The next step: Microlon

Over the past while I've read some accounts by people who used Microlon Engine Treatment, and a couple of weeks ago I ordered it for the bike. This afternoon put it in. It's a straightforward process; start with fresh oil and filter, warm the motor up, shut it off, shake the stuff up VERY WELL, add 2oz. to the gas tank, pour the rest into the crankcase(comes with a handy little nozzle to do it with), immediately start up and ride for an hour. That's it. The instructions say not to change the oil/filter for at least 1000 miles, as the stuff keeps working for a while. It also states not to add more than 20% of oil capacity with Microlon; if the amount needed is more than that you can do the treatment in stages.

The kit for my bike runs 24oz, and I ran the numbers three times(I'm paranoid about anything that might make my ride stall, melt down, explode or seize), and the 22oz left after adding some to the gas was just below 20%. So I filled up- which warmed up the motor- shook the hell out of the cans, poured the 2 into the gas, poured the rest into the oil, closed it up, got on, started and rode.

I started off with city streets, running along for about 20-25 minutes. After about 10-15 I noticed that the motor seemed to be running a little quieter, with no missing or any dramatic(i.e., flames from the exhaust, etc.) events. At about 25 minutes I got on the highway(I-240 if it matters) and ran it up to 60 for a few minutes. All well, cruising smoothly, so I put the tachometer on 4500 and checked the speed, about 62.5. After about ten minutes I noticed that the same RPM now had the speed closer to about 64, and that seemed to hold true on any level stretch. Hey, this ain't Mythbusters(dammit), I don't have a minicam or remotes to track speed/rpm, so this is my observation as I cruised down the highway, keeping track of the tach, speedo and the traffic(TRUCK!!), so exact readouts you don't get. However...

This highway loops around the metro area; I started south(tailwind), crossed east across the south side, then went north on I-35(headwind). I noticed that going into the headwind, 4500RPM gave me the 62.5mph I started with when I had the tailwind. It's not a precise measurement, but I did notice a bit of difference from before.

I ran for about 1:15 before stopping, and then it was just long enough to grab two books to take back to the library, where was stopped again just long enough to drop off/pick up books. So total about 1:25 running time.

Time will tell, but the speed/rpm observations look hopeful, and the engine does sound quieter. Ogre seems to have had good results in his Jeep, and this seems a good start on the stuff in my bike. We'll see.

Happy oily 4th

The rain moved through, so I decided to go ahead and do the clutch on the bike. Drain oil, change filter. Right-side exhaust off, no problem. Pull the bolts and remove the clutch cover, no problem. Pull the pressure plate bolts, pull it and the friction and pressure discs, no problem. Clean off the old cover gasket, problem. Which is this shot

with paper towels stuffed in over the basket to keep it clean while I scrape off the bits that wouldn't come off easily. Which was about half of it. If it were cast-iron cases, no problem, use a brass scraper and slice it off, but even brass will scratch the aluminum cases, so mostly used one of those 'You Are Pre-Approved' fake credit cards companies keep sending me. Slow, but it makes no scratches.

So got that all cleaned off. Put in the new friction discs and the old pressure discs- they were in very good shape-, put the pressure plate on, set in the new springs, put in the bolts and start torquing them down. Get to the last bolt and snap, the damn thing broke. So pack some paper towel around that position, get the drill and get the broken section out, then desperately check the bolt/screw/nut bin. Where, lo and behold!, I had one machine bolt of matching thread. So cut it to length, put it in and torque it down, new gasket, cover, put threadlocker on the bolts and snug them down. Add new oil, start and run a minute, then top off the oil, and that's all done.

You can't see it but there's a drain pan under the back end where the final drive is draining so I can add new lube there(it's a shaft-drive). Once that's done, most of the maintenance it needed for the next while- a long while in the case of the clutch- is done.

After reading some accounts of how it had worked on their vehicles, I ordered a Microlon engine treatment for the bike. Hopefully tomorrow I can add it in, after which you're supposed to ride for an hour, so I'm hoping for nice weather tomorrow.

Now to add the lube to the final drive, and pick up all the mess.

It's raining outside,

but inside I can look at things like this. Damn, this has to be the absolute combat shotgun!

Now, if they made it in semi-auto, here's something that'd give the GFW's serious fits...

The Nodwick Weapons Development & Testing System

My daughter showed me this strip. Check it out here

I thought the Discovery Channel checked this stuff?

