Over at GUNS HOLSTERS AND GEAR, there's a post about an interview with the Smith and Wesson CEO and some explanations of the various contracts that S&W have with Walther and what the status of those contracts is.
The one thing that interests me is, if you read to the end of that post, is that Walther will be able to sell their German made guns here. I'd sure like to see a revamping of the .22 PPK or PPK/S or even a PP. It's been too long since these were imported new by Interarms and I sold the .22 Interarms PPK/S I had in a foolish deed years ago. I've never understood why S&W didn't seek that share of the market and make a .22 LR alongside the .32 and .380 versions. I mean, it's not like they'd be reinventing the wheel here. And I think it would be a huge seller, if it sold at the same price that that centerfire versions sell for new. Even if there was a premium attached, I'd be paying it, and so would many others.
One day I'll stumble onto a Interarms PP/PPK/PPK/S in .22 LR that is in good enough shape to buy. The examples that I've seen that were "affordable" (using that term lightly) were too beat for me and the better condition ones begin in the $1,200 range that I've found. One day soon I know I'll stumble onto the perfect balance of condition and price.
So my simple wish is for Walther and/or Smith and Wesson to realize that there is a market share out here who would buy a .22 version of a gun they already make in centerfire, and that they could have that "profit margin" they are so concerned with even more. If the parts are not available to bring from Europe to knock this gun out in .22 caliber, then show some initiative and make the parts here. I suspect the barrel and firing mechanism differs in rimfire vs. centerfire but again, it's been made before for many years and it should be no mystery how to make it again.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
FISHING LEGEND HOMER CIRCLE PASSES AT AGE 97
The longtime fishing editor of Sports Afield magazine, from 1968 to 2002, has passed at the age of 97. Apparently, he turned in two stories the week before he passed as well as took a fishing trip and caught variously between 3 and 6 bass with his longtime fishing buddy Glen Lau.
You can read a nice fairly detailed story here and at least one other interview has the same quote from Mr. Lau except with a different number of fish mentioned.
Homer Circle, I found by reading these articles, had a full career as a VP with Heddon Fishing Tackle Company prior to signing on to Sports Afield. I read him monthly for many formative fishing years of my life. He convinced me of the virtue of the green foam rubber spider fly for fly fishing for panfish and of using inner tubes for small lake fishing. and his writings on various types of fishing techniques formed the core of what kind of fisherman I am. I'm sure there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands just like me, young folks coming up during his tenure with Sports Afield who took a lot of learning from him.
I kept and still have a number of special issues of Sports Afield where an entire issue was devoted to a subject such as fly fishing or bass fishing. Homer did much of the writing and probably some editing as well. There were other great writers to be sure but Homer's articles were the ones that were read several times each month.
Another topic I remember him mentioning often was the use of various devices smaller than a boat for fishing. In the 1970's, as mentioned above, he wrote about using inner tubes as a fishing vehicle. Companies had begun making coverings for the tubes that had seats built in the bottom and pockets and rod holders on the the tops of the sides of the inner tubes. I'm pretty sure this was about the time the precurser to the sit-on-top fishing kayak, which was a Texas product known as the Water Wagon. It was a styrofoam deal, later covered in some kind of plastic coating for increasing durability, and the angler sat above the water on the block of foam as his feet dangled in the water and wearing flippers, propelled the craft in protected waters.
It seemed Mr. Circle was a man for the working man. His tips didn't require that I flew to South America or some other exotic locale to catch fish. He was doing it in my own backyard, and the backyards of thousands of Americans who read his writings.
The high school library became a respository for various magazines of the sporting world that interested me. I don't know if modern high school libraries carry outdoors, guns, fishing, hunting and other types of subjects in their periodical stacks, but they used to when I was in school. Guns and Ammo. The big three of the multi-sportsman world: Sports Afield, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life, and all these magazines had hunting and gun articles in them. Our library even had magazines like Skin Diver, Car and Driver, Road and Track, Hot Rod, Dirt Bike and other titles I was usually stuck reading in the grocery store racks.
The point is that authors like Mr. Circle were available at my school library for me to read and there were other fishermen and hunters and campers who sought out the same magazines I did. No telling how many, or how many generations of fishermen that Mr. Circle either directly or indirectly has influenced and will continue to do so.
I'm certain Mr. Circle got to fish a whole heck of a lot more than I do. Likewise, I'm sure he never complained about the amount of fishing he did, as if someone could utter the words that they'd been fishing too much lately.
I've made a concerted effort the past few months and have been going fishing nearly every two weeks. They way I figure it, Mr. Circle was about my age when he retired from a long career at Heddon, and then launched into another hugely successful career as a writer and editor when he was in his mid-50's. That's pretty inspiring to a fellow nearing that age bracket, and it's been a while since I was inspired or impressed this much.
When I read about how being the Fishing Editor of Sports Afield was really a second career for Mr. Circle, that was pretty cool. I was absolutely unaware of his long career with Heddon, of his inventions of lures and such and some of the other writing he did.
I'd love to know what kind of rigs Mr. Circle used the last 20 years or so, or really, a rundown of the gear that he boated bass with in Florida. Baits and tactics would be nice to know, but I'd especially enjoy knowing the rods and reels he considered best for bassing for him.
And was he still fly fishing?
It sounds as if Mr. Circle lived enough life for several lesser men. Rest in peace, Mr. Circle.
You can read a nice fairly detailed story here and at least one other interview has the same quote from Mr. Lau except with a different number of fish mentioned.
Homer Circle, I found by reading these articles, had a full career as a VP with Heddon Fishing Tackle Company prior to signing on to Sports Afield. I read him monthly for many formative fishing years of my life. He convinced me of the virtue of the green foam rubber spider fly for fly fishing for panfish and of using inner tubes for small lake fishing. and his writings on various types of fishing techniques formed the core of what kind of fisherman I am. I'm sure there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands just like me, young folks coming up during his tenure with Sports Afield who took a lot of learning from him.
I kept and still have a number of special issues of Sports Afield where an entire issue was devoted to a subject such as fly fishing or bass fishing. Homer did much of the writing and probably some editing as well. There were other great writers to be sure but Homer's articles were the ones that were read several times each month.
Another topic I remember him mentioning often was the use of various devices smaller than a boat for fishing. In the 1970's, as mentioned above, he wrote about using inner tubes as a fishing vehicle. Companies had begun making coverings for the tubes that had seats built in the bottom and pockets and rod holders on the the tops of the sides of the inner tubes. I'm pretty sure this was about the time the precurser to the sit-on-top fishing kayak, which was a Texas product known as the Water Wagon. It was a styrofoam deal, later covered in some kind of plastic coating for increasing durability, and the angler sat above the water on the block of foam as his feet dangled in the water and wearing flippers, propelled the craft in protected waters.
It seemed Mr. Circle was a man for the working man. His tips didn't require that I flew to South America or some other exotic locale to catch fish. He was doing it in my own backyard, and the backyards of thousands of Americans who read his writings.
The high school library became a respository for various magazines of the sporting world that interested me. I don't know if modern high school libraries carry outdoors, guns, fishing, hunting and other types of subjects in their periodical stacks, but they used to when I was in school. Guns and Ammo. The big three of the multi-sportsman world: Sports Afield, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life, and all these magazines had hunting and gun articles in them. Our library even had magazines like Skin Diver, Car and Driver, Road and Track, Hot Rod, Dirt Bike and other titles I was usually stuck reading in the grocery store racks.
