Short Bolt

Caleb started this meme, jonesing for a Scout Rifle type rifle that shot .223.

Firearm Blog dreamed what it could look like.

And Tam expounded and commented, while Says Uncle just don't get it.

It is intriguing, a scout type bolt action rifle shooting NATO 5.56mm and taking standard AR magazines. Caleb's contribution is to that Cooper Scout concept is to add commonality of magazines with AR's.

I admit the whole concept has intrigued me, and I have agonized on a proper personal bolt action selection process here on this blog for 2 years, and here I go again.

I fell for the spell of the Scout Rifle that Cooper was such a proponent. A light, handy, general purpose bolt action rifle good for nigh everything. The problem with the actual Scout by Steyr? Cooper lamented the lack of a left handed alternative. And everyone else lamented the price.

Both are reasons I don't have one right now. I would have bought one as one of my first purchases near when I started writing this web log.

Instead I still wait for an alternative that is appropriate for me.

Why a bolt action? Because their mechanism is simple, leading to fewer chances of mechanical failure. Like a revolver. And that is a handy feature to have if you are alone, relying on your rifle, for hunting or survival or defense.

Unlike Caleb, I'd prefer the original .308 concept. But his .223 idea almost fits in with my carbine desires. I'd prefer that carbine in a pistol caliber I already have.

As for MY version of the Scout. My requirements are simple.

• .308
• iron sights as backup to a scout scope mount
• left handed bolt
• decent quality (pretty much ok with any middle of the road)
• rugged as a milsurp, but not super heavy. (Copper specified 6 kilos [correction: 3kg], but I'm not that picky)
• costs around $1000

Now, thanks to Caleb, I want to be able to feed it from an M1A magazine. Perhaps not a 20 rounder, but a 10 round magazine in a bolt action would make that Scout Rifle as good or better than any other bolt action ever fielded by any army.

My fantasy bolt action is just that, a fantasy. A bolt action pipe dream. I could have a rifle made to these specs, but it will cost more than $1000. I can get some flavor or left handed Remington and have iron sights added.

There is probably a SAKO or CZ or Remington out there that comes close, but nothing really gives me that spark to acquire it. And Savage 10 might best hit my price point. Maybe that's the attraction of the Scout by Steyr. Cooper's marketing of same made it sound most desirable. And he talked down the other verisions and clones to make me hesitate.

And now, as I mentioned, I want it to take a common magazine. And I sorta want that .223 version Caleb dreams about, too, now. Dammit.

[And I'd jump on this Aussie '5th Generation' Enfield in .308 with BOTH feet if it came in lefty! Oh my goodness. They even use M1A magazines, with aperture sights and provision for a scope... MUST investigate further.... {if there is even RUMOR of a lefty: WANT!}]

Featherweight/Scandium

SO, having a really lightweaight pistol is nice. You can carry it much easier than an all steel version. But I've heard from several source that you don't want to shoot the crap out of one.

For one thing, they can hurt. Not a lot of weight there to absorb recoil.

And folks recommend you not shoot too much to avoid excess wear on the softer metal, anyway.

But lets say you ARE a masochist. And your hands are particularly tough. And you just go to town at the range.

How soon before you DO damage the pistol? You shoot your snubbie loose or wear out a scandium slide? Would it be safe to say that if I shot 5000 rounds through a featerweight I'd notice some problems and warpage? How bout 1000 rounds? Has anyone ever heard of someone wearing out a lightweight gun?

News Roundup

I saw a link to this Liberty Sphere site on Says Uncle.

The interesting feature is that this guy does a regular 2nd Amendment news rondup. And he seems very thorough. Worth checking back frequently.

THANK YOU!

Jenny said... "Tighten the screw in line with and about an inch back from the loading gate. That's connected to the "tang" of the gate itself and it should tighten right up no fuss. Might want to loc-tite it. That was my first "oh no, it's broken!" gun moment, on a .30-30"

Oh my goodness! That did it! THANK YOU!!! I guess some kitchen-table gunsmith was all it needed, and it was certainly within my skill set. My 1894C is ostensibly functional again. It ain't done broke no mo.

This is exactly why I started this blog. To learn stuff I didn't know by tapping into a wide variety

While you CAN repeal the 2nd Amendment

You aren't repealing a right. The 2nd doesn't GIVE Americans a right. It's something everyone in the world possesses. Repealing the Amendment doesn't make the inherentness of the whole thing go away.

Repealing the 2nd just allows the Government to poop all over that right under the guise of law. You may be ruled as a subject and unable to arm yourself, but you still have a right to arm yourself for self-defense and to oppose tyrants.

They don't hate guns, they hate US. They don't hate us because we are gun nuts and have a gun or two or whatever; but because we may resist Evil, where they won't, and they don't want to be reminded of this failing.