Watching a show about America's Volcanos, and just heard the following two things:
the grinding as one tectonic plate subducts beneath another melts the rock and causes volcanos, and
subduction volcanos create the deadliest kind of eruption, the pyroclastic flow.

Well, gee I thought it was the one plate being forced down to the earth's interior, where it's supposed to be kind of hot, that melted the new rock and other stuff. And I guess that since the most violent volcanos tend to be along subduction zones you could say that subduction causes pyroclastic flows, but...

I've noticed that in political matters you have to watch what comes out in some Discover and History channel shows, but damn.

Oh God, Britain's about to flush itself down the pipes

Over at Captain's Quarters is this, linking to a newspaper article on how Britain is working on- planning on- ways to ration energy. Not only to businesses, but to every subject in Britain. Ration cards for energy. Get this:

"The virtues of the scheme, according to Mr Blair's "green" advisers, the Sustainable Development Commission, are that it would provide a "virtually guaranteed" way of reducing fossil fuel emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
That is the amount scientists say is necessary to avoid "unacceptable" climate change, such as the switching-off of the Gulf Stream, the melting of the Greenland glaciers and the die-back of the Amazon rain forest."

I'll get to the 'virtually guaranteed' in a minute, but for now... "SWITCHING-OFF OF THE GULF STREAM"?!?! What kind of idiocy IS this? And these clowns are advisors to the Prime Minister of Britain? And he LISTENS to this crap?

And now, 'virtually guaranteed'... Unless they use this rationing to cut the amount of energy people will be allowed to use over time, there's no damn way they can 'virtually guarantee' this will cut emissions by 60% by 2050; and if they do that, they can kiss their economy goodbye, because without increasing energy use, their economy cannot grow. Nobody's can. And from the sound of this, I would bet they are planning to do just that; after all, the commoners cannot be trusted to use energy in the correct way, now can they, so we must reduce the amount available to them to misuse, don't you know?

I stand by what I've said in the past; I give Tony Blair credit for being smart enough to know we have to deal with the Islamo-fascists now, but in all other ways he's still a statist tyrant who wants government controlling all aspects of life.

And just to add to this mess:
"It would be a criminal offence for anyone to buy a non-domestic knife from an unlicensed shop, and sellers would have to record the buyer's name, address and age."
In freakin' SCOTLAND, for God's sake!
This was found over at Ravenwood's Universe, post here and the full article here.

Why I refuse to argue with some people

Was over at Dean Esmay and found(among other interesting things) this on that friggin' idiot Molly Ivins, and this, which starts with :
"Those of us who supported the liberation of Iraq from fascist tyranny are often exhausted by false claims of those who opposed that action. It's not the disagreement we can't stand, it's the outright false statements."

The idiocy of Ivin's statements stands on its own; anyone who actually believes that crap is not worth arguing with. That's not a statement I make often, because almost anyone is worth arguing with; either you might tell them something they don't know, or vice versa. But those who are locked into the "We're doing terrible things and BUSH LIED!" line flat won't listen to you, and I'm tired of hearing that crap. And Dean hits on what I'm seriously sick of: lies being repeated over and over by people who probably know they're not true but use them anyway. Or who think that getting rid of Saddam and whacking terrorists is a good thing, but flat cannot stand the idea that it's Bush at the head of it, so it must be condemned.

I could not/cannot stand Bill Clinton, but I thought acting in the Balkans was the right thing to do. I was really pissed at the way he did it, and the restrictions our forces were under, and bitched about it at the time, but I acknowledged that it was the right thing to do(I was REALLY pissed that the Europeans bitched and moaned about what was happening there, but they and the U.N. did nothing- except pass resolutions, of course). What gets me about the current situation is that people who claim to be for individual rights, who claim to be for free elections, who claim to be for freedom, curse us for actually doing something about the Taliban, about Saddam, and about the Islamic fascists; people who are for gay rights condemn us for taking out a regime that murdered homosexuals as a matter of course; people who call themselves 'progressives' who defend the worst mass murderers of current and some past history.

And I could tolerate arguing with some of them, except for the attitude they tend to have that you're just too stupid to really understand why they're right. I have quite happily called some people idiots or stupid for the words and ideas they throw out, because I thought those words/ideas were stupid. I did not think of them/treat them as too retarded to think. If you can't understand the difference, go away.

This is just a general rant, set off by reading that crap that Ivins spewed, which made me think of the crap coming out of Kennedy and Pelosi and Reid, and which just ruined my damn mood.

