The John Moses Browning

Of aviation.

Kelly Johnson.

Kelly Johnson was as big an influence on aviation as Browning was on firearms.  Johnson designed or was instrumental in the development of a plethora of various models, including:

The P-38 Lightning

The Constellation

The F-104 Starfighter



U2

Blackbird

C-130 Hercules

F-117

And a plethora of others.  As instrumental to aviation as anyone.  And look at them all.  They are beuatiful.

Sauce

Hunger makes the bast sauce.

But if you are out of hunger, there are other sauces you can improvise.

In college it was pepper and ketchup.

The liquid cheez dispenser at 7-11 offers a plethora of ideas.

Plenty of folks brew their own cocktail sauce.  It's just horseradish and ketchup.

Ketchup and mayo for Thousand Island style.  Mayo and French dressing for McDonalds special sauce.

A pinch of pepper flakes zips up most things.  Or a dash of hot sauce to your cheez whiz, I know plenty that do that.

Saw this Old Style sauce, linked by Lileks.com.  Intrigued.

• 1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise 
•  2 tablespoons horseradish sauce 
•  2 teaspoons good quality ketchup 
•  1/4 teaspoon paprika 
•  1/4 teaspoon salt 
•  1/8 teaspoon dried oregano 
•  Dash black pepper 
•  Dash cayenne pepper

What fancy mad scientist kitchen sauce recipes do you swear by?  I need more soss variety.

Nukem says:

I am the only candidate calling for a ban and buy back of military-style assault weapons.

Keep your pistols, keep your shotguns, keep your rifles.

But let's take the most dangerous guns out of the hands of the most dangerous people. Are you with me? https://t.co/RtwnBTgXdn

— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) May 30, 2019

Keep em?  Can you pass some kind of law or statute or whatever that says we can bear em, too?  That'd be great.

In Maryland

If you get denied a CCW, you can appeal.  Doesn't matter much, but it can happen.  So, a single digit percentage of a single digit percentage.

This was TOO much for the Maryland legislator.  And they passed a law to dissolve this review board.  Making future appeals much more onerous.

Governor Hogan vetoed it.  And he isn't pro gun.  By any stretch.

And THAT doesn't matter either because the laws were passed with veto proof majorities.

The Supreme Court is the citizens of this state's only hope.

Target holes

See that?

There are 9 holes.

There were 15 rounds in the magazine, and not flew off this paper you see here.

So 6 are not accounted for.

Hole #3 and #6 are more than one bullet, of course.

But how many in each.

At least, 3, total in 3 and 6.  Still missing 2 bullets.  3, 3.1, 3.2.  6, 6.1, 6.2... 13 total.  Out of 15.

I have no idea.  The other two could be in either.  Shoulda paid more attention.

Grip

Old NFO brings up a point about my shooting.

"Are you regripping after every shot?"

No.

You know... I used to.  Especially with double stacks.  Fire... re-adjust grip after recoil because the fun shifted... fire.

Or when my hands were sweaty.

But I don't do that anymore.

I don't know when I stopped.

Am I doing it plenty and just re-adjusting so causally and easily that I don't notice?

If anything, my grip is consciously looser.  If not actually looser.  Maybe I think I am gripping more relaxed, but am in reality gripping more surely.  Or, my more relaxed grip is riding the recoil better.  But at this stage if I gripped tighter, I already have the 'ride' skill down so my next iteration up the long shooting prowess ladder will my a tighter grip I don't have to rejigger between shots.

I don't know.

But now I want to know.

I need to borrow a Glock 21.  In .45 and 10mm, just to see.  And go to a hot summer range.

Shooting Goals:

My trigger pull is deent, make it better by an order of magnitude.
My grip is decent, make it better by an order of magnitude.

I am ecstatic at the level I have gotten to with my shooting, but I can see a new horizon I now want to get to.

Google Doodle

The Google Doodle gets criticized from the right because of the selection of who to Doodle.

Like why do a google doodle of Lysenko on a 29 SEP, but ignore a 25 MAR Norman Borlaug?  Just seems odd.

But today they at least recognized Memorial Day.

I don't know what is up with the gray typeset, but I'm gonna let that slide and figure it's me, not them, and there is a perfectly appropriate and somber reason I just don't grok att.

Or maybe Google is now smart enough to tailor their doodle offerings.  "Hey, this dude has a gun blog.  Give him the Browning doodle, not the Senator Feinstein doodle" or whatever. 

