Cooking post

I've been making omelettes since I was a kid.  But always used the aluminum non-stick omelette pans.  Well, in my advanced years I have finally graduated to a proper carbon steel pan like this.

And it works.  You gotta have oil in there.  What would be ideal, tho, is if I could get the seasoning to look like this:

Instead of blotchy.  Like I have.

I know how to season a pan properly.  My problem, I am sure, is, like most things, I am too impatient.  I need to cook more bacon in the omelette pan.  MUCH more.  Let time and use even out the blotches.

Relax, T-Bolt.  Half your problems go away when you relax about it.


---

Also, searching for the perfect oil for pan searing a steak?  Yeah, peanut oil is just fine.  And not weird.  High enough smoke temp, and I don't have to worry about it.

Flax?  Rapeseed?  Advocado?  Truffle?  Some types of Olive?  Too complicated.  Relax.

Butter or bacon grease?  Too smoky.  ;-)

The Vast Majority

The vast majority of American think anyone can go to a gun show and leave with a machine gun.  And that if a gun looks like a machine gun you can probably take a file, file down a nub of a disconnector, and easily convert it to a machine gun.

We in know are a aware it's a bit more complicated than that.

But if it wasn't...  Machine guns sure would be cheaper.

Parallel universe, where the Hughes amendment hasn't jacked up the prices on what should be $500 worth of metal stampings on the cheaper ones, what machine gun do YOU take home, just for fun?

I have already expressed an interest in the greasegun. And I really enjoyed shooting an MP40.  But as for modern more better, mebbe, subguns, I do not know.  I don't have Frank James to guide me, and I wasn't into the gun scene when he was evaluating burp guns by the bushel load.  He was an old skool authority in the day. 

The Smith M76 would be something I'd investigate, yes, a knockoff of the Swedish K.  It also would have the potential of being cheap and a possible impulse buy at a gun show. 

A Tommy Gun or a BAR would be spendy no matter if they were still making them.  But of course, I'd enjoy the history of them as much as the other WWII stuff I already mentioned.

I liked the Kriss once.  But I think the bloom is off that rose in my eyes on them.  Never was an UZI man, or any of the H&K offerings.  Just didn't appeal to me.

The MAC-10/11 too, unless it had that big suppressor on it.

What cool think am I missing on parallel machine gun universe?

Spring Change

After some fits and starts, it appears to be Spring outside.

Now, let's think about springs inside.

Inside your gun.

Every swap out the Recoil Spring in your gun?  Did you do the other springs too?  You should.  In a 1911 go ahead and do the Firing Pin Spring and Main Spring.

"Why the Firing Pin Spring, T-Bolt?  I can see the Recoil and Main, they sort of work together..."

Look, if the gun was wearing the recoil spring down (gotta stop all that word capitalization) so it is two inches shorter now than new, doncha think there is a chance the firing pin is weakened a bit too?

You don't want it slowing down.  Not popping back into the hole.  Maybe peening the inside a bit.  The next step is the next round catches on the pin and bend it over.  Maybe the peening gets the pin caught outside. 

Once bent over, that gun is down.  Disabled until you can get it back into the shop. 

No, it doesn't go full auto.  The brass case is stopped before it can slide up the breach face and under the extractor.  It just fails to feed.  You need to break the sear to get something like a follow and an uncontrollable BRRP until that jams the gun after scaring you half to death.

Oh crud

I had nothing for today.

And there is SO much.

I hope the Dems keep running on repealing the 2nd Amendment.  All the way through November.  I don't think that is the 'reasonable' gun control they have convinced the squares they are after.

But it is nice of them to tacitly admit that they DO need to repeal to get the gun bans they want.  It makes it clear to more folks that that is what they want, and not just a few scary no-walnut rifles.

"You silly NRA cranks.  No one is coming for your guns."

Also

"We are coming for your guns."

Gaslight much, Proggy?

"The debate is OVER!  The only question is how fast we will violate you gunnuts' civil rights."

I dunno Andy.  Our side, the good guys, have been in worse places than this before.

"A whopping 20% are for repeal!"  That's GREAT news, Washington Post   

Justice John Paul Stevens: "Repeal 2nd!"