Cleaning Rod

So I wanted a cleaning rod to push patches through my rifles. And I wanted one piece rods that had no segment seams and I wanted something softer than steel. Why? My rifles have to be cleaned from the muzzle end, and I didn't want to ding the soft edge of the crown and the very end of the rifle barrel.

I had heard Tetra one piece cleaning rods were good. And the one I have seemed ok at first. But the coating on the rod is peeling off like it was made of 50 year old black paint, leaving flakes everywhere. Krep!

I'm thinking maybe a Dewey. They seem to be everywhere.

Mickey D's

I don't know what to think about FTC types encroaching on blog content. Sounds misplaced. Doesn't the FTC have better things to do? Or, ideally, LESS things to do? Shouldn't they be concerned about weaselling out of over-generous pensions for retired FTC workers and layoff as many people as possible in their DC offices? It'd be a great service to taxpayers.

What I DO know is I could really go for some McDonalds food right now. Mmmmm-mmm! A Big Mac with that sumptious and juicy quarter pound of USDA grade A beef. And the special sauce is nie on manna from Heaven. I don't need to tell my readers how superior their french fries are. Makes my mouth water. After eating I'll wash it all down with an icy cold, refreshing, Coca Cola. I'm lovin' it!

Don't eat at those other fast food restaurants. They make their burgers out of Soylent Green.And Soylent Green is made from people.


[full disclosure... I don't eat McDonalds burgers. Not since 1975. I don't like onions and their burger comes with onion. It too much of a hastle to get them to hold the onions. It took the invention of the McNugget in the early 80s before there was anything I'd want at all off their menu save fries and a vanilla shake. While I don't eat their burgers, I WILL indeed cash any checks made out to me that the McDonalds corporation wants to send. Hurry, Ronald, before the FTC sticks their noses into the transaction.]

Yet more links

Defensive Handgun

And

Straight Forward in a Crooked World

This Perturbs Me

It truly does.

Massachusetts Law Enforcement are sucking up the surplus full auto military hardware to issue their policemen.

If machine guns are just good for slaughtering people then why can the police get new ones, but ordinary citizens have to settle for antiques set to a much higher price point? Do the police have a need for gunning down lots of people? Or are machine guns not so bad, and may have a defensive, protective purpose, in which case ordinary citizens may have a legitimate use for them and they aren't so unusual?

Remember, guns get stolen from the police all the time. And not all cops are angels.

The police aren't soliders. They are civilians like you and me. Their job is just taking the law and order burden off of the rest of the people's hands so they can go about their other business with that role taken care of.

As far as arming of the whole populace, and in light of the Second Amendment, it is my feeling that if the police can equip themselves with an arm, then everyone else can too. It'd be an easy rule to remember. And it shuts down the "Where do you stop? nuclear weapons? Attack submarines with torpedoes? 155mm howitzers? Fragmentation grenades?" argument of the hoplophobes by drawing that line. Cops don't have howitzers. The police don't use fragmentation grenades. Johnny laws doesn't have officers armed with guns hidden in cell phones, but they do have a snub nosed pistol on their ankle sometimes.

It's a starting point. Get to that line and then we'll discuss civilian ownership of M1 Tanks, with or without the cannon in the turret.

After news about them doing that arm-up got out... they rescinded that policy of weapon acquisition, so... Glad folks were watching and questioned those authorities.

[Update: But THIS Sheriff has the right idea. Sell over-priced collectible machine guns to private citizens. It's win-win.]

My Gun Done Broke

What? AGAIN?! Was it the 1911 again?


No, I hinted at this yesterday. The 1894C is out of action. I gotta make an appointment with the gunsmith.



You know the gate dealie that you load rounds into the rube through? It's funky. Droops down, and out of alignment. Maybe a spring is not holding the gizmo right anymore. And this is causing some feed problems. Jams up the whole damn thing. So, how do you UNLOAD a lever action by prying cartridges back into postion to hopefully bring them out the way they came in? With a metal tipped screwdriver, or course. And too close to the primer to make me feel really comfortable, I tell you what. There was some pucker factor but I got them out. I'd hate to set off the back of a tube and then get the chain reaction of exploding death.



And there is no way I am taking this apart for some kitchen table gunsmithing. I have no idea if I could get the verschlagging thing back together, and I like the rifle too much to risk it. The few shots I got off before it jammed up permanent were very accurate. More so than I deserve to be.

The Goods!

Oh come ON! You didn't think I'd really have risque photos posted here did you? I have much more respect for the sensitivities of my readers than that.

New Shooter Report

So, my brother came down to go to Hap Baker rifle range. He brought his son with him, and the boy had never shot anything more powerful than a nerf gun before. My brother wanted some rifle time and to familiarize his firstborn with firearms. He was given the drill and had memorized the 4 rules.


