Get yer ass to Mars

Elon Musk wants to put a million people on Mars.  Here's why.

"The first few gotta eat something."

Yes, but does MY caliber suck?

A thought from the comments on this hoary old argument. 

Why take the cue for caliber selection from a bloated bureaucratic fedgov organization that would rather you not be armed with a titanium spork, much less an actual firearm.  So put that in your pipe and note it.  Note that the FBI is switching from .40 to 9mm if they use premium modern JHP ammo.  You don't trust them gummint types, remember?  Just because they agree with you?  Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and again.  But that poor squirrel has to eat a lot of bottle caps and cigarette butts and pop tops before that.

If the FBI said that steel core .32 Magnum was the way to go, in an N Frame revolver that holds 10 in the cylinder, would you make a beeline for the gun store?  Well, not if that is what you've been carrying for years.  Then you get to say, "Toldja, yo!  Superior man stopper."

Well, the gummint isn't telling ME what to do.  And now I want an N-Frame .32.  Smith and Wesson sells no .32 caliber revolvers currently.

Been re-reading some Jeff Cooper stuff again.  We all know his caliber preference, but he seemed to waffle between wadcutter and standard 230 gr FMJ.  I guess some years he wanted a better wound channel and some years he wanted firearm reliability in a stock Gov't 1911.  There may be reasoning behind either choice that I have not run across.  I don't know where he ended up but remember he was semi-retired before JHP designs became really acceptable in a semi. 

----

Oh, and I eat my chili with that titanium spork.  It is my goto utensil for that application.  Chili is sometimes served on top of pasta or corn chips, but it doesn't hafta be.   Beans can be served with chili but never cooked in the chili.  Never.  There is no beans in chili.  Ever.  Beans are maybe a garnish.  Like onions or parmesan cheese.

It's be like making Bananana Crème Pie with a pound of ground lamb.  Lamb is good.  Bananana Pie is good.  Not made together.

Pepperidge Farm

UK and Denmark

Join the bombing campaign of them Islamists that have nothing to do with Islam.  Somehow.  The administration cheers the growth of their coalition effort.

Remember when it was cool to mock the W administration because they celebrated getting more nations into the "Coalition of the Willing"?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Remember when this guy got that Nobel Peace Prize his first week on the job?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Browning's Genius

The .45ACP round.  Perfection that could not be improved upon.  God's own caliber.

Ok, ok, enough with the hyperbole. 

Browning invented a lot of cartridges.  The Army specced .45 because of perceived issues with .38 in scuffles overseas.  But you never know.  What if the Army hadn't?  JMB would have been out of luck?  No, he had other offerings. 

Like the .38ACP.  JMB had it in the Colt 1900.  So it predates the .45ACP that didn't come out til '04. 

And it doesn't step on patent toes of the 9mm Parabellum, which is in development at the exact same time, and maybe a little newer.  Plus, it has a little more ooomph to it than the Luger round.  Well, as originally intended.   Browning originally intended his .38ACP to be loaded at .38 Super levels, but dialed it back while he worked the kinks out of this whole semi-auto pistol business. 

I wonder how much of each other's development the 2 gun makers knew about...

At any rate, he was ready with a .38 semi offering to build off of, depending on what the Army settled on wanting.  Two steps ahead of them Government Ordnants ninnies. 

Maybe in further development, JMB might have headspaced off the cartridge mouth in a 'next generation .38 ACP.  The .38 ACP, as is, headspaces offa semi-rim.  Which is kinda odd for a semi auto, but remember, Browning was blazing trails here.  Inventing stuff out of whole cloth.   Sorta like YOUR invention of a cheap and simple phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range.  No one knows what that gun looks like but you until you get it out of your head and into the factory.

So what tripped me down this rabbit hole?  The Webley-Fosbery had a .38ACP version.   8 shots, too.  Can you imagine?  What if the War Department had adopted THAT?!

