entropy

SLO Town

Recently we flew down to San Luis Obispo to attend my 20yr high school reunion. It was pretty interesting to see people, how they've changed and where our lives have taken us all. The best part was hanging with good friends and catching up. Here are a few snaps from throughout the trip.

Of course I have to shoot out the plane window, it's just what I do. This is probably over northern California, on approach to Oakland.

Smokey Dog! We met up with Dave and Andrea to walk smokey at the Pit, in Morrow Bay. He's always up for a tennis ball toss.

Morro Bay, PG&E plant in the background. I was realizing how much I miss this place. We all used to surf here on a fairly regular basis.

Smokey, getting the jump on Dave, kinda strange, looks like his front legs got amputated. Surf was really small, so we walked and chatted instead of suiting up.

Throw it, damnit!

Special guest appearance was made by Mike Branzel. 

We then hooked up with the Lang's for lunch at Gus'.... good sandwiches. Nate-dog was trying out the shades and well, I think he dug them.

I love this one. Audrey was whispering something to Nathan and I couldn't hear everything, all I could hear was her telling Nate "but don't tell my parents!!". Which I found funny cause she was saying it like they had different parents.

Apparently they are both getting into ice hockey at a young age.

Next morning at breakfast at Big Sky. Nathan this time sporting Dave's shades I think. Sutros look good on him.

Jon and Meg at dinner prior to hitting the reunion.

The old group. Dave, me, Heidi, Jeff, Jon.

Then Jeff, Michelle, Amelia and I hit "mother's tavern" for a few pints and such. Oh and it's not my mother's tavern, someone else's mother.

Warming up for karaoke. And by warming up, I mean liquoring up.

I have this thing for shooting store windows, posters, advertisements, etc, simply documenting my walk back to the car. I believe this was Victoria's Secret.

Unknown surfer, poster. Be clear, this is not my photo, but a photo of a photo. 

Again, not mine, a photo of a poster in a store window.

Kalani Robb, shacked.

Rob Machado, lookin tough. another poster.

Another shot I always do and don't know why. Self portrait, running, long exposure. I've got heaps of these from various parts of the world.

Oh surprise, more plane window photos. Now on our way home to Boise.

Classic Battle Rifle Match

So this weekend was the 7th annual Classic Battle Rifle Match held by the Nampa & Rod Gun in Nampa, Idaho. We had the usual team, Mike, Kevin, Paul and myself. The match is based upon a 5 stage shooting match from 200 yard using only  bolt action battle rifles from WWII era. No scopes are allowed, only stock iron sites. Mike and Paul were using their Russian, Mosin Nagant M-44 carbines. Kevin was using his Mosin Nagant 91-30 (a longer version of the M-44, used by Russian snipers in WWII. Basically what they were using in the movie Enemy at the Gates). All three of these shoot the 7.62x54 round. I was teamed up with Helga, my Yugoslavian M-24/47 Mauser. My mauser fires that beast known as a 196 grain 8mm round. It's quite punishing on your shoulder and eardrums. 

Anyway, here are some images from our shoot on saturday.

Here is an example of a Mauser.  

One of the other guys shooting his Mauser. Look at the size of that round, huge.

The firing line, Mike spotting. Some of the guys we were up against are rumored to be ex-snipers from the Vietnam war era. Pretty tough dudes and simply stunning shots.

Kevin marking scores.

The view from the line. Yes, that's 200 yards. Can you see the silhouette targets way out yonder? Oh, did I mention some of the targets are moving... not a problem.

Paul, you'd never guess he was from England.

Mike, team elite.

 
Kevin is just happy to be done. I think everyone was quite sore. These old beasts are just plain brutal on the shoulder. Each person had to shoot 100 rounds in about 30 min. 

So after our 4th place finish last year, we pulled it all together, did some serious damage down range, and pulled off a unexpected 1st place finish. The other competitors were pretty bummed to get spanked by a bunch of PowerBar food scientists and packaging guys.