steve1

I can't say I know a whole lot about it, other than that ammo might work well with a silencer. I bought some 9 mm. bullets once, without jackets, (solid lead), and was told not to load them too slow because of lead fowling. I really don't know for sure if this is a factor. But, it might be wise to get jacketed bullets to go with your sub-sonic loads. I would imagine your auto might jam a lot with sub-sonic loads. My loads have to be hot enough to kick the action back, or I have all kinds of feeding problems. They'd probably shoot fine in a revolver....Steve1

Congratulations! Seeing someone else in freefall is a mind blowing experience. I still remember my first RW jump. They didn't have accellerated freefall back then. Halo school would be great. I never could get it....Steve1

Back in the early 70's, I had a stop watch along with my altimeter, all on top of my chest mount reserve. It looked really cool to have a dashboard of instruments to look at. To tell you the truth, I don't think I ever did use the stopwatch. Don't know why I even bought the damn thing. I had a hard enough time just reading the altimeter at pull time. I never was too good at Math, particularly when the ground was rushing up to get you....Steve1

.................................................................. Oh, I agree totally...particularly the part about old farts. Short retainer lines, on a P.C., can cause lot's of problems, also. I've only had two cut-aways, both on para-commanders, and both because the retainer line was too short. My sleeve ended up tangled in my steering slots, which put me into a turn. On the first one I cut away right away. I alway's wondered if I could have held one steering line down to get it to fly straight, without chopping it. So when the 2nd similiar malfunction occurred I pulled down on one of the steering lines and the canopy started to collapse and do wierd things, so I went ahead and cut it loose. I took me a while to figure out the retainer line, being too short, was causing these malfunctions. Bill Booth had a really entertaining story, in "Scary Stories From the Old Days". Two jumpers were jumping Para-Commanders with retainer lines that were way too long. They got too close to each other, and their pilot chutes and sleeves tangled. They spiraled down when neither one of them would cut away, and then they straddled a set of power lines. Yes, you had to be tough to survive back in those days...Steve1

Back in the early 70's I was in a Special Forces National Guard Unit. Our guard drills were on the weekends and were more or less a big waste of time. One of our fellow guardsmen became disgruntled and started missing some of these weekend drills. Our Sgt. Major got pissed and activated him to active duty status. He somehow survived a year in Nam on a Special Forces A-team. Our Sgt. Major was also a pig farmer on the side. When this guy returned home from Vietnam a few weeks passed before his barn suddenly caught fire in the middle of the night and burned to the ground. Everyone knew who did it, but there was no proof....Steve1

Jerry, Was there another DZ at Donald, Oregon about 1970. I seem to recall a news story of a farmer pulling a gun on some jumpers way back then....Steve1

Fred, Is that you?.....Read some of the stories in "Scary Stories from the old days". You are in some of them....Steve Anders

.............. Of course, My mind is going on me. It was definitely Sheridan. Mollala wasn't even a drop zone back then. At least I think not. I do remember Elevator well though. A ballsy kid who loved to talk, and he flew extremely well. I heard that Ted still lives at Sheridan and was on the city counsel. You couldn't help but like both of them....Steve1

It's been so long since I've seen one shot capewells or even two shots, that I'm having trouble recalling what they looked like. I think there's also been a big transition in the design of capewell's. I quit jumping in about 75 so there were numerous changes after that. The two shots I jumped in the military had a metal cover over them. They may use the same ones today for military static line jumps. The para-commander I jumped a year ago had some type of one shots held together with velcro. They looked scary to me, but I jumped it anyhow. The one shot's (that I recall back in the 70's) looked similiar to the shot and a half's, but one pull on the cover and you were free. At least that's how I remember them. Maybe I'm off a little on that. Most of us had shot and a half's. I quit jumping for twentyfive years, so there were all kinds of gear changes during that time period. I jumped some in Mollala in the early 70's. Do you remember Jack DeChristopher? We were on a ten way team together put together at a jump meet in Idaho. I heard he is racing cars now. I heard "Elevator" is still flying planes. I remember when he was about 15, and flying jumpers out of Mollala's beech....Steve1

Where abouts in Oregon, did you jump? Are those two shot capewells? Those were the days!.....Steve1

Not really "angry" but maybe a little pompous and sanctimonious. But... going back to the original post I like numbers 13 and 18. .......................... I like all of them...Steve1

