Friday, December 11, 2009
What Bev for Zed
You’ve been hunting Zombies all weekend. The backwater area this outbreak popped up in is hot and dry. All that sweaty work really works up a thirst. Water just won’t do. Sports Drinks? Please. You need beer.
But which one?
You don’t want one that will bog you down with treacle or alcohol, but you don’t want a beer that’s like making love in a canoe (F’n close to water!) It should be good, though. You might get bitten and infected and never drink a beer again, preferring human brains. But you want something that will fortify like liquid bread, while still being refreshing. You need a bit of alcohol to take the edge off the horror, but not so much that your aim is impacted over much.
Never fear, I have some recommendations.
Right now, for me, the perfect beer to go with zombies is Victory Brewing Company’s Prima Pils. It’s refreshing and bright. Like there is a party in my mouth, and everyone’s invited. It’s brewed near Philly, so your regional suds establishment may or may not be able to get a hold of it.
In the past, favorite beers on par with Prima have been Tupper’s Hop Pocket Pils, of Ashburn VA, and Magic Hat’s Blind Faith out of Vermont.
Note: all these beers MUST be fresh. If you can’t tell what the bottling date was from the packaging, look for cloudiness of the liquid or dust on the bottle. Blind Faith was known for turning into beef broth after 3 months. It’s the nature of the microbrewed beast. No preservatives means they can go ‘bad’. Bad doesn’t mean pathogenic. It’s just the taste is off. Fresh, these beers are ambrosia. Nectar of the GODS.
If you like a bit more bitterness from your hops, go with Victory Hop Devil IPA.
Other very good beers to snatch up on the east coast, any Dogfish Head. Shelter Pale Ale is good and you can increase your hop character by working your way up the numbers of IPAs. 60 Minute, 90 Minute, 120 Minute. By now there is probably a 4 And A Half Hours IPA from Dogfish. For Zed hunting stick with 60 or 90 if you an advanced IPA drinker.
For more widely available beers, Sierra Nevada is one of the originals and still pretty good. I go with the Porter and the Pale Ale, but the Torpedo IPA is also very nice. The weather is getting colder, and the thought of a Porter appeals right now.
Few places can bottle a stout right. Pity. There are stouts in this country in little out of the way breweries that make Guinness taste like Lite Beer from Miller. Maybe not the ideal Zombie-Beer, though. Stick with Porter.
On the West Coast, I found this great little number called Racer 5. Stuff from Russian River Brewing is also good, but my exposure is limited. Anchor Steam, when fresh, can surprise you. It so hard to get it fresh out here. And they don’t date their packaging, so, sorry Mr. Maytag.
Is the beer near your house crap? Heck no. Colorado is supposed to be great for beer. The line from Cleveland to Milwaukee hits some very good small breweries. Bells in Kalamazoo, Goose Island, Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland. But I can’t get them here.
One day there is going to be a zombie outbreak near one of the small brewpubs and you’ll be trapped there surrounded. Surrounded by brain hungry undead and surrounded by delicious beer. I’d love to be trapped at McGuires Irish Pub in Pensacola that way. They have good doors that can be barricaded, good vantage points on the roof for sharpshooting, and great beer and steaks in the restaurant. A RoMERO mission could last as long as the food held up, even if we have to herd the last shamblor around for a few weeks to keep the party going.
And what if you can’t get ANY of these? What major beers might I recommend? Well, Yeungling is ok in a pinch. Guinness, naturally, is good, and widely available. If the beer is really cold and the sun really hot, then Rolling Rock can even appeal. I’ll even drink a Budweiser. The beer is well made and natural, and if you’ve been away from it for a while you can really taste the apple ester. Avoid Miller products. Chemicals and corn. Avoid Coors, too. It’s water. Literally. Killians Irish Red is Coors with caramel coloring added. Blue Moon is a Coors product. Leininklugel is a Miller property. The Leiney may be fine, but they do have the taint of Coors and their Franken-Hops and other chemical weirdness. Clear bottles is a bad sign. Either they raped the hops to compensate for the photo sensitive bond that turned hop flavor molecules into skunk, or they are skunked. I’ll only get Samuel Smith’s beers, in the clear bottle, if I can buy them by the opaque cardboard case. In a German Beergarten, keep your clear liter mug out of the direct sun, it can skunk before you finish it.
That’s my Zed safety tip for today. Remember, shootin THEN drinkin. Not the other way round.
But which one?
