Why BLOG at all? Is the world really interested in the stuff we have to offer?

 

Yeah, some blogs can be interesting, but some...oh dear. Hell, I just read mine....HOW BORED WAS I? Why would anyone want to know this stuff about me? My friends know it anyway....and a total stranger...well...how bored must you be to be interested in my Citroen Berlingo.....

 

Oh dear.....

 

Place your bets on wether I keep it updated or not!

 

 

....that said, I am also on at www.myspace.com/ravenblack1973.........

 

The image on the media player can be found all over the net. Some sites put their own stamp on it, but from what I can gather it doesn't belong to anyone apart from the guy who filmed it, and I don't know where he is. If you are that guy and you don't want this footage being shown, email me and I'll give you the sites that I've found it on so far - or you could just let it go and feel good that you've put a smile on many peoples faces!

 

This particular link was taken from www.fcitraining.com, an American governmential contract holder in flight training. There you go - tell them they can't have it.

With the house up on the market now we've had several viewings - mostly positive, but time will tell. We have found an area in Farnborough that we really like - backing on to a stream, woods and a lake. There's plenty of greenery around and very, very peaceful.

 

It's all fingers crossed now as we wait for a firm offer on our house (anyone in internet land interested!?)

 

 

 

 

After a few trials with 'Nevermore' I have come to find that she is everything and more that I want from a rifle.

 

The cheek rest is low and canted to allow my eye to be exceptionally close to the axis of the bore, and the body at the hand rest end is so low (but still wide to give a good amount of substance to hold onto) that I can pretty much wrap my hand around the whole stock and barrel. This puts all my sightlines and body positions pretty much in a direct line down the bore axis.

 

Even without the hook, butt plate, hand stop, sights etc set up fully I managed a 97 on her first shoot. I set the hand stop and strap incorrectly and ended up too low to my mat. It wasn't too bad, but a bit shakey at the end. Up until the 10th diagram I had a potential 99 (after dropping 1 on the second diagram). The next card and I set everything too tight - 96.

 

Bearing in mind that this is the first time shooting with Nevermore, I can't help but be impressed that I near enough hit my average without setting anything up properly!

Adding to the theory I recently blogged...

 My new rifle 'Nevermore' arrived today.

 

 So much better than the photofit I'd put together.

 

 I decided on 'Nevermore' as her name due to several reasons. Although the rifle is state of the art and exceptionally well made, it doesn't mean that the results will be as spectacular.

 

 E.A.Poe wrote 'The Raven' about - in brief - a man in a saddened state who encounters a raven (one of a few birds with the ability to mimick human speach). The man has lost his love, and the raven can only say 'Nevermore' - a word probably picked up off of a former keeper or such like.

 

 To start with the man chats to the bird with out much thought, but then starts asking specific questions that the birds solitary answer would make sense.

 

 Now the man starts to read too much into the birds answers to these deliberate questions and the poem focuses on this relationship and how the man reads it.

 

 Basically, the man reads too much into the birds intelligence, and doesn't take into account that it is he himself who is really creating the resulting pertinent answers.

 

 

 The gun may be a wonderful piece of equipment, but I will be the one to produce the resulting scores.

 

 Why name the gun in the first place? Daft maybe, but it is to make it more than cold equipment and more of a part of me. Hell - it works for me, and that's what counts.

 

 

London suffers, but the terror is brushed off with British determination to not let a few bombs get in the way of daily life.

 

The IRA tried, but they just increased our resolve - did the latest terrorists not pick up on this?

 

 My thoughts go out to the people who have suffered during these terror attacks on London.

 

The British 'Blitz' mentality will get us through it. As Eddie Izzard (I think - or some other similar comedian) once said - back during the IRA attacks on London, when people heard that a tube station had been attacked, they knew they needed to go on a different route and give themselves an extra 15 minutes to get to work.'  That's the blitz mentality - Carry on and don't let the buggers get you down...

 

 Any way...Sometimes you can’t sleep and you just get to thinking……

 

 I don’t necessarily believe what I have come up with below, but you must admit that in this day and age….it is food for thought…

 

 Who blew up London?

 

 As in any crime you have to ask – WHO is going to benefit?

 

 Well…If you even break wind in a tube train an extremist group will claim that they did it. The old IRA used to give coded messages to prove it was them, or that a bomb was going to go off and give the Police time to clear the area. The modern terrorist doesn’t have such a ‘good’ claim to an attack – hence anyone who wants to make a point ‘admits’ that they did it – even if they didn’t.

 

 This ‘everybody claims’ mentality may well work in the favour of the real terrorists. They can do the deed, stay quiet, reap the ill gotten reward and still get away Scott free as everyone thinks it is the people who made the claim.

