A friend sent me a link to a company that does movie prop guns that shoot blanks and such.   Alec Baldwin must have saved money by NOT using these guys.   I thought the video was quite informative.   A good deal of gunsmithing needs to be done to semi and especially "faster" firing firearms for them to function flawlessly with blanks.   Towards the end he mentions that he often gives a safety course to the actors before "shooting" begins.   He will take an apple and shoot it with a 9mm blank from a foot or so away, and blow it to pieces.   The gas HAS to go somewhere.   There is probably more than one company like this guy's, but they ALL thrive to be as realistic, yet as SAFE as possible with their firearms.   At the very end, they shoot a couple of them "rapidly."   MM
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnOUrRTf6jg

I posted this several years ago, but since we have a lot of new members that may not have seen it the first time, here it is again.  And remember DRY creek beds can be dangerous.  We have all heard the phrase, "It was a wall of water."    Here is how that happens.
Having lived on Buckner's Creek all of my life, I have seen it flood maybe close to 100 times.   And it is always a somewhat slow rise of water, perhaps one or two feet per hour.   One time we had one more rapid, but it was maybe three or perhaps four feet PER HOUR.   So when I would hear stories, often from the Texas Hill Country about a "wall of water," I just did not see how that could happen.   The video below explains AND SHOWS EXACTLY how that happens.   And this can happen in an area that has not even had a drop of rain.   So ALWAYS be aware of if it rained UPSTREAM from where you are.   A friend of mine was camping on the Pedernales River once when this happened.   The park had an early warning program, and they were told to leave the campground IMMEDIATELY.   They had perhaps two minutes to get out, and then this happened.   They were glad that they did.   MM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yCnQuILmsM

I am one of the few that has not lost power ...... yet.   But I have had no water.   Since I live alone, it is not too bad.   I stockpiled the water before I turned it off and drained the pipes.    I called my plumber Saturday and he said, do what you want, but I'm draining mine.   So I did too.   I guess we will see if I got enough out of the pipes.   My Son is hopefully going to build a house in the next year or two, and he is going to have a main drain for the entire house water system at slab level, for when this happens again, maybe in thirty years.    At his current house, the central heat went out a few weeks ago, and he figured he would just "wing it" for the last month of winter without it, just use camp stoves.    Then this happened.   He was really busy with work and when he finally went to get extra propane canisters and kerosene, EVERYTHING was already sold out.   A kind young man from his Church brought him a pickup load of firewood.   Erich offered him $100 and he wouldn't take it, just said, "Try to stay warm."    My heater downstairs is wounded from the flood, but my heater upstairs works fine.    I live mainly downstairs though.   Both of my units are on their last year or two of life.   It would cost about $1000 to fix the downstairs unit, the heating part, but then the air part may die this summer, and the entire thing will have to be replaced.   So I too thought that I would "wing" it through the Winter, and I did fine.  But now this Arctic blast comes rolling in.   Me, Reeses, and the cat toughed out the first couple of nights of this Arctic blast, but last night, it was forty-five downstairs and I finally headed upstairs and cleared out some room on an old bed.    Reeses looked at me with that look on his face that said, "Thank God we're going upstairs."   The cat followed us up too.   The cat is a porch cat, but I bring it in whenever temps get under forty-five or so outside.    He snuck out the other morning, went about eight feet in the snow, and then trotted back inside.   This was as Reeses was taking me for my walk and exiting the front door.    We are supposed to have two milder days, then one more blast, but this next blast is only supposed to go down to the mid teens.  It has been eight degrees outside for the last two nights.   I just hope that when I turn on the water, I will have no leaks.    Most people let their faucets drip, but then ERCOT, Electric RELIABILITY Council Of Texas, started doing rolling blackouts, and water pressure subsided, the dripping ceased, and then their pipes froze.   It is going to be one big mess about Saturday.      Usually, weather like this causes outages from downed lines.      That is not what is causing the outages.    It is because of mismanagement of the power grid because of failing "Green Energy Generators".  All of this is courtesy of greenie weenies from out of state, telling the ERCOT agency that runs the Texas Power Grid, that we need more renewable wind and solar generators.     Texas now has 10,800 wind turbines supplying about 17% of the State's power.   But almost half of them froze up.   And snow is covering solar panels.    That is why we are having the rolling blackouts.    NONE of this had to happen, but they had mothballed the gas and coal power plants.   As one person put it, "It takes a certain kind of stupidity to run out of energy in Texas."    Five members of the board of directors for ERCOT are greenie weenies from out of state.      Of these board members, one from Toronto, one from Maine, one from Michigan, one from California, and I forget the last.   What in the hell do they know about anything in Texas, let alone the weather.   Fifteen people have died so far, and almost everyone in the State is suffering in some manner.    There is going to be a big stink when we finally get out of it.  My cousin and her partner in Dallas have not had electricity or water for several days.   They are surviving with a little generator on the porch that a neighbor is tending, and they are living in one room in their house with three dogs and a chicken.   It has been around zero there.    MM