You don’t want one that will bog you down with treacle or alcohol, but you don’t want a beer that’s like making love in a canoe (F’n close to water!) It should be good, though. You might get bitten and infected and never drink a beer again, preferring human brains. But you want something that will fortify like liquid bread, while still being refreshing. You need a bit of alcohol to take the edge off the horror, but not so much that your aim is impacted over much.
Never fear, I have some recommendations.
Right now, for me, the perfect beer to go with zombies is Victory Brewing Company’s Prima Pils. It’s refreshing and bright. Like there is a party in my mouth, and everyone’s invited. It’s brewed near Philly, so your regional suds establishment may or may not be able to get a hold of it.
In the past, favorite beers on par with Prima have been Tupper’s Hop Pocket Pils, of Ashburn VA, and Magic Hat’s Blind Faith out of Vermont.
Note: all these beers MUST be fresh. If you can’t tell what the bottling date was from the packaging, look for cloudiness of the liquid or dust on the bottle. Blind Faith was known for turning into beef broth after 3 months. It’s the nature of the microbrewed beast. No preservatives means they can go ‘bad’. Bad doesn’t mean pathogenic. It’s just the taste is off. Fresh, these beers are ambrosia. Nectar of the GODS.
If you like a bit more bitterness from your hops, go with Victory Hop Devil IPA.
Other very good beers to snatch up on the east coast, any Dogfish Head. Shelter Pale Ale is good and you can increase your hop character by working your way up the numbers of IPAs. 60 Minute, 90 Minute, 120 Minute. By now there is probably a 4 And A Half Hours IPA from Dogfish. For Zed hunting stick with 60 or 90 if you an advanced IPA drinker.
For more widely available beers, Sierra Nevada is one of the originals and still pretty good. I go with the Porter and the Pale Ale, but the Torpedo IPA is also very nice. The weather is getting colder, and the thought of a Porter appeals right now.
Few places can bottle a stout right. Pity. There are stouts in this country in little out of the way breweries that make Guinness taste like Lite Beer from Miller. Maybe not the ideal Zombie-Beer, though. Stick with Porter.
On the West Coast, I found this great little number called Racer 5. Stuff from Russian River Brewing is also good, but my exposure is limited. Anchor Steam, when fresh, can surprise you. It so hard to get it fresh out here. And they don’t date their packaging, so, sorry Mr. Maytag.
Is the beer near your house crap? Heck no. Colorado is supposed to be great for beer. The line from Cleveland to Milwaukee hits some very good small breweries. Bells in Kalamazoo, Goose Island, Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland. But I can’t get them here.
One day there is going to be a zombie outbreak near one of the small brewpubs and you’ll be trapped there surrounded. Surrounded by brain hungry undead and surrounded by delicious beer. I’d love to be trapped at McGuires Irish Pub in Pensacola that way. They have good doors that can be barricaded, good vantage points on the roof for sharpshooting, and great beer and steaks in the restaurant. A RoMERO mission could last as long as the food held up, even if we have to herd the last shamblor around for a few weeks to keep the party going.
And what if you can’t get ANY of these? What major beers might I recommend? Well, Yeungling is ok in a pinch. Guinness, naturally, is good, and widely available. If the beer is really cold and the sun really hot, then Rolling Rock can even appeal. I’ll even drink a Budweiser. The beer is well made and natural, and if you’ve been away from it for a while you can really taste the apple ester. Avoid Miller products. Chemicals and corn. Avoid Coors, too. It’s water. Literally. Killians Irish Red is Coors with caramel coloring added. Blue Moon is a Coors product. Leininklugel is a Miller property. The Leiney may be fine, but they do have the taint of Coors and their Franken-Hops and other chemical weirdness. Clear bottles is a bad sign. Either they raped the hops to compensate for the photo sensitive bond that turned hop flavor molecules into skunk, or they are skunked. I’ll only get Samuel Smith’s beers, in the clear bottle, if I can buy them by the opaque cardboard case. In a German Beergarten, keep your clear liter mug out of the direct sun, it can skunk before you finish it.
That’s my Zed safety tip for today. Remember, shootin THEN drinkin. Not the other way round.
What authority do I have to dispense such wisdom? A heckuva lot more than my authority on shooting. Trust Breda to tell you how libraries work, trust Tam to tell you how gunstores work, trust OldNFO to tell you how P3s work, trust Roberta to tell you how starships work, trust Frank to tell you how farms work, but trust me to tell you how breweries work.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
4 Rules
Yes, you have to violate the rules at times. To field strip a 1911, for instance. But when you do you should be thinking:
"Hey! I'm about to violate at least one of the 4 rules here in a moment. That's how Negligent Discharges happen. I better think really hard right now about what I am doing and triple check everything I do, and if I can avoid breaking 2 rules while breaking 1, I should do so. Or avoid breaking 3 rules when I have to break 2, etc."
