Baby it's Cold Outside

So rapey!

So you been training a lot

"But you haven't talked about holster work, T-Bolt.  Done any of that?"

Sure!

"I bet you are real good at it then, with all the practice you been getting with an instructor critiquing."

Oh, no!  No no no. 

First, it's not enough holster work.  And it's not enough dry fire draws at home.  It's some.  It needs to be more. 

But it is timed.  So that is something objective I can share.

"Oh goody!  1.4?  1.6?"

No, again!  I am pleased as punch when it is 2.0.  I think I got 1.9 or 8 once or twice?  Consistent two and a quarter is a good day where I am not screwing up.  So, pretty wretched.  I need to hope for guile in a gunfight, because I am no San Saba Songbird in the speed department.  My tactics will have to get downright Archimedean. 

And this is with a Glock, with a non-retention style holster, on the belt, at 9 o'clock, with no cover garment to worry about.  If I was getting 1.5 I might think I am hot stuff, but in those circumstances?  Get better, bruh. 

I am working on a hitch in my giddyup.  Bad transition from the count where you are out of the holster and you've transitioned to a forearm parallel to the deck at right angle to your upper arm, elbow touching the body.  From there, that point, to push out is the hitch.  A pause. 

The other problem is meeting my support hand to my shooting hand.  But I gotta a good tip from this podcast Tam recommended.  I am meeting too soon instead of in front of the sternum.  Like a handclap.  Where your two hands meet, naturally, when you are clapping.  Also maybe because of that hitch.  Don't want my other hand to sweep that muzzle.  With the hand clap that point in my push-out, my muzzle is much further forward. 

Who Could Have Guessed Overreach?

It looks like if you receive social security, someday soon, that will be grounds to put you on the red flag list and they'll come take your guns.  Can't handle your finances was what they tried before, now it's for the shaky or forgetful, soon it will be something else.  AARP memberships.  Who knows.

Which is a good idea, if you are looking to confiscate all guns from us Americans.  After grandpa dies who knows where his guns end up?  Hard to track that.  But if they round em up as soon as Grandpa retires?

Oh sure the proposal, now, is to go after oldsters with dementia, now.  But they already tried going after anyone that needed help with their finances for whatever reason during the Obama admin.  Pretty soon you'll just lose your Rights because:  Old.   Or:  Getting help from anyone.

I mean you don't even lose your right to vote when you die, in many cases, why do you lose an enumerated right just for getting on in years?

It'll be easier on the SWAT teams, raiding the aged is better than raiding youthful and violent drug dealer types, hopped up on goofballs and crystal blue meth.  Don't go after OldNFO first, Officers.  He might be old, but he's still wily.   In Maryland the error rate was only 1:144 or so.  One citizen made to assume room temperature for every 144 Red Flag confiscations.  Eventually there will be a ratio on the other side if confiscations keep expanding.  

So, watch Red Flag laws spread across the country.  Then expect the qualification for a Flag to mission creep into more and more things.   "What, you got a parking ticket?  Better turn in them guns while we find out what kind of scofflaw you actually are, citizen, for everyone's safety."

Look, I am all for keeping tabs on prohibited persons or truly mentally unstable individuals, but i am NOT for expansive, fresh new classes of Americans over here that have less rights than Americans over there.

...Dude........

Oklahoma man describes shooting and killing home intruder.

This Lady

This lady made it so my Utah or Virginia non-resident CCW permit was no longer valid in Pennsylvania. 

The Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

She was one of Bloomberg's creature, elected with his backing.  Awful person, and a gun banner, natch.

Well, now she is going to prison.  Good.  I hope you like the taste of Pepper Steak, you civil rights violating toad.  I wish Frosh could go with you, but we haven't caught him committing a felony yet.  But he never needed a sugar daddy to get elected in Maryland.  Maryland leaned more heavily Liberal than PA did.     

According to Jerry Rivers...

Geraldo Rivera: "Painful" We Are Treating Migrants "As if They’re Zombies from 'The Walking Dead'"

WHAT?!!

That's awful! 

I don't want Illegal Aliens crossing the border at will and applying for the plethora of benefits of our over generous welfare state any more than the the next guy, but don't shoot them in the head!  They aren't real zombies.

