Thanks a bunch, Tam.

Because of Tam's post about umami, I haven't stopped thinking about steak and eggs.

Guess what's for dinner at my house tonite, now?

Wow

I actually saw a Maryland license plate on my commute this morning that said "NOOBAMA."

It was a Crown Vic, with no other stickers on it.

This state is 66% Democrat. And the GOP types are to the west and on the Eastern Shore. Between Baltimore and DC it is probably 75% Democrat. And a big employer in the DC region is, obviously, the federal gummint. It's a Company Town.

I don't remember THIS much hostility for that idjit Carter ~spit!~

I think the President's numbers may be worse than the polls and MSM suggests. Poor guy. What do you think he'll do to occupy his time in 2013?

Rifle Range

Sorry about the late report. I meant to have this out by Tuesday, but crap got in the way of the picture taking. Alternately, I hope to see Saucy Trollop on Saturday for some buddy-buddy range time action. Aw, yeah... The fire may be extinguished, but we still have OnTarget range time. How many of YOU can say that? "I operate firearms around my ex. While she operates her own firearm. And we hardly ever shoot at each other."

I gotta trust my elevation setting from the previous session. There was a REASON it was set at 14 clicks and not the presumed 9.

Hold type is also important to remember. When I shot initially I was holding lollipop. Partly because I forgot that that was not my preference, but also partly to see where the shots hit. They hit low. The rest of the session was adjusting my hold to bisect the circle and getting my elevation set back.

If a deer appears within 25 yards, it is toast.

At 50, it’s still toast (there is some .22 in there).

Initially at 100 yards, that deer has a chance. Some of these were OFF the paper and below.

But that chance went down quite a bit after some practice. And I am less embarrassed.

And the final 6 shot are circled, and they went off in pairs, the ones at 12 o'clock first, then the left 2 and then the right 2. There is a mix of early and late shots on this target.

And I'm happy it shoots a little high at 100 and on at 25. It means I'm probably on bull at 200 or so. My skill is approaching volley-fire anyway at ranges much more than that, without more practice. Practice is the remedy. If I want to hit anything I can see. I could 'see' better with a scope, but shooting better is a matter of trigger time at the rifle range. About the only skill I've honed at pistols that helps at the rifle range is concentration, especially on breath and trigger control.

Of course, I didn’t try any actual hunting ammo. This is all shooting with South African milsurp. That will be the next course of action. Actually BUYING some primo hunting ammo and testing THAT. Probably should get something in the 150 grain range, a similar weight as this milsurp (147gr). An excuse to shop at Bass Pro. Maybe get some long johns, too.

Another thing… People that hunt with iron sights at targets 100+ yards away? These people are pretty good at shooting, I’ve come to appreciate them and that skill. And I mean when they shoot and hit the vitals, not merely hit somewhere. I can see a groundhog 100 yards away… Can I hit it? Maybe. Every time? Maybe. I’d want more practice…

Which means I need to expend more rifle ammo at the range. Get THAT habit a rolling. THIS is why I want property in the country. An acre would be more than enough, as long as the property was only 40 feet wide.

I did have an old epiphany. The elevation knob for Garand, M1As etc can be adjusted one you are happy with the number of clicks. The 'book' tells you to set it on '2' I always wondered by 2 and not '0' for your zero. Now I sorta know. You want to be on zero at 200 yards, and that mean your are a wee bit high at 100, a wee bit low at 300, and doing relatively fine and expedient for the whole gambit from 300 down. I finally put two and two together on this concept recently. I know. I'm a slowhead.

Also, I tested a 5 round magazine, and one of my 20 round magazines failed. Setting it aside to permanently mark it so I will never use it again. It's problem? Wouldn't push the next round up into place at the feed lips so the cycling bold wouldn't grab it. A bang on the bottom of the magazine might get it up, or might not. Regardless, if you DID get the next round to feed, the round after it ALSO didn't pop up high enough.

Noted

I figured this covered some interests of my fellow bloggers.


