Life After Beth

I'm gonna have to check out this movie. A love story. Sort of a Boy-Meets-Zombie.



A little Barry White, some poetry maybe... Zombie nookie...

No! Nononononono.

I don't like Bullpups

But this is neat.



Why?  Left handed, that's why.  I'd eat every extracted round.

But, if I was right handed, and bullpups in general.  Say a manufacturer made one with a great trigger, as word on the 'street' says bullpups often suffer with bad triggers...  Well, everything KABOOMS.   Squib or clean rod in the barrel can ruin any rifles day.  What also kabooms?  Reloaded ammo is notorious for overcharge kabooms.  Lots of people that shoot a .50 BMG reload to get the $5 per round, milsurp-new, price down.  A bullpup .50 would ruin my pretty looks.  I don't mind facial scars but I like my jawbone the way it is.  And my shootin eye.

This doesn't look like a budget .50.  It looks well made.  Gonna pay a lot for a good .50, regardless, and a good rifle will kaboom less-bad for you than a budget .50.  But less-bad is still kinda bad in this size cartridge.  I don't think that's for me.

Safe Follow Up

Stack On did me right.  I called and I told them the lock jammed and they sent out a replacement and instruction on how to break into the jammed old one.  I am pleased with the way the company treated me.  Kudos

When the replacement lock was safely ensconced at stately New Jovian Manor, I went ahead with some more destructive ideas to remedy the situation and open the stuck gun cabinet.

I can't pick up and shake the cabinet, it is bolted to the floor.  Banging on it like it was a vending machine that just won't drop that bag of BBQ Fritos I paid for didn't do the trick.

The key was stuck in the lock and it felt like it hadn't gone in far enough to engage the last tumbler.  So... Stop!  Hammertime!  A few bangs along the axis of the key with a big ol Estwing did... nothing.  Won't turn, won't release the key.

Ok, get out the 9 inch adjustable crescent wrench (or 'spanner').   Tighten down on the key close to the lock...  Here goes nothing and this is the part I figured I'd break the key off in the lock.  Twist!!

Nope, it turned.  Well, damn.  Works fine, now.  (next fix was to involve a Milwaukee drill with a BIG bit...)  If the lock goes south on me again, that's it.  Replacing it.

So what could have caused the stick?  It may have been the rifle on that side leaning against the mechanism.  An AR, too.  I knew there was a reason I didn't like ARs...  I shifted the internals some.  Gonna get another lockable rifle cabinet.  Put the 'lesser' guns in that and not crowd the primary. 

Your AR is Shite!

Another article about the problems with the M4A1

But... this one has suggestions for improvement!  Some spring replacements, a better gas block and tube than GI issue, and things are improved.

But what's a four-coil system?

replacing the extractor spring, ejector spring, gas tube and gas plug with more heat-resistant ones, and moving to a one-piece, four-coil system that was engineered from more thermally durable materials to make the gun function better.

Maybe they mean 4-rail.

And how do you know: "this extractor spring is GI and no good, this aftermarket spring, that looks EXACTLY like it, is the hotness and will work forever"?

Why the Rush?

So 19.5 million NICS checks in 2012.

Then another rush happens.

21 million NICS checks in 2013!  A record. 

For months, FFL stores are stripped of inventory in 2013, lines at the gun shop are five deep and out the door, .22LR is rarer than a fresh Dodo egg omelet...  INSANITY!  ....Because of a ~6% increase? 

I don't get it.  What would a 10% increase look like?

Smart Guns

Would you buy one?

Would I?  Not just no.  HELL no.  Not if it was free.  Not if you paid me to take it.  Not if every last police officer in the world was equipped with one.  Never.

But other than that, I have no strong feelings on the subject.

Hunting Rifle Selection

I occasionally see or hear someone looking for a hunting rifle in .30-06 that gets 1 MOA. 

They always add that "1 MOA" on there.  Or, "sub MOA".

Not me.  I'm looking to drop money on a 5 or 6 MOA rifle.  Why make it easy?  Let's be sporting for the deer, right?  