Clubbing

What are teenagers and an 11 year old doing at a night club at 1AM? 

Forget about the drive-by, why are they even there?

See, this is why I don't dress up and go out to a club.  Ricky Ricardo isn't the band leader, and the patron are literal children.  I prefer to do my cocktail swilling with adults, personally.

Canton

A clerk at a gas station fought back against three robbers.  In Canton Ohio.  Where at least one of their force used to like to discourage law abiding citizens from carrying. 

The clerk was wounded, but hit for effect on 2 of the robbers.


Odd place, Canton.

I don't think officer Harless works there anymore, tho.

From the headlines

"Bound Oklahoma man found decapitated; Police suspect suicide."

Can you do Sudden Jihadi Syndrome on yourself, while your hands and feet are tied?

Jobs

I was a VHS jockey
I ran the register at a convenience store
I was a mop pusher
I hauled trash
I hauled biological waster to an incinerator
I was a telephone operator
I did statitistics
I was a sailor
I was a Naval officer
I hocked kegs of beer
I BREWED the damn beer and bottled it and sold it.
I supported software
I sold software on commission
I was a system administrator
And I played that funky music.

Til I died.

Mr. Cunningham

New to me concept.

Cunningham's Law:   “The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer.”

I wonder how true that is Mr. C.  Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...

So if I want to know something I just have to blog about it and say, "There one thing about the Blastomatic 5000 that is entirely true is Xxxx" and put down something I know is wrong and wait for the correct Yyyy answer in the comments.

Sounds too risky to me.

And I don't think the Law has anything to do with Happy Days, however.  Yeah.

Compare/Contrast

Number of jihadist terrorists the TSA has stopped:  0

Number of jihadist terrorists a CCW holder has stopped:  At least 1.

What's the time?

TIL from the radio...

I have been on this planet absorbing advertisements for umpty 45 years and only NOW I notice that watch ads, invariably, the analog watch is set to 10:10.  Or thereabouts.  It's almost 90% of the examples.  In new ads and old ads.

What the?!

That's the sort of thing I usually pick up.  But the radio man had to tell me.

Not having haunted gunshops

For my entire adult life, I notice trends that are only a 'thing' relatively recently.

Is it just me... or...

There seem to be a lot more .22 pistols around today.  I mean, compared to 2007. Back then, I only remember Ruger Mk III.  Maybe a Buckmark.  A few years later and Mosquitos showed up.  Nowadays the .22s are taking up a lot more display space with a plethora of choices.

Am I imagining things?

Holder

The dead rise from the grave and the Attorney General quits...

I need goat entrails to check more portents.  Then, THE ORACLE!

It Begins

!

Gun Crow Laws

Washington DC...  a civil rights backwater for its residents.  They should feel ashamed.

Over Militarization, etc

Cool stuff.  Check it out.  Got me thinkin.

The worst thing that could happen to our civil liberties?

A rampaging terrist squad on a wilding spree in an area that doesn't have an MRAP to respond to em.  After the attack, someone notes in the press that they didn't have that MRAP because of concerns over over-militarization.  The public's percieved security need will spin 180 degrees, and cops will universally patrol in up armored vehicles from then on out, when that outcry is peeled to the heavens.

We've been working on our 2nd Amendment response and argument for decades.   After a horrific spree when the opposition goes, "We should ban all ARs because of that!" we have a practiced reply on why that is a bad idea. 

We aren't ready to respond to a spree where the opposition, after, goes, "All cops should have turret mounted armored vehicles"

---

You know why cops hate the idea of more cameras monitoring what they do?  Well a big part of it is Adam 12.  Yes, the TV show.  I knew neighborhood cops in the 70s and 80s that were unimpressed with cop shows.  And Adam 12 was high on the list.  But the kind of cop portrayed on that show is in the DNA of American culture.  And that cop is almost impossible to live up to.  In the language department alone.   Cops cuss more in the first minutes of a shift than even a cross word was uttered in the whole series.   Reed and Malloy were angels and set the bar impossibly high for expected behavior.

