Texas does not approve of taking "game animals" with airgun. Whitetail deer are considered to be game animals

Being from the East coast, our trashing of hunting are firmly wrapped up with Whitetail. It's WHAT you "hunt"

Well ... So happens that in 2001, I got a bug about making an in-line black powder gun. Designed and built it from scratch. 32 caliber. Texas has no caliber restrictions. It came to me one morning at coffee, that I could find the parts for that disassembled rifle, and check it out. I did so. While testing my 62 Orion with it's little light weight 485 grain slug, I tried my in-line BP gun. I found that 35 grains of fff Go-ex black powder drove my 189 grain twintail slug at 1,225 fps for 625 foot pounds. My Orion with it's 485 grain slug made 625 foot pounds in it's current tune. Hummmn. The basis for some nest comparisons! AND a whitetail gun. I got permission from Eric to bring it.

Packing all I needed, I decided against packing my flask. Something about sending a cylinder of explosive powder through the US mail. . Eric assured me there'd be no trouble getting powder. Heck, it was Texas. They most likely had it at every Mini-Mart.

Had it not been for the flat tire Eric had on the way to the airport to pick me up, we'd have had time to go to Cabalis. As it was, we drove thru the driving rain back to the tire store to get Erics new mounted tire and put the spare back under the truck.

Eric and I now know of at least 16 gun shops in central Texas that no longer carry black powder. Insurance regulations are brutal now. Not worth it. Nobody uses it.

To be continued.

Stupid word choices above are the result of my helpful iPhone spell check. Corrections later.

Trashing is supposed to be traditions in the first paragraph ...

Well, I'm home! Yeah!!!!

Break out the keyboards guys. Good to talk to you if you care to share too.

Gary

I'll add in this tag tonight. Eric was finally able, after great effort; to find a "guy" who reportedly had some black powder. Upon tracking the fella down, it turned out to be ff black powder. A more dirty stuff was never made. We used it, but a single shot would terribly foul the gun. I'd designed it to be easily taken down by hand, for cleaning. It's an in-line system using a musket cap. Shooting ten shots of the fff powder I had at home worked fine. After just two shots with this (and the second required brushing and pounding to load) the gun was so fouled as to be nearly impossible to disassemble.

I'll get into the hunting adventures/misadventures as I go ... should you be interested.

We had a great time looking for arrow heads (I actually found a broken one and flakes) ... and picking up dropped antlers. Had some great bar-b-que and pie. Met some really fine people. Loved the courteous nature of the folk out there. We worked our way around nearly everything Murphy threw at us. Was a good time.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2011 04:30AM by barnespneumatic.

Gary,

I feel guilty about my chuckling as I read the story. Sounds like you guys were persistent.

What spilling airrors?

Lon

sounds like my last attempt at a hunting trip. Plenty of adventure, not so much hunting. Lots of character built, like it or not.

Gary, I'm surprised you didn't whittle down some of those faux BP pellets to the correct spec for a shot or two. I wasn't aware that BP was missing. What do the flintlocks fill their pans with, I don't think a pellet of bp would work. Glad a good time was had by all.

Kent

It's a prepackaged world Kent. Get your muzzleloader shrink-wrapped on a card at Walmart for $169. Use their pill pellet propellants and sabot pistol bullets. Stray from the party line and you are shut out at every turn.

Yes, I suppose I could have ventured into the complete unknown and crushed pellets. Had respect for the critters and wanted repeatable performance. It all worked so well here during testing. I was so pleased. Figured I really had it nailed. Took all the tools and rods and brushes. Musket caps and cleaning patches. I had it all. All except 3f black powder.

It's the smallest assumed detail that turns you into a fool when it's not in place. You cannot recover from those missing elements to the equation. No matter how much effort you have put into the rest of the project.

We chased it all the way down the hole.

Gary

Iphone

I agree, I would not want to be the one whittling on pyrodex pellets. I understand the issue with a unique piece requiring unique solutions that are hard to find. It's not until you go looking for the specifics that you notice it's no longer on the shelf, the internet or even at the manufacturer. Guess that's why I have half a dozen boxes of buckshot on the shelf.