Captain Roy A. Knight was shot down during the Vietnam War fifty-two years ago.   His remains had never been accounted for until recently.    His Son was just a little boy when his Dad went missing, but is now a commercial pilot.    He had the opportunity to fly his Dad "home."    I cannot even begin to fathom what Mrs. Knight had to live through all of these years; the not knowing.    The video linked below is touching.    MM
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54W22gT7-R8&feature=youtu.be

Now to top off all of the other bad news, some MF buzzards have decided to roost on the roof and in the trees around my house.   I live in the city limits, so I can't just fire a shot to scare them off.    I took one of my drum set cymbals out this evening and smashed it a few times, but that is going to get old.   Does anyone have any suggestions.   MM

The husband of one of my Son's cousins up in Iowa trains bird dogs.   They invited him up to visit and do a pheasant hunt.   NO ONE in my family that I know of has ever gotten to hunt pheasants.    So Chris wanted to borrow one of my over/unders.   He always liked the way my Valmet 412 with 20" barrels fit him, so he took that.   It is a 12 gauge.   Chris is a pretty good wing shot on ducks, doves, and clays.   I told him that I would assume that with dogs, most shots would be straight away, but then again, I know NOTHING about hunting pheasants.   He made the drive up, got the proper license, and they went out.    I think that he said that the dogs were Brittany Spaniels.    He had never hunted with trained dogs before, neither have I, and he said that watching the dogs work was half of the fun.    He got two shots, both straight away, and got two birds.   His cousin got one, and gave that one to him to bring home as well.   He said that most of the regular hunters with this outfit use 20 gauges instead of 12's.    He had a great time.   My other Son cooked them up for us last Sunday.    I had never had pheasant.   I thought it was tasty, VERY rich, but I was not crazy about it.   I like other wild game more.   At least I can say that I have had it.   I do not care for duck or geese either.    I would have enjoyed watching those dogs though.   MM

Has anyone had any trouble with Winchester factory 6.5 Creedmoor Ammo being a little tight in the chamber.     We were having trouble locating ammo to break in the barrel of my Grandson's Vanguard Youth Model.    I finally found some Winchester Power Point ammo with a 129 gr. bullet online.   My Son found some "Atomic Sub-Sonic" ammo online.   I had never heard of it.   When we went to sight the Vanguard Youth Model in and break in the barrel, we tried the much cheaper Winchester ammo first.    My Son tried to chamber it, and he said he could not close the bolt.    I went to it, and got rather firm with it, and closed it.   It was like when you have some reloads that were just a tiny bit not quite resized down enough.    We double checked the barrel to make sure that it indeed said "6.5 Creedmoor" on it, and it did.    It went bang.   We commenced the breaking in shoot one, and then clean procedure, and EVERY round was rather tight to chamber.   So then we tried the Atomic Brand Ammo.   It chambered easily just as normal as any other factory ammo would.  If it would have also been tight, then I would have suspected a tight chamber.    So the Winchester Ammo is.......... not quite at the same specs?   Would that be y'all's assessment?    After the season is over, I will borrow it from them and see if it is tight at the shoulder or at the base of the cartridge.   As tight as it was, it should leave some shininess.    Incidentally, the Atomic sub-sonic shot to the same point of aim as the Winchester Power Point at my forty yard range.    I would think that that is where the bullet path is first crossing the sighting plain of the scope.   We have not shot it on paper at longer ranges, but the subsonic ammo did quite well on two cull does two weeks ago.    One ran about forty yards, and the other dropped DRT.    My Son was squeezing the trigger, not my Grandson.   Also, at forty yards, the groups could have been covered with a dime, so it should do well at 100 and further yards.    MM