Unless they are hiding an important detail from us in all the media coverage....

Get a grip folks.  Just turn them away.  Firm enforcement and bilingual No Trespassing signs and all that. 

Buster Scruggs

In The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the first outlaw Buster has a significant interaction with has this holster, and I can't quite make out the name.

You can see this clip your ownself here, and I enjoyed the whole movie.

But anyone know who that is?

Yeah, NRA?

I wish you'd come out in favor of good guys with guns that get aired out by cops.

And not just black dudes, but you'll never cultivate allies in the African American community it if you treat black CCWs the same way you treat white CCWs that get shot by cops.

I know you are also trying to cultivate allies in the Law Enforcement world, but lets strike a batter balance, huh? 


----------

"This is why we don’t expect the NRA or the president to say a word about Bradford and Roberson, all but vindicated in their deaths. Nearly two years later, we are still waiting for them to adequately respond to the death of Philando Castile, the Minnesota school worker who even told the officer during the traffic stop that he was a Good Guy With a Gun and wasn’t believed. We are most useful to them either as victims or as the victimizers. Never as the hero."

And that is how come we don't win. We reject one set of potential allies for another set we sort of have. 

California Politician

Full of Bool Shite

According to the lefty Chicago Tribune.

This doesn’t happen anywhere else on the planet. We stand alone in the world in the number of mass shootings" said California’s Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom

Nope!

Why is he wrong?  Because:

Of the 97 countries where we identified mass public shootings, the U.S. ranks 64th per capita in its rate of attacks and 65th in fatalities. Major European countries, such as Norway, Finland, France, Switzerland and Russia, all have at least 25 percent higher per capita murder rates from mass public shootings.

Bad Trigger

A good trigger is an absolute pleasure.  When I made my 1911 the hammer-sear engagement turned out great.  I was lucky.

The disconnector hole had a little slop in it, and you could feel that in the take up.  That little hitch would have bugged me forever if we hadn't corrected it.  The trigger is now a joy. 

But I've done a lot of training with a Glock, and a Glock trigger in various stages of it wearing out, while not bad, per se, it is no custom 1911 good, either.  I can shoot both, tho.  I can do it.  That wasn't always true.  It's a recent development. 

Tam, on the other hand, is testing a gun right now, for work, and it sounds like it is not much fun in the trigger department.  But she brings up a good point. 

I'd rather be halfway good with any any ol' gun's trigger, than be really good at shooting, but I can only do it with the best triggers, and fall out of the boat with problematic ones. 

So if you run into the cut rate shooting Djinni that can only grant you a halfway good wish regarding shooting, maybe ask for "decent with most any trigger pull" as your one request.

Black Friday

I was thinking, you know what might be fun for the more ornery among us?

Staging fake Black Friday fights.  "GIMME BACK MY TICKLE ME ELMO!"

So what is stopping me?  Empathy for the store staff, and worries my fake fights might make others panic and do real fights.

55 years, yesterday

Range 19 November

Yeah, I am getting worse.  But I think I am on to why.

In efforts to distract myself to shoot better, and to try better finger placement to maybe draw the holes from the right side to the center, and permitting myself to go fast, I have lost sight of fundamental.

Make the trigger go good.  Fine.  I am doing that.

No, do it for real this time.  Ok, a few brief single shots of clarity, but problem identified is halfway to fixed.

Magtech rounds again.  43.  No malfunctions.  419 total in the gun.  162 since last cleaning.

You can see the shoot order if you zoom in on the sharpie numbers, upper left.  And see me lose it and then correct in one magazine.  Upper right I returned to, last, when I was getting a better handle on what I was screwing up.  More like that, next time. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Go watch Turkey Day.

Art

I used to think that no one could paint pictures very well until the Renaissance came along and photo realism became a thing.  I mean this is just awful, and it was this bad for 100s of years. 

But look at stuff from the ancient world.  The West just forgot how to paint good.

Sensual fresco of Leda and the swan discovered in ancient Pompeii bedroom. https://t.co/xvqrHGiM62 pic.twitter.com/UPIKq4Zhmg

— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) November 20, 2018

How will Stallwell find us?

To get our guns and if we don't surrender him he know where to nuke us?

