The return of Monday Bupkis

I got nuthin.

Let's see...  Stream of cosciousness gonne stoff I have thought about recent lie...

When I started this whole shooting thing the support groups of blogs and such where I got most of my starter info of course highlighted Jeff Cooper.  If you want to shoot a pistol well and distill everything down into something simple you can remember, Cooper's Gunsite gave you the mantra:  "Front Sight, Press"

Look at your front sight, press the trigger to the rear.  Which implies what not to do in those three words.  Don't focus on the target and don't yank that trigger.

Academically I understood that and took it to heart.  It's good advice. 

Now that I have gotten better at shooting.. it's still good advice.  But there is so much more packed into that phrase that I understand much better now. 

And yet, I still catch myself slapping that trigger something awful.  Usually pushing myself to go faster.  Another less I am constantly relearning.  If you go for better shots and smoother shots the speed often is there with it.  And the speed comes along in its own time otherwise. 

Watching shooters that are better than me is a double edged sword.  I am inspired to do better and see it can be done.  But then I push to do that speed and end up pooping the bed. 

Getting Maryland CCW

Is legally complicated.

We gotta get through this case despite that case which mirrors this other case which means maybe this is a split Circuit and this the next time SCOTUS will take it up.

Could use another nom from Trump on the court.  The lower judges might see the writing on the wall.

Range 25 Apr 2018

I sorta got my mojo back.

Ever go, "Hey, I am finally going to shoot all of ONE magazine into the 10 ring!" and as soon as you even think that...  This happens:

H9 in the wild

My gun store has some Hudson H9s in. 

They can't sell them.  Yet.  Maybe in June.  Our 'acceptilble guns that can be sold in this state' roster has been de-politicized quite a bit, so ordinary guns, or guns that act like ordinary guns, and not like anything on the ban list are pretty much rubber stamped.  The H9 falls in this group.  But the wheels of bureacracy run slow.  Maybe June? 

You can buy it now, but they won't be able to release it til June at the earliest. 

Also, they need to gimp the magazines.  15 rounders are a no no.  Gotta make em 10.  The shop does this.  I don't know how they do it, or if I can reverse the alteration.  I sorta want to buy a gun with gimped mags just to see and just to mess with them. 

So, I didn't plunk any money down.  But I did get to hand one.  The trigger is decent, but what struck me was how good a job they did not making the grip fat.  It feels almost like a single stack.  Which is nice.  General fit and finish was just hunky dory on cursory examination.  Nothing yet to dissuade me besides one dude that didn't like it on youtube (pfff) and a HUGE honking front site. But I can swap sights my ownself if I want, and I know a gunsmith that doesn't hate me. (gunsmiths normally hate everybody)

Man, Pelicans are EXPENSIVE

But, ah well.  At least they don't hate our civil rights.  And I needed a cooler for mah beer.

Think of how much money I will save on ICE at the big camping trip.  Added bonus?  Grizzly bear proof.  If you are in camp and your S&W X-Frame doesn't get the job done, you can hide in your cooler and be safe as Indy.

But I dunno why that gun couldn't get the job done.  Single shot .22lr should do the trick.

Current permissive environments

With my current CCW, I can carry in the blue and green ones:

Delaware, still, is a nice surprise.

I wonder what it takes to get a PA out of state permit now.  I even have state connections. If I pay a lawyer to get me a Maryland permit I can carry in Maryland and Michigan will also honor it.  But I gain nothing else.

House of Waffles

Lemme get this straight.  There is a new push to confiscate guns from Law-Abiding gun owners since Dean Venture got famous.  For safety.  Confiscate all ARs.  Confiscate all semi-autos. 

But when an anti-gun state DOES confiscate the guns of an OBVIOUS crazy person they fear will cause mayhem with them... they then turn around and give them right back? 

So, you are gonna take my guns and give them to violent criminals and crazy people to do as they will, is that the plan?   Obviously that is the plan.  This isn't the first time the gun-controllers or authorities did that.  Arm the bad guys, disarm the good guys, appears to be policy.   The Left has a different policy, instead of Patrick Henry's "Let every man be armed" it's 'let every miscreant be free to prey on society because that is useful in pushing for our agenda.'

You know, regular folks that don't pay close attention are gonna start to notice that that is your plan of action, Progs

Reading a book by it's cover

Sometimes you can tell just by looking.

Crazy eyes:

---------

NOT crazy eyes:

Range 19 April 2018

I had taken a break over a weak.  And my shooting quality fell off.

