Saturday, May 17, 2008

Suhl

On the second Saturday of June, while the membership of the Utah Schuetzen Society is enjoying the temperate climes of scenic and historical Promontory, I hope to be in Germany celebrating a Schuetzenfest and the re-opening of the arms museum in Suhl.

This city, later dubbed “The Arsenal of Europe,” has a history of armsmaking and metal work that extends back to the Bronze Age when the receding glaciers of the last ice age left malleable metal ores available to the primitive miners. The forests provided fuel and, later, the streams motive power. By the fourteenth century, the city had hammer forges. The city is also quite near an ancient trade route that extended from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. In those days most all food and fiber were produced and consumed locally. The major trade goods were salt and metal wares which the men of Suhl produced in all varieties. When firearms came into use, they were produced here in such numbers as to attract the attention of the objects of these weapons. The city, mines, forges, and workshops were destroyed during the Thirty Years War.

It is hard to keep good folks down however, and the arms industry (and those industries related to machine and metal work) flourished up to 1945 when considerable downsizing occurred after a sharp drop in demand. Manufacturers such as JP Sauer, Krieghoff, Heym, and Anschütz, although now located elsewhere in Germany, had their homes once in Suhl. It is still the home to Merkel and several smaller gunmakers.

Friday, May 16, 2008

I found this page some time ago. It has some interesting experiments especially in regards to rust. Allowing rust on a firearm is a mortal, not a venal, sin and like other sins, such as wearing a baseball cap backwards, should be avoided. Last week, on a day that it seemed that I had too much time on my hands, I took the barrel off my Stevens .40-65 to see if it would headspace correctly on my schuetzen. You know, there are days when wind is a problem. Well, it didn't but the loose Stevens threads apparently allow moisture in. I like to use WD-40 where I have used soapy water or Windex despite all the rude things said about it and have had good results up to now. I think that I will use Ballistol in the future and see if that isn't better.

Monday, May 12, 2008

May Match



Saturday we held our Mother's Day/Pentecost rifle match. The weather was clear, cool, and with a steady breeze from the north. Attendance was low as some shooters likely and mistakenly confused family obligations with their duty to The Family of Man. We shot our usual forty round match and, as usual Gary was hard to beat. He came in first with an 845, Gloria was next with an 815, and Ron third with an 811. Ron shot an impressive ASB target with a 245-6. Bench scores were pretty good as my 238 in the ASB match was only good enough for last place.

Gary also won the "King Match" but it required the fetching of the calipers to make his win over Gloria official. As our late and lamented comrade Dale used to say, "If it were easy, girls would be doing it."

Our next match will be in June at Promontory in conjunction with the Buffalo Match. Since I have duties that will be taking me away, I'll leave the organizational details to Schuetzenmeister Gary.