On a call I have nothing to do on so I've got some time to update the journal. Sunday I went to Tilley lesson #6, so I'm officially $600 into my $1000 of dedicated training spend. The results are pretty good, I'm still learning and getting better. We did some fast in close drills to focus on grip pressure and gun control, and some longer range stuff that... uh, also focused on grip pressure and gun control. The grip and everything is the same, it's just the distance that determines the speed.

Gun club meeting last night, I went to pay my dues (literally) and enjoy the first feast of the year:

Also at the meeting I sold the G43 to Jason. He really wanted one, I had one and don't carry it and since I got it in a trade it wasn't something I really wanted. Got good enough money out of it, so in the end it's probably all good.

Spent lunch cleaning out the garden box. Forgot to take pictures, but it's visible on one of the cameras so there is a before/during/after set. The woman let the goats in there the other day to eat some of the larger stuff but I pulled up the rest today, manually raked out the little stuff then tilled it. It was freezing last night (literally, there was ice on the deck this morning) but we're hoping that's the last of the cold nights because I want to plant stuff this weekend.

Got some red anodized mags for use with 300BLK. Not that I'll ever actually shoot any 300BLK, but at least now I have some different mags for them so they don't get mixed in with 556.

A picture from the last curling class, those of us that made it the 8 weeks. Looks like we lost about 1/3 of the class over the time. I can understand it's probably hard for normal people to commit to 8 weeks in a row when it's not some kid activity they're paying huge money for.

Some spring cleanup outside. First off we pulled the butterfly bushes out of the memorial area and replanted them where they'll get more sun. They were leaning way over trying to reach the sunlight, apparently they want more sun than shade, or at least the variety we got does. Hopefully they'll do OK here, it's the sunniest spot in the yard other than the garden box.

In the memorial we planted these 3 little things. They're not ground cover, but they are supposed to "take over" and spread out and provide these little purple flowers. The chick at the nursery as all worried they would spread too far in the yard. Where can they go? The big bushes all around are well established and if they spread into the lawn they're just going to get mowed down (literally) every so often. I think she's used to dealing with more manicured yards than ours.

The woman wanted another dogwood tree over by the goats so we got this little guy. I used only scrap wire to make it's little prison so it looks pretty bad, but it should keep the deer off until the thing has grown a bit.

We also replaced the one dead whatever these bushes are in the front, and made a huge "plant prison" to keep the deer off. Again, once the new plant has grown the deer can munch on it but now they would just eat the whole thing. They're kinda like that.

Michael brought these over to give me; part of the stuff they didn't want in the move. His daughter got them for him for giftmas one year and he had them up, but with the grand kid around 5 days a week they had to take them down. He can't put them up in the new house (especially with grand kid #2 they're going to have to take care of) so I ended up with them. Two things, first, they're exactly the right size to fight with (only a few inches shorter than my Kali sticks which are technically too long for me) and they're full tang and sharp. It's like they want you to try to use them. :) Second, the woman let me put them up on the wall. That's even crazier.

These were in one of the hay bails. The goats were not eating out of one of the mangers and this is why. No meat on them or anything, but they were afraid. Once the bones were removed they were happy to eat again.

Found this receipt, the first rifle I ordered with my FFL in 1993. $83 for a No 4 Enfield, delivered. Wish I had that back.

Before going to the range today, I put the garden in. I was running behind, didn't get any seeds started and wasn't sure I could plant any now so I cheated and got plants at Home Depot. Peppers, zucchini, cucumbers (for pickling) and some basil. Basic, but hopefully all this stuff produces and it's stuff we eat anyway.

The young birds have taken to sitting on this roost bar up high (48" off the ground). The old birds are too lazy to go up there anymore so the little ones can 'hide' all day without being pestered.

There is so much pollen in the air that it's starting to look like smoke from fires or something. It's swirling around like snow, building up on things, it's just crazy. Two more weeks of this they say. Oy.

A nice rain came and washed some of the pollen away, but then I got a flat tire. Related? Unknown. Got it repaired today, not sidewall or anything just a chunk of metal. Probably from the construction around work.

