Soft Skin

I have soft skin on my hands.

Even when I worked hard doing physical labor, the skin never coarsens.

So I am delicate.

A big reason I prefer the Sig and S&W to a Glock.  No little metal tab on the former to irritate my sensitive epidermis.

Otherwise, they're all "Commodity Plastic Striker Fired Service Pistols".  Features that recommend one over another are pretty small beer.  One bushel of dent corn is like another bushel of dent corn. 

You know, Smith does a good job with it's trigger face.  Century and half of expertise?  Same with revolvers.  Ruger revolvers have an edge on the face that irritates and cuts on recoil.  Never get that with any Smith revolver.  

DC neighborhoods

Tam goes on about DC and how people in their own area know where the bad part of town is.

Oh yes.

As a lifelong resident of the DC Metropolitan Area, I can confirm, expand, and elucidate on this very topic. 

First of all, "DC Metro Area" is the old way of calling it.  It's now called the DMV.  Department of Motor Vehicles?  No.  In Maryland we call that the MVA.  The Motor Vehicle Administration.  No, DMV is supposed to mean "DC Maryland Virginia."  I still call it DC Metro.  DMV is stupid on stilts. 

In the old days, the area of town know as the 'bad part' was called Southeast DC.  DC is divided into zones, obviously.  Sorta pie shaped sectors, and you even write that on the address of mail you are sending to town.   The part where you saw the most murders in the 80s (like 500 a year) had SE DC in the return address field.  Not no more.  Nowadays the bad part is called "East of the River".  Meaning the Anacostia river.  (The whole town is east of the Potomac.)  It's still sorta Southeast, but gentrification has set in.  Parts of the old Southeast closest to downtown are now kinda tony neighborhoods.  Well, mostly.  No, now, East of the River is where you can find your concentrated criminal activity.

The Capitol is in the Center.

In the 80s, 14th street was famous for being where the street walkers were.  I dunno where the hookers are now, but suspect they aren't as thick as they used to be on 14th.  Maybe U Street? 11th?  And the pimps still LOOK like a 1970s movie.  Canes, caddies, purple clothes, big hair. It's like a uniform.  At any rate, look for concentrations of hotels and entertainment districts.  Slightly north of downtown, like where Chinatown is (and which is where the hockey and basketball teams play)

My crotchety old neighbor Archie grew up in the shadow of the National Cathedral.  Northwest DC.  He said if you want a good time, date a gal from "East of the Park" meaning west of Rock Creek Park, the Zoo being the southern terminus, and it is near the center of town.  You were still in Northwest when east of the park, but you were almost Northeast DC.  Slightly less nice neighborhood.  Where the girls were looser, according to Archie.  Maybe they were Catholics?  You want to MARRY a gal from West of the Park.

Come to think of it, Logan Circle might be Northeast.

Georgetown?  Where the old money is?  Used to be a slum in the 20s.  Close to the river and close to the canal and close to the industrial parts of DC.  Well, that area also gentrified, bigly, and rich white people bought up the colonial era homes and spruced em up starting in the 30s.  Before them it was a lot of freedmen living there, close to day labor jobs.  Used to be a brewery in the area.  The Heurich brewery.  Made Senate beer.  Didn't bounce back well after prohibition, and closed in the 50s.  They built the Kennedy Center on the site.  Northwest DC

The place where that lady was stabbed in the green zone?  That is Northwest DC.  West of the Park.  Supposed to be the good side of town.  The part of town has 3 murders a year, maybe, not 100+.  And that is why Tam heard about it on the news all the way over in Indy.

Meh, I dunno...  Irving Street is awful close to downtown...  Sort of a gray area.  Sure, she was a white lady and a dog walker, and cut to ribbons with a knife in broad daylight.  That doesn't stick to the script in any part of town.   About where the W is in the NW part of the map above.
   

One thing I noticed

The range was crowded for a Monday.

And the shooting quality was awful.

It's not like they were brand new shooters with brand new guns panic buying and trying their new piece.  It takes at least a month, these days, in Maryland to get permission to buy your first pistol.  Second pistol only takes a week waiting period, but to get permission from the state the first time, there is some delay.  Fingerprints, background check, training requirement, and wait for your license to purchase arrives in the mail.

I know, I know.

