There has been so much crap written about that period in our history, it's sometimes hard to sort through it. From the stuff written at the time(violence sold newspapers then, too) to current movies and historical writings, you have to dig through it to try to get to facts.
For a time- I think it's still going on with some academics- the 'new' understanding was that guns were far less common than had been thought, etc. Kind of an early version of Bellesiles. And of course we got the 'Good Native Americans-Bad Whites' stuff. As to the latter, it wasn't nearly that simple. Were the Indians screwed over? Yes, far too often. Were they paragons of virtue deserving worship? Hell no. From problems in the East clear up through the end, it was far more complicated than it is usually depicted. There were forces working that made it very simple in one way; lots of people in other parts of the world looking for a place that would give them a chance for a decent life, a better life, and they needed places to live. Eric Flint just brought out a new book, The Rivers of War, that covers some of this real well in the War of 1812 period. In his alternate history, the Cherokee are being convinced by some to move west voluntarily, as a united people who can make a nation there, instead of being forced out of their current lands as refugees in a few years. No, it's not fair, and the Cherokee and some other tribes deserved much better treatment. But to borrow a line, "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it". He does a very good job of outlining things as they really did sit.
As to violence and guns, a lot less violence than was painted(both for romantic outlook and by people who wanted to show how nasty things are when people have guns). As Louis L'amour put it, when the butcher, the baker and the blacksmith either fought in the Civil War or had dealt with bandits and Indian attacks, or both, trying to take over the town pretty much guaranteed a short life and a dramatic death. But the violence was there; pretty much guaranteed given the times and conditions. And again, so much has been written about it by people with a political and/or social point to push, it's hard to get through to the truth of it.
As to the movie scene of two men walking down the street toward each other 'till they draw, I don't think I've read of a witnessed account. Strictly speaking, that doesn't mean much; a lot of things happened that didn't leave written accounts by others. Other types of shootings, definately did happen. I don't have the piece anymore, but L'amour once wrote of going through newspaper morgues in cities and small towns across the west. He only counted cases where there were witnesses as to how they happened, and came up with more than 200 as I recall, including fast-draw incidents.
Side note: something that ticked me off with Tom Clancy was a passage in The Bear and the Dragon where a FBI agent was telling a Russian about how little crime there really was in the old west(true), and that fast draw and hip-shooting doesn't work(bullshit); with all the research he did, you'd think he'd have had that right.
It was a really interesting time in history, where you could find illiterate miners and the sons of European nobility drinking side by side in a saloon, fortunes were made and lost, legends created, and customs that affected the world born and/or solidified. It was far too interesting and important to be screwed around with by politically-motivated idiots with multiple degrees and/or a modern politically correct point of view to force on people.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
Carnival of Cordite #19!
It's here, being hosted by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association Weblog. Who also runs a really nice series of articles intended to make you a better shot, well worth checking out.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Whoa, 10,000+!
Sometime in the last few days I passed 10,000 visits. Little did I know(various references to way back when) that that many people would wind up looking at this mess.
Overall, comments/contacts have been quite positive. Back when I was railing about global warming bullshit I got some people upset, according to their comments, but other than that just opinions, requests and general commentary.
I thank my parents, the dogs, etc. Thank you.
Overall, comments/contacts have been quite positive. Back when I was railing about global warming bullshit I got some people upset, according to their comments, but other than that just opinions, requests and general commentary.
I thank my parents, the dogs, etc. Thank you.
All you need to know about Gitmo
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
BSA parts, and maybe an opportunity for someone
A while back I got the address of a man named Jim Hallam over in the UK. I needed a couple of pieces for a Martini, and he had them. I thought it would be nice to mention him here(if I can help scare up some business for someone who's done me right, I will), so I asked if he'd mind. He sent back the following:
Hi Mark
No objection at all to a reference -- as long as people realise that I am working towards retirement and that means a hiatus in any transaction - ALSO the amount of paperwork required to send stuff abroad is getting wearisome and takes forever. I am tempted to look for someone Stateside who woul;d buy ALL of the martini stuff which I have --- at present this is 50+ barrelled actions (small frame, mostly 12s but a few 15s); 50+ Internationals - basically complete, but Club guns so some "dings"; probably 30-40 complete 12/15s; a handful of 15s and some unusual stuff such as a Centurion, several custom rifles done by one of the development team for the International (Al Freeland was YOUR end of the axis) -- the Brit was the armourer for the 1948 Olympic team.......... I also have woodwork from other stripped BSA rifles, a number of other Club Target Rifles --- Russian Vostoks & CM2s etc., Walthers, Anschutzes, and several BSA M1924 pump-actions, including a cased one for a titled person ------------- all clutterring up the gunroom and I cant display my (largish) collection of English percussion revolvers. Perhaps you might know someone who might be interested ..... I would really rather not sell them onto Navy Arms or one other person as the mark-ups are a bit much!
Best wishes
Jim Hallam
So this covers two things; if you need a part for a Martini, he's got a lot of parts and if you are, or know someone who might be, interested in a LOT of guns and parts, he's a man to contact. He can be reached at:
classicgunco at dial period pipex period com
So this covers two things; if you need a part for a Martini, he's got a lot of parts and if you are, or know someone who might be, interested in a LOT of guns and parts, he's a man to contact. He can be reached at:
classicgunco at dial period pipex period com
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Late Father's Day post
About eight years ago my kids gave me the first of these shirts. That one was worn out(though it's still folded up in a drawer); this one is still holding up well
On it are the footprints of dogs, cats, ferrets, and a parakeet, and a thumbprint from each kid.
It's got some years left in it.
On it are the footprints of dogs, cats, ferrets, and a parakeet, and a thumbprint from each kid.
It's got some years left in it.
Need something to piss you off?
I mean really, really piss you off? Read Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, by Humberto Fontova.
I already disliked fidel; as I told my kids, he took an island with some of the richest soil in the world, year-round growing seasons, filled with people not afraid of work and surrounded by an ocean full of fish- and made everyone except his power structure hungry. That doesn't just happen, you have to work at it.
It's the accounts of idiocy, blindness and in some cases flat-out treason by both celebrities and people in our government that really makes me want to find a rope and a lamppost.
Warning: if you have any lingering notions about the Camelot of John F. Kennedy, this'll probably kill them. The accounts of dumbness and flat cowardice of JFK and his cabinet during the Cuban Missile Crisis are enraging.
If you can't buy it right now, hit the library. Read it, dammit.
I already disliked fidel; as I told my kids, he took an island with some of the richest soil in the world, year-round growing seasons, filled with people not afraid of work and surrounded by an ocean full of fish- and made everyone except his power structure hungry. That doesn't just happen, you have to work at it.
It's the accounts of idiocy, blindness and in some cases flat-out treason by both celebrities and people in our government that really makes me want to find a rope and a lamppost.
Warning: if you have any lingering notions about the Camelot of John F. Kennedy, this'll probably kill them. The accounts of dumbness and flat cowardice of JFK and his cabinet during the Cuban Missile Crisis are enraging.
If you can't buy it right now, hit the library. Read it, dammit.
Monday, June 20, 2005
No postal match this time.
Sigh. I was going to shoot the .22 portion this evening a beg/plead Og to let me send it in. Only the other day my daughter's rabbit went to the Great Hutch in the Sky, so today after work I was needed for burial duties.
Maybe if I start now, I can make the next set...
Maybe if I start now, I can make the next set...
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Remington 512
Over the years Remington has made a lot of different .22 rifles, from single-shots to semi-autos. In my personal opinion the 510-series rifles were some of the best. They are all bolt-actions, and range from a single-shot small game and plinking rifle to a full-blown match rifle, and some models had smoothbore variations for shot cartridges. Some of the repeaters had box magazines, the others tube like the 512, also known as the Sportsmaster:
They're full-size rifles(which made shooting my Dad's difficult when I was small), all steel and wood. I've had a chance to shoot several, and they all had good triggers; some were heavier than others, but all broke cleanly, an important thing for accuracy. Sights ranged from notch rear and bead front to match-type adjustable. And they were capable of fine accuracy.
I found this one some years back, and bought it mostly because it is the same model as Dad's. Like a lot of old rifles it had a problem, but it only cost about $15(shipping and all) for the parts, and it's worked well ever since. And I've been very damn glad I bought it.
When I say capable of fine accuracy, I mean it. A while back I decided to try some different ammo in mine, and with Federal Lightning(I've had such good results from the stuff it's become my default starting ammo for testing) it shot groups of 3/8" at 50 yards(I had a very good day), and would do it consistently. They vary, of course, depending on individual factors, but with the right ammo most of them seem capable of this level or close to it(yes, it was shot from a solid bench with sandbags; I don't think I could do that offhand with anything).
This one has the notch/bead sights, so about a year after I got it I mounted a scope(first time I'd drilled & tapped a receiver for a scope mount, and I sweated blood making sure it was square and that I didn't accidentally drill through into the chamber). The stock was a little beat up(surprise, surprise), so I scraped the old finish off, sanded lightly and gave it multiple coats of Parts availability is generally good; Remington made a lot of this series, and many of the parts interchange. Also, made as they were, it's pretty rare for something to break or wear out as long as they're treated decently.
All in all, if you run across one of these you should definately think about giving it a home; you could do a lot worse.
Additional notes: the main thing that does seem to happen to these is that the nose on the sear that acts as a bolt shop will get chipped or worn and will let the bolt slip out when you pull it back. The other thing that affects this is one of the screws on the left side of the receiver; if it's not staked tightly and gets a little loose, that can cause problems. Both are easily fixable/the sear takes a little more work/.
This was the rifle I was going to use for the .22 postal match. If (pick from the list) hadn't happened.
They're full-size rifles(which made shooting my Dad's difficult when I was small), all steel and wood. I've had a chance to shoot several, and they all had good triggers; some were heavier than others, but all broke cleanly, an important thing for accuracy. Sights ranged from notch rear and bead front to match-type adjustable. And they were capable of fine accuracy.
I found this one some years back, and bought it mostly because it is the same model as Dad's. Like a lot of old rifles it had a problem, but it only cost about $15(shipping and all) for the parts, and it's worked well ever since. And I've been very damn glad I bought it.
When I say capable of fine accuracy, I mean it. A while back I decided to try some different ammo in mine, and with Federal Lightning(I've had such good results from the stuff it's become my default starting ammo for testing) it shot groups of 3/8" at 50 yards(I had a very good day), and would do it consistently. They vary, of course, depending on individual factors, but with the right ammo most of them seem capable of this level or close to it(yes, it was shot from a solid bench with sandbags; I don't think I could do that offhand with anything).
This one has the notch/bead sights, so about a year after I got it I mounted a scope(first time I'd drilled & tapped a receiver for a scope mount, and I sweated blood making sure it was square and that I didn't accidentally drill through into the chamber). The stock was a little beat up(surprise, surprise), so I scraped the old finish off, sanded lightly and gave it multiple coats of Parts availability is generally good; Remington made a lot of this series, and many of the parts interchange. Also, made as they were, it's pretty rare for something to break or wear out as long as they're treated decently.
All in all, if you run across one of these you should definately think about giving it a home; you could do a lot worse.
Additional notes: the main thing that does seem to happen to these is that the nose on the sear that acts as a bolt shop will get chipped or worn and will let the bolt slip out when you pull it back. The other thing that affects this is one of the screws on the left side of the receiver; if it's not staked tightly and gets a little loose, that can cause problems. Both are easily fixable/the sear takes a little more work/.
This was the rifle I was going to use for the .22 postal match. If (pick from the list) hadn't happened.
Thoughts on tech
I was looking at my camera last night, and wondering at what this little box will do. Here's technology that ten years ago would have been government agency level or major business level only, and some of it may not have been available to them then. A few years ago this would have been a thousand dollars or more, now it's about a third of that or less. It's a Fuji S5000. 10x optical zoom, 2.2x digital zoom, macro mode, multiple picture quality settings, various light & exposure adjustments, LCD screen or viewfinder to aim, built-in flash, and a chip to hold the pictures. Different capacity chips available everywhere. The chip in mine is 128 meg; at max picture quality it holds 82 pictures, at lower quality this little piece of work holds more than 200.
Don't want to use your battery power to download to your pc? For $20 you can get a chip reader that takes care of that. For that matter, you can view the pics on the camera LCD and delete any you don't like before you download them.
Oh, let's not forget that with this chip the camera can shoot about 3.5 minutes of video- with mono sound.
Then there's the fact that you can now get a damn good DVD player for $40 or less. If you want to really test out your firearm with different loads, you can get a strain guage to tell you pressures for not too much; that used to be done only by copper-crusher or lead-crusher equipment using a test barrel and receiver. Digital scales accurate to +/- 0.1 grain for a hundred bucks or less. Digital readout torque wrenches and micrometers and calipers. Your own heat-treating oven with a computer-control more sophisticated than home- and some industrial- computers were just a few years ago. Motorcycles with computer-controlled fuel injection and cruise control.
There's a word coined to describe technology that changes so fast you just can't keep up with it, and I can't even remember the word now. Things are changing real fast, and it's not going to slow down anytime soon.
Don't want to use your battery power to download to your pc? For $20 you can get a chip reader that takes care of that. For that matter, you can view the pics on the camera LCD and delete any you don't like before you download them.
