Topics

16

General Discussion / Tips for New/Any Shooter

« on: February 06, 2019, 09:06:34 PM »

I  have never claimed to be a top shooter, however I am an experienced shooter.
Things being quiet on the forums I thought maybe this could be a good topic.
Here is my partial list of things for newer shooters if they want to do well.
1- Attitude. (A positive, friendly attitude helps in all things.)
2- You must have good ammo, meaning it should function well, consistently.  No need for heavy loads, unless it
is just your personal total preference, or category wise such as CHN.
3- You must have good gun leather. Using two hands to pull a gun from leather, which I did VERY briefly, just
doesn't get it. Being able to move without worry of losing a revolver due to movement is important.  We are
blessed with several folks, local area, who are genuinely great with gun leather.
4- This one took me three years to learn: you don't have to hit each target in the center! Hit it somewhere, each
time!
5- Don't wrap your thumb around the wrist of the rifle. Time consuming and not necessary at our distances. Also
took me three years to learn. Pleasant taught me that one.
6- You must have good equipment/firearms. I don't particularly subscribe to the "arms race" of all out or nothing,
but everything should be smooth and gunsmith worked at least for function .
7- The game is not about how well you shoot, or even how fast you shoot, it's about transitions; from gun to gun,
and position to position. Owlhoot taught me that one.
What would you say to a newer shooter?
Harley.

17

General Discussion / Happy Groundhog Day!

« on: February 02, 2019, 09:14:19 AM »

Six more weeks of Winter..... 

Stupid Groundhog.

F.H.

18

General Discussion / Various Thoughts and Cogitations, New Version

« on: October 15, 2018, 08:50:45 PM »

I've been neglecting my column that I used to put a lot of "thought"  into, and I have had some
requests, (one,) to revive It. The last version is back about page eleven!
So I was thinking: Except for the obvious: Death, disease, and maybe taxes, there's not much that
is worse than bad neighbors. The modern version of that is much worse than the antique version was.
When I was a child the worst neighbor, possibly, that we had yelled VERY loudly at his wife when he
was drinking. (Never touched her as far as I know.) A finer woman never lived and he was a fine man
when sober. Next was a man with a heart of gold who would help any neighbor do anything. However,
I hated to see him coming because he liked to brag on himself, and he liked to tell really stupid tall
tales. The closest neighbors we had weren't really neighbors at all. (She was Dad's first cousin.) The
two of them were actually my second set of parents. I miss them almost daily.
No one locked their doors and didn't need to. I knew almost everyone from our house to downtown, a
mile away. Oh, for the fine neighborhood of long ago.
Harley.

19

General Discussion / The Answer is.....

« on: July 14, 2018, 06:29:13 PM »

Today I might have asked myself:" Was the fun factor worth being in the sun, being hot for
six stages?" The answer is.....YES!
Come out and play, you know you want to.
F.H.

P.S.- By my count, 17 of 24 were some form of Gunfighter!

20

General Discussion / Way Off Topic: A Poem

« on: May 30, 2018, 10:20:04 PM »

A True Story:
                        The Tale of the No-Tail Fox

What dire portent can it be?
Such an impossible creature no tail to see
A fox: So proud of long and luxuriant tail
Was it an accident, or did nature fail?
I have seen this thing, no lie
Not even a stub, I know not why
Seen mostly by day and not by night
Seems confident but doesn't move right
The perfect head of a fox, no argument
But the body and hips of a piglet
Could be pregnant, what of the offspring?
More later, let's see what time brings
It looks dangerous, maybe gone mad
Well, either that or I have.....
F.H.

21

General Discussion / The South's 20 Seasons

« on: March 12, 2018, 11:40:27 AM »

1- Hunting
2- Winter
3- Pollen
4- Winter
5- Tornado
6- So Much Pollen
7- One More Winter
8- Tornado
9- Attack of the Mosquitos
10- Summer
11- More Summer
12- Even More Summer
13- Please, Lord! Make this summer end!
14- Football
15- Tornado
16- Fall
17- Just kidding, here's some more summer
18- Winter
19- Christmas
20- Maybe one more Summer

Harley. (Notice there is no Spring and not really any Fall.)

22

General Discussion / How Cold Was It?

« on: January 02, 2018, 08:59:46 AM »

It was 5 degrees here, this morning.
Coldest day of the year, (only been two.)
Harley.
Wonder how Johnny Carson would have answered that question.

23

General Discussion / Post on the Rangers Forum

« on: April 25, 2017, 06:52:18 PM »

There is a post on the Rangers website by Cherokee Slim. "Helping the Widow."
Just FYI if anyone can help.
Harley.

I do remember a Blacksmith Scott at Oak Ridge. Disappeared years ago, (we only know why now, I guess.)
Harley.
 

 
 
 

24

General Discussion / Last Kiss Update

« on: January 20, 2017, 08:44:50 PM »

Wanted to let our Cowboy friends/family know that she finally had the long awaited outpatient
surgery and is doing reasonably well. A lot of pain and discomfort, but that was to be expected.
One hand is immobilized for six weeks, out of work for probably eight weeks, and rehab for six
months. She won't be shooting and probably won't be attending matches except maybe in good
weather.
Thanks for all the well wishes she's had already, and thanks in advance for all the good thoughts
I hope you will send her way.
As for me, I may be doing domestics, but I am not domesticated.
Harley.

25

General Discussion / How much did you get?

« on: January 07, 2017, 10:03:18 AM »

Snow, that is.
Two inches of somehow wet snow here at the Harley House.
Don't understand how it could be wet at 14 degrees this morning.
F.H.

26

Trading Post / Safe Queens, anyone?