The trip to the range was POURING rain. But that is typical lately. It is traditional this year for any day of the week ending in a 'Y' for water to actually come out of the sky. It made me happy because rain usually means a less crowded range.


To start off, we shot the pump .22. Taurus' discontinued line of a clone of the Winchester model 62. The boy was not a natural, but he was no slouch either. I don't have a pic of his targets, as he took those home as a souvenir.


Next up was the the 1894c lever action rifle. But then again it wasn't... more on that later.


And finally, I had put on the new trijicon front sight on the M1A. And I wanted to be sure it was still sighted in ok. It was. Easy swap out, that. And after checking, we blasted a few. The Nephew tried it for one shot. He is a waif of a boy. 14? 15? I can't keep track. But skinny. We were lucky to convincing him after my brother complained about shoulder pain. Hmph.


The first thing we worked on with the nephew was sight picture and then squeeeeeeezing the trigger for a surprise break. After the first cease fire I could have kicked myself. I forgot to tell him to focus on the front sight, not the target. He got much better results with he did that.





I'm no deadeye, but I kept all the shots on the splatter target. Inside the splatter's 10 ring is inside the 9 ring on the official NRA 100 yard target. So no .30 caliber scored less than 7 for me. Meh. Nothing to write home about but I'm certainly effective at 100 yards. And I called the flyers at 2 and 9 o'clock. There is even a coupla three .22 I got out there, but real .22 at 100 yards, for score, is a pipe dream for us.



And my brother was no slouch, neither. At least he wasn't an order of magnitude better than me, as he is with pistols. And the rifle sling is set up for me, not him.






Since we were both hitting lowish generally, I went from 9 clicks elevation to 10 clicks. Could probably go with 11. More info to play with on a future range session. And that is probably the new front sight being sized just a few hairs different than the original.

We would have brought the Paternal Parental unit along, but dad just had some hand surgery and I doubt he could have shot well. I'll try to drag him along by the fall.

[It's a shame Taurus isn't making a Model 62 clone anymore. And this is a new development. But Taurus introduces and drops models like it's going out of style. They are really fun guns, pump 22s. Get yourself one. Better yet, get the actual Winchester. The Winnie is a bit pricier, but worth the 800 beans, if you got that kind of money for .22s.]

Gunnie Types

I've mentioned in the past another hobby of mine. I used to be more active with it. Woodworking. Now woodworkers can be like Norm Abrams, all decked out in expensive new big machines with a HUGE 3 car garage to do their projects. Others have a few low end Craftsman tools and make beutiful pieces of art out of plywood. Others like to work with Japanese handtools only, and their shops resemble a Shinto temple, sparse, and almost alien to Western woodworkers. Others only carve little ships captains and they need only a saw, a pencil, and a knife or two. Others use antique handtools.

I use antique handtools. Mostly Muhrikin. Though there are a few Brit ones in there. Very few Continental tools, but I've always been enthralled with the idea of a French bisaigue. Need to get me one of those...

I was deep into the nitty gritty of tool types and eras and makers and when the quality sloughed off and when it got better. (Hey! I bet Roberta know the difference between and Irwin and a Jennings...)

But it was only recently that I absorbed the data about the significance of the S&W 5-screw revolvers. Until that, I had no idea. It's taking a while to absorb this minutia, and I don't know if I'll retain that. I don't know why. It took forever to figure out the difference between round butts and square butts, too. (On revolvers. I got the whole thing down on butt-shape for people.)

In the tool world, there are types. Collectors, Users, various degrees of both. Some concentrate on one of everything, some on one company like Disston or Stanley or Norris. Some on one tool type. I know of 2 anvil collectors. One had structural problems until he moved all of them from the living room to the basement. Some users will still use modern tools for some procedures. Some won't use anything that wasn't available before 1812.

And gunnie types are the same. There are 1911 collectors. Colt collectors. Smith and Wesson collectors. Some go for milsurp rifles of the US, every issued rifle from 1776 on.

Tool types have an issue with Gunnie types. Gunnie collectors of Winchester stuff put a higher premium/price on some tools because Winchester made some handtools for a while. Ruger made a pistol shaped hand drill.

And there are gun users, that use their race pistol to shave off time at competition. These types may LIKE the idea of a Garand, but don't own one. Other users shoot target 1000 yards away with a souped up bedded rifle. And don't even own a pistol.

And there are combinations of all three.

What am I? I am less a gun collector than I was a tool collector. That's a reason I don't have a handle of the fine bits and details yet. Plus, gun collecting is more expensive. I'm a bit of a user, but I've done no competition, just a bit of training, and I'm not even a weekly gun range goer. There is another gun type. Politico. I'm that, too, as most of us are. But again, I'm not a Snowflakes in Hell type, or even a SaysUncle.