Oh it's not gone, but, it is definitely a perishable skill.  I notice that more and more the better I get at it.  Confirmed.

Because I wasn't relaxed and just reinforcing failure, I stopped 35 rounds fired.  American Eagle .45.  8 yards for head shots, 25 years yards for center mass.  Here is the final two mags.

That high one on the chest I called, I am pretty sure  (yellow).  The front sight was WAY high.   It is kinda nice that they were all hits.  Even with me sucking and too tense.  Gotta get my finger back and my 'embrace the wobble'.

You can see on the headshots I am no relaxing and not letting the trigger happen (red).  So I get low and right.  Not horrible low and right, but not good either.

Cooler

You know, I need a new cooler for my annual camping trip and other fun shennanigans.  I really do.

I heard really good thing about Yeti.

Whelp.  Nope.

For even a chance to get my business, they have to come back AND apologize. 

There are no racist groups anymore

It's a made up fiction of the Left.  A boogie-man for them to spar against.

THEN they want to somehow associate these racist group with the Right, with Trumpists, with Conservatives, with Second Amendment advocates like us, and others not expressly Left.

"How can you say that, T-Bolt?  The nazis are marching!"

Yes, that proves my point.  The headlines are alarmist and scary and warn: "The nation’s largest neo-Nazi group is planning a demonstration in Newnan, Georgia today. Possibly 50 racists may show up."

If you can only muster up 50 folks, and you are the tippy top biggest organization peddling that bushwa out of a nation of 300 million, then you have statistically zero members.  You only have influence on the Left because the Left likes to react to you.  You are useful to them.  Otherwise you'd be totally ignored.  By everyone. 

Remember back in 1925, when the Left embraced the Klan, they could get 30,000 to march in DC.  That's be like 100,000 today.  The Democrat's muscle, putting on a display and trying to show President Coolidge who was boss.  So, call me when they get 1,000 people to march under their racist banner today.  I'll yawn and say "that are a hundredth of the problem they used to be."

Grow the Second Amendment

Kyle is right. 

And I have been saying this for forever.

But GOP squishes haven't been willing to fight for us.  Help defend?  Yes, usually.  They are often on the side of gun rights.  But rarely do they do any initiative to advance gun rights.  When they do, it's appreciated, but often small ball.

How bout getting rid of backdoor registration?  Tie gun ownership to gun owners, rather than to guns.  You NICS check a person, not a purchase.  And gun owner they check should be people that are about to own a gun, or might want to in the future.  Does this 'gun owner' have a gun or is about to?  Maybe yes, maybe no.  

How about getting national reciprocity?   Why do I have rights in Ohio and Virginia, but not Pennsylvania or Maryland?  Did I do something WRONG in those two states? 

After that, we'll discuss getting rid of the 'you gotta get permission first' thing about this inherent God-given right.

This Bitz

Is my State Rep. Wants to be my State Senator. 10 years ago he pretended to be at least neutral on civil rights. His record and his current stance show otherwise. Vote for every Constitutional violation that came down the pike. He USED to be on the judiciary committee. They kicked him off for some reason.

Look at him.  He's PROUD of rights violations.  Gross.

My State has a New Revenue Scam

My grandparent set up a mutual fund for me back in 1980.  They were conservative investors and while they themselves hadn't lost their shirts in the Crash of 29, it was only because they were 23 years old and hadn't socked money away to lose yet.  The the mutual fund was a conservative one.

They figured that was better than giving us grandkids a $25 savings bond.

Every birthday and Christmas they'd tick a bit more in it.

Eventually it was about $4000 when they stopped adding to the pile when I graduated college.  Probably less.

Now it is worth considerably more.  Like 17 grand,  Compound interest and all, and me not touching it.

There's the thing.  The state knows about it because of my state taxes.  And they inform all investment houses, "Hey, if someone like T-Bolt doesn't touch his nest egg, adding or subtracting, for 3 years, you have to tell Annapolis that, investment house.  What if Mr. Bolt dies?  Then that money could be just abandoneded!  And we want it to spend on stuff.  So give it up if he doesn't pipe up in time."

Why, I oughta...

I caught the bastards before they did this.  Stole my money.  Those greedy mofos.  Watch em.  Especially if your state is run by Democrats.  The D stands for Double-greedy.

