Wait for it...

Bing

Most of my life, Bing Crosby was ruined for me because I though he was a child abuser.  He beat his kids like they were rented mules.  Made hearing his wonderful music come with a reminder of that from about 4th grade on, or so. 

Turned out that was just the opinion of one child of his.  The others were, "WTH are you talking about?  Yeah he spanked us, but you seem to have gone WAY overboard."

So Bing might not have been the monster I thought he was.  So, F--- YOU  Gary Crosby, for making me think ill of your father.  Apparently Gary didn't like spankings.  Spoiled SOB.

It sounds like Bing wasn't an outlier, and Gary was a bit over-sensitive.  Very well.  Bing isn't a monster.  Good.

On

Dream Chest

I have a chest on chest of drawers similar to this.

But not nearly as nice.  I had a dream that the legs gave way and the thing collapsed.  And it didn't even disturb the stuff on top.  Just a clean break of all legs simultaneously and fell straight down.  Odd.

What do you keep in your dresser?  Me?  Just some revolver reloads in the sock drawer.  It the furniture closest to the bedroom door, and the doorway is well position to afford nearly bullet proof protection from shot coming from the front door in my living room.  I have some cover and it is even positioned, by happenstance, to be left-hand friendly.

---

Then a dream where I am camping.  I hear jet noise and took up.  An F-18 is doing an aerobatic manuever known as the Hammerhead.  Even non-pilot me thinks he is too low for that.  He is, and is coming right for me.  He strikes the ground behind me and to the right and is in a right nose down bank when he does so.   The rudders came close enough to reach out and touch when they pass, I can feel 'ripple' beneath my feet with the impact shaking the ground like it was water.  The crash was on the lip of a gully that the plane plowed through, so most of the jet fuel fireball is down there and I am not instantly incinerated by the fireball.   One empty tent is gone.  No immediate known casualties aside from the pilot who rode it in (I could see him as he passed.)

After that I needed to spend some dreamtime with my cat.  A cat that has been dead 30 years.

Boobie Hatch

We used to have insane asylums. It was where we put mentally disturbed folks. Some cases of abuse existed, yes, but they did good too. They were expensive and paid for by the State. Then they went away starting in the 60s and just about all gone by the 80s.

 But it seems they are gone EVERYWHERE. US. Europe. Western nations. Non-Western nations. All at once... with a few exceptions, deinstitutionalization happened.  Just Japan has added beds.  We in the us have 1/20th the number of beds.

The idea is to push the patients out of a big federal system to smaller community based programs.  The opposite of what government likes to do, usually.  Instead of giving themselves more and more power they divest the power back and make it not their problem.  This is partly practicable because of somewhat recent pharmacological advances so local communities aren't overwhelmed.  And while we are squeamish about putting innocent crazy people in prison we have no problem waiting for a mentally deranged person to commit crime and THEN putting him away.

Now I know treating the insane is not a happy topic.  Like running a prison.  And not too much money in it or chance for graft or donations, but their is SOME money in it.  Tax money.  In the US they have no problem getting more and more money for prisons.  In furren lands they have no problem running a single payer great big socialized-medicine state.

I really don't know how we, the whole wide world, got to where we are now with regard psychiatric institutions.  I think about this because at least some of the spree killers of late would have been safely locked away.  That theater guy in Colorado, the guy that shot Gabby Giffords, that school shooting bastard.  Some of the killers overseas.  Maybe that Norway summer camp guy, maybe not.  Maybe that Aussie lady that killed 8 kids the other week.

Let's See How Long

Shannon Watts, shill for genetically modified foods and Michael Bloombergs gun-confiscation organization.

I don't tweet much.  Let's see if she blocks me early or late.  I just started following her.

She was real proud when @NRA blocked her because they are scared of her or something, but apparently she blocks folks at the drop of a hat because... I dunno...  Scared?  And she does pre-emptive blocks of pro gun types, I am made to understand.  Anyway, a relatively minor tweeter like me might not be noticed for a while.  But there is a hashtag devoted to it:  #ImBlockedByShannonWatts

No, I'm not going to do anything specific to draw her attention to me.   No harsh language or insults or 'Molon Labe'.  

She might get a little confused because I follow some other liberals for OPFOR Intel purposes.  And my Rep is Chris Van Hollen...  Super-Lib.

That Looks Like

My neighborhood, a bit.  Woulda been '52...  Archie would be the guy with the boat.

Loosie

The racialists took the lead on this, now that they are melding the two together, Ferguson MO to Staten Island looseys (loosie?  dunno the spelling.  have bought a few in the past, tho). And that's fine. But they obviously don't want to solve anything. They, race hustlers like Sharpton and DeBlasio, just want to pot to simmer and boil so they have power in the process.

They could have moved the ball by aligning with folks across the aisle.

Oh, not with the Michael Brown thing. Sure it's a shame that man had to die and a town had to get it's businesses burned to the ground. (might as well salt the ashes as nothing is gonna come back there if history is any guide) But the evidence seems to more than indicate that that was pretty much a 'good shoot.' A violent thug had it coming, so to speak. Why? You NEVER try to grab a cops gun. Might as well commit suicide some other way. What an ass.

"T-Bolt you are SUCH a raaaaacist!"

Wait one!

But, with the Eric Garner thing? I am outraged! The cops practically executed a man for avoiding paying taxes. And doing that avoidance on another day. It doesn't seem he was even selling cigs at the time of his take down and death. Now I don't blame the cops too much on this. Maybe only fire them. Nothing else. Nothing worse. The truly responsible parties are the cops BOSSES that send them out with a policy of aggressive minor tax policing. THEY need to go to prison for life. And I'm not talking about the precinct chief. The pols. Bloomberg and DeBlasio types.

Something could have been done that would have made everyone's lives better.  Instead of just generating sound and fury.

"I don't understand T-Bolt... How can you be raaaaacist on the one thing but not the other?... Shouldn't you hate all black people?... I don't... How?... "

BECAUSE THIS ISN'T ABOUT RACE, FOOL! Or, it doesn't have to be. Just because YOU view the world through racism colored glasses doesn't mean everyone does.

If the leaders of the New York protests had tapped this angle they'd have 75% of the country behind them. Conservative Libertarians manning the barricades with Swamp-Butt Rent-A-Hippies. But they didn't choose that option. They chose the old standby: Race Hustle 101. And no one does well whent he dust settles after RH101. Well, except the Sharpton types.

