How to improve that trigger score?

Hmmm.  Been thinking on that.  Now that everything is about dialed in except that ONE thing.

I thought about calling Sam.  Then I tried to think what he would tell me before I ask.  

Try that trick with the one-two count.  Trigger pull, then reset and take off slack.  Bang-click.  Lemme try that on Monday.  Maybe I'll shoot more than a coupla dozen.

Range 28 JUN

Was gonna go earlier, but Doctor's appointments for the shoulder thing.  It's gotten weaker.  At least it isn't numb all over, or hurts.  But the grip tester thing they use to measure was in the 90s for the left hand.  Right hand went from 60 units two months ago, to 75 a month ago, back down to 30 last week.  No bueno.  I don't know what the units are, but the weakness isn't muscular, I do know that.  Nerves.  So I need nerve meds, apparently.

Anyway... Shooty.

Used to be... my first magazine, first shot, was always a decent shot, trip after trip.  Second shot not so much but the first was in a 3x5 card  That lucky first shot has gone 'poof,' and disappeared.  Lately I need the first magazine to warm up.

See, that's not good.  Home invaders won't give me warm up shots.

So I calmed down and shot better after the first magazine, which was AWFUL.  After that it fell into an easy and familiar pattern of two types of shots.

1. 'Make trigger go NOW!'
2. 'Make trigger go Good' 

I knew that going in, and my goal is to make all the shot Type 2.  Varied success.  But this is what I am working on on myself.

But I have a new way of measuring.  With 7 round magazines and separate targets I can classify each shot nicely.  For instance, that horrible first magazine was 6/1  Six crappy shots and one decent one.  The others were:  4/3, 3/4, 4/3 and 0/1 (I had one extra round...)

The goal is mostly 0/7, then 0/7s FAST.  But I would settle for 2/5s.

"How do we know the good shots are really Type 2s, T-Bolt?"  You don't!  But I do.  None of the good ones were luck Type 1s.  Called shots.  Both kinds.  You'd think I'd get better faster.

29 rounds of sellier & bellot, no failures. 363 rounds since I rebuilt this Springfield 1911 GI stainless.  No cleanings, no failures.

Yes, I Agree

It is different for black men to CCW.  I understand why it is different and why cops act the way they do.  But that doesn't make it right.  And it shouldn't be that way.  If I could wave a magic wand and change it it wouldn't be that way.

I don't have a solution or an idea for a way forward.

I was

I was really hoping Peruta would come up for review.  Now Maryland anti-gunners will dig in their heels.  Dems at the Federal level will feel more emboldened to oppose national reciprocity.  More waiting, for me, and I am less optimistic.

Peruta

Well, shit.

Gun from the earlier post.

With permission.  He still has the original grips.

Storm the Beaches!

So a buddy finally got to get eyes-on on a war trophy his Grandpa picked up on the beaches of Normandy.

Or so the family lore goes.

This sparked my buddy's interest and he has the internet where his mom did not back when these stories were told.

The family lore doesn't match the details.  As often happens in the big game of oral history.  And that is fine.  I am wondering if my Grear Great Great Grandpa really did go to Moscow and back with Napoleon....

Anyway, buddy's Grandpa didn't land in Normandy in June of 44.  He landed in the Riviera in December of 1944 with the 63rd Infantry.  Saw plenty of action.  Just not on Omaha beach.  Everyone already knew he drove trucks for the Army. He picked up the pistol somewhere from Marseilles to the Danube, looping around Switzerland.

The trophy itself is a double trophy.  It's a French pistol captured and repurposed by the Nazis, first.  It has the German touch marks on a French MAB Model D.

Family Lore states that the pistol is deactivated and does not fire.  My guess is it works just fine, and is hale hardy and sound, based on the pictures I do not yet have permission to post here.

I told my buddy that, hey, that is the same pistol that started WWI, too....  DOUBLE History!

Saw some classic cars

Here's a car from the mid 50s with a long wheelbase.

And another master of a car from the early 40s with a 2 speed automatic transmission.

I should took more pictures of some of the grills I saw.  I am not the shutterbug others are.

