Friday, April 30, 2021

No, not the 'he was a vegetarian and nice to dogs'

You can say what your will about Hitler.  He was the personification of evil and doom for friend and foe alike. Pure evil, just straight to the bone.  That he made those awful little cars possible.  

But he did accomplish one very good thing that no one else was able to do despite lots of trying.  He did manage to kill Hitler.  Shoulda done it 6 years sooner. Coulda saved a lot of trouble.


Thursday, April 29, 2021

All gun control is racist

And the repeal of this North Carolina law is an effort to be less racist.  

In 1919 you want a pistol purchase permit you had to get the high sign from the sheriff, in person.  Be sure you weren't a felon and had 'good moral character'.  Meaning, you weren't a black person.  Which, 100 years ago, was practically the same thing to them sheriffs.  

Good on ya, North Carolina.  One less racist gun laws.  Thing is, 90+% of gun laws are similarly racist.  Prolly be best to get rid of em all.  Get back to gov't not infringing on keeping and bearing.  

So, now Sheriff Taylor in Mayberry won't be squinting at you funny for wanting a Smith & Wesson Model 10 for home defense.  Notice you rarely see black people on the streets of that town...  

Cam Edwards, with Petrolino and Knighton, came at this.  I bet Maj does too.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

WWII

When I was younger and a baby historian, I, we, would play what if conjecture games.  

"If Germany had built 40 more U-Boats they would have won WWII"

"If Germany had built 400 more ME-262s they would have won WWII"

"If Germany had started the invasion of the USSR 2 weeks earlier they would have won WWII"

"If Germany had actually set it economy on a war footing in early 1940 they would have won WWII"

Now I am older and hopefully wiser.  My conclusions have changed.  They were never going to win WWII.  Had they done X or Y they might have extended the war a few more months, but that was only delaying the inevitable.  If they had contained themselves to JUST Britain as an enemy, not declared on the US, or invaded Russia, I still think they lose.  The way looks different, but they still lose.    

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Well, that's good.

Support for stricter gun control drops.


But so is this.


SCOTUS TAKES A CASE.


Well, it is good if Roberts doesn't fink.  Big if.  He may have already.


"How could the CJ Finkosaurus fink this up. T-Bolt."


By re-writing the question.  

Monday, April 26, 2021

Ammo Prices

 Blazer 9mm is down to only 84 cents a round.  Getting better...

As Is Tradition

 The Monday bupkis.

Where I am sans fodder.

It's not like I haven't occasionally thought about firearms this weekend, I just haven’t thought anything blog worthy.

Saw a really nice picture of a gunsmith workshop on Facebook, but I can’t share that.  It was neat and well lit and had a window to another part of the shop.  I've always appreciated good workshops.  I didn't spend nearly enough time in mine, and now that my bad back prevents me, I really want to.

Fixit ideas on the back proceed, I am just impatient with the progress speed.  Got a line on some ablasion...

Few chairs are comfortable.  I got a prescription for a medical-chair at work, but I tried people that already had a chair for bad backs.  They were all worse.  The regular Aeron I already have is the best of them.  And at home, the La-Z-Boy in front of the TV, actually.  I feel like Roald Dahl.  Unable to get comfortable writing anywhere but the comfy chair in the writer's shed.  




Sunday, April 25, 2021

PBJ

 

Podcast Narrators

I am starting to develop preferences in my podcast readers, and will listen to things I never would have considered because I like their voice.   

Anna Simon, a Dutch doctor looks like she has a hobby of volunteering for Librivox.  English is her second language, but she is pretty precise except with a few pronunciation quibbles.  Her voice is delicious.

And I mentioned Kristin Hughes before.

I am told Mark Nelson for scifi titles, but haven't tried him yet.

Friday, April 23, 2021

The internet is a cesspit

But I have learned so much from amateurs and hobbies on YouTube.  Stuff I never would have gotten a proper inkling from a book in the 1990s, say.

Because of YouTube I know what a Tourbillon is, and how it goes together.

You know what I haven't learned?  Gunsmithing.  Well, advanced gunsmithing.  Tho I am all ears if you have a suggestion on a channel.  Some offering on Brownells come closest. 