But all I excel in in guntypes is thinking on what type a guntype various people are.

Hey T-Bolt!

Why do you want/prefer to disarm by removing the whole holster, rather than just take the gun out and leave the holster on your belt?


Several commenters wondered when I mentioned that in THIS post.


Well, I've got a reason.


I am of a mind that you take the gun out of the holster to shoot it to clean it, ideally. If you unholster you are now handling a firearm that may be cocked and locked (if you have a 1911 type) or just have one in the chamber ready to go with a trigger that isn't that hard to pull (ala Glock types.) Handling a firearm in a somewhat casual situation, like stowing it in the car while you go into church or the courthouse, you increase the chances of that finger you endeaver to keep off the trigger 99.999% of the time. If it was still in the holster, and that holster is a good one, then you have reduced the chances of snagging that bang switch on something and putting a hole in your dashboard or something more valuable.


I'm still getting used to the safety idea surrounding carrying with one in the chamber. On one hand, when you need it fast, not having to rack the slide is a safe thing. On the other hand, if you go around with a round in the pipe you got that one chance for an unhappy discharge when you monkey around with the gun, putting in the nightstand or under your pillow at bedtime, or under the floor mat when entering your kid's school to accept the scholastic accolades for raising such a smart student. Or whatever.

So my thought is, keep it in the holster as much as possible, and keep it ready to fire.

Where did I get this attitude about keeping the pistol in the holster as much as possible? I'm pretty sure it was Tam, but I can't find the old post of her'n to be sure. And hell, I respect Tam's thinking. Makes sense, to my melon. And things that make sense can be few and far between.

My preference errs on the side of safety and caution, all round. That doesn't mean someone can be careful and do things the tuthuh way. I don't judge. Not unless you start spinning your pistol around like a cowboy trickster with great flourish, finger in the trigger guard... with a 1911... THEN I'd need to find someplace else to be. In a hurry.

Spammer

Great. I got a commercial spammer. At least he 'says' my posts are great in the comment. If he shows up again, I'll have to turn on moderation for all posts. I've deleted several.

JayG had a post about a Happy Ending

A happy ending to a home invasion. The bad guys got shot after a doing a horrible job at victim selection. The thing that caught my eye was this:

So the robbers rounded the home owner and the rest of the folks in the house (according to the TV coverage) into a room... that contained a shotgun. LOL! Bad luck, robbers. Good job, homeowner!

Now, I don't know about you, but when I hear about a home invasion where the bad guys herd the residents of the home into one room, I start thinking execution. At the very least, they're getting everyone in one place, which means they're planning something IMHO. Pretty ironic that they chose the room with the gun

I don't think the invaders were thinking about anything more than robbing, necessarily.

A big tactic of home invaders is to round people up and put them in a windowless room with no phone. Like an interior bathroom. That way, one guy can watch that door, containing the residents, while other/s go about their business rounding up the valuables. Then they can slip away when done.

You DO keep a firearm in your bathroom, don't you? And all other windowless/phoneless rooms? JayG may have enough firearms, but he also has young kids and friends of kids that use the bathroom unsupervised.

Perhaps a single-gun safe under the sink in the bathrooms is in order. Something like these, which I use. For people that are afraid of guns, an old cellphone, charged, may be a good idea to have stashed. They are supposed to work for 911 calls only, if you don't have a calling plan for that old model.

Homeland

So it's been about 140 years since my paternal ancestors left our family's ancestral homeland in the shadow of the Alps and near the shores of the Bodensee. We were a simple people. Herdsmen and cheesemakers. The one time impressed into Napolean's Grande Armee for a little stroll to Moscow. And a bit of a jog back. But great great great great great grandpa (grosse grosse grosse grosse grosse Opa) made it back, at least.

I wonder how my long lost cousins are doing now, back in the old country?



Oh. I see. Maybe there was a reason our family left.

T-Bolt

Another Blog

I stumbled across Eagle1's blog yesterday, and while he's not prolific, I am still going to give him a read. Initial impressions are positive.

And one more. Hsoi

Pincus

I was listening to Gun Nuts Radio a couple Tuesdays ago. (You DO listen, don't you) and they had Rob Pincus on as a guest.

Guns! Nuts!

That's Marko's picture. Mmmm, walnut... Buy Marko's book. It's coming out soon. I'm gonna. Probably review it here someday, if you are hesitating to get it without knowing anything about it.

The man does lots of training of other people, and has done lots of self-defense training himself, so I wanted to re-listen to the show.

He sorta makes a dig or two at Jeff Cooper, and that sets my defense mechanism off. Til I realize, and Tam tells me, that he trained under Cooper at Gunsite "Back when the Colonel had his Tactical Tricycle." And his digs aren't really digs. They are elucidations. Clarifications. They are no skin of Cooper's back.

