Mainstream

Here is the metrocon fortnightly noticing and applauding MSM coming out with positive pieces on gun rights.

Money quote:

"But I think they are a sign that the Left is coming to grips with two important facts: (1) The Second Amendment takes gun bans off the table and (2) concealed-carry laws at the very least do not increase crime."

Spam

Either the spammers have a more efficient system circumventing blogger or they just 'found' me, but my spam comment rate has gone from a few handful to a few hundred.  Gonna take a while. 

It's easy to find comments I want to keep in the awaiting moderation folder.  They are the ones that aren't Anonymous.

More and more will get through as Google pulls development support for Blogger, I figure  It's a shrinking revenue stream, since everyone knows that blogs are dying out.   Why devote resources to it?  It's like developing new 8 Track tape players these days.  Nice, I guess, but don't knock yourself out.  Fortunes are to be made with CDs, not 8 Tracks!  (in the age of MP3s...)

Hey, remember music videos?  In the 80s and 90s?  Those were great.  You'd still get to watch those on the EmptyVee if you bought more CDs and cassettes.  And that's ok, too, as television is going away, too. 

Hoobody.  I am tired.  Think I will go lay down.  All this top velocity Futuring about makes my old bones tired.  I think I got the Lumbago.  Or is it the Grip? 

Probably... FUTURE SHOCK!

You Glock afficiandos need to get with the times.  Upgrade your gatt to something modern that wasn't designed in the age of bell bottoms and leaded gasoline.  It's an Old Fogey platform.
-

Les Baer

This pistol gives me a case of the 'wants'

Les Baer Stinger.  Except...  I can't leave well enough alone.  Never.  I'd want a low profile thumb safety on on the other side, and no hump on the grip safety.  Other than that...

M-14

Gods of the Copybook Headings

Reject the promises of the Jacobins.  Everything worked so much better without them. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Do right. Keep your powder dry.

I like this version. But then, I usually like Bill Whittle's stuff. Ever since his Eject Eject Eject days.

Low and Right

About my standard flaw.  Low and right.  Even when I totally surprise myself with the trigger pull it's still low and right.  With guns that other people hit center or left or high with for their grouping.

So, if I am legitimately not flinching or pushing or what have you, what am I doing.

Dunno.  Maybe I am am still pushing?  Maybe the push of my trigger finger is that direction.  Maybe the tendon and the base of that finger is wiggling and in contact with the grip panel.  Beats me.  Maybe some very careful hand and finger placement is worth testing.  I've done that before, but I was less good before.

I'd love to figure out what it is.  On m best day I get all shots into a tuna can as long as you put the 10 O'Clock of the can on the point of the bullseye.

So what is my goal here?  I'd like to be good enough that a bowling pin match is a possibility.  That would be fun and a level of competence I'd like to have for other applications.   Faster and bowling pin accurate with competition pressure.   Wish they had more bowling pin potential places around here.

But most of my professional training, (and training from other tyros) has consisted of "you gotta flinch.  don't flinch." and stops at that.  Very helpful.  I did learn about that little tendon thing.  I've also gotten from pro trainers, "you are accurate enough, lets make you faster." Which is a thing, too, I value.  It'd just be nice to take a zombie target to the range, shoot 7 magazine at it, and have a big ragged hole in the face and nowhere else.

Jamming

I think I have been loading 8 rounds in my 1911 mags again and am getting jams.  One range trip, both 1911s had the same jam on Federal Hi-Shok 230 grain hollow points.  (the cheap shooty stuff, not the expensive hydra-shok defense rounds.)

Now this gives me consternation, as I don't want to see problems with hollow points.

But, like I said, I've been load 8 rounds recently kinda often in my Chip McCormack mags, and ONE of the jams was in a brand new magazine that has had less than 2 dozen rounds through it.

I'm glad it was both guns with similar stoppages.  It may have been on the last round both times, but it was definitely the same presentation.  The nose of the bullet is canted up at a severe angle and stuck between mag, feed ramp, and chamber.  Minor scratches to the case, and it fires fine, after.  Clearing is an issue.  Tap-rack-bang is useless.  You have to dump the magazine and rack the slide to clear it.  So it's a pretty serious hang up that I need to get to bottom of.

I did relearn the old lesson.  Just because they SAY they are 8+1, you don't necessarily believe that.

Further testing, is, of course, called for.