The finer points of customizing a 1911 aren't conducive to mere 15 minute videos, and need more in person hands on instruction, I found.

Don't get me wrong, field and detail stripping videos are a tremendously valuable resource.  They just aren't "pull the trigger a little bit.  Feel that wiggle?  That's loose disconnector."

But the only way I was going to get insight on cutting an acme thread apart from in person training is a demo on an internet vidja,.

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Covid Deaths

 Whatcha think?


The deaths in the first hump (1) are old people in crowded parts of the county. The deaths in the second hump(2) are when it spreads to the county as a whole.  Just a theory.  Nice to see the drop off now. 


And below is nationwide.  Also good news, trendwise.  I don't see how this thing can flare up again without a massive mutation that defeats all the vax.


 

My governor has been pleased that all the vulnerable in Maryland have gotten at least the one shot.  Over 4 million shots in a state of 6 million.  1.7 million fully vaccinated in a state with only a million people over age 65 and thus extra vulnerable.  If you are over age 50, a healthcare worker or other essential personnel, or vulnerable due to some other condition and you haven't gotten a shot in this state yet it's because you don't want one or can't be arsed.  He is now focused on encouraging college students to get the stick.  And contacting 70,000 Medicaid recipients that haven't yet come in.

Death numbers will never get to be a big hump again at this rate.  A massive vax-defeating mutation or a new virus will have to be released in Wuhan for that to happen.  

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Belt

Thanks to Amazon order history, I know that this brand of gun belt will last exactly 3.5 years before it delaminates. 

To be a good stiff leather belt, desirable for those that are unaware, normal belt leather is sewn to another normal belt layer.  Inside to inside.  Of the cow skin.  Double layers make the belt double priced, typically.  With really good stitching, this will last a while.  Duluth Trading company makes a "Lifetime Belt" where the stitching lasts a year and the two leather layers come apart a little.  The scourage of delamination.  Which is sub-optimal.  Fine for holding up pants when it delaminates.  Starts to be an issue with holding up pants and holster.  

All this is for a belt that looks fine at work and doesn't scream, "Steel core camo tacti-belt, watch out this guy is prolly a retired Army Ranger or something.  Or wishes her were so."  I dunno how long them fancier belts last.  Haven't tested them.  But would buy this brand again.  Next brand to test is Bigfoot.



Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Thanks to Patriot's Day

The Monday bupkis shifted to Tuesday.

It's 4/20.  Enjoy your Lucifer's Lettuce you perverted hippy reprobates.  When the reefer-induced psychosis hits, I hope you are nowhere near me.  Don't get confrontational with the cops, they'll just air you out.

My local Bass Pro occasionally gets ammo in.  I am told the price is reasonable.  This mean it gets hoovered up with a quickness.  I guess it would help to be lucky or to know someone that knows when the ammo truck is due. 

That Maxine Waters is a piece of work, isn't she?

Anime would be good if it weren't for all the Anime enthusiasts.  

Critical Race Theory Educrat enthusiasm, plague-panic-porn, wokesters, riot season, Domestic Neo-Marxist...  I dunno, it feels like it was made worse to distract folks from other more important things.  I'll miss Taiwan when it is gone.  And Ukraine.  

Monday, April 19, 2021

Patriot's Day

 That day in 1775 where Paul Revere rode out and said "The White Tails are coming!  The White Tails are coming!"

And that is why we have a Second Amendment to allow us to own lever-action .30-30s and .30-06 bolt guns and we are lucky for that much.  Defeat the scourge of deer coming out of Boston.  Have you seen what happens when a truck hits one of those on the highway?  Phew.  

Look are this green bastard looking out for an 8-pointer near the Old North Bridge.  




The reminds me...


Maybe they should mandate everyone wear a helmet all the time.  Falls where folks bump their head kills WAY more people than ARs.

Ear and eye pro.  In the unlikely even an AR does show up to the party, anyway.  I know it is SUPER unlikely, but, better safe than sorry.  Sorta like the chance someone would get a blood clot coincidence with a J&J vax.  

Safety first.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Pufft! Pufft!