General thoughts on this weekend

"The era of the state church has been replaced by an age in which the state itself is the church. European progressives still don't get this: they think the idea of a religion telling you how to live your life is primitive, but the government regulating every aspect of it is somehow advanced and enlightened." Mark Steyn, found at Les Jones.

The enviroweenies prove once again that they'll use anything to push their agenda, including saying the mess in Zimbabwe is the fault of global warming.

And an interesting cut from an interview with John Lennon on the subject of raising money to 'save people'. Damn, I'm gonna have to check out Jones often now that I've seen the place.

The God-cursed U.N. is pushing Brazil to ban the ownership of guns by citazens. Let's see, crime problem? Restrict gun ownership. Crime gets worse? Ban/restrict more. Repeat. Sounds like the mess in Britain, doesn't it? And the U.N., which will stop at nothing to try to control the whole damn world, is in the middle of it. If that earthquake ever does hit NY, if only we could kind of center it on that damn building...

Gullyborg thinks the President should nominate Ann Coulter to replace O'Connor. It'd be worth it just to hear the screaming. And I'd just about pay to see what happens when Ted 'Swimmer' Kennedy mouths off to her.

Froggy Ruminations has a lot of info about the SEAL team that took a hit a few days ago, including ways to help the families.

Yeah, some of this is depressing. I remind myself that a: I'm in America, b: as American Drumslinger puts it "The whole world sucks, but America sucks less", and c: despite the efforts of a bunch of statist bastards, we've still got a fighting chance to keep things on a good level here. Sometime this weekend I'm hitting the range after work, and I shall enjoy some of the sounds and smells of liberty. If you can I'd urge you to do the same. Preferably with family. And whatever your religeous beliefs, say/think some words for those on the sharp end.

More tools

One of the big ones. I've mentioned before the portable forge I take to fairs and Scottish festivals, and here it is:

It's a Champion forge with a crank blower. The pan is about 18" across and heavy cast iron, the legs are steel pipe, and the blower body is cast iron machined to final dimensions with(I assume) steel gearing inside. You can't see it here, but there's a pipe that runs from the blower to the bottom center, where a 'T' junction has one arm coming up in the pan, and the other going down. The lever you see sticking out from the bottom is attached to a hinged gate; ash that falls through the grate collects at the bottom, and you can lift the lever to open the gate and dump it.

This shot shows the other side of the blower, including the crank:

If used in one place, you were supposed to line the pan with fireclay to protect it. Since I have to carry it around, and the clay always fractured and fell out, I use it bare. After a weekend is done, I clean it off thoroughly, then brush a coat of linseed oil on; the linseed dries and makes a nice protective layer over the metal. So far it's done a fine job of preventing rust.

I've had a lot of people ask me where I got it, and many of them follow that with will I sell it?(No, hell no, etc.) They can be found sometimes at flea markets, or farm or estate sales. I've seen a number of them over time set up in yards as planters, with moss roses or something growing in them(which always makes me cringe). You can buy them new; the last time I looked at Centaur Forge they were-JEEZ! I just went to the site to check since it's been a while. $1245!! Damn, they've gone up! There are other models, including some designed to fit on the back of a truck for use, that are considerably less, so if you're looking for new it might be worth it to get one of those and make a stand for it. 'Course, if you just want one to set up in a shop, check out the others.

Where did I get mine? Enough years ago I hate to think about it I was riding with my dad and we stopped at an antique shop in a small town, just to look around. Scanned the inside and one of the owners mentioned there was more stuff out back, so I went out and around the corner and there it was. No ash gate, no windscreen, but everything else was there and worked. Asked price, and the two guys looked at each other, then the one who'd spoken before said they had a truckload of stuff coming in tomorrow for a sale and needed room, so how did $45 sound? A check was written and we wrapped it up and put it in the back seat and headed home. This, I was informed, was an early Christmas present, and damn right I accepted gratefully. If I'd realized just how good a deal we'd gotten I might have screamed. As it was, I was just very, very happy. It took a few hours in the garage to make an ash gate and handle, then cut, shape, drill and bolt on some thin sheet steel for a windscreen. I later drilled a piece of steel plate for a grate to fit over the air hole, and I'm still using it. I've burned out a number of grates, but everything else is still going along.

No, it's still not for sale. But I will, in the future, post on how to make a portable. Not as good as this one(yes, I'm prejudiced), but one that will work quite well.

Carnival of Cordite #20

It's up, over at Gullyborg

Well, well, well...

