Out of Blog

I've been scraping dope posts up off the kitchen floor just to survive...










I guess I'll be at Murph's blog shoot tomorrow...  So more then.  I need to bring a fish eye lens with me.


Waughmp Waughmp!

Captured

What rifle is that? Yugo SKS?

Everyone Rips off the Germans

Or Mauser, more like.

What for bullets, and battle rifles.

-

Or you are a Metrocon

If you refer to my home as flyover country, you're telling me you think meat comes under plastic, nature is like the zoo, and guns are scary

— J.R. Salzman (@jrsalzman) October 29, 2014

I don't even... uh...

Master Beta?

Metrocons Defined

Governor Cuomo didn't expect to get as much heat for this long for passing onerous rights-curtailing gun legislation.  Good.  I hope it kills his career.  But one graph buried in this Times article is telling.  It is almost a perfect definition of what a Metrocon is.  People in the city and suburbs only see firearms in two contexts.  Either in a cop's holster or in a crooks hand.  And since they are not a cop or a crook, anything that might make guns be around, even ostensibly, is fine by them.

"In a poll conducted by Siena College in March, the Safe Act drew support from 63 percent of voters statewide. But opinions varied significantly by region: 79 percent of voters in New York City and 63 percent in the city’s suburbs approved of the laws, compared with only 45 percent in upstate New York."

79 or 63 to 45.  Those number have a lot of Liberal, obviously, but there are lots of conservatives in the city and close in suburbs.  How do you make those oridinary urban people see firearms as something for them, and not just for Law Enforcement or Bad Guys? 

Dole wants Romney to go for it in 2016

Bless your heart, Senator Dole, and thank you for you service.


Mitt?  Sit down. 

Give it UP Bush

Let some fresh blood with less baggage play the game this time.

Pledge Drive

So, listening to NPR, they had a pledge drive last week.  One host talking about the sublime season we were in talked about a doe nuzzling her fawn framed by fall foliage.  She didn't know the terms 'doe' and 'fawn' but that's ok.

That didn't sound right to me.  Are does and fawns still paired up this late in the season?  Maybe one of the more experienced outdoorsfolk can answer this. 

---

Oh, I am sure you are ALL asking.  "How much did you give to NPR during this pledge drive, T-Bolt?"

I already 'give' plenty.  The bill is due April 15th every damn year.   And they do take a bite.   But some of that money goes to other things.  Like selling AKs to drug cartels and ensuring our institution in charge of curbing communicable disease are extra incompetent.

Glue

There is one thing about glue.  Eventually it will fail.

Sure there are things hide-glue together STILL together found in Egyptian pyramids after 4000 years, but those items were also not touched.  I dare say a glue ejector left in a dry gunsafe with little temperature variations would also fare that well. 

Hide glue is made from animal skin and bone.  A protein based glue.  Apply a bit of steam and you dissassemble the joint

Modern wood glues?  Elmers.  Polyvinyl white glue.  "The glue joint is stronger than the wood"  as the old saying and commercial goes.  Of course it does still always fail next to the joint when they show that in action... 

So, a dresser drawer is glued at the joint.  But the glue will fail.  A cheap dresser drawer has simple 'mechanical' joints holding it together.  A butt joint is just glue holding it together.  A dado joint has a groove one board fits into on another and is slightly better.  Finger joints try to maximize surface area that the glue is in contact with and ensure there is less end-gran to the flat grain contact which is inherently weak.  But if you store something like shotputs in your dresser everytime you open the drawer they impact the back of the drawer and hammer it apart over time.   Same thing happens with lighter material than iron spheres, but it takes longer to hammer apart.

The best is a dovetail joint.   Those little wedged fingers mechanically hold the two boards together in one direction even without glue (so it will last longer with those shot puts, even without glue).  But a dovetail joint also has a lot of surface area contact for the glue to be attached too, just like the finger joint. 

Why not pin a wooden joint with a bit of metal?  A screw, an nail, a rod?  Dissimilar materials can give you problems later.  You've seen nails work their way loose over the years, right?

But we aren't concerned with wooden drawers.  We are concerned with things glued onto GUNS.  And I've been talking about the ejector on the 1911 lately.

Glue the ejector in place only is sorta like the dado joint.  The part does have those legs entering the frame, so some mechanical advantage is there.  They could have filed those off and just glued a flat ejector in place, and that would work for a few rounds...  But it's not as strong as glue-plus-stake.  That is more of a 'dovetail joint'.   Glue, plus 'legs', plus a pin holding the legs down.  Ideal.   This combination will see longest time to failure.  But is it just suspenders and a belt?  Why not just glue? 