The point is that authors like Mr. Circle were available at my school library for me to read and there were other fishermen and hunters and campers who sought out the same magazines I did. No telling how many, or how many generations of fishermen that Mr. Circle either directly or indirectly has influenced and will continue to do so.
I'm certain Mr. Circle got to fish a whole heck of a lot more than I do. Likewise, I'm sure he never complained about the amount of fishing he did, as if someone could utter the words that they'd been fishing too much lately.
I've made a concerted effort the past few months and have been going fishing nearly every two weeks. They way I figure it, Mr. Circle was about my age when he retired from a long career at Heddon, and then launched into another hugely successful career as a writer and editor when he was in his mid-50's. That's pretty inspiring to a fellow nearing that age bracket, and it's been a while since I was inspired or impressed this much.
When I read about how being the Fishing Editor of Sports Afield was really a second career for Mr. Circle, that was pretty cool. I was absolutely unaware of his long career with Heddon, of his inventions of lures and such and some of the other writing he did.
I'd love to know what kind of rigs Mr. Circle used the last 20 years or so, or really, a rundown of the gear that he boated bass with in Florida. Baits and tactics would be nice to know, but I'd especially enjoy knowing the rods and reels he considered best for bassing for him.
And was he still fly fishing?
It sounds as if Mr. Circle lived enough life for several lesser men. Rest in peace, Mr. Circle.
Monday, June 11, 2012
A TEXAS HILL COUNTRY FISHING CRUISE JUNE 2012
My old fishing buddy Billy Ray and I wanted to do some fishing this past weekend, and we wanted to do it in the Hill Country of Texas. We hooked up in San Marcos, and took off from there on a Ranch Road that led us to US 290, and that was one of the few major roads we'd travel that day.
This is one of those no plans road trips. We made no pre-plan, other than to meet and set aside the weekend for a fishing cruise. We aimed to hit various streams, creeks and rivers that we'd fished before, or seen before and wanted to fish, or heard about or seen on a map.
We each have our own tackle boxes and fly rods set up to go in the back of the SUV. I also bring a mini-arsenal of spinning, ultra light spinning and spincasting and spin/bait casting rods that get set up the the SUV. These rods are ready to go with surface, mid-running and live bait rigs. That way, we can each grab a handful of rods and not have to re-rig so often when we change tactics. Just pick up a different rod and go.
I always like to bring one heavy duty saltwater pier rod on these trips, set up for catfishing. Sometimes with a ZEBCO 888 for simplicity (night fishing) or a Penn reel. Particularly, I like big catfishing. I either tie the rod to a tree or to my trailer hitch on my SUV and put a bottom leader down with chicken livers and whatnot. I like to do some chumming with various kinds of feed in a coffee can with a rope attached. If we're near a deep hole, we're going to use this rig for some bottom fishing not unlike a one line trot line.
The drought from last summer is still reeking havoc on many of our favorite creeks. Many formerly large, robust and year round creeks were not flowing much, and some not at all. The ones that had some flow had some itinerent spring action going on, and it was interesting to trace the path of one creek that feeds the small James River as a few springs popped up along the way.
We went from San Marcos to the tourist town of Fredericksburg, famous for being the birthplace of Admiral Nimitz and home to the Museum of the War of the Pacific. It's an excellent museum if you're ever visiting in Texas, and although we didn't stop there this time, Billy Ray and I and our families have been on previous and recent occasions.
On the way to F-burg we crossed the San Marcos, the Blanco and the Little Blanco rivers. The San Marcos is doing great right now, the Blanco a little low but still far more robust and strong than I expected it to be after last summers drought. The Little Blanco was doing well at the part we looked at, and had lots of swimming action going on, thereby foreclosing any fishing plans for the Little Blanco. This was our second try in as many weeks to fish the Little Blanco and we're not giving up. We just need to hit it during the weekday workday hours.
We made a quick stop in F-burg at the very cool Texas Jack's, a store that sells a lot of western stuff but the part that I go there for is the guns and the handgun leather. They feature, in stock no less, most of the popular designs of western single action revolver holsters. They also have a very good selection of cowboy shooting arms as well as various more modern self defense handguns. Sometimes they even have some interesting used guns.
We stopped there solely because the last time I was there they had a small barrel full of "seconds" holsters. I bought several pancake style holsters for various single action revolvers that they had in their cutout barrel, priced at $15 bucks each, which is a screamin' deal for a nice holster. Alas, they had no holsters in the cut out barrel this time.
We broused the weapons and I noticed a Smith and Wesson tapered barrel DA revolver, maybe from the 1940's or 1950's, with some stag (possibly real, possibly not) grips. I'd seen this gun a couple of years before on a run through their store, I'm almost sure of it. Priced very reasonably. I don't have a need for it, but would like it, so it's a good thing it's located some miles away from my primary gun buying stomping ground.
We left F-Burg without eating any of the fine german food offered at several restaurants in town, and although we looked we did not see the rumored Denny's that had supposedly opened in town. We briefly discussed fishing in a creek that runs through town and runs through a city park that allows fishing access. I'd read some posts last week and knew that there was some fishing action going on in that creek. Again, as far as I know, it was dang near dry last summer, so it's good that apparently the rivers that these creeks feed into (and ultimately the lakes the rivers feed into) can repopulate upstream areas of some distance rather quickly.
While enroute that morning, we decided that the Llano River in Mason County should be our main focus. We've both fished it together and separately on several occasions. Actually, i've fished the Llano from Mason to the Llano area to the Castel area and from towards Junction way. It's a very interesting river with several different kinds of terrain in different areas, but it's clear water with lots of fish in it.
The Llano holds a lot of a bass species called the Guadalupe or Llano bass. It's a slimmer, trimmer fish than the black bass also found in the river, but it's often a friskier fight than the black bass. Besides these two types of bass, there are lots of catfish and various panfish that inhabit the waters. I've almost always caught something when I fish in the Llano, and when you consider that a college roommate's family owned a huge place there for years, I've fished there quite a bit over the last quarter century.
So it's a favorite spot for both of us. We headed on into Mason from F-burg and that was about the time we got off of major roads. We ate at a great Mason tex-mex spot we've eaten at before, and then visited a gun shop in town that had an excellent selection, one of the best all round selections of guns in a small store. They had plenty of AR/M4 and AK assault rifles, assault shotguns based on AR and AK designs, a TON of various types of new and used bolt action scoped hunting rifles, a fairly robust shotgun section with new and used guns, an HK 93 as well as a handful of Mini-14's.
They had a great pistol selection, including your standard Glocks and Springfield Armory poly pistols, as well as a couple of Browning Hi Powers and Walther PP's, some SA Colts and a bunch of other good new and used guns. Their prices were mostly fair if not a bit on the high side, but the used guns were priced appropriate to condition.
A Savage .22/.410 in very good condition was priced at a very fair $275, and I'd a bought it if I didn't already have that very gun. They had a nice selection of grips and magazines but I didn't see any new holsters there. They had a bin of highly overpriced used holsters, mostly for guns I didn't have, like a used Fobus paddle for $30. Way too high. I can buy three fobus holsters on ebay for $30 with shipping on a good day.
Overall, Billy Ray was ga-ga with the shops selection, especially the used HK and the multitude of AR and AK based shotguns they had. It's not often you see Browning Hi Powers in stores, despite being an amazing firearm. Likewise with German made PP series pistols. This fellow had a PP in .32 and a PPK in .380. What I was wanting was an Interarms import PPK or PPK/S in .22, and I had some trading fodder in the truck.
