Quatermain

Reading my new Kindle stuff...

What gun does Allan Quatermain shoot? 

Why an 8 bore double, of course.  It took 3 shots with it to take down a Rhino.  One was a botch miss by another party member. 

He also totes along others, of course.  Every white hunter in the party has at least one long gun.  Something big and often a level action repeater of Winchester persuasion.  A revolver, too.  He mentions a .500 Nitro Express (this may be the 8-bore...  I dunno... I doubt it because the .500 shoots a 450ish gr projectile and an 8-bore should be an eight of a point... mid 800 grain weight), there is a 4-bore (!) for a party member larger than him as Quatermain only weighs 140 pounds or so, and a bunch of Martinis. For funsies, I guess. 

For dramatic effect, he likes to load all the ammo in one package, so when a donkey or hapless porter is swept away in a river torrent he has only the ammo on him, making for more drama in the story.  700 miles from the coast in the middle of Deepest Darkest, and only the ammo on him in his pockets.

If you are a porter, be sure that Allan knows your name.  If you are referred to as "one of the bearers from Such-n-such tribe," you might as well be Ensign Rickie in the Federation red uniform blouse going with the away team down to the strange planet's surface with Kirk, Bones, and Spock.  You are not going to see how Quatermain's story ends.  Or anything else for that matter.

I prefer it when the story doesn't diverge to the fantastical.  Taking on a bunch of Masai in a krall is one thing, but shooting down an underground river for miles to emerge in a hidden lake with giant crabs and a lost tribe of white natives is a bit of a stretch.

[And I saw a commercial for the Kindle Fire on TV for the first time last night.  Neat.  I'm glad I got the e-ink kind, instead, tho.]

Sculpture

Some of the gun sculpture on THIS website are pretty neato.

Undergunned Bushwa

I tune out cops in the media stories that states stuff like, "Oh noes!  Cops are undergunned by the crooks!"

Either the complainant is living in a fantasy world where every gangbanger has an UZI and an AK-47, full auto, or they are thinking about North Hollywood Shootout, where the regular patrol cops were lacking in a simple trunk gun .30-30. 

Cops have never needed tanks or .50 cals.  Or select fire anything, for that matter.

Cops need TRAINING, I'll go with.  Know how to shoot and deploy that lever gun, that revolver, and that pump scattergun.  I defy Diane Sawyer to cite a circumstance where a police officer that knew what they were doing needed more than that, ever

What is WRONG with my gunstore?

They have a new policy.  People have apparently been directing Gunbroker purchases to them for transfer without telling the store this is happening.  This asshattery perturbs them, and I am totally on board with their peevishness.  If you do that, you have to pay a higher transfer fee or they reserve the right to refuse to do that all together.  $100 if you surprise them, $75 normally.  I am on board with that.  I'd even charge MORE than $100, were I them.  $150 or $200 will put a stop to such rudeness with a quickness, and be profitable in the meantime.  Way to antagonize a vital gunstore FFL resource, boneheads.

The policy is not the problem.  It's the sign they have up announcing it.  It says the policy, then "We are not the internet.  GFY."  I assume GFY means Go F*ck Yourself.  Well, THAT'S classy.  Sure to boost sales. 

I don't begrudge them the policy, but the internet sales are going to grow, not shrink.  There are gunstores in MD that still charge a $25 fee and welcome the little business AND the foot traffic.  I know I buy stuff whenever I go into the store, even a box of ammo.  But this is the second time in a month I've been in there and felt an unfriendly vibe.  I started frequenting that shop BECAUSE they were the only one that treated me like a customer, not an annoyance.  "Wait on that guy, he buys something every time he comes in here."  I overheard a story while in there over a year ago about an attempted gunstore robbery.  The bad guy handed them a note, like in a bank holdup.  So I did something similar, right then, in response. I handed the guy a note that read "Sell me something..."  But I knew them well enough to have fun like that.  I don't think the current crew would 'get' that kind of joke from me. 

The owner was also absent, again.  But he isn't the only one there that knows me on sight. 

What to do?  I don't want to presume to tell him his business.  And I understand why he is upset, of course.  But still.  I wish the situation was different.  I want my old gunstore experience back, but am helpless to make it so and have no known local alternatives.  Many gunstores are crotchety in their own way.

Candle

Lighting a candle to prevent violence against guns.

A candle to illuminate my civil right.  A candle to light the way to a world people don't willing sacrifice themselves to evil men.

I need to dust better.

I Wish

Remember when hoplophobes got their britches in a twist when Glock got popular because they assumed a polymer gun meant that it would sail through metal detectors?  THEN it got popular with non LEO types, too.

