Armor

Old style, that is, leather and horn and metal and cloth, with not a thread of kevlar to be seen. I got interested in the subject back when I was playing in the Society for Creative Anachronism. At it's best it's a group of interesting people researching and spending weekends living somewhat like the middle ages were like(at it's worst, it's pretty bad, but let's skip that for now).

Yes, at one time I, among other things, made armor and made weapons like swords and spears out of rattan and used them(formally 'heavy weapons combat'; more commonly 'hitting people with sticks'). And, since I had then- and still have- a serious regard for the idea of keeping my body in a fairly undamaged condition, that meant learning something about armor.

There were many kinds, basically broken down into types:
Chain mail, linked metal rings
Scale, overlapping pieces of leather or horn or metal(like the scales on a lizard)
Plate, actual pieces of sheet iron or steel shaped to fit various parts of the body. No, not those, dammit.
Quilted, pieces of heavy canvas with wool or something similar in between and stitched together.

Over time I used all of these but plate and quilted; I wasn't interested enough in hitting people with sticks to spend the time to learn and make plate, and it wasn't in my time period anyway, and quilted just didn't seem like enough to me. Though I did come damn close to a plate breast and back at one time. A friend and I took a bunch of the steel straps(about 1/2" wide) used to hold bundles of brick and such and wove them together, then stuck some foam on the back for padding; some more pieces, riveted together at the ends and fanned out in the middle/foam-backed also/ made the shoulder pieces, and I will tell you that was tough. You couldn't get a real- as in sharp- sword through it with a cut, and unless someone caught a seam exactly right penetration in a thrust was very limited. Big drawback to this was stiffness, it had no give at all when you moved.

The best armor I used for SCA fighting was leather scale. A tunic of light leather, loose enough to wear a padded gambeson under it, with leather scales about 2x3.5" laced on. I soaked the scales in wax to stiffen them, and this stuff was a treat. It would move with you fairly well, and you could take a hit hard enough to actually make you stumble sideways and not get hurt. I made a piece for my left(forward) leg with the same construction, and used it until I gave up fighting. Last time I saw the guy who bought it, he'd taken the scales off("It was too heavy and hot for this climate" he said. Idiot)

Mail is interesting stuff. Most was/is made in a pattern called '4-through-1', meaning exactly that; every link not on an edge has four others linked through it. It's marvelously flexible, and could be made with the ends of the rings overlapped and riveted(the best) or just butted together(cheaper). Usually worn with a padded tunic(gambeson) under it, it beat the hell out of nothing, and did a fairly good job of stopping cuts, but something like an arrow with a narrow point could punch right through, and a spear could do the same if hard-driven.

Plate armor is a lot like the weapons of the period, in that it wasn't as heavy as people tend to think. Tournament armor was one thing; you weren't expected to move around a whole lot in it, so it could be made seriously heavy. Some late-period breastplates were nearly 1/2" thick, you got on your horse and then put it on. Actual fighting armor was another thing. About ten years ago I saw a show on the History Channel(I believe) on plate, some researchers went through some private and museum collections and used a small ultrasound probe to measure the thickness of pieces, and it was very consistent; breastplates averaged about 2 millimeters, leg and arm pieces about 1mm, helmets about 3mm. More vital areas had heavier metal, less vital lighter pieces. If I remember right a suit of full plate- again, actual battle armor- weighed about 60 lbs, well-distributed over the body so it could be moved in. A mail hauberk(the jacket) and pants and a good helmet would weigh about the same, but it was not as well distributed; the weight was mostly borne by the shoulders and hips.

Of course armoring came to a crashing halt(literally in some cases) with the introduction of firearms. Somewhere in one of the British museums is a beautiful set of plate with a hole about .65 caliber in the chest to illustrate why. A crossbow with a good angle could put a bolt through it, and a longbow could do the same(points made for war were often either four-sided with a blunt point, or actually shaped like a chisel), but once they figured out how to make firearms in quantity armor was through. Until that odd stuff called Kevlar and Spectra came around, and ceramic plates that'll stop an armor-piercing bullet.

We're still using helmets, too, though of different stuff the patterns often look familiar. Last helmet I had was a modified spangenhelm(sp?). This was a pointed top(sometimes a downward stroke, if a little off-angle, would glance off it), sides and back extended down to cover the sides and back of the head and neck, and a visor in the front to cover down to a little below chin-level. I made it with a hinged visor; easier to get on and off, and if I ever got really hurt I wanted it to be as easy as possible to get the damn thing off. The guy who bought my scale also bought it, and aside from putting a horsetail on top, it stayed the same. If I can find it, I'll try to take a picture of the pattern I used to make it and post it. Lots of riveting there.

I'm getting tired of writing these words,

but I don't know why I didn't mention this before.

Over at Babalu Blog, Val put together some t-shirts to raise money for the Cuba Nostalgia Convention. Shirts here; lots of other information about the convention above.

I know, I know, this is waaaay late. I get to going 'round & 'round and I forget things. It gets any worse, I'm going to be making crop circles.

Anyway, my check for a shirt is going out today. I know just the people to wear it around, too; same one's who're pissed off by my Nation of Riflemen shirt.

Heh, heh heh.

Interesting thing during the press conference

Had the radio on during the press conference this morning, and someone- I didn't catch who- asked the President if he thought the recent increase in killings in Iraq meant the 'insurgency' is gaining strength. But he didn't say 'insurgents' at first. It went something like "-the terr- uh, insurgents-".

Interesting. Started to call the terrorists terrorists, then caught himself and changed it to 'insurgents'.

I guess it's not politically correct to call Islamist mass-murderers terrorists. Which tells me a lot.

Drinking in the heat

While Steve, the bastard, was out fishing while I was stuck inside at work, he reminded me of something else. He mentioned he didn't understand the idea of drinking out in sun & heat like that, 'cause you'll dehydrate. Which brings up the story...

A few years ago while my son was in the Civil Air Patrol, his unit was helping out at a big air show. Mainly crowd control, but also parking planes, etc. Weekend over, he told me about all the drunks they had to deal with. Happily none were hostile, but take a hot sunny June day and people drinking beer, and you get drunks. The prize of the bunch was a guy standing in a taxiway with a camera held to his eye; they were trying to get him to move and he kept muttering "Almost got it" as he stood there waving back & forth. Since there was nothing across the runway but crowd they had no idea what he 'almost had', but he HAD to move; there was a B-17 a hundred yards away waiting for them to get him out of the way so they could take off.

This guy was so far gone they finally had to pull a golf cart up beside him and tip him over into the back. He went to the medical tent, and the bomber finally took off, and my son now had a real understanding of why Grandpa the state trooper hated dealing with drunks so much.

At least the drunks at the airport weren't driving around the place. Though the trip home for some of them...

It being Memorial Day,

I give you the M1 Garand rifle. There's been lots of stuff about the M1 lately(picture, for instance, found at Countertop and stolen without hesitation), so I won't go into a lot of detail. Service in WWII, Korea and early in Vietnam. Fires the .30-06 cartridge, pushing a 150 grain bullet to about 2700 fps. Strong, reliable, and accurate.

If you have a chance, put some rounds through one of these. If you want one, there's gun shows, there's the CMP program, there's places like Fulton Armory, and if you want a new one, Springfield Armory is again making them(in both .30-06 and .308). They're fine rifles, a pleasure to shoot- between the weight and action the cartridge ain't bad at all to shoot- and you can get from good to very good accuracy out of them.

A lot of them out there went through some part of war, and are still in fine working order. Yeah, they've almost all been rebuilt to some extent(considering what they've been through, are you surprised?), but they still have the feel of a tool that's been and done the job it was designed for. Definately, give one a try if you can.

Note: if you check the Fulton Armory site, in the Garand info pages it has, among other things, how to smooth out the trigger. I've used their method, and it worked very well.

Memorial Day

I hate writing about this. Depending on what crap I've read from various MSM sources and what I've seen on various blogs, I get either really, really pissed off or teared up(guess which causes which?). I've written before about my great uncles who served in WWII. I've had friends in military service, and some of the officers who ran my son's Civil Air Patrol unit went repeatedly to the Balkans and the sandbox. Makes me feel useless for not being able to go and do something. So, partly as reaction, I rail and piss and moan about the crap on the news and idiotic statements from Amnesty International and really stupid comments from places like Democratic Underground. I simply cannot understand how people who depend on the freedom of this society to speak and write and dress and read as they please can take every opportunity to crap on the people in uniform. It ticks me off, and makes me despair.

The people in academy who look down on the armed forces? Piss on them. A couple of years ago a college professor wrote of the reactionss when it became known that his son had joined the Marines; the local citazens looked on him as the parent of another man in uniform, while the 'elites' at the university and local upper classes wanted to know 'what went wrong' to make a boy from a 'good family' do something so improper. He wrote of the difficulty he had dealing with this nonsense, and it's still going on.

Despite the crap, there are still lots- I think most- who both support the troops, and for that matter would take up arms to act in defense of this country. Note that I say 'this country'; not a particular place in it, but this Country. I think that's where the big difference is coming from. A lot of the 'elites' think that this is a bad, or 'uneducated' view from people who don't know better, whereas those who would do it consider the 'elites' to be overeducated fools who've stopped listening to/paying attention to anyone not of their 'class'. And it IS a class problem, though not the usual one of who has money. It's a big problem, and it'll probably get worse before it gets better, and God knows what'll happen in the process. Howard Veit wrote here about the situation in Singapore with the British Army, and what class disdain/hatred did to them. Happily, though there seems to be a lot of 'class' crap from some Naval Academy and West Point grads toward the troops, it's nothing like the crap that happened there. And it's one of our strong points. I think that, in the end, we'll get through this, but I don't know how bad it'll get.

