Neanderpundit

Is apparently not doing well.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Now, as I’ve been telling my friend in IM, I don’t wish him any personal harm. I hope he recovers and lives for many happy years to come. I just want his megaphone taken away from him.

For all these years, Ebert has been using his lofty skills as A GUY WHO REVIEWS MOVIES to push his own political agenda. He’s a pure socialist and a moron of the highest order, and he has no business using his sucess as a platform for political statement. Keep him in your prayers. And hope to hell he never shoots off his piehole again.

Dick is taslking about picking up his baseball bats.

Frankly, I cannot but agree, as I’ve said before.

When I was but a cub, I was repairing a machine for a specific manufacturer in Corona California
While there, I tried to weasel my way into a custom Strat, but htebest I could do was a case for a Jaguar. I kept it in the car for the longest time.
I used to have an girlfriend who played baseball, and when she left, she left an Easton aluminum baseball bat in my car. It fit in the case, so I left it there.

One day, bored senseless, i drilled a hole in the end of the bat and put in six pounds of #8 birdshot. By itself this would have bent the bat, but I also put in a milton fitting and 60 psi of air.

Now, for all intents and purposes, I have a dead-blow bat. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a dead blow hammer has a hollow inside with a load of loose shot, and when you hit something, the shot comes after the initial blow and adds an additional, final impact. A dead blow hammer, for instance, nevr bounces, no matter how hard you hit.

Now my baseball bat never saw any use, but somedays I take it out of it’s case, and slap it against my hand, the zzzing zzzing of the shot sliding aroud inside, comforting and resolute. Maybe I can have a party with Dick, and we can find some fols burning flags.

Major range day.

Nephew and I loaded up the truck with such a bucketload of shit, it’s amazing we got it all in the truck.

Pistols:
Uberti Colt Cattleman
Ruger Mark II

Rifles:
Ma Bell (Interarms Mark X in 30-06)
Remington 241 Speedmaster
Winchester 94 in 30-30 wcf
K31
Cugir

Scatterguns
Springfield armory 12 gauge
LeFever Nitro Special 20 gauge

We went through all the ammo I brought, which was hundreds and hundreds of rounds.

The gem of the day was, of course,the K31. I shot twenty rounds through Ma Bell, which used to be my favorite, and which, frankly, was usually able to get me single ragged hole groups.These days, I can’t seem to get better than a couple inches across.

On the other hand, the K31, I was able to keep everything in six inches. At 100 yarde. With Iron sights.

If I had to give up every rifle I owned, and keep but one, this would be the one. It comes to the shoulder unaided, it springs to life beneath my grip. THe warmth of it’s barrel comforts me and the weight of it makes me wish I had purchased it earlier. I grow ever more satisfied with this fine rifle, and I intend to restore it’s stock and get it back to as-new condition as soon as I can.

We ran out of 30-30. We ran out of 30-06. We ran out of 7.5 swiss. We went through more than 500 rounds of 22 long rifle.
We shot and shot and shot, until we wore grins so large our faces hurt.

THen came the clays. Now i’ll readily admit to sucking with sporting clays, and today was no exception- but I remembered what it took to GET good. Practice.

Now, I’ve done a lot of things that I never got any good at- I tried to learn the guitar about three hundred times, and I go from nothing to sucking in a couple days, where I plateau at sucking for about ever. No matter what I do, I rarely if ever get beyond sucking.

Clays, of course, I do improve. I went, during the course of a couple hundred clays, from sucking to hitting about every one. I did have some issues getting the old LeFever to run well- it;s a little old and cantankerous and I suspect I will have to do some work to it to get it to be more reliable- and in any event, it was never a trap gun. The Springfield Armory is really only a hyped up Savage, and it shoots well, but again, it’s not a trap gun, not mean tto shoot all day long. I had better luck with the 20 than with the 12, but that’s because of familiarity. At any rate, 20 straight was my best hit, and I’m, looking forward to a lot more.

All in all? damn, i feel good. And a bottle of cheap sauternes at the end of the day is gonna make it a good dall all told. Now I must go nap. Happy fourth!