Sim Training

Is going away.

Hatfields is moving and the new gunsmithing facility won't have room for the simulator.  Which makes me sad.  I was learning lots in there.  Maybe it's time I graduated to bigger things with actual ammo.  That's the bad news.

The good news is he is even closer to the best range in the area, ESS.  Where he already does live fire instruction.

To give a fer instance on what I learn in that sim.  Sam lays down some ninja type stuffs on me at times.  You know lately I have been heeling shot with the .22.  What's up with that?  Well a good shooting instructor that knows his bidness will say "relax, do a good trigger squeeze and FOCUS ON THAT FRONT SIGHT."  I have been drifting off the sight, I realize that in retrospect.  A bad habit.  Well, on one of the plate targets in five seconds Sam comes into the Sim, tell me to aim at the smalled 'plate' on the wall, stage the trigger, then close my eyes.  PING!  Time after time.  Eyes closed.  Ping.  Ping.  Ping.  Ping.  Set up, stage the trigger, close eyes, fining the squeeeeeeeeeeeze... ping.

Dammit.

Hey, my hold and trigger squeeze are pretty good, now.  My biggest problem now may be how I look at things and how I think about things.  As Tam would undoubtedly tell me, I have too many mind.

"Too many mind, Tam?"

"Yes, T-Bolt.  Mind the gun, mind the people watch, mind enemy - too many mind...  No mind."

Been on the road

Over the holidays.  But look out burglars, now, today, isn't the time to sniff around my house.  I'll be home any second. 

Gun Banning Gun Violence Research

Down in the past 2 decades.

You know, yer buddies Soros and Bloomberg still have OODLES of money.  And they certainly have an interest in the subject.  Why wait on the feckless gov't for funds for your inherently biased rights denying research and just get the spare change out of their sofas?  They could totally fund it, and probably more generously.

First, we gotta kill all the gophers

But if I kill all the golfers they'll lock me up and throw away the key...

"I thought he said the election was being rigged!"

"Huh?!  Explain that!"

Well, the election was rigged.  Trump was just able to overcome the margin of electoral and voter fraud by a large enough margin.  I am sure the president elect can feel fine assuming he won the popular vote if you discount how the Dems are better at cheating.

Not that the popular vote matters,  If it was a popular vote contest instead of an electoral college contest everyone would run their show different.  If it was baseball instead of football you'd leave your shoulder pads in the dugout.

But that's no big thing now, the popular vote and rigging.  Water under the bridge.  If they had confirmed in 2013 that Obama really was foreign born no one was actually going to DO any of the very few possible things that even could be done.  No one was gonna put Biden in the big chair, or call up Mittens and tell him "get in the game, kid, and kick a homerun through the uprights"

Going forward, I hope Trump doesn't scroo over the economy or gun rights.  Or get us all killed.  Cautiously optimistic.  Very cautiously.

Trump is AWFUL, I am glad he won.

[More importantly, I am running out of steam on post election political posts.  Good.  There were other posts I composed then deleted.  You don't need those, to see that.  What would that accomplish? Just trying to relax a bit.  Return to normal blogging.  Fewer political post but even LESS election jobbers.  Hope for the best, expect the worst, in the meantime no more personal pity parties, tantrums, riots, gloating, or victory laps.  Just trying to abide.  The Bolt abides.  Let's go bowling.]

Handgun Marksmanship

The Experts Guide to Handgun Marksmanship.

I bought this off the NRA Palladium Press years ago.  It's mostly magazine article reprints.  Mixed reviews.

But I know more now than I did then.

Re-reading now I am catching things that I could not have caught back then.  It makes me think I am on the right track in my self improvement.

Jack O'Connor:  "the first step is to take an easy and relaxed stance," "he should be grasping the handgun lightly but firmly," "the ideal way to learn to shoot a handgun would be to go through a course of dry firing for a few weeks,"  "it is absolutely fatal to let the target distract the shooter's attention from the sight," "keep the sight looking as good as possible and then to keep increasing pressure on the trigger until the gun goes off."

All good stuff.  Stuff I read before.  And understood.  But now, with the passage of time, and some formal instruction, even the simple things are freighted with greater meaning.

This isn't the best book to teach you how to shoot your pistol.  But if you pay attention YOU might be the best 'book' to teach you how to shoot your pistol.  If you keep seeking out from everywhere things and people and teachers and instruction on how to shoot your pistol.

I wish I was a faster learner and more physically coordinated.  This process would go a bit faster.  Or that I had time and resources to work on it more than twice weekly.  Or both. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

My only requirements for this holiday are:

• Turkey
• Mashed Potatoes
• Gravy
• And I have to SEE, at least, a can shaped gelatinous red cylinder of cranberry sauce.
• Pumpkin pie for dessert.