Well, there is the heat from firing.  Really?  Is it that much heat?  Well, it'd be worse if it was glued to the barrel, certainly.  You've gotten fired brass down your collar, right?  At least the brass had three feet of air time to start to cool, the ejector is RIGHT THERE....  Yeah, but...  And steel doesn't conduct heat as much as other things.  Like brass or copper or aluminum.  Heat doesn't 'travel' down the metal as easy via conduction with iron based items.  But it still heats.  The case still impacts.  Impact/heat/begin-cooling every time you fire.  A little bit.  Vibration, impact and a bit of heat expansion.  Plus solvents when the pistol is cleaned...  Even glues that need to heat to break the joint are gonna fail.  Not like they would with a blowtorch and tools yanking on it, but fail, the glue will (/yoda).

But when?  If after 100 rounds that is unacceptible.  If after 10,000 rounds?  Well that's a lot less to worry about. 

So...  what glue was used to lock down the ejector?  The gunsmith thought it was 'Loctite Black' or equivalent.  What the hell is that?  Well it ain't Elmer's wood glue.  Loctite is a company brand name for a product that was originally designed to lock the threads of a machine bolt or screw so they wouldn't come loose.  They have more products now and a plethora of adhesives for all sorts of applications.  A basic gunsmith toolkit might include Loctite Red, Blue, and 'Black'. 

Loctite Red #271.  It's for the threads of something you screw on and never intend to unscrew.  To unscrew you will almost definitely need to heat the area to break the seal.  500 degrees farenheit.    It is... red in color.  Surprise.  The color makes it harder to screw up when you grab a bottle.  Good for the attaching the grip panel bushings to the frame. 

Loctite Blue #242.  Another thread locker but not as strong as Red.  You can still disassemble this with just tools after use, and not a touch of flame.  So you attach the bushings to the frame with Red, and the screws holding on the grip with Blue.  Not the other way around.  You do it the other way and then go to unscrew the grip screws and you just undo the bushings and it's a pain to get the bushings off the screwtips at that point. 

Another tip!  Don't fail to put Red on the bushings then Blue on the screws.  Same things happens at disassambly with a slightly easier problem to tackle gettin the bushings parted from the screw.  And a warning...  Springfield owners.  Springfield is known to pin the bushing to the frame mechanically.  So if you remove the bushing you might just mung up the frame.  As long as you don't mung up the frame this can be a good thing, havign them pinned, as they are in there pretty good.  If you do mung up the frame, adding metal to the hole and then retapping it for the screws is a PITA.  So removing the bushing to put Red on them is even more problematic.  What do you do if you don't know if they are pinned and don't want to risk removing your factory installed bushings?  Well, it's a pain to remove a normal bushing locked on a screw with Loctite Blue, but it's not that bad, all things considered.

Loctite 'Black' #480.  Used in parts assembly.  Requires less heat (100 degrees Celsius instead of 260 C, if I am reading the spec sheets right.) to break free than Red, but is for a part that you don't normally take apart.  Sort of a 'gentler' Red.  Other application for 1911s? Assembling the plunger tube to the frame before you stake THAT on there.  Note... not really a THREAD locker, per se.   Thread lockers are kinda thin, but they don't expect to have to hold across a big gap.  Male-female mate pretty closely with screw threads.  Loctite Black is more of a gelled superglue.  And is pretty cool!  I like super glue that stick like a gel to things.

To clairfy.  Loctite Black is just a nice rubberized super glue.  Cyanoacrylate family.

So, Springfield determined that this glue is good enough for a gun in one of their budget lines.  And I am sure it is for most users.  It'll be decades before it is a problem with most users, maybe.   I get that.  It the same impulse that puts $5 mags in with it instead of $20 magazines.  They can cut the price $30 that way.  I just want a Performance Center gun that I initially paid the GI Standard price for.  Everyone wants to maximize value while minimizing outlays.  And I took the chance of getting an improvement for free because the gunsmith I took a class from said Springfield has added the staking in the past for free.  Not so lucky, me.  Oh, they'll do it for me if I pay them.  It might even be a cheap procedure in itself (I didn't ask).  But the cost adds up when you consider shipping costs, so... That's why I am looking to perhaps doing this myself with proper adult supervision.  Also, to go over the types of adhesives, what they are good for, and share with you my blog readers.  Maybe do a service, thusly.

