MAKING A CLOTHESPIN QUAIL CALL   A clothespin quail call is simple to make and accurately imitates the calls of both California Valley Quail and Gambel’s Quail. All you need to make this call is a wooden clothespin, electrical tape, and a No. 31 or 32 rubber band (like those used on many home-delivered newspapers). These rubber bands are 1/8th of an inch wide and approximately 1/16th of an inch thick. A No. 31 measures about 2 3/4-inches long when squashed flat on a ruler. A No. 32 is a little longer and better for bigger clothespins.Step 1: Take the metal piece out of the clothespin so you have two pieces of wood.Step 2: Take one of the pieces of wood and make three wraps of black electrical tape around the fat end of the wood. The call works best if you cover the slot where the metal piece was attached.Step 3: Take three wraps of electrical tape around the skinny end of the same piece of wood. Make sure the tape is smooth on the flat side of the wood as you wrap the tape on. The beauty of electrical tape is that it’s pretty stretchy and makes this easy.Step 4: Take the rubber band and place it around the taped wood length-wise. Make sure the rubber band is centered along the flat side of the wood.Step 5: Take the other piece of wood and place the flat side of this wood against the flat side of the taped piece of wood so the rubber band is trapped between the two flat pieces of clothespin. Now pinch the two pieces of wood together and tightly tape them together at one end. I like to keep the two fat ends of the wood together for this process. Try to…

Rhode, Hancock win skeet golds   Except for brief -- almost mandatory -- coverage of two U.S. Olympic shooters -- Kim Rhode and Vincent Hancock who won gold medals in skeet and set a pile of Olympia records in the process, the television and national print media has been dismal. The sad part is that the way the shooting sports are staged today, they are tailor-made for television coverage. The 10-meter air rifle final was breath-taking. The 10-shot final is digitally scored in fractions of a point, so a perfect 11-point, center target hit is now possible, scores are flashed instantly on the scoreboard so everyone can see the shot and how the point total is changing. The two shooters who ended up winning the gold and silver medals traded the lead back and forth, and it looked like one was pulling ahead by the middle of the round, but then the other shot a pair of 10.8 shots a row, taking the lead back, swinging the tables the other direction. But then on his ninth shot, he had a dismal 9.4-point scoring shot, probably the worst of his entire match. He ended up losing by .6 points. Here is a summary of how US shooters have been faring and some notes. There are also links to the direct scoring page on the Olympic site.   US OLYMPIC SHOOTING RESULTSSaturday’s Events10 Meter Women’s Air RifleUS shooters Jamie Lynn Gray and Sarah Scherer made the finals of the 10-meter Women’s Air Rifle event on Saturday, finishing in 5th and 7th respectively with scores of 499.7 and 499.0 of a possible 510 points, including the digitally-scored final 10-shot string. Siling Yi of China won the gold with a score of 502.9. 10 Meter Men’s Air PistolUS shooters did not make the final…