But it's too soon for thems.  Those are in a couple weeks, coming to the range.

These are people dusting off the pistol they already owned and are getting some practice in.   Or, you know, I just happened to be there on a crowded Monday by coincidence. 

Revolvers in Asia

My gunsmith had a load of used revolvers for sale.  He worked on some, sold others if they were decent, used them in gunsmith classes.  They were police turn ins, and only worth about 200 and some change, retail. 

Some of the turn ins were marked Hong Kong Police Department.  So I guessed that HK went all semi-auto like other Departments.  Prolly when the Brits left. 


Nope, they still use revolvers.  Maybe from the same batch.

Range 26 Aug

I rented an M&P 9mm at the range.

Now, there have been too many suicides at my local range.  One is too many.  It's been more than that.  So, you wanna rent a gun, there has to be 2 of you shooting together, or you have to bring a gun of your own.

Makes sense.  Otherwise, it's suicide for the cost of a box of ammo.   Not even that.  You rent a gun, get a range slot, get a box of ammo, you pay for that when you are done.   You can off yourself for free that way.  Or you could.

But I brought my own gun, and like I said, they know me there, I go often enough.  I bet they'd rent one to me, a familiar member, with no issue.  But why test that?  Had a J-frame that I didn't shoot.  Wanted to shoot Commodity Plastic Service Pistol.  Because I need to. 

Much better than my revolver target a week ago, huh?

25 feet.  9mm.  15 in the mag that went to the chest, 10 to the head, and 15 to that guy standing way off in the distanc.

I even hit that guy a coupla 5 times.  Gotta stretch.

And I knew when I flinched that one to the chest and them 2 or 3 to the head.

Sheesh, I shoot that dang thing better than the Hudson or the 1911s.  Disappointing.

I hate it when I shoot good with a cheap Commodity Plastic Striker Fired Service Pistol, but this is telling, no?  I think the mush trigger is easier to surprise me.  So I get better results than with my 1911's better trigger that I know where it will break.

Traditional Monday Bupkis

Got little to nothing.

Future failed presidential candidate and municipal water enleadener Senator Cory 'Spartacus' Booker thinks we should have a license to have a gun.

If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to buy and possess a gun. Some states are doing this already—and it saves lives.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) August 24, 2019

Well, we do.  All of us.  Standard: "It's called the Second Amendment."

But that's not true, is it?  No, we have a government that is prohibited from violating our rights.  And this particular right is a bit extra special because it was written down so the government would have an extra reminder. But it's not a license.

The gummint should be protecting your rights.  Not violating them.  If they start violating them, pitch a fit.  Maybe get a new gummint

Climate Data

No warming since 2005 according to the newly built NOAA U.S. Climate Reference Network?

Well, expect those numbers to be 'massaged' and re-reported.  SOP.

I wanted to memorialize this

First, demand a drastic change in the culture. Next, portray anyone who doesn’t go along as an aggressor.

What Range do you Shoot At

Oh?  You mean how far away do I place the target?

At the usual local indoor range I set it at 25 feet.  8 yards.  When I don't set it at 75 feet: 25 yards.  And I always tell when I shoot at 25.  My DA revolver work at 8 yards looks like my SA 1911 work at 25.

This indoor range has a maximum length of 75 feet, hence the 25 yards.

And they have a line on the floor where they say it is the minimum.  That line is at 25 feet.  If you set a target closer than that, the range officers will say something.  Some folks need it to be 10 feet to hit the paper.  No bueno.  There is much less wear and tear to the range when the bad shots have to shoot something further away.   Because angles.

Now, the range people know my name by heart.  They know I am ok.  I am a regular.  They know I don't shoot the ceiling or the target trolley and am pretty reliable.  If I was the ONLY one there I could probably set the target closer than 25 feet if I wanted.  I'd never set such a poor example in front of witnesses that are range users.  And I have never set it to closer.  Why risk my good reputation with them?  Accident happen.  Better follow the house rules.

I'd like to do some holster work, but the only people that do that are the local Jessup jail guards when doing their training and qualification.   THEY are usually the ones that shoot the floor and ceiling and range bench.  Gives me the shivers.

This is Maryland.  I am lucky I have a range convenient at all. 

One thing I noticed

I was out of pocket for the Garlic festival shooting, the El Paso shooting, and the Dayton shooting.  So I saw no details.  And a week after each no factual details are forthcoming.  The news goes dark.