According to the Truth Laid Bear's ecosystem, I'm a big flappy bird. I'd prefer a Harpy eagle, but it's probably a buzzard. Oh well, I've been called worse...

Over at mASS BACKWARDS, he just found out what some twinky really thinks of him. Like someone once said, as long as it's the RIGHT people that you're pissing off.

As of yesterday afternoon, there was a chance of 'scattered showers & storms' last night. That is now 60-70% chance of storms through tonight and early tomorrow. And I think it's sprinkling outside now. So much for mowing today. Or lighting the forge, or anything else.

The friend who got married a few months ago? He and the family are buying a bigger house, which means moving. In his case again in six months. So I'll spend part of the day helping them move some things into storage.

Later, folks

I don't know if the fork is just going deeper,

or if it's getting bigger, but unless something changes real soon, Britain is done. Which I'm very sad to say.

In support of this I link to the following:
From Kim, a district council is going to monitor recycling so it can 'advise' people how to do better; probably by threatening them with fines or arrest.

Also from Kim, a report from the 'handguns are banned' Britain about one of the latest shootings.

From The Policeman's Blog, this story about a man being beaten to death by some teenage wastes of oxygen for refusing to give them a light.
As further evidence, just read the Policeman's blog, period. Screwed up as things can be over here, it ain't NOTHIN' like it is over there. Places like San Francisco et.al. excepted.

For a variety of reasons I hate to see crap like this, because it happens when the people of the place allow it to happen, and their government wants it to happen. Not everyone, of course, but enough people go along with what the government orders and enough politicians and bureaucrats do it for whatever reasons. Oh, the Houses of Lords and Commons probably don't specifically want people being beaten to death by thugs, and don't actually want people in terror of thugs because the honest people aren't allowed to defend themselves; but they must want something out of it. Maybe it's as simple as power; so many of them want total control over everyone and don't care what happens to the peasants as long as the government gets that power and holds it. After all, they're the wise ones, don't you know? and once they have proper control of your lives, all will be well. Except for that pesky loss-of-freedom thing, but you'll be taken care of, so it'll all be worth it, correct?

Thought experiment: if Britain decided to have a Constitutional Convention, what would happen? If not the politicians and bureaucrats but the(I started to say 'citazens') Subjects of the Crown actually had the say, what would come out of it? I wonder...

Another 'If you haven't been there, you should'

is Alphecca, the Gay Gun-Nut from Vermont. Every week he has a roundup of mentions of firearms and gun owners in the media. He covers all kinds of firearms issues, from cleaning questions to what he'd like to buy next(join the damn club) and a lot of links to good sights; where else you gonna find a place like A Coyote at the Dog Show? It's where I first found a number of nice places.

Update: hey, I was just looking at Alphecca- hadn't been there in a while- and he speaks of my comments on the well-dressed cowboy. I told you it was a good place to go...

A big reason I don't go to some blogs

Attitude. I heard a marvelous example today on the radio. I had a chance to fire the forge for the first time in a while and had the headphones on while working. The Sean Hannity show came on; not my favorite but not bad. There was a guest host on and in once segment they had a guy from Powerline, Scott I think, and Matthew Yglesias.

Yglesias reinforced why I don't read his site. Except in this case it was not only the attitude of the words, it was the voice. Condescending, 'I know better than you on all things', etc. God, he's annoying. What he was saying was bad enough in some cases, but the way he said it...

Reminds me of the main commenter in a weekly paper here. He's a minister, and after he attended the clemency hearing for a convicted murderer(arguing for leniency), he wrote that after his fifteen minute sermon, they board actually seemed mad at him! And of course people with such an attitude couldn't give the condemned man a fair hearing, etc. My thought was that if he preached at them the way he usually writes his editorials, he was probably lucky one of the board members didn't ask a guard to shoot him. Same kind of attitude Yglesias showed; 'I'm superior, I know what is right, if you don't listen to Me it shows what kind of uncaring troglodyte you actually are'.

I don't know if some of these people know this, or just don't care, but when you speak to people that way it does not help your argument. I used to know a guy who could enter a discussion, make what might actually be a good idea, but still have most everyone else ready to strangle him by the time it was over. Even though he had a good idea, the attitude he had turned people off. Badly.

Argue with me, no problem. Speak to me like I'm an obvious retard because I don't agree with you, and I'm gone.

