Call me Ahab

posted by Caleb on Apr 28

I went Pin Shooting for the first time on Saturday, and I had an absolute blast. Listen to today’s podcast for more information, and check out below for crappy cell-phone video of myself and two of my friends shooting pins.

 

 Pin Shooting [11:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If the embedded flash player doesn’t play the audio correctly, just hit the link labeled “download” to listen, or you can click this link to download it on iTunes. The embedded flash player doesn’t always like Internet Explorer 6, however audio should play fine in Firefox or Internet Explorer 7.

Video 1: Me shooting. I feel kind of bad, because Greg, who took the video of me, did a way better job with it than I did with them. I’m shooting my Taurus Tracker .357 Magnum, and based on that video, I think I’m hitting the pins too high.

Video 2: This is my buddy and reader Greg shooting, he’s running a stock Beretta 92.
Video 3: My friend and also reader Matt shooting, he had a stock Springfield XD compact in 9mm, and he still managed to win this stage.
I had a great time shooting pins, and now I’m hooked.

posted by Caleb on Apr 28

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a Bowling Pin Shoot at Marion County Fish and Game Association. Two of my friends are members there, and invited me along to the pin shoot in the effort to get me to join the range as well, and also because holy hell pin shooting is wicked fun.

As you can see from their website, MCF&G offers a lot of different shooting options, including pistol, rimfire, trap, muzzle loading, and even an airgun league. In addition to just having the range itself, they also have a variety of regular competitions, such as the bowling pin shoot that I went to. Like the pin shoot, they have a regular steel match one Friday a month, NRA bullseye matches, muzzleloading matches, weekly trap, and a host of other matches and activities.

At the pin shoot, I got to meet a good cross-section of the range regulars (while getting my ass handed to me), and they were a good group of guys. Everyone was interested in having fun, as well as being very welcoming of the “new guys”. The “safe” area to the side of the pin shooting area was nice, as people were talking about pin shooting, different guns, etc.

The one thing that impressed me was the level of concern for safety as well and how they went about enforcing it. During the pin shoot, I accidentally handled my firearm at the line when I shouldn’t have, but instead of having some range nazi come screaming up my backside, the RSOs assumed that I’m a semi-unretarded adult and just reminded me of the safe handling rules. As such, I was duly chastised. But the commitment to safety coupled with the courtesy with which it was enforced really impressed me.

The only strike to MCF&G would be that they don’t allow high-powered rifles, but then again I’ve yet to find a range in the Indy/Metro area that does allow that; other than the odious Don’s Guns. Here’s Marion County Fish & Game Association breaks down on my review list:

• Location: Not a bad location, it’s only a little bit further from my house than Eagle Creek, and since it’s “members only” the access is limited and gated. The range itself is located in a bit of backcountry woods which makes it very easy to forget that you’re 10 minutes from a major metro area.
• Range: This is obviously where MCF&G shines - their range is large with a wide variety of different guns that are supported. Again, their only knock is that no high-powered rifles are allowed, so it would get 4 stars instead of 5.
• Staff & Members: One of the best parts of this range is found in the staff and members. Everyone I encountered was courteous, friendly, and generally helpful and pleasant. Unlike a lot of ranges I’ve been to, I never once got the feeling that myself or my friends were “outsiders”. For the welcoming and open atmosphere provided by the guys at the range alone I would recommend it to a lot of people.
• Intangibles: At Marion County Fish and Game, I really felt like I was at a range populated by “gun guys” No one was waving guns around and acting stupid, everyone was responsible, safe and friendly. In short, it was everything I want in a range experience.

Bottom line: I’ll definitely be going back to Marion County Fish & Game Association; at the very least to shoot steel and pins on a monthly basis and I’m going to investigate possibly purchasing a membership as well. I firmly believe in supporting the sport locally, and I think that joining an area club would be a responsible thing to do.

posted by Caleb on Apr 25

I’ve noticed a pattern that occurs whenever I say anything even remotely negative about St. Barack the Hopemonger.  I get emails and comments which are castigating and remonstrating me for not supporting the candidate of hopeychangey-goodness, the bulk of which come from .edu email address.

To add insult to injury, many of these emails and comments from .edu email addresses contain significant numbers of spelling and grammatical errors.  What exactly are they teaching kids these days?

posted by Caleb on Apr 25

If you were one of the people who listened to this Monday’s podcast, I mentioned that it’s my last week in Las Vegas, and to be completely precise, yesterday was my last night in town.

So, I said goodbye to the one thing in Las Vegas that I’m really going to miss.  No, not my coworkers, not my office with the big comfy couch, not the starkly beautiful desert mountains in the distance, none of that is what I’m going to miss the most.