Example: Rob Pincus, quite diplomatically, knocks Cooper's color code system of alertness. Or so you think at first hearing. But he's actually telling us gun-toters to not rely on color code as a force field of invulnerability. Don't fetishize the code. Following it isn't like some sort of cargo cult, where the immune-from-bad-guy plane will land with gun goodies just because you made a facsimile of landing gear and a radio set out of coconuts. Just because your situational awareness went from Code Yellow to Code Orange doesn't mean you are safe from the bad guy you noticed. It's a helpful mindset. It helps you, individually, keep alert to your surroundings at an appropriate level. Alertness might, might, make you a less attractive target. Or it might make a determined bad guy change his tactics from direct boisterous confrontation to one with an ambush. Maybe when you go to code Orange you need to skeddaddle rather than think about where your CCW is on your hip. Maybe while you were at code Yellow half an hour before you should've decided to avoid that area you are now code Orange in before it goes all Red and you don't notice the ambush coming from 3 sides to your rear. Don't take stuff for granted.

The Color Code is a good start. It gets you thinking about mindset. But don't STOP thinking about mindset and situational awareness just because you memorized the code.

Another example: Many gun types, including Cooper, repeat a trope. "Only hits count." If you miss well you've given the bad guy his chance to take you out and you are dead meat. Pincus said, "well, misses count too..."

What?!!! What balderdash is this?! It goes against all conventional wisdom! Is Pincus trying to get me killed? Does he think a miss is as good? That's insane! Are we to lay down suppressing fire or somethng?!! Madness.

Well, when you think about it, a miss does have some value. Would Pincus prefer the good guys always hit the bad guys, TWICE, in the sinuses, turning them out like a light? Of course he would. But hits aren't guaranteed. And in a stressful self-defense situation you are more likely to miss. He's not saying you should TRY to miss. But if you do, you have raised the stress level of the bad guy adversary a whole bunch of notches. There is some value in that, sometimes. Yes. A missed shot can help, rather than hesitating and waiting for the ideal shot. Waiting for a bad guy to act most like a paper range target is not good for your longevity. Get good at hitting, and don't be paralyzed by a fear of missing. Don't be casual about your shots, by any means.

He makes me want to take his training course, after re-listening, Rob Pincus does. And check out his book.

And listen to Gun Nuts. Dammit.

[update... i was apostrophe crazy on this post...]

Trollop The Gun Nut II

So... Trollop bought a .44 on gunbroker. 8" barrel on that bad boy. HUGE. Ginormous. Now she is going through the transfer process.

On a hunch we went to Bass Pro. She needs a gun rug for the pistol, and some splatter targets, and we'd LOOK for ammo.

There was no gun rug big enough. We'll look elsewhere. I don't get it. Bass Pro has gargantuan .50 Smiffs for sale in the case, but you'd need to buy a rifle case to tote it out.

Ammo was sparse, as expected. They had .25 and .32 only. Oh, and .44 Magnum. Hooray! She did the ammo etiquette and only took 3 of the 7 boxes on the shelf. And the cost less than $32 each. Not bad. Cheaper than the .45 I bought recently. Whoda thunk that the .44 would be the budget shooter?

The only other ammo they had was Remington .223. So no sign of the ammo shortage alleviating, at least evidenced by shelf space.

Future acquisition for the Trollop .44 is nice wood grips.

Carbon Fiber M1A stocks

One of the things about getting an aftermarket stock for the M1A is that the stocks available are covered with rail to mount useful things to the rifle (good) but these rails are in themselves heavy, not the mention the stuff you then hang on them. It's a big reason why I got the plain walnut stock. The rifle felt front heavy in every other configuration.

I did see this carbon fiber stock from McCain Industries:

So a super light stock, but see? They added too much metal up front. I'd consider maybe going this route if there were half as many rails there.

The more and more I think about it the more I think I will just go with a scout type fore-rail. And that's it. Mount an EOTech on that, and be done with it. You can get a red dot scope and a flashlight on that way, and what else would I really need? I'm probably not going to be shooting nuisance pigs in the dark, like some people do in farm country.

Disarming Yourself

How to?

Ok, for you regular CCW people. You are carrying in your preferred method, and during the course of the day you go to a school to get your kid, or a court house to submit a building permit, or a church to eat some pot luck, or something. You have to go there, but you can't be strapped. Most every state as SOME prohibited place where you can't carry. And while most Conceal Carry gunnies avoid those places on principle as Victim Disarmament zones, nevertheless sometime you have to go there.

What do you do with the gun?

I ask because I was in Pennsylvania a weekend ago. I can CCW there, but I have to exit, and later re-enter, Maryland. And so there is a transition.

