Hank Ellis

My tastes in music changes with my mood and situation. Sometimes it's classical. My only local outlet was a NPR station. A station that quit playing classical during the day and started some talk radio BS that only ticked me off. And at the same time raised membership to an insane $89 / year. Dumped them. Sometimes it's rock. What Kimel said. Sometimes it's jazz. The island in the wretched sea of radio. WWOZ is independent. It remained in operation in exile via webcast after Katrina. They are now back up using a transmitter in Baton Rouge till the station in New Orleans is rebuilt. Just last weekend we were at a Thanksgiving free concert in New Orleans that was simultaneous webcast. Gotta love 'em. Guess where my money goes. www.wwoz.com

[thread drift]If you're putting together loads that are close to 3 grains or less, consider using the extra small powder bar from Dillon. It corrected an issue I had with consistent metering of a 2.5gr of Clays load. [/thread drift]

I found my Rem 1100 basis on gunbroker.com for $150. Exactly what I was looking for. A rather ratty 1100 that needed a new stock and the finish could use some work. Got a vent rib barrel off eBay to whack to the required legnth for $88. This and and an order from Brownells for the stock and mag extension will have me set. Be patient grasshopper. Monitor gunbroker.com for a few weeks and a good basis 1100 will show up. Do the same on eBay for the barrel if the basis gun doesn't have what you need. FYI: For $150 I didn't expect the gun to even shoot. Stuffed some 3 dram loads in the magazine and fired away. Worked as advertised. Woohoo.

And this is what finally won my wife over. Before she tolerated my keeping and bearing arms. She tolerated my CCW barely. Katrina made her realize that the only ones we can depend on for protection is her and I. Seeing our local sportmans shop open carry due to their ice shipment being hijacked and people getting weird over gasoline opened her eyes. (FYI: The robbers didn't take money, or the truck, just the ice.)I knew her attitude changed when she recently asked to be taught to use the 870 and has no problem with it being out where she can get to it in a hurry. If you knew my lady this is a huge step. Anybody know of a female firearms instructor to teach a rank newbie? Kay Clark possibly?

Last year wife and I took a trip to Roatan, Honduras for a little scuba diving, R&R, and uhmm.. private time. One of my pieces scuba gear is a pony bottle. It's a 13cu/ft cylinder with its' own independent regulator. Its use is for an emergency. If any number of things go wrong or the primary equipment goes kaput, switch to the pony and make a normal ascent. Cheap insurance. Hope it's money I've wasted. Another piece is a gas analyzer for checking Nitrox mixtures. Electronic gizmo that might raise an eyebrow to an inspector. Shipping a pressurized vessel is considered HazMat and the way aound it is to empty the cylinder and remove the tank valve. No big deal. Knowing that the TSA will want to verify that the tank in inert, as well as the gas analyzer being what it is, I requested a hand inspection prior to check the bag in. Wanted to be there to observe and answer any questions. The TSA guy gladly took the bag to the screening area, took a look at the TSA approved lock, and bellowed "Has anyone got the set of approved lock keys!". 10 minutes elapsed and the keys hadn't materilized. I motioned TSA over and asked him if I gave him the combination if he would open it. He had that look that he wasn't supposed to to that but he was going to do it anyway just to move this process along. 30 seconds later the bag was searched, sealed and sent on its' way. The TSA guy was truly helpful and courteous but it's no secret they don't have their sjit together. Shreds solution is the hot ticket. Pack that case in your normal luggage. Place full contact info including cell number in the gun case as well as the regular bag. Ask for a hand inspection. Never been turned down yet. Do your homework and bring copies of the TSA regs and any applicable HazMat regs. Overweight bag charges can be assessed if the weight is over 50 lbs. so spread the heavy stuff around between your two allowed checked bags. I'll tell you another story sometime when I went to Arizona to do some skydiving and plinking. Bringing parachutes and guns on the same flight got a couple people nervous. I don't understand why.

