Well, that's good news at least

From a writer of The Federalist.

"The Riots and Protests Will Make Gun Ownership More Popular"

Sorta commonsensical.

First we said Bill Clinton was the world's best gun salesman.  Then Obama.  Then Hillary before she lost the election.  But I think George Soros and his inexorable push for more international socialism drives this whole thing.  Sounds like ancient anti-Semitic tropes, or a puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes, and that would be icky.  But Soros is a former Nazi type, and not so much a puppet master as a stubborn but focused donation machine that has the wrong idea about what is best for the world.

But there is no real face of gun sales now.  Antifa?  BLM?  Biden?  The Rona?  Naw.  No face.  Just events.  And schizo democrats.

More on Jeff, and Pistols

Obviously, he was biased on 1911s.  To knock the 1911 off it's perch as the best pistol platform in existence, the replacement would have to much superior to crack through his bias.  I believe he'd come around it one had, but that's an exceedingly high bar to clear, that never was cleared.

Putting aside the .45ACP part of the argument.

After caliber, he stressed the 'better trigger' on the 1911.  And sure, if you have trained on the 1911 and know the trigger, those can be really good triggers.  A thing of beauty for well done ones.  Nothing like a crisp SA.  Setting aside the change that a DA/SA trigger does when going from first to second...  Were triggers really so hugely bad in the 80s and 90s?

Because now?  They seem fine.  Not gritty or heavy.

Ok, ok, I remember the initial M&P triggers when those first came out.  2.0 are better.  1.0 wasn't HORRID.

"You need the extensive training in those crappy triggers to be any good with em.  Not like with the 1911, T-Bolt."

Wait a minute.  I don't think Jeff Cooper would recommend I throttle back training in any event.  He'd want my to train long with a good-trigger 1911.  With that much training on a striker fired 'bad-trigger' Glock I'd be pretty good with it, too.  And saved $2000 in start-up equipment.

And it's not like Cooper eschewed revolvers as long as he thought you had a stout enough cartridge in your cylinder.  He trained folks on those at Gunsite (cops often had no choice of pistol).  And a Model 19 might have a glorious single action trigger, but you train it with the DA.  A revolver trigger might not crunch, but would be on the heavy side in DA, unless you get ridiculous with the springs.  Cooper dealt with that trigger.  Why box the shooting world into a 1911, until something 'better' came along?

That said, I think I want to take the 1911 to the range next trip.  Plastic 9's are fine.  But so is my 1911.


---

[I've never fired a Bren Ten but would not be surprised in the least if someone reported it's trigger was AWEFUL.]

Sunday Night

This day, 45 years ago

On this day in Amity history, a summer girl went swimming. She swam out a little far and tired when a fishing boat came along.

Unfortunately its happened before. We need to stress the importance of boater safety awareness along with not getting fall down drunk before swimming! pic.twitter.com/lGolbeTNRi

— Mayor Larry Vaughn (@MayorLVaughn) June 28, 2020

You know, he's right

AR's ARE much better right now.  

No wonder Jeff Cooper didn't like them.  He died only just the AWB went away.  And it was only the beginning of the Forever War, GWOT.  He hated the round and the platform was forced to be stagnant.

Of course there is going to be advancements in the platform.  Both making the cheap stuff better and cheaper, and making the nice stuff REALLY nice.  Depending on what kind of a discerning rifle customer you are.  Hooray!  Capitalism.

And don't get me started on cheap and reliable magazines...

Sorry, Colonel, the poodle shooter round is gonna stick around a while.  And any replacement that you'd approve of is probably not going to be what comes next.

It's been weeks of this

My lack of interest in... well..  anything... the last several weeks is getting a bit alarming.  Scan social media, a youtube video or two, read before bed, commute to work and get 45 minutes of podcast that way, work, and...  that's it.

I don't feel bored, but any outside observer would fell crushing boredom bearing down.  Like a 50,000 ton press. 



I don't know how to snap it.  Virus precautions make mingling about difficult, so taking up something new is difficult.  Taking up and old hobby?  Can't be arsed. 

I force myself to amble about the neighborhood.  Work the walking muscles.  Don't wanna seize up.

