Cold War HORROR!

Ladybug Ladybug




I don't remember this. The ICBMs and whatnot made my school not bother. The Nike base 3 blocks away was obsolete. The still tested the siren the first Wednesday of the month at 10.

Jihad!

There is the old Sh'ite vs Sunni arguments in the gun world. 1911 vs Glock, 5.56 vs 7.62, 9 vs .45... I'm gonna scratch open one of those.

I have some gunsmithing in my future. When you add my customizations to the base price of the gun, it's a pretty penny. Then I might hear the "Why would you spend $X-bajillion on THAT when you could have bought one of these for only $500 and it works great right out of the box."

ell, I'd love to spend that little. But why would you spend 50 cents on a firearm that doesn't meet your requirements? And I'm talking about serious requirements. It's not like buying a car and wishing the gear shift was cue ball white in color, but wishing the gear shift wasn't mounted on the front bumper. I require my shifters to all be inside the cabin and withing reach of the drive. Important requirements like that. ~ But the "why would you spend 50 cents on a gun that doesn't meet your requirements" evokes memories of the old HK line of "yes, our guns are expensive, but they are the best, and how much is your life worth?" they (or their fans? I dunno, I wasn't around back then...) used to use. While it has a ring of truth, it does sound kinda snobbish.

I apologize if I've sounded snobbish. I don't like that either.

Dunno why I am over particular. It's not like I am trying to gear my way out of a technique problem. It's not like I am asking a gun smith to put jewelled bearings in the sear, or certify that a 5 inch barrel of a pistol can achieve .25 inch MOA at 100 yards, or add micrometer adjust peep sights to the thing, and a half ounce trigger break. The basic function is utilitarian. It's the fitting to my hand, and what particular sized pistol will ride in my holster, and how well it will resist rusting from sweat, and will that slide release fail first because it's cast... that sort of thing.

It would have been really convenient if there was a perfect-for-me $500 out of the box pistol. Heaven knows I looked. A plain Jane .357 revolver almost does it...

Paladin

I rented Have Gun Will Travel from Netflix.


The Wiki article has problems with the description of the gun in the show, which happened in episode 1, as a matter fact. They think that Paladin's Single Action Army had a 4-8 pound trigger pull. Did it? That doesn't seem right with a single action. Also, the show says that the barrel is rifled, which is rare in a pistol. Oh? I would think by the 1870s the rare pistols would be the smoothbores. Was any revolver designed to fire from metallic cased cartridges, and widely available, unrifled in the 1800's?

Anyway, I like the show. Gene Roddenberry wrote an episode on that first disk. I never have seen the show in repeats back when I was a kid and wouldn't have sought it out. I didn't start liking Westerns til my 40s.

I like this character.  He is... adult.  

My current favorite bit of Western lingo: "Uh... He dry-gulched me..."

When you see face tattoos...

Do you go from Code Yellow to Code Orange? If I saw this dude I have a feeling I would. I'm sure suspect Justin Bryant sings in his church choir every Sunday.

I wonder if has a rap sheet...

h/t Robb

And if you DO dsicriminate against a dude with face tattoos, does that make you a Facist? Er... I mean Face-ist?

Finger Tip

So, I mentioned that, for me, a surprise break is something I have to work on to make happen. But sight alignment, luckily, comes pretty naturally. I am so jealous of people that come to shooting with a natural, instinctive trigger squeeze.

Somewhere in the middle? Finger placement on the trigger face. That is only natural for me half the time. I'm pretty good with fingering the 1911. I am shifting more toward the tip, where, originally, I pretty much centered the placement right on the whorl of the fingerprint. I am 'tip-side' of the whorl now. And this is relatively natural. It's good to get out a ways on the tip because the joint of the trigger finger where it first enters the meat of the hand-proper sure does move a lot. If I can get this off the grip scale I will yank the pistol around less. 

No, the true issue is with Double Action with the S&W 640. With DA I line up the sight picture, then commit to the trigger pull, drawing it back smoothly and steadily and deliberately until it fires. This works great. IF, my finger is on the trigger face correctly. Which ISN'T the tip, mind you. I can overcome the 8 or so pound trigger pull with the tip but the press is so awkward I have no chance of hitting anything. Place the finger on the sweet spot and I am as accurate as I want to be with a DA snubbie.  What I need is the get that finger placement correct natural all the time.  It's somewhere along the line of the first joint. This will require drills. A range session with just the snubbies and a buncha boxes of ammo. Find the spot on the finger, where it out, and remember it for next time.