I feel your pain. When my wife to be dropped the bomb that I would have to dance at our wedding I went into a panic. Cajuns will dance for no reason and need no music to keep the rhythm. I'm white. I'm rhymically challenged. I've got a bad case of WMOS (White Man Overbite Syndrome). I'm screwed. Many hours of coaching in the living room by my soon to be other half got me through. It wasn't pretty but I survived. Just remember that 6 months from now nobody at the party will remember that your dancing resembled a hippo mating ritual. Just do it well enough to keep your bride happy.

Some people are not picky about brass. As long as it'll hold a primer, bullet and powder they'll use it. Me, I'm a bit more picky. I also don't want to use anything that will impede the reloading process. Win DD impedes the process. One of my rants on Win Double-Dot. Link

Somewhere on this board is a link to where I found the following set of drills. Searched a while but couldn't find it.Each of these drills can be done at any distance. Start off at 7 yds. But do move it in to 3 yds and out as far as you can go. I run a timer for each drill and keep track of the results in a spreadsheet to track progress. Personally I allow nothing but A hits to count. My range allows draws from the holster. If your range doesn't just go with the gun from low ready strong hand (the position where the gun just clears the holster and the muzzle is coming forward). All targets are IPSC targets. Double tap one target (focus on the splits) One, reload, one (focus on the reload time) Range ready, one (reaction time) Draw, one (draw time) Draw, two strong hand (draw, accuracy and split time) Draw, two weak hand Double Draw Master (do a seach on this board for drill instructions) Bill Drill (recoil control) Mix up the target presentations with hardcover and no-shoots. Another indoor drill I do is "A Zone Accuracy". Print up some targets with the 6"x11" A-Zone on tan heavy stock paper. Put one up at 10' or 15'. Shoot 5. All 5 in the A-Zone? Good. Move it back 5'. Do it again. Somewhere you'll hit a wall where you just can't seem to get 5 in the A-Zone. Before you get frustrated, stop. Figure out what you need to do to get 5 in the A-Zone. Keep working at it till you can get 5 on demand at the max distance of the range. One more thats fun that works well for an indoor range is vertical target transitions. Set up 3 targets vertically with the middle being a no-shoot. Do your homework to work out the mechanics of setting this one up using your ranges equipment. My range bag has an assortment of parachute cord, ty-raps, and clothespins. Draw and shoot 2 in the lower and 2 in the upper. Or 2 in the lower, reload, 2 in the upper. Use your imagination. Take a stage and break it down to very small parts. For example, CM03-05 Paper Poppers. Lets work on the steel. Put up 3 sheets of plain white heavy stock paper at 11 yds spread out as far your lane allows. Draw and put one on each. The calibration zone on a popper is 12" diameter. If you've put a hit on a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper then the steel has gone down.

In my digging, asking, and calling, I should have stated. The police models are a different breed of 870. I haven't run into any police models, but if I do I'm picking it up.Got a hot deal from gunbroker.com. Rem 1100 for $150. A bit rough but it shoots. Stock is damaged, mag follower is worn out, a bit of rust here and there from sitting in the duck blind. So what. All that is going to be changed out anyway. A perfect base for an IPSC shotgun. Can't wait to get it going. The 870 will still be there for clays and home defense. Or if I really get twisted and try Heavy Metal 3-gun....

+1 what Kimel said. Seems as if he and I are on the spot on the radio dial. Another skydiving story. Different sport. Same attitude. Back in the early 90's I was just fluffing out my flying feathers. Had around 600 jumps. Enough to be reasonably safe but not near good enough to play on the 'hot' loads. One Saturday night beer bust at the DZ a few others in the same boat as I thought we should start a team and compete. The sole reason was to get our skills on the fast track to skygod status. The next day we dug out the dive pool and started going to work. An entire summer, 275 jumps, a few thousand dollars in lift tickets, and a lifetime of memories later we showed up at the US Nationals. Knowing our skill level relative to our competition we shot for a mid place finish in Intermediate 4-way. We KNEW we weren't going to take first place. We KNEW that we would be some unknown Texas / Coonass team that nobody would remember a month from the meet. But we had our goal. We met our goal. Busted the chops of teams with twice as many jumps as we had due to our discipline. Got our chops busted due to our inexperience. A mid place finish. We partied the night away. We met our goal. We had won OUR match. What does all this have to do with shooting. Plenty. Every match for me has a goal. If I meet the goal, I win. If I don't, I work on what I have to do to make that goal. It's the simple things. I once worked on the sub 10 sec El Pres. Made that. Worked till I made the sub 9 sec El Pres. Made that. I've now got a goal of a 8.5 Prez with no more than 6 points down. A match with no Mikes. Made it once. Need to do it again. Do a match dropping less than 10% of the points. Everybody’s idea of winning is different. I have my goals, you have yours. Enjoy the journey.