I am a simple man, with simple requirements.   

The bleak Trump years

I am looking forward to the return of this genre of movie being churned out.  Make me reminisce about my childhood.  Future Shock!  Planet of the Apes!  Capricorn One!  And stuff like.



I always loved that.  Made me what I am today when none of things came to pass.  Well, except the fake Mars landings.

Also, I saw a countdown clock so Prog put up for when Trump is no longer president.  It only had the four years worth.  You just jinxed us all to 8, Lefty!

On this day

In 1963.  A commie loser murdered a syphilitic, deviated prevert to keep him from spreading his preversion by conducting a top down national mutiny of preverts.  Also, he wanted to impress Fidel Castro.   After that, the Democrats lost their damn mind and haven't found it since.  Where is my mind?  Where is my mind?  Where is my mind?  Wheeeeeeeeeeere is... there!  Out in the water!  See it swimmin?

Range, November 15

Started strong this time.  Then the high and right heeling crept in over time.  Hard to measure as they were out of my usual targets.  25 feet, 45 rounds of CCI minimax .22 from when it cost $3.80, no ammo or gun failures. 

I did the center ones first.  Meh.

Top left is odd man out.  I wonder why that is?  But you see heeling again in the other 3 corners.  And I admit there was an early shift off the front sight I don't usually do.  But I corrected that when I realized it.  And I lightened up the grip.  So I don't know what I am off on.  More instruction in a couple weeks.  Maybe another practice session the week after Thanksgiving.

I need to change something up.  Maybe the pace of the shooting, between each shot.  Now it is "shoot three deliberately and slowly, pinning back and resetting after each shot."  Maybe two.  Maybe just one shot.  Maybe slower.  I can sometimes fix myself.  Correct a flaw on the go, so to speak.  And not require instruction.  This one is a little more persistent.  

Heeling... I bet it's losing the front sight.  I used to be much better with front sight concentration.  Dunno what happened.

New Gun

Remember how I said I had a hankering for an impractical 9mm a few weeks ago?  I get antsy around elections, anyway.

This hankering came out of nowhere.  I have never ever wanted a 9.  But I am on this "get better at shooty bidness" vision quest where I am taking lots and lots of training.  So I am in a weird place right now.  I am capable of committing any madness, including picking up a lighter-recoil higher-capacity firearm on my self-improvement journey.

So I did.  But not without problems.

See, it's kind of a custom gun...  Well, it actually is.  A custom gun.  It could even double as a race gun.  A double stack 9mm 1911.  Or 2011, whatever.  One of a kind.  21 round magazines. 

It's not perfect feature wise, but so?  It's pretty snazzy.  Saying it's not perfect is like saying Wayne Manor could use just one more powder room.  Maybe.  But, so?

And Sam has other ideas for it, to further customize it.  If I want. Red dot optic, wrapped around from the light rail.  A new barrel, maybe a full five inches.  .38 Super, with a compensator and I am ready for major!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Speed Racer.  Let me learn to go from a crawl to a walk, first.  And for me to iron on the dent in my wallet. 

"Those double stack 1911s can be a true heart breaker T-Bolt.  To start with you will probably have magazine issues right out of the gate."

Maybe with a run of the mill double stack.  But I know a guy.  A guy that knows how to adjust magazines and good many other things for this gun.  Because he made it. 

Ugh.  Getting into Sam's orbit has been wonderful for my shooty improvement so far.  And a huge load on my bank account too.  But so much fun. 


---

You think a regular 1911 holster that accepts the light rail will work for this?  Or is there something else too fat about a doublestack that will choke in that size holster?  Fack.  I might need a custom.  How many 2011 have that squared off trigger guard.  Dang.

Recommend a light.  Surefire and Streamlight seem to be the top two varieties, but you tell me.

---


Ooo, that reminds me.  I need to actually sell some guns.  With more than one 'custom' .45 1911, why do I have regular 1911s?  Or Sig 229s?  That will defray the cost of the above gun.

I was just thinking about it...  I now have a number of guns with truly decent triggers.  The above, the two 1911s, a good aftermarket job in my AR, a good Fulton one in my M1A, the 686 was good to start but is now better, the 2 640s are good for DA snubbies.  All the rest are just kinda regular triggers.  Might as well unload those.  Besides, those were bought whole pistols that the state of Maryland knows about.  I am hoping stripped lowers and Caspian frames confuses that bunch.  "Is is a gun or not?  Who know at this point.  Maybe... "

Used to

I have a policy where I'd take anyone to the range to do a familiarization and safety run and have some with boomsticks.  Even with liberal Democrats.  After all, we all have 2nd Amendment rights.  And maybe I can get them to see our sides point of view and they will be more circumspect before voting for gun bans.  It was a way to convert them to our side.

