I hope everyone had as nice a day as I did!
Nothing spectacular like winning money, or getting laid, or anything...

Went to the gun club range this morning to test my "new" rifle. A circa 1920 German Haenel-Aydt target rifle with left-hand stock. I spotted this rifle for auction several months ago, but lost the auction to another local club member. That club member then found another rifle more suited to what he wanted to do with it, and sold me this one. (and for this I'm grateful! I've looked for one like this for almost 20 years with a left-handed stock!)

(photo taken for another purpose, but it's the best I have of this rifle thus far).



I developed some loads for an "old fashioned Schuetzen Match" that I'm running in January. I don't have the ammunition quite "tuned up" yet, but I got a lot further along than I was.


Then, an older gentleman brought forth a real treasure from his gun case...
He had just purchased at live-auction in the SF Bay Area one of only 500 Hammerli Olympic rifles ever made. They only made three "batches" of these rifles; one for the Swiss Olympic Team in 1924, another batch for the 1928 Olympics, and the last (of which this is one) for the United States Team for the 1932 Olympics.

You see, the Swiss team beat the pants off the US in the 300 Meter 3-Position event in '24 and '28, and we wised up and ditched our former rifle of choice and purchased some of the Hammerli rifles... We beat the Swiss in the event in '32.

This is one of those rifles that a guy probably only sees one or two of in a lifetime... Most of them have long been lost, or rather modified from their original condition and configuration (destroying their value).
This one is "wearing" a later era scope, but the owner has the original target sights.




This rifle is also PHENOMENALLY accurate! AND it has the finest target trigger I have ever used (and I've used quite a few!).
The owner twisted my arm and made me shoot it... (he knows that I'm a competitive shooter, and have better vision than he does...)
This is a 5 shot group at 100 yards from a bench-rest.
I know most of you aren't shooters... but you can trust me when I say that 5 shots inside a dime-diameter at 100 yards with a 75 year old target rifle is very VERY good.
It's a HEAVY summanumbatch though! Around 18 pounds. I'd HATE to have had to hold it up for an entire 120 shot match course!




Just as I was packing up my things, another shooter of my acquaintance showed up with yet another extraordinarily rare and fine arm...
A Belgian made "Le Clerq" Olympic Practice Pistol. This sort of pistol was used in the early 1900's (just pre-WWI, say 1910 to 1915 or so).
The new owner of this one has only been able to verify ONE other example of this model.. in the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody Wyoming. That one is serial number 15, the one in this picture is serial number 16.
The pistol has some "issues" with some damaged screws, and some pitting in the bore, but it's a sort of pre-WWI class that more modern target pistols just don't have.





Not only did I get to handle and fire a couple arms that are rare, unusual, and in their own ways, exceptional... but I had a good time testing my own rifle, but spending time at our range is always pleasant.... 400 yards from the Pacific Ocean, nice partly cloudy morning... cool, but not cold...
Couldn't have asked for a nicer day... (except for that winning money or getting laid part, of course...).


Hope everyone else has a wonderful Christmas Eve, and Christmas, doing things YOU enjoy!

---

Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

--

--
Eureka, CA

I just wanted to do the "money/laid" thing, but I settled for robbing a convenience store.

Hey... it's Christmas, and I heard they were in a "giving mood" at 7-11!

Had a good day baking kolach, a Slovak pastry, and church service this eve with all my adult kids plus boyfriend. Then visit with friends, and come home to a codfish dinner with a cilantro pesto sauce made by the boyfriend. He's a killer cook, I hope he becomes a son-in-law someday.

Finished off with Wallace and Gromit cartoons.

Different than your day Paul, but happy too. I'm glad you enjoyed your day with something you loved to do, and I hope all our dealmac friends had a good day today and have a great one tomorrow.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukah!

---

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts

Jimmypoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just wanted to do the "money/laid" thing, but I
> settled for robbing a convenience store.
>
> Hey... it's Christmas, and I heard they were in a
> "giving mood" at 7-11!
>
>


Having been on the receiving end of a beating during a robbery at a c-store where I work in October of this year I don't really appreciate the humor here..

being a forgiving person I rfealize that sometimes we must revert to simple things for simple minds

as to the topic itself..fantastic and glad for all your pleasure Paul

Looks like you had a great day, Paul.

Don't sweat the 7-11 comments. Some people couldn't tell a Hammerli from a hammer, nor would they care.

Glad you had a great day, Paul . . .

AND getting laid just gives you something to look forward to . . .


cheers and Merry Christmas

---

Bill
Flagler Beach, FL 32136

Carpe Vino!

Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.
— David Rains Wallace

Wow. Cool story. I'm not a shootist, but I can feel the excitement in your post. Thanks for sharing.

