As I write this it’s the morning of Day 4 of the five-day match known as The Pin Shoot. I’ve written it up here before, but for those who came in late…

Picture a cornucopia of gun games with pistols and revolvers, rifles and shotguns, busting caps on everything from .22 to .50 caliber.  Except for lunch break, the sound in the background is volleys of gunfire or, as I like to think of it, the song of my people.  We have about 140 registered shooters, not to mention many guests and spectators.

It takes place in the summer vacationland of Central Lake, Michigan, a short drive from Traverse City.  Weather has been quite cooperative. It stays light until almost 10 PM here this time of year, and when the shooting is done many participants go back to their cabins and finish the day with a swim in the lake.

Springfield Armory has generously become the lead sponsor this year, providing most of the guns that will be prizes for the best shooters at the awards ceremony tomorrow.  It has evolved into a social event for many in the gun world. I’ll have more to share when the match is over.

Think of this blog entry as that cliché postcard with the message, “Wish you were here!”  The Pin Shoot is definitely on again for next year, which will be the thirtieth such event.  You can get more info at www.pinshoot.com.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Nice turnout. Has to be a very enjoyable way to spend a summer week (maybe next year ?). Hope the weather is tolerable up there. Happy bowling!

  2. The pavilion stills looks about he same as it did back in the early 1980’s but it seems there’s an extension on the side of it as shown in the photo and there’s a concrete floor now instead of just dirt. Does Rich still show old movies like Dirty Harry and Enter The Dragon there at night?

    Hopefully I can make it up there one day, but with the financial markets going down the toilet nowadays, it may not be affordable to a poor old retired geezer like me.

    • Esteemed Tom606, we are in sad shape if you have wasted your pension and savings on sensible stuff like what your dear wife wants you to have, and things like that. You should plan to do a Jack Reacher hitchhike from home to Central Lake next summer. By then we all may be out of cased ammo and switched over to black powder and round balls for bullets. I am so sorry that Mr. B fell off his bicycle. Been there, done that. Hoping that is on YouTube, though.

      • S. Steve:

        Amazing that Crooked Joe fell off his bike, especially since he was a F-14 ace and Top Gun instructor before he got into politics like his fellow naval aviator John ‘Maverick’ McCain. Crooked Joe doesn’t wear those cool Ray Ban glasses for no good reason. It shows he’s a macho dude of action who can pull 9Gs in a dogfight with multiple MiG 29s.

        Bertha doesn’t ask me for anything, she demands and orders it and I must obey or end up in the emergency room. At my advanced age, serious bodily injuries take a long time to heal. Besides, I’m sending all my money to Al Gore so he can fix global warming or we’ll all suffer a horrible scorching death like those poor 10+K cattle in Kansas.

  3. Considering the price I saw yesterday on diesel fuel (6.00/gallon), we’re all gonna be lucky if we can afford food. That’s assuming the farmers can manage to pay for enough fuel to plant/harvest.

  4. The Pin Shoot is proof that cranky old geezers (like me) can still shoot. My tactics may have changed somewhat (running away is no longer an option – nor is running at all), but “too old to fight, too fat to run” here still knows how to shoot a gun. I know at least one crippled grey-haired granny type who took home a new Springfield XD 9mm, because she can still run a 12 gauge.

    Great to see you and many of the old crowd again, Mas. Make sure Gail keeps you straight! Looking forward to next year.

  5. Quote of the Day:

    “Arms are the only true badge of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave.” – Andrew Fletcher

    Whenever I see events such as the Pin Shoot, or a Gun Show, or the NRA Convention, or see firearm training classes advertised, then I know that there are still free men in America. Where such events have been stamped out, as it almost has been in some oppressive Blue States, then I know the people there have been reduced to slavery. As Andrew Fletcher points out above, there is a direct correlation between being armed and being free.

    This quote also shows the true face of firearms-prohibition. The determined efforts of the American Left to disarm us is nothing more or less than a determined effort to reduce the American Citizen to slavery. The Democrats have grieved ever since the Civil War abolished their ownership of slaves. They still seek to reinstall some version of slavery and regain their old status as “The Masters”. Only, this time, it is the slavery of Marxist Globalism rather than legal slavery as property.

    They seek to enslave the entire middle and lower classes irrespective of skin color. After all, why settle for simply enslaving the members of a single race when you can enslave everybody except the top ruling class? Why settle for enslaving just 10% or 15% of the population when you can enslave 90%?

    Despite what the history books teach us, the Civil War did not totally abolish slavery. It only abolished property slavery. It was a setback that simply caused the slave owners to expand their ambitions via the vehicle of ideological slavery.

    The Democrat Party was the Party of Slavery in the Antebellum South. Today, it is trying to be the Party of Slavery for the entire United States. If their Firearms-Prohibition policies succeed, then their rise to “Master Status” over the whole U.S.A will also succeed.

    I guess that all those predictions that “The South will Rise Again” are finally coming true. 🙂

    The form may be different but the oppression is just as horrible. You can see why the Left is so keen to tear down all of the old Confederate statues. They don’t want to be reminded of their old failure now that they are on the come back!

    • Thanks TN_MAN,

      I just want to add a few facts that neither our media nor our government schools will teach us. Slavery is legal in Libya, Sudan and Somalia TODAY. In the American South, not all blacks were slaves. Some were freeman. Some of those free blacks owned slaves. Does that mean black men used to own black slaves? Yes, it does. Shocking, isn’t it?

      White slave traders did not go to Africa to capture free blacks and enslave them. They went there to purchase black slaves from black kings who had previously captured and enslaved them.

      • Roger, according to many descendants of deceased former slaves, those people were kings and queens in the Dark Continent, kidnapped by evil white slavers and brought over to America to pick cotton and other crops. I guess African royalty were especially in demand for slavery and maybe fetched higher prices. I had read that the first slave sold in America was purchased by a black man. I guess one can assume he paid a king’s ransom for the dude.

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