You're here reading this. That's a fact. Why not leave a note behind for us all to enjoy. I'm sure you can see that about 85-90% of the forum post activity is being carried by just a few people. It takes time to shoot, and then make up the major posts from your data. Takes almost no time at all to encourage those who have taken the effort to draft a nice post.

We're hoping to build a reference tool here as well. I've learned a number of things from reading. Learned where to get some things. Learned that some things exist that I'd never heard of before. It's been fun. Please join in.

Gary

Indeed. We need to encourage guys like Cedric to share his projects and outings and I'm pretty sure we all want to see more pictures from Neil as he hunts in God's country!

God's Country?

He's coming to Montana?

Ha Ha! I thought that might get a reaction. Do cameras work in Montana? They sure do in New Zealand and Neil has sent in some pictures of hunting grounds I would love to just stand in and admire!

Hehehe Dan. One of the largest producers of wine in New Zealand is a company called Montana Wines. You been sampling their product huh?

you are right , when i finally finish welding up a crate of a merc for a friend , i will post some whiscombe pictures , hope the break went well gary , and your back on tip top form .

Been here reading quite a bit but not much to post on the airgun front. It's been a bit cold up here, but you do expect that in winter when living in AK. ; )

For a bit of variety, how about guessing what this is...

Horfrost.

Beautiful stuff!

Always neat to see where everybody lives, and the stuff they like.

Gary

I've got one that's close (but different):



-- Jim

Right on the money, but the scale was surprising. The clusters were about the size of tennis balls, and some of the individual frost crystals were over an inch across. These were all over the surface of Chilkat lake near my home, millions of them. In an unusual sequence of events we got a couple of weeks of temps well below freezing with no snow and almost no wind. Most years the lake usually isn't safe to skate, but this year the ice was about eight-ten inches thick and absolutely flat, with no snow. It was perfect for skating, and the covering of ice crystals was so fragile that you couldn't even feel them underfoot. This was around Christmas, and that near the solstice the sun never touches the lake. Unfortunately since then it wamed up into the forties and rained for days, then snowed heavily. The lake is buried under heavy snow now, and the surface is probably quite rough underneath, bummer. It sure was neat while it lasted, if you've only skated indoors it's quite a treat to just go for miles and miles. Of course, there's also those weird booming echos from underneath the ice, and it is a bit weird to think that the water under you is hundreds of feet deep.

WAY COOL pic Rotor!

Rotor that is truly spectacular! And you said no wind? Gimme some of that!!

That's an amazing rare situation. Once in a lifetime pic there. Bet you Son will be your age before he sees that again!

The pics of Horfrost I posted last year were the first I'd ever seen in this area - 54 years.

Gary

Bigbore reporting.

Now, you guys know you would be pissed......excuse me, Keith, can you pass my iced tea?...........sorry......were was I? Oh, yeah, pictures of our locations, nuff said.

Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2009 05:09AM by Bigbore.

Oh ... that's low .... and me freezing my buttstock off this am ...

looks amazing , really nice pics , frost is incredable , thanks.

Some good snow here at the momment, but I'm guessing that a picture of my frozen pond will not quite butter the parsnips.....

Oh don't worry Bigbore, I still drink iced tea every day. It's just that if I leave it in the car too long I have to thaw it before I can drink the rest. ; ) Call me crazy, but I'd rather have to wear a jacket most days than to suffer the heat down there again. I guess my time spent in LA ruined me for the weather down south.

BTW, thats LA as in Lower Alabama. ; ) Home of fire ants, matching triple digit heat and humidity, and boiled peanuts (but I actually like the peanuts!).

I like winter also, but my body complains too much when it gets cold outside.

Lon, do you need more ice in your tea?

Keith

boiled peanuts , you mean like peas , sounds interesting , ive only ever had them roasted , now i think i may be missing out on something here.