The only difference between the Express models and the Wingmaster models is the finish. Express models are parkerized and have a utility finish on the furniture. Wingmaster models are a polished blue and have a finer finish on the furniture.The 870 Turkey was my choice for an all around pump. 21' barrel which is a good compromise with the main use being home defense and IPSC. Only thing to add is a mag extension and an improved cylinder or modified choke. Got mine recently and I'm very happy with it. http://www.remington.com/firearms/shotguns/870extrky.htm

And the reason I picked up a chainsaw yesterday and am actively looking for a 5.0 to 6.0KW generator. MREs', water, 00 Buck, and shingles are stocked. I'm orginally from the midwest during the Cold War and got used to tornadoes in the summer, ice storms in the winter, and the threat of the Bomb all year round. Could move out west but would have to deal with wildfires, earthquakes, and mudslides. Could move east but would have to deal with .... Aww the hell with it, pick where you want to live and deal with whatever Mom Nature wants to throw at you. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ...You Know You Live On The Gulf Coast When... You have FEMA's number on your speed dialer. You have more than 100 C and D batteries in your kitchen drawer. Your pantry contains more than 30 cans of Spaghetti Os. You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows. When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three bedrooms, two baths and one safe hallway. You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot. You are delighted to pay $2.80 for a gallon of regular unleaded. The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone. You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool. You own more than three large coolers. You wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it. You stood in a generator line that wound around Lowe's for four hours. You rationalize helping a friend board up by thinking "It'll only take gallon of gas to get there and back" You have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in your freezer Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight. You don't worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer. You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance policy. You consider a "vacation" to stunning Tupelo, Mississippi. At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw. You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row. There is a roll of tar paper in your garage. You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at the Weather Channel. Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof. Ice is a valid topic of conversation. Your "drive-thru" meal consists of MRE's and bottled water. Relocating to South Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea. You spend more time on your roof then in your living room. You've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder, tree worker or your local power company. A battery powered TV is considered a home entertainment center. Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas. You know the difference between the "good side" of a storm and the "bad side."

There hasn't been a gun buyback program around here in many years. On philosophical grounds I refuse to participate anyway. Giving the scattergun to an aspiring gunsmith seems to me the right thing to do. Anybody got any leads on a gunsmith school? Clark Custom? I'll talk to Ruger and see what they can do. As said, don't know if you don't ask.

Friends of mine went back home to New Orleans to clean out from the aftermath of Katrina. Two of the items retrieved were an old crack barrel shotgun and a Ruger single action revolver in .22 mag. After being underwater for weeks needless to say their condition is very poor. Lots of crusty rust. The cost of getting them back to a safe operating condition is going to be prohibitive vs. the value of the arms. There is no sentimental value here so I believe they would be better off to scrap the arms and get new. What is the procedure for disposing of unserviceable firearms?