Do they sell 6 MOA rifles anywhere?  What models should I look at?   Does a Carcano have that kind of precision? 

Move to Virginia T-Bolt

Leave Maryland.  Come to Virginia.  Vote with your feet.

I'm not moving, THEY are going to change.

Somebody has to fight the good fight here behind the lines.   That's me.  I don't have to worry about my wife and kids in school because I have none.


--

One day I may retire and move.  Move to West Virginia.  Not because I have to, but because I like West Virginia.

I don't know if I like

Living in the future.

Safety

This is why they invented lemon squeezers.  Of course an infant left alone to wander into a henhouse is bad enough, there isn't the grip strength to pull back the hammer or pull the trigger, Double Action.  Plus, the wee bairn is suffering from horrible perspective problems.  Can you imagine those eggs coming out of that chicken.

An Obliviot I work with is sure his son couldn't work the slide of his XD 45.  So, Safe!  That was 4 years ago.  Now the boy plays little league and Obliviot still maintains he can't work the slide.  No matter what I say to him otherwise he still maintains he is unable to work the slide yet.  He instructs the child in safe gun handling, at least.  But with this big a blind spot, I dunno.

Revolvers V Semi

Tam* discusses the difference between finely machined all metal revolvers and stamped metal and injection molded semi-autos here.

Do you think that the cops, nationwide, would have switched over to black plastic pistols if the price point to the forces was 125% of a revolver price point?

I think so.  The purchasing officialdom would rationalize the capacity difference and 'reliability' would be stressed and stretched almost to the breaking point.  But.  Bottom line would be the bottom line.

Maybe the police would see themselves more as a police force instead of soldiers, too.  "We are cops, not a combat force!  My 8 shot revolver is what I need when dealing with the public I serve.  Wait, that didn't sound quite right"

Why equip your patrolmen with $1600 Glocks when you can get a $1200 Smith & Wesson.  If Glocks were at that price point in the real world.

*(edited for spelling error.  How in the HELL did I originally misspell Tam's name as 'Damn'?)

Time machine

So I am rewatching Shawshank Redemption.  Morgan Freeman's character, Red, is out on parole in 1966, feeling mopey.  He window shops at the same pawn shop Briggs did years earlier.  There, on display, is a bunch of really nice Colt (medallions) handguns, then a couple Smiths (smaller, less shiny, medallions).   Perfect to knock over the Piggly Wiggly where he works.  He buys the compass instead to look for a cache in Buxton.

The thought occurred.  What if I were transported back in time to the mid 60s.  Besides saving 1964 and older quarters, buying gold and whatnot waiting for the mid 70s, then buying T-Bills and double digit inflation and a bunch of stocks I knew might go up in value, among other things, I'd eventually buy a firearm or two.  Especially before 1968.

But what pre-1968 firearm would I buy, knowing all the history to come.  Obviously, I like the 1911 now, but did they make decent ambi-safeties back then.  A 1911 has less utility to me without it.

I'd probably end up with the ol' stand by revolver.  Either M1917 style or Model 27.  Model 60, too.

Wait til the early 80s to get a BAR or two.

Frum pt 2

A rebuttal of Frum's idiocy at the Metrocon Fortnightly blog.

Ill

I have a cough and a weekend straight razor shaving habit.  Let's see how this turns out...

Good Ol' David Frum

If you WANT to carry a gun, the gov't shouldn't LET you, to paraphase David Minderbinder Frum.

Hypothesis: the people who most want to carry are the very last people on earth who should be allowed to carry.
— davidfrum (@davidfrum) February 16, 2014

I'd call him the ultimate metrocon, (a conservative that has never left an urban mindset and only sees 3 types of people with guns: cops, robbers, soldiers) but I don't think he is a conservative on pretty much anything else anymore.

Anyway, the twitterverse jumped on him for that tweet, and he got the attention he wanted. So I guess it all works out for him.

Ammo Debate

That is near and dear to my heart.

What if we went to .276 Pederson or the equivalent back in the 30s?  What if we did it now with something like the 6.8 Remington?  Replace both 5.56 and 7.62 with something better.  One Round to Rule Them.

