Punkin Chunker

Depends on a: the width of cover; b: your flexibility/agility; c: how far you have to pie around; d: the scenario If the cover is narrow enough to move to engage targets from both sides, AND you have the agility to make the move, then inside knee down can allow you to move from engaging targets on one side of cover (providing you don't crowd the cover) to the other without moving your feet. Having an outside knee down can allow you to operate closer to cover and pie around further, and if you only have to engage from one side of the cover, getting into and out of the outside knee down might be quicker. It all depends on the scenario and the props.

Dry fire. Dry fire some more. After you're tired of dry firing . . . dry fire some more. Practice transitions. Make sure your transitions include not only the gun transitioning to the next target, but your focus transitioning to the front sight. It's natural to focus downrange, you have to change that reflex. Oh, and when you practice transitions . . . dry fire. Practice draws as you . . . dry fire.

Friend of mine found the most effective strategy for his daughter was not grounding, it was taking her bedroom door off the hinges. Grounding she could handle. The loss of privacy drove her crazy. She behaved much better. Shooting a laptop? Posting it on Facebook? If the kid hasn't used that as an issue with some state child services organization yet, she's missing a good chance to make her parents' lives miserable.

I've heard of it happening only once before and saw the pictures -- it pretty much blew the bottom out of the puller. Safety glasses, don't look directly down on the puller -- reasonable precautions anytime you're working with things that go, 'bang'. But still, it's a 'blue ice' thing.

The idea of shape depends upon something being observed from an identifiable and repeatable reference point. The universe has no edge and no center -- essentially no shape -- because it has no identfiable or repeatable reference point. With no commonly accessible reference point, each observer is dependent upon their own location as a reference point which is identifiable to them, but not repeatable. From each unique reference point, each observer represents the beginning of their universe, and is therefore the edge of their universe. Inasmuch as each observer can measure the universe as being an equal distance in any direction from his own reference point, he is in the center of the universe, as closely as he can establish. Therefore, each person is his own edge, and his own center.

Self-guided bullets? Already done. ZF-1

Wow. That sure seems like a lot of Clays. No pressure signs? .45 is a low pressure load. You'll find lots of folks running 4.6-4.8 gr Clays in .45 to make major. BB Thank you for your insights. For most folks, 4.2-4.3 under 200grn makes major (200grn at 900fps makes major plus a healthy buffer). To add to that, Clays tends to be a spiky powder at and beyond max. So 4.7 seems a little energetic. I've loaded a pretty good amount of Clays, but almost exclusively under 230. Just as a data point, should I later want to load 200s, I'd like to know if Steve RA has seen any pressure signs. I run the same load and have seen zero pressure signs. I've also looked at my chrono data from working up the load, and the data's pretty linear. Thnx.

Cool. If you watch for the manhole cover, you can see it arc from its place on the ground by the nosewheel ,to a point probably higher than the tail of the aircraft, before it drops to the ground near the tractor. It's about 2.5-3 seconds between the cover being launched and its impact on the tarmac. Saw the same thing happen to a utility box cover from a lightning strike. Probably about 100 pounds of sheet metal launched about 40 feet straight up.

Wow. That sure seems like a lot of Clays. No pressure signs? .45 is a low pressure load. You'll find lots of folks running 4.6-4.8 gr Clays in .45 to make major. BB Thank you for your insights. For most folks, 4.2-4.3 under 200grn makes major (200grn at 900fps makes major plus a healthy buffer). To add to that, Clays tends to be a spiky powder at and beyond max. So 4.7 seems a little energetic. I've loaded a pretty good amount of Clays, but almost exclusively under 230. Just as a data point, should I later want to load 200s, I'd like to know if Steve RA has seen any pressure signs.

Wow. That sure seems like a lot of Clays. No pressure signs?

WWFM: For station 2, as an example: Foot position. Start with your feet set so that when you have the gun shouldered for a natural feeling, non-moving shot, it is on an angle which is midway between the center stake and the point on the low house path that comes closest to station 2. Don't move your feet for the rest of the turn at the station (yeah, I know. some people dance the whole time and have a different foot position for every shot and every brand of shotgun shell. I don't). Gun position (Assuming American skeet). Start with the muzzle of the gun pointing at a point on the bird's path which is 1/3 of the distance between the house and the center stake. The muzzle should be low enough that the bird does not go under the barrel, so you don't have to lose and reacquire the bird during the swing. Eye position. Look just over the barrel, about 1/2 the distance between the muzzle and the window. Shoot the doubles as two singles. For singles at station 2, you want to take the high house over the center stake, but take the low house as it comes to a point which is closest to the shooter's station, even though it means you'll 'ride' the bird for a short time. Then when you shoot doubles, you take the birds in the same general places. The rest of the doubles are shot on the same principles. Follow through. Imagine a paintbrush on the end of your gun. Paint the path of the bird all the way to the distance stakes, even after you pull the trigger. Don't stop your swing until you either a) see the bird break, or 'touch' the other house with the muzzle. Most misses are behind the bird. Don't stop the swing, and don't imagine you're too far ahead. Sometimes 'chip' shots are the best way of seeing where you're shooting, when you shoot chips off the bird and see which part of the bird they came off of. 2nd most misses are over the bird. Keep your head solid on the stock. Good luck.

