I was reading Steve's stuff about cornbread, and started wondering why so many people have conniptions at the idea of baking bread? Admittedly there are some recipes for some types that are rather involved, but most are fairly simple.
I just pulled a pan of focaccia out of the oven, and if there's a simpler bread that that it's cornbread. I've taken it- the focaccia- and seasoned olive oil and vinegar to a party to share, and people raved about the bread, and proceeded to tell me what a genius I was to bake it.
Guess what? Put the ingredients in the bread machine, which does the kneading for me for a whole 3-4 minutes. Dump it in a greased bowl and let it rise. Dump it in a greased pan and spread it out and let it rise, knock it down and sprinkle some stuff on top, rise another 15 minutes and bake it. While I'm not averse to being called a genius, this kind of stuff is not proper reason for it.
Have you noticed most cooking is that way? Stew is browning some meat, throwing it in a pot with some water and veggies and whatever and letting it simmer. Jambalaya is sausage and rice and onion and bell pepper and whatever else you want to throw in. And so on; much of the stuff Steve has in his book is really simple, and it tastes damn good. One of the most involved things there are the baked beans, and that's just stir everything together and bake. Stuff like cake and some cookies requires you to use the correct amounts of stuff; but you can still add something in. My daughter and ex are always giving me tips on stuff like this. There's a nut bread recipe I like, and they found out that you can add a tablespoon of your favorite flavor coffee creamer to it and it comes out wonderfully. This is not reloading; you add something 'extra' in there and you may have to make up a story to make your prosthetic sound less like your fault. With cooking, you mess up and you may have to throw the result away.
Ref reloading, I read that the guy who developed the .454 Casull was using triplex loads; meaning he was mixing three different powders to get the result he wanted. The magazine where I read this specifically pointed out that this was, how do you say, a dumbass(not their word) thing to do, and please don't try it at home. Which may explain why he produced a pistol cartridge that would hurt to shoot in a rifle; his brain was still sloshing from the concussion.
Back to baking, there are a lot of simple things you can try, like adding some almond extract to a cake. It's very unlikely to screw it up, and it may just add something you really like to the finished product. If it doesn't, this is one reason you should have a dog. Preferably a mutt; they can eat rat poison, urp a time or two and ask what's for dessert? whereas a lot of purebreds don't get the proper diet and have the runs for a week. Kind of like... well, never mind that.
Where was I? Never mind that, too. Basic idea is, most cooking is simple unless you want to be the kind of 'chef' who puts one ounce of beef and three string beans on a plate and calls it dinner. Pie crust? It's flour and shortening and a touch of salt and some water, and that's it, but I took some tarts I had made to a fair and people had fits over the work of making the crust. Either they just aren't willing to try it, or they've bought into the hype from the three-bean chefs.
Oh well, it's an easy way to impress people.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
BIG gun show this weekend!
Up in Tulsa, the Wanenmacher Show. They only have it twice a year, spring and fall, and since I've never been able to make the spring show, God willin' and the creek don't rise I'll be there Saturday.
One of these days I'm going to rent a motel room so I've got both days. It'd be the only way to actually see the whole thing, and it'd be nice not to be rushed. I've got a list of things to look for, mainly parts and accessories and cleaning stuff; I'm actually hoping not to find any firearms that say "Take me home!". Or at least none I have to listen to.
It's a terrible thing to hear: "Just look at my engraving, sweetie! And oh, the curve of my stock longs for your hand... Don't deny me, take me with you!" It's a terrible thing to hear and have to walk away from.
One of these days I'm going to rent a motel room so I've got both days. It'd be the only way to actually see the whole thing, and it'd be nice not to be rushed. I've got a list of things to look for, mainly parts and accessories and cleaning stuff; I'm actually hoping not to find any firearms that say "Take me home!". Or at least none I have to listen to.
It's a terrible thing to hear: "Just look at my engraving, sweetie! And oh, the curve of my stock longs for your hand... Don't deny me, take me with you!" It's a terrible thing to hear and have to walk away from.
Speaking of radios for emergencies,
I noticed something today. I've got a RCA 'personal stereo' type; earphones only, runs off two AAA batteries, gets AM and FM stations. I generally use it when I'm doing laundry, or working in the yard, anywhere from an hour to two hours at a stretch.
Last week, the day after I did laundry, while getting ready for work I heard a news report, very faint. Only I'd turned the stereo off. Then I thought Oh, crap, I left the portable on! It was, I turned it off and forgot about it. Then used it today for about an hour and a half. Then I started trying to figure out how long those two batteries have been in use. I got the thing last year, it's had those batteries since sometime last winter. Figure two hours/week in winter, sometimes 5-6/week in warm weather, add in the 21 hours when I left it on the the two hours today... That's a long damn time, on the same two batteries. Maybe because it's not driving bigger speakers?
In any case, this type would be one to consider, at least as a spare. It cost five or six dollars as I recall, and AAAs are cheap.
Last week, the day after I did laundry, while getting ready for work I heard a news report, very faint. Only I'd turned the stereo off. Then I thought Oh, crap, I left the portable on! It was, I turned it off and forgot about it. Then used it today for about an hour and a half. Then I started trying to figure out how long those two batteries have been in use. I got the thing last year, it's had those batteries since sometime last winter. Figure two hours/week in winter, sometimes 5-6/week in warm weather, add in the 21 hours when I left it on the the two hours today... That's a long damn time, on the same two batteries. Maybe because it's not driving bigger speakers?
In any case, this type would be one to consider, at least as a spare. It cost five or six dollars as I recall, and AAAs are cheap.
Monday, October 17, 2005
It's really been that long?
Not that, the time. I realized the other day I've been running this blog for just over a year. I started a diary once when I was a kid, and I think that lasted about three days, so this is the longest journal-type thing I've ever done.
Big reason I started this was the smithing; it seemed like a good way to pass on some of what I've learned over the years, and it's done that well. It looked like fun, and it's been that, too. At least at times. And it did something I didn't really think about; it put me in contact with all kinds of people. Some of whom said how wonderful I was, some who told me I was an idiot(I've never managed to be called a fascist warmonger as yet, but I'm hoping), and lots of in-between. I've received good information on a variety of subjects, and passed ideas and how-to's along. Overall, it's been a good thing.
It's also been my soapbox. I can stand here and tell the world- at least the part of it that reads this mess- what I think of things. I can deliver insult and invective where appropriate, and I can say "Damn, go look at this! It's Great!", or "Only go here if you aren't worried about losing brain cells simply due to the proximity of the idiocy you'll find here". There's been a couple of times I thought I might have to post a "Gone to emergency room/surgery/whatever, back when able" but that's never worked out. Happily.
Right now, there's been over 21,000 hits, including some from Japan, South Africa and various places in Europe. Which makes this a big damn soapbox, long may it hold together.
Right now it's getting late, and the medication for a back problem is making me tired, so I think I'll go scratch dog ears for a bit. 'Night, all.
Big reason I started this was the smithing; it seemed like a good way to pass on some of what I've learned over the years, and it's done that well. It looked like fun, and it's been that, too. At least at times. And it did something I didn't really think about; it put me in contact with all kinds of people. Some of whom said how wonderful I was, some who told me I was an idiot(I've never managed to be called a fascist warmonger as yet, but I'm hoping), and lots of in-between. I've received good information on a variety of subjects, and passed ideas and how-to's along. Overall, it's been a good thing.
It's also been my soapbox. I can stand here and tell the world- at least the part of it that reads this mess- what I think of things. I can deliver insult and invective where appropriate, and I can say "Damn, go look at this! It's Great!", or "Only go here if you aren't worried about losing brain cells simply due to the proximity of the idiocy you'll find here". There's been a couple of times I thought I might have to post a "Gone to emergency room/surgery/whatever, back when able" but that's never worked out. Happily.
Right now, there's been over 21,000 hits, including some from Japan, South Africa and various places in Europe. Which makes this a big damn soapbox, long may it hold together.
Right now it's getting late, and the medication for a back problem is making me tired, so I think I'll go scratch dog ears for a bit. 'Night, all.
Yes, I'm still bitching about the media
And why not? They give us so much material to work with. Right now, I've got two things in mind, somewhat connected.
First, if you haven't read about the riots in Toledo, go here and read. Take due note of the headline, and then of who actually did the rioting, and their excuses for it. Here's a major newspaper blaming a riot not on the clowns who actually, oh, rioted and looted, but on those the rioters used as an excuse. There is, flatly, no excuse for this crap. I don't care how much they dislike having the Nazis march(not too damn fond of them myself), that does not give them excuse to riot. And it most certainly does not give the media an excuse to blame the Nazis instead of the idiots who actually committed the crimes.
Second stop here, where Mark Steyn takes note of the refusal of the media to call fascists what they are; as long as they're Islamic fascists, that is. Never mind where they're from, what they're doing and why and to who, you just can't call the bastards what they are; it's not allowed, apparently. Just like the BBC won't call Palistinian terrorists 'terrorists'; they're militants, or rebels or something, but never ever 'terrorists'. And so many in the media won't call the bombers and head-choppers and kidnappers in Iraq 'terrorists', they're 'insurgents'; it's just so much more PC to call them that. After all, if you call them terrorists you're actually stating they're bad people doing bad things, and we can't have that. Can we?