400 bucks

This is humbling.

And you get these stories every few years.  About the deplorable state of folks' savings.  How plenty of people live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes not even that well.

And I think 'how can this be?'  I have plenty of money.  Enough to buy a new roof and a furnace and then some and not thing twice about it and not need to finance it.  Why can't other people be like me?

And I remember.  Not everyone is as fortunate as me.  With a decent paying stable job.   A job I have been plugging at for decades now.  And without kids of my own to spend on to get then into school or get them diapers or whatnot.

I remember I used to be like that.  Nearly maxed credit cards I couldn't afford to be riding.  A deadend job with no prospect of much more pay.  Hell, unemployment paid better than that.

And I was a lucky one in other ways.  I had contacts and relatives I could ask for money, but rarely did.  The biggest ask was for a loan from my father that I could use to get a divorce and out of my old house and into a new.

I must remember.  Remember what it was like to worry about small routine bills and be unbearably stressed about bigger bills.

I have been blessed, and not everyone has been as blessed as me.

I'm not rich-rich.  But I am furnace-rich.  And furnace-rich is something.

2%, Huh?

WHO KNEW? 2% of American Counties Account for 51% of Murders Nationwide BUT 54% Had No Murders at All

Two percent of counties?  I wonder if counties come under the sway of a single political party system, squelching opposition.  Perhaps I should read further...

But before I do, a counter example comes to mind.  New York City, and its counties were famous for high crime.  But they elected a Republican mayor after a long patch of Dems.  Crime went down under his policies.  After Guiliani, a 'Republican' mayor that was really a Dem, but a pragmatic Dem.  Crime stayed low as he stayed the course.  Then a full blown socialist style mug of an ideological Democrat.  And crime rates are going up again...

On to the article...  Lemme get my reading glasses... 

And the article doesn't go too much into political parties. Just notes we have a very low murder rate for our size if you discount gang and drug-crime caused murders.  Implying guns in the hands of everyone else are not the problem, certainly. 

I imagine murders in other countries... Argentina, France, Bangladesh, Algeria, and so on... would also be much much lower if drug and gang crime were tamped down, too. 

Resources spent on gun control would be better used on a gang abatement and de-escalation, is my guess.  It's hard to do, and the chance of success is low, but it's better than wasting money violating the rights of uninvolved parties. 

Check this out

At Tam's

"Guns are normal.  Normal people use guns."

r/AskReddit

I dunno. Middling advice here. Yes, the hospitals and antibiotics and vaccines are gone in a zombocalypse. But that means we are back in 1890. Not as many, but plenty of folks got old back then. And gave birth. Post zombocalypse you won't be mixing with other populations. Well, if the Zombies tide has receded. If they never recede and you stay alive it means you are holed up.

But say the zeds convert 90% of the world, then all rot away, leaving that 10% to rebuild. Not a lotta mixing. And humanity doesn't lose medical knowledge unless it really tries to. Goes full ignoramus on PURPOSE. Which I don't put past humanity, but these are the 10% survivors. They'll bounce back and MAKE antibiotics again relatively fast because they know it is possible. There is lots less iron and coal mining with 10% of the world population. Plenty of scrap around, and if you kept the hydroelectric going in the interim...

Now the video is right about not seeing many bikes in zombie shows. Or spears.

Range 22 May

Took the Hudson out.

This is the first time in a session I start out rusty and improved in quality by the end, instead of starting strong and tapering down in quality from there.  In a long time.

The Hudson has edges on the trigger.  Not enough for most to notice, but I have sensitive girlie fingers.  The little tongue on a Glock causes wear for me.  DAKs are horrible.  Ruger revolvers, too.  The triggers that DON'T bother me are all 1911s and S&W revolvers that I am not shooting .44 magnum out of.

I cowboyed up and carried on.

32 rounds of American Eagle, 30 rounds of Speer Lawman, no malfs, for 442 total through this gun.  115 grain. 

You see how awful the upper left is.  Lower right had two, sorta, groups.  Good trigger pull, and not so good.  I was settling in.

Odd flaw area.  The .45 goes high and right.  In the old day EVERYTHING went way low and right.  Now the flaw for this 9mm is low and left. 

I look forward to next week.

It's all in the trigger pull.  Getting that groove back.  Relaxing enough is relatively easy now.  Same with focusing on the front sight.  Trigger pull is the key.