I can't recall the name of this gun shop in Mason, but I'll find out and amend this post. It's one of those places that if you wanted to build a battery of new and used firearms for a reasonable price, it'd be the ideal place to go. By battery, in previous postings I and many others have suggested owning a variety of self-defense and food harvesting guns like a Glock 19 pistol in 9mm, a Smith and Wesson revolver in .38 Special, a 12 or 20 gauge pump shotgun, an assault rifle like an AK-47, a scoped hunting rifle like a .30-30 or a .30-06, and a .22 rifle like a Ruger 10/22. I saw fine examples of each of the above in this gun store in Mason, and there were some used options for the shotguns and hunting rifles.
They had the new takedown Ruger 10/22 rifle that continues to impress me, as well as a nice selection of Colt Single Action Army current or recent production guns. I wasn't ready to trade for that expensive of a gun the other day, but they definately got my attention with the nice SAA's they had for sale. Of course, they had a strong selection of some of the various .22 clone assault rifles available. In other words, just a pretty rocking selection of guns. Much better than most of the big city gun shops around these days.
Mason was BOOMING last Saturday compared to my last visit on a Saturday in April of 2009. We stayed a fishing cabin in 2009, and hit town to get a couple of new tires due to some contact with some sharp rocks and some slick low water crossings. I got a great deal on some tires, and I mean a screaming deal on high end tires that day. And the next time I need tires I'm going to see that tire fellow in Mason right next to the Mexican Restaurant because he cut me, a nobody to him, a screaming deal even the big Discount Tire chains couldn't beat.
Three years ago the local Mason paper was bemoaning the loss of the town's only nursing home. I don't know if they got another one but I know there were LOTS of new businesses that had popped up since my last visit. The town had changed from sorta dowdy and sedate to vibrant and happening, but not too touristy. It looks like good things are happening in Mason. Another college roommate of mine hailed from there, and so it's not the first time I've visited or passed through.
We headed out of Mason about 15 miles to a county road that crosses numerous creeks and the Llano River. The Llano was in fine form but all of our fishing spots were full of families swimming and beating the 100 degree or so heat. We continued down this one certain road that runs more or less east to west. We took it unti the road was flooded and we could go no more, unless we had a 4x4 that was snorkel equipped.
That stretch of road was great. A large number of feeder creeks were dry but several had good water and some very decent pools that could be accessed from the low water crossings. HUGE private ranches line the several area rivers and the creeks that feed them but most of the big landowners don't fence off every inch of their land near the low water crossings nor do they post trespass signs there. The state right of way is respected and thus a small perch from which to fish or to enter the water and wade fish exists for the visiting fisherman.
Many landowners in this area are amenable to a small fee for access for fishing or hiking and sometimes camping on their land. One of the ranches we drove through for 3.8 miles, through which a public county road runs through thus allowing public access to some very remote canyon and river valley areas. That's at least a 4 section ranch, and with a section being 640 acres, that's a mighty large spread. It's probably much larger than 4 sections.
Following one of what would have been a creek had it been full of water, we came across and interesting structure comprised of several poured concrete bases or stands of some sort. Right there was what also appeared to be a capped water well. I'll post some pictures later because we couldn't figure out what these structures were.
Further down, several more springs joined the trickle that was this waterway and after getting up to a dry 7 foot waterfall, we spied a pool of deep green collected water up ahead. Pure fishing nirvana. And completely legally accessible via the streambed. In a state like Texas without a lot of public lands, following the law of private land ownership is very important. More than one landowner will enforce their anti-trespassing feelings with a firearm or with actual gunplay.
Actual gunplay has happened in the recent past in isolated areas on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near Big Bend and the Devil's River, where both sides are firmly rooted in the US of A in South Texas. It just always pays to leave other peoples property alone and stay off of it. Many Texas rivers and creeks have gravel bars or rock islands if one needs to go ashore while traversing a waterway by boat, and I've never met a landowner who objected to nice boaters using a brief part of their land to portage around a dangerous rapid or falls. Nobody wants dead and injured people on or near their land.
We haven't ever had any problems. We always ask permission from landowners and are willing to pay an access fee if they want one, although lots of times they let you in free. They just want to be asked. In the old days, they'd appreciate a mess of fish to eat after you fished their creek or river frontage, but nowadays everyone is conservation minded and also concerned about what chemicals might be in those fish. Such is modern life. So we always advise that we will catch and release unless they want us to catch them some fish.
We spent the better part of the afternoon going from creek to creek and crossing the Llano on several occasions. We did all this on mostly unpaved county roads. We saw a bunch of does, and one very cool young buck whose antlers were still covered in thick velvet. He jumped a fence and danced around in a road for a moment as if he was playing chicken with us, then sprang back into his wooded cover across the fence. I'd swear there was a big teenage grin on his face the entire time.
There's a lot of exotics ranches in this area, and had we been around at sunrise or sunset we would have seen a lot more of the very cool exotics that get raised all over the Hill Country. If I had a farm with a game fence, I'd like to have some exotics, not for hunting just for watching. There are many species of great animals from Africa that do very well in the Hill Country of Texas.
Tons of mating grasshoppers were present, and although I tried to take several pictures of them, none turned out well at all. They were some big suckers, about the size of large locusts. I'd forgotten how big Hill Country grasshoppers can get. Where I've always lived, grasshoppers are an inch or two long when grown, not 6 or 7 inches long and several inches around.
Huge gargantuan grasshoppers. Mating everywhere. We remarked that we need to learn the gestation time of these grasshoppers to time our next fishing visit to their hatch. Frankly, I've never seen a grasshopper plug nor fly that was as huge as these suckas. I might have to make one out of something, maybe a chunk off a flip-flop like I read about a guide doing in an article in the Austin American Statesman yesterday. The big moncher grasshoppers we saw this weekend bore no resemblance to the "Dave's Hopper" fly I've used for so many years. So I might have to try to tie a few big grasshopper poppers and streamers for the next trip out, unless I can find some locust sized flies/poppers/streamers at some store.
I plan to try a double drop combo on one fly rod when the grasshoppers do come out. Maybe a Dave's Hopper, which is a dry fly, with about an 18" piece of tippet going to a nymph that is following the Hopper underwater. It's been a deadly combination at one time on the Guadalupe for trout many years ago, and if I top the hook of each lure with a bit of Berkley GULP! then I think I could have a winner there.
Of course, the Guadalupe below Canyon Dam is one of the few places Rainbow and Brown trout can live year round in Texas, since the water from Canyon Lake goes through the Dam from the bottom of the spring fed lake.
We took about 6 hours to work our way from the area outside of Mason over to the Kerrville area, where we were at the mighy Guadalupe above Canyon Lake. This is also a favorite part of the river for fishing. Several stops later, we ended up at the most cool gunshop I've been to in a while. All new stuff, but a very diverse and well priced selection of guns. I'll be going back to Kerrville soon to this store, a sporting goods emporium of sorts.
From Kerrville, we took back and smaller roads to the towns of Comfort and Waring down to Sisterdale, from which we headed east back to San Marcos. We crossed many creeks, and noted which had water and access and which did not. Often times, I have found, that in the Hill Country county and FM roads, especially if unpaved, often offer far better fishing access than more major roads.
I could spend a year or two studying and cataloging the various fishable creeks in the Hill Country. I wish I could make the time to do it. Put the family in an RV and spend weekends roaming and writing about some of these great and relaxing and picturesque locales.