Manliness and bacon are 2 things Breda and Brigid, and a whole buncha us, kinda likes, if I'm not mistaken. I think the only thing missing is beer. (Well, I'm not saying that I like Manliness the exact same way as Breda or Brigid...)


This is what touched me the most:


“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.” -Thomas Jefferson



Well TJ, I GOT that. I'm wealthy enough to have the cottage, bacon, and books, and I choose which friends to spend time with, with few outside demands on my time. It's not that bad, Tommy. Not at all.

It might make a body a touch complacent at times, but so would needing to work 12 hours a day to get the crop in and the cows milked. At least complacent on what happens apart from your immediate vicinity.

Reading accounts of rations in the US War of Rebellion, the Confederates were reduced to "parched corn and fat back" during lean times, and this was considered a bad thing. Bacon and cornbread to eat? That couldn't have been an issue. Maybe they just didn't have ENOUGH? More likely.


Gun Content? Near zero. Reference to a war... the survival value of cured pig meat and cornmeal... self-reliant manliness... Forgive me, I was out late after work.

==========

Ooo, another bit of trivia about Tho. Jefferson? His second vice president was George Clinton.

sigh

Even very Liberal columnist Richard Cohen is wishing we could have grown-ups in charge of the reins of gummint again.

Welcome to the club.

RONI carbine

More carbine...

Long readers and followers of this blog know of my hankering for a carbine, but not finding one that fits my requirements. I was ruined when I learned of the existence of the Camp Carbine only to have my hopes dashed when I found out it's not a common design motif or in current production.

The Firearm Blog points to something pops up every now and again. The RONI Tactical yada yada slap a pistol onto a carbine frame, but now fitting XDs instead of just Glocks. And their is a previous solution with the 1911 with the Mechtech.



I am blinded by my desire for a carbine that I can't see the flaws. Or hear a lot of my fellow gunnies snickering behind me. I kinda want this and I kinda really don't. Back to the drawing board.

=====

In other carbine news, the Beretta CX4 now comes in .45. So that is something...



Seruously, it's interesting the way some carbine are perceived:

M1 Carbine: honorable piece of history
AR in .223: most popular rifle in the country
Camp Carbine: old school oddity, a bit on the cheap side, and no longer made
Kel Tec: innovative plastic, even cheaper
Hi-Point: Cheap! Cheapcheapcheap. And fugly.
CX4: Battlestar Galactica!
RONI: ~titter!~
DeLisle: a what?

Hooray for Bloomberg

Heard this on the radio this morning and saw it on Alphecca.

Mayor Bloomberg and MAIG (Illegal Mayors Against Guns, because, you know, about half of them are under felony indictment) is complaining about guns again.

Wonderful!

Why? Well, there is no real reason for gun owners to get worked up about the election in November. Since the proposed lead ammo ban was quickly quashed by Obama's team there is little concrete anti-civil-rights proposals that gunnies could point to. Is it because this crop of Leftists aren't anti-gun? I'm sure that's not the case. They are just afraid to rile a motivated block of voters unfriendly to their tyrannical candidates. THAT's why Obama's people nip in the bud anything that smacks of gun control. They want their team to get re-elected in 2012.

They wanted to win in 2010, too, but a wild card in the form of the Mayor of New York , someone they CAN'T control, just made a bleak prospect bleaker by merely TALKING and lying about gun control. To what end? Does he want to enlist the legions of gun-banners to vote in 2010? There aren't any legions. Apart for a few eligible unindicted co-conpirators in MAIG and the 4 dues paying members of the Brady Campaign, the votes can be counted on ones physical digits and still have some toes left over. The pro-freedom crowd, however, has a few millions of advocates that now have confirmation that Leftist are unfriendly to the Second Amendment. Probably all the other Amendments, too. Bloomberg is trying to wake an unfriendly (to him) giant for some reason.

Even the SMART guys on the anti-gun side are pretty stupid.

Gettin the Definition Straight

I got to thinking. I can't be the only guy that came up with a term like MetroCon. So I let my Google fingers do the walking and BING! Nope, lots of people pre-date my usage.

