He wants to ban our guns.

Since I worked for 12 hours on Sunday, I was strongly encouraged to take a day off this week. Since my wife is out of town on business, today I did the only reasonable thing - I threw a half dozen guns in the car and headed to the range!

It was a nice sunny day, temperatures around 35 degrees, with winds blowing about 20 MPH. My goal was to sight in the scope and break in the barrel on the match AR I finished a couple of months ago. I also wanted to test out some 9mm reloads I've had kicking around for a while, and just generally shoot my guns. I haven't gone shooting in an obscenely long time. (Since October!)

As is my habit, I first stopped in Cabela's to grab whatever I might need or want. In this case, I needed a 36" cleaning rod for a .22 caliber gun, as well as a set of extra high rings to mount the scope on the AR. The rod was easy; the rings left something to be desired. I really wanted a set of Leupold PRW rings, which they don't carry in store. Instead I ended up with a set of Weaver rings, which feel flimsy. For $20, they served their purpose for today, and will be relegated to inactive reserve next time I place an order with Midway (or whoever). I also grabbed some .308 brass and bullets, as well as a 10-pack of American Eagle XM33C (.50 BMG). I don't own a gun out of which to shoot these particular rounds, but I figure

• a) some day soon they'll be worth their weight in gold
• b) they may serve as sufficient motivation to acquire such a weapon
• c) it's occasionally useful to have such as props for demonstration or photography
• d) I just wanted to see .50 BMG in my ammo inventory spreadsheet.

Anyway, I got to the range, got the scope mounted (extra high rings put the scope way over the boresighter, so had to guesstimate - 8 rounds to bullseye!), and got the barrel break-in well underway. I spent a little time running up & down the 50yd range with a 16" AR, until some other folks showed up wanting to shoot there. Then I moved to the pistol range and did a little move and shoot for a few hundred rounds. I probably spent about 4 hours out there. Good times.

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Oh, I suppose I need to explain the title of this post. It refers to Cooper's color code, as in: someone pulled a gun on me today, and I was mentally prepared to shoot him (Condition Red). Everyone walked away with the correct number of holes in their body, so no foul. Quite honestly, I don't think the other guy was even aware that what he was doing was threatening.

Keep two things in mind while I tell this story. First, this story about a High Road member being killed at the range, so the killers could steal his guns. Second is the (possibly hypocritical) fact that I don't trust people to handle guns around me until they've proven through their actions that they are as conscientious of safe handling as I am.

So I'm working on getting my gun sighted in when an older gentleman (later self-identified as 70 years old) pulls up in a minivan, gets out and strikes up a conversation. Shooters being the friendly community that they are, this doesn't surprise me. He pretty quickly comes around to asking if I'm a member of the range, since it's a private club and they do try to run off non-members. Once I've passed inspection, the conversation wanders here and there, until he says he's got a "protection permit", and he suddenly pulls his hand out of his coat pocket with a little silver semi-auto in it that he starts waving around!

Up to this point, I'm cruising along in a comfortable condition yellow, standing off to his right side (think interview position). Now, I expect to see guns at the range; I don't expect to have one suddenly presented with finger on trigger. I took a step backwards and swept my jacket clear of my holster, but didn't go so far as to acquire a firing grip. It immediately pegged my "Oh shit" meter - the thought in my head was "if that comes my way I'm killing him". I'm actually a little surprised at how calm and rational it seemed.

The guy didn't seem to notice my action, and continued to ramble on about how he doesn't trust semi-autos because they jam, and don't have hammers, but he carries this anyway, but doesn't keep a round in the chamber because it's not safe. He dropped the pistol back in his coat pocket, and I mentally dropped back to a light orange, and began to make motions to end the conversation. He took the clue and went about his business.

In retrospect, it's clear he didn't see his actions as threatening, but he also had no grasp of proper range etiquette - I had a bunch of hardware spread out on the bench, and he just wanted to show off his. It's also clear that he didn't understand that I saw his actions as threatening and had just become much more dangerous myself, which means HE was in condition white.