And we'll owe a lot to those in uniform who maintain their oath the Constitution.

If you haven't, you've got to go there

to Hog on Ice. Steve is a number of things, including a very damn good writer. I can't remember where I first hit a link to him at his old site, Little Tiny Lies, but I loved it. I followed a link to his original site, Little Tiny Wit. His columns on motorcycles and school and the bar association were worth it all by themselves(Steve? Put the damn things back where people can read them). And then he began putting together a cookbook.

I've got a copy of 'Eat What You Want and Die Like A Man', and it's both funny and good tasting(the recipes, not the book, dammit). For that matter his posts about the recipes as he put them together were great. And of course, you learn about Marv and Maynard, the feathered pair who enrich(fertilize?) his life.

Lately he's been concentrating a lot on Huffington's Toast, also worth checking out, but he's got some stuff this weekend back on two of his best subjects; heaping scorn on Democratic Underground weenies, and brewing beer. I'm glad, his method of referring to the DU dorks is wonderful on it's own, and along with beer posts? Wonderful, so go there and enjoy.

Carnival of Cordite #14 is UP!

Over at Countertop Chronicles, so take a look; Memorial Day, M1 Garand, girls with guns, serious gun stuff, even a shot of a classic guy-with-gun for the ladies.

Late, but for good reasons, and worth the wait.

I'm not sure whether I love or hate the dollar stores

After spending a chunk of the day after work helping a friend with their yard, I stopped by one of the dollar stores to pick up a bottle of degreaser. I walked out with
a bottle of degreaser
a bag of rawhide chews(yes, for the dogs)
a double roll of Scotch tape
a DVD of two Cary Grant movies(what can I say, I like 'Charade')
and, a hardcover copy of 'Mistress of the Catacombs' by David Drake, to replace my badly worn paperback.

So I went in for one thing, and walked out with five. But for $5 plus tax, I ain't bitching.

Now, if they only carried ammunition...

Backyard wildlife

Other than the dogs, that is. Over the years there's been an accumulation in the various places I've lived, including a big possum the dogs treed on top of a fence post, and I suspect a raccoon one time.

Haven't had either of those here that I know of(though two weeks ago I came home to find a very big, very flattened possum in the street). What I've got is birds and squirrels. There's two pairs of cardinals that come to the feeder, the always-found sparrows, an occasional bluejay, Carolina chickadees, and some kind of finch with a red head. And about three weeks ago I saw a woodpecker pecking away at a dead tree in the yard next door.

I've seen three fox squirrels in the yard at one time. There's a squirrel feeder set up near the bird feeder; I like watching the squirrels, and the dogs get to chase them. And they'd better run fast; the puppy is running with a dog that has killed a half-dozen squirrels in the past. She doesn't eat them, but she will kill them dead(isn't that a fine old expression?)

So far the puppy won't come into the house. She'll stand in the doorway with her ears up and tail wagging, but she won't come in. The cat's used to the older beast, but she saw the pup in the doorway yesterday, hissed and ran off. Chicken. She's bigger than the dog.

Now if the pup will confine her splashing around to the wading pool, instead of dumping the water bowl and carrying it off...

I know I say this a lot, but

go over to Smallest Minority to this one and this one, from Britain.

First is a shopkeeper who's been assaulted repeatedly, what do the police do? Give him a DNA sample kit so the next time the jerks spit in his face, he can take samples. Unless they cut his throat or beat him to death or shoot him the next time, of course.

Second is Kevin's take on the idiotic knife-ban proposal. He covers it in more datail than I did.

I've said it before, stick a fork in Britain, they're done. Unless something changes drastically and fast, they're forever screwed. Honest citazens are treated as criminals if they even think too hard about defending themselves, objects are blamed for what criminals do, and criminals are treated as poor victims to be 'understood' and compensated.

The honest people of Britain? You poor bastards.

Because God forbid anyone get their feelings hurt

Let's see... Newsweak screws around, there's a bunch of upset in the hearts of a bunch of idiots who riot, etc., at the idea of their holy book being treated badly, and what comes next? A new hate crimes law, of course.

Of course that jackass Conyers is involved, up to his slimy neck. God forbid anyone should have their feelings hurt(as long as the boobs like whatever group you 'belong' to, that is), so we've got to have a new law that punishes people for having 'bad thoughts'. Of course, it's not that new; the PC police have been pushing this crap for years. I'd think it would be insulting, being told that you're so tender and helpless that the government has to protect your delicate feelings by force of law, but an awful lot of people seem to like the idea. Of course, it gives them power; it gives them the ability to trash people's lives by accusing them of 'hate crimes', and a lot of people have a real liking for controlling other people's lives.

Screw this noise. Last I heard we still have a First Amendment in this country, despite the efforts of people like Conyers and McCain and company to trash it. If you can't handle being insulted, tough shit. I'm sick of people whining that people don't 'properly respect' them, so there has to be a law to force it. With all due respect for their tender feelings, screw them, too(metaphorically, of course). Grow up, and develop some self-discipline. Not everybody will like you, not everyone will say nice things about you, and so what? Live with it, like everyone else does, and shut up.

You know, if a bunch of Christians or Jews rioted over abuse of the Bible or Torah, they'd be considered criminals by the same people who want special protection for Muslims and the Koran. Don't tell me these boobs believe in equal protection under the law, they want special protection and privilege for those they sympathize with(or are sucking up to for votes and influence).

Utter bullshit.

The reaction of someone from another country to the 2nd Amendment

Go to the Geek's place. Read.

End quote:
""Your Constitution....it is....like no other. It is....awesome. It is...." Words failed him, and he gestured helplessly."

A judge in need of either a kick in the ass

or tar and feathers. Read this.

I don't care what anyone's opinion of a particular line of religeous belief is, this is just plain wrong. And this judge either had a massive slip in his reasoning abilities, or is an idiot. In either case, this needs stomping on. Now.

Found at Sondra K.'s place

As Britain goes further down the toilet...

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital wants the government to control

You see, criminals use them to commit crimes, so obviously the solution is to ban the knives. What? Throw the criminals in jail? Teach that people are actually responsible for what they do instead of blaming the objects? What a cruel and unprogressive idea that is...

Listen to this: "Offensive weapons are defined as any weapon designed or adapted to cause injury, or intended by the person possessing them to do so." Take note of that "intended by the person possessing them to do so"; that means if someone has had their life threatened, and they carry anything for the purpose of self-defense, they're going to jail. No difference between something carried for self-defense, and something carried by a criminal. Which has led to such incidents as the old lady arrested for carrying a pepper pot in her purse. Wonderful.

This is at the end of the article: "A spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "ACPO supports any move to reduce the number of knife related incidents, however, it is important to consider the practicalities of enforcing such changes." So they are at least considering the reaction when they tell people 'take your knives to the police station to have the points ground off, and by the way we'll be coming into your house to check the kitchen and workshop for any you may have forgotten".

I repeat what I've said before, this is what happens when you continue down the path of blaming objects for what people do.

Blogroll additions

Alphecca, the Gay Gun-Nut from Vermont, and Hell in a Handbasket. Both good places, Jeff at Alphecca is real good about keeping track of anti-gun-ownership laws and restrictions being proposed and HiaH comes up with all kinds of neat stuff, like how to build a sextant with a cd case.

And again, I have no idea why I didn't get this done before now.

Why do people do some of the things they do?

Red Skelton's(remember him?) Mean Widdle Kid had a line where he'd get this GREAT idea then stop and say "If I dood it, I get in trouble... I dood it!) and run off to cause destruction and mayhem. KNOWING he'd get his butt whipped, he did it any way.

Kind of like, oh, building a house on a hillside with a history of houses sliding downhill every ten years or so, or rebuilding the house that just washed away in the same place. Or building a major structure next to a known fault line. Or building a house where the next hurricane that comes through will- not maybe, will- blow or wash it away. Or, to take it away from the concrete stuff, listening to a child molester or rapist or murderer say "I have changed, I'm a nice guy now" and deciding "He just needs another(second, third, fourth) chance, and I'm going to give it to him".

Got started thinking on this by this article about scientists planning out possible scenarios for a quake on this particular fault the next time it turns loose. I know there are fault lines in lots of places, and in some cases building was done before it was known a fault ran right through, but stuff built after it was known? A few years ago I watched some documentary about earthquake disaster preparation in southern California, and one of the things it showed was a shot of the major hospital for a city; the damn thing was built right on top of the fault that ran through the city. And they knew it was there when they built it! Why, in the name of whatever, would anyone with a working brain DO that?

That led me into thinking about people building houses on hillsides in CA. In many cases, rebuilding right where their last house washed away. In their case, one of the reasons is that when this house slides downhill rebuilding will be paid for by US. When they'll not have to pay for replacing the house(and probably their stuff, though I don't remember about that) they don't really care if it washes away every ten years or so. Same for the people who build a house right above the normal high-tide line on the east coast; when it washes away in a hurricane, that taxpayer-provided insurance(read 'money taken out of your pocket') will pay for it and the contents. That pisses me off all by itself- why should I be paying for their replacement costs?- but what's even worse is, when these people are interviewed, they think they deserve it; they think it's only right for the government to loot other people to pay for their bills on this. And considering a lot of these(most?) are built by people with the money to pay their own damn way, it pisses me off HUGELY! The others who can't really afford the insurance? Tough shit, folks. You knowingly build where your house can go away, will go away, it's on your head to take care of it. We're not talking about tornados that can come down anywhere, or once-in-a-century(or thousand years) events, we're talking about something that happens regularly. So either plan for it, or DON'T BUILD THERE.

