9 May Issue States

This article got me to thinking...

There are 9 May-Issue, as opposed to Shall Issue states:

DE, CT* are pretty permissive, and MD, NJ, NY, MA, RI, CA, HI

So, nine 'Gun Crow' states.  Currently.  When you look at the history of gun control, the underlying theme is "people with swarty skin and darker are getting their hands on guns, and we don't want that!" up until 1965.  Gun control after that has to be a bit more sneaky with it's racism and rights denials.  Using insinuation.  Instead of saying 'no guns for black people' say 'Saturday night specials are banned'.  Disparate impact, and all that.  And people that look down their noses on black people often are the same people that look down their noses at people that like guns and aren't black and live in flyover country.  Funny enough, this is the group of people that are tapped for the political class, too.

Anyway.  The ones highlighted in bold, above, actually had other Jim Crow laws of various types, in the past, according to wikipedia.

Which seems odd, as a few deep south states aren't on that list.  (for example, Alabama... the state with Selma and Birmingham and Governor Wallace and Bull Connor.. not listed there, were there unwritten codes in Alabama?  Bet your bippy...)  Which leads me to believe that either the list is incomplete, or the Black Codes were unwritten laws in some jurisdictions.   Just as strict, but not as 'official.'

It's an oddly pervasive sea to sea list, I had not expected.  Montana?  I mean, really.

Here's hoping in 50 years we look back to today and note there are no longer any May Issue rights violators and hasn't been, legally, for some time.

STOOPID GROUNDHOG

Fury

Saw Fury, finally.

I kinda assumed Shia LeBoef would have playing the annoying green as grass rookie in the tank. Instead, he was good. Hey, isn't that other guy the deputy from Walking Dead that somehow managed to keep his taut muscley chest waxed even during a Zombocalypse? Yes it is.

And hey, THAT's the FBI agent from that Wahlberg movie Shooter. And the battalion commander with a Boston accent? The evil British dude in The Patriot. Wow, I know all these guys.

People told me I'd be bummed by the gritty hopeless realism.  Pfff.  Once you've seen the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan it take a lot to out-grit that experience.

It is good to know that Hitler would have sex with me if I gave him a chocolate bar.

Breda sez

"STOP PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH, T-BOLT!"

Breda sez

Alligators are ornery because they have all them teeth but no toothbrush.

Breda sez

Breda sez

Her boss says "sometime I wish you could carry at work"

Breda thinks "like i would protect YOU with my gun.  I can't afford the legal wrangling if the balloon goes up."

People that don't carry and rely on other carriers are like people that don't get the vaccine shot and rely upon others for the herd immunity.  Emphasis on 'herd.'

Next they'll be putting us...

in special Amtrak trains to take us to the FEMA camps in the Dakotas...

How come whenever they do this sort of thing it's always in Red States?  It tends to gin up the paranoiacs the right tends to have.  But would it hurt to do these exercises in a Blue state?  Let them be a different kind of paranoid for once?

Meh, maybe they do but we don't hear as much about them because the Blue model cares less about signs of the One World Government takeover of the US with UN black helicopters.  And such.

WOLVERINES!

It's a Tool

So, it's not just our little sewing circle with "what do we do with the gals?" issue.

On another note, I'd like pink pistols to come in clamshell packaging on the row ends.   That'd be fine by me.  And on sale?  Jackpot!

Ban 30 Round Mags...

In video games. 

Oh I agree.  If you can't spawn camp kill with 10 round mags you don't deserve to answer the Call Of Duty.

Ruined

One thing about taking these 1911 Armorers classes? It's RUINED me for factory made guns. It's ruined me for most high end guns and even most custom guns.

"Well, T-Bolt, I guess you are regretting going with the 1911 instead of something good, like my Glock/M&P/HaitchUndKaye. Hur hur hur!"

It's ruined THOSE for me too. I didn't take the Glock armorer class (I want to) but the little snippets I've seen in a bleed over to the 1911 classes? Those modern semi-autos are similar, if less finicky to correct. And more disposable.

