'Remembering' my Grandfather

68 years ago this coming Tuesday, this man left home to join the Marine Corps:



It was 3 days after my mom was born.

On September 19, 1944 while he "voluntarily undertook the extremely hazardous mission of repairing frequent breaks in the communication lines of a company fiercely beset by continuous, devastating barrages of enemy machine-gun and rifle fire. Pushing his way over difficult terrain in an area heavily infested with Japanese snipers, he engaged in his vital task and, working skillfully and with tenacious determination, steadfastly continued his valiant efforts until mortally wounded by a savage burst of hostile machine-gun fire. By his fearless initiative, unfailing technical ability and cool decision in the face of fanatical opposition, Corporal [Thunderbolt] contributed materially to the success of our operation against this important Japanese stronghold, and his indomitable courage throughout a period of fierce hostilities upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country."

He served in 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Lewis Puller commanding.

It is he who I will 'remember' this day, though I never met him. And my mom never knew him.

It's What's For Dinner

Zombie Meat!


"SOYLENT GRAY IS DEAD PEOPLE!!"

Popped Into My Gunstore

I popped into my gunstore to see if there was anything new to see. There was. A Boys anti-tank rifle! Like this:

Wow!

This rifle could penetrate tank armor. Or it could penetrate 1938 tank armor. 1940 tank armor was too thick. Then is was just something really heavy to carry.

If you read gun magazines that are 50 years old, they sold these on the surplus market for years and years. $40 maybe, back then? They are a bit more, now.

That’s no t the worst of it. The ammo for this anti-tank rifle is funny. .55 caliber. The gunstore has 2 live rounds in a brass stripper clip with a 1938 date stamp on it. He told me that he found 5 rounds for $150. Getting up to tround or pinfire cartridge level. And reloading can’t be that easy.

Anyway, the gunsmith was in and was talking about making a DeLisle repro, and my ears perked up. We got to chatting, and it would be no more expensive for me if he made some lefty bolt action into a .45 DeLisle-esque kluge. Yeah, I’d pay for one of those. Tax stamps and all (It might be 2. One for the suppressor, one for the short rifle barrel.)

I gotta be more careful popping into my gunstore. I can get my wallet in trouble that way.

Forgot to mention

I forgot to mention on that last range trip… There was an injury.

On the seventh shot of one magazine I was struck in the forehead with something. WHANGO. It was a pretty significant little hit. I didn’t see it, but it must have been some spent brass. The hit was harder than usual, and it happened as the slide was locking back. It could have even bounced off of some in the shooting lane, like the side shields. It left a mark, and some blood, but the blood didn’t stream or anything. I only noticed the blood in the mirror after when washing the GPR off of my hands.

It’s stuff like this that makes you appreciate the utility of eye protection. No long term harm. A mark on my face isn’t going to detract from its aesthetic value. You have to HAVE value before it can be detracted from, as I have a face that can make a freight train take a dirt road.

So… remember the most important safety feature. Safety glasses. No, wait, that’s for woodworking with Nahm.

What's in a Name?

Snowflakes in Hell mentioned he wish he had picked a different name for his blog way back when.

I can understand.

This blog might never have started at all if I hadn't thought up that name of mine.

The thought of writing a blog occurred to me, as I was beginning to take up shooting. The angle I chose was a natural. I knew I knew next to nothing about shooting and guns, I could talk about what I didn't know. There is a nigh-inexhaustible supply of crap I don't know. And I know how to type.

So that's the subject. A neophytes shooter's journey through the casual experience of hobby shooting. There is plenty of humor to mine, a dabble into my life and politics but not TOO much into either, and a serious aspect because shooting can be deadly serious at times. It's a focused and contained topic that won't get too far away from me. It's been a long time since I went a day without posting, and while I interject non-sequitirs at times, that off-topic post is usually AFTER a gun related post.

But all that fully formed concept would have been for naught if I hadn't thought up a halfway decent name, cuz I wouldn't have had the gumption to do post one without it.

Now there are blogs out there to help you choose your very own blog name.

Here are some good real names:

...Well, most of the names on my bloglist are perfectly serviceable. I’m not gonna list them as I love them all equally, but… Snowflakes In Hell isn’t happy with his, but that’s only HIS opinion. I kinda like it. SouthPark Pundit would have been SOL if SouthPark had been cancelled soon after he started his blog years ago. A good name is semi-descriptive and an indicator of what to expect. In BooksBikesAndBoomsticks I’d expect to read about all three. But would totally understand the dropping of a bit of motorcycle content if certain circumstances came about. Like a nasty bike lay-down. Or ‘dropped’. Or ‘crashed.’ I’m not totally up to speed on unhappy motorcycle event lingo. (From what I understand, and I don’t have all the details, Tam doesn’t ride a motorcycle as much since she had a nasty spill. The attitude may now be, “I’m gonna die some DAY, but I don’t want it to be Tuesday.” Ask her. Go ahead.)

I'm just glad Breda spelled her blog Breda Fallacy instead of Breda Phallusy.

Here are some Great names:

1. Beer and Loafing in Las Vegas, N.M.
2. Gypsies, Tramps and Steves
3. I Can Blog Anything Better Than You
4. The Legend of Bloggy Creek
5. It's Tuesday Somewhere
6. Ax Handle Illustrated
7. Pat Smear
8. Schadenfreude for Beginners
9. Let's Make Tomatoes!

New Jovian Thunderbolt isn’t a Great Name, admittedly, but it was at least half-inspired.

Name rejects for mine:

1. OW!! That’s Gonna Leave A Nasty Scar.
2. Pwned Boomstick N00b, kikikiki!!!!!1!!!11!!eleven
3. WTB: Shooting Skill
4. ZOMBIES!! No! Not the face, not the face!
5. 10 Thumbs Gunsmithing Services and Near-Sighted Shooting Instruction, Ltd.
6. My Dumb Shooting Journey
7. Guns N’ Stuff

Ok, I could pull off any of those names NOW, but not when I was tentatively starting out. Mostly, I came up empty. I was reading a lot of gunblogs including old Jeff Cooper stuff when I came across someone (I believe it was Cooper) talking about a shot in hunting, I think, that dropped the quarry, “like a Jovian thunderbolt, out of the blue.” Add ‘New’ to that, and voila. Where there was no blog name, there was, then, blog name. One that fit me, and satisfied my requirement not to sound too dweeby. And posting could commence.

