Saturday Afternoon at the Gun Show

Older Daughter (the Appleseed instructor) is working at a gun show down the road, this weekend. Since there are far fewer demands on my time, as a newly-retired fella, I figured "What the hey!"

So I set off in Ye Olde SUV, and promptly received a text message from said daughter. That's nothing unusual, of course. She has an uncanny tendancy to begin texting me as soon as I'm behind the wheel. :)

I asked Siri to read the message to me, and then told her I'd like to reply to yon message. Whereupon the phone bricked.

(For those few who may not know, a bricked phone means one thing: your phone won't turn on in any way, shape or form, and there's nothing you can do to fix it. It is, for all intents and purposes, as useful as a brick.)  Don't blame me: I do not invent the slang ... I merely repeat it.

So I motored on, arriving shortly thereafter at the show. I had one of my Navy ballcaps on, and a challenge coin in my pocket, because ... hey, ya never know. So I approached the check-in table with wallet in hand, and the nice young lady glanced at the hat.

Please note, for purposes of this discussion, that the cap has a) the name of my ship, b) a picture of my ship, and c) my rank insignia on it.

So this chipper young lady asked, "Are you a veteran?"

Really?

Several answers flittered through my mind. "No, I just like wearing the cap" was among them, but not the only one. But I restrained myself, and admitted that yes, I am a veteran.  She said, "Someone else prepaid for the next veteran who came in, so welcome to the show!"

Coolness and groovitude. 

So after chatting with the Appleseed folks, I moved on the first vendor. He had a rack full of shooty goodness: M1A, M-1 Carbine, M14, M4, Barrett .50, in both wood and synthetic stocks. Prices were quite reasonable. But with my retirement so newly-minted, I chose to refrain.

Darn it!

So I wandered further, met another sailor (USS LaSalle during Desert Storm). We swapped a couple of quick stories, as I was in the same general part of the world nearly 20 years earlier, and moved on.

I didn't see much else which would convince me to part with the green stuff in my wallet, but enjoyed what I saw. There was a decent mix of both new and used firearms, parts, and other goodies. One fella had an 8' table covered with nothing but M1A Garand parts, hardware, stocks, and accessories including a one-piece cleaning tool. I very nearly grabbed that thing, but he wanted $30 for it, and that was a bit much for an upgrade to something I already have. 

Which reminds me: I need to fire the Garand. Starting to get the itch again. :)

There was a table of Marines in the corner by the snack bar, but they all looked considerably older than I, and deep in conversation. Last thing they needed was a young whippersnapper squid like me, nosing around. So I moved on, and came on home.


p.s. Plugging the iPhone into the computer managed to get it going again, so all is well.

Afternoon Entertainment

Older Daughter and I will drive into Anchorage in a few hours, to see Dr. Strange. She insists that the IMAX 3D presentation will be best.

I look at modern movie prices (old phart rant coming on) with a jaundiced eye: I'm remembering the 25-cent admission to the base theater in Orlando, during "A" School, and ...

Okay, that's not really fair. It was much cheaper on base than in the civilian market, outside the gates.

But $17.75 for a ticket? Wow.

The 25th of October

Our Older Daughter is (or will be) celebrating her 27th birthday today.

As a child, she enjoyed girly things, and played with Barbie dolls. These days, her birthday lists are comprised of items like ammo, shooting supplies, and Cabela's gift cards.

Sure, and it brings a tear to me eye.

* * * * *

This morning's temp was a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday. It was a sweltering 8° F. in the river valley, and rose all the way to 11 by the time I reached my office in mid-town Anchorage.

With overnight lows well below the 20-degree mark, we've rearranged the parking arrangement at home so that the three trucks with block heaters can be close to a receptacle. My wife's SUV doesn't have one, so I suspect her auto-start will be getting quite the workout in the coming months.

* * * * *

The Alaska political scene is lurching into its usual chaotic stance as the election approaches.

First, there's Joe Miller, a former GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate who defeated incumbent Lisa Murkowski in the primary election, a term ago. Then he lost to her in a well-orchestrated write-in campaign in the general election.

This year he's running as a Libertarian candidate. I've not even seen any state-wide polls, and didn't know whether he was doing well again Ms. Murkowski - until the State GOP Committee accused him of breaking campaign finance laws, yesterday. So I guess he's doing pretty well.

Alaska's Democratic Party has quietly all but abandoned its candidate for U.S. Senate, Ray Metcalfe, while some party members rally instead for independent candidate Margaret Stock.

It's a mess, politically speaking. In other words, a typical Alaskan campaign season, as the voters argue, butt heads, and ride off in all directions.