No.

Epiphany still good

If i embrace the wobble, my accuracy improves dramatically over my baseline.

54 rounds fired.   26 March.  Here is some from the 25 foot line.

Two fliers.  That top one...  Ugh.  Called them.  "Flubbed that one...." ~peek~ "Yup."  But that top one was just embarrassing.

But that is four rounds through one hole at 5:30 in the white on the upper left target.  Six touching in upper right.

That triangle one?  The next lane over thought I needed an extra 9mm hole in my paper to go with the .45.

Targets 4 and 5 I am trying to up the speed a little.  Nothing to write home about, just pushing myself a bit. 

6.5 Fulton M65 M1A

So, after Newtown, Maryland passed a crapload of new gun regulations.  Magazine restrictions, a license to purchase handguns with fingerprint and train requirements, and an Assault Weapon Ban. 

There has always been a roster of acceptable handguns for sale, added to that roster are the few 'Assault Weapons' that are acceptable.  Manufacturers go hat in hand to some roster board and ask to be added to the roster.

"Hi, we at Smith and Wesson have sold M&P 9mm pistols in this state for a while.  We'd like to sell this new one, too.  It's the same as the others but the part number is different and it is coyote brown instead of black."  And after a few months you can buy that brown Smith.  They aren't THAT bad a stickler.  Governor Ehrlich sorta instilled a bias to accept new guns for the roster and that hasn't changed.  It'd be a good way to do a back door pistol ban by just rejecting any new additions for a while.  But like I said, they haven't tried that Shenanigan.

Now, things that are ON the roster for long guns.  Pretty much any heavy barrel AR15s.  Aka:  HBARs.  AR10s are hunky dory.   You can buy a stripped lower for an AR15. 

But you can't buy an AR15 with a regular barrel!!!  No no!  Forbidden.  (yeah, yeah, I know.)  No Tec-9's.  No Calicos.  Now M1A's.  Which were fine in 2012.  Semi-auto M14s are no bueno.

Until now!

We have Fulton Armory in Maryland, and being a local concern and with a little effort, they managed to get 6.5mm Creedmore chambered M1As (now with a label of M65) permissable for local sale. 

Probably with just a 10 round magazine, tho.  You still have to go to a gunshow in another state to stock up on standard magazines.

I dunno if this applies to Springfield rifles of similar chambering. 

You see, 6.5mm fake M14s aren't as dangerous as 7.62mm fake M14s, so it's fine for this gun shy locale.  It's a smaller number, you see.  Probably can't shoot as far?  So it is safer?  Or something. 

Or something, indeed.  This state. 

Charles Bronson

Luckily for Millennials he died before they became a thing.

They want em all

Remember in November and cancel their vote.

They are bold enough to say they are coming for your guns.  And I don't want Civil War 2, selectric boombaloo to happen in my lifetime.

"When They Give Us That Inch, That Bump Stock Ban, We Will Take A Mile"

They really aren't considering the misery they could unleash.  People that had no idea how someone like Trump could win will be blindsided, too, by what could happen going down this road.

Site v. Sight

I tend to use the words interchangeably.  But I am stupid.

Front site.

Front sight.

Are both accepted?  Is one preferred.  My English no good. I am leaning sight, but I am sure I will slip to site sometimes.

Whatcha Doing?

"Whatcha doing for the children's crusade today, T-Bolt?"

Helping the gunsmith while he teaches a 1911 Intermediate Class.

I already saw these dude at the Beginning course.  Only two from that class faile the safety checks.  Failure to return with the hammer sear engagement.  Another was "keep and eye on this as one hammer hook is letting go before the other and that could be an issue later as it wears." 

The beginning class is mostly "how to detail strip a 1911" and what the safety checks are.  Very useful if buying a 1911.  The intermediate class breaks out the smoke lamp and you get to see how well your barrel is locking up and what not.  Cleaning up some burrs on parts...  I may be missing someting, because it is a two day class.  Must be some bonus items.

Donations

Been dragging my feet about making a donation to the NRA.  So what about today?  What's so special about today?  Today needs more freedom.