And if you ignore the probabilities, DON'T expect me to pay for it.

He's not dead yet!(maybe)

Well well, here we have a report that Zarqawi may have been seriously wounded and is in bad shape(pause for cheers to die down).

Excellent. My main question is whether it's better to find his dead body or find him still alive, so at the end he knows we got him. I'm sure he'd like to simply vanish, so his 'legend' can live on, so I'll take either one.

No, I have no sympathy or forgiveness. This is sorry waste of oxygen that thinks mass murder of women, children and unarmed men is 'battle'; that thinks cutting someone's head off on camera is a brave act; that has overall tried to keep away from fighting troops because they shoot back; who had no problem with Saddam murdering by the tens of thousands yet is driven to rage by people voting in a real live election. Say hello to the bacteria, Zarqawi.

Instapundit asked if it would be unChristian to hope for him to develop gas gangrene, and someone replied 'yes, it would be'. Ok, so let's hope for the Morrigan to take him instead; he deserves it.

Time to die, Z. And I hope it's hurting.

Oooh, the U.N. is getting pissy

Found this article, with 'unusually forceful' comments. Let's see,

"Secretary General Kofi Annan's chief of staff called the United States an "ungainly giant" that only plays by its own rules, criticizing the U.N.'s largest donor in unusually strong terms Sunday."

We already know you don't like us, especially when we don't suck up to you and don't let your corruption slide. And most of us don't care.

"This ungainly giant of a nation that has led the world in advancing freedom, democracy and decency, cannot quite accept membership in the global neighborhood association, and the principle of all neighborhoods _ that it must abide by others' rules as well as its own,"

There is no 'global neighborhood association' there's the U.N., which has shown that it's not trustworthy, is bigoted, and thinks that it ought to be telling us how to run our lives, sucks up to dictators, and wants us disarmed. Fuck you, ain't gonna happen.

"Malloch Brown's comments, provided to The Associated Press by the university, were unusually forceful for an organization whose leaders tend to abide by an unwritten rule of not criticizing member nations."

Really? Since when? I've not noticed the leaders having any problem calling names at anyone who's a: not a dictator and b: not sucking up to the 'leaders'.

"Earlier this week, a congressional committee drafted a bill that threatens to withhold tens of millions of dollars in dues from the United Nations unless the world body conducts wide-ranging reforms. Malloch Brown and several other officials have said the idea will only isolate the United Sates."

Hey, stupid, most of us don't care if you think we're 'isolated'. We might be seen as 'isolated' from your crooked bureaucracy, but we have lots of contacts, business and personal, with other countries; stop being such a bunch of theiving, raping, child-molesting bigots and we might start trusting you. Until you give us actual reason to trust you, we'll keep our damn money.

By the way, notice that what really gets these clowns worked up is the thought of getting by without us giving them money?

"Malloch Brown noted that the United States has already set itself apart in its opposition to the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto treaty seeking to mandate reductions in emissions."

The ICC is a piece of crap which has been used- as predicted- for political ends, and we're not putting our people under the control of this 'International Court'. And you mean the Kyoto Accord that everyone whined at us about when their own countries wouldn't sign on to the damn thing?

What we have here is the U.S. is pushing for an accounting from people who have been using their positions to steal and rob and rape, and they're huffing and puffing and demanding what makes us think we have any standing to question them? because they know that without our money, and our- at least- tolerance of them, they're screwed. Listen, idiot, you want our money? We want an accounting for what's done with it, and where it goes, and thieves punished. And damned if we're going to put control over our lives into the hands of assholes who put Cuba and Libya on the Human Rights committee. And who think us peasants can't be trusted with arms. Or any of a number of other things you sorry little bastards want to do to us.

In the vernacular of the web, FOAD Mr. Brown.

Smithing tools

This is going to cover some of the basic stuff. If you've got a pile of cash you can just go through the Centaur Forge catalog and order what you want, but if you're like me you have to pick up some basics and over time either buy or make other tools you need. So let's see:

Anvil. Obviously, you need something to pound on.

Forge. Also obviously, some way to heat the metal.

Hammers. That is indeed hammers, plural, you're gonna need more than one. I'd suggest a 2 or 3lb double-face or cross-peen, a 1 or 2lb ball-peen as the most basic to start with. If you work any heavy stuff, like flattening a spring, a 4lb is very handy. On the lighter side, one of the handiest hammers I have is a 24oz. ball-peen with a wider than usual face on the flat side; I found it without a handle at a flea market and for smoothing a surface or shaping some flat stock into curves, it's wonderful.

Chisels. Again, more than one. A heavy one with an edge at least 1" across for heavy cutting, smaller for more delicate stuff. Once you have the hang of heat-treating, chisels can be made from spring stock or drill rod or old rock drills, and over time you'll probably wind up with a collection of different sizes & shapes.

Punches. One good centerpunch for marking where to drill a hole, or where to make a bend; a punch for actually punching holes in stock. You'll learn to make other shapes and sizes as you go, and, again, you'll probably wind up with an assortment.

Tongs. This can be the tough one, because you've got to have them, but unless you find some at a flea market or antique store or something, you'll have to make them. You can buy them new(see Centaur above), but they do tend to be expensive. You can, for a while, get by with pliers or vise-grips, but tongs that will hold the stock well are not an option; if the piece can't be held solidly it'll move(harder to shape) or jump free(dangerous and/or annoying, but good for your dance steps). If you do much, especially if you make decorative stuff, you'll wind up with a number of them; they're not very hard to make, and in some cases it's worth it to make a pair that may only be picked up once in a while if they let you do the job more easily.

That's the most basic list you can get by with for a while. If you primarily make blades, a couple of tongs and hammers, a punch or two, may be all you need. If you make decorative and other ironwork, you'll wind up with more and use them all.

Notes:
Tongs can have the jaws shaped specifically to hold flat pieces, round pieces, rectangular pieces(like the tang of a knife), and so forth. There's a style made to hold a hammer head while you shape it, and a variation of that for holding an axe head.

Punches can make a flat depression, leave a round-bottomed mark, leave special shapes like letters or symbols, and so forth. Chisels can make a flat cut, a curve, and sharp angle.

Hammers can have two identical faces, or two radically different ones; some old smithing hammers, and some specialized ones, have only one face that's used to strike with. I once read of a man who made decorative ironwork who had 49 hammers, each a different size and/or shape, many for doing one particular thing.

Oh, wow! Look at this!

Og sent me this link ref my earlier post about double-rifles. Oh, ain't it purty?

One of the things I notice is 'Adjustable barrel regulation'. If you're not familiar with this, one thing that has to be done on a double-barrel rifle(or shotgun) is to 'regulate' the barrels so that they point to the same place. With a shotgun, that means that at a set range, the pattern from each barrel will pretty much overlap the other. With rifles, it means that the shot from one barrel will, ideally, hit the target next to the shot from the other. That's one thing that makes doubles so expensive is that the method has been to set the barrels into a jig that holds them aligned, fire a shot from each, adjust, fire, etc. When 'regulated' the ribs are set in place and soldered in.

The problem with this is that it's only regulated with that load; if you change loads(different powder or charge, different bullet) the shots may not hit where they should. The recoil impulse will be different, and since the barrels are each to one side of the centerline, things move differently. This wasn't a big deal with the old express rifles, where you used one cartridge- usually from one maker- all the time; with a rifle that you may want to be able to use different loads in... So 'adjustable barrel regulation' means that(up to a point at least) you can change loads and, if needed, adjust the barrels so they're regulated with that load.

Dammit, Og, I didn't really need to see this right now. I wonder if they do custom chamberings...

No, dammit, I promised, no new guns for a while!

But still...

She's named

The pup, that is. I think it'll be Cuchullain. No, I don't know for sure where to put the proper markings in the name, yes it's Irish, yes the legends were about a male. The name itself means 'hound of the forge', so it seems appropriate. I can always call her Cooky for short, which would eliminate my having to speak like I have a clogged throat when I call her.

She's settled in very well, and she and the older dog have worked out any differences. Occasionally the older one snarls for real when she's pushed, but what would you expect? They work it out.

Now to get her used to riding in the truck and walking on a leash.

Gun show this weekend

And since this was the last chance I'd have for a while, I went. Found some stuff; some new 12 guage slugs to test, a sling, some other bits & pieces. One ammo dealer has a big selection of .22 ammo, and I looked it all over. Some- most- was flat overpriced, there's a place in town I'm pretty sure I can get it for better. Some of it, the high-level match stuff, was about or just slightly over the normal price, but I didn't get any. So far my rifles & pistols get excellent accuracy with stuff that's a lot less expensive; in some cases they shoot it so well that the only reason to buy the high-dollar stuff would be snob appeal. Understand, if one of them shot far better with high octane, I'd get a box or two for the occasions I needed it; but if none of them do, the money stays in my pocket.

Among the odds & ends was one of the 15" diameter baking stones. If you've not seen them, it's an unglazed stoneware disk that works very well for baking a number of things. They're usually about $25, these folks were clearing theirs out for $15, so I wound up going back today and getting what was the next to last one for my daughter.