Saturday: A.M. Potpourri

Yesterday morning, it was 26°, today it's 29. AccuHunch says it will be warmer today, going all the way up to 49. Heat wave!

* * * * *

I'm not sure what our agenda is this morning, 'cause my wife hasn't told me yet. Heh. But it will include a trip to Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabela's, so there's that. Any trip that involves those two stores makes it a good one. :)

Let's see ... I'm going to mount a new, motion-activated/dusk-to-dawn light above the man-door on the garage.

We're going to blow more leaves out of the driveway. I'm convinced this round of ground cover comes from the neighbor's yards, because we certainly cleaned up ours, last week. Amirite?

There have been six car/moose collisions in the last week, and a few bears crossing the roads as well, all within a few miles of us. It's looking more and more like we'll finally have a decent (read snowy) winter this year.

Older Daughter is at a local oil-change place, and they apparently have free Wi-Fi while she waits. She's blowing up my phone with funny pictures and jokes while I'm trying to type.

The sun will be coming up behind the mountains any minute now, and melt some of the frost. I doubt the roads are slick, though; we haven't had enough sub-freezing weather to get the ground cold. Yet.

And now I hear footy-steps in the other room, so our departure is imminent.

All y'all stay safe out there, hear? Thanks for stopping by.

Under the Heading of "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

lies this weekend's tune-up of my truck.

A couple weeks ago, Older Daughter and I replaced the battery, plugs, wires, and ignition coil on her pickup. I should point out that the battery was not part of the planned tune-up; it just died.

This weekend, we did the same thing to mine ... and yep, you guessed it: my battery died, too. My first, semi-educated guess was that the slightly-hotter ignition coil just put more demand on the battery than the older unit could handle.

That was before I pulled the Ford cover off of said battery, only to find it was the original factory unit. Sure-enough ten years old. Now I'm amazed the thing lasted this long.

We still haven't got the new plug wires on mine; the wire looms ... pardon: more properly, the retainers ... are after-market, and I'm going to have to order new ones from Amazon. The old ones snap closed, but don't appear to open without cutting them in two.

The plugs we installed today are on the passenger side of the engine, and can be seen - but not reached - from the top. To actually remove and install them, I had to jack the truck up and remove the right front wheel. There's a 4.5" gap in the splash shield/wheel well whereby a person may reach through. But we wound up using a socket wrench with a 12" extension attached to a 9" extension, with a universal joint and then the spark plug socket.

Oh, and mind you don't bang your knuckles on the disk brakes while you're cranking on the wrench.

We discovered that one plug was hanging onto the side of the engine by only two or three threads. Gee, no wonder it's been idling rough ...

So now the V-6 is running more quietly and smoothly, and getting 2 mpg more now than before. I can only imagine what'll happen once I get the new wires installed.

So, all in all, not a bad day. I'm just glad we don't have to all this again for another 100,000 miles!

The Moose's Tooth & Grizzly Claws

The Moose's Tooth is a popular local pizzeria. Older Daughter is 26 today, and we're taking her there at her request to celebrate.


In local news, it seems that some grizzly bears have been causing problems in Eagle River, 15 miles north of Anchorage, and on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, here in town.

A couple of elusive, dumpster-tipping, aggressive grizzly bears have been causing problems in Eagle River and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson neighborhoods for months. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game hopes the bears will begin hibernating soon, but with a reliable food source like trash, the agency said, the animals might stay awake a lot longer.  

“These bears have developed a habit of turning over dumpsters and visiting one or two particular trash-problem areas in some Eagle River (and) Birchwood neighborhoods,” Fish and Game spokesman Ken Marsh said.

Since April, Fish and Game has responded to  “sporadic complaints” about a sow and its yearling getting into trash in a “span of neighborhoods ranging from Artillery Road to Birchwood on the west side (the JBER side) of the Glenn Highway,” according to Marsh. 

Pesky critters.  :)

Tough Night

Our older daughter's long-time pet had to be put to sleep last night. They were constant companions for nearly half her life, and it's tough. She's taking it rather hard, which is only normal.

She's a tough young lady, but has a tender heart. I don't want to be maudlin, and won't dwell on it, here. Our concern is for her right now.

There's plenty of fresh material on the sidebar, and lots of good folks have interesting, thought-provoking things to say. Check them out. :)

Thanks for stopping by, friends. I'll be back later.

Saturday & a Birthday

No, not mine.

Older Daughter is 25 today, and we're taking her out for dinner this evening. There are other gifts, of course, but still ...

She's also in training for "Shoot Boss" at Appleseed, and apparently it's a Big Deal. Very, very few female shoot bosses in that organization, and the national leadership is flying some folks up here to train her.