Serious Rut

Forgot to go to the range yesterday.  That hurts my blog fodder.

Seriously in a rut.   Trying to avoid the sauce because the liver could use a break, and when I am in a rut I over indulge.  Like one does.

Historical tidbit I learned?  President Taft had an ambassador to Mexico named Wilson that was a serious mutton-head that added greatly to the misery of our neighbor to the south during their hard second decade of the 20th C. 

President Madero had ended the long period of stability, progressive development, but political tyranny, of the Porfirato, but treated his political enemies too nicely and his friends too shabbily.  That doomed his presidency.  But it too Wilson to get him killed by his usurper.  And his martyrdom kept the revolutionary ball rolling for a long time after. 

Way to go, Mr. Wilson.  One of the worst things to ever crawl out of Indiana.

There is no full size Shield

I guess that makes sense.  Aiming for the carry market.

Well, I guess the S&W M&P EZ versions are about full size.  Almost 4" barrel.  Aiming for the sock drawer market.  And the older hands market.

All the 9mm Shields have a thumb or grip safety too.

I'd have to get a double stack to have a pistol with none of the extras on there.  Hmph.  Gonna have to think on this.

None of this thinking matters as this is not the time to be gun shopping if you wanna see a lotta models.


Good thing I am not in a hurry because all gun sales in my state are on hold.  Interesting way to bad guns if they keep it up.  And since SCOTUS signalled they won't do anything about it in court cases, lessee is the State takes that reticence as an invitation and a trigger for the background checking machine 'failure'.

Whatcha gon' do, SUE EM to get your right back?  Ha!  What you have is all you are going to have.  Well, legally.    

Roberts

Ok, we know Roberts specifically, and the Supreme Court in general, dislike a split circuit.

Except, where Roberts sits, when it comes to guns rights cases that have a decent chance of passing a majority, resolving the split in the good guys' favor and not as Roberts prefers. 

Let's assume that Roberts absolutely loaths gun rights.  Because that is probably a fact.

And he was instrumental in denying cert to 10 gun rights cases, where more than half of those resolved a split circuit problem one way or another. 

He wants to wait out Trump.  Maybe he'll be alright in less than a year, if Trump loses.  THe Chief Justice gets some breathing room and can continue he anti-gun shenanigans when the exhausted Ginsburg can retire and replaced with a Biden pick. 

But there is a chance Trump wins.  And Cocaine Mitch holds the Senate.  What does Roberts do then?  I don't think Ginsberg can hold out for five more, is Roberts hoping she can?  If Trump can name one or more FURTHER replacement, what does Roberts do?  Trump has already been disappointed by Gorsuch, so Roberts has much less of a chance of yet another stealth Liberal getting the nom.   Does Roberts break and just acquiesce do the little people retaining their rights despite his personal preference?

But yeah, SCOTUS can ignore a split circuit if it wants to.  Sure. 

This is my favorite painting

I have a trinity of American artists that I admire above all others. Though, John Singer Sargent is a close runner up.

Hopper, Homer, and Rockwell.

And is Norman Rockwell painting is my favorite of all.

Shuffleton's Barbershop



Note, there IS gun content...

Pulpy Men's Magazine Illustrations

Like it says on the tin.

Guns and cheesecake, but with disappointing sized images.  Just another method of serving me web ads.

I can't keep up, in my dotage, with all the various social media.  And I haven't put the effort in.  Because I don't need more.  But there are other sources of better pics.

But I don't have any sex fears, ma'am.  Or even anxieties.  Got over those long long ago.  Like many things it amounts to relaxing and going with it.  If you lack confidence fake it til you gain some.  But always be learning

Or are things different in Australia.  I figure the Sheila is from down under based on her adversary.  They looks like native Australians and are armed with boomerangs.  I hope you and your Brownings get out of the scrape you are in.

Angry Cat, seen on FB

Usually the orange cats are the friendlier ones.  I guess this one got pushed too far.

Old skool.  Not the M14/M1A.

I got bad news for ya.  The dudes that bought into the superiority of the Springfield M1A battle rifle over the poodle shooters (like me) are now too old to be crawling around in the woods.  Cooper's been dead 14 years.  A whole generation of soldiers have come up fighting wars that had only really just begun back then.  A few of them have their own .308.  With much better magazines.

