When I was in high school my dream was to play trumpet in the Stan Kenton band. Kenton's organization was for years the most progressive, innovative big band in all of jazz. Their sound was decidedly different than any other big band, and that alone attracted fans (of which I was one) and detractors (of which there were many.)

Narrow-minded jazz listeners complained that Kenton didn't "swing", that you couldn't dance to his music. Musicians, though, understood what he was doing and were the backbone of his fan base.

Kenton made it a point to seek out the most progressive composers and the most difficult music with which to demonstrate the sheer power of his orchestra. Over the course of nearly four decades, no matter what the prevailing jazz style was Kenton would turn it on its ear and make it sound fresh.

As a result of his uncompromising attitude toward the advancement of America's indigenous music, Kenton attracted the best and brightest musicians. A list of his personnel over the years reads like a who's who of jazz, and I hoped that I could someday make the grade.

Then, thirty-one years ago this week, Stan died - and with him, the legendary band that he led. My own dreams suddenly vanished. (Not that I would have made it; frankly, in retrospect I wasn't nearly good enough. Youthful enthusiasm served to mask that reality until well into adulthood.)

To give you a taste of what Kenton's band could do, here's a video from 1972 featuring a Hank Levy composition titled "Chiapas." The musically inclined will notice the tune was written in 5/4; odd time signatures were something of a Levy trademark. (The trombone soloist is Dick Shearer, who ironically would retire to the small town where I had grown up listening to recordings of him with Kenton. He spent the last years of his life within sight of my childhood home.)

RIP, Stan.



-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: music

I grew up a small-town farm kid, the son of parents who themselves had grown up on farms, and the major thrill of my summer vacation was always fair season.

Our county fair would come first, followed by the "big one" - the Oregon State Fair. (All the counties were pretty much the same, except Harney County. Their fair inexplicably occurred after the state fair. Always has, as far back as I can remember, and they're awfully proud of that.)

The county fair was a place where citizens could gather, interact, watch the local talent perform, and show off their produce and handiwork. It combined socialization and competition, along with some entertainment, and was a vital component of farm and ranch life in the 19th and well into the 20th century.

People from all corners of the county would bring their livestock, produce, and the things they made to display and compare to the same from others. Those items found superior would win their owners/creators a ribbon and a year's worth of bragging rights, while those that didn’t make the grade would cause a stern resolve to win next year. It was always friendly competition, but there was definitely an undercurrent of antagonism when it came time to judge the pies and preserves!

What I remember most from my childhood were the tractor displays. The various agricultural equipment dealers would bring a large selection of the newest tractors and implements, while the local farmers would bring in their oldest equipment for a taste of the "good ol' days." For me, if there aren't tractors it just ain't a fair.

Today county fairs have become caricatures of their former selves, many looking like a cross between Cirque de Soleil and a college dorm beer bust. Our modern State Fair? Well, the less said about that the better; the last time I went it was nearly unrecognizable, and I haven’t been back.

The rural county fairs, thankfully, have managed to hold on to their noble ancestry better than those closer to the metropolitan areas. In the outlying fairgrounds you can still get a taste of what a county fair should be.

I plan to do just that this weekend. While folks in the cities mock the "rednecks" of this country, I'll be celebrating the worth and dignity of those who produce the food that fills bigoted stomachs.

Another of life’s little ironies.

-=[ Grant ]=-

I have a bad habit of picking something up, walking around with it, then putting it down in an inconspicuous place and forgetting about it. Causes no end of problems around my house!

For instance, yesterday I was working on someone’s S&W. I picked up a tool, then remembered something I needed at the other end of the shop. Instead of putting this tool down on my bench - which is where it came from - I carried it with me. Somewhere between my bench and my destination I managed to lose the thing!

It’s in there, somewhere, but after an hour-and-a-half of searching yesterday I still hadn’t found it. Today I’m going to tidy up the shop (a task I’m not at all fond of) and see if that doesn’t turn it up. If not, I’ll have to get another one.

This is why I have two of everything. I only know where one is at any given time, however.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: my.bad

I get many emails asking what I carry on a daily basis. While my choices are mine alone, and aren't meant to be prescriptive for you, why I choose certain items may be of some help to you.

As most probably already know (or, from the picture above, have managed to guess) I generally carry a revolver. Not 100% of the time, mind you; there are instances when I carry an autoloader, and have done so for many years. A careful analysis of the likely risk of the environment determines what type of handgun I carry. Most of the time the risk profile favors the revolver, so that's what I carry. When I do carry an auto, it's virtually always a Glock 19.

Over the years I've carried many different revolvers. My favorite remains the Colt Detective Special for its combination of size and capacity. As I've lamented many times, it's a shame that the ultra compact 6-shot revolver is now a thing of the past. There is nothing on the market which has that combination of attributes.

I still occasionally carry a Colt, and sometimes I'll be found toting a S&W Model 42 or 642. The lightweight 5-shooters are great for pocket carry, and though I have belt holsters I rarely carry them that way. One of my favorite carry methods is a "belly band" holster worn so that the gun is under the armpit - much like a shoulder holster. With a dress shirt and tie on it is completely concealed.

Those are the exceptions, however. The majority of the time you'll find me carrying a Ruger SP101 or GP100 in a belt holster. The reason is simple: the Ruger guns simply have fewer failure points than any other revolver. There are no screws to back out, no extractor rods to come loose, they rarely develop timing problems, and firing pin breakages are virtually unknown. (I LocTite all screws and extractor rods on all revolvers as a general procedure, but sometimes even that doesn't work.) WIth a bit of work the Ruger's triggers are as good as can be found anywhere, and their reputation for strength is unmatched. The guns simply run, and in my mind that's A Good Thing.

-=[ Grant ]=-

I spent this weekend assisting at a defensive rifle class with Georges Rahbani, and sometime during the weekend thought of a great article for today.

Then I forgot what it was.

My usual habit is to carry, in the left pocket of my shirt, a small pad and a mechanical pencil. When I have an idea I jot it down, thus preserving it for a time when I can make use of it. That's assuming, of course, that I remember to look at the thing!

The weather was pretty warm this weekend (about 90 degrees) and we were in the sun for most of the two days. I'd shed my normal pocketed button-front shirt for a more comfortable short sleeved Henley. My pad and pencil, of course, was in the regular shirt and when the aforementioned great idea struck, I was without a means to record it. Thus this morning's rambling version of "my dog ate my homework!"

Luckily Chris over at The Anarchangel posted something worthy of commentary. Go read it, then come back for a little discussion.

I tuned in for the first episode of Top Shot, recognized it as yet another overblown social manipulation festival common to reality television, and promptly turned it off. My spare time is quite limited and I have to make hard decisions about what I do with it. Even with guns and shooting Top Shot didn't make my cut, so I didn't know what transpired until Chris filled me in.

Those who live in landlocked states probably have no concept of just what the United States Coast Guard does. Here in Oregon, where Coast Guard helicopters and rescue crews are a common sight, we have a deep appreciation for the sacrifices those men and women make. Despite being ridiculed (or even worse, ignored) they go out and do their job to the best of their ability every day of the week.

Those in the other services are only in danger when they've been activated and deployed, and their tours of deployment are limited in duration (a good thing, do not misunderstand.) The USCG is always on deployment, whether doing rescue work, interdicting smugglers, or protecting our Navy's operations in foreign ports. (That's right - when the U.S. Navy needs help, they call the Coast Guard!) When I was growing up it was widely said that you were more likely to be killed in the Coast Guard in peacetime than in the infantry during wartime. While that may not be literally true, it serves to illustrate the tough job USCG does.

Much of that is because the nature of their missions requires them to always be in harm's way. One of their primary duties is to protect lives in America's waters, and here in Oregon they do so constantly. The USCG's rescue swimmers and helicopter pilots are the best that can be found; until you've witnessed a Dolphin SAR helicopter hovering nearly motionless just feet away from a cliff face, in high winds and torrential rain, you have little appreciation for the skill of those crews. I don't know where one goes to recruit such people, but they must have ice water injected into their veins upon enlistment. They are amazing to watch, and when they appear on scene there is a very strong feeling of relief - even if you're not the subject of their attention.

So, to Caleb and all the other past and present members of the United States Coast Guard, and especially to those stationed here in Oregon, thank you. We appreciate your service, your sacrifice, and above all your professionalism.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers, oregon, georges.rahbani

Do you have a recurring task that you put off because it's just so...annoying? For many people paying bills falls under that classification; for others, doing the dishes. In my job, it's tracking down parts.

If I'm working on a gun of recent manufacture, it's just a matter of popping onto the website of one of the parts houses and ordering up as many as I need. For guns that are out of production, or are of a vintage when the parts were of a different configuration, I have to hunt them down. With Colts everything is discontinued, and the very small number of used parts that are available are hard to find and are often not serviceable. I have to hunt those parts down.

I hate parts hunting.

Hunting takes up a lot of time, especially because many of the better parts houses don't have their inventories online. I have to call them up, in some cases multiple times because their phones are always busy, ask for the part, wait for them to check if they have the right one, and if they don't I have to repeat the procedure with the next company.

It chews up a lot of time, time which I'd rather spend working. It's also often unproductive, so I end up making the same calls for the same parts over and over. Is it any wonder I put it off?

Today is parts hunting day, which I've been putting off for several weeks. Now I have even more parts to hunt down, which makes it worse!

Wish me luck. Not in terms of finding parts, but that I don't go stark raving mad in the process!

-=[ Grant ]=-

When I was a kid my older sister, through the act of renting an apartment, made the acquaintance of a nice elderly couple. Mr. and Mrs. D had no children of their own and quickly adopted my sister (and the rest of our family) as surrogate offspring. They were what was known as "old money", but were devoid of pretension despite their wealth. It was always a treat to drive into the city to visit them.

Mr. D was an avid stamp collector. I'd never even known a stamp collector, and Mr. D was quite persuasive in his belief that it was the perfect hobby for a young boy. He gave me a number of books about stamp collecting, several large stamp catalogues, a couple of albums and a smattering of stamps to get me started.

I dutifully pasted my stamps into their albums, and for a short while made an effort to search through the letters in our attic for hidden gems. Adolescence eventually put an end to my collecting activities, though I must confess a certain lack of interest in the whole affair to begin with.

Perhaps if I'd found really interesting stamps like these I wouldn't have given the hobby up!

-=[ Grant ]=-

I'm recovering from a BUSY weekend.

On Friday and Saturday I did my annual duty at a local high school's all-night graduation party. For several years I've volunteered as part of their security detail, making sure the kids stay safe from both internal and external threats. (This, despite having no children of my own! How did I get talked into this?) It starts every year at about 10:pm and goes until breakfast the next morning.

I usually get a long nap Friday afternoon before the event, but this year I couldn't do it. Not in the sense that I didn't have time, but because I just couldn't fall asleep in the middle of the day! The net result is that I ended up going 24+ hours without sleep, and I'm just not used to that kind of thing! After it was over I crawled into bed and dropped right off to sleep. Saturday was essentially toast.

Sunday I worked my way up to The English Pit range in Vancouver USA to help out at a Combat Focus Shooting/Advanced Pistol Handling class with Rob Pincus. Jeff Varner, one of my fellow Combat Focus instructors, hosted the course at what is his home range. Great class.

After class Randy, the club's owner, brought out his Mateba Unica 6. Rob thought the Unica to be mythical, but here is a picture of him shooting the .44 Magnum beast as Randy looks on in amusement:



(I have another pic of Rob which is far more embarrassing. I'm keeping that one in my files as "insurance"!)

Non-related note: the best arrangement of the tune "It Might As Well Be Spring" is on the 1961 Stan Kenton "Adventures in Jazz" album. I don't have the liner notes handy, but I believe it's a Gene Roland arrangement.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: rob.pincus, combat.focus, thats.odd

Last year Gail Pepin interviewed me for the ProArms Podcast, and it finally got released this week!