Boiled peanuts are a snack food unique to lower Alabama as far as I know. Perhaps they're available in other places where they grow, but you find them all over the place sold at roadside stands and such down in 'LA'. They pick them a bit green and boil them in the shells (and usually still on the vine) in very salty water. They sell little brown bags of them hot out of the pot, and they've got a very unique taste and texture. The shells come right off, and the peanuts are a bit chewy, almost like al-dente pasta, and very savory. The flavor is different from peanuts either roasted or raw, and not at all like peanut butter, almost a little like cooked chickpeas. I've seen them in cans, but they don't taste nearly as good as fresh.

Hmmm, makes me wonder if peanuts would grow up here. Potatoes do great, but some stuff just needs a longer season than we have up here. Might have to try.

Yes, I can attest to that. While engaged in rotorwing training at "Mother Rucker" aka Ft. Rucker, Al., most of the primary flight training
IP's were civilians and they were primarily peanut farmers moonlighting under contract to teach primary helo flight training.
My IP knew all these tiny little confined areas in the middle of peanut fields for confined area approaches in TH-55's.
Of course, my guy showed up every day with a bag of "goobers". (boiled peanuts). We were "required" to try some "goobers"
before the days flaying and they weren't half bad. In fact I rather miss them.
Cheers,
K

Back to Barnes' initial post/point.....i 100% agree. There always soooooooo many lurkers and yet no one ever sais anything. I have said this time and time again on most airgun forums. People just look and have NOTHING to say. Heck, i even welcome newcomers when they join and say their first hello. IT HELPS. And Gary is right, it takes a TON of time to shoot for 8 hours then drive home 1.5 hours and edit and download pics and then TYPE A STORY to include all the info you can remember and paste and post pics. It is a lot of work.

So just stop by and say anything. Even "good work" or "that sucks" is better than seeing 250 VIEWS and only 5 replies to your post. That is very disheartening.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2009 04:21AM by Tofazfou.

Spot on Cedric! I think most folks that lurk and don't comment appreciate the posts but don't appreciate that a little feedback would go a long way. I just got back from shooting with Gary and I've got enough info for several posts. I just edited the pictures and a bunch of videos. Most of the stuff is just fun but I think I might have spotted something in one of the high speed videos that will explain something and help get better groups/accuracy in the future. But, 4.5 hours of driving and another 2 hours of photo/video editing have taken their toll and I'm going to go to sleep and put together posts tomorrow...

Hi Cedric,

On the money.

You'd have to have "been there" to realize the depressing nature of devoting sooooo much time to sharing, for sooooo little feedback. I know people just don't think about it. If they do think of it, well ... as it applies to me ... I suspect they figure it's just the nature of my business to have to provide all this entertainment (after all ... I'm the one getting filthy rich off of all of this ). However; there's a direct relationship to your enthusiasm for giving up your free hours in order to provide late night reading material for people you've never met round the globe ... and feedback.
Often, I've compared it to steaming up fifty pounds of shrimp every night, and laying out a buffet for guests. Then, in the morning, finding nothing but dirty dishes and shrimp shells ... no comments, no tips. Then trying to get all excited about doing it again tonight.

We all enjoy when readers share. The entertainers need to be entertained too.

Gary

Lucky you!

The only thing my primary IP shared with me was frequent smacks up-side the helmet when he thought I wasn't listening. ; ) Nice enough guy once I got through primary, but not perhaps the most patient man I've ever met.

I've enjoyed Gary's site for years, photos and daily comments. Are there good beginners air rifles in the $100, $200, $300, $400, $500 range ? Good for pesty rodents

Gunker,

Go ahead and start a new topic about starter guns. I'm sure some guys here will chime in!

Well,

I might ask one question too:

Are there some good books about PCP guns and physics around them?

Well, like Gary said by reading one could learn some great things on or concerning this reality of ours, and physical things which command our guns. Gary's pages are a really good informational thing which have taught me very much and I like to learn more about PCP guns and their nature.

Do you know some good books which could be recommended and are about our guns?

I think I need to know some more facts and things regarding PCP guns. I want to know, for example things like getting the most out of our guns, predicting, calculating and utilizing the mesurements of ports and reservoirs, hammers and valves in relation to the caliber in question and the pressure in use, and so on...