And that's hesitation to adopt.  Once adopted, it's a different story.

5 Terrifying Things!

Not a good idea to commit felonies and then confess to them in a public record, Cracked.

(Might as well say "5 things that are super illegal now, but we want to make them somehow more illegaller")

What next? 

"5 terrifying things I learned murdering hobos and burying them in the yard, and then tipping the cops off"?

Stop It

Stop saying that Washington DC now allows conceal carry.  People posted that all over.  It's May Issue.  And like most May Issue states it means "nobody without the juice."  It's not allowing CCW. 

Saying DC allows conceal carry is like saying a black man in Alabama in 1885 had the right to vote.  Look at the 15th Amendment!  It says so!  Highest law of the land says a black man can vote.  But that's not the reality on the ground back then, is it?

No, Gun Crow laws are still in effect in DC, Maryland, New Jersey, New York... others.

How would you feel if Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada, assuming you don't live there, were just ignoring the 19th Amendment and didn't let women vote?  Maybe let them pretend they are voting at the polls, but then just not counting those female votes?  Would you feel a little less free in North Carolina or Maine, or Wisconsin?  Doesn't really impact women near you, so...  What's the big diff?  Just tell women in California to move someplace better.  Right?  How does that make you feel?  It's not like it's in another country.  It's still YOUR country out west, there.  If you join the military you are fight for those hypothetical and blatant disenfranchising states, too. 

People tell me to move out of THIS state because of the gun banning regime.  No, I'll stay here.  The state will change.  Same with Jersey.  Same with DC, and New York...

In fact, YOU should move here.

Fall Allergies

You ever get allergies in the fall?

Or maybe you are allergic to decent fruit cake.

Fence Jumper 2

Later reports say he Whitehouse Fence Jumper used to have a sawed off shotgun, until the Virginia police took it from him.

Which means he probably had a shotgun.  Probably.  Not recently.   Now whether it would actually be a shotgun with a shortened barrel, less than 16 inches in length, that remains to be seen. 

It's the kind of detail the media would fudge, isn't it?  Or confuse in their ignorance and go with the term that sounds more dramatic.  Because the Vice President and Duck Hunters and nice Skeet Shooter have shotguns.  Good guys.  Bad guys have 'sawed off shotguns'.

The reports are probably correct, but I am always half dubious about them because of the Media's track record on such things.

The Problem w/ Gun Banners

Is they forget what justice is.  Sometimes their victim gets lucky.  A famous professional athlete commits a violent crime and the Eye of Sauron known as the Mainstream Media is drawn to some penny-ante DA in a state whose encyclopedia entry has the reference:  "NEW JERSEY; see Public Corruption."

Because of this attention, the boar-hogging of a gun owning mother of two that mistakenly assumed her license to carry meant she could have a gun a in her car might be intercepted.  Lucky for her.

Fence Jumper

It is reported that the Whitehouse Fence Jumper had knives, machetes, hatchets and 800 rounds of ammunition on his person or in his car.

I wonder what kind of ammo?  Do you think it was decent .22?  Where did he buy it?  Did he pay less than a dime a round?!!

I HATE it when the media leaves out the most important details.

Notice, no gun.  A gun with that ammo would have got bigger billing

The Weather

So, the Reds want to imposed their socialism because of the weather.  But they have a PR problem.  They aren't 'selling' their argument.  For one thing, they can't really settle on a name that doesn't get overcome by events. 

New Ice Age fell out of favor in the 80s.  Please forget the Socialists ever used it. (Oh and NEVER say Socialism.  That word and all its antecedent subsequent never tests well in front of any test group for very long.)

Global Warming.  It stopped warming

Climate Change.  Folks caught on that the Climate is like the weather and is always changing.

Climate Dislocation?  Getting there.

