Hank Ellis

Prior to the Gun Control Act of 1968 firearms were not required to have serial numbers. Not at all unusual.

Obviously we haven't shot together, but I'd be willing to be you weren't actually waiting on the gun to finish cycling. You may have been waiting on the front sight to come back down, but not the actual cycling of the gun. Even with a minor load using a heavy bullet the gun would have finished cycling in something like .06 to .08 of a second. R, I think we're saying the same thing just in a differnt dialect. Or I don't have the terminology just right.I look at cycle speed at the whole bang, sights up, sights down, settle, ready to go bang again cycle. The physical act of the firearm cycling is just a portion of it. But how that gun functions with the human interface is important. How that human interpets what the gun is doing. And that can be a very individual thing. Yeah, bolt both guns up in a machine rest and measure it. Probably in milliseconds. But machine rests don't shoot USPSA matches. It takes a human to interface with the tool. What I'm saying is that the .40Minor tool takes a while to get back on target while I was able to get back on target quicker with the 9MM. With me operating the tool anyway. If I was a bored college intern it would be interesting to see the recoil impulse plotted on a graphs and compare the two. A gun shooting 180gr at 132pf vs a gun shooting 115gr at 132pf is about as a big a difference you're going to find anywhere in our sport. The difference between the two is like night a day. With the heavy bullet gun I'm waiting for things to settle down before the next shot, that didn't happen with the light bullet gun. I went down the .40Minor road thinking that the softer felt recoil would assist me in getting off the next shot quicker. Three seasons later I now know that it was a dead end. Soft isn't the end answer.

Per ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) rules the maximum ammo per person in checked baggage is 5kg (11 pounds). Every US domestic Part 121 Air Carrier that I'm aware of including Delta follows the ICAO rules. Granted whatever carrier you're flying, check the rules of carriage and the website for anything weird. Not to slam 'ya trevoro but pull up www.delta.com and type ammunition in the search window. One of the hits is the airlines policy on ammunition and it follows the 5kg limit. Packing the ammo follows the same guidelines as shipping ammo via ground carrier as ORM-D. The plastic ammo boxes are fine. Scrounging cardboard and foam factory ammo boxes out of the trash at the range is fine. The intent is that ammo not be packed loose so tha accidental primer detonation cannot occur. However shipping a loaded mag is a no-no. Adding cardboard or foam to the plastic ammo boxes to prevent rattling is an excellent idea. Again, check with the individual carrier. For example, Delta doesn't list plastic boxes as an acceptable container. From their website, "Ensure small arms ammunition is packed in the manufacturer's original package or securely packed in fiber, wood or metal boxes." Some hardnose may say no to Dillon ammo boxes. Although some air carriers allow firearms and ammo in the same box, do yourself a favor and separate the two. Between the carrier and the TSA somebody is going to freak. Doesn't mean the two can't be in the same checked bag, just don't put the bullets next to the gun. The link to Shred's post is excellent however it's already out of date less than a month after the post. Shred says that Continental doesn't follow the 11 pound limit. Just checked the site a few minutes ago and the limit is 11 pounds. The lesson here is check early and often with your carrier.

Or a barrel obstruction.

The problem here is that the newspaper and the major TV station are owned by the same family. The newspaper and the TV station are the big dogs in the pound. There is no competing paper. The poop storm this will cause could get ugly. As the saying goes, Pick the mountains you want to die on carefully.I've suggested to my wife who works for a labor attorney that age descrimination might be a viable route. She beat me to it and already talked to the barrister. Age discrimination is very hard to prove. Since 48 others were let go also pretty much makes it a non starter. I dunno. If I was on a jury with complaintant who has 40+ years with a company and age 60+ pretty much tells me all I want to know. Knowing the guy he isn't one to get in a conflict. He'd rather take his lumps and move on.

Thought it was odd also considering there has to be some serious backorders to fill. Granted I was put on hold for a minute while the nice lady went to check if it was OK to do the swap. Boss probably said yeah to clear the BO. FWIW I didn't get an email to confirm shipment. A call to my cell and they left a message that I had 5 days to call back and either confirm shipment or cancel. Trust me guys I'm nobody special. Signed up for an account then immediately made my order. Might be worth a phone call or logon to check on the status.

Here's one for ya. Friend of mine was given a pink slip after 43 years with the local newspaper. Started there delivering papers in high school. Here's the insults. Due to quirk in labor laws, if you layoff less than 50 employees you do not have to give a severance package. They laid off 49. He was given a pink slip, not laid off. Boom, out the door. When he got his pink slip he was given a box and escorted by a guard to his cubicle to gather his stuff. Not allowed at the computer get his personal files. So much for company loyalty. What is a 61 year old guy supposed to do after working all his life at one place?