Well, 4473 has you name and address on it, don't it?  And NICS, too.  Now they aren't supposed to keep that information.  Well, I ain't supposed to pee in the shower, but how are you gonna know whether or no I really do?  Same with NICS.  I don't trust them, and assume they will pee in the shower no matter what.

And, in Maryland, there is a separate State Background Check system, and all pistols, and 'assault weapons,' are so-called registered, and should always go through the check. They are more upfront about it, and I am sure those Democrats running that part of my State will share that information with Representative Stalltell's (D, CA) nuclear forces, whatever their own interests are vis a vis dying in atomic fire.

But what if you moved here from Ohio?

What if you grew up on Maryland, moved to Florida for a coupla years, then moved back?

And what if you had bought guns in those other states and never bothered to buy guns in Maryland?  Stillfell's jackboots would have no idea to come to your door or target said door with a B83 thermonuclear weapon.

What if you lived in Maryland all your life just like the rest of your fambly and you cleaned out Grandpa's house after he died and he bought all his stuff ages ago before checks and now you have em and Maryland would never know or really care or be able to come after you, legally, about it, as long as you kept your mouth shut.  I mean the State might be able to prosecute you.  But you'd have to confess to everything for them.

Or what if you have always lived in free-er parts of America and legally bought and sold stuff from other individuals and that's fine because you always kept your nose clean so it's not like you are a prohibited person anyway, but nary an FFL was ever involved?

Smallsmell would have no idea who owned millions of those guns.  The gov't knows the names (S/Ns) and addresses of millions of guns, but there are quite a few more they just have no way of knowing.  Now nobody go volunteering that if if applies to you.  That Shawmell dude's crazy.  Gonna end up getting tried for crimes against humanity, he is.

I guess he'll just have to nuke every damn square inch of this country to be sure.

He's not a tyrant tho.

Stopping Power

"Stopping Power is a myth."

Depends on what you mean by stopping power.  Right?

"Oh, so we are defining terms?  Fair enough"

Yes.

"This bigger pistol bullet is better than that very slightly smaller pistol bullet. And has a much better of STOPPING a bad guy, right there."

Ok, yeah, that meaning...  Stopping power is a myth.

"Why, what other definitions are there?"

Well, when I was just a wee ignernt gunnie, I thought stopping power was how effecting the bullet design was in 'STOPPING' inside a bad guy, thus transferring all its energy to said bad guy, vis a through and through wound.  A good hollow point doing what it was supposed to do and expand had better stopping power than plain FMJ hard ball ammo.

"I never thought of it that way..."

Yeah, but I was dissuaded pretty quickly of that definition to yours.  Your def being the more accepted one, I think, from other folks' context.  I prolly would have been 'educated' sooner if I had read more gun magazines growing up.  Before 2007 I probably had 3 Soldier of Fortunes under my belt, total. 

That said, if MY definition was the rule, it still would not account for penetration.  Who cares if the bullet stops in the bad guy but only in the first half inch.  That's a punch that hurts, but not a hard one.  Penetration PLUS energy transfer PLUS disruption of the circulatory and/or nervous system.  And we ain't in ideal territory with either 9mm or .45ACP  

Traveller and Guns

There was a game... in the 70s and early 80s... It was like Dungeons and Dragons, but in SPACE!

Traveller

Ok, it has evolved and is still around, but it came about in the late 70s.

In the game there are hundred and hundred of habitable planets that you can 'travel' to in a spaceship and whatnot.

Erin Pallette still plays it a lot.  Tam has been know to speak of it kindly and surely owned a rulebook or two at some point or still.

One feature of this gaming world was ships could travel faster than light (3-18 lightyears in about a week), but comms could not.  So star systems were a bit more isolated and self sufficient.  Messages travelled by courier.  Help was sent for, not called for.

Star systems would have various tech levels.  The equivalent of 19th century tech?  Sure.  Or a space station like in the Star Trek movies.  They'd also have various law levels.  Which ranged from Libertarian paradise to Police State. 

The first weapons that started to be banned as you went from no restrictions was:

" Body Pistols, Explosives, Poison Gas "

So, reverse order, no nerve gas canisters.  No hand grenades or claymore mines.  And no Ruger LCPs or Keltec .380s.  You could have a plasma gun powered from a backpack reactor to blast holes in stuff, but a smaller CCW style pistol was a no no. 