Range Report

I concentrated on my surprise break, as that seems to be the perishable skill for me.  I'd show a picture here but my camera seems to be MIA at the moment...  Oh wait, here it is:

Right side is me.  Top target 1911's, bottom a mix of S&W 640 and 629.  Left side is Trollop.  Mostly that .44 and her XD40.

Sight alignment just works for me naturally, so I don't have to think about that.  It's getting to be like pointing a finger or pulling an earlobe.  It just happens more or less correctly every time.  So, more cycles devote to concentrating on the surprise break.  And I am getting better. 

I tested the 1911's extractor tension as outlined in a previous post. The Springfield is fine; the Commander, however, stovepipes.  Ah-HA!  I might have the money now to go hit up a proper smith for that gun. I took saucy trollop with me.

Saucy Trollop wasn't too shabby.  After a long time away from the range she either picks it up right where she was last time or needs a few mags to really get warmed up and might not gel at all in the session.  This was one of the 'picked it right up' times.

Neal?

I had never heard of this. Found going down the wiki rathole about Personal Defense Weapons.

Instead of the M1 Carbine, which eventually prevailed, support troops would have been armed with a 5 barreled .22 with an insane rate of fire.  The development was slow, and not patented until after the war, so who knows if there is even a model extant.

The Neal SMG.

 I seem to remember Farmer Frank being leery of full auto .22.   Things can go wrong, badly, with rimfire at such a speed.  Dangerous to the shooter wrong.

Ultra Violence

Borepatch keeps putting up classical musix stuff.  This is the version of Beeth Oven I prefer:

Oh No!

Let's try to justify the over-militarization with panicky exaggerations and histrionics.  Radley Balko exposes the attitude.

 If it's that dangerous, buddy, maybe you should seek a safer line of work more in line with your talents.

Gone Hit Da Range

More later, with luck.

Writing

So.  Elmore Leonard died, and that sucks and all.  But in the send offs someone reposted his "10 Tips for Writers"

I remember when Kurt Vonnegut died.  Death sucks. So it goes.  But that also brought up reposts on his take on the same theme.


Now I am not dead.  Or even dying.  Well, anymore than anyone else is.  And I am not even a famous writer.  Or a published writer.  I did half a NaNoWriMo, tho!  So I judge than I am eminently qualified to impart my wisdom on the same topic.  All over you.  Here goes:

1. Include gun content, and describe each shot and firearm in the finest detail possible.  Bad: "Sam Spade plugged the mobster with a shot from his pistol" Good: "Sam Spades .45 caliber full metal jacke 'pill' left his Wilson Combat Custom II at 963.21 feet per second and 43 and a half inches later started to drill a temporary wound cavity on it's way back to the L7 vertebra by way of the spleen and small intestine of the ne'er do well.  The projectile, in God's own caliber, came to rest in the lathe behind the plaster to the stern of said goblin"  Better, huh?
2. Write all the time, constantly every day, but not too much.  This is vital. 
3. Construct an elaborate and detailed outline for your story except when you shouldn't and then just wing the whole thing.
4. On re-write, delete all the adverbs.  Then make a game of trying to put them all back in.
5. Know the proper glass for a high ball and an Old Fashioned. 
6. 3/4 of the way through, kill off one of the protagonists best friends.  THAT'LL show em who's boss.
7. A story without a bajillion similes is like a day without sunshine.  Similes are these things, right?:  :)  :D  :-P  <3  and ^_^ 
8. I don't know what these figures of speech are called but use stuff like "he flew in just like a brick doesn't"  "he hit the sidewalk like a Pinata full of Bush's baked beans.  And organs."
9. Note the product reference?  Bush's baked beans?  Roll that beautiful bean footage?  Use those kinds of name brand references because after publishing you can sue the company for money to pay for that unsought for advertising.  How do you think Stephen King made his millions?  In my whack at a novel in a month I used Fatima Cigarettes and DeSoto automobiles.  My lawyer will call their lawyers as soon as I self publish.
10. Show don't tell.  Whatever the hell that means.

Open Carry 2

This OCer is heading to court.  Note the NFA short barrelled PS90.  He wanted to have a OC protest in a park just after Erie PA made it illegal to carry in a park (reportedly; I am getting this all second hand.)

Him and a some other showed up anyway (again, reportedly) and got cross threaded with the po-po.  Summons' were handed out.  This mall ninja was reporting to a hearing of one of said summons'.