On the way home from the Sunday USPSA match I stopped by Hunters Run Gun Club in Port Allen, LA. Since they cater to the shotgun sports and my shotgun skills are non-existent, I thought maybe they could help get a new guy going with scatterguns. Walked in sweaty from the match and still wearing my Area 4 shirt. Introduced myself and met the manager who asked what I had in guns and what I was wanting to accomplish. He thought for a second and said, "We offer four games. Trap would probably be a good starting point. Bring your shotgun and a box of shells and we'll teach you." More than willing to help a new guy. Gotta like that. A lot of the discussion we had was the use of shotguns in 3-gun competition and IPSC shooting in general. The gist I got was that clays and 3-gun could learn from each others game. Mutual respect and open minds. Gotta like that. "Your free to walk around and check out our facilities." Took him up on his offer. Went to a skeet line where I met one of the shooters who immediately asked me to join him. Friendly folk. Gotta like that. Hunters Run has a new customer.

You have encountered what I call "Winchester Double-Dot". Another variation in Winchesters line of .45 brass. It has recently come into circulation. If you take a look at the rim profile it has a radically chamfered rim that closely resembles S&B brass. It also has the very tight, possibly crimped, primer that S&B has. I can't prove that it's made by S&B but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck .... Personally I toss them in the junk brass bucket along with the S&B and Amerc. Dealing with the tight primers is not worth the hassle. I also suspect the non-standard rim of that brass in the functioning of the gun. With that said it will load and shoot fine if you want to use them. Actually there is only one brass in my book that goes into the junk bucket without any reservations, Amerc. In a pinch I could use anything else. For match use find one make of brass. If you use Winchester, find one variation. Segregate that off to the side and use that for match use only. The rest is now practice brass.

At a indoor Wednesday night run-what-ya-brung practice match a similiar thing happened. Doing the course when I got the mother of all jams. Couldn't clear it and handed it to the RO who happens to be my gunsmth to remove the offending item. Nothing visible wrong with the gun. The round that caused the jam obviously wasn't mine. Military headstamp, I don't use them. Hand cast bullet, don't do that. "Yo! Dennis, does this belong to you?" It did. Same round that jammed on him when he shot before me. Any live rounds I pick up now are very carefully inspected prior to using. Any question at all and it is disassembled for the components. Chalked it up as another lesson in the game.

CBC is distributed in the US under the Mag Tech brand. It's manufactured in Brazil. One of the major indoor ranges in my area uses Mag Tech as the house ammo and I get a lot of it. True the primer pocket is a bit looser than average but I've never had a problem with it. They seem to be tough as nails. I don't use it as match brass but for practice it works fine. Load it up. The .45 brass I don't have anything to do with are, 1) Amerc - just plain junk, 2) S&B - crimped primer pockets and a rim profile that doesn't comform to standards, 3) Winchester Double-Dot - see S&B, and 4) Winchester NT - small primers. Anything else is good enough at least for practice.

My situation is similiar. Been wanting to put a Production rig together just to try something new. Went with a XD-40 Tact as I already have the goodies to reload .40 and I could use the XD as a backup if the L-10 single-stack is inoperative. 2.5 of Clays behind a 185 Precision Black Bullet with a 1.125 OAL chronoed at 722 fps for a 135PF. Brought some 2.6 of Clays loads left over from the chrono work to the range and had a few guys try it out. All were impressed with how soft it was. The stock spring in a XD 5" is 18lb. Drop in a 16lb spring for 40 minor. Your 1911 single stack springs will fit the XD 5". Next stop is to have Rich at Canyon Creek do the trigger job.

Wife and I have been volunteering there. Got a panic phone call on Friday night, four days after the Storm. A load of 35 to 50 cats were on the way and help was needed to unload and set them up in temporary housing. Worked until 0100. They were all rescued from a vets office where people had boarded the animals while the people evacuated out of town. Most have been reunited with their owners. Cats in general did not fare well through the storm. Big dogs survived better than little dogs. One Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig was rescued. The mules that pull the carriages in the Quarter are there. Name the critter and it's probably there. Help is needed to care for the animals. Cash is fine but showing up to help is better. If you can't make it down to Gonzales, check with your local animal shelter to see if you can help there. Many animals are being transferred to other areas. If any displaced families are looking for their pets, go to http://www.petfinder.com/disaster/ for more information.

