Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Next meeting at Indoor Range (Eveleth)

Next club meeting will be on Thursday, May 27 beginning at six-thirty pee-em (that's 1830 hrs for you civilians).
More great news: the club now owns the property on which the outdoor range is located. Be sure to thank the mayor, city council members and Commissioner Keith Nelson for their efforts on our behalf.
Notice the club calendar also: especially if you're intending a trip to the range for some individual or group fun. Since the range schedule is well-packed you don't want to intrude or be turned away (like that'll happen- but it could). Also, when you do go to the range, please pick up after yourself. No need to make a mess for others to pick up after you. Thanks.
Dan's just beginning to get mobile after his hip surgery, so he was a bit late getting membership checks deposited to the account- which is why you may've not seen the canceled check on your statement. They're in now so no sweating any longer.
Steve S. won the DCM match with his 404/3X score. He's one of Dan's junior students. This was his first match, so be sure to congratulate him, wish him a long and happy shooting career. Again, it's always wonderful to see new shooters getting involved, especially youngsters. Remember, too, the Forkhorn Camps coming up- July 21/Aug 4/Aug 17, 0900 hrs to 1500 (that's 9 to 3 for you military types)- volunteers are a truly welcome sight to the young shooters as well as those who're putting in the extra hours of working with the kids.
If you have any questions about the matches, or any shooting, give Dan a jingle (his number's on the sidebar, as are other directors).
Dan has the next CCW class scheduled for June 21-22, so get signed up by calling Dan.
See you at the meeting Thursday and at the Range all summer- again, check the calendar, it's busy and fun-filled for your enjoyment.
Remember: chamber empty, muzzle down range, no loaded weapons unless at the firing line.
Shy III


Saturday, May 8, 2010

DCM/CMP Shoot, 5-8


"...Federal legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress and President
Theodore Roosevelt created the National Board for the
Promotion of Rifle Practice in 1903 to foster improved marksmanship
among military personnel and civilians. The original
CMP purpose was to provide U. S. citizens with opportunities
for rifle marksmanship practice and competition so they would
be skilled marksmen if later called to serve in the Armed Services.
This government supported marksmanship program came
to be known as the “civilian marksmanship program.” Over the
years, the CMP’s emphasis shifted so that today it focuses on
youth development through marksmanship..." (From the DCM rulebook)
Department of Civilian Marksmanship programs and shoots are all about accuracy with military weapons shot from three position: standing, sitting and prone. All timed and include magazine changes.
(Military weapons must be in original configuration and includes almost every military arm created. For more information, see the rulebook DCM on the left sidebar.)

Shooters had a damp, dripping morning to set their targets and make their scores- weather doesn't stop a military marksman.

Today's shooter scores:

Steve: 404 w/3X

Nick: 334

Lorn: 307

Kerry: 291

Todd: 143

This being my introduction to DCM, I didn't shoot (rifle) but came to watch and learn. Surprising to me is how few shooters were in attendance. (Not that everyone shoots military weapons or wants to, I was just expecting a horde of shooters.)

This April I attended the Appleseed shoot at the Duluth Sportsman's Club- two days of .22 shooting at 25 yards at diminutive targets. Nineteen shooters sent more than 700 rounds each downrange in two days, had a blast of a time and came away better shooters (I think) than we came. If you've not done an Appleseed, it's a Basic Military Marksmanship AQT shoot and very alike the DCM, with a bit of American Revolution history thrown in.

One of the best ways to insure your young ones can shoot is get them shooting, and the CMP program or an Appleseed are two of the best ways to teach them how a rifle works and how to get the hits. So, let's get the kids shooting, Folks. While they're on the firing line, be getting your gear ready for your turn.

I'll be on the firing line at the August shoot, sure hope to see many others there as well.

Be safe, All- keep the muzzle down range.

Shy III

Cowboy Action Day...

The gunfight began at High Noon today as the Cowboy Action shooters saddled up to send the first rounds downrange, eliminating charging buffalo and stampeding bulls amid a flurry of Badman activity.
But it isn't just the guys who spent the afternoon defending the Home Range- as in the Days of Yesteryear, the women-folk are also responsible for keeping meat on the table and warding off the outlaws. Proving they're no slouches, notice the empty brass floating above the ejection port-- and the next shot is almost on the way.

Ladies not only get to play with rifles, they are also expected to handle the scatter guns and belt-fed weapons: those old-fashioned single action wheel guns no cowboy would be caught without- and many wished they had been!

