Handguns

Long guns

We headed to the indoor range today for our regular target practice. Upon arrival, we found the parking lot full and we had to park on the street across from the range. The crowded lot and street was due to a group using the training room at the range. We got our gear ready, went into the range and found an open lane right away. In fact it didn’t get crowded until halfway through our session.

Today we brought the 9mm handguns (Glock 26 and S&W 908s) and Damsel’s S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver. Since we scored some 9mm and .357 ammo a couple weeks ago, we decided to bring both calibers today. We also brought the shotguns, a Remington 880 20 gauge and the Remington 12 gauge security gun.

Shooting was fun today. We dispensed about 150 rounds total of 9mm ammo through the Glock and S&W. Both guns performed flawlessly, which is more than I can say about the shooter (speaking for myself). We weren’t all that bad today, but since this is the first time in weeks we shot the revolver and the 9mm pistols, our rustiness was showing.

As for the shotguns, we had fun sending 25 rounds each, of 12 and 20 gauge, into the silhouette targets. We went through all three targets we took into the range, shooting 2 of them down completely and perforating the last one pretty good.

Availability of ammo seemed to be improving at the range. As far as the local sporting goods outlets, not so much. One thing is for sure, the prices are up considerably for both factory new and reloads at the range. I managed to get a rain check on some 9mm ammo at the bargain price from the sporting goods shop - if it ever gets delivered to them, I’ll be able to get a couple hundred rounds at a good price.

Damsel and I generally prepare a dinner meal both on Saturday and on Sunday. Today, the entree consisted of grilled pork tenderloin with Jack Daniels sauce, braised Brussels sprouts with bacon bits, acorn squash and candy apple baby carrots.

We start with the squash cut in half and seeded with butter and pepper wrapped in foil. I preheated the grill with the cover closed to 400°F. The squash goes on the shelf in the grill for 45 minutes.

We coat the pork tenderloin with gourmet mustard and coarse black pepper. Then it gets wrapped in foil and joins the squash on the shelf for 30 minutes. After the squash have heated for 45 minutes with the tenderloin for the last 30 minutes, remove the squash and set aside leaving them in the foil. Turn the grill on high, unwrap the tenderloin and grill it for an additional five minutes per side.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Damsel prepares a sauce consisting half and half bourbon and maple syrup. The sauce gets reduced over low heat while the grill is going. She also rendered the bacon bits until brown, adding minced garlic and onion until translucent. Then she adds the sprouts (quartered) for another ten minutes or so. On the other burner she cooked some baby carrots in apple juice.

The tenderloin gets cut into medallions a quarter inch thick and the squash get scooped out of the skins. Serve up the carrots, sprouts, squash and pork topped with the Jack sauce. This meal is really great. Everything compliments everything else. MMMM good.

Tomorrow - beef Stroganoff over noodles.

Anybody else get one of these? It’s called “The American Community Survey” and it landed in my in basket this afternoon. Click on the image to enlarge.

Briefly, it asks questions about mental health, the number of bathrooms in your home, what language you speak and read, and a couple dozen pages filled with more “none of your freakin’ business” questions.

I got a similar mailing a few weeks ago and round-filed it, after shredding, of course.

According to Wikipedia

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a project of the U.S. Census Bureau that replaces the long form in the decennial census. It is an ongoing statistical survey, and thus more current than information obtained by the long form. Many Americans found filling out the long form to be burdensome and intrusive, and its unpopularity was a factor in the declining response rate to the decennial census. In 1995, the Bureau began a process to change the means of demographic, housing, social, and economic information from the census long form to the ACS. Testing began in 1996, and the ACS program began producing test data in 2000, 2001, and 2002. The full program is expected to be implemented by 2010.

Wikipedia goes on to make the following claim (emphasis mine):

The Department of Commerce claims that those who receive a survey form are required to provide answers to a long list of questions about themselves and their families, including their profession, how much money they earn, their source of health insurance, their preferred mode of transportation to and from work, and the amount of money they pay for housing and utilities. Those who decline to answer these questions may receive follow-up phone calls and/or visits to their homes from Census Bureau personnel, and are threatened with prosecution and fines. No person has ever been charged with a crime for refusing to answer the ACS survey, which several US Representatives have challenged as unauthorized by the census act and violative of the Right to Financial Privacy Act.

