I've always loved canned corned beef

One ringy dingy

"Huh?  What?  I'm up!"

"This is Gun Skool, T-Bolt, aren't you coming to class today?"

"What, AGAIN?!"

Clearly I had been confused and what with the cancellations from the snow last week, I was not planning on attending today.  But hop in my car I did and still got some hours in, learning and doing. 

Hooray.

Accomplised reaming out the inside diameter of the barrel bushing, and fitted the barrel so it will fit in the extractor opening against the breech face without too much daylight all around.  Next will be some new voodoo I know nothing about...  Fitting the barrel to the upper lugs that go in the slide.  Tomorrow.

War Gun Mods

A blogger wrote to me. Newish blog.  War gun mods.  Asked if I'd post the link.  Sure will.

In some situations it certainly makes sense to modify you cheap milsurp.  This site is another resource for that.  Devoted to the Mosin, for now. 

It reminds me.  I shifted the scope from my Garand to my M1A.  Might as well return the Garand to its original condition.  Because it is cool that way.  And the M1A does it's job now, and the Garand is backup.   

Time Travel.

If you could time travel, say, back to the time between the wars.  And live a life starting then.  You wouldn't need to get a rifle.  You KNOW what happends from 1916 - 2016.  And no emergency happens that require minute man type action except in very small, local, and specific situations for a very short time. 

Pistols, on the other hand... Get a pistol and spare.  For everything else, shotgun and a spare.  A thutty thutty might do you just fine for that.

A big reason to get an AR (besides entertainment) is for unknowable future emergencies where you would need it.  But if the next 100 playes out like the last hundred, you won't. 
Oh, there is another reason to own one, I suppose.  As a deterrent so you WON'T need it.  If the politicians know they are out there...  Less likely to get much of a burr under their saddle oppressing the masses, eh?

But it's just you, thrust back 100 years.  You, specifically, can save your money and just buy a coupla pistols.

Gun Smithing Odd & Ends

Things I have learned.

The grip screw bushings you get from VZ Grips?  The slot is very thin.  You might need to modify one of you turnscrews or buy an extra thin one special.

ALWAYS use the right screw driver for the job when gun smithing.  The right one seperates the decent armorers from the fuddle-thumbs n00b because the the newbie always mungs up the screws.

Caspian makes pretty good stuff.  It isn't perfect.  Our class of 6 had some issues.  Now we ordered our stuff at the same time, so our run was probably all together.  So we see tooling mark issues and they are the same on all the similar parts.  The frames, for instance, had a little shelf on the 'negative' groove caused by a warn cutter.  This required all of us to file the crap out of it.

Brownells isn't perfect either.  If a part is out of spec and you send it back to get a new one, YES Brownells will instantly help you with that.  It's one of the great thing about them.  But sometimes they will restock your part when you return it, then turn around and grab a part out of the same bin to send back to you...  How do we know?  It still had the price sticker from the shop on the bag.  It happens.  Most people aren't as picky about the parts as we.

Those are NOT beefs!  Both are good companies, obviously.  Plus no one does it better.  I can't recommend them highly enough.  Won't hesitate to be a customer again.

Isn't it great

living in the future?

.22TCM funness

Rock Island Armory has really upped their game.  It's a Philippino 1911 maker under the Armscor umbrella, if you didn't know.  It looks like they are trying to improve their reputation by concentrating on the quality. 

Anyway, the Gunsmiths brother bought one of their .22 TCM chambered 1911s.  It comes with a 9mm barrel, and the magazines are interchaneable, but the little necked cartridge is a screaming round. 

While we file away on our builds, HE is doing a trigger job.  Also the ambi safety is just awful from the factory.  Huge and clunky.  Easily remedied tho.   He was lucky.  The facotry sear was salvageable.  It only needed 5 minutes of work to go from 40% or less engagement with the hammer hooks to 99.5%.     

But that .22TCM is an interesting little round.  Screaming fast.  Low recoil in a heavy all metal pistol.  Parent case is the 5.56.  Like that Remington Jet round, but easier to roll your own at home and not so...  tapered.  Necked down cases feed better, as you'd suspect.  And when there is a run on ammo, this is one of the varieties that stay on the shelf.  But, I guess, if pressed, you can make these on the reloading bench from your .223 brass.  As I mentioned, it comes with an addtional 9mm barrel, so all your bases are covered.