If you carry in a Man Purse or a Fanny Pack, it's easy. Take off said geek bag and leave it in the car hidden someplace. For you Don Johnson types with your ankle holster, it's also easy to take off the holster and leave it in the car, all without anyone seeing or knowing what you are doing.

But some holsters are more involved. You have to go into contortions to remove the whole IWB holster, unbuckling your belt and pants and twisting about. At least for some. The holsters with snaps are probably easier than the clippy kind. And forget about getting the Serpa Paddles off without some serious yanking.

If you have a snubbie revolver in your front pocket, your contortions are almost as bad, from sitting in the driver's seat of your Miata.

If you un-ass from your car, you are out in public taking your gun off, and even more easily 'made' by the general public.

So what is the procedure? YOU are sitting in the courthouse parking lot and gotta leave your hog leg in the car, but would consider it a 'bad idea' for all those 5-0's to see your gat. What do you do? How do you get the thing off? Where do you secure it in the car? How do you make it so you don't attract attention? In high school, hormone enhanced boys just carried their books in such a way to hide... things... How do you hide disarming?

Ammo Prices

I went to MY gunstore. It's been a while. I wanted to see what he had in stock. Particularly ammo. If he had any I was gonna buy a few boxes.


The good news is, he stocked up very well before the rush. He had over a dozen of anything I wanted on the shelf.


The bad news? Holy MOLY, the prices. $40 for .380 (that's actually kinda cheap, lately). $35 for .45. Wow. Even his budget bin was getting expensive. I was tempted by the grab bag of 100 .45s for $40, but some of them had 1941 an 43 datestamps. WWII American surplus. Cool, but those are corrosive primed, prolly.


I only bought a couple. Because I only could. I had so much in the budget for ammo. The difference between 3 boxes and 6 boxes in less than a year is where my money takes me.


His gun sales have slacked since December, they said. But, ironically and ruefully, one of the salesmen noted that if that looney-tunes socialist Israel hater had used an AR type rifle instead of a .22 to shoot up the Holocaust Museum, he'd sell out of guns again with the worry that the there would be another assault weapons ban in the wake of that abominable crime. Leave it to the anti-gun types to be the best salesmen for the gun retailers.

rain

One of my fave blog reads is Corn Beans and Spent Brass. He's a working farmer in Indiana and he's been having trouble getting the crops in because of all the water falling out of the sky.

Indiana isn't the only place with an excess of meteorology. In Maryland, not a day has gone by, it seems, where is hasn't rained, cats, dogs, and sticks to beat them death with. Windshield wipers haven't been able to go fast enough. And it's played hell with the tractor trailers on my commute on I95. Apprently, rain gets the trucks randy, because it appears they try to mate. This leads to very bad outcomes for all concerned, but mostly for the driver of the 'female' semi.

TSA

I'm starting to hear about a trick for keep the TSA screeners at airports from sticking their nose in your private belongings. The problem is I'm learning it from non-gun types.

Shhhh. If this trick get's too widespread the TSA will get wise and put a stop to it.

The trick is one highlighted by people recently on their trip to Phoenix, but I had read it before in other blogs. I might have first read it in Smallest Minority, but Breda and Snowflakes in Hell touched on it this past month. If you check your gun and ammo in your baggage you get to actually LOCK your hard-sided suitcase, and the baggage handlers don't get to go all sticky finger through your stuff. Some guys at work want a cheap revolver to check in their luggage when they fly. No ammo. They never want to shoot that revolver. They aren't gunnies at all. Guns are icky. But they want TSA to mind their own business. So they are willing to own a Model 10 revolver and feel ok about that by never buying bullets for it. I don't think that's much of a 'win' for our side, but...

Like I said, if this becomes a trend, look to Uncle Sam to reconsider the rule and restrict it up.

Alphecca

This made me think of Alphecca. If I was shopping for a car I'd buy one from this Cuban guy. Well, I'd buy a car from this guy second if I was in the place to buy. I'd buy from Alphecca, first. The Vermont gunnie that hocks Toyota's get's first dibs over the Cuban Gynecologist, yes indeed.

I love this graphic

June Range

Went to OnTarget on Tuesday to shoot off precious, precious .45.ACP out of the 1911.

I have 500 left. Down from 600. Now. Multiple ammo purveryors I've talke to are hearing rumors of a let up in demand. No evidence on the shelves just yet.

I got to try out the new, slim, mainspring housing. It hurts. The grooves are too sharp. I'm gonna need to scuff it up with sandpaper. Or toughen my hands.

I worked on finger positioning. More meat on the trigger. Less. To see if it changed anything. It didn't. Or I didn't notice.

I noticed my elbows going bent and out for some reason during the session. What the...? Fixed that right away. Grip arm straight, support arm slightly bent. Better to grip the piece 20% tighter.