That tomahawk isn't much good for anything besides hitting folks with.  Bound to be more utilitarian choices that would do that as well, and other things.

But I appreciate the kitty's spirit and earnestness.  Prolly hats commies as much as me.

Oh my...

I've always liked Hopper, and this is his teacher and those are his etchings.  If he had invited me up to his apartment to look at them he could have done anything he wanted with me.  They are quite wonderful

Martin Lewis.

Audie

Happy birthday to Texas native and the most decorated American Soldier of World War II, Audie L. Murphy. After World War II, Murphy joined the Texas Army National Guard, attaining the rank of Major. Today we remember and honor his service to the United States and to Texas. pic.twitter.com/ynA5HolmQG

— Texas Military Dept (@TXMilitary) June 20, 2020

It's been a bad year for Corporate Logos

First Land O' Lakes

Now Aunt Jemima, Cream of Wheat, and Uncle Bens.

That British MP is angry and lots of the Kellogg's cereal mascots for some reason.

You notice fast food joints, their mascots have red hair?  Ronald McDonald, Wendy, the Burger King.  I bet Harland Sanders had red hair before it went white.   What's you bet the Starbucks mermaid is as carrot-topped as Ariel.  Whatcha bet... 


Update:  And Eskimo pie this very morning.

It sold

The old 1980s Commander I had I on consignment that wasn't suitable to custom work?  KaChing.  Finally.  I put it in... Thanksgiving?

Now I have money.  Gun money.  What to get?

Well, been looking at black plastic striker fired service 9mm pistols.  Or maybe the slim version of same.  At least I can get magazines mailed to me in Maryland for the thin ones.   I have a double stack 9mm.  Meh, it's just money.

"But you sold a 1911, T-Bolt!  The nigh perfect piece of gun engineering!"

Yeah, I don't need factory 1911s now.  I have a salvaged frame (the .45 slide is awful) that I use with the Ciener conversion kit.  Expensive .22, that.  I have two I rebuilt or built myself, and I have another bare frame for 'someday.'  In my dotage, that is plenty of nigh perfects.

"What would you do with that one frame leftover?"

Dunno.  Maybe a Commander.  Maybe a 9mm 1911.   Maybe a .45 with a threaded barrel.

---

This another data for gun stores.  Inventory is sparse in Maryland.  Ones I've witnessed are at 1/3 merchandise capacity and would love to be able to get more but no more to be got.  So who is the gun salesman this time?  Dr. Fauci?  Corrupt cops?  Tattooed street Commies?  Blue state Democrats?

Yup

Conservatives: Always only two justices away from a Supreme Court majority.

— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) June 18, 2020

With all the awful current events

This year, and the last few weeks in particular, my favorite escapist reading has been the hard boiled detective stories by the chronicler Howard of Warwick, writing in England in 1066 AD. 

I appreciate that it's far removed from plagues and wars and unrest and incompetent corrupt government officials...

Well, the plagues and wars and unrest and corruption of the 21st C.  Ugh, I need a break, and it is hard to avoid the stuff I need a break from. 

Anyhoo, picking up where I left off.  Our protaganist, Brother Hermitage, just bid adieu to the King of England, who has to rush south and take care of some bidness.  He'll be back in a trice with more instructions for his newly promoted Royal Investigator, I am sure!

---

Yeah, I am liking this series much better than the disjointed and poorly paced Tuesday Next, which I think is suffering from being a first novel.  It didn't start very strong, #1 in this series.  Maybe Fforde gets better, but I am digging the Death series much more.  Thanks all, just the same for recommending one or the other.

---

And I am amazed how much detective fiction I run into lately without really trying.  It's not even my jam.  Well, not purposely.  I have had a kindle for years and years and from the beginning have sorted it into genres that fit on the 'home' page of my paperwhite.  They are, with titles stored inside:

1. Adventure & Crime (84 items... only?  Huh.)
2. Africa & Hunting (24 items)
3. Asia (23)
4. Fantasy & Future (224 items, because I have everything Heinlein wrote, and have read like 5% of those.  Honor Harrington would be here.  So would The Hobbit)
5. History & Politics (29)
6. Sea Tales & Techincal  (55)
7. Western (26)
8. World Wars & Spies (53)
9. Reference (22)

And 11 pages unsorted after that.  Where do I put Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?  Western, maybe.  Recession Proof your Pantry?  Reference

Drawing Room Detectives

And others.

