Still Shooting

despite life trying to intervene...

so anyway, I'm still working on my marksmanship and seeing some improvement.

Monday 21MAR16

Tuesday 22MAR16

Wednesday 23MAR16

Thursday 24MAR16

Friday 25MAR16

Saturday 26MAR16

Tuesday 29MAR16

Wednesday 30MAR16

Thursday 31MAR16

Up until now, I was shooting whilst seated and supported (bench-like).   I changed my shooting position starting in April to seated but unsupported.
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Practice Continues

it's a slow process...

so anyway, I'm still keeping up with The Marksmanship Restoration Project.  I just need to get caught up in posting my progress.

The third week looked like this:

Monday 14MAR16

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Saturday Night Video

The "Can You See the Pattern" Edition...

so anyway, marksmanship has been on my mind lately and you can't go wrong with Hickok45 vids:

Range day tomorrow, for some real practice.

more soon

Practice Begins

I have some work to do...

so anyway, I set up my little indoor range and started practicing.  Ten shots a day, concentrating  on good mechanics and taking my time.

The first four days I was dorking around with the sights:

Tuesday 01MAR16

Wednesday 02MAR16

Thursday 03MAR16

Friday 04MAR16

The fifth day, I swapped out my bifocals (shut up) for a pair of reading glasses for a better sight picture:
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The Marksmanship Restoration Project

it's about time...

so anyway, The Boy™ and I went to the range last month for some recoil therapy.  We shot up about a pound of .22LR, great fun was had by all.

Towards the end of the day, I set him up to shoot a target worth hanging on the front of the ice box.  I grabbed the binoculars to spot and he loaded up and started shooting.

BANG "Miss"

BANG "Miss.  Which target are you shooting?"

"The middle one"

BANG "Way high and way left.  On the paper, but not on the target"

BANG "Low and right, just outside the 8 ring"

"Dad, I think the sights are off on the rifle."

He handed me the rifle, and I took four quick shots.  All four were in the 9 ring. I handed it back and told him the sights were "on" enough to at least hit the black on the target.  We shot some more (he got better) and then it was time to go.

On the drive home we had a good laugh when I said "I hope the zombies don't apocalypse any time soon, 'cause neither one of us can hit shit."

Later, I took a good look at my target.  All in the 9 ring, sure; but all over the map.  If it were just the sights, all the misses should be closer together.

I looked at the rifle.  "It's not you, it's me".

So, I decided to work on it.  I knew from the Great Air Rifle Acquisition Project (I should tell that story sometime) that I can set up a 10 yard range in my small, but tiny apartment.  I took the scope off the pellet gun and got to working on my mechanics.  I decided that I'd take ten shots everyday, and actually work at getting better.

I'll start posting targets as I progress.

more soon

Saturday Night Video

the "Neo gets it on" edition...

so anyway, last night Maetenloch posted this vid over at Ace's place:
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Range Day

this is only a test

so anyway, I went to the range on Sunday

That's the new 10 yard pistol range, partially funded by the NRA.

I'm not posting any target, as I'm still "off my game".  I am, however, a paper plate's worst nightmare...

more soon

Saturday Night Video

The "Free Speech" Edition

so anyway, Ben Shapiro of Breitbart fame crashed a safe space at Mizzou the other day...
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Saturday Night Video

The "Shocked" Edition

so anyway, by now you've all heard of the islamofascist terror attacks in Paris.  Horrible, but not completely unexpected.  Hopefully, the French can acknowledge the root cause of the problem and find the resolve to deal with it.
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Saturday Night Video

the "What He Said" edition

so anyway, Bill Whittle puts us some knowledge on the whole "gun" situation:
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Saturday Night Video

The "Answer the Question" Edition

so anyway, Ted Cruz had some questions of the Sierra Club, and they gave no answers:
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Saturday Night Video

A dark day in history...
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Saturday Night Video

The "Ted Cruz Goes Large" Edition

so anyway, Senator Ted Cruz throws down on the Senate floor:
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Saturday Night Video

The "Meditation" Edition

so anyway, I'm usually not one to go for meditation and the like, but this I found to be helpful and soothing:
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Independence Day

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. — The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
Geo. Walton

Wm. Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Edward Rutledge
Thos. Heyward, Junr.
Thomas Lynch, Junr.
Arthur Middleton

Samuel Chase
Wm. Paca
Thos. Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Th. Jefferson
Benja. Harrison
Thos. Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Robt. Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benja. Franklin
John Morton
Geo. Clymer
Jas. Smith
Geo. Taylor
James Wilson
Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney
Geo. Read
Tho. Mckean

Wm. Floyd
Phil. Livingston
Frans. Lewis
Lewis Morris
Richd. Stockton
Jno. Witherspoon
Fras. Hopkinson
John Hart
Abra. Clark

Josiah Bartlett
Wm. Whipple
Saml. Adams
John Adams
Robt. Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins
William Ellery
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
Wm. Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton

Saturday Night Video

The "Things I am Curious About" Edition

so anyway, this:
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Saturday Night Video

The "Hearing It From a Different Angle" Edition

so anyway, I stumbled upon this a couple of weeks ago, and remain intrigued at how bizarre it is:
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Saturday Night Video

The "Here's what I think of that" Edition

so anyway, Bruce Jenner has dominated the news cycle for the week, as the butt of his own joke.
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Saturday Night Video

The "Hoping my family and friends are safe" edition...

so anyway, Texas has been deluged with rain for weeks now.
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Saturday Night Video

The "You Knew It Was Coming" Edition

so anyway, Percy Sledge passed away this week.  He was 74.
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Beware the Ides of March (Updated)

shamelessly stolen from Twitter

so anyway, this cracked me up

more soon

UPDATE!  I showed this pic to three cow-orkers today.  I had to explain it to each of them..."it's funny because it's a knife in the back of "Caesar"; get it?  No?  The fifteenth of March ring any bells? No?..."  And you wonder why I drink...

Saturday Night Video

The "I Has a Sad" Edition

so anyway, Leonard Nimoy passed away yesterday.  He was 83.  Although Nimoy was an accomplished actor in a wide variety of roles, he was most known for his role as Spock in the original Star Trek series.
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Saturday Night Video

The "...been away, haven't seen you in a while..." Edition

so anyway, just when I thought my real life couldn't get any weirder or screwed up, things happen.  Mostly good, some bad, all weird.  Maybe I'll tell the stories sometime soon,..
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Veteran's day

I am so grateful...

so anyway, this:
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Monday Night Video

The "You Should Watch This Daily" Edition

so anyway, I was going to post this on Saturday evening, but today seemed a better time.  Fifty years ago this evening, this was broadcast to the Nation:
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