I also made it pretty much anonymous. Secondarily, to not tip off burglars. Primarily so that someday, 15 years from now when applying for a new job, an angry and rabidly hoplophobic HR boss couldn’t google my actual name and come upon all this.

Anonymity bugs me a little bit, and I'd rather not have to in an ideal world. But I rationalize by thinking about the anonymous Federalist Papers. I’ll have to come clean someday. Like Bruce Wayne at a party. And then after all the guests and associates will be a target of the Joker…

I do try to own my mistakes. But I have a great excuse. I am LEARNING. The whole ‘n00b’ thing. Corrections from the peanut gallery are welcome here. If I make a HUGE mistake in a post and someone calls me on it, well, HEY! There is more blog fodder for me to write about. It’s a favor. Where once there was one post, now there can be two.

May 1911 Range Time

Well crap. I DO shoot a double action revolver better than a 1911. At least cold.

Here is the first target:


The issue with me is, I think, that I have to consciously think about the trigger pull more with a 1911. Here is me thinking harder and getting a better result:


If I fixed the down and right thingy of mine and blew a hole out of the center rather than the 4 o'clock position I'd be dangerous at a pin-shoot.

Let's got over it again. What cause a left hander to shoot low and right? Anticipation where you push the gun forward ahead of the recoil. I see this when shooting revolvers on an already shot cylinder or when using snap caps. A pre-flinch, if you will. But also... Try this at home. Empty gun, hammer down, light grip. Pull the trigger against the stop by taking up that little bit of slack. Repeat that as quick as you can and kinda gently. When I do that I can see the muzzle dip a tiny bit low and right. With a laser it would be much more obvious down range. Hmmm... how to fix THAT? That's no anticipation of recoil. That's just clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick.

And one more target:


Tomorrow I think I'll bring the SIG DAK and the snubbie.

I had a dream

Last night...

I don't have many gun dreams. Good because to blog your own dreams too frequently can get kinda desperate. At least my subconscious is helping out with bog fodder now and again.

In the dream I found a great, near custom 1911 at a steal of a price. Everything on it was perfect for me down to the smallest detail. Forged parts, left hand safety and subdued right hand safety, 4.25" barrel, bumpless grip safety, regular length guide rod... Ideal! Every detail perfect save one. It had sights on the side like this Glock:


That picture has made the rounds, and I have no idea where it originated. I think I saw here first, but that doesn't mean that's the origin. It's NOT www.birdman.org. It's a poor comment on the stylistic shooting technique of some urban, unlicensed, open-air pharmaceutical purveyors and entrepreneurs.

One good thing about the dream 1911. It was still perfect for me. The sights were on the other side of the slide slab. I am a lefty, after all.

Don't Do This to a Zombie

This Info Could Save Your Life

And I can always remind other n00bs on one VERY important subject. I know I've gone over this before, but bear with me.

People, please, I can’t stress this enough… Do not plan to meet the Zombie Horde with a shotgun, molotov cocktail and chainsaw. They are the worst anti-Zed weapons out there. Shotguns are slow to load when empty, and the ammo is heavy to tote around (but they are perfect for a single zombie, yes, if a bit messy. the problem is, like roaches, there is never just one zombie). A molotov cocktail turns a walking, bitey corpse into a walking, bitey TORCH that burns you and all your stuff, including all those shotgun rounds you were carrying. And a chainsaw is even messier, splattering infected gore all over, and you have to be in corpse-clutch reach to employ it.

To say that you'll use the shotty, molotov cocktail, and chainsaw against the undead threat is like saying, in my mind, you intend to ward off a street gang of determined home invaders with a tape recording of a pump shotgun being racked, a two shot .22-short derringer, and your trusty Hamburglar costume to confuse them. While I agree it might work, it is probably not the best way. You're not gonna protect your home that way, are you? Then put the chainsaw down when you hear a death moan.

I should do a PSA about this issue. I keep hearing about people with plans to take on Zed with one or more of those death-trap weapons. I blame Hollywood for spreading such false information. And Hippies. I'd blame Jimmy Carter too, but this is one subject that History's Greatest Monster has actually excelled in. He has personally retired 4 humanoid zombies, one rabbit zed, and a probable undead cat not 4 years ago.

Remember, May is Zombie Awareness Month.

Of course I am a lifetime member of the Zombie Research Society.

Z Ts

From Threadless T's

and here

Sight Picture

3 types of sight pictures, and I shamelessly stole this diagram from Ahab, so all credit to him for stealing it from Pistol-Training.com...



So. I had known of 1 and 2, but #3 never occurred to me. I tend to gravitate toward #2 (point of impact hold) in practice. And I shoot low with center fire. Should I be shooting with sight picture 3? No. And I'll tell you why. I've gotten better shooters than me to shoot my pistols and they also gravitated toward #2. They had no problem hitting the center. Plus, I don't shoot low with .22. If anything I shoot high. With ALL .22's, not just mine. And I shoot low with all centerfire pistols I try. I think my low shots are an anticipatory flinch, pushing the gun forward anticipating the shot and recoil. And I see it on the revolver when I try for a shot on an expended cartridge or slipped in snap cap.

My flinch is getting better, slowly but surely. So I'll stick with #2.

That's also how I line up for rifle shots with the Garand/M14 style aperture sights. I try to get the front sight touching the 1 inch red circle of the bull 100 yards away. Or 25/50 yards, when my eyes can't see that far... Which is most days, in most light.

Mexican President

"Calderon Calls for Restoring Assault Weapons Bam."

Heck yeah! I love it when my M1A goes 'bam!' Turning money into noise and FUN!

Wait a minnit.

He said BAN not BAM. Ohhhhhhhhhh. That makes more sense.

Let me answer then: No.

Here's a better idea if your drug dealers are shooting up Mexico with machine guns and grenades they 'acquired' from from the Mexican army, you need to arm the members of the law abiding Mexican citizenry with so-called assault rifles. Like we do here. Try out the whole 'more guns, less crime' experiment so we can get some more data and you can have some more free men and women down there.

That expert advice is gratis, Senor Presidente. I normally charge for my expertise, so you are indeed fortunate... a shepherd like yourself.

A Modest Compromise Or Two

AG Eric Holder wants to modify the Miranda requirement rules and maybe not do it so much anymore. The reason? To get more terror info out of terrists that he can then still put through the justice system. He considers the issue of world Islamic jihad against the West a matter for the courts and not the War Department.