About the only thing I hear now in the Media is that they were Trump's fault somehow.

So, you can't trust details in the first 24-48 hours.  People publish rumor as fact in that window, and muddle the truth more than usual.  48-168 hours you get the more concrete information.  168+... nothing.

I dunno if that is good or bad.  Bad in that it seems they get swept under the rug.  Good, in that it denies the glory hound shooter the fame that at least partly motivated him.

But I got to go to wikipedia now to know anything, and I only half trust wikipedia on stuff like this.

El Paso
Dayton
Garlic

Kuh-Nif-Uh

You whip out a knife, and someone gets the absolute vapors.  As if you whipped out a grenade pin in a room full of sergeants and said "Ooops"

Tam mentioned it.

And it's happened to me.  Even an inch and half mini bladed pen knife.  They act as if I yanked out my junk.  (Slight size disparity between the two.  But only slight.)

I did an informal poll at work though.  I am the only one that's ever run across this!   "What are you talking about, T-Bolt."

Aw c'mon!  Makes me wonder if they had ever even showed it in public (again, a PENKNIFE).  So I assigned them homework.  And report back.

Range 20 August

Been about a month.  Let's apply last month's lessons:

"Shoot 2.  Then wait.  2 more.  WAIT.  Final.  Don't train myself to fire to click click click click.  So, relax, and try to remember on a J-Frame that that front sight has to be nestled well in that trench and you still have to do the job with the finger.  There you go."

Ok.  J-Frame again.

Decent job.  Halfway

First was red, then yellow, then green, then 4 shots to the head purple (where was the fifth?  still in the cylinder and that is labeled #5) and the last, and best, cylinder was the blue one.  The only really marginal hit was to the left ear, dammit.

I get better with the revolver with practice.  No first shot genius here.

The NRA needs gun control

NRA needs gun control to pass right now.

Well sorta.

The org is in a shambles currently. If gun control fails to pass that means the NRA has nothing to do with up or down legislation and we don't need them.

Of course it Wayne also needs gun control laws to fail because if they pass the blame will be at his feet.  If not for him and his faction's selfish shennanigans there might have been a chance to kibosh the.  But that's Wayne.

The NRA organization needs it to Pass to both prove it's worth when not dysfunctional and to push the parasite out of power. 

Lost Interest

Well, that's good.

A White House official admits to us, Trump has lost whatever interest he had in doing gun control. https://t.co/FXCL8fODTb

With @swin24 and @sambrodey

— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 20, 2019

Revolvers

S&W makes the 'standard' of revolvers still. 

Ruger does a good job keeping them honest and making them a little bit cheaper.

There is Charter Arms, still.

Others.  Chiappa?  Taurus.

Revolvers are still around yes.  And there a people like you and me that still use them.  But is the writing on the wall?  Could they go the way of the Dodo?

I'm kinda surprised they are still going as strong as they are now.  In 2019.  If I had to guess 20 years ago how strong the revolver market would be today I wouldn't guess as strong as they are now.  So good for them. 

Smith announced they are bringing back the 648.  Which is like my 617 but for 8 instead of 10 shot, and BOOM boom boom wmr instead of lr.  Doesn't blow my skirt up but I bet it does a lotta peeps.  I hope they buy a crapton to show their appreciation.  I like that S&W bring models back like this.

What's the ultimate Smiff revolver?  The Model 66 with a 3" barrel?  Big enough AND small enough?

Hard to Arse

I should just skip Mondays, go right to first and second Tuesday.

If you aren't gonna even arse yourself to enforce the gun laws you have in some of the most restrictive environments in the country, then don't bother to pass MORE gun control laws.  Oh, wait, criminals aren't the target of the new laws?  The target is innocent people like me?  I stand corrected.

I remember reasing this way back.  I noticed it too.  How gleeful NPR sounded at the thought of bread lines and Hoovervilles.  Mr. Postrel just wrote about it, back then.  Liberal salivation over a coming economic depression. 

It's a shame we can't just apply economic down turns and gun bans to just liberals.  But how would that even work?