Despite my earlier promise to buy no more guns for a loooong time, I was sorely tempted. A guy had an old Mossberg bolt-action target rifle- with front post and rear aperture sight- for a decent price. As it needed a bit of work and loving care, I thought I could talk him down a bit more, but while I was looking around he packed up and left. So I was saved from myself. I'm not sure whether to be glad or pissed...

All in all a decent show with some interesting things to see, including a European double-barrel, one barrel 28-guage shotgun, one .30-30. Pretty thing. No, I was not tempted. Even if I had piles of free cash, a near-$2000 price tag would have made me have second and third thoughts. You know what would be real tempting? A double-rifle in either .30-30 or .303 British. Short, handy, it'd be a magnificent brush rifle, and there's no reason it wouldn't be accurate. And with a double you could use more ballistically efficient bullets without worrying about a tube magazine or overall length for the .30-30. Yeah, nice blued barrel, color-case-hardened receiver, claw-type scope mount...(drool, drool)

Now, if I hadn't been halfway falling down from tired, it would have been more enjoyable. It's been in the mid-90's the last few days, and the humidity has been high, and I haven't slept well. There's supposed to be a chance of thunderstorms tonight & some of tomorrow, and while we could use some rain, I could do without the severe stuff. That's one problem with this time of year, when you do get rain it tends to be in conditions that are supportive of severe storms, with the lightning and hail and high winds and possible tornados that can come with them. Well, the puppy has discovered both the doghouse and the doggy-door in the garage, and it's stormed once since she came here, so she'll be ok.

And now it's time to worry about dinner.

How to further annoy your daughter

Somehow the metric system comes up. (me)"The metric system is France's revenge on the world".

(annoyed daughter)"Revenge for what?"

(me)"For their having to be the French"

Very annoyed daughter glares and drops it.

Calving season

For buffalo, that is. At the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton they have a couple of small herds of buffalo, always interesting to see. And in the spring there are calves, and sooner or later the herds will wind up near a road and lots of people stop to look and take photos(no problem). However, someone will sooner or later decide they want either a: closeups or b: to pet the damn calves(BIG problem!) One thing you do NOT want to do is rouse the ire of either mama or the herd bull. If you've never been around an American Bison, those suckers are big. And powerful. Roughly every year, some idiot gets gored/stomped/combination because they annoy one of them.

About twenty years ago a friend of mine was down there taking pictures when two idiots in an MG decided to have some 'fun'. They drove off the road, cut a calf off from mama, and started doing circles around it. Baby's yelling for Mom, Mom yells for the boss, and the herd bull looked around and decided "I should do something about this". He came running over, and the two idiots were so busy they never saw him. As they came around, he ran up alongside, lowered his head and hooked and heaved.

According to my friend, the MG actually flipped over and landed on its' wheels. Neither idiot flew out, and the engine stalled. As the thing was no longer making noise or moving- and the idiots happily were smart enough or too stunned to make noise- the bull butted the car a couple of times, baby joined mama and they returned to the herd, the Boss decided it was dead and ambled off. The idiots were realizing they were alive and unhurt about the time a park ranger walked up and proceeded to start writing them up. Can you say 'big fines'? They sure could by the time it was done.

I keep saying 'idiots' for the simple reason you'd have to be truly stupid to see one of these things up close and decide that annoying it would be a good idea. But people so often tend to think of animals that way. In a way I could understand if it was confined to herbivores(no fangs or claws at least), but it's not. Look at the absolutely idiotic things people do with bears and big cats and alligators. Disney Culture strikes over and over; people have heard about the 'friendly animals only made unfriendly by man' so much that they actually believe if they're nice, the animals will be nice back. So they think a cougar roaming through the neighborhood is wonderful, or feeding alligators in the river or lake is friendly, and the bears can be petted. Or in this case, they can try to pet a calf or annoy something capable of stomping them into mulch because "I'm not going to hurt them and they'll know!". Or some other idiot idea. So someone else gets stomped/gored/clawed/bitten to death or crippling, and occasionally gets turned into dinner, and we all get treated to a lecture from some bunny-huggers about how the animal was just 'misunderstood' and we shouldn't be nasty to the poor thing. Bleah. I think it was Heinlein that wrote about stupidity being the only crime in the universe with an automatic death sentance, with no appeal. Speaking of which...

Peter Capstick wrote about a case he knew of. A guy had gone to Africa to, in particular, get film of lions. Day after day no lions in the area, and then someone came in late one afternoon and reported a pride a couple of miles away. So he grabbed his camera and drove away. And never came back. Next morning they found his car, with the camera mounted on a window, and under the trees nearby was some disturbed ground. No sign ever found of him, so they packed up his property and shipped it home.

When the family was sorting through the stuff someone noticed that the film in the movie camera had been shot, so the had it developed, and at the memorial service they decided to show it so his final nature shoot would be seen. At first it showed a pride in their late-afternoon positions, sound asleep in various positions. Then the camera jiggled a bit and got steady, apparently when he put it on the window mount. It was still for a couple of minutes and then, yeah, the guy showed up in the frame. Walking into the middle of the pride. He stood there waving at the camera, then leaned over and patted a lioness on the butt. Upon which she woke up, reared up and pulled him down, at which the rest of them woke up and helped demonstrate the killing/feeding techinque of the lion on two-leg prey.

I don't know if the Darwin Awards were in effect at the time, but if not he should get a delayed award or something.

The good, the bad, and the cheap side of both

It sucks being cheap. Yes, I know, I just reviewed a Martini I bought, I'm getting to that. I spent so many years worrying about every penny that it's stuck in my mind. I have no idea how many times I've found something I really needed or wanted and thought, "Hmmm, I'll wait a bit and see how money looks in a week or two". And, as you've probably already guessed, by the time I convinced myself to spend the money the whatever was no longer available, or the price had gone up.

I've gotten better about that(hence the Martini) on some things, but on the bills and daily costs of living, I'm still cheap. I'll skip some food item 'until next week' or not do something I need to 'till later'. I'll keep the temperature low in winter to keep the gas bill down, and high in summer to keep the electric bill down. When I bought this house it was the first I've ever lived in that had central heat & air, and it's nice, but the first winter I kept the temp down almost all the time, and the first summer I didn't use the a/c until it was damn hot. And then I finally decided enough was enough; I was tired of being cold in the house in winter and hot in summer, so I started turning it up(or down) a bit.

The new furnace is far more efficient than the old one, which made the psychic pain of the gas bill not as bad as I'd expected; the a/c having been overhauled a month ago should do pretty good as well, so that's not the problem. Right now it's 94 and humid outside with the air barely moving, so damn right I'm using the cooler. And it's nice. I don't have it turned down very far, but just clearing out the humidity makes it worth it.

Part of the trouble on using the stuff is that I like having the windows open. When it's cool enough at night I'd rather have the windows open and a fan blowing than having the a/c running. My job has such hours that sometimes I have to sleep during the day/evening, so it's just not cool enough to sleep without it. In the fall/spring, if I can get by with just using the heater a bit at night, or able to just crack the windows, I'm happier.

Over the last few years I've been able to ease up a bit on the cheapness; I still worry about the money going out, but I feel better about buying something I need/want instead of putting it off over and over until it's not there any more. Only occasionally do I go overboard(see 'Martini').

But I still catch myself- more than I like- looking at something I need and putting it off when I really shouldn't.

Oh well. The last few days I bought insecticide and ant bait because I have a lot of the little bastards in the garage. I sprayed them well, and the next day bought & put out the bait. It says it'll take about a week to really notice a difference in numbers, which is difficult to deal with, because as long as I see the damn things I want to grab the bottle & chemical-attack them again. But if I do that they won't carry the bait away with them, so I have to wait for it to work. Dammit, I bought spray and I want to use it!

Range report, Martini, additional

I'm adding some to this, tacked on at the bottom

Being too tired today to do anything really constructive, like clean the house, I loaded up after lunch and hit the outdoor range nearest. I wanted to do two things in particular; test the Martini model 12 at 50 yards with different ammo, and check the zero on my Remington 512. So with half a dozen different brands of ammo in the box(Federal Lightning, Federal Gold Medal Match, Eley Sport, PMC Pistol Match, CCI Green Tag, and Aguila SSS just to try out) off I went.

It's hot and humid today, but the wind wasn't trying to blow the target stands down, and was coming almost directly uprange at you. I shot a 5-shot group at 50 yards with each brand first. I've mentioned having had a chance to shoot four various models of Martini, and this one gave no surprise; it shot at least as accurately with the Lightning as it did with the match stuff, and better with it than any but the Eley Sport. The largest group out of any was about 1.5"; with these two a little under 1". I'm not counting the Aguila; out of three shots, two would string vertically and one would tumble. Oddly, the tumble was always vertical, and it hit horizontally right in line with the other two and lower.

Having an almost empty range and the time, I set up targets at 100 yards. If you read the original report on this rifle, you may have gone to this site and read up on Martinis. In the old ad was this:

"B.S.A. rifles are consistently capable, in the hands of a good shot, of
grouping within a 2-inch circle at 100 yards, or a 4-inch circle at 200 yards.
B.S.A. .22 Target Rifles are not allowed to leave the factory unless they
conform to a very high standard based on these performances."

and this:
 "'PARKERIFLED' BARRELS SET THE PRESENT DAY STANDARD OF
  ACCURACY, a 2in CIRCLE AT 100 YARDS."

and they weren't kidding.  With both the Fed Lightning and
Eley Sport it consistently shot sub-2" groups at 100.  The
best with the Fed was 1 3/16", the best with the Eley 1.5". 
And it wasn't one-time luck, with this rifle I could shoot
groups like this consistently.  A somewhat abused .22 at
least seventy years old with a relined barrel...
Damn, they made these good!

