Sigh

Yay.  A little window on my local political world in the Old Line State.  The liberal Tax N' Spend Governor of Baltimore.

First Rifle

I noticed Zercool noting:  "Most people think a good first gun is a .22. Others defy logic and get a Mosin-Nagant 91/30."  And then others pipe in "Mine was an SKS" and "Mine was a SMLE".

Those are nice choices.  I can imagine people that come to rifle shooting as an adult, rather than growing up shooting, would choose something with a little more oomph.  A .22 rifle is indispensable, but...  You know.  Big serious rifle.  If you only have one rifle it's nice if it is big and serious. 

It also made me think.  The first rifle I ever had was a Springfield '03.  I learned close order drill on that model too, which is why it was gifted to me.

The first rifle I ever bought for myself was a M1 Garand.  A Navy conversion that shoots 7.62x51mm.  It was also the first rifle of mine I ever shot.  The Springfield needs the front sight adjusted.  It also takes some firm effort to close the bolt on a .30-06 round.  There are fewer issues for a lefty shooting the Garand, too, so I favored that model for that reason as well.

Before I started this blog I had the safe queen Springfield, the Garand, and a .357 revolver.  I probably could have stopped right there and been none the worse for wear ready for just about most things.  My next purchase was a Remington Model 11 12-gauge.  That's certainly a fine penultimate.  Everything after that was spares and stuff I just wanted.  Only, arguably, the snubby was 'needed' for concealability and some .22 for practice.

But you could do a lot worse than your first rifle being a Garand.  And in a caliber still fielded by the US and NATO and others.

I imagine a lot of 'first rifles' folks are getting these days are sort of a .22...  .223.  In the form of an AR.  Plus shooting regular ol' .22LR is possible.  And with only an added extra upper, that AR can also shoot deer &c. with something like .458 SOCOM rounds. 

For you folks that came to shooting late in life, what was YOUR first rifle? 

Why?

Why isn't USAG Eric Holder in jail pending trial?  Looks like he's lied to Congress.  Well, we knew that.  But now there is evidence he did.

zed poster

From here. For you to buy.

Zombies.  Worse than Communists.  Worse than Vice President Wallace.  As smart as Vice President Biden.

If you see a zombie, Tweet about it. 

Zen

As my experience continures and shooting become 'normal' everyday activity, like using a revolving door, or parallel parking, I notice things I didn't notice when I was more of a tyro.

I can see bullets in flight more and more nowadays.  Look, shiny!  zing.  (why?  my eyes are open more, prolly.)

I hear the impacts of my shots at the range backstop, separate from the bang of the charge. Bang-clank, bang-clank. (why?  you got me.  less of a shock, this contolled splosion in my hands?)

I think less about my stance and position and grip.  When I DO think to check on those, they are mostly where I want them to be, like it was automatic.  I need to flex my knees more and lean a bit more forward.  I want that to be as automatic as a grip that lines up with the line of my forearm.

The 'surprise break' is getting better, but not there yet.  I just know when the trigger is going to go on my guns.  And my brain is going:  "make it happen... NOW."  And it happens, bang.  That's the Holy Grail.  Fixing that.

VB

Archie

I recorded the last beer drinking session with Archie and transcribe it here:

My last will and testament, I leave you these: a box of mint-condition 1918 liberty-head silver dollars. You see, back in those days, rich men would ride around in Zeppelins, dropping coins on people, and one day I seen J.D. Rockefeller flying by. So I run of the house with a big washtub and... hey! Where are you going?  Anyway, about my washtub. I'd just used it that morning to wash my turkey, which in those days was known as ...a walking-bird. We'd always have walking-bird on Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings: cranberries, injun eyes, yams stuffed with gunpowder. Then we'd all watch football, which in those days was called baseball...


What?  Eh, why didn't you get something useful, like storm windows, or a nice pipe organ? I'm thirsty! Ew, what smells like mustard? There sure are a lot of ugly people in your neighborhood. Ooh, look at that one. Ow, my glaucoma just got worse. The president is a Democrat! Hello? I can't unbuckle my seat belt. Hello? There are too many leaves in your walkway...


We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Give me five bees for a quarter," you'd say.


Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...


Ah, there's an interesting story behind THIS nickel. In 1957, I remember it was, I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of toast. I set the toaster to three: medium brown.