Senator Lautenburg wants to deny gun purchasing permission to anyone that finds themselves put on the secret Terrorist Watch List, maintained by unaccountable faceless bureaucrats. To heck with the fact it’s a mystery how you get on the List, and nigh impossible to get yourself off if mistakenly entered on the Roll Of Terror-Shame (sorry Ted Kennedy… sober now for 9 months!) Due process? Never heard of it. A right enshrined in the Constitution? Speak up, you’re mumbling.

So that’s what? The 2nd 4th and 5th Amendment kicked to the curb? This is getting too hard to keep track of without a program or playbill.

I have a better solution, and an alternative. They are modest proposals:

1) Make it a felony to be Muslim, and consider any Muslim not currently in custody to have jumped bail. Just make it a blanket declaration. That way it only violates the 1st Amendment, as the Authorities (or Dog the Bounty Hunter, think of the extra employment for him and other bounty hunters in these hard economic times getting commission for skip trace!...) can search you at will and also deny felons the ability to legally purchase guns. All without trodding on the other parts of the Constitution. You may need to push through a quickie Amendment to pull this solution off, but I bet the votes are there.

2) Or, if that idea makes you too squeamish, just assign an army combat soldier as a ‘minder’ to every Muslim and ‘other’ terrist suspect’s household in the country. A 24/7 custodian since you can’t trust a terrist to have a gun, get on a plane, or have a gallon of gasoline and a book of matches. A minder can prevent that. To alleviate the expense, the gummint could require the subjects of round the clock personal monitoring to provide their minder food and shelter. It’s only fair. Of course, to some people’s perception, this might be a violation of the 3rd Amendment of the Constitution. But you may not have to ram through a corrective as there is precious little case law on the 3rd. A decent lawyer for the administration could keep this all tied up in the courts for years and ears. By the time SCOTUS gets it, hopefully the war or police action or Administration’s term will over.

Note: Neither is a GOOD solution, but it is better than the currently contemplated patchwork violations of our founding principles. Sacrifice one amendment to save the rest. It is Constitutional triage to try to preserve its principles, and so we can pretend the document actually MEANS something.

What? Preserve ALL the principles? Pff! That’s hard! Whoever heard of such a thing?

if yer britches are in an extra big bunch, look up 'satire' in the dictionary

Maryland Governor

A Lib Democrat, named O'Malley, actually SIGNED Senate Bill 411.

It's Maryland's Castle Doctrine. A bit watered down, compared to great states liek Texas, but the fact we have it at ALL is something. Now there is less risk via civil immunity if you reasonably defend yourself in your own home.

Well, it's been a helluva a week for me, but this helps turn it around.

Lovemaking

From my younger days, when I had a mustache and did modelling work.
Plus I believed in the product.

Ammo Shortage Claims Another Victim

Saucy Trollop is in town to take care of legal bidness involved with transferring her life to Bora Bora. So all of her Powerball winnings is tied up in banks in French Polynesia. Only a little walking around money is in her US account. About what it’d be if was working 9-5.

A forgotten and now unanticipated and unbudgeted-for order from MONTHS ago showed up on her doorstep. 5 boxes of .44 magnum from Midway, back ordered all this time because of the ammo shortage. While not too unpleasant, as Trollop likes to shoot her hand cannon, she had planned to use that money this week for food and stuff. So she’s on beans, rice, and ramen noodles until her next wire transfer. Poor dearie. Darn you, Barry, for causing the shortage that starved my ex girlfriend!!!

THIS is why I use credit cards instead of debit cards. I can go in the hole for a month and still eat my steak. Though I understand other people’s apprehension for usurious plastic consumer financial vehicles.

Agnes Grey, GRRRRRRR!

May Range Revolvers

I had skipped the week before, so I was 2 weeks out of practice when I went last Thursday.

I'm really getting better at this. I shoot a double action snub-nosed better than I shoot a 1911. Sheesh. This session I was starting to fine tune the sight picture, because things were falling into place with everything else, a new factor to notice and improve marginally appears. I'm glad these finer details are occurring to me. When I stop noticing them is when my introspection goes away and my skills will no longer improve.

Sure I knew what sight picture was before this session. But there I am with nigh ideal set up, focused on that front ramp when I think, 'ya know that gap on the side is just half a hair wider than the gap on the other side, and I can correct that.' or 'the front sight is just perceptibly high... better make it NOT high.'

I also shot the .22 single action. I will not win any bullseye prizes, but that is not my goal. My goal is to be good enough with a pistol to defend myself. I'm about there on accuracy. Next long term goal is the speed. I've always been happier with my speed on shot acquisition and time to second shot. I need to work on speed from the holster.

Man I wish there were IDPA shooting competitions closer to home. For the speed test. It's difficult in most ranges as they don't like folks working from the holster at just a regular session with lanes full of strangers.

First target of the day. I was at the far right lane so to avoid hitting the wall I lined the targets up on the left side of the target as a precaution. Here:

.22 in the center, and .38 on the shoot 'n see. Two cylinders each. Notice something? Yup, only nine holes on one, and nine on the other. No idea where the fliers went. Dang! Still, the hits ARE good. One almost got off paper at the bottom.

And the second target:

All .38's accounted for this time. And none of the .22 left the black. 7 yards range on all. The fliers are probably low hits on the top one based on the low hits on this.

I didn't even shoot at that far right paster just because I thought it lined up with the wall. No way do I want to incur the wrath of the range by damaging property.

Boy Scout Fieldbook

And gun safety.

I mentioned my love of old manuals before. This partly stems from reading old stuff of my father's, including his Boy Scout Fieldbook, copyright 1948. Well I found a copy to bring back my childhood memories of my father's childhood memories.



In it there is a section on gun safety. Let me crib from part of it now:

Always keep a gun unloaded when not in use, but treat it as you KNOW it is loaded (emphasis in original)

Be sure that you see the target clearly before you fire. Make certain there is nothing between you and the target or behind it that may be accidentally hit.

Of course you would never think of pointing the muzzle at anyone or of letting anyone point it at you - not even when you are positive the gun is unloaded. "Only fools are positive," Most firearms accidents are caused by people handling guns that were supposedly "not loaded."

