FML

Well, it’s been six months since I felt the need to jostle the tip jar suggestively with my elbow while wiping down the VFTP bar top here.

A sudden work trip popped up at the end of this month (and you’ll get the details here at View From the Porch as soon as I’m free to release them) but it’s one of those ones where the public relations agency handling things is like “…and be sure to save your receipts and we’ll reimburse them!”

Now, they’re handling airfare and a hotel and whatnot, but when I read things like that, I’m like “Dude, I’m a freelance writer. Reimbursement of expenses is nice, but I can’t just poop out a thousand bucks on command!”

If you’ve just found a twenty in the sofa cushions and can’t figure out where to spend it, the tip jar in the side bar would be much appreciated!

Le Sigh

Well, I’m sitting here trying to work on a pistol test and I’m going to have to dip into my personal ammo stash way more deeply than I expected.

I can’t talk about the pistol itself for…glances at calendar…another couple weeks, but needs must when the devil drives.

If you’ve felt like tossing a couple bucks into the “Starving Artist Ammo Fund” jar there in the sidebar, now would be a dandy time.

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Over the Horizon

I cordially detest e-begging, but with an 1800-mile round trip looming this weekend in an increasingly aged car, and gas prices being what they are, I am breaking tradition to mention that I sure would be grateful for anything that hit the tip jar in the next couple days. 

A bit of fiscal cushion always makes a trip like that less stressful, knowing that an extra night in a motel on the road or a tire blowing out won't be a financial catastrophe on a freelance writer's budget.

Thanks!

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Coincidence and Karma

A couple weeks ago I was driving to the gun store, listening to NPR, like ya do. I'd turned on the car in the middle of an interview on All IN, and it was quickly apparent that the interviewee was a veteran JSOC dude, and it sounded like he was pitching a book.

The interview was interesting enough that I wound up sitting there in the parking lot at Indy Arms for five minutes or so, waiting for the commercial break so I could hear the announcer give the old  "...we have to go to break, but we'll be back with more from..." because I wanted to read this dude's book, whoever he was.

The interviewee turned out to be CSM(R) Tom Satterly, touring to promote his book, All Secure: A Special Operations Soldier's Fight to Survive on the Battlefield and the Homefront. I purchased it the next day on Kindle and finished it in three sittings. Definitely a recommended read.

The coincidence part comes from a Facebook message I got from a friend just a couple days after finishing the book, leading me to this post, and this fundraiser:

Giving Back, LLC is a veteran-founded organization dedicated to providing top quality hunting and outdoor recreational opportunities for our heroes in uniform and their families. I have negotiated a lease for approximately 1000 acres in SW Virginia, however, in the process of getting everything to this point, it has depleted all of my available financial resources. Now it is up to me to provide equipment and management services for the property, and this is where the GoFundMe campaign comes in. I’ve been able to fund everything to date on my own, but this last little hurdle is standing in my way, and one we need to get over in order to make this dream a reality. 

In order for this lease to provide the type of outdoor recreational activities worthwhile for the therapeutic and cognitive rehabilitation we desire to provide, it will require equipment and substantial work to create an atmosphere conducive to supporting such important mental health therapies. These are not simple “feel good” things, or “fun activities” for our heroes, but merely the vessel by which meaningful healing can and does take place. We pride ourselves in being able to accommodate any disability, in conjunction with our partner organizations, in order to include every member of every family participating in an event. 

This property and project will be self-sustaining in terms of funding, if we can get through this next critical phase. This isn’t just a feel good thing to do, but something with real results that we have seen work firsthand, which is why we have partnered with veterans groups and nonprofit organizations to bring all of these resources to our men and women in uniform. After years of dealing with the horrors most of us never have to see, we help our heroes return to a sense of normalcy using proven therapeutic modalities, and by incorporating licensed mental health professionals at every opportunity. 

I am always happy to discuss the details of my plan with donors or potential donors so you understand exactly where each and every penny will be spent. Thank you.