The Zombies

Garand guts

Lots of fiddly little details on how the guts of a Garand work.  Stuff I didn't know.  Like both sets of teeth on the seer that make the semi-auto trigger possible.  The way the hammer turns the bolt if it has to to fully seat it and won't hit the firing pin home otherwise.  Man on man, I like this kind of detail and info and I am just amazed at what gun designers like Garand and Browning came up with to solve problems, thinking up solutions in their head, then making a thing out of metal that worked.  Complicated enough, but not too complicated.

XS Sights, One Year Later

So, I got XS Sights for my carry guns.  Little front sight for my S&W 640, and rear and BIG honking one for the Colt Commander.

Before I got them I was told by well meaning folks I respect and had tried it themselves that, "You're gonna be soooooooooorry..."  At least with the big honking one.  That I wasn't going to like the lack of precision.

Well, I do like them.

Put aside the snubbie.  It's just a tritium replacement for the nearly invisible standard blade on the double action revolver, and isn't that much fatter.  It needed something for low light at any rate and is probably what I'd have to hand in house if something went bump in the night.  That kind is not what folks fault, I am almost sure.

The 1911...  It's post and dot.  Bright tritium, and BIG dot, as I mentioned.  That big dot does indeed cover up the target area, and you have to cover what you want to hit to shoot it.  I already shoot like this with my sight picture no matter what kind of sight I am using, so I didn't make any adjustments  (see #3 here and below).  If I used a lollipop style hold (picture #1), then yes, it would be a problem.

With shoot n see sticker targets about 9 inches in diameter, dinner plate size, the front sight about half obscures the target at 7 yards.  I need to adjust my practice and do more 25 yard events.  In fact, I did last Sunday.  Sent a silhouette all the way down with NO shoot n see to give me feedback.  Both the conventional sighted 1911 and the XS commander had groups in the center mass at the same area as usual for me.  A little low and right, but all on. I am faster re-acquiring with the big dot.

I'm not that good a shooter to do competition like a bowling pin shoot.  But if I did I'd use my full size Springfield 1911 with more standard sights.  But this Commander is a carry pistol, not a bowling pin pistol.  I was never going to be shooting at eyeballs with either one.  Again, I'm not that good.  If my only visible bad guy in a self defense situation is presenting an eyeball sized target for me to hit 25 yards away I am not only moving laterally to make his problem harder, I am moving laterally and attempting to extricate myself from the whole bad scene.  As I assume most folks will be.  I'm not hunting bad guys, I'm trying to save my skin.  If I was hunting bad guys I'd have a rifle.  I can hit an eyeball at that range with an 1894C.

So, I am happy with the change to XS sights.  And, in fact, am getting comfortable enough to carry the 1911 concealed at this point.  It is edging the Sig 229 out for holstered CCW, versus the pocket carry I do with the revolver.  But this is certainly a "your mileage may vary" type situation.  They aren't for everyone.

I am kinda shocked I took to the post and dot style sights of any description.  Before I tried them they just seemed wrong and I gravitated to 3 dots, in a row, horizontally.  Surprisingly, I get along with post and dot (non XS) like a house afire.

I would consider the smaller front post on future modification, and XS sights on other carry guns.  Not that I need more carry guns.  Maybe spares...

Here is a target set at 25 yards with both styles of sights and 1911s, and I think the one outside the circle is from the gov't model:

Springfield Armory

Back in the day.  I love this history junk.  Sorry I've been video heavy lately.  I've just run across so much good stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving

More blogging later, maybe.  Maybe not.

Zombimages

Yeah, she won't last long.  No protective clothing and look at the choice of weapon.  I am very disappointed.  The Zombacalypse is not a T&A bacchanalia!  Do you wanna end up like those people on the Walking Dead?

More info:

Vehicle

Well, now that I have a driveway, I need to save up for a new vehicle.  I figure this one is the conveyance I want.  Only $600k.  Gotta save up, so... next year sometime.  I'll need to spec the zombie package.  Good for weekend camping tho.  Better than a Scamp.

















Ok, ok, that might be priced a bit out of reach...  The 11 year old Durango may need to do the trick.  What?  It's been a good car.  The least worry of any I've owned.  The only car I've owned and really liked was an '85 Riviera, and it was a maintenance nightmare. 

Why did I like it?  It was a 4 bbl V8, classic 2 door land yacht.  But it was good in the snow.  Why?  Good weight and...  front wheel drive.  That surprised the hell out of the emissions test people when they tried to put the rear wheels on the treadmill to spool it up to sniff the exhaust.   I TOLD them.  Silly motorists, they thought, doesn't know which are the drive wheels.  Hey, waitaminnit...