Wait.

Conservatives don't manscape! They use soap. Not conditioners and other 'product'. A man shouldn't smell like that. That Old Spice guy should have taught you that. A man should smell like Vitalis, Aqua Velva, tobacco, sweat, bourbon, and occasionally... methane.

Anyway. My reference is to a conservative that grew up in the city or suburbs and have less contact with rural ideas or issues. Their boy scout camping trips involved a tent on the baseball field of the high school 4 blocks up the street. George Will, David Brooks, and Jonah Goldberg types. Though Jonah DOES vacation in Alaska. I believe his wife is from there. So he gets bonus credit.

Metrocons can (emphasis on the maybe) be hostile to or merely apathetic to 2nd Amendment rights, but usually because of lack of exposure to firearms. Or that is my theory at least.

Finally

I finally got some rifle range time. I feel a bit better. I will post a report later this week.

I know I packed wet wipes with the range bag. I wonder where they went...

And you know what? I am not that good a shot. Deer within 25 yards? No problem. 100 yards? Not without 40 practice shots it seems.

Still sorta searching

For blog material. Nothing is really 'popping' you know. I think I'll drive up to Ohio and look around.

Multi-Tool

So gun types are often knife types too. I have a few knives

I have a few multi-tools too. Like Swiss Army knives. But a few years back Leatherman doubled down on the Swiss gadgets with more capable gadgets. REAL pliers being the biggest deal. I have various of these. I think my preferred model is the Blast. It has a blade, screwdriver, scissors, bottle/can opener, along with the pliers.

MBtGE showed me the new Skeletool. It’s more compact and looks kinda cool. And it is near perfect in its simplicity. Aside from the standard pliers it has 4 screw driver heads, a blade, and a nifty bottle opener as part of its carabiner clip. I really like it.

The only thing I’ll truly miss is the scissors. Maybe they’ll figure out a way to cram those onto this package someday and produce the Skeletool II.

Also, what might be missed, is the can opener. Multi-tool can openers are weak sauce and not really effective, and cans come with pop off lids a lit these days. But dangit, when you NEED a can opener you really need it and even the gimped jackknife type opener is better than nothing. Better salt your Bug Out Bag with P-38s or the equivalent if you go the skeletool router.

As for scissor, I kinda like the SMALL Swiss Army knives. Plus they also come with tweezers.

So, for multi-tool routine carry, I'm going with the Skeletool. But I'm strategically placing the bulkier multitools and mini-Swiss in various places, too, so they are conveniently gotten to, but not on my person.

BRAAAAAAAAAAAHHMMMMMMM!!!

"This is our Rendevous with Destiny, we'll preserve this last best hope for man on earth, or we'll sentence our children to take the last steps into 1000 years of darkness."

Jump In!

Barbie girl dj mix. by tomfastandfurious

Parallel Duty

Imagine this is a parallel universe, just as a thinking exercise.

Imagine that in this universe someone thinks it’s a good idea to actually hire T-Bolt as a Law Enforcement Officer type. There would be all the requisite training and what not. And I would have to interact with the public in my day to day work, and not just hide in an office behind a desk. So the whole 1-Adam-12 get up with uniform, badge, gunbelt, radio and what not.

Now imagine that the firearm policy in this department is: “We carry Glocks but they make some exceptions and allow people that ask to carry S&W M&Ps. There are no other exceptions.”

Well, ick. I don’t like either of those choices. And not just because they are plastic guns. I truly detest the trigger feel on the S&W and I don’t like how the Glocks fit my hand. I shoot neither well (relative to how I do with other models). I do ok with the XD flavors, though, oddly.

I guess I’d carry the Glock as a duty weapon, as I hate those less, and I’d have a chance to train and practice with it long before I graduated training, but I sure wouldn’t be happy about the whole deal.

What WOULD I like to carry? The 1911? Perhaps. I think I might prefer a modern revolver on my duty belt, really. 8 shots of .38 +P. Yes. Either of those over a plastic gun of any flavor, or any SIG I've shot.