Taking the 1911 classes didn't make me an expert 1911 gunsmith. It made me a near expert 1911 critic. There are some things to do that are cheap or easy to make any 1911 better. Things with extractor tension, ejector shaping, or an adjustment you can make to the slide stop to make it better. There are some parts that are more drop-in for me now because I can easily do some of the minor fitting, confidently. Great.

The trick is, now, for me, if I ran into a factory 1911 that had few flaws, and, most importantly, had a halfway decent lockup, out of the boss, with the barrel hood, barrel lugs, and barrel to slide fit... I mean you were really lucky there... All I'd want to do then is trigger/sear/hammer work. That would be a great gun, that I could do preventative maintenance on, easily, and stay ahead of it.

THAT's the class I want to take now. JUST the jeweler type work filing and fitting the trigger guts. If the sights are already good, and the trigger is tuned, the gun can be loose and still be great. I want 5 weekends of just stoning the trigger parts. Even if I am just making a good trigger 5 times for one gun.

.22 tcm

I like the idea of a modernized .22 jet, but I am still not sure about the execution.

n00b holsters

Talk of holsters and myearlier n00bs post.

I encourage them to buy a safe to secure a first firearm in before buying a gun. But I also need to encourage them to buy a holster soon after getting the gun. Even if they NEVER intend to ever carry it outside the house or range. For just in case, so they don't have to shove it in their front pants under their belt and then end up serving as an example to others when they ND. (Don't forget trigger guard cover is the most important part of a n00b holster...)

I was trying to come up with a list of holster makers that meet minimum functional requirements at the lowest cost. When they get more enthused about toting they can do their own research to get the high quality fancy expensive stuff with exotic leathers and whatnot.

But I don't know a list, off the top of my head. Oh, I know some yes. Comp-tac, Galco, Safariland, Bianchi... I steer them away from Fobus and Uncle Mikes unless it is just a pocket holster for a j fram. And Serpa because I don't like that button's reliability.

Lists of holster manufactures are out there, but which meet the criteria?

Oz in Merrica

The 'Jerk' Charge

When you put in a gun to get worked on at this gunsmith, you have to initial a buncha stuffs on the order form. Like, for instance, how the cost may go up to correct a serious safety issue if he finds it when deep in the guts of the gun you are getting repaired. Like, say, if the hammerhooks were badly damaged. You only can see that on a detail strip, but gah, I want that fixed when discovered.

But my favorite part was "an additional $5 may be charged every time you call to check on the status of a build or repair." Now, this is one of those 'usually you don't have to worry about this' situations, but you do actually get guys that put down a deposit for a custom gun build from the ground up ordered on a Saturday afternoon, and the guy calls on Tuesday knowing the shop is closed on Sundays and Mondays wondering if his gun is done and ready to be picked up.

Dude, really?!  He said it would be at least a year before he could start it, as there is a queue ahead of you.  And then the Jack-Wagon calls every day thereafter.  Five dollars, five dollars, five dollars...  You remind the enthusiastic fantasist with unreasonable expectations that it's costing him money, but you do tack it on.

You know the type.  For some reason this personality regularly visits gunstores.

Gun School Conclusion?

Nope.  We just did barrel links.

And I, personally, had issue with the damn ejector.  DAMN YOU SPRINGFIELD ARMORY.  You and me?  We're done.  Bastages.  How hard is it to drill a hole for the pin?  Stupid epoxied ejectors.  DONE!

Anyhoo.  Other than that it went great for me.  Looks like the class, in future, will have to be 5 full weekends instead of 4 or 4 and a half.  It's still a great class.  But 1911 gunsmithing will break your heart even if you are not a n00b.  With luck my issue will be fixed by the next class, then we can do the hammer sear fitment, then done.  Extractor tension, I am happy with.  But that is easy to fix.  Ejector tuning, once mounted on the gun, isn't hard either.  I am confident I can do that unsupervised if I have to.  But stoning the hammer hooks or the sear?  Nope.

If you can do that, just the hammer hooks and sear, good, you can make some serious bank smithing.  All this other stuff we've been doing is just to make lockup tighter.  Add a good trigger in the mix, and you have a really good gun.  Just do the trigger, and you have a really decent gun.  Trigger and sights, quick turnaround when you are skilled, and half the problem.  The other half is lockup. 85%+ of the class has been getting better, tighter lockup.

