First Shots Since Last Summer

Air pistol, obviously. I know for a fact I haven't had this thing in my hand since the fires in August. And probably not since I last shot a 'real' pistol in May.

Just wanted to see how loud it would be in the backyard here in TX. I've never shot it anywhere but in my house in CA, or the matches in Redwood City. It makes a pretty good pop at 'home', but I wear ear plugs at the PARG range and the pellet hitting the trap is louder than the shot. It was a nice little pop here outdoors. The pellet hitting the cardboard is louder on some shots. I think I can get away with setting up a little range, and see if I can summon the ambition to actually practice. I tweaked my shooting elbow on a construction project several weeks ago and it's still sore.

I'm pretty happy with this. That 'wild' one usually happens no matter how much I've been shooting. And I 'saw it', and the 7@5, so I'm good with it.

Welcome back, Wes.

Thanks John. Maybe another couple months and I'll actually be back. For awhile. Maybe even bring a pistol or 3. Depends on whether it's 'safe' to fly, or I gotta drive my car.

Oh, and I'll credit Oleg with the inspiration. I downloaded his NPST.5 yesterday and read a bit here and there.

Cobbled a 'range' together in the past few weeks. My target carrier is a box from a wine shipment, baffled internally with the molded paper wine bottle inserts. I staple 2 targets on each side, so I can rotate it 180, and then flip it over for the other pair. It sits on a 'bench' in the back yard that I put together for doing trim work on an ADU we're building. Basically, a 16 ft miter saw stand. I did an accurate survey of the whole thing, and had the targets at regulation height and distance from the shooting station, a piece of OSB on one of the tables on the gas grill. I've since reworked the bench a bit, so the distance may have changed a few inches, but the height is still the same.

Fired a few shots, 20 or 30, a couple weeks ago, but I've been nursing a sore elbow. Tweaked something while working on the house. Started on the exercises from the link in the elbow pain post here. Not far into it, I'm using only 8 lbs so far, and today was the first day I did 3 sets.

Anyway, while waiting for paint to dry I shot a 'match'. 60 shots in regulation time, 1:30, after 15 minute prep. 10 shots per target. Started out pretty rough, and only got a bit better as I went. The rapid twitch tremors seemed to fade into a slower wobble towards the end. Pain wasn't too bad. At least it never got any worse. Wound up with a 487. Considering my PB is a 491, I guess that's not too bad for having basically laid off pistol shooting for over a year.

Have you tried the "potato" exercise for your elbow rehab?

john bickar wrote:Have you tried the "potato" exercise for your elbow rehab?

Hello john bickar,

Okay, I'll bite.  What is the "potato" exercise?

Thanks.

Jim

Actually, the 'potato exercise' was partially responsible. I figured if a keyboard clacking office jockey could handle a 50 lb sack, a rough tough hillbilly like me oughta be able to go straight to it.

spursnguns wrote:

john bickar wrote:Have you tried the "potato" exercise for your elbow rehab?

Hello john bickar,

Okay, I'll bite.  What is the "potato" exercise?

Thanks.

Jim

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.

Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags.

Then try 50-lb potato bags and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I'm at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag.

WesG wrote:a keyboard clacking office jockey

Hey! I resemble that remark!

WesG wrote:hillbilly

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Some years back riding dirtbikes, sitting with a buddy who'd been born in hillbilly central Florida, lived in Texas for awhile before coming to the Bay Area.

"Where you from anyway?"

'Right here'

"No, I mean where were you born?"

'Right here'

"Ok, that's just weird"

'Whaddaya mean?'

"Well, cuz you're like the biggest redneck I know"

'Really?'

"Well, let's examine the evidence. You live in a cabin in the woods. You ride dirtbikes. You own a whole .... of guns. And you have, let's count them, not one, but *two* pickup trucks. And I've seen a picture of one of them on blocks."

'Damn, you're right, I *am* a redneck'

"I told ya"

I'd ordered tires for my Ranger (kept as a commuter for a couple years), and rather than dropping it off and getting a ride to work and back, I pulled the wheels off and threw them in my F-150. I didn't have any jack stands, but I had a pile of blocks I'd cut for fire wood. Had to share it, of course.

Yeah, your uniform and F150 are strong indicators.

But the Prius is a dead giveaway that you can take the boy out of Santa Cruz County, but you can't take Santa Cruz County out of the boy.

I bet the Texans can sniff that there's something "off" about you.

john bickar wrote:Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.

Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags.

Then try 50-lb potato bags and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I'm at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag.

Thanks, john.

After I wrote that, it dawned on me what it was.  I figured you should refresh our memories, nonetheless.

Well done.

Jim

spursnguns wrote:
Thanks, john.

After I wrote that, it dawned on me what it was.  I figured you should refresh our memories, nonetheless.

Well done.

Jim

Jim, I'm a giver. It's my privilege to be able to give back to the Bullseye community.

john bickar wrote:Yeah, your uniform and F150 are strong indicators.

But the Prius is a dead giveaway that you can take the boy out of Santa Cruz County, but you can't take Santa Cruz County out of the boy.

I bet the Texans can sniff that there's something "off" about you.

We could if he'd come back to a match!  LOL  Come back to the Austin Rifle Club!

The Prius is gone. Replaced by a *Lexus* ... not that it's a 'Lexus', just that it's the only rear wheel drive car I felt comfortable owning. Didn't want a modern muscle car, wanted 4 doors, and anything German was verboten.

The Prius ... I kinda miss it sometimes. Great gas mileage, and a lot of room for stuff in back. That's basically what I'd tell people when they asked me how I liked it ;-) Wore it out ... 193k miles, but it gave me some twisted sense of pleasure that my partial zero emissions save the planet hybrid car was getting 900 miles to a quart of oil.

Easy to understand your mistake though, it *IS* the same boring grey color.

As for getting back to ARC, I was planning on the last one, figured I'd be almost a week past my 2nd vaccination at that point. But the elbow ... and my Fwub still hasn't been checked for zero. I still remember Steve, maker of coated bullets, scoring my target and asking 'what kind of lube are you using?' I don't know, whatever Dardas (or Magnus?, blue) uses. 'It's still coming off at 50 yards ...' LOL!

My girlfriend told me when we first got together "you might be a conservative in Ca, but you're gonna be a liberal in Tx." I'm good with that. But it makes me sick the way they throw aluminum cans and glass bottles in the trash here. That's just wrong ...