Indy 1500 weekend coming up

Hopefully off this weekend. The Indy gun show is coming up this weekend, and I hope to be there. Work is busy, but there is a slim chance I won't make the Saturday list. It is a bit of a drive, but well worth the trip. Been getting the chores done during the week after work so hopefully, if I am off, I can go enjoy the show and not fall behind. Next week, the NCOWS are coming to the club for their annual shoot. It is really something to see. They set up old cavalry style tents and camp out for the whole week. All the NCOW members stay in the 1800's garb. I hope to get out there while the shoots are still going, so I can get some pictures and video of the events.

Wishing everyone a great memorial day

I took Friday off as a personal day just to lengthen the weekend a bit more. It sure is nice to relax a little bit. I took advantage of some of the time and converted some of my families old slides into digital images.

I came across this old picture of my dad on the USS Shangilla where he served in his younger days. It had some other pictures of the aircraft carrier. I haven't seen the slides since we were really little kids, so looking at the pictures now is like seeing them for the first time.

It has some of the old military pictures, but there were hundreds of pictures of relatives from before I was even thought of. It is really interesting seeing pictures from long ago. I will have to burn a CD for my brother and send it off to him. There are a lot of pics of my mom and dad while they were still dating. Old black and white photos of when we were little kids.Slides are a bit old, so have to clean them up a bit with photoshop. Hope everyone has a nice memorial day.

Nice gun show

The 4H show was getting pretty lame, but it has added quite a few new vendors and is a really nice show again. They have several vendors that have a lot of militaria. One vendor has books and models, which was different. I picked up some interesting books. I mostly read from my kindle nowadays, but he had a good book on Browning and another one on the Civil war. They had a lot of bayonets at several different tables, which is unusual at this location. Wasn't quite as packed as the last few shows have been. Saw a Krag that was in particularly rough shape, but then again, if I were 114 years old, I would look pretty rough too. One guy had an extensive collection of historical rifle scopes on display. Quite a few of the vendors had collections that were not for sale out on display. It is too bad they don't allow picture taking at this location as some of the displays were very interesting. I hit Best Buy afterwards. They have some good dvd's on sale. Picked up Flags of our Fathers, Patton and the Alien anthology at really cheap prices. Flags of our Fathers was excellent and I haven't seen it since it was at the theater. Clint did a very good job on this film. It was a short weekend, but I am hoping on a three day weekend next week. Only time will tell. Made spaghetti and now it is time to chill and watch a movie. Back to work tomorrow, but if it goes as smooth as Saturday, things will be good.

Made it to the all too short weekend

Had to work today, but it went very well. Things actually ran great and the day flew by. Wound up working over a couple hours, but, it still was a good day. Tomorrow is the gun show at the local 4H center. I believe they have a motorcycle show going as well, but on that part I am not for sure. Figure on hitting the gun show in the morning, and then either hitting the range or working in the garage for a while.

Happy Birthday to me

I bought myself a nice little birthday present. Whittakers had a couple rifles I wanted to check out, so I headed down there. One of the rifles they were advertising as a Swiss M31. I figured it was a K31. Wrong. It was a K11 carbine, for $199. I have a K31 that I really like, but am always looking for it's relatives, just to have. The rifles prior to the K31 have weaker bolts, so it isn't as much wanting the older ones to shoot, as it is having the series. The numbers are all matching. I don't think they will ever be worth a whole lot, but I just like the unique design and they shoot very well.

The carbine on top is the K31 I already had with it's bolt over it. The one on the bottom is the K11 carbine with it's bolt beneath.

 Here is a closeup of the bolts. Top one is of the K31 and the bottom is the K11. This link gives better details and history to these interesting rifles as well as details of the design changes and their benefits. http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/

It was a beautiful day, and it is always a scenic ride when driving through Kentucky. I am going to have to head back again soon. I saw a Remington rolling block carbine with the saddle ring. I wanted to check what they are going for and the price is more than reasonable and it is in great shape. It was a great day off work. One of the odd perks with my company, they give you your birthday off with pay. Back to work for two more days and hopefully we will get a three day weekend after this weekend if we are lucky.