I mean, WHO thought it was a good idea to kill otherwise innocent people for selling Loosies? Because that is the law they passed. That's what LAW is. If you don't toe the line on loose cigarettes the law will kill an obstinate you. And that's what happened.   Too many dang laws to enforce, and no one can do it.  The .gov has too much on their plate.  They need to pare back.

---

I rail against the race hustlers, and, sure, they deserve a lot of rancor.  But to really get a liberal cause going and going deadly you have to get commies involved.  Like them fools at A.N.S.W.E.R.  Who funds those guys now that the Soviets are kaput?

You don't enforce the laws we have now

Or, punish them, at least.

So, this crazy dude with a record that executed those cops... shoulda still been in prison, huh?  Crazy dude with that many beefs on the street again in less than three years to kill cops or anyone.

How do we know he had a record?  In  2011 plead to theft, property damage, possession of a gun by a felon and discharging a gun near a public park in 2011.  The possession charge should have put him away for at

Violent murderers are, statistically, violent felons known to law enforcement and the corrections department long before they actually murder.  So when given a person proven violent but not yet murderous, maybe, just maybe, keep tabs on them in a controlled environment with a custodian for more than a couple years, huh?

Why pass more laws about gun control when you don't even bother with the ones you have now?  You only make the otherwise good-citizen, responsible, law-abiding types get tripped up in the byzantine machinations which, frankly, are just your incrementalism toward a full ban and confiscation of all privately owned firearms.  That's not going to happen here.  SCOTUS sez so, and you bumbled your execution and have lost the support of a majority anyway.

~* Master List *~

Here is where I will keep the master lists. Please ignore, this is for me and my reference. I'm trying to organize and centralize my thoughts to make them more concrete. Stuff will move around, get added to, and subtracted from, on this list.

PRIMARY means, "I'm gonna git this. Prolly soon." SECONDARY is, "It's of interest, but may be a while, if ever." TERTIARY is, "Would be cool to pick up if the price was right, but probably not."


PRIMARY

1. Nuthin...
2. ...
3. I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle! 
4. More 1911s?  Lots of cheap ones and bare frames so I can bork them all up with gun butchery and try to learn something.  I guess I have 2 of these already.
5. S&W M&P .45ACP.  Two.  One and a spare.

SECONDARY

1. ?
2. .45 Carbine,  DeLisle custom repro? That would be my one suppressed item.  I lean toward a no-compromise DeLisle reproduction custom job. First I need to find a lefty donor rifle.
   
   

TERTIARY

1.  Blaser 93? Remington 700 model 84229.  Sniper type scoped rifle.
   
   
2. Double Barrel 12 gauge. An "Over the Door" gun. Cheap. External hammers preferable.  Maybe 2.
3. I like the Smith and Wesson R8.  8 rounds of .357, a light rail, tritium sights, moon clips.  Heckuva revolver.

4. Springfield M6.
   Or combo gun equivalent.
   
5. Chiappa Rhino...  Dunno, it just appeals.
   

6. A revolver that shoots .45 ACP like the S&W 625, Model 22, or a vintage Colt 1917.
7. .17 rifle of some kind
8. Something in .45-70. That sounds fun. Quigley Down Under, mate. Or, if I have an AR, the .458 upper... A Thumper of sorts.
9. Krag Jorgensen .30-40 Why? To have the issue rifles of the US military. With this, the AR above, and the .45-70 below, I'll have the lineage from 1870 to the present.
10. Sprinfield 1873 .45-70 Trapdoor

Getting beyond the Secondary tier may take a while. For one, my safe will be full. The Primary is in order of desire, but maybe not order of future acquisition, though I am trying to tweak it so it MIGHT be close to desired order of acquisition. A lot depends on budgeting. A VERY good deal (or free) on any list item cannot be accounted for, timing wise. Ideally, gifts of the cheaper guns would be great, but less doable. The Tertiary are all "Huh, that'd be nice" but I could go my entire life, maybe, not getting any and never having too big a pang of desire.

A Century Ago

This happened.  The Christmas Truce.




When i scheduled this post months ago, I hadn't counted on everyone and their sister also posting this in the intervening time.  Merry Christmas one and all.

Animated gif 1911

So, everyone and their brother has been linking to nice animated .gif (pronounced like gift without the 't', not like the peanut putter) on how a 1911 works.  It's good, yes, but my go-to animation is STI's swf file of a 1911 in action.  You select what parts are transparent or semi transparent.  It even shows that little jiggle a case does as the rim goes up under the extractor. 

T-Bolt sez check it out.  Check both out.

Undergunned

Inspired from Tam.  She reached back to an older Sean post.

I noticed how nice XD full size pistols were to CCW from Newbius (RIP).  He carried the full size and it disappeared.  XDs are slightly better than fatty-fat-fat SIGs but still.  It's not a small pistol.  Worrying about hiding it in normal 3 season clothing isn't the issue, clearly.  I have other things that worry me

I generally carry a snub .357 with .38 in it.   I don't feel under gunned, but I would prefer to have more.  Than that.  I'm not so worried about printing as I am that thunk they make when you sit down at a wooden bench or chair at Denny's.  Even that is no biggee.

For me the real issue is comfort.  Until you get used to it a gun feels like wool church pants when you were 10.  Did that stuff seem EXTRA itchy and irritating to you?  Compounded by the fact you never got used to them because you only wear em once a week.  Same with me, in MD, and CCWing.  I have fewer opportunities to.  So the pocketed revolver is the go to.  I don't notice THAT too much.

And a full size IWB?  It's long enough to touch my sciatic nerve that bugs me back there...  

Oops

Double posted on the schedule.  Maybe I'll get something fresher out later today.  Sorry bout that.

Let's eat our own

Yay, Fudds.



I’m a hunter, but....,

I am willing to vote for something that will ban all hunting if it will allow me to defend myself with a modern firearm without hassle.

Guns, 1964

So, I am reading Guns Magazine from 50 years ago... What?

Anyhoo...  Noticing stuff.

By November 1964, it had been a year since the president was shot by a cheap surplus mail order rifle. The magazine has taken more of a political bent in reaction to pols and their gun control talk. Fighting the good fight with the same rational arguments we still use.

 And the ads seems to be drifting away from cheaper guns at any rate...

At least the rifles.