He had this, 3 pistols, mags, and 2 knives. 

Surprisingly, the sheriffs turned him away at the front door.  That is all I know.  Well, I know the place wasn't shot up.

Again, not the way I'd OC.  Even if I wanted to stick my thumb in the eye of The Man.

OC all you want.  But, as a favor to me, endeavor not to do it in a way that you become our own worst PR enemy?  Your earnest passion for our rights is greatly appreciated, and we need more people that think like that. But this behavior scares the sheep and thus doesn't help the cause.

Open Carry

This is probably not the ideal way to OC.  Not that you don't have a right to, it's just a little difficult for weapon retention to combine a IWB holster with a less than perfect belt situation in exposed in a difficult to retain manner. 

You're in the frozen food section, a cover garment wouldn't be too hot.

I wouldn't, personally, OC like this unless I was only around friends.  For this wardrobe choice, a shoulder rig might be what I'd choose.

1911 Tip

Here is a tip I didn't know.  The extractor on your 1911 isn't drop in. It has to be adjusted to keep from causing you problems.  This tip doesn't tell you how to adjust it, but it does tell you how to find out if there is something wrong.

Insert a magazine and chamber a round.  Then remove the magazine.  Now the next bullet can't 'help' keep things aligned.  Fire the round and note where the brass flies.  2 to 5 o'clock is what you want.  Left, up, forward, in your face, stovepipe...  hmmm, not so good.  That needs looking at.

Now, how many gun classes do I need to take and where to do this myself with a hope of success?

Newbery

The Newbery awards.

Award for excellence in children's literature.

Here is a list of past winners.

There used to be a lot more gun content among the honorees. Blogs mentioned The Matchlock Gun some time ago. A young colonial boy uses an antique (even for then) matchlock blunderbuss to defend his mother and sister from rampaging savages on the frontier. There is other obvious gun content. Well, positiveIt tapers off in the 1950s, from a cursory glance. The last obvious gunbook is 1958. Then I guess firearms become too icky to expose young minds to.

Unless you count this one from last year...

Hoplophobia

This is in the place Great Britain used to be, but it could easily happen in libraries in this country. Apparently a buncha grandmas aren't welcome anymore if they bring their deadly weapons with them... knitting needles. It's not the weapon you need to ban, it's the person. Give libraries the option of kicking out individual hobos, felons, the disruptive. People that can't control their violent tendencies. People that need a custodian 24/7 But no... can't do that... that might be perceived as discriminatory. Yes. Discriminating against people you wouldn't trust with a knitting needle. That's the POINT. (heh...) Leave the grandmas alone.

SQRL

I never trusted em... When are they gonna report on this phenomena?

French Revolvers

Colonel Harry Flashman, VC, Order of the Bath, owes his life to the auto ejector on a breaktop pistol. He ended up spilling his 5 rounds nervously fidgeting with it. As a cavalry man he found that patent innovation unnecessary frippery. Which I find odd, as that seems like the bees knees for a man ahorse wanting to reload his pistol (the colonel started out as a Cherry Picker.  Light Dragoons). It's hard enough without having to press and ejector rod. But ol' Flashy normally preferred the Webley. He only chose the french LeVaux (which is probably actually Belgian, but you know Brits... the wogs start as Calais.  French... Belgium... same same to him mayhaps) pistol out of his cowardice, because of the perceived security of the larger caliber (he said .45, but 12mm is more official).

The way this pistol saved his life as someone had tampered with his cartirdges, removing the propellant. The fall to the floor knocked a bullet loose revealing this and alerting Flashman that something was seriously 'up.' 

You can learn more about that 19th Century's foremost poltroon at your Library. Or check your favorite book perveyor.

Thing is...

So, 1883 and Flashy can get a revolver from 'France' with an automatic ejector, but the Webley revolver he can select doesn't have one and isn't in .45 caliber?  The Webleys all seem to have both features, and ejectors on breaktops had been around since the 60s. 

Oh NOES! George MacDonald Fraser might have gotten a historical detail about gun minutiae in pre Wiki 1999 wrong! To THINK!

Or maybe not. There isn't much info on European revolvers online. Compared to American, at least. But Webley did have auto-ejectors (as oppose to manually ejecting them by pressing the plunger yourself) in 1877.  If he wanted firepower, a Webley in .455 was six was around.  Did I mention the 5 shot LeVaux with ejector Flashman described also had a safety? Having trouble finding that one though I am sure it could have existed...

