I hesitate to call it an open thread, since that implies my audience is neither tiny nor utterly disengaged, and according to Google Analytics, my audience is both tiny and disengaged.

Anyway, since I’m writing this before the weekend actually starts, I’ll dispense with linguistic tricks aimed at making you think otherwise. There are a few things on the docket. One of my friends is visiting for the weekend, so we’ll do interesting things like have a bit of a shooting competition and build a small trebuchet.

The shooting competition will involve, at least in part, my 1938-vintage M91/30 Mosin-Nagant, probably the cheapest military firearm you can find. It seems to be a pretty accurate example, given that my last few trips to the range have yielded decent groups at 50 and 100 yards (although I’ve had the annoying issue that the screws securing the receiver to the stock tend to loosen and cause the rifle to turn from relatively accurate to badly inaccurate). One of these days I’m going to build a bench rest for it, and if it turns out to be consistent from that position, I’m going to snag one of those reproduction PU scopes and mount it.

The trebuchet is planned to be about two feet tall at the axle, which makes it pretty small. Fortunately, it’s only a design testbed for the planned five-foot-axle trebuchet coming later in the summer.