 

 Evidence will easily build against a terror group once you start looking directly at the group. The Fundamentalist say ‘WE DID IT’, and pretty soon that’s exactly what the evidence proves – and far too easily. A bit like the stars and tarot – read it at the end of the day and you can make the fortune you have been told fit almost everything you did. Try it.

 

 So, who would wish to remain anonymous and yet still gain from this tragedy? More to the point, how did a terror group manage to hit 6 targets during rush hour and yet leave such a small (but still regrettable) body count? Maybe they wanted to strike terror but not kill. Look at the attacks within the last 10 years and you’ll see that terror and body count go hand in hand – yet this latest attack breaks the rules – but in a situation and location where many more people could easily have been killed – Come on think about it – LONDON, RUSH HOUR, PUBLIC TRANSPORT, 6 bombs. Low body count…That’s a pretty lucky occurrence for the Londoners…or maybe it was planned for disruption, not death (but if that’s the case, it’s the first attack like it) – A very ‘special operations’ type of attack….covert, some might say….very professional.

 

 Now America is reeling from a very low dollar. Cash has been difficult for our friends across the water. Bush has been highly criticised for the Iraq war, the unfound WOMD and the continued troop activities in the middle east. Bush is also under attack for brushing off the importance of the Kyoto agreement and the G8 topics of poverty and global warming. Why?

 

 America gets most of its revenue from dirty industries – the type threatened by the Kyoto agreement and the G8 summit talks. If it were to lose this incoming it would plunge into recession. The other money maker though, as usual, is war. Well, in this case, defence systems.

 

 Bush gives an ‘I told you so and let’s get the son of a bitch’ – He is once more the Worlds saviour and his popularity goes up (heck Jim Bob, maybe we were wrong about there not being a threat from Iraq? Hey Francoise, maybe zat Booosh man was right, and there really is a threat?!).

 

 Bush gets to play war. Defence budgets have to be met and global warming isn’t as important as this threat now, is it?

 

“We will sort out the global warming crisis, and the worlds poverty….but first we must take on this threat of terrorism – no matter how long it takes, we will defeat it…….and earn”

 

 A low body count – almost ‘pin point’ attack the causes total disruption to our capital city proves there is a threat……such a fortunate low body count…I guess that’s just lucky. Good job old George W is out there to disregard those old gas guzzlers, CFC plants, dirty factories etc, to face up to the terrorists for us all.

 

 On a different note – we all want the Olympics, but we don’t want the bill of preparing London for it. Mind you, I’m sure we wouldn’t mind the extra bit of tax going up to pay for the devastating attacks on London. A revamped tube system and some bits of London rebuilt – we all club together to help out…..a bit like some of the things we’ll need for the 2012 Oly….no….Tony wouldn’t go that low would he? Heck, the two conspiracies together would make them both out to be heroes. Even the French and the rest of the UN would have to agree that the terror threat is real, and the Iraq war was a real issue……and we’d pay happily for the Olympics…..

 

 Like I said - these are just the sleep deprived thoughts of a mind that has read far too many Tom Clancy novels!

 

 Well, the Supra has blown her head gasket. Too expensive to get a garage to fix, and to long a job for me to carry out, what with the new job and the looming house move. She has to go - spares or repair - Sad really as (as cars go) this was a fantastic motor, and if it hadn't blown the gasket I would have kept it (I only originally wanted it for a year before settling down and starting a family).

 

 The good news which off sets this tragedy is that my new rifle is in transit and should be here by the end of the week. On top of this good news I have also received my motorbike back from the garage. After sitting outside for 3 years the Twin was sent for a service and thorough check over. No problems were found, the fluids were changed and the carbs etc cleaned out and tuned in. It sounds so much better than I can remember!

 

 

New album added to the blog site.

 

I'll try to update these shooting graphs as and when I update the averages table.

 

I shoot at 'cards'. The 'card' has the targets or 'diagrams' on. A card will usually have 10 shots fired at it. At 25yd the one card has 10 diagrams on it - each diagram is shot at once (giving the 10 shots on the card). At longer distances (50yd, 100yd etc) there is just one diagram on a card, but that diagram will have all 10 shots fired at it.

 

On the competition chart I record the averages of the best ten scores within the last 12 cards. This is a standard used throughout for calculating a riflemans averages. It is meant to be able to remove the odd bad days you may have.

 

On the training and competition chart I have recorded the averages of the last 5 cards shot, the last 10 cards shot, and the best 10 of the last 12 shot. This allows me to see trends forming short term and long term against the standard, without any scores being disregarded.

 

Sometimes you get a good card....sometimes you just can't get it together....that's where 'excuses' come in to their own. These are technical reasons why the expert marksman was hindered by everything but him or herself.

 

Within the photos there is a computer generated image of the rifle I am having built, and my first ton (100 or 'possible'). Some people say shooting is easy, but those people haven't tried competition target shooting.