0 (Zero)	No Law	No Prohibitions (Nuclear Weapons)
1	Low Law	Body Pistols, Explosives, poison gas
2	Low Law	Portable Energy Weapons
3	Low Law	Machine Guns, Automatic Weapons
4	Moderate Law	Light Assault Weapons
5	Moderate Law	Personal Concealable Firearms
6	Moderate Law	All firearms except Shotguns
7	High Law	Shotguns
8	High Law	Blade Weapons Controlled
9	High Law	No weapons outside home

That is a sampling.

At level 5 that includes revolvers and semi autos.  Regular concealable, not super concealable.  The US, at the time the game came out, was between 4 and 5, the booklets implied.  Britain a 6.  If you could still carry a user sword in Britain.

Why the extra fear of the body pistol?  Ok I am mostly guessing here.  Remember this came up in the late 70s.   There was a big hate-on for small Saturday Night Specials.  Most folks thought those were pretty much banned in 1968.  Plus people saw the plastic pistols coming down the pike.  And assumptions were made that those would be able to foil the metal detectors.  So, early 1980s only-casual gunnie types with early 80s firearm attitudes, all before CCW entered the mass public consciousness. 

Little concealable pistols seemed scarier, perhaps, to them, than a machine gun.  It's just an interesting cultural snapshot reflecting the attitude of the times:  An unknown threat was worse than the obvious threat you can keep tabs on with an OC rifle or pistol.  Only cowards carry a concealed weapon, and must be up to no good with it. 

But that's not the way things worked out.

---

Another funny gun thing about the game is how they though of a Snub Pistol.  In game it was a .38 or .40 cal J-Frame sized revolver that was good for fighting in Zero G.  For some reason.  They did specify it was low velocity, maybe the ammo was tuned even further down the speed scale (300-500 fps).  And it could fire specialty ammo, like tranquilizers or sleep gas or shaped charges to defeat body armor (so I guess it wasn't rifled, either, as that would defeat the shaped charge) and yet wouldn't puncture spaceship bulkheads and cause explosive decompression.  It felt weird to me even back in Junior High School.  It was a snubbie, but it could do odd things. 

Genuinely Curious

Anyone reading  this in California?

If the vote on the 2016 bill to manage wildfire area better was 75-0 in one house and 36-0 in another, how come the legislature didn't override Gov. Brown's veto?

Nuke Me

Nuke me.  Please.  I DARE you.  I double dare you. 

Here, I made a map so you can can find me.

The blue arrows are the prevailing winds. 

Now, Maryland isn't that gun friendly, but there are still LOTS of them semi-auto rifles around.  A certain subset are not gonna let you have em.  Plenty in that inner suburb map of DC, even.  There are over a million people in that little map.  Sure there are lots of liberal democrats in that map that think guns are icky, but that's still hundreds of thousands that aren't hoplophobe Dems.  Lots of black people and Hispanic people and Asian people in that map with their own rifles.  They jumped through the hoops, followed the rules and regulations, and laid down their hard earned cash at a gun store for an AK clone or a SCAR or an M1A.  You are just going to demand they give em up?  Racist.  And when some of em say no?  You are gonna nuke em, Congressman Stallwell?  Really?

But.  There are no guns in DC, of course, the gun control laws there keep them out and the city is gun free.


---

Ok, fine, you might not REALLY nuke em.  You'll send cops to their house and gun em down.  Shoot em in the face.  Otherwise law abiding black folks?  (And me, too, I guess, but no one will care about me.  Maybe you readers of mine.) 

A liberal lawmaker hasn't thought things through?  Shocking, I know. 

Pelosi Promises

A HUGE gun ban push in a few months after she gets the gavel.  Her or whomever.  But I am confident she will fend off challenges.

Of course.   This gun ban legislation, now, is as dependable as the sunrise.  It also, if it is the huge overreach they seem to be implying, doomed to failure in the Senate and by Trump's veto pen.

(If they were smart they'd go small ball with something passable and maybe trick Trump into signing it and thus hurting his 2020 chances.  IF they were smart...)

So.  Big flashy tyrannical bill.  January February time frame.  That means big panicky gun sales panic, maybe.