If you must know what about Las Vegas I’m going to miss the most, click the fold and find out:

Read the rest of this entry »

posted by Caleb on Apr 25

Go read Wayne LaPierre’s column on Barack Obama’s legislative track record and self-defense, posted at NRA’s Political Victory website.  The backstory is how Obama twice voted against legislation that would have protected citizens from prosecution who used legally purchased guns in self defense.

The House accepted the DeMar selfdefense bill by a vote of 86-25 and the Senate moved the legislation on a 38-20 vote.

And here lies the seminal moment for state Senator Barack Obama. When Obama turned thumbs down on the bill, he voted against the most basic element of the Second Amendment– the right of defense of self and family– the reason that millions of Americans own firearms.

When the governor vetoed the bill, Obama once again voted against a citizen’s right to self-defense. Despite his vote, the veto override passed the Senate and the House by overwhelming majorities, thereby enacting this bill into law.

This is the behavior of someone who claims to support hunters and shooters?  I don’t think so.   Remember, Obama served on the board of the Joyce Foundation, an anti-gun group, and has been endorsed by American Hunters and Shooters, which is a false-flag group pretending to be “pro-gun”, when in fact their senior leadership is chummy with the leadership of the Brady Campaign.  Wayne hits the nail with his final statement about Obama:

Obama’s alleged support of the Second Amendment is utterly cynical and false.

Which I guess makes him a perfect match for American Hunters and Shooters Association.  He and Ray Schoenke deserve each other.

posted by Caleb on Apr 25

Robb finally got his Evil Black Rifle.

You can see that he’s already teaching his daughter The Way of GunNut - Bravo Zulu, Robb!

More of his EBR pics here.

Also, to Robb - asking me to not do something like you did in the email is a surefire way to get me to do it, you’re just lucky my wife is smarter than I am.

posted by Caleb on Apr 24

Eric Thompson, the owner of TopGlock.com who we have had on the podcast before was the subject of what amounts to a smear article by ABC News. Eric is someone who is dedicated to preserving our right to keep and bear arms, and due to his unfortunate connection to the VA Tech shooting has really taken the cause of students who wish to be able to defend themselves to heart. With that in mind, he’s running a promotion offer to sell firearms at a discounted rate to college students - I think that’s an excellent gesture and a show of his sincerity and dedication.

ABC News on the other hand thinks it’s a horrible thing, and starts the article right off by referring to him as the “Virginia Tech Gun Dealer”. I guess they figure if they can establish a bias in the minds of their readers with the title of the article, it will make it smearing his character that much easier. Of course, the very next thing they do is make sure that if there was any doubt, the hammer home the unfortunate link between the VA Tech shooter and Eric. Sadly, it only gets worse from there, as ABC News decided to give Petey Hamm from the Brady Campaign and Josh Sugarmann from VPC an inordinate amount of inkspace to really smear Eric. First up, Petey says the following:

“He’s arming the criminals and then telling the rest of us to buy guns so we can protect ourselves from the criminals he’s armed,” said Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Really, Petey? He’s arming criminals? Got any proof for that baseless accusation, or are you just flinging poo at the character of an honest businessman who has broken no laws? If Eric really was selling guns to criminals, that’s something that should be reported to the ATF, which I’m sure you would have done if you had any proof. Instead, you’re just making wild accusations in the public media about an honest businessman. This just reinforces my new, unofficial motto for the Brady Campaign: Snatching crassness from the jaws of decency.

Of course, not to be outdone, Josh Sugarmann has to get his two cents in:

“What this shows is that to the gun industry, gun violence is at best an abstract concept and at worst a business opportunity,” said Josh Sugarmann, the Executive Director of the Violence Policy Center.

“No matter how these products are used against citizens, the answer is always more guns when in fact these problems stem from the fact that there are too many guns out there already,” Sugarmann told ABCNews.com.

Yes, Josh, it’s a business opportunity. Which is why Eric’s selling the guns at cost and not making any profit of them. You know, with business acumen like yours, it’s no wonder that VPC is hemorrhaging funds. But that’s okay, because you got your rhetoric in place about how all the guns “on the streets” are the problem; nevermind that the goal is to allow people who have already gone through the rigorous background check necessary to get a CCW to be able to defend themselves where they go to school.

You know, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. ABC News lately has demonstrated absolutely zero interest in running factual news stories, and just seems interested in pumping more biased hoplophobic hyperbole into the newsfeed, and hope that by repeating the anti-gun mantra even louder and trashing the good name of a good guy that they can get some traction for their agenda.

posted by Caleb on Apr 24

This is a boycott that will hit me where it hurts the most, in my food consuming area. Mrs. Ahab loves Pizza Hut, but a little pissed of that they waited until the media furor surrounding the driver who shot the man who was trying to murder him died down - and then they canned the guy.