It was warm in the range. I was wearing longsleeves. A little sweaty on the grip. Especially for gripping tighter. The gun is rough enough to hold onto, the problem is wear a sweaty hand holds onto the other sweaty hand. But my pacing between magazine was more patient and relaxed. That helped keep me loose and allowed the hands to dry a bit.

I concentrated on breath control halfway through. When I remembered to. That helps a bit.

I even played with the range of the target.

Anyway; on to the results.

Target one. The first mag was at a 'blank' target at the red center. No Birchwood Casey splatter target. Then I stuck on the splatter target. I wanted to differentiate a cold shoot. I circled the first 7. And for giggles I later aimed 2 at the red spot on the head portion of the silohuette. And, as you can see, no epiphany on the low-and-right tendency I have. It's getting more right than low. And tighter than it used to be. But it's still off. One ugly flier down low there on the first 7. 21 more at the splatter target center and head, with one lucky bull:

Second target of the day with 2 splatter targets to shoot and see. Targets above and this one below are at 25 feet:

And the 3rd target. I marked a black spot on the throat area to have a third bullseye to aim at. I started with the low red spot and 50 feet. The low and right tendency is very evident at this greater range. 14 rounds with 2 not hitting paper. I marked those and then aimed for the black dot with 7 shots, and did a little bit better. I then moved the target to 25 feet again and aimed for the upper red spot, sort of. I actually adjust my point of aim a little high and left to compensate for my flinch. Where the right eye would be. And you can see one shot actually hit my POA. More importantly, all the other shots, while low, hit on vital areas. If I was ever in a true self defense situation I should aim for center mass, but a little to left of the centerline to be sure everything actuall hits a bad guy.

I'm still pacing the shots a bit fast. It's not that I'm impatient. It's just that I get the sight picture and know it's not going to get much better that right then, I might as well start to do the squeeze. It's not good for shooting a cigarette out of someone's hand, but I'm never going to want to do that anyway. I might be good at bowling pins, but I may never be good at shooting empty shotgun shells off a fence post like MBtGE sometimes does. Not with the .45.

Sheep

I saw this linked on Hecate's Crossroads. And I've linked to LTC Grossman's Wolves Sheeps and Sheepdogs for a while. This post is related.

And here is the money quote, speaking of a conversation with a hoplophobe:

It was because the beliefs the ignoramus was spouting were only surface structure; refuting them one-by-one could do no good without directly confronting the substructure, the emotional underpinnings that made ignoramus unable to consider or evaluate counter-evidence.

The need, here, was to undermine that substructure. And I saw the way to do it. This is what I said:

“You speak, but I hear only the bleating of a sheep. Your fear gives power to your enemies.”

Ignoramus typed another sentence of historical ignorance. My reply was “Baa! Baa! Baaaaa!”

And another. My reply was more sheep noises, more deliberate mockery. And you know what? A few rounds of this actually worked. Ignoramus protested that he wasn’t a sheep. At which point I asked him “Then why are you disarmed?”

I likey. It is a bit harsh, but very effective, and the author admits as much. We walk around in a wondrous time. For thousands of years interacting with other people was much more dangerous. The world is more civilized in many places now, and has been for a while. But 'more' doesn't mane 'completely' or 'permanently' or 'at all times.' And you can't go around ignoring the exceptions just because you want to, or have gotten away with it for so long. People are people. It is good they are less barbaric for the most part, but you can't escape the margins forever.

Waffles

Waffles grabbed a bee.

D-Day Remembrance

I have to spread this around.

Free Market Fairy Tales posted a link that a 89 year old vet wrote up detailing his life in the British Army and on D-Day. You have to read it. Well, if you like that kind of history stuff, at least.

exhausted

I'm exhausted from the weekend, and a bit under the weather...

And low on ideas for posts. I did a post on the odd looking WWII submachine gun. Here is a tidbit for a odd looking and rarish light machine gun, the M1941 Johnson.




Look at the magazine. It looks single stack! .30-06. And HUGE.

Not to be confused with the M1941 Johnson. A similar looking semi-auto rifle that competed for selection with the Garand. (I had no idea there were 2 Johnsons in 1941.) Same designer, commonality of some parts, but one was to take the place of the BAR, the other the rifle role. But look at that hump on top of the stock.


If I read this right, there is a spring in there, just like on the AR. Interesting.

Swiss

I love the Swiss.

But I need to learn more about them.

My ancestors come from the land across the Bodensee from Switzerland, in Bavaria.

Of course their "every man a rifleman" and "shoot twice and go home" are legendary tropes. But they might just be tropes. And some socialist weenies have tried to enact gun control in Switzerland recently. The poisons of the welfare state even creep up the Alps, it seems.