I first took a fancy to Mrs. Bouvier because her raspy voice reminded me of my old Victrola. Oh, it was a fine machine with a vulcanized rubber listening tube which you crammed in your ear. The tube would go in easier with some sort of lubricant like linseed oil or doctor...


Not many people know this, but I own the first radio in Wheaton. Not much on the air then, just Edison reciting the alphabet over and over. "A" he'd say; then "B." "C" would usually follow...


Anyway.  My story begins in nineteen-dickety-two. We had to say "dickety" because the Kaiser had stolen our word "twenty". I chased that rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety-six miles. (the children laugh) What are you cackling at, fatty? Too much pie, that's your problem! Now, I'd like to digress from my prepared remarks to discuss how I invented the terlet...


Ask that question again, my hearing aid was turnt down.  Well you're really asking two questions there. The first one takes me back to 1934. Admiral Burn had just reached the pole, only hours ahead of the Three Stooges... and I guess he won the argument, but I walked away with the turnips. The following morning I resigned my commission with the coastguard. The next thing I knew there was civil war in Spain... and, that's everything which happened in my life right up to the time I got this phone call...


Three wars back we called Sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and we called liberty cabbage "super slaw" and back then a suitcase was known as a "Swedish lunchbox." Of course, nobody knew that but me. Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling.


Then after World War Two, it got kinda quiet, 'til Superman challenged FDR to a race around the world. FDR beat him by a furlong, or so the comic books would have you believe. The truth lies somewhere in between.


---


[ok, that's really a conglomeration of Abraham Simpson quotes.  But Archie is pretty close to that.  A bit more competent.  He's doing pretty good, btw, for an 85 year old.  He is thinking of getting one of those motorized stair chairs.  Only $2500 for a new one.  Lots of used ones on the market.]

Letterpress

Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Falkirk

Here is something that is right in RobertaX's wheelhouse.  The Falkirk Wheel, what for moving the canal barges.  Up.  And down.

The New Zombie

Ok, Zombies jumped the shark.  What should we gunnies prep for, now?  What is the threat?

More importantly what do I prep for.  Zombies are listed in my goals...

I say it's My Little Pony!  And this meme can never ever jump the shark.

Stupid Bronies...

So this last goal will read:

"And, if necessary: To Defend the Ramparts of Democracy from a Level 4 My Little Pony Outbreak or against the Jacobin, Rampaging, Godless, Red-Commie Bronies (or their modern equivalent.)"

What caliber for cartoon, pastel, equine monstrosities? I still say 7.62x51.  To be sure.

Guns and D&D

I played D&D back in the day.  Dungeons and Dragons.  Yeah, I was cool like that.  Lot's of guys were back then.

Well they are coming out with a new version to try to fuse the community back together.  There have been schisms over which rules version is the One True Version.  Arguments over Canon are legendary across the internetz.

Well, there is a common problem.  The game is swords and arrows and magic.  But there is always some munchkin of a player that wands to mix sulphur, charcoal, and saltpetre and thus have a gun.  With this invention he can leapfrog up to USS Iowa and Sherman Tanks, and take over the world, thereby 'winning' Dungeons and Dragons for all time.

How to deal with such shennanigans?

Easy!  Let em have it!  Give them all of it.  Plenty of powder making materials and a 'hand gonne'.  Inform them that while it will do marginally more damage as their crossbow, but at one third the rate of fire.  Plus it's heavier.

They usually respond with, "Well, I invent a Ma Deuce next!"  Fine.  Describe even the fundamental of how to construct a Ma Deuce.  Satisfy a Dungeon Master with that and you only have to wait 200 years of constant study and effort in a single minded industrial pursuit to get the technology up to mere Gatling level.   Sheesh.

Buffalo Bill's Needle Gun

In a continuation of my reports from William Cody's autobiography, and the firearms therein, he used to hunt Buffalo in the late 1860s with a Needle Gun he named Lucretia Borgia because it laid low so many or summat.

He described it as a .50 caliber, and he would ride up on the head of a herd of buffalo so as to turn them, and thusly get the group to circle.  Then he could ride along side dropping bison in a relatively small area rather than picking them off from the rear and dropping the carcasses in a 3 mile long line.  All to provide meat for the Kansas Pacific.