We see this coming months out.  Probable result: prices are going to go up.  Shortage are going to happen.  Slow motion train wreck we can see miles ahead of time.

Time to plan and act.

I saw this because maybe I should buy some range ammo now rather than later.  Avoid the rush.  Get a large order, now, because it might be months before ammo is plentiful or the price settles back to more reasonable.  If I am burning 50 rounds of .45, and my current stocks are 45% of their high...   Maybe 2000 rounds this time instead of 500?

I have lots of 9mm because I shoot it much less and accidentally bought an extra half case.

Ooo, .22.  I am back up near peak, but you remember how long it was before you could get ANY for a time?

Firearms?  Nothing burning. 

Media Coverage

A paper presented to the American Psychological Association found the number of mass killings, rampage killings or “mass shootings”, may be doubled by irresponsible media aggrandizement of mass killers. The desire for fame was found to be one of the main motivators of these rampage killers

Yeah!  So there! Stupid media outlets making things worse.

Wait.

Oh crap!

I'M a media outlet, of a sort.

No, I'm probably fine.  I don't glorify or inflate the infamy of a shooter like other outlets do.  And I 'publish' advocacy to maybe not have Victim Disarmament Zones to give victims a chance and perhaps act as a deterrent to bad actors.  A recommendation irresponsible media outlets don't boost. 

Tintin

Make way for the glorious Tintin stance pic.twitter.com/Hr89ivyqv2

— Lusitani (@FLusitani) November 15, 2018

Range 14 November

Pah!

Started out halfway decent.  I called the flinches or I was going too fast.  I flinch in anticipation when I take too long, if I go a half beat too fast I heel a bit.

And I tired out quick.  By the 6th mag, clearly.  Not my best session.

But you shoulds seen the shotgun pattern of the two idiots shooting a Glock Fohty next to me...,


21 rounds of American Eagle.  36 rounds of Magtech.  376 total in the gun.  119 since last cleaning.  No malfunctions.

Red Flag

So, many of you saw that my state of Maryland killed a man over the red flag legislation.

That's what happens.  Law is deadly force.  Don't pass a law, legislators, unless you are fine with someone getting killed over it.   And now someone, predictably, has. 

One of 114 'warrants' served for this sort of thing.  Someone goes "Hey so and so over there is kinda iffy, better take his guns away."  One in 114 times that someone gets killed for it.  So far.  It's only been around for 40 days or so.  Started being enforceable 1 October.  That means more than one a day.

So, what does it take to get your doorbell rung at 6 AM?

Can Shannon Watts, who doesn't know me from Adam's off ox, read my Twitter and do "this guy likes that Sharp as a Marble's guitar tweets too much.  Kinda scary.  I better have the Maryland State police raid his house."

Can my liberal ex-wife, whom I haven't seen in person in a handful of years and still remain civil with on social media get a hair and send the police after me?  She doesn't like how I vote, and she KNOWS I have a Springfield 1903.  She's seen that.  She has heard rumors I might have more.  Can she have Maryland come kill me?

Or does it have to be more official than that.  Hospital records of me acting erratically, my physician worried about me enough to drop a dime, police interaction for noise complaints, that bad habit of shooting a shotgun into the night sky on New Years...

The fact the state seems to be working through a list to get those 114 by November 5th means these folks raided were probably all 'know to law enforcement' and the cops were just waiting to start a round up.

Who, though?  Someone has to be accountable.  Someone has to decide "this threat is credible, go get the guns" and "this threat is not credible, leave T-Bolt alone."  Some person or set of people are the ones that can decide.  SOMEONE has to be ACCOUNTABLE.  Who is the decider?  The execrable Brian Frosh, our AG?

This can't be constitutional, as written?  I mean, I am sorta FOR Red Flag laws, but with proper accountability safeguards.  And Brian Frosh is not it.

Lemme check.

Well.  Not full adjudication.  Just partial.  A judge is involved.  Shannon Watts could petition the court, and remain anonymous, and would have to state she is related to me, dating me, dated me, or lived in the same place as me in the past year.  Or be a cop or doctor.  Then I would have to have a hearing scheduled within 14 days where I could lay out my side.  But I've dated lots of folks.  And if they won't tell me who my accuser is how can I claim I never dated Shannon? 

