Midwinter calling, day 40

Rifle goes BOOM!

The new shooting range in the bay south of the mansion is just nice, and Pedr and the workers are pleased that it wasn't a huge amount of work to build. Mostly clearing away some trees and shrubs and building a fairly roomy shooting booth with three shooting positions from the fold-down shooting tables. A sturdy log frame, with a roof made from sawn off log sides. Side walls and rear wall to protect against wind and rain made from wattle and daub. The daub has dried and no longer stinks, which is good because daub is a bit of straw and mud with 25% horse or cow manure mixed in. It is a fairly quick way to build a weather resistant wall that doesn't require planks or good timber, and the branches for the wattle is taken from the scattered areas of coppiced rowan, ash, elm, oak, maple, willow and hazel trees found on the island. Different types of wood have different usage, but for making wattle it's not picky.

Coppicing simply is the practise of cutting down a tree close to the base but leaving the stump and root system intact, so new shoots grow from the stump and that become tall slender trees. By waiting 2-20 years different sized wood grows from the stump, and that wood can be harvested. 2-3 years for thin poles, 5-6 years for thicker and 7-8 for even thicker and so on. The size needed is cut down and 'harvested', and then the tree start to grow and the process repeats. Gradually there amount increase, and it is basically a slow production line of materials to build fences, walls, firewood, tools and everything else that a farm needs, like its own little hardware store, and every farm needs its own coppiced area. But even if a farm don't need the branches or woods this year, they have to cut down some to have what they need for future years, so it have been easy to import shiploads during the autumn for all the projects, enclosures and so on. A lot of farms don't use everything and people basically see it as a good extra income straight from the forest with just a little work, and that is something that renews itself after a few years.

When it comes to the shooting ranges, there are both fixed and mobile targets on the southern heading long distance range which have signs and markers for 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 meters plus the special 300 meter target set out in the shallow water, as well as 500 and 600 meter targets against the mountain on the other side of the bay. Pedr's people have also completed the east heading moving target range. Its 30m wide which high poles and thin rope that return to the shooting line along one side. It can be hand cranked by an assistant or weight-driven. The release can be triggered by an assistant or through a water weight which, when the lower container is sufficiently filled, will trigger the target to move in one direction or the other depending on set up, and the target is hidden at both ends so you can't really tell where it is, or when it will start to move, although there is a sound as it release. The maximum shooting distance on that shooting range is practically 100 meters, but it is of course possible to stand closer and here too there are signs marking 25, 50 and 75 meters. The target hangs from a rope, so it will of course move in a slight arc that is lowest in the middle, but that is okay, and the end post can be moved up or down 2.5 meters for the target to move more vertically, but the rope makes that obvious. It will probably still help to improve aim, and if the assistant is a bastard during hand cranking, the moving rate and direction can change. In the future, there will probably be a couple of shorter pistol ranges adjacent to the moving target range separated with earthen embankments as barriers, but that is a lot of work and a future project when we know if I really want and need it.

It's hardly the safest shooting range in the world, but I have limited options here if I don't fully focus on getting a safe, good shooting range. Both ranges have mountain backstops with dirt and grass unless the shot is very high as there are exposed rock faces further up. The long distance range is also safer since there is that steep 40 meter high mountain after the 600 meter target, and if the shot goes over that, it's a couple of kilometers to Tosra on the other side of the water. Big painted warning signs mark the boundaries of the shooting range over the mountain towards the strait, the road, and down south on the other side of the bay. It's a quicker and simpler solution than trying to build a fence, but towards the road and the west side there will eventually be a tall fence with low trees planted in front of it, partly to block visibility to what's going on at the range. A ditch will also be dug from the bay to make a water filled boundary. Down in the southwest there is a simple information board with pictograms and a large orange flag lying on hooks that can be used to call attention if the range is in use. It's better than nothing.

As there isn't much purpose to be on or behind that southern mountain except for some grazing land and a couple of smaller crop fields in the small valley on the other side of the mountain, all the locals have been told to stay away from there except when they specifically have to be there during next summer, although we will have sheep grazing the land when the shooting range is not in use. They might be there during use too, but they are not moving targets. The locals aren't stupid and know that powerful thunder sejd will happen here, and they have seen that my thunder weapons can kill elks. No one wants to experience what happens to a body. Everyone have heard that I called down thunder during that duel in the harbour and that man was very dead, very fast. And my thunder weapons are sejd replicating that for hunting deer and elks.

After an interesting day with plenty of shooting, it is proven that the rifles with scopes work well. Surprisingly well. The attempts to counteract fouling are not as successful, but have worked well enough that it is a step in the right direction and there will be experimentation to hopefully find a good optimal mix, amount and use, that can be stored loaded. There will be so much experimentation and testing. All sambos, guards and most of the staff is gathered, and we also had a fika while taking a break. The sambos and guards who wanted were allowed to shoot at least two shots each, but Kari, Caecilia and Hillevi mostly did it because they got the offer, while Jane shot because it's 'more modern'. Alith and Ciara are clearly the best marksmen - markswomen - after me, and Gunhild might be okay but she got way too much adrenaline and not enough patience. Rifle goes BOOM! Hillevi was useless and from Gunhild and Bodils comments I'm guessing Hillevi isn't a very good archer, and I believe Hillevi has myopia and distant objects are fuzzy, and the way Bodil crafts I'm guessing she has a bit of far-sightedness issues.