A needle gun, eh?  Interesting.  Now, what KIND of needle gun are we talking about here?  The Dreyse, or Chassepot?  Well, quotes from the book:

I took the harness from Brigham, mounted him bareback and started after the game, being armed with my new buffalo killer which I had named "Lucretia Borgia," an improved breech-loading needle-gun which I had obtained from the Government. 

and:

I was using what was known at the time as a needle-gun, a breech-loading Springfield rifle, caliber .50. This was "Lucretia," the weapon of which I have already told you. Comstock's Henry rifle, though it could fire more rapidly than mine, did not, I felt certain, carry powder and lead enough to equal my weapon in execution. 

Well, what kind of creature IS this that Buffalo Bill has in 1868?  Seems neither fish now fowl.  What had Erskine Allin wrought, if indeed Cody has his facts straight?  My guess is that this rifle is just one of the Allin Conversion guns.  Falling block single shot touches off a .50-70 centerfire cartridge.   "Needle Gun" was just the fashionable name at them for such, maybe.   I don't see Buffalo Bill getting a Chassepot with paper cartridges from the US Army.

{Wait, is that floppy top hatch thing really a falling block type?  That doesn't seem like the proper term for the 'trapdoor' mechanism.}

No Beer

It's almost 8, and the house is out of beer.  Too late to get more, plus I don't feel like it.

Waituhminnit.  Some submariner gifted me a fifth of bourbon. 

That'll do. 

Tickety-boo. 

Ahhhhhhh.

Thanks again Les.

Ugh

Is this Tuesday?  Bit of a funk.  I am so rusty on my pistol shooting it is probably embarassing.  I should go today.  I hope I remember which end the bullets come out of really fast. 

My range is a gunstore.  I always do a peak around.  There is another gunstore not 3 miles away I still haven't checked out.  I think I will hit the range and stop by that one after.  I need an alternate if my primary store is going to be so recalcitrant.  At least until they see the light.  Or go out of bidness.  Whichever.

Oh No...

Looks like Theresa has been getting a little rough with Senator Kerry.

I told the police that too, when the missus was beating on me.  "I'm clumsy, I ran into the door."  "I got these fist sized bruises playing hockey."  Uh huh.

MIA no more

I thought Kenn Blanchard had quit gun blogging, so I never clicked on his blog link anymore.  Or that he rarely posted, at the most.  Apparently I was mistaken.  He is still there and quite active.

He is also a Marylander.  Like me.  And FALFenix.

Anyway, I added Rev. Blanchard back to the list.  Deleted Progun Progressive, Other Side of Kim, and Free Market Fairy Tales because they are inactive and pretty much gone, sadly.   Trying to keep the link list semi static.  Lemme know if there are dead-dead links on here and you are of a mind to hep.  I don't wanna just lead folks astray to link farms.

Thanks.

Rail

Running on a blog-fodder fumes.  So I went ahead and bought the rail for my M1A.

Get that mounted on the rifle. My Luepold scout scope can work on it. but the purpose if for a future red dot optic.

Prez

Paul, Romney, Gingrich, Santorum.  Four!  Easy to keep track in your head.

Of those?  Which would I choose.  Gah!  Hard to vote for any of the four.  

Which is worst for second amendment issues?

Worst is Paul, methinks.  He'd eliminate all Federal Laws, which he can't (idiocy), and send it to the states, ignoring the 14th and 2nd Amendments and his duty as president to both.  He's said the Federal Government should take no part in gun laws.  Fine.  That I like.  But he'd also do nothing about what states pass, it not being the Federal government's job, in his eyes, to stick its nose in that either.  A bunch of states would pass draconian anti-gun stuff.  There would be roadblocks on rt 81 between Virginia and Pennsylvania, and lots of out of staters would go to MD jail.  "C'mon vote for Paul, TBolt.  It'll be a fun four years."  No.  No it won't.  I'd campaign for and vote for Obama ahead of Paul.  For this and many other issues.  He's all for people being armed but he'd kill the right in his ineffectual ignorance.  Wish his son was most seasoned and running in his place.

Next worst is Romney.  Mr. Assault Weapons Ban his own self.  A choice between a statist liberal Democrat that hates individual freedom and Obama?  I'll vote lower down the ticket and leave the top blank.

Santorum?  Joke.  Sorry pal, you are forever a sex-act residue.  Plus your primary purpose in life is "Go Team Jesus" and you concentrate on gonadal politics too much.  Smaller gov't, less taxes, controlled borders, punched hippies, fewer regulations... THEN consider the social issues.  I really don't give a hang for what you care oh so deeply about.

Newt?  Talks the best game on the 2nd Amendment, but I know Newt.  When he is good he is very very good and when he is bad he is horrid.  And you never know which Newt you will get, day to day, minute to minute.   