ACCGW:  Anthopogenic Carbon-forced CatastrophicGreenhouse Warming.  This is the closest we've gotten.  The blame is right (on people and carbon dioxide) and it's properly alarming (CATASTOPHE!!!) but doesn't roll of the tongue good. 

I got it!

WD40.

Weather Discombobulations 40.  That forty means you better give us 40% of your resources, and expect that big a drop in your standard of living, or 40% of your friends and relatives are gonna die.  Send me my reward check and extra gas ration card for coming up with a winning term.  Don't make me call a buncha patchouli-smelling longhairs to go all Discombobulation on your ass!

What is it about Sundays

That make me have blogger's block.  It's odd.

You know what we haven't done in a while?  Ammo inventory.  Five or six years ago there was common enough discussion about the blogs.

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”  -R Kipling

“Except when your house is on fire”  -J T Bolt

There was the rule of thumb.  Keep 500 of each major pistol caliber of each gun you have, and 1000 rounds of your primary rifle ammo and 100 each of the weird stuff like .25 if you have that.  Or .22-250 for grandpa's single shot prairie dog gun that you leave in the safe.

And .22.  Buckets and buckets of .22 long rifle.

Meh.  It's about that for me.  A few .50 cal ammo cans filled with 50 round boxes, and a large can of rifle ammo with battle packs in it.  I don't know exactly how many, but if I was thinking of dipping into those cans I'd be hunting for more ammo in hard way.  It's sort of my never-go-below floor.

And now that the anmo drought is pretty much over I should double check.  Be sure the range ammo is plentiful.

What Time Is It?

Coupla Days Ago

I mentioned my grandfather Friday.  1/7 Marines.  HQ Company. 

Well no wonder he got the Silver Star.  The Colonel and CO that he would have been cheek by jowl with was Herman Hanneken.

Jeff Cooper details Hannekin's exploits in Haiti, where he shot some bandit named Charlemagne in the face after sneaking into his bandit-camp, in his book Fireworks.  Some people are butthurt about his conduct then, today.  For them people, raspberries! 

But Grandpa would have that sort of example to learn from and live up to the expectations of.  "If the Old Man can single handedly take out 1200 bandits, I can string some comms wire from here to Baker company even with the Japanese shooting at me."

DC Goin May Issue

Yeah yeah, reported elsewhere.

But their rep formulating the regs specifically cited Maryland's CCW regime as his model for DC.  AND cited the fact that to his mind Maryland's regime passed constitutional in court.  Also modelling after New Jersey and New York.

The court case he is referring to, to refresh your memory, is the so called Woolard case, denied cert at the Supreme Court.

Yeah you might not want to let them get away with that "but the court ruled so this is final" message.  Because it's a perception wedge that will spread to YOUR state.  Respond with the truth.  The Circuit is still split and SCOTUS hates a split Circuit.   Notice CCW is shall issue in California?  The dust hasn't settled.  DC is gonna hafta revisit these rules when it does settle.

70

On or about this day 70 years ago my grandfather earned a Silver Star working as a radio man in Headquarters Company of the 1st Battalion 7th Marines.  Posthumously. 

Obama Comes Around

President Obama recalled the one-year anniversary of the Washington Navy Yard shootings

"One year ago, 12 Americans went to work to protect and strengthen the country they loved. Today, we must do the same – rejecting atrocities like these as the new normal and renewing our call for common-sense reforms that respect our traditions while reducing the gun violence that shatters too many American families every day," he concluded.

Finally!   He saw the light and wants to reduce such predatory violence.  I imagine he'll put his political capital behind passing nationwide Vermont conceal carry, finally, so every day American citizens have a chance against the depredations of criminals.  Not just on public streets, but on federal gov't installations, too

Only Nixon could go to China, only Obama could bring common sense like this to gun control debate.

3000

3000 soliders sent to Africa to light up ebola viruses with 5.56...