Yes, we damn sure can, at least if the media weenies are not so bigoted and PC that they'll make excuses for these dirtbags. Something happens here in the U.S., and you generally have to dig through piles of words before you'll find out that the doer was, who could believe it?, Muslim. I swear to God, if some jackass grabbed an old couple in a mall and cut their heads off with a machete while screaming "Allahu Akbar!", most of these jerks would jump through hoops to avoid even mentioning that part of it; after all, us ignorant peasants in flyover country can't be trusted to hear such things, now can we?
Connected to all this is this, the attempts to ignore/cover up/deny some information about the FREDS who blew himself up in Norman. Please note this wording from the FBI about a possible attempt to get into the stadium: "He said, 'We may never know. We have no evidence of a plan to do that, but we also couldn't tell you definitively he didn't try to do it and was rebuffed. We just simply don't know,' " Mr. Cole said."
This is used by the Wall Street Journal to say: "None of these claims are true". The FBI didn't say that, it said 'We do not know', but that's good enough to say 'nothing to it', at least for some of the major media. If this kid had been walking around with a swasticka armband and had a Nazi flag on his bedroom wall, you know these people would be talking about the dangers of neo-nazis; but God forbid they say anything bad about, or even mention, connections to Islam.
It reminds me, to an extent, of the attitude a lot of these 'journalists' have toward various minority groups; you shouldn't mention anything bad because it might upset them, and if you do have to mention it you have to include excuses for their actions, because after all, you can't expect them to deal with it well. I think R. Reagan referred to this as the 'bigotry of low expectations'; don't expect this or that group to live up to civilized standards, because they're just not able to, and they might get upset/violent if you demand those standards of them. So you have these 'journalists' calling names and describing as murderers U.S. troops in battle, but making excuses and carefully choosing words to keep from calling Islamist nutcases what they really are.
To borrow a line from Quint in Jaws, it's enough to piss off the Good Humor man.
First, if you haven't read about the riots in Toledo, go here and read. Take due note of the headline, and then of who actually did the rioting, and their excuses for it. Here's a major newspaper blaming a riot not on the clowns who actually, oh, rioted and looted, but on those the rioters used as an excuse. There is, flatly, no excuse for this crap. I don't care how much they dislike having the Nazis march(not too damn fond of them myself), that does not give them excuse to riot. And it most certainly does not give the media an excuse to blame the Nazis instead of the idiots who actually committed the crimes.
Second stop here, where Mark Steyn takes note of the refusal of the media to call fascists what they are; as long as they're Islamic fascists, that is. Never mind where they're from, what they're doing and why and to who, you just can't call the bastards what they are; it's not allowed, apparently. Just like the BBC won't call Palistinian terrorists 'terrorists'; they're militants, or rebels or something, but never ever 'terrorists'. And so many in the media won't call the bombers and head-choppers and kidnappers in Iraq 'terrorists', they're 'insurgents'; it's just so much more PC to call them that. After all, if you call them terrorists you're actually stating they're bad people doing bad things, and we can't have that. Can we?
Yes, we damn sure can, at least if the media weenies are not so bigoted and PC that they'll make excuses for these dirtbags. Something happens here in the U.S., and you generally have to dig through piles of words before you'll find out that the doer was, who could believe it?, Muslim. I swear to God, if some jackass grabbed an old couple in a mall and cut their heads off with a machete while screaming "Allahu Akbar!", most of these jerks would jump through hoops to avoid even mentioning that part of it; after all, us ignorant peasants in flyover country can't be trusted to hear such things, now can we?
Connected to all this is this, the attempts to ignore/cover up/deny some information about the FREDS who blew himself up in Norman. Please note this wording from the FBI about a possible attempt to get into the stadium: "He said, 'We may never know. We have no evidence of a plan to do that, but we also couldn't tell you definitively he didn't try to do it and was rebuffed. We just simply don't know,' " Mr. Cole said."
This is used by the Wall Street Journal to say: "None of these claims are true". The FBI didn't say that, it said 'We do not know', but that's good enough to say 'nothing to it', at least for some of the major media. If this kid had been walking around with a swasticka armband and had a Nazi flag on his bedroom wall, you know these people would be talking about the dangers of neo-nazis; but God forbid they say anything bad about, or even mention, connections to Islam.
It reminds me, to an extent, of the attitude a lot of these 'journalists' have toward various minority groups; you shouldn't mention anything bad because it might upset them, and if you do have to mention it you have to include excuses for their actions, because after all, you can't expect them to deal with it well. I think R. Reagan referred to this as the 'bigotry of low expectations'; don't expect this or that group to live up to civilized standards, because they're just not able to, and they might get upset/violent if you demand those standards of them. So you have these 'journalists' calling names and describing as murderers U.S. troops in battle, but making excuses and carefully choosing words to keep from calling Islamist nutcases what they really are.
To borrow a line from Quint in Jaws, it's enough to piss off the Good Humor man.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
General commentary
The weather's been about as fine as you could wish for the last couple of weeks. I haven't had to use the a/c for about a month now(few days I should have, but...), and I can sleep with the windows open and a fan going. Now if I can get the dogs to understand they don't need to bark at 2a.m. unless it's acually worth it...
Steve's blogging about cooking again, and pan con lechon sounds good enough to go out and shoot a hog for. Happily, they have already deceased hogs at the store, so, I need to go shopping.
Speaking of Steve, damn, I wish I could write like him.
Chris Muir ought to be syndicated. If the major papers weren't a bunch of liberal bedwetters(to borrow a phrase), he probably would be. If you've not seen him before, check him out. And I know Sam is a cartoon, but damn!
I need more ammo. In various calibers. And more time to go to the range. And hunt. And sleep.
I hope I can get out during deer season. I have the urge to be terminally rude to Bambi.
Every time Ted Kennedy opens his mouth lately, I remember somebody saying "A drink of cold water and an original thought would kill him".
According to my son, Ford Rangers in Europe have a turbo-diesel engine option that runs clean and gets about 30 mpg and has more horsepower and torque than the gas engines. I wish they'd sell the damn thing here.
Ever noticed how cleaning patches evaporate when you open the bag?
I need a fireplace just to burn all the junk mail and applications that have my name on them.
Steve's blogging about cooking again, and pan con lechon sounds good enough to go out and shoot a hog for. Happily, they have already deceased hogs at the store, so, I need to go shopping.
Speaking of Steve, damn, I wish I could write like him.
Chris Muir ought to be syndicated. If the major papers weren't a bunch of liberal bedwetters(to borrow a phrase), he probably would be. If you've not seen him before, check him out. And I know Sam is a cartoon, but damn!
I need more ammo. In various calibers. And more time to go to the range. And hunt. And sleep.
I hope I can get out during deer season. I have the urge to be terminally rude to Bambi.
Every time Ted Kennedy opens his mouth lately, I remember somebody saying "A drink of cold water and an original thought would kill him".
According to my son, Ford Rangers in Europe have a turbo-diesel engine option that runs clean and gets about 30 mpg and has more horsepower and torque than the gas engines. I wish they'd sell the damn thing here.
Ever noticed how cleaning patches evaporate when you open the bag?
I need a fireplace just to burn all the junk mail and applications that have my name on them.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Another bit about getting all the crap off an old rifle
Old military rifles, to be precise. I wrote on this subject a while back(here), and have something to add.
When you've got a rifle with the barrel/action heavily greased, especially if the grease is old and getting hard/hardened, spraying with carb cleaner or something doesn't really do it. I recently got a piece of 4" PVC pipe, put a permanent plug on one end, and poured a gallon of kerosene in it. You can take the barreled action out of the stock and lower it into this, slosh it up and down a few times, put a cap on the open end and leave it a while. When you remove the cap, slosh it a bit more and pull it out. Kerosene does a nice job of dissolving old grease and won't harm the metal or finish. Let it sit a while for the volitiles to evaporate and you can either hit it with the spray to clean the remaining oil off, or simply strip it down and clean/oil the parts. If you have to leave it a while before doing anything, the oil left on the steel by the kerosene will protect it from rust. For a while; it's not a long-term protectant.
Additional: if you don't want to have to clean off the kerosene oil, after the piece dries a bit you can spray it with carb or brake cleaner; it'll strip the oil off, and then dry fast. Be sure to use good ventilation and gloves if you do.
Better would be a steel pipe, but I didn't have anything that size and don't have a welder to put a plug on the end. And you should either tie it to something to hold it vertical, or build a rack to hold it. But it does a nice job of getting the worst of the stuff off.