After MichiganShootist what I have to offer isn't much. I almost forgot another lens replacement patient. My aunt. Bad eyesight runs in the family. She got cataracts sometime in her mid-60s. She opted to be a guinea pig for clinical trials for one of the first lens replacement procedures. This was a good 10 years ago or more. She also ditched the glasses and never needed them again except to read very fine print. When it comes for my time to get cataracts taken care of I won't hesitate to get this procedure done unless there is something better 10 years from now.

Three guys at work. One is mid-60s, one at late-50s, another at early-50s. All three had cataracts. All three had lens replacements. All three have ditched the glasses including readers. All three would do it again tomorrow. None went to the same doctor. BTW: Lasik will not correct cataracts. Heard this from a mutual friend. A shooter who was your run-of-mill old guy C class shooter had lens replacement due to cataracts. He can now SEE the sights and targets. His confidence and scores are both going up.

Placed the following order with Grafs and Sons at 4:04 AM on 31 May 2009. 2 cases of 5000 - Federal Small Pistol primer #100 - $134 a case 2 cases of 5000 - Winchester Small Pistol primer - $132 a case 1 8lb keg - Hodgdon Varget - $146 Received a call today that the Federal primers and the Varget is in and do I want it shipped? Of course I said yes. The nice lady on the phone offered me the following options on the Winchester primers. 1. They can substitute CCI small pistol in place of the Winchester, 2. I can keep the Winchester on back order, 3. If you really insist we can cancel the Winchester order. Decided to keep the Win on BO. So, 11 days from date of order I'm at least getting primers and hard to get Varget. What was interesting was that they were willing to substitute CCI for the Win. Nice lady also said that Win primers are trickling in. Asked about CCI and Rem small rifle. None in stock. Shipment should go out tomorrow. Really wanted to support my local reloading shop but hedged my bets with an order with Grafs. 11 days, I was expecting 4 months.

Couple of things. Mixed brass. For major matches quit. Go with one headstamp. It takes out one variable. Your chrono. I used to run the chrono package for the Pact MKIV timer. Problem with it and similiar types who have open screens to the sky is that the readings will change depending on cloud cover, angle of the sun, sun brightness, and whether your wearing boxers or briefs. Eventually gave up on it and went with a CED and IR screens in a chrono coffin. Found my chrono results to tighten up a whole bunch and whatever it spits out to be gospel no matter time of day or weather. I've even chronoed in the rain and the results are close enough to the same when retested later on a sunny day. In your case you went from partly cloudy to cloudy. Thats enough to change what the chrono reads. Believe the cloudy day readings. Open screen chronos work best on overcast days.

Oh, almost forgot. Scored at Wal-Mart today also. Found Win White Box 9mm. Bought 300 rounds. Guy in front of me got 300 rounds. There was still some left for the next guy. On the floor was unopened cases of .380, .40, .45, .22LR and something else I couldn't read. Whoo hoo. Got enough for 2 matches which buys me time to get my loads developed and loaded. Hell of a good day.

Stopped in Louisiana Gun and Reloading in Baton Rouge, LA for my weekly BS session. This time I actually needed a few things. VV N320 and N340 was in stock. Bought a pound each. Federal Small Pistol primers was in stock. Bought all he had. 500. There was still large rifle primers sitting on the floor. Was told they are expecting a shipment of primers tomorrow. Call in the AM and if they haven't arrived call again in the afternoon. I was moaning about my overstock on powder I really don't use. Won it mostly at the matches. Larry said to bring it in and he'll trade me off for something I can use. Went through the powder box and collected four pounds for trade. Ought to get a couple pounds of VV powder for it. Gotta love a shop that takes care of its customers. In addition at the shop met Gordon Hutchinson who co-authored "The Great New Orleans Gun Grab". http://www.neworleansgungrab.com/ Spent a bit of time talking about gun rights, legislation, swapped load receipes for ARs, and other stuff of a local matter. Yeah I might save a dollar or two by ordering online but I can't get this kind of service and interaction with others by clicking a button on a webpage.

Not lead or copper. It's been steadily going up since the first of the year. Not near the insanity of a year ago but it's still climbing.http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical.html http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/copper_historical.html

Or lets take it another notch. I used to run a XD-40 and just switched to a XD-9. Both built by the same gunsmith and are so identical that I have to look at the caliber stamp on the barrel to make sure which one I pick up. Both were built for Production. I used to run .40Minor with 180gr bullets running around 730 fps. Soft? Oh yeah! But there was tradeoffs. Cycle speed. The 40 cycled slower. Period. If this middle C shooter can notice it then its a big deal. Shot both guns side by side one day and at one point I was waiting for the 40 to finish cycling. Didn't have that problem with the 9. 50 yd shots. The amount of holdover for long shots is a whole bunch more with the big slow bullets than with the smaller, faster ones. I'm gladly giving up the super soft of the slow 180s to get the cycle speed up and not have to use artillery trajectory for those long shots. FWIW I shoot the 9 running 115gr MagTech factory better than the 40Minor gun. More accurate hits and a touch faster. Myself, I'm going to start with 147s. Maybe I'll try 124s down the road. It's going to be interesting to see how this one plays out. In a nutshell, it's what you the individual shooter prefers. Some like snap, some like push. Some can get on target faster with a snappier load while others get on target faster with a softer load.