Perry was best on the 2nd Amendment, but bad on everything else aside from being Governor of the largest and most successful state in the Union.  (I don't count california anymore until is creeps back into 'not a basket case' territory.)  And Perry is gone.

Gah.  Where is Fred Thompson when you need him?

But I think Bore Patch is right, even with the MSM in his corner working his campaign Obama could be beaten by Mussolini's corpse, dodge Italian birth certificate and all.  Even that whole "being dead 66 years" thing.  But just because Mussolini's corpse can beat Obama doesn't mean we need to RUN Mussolini's corpse against him.  And yet, the GOP is.  Yay.

My prediction?  Romney takes the Oath in January.  Not happy about it.

The Walking Dead

On AMC...

I think the purpose of the show was to kill off the latest zombie fad once and for all.  By being a HORRIBLE television show.  About Zombies.  One decent episode in 7 doesn't absolve them of their sins for making a deodorant free soap opera.

Have you noticed less zombie content of late?  The show sucked all the oxygen out of the room and smothered it.  Now we have a room of asphyxiated zombie-fan corpses.  Or summat...

Panic Buying

here

Shotguns

While I don't like to use them against Zombies, I do like them for semi suburban deer hunting.

This is kinda odd...  I own several Remington Model 11's all of a sudden.  They'd grown steadily, at $200 a pop or less.  I get one as a parts gun, then another falls in my lap, then another.  I'm not trying to get just this one type, it just worked out that way.

Thus... The only shotgun I own is a 12 gauge Model 11, and lots of backups. 

I was thinking of getting a pump gun, but I have so MANY Model 11s, what's the point? 

They are like commodities around here.  Like salt shakers.  Everyone has a bunch of those.  So many they might lost track of what they have. 

I am middling in it's use.  I'm not rubbish, but I don't write home about my mad clay busting skills.   I'd do more of it if there was a skeet/trap center nearer by, and thus be better at it.  My Boy Scout meetings as a kid were at a IWLA where we'd arrive and 6 folks would be powdering orange disks for another half hour under the lights.  Looked fun but that place is a bit outside my driving range these days.

Yager

So I am reading the autobiography of Buffalo Bill Cody.  And I've already stumbled upon interesting gun content, and it's not even 1860, and Bill is not even 18 years old.

He hired on on ox wagon trains and they occasionally had to fight off Indians or Mormons.  To do this they were armed with Colt pistols (often 2 each) and a Mississippi Yager that fired a ball and two buck shot.

A HA!  Something to look into.  I figured Yager was the Americanization of the German word Jaeger  (Jäger).  A word I knew as 'Hunter'.  So I figured it was a rifle.  With that in mind I found the entry for the M1841 Mississippi Rifle, made at Harper's Ferry.  It was a percussion cap front stuffer.  It was named Mississippi after a colonel of a Mississippi Militia put his regiment to good use armed with these rifles in the Mexican war. 

The colonel, if you didn't click the link, was Jeff Davis.  Yes THAT Jeff Davis.

"The Mississippi Rifle was sometimes referred to as a "yagger" rifle, due to its smaller size and its similarity to the German Jäger rifles."

I don't know what Cody and his compatriots hoped to achieve with a ball and 2 shot loaded.  A perception of greater lethality, at the least.  Sorta like the Taurus Judge.  Or maybe there is some advantage I don't see.

Of COURSE this intrigues

I already like XDs, I've been hankering for a single stack polymer I'd like, and then Springfield comes out with this:  XDS.  It's not even up on the Springfield website, yet (as of Monday night).

This gun is right in my wheelhouse. .45ACP goodness, even. 

Thanks SHOT Show reporters.

It's like they read my mind.  Of course I'll have to try it first.

The only thing that would have made it perfect would be a 1911 magazine.  But it won't be that, certainly.  Another detail is, I'd rather have 7+1 than 5+1 magazines, but that's not as big a deal to me as for most.

It all depends on how I shoot it, how it feels to me.  We shall see.

Damn Hippies

Ok, maybe SOME content...

SOPA-PIPA? No.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

No content for you today.  Don't let power hungry gummint types break the internet with the misnamed "Stop Online Piracy Act" or "Protect IP Act".  Tell yer Congresscritter that they need to not just DO something, sit there!