Their End Game

We want to see gun use eliminated.

Their end game is CON FI SCA TION.

He is just in a political area so safe to gun banning officials that he can tell the truth.  Don't think the other NYC mayoral candidates aren't of the same mind.

sunday sleep in

Pulp Fiction Powder Rooms

Have you noticed there are a lot of bathrooms in that movie?

Marvin's friend bursts out of a bathroom and shoots at Vincent and Jules with a hand cannon to no effect.

Uma powders her nose in the ladies' at Jack Rabbit Slims.

Vincent talks himself out off porking the boss' wife in the Wallaces guest bathroom.

Vincent comes out of the restroom of the coffee shop to find Honey Bunny standing on a table point a gun at Jules.

Butch showers in the motel chatting with Fabienne.

Vincent comes out of the bathroom in Butch's apartment to find him standing there in the Kitchenette.

Cops as Regular Folks

Well, this is good news and a step in the right direction.

 New Orleans cops are restricted carrying firearms in bars off duty.

 I have a feeling this is less a rollback of the over militarization of law enforcement and more a nod to the reputation that NOLA cops can be particularly naughty.

Elysium

So, Matt Damon carries an AK with a nifty little combo red-dot laser sight/designator attached to gas tube as a nod to subsequent modernization in 'the future'.

The movie is set 150 years into the from now. I can't imagine using a gun designed and probably built 200 years ago to fight war-type battles today. Yay, flintlocks.

I also can't imagine there being any wood furniture on firearms 150 years from now.

Coolness!

I love the wierd old stuff. 

Like a Krag, but instead of loading singly you just sloppily slap in an enbloc clip of 7. Sweet as you please.

Imagine if this rifle had won the Army contract instead of the Krag?    Probably wouldn't have changed much.  Except it would have gotten US soldiers kinda used to having 8 rounds to shoot instead of 5.  The Springfield 03 might have been pressured to be more like the 10 shot Lee Enfield.  Maybe.

1970's

Carter era view on the common attitude on guns as moral actors, brought to life by the late great Richard Pryor. And Robin Williams as some of the voices of the deodands. Typical big city leftist worldview.

Funny how all the guns are murderous. Deviant. Also funny how all these guns were probably filmed in a New York TV studio (presumably). Imagine all the paperwork required to have all these guns must have required. Note the silencer/suppressor on a revolver.






"What do you need a gun for?" Well, what if I need to kill someone? Not murder, kill. In every instance of murder there is another party. The victim. A person with a legitimate need, at the time, to use deadly force to NOT be a victim. A firearm happens to be the most efficient means to resist a murderer's intent on ending you. To kill, or end a deadly threat, in an appropriate situation thus puts paid to the idea of a firearm as deviant. And don't forget for a moment, when you defend yourself by shooting a guy to stop him from attacking you, you are using a deadly object and there is a distinct possibility you may be killing a person.

[Special note: Joe Biden's preferred weapon, the double barrelled shotgun, is virulently racist. I bet that shotty votes Dem, too.]

Now THIS is a knife

They are easy to make with simple handtools.  And according to this can be finished in less than 7 minutes.  A good skill to have.

Low Inspiration

I don't know what is wrong with me lately. 

There's been talk the last week or so about a new .95 caliber round.  When I started this blog I'd have had a blog post about that new .95 wildcat cartridge with comments about how I 'might want to shoot that once...ONCE' but I'd 'never want to own that' and while 'it wasn't a thing for me, personally' I was also 'glad the thing existed.'

I could swore I already blogged about that thing years ago.  Others have...   That thing has been around for at least 1 years.  Anyhoo...

I just don't have either the blog or gun enthusiasm I used to.

I need to update my Master List to reflect how many guns I have no interest in buying.

I do h ave some smithing/modification projects to get to.  I could probably combine a deer scouting weekend with MBtGE and a trip to his 1911 smith.  I better order the parts now.  And make the mods I can do without his help.  (I want to put on slim grips and a differnt mainspring housing.  The smith will have to help me out with the tritium sights.  Dunno if I want to attempt the thumb safety mods.)

XD Slim Holster

 I like XDs.

They have so much going against them. A reputation for a grip safety failure that locks the gun up HARD with a round in the chamber. That little tongue on the trigger 'safety' that Glock also has is annoying to my finger tip and chafes. But I shoot the dang things well. Better than the other plastic guns out there. Or SIGs. They are pretty narrow in double-stack so the slim version is even more appealing.

