If you’ve been a visitor to the Real Guns site, you are probably aware of changes being implemented. Or, if you possess my general level of awareness, you may be oblivious to the whole deal. Based on the amount of e-mail and phone calls, it appears some folks are paying attention. Ugh, I just remembered why I shouldn’t drink coffee that’s been heating in the pot for 4 hours. Sorry, minor distraction…Staff: First of all, I wanted to thank Joe (the other Joe) and Rich, the only Rich, for all of the work they’ve put into the site so far, and for their milestone accomplishments. Without their sense of style and understanding of technology, the articles would be appearing on the back of an old lunch bag.
The Handload Builder: The Handload Builder is up and running and now contains component lists to ease the selection process. Help screens are just about complete and it looks as though there is quite a bit of traffic in storing and emailing handload data sets. If you run across something that could be improved, or see an opportunity to add a feature, let us know.
The Ballistic Calculator: This is actually a two step process for us. The first was a revision to the exterior ballistics input screens, adding bullet and diameter data, revising table structures, and the addition of graphs. We’ve also gone to a single page result so there is no need to open multiple windows, or go through a major exercise to run multiple data sets. This part is complete. The second stage is to add functionality and revise and upgrade the remaining modules and this is currently in process.
Site Search: We have added a site search function that permits easy search through article archives, handload pages and the letters section. We get a good deal of email from folks looking for specific articles or pieces of data, so this search capability should help. The reason this took so long is that we wanted one that would be more selective, rather than one that focused on yielding the maximum number (useless) results. This required some coding, which is now complete.
Coming articles: We are going to enter the dark world of new and redundant magnums, and related new equipment, to see if there is redeeming quality to report; guns on order, dies on order, and weird bullets on order. Should begin coverage in the next couple of weeks.
Revisionist History: In looking at the article and commentary archives, it became obvious there are several generation of mastheads, and some of the reference info was so old, rather than URL’s, there were RFD addresses. Don’t know what RFD means? Well, that just goes to show how old they might be. Real Guns has been in continual operation for over 4 years, and articles were being posted to another domain prior to that period. In any event, I thought I might go back and reformat and clean up the pages, update contact information, and note where significant changes had occurred. As an example, an absolutely deplorable local shooting range was resurrected under new ownership and management, while still operating under the same name. I should note this change as the article is not a reflection of current ownership. This will take some time, but the task is underway.
The goober in the blue shirt: When the site was first brought up, I was asked why my picture didn’t appear on the site, so people could put a face to the shoddy work. I put up an image that captured the essence of Real Guns, without compromising my ability to go to work in the morning, and not have people throw rocks at my car.
Thanks,
Joe
Joe
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