"If you want a Performance Center Gun (that always comes staked, btw) T-Bolt, just suck it up and pay for it!  You're gonna pay for it in the end anyway just nickel and diming yourself with parts and occasional professional gunsmith shop service"

Yeah, but then I wouldn't have all this fun with it, learning.  It's not like the gun isn't a gun now.   It functions just fine.   Plus I kid myself that I am saving money putting in my own sweat equity (I am paying a LOT of money learning how to put in my own sweat equity, you see...)

---

One other thing.  Another nod to Springfield just gluing:  "John Moses Browning staked em, so that must be the way to go.  Who am I and who is Springfield to go against HIM?!"  Well, glues like this are MUCH better today than they were 100 years ago...  Ideally you pin and BRAZE the part on, but even JMB would blanch at that labor, and time, and skill-intensive industrial assembly option.

Leftists are Monsters

As illustrated in this article from the website of the metrocon fortnightly. 

If they ever got the chance they would murder everyone on flyover country.  There really can be no peace between our peoples.   Keep a weather eye on them at all times.   Good reason for even having a 2nd Amendment.

"IT’S LIKE WE WERE SOLD A FALSE NARRATIVE BY A MEDIA EAGER TO ENABLE DEMOCRATS’ ELECTION-YEAR RACE-BAITING OR SOMETHING" --Glenn Reynolds. 

Well, yeah, but it's not just for the whole race thing.  When there is a shooting it's even money if the story hits big that it will be used to push a false narrative of SOME flavor, no matter the truth behind it all.  Luckily the truth gets out easier, kyboshing their narrative. 

Often this narrative is gun control related instead of race, or other, related.

Imagine how much slipped past the truth seekers in the day before the democratization of the news media?  Back then the only outlet would have been marginal pubs that don't reach a big diversity of eyeballs.  Like only seeing actual self-defense stories in American Rifleman months after.  Now the same stories that just would get there get out into more mainstream situations.

More Gun Control

Coming.  To Canada.  America's Hat.

The picture I've seen of the bad guy up there, he wearing one of them Yassir Arafat Terror-Hanky things and he has a lever action rifle. 

Sounds like they already HAVE plenty of gun control.   And yet... Somebody broke a slew of laws anyway. 

Also...

Something strikes me about Islamic Terrism.  Ya know, if it weren't for 3000 dead in 2001, the left the world over would probably be fully sympathizing with the bad guys by now.  Sorta like they supported terror groups 45 years ago in their crapulence.  You can always count on the Left to side against humanity and decency.

"[They] are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win."  --Michael Moore

Vickers...

Kevin Vickers.

What gun is that in the Canadian Sergeant at Arms hand?

Canada

Dream

Had a dream we were all in a survival situation.  I was to sleep on a schoolbus stripped of seats and with homemade canvas cots so close together that I didn't see how anyone could get up to pee in the dark.

Then we were buzzed by a Russian Bomber.  It was like a Soviet copy of the B52 but bigger, with more engines, if you can believe that.  Like they took a Badge, a Bear, and a B52 and combined the 3 into one airplane.  Huge.  With nuclear scramjets for propulsion.

So at least I knew why we were huddling in a bus for shelter.  Prolly no place else.

All I was armed with was a .45.  That was it in the bus. 

Almost feel sorry for them

So, an out of touch Leftist director is gonna use his hit movie making talents to make parody videos to shame Congress critters into supporting gun control.

Yeah, they've been trying that for years now and it always boomerangs back in their faces.  So, go ahead, I guess.  Beclown yourself and keep the issue in the forefront.  It'll be funny twice.  The first, when we watch it, the second when it backfires. 

The made up complaint is that the 'gun lobby' has politicians in their pocket.  Sure our side has some money, but is that our primary motivator?  Is that how we get politicians to toe the line?  I'd think it was our numbers and motivation at the polls that really catches a politician's attention.  I bet hollywood lobbiest have a LOT more money to throw around.  And a lot fewer votes at the polls.

What next?

Gunsmith wise, after I have this ejector thing behind me?  Well, for this gun, the trigger has some creep to it.  Like to get that addressed.  And a sight swap out will probably call for dovetail cuts in the slide that is beyond my abilities ATT. 