Is there for example some ideal ratios between the transfer port and ciliber of muzzle, and are therre some ideal weight of hammers, power of springs in certain pressures....facts about expanding air and power to put the bullet in speed....

Hey guys, a bit of an open-ended question but it's at least airgun related. ; )

Has anyone ever built an airgun that used high-pressure solenoids or electronically actuated valves? It seems that much of the art vs. science in PCP design is dealing with the inevitable compromises imposed by a mechanical valve system. If you could control the lift and duration of the firing valves opening cycle electronically it would open up a lot of possibilities. I've recently read an article about electronically controlled intake and exhaust valves being used on an experimental diesel engine for a class 8 truck, and Formula I cars have used pneumatic valves with no mechanical springs for several seasons. It's fairly routine to deal with high-pressure pneumatic and hydraulic systems via electronic methods in industrial processes, but I've never seen electric valves used in a rifle.

It may well be that the existing hardware is just too power-hungry and/or bulky to be used in a rifle or pistol. I just don't know, but I'm wondering if anyone else has ever heard of it being tried.

Hi Rotorhead,

there is at least one airgun company which uses electronical valve systems in their airguns: Daystate.

Those airguns are all small bores though...

Take alook at this: [www.cones-stuff.co.uk]

Sepeteus,

I just read the articles on the rifle with the solenoid-operated valve, thanks very much for the URL.

It's amazing that they were able to incorporate so many unique features through the electronics. Not only does it adjust the valve duration to achieve a user-specified velocity with any weight pellet, but it does it automatically just by firing the desired pellets. They built a chronograph right into the muzzle, so you always know exactly how fast your projectiles are going. The only other guns I know of that do that are either self-propelled howitzers or tank main guns!

It IS kinda funny how the author gripes a bit about getting "only" seventy-five shots between air fills. ; ) It also seems a bit strange to end up with a seven pound action and a six pound stock for a .177 airgun that already had no perceptible recoil. Very pretty laminated stock, but it weighs about what I'd expect the whole rifle to weigh in that caliber.

Aircraft carrier catapults have built in chronographs too!

Hello Jerry,

Didn't think of that but it makes a lot of sense. The stakes are a bit higher if they bunt one off the deck a bit too slowly. Not only does the pilot go for a swim (or worse), but...what's it run to replace an F-18 these days?

I'd also like to know how they keep those chronos functioning that are built into a 155 howitzer or an M-1 Abrams main gun. The civilian ones I've worked with had skyscreens that couldn't stay up and running with a stiff breeze blowing and would fall apart with any muzzle blast rougher than a .22 LR. I've seen the giant fireballs that belch out of an M-109 or an M-1, and they're loud enough to hear miles away over the noise of a helicopter in flight, with your helmet on, with earplugs! The average consumer chronograph would be a half-incinerated pile of crushed bits if it was anywhere near one of those going off, let alone being strapped to the muzzle!

I suspect you'd find transducers recording the shock wave thru the barrel steel, and computing velocity based upon that data. I doubt there's little sun screens on there. haha.

Gary

Like a little ultrasound rig reading right through the barrel wall? Might just could be, I guess it could also be an electrical contact of some kind. All of the projectiles are conductive metals after all, even the sabots for the tank rounds. I'm sure it's out there somewhere on the net, everything else seems to be. ; )

I have no idea how the howitzer and M1 main gun measure velocity but the catapult just had brushes on the carriage. Stoeage technology but very reliable.

The Navy guys use an interesting mix of cutting-edge and Edwardian-era tech every day. Even with the nuke boats, they're really just another kind of steam engine in the end.

If they have a system that works reliably even when it's exposed to salt spray 24/7, crammed under a deck stuffed with heavy machinery and maintained by junior enlisted techs, I'd say that's pretty amazing by itself no matter how it works. ; ) Thats more than I can say for the outboard motor on my skiff, and it's practially brand-new by comparison. ; )