But I don't need to tell you all that.

Since I started this blog

The word back then was kydex holsters are shite, get a good leather holster.

Now it's eschew most leather holsters and get a good kydex holster.

Took 10 years.

But back then the kydex holsters were fragile and the best one on the market was the Serpa.  You get made fun of if you have an old school Serpa one now, for all their inherent flaws.

But yeah, there are a lotta crappy holsters out there.  Easy to spot early on in a gunnie journey.  The harder part is figuring out which middle-tier-and-price holsters are good and which ones are unnacceptable.  That's harder.   Like, I'd like to know which holster is doing this on the regular.  I bet it isn't low end, but middle.

Now Tam isn't really kicking me out of the cool kid's club for having a leather holster.  It's a Milt Sparks, those are on the high end side, and she likes em her own self.  It's not a floppy Turkish import making the rounds a year ago.  And it's not the only holster I own.  Yes, I have kydex too.  Hard to find really good positive, mutli-layer, retention features in leather holsters, after all.  And the good one cost about as much and the good leather ones.  What Tam in trying to get across, methinks, and I agree, is don't cheap out on holsters.  Decent holster selection is as important as decent weapon selection.  Hope I am not putting too many words in her mouth.

Oh, I was enamored with paddle holsters way back in the day.  I am less so now.  But not a full convert to strictly belt loop holsters.  I think the belt loops hold up better in a tussle for control, if it comes to that, and paddles aren't really that much more convenient and heck may be damaging to your pantaloons. 

---
Fobus!  The name finally came to me.

Beto O'Rorke Sez...

... "‘We Need to Look at’ Mandatory Licensing of Gun Owners and ‘Move Forward'"

Yeah, WHO are you again?  The reject straight Bhuddajudge that can't get arrested much less noticed?

Hush, Hon.  Adults are talking.

Help?

"Would You Like to Help With My Mass Murder Project?"

Jeez, I dunno.  I don't think I'm up for murderin a buncha folks....

Oh, wait.  It's a research project.  Nevermind.

Now let's talk about why having Violins on TV is bad.  What is wrong with that?  

I haven't watched any Game of Thrones

[no spoilers]

Since season 4?  Maybe.

And people around me in my day to day interactions are all very respectful about NOT spoiling it for folks that don't want it to be spoiled.

That said, without even trying, I have picked up the plot pretty much by osmosis and pretty much knew everything that happened of any importance in the finale in less than 24 hours.  Same for the rest of the season.  It just entered into my unconsiousness with no effort on my part.

I don't know what happened in Lost.

It's off how some stuff enters into the public sphere like that.  And this is softcore pr0n on a premium cable channel, not like NBC or ABC with the finales of Sienfeld or MASH.

I just find it odd how this all works.

And I am long on work and low on fodder.  So here.

I'm not doing so bad.  The past week I've had zombies, elitism, politics, court rulings, gunsmithing, and memes.  Need to add a dash of training/range work, history, hunting/survival to cover every base.

Also

This is what we are talking about

When we discuss the Deep State.

Ceding sovereignty to international bodies as a back door to leftist tyranny schemes.  One side is looking to take power and hold it, the other side wants to get along with the other and retain a higher class position.

It's how you get Trumps.  And on this issue, thank God.

But it might have been nice NOT to have to get here.  If those people that like to be in charge were actually responsive to the needs of the people they pretend to be in charge of, instead of acting like tyrannical nuisances, there wouldn't be a need for populism or, on the other side, communist revolution.  If the elites' priority had been the interests of Every Man instead of the System of 'Benevolent' Order they saw in their head there might be, now, a bit more balance in our political system.  Instead of madness that might get madder.

In sum, shove it, Mitt.  So glad I did not vote for you.

From Kurt Schlichter:

There’s our lesson from the last two years. The ruling class that runs them ran the institutions not for our benefit but for its own, to preserve its own power and position. The institutions and those running them are entirely responsible for our legitimate contempt – they deserve no respect, no deference and no obedience.

And Kurt has a point.

---

Trump is far from perfect on the Second.  If Trump arranged it so I could walk from my house to the subway, go downtown, and wander around the Portrait Gallery with a 1911 on my hip, without legal worry, using only a Utah non-resident CCW, THEN I'd say Trump is perfect.  Even better?  with an expired Utah non-resident CCW, provided I've done nothing else untoward save let that lapse.  But getting us un-arsed from a UN world disarmament scheme always targeting you and me isn't shabby.

