July-August 2010 - New Zealand Clay Target Association

OBITUARYRON DENTRon’s great loves were his family, friends and of course shooting,in particular clay target & bird shooting. After the demise of CACin the early 70s Ron pretty much single-handedly kept clay targetshooting alive in NZ, by importing clay targets in a time when notargets were to be had and manufacturing wads for shot shellreloading. Back then reloading was only way shooters couldafford to carry on shooting.With a keen eye for an opportunity Ron established his verysuccessful business Reloaders Supplies. Ron & Reloaders broughtan approach to retail in NZ never seen before in the firearmsindustry with Mail Order catalogues & fast, efficient service. Thatfast efficient service was even more astounding when you considerRon was working with Road Services & NZ Rail. Back in those dayswhen you wanted something special, Ron made sure Reloaderswas the only destination it could be found. Ron used to wear a teeshirt with “If it bangs, we sell it” printed on.Today Reloaders is still an icon within the firearms industry andmany of Ron’s initiatives continue to be copied by Reloaderscompetitors.Ron was one of the major sponsors of the NZCTA. He sponsored theNZ Skeet Handicap and the NZ Handicap by Distance. Shootingwas a passion with Ron.If it was in Ron’s power to help he would, those that asked andthose that did not. Ron helped shooting clubs with advice andfinancial assistance. He alsohelped individuals with adviceand financial help when required.Possibly one of Ron’s great gifts forthose prepared to listen was hisadvice and mentoring.Ron took numerous groups ofshooters abroad for competitions& shooting events. When it cameto getting tickets, permits or anyrequired paper work sorted, andgetting people to turn up at theright place and time, Ron wasin charge whether you wantedit or not. Undoubtedly Ron was the reason many shootersexperienced some great times. Because of Ron, our Tour Leader,trips were the stuff of legends.He loved to travel & did so extensively with his wife Lois for bothbusiness & pleasure. Ron travelled extensively throughout US,Australia, Europe, Argentina, Mexico and China, so he got to see agood part of the world. The pleasure part of Ron’s travels generallyinvolved shooting clay targets and birds, both of these were Ron’strue shooting passions. Ron always made friends when abroadand most of these people have become lifelong friends.Ron loved his family. In the last few years Ron’s grand childrenhave been the apple of his eye.making tracks...Be sure to read the finalparagraph; your understandingof it will depend on the earlierpart of the content.The US standard railroad gauge(distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number.Why was that gauge used? Because that’sthe way they built them in England, andEnglish expatriates built the US railroads.Why did the English build them like that?Because the first rail lines were built by thesame people who built the pre-railroadtramways, and that’s the gauge they used.Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then?Because the people who built the tramwaysused the same jigs and tools that theyused for building wagons, which used thatwheel spacing.Why did the wagons have that particularodd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried touse any other spacing, the wagon wheelswould break on some of the old, longdistance roads in England, because that’sthe spacing of the wheel ruts.So who built those old rutted roads?Imperial Rome built the first long distanceroads in Europe (and England) for theirlegions. The roads have been used eversince.And the ruts in the roads? Roman warchariots formed the initial ruts, whicheveryone else had to match for fear ofdestroying their wagon wheels. Sincethe chariots were made for ImperialRome, they were all alike in the matterof wheel spacing. Therefore the UnitedStates standard railroad gauge of 4 feet,8.5 inches is derived from the originalspecifications for an Imperial Roman warchariot. Bureaucracies live forever.So the next time you are handed aspecification/procedure/process andwonder ‘What horse’s ass came up with it?,you may be exactly right. Imperial Romanarmy chariots were made just wide enoughto accommodate the rear ends of two warhorses. (Two horses’ asses) Now, the twistto the story:When you see a Space Shuttle sitting onits launch pad, there are two big boosterrockets attached to the sides of the mainfuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters,or SRB’s. The SRB’s are made by Thiokol attheir factory in Utah. The engineers whodesigned the SRB’s would have preferredto make them a bit fatter, but the SRB’s hadto be shipped by train from the factory tothe launch site. The railroad line from thefactory happens to run through a tunnelin the mountains, and the SRB’s had to fitthrough that tunnel. The tunnel is slightlywider than the railroad track, and therailroad track, as you now know, is about aswide as two horses’ behinds.So, a major Space Shuttle designfeature of what is arguably the world’smost advanced transportation systemwas determined over two thousand yearsago by the width of a horse’s ass. Andyou thought being a horse’s ass wasn’timportant? Ancient horse’s asses controlalmost everything... and CURRENT HorsesAsses are controlling everything else.gunshot 45