Sean is legit and so is his cause. If you can help a friend, please do.
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The Smallest Minority needs our help!

Kevin Baker, author of the blog The Smallest Minority, has had a serious health issue pop up that has him in the hospital and unable to work. His loved ones have set up a GoFundMe to help defray some of the costs since he's exceeded his paid sick time already. I've already kicked in a few bucks.

Please help him if you can. He's a good dude.
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Parenting & Guns...

I am not responsible enough to have children. I'm not even responsible enough to have a dog or an aquarium. A cat or a ball python is about the level of involvement with another living creature with which I can be safely entrusted, and they don't take much involvement at all.

When a reader sent an email asking for some pointers to blogs with material covering the safe storage of guns around kids, I immediately referred them to Kathy Jackson and Melody Lauer, who are go-to sources on armed parenting.

I can't think of any dudes who have written on it more than tangentially, so if you know of any good armed parenting blogs written from the dad's point of view rather than the mom's, shoot me an email.
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Charity Gun Raffle...

A member of my extended Blogorado family is having a rough time of it in the medical bills department, so some folks are organizing a gun raffle to help defray expenses. Go check it out.
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Paging Og...

Aliens!

Can anybody decode the dimples on the underside of the BG380 slide? Paging Neanderpundit...
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Contemplating deer hunting this year.

Indiana has those weird hunting regs where you can't use proper deer rifle calibers unless you shoot them out of a pistol. So I'm looking at setting up a .243 Winchester Encore handgun and I'm wondering if anybody has some pointers for optics?

I don't have a ton of hand-rifle experience, so pistol scopes are relatively virgin territory for me. I mean, I had a Trashco on my 8 3/8" 586 once upon a time, and I generally know to stick with good name brand optics (one can rarely go far wrong picking something out of the Leupold catalog, for example), but which scope? Realistically talking sub-100yd shooting here.
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Wild, wild life...

Little digital point-'n'-shoot cameras seem to be a dying breed, largely supplanted in the snapshot department by cell phones. Our local Target, which used to keep a whole aisle of the things in stock, now only has a bare dozen or so models.

They still serve a niche with me, however. While bigger cameras like my old hand-me-down Coolpix 990 from Oleg or the newer Shower Pot SX500 have been supplanted by the DSLR for when I am Going Someplace To Take Pictures, and the really quite decent camera in the Galaxy SII suffices for I'm Someplace And, Hey!, There's A Picture!, there's still a niche for something to slip into a jacket or shirt pocket for I'm Going Someplace Where I Might Take Pictures But Maybe Not.

The digital zoom on the cellie wouldn't have sufficed for these snaps on the canal or at the Art Fair last Sunday:

Blimp

Bird

Graptemys geographica?

Moar turtles on a log. These were on the stretch of the canal between the bridge where the Monon crosses and the bridge where the hippie fell off.

I would love to find a good shirt-pocket-size camera with more than 5x zoom (and preferably with WiFi) that didn't cost a mint. This little Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W650 is the right size, being about as big as a pack of cards, but is a little weak on the zoom for candid or nature shots, being only a 5x. Suggestions?
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Help me shoot.

I've got two camera bodies, a Rebel XTi and an O.G. Digital Rebel. For lenses, I've got 18-135 and 18-55 zooms, your basic 50mm, and a 60mm macro. What would you bring to take pictures of people and guns in a trade show setting?
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Just got off the phone...

...with Farmer Frank.

He had a no kiddin' serious stroke, but he's fighting back like... well, like the kind of dude who doesn't call in sick when he leaves a chunk of finger in some farm machinery. Most of the tubes are out and he's fixing to start the serious work of rehabbing.

Between his wife realizing what was up and calling the ambo, the ambo crew getting him to the hospital quick, and the docs at the hospital being on the ball, the prognosis is good for what would otherwise have been The Big One not all that many years ago.