I admire their stands against despotism, and that that attitude is a long tradition, but before WWII, my history knowledge is limited to an awareness of an awesome pole-arm equipped infantry that tended to win a lot in Renaissance and Medieval times.

Can anyone recommend a good Swiss History written in English? Somehow, getting all my further Swiss History from 2nd Amendment websites is not enough.

Gun Court Cases

So there have been a flurry of gun related material and cases working their way through the court processes. And the lower courts are ruling against gun owners. Things like incorporation under the 14th amendment, there is one on .50 caliber rifles. Might be others. Some don't like guns, others might be ruling against guns just so they can be kicked upstairs to the Supremes.

In a year or so, these may be popping up for a final review. Things could go very well, or be an abject disaster, for the human rights side we are on.

I haven't gotten my knickers in a twist with the lower court ruling because they aren't permanent. The Supreme Court is a bigger nut to crack. Hope it cracks our way.

False Alarm

btw:

It turns out Obama just had regular flu, not Zombie flu. So it wasn't a Level 4 outbreak. My calls to panic were premature. But I am on a RoMERO mission this weekend. Pittsburgh. I don't need to tell YOU the significance of Pittsburgh. Wish me luck. Posting may be light.

Hopefully I'll be able to tell you about the mission after.

Magnum vs Solo

What? There is plenty of gun content there. Broomhandle Mausers and 1911s.

Reising

So I'm reading this book, Battle Cry, by Leon Uris.



It's about a communcations platoon/company in the Pacific. 6th Marine Regiment. I just found it in the pile in the basement and started reading it. It's pretty good. The narrative arc is very 1953, and feels like he wrote it with Hollywood in mind. It's got a 40's movie tempo to it.



I was very pleased because my Grandfather was in the HQ company of the 7th Regiment and died on Peliliu. Now I know a little bit about what he was doing, day to day, to support the rest of the Marines around him.



But the Marine minutiae is pretty good. You can tell the author actually served in the Corps, even without reading the biographical blurb at the end of the book.



One of the gun related items was the issue weapon given to this platoon. They learned on Springfield 03's, of course, just after Pearl Harbor, but wanted to shoot Garands. For battle, this non front-line unit would have something lighter. Something the M1 Carbine would excel at. The thing is, they weren't given M1 Carbines when they landed on Guadalcanal to be be involved in the final push to rid the island of Japanese.




They were issued the Reising. And they hated it. It was a submachine gun that fired .45 ACP. It was sort of a poor mans Tommy gun. Wikipedia says the rifle jammed alot because of the complexity of the mechanism, but was accurate on semi-auto because of the closed bolt. The fictional Marines in the book hated it because it was innacurate, on full auto due to muzzle climb, and it would corrode if you looked at it funny. And corroding is no joke in a coastal environment anyway. At Guadalcanal they quickly dumped the Reising when they could steal a replacement from well stocked, but lightly guarded, USArmy arsenals.



Before their second campaign at Tarawa they were issued the M1 Carbine.



Only 100,000 Reisings were made, but I was thinking a semi-auto version of the same might suit my personal carbine requirements. But that would assume they were cheap surplus ones available, and since so many were lost, and so few were made, and they were machine guns anyway... It is unlikely I'd find one at a cheap enough price to justify living with it's flaws.

It's not the Reisings fault it was regarded so poorly. It was designed for civilian police use, not Marines in the Pacific.

Comments

I moderate comments older than 3 days. The problem with blogger is that they don't associate those moderated comments with the post very well. So I don't know WHERE this comment is now.

Anyway, it was spam, and I allowed it, in order to have THIS blog fodder.

He was essential plugging Front Sight. It has "the biggest firearm training facility in the country."

Ok, interesting. I've considered going to one of the big training facilities. Cooper's legacy at Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, Blackwater like the bloggers did, or Rob Pincus' thing at ICE.

The problem with Front Sight is that they've been in the news lately. There has been litigation against them. Class action suit and judgments against them. Some receivership issues. Rumors of LRonHubbardian stuff in the classes. It all seems to have an off-odor hanging around any mention of the place.

I don't know enough about the details, and what is true or not, but the word around the watercooler makes me feel a little hinky about them. They may be perfectly fine and innocent, but it doesn't take much to make me feel I could look elsewhere. One way is to have all this bad press and successful big lawsuits turn up in google searches

Another way is to spam my comments with commercials!

I'd have put this in my comments area next to theirs if I could only find the post.

Now it could be just a happy customer and a big fan of Front Sight posted the promotional copy. If true, that doesn't make me any happier.

~~~~~~~

But, my biggest criteria right now for one of these major training evolutions that I might sign up for is, 'Is it good?' and 'Is it close?' So that leaves ICE and Blackwater at the top of the list.

tips