I !!*&$$$! hate foam air filters

Like they put on many bikes. Today, as part of my get-it-ready progress, I put in new plugs and cleaned the air filters.

Plugs, no problem. Gap the new ones, take out the old, lube the threads and put the new ones in. Filters?

A while back when I was cleaning the old ones, they came apart. Didn't tear, no, the glue holding the pieces together just evaporated and they fell apart. I figured ok, they're probably old, so I got new ones. And of course the only place that had them was the dealer- no aftermarket replacements could I find- so I bought two, at seventeen dollars and some change. Apiece. The book says replace after every five cleanings, and this was the third cleaning on these. Sprayed them with PJ foam filter cleaner- which the dealer sold me- and let them soak, then started rinsing them. And one of the damn things fell apart. Completely. The other came loose in a couple of places but held together.

After discussing the parentage and ancestry of whatever idiot designed these and/or chose the glue, I dug through the stuff drawer, and SuperGlue Gel to the rescue! This stuff actually held the foam very well. Yes, I did dry them thoroughly first; impatient I tend to be, but not that bad. The seams are stiffer than the original stuff, but they held up with the sticky filter spray, so I put them on and will see how they hold up. If not very well, I may either try a different adhesive or get some foam and make the damn things from scratch. This is on the order of the bitching I did once about Sig Trailside magazines, there's no damn reason for these things to cost that much.

Ah well, it's done. Next week, the clutch.

And more joy from the Supremes

To borrow this from Smallest Minority,


It seems the SCOTUS has again ruled that "The State cannot, (or at least will not) be made financially accountable for failure to protect, because if it were liable, it would be bankrupted by lawsuits in short order. The goverment is not responsible for your protection because it's not possible for it to protect everyone, all the time."

Go read the whole damn thing here, and next time someone says you don't need weapons because 'the police will protect you' slap them with a copy of it.

Oh joy, more glad tidings from the House

Just got this from Gun Owners of America:
House Passes Extreme Penalties For Some Who Use Guns In Self-Defense
-- Bill could also make your hunting party a "criminal street gang"

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org

Tuesday, June 28, 2005


Let's assume that you and your family are on your way home from
church. You have a gun in the glove compartment that is there for
self-protection.

After driving within 1,000 feet of a school (which is almost
unavoidable), you stop by the grocery store to pick up a few items
for lunch.

As you are exiting your car, you are approached by a gang of
teenagers, armed with long screwdrivers and wrenches. Realizing that
you are about to be mugged, you brandish your firearm in order to
scare them off -- although this act on your part is a violation of
state law which requires that you first retreat, rather than defend
yourself.

Congratulations. Under legislation that recently passed the House,
all the members of your family are now subject to a MANDATORY MINIMUM
sentence of ten years in prison -- and up to life imprisonment.

The judge would have NO DISCRETION to release you before the end of
the ten-year period -- but an anti-gun judge could sentence you and
your family to LIFE IMPRISONMENT.

Sound ridiculous? Welcome to the new "tough-on-crime" House of
Representatives.

It's not as though Republicans like House Judiciary Committee
Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) have no experience with the
"unintended" broad consequences of anti-gun laws.

Remember the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act
(RICO)? That bill was passed with the ostensible purpose of going
after the Mafia.

But it was poorly drafted. At its core, a person or business only
had to commit two of a broad list of sometimes-fairly-innocuous
crimes in order to be subject to stiff prison sentences. As a
result, lawsuits and criminal prosecutions soon sprouted against
legitimate banks and businesses and pro-life protestors.

Never capable of learning from its mistakes, Congress is about to go
after gun owners in the same way.

This new bill -- touted as anti-gang legislation -- is numbered H.R.
1279 in the House, where it passed by a 279-144 margin on May 11.
Twenty Republicans -- including pro-gun stalwarts like John
Hostettler (R-IN), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) --
voted against it. It now goes to the Senate, where its counterpart
(S. 155) is sponsored by anti-gun zealot Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and
Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

Similar to RICO, these two bills, at the core, would define "criminal
street gangs" to be formal OR INFORMAL groups of three or more
individuals who commit two or more of a long list of "predicate"
crimes.

What are these predicate crimes, of which two or more could get you
thrown into the slammer for the rest of your life? Check these out:

* Violation of the Kohl 1,000-foot "gun-free-school-zone" law would
be a predicate crime in the House bill.

* Having a gun in violation of the Lautenberg amendment -- because
you spanked your kid or spat on your husband -- would be a predicate
in both the House and Senate versions.