Kent

Hello Kent,

What we seem to have is a country now run by the lawyers and the insurance companies. We only delude ourselves if we think we are free to do as we please.

Just one man's humble observation.

Gary

Don't forget the influence of the mega-retailer and their wholesale suppliers and co-conspirators. WallyMartWorld has done more to "streamline" away access to seldom-used items than the hundred mom-n-pop stores they forced out of business. A world with only big-box stores is a world without access to a whole range of small parts and repair items, things that you can usually find in the nooks and crannies of small hardware stores but are complete lacking in the MegaLowMart marketing model.

Couple of thoughts you jarred loose.

I think what most people, today; are looking for ... is anonymity. Don't talk to me ... I don't see you. Let me slip in here, and get back out before anybody notices me. I'm in a big hurry ... no time to talk.

Can't do that in a Mom and Pop store. Where both Mom AND Pop want to talk. Can't browse, because someone is on you like a duck on a June bug wanting to help. Was a day that was part of your social structure. No more. Now we can find "input" everywhere. Don't need to put ourselves out. Take what is prepackaged and you might beat the next yellow light!

We've got a Mom and Pop forum right here. Hey - that's why you and I, Sean, have been doing most of the talking these last few days. Evidently YOU don't have a life, just like me. And so we're providing some entertainment for all the people that are really, really, really busy. Everybody else is over at Lowes. Dashing from Lowes to Home Depot ... nobody even saw them arrive or leave! Success.

Just a thought.

Once we manage to skim every interaction down to mere miliseconds, we'll have accumulated enough time to spend a few hours on one of those mass video game virtual worlds ....





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2011 12:30AM by barnespneumatic.

Did you mean "anonymity"? That's one weakness of this forum, no spell check. Or if there is one, I missed it somehow.

I know what you mean though. Living in a big city people just automatically assume that they'll never run into the person that's currently blocking their progress ever again, so why bother investing any time and energy in being nice to a stranger or waiting your turn or letting the other guy go first? There's no perceived payback for the effort of being even minimally polite, so why make that investmentment? You just rush around trying to optimise your own personal results, and the hell with everyone else. Might make things a bit difficult if one of those anonymous speedbumps that you run over while you're rushing around turns out to be someone that you know, but what are the odds?

And then there is the complete opposite.

Living in a small and isolated town (less than 2000 people in the winters, maybe 2500 in the summer) you have NO anonymity. Everyone knows pretty much everyone else, and usually what they're up to as well. And who they're related to, and where they live, and what kind of groceries they buy at the store, and who they're dating, and who THAT person was dating before that, and so on. Sometimes it's a good thing, since the kids here can rarely get away with much before mom and dad find out. Sometimes it gets really, really old. Regardess, you virtually always find someone in town that wants to talk for a while when you are out and about on your daily errands.

Since I'm homeschooling my son, I usually have time in my schedule to visit with folks when I run into them at the store or the post office (no home delivery) or wherever. Usually I don't mind, in fact often times I welcome the company since I'm home alone with an eight year old most of the day. He's a pretty smart kid, but you do get to missing adult conversation from time to time. A simple trip to the grocery store to pick up a dozen eggs rarely gets done in less than a half hour or forty-five minutes, even though the store is five minutes away. You have to figure "chat time" into your day planner, or you'll run hopelessly behind.

On the other hand, my wife HAS to work with people at the clinic every day. There's no getting away from folks even if she doesn't feel like visiting, and by the time she gets home she's pretty much done with the human race outside of our family. We don't get out to eat much, not only because there's almost nothing still open restaurant-wise, but because she doesn't want any more company. Often, she can't go to the store or get a tank of gas without somebody mentioning how hard it is to get an appointment or how long they've got to wait. Since she's got pretty much no control over that issue, she does get tired of hearing about it. People see her in the office every six months or a year, but she sees a half a dozen or more people in her chair every workday. She just gets tired of talking about work and work-related stuff with everyone she sees, even when she's NOT at work.

We both try to be polite to everyone around town, but human nature being what it is there are still a few people in town that we'd just rather not talk to sometimes. There are a couple people that I'm fine not talking with at any time. I'm sure that there are probably a few that feel much the same about me, for that matter. You don't have to get along with everyone in this life, but if you live in a small town you ARE going to run into them. There seems to be a whole spectrum of responses to the lack of anonymity that small town life brings, and some people definately deal with it better than others.

