My wife tells me I need to get out and shop more. She feels such a brush with reality might get me beyond my 1970’s “cost of things” frame of reference. In Joe Land, I can still buy a luxury car for $5,000, a house for $50,000 and a good […]

Early yesterday evening, just about dusk, my wife motioned me over to the sliding doors that lead out to the porch to show me the buck that was feeding in the back yard. Big animal, eight points. She loves all of the wild life that cruises through the yard and […]

Public discussion of handloading is…interesting. You’d think it would be rife with converging, diverging and conflicting theory, but mostly its a battle of platitudes. And platitudes are like their second cousins, the platypus. Sure they have their fancy fur, a little non-quacking bill, spiffy web feet and egg laid progeny […]

If Brownells were a retail chain with a neighborhood presence, odds are it would be a great place to hang out. I’d be hard pressed to think of another  company of its size that has managed to maintain such a friendly presence, or retain a full staff of knowledgeable people […]

After months of carrying and shooting the Kevlar stocked CZ 550 American Safari Magnum, I’ve come to the conclusion I like this gun, a lot, or I wouldn’t still be carrying and shooting it after all this time. I can usually go from excitement over a new gun to boredom […]

Weather is warming here in Maine with Spring firmly in place. It was only after hearing a lot of frantic gobbling coming from under the shop’s floorboards that I realized it is turkey season… Sort of a turkey hideout in the open crawl space until things blow over. Doesn’t do […]

After a few years of staring at a too exposed house foundation and a lawn that resembled the mid west dust bowl of the 30’s, my wife and I decided to landscape. The project went well, with the exception of a couple of stretches along the driveway where the soil […]

My first thought, for a photo that would best illustrate handloading, was an image of a giant river otter. Otters always seem to be having fun, floating around on their collective otter backs and eating fish all day. And handloading is all about fun…although maybe not so much about floating […]

With large sections of our front yard floating out onto the driveway with each rainfall, landscaping became an urgent priority. Agriculturally challenged, we hired a local company that does exceptional work with designs that are very much in keeping with New England tradition. The work activity, unfortunately, has drawn the […]

Firearm enthusiasts are a hands-on bunch; always expanding areas of interest and always in search of   firearms knowledge. Shooting and firearms are more  fun when it’s possible to modify and tailor the function of a firearm to suit personal preferences. Handloading offers more of the same, which is probably why […]