Oh, let's not forget that with this chip the camera can shoot about 3.5 minutes of video- with mono sound.
Then there's the fact that you can now get a damn good DVD player for $40 or less. If you want to really test out your firearm with different loads, you can get a strain guage to tell you pressures for not too much; that used to be done only by copper-crusher or lead-crusher equipment using a test barrel and receiver. Digital scales accurate to +/- 0.1 grain for a hundred bucks or less. Digital readout torque wrenches and micrometers and calipers. Your own heat-treating oven with a computer-control more sophisticated than home- and some industrial- computers were just a few years ago. Motorcycles with computer-controlled fuel injection and cruise control.
There's a word coined to describe technology that changes so fast you just can't keep up with it, and I can't even remember the word now. Things are changing real fast, and it's not going to slow down anytime soon.
Various thoughts on the war
If you've never gone there, you should take a look at Captain's Quarters. Especially this and this. The first is on the Downing Street Memos that so much noise has been made about. Basically, it turns out the reporter who 'broke' the story made copies of the original documents which were then returned to his source, then had a secretary copy the wording on an 'old fashioned typewriter', then the photocopies were destroyed. Sound a bit familiar? NO originals, no PHOTOCOPIES of the originals, NO proof at all of the authenticity. At the least sloppy reporting, at the worst...
The second is about ACTUAL torture, with a manual and everything. Problem for Dickie Durbin and co. is it's by the sorry pieces of crap we're fighting. Durbin and company might want to review the information.
Along with that, they might try to, I don't know, actually come up with an idea on what to DO with these crapheads we're holding at Gitmo. Some of those 'poor, mistreated people' who were released have already been killed or recaptured fighting us again, so just exactly do the clowns like Durbin and Kennedy want to DO with them? Admittedly my solution may seem a bit, oh, abrupt; question the known jihadis and then shoot them. As is 'allowed' by the Geneva Convention, by the way, though the people prostrating themselves before the alter of 'international law' would scream anyway. But absent that, we can't turn them loose; and anyplace you put them the usual suspects will whine about 'torture' and 'mistreatment', so exactly what do they suggest we do with them?
I need a damn soapbox somewhere...
Update: on the Memos, there are some good arguments that they may be genuine; I don't really worry about them, because from what I've read they basically say "we're really worried about Saddam and what he's involved in". But the reporter's actions really bother me. If they're genuine why would he destroy/get rid of his only way to prove they are real? And why retype them the way he did, on a typewriter? Why not on the pc and print it? That would be new paper and no connection to the originals, so why not? Either the reporter is stupid, or he's up to something, and his actions make it look like the latter.
The second is about ACTUAL torture, with a manual and everything. Problem for Dickie Durbin and co. is it's by the sorry pieces of crap we're fighting. Durbin and company might want to review the information.
Along with that, they might try to, I don't know, actually come up with an idea on what to DO with these crapheads we're holding at Gitmo. Some of those 'poor, mistreated people' who were released have already been killed or recaptured fighting us again, so just exactly do the clowns like Durbin and Kennedy want to DO with them? Admittedly my solution may seem a bit, oh, abrupt; question the known jihadis and then shoot them. As is 'allowed' by the Geneva Convention, by the way, though the people prostrating themselves before the alter of 'international law' would scream anyway. But absent that, we can't turn them loose; and anyplace you put them the usual suspects will whine about 'torture' and 'mistreatment', so exactly what do they suggest we do with them?
I need a damn soapbox somewhere...
Update: on the Memos, there are some good arguments that they may be genuine; I don't really worry about them, because from what I've read they basically say "we're really worried about Saddam and what he's involved in". But the reporter's actions really bother me. If they're genuine why would he destroy/get rid of his only way to prove they are real? And why retype them the way he did, on a typewriter? Why not on the pc and print it? That would be new paper and no connection to the originals, so why not? Either the reporter is stupid, or he's up to something, and his actions make it look like the latter.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Forging tools
The big ones in this case. Since I now have a camera I thought I'd post shots of some of my tools.
First is the forge
Steel frame, the main body is an old cast-iron sink; I cut a hole near one end and set in a brake drum as a firepot.
There's a hole cut at each end of the body so long pieces can be put in. Below is an angle of steel pipe with a squirrel-cage fan for the blower. Speed is controlled by a ceiling fan control; it works well. Below the forge is a: a bucket full of I don't remember(need to clean that out), b: water bucket for cooling hot things, and c: that yellow thing is an old air tank with one end cut off; for quenching things like double-edged blades I fill it with oil and use it. Please ignore the mess around it.
Next is the anvil
This one weighs 110 lbs. The piece sitting on top is a cutting saddle; a piece of mild steel bent to fit over(so it won't fall off), it's for chisel work such as cutting/splitting stock so you don't ding up the anvil face or your chisels. Sitting on a stump, which is on bricks to keep it off the ground when not in use. There's a small bench vise bolted to the stump, which has been hugely handy over time. A good anvil will have a hardened face, and if you're looking at one and you're not sure the easiest test is this: take a hammer, a small one will do, hold it about 6-8" above the face, and drop it. No, don't turn loose of the handle. If the face is hardened, the hammer will dance nicely, bouncing a few times; if it goes 'clunk' and sits there, don't buy it. You can't go by the sound, as I've seen fine anvils that rang like a bell(this one does) and others that just give a metallic 'thunk', so look for the bounce.
And for God's sake, don't just beat on the anvil without something to cushion it, like the piece you're forging. You'll have two pieces of hardened steel banging into each other, and bad things can happen, especially around the edge; hard strikes there with nothing to cushion them can chip and crack the edge of the face. And if you find a good one and the edges are sharp, I would suggest you get a belt sander and round them off. Doesn't have to be much, and it'll keep you from dinging the hammer face, as well as reducing the chance of knocking off chips. This one has a curve of between 1/4" up near the horn, getting smaller as you move toward the heel, and it took a while to grind it on.
In the future I'll post some pictures of various tools used on/with the above.
First is the forge
Steel frame, the main body is an old cast-iron sink; I cut a hole near one end and set in a brake drum as a firepot.
There's a hole cut at each end of the body so long pieces can be put in. Below is an angle of steel pipe with a squirrel-cage fan for the blower. Speed is controlled by a ceiling fan control; it works well. Below the forge is a: a bucket full of I don't remember(need to clean that out), b: water bucket for cooling hot things, and c: that yellow thing is an old air tank with one end cut off; for quenching things like double-edged blades I fill it with oil and use it. Please ignore the mess around it.
Next is the anvil
This one weighs 110 lbs. The piece sitting on top is a cutting saddle; a piece of mild steel bent to fit over(so it won't fall off), it's for chisel work such as cutting/splitting stock so you don't ding up the anvil face or your chisels. Sitting on a stump, which is on bricks to keep it off the ground when not in use. There's a small bench vise bolted to the stump, which has been hugely handy over time. A good anvil will have a hardened face, and if you're looking at one and you're not sure the easiest test is this: take a hammer, a small one will do, hold it about 6-8" above the face, and drop it. No, don't turn loose of the handle. If the face is hardened, the hammer will dance nicely, bouncing a few times; if it goes 'clunk' and sits there, don't buy it. You can't go by the sound, as I've seen fine anvils that rang like a bell(this one does) and others that just give a metallic 'thunk', so look for the bounce.
And for God's sake, don't just beat on the anvil without something to cushion it, like the piece you're forging. You'll have two pieces of hardened steel banging into each other, and bad things can happen, especially around the edge; hard strikes there with nothing to cushion them can chip and crack the edge of the face. And if you find a good one and the edges are sharp, I would suggest you get a belt sander and round them off. Doesn't have to be much, and it'll keep you from dinging the hammer face, as well as reducing the chance of knocking off chips. This one has a curve of between 1/4" up near the horn, getting smaller as you move toward the heel, and it took a while to grind it on.
In the future I'll post some pictures of various tools used on/with the above.
Why I don't make it to the range enough
I mentioned yesterday that I'd planned to go to the range and shoot for Og's postal match, but had dinner with my son instead. So maybe tomorrow...
Tomorrow comes. Get off work, get home, play with dogs a bit.
Notice that the grass in the front and back needs mowing(apparently the rain had fertilizer mixed in).
Start mower, cut front.
Start on back, run out of gas.
Get gas.
Mow back, clean up.
Feed dogs.
Realize I'm hungry, eat.
It's now too late to shoot. Ok, maybe tomorrow...
I MEAN it this time, I should be able to work it and I'd like to get in on the match.
Tomorrow comes. Get off work, get home, play with dogs a bit.
Notice that the grass in the front and back needs mowing(apparently the rain had fertilizer mixed in).
Start mower, cut front.
Start on back, run out of gas.
Get gas.
Mow back, clean up.
Feed dogs.
Realize I'm hungry, eat.
It's now too late to shoot. Ok, maybe tomorrow...
I MEAN it this time, I should be able to work it and I'd like to get in on the match.
Friday, June 17, 2005
No postal match today
I was going to hit the range this evening and shoot the .22 portion of Og's match tonight, but had the chance to have dinner with my son, so guess which I did?
There's a place that calls itself Johnny Carrino's Country Italian, and we went there. Right now I'm so full it's terrible.
The afternoon went to pruning trees in the back. No storm damage, just some long branches that needed it, and I finally figured out how to reach them without them falling on my head when they cut through. You hear a section thump into the ground and leave a depression, you don't want the depression in any of your body parts. It was about 85 today, and the humidity after last nights' storms was trying to match it, so it was fairly bloody uncomfortable. But a shower and dinner took care of that.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to digest.
By the way, I tried to order a Duracoat kit today, but every time I tried to check out, it popped up with 'there is nothing in your cart'. Stupid system.
There's a place that calls itself Johnny Carrino's Country Italian, and we went there. Right now I'm so full it's terrible.
The afternoon went to pruning trees in the back. No storm damage, just some long branches that needed it, and I finally figured out how to reach them without them falling on my head when they cut through. You hear a section thump into the ground and leave a depression, you don't want the depression in any of your body parts. It was about 85 today, and the humidity after last nights' storms was trying to match it, so it was fairly bloody uncomfortable. But a shower and dinner took care of that.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to digest.
By the way, I tried to order a Duracoat kit today, but every time I tried to check out, it popped up with 'there is nothing in your cart'. Stupid system.
"This further report just in; we're STILL not dead"
Yesterday evening a line of storms formed in CO and western KS and started moving southeast. Serious storms, no doubt; there were some areas long the frontal boundary that got gusts as high as 90mph. Please note: SOME AREAS got gusts that strong. Most of the areas the boundary moved through got anywhere from 30-60mph gusts, many lower than that. And yes, moderate to heavy rain moved along behind the line(my rain guage showed a shade over 2" this morning). But overall, just another summer storm night with some severe weather.
But for a while during the evening/night, you'd have thought the world was going to blow away. I realize the weather weenies want to make sure people know there's severe weather coming, but overdoing it doesn't help.
Oh well, it was a good rain. Though right now it's humid enough to grow moss on a fence post.
But for a while during the evening/night, you'd have thought the world was going to blow away. I realize the weather weenies want to make sure people know there's severe weather coming, but overdoing it doesn't help.
Oh well, it was a good rain. Though right now it's humid enough to grow moss on a fence post.
Nice idea!
Gullyborg reports on a proposed constitutional amendment of brevity and a good idea; that representation in the House would be decided according to the number of citazens in the state, not the total population.
The more I think about it, the more I like it. Since illegal aliens aren't supposed to be voting, why should they be counted in deciding the number of House seats?
Sounds good to me.
The more I think about it, the more I like it. Since illegal aliens aren't supposed to be voting, why should they be counted in deciding the number of House seats?
Sounds good to me.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Now that I can shoot better pictures,
Here is, first, the Self-Propelled Ferret Toy, also known as a teacup Chihuahua
And for Cowboy Blob, here's the third ferret of the bunch. For once Vashka woke up while I was over there, and is modeled here by my daughter. Who also held the little beast above reasonably still for his portrait.
Let's see, over there are three ferrets, three dogs, a rat, a rabbit and a turtle. Talk about a friggin' zoo...
And for Cowboy Blob, here's the third ferret of the bunch. For once Vashka woke up while I was over there, and is modeled here by my daughter. Who also held the little beast above reasonably still for his portrait.
Let's see, over there are three ferrets, three dogs, a rat, a rabbit and a turtle. Talk about a friggin' zoo...
Whoa, it works! Thank you Mr. Completely!
Thanks to good information given, I can now perform the highly technical function of posting multiple pictures at one time, so this will be a redo of the range report the other day.
This morning I said to hell with everything and went to the range. It was supposed to be partly cloudy and hot; it stayed overcast and cool with light winds the whole time I was out. With occasional rumbles of thunder and a few spits of rain; overall a great day for shooting. I took four rifles, one for fun, two for sighting in, and one for ammo testing.
One sighter was a Savage Scout Rifle. If you're not familiar with it, when the Scout Rifle concept was first getting a lot of attention Savage took their short action, gave it a 20" barrel, synthetic stock, forward scope base and a ghost ring rear sight with a front bead. It came in both .308 and .223 as I recall; mine's a .308, and came with three sling studs and a Ching sling. I bought it used a few years ago, and found a used Burris 3x scope for it. Overall it's a great rifle. The action is slick, the trigger is light and clean and it has quite acceptable accuracy with a variety of ammo. In this case I had found some Federal 168gr. Gold Medal Match ammo on sale a while back and got a box to try out. It consistently gave 1.25" groups out of this rifle today, quite acceptable. I've got some handloads that are about that tight, I may try some messing with the load/bullet and see what happens.