Procedure around here is to award ribbons. One award for three shooters, two awards for five shooters in each division/class. High overall in a division gets cash in addition. Awards are given from GM to U. Cost of the awards isn't an issue. They're 34 cents each. www.dinntrophy.com Not giving awards to Unclassified shooters while awarding the other classes just isn't right. They paid to shoot the game and should be recognized for the effort. When I received my first award in shooting, it was a proud day.

Info can also be found at the USPSA Louisiana Section site at http://www.lagator.org/.

Dear America, I suppose we should introduce ourselves: We're South Louisiana. We have arrived on your doorstep on short notice and we apologize for that, but we never were much for waiting around for invitations. We're not much on formalities like that. And we might be staying around your town for a while, enrolling in your schools and looking for jobs, so we wanted to tell you a few things about us. We know you didn't ask for this and neither did we, so we're just going to have to make the best of it. First of all, we thank you. For your money, your water, your food, your prayers, your boats and buses and the men and women of your National Guards, fire departments, hospitals and everyone else who has come to our rescue. We're a fiercely proud and independent people, and we don't cotton much to outside interference, but we're not ashamed to accept help when we need it. And right now, we need it. Just don't get carried away. For instance, once we get around to fishing again, don't try to tell us what kind of lures work best in your waters. We're not going to listen. We're stubborn that way. You probably already know that we talk funny and listen to strange music and eat things you'd probably hire an exterminator to get out of your yard. We dance even if there's no radio. We drink at funerals. We talk too much and laugh too loud and live too large and, frankly, we're suspicious of others who don't. But we'll try not to judge you while we're in your town. Everybody loves their home, we know that. But we love South Louisiana with a ferocity that borders on the pathological. Sometimes we bury our dead in LSU sweatshirts. Often we don't make sense. You may wonder why, for instance - if we could only carry one small bag of belongings with us on our journey to your state why in God's name did we bring a pair of shrimp boots? We can't really explain that. It is what it is. You've probably heard that many of us stayed behind. As bad as it is, many f us cannot fathom a life outside of our border, out in that place we call Elsewhere. The only way you could understand that is if you have been there, and so many of you have. So you realize that when you strip away all the craziness and bars and parades and music and architecture and all that hooey, really, the best thing about where we come from is us. We are what made this place a national treasure. We're good people. And don't be afraid to ask us how to pronounce our names. It happens all the time. When you meet us now and you look into our eyes, you will see the saddest story ever told. Our hearts are broken into a thousand pieces. But don't pity us. We're gonna make it. We're resilient. After all, we've been rooting for the Saints for 35 years. That's got to count for something. OK, maybe something else you should know is that we make jokes at inappropriate times. But what the hell. And one more thing: In our part of the country, we're used to having visitors. It's our way of life. So when all this is over and we move back home, we will repay to you the hospitality and generosity of spirit you offer to us in this season of our despair. That is our promise. That is our faith. From columnist Chris Rose of The Times-Picayune www.nola.com

Now, now guys. Cool off. Let's not start finger pointing. Here's the facts before the storm. Every media outlet strongly urged everyone in graphic terms to leave the city. Official after official stepped up to the mic and stated, "The levees will break", "Water has a strong possibility of being out for several days", "Electricity may be out for weeks to months". The intent was to scare you out of town because every hurricane what-if the planners looked at stated that no way NOLA could handle a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane. The Superdome was to be a shelter of last resort with priority given to the elderly and infirm. Only if you had no other way out of town were you to go there. If you did go there you better bring food, water, and bedding for 3 days as none would be provided. The convention center was never a shelter. It was taken over after the storm hit. Public transportation suspended tolls to assist anyone who wanted to get on a way out of town. Sorry guys. NOLA city planners and the mayor did what they could. Now it's history. We have to look ahead and figure out how to conquer the challenges ahead of us.

I understand the Saints are willing to do some exhibition games with the local high schools. But the schools are not willing to lower themselves to the Saints standards. The 'Aints are talking with Louisiana State U (pronounced EllisYou) about using Tiger Stadium.