How it's made

SAA types

Diagnosing a Zombie

~

Very technical. Might be difficult for a Layman to follow.

~

One at a time.

They design guns with computers now?  What will the world think of next...

Remington in 1969:

Tubular

In reference to a 108 year old and its birthday yesterday...


There is this guy, still rolling his own vacuum tubes. 




 I think I saw this video years ago on RobertaX's site. 


I'm adding one plus two here and thinking...  Make Nixie tubes in my basment, turn them into steampunky clocks, sell them to Gen Y hipsters for a mint, use the proceeds to buy ammo and canned goods.  BRILLIANT!

You can make your own comms gear with the tubes too, and worry less about EMP.

Racists

Space Zombie

Awesome.

Peh-Pe-Pe-PEW!

Quibbles

There is an article of The Art of Manliness on selecting a firearm for home defense.  It's decent, but I have minor quibbles.

He stresses training.  I have no problem with that.   Whatever you get, practice with it, too.  and it's important to have a place to practice.  If there are no rifle ranges nearby, an AR, while an effective choice, isn't so good if you have no place to train and  familiarize yourself with it.  

Shotguns, for example, are hard to train with.  There are many restriction at local flat ranges.  Skeet shooting, while good at familiarization, is less effective when trying to learn your gun's foibles with buckshot.  Clay shooting experience is not the same as home defense simulation experience.

The author of the article comes out with a pump shotgun recommendation first thing.  And get's his highest rating.  No mention of it's unwieldiness inside the home.  No mention of the possible problem of short stroking the action.

His next recommendation is the revolver.  Even simpler to use, yes.  But the hardest to get good at, no?  Not a problem if you practice fervently, double action.

His lowest rating is for semi-auto pistols, and this model gets low marks because of its complication.  I posit that this concern shrinks to nothing after a year of faithful range trips and a training class or two beyond basic instruction.  There isn't THAT much more to learn with a Glock over a revolver, after all.

I still go with the tried a true, "shoot a bunch of different types before selecting with an open mind if you are a noob."  Then practice with your selection.  Be prepared to trade it in for a new model after you are no longer a noob and know a little more about what you are doing.  Your revolver selection, initially, may less relevent to your needs after you become more of an intermediate shooter.  

Broken Record

Political analysts are doing the autopsy of the Romney campaign and making prognosees for future elections.  "Stick to principles!"  "Reach out to illegal immigrants!"  "Kick out the people obscessed with lady-parts!"  Yeah yeah.  Happens every cycle.  And the never get the answer right.

I voted for Bush Bush Dole Bush Bush Palin Nobody, in my long life.  I vote for those early ones because they were the closest thing to what I was.  Libertarian conservatives interested in a robust War Department.  Certainly compared to the alternative.

And while I like Ryan, Romney was not my first choice, and I am not doing that again.  Vote for the VP of the ticket.  So I didn't vote.  Not for president.  I voted downticket.  NONE of them won, either.  (And I don't vote 3rd party.  3rd party is usually insane and if you want a real system with more that 2 parties you have to change the Constitution first.  So either get with the program or take over one of the exisiting parties or completely displace one.)

But I wonder if I am alone?  3 million FEWER GOP types voted for Romney than voted for McCain.  I am one of those 3 million.  Maybe THAT is what the analysts should look at the hardest.

Go Galt

Bummed about the election and the direction the country is heading? Well, there is a solution for that.

But how. How do you withdraw from Leviathan and still live your life? I'd rather not sell everything and build a Unabomber style shack in the countryside. Plus my bread is paid for with your tax money, as I work as a defense contractor in this Company town. If I was completely in the private sector around here most of my income would come indirectly from that same pile of tax money. Say I was a cobbler... I'd end up fixing the shoes of government workers and government contractors.

I'm looking for ideas. Legal ones. For instance, I can't just NOT pay my income taxes and thus get thrown in the hoosegow.

Fund Raiser for Tam

Tam has the Cansker.  They are going to fix her, but Doctors like to be paid.  Obamacare doesn't apply to her because she voted wrong.

I hit her tip jar back a bit, because I like her blog and get lots of enjoyment out of reading it for free.  Might as well pay for the privilege, I reckoned.  Besides, I've never met her at a blog event, so I figured... increase my chances if she gets un-sick.