The only thing I'd change on this rifle is the front sight is a bead, and I'd make it a post. Otherwise? It doesn't have a fold-down bipod built into the forend, and it won't hold a spare mag in the butt like the Steyr; it also cost roughly $1200 less than the Steyr and from what I've heard gives equal levels of accuracy. I'm told Savage stopped making them for a while, but now they're available through the Custom Shop, so if you're looking for a rifle like this you might check it out.
The fun was a Mosin Nagant 91/30; a few months ago I made a new front sight pin so it would hit in the vicinity of the bull at 100 yards instead of a foot over. With Czech silvertip ball(7.62x45R) this thing will hold groups of 2-3" as long as I do my part. Not bad for an old veteran; it's marked as made in 1940, so as Kim says it's a commie rifle, but it may well have killed Nazi bastards so it balances out. I tried a few shots with the bayonet fixed, and that moved the groups about four inches down and three to the left. I take the bayonet as evidence that the Russians had some odd ideas and the Commies were just as bad; give someone a rifle with a 29.5" barrel, then give them a long damn bayonet and tell them to keep it fixed all the time. Jeez.
One of the sighting-in was a 1935 Turkish Mauser. Unlike most military bolt rifles, instead of shooting high this one shot way low, so I had to file and try on the front sight to get it on target. It finally got so short that I just raised the rear to the 200m mark to finish it off. Shoots fine otherwise. This one was fired with Turkish 8x57mm ammo(okay, 7.92x57 if you want to be picky), which throws a 150 grain bullet at about 2800fps. Hot stuff.
The last was the Martini 12/15 I bought a couple of years ago. After the results I got with the Model 12 I bought a couple of months ago, I wanted to try this one at 100 yards, so I took some Federal Lightning, Eley Sport, PMC Match Pistol, Federal Gold Medal Target and CCI Green Tag. The model 12 liked the Federal Lightning and Eley Sport above all; this one got the best results with the Lightning and the PMC Match Pistol, both giving 1.25 and 1.5" groups at 100 yards. It didn't like the Eley, it went into 3-4" groups. I'm still amazed at the results I get from the Lightning; it's the most inexpensive .22 ammo I know of, and shoots the best, or equal to any match ammo, in ALL my rifles of any ammo I've tried so far. Amazed, but happy.
If you're interested in things rimfire, one site you might check out is Rimfire Central; it's only about rimfire firearms, with sections on different brands and different ammo. This is where I got the idea to try the Match Pistol ammo, one guy mentioned that his rifle liked it above all else. Lots of good information on guns, ammo and modifications/accessories.
The one bad thing about the Nagant and Mauser is the ball ammo I used is corrosive primed, so as humid as it is they had to be cleaned today. If you're not familiar with this, the priming isn't actually corrosive, but when the stuff burns it leaves behind traces of chemical salts, and salts attract moisture, so... It's actually not that bad to clean; I picked up a couple of cans of GI bore cleaner at a show, this stuff was intended for corrosive priming cleaning, so it will flush out the salts that other cleaners won't. Then I hit the barrel/bolt face with either Sweet's or Corrosion-X; usually Sweet's since it contains ammonia, which also cuts any traces of salts left as well as cleaning any jacket fouling, then the CLP to protect the metal.
As an experiment one time I tried using Sweet's only; the ammo was listed as 'slightly corrosive', so I cleaned the bore and gas system with it, then dried it out and hit it with CLP. I watched it very closely for a few days, and no rust. I still use the GI stuff on the other surplus ammo first, just to be on the safe side.
Now, if you're interested in checking out the way the rest of that day went, you can read it here. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of crap to put away; besides the general mess I got two deliveries from UPS this afternoon, and I've got books to look over and ammo to put away. 'Bye now.
This morning I said to hell with everything and went to the range. It was supposed to be partly cloudy and hot; it stayed overcast and cool with light winds the whole time I was out. With occasional rumbles of thunder and a few spits of rain; overall a great day for shooting. I took four rifles, one for fun, two for sighting in, and one for ammo testing.
One sighter was a Savage Scout Rifle. If you're not familiar with it, when the Scout Rifle concept was first getting a lot of attention Savage took their short action, gave it a 20" barrel, synthetic stock, forward scope base and a ghost ring rear sight with a front bead. It came in both .308 and .223 as I recall; mine's a .308, and came with three sling studs and a Ching sling. I bought it used a few years ago, and found a used Burris 3x scope for it. Overall it's a great rifle. The action is slick, the trigger is light and clean and it has quite acceptable accuracy with a variety of ammo. In this case I had found some Federal 168gr. Gold Medal Match ammo on sale a while back and got a box to try out. It consistently gave 1.25" groups out of this rifle today, quite acceptable. I've got some handloads that are about that tight, I may try some messing with the load/bullet and see what happens.
The only thing I'd change on this rifle is the front sight is a bead, and I'd make it a post. Otherwise? It doesn't have a fold-down bipod built into the forend, and it won't hold a spare mag in the butt like the Steyr; it also cost roughly $1200 less than the Steyr and from what I've heard gives equal levels of accuracy. I'm told Savage stopped making them for a while, but now they're available through the Custom Shop, so if you're looking for a rifle like this you might check it out.
The fun was a Mosin Nagant 91/30; a few months ago I made a new front sight pin so it would hit in the vicinity of the bull at 100 yards instead of a foot over. With Czech silvertip ball(7.62x45R) this thing will hold groups of 2-3" as long as I do my part. Not bad for an old veteran; it's marked as made in 1940, so as Kim says it's a commie rifle, but it may well have killed Nazi bastards so it balances out. I tried a few shots with the bayonet fixed, and that moved the groups about four inches down and three to the left. I take the bayonet as evidence that the Russians had some odd ideas and the Commies were just as bad; give someone a rifle with a 29.5" barrel, then give them a long damn bayonet and tell them to keep it fixed all the time. Jeez.
One of the sighting-in was a 1935 Turkish Mauser. Unlike most military bolt rifles, instead of shooting high this one shot way low, so I had to file and try on the front sight to get it on target. It finally got so short that I just raised the rear to the 200m mark to finish it off. Shoots fine otherwise. This one was fired with Turkish 8x57mm ammo(okay, 7.92x57 if you want to be picky), which throws a 150 grain bullet at about 2800fps. Hot stuff.
The last was the Martini 12/15 I bought a couple of years ago. After the results I got with the Model 12 I bought a couple of months ago, I wanted to try this one at 100 yards, so I took some Federal Lightning, Eley Sport, PMC Match Pistol, Federal Gold Medal Target and CCI Green Tag. The model 12 liked the Federal Lightning and Eley Sport above all; this one got the best results with the Lightning and the PMC Match Pistol, both giving 1.25 and 1.5" groups at 100 yards. It didn't like the Eley, it went into 3-4" groups. I'm still amazed at the results I get from the Lightning; it's the most inexpensive .22 ammo I know of, and shoots the best, or equal to any match ammo, in ALL my rifles of any ammo I've tried so far. Amazed, but happy.
If you're interested in things rimfire, one site you might check out is Rimfire Central; it's only about rimfire firearms, with sections on different brands and different ammo. This is where I got the idea to try the Match Pistol ammo, one guy mentioned that his rifle liked it above all else. Lots of good information on guns, ammo and modifications/accessories.
The one bad thing about the Nagant and Mauser is the ball ammo I used is corrosive primed, so as humid as it is they had to be cleaned today. If you're not familiar with this, the priming isn't actually corrosive, but when the stuff burns it leaves behind traces of chemical salts, and salts attract moisture, so... It's actually not that bad to clean; I picked up a couple of cans of GI bore cleaner at a show, this stuff was intended for corrosive priming cleaning, so it will flush out the salts that other cleaners won't. Then I hit the barrel/bolt face with either Sweet's or Corrosion-X; usually Sweet's since it contains ammonia, which also cuts any traces of salts left as well as cleaning any jacket fouling, then the CLP to protect the metal.
As an experiment one time I tried using Sweet's only; the ammo was listed as 'slightly corrosive', so I cleaned the bore and gas system with it, then dried it out and hit it with CLP. I watched it very closely for a few days, and no rust. I still use the GI stuff on the other surplus ammo first, just to be on the safe side.
Now, if you're interested in checking out the way the rest of that day went, you can read it here. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of crap to put away; besides the general mess I got two deliveries from UPS this afternoon, and I've got books to look over and ammo to put away. 'Bye now.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
It's been a day
One other thing I did yesterday was get a new battery for the bike. This meant getting home, putting the acid in the cells, and sticking it on a charger for, in this case, eight hours. But it needed to be done. The directions with this one said to stick in on for a minimum of four hours, and would probably take about ten; since I found I no longer have a battery tester, and I finally had to go to bed, it stayed on for 8.5. That seems to have done the job.
I now have a camera! A friend of mine who works at a camera store in TX knew a guy who bought this one, used it for about a month, then decided he wanted the newer model now out, so My Friend got me a really good deal on it. As the first post with it, I give you my new dirk:
At least it will be when it's done. The blade has been finished for a long time, but between time, work, weather and laziness I hadn't done more. So yesterday I finally had time and overcame my intertia long enough to make and fit the guard, pommel and grip, then rough-sand it. I need to make a proper pommel nut(right now it's a 3/16" hex nut), finish sand the grip and fitting edges, then polish the faces. When that's done, I'll use some epoxy to put it all together.
The blade is 13" from guard to point, 17.75" overall, and 1 5/8" at the widest. The blade was tested when finished, so once I make the sheath I'll have something a bit more period for medieval/renaissance stuff.
This morning I said to hell with everything and went to the range. It was supposed to be partly cloudy and hot; it stayed overcast and cool with light winds the whole time I was out. With occasional rumbles of thunder and a few spits of rain; overall a great day for shooting. I took four rifles, one for fun, two for sighting in, and one for ammo testing. The fun was a Mosin Nagant 91/30; a few months ago I made a new front sight pin so it would hit in the vicinity of the bull at 100 yards instead of a foot over. With Czech silvertip ball this thing will hold groups of 2-3" as long as I do my part. Not bad for an old veteran; it's marked as made in 1940, so as Kim says it's a commie rifle, but it may well have killed Nazi bastards so it balances out. I tried a few shots with the bayonet fixed, and that moved the groups about four inches down and three to the left. I take the bayonet as evidence that the Russians had some odd ideas and the Commies were just as bad; give someone a rifle with a 29.5" barrel, then give them a long damn bayonet and tell them to keep it fixed all the time. Jeez.
One of the sighting-in was a 1935 Turkish Mauser. Unlike most military bolt rifles, instead of shooting high this one shot way low, so I had to file and try on the front sight to get it on target. It finally got so short that I just raised the rear to the 200m mark to finish it off. Shoots fine otherwise.
Second sighter was a Savage Scout Rifle. If you're not familiar with it, when the Scout Rifle concept was first getting a lot of attention Savage took their short action, gave it a 20" barrel, synthetic stock, forward scope base and a ghost ring rear sight with a front bead. It came in both .308 and .223 as I recall; mine's a .308, and came with three sling studs and a Ching sling. I bought it used a few years ago, and found a used Burris 3x scope for it. Overall it's a great rifle. The action is slick, the trigger is light and clean and it has quite acceptable accuracy with a variety of ammo. In this case I had found some Federal 168gr. Gold Medal Match ammo on sale a while back and got a box to try out. It consistently gave 1.25" groups out of this rifle today, quite acceptable. I've got some handloads that are about that tight, I may try some messing with the load/bullet and see what happens.
The only thing I'd change on this rifle is the front sight is a bead, and I'd make it a post. Otherwise? It doesn't have a fold-down bipod built into the forend, and it won't hold a spare mag in the butt like the Steyr; it also cost roughly $1200 less than the Steyr and from what I've heard gives equal levels of accuracy. I'm told Savage stopped making them for a while, but now they're available through the Custom Shop, so if you're looking for a rifle like this you might check it out.
The last was the Martini 12/15 I bought a couple of years ago. After the results I got with the Model 12 I bought a couple of months ago, I wanted to try this one at 100 yards, so I took some Federal Lightning, Eley Sport, PMC Match Pistol, Federal Gold Medal Target and CCI Green Tag. The model 12 liked the Federal Lightning and Eley Sport above all; this one got the best results with the Lightning and the PMC Match Pistol, both giving 1.25 and 1.5" groups at 100 yards. It didn't like the Eley, it went into 3-4" groups. I'm still amazed at the results I get from the Lightning; it's the most inexpensive .22 ammo I know of, and shoots the best in ALL my rifles of any ammo I've tried so far. Amazed, but happy.
If you're interested in things rimfire, one site you might check out is Rimfire Central; it's only about rimfire firearms, with sections on different brands and different ammo. This is where I got the idea to try the Match Pistol ammo, one guy mentioned that his rifle liked it above all else. Lots of good information on guns, ammo and modifications/accessories.