When you've got a rifle with the barrel/action heavily greased, especially if the grease is old and getting hard/hardened, spraying with carb cleaner or something doesn't really do it. I recently got a piece of 4" PVC pipe, put a permanent plug on one end, and poured a gallon of kerosene in it. You can take the barreled action out of the stock and lower it into this, slosh it up and down a few times, put a cap on the open end and leave it a while. When you remove the cap, slosh it a bit more and pull it out. Kerosene does a nice job of dissolving old grease and won't harm the metal or finish. Let it sit a while for the volitiles to evaporate and you can either hit it with the spray to clean the remaining oil off, or simply strip it down and clean/oil the parts. If you have to leave it a while before doing anything, the oil left on the steel by the kerosene will protect it from rust. For a while; it's not a long-term protectant.
Additional: if you don't want to have to clean off the kerosene oil, after the piece dries a bit you can spray it with carb or brake cleaner; it'll strip the oil off, and then dry fast. Be sure to use good ventilation and gloves if you do.
Better would be a steel pipe, but I didn't have anything that size and don't have a welder to put a plug on the end. And you should either tie it to something to hold it vertical, or build a rack to hold it. But it does a nice job of getting the worst of the stuff off.
It brought tears to my eyes
And I mean that literally. Reading about the election in Iraq. In a place where people literally have to worry about being killed for trying to vote, they had a 70% turnout. The primary security came from the Iraqi forces, with our guys as backup/reaction force if needed. And this number: "During the Iraq elections last January there were 347 terrorist attacks on voters and polling places. Today there were 13."
Think about that. People giving al Qaeda the finger again. Iraqi military and police doing the job, despite past attacks, despite threats, despite losses.
Fine, I'm sappy. I did have tears in my eyes while I read about this. It's a wonderful thing, one of many advances in that country. Hell, in that region. And yet the major media can still find almost nothing good to say about it. Still slants everything to make it look bad. I am so damn tired of these clowns, tired of their bigotry and their almost ceaseless attempts to shape the news to what they want it to be, instead of what it is.
And when I read of some Iraqi officer saying they want to take over the work and the Americans go home, I'm thrilled. That's how it's supposed to be, dammit!
I repeat, this was a wonderful thing that happened today.
Links: Michelle Malkin
Instapundit
both with lots of links to more info.
Think about that. People giving al Qaeda the finger again. Iraqi military and police doing the job, despite past attacks, despite threats, despite losses.
Fine, I'm sappy. I did have tears in my eyes while I read about this. It's a wonderful thing, one of many advances in that country. Hell, in that region. And yet the major media can still find almost nothing good to say about it. Still slants everything to make it look bad. I am so damn tired of these clowns, tired of their bigotry and their almost ceaseless attempts to shape the news to what they want it to be, instead of what it is.
And when I read of some Iraqi officer saying they want to take over the work and the Americans go home, I'm thrilled. That's how it's supposed to be, dammit!
I repeat, this was a wonderful thing that happened today.
Links: Michelle Malkin
Instapundit
both with lots of links to more info.
Friday, October 14, 2005
The #4 Mk1 Lee Enfield
A while back I posted on the #1 Mk3, this is the younger brother to it.
In the 1930's the British decided to upgrade the Enfield design. They wound up with a rifle that looks quite similar, and works exactly the same(proving that some people really do understand the idea that if something works, you leave it alone). There were enough changes that not many parts are interchangeable, but it kept the heart of the system: that fast, smooth bolt-action. To look at it, the big difference is the sights. The front is very similar to the #1, but the rear is completely different; instead of a notch mounted on the barrel, they moved it to the rear of the receiver and made it a large-ring aperture:
My understanding is that the front sight(available in a number of different heights) was changed to give a 300-yard zero, which with the trajectory of the Mk VII ball ammo, meant you could hold center of mass on the average human body from up close to about 400 yards and get a body hit.
If you needed finer accuracy, or to pot at an enemy target further away? The sight flips up to provide a smaller aperture ladder.
This is one of the earlier models, screw-adjustable from 200 yards to way-to-hell-out-there(less technically known as 1300 yards). Shooting at an individual target at that range was mostly hope even for a fine rifleman, but if you had a squad firing aimed volleys... I believe this was a holdover from the WWI days, when sights were graduated out to over 2000 yards for aimed volley fire; that was before a lot of people believed/understood that machine guns would take over that job. A later version was graduated just about the same, but instead of a screw adjustment it used a spring-loaded clamp on one side; squeeze it down and slide the aperture up or down. Later yet, they went to a simple L-shaped sight with two apertures, one for 300 and the other for 600 yards.
Several people have expressed the opinion that this was the best bolt-action rifle of WWII, and the #1 Mk3 and it the best bolt military rifles ever. The Springfield '03 and '03-A3 and the Mausers(damn near identical in many ways) had a more rigid, arguably stronger action, but the Enfields were quite strong enough to handle their cartridge well. And had a ten-round magazine instead of five, and in a rush could be worked and fired faster. I'm staying out of that argument, but I do say the Enfields had their advantages.
The military ammunition of WWII is a fine round. A .312" diameter bullet weighing 174 grains, travelling about 2700 feet per second. With an interesting feature: the Brits decided it needed to be more lethal, so they came up with the idea of forming the jacket, then placing an aluminum insert in the nose with the lead core filling behind that. The bullet was stable and accurate in flight, and had good penetration on hard targets. On soft targets(enemy troops), because of the center of gravity being moved back by the insert, after impact the bullet began to yaw and tumble, becoming a high-velocity roto-rooter going through the target. The Mark VII ball stayed their standard round, so far as I know, until they got rid of the .303 cartridge altogether.
Speaking of accuracy. A friend of mine got hold of a #4 Mk1(T) a few years ago; this is the WWII British sniper rifle. Rifles that showed superior accuracy were boxed up and delivered to gunmakers Holland and Holland. They touched up the trigger, bedded action and barrel into the stock, fixed scope bases and mount and generally worked their magic on them. The mount and scope were numbered to match the rifle, and all was placed in a travelling chest(when moving long distances by truck, ship or rail the rifle was packed in the chest to keep all together and protected). His rifle had the scope base pads, but the cheekpiece and mount were missing. He found a cheekpiece, and happily, there's a company making replica mounts, and he stuck a Bushnell 4x scope on it while looking for an original scope. With 1960's production Pakistani ammo, this rifle will shoot groups a fraction over 1" at 100 yards; God knows what it could do with match ammo.
Overall, it's a great rifle. It's capable of fine accuracy, it can take treatment that would break a lot of firearms and keep working, and it can lay down a lot of shots, accurately, in a short time. Fast to reload with 5-round chargers, and a spring-loaded trapdoor in the butt to hold a pull-through and oiler. It's different from touching up a Mauser-style trigger, but the trigger can be made lighter for target work. This one just arrived to a friend, and we'd tried it out to make sure it worked before he decided to keep it. Yes, they're good, but there are a lot of junkers out there so you have to make sure you didn't get one. This appears to be one of the good ones.
Note: this now includes the stuff I was too tired to add in last night. So if it looks different from earlier, that's why.
In the 1930's the British decided to upgrade the Enfield design. They wound up with a rifle that looks quite similar, and works exactly the same(proving that some people really do understand the idea that if something works, you leave it alone). There were enough changes that not many parts are interchangeable, but it kept the heart of the system: that fast, smooth bolt-action. To look at it, the big difference is the sights. The front is very similar to the #1, but the rear is completely different; instead of a notch mounted on the barrel, they moved it to the rear of the receiver and made it a large-ring aperture:
My understanding is that the front sight(available in a number of different heights) was changed to give a 300-yard zero, which with the trajectory of the Mk VII ball ammo, meant you could hold center of mass on the average human body from up close to about 400 yards and get a body hit.
If you needed finer accuracy, or to pot at an enemy target further away? The sight flips up to provide a smaller aperture ladder.
This is one of the earlier models, screw-adjustable from 200 yards to way-to-hell-out-there(less technically known as 1300 yards). Shooting at an individual target at that range was mostly hope even for a fine rifleman, but if you had a squad firing aimed volleys... I believe this was a holdover from the WWI days, when sights were graduated out to over 2000 yards for aimed volley fire; that was before a lot of people believed/understood that machine guns would take over that job. A later version was graduated just about the same, but instead of a screw adjustment it used a spring-loaded clamp on one side; squeeze it down and slide the aperture up or down. Later yet, they went to a simple L-shaped sight with two apertures, one for 300 and the other for 600 yards.
Several people have expressed the opinion that this was the best bolt-action rifle of WWII, and the #1 Mk3 and it the best bolt military rifles ever. The Springfield '03 and '03-A3 and the Mausers(damn near identical in many ways) had a more rigid, arguably stronger action, but the Enfields were quite strong enough to handle their cartridge well. And had a ten-round magazine instead of five, and in a rush could be worked and fired faster. I'm staying out of that argument, but I do say the Enfields had their advantages.