Come to think of it, it sounds like a scam thought up by a previous GOP governor.  Ehrlich.  Like a good Republican he hated taxes.  But like a good Republican in a Democrat state he needs to get revenue to pay for Democrat priorities.  How to reconcile the two?  Raise fees, like driver's license renewal.  And other things like this investment swipe.     

Patriot Day

The Old North Bridge, in 2287.

Gunny Ermey

Now I am a huge fan of R. Lee Ermey.  Kinda wished his movie hadn't come out the summer I went to new recruit training and inspiring the cadre to new heights of fun and excitement in an organization not fully accountable to the DoD, so could get away with a bit more... but that's not Ermey's fault.

I thought it was nice for the Commandant to give him his Gunny stripes 30 years after separating from active duty.  He sure earned them, out of 'uniform' promoting USMC values far and wide.  He might be the second most famous Hollywood Marine, after Gomer Pyle.

But wait.  This looks like a vintage picture.  And he's wearing gunny stripes back then.  What gives?

Was he jinxing himself posing with rank he hadn't yet earned, then taking them off after this picture?

Was he promoted in the Corps, then busted back to Staff Sergeant before getting his DD214 on a med discharge?

Is this him on a movie set for something like The Boys in Company C?  Loyce was just a Staff Sergeant.

Does this just LOOK Asian but is acutally from the set of Full Metal Jacket, and that is Gunnery Sergeant Hartman?

I dunno. 

Here is a screen cap of his movie ribbons in FMJ, and they don't match, now do his eyebrows.

They are coming for your guns

All of them.  And they are coming for you.  Do not sit out this November because the non-gun grabber is a horse's ass.

If Congress won't change gun laws, we'll change Congress. #ThrowThemOut https://t.co/pP40BdRXLq

— Everytown (@Everytown) April 15, 2018

Speaking of chicken

Larry fisked the NYC Chik Fil A thing in some fly by night periodical up there.

Older S&W semis

You know.  The all metal kind.

So Tam has an article rolling around in here head like so many marbles in the skipper's overhead.  ('Overhead' is how swabbies say 'boat ceiling.')

She want to do something about the older Smith and Wesson semi-automatics.  You know the kind, with roots back 65 years. 

I am looking forward to it.

Now, I came to the shooting world late.  So I don't remember gunshops with lots of those brand new under the glass for sale.  They aren't there anymore, to be super simple about it, because they are expensive to make compared to next generation pistols ~cough~Glocks~cough~.

But they, themselves, were a response to how much work went into the generation before.  Again, to be short-bus simple, 1911s are a manufacturing improvement on earlier design, the Model 39 tried to one up that, then Glocks to one up them...  Smith would still make them if there was a demand and people willing to pay for the extra costs.

Like I said, though, I was never into older metal Smiths, so I am nigh totally ignernt in how they work or shoot.  Tam was nice enough to post this video but what appears to be a cut above your usual youtube gunsmith.



Goodness, that seems complicated.  I wonder what John Browning would say?  I saw the stamping and when "Ick!"  Then I thought a moment and went, "Ya know, that might actually be a decent idea.  Why NOT stampings?  Certainly cheaper to have a stamping ejector than that machined part you have to FIT on a 1911 that does the same thing."

You can see all the efforts to NOT have as many machined parts.  Then, later, some of them machined parts can be swapped out with Metal Injection Molded parts...  Cutting costs more.  Still hard to compete when you have all them frames you have to work.

Anyway, I am look forward to Tam's piece.  I hope it is a long article.  Heck, she could right a book on it.  She won't become a millionaire selling it, but I'd buy a copy. Fill in some of my gun knowledge holes.

Well what did you expect?

You've been telling them if they even LOOK at raw chicken they will catch salmonella.  Raw meat disease vector panics.  When did those germaphobic panics get bad?  1936?  1914?  1870?  NO!  I am thinking Germanophobe, not germaphobe.  Germs.  Not goose-stepping Squareheads.

At my house, we were still re-using shake and bake mix if we didn't use all of it up in one go in the 1980s.

Yeah, I might not do that now as a best practice.

We were a little worried about pork, but for trichinosis.  Just cook it.  No rare pork chops.

But, come to think of it...  I did used to get "24 hours stomach bugs" a lot back then and rarely so now, and now I practice marginally better raw-food handling techniques.

Comey-Licious

How did this guy ever get through Quantico?  Pathetic.

Twits

I have a twitter account, but man...  There is just nigh zero pleasure ever logging in and reading anything.

Maybe something about Robb's woodworking projects.  That's always nice.  So, 97% of twitter is high blood pressure inducing dreck. 