When I was a kid, about El Fisho's age, every year we'd take a real vacation and a spring break, but also a mini-vacation of 4 or 5 days spend meandering with no set plans through all kinds of Central and Hill Country and West Texas towns and rural areas. I remember one certain trip where we were down south of San Antonio. It must have been a wet year, because all the creeks we crossed had tons of spring water in them. Clear Spring Water, from the country of 1,100 springs, as Pearl Beer used to say. We'd fish those creeks and low water crossings and always catch perch and small bass and lots of catfish.
So this trip last weekend brought back lots of good memories of fishing small creeks and rivers in the Hill Country in my youth. There's still lots of the middle part of Texas where there is no cell phone coverage. That's getting out in the middle of nowhere for me, and that's where I like to be every now and then.
I'll write more later about this area. A little over a hundred years ago, the indians and white man were still battling hard on these very grounds in the Hill Country. It was dangerous country. Black bears. Mountain lions. Big BIG snakes of several different poisonous persuasions. Wild hogs. Highwaymen and other ruffians and highjackers. It was sort of a no man's land and a good place for an outlaw to hide amongst the hardworking mostly German and Scotch settlers in the Hill Country.
This is one of those no plans road trips. We made no pre-plan, other than to meet and set aside the weekend for a fishing cruise. We aimed to hit various streams, creeks and rivers that we'd fished before, or seen before and wanted to fish, or heard about or seen on a map.
We each have our own tackle boxes and fly rods set up to go in the back of the SUV. I also bring a mini-arsenal of spinning, ultra light spinning and spincasting and spin/bait casting rods that get set up the the SUV. These rods are ready to go with surface, mid-running and live bait rigs. That way, we can each grab a handful of rods and not have to re-rig so often when we change tactics. Just pick up a different rod and go.
I always like to bring one heavy duty saltwater pier rod on these trips, set up for catfishing. Sometimes with a ZEBCO 888 for simplicity (night fishing) or a Penn reel. Particularly, I like big catfishing. I either tie the rod to a tree or to my trailer hitch on my SUV and put a bottom leader down with chicken livers and whatnot. I like to do some chumming with various kinds of feed in a coffee can with a rope attached. If we're near a deep hole, we're going to use this rig for some bottom fishing not unlike a one line trot line.
The drought from last summer is still reeking havoc on many of our favorite creeks. Many formerly large, robust and year round creeks were not flowing much, and some not at all. The ones that had some flow had some itinerent spring action going on, and it was interesting to trace the path of one creek that feeds the small James River as a few springs popped up along the way.
We went from San Marcos to the tourist town of Fredericksburg, famous for being the birthplace of Admiral Nimitz and home to the Museum of the War of the Pacific. It's an excellent museum if you're ever visiting in Texas, and although we didn't stop there this time, Billy Ray and I and our families have been on previous and recent occasions.
On the way to F-burg we crossed the San Marcos, the Blanco and the Little Blanco rivers. The San Marcos is doing great right now, the Blanco a little low but still far more robust and strong than I expected it to be after last summers drought. The Little Blanco was doing well at the part we looked at, and had lots of swimming action going on, thereby foreclosing any fishing plans for the Little Blanco. This was our second try in as many weeks to fish the Little Blanco and we're not giving up. We just need to hit it during the weekday workday hours.
We made a quick stop in F-burg at the very cool Texas Jack's, a store that sells a lot of western stuff but the part that I go there for is the guns and the handgun leather. They feature, in stock no less, most of the popular designs of western single action revolver holsters. They also have a very good selection of cowboy shooting arms as well as various more modern self defense handguns. Sometimes they even have some interesting used guns.
We stopped there solely because the last time I was there they had a small barrel full of "seconds" holsters. I bought several pancake style holsters for various single action revolvers that they had in their cutout barrel, priced at $15 bucks each, which is a screamin' deal for a nice holster. Alas, they had no holsters in the cut out barrel this time.
We broused the weapons and I noticed a Smith and Wesson tapered barrel DA revolver, maybe from the 1940's or 1950's, with some stag (possibly real, possibly not) grips. I'd seen this gun a couple of years before on a run through their store, I'm almost sure of it. Priced very reasonably. I don't have a need for it, but would like it, so it's a good thing it's located some miles away from my primary gun buying stomping ground.
We left F-Burg without eating any of the fine german food offered at several restaurants in town, and although we looked we did not see the rumored Denny's that had supposedly opened in town. We briefly discussed fishing in a creek that runs through town and runs through a city park that allows fishing access. I'd read some posts last week and knew that there was some fishing action going on in that creek. Again, as far as I know, it was dang near dry last summer, so it's good that apparently the rivers that these creeks feed into (and ultimately the lakes the rivers feed into) can repopulate upstream areas of some distance rather quickly.
While enroute that morning, we decided that the Llano River in Mason County should be our main focus. We've both fished it together and separately on several occasions. Actually, i've fished the Llano from Mason to the Llano area to the Castel area and from towards Junction way. It's a very interesting river with several different kinds of terrain in different areas, but it's clear water with lots of fish in it.
The Llano holds a lot of a bass species called the Guadalupe or Llano bass. It's a slimmer, trimmer fish than the black bass also found in the river, but it's often a friskier fight than the black bass. Besides these two types of bass, there are lots of catfish and various panfish that inhabit the waters. I've almost always caught something when I fish in the Llano, and when you consider that a college roommate's family owned a huge place there for years, I've fished there quite a bit over the last quarter century.
So it's a favorite spot for both of us. We headed on into Mason from F-burg and that was about the time we got off of major roads. We ate at a great Mason tex-mex spot we've eaten at before, and then visited a gun shop in town that had an excellent selection, one of the best all round selections of guns in a small store. They had plenty of AR/M4 and AK assault rifles, assault shotguns based on AR and AK designs, a TON of various types of new and used bolt action scoped hunting rifles, a fairly robust shotgun section with new and used guns, an HK 93 as well as a handful of Mini-14's.
They had a great pistol selection, including your standard Glocks and Springfield Armory poly pistols, as well as a couple of Browning Hi Powers and Walther PP's, some SA Colts and a bunch of other good new and used guns. Their prices were mostly fair if not a bit on the high side, but the used guns were priced appropriate to condition.
A Savage .22/.410 in very good condition was priced at a very fair $275, and I'd a bought it if I didn't already have that very gun. They had a nice selection of grips and magazines but I didn't see any new holsters there. They had a bin of highly overpriced used holsters, mostly for guns I didn't have, like a used Fobus paddle for $30. Way too high. I can buy three fobus holsters on ebay for $30 with shipping on a good day.
Overall, Billy Ray was ga-ga with the shops selection, especially the used HK and the multitude of AR and AK based shotguns they had. It's not often you see Browning Hi Powers in stores, despite being an amazing firearm. Likewise with German made PP series pistols. This fellow had a PP in .32 and a PPK in .380. What I was wanting was an Interarms import PPK or PPK/S in .22, and I had some trading fodder in the truck.
I can't recall the name of this gun shop in Mason, but I'll find out and amend this post. It's one of those places that if you wanted to build a battery of new and used firearms for a reasonable price, it'd be the ideal place to go. By battery, in previous postings I and many others have suggested owning a variety of self-defense and food harvesting guns like a Glock 19 pistol in 9mm, a Smith and Wesson revolver in .38 Special, a 12 or 20 gauge pump shotgun, an assault rifle like an AK-47, a scoped hunting rifle like a .30-30 or a .30-06, and a .22 rifle like a Ruger 10/22. I saw fine examples of each of the above in this gun store in Mason, and there were some used options for the shotguns and hunting rifles.
