Miscellaneous Musings

• I'll be at the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston from Thursday through Sunday. I'll be picking up TOTWTYTR from the airport at noon, and hopefully we'll get to do a little skeet shooting at American Shooting Center to prepare him for Epic Duck Hunt 2013. Anyone who'd like to join us, just drop me an email here or message me on Facebook.

• With the installation of a red dot sight on her AR15, KatyBeth has rediscovered her love of shooting. Now that she can whack a target with minimal help from me (other than steadying the shooting sticks), she's digging it, big time. A couple of weeks ago, she asked me for a pistol for her birthday. So last week, when The Girlfriend and I were out shopping, I bought her a Walther P22 with laser sight and took her shooting with it as soon as we got home.

Yeah, I know Katy's birthday isn't for another six months, but who can resist a smile like this?

She needs work on, well, pretty much everything, but she was able to ventilate a 12-pack of soda cans, shooting one-handed. Most importantly, she did it by herself. We'll have plenty of time to work on grip and trigger squeeze later.

So, come November, I'll just have to get her another birthday gift, like, say, a brick of .22 LR. Hopefully, it won't cost as much as the pistol by then.

• While we're bragging upon my kid, she accompanied me to my last speaking gig at the Missouri ICE Conference. This is a 10-year-old kid, and she endured a 12-hour drive, each way, and sat through every one of my talks without a peep. Hell, she even took notes better than most of my EMT students, and charmed the conference organizers. I wish I could have seen the look on her 4th grade teacher's face when Katy came home and asked her, in all seriousness, "So, I know what you teach us in the cognitive and psychomotor domains, but what suggestions would you give for teaching in the affective domain?"

• I've never been compared to Morpheus before, but I'm kinda digging it. In fact, I think my new motto is, "There is no spoon."

• Most people want to be liked, and I am no exception. But if I paid attention to some speaker evaluations, I'd be convinced that I am A) an arrogant bastard, B) possessed of a totally inappropiate sense of humor for an EMS instructor or conference speaker, C) a foul-mouthed buffoon, D) an idiot with nothing educational to offer, or E) all of the above.

  Instead, I console myself with the fact that those evaluations are outnumbered 25:1 by those who like what I do.

  And judging from the handwriting and verbiage, a small handful of attendees who hated my guts and vowed to never attend another lecture I ever presented… attended all six of my lectures. I guess some people are just gluttons for punishment.

• I think I'm going to like my new Remington 887. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a new range report on it after tomorrow, but my first impressions are generally positive. My only beef is that the action isn't nearly as smooth as my 870's, but nothing will fix that but time and lots of shooting. Although perhaps, I can speed up that process a bit with the application of some Clover valve-lapping compound to the action rails. It works pretty well to smooth up a stiff bolt-action rifle, so I see no reason why it shouldn't do the same for a sticky pump shotgun.

Originally, the plan was to convert my 870 into a home defense shotgun, but I can't bring myself to modify a hunting gun that points and swings so naturally. Instead, I think I'll have it refinished in Cerakote, and I'll send my Browning BPS off to have it converted to a home-defense shotgun. The dearth of aftermarket tactical accessories for the BPS will make that an extensive custom gunsmithing job, but luckily I know a good one who can do the work on the BPS and the 870.

That is, if I can liberate my 1911 from him first…