People on twitter make me... well not want to hurt them myself, but if they came to grief of their own accord I wouldn't feel that bad about it.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman

Aw, no!  Crap.

Ooops

Of course I stayed home on a Sunday.  That last post was for tomorrow.

Car is broke

So I stayed home.  The only gunsmithing I've done this weekend is this.

You see, in the future, anyone can take some old pipe and scrap pallet wood, some spring and some duct tape, and make perfectly serviceable and reliable firearms.  The selection above has .38 special, .45 ACP, and that one might even be a .308.

Unless you can find an antique like this one that shoots 10mm.

Yeah, yeah, just a game.  I always liked the gunsmithing mechanic, tho.  It's fun.  I'm not looking for realism in a cartoony shoot em up game.  The depth and texture this and other form factors adds makes the game so replayable.

Crikey

I forgot to set a post for Saturday.

Been scraping the bottom of the barrel recently.  Lessee.  Second liberal co-worker went to the trouble of getting a Maryland permission-to-permit a firearm.  $300ish.  So there is that. 

Did go shooting this week.  Taking a break.  Car is in the shop to get a pinion seal replaced.  So no training in Virginia today.  Taxes are done.  100 back from the state, and I owe 500 to the feds. 

I might be shopping for a vacation/retirement home...  I could almost afford two mortgages if I scrimp.  And I have a caretaker at the retirement home location picked out that is long term reliable. 

Bank of America

Ok, I still have an account with them.  But I no longer have their credit card or a mortgage.  Just a checking account.  I use them for bill pay and direct deposit.  I pay them no fees.  I JUST bought another box of checks, tho.

Should I close my account because of their heinous anti-civil-rights hate policies and adherence to Gun Crow?  They can't be making much money offa me.  I may be the type of customer that COSTS them money.  What say you, loyal readers?

I'm not allowed to have a knife at work

Just like the entire city of London, knives are verboten.

So I only have 2.  On me.  The 'on me' doesn't include my car.  No one has a problem with me using a knife at work.  This may be Maryland but it is still America.  Of course, they could trust me with a gun.  So they can certainly trust me with a knife.

Now, I don' flaunt it.  I don't pull out a big Kabar Kukri when I need to cut open the plastic on a case of Coke Zero.  For that I use this. 

Mini Skeletool.

The Kukri is for clamshell packaging.

Dots of Gold

Found some Gold Dot .38 in one of geographically remote bunkers.  You don't have one of them?  Well you should.  More than one. 

Anyway, after cracking the seals to the concrete catacomb and digging around in one of the store rooms I found a box.  Partial box. 

I had washed a speed strip of Gold Dot in the laundry, and while they are probably perfectly fine...  I will shoot them off as range ammo now that I found the fresh unsoaked rounds.  Because I trust them 1% less now, post washing machine and drier.

Gold Dot was my preferred .38 +P in a snubbie goto ammo.  It's specifically for the short barrel.  But hell, even the best short barrel stuff isn't much better than any other.  But you gotta select sumthin.  So I guess it is still my preferred snubbie ammo.  And now I have 4 speedloaders filled with the stuff.

Gold Dot .38 short barrel is sold out most everywhere.   When it comes back I am ordering 5 boxes.  Well, 4.     

Addition to the Short Ribs Post

There used to be better butchers around me.

Like Katz.  Wait, did Katz butcher become this?  I better check that out.  It's close.

Or Rudy's.

The short ribs were from Wilson's Farm Meat. That steer prolly met it's end less than 75 feet from the register.  They had bacon too. 

I say this because I want to find the butcher's cut for sale somewhere, take it home, and eat it.  The oyster steak.  First bit cut off the Round in this:

Instant Pot

I don't have my own Instant Pot.  But I hear great things about them.  I just don't have the kitchen space.

People rave about them.

What it is for the 3 people that haven't heard of it yet?  Essentially, it's a crockpot and a pressure cooker in one.  You make crockpot type things in it, but it only takes a 10th of the time to cook. 

If you are a single dude and you join a Facebook Instant Pot group, be prepared to be hit on by the nice ladies there if you ask for help.  So, there's a bonus.