Finally!

A REALISTIC Zombie movie.




Shatner, Keith, Trejo, and Marcus Luttrell.

Fellow Blogger

I like Earth Bound Misfit, the blogger.  We share a lot of interests.  Guns, of course.  We were both Squids.  I like the subjects of cats, old steam trains, aviation, what constitures proper naval ship construction, that our gummint can be a bit too tyrannical...  Her sea stories are much much better than mine.

Never met her.

In a social situation we'd get along like a house on fire, I'm betting.

As long as we both purposely avoid political discussion.  You see, she's a Pinko.  Probably a full blown Red.  And I am not.  Quite the opposite.  Like the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama.  Only moreso. 

And that's ok.  That vast ideological divide.  I'm not marrying her, or going halfsies on a dry cleaning business, or choosing her as my Lieutenant Governor in my race for the Annapolis Statehouse.  There are plenty of other conversational fish to fry before we'd have to get around to the pluses and minuses of dialectical materialism.

I don't peruse her blog to find out what she thinks of Rick Perry (generally agin him, as you'd guess)

Plus, it seems we are both adults.  And we don't have to talk politics EVERYWHERE.  Sometimes you should just enjoy the Absinthe.

Let folks hate each other for different reasons for one:

EB-Misfit:  "You are so ugly, looking at your face actually hurts my eyes."

NJT: "Oh yeah?  Well your breath could knock the buzzards off a honey wagon."

EB-Misfit:  "Another round?"

NJT: "Make it a double."

(I have no clue as to the general status of Earth Bound Misfits halitosis, or even if it exists at all.  Example provided for demonstration purposes only.  Do no eat the dissicant packet.  Offer not valid in Alaska Hawaii or Puerto Rico.  Your mileage may vary.)

I don't have a logo

And a logo is problematic anyway.

How do you render a recognizable Zeus?

One lightning bolt and I look like Ziggy Stardust. 

Three lightning bolts and Coal Creek Armory would be peeved.

Two and Gene and Paul might come after me.

 Or I'd look like these assholes.

What I'm getting around to is, what do I stamp on the slide of future 1911 builds? 

Daddy done git him this job

You know this guy's Pa.  Dad was the Senator that co-did all those new accounting rules in Sarbanes Oxley.

Now the son is in on the company bidness and get into Congress.  And is continuing to run on an anti-gun platform. 

John Sarbanes.  3rd District.  You know how he got elected?  His district looks like this:

What a dog's breakfast.  See the big negative spaces in the lower non-city half?  Those are more rural or more wealthy or more military.  The negative spaces in the city are high Dem areas that go to help some other congressional Democrat.

I think this is gonna be a bad year for congressional anti-gun types.  Maybe he can join Pa in retirement.

Monday Blumpkin

But on a Sunday!

I'm not even gonna tell you what that is.  Don't Google that word if you are work.  In fact, don't Google it.  Trust me.

It's worse that Googling information about perennial Presidential candidate loser Rick Santorum.

Bloomie is Chicken

He is petrified of Trump

@ABC @ABCPolitics You don't have the STONES to run for President, Bloomerberg! I triple dog dare you to run.

— J T Bolt (@NewJovianTBolt) January 23, 2016

Sposed to be in class today

Fitting a barrel into that oversize bushing using reamers and stuff, but...

Well, when there is a big storm in DC all of YOU have to hear about it.  Because not only is this the most important city in the world, it is the most SELF-important city in the world.  And the media megaphones are here. 

By the time this posts, the storm is half over. 

And it appears to be our standard once a decade Knickerbocker storm.  Why do we call it that?  Because people still talk about the big one in 1922 that flattened the Knickerbocker Theater and killed over a hundred people.  No one living was there then, chances are.  No one that remembers.  But the city remembers

I was unemployed and more hale and fit when the last big one hit on President's Day 2003.  Made it easier to dig out 13 years ago.  1996 was the one before that.  1983 before that.  1978 was REALLY big.

Update...  This one might be 1978 size.

What Happened

...to your favorite celebrity couples during the Zombacalypse.

Gun Build, Barrel to Bushing

You know how on YOUR 1911 the barrel fits in the bushing and the bushing fits in the slide, easy peasy? (Well, for 90% of you)

Well, I don't have that.  Neither of those.  It is an oversize bushing.  I have to reduce both the inside and outside diameter.  Inside so there is zero play for the barrel, but also no binding or flexing.  Outside so it requires a hammer and a vise and a bushing wrench to remove.