I’m not sure how I want to handle this. One thing is for sure I would sign a petition against this crap - like this one: Stop the ACS Petition.

We saw a lot of beautiful spring cactus flowers while visiting Arizona and the California Desert. We published pictures of some of the most beautiful flowers we saw in the desert but yesterday and today in our own patio there were some flowers that are arguably just as beautiful in their own way. Take, for example, this ‘Rose Quartz’ cactus flower.

This cactus is a cross between a ‘Peanut Cactus’ and something called ‘Lobvia’ according to the tag on the little pot. These are native to mountainous regions in South America, but they seem to like it here too. Click on the image to maxmagnificate.

We didn’t get to post our range report earlier due to the holiday and other events. We also took a trip to the Botanic Garden after shooting Sunday. Finally, I can get the record up to date.

We went shopping for ammunition on Saturday and found plenty of shotgun target rounds, both 12 and 20 gauge. We also found some .45 ACP ammo; we got 200 rounds for about $23 per box. The UMC rounds were a dollar off the regular price at the local sporting goods store. Other ammo was sparse and there were only 400 rounds of .45 left on the shelf when we got to the counter. We also bought 100 rounds of UMC .357 magnum.

On Sunday, we got another 100 rounds of .45 at the range where they still have the ‘buy it here and shoot it here’ rule in effect - no ammo to go. We also scored 100 rounds of 9mm which went into the range, but stayed in the bag. In essence, we’re not breaking the rule since we’re going to shoot the 9mm next weekend. We didn’t have the 9mm pistols with us.

The shooting was fun. I had a pretty good grouping with the Glock 30 .45 pistol - all ten rounds inside the zone. Damsel also shot 50 rounds with her Warthog. There was one stovepipe, and she thinks she had a solid grip on the pistol when it happened, so it remains unexplained.

After we finished with the pistols, we shot large silhouette with our shotguns. Damsel sent five rounds downrange in about 3 seconds with her 20 gauge Remington. When she finished, some cops that were in the range shooting came over from their booth to express amazement at how this girl performs with her shotgun. I took a video (above) of her first shotgun series just before the guys came over.

We sure enjoyed our trip to the NRA and our little mini-vacation this month. We drove a rented motorhome from our home in southwestern Los Angeles County to Blythe, California and camped there the first night out. The next day, we drove to Phoenix and checked into the Desert’s Edge RV Park, near Deer Valley.

While the Phoenix RV Park may have been at the ‘Desert’s Edge’ at one time, the sprawling development puts it more in suburbia than at the edge of the wilderness. The campground sits a quarter mile from Interstate 17 and is in the heart of an industrial area.

Regardless of it’s suburban location, the Phoenix campground was nicely equipped and fairly quiet. The people were nice and we enjoyed staying there.

We camped in Wickenburg, Arizona, after three nights in Phoenix. The “Horsepitality” RV campground sits in a little hollow; the grounds are set up like a little western town and the mood is rustic and serene. There are stables set up for itinerant equine campers, too. The evening we were there, Damsel stepped out of the RV to capture these colors of a Wickenburg Sunset. Click on the image to enlarge.

After Wickenburg, it was time to head back to California, but we planned a stay in Twentynine Palms and a tour of Joshua Tree National Park before heading back home.

It was a great trip.

Yesterday, we attended a bonsai show and sale at the South Coast Botanic Garden. Naturally, after viewing the exhibits at the show, we took our usual stroll through the gardens. We always enjoy the cactus and succulent garden, but it is especially nice this time of year when many varieties are in bloom.

I paused at this South African Euphorbia ledienii to photograph the tiny yellow flowers covering the crown. Just as I did so, a honey bee decided to sample some of the succulent nectar from the tiny yellow buds. Click on the image to enlarge.

Many in the USA celebrate this holiday as the beginning of the summer season and our household is no exception. We are in the midst of a barbecue weekend and are enjoying it all. But we are also thinking about our fallen heroes in all disciplines of public service, be it first responders, law enforcement and most importantly, our men and women who gave their all in military service. God bless them all.

Our centerpiece this weekend is this patriotic bouquet. Click image to enlarge.