So they hit 3 of the four rules, only omitting keeping your finger off the trigger until the sights are on the target (#3). They do recommend leaving the action open and never loading until ready to fire. Remember 1948 is before the invention of a compact set of the Four Rules that we know today. They also have an proto Eddie The Eagle recommendation for all youngins (remember, this book is for 11-18 year olds):

Before picking up a rifle or other firearm, have someone who knows teach you the proper way of handling and using it.

And there is a gruesome looking photo in the first aid section, hopefully simulated. It's a rendering of first aid to a hunter that took a load of buckshot to the left knee from what looks like point blank range. 9 holes weeping blood (or chocolate syrup, as it IS a black and white photo and syrup was a fine stand in for the red stuff) Ouch!

Shotgun House Gun

My shotgun is a Remington Model 11 12 gauge. It’s semi-automatic and holds 5 in the tube (or is it 4 in the tube and one in the pipe?...) It has walnut furniture and I have 2 barrels for it, (well 3, one is a munged up home gunsmith attempt to make a regular barrel a rifles barrel. Yikes.) a long and a short. It doesn’t have a sling swivel, or a place to mount a light or a ghost ring sight. The short barrel doesn’t have even have a front bead. It isn’t tactical.

It would ostensibly be a house gun, to ward off prowlers and single zombies. If I left it out of the safe.

Now I could leave it out of the safe. Lacking a front bead is no handicap, but the gun will shoot high if you point it with the barrel. Lacking a light is little handicap, I have excellent night vision and more importantly I can navigate my own home with my eyes closed. It will do.

A mounted light and a ghost ring sight and a tritium front sight and a sling would all be good things. Even an improved stock (it was Carteach’s review of a shotgun stock that inspire me to write this.) would be nice.

But it’s not critical. The critical thing is YOU, of course, but you always have you. The second most critical thing is a functioning reliable firearm.

So I could take the shotgun out of the safe and leave it in a corner. I’d probably load the tube with buckshot with none in the pipe, necessitating a working of the ‘bolt’ to get it running in an emergency, but this status is inconsequential to availability. Why don’t I? Because I don’t shoot the shotgun enough is the biggest reason. Thus it isn’t a known quantity on reliability. It’s not like my revolvers. In fact, when hunting, it didn’t eject its spent shell. My semi-auto became a bolt operated model. The revolver doesn’t cease to function like that. Sure the cold was a factor while hunting, compared to the summer skeet shooting, and not enough grease on the tube probably is the reason for failure, and now that has been corrected… But I haven’t gone skeet shooting with it since hunting...

If I did shoot a buncha skeet/trap, and over a period of time, I might use the shotty as more of a ready weapon in the home. So why consider it for self defense if it is a safe queen? Well it’s just not a 3AM wake-up-OH-CRAP!!!-gun. 3PM-drug-gang-riot-spilling-out-of-the-high-school-and-now-banging-on-my-door-gun it is.

For Zombie I go with a rifle.

200k

Hey! I'm gonna hit 200,000 visitors today. Neato.

Probably only half of those are me...

Product Placement

Tam mentioned that BIG fans of firearms can get over descriptive of boomsticks if they also write fiction. Her recommendation is not to overdo it. I agree.

But it reminded me of one of my favorite MST3K episodes. Mike and the bots were doing a send up of The Mole People. A movie starring John Agar and Hugh Beumont (yes, Ward Cleaver, Wally and the Beav's dad) and Alan Napier is the heavy. Alan Napier? He's the butler at Wayne Manor...

Anyway, the intrepid heroes are repelling (SIC rappelling) deep into the bowels of the earth. And the vilm maker... excuse me, FILM maker... Virgil V. Vogel spends and inordinate amount of time showing the repelling (SIC rappelling) action. Like 5 minutes. We get it. 4 guys are repelling (SIC rappelling) into a cave. Viewed from behind and slightly below. Get to the MOLES already! Crowe T Robot had a great comment after Mike said, "This movie is ALL ropes and asses!" Then Crowe, "HOT repelling (SIC rappelling) action. Did they test this movie in front of a focus group that said 'I wish they showed what knots they used. It sure hurt the movie not knowing...'."

Hit it and get out. Show Ward Cleaver repelling (SIC rappelling), spend 15 seconds on that. Then move the story along to the cave it... uh...

Wow. No gun content at all there, huh?

Lessee...

The closest thing they had to a gun in the Mole People was a flashlight. See, the Mole People were humans that had become very light sensitive, so bright beams were actually an effective weapon against them. Sorta. Effective in the same way pepper spray is. It's not like Alfred the Butler is too tough a dude in the first place.

UK BP

One of my commenters is from Britain and wanted me to maybe post on something for the international market.


Gosh, that’s hard. I have enough trouble keeping up with US guns laws and Maryland gun laws… I always assumed in Britain it was simpler, and a “no way, no HOW!” law. It’s a bit more complicated than that, as you can have black powder arms.


I wonder if you have to get the ok from the gov’t there to buy black powder stuff? (I believe you DO if you live in Chicago, so... Britain has to be WORSE than Chicago, you'd think.)


Presumably also, in Britain, if you USE your blackpowder pistol to heroically defend 3 toddlers from certain death at the hands of some psycho, and the parent of the wee bairns being the serving Home Secretary, then you will still be charged with murder or the poor psysho, having cut him down in the prime of his criminal career. Madness.


I think I heard that Breda, too, is interested in getting herself some BP fun (no, not British Petroleum. Leave them alone, they have enough problems both fighting a spill, fighting the hemorrhaging money because of that spill, AND fighting the rapacious regulators and persecutors of the Obama administration.)


I don’t know how it works in Britain with gov’t permissions to buy a black powder pistol, but in most US states you can just mail order one and the UPS truck will bring it to your door, no fuss, no muss.

Lessee. According to this web resource, to get yourself a blackpowder muzzleloading pistol (the ONLY pistol you are allowed to own in) in Auld Sod you need to be a member of a shooting club, obtain a Firearm Certificate, and to get the powder to shoot it you need special permissions as well (it's an explosive, you see.) What a pain.

And why? You dare not use it in self defense. You can't hunt with a muzzleloading pistol effectively. About all we've ever done in THIS country with muzzleloading pistols is shoot politicians with them. And THAT went out of style 150 years ago. The muzzleloading part, at least. McKinley and Garfield will attest that the fashion switched to centerfire cartridge pistols at some point.

I guess, if I was prohibited from possessing or shooting a firearm by my gov't, I would see the recreational appeal of just shooting at targets. Shooting is FUN after all.