Archery on the moving target range is really popular, and another rain barrel will be placed here and the rain gutter on the roof split in two, so that the roof of the shooting booth can fill the barrels and more water is quickly available. That is also handy for the fire that will happen sooner or later, and probably late spring or summer. Sure, there is a whole ocean close by, but the muddy beach isn't ideal to take water from. Bodil is clearly the best shooter with a bow on a moving target and she absolutely loves the bow I gave her, but more surprising is how good Alith has become with throwing knives or an axe on a stationary target. I didn't even know she practised, but she has practised together with Gunhild. I've always seen throwing knives mostly as an impractical movie thing, but I'd be worried about standing within 10 meters of Alith if she wants to see me dead. Especially if she has an axe. Of course I give the guards permission to use the whole shooting range for practice with bows, knives and axes whenever they want, as long as they take care of the shooting range as a whole, and arrange new targets, etc. And yes, I would be happy to see targets looking like an animal or person. I want to see animal and person target beside the normal target boards just to learn what size that animal or a person is at that range, and different angled animals as well. Beside having fun, the main purpose of the shooting range is to improve skill and weapons.

I'm so damn pleased that I can get what I consider to be good hits at 300 meters when sitting with support, which means the hunting rifle has an impressively small grouping compared to the musket, and my marksmanship is still lacking. I can hit the 600 meter target - eventually - but hitting a person-sized target would be mostly luck. At least with my current skill level and equipment. Hunting will not happen over 300 meters since the distance judgment becomes so critical to compensate for the bullet drop in relation to the target size, and in reality I probably have to stick to a maximum of 150-200 meters depending on the circumstances and the target. After all, it is about hitting a small part of the animal which may be at a bad angle and obscured, and the animal might not be standing still and moving in uneven nature. Taking bad shots is just cruel and irresponsible, and in hindsight, letting Alith take that elk shot with the musket was a bad call.

In any case, I can occasionally hit at that really long distance and that is justification for more practice, better rifles, better sights, more accurate bullets and black powder and so on. I will probably spend a lot of time here at this shooting range come spring and summer. With proper data now collected I make range marks for 100 to 600 meters on both the scope and on the iron sights. After using the Ti-83+ app and plotter function to follow the likely trajectory of the bullet, I make the estimated 700 meter mark on the scope. More than that is not possible because the angle is too large.

It's nice to visit the sawmill and see how planks start to be put in stock, and the carpenters certainly don't complain about how quick and easy it has become to build something with ready-made planks.

Most of the work on the eccentric press in the machine hall has been done, because the craftsmen have begun to understand how much time that machine might save, and weather occasionally means that there are free craftsmen not busy with other work. Certain tools for the eccentric press will be very difficult and a lot of work to do, but can save so much time once it works. Of course someone has to actually operate and feed the press, change tools and do the set up, but it is still so much better and faster than pure manual work, with a much more uniform final product. Honestly, I have so many things I want to produce that I will probably have to set up two shifts or something like that when the days get longer and there is more daylight. A machine that is standing still produces nothing. A disadvantage of a machine is that it requires operators who understand the machine and can set up and handle it, which I have to teach, but the advantage is that that trained operator can then produce things the person lacks the skill and experience to do by hand, and the operator can teach other people the much easier part of just feeding and 'pushing the button'.

It will be interesting to see how well the eccentric press actually work, and my main concern is the engagement and disengagement of the flywheel clutch. Since this machine simply don't have the power to process too thick or large material, and the material properties might be bad, I assume there will be quite a lot of hot pressing and limitations. Which also means quite a lot of heat treatment of finished parts for increased strength and dividing the work into easier steps, and not all in the press. For example, a product might start with roughly hot-pressing steel into a bar with the automatic hammer, and then running that bar through double rollers offset 90 degree from each other, to make a decent round steel bar. If I need bolts, the round bar can be cut to the correct length by a tool, and this is followed by forming the head and round body with chamfered end in a couple of steps by also using other tools in the press. Then making threads by rolling the bolt between two plates with the correct thread shape, distance and pitch in another tool. Finally heat treatment.

Many tricky steps, but it's about solving them one by one, and in addition to the round bar, the automatic hammer can be used to make sheets, flat bars and other things that are then processed in tools. Production line thinking and dividing the work into smaller parts that can be made with special machines or tools is a whole new way of thinking for most craftsmen. By careful thinking during the design phase, the same machines but slightly changed tools or with inserts can also produce different sized M threaded bolts, and in different lengths, as well as washers or locking washers. There are fewer steps required to make hex bolts, but then a special and hard to make machine will be required to thread those bolts, which will also require a lot of lubricant to not wear out that tool too fast. Lubricants will always be a hard issue. Then finally a heat treatment.

The problem right now is that I will soon have an eccentric press, but no tools for it. So the blacksmith will make a relatively simple tool that stamp out something that will end up as nails after further processing. It will become cut-nails or also called square nails, and the fact that they will be square-rectangular is not a problem for much of nail usage, and can be an advantage because it increases the torsional resistance between two planks. A warm-up and a relatively simple clamp can be used in a tool in the power hammer to form a better head on the cut-nail. Nails are so damn important and useful that I'll probably make a special eccentric press tool just for them. Hell, I'm considering eventually making a purpose made machine that just do nails.

I'm exhausted and my mind is pretty blank as I try to fall asleep, with Iselin on one side, and Ciara on the other in her favourite position with her head resting on my chest and my arm around her. It feels nice to be needed and appreciated. I hope I wake up from my mobile phone tomorrow, and that Iselin and Ciara are still in my bed.