Yes, that tight. 

"But how do I field strip it to clean it, T-Bolt?  And then put it back together?  In the field."

Well you don't NEED the bushing and barrel out of the slide to clean it.  You just need all three off of the frame.  And there is a way to remove the slide stop pin to do so, and then reassemble, all under spring tension.  We learned that in the Basic Course.  Didn't need to do that with the factory gun, but we learned it then.  Just in case we took THIS class

So you chuck up the mandrel with your bushing on it in a mandrel and put that in a drill press you don't care about because there will be lateral forced that ruin drill press bearings.  (A lathe would be better)

It looks like this:

DO NOT turn it on with the slide on there.  Oh good Lord... 

You apply a file to the slideless bushing, or sandpaper and smooth down that over size bushing.  Turn off the press and test fit with the slide like the picture.  Remove slide and continue smoothing if necessary.

TIGHT fit. 

Proof the slide now fits

Tada.

My Senator

Shawty Babs, for 364 more days.

Not a friend to the rights of Marylanders.  Or Americans.

Isn't she in the minority in the Senate?  What does it matter what she wants to see happen in the committee?  I'm sure she didn't care what the GOP minority members felt when she was in the majority.

Giddy Fun

I really REALLY love this 1911 build class.  Even when I screw up.  Even when it's an expensive screw up.  Even with the not inconsiderable cost in money.  Even with the stress of tring NOT to screw up and cause something very expensive.  In 5 years I am not going to remember the stess and mistakes and money spent.  At the end I am going to have, at minimum, a better than average custom pistol.  With luck, MUCH better than average.   

The time spent is very fun.  I could do this every year, if Sam will let me.  I am really quite thrilled.  Giddy even.  Giddy to learn.

I am still an ignorant knucklehead when it comes to this 'build a pistol' process.  How to file that one little section of the thumb safety so it will work?  Yeah, I don't know when to do that.  I vaguely am aware of the theory and how it works in the scheme of things.  That is just one example. 

But I know I CAN figure it out, in time, and with practice. 
I could probably never get to anything close to competence without the safety net of a real gunsmith on my shoulder.    

And if I do 100 of these I might be good enough to strike out on my own.  So....  100 years?  Maybe Sam will up his classes and do 2 a year, in which case I might be able to do this in my retirement when I am 95.

Military Industrial Complex?

Ok, that's a shadow of it's former self from the Ike years.

Ike warned about the Scientific-Corruption/Public-Funding Complex.  And that is going gangbusters.  Or was before the bottom fell out of the AGW stuff when all that fraud at NASA/NOAA/CRU came to light over the last few years.

"The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite."

I always hear about the Military Industrial part of that speech, but they never highlight the bit that is the rice bowl of our Liberal University System.  An occasional reminder is warranted.

Now invent me my Gauss Pistol, Scientists!  I want a $800 price point and for it to be comfortable to carry CCW

Fitment follow up

It rocked side to side.  Not up and down, nor did it roll.

The fix?  Squeeze the slide together in a vise.  Then go through the fitting process again.  Mark file test clean. Mark file test clean.

There is a specialty jig for this squeezing process. 

This took all class on Saturday, and a good part on Sunday, after starting the process the previous Sunday and doing a few hours of homework during the week. 

The second time around, after correcting some galling in the lapping process...  Better fit.  No side to side, nor up and down, nor roll.

Like I mentioned a bit before, the biggest threat is breaking off the little tab where the thumb safety cut out is.  Get to the end of this process to NOW, without hurting that, and you have it made.  It is no longer in much danger.  Good, because new slide are expensive with a long lead time to get.

Next up... barrel and bushing fit to the slide.  

Gun Build, Frame/Slide Fitment.

Now, out of the box the frame and slide didn't fit together.  You've filed on the slide, and they still don't fit together.  Now we are going to make it even harder to fit together.  We are going to hammer on the frame.  With a hammer.  A steel hammer.  Bang bang bang bang.  On the most expensive and hardest to replace part.  Joy!

There is a lot of this in 1911 gunsmithing.  "Careful on this part.  One misstep and you ruin it and might as well throw it away."  Phew.

