Thor’s Hall

Note to self:  When shooting from prone position, on the very hard earth for several days having elbow pads is a very good idea.

I knew this, I just forgot that part of the packing and boy was I paying for it by day 3.

Another early day and drive up from Orofino to the shooting site.  Hauling stuff up and down the stairs at the hotel got very old.  The day started out cold again, although a bit warmer than previous days.  The skys were threating a bit of precipitation but it seemed to holdoff.

With the full number of participants showing up for the event on Sunday there were a lot more folks around enjoying things, and lot more equipment to appreciate.

I wound up spotting for the first string which was okay.  I would have liked to have had a shot at the first boomer of the day but, it wasn’t that important.  My partner had a light barrel in his rifle that tended to walk as it warmed up so we were shooting his first and then letting it cool.  I got him on target fairly quickly at 380 and we had some boomers there before switching over to my turn.

Concentrated on the 380 line to get things loosend up and wound up going shoot – miss, shoot boom, shoot boom, shoot boom, shoot miss, shoot boom before looking for the hanging targets.  Turns out that they hung a handful of targets from the trees, and painted them to blend into the background.  That presented a bit more of a challenge but I managed to get one of those as well.

We spent a lot of time trying to get the 600 and 650 yd targets.  Bryan was able to connect with a couple.  I managed to snag a couple as well but either missed the explosive inside, or just did not have enough energy left in the round to detonate it.

By the end of the day I was wiped out.  I was having a hard time holding a steady position to trigger the remaining boxes, and still had a fantastic time.

The post is a bit late but better late than never.

Another cold morning to start the day.  The weather overall though was pretty good.  Winds ranging 6 to 10 which impacted the shooting but after having to remount my optics overnight (using locktite this time) I figured I was going to have to start pretty much from scratch on all my zero setting sfrom the day before.

The day ran pretty much the same as the previous day.  Picked up some pointers from MSG Hubbard and from Monte which were good.  Wound up making some modifications to my physical shooting position and the way that I was postured behind the weapon.  Using a bipod means I really did not need that front hand supporting the rifle, so I was able to adjust my entire left arm and use that hand to steady up the back end of the weapon more.

The shooting went well.  I was able to rezero the weapon very quickly, and wound up reaching out successfully on the steel to about 650 yards.   Anything beyond about 550 though got to be very challenging.

We came back into about 380 to shoot boomers and I was very pleased with my performance.  One to two shots on each.  Very comfortable with that range.

That evening was the Boomershoot Dinner met some new folks and faces.  Gene Econ was pressed into service as the guest speaker when the scheduled speaker cancelled.  He did a fine job.  I wound up having dinner with Joe Huffman and his family.  A very enjoyable time, and Barb made me feel right at home.

So, after spending yesterday winging my way across most of the United States I arrived in Orofino.  All I could keep thinking once we landed in the Northwest was how very much I miss living in this part of the country.  It has been a rejuvenating trip even with about 13 hours of travel.

But today the good stuff began.  After missing a couple of turns I arrived at the BOOMERSHOOT site for a day of relearning how to shoot a rifle at distance.  The first thing I learned, is I really had not forgotten all that much.  The second thing I learned is that laying in the prone position for a good portion of the day, on the hard, dry Idaho landscape is painful on the elbows.  The third thing I learned today is that locktite is very very important when mounting your scope.  The fourth and most important thing I learned…  detonating boomers is worth it.

The clinic was fantastic, the instruction is top notch.   You could do a precision rifle course at Thunder Ranch, Gunsite, Frontsite, etc. and I don’t know that you could exceed the quality and the knowledge of the instruction the Gene and his cohorts provide.  Everyone at the event today was fun to be around, and I think that we all learned and enjoyed.

Put the drink down and enjoy.  You’ve been warned.

A little low flying action for your day.

So, I recently wrote a post about one possible redirection of the bailout funds.   In it I tried to put some scale to the numbers that we are talking about.  Then I reposted some work that was done to help put the physical prescence of the dollars that we are talking about into context.

Today, I present to you this picture to help put things in greater context.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that his budget would cut the deficit by half by the end of his term. But as Heritage analyst Brian Riedl has pointed out, given that Obama has already helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package, pledging to halve it by 2013 is hardly ambitious. The Washington Post has a great graphic which helps put President Obama’s budget deficits in context of President Bush’s.

Having just had two wisdom teeth extracted, I really did not need to run across a jaw dropper like this one.  Holy Cow!

The Janet Napolitano was on CNN over the weekend and said the following about illegal aliens…

KING: A lot of Democrats in Congress want to you investigate him. They think he is over the line. He says he is just enforcing the law and the problem is the federal government.

NAPOLITANO: Well, you know, Sheriff Joe, he is being very political in that statement, because he knows that there aren’t enough law enforcement officers, courtrooms or jail cells in the world to do what he is saying.

What we have to do is target the real evil-doers in this business, the employers who consistently hire illegal labor, the human traffickers who are exploiting human misery.

And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil. But anyway, going after those as well.

Now admittedly there is more context to the situation and the entire interview but, the point that I want to make here is that laws are not subject to the whim of the enforcement agency.  The law is the law, and it is very clear on crossing of international borders.  Section 8 U.S.C. 1325, clearly communicates that crossing the border illegally is a crime–a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for the second and subsequent offenses.

Government in this country has a very questionable sense of morality and ethics.  We have seen this over and over again.  The question becomes, how do we oust the politicians and elect leaders?

This has been making the blogging and e-mail rounds for a while now.  But, it is always a good perspective.

A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon we’re talking real money =-)

A billion dollars…

A hundred billion dollars…

Eight hundred billion dollars….

One TRILLION dollars…

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I’d take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill, currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slightly fewer have owned them; guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet…

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere…

Next we’ll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million-million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It’s pretty surprising.

Go ahead…

Scroll down…

Ladies and gentlemen… I give you $1 trillion dollars…

Notice those pallets are double-stacked, and the little guy (That’d be you and me, the lowly taxpayer!) in the left corner is still there for “perspective.”

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “a trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about.