Hey, I got WWI on the mind lately.  While 7 million soldiers were kilt in the war, and 8 millian civvies on top of that (according to the Pope), at least TWENTY million people bought the farm from Spanish Flu when the war ended.  And one of the things that really exacerbated the spread of that deadly disease was sending soliders to gather in areas where the disease could be contracted.

I hate it when history and current events rhyme like that.

So What to Get

Why are you asking me what 1911 to get?  I am New Jovian Thunderbolt.  Emphasis on New.   What do I know?

It's been goin around.

I can only pass on received knowledge.  You shoulda asked Tam a while back.  Though I don't think she'd have taken the bait.  Because what if things change?  People today using her 'list' from 2012 or 2008 (just as a fer instance) might be buying a pistol in a totally different environment.

I have a bit more under my belt now.  A coupla armorers class.  A few thousand rounds.  But you want to ask the pistol smith that knows what he or she is doing and has tens of thousands of rounds under his belt. 

I can pass along what the gunsmith said, and what my current mindset is. 

Springfields are halfway decent.  Not perfect, by any means.  

Get a Howa or an RIA.  Then soup up from there.  With a few armors classes.

I avoid the high dollar high option semi-custom 1911s now.  Why?  I can add my own after market stuff now, and I've seen too many high end guns with more problems than my GI Springfield.  I avoid Series 80 guns because fewer fiddly bits. 

One thing I do sorta regret with the GI type gun?  The sights aren't dovetailed in front, and not dovetailed enough in back.  And I don't have the mill or ability to correct that.

And before you Glock/Sig/M&P people say "just get one like mine, and it works right out of the box."  Well, all the 1911s I've seen and held and shot and what not have 'worked well right out of the box.'  In that they worked as well as your gun does.  And I've seen the stuff that can go wrong inside YOUR gun, now, too.  It comes from the factory with flaws, too.  One thing is those flaws can be easy to fix and stay on top of. (the safety plunger on the Glock... yeah you Glock people should take a good Glock armorer class...)

So... what 1911 to get...  Well, I can tell you what I'd get if I was shopping for a 1911:

A Howa
An RIA
A lower end Springfield  (but not, I'd intend to do a lot of work to any of these three)
I'd look at STI.
S&W and Remington I might keep in the back of my mind.

But I know even MORE stuff to look at before plunking down the credit card.   If I was really lucky I'd find a store that let me field strip a pistol.

Springfield

Don't get me wrong, they make a good 1911.  But they have foibles.   I mentioned the ejector before not being pinned?

Well they DO pin in their grip screw bushings a lot of time.

This isn't a problem, unless you want to remove them...  Then you can mung up the hole pretty easily, when removing them, stripping the threads on the frame.  Then what do you do?  Well, you can weld on more metal, then retap the holes.  Which is not something I am prepared to easily do.

Here's a tip for grip screw and grip screw bushing.  Use RED loctite on the bushings.  You use BLUE loctite on the screws.

Does this mean Springfield makes crap 1911s.  No no.  They are still better than most.  In class, the problem guns were a Kimber, a Les Baer, and a Wilson combat.  They came from the factory with many more flaws than other guns.   And the instructor was just glad there was no Colt Gold Cups.  The Series 80 bits can be fiddly to detail strip.

I WAS lucky in that the pin holes seemed to be drilled close enough to true so that an ambi safety was easily doable.  That can be a problem with ANY maker.

Yo, Second Amendment Foundation

If you want people to link to you, you might not want to yoink the banner image from your website we use to link to you.

http://www.saf.org/img/Banner_med.jpg

Boberg

The Boberg post I put up the other day...

When gripping with a thumbs forward grip, where is the Other Strong Hand's thumb?  Is it in an owie place?

(I am left handed.  My strong hand is my left hand.  It pulls the trigger.  My Other Strong Hand is my right hand.  Because there are no weak hands up in here!)

Gun Rights Arguments

The gun rights arguments being made 50 years ago in the face of gun ban efforts? 

They are exactly the same arguments as today.