No, it's NOT for sale, Kim.

Two things I thought I'd mention.  This rifle(almost all of them)
have peep sights.  The rear has an adjustable aperture with six
different size holes, and the front is a 'tunnel' sight.  It's a
tube with inside threads at the back, a male portion that screws
in, and a vertical slot about halfway down its length.  You back
off the male section to open the slot,then drop in whatever
insert you choose.  They come in a variety of shapes, most being
either different diameter rings or different thickness  posts.
One thing you can run into is that new inserts like the Shaver
inserts from Brownells are very precisely cut; change from one
to another, your point of impact should be the same.  A lot of
the older ones are bent a little off- center, either from when
made or from being dropped or bent, so if you change one of them,
you may well have to re-zero.

Also, of the half-dozen of these I've seen, two of the front
sights were not very tight in the dovetail; so you'll want to
check that and tighten it up if necessary.  And I think that
about covers it.

Ever try to kick a door open?

I did, once. What brought this to mind was an episode of Mythbusters where they built a doorway and worked at breaking it in. So now, the story...

One summer when I was visiting my grandparents I decided to give it a try. They lived in a very small town in southeast OK, and when visiting I could spend a lot of time hunting and fishing, and when not doing that running around in the woods near their house with a BB gun. There was an old house near theirs, all the window glass & frames gone but the doors still there. So one day, while I was setting up targets in the rooms and practicing popping up and shooting through the windows, I decided this would be a fine thing to do: lock the door closed and, pistol in hand, make what I would later learn is called a 'dynamic entry' and shoot the can taking the part of barricaded Bad Guy. So I set up a target, and since I had no key for the lock, I found a piece of, as I recall, pine 1x2" to wedge under the doorknob. Even after all the years the door was still solid, and the roof had protected the inside pretty well so the 1x2 was strong. I note, this was not a 'white wood' piece like you generally buy nowadays, this looked like yellow pine, hard and strong.

So I wedged it under the knob and went out a window. On the front porch I cocked the pistol, placing a lethal Daisy BB in the barrel, and readied myself. I'd been told that if you kick a door, hit it right next to the knob or lock. So I stood back to the wall next to the door, took a breath, stepped out to face the door, cocked my leg and slammed my foot into the door right next to the knob.

And it bounced my skinny ass clear off the porch.

By the time I stopped moving and absorbed what had happened, my first thought was, well, he knows I'm coming now! So I walked back up to the porch, got set solidly, and kicked the door again.

I didn't bounce quite as far, but the door didn't move at all. So I climbed in the window and examined the board, and it showed no stress at all(neither did the door). Yes, by this time it was sinking in that this wasn't quite as easy as it looked on tv.

I finally had to cut halfway through the 1x2 before I could kick the door open. No, I didn't try hitting it with my shoulder; I'd been advised by someone who'd done it for real that that was a good way to hurt your shoulder, so I didn't try that. Probably a good thing, as the door would probably have sent me to a doctor.

Now, had it been the door lock only, I'm pretty sure it would have broken the jamb and opened, but with just that 1x2 bracing it I couldn't do it. I learned something about securing things from that, happily without getting bounced off a tree. I also found out that busting through a door and finding and hitting a target ain't as easy as they make it look, either.

So if I hadn't thought it before, I really started thinking about how full of crap movies and tv were after that.

Ref the 'flushed Koran' story and Andrew Sulllivan

Well, we all know about the story. You know the one NewsWeak published just because they wanted it to be true? And I heard some of the press conference with a bunch of pissy 'reporters' bitching at the White House press secretary("How DARE the President and his minions criticize the PRESS?"). The followup is on the whining of Andrew Sullivan.

There's been a couple of times I've wanted to weigh in on Sullivan, mostly from disappointment; he was one of the first bloggers I ever read, and watching him change into the jackass he's become has not been fun. So I rarely read him anymore. So when he started his current 'torture' bullshit, I thought the time had come. Except that Ace beat me to it. Dammit. I do have to quote the following:
"Now, I grant you, some terrorists died in captivity.

And I can't tell you how much that saddens me.

Well, I could tell you. But I'd be lying."

Amen, brother.

Uzbekistan

Apparently the government there decided to take a page from the People's Republic of China and massacre people who were protesting.

And I haven't heard a thing on the news. I may have missed it, but you'd think the media would look on this as a Big Thing. Which it is.

Pretty good roundup of link info over at Instapundit.

The guns I'd choose

Earlier I wrote on the question 'If you could only have a few guns, what would you grab?'. I broke my choices into five categories, and of what I own or is quickly available, here's what I'd choose.

Centerfire rifle My choice would depend on conditions; whether it's a possible combat situation or simple survival. For fighting, I'd pick my Yugo SKS. The cartridge is adequate for the purpose, and with a couple of pouches of loaded strippers, you can reload fast. You can also use it for medium-size game like whitetail deer(with good soft-point ammo preferably) also. If I were primarily worried about survival stuff, it would be an 8mm Mauser. The one in question is an old Turk 1938 that's had some work done on it. It'll reach out a long way, and if you wind up facing something large it'll take care of that too(depending on where you are in the region, you can find anything from black bear to wild boar to deer to elk to antelope). And with some of the military surplus ammo, you can just about shoot through a car lengthwise if you had to. If I had to choose one of them quickly, I'd probably grab the SKS, much as it pains me to say so. It doesn't have the range or power of the 8mm, but if a fight develops, it'd be the better weapon.

Rimfire rifle Remington Model 512. This is a tube-magazine bolt-action I mounted a 4x scope on years ago. With the right ammo it's spooky accurate, it'll handle any .22 shorts, longs or long rifles that you can get hold of, and if something happened to the scope the iron sights are zeroed at 50 yards. One nice thing, a lot of these old Remingtons have very good triggers, which definately helps the accuracy factor.

Centerfire pistol Much as I like the 1911 .45, I'd probably take the S&W Model 57 .357 Magnum. Sturdy, accurate, reliable, and you can use two cartridges in it, .357 and .38 Special. Especially with some quick loaders you can recharge it fast, with magnums you can take deer or hogs out to 50 yards, with light .38's you can take small game without destroying them. The .45 would be my choice for a fighting pistol, but for general use, the revolver would get the nod.

Rimfire pistol Either a Ruger Single Six, or a Sig Trailside. I'd lean toward the Ruger; it comes with two cylinders, one for LR and one for Magnums, and with the magnum cylinder it'd be a nasty beast for defensive use. The Sig has a scope that can be mounted in less than a minute, and it's very accurate; for small game it'd be better because the scope helps out my eyes. And since the primary use for it would be small game, it'd be the Sig.

Shotgun Benelli Nova Special Purpose. Short, light, ghost-ring sights. Mine's 12 guage, and with slugs I've tried it's quite accurate to 50 yards; with buckshot out of that short barrel effective range would be 30 yards max, but what more do you expect? With slugs or buckshot I'd be confident against anything in North America within it's range, and with birdshot you've got birds and small game for hunting. Combat use? If you find someone who's happy about facing a shotgun at close range, you know crazier people than I do.

Those are my choices, as to the stuff available to me. Add in the 'what would you go buy?' option, and things open up a lot. Maybe a M1A for the centerfire rifle, a .41 Magnum Smith or Taurus revolver... Lots of possibilities.

What would you choose?

And in Japan?

Check this out. Ace of Spades is a nice blog, and this covers some things in Japan I'd not heard of. But the 'Russian Roulette' game...

From anywhere, that's just goofy. At least.

Meanwhile, across the pond in Old England,

I found this over at Castle Beelzebub. It seems that the numbers show "a 10 per cent rise in gun crime from 10,080 in 2003 to 11,082 recorded offences". And the brass are blaming it on an increase in crimes committed with BB guns("We've got all these gun control laws, so they couldn't be real guns, oh no. So things aren't really worse after all, you see?") And their answer? Why, NEW LAWS, of course, new bans/restrictions on those nasty, eeevil BB guns!

That'll take care of the problem! Won't it?

If you could only have a few guns

what would they be? As Kim said, if someone says you can only have one, you shoot the bastard. This is a little different. If you could only have a few, having to bug out or whatever, what would be the minimum you'd want?

I figure five, broken down as follows with some notes at the end:

A centerfire rifle. What caliber would depend on what your primary perceived need would be and what part of the country. Primarily a combat arm, a semi-auto would be better; primarily hunting, another action type would be as good or better.(a)

A rimfire rifle. Ammo is cheap, which means you could carry a lot for little cost and weight. For hunting or varmint control you get accuracy with low noise and recoil, and long term it gives a way to practice without using the heavy stuff.(b)

A centerfire pistol. This could serve both for defensive use and, depending on type/caliber, hunting use.(c)

A rimfire pistol. Same reasons as the rimfire rifle. And, if you're with someone who can't handle something heavier, it beats nothing for a defensive arm.(d)

And last, a shotgun. This is, probably, the most versitile arm you could have. With birdshot take small game; with buckshot and slugs large game; and with all of them it's a serious defensive weapon.(e)

With this combination, you'd be able to take care of just about any problem to arise.