Now while I do not have one, I have eaten from others'.   One of the first things to try is hard boiled eggs.  It does a good job.  Easy to peel them eggs.  One of the second things people do is short ribs.  Cup of water of stock, ribs, glom on you favorite store bought bbq sauce...  120 minutes later you will find it difficult to get a rib out with meat attached.  Super moist and tender.  I would add some other herbs and spices to that simple list of ingredients.  Pepper, cumin, garlic powder, maybe thyme and rosemary.  But that's me.  It's still EXCELLENT ribs.  And so easy.

Spaghetti I haven't tried.  That is the traditional third item to test drive.   

I wonder how electrically efficient these dang things are?  Could Joel work one down at his gulch on the solar power he has stored in batteries?  Well, presumably he could, but will it suck up so much juice as to not be worth it?

He bakes a lotta bread down there, it seems, but that is from the heat provided by bottle gases of various sorts. 
 

That's a Far Cry

I got nuthin.  I am thinking of picking up some escapism.  A video game.  This video game to be specific. Far Cry 5, and I will get it through Steam.



In it there are gun nut religious fanatics with bunkers awaiting the apocalypse and gun nuts that don't go along with the religious fanatics with bunkers that want to be left alone and not meddled with.

You know.  Americans.

Well.  Non-urban Americans from non coastal areas.  That could be fun.

Whoa Wu

Brianna Wu, bully of computer gamers, is running Congress (Crazy, Taxachusetts) and has a three point plan to address the 'gun crisis' that doesn't exist.

• If you own a gun, mandate liability insurance
• Broad outright bans on all 'assault weapons' 
• Mandate gun safety classes

All, of course designed to make gun ownership more onerous and discourage the ongoing expansion of gun culture/  If it's too much of a hassle, people on the fringes won't bother, is the thinking.  With few people bothering, there are fewer votes at the polling place in favor of pro-rights politicians.  With fewer pro-rights politician, there can be me MORE gun rights restrictions at some future date, leading to an ultimate total ban, ushering the United States into a Brazil style gun free Utopia where no one gets murdered anymore. 

This model worked well in states like Jersey, and also Massachusetts where Wu lives.  Massaschusetts has a lot less 'sanctioned' gun ownership now compared to 30 years ago.  Just ask JayG.  But I don't think this successful strategy is replicable nationally.  There are too many guns already out here, beyond the Northeast enclaves and the West coasts.  Record gun sales continue apace.  Even slow months in the Trump era show significantly higher purchase rates than late Bush Jr. early Obama months before sales really bloomed. 

I've always loved the 'assault weapon' term, invented in the late 80s just to ban guns and can mean whatever a banner wants it to mean.  That was the haters of our civil rights last really genius moment. 

Range, 4 APR

Ok, 63 rounds of Federal HST, for a total of 1109 through this gun since I rebuilt it.  No failures.

It was disassembled and 'wiped' down at round 500 or so, but no real clean.  Lubed every 300ish rounds.  It is a 1911 and needs a single tear's worth of FP-10 every now and then.   Four failure to feeds when using semi wadcutter stuff.  I don't count those.  I failure to lockback on final round at #442.  The gun got a good cleaning in a 1911 armorers class at #992. 

This session.  Warmup at 8 yards with the head shot, using my 'embrace the wobble' attitude.  Good.  Moved it out to 25 yards and the rest went toward center mass.

Not shabby.  I decided I need to so a LOT more at 25 yards now. 

Brought this target to 8 yards and got the two called flyers.  Boo.

Target #4 is me trying to go faster.  Taking no extra time aiming.  Just push out and let the finger do it's thing.  If my accuracy has improved lately I want to work on speed more. 

And back out to 25 yards for this one.  Again, speed was attempted.  Poorly.  Maybe the final target I should go slow and go faster early.  Make the final one as tight as possible, taking me time when 'tired.'

I remember when I was about this accurate at 8 yards.

NRA board

It's been a trying few months.  For everyone.  Everywhere.  I don't know what it is.  Everyone has the Churn right now.  Except My Buddy The Gun Enthusiast.  He retired.  Living the life. 

But, because of the extras I've been dealing with I have put off taxes and the NRA board vote, both due on the 15th.  I don't get a return and have to pay a couple hundred, so there is no motivation to get the taxes out of the way early.  Plus procrastination. 

But as for the NRA...  LOTS has happened since the ballot went out.  So, who do I vote for? 

We ain't got reciprocity.  Instead of restricting our rights because of events it would be a great thumb in the eye of the bad guys if we had passed reciprocity.  Just to show em.  Who do I vote for that will make that happen? 

Shoes

Since high school my feet have been sized 11D.  Just like everyone else.  That hasn't changed, according to the Brannock device. 

