Happy Hippo

He is going to watch Back to the Future.

You mixing me up with Sheepbloke?

I could never understand those individuals who used to have a lucky rabbit's foot....

You do know how Twirls are made don't you?

Andy is not chunky, he is merely vertically challenged, which makes him look much larger than he really is.

They have finally arrived. Rather hyper after being stuck on the M40 in the tailback of an RTC. The sausages were consumed as was the mash etc.

Let's not even consider visiting the olfactory delights of the countryside.

Just back from an afternoon of non shooting. An Easter Sunday families shoot ensured that my time was taken up as one of the range safety team. I ended up manning the gate from the firing point onto the range. I did get a very small chocolate Easter egg for my troubles. I now await the arrival of my daughter and her two children for their Easter visit. No Easter eggs for them, but they've requested sausages for their tea, which are waiting to go into the frying pan.

Navy Helicopter pilot really do rock!

Jazz: Best to change the vowel for the next in line. Which is what Honda should have done!

We've only your word for that!

With the Reading mob descending on us tomorrow evening, one would think that we are running frantically around trying to get the place sorted out prior to their arrival. Far from it: We are busy making the most of the better weather before it folds back into cold and rain on Monday. Yesterday I finally got around to planting out the potato tubers: As usual the heavens waited patiently until I was 60% through the task before opening. This ensured I was clean from mud before I got back to the house. This morning I was tasked with assisting in planting ut the broad beans and then weeding the ornamental bed between the vegetable plot and the lawn. I came to the conclusion that the garden is quite boggy after all the rain we've had. However, compared to next door's field, our garden is obviously suffering a drought. This afternoon ought to be taken up with the conversion of more useful timber into sawdust and shavings.

That's because the UFOs have cloaking devices to hide from our primitive detection systems. After 10 pints of Guinness and the same number of Blackbush whiskey chasers, I've seen plenty of UFOs, and the star system they've come from.

So my Heavy Country Baroque is not really going to fly your plane. To my highly attuned ears, Garage music is the whine of power tools reforming timber and metals.

I use Wumba, Wumba, Wumba all the time.

I always think that learning something new, or failing that, improving an existing skill is a good thing to do. Today, I learnt about Harley, Shropshire. Harley is known as a Thankful Village: Why you may ask? Because Harley was one of 57 villages in the UK, and the only one in Shropshire, where all the men from the village who volunteered to serve King and Country during WWI, returned home at the end of the conflict.

Our trip out today started in sunshine ,but by the time I'd dropped the rifle off, it was raining. We tried Bridgmere garden centre, mainly for the Hobbycraft outlet, but I noted that Hobbycraft no longer stock Really Useful Boxes(RUB). Their replacement own brand box is a little cheaper, but not of the same quality, so I left empty handed. I then came back to Shropshire and passed Market Drayton, creeping under the Hunt Towers MATZ, (We didn't stop for fear of infectious diseases) and went shopping in the large Lidl at Newport. It was still raining when we got home, so we ended up doing a bit more preparation for the arrival of the Reading mob this coming Sunday.

Sounds like AA Brown and Sons in Alvechurch!

Today, Nyda and I have decided to treat ourselves to a day out. With the weather looking a bit variable, we will have to take it as it comes, but it will incorporate a visit to Eccleshall so that I can drop my smallest rifle off to it's birthplace. It's going back for a full service which will see all the springs and seals replaced. They will also be able to accurately set the power output on the bench using a type Chronograph that measures the speed of the pellet between two points., whereas my Chronograph has to be attached to the rifle, which is OK for testing, but adjusting is a lot more difficult. Yes, it is a job that I could do, but for the price they charge, and the time it would take me, it's not worth my while.

In a word...No!

Mercenaries have been part and parcel of the military machine for many years. Despite their undying loyalty to the British Army and the impeccable standards they have in combat, The the British Gurkha Regiments are mercenaries. Although it may be distasteful for the two individuals to have joined the Russian forces in the fight in Ukraine, the same can be said for the British ex servicemen and civilian volunteers who have gone to Ukraine to fight for the Ukrainians, they are exactly the same in legal terms. any ex serviceman who still has a reserve liability is in trouble! If they are involved in terrorist activities then they can be convicted under terrorism laws (one already has), but they only become traitors if they are British citizens fighting against the UK in a conflict. Unfortunately, I blame the Americans for their sanitising of the mercenary trade by creating the 'Private Military Contractor' who despite their claims to the contrary, are just guns for hire, and can be used in situations where regular troops, (and I include elite and special forces in this group) would not be used. They both have form, and neither, as far as I am aware, have never served in the British Army. One was convicted of terrorism offences after fighting for pro Russian rebels in the Ukraine. Having been released from prison, he has now returned to restart where he left off in 2017. The other is a drug addict and alcoholic, who identifies as Irish, and not British. Neither are highly trained or decorated ex combat veterans, and will probably end up disappearing in the mud and back to anonymity when their luck runs out.

Careful, you'll have the man from Manutopea asking all sorts of awkward questions: Was it hot? Was it still moving? Did it hurt? What does it look like now? Just mentioning it for a friend.....

The Duke of York was driven up the garden inside a 17 year old Escort (It's a Ford joke)

It's a ball. It goes into the musket as a ball, and comes out of the musket as a ball.

It's a moot point, because a bullet is generally considered to be just a kinetic energy metallic projectile. However, a round of ammunition consists of a number of separate components, projectile(bullet) cartridge case, propellant and priming cap. When the round is loaded into the breech of the gun and the trigger is pulled the firing pin hits and detonates the priming cap which ignites the propellant; This rapid expansion of a low explosion forces the bullet down the barrel of the gun, the now empty cartridge case and expended primer are ejected from the breech. The bullet then hits (we hope) the target. It is in effect a self contained system. A pellet is also a kinetic energy projectile, but when it is loaded into the breech and the trigger is pulled, it relies on the gun providing an external source of energy, in this case a controlled jet of high pressure air. But unlike the centrefire or rimfire round of ammunition, the pellet remains complete from the moment it is loaded into the gun until it hits the target. So although a pellet becomes a projectile, it cannot become a bullet as it has not changed it's form or size. Other examples of this type of projectile are blow pipe darts, arrow from a longbow and bolts from a crossbow. However, unlike airguns which are limited to certain power settings, if they are not to be registered as a firearm, longbows and crossbows currently require no legislation to restrict their power. I could shoot at someone with one of my air rifles at 50 metres and hurt somebody, but I doubt whether it would cause any serious or lasting injury (unless it took an eye out), yet if I were to use a longbow or crossbow at 50 metres, I could easily kill someone. Ironically, an airgun is not a firearm, but for the purposes of the Firearms act, it becomes a firearm in the eyes of the legislation that it laid down.