Fewer Carcanos to be had...  Maybe 20 years since the War the source of supply is starting to dry up.  Good stuff available tho.  $80 Garands and the like 

Even Kleins of Chicago (where Oswald got his gun/s). If you want to assassinate anyone now you can't be a dirt poor Marxist. And M1 Carbines are getting more prevalent of late.  Like I said maybe the furren surplus is drying up. But hold the phone...  Hmmm, the .303 Enfield, sporterized with a scope is still less than a double sawbuck... You pay 15 bucks more for an Enfield with the issue stock. And a flash hider so they can call it 'Jungle' Enfield.  So if you got a bone to pick with LBJ you might need to use a venerated Limey model.  Not much use for an M1 Carbine on a killing spree.   Unless you are Charles Whitman.  He had one with him in 66. 

---

Same issue, there is an ad for this new sproting rifle from Armalite that shoot a good gopher round.  Earliest ad for an AR15 I have seen.


Plus a controversial article denigrating snubbies! You snubby really sucks, apparently.  You can hit jack with it.  According to some guy name Chic Gaylord. Who actually was kind of a halfway big deal gun writer back then.  Unfortunate name...  Anyway, your barrel length should be at least 3" if you want a chance to hit anything beyond bad breath distances.  AND you need a lot of geegaw after market parts on your gatt.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

M1911A2

Why didn't anyone tell me there was a new and improved version of the venerable M1911A1?  I'd  have bought 4 or 5 by now.  THE 1911 for the 21st Century.  Poor S&W, I guess they are gonna lose the pistol contract to Detonics.

Snark aside, I am half intrigued.  Love to play with one.  I am too jaded.

But wait!  Beretta, late of Maryland, is ready with an offer of their own!   

So, Smith and Wesson M&P45, a now new M9, and a clearly superior to all the rest except for the plastic bits 1911A2 with a double stack...

I'm a Hunter's, butt

(Like Tam, I hate wasting good material on an away game).

Bill Engvall is just fine with Gun Bans worse than they have in Maryland, New York, or California, as long was hunting irons aren't really impacted. 

Now I have a bit of experience with hunting and really like doing it.  Same with fishing.  It's a lot of fun and can be delicious.  It's even really good when you DON'T get anything.  Just time outdoors, out of the office...

"I’m a hunter, but, I am willing to vote for something that will ban all hunting if it will allow me to defend myself with a modern firearm."

I am willing to sell you, and all like you, Bill Engvall, down the river to secure my 2nd Amendment rights.  No really.  Control whitetail populations with poison, fine by me.  Make it a felony to hunt.  Fine by me.  And if you turn in a poacher after hunting is banned, the gov't gives you a free Glock and AR15 as a bounty and reward.  That would be appropo.

But let's not we and you fight.  Hunters should be our allies.  So, defenestrate Bill Engvall and we can go back to like it was before, with outdoorsmen (hey, like ME) fighting the good fight for our rights along side us, instead of with us.

Jeb Bush

I voted for his father twice, his brother twice.  I voted for Colonel Tighe because he flew A4s and picked a great VP.  I didn't vote for Mittens because that was a bridge too far.

I am not voting for you, Jeb.  I don't care if Zombie Stalin is your opponent. 

Don't take this as encouragement, Santorum and Huckabee.  If either of you unlikelies actually got the nod not only would I not vote for you, I'd vote for that Stalin guy.

Jeb, if I wanted someone that will run an administration just like Democrat Hillary I'd just vote for Hillary.

Are you my Mummie?

And here I've been worried about the Zombie threat when a much worse menace was lurking 'neath the dunes. A cemetery with ONE MILLION MUMMIES in it! What caliber for mummies? IT DOESN'T MATTER! They are impervious! You need a flamethrower or tracer rounds. Then you have to defile the corpse.

Note Mummies. Not Daddies. Just further proof of how far back the feminazi conspiracy goes.

Poo Pourri really works!

For Future AR10 Reviews

What is wrong with this gun review?

Well not WRONG per se...

 No talk about the magazines. It's great that Remington is making a AR10 style hunting rifle, and I might be kinda interested in getting one, but one lacking bit of info makes me put off pulling the trigger on that purchase possibility. The magazine.

Now when I say I am selling an AR15 you know what magazine will fit in it. If your gun manufacturing company comes out with a different type of .223/5.56 mag fed rifle that isn't an AR but you don't make it take STANAG mags you have a rough row to hoe in selling that (I'm looking at YOU FN and Beretta...). The AR15 magazine is pretty darn standard.

Not so the .308/7.62 magazine market. And some .308 magazines are made out of platinum and diamonds, it seems, going on the price. ANd I'm not just talking between M14 and FNs and SCARH and AR10... The magazine is different BETWEEN AR10 models!

Like this rifle. It'd be nice if reviewers tipped the reader off on how hard it is to find and buy 3 spare magazines for his new gun and whether any of those will fit what he has at home.

It's why I haven't bought the Ruger Scout already. It's magazines don't fit my M1A.

Seems like the industry could get together and settle on a standard and make a deal with MagPul to make hordes of quality $18 mags....

First firearm

Tam mentions her first centerfire rifle was a Lee Enfield.  Oooo, that's some good street cred right.  Pretty cool first.  Bad ass little piece of history.

That got me to thinking.

What was you first 3 centerfire guns?

I lucked out.  Big time.  My father in law gave me a rifle that his father probably bought surplus.  A 1942 armory rebarrelled Springfield 03.  In pretty sweet condition.  It was in a ratty old sheepskin sleeve in the rafter of the basement.  I replaces that disintegrating old leather cover with something new and whole.  He noticed I cared enough to do that, I might as well be the custodian for it.

Not bad, huh? 

I might have been real jealous of Tam's first rifle, the Enfield, ifn this one wasn't so good.  So good for both of us.

After that it was a S&W 686, and then a 7.62x51mm 'Navy' Garand.

M1E14

Mk 2 Mod 0

M1 Garand variant; rechambered in .30 T65/7.62x51mm NATO with press-in chamber insert

After that I started this blog and things got a bit jumbled...  Still.  A babe-in-the-woods, rank n00b, those are a good set of 3 to start with.  And one was totally accidental.

One thing about a gun registration scheme

After they get that, and then later start the confiscation scheme that is was really all for...  Well, this isn't the same gov't we had 65 years ago.  I don't think they are competent enough to pull it off.  They got too much on their plate.  They'll just scroo it up.

UBC

You want federal universal background checks? Sure. No problem. But what are you offering in return?

This is politics. I mean, the last time gun control laws were passed nationwide there hadn't really ever been a SCOTUS ruling. Now there have been a few and it's not longer a gray area. It's a right. So, lets start with that. You anti-gun pols gotta admit it's a right and you were wrong all along. Just words. Easy peasy. Like nothing.