Mandatory Gun Buyback

Well, I don't like the mandatory part.  But, Representative Richmond, let's negotiate.  I'll sell the US government one of my 'assault weapons'.   See?  Art of the compromise.  You get one of 400 millions guns off the 'street' (but I never leave it outside).  I get a little folding money to add to my savings account.

The price is $3,000,000. That's cheap.  Just wait til you hear what some other gun owners are gonna ask you for.  Lemme know. 

Ooo, good

I wish more gun writers and shooter would post stuff like this.  I LOVE this kind of stuff.  Tips.  Mini-tips.  Gun koas. 

With the 20% tighter thing, we are on different paths.  Though I am not confident I won't come around to tighter before tighter people come around to a more relaxed grip.  The goal is the same.  After a shot drop the barrel as quick as possible back to aligned with the target.  What you MUSTN'T do, either way, is tighten up in the middle of a recoil.  Now your barrel is aligned with the clouds, and you need to fight it back down as hard as you fought it going up there.

These quick tips might not settle in right away.  Tam even describes that.  But then a lightbulb goes off and "Ohhhhhhhhh, that's what they mean..."

Took me a while to grok Cooper's "Front sight, press..." properly.  I mean I knew what he meant, but didn't know what he meant.  Now I sorta do.  Know.  What was meant.

Panic buying time

Well, there is serious talk of gun banning legislation, and I wish Trump would listen to Junior on this more than to Ivanka.

But be that as it may, gun control talk can lead to a run on gun supplies.  With that in mind, I bought a buncha range ammo.  Ordered it Tuesday.  It arrived yesterday.  Not shabby.  I love online ammo stores these days, and I usually use Lucky Gunner.  I try to click the add on someone else's blog page when I do.

Anyway, ready to weather any panic buys without dipping into the reserves.  I burn through a bit, practicing.

When I buy .38 special, I try to get semi-jacketed soft point.  It is better for my Marlin lever gun. But only Magtech carries that variety ATT.  I'd prefer Federal.  Something less stinky.  Though I bet I'd be fine with a flat nose FMJ variety in that gun.

White Supremecism

"Is Santa Claus.  It doesn't exist, but millions of people keep the lie alive for their own benefit."

Where did I read that?  It was in an article I read recently.

Remember the 1920s?  When the Klan numbered in the millions and were the muscle for the Democrat party?  Well, this is almost the 20s again, and there are barely a thousand but making them seem to be millions is somehow in the Dem's best interest. 

Guide to Gun Control

What They Say:
Magazine limes, assault weapons bans, etc.


What They Mean:
These are to incrementally expand classes of unacceptable weapons until it includes all of them.  Yes even your duck gun and .30-30 dear rifle.  It started with cheap imports/Saturday Night Specials in the late 60s.  Hell it sorta started in the 30s with sawed offs and machine guns and whatnot.  This ban path has been less successful for them now, and is sort of a blind hole.  It's hard to get weapons in common usage banned for not being in common usage, as the courts have decisively ruled.  Easy to oppose via that route.


What They Say:
Red Flag Laws.  Take guns away from someone about to snap.


What They Mean:
This is to mainly help the divorce industry until it expands to more arbitrary future grabs.  And there is little limiting such an expansion.  Future exwives, girlfriends, mothers in law will seek advantage or revenge by triggering a Red Flag.  The problem is, while all version of these promise due process, the due process hasn't proven to work out that way, evidently, where Red Flag legislation has gone down.  Maybe these sort of things will be acceptable if the due process parts have teeth.  False accusation must have dire consequences.  But what are the chances of decent, adequate, protections being in there?  Oppose.


What They Say:
Universal Background Checks, close the gunshow loopholes.


What They Mean:
Nationwide gun registration.  Can't go around confiscating guns if they don't know where the guns are, right?  Grandpa give a prized revolver to his grandson on the latter's 21st birthday without asking permission from the government and subsequent record keeping?  PRISON for both.  That's a big incentivator to comply with your eventual confiscation.

To prove it is really a gun registration law and not a background check law just suggest divorcing the serial number reporting requirement from the check.  Watch the gun banners squawk.

So, oppose universal background checks for the Trojan horse it is.  

Joe Biden wants my vote

He's gonna buy it by giving me back $1300 of my dollars every year.  A nice little bribe.  A good offer.

whisper whisper whisper...

WHAT?!