That will make this $700 gun very expensive.  What with the part, alone.  Slide stop, mainspring housing, premium ambi-safety, new sights, cuts to the slide...  I'm not counting the tuition for multiple classes as that is mods to my brain more than mods to the gun.

Oh and find out and correct why Springfield bent the fingers of the leaf spring like that instead of fitting the gun right.

Mudville 2

So, Springfield won't fix my gun right, what do I do now?

Well, there are options... As commenters have noted

Pay the gunsmith, locally.  Good time to get other things done, like a dovetail cut for the front sight.

Or, I can do it myself.  I have a very nice drill press.  I can order parts from brownells.  I can figure out the drill bit size to use.

Or, coincidentally, the ejector could 'come free' at a range trip tomorrow.  And I can call Springfield again and say, hey, the ejector just fell out somehow, and is this a defect you will FIX RIGHT FOR ME?!

Do they not pin the ejector on their Performance Center Guns?  Oh, they DO?  Like it was the right way to do it?  Oh my!  I bet they rifle the barrels of their Performance Center Guns.  Imagine if Springfield stopped rifling the barrels of Range Officer 1911s...  They could save a lot of money in production and really up the profits.

I dunno if I'd trust em, NOW to fix the ejector, though.

Riots

Dang whitey and his incessant rioting. 

Brilliant!

So this is a brilliant side effect of a do gooder liberal thing. 

Cornell had too many deer on campus.  Instead of eating them they spent a lot of crybaby bambi-mom money to give the does tubal ligation surgery.  But.  The deer population didn't go down.  Sure, those deer had no fawns, but the law of unintended consequences means they ended up with a lot more bucks, proportionately. 

What was happening was the does would go into heat, but not get pregnant.  So they'd go into heat again, several times a year instead of that once.  This attracted a lot more bucks. 

Are you thinking what I am thinking?

If I got stupid-money in some kind of lottery windfall and could afford 300 acres in West Virginia, then I could certain afford $1200 per a few does on my land to get em fixed up.  Then my private reserve has much more opportunity for shooting something with antlers with all the bucks they attract. 

I would feel kinda stupid eating venison from a doe I spent $1200 on and shot by mistake, tho.  Expensive chili...

Probably an easier cheaper way to do this, too.

Wish it would stop raining

We need a drought here in Maryland.  Rain makes my tax bill go up, since the Governor signed into law the rain tax.  Looks like the sky water is letting up for a little while.  Need a dry Autumn.

Vote O'Malley for President 2016

No Joy in Mudville

Well, I called Springfield.  I wanted to see about them correcting the pistol that left their factory with an ejector held on by just a little bit of glue.  Which isn't proper, considering the abuse that part takes.

"Hey, you forgot to stake down the ejector."

"Go away, son, you bother me..."

"But..."

"I said hit the bricks kid.  Most people don't shoot more than 500 rounds through their 1911 and will never notice it.  Sure a few people that CCW the model regularly will have a problem and a gun that will lock up tight in the middle of a magazine, but what are the chances that'll come back to us if that magazine is the one that he wants to defend his life with.  Besides, what are YOU gonna do?  Blog about it?!  HAHAHAHA!!!  Blogging is dead!  No one reads blogs!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Then I could swear I heard them lighting a cigar with a $100 bill.  The one of a few I gave them when I bought the gun.

Canned Goods

Mmmm

Been looking for meat pie fillings.  Been using corned beef hash and chicken stew up til now.  But Now there is this:

Remakes

Speaking of me getting tired of movie remakes.  It's certainly not a new phenomena.

Last of the Comanches and the well in Sahara.  The first is a run of the mill western, the second is  Humphrey Bogart movie  WWII north Africa movie.  In both they come to a well that is nearly dry, and one of the party goes down and finds a small drip.  Slowly he accumulates water and send it up in a bucket on a rope.  The scene is clearly lifted one from the other, ten years apart.

The plaster coated diamond encrusted cross from a new word catholic cathedral is found after a treasure hunt in TV's Cheyenne and the film Maru Maru with Errol Flynn.  A little Hispanic boys insists it belongs back at the church and gets his way.  The TV episode was Devil's Canyon and came out in 1957, the movie in 1952.

Watchmen and Mad Max with the hacksaw scene.  And in Saw, I guess.  A peril is presented to some poor sod.  The fire is coming, the poison is spreading.  You are chained by the ankle to something heavy.  No time to hacksaw through the metal.  Your only hope is to hacksaw off your foot.  I first saw it in Mad Max, then in Watchmen, then in Saw, but I am sure Mad Max got it from somewhere else.  The scene from the movie to the comic book is only 7 years apart.  25 years from the Max movie to Saw.