Second Amendment Foundation gets some love too.

"Why them two, T-Bolt?"

They are the ones that have done stuff for me. You other ones?  I don't know you, or you say koo-koo banananas things.  You could be staffed by mental patients or a front for Bloomberg for all I know.  I've fed Alan Gura a steak and a beer.  I've been to NRA conventions.

Range, 19 March

Epiphany.

63 rounds, Winchester, no failures. 

I was right.  I was onto something last time.  The groups were fast and tightened up.  See.  Two flyers, two flinchies, all called.  The rest were pretty good

I may be onto something here.  I need to do some more testing, but this is exciting.  25 feet.

"Well?  What did you do this time to get this.  Especially that middle target."

Surprisingly little except for one wrinkle.  I couldn't tell you where my trigger finger placement was this time.  Despite trying to shoot relaxed I caught myself tensing up more than usual.  I concentrated on the THREE fundamentals.  Relax (which wasn't working too good), concentrate on the front sight, and Make the Trigger Go Good.  Which is starting to be automatic, except those 4 flyers.

So what was the new thing?  It impacted all three fundamentals.  Ready?

Embrace the Wobble.

I knew about doing this academically before, but knowing what you should do and achieving it are two different things.  This time I figured out how to do it.

You know the wobble.  The front sight seems to move like a lazy infinity symbol, then like a kid on a swingset, then like you are drawing a sunset on the horizon, just randomly moving all over.  Some people try to wait until it crosses the bull before breaking the trigger.  Don't. 

Let it wobble. 

Embrace the wobble.

Hell, MAKE it wobble. I was making it wobble, on purpose, and not caring when the trigger break happened.  

It can all be wobbling and you still are keeping it in a tight central group, as above.  And it can get better than that.  Wobble is ok.  Don't make the perfect sight picture be the enemy of good sight picture.  There lies bad trigger pulls. 

Separated at Birth

David Hogg, the Hater of Civil Rights, Dean Venture, half of the Venture Brothers.

Turn in your guns

These dudes destroying or turning their guns into the police?  Just so they are not tempted to get a replacement they should voluntarily (highly encouraged to comply) add their names to the prohibited persons list.  That would be due process.   If you volunteer yourself to go on the list.  Think of all the Democrat hoplophobes that would feel good about themselves doing that.

Shennanigans by the .gov?  You get voluntold to prohibit yourself.  No bueno.  Unless you are turning in your guns at the station.  THEN pressure the wienie.

Chuck Shumer and Nancy Pelosi could burn up a lotta cycles calling for this measure.  The NRA and Republicans could help them, on this.  Win win.

So, what does the NRA do?

About so-called Red Flag restraining order gun confiscation?

Shout "Hell No!"?

Probably an untenable position.

Make low approving-sounding noises in public, and work behind the scenes with lawmakers and go "Hey, what about some due process protections?  You know someone is gonna sue and appeal if you don't have a least a little in there.  A little more."

This works, now, while our 'side' is still in a majority position and takes other gun grabs off the table for now.  Even couple this with reciprocity, even.  Get that done before November, and that is the NRA doing its job as best it can.

Of course that would make no one happy.  For doing its job and not doing enough.

But like some commenters over on Sebastian's site, I'd prefer that maybe the cops do at least part of their job with investigating threats and using the Baker Act where appropriate.  Instead of what happened in Florida.  Where apparently they had to try really hard to do the OPPOSITE of their job a few score times over years. 

Also.  Here is another, angrier, view, that I don't think I can disagree with.

Culture Change

If the bad guys really wanted to drive a wedge in gunnie culture they might try to ban guns that ARE just used for hunting and are in declining use.  Hunting isn't what the 2nd protects, and SCOTUS in Heller says regulation of stuff not in common use can be permissable.

The military/militia doesn't use shotguns.  Ban them.  Pump and doubles.  They are problematic from all the laws of war, anyway.  Sure, the .mil used to use them, but allies and opponents always thought shotguns in war a bit hinky.

No military or police use them revolvers for the most part.  They are old fashioned anachronisms.  Ban em.