They will tell you, "oh we killed that bill, and it wasn't what you thought" Doesn't matter.  Shouldn't be sticking your nose in it anyway, petty tinpot potentates.  So.  We don't need any Zombie bill coming back from the dead.  Kill it, dismember it, burn the parts in widely separate locations, then scatter the ashes in the lava shadow of active volcanoes.

Corruption and Racism

So, all gun control is based on political cronyism and racism?  Ok.  That's probably something we should remember and remind Leftist types that to support gun control is to commit their religion's biggest sin:  hypocrisy.

The grandaddy of them all, New York's Sullivan Act.  Remember Gun Control isn't about guns, it's about control.  And that control is usually over country hillbillies and swarthy types.  'Threats' to good upstanding city folk...

Zombie Prom

A librarian I know sent me a link to Zombie Prom Dress.

I'm looking closely at the pattern and the zombies are all pinup or nose art quality.  Plus the B-17 outline.  So it's WWII era aviation zombie prom party dress.  Jitterbuggable.

Ok...

I can see the inspirations on this propgun, but how is that supposed to, you know, work?  You can prolly embiggenate by clicking.

I can see the AK peeking though.   Is that part of an M60 dust cover over the bass ackward AK dust cover?  It's supposed to be from Waterworld, maybe?  But gun is not in the IMFDB entry.

What a Peach

Truly an angelic woman.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is STILL linking the Tea Party with scizophrenic Tuscon murderer Jared Lochner.  Have you no shame, lady?  At long last, have you no shame.  How dare you.

Mental game for you Debbie.  Let's say he hadn't gotten all murder crazy but stepped back from that abyss.  Lochner is still him, just not in a killing mood.  What is the most likely scenario?  What do you picture someone with his mental problems, youth, and known presonality doing?  Would he:

A)  Go to town hall meetings, raise his voice, and make politiicans like yourself uncomfortable like the Tea Partiers did?

or...

B) He'd bum money off his parents, travel to Manhattan, live in a nasty tent in a public park with people just like him, get a nasty case of scabies, and poop on police cars?

Also, which would you rather be associated with, A or B?

Hush Debbie.  You're acting moronical.

[Link from Alphecca.] 

Average Person

Think this will annoy...

Think this will annoy...the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?

Approaching this from the conservative libertarian angle, with an eye toward 2nd Amendment rights, (it's a gun blog) Mittens is no great shakes.  He supports none of those things. He is no Fred! Thompson.  He won't shrink Federal bloat, get the fiscal house in order, cut regulations, or try to simplify taxes.  He'll sign any bill that sticks it's nose into my bidness, and any gun control law that comes across his desk, is my guess.  I could not give a hang about his religion or much of a hang over what flavor of gonadal politics he favors.  I count on Mitt to nominate a succession of Souters.

But, like Borepatch, I think Benito Mussolini, dodgy Italian birth certificate, execrable politics, and being a, ya know, corpse and all...  Il Duce could beat Obama in November.  But I don't like it.  I have the luxury of not voting for anyone.  Mitt could carry 400+ electoral votes.  None of those will be from Maryland.  At least 66% of the popular vote will go with Barry here. 

Best Back Handed Compliment

"Romney will be better than Dole or McCain if they had won."

~sigh~

here

Speaking of the Old Empire

Upon which the sun never set.  When Britain used to be known as GREAT Britain...

There is a new comic book coming out, set in Britain at the beginning of the 20th Century.  Most of the lower classes have been infected with zombism, and the upper crust better are willingly becoming vampires to avoid the 'poor person's disease.'

Yick.  Class warfare.  Tedious. 

Anyway it's called the New Deadwardians.

Heh!  Get it?

Officer Harless

The feloniously abusive Canton OH police officer has been finally fired.  Next stop, if there is any justice:  Jail.  After that:  HELL!

Quatermain

Reading my new Kindle stuff...

What gun does Allan Quatermain shoot? 

Why an 8 bore double, of course.  It took 3 shots with it to take down a Rhino.  One was a botch miss by another party member. 

He also totes along others, of course.  Every white hunter in the party has at least one long gun.  Something big and often a level action repeater of Winchester persuasion.  A revolver, too.  He mentions a .500 Nitro Express (this may be the 8-bore...  I dunno... I doubt it because the .500 shoots a 450ish gr projectile and an 8-bore should be an eight of a point... mid 800 grain weight), there is a 4-bore (!) for a party member larger than him as Quatermain only weighs 140 pounds or so, and a bunch of Martinis. For funsies, I guess. 