Using weapons that are historically more than 100 years old, the Cowboy Action shooters have the challenge of a three-gun shoot whenever they step to the line. Rifle, pistol and shotgun, the series is timed and accuracy counts (OH! NO!)

Speed is of the essence with Cowboys. After all, that herd of buffalo is coming fast and need to be downed quickly. Of course, someone is always Top Gun when the sunset begins to paint the western sky. But all have a rip-roaring time gunning for top spot.
And what would a cow-town be without the gabardine of the era? Put on your best Sunday hat, polish your boots and slip your gunbelts around your waist and come to the next week-end Cowboy Action match June 12.
Have fun, shoot straight and remember- keep your eye on the target.
Shy III

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

NRA Alert, 5/5/10


Anti-Gun Legislators Trying Remove Pro-Gun Amendment from Trauma Care Bill!
When Senate File 2866 was originally introduced, it contained a potential backdoor registration scheme that would have empowered the Commissioner of Health or any trauma hospital to collect and store a patients firearm ownership and carry permit information, creating a defacto gun registration system.
Coming to the aide of law-abiding gun owners, pro-gun State Representative Mary Holberg (R-36A) offered an amendment to Senate File 2866 which would prevent the Commissioner of Health or any trauma hospital from creating such a registry. On April 8, this amendment was adopted with broad bi-partisan support in the House by a vote of 92 to 38. But now, anti-gun legislators are attempting to remove Representative Holberg's amendment in conference committee.
Please contact the following conferees and leadership members and urge them to support State Representative Holberg's amendment.

Leadership:
Speaker Margaret Kelliher (DFL-60A)
(651) 296-0171
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/mailto.asp?id=10311

State Representative Tony Sertich (DFL-5B)
(651) 296-0172
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/mailto.asp?id=10606

State Senator Larry Pogemiller (DFL-59)
(651) 296-7809
Email

Conferees:
Senate:
State Senator Kathy Sheran (DFL-23)
(651) 296-6153
sen.kathy.sheran@senate.mn

State Senator Sharon Erickson Ropes (DFL-31)
(651) 296-5649
sen.sharon.erickson.ropes@senate.mn

State Senator Steve Dille (R-18)
(651) 296-4131
sen.steve.dille@senate.mn

House:
State Representatives Diane Loeffler (DFL-59A)
(651) 296-4219
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/mailto.asp?id=12270

State Representative Maria Ruud (DFL-42A)
651-296-3964
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/mailto.asp?id=12277

State Representative Jim Abeler (R-48B)
651-296-1729
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/mailto.asp?id=10002

Monday, May 3, 2010

Suggested Speech for Sarah...


Sarah Palin will be giving a speech at the annual NRA banquet this spring. Following is a speech she has been asked to use. Read, consider the words and implications of them on your life and that of your loved ones. (Copyrite 2010 by the JFPO) S.W.


Fellow NRA members, thank you for inviting me here today.
How does it feel to be part of what our deceitful adversaries sarcastically call “the gun culture”?
Did you know that we are also part of an even larger group? It’s a not-so-secret society. It’s called “The Freedom Culture”.
The American Experiment was designed around a fundamental spiritual and ethical concept: the premise of certain individual and unalienable rights. I have them. And every single one of you has them. They are ours at birth.
Where does an unalienable right come from? Does it come from the whim of a politician? Does it come from some military general’s fickle approval? Does it come from some judge sitting above you in court? Does an unalienable right exist because some newspaper editor or television anchorwoman says it is okay for it to exist?
No, unalienable rights come from G-d *. (see: footnote) They are bestowed upon us by our Creator!
Now, we all know that it isn’t politically correct to speak of G-d these days. Well, take that one up with Thomas Jefferson, okay?
He wrote of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s G-d” in our Declaration of Independence. Much that Jefferson wrote irritates Liberals.