You master those two big things and the next step is custom 1911s from the bare frame up.

---

Anyhoo.  I have to go type a very angry letter.  On a manual typewriter.  So I can hit the keys hard, as though I was angry.

You know what grinds my gears?

Lollygaggers.

People that just lumber about, on foot or driving.  Move like your life has a purpose to it.  I bet if I lit your clothes on fire you'd move with a quickness.

"But T-Bolt, my life doesn't have a purpose!"  That's fine.  Just fake it til you make it.  Or stay out of the way of others.

Superman

I like the idea of .38 Super.  It's a good performer.  But I think it isn't a mere rare niche round right now but for Jeff Cooper and Race Gunners that don't have to buy their own ammo.  It'd be as common as .32 Short if Cooper had taken up knife fighting after WWI,I instead.

If I were to eschew the .45, I don't think I'd lean .38 Super.  9mm reg'lar* is fine dandy for a .38 caliber cartridge.


(*AKA luger, aka parabellum, aka NATO, you know what I mean.)

Not Covered in Class

Because these thinks take a LONG time to do and do right.

Finishing the gun.  You gotta tape it up, bead blast it, and apply Duracoat or something more fancy. 

The grip safety fitting?  VERY finicky. 

Barrel to slide fitting?  To get 10 and 2 contact forward of the hood where the barrel mates the frame?  Yeah.  More fancy tools, too.  Probably two days so, another weekend.  With homework.

Buffing on a Melt Job?  Oh, LAWD.

And mastering the sear/disconnector/hammer/trigger/spring...  That takes a long time of doing it a lot to be a BEGINNER.

These are all HUGE things that take a LONG time.

I wish...

I wish you had had this opinion back when you could have done something about it back in 2012.



I was one of the dangerous people that was rejected when he was the big man. Wish he was still there, now.

Zed Spread

What does a zombie infection spread look like on a map of the USA?

Commenters quickly point out that this doesn't account for someone shipping an infected person on an airplane to another spot in the country and spreading the infection that way.  Though you can simulate airplane travel manually, and adjust the times.  Is it a rage virus with sprinters?  Or just shamblors?

Cutaway

Hey did you buy a gun that was such a deal, but it turned out there was a reason the owner was unloading it? Someone in the past, with delusions of gunsmithing grandeur went ahead and ruined it. And you are too honest to just unload it onto some other sucker? Well, here is a thought. You could part it out, but really what are you gonna get for that? Or you could sell it for some nominal amount to a gun school. You won't get your money back, no, but you might get something for that ruined unsafe firearm.

But if you can trade it in for welding lessons....  I can see that being a hard decision.

Why do that, you ask? So the gunsmith at the school can make it into a cutaway gun. Like this, but for a 1911:

Sciatica Carry

Anyone got sciatica and like to carry IWB? Does the position of the holster aggravate the nerve issues back there?  Have you addressed the issue in any way if it does?

Single Stack Glock 9mm

Pfff!  Why get a single stack Glock 9mm  for $600 when you can go to gun school a few times and make a good single stack 9mm from a $600 donor gun?....

Oh... cost.

But hey, 8+ shots.

Gun School Homework

Finished.  Phew.  Nerve racking.  Dremelling off material on the barrel lugs, hoping when you get flush frame to slide fit in the back you have planty of contact on the lug to slide stop area.  I lucked out.  I've been pretty lucky this whole rebuild though. 

Maybe that beginners luck is to hook me into frustration after frustration on my next gun...

And I don't want to even THINK of the money spent...  To make a $700 gun into a $1400 gun.  Maybe $1400.  Prolly more like $1200.

Et Tu Lileks

One of my favorite bloggers is James Lileks. And nowadays he occasionally writes for National Review.

But I fear last Thursday's column may be more evidence he is a metrocon... Oh dear. Shame, really. I like most all his style, his stuff. I've given his books away as Christmas gifts to many people, too.  But here is a snippet:

"Originally the State, it's now a children's theater. Among other things. People in Kansas do not freak out when a children's theater is next to a gun store. They just don't. Yet."