You know the names of Sherlock Holmes and Sam Spade and Phillip Marlow.  Perry Mason.  Hercule Poirot, and Nero Wolfe.  Charlie Chan
  
I've been expanding to lesser known detectives.  And not necessarily the two-fisted kind.  (Though rough and tumble detective stories are its own thing.) 

Have you head of Lord Peter Wimsey?  Loads of fun for Anglophile.  Nick Carter?  Bulldog Drummond?  The Thinking Machine?  Mike Hammer.

I am trying to get a sampling of them all.  Writing styles and qualities vary, of course.  But there is something to enjoy in all of them, too.  So I am enjoying myself.

The latest I am interest in is Philo Vance.  Definitely the drawing room kind of detective.  Too smart by half.  Just TELL the DA what you are thinking, man.  Stop drawing it out.  Anyway, he is a Swell, a bit of a Toff, and maybe a Poof.  To use the old vernacular.  And the first book takes place in the summer of 1929.  Careful, idle-rich Philo.   Bad news is coming that fall.  He relies on deduction and psychology to get to the heart of murder mysteries, but phrenology also makes and appearance.

Philo Vance might have been the last straw for Dashiell Hammett and what pushed him to make Sam Spade, growing weary of the Drawing Room detective mystery by people that were never detectives.

Another thing I learned.  A green carnation, in the 1920s, was an outward subtle signal for a man to indicate he preferred the company of other men.

Anyway, gun content in The Benson Murder Case.  Written in 1926, but set in 1929.  Philo solves parts of it with spurious ballistics analysis.  The murder weapon is a 1911.  But a pearl handles topbreak .38 makes an appearance, unfired.  WWI looms large, and it is assumed many veterans can kill pretty effectively without becoming emotionally over-wrought about it, inured by the witnessed battlefield horrors.    

Clarence Thomas

I wish there were nine of him. 

I thought this time

That at least ONE of the gun cases wouldn't be ignored.   I am very disillusions.  Even to think that Thomas and Kavanaugh, if justices MORE conservative replaced Sotomoyor and Ginsberg and Roberts, that Thomas and Kavanaugh would step up and be the 'lib justice' that deny cert.  I feel that jaded today.

No relief in the legislature

No relief in the courts

No relief in the executive

I'm beginning to feel the whisper of a hint of concern.

Ironic at a time when 2020 made everyone else besides the legislature, the courts, and executive anti gun-control.

Elmer Fudd losing his hunting irons.  It would be so ironic is THAT was the high water mark of gun control.

This meme is incorrect.

You need guns.

Well, F---

Thanks for Roberts, W.

Went to a gunstore

A small one in Fredericksburg VA. They had a Tippmann Gatling gun that 9mm Glock mags. Neat!

If I were thinking on making one I'd have drifted toward a rimmed cartridge like a .38 Special, but I lack imagination.  Tippmann has apparently figured it out.

While there on a Saturday, this tiny gunshop had a lotta traffic, but no noticeable dent in his stock for sale.  But I had never been there before.  Maybe he normally has bigger displays up.  Or piles of ammo for sale.  And I have no 'before' picture in my head to compare it too.

You folks that use Revolver Shotguns

Like the Taurus Judge.

Have you ever patterned it by shooting it at a big piece of butcher paper 30 feet away?

I assume you'd never shoot at something further away.  It IS a self defense firearm.  You aren't looking to shoot at sumthin' further.

What did the pattern look like?  A big ring? 

I am curious because I have never done this.

Does the rifling in that pistol length barrel cause the pattern to ring, with few pellet in the center, but plenty in the periphery?

If it does ring like that, is that acceptable?

Dictionary

When reading, back in the old days, when I came across a word I was unfamiliar with the meaning of I'd look it up in the dictionary.  In school there were dictionaries everywhere.  And there were a couple at home.  I know other people that would underline and mark the page of the hard words and come back later.