"Hey! I'm about to violate at least one of the 4 rules here in a moment. That's how Negligent Discharges happen. I better think really hard right now about what I am doing and triple check everything I do, and if I can avoid breaking 2 rules while breaking 1, I should do so. Or avoid breaking 3 rules when I have to break 2, etc."
Don't be a Vigilante
Part II
This is fantasy. It's not real. It's a movie. Don't be that guy. Or that one. Or that girl. You get my point.
Kick-Ass
Trailer Park | MySpace Video
This is fantasy. It's not real. It's a movie. Don't be that guy. Or that one. Or that girl. You get my point.
Kick-Ass
Trailer Park | MySpace Video
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Wonder Materials!
We are gun types. As a breed, pretty conservative.
It’s why it takes a while to get us to switch from what worked 100 years ago, (wood and iron) to what can work today, (plastic and scandium type wonder metals). Sure, there are valid reasons to eschew the new until it is tested, but eventually we get beyond that with proven materials.
The conservativeness is not just in material, but in methods. How you hold and how you shoot.
The M-16 was introduced 50 years ago, with no wooden stock. But NOW people are finally getting around to messing with stock shape to make it easier to shoot. Look at the forestock dingus on the AR on this blog entry. A different way to grip it, less intrusive that just a pole that sticks out of the bottom. Maybe a BETTER way. We shall see. And made more possible by the materials we make forestocks out of. A block of walnut would work, but this plastic thingy can be lighter and less fragile than wood. Yay, plastics. And the feature of THIS improvement is that no new instruction is needed, and the feature is taken to naturally. Well, that’s nice.
It’s not just stuff like that. What an infantry soldier carries around to help him now, routinely, is miles ahead of what someone carried 25 years ago. Camelbacks, IR illumination and scopes, eyes-open red-dot optics, GPS location. The electronics is becoming smaller and lighter and less fragile all the time, too.
And it won’t just stop there. If someone figures a better way to hold a firearm, and not just with a new grip style, but by a radical new stock shape, AND that new things works better than what we do now, eventually that new, superior method will get through the conservative sensibilities and adopted. What form will that radical shape take? How about a pistol that wraps around your wrist like a fat sweat band and holds 50 rounds? Maybe? No? How about the US Army equipped with nothing but Cooper style bolt action Scout rifles? No? I really have no idea what that new form will be. If I did I’d patent it and get rich. But it could be comin’ down the pike even now.
It’s just fascinating. Whether or not the dingus is a revolutionary new method, or whether it's just a gimmick and will fade away in a year or two. .357 or .44 Special. Wing tip votice vertical stabilizer thingummy or personal jet-pack...
It’s why it takes a while to get us to switch from what worked 100 years ago, (wood and iron) to what can work today, (plastic and scandium type wonder metals). Sure, there are valid reasons to eschew the new until it is tested, but eventually we get beyond that with proven materials.
The conservativeness is not just in material, but in methods. How you hold and how you shoot.
The M-16 was introduced 50 years ago, with no wooden stock. But NOW people are finally getting around to messing with stock shape to make it easier to shoot. Look at the forestock dingus on the AR on this blog entry. A different way to grip it, less intrusive that just a pole that sticks out of the bottom. Maybe a BETTER way. We shall see. And made more possible by the materials we make forestocks out of. A block of walnut would work, but this plastic thingy can be lighter and less fragile than wood. Yay, plastics. And the feature of THIS improvement is that no new instruction is needed, and the feature is taken to naturally. Well, that’s nice.
It’s not just stuff like that. What an infantry soldier carries around to help him now, routinely, is miles ahead of what someone carried 25 years ago. Camelbacks, IR illumination and scopes, eyes-open red-dot optics, GPS location. The electronics is becoming smaller and lighter and less fragile all the time, too.
And it won’t just stop there. If someone figures a better way to hold a firearm, and not just with a new grip style, but by a radical new stock shape, AND that new things works better than what we do now, eventually that new, superior method will get through the conservative sensibilities and adopted. What form will that radical shape take? How about a pistol that wraps around your wrist like a fat sweat band and holds 50 rounds? Maybe? No? How about the US Army equipped with nothing but Cooper style bolt action Scout rifles? No? I really have no idea what that new form will be. If I did I’d patent it and get rich. But it could be comin’ down the pike even now.