YET?!!  Oh dear.  And what is wrong with that?   It feels like he doesn't seem to like that.  Maybe I am off base and am reading him wrong.  But he is from North Dakota and Minnesota, and was bookish as a child...  His dad was a oil man.  In that he delivered and distributed petro-product to a places and had a Texaco.  Might not have been exposed much to firearms as a lad, even growing up in some open country areas.  I dunno.

Otherwise his conservative bonofides are there.

Welding!

Hey, I'd LOVE to learn how to weld!  Turn in a gun, get some knowledge

Too bad I don't have a $40 junk gun.  I know where a ruined RIA is for sale on consignment CHEAP that will never be anything but unsafe to fire, but they want $300 sumthin for it.  That'd be perfect.

Prolly MIG welding?  I'd prefer to learn TIG, but, the basics. 

Yet another Gun School AAR

Well, our barrel bushings were Saturday's project.  First you spin em on something and use a file to get them to fit on the outside diameter. 

Then you use a reamer to get the inside diameter right.  I don't see it on this page.  But, my God look at all that expensive tooling a blacksmith need to fix a plethora of guns up.  Phew.  Money.

Now fit it in the slide and be sure it doesn't try to spring on you.

The reamer makes little steel chips that act like needles and get everywhere.

Sunday is barrel lug fitting day.  Another easy to damage, expensive, specialized tool that is good for nothing else to get the oversize lugs down top .186", then .195", then fit with a sharpie and a carbide bit in the dremel.  And this one is home work.  Not enough time to get it in class.  Mark the lugs, mate frame to slide with the barrel fixed in place, put in the slide stop and press the slide against the stop.  Wiggle the stop.  Disassemble and note where there is shiny spots on the lugs.  Carefully tickle off these spots with the dremel.  Repeat.  Ugh.  It's not easy.

Make up snow day is next week and presumably it's hammer sear day.

O'Malley

With Hillary more likely to spend January 21st 2017 in a federal penitentiary than in the White House, I thought I'd inform you about the Dem's second choice. You haven't been properly introduced.

Martin 'Littlefinger' O'Malley. Former Governor of Maryland. And a man that couldn't get his chosen successor across the governor-finish line last year in a state that is 66% registered Democrat.

What's he like? Shmarmy mean leftist with a smile. He plays guitar in rock bands in Fells Point Bawlmer sometimes. Fells Point is the waterfront area that went from waterfront ruins to dive bars to trendier joints that the kids all like. The last place in the city like that was the rail yard area that got bulldozed to put in stadiums.

Martin was born the year Nancy Pelosi left the city to head west.

Ever see the TV series 'The Wire'? That's Baltimore when O'Malley was mayor. His part was played by Aidan Gillen on that show. He play a shmarmy philanderer. And there are similar rumors about the real O'Malley... So if you liked the gonadal exploits of Billy J. Clinton, O'Malley may help your nostalgia.

Aidan Gillen also plays Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish in the HBO Series 'Game of Thrones'. Now THAT character reminds me of O'Malley. Give Baelish more of a Leftist outlook and less murder and you got O'Malley.

And now that Littlefinger has let Hillary 'Arryn-Tully' Clinton fall through the Moon Door, I guess he's next in line for the throne.

He hates guns, loves taxes, loves hiking the minimum wages, and think he brought jobs to Maryland during the Great Recession. We are the Democrat state next to DC when a Dem president needed to be doling out gummint jobs whist rapidly and unsustainably expanding government size, of COURSE Maryland made out. This is a company town we are a suburb of. Jobs didn't do so well in Baltimore or the rest of the state. And the black middle class in Prince Georges county is still struggling because Obama doesn't HAVE to throw the black middle class anything. Who ELSE are they gonna vote for?! Well, now they gotta vote for a pasty Irish guy. If they don't, they are racist.

======

Emails I have gotten from him lately.  He is all for government takeover and control of the Internet and is against oil drilling off the East Coast.  And he thinks wrongly Barbara Mikulski is a nice person.