And I have notions of making my own Kentucky Long Rifle from a kit. Really just a wisp of a fancy, that. It was fascinating seeing the gunsmith of Williamsburg from the 1969 documentary, and I hope one day they release it on DVD. My VHS tape is pretty toasted.

Insurance

Hey! My homeowners policy just came in the mail, They've increase the monetary value of firearms it covers. Now it's $10k, instead of $2k. That's better.

Plus there is the coverage that comes from NRA membership...

Hmmm.... Does anyone know anyone (or have you, gentle reader?) that has put in an insurance claim for destroyed or stolen firearms? What did that entail?

I'd prefer to go my whole life without finding out, but just in case, forewarned is forearmed. (Forearm? Like below my elbow? Huh?) Anyhoo, it is nice to know possible pitfalls navigating the claims system. Please share.

Beaker!

Off the Pigs!

Well, I can live vicariously through other shooters and post about them.

You remember my buddy Frozen? The one that noticed me shooting, bought an XD, then a whole PASSLE of ComBloc guns? Well, NOW he has gone hunting. For feral pigs in Texas!
He has a scoped Remington 700 .308 that is his newest toy. All nice and zeroed in. Frozen loads his own bullets so he was confident with what he could do with it. He used 178gr Hornady Amax, for instance, for the bullet.

Him and a buddy (the one that took him down there and knew the land owners) lined up on 3, and they did the whole countdown thing… 3, 2, 1… boom! His buddy got Momma, and Frozen got 2 juveniles. In the head. With one shot (he admits there was some luck involved with the second pig behind the target.) Mmmm, bacon. (Well, actually, sausage. Apparently it is hard to get bacon off of wild pigs. Too lean?)


That was last Tuesday. He got another on Friday, too.


I'll let him tell it (again):

My Remington 5R milspec, fixed 16x SWFA Super Sniper scope on top of the first 3 kills.

So we set up in a ground blind, 82yds (we had a laser range finder) from the feeder. We put out our sour corn around 1730 (deer corn mixed with skunked rolling rock and raspberry jello mix) and waited. ~1915 the juveniles come out of the tree line while mom hung about 50yds further back in the trees. He wanted the sow, so I lined up on the piglets (they'd been weaned and were about 35-40lbs on the hoof). We did a 3 count and shot. My bullet entered just behind the ear of one of the piglets and went through both their heads.

Oh, the other guy was using his 7mm Remington Short-Action Ultra Magnum (7mm SAUM).

So, after the first hunt, we go turkey hunting for 2 days to let the pigs come back in. Friday we go out at the same time and do the exact same thing. Same bait, same everything. The pigs even came in at the same time. 3-2-1-shoot again.

I'm not sure about his load, other than it's 54.something grains of varget under 162gr Hornady A-Max's. My load is 44.5gr of Reloader 15 under Hornady 178gr AMax bullets, cartridge over-all length (COAL) of 2.800".

There. Something that will please you reloaders out there. Reloader data!

Anyway, it does sound like fun. Where was this? Texas, I believe. Some varmint control AND some meat.

Gun Sto

I went to my gun store this afternoon. I asked them if they had a machine gun shoot coming up. I knew they were planning one but they were still cleaning up after the floods this past spring. Soon, soon.

And I bought a couple boxes of Fiocchi .380. Just cuz. Low $20s. Muhrican is low $30. I thought of Breda's ammo woes as I did so.

I handled the single stack SIG, the P220, just to feel the grip and if it was much thinner. It is, but it is thick front to back instead of side to side.

1911 shaped Glock frame

Holy Crap! Just like the title says.




h/t commenter Duane

Hmmm... so many polymer frames out there could be reshaped to a whole plethora of formats. The downside is the silhouhette isn't recognized as that manufacturers 'brand.'

Wonder why there aren't more custom fitted to an individual frame services out there? It'd certainly be cheaper than those sculpted .22 target pistols grips.


You could some seriously customized guns with plastic... certainly from the slide down.. But with standardized internals.

Update: How bout this.... a Glock, with a Luger grip shape!

Still Bupkis

I still got nuthin. Any of youse have any blog fodder suggestions?

I’m reading a single volume biography of Churchill by Martin Gilbert. Not too shabby. Minor references to Winston carrying the C96 Mauser weapon system in Sudan and South Africa. Not much gun content there. He even shot it in anger in both places. I’m only up to the mid 1930s, and there is a lot that’s happened to the man so far. I wonder if his life going to get eventful in the rest of the book. Gilbert was the Official biographer, but was able to pare the original 8 volume work down to 1000 pages for THIS version. It was recommended to me by a Churchill enthusiast and is worthy of the recommendation, in my opinion.


The other book I have on my plate is about George McGovern flying B-24 Liberators. Stephen Ambrose wrote it. Apparently McGovern was the way he was because he would do a gymnastics tumble and his Coach called him a coward. Anyway it’s a very approachable book, and don’t let McGovern’s presence turn you off of it. It’s called The Wild Blue…

Gun content? The .50 cals on board the bombers.

BZO for 7.62x51

Or is it BS0 for 7.62? Z. Definitely Z.

OOoooo that’s a good blog post from CTD and got me a thinking about that Battlesight Zero and how it applies to me (ie someone loathe to get a 5.56 rifle…)

Sum up:

There is a rule of thumb for zeroing the M16 5.56. If you are zeroed at 36 yards, then you are zeroed for 300 yards. The reason is the sight line is above the barrel by a certain amount, and the sight line is straight while the bullet path is arched, so there are 2 places the bullet path intersects the sight line. At 36 yards and 300. (Only at 36 yards/30 meters and 300 yards/meters) So the space the bullet flied BETWEEN 36 and 300 in this system is all above the sight line. You are shooting a little high. How high? Almost 8 inches! Fine in battle when aiming at a bad guys center mass. Not so good if all you have to aim at is the head from the eyes up peeking out at you for a foxhole 126 years away. You could shoot clean over the enemy’s head.

So what is the Battle Sight Zero for the M1A/M14? Aha! I need to check.

I had a rules of thumb here, but I am now questioning that a bit.

Ideally, I need to find this chart, but for my rifle.


According to an M14 old manual, (found here, a source of MANY manuals) 25 meters was the BZ0 for a 250 meter (page 95 of M14 & M14A1 Rifle and Marksmanship) target. This presumes identical military ammo and same length barrel, sight plane height, etc. etc.