It’s just fascinating. Whether or not the dingus is a revolutionary new method, or whether it's just a gimmick and will fade away in a year or two. .357 or .44 Special. Wing tip votice vertical stabilizer thingummy or personal jet-pack...
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
SCAR-H
Hey, what kind of magazine does the new SCAR-H, or Heavy, firing 7.62x51, use? Some sources say 'proprietary.' Others say it uses a M14 mag. It could be both...
I hope it's at least the latter or both. If I ever buy a SCAR, it would be the .308 version and I already have magazines.And the SCAR interests me enough to consider putting down the serious coin.
But that is less important than a widely deployed SCAR will mean more magazine and magazine pouches available for me and my M1A. And ammo.
I dunno... the SCAR-H is the bottom one. And that mag seems to have more of an angle to the bottom of it to be an exact M14 type. It's certainly different. Dunno if that means it's incompatible with my gun, if the shape and catchy thingies and holes are all in the right place and no new doohickies get in the way of M1A stuff...
Somebody point me to a US Army Ordnance document that says the SCAR-H and M14 have to have magazine interchangeability. That would be ideal, information wise.
I dunno... the SCAR-H is the bottom one. And that mag seems to have more of an angle to the bottom of it to be an exact M14 type. It's certainly different. Dunno if that means it's incompatible with my gun, if the shape and catchy thingies and holes are all in the right place and no new doohickies get in the way of M1A stuff...
Somebody point me to a US Army Ordnance document that says the SCAR-H and M14 have to have magazine interchangeability. That would be ideal, information wise.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Blog Meet, Nova
Well, that was fun!
The DC metropolitan area had a bit of snow, but that didn't stop the intrepid from treking out to Sterling Virginia to imbibe some beer and eat some beef on Repeal Day.
Lessee... Newbius was there, of course. And Old NFO. A frequent commenter and IRC poster known as Orangeneck (search the quoted comments...). A groupie named Stretch. And Newbius's fambly, daughter-son-missus.
It's Virginia, so none of us were strapped in the restaurant, known as Sweetwater Tavern. We all DID have out spare mags on us, however, so there was that.
Turk Turon couldn't make it due to other commitments, but had he been there he would have award Orangneck for travelling the farthest to get to the meet up. He came from some mythical place known as Lawn Guylend, Noo Yawk. Apparently this place is to the north.
Funny enough... It turns out that all of us there make our living off of computer contracting for Uncle Sucker. Parasites suckling off the teat of the hapless taxpayer. What do you want? Those zombies aren't gonna kill themselves. Well, all of us are Beltway Bandits except for Stretch. He sells crystals and incense at a New Age shop. But he USED to be contractor.
And Stretch had the quote of the night: "You'd be surprised how many Libertarian witches there are..."
The snow sorta precluded any shooting out of doors ahead of time, but Old NFO is scheming up the NEXT blog meet for the spring. No dinner or nuthin. No. Just a little get together on the grass at a place called Quantico. And that could be fun. This n00b could use a little info sucked up from an older hand at this. And it'd be fun to shoot to the Breda-Bell-Ringer M24. Just to touch something someone as famous as she touched... The rifle is like a holy relic now.
I also learned that OldNFO was a Navy mustang, so my respect and appreciation for him went up another notch. He WAS able to get some participants to an indoor range. We have this rinky dink little hole in the wall for indoor shooting in that part of Virginia. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's called NRA HQ.
During dinner some wanted to extend the blog meet to other bloggers, so JayG was called on the phone and chatted to, as well as FarmGirl. That was fun. Shoot, Jay got a long blog post out of a blogmeet he only attended virtually.
To show our appreciation of having the gumption to actually organize a blogmeet, Newbius was presented with a little token for his efforts. .45 ACP. Fifty of them. I wonder if he can find a use for that... I think that might be a fine tradition. If someone scraps up a blogmeet, doing all the organizational legwork, they need to get ammo for their trouble. It'll make more blogmeets happen, and that's a good thing. And someone owes RobertaX a case of bullets, for all the Indymeets.
All in all a great time was had. Thanks in part from our Michigander waitress known as Corey. She grew up in a hunting friendly house so she was actually enthused. Whatever they are paying her it is not enough.
The DC metropolitan area had a bit of snow, but that didn't stop the intrepid from treking out to Sterling Virginia to imbibe some beer and eat some beef on Repeal Day.
Lessee... Newbius was there, of course. And Old NFO. A frequent commenter and IRC poster known as Orangeneck (search the quoted comments...). A groupie named Stretch. And Newbius's fambly, daughter-son-missus.
It's Virginia, so none of us were strapped in the restaurant, known as Sweetwater Tavern. We all DID have out spare mags on us, however, so there was that.
Turk Turon couldn't make it due to other commitments, but had he been there he would have award Orangneck for travelling the farthest to get to the meet up. He came from some mythical place known as Lawn Guylend, Noo Yawk. Apparently this place is to the north.
Funny enough... It turns out that all of us there make our living off of computer contracting for Uncle Sucker. Parasites suckling off the teat of the hapless taxpayer. What do you want? Those zombies aren't gonna kill themselves. Well, all of us are Beltway Bandits except for Stretch. He sells crystals and incense at a New Age shop. But he USED to be contractor.
And Stretch had the quote of the night: "You'd be surprised how many Libertarian witches there are..."
The snow sorta precluded any shooting out of doors ahead of time, but Old NFO is scheming up the NEXT blog meet for the spring. No dinner or nuthin. No. Just a little get together on the grass at a place called Quantico. And that could be fun. This n00b could use a little info sucked up from an older hand at this. And it'd be fun to shoot to the Breda-Bell-Ringer M24. Just to touch something someone as famous as she touched... The rifle is like a holy relic now.
I also learned that OldNFO was a Navy mustang, so my respect and appreciation for him went up another notch. He WAS able to get some participants to an indoor range. We have this rinky dink little hole in the wall for indoor shooting in that part of Virginia. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's called NRA HQ.
During dinner some wanted to extend the blog meet to other bloggers, so JayG was called on the phone and chatted to, as well as FarmGirl. That was fun. Shoot, Jay got a long blog post out of a blogmeet he only attended virtually.
To show our appreciation of having the gumption to actually organize a blogmeet, Newbius was presented with a little token for his efforts. .45 ACP. Fifty of them. I wonder if he can find a use for that... I think that might be a fine tradition. If someone scraps up a blogmeet, doing all the organizational legwork, they need to get ammo for their trouble. It'll make more blogmeets happen, and that's a good thing. And someone owes RobertaX a case of bullets, for all the Indymeets.
All in all a great time was had. Thanks in part from our Michigander waitress known as Corey. She grew up in a hunting friendly house so she was actually enthused. Whatever they are paying her it is not enough.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Gun-Climate tie in
Holy Crap, National Review with another gun tie in. To sum up, the comparison is made by a commenter, recalling parallels between the academic fraud going on now, and the academic fraud that went on year ago wrt Bellesiles
The money quote, in toto:
Gunnies may recall Bellesiles as the fraud that made up data suggesting firearm were less prevalent in US History, and he was caught on it, and mostly humiliated. If you can shame a hoplophobe.
The money quote, in toto:
"Remember Michael Bellesiles? Arming America? Bancroft Award winner. Supposedly "lost" his data to a flooded basement or some such. What do we think of his "scholarship" now? What credence is given to his data? And how unwillingly were his supporters dragged to that condemnation? Where are his defenders?"
Gunnies may recall Bellesiles as the fraud that made up data suggesting firearm were less prevalent in US History, and he was caught on it, and mostly humiliated. If you can shame a hoplophobe.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
How many fish heads? FIVE!
What do you say we make apple juice, and fax it to each other?
~Burp~ smell that?
We'll put on Zeppelin and eat cheddar cheese.
[NSFW -language]
~Burp~ smell that?
We'll put on Zeppelin and eat cheddar cheese.
[NSFW -language]
Blog Meet Reminder
It's tonite, at the Sterling Virginia Sweetwater Tavern, at 5 PM.
Be there, or, kindly be square.
Thanks again to Newbius.
Be there, or, kindly be square.
Thanks again to Newbius.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Steampunk, F-n OSM!
I can hardly contain myself. WANT!
A Steampunk house to beat all Steampunk anythings.
And he's not even CLOSE to realizing his vision.
A Steampunk house to beat all Steampunk anythings.
And he's not even CLOSE to realizing his vision.
Zombie Trucksters
Golly, I like these. And they should be an inspiration for JayG Vehicle Meme.
A link to the ten best post apocalyptical survival vehicles. Non-fiction, too. Well, one is fictional. See if you can guess which one!
My fave is the SUSA, and it is the closest to what we use on RoMERO ops.
Though for personal comfort, I'd probably go with the Maximog. It's got a terlet.
A link to the ten best post apocalyptical survival vehicles. Non-fiction, too. Well, one is fictional. See if you can guess which one!
My fave is the SUSA, and it is the closest to what we use on RoMERO ops.
Though for personal comfort, I'd probably go with the Maximog. It's got a terlet.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Don’t Be A Vigilante
It’s one of the things you should have grown out of before you turned 21 and could buy a pistol. The fantasy that you can be Batman. The fantasy that you can be some avenging angel of justice, thwarting evil at every turn.
Resist this urge. Especially if you are and adult and a gun owner.
I admit, in my younger days, full of idealism, I had those thoughts. It’s one of the reasons I joined the military. I wanted to confront and overcome evil. To seek it out and triumph over it. Damn commies. It feels romantic, the idea of righteous vengeance. To put yourself in a position to be a hero. A little bit of that feeling and desire will always be there inside you. It's there in me. Don't trust it.
Just don’t. Mature beyond that urge. Be the OLDER kind of sheep dog, not the pup.
This is the second time this has happened in as many months. The other was folks in the Pacific NW getting CCWs and walking around in bad areas with the PURPOSE of possibly getting attacked so they could respond and take out a bad guy. They were… corrected… of that notion, if indeed that is what they were thinking.
The motivation is admirable, but enthusiasm can lead down dark paths, unintentionally. And the no-confidence, defeatist, Leftists are waiting for you to make that mistake, because it reinforces their defeatism and allows them to control YOU, politically. So resist the urge to be a vigilante. You don’t provoke evil so you can react against it. You don’t poke into dark corners to get evil to jump out at you so you can put it down. Evil men are not like coyotes. They aren’t a varmint or pest. They are persons, like you. Even though they might not deserve it, they do have rights. You have to be reactive, not proactive. It’s part of the deal. It’s part of the burden of carrying with you a deadly means, a weapon besides your brain that you are prepared to use when appropriate.
Know the appropriate.
‘Flushing out a bad guy’ from a park with a random LEO is not, generally, appropriate.
Resist this urge. Especially if you are and adult and a gun owner.
I admit, in my younger days, full of idealism, I had those thoughts. It’s one of the reasons I joined the military. I wanted to confront and overcome evil. To seek it out and triumph over it. Damn commies. It feels romantic, the idea of righteous vengeance. To put yourself in a position to be a hero. A little bit of that feeling and desire will always be there inside you. It's there in me. Don't trust it.
Just don’t. Mature beyond that urge. Be the OLDER kind of sheep dog, not the pup.
This is the second time this has happened in as many months. The other was folks in the Pacific NW getting CCWs and walking around in bad areas with the PURPOSE of possibly getting attacked so they could respond and take out a bad guy. They were… corrected… of that notion, if indeed that is what they were thinking.
The motivation is admirable, but enthusiasm can lead down dark paths, unintentionally. And the no-confidence, defeatist, Leftists are waiting for you to make that mistake, because it reinforces their defeatism and allows them to control YOU, politically. So resist the urge to be a vigilante. You don’t provoke evil so you can react against it. You don’t poke into dark corners to get evil to jump out at you so you can put it down. Evil men are not like coyotes. They aren’t a varmint or pest. They are persons, like you. Even though they might not deserve it, they do have rights. You have to be reactive, not proactive. It’s part of the deal. It’s part of the burden of carrying with you a deadly means, a weapon besides your brain that you are prepared to use when appropriate.
Know the appropriate.
‘Flushing out a bad guy’ from a park with a random LEO is not, generally, appropriate.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
NICS Abuse
By the Federal Goverment...
THIS is what a backdoor nationwide gun registration looks like.
And registration leads to confiscation. People in other countries that let a registration go through and got their guns confiscated by the gov't a little bit later warn us not to let something like this happen.
We've compromised enough, letting regulations pass, that appear like common sense safety firearm laws. They have done nothing to enhance safety and HAVE been a burden to the innocent and smack of incremental tyranny. How about the hoplophobes compromise for once on this, a inalienable human right, and loosen the transgressions against that right somewhere? I'm more than willing to meet in the middle and go from there. The thing is, the middle is a mile or two in non-restricted direction.
THIS is what a backdoor nationwide gun registration looks like.
And registration leads to confiscation. People in other countries that let a registration go through and got their guns confiscated by the gov't a little bit later warn us not to let something like this happen.
We've compromised enough, letting regulations pass, that appear like common sense safety firearm laws. They have done nothing to enhance safety and HAVE been a burden to the innocent and smack of incremental tyranny. How about the hoplophobes compromise for once on this, a inalienable human right, and loosen the transgressions against that right somewhere? I'm more than willing to meet in the middle and go from there. The thing is, the middle is a mile or two in non-restricted direction.
Regret? Naw...
But if I was starting up an interest in firearms NOW, instead of 10+ years ago, and I was true to form, my first handgun purchase would be the same as back then: A .357 revolver. Back then I got a 686 that I am VERY happy with. Like I said in the header, this is not a regret.
But if I was starting out NOW, I really look hard at the new revolvers available. Particularly the 327 M&P. I got to handle one at the Fun Show last weekend. It can shoot 8! shots of .357. You can use Moon Clips with it (though I'm not sure how, with a rimmed case...) It has a tritium front sight (the one at the show had it at least), and you can hang a light on it. A revolver like this could give semi-autos a run for their money in police departments. I guess Smith and Wesson should have come up with this in 1983. Had they, I'd probably own one now instead of the 686.
I noticed something else about the Gun Show a bit over a week ago. The plastic guns are invisible to me. So are the ARs for the most part. Why? I'm not in the market for a plastic gun, so my eyes pass over them. I can't tell you if I saw a XD, Glock, S&W, of BlurfleBoomer brand pistol. But I CAN tell you if that last table had Smiths or Tauri or Rossi revolvers.
But if I was starting out NOW, I really look hard at the new revolvers available. Particularly the 327 M&P. I got to handle one at the Fun Show last weekend. It can shoot 8! shots of .357. You can use Moon Clips with it (though I'm not sure how, with a rimmed case...) It has a tritium front sight (the one at the show had it at least), and you can hang a light on it. A revolver like this could give semi-autos a run for their money in police departments. I guess Smith and Wesson should have come up with this in 1983. Had they, I'd probably own one now instead of the 686.
I noticed something else about the Gun Show a bit over a week ago. The plastic guns are invisible to me. So are the ARs for the most part. Why? I'm not in the market for a plastic gun, so my eyes pass over them. I can't tell you if I saw a XD, Glock, S&W, of BlurfleBoomer brand pistol. But I CAN tell you if that last table had Smiths or Tauri or Rossi revolvers.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Chongo 2
And now I've tested all the .45 the same way. 1 bullet had a ding in the case rim area, so it was marginal. Good. I'm sure I'll buy from Georgia Arms again. I just won't rush to.
Uh Oh, Chongo, Range Report
[Chongo refers to a non-speaking, but annoyingly-loud character on Danger Island. Saw that on the Banana Splits.]
First the good news... I got the trigger squeeze problem I was plagued with about licked with my 1911. When I think in it right, and squeeze it right, I get inside the 8 ring. When I distract myself and yank, I know the hit is gonna be bad before I can shift focus off the front sight to check. Then I kick my metaphorical behind before the next shot, and that one squeezes off good.
So I fixed one problem.
But I got a different problem.
At the gun show, I mentioned buying a lot of ammo for range work. Decent priced stuff from Georgia Arms. I'm pretty sure it was Georgia Arms. I am double checking, but it's hard to find a table map of the gun show. They were sorta close to the corner NRA's table is in. Pretty sure it is GA Arms. Bought 2 ammo cans from them.
Georgia Arms looks to be a semi-factory ammo maker. A bit of a BIG home reload operation. They use new components or once-fired brass to make relatively cheap bulk ammo. I'm not saying anything bad about them, by any means. I just had an issue with one gun with one of their batches. This is my first experience with them.
Well, I was testing the new ammo AND the new mags. (I know. MISTAKE! Test one thing at a time, if something goes wrong suspect the ONE new thing...) In the middle of a magazine... ~click~
On close inspection, the slide is not all the way into battery. I can see brass, so there is at least a case in there. And the slide is jammed up tight. I can't budge it. My Sig is DAK, so double action only, so I can pull the trigger all day long on it, click click click. But I don't because the gun isn't in battery and that seems like a recipe for bad things to happen.
I summon the range guru. He determines it's a live round, and it isn't budging. So the softface hammer is introduced. A few light taps and it's fully seated. I ducked behind the partition as he fired it off. It worked normally, but we didn't find the ejected brass for inspection.
Maybe that was an anomalie. So I continue.
The same thing happened next mag, but I can push the slide into place. It goes off when I pull the trigger, then. The local guru may have found the brass, and it may have had a light strike on the primer before the good strike.
To be sure it isn't the mag (though they weren't suspected at this point) I loaded from a box of factory ammo known to work fine and no hiccup presented itself.
So the likely culprit is cases that are a little too fat. Or the bullet is too far out, or the chamber was dirty/gritty, or there is a burr in the chamber, or the brass was too thick. But I'm thinkin the cases were too fat. Out of spec on the dimensions. The fat ones are stripping off the mag as they should, but then sticking in the chamber and jamming up the works.