All of these are almost assuredly 'borrowed' from pulp fiction stories from the 1930s.  There is nothing new under the sun.

I guess we should be thankful that anything very original is written at all. 

721

They just don't make all weather radials like they used to.

Monopoly of Violence

Only the gummint should have a monopoly on violence.

But wait.  I am the gummint.  Government of the people, by the people, for the people and all that.  If I wasn't the gov't then why did they ask me to serve in that function by registering for selective service only mumble-mumble years ago?  Or call on my to serve on a jury?  Or asking me to vote?

Seems like I retain part of that monopoly.

And yes yes.  It's the monopoly on the initiation of force.  Every living thing in the world has the right to defend themselves, of course.  It's just in some countries where the people are part of the system, instead of just subjected to it. 

Ammo Prices

50 years ago.

Check out page 53.  The Ad in Guns Magazine that says "PREPAID AMMUNITION"

4 cents a round for .45 and 5 cents a round for non corrosive .30-06.  75 cents for an M1 Carbine magazine.

Phew.  Even WITH inflation in the intervening years... 

Of course if you are gonna use a time machine to go back to 1964, might as well get your hands on 1964 silver coinage, and rinse repeat that process til you have real money.

How do you do that?  No one is gonna make change for your $20 bill with a 2008 date on it.  Yeah.  Bring back old pennies from 1963?

Lotsa Bad about Maryland

But one of the good things is our very handsome state flag.  But the damn socialists would screw that up if they had gotten their way.  Look at the flag the Dems are proposing:

Defensive Ammo

Ok, since the 1986 Miami shootout the FBI made a standard to judge minimum performance of self-defense ammo.  We've been going over this in the gun blogosphere (again) since the FBI announced that maybe they didn't need the .40.

And, since the standard was set, I am betting the ammo makers were kinda thrilled.   While it would take work to meet the standard they could point to it and have it mean something.  "Acceptible to the FBI!"  Before that the ammo was... maybe good?  Or was it a gimmicking thing with a lotta marketing going for it?  Things that had explosives in the top or TRAC II razor blades (the first blade lifts and cuts...) or whatever. 

So, I am wondering...  What do the 'other' bullets look like.  Not the super gimmicky, but the standard older stuff.  What is the difference in minutest detail between HydraShok and HST?  What does 158 grain SWCHP lead bullets in .38 Spl. look like?  FMJ stuff is prolly going all the way through 2 feet of gelatin, but let's see how it does that.  How about .25ACP?  .44 magnum?  5.7FN?  I want that one comparison picture, but for everything.  Not because I want to choose a load out for myself.  I just want to know what they are all like.  Cuz I am geeky that way.

CDC

I'm getting tired of liberals whining, "if only the Rethuglicans didn't block the funding the Centers for Disease Control could study gun violence and help put an end to it."

Look, genius, the CDC mission creep is so bad that they can't do their original mission half effectively.  So when we DO need Big Gov to address something, they fail at it.  It'd be nice if they were still sorta kinda experts on the subject of communicable disease, what with some respiratory ailment spreading amoung young kids and... uh... what was it?  Oh, right, EBOLA. 

That what I like about over reaching Big Gov pols.  They aren't smart enough to make Big Gov effective and just rent seek and turf grow, so voters see it becoming incompetent and leaves the issue vulnerable to effective libertarian arguments against.

But go ahead, CDC.  Study how many people get their toes run over by a forklift at work.  Reinvent the wheel.  What a waste.

Garand Thumb

I always said Garand Thumb was a myth.  It's HARD to get your thumb jammed in the action when loading the rifle.  Even if you load it stupid.

Oh, but of course you gotta be careful closing the bolt when empty, no clip.  Yes.  THAT I can see. 

But it's hard to with a full clip.

So, myth half busted.

Zebola

You know, I'd make more zombocalypse/ebola references but as soon as I did four seperate new cases of the disease would crop up the next day and have nothing to do with the Dallas guy, and then I'd look like a bigger asshole than I normally am.

In an ebola outbreak you won't be shooting shamblors in the head.  No, you will have to defend yourself from other humans that AREN'T sick yet but are panicky and a bit grabby about things that don't belong to them and also settling perceived scores in the chaos:  "I'll show YOU you hotdish serving Episcopaleans!  Think you can snipe our fundraising marks?  Book of Common Prayer and Infant-Christening my Aunt Fanny!"  And then a bloodbath with the Pentecostals. 