 Is this a 1964 spoof of a British spy movie?  How many assassins does the Senator think are out there with magical suppressors that make pistols quieter than a bow and arrow?


This makes me feel pathetic

 He was much harder on his own body that I ever was on mine.  But here he is.  My age.  Playing professional Hockey with his sons, and still good at it.  There exists Howe to Howe assist-goals.  A professional hockey player has shouted "Dad!" during a match and gotten a puck passed to him.  

Gordie strode the world as a god.  


Saturday, April 17, 2021

Old Time Radio

I been listening to a lot of podcasts.  Free audiobooks, and old radio shows.  Nero Wolfe is a favorite right now, but there is a literal lifetime of commutes on available out there.  For free.  

Sometime you hear snippets of commercial for upcoming programs.  70 year old promotional commercials.  "Three chimes means good times at NBC.  Stay tuned after the Adventures of Nero Wolfe for an all new hilarious episode of Duffy's Tavern."

Having grown up when I did, the TV broadcast old TV shows.  In the sitcoms of the 50s (Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy...) you can feel and hear the exact same beats from the radio shows. It's all a continuum.  

I wonder if I'd feel the same things from reading popular magazines from the 20s and 30s?  Short stories, from the Saturday Evening Post.


Friday, April 16, 2021

Set Screw

These are set screws.


I've always heard em called a set screw, but they apparently have other names.   LOTS of em.  More than you'd think for something so tiny. 

Recently I heard it called worm screw, from some New Zealander.  

First heard grub screw from this guy. A few years back.

I think they are called 'spanners' in some parts of Britain.

NEVER heard it referred to a blind screw, tho.  I'll have to keep an ear out.


Make up your mind.  Decide on a name and stick with it.  Like Jo Blocks.  Folks call em Jo Blocks.  THey never call em Frank Blocks.  That would be silly.

Wait. They also call em Gage Blocks.  WHO THE HELL IS GAGE?!




Thursday, April 15, 2021

First CDC was all about the Gun Control

Firearms are a disease/health-threat or summat

Now racism is a serious public health threat, according to the CDC.

Well, everyone now knows that gun control is racism. So... I guess CDC did a 180 and it on our side now.

Good.


Wednesday, April 14, 2021

20 years

Getting out after 20 years gives Al Qaeda a propaganda victory, Ms. Cheney?

You know what wouldn't have given them a propaganda victory?  Victory victory.  Like 16 years ago.  Too bad you don't know someone that could have helped pull that off, back then.  Prolly shoula been 18+ years ago.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Should you small-of-back carry

Well?

My answer?  Yes.  Obviously.  Better than a shoulder holster, or in your sock, like Sonny Crocket.

But I learned everything I know about CCW from hoody-wearing Axel Foley. And he carried small of back, so it must be best.  

*These are all opinions from 1986 T-Bolt.  Mileage may very.  But the Ponitac Fiero is a sweet machine.

Yup, Axel and his sweet Beretta wonder-nine carried in the small of his back. What could be better?

whisper-whisper-whisper...

What?!  It was a Hi-Power?  Well, so much for my memory on a subject I was still unfamiliar with 30+ years ago.   So am I thinking of Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon for the Beretta?  Yeah

So, yeah, people don't carry at 6 o'clock much nowadays or when I started this blog.  When I started, most erryone was strong side hip, off center, IWB for concealed carry.  Now, a dozen plus years later a lot more Appendix carry you didn't see in 2007.

Things change and Beverly Hills Cop might not have held up as a training aid like I thought and HOLY GOD!!!


What is that?!  WTF IS THAT?!

That is Foley's boss, in that same movie, carrying a 1911, Mexican style, at his 9 o'clock, for a right hand draw.  No holster.  Thin, stylish, 1980s belt....  Shiver.  And the dude was an ACTUAL Detroit homicide detective when he wasn't acting.  So this was an actual thing.  Or may have been.  

Not to self.  In the future.  Don't take training tips from Eddie Murphy movies or Detroit homicide detectives.  

Seriously, appendix carry has it's ups and downs, but a big up is retention.  Easier to surprise you and snatch your gun if it is to your rear.  