The military ammunition of WWII is a fine round. A .312" diameter bullet weighing 174 grains, travelling about 2700 feet per second. With an interesting feature: the Brits decided it needed to be more lethal, so they came up with the idea of forming the jacket, then placing an aluminum insert in the nose with the lead core filling behind that. The bullet was stable and accurate in flight, and had good penetration on hard targets. On soft targets(enemy troops), because of the center of gravity being moved back by the insert, after impact the bullet began to yaw and tumble, becoming a high-velocity roto-rooter going through the target. The Mark VII ball stayed their standard round, so far as I know, until they got rid of the .303 cartridge altogether.
Speaking of accuracy. A friend of mine got hold of a #4 Mk1(T) a few years ago; this is the WWII British sniper rifle. Rifles that showed superior accuracy were boxed up and delivered to gunmakers Holland and Holland. They touched up the trigger, bedded action and barrel into the stock, fixed scope bases and mount and generally worked their magic on them. The mount and scope were numbered to match the rifle, and all was placed in a travelling chest(when moving long distances by truck, ship or rail the rifle was packed in the chest to keep all together and protected). His rifle had the scope base pads, but the cheekpiece and mount were missing. He found a cheekpiece, and happily, there's a company making replica mounts, and he stuck a Bushnell 4x scope on it while looking for an original scope. With 1960's production Pakistani ammo, this rifle will shoot groups a fraction over 1" at 100 yards; God knows what it could do with match ammo.
Overall, it's a great rifle. It's capable of fine accuracy, it can take treatment that would break a lot of firearms and keep working, and it can lay down a lot of shots, accurately, in a short time. Fast to reload with 5-round chargers, and a spring-loaded trapdoor in the butt to hold a pull-through and oiler. It's different from touching up a Mauser-style trigger, but the trigger can be made lighter for target work. This one just arrived to a friend, and we'd tried it out to make sure it worked before he decided to keep it. Yes, they're good, but there are a lot of junkers out there so you have to make sure you didn't get one. This appears to be one of the good ones.
Note: this now includes the stuff I was too tired to add in last night. So if it looks different from earlier, that's why.
More reason why so many don't trust the major media
Looked at Michelle Malkins' site today, and found this, this and this. In short, a bunch of media weenies accused the White House of rehearsing troops so they'd act nice on camera, a reporterette reporting on flooding sat in a canoe in water that turned out to be a few inches deep- not even enough to float the boat- and Mike Wallace of See-BS fame shows his colors. Cam Edwards caught this last one, and has both the reply he got from See-BS and his response to it, start here.
A few years ago I was listening to Limbaugh and he commented on the 'liberal media having their talking points for the day'. I can't remember what the issue in question was; I just snorted and continued on. Until later. One of the Democrat candidates for President came out with the comment on Bush not having 'gravitas'. I thought that was an interesting word to bring up. And then, damn near every newsreader/commentator/whatever repeated it. Used the word over and over, and in many cases damn near the same words. That really caught my attention, and I noticed it more over time. And it pretty much convinced me that they are, if not getting talking points from the DNC, so much in sympathy with them that they almost all used the stuff. Over and over. And it really pissed me off, especially when some of the clowns doing this then complained about bloggers having noone to keep them 'accurate' and so forth.
'Accuracy'. It's a big thing in news, and would mean more if the clowns doing the most claiming of it actually cared about it. When I had the news on today, seemed like every network said basically the same thing about the Story of the Day: White House Rehearses Soldiers, Scandal In The Press Corps, etc. It's a load of crap, especially coming from people who have a long history of planting people with questions and selectively editing interviews to give the impression they want, etc. And very especially when you can go from network to network and hear damn near the same wording on the matter.
Wallace shows one of the big pains in this stuff. I used to watch CBS evening news a lot, and 60 Minutes, until the bias just became too much to put up with. Any story about firearms would be slanted, badly, and so forth. Remember Alar? 60 Minutes took a bullshit report from a enviroweenie group and blew it up: Alar will give your kids cancer if they eat apples! Orchards went out of business, lots of people scared to death, for a report that turned out to be, as I mentioned, bullshit. And did Rather & Co. ever do a show correcting the story? Not that I ever heard of. And on and on.
And we're supposed to trust these people why?
A few years ago I was listening to Limbaugh and he commented on the 'liberal media having their talking points for the day'. I can't remember what the issue in question was; I just snorted and continued on. Until later. One of the Democrat candidates for President came out with the comment on Bush not having 'gravitas'. I thought that was an interesting word to bring up. And then, damn near every newsreader/commentator/whatever repeated it. Used the word over and over, and in many cases damn near the same words. That really caught my attention, and I noticed it more over time. And it pretty much convinced me that they are, if not getting talking points from the DNC, so much in sympathy with them that they almost all used the stuff. Over and over. And it really pissed me off, especially when some of the clowns doing this then complained about bloggers having noone to keep them 'accurate' and so forth.
'Accuracy'. It's a big thing in news, and would mean more if the clowns doing the most claiming of it actually cared about it. When I had the news on today, seemed like every network said basically the same thing about the Story of the Day: White House Rehearses Soldiers, Scandal In The Press Corps, etc. It's a load of crap, especially coming from people who have a long history of planting people with questions and selectively editing interviews to give the impression they want, etc. And very especially when you can go from network to network and hear damn near the same wording on the matter.
Wallace shows one of the big pains in this stuff. I used to watch CBS evening news a lot, and 60 Minutes, until the bias just became too much to put up with. Any story about firearms would be slanted, badly, and so forth. Remember Alar? 60 Minutes took a bullshit report from a enviroweenie group and blew it up: Alar will give your kids cancer if they eat apples! Orchards went out of business, lots of people scared to death, for a report that turned out to be, as I mentioned, bullshit. And did Rather & Co. ever do a show correcting the story? Not that I ever heard of. And on and on.
And we're supposed to trust these people why?
Carnival of Cordite #34!
It's up over at Gullyborg. Aside from telling you to go there and enjoy, send some thanks to the proprietor for his consistently fine hosting of this.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
So far, I'm still here
Not accomplishing much, but still here.
It's October in Oklahoma, which means in one day it can go from highs of 80's and lows of 60's, to highs of 60's and lows of 40's.
The hot, dry weather broke a couple of weeks back, and the peppers in the garden flat took off. They're covered with jalapenos and bells. I planted some late squash, and it's growing wonderfully; I just hope there's time for them to produce before the frosts kill them.
Speaking of frost, from past history could come in a day or two, or sometime in early November. They have happened in the first week of October a time or two. Shorts one day, coat and gloves the next.
New doghouse built, nice thick layer of hay inside, equals two happy dogs. Though if the trainee keeps chewing up everything in sight and digging holes like an oversized gopher she may have a short life.
Had a day with my parents, and it was nice.
I need a real vacation. Not just a few days, at least a week someplace else with something to distract me from worrying about things back here.
Sondra K needs to sell space on her butt again. No particular reason, I just like looking at her butt. Do you blame me? Shut up.
Hey, I took the 50-yard iron-sight trophy! However, apparently nobody else shot iron-sight rifle at 25, apparently thinking that obviously they could take out looters at 25 with a rifle, so nobody else tried. I think there should be a special category and trophy here, both for being the only one who did it and(obviously), therefore, getting the high score. So where's my damn trophies?
And now to bed, as there's work tomorrow. Dammit.
It's October in Oklahoma, which means in one day it can go from highs of 80's and lows of 60's, to highs of 60's and lows of 40's.
The hot, dry weather broke a couple of weeks back, and the peppers in the garden flat took off. They're covered with jalapenos and bells. I planted some late squash, and it's growing wonderfully; I just hope there's time for them to produce before the frosts kill them.
Speaking of frost, from past history could come in a day or two, or sometime in early November. They have happened in the first week of October a time or two. Shorts one day, coat and gloves the next.
New doghouse built, nice thick layer of hay inside, equals two happy dogs. Though if the trainee keeps chewing up everything in sight and digging holes like an oversized gopher she may have a short life.
Had a day with my parents, and it was nice.
I need a real vacation. Not just a few days, at least a week someplace else with something to distract me from worrying about things back here.
Sondra K needs to sell space on her butt again. No particular reason, I just like looking at her butt. Do you blame me? Shut up.
Hey, I took the 50-yard iron-sight trophy! However, apparently nobody else shot iron-sight rifle at 25, apparently thinking that obviously they could take out looters at 25 with a rifle, so nobody else tried. I think there should be a special category and trophy here, both for being the only one who did it and(obviously), therefore, getting the high score. So where's my damn trophies?
And now to bed, as there's work tomorrow. Dammit.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Ref the Norman bombing
I was looking over some sites this morning, and found several people wondering why the national news has paid so little attention to the FREDS blowup in Norman. I mean, really, somebody blows himself up outside a game? Within a hundred yards of thousands of people? What's not to get excited about? Unless you don't want to report on it for some reason. Gee, why could that be?
On one side you have those like the O.U. campus paper, the Oklahoma Daily, who said: "For example, unsubstantiated claims that Hinrichs had been frequenting the Norman mosque have managed to seep onto television news broadcasts even though everyone we have contacted at the mosque says Hinrichs was never seen there.