This gun

Shoots paper airplanes.

Lewis Gun

Who invented the Lewis Gun?  I'm gonna guess it was John Moses Browing (pbuh).

What?  You say sumdood name Isaac Newton Lewis.  Naw, that's a made up name.  You can tell.  Next you will give me some quote of Lincoln's about the internet. 

So I guess the inventor's name is lost in the mists of time, never to be known...

What I do know is that I don't like the Chief of the Ordnance Department.  When?  Well, EVER.  But in this case it's General William Crozier.  Ass.  Hate that guy.  Bureacratic busy body.  And ordnance guy that collect crystal and fine china tableware?  Whoever heard of such a thing?  Anyway, he didn't like the Lewis gun. 

Woulda been nice to have some sort of 20th Century machine gun before we fell into World War One, wouldn't it?  Naw. 

Have you notices machine guns like to be in the 20-30 pound range.  Well, man portable jobs like this.  Ones that don't require a tripod necessarily.  The BAR was 20, the M60 was around 24, the MG42 was in that weight class, and the M240 and M249 we use today is, too.

I like to carry cash

But I keep it in a leather carrier hidden away at my hip.  (I call it a wallet, or Money-Holster)  I don't carry my money in a clear plastic bag out in the open where everyone can see.   Not usually.   That way, when I spring for a round of soft drinks or lunch for everyone it is a bit of a surprise.

Gun Service

I've never sent a gun back to the factory before for service.  It feels kinda weird. 

I am looking to contact Springfield and get the ejector staked.  Something I guess they forgot to do when manufacturing the gun. 

I think it can be mailed.  And not FFLed and shipped.  But I will talk to the people at the contact number for Service before doing anything. 

Gonna look around for the case it came it.  Put THAT in a box.  Ship that.

I'm certainly insuring it. 

So, on Bookface

An acquaintance posts one of those "Please pray for cousin Phillip" posts, and there is a picture of Phillip in a hospital gown with a lot of stitches and bruises on his face.

(this is a HS associate and won't be reading this blog, so, no harm can befall anyone.  Also, no real names.)

Phillip was a Samaritan that tried to break up a fight between strangers and ended up stopping a bottle of Jack Daniels with his face.  He's gonna be fine, except for some scarring.

But it brings up some CCW Self Defense related stuff.

When 'something goes down,' strapped or not, there is that deep down urge to help someone.  Especially an underdog getting beat on and hurt.  And then you come to the judgement and decision point on whether to intervene. 

While Never Get Involved in one of these situations is the usual conventional wisdom, there are times where you do.   You are certainly relinquishes control of your immediate future if you inject yourself into such a situation.

Damn that is fuzzy call to make, on the margins.  De-escalate and decamp is still the rule of thumb, naturally.  ANd it should be mucho rare-o to even have to choose, much less the tiny fraction where you choose to intervene for someone that you aren't responsible for.

They still used cordite

Saw this at Tam's. 

Sumdood noticed cordite in the Indian .303 milsurp stuff.  He knocked the bullet out of a cartridge to reveal.

I was under the impression that cordite didn't make it much past the Great War, but apparently I was wrong.   Still being used in the mid 60s AND later.  "Production ceased in the United Kingdom, around the end of the 20th century"

Huh.  Learn something new every day.  Well, correct a previously 'learned' fact to make things more accurate and tidy in your head every day....

She also showed some rifle clips.  I am pleased the first thoughts that came to mine was JFK and Frog.  You see the Italians used those blunt ended long bullets that you see whenever they do JFK assassination stuff on the TeeVee.  And I knew the Lebel had very tapered cartridge cases.  So my guess was close enough.

Not so NEW Jovian Thunderbolt. 

State of Cinema

Here is a list of upcoming movies.  Well, the upcoming movies that are remakes of previous movies.  Many of them movies never should have been made in the first place and now they are are rebooting them.

This is depressing.  All this clutter gumming up what little original material there is.  Sucking up all the oxygen in the room.

It must make the studios money.  Or makes them money at a lower risk level.

Sometimes it's ok.  It's was 55 years between the Walter Mitty movies, and they were different enough to be different things.  And the modern was actually halfway decent.  Decent enough for me to forgive the presence of Sean Penn and Ben Stiller in the picture. 

