Me

It’s not the thing…

/ hsoi

… it’s the person using the thing.

I know Bob S. is talking about something else, but the word substitution does go to show something.

There is nothing magic. There is nothing that an object can do for you, in and of itself. In the end, it’s all about the person using the object. If a good person is using the object, good things can come from it. If a bad person is using the object, a bad thing can come from it. Using Bob’s words, if you have good and attentive doctors in the emergency room, they can save lives. If you have bad doctors in the emergency room, lives can be lost. It’s nothing to do with an emergency room itself, it’s all about the people in that emergency room. But even with the best doctors, lives can be lost… we are human, we can make mistakes, we can be distracted. But in the end, we’re still glad to have good people with useful tools at their disposal because in the end it keeps our society running better than if the bad people had the advantage.

Phew!

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I said that my first buck, I’m going to mount the antlers. I didn’t care what they looked like, it was the distinction of being the first. I’m not really one for dead animals as decor, but sometimes it can have its place (e.g. a mountain cabin setting, sure). And here, some animals of distinction, like my first buck, sure… that’s a keeper.

Finally Cabela’s got these Van Dyke’s buck horn mounting kits in. It’s not the highest quality thing, but it’s Good Enough™ especially for my first. Instructions seem straightforward enough, but it does look like you need a little creativity and to be a little handy with things.

With Wife out of the house for the evening, I commandeered the kitchen and began to prep the antlers. That means boiling the skull cap. Oh lord what a smell! 😯  It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s still not pleasant. Been boiling and trimming off the fleshy bits. Presently the skull cap is about as clean as I can get it, and is dusted with borax and sitting in the garage. I’ll see how it looks in the morning.

Hopefully this will turn out OK and look good in my office. Yes office, because Wife has put her foot down about no dead animals on the walls in the house. She grew up with dead animals as decor, and now that this is her own house with her own decorating style, no dead animals except in my areas (office, garage, etc.). Fair enough. 🙂

I’ll post pictures whenever it’s done.

Site transition

/ hsoi

I’m about to move my hsoi.com domain and hosting.

A few years ago my hosting company added new systems that were more feature rich and lower priced. It’s been my intent for over a year to transition from their old system to the new system, but inertia is a powerful force to have to overcome. 😐

I’m finally getting around to it.

Consequently, emails to hsoi.com or other access to it may be up or down depending on how well the transition goes and DNS propagates over the next few days.

I’m still debating if I want to move this blog from here (hosted at wordpress.com) to the new system. I probably will, once I see how the new setup looks.

Returning to normal

/ hsoi

Dad visited first half of last week. Mom and Little Sister visited second half of last week.

It was great to see them all, especially since it had been too long since our last visit.

But oh, I’m tired. Wife is tired. Kids are tired.

Today, we get things back in order and back to normal. But I almost wish I had another few days off work so I could recover from my “vacation”; funny how that tends to happen, thus why my preferred vacation is just doing nothing. 🙂

Blogging should return to normal too.

My waistline

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Mom is visiting.

She arrives at the house. Talking ensues. Hugs. Warm welcomes.

Eventually she goes to put an arm around my waist. Of course I’ve got my Batman utility belt on. Mom’s hand immediately impacts steel objects. I brace myself for the debate that will ensue (remember: this is the first time since obtaining my concealed handgun license that I’ve been around my mother, who’s not a big fan of firearms having been born into and growing up in war-torn and Japanese-occupied Korea). Mom’s hand starts to feel around my waist. Bracing for it….  But where does she end up? Squarely in the front of my waist, on my little pouch of belly fat. All the odd objects on my waist matter not. All I got a lecture about was the little paunch. 😆

Man. All my years growing up and she lectured me to gain weight (tall skinny kid growing up). Now that I’ve gained the weight, now she wants me to take it off. Can my mother ever be satisfied?  😉

(Yes, a discussion on the guns did happen at a later time. She’s still not happy with it… blames my moving to Texas over 15 years ago. Kept discussion calm and rational. She seems to understand but still doesn’t like it.)

Reading this post from Tam reminded me to post this.

Smoked Turkey

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The past some years I’ve been smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Let’s get the main joke out of the way…. how do you smoke a turkey? really big rolling papers. Or some have said since I live in Austin, I could use a bong or other sort of pipe. Ha ha ha. Joke over. 🙂

It started out of necessity: Continue reading →

Lessons from the hunt

/ hsoi

On my first deer hunt I learned a lot of things.

What follows is a list of things I learned. It’s in no particular order. It’s probably far from comprehensive. But it is a list of things I learned. And while some things are specific to hunting or shooting, some things are just applicable to anything in life.

Continue reading →

Customized my 442

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

At the advice of Tom Hogel, I sent my S&W 442 to Mr. Verne Trester for some custom smith work.

I got a red insert on the front sight ramp. Made a HUGE difference in the visibility of that sight.

I also got the action worked on.

Price for the work was very reasonable.

Took a little over a month for complete turnaround, which was fine.

As soon as it arrived I took it out and just spent time dry firing it. Felt nice. Still a long trigger pull, but it felt smoother and a tad lighter, tho still a “heavy” trigger pull.