This is a boycott that will actually be difficult for me - unlike my Wal-Mart boycott, because I never go to Wal-Mart anyway there are times when the Mrs. just gets a craving for the average pizza and garlic cheese bread they have at Pizza Hut.

Put I’m not going to spend my dollars at a place that waits until they think no one is paying attention, and then fires and employee for defending his life against a violent assault. Not cool, Pizza Hut.

Update: In the comments, Unix-Jedi gives a good reason to never go to Pizza Hut again anyway:

Dough:
3 cups King Arthur (or other hard wheat)
8 oz warm water
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp essential gluten

Sauce:
1 can tomato sauce
(Optional) 1 tsp sugar)
handful each: Oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder.
(Or crush garlic cloves if you like them rather than the powder.)

Cheese:
25% Whole milk mozzarella
40% Part-skim mozzarella
25% Provolone
10% Asiago & Parmesan

Put the can of tomato sauce on, bring to a hard simmer, toss in spices, lower heat and allow to low simmer until reduced in volume about 50%. (slightly runnier than paste). Min 1 hr. Spice to personal preference.

Heat the water to ~100F, add the sugar, and 2 pkts yeast.
Wait 10 minutes for the yeast to bloom, almost doubling the volume with foam, and then add to the other ingredients in a mixing bowl. (I use a kitchenaid. I suppose you could do this by hand, but, get a kitchenaid.)

Mix for 12-15 minutes, until the gluten has formed well.

Divide into 2 pieces, shape into balls and place in oiled bowls 3x the size of the doughballs, oil the surface (spray works fine) and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Place in a cool spot for 1-4 hours. When the dough is 2x the prior volume, turn it out on a floured board and stretch it. Tossing in the air is fine, but working it out by stretching and pulling on the floured board works fine as well.

Add ladle of sauce, just enough to cover the pizza. Add cheese. Other toppings as desired.

(For pepperoni and salami - cook them for about 3 minutes in a skillet over medium-high heat to get out a lot of the fat. For hamburger and sausage, brown thoroughly and let drain prior to adding. For anchovies, see a therapist.)

Preheat oven to 500, preferably with pizza stone in middle. Put either directly on pizza stone if you’ve got a peel, if not, a cheap AL pizza pan will work.

Bake for 6-10 minutes.

Great, now I’m really hungry.

posted by Caleb on Apr 24

For deer hunting in Charles City County.

The county Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 last night to prohibit deer hunting with high-powered rifles, drawing anger and raised voices from some in the audience.

One of the members of the county who attended the meeting had the right idea on how to deal with legislators who enact stupid rules - he told them that they would “get them out” next election. The move to ban hunting rifles for deer hunting was driven primarily by hyperbole and bogus concerns of safety.

Opponents of rifle hunting expressed concerns about stray bullets. One suggested that some hunters would be unable to resist shooting a deer even if they were on the ground and not in a tree stand.

Elbert Parker held a piece of inch-thick wood above his head to demonstrate the ease with which a bullet could go through someone’s wall.

“Your children can be shot dead looking at TV in your house,” he said, prompting an argument among him and members of the crowd until board chairman Gilbert A. Smith tapped on a table to quiet them.

Going back to that old standard myth of gun owners being trigger happy, which we know isn’t true. Tossing in a bit of PSH to round out the equation, because nothing says “evil” like a rifle that can shoot through walls.

Normally I wouldn’t berate a county commission for decided that people can’t use rifles to hunt deer - while I think it’s a stupid decision it’s usually not a big deal. However, the kind of tactics that were used to get those rifles banned are the exact same kind of tactics that you see used against “assault weapons” and high capacity magazines. If a rifle is “too dangerous” to hunt deer with, surely it’s too dangerous to have in your house. It establishes a bad precedent, because they’re banning rifles for hunting based purely on emotion and not any legitimate safety concerns.

In situations like this, people often say things to me like “it’s only rifles, they can still hunt with shotguns and muzzleloaders” or other stuff like that. Sure, it’s only rifles now, but next year it might be shotguns, because those big slugs are scawwy, and then who is to say where it stops after that?

Bill Johnson, one of the residents of Charles City County, has it exactly right: “We’re going to get you out next term”. Like I said above, that is exactly what you do in this situation - some county commission thinks they know what’s best, you toss ‘em out on their ear.

posted by Caleb on Apr 24

A poster at The High Road put up a bunch of photos from a machine-gun/SBR shoot.

Check out the fireball coming from that - and go to The High Road to view the rest of the pictures.