(a) Type, of course, depends on use, caliber is much more subjective. A combat arm could be done in .223, or .308, or 7.62x39. But if you're also/instead thinking of hunting, it gets more complicated. Over much of the country a .30-30 would work fine(as well as easy ammo availability), or an old 6.5x55 Mauser, but if you live in a place where shots might be longer or you might have to deal with bears/moose/elk, a heavier cartridge would get the nod. I remember once reading of a man who was setting up a moose hunt, and when he told the guide he was bringing a .375 H&H Magnum, the guide almost teared up at someone bringing a cartridge he could trust as heavy enough. Yeah, a .308 will take just about anything if the shot is perfect and if you can do it under whatever conditions; however, most of us don't have the shooting skill and nerves under stress of W.D.M. Bell.

(b) The main contenders here would be the .22LR, the .22 Magnum, and the .17 Hornady. All will work; the magnum and .17 will give longer effective range. The .22LR has the advantage of being able to use shorts(the others can't) which can be very quiet and effective on small game up close.

(c) Pick your main use and choose caliber from that. While a semi-auto is generally better defensively, there's not a thing wrong with a good revolver.

(d) See (b). One nice thing here is that some revolvers come with two cylinders, .22LR and .22 Mag, so they have a bit more versatility; the mag cylinder can make it a nasty defensive arm.

I'll note that you could combine the centerfire and rimfire pistols by having a semi-auto centerfire and a .22 conversion for it.

(e) Semi-auto or pump or double or single-shot or bolt, in a fight no handgun ever made can equal the close-range stopping power of a shotgun. With buckshot or slugs the range reaches out further, with some shotguns with rifled barrels and the right slugs giving rifle-level accuracy out beyond 100 yards. As long as you work within the range of your piece, you can take any game animal in North America(and many other places) with one, and with practice a pump can throw shots about as fast as a semi-auto.

There's my selections as to type. For particulars, I'll be adding that later. This'll take some thought.

Muskogee Ren-Fair

Short for Renaissance Fair. If you've never been to one, you should give it a try. They're not to everyone's taste, but they definately have their good points. For the ladies there are gentlemen in fine attire who will kiss your hand and compliment you outrageously(and most women seem to like it). For the men, busty wenches and corsets with bold attitude(and if you don't like it, shame on you). For everyone, singers and dancers and magicians and artisans. If a good time isn't had by all, you ain't trying.

Just for a taste of things for those who haven't been, check these out:
Heather Alexander, singer. Check out the audio samples, if nothing else go to the Midsummer album for March of Cambreath. If that doesn't make your hair stand up...

The Bedlam Bards, sometimes the two guys and sometimes with others, but the core is always there.

There's lots of other performers. And merchants, including Aerie Books. A wonderful couple of sublime wit and generous hearts, with a fine selection of books(And they let you sleep on the floor and got you into the fair and- Shut up) Jewelers and clothesmakers and weapons and armor merchants and, and, and so forth.

And food. Don't forget the food. Meats and cheese and bread and fish and drink... oh, there's some good stuff to be had.

Oh, I nearly forgot the Bilge Pumps. Pirates with a musical bent(are you sure that's all that's bent? Shut up, I said). A recording's nothing like a live performance by a group like this, but it gets the idea across.

The first one of these I went to was the Texas Renaissance Festival, more years ago than I care to think about. Now there's at least one fair in every state, I think. You don't have to be one of the people who never misses a weekend to enjoy one, but it helps to get into the spirit of it. Face it, a village with a 'Save Our Brothel' campaign ought to be seen at least once.

NewsWeak

Having been sick, and then being out of town doing non-important things like seeing people I hadn't seen in a while, and relaxing and having fun, I wasn't up on this mess. So when I started checking news today I heard about it.

I'll admit that my first thought was so what? If someone burned or flushed a Bible or a Torah in front of me, it'd be the same. Oh, if it was an old Torah or other text with historical value I'd be upset, but not over the book itself; if you believe in the words of a holy book, it's because of the meaning of the words, not the paper they're written on. If a bunch of idiots riot over the story and kill and injure people, that's their fault for being idiots. That's if the story is true.

If it's not?

Michelle Malkin has been rounding up information on this pile of fertilizer that NewsWeak has dug itself into, including this link that sums it up very well. Like Dan Blather and various others, these idiots got a 'story' that was just too good-to their way of thinking- for it not to be true, so, "Screw the consequences! Screw not having corroboration! Publish it!". And so another group of media idiots with grudges screw themselves over, and this time also have a hand in getting some people killed.

But bloggers have no ethical standards, right?

Home again, home again

Just got back from spending the weekend at the Castle at Muskogee Renaissance Fair. Friends of mine have a bookstore, and for helping them out they got me in and gave me a space on the floor to sleep. More on that later; right now I'm tired and dirty, and hitting the bath and bed. Nice weekend.

The pup grew in the two days I was gone. In the morning I've got to feed critters, gather laundry and wash it, and if the yard dries out soon enough mow some of it. We finally got some storms with a lot of rain the last part of the week, and with the sun coming out after, the grass will be growing fast.

See y'all later

Carnival of Cordite #13 is up

Over at Gullyborg. Some real good stuff there, nice mix of shooting, politics, shiny pretties and (ahem) a contribution from Yr. Obdnt. Svt(me).

While you're there, hit 'home' and check out Gullyborg in general, it's a good place.

West Virginia, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

WHY do you keep sending the bloviating idiot Byrd back to the senate? WHY? Is it simply that he's good at looting the rest of the country to bring money back to WV? Is it sympathy? Why? I'd really like to know.

Last night I heard a replay of some of his 'speech' in the senate on John Bolton. I don't live in your state, and it was embarrasing to ME to have this two-faced jackass in this legislative body blowing hot air this way. And he does it over and over and over...

I'll not list a lot of other things, they've been gone over by many. And to top it off, it was announced that Barak Obama had helped raise $1 million for the reelection campaign of this idiot. To me, this is proof of 'party candidate no matter what' mentality, and it does not reflect well on Obama.

So WHY does this embarrassment to the country keep getting reelected?

Disgustingly cute dog picture

She seems to be settling in well. The older dog is still going through the 'I want to play, but you're new! And in my yard!' stuff, but she's getting better. Still have to figure out a name. Of suggestions I've heard Mildred, Tip, Soot, and Smudge. I need to decide on something; 'Furball' and 'Dog with perpetually worried look on face' just don't seem to cut it.

Yesterday I got a bit sick. Sick as in throw up breakfast, throw up lunch(three hours later), eat a pint of ice cream for dinner because I thought it'd stay down(it did). Then go through shivers and fever after I got home from work, after which I actually slept well. Still a bit dodgy today, so this evening decided it might be easier on the stomach than other things to I hit a Chinese buffet. Either that food is easier on your stomach than a lot of people think, or I've got a weird system, as it sat very well. Anyway, I spent a while during the afternoon in the back yard stretched out in a lawn chair dozing, and woke up-in time for work, happily- with the older dog wondering why I wasn't awake and scratching her ears and the pup asleep under the chair. Belly rubs and dinner later I went off to work, and they seemed happy with things.

I thought of Dogmatyx, but my son's dog has that name. Hmm, maybe Getafyx, after the druid?

Range Report, Martini

I present to you(as an example of 'I really shouldn't get this but it's so pretty...) the BSA Martini model 12. Or maybe 13.

'Maybe' because there was no clear-cut point in the serial numbers that defines the difference, and no 'Model Whatever' stamped into the barrel. But it looks exactly like the model 12 shown here, so it's a 12. Yeah, I know he's got a better picture. Bite me.

A little history. First was the Peabody, designed by Mr. Peabody("To the wayback machine, Sherman!") in the mid-1800's. Then a Swiss named Martini redesigned the action, making it simpler. The British adopted it as the 'Martini-Henry' as their first manufactured military breechloader in the .577-.450 cartridge. Then they began using it, in a MUCH smaller action, as a smallbore rifle, and made them for many years.

One thing you may notice, mainly on older ones, is a ring around the crown, maybe with 'ParkerRifled' stamped into the muzzle around the ring. These rifles were used a lot, and heavily, and many had the bores either shot out or messed up due to bad or no cleaning. So Parker Hale, along with making other good things, made and installed barrel liners for them. That link above, near the bottom, has some good information on that. This one was relined at some point, and the bore is spotless.

Another thing you'll probably find, if you get hold of one of these, is exterior rust ranging from light to nasty, and badly caked old oil & powder fouling in the action. The exterior of this one was pretty good, two places with some pitting was all, but the innards... One of the nice things on these actions is you pull a pin from the right side of the receiver and the works all pivot out for cleaning. Which is a good thing, because the innards were bloody awful. No rust, but lots of crud. A couple of good soakings with carburetor cleaner cut most of that out, disassembly and cleaning/oiling got the rest. Another of the nice things about these is the action is so damned simple- a screw for the trigger to pivot on, one to hold the trigger return spring, one to hold the striker bushing in place in the breechblock; three pins that the breechblock, lever and extractor pivot on. No other screws, very simple and elegant.

This model used a tang-mounted peep sight, and a front 'tunnel' sight with changeable inserts. The rear has six different aperture sizes(turn the dial to change) for different conditions. Yes, it was pretty crudded up, too. Carb cleaner and oil time again.

If you look closely, you'll see a sling swivel eye soldered to the barrel(standard) and two in the forend(extremely variable; sometimes you find holes all over the forend where people moved them around. The other piece on the bottom rear is a brass box to hold inserts for the front sight.

