Spot shoots started

It wasn't too bad out today. It only made it to about 60 degrees overcast and misty. Not as many people showed up as I would have expected. Someone said the paper didn't run the  ad on time. I managed to get half my work hours in today, and met up with some of the guys I shoot with. It's a pretty good time. They supply free soup and beverages for the workers and shooters. They have .22 shoots for the kids as well. They use bird shot in the .22s making it possible for even the little tots to win. Wednesday is our monthly meeting. Counting down to vacation. Only two more weeks.

Almost March

Spring is just about here. Tomorrow is a gun show, then off to the club to get some work hours in. Throw some guns in the car, and make it a great afternoon at the range. Met up with some of the guys that shoot at the cowboy shoots last week. Try to line up with some of them and go hurt some of the metal bad guys. Still haven't shot my new shotguns yet. Hope to break them in tomorrow. The lever action one is definitely different. The one guy was talking about bringing out some of his flintlocks and muzzleloaders. My brother loaned me his black powder navy colt that I would like to take and shoot. I have the Uberti version in .38 caliber. I need to make a new site for the black powder one. I have the material and I can use the Uberti to get the correct size and shape.The spot shoots start on Sunday at the club. It is suppose to be almost 70, so it will definitely be nicer than the last shoot I worked when it was snowing on the range.
I finally received the wiring harness for under the hood on the Mustang. Should have it in while I am on vacation. Only two more weeks. I lined it up for the Indy 1500 gun show. Managed  to get the Monday after the show off too. If I find something too good to pass up, I can take it out and play on Monday. A couple weeks after Indy is the spring time machine gun shoot. I may try to take a vacation day so I can get a hotel out near it this time. I would like to hit the Patton museum while I am out there. It would allow me time to see the after dark shoot where the helicopter comes around and blows stuff up in the pit. It really is a totally fun experience. I have to go at least once a year. They have it in April and October. It is a huge gun show with military stuff everywhere. Flamethrowers to rent, machine guns to rent, helicopter rides with machine guns inside. Only in America.

Range day number two

Went back to the club today and talked to some of the guys that run the cowboy shoots. I like to go there during the week and shoot the targets for fun. I did get some tips on the loads they run. You can use any caliber as long as it is not jacketed. I talked to them about what loads they were running. The commercial stuff is extremely low velocity. The guys also told me how to load for the lever action. It is suppose to feed .38, but misfeeds regularly. They said the easiest fix is to do a .38 load  in .357 brass. I was hoping on being able to use the .38 ammo so as to have one caliber that would feed the pistols and rifle as opposed to two different lengths. They have a really nice setup down there. I told them I would help work at the next shoot. It will get some of my work hours in and I can check it out at the same time. What is really nice is they don't force you to wear the cowboy outfit or recite something before you shoot. They don't want baseball hats and tennis shoes, but you don't need a cowboy hat or any other oddities to shoot. They say just come out and have fun. They have set ups where you shoot a pistol stage followed by rifle and some have a shotgun shoot at the end. There are several events running side by side. Very impressive setup. One building I thought was just used for signing up for the different shoots is actually a lounge area with a stove and coffee to keep warm as well as seating to relax. They did a nice job on it. It looks like something you would see in an old western on the outside as well as the inside. I have never used muzzle loaders, so one of the guys said he would bring some of his out and we can play around with them some time. He wants to see my lever action shotgun. He has seen pictures, but has never got to shoot one before. Says he has a variety of old flintlocks he will bring out too. Sounds like a great time. Most of the time I go out there, I spend more time talking with people than shooting, but that is a fun in itself. Might get some coupons to the Indy show. One of the guys that I talked to said he went to Indy a couple years ago, and they keep mailing him dollar off coupons for entry to the show, and he doesn't go. Said he will try remember to throw some in the truck for me. I told him about the Louisville show next weekend. Don't know if they will go or not. It would make the drive more enjoyable.
Went over to the archery area and it looks like they finished the stand. Suppose to be putting in 3d targets as well. They are making the parking lot a lot bigger and putting in stone so it should be less muddy getting in and out of there. I may go back out tomorrow after work if the weather holds out. It was in the mid 70's today. I am enjoying it while it lasts. Hard to believe it is February. Not ready to go back to work. Having too much fun and the weather is too nice.