Alan Ladd Movie

This Gun for Hire.

I got it more to see Veronica Lake in something. But Alan Ladd is in it as "Introducing..." at the tail of the credits. He was really the star and I think this was his first lead. He plays a Tough hired to rub out folks. Shoot first type. Lake is a lounge act. They both get caught up in a case of Jap espionage and are after the spy for different reasons.

Alan Ladd's weapons are a pair of Colt Pocket Hammerlesses he keeps in either a leather briefcase or the pockets of his overcoat.

Doesn't he know that is against the law? Even in 1942 San Francisco and LA. So is rubbing out blackmailer and cops that get in your way. Alan Ladd plays a hood, but not the actual heel of the movie. 

This movie is hard on cats.  I don't recommend it for cat lovers.

About Time

Click to embiggenate

So here you see my morning commute route (yellow line).  I take Connecticut Avenue south and get on the inner loop of the DC Beltway.  I cross over bridges, two, circled in red.  The road is asphalt, the bridge concrete.  So repairs of asphalt potholes are simple, but concrete pothole repairs are gawdawful, and half hearted at the two bridges.  Getting ready to pass the Morman Temple.

It got MUCH worse about 8 years ago.  Bad for me in a Durango.  I really felt for all the Beemers and Priusi that live around Kensington/Chevy-Chase.  But hey!  We had Obama and and Governor O'Malley and Senator Ried, and Speaker Pelosi and a shovel ready trillion dollar stimulus.  Infrastucture would get a boost, right?!

Nope.  It stayed bad and unfixed and got worse.  Thanks for nothing.

New governor, new president, and they finally fixed those bridges.  Smooth as silk.  Thanks Larry Hogan and President Trump!

I had low expectations for Trump, but him personally coming out with the night crews and seeing to these issues and getting on the Steam Roller himself at 3 AM really exceeded those expectation.

Romney wouldn't have done that.

---

And based on the Left's behavior of late in other areas, I will start to actually like Trump.  No, I didn't like him before, I was just glad he won instead of...  and I had low expectations for things he might do to help me out.  Fewer expectations means fewer disappointments.

Range 21 June

This was a good one despite poor results.

First 4 targets.  All the ones outside the paint?  Me going "Make trigger go NOW."  Rushing the shot.  The ones in the paint?  "Make trigger go good."

On the fifth target (bottom right) it was the same except I went, "Hey, T-Bolt, position your finger different and see if you can more center the shots that do go in the paint."  I had tried this before.  Difference this time?  It worked this time.

 It was a good range day because ALL the shots were a known quantity for me.  No guess work on why that one did this right and that one wrong.  And with .45ACP.  The wrongs aren't as bad as they used to be.  The rights are getting better and more frequent.  Still a ways to go.

No if only I can concentrate and do right for all 7 at a time.  7 explosions in your hand can be distracting to the concentration.  And it was often the FIRST shot in the mag that was a bad one and the second good..

Shunned?!

I don't know about that.

I was upset back the day he was shot.  I am the NRA. 

I bet the NRA proper in Fairfax publishes stuff about it even without Reason's prodding.

While Away

The Jury decided the jumpy cop that manslaughtered the CCW permit holder was not guilty of same.

At least the cop got fired.

Dude knew he was nervous in the service, maybe he should have sought different employment, sooner. Before he killed some innocent.

This could happen to any of us.  Yes, us white dudes, too.  Cops can be mean, power hungry, scared, stupid, or all four.   We shouldn't HAVE to, but it may behoove all of us to act in a way, in our interactions with law enforcement, that if you get the mean, power-hungry, scared, stupid cop by luck of the draw, he has no excuse to light you up and then get a job selling insurance after your relatives have their day in court.

If you were in Mr. Castile's place, what would you have done different?  YOU are nervous, too, remember, but you see the cop get agitated.  What now?

I wouldn't try to be extra helpful, myself, anticipating the cop's desires by getting my Driver's License ahead of time.  Wait for the commands and ask him to be clear. And if the cop got shouty?  I'd make like a statue.  A statue where he can see both my hands.