But I, truly, wouldn’t be happy in my law enforcement career in this parallel universe unless parts of my personality changed too. Interacting with people, and a lot of those people kinda sketchy, is not my cuppa. And I don’t enjoy banging heads enough for that whole ‘maintain order’ aspect. I think to be a good cop you have to at least not mind getting into scraps and establishing a physical pecking order out there. And that’s not me.

Are You Ready?

Coming this Halloween to AMC...




Lotta gunplay, huh? With that whole 28 Day Later setup vibe at the beginning.

Awful waste of a GTO too.

Civil Discourse

Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell is having an internet discussion with a Brady member, and it is very well done. He says pretty much everything that I would say if I was half as good as him in expressing myself in writing. So if you would know my mind... One of those Read The Whole Thing instances. Git!

9 Myths

Plenty of other bloggers have covered this ground before me. Debunking 9 Classic Myths and Whoppers... But you know us gun-culture types... we love to hash over our contentious issues. Let me sum and see how far off base this guys is...

And I need fodder.

Myth #1 – Caliber Matters
Ok I can understand that. It the whole "if you find yourself in a gunfight, it's a good idea to have a gun." And since I got a .38 snubbie for the same reason RSKTKR carries a .22, I can't fault him too much there.

Myth #2 – Firearms Experts
Gun shop guys are often attributed more firearm knowledge than they probably deserve? Ok, I'll agree to this.

Myth #3 – Dryfiring Damages Weapons
I'll go along with this too. I like his example "The Marine Corps has made dry firing an art form with a week of Boot camp devoted to it." Heh.

Myth #4 – “I’m a Great Shot!”
This is the whole 'good on a square range, a shambles in a real situation' thing. Yeah, he's right about the people (myself included) that are a bit too confident in their untested abilities.

Myth #5 – “A (insert gun here) isn’t very accurate”
Pfff. True.

Myth #6 – “I know how to shoot I’m a Police officer, Marine..(Fill in the Blank)”
I don't know how to shoot and I was in the military, so proof positive it's a myth here.

Myth #7 – “Kneeling/Modern Isosceles/Monica/(insert technique here) isn’t comfortable.”
He concentrates on gun-fighting, the pudding-proof therein.

Myth #8 – “I can’t shoot a (insert gun here) because of the grip angle.”
True. You may not PREFER a gun's configuration, but... Pah! This is more gun fighting reference. In a fight, if you stumbled over a 19th Century French Pepperbox, loaded, you'd shoot it.

Myth #9 – “Guns need to be cleaned every time they are fired.”
I like to clean mine, but I don't always. Especially if I'm going to shoot it again in a week. And there are plenty of example on the internet of people consciously NOT cleaning their range gun to see how reliable it remains. And people have been doing that test BEFORE the invention of the internet, too.

===================

So... Near no contention at all on these 9 myths. At least from me. In fact, I can't think of another gunnie that holds to any of the Whoppers. Or if they do, it's just one. About the only one I even look askance at is #1 used in the extreme. I, personally, would not feel comfortable with a .22 as my carry piece. Unless I needed something SO small that this was the only thing I could carry:

But those myths sure ARE out there. If they are prevalent anywhere it is among the more casual shooter. The once or twice a year type that doesn't want to know much more about it than he or she knows right now. Just no interest. Is it worth working hard to correct them?

21 September

Bust

The rifle range was a bust. Crowded and I didn't get there soon enough. Never go to the range and have plans for something in the early afternoon. New rule. I had to bail (bale?) before I got a turn. So that makes me kinda salty.

What did I have to do that afternoon? The crotchety neighbor Archie was expecting his grandsons, and they wanted to a little show and tell with the firearms. Me with mine, and the eight year old with his. The boy is 8 and makes relatively realistic replica firearms out of paper. He's shooting for something like this, and it was pretty neato! Made up for missing out on the shooty shooty a little bit. He may have used this tutorial:

Leonard Skinner

Perhaps THE most influential gym teacher of all time, namesake of Lynyrd Skynyrd, has met his reward. Requiescant in pace