Or, should say, I had a policy.  Based on the rendering of garments and gnashing of teeth and deadly riots and whatnot...  Let them find somebody else.  I don't think I'd convert many on the margins, and too many of them would kick my face in in one of the 'peaceful' protests they get paid to throw.

Larry has some help.  My mood is more of a 'go pound sand down a rathole, Swampy.'

One good thing about the election

Once again, Race Bannon is in the #2 spot.  I'm sure he'll be great help to Dr. Quest.

We got one guy named Reince, sorta like Race.  Another guy NAMED Bannon, and a Veep that looks like him.

So, if Trump is Dr. Quest, and Pence/Bannon/Reince is Race... that makes Barron Johnny Quest.  Hmmmm.

Somme

Well, the Battle of the Somme ended today.  100 years ago. 

Phew, bet they were glad THAT was over.  It was only a bit over a million casualties. if you add up both sides. 

Nothing like the Battle of Verdun, though, that would go on another month, but started up 5 months prior to the Somme fight.   About the same number of casualties in that battle.  

Two million casualties from two battles that went on less than a year.  A half million dead, or so.  The numbers are staggering. 

Range 7 November

New wrinkle.  3 failures to feed in the first magazine, CCI mini-max .22lr.  There is wax blobs on the tips of these bullets.  This was hanging up the gun.  Was my car hot enough to melt these and I only now encountered it?  Maybe.  Was is 15 year old CCI that used wax and now that I am toting that older ammo to the range I am just now encountering it?  Also possible.

When I paid attention to the ammo while loading the magazines and flaking off any big bits I found, the failures went away.

Keeping up a log, now, too.  For this gun and my better, improved, 1911s.  But just this for now because I've only been shooting .22.  Centerfire in December.  Can't wait to learn something new.

Log entry:  "Ciener, 7 NOV 16, /48 rounds of CCI MiniMax, 3 FTF due to waxy buildup." Anything else I should include in the log

Anyway, here is the target:

Check out target 3.  the first 3 shot at it bracketed the X ring, the second group was higher and twelve o'clock.

Most everything else was high and right.  That's new.  Newish.  Tending high.  Did and extra set of 3 on targets 1 and 2.

Targets seven and eight were cranked out to 50 feet instead of the usual 25, just to see.  Three rounds each.

Score for 6 targets vis 8:

Round 1:  24 17 30xx 27 21 21 = 140xx
Round 2:  23 15 22     15 22 21 = 118

With actual MISSES this time, off the scoring.  Bleh.  Crappy.  I need to fix that.  Troubleshoot says breaking wrist up or heeling.  What the hell is breaking and heeling?  Hmph.  Lemme check the literature.

"The solution for either form of anticipation is front sight focus. This is a complete, deliberate focus on the front sight, not just visually, but mentally as well. If you have a flinch or anticipation problem, I recommend actually saying front sight in your head as you press the shot. Your focus on the front sight should be so deliberate that you'll find the shot has broken before you had the opportunity to anticipate it. If you find you are focusing so intently that the shot breaks and gives you a surprise, you did it right."

Fine.  Relax.  Front sight.  The basics.   It always comes back to the basics.  I coulda guessed that, and it is right.

Slow Wheels of Justice

That Minnesota cop that aired out that CCW holder is finally getting charged with a crime.  Manslaughter.  Good!  It's about time.   That was half a year ago!

But I saw this in the Washington Post's write up on it:

"Castile had a permit to carry his gun, something that sparked internal divisions among members of the National Rifle Association at the time."

 Now, I am in the NRA.  I remember lots of discussion about that at the time.  I don't remember internal divisions.  I'm not all over NRAHQ, tho, maybe there were.

I do remember liberals directing flak at the NRA back then for waiting for a few more facts to come in before making a statement on the shooting.   And when they made their statement based on what was known they were appalled an innocent CCW holder got shot by a jumpy police officer.  Something the NRA tends to frown upon in all cases.

Anyone have any knowledge on internal NRA divisions?

Or is this the Post stealing a march and injecting their own fantastical conclusions into a story instead of facts?

Yes! This!

Awesome!

CCW in New York City.  Where I get all my salsa.

Polly Ticks

My fervent hope in the near future, the next 4 years.

A gun case comes up to the Supreme Court and they put down "Strict Scrutiny" in the Clarence Thomas majority opinion.  Then another case with the same thing.  Heller 2, McDonald 2, whatever.

National Reciprocity that applies to me and applies to my carrying in Maryland.

A few quarters of 3+% GDP growth, in a row.  Enough that they consider raising interest rates up off the floor.  And all that entails.