There was a big push for gun control 50 years ago.  And a response from our side.  Something about an assassination bringing the issue to the forefront with a new sense of urgency.

We set forth a factual, well reasoned argument for our position, and it bounces right off of undecided people. 

Well, not entirely.  The needle has moved in our favor, but you have to repeat and repear the arguments over and over again.  Convince and cajole constantly.

We are lucky in that the other side grows less likable, and the promises gun bans put forward didn't bear the efficacious fruit.  And loosening anti-gun regulations DID correspond with greater safety!  Shazam!

Boberg 45

Saw this on Oleg's sight. 

Wow.

A .45 Boberg.

So odd an OS.  And totally violates my policy of "75 years of field testing before T-Bolt will truly accept it."  But it sure does give me a bad case of the WANTS.

Naturally, I'd want to test fire it first.  And I've never SEEN one in the wild. 

That reminds me, I need to sniff around some gun shops a bit more.

Boys In Blue

This question should have occured to me sooner.  'Why do police officers have blue uniforms?'

Old timey cops from the 19th Century up through today.  The police wear blue.  They just do.

I should have thought further and asked myself why.

Then I stumbled over this.

Summary...  No one knows....

Ok, probably because blue is easier to clean, coupled with inertia nowadays and some psychologist mumbo jumbo.  That's the TL:DR version.

Local and state cops here, where I live, wear brown

RC 2

Licorice whip is gonna whip your ass.

Rollercoaster

Aw yeah baby you know what I am talking about.

IFF

A handy dandy list of thousands of establishments that are a fer us, or agin us!  ~spit~

Who's who to boycott or patronize.

I didn't see that website come up in any of my blog reading perambulatings, so, I thought I'd share.

It looks like it is trying to be a free Angie's List of hoplophobes or people supportive of our civil rights.

I don't know if I can keep up with my boycott outrage with a list this long, in practice...

So THAT's what it was...

Crap, I got nuthin

For today.

I was think of stuff to say on this anniversary, but nothing really comes to mind other than a slight disappointment and dissatisfaction of our muted response to what happened 13 year ago today.  Especially compared to how we responded to things in December of '41.  And how feckless we are now compared to 1954.

I DID just pass 10,000 comments on this blog not too long ago, so there is that! 10,032 today.

Maybe I'll go to the range today.  Test the 'smithed' 1911 some more.

It's a small world

It's a small world.

But I wouldn't wanna paint it.



(comments are disabled over there, so, I gotta add them here.)

Gel

Masaad Ayoob said recently: "With law enforcement hollow points, current ammo has made the 9mm a much more viable defensive choice than it used to be."

But everyone says that now.  Jeff Cooper is long in the cold cold ground and it doesn't look like he is coming back.  (Pity.)  So saying 'you need a round that begins with .4' is certainly not in fashion.

Why?  The ballistic gelatin doesn't lie!

And everyone cites that picture.

Wait.  Do that test again.  I've seen that picture a few times and it changes slightly, sometimes.  Fresh pictures.  I'm a bit jaded recently with stuff asserted as fact on the internet.  I'm ready to go along with it if you get similar results.  But doesn't the temporary cavity on the 9mm seem a little anemic to you too?  Like less than half as big when you think in 3 dimensions?  I dunno...

Memphis

So the thing in Memphis lit a fire under a work buddy's butt to get his CCW.

He was the guy that lived in DC and has now moved to Virginia.

Dunno why the hurry now.  Not like violent flash mobs are a new thing.

He is former Marine and Air Force (don't ask) and hated the Beretta in service and is leaning toward .45 because... well... .45 is better.  Right?  I explained to him how a pistol is a pistol, pretty much, and quantity has a quality all its own.

He still like the feel of a .45 over a .40 and has rejected 9mm already.  Revolvers are right out in his mind.  The next question for him is WHICH .45.

I am a responsible gunnie.  Playing Devil's Advocate.  Getting him to question his assumption.  Tell him both sides.  Correct factual deficiencies.  Not interject my own preferences. 

