The Guns of Johnny Sakko

And his Flying Robut.

When I was a kid, there was Ultraman, and there was Johnny Sakko.  Johnny Sakko was known after for being extremely violent for a kids show, but flew under the scolds' radar.  Kids shot guns at grownups.  People died.

I hadn't seen an ep since the 70s, but through the magic of modernity, they can be rewatched now.

I went to that well for blog fodder because I remember the guns being so realistic looking.  To my young eyes.  I wanted to go back and confirm if they were Browning Hi Powers or not.

Not.  They were starter pistol revolvers and rubber duck semi autos and kluged together plastic submachineguns.  Occasionally I think I see a glimpse of what looks like a M1 Carbine or a real Colt revolver.  Probably the rest were all prop guns in mid 1960s Japan.

Though every now and then I think I see a real semi auto.  I think they only had the one as when it is out no one else has that model. It's looks small, but I think all guns on the screen look small.

Anyway, One of the sub machine gun models is this:

Look closely.  That's a bypod on there.  You'd need it too if that bulky thing was all steel.

And this one looks like someone had sticky fingers and stole it from the Man From UNCLE set:

Fun Show Results

Only saw one Winchester Model 88 at the Nation's Gun Show.  It was NIB, from 1967ish, and cost $1200.   Not what I was looking for.  Than, on the way out I saw another!  But it was .243, not .308.  Dang.

I did get to see MBtGE who is recovering well from his back surgery.  And OldNFO came!  He gave me his challenge coin.  It's a poker chip style.  Very nice.  FO is starting to look like a salty grizzly bear.  I offered to help either gentleman shop for a straight razor.  They really aren't that hard to use without injury.

The show wasn't as crowded.  You could look at both sides of the aisle and there was less jockeying about to get past sections.  A coupla Marlin Camp Carbines in 9mm were seen.  A SBS KelTec KSG was seen.  A coupla Kriss Carbines.   A Colt revolver caught NFO's eye but didn't snag his money.  Odds and ends for MBtGE.  I think he bought a nice reflex sight with his phone DURING the show.  I love living in the future sometimes.

I didn't come away empty handed.  Sweet and Smoky Beef Jerky from Dakota Trail, and some Mini Mag for $20 just because it was there.

Yes, the metric system DOES suck

THANK you, Sean.

If I hear another Leftist Democrat complain, "Oh we are so backward.  Only Liberia and the United States still use the old system of weights and measures!"

Don't worry.  We'll start adding more countries to the list. 

You know how I know the metric system is an abomination unto Nuggan?  This came out during the Carter administration. 



I can base any policy decision on passing this simple test:  "If Jimmy Carter is for it, I'm agin it."  There are exceptions to every rule.  HIS exception is signing a law allowing beer brewing in the home that lead the microbrewery renaissance in this country.  Other than that, I would cross the street to spit on Jimmah if he was on FIRE.

The FRENCH invented it. Along with redoing all the months and whatnot in the madness of their revoultion. In the late 19th Century there was 2 big revolution. Ours and theirs. One was the right way to apply the principles of the Enlightenment, the other... Are you going to follow the French's lead? It was a shame when Auld Blighty went the wrong way.

And get off my lawn.

WTF?!!!

So now some audio for an ad AUTO plays on my blogsite.  It's not in any Youtube windows.  This REALLY fries my hash.

Violins on TV

If Lee Marvin says so then it must be true.  Are you gonna contradict him? 

What did YOU get for Christmas?

Mine was light on the gun supplies front.  Just a coupla speed loaders.  Which is great and all, but, I still feel like sumthin is missing...

Maybe I'll hit the Fun Show tomorrow.  Get some exercise.  Spend some money.  Maybe MBtGE and JayG will be there.

What do I want from there?  Nuthin really.  A rifle.  A hunting rifle.  For lefties.  It's really the only hole in my set.  I have perfectly serviceable deer killing rifles, but they are all milsurp types.  And my eyes are older now.  I may need something I can mount glass on someday soon.

Use my Christmas money to buy a Christmas pre-64 Winchester.