The second one was when a guy on an outer wave pulled earlier than his assigned pull altitude. He did not track far enough or long enough. A guy from an inner wave caught up to him and was in the path of destruction. . .............................................. This is the first I've heard, that maybe he was at fault. He had been in some big ways prior to this, but nothing at this level. I saw a picture in Parachutist of a 100 way that he had been on, and there were probably others. His inexperience may have been a big factor leading up to his death, but I don't know that for sure. This was the first and last record attempt. (Maybe this is a rumor) but, I heard there were several jumpers on that attempt that maybe shouldn't have been. I'm wondering if the organization of these jumps could have been improved upon. It's good to look back and figure out just what did go wrong. Hopefully it's something we can learn from. I'll bet there are several jumpers on here that were on those loads, and maybe they can shed some light on what really happened....Steve1

His name was Paul from Montana. I thought the DZ was near Chicago. I could be off a year or two. It was about five years ago. Three guys from our club went, but only two came back. I'm sure someone else on here knows the details. I heard they spotted the body later from another airplane....Steve1

I had a friend killed at the World Record attempts about five years ago near Chicago. He was hit on deployment. I think the other jumper died....Steve1

Kudos for the shot. Given the fact that he has taken out so many terrorists isn't it a bit dangerous giving out that much info about him? The people who matter already knew what he achieved maybe the rest of the world doesn't need to know details. ............................................. Sgt. Hathcock had a price on his head in Vietnam. An article about Hathcock's effectiveness with a sniper weapon was published here in the U.S. It was felt that was one factor that led to such a high price being offered, by the enemy, to take him out. Many enemy snipers and troops were gunning for him. Luckily he was too sneaky for them, and he survived.....Steve1

I'm always picking other people's brain for a better way to do things. I've never fired many Sierra bullets but may have to give them a try. Starting out with the right combination can definitely save a shooter a lot of time and effort. Right now I'm experimentling with Barnes triple X bullets. They are great hunting bullets that are supposed to be very accurate also. They are too expensive to shoot too often though. I'm also experimenting with Nosler Accu-bond. I've always used IMR 4064 and IMR 4831 powders in 270 and 30/06, but I need to try some of the new powders available. I have one 3/4 inch four shot group, at 100 yards, with my 300 win. mag., I was using Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets and 4831 powder. It's hard to shoot a lheavily recoiling gun well, but I'm happy with this one. I've got three freshly adjusted triggers coming back from the gunsmith soon which should also help my groups. The pursuit for extreme accuracy can be fun. I just want a hunting rifle that will make that occaisional long shot when needed. It seems like when I get one rifle shooting just right, I start tinkering with another one. A fun hobby!...Steve1

................... Thanks for the input on this John. I'm trying to figure out which bullet to use in my old 30/06. Actually I haven't hunted with it in years, but am trying to work up a load for it now. I used to use 150 grain for deer and elk. I like the flat trajectory of 150's, but they don't penetrate as well as 180's. Most people I know use 180's on elk, even though I've shot several with 150's. So, I thought I'd split the difference and try 165's. I rarely take a shot over 400 yards. I imagine 180's would buck the wind better, but they drop quite a bit more than 150's at longer ranges. But then again, I put some target turrets on my 3X9 Leupold recently, so I think I can extend my effective range out to 500 yards easily enough, (if there's not much wind, and if I use the right range finder, and have a steady rest.) I hate to make a wounding shot on game, so I want to stay well within my own personal limits and not take a risky shot.....Steve1

.......................... I don't have a clue what war is all about. I've never experienced it, and it must be awful. I do read quite a bit about Vietnam and other wars. I had a friend who was a Marine (grunt) in Vietnam, and I knew he was wounded over there. What I didn't realize was that he was probably suffering from Post-Traumatic-Stress. At any rate I was working with this guy and I knew he knew a lot about rifles and he hunted a lot. So, one day I told him I just finished reading this really great book. It was called Marine Sniper. I asked him if he wanted to read it. So, the next time I saw him, I asked him if he had read it, and he said, yes. I could also tell he was more than a little bit angry. "Yep," he said, "I used to go out on those "Kill" teams, and it wasn't no Camelot." That was about all he said, and he didn't want to say more. I could tell he was really, really angry about something. Maybe this book brought back too many memories. Maybe he was pissed because the book kind of glamorized the art of killing. At any rate, I had since enough not to ask him anything more. The next several nights I saw him jogging for miles away from his house. He worked a hard physical job all day, but still went jogging when he got off. I guess that is how he dealt with all those crappy memories....Steve1

The insurgent was one of between 55 and 65 he estimates that he has shot dead in less than five months, putting him within striking distance of sniper legends such as Carlos Hathcock, who recorded 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam. One of his men, Specialist Aaron Arnold, 22, of Medway, Ohio, has chalked up a similar tally. Walt ........................................................ What a shot! Sgt. Hathcock's kills were confirmed, and not an estimate. Hathcock probably had an even higher number of unconfirmed kills. So the actual number was probably greater than 200. I know this is kind of a sick thought, but in the buisness of war, that is what a sniper's job is all about.....Steve1