And not just hard works.  I vaguely knew what a Davenport, Settee, Divan, and Morris Chair were, but it was nice to nail that down in my head, specifically.

Now?  I don't have to.  Highlight a word in Kindle or iPad or web browser and the onboard or online distionary pops right up.  One of the nicer things about living in the future.

The only problem?  The French and Latin the educated inter-war Swells like to bandy about when they are acting snooty.  Kindle don't do those.

Law Abiding Citizen

This is the most unrealistic scene in the whole movie.


Wait... there are plenty of unrealistic scenes in this movie to rival that.

Anyway.

What motivation does the CIA guy have to talk to these city/state government reps?  Plus Shelton/Butler character is ungodly smart, and the spy knows this better than anyone.  There is a decent chance even with good precautions he'd be caught.  Great, now another person on the hit list.  Him!

A career of positive reinforcement about the personal value of not spilling the beans, why choose now to spill the beans?

Good movie exposition, but it beggars belief. 

Range Monday

I noticed I was shooting low after the first magazine. 

I use silhouettes where I CAN'T see the hole to remove the temptation of looking over my sights for my hits.  But I see em when I bring the trolley back.  I adjust and the holes near the yellow spot on the face were my 5 round mag improvement.

The next 3 mags were the center mass shots.

There is always at least ONE flyer where I screw up. 

8 yards, commodity plastic striker fired 9mm rental service pistol.

I've been saying this for a while

A lot of cops can be shitbird bullies unfit to wear the badge, and it doesn't matter what skin color their victim has.

But whenever it comes up I often get dragged by cop-fans.  Not the kinda dragging the rioters do.  Polite comment disagreement.

Solution, for me, all this time has been to hamstring the public sector unions.  They wield too much power.  But that solution is, like most, too simple, direct, plausible  - and wrong.  Well, wrong-ish. Good ol' Mencken.  Can always count on the sage of Baltimore until he got too old and bitter in the 30s.

Anyway.  Yes, the union and big blue wall is a bad thing, and qualified immunity they back to the hilt is easily abused too.  But take them things away you get new problems.  If you kill off the public union then public/politic management has to have the cops' backs.  SOMEBODY has to back stop them, or they'll get eaten alive.  And I'd not trust a politician to do that.  The only thing worse than a crooked cop is any politician that thinks you stand in his way at the ballot box.  And they'll throw bad cops and good cops and victimized constituency over the transom in a trice if they threaten the pols phoney-baloney job. 

So, my distaste for abusive cops is tempered by my greater distaste for the political class above them. What's that... a dirty cop is still acting like a good guy 80% of the time? Maybe. I dunno. But a good pol is only good, what? 50%? Servants indeed.

Plus, they are bad for zombies

Shotguns.  No bueno.  In many people's heads the be-all end all of home defense.  Both folks that believe all the myths, and folks that no.  This is the counter argument.

Ok, discounting the people that don't know anything about shooting.  Shotguns are sub-optimal even for people that are intermediate shooters.  And the article goes into that.

But shotguns are what n00b people in Maryland are buying the most of, in the panic, if they can get their hands on one.  Because of myths, because of the laws, it is now the go to home defense iron

10+ years ago?  They were buying revolvers for nightstand guns.  Or something cheap like a Hi-Point.  So amateurs are going to get less than ideal shooting irons no matter what laws are in place.

So what SHOULD they get to protect hearth and home?  Well, training, of course.  But I can wish in one hand and poop in the other and come to think of it I am slacking on more training my ownself

I don't like shotguns, myself, but I have less training and practice with them compared to an AR or, especially now, a pistol.  If I could go back to when I was shotgun-less and advise myself what to get, I'd tell me to learn how chokes work and get a couple doubles.  For simplicity.  Because you aren't gonna shoot em much.

But say I had the training, and manual of arms was second nature with a proper 'tactical' style shotgun.  The comparison of positives (raw power) and negatives (long, bulky, clumsy indoors, low capacity) still makes me eschew the platform.  But that's just my opinion.  Right now.  Jeez, but, I know I can change my opinion over time.  I learned to like how Glocks work for me, after all.