For dramatic effect, he likes to load all the ammo in one package, so when a donkey or hapless porter is swept away in a river torrent he has only the ammo on him, making for more drama in the story.  700 miles from the coast in the middle of Deepest Darkest, and only the ammo on him in his pockets.

If you are a porter, be sure that Allan knows your name.  If you are referred to as "one of the bearers from Such-n-such tribe," you might as well be Ensign Rickie in the Federation red uniform blouse going with the away team down to the strange planet's surface with Kirk, Bones, and Spock.  You are not going to see how Quatermain's story ends.  Or anything else for that matter.

I prefer it when the story doesn't diverge to the fantastical.  Taking on a bunch of Masai in a krall is one thing, but shooting down an underground river for miles to emerge in a hidden lake with giant crabs and a lost tribe of white natives is a bit of a stretch.

[And I saw a commercial for the Kindle Fire on TV for the first time last night.  Neat.  I'm glad I got the e-ink kind, instead, tho.]

Sculpture

Some of the gun sculpture on THIS website are pretty neato.

Undergunned Bushwa

I tune out cops in the media stories that states stuff like, "Oh noes!  Cops are undergunned by the crooks!"

Either the complainant is living in a fantasy world where every gangbanger has an UZI and an AK-47, full auto, or they are thinking about North Hollywood Shootout, where the regular patrol cops were lacking in a simple trunk gun .30-30. 

Cops have never needed tanks or .50 cals.  Or select fire anything, for that matter.

Cops need TRAINING, I'll go with.  Know how to shoot and deploy that lever gun, that revolver, and that pump scattergun.  I defy Diane Sawyer to cite a circumstance where a police officer that knew what they were doing needed more than that, ever

What is WRONG with my gunstore?

They have a new policy.  People have apparently been directing Gunbroker purchases to them for transfer without telling the store this is happening.  This asshattery perturbs them, and I am totally on board with their peevishness.  If you do that, you have to pay a higher transfer fee or they reserve the right to refuse to do that all together.  $100 if you surprise them, $75 normally.  I am on board with that.  I'd even charge MORE than $100, were I them.  $150 or $200 will put a stop to such rudeness with a quickness, and be profitable in the meantime.  Way to antagonize a vital gunstore FFL resource, boneheads.

The policy is not the problem.  It's the sign they have up announcing it.  It says the policy, then "We are not the internet.  GFY."  I assume GFY means Go F*ck Yourself.  Well, THAT'S classy.  Sure to boost sales. 

I don't begrudge them the policy, but the internet sales are going to grow, not shrink.  There are gunstores in MD that still charge a $25 fee and welcome the little business AND the foot traffic.  I know I buy stuff whenever I go into the store, even a box of ammo.  But this is the second time in a month I've been in there and felt an unfriendly vibe.  I started frequenting that shop BECAUSE they were the only one that treated me like a customer, not an annoyance.  "Wait on that guy, he buys something every time he comes in here."  I overheard a story while in there over a year ago about an attempted gunstore robbery.  The bad guy handed them a note, like in a bank holdup.  So I did something similar, right then, in response. I handed the guy a note that read "Sell me something..."  But I knew them well enough to have fun like that.  I don't think the current crew would 'get' that kind of joke from me. 

The owner was also absent, again.  But he isn't the only one there that knows me on sight. 

What to do?  I don't want to presume to tell him his business.  And I understand why he is upset, of course.  But still.  I wish the situation was different.  I want my old gunstore experience back, but am helpless to make it so and have no known local alternatives.  Many gunstores are crotchety in their own way.

Candle

Lighting a candle to prevent violence against guns.

A candle to illuminate my civil right.  A candle to light the way to a world people don't willing sacrifice themselves to evil men.

I need to dust better.

I Wish

Remember when hoplophobes got their britches in a twist when Glock got popular because they assumed a polymer gun meant that it would sail through metal detectors?  THEN it got popular with non LEO types, too.

Remember when the Assault Weapons Ban was enacted and ARs all of a sudden got popular because they were semi-verboten semi-auto rifles?

Of course the histrionics were unfounded, but still... there is a pattern of behavior here.  Glocks and ARs are as plentiful old gum on a city sidewalk now.

I hope the gun banners get hysterical over another cool class of weapon again soon. 

"Oh NOES!  KRISS carbine and the SCAR Heavy are extra deadly!" or somesuch.  It could be anything.