---

And hey, look, that was a linked article to the Metrocon Fortnightly.  And by former fake Not-Trump presidential candidate David French, too.  RTHT, because it is a good one.

Been out of town

But now I am almost home.  Had to go to Cleveland and see the big Cavaliers victory parade.  I thought it would be crowded, but nobody was there.

Don't bother burglarizing me now.  I am pulling into the driveway. 

Things I learned.  There were plenty of automatic transmission cars back in the day.  Even in the 40s.  If you smoke good sausage be ready for a flavor explosion.  

One more thing.

From this.

I need to fit the dovetail sights, too.   Three things.  Clean up the frame sides, blend the grip safety better, and sights.   It won't win beauty contests, but that's fine. 

A few things.  Tips.  For installing dovetail sights.

Use the correct angle file to match your frame.

Then you have to decide...  Do I take off metal from the frame, or the sight, or both?  The sight is harder metal and rougher on your files.  The frame is softer and more expensive.

As you fit with light taps, when you can get it on 3/4 of the way you may want to drive it the rest of the way.  To ensure the least amount of crying.  3/4 is a rule of thumb.  You need to use judgment here.  Drive file it past that it may be too loose and you need a new sight.   Drive too early and you mung up the sight or frame or both.  Tears fall like rain.

Loctite?  Maybe.  If there is a locking screw?  Yeah on that most definitely.  I like blue loctite.  And if the sight is a tritium I'd definitely use blue and not red.  Red needs heat to remove and torching the tritium is...  not good.   

XD

It's an emoji.  Sideways face.  X is squinted eyes.  D is an open laughing mouth.  See it?

XD

Of course, when I see it, I think of the offerings from Springfield, first.  Mmph. "Why is this person talking about Croatian pistols?  Ohhhhhhhhhhh..."

Pate

Nothing wrong with this day that Liver Pate spread on Saltine crackers cannot fix.

T-Bolt Health Report

I think I have reached a new normal.

Numbness and dexterity in my fingertips may never return, but at least there is no pain.

I can lift thing higher than my shoulders, but the nerve weakness still makes that one side 75% of what it was this time last year.  The muscles haven't atrophied, but they may as well have.  For instance, it is difficult to get up from the ground if I was sitting or lying there.  And it's not because I am too damn fat.  Though that doesn't help.

Simple nerve pinches in my neck and back from too much wear and tear earlier in life

27 year old T-Bolt, with his ability to crank out 10 pull ups so easily it surprised even him, is not coming back.  In fact, 27 year old T-Bolt may have caused this by over doing it.

I'm not gonna be able to fight off the zombies as easily, in the future.

I was never good in a fist fight, but I am more useless now and I need to be self-aware enough about that.  Try to be more treacherous and wily.

I've asked before

What real 'good' do we get from Diversity?  There are some minor things on the margins.  Without diversity, so to speak, I'd never have tasted Thai food.  Thai food is ok, I guess.  And white people get to claim that they aren't really that racist.  Some political gains for one side or another that often doesn't work out like they'd figure.


But it's as if diversity is the goal.  People want it, get it, and.... then what?

Like in London.  Happy the murder victims covered a rainbow of cultures.  Why is that good?

I've talked about this before.

I'm not AGAINST it.  It's the forcing it.  Ramming it down peoples throats.  And for what good end?

Diversity is bunk.

Let's not make this about guns

No, let's make this about guns.  Democrats are working themselves up into a frenzy.  Eventually they'll stop going after politicians with security details and start going after people that LOOK like they might be a Republican, or a conservative, or some other kind of Trump supporter.

I don't HAVE a security detail.  When will you let me be able to defend myself, Maryland, DC?  Pennsylvania, now, too.  I'm not asking the state provide me a body guard.  I just want a chance, on my own.

Representative Loudermilk wants conceal carry for all lawmakers in DC.  Hey, Volume-Dairy, how bout conceal carry for us useless peasant peons that elect folks like you, too?  You do serve US. If anything, you congress critter should be volunteering to be MY free bodyguard.

And Democrats?  Stop hurting people.

Whip Shot In Hip

 I wonder if the shooter was a Democrat?