So, even an atheist can look at Nature (even while denying its Creator) and come to the common sense conclusion that there is a specific aspect of life that every living animal and human being naturally shares in common: the instinct towards, and the means to preserve, its own survival.
This is just common sense. You don’t need to attend a church or synagogue to figure this one out. Observe the natural world. Even a mouse will attempt a final last stand when cornered by a cat. Have you ever seen a blackbird defend its nest from a hawk? Does it not cause a stirring in your heart?
It is unnatural to strip a creature of its self defense mechanisms. In the case of human beings it is utterly and indefensibly immoral. It is a foundational evil. It is an affront to the innate drive towards life and liberty that our Creator has planted in our hearts and souls.
Does the mouse not have the right to defend itself against the cat? Or the blackbird the right to defend its young against the hawk?
Does the mother bear not have the right to defend her cubs?
But now look around at these dangerously malicious politicians and mainstream media pundits. Listen to some of our blindly idealistic religious leaders. They would assert that human beings, amongst all of G-d’s creation, do not have a right to personal self defense!
This is insanity. We must refuse these manipulators any further control over our lives! We must expose them, and never lose sight of their devious actions. We must never let down our guard!

Their lust for control over our lives is the foundational basis of the insidious and misleading phrase “gun control”.
Add to this semantic trickery, the completely anti-American idea of “political correctness”. What a poison! This tactic was invented by Marxists in the 1920s and it has permeated our entire society now!
I’m not even supposed to say “Merry Christmas” anymore! Can’t say “illegal alien” can we? Mustn’t say “black” now, even though Americans of African ancestry insisted we use that term in the sixties and seventies.
Political correctness has now become a government sponsored tactic to stifle dissent. There is no other reason, friends. Political correctness has been institutionalized in America. Be very, very aware of this. Because…

Absolutely central to the stability, or “orbit”, of our freedoms is a healthy and realistic distrust of government on the part of the free citizenry.
We are their bosses. They are our servants! Without a crystal clear realization of this relationship, there is no America!
That is why America has a Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights is a “No Trespassing” sign meant to be obeyed by our government. The Bill of Rights doesn’t tell you and me, as citizens, what to do.
The Bill of Rights tells the government what it cannot do!
“Congress shall make NO law”! “Shall NOT be infringed”!
As a free citizen, you can choose to not exercise your freedom of speech, or your right to keep and bear arms, but the government cannot make that decision for you. Think about this point. It is so crucially important.
Oh yes, now is a good time to remind you all of “Bill of Rights Day”. Our Bill of Rights was born on December 15 th, 1791. When that day comes up on our calendar, make time to appreciate and celebrate this great day in history.
Let’s get to the bottom line, and the most important reason the National Rifle Association exists.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Second Amendment is The Guardian of the rest of the Bill of Rights.

Why can’t so many so-called “civil rights activists” understand this?
Do you hear me, ACLU? Do you hear me, NAACP? Do you hear me, ADL?
Without an armed citizenry, our unalienable rights will almost certainly be eroded away … and then crushed.
How can anyone call this “paranoia”? The last one hundred years of the history of civilization confirm this time and time again.
Look at other nations in recent history, and what those nations’ governments have done to their citizens. It is appalling what government-gone-bad can do to an unarmed citizenry. It is hellish.
Tyranny can only thrive and prevail if a citizenry is disarmed. The Founders did not pen our right to keep and bear arms in order to protect us from muggers, burglars, and rapists. These are actually secondary benefits, vital though they may be.
The Founders installed the right to keep and bear arms to insure that, if such a tragic day ever arises, we will be able to protect ourselves from our own government.
This is an extremely somber understanding. But I believe that the NRA must declare this more emphatically. It is the elephant in the room that too many well-meaning gun rights advocates are hesitant to acknowledge.
The NRA should be at the forefront in educating people about the direct connection between gun control and the tyranny and genocides of the last one hundred years. This understanding of the mechanism of government sponsored mass murders can no longer be simply a marginal issue here at the NRA. It must be taken to the roof tops. If every American understood the “gun control”/genocide connection, how long would “gun control” be tolerated in our nation?

I hope you expect me to speak my mind. Well, I will anyway. Call it a little friendly finger wagging. It is time for the NRA to also become far more assertive in other areas as well.
The NRA should be at the very forefront in educating people that the police have absolutely no legal duty to protect any citizen. How many of your friends and neighbors actually know and understand this?
If every adult in America understood this single reality we’d see gun ownership, and an armed citizenry, grow like Dianne Feinstein’s and Chuck Schumer’s worst nightmare.
And yet we keep hearing from Liberals and a vocal minority of brain dead police chiefs: “Don’t need a gun. Dial 911.”
Next: The NRA should be even more at the forefront in promoting the entire Bill of Rights for all American citizens, along with an urgent understanding of the Second Amendment as the Guardian of the Bill of Rights.
We must demand this fact be taught to every American school child. If the Second Amendment isn’t honestly discussed in the school books your children are reading, then the Second Amendment will die.