No, he promises to take back $1300 of my dollars every year.  Rat bastard.  Go piss up a rope, Gropey Joe.  Not a good way to make me more conducive to vote for you.  You'd have to more than go full Ted Nugent on guns laws with that kind of attitude toward me money. 

1300 smackers is 1.5 mortgage payments.  It buys a lotta range ammo.  Box of 50 every week, just about thereabouts.  

Metrocons

There are three folks on/were-on National Review that were not Metrocons.  Jim Geraghty, Charlie Cooke, and Kevin Williamson.

I met Charlie and Jim at a NRA convention.  And, truthfully, I dunno if either still works at the Fortnightly.  I haven't been reading them much.  I lost interest when a lotta staff went Democrat in 2017.

Jim seems to be a metro type, just lucked out and didn't get the 'guns are icky!' reflex.  He isn't too experienced shooting.  I remember some First Time Shooter posts he put up.  His heart is in the right place.

Charlie is a British expat, fresh faced brand new US citizen.  So he comes from a different place.

Now Kevin.  He's from Texas.  He's actually commented on my blog back when blogs were still a thing.  He's had some odd flights, but not on guns.


---

(Oops. forgot Robert Verbruggen.)

So...

So the full court press is on again, it seems, for more gun control.  Not letting a crisis go to waste.

From what I gather being away for the computer for so long, folks want a nationwide Red Flag law Or "confiscate without evident due process on anyone the government feels like that week, but ostensibly angry folks that look about to snap."  I say without evident due process because you already have some states with Red Flag laws with due process protection baked in.  But I've seen reports of many confiscations, but no reports of guns returned after the due process.

But there isn't a Red Flag law on the tarmac.  There is a House passed universal background check bill which boils down to universal gun registration (and don't work in reducing murders/deaths).  The Senate could convene any day and pass that in seconds.  Mitch is under pressure but so far seems to be dragging his feet.  Which is good.  In that he says wait a few weeks vis emergency reconvene.  Maybe that will be enough to fend it off.

Trump on the other hand is making gun control noises.  Never firm on our side he sees doing such as a way to gather in some more votes.  And doesn't appear worried he'll lose others.  I don't like it, no sir.

And the NRA is hamstrung by infighting.  Is it true the NRA bought LaPierre a $6 million house so he'd leave?  Worth it. So worth it.  So who will be his replacement?

Old Timey Manufacturing Boom Boom

When watching this I like to turn up the playback speed to 1.5.  It gives it a more Olde Timey feel, and/or the workers seem to have a greater sense of urgency.  Like they gotta get this shells to them doughboys overseas. 

Careful fellas!  Wouldn't want quality to fall off.  Or, worse, an accident that takes out the whole town.

I've been away from the news for 2 weeks

RoMERO reserve duty.

Anything happen while I was gone?

M3

It was only with this video of the M3 did I finally see the lines of the M4 Sherman.  I am kicking myself for not noticing sooner.

See?  That commonality would make the logistical tail easier.  Even if you argue it is not the optimal design.

Hut Sut

Making the BAR

Men in Sheds

I'm a sucker for bookbinders, too.

Nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrds!

Just look at these machinist fanbois geek out over every machine at the Starrett works.



Yeah, I totally get that and would be doing it right along with them.  Just like I would at Springfield Armory. And a plethora of other esoteric interests of mine.

Come with me if you want to live

The Terminator music really makes this assembly line video.

Just look!

LOOK at all the machining operations they cram into this one video.

I overlook the French

And at my detriment.

When I think of great engineering feats in history I think of Germany and Scotland and America. 

My engineering school had OODLES of looted war-booty from WWII in the library.  Stacks and stacks of engineering books written in German.  German engineering is and was important.

But the French were no slouches.  I think the language barrier is a big obstacle for the French stuff.  German less so because we were motivated to translate a lot of that library.

Sometime the French had a problem with timing or follow through.  The Lebel rifle for example.  Way ahead of it's time when introduced.  But then they didn't keep at it.  Improving or upgrading... if they kept their advantage and were diligent can you imagine the advanced weapon they COULD have entered WWI with?  Maybe the MAS-49, but 40 years earlier.  Wouldn't that have been something?

The Lathe

It is no exaggeration that the lathe is an INCREDIBLY important human inventing that is a key factor in the very existence of our modern world.

Lotta Pressure