And thought I was often loathe to risk ordering shoes online, for fear I'd have to have the hassle of returning them, there was a sweet spot 10-20 years ago where when I did order 11Ds, the shoes that came fit 9 times out of 10.

Not anymore.  Now 8 out of 10 DO NOT fit.  Usually too high in the arch, or, more frequently, WAY too narrow in the toe.  I have overcome my hesitation in returning the bad ones. 

I don't know why Chinese shoe factories are falling down on the job. 

The brands I do have good luck with, still

Doc Martens.  If anything, these are fitting better/comfortably lately, and are better made, for a lower price.  And they wear like iron, so I need to get replacements only because I want to, and only every 10 years or so.  The black low quarters are my go to office shoe.

Skechers.  Not 100%, but they usually do well.

The holy grail of footwear I've been looking for is a pull one black leather something.  Sent lots back, from Duluth Trading Company or Merrell.  But these Brundstones [I mean Blundstone with an L...] seem to be working.

Easy to install inserts, steel toe if you are working in a gunsmith shop and things might fall on your foot, plenty roomy in the toes.  Can't run in them, but they'd be handy on a camp out if you had to get up and find your way to the loo.

But a bigger problem is there is little choice BUT to buy online.  Brick and mortar shoes stores are getting sparse on the ground. 

Cell Phone

How many people am I allowed to shoot because they have a cellphone in their hand?  Gonna guess zero?

Stuff like this comes up and people start connecting it to past shootings of other black men.

"Just like Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin."  No.  Not like those two.  Those two guys were trying to kill someone when they got shot.  They were on offense and trying to hurt people and got plugged for their trouble, by all accounts.

"Just like Philando Castile." Ok, this one I go along with.  I think it may have been a mistake for the NRA not to reach out to Castile and try to help.  I know the NRA has a large sympathy with law enforcement and didn't want to risk alienating that segment, but they also have a big CCW constituency, and none of us like to be wrongly shot by the police just having a CCW permit.  What did Philando do besides be scared around a scared cop?

Levar Jones, Walter Scott, Philando Castile.  Not, the policemen in those case did face the music, some did do time, and none are still cops.

But that's just me.  I think you get more sympathy for justice when the guy the cops violate is truly innocent.   I'll go to the barricades with you for them.  But not for Trayvon.  And Zimmerman was indeed a chuckleheaded idiot.

Also note that the guys that shot Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin are in seclusion right now.

I don't know what the future holds for the two Sacremento cops that shot Stephon Clark because they were wound up and thought the cellphone was a weapon.  Something, probably, unhappy for them.  Gotta have a deterrent for shooting other people that have a phone in the future.  Their lives and careers are probably greatly curtailed forever now.  Not as bad as what happened to Clark's life and career.

And it is not just a race thing.  Cops can jack up and scare white boys, too. How close was he to getting aired out rather than just peeing his pants?

Latest Metrocon take

... on the Second Amendment.

They are agin' repeal at National Review, but they aren't married to the idea, and if a repeal happened they seem to act like they'd get used to it pretty quick.

No word on whether they think the right to bear arms might exist outside and above the laws of the Constitution.  That it might be a greater thing.  A Natural Right.

That's one of the things I hate about Cruikshank.  Which said that the 2nd exists above and beyond the boundaries of the Constitution, but the Constitution isn't binding like this on the states, really, so we are gonna rule that the states can pee all over the right if it wants to, especially since this is freed slaves we are a-violatin'. 

Sorta like going, "The right to bear arms is sacrosanct, but we're gonna ignore that because we don't like black people, and it will take 90 years before the court thinks the the 14th really applies, and 40 years after that before it starts to get serious about the last of Jim Crow: gun control."

But the metrocons are at least not hostile.  If a bit squishy.

Another Smith

Normally I am a Remington man, but a shooting buddy found this Smiff along with a Remington while dumpster diving a couple years back.  Sold be the Remington and through the Smith in for free.

The Remington was fine, but the Smith needed some serious TLC.

I just got it back from Kensington Typewriter Repair.

It's a nice typer.  Smooth.  Might be because they lubed it during service.  I could do a term paper on this!

Tom Hanks' favorite model, the Smith Corona Clipper, which is why I went ahead and took the trouble to make a dead typewriter work again.  It had a cracked typebar assembly.  Where the base of all them typebars attach and connect to the keybars.

If I had to guess... 4C series from the 1940s?  Prolly 49.