* Accidentally shooting a doe instead of a buck (or shooting the
wrong kind of duck) would be a "crime of violence" (under the 18
U.S.C. 16 definition) and could therefore be a "predicate" crime if
some of the worst provisions from both bills end up in the final
version that goes to the President.

And, as mentioned above, your family's trip past the school -- as
you're driving home from church -- could send all of you to jail if
you use your gun in self-defense, rather than first retreating as
required in some states.

This is because:

* A "criminal street gang" exists as soon as this
"informal" group
of 3 or more individuals (your family) commits "2 or more gang
crimes... in relation to the group" if one of the crimes is a
"crime
of violence."

* Violation of the Kohl "gun-free-school-zone" amendment (18 U.S.C.
922(q)) is a "gang crime."

* The threat to use a firearm against the muggers is both a gang
crime and a crime of violence because it involves a "threat" of
"force" against a person.


The bills have other anti-gun provisions, as well:

1. Mandatory Prison Sentences For Gun Owners

The "street gang" provisions in the bill (as mentioned above) could
send you and your family to jail for 10 years-to-life if you defend
them with a gun under certain conditions.

But even apart from those RICO-style provisions in the bill, there is
other language in the bill that could send you to jail for twenty
years MINIMUM if you use a gun in self-defense... even without your
family being nearby.

Federal law prohibits the mere possession of a firearm during and in
relation to a crime of violence. The term "crime of violence"
clearly includes brandishing or even opening your coat to display a
firearm to defend yourself against a mugger -- without retreating --
in states that require retreat. Hence, a concealed carry permit
holder who opens his suit jacket and displays a firearm to a
potential mugger in these states is liable under this section because
"crime of violence" means the threatened use of force against
person
or property.

Section 114 of H.R. 1279 would increase the MINIMUM penalty for
shooting the mugger (i.e., a Bernie Goetz-type offense) to TWENTY
years in prison.

2. Expanding The Lautenberg Gun Ban

Section 109 of the House bill -- and its counterpart on the Senate
version -- makes it more likely that a person will NOT get bail if
they possessed a firearm after committing a "Lautenberg
misdemeanor."
Again, a person could be held to commit such a misdemeanor if the
person spanked their kid or spat on their spouse. So for having
committed this small infraction (and for owning a gun) a person faces
a higher probability of being held in jail until trial.

ACTION: Contact your United States senators. Ask them to oppose
anti-gun so-called "gang" legislation.

You can visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your Senators a
pre-written e-mail message.

Time to do some constructive yelling at your senator.

More forge tools

While sitting on my a- uh, waiting to go pick up the pup from the vet, I finally remembered to take my camera and take shots of some of the tools I use. For instance, hammers:

These are straight peins, called so because one face is standard, the other is narrow and aligned with the handle:

The big one is 4lb, the smaller is 2. At the time I wanted to get a straight, the only place I could find them was in a catalog that carried a 4lb for, as I recall, $50. So I waited a while 'till I needed to replace the handle in my 4lb sledge, and forged one face down, ground it to final shape, heat-treated it and set in a new handle. Couple of years later I got a 2lb hammer for about $2 at a flea market and made another for smaller work. Where this comes in handy is that if you need to draw a piece out longer you can heat it, use the pein side to put a bunch of parallel dents in one side, then smooth them with the standard face. Or if you need to draw it out a lot further, pein one side and then the other, then smooth it out; it stretches the piece a lot faster. Also good for shaping curves in pieces.

Here we have a hot-cutter, or handled hot chisel:

The cutting end is a long, slim taper from the eye where the handle fits, and has a thinner edge than a cold chisel. The handle is simply to keep your hand away from the hot stuff while you cut it. Very damn handy, I mean to tell you.

Ball pein:

This one is different from the standard design; the face is wider, and the ball is too. I found the head at a flea market for $.50, and for some things it's wonderful. That wide, smooth face makes it perfect for planishing(smoothing) surfaces, and that wide, round pein is perfect for forming spoon bowls & such.

This is a wonderful tool, the post vise, also called a leg vise:

The whole thing is cast steel, and the side that's closest to the bench or post extends all the way to the floor. It braces it so you can do heavy hammering, twisting, etc. on this thing without damaging it. I had to repair the female end of the screw system and make a mounting bracket, and it's mounted on a steel pipe welded to a wheel. I cannot overstress how wonderful this thing can be. Hammering or bending that would damage a standard vise won't bother it, and it has enough clearance around the jaws to do some really radical shaping without the vise getting in the way.