Well THAT guy has the ballistics and reload chops to explore that idea better than I ever could beyond a slight bit of history I can call up.

Short answer: with the trade offs that you have to do, there is no big gain, or gain enough, to over come the hassle of the switch or really justify the switch.  Only in fantasy land can you make something as compact and light as the 5.56 be as effective as the 7.62.  Wouldn't it be nice, tho, if the laws of physics could be suspended?  But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.  You want egg in your beer, too?

Nightmare Fuel

Crinkles replaces the great white whale in mine, now.

10 Years

It happened in Venezuela.  It can happen just about anywhere.  In 10 years you can have participatory democracy with opposition turn into a dictatorship, with community activists and union thugs acting as brownshirts, and Homeland defense forces gunning down unarmed protesters.

Hooray Bill of Rights.  Hooray Federal Republic.  NEVER let those weaken. It's a check on SEIU and AFSCME.  It might help with the militarization of the police, but work needs doing on that front. We never should have let the petty tyrants ratchet things down as much as they have, here, in this country.  Check and balances, people.

If cops start shooting at protestors and union thugs start pounding same with impunity in the US, well, don't sit still for that.

T Rex

I gotta get this t-shirt. 

What the

9th Circuit strikes down May Issue?

the NINTH?

Big implications for other shall issue states like Maryland...

Using the Zombacalypse

To hock bitcoins.  Interesting.

It's just money.  Or trying to be.  With advantages and disadvantages just like other money.

There are three fundamental things we want a money to do:

1) We want money to maintain a stable domestic price level.
2) We want money to maintain a stable relationship against other currencies.
3) We want money to be freely convertible into goods, including other moneys.

Pick two.   Bitcoin might one day do 2 and 3.  Not yet, but maybe one day. 

Bitcoin has some advantages and disadvantage over the last money, gold, that did 2 and 3.  But why not

Lincoln

Ammo Shortage?

I thought it was getting better, not still bad.  I thought it had turned the corner.

I was judging by seeing .300 Blackout at the gunshow.  I don't buy it, I just check to see if it's available as my bellweather.

Also .22.  While not overflowing with the stuff, I'm starting to see it.  And the price has gone from $35 for 500 to $30.

Apparently someone is following behind me and hoovering it up.

Marko Kloos

I finished his book.  It's good.  The first, Terms of Enlistment, was good, but this, Lines of Departure, is slightly better.  

It's a book about a dropship grunt, if you are unfamiliar, and there is plenty of infantry action in this one, like the last, but I prefer a bit more space opera  and ship combat in my SciFi, and this latest delivers more of that, which is nice.  I can't wait for the third in the trilogy.

One of the characters is based on Breda, legendary former gunblog chick and cohost of the SQRPT. On which the author, Marko, will be a guest this Thursday.  The character is a badass Master Sergeant and whenever she has dialog I hear Breda's voice and mannerisms.  Which is jarring when Marko diverts to something that isn't Breda.  For example, while real Breda is badass, she isn't tall like Master Sergeant Fallon.  More pint size.  Maybe 3 gills.  The real Breda also isn't a back slapper or friendly-puncher like the character, and like soldiers can be.  And the real Breda doesn't have a Medal of Honor, yet.  Other than that, the character feels spot on. 

I screwed up.  The first book is one of the only books I've paid to own on my Kindle.  I intended to do that again, but got the paper version from Amazon somehow.  Oh well.

Zombeaver

Oh good Lord

Zombie Beavers.

Zombeavers is an action-packed horror/comedy in which a group of college kids staying at a riverside cabin are menaced by a swarm of deadly zombie beavers. A weekend of sex and debauchery soon turns gruesome as the beavers close in on the kids. Riding the line between scary, sexy and funny, the kids are soon fighting for their lives in a desperate attempt to fend off the hoard of beavers that attack them in and around their cabin.

Seconds

Work buddy and Maryland resident The Beard has a .22, a .45 S&W, an AR, and a Mossberg.  The standard 4.  Before he met me he had nothing, himself, and I sorta nudged him along the path and implanted in his head the received wisdom of the 4 gun system.  (rifle, pistol, shotgun, and a .22)

Before me, he had a gun in the house, but it was a .357 that belonged to his girlfriend.