And now the Fudds are up in arms.  But they'd have sold other gunnies out to still go duck hunting, so, effective culture attack, and we ALL lose some power.  (We'd have more power if the Fudds were as supportive of my preferred firearms as I was of there doubles.)

Saving for later reference

"There is no clear correlation whatsoever between gun ownership rate and gun homicide rate. Not within the USA. Not regionally. Not internationally. Not among peaceful societies. Not among violent ones. Gun ownership doesn’t make us safer. It doesn’t make us less safe. The correlation simply isn’t there. It is blatantly not-there. It is so tremendously not-there that the 'not-there-ness' of it alone should be a huge news story."

So, if they did somehow magically get all the US guns, it almost certainly wouldn't matter after the dust settled?  We wouldn't turn into Luxemborg because we are the United States, not Luxemborg.

Yeah, sounds like it.

I went to the range on 14 March

63 Winchester

No failures (but I still haven't cleaned it...  after I am done with the Winchester I will...  Filthy.)

Oh my.  There are two types of ways of me going fast.  "Make trigger go NOW" which is how I usually shot for years and years.  And that get's the flinchies  And "Whatever, you've been here before, you know how to pull the trigger right, do it without thought." And that compressed surprise-break happens

They look the same, but the second is marginally faster and much more accurate.

And I am starting to understand how this works.  And that is exciting.

Sam saw this and reinforced it in Sim Training the next session.  Oh my.  I think we are talking an epiphany here.   Which is nice.  I like getting better.  First the bad:

Shot a magazine at the head at 25 feet.  The misses and one that hit the shoulder?  I thing these were from that first one.  Not warmed up and this is something I want to work on.  Not requiring a warm up.  Pushed the target out to 60 feet and aimed at the chest.  Meh.  I used to shoot like that at 25 feet.  It is only recently I push the target out further.  I use the black so I don't see the holes and that helps concentrate on the fundamentals and looking at front site and not prairie-dogging.

Then I did 5 magazines at 25 feet for this.

What the picture doesn't show is how fast I went.  "Whatever" bang "whatever" bang.  I was kind of stunned.  More to work on.

These people want to write our gun laws minutiae

link

Public School Teachers

Public School Teachers must be more racist than David Duke.

The only thing stopping them from killing all their black students is a law saying they can't have a gun on school grounds.  Or something.

So, High Schools are hate factories.  We learned a few years back that state Universities are rape factories...  What's next?  Are they churning out meth in Elementary school?  Got the Kindergartners working in mill?

Election

The midterm elections usually go against the party in the Whitehouse.  And the gun banners are in it to win it this next cycle, too.  So, if trends hold out, Dems will win big in the House, at least, and the gun banners will spin this to "See?  Siding with us on gun control now wins elections for you!  This is 1994, but turned upside down.  We are on the right side of history, now, and you better get with us."

So it might be kind of important to counter that now, NRA, hint hint.  Maybe highlight how the failures of Democrats resulted in the massacre. 

Oh, I need to donate more to them.  Maybe the Second Amendment Foundation, too. 

A zit

Inside my nostril?

I am pushing 50 years old.  Well beyond the life expectancy for the long majority of human history.  For all the people that came before me, I am and OLD man to most all of them.

Why do I still get teenage pimples?  I should be decades past that.

Inside the nostril just adds insult to injury.   

How does this work?

"Teachers are so racist that if you let them carry guns to school, they will just start shooting the black students."

Wait a minnit...  Why are there so many racists permitted teaching classes?  With or without a firearm on them, why are they up at the chalkboard if the only thing preventing them from committing a homicide is the fact they can't legally bring a gun to school?  Wouldn't one teacher that had illegally brought a gun to school have lit up a black student by now if racist teachers were so prevalent?  Do the parents know a good proportion of their kids' teachers are this homicidally racist?  Why did these racists get into teaching in the first place, didn't they know some of their students would be of a racial background they didn't like?

If this is all true, you got a bigger problem than a few future CCW strapped teachers.

Wait!  I got an idea.  Only permit the black teachers to go armed.  Problem solved.

Really?

If gov't is going to be so incompetent and capricious, why do NICS background checks at all?