Now, what are you going to do about it?
Next: The NRA should be even more at the forefront in explaining how the history of gun control in this nation has deeply racist roots. The first widely applied gun control laws targeted freed black slaves. Do your children learn this in school? Well? Do they?
Next: The NRA should be center stage in respectfully, but firmly, reminding police officers and military personnel of their oath to support and defend the Constitution. The NRA should ask every police officer and active duty soldier if they will ever, under any circumstance, aid and abet in the disarming of the American citizenry. Any police officer or soldier who answers “yes” to that question must be drummed out of the ranks!
Let’s be very, very clear with this. This is not to make the overwhelming majority of honest cops and loyal soldiers our adversaries. To them I say, unreservedly: G-d bless you. As you stand with us we will stand with you!
And may I quietly whisper in their ears: There are eighty million gun owners out there … and about ten percent of them are real, real serious about the Second Amendment.

Friends, it isn’t just enough to be for gun ownership. You must be for the Second Amendment!
My fellow hunters, are you getting this?
Next: It is now time to decisively resolve another disturbing matter. The NRA should be at the immediate forefront in abolishing the corrupt and criminally abusive Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Now is not the time for the NRA to continue to “work with” those who fear and hate and persecute an armed citizenry.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the BATFE is not our friend. In the final analysis, they represent the knock on the door in the middle of the night.
We do not need the BATFE. If the legislatures and Governors of Wyoming and Montana and Tennessee can “get it”… why can’t the NRA “get it”?

Last I heard, alcohol and tobacco were both drugs. Hand that over to the FDA. Explosives? Wasn’t that one of the FBI’s specialties for decades?
And, as for firearms? The unalienable right to keep and bear arms? What part of “shall not be infringed” can we not understand?
“Shall not be infringed”!
Next: The NRA has been far to slow on the uptake in exposing the actual draconian legislation that granted this rogue agency, the BATFE, its present bloated and arrogant authority.
It was a terrible mistake called “The Gun Control Act of 1968”. Americans were callously manipulated by the hysteria surrounding the murders of three men: John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King.
For the lives of three good men, as horrific as those tragedies were, we are willing to throw the Second Amendment, the last resort Guardian of our Bill of Rights, out the window? This is lunacy!
What about the nearly one million American soldiers who have given their lives to protect our way of life? We desecrate their sacrifice every time we complacently let another of our unalienable rights get trashed by some arrogant politician or morally corrupted judge or appointed bureaucrat.
The NRA should, tomorrow, demand that “The Gun Control Act of 1968” be repealed. Not amended. Repealed.

How to explain this sweeping campaign to a tenuous American people? Explain to them where “GCA ‘68” actually came from!
“GCA ‘68” was cloned from Nazi German Laws, in some instances almost word for word! This despicable feat was accomplished by the late Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut. Why hasn’t every American gun owner learned this by now?
Hindsight: And a bitter pill. The NRA should have fought “GCA ‘68” with all its might, instead of help write the law.
The NRA should have fought this trespass while a still staunchly conservative America of that time could have been successfully rallied.
Some of you might wave this off as “ancient history”. It is not ancient. We live with it right now. We live with Nazi inspired laws right now! These laws are like a cancer, and we suffer from them right now!
We cannot permit laws in our land that mimic Nazi German totalitarianism. It cannot be.

It cannot be!
So I strongly suggest that there is only one honest and consistent position for the NRA to take now. The time will never be better.
The NRA should stand for the complete abolition of gun control.
The “gun control” philosophy is intolerable in a free society. Why? Because gun control denies you your unalienable, G-d given right to defend your own life or the lives of the innocents around you.
Next: When a person criminally uses a firearm he or she should be given a fair trial and, if found guilty by a jury of his or her peers, be punished severely. That is the “due process of law” declared in the Fifth Amendment. Here, the NRA has stood tall.
However, to punish the law abiding, to impose so-called “reasonable regulations” on the ownership of firearms, is absurd and upside down logic.
This is called “prior constraint”, and it is illegal. Again, the NRA has been steadfast in pointing out this dangerous illogic.
People who criminally misuse firearms should be incarcerated or institutionalized. There are laws on the books that cover every possible criminal misuse of a firearm. Enforce those laws!
And then repeal every firearms law that, in even the slightest, trespasses against our unalienable right to self defense. The NRA must walk point in the utter and complete destruction of the lie that is “gun control”.