Range Day

Went to the club today with someone from work that wants to join and his son. After giving him the tour of the grounds, we settled in at the range. He had a nice .17 HMR rifle with a scope. I have a new toy to put on my list. It was fun and extremely accurate. You can drive nails with it at 100 yards. He told me where the new gun store is where he bought it. I was looking for it a couple weeks ago and couldn't find it.Has a goofy looking road going to it that more resembles a goat path than a road. He is suppose to have decent prices and a pretty good selection. He really enjoyed the grounds and didn't hesitate filling out the application. He brought one of his kids with. His wife was busy and couldn't make it today. Told him we can line up and bring her out some other time of her choosing. His kid was well mannered and a decent shot. Took the O3A4 out again. I managed to get the scope sited in, and the bolts loosened up on the mount again. I remembered my tools today, but still haven't put any loctite in the box. Have to locktite the bolts and start over. Tried to use the bore sighter I bought over the winter. It is the type that has a sleeve and you load like you would a bullet. Naturally the batteries died immediately, before I could even use it for the first time. Trying to find batteries for it. Have to look around for magnifying glass. I can't read the numbers on old batteries. May head back to range tomorrow and try again.  Didn't make it to the Duck's Unlimited dinner. We stayed at the range late and had dinner afterwards. It was a fun day.
I also made it to Red Ghost gunstore. I picked up powder, more primers and some lead bullets for cowboy town. Lucked out and got 500 bullets for $30. May go back and get more of them. He bought them off of a friend of his that was getting rid of his inventory. Regular price is $50, so that is a really great price. Once I get use to reloading, I may get set up to cast my own bullets as well. Want to get use to reloading first. Starting off easy with 38 specials. Been saving brass for a long time, so I should be set for a while. Need to load some .45auto as well. They shoot wild bunch matches in cowboy town, where you can use a 1911 for your pistol. I have a lot of brass for that as well, but did not think to pick up lead bullets while at store. Gives me reason to return to store during week.
Rossi lever action rifle doesn't feed well. I bought it new last year, or the year before. They need to work on their quality control. They should be embarrassed letting a product go to market with all the mill marks and burrs. I will take it apart and deburr the ramp area so that it will feed without the bullets The Louisville one is suppose to have the nations largest military gun show going on at the same time. Have to see if I am ambitious enough to drive it or not.
Have to see what I feel like doing tomorrow. Don't know if I want to work on Mustang, start reloading, or go to the range again. I am definitely checking out the new gunstore in the morning. Wish I could have gone to the gunshow with my brother and Og today. Rumor has it Brigid is in their neck of the woods as well.

Nice weather still holding

Finally the weekend. One of the managers at work wants to join the club I belong to, so I am going to take him and his son out there tomorrow to check it out. He helped get my brother an interview down here and is a really nice guy. Does a lot with his family. Was suppose to bring his wife out, but she had to work. He bought her a gun for Christmas. If he likes the club, I 'll get his application turned in. The spot shoots start next weekend. Should be a lot warmer than the last one I worked. Weather forecast is still looking unbelievably great for February. It was almost 70 today and suppose to be in the 60's for the weekend.

Tomorrow evening, Ducks Unlimited is having their raffle and dinner at the local 4H complex. Suppose to meet up with some of the guys from work and get to meet some of the spouses. Should be a good time. I went to the Friends of the NRA last year and had a great time. This sounds similar as far as the raffle part. Sometimes I bump into some of the neighbors and/or club members at these functions.

Got the Vette started yesterday. I will start it up and let her run for a while tomorrow. Needs the dust washed off. May go by the car wash tomorrow. Not really warm enough for me to wash the car with the hose in the driveway yet. I want to pick up some paint while I am out tomorrow and throw a coat on the garage walls when the weather warms up. Can't wait for vacation. Three more weeks. Not really going anywhere. Just want to get some work done on the car and hopefully the Mustang drivable. Hope everyone has a nice weekend and the weather holds.