---


That's it.  Everything else is gravy.  Suppressor for firearms in blister packs at Walmart?  Sure.  Fine.  Neat.  Sweeping away of all of Obama's executive orders and a few from GHW Bush?  Great.  Whittle down the EPA, DOE, DOE, BATF, HUD, TSA, VA, Homeland Security to nothing or near nothing because of incompetence or superfluosity or sheer waste?  Super.  Do what you can.

But move the needle on securing the 2nd and boost the economy.

"That's pretty small ball, T-Bolt.  Why not think bigger?"

Good point.  My universe is pretty small.  I guess I am just not greedy.  However Trump is almost certainly awful; he says the right things but who knows what he'll do.  And the GOP is feckless.  I am curbing my expectations for the future.

Post Election Let Down

I went grocery shopping on the 7th.

What am I gonna DO with all this past, rice, and canned good since the aftermath was less Thunderdomiam than anticipated?   Too much.

I carry a compact XD .40

"And in a Serpa holster."

I am guilty of this.  Or the idea of this.

I admit it.

I am NEW Jovian Thunderbolt, or was, and when casting about with the idea eventually getting CCW when I started this blog almost 10 years ago, and just then getting into more than cursory plinking.

It was a totally rational and sober selection process.  And it arrived at that.

I tried the other plastic pistols, and I didn't like the feel of the M&P trigger and shot the Glock poorly in comparison to XDs.

I was convinced about the big bullet thanks to research online and Jeff Cooper, but I wanted to slim it down some.  The caliber still started with a 4.

And the medium size gun instead of full size because CCW.  When not carrying concealed I wanted a retention holster and BLACKHAWK! was new and offered that nice retention button.

Well, that was many years before now, and my thinking has changed and my decision then has become a joke.  My consolation is I never did buy that XD for myself, and carry it.  I still recommended it to others, then.

What do I prefer now?  J Frame snubbie in a pocket holster is what I DO.  It's been 10 years and it still isn't practical to CCW in Maryland.  But say I lived and worked as a Linotype Machinist in Mentor Ohio instead?  The 1911s I customized in IWB holsters.  Or a Safariland lvl III at 9 o'clock.  But I don't have all the answers!  10 years in and I am still learning, still improving, and nowhere near as close to where I want to be, skillwise.  I don't NEED new and different equipment.  I need new and different me.   Working on that, still.

Safe at Second

You know what I find sorta comforting?

More than one Dem I know personally is now gun shopping.  For real.  Not making that up.  All the gun buying on our side has lead to this.  They saw us exercising a right when it was under some threat, and at a time of their uncertainty, and knowing it is less likely to go away, they want to exercise the right too.  And take responsibility for themselves.  Well, some of them.

Not that I think this guy or that want to hunt down GOP peeps.  These are reasonable people.  Reasonable enough.  But they are finally coming around on the Second Amendment.  And all because they lost an election and saw what we did when we lost an election.

At least I fervently hope they aren't the violence-initiating kind of democrats...

It's a good thing.  It makes them less likely to push for gun bannage.  It's pushback against their allies like Soros and Bloomberg. 


---

I'm not the only one that noticed this lefty interest.

One guy here is going to get a 10/22.  Partly for his kids, partly because his liberal Brother in Law wants to learn how to shoot after November 9th.  

Oh, ffs

If you refuse to wear a #safetypin bc you think it's ridiculous you're part of the problem and shouldn't be surprised if ppl call you racist

— Kaos (@katjakaos) November 12, 2016

Trump is AWFUL

I don't like him very much.

But I am glad I won.

I feel even better about him winning based on what has happened on the left since Tuesday.  There are even people on my Facebook feed that have said, "Several of my friends have been sexually assaulted by Trump voters since the election."

Hmmm.

You'd think the police reports about those would get more press.

There is a great museum in downtown Baltimore.  The American Visionary Arts Museum.  As you go around looking at the exhibits and reading the little plaques you come to a realization.  A lot of this cool stuff was created by inmates at insane asylums.  Not raving lunatics, but the kind of people that spend their days obsessively swallowing inorganic objects.  Like safety pins.

And also making intricately detailed matchstick sculptures or paper mache cars.

The nonviolent Hillary voters you hear about remind me of them.  Not that there aren't also raving lunatics among them.  And, of course, your Soros rent-a-mobs got spun up faster than I would have thought.  They are a little bit unhinged AND mercenary.  I wonder if he gives out W2s...

But most are, well not quiet, but...  Relatively harmless folks without the firmest grasp of reality.  Pajama-boys.  And now you can tell by looking at them as they assign themselves a wearable insignia.  If one of your relatives is wearing a safety pin at Thanksgiving table, look out.  They are there to ruin dinner.  

Anyway, again, Trump is awful, I am glad he won.

Another Lincoln Story

I always like this quote of his, too.

" Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

 Sounds a little bit like me, too, trying to make the actual job as efficient and quick as possible.  Just like I explained before.

"That Lincoln was a horrible tyrant and destroyed the constitution, T-Bolt!"

"Hmmm.  I see.  What part of Georgia are you from?"

"Why, I'm from Maco.. HEY!..."

In Two Years

Veterans Day is gonna be an extra big deal.

Shooting Flaw

When I work, I hustle.  Especially repetitive tasks.  Hurry hurry hurry.  It has always pleased supervisors over me on various jobs.  Mopping floors?  Fast.  Restocking shelves?  Fast, fast.  When I was a kid I'd mow the lawn at a run, almost.  "Why do you work so hard and fast, T-Bolt?"  "It is because I am very slothful, gentle reader."

Sloth?  Huh?

Yes.  I want to be done with the work.  The tedium.  I can't get out of the task.  I have a sense of responsibility.  Even when not driven to a job that sense of responsibility eventually overcomes my procrastination.  And once I set to my goal is power through it until it is done and... I can do nothing again.  Sit under a tree and read a book.  Slothful.  I want all my time to be my own, but the time I owe to someone else, I want to minimize that.  So, hustle hustle hustle.

I remember hearing a story about Abraham Lincoln as a young child.  He was sitting around reading a book and not working or helping.  Eventually exasperated co-workers roused him from laziness to try to get him to help move an impossibly large and heavy chicken coop from A to B.  The impression was that even with the extra hands of Lincoln the job may be beyond them.  Abe set his book down, picked up the chicken coop by himself, moved it, then went back to the book, quick as you please.  I thought... That's me.  That's how I do things.  If it truly was impossible I'd quit immediately. 

This rush to finish permeates everything I do, though, and always has.  It adversely impacts my attention to detail.  I don't proofread these posts as well as I should is an obvious trait.  When I sign my name the last part of it is sloppy.  That second crossed T in Thunderbolt could be more accurate on my checks for example. 

It's Sloth.

"Ok, T-Bolt, so you have a form of laziness that makes you appear to work hard and accomplish some things in record time.  What's that have to do with shooting."

I have a shooting flaw when presented with many targets that aren't TOO hard to hit, and I have pressure to go fast because of the clock, I miss more. 

"Well, that's true of most folks, T-Bolt."

Yes, but I am recognizing the WHY of missing.  When I am shooting at a target, I am moving on to the next target before I put down the popper in front me over the sights.  So I miss target 1.  That miss flusters me so it might even trigger a miss on target 2.  Now the string of the next 12 is all thrown off.  I am hustling TOO much. 

"How do you fix that?"

Well, Zen out and concentrate on just the one target in front of you.  But that doesn't obviate the need to get all the targets as fast as possible, so Zen out quickly.  It's hard.  One way is to say aloud "This one" bang.  "This one" bang.  To try to narrow the focus.  But breaking myself of the rushing habit will be as hard or harder than developing a fast but smooth trigger press. 

Democrats...

STOP HURTING PEOPLE

Metro Con

I agree with the pro-gun conservative legal immigrant at National Review:

Budget Ammo

If you had the wherewithal, why would you ever feed your gun things like Tula ammo.  Or worse?  Other than maybe as a test to see if the gun will eat it when you are desperate?

The steel case stuff.   If one box or lower quality ammo costs $9 and the Federal costs $13, ok, that is $4.  But if you don't need to pinch pennies that bad, why submit your gatt to the punishment?

Sure, you want to know what ammos the gun likes.  There is that.  I get that.  Or maybe you are a famous gun writer celebrity and are doing it for SCIENCE!  I undestand that too

Steel case stuff isn't the best for your extractor, anyway.  And those brands often stink.  Why do it?  Sure your sports car will run on that Mom and Pop gas station 86 Octane stuff, and you save some money, but...  I don't even like to put that in my old truck. 

And it's not just the combloc steel krep.  Plenty of budget brasses out there, sold cheap and loose in an ammo can at the gunshow.  Maybe you should pop for the extra coupla bucks...

COINCIDENCE?!!!

Results of the voting came in on 11/9

That's the mirror image of 9/11

We're through the looking glass here, people.

From Slate

I do think it is clear what we are about to lose. It starts with the erasure of the Obama era, which gave America its first true steps toward a more progressive, compassionate government after some three decades of conservative policy dominance—all while helping the country gradually recover from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.

You know, maybe most folks don't want the prog stuff.  And the recovery from an economic catastrophe didn't really happen very good, did it?  Had it, we'd be more Madam President right not. 

A little late to worry that maybe the office of the Presidency was a bit too overbearing the past 8 years, since 3 months of the same thing the other way will roll back that nonsense.  Maybe stick to my preference after that and use the Rule of Law?  But not til the pendulum gets back to the middle again.

