Range Report

I've been hunting a bunch (for me at least) this fall. Went out again this week and saw lots of signs, but sadly no bucks. Its probably a good thing too, since when I hit the NRA range tonight, my rifle was horribly out of sight. I had a feeling that was the case and have been invited to hunt on a neighbors farm - where he just shot a 150lb dressed doe - on Monday. He has a gorgeous little game preserve in the Virginia Hunt Country and I wanted to make sure everything was peachy keen before heading over. It is now.

The Marlin 336



Here's a view of my sight in target. The target was at 50 yards, open sights (and my crappy eyes) from a Marlin 336 firing 150gr Winchester .30-30 Silvertips off sandbags and a bench rest.


It was shooting a bit high, but I think I have it zeroed into a reasonable range. You can follow the progression of the shots down. Ended up taking me 8 shots (the high top shot was actually put there by the guy on the lane next to me - he was firing his AK pretty much out of control).

After sighting it in, I took a couple of offhand shots at a 6 inch paper plate (which I forgot to bring home) and was able to hit it at 50 yards so I am pretty content with that.




The .22lr Range Report
I also plan to do a bit of squirrel hunting mid day monday and thought I would sight in my 10/22 as well. After doing so, and having been moved by Kim Du Toit's .22lr range report earlier this week, I decided to conduct my own (but my pictures aren't near as nice as Kim's).

The Ammo

I was firing 4 different ammo choices:

• CCI Mini Mags (100 ct box)


• CCI Stingers (50 ct box)


• CCI Blazers (50 ct box)


• Winchester Xpert 22 hollow points (bulk box)

The Results
I fired them at both 50 yards (10 shot groups on the left) and at 10 yards (5 shot groups on the right). Here are the results

CCI Mini Mag



CCI Stingers



CCI Blazer



Winchester Xpert



Here's the complete 10 yard target (sorry, I don't have a picture of the complete 50 yard target)


Final analysis

My initial impression was that the Mini Mags and Stingers would be, by far, the more accurate ammo choice. Reality has proven to be much different with the CCI Blazers (something I used to buy in bulk and always considered crap ammo) had the tightest group at both 10 yards and 50 yards. The Winchester Multi Pack also fared especially well (or at least a whole lot better than I imagined). Thats not to say I think the Mini Mags did poorly. In fact, they did as well as I would have imagined and but for the tremendous performance of the CCI Blazers would have been the victor. The Stingers, on the other hand, just don't do it for me. Sure, they are load and look and feel good, but their performance just doesn't match up. For me, they will remain simply a self defense (or assassination) round for use in concealed .22 handguns (like the Walther P.22)

Any thoughts??

Go Vols

Something has to be amiss. In the year that Fire Phil FUlmer runs Tennessee Volunteer Football into the ground, the MENS Basketball team is 8-1?!?!?!?!?!?!

Can someone explain whats going on?

Octopus's Garden

If this video is even remotly correct, my guess is that Ringo really doesn't want to be in an Octopus's Garden in the sea.

Now, the Octopus's Garden at Mad River Glen is a whole different story.

Tiger Woods, My Neighbor

Cool, Sports Illustrated is reporting that Tiger Woods just bought a $40 million dollar home on Jupiter Island, FL.

Golf's superstar is reportedly paying $40 million for a 10-acre oceanfront compound on Jupiter Island in Florida.

The Post reports that the property Woods is buying extends from the Intracoastal to the Atlantic, and that it's a record sale for Forbes magazine's "Most Expensive ZIP Code."

Cool. I have a house condo just across the inlet from Jupiter Island on Hutchinson Island (Indian River Plantation). Of course, we aren't in as exclusive of a neighborhood.

$weeet

My blog is worth $208,879.80.
How much is your blog worth?

Serenity

Continued the Christmas Week moviethon today.

Finally got a chance to see Serenity. It was pretty good - much better than your usual Star Trek inspired WB Sci Fi crap and a whole lot better than I was expecting. Still, I don't think it was better than Sith (as some folks claimed when it was in Theaters) and while I really enjoyed the movie, my impressions were somewhat diminished after watching the crappy ALL HAIL JOSS WHEDON feature on how he got the movie made. BTW - according to IMDB, he not only wrote the screenplay for Toy Story, but he is working on a Wonder Woman movie for 2007 release. Cool

Also watched Gangs of New York at work today. I had a bunch of stuff on e-waste to read but had the movie playing while I skimmed through it. Good stuff - I actually own the DVD and have seen it three or four times before. A bit violent, but great. And Daniel Day-Lewis is certainly on my short list of greatest actors, ever. Hell, he'd be there simply because of his role as Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans.

Da Ship

Here's the Pirate Ship

Freedom's In Sight

Of course, its nowhere near here. Instead, head over to FreedomSight and check out all the blog goodness Jed is putting up.

I am especially interested in handloading match ammo for my m1 garand.

Thanks for the link Jed!

The Great Raid

WOW!

Rented the DVD tonight. What a great movie. Tremendous story, great scenery, terrific acting performances, awesome gun play, action and explosions, not communist propaganda, pretty leading lady, inspiring heros and loathsome (and dead) enemies!

I'm gonna give it 8 out of 8 big 'ol 30.06 cartridges!!



Go rent it today!

And the gun banning bigots wonder why

I carry a firearm.