Zed Decay

Of course Zombie decay differnt that 'regular' dead people. 

They move, for example.  Muscles move.   The muscles have to retain some of strength and flexibility to function like that.  Still have no idea how that metabolism works.  And why fatty brains going through an ineffectual digestive process helps out with it.

And part of decay is rigor.  If zombies froze up for an hour or two a few hours after turning, that might actually be ideal for the living.  A respite to take care of grandma after turning and you holed up in the attic. 

And the article touches on the many other bacteriological complications, post mortem.  Getting chased by something putrefied?  Yuck.  How does that even happen?  But it do.  Something else must be keeping liquefaction at bay.  Something that makes zombification contagious is also throwing an assist to help metabolism and acts as an antibiotic.

Hard to study because the test subjects are so... bitey.

He Ain't Wrong

J. Kb.   Speaking on Taran Tactical, out in sunny Cali For Nye Ay

I, too, and leery of folks with 'special' rights.   "Oh these restriction are for those people over there.  The icky people.  Not for folks like YOU.  YOU are cool.  We are better than them."

Special rules in Maryland if you know the Attorney General or the head of the State Police, and you can get your CCW instantly.  Or if you pay the right lawyer that has the right connections the right amount of money.  Or if your skin is lighter than than a paper bag.  That's how it works here.

"My son," said the Norman Baron, "I am dying, and you will be heir
To all the broad acres in England that William gave me for share
When he conquered the Saxon at Hastings, and a nice little handful it is.
But before you go over to rule it I want you to understand this:– 

 The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, 'This isn't fair dealing,' my son, leave the Saxon alone."

--Kipling

Drama

Lots of 'bortion drama all about. 

It's not my issue.  I purposely have no strong feeling either way.  If you are a pol that is super restrictionist because you are protecting the life and rights of a second person or if you are a pol that is super permissive because of person retaining autonomy over their very own body...  (and both of those are defensible in a libertarian mindset.)  I'll vote for you if you are a good on the Second Amendment.

"What if the politicians are exactly the same, both great on guns, but the only difference is their stance on abortion, T-Bolt?"

Well, what are the chances that will ever happen?  That that will be my choice?

Like I said, the issue doesn't blow my skirt up, but in that case I might think how much I dislike activist courts of the early 1970s.  Or I'll side with whichever side is annoying me less at the time.  The pro lifers annoyed me in the 80s.  They are less annoying now.  Now...  I'm the cis-gendered patriarchy and the left wants me dead.  Death can be super annoying.   

But I'm not here to argue abortion.  And neither are you.  I'm here because of Supreme Court cases.

These laws are pro life people trying to pass things that will get challenged and make its way up the system which they think, since Kavanaugh, they can win, and get Roe overturned.  I think that that is risky.  Especially since, like always, they push the issue too far.  If our leftists friends were anti abortion they'd pass smaller measures and slowly ratchet up the pressure their way.  Eventually reaching their goal of a full ban.  Rather than betting it all on one throw.  The Lefties are more patient that way.  They don't risk self sabotage. 

But this abortion argle bargle takes attention in the media away from gun cases.   Which is fine by me.  It's doesn't displace gun cases on the docket, after all.  Gun cases will quietly move on and up.  The oxygen is suck out of the room of attention, not the room of jurisprudence.

Of course it will motivate the left to get lefty presidents elected sooner and often to appoint their own judges. But CAN they get motivated more than they already were in 2016?  I'd really like to have one more good judge on guns replace RBG, get some strict scrutiny rule on and what not cemented in place, so we can withstand any future court swinging onslaught.  Unless you can guarantee a 5+ judge advantage for the rest of my life and a couple decades after my death. 

Huh.

So THAT is why she 'Likes' my occasional comments.  She doesn't really like them.  She just doesn't dislike them.  Genius.

No JP

It was the most correct opinion handed down during your tenure at SCOTUS.


And not just because it positively impacts my shooting hobby.

It implicated OTHER rights.  And reminds folks that rights are for individuals, and take nothing from anyone else.  Not groups, and you have no pull on someone else.  You can't enslave doctors or taxpayers in order to provide everyone a 'right' to health care or health insurance with low low deductible and no copay.  That's not a right, that is socialist redistribution.

The Federalist is right.  JP isn't against Heller as he is against the existence of the Second Amendment.