I can't begin to tell you how proud we are.

* * * * *

We're off to do our weekly shopping run to a few local stores. Oh - and also beginning to talk about vacation destinations for next May. It will be our 35th anniversary, and we have absolutely no idea where we want to go ... yet.

But it's early days, as they say, and the sky's the limit. :)

White Stuff

We thought there'd been a light snowfall overnight, until it got a little brighter outside. Just a heavy frost. Weather Underground continues to insist that we'll have light snow tonight.

Bring it.

* * * * *

Wife and Older Daughter are headed out for an invitation-only shopping event at a store downtown. I'll grind coffee and do some other light chores around the ol' homestead.

* * * * *

Speaking of Older Daughter, she sighted in her Garand yesterday, and put five holes into an 1 1/2" group in the bulls-eye at 100 yards on the second try. I think it's sighted in, now. :)

* * * * *

That's about all for now. Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Ringing the Steel

Older Daughter and I finally meshed our schedules, and we headed north to the Birchwood range. We hoped to get the 300 yard range, but it was already crowded at 8:00 am., so we took the 200 yard range next to it.

The collection o' shootin' irons we took along included a Mosin-Nagant, Savage Axis in .30-06, M-4 in 5.56, Weatherby Vanguard in .270 Win., and the Garand (also in .30-06, of course).

Our target was a 22"W x 19"H steel, in the traditional head-and-shoulders shape familiar to anyone who's ever seen an AQT.

Here was the set-up, looking west from the firing line:

Click to enlarge

In case you can't enlarge it, here's a bit closer view of the day-glo orange target:

Closer ...

And closer, for the older shooters (like me). And didja notice the snow on the Tordrillo Mtns, there to the west? It's a-comin'!

I decided it would be fun to start with the M1 Garand, because where's the challenge in using a scope when you can have iron sights? :)

With Daughter on the spotting scope, the first clip of eight rounds got me on the steel after making a few adjustments to the sights. Gotta love those military aperture sights! After that, I was able to get five out of eight on the steel, consistently.

One group of eight produced six hits - not expert, but respectable, I think.

I was fighting the sling a bit, as my shooting jacket is now too big, and the arm loop kept sliding toward my elbow. We'll get that worked out, next time.

The .270, with its 3x9 variable scope made things too easy, and I was five for five with that. So I went back to the Garand. (C'mon, you would have, too...)

I spotted for Daughter, and even fired one group of five shots through the Nagant. Didn't hit anything but the berm, but it's fun to shoot.

'Twas a good outing, and makes me wonder why I waited so long to do it. It's certainly not Daughter's fault: she's always ready for a range trip.

So now, this is all that remains:

A labor of love

Best Way to Spend a Saturday

Older Daughter & I made the round of our favorite stores: Cabela's, Bass Pro, and Sportsman's Warehouse.

Then we came home so I could grill some buffalo brauts. Freshly-sauteed onion and a mild cheddar cheese made excellent toppings, too.

A man could get used to this.

Presenting the Newest Appleseed "Red Hat" Instructor

My daughter receiving her promotion to Instructor on Sunday, at a range outside of Talkeetna.
The shoot boss, Wally, made the announcement.

And me? I'm just a proud papa who remembers taking her to the range for her first time, many moons ago.

The One In Which I Brag

about Older Daughter.

I've made multiple mentions of her status as an instructor-in-training with the Revolutionary War Veterans Association, otherwise known as the Appleseed Project. The good folks have taken on themselves the task of teaching American history, along with instruction in marksmanship.

Those who qualify as "rifleman" by scoring a minimum 210 points on the Army's qualification test are eligible to be instructors, if they so desire. There are four levels of training for the instructors, who wear orange hats to show their status. They participate in multiple events, teaching various aspects of firearms instruction, history, et cetera, along the way.

When they finally complete all the phases of training, and pass all the tests, they graduate to "red hat" status as full instructors, now qualified to teach others.

Guess what Older Daughter did, over the weekend?  She went from this:

to this:

We are VERY proud of her!

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho

M1, shooting mat, range bag ... good to go.

It's to the range we go, with new M1 Garand in hand.
Wish me luck!

In Which I Fuss About

used truck prices.

I took Older Daughter shopping for a used pickup again, yesterday. We visited most of the non-dealer lots in town (and there are quite a few), hoping for better prices.

After visiting many, and exiting the same, it has confirmed what I'd noticed before: 4x4 pickups cost more than SUVs of the same year, make & model. This is not logical.

On the other hand, whoever said that car prices are logical?

I suppose it's a response to market forces, insofar as gummint regulations allow any segment of the market to drive itself (no puns intended).