The one bad thing about the Nagant and Mauser is the ball ammo I used is corrosive primed, so as humid as it is they had to be cleaned today. If you're not familiar with this, the priming isn't actually corrosive, but when the stuff burns it leaves behind traces of chemical salts, and salts attract moisture, so... It's actually not that bad to clean; I picked up a couple of cans of GI bore cleaner at a show, this stuff was intended for corrosive priming cleaning, so it will flush out the salts that other cleaners won't. Then I hit the barrel/bolt face with either Sweet's or Corrosion-X; usually Sweet's since it contains ammonia, which also cuts any traces of salts left as well as cleaning any jacket fouling, then the CLP to protect the metal.
As an experiment one time I tried using Sweet's only; the ammo was listed as 'slightly corrosive', so I cleaned the bore and gas system with it, then dried it out and hit it with CLP. I watched it very closely for a few days, and no rust. I still use the GI stuff on the other surplus ammo first, just to be on the safe side.
Oh, the day's not over yet. After cleaning those two, I went out and cut a hole in the end of a drain channel on my carport, and took off the covers I'd put on two others a few months ago, and cleaned out the nests the birds had built in them. Damned sparrows squeezed through openings barely big enough for them with nest materials and raised their broods; now that they're gone, so are the nests. I've got to find a way to block all the spaces so I don't have to do this again next year.
And 2/3 of the way through that, FedEx arrived with my camera, the first result of which is above. I've got to find out how to post more than one picture at a time now.
I think I'll imbibe in a taste of something and crash early tonight. I'm tired.
I now have a camera! A friend of mine who works at a camera store in TX knew a guy who bought this one, used it for about a month, then decided he wanted the newer model now out, so My Friend got me a really good deal on it. As the first post with it, I give you my new dirk:
At least it will be when it's done. The blade has been finished for a long time, but between time, work, weather and laziness I hadn't done more. So yesterday I finally had time and overcame my intertia long enough to make and fit the guard, pommel and grip, then rough-sand it. I need to make a proper pommel nut(right now it's a 3/16" hex nut), finish sand the grip and fitting edges, then polish the faces. When that's done, I'll use some epoxy to put it all together.
The blade is 13" from guard to point, 17.75" overall, and 1 5/8" at the widest. The blade was tested when finished, so once I make the sheath I'll have something a bit more period for medieval/renaissance stuff.
This morning I said to hell with everything and went to the range. It was supposed to be partly cloudy and hot; it stayed overcast and cool with light winds the whole time I was out. With occasional rumbles of thunder and a few spits of rain; overall a great day for shooting. I took four rifles, one for fun, two for sighting in, and one for ammo testing. The fun was a Mosin Nagant 91/30; a few months ago I made a new front sight pin so it would hit in the vicinity of the bull at 100 yards instead of a foot over. With Czech silvertip ball this thing will hold groups of 2-3" as long as I do my part. Not bad for an old veteran; it's marked as made in 1940, so as Kim says it's a commie rifle, but it may well have killed Nazi bastards so it balances out. I tried a few shots with the bayonet fixed, and that moved the groups about four inches down and three to the left. I take the bayonet as evidence that the Russians had some odd ideas and the Commies were just as bad; give someone a rifle with a 29.5" barrel, then give them a long damn bayonet and tell them to keep it fixed all the time. Jeez.
One of the sighting-in was a 1935 Turkish Mauser. Unlike most military bolt rifles, instead of shooting high this one shot way low, so I had to file and try on the front sight to get it on target. It finally got so short that I just raised the rear to the 200m mark to finish it off. Shoots fine otherwise.
Second sighter was a Savage Scout Rifle. If you're not familiar with it, when the Scout Rifle concept was first getting a lot of attention Savage took their short action, gave it a 20" barrel, synthetic stock, forward scope base and a ghost ring rear sight with a front bead. It came in both .308 and .223 as I recall; mine's a .308, and came with three sling studs and a Ching sling. I bought it used a few years ago, and found a used Burris 3x scope for it. Overall it's a great rifle. The action is slick, the trigger is light and clean and it has quite acceptable accuracy with a variety of ammo. In this case I had found some Federal 168gr. Gold Medal Match ammo on sale a while back and got a box to try out. It consistently gave 1.25" groups out of this rifle today, quite acceptable. I've got some handloads that are about that tight, I may try some messing with the load/bullet and see what happens.
The only thing I'd change on this rifle is the front sight is a bead, and I'd make it a post. Otherwise? It doesn't have a fold-down bipod built into the forend, and it won't hold a spare mag in the butt like the Steyr; it also cost roughly $1200 less than the Steyr and from what I've heard gives equal levels of accuracy. I'm told Savage stopped making them for a while, but now they're available through the Custom Shop, so if you're looking for a rifle like this you might check it out.
The last was the Martini 12/15 I bought a couple of years ago. After the results I got with the Model 12 I bought a couple of months ago, I wanted to try this one at 100 yards, so I took some Federal Lightning, Eley Sport, PMC Match Pistol, Federal Gold Medal Target and CCI Green Tag. The model 12 liked the Federal Lightning and Eley Sport above all; this one got the best results with the Lightning and the PMC Match Pistol, both giving 1.25 and 1.5" groups at 100 yards. It didn't like the Eley, it went into 3-4" groups. I'm still amazed at the results I get from the Lightning; it's the most inexpensive .22 ammo I know of, and shoots the best in ALL my rifles of any ammo I've tried so far. Amazed, but happy.
If you're interested in things rimfire, one site you might check out is Rimfire Central; it's only about rimfire firearms, with sections on different brands and different ammo. This is where I got the idea to try the Match Pistol ammo, one guy mentioned that his rifle liked it above all else. Lots of good information on guns, ammo and modifications/accessories.
The one bad thing about the Nagant and Mauser is the ball ammo I used is corrosive primed, so as humid as it is they had to be cleaned today. If you're not familiar with this, the priming isn't actually corrosive, but when the stuff burns it leaves behind traces of chemical salts, and salts attract moisture, so... It's actually not that bad to clean; I picked up a couple of cans of GI bore cleaner at a show, this stuff was intended for corrosive priming cleaning, so it will flush out the salts that other cleaners won't. Then I hit the barrel/bolt face with either Sweet's or Corrosion-X; usually Sweet's since it contains ammonia, which also cuts any traces of salts left as well as cleaning any jacket fouling, then the CLP to protect the metal.
As an experiment one time I tried using Sweet's only; the ammo was listed as 'slightly corrosive', so I cleaned the bore and gas system with it, then dried it out and hit it with CLP. I watched it very closely for a few days, and no rust. I still use the GI stuff on the other surplus ammo first, just to be on the safe side.
Oh, the day's not over yet. After cleaning those two, I went out and cut a hole in the end of a drain channel on my carport, and took off the covers I'd put on two others a few months ago, and cleaned out the nests the birds had built in them. Damned sparrows squeezed through openings barely big enough for them with nest materials and raised their broods; now that they're gone, so are the nests. I've got to find a way to block all the spaces so I don't have to do this again next year.
And 2/3 of the way through that, FedEx arrived with my camera, the first result of which is above. I've got to find out how to post more than one picture at a time now.
I think I'll imbibe in a taste of something and crash early tonight. I'm tired.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Parts
Bike parts this time. I ordered new friction plates and springs for the Vulcan today, after they get in I'll drain the oil, change the filter, redo the clutch and put it all back together. Sometime after that I'll get new radiator hoses and replace them & change out the coolant.
Reason for all this is two. Just on general principles it's got enough miles that the clutch needs doing, and it's time for the radiator. Second is that if things work out, in August I'll be going to Sturgis for the bike rally. It'll be the first time I've been there. I figure about 2-3 weeks ahead I'll put the bike into a local shop called Performance Bike- they do good work- and say "Check everything"; it's about 1100 miles each way according to the map, and I'd rather find any problems- potential or current- here, instead of somewhere on an empty stretch of highway in Nebraska.
Actually, I'm split about destination. I may go to Sturgis, or I may just pick a direction and take off. I've got a friend who'll take care of the house and critters, so that's not a problem, so I may just wander for a week or so. And if I do that, I may flip a coin to choose a direction. No reservations needed either way, so no rush on deciding. This would be the first real vacation I've taken in a long time, and I'm looking forward to it. I always try to get some time so I can go to the Wanamacher Arms Show in Tulsa in October, but that's not the same.
I do need to check states to make sure which ones recognize an OK concealed carry permit; I damn sure don't want to travel without it.
Sturgis or wherever? Decisions, decisions...
Reason for all this is two. Just on general principles it's got enough miles that the clutch needs doing, and it's time for the radiator. Second is that if things work out, in August I'll be going to Sturgis for the bike rally. It'll be the first time I've been there. I figure about 2-3 weeks ahead I'll put the bike into a local shop called Performance Bike- they do good work- and say "Check everything"; it's about 1100 miles each way according to the map, and I'd rather find any problems- potential or current- here, instead of somewhere on an empty stretch of highway in Nebraska.
Actually, I'm split about destination. I may go to Sturgis, or I may just pick a direction and take off. I've got a friend who'll take care of the house and critters, so that's not a problem, so I may just wander for a week or so. And if I do that, I may flip a coin to choose a direction. No reservations needed either way, so no rush on deciding. This would be the first real vacation I've taken in a long time, and I'm looking forward to it. I always try to get some time so I can go to the Wanamacher Arms Show in Tulsa in October, but that's not the same.
I do need to check states to make sure which ones recognize an OK concealed carry permit; I damn sure don't want to travel without it.
Sturgis or wherever? Decisions, decisions...
Monday, June 13, 2005
It has come to my attention
as I sit here with a bit of Cask & Cream on ice, that I haven't said anything political in a while.
Howard Dean is either a serious nutjob, or a serious enemy of much I hold dear. I'd prefer the former; that so many voters would knowingly vote for someone who is the latter dismays and scares the hell out of me.
Hillary Clinton is power hungry enough to become a nun if she thought it would put her in the Oval Office, and she is a serious enemy of much I hold dear.
Amnesty International has either sold out to left-wing assholes for money(read 'donations'), or has become such a left-wing asshole group that it would say the crap it has because they actually believe it, or think it will advance their agenda; in either case they're knowingly lieing, and should be seen as the foul bastards they are.
Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein are the wicked socialist witches of the west, and we can hope that Dorothy is being picked up somewhere in Kansas by that tornado.
There are a bunch of people at Democratic Underground who truly are traitors to this country.
And there are a bunch of politicians and 'protesters' who should have their patriotism questioned, because they don't have any. Not to THIS country, anyway.
Fidel Castro is a murdering communist dictator, and as the saying goes, ANY day he dies will be a national holiday.
And the fact that the Democratic Party will revere and raise money for that sorry bastard Robert Byrd(Kleagle-WV) instead of condemning him and telling him to go away, tells me all I need to know about the upper levels of that bunch.
I think that covers it nicely for now. Good evening, and I'm going to top off my glass.
Howard Dean is either a serious nutjob, or a serious enemy of much I hold dear. I'd prefer the former; that so many voters would knowingly vote for someone who is the latter dismays and scares the hell out of me.
Hillary Clinton is power hungry enough to become a nun if she thought it would put her in the Oval Office, and she is a serious enemy of much I hold dear.
Amnesty International has either sold out to left-wing assholes for money(read 'donations'), or has become such a left-wing asshole group that it would say the crap it has because they actually believe it, or think it will advance their agenda; in either case they're knowingly lieing, and should be seen as the foul bastards they are.
Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein are the wicked socialist witches of the west, and we can hope that Dorothy is being picked up somewhere in Kansas by that tornado.
There are a bunch of people at Democratic Underground who truly are traitors to this country.
And there are a bunch of politicians and 'protesters' who should have their patriotism questioned, because they don't have any. Not to THIS country, anyway.
Fidel Castro is a murdering communist dictator, and as the saying goes, ANY day he dies will be a national holiday.
And the fact that the Democratic Party will revere and raise money for that sorry bastard Robert Byrd(Kleagle-WV) instead of condemning him and telling him to go away, tells me all I need to know about the upper levels of that bunch.
I think that covers it nicely for now. Good evening, and I'm going to top off my glass.
The price of ammunition
I've been doing some digging around on .22 ammo, primarily the high-grade match stuff, checking prices and reviews.
I once wrote about how picky some firearms can be about what they digest, .22's included. For every brand out there, from low-end to high, there are those who swear by it for their firearm, or swear at it. I wrote here about the results I got with Federal and Eley ammo in a Martini target rifle. I had some $3 and $4/box match ammo, and these two outshot them all. The Eley isn't match-grade, it's called 'Sport', and it's Eley primed and assembled in Mexico; the Federal is their baseline ammo. I can find the Federal around here for $.69/box, and the box of Eley I bought at a gun show cost $2.25; I recently found a place called Champion Shooters Supply that carries the Eley Sport for $1.30/box(yes, I ordered some). In this rifle I can't find any reason to buy the higher dollar stuff, but out of curiosity I went searching.
Damn! The top-grade Eley, Lapua and RWS match stuff is $10 and $11/box. SK Match and Wolf Match Gold are just under $10/box, and it goes down from there to the lowly stuff that goes from the aforementioned $1.30 to $3 and $4.
It is a fact that one thing you pay extra for in this stuff in consistency, each round in a box, and in the same manufacturing lot, being as close to identical as possible. This, by the way, is why you read the recommendation that if you find some your rifle/pistol really likes, you should buy all you can find of the same lot; the next lot may not be quite the same. And in some types of match shooting it may be worth every penny if that stuff is what your firearm gives the best result with; 'best result' meaning the closest to one-hole groups possible, every time.