So who is lying? Inherently, people should perceive the unfounded news broadcasts as the liars, but that doesn’t always happen."
Sounds nice, but it's too much like the crap during the last few years: "If you don't hear it from an OFFICIAL news agency, it's not true. Or not worth hearing about. So there." We've gotten so used to the situation of 'news' agencies either not reporting what they don't want people to hear or slanting what they do report to give the impression they want you to have, that that ideal doesn't hold water any more. It hasn't for a long time, but the last while has shot more holes in it than a patterning target shows. People get pretty tired of having to consider what bias to tune out in a report, or having to dig into other sources to fill in what wasn't reported, often for some PC reason, and it makes them more likely to listen to, or believe, rumors and secondhand reports.
It's nice- and easy- to blame the FBI for not talking more, but that doesn't keep news agencies from digging up information on their own. If they want to. And that's were more of the mistrust comes in.
We've lived through the mess since 9/11, including the mass of PC-induced reporting('Massive hate crimes against Muslims!' etc) that weren't true. We've seen 'news' agencies breathlessly reporting a CAIR news release as confirmed fact, apparently without bothering to check the facts or not reporting the true information, and so forth. And the condemnation of anyone who reports on said true information as hatemongers, racists(is Islam a race?) and so on. So when the major media doesn't report on something, one of the first thoughts that occurs is 'what are they trying to avoid talking about?'. So people listen to secondhand reports and whatever to try and filter out the facts. The major media doesn't like it, and it's their own damn fault. Think back to the Swift Vets; instead of reporting a serious story from a "let's get the facts" position, they were repeatedly trashed by the MM because of what the story was. It wasn't what many MM people wanted you to hear, so it had to be trashed; after all, you obviously can't sift out facts on your own, so you have to get what the MM has decided you should hear. And, of course, the Dan Rather 'story'(literally) on Bushs' ANG time was the crowning achievement of this mess. Take a 'story' they'd investigated for years, finding nothing, then take documents that their own examiners warned them against and make it a Big Story because the documents said what they wanted to hear, what they wanted you to believe. And when the entire thing blows up in their faces, they and their sycophants whine about how talking about the fake documents takes attention away from the 'real story'. Which didn't even exist. And every time something like this happens, people see less reason to trust what the MM reports.
So, more than before, people are more willing to listen to whatever they can get because they feel they can't trust the MM reporting. Or, as in this case, the lack thereof. Powerline and Michelle have provided information and links to both information and to wonderings about why this hasn't been reported as it should. And Classical Values has this, which has some pretty good questions.
Which we haven't heard answers to as yet. And I wouldn't hold my breath.
On one side you have those like the O.U. campus paper, the Oklahoma Daily, who said: "For example, unsubstantiated claims that Hinrichs had been frequenting the Norman mosque have managed to seep onto television news broadcasts even though everyone we have contacted at the mosque says Hinrichs was never seen there.
So who is lying? Inherently, people should perceive the unfounded news broadcasts as the liars, but that doesn’t always happen."
Sounds nice, but it's too much like the crap during the last few years: "If you don't hear it from an OFFICIAL news agency, it's not true. Or not worth hearing about. So there." We've gotten so used to the situation of 'news' agencies either not reporting what they don't want people to hear or slanting what they do report to give the impression they want you to have, that that ideal doesn't hold water any more. It hasn't for a long time, but the last while has shot more holes in it than a patterning target shows. People get pretty tired of having to consider what bias to tune out in a report, or having to dig into other sources to fill in what wasn't reported, often for some PC reason, and it makes them more likely to listen to, or believe, rumors and secondhand reports.
It's nice- and easy- to blame the FBI for not talking more, but that doesn't keep news agencies from digging up information on their own. If they want to. And that's were more of the mistrust comes in.
We've lived through the mess since 9/11, including the mass of PC-induced reporting('Massive hate crimes against Muslims!' etc) that weren't true. We've seen 'news' agencies breathlessly reporting a CAIR news release as confirmed fact, apparently without bothering to check the facts or not reporting the true information, and so forth. And the condemnation of anyone who reports on said true information as hatemongers, racists(is Islam a race?) and so on. So when the major media doesn't report on something, one of the first thoughts that occurs is 'what are they trying to avoid talking about?'. So people listen to secondhand reports and whatever to try and filter out the facts. The major media doesn't like it, and it's their own damn fault. Think back to the Swift Vets; instead of reporting a serious story from a "let's get the facts" position, they were repeatedly trashed by the MM because of what the story was. It wasn't what many MM people wanted you to hear, so it had to be trashed; after all, you obviously can't sift out facts on your own, so you have to get what the MM has decided you should hear. And, of course, the Dan Rather 'story'(literally) on Bushs' ANG time was the crowning achievement of this mess. Take a 'story' they'd investigated for years, finding nothing, then take documents that their own examiners warned them against and make it a Big Story because the documents said what they wanted to hear, what they wanted you to believe. And when the entire thing blows up in their faces, they and their sycophants whine about how talking about the fake documents takes attention away from the 'real story'. Which didn't even exist. And every time something like this happens, people see less reason to trust what the MM reports.
So, more than before, people are more willing to listen to whatever they can get because they feel they can't trust the MM reporting. Or, as in this case, the lack thereof. Powerline and Michelle have provided information and links to both information and to wonderings about why this hasn't been reported as it should. And Classical Values has this, which has some pretty good questions.
Which we haven't heard answers to as yet. And I wouldn't hold my breath.
Monday, October 10, 2005
The dearly departed...
Alas, I must report that the mouse passed away. Unknown causes, though it's suspected it caught pneumonia from repeated falling/jumping into the water dish.
Which, since she now has an empty aquarium, what my daughter will wind up with next. She likes snakes, but I'm hoping not one of those. I don't mind snakes, but some of them can be a bit intensive to care for.
Speaking of snakes, the zoo has, along with all the venomous and non, two big ones: an anaconda that's looks about 12-13 feet long, and a reticulated python that dwarfs if. The anaconda is thicker in the body, but the python has to be somewhere betwen 15-20 feet, I think closer to 20. That's one big bunch of scales.
One nice thing about a zoo is you can take kids there and show them things to leave alone, the herpetarium being very good for this("See this one? Stay away from it. Yes, it will bite. Yes, it will hurt. Yes, it will- on second thought reach in there..") When mine were small I'd take the opportunity on every visit to make them look at the venomous snakes found around here. Not that it seemed to take. After the divorce they lived for a couple of years in an apartment with a drainage ditch nearby, where- of course- all the kids played. They'd told me several times about the 'big' snake and the little ones they saw there. I asked what kind it was, and of course the answer was "I don't know". Then one day in early spring I went over to do something and they ran in and told me the big snake was where you could see it from the street, so off we went to a small bridge over the creek. And there, stretched out on a fallen tree limb in the sun, was the biggest copperhead I've ever seen. And scattered nearby on the rocks and sand were a lot of what looked like little copperheads and some water moccasins. Normally, unless they're around the house or too close to a camp I'll leave even venomous snakes alone, but if I'd had a way to I'd have cleaned out that creekbed; the thought of all those kids playing where these lived scared hell out of me. Mind you, it wouldn't have done much good; with all the mice and rats in the area from the apartments and businesses more would have moved in in a short while. So I reminded my kids of the zoo visits, and "Remember the copperhead? Think of it and look at the big one". They weren't exactly bothered("Oh yeah, that's what it is!)
In any case, I'm sure she'll find something else to keep company with the cats and ferrets and dogs.
Which, since she now has an empty aquarium, what my daughter will wind up with next. She likes snakes, but I'm hoping not one of those. I don't mind snakes, but some of them can be a bit intensive to care for.
Speaking of snakes, the zoo has, along with all the venomous and non, two big ones: an anaconda that's looks about 12-13 feet long, and a reticulated python that dwarfs if. The anaconda is thicker in the body, but the python has to be somewhere betwen 15-20 feet, I think closer to 20. That's one big bunch of scales.
One nice thing about a zoo is you can take kids there and show them things to leave alone, the herpetarium being very good for this("See this one? Stay away from it. Yes, it will bite. Yes, it will hurt. Yes, it will- on second thought reach in there..") When mine were small I'd take the opportunity on every visit to make them look at the venomous snakes found around here. Not that it seemed to take. After the divorce they lived for a couple of years in an apartment with a drainage ditch nearby, where- of course- all the kids played. They'd told me several times about the 'big' snake and the little ones they saw there. I asked what kind it was, and of course the answer was "I don't know". Then one day in early spring I went over to do something and they ran in and told me the big snake was where you could see it from the street, so off we went to a small bridge over the creek. And there, stretched out on a fallen tree limb in the sun, was the biggest copperhead I've ever seen. And scattered nearby on the rocks and sand were a lot of what looked like little copperheads and some water moccasins. Normally, unless they're around the house or too close to a camp I'll leave even venomous snakes alone, but if I'd had a way to I'd have cleaned out that creekbed; the thought of all those kids playing where these lived scared hell out of me. Mind you, it wouldn't have done much good; with all the mice and rats in the area from the apartments and businesses more would have moved in in a short while. So I reminded my kids of the zoo visits, and "Remember the copperhead? Think of it and look at the big one". They weren't exactly bothered("Oh yeah, that's what it is!)