Taste of spring

It actually broke 70 degrees today. On the way home, the thermometer read 71 degrees. Forecasting nice for forseeable future. Went out in the garage and put the charger on the Vette and aired up the tires. Crawled under the mustang to check on where I left off in the fall. Dug out my range gear and got the truck all ready for later in week. Hopefully get the vette roadworthy tomorrow so I can pull it out and start work on the mustang again. Hope to get the floor pan welded in this weekend if I remember to get the tank for the welder. Once floor is welded in place, I can lay on it to pull the clutch pedal. I want to install bearings and bushings as well as install shaft for hydraulic conversion. Wiring harness should be shipped tomorrow. I wont need it for a while, but it will be one more piece in the puzzle. Three week until vacation. I want to get out and get some brass and dies for the Norwegian Krags. I want to try loading some rounds for them. Found a couple sites that have the load info for Krags. It is a lighter than normal charge. Curious to see how they load and shoot. I will stop by Red Ghost gunshop tomorrow and see if he has the supplies. Brass is probably a special order, but he should have the powder and maybe the bullets. If not, he usually gets a pretty good turn around. His prices aren't too bad. It is owned by a fellow club member, and I like to help out the little gun stores as well. He is a real nice guy. Very helpful and knowledgable.He shows up at all the meetings and helps out at alot of the shooting events. Hope everyone is enjoying the warm up and hope it lasts for the weekend.

Gun show revisited

Went back to the show today after researching some of the rifles I was interested in. The Swiss K31 was still there, but instead of lowering the price, he had raised the price overnight. The guy that had the one for $250 had done so as well. The one for $250 was gone before I left. I already own one, so I wasn't really interested in that one. The one for $500 that had good wood and finish is now $550. He did have fancy new price stickers on his guns, so he must have figured the new stickers raised the value of the gun : )  .  I will see if he gets more reasonable at the next show. Went back to my buddy's table where I acquired my Garrand years ago. He had a Swedish Mauser with a bayonet that looks brand new. Unfortunately, it was spoken for before I could claim it. I did however walk away with a nice pair of Norwegian Krags. I will also be checking out a krag-jorgeson he has when he gets it back in from his buddy. It is suppose to be pristine. They also have a nice danish krag with it's original bayonet I may pick up next time. The reloader has ammo for the Norwegian, I would have to check around for the 8mm for the  danish. Suppose to go over to the sellers house in a couple weeks to check out his collection. They were telling me about a show in Louisville Kentucky that is suppose to be twice the size of the Indy 1500. They said it coincides with the annual military memorabilia show. I was told they actually break theirs down in to different sections. They have military in one section , hunting in another, knives in their own. He says to allow more than one day as show is big enough not to be able to see all in one day.

Picked up a couple rifle cases while I was there as well. The weather is beautiful. It actually hit 62 today and suppose to stick around a while. May get to go to the range after work tomorrow. I am going to go out in a little bit and get the range bag cleaned and organized. Brought my K31 in to look at yesterday. Have to dig around and find the ammo for it. I haven't had it out in a while. Went to pick up the table for reloading, and the store was insane. I will drop by there during the week.

Armory gun show.

You can tell people are worried about new gun laws again. I had to park at the end of the parking lot and just about elbow the way through the crowd. One day, it would be nice if people could figure out that if you want to look at an item, move over and look at it. Don't stand in the middle of the isle and block both directions of the isle way. The only M1a available was a synthetic stock scout and a way overpriced supermatch. I am going to call the guy from the club and order the one I have been looking for. Bumped into my buddy there that I bought my Garrand from a couple years back. His buddy has a Norwegian Krag that looks to be in great shape. The reloader there has ammo for it as well. He is suppose to be getting a Krag-Jorgesson in a couple of weeks. It is one he use to own and traded a few years back. Says he has the original bayonet for it as well as some bandoleers of ammo and an old army belt that holds ammo. Suppose to be unmolested and in pristine condition. He also has an Enfield that I have been interested in for some time now. He has quite a collection of military memorabilia. He brought out some of his nazi lugers just for display. When he gets the Krag in, he is suppose to give me a call. He invited me over to check out his collection. Getting nice out already. Suppose to be in the fifties tomorrow. A couple more weeks and the spot shoots will start up again at the club. I saw one of the nicest K31 Swiss rifles I have ever seen at today's show. The wood was absolutely perfect. The bluing and metal was flawless. It looked brand new out of the box.He wants five hundred for it, which is real high for that particular type of rifle, but it is perfect in every way. May have to head out to the range tomorrow. Be nice to get some fresh air and sunshine for a change. May mess around with the Mustang for a while as well. Vacation is only four weeks away. Hope to get my floor welded in that week and get the hydraulic clutch installed. I found a new under the hood wiring loom for $150 that I ordered from e-bay. I was having intermittent problems with the old one. Hope to have it drivable in early spring.