I Loved Larry's Post

And plenty of others have linked it and commented.

They, the 20-something prog wienies, think the cops and Guard are oppressing citizens right now in the response.  They are being every so gentle, actually, comparatively.  What's the body count up to?  Single digits?  Tell me when the stormtroopers have shot 100 rioters, then we'll start bandying about words like "Oppression."  Tell me when some riot ringleaders have committed "suicide" by jumping off of tall buildings.

You know.  Russia/China type stuff.

You want gun owners to come downtown and help you?  How?  By shooting you, or shooting cops?  Gun owners that want to do that, right now?  Eager to join in, killing folks downtown, Blue, Red, Black or whatever?  I don't trust them any further than I can throw them.  Like Larry, I cannot see ANY possible future outcome that is positive if that happens in this particular goat rope.  Maybe it's calming down now.

The Mainstream Media Won't Show You This

I don't think about Metrocons much anymore

Urban conservatives that are conservative about everything except.

All the latest events the last few years have shown that they aren't just anti-gun.  They are anti-conservative.  A shame really.  Influential thought leaders that were never really in agreement with me on much of anything.

Oh sure, there are still on or two over at National Review that are in tune with my political sensibilities.  But you gotta turn elsewhere.

It makes one cynical.

That's the thing about Trump.  We all know he isn't REALLY conservative.  But he's been getting stuff done of the relatively correct bent.  Cleaning the Augean Stables a bit.  I mean if W did a quarter of his de-reg jag we'd be a lot better off today.  But W wasn't so much a conservative either, was he?

I just wish Trump was more pro-gun.  Or had more pro-gun action, at least. 

Anyway, there are few metrocons now.  Real one.  But I do worry about James Lileks in Southwest Minneapolis.  He's a little guy, and I bet he has no firearms to home, and HE is good people.

And his town is F-ed, and unlead.

6th

Regret

Dismantle the Po-po!  That will will bring nigh utopia, according to Ellison

He doesn't realize what the police do to protect him.   HIM personally.

Notice the riot cops aren't going all Kent State on the rioters?  If you didn't have the riot cops there wouldn't be anyone protecting the rioters

Yes, cops are protecting the rioters.

But, you know, maybe Jeremiah wants escalating warfare in the streets.  His proposal is knocking a leg out from the rule of law.  Just like if you took the president out of the federal three branch system.  You'd regret that pretty quick.

 So mob rule comes next.  And mob rule goes both ways.  Vigilante mobs will rear their heads along with the run of the mill barabarian mobs we are seeing right now.  But Leftists do have a problem thinking beyond the next stage. I don't want either kind of mob.  I've always wanted reform.

Reform.

But Marx will tell you that Reform is the enemy of Revolution.  (or was that Pliny the Elder?)  And 'they' want Revolution, not Reform.  But Reform:

There are plenty of police reforms that could be enacted from a libertarian perspective that would improve matters. Qualified immunity reform is libertarian. Holding police accountable for misbehavior is libertarian. Reducing the power of police unions is libertarian. Getting rid of overtime and pension abuse is libertarian. Banning no-knock raids is libertarian. Reducing bloated police department bureaucracies is libertarian.

Leftists oppose and Libertarians flail, so we probably won't be lucky enough to get adequate reforms.

"What about the GOP, T-Bolt?"

They're the 'heavy.'  You knew that. 

-

Gun store

So, the range is also a gunstore.

And it is in Maryland, so getting something like a heavy barrel hunting-AR or a pistol requires extra hoops, cuz you need a license to purchase.  New gun buyers find that hill ahead of them, slowing down their purchase schedule. 

"So what can I get sooner than a month from now, since I am a first time buyer?"

Well, shotguns and bolt action rifles.

When the WuFlu Lockdown started 2 months ago, our gunstores in the state were open and essential.  And lots of them disconnected their phones because every 10 seconds they said "Sorry, we have no more shotguns for sale at this time."  Land office bidness

Re-supply for the disease panic hadn't really happened before this second Riot and the Cop Ain't Comin to Help Panic started up.  Land office times two?  The counter is going to burst into flames from all the friction.

