mullet, magnified marlins and government management models
Dec 12, 2015 13:58:52 GMT -5
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Post by rkcohen on Dec 12, 2015 13:58:52 GMT -5
© 11/15 rkcohen
mullet, magnified marlins and government management models
our young friend mullet has been reading the guns rags lately and in doing so has gone out, spent the rent money and procured a new marlin 1894 in 44mag along with a scope (which cost more than the rifle) that many of us first thought might have been a movie camera...
before the rifle was even cleaned (we’ve discussed this before at length), it had a giant “lowell observatory optical instruments, inc” scope mounted on top, a 50mm, multi-turreted, 6x24 wonder of blended amorphous silica and many rare earth elements - along with a few that were developed in that particular firm’s marketing agency.
it’s first appearance at the range caused more than a few eyebrows to raise, one old fella muttering “what the…..” under his breath in disbelief.
the once svelte, compact carbine has now become a two-man lift, requiring osha-certified back braces and considerable mental focus to heave up onto the range bench for target work. i thought the ro might first want to determine whether or not our concrete stations were certified to handle the weight, he just stood there with his head shaking…
personally, i’ve come to marvel at the opportunities to observe our youngest range member, each one an unexpected adventure!
mullet looked at me, proudly holding out his hand and stated “look, white box Winchester 240s – I got ‘em at bass boy – no more fancy stuff for me..”
this lead me to believe mullet’s misadventure with the 1895 cowboy may have taught him a thing or two – after the bruises cleared up!
before launching those Winchester slugs downrange, I asked him if the scope had been bore sighted or not - seemed a natural question with an expected answer but considering the circumstances, worth asking anyways…
now if you’ve been tracking the legacy of this young man, you may already have arrived at the answer.
which I won’t disclose, due to the slack-jawed, fly-catching, mouth-open blank stares it generated the first time from the firing line…
up on the bags, the horror began.
having learned to shoot 3 shot groups (a good start) – those first three went right, wide of the bull, to the edge of the target, nicking the target frame, drawing the attention of the senior ro on duty...
mullet immediately began making adjustments.
by gently tapping the bags to the left…..
the lead ro looked at me with the “if you don’t coach this boy, I’m tossing him off the line and you too for being a generally incorrigible influence on him and those others around you, you old bastard..”
approaching the lad, musing over the “bags versus the turret” for adjustment, I asked him if he would consider taking a break.
he consented and I began the parable of the government program management model called “the ten hammers.”
“seems there was a foreman that needed a little more labor to finish out a job and the solution was to hire some men that could swing a hammer.
so the foreman assembled ten men, explained what their jobs were and opened a bag that contained ten, identical hammers which he issued out to each one, setting them off to their work.
at the end of the day he called them all in, collected the ten identical hammers and inspected the work before paying them.
as he went through the work site he saw signs of good craftsmanship in jobs one through nine, while at job ten he saw nails bent over, dents all over the studs from overstrikes and splinters along the sides of the lumber.
going back to his truck, he noticed nine workers standing there, talking, laughing and one fella - the number ten job, being attended by the foreman’s assistant, both thumbs being bandaged and having splinters pulled out of both of his hands.
while paying the first nine, he was thinking he had two options with the tenth worker – teach the clumsy fella how to use a hammer - or possibly hire an outside agency at great expense to conduct a study or survey to see if the hammers might be defective…”
with that, mullet’s face scrunched up into a picture of cognitive effort.
i posited the question before him, “so, which course of action does the foreman take?”
mullet immediately responded “the boss teaches that numbskull how to hit a nail!”
“no grasshopper, you see the government – will pay some outside firm a bucket of money to tell them something else – something they’d rather hear - than the plain truth..”
now mullet was confused.