Gun Ownership

I think most people have come to the conclusion, last week when all the hub bub was a bub-hubbin that the "record low number of individual gun owners" in the US was a canard.

There were oddities about who was funding some of the surveys with a wary eye toward the Joyce Foundation.  TAINTED!

Of course, the pollsters couldn't just hand-wave there were fewer guns.  There is no much evidence to the contrary with month after month of record NICS checks.  They have to account for that, so they say it's just gun nuts with lots of guns buying lots more guns.

Ok, this is true.  Anecdotally.  I know firearm enthusiasts.  And they are buying extras, yes.

But other anecdotal facts...  I know as many first time buyers as I have met gun nuts buying 'more'.  Now my sample size is in no way scientific, but it can't be ignored.  Also, the number of extra women that have been buying gun has been noted.  Traditionally not a demographic that bought up firearms in the past, when you go from near none to a noticeable increase in an untapped market that is something, isn't it?

And NSSF and Gary Kleck has noticed that get less of a 'No' bias when you ask a household if they have guns than you do at the front door poll taker.   I've become much more cantankerous, personally.  Anyone at the front door gets a varied response.  It varied on the degree of profanity I lace into my "Get offa my lawn!" declaration.

There is no way to do it, bit if they could do an anonymous poll that crotchety bastard like me could trust to be open with, that might get an even more accurate result.  But therein lies the rub.

====

I composed this post on the 10th

The morning of the 11th Tam said it better HERE

Mood Hands

I get so excited

When the Brown Truck of happiness comes by.

You take a few gunsmith classes and you start having thoughts, and you covet things.  But, OY!  My pocketbook.

Something I learned from Amazon shopping.  If you have had even ONE cocktail that evening, do not, DO NOT, go to your Shopping Cart and checkout.  You save yourself a lot of regrets from poor-impulse shopping that way.   And Brownells has that typical problem, selling those special toys.  They are all either 1) Heavy, 2) Expensive, or 3) Both.

Why is Michael Bloomberg

Pro Rape?!!!

I don't blame his spox, Shannon Watts.  She'll say whatever whoever is signing the checks tells her to.  GE, Monsanto, Bloomberg.  Whatever.

Class Guns

So there are five guys in my gun school class making their 1911s better. 

What guns do they have?  Two Springfield stainless .45s, two Citadel 9mm, and one Wilson Combat .45, Commander size.

Which gun started with the most problems?  The Wilson.  Followed by the Springfields.

They did weird stuff on mine with the leaf spring in mine to make it work with the disconnector instead of doing the disconnector right.  Plus, no pin for the ejector.  You know how the gunsmith works on guns that need an ejector whole drilled?  He doesn't.

There were high end guns with other folks in my other classes.  You know which guns had the most stuff wrong with them out of the box?  They high end guns.  A different Les Baer in the first two classes and another Wilson.   Stuff like weird geometry on the barrel lugs, and odd contact around the barrel hood, are what I remember.  The only guns worse were ones that some previous owner did some work on himself at the kitchen table.  Like one where someone made the frame rails tighter by peening them in a dozen spots with a punch of some kind, oh my.  Bad luck that.

Philippine 1911s are actually pretty well put together, with the fewest flaws, and are thus easier to work on.

That said, there was enough interest in the class to develop another course where you build a 1911 from the Frame, up.  Which would be fun.

Sir Terry Pratchett

Has died.

He was 66.



SQUEAK.

Snoop Dogg

"Don't let your 401k invest in Smith and Wesson or Ruger stock!  Michael Bloomberg compensated me a lot to say that.  Oh, was I not supposed to say that second part out loud?  Sorry, but I'm trippin' BAWLS, fo shizzle, my Blizzle."

#ImUnloading

Tiny hands,

Stubby fingers...

So a person I know is going on a deployment and did some training down at Quantico.  She has tiny little Carny Hands.   She is a good shot and has been shooting all her life, but her weakness is those tiny hands.  She can't get to the mag release button without shifting her grip on her issued weapon, a Glock 19.  So, after a reload she is a little behind the curve, every time.

Now, some people are left handed and can reach a standard mag release with the social finger not matter how small their mitts.