So, really, the only people the Obama administration had no problem giving guns to was the bad guys? 

Self Perpetuating

The histrionics of the gun banners makes the next mass murder more likely.

In the aftermath, don't glorify or name the shooter. Don't dwell on the event. It might be best to just shut up about it – perhaps for many years. Excess attention to the event makes it, in some twisted minds, an exaltation of the actions of the maniac, and that seems to promote similar events.

Copycat syndrome.


But if the gun banners don't get a full gun ban this time they actually WANT another massacre.  On this alone.... no matter your political affiliation, why would you ever want to encourage slaughter to get your policy passed?....  You should be on our side for this alone.  At least gun rights people aren't hoping for someone to get killed.   The more the better.  Gross 

Feature, not bug

"I'm walking out of school today on the one month anniversary of Parkland school massacre.  I wasn't learning anything there, anyway, y'know?  I'm upset that something like that can happen then the politicians do nothing.  What more has to happen for those people to ban all the bad guns, y'know?  Besides, those detergent pods ain't gonna, like, eat themselves, and the school resource officer will no longer let us bring them into the building for lunch."

Yeah, that 'do nothing' bit?  That's a feature, not a bug.  What the politicians are doing are holding the line.  Their most important job is to defend the rights of their constituents.  NOT getting stampeded into more violation is second best.  First best is to expand our rights and remove legacy violations.

That'd be great.  NOW.  Expanding gun owner rights.  Pass Reciprocity, McConnell.  There's a lot of work to do after that.  Finish that labor and we'll take a look at the 4th and 5th and 10th Amendments, too.

But I am glad they give you young idiots the runaround.  You people aren't that bright, to tell you the truth.  A product of your youth and inexperience, but don't worry, you have plenty of time to get old and dumb.  You are also a lotta astroturf, willingly, admittedly, doing the bidding of your money men.  Who's motivations are... not in the interests of America as we know it.  A stalking horse for bigger things, perhaps, besides just the gun bans.  But, heck some of you want that transformation (well not you, you).  But you do have to camouflage that desire in something else...  like civil rights violations you can maybe get people to go along with after a tragedy.    

Advice Solicited

"Hey T-Bolt?  You know gonne stuff, right?  As you know we moved out into the country into our first new house from outta them damned apartments in Glen Burnie.  We don't hear sirens every night, now.  But that's the thing.  If there is a problem, 911 response is much slower where we now live.  And I travel more with this new job, selling widgets to medical device inspectors all over the country.  How do I convince the missus to go to the range and maybe consider getting a gun for the house to protect us and our young children from badguys?"

Hi!  Glad you asked that question.  I recommend two Ruger pistols.  They are decent quality guns, but won't break the bank since you have to get the pair.  I say two because we are going to have to duct tape them to both her hands, and if one hand is free she will just be able to peel off the tape and put the gun down.  Trust me, it can't fail.

Ok, ok.

You are never going to hurry up a reticent person to go shooting or get a gun, and you probably don't want to.  Sure there are risks living out in the 'country' but you can still huck a chihuahua and hit the neighbors house on either side... You aren't isolated.  And country risks are also lesser than Baltimore inner-suburbs risks you have now quit, and left in your rearview.  I know if there were no children to home she'd be more tolerant of a firearm in the house, but that's not the case with you, so her reticence is even stronger (most non gunnies worry about a child messing around with the house gun, and this fear gives them nightmares, no matter what sort of true likelihood of mishaps actually exists.)

"Ok, here's the deal"

"You help out in classes, be the extra pair of hands showing guys how to get the mag release button and the safety out of the gun, and I'll let you use the machinery in here.  Hell, I'll closely supervise and teach you how to use the machinery in here.  Don't embarrass me."

DEAL!

Here's the thing...  This way I get to take the classes again FOR FREE.  It's review, yes, but I always learn something new.

They are monkeys

They are not people.

Stop calling them 'someone' 'somebody'.

They are NOT people.

Anthropomorphizing them does no one any favors.

We are having a hard enough time defending Civilization from the existential threat of Barbarism right now to tolerate this nonsense about monkeys. And those are people.