Yeah, the stupid stunts they pull in gun prosecutions has been going on for decades. Some of it would make this rocket motor matter look like peanuts. Peanuts or not, be pleased that someone took them on and appears to have prevailed.[/reply ........................................................................... Amen to that....I wish they were put in their place more often. I heard the ATF even has it's own air force. Sounds to me like a bunch of really bored people just waiting to pounce on somebody....Steve1

Walt Mercer is still alive and well at Stevensville, Montana. He was our chief jump pilot for Hod Sanders (Silvertip Skydivers), up until about a year ago when Walt developed a heart murmur. He's now grounded. We used to have Walt's plack for the first ten way in our club house. It's the "shits" to have to get old. If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself....Steve1

No,....I may not always agree with your opinion, but I still respect your thoughts....Steve1

I have a friend with over four thousand jumps. He has around 26 malfunction cut-aways. Most are on tandem rigs. Some of these malfunctions involved broken lines. At any rate just how dependable are tandem rigs? These statistics don't look good. I was just wondering if other tandem instructors have had similiar problems......Steve1

There has been a fair amount of livestock killed by wolves here in Montana. I've read several articles in the paper. Ranchers are being reinversed by the government for their losses here. I don't know how fairly this is working though. I truly enjoy being able to see a wolf or grizzly or to even hear a wolf howl is awesome, but there is no denying the fact that a wolf is a killing machine. If they get used to killing livestock they'll probably return to it. The places where wolves are being introduced may not be well thought out. I mean we aren't living in the 1800's any more and problems with people will surely arise. There are a lot of wolves now in the Nine Mile Valley close to Missoula. There are tons of people living in this valley including ranchers, and I'll bet the problems with wolves killing livestock and pets will probably escalate as time goes on. I wish we had more vast areas for these critters to roam around in, but that isn't the case any more. I can see both sides in this argument. I think they are needed in Yellowstone Park and some other large Wilderness areas. They'll no doubt migrate from there to more populated places. Then problems will arise. Wolves are very efficient killers of wildlife. Often times if they get an animal down they will start eating it before it is even dead. They are large powerful animals. It's interesting to note they rarely attack people though. I've read more than one account of even a coyote attacking humans. Bears and mountain lions end up attacking people regularly, but not wolves. I had always been told that there has never been a documented account of a wolf attacking people, but maybe that has changed now. I know this is contrary to what Jack London wrote. I'd like to hear more about the recent wolf attack in Canada.....Steve1

I guess I have mixed feelings on this one. I agree with John...In an life threatening situation, when the adrenaline is pumping, it's going to be hard to make that shot (if you are using a pistol). How many gun fights do you hear about well trained police officers shooting multiple times before making a hit on a bad guy. Trying a fancy, wounding shot with a pistol, is probably going to be hard to do. Probably you will end up dead before you accomplish that task. Shooting for center of mass makes a lot more sense to me. Trying to just wing the guy a little when his intent is to kill you doesn't seem smart to me. But then again, trying to decipher what another's intent is difficult to. You may have only a split second to read a scenario and then react (or die). But then again....I've seen scenarios where the bad guy didn't really need to be shot. There are a lot of really great police officers out there who I truly respect. But there are also some who are actually itching to put a bullet into someone. (If they can get away with it they'll do it.) Sometimes I wonder if the law is always fair or right when they sort things out later. After someone dies from gaping bullet wound, and maybe it didn't need to happen. I knew a guy like that once. There were two different people he shot. From the sounds of things it could have been avoided both times, but since he was warranted to use lethal force he got off on it, both times. There were other situations when he used really poor judgment in the line of duty. He was a sargent before they finally ran him off. One time he ordered some other officers to fire tear gas into a house that had young children inside. They finally got rid of him for this and some of the other crap he pulled over the years. But the shootings he did were written off as perfectly okay. One of them was suicidal teenager who had a 22 rifle. He would point the gun at his head, then point it at the crowd and then back at the crowd. So he snuck up close and shot this young fellow through the chest. Luckily the kids lived. Maybe that was a good call, but I wonder. The first shooting he did was about a year before he became a full fledged policeman. He was working as a live in house-sitter for a woman's fraternity house. Some drunk college kid came in on a panty raid one night....So he again snuck up behind him and hit him over the head with a revolver. The gun went off by accident, and shot a hole through this kids head. He lived too, but was never the same again.....Next thing you know this guy is a cop. I sure hope this guy got out of that line of work. I know police academies try to weed out people like that, but a lot slip through the cracks.....Steve1