Remember when the Assault Weapons Ban was enacted and ARs all of a sudden got popular because they were semi-verboten semi-auto rifles?

Of course the histrionics were unfounded, but still... there is a pattern of behavior here.  Glocks and ARs are as plentiful old gum on a city sidewalk now.

I hope the gun banners get hysterical over another cool class of weapon again soon. 

"Oh NOES!  KRISS carbine and the SCAR Heavy are extra deadly!" or somesuch.  It could be anything.

Then sales spike, production ramps up to meet demand, then prices drop.  And I'll buy something cool.  I wish they'd do that.

Examples

You hear stories about cops shooting at a badguy 34 times and one bullet actually meets the meat.  If the cop is lucky.  I don't want news stories of that.

You hear stories of a bad guy absorbing 6 rounds of .38 Special and sitting back down to finish his breakfast before going to the doc to get his new holes looked at.  Same with 15 rounds of 9mm (maybe exaggerating...).  I once saw a story where a guy took on some .40 and seemed unaffected. 

Has anyone seen stuff where the holes were made by a .45 and the punctured individual shrugged it off for a good time?  Like walk to the ambulance in cuffs?   Links, maybe?

I've never seen those stories.  Doesn't mean they don't exist.

Homicide

National Review

The most gun friendly writer, Kevin Williamson, on metrocon National Review wrote a ditty on Meredith Grave, the Tennessee woman that tried to check her CCW firearm in NYC.

"I am Merdith Graves."

And another article from the much more normally metro Rich Lowry.

And more from David French.

Hmmmm, I wonder if Romney supporter Ann Coulter is a metrocon when it comes to guns?

Well, I did it.

Pulled the trigger on a Kindle.  I got the book kind, not the poor-man's iPad kind.  Now to fill it.  Luckily, there are LOTS of free things I want.

John Buchan's Greenmantle and Thirty Nine Steps
Rudyard Kipling has some stuff I haven't read, but would re-read a bunch
H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain stuff
Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan and Mars stuff
L Frank Baum Wizard of Oz stuff
Erle Stanley Gardner did more than Perry Mason, but I don't think the copyrights have lapsed yet.
Ring Lardner

I've had a bellyful of John O'Hara already and can dismiss him.

I've read a bit of H G Wells, Jules Verne, and Jack London, but not all of it.    I've read all the Sherlock stuff of Gotta check on Baen, see if they have anything.  But my focus will be on discovering postwar-prewar stuff.  it'd be nice to have a Kindle with 1000 free books, all that I haven't read and want to read.  And I would be obliged if anyone has some gems of free stuff out there for me to look into.  Pulpy stuff is a plus.  Cowboys.  African Safari.  Sea Tales.  Old Skool Sci Fi.  Doc Savage.   That sort of thing.

Gutenberg Project doesn't have everything, but any PDF can be converted over to Kindle, but links to other sources will be appreciated.   But just look at the titles on this page alone!  Can anyone give me a 'must read' of Winston Churchill?  If anything I will need wheat to seek out so as not lose it in all the chaff.

[gun content... almost none.  I guess there is a lot of gun content in my reading list, yes.]

Sheesh...

My Springfield 1911 worked right out of the box.  Didn't have to do all that aftermarket upgrades and fiddling to get it working like you do with Glocks or M&Ps.

Oh wait.  I did replace the grips.  For aesthetic reasons.

Metrocon Kudo

With Sarah Palin.  Regarding that Colorado Oklahoma mother that called 911, barricaded herself in her home, was advised to do what she can to protect her baby by the dispatcher, then ended the knife wielding goblin when he smashed through the her bedroom door. Also.

So About that Zit

As a follow on to my S&W lamentation bout the onboard trigger locks on S&W revolvers, Windy asks:  "Windy Wilson said...So, I can swap out parts on the S&W, too, and eliminate the possibility the zit will lock up at an inopportune time (as has been documented)? Who would tell me what parts to swap out, or is it a case of if I have to ask it is beyond my capabilities?"

What exactly do you have to do to get rid of the redundant lock work under that revolver zit?   Is there an online resource that could help me, and Windy, out?  I've been kinda intimidated to try to take the sideplate off on a revolver, myself...

Uncle Milty

Well, in accordance with my New Years resolution, I have placed and order for a Milt Sparks Versa Max 2, IWB holster.  All black horsehide.  No sharkskin this time.  I got the shark with my last VM2 and wanted the holster to look different at a glance, avoid confusion. 

I went with Milt Sparks because I already had one and liked it a lot.  But there are a plethora of good holster makers out there.

Now, belt shopping.  This one I'm wearing is good but getting tired.  Oh, and another ammo carrier for the spare mag.

Work Question

Asked at work:  "What gun would you buy 3 of to stash in various places of your house, and where?"

Already asked that quesdtion of myself...

Well, one option is, if you have a few police turn-ins of .38 revolvers... Those are nice to salt all about.  Cheap, simple.  I'd store one in the kitchen and in the bathrooms.  Maybe next to the easy chair I sit in most.  Some homeinvaders like to lock people in the bathroom so they can do their dirty work with you contained.  One guy watches the door while the others cart out your stuff.  And the bathroom is often windowless so you can't call for help.  Be nice to have a gun in there, hidden, in a ziploc plastic bag to keep corrosion down.  But then you have a gun a nosy guest might find, so...

Option 2, for me, is exposed hammer double barrel shotguns on hooks over doors.

But I have done neither.  I don't have many guest, and NO kids, but it just seems... odd.  Better to just have your CCW gun on you.  Even if you are like me and can only carry at home.

Metrocon Getting Zumbo-ed

Nominally, VerBruggan is on our side, but there is a metrocon line he doesn't want to cross with regards to the Tennessee woman that peaceably carried in Manhattan.  He seems to be of a mind that while it is a civil right, this 2nd Amendment thingy, just not in certain states.  Perhaps it's not in places he pictures himself being?  I dunno.  He is fine with punishing this woman who failed to remember than NYC is not in America, just not TOO severely.  SHE BROKE THE LAW, after all.  Broke the law and... harmed... uh... no one and nothing.

His commenters take him to task on his slip up, and do a pretty good job of it.  Except for the confusing one about this guy who had a friend that 'was a gun collector, attending a show in NYC'.  That detail befuddled more than just me.

Great Great Great Grandpa

Well, howdy!  By Jove!  Here is a story about an old relative of mine.  Used to hunt the Big Shaggys in the big open spaces in the middle of the country a century and half a go.  A few other colorful habits.  But you see where I got the name.  And the love of alcoholic beverages.  Benjamin C. Black.  AKA 'Thunderbolt.'

I have the bottle he used to store his Bay Rum aftershave.

Who am I kidding.  It was Rye whiskey, stored in that crystal stoppered bottle.  Thunderbolt never used aftershave, and rarely cut back the whiskers.  ANY bottle, it was rumored, in GrGrGrGrandads presence, didn't contain what it was intended or what was written on the label, but had some rot gut beverage or whatnot, therein instead.

I like Bay Rum, myself, but never use the aftershave, anyway.  I don't take much to Rye, and prefer Bourbon, personally.  So we're not completely alike.  But, I've been known, my ownself, to make and sell alcoholic beverages in order to pay my mortgage and whatnot.  It was just a little 600 gallon unit.  Hardly anything.  Fambly tradition.  I'm not nearly the dead-eye shot, but this might explain my naturally preferring a revolver to a semi-auto. 

I can also put to rest that horrible slanderous lie about "Thunderbolt's Bloomer-Busting Lager".  It was most definitely NOT made from my great great great grand-daddy's urine.  ('do I have to drink my own urine?  No, but it's sterile, and I like the taste.')  It was made from another part of him. Now let's never speak on this subject ever again.

Here is a contemporary rendering of GrGrGrGrandpa Ben:

I Wonder

I wonder how many people think they set a post to publish ahead of time for today, but they forgot to set the year to 2012 and now their blog has a fresh January 1 post up 'a year ago'?

I Hear Stories

In my quest for more blog fodder, I hear stories.  Friends of friends, you know.  3rd or 4th hand accounts.

"So and so got a gun..."

"Uh huh?"

"Says it can shoot .410 and .45!"

Oh dear.

Well, at least .45 Long Colt has a further lease on life.  What with the cowboy shooters getting more popular and now the Taurus Judge and Judge-clones sucking a bit of oxygen in the room up.  I figure people that get the Judge probably buy ONE box of .45LC if they find it.  Just to see.  Or maybe not, the ammo costs .65 a round, generally.  Not super expensive, but not cheap either. 

You know, I've never heard a bad thing about those new long cylinder revolvers.  Oh sure, performance stuff, I don't mean that.  I mean, it hasn't featured yet as the 'villain' deodand in a junk-onna-bunk video by the police.  No one has said, "the perpetrator used the especially deadly Judge, that fires shotgun and .45 rounds.  Simultaneously.  In the presence of kittens." or anything.

I wonder where city and suburban types take their Judge to try it out?  Most indoor ranges around here are a bit hinky about shotgun use.  And some of the outdoor ones, too.  Load up your revolver with primo 00 buck shot shells and never know what it felt like to fire it and THAT is their home defense plan.

Uh...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!