Could I have dealt with it better? Absolutely - a firm command to drop the weapon (or put it away?) may have been called for in the moment, although in hindsight it seems foolish and inflammatory. The idea of reprimanding and lecturing a man over twice my age on range safety seems beyond arrogant. Asking that he put it away because he's making me "feel uncomfortable" makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. How would you all have handled it?

Back in the end of October, I placed an order with MRE Depot. It's a great place to do business. One of the things I picked up was a sample pack of Grandma Werling products. Here's a little AAR for you.

I popped open a can of the pork a few weeks ago. Nuked it, dumped it on a couple pieces of bread, and dug in. Flavor and consistency were excellent. A lot of salt taste to it, not surprising considering it's canned meat. I enjoyed it, and would purchase in case quantities next time. If you're looking for a little post-Apocalypse flavor, but aren't ready for long pork, give this stuff a whirl.

Tonight I decided to try the beef and gravy. I popped open the can, and was greeted by a less than pleasant smell. I was staring at something less than Alpo. I've actually seen dog food that looked and smelled more appealing. That fact not withstanding, I warmed it in the microwave, and dumped it on some bread. It didn't smell any better warm, and I was beginning to doubt my ability to eat it. Still, I took a bite. Now, I like a rare steak. However, canned meat should not be anything less than well done in my opinion. Yet, this chunk of beef-like product was a nice pink medium rare inside. The taste was as expected based on the smell. Folks, I wouldn't feed this stuff to my dogs.

So in summary, BBQ Pork good, Beef and Gravy not good.

I had a couple minutes downtime today to work on a small home security project I've been meaning to do for a while now.

On the right are the screws that were holding my exterior door hinges and lock strike plates to the house. On the left are screws similar to those that now serve that purpose. For reference, they are 3 inches long.

So what, you say? Let's take a look at how a door frame is generally built.

It's a little hard to make out, but the heads of the screws are about flush with the door frame, where they would be installed in a hinge or strike plate. Note that the short screw just penetrates the half-inch door frame member, which is backed by a small void. The longer screw penetrates through the door frame, through the gap, and well into the jack studs beyond.

This minor improvement only cost about 50 screws and 20 minutes of my time. It should make the door a little more resistant to being forced open. How resistant? It will probably now take three kicks to break open, instead of just one. I've probably gained myself about 5 seconds against a forced entry home invasion.

If that's time used to move to concealment, or to grab a rifle, or even just to wake up, then it's 5 very important seconds.

(This project is very easy to do - just change one screw at a time!)

Do you know how to tell when the economy has gone to hell?

When the illegals start crossing the border, back into Mexico.

Can't make this stuff up, folks.

Almost made it through this weekend without a post. My excuse is the same as the past several: I'm remodeling. I've pulled some pictures from the camera to show I'm not making it up.

First, this is how the room looked on the day we bought the house. It hadn't changed at all before I started a month ago, except that the dog moves around some.

I started by tearing down the paneling to expose the ruined plaster. That big cutout spot was hidden behind the paneling - I can't figure out what might have been there. The closet runs almost the entire width of that wall (10 feet), but is accessed by that tiny 24 inch door on the right.

Then I pulled the plaster down to expose the studs and ancient wiring. The plaster, paneling, and carpet filled a 10 cubic yard dumpster. You'll note I ripped down most of the closet wall and rebuilt it to accommodate a sixty inch double door - making closet access MUCH better.

Last weekend, I removed all of the electrical that had been in this room (old two conductor rubber / cloth insulated stuff), and replaced it with proper Romex. It originally had just 2 ungrounded outlets. I replaced them with 4 modern outlets on a new 15-amp circuit, plus an independent 20-amp circuit near the window for an air conditioner, plus a 240-volt circuit for an electric baseboard heater to supplement the undersized house system.

Today I finished all of the electrical work that can be done before sheetrock, and put in half of the insulation. I should be able to get the sheetrock started next weekend!

And finally, some of the new tools (christmas gifts) I've acquired to help the process along:

Posting will probably continue to be light until I get this done. I'm up against a hard deadline on it, before the new occupant moves in...