Now down to the shooting, which was at 30 yards. These things usually have fine triggers, this one being no exception. I'd guess breaking at about 2 lbs., with no creep or drag. Rear sight adjustments are click and positive. To load you pull the lever down, which pivots the front of the block down so the top of it makes a ramp to the chamber. Push a cartridge all the way in, pull the lever up, ready to fire. There's no safety; the military rifles had a cocking indicator on the right side of the receiver(insert sargeant screaming "YOU DON'T LOAD UNTIL YOU'RE IN BATTLE OR ON GUARD!"); most of the target/sporting rifles had something of the sort, in this case a lever that shows above the right side of the breechblock when the action is cocked.

This range doesn't have an actual bench, just a shelf in front of the shooting position. So I just had the forend resting on a bag, using my left hand in front of the trigger guard as the rear rest, so I don't expect to shoot as well for ammo testing or sighting in as I would at a bench. Nevertheless, as long as my eyes held out it shot extremely well, several groups with different ammo going into 1/2" or less. When I get the chance to sit down at 50 yards with a solid rest, I've no doubt I'll be very happy with the results.

Note: I've had a chance to shoot four of the various models of these rifles, and I've found something interesting; they all shot at least as well with Federal Lightning ammo as they did with any match-grade stuff we tried. I've stopped calling this Federal the 'cheap' stuff, I now say 'inexpensive'. As well as it shoots in many firearms, 'cheap' it ain't. Especially when it groups as well as $5/box match stuff, as I've seen several rifles do.

I'm very happy with this rifle. Well-balanced, wonderful trigger, quite accurate, and sometimes with some interesting history behind them. I've seen two with the stock stamped with the name of the school and rack position, from when they were used for musketry practice(Kim du Toit has some more on that here). If you have a chance to pick one of these up, you'll probably be happy with it, too.

Additional
The ammo used in this test was Federal Lightning, now sold as Fed. Champion; Eley Sport; Golden Eagle Match Rifle; and Federal Gold Medal Target. This particular rifle didn't like the Golden Eagle very much, and the Federal and Eley just about tied.

Thanks to an adventurous man, there are now a lot of 1871 and 1885 model Martini-Henry rifles in the original .577-.450 chambering on the market. Here's one source, here's another. These are originals that have been in storage for a hundred years or more, and from what I've read almost all are in shootable condition, with many still having 80% or more of the original finish! Ammo is mostly handload your own, but even if you don't shoot it, this is a chance to buy a unique old firearm. Maybe if I stopped drooling at things like this Martini, I might be able to save enough to get one of the 1871's one of these days...

Followup, 100 yard tests, here

New four-leg family member

New critter in the yard, picked up at a local shelter day before yesterday. Now I've got to figure out a name for her.

Between the cops and the politicians, just how stupid are things getting?

I'll tell you how. Let's take a tour of the news today.

First is New Jersey, where an idiot legislator has introduced a bill that says if an illegal gun is found in your car, home or business, the cops can seize it, "even if the firearm was not possessed by the owner of the motor vehicle, building or premise,". So someone you're giving a ride to, or visiting you in your home or business, has an 'illegal' gun, and the cops can take your property. Go read. So in New Jersey the Fifth Amendment is in the trash as far as their state government is concerned, along with the Second. But it'll give the cops and the state money, so who cares, right?

Next is Seattle, where an eight-month pregnant woman is Tasered for refusing to sign a speeding ticket. I especially like the part where " fire medics examined Brooks, confirmed she was pregnant and recommended she be evaluated at Harborview Medical Center." It took medics to look at a woman that far along and 'confirm' she's pregnant?

Then to Los Angeles, where county SO deputies fired 120 rounds into an SUV. In a yard, moving back toward their cars. After a pursuit at the blistering speeds of 35mph. You think the guy's trying to run over you, I can see firing, but can you say 'overreaction'? I knew you could!

And to Sacramento, CA, where a legislator is pushing a law that, if an illegal immigrant is stopped without a license and without insurance, he would get a ticket but the police would not be allowed to tow the car. And, to make it even better, would reduce the fine that they could be charged. So if you're a legal U.S. citazen or immigrant, they can seize your car for this and you get the full fine, but illegals would get to keep their car and pay a lower fine...

We've got a rash of people being Tasered for various reasons, some cases of which should get the officers involved a swift kick in the ass followed by having said ass sued off and fired. And here's another case of the 'highly qualified law enforcement officers who are the only people who should be allowed to have guns' going through enough rounds, in one shooting, to take you through a long practice session at the range. And we have one politician wanting to use an excuse to seize all the property possible, and it's all 'for the public safety', and another wanting to give illegal immigrants better treatment in traffic stops than citazens and legal immigrants get.

That's how friggin' stupid it is out there.

Cleaning centerfires

With two exceptions, centerfires clean the same as rimfires. The exceptions are 1. gas-powered semi-autos and 2. copper fouling in the bore.

Semi-auto rimfires are blowback operated. The weight of the bolt, the strength of the recoil spring and the hammer spring are calibrated to hold the bolt closed until the pressure has dropped to safe levels, after which the recoil of the cartridge pushes it back to eject the empty and pick up the next round from the magazine. Some centerfire auto carbines and sub-machine guns are delayed blowback; they use some type of mechanical lock to hold the bolt closed until pressure drops to a safe level. Gas-powered autos bleed off some of the expanding propellant gas from the bore and use it to either travel back through a gas tube and push the bolt back(AR-15/M16), or it feeds into a short gas tube where it pushes back a piston and that is what moves the bolt back. What this all means is that most centerfire auto rifles and carbines have a gas system that needs cleaning. Most of these are fairly simple to take down and clean out; some type of bore cleaner or carbon cleaner to get the fouling off the parts, a bore brush the right diameter to clean the tube, a little lube, and you're done. I'm not going to get more specific than that, there are enough variations that you need to check the specifics for your gun for details.

The bore is where things get fun. The higher pressures and velocities of centerfire guns, especially rifles, tend to cause traces of bullet jacket to rub off on the barrel walls, and if you're pushing cast lead bullets without gas check bases too fast, you can foul up a barrel both badly and fast. If a bore is nice and smooth jacket fouling(usually a copper alloy) may not be much of a problem, though with some of the very high-velocity cartridges it can. If the bore is rough, or has some mild pitting, it can foul rapidly. In either case, sooner or later, you will have to clean this stuff out. There are some really good copper solvents out there now, Sweet's 7.62 for instance. And Brownells has a new stuff called Copper Melt that's supposed to work very well. All of them require a brush and/or jag and patches. Generally, push a wet patch through to clear powder fouling, then a wet one or two- or a brush- to work the cleaner through, then let it sit a few minutes, then a couple of dry patches; if you see blue, it means copper coming out so you repeat until no blue, then dry out and oil. READ THE DIRECTIONS FOR THE STUFF YOU ARE USING, this is only a general procedure I've listed. Some people will plug the breech end and pour the barrel full, letting it soak for long periods, but some of the solvents specifically say not to do that with them, as in some cases it may cause damage to the barrel. So read the directions.

A badly fouled barrel may take a lot of scrubbing and soaking and a pile of patches to get it all out. Here's another place where I'll recommend the FoulOut. It takes a while to get heavy copper fouling out, but you don't have to scrub back & forth, and no worry about possibly damaging the bore. But READ THE DIRECTIONS, because if you don't use it correctly, especially in the first hour, it CAN cause pitting.

There's one other thing you run into with centerfires, especially if you shoot old or military surplus ammo, and that is corrosive primers. They're not actually corrosive, but one or more of the chemicals used in them, when they burn, produce traces of chemical salts that are deposited in the bore(and gas system of autos, and maybe on the bolt and in the action). Salts attract moisture, and moisture causes rust, so... Most standard gun cleaners will not get rid of this stuff, as they're petroleum or synthetic-based, and the salts are water-soluble. So there are two ways to get it out; soap and water, or one of the cleaners designed for corrosive primer residue. I've got a bottle of the old U.S. Army bore cleaner intended to clean this stuff; it's smelly, but it works. A place called Empire Arms, in their FAQ section, recommends mixing sudsy ammonia, the standard household stuff 2- or 3-to-one with water, and that works. These all contain something that will dissolve and flush away the salts. Best results seem to be to hit the barrel with a damp patch or two while it's still warm from shooting, dry patches to clean it out and a little oil. With autos you'll have to get the gas system too. One thing I've used on bolt rifles is Sweets 7.62 solvent. It reeks of ammonia(it's also a good copper cleaner) and seems to do the job nicely. I also tried it on an SKS after shooting suspect ammo, using a patch damp with it to swab out the gas tube and wipe off the piston; no rust seen. Really, cleaning after corrosive primed ammo isn't that bad, just take care to do it soon after firing; you can't leave it for a few days like with non-corrosive ammo, ESPECIALLY if damp weather or if you're in a humid climate.

I should note that the stuff that cleans corrosive priming residue also does a nice job of cleaning black powder fouling.

One other thing I'll mention is run into with shotguns, and that's plastic fouling in the bore from shot cups and wads, and in some cases from plastic buffering material. There are solvents made specifically for getting that stuff out, but I haven't had any experience with them; so far a brass brush and regular solvent has done the job. If you've got a bad case of this stuff, one thing you can do is put a brush on a rod and chuck the other end into a variable-speed drill, dip the brush in solvent, and run it back & forth as the drill rotates it. There's one other thing to try in a really bad case...

My dad was helping another trooper clean his shotgun up before an inspection, and it hadn't been cleaned since he'd last qualified: the bore was the nastiest thing I'd seen in a while. Dad finally took a 1/2" dowel and cut a slot about 6" long in one end, pulled a Scotchbrite pad into the slot, soaked it in solvent, chucked the other end into a drill and went at it. We had to flip the pad over to get fresh surfaces about halfway through but it finally got it all out.