---

Don't ask who the bell's for, dude. It's you.

Let me get this straight ... you celebrated the birth of Baby Jesus by SHOOTING A GUN?!

Just kiddin wit ya ... not the way I would have spent today, HOWEVER I'm not such a lout that I can't appreciate YOUR appreciation of fine guns/rifles and the pleasure you can get from them ... that Hammerli rifle is an amazing thing to see and I sincerely thank you for sharing that with us (and I'm one of the most anti-gun people you'll ever meet, but even *I* know a work of art when I see one).

Glad you had fun. Hope you (and everyone) have a great new year.

Actually, if you check the date/time of my post, I celebrated the day BEFORE the birthday of Jesus that way...

At some point, i'm going to get some good pictures of that gentlemans OTHER rifle... A pre-WWI German rifle that ANYONE who appreciates fine woodwork or metalwork would appreciate. It's like handling fine jewelry.

---

Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

--

--
Eureka, CA

You work in a convenience store?


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Jimmypoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You work in a convenience store?
>
>
> HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


djroga3, I hope you'll ignore that rudeness. :-/

I worked at a 7-11 many years ago. After our night clerk (an elderly woman) was severely beaten in a robbery and a clerk at another store down the road where I'd previously worked was killed, my family made me quit working there. So sorry to hear you were beaten in a robbery!

I enjoyed working there, it's honest work, and kind of fun if you enjoy interacting with lots and lots of people. At the time, it was one of the highest paid jobs I could find between years in college.

---

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·´How about if you greased them up first? Are chihuahua's cooperative pack hunters? ~TheCaber

So -- how come you haven't repremanded Paul for showing guns - when other people at numerous C-Stores have been killed with GUNS (possibly one of the above??)?

My previous post to that effect was removed.

I can't possibly know who/what has been involved in what. This person finds my "humor offensive" - as if I'm supposed to know about his history at a C-Store??

Get real.

I'm willing to bet that someone on this forum finds the display of guns, target or otherwise, offensive because someone in their family was KILLED by one.

But what does Mr. C-Store do? "Fantastic! Thread!" or whatever.

Such hypocrisy.

Just my two cents:

Paul F. started a thread about going target shooting and looking at antique guns. He did not aim at fluffy animals, nor did he aim at humans. He aimed at paper targets. He is not in training for anything nefarious.

Jimmypoo made a joke about robbing a convenience store, a non sequitur.

People objected to the joke.

Jimmypoo, if you are going to dish it out, please learn to take it as well.

There is no dishing out.

I made a joke about nobody. suddenly it is politically incorrect to make jokes about robbing a convenience store.

I dished out to no individual. So if people here want to suggest I'm neither politically correct or insensitive, then I suggest they look in the mirror and re-read what they, themselves, post.

Had I said something about a Post Office.... then I guess I should have known a member here was one of the people of past days who happened to take one by someone gone postal?

Get real, get serious, or better yet, get UNSERIOUS.

Object to a joke all you want. Don't object to it because I (or anyone else, for that matter) am supposed to know your life story.

I don't want to get jimmypoo riled up any further, and I apologize for my part in Paul F's thread-jacking, but I just want to clarify what *I* was objecting to here...

I don't care in the slightest about guns - if others enjoy them or hate them, that's their business - I have absolutely zero interest one way or the other. I had no problem with Paul F's gun post, I would have no problem if someone expressed an anti-gun sentiment, I would have no problem if someone expressed an anti-"anti-gun" sentiment.

I personally had no problem with jimmypoo's joke about robbing a 7-11 - it made me chuckle, actually. I have spent years reading his non sequiturs and for the most part find them hilarious, even if they are more often than not, rather disturbingly twisted. jimmypoo has a lot of knowledge to share, and his way-out-there online persona is pretty interesting, to me at least. So I hope it's clear that I don't have a problem with jimmypoo or his original joke.

The only thing that I did have a problem with, and I quoted it in my post, was this:

Jimmypoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You work in a convenience store?
>
>
> HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


I thought that was low and mean and constituted a personal attack on djroga3. I saw that it was djroga3's first post on the forum here, and I thought it was not right to let someone demean them for where s/he works without saying so.

I had originally just voted to remove the "HAHAHAHA" post and had typed out a PM to djroga3 saying basically what I said in my earlier post. But then I decided to just say my thoughts publicly and risk being flamed for it.

So, hopefully I've made my position clear on this little tempest in a teapot. My only problem with jimmypoo here was his unnecessarily mean mocking of someone's employment. :-/

---

*´¨)
¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·´How about if you greased them up first? Are chihuahua's cooperative pack hunters? ~TheCaber