Monday, April 12, 2021

Cautious Optimism

 Was referred to a chiropractor by the neurosurgeon. "It can't hurt and it might help."

He does four things

Zaps the lumbar area with a tens unit.

The chiro adjustment, on just the back.


Laser therapy on the feet soles for the neuropathy.




And decompression of the lumbar spine on a special table.



And I am starting to notice a bit of improvement.  The pain is still 3-4-5, but more 3 and less 5.  I haven't been 1-2-3 since I was on steroids and oxy for a week and a half.  We shall see.  As I write this it is 4PM on a Saturday and I haven't taken any Advil.  I am uncomfortable, yes, but I've been worse, and anything to give my organs a break I try to do.  

If indeed it is improving...  The pace is still morale-sappingly slow.  

Sunday, April 11, 2021

More like 'he's a moose knuckle'

Does this pic mean the ATF nominee David Chipman just earned a Pat Rogers moose-cock patch, earlier in his day, after dropping a mag?


Or does he just love moose-cock?

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Look at this

They both have mud in their treads.  Mud, or, manure.  And they are totally inappropriate shoes.  Except for the sole, of course, which are a coarse style tread you'd see on proper hiking boots.

These shoes are probably custom made for their feet.  From last that were fashioned years before.  They could have someone call up the shop, request some footwear, get top priority, and perfectly fitting safari shoes would arrive presently.  Glorious.  But I am glad isn't my boss. 





Cot

Remember how I was whining about camping?  Getting down to the ground, and then back, would be extra challenging.  Well...

This could be nice.  Not for backpacking of course.  But car camping.

Friday, April 9, 2021

Meh, EOs

Seems kinda meh,.  Weak sauce.  Trump's Executive Orders seemed so much more impactful, but I guess that's the nature of it.  It is easier to chop down acres and acre of regs than it is to impose new ones that would survive first contact with the judicial system.

Anyway:

  1. On again off again AR pistol braces are off again.  VERBOTEN!
  2. Try to think of a reg to make 80% frames/lowers verboten.
  3. Try to write up a red flag law to take the burden off the legislature to write the law and then they can just vote on it easy peasey.  It's hard to do a takings with just the Executive branch.  It'd get smacked down fast, they figure.  Get the lawmakers on board for a takings without due process.  To angle for Judicial branch buy in, too.

I half expected the Biden admin to risk more and take a bigger bite of the apple.

None of this puts an onus on bad guys or will move the gun violence needle.  But it's not supposed to.  It's supposed to move the football further down the field toward the total-ban endzone, of course.  Enforce the laws you got, instead of ignoring them.  Prosecute people that commit crimes with guns and imprison such violent people for long periods.  Prosecute people that are forbidden from having a gun for trying to buy a gun.  Project Exile type stuff.  That stuff helped.  But enforcement isn't in fashion right now.  

And this buy-panic is NEVER going to end.

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Sleep Aid

 A lot of what I am doing to relieve my back pain is not recommended or sustainable, long term.  If I could get oxycodone I wouldn’t take it because of side effects and addiction issues.  I take a lotta ibuprofen but that can't go on forever as it is bad for he kidneys.  Acetaminophen is bad for the liver, especially if you drink, so that is out.  Aspirin is bad for the G.I. tract in pain relief dosages.

And I use a tumbler of bourbon as a sleep aid.

Can't keep that up because my favorite varieties of bourbon aren't cheap.  

Do you know what the sleep aid ingredient is in stuff like Tylenol Nighttime?  Benadryl.  I may alternate some of that instead of booze.  Especially in allergy season.

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Got the blahs

I can't be arsed with the hobby.  Today at least.

"Any movement on just up and buying that DeLisle reproduction or equivalent, T-Bolt?"

Meh.  What's the point.

Now some of this is the health issues.  I no longer look at big 'ol Bug Out Bags.  I think about how to downsize and lighten.

One of the nice things about the video game Escape From Tarkov.  (It's a first person shooter and survival online player-vs-player game.)  You kit out before you enter play.  And weight and cost matters.  "I'll be fine with this AR and 2 mags in a chest rig.  No backpack, I'll loot one off a dead guy" and then "Heck, I'll just take an SKS with 30 loose rounds in my pockets, no chest rig, one bandage tucked in a sock.  Loot everything else I might need or die trying."