Then sales spike, production ramps up to meet demand, then prices drop.  And I'll buy something cool.  I wish they'd do that.

Examples

You hear stories about cops shooting at a badguy 34 times and one bullet actually meets the meat.  If the cop is lucky.  I don't want news stories of that.

You hear stories of a bad guy absorbing 6 rounds of .38 Special and sitting back down to finish his breakfast before going to the doc to get his new holes looked at.  Same with 15 rounds of 9mm (maybe exaggerating...).  I once saw a story where a guy took on some .40 and seemed unaffected. 

Has anyone seen stuff where the holes were made by a .45 and the punctured individual shrugged it off for a good time?  Like walk to the ambulance in cuffs?   Links, maybe?

I've never seen those stories.  Doesn't mean they don't exist.

Homicide

National Review

The most gun friendly writer, Kevin Williamson, on metrocon National Review wrote a ditty on Meredith Grave, the Tennessee woman that tried to check her CCW firearm in NYC.

"I am Merdith Graves."

And another article from the much more normally metro Rich Lowry.

And more from David French.

Hmmmm, I wonder if Romney supporter Ann Coulter is a metrocon when it comes to guns?

Well, I did it.

Pulled the trigger on a Kindle.  I got the book kind, not the poor-man's iPad kind.  Now to fill it.  Luckily, there are LOTS of free things I want.

John Buchan's Greenmantle and Thirty Nine Steps
Rudyard Kipling has some stuff I haven't read, but would re-read a bunch
H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain stuff
Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan and Mars stuff
L Frank Baum Wizard of Oz stuff
Erle Stanley Gardner did more than Perry Mason, but I don't think the copyrights have lapsed yet.
Ring Lardner

I've had a bellyful of John O'Hara already and can dismiss him.

I've read a bit of H G Wells, Jules Verne, and Jack London, but not all of it.    I've read all the Sherlock stuff of Gotta check on Baen, see if they have anything.  But my focus will be on discovering postwar-prewar stuff.  it'd be nice to have a Kindle with 1000 free books, all that I haven't read and want to read.  And I would be obliged if anyone has some gems of free stuff out there for me to look into.  Pulpy stuff is a plus.  Cowboys.  African Safari.  Sea Tales.  Old Skool Sci Fi.  Doc Savage.   That sort of thing.

Gutenberg Project doesn't have everything, but any PDF can be converted over to Kindle, but links to other sources will be appreciated.   But just look at the titles on this page alone!  Can anyone give me a 'must read' of Winston Churchill?  If anything I will need wheat to seek out so as not lose it in all the chaff.

[gun content... almost none.  I guess there is a lot of gun content in my reading list, yes.]

Sheesh...

My Springfield 1911 worked right out of the box.  Didn't have to do all that aftermarket upgrades and fiddling to get it working like you do with Glocks or M&Ps.

Oh wait.  I did replace the grips.  For aesthetic reasons.

Metrocon Kudo

With Sarah Palin.  Regarding that Colorado Oklahoma mother that called 911, barricaded herself in her home, was advised to do what she can to protect her baby by the dispatcher, then ended the knife wielding goblin when he smashed through the her bedroom door. Also.

So About that Zit

As a follow on to my S&W lamentation bout the onboard trigger locks on S&W revolvers, Windy asks:  "Windy Wilson said...So, I can swap out parts on the S&W, too, and eliminate the possibility the zit will lock up at an inopportune time (as has been documented)? Who would tell me what parts to swap out, or is it a case of if I have to ask it is beyond my capabilities?"

What exactly do you have to do to get rid of the redundant lock work under that revolver zit?   Is there an online resource that could help me, and Windy, out?  I've been kinda intimidated to try to take the sideplate off on a revolver, myself...

Uncle Milty

Well, in accordance with my New Years resolution, I have placed and order for a Milt Sparks Versa Max 2, IWB holster.  All black horsehide.  No sharkskin this time.  I got the shark with my last VM2 and wanted the holster to look different at a glance, avoid confusion. 

I went with Milt Sparks because I already had one and liked it a lot.  But there are a plethora of good holster makers out there.

Now, belt shopping.  This one I'm wearing is good but getting tired.  Oh, and another ammo carrier for the spare mag.

Work Question

Asked at work:  "What gun would you buy 3 of to stash in various places of your house, and where?"

Already asked that quesdtion of myself...