If you're the prayin' type, keep praying as he goes through the grind of recovering from this mess. If you're not the praying type, then think positive thoughts or stick voodoo dolls or whatever is your equivalent.

Thank you.
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So, who's up for some fancy learnin'?

Come the NRA Annual Meeting here in town, the legendary Ambulance Driver is looking to put together:

"...a little first aid class targeted for shooters, on CPR, self-care and first aid for gunshot wounds? Course would probably be less than 4 hours, and cost around $30-40, mostly for the cost of a blowout kit I'm trying to put together small enough to fit in a range bag."

I'm totally down for that because learning stuff rocks, but my organizational skills are legendary for their non-existence.

Any fellow denizens of Hoosieropolis have an idea for a venue? 
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Travel check...

Weather and road condition check: Anybody along the I-75/I-64/I-65 route between Knoxville and Indianapolis?

Thanks!

Help a brother out...

Over at When The Balloon Goes Up!, they're trying to put together some data on CCW gun choices that can be used to help newcomers with the process of carry gun selection. There's a little survey about your choice of carry gat. It's anonymous, and it took me less than a minute to fill in just now.

Because I hates me some cancer...

...I'm all about supporting people who are working to make it go away.

This month is, of course, Kilted To Kick Cancer month; while I have not yet thrown my support behind any one team, feel free to get all hipster and get behind the winner before it's cool!

Additionally, ToddG at pistol-training.com, who really really hates him some cancer, has a fund-raiser going to support the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Thanks, y'all!

Today was a good day...

Another good day at the range...

Shootin' Buddy took up reloading again during the current ammo shortage. His 230gr LRN reloads have been running well so far, at least until today, when this malf popped up a dozen times or so.

The malf happened in both his Les Baer TRS and this Springfield Lightweight Loaded maybe ten times today, total. Both guns were using Baer mags. The only thing in common was the ammo and the nature of the malf. To my eye, it looks like the rim wasn't making it under the extractor claw, but I can't think what factor in reloaded ammo would cause that across two different guns. Any of you twenty-pound-brain reloading gurus, feel free to chime in...

O HAI!

Woke up early and pedaled down to 49th & Penn to meet Shootin' Buddy for brekkie at Cafe Pretenchou.

Fruit and bacon.

Putting a few miles under the tires at the crack of dawn was good for the cardiovascular system, but it has purged my head of creative content for some reason.

Have you seen this? That's creative. And for a good cause, too.

I did not come anywhere near getting run over this morning, which is good. The other day I almost got cleaned off my bike in a crosswalk by a left turner. He was too busy chatting on the cell phone to pay attention to his surroundings, and the bell on the bike is not loud enough to warn vehicular traffic. He missed the front tire by less than five feet.

Hey, does anybody have any advice on a good-yet-reasonably-priced Canon EF or EF-S macro lens for taking pictures of objects no larger than a handgun, and which would be good for photographing rollmarks or cartridges or small stuff like that?

Actual blogging will resume shortly...

AR Bleg.

I need an AR upper. I know I want a 16" flat-top with a midlength handguard and a fixed front sight, and I want something that's not going to puke if I stuff a case of ammo through it in one weekend. But other than that, I don't have many hard-and-fast specs in mind.

I'd love me a DD or BCM, but I'm torn between that and screwing one together using good parts on my own. Thoughts? Suggestions? Sources for good deals?

Also, I'm debating a .300BLK or 6.8SPC carbine barrel assembly (or barrel & BCG in the case of the latter) for my MGA switch-barrel upper, but that could be another thread.


(In accordance with all requests for firearms input on the intertubes, somebody please remember to say "Get a Glock" within the first eight posts.)

Raffle for a good cause.

Carteach0 is holding a raffle to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project with fabulous gun-related prizes: Holsters, lasers, AR mags, cleaning gear!

There's even jewelry and other stuff and tchotckes if, for some bizarre reason, you don't like guns and you're reading this blog anyway.

You should enter. It would make you happy.