But ya know, squawk all you want.  Part of me is kinda glad it happened right in front of you, Justice Stevens.  Peoples rights were protected, you were appalled by that fact, and yet you and your tyrant impulses could do nothing to stop it.  I think of that and smile a little.

Not entitled

Joe Biden says I am not entitled to own a gun.

Correct, Joe. 

You'd have to pass welfare legislation to grant me a gun entitlement.  I just have a right to a gun.  It's currently up to me to supply me one, and I am WAY ahead of you, Lunchbox.  Or whatever your nickname is. 

Good.  You are a bit slow, so I am glad you got at least this part right.

No one ELSE is entitled to my gun, either.  That would be stealing.  2 for 2, today, Handy McGroperson.

“There are so many other things we can do to make schools safer, other than arming teachers.” He did not specify, however, what those other things are.

All, ears, friend.  What do you suggest apart from hardening a soft target that you think will be effective?

DC Traffic

I don't know how well this local news story has spread. 

A little background.  DC is a small city and not part of a state.  So it can't compel other areas to pay it money.  New York city has enough political oomph to make people in Syracuse pay extra taxes to flow into Manhattan.  DC would have this power, it has a decent population density, if it was part of Virginia or Maryland, but it doesn't so... hard cheese. 

To make outsiders pay DC has to get creative.  Encouraging tourists is one of the way they fleece outsiders.  One of the other things, and something the city government is really good at, is issuing parking tickets.  It's a way to get folks with Maryland and Virginia license plates to pay into city coffers.  Backdoor commuter tax.  Because parking is at a premium.  The city is gentrifying, and that means more residents are wealthy enough to own a car or two.  All these cars gotta go someplace, and during peak hours there are fewer places for outside cars to park.

Well, here is the latest scheme. 

Let regular people issue parking violation citations. 

Each ward gets up to 10 volunteers.  If there are more than 10, 10 will be decided by lot.  Eight wards, 80 volunteers.  After an afternoon of training set them loose to take pictures with a cell phone.  So, that guy who's Tesla purposely takes up 4 parking spaces?  He's gonna get his car's picture taken and fined.  Don't park next to a hydrant... etc.

Can you imagine the type of people that will volunteer for this?  Busybody hall monitor tattletales.  Turning the whole city into the worst kind of Home Owners Association.  The city gets meter maids that are very enthusiastic and they don't have to pay them or give them health insurance.  

Wow.  The next thing that happens...  What do some folks do when they see a regular schmoe taking a picture of their car and license plate?  There might be.... words.  Maybe they DO need to ban guns in the District again.  I wonder how long into this program before there is an altercation that makes the news?

But fisticuffs of not, I wonder how long until it expands from 80 volunteers to 800.  Or, even better, what if they also kicked back a small percentage of the fines to the person that reported legit issues first.  Say, even 5%.  Call it a stipend.   20 cars, $50 fines, 5% is fiddy smackers.    

Oh GAWD think of the abuse!

This makes me feel...

...weird.

How to win and lose two world wars at once pic.twitter.com/jiP31oxduQ

— Breegan the dumb stinky nerd @FWA2019 (@dumb_stinky) May 12, 2019

Thinking back..

Trying to come up with blog fodder, I thought back to how I was a dozen years ago.

Back then, I was enamored with the Ruger Marlin Camp Carbine.  It took 1911 mags!  I so wanted one, but they were scarce on the ground.  I remember wishing that more pistol caliber carbines would come out.  And boy howdy, have they.

I haven't bought one though.

Then, a bit later, I thought, "The world needs more single stack pistols.  I like pistols that don't feel as thick as a baseball bat."  And boy howdy did everyone set up a line of them.

I haven't bought one of them either.

Maybe the gun industry shouldn't listen to my wishes.  I feel like an Ingrate Aladdin.  Sorry Genie.

But if the Genie is gonna grant wishes...  Left handed bolt action .45 rifle with a built in suppressor.  a BIG honking one.

Watch, within 4 years you will have a modern DeLisle with a pickatinny rail at your local gun store.  I hope this new one takes 1911 mags, too.  But the damn thing will only take a Glock mag, I betcha.  And because of that...  I will probably not buy one. 

Well, this is something

How is this even possible

How is the average person BORED 131 days a year?  MIRED in boredom!

This has gotta be BS. 

Even for unimaginative adults.