(The headlines at Slate.com give me much Schadenfreude today.)

Hills

If Hillary had said, "I am not going to push for any gun control while president, it's just not my priority at this time," and SCOTUS had written down 'strict scrutiny' in Heller or McDonald, she'd almost certainly be president elect right now.

Listen

Things you will hear again:  How bad the deficit is.

Things you won't hear again:  How bad gridlock is.

Rule of Law

(the following I wrote a week ago in anticipation of today's expectations.  Which didn't work out.  But why waste it?)


Why do I even follow the rules?  Laws are for suckers.

Hillary, the laws don't even apply to her.  Those are for little people, like me. 

Well, medium size people.  There are people less well off than me that also do not have to follow the rules. 

Criminals in Baltimore caught with a gun?  Invariably those very serious charges are dropped.  Ignored by the city authorities.  Well, if I had pistol in my trunk and they didn't like the soft sided pistol case or the lock I used to seal it, well, they'd charge me in a trice.  Definitely take the gun.  I wonder if they aren't returning the gun confiscated by city ne'er do well when the get out of jail on bail?...

Some of my neighbors have overstayed their tourist visas.  By decades.  If they did that much rule-following.  Not only are they not discouraged from violating the rules, there are support services designed to funnel them resources, that they do not contribute to, at every level, local state and federal.  But if I feel my income taxes are taking too much of a bite this year and try to claw some of that back, that's the sword of Damocles over my head the rest of my days.

I need to not be so much of a boy scout.  Not be a sucker.  NOT follow the rules.

On low risk rules I need to violate them on principal alone.  I'm walking on the grass where the sign says not to. Throw my batteries in the trash.  Same with aluminum cans. 

On higher risk rules, I need to not be a fool.  Don't violate them without reason.  Weigh the risk carefully.  Don't just violate them without purpose.  I would never cheat on my taxes to gain $500, for example.  It's just $500.  And I am too pretty for prison.  I'd never actually vote for Archie, even though he's been dead a year.  You can go to prison for that, and so what?  This is Maryland.  The election isn't going to be close.  [Of the last landslide elections Maryland still voted for the loser (1980.)  One of only 6 states.  You gotta get to 1984 before Maryland realizes it has a good thing going for it sticking with the Republican.  The only reason we ever have a few GOP governors is because the Dems are just so awful.  Anyhoo...]  Gun law rule breaking is stickier than any of those.  I dunno where I can ignore those rules and it'd be worth the risk.  But the difference is, NOW I am thinking about it. 

Folks deciding they didn't have to follow the law has ME contemplating what areas I can also not follow the law.  Me.  Mr. Squeaky Clean, Goody Two-Shoes, Boy Scout.  This isn't the first time I've discussed this.  But it gets worse and worse over time.  ANd it's not up to me to heal the rift, it's up to them.

IRS officials that illegally targets Tea Party groups to help their side in the 2012 election?  It Martha Stewart can go to jail for being mistake on a fact in an FBI interview, then folks at the IRS can too.  That's a start.

General Patreus can get ruined, drummed out of public life, and be threatened with jail, but Hillary and Sandy Berger and blatantly, worse than Patreus, mess around with more severely classified records and face nothing.

Bill Clinton can bang underage chicks on Whore Island and headline big events, but Bill Cosby can't show his face outside.  Either forgive Cos, or run Clinton out of the public eye.

How many sports cars of his own and cars of other people is Bieber allow to wreck before they say no more?

When things like these are evenly applied.  Where ALL the big fish face the music.  When all little fish face the same music.  I'll become a good little citizen again.  But now, I am tired and I feel used.

(the system has a reprieve if the rule of law is respected again and folks are at pains to make that permanent no matter who wins and election.  but I am still in Maryland and I am still feeling ornery)

PRESIDENT Lord Business

Well.  How bout that.  I expected I'd be more hungover.

There is a bit of good news in all this.

The Media-Democrat establishment created this monster but never expected it to turn on them and rampage through the village.  Seeing the looks on their faces while he did is quite satisfying.

The Crime Family Clinton doesn't have a stake through its heart, but this will be devastating to their enterprise.

Hillary is an AWFUL candidate and an awful person.  She didn't lose because she is a woman.  She lost because she is awful.  The glass ceiling is broken but not the truly-awful-people-ceiling

George Soros is unhappy.  Mike Bloomberg is unhappy.  Both good things.

There is a chance some of the Obama lawlessness will be curtailed.

The celebrities that promised to decamp?  All of you except Samuel L. Jackson, good riddance.  Reconsider, Jules Winnfield!  The rest?  Bye, Felicia!

Speaking of Pulp Fiction, maybe the GOP will learn, now, not to put on the Gimp suit and roll over to show their belly to Democrats whenever the Dems look at them cross eyed.  We also wouldn't be here if they had more of a desire to win for their peeps. 


I am enjoying the shocked tears of the Jacobins and Leftists as they wake up this morn.

The Second Amendment might not be dead. So, too, we might see a revival in the rule of law.

Ipsos custodes

November 9th 2016.  

Dead CNN reporter in the alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach.  The capital city is afraid of me.  I have seen its true face.  Mass Ave is an extended gutter, and the gutters are full of blood and when the WSSC drains scab over all the elite vermin with drown.  The accumulated filth of all their sex and treason will foam up around their waists and all the whores and Democrats will look up and shout "SAVE US!"

And I'll whisper, "No."

It is done

Election Day

Oh, boy.

Range on the 2nd, November

Been at least 1200 rounds through the Ciener since I started this training regiment.  This last time the final  round didn't eject properly, and there were 3 light strikes, for 60 rounds fired.  Light strikes were on the last of the Remington brand, but I don't really blame them at this point.  I think it's more a factor of how FILTHY the gun is.

Finally going to get some live-fire training with centerfire ammo the first weekend in December.  Thus, by recent interest in 9mm.

Not too much to say about this one.  My elbow hurt less so I can't blame poor performance on that.  I wasn't fatigued.  It's just....  not good.  About the only good thing I can say about it is, while I still favor the right of the target because of my left handedness, I favor it LESS on this one.  So maybe that is improving.

Score:

First set 27 24 27 25 23 24 26 26x =  202 and one X

Second 21 23 25 21 25 21 26 23 =   185.  Booooo.

Another good thing....  all out of trash .22 for a while, going to use the mini-max.

Black Hat Gatt

The graphs on gun usage in this Economist article are neat.  Gathering info from the Internet Firearms Database.  It's cool to chart the popularity of the Beretta 92 after .mil adoption and getting featured in some action movies in the 80, then dropping off in popularity as the luster of the wonder-nine faded, plus other reasons.    Maybe if more cop shops had adopted that gun instead of the Glock types we'd see more Berettas reflected in the cinema.

LOTS of WWII milsurp German stuff in the 70s, then a fall off.  I guess we had more Nazis in movies in the 1970s.

But it got me thinking about gun play tropes.  In cowboy movies the bad guy wears a black hat.  The trope goes.  There are others, like, back-shooting, throwing sand in an opponents face during fisticuffs, etc...

But in more modern genre's like gangster or cop shows or whatnot...  Is there a black-hat gun model, ever?  If you were to film a movie in 2016, what gun do you give the villain to reinforce he IS the villain?  Is there such a thing?  A good guy gun model and a bad guy gun model?  There is the bad-guy gun grip is some movies, holding a pistol sideways to indicate the wielder has ties to an urban street gang.  Terrists and commies have AKs in modern war movies, yes yes, I know.  I was thinking more along the lines of a pistol model, I guess.  What handgun is preferred by the bad guys, and what is preferred by the good guys? 

Bad guys strap on Glocks, and the good guys have a 1911?  Oooo, too easy.  And probably not true. 

Incredibly Loud.

I have never heard a gun shot.

Not a real one and not close up.  Not since I was a kid, certainly.

I do know they are incredibly loud.

The closest to a shot I have heard is a suppressed 45.  That was still very loud.

I've had on ear protection every other time.  Even hunting.  It's cold out there and the noise cancelling headphones also magnify soft sounds.

I can't imagine how veterans in the older generation still have hearing.  I guess a lot of them don't.

Nightstand Part Deux

True story.  I had one of the electricity switcheroo sales/scam visitors ring my doorbell the other night.  And I didn't have a pistol on me.

The point is, it was dark, and someone rang my doorbell.  So, I fetched my CCW.  The point is, I shouldn't have to fetch it.

Someone is gonna surprise me in the future by ringing my doorbell.  My goal is to NOT have to fetch a pocket pistol for that surprise because I will already have it.

A sales peeps...  don't ring the bell after the sun goes down.  And NO ONE ring the bell after 10 PM.  Nothing good can come from an unexpected caller that late at night. The closer you get to 10 from sundown to that time the worse it is.  I might use my Outside Voice.

RIP

Fair winds and following seas, Don Kates.

3rd Party Doctrine

The third party doctrine, and your associated but unconsidered lack of expectation of privacy, doesn't pass  the Jews in the Attic test. 

They ask me at Harris Tweeter why I don't want a rewards card.  I could save $10 a week!  This is why.  This is why I want the data center at ATF and Maryland State Police to have a mysterious fire.