Well, I've also convinced him of the utility of spares.  In case a firearm is disabled and needs repair.  One is none and two is one.  Plus he noticed when he was on one side of the house that the defensive firearms were all OVER there on the other side. 

But... what to get first?  He is leaning toward a second Mossy.  Not the exact same model, but with a certain commonality of parts.  I don't know, but I sorta lean to a second pistol having greater utility for his purposes (not a hunter, not a CCW person in MD.)

He noted he lacked a true hunting rifle.

His AR is a California style bullet button type.  He could get another AR15 in Maryland as long as it is a heavy barrel.  AR10s are ok, too.  I half wish I had started and ended at AR10s, now that they are more prevalent in the .mil. 

What say you?

Neck, pain in the

I am bupkis on blog fodder.  And hurt.  Pain hurts imagination.

Sometimes, when laying down, I can turn my neck just so to relieve something inside.  And the pain fades and my arm no longer feels like the bone is broken.  Relief.

Can't tell if the relapse is waxing or waning. Hope... wane.

Gonna eat some chili now.  Gun content: MBtGE shot the deer that made the venison portion.

More Z in the News

Police: Naked Man ‘On Some Kind Of Narcotics’ Was ‘Trying To Eat’ Teen’s Face Off

Or...  on some kind of undeadeness.  Absorbed bullets like a shamblor, too.

Florida.  Always Florida.  "Florida Man" does as much stuff as "Sumdood"

Oh my aching

Like many bloggers for some reason, I am, this week, being troubled by my spine.

Some in the lumbar area.  Sciatica, left side, too.  But that I can deal with.  The worst is the disks on both sides of C5 in my neck.  THAT has a lot of pain in the neck and down the right arm to my finger tips.  Hurts to type and mouse.  And it sucks.  Not much to do other than Vitamin I, right now.  It comes and goes.  I hope it goes again, soon.

Gotta be firm with people...

that don't at least pay the minimum on their credit card bills, or something.

Stack On follow up

I called the company and they are sending me a free replacement lock.  WITH instructions on how to remove the broken lock and install the new.

Shucks.  I was kinda in the mood to get rid of this one and get a brand new slightly larger one...

Well, bring it, sparky

I love college students. Such superb critical thinking. It's why they are there, after all.

Went to the Blogger Thingy

It was fun.  But DANG the restaurant had small rooms to host us all.  The Cajun Experience is in one of the oldest houses in Leesburg.  The wood clapboard siding had square nails holding it on, for instance.  We were all crammed into an upstair bedroom of some kid's from 1750.  All 25+ of us.  Arse's and elbows.  I'd recommend another place with an more open floorplan next time.

The food was great.  Fried mudbugs and boudin, and a taste of Etouffe.  Yum.  Abita beer in quanity. (try the Jockamo it get's the NJT seal of approval) I didn't carry, as I was drinking.  It's cool in Virginia to carry in establishments that server booze, just don't drink nuthin.  I didn't feel vulnerable as there were temporary teetotalers present to save my hide.  Plus, you know, knives.

Before the dinner MBtGE and I hit up the Manassas gun show at the fairgrounds.  It's a bit wee, for a show, and nothing called my name.  MBtGE got some .223, tho. 

Crans

Bad Weekend for the Zombacalyse

Help.

I got a problem.  The Stack-On gun cabinet where I keep most all my boombsticks?  The lock will no longer turn.  Or let go of the key.

The key won't go (or was very difficult to go) into or come out of the lock.  I think something in the lock itself is broken.

Any thoughts, tips, or strategies?  It's screwed to the floor in the back of the closet, so getting at it is difficult.

Hope I don't need a rifle...

Receipt

So, on the Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit front.

I got the receipt for it on Wednesday last.  2 weeks after I mailed it in.  The note says it should take 3 months to process.  8 days for Utah, 3 months for VA.  So, good thing I got the UT one before the NRA convention.