And sometimes the problem can be solved with hardware, getting something with a ambidextrous mag release and then retraining.

But is there any other software alterations possible if these two options are unavailable?

And ugh...

When did .38 special 158g SJHP start selling for .38 a round?  It used to be cheap.  Like 9mm is now.  For almost half that. 

I'm having second thoughts.  Especially looking at 9mm 1911s that hold 10, 19, 22 rounds...

And before the ATF backed out

Yesterday, someone asked me if they had banned all .223 ammo.  This was before lunch, so I explained how the M855 thing was to work.  Now overcome by events.

Out of curiosity I looked at Lucky Gunner a week and a half ago.  All they had in this caliber was one variety of target ammo, buck fiddy a round.  Now, today, they have a bunch more, since people were making a run on it.  The people that thought all .223 was drying up, and people that knew it wasn't except for steel core stuff, but wanted to have ammo before the idjits made is scarce.

Ahh, my fellow man.

Still can't get .22lr like you could.

Anyhoo, then was one variety.  Now it's 27 entries.  With not out of this world prices.

I just use Lucky Gunner as a general gauge of the market.  Sure I buy from them, but I'm not married to them.   They are a bit of a lazy/easy-button for me, tho. 

ATF back off

On the M855 ban.

Huh.  Unexpected.

Note, the blog I first saw it on was metroconian National Review's.  Huh.  Maybe gunblogging is dead...

What did you do in class this last time,

T-Bolt?

Well, got to use the Dremel.  The big heavy duty cut off wheel and the half inch sander.  Oh, and the smith used the quarter inch pink stone on an area really easy to screw up if you are a n00b like me

Our barrel bushing had not come in, Saturday.  Boo!

Ok, the smith globbed on some metal to these areas:

And the Dremel and file work was mostly on the hood.  We shaped the lugs, yes, to get them to fit and for the link to pass between them but left the surface the slide stop rides on for another session.  But with the hood, we made it so it fit more closely in the slide.  The hardest part, the part left to the smith, was the extra stuff on the chamber side.  A gouge in the chamber is bad-bad and makes extraction difficult is the brass, upon firing, expands INTO a gouge.

But yeah.  Dremel work.  Me.  I did it.  Lots of pucker.  Very little 'dremel to fit'.  It's dremel (and please down screw up) then file file fit. file file file, fit, file, fit, file, fit, file, fit....  Two more light strokes will do it...  CRAP!   

Then, a lot of dressing of parts to remove burrs.  NOT polish stuff.  Like three passes on a medium stone for some surfaces of the sear and disconnector.  Dress the inside of the frame and the channel for the trigger.  Fit the trigger. 

---

As an aside, what do you think takes longer?  Accurizing a 1911, or fitting a grip safety to it?  Ugh, there is a lotta fiddly work needed for the grip safety.  So hope you get one that sorta drops in or live with the one you have.  And that is why we don't cover grip safety swap outs.

Noobs and CCW.

Did a light anthropological study...

A mess of co-workers are relatively gun friendly, but not gunnies.  They are also Marylanders.  Of this group most own one pistol.  And no holster unless a cheap one came with gun in that little plastic case. (Keep the holster stuff and upgrade the 2 mags to Chip McCormick or something Springfield.)

My question posed to them:  "Let's say Maryland went all carry, and the next day you had an urgent need to carry and could then do it legally, and a plethora of holsters were presented to you, at no cost to you.  Select the style, on instinct, you grab to use that first day."

These are people that haven't put a single thought into it until right then.  I then listed a buncha types and what they did.

1. pocket
2. ankle
3. SOB 6 o'clock
4. IWB 4 or 7 oclock
5. OWB 3 or 9 o'clock 
6. shoulder, Sam Spade styel
7. shoulder, Miami style
8. appendix
9. WWII 82nd Airborne chest style
10. drop leg with a trench coat

One chose SOB, like Axel Foley.  Everyone else went for a shoulder holster or 82nd.  None Miami, tho.  That just, to them, seemed like a bad idea.

I did ask them in winter, when they were already wearing jackets much of the time.  If I asked them in August and they might have gravitated elsewhere.

