The 33-47

[Michael]

Rob,

You crossed my mind as I composed my words, I wanted to choose what I said very carefully. Based upon your posts surrounding Wilton the last thing I wanted to do was be overly general. Wilton does indeed in sound like very much a super place to be for the very reasons you raise.
The gentleman you spoke of, wow! That is what can be considered to be a man of character and integrity.

Not every range, match, nor every shooter are poor examples or poor sports, most are quite the contrary.

 

[RBHarter]

Maybe you told us earlier, but what was the plane, RB?

North American AT-6D .....mostly . To Air Race fans Lickity Split .
We worked on Slo Yeller , Undecided, and Miss Iris also .

Miss Iris was the one that RAdm David Griggs "scooped" out of a roll and was killed in the resulting crash .
He was best known for the cargo net butterfly net satellite catch on the space shuttle.

No more Air Races at Reno , probably no more 500 mph closed course piston/propeller driven craft ever again either .

Different but the same .

 

[Bret4207]

I found a Pope rifle at a flea market once, a 25-20SS IIRC. It was marked "Pope" but the barrel was totally trashed and the rest of the rifle was worse. Asking price was crazy high. Would have liked to have it anyway, but I'm not that foolish.

 

[JustJim]

Well there is that, but doing that to ANY rifle is grounds for a serious thrashing, real serious. I have a high regard for the workmanship of a bygone era.

I didn't see it happen. I wasn't there to compete: I just wanted to see a rifle like mine being shot so I could understand how to do it. I was alone, more than 300 miles from home, and didn't want to wind up in jail.

There were two guys standing there by it the whole time; both smirked and claimed they didn't see anything. One said such a fine rifle shouldn't belong to a long-haired redneck like me. Discretion being the better part of valor, I picked up my rifle, thanked them for their time, and stuck out my hand to shake. Both shook hands and made some funny noises.

I got in my truck and left.

In hindsight, there may have been some broken fingers, maybe even carpal bones. I paid for that rifle digging post holes and stacking square bales with a hayhook.