Eusebio Arizaga

My father in law worked for an airline back in the 50s and 60s and when he went on his honeymoon to Spain, he came back with this gun. I've had it about 15 years and it hasn't been shot in at least 10-years. It has some nice features, its a true sidelock with cocking indicators, gas vents in the receiver, full engraving, intact case colors on the sideplates, ejectors, drop points, splinter fore-end. It seems a tight as the day he brought it home. Its impractical for me, stock is too short plus its a game gun. Arizaga is mentioned in Terry Weiland's book, they were wrapped up in a Spanish gun making conglomerate called DIARM which eventually went out of business. My father in law had good taste in guns, he also had a 20 gauge Browning Superposed, a Belgian A5 and 20 gauge AH Fox.

I Don't Know About This

This is the new Beretta Xcel Target Auto. It has a thermometer, shell counter and a "relative recoil index" built into the grip cap. Seems superfluous, maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

55 Degrees!

I said I wasn't going to shoot this winter when the temperature was below 30 so I am definently going to shoot when its this warm. I shot two rounds of singles that were terrible, I couldn't seem to hit anything. Then I shot my two best handicap rounds of the year from 25 yards. I would have been happy with those handicap scores last Fall when I was shooting a lot. I don't know what it is but I really struggle to hit singles, at night, late in the week.

My Mom took this picture last year of my Dad and me.

Look at this set up

This is a picture of a friend of mine who shoots locally. I didn't know him when he was shooting this rig but I remember seeing him once with it. He loves to tinker and when I met him he was shooting a DeVault Mach One (below) with a thumbhole stock, and well. I tried it and surprisingly, the beads lined up perfectly for me.

Ithaca $2500 Grade

Every so often, a really spectacular trap gun shows up on Trapshooters.com for sale. This is a $2500 grade Ithaca single barrel trap gun from 1959, only seven were ever made. That is what it sold for in 1959, that's the equivalent of about $18,700 today. The seller wants $14,000 for it. Compare to the slab sided MX3 below. The last such grade gun was a $6500 grade in 1979.

A nice weekend here

Got some shooting it Saturday and Sunday, it was close to 40 degrees and sunny. I shot 8 rounds of handicap from 24 yards with scores between 18 and 23 averaging around 22. I ran the two rounds of singles I shot. That is a quantum leap from where I have been shooting in the last two months and a good confidence booster. I can clean up the handicap shooting with some more practice and drills. It was fun to be out at the club in decent weather again and see my shooting friends. I'm optimistic about the upcoming season.

Sailfish

This picture of sailfish eating sardines off the coast of Mexico won a prestigious photo journalism prize today. Nothing to do with shooting obviously. Supposed to get some nice weather, into the mid-40s by next week, so hoping to get some shooting in and begin my practice routines.