Where were the CCW people in the Memphis Parking Lot?  Did they all use their situational awareness and di di mau before the action started?

Update:  Hmmm.  When you think about it...  When the action starts there is only a handful of victims.  What are the chances that out of a half dozen people one of them would be a CCW carrier?  Good question!  460,000 CCWs in TN, out of a population of 6,500,000.  A 1 in 14 chance, statistically. 

you see that?

You see that 'ramp' on the barrel of your non-Colt gun?  It should have just the one facet.  If it has more than one...  well someone somewhere was trying to fix a feeding issue...  It could have even been the guy at the factory.

You already know that the assemblers of your gun isn't as skilled as he or she used to be, right?  Oh sure, you could get lucky, or that assembler could have gotten lucky.  But consistent highly skilled people are expensive.  And this is true for all the 1911 makers.  The guy behind me had a VERY expensive pistol from a high end purveyor.

Every 1911 has something 'wrong' with it. (But don't get too cocky, Glock folks.  There is something wrong with your Precious, too.  And some safety parts that wear out pretty quick.  Sometimes within the first 200 rounds.  Gonna have to take a Glock armorers class to see some of them...)  So what is wrong with mine?

On this particular gun, the leaf spring is bit wonky.  The assembler did some funny bending of the middle finger that pushes on the disconnecter.  And the other fingers (let me double check which one...) to get the gun to pass a drop test, it seems.  Here is the safety check a factory spring would fail in my gun. 

1. Safely dry fire your 1911, and keep holding the trigger and grip safety down.
2. Rack the slide or pull the hammer back
3. Release the grip part of the safety
4. Then, slowly release the trigger.  The grip safety should click back into place.  You see that?  You hear the click?  If it doesn't...  you should address that.  Like, immediately.

Snark's Back?

Oh good.

4473

So, Question 11c on ATF from 4473 says:

"Have you ever been convicted in any curt of a felony, or any other crime, for which the judge could have imprisoned you for more than one year, even if you received a shorter sentence, including probation."

So, what if, your state has misdemeanor Assault with a sentence that says 'not to exceed 365 days', does that mean you are not a prohibeted person?  Would the sentence have to be 366 days at least to disqualify you from firearm possession?


A work associate has a reprobate neighbor you see... that has made threats about shooting my work associate's dogs.  But a public records search shows that Assault beef on his record from 15 years ago.  Reprobate neighbor is also 'known to police' now.  Many people summon the cops because of his antics that might not rise to level of handcuffs and Miranda.

Just wondering for when Associate has to call the police again if her mentioning "he keeps talking about shooting my dog, shoud that jailbird even have a gun?" all innocently, would ellicit different police behavior.  I mean, she doesn't want to HAVE to shoot the guy at some future date.

I did tell her to keep an eye out and to call immediately if she ever sees a gun in his possession. 

What say you readers?

Thinking Aloud

Heard at the gunsmith:

"A 1911 in .32ACP.... Hmmmm"

Said by someone that can make that happen. 

Hmmm...  Balancing the recoil spring properly boggles my mind, just to start.  From a gunsmithing perspective.

Springfield

Here is a bad habit of Springfield Armory's.  They don't always pin the ejector to the gun.  They just glue it.  Pah!

It's a part that takes a lotta pounding.  And they pin in all their high end guns.  Why not this model?  Do you really save that much, it's less than half an hour to do it. 

Anyway, Ima send this in.  Now I gotta research all the stuff you need to do to mail a gun in for service.  PITA...

They also shape the ejector kinda off, but they aren't alone.  And it is easy to fix. More like the above. less like below.  For reasons.

Hard Numbers

I mentioned the 'spec' numbers for the diameter of the slide stop pin.  Even the 'spec' range is too loose for a properly fitted gun.  It's just the number a manufacturer needs to get in the ballpark. 