Took it to the range. Ran all sorts of ammo through it, different makes and brands, some .38 Special, some .38 Special +P. All sorts of stuff. Everything ran without a hitch. I tried 5 of my Buffalo Bore 20C’s. The first one didn’t fire, but the rest did, and the first one fired when it came around a second time. I’m not sure what the deal was there and will be asking Verne. Could have been a hard primer or just a fluke, or could be something with how he tuned the action (he did ask me prior to starting the work what ammo I’d be shooting out of it). Nice thing about the revolver tho… just keep pulling the trigger. 🙂

This is also the first time I got to shoot it since putting on the new grips. I must say they did a great job. I had more control over the gun due to the longer grip and thus having a pinky on there. The covering of the backstrap was very welcome, especially when shooting those Buffalo Bore. They are certainly bigger than the previous grips and there’s no question that affects concealability. But I don’t think the concealability is all that unmanageable (it doesn’t bulge in my pocket any more than the cylinder width causes things to bulge). As well, when I slip my hand in my pocket and get a grip on the gun, it’s a far more proper grip; with the original grips I noticed that what felt comfortable for a grip in my pocket was NOT a good firing grip. Still, I wouldn’t be opposed to switching back to the little grips if I really needed to maximize concealability. But for general carry and shooting, I will stick with the Pachmayr Compac grips.

Between Verne Trester’s work and the grips, I think I have a good snub. I still think I’d like to get an all-steel snub, like a S&W 640 with no internal lock… but those are getting harder to find so I just have to keep my eyes out. Meantime, my custom 442 will serve me just fine. Now I look forward to Claude Werner‘s snub classes @ KR Training in February 2010. I picked up some RCBS carbide .38 dies at Cabela’s today. I need to get reloading on that.

I want to thank Verne Trester for his work. He was always very polite on the phone and in emails, prompt in returning calls and speaking with me and answering questions until I was satisfied. Good customer service, good work. I’m satisfied and would certainly use him again.

Range Day with Dad

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

My father and his wife is visiting us for a few days. It’s always good to see him.

Growing up I didn’t do much with guns. Dad was a Captain, Second Infantry, US Army. Mom however didn’t like guns. So while I always remember this .22 rifle being in the storage room, it was never used; in fact, I just learned today that Dad had removed the bolt and hid it long long ago, thus it was never functional. So while growing up I was never anti-gun, I was just never really exposed to it. I do remember one family vacation that Dad took me skeet shooting. Shot a 20 gauge, had a great time. My first real exposure to guns. Certainly had some pellet guns and such over time growing up, but really nothing much.

So that made today kinda special, especially since today ended up being Son teaching Father. 🙂

Dad does shoot, but mostly shotguns for skeet and trap. I believe he gets out on occasion as well to go duck and pheasant hunting (lives in Nebraska, after all). But the last time Dad touched an M-14 was back in the Army, Expert qualification I believe with the M-14, M1 Carbine, .45 handgun, and so on. But certainly, Dad’s technique reflected old school technique. I showed him some modern technique. 🙂  Plus some guns he’d never shot before.

Started out with my Smith & Wesson 442. I just got it back from the gunsmith (I’ll write about that later) so I had to try it out. Buddy foo.c gave me a bunch of various .38 loads that he had lying around I think from his father-in-law, so just an assortment of stuff. They all ran just fine, probably went through almost 100 rounds: me shooting 5, my Dad shooting 5, and trading off like that. Gun felt good, but I know I need more practice (now that I have it back, I can do that.. pulled to the right a lot, that long trigger). Dad was slapping the trigger a lot, lots of anticipation. But heck, for a first time with a snub he did just fine.

Moved on to the Browning Buck Mark. Of course, that gun is a lot of fun. Dad was certainly excelling with this, tearing one ragged hole in the center of his target. I think without question that was his favorite gun to shoot, because well.. that gun is just tons of fun to shoot.

Then we moved on to my Springfield XD-9. Dad fired one shot. “Wow…”. Heh heh. 🙂  He finished one magazine and said that was enough for him. Heh heh.

After that we opted to put the handguns away and move over to the 100 yard rifle range. I had brought along my Springfield M1A Scout Squad. Dad seemed to enjoy that too. One thing about his shooting is while he may have been off a slight bit in terms of “hitting the bullseye” he was very consistent. I think with the M1A it was probably some measure of the fact the gun was set up and sighted for me, not him. But he shot well.

While at the rifle range, met another gentleman shooting there. The M1A always seems to attract folks and strike up conversations. The gentleman actually did a lot of custom work on M1A’s. He let me try out the trigger on one he had just finished customizing. As well, he let me fire 5 of his handloads out of my M1A and man they were accurate. He even shared the load recipe with me (must remember, using Federal brass to put half a grain more powder in, and using other factory brass like Winchester, etc. to put a full grain more… that I think he was using Black Hills match cases). Anyway…. very nice guy and I’m sure I’ll be in touch with him in the future.

Just being able to spend the one-on-one time with my Dad was precious to me. For that, I am thankful.

10 Thankful Things

/ hsoi

Got the idea from the Climbing Up Blog. I may not post 10 every day, but let’s see about 10 for today.

  1. For my gorgeous, loving, and supportive Wife. I am so fortunate to have her.
  2. For my 3 wonderful children, who teach me so much and love me so much.
  3. For my Dad and his wife visiting the first part of this week, and for my Mom, her husband, and my younger sister visiting later this week. Family is so important.
  4. To have a good job. Sure the present project isn’t the most fun for me, but it’s interesting, teaches me new things, and reminds me of lessons I learned but forgot.
  5. For good friends, to be able to enjoy life and share in its bounty.
  6. For venison. 🙂  For the animals that gave their lives to nourish my children. For the skills necessary to get there.
  7. For people starting to wake up and realize that our country isn’t as free as it pretends to be, and starting to stand up and say we’re not going to take this crap any more.
  8. For this blog, which gives me an outlet. And for the readers, that give me some reason to write.
  9. For teachers, both professional and casual. It’s always good to learn from everyone you can.
  10. For the life I’ve had so far. Where I am today is not where I ever thought I’d be, but boy it’s been an enjoyable ride so far.