Picked up the fish food in preparation for the fish next week, and started feeding the fish that are already in there. They could be larger than what I'm about to add, so they might enjoy eating more too. Grow fish, grow!

On a boring ass call, taped up one of my sticks to simulate the edge of the blade. That way I can see that I'm keeping it aligned during drills and treat it like a bladed weapon and not just a stick where any edge is good enough.

The woman has been on me to get this scrap wood moved somewhere or tossed. I finally got off my butt and made my move, I built a better step for the coop. Not for the birds, but for me. I've had a cinder block sitting there making it easier to step up into the coop (it's a 24" step up which is hard when you're legs are sore from being kicked all the time) but this is even better with two smaller steps. The size is off by about 1", I had to notch that one step but it's the best I could do with the length of scraps I had.

Here is the woman taking advantage of the steps to go up into the coop late at night and put Curry up on the roost. She's the bottom bird and gets picked on and pushed off the roost and will not hop back up. She'll learn eventually, but while she's the smallest life is tough.

Hiers lent me his Kimber K6s revolver to try. Jason and I shot it with 38+p and 357 rounds. With 38 it was fine, with 357 it was too painful to shoot. I fired 2 rounds, he did 5 but that was it. Sure, you could use them if you had to, but you would not want to. We also fired it next to his early 1900s Luger. We called this the "newest of the old school" and the "oldest of the new school".

Tried to take some arty pictures of my AR before the rain came back, but it just looks like a low end AR sitting on gravel. I ain't an artist.

I got a deal on FDE Glock mags, $19.50 delivered. I was going to split these with Jason, but after I saw them I figured I should keep all 10 of the FDEs and just give him 5 of my unused black mags. I would rather have a matched set of 10 I could rotate in of one color vs. 5 of one and 5 of the other.

I took my 10 Glock mags I use all the time apart to clean them. Between the G34, the G19, the Sub2k and the PC Carbine I've got about 25k rounds through this batch which means each mag has ~2500 rounds through it. With all the steel I use, I'm starting to see some damage to the followers. Fortunately I picked up new ones for $2/each when I ordered those cheap mags so I can replace them when needed.

Match last night, and I beat Sean again. :)

We were pretty much neck and neck, neither of us beating the other by more than 0.5 seconds until stage 3. In the middle of the stage was 4 targets side by side, and this is exactly one of the drills that Tilley made me run a bunch of time. My shot cadence on the rest of the stage was pretty normal.. bang bang, bang bang, etc. When I got to this set... bang bang bang bang bang... I flew through those targets. Picked up a good couple of seconds there and on the last stage that involved a lot of transitions. Good for me!

Had to go to the mill today to get shavings for the goats. The woman didn't want cedar, and she got lucky because all they had was poplar. Very dry too, so that's good considering all the rain. This was a fresh pile today.

I've been researching budget 9mms, and picked the Taurus G2c to try. Got it locally for $220 (with 
the tithe to the state and if I get the $25 rebate they're offering now I should be just around 
$210 into this gun).

There are a bunch of other reviews out there about size, features, etc. so I'll skip that. Short 
version is that it's totally acceptable, it's like the frame from an M&P compact with the slide 
from some Ruger.

I did not do one of those "let's not clean/lube it and see if it fails" things, I actually took it 
out of the box, cleaned and checked it, properly lubed it, etc. You know, like a normal person would 
do when buying a new tool.

Here's my day 1 findings:


Good -

- appeared totally reliable, 305 rounds of mostly wolf and tula with no issues. The round count is 
weird because I started unloading mags for other guns to shoot this more. I ended up doing all my drills 
with this gun, so I shot it slow, fast, did mag changes, movement, transitions, yada yada. it got very hot.

- accurate enough. I'm not the accuracy shooter in our group and I wasn't setup to do real testing, but 
taping an ammo box up to the 10 yard plate rack got me this 10 round group shot leaning against the bench. 
none of my 25 yard misses today I attribute to the gun 'not being accurate'

- trigger is 5 pounds (vs the 6 that my glock reads on my scale) and usable. after the first few hundred 
I wasn't even noticing it until I went to take longer shots and then it was manageable. seemed comparable 
to a stock plastic gun trigger.

