So, how about an update on Casa de la Buist? I’m not so arrogant that I think you actually care, I’m just a little bored right now.

About 3 weeks ago we gave Chuck a stuffed Teddy Bear as a toy. We figured we’d be picking up fluffy bits within a couple of days. Nope! It’s his best buddy now. We named the bear Fred. Considering that we’ve seen this critter tear branches off trees, split 1″x2″ pieces of wood with his jaw, and destroy toys made spefically for dogs I’m guessing he realizes that the thing represents an animal. So much for the viscous pit bull gene theory, eh?

Critter sure does like following me around. I think I mentioned that we’ve see him climb over a 5’6″ high fence before, but if not, well, he has. All because the woman and I were on the other side of it.

A few minutes ago he teamed up with one of the cats and killed a fly in the living room. He ate it. He ate a moth last night too.

This passes for excitement in my life.

Range report coming up.

Over at Babalu’s place and elsewhere.

UPDATE: FUCK! Babalu’s blog just went down because it was sucking up too much traffic.

UPDATE 2: Val will post updates here if his main site is down.

This is just too funny.

Seems Reuters included some footage along with their story about the Russian subs planting a flag at the North Pole. A 13 year old Finnish boy saw them, noticed that they were Finn subs, not Russian, and alerted his local newspaper. Oh, he also noticed that the images were from the movie Titanic!

Hah!

Ra^ther unfortunate for Reuters, wouldn’t you say?

A while ago I mentioned that I finally got a a new shotgun barrel and I took that out to the range today.

It’s a 18.5 cylinder choked barrel for the Remington 870 made by Mossberg.

I threw it on my 870 Wingmaster today, brought along 20 rounds of Federal’s “Tactical” 00 Buck and set out for some informal testing. Paper plates at 15 yards.

Well, it works! Pattern spread wasn’t entirely uniform but it was about the size of my hand nicely spread out. My aim, however, was a different matter.

The barrel in question comes with rifle sights, of sorts. The rear sight can be flipped up or down, and this isn’t a configuration I’ve ever even heard of. I shot the first half of the shots with the rear sight down and using just the front post like a bead sight.

Bad idea. All shots landed low. Figures.

So, I flipped up the rear sight, found that my aim was much better while using that, and screwed it down so that it wouldn’t flip down anymore.

It’s probably a great home defense weapon in that configuration, just not for me. At least, not yet. I’m going to have to run a lot more ammo throug it before I can really trust myself with it.

Until then I’ll stick with what I know I can shoot well. The ‘ole Marlin 1894C loaded up with lead round nosed .38 specials.

It’s not optimal, but I can’t seem to miss with the darned thing.

April 19^th marks the day of the battles of Lexington and Concord and the start of the American Revolution.