I haven't been bored since I was a kid.  If you can't occupy your time with your own thoughts... That's like a basic life skill.

"But my work is BORING!" Well, I can see it not being fun.  If work was Fun they'd just call it that.  Hell, I used to run a bottling line.  Monotonous and constant with no breaks from the routine, 8 hours.  You still occupy your mind.  And without the need for music or conversation or what have you if your preference is not available.  It was my preference to NOT have music or what have you.

I just don't understand it.

Am I missing something here?   Am I off base?  Am I the azzhole?

YouTube help

Say you are watching a video.  And it gets near the end of said video and bam!  Ads to maybe watch more videos appear right over the details you want to look at.  And there is all this time left.

Any remedy for that?  That don't cost nuffin?

Well, down votes, yes.

Why So Pokey, T-Bolt

Why has the blogging suffered?

Well, when I started this thing I was at a job.  2007.  The work was important, but easy enough to do.  So I had spare cycles during the day to think on stuff.  I used those cycles here.  I was at that job til this time last year.

Then, the scope of the job quadrupled.  The job changed.  Same place.  Same sorta stuff.  I got a big raise and kicked onto more expansive responsibilities.  A bit more challenging, but the work pace went to frantic mode as we regained our footing.  Still in that mode, now.  And I can see it getting harder.  The first 90% is easy.  Squeezing out that last 10%, and doing it right, is a challenge.  Like cleaning up litter.  The piles of McDonalds cups and beer cans on the roadside are easy, but getting the half buried truck tire out of the ground and the shopping cart from the middle of the muddy creek is just two items that will take a lotta extra thought..

So few cycles to even think about guns and zombies.

Film Days

Back in elementary school, when we had a substitute we invariably got a movie on one of the ol 16mm projectors. 



And they showed TWO things.  Homer Price and his donuts and the Red Balloon.





Pretentious and treacle. One is FRENCH for Pete's sake... yet I relished every re-watch

It could have been worse.  Other kids were forces to watch THIS over and over.



I lucked out and never got more than 10 minutes of that one.

But one movie in 9th grade arguable got me to where I am today, at this blog, doing the gun stuff I do. US History class.



Thank you Mr. Rattan

Vintage Guns Magazine

I used to blog about issues of Guns Magazine from 50 years ago.  I lost some interest as they got closer to years I was actually alive. 

But I look now and again.  And I learn something on occasion.

That issue had an add for Smith and Wesson Model 41 inside the cover.  Interesting.  But what caught my eye was this:

Bangor Punta?  That rings a bell, but it certainly isn't a very LOUD bell. 

Remember I am a relative newcomer to the gunnie world.  I know S&W used to be own by some Brits during the Clinton years that almost killed them.  What is Bangor Punta?  Lemme check...

Ah.  They were EVERYTHING.  Sugar and Trains initially.  Boats, planes, guns.  A conglomerate.  1964 to 1984.  Bought out by the company that made Lear jets then...  and so it goes.

But I didn't know that much about the Maine railroad and the Cuban sugar maker.  I know a bit more now.

 

Hey, Look at That!

I put off the Monday Bupkis of blog fodder drought til Tuesday.  Good for me.

I'm thinking I'll break up my range time.  Take something else to the range.  Revolver or 9mm.  Just for giggles.  Change things up  Even though I am 5 mags away from reaching 1000.  Those five mags will come soon enough.

Someone posted a video about how hand fitted 1911s are worse than factory guns.  I can't even link it.  Even if it would stretch a post.  I think I first saw Tam link it, tho.  It's cringe inducing.  The nicest things people said about him is he didn't know what he didn't know.  Hoofa.  If you HAVE to see it despite my warning, youtube search "Why a hand fitted 1911 is a bad idea" and remember I warned ya.

Ever misplace your wallet with a bit of cash in it?  And you think to yourself "ya know they could HAVE all them 20s and I'd double the thief's money as well just to have all the other parts back.   DL,  CCW,  Handgun buying license. Credit Cards, health insurance cards..."

Mayday Range

Mostly bad.

I remember thinking, "This is awful, it might look better if I was shooting a silhouette target."  Further reflection... No, it's just regular awful.

I felt flinchy.  Like low grade anxiety.  Not conducive to good performance.