Hammers of all shapes can be found in stores and catalogs, and straight peins are a lot less expensive last time I checked the Centaur Forge catalog. Standard hammers can also be modified in any way you need. Hot chisels of different sizes are available, or can be made. A post vise you really only have two options; check farm sales and flea markets, maybe Ebay, or order from a supplier. A used one will often be missing the mounting bracket, but that's not a big deal to make for most, same if the spring that pushes the jaws open is missing. If the screw is gone or badly damaged however, you've got a problem. You may be able to get a machinist to make/repair the damaged piece, or new ones are available(they ain't cheap). The vise, complete from Centaur, started out about $600 last time I looked for the 4.5"-wide jaws, so an old one that just needs a bit of work can well be worth it.

I'll hit some of the other tools later.

More on the Old West

Due to overwhelming demand from my many(four) fans, I've decided to write something more about things western. This time, methods of carrying pistols.

If you've ever dug into it, you've found that the 'buscadero'-type belt common in movies was not common in the west, not until quite late. Most early holsters were basically pouches shaped to hold a revolver, with a loop on the back so you could hang them on a belt. The leather tended to be soft, not stiff and shaped to the piece. And despite all the movie 'evidence', most did not tie down their holster, or wear it slung low. Cowboys and other people doing hard work who carried one tended to wear it high, so it was out of the way. Crossdraw holsters were not common but were around. Depending on the wearer and circumstances, it might be worn anywhere from high and to the rear on the strong side, to right on the side or a bit to the front; it might be slung quite low or high or anywhere in between. The only almost universal thing about different holsters was a leather thong loop to hook over the hammer so the piece wouldn't fall out while you were working or if you were thrown from your horse.

The shoulder holster was around. Usually worn under a coat, sometimes in the open. They were found both as a standard holster that hung from a shoulder loop, to a later design with a cup to hold the muzzle and a leather-covered spring that snapped around the cylinder, very much like modern vertical-carry rigs.

Carry stuck through the belt or into the waistband was common; not the most favored as it gave little protection to the piece. Wild Bill Hickock generally wore a red sash around his waist, and he slid his Navy Colts into it, butts to the front. Note: he did not crossdraw; right hand grabbed the right pistol, left grabbed the left, and he drew and cocked the hammers as the muzzles snapped to the front(sometimes called a 'cavalry draw' because that's the way cavalry carried and drew their sidearms).

Long-Hair Jim Courtright had a different method; he had leather-lined holsters stitched into the legs of his pants. I don't know if he had hammer-loops sewn in, though I suspect he did.

At least one man came up with a pivoting holster. The holster hung from the belt on a thick leather thong; it tended to flop about as you walked, but you could grab the butt and cock the hammer as you pushed the butt down. This swung the muzzle up, allowing you to fire without drawing from the holster. A close-range method only, but quite fast with practice. A variation of this used no holster at all. A stud with a broad head was brazed to the side of the pistol frame; on the belt was a metal plate with a slot cut in it, open at the front and angled down at the back. The stud slipped into the slot and to the back, where the angle kept it in place. You could pivot the pistol up and fire from there, or slide it forward and out as your draw.

Derringers or small hideout pistols(revolvers or single-shots) were clipped in the crown of a hat; a wristband with a spring would hold it up a sleeve; there actually were rigs that held a derringer up your coat sleeve, and if you pulled a release a spring shot it forward into your hand(from what I understand late in the 1800's and rare).

This is not a complete coverage of the methods of carrying, but I think it gives a fair overall look at the subject. A very nice book to check out on gunfighters and methods is Triggernometry: A Gallery of Gunfighters. With the popularity of cowboy action shooting there are newer works on the market now on the subject, but I still like this one. So check it out.

Left blogs, right blogs and in between

Saw some comments somewhere a few days ago, someone was complaining that people too often wind up only looking at sites that mirror their own views, and can't we all just get familiar and get along? and so forth. I admit that I mostly look at and return to sites that either are demonstrating views similar to my own, or argue with mine in a civilized manner. They don't say that someone on the other side of an argument is evil, stupid, in league with the witch burners, etc.; they accept that people have different views for reasons that are valid to them, and go from there. They're also willing to have an actual argument about matters, as opposed to "you poor benighted fool, once you hear wisdom from my lips/keyboard you will be unchained". I used to be a whole lot more tolerant of sites that considered someone like me to be evil or stupid, and I'd go back occasionally, but I almost never do now.