Despite the rain, it was still a great day

New targets at cowboy town. Double points for headlights. They had a combat shoot going on in the cowboy town area, so, I guess I won't be shooting cowboy town today. But, I did manage to take some pics of the new structures and improvements.

Here is their new gallows addition to the town. I like the ramp that extends out the front. It returns your brass so you don't have to dig it out of the grass.

 Rosa's cantina got a face lift as well. They are getting ready to host the NCOWS 2012 shoot. Place is looking great.

I picked up a cheap little plinker at the estate auction they had before the raffle. It's an old browning challenger. Didn't win a gun this year, but I had a good time anyway. They had a silent auction for miscellaneous items. I won some machinist tools cheap, so that was different.

 Third prize was an M1A. First prize was a 5.56 AR that came with a suppressor and the money to pay for the tax on the suppressor. Second prize was a Kel Tec shotgun. Can't think of a real reason for owning one other than it looks so freakin cool.13 rounds of 12 gage shooting goodness. If there ever was a zombie Apocalypse, this would be the gun to have ;) The show was a good time. Got to see some of my friends at the club and all was good.

It is going to be a great weekend.

Tomorrow is the friends of the NRA banquet at the club. A chance to win one of 25 guns along with a lot of other prizes. They have an estate auction before hand of a private gun collection. I may head down to Whitakers to check out a few rifles they have listed. They have an interesting Uberti pump action 45 colt rifle for sale. The price is great. They also have a few other rifles I would like to look at. Been running the Vette around the last few days. She is running fine. It handles great on the winding country roads. It is extremely hard to keep the speed down close to the speed limit. It is a blast and handles great. Thinking about taking a personal day Monday just for an extra day of fun. Work in our department is temporarily caught up and we have been working a ton of hours. I have a few personal days saved up and the weather is too nice for work. Suppose to rain Sunday, so I may load Sunday and shoot Monday. Hope to be shooting a new gun from the show, but if not, I have plenty to play with.

Looking good so far

The Saturday list is out at work, and I am not on it (so far anyway). I can actually go to the NRA banquet at the club. I can hit the range and cowboy town before it starts.Am toying with the idea of taking a personal day Friday if we are not really busy and having a nice three day weekend. We are still busy,but it looks like my department is temporarily caught up until we get some parts back from the EDM. Take advantage of the down time.

Made it out on time

I actually made it out in time to hit the poll on the way home. I can say I helped oust Lugar. Made it home after that and blew some of the cobwebs out of the Vette. It is perfect weather for cruising today. It could stay like this indefinitely. Don't need heat, don't need air conditioning. It is perfect. I don't know if things are getting back to a normal pace at work, or, this is the slight calm before the storm. I am hoping on being off this weekend so I can attend the NRA banquet at the club. I will get any prize I win whether I am there or not, but it is a lot of fun when you can attend it. I usually end up spending more money when I go, but it is enjoyable.

Cool military show-day2

Went back to drool some more. The place is awesome. It looks more like a museum than a show. The vehicles were brought by the collectors putting on the show. They are pieces of their private collections.

My buddy showed up today that I bought my garrand from. He had some more cool toys on display. He was telling me about a local machine gun shoot that he heard about. He is suppose to let me know when he hears dates. He has several machine guns. Anything from the tommy gun up to WW2 era. I want to hit the next pumpkin shoot they have. They always have a pumpkin shoot right after Halloween where they break out the machine guns and turn the pumpkins into a fine mush. He has a nice Garrand sniper rifle for sale. It comes with the shipping crate,all the paperwork, scope and accessories.

The Krag was there that I keep looking at. They have a show in the spring and one in the fall. I checked out the K31 again. It is in amazing shape. The stock and metal look new. Usually the stocks are rough just from use in service. The stock is mint as is the metal. It is all numbers matching and perfectly mint. He only wants $300 out the door. Naturally, I headed out without my checkbook. I will probably pick it up if he still has it next time. They had stuff from the revolutionary war as well. It really was a fantastic show.