It's been almost 50 years since the 1968 Gun Control Act. You are right, that needs fixing. Let's repeal it. I mean, what's the point? If someone says yes on a 4473 question and is lying and thus has committed a felony, well... no one cares. No one get's prosecuted. Why bother filling out the form if it is menaignless. You are gonna call it in with a NICS check anyway and that covers your 4473 questions right there.

Now, the background check itself. You don't want to get those fat cat gun dealers a source of revenue, do ya? You people clamoring for a universal background check regime don't like them anyway, so why enrich them? Make it something like a mark on a persons DL. I know the state does driver licenses, but you have no qualms about unfunded mandates for the states. Or withholding highway funds until they comply. It's how you got the states to change the drinking age to 21. So now have a little box on the DL that says 'yes' or 'no' on allowed to purchase guns so regular people can sell to regular people without a gunstore intervening. Everyone's happy. If someone BECOMEs a prohibitted person you can punch a hole on the 'yes' part and then order them to get a new license ASAP.

Another thing this helps. You people that want Universal Background Checks say you don't want to confiscate guns from the law abiding and you certainly don't want to start up some illegal gun registration regime. You swear up and down you don't want that. And I for one BELIEVE you! You are right. So, I'm sure you don't have a qualm about accepting one little suggestion on the new system. Don't include serial numbers in the check. I mean it doesn't matter, right? Pistol or Shotgun or Long-gun. Maybe a caliber. That's plenty. See, this will make passing a UBC law more palatable to those crazed gun clingers that are more skeptical of your motivations and schemes than I am. They think you are all about incrementalism and slippery slopes toward disarming the country. Bushwa! You and I know it CAN'T be that, uh-huh... Anyhoo. This should put their unfound fears to rest. You get what YOU want, my side get's a few things in return. Not all we want, but a good starting point. It's Win Win!

So, $20 transfer fee and some kind of web submission listing the name and DL numbers of both parties, the app responds with a tracking number and NJT in Maryland buys a 'long gun' from MBtGE in Virginia.

Oh that's one other thing you should do. THis isn't 1968 anymore and we have a nationwide NICS system so that prohibition against selling pistols across state lines is obsolete. So I could sell a pistol to MBtGE if I wanted an it'd be fine.

Might as well drop suppressors from the NFA tax stamp regime, too. A ban on that was silly to start with. Put that in the bill to sweeten it. What else? Some other small stuff. Like protections so someone can hand a pistol to someone else at the range to try it out or loan a rifle to a hunting buddy because his is broken that week. Little stuff. Fine tuning. Pre-emption over some state laws...  No biggee, but helps the medicine go down.

So this will be a big bill and everybody can shout and tear their shirt "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!" "Think of the CHILDREN!" etc... and then pass it in the end anyway and we are all good.

There, solved it for you.

(Serendipitously, after I composed this post I noticed Sebastian did this.  Heh.  Yeah, stole my Thunder... bolt...)

And I didn't know that.

I had no idea the Army was looking for a replacement for the M1911A1 back in the mid 1950s, but gave up on it after a while.  And that trial got us the S&W Model 39 pistols thereafter.  Neato Torpedo!.

I am sure that this was part of the big modernization that the Army was goin through post wars.  Sorta thing that lead to the M60 and M14 and the NATO standard rounds that was .280 then .308.  Plus other dead ends like the salvo guns.  Heck the M14 is practically a dead end.  I had read up on most of that stuff, but never remember the Model 39 mentioned. 

The 39 was NATO standard 9mm.  And a DA gun.  Nobody was ever happy with how much training it took to get good at the 1911 and, more importantly, to get safe with it.  1950s Private Joe Snuffy, conscriptee, needed something more E-3 proof, I guess.

(I found, even in more modern times...  If you double locked a Seaman First Class Schmuckitelli in a room overnight with nothing in it but him and two bowling balls, in the morning you'd find him, one bowling ball broken, and the other missing.  50/50 chance Schmuckitelli would be visibly drunk, too.  If not visibly drunk it just means he is doing a professional job maintaining his military bearing, but is still in his cups.  Hold fast, shipmate!) 

Anyway.  Like the M60, it looks like the army was interested in the German engineering of our vanquished foe, and wanted the 39 sorta based on the Walther P38.  Sheesh, did we have to steal EVERYTHING that wasn't nailed down from them Krauts?  Say what you will about the AR platform, at least it isn't based directly on a Squarehead design.

The 39 lead the 59, and then I get too deep into the weeds of 20th Century all metal Smith semi-autos.

Anyone Know?

I know a .44 magnum can penetrate one car door, then pass right through the other car door, with ease.  Not so much other handgun cartridges like .40 and .45 and 9mm...  They generally when through the one door and stayed in the car after that. 

But I don't remember or know what an ordinary round of .357 magnum would do?  Both doors?  Pistol, or carbine, to go through both doors?  Hmmm...

Who knew?

Pandas got the Gun-Kata.

Cemetery Gun

You know, for grave robbers.

I have left instructions to my family that in the event of my death I am to be BURIED.  None of this cremation Boolshyte.  And, and this is important, I must be buried in a rented tuxedo.  After the service, the rental place must be instructed what happened to the tux and why my family won't be coming back for the deposit.  Hey, if you can leave instruction on what to do with the life insurance money then what is the point.

Now, this is giving me further ideas:

Larry

I've run into Larry Weeks at various gun blog thingies a time or two.  A self-effacing sort.  Gracious.  Sometimes quiet.  And me being a n00b barely recognize who he is and what he's about whenever I see him, to my shame.

I wish I had gotten into the whole gun thing 10 years sooner so I might have had more chances to run into and hand with Larry.  LURVE Brownells.  Sure, their are other sources of supply.  There are better deals to be had elsewhere, sometimes.  But if you need something and no one else has it, check Brownells...  You will find it there.  Thanks for your work making Brownells Brownells, Larry.  Enjoy your retirement.

Caliber

Good point.  Bigger is better, yes, sometimes.  And certainly correct when written, in the 19th C.  As .30 cal was underpowered and thus undesirable, then.  But when velocities went up that changed everything. 

If it was possible to up pistol caliber velocities by a factor of 2+, then switching from .45 to .38 or even .25 would make a lotta sense. As it is... With your pistol caliber selection, pretend you are firing a rifle but restricted to black powder as a propellant as you'd have been 140 years ago.   Of course you go with Big and Slow when your only alternative is Small and Slow...

.45

Why should I trust a 22 year old opinion when I have a perfectly good 110 year old one.

Sheesh.  Folks sure get worked up about their 9mm rounds maybe being good enough ever 20 months or so.  Someday, maybe, Wonder-Nine.  Someday. 