For one thing, there's only so much time, and what I have for looking around I don't want to waste on the words of someone who would flash the sign against the Evil Eye against me if we met in person. For another, I'm just damn tired of it. Earlier today a site I check on fairly regularly had a link to another site, so I went to look around. First couple of posts I read were ok, and then...

The Downing Street memo proves Bush lied, we all really know there were no CBN weapons in Iraq, we're trapped in a quagmire and the government is lying to us about it and the only real way to support the troops is to bring the home NOW! I read that post, and the comments, then left that site. And I'll probably never go back. I'm not going to repeat here what's known about the actual import of the memo, I'm not going to go over anything; I'm just not going to waste time going back to a place where every other post is going to be a "Bush Lied" etc. piece. I'm tired of hearing it. I'm not going back to a place where Pelosi is hailed as a hero for basically saying that the 'really important thing' right now is to get Bush, or Dean is praised for saying that no member of the other party ever did an honest days work, and is a racist, and...

If you're one of the folks who came her and argued with me about global warming, let me repeat some things I put down in the early days of this blog. I'm registered as a Republican primarily because I got really pissed off years ago at the way the Democrat party ran things in this state. A candidate cannot count on my vote simply because he's a Republican. I don't want the government telling me what I can read, speak, write, hear, watch or say. I think there should be a 'safety net' for those who need help, but it should help them get back on their feet or just help them the amount needed; it should NOT be there to keep people stuck in it forever. I like woods to walk and hunt in, clean water to drink and look at and swim in, clean air to breathe; I also like having the energy to run the products that have made life one hell of a lot more comfortable and easy in many ways. I hate abortion, but I don't think it should be banned(though the way so many use it as just another method of birth control makes my skin crawl). If you said you weren't comfortable with just anyone buying a grenade launcher or something of the sort, I'd probably agree with you; but when someone tries to use 'legitimate sporting purposes' to limit what type/how many firearms or ammunition I'll be allowed to own, I get pissed of and say "Fat effin' chance". I'm willing to argue about almost anything. BUT...

When you start with the "you're too stupid/unsophisticated/uneducated/evil to understand what is Right", I'll either tell you to fuck off or walk away. And if you think that calling someone those things is a good way to change their mind, then you have rocks in your head. Tell me you're concerned with how the enemy being held in Gitmo are being treated, and we can talk; compare the place to a gulag and our personnel there to Commies/Nazis/Khmer Rouge and I'll tune you out. I'm not wasting my time and energy with someone who actually believes that, or thinks that counts as intelligent discourse.

Yeah, I know there are right-wing sites just as bad in their way. I don't read them, either. For the same basic reasons.

This ends my rant for tonight. I need a drink.

Oh, if you don't normally read Lileks, go read this eon.

Favorite movie lines

"...origin unknown, cause of death unknown. And of considerable concern to those of us who had contact with him over the last two days."

from Support Your Local Sheriff

"...and I didn't kill one of 'em. I must have been drunk. Or too conventional."

from The Horse Soldiers

"Hail to the king, baby."

from Army of Darkness

To the whiners about 'torture'

Take a look at this and this. While partisan idiots like Pelosi and Reid and Durbin whine that us questioning terrorists and illegal combatants is 'torture', those two articles demonstrate what the bad guys are actually doing.

And did you hear about it on the (fill in the blank) Nightly News? I didn't; I happened to look at Little Green Footballs today, and found it there. If I needed any (further) proof of the prejudices of our major media weenies, this would take care of it.

Additional: this over at Froggy Ruminations on the 'FBI memo' that Durbin was using as his excuse for slandering our troops. My opinion of the FBI has gone down a bit more, and my contempt for Durbin has increased.

The Old West

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.

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.

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.

All you need to know about Gitmo

from James Lileks, here.

And an interesting bit on the 'flypaper strategy' and how, among other things, it's been saving a lot of Europeans from themselves, here.

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

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.

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 have to pass this on!

Found it over at Sulfuric Attitude: the official SWAT hand signals

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...

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.

And the Brady Campaign is full of crap

once again. Thanks, Geek

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.

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.

Among my other tools,

or would this be 'employees'?

Security supervisor

Trainee

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.

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.

Carnival of Cordite #18 is up

Over at Technogypsy.

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.

"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.

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.

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...

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.

Another disgustingly cute dog pic

Old dog and the pup, who's now nearly as big as the old dog.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.