You Plinker!

Some say that a dinner of roast quail and venison sausage, rifle to table, helps you shoot better the next day at the range. I drove out into the Texan countryside with my philisophical pal, GWB, to find out.

We took along a couple of scoped Ruger .22s, an American and a 10/22, representing the bolt and the semi side of the rimfire world. And a couple of pistols, a Sig and a Glock, chambered for 9mm and .45. But what about the quail and venison theory of marksmanship, how did that stand up, in the real world?

If a metal kettle, a plastic Folgers container, steel plates and turkey, at 75 and 100 yards, are anything to go by, the theory holds true. Down went the opposition, with a vengeance. I claim the best pistol shot of the day, hitting the kettle at 75 yards with the Glock. Sorry, kettle, you lose. I never much liked you anyway.

Shoot over, GWB wanted to check out the land behind the range for what he calls "native Texan grasses." That excitement over, I spotted a piece of metal, shining in the hot spring sun. "Look at that, you see it, glinting in the sun?" I asked my Wittgensteinian ally, "Maybe it's a piece of UFO debris. Let's have a look."

It wasn't a bit of space junk, annoyingly, just an old air conditioner that someone had dumped. And as I reflected on the higher implications of that, a long rattlesnake uncoiled silently from beneath the rusting metal and made its way, gliding and deadly, into a nearby pipe. Moral of the story?

Quail and venison help you shoot. This is now settled science. Also, don't be a dimwit when you go for a nature ramble in Texas, it's not Devon, or the Cotswolds. Take a gun, you might need it, and be careful poking around in space junk, who knows what killers might lurk within.

Shoot straight,

LSP

The Christian Pacifist -- Dropped On Head As Infant

GWB

Some people think that Christians should be pacifists. They claim that the early church forbade its members from joining the military and that scripture does the same. So, for them, it's wrong for Christians to go to war, ever. To find out the truth, I called up the well-known linguistic philosopher, orientalist and naturalist, GWB.

"Maybe you think it's somehow 'acceptable' to wander around unarmed," I asked. 

"I'm armed to the teeth," replied my philisophical pal, "With love, and the imperative to think globally and act locally."

"Good strategy. In the land of the rainbow unicorn, and while you're at it, go right ahead and re-purpose some hemp."

A Typical Hornless Rainbow Unicorn,

But seriously, we don't live in a rainbow world of frolicking trans unicorns, despite the best efforts of our Eurolib rulers. We do live in a world that's increasingly full of bad actors, and it's our duty to defend against that. 

Any Old Iron

Christian pacifists take note. Not only are you ignorant of church history and scripture, you are also the sad victims of dropped-on-head-as-infant syndrome.

Your Friend,

LSP


With thanks to our friends at Sitka and Beretta.

Worker's Paradise

My philisophically inclined Ivy League friend and sportsman, GWB, sent in this self-portrait with the legend:

let's hunt some dove, LSP!

"Objects in the mirror are even further to the right than they appear."

Quite.

LSP

Twilight Of The Birds

Sunset over the killing fields

or

Tragic metaphor for the Anglican Communion?

Managed to get out with a gun and have a go at the birds. There weren't many flyers and I missed rather more than I hit; still, got enough for a decent dove snack tomorrow. And all that's more than fine by me because I love shooting - hit or miss - and I love getting out in the country. I find there's a freedom in it. Anyway, hope to revisit the fowling grounds on Friday for more dove and maybe a rabbit or two; saw lots this evening but held off.

On another theme, my philosopher friend GWB alerted me to Wittgenstein's contempt of Mahler; who'd have thought it? Here's what he said:

“If it is true that Mahler’s music is worthless, as I believe to be the case, then the question is what I think he ought to have done with his talent. For quite obviously it took a set of very rare talents to produce this bad music.”

I don't have a dog in the fight, so to speak, because I don't listen to the despised Mahler, but I like the quote. Just think, you could swap out 'Mahler' and 'music' for 'The Archbishop of Canterbury' and 'theology', or 'Ragsdale' and 'ethics', or 'ACORN' and... etc.

Good shooting.

LSP