Good thing she thinks my name is Thunderbolt, huh?  Plus she can get cited for perjury if she lies about anything in the petition.

But I've dated lots of liberal women in my youth.  And to them I was usually a selfish and inconsiderate lover.  And they know my last name.  That could come back to haunt me. 

Earl

Like your Ferrari, a halfway decent 1911 needs oil.  Some of them fancy modern plastic jobs can and do run like a hippy from soap with nothing at all in the lube department.

But what say it's the Zombacalypse and you are fresh out of FP-10 Shooters Choice.  And you like to apply the usual 3 drops, every day, before turning in after a hot and dusty work filled day.

What can you use if you are out of branded gun-erl?

I wouldn't hesitate to use 3-in-1 oil.  Or Singer sewing machine oil.

Didn't a gun oil company get busted for re-labeling something like cooking oil?  Thing is, it worked.  A bit.  Certainly in a pinch.  So canola or peanut might be fine.  I'd love to entertain a contrary opinion if you have one.  On this or any oil suggestion in the post.

Non synthetic motor oil is a bit thick.  How to thin it without making it super flammable...  but in a pinch I'd use it.

I'd be a bit more hesitant with synthetics or WD40, because of the extra.... stuff.... in them. Though I can be convinced my worries are unfounded on synthethics.  I have seen what WD40 can do to a gun oiled with it and left in a safe.  Sorta turns into poly-urethane.  But if I am running the gun and re-oiling every day perhaps my worries about WD40 are too overblown.   Remember:  Zombacalypse.  Any port in a storm.

Hey, motor oil certainly can handle the temperatures, and even a quart of synthetic is a fraction of the price of FP-10

Used motor oil?  Now you are getting super desperate.  But it is widely available.  And dipsticks make good applicators.  Definitely more new 'additives' in it now.  Like burnt.  And metal bits.

Sex lube?  No.  Sodium hydroxide feels slippery when you rub it between your fingers.  Don't ever use that.  Not even in a Zombacalyspse.  That's not lube you are slipping on.  It's you.  Dissolving.  Bacon grease?  Better than the other two, but still not good.  Salt.

So, I am about, in order, cooking oil, then motor oil, then penetrating fluids like WD40, after the good stuff is out. 

Range 5 Nov

I shot each mag fast.  Maybe too fast.

7 rounds of Federa HST, 56 of American Eagle, total through gun 320.  No malfunctions.  Did clean it before this.

Again, the thing to work on is my 1911 trigger pull, both to not slap it or jerk it, AND to stop pushing stuff right.

First two magazines, head at 8 yards, body at 25 yards.

 Then the lightning rounds.  And if I waiting half a beat I bet they'd tighten into the paint.  Not a WHOLE beat.  Then I'd be over thinking the shot.  This shooting stuff can be complicated.

Success!

On this Veteran's Day, this veteran set himself a task.

Fix the washing machine.

It has been streaming water.  Oh dear.  Out the bottom.  I found it stopped when you used hot water or cold water, but not double-down warm water.  Two valves open apparently was too much. 

This washing machine came with the house when I got it, and, I suspect, was bought with the house.  So, circa 1953.  The dryer is a little newer, as I have seen ads for the model from magazines published in the early Nixon administration.  So both have served me well since 1999.  Very few repairs.  I worry when things DO go wrong I will have to buy a new one.  Which is a pain.  And new ones don't last 65 years

It's a Maytag A606.  The washing machine.

And it needed this:

A little valve that injects the water into the tub.  It keeps back pressure from sucking soapy and dirty water back into the machine, so it is semi open to the air in its cradle, to stop any siphon effect.  With a new one, there is no spurting of water at any speed of input.  The plastic thing goes in the black rubber thing and that goes inside a larger hose and Robert is you Mother's Brother.

Back in business.  You can't expect the rubber parts to last forever.

Yes, I bought a spare.  In case they stop making these. 

I worry the drive belt will go someday.  But my repair record has gone so well, I will try to fix that, too.

100 Years

The guns fell silent.

Chinese Neologism

Baizuo

It's the Chinese epithet for Libtard.