Sheesh, it’s taking me years to dope this out when the info is given away for free in just a few weeks time. All I’d have to do is go to Basic Training…

Anyhoo. Presumably, you want to go to the range with your M1A, shoot at zero for 25 yards. When you shoot at the 100 yard target you should be a bit high. If you HAVE a further away target… your rounds should be approaching center at 200 yards, but still high, and be spot on again at 250. This would all be better if you can use meters instead of yards…

And you might want to set your close in zero distance to something like… 36 meters so your far out zero is something like 300. Hmph. I need to study any ballistic tables I can find. Wait right here…

yeah, my rule of thumb seems less wrong. According to this, the ‘come up’ of clicks, assuming a 100 yard zero, is 17 click above that zero. Come up of 300 is only 5.

Again, just guessing, it seems to me, based on that ballistic table, it would be 15 and 3 up clicks if you zeroed at 200 and wanted to shoot to 600 and 300 yards, respectively. But a shot at a guy at 100 yards or so might be 4” highish.

But look at the difference in the METERS chart. Up 21.6 clicks for 600 meters, while only 17 for 600 yards… If I look at these too long I will get confused…

And you can see the differences in bullet weight in the charts here.

If I am reading that right, if you have a 180g 7.62 spitzer, your zero at 259 means the shot will be 2.8 inches high, and the highest it will ever get is 3 inches at 125 yards. The lighter bullet has a faster speed and flatter trajectory. But not THAT big a difference. Not with iron sights. Not for outside a real sniper school. Crawl before you can walk, T-Bolt. Well, at this point, it’s walk before you fly.

And now why did I care about a 180 grain projectile? Most surplus stuff is the 150 or so. The MATCH stuff is the 180. But I can relax a bit. I'm not attempting to get hits at 300 yards with iron sights where I will care much about the 1 inch difference in a battle zero.

Now I’ve come full circle. MBtGE doesn’t sweat the details of ballistics. He was shooting his .308 for deer meat. HIS rule of thumb is a couple inches high at 100 and he can hit within a few inches of bullseye from 0-300 yards. And now I see it on paper. So... battle zero and hunting zero end up being about the same thing...


Anyway, going forward... there is a modified battle zero, the improved battlesight zero or IBZ0. You zero at 50, and are also right on at 225, with less variance of rise and drop at the other ranges until you get up past 300. All this low range zeroing is useful when your local shooting establishment won't let you do anything but shoot to 100 or so yards and from a bench.

Light on Fodder

Sorry about the low quality of blog fodder. The usual blogger excuses apply. Busy at work, distracted by real life. That sort of thing.

I even missed my weekly range trip this week. I'm seriously considering going Monday. Then again on the usual Thursday. Maybe a .22 day on tomorrow.

What else happened? I ordered ammo online for delivery! This is a new thing because it was not done in my county. I heard a rumor that the state usurped the county's authority, so I made a test order to see if true.

.38 Special. I have hundreds of rounds of practice ammo for the .40 and more for the the .45 but only tens of the .38.

If the mail order works without a hitch, I think I will get some bulk milsurp 7.62x51 next month, and bulk buck shot the following. I am light on 12 gauge buckshot ammo since I only buy it 5 at a time. It's easy to buy #7 shot in job lots, but not slug or 'double ought'. I'd hate for the Iranians to EMP the western world, plunging us into the dark ages and TEOTWAWKI and be short on scattergun ammo.

{WOW that was fast! I mailed my copy of a Driver's License on Monday for proof of age, they alerted me they received it by email, I placed an order for ammo that evening, and it was on my doorstep Friday night... Thanks Ammoman. }

VE Day

Happy Victory in Europe Day!

65th Anniversary.

THAT is gun content, if I ever heard of gun content

Lee-Enfields and Garands and Mosins versus Mausers and StG44s

Slugs!

Jay had an article or 3 about cartridge types and I learned something new.

I have a Remington Model 11 12 gauge. It was made in the 40's It isn't being made now. It's patterned after the famouse Browning Auto 5. I like it.

But It has a smooth barrel, and no choke. I figured I'd never find a rifled barrel for hunting deer with slug round with it.

But then I was enlightened by JayG. There are special slug rounds, Fosters, that sorta act like they came out of a rifled barrel. They use a sort of tail fin (well... sorta). I had no idea such a thing existed. I probably looked at the box of them a few times at the hunting outfitter, but had no idea what I was seeing.

Thing is, I live in Maryland. The requrement says "pumpkin balls" for deer hunting. Not fancies, not 00 buckshot, not discarding sabot. Presumably you can use a pumpkin ball (round shot) in a rifled shotgun barrel and get some more ballistic stability. If I have to use a pumpkin ball in my smoothbore barrel... Well, let's hope the deer are less than 50 yards away.

Ooo, double checked! If Maryland was 'pumpkin ball only' they are certainly all types of slug round now. "Deer hunters using shotguns must use a pumpkin ball, rifled slug or sabot. Buckshot may not be used to hunt deer except in Dorchester County"

So not restricted to JUST round ball.

Cool.

And another thing! "Firearms used for deer and bear hunting may not have an ammunition clip loaded with more than 8 cartridges or bullets. If a clip has the capacity to hold more than 8 rounds, the clip does not have to be physically blocked, but no more than 8 cartridges or bullets may be loaded."

That's nice. I can hunt with a 20 round M1A magazine, I just can't fill it up.

And I always knew this: "Firearms used for deer and bear hunting may not have an ammunition clip loaded with more than 8 cartridges or bullets. If a clip has the capacity to hold more than 8 rounds, the clip does not have to be physically blocked, but no more than 8 cartridges or bullets may be loaded."

How to Shoot the U.S. Army Rifle

Because of that M1 Garand training video, I bought a copy of this book:


It is a cheaply made paperback, filled with black and white photgraphs on a slickish paper and is reminiscent of my father's old Boy Scout Fieldbook (I loved that book, too. I'm gonna have to find it again at his house...)

And it is wonderful.

But I like these kinds of artifacts. If you watched that whole training movie, the book is review of a good part of it, But there some extras. Like how to jump to cover and getting back up again while carrying your M1. There, on paper, is the windage formulas, too. For instance, a good guideline is that you'll need at least 11 clicks of the windage knob in a 25 knot cross wind when shooting at a target 500 yard away. (And you'll probably need 17 or so clicks up from your hundred-yard 'zero' at that range...)