----

And it's a Bernie bro...

Kathy Jackson

Of Cornered Cat is a well known and popular blogger and firearm instructor.  She solicited who is folks favoritest firearm instructors and because she is well liked she got a huge response.  Impressive response.  I want to preserve some of the names in a simple list in case an opportunity comes up and I wonder if some Joe Schmoe I might heretofore had not heard of is worth my training dollar and time.   "Shooting Instructors that do no suck."

Some on the list are no longer with us.

• Colonel Jeff Cooper
• Pat Rogers
• Jim Cirillo
• Louis Awerbuck
• Doug Harvey
• Todd Louis Green 

Those I know are gone and folks sadly miss them.  Not just because they were nice people, but great instructors.

For all I know some in this following list are no longer with us, but I am still listing them.  Some on the list are repeated more than a few times, a testament to how well regarded they are.

• Mas Ayoob I already knew was very well regarded
• Claude Werner
• Marty Hayes
• Ben Stoeger
• Bruce Gray
• Yong Lee
• HR Hawkins
• Todd Jarrett
• Steve Fisher
• Dave Spaulding
• Greg Ellifritz
• Kathy Jackson
• Melody Lauer
• John Benner
• Tom Givens
• Randy Cain
• George Harris
• Ernest Langdon
• Charles Bosley
• Greg Ellifritz
• Karl Rehn
• Mike McElmeel
• Ed Head
• Christopher Weare
• Ken Campbell
• Kasey Keckeisen
• Calderon Welchlin
• John Farnam
• Vicki Farnam
• Steve Fisher
• Jedi with Modern Samurai Project
• Chuck Haggard
• Bill Blowers
• Clint Smith
• Ken Campbell
• Michael Harries
• Dennis Tueller
• Rex Applegate
• Ed Monk
• Tom Walls
• Diane Walls
• Melissa DeYoung
• Don McNees Jr.
• Herb Smith
• Ben Branam
• Paul Carlson
• Tom Givens
• Lyn Givens
• Randy Cain
• Jim Crews
• Ken Hackathorn
• Michael Seeklander
• David Maglio
• Karl Rehn
• Travis Tomasie

So, I made a gun

But I was also training to shoot.

And the only thing I was allowed to shoot was .22.  For like a year.  It even took a while before that was allowed.

It's only recently that I was shooting centerfire.   And I only shot .45 again the past month or so

So, the gun got made, but not shot, because of the training.  It fired a single magazine in testing, but nothing else.  It's still a parts pile as I delayed doing more with it until after a metal finishing class was held to brighten it up some.

The metal finishing class never came around.  So what good is T-Bolt 1, my first and only, so far, built from scratch 1911?

I need to bite the bullet, so to speak, do the best I can on the metal finishing, go ahead and loctite in the grip screw escutcheons.  Put it through it's paces.

Plan... I need to wet sand out some nasty scratches on the slide from the build process.  This gun will never be pretty.  I have a sanding block made out of a hockey puck and inch wide abrasive tape in various grips.

Also, I can relieve some pointy bits on the grip safety where it meets the frame with an abrasive cylinder in the dremel. 

Hop to, T-Bolt!  Then you gotta test the function.  250 rounds without a hiccup.

Recent history

So the writing was on the wall in the 1990s.  Clinton was ushering an irreversible gun control regime.  Because of the magazine size limits. 1911s got a boost in popularity because it was the best of the sub-10 round guns available.  Glock responded with baby Glocks to have something to sell to the lucrative civilian market while they still could.  Colt and HK stressed their links to military and law enforcement customer, alienating regular consumers, but who cares about them, they would be disarmed sooner rather than later and not a factor.  S&W took another path conceding to the Clinton administration alligator.  After seeing what the legal profession did to the tobacco industry, Smith didn't want that to happen to them so made a deal to avoid the liability, also pissing off us regular gun owners. 

That was then.

What a difference 20 years makes.  A dozen Vermont-Carry states.  The cusp of realizing a rights-friendly Supreme Court.  If not for a few billionaires you wouldn't even hear from the gun banners. 