But NOW, there is more reason to hit that tip jar.  Selfish reasons!  You can apply your donation for her medical bills to a chance to win great swag!  

Navy Veteran

I was in the Navy, and for some reason about this time I parboil Navy Beans for soup. 

That about covers my contribution to the National Defense.  Reward myself with soup.  Secret ingredient?  Bacon.

I did next to nothing during the Clinton era military contraction.  I wanted to be like OldNFO, but washing out of Navy Aviation was really easy in the days when they wanted to squeeze down the personnel pipeline from water main size to garden hose size.  You had to be better than me to stick.  And lots of people were better than me.  I know, I met them.  They deserve more than soup.

Glowball Warmening

Something occurs...

Ya know, More than 90% of what you, the American people, know about the 'Climate Crisis' was told to you by English majors.  English majors control the narrative. 

"But T-Bolt, I see scientists on the TV and in Time magazine talking about looming Catastrophic Anthropogenic Greenhouse Warmening all the time!"  Maybe.  But they were selected to be presented to you by English majors.  Terry Gross of NPR chose that guy to interview.  The NYTimes editorial staff gave that column to that other guy.  An English major only lets you be exposed to the information you see/hear/read about that they agree with or have been convinced by.

Now expensive public policies regarding Climate Change?  THOSE are rammed down your throat and added to your regulator and tax burden by PoliSci majors...  Who get their information from the English majors and use it to their advantage.

Whatcha think?  I think I'm onto something...

ATF and the Border Patrol

Both may have supplied guns to Mexican drug cartels

Range Report

Jeff Cooper is good for something.

I went to the range, after WAY too long since my last time... And now I shoot the best session of my life.

I forgot to do everything.  Purposefully, too, for the most part, once I realized it.  I didn't hold my breath, spend too much time with the grip, flex my knees, get my feet just so.  I did two things, as Cooper would say:  "Front Sight... Press."  I focused on the front sight, and didn't mash the trigger as is my wont, causing me to 'push' the pistol.  I let it surprise me.  I got the hang of letting the trigger surprise me.  Finally!



And from the first round to the end.... only a coupla three was off the target area.  And I called those as I shot them.

Look at these!  These are excellent, for me.  Still low and right, gut only a few inches low and right rather than almost a foot.  Because, let's face it... I'm never going to shoot the wings off a fly, a dime in mid air, or the eyeball out of a charging rhino.  But THIS level of accuracy with a CCW pistol?  I can live with that.  And doing so well is a joy for me.  Makes we wanna practice more.

Of course, 5 years is a long time to figure something out, and when I say I 'forgot to do everything' some of the right things are now just natural habit.  Like my grip.  That needs very little tweaking once I remember to think about it.

WWZ trailer

Oh God... They're sprinters.

Future Shock

Future Shock.




The problem with this theory is that when it was written in 1965-70, the future had already peaked and was beginning to ebb.  We needn't worry about future shock.  People adapted well, especially children, so this excuse for more top down control was just that, an excuse, and not really a true concern.  But the future wasn't coming at any rate.

The future isn't arriving prematurely.  I arrived over 40 years ago and has since gone home.

Oh sure, laptops, the internet, cellphones, dub step... that was all to come.  But the big stuff was already done.  And no more big stuff was on the way.   The Space Station? Just denouement to the Moon Landings. And it crashed in Australia and it took us 20 years to repeat the attempt.

Watch old episods Johnny Quest.  Jet packs, flying cars, nuclear powered supersonic travel, walking eyes that look like a spider...  All was right around the optimistic corner in 1965. We are still waiting. 

Call me when we get a moon colony that people take vacations to.

Call me when a fusion reactor comes online that produces electricity at a price point less than coal.

Until then, bring on the future shock madness.  

Area Safe Despite Attack

8 youths brutally beat a 32 year old man to within an inch his life in Baltimore.

If yuo watch baseball, this was near the Bromo Tower if you ever catch an Orioles home game.

But Maryland doesn't need Shall Issue CCW....

Don't worry, Baltimore is well covered with the Orwell Cameras.  These 8 miscreant will be brought to justice!  Probably.  Well, maybe.  Well, it sounds good if I say it, but really, the chances are slim.

Half Smokes

On of the biggest tragedies is that Washington DC area's indigenous hot-dog sausage is becoming less and less available.

The Half Smoke.  Different from a brat or a kielbasa, and are eaten like a hotdog, on a bun.  They have a unique little zing to them. 