The Gun Banners

Are insane.



So... my AR is an awful cat? And it might go out and do something horrible all by itself? Or are AR owners awful cats? No... But revolver owner are cute adorable cats? Some cats are nice to have, some cats are not, but they have no other purpose beside 'have'? Where are you going with this, numbskull?

Could you gun banners stop being nonsensical?

51,000 people liked that video when I saw it. Only 6,600 people disliked it. Is that truly the ration between morons and non morons in this country these days?

Fix NICS

So.  Some folks don't like the Fix NICS legislation.

What's objectionable about it?

Assuming you are fine with preventing felons and other GCA prohibitted persons from being denied a firearm.

I am of two minds about that.  The whole, "If you can't be trusted with a gun, how can you be without a custodian in a world with gas stations, glass bottles, and cigarette lighters?" is in the forefront of my mind, but, brass tacks, that's not the world we live in.  Fighting for that is a fight in the future.

For now, today, in the\is world, what is objectionable about Fix NICS?  In a world where NICS is a thing and is grudgingly accepted, what is bad about this NICS reform?

No, I am seriously asking.  All I see is it incentivizes folks to report prohibited persons they should have been reporting already.  Is there something else to it?

I know it can't be that bad, in that the Democrats supported before it had a decent chance of actually passing. 

US Army...

...developing a third arm for soldiers.

You mean besides the short one?

There is a tic

I see with Liberal, arguing, that I don't see with Conservatives.  Maybe I am wrong and it is everywhere, I am prepared to be shown that.  But I only see it from the left, so far.

If something of contention rolls up in a 'discussion' and someone goes, "So you are saying..." that is a Lib, and they are about to lie and strawman all over you.

Jordan Peterson found this out in England with Cathy Newman, but it isn't restricted to that TV interview.  It is a deployed all over Twitter.

And it is annoying.  It's also has big enough holes to drive a rhetorical truck through.

"I have a firearm to protect my kids"

"So you are saying you want to slaughter all children?"

See?  That sort.

So...

My gunstore posted a picture of an M3 Greasegun on social media. WITH a suppressor.  And boy did I get a case of the wants. 

I was there the next day.  I wanted to maybe touch it.  Read what the price tag said.  Maybe.  Maybe.

No!  It was just a tease.  The owner private collection.  I dunno if it was even transferable.  Bastards. 

Well, I save a lotta money that way.

All the ARs on the wall were AR10s or HBARs.  So I could have bought any of those and taken it home.


They were also out of S&W M&P types.  Well, they HAD some, but none of em were on the Maryland roster yet.  Controlled guns need approval from the state, you see.  NFA items aren't counted in the Maryland assault weapons restrictions.  Well except the magazines.  So if the M3 was for sale we could have proceeded.  But not a regular AR15.  No sir.

I asked about the M&Ps because a buddy at work is thinking on that.  And heck, I could be pushed.  New roster approvals any day now. 

It's the same guns that are already approved, just a slightly different part number, so...  Approval process.

Tam?

What does LMGTFY mean?

Gunsplaining

Liberals are sick of being corrected when they are wrong about guns.  "Magazine, clip, WHATEVER!  You are just getting us in the weeds as a distraction!"

Yeah, our side is pedantic.  We cop to that.  But if you want to write policy about a segment of firearms available, or not, to the public, you really do have to know what it is you are talking about. 

Of course, we could just use that to our advantage.  "Ban and confiscate all Bloomberschutzen and Donderblitzen assault rifles.  MUCH more dangerous than any other firearm out there."  "Great, what about ARs?"  "Dude, we just banned two whole classes of guns.  Compromise a bit." "Oh, ok."



Yeah, like that tactic would really work for long...

The real reason they don't want or need to learn firearm minutiae is their true goal doesn't really require it.  You don't have to know what select-fire means, or semi-auto, if your true goal is the banning and confiscation of all civilian non-law-enforcement firearms, right?  Easy policy proscription.  No loopholes.

They just can't say that out loud because they figure the vast majority would be against that and it will prevent their blue wave from happening this November.

