NRA Annual Meeting - rubbing elbows

The 'Nuge signing books:

NRA News host Cam Edwards:

Wayne LaPierre signed the SCSon's badge holder:


Leaving convention center, we were shocked by the parking rates quoted and happy to be riding the train. Another member chimed in with another price higher than the first. Looked over to see it was Rob Leatham! I grabbed the camera to get a picture. The SCQueen asked why and I explained "This is Rob Leatham. His wife taught you to shoot! (Kippi was one of the Babes with Bullets instructors.) I think the facial expression explains the rest. IIRC, the answer was something along the lines of "Kippi is wonderful. I love her"



We also met David Hardy (Arms and the Law) at the banquet reception. Dave Kopel walked by but seemed to be on a mission.

NRA Annual Meeting - Airgun range

The SandCastle crew headed to the airgun range Saturday AM. For the most part* it was well setup with the option of paper and steel targets. The combination of a targets is perfect. The reaction of the steel targets is more fun than punching holes in paper, but the paper documents the accuracy (or lack there of).

The SCSon spent a ticket on each. The SCQueen and I both tried the Crosman. Well I thought it was a Crosman, but the model we shot does not appear on their website.

An interesting trend was noted while observing the firing line. In the 15 or 20 minutes we were there, two kids walked away wearing the safety glasses provided by the organizers. (No, I didn't see the glasses walk out the door. Rather the missing glasses were noted when the next shooter arrived.) In both cases, the kids came back and returned the glasses within a few minutes. Obviously it was not an intentional act and only noted some time after leaving the range. Now the glasses are not very valuable/desirable items, but I can think of several kids here in the neighborhood that wouldn't make the effort to return the items. At best they'd drop them in the nearest garbage can and keep on going. The kids here were obviously well schooled in doing the right thing and made the effort to return the glasses to the shooting position. Good on ya!

*"for the most part" because I really wanted to try the Gamo, but the RO supervising was more interested in talking to his friend than taking my ticket.

Dick Heller

Dick Heller dropped by the ILA Meet & Greet tonight. He was very modest about his contribution to the case. Then he asked the SCSon to work the next 50 years to protect our gun rights!

(For the benefit of those readers who are scratching their head saying "Dick Who?": Dick Heller took his case against Washington D.C.'s gun ban to the US Supreme Court (and won). It's the most important Second Amendment case to come to the court and affirmed that the 2A is an individual right, not a collective right.)

For more info, see here, and here.

Tech bleg

I'm trying to resurrect an old eMachine (T1105) for running linux and serving up LiveATC.

I believe the processor is dead. It starts and displays the eMachines logo, but never gets to the bios boot up. Also I found the processor fan had a weak connection and may not have been working. Anyway, I'm looking for a Celeron SL5XT, though other Celerons may work as well.

There are a number available on eBay for around $10 including shipping, but I thought I'd try here first. Does anyone have such a beast? Lets make a deal!

Dress Cool!

Are you coming to Phoenix this week for the NRA Convention?

DRESS COOL!
Forecast as of Sunday evening:
Forecast as of Monday evening looks a little better:
Forecast as of Tuesday evening: Friday and Saturday will be beautiful. Sunday is gonna be warm... might as well come on down to central Phoenix and let someone else pay for the air conditioning. Oh, and one more thing: a Margarita on an outdoor patio with friends will really hit the spot about 9PM. Trust me on this.
(Clipped from intellicast). Click here for current forecast.

Dress code: A hat, preferable one that covers shades the ears and loose fitting, breatheable clothing.

Shade and lots of water! There won't be a cloud in the sky and the air is hot and dry. Dehydration will set in before you realize it. Next thing you know you're feeling light headed and wondering why. (Should you start feeling light headed, get inside someplace cool and start drinking water). Shade and a water bottle will be your best friends this weekend!

Update: This is significantly above the 30 year average of 93-94F (source Weather.com)

Dang! I went to the wrong high school

Returning home from the range over the weekend, Cousin John wanted to stop by the CAF (Commerative Air Force) museum at Mesa Falcon Field. Sentimental Journey normally lives here but was up the hill in Prescott for an airshow that particular weekend. John was disappointed.

They were setting up for a prom so we only had about 10 minutes to get a quick look inside the hangar. Yes, a high school PROM in one of the coolest hangars in the country! My HS prom was at some stuffy hotel and had none of this nice scenery! Boy did I choose poorly!

Entering the venue they'd first have to walk past this pair of 3" deck guns out front:
Then the entry to the hangar would stroll past this P-51:
And once inside the hangar, several more warbirds were strategically located such as this A-26:
There was also an F4-Phantom and a MiG-21 in the back of the hangar.

If anyone has a few spare hours at the 2ABB (hah!), the museum is in the SW corner of Mesa's Falcon Field (Map here). From the NRA convention, head north and get on the I-10 east bound. Continue straight onto the loop 202 (I-10 will turn south). Take the Greenfield exit and turn south (right). The museum is 2 miles south. The parking lot entrance is on the left hand side, just prior to McKellips road. Total distance is about 22 miles. A car is probably required. The light rail will get you about half way there, not sure about public busses from there.

Good Timing

The SCQueen's favoritest cousin John was in town for business and scheduled the homebound leg to allow a weekend with this side of the family. I needed to hit the range to make my entry to this month's ePostal contest (hosted by the Conservative UAW Guy). Cousin John was only too happy to come along.

I took a number of pictures trying to capture the action. This shot happened to capture the dirt splash on the berm just right of the target frame, and the ejected cartridge a foot or so above the gun (look in the lower left leg of the 'X'). Given the delay of digital cameras and trying to guess when John would break the shot, this was lucky timing.

It's also a reminder that I need to learn how to better use the camera (A Sony DSC-H9). This was taken using the basic shooting mode. It also has modes for sport shooting that prefocuses, shortening the shutter delay (and probably speeding up the "shutter" speed). This would have been a better choice. It also has modes for shutter speed priority. I really need to learn to use these modes.