I’m tired of being told by advisors to be a “moderate”. This nation was not founded by “moderates”! It will not be preserved with “moderation”. It is now too late!
Let me change pace for a moment.
Ladies and Gentlemen, who are we actually fighting? Observe our opposition. Gun control advocates have an almost suicidal trust in government, especially Big Government.

Do they actually think that Lenin and Stalin, and Hitler, and Pol Pot, and Idi Amin, and Fidel Castro (just to name a few) believed in “rules”? Or the “will of the electorate”?
If you think I’m exaggerating here, ask yourself this question: How long would our American freedoms last if, by some wave of a wand, every privately owned firearm in this nation was confiscated, and, I quote, “only cops and soldiers should have guns”?
Even some Liberals know what would happen!
Friends, what kind of America do you want? What is our goal here?
Critics say we in the NRA want to return to the “days of the Wild West”. I’ve heard it myself: “Do you want everybody packing heat?”
I, and probably many of you out there, unabashedly say: Why not? If a free and honest man or woman so chooses.
An armed citizenry? Oh my! Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!

Yes, an armed citizenry. Why not? How did we ever get so soft, so addicted to a Mommy/Daddy government that treats us like children … or, more accurately, like indentured servants?
You mean, actually carry a gun in public? In Alaska and Vermont you can just do it. Folks, I call that “freedom”.
And now Arizona seems to be heading down the same “Freedom Road”. What’s wrong with Vermont, or my home State of Alaska? Both allow concealed and open carry with no licensing or registration whatsoever. Concealed carry restrictions on the free citizenry are immoral because they violate G-d’s command to defend our own lives and the lives of innocents.
These “reasonable regulations” (don’t you love that smarmy phrase) are patently illegal as well. Do Vermonters or Alaskans have better dictionaries?
“The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”!
That’s the law! It is the Supreme Law of the Land! Period!
I just mentioned open carry. I would hope that the NRA will grow to more strongly support unlicensed and unregistered open carry in every State. Trust me, as an Alaskan, you do get used to it. And then you learn to appreciate it.
Hey! Wake up! This is America! This isn’t namby pamby nanny state Europe! This isn’t jackbooted Red China! This isn’t some murderous tin pan South American or African dictatorship!

Personal freedom requires personal power! The free citizen must be empowered, not weakened and hobbled at the every whim of some ivory tower social engineer or elitist politician!
Look, some people will always be phobic about guns. But the more citizens exercise their unalienable right to carry openly the more common it will become. And I sincerely believe, in the face of the gun prohibitionists’ deceitful hand wringing hysterics, that an openly armed society will be a far more polite, and lawful, society.
I also staunchly believe in women’s rights. Would I be here talking with you today if I didn’t?
And would you have invited me if you didn’t?
The invention of the modern firearm, and specifically the handgun, was my gender’s first taste of equal rights!
Wake up, feminists! Don’t you get it? The six foot six goon with a knife or club falls to the petite hand holding the revolver. Ladies, always remember this: Sam Colt came before the vote.

Gals, own a gun, learn how to use it safely and effectively, and then carry it. The good Lord gave us better hand eye coordination, Sisters. Perhaps there is a reason. And it wasn’t just for sewing up Papa’s trousers.
Friends and kindred spirits, we must not be the last generation that will be able to take this stand for freedom. This is an immense and somber responsibility.
We, all of us in this room, must now become “The Greatest Generation”. We must bring America back to America!
The battle has now reached our own shores. “Gun control” in America isn’t simple “infighting” anymore.
You all know what the U.N. plans for the world … and this nation … with its upcoming “Small Arms Treaty”. This lunacy was born and nurtured at the University of Minnesota! This bogus “treaty” is the brainchild of an instructor there! And just last month, the U.N. unilaterally made its first “trace” query of an American gun company. The U.N. didn’t even attempt to go through the BATFE! They went direct! The arrogance!
The globalist agenda slithers ever closer. Ever closer.Fragile freedom is flickering out all over the globe. Collectivist authoritarianism spreads like a plague.
But here in America the embers of Freedom still glow brightly. Thank G-d that Freedom is a severely addictive substance!
“Hi! I’m Sarah. I’m a Freedom Addict!”
For far too long, the wind has blown the wrong direction in our nation. It has blown us far off course. Who among you can deny it?
But now, if we set our sails effectively, steer by our moral compass, and stay the course, we can navigate our vessel “Lady Liberty” back to her home shore. The shores where she was invented!
I will say it proudly and with no shame whatsoever: America is still the light of the world. We are not, and should not be, the boss of the world. Let’s keep our own doorstep clean first. We must demonstrate, not dictate.
We must, once again, be the guiding light of the world. Don’t you get it? There’s no one else out there to do it!

But that light must quit wavering and dimming with indecision and hesitancy. It is time to turn up the voltage! Let’s relight “that shining city on the hill”.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we can prevail. We must prevail. But it will take the best and most from each of us. Let’s get it done! Let us be the zero tolerance NRA!
“Shall NOT be infringed”!
Let’s take off the gloves. The time will never be better! Millions of gun owners, maybe tens of millions, will rush to join us if they see that we truly mean business. Let’s walk the walk now!
Thank you. G-d bless you! And may G-d bless our America!




Saturday, May 1, 2010

Tightwad Match 5-1

Gray skies met gray gunsmoke at today's Tightwad match when black powder aficionados met, as they do the first Saturday of each month, to compare their skills at the only sport recognized by this country's Founding Fathers: shooting.



A dozen men met at the firing line, shooting at targets from 25 yards to 100 yards using firearms nearly as old as gun history.
Serpentine hammered caplocks are what Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and hundreds of other trappers and traders carried West of St Louis, through the Golden Arch. Not faster to load than the flintlocks that preceded them, the short stocked Pennsylvania rifle's biggest advantage over the flintlock was its firing system, using a pre-loaded cap rather than powder and flint.
A shooter's eye view of the scene after firing his rifle. Blackpowder was a mixture of charcoal, sulphur and salt peter and create lots of belching smoke to tickle the nostrils of anyone near. Modern "black powders" like Pyrodex, the original "non-black-black powder", maintain the smokey quality while reducing barrel salts and other deposits famous for fouling gun barrels of old.

Davy Crockett was famous for his coonskin cap- which some historians argue as being folk-lore- and muzzle loading die-hards enjoy the accoutrement's that bring to mind the colorful clothing of past generations. (Kids today are not quite so colorful, though think they're being "new and original!)


Muzzle loading is the original method of shooting black powder. Modern "black powder rifles" tend toward breech loading and using shotgun primers to ignite the charge.
But to really enjoy your shooting heritage, do it the old fashioned, original way: one move at a time.
(Snap a 'cap' before loading to insure the flash hole and barrel are clear.)
Drop in a measure of powder, cover the muzzle with a patch, place a ball on the cloth, snip the cloth flush with the barrel and ram that baby down... get the patch and ball tight against the powder charge.

The patch and ball are started down the barrel with- what else but-- "starter" rod. Once begun, the job is finished with a full-length ramrod.



Flintlocks are the weapons used by the First Americans. The dragon headed serpentine hammer holding the chip of flint, a dash of powder dropped into the pan, and ignited by a spark off the frizzen, these guns lead to many expressions we use today.
"Flash in the pan," may mean less today than it did in 1760 when one wanted more than a flash in the pan, but the powder charge to ignite as well. But the meaning is the same: "flash in the pan" being a useless, albeit a bright, spark.







Ornate and beautiful in their design, flintlocks and cap-n-ball bring us to the roots of our shooting sports today.
Whether we admire Johnny Tremain or Daniel Boone or Kit Carson, black powder firearms can make one marvel at the shooting skills of our ancestors. Anyone who's attempted a 100 yard, or more, shot at a six inch bullseye with a black powder rifle will really appreciate our modern smokeless cartridges and firearms.
If you've not yet tried a "smokepole", head on down to the range the first Saturday of the month- I'm sure there's someone there who'd let you give it a try. You don't know what you're missing- and that's a lot! Contact Reed and ask him about it, he may be just the one to show you the ropes.
(Scores for the shoot will be posted soon as they arrive in house.)
Saturday, May 8th, is the first of the season's Cowboy Shoots- S.A.S.S. recognized- and another opportunity to try out some weapons as old, or older, than most of our grandfathers. Be sure to stop by and watch the action. Better still, get involved! You never know what you're missing until you try it a time or two.
Till next time- keep your powder dry and your wad knife sharp. And don't forget: it ain't unloaded till you check, and keep the muzzle downrange.
Jim III