Elder Wisdom

So it is impossible to take the guns away, forgetting it is unconstitutional.  There are just too many of them.  There were way fewer in Britain and Australia and they can't manage to confiscate all theirs, what hope is there to get them out of the hands of ornery Americans.

You can't repeal the 2nd Amendment.  It exists outside the constitution and is only there to remind gov't where their power cannot go.  The Heller case reminds us of this.  A right exists it is not conferred.  And.  You cannot infringe on the right to bear arms and if you try to repeal the amendment you are infringing. 


You can't bring back insane asylums and involuntary commitments.  Or you can, but it would be very very difficult.  Not as difficult as confiscating all the guns, but it's a tough row to hoe.  And quite a few gunnies, who tend to be of a libertarian bent, aren't on board with the concept and would fight almost as hard against bughouses as they would repeal.  Teamed up with the ACLU.

Where does that leave us?  Larry Elder distills all this down.  There is two avenues (above) blocked, leaving a third.  Harden soft targets.  Stop being an obstacle to the law abiding.  Let people defend themselves and others. 

I didn't know Larry Elder was this on board with the issue, and I am pleased to learn it.  He hasn't hidden his position, I just had never run across  how enthused he was for it.  He addresses the issue with concise logic of a classically trained litigator.  Which, he is, apparently.   But we won't hold that against him.

Maryland, Phew

HB 991

The House bill that would felony-ban mere possession of a 11+ round magazine?  Has been withdrawn.  There is a Senate version, but, this withdrawal is a good thing.

Break

84 rounds of Winchester.

26 February.

No failures, though I can feel some grittiness I want to go away.  And the fiber optic front sight is getting... dark.  A clean is in order.  Soon. 

Ten years ago I read up on it everywhere and asked around and no one could explain to me what a Compressed Surprise Break was.  I think I am beginning to get it.  Getting to that surprise break in a hurry.   You can make those words and understand it acedemically, but understanding it with the gun is a whole nother matter.

I bet all y'all already know how, and it just took me a lot more practice to figure it out because I am a slow head spaz.

Another thing, as I have gotten better...  In the old day my first shot of the day was often the best.  After that the flinchies came to the fore.  I don't get that first cold shot good anymore.  I need to warm up to move away from the flinchies, low and right.  I hope I can fix that because if I actually NEED a gun, that first shot, and also any others after that...   I don't want to require a warmup if I have to defend myself.  

Beginning of the session

All right...


The end of the session

More centered.  Both at 50 feet.

10 Rounders,

Just like Maryland.  The Florida murderer just restricted himself to small magazines, rather than being forced to by the state as here.

"[mass murderer] went in with only 10-round magazines because larger clips would not fit in his duffle bag, Book said."

The same article said he had 150 unfired rounds.  So his duffle bag could hold fifteen 10-round mags, but no 30-rounders?  I'm confused as to how that can be, and want more details.  It makes no sense.  What sort of weird duffle bag is this?

Round Management

One of the flaws of simulator training is you don't use live ammo.  That's also one of the advantages, mind you.  You spend nothing on ammo and pull the trigger 500 times. 

You don't train for ammunition management or magazine changes.  You also don't train for malfunction drills. 

So you are there in the simulator and you know your sim gun magazine is bottomless.  Doesn't hurt to shoot the bad guy on the screen 10 times.  But then you go outside and pickup bourbon at the liquor store but you have 8 in that gun and 7 in the reload?  Or 5 in the J-Frame and 6 on the speed strip?  You've just trained to hurry and shoot lots.  While you maybe should have trained to make good hits, primarily, rather than shave a microsecond off the first round off.  Train to be good and fast, not fast and ok, in other words.  Both are already about the same top speed for individual shooters. 



So the mindset in the Sim is to err toward volume of fire, when the mindset in real life is good hits and quick re-assessment.   Maybe the guy needs all 5 from revolver.  Maybe he needs one and crumples and the partner you didn't realize he had needs 4.   But don't dawdle deciding, obviously.