Wait, didn't I say that the last time the Circus was in town?  Well, it's more likely for me to go this time.  Instead of 50/50, like...  98%?  99 even.  I have been checking my gun cash of late...

They Look So Small

So, I catch a part of a movie the other day.  Just out of boredom.  The Mummy.  I noticed a pistol.  It looked like a 1911, but it was too small, seemingly.  Could it be a Colt Pocket Hammerless?  And why?  What an odd model pistol to put in the hands or a Brit character in the Egyptian desert.  The hammerless, I mean.  A 1911 makes sense.  More than a pocket pistol in an action movie.

I checked resources, and yup, it was a 1911.

This is not the first time.  Why, on the big screen, does a full size pistol look three quarter size to me?  Odd.  It's not like Hollywood is full of big actors.  It's not like I haven't handled a 1911.

Merry Christmas

Zombie 4.0

PJMedia had a thing on zombies. 

Summarized:

1.0 is Voodoo zombies, big in the 1930s movies.

2.0 is Romero style shamblors.  Bleak and inexorable.  Late 60's 70's and early 80's

3.0 is now.  Even bleaker.  Often sprinters and wall crawlers.

But the zombie meme is played out for the most part.  Until 4.0 comes around.  Oh boy, look out for them.  Prolly be nothing but Leftist Progressives.  They'll eat your brains and tax your assets and waste the money with nothing to show and expect you to thank them for it.

I had something for today...

Dangit!  Monday bupkis is back.

Just rewatched a buncha Miculek videos and that probably erased my blog idea for today.

Was with my Brother and his fambly.  Early Christmas.  The idea came up then.  Prolly zombacalypse related.

After seeing this article on Carteach, and had some Safariland speedloaders added to my wish list back then.  Scored them this weekend.  Merry Christmas.  I wanted to try them out.  Dad was semi-appalled that I'd need to reload a revolver fast, but he usually turns around on such subjects when he thinks on them.

Speaking of Purdey

I wish they'd come out with a self-defense pistol.  Something plastic, and striker fired, with a double stack magazine that comes in 9mm, .40, and .45.

But with classic styling!

Blend this

with this.

That'd look sharp.

And speaking of Purdey, here is a little blurb on the Holland & Holland shop in tony London Towne

Allan and the Holy Flower

An H Rider Haggard offering in the Allan Quatermain line, published in 1915. Allan and the Holy Flower.

Everyone praises Haggard for his racial attitudes with the caveat 'for them olden times.' Sorta damning with faint praise. "The Hottentots were ugly drunkards and the Zulus unenlightened Kaffir savages, but they were loyal and brave fighters and often had a wisdom Europeans should give them more credit for."  Meh.  I just enjoy the books for what they are and shut off the over-sensitive 21st C. sensibilities that society inculcates into all of us.  

It's a free book.  As are most all of Haggard's stuff.   Being old and stuff and in the public domain.

Not much gun content.  A muzzle loading Purdey with percussion caps takes center stage.  There is still an African slave trade in this book, being discouraged by the Royal Navy, but no year is given.  Mid 19th Century.  

The Holy Flower is an exceptionally large orchid in deepest darkest, in the territory of polite cannibals, and Allan leads an expedition to try to retrieve.  Because that's what British clients do.  Months long deadly expeditions far from civilization through territories of known hostiles amoungst disease carrying tsetse flies and malaria mosquitoes.  Did your shaving nick get infected?  Guaranteed to go septic.  Better amputate...  

Wire of Death

Gott in Himmel but them Bosch sure were hard on the Belgians.  And electric fence that killed THOUSANDS of people separated the conquered country from the Netherlands.

Them Germans sure were tone deaf in the Great War.  The shabby way they treated the Belgians, first for invading the neutral country, and then for treating them like crap was a big reason the US had their sympathies aligned a bit against Kaiser even before the Lusitania and the Zimmerman (JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON) Letter.  But this hundred plus mile long 2000 volt killer actually got the Dutch to warm up to the British.  Which was hard to do because the Dutch were miffed about the Boer War and the shabby treatment John Bull handed out down there, inventing the concentration camp and all for that dust up.

I did not know about this.