- they dumped the 'key security system' and it doesn't have a mag safety.

- the pinkie extension on the mags worked, gave me a spot for my last finger and didn't pinch between the 
mag and the frame

- grip texture is good. It's very much like an M&P2.0


Bad -

- the slide release is hard to hit and sharp. it's as bad as an M&P in terms of how stiff it is, and you 
could use it to cut lunch meat if you had to. obviously a cost saving measure not to refine that bit of 
metal

- the finish is poor. the sample (but new) gun in the store had all sorts of scratches/wear marks on it 
just from being fondled at the counter, I expect it won't last to any holster use. the finish has worn 
of my Glock too, so nothing is impervious but I feel this one would wear very quickly. 

- mags are around $35!


Meh -

- I dislike the mags. They fit, feed, etc just fine but I don't like the look of the followers (cheap 
looking) and I really don't like gloss finishes on mags. If they were matte like the gun I would like 
them better, but maybe the glossy stays slick and lets them not stick in the gun. I had no issues with 
seating or having them fall out, so functionally they're fine, I just think they're ugly.

- external safety. I'm a recovering 1911 guy, so it was very natural for me to seat a mag, drop the slide, 
lock the safety and holster. however, this isn't a 1911 so I just kept the safety off 950f the time and 
ran it like a glock. It's hard to put on, easy to take off which if you're going to have one is the right 
way to do it, but I would still prefer it not to be there.

- sights are adjustable, but are small and the rear is sharp. putting a set of Trijicon HDs on would 
raise the price of the gun by over 50%.  :)

- no fancy grip sizes, you either like it or you don't.

- those of you who get wrapped around the axle about having to pull the trigger to remove the slide 
are going to freak because here you have to pull the trigger TWICE! drop the striker, pull the tabs 
down and slide the slide forward like a glock, but then I found I had to pull the trigger a second time 
to get the slide to release forward. I skimmed the manual looking for stuff about being able to dry 
fire it, but forgot to actually look at the takedown instructions. Probably should go do that.


Awesome/unexpected -

- the "re-strike" feature is AWESOME. If glock puts this on their Gen6, or Gen5 mod 2, or WTF they call 
it I will re-buy my G34. Basically it's a normal striker gun, but it has re-strike like a DA. I had one 
wolf round not go off on the first strike, which is pretty normal as my glocks do this too with wolf. 
Normally when that happens in a match I just tap/rack/bang and then pickup that round and put it back 
on top of the next mag since it always goes off on the 2nd hit. Here I just pulled the trigger again and 
it fired. Of course I missed the shot because I was looking at the gun to see if it worked (as if you 
can't tell from the noise). However, that's not why it's cool. It's cool for dry fire practice. 2 shots, 
reload, 2 shots, whatever drill you want to run you can because the trigger goes though a similar to firing
motion every time. clicks, resets, etc, etc. That's useful and way better than manual resetting or the dry
fire mag trainer. Yea, I know you can get that in a DA/DA or DAO gun but this is mostly SA with just this 
bonus. I like it.

I'll pass it around a little this weekend and let some others shoot it and see if we can get it over the 
500/600 round mark.

There you go, some thoughts on the G2c. If it keeps running like it is, it's the value buy of the decade. 
I can't imagine it will stand up to use like a higher end gun, but for someone who's casual about shooting? 
Solid choice.

The pond is stocked! Slacker forwarded me an email from "The Fish Wagon" saying they would be in the area and after some back and forth on sizing details and fish types, I ended up getting 10 bass, 100 bluegill and a 3 pounds of minnows (for food for the other fish). Very exciting.

We're trying to expand our wine horizons by learning Italian wines. We went to the new wine store, and realized that we know nothing about Italy and it's regions. We're basically starting over. The chick at the store was helpful though, I would say "what's the Zin equivalent?" and "what's the Pinot equivalent?" and she would point us in the direction and then we would just sorta guess (since we don't know the vintners).

PSA had MBUS sight sets for $50/pair. That's a HUGE savings, so I went ahead and ordered what I needed to finish the builds I had in progress.

Those sights though, they're just part of what I need.... which means I need a spreadsheet. Now that I've written it all down, it's clear. I have too many stupid ARs. My goal was to build up a backup, but then you keep getting sales on parts and you end up with 3 backups. Humph.

The woman's mom wants pasta as part of her payment so we put a lot of time into that. Took me 6+ hours to crank out 3 types and that's after the woman did all the work to create the fillings. We have crab, pork/porchetta ravioli, and the sweet pea stuff from Keller's class.

Jason had to one-up me by getting a G2c in OD green. He paid $8 more though, so I have that going for me.

Another bread test, and this time I wrote the damn stuff down so if it worked (which it did) I can actually recreate it or use it as a baseline to start from for the next batch.

Flashlight charging day!

Ran some serious drills with the G2c today to see if I wanted to try a match with it. It fits perfectly into the M&P holster so I can run it without having to buy anything... so should I? Right now I've got a nice chunk out of my right palm that's bugging me. Not from the gun per se, but from my left thumbnail poking into my hand during reloads. Odd, but it sucks.

Got offered a Gen 1 Glock! Didn't buy it, it wasn't quite right for the price.

Mixed day, but mostly totally awesome. The only downside is that the little 'bar' of trim on my MBP that's been broken on one side and held on by tape for 6 years has finally broken off on the other side as well. The DVD still works, and it will probably work better without the trim sticking in the way some times, but still, it looks even uglier now.

Ran some errands because it was crazy nice outside. Got the van inspected for tag renewals, got propane, and grabbed Taco Bell and sat in the shade in the parking lot and had a nice relaxing lunch. Weather was just so awesome.

Jason has been bugging me to use the Taurus in a match, so I had to prep for it. The pistol fits in my M&P holster, but the mags are a little small for my normal double stack mag carrier. Rather than go buy something, I just taped some cardboard inside the carrier to keep the little mags from rattling. Works well enough for a match.

And this is how the match turned out. Ian had some new fancy race gun so we expected him to do well and he did, but me coming in 4th was totally unexpected. I smoked guys running gear costing 10x what mine does, and some of the regular top shooters. So either they all had a bad day, or I'm getting better. Let's hope it's the latter, but next month will tell.

Just for Jason and Sneaky, I took a picture of the best view of the "match princess". She won't help paste targets, keep score, clean up or do takedown after the match. Mostly she'll just stand around looking like that. Guess it's enough for most, but I'm glad she's not in my squad.

A video that was taken during the H2O IDPA match yesterday. I didn't finish very well (25 out of 65) because I screwed up twice. Once I hit a barrel that was sorta blocking a target and if that was it then I might have recovered. However, in another stage I literally "got lost" in the required firing order (IDPA has rules about engagement order) and I forgot to go back and pickup a target. That's 2 misses basically, and you can't recover from that. The G2c ran well though, and the round count is 881 so far with zero drama. So the gun has proven itself.

Some chores after the match, including pressure washing the gutters and front steps. I started to do the driveway and such but the volume of work involved there is pretty significant. Dad gave me some sort of driveway washing brush head adapter thingy for the pressure washer, I should try to find that and see if it makes the job easier. In the mean time, I got creative in front of the woman's garage spot; it keeps her amused.

I've been telling Trevor that instead of paying $8 for a muffin at the bakery each time, he should make some cheap box muffins so he can have breakfast every day for less money than his 1-2 times a week habit. I made a batch just to give him so he can see that they're "good enough" and not hard to make.

Got a phone mount for the van finally, having my phone in my lap is starting to be problematic. It takes my eyes too long to refocus when I glance down at the maps.

While ordering the phone mount off Amazon, I picked up this cheap Delica knock-off for our trip. I've had things stolen out of my luggage before, don't want to lose my good knife, that would make me sad. Didn't get black, thought the green would still be low profile yet not so evil looking. Blue looked nice as well but it was way too bright and would stand out against everything I wear.

We finished the year (or will on the 30th) and the district manager sent out this photo from our quarterly training. The whole "everyone in the boat and paddle" thing again.