That being said, the question you run in to is 'for my shooting is it necessary/worth it?'. From what I've read some silhouette shooters will choose an ammo that may not have the tightest grouping but has a bit more power, the better to knock the little steel animals over with, for instance. And some small-game hunters will pay more for a box or two of high-grade stuff because it makes it a bit easier to head-shoot the squirrel or rabbit. But for most purposes?
One lesson I tried to teach the kids was that if you actually get better results- a better meal, a better tool, whatever- for the money, then don't be afraid to spend more, and ammo definately counts. But if you can get the same or nearly identical results from less expensive stuff, then don't be worried about a fancy name. Yeah, I'm cheap in some ways. I stopped buying Levi's when the price went up and I could get Rustlers for ten bucks(I later found out about Levi's supporting various GFW groups, so that was a twofer); that name on the pants wasn't worth the extra money. Same holds for ammo, if I can get the results I want from inexpensive stuff, I'm not going to lay out dollars extra for a name on the box. If you've got kids, you know what that's worth; two kids at the range can go through a brick in a remarkably short time.
So try out various brands and types, including some of the more expensive stuff, and if your particular firearm likes one better, don't be worried about buying some of the high-dollar stuff when the result will be worth it. But you don't always need match-grade to get match-grade results.
Note: some of the really serious match competitors will only buy the match-grade their rifle likes, and then they do the rim-measuring, cartridge weighing routine. For them it's worth it, but it ain't to me.
I once wrote about how picky some firearms can be about what they digest, .22's included. For every brand out there, from low-end to high, there are those who swear by it for their firearm, or swear at it. I wrote here about the results I got with Federal and Eley ammo in a Martini target rifle. I had some $3 and $4/box match ammo, and these two outshot them all. The Eley isn't match-grade, it's called 'Sport', and it's Eley primed and assembled in Mexico; the Federal is their baseline ammo. I can find the Federal around here for $.69/box, and the box of Eley I bought at a gun show cost $2.25; I recently found a place called Champion Shooters Supply that carries the Eley Sport for $1.30/box(yes, I ordered some). In this rifle I can't find any reason to buy the higher dollar stuff, but out of curiosity I went searching.
Damn! The top-grade Eley, Lapua and RWS match stuff is $10 and $11/box. SK Match and Wolf Match Gold are just under $10/box, and it goes down from there to the lowly stuff that goes from the aforementioned $1.30 to $3 and $4.
It is a fact that one thing you pay extra for in this stuff in consistency, each round in a box, and in the same manufacturing lot, being as close to identical as possible. This, by the way, is why you read the recommendation that if you find some your rifle/pistol really likes, you should buy all you can find of the same lot; the next lot may not be quite the same. And in some types of match shooting it may be worth every penny if that stuff is what your firearm gives the best result with; 'best result' meaning the closest to one-hole groups possible, every time.
That being said, the question you run in to is 'for my shooting is it necessary/worth it?'. From what I've read some silhouette shooters will choose an ammo that may not have the tightest grouping but has a bit more power, the better to knock the little steel animals over with, for instance. And some small-game hunters will pay more for a box or two of high-grade stuff because it makes it a bit easier to head-shoot the squirrel or rabbit. But for most purposes?
One lesson I tried to teach the kids was that if you actually get better results- a better meal, a better tool, whatever- for the money, then don't be afraid to spend more, and ammo definately counts. But if you can get the same or nearly identical results from less expensive stuff, then don't be worried about a fancy name. Yeah, I'm cheap in some ways. I stopped buying Levi's when the price went up and I could get Rustlers for ten bucks(I later found out about Levi's supporting various GFW groups, so that was a twofer); that name on the pants wasn't worth the extra money. Same holds for ammo, if I can get the results I want from inexpensive stuff, I'm not going to lay out dollars extra for a name on the box. If you've got kids, you know what that's worth; two kids at the range can go through a brick in a remarkably short time.
So try out various brands and types, including some of the more expensive stuff, and if your particular firearm likes one better, don't be worried about buying some of the high-dollar stuff when the result will be worth it. But you don't always need match-grade to get match-grade results.
Note: some of the really serious match competitors will only buy the match-grade their rifle likes, and then they do the rim-measuring, cartridge weighing routine. For them it's worth it, but it ain't to me.
Another good place to check out
The Ministry of Minor Perfidy, another gunny blogger from the People's Republic of MA. Hadn't seen him before, but thanks to the Carnival of Cordite and a comment here, I went there and checked him out.
You know, we get a few more like him and mASSBACKWARDS in place, and maybe...
You know, we get a few more like him and mASSBACKWARDS in place, and maybe...
Sunday, June 12, 2005
This just in, everybody didn't die! Film at 10!
It never fails. Strong storms coming in? "HIGH WINDS! HAIL! TORRENTIAL RAINS! BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!!!" It's like the crap on the news every time a big tropical storm or hurricane moves toward the coast, except it's only local news, not national, telling you to be sure your will is made out.
This evening in central OK we had some strong winds come through, a few areas getting gusts as high as 80mph but the worst everywhere else in the 50's. And it rained pretty heavy as the first line came through, and has rained light to moderate in waves since. Not a damn thing we haven't seen before, but from the way the weather weenies kept coming on, you'd think the world was about to end.
You folks on the coast? I'm not sure how you get through hurricane season without hanging one or two of the most annoying of them.
This evening in central OK we had some strong winds come through, a few areas getting gusts as high as 80mph but the worst everywhere else in the 50's. And it rained pretty heavy as the first line came through, and has rained light to moderate in waves since. Not a damn thing we haven't seen before, but from the way the weather weenies kept coming on, you'd think the world was about to end.
You folks on the coast? I'm not sure how you get through hurricane season without hanging one or two of the most annoying of them.
What makes up 'pretty'?
Or 'Beautiful', or whatever?
Definately it's in the eye of the beholder, so I'm not talking about a 'universal ideal', or some crap like that. I mean the things that make someone fit that description to you?
Long hair, short hair, tall or short, fair- or dark-skinned, slim or full-bodied? Full lips or slim, big boobs or small or in between, larger round or small tight butt?
And all the various combinations that can definately add up to be greater than the sum of the perts(excuse me, 'parts'. Well, some of it COULD be 'perts', couldn't it? Be quiet).
Got to thinking about this last night, partly just in wonder at some of the loveliness out there. I was out taking care of some things and saw a lady. Now, if you broke it down to individual features, it would be something like this:
Light brown hair, straight, about shoulder blade length.
Light tan skin tone.
Lips a little fuller than slim
Couldn't see eye color.
Medium boobs and butt.
Nice waist.
Slim legs.
Put that way, doesn't seem like much. Put all together, she was gorgeous.
Lady I know is a belly dancer in her spare time. By the 'fashionable' standards, she's a loss; face a bit too full, boobs & butt too big, she actually has a bit of a belly, legs not long enough. Despite not being of 'fashionable' appearance, she's a knockout, sexy as hell.
Once knew a lady who was lean, almost to the point of being skinny. But it was her natural build and she looked good that way.
Another was plump/not a few pounds overweight, actually plump/, and you didn't care. From her curly red hair to her pretty feet, she was very fine to see.
Lady I used to know was at first glance what might be called 'pretty' to be polite. But to actually meet her, talk with her, was a wonderful thing, her spirit and the way she moved put everything together into a package that was a marvel.
And I've known women who could not fit into a category of 'pretty' or 'lovely', but they were the definition of 'cute'. And cute can be seriously hot, too.
I came to the conclusion a long time ago that boobs who tried to define what features someone had to have to be 'beautiful' were idiots. All too often nowadays they tend to think that someone who looks like she was just rescued from a concentration camp is the ideal, whereas I see someone like that I have an urge to feed them before they fall over.
There's beauty of all sizes/shapes/colors out there. I have no idea how some of it fits together and works, but I'm glad it's there.
Definately it's in the eye of the beholder, so I'm not talking about a 'universal ideal', or some crap like that. I mean the things that make someone fit that description to you?
Long hair, short hair, tall or short, fair- or dark-skinned, slim or full-bodied? Full lips or slim, big boobs or small or in between, larger round or small tight butt?
And all the various combinations that can definately add up to be greater than the sum of the perts(excuse me, 'parts'. Well, some of it COULD be 'perts', couldn't it? Be quiet).
Got to thinking about this last night, partly just in wonder at some of the loveliness out there. I was out taking care of some things and saw a lady. Now, if you broke it down to individual features, it would be something like this:
Light brown hair, straight, about shoulder blade length.
Light tan skin tone.
Lips a little fuller than slim
Couldn't see eye color.
Medium boobs and butt.
Nice waist.
Slim legs.
Put that way, doesn't seem like much. Put all together, she was gorgeous.
Lady I know is a belly dancer in her spare time. By the 'fashionable' standards, she's a loss; face a bit too full, boobs & butt too big, she actually has a bit of a belly, legs not long enough. Despite not being of 'fashionable' appearance, she's a knockout, sexy as hell.
Once knew a lady who was lean, almost to the point of being skinny. But it was her natural build and she looked good that way.
Another was plump/not a few pounds overweight, actually plump/, and you didn't care. From her curly red hair to her pretty feet, she was very fine to see.
Lady I used to know was at first glance what might be called 'pretty' to be polite. But to actually meet her, talk with her, was a wonderful thing, her spirit and the way she moved put everything together into a package that was a marvel.
And I've known women who could not fit into a category of 'pretty' or 'lovely', but they were the definition of 'cute'. And cute can be seriously hot, too.
I came to the conclusion a long time ago that boobs who tried to define what features someone had to have to be 'beautiful' were idiots. All too often nowadays they tend to think that someone who looks like she was just rescued from a concentration camp is the ideal, whereas I see someone like that I have an urge to feed them before they fall over.
There's beauty of all sizes/shapes/colors out there. I have no idea how some of it fits together and works, but I'm glad it's there.
Speaking of sci-fi coming to life
David Drake has written a number of short stories and novels where video/sound recorders are mounted on troops' helmets. Now read this over at Strategy Page on how we're partly/mostly there.
Drake also pointed out this has good/bad sides; it can capture details for later study and intelligence use, and it can provide even greater opportunities for Monday-morning quarterbacking.
As it's been said, the genie is out of the bottle, so the question is how we'll deal with it.
Drake also pointed out this has good/bad sides; it can capture details for later study and intelligence use, and it can provide even greater opportunities for Monday-morning quarterbacking.
As it's been said, the genie is out of the bottle, so the question is how we'll deal with it.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Git ready fer the storm, Bubba!
Confederate Yankee tells people how to prepare for the next hurricane(and the next, etc.)
In the same vein as "If you live in a trailer park, or say "It was like this" frequently, you will be on the news after the tornado".
In the same vein as "If you live in a trailer park, or say "It was like this" frequently, you will be on the news after the tornado".
Various weapons BS in movies and tv
I'm not sure what got me thinking about this, but let's go.
Sounds
You're probably familiar with this mess. A gun comes out and all kinds of noises happen. Think of the opening of The Matrix; the cops burst in on the girl(Trinity?) and you hear the clack-clack of slides working and clicks of safeties going off or hammers being cocked. Problem is they're carrying Glocks; no safety or hammer to make noises and nobody is working a slide.
Or somebody draws a revolver and you hear click-clack, but the hammer's not cocked, and that would only make one click anyway. Or someone raises a rifle and you hear a virtual chorus of metal crickets chirping, even though both hands are on the thing.
And of course we can't pass by on the volume levels. Some people have a close-range shootout in an office, firing about, oh, 30 to 50 rounds, and afterward none of them have a problem hearing.
And they have those miraculous shotguns and rifles that can be fired without any recoil or muzzle rise or any effect. Must be either some new way to manipulate physics, or magic.
Swords
The big one here is beating swords on each other. There were some swords, late period, made for sword-against-sword use; they generally left the bottom third of the blade- the area used for parrying- blunt. Parrying with a sharp edge will mess it up, nick and chip it, so leave that section thick. But broadswords?
Think about two things. First, a sword is primarily an offensive weapon, and if you're using it to block blows you can't use it to attack. The age-old answer to this is a shield; carry it on one arm and your sword in the other hand, and you can defend and attack at the same time. Second, a decent sword was expensive; we're talking premium battle-rifle price here. Every time you strike two swords together one or both of them is taking damage, often damage that can't be repaired. Small nicks can be polished out, same for a small chip, but a big, deep nick is there permanently, and if very deep weakens the blade; in extreme cases it can cause it to crack or break at the next hard shock. So you tried hard not do do that.
But in Hollywood? You can beat them against each other and everything is nice and shiny afterward. Must be some really special metal. Or magic again.
The firearms crap? They don't care about accuracy for the most part, they just want to throw in noises for dramatic effect.
With swords/axes? It's lots easier to set up a scene where only one piece is involved, as opposed to a weapon in one hand and shield on the other arm; it takes time to learn to work both properly, so to an extent I understand the problem. But it still irritates me that, at least for some things, they can't take the time to work it out properly.
Note: yes, I know there were cultures, Japan for instance, that specifically worked sword-on-sword combat; I'm not talking about them. I will also note that, from what I understand, Japanese styles emphasized deflecting parries, so as to keep the damage to the blade minimal. If other information is available, I'd be glad of it.