Cool military show

Finally made it to the weekend. Got off of work and headed over to the military show. It was a cross between a gun show and a museum. The civil war display was there that was at last weeks antique show. They had old military jeeps, weaponry, uniforms and all sorts of memorabilia from all eras of war. It was really different. I talked to one of the guys I usually see at the armory gun show. He says they use to meet at a smaller VFW hall, but outgrew it. They put on quite a show. Lots of stuff for sale, and lots of items out just for display. Naturally I left my phone at home. May go again tomorrow to get some pictures and see if I can get the price down on a rifle I saw. It is priced reasonable, but never pay full price on a rifle. It is another K31, but in better shape than the one I have. Going to hit the club afterwards. Suppose to meet one of the guys from work at cowboy town. He is suppose to be bringing his fiance out to shoot for a while. I told him I would bring my black powder guns out as well.

One more day.................

Almost the weekend. They have a bowling pin shoot Sunday that some of the guys from work are talking about going to. I still haven't shot my new black powder revolver yet. So, it sounds like a nice day Sunday. Spot shoots are over until fall, so, may as well go burn off some ammo. Have to work tomorrow, but I am one of the fortunate few that doesn't have to work Sunday. Only an eight hour day tomorrow, so it should go quick. Have the big military gun show going on at the armory after work. They usually have some decent stuff to look at and sometimes, some deals as well.

Back in business.

They installed the rental dryer and spent most of today getting the moisture out of the lines. Getting a quote on a small dryer for our run of line feeding the grinders. Should eliminate future problems. Trying to make sure that they get a different brand than the one we have that keeps breaking down. Don't know if I can persuade them or not. Machine is back up and running fine.

Went to the club meeting after work. Only two weeks until the friends of the NRA banquet at the club. They said there will also be an estate auction of a huge private gun collection at the same banquet. Should be awesome. Have my fingers crossed on winning the safe they have chances on. Mine is full and I need to get another. A free one would be excellent, but something to go in one would be good as well. Probably have to work that day. Looks like I may have to start at 3:AM to get to the banquet on time. The second shift guy will like it as he can come in early and get off earlier. May make the Monday following the banquet a personal day as these long days are getting old quick. Only been back a few weeks, and it doesn't feel like I left. We have lost a few workers who quit and went to a new factory that is suppose to be pretty competitive with wages and benefits. People are all getting tired of working six and seven days, extended hours and no organization. There are a few more making noises of leaving. I have eighteen years in, and am hitting my breaking point on stupidity. Hours don't bother me at all. It is the stupidity and lack of organization that are wearing on me.

The donkey died

The old pack mule they are sending the new motor for the drier at work must have died. They now say our new motor should show up Thursday. I got my machine running and all was well. I had it plumbed to the dry side of the air system. Program machine, dress wheel, show sales rep the filter I need for air filter on machine. As I am showing him the filter, water specs show in separator glass. I quickly unplug the line for the scales. The glass of the main moisture filter gets foggy, then starts getting BIG drops of water in it. I have machine disconnected, and am now ready to choke someone. After checking with maintenance man, I find the old air compressor he hooked up to system and powered up to help the new compressor out was also having problems with it's drier. Trouble as in it was pumping moisture directly into compressed air lines. He informed me that we should have the part Thursday and went back to work on putting posts in parking lot to keep truck drivers from driving on grass and plants. Apparently the landscape takes precedence over the machinery that makes the money. I catch up with what passes for management and ask what you have to do to get something fixed. He was totally unaware that the air compressor still had a problem. Not a clue that it has been spewing water through the lines for a week. On the bright side, I should have a loaner drier hooked up by tonight, and hopefully, be able to get the moisture out of the lines and be up and running tomorrow. If I didn't have so many years invested, I would be out of this insane asylum. I can't understand how so many incompetent people get elevated so high that they effectively cripple a company. Not a clue as to what is going on around them. On the bright side, the truckers have some new posts to aim at. Normal company would just pave the area and be done with it.