For example: at one place we saw a 2004 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, with over 91,000 miles, for which they were asking $11K. Next to it was a 2010 Ford Ranger XLT 2wd, marked $10K.

This being Alaska, I can understand why 4WDs are in greater demand, but still ... the price differential is jaw-dropping.

We saw this repeated time and again, everywhere we went. But you remember the old phrase, "Cash is king?"

We found an older model with low mileage, marked $8275, then marked down to $7850. Daughter offered them $6000 cash & they took it without haggling.

Blue Book price for that model is less than $5K, but given the market here, she did good. And it's exactly what she wanted.

The whole pricing structure sticks in my craw a bit, but whatcha gonna do?

Appleseed Report: Six New Riflemen!

out of 22 shooters. That's a great outcome from the past weekend's Appleseed shoot. It was also attended by Fred, the man who founded the Appleseed organization.

My older daughter, one of the instructors, linked me to this report:

Here in Chugiak, Alaska at the outstanding Birchwood Recreation & Shooting Park we have conducted 9 Appleseed Marksmanship & American Heritage Clinics since 2011.  We have had SunnySeeds, WinterSeeds, DustySeeds (10th Alaska Clinic  in Soldotna!), WindySeeds and this weekend we had a very wet RainyFREDSeed.  The weather did NOT dampen the ardor of 23 hardy Alaskans for the very best of the Fundamentals of Rifle Marksmanship & American Heritage.

This is amply illustrated by the following:
Six new Alaska Riflemen (Alaska has 40 Rifleman)
1. Matthew aka AlaskaRed
2. Adam
3. Dillon
4. Tom C.
5. Tracey
6. Josh
HUZZAH!!

Saturday morning dawned wet with Rain and stayed that way all morning.  Our initial Hits Count Red Coat course of fire found that 7 of our 20 shooters had an effective range of at least 100 yards. The end of the day would show a much better result which made the Instructor cadre very proud.

We covered a fire hose torrent of information:

Safety
The Four Safety Rules
The Six Steps of Firing the Shot
Line Commands
Sling Use
Steady Hold Factors of Prone, Seated/Kneeling & Standing Positions
How to find, adjust, and verify NPOA
Rifleman's Cadence (How to fire one accurate, well-aimed shot with every breath aka 'Rapid Fire')

Our first AQT on Sunday revealed 2 new Riflemen -- Matthew (aka Alaska Red) and Dillion .  As the AQT GRIND went on more and more were rising to the challenge as AlaskaRed & Dillon proceed to shot multiple qualifiying scores.  Adam settled into a groove and shot several good scores including (I believe)238, high for the day. Tom C. had been 'knocking on the door' since our June event and made the grade, not once, but TWICE.  WITH A BOLT ACTION RIFLE!

There are pictures from the weekend at the link, here.

Well done, folks!

Daughter's Latest Purchase

Older Daughter, the Appleseed instructor, made another purchase the other day.

Click to go bigger

They also had the 7.62x54R* ammo: 20 rds for $5. Her only addition, other than elbow grease to clean the actual grease, was to add a slip-on recoil pad. You know, just in case, she said.

She's a happy camper, and I'm a proud papa.


* Thanks, PioneerPreppy.

Happy Daughter is Happy

The ammo shortage began, last fall, shortly after Older Daughter purchased a Ruger LC9. She's been despairing at her very limited ammo supply ever since.

There has been no 9mm ammo to be found, anywhere, for six months ... until this morning. At Wally World, I just happened to walk past the sporting goods area and saw a lone Remington UMC Mega-Pack (250 rounds) for $63.97.

Not a bad price at all ... and now that box resides on her desk, awaiting her return from wherever she's gone this morning.

I suspect she'll be grinning all day.   :^)

A Good Buy on Ammo

Mel went shopping to feed her new .30-06, and found 500 rounds of milsurp for $375, in a steel ammo can.

That may not sound like such a big deal to y'all, but that stuff over-the-counter is $23/box of 20 up here. 75 cents/round is a GOOD thing.

Another Birthday, Another Rifle

Y'all will remember that we gave Samantha a .22 for her 17th birthday, two weeks ago. Our other October girl turned 23 yesterday, so of course the expectations were high.

I believe we managed just fine.

Melanie & her .30-06 boomstick

It's a Savage Axis XP. Entry-level, to be sure, but Mel's first centerfire rifle. This one has a detachable, four-round box magazine and a 3-9x40 scope.

It's just under 44" long, with a 22" barrel, and weighs 6.5 lbs unloaded. We're heading back to the Birchwood Range this weekend so she can break it in.

She's a happy camper. For that matter, so's her dad.  :^)