That about covers it. I'll repeat, this isn't the 'be-all and end-all' of cleaning instructions, but it should cover most things. I'll also repeat, if you're not sure of the procedure to use on a firearm, CHECK THE DIRECTIONS. Or FIND SOME! So take the time to do it right, and your piece should keep putting lead downrange for many years to come.

Range report, the Black Watch pistol

This is a reproduction of the pistol, originally from mid-1700's I believe. It's just shy of a foot long, flintlock, and has a .58 caliber smoothbore barrel. The grip is a hollow brass casting, nicely polished on the outside, and the lock plate is nicely color case-hardened. It's not nearly as heavy as you'd think; that hollow grip & body is pretty light. There are no sights, so it's a 'aim along the barrel & pray' shooter.

When I was first given this, it wouldn't spark at all. A little testing revealed that the frizzen- the piece that the flint strikes sparks from- not only wasn't hardened, it was just mild steel. So I hunted around and found a place that carried Kwik Hard, a case-hardening compound and tried it out. It worked nicely, and sparks abound. As long as the flint is sharp and properly adjusted.

The load recommended is 25 grains of 2f black powder, a .570 diameter ball and a .010 thickness cloth patch. I had powder and some suitable ball and patch material, but I needed fine priming powder, so I 'modified' some 3f(don't ask), and headed for the range.

I lubed the patches with Thompson Center Bore Butter, which worked nicely. However, after the first two shots the ramrod that fits under the barrel was a pain; it's a thin steel rod with a button on one end, and it needed to be a bit thicker and longer. I'll take a longer wood rod with me next time. The balls seated against the powder with no trouble. However, if you were loading this thing and carrying it into battle, I'd hope for a chance to ram the ball down before firing, just in case the jarring of running and fighting caused it to slip a bit out of position. May not be that likely a problem, but I do wonder about it.

If you've never used one of these, first you make sure the barrel is empty, the flash hole is clear, and all excess oil is wiped out, and the frizzen is open. Measure your powder and pour it in. With the barrel vertical, place a patch over the muzzle, place a ball in the center, and push it down with the ramrod until the ball is seated firmly on the powder. With the hammer(or 'cock') at half-cock pour enough priming powder into the pan to fill it about halfway. With it pointed in a safe direction, close the frizzen, cock the hammer, aim and fire. I was pleasantly surprised with the recoil. With that weirdly shaped butt I'd expected it to be nasty, but wasn't bad at all, it was quite easy to shoot. Trigger has some creep- that Scottish lock design is strange- but breaks cleanly.

Accuracy at five yards was about what you'd expect, for two reasons. First, as I mentioned there's no sights. Second, with modern firearms lock time- the time between the trigger actually releasing and the firing pin hitting the primer- is measured in milliseconds; with this the time between trigger release and priming powder firing is a significant portion of a second. Follow-through is very important.

I don't know what the muzzle velocity is, I'd guess about 300-400 fps. It's no .45acp, mind you, but I'd hate to get hit with that big ball at that speed. Add to the bullet damage the fact that they tended to carry bits of patch or clothing and maybe some of the grease used to lube the patch into a wound, and the battlefield back then was a very nasty place.

It's a fun piece to shoot. I think I'm going to make a front sight for it, just a low blade to give more of a reference for aiming, though. And it really makes you appreciate cartridge arms(I'd hate to have to try loading this in a hurry as someone was breaking in). One last thing; if someone gets close and you can't shoot, you can belt them with either end pretty effectively, that brass butt would hurt!

And this is the self-propelled ferret toy

This is Itzel(assuming I'm spelling it right). Yeah, it's a lousy picture, the little bugger wouldn't hold a pose for anything. He's about six inches long and weighs about two boxes of .22's, or so it seems. At least he's not a yapper.

Also for Blob, since he asked

This is Puckwudjie, Puck for short. He's bigger than Belle, and unlike her he doesn't bite anyone, unless he's really excited while playing, and then not hard.

There's a third, a white one named Vashka, but she was sound asleep in the hammock, so I'll try to get one of her later.

For Cowboy Blob

This one is Belle. Which little !(#$&^^% will let me pick her up and pet her, then will calmly turn her head, sniff my hand, and bite the crap out of me. To be fair, she bites everyone except my ex.

Two to check out

First, from Howard Veit(found through Kim's place) a post on the subject of morale in an armed force, and the effect of bad morale on fighting ability.

Second, over at Alphecca, is this on what's happened in Brazil since they banned the ownership of handguns(from the honest citazens, that is), and the rate in Venezuela. Venezuela i understand; it has a castro-ass-kissing jerk running the country. But Brazil has an actual representative government, so you'd hope for better there. But no, they kiss the U.N.'s ass and don't think private citazens can be trusted to own arms, so they ban them, and then act surprised when the criminals take over. Idiots.

The self-propelled ferret toy

Went over to see my kids the other day and met the newest four-legged member of their household: my ex got a long-haired teacup chihuahua. It's black and tan, fits in my hand with room to spare and has ears that make me wonder what would happen if you put him on a leash and took him out in a high wind...

First thing I said was "It's a perambulating pipe cleaner- no, it's a ferret chew-toy!" A ferret they had once before kept dragging a kitten to a corner with his other toys and got annoyed when it wouldn't stay there. My daughter's cats ignore this beast, and the ferrets weren't real sure what to make of it, partly because when it has the chance it likes to jump on them(three times bigger than it is) and chew on their tails. By the end of the time I was there it and one of the weasels were chasing each other around quite happily, so we'll see.

At least it doesn't yap all the time. I hate the little mutts that do that.

Cleaning your firelock

I'm going to break this up into two or three parts. First up is rimfires.

Rimfires generally means a .22, though it also covers the 5mmRMF, the .17 Hornady and variations. There may still be some folks shooting Spencer or Henry rimfires, but where they're getting the ammo I don't know.

For the most part, cleaning a .22 is simple, thanks to modern ammo. Non-corrosive priming means you don't have to worry about the barrel rusting out if you don't scrub it clean right after shooting, the lube on most ammo(or the copper plating) keeps the barrel from fouling, and the worst problem(mostly with semi-autos) is powder fouling and unburned powder granules building up in the action.

If at all possible, ALWAYS clean the barrel from the breech end. If you have to clean from the muzzle, use one of the bore guides I mentioned before; if you ding the rifling at the crown, or wear it unevenly from the rod rubbing on one side, accuracy goes away.

Unless your piece has a weird problem like my Sig, or a rough bore, cleaning the barrel out is simple: soak a patch with CLP or bore cleaner, run it through the barrel and let it sit a few minutes. Run a dry patch through to pick up the fouling, then repeat cleaner/dry patch a couple of times. Most of the time, that'll do it. If you've got a really fouled barrel due to the aformentioned weirdness or roughness, you may need to use a brush and a stronger solvent. The best stuff I've found for cleaning out lead fouling is called Blue Wonder; doesn't seem to work as well on copper, but for lead & powder it is a wonder. If you have a real problem, and don't want to scrub with brush to get the lead or copper out, you should check out the FoulOut mentioned in the same post as the mozzle guide. It ain't cheap, but it works, and it'll strip either copper or lead fouling completely, leaving bare steel.

Kim du Toit once mentioned something about the anal tendencies of .22 rifle purists when they get started on ammo selection; you can get the same reaction from asking about cleaning. I've seen people swear by scrubbing hard with solvent and a brush after every match or practice session, and others swear you'll ruin a fine barrel if you use a brush; I've seen a few who insist that unless the barrel is faulty you should only clean it every few thousand rounds, if at all. Generally, at most you'll need the aforementioned patch and cleaner and that's it. Going a couple of thousand rounds without cleaning seems excessive to me, but you don't have to attack it after every fifty either. If accuracy starts to fall off, or you just want to be sure it's taken care of, hit it when you think it needs it, just be gentle.

The rest of the firearm may need thorough cleaning more often than the barrel due to fouling/unburned granules building up. .22 ammo is messy, some VERY messy. It's not unusual to seen an old semi-auto that looks like it had axle grease or something swabbed into the action they're so cruddy. If it's that bad, you'll have to strip it down and clean all the crud out, then lube properly as you reassemble. If you're not sure about taking things down beyond field-stripping, then don't; get the instructions before you try it. Often you can simply use a brush to clean the worst out, add a drop or two of oil where needed, and that's it.

If you have one of the really cruddy ones, one thing that will clean the crud out, or loosen it up enough to come out more easily, is carburetor cleaner. You can get the generic stuff for about $1/can, and it will cut through almost anything. Warnings: very well-ventilated area, wear rubber gloves, and a breath mask and/or goggles wouldn't hurt anything; and take any plastic or nylon parts out- grips, recoil buffers, things like that- because this stuff can melt them. Then you'll get to order new ones. You can use the aerosol gun cleaners too, but the carb cleaner is cheaper. Some of the gun cleaners, I'm told, will flush out the crud and leave a lube behind, so it might be worth it if you don't want to detail-strip the thing.

The stock or grips, unless needing to be refinished, can generally just be wiped out/off. With a wood stock some folks will hit it with a little paste wax for weather protection, but that will also make the wood slick, so I'd stick with wiping it down. Refinishing is a subject for another day.

This is my general .22 cleaning methods. Yes, you will get all kinds of opinions and ideas, and some of the are good. So try things out and see what satisfies you. Just take it easy.

I'll hit centerfires next.