They refer in this book to another document I'd like to read and get a few facsimiles of. The Us Army Score Book.

And the back cover advertises other titles from the The Infantry Journal press in Washington DC. Most of them a quarter in price. Though Infantry in Battle and Warfare is a whole $3. I'd love to see these, too. Other titles: Company Duties: A Checklist, Modern Battle, Keep em Rolling, and American Vs. Germans.

Oh, YOU want to read it now? No problem. Go here and read it online for free.

TERROR GAP!

We have a Terror Gap, according to rabid anti-civil-rights mayor, head of MAIG, and hoplophobe Mike Bloomberg! The only way to close is it is to forbid guns to be sold to people that haven't been through due process but have their name on a secret gummint list. It's a good thing Ted Kennedy is still sober, as his name was on that list.

He told Congress: he strongly supports congressional efforts to close a "terror gap" in the nation's gun laws, which currently allow persons on a federal terrorist watch list to buy guns and explosives legally in the United States. And he was referencing the Times Square bomber, naturally.

This is worse than that mine shaft gap we had with the Soviets!!!

Of course there is about as much truth to a so-called Terror Gap as the artificially ginned up anxiety about a Missile Gap 50 years ago. Hint: Just because some liberal is acting panicky is not a reason to act. He may be just trying to exploit a crisis in order to deny the means of self defense to law abiding Americans.

Range and New Grips

More practice, more progress. Why didn’t you people TELL me that the secret to improving my shooting is to practice shooting more? (“Uh, we DID, T-Bolt.” “Shhhhhh!” )

The secondary purpose for this particular range trip was to test out the new grips. The tertiary purpose was to practice with a Bianchi speed strip on reloading

First, the cold target:

Odd. My flaw is high and left today. Sometimes it's hard to guess where DA trigger work will send it. GAH! I'd be horrible at pin-shootings. Plus I count 9 holes for 10 shots fired.

Ok, so maybe I back slid a little bit. Ten rounds, 7 yards. .38. Not too shabby. Except for that miss.

Then I wanted to test .357 with the grips. I thought they would hurt my hand. They didn’t. But something else happened. My grip positioning is different with these grips because of the shape, and when I fire the magnum loads the cylinder on the right side of the gun/cylinder jams back into the tip of the left thumb. Every time. Painfully. Even when I try to grip better or different. It’s not a problem with .38. Good to know, though. I don’t think I’m getting full value and benefit from a .357 out of a 2 inch barrel anyway.

Here is the target. 10 .357 on the left shoot n' see, 38 on the right:

Not bad with the left side despite the painful hit. Except... Yup, 8 holes with 10 shots. I have no idea where the other 2 went.

The .38 on the other side... I am settling down. 2 fliers a little high and left, but at least they are on the paper. 10 for 10 on the holes, too.

And another:

Better. Tighter. All holes accounted for. Maybe I am growing accustomed to the new grips already. Good.

To tell the truth, the grips don't shrink the pocket profile of the pistol, and the old rubber grips don't stick in my pocket like I thought they would. This might end up being an expensive speculative upgrade that I won't be using. We'll see.

And NOW I need to buy some more .38 ammo. Good luck there.

During the session I loaded about half the rounds with the Bianchi speed strip. It is marginally faster than loading them loose, but the speed strip fits in a pocket better than a round speed loader, and they keep all the rounds together in one place, aligned, in your pocket. So there are other advantages to carrying a speed strip even if it isn't SUPER speedy. I practice to get faster. Practice to be like JayG.

Seriousness

This story unknowingly/unintentionally brings up the dichotomy in every ‘gun enthusiast.’

There is the blustery side. The side that is appalled at other people’s reach for power. How DARE they trample on other’s rights, those gun banners! From my cold dead hands… Molon Labe! What is that, a wiener joke, you fraidy cat hoplophobe?!

This blustery side is the side you see, as it is boisterous, and refuses to be bullied. It attracts the most attention in the media and is the characteristics our political enemies also rail against.

But it isn’t all us, as the article linked goes to show.

There is also the quiet responsible side to so-called gun enthusiast. The side you don’t hear about because it is quiet. The side that knows this is a weighty responsibility, gun wielding and ownership, and perhaps that most serious of events... use, for keeps. The side of us that is protective. The side that scans around, in case something pops up to make us go from yellow to orange on our alert level. The side that practices. The side that notes that there is a backstop over there so if this really is a bad guy a missed shot won’t hurt anyone else. The side that isn’t SAD that guns are necessary because the thought they weren’t at one time (I don't know what presumably civilized time and place in the past they weren't necessary... 1922 York, England? 1956 Bangor Maine?) was a mere self indulgent fantasy of SOME in society. We never lived in a Utopia, wishing for its return is folly.

I wish this quiet side was all we needed to present to the world, but the Utopia-ists brought out the boisterous half. Maybe one day the boisterous half will be able to go dormant. But I kinda doubt it. That whole ‘wishing for utopia’ cuts both ways.

Eternal vigilance.

[To sum up the Denver Post's writers arc: All guns are bad, but I now see a case where it wasn't, so now I'm a bit conflicted. The policy should still be all guns are bad, regardless. I'm really sorry that the world and how it works doesn't match the picture in my head. Not 'head in the oven' sad, but almost.]

Zombie Research

May is Zombie Awareness month.

So, if you can in these hard economic times, give to a zombie research charity of your choosing. Donations are tax deductible, and just a little can go a long way to fight the scourge of the walking dead. Thank you.

Metrocons and Sniper

It's all over the gun blogs. The sniper that got 3 shots at 8000 feet. But even Metro-con-ish National Review noticed it.

Why I Bought S&W

Instead of a much cheaper revolver for my .22.

Sure. I could have looked around for a .22 revolver at half or even a quarter the price.

Harrington and Richardson, Iver Johnson. I've seen those out there. Some German knockoffs of same. Pretty cheap too. Kinda old, but I like old. But what of their quality and ability to be handed down to great grandchildren. I only have diaphanous information on those brands.

Ruger is ok, I guess, but a bit harder to load. A Colt Sidewinder is very nice, but another level higher in price for a like new version.

Charter Arms or Taurus... meh. I hear about mechanical flaws and malfunctions with those a lot more than with Smiths. And I've only experienced a screw that came loose, allowing the S&W cylinder to slide out of place. That flaw I can fix.