You put your frame in a jig, you put that jig in a big vise.  Remember the measurements on the slide?  It was 0.1170.  You get a precision machined steel spacer that is 0.1170 into the side groove on the frame.  Then you carefully, yet pretty hard, bash on the top of the frame rails with a hammer until it hold onto the spacer.  Now the frame rail 'dado' is .1170 and the slide rail 'mortise' is .1170.  BAM.

When you fit the slide to the frame you have to know what parts of the frame are not fitting or coming in too close a contact.  For this you blacken the rails all over with a smoke lamp.  A flame that leaves carbon all over.  Where the black rubs away that part you file.  You also use these marks to determine what is happening.  They leave a distinct pattern when you are just flexing the slide outward, for example, when you are jamming the two together.

This is the 21st Century.  It is easier to use a black Sharpie marker instead of a smoky flame as your 'smoke lamp' medium.

See this green spot?  Inside it is a part of the marker that has been rubbed away while fitting, and it isn't inboard on the rail the rails are too tall.

You also see the stubby steel hammer for smashing the frame down.  The rawhide is for tapping the slide off of the frame.

After ever few fittings you clean off the marker with alcohol.  It actually adds thickness and gums up the works after a while.

Mark, fit, file, mark, fit, file, clean marker.  Always clean off filings.

When they mate together but still aren't smoothly working, we lap with 800 rip lapping compound and in an oil slurry.  Then a thinned down slurry.  Then just work it together with oil.

At the end they should fit together with a gentle tap and not rock side to side, up and down, or roll. 

Rubio Rubs

Rubio talks a good game on the 2nd Amendment.

But why do I think he'd sell us all down the river, for a little tiny advantage on something else on one of his own priorities, at the drop of a hat?  That's just the impression I get. 

He rubs me the wrong way. 

I'd trust Hillary more if she made happy promises on gun freedoms.

He is the prettiest on stage, however. 

I am very confident in Cruz and Rand sticking to their guns (so to speak) on our firearm rights.

Not Carson.  He seemed to convert to our side out of convenience.  If he had the same opinion he had 2 years now he would be debating Santorum at the kiddie table. 

I have no idea with Trump.  He is hard to read.  That's the problem.  Hard to nail down.  He could be our greatest friend or worst enemy.  I don't know.

Monday Bunco

But on a Sunday!

Holy Crap

I forgot to post a Saturday post.

Uhhhh...  a work buddy found a Groupon for a machinegun shooty place locally.  Ballenger Creek.  Frederick Maryland.  The Machinegun Nest.

He's a Marine, but he wanted to try some submachine guns.

He listed what they had.

• Sten
• Tommy
• M4
• Greasegun
• Krinkov
• MP5
• Uzi  

I went "Oh, and M4?  The Italian job?  What's that called?  Oh, the Spectre."

"No... the M4.  You know.  The M4."

...

"Oh, my... I can't believe I vapor locked on that one.  I am SO embarrassed."

Gun Build, Slide Prep, Prior to Fitment

As you know, I am building another 1911.  I rebuilt one before, now this is from scratch.

So far, so good.

This gunsmith teaches what he knows.  And he learned his chops by first being a gunsmith, then joining the army to be a gunsmith.  For the Army Marksmanship Unit.  So we learn how to build a gun from parts the AMU way. 

There are lots of way to skin the cat of "let's make these parts into a 1911 pistol!"  We are learning the way they do it for the competitive pistol shooting team of the Army.

First thing...  Frame to slide fittage...

Inspect your parts.  The frame and slide.  You could be dead in the water here, at this stage.  Caspian is a good company, but they make mistakes.  It can happen. 

One of the advantages of doing pistolsmithing with the AMU?  If you have a defective part they have PILES more of that exact part to swap out.  You don't have to wait for replacements or return/replacements.

Then, you measure everything.  And the critical parts require more than calipers.  You need a micrometer.

Now you are measuring the slide rails, where they will fit into the frame rails, the Rail Height.  They have to be precise with a micrometer.  You get measurements like 0.118+/- inches.  Well there is blank space between 0.118 and 0.119, so you guesstimate the 10,000th place.  Now you have numbers you record like 0.1182, and 0.1180 and 0.1179.  The idea is find the lowest number.  Bring that number down to it's zero...  So in those three the lowest number is 0.1179.  So our target is now 0.1170.  Right on the line.  Not 0.11705.  0.1170!