Now there is more and more holster support.

About the only thing left I kinda wanna git.

The Undead Chase

Over Militarization

Over militarization of law enforcement? It continues apace, and I shake my head, ruefully.

I find this trend disgusting and I lose repsect for the police with every new abuse. 

Even National Review is noticing.

To paraphrase, roughly, from Mark Steyn at the Metrocon Fortnightly Corner blog:

Last month it took 7 plain clothes Alcoholic Beverage Control officers, guns drawn, to take down a scare sorority girl buying bottled water, underage. 

"This month it took 13 armed officer to take out a baby deer named Giggles" 

Also, in Illinois: "it took 5 police to tase, shoot, and kill a 95 year old WWII vet in an Old Geezer home that was refusing to take his medicin. The man was seated the entire time."

Maryland Gun Carnage

More guns means MORE crime in Maryland! Unlike Virginia.  Just look at this article. 

Wait a tic...

Here is a quote: "Some gun dealers have been so eager to move inventory this year that they've sold weapons to people with criminal records." Well, I don't know how that is actually possible, given the lack of inventory. I mean when people without criminal records are clamoring for a pistol and willing to wait 100 days for the background check to clear the State Police why would a gun deal be motivated to sell to prohibitted people? It makes no sense!

Ah, he's reporting on the fact that some dealers are releasing guns to people before the 100 day background check is done. You see, by law, dealers in the state are allowed to do that. Some don't, over an abundance of caution. But it is legal to. And when they release a pistol to someone that the State cops later find shouldn't possess here in the stricter Free State, well... oopsie. (people totally legal to buy a gun in Arizona or Vermont might have issues clearing the higher hurdles here in Maryland)

He goes on to report, "Out of 70,000 applications, only 30 guns went to people with criminal records. That's a .996 batting average." The 100 day delay is because this section of the bureacracy is understaffed and unprepared for the volume of applications.

----

Here is another factoid from the article: "Nearly 1,000 guns were reported lost or stolen from federally licensed gun dealers in Maryland last year, the third-highest number of any state in the country, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Another 1,900 were reported lost or stolen from private property." So, 30 from gun dealers releasing, 1000 stolen from gun dealers, almost 2000 stolen from regular folks. Maryland should pass a law prohibitting stealing, it would solve a lot of issues.

----

The Bawlmer columinist, of course, is all for gun control, hon: "I believe in the ultimate effectiveness of measures to control and limit guns — especially the ban on semi-automatic rifles that make massacres possible and the new licensure and fingerprint measure that will reduce straw man purchases." Yup. A little gun control could have prevented the Happy Land slaughter.  Only 87 people murdered there.

confiscation

When they say that we can keep their guns and they aren't coming after the ones we already own they are lying.

They want to ban, then want to scoop them all up, and then they only want people they control to be armed able to defend themselves.   Well, defend themselves and use them to go after folks they don't like.  Including us little people.  

Oh crud

I forgot to get an AR lower.  Better hurry.

Cops Rights / Civilian Rights

Are the same, or should be.  Cops ARE civilians.  And I don't think it is right that cops get to play by certain different rules than non-police.  Especially when not on the clock.

If a non-police person has a duty to retreat from a conflict, then cops should have the same duty in the same circumstance. 

If non-police are required special trigger locks or Smart Gun Chips, then cops should be too.  In fact cops should be required FIRST. 

The police never USE full auto.  They shoud have to jump through the same hoops I do to get a machine gun.  And why are they deployed with one?  In what conceivable circumstance is full auto usage police policy?  If a police officer can use a certain type of weapon, that same weapon should be as available to all law abiding citizens in that particular prefecture.

Off duty cops get to CCW in Maryland as a matter of course.  That courtesy should be extended to me as well.  Or make the police officer apply just like I do and be accepted or denied for the same reasons under the May Issue regime or make the state Shall Issue.

Being a prohibitted person should preclude someone from a law enforcement career where the officer carries a duty weapon.  And becoming a prohibitted person should be grounds for instant dismissal.

BLOOD!

Received my first blood transfusion!

Shorn

Gave myself my first straight razor shave!

Blogging should resume

Shortly.

So.  Anything happen while I was away on a RoMERO mission?

This is only a test

so...

anything happen while I was gone?

In the Mood

Six Five Thousand!

Map making