So, boomstick inventory was noticeably sparser than EVER was what I witnessed at the range.  I mean more than any other panic.  There were some pistols because of the speed bumps, but not as many as usual.  The wall of Fudd long guns was done.   Couple HBARs was it.  Again, speed bump to take one of them home.  

Ok, NOW pass laws restricting guns on these new gun owners further.  That'll be interesting to see how that turns out.

Deer

Throughout my life I've seen plenty of deer.

Probably an equal number alive as dead.  Struck by cars, of course, them dead one.  And most of the live ones I have seen while I was also sitting in a car.  Not all.  Call it 40% road kill, 40% alive but I I spied em through car glass.  The other 20% in parks and hikes and hunting and whatnot.  Out walking around.

That's probably pretty typical.  We moderns cover a lot of ground in our cars.  Hard to spot deer sitting in a cubicle at an office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

With the hundreds of deer I have seen in my life, I rarely see deer with antlers.  I think older bucks are more wily, except when they are horny.  And of the antlers I have spotted, none are truly spectacular racks.  Either big racks are rare, or deer able to grow em are smart and reticent of roads or a combination of both.  I see a lot more does with yearlings

But yesterday morning was the first time I saw a buck with antlers that had velvet on the antlers.  It was standing on the shoulder of an off ramp and though better of crossing the road so ducked back.  He was maybe a two year old?  Three?  The antlers got a few inches past maximum ear length.

SPLC

The Southern Poverty Law Center?  They went from noble civil rights group, to hustlers, to pure Lefty Pinkos.  And since these riots are sparked by racial issues and promulgated by commies they, of course, are gonna blame White Supremacists for instigating and provoking all the riots.  All them white folks handing out bricks, they'll say Aryan Nation types.  I am sure.

What?

They didn't?

They aren't blaming them?  The opposite.

Well, no shit.

Just when you think you know something about someone...

(you already knew they weren't them icky racist groups.  none of the various flavors EVER go around in skinny jeans.)

Wait for the police

They'll be there any second now.  Any second.


But don't take the law into your OWN HANDS!

(On an totally unrelated note, do you want a wake before your funeral, or something exclusive to just family and solemn and low key?)

Finally

Some recoil therapy.  My range opened up.  They are keeping it to half capacity and please wear a mask.  Commodity plastic stiker fired 9mm.  8 yards at first.

1. Not bad for a first magazine after MONTHS.  
2. I was rushing on purpose  The lower right is an experiment to GRIP---trigger.  But I gave up when it gave me low and right and went to a more relaxed grip I was training with for years.  I'll give that some more attention and more rounds, just not now.
3. Getting tired, getting sloppy.  Too many rounds were MakeGunGoNOW trigger pulls instead of good ones, but I was pleased to get ANY good shots at all.  Some bad shots were called, some not.  I need to sharpen that skill with practice, too.
4. I pushed the target trolley out to 50 feet.  Only that one REALLY bad flyer.  I can't see that far so was pleased about this one too.  Considering.

Just glad to do something.  It had been too long.  Blow the cobwebs from the rafters.

I was told it was White Nationalists?

Barr: It is Antifa.
Cops: It is Antifa.
Protestors: It is Antifa.
Antifa: It is us.
Blue checks: It is something else.

— Andrew Beck (@AndrewBeckNYC) May 30, 2020

Follow the Money

I wonder who funds Antifa types?

I wonder if the FBI will redouble their efforts about them, now?  Seems that would be a good use of DOJ resources.  I always assume that if a buncha Klan yahoos get together, all 14 of em, that at least half of them work for the Feds in one capacity or another.  From occasional CI snitch on up.  But the FBI has been working on the Kluxers since the 1920s without much let up.

They took their foot off the gas pedal with the Reds a bit, evidence suggests.  The worry is over-reaction.  Which always happens.  But how much?

After all, The FBI do play dirty though, don't they?  Unleash them and they you have to deal with the overreach later.  And we are still dealing the overreach from 10 years ago now.

The news media tried to convince me all weekend that is was Russia and MAGAs funding and organizing and provoking all the riots.  But they've lied a lot to me lately, and some of them are in Antifa, based on their past actions, so I take stuff they with a grain of salt.  Bout this size: