After Junior died, his daughter Claire and I talked. I wasn't interested in running the site, and she wanted to keep her Dads memory alive, so she decided to pay the fees to keep it online, and it is archived.
The whole thing is right here.
All the articles, the stories, the laughs and the lies are still where Junior left them.
So, if you want to know anything about cast bullets, or doing things on the cheap, just click on the link.
Back at the turn of the century, I was doing a lot of handloading and writing at The Frugal Outdoorsman with the late, great Junior Doughty. One of the companies I got powder from was Wideners. They sold all manner of stuff for the handloading enthusiast and were in my bookmarks when I was looking for supplies.
Over the years, I changed direction. Junior died, and the old website went into archive. But, a month or so ago, I got an email from Wideners asking if I would review some ammo. Sure, I'd be happy to review some ammo. As it turns out, I have a grandson who is now on a 4-H rifle team. He is always looking for ammo. High-grade, match, .22 LR ammo. He currently shoots SK red label, which does the best in his rifle, but he's tried Eley and just about everything that we can get at a big box store.
Grandson shoots what started life as a Ruger 10/22. His dad has become fairly adept at customizing it, and I believe that the only things on that rifle that came in the Ruger box are the magazine and the receiver. This rifle is custom, and it is sweet. But, I digress.
So, with Wideners offer, I clicked on the ink and found something called Federal AutoMatch. It's a 40 grain, target grade ammo packed in a 3250 round box and comes in at under 7 cents a shot. So, I ordered a box and we'll see how it shoots in grandson's rifle. If it beats what he is using now, it will last him a season of competition. If not, we'll use it for varmints and other things.
If you haven't looked at Wideners in a while, give them a look-see. There are some pretty good ammo deals there.
In 2007 we lost my Dad, and shortly thereafter, Momma bought a string trimmer. A battery operated string trimmer. She didn't know a lot about power tools, but she knew that Dad always bought Craftsman tools, so she bought a Craftsman. The kit came with a charger and two batteries, and she would move around the place, running that trimmer until the battery died, then she would take a break, change batteries, and get after it again until the second battery died. Then, se was done for the day.
Last year, I bought a string trimmer. A DeWalt. Like this one. I have DeWalt tools, and I couldn't see changing batteries, so I stayed with what I had. Nowadays I'm just about as old as Momma was back then, and suddenly her work protocol makes sense. I get done what I can do with two small batteries. The rest of it will wait till tomorrow, or the next day.
Getting old ain't for sissies.
I don't follow football. I just don't care, but sometimes I brush up against it. It's unavoidable in today's society. If pressed, I could probably name a few notable coaches from over the years. Tom Landry, Bear Bryant. And, I've heard the name Bill Belichick.
When I was in my mid-forties, I got divorced. Like millions of Americans. It's a sad tale, but a common one. Suddenly, you are thrust from married life to single life, and it's time to get out there and see how deep the dating pool is. Like many Americans, I spent some time in the dating pool. But,,I never got down in the kiddie section. I dated gals with life experience. I culled some, and some culled me and eventually I met Belle.
We turn now to Coach Belichick, who has the same story. He gave an interview recently, and some gal named Jordan was hanging close. Evidently, they are a thing. She's 24 and he isn't. My first thought was "go ahead, Coach." But then you watch Bill's eyes, and you can see that he isn't having much fun. The eyes tell the tale. I'm not saying that anything nefarious is going on, but if you google Stockholm Syndrome, some insight might come through.
The dating pool can be a scary place, and I suspect that many men learn that the hard way.
It looks like Fort Bliss, TX is going to be used to house migrant detainees.
Folks my age will remember that Fort Chafee, AR was used in the early 80s to house detainees that came over during the Mariel boatlift out of Cuba. In the late 80s, For Polk housed a couple of hundred detainees for a short time. When I got there in 1990, the MPs on post were still talking about it. It was part of the near-term organizational memory.
As I recall, the MPs at Polk considered the Cubans to be a huge pain in the ass. I'm betting that the soldiers at Bliss will consider the new detainees likewise.
Evidently, the Federal Reserve is building a new headquarters in Washington.. A place for them to gaze into crystal balls and manage the nation' money supply. Problem is, they have gotten a little carried away with their own comfort.
Federal Reserve blows $2.5B on ‘Palace of Versailles’ HQ despite mounting losses: ‘Congress must put its foot down’
Evidently, this place is sheer luxury. Rooftop gardens, water features, all manner of expensive bullshit. They do an important job, but if they want luxury, they can build it at home, at their own expense. Federal buildings should be simple structures, designed for economy and versatility. I'm thinking Steelcraft desks like the Army uses.
$2.5 billion may not seem like much to the Federal Reserve, but to the rest of us, that is a shit-ton of money. Our money.
What's up with these activist judges?
Like the one in Milwaukee who literally let an illegal run from ICE.while he was in her courtroom.
Then the one in New Mexico who was harboring a gang-banger, gave him a rifle with a suppressor. I can think of about a dozen ATF laws that he violated.
I've known corrupt judge and I've seen them disciplined, but nothing like this.
We're thirty days away from the major shooting competition I host every year, and while I've been planning and working on this match for about eight months, it's time to double-check everything and make sure we have what we need. Spare timers, spare sensors, extra Cat 5 cable. Ladders, rolls of duct tape, extra zip ties.
I have long known that if you have spares, everything will go smoothly, and you won't need them. If you don't have spares, you will need three.
I have my teams together, and the trophies are ordered. The insurance is paid, and the policy is in my hand. It's just time to check everything and keep the lists straight.
We normally host a state championship, but this year we are combining it with a regional tournament. More participants, more prizes, more stress. The secret is to make it look easy. Do the planning and check everything twice.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Running errands this morning, I happened to see that egg prices continue to drop.
That's not as bad as it was on the 1st of the month. They're coming down. Driving to the next stop, I heard a talk radio guy ay that Louisiana has a bill pending to rescind all local sales taxes on groceries. Currently, locally, we pay about 5 cents local taxes on groceries. That would be better, but I don't give it snowball's chance of passing. Local government loves their tax money.
Thence to the barber shop, where we discussed everything from bakes ham to Jesus. In an old-style country barber shop, you never know what the topic of conversation might be. We're still paying $20 for a haircut, which is another indication of inflation. The haircut is worth $8, but the conversation makes up for the other $12.