"It's a derogatory Chinese neologism used to refer to Western leftist liberal elites.  It refers to the left faction in the culture wars in Western politics, implying support of multiculturalism, political correctness and positive discrimination. "

Even the Chinese are laughing at you idiot Dems.

Idiot Dems, as opposed to the Dems that are embarrassed by those self same idiots

Master List 3

Getting simpler over time.  Had a half dozen of so on Master List #2.

1. Do something with the extra 1911 frame I have.
2. A .308 rifle good for hunting, with glass.
3. A .45ACP rifle with a big honking suppressor.
4. Maybe a plastic 9mm modern service pistol...?  S&W/Sig/Whatevs.

And none of those blows my skirt up with a case of the wants.  Clearly I am not a collector-collector.

Maybe I need a gun specifically for training.

Firing Pin Stop

The firing pin stop in the back of your 1911 holds the firing pin in.  Obviously.

It does other things, too tho.

When the slide cycles back, the lower edge of the firing pin stop comes in contact with the hammer.  It has to push the hammer back to continue this recoiling operation.  The hammer is held forward with the mainspring, so the recoiling slide has to overcome this spring tension.

The shape of the firing pin stop that contacts the hammer can determine how easy or hard it is for the slide to work.  The contact point from pin to hammer acts like a fulcrum.  A squared off firing pin stop lower the fulcrum making it harder to slide and come out of initial lockup, a rounded firing pin stop raises the initial fulcrum point making it relatively easier to push the hammer out of the way.  It's also more gradual. 

How hard or soft the recoiling slide has it impacts how much recoil is 'felt'.

The lower the fulcrum, the harder the initial big bump in recoil, and the more you 'feel' the recoil.  So why do people use a squared off firing pin stop?  There gun isn't tuned up and they are trying to achieve something else.  Something that might be solved with better fitment, or different spring weights, or a different balance with opposing springs.  I'd change the recoil spring and firing spring first before trying to resolve my problem with a firing pin stop.  In fact, the angle on my current firing pin stop isn't rounded enough,  I might mess with that some.  Make it more angled/rounded.

But man, folks have strongly held opinions about this little part.

It is a relatively easy part to fit and replace, so if it all goes to poop for me, I can try a bunch of different geometries.  The gunsmith says round that puppy for less felt recoil.

Even more important, being sure there is no slop in your firing pin stop, especially how it holds your extractor in place.  You want as little wiggle as possible there.  

I do it less, but

When under pressure I slap the crap out of the trigger.  Jerk City, USA, population:  Me.

And there is the rub, isn't it?  Slap less and less and make the trigger go good more and more under all circumstances, whether moving about or in great pain or wanting to just win, and you have snatched the pebble from the Kung Fu master's hand.  You can now leave the monastary.

Now, how to fix me?

Well, I am fixing me, it's just a slow plod.  Step forward, step back kind of progress.

Now flinching because I have, or am about to have, a tiny explosion go off in the pound of metal in my hand is one thing.  Jerking the trigger because I am trying to put my go-fast pants on and got both legs in the same hole is another.  You fix the first one by distracting yourself and getting out of your own way.  At least that is working for me right now.  You fix the second by trying to smooth yourself out.  Slow is smooth and smooth is fast and all that.

"Nuh uh!  Fast is fast!"

True.  But I think you gotta work out the smooth first before you can go faster.  And everyone seems to be in a hurry to go faster sooner.

Notorious Marylanders

Who is among the worst people that were from YOUR home state?  Oregon would say Hitler since he was born there before emigrating to Austria as an infant.  (a little known tidbit of history that few people know.)

As for Maryland we have:

SCOTUS Justice Roger Taney
John Wilkes Booth
Algier Hiss
If your are a chicken, Frank Purdue
If you are a human Rachel Carson
David Hasselhof

Scroo it

I ain't voting and you can't make me.

Ok, I may vote. 

I gotta vote against the questions.  Hell no, I don't want same day voter registration. 

Democrat Lessons Learned

I think the Democrats learned a lesson in 1994.  They lost a 50 year majority because of a gun control law.

With only a few exceptions, they avoided the issue after for 20 years or so.  When a candidate DID support gun control, that candidate failed.  See:  AlGore.  Oh sure, they were still FOR gun bans.  They just thought it would hurt them come election time. They still kinda avoid it.

Let's see, if they lose big tomorrow, what other lessons will they learn?  Don't be crazy?  Don't throw the rule of law overboard?  Don't wrestle Trump in a mud pit, as he likes it?

You know, if the Dems tweaked their platform and weren't hostile to gun rights...  Kept everything else.  Hillary would be president now.  Appointing pro gun and pro abortion judges.  If such a thing existed, and it would if the Dems weren't anti-gun and hadn't been for a while.  It'd be more like "pro gun and pro abortion judges".

If the Dems were like that, I wonder if the GOP would have gone anti-gun sometime in the past as well?

Whoa.  What does Spock look like in this universe?  Does he have a goatee?

Hard to kill

You feel bad about killing stuff.  Not talking people, yet, just things.

There was a dying rat in the neighbors yard a couple years back.  It's a RAT.  Yuck.  And it was dying.  Which is why it was in middle of the yard.  Prolly the endgame of the poison from the traps.  I dispatched it with a shovel, but I still felt a little pang for the thing.

A mad dog?  You shoot that.  But it is still a domestic dog and had the potential of being a loyal pet and companion before this.

Deer are cute and cuddly looking, but I have personally shot them.  Felt a tiny bit bad, but didn't hesitate much.  And it was delicious.

A tiger is big and majestic, and you hesitate to destroy that because it is so.  But you don't hesitate too much if it is coming for you and it is you or him.

There is a hesitation to shoot zombies, too.  Because they were people once.  Friends and family and neighbors.  Some mother's baby, once.  Fortunately zombies have few other redeeming factors apart from that.  They are deadly dangerous, they are revoltingly disgusting.  And that makes that hesitation, that pang of guilt, go down faster.
   

Dang Millennials

Have you noticed that the school shooter have all been Millennials?  And to define boundaries, and for it to be easily remembered I define the generations thusly:

Greatest:  The last of the Indian Pennies to Coolidge
Silent:  Hardinge to the end of WWII
Baby Boomers:  Hirohsima to JFK Dallas
Generation X:  Kennedy to Hinkley-Reagan
Millennials:  "I hope you are all Republicans" to the Twin Towers.
Gen Z, or whatever...  they will get some other name I am sure.


Should I really be putting this at the feet of a whole generation, like there is something inherently wrong with one birth cohort?  When it could just as easily be hard luck coming their way, and the trend just happened to appear when they stepped up to the plate.  Or policies from old generation put them in a position where the pressure just built and built?  Policies like how discipline works in schools now (a long downward trend that was in place before me), how parents hover over their children (not latch key kids, these), how safety is so obsessed over (bike helmets)...

But it just so happens that school massacres started with this generation.  Boomers had their own thing going on, but it rarely involved children killing children.  Gen X?  Lucky maybe.  The first massacre was Columbine, and the shooters were the first cohort of the Millennials.  The last shooter was born just before 9/11...  I guess this next generation, we will have to see.  But the youngest Millennial looks to graduate this year.

Holster work

I have a habit I need to break.

When drawing from the holster I meet the gun with the support hand way too early.  There is a risk the support hand could pass in front of the muzzle.  Also, it makes my presentation a bit jerky doing it the way I do. 

Plus, you know, slow.  When relaxed and smooth I can sit just under 2 seconds.  When jerky and flustered I am at 2.5. 

I am no J. B. Books.  I don't expect to get to half a second.  Ever.  My current goal is to get it under one and a half relatively consistently. 

How?  Initially, untimed 'dry fire'.  Just to smooth me out. 

Range 29 OCT

I got the disconnetor hole closed up.

A big too much, not it is a bit too tight.  Did you want perfect?  Did you want egg in your beer, too?

For that I took 800 grip sandpaper wrapped about the shaft of a small punch to ease the wire edge.  Much much improvement in the trigger pull. Plus I played with the leaf spring a bit. 

85 American Eagle
22 Magtech
No Malfs... 257 total, passed the testing phase

And this is what I get.

Three mags shot toward the 5 holey targets.  Plus one.  A little flinch on that first one.

And that's me that shoots 1911s a little toward the right.  Not the gun.  I am pretty sure. 

My gun.

I made this:

It does this:

With MY crappy shooting skills.

I am so happy.