I look at the M1A and shiver.  Too heavy.  Especially with a dozen loaded magazines.  It always was a vehicle based gun.  At top physical condition I look sideways at that big toting rig and shake my head over the thought of a long walk.  

Backpack camp 8 miles from here?   Nowadays?  Yuck.  But I'd rather contemplate that with NO guns or ammo.  If I had to bring a boomstick bigger than a pistol, an AR is preferable to that 7.62 beast.  

But I have bandolier style pouches far mag fed rifles.  They hold 4 magazines.  I have 3 and a cleaning kit in them.  THAT is more BUG bag friendly.  And even my crippled back doesn't rebel thinking on it.  


(Who am I kidding?  A pistol and 2 spare magazines sounds too heavy right now)  

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Americans and new gun designs

It's true.

Think about it.  150 years ago how many people in this country owned a single action Colt style revolver and/or some variety of lever gun.  Those designs practically ARE America.  Not just Cowboy movies, but actual people.  

French people didn't own that many of those two type.  Not even close.  Now Swedes nor Prussians nor Egyptians.

"Well T-Bolt, they didn't have a vast Western frontier full of wilderness."

Fine.  South Africans and Rhodesians weren't chocablock with lever guns and revolvers.  Nor Australia.

Both designs were pretty fancy shmancy for the times, too.  'What do you need to shoot 5 rounds at one time for?  Going on a murder spree?'  Yeah, heard that strawman before.  

Monday, April 5, 2021

Monday? You got anything T-Bolt

Nope.

Lessee...

Still nope.

Hmmm.

The indoor range I am a member of has its yearly dues, uh... due.  To get your money out of it you have to do once a month.  I didn't go once a month last year.  Couldn't, in a lotta cases, the state wouldn't let them open.   Plus the ammo sitch.

But I have no qualms re-upping.  They stayed open all the times they were allowed to and they ARE a small business, struggling with the same stuff we all are.  

Well, they weren't struggling when people hoovered out every gun in the glass cabinets, but after that month they didn't sell so much the next because there was no inventory to restock the shelves.  

I should go and shoot this ammo I got back in the oughts.  I have too much .357.  Keep the semi-jacketed hollow point because the 1894 likes that

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Neat!

 The worry just increases as you scroll down.


Finally

Finally got my taxes done.  I get back X from Feds, and owe 2X to the State.  And X is close to what Turbo Tax charges.  So no windfall for me.

Doing my taxes was a big deal because I gotta sit up to do it, and sitting up hurts the ol' spine that I'd been whining about for 10 months or so.  So, yay, me.

"Good job, T-bolt!  How did you celebrate?"

I'm a grown ass man!  This is one of those onerous chores that every adult has to do.  Do you think it appropriate to dole out special rewards for doing what you are expected to do?  A participation trophy?

Ahem, I had a slice of Key Lime pie.

Saturday, April 3, 2021

It wasn't that long ago

 When I had a buncha duckpin lanes to choose from, locally.  I miss em.


Friday, April 2, 2021

It just struck me

Mom was born and raised in Kalamazoo Michigan.  Move to metropolitan DC a handful of years before I was born and worked as a bank teller.  But her formative years were deep in the midwest.

She always called it Soda.  Never Pop. Known that woman for more than 50 years...




Thursday, April 1, 2021

Guns for Hunters

 Or Hunter in this case.  The crack addled prodigal Biden.

It's reported the gun he bought that was then pitched in a dumpster by his girlfriend was a Colt Cobra snubbie .38.  I'd guess one of the new ones Colt has been making since interest surged with The Walking Dead's Python, and not a vintage one.  Retails for about the same as a Smith & Wesson J-Frame.  

Why that model, I wonder?  For him, price would be little object, he's got all that Burisma board bribe money of $50k a month even with his Pops taking 50% of that off the top.    

He kept it in a car lockbox, so maybe he didn't want anything full size.  I bet he's a n00b at shooting, so he doesn't want any learning curve on his blaster's operating system, and a revolver is as easy to use as a fork.