Sounds
You're probably familiar with this mess. A gun comes out and all kinds of noises happen. Think of the opening of The Matrix; the cops burst in on the girl(Trinity?) and you hear the clack-clack of slides working and clicks of safeties going off or hammers being cocked. Problem is they're carrying Glocks; no safety or hammer to make noises and nobody is working a slide.
Or somebody draws a revolver and you hear click-clack, but the hammer's not cocked, and that would only make one click anyway. Or someone raises a rifle and you hear a virtual chorus of metal crickets chirping, even though both hands are on the thing.
And of course we can't pass by on the volume levels. Some people have a close-range shootout in an office, firing about, oh, 30 to 50 rounds, and afterward none of them have a problem hearing.
And they have those miraculous shotguns and rifles that can be fired without any recoil or muzzle rise or any effect. Must be either some new way to manipulate physics, or magic.
Swords
The big one here is beating swords on each other. There were some swords, late period, made for sword-against-sword use; they generally left the bottom third of the blade- the area used for parrying- blunt. Parrying with a sharp edge will mess it up, nick and chip it, so leave that section thick. But broadswords?
Think about two things. First, a sword is primarily an offensive weapon, and if you're using it to block blows you can't use it to attack. The age-old answer to this is a shield; carry it on one arm and your sword in the other hand, and you can defend and attack at the same time. Second, a decent sword was expensive; we're talking premium battle-rifle price here. Every time you strike two swords together one or both of them is taking damage, often damage that can't be repaired. Small nicks can be polished out, same for a small chip, but a big, deep nick is there permanently, and if very deep weakens the blade; in extreme cases it can cause it to crack or break at the next hard shock. So you tried hard not do do that.
But in Hollywood? You can beat them against each other and everything is nice and shiny afterward. Must be some really special metal. Or magic again.
The firearms crap? They don't care about accuracy for the most part, they just want to throw in noises for dramatic effect.
With swords/axes? It's lots easier to set up a scene where only one piece is involved, as opposed to a weapon in one hand and shield on the other arm; it takes time to learn to work both properly, so to an extent I understand the problem. But it still irritates me that, at least for some things, they can't take the time to work it out properly.
Note: yes, I know there were cultures, Japan for instance, that specifically worked sword-on-sword combat; I'm not talking about them. I will also note that, from what I understand, Japanese styles emphasized deflecting parries, so as to keep the damage to the blade minimal. If other information is available, I'd be glad of it.
Friday, June 10, 2005
I don't have a bird to crap on me, like Steve,
so I have to do it myself. Metaphorically, of course.
Part the First
After the events of yesterday, between stress and lack of sleep, I was pretty much shot by evening. So I cleaned some things up, cleaned myself up, took care of some on-line stuff, and decided that I would now lay myself on the couch and anoint the body & soul with some Scottish Holy Water.
Part the Second
So I shut down the pc, picked up my 32oz. 7-11 cup half full of iced tea, turned out the light, and headed for the living room. And as I turned to corner my left foot hit the stool(that I DO NOT remember putting RIGHT THERE). This was closely followed by my right ankle hitting it, followed by my balance going completely away and my falling into the darkness. By some miracle I managed a fairly good breakfall, taking most of the impact on forearms(NOT my elbows or face, thank you God). This included the cup, never leaving my hand, striking bottom first, and the various laws of motion and energy demonstrated themselves by the contents moving vertically out of the container and then distributing themselves in various places about the living room. I lay there for about five seconds, then uttered the standard comment for such times("Well, @)#$*&"), and got up. The next few minutes were spent picking up and throwing out ice cubes, spaced about in an undoubtedly mystical pattern I had no damn desire to decipher, mopping up the tea, and then getting a new glass of tea, and finally plunking myself down on the couch.
At which time I looked at my left foot, with the blood seeping out from under the nail of my big toe, then at the skin scraped off my right ankle, then feeling the ache in my left hand from the impact it took. The shot glass was now filled with hydrogen peroxide and the leaking toe dipped in(all right, you figure out a better way), followed by my drinking directly from the bottle; not something I usually do, but it seemed called for here. Then, after about three shots and a few minutes, I dragged myself up to bed.
Part the Third
About 3a.m. a storm woke me up, so I hobbled down the stairs to pee, then decided to make sure all the windows were closed up on the windward side of the house; things had cooled off enough in the evening that I'd turned off the a/c and opened them up. So as I hobbled through the bedroom/office to the window, my left foot contacted- toe first, of course- the ammo can sitting beside the table.
"@(*^%% #*() &!%$#!!"
After making it back to bed, I went back to sleep. Or passed out, whichever.
Part the Fourth
Wherein I wake up this morning and get out of bed. My foot is as sore as you'd think, it turns out I also whacked my left knee on the floor and it doesn't want to bend, my left hand aches, and life is just so sunny I'd like to puke.
So I've been hobbling around all day like a refugee from somewhere nasty, and if I didn't have to meet someone this evening I'd flop in the house and commune with John Barleycorn again, but at greater length.
And how has YOUR morning been?
Part the First
After the events of yesterday, between stress and lack of sleep, I was pretty much shot by evening. So I cleaned some things up, cleaned myself up, took care of some on-line stuff, and decided that I would now lay myself on the couch and anoint the body & soul with some Scottish Holy Water.
Part the Second
So I shut down the pc, picked up my 32oz. 7-11 cup half full of iced tea, turned out the light, and headed for the living room. And as I turned to corner my left foot hit the stool(that I DO NOT remember putting RIGHT THERE). This was closely followed by my right ankle hitting it, followed by my balance going completely away and my falling into the darkness. By some miracle I managed a fairly good breakfall, taking most of the impact on forearms(NOT my elbows or face, thank you God). This included the cup, never leaving my hand, striking bottom first, and the various laws of motion and energy demonstrated themselves by the contents moving vertically out of the container and then distributing themselves in various places about the living room. I lay there for about five seconds, then uttered the standard comment for such times("Well, @)#$*&"), and got up. The next few minutes were spent picking up and throwing out ice cubes, spaced about in an undoubtedly mystical pattern I had no damn desire to decipher, mopping up the tea, and then getting a new glass of tea, and finally plunking myself down on the couch.
At which time I looked at my left foot, with the blood seeping out from under the nail of my big toe, then at the skin scraped off my right ankle, then feeling the ache in my left hand from the impact it took. The shot glass was now filled with hydrogen peroxide and the leaking toe dipped in(all right, you figure out a better way), followed by my drinking directly from the bottle; not something I usually do, but it seemed called for here. Then, after about three shots and a few minutes, I dragged myself up to bed.
Part the Third
About 3a.m. a storm woke me up, so I hobbled down the stairs to pee, then decided to make sure all the windows were closed up on the windward side of the house; things had cooled off enough in the evening that I'd turned off the a/c and opened them up. So as I hobbled through the bedroom/office to the window, my left foot contacted- toe first, of course- the ammo can sitting beside the table.
"@(*^%% #*() &!%$#!!"
After making it back to bed, I went back to sleep. Or passed out, whichever.
Part the Fourth
Wherein I wake up this morning and get out of bed. My foot is as sore as you'd think, it turns out I also whacked my left knee on the floor and it doesn't want to bend, my left hand aches, and life is just so sunny I'd like to puke.
So I've been hobbling around all day like a refugee from somewhere nasty, and if I didn't have to meet someone this evening I'd flop in the house and commune with John Barleycorn again, but at greater length.
And how has YOUR morning been?
Another "don't know why" moment
I've heard of the place, and finally got around to actually going there: Jihad Watch.
Go there. It's got lots of stuff that needs to be seen.
Go there. It's got lots of stuff that needs to be seen.
Carnival of Cordite #17 is up
Over at Eric's Grumbles Before The Grave, check it out. Lots of good stuff.
This is a site I haven't seen before, I'll have to look it over. Subheading for blog:"Married, father, husband, Desert Storm veteran, security manager, sci-fi & Linux fan, geek, rational anarchist, classic liberal. Want to know what all that means? "
(yes, Kevin, I fixed it)
This is a site I haven't seen before, I'll have to look it over. Subheading for blog:"Married, father, husband, Desert Storm veteran, security manager, sci-fi & Linux fan, geek, rational anarchist, classic liberal. Want to know what all that means? "
(yes, Kevin, I fixed it)
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Sometimes, life just sucks
I had to put the cat down today. She'd been dragging for the last week or so, Monday took her to the vet and got some medication. And it was downhill from there. She hated taking the pills, and I couldn't get her to eat, and this morning she lost control of some functions...
Shit. This is the third time over the years I've had to do this, and it never gets any easier. I need to hit the range in the next couple of days.
Shit. This is the third time over the years I've had to do this, and it never gets any easier. I need to hit the range in the next couple of days.
A fine quote, and something on the weather
Over at Acidman's place, between posts about shooing cats away from bird nests, was this:
quote of the day
"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."
P.J. O'Rourke
On the weather, when I got up this morning the 'partly cloudy' predicted last night was solid overcast. The weather weenies said a 30% chance of scattered rain in this area.
About 30 minutes later on the radio it was a 20% chance.
About an hour later it started raining.
Now we've got a severe thunderstorm watch over the area for most of the day. And the 'official' forecast still says 20% chance of storms, as thunder rolls around outside and the county just northeast of here has flash flood warnings out.
But the 'experts' can tell us what the weather and climate will be doing over the next hundred years or so.
Uh huh.
quote of the day
"No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."
P.J. O'Rourke
On the weather, when I got up this morning the 'partly cloudy' predicted last night was solid overcast. The weather weenies said a 30% chance of scattered rain in this area.
About 30 minutes later on the radio it was a 20% chance.
About an hour later it started raining.
Now we've got a severe thunderstorm watch over the area for most of the day. And the 'official' forecast still says 20% chance of storms, as thunder rolls around outside and the county just northeast of here has flash flood warnings out.
But the 'experts' can tell us what the weather and climate will be doing over the next hundred years or so.
Uh huh.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Back in town
Went out of town for a couple of days to visit my folks, so no posts and no responses to various comments.
To catch things up;
Mr. Completely has the results for his postal match, so go read the scores and vote. Preferably for me, but vote anyway.
I spent some time helping my dad clean out the barn, and move some heavy stuff around, in return for which I got Mom's cooking. Very good trade, I will tell you.
My cat's a bit under the weather, so I'm going through the fun routine of feeding her pills and forcing her to eat. You can imagine what a joy that is, but hopefully she'll get better.
I've got a big pot of mint to plant. Good for tabouli, and tea, and various other things.
I now have a recoil absorber for the Benelli, I hope it works as promised(see "vote for me" above).
And while I was gone I received two comments, surprisingly(yeah, right) from 'Anonymous'. One says 'F*** you', and the other is 'their innocent'. I'm too lazy to go back through the archives to find which posts these were added on to, but from the sparkling use of language and excellent spelling, I'll assume it's some, shall we say, 'liberal' type who objected to some political view I posted. I was thinking of some proper rebuttal, but I'll let them stand for themselves.
More later.
To catch things up;
Mr. Completely has the results for his postal match, so go read the scores and vote. Preferably for me, but vote anyway.
I spent some time helping my dad clean out the barn, and move some heavy stuff around, in return for which I got Mom's cooking. Very good trade, I will tell you.
My cat's a bit under the weather, so I'm going through the fun routine of feeding her pills and forcing her to eat. You can imagine what a joy that is, but hopefully she'll get better.
I've got a big pot of mint to plant. Good for tabouli, and tea, and various other things.
I now have a recoil absorber for the Benelli, I hope it works as promised(see "vote for me" above).
And while I was gone I received two comments, surprisingly(yeah, right) from 'Anonymous'. One says 'F*** you', and the other is 'their innocent'. I'm too lazy to go back through the archives to find which posts these were added on to, but from the sparkling use of language and excellent spelling, I'll assume it's some, shall we say, 'liberal' type who objected to some political view I posted. I was thinking of some proper rebuttal, but I'll let them stand for themselves.
More later.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Know what happens when...
the bolt holding the blade on the lawn mower breaks? Yes, it stops cutting the grass, I mean what else happens?
In this case it simply fell to the ground instead of coming spinning out the back toward my ankle like a scene from a Stephen King novel. Very relieving, I assure you.
This started like so: Friend is selling house used to live in. Friend has been sick and hasn't been able to mow. I volunteered to go by after work today and run the mower over it. Front yard, ten minutes tops, no problem. Get the gate open and walk into the back and...
To put it in a politically correct manner, into his Rain Forest in the Making(RFM for short). The last time I saw anything that tall someone was using a combine to harvest it. And, due to various circumstances I won't go into, he'd left stuff in the yard here and there. Where you couldn't see it until you ran into it because of the RFM. Ah well, I said I would, so into the breech, etc.
It was about a third of the way through when the mower suddenly became quieter and stopped cutting. Being the observant sort I am this caught my attention and I killed the engine and pulled the mower back. And lying there in the last of the cut grass and matted clippings was the blade and the big washer and the lock washer. In the shaft was a half-empty hole, with the rest of the bolt still in it. Crap. After a couple of minutes of digging I found the broken-off portion, and by putting a socket on it and pushing hard into the shaft was able to get it to engage the rest of the bolt enough to back it out, a bit at a time. Broken-off portion too short to do any good of course.
