Getting to The Range

There's not been a lot of shooting in LSPland lately because of our enemy, the Weather. Seriously, it's rained so much that the places I like to shoot at have been pretty much off-limits. But that's changed, at least for now, with a few days of heat and sun.

So I drove down to the range with GWB and a couple of wood stocked Ruger American .22s, a value pack of ammo and a mind set on a few hours of firearms fun. Make up for lost time, I thought to myself, and blaze away in the clean country air. Right on, get out and shoot.

Then disaster struck. Thanks to the Weather, part of a tree had fallen and was blocking the way into the range. It was a significant obstacle and there was no way it was going to move without a chainsaw and there wasn't one.

"We need a saw," said GWB, thoughtfully, and I agreed, "Yes, and there isn't one." I optimistically tried a bit of telekenesis on the fallen timber; maybe staring at the branches would shift them out of the way. No, it didn't, and then it came to me, GWB had had the foresight to bring a multitool. "What about your Leatherman?" I asked,  "That has a sawblade, a surprisingly good one."

Sure enough, the Leatherman Wave's handy saw made quick work of an offending branch and we were able to drive around the road block. Moral of the story?

Don't underestimate our enemy the Weather, it can throw some nasty punches. Also, be prepared, have the kit you need to reach your objective. Most importantly, when things go wrong you can sit there in your pajama onesie, whining into your coco as you wait for the Government to step in and save you, good luck with that. Or you can take matters into your own hands and find a solution.

That's what happened today. We cut through the wood and drove on through, to the other side.

Thanks, Leatherman Wave. You work.

LSP

Just Making a Knife

When not working feverishly to meet an urgent go-to-press deadline, I've been rather busy polishing a piece of horn. I feel the exotic horn will become two things, a knife and a bottle opener. "But how can that be, LSP?" you ask with a note of wonder. Simple. After finishing the horn with a small rasp and ever decreasing grit sandpaper, I'll cut the thing, leaving a hand-sized knife grip and a longer bottle opener section. 

Some dancing priestess goofing-off in England

I'll then bed a knife blade into the handle with epoxy and perhaps drive two rivets through handle and tine to make the blade secure. The end of a brass 20 Gauge shotgun shell should work to close off the open  butt. A similar process will sort out the bottle opener. I'm excited by this. Stay tuned.

Jesus said "no priestesses."

On a different note, random church people brought evening gifts after I'd said Mass and taught a class on John 17 -- a bottle of red wine and some cherry crumble. I ate the one and saved the other. Thanks, team.

God bless,

LSP

Get Out in the Field and Break your Gun

Drove out in the scorching, parched, doveless countryside for the customary Thursday morning ride and shoot; rode JB about for a little while but the ground is full of deep and treacherous cracks, which curtails things a bit. Still, it keeps the hand in.

Before plinking about I took the old JC Higgins 103.13 .22 (essentially a Marlin 81 - I think) down for a clean. Very important; if you don't clean your firearms they don't work, even if they're .22s. Trust me. So I cleaned the thing and it broke anyway, because a pin fell out of the trigger mechanism onto the ground. It probably fell down a crack.

Nothing daunted, I pulled out the handy "Leatherman Wave" multitool and a piece of fencing wire -- always carry both in your EDC (every day carry) loadout. That's my advice. Tools in hand I fashioned a new pin, which seemed to do the trick.

Except that it didn't because working the action simply decocked the rifle, rendering the thing useless. 10 out of 10 for in the field gunsmith ingenuity, 0 out of 10 for a working solution. Annoying.

Still, the JC Higgins is ancient, its had many thousands of rounds through it and perhaps the time has come to bite the proverbial bullet and get a new .22 for plinking and shooting the odd rabbit. The broken rifle can be fixed at leisure but in the meanwhile I think I will get an...

Entirely predictable Ruger 10/22 -- birch stock, iron sights (I like the bead front sight) semi-auto, all for the grand price of $200. Thank you, Walmart, for helping me out.

Don't lose bits of your gun down gaping cracks in the earth.

Happy Michaelmas.

LSP