Winter Weather Panic

Is this an actual thing?  Do people in other states with less onerous gun laws (we couldn't do this in Maryland so much) actually clear out the shelves of their local guns n' ammo purveyors like it was so much eggs, milk, bread and terlet paper at the market, just because of a forcasted blizzard?

Tell me if you've noticed it!  That would be kinda awesome.

Where do you get to shoot these firearms after the ice storm hits?  You can't get to the range.  You are busy shovelling or hauling in firewood because the power it out.  If you are lucky enough to have a range at home, fine, but if that is you, you prolly already have a few guns and plenty of ammo in the home.  If this is someone's first firearm purchase, it still seems kinda unwise to be stampeded into such a big purchase because of a sever weather event. Admittedly, that last storm, it might have been a little rash of me to buy the 96 roll TP package, but I'll get around to using them up eventually.   And I remember dragging my feet to get a new, unbusted, snow shovel until too late that one time and the shelves were bare, but...  A pistol?  A shotgun?  It's not the first thing that comes to mind.  Being snowed in without breakfast food, yes.  Being snowed in without a gun?  Do a lotta home invasions pickup when the streets are unplowed?

 

John Ringo

I heard John Ringo wrote a zombie book. Or two.  Shotguns, I hear, figure prominently.

~sigh~

"You never select a shotgun as your primary anti-zombie firearm. It's great for onesy twosey, but zombies travel in hordes. The reload time is onerous, and the ammo, while effective, is heavy and bulky and short ranged." 

I'll give him a break. His zombies, depicted, don't seem to be standard shamblors.  The infection is airborne, I believe.  Meaning your few isolated survival partners could turn.  Fewer hordes like that.  A bite driven infection is a solid bubble of spreading infection on a map spreading from transportation hubs.  Airborne, you could see scattered outbreaks jumping barriers.   

Must read the book and report back.

110

Years ago.

NRA is controlled by the firearms industry

I know this is true because the gun controllers and the pretty people talking to me on the news programs tell me it is.

Wait, is that IT coming from corporate donors?  Just FIVE companies donate more than a million and the biggest one is Midway where a mess of the money comes from the customers dumping their change into the virtual equivalent of a Leave A Penny / Take A Penny tray by the cash register?

Now I am a bit perturbed the gun makers AREN'T donating a bit more.  Kinda.

But lets do some maths.  Lets pretend that in each category they donated the full mount of that category

Midway = $10M

4 companies at $5M (Beretta, Springfield, &c..,)

Lessee, carry the 2... The absolute maximum that could have been donated is... $50 million.  Half what the minimum membership donation is.  The companies are the junior partner.

300 Blackout

Because I wasn't an AR guy, I didn't know much about .300 Blackout.  I knew it was a .223 cartridge with the neck enlarged to hold a .30 caliber bullet, but could still function in the guts (boltface, mags... &c.) of an AR operating system.  But that's it. 

So.  What's it good for?  Is it comparable to Commie 7.62?  Thutty-Thutty?  .30 Carbine?  Is it subsonic?

To wikipedia!  Learn, T-Bolt!

Looks like an improvement on the wildcat .300 Whisper.  And this would be the 'official' SAAMI round.

Subsonic?  Sure, put a heavy bullet in there, like 220 gr.  Done.  Good.  Your choice, light and fastish and regular, or slow and heavy and subsonic, seem to be the flavors.  Some folks like subsonic for suppressed pig hunting action.

The 'bottle' is smaller than with the 5.56x45mm NATO round. 

It's on the low side of the energy curve for deer hunting.  And really it is about the same at the M1 Carbine, on paper.  Interesting.  The 'standard' .300 round being 10 grains heavier and 300 ft/s faster.  So... a negligible difference.

Another Leftist...

... crap weasel.

Best Hunting Movie

Holy wa. Just south of heaven, Escanada in da Moonlight

He's the DEVIL!

Zombie Swag

For your gift giving needs.

Another Terrist

"Recent convert, acting alone, planned to blow up a truck bomb"

Well, he was alone if you don't count those FBI agents that gave him the bomb.

Single Stack

Everytime I have been in an area where I could CCW, and was also carrying IWB a semi auto, I found I didn't care for the thicker gripped firearms.  Double stacks just aren't comfortable enough for me.  And baseball bat gripped SIGs?  Gah.

So I was happy to see single stack .45s start to get developed more by gun makers.  It gives me other options than the venerable 1911.


But this article showed me a new detail I didn't know.  5 round magazines are standard.  Hmmm.  Hadn't considered the possibility.  Yeah yeah, the extended magazine is available but I guess I assumed they could cram more bullets into a single stack.  It's not a deal breaker, by any means, it just makes me go 'Hmmm.'

But I do like the occasionally put-upon XD line of pistols.  Mainly because I shoot them better than glocks or M&Ps.  But my pistol accuracy is improving with the 1911 a bit, and I trust that platform more now, so my casting a wary eye about may be solution looking for a problem.  I mean, I can have 5 .357 rounds in a Back Up Gun in a pocket holster. 

Guns in School

So a dude in liberal MARYLAND, extra liberal Montgomery County, brings a .50 caliber S&W revolver to his work at the tony and exclusive Georgetown Preparatory School.  Intent on mayhem?  No, just not that bright, and figured he'd be able to take the gun to the gunsmith after work and what is the harm as it is unloaded and he didn't want to just leave it in the car.  That sort of thing.

PANIC!

Thing is, the law in Maryland just applies to public schools.  No guns allowed there.  Private schools, it's not a crime.  So prosecutors dropped the gun charge.  He had some drug paraphernalia on him and they threw that on the charge list, but that is minor charge.  So instead of a 3 year felony he will get probation for the crack pipe or whatever it was.  Justice in MoCo.  Huh.  Whoda thunk.

Dual Wield?

No, dual residency!

I wonder how many gunnies in restrictive states establish residency in whole nother state as a means to get around unconstitutional and or onerous gun laws back in the 'home' state? Say, a New York resident with a condo in Florida. Said New Yorker lives in NY 45 weeks of the year, but has that address down in more friendly Florida.

Or a Baltimorean with a mail drop in Texas. Get a TX drivers license, a mail drop, you don't have to worry about income taxes there, and be sure not to vote in both places. I can own an M1A in Maryland, for instance, and possess it, I can just no longer legally buy one. If I stay in Maryland I am done buying M1As.

And I wonder how expensive that would be...  Would a POBox be enough...

Range Trip

Hitted the range with MBtGE.  He had a .300 blackout upper he wanted to test out, I had further function test of my own AR before I put the carbine away for zombie emergencies and switch back to using real rifles full time again.

Next to us was an older gentleman.  Based on his accent I'd guess was a Hmong immigrant.  He was zeroing in his new-to-him Monte Carlo stocked 10/22 with a Luepold scope, and doing quite well with it. We gifted him a few .22 rounds because there was none to be had otherwise. 

MBtGE new upper was bone dry and that was a problem.  It cycled, properly, almost not at all that way, but it did eject cases, so it wasn't the gas tube.  A little oil helped.  Some.  He might need to tweak the buffer tube spring.  And EOTech took a gross adjustments to zero.  It wasn't even close to paper initially.

Last range trip I was gentle with my AR, this time I put it through the full paces and it ran flawlessly.  So that is good.  I was able to concentrate on the trigger.  It's not the best in the world.  There is noticeable creep to it.  But the trigger reset is very nice.  The results are below, the top, the 5.56 rounds are the 3 near the bull at 25 yards.  The other holes are from MBtGE suppressed and scoped 10/22.  I was aiming at those spots so as not to hide the original sight in holes.  The bottom target is at 50 yards.  A little left, huh?  That's the shooter as MBtGE's hits with my gun on his target tended to the right.

And we played with handguns, some, just to round out the day with my snubbie, a 1911, and a mag of his Glock 17 at my target here.

Posted Elsewhere, about Drones

I posted this on RobertaX's comments, and everyone is posting on the Amazon drones the last couple weeks.  Her topic is how hijacking a remote drone is still a felony, and she is completely right about that.

"I don't want domestic drone normalization.  People get used to seeing commercial drones they'll have less issue with government drones.  When a cop shoots you, you have a man there.  When a drone shoots you he is totally anonymous.  And that individual was playing a fancy video game.