Can you tell I am low on blog fodder ideas to just spit out a history paragraph?  It's still a wonder.

Same Bat Time...

When I was a kid there were two parts of TV.  Regular TV that had stuff like the news and was for my parents, and then there was UHF.  On UHF there was stuff for me.  Regular was NBC, ABC, CBS, UHF was PBS.  And there I saw Sesame Street and Electric Company and Mister Rogers.

My older cousin Jason came to visit.  I was out of the room when he made the change but he fiddled with the more delicate UHF tuner to shift from PBS's channel 26 to WDCA's channel 20.  When I walked into the room this was on the screen, with the theme music going.

And I was hooked. 

What is this wonder, Jason!  This is much better than the Cookie Monster.  

Lots of other stuff on Channel 20, including Captain 20, but Batman was the creme de la creme.  I was ruined forever.  Well, from age 3ish through 12ish? 

Thank you Adam West.

This is a HORRIBLE news story

"Suspect allegedly shot someone with shotgun shell filled with breakfast cereal."

Big long story omitting crucial info.

What KIND of cereal?  It's the most important detail the reader wants to know.  Captain Crunch would be as deadly a #4 Goose Shot.

Oh wait, read to the end.  It was Rice Krispies.  My bad.

Self Trainings

Yeah, if I am gonna get better on my own, I should prolly go to a range that lets me shoot close AND a range that lets me shoot more than once every 2 seconds.  My local does not.

And a shot timer for more self measurements.

Of course, my current split times might be greater than 2 seconds right now...  So perfectly ok at my current digs,

War! Huh! What is it good for

Remember how I said the Korean war really only took 6 months.   Well it was 6 months of action then it settled into a stalemate for years.

WWII also only took about 6 months.  Well, for us.  It was a much longer thing from when they got involved before Britain turned the corner.  But for us, we got bombed in December, bombed Tokyo, lost the Philippines,  but then crippled the Japanese Navy by June.   The war was all over but the shouting by then.

Sure it was years of slog, but it was a fait accompli after Midway.  The decision was made and it was only going to go one way six months in for us.   At 10:24 on the 3rd of June 1942 the Japanese were winning the war.  Six minutes later they were on their back foot and losing with 3 carriers burning.

May-ish 1942 the Battle of the Atlantic turned and Stalingrad started happening soon after.  And that was that.  Half a year.  The enemy would never really regain the initiative.

WWI was different.  There was action for a just month, then an absolutely monstrous stalemate for years, but no real decision to be such.  In Korea it felt like the stalemate was the preference, "let's just stand pat and eventually end this damn thing."  In the Great War all sides were for a long time looking for some way to change the momentum and get something dynamic going to end the horror, but no one really knew how.  Attrition strategies are less than ideal even for the winning side.

First Mag

My first mag used to be better.  At least my first shot.  This drop off with centerfire ammo is a bad trend. 

I need less warmup to get to my best level.  Now my level is lightly higher but it can take a few extra to get there.

Not what I want

That was at 25 feet, btw, on Monday's post, at that ranger.  It would be embarrassing if at 9.  But that is the only way I'll ever have a chance of doing Dot Torture.

Of course I will have to find a range that will let me do Dot Torture.  My range might trust ME to not shoot the floor or ceiling, but there is no way they can let me have the range to myself and shooting 9 feet away would be an example other would follow if they saw.

ESS is my secondary range, but that's a hike I should gird myself into doing more, I guess.

Relax

Look at him!  A brietbart story about guns has a guy pictured doing some shooting.  Pic by Getty

Distressed and under pressure, he is hunched over and all clenched.  Fight against that.  By not fighting against that.  You can grip hard, if that is your thing, without clenching every OTHER muscle in your body.   Like neck and head.  You'll run out of gas in a long string and, worse, you aren't doing your accuracy any favors on the first shot.  Soon his elbows will roll out further and his head will get lower... 

"But T-Bolt, maybe someone is shooting at HIM and that is why he's all clenched up."

Yes yes, I know.  But you got to try.  And practice a better way so when you are under stress and your heart is at 170 bpm and maybe you are hurt even... you have a chance of a good shot.