Nightstand Gun

Ok, your sleek alloy frame commander sized melt-job bobtail 1911 you carry IWB is always in condition 1.  Safety on, cocked, round in the chamber.

What about the heavy double stack race gun with a light on the rail you keep in the nightstand for the bumps in the night?  Do you keep that in condition 1, too, because that is what you are used to?  Or maybe condition 3 for some reason?  You know, hammer down, full magazine, nothing in the chamber.  Do you keep it in a holster?

And if not in Condition 1 for some reason what is your reason?

And your other guns in the gun vault that aren't even a possible go-to in an emergency?  Do you keep them loaded with a round in the chamber or loaded no round or just flat unloaded?

If you just had one gun and it was on your belt when you were awake and on your nightstand in the holster when you are asleep.  This might be the best way.  Just one gun, just one way, and don't mess with it.  But lots of folks I know have a secondary gun around.  They have the holstered carry gun right that and another gun in the nightstand and sometimes others in other places.  A carbine in a quick access area with a loaded magazine of 5.56, way.  Uncharged, on safe. 

There are pros and cons for keeping them all in the same condition or just keeping the holstered primary in condition 1 only.  I wish the pros and cons were more obviously weighted one way or the other.

So what is my answer?  Everything in Condition 1, primary and secondary.  If a body isn't comfortable with that one might want to get more comfortable or get fewer guns around to worry about.

I'm just trying to work this out in my head.

Old Skool 9mm, S&W

Man, the model number nomenclature is mind boggling.  Do you think their sales might have been better if that was done better?  Or did collectors drive sales that had to own one of each?

My half-assed research into 9mm pistols lately had me running across this lucky gunner post that explains how complicated it all is.

There is some logic to it, at least.

I'd steal the picture but that picture is the puropse of their whole post.  So click on the linky to find a flow chart of what legacy Smith 9mm you want.

"The first two digits is the caliber code, the third is the action type and size, the fourth is the material."

A double stack compact DAO 9mm in stainless steel should be 59, 5, 6.  5956.  Wait, no!  69 is the compact double stack 9mm.  So 6956.  But they don't have that.  The 6946 is the same thing.  Sheesh.

Re-Org the Armory

So, what with the hankering and thinking on a 9mm and the light gunsmithing work of late, I took the opportunity to travel to secret offsite bunker where I store all my gonne-stuffs and neaten up the joint a little.

Make room for an ammo can or two of new caliber.  Be sure everything is above board.  And no groundhogs have made a nest in the place.

Why yes, it is a bit like the Batcave.

So THERE is where I put all those 12 gauge shotgun rounds.  Good good.  I wanted to give some to a buddy anyway.

And this is trash.  No need.  Old targets?  Won't learn anymore from them.  Trash.

You know those little metal cans filled with silica the size of a cigarette pack?  Good for keeping the moisture away.  But never drop it.  They burst open and those pebble go EVERYWHERE.  Add another bit of tape to yours right now.  Dammit, wish I had thought of that.

I'm even thinking of selling something.  Like that Commander sized .45ACP.  I wouldn't normally, but...  When I got it I never thought I'd make my own 1911 .45 and it seem like too much now.   I like to have one of each gun.  One for each purpose.  And a spare.  And maybe ONE more spare.  Maybe.  But not two spare spares.   It's a newish Colt that runs fine but isn't a custom job and does have those XS Express sights I put on it to see if I liked them and decided I do not.

Never sold a gun before.  That would be a new experience.

Serious Question

What happens when you leave a speedloader in a pants pocket and run it through the wash then in the clothes dryer on high heat?

I haven't done that.  But it sounds like something I might do.

Problematic

According to S E Smith in the Guardian, self-defense is not a human right.  Your own life, you don't have a right to that, so I guess anyone can take it.

Who is Smith?  Some Californian.  Does Social Justice.

She said this, and let me highlight the parts that aren't rights, despite what she things:

"A human right has to do with something intrinsic to who you are as a human being, and your most basic needs. Healthcare, food, housing, and water are human rights. They are all critical things that human beings need to stay alive. Access to reproductive health services is a human right. The ability to participate freely in society regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or disability status is a human right. These are things society is supposed to guarantee to us because we are part of society, and these things are integral to our very identities."

Hmm.  I should have only talked about what she actually got right.  "The ability to participate freely in society regardless" is a right, yes.

"And a gun is not a basic necessity for survival."

Oh?  There are times when it is CRUCIAL, lady.

"They can sometimes be helpful for self-defense, but not nearly as often as people like to claim."

You admit it!  Good.  A little confused...  a thing stops being a right because you use it infrequently?

And she descends further into a hot mess after that.

---

Update:
Irons in the Fire had a very similar post, along the same lines, but he scheduled it for yesterday, beating me to the analytical punch.  Good on ya, Firehand.