On the advice here I started listening to Gun Dudes. If you can't laugh at these guys, you have no sense of humor. It's a keeper.Still listening to The Urban Shooter. Kenns' monologues are the gems here. Pro-Arms is interesting from the self defense angle. Always a good tidbit of information to be found. Wish they would upgrade the audio quality though. Matt Burkett is still the one for competition. Those are worth keeping archived and listened to again. Tom Greshams Gun Talk is still the top of the heap. 3 hours a week of everything across the gun world. Last week was interviews with Randy Luth of DPMS and Bruce Piatt who just won the Bianchi Cup. Tom stays on top of the gun rights issue and keeps us informed of what we should be putting our energy into.

I've got a long standing offer to my circle of family, friends, and co-workers. If you haven't shot before and want to, let me know. I'll supply the guns, ammo, and I'll even pay the range fees. It's the minimum I can do to show others my sport. The latest to take up my offer. Friend and her daughter were over at the house. All of us were jabbering in the kitchen when daughter turned to me and asked, "Hank, will you teach me to shoot?" The look on her moms face was similiar as if she had said, "By the way, I'm pregnant with twins." Nonetheless once she is back from college for the summer we'll make it happen. Good on ya wooddog.

Contacted Dillon this week concerning my press that was damaged in Gustave. I was told that damage due to weather was not covered under the warranty. Got a return number and it will go back this week anyway. I'm like well yeah it's not your fault at all and I shouldn't expect for you to pick up the tab. Would have been nice if they did however. We'll see what happens. BTW: The press is already sold. One of the bosses at work wants to get into reloading. The new press that was picked up is doing just fine. A real pain to start all over resetting dies for 5 different calibers however.

OD (right eye) -2.00 and OS (left eye) -2.50. The limit per the FDA for correction is +-3.00. Now that doesn't mean that if you have say -4.00 you can't do half of it now and the other half at a later procedure. One shooter had this done. The cornea thickness issue wasn't brought up till the day of the surgery. Don't remember the exact numbers but I do remember that I was way under the lower limit. Really wasn't a big deal as there was a bunch of other factors that determined that ASA was the better procedure. Either way Lasik wasn't an option for me. Tidbit: Not knowing what I need or should get I picked a middle range for reading glasses before the surgery. Found some bulk pack +1.75 at Sams Club and been giving those a try. Too strong. Doc suggested +1.00 if I can find them or +1.25 as the next best. Wierd stuff: A couple days ago I was in the office and one of the crew came in, paused for a second, stopped in front of me, waved his hand in front of my face and asked "Dude, you OK?". I was staring at some text on one of the maintenance manuals about 20 feet away. Not only could I see it I could read it clearly. Never been able to do that before.

Found our problem. The color of the feeder. It was a ceramic thing purchased at a craft show. No red or yellows in it at all. Blue mostly. Birds didn't see it as a flower.

According to my handy guide to hummingbirds, the first arrivals should be in your area in either late Feb or March....depends on the weather. Use four parts water to one part sugar....no need for anything fancy, no need for coloring of store "nectar". I simply put four cups of water in a pan, get it boiling lightly and then mix in one cup of sugar and let it cool...but it's a pretty big feeder. They're attracted to red more than any other color with yellow being #2. They're essentially looking for bright red and yellow flowers. R, 4 to 1. Touch of red food coloring. Check.Is placement of the feeder critical? We had ours hanging off a branch of a crepe myrtle. Wondering if I should put out another bird feeder pole out in the open. Our other bird feeder is in the middle of the back yard. The steady supply of finches and cardinals keep us busy filling it up. A couple days a weeks I sit on the patio with a drink and a stogie and watch the birds. Can't help but chill out. It's also entertaining to watch our cats stalk the birds. They'll never get one as it's too high but they give it a shot. One of our cats is a bit, hmmm, slow. She'll sit directly underneath the feeder waiting I guess for a bird to land on her head. Birds ignore her and poop on her instead.

The only squadding request I do is to be with BayouSlide for the Annual Battle for Middle C Production at the Gator Classic. Otherwise, throw me anywhere. I've met some really interesting and talented individuals this way.

What food concoction do y'all use? Homemade? Commercial? Set out a feeder last year but didn't have any takers. Wondered if it was the wrong time of year or the wrong food was put out.

Haven't done 25 in skeet but have in trap and handicap. Once that first mountain is summited you'll look for the next peak. Congrats!

My contractor during the rebuild had me in the loop on a lot of stuff. I help, costs go down. Did about half the electrical work myself. A good chunk of the plumbing, etc. When it came time for painting he asked, "You in on this?" I picked up a nearby 2x4 and handed to him. "I'd rather you beat me with that than paint." The sub he brought in did an amazing job especially on the staining of the cabinets. Sometimes you just have to let the experts do it.