They had the new takedown Ruger 10/22 rifle that continues to impress me, as well as a nice selection of Colt Single Action Army current or recent production guns. I wasn't ready to trade for that expensive of a gun the other day, but they definately got my attention with the nice SAA's they had for sale. Of course, they had a strong selection of some of the various .22 clone assault rifles available. In other words, just a pretty rocking selection of guns. Much better than most of the big city gun shops around these days.
Mason was BOOMING last Saturday compared to my last visit on a Saturday in April of 2009. We stayed a fishing cabin in 2009, and hit town to get a couple of new tires due to some contact with some sharp rocks and some slick low water crossings. I got a great deal on some tires, and I mean a screaming deal on high end tires that day. And the next time I need tires I'm going to see that tire fellow in Mason right next to the Mexican Restaurant because he cut me, a nobody to him, a screaming deal even the big Discount Tire chains couldn't beat.
Three years ago the local Mason paper was bemoaning the loss of the town's only nursing home. I don't know if they got another one but I know there were LOTS of new businesses that had popped up since my last visit. The town had changed from sorta dowdy and sedate to vibrant and happening, but not too touristy. It looks like good things are happening in Mason. Another college roommate of mine hailed from there, and so it's not the first time I've visited or passed through.
We headed out of Mason about 15 miles to a county road that crosses numerous creeks and the Llano River. The Llano was in fine form but all of our fishing spots were full of families swimming and beating the 100 degree or so heat. We continued down this one certain road that runs more or less east to west. We took it unti the road was flooded and we could go no more, unless we had a 4x4 that was snorkel equipped.
That stretch of road was great. A large number of feeder creeks were dry but several had good water and some very decent pools that could be accessed from the low water crossings. HUGE private ranches line the several area rivers and the creeks that feed them but most of the big landowners don't fence off every inch of their land near the low water crossings nor do they post trespass signs there. The state right of way is respected and thus a small perch from which to fish or to enter the water and wade fish exists for the visiting fisherman.
Many landowners in this area are amenable to a small fee for access for fishing or hiking and sometimes camping on their land. One of the ranches we drove through for 3.8 miles, through which a public county road runs through thus allowing public access to some very remote canyon and river valley areas. That's at least a 4 section ranch, and with a section being 640 acres, that's a mighty large spread. It's probably much larger than 4 sections.
Following one of what would have been a creek had it been full of water, we came across and interesting structure comprised of several poured concrete bases or stands of some sort. Right there was what also appeared to be a capped water well. I'll post some pictures later because we couldn't figure out what these structures were.
Further down, several more springs joined the trickle that was this waterway and after getting up to a dry 7 foot waterfall, we spied a pool of deep green collected water up ahead. Pure fishing nirvana. And completely legally accessible via the streambed. In a state like Texas without a lot of public lands, following the law of private land ownership is very important. More than one landowner will enforce their anti-trespassing feelings with a firearm or with actual gunplay.
Actual gunplay has happened in the recent past in isolated areas on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near Big Bend and the Devil's River, where both sides are firmly rooted in the US of A in South Texas. It just always pays to leave other peoples property alone and stay off of it. Many Texas rivers and creeks have gravel bars or rock islands if one needs to go ashore while traversing a waterway by boat, and I've never met a landowner who objected to nice boaters using a brief part of their land to portage around a dangerous rapid or falls. Nobody wants dead and injured people on or near their land.
We haven't ever had any problems. We always ask permission from landowners and are willing to pay an access fee if they want one, although lots of times they let you in free. They just want to be asked. In the old days, they'd appreciate a mess of fish to eat after you fished their creek or river frontage, but nowadays everyone is conservation minded and also concerned about what chemicals might be in those fish. Such is modern life. So we always advise that we will catch and release unless they want us to catch them some fish.
We spent the better part of the afternoon going from creek to creek and crossing the Llano on several occasions. We did all this on mostly unpaved county roads. We saw a bunch of does, and one very cool young buck whose antlers were still covered in thick velvet. He jumped a fence and danced around in a road for a moment as if he was playing chicken with us, then sprang back into his wooded cover across the fence. I'd swear there was a big teenage grin on his face the entire time.
There's a lot of exotics ranches in this area, and had we been around at sunrise or sunset we would have seen a lot more of the very cool exotics that get raised all over the Hill Country. If I had a farm with a game fence, I'd like to have some exotics, not for hunting just for watching. There are many species of great animals from Africa that do very well in the Hill Country of Texas.
Tons of mating grasshoppers were present, and although I tried to take several pictures of them, none turned out well at all. They were some big suckers, about the size of large locusts. I'd forgotten how big Hill Country grasshoppers can get. Where I've always lived, grasshoppers are an inch or two long when grown, not 6 or 7 inches long and several inches around.
Huge gargantuan grasshoppers. Mating everywhere. We remarked that we need to learn the gestation time of these grasshoppers to time our next fishing visit to their hatch. Frankly, I've never seen a grasshopper plug nor fly that was as huge as these suckas. I might have to make one out of something, maybe a chunk off a flip-flop like I read about a guide doing in an article in the Austin American Statesman yesterday. The big moncher grasshoppers we saw this weekend bore no resemblance to the "Dave's Hopper" fly I've used for so many years. So I might have to try to tie a few big grasshopper poppers and streamers for the next trip out, unless I can find some locust sized flies/poppers/streamers at some store.
I plan to try a double drop combo on one fly rod when the grasshoppers do come out. Maybe a Dave's Hopper, which is a dry fly, with about an 18" piece of tippet going to a nymph that is following the Hopper underwater. It's been a deadly combination at one time on the Guadalupe for trout many years ago, and if I top the hook of each lure with a bit of Berkley GULP! then I think I could have a winner there.
Of course, the Guadalupe below Canyon Dam is one of the few places Rainbow and Brown trout can live year round in Texas, since the water from Canyon Lake goes through the Dam from the bottom of the spring fed lake.
We took about 6 hours to work our way from the area outside of Mason over to the Kerrville area, where we were at the mighy Guadalupe above Canyon Lake. This is also a favorite part of the river for fishing. Several stops later, we ended up at the most cool gunshop I've been to in a while. All new stuff, but a very diverse and well priced selection of guns. I'll be going back to Kerrville soon to this store, a sporting goods emporium of sorts.
From Kerrville, we took back and smaller roads to the towns of Comfort and Waring down to Sisterdale, from which we headed east back to San Marcos. We crossed many creeks, and noted which had water and access and which did not. Often times, I have found, that in the Hill Country county and FM roads, especially if unpaved, often offer far better fishing access than more major roads.
I could spend a year or two studying and cataloging the various fishable creeks in the Hill Country. I wish I could make the time to do it. Put the family in an RV and spend weekends roaming and writing about some of these great and relaxing and picturesque locales.
When I was a kid, about El Fisho's age, every year we'd take a real vacation and a spring break, but also a mini-vacation of 4 or 5 days spend meandering with no set plans through all kinds of Central and Hill Country and West Texas towns and rural areas. I remember one certain trip where we were down south of San Antonio. It must have been a wet year, because all the creeks we crossed had tons of spring water in them. Clear Spring Water, from the country of 1,100 springs, as Pearl Beer used to say. We'd fish those creeks and low water crossings and always catch perch and small bass and lots of catfish.
So this trip last weekend brought back lots of good memories of fishing small creeks and rivers in the Hill Country in my youth. There's still lots of the middle part of Texas where there is no cell phone coverage. That's getting out in the middle of nowhere for me, and that's where I like to be every now and then.