In any case, I'm sure she'll find something else to keep company with the cats and ferrets and dogs.
Furred and feathered and scaled, oh my!
Zoo day in other words. My daughter had the day off(yay Columbus) and I hadn't been there in a couple of years, so off we went. Oklahoma City has a pretty nice zoo, and they've done a lot of work on it over the last ten years or so. Among other attractions are some of Steve's neighbor's kin:
Some of the Man Camp Lizards' kin:
More distant kin:
And it seems African Porcupines love sweet potatoes:
There's a section called Aquaticus with a group of sea lions, one of whom wanted to be friends:
Alas, 'twas not to be. She's cute, but the wrong damn species.
For some of Marv & Mayhards' kin, right now they've got a flock of lorakeets you can feed. $2 for a small cup of nectar, which some of them were apparently checking this guys camera bag for.
Daughter got a cup, and when she walked in the gateway and held it out it looked like a scene from The Birds; little buggers swarmed her and fought over the stuff. They use their tongue to lick the stuff up, and they didn't leave a trace in the cup or lid. If you ever go someplace with these, I give you some advice: do NOT stand under where they perch, they pee like a shower coming down. No, I didn't get peed on, but I saw some other people get a treatment.
They've got a big cat area with jaguar, fisher cats, tigers and lions and bobcats; African plains critters with antelope, Cape buffalo and black rhino; two Indian elephants, pygmy hippo, bighorn sheep and a lot else. Last thing we saw was an otter, who developed an itch:
There's a group of them, but the others were apparently napping. This one made up for it, though. And a good time was had by all. As far as I can tell, anyway.
Some of the Man Camp Lizards' kin:
More distant kin:
And it seems African Porcupines love sweet potatoes:
There's a section called Aquaticus with a group of sea lions, one of whom wanted to be friends:
Alas, 'twas not to be. She's cute, but the wrong damn species.
For some of Marv & Mayhards' kin, right now they've got a flock of lorakeets you can feed. $2 for a small cup of nectar, which some of them were apparently checking this guys camera bag for.
Daughter got a cup, and when she walked in the gateway and held it out it looked like a scene from The Birds; little buggers swarmed her and fought over the stuff. They use their tongue to lick the stuff up, and they didn't leave a trace in the cup or lid. If you ever go someplace with these, I give you some advice: do NOT stand under where they perch, they pee like a shower coming down. No, I didn't get peed on, but I saw some other people get a treatment.
They've got a big cat area with jaguar, fisher cats, tigers and lions and bobcats; African plains critters with antelope, Cape buffalo and black rhino; two Indian elephants, pygmy hippo, bighorn sheep and a lot else. Last thing we saw was an otter, who developed an itch:
There's a group of them, but the others were apparently napping. This one made up for it, though. And a good time was had by all. As far as I can tell, anyway.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Ooooh, numbers!
I just looked at the Site Meter, and sometime in the last couple of days I passed 20,000.
I thank you, my parents thank you(thank God they've never read this), and so forth.
I thank you, my parents thank you(thank God they've never read this), and so forth.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Range test
I'd seen these before, and finally got a chance to try one out. The Taurus Tracker in(as K puts it) the manly .45acp:
It comes in both stainless steel(usually with a ported barrel) and titanium(without ports). About 9" long and 5" tall, and the titanium version weighs a flat amazing 1.5 lbs. The .45 holds five rounds, using a spring-steel clip to hold them:
By making it a five-shot, they were able to use a smaller-diameter cylinder and smaller frame, making the stainless job fairly light, and the titanium(which this one is) amazingly so. The titanium guns have a stainless steel sleeve inside the barrel and each chamber in the cylinder that handles the actual contact with hot powder gas and bullets. It's rated to handle +P ammo, so hot loads are no problem for it. Here's a clip with five rounds of Hornady XTP HPs loaded:
Let me add something here: the pistol is rated to handle +P ammo with no problem, but you will damn well know when you touch them off. The light weight makes this a good carry piece- which is what interested me about it- but, as Heinlein pointed out, there ain't no free lunch. Take away that much weight, and you'll have more recoil getting to your hands. Taurus' answer is that funny-looking grip; it's rubber with large ribs molded in. It fits into your hand quite well and does as good a job of cushioning as is probably possible. You'll notice the recoil, but it doesn't hurt.
The action is very nice. I don't have a scale, I'm guessing double-action pull at about 8 lbs. Single action is marvelous, breaking with no creep or drag and at about 2-2.5lbs. Sights on this one are fixed, on the stainless models I've seen they have the same front post and an adjustable rear.
How does it shoot? This is the first 20 rounds, all fired single-action from ten yards
That group is 2.5" across, fired with American Eagle 230gr. ball. For the first time I've ever fired one of these, I think that's pretty damn good, with all shots hitting a touch above point of aim for me. With lighter bullets, say 200 or 185gr, I think the point of impact would be right on point of aim.
I fired the next 30 closer and double-action. Yes, I scattered them a little; I've mostly been shooting semi-autos lately, and had to get my hand back in. No gripes with the pistol. The sharp recoil does lift the piece, but it's not uncontrollable, just a difference between it and a heavier piece. The front sight needs some color to help pick it up faster, though.
Notes
Taurus and S&W are the only people I know of who make a revolver chambered in auto-pistol cartridges. In this one(and I think all others) you can fire the ammo without the clips, but the ejector won't kick the empties out.
The S&W 325PD is built on a Scandium version of their full-size N-frame. It's a good pistol, the weight is not bad at all, but unless you're the size of Bill Jordan(and I'm not) it wouldn't do for a concealed-carry weapon. If you wanted it for open carry while hunting or camping, that's not a problem. And the sights are great; they're using a fiber-optic front that damn near glows in the dark with a V-notch rear, a very fast combination that I like.
Taurus says in the manual that you should not use +P loads with lead bullets in the titanium Tracker. The recoil impulse is sharp enough that if the bullet is not crimped tight into the case, the gun might act as an inertial bullet puller, and the last one or two in a cylinder might shift out enough to tie things up.
Looking at the factory site, it appears that they no longer list this pistol in .45acp, but they do still have it in .41 Magnum! I had a chance to shoot one of those, in the titanium version, and I won't do it again. I'm not recoil-shy, but it kicked the crap out of my hand; full-power .41 Mags are too much for that light a firearm.
Overall, I was impressed. Very light, quite accurate, well-made, smooth action. As a carry piece, whether hiking or in daily wear, it would work quite well. If I could get one with sights like the Smith, I'd practically drool while finding the money. And that's something for me, as I'm still kind of pissed at Taurus for helping NJ with their idiot 'smart gun' project.
Additional: further checking tells me they're making the damn thing in .44 magnum! Jeez, some people are a lot tougher than I...
It comes in both stainless steel(usually with a ported barrel) and titanium(without ports). About 9" long and 5" tall, and the titanium version weighs a flat amazing 1.5 lbs. The .45 holds five rounds, using a spring-steel clip to hold them:
By making it a five-shot, they were able to use a smaller-diameter cylinder and smaller frame, making the stainless job fairly light, and the titanium(which this one is) amazingly so. The titanium guns have a stainless steel sleeve inside the barrel and each chamber in the cylinder that handles the actual contact with hot powder gas and bullets. It's rated to handle +P ammo, so hot loads are no problem for it. Here's a clip with five rounds of Hornady XTP HPs loaded:
Let me add something here: the pistol is rated to handle +P ammo with no problem, but you will damn well know when you touch them off. The light weight makes this a good carry piece- which is what interested me about it- but, as Heinlein pointed out, there ain't no free lunch. Take away that much weight, and you'll have more recoil getting to your hands. Taurus' answer is that funny-looking grip; it's rubber with large ribs molded in. It fits into your hand quite well and does as good a job of cushioning as is probably possible. You'll notice the recoil, but it doesn't hurt.
The action is very nice. I don't have a scale, I'm guessing double-action pull at about 8 lbs. Single action is marvelous, breaking with no creep or drag and at about 2-2.5lbs. Sights on this one are fixed, on the stainless models I've seen they have the same front post and an adjustable rear.
How does it shoot? This is the first 20 rounds, all fired single-action from ten yards
That group is 2.5" across, fired with American Eagle 230gr. ball. For the first time I've ever fired one of these, I think that's pretty damn good, with all shots hitting a touch above point of aim for me. With lighter bullets, say 200 or 185gr, I think the point of impact would be right on point of aim.
I fired the next 30 closer and double-action. Yes, I scattered them a little; I've mostly been shooting semi-autos lately, and had to get my hand back in. No gripes with the pistol. The sharp recoil does lift the piece, but it's not uncontrollable, just a difference between it and a heavier piece. The front sight needs some color to help pick it up faster, though.