So off to Ace Hardware, and I walked in the door three minutes before closing. Happily the bolt was a standard 3/8x24 thread so forty-something cents later I walked out with it, drove back, and put the blade back on. Then, on to further adventure.
It took about a half-hour to get the rest of the yard that I could, moving a few things, cutting tight around others and skipping some areas entirely. I kept pushing through the RFM, the grass, the bugs, for all I know the escaped marsupials hiding out from the zookeepers. I finally gave up after the following: the mower hit something and stalled, I backed it up and gave the starter a pull, and I could tell something was hung up on the blade. I tipped it up and found a pewter tankard. Not impaled, no, nothing so mundane. The handle of the bloody thing was looped around the blade. I have no idea how it managed that, as I had to take the damned blade back off to remove it. At which point I decided that was enough enviromental destruction(who needs a friggin' RFM in Oklahoma, for God's sake?) for one day, packed up my mower and tools and went home.
I called my friend this evening and advised him that if he ever let a yard get this bad again, don't call me 'cause I WON'T DO IT. Unless it's as a favor to his widow.
In this case it simply fell to the ground instead of coming spinning out the back toward my ankle like a scene from a Stephen King novel. Very relieving, I assure you.
This started like so: Friend is selling house used to live in. Friend has been sick and hasn't been able to mow. I volunteered to go by after work today and run the mower over it. Front yard, ten minutes tops, no problem. Get the gate open and walk into the back and...
To put it in a politically correct manner, into his Rain Forest in the Making(RFM for short). The last time I saw anything that tall someone was using a combine to harvest it. And, due to various circumstances I won't go into, he'd left stuff in the yard here and there. Where you couldn't see it until you ran into it because of the RFM. Ah well, I said I would, so into the breech, etc.
It was about a third of the way through when the mower suddenly became quieter and stopped cutting. Being the observant sort I am this caught my attention and I killed the engine and pulled the mower back. And lying there in the last of the cut grass and matted clippings was the blade and the big washer and the lock washer. In the shaft was a half-empty hole, with the rest of the bolt still in it. Crap. After a couple of minutes of digging I found the broken-off portion, and by putting a socket on it and pushing hard into the shaft was able to get it to engage the rest of the bolt enough to back it out, a bit at a time. Broken-off portion too short to do any good of course.
So off to Ace Hardware, and I walked in the door three minutes before closing. Happily the bolt was a standard 3/8x24 thread so forty-something cents later I walked out with it, drove back, and put the blade back on. Then, on to further adventure.
It took about a half-hour to get the rest of the yard that I could, moving a few things, cutting tight around others and skipping some areas entirely. I kept pushing through the RFM, the grass, the bugs, for all I know the escaped marsupials hiding out from the zookeepers. I finally gave up after the following: the mower hit something and stalled, I backed it up and gave the starter a pull, and I could tell something was hung up on the blade. I tipped it up and found a pewter tankard. Not impaled, no, nothing so mundane. The handle of the bloody thing was looped around the blade. I have no idea how it managed that, as I had to take the damned blade back off to remove it. At which point I decided that was enough enviromental destruction(who needs a friggin' RFM in Oklahoma, for God's sake?) for one day, packed up my mower and tools and went home.
I called my friend this evening and advised him that if he ever let a yard get this bad again, don't call me 'cause I WON'T DO IT. Unless it's as a favor to his widow.
'Amnesty International' my ass
Found something interesting in this John Leo column:
"Rule 18. A different omission marred the reporting of Amnesty International's report charging torture in U.S. detainment camps. The group didn't just call Guantanamo a "gulag," an over-the-top remark that was universally reported. In a press release that most reporters ignored, the group also invited foreign governments to snatch certain visiting American officials off the streets and bring them to trial for crimes against humanity. The suggested snatchees, should they travel abroad, were President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA Director George Tenet, and other unnamed civilian and military officials. Amnesty International said that "all states have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute people responsible for these crimes," just as the British pounced on Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. The snatching recommendation wasn't new, but the Amnesty press release is a useful reminder of the dangers of signing on to the International Criminal Court."
First, Amnesty International has given up any claim to being impartial or fair-minded, and should be either held up to ridicule or ignored completely. Second, any politician who says we should sign onto the ICC should be immediately tarred and feathered; I'll leave the 'ridden out of town on a rail' up to local option.
"Rule 18. A different omission marred the reporting of Amnesty International's report charging torture in U.S. detainment camps. The group didn't just call Guantanamo a "gulag," an over-the-top remark that was universally reported. In a press release that most reporters ignored, the group also invited foreign governments to snatch certain visiting American officials off the streets and bring them to trial for crimes against humanity. The suggested snatchees, should they travel abroad, were President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA Director George Tenet, and other unnamed civilian and military officials. Amnesty International said that "all states have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute people responsible for these crimes," just as the British pounced on Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. The snatching recommendation wasn't new, but the Amnesty press release is a useful reminder of the dangers of signing on to the International Criminal Court."
First, Amnesty International has given up any claim to being impartial or fair-minded, and should be either held up to ridicule or ignored completely. Second, any politician who says we should sign onto the ICC should be immediately tarred and feathered; I'll leave the 'ridden out of town on a rail' up to local option.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
The effect of gunshots
As far as someone flying backwards, through a window, etc., it's crap. Always has been.
What brought this to mind is an episode of 'Mythbusters'. They took a pig carcass, hung it up on a balanced mount, and shot it with various firearms to see if it would be thrown back. Nope. Not with a .308, not with a burst from an MP5, at the end either a 12-guage slug or 00 buckshot transferred enough energy to make it fall off the mount, but that's all; it did NOT go flying backward, not a bit.
Peter Capstick, in various of his books and articles, explored the idea of 'knockdown power', finding it to be crap. Bullets just don't work that way. A bullet penetrates, so the energy is used in pushing it through the target and(in the case of soft tissue) damaging the tissue. If you took the energy tied up in a .357 Mag bullet and put it into a steel plate, say, a foot square, striking a man it would be able to knock him backwards, but that's a whole 'nother thing. Capstick said that in his experience he'd never seen any animal of a size greater than 40lbs actually knocked over/back by any cartridge, including big express-rifle stuff.
I think that if you were talking about a shotgun hitting somebody at close(a few feet) range, that might be able to physically shove the target back, but that might be equally from the press of expanding powder gas as well as the shot. And it would probably have to be shot; a slug would penetrate, shot would be more likely to transfer its full energy to the target.
This is one of the reasons I don't really like L. Sprague deCamp. He's an author. I originally didn't like him because he 'edited' a lot of the Robert E. Howard 'Conan' stories, and his 'editing' often involved rewriting the damn thing. Then, he wrote some short stories collected in a book called 'Rivers of Time', about a guy running safaris back in time. In the first story the character Rivers is laying down the law, saying that if you want to go back and hunt dinosaurs the only rifle you'll be allowed to carry is a .600 Nitro Express, because it's the only gun that can knock a dinosaur down. Which is followed, in at least one of the stories, by description of a dinosaur being knocked off it's feet by the impact of a shot. Besides messing up the stories for anyone who does know anything about guns, it spread bad information(done by a guy who's supposed to be serious about science).
Oh well. Now I can just wait for the next 'investigative report' from some idiot journalist who doesn't bother to find out that 'assault rifles' aren't any more powerful than anything else. Oh well.
What brought this to mind is an episode of 'Mythbusters'. They took a pig carcass, hung it up on a balanced mount, and shot it with various firearms to see if it would be thrown back. Nope. Not with a .308, not with a burst from an MP5, at the end either a 12-guage slug or 00 buckshot transferred enough energy to make it fall off the mount, but that's all; it did NOT go flying backward, not a bit.
Peter Capstick, in various of his books and articles, explored the idea of 'knockdown power', finding it to be crap. Bullets just don't work that way. A bullet penetrates, so the energy is used in pushing it through the target and(in the case of soft tissue) damaging the tissue. If you took the energy tied up in a .357 Mag bullet and put it into a steel plate, say, a foot square, striking a man it would be able to knock him backwards, but that's a whole 'nother thing. Capstick said that in his experience he'd never seen any animal of a size greater than 40lbs actually knocked over/back by any cartridge, including big express-rifle stuff.
I think that if you were talking about a shotgun hitting somebody at close(a few feet) range, that might be able to physically shove the target back, but that might be equally from the press of expanding powder gas as well as the shot. And it would probably have to be shot; a slug would penetrate, shot would be more likely to transfer its full energy to the target.
This is one of the reasons I don't really like L. Sprague deCamp. He's an author. I originally didn't like him because he 'edited' a lot of the Robert E. Howard 'Conan' stories, and his 'editing' often involved rewriting the damn thing. Then, he wrote some short stories collected in a book called 'Rivers of Time', about a guy running safaris back in time. In the first story the character Rivers is laying down the law, saying that if you want to go back and hunt dinosaurs the only rifle you'll be allowed to carry is a .600 Nitro Express, because it's the only gun that can knock a dinosaur down. Which is followed, in at least one of the stories, by description of a dinosaur being knocked off it's feet by the impact of a shot. Besides messing up the stories for anyone who does know anything about guns, it spread bad information(done by a guy who's supposed to be serious about science).
Oh well. Now I can just wait for the next 'investigative report' from some idiot journalist who doesn't bother to find out that 'assault rifles' aren't any more powerful than anything else. Oh well.
Let the peasants decide? NEVER!
Smallest Minority has a piece on the attitudes of a lot of the bureaucrats and EU 'elites' towards the public voting on the EU constitution. Some very revealing comments, including:
"Referenda are in fact pure gambling. There is no guarantee of a positive outcome, unfortunately".
Got that? If you vote as they want, it's a 'positive' outcome, if you disagree it's a bad thing. Never mind that what the people decide is what's supposed to count, it's what the government thinks that's important.
A few years ago we had a measure shoved through in OK that flat infuriated the politicians and suckups. A petition was started calling for a special election, the measure in question stating that taxes could not be raised unless there was a vote by the people, or a supermajority in the House and Senate. You'd have thought it called for disembowelling a politician at every third full moon from the screaming. "We can't run the government this way! We can't take every tax increase to the people! This will make things fall apart!", etc. And the more signatures the petition got, the louder the screaming and the worse the predictions got. The measure passed, overwhelmingly, and what happened?
Nothing big. State government continued, with the change that the politicians couldn't raise taxes any time they felt like it; they had to either get a vote from the public, or get far more than a simple majority to do so. People showed they were willing to vote for an increase if convinced that it was necessary, but they had to be convinced. Some politician still has a fit on a regular basis, something along the lines of "because that Measure is in effect, we cannot do our jobs properly" because they can't simply raise taxes to pay for whatever.
What got me was the attitude that "since we were elected, we shouldn't have to ask the PEOPLE if we can do something". And it seemed to be worse with politicians who had been in for multiple terms. Sooner or later this tends to catch up to them, it just takes too long or doesn't happen often enough. A district in eastern OK had a U.S. Representative named Mike Synar years ago, who basically began ignoring what the folks back home thought and doing what the Democrat National Committee wanted. His last election he lost in the primary to a guy who's big expense was handing out cards that basically said "I'm NOT Mike Synar". And he lost big. And when he lost? He immediately moved permanently to D.C. Surprise, surprise.
Rambling a bit here, but the point stays that more and more politicians don't want the people to 'bother' them while they're at work. Never mind that they're supposed to be doing the people's business, and the people are SUPPOSED to have a say in it. It's a real problem here as well as in Europe, and we'd better stay on it. Or else.
"Referenda are in fact pure gambling. There is no guarantee of a positive outcome, unfortunately".
Got that? If you vote as they want, it's a 'positive' outcome, if you disagree it's a bad thing. Never mind that what the people decide is what's supposed to count, it's what the government thinks that's important.
A few years ago we had a measure shoved through in OK that flat infuriated the politicians and suckups. A petition was started calling for a special election, the measure in question stating that taxes could not be raised unless there was a vote by the people, or a supermajority in the House and Senate. You'd have thought it called for disembowelling a politician at every third full moon from the screaming. "We can't run the government this way! We can't take every tax increase to the people! This will make things fall apart!", etc. And the more signatures the petition got, the louder the screaming and the worse the predictions got. The measure passed, overwhelmingly, and what happened?
Nothing big. State government continued, with the change that the politicians couldn't raise taxes any time they felt like it; they had to either get a vote from the public, or get far more than a simple majority to do so. People showed they were willing to vote for an increase if convinced that it was necessary, but they had to be convinced. Some politician still has a fit on a regular basis, something along the lines of "because that Measure is in effect, we cannot do our jobs properly" because they can't simply raise taxes to pay for whatever.
What got me was the attitude that "since we were elected, we shouldn't have to ask the PEOPLE if we can do something". And it seemed to be worse with politicians who had been in for multiple terms. Sooner or later this tends to catch up to them, it just takes too long or doesn't happen often enough. A district in eastern OK had a U.S. Representative named Mike Synar years ago, who basically began ignoring what the folks back home thought and doing what the Democrat National Committee wanted. His last election he lost in the primary to a guy who's big expense was handing out cards that basically said "I'm NOT Mike Synar". And he lost big. And when he lost? He immediately moved permanently to D.C. Surprise, surprise.
