Time to do what I always intended to do.

I may have started this blog for the purposes of classwork, but under it all, I intended some day to be a gun blogger.

So, I'll start with My Very Favorite Gun™: my M-14.

Specifications as shown:

• LBR Arms M-14 semiautomatic M-14 receiver
• Sage International enhanced battle rifle stock with stripper clip sight base
• A.R.M.S #22 medium height scope rings
• Leupold VX-3L scope
• Grippod GPS02
• 20 round magazine

Assembled with GI parts by master M-14 armorer Ted Brown

OK, I have the gear. Now what am I going to do with it?

I'm going to shoot it of course!

Let's lay out clearly where I'm starting from: my family was never into firearms of any kind, so I don't have a background from that angle.

I was an officer in the Air Force, but if you think that qualifying with a 9mm Beretta a few times lends any general familiarity with firearms, you've got another thing coming. I'd opine that I learned more about poker while in the Air Force than I did about firearms.

I came to my real passion for firearms courtesy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the bequest of my Grandfather.

When my grandfather passed on, he specified three things in his will for me:

• A YF-16 roll-out coin (he worked for General Dynamics)
• A framed picture of several F-16 models, including the F-16XL (a company executive-only perk, surreptitiously acquired)
• A Colt 1911 Series 70

My first duty station in the USAF was England, so, obviously, I couldn't take possession of the pistol there.

My second duty station was Hanscom AFB, where I supposedly could take possession of the pistol. Some people would get discouraged by the barriers Massachusetts puts up against firearm ownership. I got determined and pissed off. Once you take the dive, you might as well learn to swim.

So, now I have a rifle, and a fine one. One that, as I required of Mr Brown, could absolutely out-shoot me. My challenge is to rise to the capabilities of my rifle.

So, that is the theme of this blog, when I 'm not digressing off onto tangents: My process of learning to shoot. Eventually, it will also include the progress of my offspring learning to shoot in about 1.5 years.

What is all this then?

How in the world did I end up with a blog?

By and large, most blogs I've seen are inhabited by people for whom the epitome of expression is "OMG WTF LOL@NEWBS!!1!!1!!one!!". They remind me of the guy that shared a computer with me in my Junior High computer class. He would giggle like a loon as he randomly dragged his fingers on the keyboard, thrilled that his actual fingers made actual letters appear on a screen.

Of the remainder that can string one word after another in some reasonable approximation of some written language, most are filled with people that can't reason their way out of a paper bag. I'd blame the public school system, but the worst offenders claim to have an Ivy League education.

Of that fraction, most don't have anything to talk about that interests me.

They say 90% of everything is crap. Due to the magic of the internet, I'd increase that by a power of three. (Update: 90% to the third power is 72.9%. Obviously, not what I am intending to convey. Instead, the inverse: 10% of everything is worth-while, and on the internet, that is to the third power, thus 0.1% is worthwhile, and the remaining 99.9% is crap.) So why would I want to dive into the compost pile that is the blogosphere, with the narcissists, idiots and [insert topic] geeks?

'Cuz I has to. Shucky-darn.

And since I have to, I suppose I'll set this up properly so I can get some use out of it. I have some ground rules for myself:

• Outside of classwork requirements, I'm doing this for my own enjoyment. I owe nothing to anyone.


• This is my clubhouse. If, hypothetically, someone wanted to comment on one of my posts, I'll keep the post if it is on-topic and non-trollish, even if the poster disagrees with me with some facts and reasoning. I'll throw away the rest.


• My instructors and classmates will be able to identify me with this blog. Other than that, I'm keeping myself to myself. I don't see any value in attaching my name to the blog for self-aggrandizement purposes, and relative anonymity has its virtues.