I'm pretty sure the delay was due to the amount of editing required. We were up at the Firearms Academy of Seattle, and Gila Hayes had insisted that I try a dessert she'd made - some sort of brownie mocha torte. Near as I can tell it starts with a 55 gallon drum of concentrated chocolate extract which is somehow crammed into an 8" square cake pan. I usually don't eat such rich (and sugary and caffeinated) desserts, and it left me 'wired' for a couple of hours. You can actually hear me slow down toward the end as the effects wore off. My wife thought it was hilarious. Some of the sillier stuff was thankfully left on the cutting room floor (free tip: never do an interview while on a sugar high, unless you want to sound like a deranged chipmunk.)

Most common phrase not heard in the interview: “you can edit that out, right?” I’m sure I added immeasurably to Gail’s blooper reel!

Much as I like bragging about myself, the cool thing is that the other interview on this episode is with Rob Pincus! Rob's interview was done a little over a month ago, just after I finished his Instructor Development class, and Gail thought the two interviews would make a good match. She's right as usual. (Thanks to the mocha torte, this is the only time you'll ever hear me able to talk nearly as fast as Rob!)

Enjoy!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: proarms, rob.pincus, combat.focus

I spent the weekend up at FIrearms Academy of Seattle teaching a Combat Focus Shooting class with "the man", Rob Pincus. We had one bright, sunny day (got the sunburn to prove it!) and one exceptionally wet, cold, dark day. That's life in the Pacific Northwest!

We had a diverse group of just under 20 students, some of whom were "advanced practitioners" and some who were significantly less experienced. From the comments in the mandatory end-of-class debrief, everyone came away learning something about themselves and about how to survive a deadly encounters. How fortuitous that the course is designed to do exactly those things!

(If you're an instructor, one of the best things you can do is to teach with another instructor, preferably one who style is very different from your own. I learned as much about my ability to teach as the students learned about their ability to shoot. It pushes your limits, identifies areas where you need to improve, and gives you a different perspective on the art of teaching.)

One of the best weekends I've had in a long time.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: rob.pincus, combat.focus

The XE-7 is one of the cameras I've admired from afar, but never actually owned. This wasn't because of any lack of the camera itself, or of the superb Minolta lenses, but simply because it had been discontinued several years before I got involved in photography. The XE-7's successors weren't nearly as interesting, and their lack of a reliable "pro" camera throughout their history meant that there was no upgrade path. That left the XE-7 sitting on its own little photographic island.

But what an island it was!


Photo courtesy of Stan C. Reade Photo, http://www.stancreade.com


The XE-7 was rumored to have been developed "in conjunction" with E. Leitz, the makers of the famous Leica line of cameras. I'm not sure that was the case, as a tear-down reveals significant similarities to the XK model, introduced in 1972, and both preceded the rebranded Leica R3 version by several years. That assertion does, however, give one a good feel for just how well the XE-7 was built.

The shutter, sourced from Copal, was quiet and accurate. Film advance was as smooth as anything ever made in the 35mm field. Metering was predictable and accurate (as long as the aperture follower, which coupled the meter to the lens, stayed clean - a common weakness of all Minolta MC/MD mount cameras.) The camera was just a joy to use, and those times I took to the field with borrowed XE-7s were magical. The camera was responsive and easy to adapt to; the images were clean, clear, and had wonderful contrast.

Part of the stellar performance was, of course, due to the Minolta Rokkor lenses. Minolta produced some of the very best optics to ever come out of Japan; to this day, knowledgeable photographers wax poetic about the color rendition of their designs. (They were good enough that Leica bought several Minolta lenses, with no change other than mounts, to round out the lens line for their SLR cameras.)

The camera proved to be fairly rugged, the aperture follower issue notwithstanding. One of my colleagues had a pair of them that he used extensively while working as a photojournalist, and they looked like they'd been through a war zone. They still worked perfectly despite the abuse.

Sadly, the XE-7 was discontinued in 1977 to make way for the more modern XD series of cameras. While the XDs were certainly smooth, nicely functioning machines, they weren't the photographer's tool that the XE-7 was. It was because of the lackluster XD that I generally ignored Minolta, despite their uncompromising optics.

-=[ Grant ]=-

P.S.: Regarding Minolta "pro" cameras - yes, I know all about the XK and the XK Motor. I also know, far too well, how unreliable those cameras were in actual use. The XK Motor, in particular, was perhaps the least reliable "pro" camera I've ever seen, with many examples making multiple trips to Minolta for repeated repairs. I liked the XK, and to this day feel the XK Motor to be one of the nicest-handling large SLRs ever made, but they just didn't have what it took in the durability department. More's the pity.

Tags: photography, old.technology

I just returned from a visit to Virginia Beach, where I attended the Combat Focus Shooting Instructor Development (CFSID) course. I've been searching my brain for a one-word description of what the class is like, and this is the only thing that even comes close:

OhHolyCrap.

We spent 4 days and just shy of 60 hours learning the ins and outs of Combat Focus Shooting so that we could accurately and efficiently communicate the program to students. We spent the first of those day on the range...no, that's not quite right; for any other course it would have been the first day, but for us it was roughly half of the first day, as the entire session ran well past 9pm. The rest of the week was spent not on becoming better shooters, but learning to be better teachers.

We studied a little of everything: anatomy, physiology, neurophysiology, psychology, philosophy, and more. By the end of the fourth day, which is when testing was done, my brain was fried. I don't even remember the final written test, but I do remember nearly passing out somewhere on page three (serious blood sugar drop, complete with tremors and sweating.)

Apparently I finished it. At least, I think I did!

This isn't like most other instructor courses. Most of the time, an instructor certificate is a matter of showing up, shooting well, and having your check clear. CFSID is different; Rob Pincus is committed to producing good teachers, not just good demonstrators. That showed in the caliber (pardon the pun) of the people who were there, as I'd be confident in recommending any one of them as a competent and knowledgeable instructor.

There's a reason that, historically, less than 50% of Combat Focus Shooting instructor candidates pass the course. It's that tough, and takes a phenomenal amount of mental discipline just to make it through.

----

As it happens, my return trip routed me through Chicago, where I spent nearly three hours waiting for my next flight. Turns out that Tam was in Chicago at the same time. Wish I'd known, I'd have loved to finally meet her.

----

We also got to study some (unintentional) modern art, courtesy of an ancient video projector that refused to hold a sync signal with Rob's new MacBook:



Yes, that's Rob Pincus getting all Warhol on his students.

----

I don't usually plug local businesses, but this one deserves it.

The day before I left, I discovered that my old camera had died. It powered up, but none of the controls worked. (It will still take pictures, but the exposure control is fried and the autofocus appears to be only sporadically active.) We had planned to upgrade our camera later this year, but this forced our hand: we needed it now.

I spent that day not packing, but running all over Western Oregon to find the camera I'd decided on. I finally found the body, but the lens I wanted wasn't in stock anywhere. I decided to pick up a used optic as stopgap measure, while I waited (and recovered financially) for the one I really wanted. Trouble is that none of the camera stores I called carried much (or any) used equipment. About that time I remembered seeing a yellow pages ad for a little one-hour photo place located in a small town fairly close to us. I had it in my mind that the ad said something about used cameras, and since phone calls are free I dialed their number. A pleasant young lady answered the phone and said that yes, they had used gear and that they had several suitable lenses for me.

What I found when I walked into Focal Point Photography blew me away. This is a tiny shop, located in a small farming community in a rural area, and it is filled with photo gear. From Speed Graphics to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, these folks have a little of everything. Piles of used gear (literally), a surprising selection of lighting equipment new and old, even darkroom stuff, all stuffed (literally) into a two-story building in little ol' Dallas, Oregon. It was like going back in time, to what camera stores used to be before the age of big-box homogenization. I don't know if they do mailorder, but they're so accommodating I suspect they would. If you're looking for just about anything photographic, particularly if it's out of production and now hard to find, give them a call: (503) 623-6300.

I have no affiliation other than as a satisfied, if somewhat amazed, customer.

----

Now, I'm back to catching up on your emails!


-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: rob.pincus, combat.focus, photography, bloggers, old.technology, incredible

You may recall that I spent some time as a commercial photographer (and general photographic genius) back in the '80s. During that period I used a wide variety of cameras and lenses, and probably spent an amount exceeding the economies of several Caribbean nations on my vocation/avocation.

Over the next few Fridays, I'll be talking about some of the cameras I've used extensively, or have had close contact with, during my career. For those who lived through the end of the film era, this will be a trip down memory lane. For those who came of age after the digital revolution, here's your chance to hear what things used to be like. (For your benefit, I'll work in a solid rant at the end of the series.)

The camera I've chosen to start is one which even hard core photographers won't recognize: An obscure ICA 9x12cm folding field camera called the Universal Palmos. ICA was one of the four European photography/optics concerns which, in 1926, merged to form Zeiss-Ikon. (Zeiss also marketed a model called the Universal Palmos, but it paled in comparison to the ICA model.) The Palmos utilized 9x12cm sheet film, which was sometimes referred to as "the European 4x5."

The Universal Palmos was reminiscent of the company’s better known “Maximar” model, but had a longer double extension track. The track had two focus knobs, one for the back and one for the front. They could be used singly, but in combination would extend the bellows to the full length of 16”, allowing satisfying closeup shots. Once focused, the knobs could be pulled out to lock the track(s) in place. Even with the tracks fully extended, the camera was still rigid. A better large format field camera one could neither want, nor find. The terminally curious can download the 1925 ICA catalog and see a full description of the machine.




Courtesy of www.liveauctioneers.com

Like all ICA products, it was superbly built. The range of movements on the front standard were greater than any "press" camera, and it had sported a real rotating back. The focus and sliding/rising front controls were gear driven, and machined to incredibly close tolerances. There was no backlash or slop in any of the controls. The metal was finished in a deep, glossy black enamel and the controls were nickel plated.

The 9x12 film was a bit of a problem. While not unknown here in the U.S., it wasn't available in the wide variety of our own 4x5" format. Luckily the two formats are very close in size, and I was able to fabricate a clever adaptor that allowed me to attach a Graflok back while retaining the rotating feature of the camera. I was even able to use a Grafmatic film holder for the ultimate in rapid-fire large format photography!

A slightly larger problem was the lens mounting plate. It was a circular sheet metal affair, which sort of bayonetted into three pegs on the front standard. I was able to demount the old lens and mount a slightly more modern optic, and an acquaintance with a metal shop was kind enough to fabricate a second for me. The small lensboard was serious restriction on the size and maximum aperture of the lenses I could mount, but this was a field camera, not a studio tool - the slower optics weren't a hinderance in the great outdoors.

I shot more 4x5" film through the ICA than through all of my other large format cameras combined. It was handy, compact, superbly constructed of fine materials, and boasted capabilities that no contemporary field camera could match. The fact that I got it for less than $20 was just icing on the cake!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: photography

I have a physical exam every year, complete with blood panel. When they take my blood, I always ask specifically for a lead test to show how much of that stuff has gotten into my bloodstream. Last week the doctor did my blood draws, and today I learn the results. I expect my lead levels to be at their normal lows, thanks to a few sensible precautions.

First, I always wash my hands after shooting. I carry a package of those pre-moistened towlettes with me wherever I go, and make sure to wipe my hands and face after shooting, or before I ingest any food or drink. The antibacterial (waterless) gels can also be useful, but only if you immediately wipe with a towel of some sort; allowing it to dry on the skin doesn't get rid of any lead compounds, it just moves the stuff around to a larger area of skin!

Never partake of food or drink on the firing line; smoking while shooting is also a good way to introduce lead into your bloodstream. Take a break, wipe your hands and face, then eat, drink, or light up as you see fit.