See the green circles?  Measure at those spots.  Both sides.  Record on the worksheet

File the rails, clean, measure, record.  Is it 0.1170?  File some more, clean, measure, record...  You see? 

Then you get here.

"But what if I file too far T-Bolt?  What if I get 0.1169 on one side?"  Well, now you have a new target.  It's 0.1160 for the entire slide rail.  Careful.  You get to 0.1130 and you might as well get a new slide, you've gone too far, taken too much off.  There are places where you can fudge.  Closer to the muzzle where the frame doesn't contact the slide in lockup?  There is some wiggle room.  0.1165 can be acceptable, even desirable.  That little fragile nub in the frame where the thumb safety inlet is?  That too.  But lets get it right, for the whole length, shall we, so we don't worry about it. (In that picture above it even LOOKS .1169, but the camera is offset a bit.  Trust me, it is .1170)

Needless to say, you go slowly.  And your file technique gets better, fast with that pucker factor.

Oh, I'm not good with a file.   Maybe after 1000 hours of this...  Someone good with a file would go faster. Go slow.  Don't screw up.

Ok, you get that perfect 0.1170 for all 14 places you measure on the slide.  Maybe you bring the muzzle side to 0.1165 got a little relief up front.  You can now ease the corners. Make them less sharp.  Breathe easier. 

Next, pucker factor while you try to not ruin the Frame itself...

Chelsea Clinton 'Facts'

I had no idea there were that many Starbucks in DC either.

Uh @citylab? Have you tried to buy a gun in DC? This is farcical. https://t.co/dG3P9kamBl pic.twitter.com/Tjai5HOjhm

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 15, 2016

I'm old

And too fat. 

My knees hurt, my back hurts. 

No reason.  No significant injuries or surgeries to justify it.  Just sprains and wear and tear and such.  Not like some of you folks with screws and plates and whatnot.  So I guess I should be thankful for that.

My dad had bad back issues at this age.  Worse than I have now.  He had bad knees too.

But then he didn't.  Both went away.  It was weird.  I hope that is in store for me.

Been looking at old picture.  "Oh look here is one of dad.  Much younger than today.  But... wait, he looks much older than I do now, but he is 10 years younger than I am now in that picture!"

Old picture of my grandfather at my age now and he looks even older. 

How does THAT happen?  Why do younger generation appear younger than their elders at the same point in life? 

Maybe not so old.  So I should stop complaining.

As you can see, I am low on blog fodder.  At least on topic blog fodder.  Uhhh...  If I wasn't so old, fat, and slow I'd be better at moving and shooting. 

Kinda bummed I guess.  Seems like and extra dosage of suckage is about for some reason.  Lots of deaths, for example, lately.  Extra.  Friends, colleagues, pets, celebrities I don't dislike.  Children of friends.  I know eveything dies.  I just want the accelerated pace of it to slow down a bit.  It's too much at once. 

Colleagues

The gunnies at work talk about guns too much.  And too loudly.

I avoid that because there are strangers one cube over, and maybe they are calling HR and saying they feel threatened?  This is Maryland, after all.  Bad things could happen to your paycheck.  You could be totally in the right and bad things can happen to your paycheck. 

So I keep it down to a dull roar.

I appreciate the loud gun talker in one way.  They are my canaries in a coal mine.  They will get fired for talking guns on the job before I do.  If you look around your office and you don't know your various canaries, then maybe you are the canary.  It applies to other things.  "Oops, my microwave popcorn is burnt a little.  I hope that doesn't bother anyone and cause friction... Wait, Frank reheats fish in the microwave every other day, if he can get away with that I can have a popcorn issue twice a year."

Another problem with gun talk? All the derp.  I bite my tongue with that.  And also do not engage.  There is no fixing one guy.  "My XD is safe because it is too hard to rack the slide.  So my 10 year old that pitches little league doesn't have the strength..." "Uhhhh, that might no be-" "DON'T TELL ME HOW TO RAISE MY SON!" "Ok."

So, another reason I only talk guns at work on the QT with select folks.  The guy with the XD above might overhear the talk if we do it near him and inject himself into the conversation.  He is that sort of person. 

H Words

For some reason every few months I try to think of the family that was the head of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the name will not come to fore in my head.