It's amazing how much mood affects performance.  And you gotta think on that, because if you ever NEED to shoot a gun your mood is probably going to be awful.  Fear.  Natural hesitance to hurt another human, even if that human is trying to kill you.  Adrenalin dump.  It'll be the worst day of your life, even if everything comes out alright for you results wise.

How?  I dunno.  Concentrate on your trigger finger?  Be maniacally angry instead of afraid?  Rely on your training and muscle memory to muddle through?  Maybe.  I am asking.  What do?

Anyway, I shot the first magazine at that low middle target at 75 feet.  The rest are at 25 feet.  47 rounds of American Eagle, no malfs, 967 since I built the gun.

Bottom left is last magazine.  Usually my last is my worst as I fatigue, but it looks like I was settling a little better. 

Watch his head

When Max is shooting.



Is he hunching down?  Is he moving his head to get into the sight alignment or moving the gun to get into his line of sight?

Now I know for a fact that Max Michel has a death grip on that gun.  That is what he does.  But with the EXTREME tension of his grip, his head?....  No movement.  Relaxed.

It's like he is carrying on a conversation.  The head and core of his body do no move.  It's leaning a little forward, maybe.  The movement is the hands bring the gun up.  And they are fast.  But once they are up and in position they stay.  The elbows might as well be on a marble counter sliding to each target that are on the save level.  They aren't bearing down.   He isn't going into "try hard" mode to go even faster, hunching into it.  He is just sort of relaxed.  Well except south of the elbows.  That area is pretty firm.

Something to think about.  The head placement.

I totally understand this

My typewriter is a war era Remington Rand KMC.

I use a Lamy AlStar at work for writing by hand.

My pencils are Palamino Blackwing 602s.

My phone is a Western ELectric model 500.

I saw with a Disston and Son.  No plural.

So, I totally understand the appeal of the Rolls Royce of chalk.

My 1911 is useless

It's not going to be any use at all against these things.




Makes me glad my area of expertise is zombies and not killer robuts.

Been thinking about Black Summer

The Netflix 8 ep Zombacalypse series, I mentioned Tuesday...

I am only a coupla three in.  For those that have seen it, they just got to the diner for me.

It's early.  Lots of confused people.  They know the military and CDC are working to make things right.  But folks are noticing that the authority's grip is tenuous.

Folks are starting to think maybe it is time panic.  Getting desperate.

They are holing up until told to go, and still obeying.  They are shooting looters.

I don't think I have seen a working light or TV or radio, and people aren't staring at their phones.  Power has been out for a while.  The season is cool, so not high summer or winter.  People are making paper maps and not interpreting them well if they are young.

Information is scarce.  Only a few have seen a zombie first hand.

CDC means disease, so, maybe you won't catch it?

Nope.  You die, you turn in less than a minute. Less than 10 seconds.  And then you become mindless, but super violent and maybe kill another, make another zombie.  Mindless in that you can still protect yourself from a single zed by closing a decent door.  Doorknobs are beyond the dead's ken.  They are rabid humans.  Except dead.

If everyone turns, and folks are murderous panicky, and zombies are fast to kill, this zombacalypse won't take long from this point in the series to get everyone else.  Less than a year to get 90+% I'd guess.  And then a generation to get NOBODY.  Extinction.   

It's dark.  People are about to fully realize the implications when this show starts out.  It's over.  

Riley Howell, RIP

Bravo Zulu, buddy. I wish you could have made it.

Chief Putney says the first and foremost hero is Riley Howell. Putney says Howell having no place to run or hide, fought the assailant. Without his work, the suspect may not have been disarmed.

"His sacrifice saved lives." #UNCC @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/YOm9YmJ5dV

— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) May 1, 2019

Looks like I dodged... a bullet

Ok, sorry for that title.

I didn't send my H9 in for warranty work.  Didn't need to.  I had a gunsmith that correctly diagnosed my FTF problem, and we fixed it.

Other people aren't so lucky and their gun is in a bin, in parts, at Hudson's bankruptcy proceedings.  Prolly will never be fixed and returned. 

Shame, really.  It's a decent gun.

"Oh, no, T-Bolt, what will you do when something else goes wrong?"

Dunno.  Same thing I'd do if my Colt Pocket Hammerless fails?

Spare parts aren't as bad as you'd think.  A lot are sourced from other makers.  But I WOULD pay money to see the catalog numbers for all those on a paper list right now.  You never know.

I feel like I was one of the people that got a Bren Ten AND got a few spare mags before they were all gone, back in the 80s.