As you've probably heard, there was a multiple homicide on Christmas Day in McLean, Virginia and Great Falls, Virginia. The shooting in McLean happened about 1/2 mile from my house, just down the street from us.

This morning, around 8:00 am, a woman in McLean was abducted outside the MITRE Corporation (about 1/2 mile from my house in the other direction) and put in the back of a car. There is now a pretty heavy police standoff going on right now on the DC/Maryland border that concerns that abduction.

I might remind you that McLean and Great Falls are about as safe a pair of communities as your going to find. They are the home of Congressmen (we have one on our street) and Senators and Diplomats and other assorted big wigs, not to mention all the AOL internet bazillionaires (and poor little old me). If crime can happen here, it can happen anywhere (though its also worth pointing out that this part of Northern Virginia along with Arlington and Alexandria are about as anti gun a community as your going to find anywhere).

Deadwood

I don't get it.

I rented the first couple of episodes of Deadwood from the video store tonight and I just don't get it. Sure, there's cussing and gun fighting, but frankly I think the acting is over the top (and way too put on), the cussing (since when did cocksucker replace fuck as the WORD) is overdone, and perhaps worst of all, its just awfully dark making it hard to tell whats going on.

I just didn't get it. Episode 1 was a struggle and I only made it halfway through Episode 2 before turning it off and sticking in War of the Worlds. Its a crappy movie too, but at least it makes a positive statement about the need for a gun when society falls apart.

The Executioner

Robert Morris...-The Executioner-...You are loyal
and brave(to a fault) but you are also a
psychotic killing-machine. Seek professional
help NOW! ;-)


Which Red Dawn Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Tip of the hat to the Heartless Libertarian.

Lazy Week

Its a pretty lazy week at work. I am spending my time mostly prepping for one of the interviews next week, reading lots of stuff on e-waste and natural resource damages. If you have any thoughts or experience with either, let me know.

Oh yeah, also watching some movies. I've got Bullitt in right now. It was one of my Christmas DVDs (actually picked it up, along with Johnny Dangerously) at Wal Mart for myself (2 for $11 special). With the exception of its great auto chase, I hadn't seen all of Bullitt in awhile. Its a shame, cause its a much better movie than I remember. From the swinging jazz of 1960s San Francisco, to the quality gun play, tremendous acting, great dialogue and star studded cast (in addition to Steve McQueen it haalso has the gorgeous Jacqueline Bissett and a young Robert Duvall) its all around a winner all the way.

Here's a great page on the filming of Bullitt. Check out all the Amazon reviews for more.

Christmas Fun

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

I'm back in DC after a quick jaunt down to Chattanooga. Got to stop off at Coal Creek Armory in Knoxville on the way down and met Tamara K and Alston at the shop as well as Says Uncle and Les Jones (finally, after the last 2 or 3 times scheduling conflicts got in the way).

Spent some quality time on the Coal Creek Range. Highlights for me included shooting Uncles tricked out Glock, (much more balanced and stable than the G23 I used to have), his smooth shooting Sig, Les's 6 inch S&W 626 and weird CZ branded Italian beauty; and Coal Creek's MP5. Seriously, we put about 300 rounds down range with the thing in a matter of minutes. My right thumb is still a bit raw from loading it.

Oh yeah, I also hoisted (but sadly, didn't get to fire) a Barrett bolt action .50 BMG rifle. Sweet. At 30 something pounds and 5 feet in length, its the perfect weapon to hide under your jacket and rob convienience stores with (thats a joke, you gun banning bastards).

Also stopped off at Classic Pawn in Chickamauga, GA. The gun banners hate them (heck, Jayson Blair and the NY Times even did an article on them) so I ALWAYS make it a point of stopping off and buying stuff (shwag, ammo or guns) there. Almost purchased the CETME, but decided to hold off. I have interviews for two different jobs in the next two weeks and if I get either one, I will go down and buy it as a gift to myself.

Christmas itself was loads of fun. Santa bought my son a red scooter with a bell, a blue remote controlled truck, and a Playmobil pirate ship amongst other treasures. He was thrilled and unless you have kids of your own, your simply not going to udnerstand the deep feeling of satisfaction as you see the joy and thrill in the eyes of a 3 1/2 year old on Christmas morning.

I ended up getting a Lee Turret Press kit as well as some clothes and DVDs and went to see The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe Christmas day. It was great, maybe even better than LOTR (I actually like the Narnia books better.

Now, if only they would do a movie series of Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles. . . . . . .

Merry Christmas

The Complete Advent Calendar

This is postdated in order to remain at the top.

Here are links to each of the Countertop Advent Calendar Posts I have put up this December. Each of the thumbnail images will take you to the original post. Once there, click on the larger image to reveal your surprise!

December 24	December 23
December 22	December 21
December 20	December 19
December 18	December 17
December 16	December 15
December 14	December 13
December 12	December 11
December 10	December 09
December 08	December 07
December 06	December 05
December 04	December 03
December 02	December 01

Advent Day 24

For more information, click here.

CETME bleg

Anyone have experience with the Century CETME.



The local gun shop here has one for under $400. Always loved the looked but didn't have the cash back when Century was moving tons of them 4 or 5 years ago.

Depending on how Christmas goes, it might be a belated gift to myself on Monday morning. Would appreciate any thoughts folks have.

Thanks