Notes
Taurus and S&W are the only people I know of who make a revolver chambered in auto-pistol cartridges. In this one(and I think all others) you can fire the ammo without the clips, but the ejector won't kick the empties out.
The S&W 325PD is built on a Scandium version of their full-size N-frame. It's a good pistol, the weight is not bad at all, but unless you're the size of Bill Jordan(and I'm not) it wouldn't do for a concealed-carry weapon. If you wanted it for open carry while hunting or camping, that's not a problem. And the sights are great; they're using a fiber-optic front that damn near glows in the dark with a V-notch rear, a very fast combination that I like.
Taurus says in the manual that you should not use +P loads with lead bullets in the titanium Tracker. The recoil impulse is sharp enough that if the bullet is not crimped tight into the case, the gun might act as an inertial bullet puller, and the last one or two in a cylinder might shift out enough to tie things up.
Looking at the factory site, it appears that they no longer list this pistol in .45acp, but they do still have it in .41 Magnum! I had a chance to shoot one of those, in the titanium version, and I won't do it again. I'm not recoil-shy, but it kicked the crap out of my hand; full-power .41 Mags are too much for that light a firearm.
Overall, I was impressed. Very light, quite accurate, well-made, smooth action. As a carry piece, whether hiking or in daily wear, it would work quite well. If I could get one with sights like the Smith, I'd practically drool while finding the money. And that's something for me, as I'm still kind of pissed at Taurus for helping NJ with their idiot 'smart gun' project.
Additional: further checking tells me they're making the damn thing in .44 magnum! Jeez, some people are a lot tougher than I...
I now officially hate dating
Is there some genetic thing in women that will not allow them honesty in some things? Or is it something socialized in by other women with problems?
In specific, I refer to a seeming inability to tell someone the truth about a request for another date. Three times now I've had this happen: take the lady to dinner; things seem to go well; at the end ask if she'd like to go out again and she says yes; then proceeds to never answer the phone or return calls. Except for the third. She answered, said "Not this week, maybe next" and then never answered any more calls.
Honest, I can handle 'no'. A simple "I don't think so" or some such simple response would be ok if she doesn't want to go out again. I could even deal with "You remind me of the stalker I saw on America's Most Wanted and I don't want to see you again". I'd be weirded out, but I could handle it. But it really ticks me off when someone doesn't have either the integrity or manners to simply say 'no', instead saying 'yes' while planning to never allow contact again.
Yes, I realize that not all women do this, but I somehow seem to find the ones who do.
In specific, I refer to a seeming inability to tell someone the truth about a request for another date. Three times now I've had this happen: take the lady to dinner; things seem to go well; at the end ask if she'd like to go out again and she says yes; then proceeds to never answer the phone or return calls. Except for the third. She answered, said "Not this week, maybe next" and then never answered any more calls.
Honest, I can handle 'no'. A simple "I don't think so" or some such simple response would be ok if she doesn't want to go out again. I could even deal with "You remind me of the stalker I saw on America's Most Wanted and I don't want to see you again". I'd be weirded out, but I could handle it. But it really ticks me off when someone doesn't have either the integrity or manners to simply say 'no', instead saying 'yes' while planning to never allow contact again.
Yes, I realize that not all women do this, but I somehow seem to find the ones who do.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Critters in the house
Some people have bug pests. Others have furry things. I went over to my ex's house to see my daughter, and while there noticed one of her cats crouched down, reaching under a crock pot(don't ask). I finally decided to see what she was after, and pulled it over while daughter was saying she acted like she was doing something useful, like chasing a mouse. As a matter of fact, it was. Little sucker about an inch long that stayed huddled up. I said "Yes, it is", daughter looked around, "It IS a mouse!" She crouched down to observe, and in a shocked voice said "It's alive!" Which it was, apparently hoping if it held still we'd go away.
Which the damned cat did. No longer having anything in the way, instead of doing something catly like eating it, she stood up, looked at it for a moment and then wandered away. So daughter got a glass and caught it, stating as I was leaving that she was keeping it. Have I mentioned before the rat? Yes, she has a rat, so she had mouse food and bedding.
About an hour or so after I left she informed me she'd cleaned out her old aquarium and set it up, sending me this portrait of her new critter:
I'm hoping the cats or the ferrets made themselves useful and ate any others.
Which the damned cat did. No longer having anything in the way, instead of doing something catly like eating it, she stood up, looked at it for a moment and then wandered away. So daughter got a glass and caught it, stating as I was leaving that she was keeping it. Have I mentioned before the rat? Yes, she has a rat, so she had mouse food and bedding.
About an hour or so after I left she informed me she'd cleaned out her old aquarium and set it up, sending me this portrait of her new critter:
I'm hoping the cats or the ferrets made themselves useful and ate any others.
This looks more and more like a Ramadan attack attempt
More information about the FREDS is slowly coming out, with Michelle Malkin having a boatload of links here. From what's available, seems like:
He had been attending services at a mosque and hanging out at the local Islamic Society.
He tried to buy an amount of ammonium nitrate.
He had attempted to get into the game, and ran when a guard wanted to search his backpack.
They took a buttload of explosives and/or materials to make them out of his apartment.
The trees around the explosion site show what appears to be damage from fragments.
You put all this together, and it looks more and more like what Little Green Footballs refers to as a 'work accident'. Especially with the FBI having pretty much taken over the investigation. Some parts of it, especially, like the apparent fragmentation effect(why add metal pieces to a bomb to kill yourself?) make it look like he had a lot more in mind that suicide. And if the information about tickets out of the country is correct, it points to a planned mass-homicide and plans to flee, with a work accident messing up the plans.
As to the disclaimers from the feds("No, no, no evidence of anything like terrorism"), they do not give me a great deal of confidence. They tend to deny damn near anything, on the theory that either a: anything they say may affect an investigation and/or b: everyone except themselves is a panicky idiot who can't be trusted with anything. Combine the newer stuff with what was known before, it looks like a big Ramadan surprise was planned and went wrong, with the FREDS either setting the stuff off by accident(TATP being very unstable) or setting it off deliberately if he thought he was about to be caught or- just possibly- set off remotely by someone else? That's happened a bunch of times in the Mid-East with the Palistinians and co. Question: did they find any bits of electronic debris that might point to a remote detonator? The only people who know aren't talking.
And this crap happened right near where my daughter lived when she went to OU. Which makes me just so damned happy.
He had been attending services at a mosque and hanging out at the local Islamic Society.
He tried to buy an amount of ammonium nitrate.
He had attempted to get into the game, and ran when a guard wanted to search his backpack.
They took a buttload of explosives and/or materials to make them out of his apartment.
The trees around the explosion site show what appears to be damage from fragments.
You put all this together, and it looks more and more like what Little Green Footballs refers to as a 'work accident'. Especially with the FBI having pretty much taken over the investigation. Some parts of it, especially, like the apparent fragmentation effect(why add metal pieces to a bomb to kill yourself?) make it look like he had a lot more in mind that suicide. And if the information about tickets out of the country is correct, it points to a planned mass-homicide and plans to flee, with a work accident messing up the plans.
As to the disclaimers from the feds("No, no, no evidence of anything like terrorism"), they do not give me a great deal of confidence. They tend to deny damn near anything, on the theory that either a: anything they say may affect an investigation and/or b: everyone except themselves is a panicky idiot who can't be trusted with anything. Combine the newer stuff with what was known before, it looks like a big Ramadan surprise was planned and went wrong, with the FREDS either setting the stuff off by accident(TATP being very unstable) or setting it off deliberately if he thought he was about to be caught or- just possibly- set off remotely by someone else? That's happened a bunch of times in the Mid-East with the Palistinians and co. Question: did they find any bits of electronic debris that might point to a remote detonator? The only people who know aren't talking.
And this crap happened right near where my daughter lived when she went to OU. Which makes me just so damned happy.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Always try it out first
Before you actually trust it, any firearm intended for self-defense needs to be tested. Two basic reasons: first, to see where it's hitting in relation to the sights and second, to see if it works.
Modern firearms, they'll always work? I once thought so. The idea of pulling the trigger and nothing happening(unless the cartridge was bad) never occurred to me. Until...
This was some years ago, my dad was stationed in a county in northern OK. The sheriff there ordered himself a new S&W Model 19, a fine handgun I will say. It came in and he took his old piece out of his holster, loaded the 19 and put it in, and went to work.
A while later he decided "With those adjustable sights, I ought to make sure it's hitting where the sights are looking". So he went out, set up a target, backed up a ways, took careful aim and pressed the trigger. Snap. ("Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom! /martian) Waited an appropriate time, tried again. Snap. Opened the cylinder and found neither primer had a mark on it. Oops.
Turned out like this, as I recall: S&W revolvers have a channel in the sideplate that the hammer block rides in. The idea is that unless you actually pull the trigger- which slides the block down- the firing pin cannot strike the primer. There was a burr in the channel that kept the block from sliding down, which meant the pistol could not fire. And he'd been carrying it on duty.