I know it's an H word.  I usually settle on Hohenzollern, but that's not right.  I remember they are Prussian, up in Brandenburg and such.  That family produces flute playing militarists.  Wrong Germans.

I give up wrestling with recalling the memory and use wikipedia to look up Archduke Franz Ferdinand, trophy hunter and bullet sponge.   The Hapsburgs!  That's it.  Weak chinned folks that wage marriage instead of war.

Yeah, I spell it with a P.  I also say Mexico instead of Mehico, Pakistan instead of Pockistan, and BC and AD for dates instead of whatever them Social Justice Warriors changed it to.

Self Defense

When I was a kid, in the 70s, I had a little brother.  We got into fisticuffs often enough.
But I didn't fight at school.

For one, I didn't like to lose fights.  That hurts.  And I am a bit non-confrontational.  Deep down.  Nowadays I make up for that in bluster, but back then, no.
But there was something else.

"If you get caught fighting on school grounds you will BOTH be suspended and it will forever be on your permanent record."

I didn't want that!  My parents would be so disappointed and ashamed.   A blot like that means I'd never get a job.  Not in decent society.  Maybe I'd be a carny or something, like at the County Fair.  Those guys running the rides that smelled like burned rope.  Might as well be a hobo or rock band singer.  Just awful.

Suspension was like the death penalty in my 8 year old mind. 

But the lesson I picked up from them 30 year old teachers in 1977 is:  "Don't fight back,  Don't resist.  It is never justified."

30 year old them meant they were 21 when Martin Luther King died and probably took his lessons to heart, but took it the wrong way.  Then passes those wrong lessons on to their charges.  That lesson "All violence is bad, only non-violence is good."

Hence why both kids got suspended in 1977.  Plus it's hard to discern who the aggressor was in a fracas, so, just send both boys home.  Bullies sensed my hesitation in this and descended.

That lesson is horrible.  It delegitimizes self defense.  You go meek into the fray to be chewed up and digested.  Some violence is bad, yes.  Evil.  But some violence is good.  Protective.  Protective violence, of yourself or others, to meet aggressive violence, is an absolute good.

So the 70s taught me the wrong lesson and it would take some time to undo that in my head. 

Monday Bukowski

But on a Sunday!

"I see you drinking at a fountain with tiny
blue hands, no, your hands are not tiny
they are small, and the fountain is in France
where you wrote me that last letter and
I answered and never heard from you again." C. Bukowski

She's mad but she's magic.  There's no lie in her fire.

Making a Gun From Scratch

And since I took the $125 class a couple years ago, and subsequent classes, I already know it is going to be a more enjoyable class for me than what this class was like. 

I've heard rumor that Larry Vickers is no longer teaching that.  It sound like he was getting too busy.  Had too many pots going on the stove, so to speak.  For the best, I guess.

I recommend that.  For anything.  Take the cheap class first.  Find out if you and instructor are a good fit.  If you are lucky then expand from there.

But they neglect ME!

Dang Hoosiers, all up in my business...

 

DOUBLE Dangit

!

~whistles...~

Dangit!

I mean... No, I don't know anyone like that...

Maryland

According to the Daily Signal,  "Washington, D.C., and Baltimore together account for nearly half of the increase in murders nationwide."

So, essentially, Maryland.  The part I live and work in and around.

The place that passed a lot more gun control including making it very hard to purchase the few models of firearm you are still allowed to buy.  The place that won't let peons like you defend yourself in public. 

---

On a totally separate note:  Vote O'Malley 2016!!! The next president of the United States!  Wooo!!!

RFID

Remember when the Illuminati and the Lizardoids were really pushing for RFID scanning technology to better keep tabs on us Sheeple?  WHat, 12-15 years ago?  Good times, good times.

Of course they don't need to devote the resource to that effort anymore.  Why bother concentrating on that if you are practically inviting them along by carrying that phone with you everywhere you go. 

(If you are reading this in the stall, stop scrolling, wipe, zip up and go.  Wash yer hands first.)

Shoes are the one thing they still actively track.  It was easy, what with plates in the floor close to the chip.  Plus it's reliable.  Who shares shoes with other people?  You will wear your boyfriends hoodie, you will carry your wife's purse, but you don't even share shoes with your twin, generally.  More reliable to track shoes.  But few people go out shopping in public anymore. 

And that is why all my new clothes and shoes go in the microwave for a good 6 seconds when I first get them.

No, I have never owned a cell phone.  Just set up a rotary in my living room, though. 

My problem is, I am NOT trackable.  That is more noticeable than being one of the horde.  I am more toid in the punchbowl instead of needle in the haystack.  It attracts that big Eye of Sauron.  So if my personality suddenly changes, I have been snatched up and replace by a doppelganger.  Beware!  You could be next! 

1968

I found out that the shotgun I thought was me grandfather's?  It was actually my Dad's.  Single shot Montgomery Wards 20 gauge.

He got it in 1968 during the riots. 

Back then he worked at the phone company and his workplace was on Wisconsin Avenue in the District of Columbia.  The riots were going on, columns of smoke over the city, and reports were they were coming UP Wisconsin Avenue...

This had an impression on 30 year old him, as you can imagine.

For those unfamiliar with the geography of the city, you know it sorta looks like part of a square with one of the corners pointing due north.  There is a creek that is also a park that runs north to south.  Rock Creek Park.  The park sort of makes a dividing line in the city.  East of the park is the Georgia Avenue corridor, and not the best neighborhood then and now.  Not the worst by any means.  Mixed.  Shoot Catholics lived on that side...  Archie lived West of the park, but in the 30s if you wanted a girl that might be more conducive to Parking and Necking and MORE, you looked East of the park.

West of the park is more tony.  Wisconsin and Connecticut avenues.  Fancy neighborhoods.  Geogetown (which was a slum until the late 30s) to the south, Chevy Chase to the north.  So, if rioters were marching up Wisconsin Avenue, that was concerning to some people that weren't accustomed to that kind of concern.

So, Dad, who's parents lived in Bethesda/Chevy Chase but he, a working man, lived in the suburbs of DC more Eastish of the Park in the form of Silver Spring or Wheaton, got a shotgun just in case.  He couldn't have been TOO concerned.  Or he would have gotten something more effective than a single shot 20 gauge. 

All the real riot damage was more downtown.  And east of the park.  Quite a ways.  Closer to the train station and in the more industrial areas.  And area where people worked as well as lived.

Ignoring some laws

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”  -Heinlein

Obama's massive new regulatory scheme propagating massive new extra legal gun control regime, all flowing from his whim and will alone appears to be... yes, a nothing burger.  As I suspected yesterday.

Safely ignored.

There are plenty of actual gun LAWS that many of us/you ignore routinely.  Some of those laws we/you ignore are even felonies.  Silly ones, too.  So what if I don't wait a full 7 days to get my gun?  What does that provide?  I have other guns already.  Getting this next one now or in a week... So?  But if the FFL gives me the pistol on day 2... we both go to prison.  Pfff.

I have never violated that 7 day waiting period thing in Maryland, for the record.

Lots of other gun felonies are impossible to prove unless you go out of your way to buy a gun from an FBI informant wearing a wire.  And if you can keep your mouth shut.  (But the newish Obama EO don't even rise close to that level.) 

It's not wise to admit you commit firearms felonies.  Especially if you admit it online.  Like on your blog.  Like right now.  Luckily, I am not admitting that because I have not done anything like that.  But.  I don't play by their rules, the state of Maryland's.  I never actually break the law, I just avoid participating.  Maryland doesn't want me to buy an 11 round or greater magazine and will throw me in the hoosegow if I do in the state?  Fine.  Now I buy extra in Virginia.  Because that isn't illegal.  I'd never buy a hunting rifle or shotgun in Maryland now.  I don't need to.  Buy it in Pennsylvania.  Perfectly ok in either state but why play by MY state's crappy rules.  Or I just don't buy guns, period.  I advise others to, but I have a bunch already, so no harm just now until the rules are rolled back.  And I never wanted to buy a gun out of the trunk of a car at a gun show before people told me I couldn't.   I am not the only one.  Extra people have made private sale purchases simply because Leftists don't want them to do that. 

There are others out there.  Some are readers, I bet.  That go further than that.  Further than I do.  And more power to you.  I don't want to know the details and I don't want to hear your confession.  Just keep up that good work and be a good citizen otherwise. 

Glock Mystery

On more than a few occasions I have noticed new shooters, offered a plethora of pistols to shoot.  Like all the 9mm pistols.  Here is an old Luger, and a S&W M&P, and this SIG 226, and this crappy XDm, and a Glock 17...