Parts arrived

I finally managed to locate a kit for the Mustang to convert the clutch to hydraulic. I will have to fabricate a new bracket for the slave cylinder as the kit is part of a conversion to the more modern five speed transmission. Shouldn't be hard at all. The footprint of the six cylinder leaves the clutch fork out in the open. I should be able to bolt to the flywheel housing using the flywheel housing/ engine bolt holes to secure bracket to.

The kit is pretty flexible. It comes with two reservoirs. One that can mount on the master cylinder as shown in first picture. The second one mounts on firewall or other location, and has a hose and adapter for connecting to master cylinder. I will probably go with the one that mounts to the firewall as it will be easier to watch fluid level and add as needed. It will definitely make shifting easier and neaten up under the hood area. It will also correct a fitment issue. When I installed the new z-bar, I found that the aftermarket rack and pinion steering rubs on the z-bar. The previous owner had shimmed the z-bar bracket with a stack of washers under the two bolts. This creates an alignment issue with the z-bar. It would also radically increase the wear of the nylon bushings in z-bar ends. They recommend reinforcing the firewall. I will look into that when weather gets a little warmer. May be able to purchase firewall patch panel and weld it to the existing firewall that is in good shape so as to double the thickness and not make it look like a plate welded in there. It was hard to find kit. It was popular, but the company that made it went out of business several years ago. This wasn't their only product.They were just a vintage mustang parts company that assembled a bunch of components to make this kit. Would be nice if another vendor would pick up the slack and offer a similar kit. They would probably fair well with it. Can't wait for spring. Lucked out so far and missed all the white stuff. We keep getting rain, and the snow we get usually disappears quickly (thank god). I am not a winter person. Moved down here a few years ago from Northwest Indiana. Don't miss the weather up there at all. Miss family and friends, but not the weather or traffic. Much more peaceful down here.

What was that????

That had to be the WORST half time show I have ever seen. Electric neon suits...The only brief highlight was Slash showing up, until vocals tried to accompany. At least Green Bay won. Would have been even better had one of my squares brought in a little money. Maybe next year they could get AC/DC or Nickelback. Someone who can perform and people might actually want to hear. All the negative feedback the Who got last year, this years performance makes that one look phenomenal.

Club meeting

Had a great club meet this month. Every year, when you pay dues, you receive raffle tickets where you can win one of ten guns to be given away in the February meeting. I didn't win, but one of my buddies from work won a nice AR style 22. He has been talking about buying the exact gun that he won . It is nice to know one of the winners for  a change. He has a couple kids that he does a lot with, so this will be something else they can do as a family. It really is a nice setup. I just keep the tickets for the guns, but you can also sell them to recoup the money so membership would be free. It's only $120 a year, which is extremely reasonable for all that is included. Last month, I won a couple hundred on a cash drawing, so my dues were already covered. I also met a member of the club who has a FFL license and offers amazing deals to club members. I had him price the M1A I want and he can get it a lot cheaper than I have been quoted anywhere else. I am now looking at the super match. It has an extremely comfortable stock along with alot of other accouterments. I have the papers filled out to get my own C&R license, which will be nice for getting guns shipped right to the house.All that is left to do is get the signature of the local LEO on it before mailing it off.  That will help with the collectible military rifles. But, it will be nice to have a FFL contact for new guns. He says rifles usually take only three days for shipping. Hand guns are overnight. Hope to get my office set up for reloading this week. I have the equipment, just need to get it organized.

So far so good

Hopefully the weather holds here. All we have here so far is rain. The ice is to the north and south. Been very fortunate this year, and I hope it continues. Hope everyone is fairing alright. Stay warm and safe.