Well, one option is, if you have a few police turn-ins of .38 revolvers... Those are nice to salt all about.  Cheap, simple.  I'd store one in the kitchen and in the bathrooms.  Maybe next to the easy chair I sit in most.  Some homeinvaders like to lock people in the bathroom so they can do their dirty work with you contained.  One guy watches the door while the others cart out your stuff.  And the bathroom is often windowless so you can't call for help.  Be nice to have a gun in there, hidden, in a ziploc plastic bag to keep corrosion down.  But then you have a gun a nosy guest might find, so...

Option 2, for me, is exposed hammer double barrel shotguns on hooks over doors.

But I have done neither.  I don't have many guest, and NO kids, but it just seems... odd.  Better to just have your CCW gun on you.  Even if you are like me and can only carry at home.

Metrocon Getting Zumbo-ed

Nominally, VerBruggan is on our side, but there is a metrocon line he doesn't want to cross with regards to the Tennessee woman that peaceably carried in Manhattan.  He seems to be of a mind that while it is a civil right, this 2nd Amendment thingy, just not in certain states.  Perhaps it's not in places he pictures himself being?  I dunno.  He is fine with punishing this woman who failed to remember than NYC is not in America, just not TOO severely.  SHE BROKE THE LAW, after all.  Broke the law and... harmed... uh... no one and nothing.

His commenters take him to task on his slip up, and do a pretty good job of it.  Except for the confusing one about this guy who had a friend that 'was a gun collector, attending a show in NYC'.  That detail befuddled more than just me.

Great Great Great Grandpa

Well, howdy!  By Jove!  Here is a story about an old relative of mine.  Used to hunt the Big Shaggys in the big open spaces in the middle of the country a century and half a go.  A few other colorful habits.  But you see where I got the name.  And the love of alcoholic beverages.  Benjamin C. Black.  AKA 'Thunderbolt.'

I have the bottle he used to store his Bay Rum aftershave.

Who am I kidding.  It was Rye whiskey, stored in that crystal stoppered bottle.  Thunderbolt never used aftershave, and rarely cut back the whiskers.  ANY bottle, it was rumored, in GrGrGrGrandads presence, didn't contain what it was intended or what was written on the label, but had some rot gut beverage or whatnot, therein instead.

I like Bay Rum, myself, but never use the aftershave, anyway.  I don't take much to Rye, and prefer Bourbon, personally.  So we're not completely alike.  But, I've been known, my ownself, to make and sell alcoholic beverages in order to pay my mortgage and whatnot.  It was just a little 600 gallon unit.  Hardly anything.  Fambly tradition.  I'm not nearly the dead-eye shot, but this might explain my naturally preferring a revolver to a semi-auto. 

I can also put to rest that horrible slanderous lie about "Thunderbolt's Bloomer-Busting Lager".  It was most definitely NOT made from my great great great grand-daddy's urine.  ('do I have to drink my own urine?  No, but it's sterile, and I like the taste.')  It was made from another part of him. Now let's never speak on this subject ever again.

Here is a contemporary rendering of GrGrGrGrandpa Ben:

I Wonder

I wonder how many people think they set a post to publish ahead of time for today, but they forgot to set the year to 2012 and now their blog has a fresh January 1 post up 'a year ago'?

I Hear Stories

In my quest for more blog fodder, I hear stories.  Friends of friends, you know.  3rd or 4th hand accounts.

"So and so got a gun..."

"Uh huh?"

"Says it can shoot .410 and .45!"

Oh dear.

Well, at least .45 Long Colt has a further lease on life.  What with the cowboy shooters getting more popular and now the Taurus Judge and Judge-clones sucking a bit of oxygen in the room up.  I figure people that get the Judge probably buy ONE box of .45LC if they find it.  Just to see.  Or maybe not, the ammo costs .65 a round, generally.  Not super expensive, but not cheap either. 

You know, I've never heard a bad thing about those new long cylinder revolvers.  Oh sure, performance stuff, I don't mean that.  I mean, it hasn't featured yet as the 'villain' deodand in a junk-onna-bunk video by the police.  No one has said, "the perpetrator used the especially deadly Judge, that fires shotgun and .45 rounds.  Simultaneously.  In the presence of kittens." or anything.

I wonder where city and suburban types take their Judge to try it out?  Most indoor ranges around here are a bit hinky about shotgun use.  And some of the outdoor ones, too.  Load up your revolver with primo 00 buck shot shells and never know what it felt like to fire it and THAT is their home defense plan.

Uh...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!