I'll write more later about this area. A little over a hundred years ago, the indians and white man were still battling hard on these very grounds in the Hill Country. It was dangerous country. Black bears. Mountain lions. Big BIG snakes of several different poisonous persuasions. Wild hogs. Highwaymen and other ruffians and highjackers. It was sort of a no man's land and a good place for an outlaw to hide amongst the hardworking mostly German and Scotch settlers in the Hill Country.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
TEXAS PRIMARY ELECTION NIGHT TONIGHT!
Ever since I was a wee small lad growing up in Houston, Texas, I've been a watcher of politics and especially political contests. It's probably no surprise that I work for a politician, although many of my friends have always thought me destined for politics. But even as a child, when my dad ran for several different offices both successfully and unsuccessfully, the process has been crooked and the halls of the elections are lined with folks with their hands out, either trying to get into your pockets or trying to put some bribes, er, I mean campaign contributions, in your pocket.
This year is different in many aspects. There's no big surprise as to who the Republican Party's Presidential candidate will be, regardless of the outcome tonight. I say tonight, because this year our Texas Primary Election is two and a half months late. What was traditionally always held on the first or second Tuesday (I forget which) in March has been delayed until today due to various law suits and controvery about a recent redistricting.
So what normally was a cool time of year to have friends over to watch the election results come in is now a hot and humid evening not conducive to patio standing and sitting and the consumption of adult beverages while doing same. You can have a lot more people over for a party like this when they can mill about between the living room and the kitchen/dining room and the back patio. But nobody will want to be hanging out in the out of doors this evening until well after dark. For example, as I write this, it is 98 degrees in the shade at my home right now.
There's one big race in my county tonight, one for a district judgeship. But there are several very important district attorney races going on in the state, and for me those are the DA races in Williamson, Travis and Harris Counties. To those of you not from Texas, I know those county names don't mean a thing. Harris County is Houston, Texas and Travis is Austin, Texas. Williamson County, or Wilco, is not so well known, being immediately north of Austin proper but 180 degrees different in political philosophy. Whereas Austin is primarily "blue", as in Democrat, Wilco is Red and Republican. Wilco has been one of the fastest growing counties in the nation since the early 90's, growing from a small, mostly rural with a couple of small towns to being the big city. Dell is there. Many other companies are there.
In any event, I'll be watching those races for DA and for judge, as well as some judicial and sheriff elections in other counties that friends of mine are running in. I nearly gave a run for a judgeship this year, talking myself out of it as well as I had nearly talked myself into it. It requires a good bit of money and a heck of a lot of time to conduct a political campaign, and I had the money but wasn't sure about the time. As it turned out, what became a minor medical problem (instead of a major one) reared it's ugly head and it's a good thing I didn't run. Maybe next time.
As it is, where I live now we don't have the lightning fast reporting of results that we had in Houston. Even in my childhood, TV was pretty good about getting the latest boxes posted as they come in. Here, where I live now, as in many other parts of Texas, folks gather at the Courthouse or near it and post the results as they come in. It's an exciting party, but I'd rather stay at the house and relax with the family and perhaps a few friends and neighbors than hang out with a bunch of loud drinking folks, because where I live, serious drinking goes along with serious politics.
We'll probably run by the Courthouse for a few minutes about sundown, before everyone has started drinking hard. There's always old friends there that I'll want to see and have not seen in awhile. It'll be before the final results are tallied, depending on turnout, but the early results will have already been in since soon after 7 p.m.
So the internets will keep me up to date with the Houston and Austin election results on a minute by minute basis while the cell phone will keep me posted on the local races. I'm glad my future is not on the line tonight, in more ways than one.
This year is different in many aspects. There's no big surprise as to who the Republican Party's Presidential candidate will be, regardless of the outcome tonight. I say tonight, because this year our Texas Primary Election is two and a half months late. What was traditionally always held on the first or second Tuesday (I forget which) in March has been delayed until today due to various law suits and controvery about a recent redistricting.
So what normally was a cool time of year to have friends over to watch the election results come in is now a hot and humid evening not conducive to patio standing and sitting and the consumption of adult beverages while doing same. You can have a lot more people over for a party like this when they can mill about between the living room and the kitchen/dining room and the back patio. But nobody will want to be hanging out in the out of doors this evening until well after dark. For example, as I write this, it is 98 degrees in the shade at my home right now.
There's one big race in my county tonight, one for a district judgeship. But there are several very important district attorney races going on in the state, and for me those are the DA races in Williamson, Travis and Harris Counties. To those of you not from Texas, I know those county names don't mean a thing. Harris County is Houston, Texas and Travis is Austin, Texas. Williamson County, or Wilco, is not so well known, being immediately north of Austin proper but 180 degrees different in political philosophy. Whereas Austin is primarily "blue", as in Democrat, Wilco is Red and Republican. Wilco has been one of the fastest growing counties in the nation since the early 90's, growing from a small, mostly rural with a couple of small towns to being the big city. Dell is there. Many other companies are there.
In any event, I'll be watching those races for DA and for judge, as well as some judicial and sheriff elections in other counties that friends of mine are running in. I nearly gave a run for a judgeship this year, talking myself out of it as well as I had nearly talked myself into it. It requires a good bit of money and a heck of a lot of time to conduct a political campaign, and I had the money but wasn't sure about the time. As it turned out, what became a minor medical problem (instead of a major one) reared it's ugly head and it's a good thing I didn't run. Maybe next time.
As it is, where I live now we don't have the lightning fast reporting of results that we had in Houston. Even in my childhood, TV was pretty good about getting the latest boxes posted as they come in. Here, where I live now, as in many other parts of Texas, folks gather at the Courthouse or near it and post the results as they come in. It's an exciting party, but I'd rather stay at the house and relax with the family and perhaps a few friends and neighbors than hang out with a bunch of loud drinking folks, because where I live, serious drinking goes along with serious politics.
We'll probably run by the Courthouse for a few minutes about sundown, before everyone has started drinking hard. There's always old friends there that I'll want to see and have not seen in awhile. It'll be before the final results are tallied, depending on turnout, but the early results will have already been in since soon after 7 p.m.
So the internets will keep me up to date with the Houston and Austin election results on a minute by minute basis while the cell phone will keep me posted on the local races. I'm glad my future is not on the line tonight, in more ways than one.
Monday, May 28, 2012
ODE TO THE BIANCHI 58L "HIP HUGGER" HOLSTER
I got my first Bianchi 58L Hip Hugger paddle holster in the summer of 1981 for my Colt Cobra snubnose. That was my first off-duty gun as a police officer in Houston. My duty weapon, a 4" nickle Python, while excellent for a duty weapon at the time, was way too heavy to carry as an off-duty weapon. In the summer, it was virtually unconcealable, at least with the holsters available then, but could be worn off-duty in the winter (read: colder than 50 degrees) when a jacket or coat would be worn.
The Jackass (now Galco) shoulder holster was the best means of concealing this world class shooting machine that is The Colt Python. I also used a Roy's Pancake holster for the 4" Python to some success, but it didn't conceal a Python under a Polo shirt with Levi's worth a crap. As the former Governor of California once said in a movie...paraphrasing him here..."it looked like a toomah".
So the 3rd generation nickle Cobra became the off-duty and back-up on-duty ankle holster gun. Right after buying this holster, literally the moment after leaving Collector's Firearms in Houston the day I got the Cobra and the Hip Hugger I took off for a beach and fishing vacation in Corpus Christi and Padre Island. I was very impressed that the suede covered paddle never retained odors despite the sometimes heavy sweating done in this holster when in the field, and that summer it was swelteringly hot as we fished a variety of locales and hung out until the wee small hours of the morning with some regularity.