Hello Sean,

Interesting observations. Something I noticed in Texas ... everyone was courteous. Doesn't take long. Just eye contact and a simple head nod. They didn't grab me and force me to listen to some drawn out story. It wasn't that they were all sitting around a checker board on a plank sidewark. They were simply courteous. I've particularily noticed, since I got back here ... the extreme lengths people will go to ... to just avoid simple eye contact. They'll go so far as focusing on your left ear lobe for a microsecond ... but not be able to drag that final three inches. And, young people particularly, will simply refuse to even do the shoulder twist to allow passage on the street. They'll walk two or three abreast, full face on, and just expect you to dive for the curb when they get to you.

Then there's the 75-85% of people who feel it's just fine to walk between you and the can of beans you are studying on the shelf, and not so much as an acknowledgement that you are there. Last night, I stood taking in a camera display .... and a woman came and parked between myself and the cameras with her back to me. Barely room for her between me and the cameras. It's just gotten soooooo far out of control. You couldn't even shame most of the people. They don't even know what you are talking about.

Like most of society, I personally think it's gone over the top and is in free fall. You cannot educate two generations of people who have absolutely no clue what civil society was all about. It's hard enough to root out, even from myself; my own tendencies to rush, rush, and to avoid being tied up in an actual conversation. When the time is invested ... it's usually enjoyable.

Good talking to ya Sean! Stay warm tonight.

Gary

Hey - check out my Santa Video post. Fun for kids.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2011 02:17AM by barnespneumatic.

Politeness is not dead as a concept, it's just that it's present in inverse proportion to the population of the area in question. It's not even necessarily a red state/blue state thing, it's just that the bigger a city gets, the less polite its residents seem to be. Since whole swathes of the east coast are basically one big interconnected urban area / city now, it's probably asking too much to expect any politeness there.

There does seem to be a particular "vibe" along the east coast though, it's definately not "cool" for anyone under forty to admit that they know any polite manners. If TV shows like "Jersey Shore" are any indication, it's pretty much the exact opposite. The bigger jerk you can be, the more "Jersey-licous" you are, or something like that.

Makes you wonder when the inevitable backlash will begin, and the next generation will enter the New Victorian era.

I go to a local Subway for lunch during the work week. A new gal started there. As she noticed that I knew all her co-worker's names when I walked in and said hello to everyone, she introduced herself to me right off. She's from Michigan and had to leave to find work here in the east and can't believe how unfriendly and rude people are here. She thanked me for being the first person she's met that has a personality.

I'm in good shape and don't mind bumping into teenagers who won't yield a fair portion of the sidewak when we cross paths. lol

What gets me though is when I see folks older than myself who've adapted to our lawyer driven society where laws replace common sense... More specifically, when they exert the 'pedestrian right of way' philosphy by walking out in front of moving vehicles without even looking first. I expect this from the gen x's and y's, but these people clearly grew up in a more common sense era and now seem to reject common sense?? Personally, when I'm in a crosswalk, even though I'm aware that I have the right of way when on foot, I still look both ways first before crossing because to not do this is an excellent way to wind up dead right....

I think we're rapidly approaching the point where everything is going to have to collapse before it can be repaired. They'll probably explain this to the kids in school using a re-booting analogy..... lol

Charlie

makes you wonder sometimes, doesn't it?

Hi Guys,

Well, I've ceased giving a pass to the older generations as well. Seen far, far, far too many of them slide into a handicap space with their ultra-ride, and then hop out in their running clothes and skip into the store. Over and over and over and over and over. Usually while I'm limping along having parked out away from the maddness. And yet, whenever the seniors are depicted in literature or media ... they are all starving, neglected, helpless masses.

I think there are precious few who give any consideration to a practical, logical, honorable lifestyle. Just myself and the reader. But that's just one man's humble opinion.



hahah

Gary

My personal favorite is when you see a 20-something jump out of the car that just parked in the handicap spot, and when you call them on it they say it's OK because they're "running this errand for grandma"...


...yeah....right....