Me, I actually carry where I can.  And it's usually pocket carry.  ~sigh~.  I don't own an ankle holster and am not itching to get one.  I fall on my ass once every other year so SOB is sorta out.  I'd prefer OWB, but it's hard to cover.  I have IWB holsters but they could be more comfy.  I like shoulder holsters and a 44 magnum just disappears under a jacket for me.  I wouldn't appendix carry on a bet and don't do any repelling so drop leg is sorta out.

Rain Tax

Despite brave efforts of our Republican Governor, EVIL Democrats refuse to repeal the rain tax.   When it rains, I will owe the state money.  Never prayed for droughts before...

“No issue resonates as strongly and no tax is as universally detested as the rain tax,” he said. “Passing a law that forces only a handful of counties to raise taxes on their citizens — against their will — is wrong, unfair, and it needs to end.”

Maybe next time, Governor.

Sipsey Street

Mike Vanderboegh is a character.  I'll give him that.  I can't say that I would pursue our common Second Amendment goals the same way he does.  And he does pursue them.  Like a bulldog.  With a certain panache.  Very strident.  He is no squish.

And he is one of the better story tellers I have had the pleasure to listen to.  If he starts spinning a tale near you, stop and listen to it.  You might even learn some history.

May he live to be 100.

Weld a 1911 barrel

No worries B.  The welded metal goes nowhere near the rifling.  Just here:

Seen elsewhere

And at Tam's

Yet when in the company of Democrats, if I call these people Violent Barbarians, I am the asshole?

This is at Nimrod:

Class Upcoming

So, tomorrow we ruin the barrel. We left our barrels at the classroom. The instructor is to weld on them this week, adding metal to the underlug and chamber hood. We will then spend time shaping these areas to better fit them. In theory.

But, under the watchful eye of the Smith, we students don't get into too much trouble we can't, with coaching, then get out of. I'd be a halfway decent pistol smith, even be able to make a living at it, as long as I always had him sitting on my shoulder.

If I wanted to go it alone... I'd need 100 more pistol builds under my belt. And I'd need a bunch more machinist skills I don't have. Like welding. I don't know thing one about that. So, welding, and a few things like a small machinist lathe, and how to work that. For things like turning the bushing and cutting dovetails on slides.  You know, the basics.

Master List Update

I haven't looked at the masterlist in a while. My list of guns I want and how bad I want em.

I haven't looked because I haven't wanted much in the way of guns. There is no gap in the battery I need to fill. And I am spending gun moneys on other things. See: Gunsmith classes. And there is more of those to take. I really enjoy the classes. The instructor is good and I like learning and I am rarely afraid of being initially ignernt so my ego isn't bruised ahead of time. Plus I am a slow learner. Witness the slowness of my marksmanship improvement. When I learned how to brew beer it took me twice as long to get it down than the average new brewer. How do I know? I trained a couple dozen fellas when I got a brewery of my own to run. They picked it up faster than me more often than not.

But once I got something mastered I do ok. The trick, for me, besides patience, is to find a sufficiently advanced teacher so I can go as far as possible down the knowledge road.

So, money for gunsmith learning. Prolly got some shooting-training in my future too.

But, if I WERE to update the masterlist... I think I'd still like a Winchester Model 88. I can hunt with an M1A or even a Garand, but a purpose built hunting rifle still tickles my fancy. If I fell in love with the right left handed bolty the Model 88 desire would fall by the wayside.

With all the 1911 gunsmith training, I'd like to buy 3 or 4 very cheap but not ruined 1911s. RIA or Howas. Filipino 1911s. Just base guns. And practice on them. Tune em up with my new found skill. Go to more classes with them if my skill is still weak. After these, maybe play with a Caspian frame or three.

But this would involve the Maryland gun control regime. And I won't play their reindeer games anymore. I can buy the Winchester out of state without a problem, but pistols are problematic until Mance V. Holder takes hold. It would please me to no end to buy 6 guns in Virginia, denying sales tax to my home state. And all because of Maryland's hatred for Civil Rights.