Handling lead bullets usually results in some of the metal being transferred to the skin. The very best protection is to wear gloves (latex or nitrile), but if you can't do that at least give your hands a very thorough washing.

There is lead residue on and in your gun after firing. When you clean your gun, those compounds are removed and deposited somewhere. They don't just disappear! Gloves are highly recommended for cleaning chores, and you should always use some sort of disposable or washable covering over the area where the cleaning is being performed. Keep those gloves on while you clean up after the gun maintenance is finished.

I recommend that the first thing down the barrel be a wet patch, followed by a dry patch. This tends to remove the bulk of lead residue, after which you may proceed with any brushing you feel necessary. Under no conditions do I run a dry brush down the bore first; that pushes the residue out the end of the barrel, where it floats into the air that you breathe. Start with a wet patch to trap as much of that stuff as possible.

Even small amounts of lead in your blood can pose a serious health risk. Be smart, take a few simple precautions, and your only worry about lead will be the escalating price!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: safety

Back To Work - Returned last night from a rare (for me) three-day weekend. I spent the time in the eastern half of the state (the desert part) to visit relatives and do some shooting. The last such trip was two years ago, and I'd forgotten what it was like to relax!

Somewhere Steve Wozniak Is Crying - The Firearm Blog brings us news that an Aussie company has developed a sniper moving target system using Segways as drones. I was pretty pumped about that - shooting a Segway would be almost as satisfying as perforating a Prius - but alas the little things are armored. Still, it's a neat concept. (I like the part where the Segways run for their lives at the sound of a gunshot!)

Shooty Goodness - One of the topics of discussion amongst my cousins this weekend was their desire to go to Knob Creek for the annual machine gun shoot. Turns out it was happening literally while we were talking about it, and Tam was there.

Pest Control - The shooting part of my trip involved helping to rid my cousin's ranch of the dreaded sage rat. Sage rat hunting has become a Very Big Thing out here in the West, and despite hundreds of thousands of the things being dispatched every season the population continues to outbreed the hunters. Damage to crops from sage rat infestations is staggering, and it doesn't look like the problem is going to end any time soon.

There are a couple of schools of thought regarding the hunting of sage rats. One school likes to set up a shooting bench and snipe the things from long range with a .22-250. The other prefers to use a .22 rimfire, and just get closer. I belong to the latter group, as using a rimfire is significantly cheaper and still quite challenging. (In a good field it's not unusual to go through 500 rounds a day, and I'm just not wealthy enough to afford to do that with a centerfire rifle!)

Another benefit of using rimfires is that it's easy to get kids involved. It's important that children learn early the necessity of responsible wildlife management. The reason we shoot the sage rat is because a) the population is out of control, and b) poisons aren't an option in areas with large raptor populations. (How many of you have actually seen a bald eagle hunting prey? I saw a half-dozen just this weekend, which is the case every time I go out there. With poison, that wouldn’t be the case.)

Happiness Is A New Gun - My nephew Roman came with us on this trip, and I presented him with his first “grown-up” rifle. Up to this point he'd been using one of the little Chipmunk rifles, and it was time for him to upgrade. I gave him a Glenfield Model 25 with some special touches: I shortened the barrel to a more kid-friendly (yet legal) length, tuned the trigger just a bit to get rid of the horrendous grittiness, floated the barrel, and mounted a 3/4"-tubed scope. It turned out to be a fast handling, accurate little gun which he quickly put to good use, making some excellent shots in very challenging (windy) conditions.

Some Thoughts On Equipment - It's normal to think that a beginner doesn't need top notch gear on which to learn how to shoot. My nephew reinforced my belief in the opposite view: the novice is more in need of quality equipment than the experienced shooter. It's hard to learn all the nuances of good shooting when one is fighting with substandard gear, and good quality guns and ammo don't stand in the way of skill development. Regardless of the age of the student, If one is just starting out it's important to buy the best equipment one can afford. It is only after the basics are mastered is one able to rise above his/her equipment, but poor equipment can keep one from truly mastering even the simplest techniques.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers, oregon, rimfire

I usually eat my breakfast in front of the computer. I check my personal email, look in at Twitter and Facebook, read George Ure's blog, look at all the blog feeds to which I subscribe, and maybe even check what's for sale on Craigslist.

One of the Facebook updates this morning was from Rob Pincus, who is heading for Rochester (NY). That brought back memories, as in my former life I traveled to Rochester on an occasional basis, one time staying for the better part of two weeks. Astute readers will deduce that these trips had something to do with the Eastman Kodak Company (EKC, as it was known - Kodak was extremely fond of acronyms and abbreviations), and that deduction would be correct.

In the early- to mid-Eighties, which is when I visited, Kodak owned most of Rochester - and what they didn't, Xerox did. Kodak's facilities were huge even by Detroit standards, all based on sales of film and associated equipment and supplies. As digital photography eroded film's dominance, Kodak (which had been willfully dismissive of the digital threat throughout the period under discussion) saw their business decline precipitously.

Barely into the new century, Kodak was closing buildings at a rapid pace. They demolished a few, auctioned off some others, and sold what they felt they didn't need but which would still generate cash. One of the latter was a complex known as the Marketing Education Center, or - in EKC-speak - MEC.

MEC is where they held seminars, training sessions, and business meetings. Every time I went to Kodak, MEC is where I ended up. It was a gorgeous campus, looking more like a community college than a corporate office.

MEC sat next to the Genesee River, and featured a dining hall with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the river and a placid meadow. The view from the tiered seating was so perfectly New England, regardless of the season, that visitors joked the windows were actually Duratrans - Kodak's trade name for large, backlit transparencies. The food was't bad, either!

This little trip down memory lane got me to wondering: whatever happened to MEC? As it turns out, pretty much nothing. Kodak cleared out and sold it for about $3.5 million to an investment concern in 2004, and it appears to be sitting vacant today. The campus, with 120 acres and four buildings, is currently for sale at an asking price of only $9.9 million.

(In researching this, I came across the blog of a Rochester ex-pat whose family worked for EKC. She chronicles the decline of George Eastman's once-great empire.)

-=[ Grant ]=-

P.S.: Speaking of acronyms...at one point Kodak decided to do some corporate reshuffling, and the technicians who serviced their large photofinishing and photocopying equipment were inexplicably transferred to the control of the newly renamed Consumer Equipment Service. At roughly the same time, those technicians were given the title of “Field Engineers.” The in-joke was that since they were now FEs, working for CES, that their corporate acronym was to be FECES. Upper management was not at all amused.

Tags: abandoned, photography

I get lots of strange emails, and sometimes a patten emerges in the subject matter. A year or so ago, I was getting frequent inquiries as to the cost of custom making a top-break revolver in .44 Magnum or .454 Casull. My stock answer was a) you don't have the kind of money it would take, and b) I'm not the guy to be asking. After a while even that became tedious, and I round-filed every subsequent one that came in.

Those emails finally stopped, but they've been replaced by emails asking if I can modify a S&W to have a gas seal mechanism like a Nagant. They invariably mention that they would like to be able to suppress such a gun.

The first couple I answered in the negative; after they started coming in every week or so (yes, from different people), I decided to go into “ignore” mode. There’s just something odd about such a request, particularly coming in quantity, and I rather not encourage continued dialogue.

Why the sudden interest? The only explanation I can come up with is that some video game or movie features such a gun, prompting the impressionable to send emails to the first few hits that Google gives them. (I should be checking my referral logs...)

Since I'm not of the sort that often goes to the movies, let alone plays video games, perhaps someone out there could tell me if they've seen such a thing in either of those venues?

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: thats.odd

Many people tell me that they'd love to have my job: "it must be fun to play with all those cool guns and get paid for it!"

Lest others be deluded into thinking that this business is all fun and games, allow me to supply a dose of reality: somedays it literally doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Last Thursday was just such a day. It started with the need to make a 'spud'. No, not a potato - a 'spud' is a metal pilot that aligns a cutter with a bore. They're used as guides for such things as chamfering chambers and crowning barrels.

You can buy them ready made, but they come in one size per caliber-specific application. The problem is that if the spud is even .001" off, the quality of the cut will be destroyed. They need to be fitted precisely to the hole in which they will be inserted, and the ready made variety never are. If good work is to be done, they have to be custom made to fit the work.

Over the years I've made a wide range of spuds in various sizes, and because of that selection I usually have one that will fit properly. Occasionally, though, I run into a situation where I need to make yet another one, which is what happened on Thursday. I needed a .216" spud, and the closest I had was .214" - not nearly good enough to properly crown the .22LR barrel on which I was working.

Not a problem! I picked out some appropriate metal and chucked it in the lathe. I made a couple of cuts to get close to finished size, but when I measured the diameter I found that it tapered by roughly .002" throughout the length of the piece! The spud is only a couple of inches long, so a .002" variance in that length is huge. It renders the part unusable.

It's also not supposed to happen.

Annoying, but not insurmountable. I thought that the lathe probably just needed to be re-leveled, which hadn’t been done for a couple of years. I leveled the lathe (which takes a couple of hours if done very carefully), made a test cut, and....it was still off!

Grrrrrr.

The next step was to check the lathe’s tailstock for alignment. The tailstock, which supports the end of work in a lathe, has to be precisely aligned along the lathe's longitudinal axis. Otherwise, it pulls the end of the piece left or right, which leads to a taper such as I was finding. I spent the time aligning the tailstock, and a quote from the movie "Ruthless People" poured from my mouth: "Now THAT oughtta do it!"

It didn't.

I went back, tweaked the lathe level, and aligned the tailstock again. The problem persisted.

Put yourself in my place: I've got a top-notch Austrian lathe, the best Swiss measuring instruments, and I'm making parts displaying precision more appropriate to a Kalashnikov clone produced in an unlit cave factory outside of Jalalabad. Something was wrong, and I had to find it. The only hitch was that it was now dinnertime, and due to skipping lunch I was as hungry as could be. The problem would have to wait until the next day.

Friday morning I came into work determined to find the cause. Double checking everything revealed no clues. I replayed the issues in my head, while at the same time resting my hand on the tailstock. I looked down, and it came to me: the live center in the tailstock must be the source of the problem. It was the only thing I'd not checked.

A live center looks like this:



The cone-shaped bit is inserted into a hole in the piece being machined, and the other end goes into the tailstock. The cone revolves on precision ball bearings, keeping the piece aligned as it's rotated by the lathe. Any rotational error will result in inconsistencies in the finished part.

A quick check with a quality (Swiss) test indicator confirmed my fears: .0025" wobble. I checked the piece I'd machined, in several orientations, and sure enough - not only was it tapered, it was also slightly oval, which is exactly the error a worn live center would produce. Bingo!

I ordered up a new live center from my favorite online tool supplier (www.mscdirect.com), and on Monday the smiling UPS man delivered it to my door. The center quickly proved to be the answer; the rotational error was less than .0001", compared to the .0025" wobble of the old one.

With the new center a perfect spud was easily produced, the barrel was beautifully crowned, and the gun will soon be on its way back to a happy shooter.

It only took me a day and a half, plus a not insignificant amount of cash to find and fix the problem. So, want to tell me again how you wish you had my job?

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: dammit

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2010 is finally here, and I'm still surprised about that. Back in 1979 the twenty-first century looked sooooooo far away that I thought I'd never see it. Here we are in the second decade already; where did the last ten years go? (So, this is what it's like to age....)

I took a four-day weekend for the New Year, though it wasn't really time off: I spent the time doing work around the farm, to the screaming protest of my muscles and joints. This brief respite reminded me that it's been many years since my last vacation (which, as it happens, I spent in a shooting class), and I think it's high time for another. I say so every year, but this time I'm going to do it. Of course, I say that every year too!