They're the same, no they're not, they both suck, one is clearly better.  Yay.

I dunno why, but I do enjoy the caliber wars.  Even the old hat, chestnut, hoary old arguments that are wrong and have heard countless times repeated by individuals I trust as much as Jimmy Carter.  But especially I enjoy the stuff from the smart people I normally listen to.  The folks that if they told me my mother never loved me I'd look into it to see if they might be onto something.  I like witnessing caliber wars, but no so much fighting them.  One is fun for me, the other only fun for a little while.

And if we consult dead people...  The guy that invented the Tommy Gun and the JMB(pbuh) sorta liked the .45.  Yup. The 9mm was the brainchild of some German that liked using pretentious Latin mottos like si vis pacem, para bellum, but couldn't spell his own name right.  It's GEORGE, buddy.  The Germans haven't won major a war since they adopted the cartridge.  It DOES have decent velocities and energies for something only .38 in diameter and with a such a short 'bottle'.  .38 special has a lot more 'room' but no where close to the performance.  I blame smokeless powders for that difference.   And being unable to change something after you've settled on how itsa gonna be in the ammo world.

In other news, last range trip, I am getting slightly better shooting Glock models. 

and thus Sitemeter is done

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---- ----- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ -------
1      35      4      8      8      7      9      4      75
2      25      7      3      4      1      1      2      43
3      13      3      5      3      1      1      3      29
4       8      3      3      4      4      2      2      26
5       5      3      4      3      2      1      0      18
6      11      3      1      2      3      3      6      29
7      15      8      4      6      8      9      5      55
8      22      8      6      6      7      2      9      60
9      32     13      7      8     13      9     11      93
10      46     16     12     13     12     13     12     124
11      33     26      6     13     16     14     13     121
12      62     22     10     10     16     18      0     138
13      39     18     14     12     11     13      0     107
14      40     10     13      8     14     17      0     102
15      35     22     14     13     17     11      0     112
16      20     16     11      9     10     13      0      79
17      24     22      7      8     19     12      0      92
18      23      9      8      8     11     12      0      71
19      31      9      9      7      9     11      0      76
20      31      8      2      9     19     15      0      84
21      28     16     17      8     15      6      0      90
22      17     15     11     15     18     11      0      87
23      16     16     13     14     13     12      0      84
24      10     12     14      6      8      8      0      58
    ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ -------
       621    289    202    197    254    223     67   1,853

I still get confused

I memorize gun facts.  Then some fade away... over time.  Because I am a slow head and don't work in a gun shop day after day.

For instance... Smith and Wesson Model numbers.  Three digit number starts with a six?  Gonna be stainless.  Start with a 5... something else.  I think lighter. 

And the frame letters!  Ok!  J frame is easy.  Snubbies.  X frames is those ginormous .50 calibers.  N, M, L, K...  Uh oh.   One of those is not used anymore, and I think it is the K, and a bit obsolete.  N is a beefier frame and my 686 might be that.  No wait!   Is it L?  L is... less beefy than the N maybe?  N is the .44, I am pretty sure.  Large frame.  Not as large as the X.  And does the M even exist? 

Stuff I should already know without having to resort to Google.

Without Google, smallest to largest and still widely produced by S&W you get:  J L N X.  Hey, I was right!  But it was a mental struggle

Deleted Sitemeter

So THAT was what was causing me trouble.

Dodge City! Probably already happened...

"The idea of 500 students in a college library or a dozen teachers in an elementary school pulling out guns to shoot a gunman is ludicrous. They would wind up shooting each other. "   From something Mike Williamson fisked. 

Well, one day that may happen. But it hasn't happened yet and been reported. I'm sure if it had Bloomberg's people would have publicized it so I can safely say it hasn't.

And it's not like 500 armed library patron would wheel at once on a bad guy and create a Mexican standoff.  It'd be onesy twosy.  Then done.

Zombie Bats

Ok, these art of manliness mods for a baseball bat to go against zombies are just silly.  Addendum to my:  "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."

Is now: "The only thing worse than a shotgun for you primary defense zombie weapon is a impractically modified baseball bat."

Notice in the last panel?  The bat-modifier is dead. Avoid melee with Zed.  If you have to, a regular bat is fine.  A halberd is better if you know how to use it.  You don't know how to use a halberd.

Went to the range

Recently.  Just shot 1911 and the S&W 640. 

If I could go back to 2007 and tell me that my 1911 work would improve, but that the double action would fall off.  Diagnosis?  Need more 640 practice.

Now, with a lot of things, practicing with one can make you better at the other.  Like shooting a .44 magnum then stepping back to a regular old .38 can sometimes make you feel less flinchy.   You know what I'm saying?  Or, the practicing with one can make you worse than with other.

I have decided which would most likely happen to me... Sure, all range time is useful.  If I could take a pill that added another 100,000 rounds of experience, that'd be great and a big help.  Or take a job where I am required to shoot 8 at the range 8 hours a day for a buncha months.  You can help but get stronger wrists and grip doing that, for instance.  End up like Jerry Miculek.  But that's not going to happen.  My time in a range is sorta set at a lowish bar.  So the question is, will practicing more with the 640 make my 1911 improvements slough off?  Or vicey-versi.

Either way, I think Ima need to buy more practice ammo now, in both calibers.  Running a little low on the practice stuff.  Maybe an inventory is in order.

BIG guns

28.5 caliber...

Pearl

I'm not over Pearl Harbor, so I'd certainly not be over 9/11

Iraq

So, a NJ man plead guilty to trying to sell some Iraqi Hussein-Guns. Not Saddam's.  His son Qusay's.  His personal weaponry.

Seven guns, a coupla .357 revolvers, a .32, coupla shotties, a 45...  estimated value $250,000.

Whoa!  How much gold plate is on those?  I know they Husseins had a taste for gaudy Deagle type guns but... THAT much?!  The cache would make them that valuable?  Even really good custom guns...  wait a minnit...  "Coupla shotguns".  That's it.  Heck, I've seen a pair valued that high in person, what with all them fancy engraved jobs.  Yeah.  Really fine fowling pieces will do that.