Rambling a bit here, but the point stays that more and more politicians don't want the people to 'bother' them while they're at work. Never mind that they're supposed to be doing the people's business, and the people are SUPPOSED to have a say in it. It's a real problem here as well as in Europe, and we'd better stay on it. Or else.
Friday, June 03, 2005
I give you the Kimber Compact
That's what they called it when I bought it; now I think the comparable model is the Pro Carry. Shorter barrel & grip frame than the full-size, with the factory magazine it carries seven .45's; with Chip McCormick mags it carries eight, seven in the mag & one in the chamber.
This one is the aluminum frame, picked over steel because it weighs loaded what the steel frame version weighs empty, and since it was picked as a carry gun weight mattered. I don't know who originated the idea, but instead of a barrel bushing in the front of the slide, the barrel is cone-shaped at the end, fitting directly to the slide. It came with an extended thumb safety, beavertail grip safety, and low-profile Novak sights. The barrel is supposed to be match-grade, and it has a match-grade trigger. Those features were also considerations in choosing it.
This was only the second 1911-pattern pistol I'd ever fired. The first one, a full-size, had impressed me enough to want the style, and in .45acp; if I ever had to use it for real, I wanted something that would do the job of stopping the fight. Preferably by sight, in the extreme by having sufficient power to make the bad guy either stop fighting or run.
So how's it shoot? Very well. I've never had a problem that could be blamed on the firearm. It has always gone bang when you pull the trigger, and I suspect it's capable of greater accuracy than I am. The trigger is all I could expect, a touch of creep(hard to notice unless you're looking for it) with a clean break at around 3 lbs, I think.
I repeat, no problem that I could blame on the firearm. It has digested all factory ammo I've tried, ball, truncated cone and hollow points, without a burp. The only ammo it hasn't worked with was semi-wadcutters, and that's a common problem in 1911's that haven't had the barrel throated to handle them; since it was designed as a self-defense pistol I don't consider that a problem I'll worry about.
The only other problem I had was when I put in a Cominolli Frame Saver, a recoil-spring guide with buffers that mount on it. I'd read that aluminum-frame pistols like this could get the frame beat up over time where the slide hits it, and I read that this system was good, so I got one. And promptly started having fails-to-feed. It turned out that the buffers, under pressure, expanded out enough to rub slightly on the bottom of the barrel and the slide, and that added just enough friction to slow the slide enough to cause the problem. So I trimmed the buffers down to flush with the edges
of the guide, and no more problem.
The one other thing I'll mention is the recoil spring. In a pistol of this design the spring takes a battering, especially when shooting full-power ammo, so (at least at the time I bought it) Kimber recommended you replace it about every 1500-2000 rounds. I've done it about every 1500; Kimber sells it as a set of recoil, hammer and firing pin springs so you can replace all at the same time. I've measured the firing pin and hammer springs and found them to have taken no 'set', so I think Kimber does it that way just to be on the safe side.
My opinion is pretty much covered by this: I still carry it. There are times I have to go with something smaller, but when situation/clothes allow, this is what goes on my belt or in my vehicle. I've mostly used either Hornady XTP 185gr. HP or Speer Gold Dot 158gr. HP ammo, for normal self-defense I think they'll do the job if needed.
I handload a lot of my practice ammo, mostly cast 230gr. ball with 3.9 gr. of Hodgden Clays powder; it's an accurate load that's worked well for me(NOTE: this is a load I use in MY pistol; that's no guarantee it'll be wonderful in yours; check the manuals), lighter recoil than the carry loads so it's easier on my hands in practice. I think I could go to 4.0 or 4.1, it'd still be well within the safe range listed in my Lyman manual, and I've had an occasional fail-to-feed from the slide not coming back quite enough and that would solve that. Again, this is something with the load, not the pistol. I haven't changed the load partly because it shoots so nicely, and on the(rare) occasions it's happened, I've used it as a clearing drill- better at the range in practice than for real.
Lee will make custom bullet molds, what I'd like to do some day is take their 230gr. truncated cone and shorten it enough to cut the weight to 200 and have them cut a mold to throw that bullet. It'd be accurate, a good weight, and if you had to I'd have no problem using that bullet as a defense load.
The finish is getting pretty worn, so one of these days I'll have to either send it to somebody or refinish it myself. Kevin at Smallest Minority once mentioned this Moly Resin finish that can be put on with a airbrush and cured in the oven; it looks good, so I may have to get a bottle. And if I have the bottle, there's a couple of other things I could try it on...
I wonder how it'd work as a blade finish?
Additional
This was brought to mind by something I read over at Mad Ogre, and that's customer service. My only experience with Kimber customer service was an e-mail I sent them with a question- which they didn't answer, which kind of pissed me off; how hard is it to answer the damn question? But from what I've read at Ogre's place there are a lot of people who have had problems with Kimber in repairs. Some of them bad enough that Ogre says he'll never buy one, especially since Springfield makes a fine series of 1911's and has a very good rep for taking care of the customers. It may be that they've cleaned up past problems, but I personally do not know either way; it's something to keep in mind and check out for yourself.
Carnival of Cordite #16 is up
Over at Gullyborg.
Gullyborg's place is a good one even without the Carnival, so while you're there check it out.
Gullyborg's place is a good one even without the Carnival, so while you're there check it out.
Ok, I HAVE to put this up
From over at Free Market Fairy Tales:
Incidentally, I ended up stood behind a typical Pleb Precinct shopper in Tescos at the weekend. The tracksuit-clad slapper had a complaint – and so did the rest of the queue as her three brats Shiraz, Carsophagus and Chanel No 5 laid waste to the check-out displays.
She was brandishing one of those disposable barbecues and complaining loudly to the poor check-out girl that … wait for it … there were no burgers inside as pictured on the packaging. "Just effing coal."
To be fair, the girl explained the situation as tactfully as possible, offering the screaming harridan a full refund if she wasn't happy. It was then that she noticed the detail of the receipt.
"But you bought three of these," she told the Bardsley in front of her. "Have you brought the other two back as well?"
"No," said the tattooed troll. "They're in the freezer at home."
Incidentally, I ended up stood behind a typical Pleb Precinct shopper in Tescos at the weekend. The tracksuit-clad slapper had a complaint – and so did the rest of the queue as her three brats Shiraz, Carsophagus and Chanel No 5 laid waste to the check-out displays.
She was brandishing one of those disposable barbecues and complaining loudly to the poor check-out girl that … wait for it … there were no burgers inside as pictured on the packaging. "Just effing coal."
To be fair, the girl explained the situation as tactfully as possible, offering the screaming harridan a full refund if she wasn't happy. It was then that she noticed the detail of the receipt.
"But you bought three of these," she told the Bardsley in front of her. "Have you brought the other two back as well?"
"No," said the tattooed troll. "They're in the freezer at home."
Further on why I don't trust the U.N.
The situations in Darfur and in Zimbabwe have some things in common; the U.N. wants to blow hot air and do nothing, and the people being starved/raped/murdered have no effective way of fighting. Note the excerpt:
"There hasnÂ’t been any revolution so far because the potential rebels cannot get guns. No one is willing to arm the dissatisfied majority, and over two thirds of the population lives in poverty. . . . The government seems determined to starve its enemies to death, secure in the knowledge that the victims are unarmed, and the government forces have lots of guns."
And here's another place where the U.N. and the EUrocrats come in. Remember the treaty to end the 'trafficking' in small arms they're pushing? Two things about it; one, they consider any firearms 'small arms' that should be banned frompossessionn by mere peasants and two, they very specifically don't want anyone to be able to rebel against an oppressive government. They want everything to be controlled by the governments and by the U.N. controlling the governments; there's no room in there for a bunch of uppity commoners to do something themselves.
Make no mistake, a civil war is just about the most nasty kind of an essentially nasty business, but there are worse things. Like the Mugabe government planning on starving people into submission, and killing them if that won't seem to work. Like the people in Darfur being systematically murdered and raped and starved and taken as slaves. Actual in-chains do-as-you're-told-or-die SLAVES. While the U.N. blathers and wastes and steals and rapes.
Instapundit says some SpecOps trainers and a bunch of AK-47's would work wonders, and I agree. And if we do it(I wish we would) we'd better be ready for the screaming from the offended elites. We'd be 'assisting civil war' and 'undercutting the U.N.' and 'trafficking in small arms' and 'racists helping people of color kill each other', and so on. These 'elites' would rather the slavery continue, and the starvation and murder and so on, rather than see a bunch of peasants armed and standing up for themselves.
It would be profoundly messy, no question, but what's the alternative? Trust the U.N. and E.U. to do something? Stop dreaming. Barring a miracle, make that a series of miracles, Africa is going to continue down the path it's walking until it's either completely trashed, or until something happens to change the governments in most of the countries there. Maybe, just maybe, a lot of armedcitizenss with a bit of guidance and an ideal of a free society could do the trick.
And, quite frankly, if it didn't work out as we hope, how would they be worse off?
"There hasnÂ’t been any revolution so far because the potential rebels cannot get guns. No one is willing to arm the dissatisfied majority, and over two thirds of the population lives in poverty. . . . The government seems determined to starve its enemies to death, secure in the knowledge that the victims are unarmed, and the government forces have lots of guns."
And here's another place where the U.N. and the EUrocrats come in. Remember the treaty to end the 'trafficking' in small arms they're pushing? Two things about it; one, they consider any firearms 'small arms' that should be banned frompossessionn by mere peasants and two, they very specifically don't want anyone to be able to rebel against an oppressive government. They want everything to be controlled by the governments and by the U.N. controlling the governments; there's no room in there for a bunch of uppity commoners to do something themselves.
Make no mistake, a civil war is just about the most nasty kind of an essentially nasty business, but there are worse things. Like the Mugabe government planning on starving people into submission, and killing them if that won't seem to work. Like the people in Darfur being systematically murdered and raped and starved and taken as slaves. Actual in-chains do-as-you're-told-or-die SLAVES. While the U.N. blathers and wastes and steals and rapes.
Instapundit says some SpecOps trainers and a bunch of AK-47's would work wonders, and I agree. And if we do it(I wish we would) we'd better be ready for the screaming from the offended elites. We'd be 'assisting civil war' and 'undercutting the U.N.' and 'trafficking in small arms' and 'racists helping people of color kill each other', and so on. These 'elites' would rather the slavery continue, and the starvation and murder and so on, rather than see a bunch of peasants armed and standing up for themselves.
It would be profoundly messy, no question, but what's the alternative? Trust the U.N. and E.U. to do something? Stop dreaming. Barring a miracle, make that a series of miracles, Africa is going to continue down the path it's walking until it's either completely trashed, or until something happens to change the governments in most of the countries there. Maybe, just maybe, a lot of armedcitizenss with a bit of guidance and an ideal of a free society could do the trick.
And, quite frankly, if it didn't work out as we hope, how would they be worse off?
Tried the Benelli out with different slugs
Since it looked like it would be a while before I could get to a 50-yard range, I finally took it and the collection of slugs to the indoor range where I do most of my handgunning. Their rifle side has 30 yards, so I settled for that. Other reason I had wanted a different range for this was there's no real bench, so it's not as steady as I'd like for ammo testing.
I had Winchester, Brenneke, Remington, Federal, and some Remington Managed Recoil. The Managed Recoil stuff hit about two inches lower than the others, otherwise the results were almost identical with all; two shots touching- some overlapping- with the third a little off. That consistently with all of them I blame the one to the side on me; the Nova is a short, light, handy scattergun, which means that with these loads it hits hard on both ends.
My shoulder was a bit sore when I got home.
By some miracle I wound up with a little money left over from last month, so last night I went to Brownell's and ordered the recoil reducer setup for this shotgun. I read a review of the gun once where a guy said that the setup should be standard with this piece; may well be right, but since it isn't, I've got one on the way.
The last time my dad qualified before retirement, one of the stages had a total of either 50 or 100 rounds(don't remember which) of mixed buck and slugs at different ranges. Their shotgun was a Remington 870, and most of them were getting a slip-on recoil pad and adding it on over the factory pad; most of them still had sore shoulders for a week after that stage. If there'd been a way for them to add something on to theirs, someone could have made some money that day.
I had Winchester, Brenneke, Remington, Federal, and some Remington Managed Recoil. The Managed Recoil stuff hit about two inches lower than the others, otherwise the results were almost identical with all; two shots touching- some overlapping- with the third a little off. That consistently with all of them I blame the one to the side on me; the Nova is a short, light, handy scattergun, which means that with these loads it hits hard on both ends.
My shoulder was a bit sore when I got home.
By some miracle I wound up with a little money left over from last month, so last night I went to Brownell's and ordered the recoil reducer setup for this shotgun. I read a review of the gun once where a guy said that the setup should be standard with this piece; may well be right, but since it isn't, I've got one on the way.
The last time my dad qualified before retirement, one of the stages had a total of either 50 or 100 rounds(don't remember which) of mixed buck and slugs at different ranges. Their shotgun was a Remington 870, and most of them were getting a slip-on recoil pad and adding it on over the factory pad; most of them still had sore shoulders for a week after that stage. If there'd been a way for them to add something on to theirs, someone could have made some money that day.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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.
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.
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.
Monday, May 30, 2005
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...
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.
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.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
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.
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.
Late, but for good reasons, and worth the wait.
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