S&W GOES PRO: Remember a year or so ago, when I wrote about a limited run of no-lock Model 642? At the time S&W claimed that they'd "found" a stash of pre-lock frames and decided to put them together for sale. Apparently they were popular enough that the company has managed to "find" some more NOS frames, as they've brought out a couple of new editions: the "Pro" series 442 and 642. They're just like the non-Pro models, except they have no locks and have cylinders cut for moonclips. There are a whole lot of questions one could pose about the decision to bring these to market, but I'm glad to see them all the same.

(I do wish they'd get consistent with their naming conventions: they have the 642 PowerPort Pro Series revolver, which has a ported barrel AND a lock, but no moonclip capability. The only thing these models have in common is a matte black finish, which harkens me back to the days of selling high end camera gear: you could get many cameras in either chrome or black finish, the black models inevitably referred to as "professional". At least they're not calling them 'tactical'!)

SPEAKING OF MOON CLIPS: I get several queries per month regarding moonclips for a carry revolver, and I recommend to all that they be limited to range use. Yes, they are faster to reload (the margin depending on the cartridge) - but I don't believe that outweighs the fragility of the clips themselves, as even a small bend will tie up the gun. (There's always someone who writes back "well, I've carried moonclips in my pocket for years and have never had a problem!" I'm sure that's true, just as I'm sure that someone, somewhere has a perfectly reliable Colt All American 2000. I'm not willing to bet my little pink bottom on either one, however.)

MORE SMITH NEWS: The regular Model 642, along with the 637 and 638, will now be available with 2-1/2" fully lugged barrels instead of the 1-7/8" tubes. I always liked the .357 version of the Model 640 for its slightly longer barrel, and am glad to see it come to some other models. That little extra weight up front helps with control on the lightweight frames, as well as providing longer extractor travel. (Sadly, they are still afflicted with the silly lock.)

WELCOME TO OREGON: This holiday season saw three groups of people lost in the Oregon woods - thanks to an over-reliance on GPS navigation. This should serve as a cautionary tale: ceding your health and safety to something (or someone else) is an invitation to disaster. Take responsibility for yourself; make sure your brain is always engaged. You'll notice that these are consistent themes here at The Revolver Liberation Alliance, and they have application well beyond protecting yourself from human predators. (Oh, and buy a decent map when venturing out of the confines of the suburbs.)

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: s&w, snubby, oregon

AN ADVENTURE: Spent some time last week working on a project with Rob Pincus. You'll have to wait a while to hear the details, but a good and educational time was had by all. (Yes, Rob, it's still raining here.)

LUBRIPLATE COMES THROUGH: Got an email from Alex Taylor, a District Manager at Lubriplate. They're now selling the superb SFL #0 grease in consumer quantities in their online store! Comes in a 14oz can for $23.01, plus shipping. Glad to see them recognizing the firearms market; now let's see if we can get them to sell their FMO-AW oil in small quantities too!

THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN EVERY DAY: Remington recently announced that they've produced their ten millionth 870 series shotgun. I knew they were popular, but ten freakin' million? I would never have guessed anything close to that. The shotgun, it appears, is alive and well in America.

THIS IS JUST WRONG: I'll take some of what I just said back: certain shotguns are alive, but not well. Apparently trying to out-silly the S&W TRR8, Stoeger recently announced the availability of the Double Defense - a tactical side-by-side shotgun. Yes, a SxS with a fore-end rail. Black, of course. (Folks, I couldn't possibly make up something like this. It takes a marketing department to do so.)

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW: A University of Alabama prof has claimed to have invented a revolutionary sighting system that promotes "intuitive aim." Knowledgeable readers will recognize the concept as being eerily reminiscent of the Steyr "trapezoid" sights as used on the 'M' and 'S' series pistols, which have been available for a decade now. Hmmm...

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: rob.pincus, lubrication, s&w, ugly, sights

Oregon is in the midst of an extreme cold snap. We've set some record low temperatures in the last week, but the situation is supposed to improve this weekend. I hope so; while cold, crisp air is fun for a couple of days, a solid week of this below freezing jazz is getting on my nerves.

How cold? It hit 15 at my house last night, but a lot of areas not far from me were recording low single digits. Yeah, I know that's like spring in North Dakota, but here in Oregon it's just not something we deal with all that often. Only about every 10 years or so, in fact.

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It could be worse - last year about this time we had three feet of snow.

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My drill for the last week has been to go into the shop, turn the heaters on, then go back home for an hour or so. By that time, the shop has heated and I can go to work. The only hitch is that it's too darned cold and windy to even think about going to the range, so I've got several guns to test when next week's warmer temps get here.

That's not as bad as the shop that does my bluing, though - their water pipes froze last week and (naturally) haven't thawed yet. Lack of water means they're shut down for the duration. At least they get a vacation out of this...

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2009 has seen record high temps and record low temps in Oregon. I wasn't terribly fond of global warming last summer when the mercury hit a boiling 112 degrees, but I'd gladly take some of it right now. Fickle, ain't I?

(Hmmm...that's a 97 degree temperature differential for the year. That is definitely a record in my lifetime.)

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On the plus side, there hasn't been a cloud in the sky for a week. While it hasn't gotten above freezing, at least it's been sunny!


-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: oregon

Back in the early '80s, I lead small groups of advanced amateur photographers around the Portland, Oregon metro area at night. The goal was to teach them the fundamentals of available-light photography in an environment that was simultaneously familiar, yet unexplored. We'd gather at about 10:pm at a local Denny's, then head out for a few hours of shooting, usually getting home about 3:am.

Let me paint you a picture: say, 5 people. Camera bags stuffed with multiple thousands of dollars (in Reagan-era money) of easily pawned high-end camera equipment. Major urban center. At night. Sparse police presence. Before cel phones. Before SureFire flashlights. Even before our concealed handgun law.

Now I know what you're thinking, and in retrospect I agree with you. But it seemed like a great idea at the time!

The exact itinerary varied a bit, but a typical evening might find us wandering around the downtown core area, through alleys, construction sites, industrial areas, and perhaps even along the east side of the Willamette River. (Today area residents know it as the "EastBank Esplanade": a tribute to a ditzy mayor who was convinced the way to help "poor homeless people" was to build a boulevard for over-indulged yuppies to ride their bicycles between latte stops. Back then, though, it was just a rough industrial riverbank where bums set up camp once the longshoremen had gone home to dinner.)

These events were very popular - we always filled our limit of attendees - because they were, after all, the only way to get shots like this:



While some of the participants used fine-grained films, tripods and long exposures (giving me a chance to share with them the mysteries of reciprocity failure), others handheld their shots using fast films (often pushed in development) and fast lenses. Both approaches had their uses and limitations, and the facilitator (that would be me) had to be well versed in all of it - while simultaneously maintaining some sense of aesthetics. I'll gladly claim the former, and from the shot above you can judge if I have any business talking about the latter.

Today I wouldn't attempt such craziness without an armored personnel carrier and close air support, if at all. Back then, though, it was just us, our "steal me" bags, and lots of film. And the bums.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: photography

Not much to say today. I've got a ton of work to do, and have a rare (for me) headache. Seriously - I don't often get headaches. When I do, perhaps once a year, I'm twice as annoyed as those who get them more regularly. I don't do NSAIDs, so I just suffer until it goes away. In the meantime, children, small animals, and insufferable boors are advised to keep their distance.

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Freedom Arms has lost a lawsuit alleging that their Model 83 is defective. As Uncle points out, there's supposed to be a law that prevents such things.

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Tam reports plenty of ammo on shelves. I went to a gunshow this weekend and noticed the same thing; unless you want .380ACP, stocks are just about back to normal. As I explained a while back, it's just a matter of the supply chain refilling itself.

(There are folks out there who flunked Econ 101 and continue to believe it's all some great conspiracy. The value of any theory is in its predictive ability, and so far I'm ahead on that count. Read the comments on my article and you'll find that they're still not happy.)

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Thanks for all the comments regarding our dog. We've come to understand that he'll do what makes him comfortable, regardless of how it looks to us.

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That's it for now - back to work I go, pounding head in tow!


-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers

One of the hardest things to predict in this business is workflow. The shop will be humming along, work flying out the door, then suddenly a few large projects (total customs or heavy restorations) come in and the work slows to a snail's pace. Those bottlenecks seem to come in groups, when they're most difficult to deal with. It makes mincemeat out of the most conservative projections!

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Occasionally someone will suggest that being a one-man shop is limiting the amount of business I can do, and that I should take on employees. Aside from not wanting the hassle (I was once a corporate lackey with a pile of employees to handle - I know of what I speak), there's also a bit of personal pride involved: if my name is on the work, I think it's important that I actually do said work. If it's good, I want the accolade, and if it's bad I don't want to be reduced to pointing like a 5-year-old and screaming "but it's HIS fault!"

There exists today a well-known gunsmithing concern whose very talented owner used to do all his own work. He "progressed" to having employees, but supervised their work closely. Judging by the recent experiences of several of my clients, he's been reduced to sending out emails explaining why their shoddy work is actually better than the quality product he used to provide.

Personally, no amount of money (or time savings) will convince me to do that - my clients deserve better.

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I've written about this before, and others continue to make my case for me: people have a different mindset about guns they perceive to be unloaded. You may get tired of hearing it, but safety is so important that I'm going to keep bringing it up: there is a solution.

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Dog people, I need some advice. We have a year-old Shepherd/Newfoundland mix who won't sleep in the spacious, insulated doghouse we've provided. He'll go in to eat, and he's been known to voluntarily pile his toys in it, but he sleeps on our porch exposed to the rain and wind. One would think that sooner or later he'd get cold enough and wet enough to use it for the intended purpose, but it has yet to happen. Should I just leave him to his misery, since it appears to be of his own choosing?

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: safety, i.told.you.so

Ever gotten out of bed, unsure of what day it is? That happens to everyone at some point or another, but when you're self employed it happens a lot.

To stay grounded, my habit is to check iCal every morning. It shows me what day it is and what I have to do that day. On Mondays, for example, it tells me that I have a blog post due. All is right with the world.

My system works wonderfully, unless I forget to check iCal while I'm eating my breakfast.

Like yesterday.

I went all day thinking it was Sunday, and that conviction persisted until late last night. It was only then I realized that I'd lost a whole working day!

I know it's Tuesday, but I'm hoping some of my readers don't. For you, this is Monday's post. For the rest, you just forgot to check in yesterday.

It's win-win for me!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: my.bad

Well, at 110 baud, it's a slow trip!



This Teletype is identical to the one I used in high school to access a computer timeshare system. Back in the mid-'70s, practical personal computers were still a ways off, and even minicomputers (like the DEC PDP-11) were far too expensive for most high schools to purchase. The affordable way to computer power was to buy a subscription to time on a mainframe computer, and dial in on their telephone lines.

Our school was out in the boonies (no, seriously, we were) and we linked to a computer located in Portland (OR). We used the ASR-33 above to interact with the computer. The dial on the right was used to call one of the access numbers; if it was busy, we tried the next one.

As I recall, we had three numbers on which we had access, and if all three of them were busy (other users of the service), we had to wait until a line was free. For those who have grown up never having used a rotary phone, there was no such thing as speed dial or automatic redial!

We could use the paper tape reader on the left of the machine to feed in a program, or to save a program from the computer's memory. At the blazing speed of 10 characters per second, it took a LONG time to feed in a program - sometimes 30 minutes or more. We had a couple of large filing cabinets full of paper tape rolls, programs that other students had written or ones which the company supplied to us.

The computer output was printed on the typewriter in the center of the console. It used a roll of paper that was about 8" wide, and in our case was a dull yellow color.

Yes, I'm old, but your turn is coming, kids - someday your children will be laughing at the idea of your beloved iPod!

More pics of the ASR-33
Wikipedia entry on the TeleType ASR-33
What is a TeleType, anyhow?
The history of TeleType

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: old.technology

Spent weekend away from home. No computer. Mailbox very full on return. Yuck.

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Speaking of email, I've noticed an uptick in the spam that makes it through my filters. They're almost always some variation of the Nigerian scam, or an advertisement for Viagra. Apparently I'm on the "greedy and impotent horndog" mailing list.

From a purely intellectual standpoint, I know that these people wouldn't continue their efforts unless they were seeing some return, but on an emotional basis I simply can't fathom that there are a sufficient number of stupid people with positive bank balances to keep them going.

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While I'm on the subject, would someone please tell me who would be fooled by a Nigerian scam from "MICROSOFT CORPERATION"? (Yes, the spelling is theirs.)

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William Safire died on Sunday. Politics aside, his crisp writing and unrelenting crusade for proper language were an inspiration to me. I'm not at all sure my prose even begins to measure up to his standards, but I do know it would be worse without his influence.

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New breakfast taste treat: scrambled eggs and fried summer sausage. Yum!

-=[ Grant ]=-

I now realize that I like looking at beautiful sunrises more than beautiful sunsets. I'm sure there is some deep psychological significance to that preference, but it as yet escapes me.

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Everyone, it seems, is making a "tactical" pen these days. Benchmade, Schrade, Tuffwriter, Hinderer, Surefire - and now Smith & Wesson. Who will be next?

I have nothing against the concept, as it's simply a return to the roots of the familiar Kubotan (the techniques for which were originally intended for the common Cross-type pen.) These, though, all look like rejects from The Mall Ninja Outlet Store. I have half a mind to make one myself - classically styled out of real rust-blued steel, of course.

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One of the better (most balanced) preparedness blogs extant is Jim Rawle's SurvivalBlog.com It's one of the few blogs on my morning "must read" list, and has been since I found it several years ago. This morning he posted the sad news that his wife Linda has died after a long illness.

He's shared the progress of his beloved in the blog, and while not a shock it's still depressing to hear. My wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to Jim and his family.

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It's necessary, if one is to maintain proper perspective, to learn from those whose experience is different from yours. Take, for example, an interview with a WWII Soviet tank crewman (thanks to Tam, who finds the most amazing stuff.) What he says about the Sherman tank, the Tommy gun, and the .45ACP cartridge are very interesting and definitely challenge certain widely held opinions.

(When you read what he says about the mighty .45, think back to the very similar stories regarding the .30 Carbine.) If you have any interest in WWII, armaments, or the nitty-gritty of battle, it's a great read.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: tacticool, bloggers

Back from the 3-day weekend, and I hope all of you had more fun than I did. I worked on projects around the farm, in between horrendously heavy rain showers and winds gusting to 40mph.

Not much else to say today, as I didn't even think about work while I was busy, uh, working.

Something did catch my eye this morning, as Tam asks an interesting question. I'll have an answer for you tomorrow - but it may not be the answer you expect.

Stay tuned.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers, tacticool

It's been a tough week here in revolver land, and as a result I'm having trouble staying awake long enough to write anything coherent. Morning or evening, when I sit down in front of the computer I doze off. Consequently, I have nothizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: my.bad

If you ever get to attend a major shooting match, one thing that will impress you is how accessible the top competitors are. If you want to meet Rob Leatham or Jerry Miculek, no problem - they're usually happy to shake hands and talk.

The same is true for the top jazz musicians. Jazz is a personal music, and because of the smaller fan base getting to meet even the biggest names is relatively easy. Imagine being able to walk up to a well-known pop or rock artist and being able to do that. Unless you're a buxom groupie with a purse full of cocaine, their security staff isn't likely to let you get within a country mile of the star! Jazz musicians aren't like that, and I've had the experiences to prove it.

My interest in jazz matured in high school, which is also where my first brush with fame occurred. I went to school with the brother of Alan Yankee, who at the time was a saxophonist in the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Kenton was my idol, then and now, and meeting Alan was a highlight of my young musical life. Little did I know that it was only the beginning.

When I was attending college in Portland (Oregon) in the early '80s, there were a bunch of jazz clubs in the city. Portland was known as a jazz town, and major players would often make a stop on their way between San Francisco and Seattle. We had not one but two jazz radio stations (one commercial and one funded by a local college), as well as an internationally regarded jazz festival. Life was good for a jazz musician and lover of the genre.

By the turn of the century, the Festival had been reduced to a weekend in one of the city parks, one of the radio stations was gone and the other played more blues than jazz, and virtually all of the jazz clubs were no more. I was lucky enough to meet quite a few notable jazz musicians before jazz disappeared from Portland.

Freddy Hubbard played a single set at one of the local clubs, to a packed house. Despite the cramped surroundings, he made sure that he got around and shook people's hands before jetting off to who-knows-where.

One of the high schools managed to snag the great Clark Terry for a benefit concert. The school was in a bad part of town, and the concert was not well promoted. Still, I was surprised at the sparse crowd. For a city with a jazz reputation, it was embarrassing. That didn't stop Clark from putting on a great show, and I told him as much when we met afterwards. "I"ve played bigger crowds, but that's not important - I'm just happy that people appreciate my music." Clark is known as a consummate gentleman, and his reputation is well deserved.

One summer a local college held a small jazz festival, and the headliners were guitarists Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel. During a break between acts, I went to use the facilities. Standing at the next urinal was Herb himself, and we started talking. I normally wouldn't remember a conversation from almost 30 years ago, but the surreal setting burned this one into my mind: gardening. After finishing our respective business, we went outside and sat at a bench, still talking gardening. Nice guy, that Herb. (For those who think the sun rises and sets on rock guitarists like Van Halen, check out the link - Herb is the gray-haired gentleman. Perhaps you'll learn something.)

The Woody Herman Big Band, one of the most popular in the history of jazz, made a surprise visit to Portland one year. I don't remember the details, but for some reason they unexpectedly found themselves in town. Somehow they managed to find a venue at one of the colleges, which had an open auditorium that day. Word went out on the jazz radio stations that tickets were available for that evening - dirt cheap, with all proceeds going to some charity. The place was jammed, and the band was in top form. Later I got to thank Woody for the unexpected treat, and expressed my appreciation to number of the band members as well. One of them was Frank Tiberi, who would later take over the organization after Woody's death.

Trumpeters Pete and Conte Candoli appeared in Portland one year, and of course I saw their show. At the time the Candolis were at the top of their game; it was virtually impossible to find a big band that hadn't had one (or both) in their trumpet section at one time or another. I got to meet Conte, but Pete disappeared somewhere after their set was over. The next day The Oregonian newspaper had a review of the show. The writer, who apparently knew nothing of jazz, lamented that when they soloed together they often hit "clashing notes." I wrote a letter to the editor that said something along the lines of "yeah, that happens with simultaneous improvisation, you moron!" They didn't publish it, which wasn't a surprise.

I remember taking my buddy and roommate, Ed, to see a then-unknown Diane Schuur. Between sets I introduced myself and told her Ed was dying to meet her. She giggled and I motioned Ed over; he was quite taken with her. That was understandable, as she was a terrific singer and a wonderful person. I hope she hasn't changed in the intervening 25-odd years ; she certainly still sings well.

Of course, there has to be the exception that proves the rule, and in jazz that was Maynard Ferguson. I found him to be the single rudest person I'd ever met in music. That attitude had rubbed off on some of his band members, as the rest of his trumpet section was as obnoxious as he was. (His sax players, who apparently didn't get as much attention, were nicer. I almost felt sorry for them.) I originally chalked the snub up to his having a bad day, but have heard from many people since who tell me that it was SOP with him.

If memory serves it was the second Mount Hood Festival Of Jazz that featured an appearance by a young and highly touted Wynton Marsalis. I ended up (unintentionally) running into him around the venue, and though he was polite enough, I frankly didn't find much in his music to be impressed with. I haven't heard anything from him since which changes that impression. My contrarian opinion hasn't seemed to hurt his record sales, though, and I hope he doesn't hold it against me!

My favorite trumpet player is the late, great Red Rodney. In the early '80s he had a quintet with the phenomenal Ira Sullivan, a group which to this day gets my vote as the most overlooked in jazz. They showed up in Portland once, and my buddy Bob and I were there front row, center. Between sets Red ambled over and introduced himself, and asked if I was a trumpet player. Confused, I asked him how he knew; he said that I was the only one in the audience who "got" what he was playing. I never did quite understand what he meant, but he sat down at our table to chat and eat his dinner. It remains my favorite jazz experience, and on that note I'll leave you with this video of Red at his best.



-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: music

I believe I've made mention of my musical background. In college I minored in music performance, and I spent my off time playing in quartets and quintets. Jazz quartets and quintets.

Jazz has been my passion as far back as I can remember. When the other kids were listening to Queen and America, I was devouring Stan Kenton and Sonny Rollins. I reveled in the complexity of the music, which fed both the left and right sides of my brain.

To this day, I can't abide jazz playing as background or mood music; it engages me and comes to the foreground. If one is to truly understand and appreciate jazz, one has to actively listen to it. It requires the participation of the listener, for jazz at its core is music that is custom made, fresh, for the audience. It is demanding music, constantly evolving yet always retaining the essence that separates it from the insipid pop of American Idol.

Unfortunately not everyone desires that kind of music (and the world would be boring if they did!) From the WSJ we learn that the jazz audience is shrinking rapidly.

Liking jazz may put me in the minority, but there are some wonderful aspects of the genre that go beyond the music itself. Next Friday I'll talk about one of the unique perks of being a jazz fan - one that some "gunnies" can identify with.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: music

Did you know your eye dominance can be changed? I didn't!

I recently had a problem with shots hitting several inches off my point of aim (at only 5 yards.) That's odd, I thought, it's as if I'm seeing out of my left eye. But that's impossible - I'm right eye dominant.

For some reason I did a quick dominance test, and I was shocked that it showed I was left-eye dominant! I must have done it wrong, I thought; I did the test again, and it showed the expected right eye dominance. Whew! One more time, just to be sure - darn it anyway, it came up left again. And again.

That's odd. Dominance, as I've always understood the mechanism, is neurological, not optical. Your brain simply prefers the vision from one eye or the other, and it appears to be hardwired from birth. I've always thought it to be unchanging, as most people do, yet mine had definitely changed.

Guess what? Turns out it's not as immutable as I'd believed. According to my ophthalmologist, who I called the next morning, eye dominance spontaneously changes only in a very, very small percentage of adults - usually as a symptom of an underlying neurological disorder.

Neurological disorder? Doesn't that mean...tumor?? YIKES!

As it happens, I'd had a complete physical (including a thorough eye exam by this doctor) just a couple of months ago. I had no other symptoms, and he reassured me that lack of symptoms and my recent positive tests made me an unlikely patient for surgery.

As it happens, he said, eye dominance can be trained away. The usual trick is to wear glasses with some Scotch-type tape on the lens of the dominant eye. The out-of-focus image forces the brain to use the other eye, and in time becomes used to the arrangement - thus changing the dominance.

But, I protested, I haven't put any tape on my glas....oh, wait.

For years I've worn a jeweler's loupe over my right eye. When I'm working, I swing it down so I can look through it and back up when I no longer need it. It's a hassle to swing it in and out of my vision all the time and get it perfectly aligned again, so for the last year I've just sort of looked around it instead of flipping it up. I use my left eye for distance vision, and the right when I need to do closeup work.

What I normally see in my right eye, then, is...an out-of-focus image. It's the same as tape on the lenses, and by doing that I've unintentionally trained away my right eye dominance! At this moment I'm part of the small number of people who have no strongly dominant eye. If I continued using the loupe in that manner I'd end up strongly cross-dominant.

I immediately swapped loupe positions to force my brain to accept the right eye again. It's been a month or so, and I'm already seeing results. Once I'm back to my normal, strong right eye dominance I'll swap my beloved loupe for a binocular magnifier.

Trouble is, I hate those things! Decisions, decisions...

-=[ Grant ]=-

It appears that our spell of excessively hot weather has ended. Last week the digital thermometer at our house recorded a high of 111 degrees. (Yes, that's in the shade - who'd be stupid enough to go out into the sun on a day like that?) We set an all-time record for consecutive days over 90 degrees (9 and counting.) I'm just looking forward to being able to spend a full day (more or less) in the shop.

---

From The Firearms Blog comes the news of a(nother) special edition S&W 627 in .38 Super. This one should have a sticker on the box that says "Now With More Ugly!"

---

I'm pleased to note that QC at Ruger is improving - the last couple of SP101s I've seen, of recent production, are much improved over those of years past. Gail Pepin at the ProArms Podcast tells me that she's visited the plant recently, and their production floor has changed considerably. She credits their new emphasis on 'lean manufacturing', with its attendant focus on reducing waste and rework, for the quality bump.

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The Firearms Blog also brings us happy news of Winchester's reprise of the Model 92 Takedown. I'd be tempted if they'd make it in .357 Magnum...

---

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to go to work!


-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers, ugly, ruger, proarms, lever.actions

Oregon is in the throes of an extreme heatwave. Temps at my house have been running 106 to 109 for the last several days; our low temperature last night was 79. We're projected to hit 110 today, with little relief until at least next week.

To those in certain parts of the south, such temperatures are normal for the season. You have to remember, though, that this is the Pacific Northwest, where anything above 85 is "hot", and triple digits are quite unusual. To have more than a couple of days of such weather is rare, and thankfully so - we natives do not handle high heat well at all.

Sadly, my shop is not air conditioned and the ventilation is not good. When I walked in yesterday morning, it was still 85 in there and hit 95 long before lunch. I shudder to think what I'll find this morning!

I'd love to tell you that I'm toughing it out, but frankly I've pretty much taken this week off. Anyone got some cool, rainy weather they want to trade?

-=[ Grant ]=-

I hope everyone enjoyed their Independence Day holiday! I've been burning the candle at both ends lately, so I took a long weekend, during which I managed to overexpose myself to the sun. (The weekend was hot by Oregon standards - we hit 100 degrees at our house on Friday, and only slightly cooler on Thursday & Saturday.) What's that line - "feel the burn?"

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Since it was so warm, I drank a huge amount of water. Having been in the ER more than once for severe dehydration (and accompanying heat exhaustion), I'm a little more attentive to this detail than most. For several years, my choice of liquid container has been the classic Nalgene bottle - the translucent white variety, made of #2 HDPE, free of those nasty plasticizers currently suspected of causing cancer. A side benefit is that HDPE is flexible, making it more suitable to hard use than the much more rigid clear varieties. This proved beneficial this weekend, when I ran over my Nalgene with a tractor. Smashed it nearly flat, and collapsed the bottom inward. I managed to squeeze the walls back into roughly cylindrical form, but wasn't able to fix the floor. I filled it with water, threw it in the freezer, and in a couple of hours the expanding ice did the trick! Good as new (more or less), and none the worse for wear.

I just wish they'd make the things in "earth colors" - OD, coyote tan, etc. Nalgene, are you listening?

---

The S&W "J" frame is a generally reliable piece, but lately I've gotten reports of ignition issues with newer examples. S&W has transitioned to a new firing pin, which is much lighter and much shorter than the previous varieties. (This may be their solution to the drop testing standards in California.) They seem to be the source of the problem.To insure reliability, I replace all those I encounter with the Cylinder & Slide Extra Length firing pin. Highly recommended, and an easy "do it yourself" modification for those so inclined.

---

The supply chain is finally starting to recover; AR-15 rifles are becoming a common sight in the stores again, and I'm receiving reports of ammo shelves being restocked. Shortages of certain products (most notably .380ACP ammunition) can be expected to continue for the next few months, but by and large we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.


-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: reliability

In case you weren't aware, my background includes a stint as a watch & clock maker. That's where I learned my precision machining skills, and honed my ability to deal with very complicated devices in which each part has to work perfectly.

I've always been fascinated with timekeepers. I'm not all that keen on the sway they hold over our lives, and I'm hardly obsessive about the flows and uses of time, but the mechanisms (and the way in which they transmit information to humans) intrigue me. Over the years I've owned some unusual clocks, but Dark Roasted Blend brings us a great article on some really "out there" watches and clocks.

(I'm a little surprised that they didn't include one of the iconic "mystery clocks" of the 1960s, and one of my all-time favorites, the Jefferson "Golden Hour" clock:



Somewhere in my pile of old clock parts I have one of these. Maybe I should dig it out and get it running again - it would look great on my desk!)

-=[ Grant ]=-

Back in 1980 I was working behind the sales counter in a camera shop to help pay my way through college. Without being too immodest, I had a prodigious knowledge of the photographic process, to include everything from vintage cameras and films to the equipment, chemistry, and procedures used to bring the images out of them. (I would later put that storehouse of information to good use when I opened a unique photographic lab that specialized in obsolete and obscure processes.)

Because of my deep base of arcane knowledge, I was often called upon to authenticate or debunk (depending on one's point of view) various kinds of "UFO" and "ghost" images. Over several years I looked at perhaps a couple hundred such anomalous images and, save for one, was able to immediately identify the source or cause.

Oh, that one? It took me a little time and some research, but eventually I was able to show how the image was made. I'm told that the person who paid a tidy sum for that "proof" of extraterrestrial life wasn't at all happy, but remained unconvinced. True believers are usually like that.

With that in mind, check out this gallery of "authenticated" spirit images. Who, exactly, authenticated them is unclear, but I can guarantee it wasn't me!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: photography

As I mentioned last week, a family medical issue kept me traveling back and forth to the hospital. I spent several evenings sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a cramped hospital room, which is most assuredly not my idea of a good time.

On one of those visits I decided to get something to eat, and so made my way to the hospital's cafeteria. I got my French Dip sandwich (which wasn't bad, especially considering where I was) and sat down at a table, adjacent to which was another fellow eating the same sandwich.

He glanced at my tray and mentioned the food coincidence, and we struck up a conversation. He was wearing a nylon windbreaker with a logo on it, one which I didn't recognize, so I asked him about it.

Turns out that it was for a multi-level marketing company that hawks one of those "miracle" automotive lubricants. He started telling me about how his product "bonds to metal at the molecular level", and Tam's recent comment on this article popped into my head. I just couldn't resist...

Me: So, it bonds to the metal? It doesn't wear off?

Him: Right!

Me: And it bonds to both the piston and the cylinder wall, right?

Him: You got it!

Me: So, if it bonds to both, what keeps it from acting like SuperGlue and seizing the engine?

Him: [crickets chirping] Uh, no, it...uh....alters the magnetic properties of the metal molecules. It's not like glue.

Me: So it magnetizes my engine? Won't that destroy the engine's electronics? Ho do you magnetize aluminum, anyhow?

Him: [awkward pause] Well, I gotta get back to my wife's room. Nice to meet you!

Me: [Yelling as he runs for the elevator] Hey, do you have a business card? I'd like to talk some more about your products!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: snake.oil

I'm back!

Last Monday, both our power and phone/DSL lines were severed by falling trees, which themselves were the result of the tremendous winter storm that had blanketed Oregon. We were quite literally trapped in our house for the better part of a week, the road having been blocked by a dozen of those damnable trees that cut us off from our blessed utilities:



Power came back on last Friday, we made it to town on Saturday (after spending a couple days with the chainsaw), and the phone company fixed their lines this morning. Hooray!

When the 'net connection first went away, I kept up with the email flood on my iPhone. That lasted until sometime Tuesday, when the AT&T wireless internet service disappeared, followed soon after by the cell service itself. (I suspect that the nearest cell tower - actually, the only tower - simply depleted it's backup batteries after being deprived of mains electricity.) Cell service came back on late Thursday, but by then my mailbox was so full that managing it on the iPhone was just futile.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 429 emails to process (plus a whole week of Tam, Ahab, Uncle, and Marko to catch up on!)

-=[ Grant ]=-

The snow continues to pile up at the farm. This morning we had 16 inches on the ground, and we've been thoroughly covered for a week now. In Oregon, this is a highly unusual occurrence and I'm ready for it to be over!

We got a small dose of ice in between show showers, just enough to lock the snow onto tree branches and provide a means for more snow to pile up. Result: lots of damaged trees. If I were to go outside right now, the branches breaking and trees snapping sound like a firing range!

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I haven't been able to make it to the range to test the guns I've finished, let alone make it into town to ship them. Sadly, unless we get a major thaw it's entirely likely that I won't get anything shipped before the holiday.

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Plastic guns and ovens don't mix. (Obligatory jab at the French omitted, though I'm sure my British friends can fill in the blanks.)

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As if the miserable weather weren't enough, I'm down with a nasty cold. I don't know how I caught it, as I haven't been able to get out to be in contact with a carrier!

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SayUncle alerted me to this little bit of racism. (My thought: someone who assumes that you would want to kill her because of her skin color does so because - deep down - she harbors the fantasy of killing you because of your skin color.)

"Projection", it's called.


-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers

I had a visit with AFGWWWTRA yesterday. We always have a good time, but sadly our get-togethers are too few to suit either of us. Gossiping, to be done properly, requires face-to-face interaction, and we certainly gossip - unapologetically, I would venture to say. (This business gives us plenty of material with which to work!) This time we dug our dirt over a delicious Thai meal, easily one of the best I've had - from a restaurant in a town where I'd not expected such an eatery to even exist.

On my way home I stopped in to visit longtime crony Hunter Dan. (Dan's named after an "action figure" that looks suspiciously like him.) Dan is a manager for a large sporting goods retailer, and of course we discussed the current boom in gun sales. His company has most assuredly experienced the same dynamic, with many of their stores setting sales records.

A cursory glance at their shelves revealed a distinct lack of EBRs, an obvious shortage of autoloading handguns, and - most surprisingly - a dearth of revolvers. Ammo inventory was correspondingly low; where they usually have piles of ammunition stacked on the floor, they had only floor. In fact, the only thing they had in abundance were bolt action rifles.

Interesting. Significant? Time will tell.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: afgwwwtra

I've been out the last couple of days - in the sense that I haven't gone into the shop, answered phones, or tended to email - due to a case of "intestinal flu", aka "food poisoning", aka Norovirus. Nausea, fever, the works. This is the second time I've picked it up this year, and I'm getting darned tired of it!

Since Wednesday I've not felt like doing anything. I thought I'd at least be able to knock out a blog article, but I discovered something that Marko could probably have told me: writing is work, and I was in no condition to work!

It's amazing that something as simple as connecting brain to fingertips would be so demanding.

Juts for the record: the only thing worse than vomiting is trying to find anything worthwhile on daytime television. I'm going back to sleep now.

-=[ Grant ]=-

I don't usually post on Tuesdays, but I couldn't resist: I think I'm on some spammer/scammer list.

Roughly every week for the past couple of months, I've received an email inquiring about the feasibility of "building" a rather odd gun. I just got the second one of the week.

The details vary a bit from email to email, but they have several things in common: they all want a custom made top-break revolver in a large caliber, they all are from foreign countries, and they all have a gmail return address.

The first couple I actually responded to; after noting the repeating pattern, I've elected to roundfile subsequent occurrences.

On the off chance that someone is truly, legitimately interested in having such a gun made, here are a few things to consider before contacting any gunsmith:

1) If you're not in the U.S., you can pretty much forget it. Don't even ask.
2) Having a custom top-break revolver made will cost money. Lots of it. Yes, more than the "$5,000 US Dollars" one such email offered.
3) I'm not the guy to be asking. In fact, I can't imagine who would attempt such a job, so please don't ask me that, either.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Portland, Oregon has for years had one of the highest numbers of movie theater seats per capita. Oregonians, it would appear, can't get enough of the silver screen. (Save for this Oregonian, who sees one theater movie every five years or so whether he needs to or not.)

It seems to have always been this way. Portland had a large number of neighborhood movie theaters up through the '60s, and many of those buildings are still standing. The theaters were converted to other uses, and some of them actually retained some of their former features. Finding and exploring those old locations is a hobby for some, an obsession for others.

Back in the early '80s, when I was doing some moonlighting as a commercial photographer, I was retained by an older gentleman to photograph the abandoned Egyptian Theater in northeast Portland. The theater, originally built as a vaudeville venue, had been converted to the newfangled "moving pitchers" in the early '30s. It operated until 1962, when it was closed and used as overflow warehousing space for the chemical company which had purchased the location.

The gentleman who hired me was a serious movie buff, and was writing a book on old Oregon theaters. He wanted me to shoot pictures of the interior of the Egyptian. (I got the job because i was the only photographer he found who could light an entire large interior without benefit of electrical outlets or a generator. The power in the building had been shut off for years, the wiring having been declared a fire hazard. I'll leave you to guess how I pulled it off.)

Once in the building we found many of the seats still in place; the entire balcony was intact, as were the Egyptian-motif decorations and appointments throughout. There were torn ticket stubs littering the floor and even remnants of coming attraction posters in the lobby.

When theater closed, the awning (shown in this 1933 photo) was removed, and the front of the building simply covered with a false wall. The ticket booth and original doors were still there!



It was a surreal experience, as if the building was simply waiting for the janitors to arrive to clean up for that evening's business.

The building was torn down in 1989; sadly, the book never materialized. I had a good time, though.

What brought this to mind was this article at WebUrbanist about abandoned movie theaters across the U.S. (Somewhere in storage I have my shots of the Egyptian, but exactly where is a mystery. Until I can find them, you'll have to make do with WebUrbanist's article!)

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: old.technology

Sorry to be a bit tardy...I've spent the last 3 days down for the count with "food poisoning" (norovirus.) I'll spare you the gory details, but if you've ever had it you know it isn't pleasant. If you haven't had the pleasure, trust me - it sucks. I'm glad it's (pretty much) over with.

I'm still a little weak, though, and am told I won't be 100% for a few days yet. Compared to the last few days, however, it's paradise!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Yuck.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Big gun show last weekend...didn't find anything I wanted.

Another big show coming up soon...doubt I'll find anything I want there, either.

The problem with being "into" something, to the extent that I am (and many of you are) is that the things we want get more and more esoteric. That translates to "hard to find", which usually translates to "valuable" - which morphs quickly to "the seller thinks it's made of gold from King Tut's codpiece, and has priced it accordingly."

The things I'm looking for range from the admittedly unusual (Marlin Levermatic in .30 Carbine) to the mundane (Mossberg bolt-action .22LR) and lots in between. You'd think, with an extensive and wide-ranging list of "wants" I'd get lucky sooner or later.

You'd be wrong.

For instance, a 3" S&W "K" frame (of any model; I'm not picky) shouldn't be a problem - they made scads of 'em, and they were pretty common just a few years ago. Naturally, I haven't seen one in ages.

I'd like a 9mm Speed-Six (yes, I know they're unusual) but I'd settle for a good clean one in .357. Doesn't matter - they seem to be equally scarce around these parts.

How about a simple Winchester Model 67 (their cheap single shot, manually cocking .22 from the middle of the last century) under $225? Not around here. Come on, people, this is a thin-barreled "starter" rifle, not a rare target gun!

Maybe a Browning BLR in .308? Good luck. (I've given up on ever finding one in .358, which is what I really lust for.) Oh, I can find a Winchester 88 in .308 - and I'd like to have one - but I'm not about to pay $800 for the privilege!

For some reason I want a simple, plain, common Marlin in .35 Remington. If I lived in Maine I'd have my pick of 'em, but out here in the West if it ain't a thutty-thutty you won't find it.

And so it goes. Come the next show I'll drag myself into the exhibit hall, knowing full well I'll be disappointed once again - but I'll do it anyway.

Sigh. I wonder if there's a suitable 12-step program for this...

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: gunshows

Remember a few weeks back, when I was wondering when Global Warming was going to take care of the foot of snow in my driveway?

Turns out that I probably won't get my fair share.

Darn it.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Let's see now...this is the view from my front yard:



Here in Oregon, we're getting historic snowfall amounts - even in our temperate valleys. Record low temps were recorded across the midwest recently, while south of the Mason-Dixon Line Tam has been freezing her tuchus. Personally, I wish someone would explain to me where my share of this "Global Warming" thing is, because I could use it right now...

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This morning I got an email from AFGWWWTRA, who is en-route to the SHOT show. I'm hoping my secret correspondent will send me back news about neat new revolvers, though I'm not holding my breath. (Note to Taurus: revolvers that shoot shotgun shells are not my idea of "neat.")

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Note to S&W: the "TR Special Edition" thing is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the guns themselves are getting uglier. If this keeps up, the next one will cost $5k and cause eyes to bleed upon opening the box. Please, no more.

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Tags: afgwwwtra

...too much snow. (Big doin's afoot, though - I'm pledged to secrecy, but look for an announcement in a few days!)




-=[ Grant ]=-

Yes, I know this post was supposed to be up this morning. Hey, I'm usually on time, and let's face it - at the time I'm posting this, it is still Wednesday and thus I'm technically on time. So there! (Hey - no one gives Tam a hard time when her posts are late!)

Anyhow, this has been a busy, busy week. On top of everything else, we had a visit from our friendly local satellite TV installer (Dish, for those terminally curious types out there.) The reason we finally "bit the bullet" was because we wanted to see all the great shooting shows on the Outdoor channel. (Yes, Michael Bane - I wanted to see your show too. Are you happy now?!?)

I used to catch Jim Scoutten's "American Shooter" show on cable, but it bounced from channel to channel and ultimately disappeared. With all of the recreational shooters out there, it would seem a "no-brainer" to have shows that cater to their interests, but it would appear political correctness actually trumps the profit motive. Who knew?

(I've always thought it odd that ESPN considers poker to be a "sport", but not IPSC...or PPC...or CMP...or Sporting Clays...or SASS...you get the idea.)

So this evening my wife and I got to tune into a number of shooting shows for the first time. That Bane character is pretty good, but whose Idea was it to have Garry James and David Fortier host a show? Between the wooden expressions and stilted dialogue it actually made those poker tournaments look attractive!

James and Fortier are both great writers (I enjoy reading their work), but being a good TV host is a different skill set. Someone at the Outdoor channel has yet to figure that out...

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: bloggers

Well, I enjoyed my little vacation. While I was out, the emails and snail mails piled up - it's going to take the rest of the week to get through everything!

In my post-vacation hyperactivity, I've decided to rearrange my shop's layout to make it a little more efficient. My parts cabinet, for instance, has always been across the room from my workbench. That's an oversight that has annoyed me for years. It's not a trivial task to fix the problem, as a) the cabinet is quite heavy, and b) lots of other things need to be moved to make the appropriate space. I'm doing it anyway.

In gun news, I found this expose on one of CeaseFire Pennsylvania's board members. I've always marveled at the difference in mental attitudes between pro- and anti-Second Amendment people, wherein the latter tend to focus on hyperbole and emotion, and the former tend to cite facts and scholarship. It comes as no surprise, then, that one of "their own" believes in such non-rational things as crop circles and extra-terrestrials. This is the "mainstream support" they're always bleating about?

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go answer the mail. I anticipate some long keyboard sessions!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: prohibitionists

...because I'm desperately trying to get all of the work promised for Xmas out the door. Apologies in advance if I'm not around as much as usual.

Oh, by the way: I'm going to take a short vacation after this is all over! Don't expect many (if any at all) blog entries from the 22nd 'til after New Year's. If you send an email during that time, expect to wait a while for a reply.

-=[ Grant ]=-

First off, thanks to those who sent emails inquiring about my welfare in the wake of the storms that battered Oregon. I guess we made the national news!

The storms dropped a huge amount of rain in our state, as well as our neighbors to the north in Washington. There were places that recorded in excess of a foot of rain inside of 48 hours, and the result was widespread flooding.

Particularly hard-hit are the smaller tributaries and shallower rivers. Interstate 5, the north-south route between California and Canada, is under water at Chehalis, WA and not expected to reopen until at least Thursday. Several towns in Oregon, notably Vernonia and Tillamook, are just now digging out from the muck left behind - that is, if the water has even receded yet.

Of course, the old debate about subsidizing (through government-backed flood insurance) the continuous rebuilding of houses in flood plains has been re-ignited, and the result will no doubt be the maintenance of the status quo. (Isn't that always the case?)

My wife and I live well above any flood-prone areas and have soil which is well drained; we have had no problems other than short power outages and some internet connectivity issues. I am glad, however, that last Saturday I looked up at my gutters and decided to clean out the maple leaves!

-=[ Grant ]=-

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

The problem with this holiday is not the surfeit of food, but rather the Friday after. No, I'm not talking about shopping crowds (my wife and I don't participate in that frenzy), but rather the fact that everything not retail is closed that day!

Every year I sit down on Friday morning to get what I hope to be a normal amount of work finished, only to find that the people I need to contact are out shopping. You'd think I'd figure this out by now.

The upshot is that this morning is twice as hectic as normal, which means today's blog entry is correspondingly short.

Gotta go...the FedEx guy needs my signature. Boy, does he look overworked!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Thanks to the many people who have entrusted me with their guns, I am enjoying a surplus of requests for work. In fact, for reasons that are not entirely clear the requests keep increasing, especially in the last number of weeks. This is both gratifying and concerning.

Up until this point, I've taken everyone's name and put them on a waiting list. This worked nicely when I was only a month or two backlogged, but now I'm up to a year behind - and the list keeps growing with no end in sight. The management of the list (answering inquiries, etc.) has now become a time-consuming endeavor unto itself.

To tell you the truth, when I first started in this endeavor I sort of harbored the dream of being able to casually say "oh, I'm so-many-years backlogged", accompanied by a flippant wave of the hand. Now that I'm at that point, it's not as pleasant as I thought it would be, because I'm more concerned with the positions of my clients than with my own. I have so much work to do that guns anticipated for holiday gifts won't make the date, and mostly not even the season - and that bothers me.

I'm sure that some other 'smiths are in the same situation, but I've come to the conclusion that it is unconscionable to continue to accept "reservations" which are so far out, I can't possibly predict whether or not I'll be able to make the date. I'm acutely aware that my skills at time estimation are not as good as they should be, and I find my chronological errors growing in scope as the length of the list increases. That's not fair to you, my clients and prospective clients.

So, as of today I am no longer accepting new clients until I've worked the waiting list down to a more reasonable level. Those who are on the list are, of course, still on the list - I just won't be adding to that list for a while.

If you have wanted to have me work on your guns, but are not on the list, I apologize for my unavailability. As soon as the list has shrunk to the point that I feel comfortable putting people on it, I'll make an announcement and open the list for new work.

Of course, the Blog will still be here to amuse and - hopefully - inform you.

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: waiting.list

Remember my declaration of geekiness? Well, a fellow I've been known to hang around with (also a ham radio enthusiast - go figure) sent me this:



Yes, that's me in a nutshell. Except I'm not an engineer - but I'd play one on TV if someone paid me.

-=[ Grant ]=-

If you've hung around here for any length of time, you've noticed that on Mondays and Wednesdays I try to keep the blog somewhat on the topic of firearms, preferably on revolvers.

Today is not going to be one of those days.

Why? I was so busy over the weekend I didn't even get a chance to think about the blog, let alone write anything! Well, that - and the fact that my elbow hurts like heck!

As you may recall, I'm suffering from a very painful occurrence of tendonitis in my right elbow. So painful, in fact, that it hurts to type! As I mentioned last week I took it fairly easy for several days, and was feeling vast improvement until I did something so innocuous that I am startled at the outcome. It involved a Junkyard Dog.

No, not the kind you're thinking of - this kind of Junkyard Dog.

As it happens I live equidistant from the knife companies of Kershaw and Benchmade (and, by extension, the firms of Gerber, Leatherman, and Lone Wolf Knives. I guess you could call this "Edged Alley"!) Over the years I've bought many Benchmade knives, and generally avoided the Kershaw brand. Kershaw just didn't have the quality of blade that I desire in my knives, and despite having met Pete Kershaw himself I was never persuaded to carry one of his products.

When Kershaw moved a lot of their production from overseas to right here in my own stompin' grounds they got my interest, but not enough to make me want to put one of their products in my pocket every day. It was when I found that they were transitioning from the use of cheap 440A and 440C steels to Sandvik steels that I became truly interested.

(Bear with me - this does eventually get back to my tendonitis!)

I have quite a bit of experience with Sandvik blades, particularly with their 12C27 steel as used in the famous Swedish Mora knives. It is, in my estimation, one of the better 'all around' steels that one could use on a general purpose knife. It holds an edge well, is very resistant to breakage, and is easy to sharpen. The fact that there were almost no folders made out of that superb yet underrated steel annoyed me greatly, and I was left to console myself with my Moras.

It was when I found out that Kershaw had gone to Sandvik steel (13C26, a very close relative of 12C27) that I decided I had to have one. The Junkyard Dog II had gotten rave reviews over at Bladeforums, so I decided that I was to get one.

(Luckily my wife intervened, and got one for me as a gift, thus saving me from the guilt of buying it for myself!)

It arrived at the end of last week, and from the start I was smitten with it. Fit and finish is quite good, easily up to the Benchmades that I own, and at the price point it is astounding. I haven't gotten a chance to resharpen the edge and really test it yet (any factory edge is downright primitive compared to what a few minutes with a set of stones can achieve), but I expect great things.

The trouble is that the blade is really quite heavy, and flicking it open delivers a solid "whack" to one's muscles. I was absentmindedly doing that while watching television the other night: opening and closing it repeatedly, just because it's fun to do. After about a half-hour of such foolishness I found that my elbow was as sore as it ever was, and then some!

So now you have, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story."

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: knives

Light blogging today, owing to a nasty recurrence of the tendonitis in my right arm. A combination of hard work and shooting way too many lightweight, heavy recoil revolvers is starting to take its toll!

It hurts to type or hold tools firmly, and work in the shop has slowed to a crawl in the last few days. I've decided to take it easy the rest of the week, which (in my experience) should allow enough healing to enable me to "hit it hard" again next week.

Sigh.

I never thought I'd get old enough to complain about getting old enough to complain!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Massad Ayoob was in the area the last couple of weeks for his yearly round of teaching up at Firearms Academy of Seattle. We generally try to get together for a meal during his stays, and finally managed to do so last Saturday evening. We had our usual good time, catching up on family news and the latest gossip in the industry.

Interestingly, for the first time in a long while he was actually teaching with one of his own guns as opposed to using a test/evaluation piece. The gun in question was a Langdon-prepped Beretta 92. I'm not a big fan of bottom-feeding handguns, as you know, and the 92 series is - for my little hands - the worst of the lot. I had to admit, though, that this one was pretty darned nice (for an auto, you understand.) I wouldn't have believed that a Beretta double-action trigger could get as light as this one and still ignite primers, but he reports it to be completely reliable.

When it rains, it pours, and Monday morning found me having brunch with AFGWWWTRA (who?!?), who was on a quick pass through the area. What did we talk about?

Cattle. Yes, cows. Well, there was also some talk about hunting, and of course the obligatory chat about how wonderful revolvers are, but cattle were the subject du jour.

Yes, this is a glamorous job alright!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Tags: afgwwwtra

Last week I told you about our trip to my cousin's ranch, during which we hoped to help rid the place of the nefarious Sage Rat (aka Ground Squirrel.) Today let's talk about the shooting aspects.

Normally a field infested with Sage Rats is a "target-rich environment." When they are at their peak, you almost can't reload the guns quickly enough! In those conditions, an open-sighted .22 rifle is more than sufficient for the plethora of targets that pop up in the 5-50 yard range.

In really good years, I've taken many with a Dan Wesson Model 15 in .22, shooting the bulk-packed Remington "Golden Bullet" load. This ammo doesn't shoot worth a darn in my rifles, but in the DW it is superb. (Anyone who has shot any real amount of .22 ammunition will immediately recognize the truth of the round: you never know what will shoot well in which gun, and there is no such thing as a prediction!) I usually use the 8" barrel, though I've also used the 6" to good effect.

Nevertheless, this is really a job for a rifle, and most Sage Rat shooters gravitate to the very popular Ruger 10/22 platform. I've shot one fairly frequently myself, but in the last couple of years I've been using a very nice early Marlin 39A (which I picked up for a song a number of years back.) The accuracy and 18-round magazine are much appreciated on those small targets, though it wears only open sights; somehow, a scope on such a classic rifle just seems "wrong."

Last year I ended up visiting two different cousin's ranches (my family is big in the beef business.) The first was heavily infested and the Marlin was the right tool at the right time. The second ranch, however, is at a higher altitude; their population comes out of hibernation later, and as a result they didn't have nearly as many to shoot. Most of the shots were well over 50 yards, and the open-sight Marlin (coupled with my aging eyes) was severely handicapped. I wished that I'd had the presence of mind to bring along the scoped 10/22!

As a result of that experience, I installed a Marble's tang sight on the old Marlin. This year I was ready - and good thing, too! This trip was just as the rodents were emerging from their burrows, and once again long shots were the rule. The tang sight greatly extended the range of the unscoped gun - I made quite a few shots in the 90-100 yard range, and a couple that were actually verified to be 115 and 128 yards. Not bad for a .22!

My ammunition preference is for a hollowpoint round to provide a quick, clean kill at all ranges. (Regardless of the problems the little buggers cause, I still live by the old hunter's credo of causing no more suffering than is absolutely necessary.) Since so many rounds are expended - on a good day it's not uncommon to shoot several hundred rats - I look for the most accurate bulk-packed ammunition. This usually limits the choices to a high velocity 36gn load.

For the last few years my choice has been the Winchester Xpert hollowpoint bullet. The wide hollowpoint cavity gives it some of the best terminal effects I've seen in a .22 cartridge. Accuracy is a bit better than average in this rifle, and It's available in bulk at very attractive prices. That doesn't stop me from desiring something better, of course; I'd like to find a load that is a little more accurate but not much more expensive. I've heard good things about the Federal Champion hollowpoint loading, and when I get time I plan to take some to the range and test it against the Xpert.

The search for the "perfect" .22 ammunition never ends!

-=[ Grant ]=-

Well, I had a nice weekend...took Friday off, went to Eastern Oregon (so capitalized because it is like a completely separate state.) The destination was my cousin's ranch, where we were to exercise our trigger fingers in decreasing the population of a local pest known as the Sage Rat (spermophilus townsendii mollis kennicott, aka "Townsend's Ground Squirrel".)

Many folks live their lives in the city and are unfamiliar with the problems ranchers face in producing the food they eat. To those who think that beef originates in the supermarket, this may seem to be a barbaric blood sport. It is anything but.

The Sage Rat is widely distributed in Eastern Oregon. They prefer to burrow in irrigated fields, and they eat green grasses. (Beginning to spot the problem?) If that's not enough, their muli-tubed burrows can be up to 100 feet long.

Imagine, now, that you're a rancher who has spent a not inconsiderable amount of money turning the desert into an oasis; you've dug a deep well, bought the necessary irrigation gear, and plowed and seeded the field. Remember, you're doing all this out in the middle of nowhere, in what's known as the High Desert (and for good reason.) Your green and tender alfalfa shoots are just poking out of the soil, and you anticipate being able to easily feed your cows during the long, cold desert winter.

Along comes the sage rat, who promptly sets up shop in this wonderfully soft soil you've toiled to prepare. He meets a cute female sage rat, nature takes its course, and they are soon blessed with a litter of junior sage rats. Like all adolescents, the kids are eating machines - and they just happen to have made their home in the middle of a rodent supermarket!

You can only imagine what a large number of sage rats can do to a field; it's not unusual for a good sized field to harbor many thousands of the little critters, every one of which is bent on eating everything he can get his little incisors around.

That's not the end of the problems, though. Their burrows, which are below the root level of the alfalfa, take the irrigation water and channel it away from the plants that need it. The sage rats attract badgers, which dig huge holes in the fields, holes that can easily break a large animal's legs. They also attract the coyotes, who bring assorted problems of their own.

When you consider this, you can see why the ranchers and farmers need to control the artificially large populations of sage rats. Hence, the reason for our seven-hour drive out to my cousin's ranch.

To be continued....

-=[ Grant ]=-

I know you've always wondered: how does a jet-setting gunsmith work with all of those adoring fans hanging around? Well, I hate to disappoint you, but unless you count an overindulged rabbit, no one is hanging around waiting for me to pay them any attention!


Tyler, the spoiled rabbit

Since my shop isn't open to the public, I get to dress and arrange my environment as suits me. I usually work in sweatpants and a sweatshirt (rarely matching), over which goes my little green grocer's apron.

(You read that correctly; I have two old-fasioned green cotton grocer's aprons, which I acquired when I worked in a grocery store during high school. How long ago was that? Well, let's just say the White House refrigerators were stocked with Billy Beer!)

My shop has no windows, so I'm forced to entertain myself as best I can. I usually do so by playing music at somewhat louder-than-normal volume. One might think this would be a rock-n-roll custom, but not usually - I've been known to play Scottish dance reels, Aaron Copland, Baroque trumpet concertos, and Red Rodney at the same transducer-destroying level. (Eclectic? Hey, I was a music performance minor in college - I'm allowed!)

So if you call and I don't answer the phone, it's because I can't hear it over the noise of the shop equipment. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

-=[ Grant ]=-

This last weekend was the large wedding of one of my close relatives. Since we're known as the "Second Amendment Family", the day would not be complete without some sort of ballistic celebration. What we came up with fit the occasion perfectly.

One of my cousins handloaded some special 12ga shotgun shells with birdseed. (That's right, SEED, not SHOT!) He used a 100% cotton wadding for biodegradability, and a very small amount of powder. (We had originally thought that primers alone would be sufficient to propel the lightweight charge out of the barrel, but that proved to not be the case.) The resulting rounds sent their payload out of a vertical barrel some 25 to 30 feet, and the sound level was approximately that of a .22 Short - just enough to attract attention but not so much that anyone's hearing would be in jeopardy.

After thoroughly checking the shotguns for non-approved ammo, and making sure that no one had any such ammunition on their person, our little Matrimony Militia (a grand total of 4 people) met the happy couple at the entrance of the reception area. We announced them, and (with the best military precision that a bunch of civilians could muster) fired our rounds straight into the air - muzzles held high, well above anyone's head, of course.

The effect was perfect - the birdseed rained down and thoroughly covered the bride and groom, who were surprised and greatly amused at their "shotgun wedding." Their photographer even stifled her laughter enough to thoroughly document the prank, and I'm quite certain that this was a first for her too!

If you are moved to try this, remember SAFETY FIRST. We made sure that everyone involved behaved in a safe manner, from the loading of the rounds to the storage of arms afterwards. The rounds were completely biodegradable (save for the hulls, naturally) and we made sure that all of the standard safety rules were obeyed. Of course, this was well before the bar was opened and absolutely no alcohol was permitted until after the arms were stored in locked trunks. (The fact that this event was held outdoors on private property made the whole thing possible. DO NOT try this at a church or indoors!)

-=[ Grant ]=-