« on: December 06, 2016, 10:52:40 AM »

Just gonna put this out there. I just recently missed a .44mag. 7 1/2 inch Uberti Cattleman on
the SASS wire classifieds that I would have bought. ($300.)
I might be interested in something similar if anyone has a 7 1/2 inch safe queen. (Not many use
the long barrels these days.) I would prefer .44 mag. so I can use .44 special, but would consider
.44-40, .45 Colt, .357 mag./.38 which are the calibers I can currently load.
I'm talking Colt clones here and probably can't afford a pair, right now, but that would be the goal.
What cha got ?
Harley.

27

General Discussion / Long Gulch, Pistol Creek, and Fast Harley Go West, the Sequel

« on: November 02, 2016, 09:42:07 PM »

A Trip to Tombstone, or "Where can it be this land called, 'Helldorado?' " (Look it up.)
Sorry, Harley has a "stupid phone," so nothing got posted.

Day 1- Long Gulch & Pistol Creek arrived at the Harley House and we departed at 7:00am.
We drove the wagon built by the Dodge Bros., and a supply wagon, pulled by hundreds of mules.
(Gasoline is horsepower, diesel is mule power.)
Along the way visited Toad Suck. Yeah, really. (Look it up.) Legend says that the best guess for the name is
that idle river men would suck the bottle in the taverns until they "swelled up like toads!" (Look it up.)
Stopped for the night in Alma, Arkansas. (Look it up.)
(Began to learn that a popular country theme restaurant uses clones.)
Day 2 - Saw, but did not eat at a restaurant where the theme is: "One thing at a time."
Arrived about lunch time at the World Famous, (Look it up,) BIG TEXAN STEAK RANCH, in Amarillo.
Was good, but we did not eat the 72 oz.'er.
The vistas in Oklahoma, Texas panhandle, and New Mexico were something to behold.
Down for the night in Moriarity, N. M.  Jumping off point for End of Trail.
The hotel was the first place I ever stayed in with imaginary soap. It would lather, then disappear.
 Day 3 - Left in a cloud of dust and later had breakfast in Grants, N.M. It was 41 degrees outside, (seriously,) but
colder inside due to something they called "air." No, really.
Over every rise here there is another impossible panorama.
Passed through East Gallup, Gallup, and West Gallup. Could have just been Full Gallup.  ROFLOL (Look it up.)
Went through part of the petrified forest. Traversed Winslow , Arizona, where the is a statue on a corner
of a man called Glen Frey. (Look it up.) Never thought I would ever be there.
Passed but did not see the Barringer meteor crater. Said to be the best preserved in the world.
Approached Flagstaff , AZ. and to our surprise began to see  hundreds of acres of  ponderosa pines.
Very high, here, Mt. Humpheys, nearby is well more than 12,000 feet. (Look it up.)
Down through a gorge with the most fantastic cliffs and canyons you could ever imagine . No, really. No mere
words could ever describe. (Look it up.)
On to Sedona, AZ. where it is said that there is a great amount of spiritual energy. (I don't doubt it.)
Sedona has a least a dozen of something called roundabouts to control the wagon traffic. I hate 'em.
I wrote a poem:
Roundabouts that evil thing so insane
Need to go back from whence they came
In Europe they seem just fine
But in Arizona they're way out of line
Why, one town planned so many couldn't put 'em all there
The last one's in the middle of nowhere!
Round and round until you're dizzy, you see
A waste of time and money, it has to be!
You can't tell what the other fellow is doing
With square corners you just keep moving

Made it to Prescott Valley, AZ. and a four story hotel cut into a hillside.
The country restaurant has a new and different kind of clone.
A late evening thunderstorm, (that's right,) only one in America!
Lasted about an hour.
More later.....
Harley.
By the way, Long Gulch posted a wonderful dissertation, but it was lost in the ether, forever.

28

General Discussion / For Those That Knew Him

« on: October 18, 2016, 09:55:38 PM »

The Rev. Adam Jones from the Rangers has passed away.
Harley.

29

General Discussion / Tn. State Report

« on: October 09, 2016, 06:12:52 PM »

A beautiful weekend in middle Tennessee!
A big thank you to Papa Dave, Whiskey Hayes, Randy Saint Eagle, Cumberland Drifter, Wes Outlaw,
Charlie Bowdrie, Berm Marshals, the Ladies and Gentlemen behind the scenes, any and all who had
a hand in this great state match.
Just a few twists and turns in the match, but one reason I love it is that always, at least on a
stage or two, you have to think about how to do it so that it works for you. If there was no
challenge what good would it be?
Last Kiss and I had a very enjoyable few days. Good friends, great posse, great food, (and along
that track, went to Bell Buckle Café three times.) It is my understanding that there are no rules
as to how many times you can eat there.
Clean, reasonable rate hotel stay in Tullahoma!
Nice travel to and from, (except the traffic jam on 24!)
Sorry we had to leave in the afternoon after the match and miss the banquet. Maybe someone will
tell us how that was.
Congrats to the Overall Champs, the State Champs, the category winners, and Clean Shooters, like
me!
If the world stands,and outside issues don't interfere,(perish the thought,) we will be back next
year.
Harley.

30

General Discussion / THE WIDDERMAKER

« on: August 18, 2016, 12:30:55 PM »

The "Man With the Little Irons" on his hip
Of his choice of calibers you best give no lip
Float like butterfly, sting like bee, faster than eye can see
Yeah, you know that's faster than you and me
The World's Fastest Gunfighter, folks
It's in the books, it a'int no joke
On Marlins and little .22's he's a genius
He's been of great service to most of us
When it comes to a challenge are there any takers?
You better think about it 'cause he's The Widdermaker!

Harley.