Which is also prolly a good idea even for those of you with a Glock 17 and 2 reloads, too.  Just because you have 52 rounds doesn't mean you have to shoot them all.  Not the first time out of the gate when the liquor store shopping trip goes pear-shaped.  Wait til you 6th or 7th real live defensive gun use before you go for style points and the mag dumps.   This isn't Manhattan, after all.

Doc Savage

I love pulps.  The cheesier the better sometimes.  But not Doc Savage, so much. 

The problem with Doc Savage is he is a Super Man. 

Sposebly the first superhero, and he has a utility belt like Batman, and Fortress of Solitude like Superman, but something about him leaves me cold.

He's the best at everything, and achieved all that with sheer will and constant training.  He is a perfected man, trained since birth, and with a mighty will he triumphs over everyone.  He won't kill.  Even when it is called for.  And yet he isn't beyond taking away all of someone's personality.  He thinks destroying a brain's identity is preferable to life in prison. 

He is privileged to carry a special badge, and can boss cops around and they extend him full deference, but he is not a police officer.

His purpose in life is to do good as he sees it, but nothing is said about the source of his values system.  He probably trained his ethics 'scientifically'.

He's like an Ayn Rand hero, in capability, with the impulses of an Ayn Rand villain.  His wealth?  From all his smarts?  No, he rooked a lotta gold from an isolated meso-American tribe in Central America.  He's got them slaving away, sending him 2 million, minimum, every other week.  

That whole Perfectability of Man business got us in a lot of trouble over the past century and even today.  The originator has an excuse, having created Doc Savage in the mid 30s before there were so many EXTRA fresh examples of what evil is wrought by the concept of an ubermensch

"But Superman and Batman are like that!  Perfected men."

Well, Superman is an alien, taught by mortal men.  His deal isn't being better than everyone else, like Savage.  His deal is always doing the right thing, even when it is impossible.  He is a Christ figure.  And truly can back that up.  A big blue boy scout.  Doc Savage is a mortal made god-like.  And that kind of hubris is not to be encouraged or you get nemesis. 

Batman?  He knows men are not angels, inherently good.  He knows what evil lies in the hearts of men.  Like the Shadow.

Plus Savage is taciturn enough to be unlikable.  He has his assistants, but they are supercargo.   The best in their fields of Chemistry or Engineering or the Law or Geology...  Well, second best.  They make a point that Doc Savage is better than them at their own specialty.  So what is the point of them?  Other than to bicker with each other.  Constantly.  It's aggravating. 

I think I will read something better after this.  Like Raffles the Cracksman.  Enough of this Progressive wet dream out of the New Deal.

AWB ban? Ho-hum.

In violation of the Heller ruling, 150 Dems propose to ban arms in common use at this time.  Another bite or the 'Assault Weapons' Ban apple.  They at least intend to permit us peasants to keep the ones we have already.  All 20 million plus.  Which is why they are in common use.  Yes, in hunting, too, foo.  Again, not that that part matters

Which made me think.  You know, they are on steadier constitutional grounds if they tried to ban revolvers at this point.  They are in less common use than semi-auto rifles, no?  Sure their might be more revolvers out there because they are a pretty durable good.  And they are wussies, they'd grandfather all those in.  But maybe it could pass Constitutional muster. 

What am I doing?  Giving them ideas?!  Sure it seems farfetched and illogical now, but these are Progs we are talking about.    

Gov. Hogan

Maryland governor is against arming teachers.

Could just as easily say, "Regardless of how he really feels, Governor Hogan knows arming teachers would never fly in Maryland at this time."

And the bipartisanly popular Republican Hogan is running for re-election.

Range work

21 February.

49 rounds of Magtech .45

Somedays you over think the process.  You take too much time. Get the basics lined up and shoot.  Shoot.  You've been here before, you know where to put your finger, where the front sight is, and how to press the trigger.  Just do it.

So when I let my subconscious just do its thing and ride herd on poor form only and just go.  See the target shoot the target.  Don't think about.

I get the bottom two.  And the middle.  Minus that one flier.  Let that one get away from me.  Hooboy, did not that the sight aligment.

There, that is a danger.  One I am prone to.  Overdriving my headlights so to speak.  Moving on to the next shot before I have finished the one to hand.

Drat this shooting stuff can be complicated.