The brass is Winchester or Speer. Knowing GA Arms it is new brass or fired once.
It might work fine in someone elses gun, just not in mine. Gonna see if MBtGE wants them. His Beretta prefers round nose FMJ bullets anyway.
Before that, on the suggest of IRC user C-90_Fla from Gunblogger Conspiracy, I'm gonna take the barrel off the gun and drop in a large sample of bullets from this batch, to see if any stick part way down. That will confirm the dimensional integrity. Maybe they were shot at a cop range out of Glocks and the bottoms of the cases are bulging. I'll report back. Same with the can of .45 on the 1911 barrel, just to see. Wait right here. Won't be long.
~~~~~~
Ok. Done. Found 4 more that wouldn't fall into the chamber of the barrel and then fall our again, via gravity. So 6 out of 500 isn't bad. IF that is the last of my problems.
~~~~~~~~~~
DANGER ISLAND!
*Horrible show. Not up to today's political sensibilities, inexpert slapstick, poor Saturday-morning acting, African Leopards in the Caribbean... Yay 1960's. But it was a kid's serial.
First the good news... I got the trigger squeeze problem I was plagued with about licked with my 1911. When I think in it right, and squeeze it right, I get inside the 8 ring. When I distract myself and yank, I know the hit is gonna be bad before I can shift focus off the front sight to check. Then I kick my metaphorical behind before the next shot, and that one squeezes off good.
So I fixed one problem.
But I got a different problem.
At the gun show, I mentioned buying a lot of ammo for range work. Decent priced stuff from Georgia Arms. I'm pretty sure it was Georgia Arms. I am double checking, but it's hard to find a table map of the gun show. They were sorta close to the corner NRA's table is in. Pretty sure it is GA Arms. Bought 2 ammo cans from them.
Georgia Arms looks to be a semi-factory ammo maker. A bit of a BIG home reload operation. They use new components or once-fired brass to make relatively cheap bulk ammo. I'm not saying anything bad about them, by any means. I just had an issue with one gun with one of their batches. This is my first experience with them.
Well, I was testing the new ammo AND the new mags. (I know. MISTAKE! Test one thing at a time, if something goes wrong suspect the ONE new thing...) In the middle of a magazine... ~click~
On close inspection, the slide is not all the way into battery. I can see brass, so there is at least a case in there. And the slide is jammed up tight. I can't budge it. My Sig is DAK, so double action only, so I can pull the trigger all day long on it, click click click. But I don't because the gun isn't in battery and that seems like a recipe for bad things to happen.
I summon the range guru. He determines it's a live round, and it isn't budging. So the softface hammer is introduced. A few light taps and it's fully seated. I ducked behind the partition as he fired it off. It worked normally, but we didn't find the ejected brass for inspection.
Maybe that was an anomalie. So I continue.
The same thing happened next mag, but I can push the slide into place. It goes off when I pull the trigger, then. The local guru may have found the brass, and it may have had a light strike on the primer before the good strike.
To be sure it isn't the mag (though they weren't suspected at this point) I loaded from a box of factory ammo known to work fine and no hiccup presented itself.
So the likely culprit is cases that are a little too fat. Or the bullet is too far out, or the chamber was dirty/gritty, or there is a burr in the chamber, or the brass was too thick. But I'm thinkin the cases were too fat. Out of spec on the dimensions. The fat ones are stripping off the mag as they should, but then sticking in the chamber and jamming up the works.
The brass is Winchester or Speer. Knowing GA Arms it is new brass or fired once.
It might work fine in someone elses gun, just not in mine. Gonna see if MBtGE wants them. His Beretta prefers round nose FMJ bullets anyway.
Before that, on the suggest of IRC user C-90_Fla from Gunblogger Conspiracy, I'm gonna take the barrel off the gun and drop in a large sample of bullets from this batch, to see if any stick part way down. That will confirm the dimensional integrity. Maybe they were shot at a cop range out of Glocks and the bottoms of the cases are bulging. I'll report back. Same with the can of .45 on the 1911 barrel, just to see. Wait right here. Won't be long.
~~~~~~
Ok. Done. Found 4 more that wouldn't fall into the chamber of the barrel and then fall our again, via gravity. So 6 out of 500 isn't bad. IF that is the last of my problems.
~~~~~~~~~~
DANGER ISLAND!
*Horrible show. Not up to today's political sensibilities, inexpert slapstick, poor Saturday-morning acting, African Leopards in the Caribbean... Yay 1960's. But it was a kid's serial.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