Freitag

I like how Black Friday, a week ago, was a bust this year, and all the leftist talking heads on NPR are strying to spin it as not so bad. Down 11% from last year, and last year wasn't that great. I know you've invested your whole being in your flawed liberal political mindset and continue to try to polish the movement-turd as you back away from your failed movement-leader, but you have an unworkable system you are trying to implement. You learned the wrong lessons from the Great Depression and the war and post-war booms. I wonder how long they'll be able to refrain from blaming Obama? It's tricky for them. They've painted themselves into a corner. The economy we have now is the economy we should have had in 2010. And it should be much better now. Any president can reside over a depression or recession, it takes a Democrat to make them Great. ~

When enough time passes they'll probably rely on the president only being half-black. And not former southern slave black at that. So it will be the fault of an incompetent white dude named Obama, not the fault of the system. ~

But what warms my cockles most is despite retail sales in other sectors being down, firearms NICS checks boomed. And gun sales figures had leveled off recently, so, good news. That and S&W pairing with General Dynamics, maybe my stock shares for Smith will tick up a bit. T-Bolt prediction... The Army goes with a .45 M&P for 2018. And the Maryland-friendly M&P in .45 has been tempting me.

BB Kid

The Cleveland Kid that had a BB gun and got aired out by the cops from what was presumed a "Do stupid things, win stupid prizes."

The rookie that shot him wasn't exactly a rookie and,  WTF?!!!

Officer Timothy Loehmann, who killed Tamir Rice on 22 November, was specifically faulted for breaking down emotionally while handling a live gun. During a training episode at a firing range, Loehmann was reported to be “distracted and weepy” and incommunicative.

For the love of...  A head case?!  If this stuff turns out to be even half true.  Doesn't sound like he should have been able to pass the smell portion of the NICS check.

I don't even know anymore.  I had no sympathy for Trayvon (see:  'Justice For').  Or that Ferguson behemoth.  Never go for another man's gun when you are high on the Doobie, Reefer Addicts.  But that kid with the Airsoft in a Wal Mart a coupla month ago.  Or this kid in Cleveland?  Or even that New York guy hocking looseys.  And I'm not even coming at this from the race angle.  (Plus, cops have been dropping white dudes, of late, and also not getting indicted, there is just less press) I'm more concerned about the LEOs going a little gungho hinky.

Braaaaaaaains

100 Brains missing from Texas Universtity..

Somebody raided the fridge for a midnight snack...

 I'm looking at you, Zed community.

Silly Website

Was Britain's WWI Blockade The First Atrocity Of The 20th Century?

"introduced the world to a terrifying new kind of warfare."  Blockades.  Effective ones.  Ones that caused civilians to suffer

Uh, the US's Anaconda Plan? Before that the Brits in Napoleonic Wars?  Those were incidents of blockades doing a famn dine job in the same way.  And the U-Boat cordon around the British Islands by the Germans

Commenters there bring up that this wasn't even the first atrocity of Britain's in the 20th C.

Click Click Bang

I asked why Officer Wilson's gun could done that last week.  People gave good explanation in my comments, but the Firearm Blog had a post where a guy demos it for is in a video.  Yay internet.

Women and Guns

When is the media going to stop treating female gun owners as a cute novelty or freak show?

I dunno. Maybe when they purchase 75% of the total guns in any one year. It would have to be overwhelming to get through to the ink-stained wretches.

Arcade

A cool article about arcade shooting gallery targets

Big Bada Boom

So a .50 BMG Bushmaster went kaboom and they blame the reloads.  Maybe.  But it's .50 ammo. Isn't reloading pretty much the only reasonable way to keep yourself supplied with ammo?

Maybe blame the gun? I try to avoid being around .50s that cost less than five grand. I want em over built.  But that's just me.  No, I don't want to BUY a .50.  I just want ones in my vicinity to not go all 'splodey

More BBs

And that kid in OH that got killed because he had a BB gun around cops. 

As a kid, I remember being confused when a cop DIDN'T shoot a robber when he caught up him after a chase. I based my young knowledge on the workings of law enforcement on how justice worked at my house. You did sumthing bad enough a parent quickly caught you and meted out the justice of a spanking.

Also I was influenced by TV. Marine Boy and Speed Racer and Johnny Soko and His Flying Robut and the Adventures of Superman.  Get Smart.  Various 40s movies that came on at noon on Saturday.  It always seemed, to me, then, that the cops would show up, see a crime being committed, and open up.  Obviously I was confused.  But I knew I didn't want the police to see me on anything but my best behavior.  To save me skin!  Silly, I know.  So is having the assumption that everyone grows up like that.

Speaking of BBs

This is odd.  The game takes blood every time you are shot.  Ick, needles, how bout one that shoots you with a BB/airsoft in a FP game?  

Should be easy to rid up with the same principle as the vampire device as in the link, and you wouldn't be outside of have a BB gun in your hand so it is safer.

Wear eye protection!

Wondrous

Stevie Wonder said:  "The Only People Making Money Are the Gun Factories and Mortuaries" in response to the Ferguson thing.
 
Well, the mortuaries sort of always have steady work, and the gun factories... well... that segment of the economy isn't nearly as big as you think. Lots more money in jewelry of corrugated boxes or the legal work around estate planning. And also more money lying around to influence politicians than what is in the coffers of the 'gun factories.'

Also, Mr. Wonder, that big gun factory Colt is having financial difficulties and may be bankrupt any minute now. So they aren't making THAT much money.

They're Comin's Right At Us!

Wild Bears

Here's your sign, numbnuts.  Take a few pics of the apex that will eat you in the near future.

Wanna know how to tell the difference between a wild bear, which can be super dangerous, and a tame bear, which is perfectly safe?  A wild bear looks like an animal.  A tame bear looks invisible.  Or like a plush toy.  Because there is no such thing!

More questions about that Grand Jury

I heard that there was Testimony by Officer Wilson, that duing the struggle with Brown in the car, he unholstered his pistol and pulled the trigger two times with nothing happening. Third time it went off and didn't hit anyone, but scared the crap out of both of them.

Ok, what happened THERE? Click click bang? Talk about pucker factor.  How can that even happen with what was clearly a semi auto, based on other evidence.

Ohio Airsoft

So a rookie cop airs out a 12 year old with a BB gun on a playground in Cleveland.  What a horrible tragedy, all around.  Simply horrible.  The cops, the kid, the kid's family, everyone.  Especially the kid's family.  Simply unimaginable

Word is the fake 1911 pistol had had it's orange tip removed.  Not having been there, I can't say for sure how contributory that was, but if true it certainly didn't help matters.

Ohio lawmakers are thinking of going full dayglo now on all BB guns and Airsoft and whatnot.  I hear.  RUMINT. I don't know what help that would be, they still make black Krylon.  This goes both ways.  Didn't some knucklehead OC an AK47 folder and had painted the tip of a real rifle orange? 

WhenI was a kid, stories like this came up in the news.  I was younger than 12 when it was made clear to me, with a picture from the Washington Post shoved in front of my face, to never ever fool around by pointing capgun or whatnot at a Policeman.  I was impressed enough seeing the smiling face of a now-dead kid in the paper.  So a 12 year old can exercise proper judgement if taught.   

Not Helping

You know what isn't helping with the Missouri thing?  The liberal media sitting around for weeks shouting, constantly shouting, "LOOK AT EM! THEY ARE GONNA RIOT, SURE!"

Usual Monday Bupkis

I was wondering about the spelling of that word.  Bupkis.  Apparently it is Yiddish.  There are alternate spelling forms.  Bubkes, Bopkus, etc.

So, Hizzonor, Mayor-for-life Marion Barry has gone to his reward.  The man loomed large over my formative years, being the ONLY mayor I knew of, Washington DC being the urban area of which the suburbs I trod orbitted.  The man did not like the police and it showed in the short shrift he gave them.  When the crack epidemic hit, the police had been neglected for years already and that's how Barry became mayor of the Murder Capitol of the World there for a time.

His disdain for law enforcement may extend from an incident in his youth.  Barry was an activist, full of beans, when he came across the grandfather of my shooting buddy, Corky.  Words were exchanged between the future mayor, Corky's grandpa, and his partner, until Barry spit on them.  This was the 1960s.  A paddy wagon was summoned, the three entered the paddy wagon, Marion Barry got the starch taken out via a hickory shampoo, then was sent on his way.  As far as the police were concerned, the matter was resolved and order was maintained.  Marion Barry recalled the incident for far longer and never let it go.

Curvey

Perhaps I spoke too soon about the Taurus Curve. Sure, there isn't a lefty specific version yet, and sure it doesn't have sights, but what if I shoot it upside down, Jason Bourne style while shooting my 1911 in my off hand... for some reason... Yeah, this pistol might be just what I need.

 Tam always told me I have to work harder on my gun-fu. At least I think that's what she said... I pretty loaded the whole time at Indy NRAcon, and we didn't bother to tape record the conversation. There was a lemure present, if I recall. Ask that guy, he'll tell ya.

  

Children will die thanks to Apple

DOJ says encryption on iPhones will cause the death of children.

Encrypt your drive and kill a child.

 Why would you want to kill a child?

A child. Dead!

  I guess you could say Zombie Steve Jobs will be killing children in 'job' lots...

 HEY-O! Tip your waitress!

I really need to cut back on my drinking.

Thank you, Canada.

And I have been to enough hockey games...

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!


From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.


God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Rowsdower!

S&W .45

Hmmm, I did think one of us needed a S&W M&P.  And this one is still legal in Maryland.  And I have .45 ammo.  Plus this trigger from Apex looks neat...

I don't think it is a 'duty' trigger.  Meaning, better for race gun, less good for CCW, but it's hard to tell with Apex without really studying the website.

Still legal because it's a 10 round magazine, and you can't buy bigger magazines than that in the state.  The only thing is it would mean I would be playing Maryland's reindeer games.  Forced to take training classes.  Forced to get fingerprints.

My intention is to never deal with the state while the current regulator regime exists.  But that does limit my selection on what I can purchase in the future, legally, now doesn't it.  And a pistol is not one of the things on the list of do-ables, really.

Waiting on the fisking

This just seems to defy all the facts that are out there.  Wonder how they fudged it?

Somebody smarter and more masochistic than me is gonna fisk the study.  I hope I notice when that comes out.

Range report

MBtGE has a new range near him and it is nicer than the very nice facilities at NRA headquarters. A friend of MBtGE was thinking on getting a pistol and was leaning toward a .40 of some flavor, so I was enlisted to bring mine to hae a variety of pistols to try. She has been shooting before. More than a few times. And was a pretty good shot, so this was a shopping trip.

Why .40? Because .40 was in fashion the last time the shooters she knows paid attention to shooting fashion. She tried out what we had, and all we had was .40, except I got MBtGE to let her try the Glock 17 he CCWs. 9mm. She liked that a lot. We also realized that somebody is gonna have to get an M&P of some flavor someday.

But his range is really nice. Indoors, of course, with 40+ lanes. The backstop is shredded tires, it looks like, and they can let you fire a .50 in there. One set of lanes was 100 yards. 100! No more zeroing in the cold right before hunting season.

And the place is silent. You walk in and can't hear a sound, even though 20 lanes are active RIGHT then, 20 feet away. It's amazing. The air handling system is also quit impressive.

And here is a sampling of my usual work, lately.  Low and right, as normal.  But not like that foot low and 6 inches right.

Taurus Fit

A curved pistol to be even MORE concealable and comfy.

Well except for left handers.  SCROO them guys.  It's curved the wrong way for them.  Unclean southpaws. 

Lawless Maryland

In Maryland, gun control is not about the law. It's not about crime. It's about votes.

Pass something after Newtown to pass something. To reinforce the state's retrograde Gun Crow laws. To get the guns out of the hands of Blacks and Rural Rednecky folks. THAT'll show em who is boss.

There was a time when Democrats woke up and realized they were on the wrong side of history and maybe having seperate toilet facilities, schools, restaurants... one in better shape than the other... was indeed a shameful policy. I hope O'Malley is still alive when he and other Dems in this handful of backwards coastal states realize this about the 2nd Amendment.

Black Sunday

A movie from the 70s.  Muslim terrists plan to attack the Superbowl.  Robert Shaw as an
Israeli agent trying to foil the plot, and it's one of his movies just after Jaws. 

The villain is played by the ever creepy Bruce Dern.  In a Corporal Flashback kind of role.  Because all vets are PTSD powderkegs ready to explode, ya know.

The idea is to attack the Superbowl by flying a modified Good Year Blimp over the game.  Strapped beneath is a ginormous Claymore mine. 

And the Superbowl in the movie is the Pittsburg Dallas one.  I thought it was the first one I ever remembered, XIII but that one was probably too late.  Saw that game with me grandfather and brother in the basement TV room of our house.  35 to 31.  And I remember my grandfather saying that that score reflected how he felt the quality of both teams were.  Pittsburg on top, but Dallas a very close second. 

In reality it was probably actually Superbowl X, and it looked like the filmmakers were given unprecedented access to film parts of the movie during the game on the sidelines and whatnot.  But, this is fiction...  And while Staubach and Bradshaw were shown, and both participated in both games X and XIII, a president Carter was shown, glimpses from a distance, attending the game to help his sagging poll numbers and feed his supposed football fandom.  He couldn't have been at X as president, and the movie came out in '77, while game XIII was 1979.  So lets call the superbowl in the movie Eleven and Three Quarters....  Whatever that is in Roman numerals.

Unrealistic things about the move.  The Muslim partner to Dern was a smart urbane and independent muslim woman, that wasn't considered property or furniture of some muslim man's.  Also there is a Colt Snubby fitted with a silencer.  And that really took my head out of the movie.

The bad guy uses one, the good guy uses one, there are suppressed revolvers everywhere.  Well, it's prolly the same prop colt snubbie several times with different actors.  Plenty of other guns in the movie though, including a plethora of 70s vintage 9mm submachineguns.  That was nice

Edge of Tomorrow

This movie is like Groundhog Day.   But violent!

Tar & Feathers

We need to bring that back.  Bumptious and jumped-up pencil-pushers that trod upon a body's liberty in this country used to be set up by a mob.  The offending bureaucrat was then stripped nekkid in front of God and everybody, nigh-scalding hot tar was poured over their bodies, and they were breaded like a cutlet, but in feathers rather than a delicous mix of flour, bread crumbs, cornmeal, parmesian cheese, and spices.  Then, more often than not, a festive parade led by the now odiferous official, riding a fence rail, proceeded to the city limits.

Now, I am not saying we pour hot roofing tar over some PTA member, an alderman, or town councilperson.  That is bodily harm.  No, I realize we are too squeamish to do such in this day an age.  We want a mob, not a lynch mob, right?  Besides, it's hard to lay your hands on a hot roofing tar and a feather pillow at Wal Mart.  What CAN you get easily most anywhere?  Maple Syrup and blown-in roofing insulation. 

Looks like they could have used that agin these busybodies.

The Whip Hand

1951 anti-commie movie.  A magazine writer finds wired goings on at Minnesota vacation spot.  Infested with Reds and ex-Nazi scientists plotting like rats, as per usual.  Germ warfare.

The Commies had Garands guarding their nefarious lab.  Six years after the big war and anybody can get the rifle that was even then issued to soldiers in Korea for that littler war.

Perry Mason was a commie in this movie!

And irony of ironies... The hero was played by a Liberal Democrat, Elliot Reid.  So, practically a commie himself.

G Men showed up with Tommy guns a-blazin at the end.

The Future

These are visions of the near future, in architecture, in 1961.

Holy, dammit, Christmas, how do they think they'd afford a heat bill?!  Everything is single paned glass.  There is a POOL in this pic, in winter, and no condensation on the glass.  And this is probably a house on Lake Erie in January:

Yeah, about this

This is such an odd graph.

Gallup asks if you have a gun in your home.  Lots of people.  And do statistical analysis and junk.  So, it should be kind stead.  But LOOK at that graph.

Between '94 and 1999, did 17% of Americans ditch the gun or guns they owned?

Yeah, yeah, I know, people lie to pollsters,  But THAT much?  Do you think it is actually north of 50 today?

Miguel was way ahead of me with the same questions.   Millions of guns 'disappeared'.  Sure folks get reticent about sharing such information with a stranger on the phone, but that many?  The next year they fess up, the year after that they clam up...  Why?  I think the polling people are just being incompetent.  They are contacting about a thousand people each time, randomly, adjusting to keep the sampling regular....  rehabs they change their adjustment procedures every year.  That would be stupid, but they are a large old organization and could be getting complacent in their methods.  A common pitfall.

I have no idea how to find out the hows and whys of the way they are screwing up the methodology so bad.

I love

A Circuit split.

Well, I do if the SCOTUS is nice to us.

Lil Yellow Flags

They really seem to calm a range officer or gunstore clerk or gunsmith right down.

"Lemme see your heater," is common enough thing to hear in those places, and then... it's like folks are holding their breath.  Wincing even.  Some yahoo is about to take an unknown quantity out of a gun rug.   Even when that yahoo is me.  Is this activity gonna get really loud really fast all of a sudden.

I like to keep a chamber-empty flag on those guns.  When they see that, everyone calms right down.  Even if not wholly justifiable.  Because, I mean, you can still screw up and have that flag in there AND a round in the chamber.  Why, is beyond me.  To go to the trouble to do something that stupid...  At least the gun is clearly out of battery.

Anyhoo, little yellow flag makes the appearance, and everyone exhales. 

And people often look down on Tapco products as cheap and flimsy, but, for this application they are just fine.

Yo, OldNFO

Out of curiosity, what ammo are you running in the .308 sniper build of yourn?  It looked commercial, and, obviously, works well...

Cooper

No, not that Cooper.  The other Cooper.  Belton.

Tam mentioned him after sorta reviewing the Brad Pitt move Fury, about a fictional tank battle in WWII.  She said "It is apparent that Belton Cooper's work is now the accepted pop history narrative." and that made me want to get Mr. Cooper's book to see what he was on about.

Cooper was a JO in the ETO, and was charged with the support of the armored forced of the 3rd.  In this role he saw how tanks from both sides fared in battle.

And man did he dislike Patton.  He attribute to Patton the prioritizing of the M4 Sherman over a the M26 Pershing that was being developed late in the war.  To sum up both sides, Patton wanted quantity right away not a promise of quality next month.  Cooper wanted the best tool possible for the Armored Warfare job, even if it meant delays, as the Sherman was inadequate for the task.  It seems to me that that was what Cooper was getting at.

I guess he was getting on about "oh woe is the poor armored soldiers in crappy equipment."  And that is the narrative.  Cooper thought everything else was top notch.  Vehicles, artillery, aircraft, supply system, our Ma Deuce...  Just the tanks and tank guns were the problem.

Here is another online review.

And of course, there is heated debate on which version of history is the 'truth'.

But I read it because of the Tam reference and I didn't want to remain culturally ignorant on what seemed, and is, a major bit of contention in WWII history buff circles.  Which I try to be.  But I am of the 3rd camp.  The point of victory wasn't from Shermans or Pershings tanks.  Not metal tracks, but the long logistical tail on rubber tires and steel ships and aluminum aircraft overhead.  Plus similar aircraft doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the anti-armor department.  But that's me.

Odd Eventful Day

So Kristallnacht happened around today in 1938, and the Berlin Wall came down in 89.  The Marines were borned 200 some odd years ago, and the Edmund Fitzgerald done died.  Hedy Lamarr's (that's HEADLEY...) and Martin Luther's birthday.  And both of them revolutionized how thoughts were conveyed. m Oh, and this, 45 years ago: