I’ll be having a quiet Thanksgiving at home base this year. Last week in Phoenix, I chatted with a lady whose family celebrated the holiday early so they could go elk hunting on the 24^th.

How many of y’all will be feasting on turkey from the woods instead of from the market this year?  How many will have some other game meat on the table when giving thanks?

When I was a little kid in the 1950s, the traditional Thanksgiving images at school and everywhere else included a blunderbuss in the Pilgrims’ hands.  After all, that muzzle-loading smoothbore – whether or not it had the belled muzzle we associate with that iconic Thanksgiving image – was where the turkey came from.  The image of the gun seems conspicuously gone from today’s Thanksgiving imagery.

Not politically correct, I guess.

In some parts of our country, many will be out hunting for their Thanksgiving Day sport fix instead of sitting around watching football on TV.  I hope that will include some of those here.  I don’t see hunting on my own Thanksgiving Day schedule, but I’m sure there’ll be some time on the backyard range.

How ‘bout you folks?

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Shot the South Mountain Showdown this past Saturday, a major IDPA match (www.idpa.com) sponsored by the Phoenix Rod & Gun Club (http://www.phoenixrodandgun.org). It was my second time there, and I’m more convinced than ever that this is one of the paradigm shooting matches in the country. An enthusiastic member base, assisted by shooters from elsewhere who appreciate what they do, comprise an outstanding team of well-trained range officers who keep things running smoothly and fairly.

Over a hundred competitors began a little after 8 AM.  Most of us were done shooting by noon. A “shotgun start” allowed the shooters to proceed to whichever bay they wanted, which kept any one shooting stage from becoming a bottleneck.  If shooters were stacking up at Stage 3, you simply submitted your score sheet at Stage 2 or Stage 8 or wherever.  Officiating was fair, the atmosphere was pleasant in terms of both weather and people, and the whole match was simply a joy to participate in.  To give you an idea of the planning that went into it, the host club went over years of weather reports to come up with an annual date that was likely to give the most mellow and temperate weather for shooting in Arizona.

The early finish allowed the Evil Princess and I to do some sightseeing while scores were being compiled. The mountain that gives the match its name is adjacent, and while we didn’t have time to hike, the drive to the peak of South Mountain is one of the most beautiful I’ve experienced in what may be our nation’s most beautiful state.

The club had solicited enough donated prizes that every competitor went home with something. The stages were challenging, and the winners ran the gamut from geezers like me to Jacob Hetherington, who at age fourteen captured not only High Junior but First Master overall in the Stock Service Pistol division. I met him and his justifiably proud dad at this match last year, and trust me, young Jacob is a rising star to watch in this game.

Thanks to all who made it happen.

Brass flies from this shooter’s 191 as he nails one of two targets that duck out from behind “hostages,” and are exposed for only two seconds simultaneously.

Keep an eye on this kid: Jacob Hetherington, 14, won First Master in Stock Service Pistol against the adults, and of course captured High Junior honors as well.

There’s lots of fun touristy stuff to see in the South Mountain area.

Scorpion Gulch

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Halloween is almost upon us, and Zombies are everywhere. Predominating in “haunted house” funfests. On TV in “The Walking Dead.” You may just see more little zombies than traditional witches, princesses, ghosts, and goblins on Trick or Treat night.  And of course, the video games, books, and movies.

Ruger has just come out with a Zombie Killer model of their little .380 pistol, the LCP, sold complete with a Zombie Survival Manual. Hornady has recently brought out a Zombie Killer line of ammunition as a novelty.  (One blog reader wonders what the implications will be in court if that stuff is used in actual self-defense.  My answer is, if you shot an Obama campaign worker with it, the use of specific zombie ammo might be construed as an element of premeditation.)

But, seriously, there hasn’t been a zombie outbreak since the last Presidential election. That kind of zombie needs to be defeated with ballots instead of bullets.

Some commentators think those who go to zombie shoots, buy zombie targets, or play first person shooter games where the targets are the undead, mean the participants are repressed mass murderers taking out their homicidal impulses on targets already dead to minimize their sins and expiate their guilt.  Some others see the zombie meme as a commentary on a society which has surrendered itself to a herd mentality in which they seek to greedily gobble all they can, and in which brains are destroyed.  (Ever notice how many zombie films take place in shopping malls, amusement parks, etc.?)  Others have ominously suggested that it gives practice for the day when society collapses into apocalypse, and hordes of people one considers less valuable than oneself must be executed for him to keep his trove of wealth and food and cetera.

And some of us think that whole deal has been a bit over-thought.

But, hey, what do I know? Only that shooting them in the head is bunk, strictly for movie zombies.

For real zombies, the ones we have to deal with every day, you’d have to shoot off their Bluetooths or put a bullet through their iPhones to render them helpless.

Maybe some folks are simply having harmless fun with the whole thing, like my friend Miguel Gonzalez in Miami, who is holding a three-gun Monster shoot for Halloween. There, you’ll have more to worry about than the Living Dead.  I’ve been to enough shooting matches to experience the Night of the Living Sandbaggers.

Enough from me: what’s YOUR take on the whole zombie meme?

The poster for Miggy Gonzalez’ Halloween Monster Mash Match.

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Halloween approaches. It was my favorite holiday, next to Christmas, when I was a kid.  There’s still a special place for it in my heart.   When I was a (relatively) young dad, it pleased me greatly to take my kids out trick or treating and stand in the dark autumn night behind them and watch the fun.

Over the last several years, I’ve noticed the emergence of Halloween shoots at local gun clubs. They turn out to be big fun, too.

Some clubs have pumpkin shoots.  Blow hell outa those pulpy orange things. Its lotsa fun when you’re doing it… though it will never be any fun to clean up after.

Back in the ‘90s, a gun club I belonged to in New Hampshire had a Halloween pistol match every year. The targets were bowling pins on tables…and you had to shoot in costume.  Folks had fun with it. There were coneheads.  There were vampires.  There were witches.  One of my daughters went as a cowgirl, complete with Buscadero gun belt and a really-for-real .45 in her holster, which she used to decimate the pins.

One year I dressed up with a vampire cape and a sharkskin gun belt and holster…yes, I went as an attorney.

Early this month, I was in California teaching a class when the host club’s IDPA chapter (International Defensive Pistol Association) had a Halloween-themed match.  I was stuck lecturing in a classroom (AAUUGGHH!!) while everyone else had fun with stuff like:

There’s a witch target flying across the range on her broomstick, courtesy of the moving target apparatus.

And… you have to nail the first few targets, then reload with “your special silver bullets” to engage a werewolf, all while the clock is running.

And of course, it would take a whole separate blog entry to discuss the currently trendy zombie element…

In our country, Halloween has evolved into a time for fun.  It pleases me to see that this has come to encompass the shooting sports.

What’s you folks’ take on it?

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The Evil Princess and I recently attended the marriage of the daughter of a dear friend.  Times have changed.

The minister delivered a moving ceremony.  He read his Bible passages from a Kindle.

The music was administered from an electronic board that resembled something from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, complete with attached laptop.

The commemorative ice sculpture was fitted out with tubes through which icy martinis were mixed and dispensed to the attendees.  In assorted flavors such as apple and raspberry.  It turns out that raspberry vodka martinis are blue, and apple ones are green and don’t actually taste too bad…I never had a tart martini before.

I suddenly felt very, very old.

I hadn’t felt that antiquated since the marriage of my older daughter. I told her that since she was supposed to wear “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue,” I’d be happy to let her borrow the old, blue steel Smith & Wesson .38 Chief Special I was wearing under the cummerbund of my tux on the night I married her mother almost thirty years before, and I’d be happy to buy her a new thigh holster so she could wear it under her bridal gown.

She told me I was unclear on the concept…

Is it me, or have wedding customs changed?

The minister reads the vows for the happy couple from a Kindle.

 Hi-tech ice sculpture martini mixer.

 Apple flavor green martini makes its way through the ice cavern.

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