You know, some how I managed to get 3 Remington Model 10's without even trying. Two in good working order, but that means the shortish-sightless barrelled one can swap for something longer. But if I had to do shotguns all over again I'd just get one or 2 mid level two-barrel jobs. I don't mess with shotties much. Occasional clays and hunting. And for those 2 then reload is plenty.

I've toyed with the idea of a M&P45 or a XD Slim .45 or both. Should prolly add them to the list. At least the secondary. So, half want these and the doubles, whole want the 88 and the 1911s

Another Step Closer

To me walking into another state's gun store, giving them money, and walking out, right then, with a pistol of my own.

I've never not had the waiting period.

The gummint was denied a stay in the Mance v. Holder case.

Never Seen THAT Before

You don't want to do something to your 1911 at gunsmith class where the instructor that has built hundreds and hundreds of guns from scratch says,  "Well, I've never seen THAT before.  You got a problem..."

Remember when I talked about how Springfield Armory isn't bothering to pin their ejectors to the gun anymore?  They just glue it.  And not with mere Loctite Red.   With something even more serious.  It's a green epoxy type stuff. 

Well, anyway, I have to yanks this bastard off in order to work on my gun.  Later I'll glue another one on.  Not even the smith is willing to make that 1/16th inch hole in my frame.  Which bugs me that I can't do that but, there you go. 

To knock the ejector off, and this will destroy the ejector, you squeeze just the ejector in a vise and pull on the grip while whacking the frame with a plastic faced 5 pound dead blow hammer.  This got the ejector out a few millimeters then the studs broke off in the holes.

Oh dear. 

And that was the new thing.

Now what?

The factory ejector, before I continue, was an obvious MIM part,  I could see the 'casting' lines on it. 

Luckily, the legs were just a bit proud of the frame.  I was able to get a grip on them a vise jaw and spin a bit.   This did the trick.  Crisis averted.

Advanced 1911 Armorer AAR, week 2

Last week we went to town on the frames, with mine getting that space between the groove and the bottom surface to .1130 exactly.  With a file.

This week?  We ruined the frame.  With a hammer.

You vise up the frame in a jig and put a .113 spacer (hence why we filed the frame to .1130, not .1133 or .1131...) in the groove on the side.  Then WAIL AWAY at the top of the frame with a ball peen hammer.

Got that?  Hammering the most expensive part, the ATF part.  To peen over metal.

Not you file to fit, first with caliper measurments then with lamp black.

Except we don't use 'lamp black' any more.  For those non metal workers.... When you want to mate two pieces of metal together you get soot on the touching parts with a candle or lamp and blacken the area.  Then rub metal bits together.  The high spots will have the black rubbed off.  You file the high spots then repeat the process with the soot and the rubbing until the highs 'spots' cover all or at least most of the surface.

But like I said, we don't use a lamp or candle anymore.  What do we use?  This:

Works as well, and you can remove the marks with alcohol when you are done.

So, lots of filing, then fitting, then lapping compound and oil to mate the parts even better, then just oil....  work the slide work the slide...  Check all the axis of movement with the slide in battery position.  The axis of pitch and roll and yaw.   I lucked out and got pretty close kinda early.  There is a little yaw in the font end, but none in the back, and the front can be fixed with barrel fitting.  Next week. 

Like I said before...  I could left the gun with the smith a year ago and gotten it back this month, all souped up.  And paid a lot of money.  Instead, I paid a lot of money and will get knowledge and get the gun to about 80% as good as the smith could've done without me munging it up.  At least 80%.  Definitely a better gun. 

I like this class enough I might go through the whole series again with a different pistol. 

Every What?

"Everytown"
"Mom's Demand"

I don't like the new names. I have to look at em twice to realize what I am looking at and that they are gun ban astroturf groups. And that's me. I don't know what regular non-gunnie types think. It's so confusing.

Brady and MAIG and VPC weren't much better, but through repetition we trained the public to know what they are.  Gun Banning groups.  I don't wanna have to retrain everyone again.

Why can't they have a name that goes with what they are about? They USED to. Handgun Control, Inc. I know I know, they have to obfuscate what they are about or they'll get even less popular support, but they already get next to none when someone thinks about the issue for more than 5 minutes....