They used to be available in every grocery store around here.  Briggs and Eskay brands.  Those have been bought up by bigger conglomerates and they don't make the half smoke in such quantities, certainly, that every Safeway could carry it.  I have found a local to me source in Shopper's Food Warehouse and go there just for the dogs.

I went to bed early

So how much did Mittens win by?

Kick Ass

Zombacalypse

Finish Him!

Obviously in a calm, electorial-kinda way.  Nothing violent, naturally.  It's a proverbial 'finish' for any given unit of 'him.'

My Vote

Like many of you, I'm a single issue voter.  So I'm afraid I am voting for the devil I know.  Obama gets my support at the polls.  Only because the other candidate is unproven, and there hasn't been a single major Zombie outbreak in the 4 years Barry has been at the helm.  On this alone, he earns my nod.

At Stake

Dave Kopel analyzes the coming election and implications to the 2nd Amendment in all races, federal and state in the Metrocon Fortnightly. 

Vicky Zed

Victorian Zombies

Survival Vulnerability

With the Hurricane coming, I was expecting a power outtage.  Coping with loss of power is an important survival skill.

I noticed a vulnerability.  Coffee!

While I have a french press and don't need the electric coffee maker... I usually use whole beans, and grind them with an electric grinder.  Luckily I had a bag of pre-ground ready to take to work, so if Sandy had eaten the lights, I'd have been okay.  But this isn't the usual situation.

Now, apart from getting a manual grinder ahead of time, what would be the procedure if I had a hankering for Java in the dark?

Well, I'm sure in my desperation I'd have improvised something.  Put the beans in a bag or between paper towels and just mash it with something heavy. This is a less than optimal technique. 

Then I remembered.  I have a marble mortar and pestle that isn't hopelessly tainted with cumin or other strong spice.  Were it so contaminated, I could line it with plastic.  Problem solved.  

Wow

Look at this graph from here.

The rate goes up about 25% with Clinton depradation then sorta levels off.  Then it lower a hair during W, then doubles for the 2008 election and levels off and then DOUBLES again for 2012.  Amazing!

Obviously it can't keep this rate of growth up.  Your Smith and Wesson and Ruger common stock has probably peaked.  But if Barry wins, hold it.   

Carter 2

I never thought I'd see odd-even days again.

Of course, in the bad old days of the 70s, you needed to get an attendant to pump your gas for you, too.  Just like in New Jersey.  Apparently they still have the complicated old style pumps in that state and a professional is required to pump your gas safely.

Slicker

As part of my hunting/surviving/outdoor attire, I acquired an oilskin duster.  Sorta like this.  To keep the rain off. 

I got a great chance to use it during the windy rain we had this week, since I was going to work.  I figured worst case scenario and I'd have to get out of my car and hoof it somewhere.  And no umbrella was going to help.  An oilskin cowboy hat with a chin strap completed the ensemble.  I had boots in the car if I had to get out of my workshoes.  I probably shoulda placed wools socks in there, too.

Me likey.  Even oversize, any bulkier a coat underneath and it would be a bit too snug.  I best empty those pockets of extra gear.  That was the only thing against it.

A heavy pack over top of it might have been too much, though, pulling at the snaps.

Tea Party

The Tea Party is about Constitutional restraint on gov't and fiscal responsibility.  That's pretty much it.  It's focus has been limited to that, and it's been a pretty disciplined sentiment.  Keep the feds out of our bidness and stop spending our tax money and borrowing further money to spend even more and stop taxing us so much. 

That doesn't mean there are Social Conservative that participate in the Tea Party that care very much about abortion issues. 

But the Tea Party is not about "going after your lady parts" or what have you, as RobertaX highlights, and quite correctly. Trying to pait the Tea Party as a bunch or retrograde Puritan Inquisitors is just standard lying by the other side. 

There are RINOs and Security Conservatives, and Second Amendment Conservatives, and Libertarians and whatnot in the Tea Party, but they are there because of the shared values regarding the Constitution and Fiscal stuff.  (or as a Me Too thing for the RINOs that they think will help get them elected.)  Stuff overlaps.  But it doesn't meld into a monolithic whole.  When someone tries to meld them like that to criticize Tea Party policies call that person on it.

[Personally I look forward to the day the only time I even think about any Federal interaction is on April 15th.  And I'd like to think 'well that isn't so bad' on that day.  I'm looking at YOU TSA.  Why do I interact with incompetent Feds just to fly to Topeka?]

The 2nd Amendment

Includes THESE guns, too.