Hot on the left, cold on the right. I'm waiting for the day plumbers become like doctors -- too expensive, and won't make house calls.

Not the two in the shade in their folding chairs yakking about their last GM-led class, or the one who's run off to the porta-potti.

Yeah -- arrogant people. The ones that put themselves above being considerate -- whether it's 'please' and 'thank you', or 'hey, there's someone else in the world'. Got a relative that fits for being rude and arrogant -- 15 y.o. boy. Can't tell the difference between what he gets because he's entitled to it, and what he gets because relatives are generous -- expects to get what he wants and seems to prefer to skip the tedium of doing something to benefit others (once told me, "help out" wasn't in his vocabulary). Never a 'please', or a 'thank you'. Do something decent for him, and his whole attitude is that he just got one over on you, and got something from you out of his own cleverness.

You set your digital alarm clock to go off at 4 minutes before 6 a.m. just so you can see that time displayed when you wake up. Or along the same lines -- you like to try to catch digital clocks displaying a caliber. It makes the afternoon drag at work move along a little better.

Absolutely, top ten -- wait, make that 2 -- of my hate list. Producers of these 'real life' gun shows pander to their own ideas of gun owners, and what they think the mainstream viewers expect to see. The result? Twangy music that would make 'Deliverance' sound like smooth jazz, tattoos, a beefy barrel of a guy who looks like he needs a drool bucket and/or a whip thin twitchy 'Cooter' clone, both of whom look like they could break out in, "Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk." at any time. Throw in a little canned 'gunspeak' ("Whatcha got thar is yer fully cussamized tack-driver. Yessir, it'll smack a fly's butt on th' fer sid'a th' holler 'afer he kin wipe it clean. It's got summuch pawr, it'll kill ya dedder'n yestiddy's grits jus' fum th' shock wav'a th' bullit. Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk.") Now we got us a GUNSHOW!

•Tests may include basic lock picking, pad locks, combo locks and hand cuffs. Also knots. What, no waterboarding?

Out of curiosity -- how does 8.2.2 apply? The competitor's assumption of the start position must satisfy the RO. If the RO is not satisfied, he should not start the competitor....... If I'm working as the RO or CRO on a stage, and a competitor attempts to start with something other that a WSB mandated prop in his/her hand -- I'm kicking that up to the RM for a decision immediately, as it could affect competitive equity...... If I'm the RM who's called -- it would depend on my evaluation of the situation. I'm not inclined to permit it however...... (Slippery slope: The first guy wants to use a water bottle, the next guy wants to use a 10 lb. sledge, the last guy wants to get his entry team ram out of the trunk of his cruiser. The activator needs to last the match -- so there might need to be a practical limit....) Thanks for the insight. I see what you say about the slippery slope. It's the same mentality that eventually makes it so that "facing uprange" has to be defined in an appendix, decisions about whether "hands" mean "fingers" or not have to be made, range props (chairs) have to be fastened down or marked for location, etc. ad nauseum. On the other hand, freestyle is freestyle. Maybe 8.2.2 should specifiy empty hands, if that's the expected situation, instead of the assumed one.

Out of curiosity -- how does 8.2.2 apply?

. . . AND the biggest load of can't count or can't read people pulling their loaded cart up to it. For cryin' out loud -- the sign gives a max # of items. Yeah, I HATE express lines.

+1 on the primer bar and a sweet spot. On mine, it would drag a bit and I cut a shim from the bottom of a tin pie pan so I could tighten the screws. And it's not jury-rigged -- it's carefully calibrated using field-expedient engineering adaptations.

A few years back, a southern city decided that they needed to do something, because newer ships were too large to get under a bridge to get to a port facility. The port authority's first decision was to dredge the channel deeper. It actually got approved before someone said, "Uh, wait a minute . . . ."

Can't believe no one's gone there yet. On the serious side -- I'd say it depends on the boy. If he's reasonably reliable (from an 8 year old standpoint) and it sounds like he is, a pump pellet with restriction on number of pumps. If he's not respectful of boundaries, a simple BB gun with a scope mounted.

I'll mix same powder/same lot when I have leftover in one container and reloading to finish. I keep same powder/different lots separated just in the unlikely event there is a recall on a powder.

+1 -- a non-solution to a non-existent problem. The only thing I've found a use for it is when I'm on a stage with a brass-snatcher that snags other people's brass; I'll scatter some for him.