No one ever says they bought a S&W and wish they had bought something better. Well, they do, but they are often collectors or specialist much more talented at shooting revolver than I, or they wanted gold plating and genuine Ivory grips.

I won't shoot out this Smith. Even if I shot it a lot it will last longer than an off brand or pot metal cheapy. And who knows what's already been through the used one you are looking at. Could be 1000 rounds or 10,000. Presumably, even I might notice the difference in wear of a pistol that shot 100,000 rounds before coming to me.

And when you come to think of it... saving too much money on a firearm doesn't matter very much. Sure you can save $200 with some work, but I will have this pistol for decades. Amortize the price difference over that time, at least in your head, and it is easier to justify. It's pretty much all that HK uses for marketing ("No compromises. How much is your LIFE worth to you? Are you willing to compromise on that?"), along with a smug superiority, and they sort of have a point. A little bit. If you can afford it, skimping may be a false economy. So no regrets on the selection. It is in the arsenal for fun and practice, after all.

And if you CAN'T afford it? There are plenty of high quality yet good value pistols out there. A Ruger revolver is competitively priced but not a quality compromise. A Glock is not. A USED Glock (from a police turn in, maybe) is even better for the budget and just as good as new. XD aren't shabby on price either and there are nothing wrong with them.

But everyone has a level. A price line they get a bit uncomfortable to cross. The Smiths didn't cross it. A $4400 basic sport utility rifle, for me, may be too much.

1911 parts purchases

When I was in the market for a 1911, way back 2 years ago, my favorite gunshop iron slinger didn't have a posted tutorial of what to look for when you were in the market. Apparently to do that justice you have to ride in a car with her for 12 hours traveling from the coast of North Carolina to Indiana or somesuch.

Anarchangel did, and I relied on that. There were other hints, from Tam and others.

And this past week, Tam mentioned some details on gunparts materials in relation to a new Remington 1911 offering

I knew I wanted some certain particular features. Back then. When I knew even less than today. I wanted tritium sites, and I wanted an ambidextrous safety, and I didn't want to spend $2000, or $1000 for that matter. For giggles, I wanted to lose any on board trigger locks in the mainspring housing, lose any full length guide rods, and any humps on the grip safety. Springfield had the closest thing to what I wanted that I could also find, in the Loaded.

When I pulled the trigger on the purchase (heh!) Springfield had just switched to making a lot of their stuff in Brazil, so mine was 'Hecho en...' (or the Portugese equivalent.)

I only sorta knew what MIM (sorta like cast parts, but different. it stands for metal injection molding. think of something you made out of play-doh. but special play-doh that if you stick it in the oven it comes out as solid steel. THAT is MIM. ) parts were at the time, and had no idea, really, what the implications of same, were on my 1911. I did know, from experience elsewhere, that forged can be better and more desirable, but what was there to do about that? And at a price point less than $700?

My next 1911, someday, I hope to get something in a Combat Commander size, with the same requirements/features I have in the Springer, but with known better internal parts plus the frame and slide. Forged parts.

Heck, I did swap out the slide release and bought replacement pins. I even NEEDED a replacement pin as one of the original factory pins snapped on me. Whatcha bet it was a MIM pin that broke? But I have no idea the brand of slide release, so I have no idea if it is forged or MIM. It was probably a Cylinder and Slide brand out of the Brownells catalog, so, there is hope it could be forged. And I can always get another, knowing what to look for now.

Swapping out my trigger group with KNOWN forged parts is more problematic. I don't know if I could re-assemble the pistol, and I am sure I can do no gunsmith style fiddly fitting of replacement parts. But I bet I need to if the whole MIM thing bothers me. It doesn't. Yet.

So, why don't manufacturers tell the customer about the part types on the product specs? Tam's post was in response to Remington specifically NOT mentioning it wrt their new 1911. I'll tell you why. They only refuse to mention it when it is MIM parts. Forged are more expensive, and not enough gun buyers demand it and are willing to pay the difference.

And back in the day, forged parts was the only way to make a part. There is a bit more labor and skill involved, too. Ok, in case you don't know because you only took Band class and Creative Writing and had no interest in Shop Class and how things work. A casting is when you melt metal and pour it in a mold. When it has cooled it is the shape of the mold. Like water in an ice cube tray. Forging is when a plain bit of metal is heated up to a yellow incandescent heat. Then it is placed on a anvil with a certain shape to the surface, and a great big heavy industrial mallet like thing with a certain shape to IT come down and smashes that softish hot piece of metal. This will actually align and compact the metal molecules a little bit.

Tempering steel or case hardening iron is a whole nother ball of wax. All this metallurgy junk can take up a thousand blog entries. If I knew what I was talking about. At most I have 2 more blog entries on it in my head, and some of that may be dead wrong. Tell me to pump my brakes, that I am on a slipper slope, when I say martensite out loud.

Back to gun parts...

If you insist on the quality, and want to be sure, buy a custom or half-custom gun. Like Tam says: "I'd probably buy a loaded Springer or a Colt, and add C&S lockwork and a Greider or Wilson Bulletproof slide stop and call it a day." It'll cost you a bit more, but a true custom gun has a lot more in it, what with tighter tolerances and nicer finishes. I'm talking for a 'as good as practical' USER 1911.

Sound advice, it seems to me.

It'll cost you a bit more, but a true custom gun has a lot more in it, what with tighter tolerances and nicer finishes. I'm talking for a 'as good as practical' USER 1911.

Hey, I Figured Out...

... how to embed this, at least partially:



I may not be smart, but I am slow. Er... that didn't come out right...

It may look crappy in most browsers. If so, go to the original location.

I spoke on it before.

It's long, there are 2 parts, but you really should watch, and, if you have an appropriate rifle range, go out and do the positions. Not just shoot from a bench. If you can.

That Captain has some biggish ears, but his accent sounds New England. It's JayG's or Weerd's uncle maybe? Borepatch insists he is no relation of his.

Zombie Movie

xkcd


Laura is hawt.

Nifty

Well Maryland Shall Issue issues a document summing up gun-related Statehouse legislative action, and it's kinda nifty.

It's a color coded PDF, so a slow head like me can find the bad bills and the bills we want to support. It summarizes them and gives you some info on who supports which and what the final disposition was.

It wasn't a great year for gun rights in MD, but it wasn't BAD either. We pretty much consider it a win here if we don't backslide on our rights any.