"But T-Bolt, thousands of people defend themselves with a gun scared out of their wits and all hunched over and adrenalin fueled."

True.  As will I, probably, if faced with a similar situation.   But you still want to try to not be clenched.  And practice for that.  To maximize your chances of a better outcome.

Guy in the picture if he can get sight alignment and a good trigger pull 5 times then duck away he did his job, even if a Dominatrix with wailing away on him from behind with a riding crop.  He'd just have an easier time making all that happen if he was more relaxed.

(We're not even gonna talk about his grip right now.)

Don't Listen, Hillary

THEY can't tell you what to do.

Don't they know who you are?

You paid your dues, and you can stay up there as long as you want.  YOU won the popular vote, the party ain't won doodly!  Heck, they were a drag on you!  Give em another piece of you mind, then drag em out behind the woodshed for a what-fer.

Range, 1 June

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

What a session.  At least I an laugh at myself instead of being dejected about and full of woe.

Remember my mantra?

1. Relax
2. Front sight
3. Make trigger go good.

Tertiary addition:  Just because you haven't shot .45 much in the past 2 years doesn't mean you should be afraid of it now.

Six magazines fired.  The final 2 were Ciener .22.  You can see the old me in that first one, 'I', flinching to heck and back.  Relax, dummy.  The very first shot was that one over on the right barely touching the target I wasn't even aiming at.

Next target, II, below that was much better.  The V target was decent too, but at that point I am getting tired and impatient.

Oh, I am still logging all this.  Never had a failure with the rebuilt .45, and it's even been a while with the .22.

So London Folks

Are as disarmed as New York, DC, Chicago and LA.

The people of London fought back tonight against terrorists & we should be proud - Brendan O'Neill pic.twitter.com/r0DfiE6KyC

— Jon Holbrook (@JonHolb) June 4, 2017

Relapse

Last physical therapy I pushed myself a little much.  Now, days later, all the neck muscles are tight as a drum.  I can't even do the regular spine stretches.  Ugh.  This is frustrating.  And painful. 

Sex Robots!

"Not as skeevy as you think!"

Incorrect.

All wild mushrooms are edible

Some are only edible once.

Ugh

Done some of that.  Not the most egregious ones.  I got slightly better.  Didn't need a gun store clerk to do it, either.  Did it ALL to myself.

My Momma is in Town

More later.  In the meantime I am going to go down to Union Station in the District. 

No, I'm not taking Metro.  Ten years ago I wouldn't have hesitated.  Now it is just a pit.

I got too much ammo

No really!  Hear me out.

I know what Kipling says about too many books, ammo, and bottles of wine.  Yes.

When I started this journey 9+ years ago I had a box of .357.  Now I have... more.  Like ammo cans, each with a different caliber.   Some gotten 9+ years ago that I haven't gotten around to rotating through as practice.

I thought I'd shoot a lot more .357 this time 9 years ago.  How am I gonna use up a .50 cal can of Magtech?

I don't get around to shoot rifles much, but I have battle packs of 7.62x51.  

The ammo was accumulated slowly, box at a time.  And now I feel old.  And when I am gone I don't want my relatives to have to deal with all this.

"You aren't old, T-Bolt!"  Well, maybe not so.  But i have no plans for the next 40 years of what DO with all this.

But I have a wary eye on 2025, when Trump leaves office.

Admit it, even if you hate the man, but are also a gunnie, you breathed a little sigh of relief.  With Hillary you try to INCREASE your ammo stocks in case she gets grabby about that.  And you know she'd have a go.  Whatever his flaws, there is a bit more confidence that that we can relax our alertness level on gun control from Orange to Yellow.

Back to Orange in 2025, maybe.  Depending.

Well, I can at least lower the levels of .45.   Maybe where I now have two cans of stored Magtech ammo, one of .45, one mixed .38/.357, I can make that just one can in that space in that closet.  That sort of thing.

Another thing is I am getting picky about my ammo quality.  Want less Blazer more Federal Premium.  So use up the more budget stuff.

What Caliber for Red Nose?