“well that’s almost as smart as taking a girl out to dinner and then letting some other fella take her home…”
with that, some of the range crew chuckled, a few of the older gents broke out into a guffaw, “old crusty” spit out his coffee and started choking while one of the fellas pulled his shot and started a blue binge of cursing!
yup, standing there, staring at the hubble-scope mounted 1894 while looking at the adjustment turrets, mullet is showing signs that he is starting to catch on….
mullet, magnified marlins and government management models
our young friend mullet has been reading the guns rags lately and in doing so has gone out, spent the rent money and procured a new marlin 1894 in 44mag along with a scope (which cost more than the rifle) that many of us first thought might have been a movie camera...
before the rifle was even cleaned (we’ve discussed this before at length), it had a giant “lowell observatory optical instruments, inc” scope mounted on top, a 50mm, multi-turreted, 6x24 wonder of blended amorphous silica and many rare earth elements - along with a few that were developed in that particular firm’s marketing agency.
it’s first appearance at the range caused more than a few eyebrows to raise, one old fella muttering “what the…..” under his breath in disbelief.
the once svelte, compact carbine has now become a two-man lift, requiring osha-certified back braces and considerable mental focus to heave up onto the range bench for target work. i thought the ro might first want to determine whether or not our concrete stations were certified to handle the weight, he just stood there with his head shaking…
personally, i’ve come to marvel at the opportunities to observe our youngest range member, each one an unexpected adventure!
mullet looked at me, proudly holding out his hand and stated “look, white box Winchester 240s – I got ‘em at bass boy – no more fancy stuff for me..”
this lead me to believe mullet’s misadventure with the 1895 cowboy may have taught him a thing or two – after the bruises cleared up!
before launching those Winchester slugs downrange, I asked him if the scope had been bore sighted or not - seemed a natural question with an expected answer but considering the circumstances, worth asking anyways…
now if you’ve been tracking the legacy of this young man, you may already have arrived at the answer.
which I won’t disclose, due to the slack-jawed, fly-catching, mouth-open blank stares it generated the first time from the firing line…
up on the bags, the horror began.
having learned to shoot 3 shot groups (a good start) – those first three went right, wide of the bull, to the edge of the target, nicking the target frame, drawing the attention of the senior ro on duty...
mullet immediately began making adjustments.
by gently tapping the bags to the left…..
the lead ro looked at me with the “if you don’t coach this boy, I’m tossing him off the line and you too for being a generally incorrigible influence on him and those others around you, you old bastard..”
approaching the lad, musing over the “bags versus the turret” for adjustment, I asked him if he would consider taking a break.
he consented and I began the parable of the government program management model called “the ten hammers.”
“seems there was a foreman that needed a little more labor to finish out a job and the solution was to hire some men that could swing a hammer.
so the foreman assembled ten men, explained what their jobs were and opened a bag that contained ten, identical hammers which he issued out to each one, setting them off to their work.
at the end of the day he called them all in, collected the ten identical hammers and inspected the work before paying them.
as he went through the work site he saw signs of good craftsmanship in jobs one through nine, while at job ten he saw nails bent over, dents all over the studs from overstrikes and splinters along the sides of the lumber.
going back to his truck, he noticed nine workers standing there, talking, laughing and one fella - the number ten job, being attended by the foreman’s assistant, both thumbs being bandaged and having splinters pulled out of both of his hands.
while paying the first nine, he was thinking he had two options with the tenth worker – teach the clumsy fella how to use a hammer - or possibly hire an outside agency at great expense to conduct a study or survey to see if the hammers might be defective…”
with that, mullet’s face scrunched up into a picture of cognitive effort.
i posited the question before him, “so, which course of action does the foreman take?”
mullet immediately responded “the boss teaches that numbskull how to hit a nail!”
“no grasshopper, you see the government – will pay some outside firm a bucket of money to tell them something else – something they’d rather hear - than the plain truth..”
now mullet was confused.
“well that’s almost as smart as taking a girl out to dinner and then letting some other fella take her home…”
with that, some of the range crew chuckled, a few of the older gents broke out into a guffaw, “old crusty” spit out his coffee and started choking while one of the fellas pulled his shot and started a blue binge of cursing!
yup, standing there, staring at the hubble-scope mounted 1894 while looking at the adjustment turrets, mullet is showing signs that he is starting to catch on….
