to fit. There's an old biker one-liner that fits here. "Chrome don't get you home." At the SW Zone Champs I was talking to a shooter who has been AA classed for over a decade. He was in the squad after me and watched me shoot the first half of Handicap. During a lull I asked him about whether switching to a OU would find me some benefit over my auto Beretta. His response said it all. "Why do you want to screw up a good thing. What you are shooting you are shooting well. Keep fine tuning what you've got." Still boils down to the Indian and not the arrow yet again.

I take it he didn't "measure up". Took the Clinton approach. Didn't ask. Didn't tell.