They are supposed to fit the parts to the gun and each other.   Supposed to. 

But that's not the point.  The point is there is no real firm hard and fast numbers.  Well. there are a few.  On is 75/1000ths.

.075"

A little more than 7/100ths of an inch, less than 8/100ths of an inch.  If you own a machinist ruler you've seen 100ths of an inch, so you may be able to picture this measurement in your head.

What is this measuring?  Take you barrel out of the gun and drop a properly sized dummy round in the chamber.  If you look at the bottom of the barrel where the ramp is you can see a sliver of the cartride wall.  The cylinder part of the brass case.  There should be less than 75/1000ths of an inch exposed.  After that, the brass gets too thin, and, if unsupported by the chamber, you can blow out the brass.  And that is bad-bad.  Glocks tended to do that.

So, how could more than that be exposed on a 1911 barrel?  Someone went a bit too much on the barrel with a dremel.  Here's another dremel trick.  If you are working on the ramp in the barrel and you nick the top of the chamber because you let the spinning stone go too far in, when you next fire brass will be pushed INTO that nick.  A big enough nick an you've locked that brass in the chamber.  Ooops.  Easy to fix.  Get a real gunsmith to rebarrel your gun and don't do that again.

Souvenirs of Death

Hoplophobe and tyrant, J Edgar Hoover, anthropomorphizes a wartime bring-back pistol.  I caught the tail end of this tale on Turner Movie Classics and dratted my luck.  I can't find the thing on video anywhere or would embed this short.

Souvenirs of Death.

From the description on IMDB:

As seen through the indifferent eyes of a callous Mauser pistol, the story line tracks its chain of custody after being picked up on a French battlefield by an American GI near the body of its dead owner, a German soldier. Although he takes precautions for its safe display, the GI's young son is able to access it and show it to friends, one of whom ends up killing the family dog. Although the father disables it, the boy's mother insists it be disposed of, so he sends it to his brother for use as a souvenir paperweight. It is lost in a poker game, hocked, and bought by a gunsmith who restores its firepower. Ultimately it reaches its seventh and last owner, a gangster who uses it to rob a casino and murder a policeman. 

Yeah, the pistol has a will of it's own and guns are nothing but trouble unless they are safely in a Cop's or G-Man's holster.  Uh huh.

Intermediate Armorer's Course, 1911

After Action Report.

The course at Hatfield's was good.  As good as the beginner class.  But that's because of the caliber of the instructor.  He picked up his gunsmithing and instructor skills in the Army in the Army Marksmanship Unit.

What did I learn?  LOTS of stuff.

Just a sample...  Check out your MIM slide stop.  The diameter of the post.  Many are fatter closer to the tip.  And the diameter changes from .198 on the side with the MIM 'mold' seam to .195 or less.  So that's a bad thing that MIM can give you.  But swapping it out for a better made after market part can hurt you.  But you can spec a post that is .200 or .202...  higher.  But then you may need to ream the holes in your frame.  And maybe the barrel link will need resizing.  But not too long a link. The post is supposed to ride on the ramp of the barrel lug.  And there shouldn't be a hump on the lug, either.

And this is just one small tiny area.  You gotta chase backwards if you look to make any change at all.  Make a change to the barrel bushing and you almost have to think about grip screw specs eventually.

Again, while I do pick up tuning tips that I can do to make the gun run better.  And recognize tuning areas I CAN do, but probably shouldn't.  What I truly learn in these classes is how much I don't know.

And we didn't even get to things we could do to the hammer and sear notches and such.  That's for the more advanced class.  And then 10 hours a day for two years working on other people's guns before I felt good enough to do my own.

Romney

I didn't vote for Romney last election.  Left that spot blank.

Millions of libertarian 'conservatives'. Did the same.

Don't believe me?  Doesn't matter.  It only needed thousand in Virginia Florida and Ohio to swing the thing.

Guess what happens if the GOP gets Romney again?  President Biden, 2017.  Good Lord