The Bianchi Hip Hugger holster got carried in a wide variety of circumstances on that vacation, all of which involved, as I said, heavy duty sweating in the Texas Summer sun. Out to eat. Out fishing on boats and jetties. Around town at various spots. I found it to be quite concealable then and have continued to wear and use this particular holster with several different revolvers for the last 31 years. I've since acquired one of these made for the J Frame, and it's an even slimmer fit and even more concealable than the one for the six shot Cobra.
Bianchi doesn't make this particular holster anymore. They seriously need to reintroduce this holster into their line. It's their basic #5 designed thumbreak holster with a metal paddle that is covered on both sides in suede. The #5 holster was used in belt holsters, ankle holsters and this paddle holster for decades. I'll say that the paddle holster must use a steel shank in the back of the holster as well as in the paddle because it seems much stiffer than other #5 belt and ankle variants that I own. And it's much stiffer than almost all other paddle holsters out there on the market.
Apparently, it was made until sometime fairly recently, as this website indicates it is now discontinued.
Everything comes together in this holster. The paddle is long enough and stout enough to support even heavy K frames (I've never seen an N frame version of this holster, but would like to have one if it exists) and all steel 1911's and Hi-Powers. The length and width of the paddle, although very reasonably sized to me, is different than those dimensions on most other paddle holsters.
The distance between the paddle and the holster itself is scant indeed, making it sometimes even difficult to get the holster attached over a heavy duty gunbelt type of belt. This tightness between holster and paddle is one factor I think helps to keep floppiness down and stability up.
The holster has that famous (at least to me) Bianchi fit of the firearm designed for. I've never had an issue with fit on a Bianchi in over 30 years of using them. Although I am partial to their product lines from the 70's through the 90's moreso than their current stuff, I do have some recent Bianchi holsters. But the guns fit and the thumbreak engages and disengages perfectly.
The suede covered paddle has many benefits. The suede keeps the holster in place when drawing the weapon. Secondly, the suede also keeps the holster and pants/shorts in place during normal wear, being a non-smooth surface the suede creates resistance between the body of the wearer and their pants, thus keeping everything where it is supposed to be.
Third, the Bianchi paddle on these holsters is wide and is situated so that it rides deep, almost to the bottom of the holster. Again, ergonomics and design come into play here, but the the paddle design is another factor in this holster being a stable carrying platform as well as staying put when you draw the gun. The suede covered paddle beats out a molded plastic paddles other paddle holsters use any day of the week in many aspects.
The holster hangs at just the right height in comparison to the paddle. It hangs low enough to lower the center of gravity of the gun to the center of the belt, but not so low as to make concealment difficult. This is key,because it prevents floppiness. This holster rides very secure, and to my mind, is the best paddle holster design I've ever used. I haven't taken a protractor to it, but it seems that when positioned correctly against my leg that the paddle keeps the holster at about a 10 degree forward cant. Of course, you can position the holster for more or less of a cant and depending on your body type, it will stay in that position once set.
For what it's worth on all that about fit, I've been using these holsters since I was in my young twenties and my body then was far slimmer and far more muscular than it is now, years later. I know a lot of guys my age complain about holster fit and pants sagging and this line of holsters works well with the middle age male body. Used with a good (but not necessarily overwhelmingly) heavy gunbelt type dress belt, you'll have no problem with both gun and pants staying up and staying put. The suede covered paddle acts kinda like Sansabelt slacks in keeping pants up, providing you have a decent fit in the first place with your pants.
The name "hip hugger" is dated and probably was dated when the holster was introduced. But the holster does as advertised and named: it hugs the hip. Other paddle holsters tend to stick out a bit from the belt and body. Not the Bianchi. It's 90% as concealable as a like belt holster worn in the same 4 O'Clock to 5 O'Clock position.
Of course, the paddle lends itself to easy on, easy off while maintaining a secure hold when being worn. It distributes the weight well and is a secure riding holster.
I've never seen one of these hip hugger holsters for a 4" N frame or for a 2.5" K frame Smith or I frame Colt. You commonly see them on auction sites for 1911's, snubbies both J frame and Detective Special, 4" K frame revolver and the Walther PPK. That's the one's I usually see.
I'd be nice to have one of these for a 4" N frame and a 2.5" I frame Colt. I don't know when Bianchi quit making the Hip Hugger, but I'd sure like to have one for a Glock 19, 26 and 21. I'd like to have one of these for a SAA, and the Ruger Blackhawk with the 4 and something" barrel. It'd be great to see this whole model of holster come back as originally sold but for the many new guns on the market now.
I have tried other paddle holsters. The Galco paddle holster didn't do it for me. It had a great holster for a J frame, and was an open top affair that fit my Bodyguard Airweight just fine, but the paddle was too small, was affixed too far out from the holster and just didn't have the right ergodynamics to work for me. Even with a heavy duty belt on and holding a lightweight gun coming in at 15 ounces unloaded, it was floppy. Way floppy. To me, if you lowered the attachment point of their paddle and made the paddle larger in both width and depth, it would ride better.
Fobus paddle holsters work well for what they do. They sometimes do draw with the weapon, despite tight belt and proper wearing procedures. They are comfortable but most of the ones for larger guns like the 1911 are not as concealable as the Bianchi Hip Hugger for some guns. They seem to stick out from the body a bit more than the Bianchi model. I plan to, at least one day, get some suede and glue it to the Fobus paddles, then have a seamstress friend with a heavy duty sewing maching sew around the edges of the paddle to make it more Bianchi like. I plan to add a special strip of leather to the "retaining bump or ledge" on the exterior of the paddle to make it more pronounced. I'll note that the Bianchi Hip Hugger does not need a retaining lip because of the suede covering and the paddle design itself.
I've long been a fan and user of vintage Bianchi products, going back to the time when they weren't vintage but were new. The Askins Avenger is a favorite for many semi-autos, and I've been a longtime user of the entire line of holsters made around the #5 holster.
To me, for a double action revolver or a Goverment sized 1911, I'm hard pressed to think of a better carrying holster than the venerable Bianchi #5. And for many uses, the 58l is my go to holster. Yes, there are designs by custom makers and smaller companies that I like and use as well, but years later, I still find myself often reaching for the Hip Hugger holster for various guns.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
AND AGAIN WITH THE "WHY DOESN'T CCI MAKE .380 SHOTSHELLS?"
I spent some time looking hither and yon on the internets again recently, in hopes that I was somehow wrong, that somewhere, preferably within these good old United States but certainly somewhere else in the world, there is an ammo company making .380 ACP shotshells.
I know, I know, I just posted about this very subject a few days ago, but of course now that it's fishing time, which means snake time in Texas, I'm gonna be totin' a firearm with some shotshells in it for snake elimination. I've got plenty of pistols and revolvers to choose from, all that take shotshells that are actually made at this current time in calibers such as .38 Special, .44 Special, .45 Colt, .45 ACP and 9mm. I've long had Thompson Contenders that shoot .45 Colt/.410 shells, for nearly 30 years now.
But of course, I just keep thinking how handy it would be to have this .380 pistol or that one loaded with ACP shotshell rounds for down by the river. Simply because no one makes shotshells for the .380.
If anyone knows of a reloader with reasonable pricing who is willing to entertain such an endeavor as to making some .380 shotshells, I'd love to have their website and email address. This may be the issue that gets me finally started at some level of reloading. No doubt it'd be more complicated than standard reloading but it seems doable it's just a question of how much gear you need to craft the actual cartridge shell.