Just because they can doesn't mean they should."

I kinda have a problem with this, but I am still thinking on it.  Our cops could end up being faceless, t-shirt and jeans wearing, untanned Gamerz.  Someone that may have texted in a similar situation in Call Of Duty, "OMG!  Totally pwned that n00b!!!!1!!11!!!eleven"

'Who shot this guy?'  'That policeman!'
'Who shot this guy?'  'Some robot.  I'm sure the gov't will tell us the operator's name if we ask.  They'd never hide that would they?  It was really a team of technicians.' 

In some weaselly cases there is no way to really know who decided to pull that trigger, so not only is the gov't employee safe from physical consequences at the time of the action, they are another layer removed from other legal consequences by retaining anonymity. 

Bad guys have already tried using drones in an offensive and abusive manner.  I don't want bad guys with the limitless wallet of gov't doing it, too.  I want the gov't to protect me from such.

Drones being common is another ratchet of the faceless surveillance state, corporate or government, that we are conditioned to grow accustomed to.  Red light cameras, then license plate scanners, then a plethora of armed drone minders, all for our protection.

Sometimes I don't like living in the Future, and want to be left alone.

Other than Brains?

Pearl

Recycling

When I worked at the brewery we had a lot of carboard trash to dump.  Another brewery had gone broke and we got their cases full of empty bottles.  We had to put these in OUR cases and there was no use for thousands of cartons of a defunct boxes.  So we got a green dumpster to up the paper products in to be properly recycled. 

Hooray!  Helping the environment.  And the rental on the green dumpster was 10 bucks less than the regular garbage dumpster.

Well, I got to work at 4AM every other morning.  I had to filter the beer into a bright beer tank and carbonate it before the rest of the crew arrived to bottle it at 9.  That was early enough to see the trash truck come to dump our bins.  First they'd grab the nasty brown dumpster and tip it back into the truck, back out of that, then dump the carboard into the same dumpster.  It was all going to the same place.  And that place was the landfill.  Suckers.  When we ran out of cardboard to throw out we got rid of a dumpster we had them take the brown one so we'd save some money.

Anyhow, this reminded me of that: 

Scroo you, planet Earth!

Hot Metrocon Action

Saw this from Sebastian.  A column about the dangers and evils of gun confiscation got lots of attention.   Halbrook wrote a column about confiscation of firearms before Kristallnack and was promoting his book,  Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and "Enemies ofthe State"

Can you imagine the outcry if the US gov't decided to confiscate all the guns of African-Americans or registered Republicans that they'd been tracking through NICS?  Boy, howdy.  Messy.  I think the gun banners aren't THAT stupid, and want to cover that by confiscating ALL the guns, even if they'd prefer to pick and choose where they took them from.  Sorta makes Grandpa's Arisaka bring-home that the authorities doesn't know about more valuable, huh?  Have ammo for your odd-balls. 

Cheers!

I need a drink!

It's the 80th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment, today.

Buy Ammo

I failed to secure some ammo on Buy Ammo Day, so I decided to have a lookie loo at the local smoke pole purveyor in case they had anything in stock.  They did.  Got the last box of bulk .22.  Only $34.  Gah.  Never thought I'd say that.  Only.  Here, nestled in some post-apoc headgear:

I think this is the last bulk purchase I'll do for a while.  I want to concentrate on stocking up on higher quality .22 instead.  I'll just have to wait though.  Save the plinking for my Barter-Trade ammo in the coming Hard Times.  Prolly get a big sack of potatoes, a gallon of cooking oil, and a bag of rice for this.  Maybe 50 multi-vitamins.

I found out my gunstore knows and keeps an eye out for some former co-workers I've blogged about in the past.  Corky and Chuckles.  Knows their full names and what they drive and everything.

Lots of guns in stock now.  ARs in heavy barrel configurations, and AR10s are still kosher (though M1As are not) in Maryland.  Pah!  A Colt Commander for just over a grand semi-tempted me but I tamped down that urge effectively.  Dammit.

Also, my Durango did this coming home from Thanksgiving.  I got it with 35,000 already on it, so I want to at least keep it til I personally put 200,000 on it before I even think about shopping for a new one.  It's been a good trouble free vehicle:

Gun and Run

We, the gun-blogosphere 'we', have discussed what you grab in a SHTF scenario.  15 minutes or less to grab the Go Bag, your best rifle, your CCW pistol, and out the door.  Jeff Cooper would have grabbed his Scout Rifle (he'd already have had the 1911 on his hip...)

What if you have more time, and a safe full of guns.  Like a day.  The slow moving magma from the Hawaiian volcano is coming to your neighborhood, say.  You can load the car but there is no time to get a trailer or moving van.  You are leaving your house 'forever'.  And you can't take everything in your gun safe.  You gotta choose a subset.  And this is after the valuable, important papers, photos, and favorite family heirlooms that are portable.  Great Grandpa's gorgeous roll top desk might not make the cut.  Not because you don't want to save it badly, but because you just can't fit it in the trunk of the Grand Marquis.

What got me thinking on this was JayG and his travails moving his household goods to Virginia.  And also where he is crashing, MBtGE's house.

Now, MBtGE has a big and full safe.  Like JayG.  But some of those guns are better than others.  MBtGE has a Hi-Point, for example. Other Saturday Night Special wannabes.

He'd leave that Hi-Point behind.  He'd prolly choose ARs over Mini-14s.  The Ruger revolver would come, but the Taurus?  No.  MAYBE the ancient family double barrel shotty, but maybe not.  Maybe NONE of the shotguns would make it, or only one.  12 gauge shotguns and ammunition are still plentiful and cheap.  Certainly anything with NFA cache would come.  Mainly for the expense, but also the utility.  I don't see him leaving many Glocks (he has dozens) behind because they are small, but onesy twosy things like a FiveSeveN or knockoff Single Action Army that really is less fun to shoot because of the reload times and the rarer caliber... Bye.  Miss you... 

You'd also might think "commonality".  Anything that takes a glock magazine, anything that takes an AR magazine.  Or you may think to leave some of the less expensive magazines behind and take the guns and mags that cost the most.  A whole class of caliber may be abandoned.  Sorry .40 stuff, I already have 9mm and .45 in the case.  A pile of ammo would get left, but definitely some would come for the ride beyond the already loaded.  But NONE of the cheaper stuff would have a spot on the lifeboat, is my guess.  Poor .32 Iver Johnsons...  Poor .270 bolty....

For me, my safe isn't as big.  I'd leave behind pump .22, and lever .357 and all shotties.  Take at least 2 or 3 1911 (gah, I have more than 2!  Can't believe that...)  No 1903.  Sadly.  No SIG.  All the revolvers (.22 and .357s) and a 10/22.  Half the loaded magazines.  Maybe less.  The Garand?  I dunno....  It has a scope...  Maybe just the scope.  Damn, that would depress me.  The M1A and the AR definitely.

The next thing is... why do you have those guns that you'd abandoned?  Well, I have them because they are neat.

I bet if Tam had this exercise she'd take the "User" guns and spares, and leave all but the cream of the "Collecter" guns.  But she is less sentimental about it.

Middleman

Flowers for Algernon!

Breda introduced me to THIS TV series.  Only one season (like Firefly) but it is right in my wheelhouse

It's about a guy, milk drinker, Ike Jacket wearer, and one man problem solver in a secret agency that fights against the forces of evil. The secret agency is so secret that no one knows who or what it is. He's just the middleman. And he recruits an apprentice the first episode. Wendy Watson, aka Dub-dub, aka Dubby. The front end is run by the matronly yet cantankerous Ida, who doesn't trust reefer smoking hophead 'hippies.' Or 'people under the age of 35.'

Ep 5 is about fish zombies.  Instead of brains, they crave trout.

It's got gorillas shotting Tommy Guns.

T-Bolt says to check it out.

Italian Zombie Movies

I didn't even know this was a thing! 

Apparently after the Italians were done making westerns they made a buncha zombie movies in the 70s and 80s.  And I had no idea until this weekend.  Now I have a lot of catching up to do...

This set of clips is a bit gory:

Don't have much...

Here is an instructional film on how to be a steam locomotive engineer.