At the end of the range trip an inordinate number express displeasure with the Glock.

Why?

Why pick on Glock?

I also do not like the Glock much.  And I have no idea why. 

Of course there are Glockophiles.  MBtGE is one, certainly.  The SIRT gun I am training on is Glock, yes, but that's a simulator. 

In fact I am hoping the simulator training is making me more brand neutral.  Making the models less Talisman, more tool.  It is one of my primary objectives, yes.  You can still love your 1911 and shoot a Glock as well as anything is sort of the point. 

But that still doesn't answer the disproportionate amount of Glock hate from people unexposed to gun bulletin board dramas. 

They'll say "the Sig grip is too big" or "that little one seemed to have too much kick," but with the Glock it's "I just didn't like it."

It's a mystery, and one I'd like to solve.

If I did magically 'solve' it, I don't imaging that would impact the product line much.  Even if my name was Gaston.  The design is established, and unless a change is a small one I don't see it being made for a Gen 5 offering.

Gun Control

So Obama is going to unilaterally write pass and execute some gun control laws any day now.  Gun control 'lite' as he has fully figured out how to get away with short circuiting the rest of gov't and assuming dictatorial power.

(If any GOPer win in November job one should be render null and void the previous eight years of Executive Orders.)

Anyway... Gun control.  Will Obamas rules be annoying or just something we can ignore right now?  Or, even better, something we can ignore at no risk?

Which do I hope for? Well, what if we gunnies don't have the voting clout we think we have?  We go all in and Hillary wins... we aren't just done because of SCOTUS picks.  We are done because we don't swing elections.  The other side will no longer fear us.  Our side will go wobbly.   Which, unfortunately, 'Our Side' means just the one party again.

We go all in and are credited with pulling the election our way?  Maybe Dems start going back to unfriendly toward gun control, and the Snd Amendment becomes bipartisan again.   We need election where the NRA get's a pro gun Democrat elected in a majority Republican district but with a pro gun control GOP incumbent.  But that's for later.  Worry about that later.

What do we do today and tomorrow?

Monday Bupkis

But on a Sunday!

Yesterday I went to my last simulator class.  Starting next weekend I won't have time at that facility because we will be spending it 'building'.

I went plane Jane.  Again.  Nothing fancy.  Stainless gun in .45.  The OTHER guys, tho.   Ouroboros serrations on Damascus steel slides, chambered in .32 S&W, and grips made out of saber tooth tiger teeth ivory.   Gonna be neat watching them make there's as I will making mine.   

Future Shock

I took my time playing Fallout 4 before going through to the end of the 'plot'.  I was enjoying it, I wanted to savor it.

It still hasn't darkened my nostalgia for the 50s, though the game is "Alternate timeline 1950s" styling.

I want the stuff SciFi wanted in the 1950s.  Not just the stereotypical Jet Packs, Flying Cars, and Electricity Too Cheap to Meter.  Because what is Science concentrating on now?  Global Warming fraud, and new Boner Pills.  Super Gonorhea and Drug Resistant Tuberculosis shouldn't even be a concept we have in our minds in 2015.  All those resources wasted in Climate Change Command Economy scam support wouldn't have happened if not diverted there by initial vestiges of our Command Economy.  A monster that feeds itself.  You'd think we'd have learned, for all time, from 1989.

But it's not just that.  Even without socialism politics leaks into science.  Atoms for Peace being one, and part of the 50s tech nostalgia, too.  And the Boner Pills are pure capitalism.  Science researches that because that is where the money is. 

But there is money in Thorium reactors.  And fusion.  And asteroid mining.  And the Kitchen of the future with a Robut Butler.  Ok, we DO have door that open by themselves.  Even a pessimist's like Huxley's vision.

And practical Gauss Pistols for personal arms...  We don't have them yet.

Firearm engineering technology hasn't really gotten TOO much beyond the 50s.  They sure tried in the 60s, with sabot stuff and gyrojets, but... Nada.

Yeah...no.

"America's top 25 overpriced cities: see if yours is on the list"

Oh, it isn't a table.  It's one at a time.  Yeah I'm not tapping a slow-refresh link 25 times to see.  And now I also don't trust Forbes anymore for serving that up to me in that format.

Is it worth it?  Alienating your customers that way?  Yes, I was exposed to that first ad, but now I will be hostile to it and you and never see that second ad.

Happy New Year

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