Here's one final question I'd like to have the answer to. How effective do y'all think the Glaser Safety Slug would be on snakes, since the GSS has tiny shot underneath a plastic and metal case?
Instead of taking a .380 fishing this weekend, I'll take either a Glock 36 in .45 ACP or a snubbie loaded with CCI shotshells.
I know, I know, I just posted about this very subject a few days ago, but of course now that it's fishing time, which means snake time in Texas, I'm gonna be totin' a firearm with some shotshells in it for snake elimination. I've got plenty of pistols and revolvers to choose from, all that take shotshells that are actually made at this current time in calibers such as .38 Special, .44 Special, .45 Colt, .45 ACP and 9mm. I've long had Thompson Contenders that shoot .45 Colt/.410 shells, for nearly 30 years now.
But of course, I just keep thinking how handy it would be to have this .380 pistol or that one loaded with ACP shotshell rounds for down by the river. Simply because no one makes shotshells for the .380.
If anyone knows of a reloader with reasonable pricing who is willing to entertain such an endeavor as to making some .380 shotshells, I'd love to have their website and email address. This may be the issue that gets me finally started at some level of reloading. No doubt it'd be more complicated than standard reloading but it seems doable it's just a question of how much gear you need to craft the actual cartridge shell.
Here's one final question I'd like to have the answer to. How effective do y'all think the Glaser Safety Slug would be on snakes, since the GSS has tiny shot underneath a plastic and metal case?
Instead of taking a .380 fishing this weekend, I'll take either a Glock 36 in .45 ACP or a snubbie loaded with CCI shotshells.
THOUGHTS FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
I got one of those chain prayer emails today, but this one was a little different. It was loaded with pictures of soldiers, their families and many with respect to their fallen comrades. They were truly touching, not like the mass amount of "People From Wal Mart" photos that my friends like to send me.
Memorial Day means something to America and to all true Americans. It reminds us of the extreme cost of freedom. Freedom isn't free, and that's more than just a refrain to a well-known song.
I didn't serve in the military, but I spent a like number of years as a police officer. It's not the same, but it helps me understand the esprit de corps of serving on a team with missions that involve the possibility that you will be killed because of your badge and uniform and what you represent.
This weekend, let's celebrate and honor our warriors, both past and present, here and abroad, The soldier serves and does as he is ordered. Regardless of your politics, I hope you value and respect those who serve in our military as much as I do.
I have several friends overseas, stationed in actual war zones, whether they are called war zones or not. I know or work with other folks who have kids in the service, many of them serving overseas in war zones as I write these very words.
I have a good friend I played in a band with and worked professionally with in law who now works for the federal government and is on assignment in Afghanistan, and everytime I hear of an explosion over there I have to read about it to see if my friend is safe.
Same with the military folks I know. When you hear of a major blowup at or near the location(s) they are serving near (if you actually know), you have to read about it and wonder just for a moment and often times longer until ID's are released if it's someone I know.
And of course, it really doesn't make it any less personal when you don't personally know the servant of our government who dies on assignment from some terroristic act. No matter who they are, they're Americans, just like us. Those who serve us deserve our respect.
When I was coming up in my 20's, not so very long ago, we didn't have many service related deaths amongst my peers and friends who went into the service. We didn't have any "public" wars going on at that time, after the end of Vietnam. And from the mid-seventies until the First Gulf War came along and here we were, for the first time since Vietnam, in an actual public (i.e. not secret or low profile) war.
We had horrible incidents during that time, like the hostages in Iran. And tons of other trouble all over the world. But no big wars until the First Gulf War. But by and large from the mid-seventies until the late-eighties, I wasn't losing any friends who were serving in the military.
Since then we've been losing too many Americans. Not to mention the tragic civilian deaths from terrorism. Remember what these folks, most of them very young, do everyday to protect your freedom. Thank them for their service if you see them out and around. Thank the ones you know especially. Let these folks know that the people back home care about them.
Back in WWII, when my parents were from about 10 years old to 15 years old, they absorbed the war going on around them and had relatives that served in the military. Although little kids at the start of WWII, they had no choice but to growup in a war-time economy and society. They had respect for the military and those who served.
Vietnam, combined with the many, great social changes that transpired starting in the 1960's, changed the perception of some individuals as to the honor of serving our country in an unpopular "police action". I know there are still folks like that around today. Naysayers to honoring our heros in uniform.
I think a lot of folks are just like me and share my beliefs, and that the naysayers are in the minority. I hope each and every one of you has a great holiday weekend and thank all those reading this who are in the service for serving our country. Whenever I run into uniforms in public, which is not infrequent in many parts of Texas, I always thank them for their service.
I hope you do the same.
Memorial Day means something to America and to all true Americans. It reminds us of the extreme cost of freedom. Freedom isn't free, and that's more than just a refrain to a well-known song.
I didn't serve in the military, but I spent a like number of years as a police officer. It's not the same, but it helps me understand the esprit de corps of serving on a team with missions that involve the possibility that you will be killed because of your badge and uniform and what you represent.
This weekend, let's celebrate and honor our warriors, both past and present, here and abroad, The soldier serves and does as he is ordered. Regardless of your politics, I hope you value and respect those who serve in our military as much as I do.
I have several friends overseas, stationed in actual war zones, whether they are called war zones or not. I know or work with other folks who have kids in the service, many of them serving overseas in war zones as I write these very words.
I have a good friend I played in a band with and worked professionally with in law who now works for the federal government and is on assignment in Afghanistan, and everytime I hear of an explosion over there I have to read about it to see if my friend is safe.
Same with the military folks I know. When you hear of a major blowup at or near the location(s) they are serving near (if you actually know), you have to read about it and wonder just for a moment and often times longer until ID's are released if it's someone I know.
And of course, it really doesn't make it any less personal when you don't personally know the servant of our government who dies on assignment from some terroristic act. No matter who they are, they're Americans, just like us. Those who serve us deserve our respect.
When I was coming up in my 20's, not so very long ago, we didn't have many service related deaths amongst my peers and friends who went into the service. We didn't have any "public" wars going on at that time, after the end of Vietnam. And from the mid-seventies until the First Gulf War came along and here we were, for the first time since Vietnam, in an actual public (i.e. not secret or low profile) war.
We had horrible incidents during that time, like the hostages in Iran. And tons of other trouble all over the world. But no big wars until the First Gulf War. But by and large from the mid-seventies until the late-eighties, I wasn't losing any friends who were serving in the military.
Since then we've been losing too many Americans. Not to mention the tragic civilian deaths from terrorism. Remember what these folks, most of them very young, do everyday to protect your freedom. Thank them for their service if you see them out and around. Thank the ones you know especially. Let these folks know that the people back home care about them.
Back in WWII, when my parents were from about 10 years old to 15 years old, they absorbed the war going on around them and had relatives that served in the military. Although little kids at the start of WWII, they had no choice but to growup in a war-time economy and society. They had respect for the military and those who served.
Vietnam, combined with the many, great social changes that transpired starting in the 1960's, changed the perception of some individuals as to the honor of serving our country in an unpopular "police action". I know there are still folks like that around today. Naysayers to honoring our heros in uniform.
I think a lot of folks are just like me and share my beliefs, and that the naysayers are in the minority. I hope each and every one of you has a great holiday weekend and thank all those reading this who are in the service for serving our country. Whenever I run into uniforms in public, which is not infrequent in many parts of Texas, I always thank them for their service.
I hope you do the same.
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