But does the world ache for another Dirty Dancing?  Wasn't Time Bandits good enough the first time. 

Now a better Starship Troopers, closer to Heinlein's vision, might be fine.  And a new Wild Bunch?  We'll see what Peckinpah-less gets you.

African Queen

So, I am re-watching African Queen.  Classic Bogart/Katherine Hepburn flick.   Noticed something.

Bogie shaved with a straight razor.  FAST! I've been shaving that way every weekend, but Man o' Manischewitz, not THAT fast.  Wow.  You gotta watch old movie to see people that shaved normally that way demonstrate the natural way to do it. It's a bit of a lost art. Oh sure, people are shaving that way now, but they have to relearn with few people learn from from the old days. My grandfather used an electric shave when I knew him. My father used a safety razor until Trac II's came along. Which you also can't get anymore without a slime strip. Pah!

You know... THEM

Well, THEY say the patient has malaria, not ebola.  Of course they'd say that.

It's one thing when this is way far away in Dallas, but I am too close for comfort to NIH and Fort Dietrick.  Plus every infected Al Queada terrist is gonna wanna lick someone that might get within sneezing distance of the President, Cabinet members, Pentagon brass hats...

Range

I went to the range last week.

No pictures.  I still tend low and right, but less low and right.  I am shooting a big hole with a pistol slight off center from the bullseye.  Another 10 years of this and I will be halfway decent.

The pistol runs well.  After tweaks at the armor class.  Swapped from another gun a better after market slide stop, plus all the tweaks one in class. 

Now I have to think about sending it off to get the staking done.

William Morgan Thomas

He was mentioned in the comments of a previous post.

And I don't know enough about him.  Still don't.

He falls in an era on US history in between areas I was more interested in and I haven't fully fleshed out those gaps in my knowledge.  So I concentrate on a Browning or a Garand and am not as strong with a Samual Colt or a William Morgan Thomas.  But I should be. 

The internet doesn't proffer up a lot of info on the history of Union Metallic Cartrdige without some digging.

But they made a lot of the cowboy loads before a new renaisaance of ammo came about in the beginning of the 20th Century.   I know their stuff from reproduction 19th century Sears or Montgomery Wards catalogs printed more recently.  They are chockablock with old ammo box top 'images.'

But precious little on the web.  About the man or the ammo company.  Apart from him being the chief ballistician. 

What a GREAT job title.  Chief Ballistician.

Metrocon complains about hoplophobia

A non-gun-media journalist used the term 'hoplophobia' in the first instance I have ever seen, here.  And it was National Review's Charles Cooke.  Nice!

Speaking of the CDC

"Center for Disease Control Spokesman Dave Daigle stated that the US would not be preventing flights from countries with massive outbreaks of the Ebola virus from coming in to the United States"


Why?

Armed Man

Armed Man Shared Elevator With Obama

Now I am no fan of the President or his policies.  And I'd certainly never vote for him for even dogcatcher (yum!).  But if I was trapped on an elevator with Obama and I had a 1911 in my hand, in how much danger would the President be?

(Assume the president acts like himself, and this is not some parallel universe where he is some kinda icepick murderer.)

How much danger would he be in if you were armed and in an elevator with him?

Right!  None whatsoever.  I'd even be polite.

Yeah, yeah, this case with the guard might be slightly different.  Unlinke you and me, he had a 'criminal record.'  Can't be that bad a criminal record.  He was hired as a guard at a Federal institution.  He at least sounds like a fan.  If a bit over-exuberant.  Perhaps creepily so.  

But Vox is Wrong

About EVERYTHING.

So we should panic about ebola.

Nagant

The only reason the Mosin Nagant ever makes it onto Top However Many Badass Battle Rifles of All Time is that the Soviet Union collapsed of its own weight and they ended up sell a crapton over here in the surplus market for four double sawbucks each.

Soviet Union had never gone away, no one would talk about em.

The only reason.  Quantity has a quality of its own.

But they'd still would talk about the AK.  maybe more.  Because they'd still be used by the bad guys and they'd be as rare as hens teeth.  It would still make Lists even if no one you ever knew had ever even touched one.  Or touched the 7.62x39 ammo.

 But a clunky bolt action rifle?  Ho hum.  There are better bolt action rifles out there.  There are crappier bolt action rifles out there.  Get in line with all the other bolt action rifles.  You want a bolt that killed Nazis, pick the SMLE.