For a month.
I was in my early teens when Dad told me about that. And whether for target or hunting or self-defense or just owning the thing, I've never trusted a firearm to go 'bang' until I've actually used it.
Modern firearms, they'll always work? I once thought so. The idea of pulling the trigger and nothing happening(unless the cartridge was bad) never occurred to me. Until...
This was some years ago, my dad was stationed in a county in northern OK. The sheriff there ordered himself a new S&W Model 19, a fine handgun I will say. It came in and he took his old piece out of his holster, loaded the 19 and put it in, and went to work.
A while later he decided "With those adjustable sights, I ought to make sure it's hitting where the sights are looking". So he went out, set up a target, backed up a ways, took careful aim and pressed the trigger. Snap. ("Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom! /martian) Waited an appropriate time, tried again. Snap. Opened the cylinder and found neither primer had a mark on it. Oops.
Turned out like this, as I recall: S&W revolvers have a channel in the sideplate that the hammer block rides in. The idea is that unless you actually pull the trigger- which slides the block down- the firing pin cannot strike the primer. There was a burr in the channel that kept the block from sliding down, which meant the pistol could not fire. And he'd been carrying it on duty.
For a month.
I was in my early teens when Dad told me about that. And whether for target or hunting or self-defense or just owning the thing, I've never trusted a firearm to go 'bang' until I've actually used it.
As to the workings of gun control in Britain
I was over at South Park Pundit and found a link to this article from the Guardian. It's about trying to keep kids out of gangs and the levels of violent crime related to gangs. Note that it's from 2004, and crime rates have gone up since then.
Among other things are these points:
"'These are kids who, if left to their own devices, will end up with a gun in their hands or a bullet in their heads,' says Detective Inspector Mark Powell of the Greater Manchester Police."
"To illustrate the point Powell produces a newspaper headline from 12 years ago which announces the police are to wage war on gun crime and contrasts it with another from last year showing that gun crime has risen 35 per cent in the past decade. 'The police cannot win this war on their own. It has to involve the community. That is why the Mags project was started.' "
"...Powell recognises that it is hard to convince youngsters to go straight when they can earn £200 a day or more working in the drug industry"
Pay close attention to this:
"Giving the gangs names makes them seem more organised that they actually are. We're not talking about slick criminal organisations - we're talking about kids with guns.'
Among other things are these points:
"'These are kids who, if left to their own devices, will end up with a gun in their hands or a bullet in their heads,' says Detective Inspector Mark Powell of the Greater Manchester Police."
"To illustrate the point Powell produces a newspaper headline from 12 years ago which announces the police are to wage war on gun crime and contrasts it with another from last year showing that gun crime has risen 35 per cent in the past decade. 'The police cannot win this war on their own. It has to involve the community. That is why the Mags project was started.' "
"...Powell recognises that it is hard to convince youngsters to go straight when they can earn £200 a day or more working in the drug industry"
Pay close attention to this:
"Giving the gangs names makes them seem more organised that they actually are. We're not talking about slick criminal organisations - we're talking about kids with guns.'
Others disagree. Many of the gangs are said to be highly sophisticated and some have access to private doctors who will treat gunshot wounds without informing the police. There have also been incidents where the wounded have been given basic assistance by fellow gang members and then taken abroad for professional treatment. This, say those on the fringes of the gangs, is the reason that while the number of incidents involving gunfire has remained fairly constant over the past year, the number turning up with gunshot wounds in hospital has declined."
And finally, the numbers:
"Despite recent slight falls in the levels of gun crime, inner south Manchester remains one of the most dangerous parts of the country. In 2002 the firearms murder rate for England and Wales was 0.09 per 100,000 head of population, compared with 5.4 per 100,000 for the US.
In Greater Manchester the rate was to 10 per 100,000, while in Longsight, Moss Side and Hulme it was 140 per 100,000."
Several things about this. The police are basically admitting that the gangs have no problem getting guns.
Referring to drug dealers as the 'drug industry' is a telling point to me, instead of calling them dealers, as to the attitude toward it. And they're basically saying that they've failed to teach these kids that there's something wrong about selling crap to other kids and fighting each other over territory. Sounds rather like the inner-city gang problem here, doesn't it?
Whether it's denial or CYA public relations noise, they're not admitting just how big and serious an enterprise the gang activity is. Note apparent first-aid training and sneaking wounded people out of the country for treatment; that speaks of serious organization and money, and also why some statistics are being skewed to make things seem better.
And look at those final numbers. If I'm not mistaken 2002 was the year that some paper found out and demonstrated that the government was messing with the numbers to make crime look like it was less of a problem, including- maybe especially- crimes involving firearms. The 2004 numbers? X2 and X30 higher than in the U.S. in those areas! Someone once pointed out that in the U.S. if you took out the gang- and drug-related crimes in inner city areas, our homicide rate was actually very close to that of Britain. It appears that the same type crimes in the U.K. are overall shooting their gun homicide rates up. And as Kevin at Smallest Minority has pointed out before, this does not count all other homicides; knife and gun and beating, etc. You add all those in? It has really gotten bad in Britain. Last official numbers I saw said that assault, burglary and robbery were 2.5 times higher in Britain than here; I can't remember the overall homicide numbers, but they were, I think, just a bit below ours. And where ours have held steady or gone down, theirs have gone up.
Yeah, I really, really want to be more like Britain and Europe.
And about those levees...
Over at Wizbang the other day found this I got busy and forgot about. It seems that Katrina was weaker- maybe much weaker- than previously thought when it hit NO. If this information pans out, it means that most of the levee and flood wall system is suspect. If this setup was supposed to be good through a Category 3 hurricane, and failed in this?
Wiz earlier had more on the levee failures, pointing out that while the Corps of Engineers was using wording about 'overtopping' and such, pictures showed some of the levees in question had big damn holes in them. That ain't 'overtopping' guys, that's failure.
This mess could mean bad design, or bad construction, or bad maintenance, or a combination thereof. I say could, because it is possible that some once-in-a- whenever combination of things could have done it. Doubtful, but possible. If it's the first three, we're talking a: even more money to survey and upgrade existing levees and walls, and b: hopefully finding out who screwed up how and fining or jailing them. Or something.
Wiz earlier had more on the levee failures, pointing out that while the Corps of Engineers was using wording about 'overtopping' and such, pictures showed some of the levees in question had big damn holes in them. That ain't 'overtopping' guys, that's failure.
This mess could mean bad design, or bad construction, or bad maintenance, or a combination thereof. I say could, because it is possible that some once-in-a- whenever combination of things could have done it. Doubtful, but possible. If it's the first three, we're talking a: even more money to survey and upgrade existing levees and walls, and b: hopefully finding out who screwed up how and fining or jailing them. Or something.
Ok, this isn't looking good
Ref the FREDS outside the football game in Norman, it seems he tried to buy ammonium nitrate; his roommate is/was Pakastani and has disappeared; it seems he attended the same mosque as Moussaoui; and the FBI Joint Terrorosm Task Force is the lead agency investigating.
As I pointed out before, the FBI doesn't take over a case just because somebody blew themselves up. And if you live in the country, or farm or ranch, and need to blow a stump or fertilize fields you might well use ammonium nitrate; you do not do so if you live in an apartment. No stumps to blow, and you wouldn't need a big bag of anything to fertilize the flower pots and window box. I'd much rather this was a screwed-up kid committing suicide, but it isn't looking like it.
Links with information at Generation Why, Michelle Malkin and Gateway Pundit.
As I pointed out before, the FBI doesn't take over a case just because somebody blew themselves up. And if you live in the country, or farm or ranch, and need to blow a stump or fertilize fields you might well use ammonium nitrate; you do not do so if you live in an apartment. No stumps to blow, and you wouldn't need a big bag of anything to fertilize the flower pots and window box. I'd much rather this was a screwed-up kid committing suicide, but it isn't looking like it.
Links with information at Generation Why, Michelle Malkin and Gateway Pundit.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
This should be fun...
Friend of mine got married in the spring. Now his wife is pregnant("We wanted more kids, but weren't counting on this soon!"). They just had an ultrasound today, and found it's a girl.
This should be fun. I get to watch him learning about diapers, and urping on his clothes just as he's leaving for work, etc. And in about twelve years, he gets to dig a moat and check out permits for crocodiles. Because she'll attract guys JUST LIKE HE WAS!
Or so I told him.
This should be fun. I get to watch him learning about diapers, and urping on his clothes just as he's leaving for work, etc. And in about twelve years, he gets to dig a moat and check out permits for crocodiles. Because she'll attract guys JUST LIKE HE WAS!
Or so I told him.
Dry buses in NO
With a clear route, and still not used. Wizbang found this today.
Can we now all agree that Nagin is a friggin' idiot? Who shouldn't have been given charge of the dog pound, let alone city hall?
Can we now all agree that Nagin is a friggin' idiot? Who shouldn't have been given charge of the dog pound, let alone city hall?
The FREDS at O.U.
I think I first read that abbreviation at Little Green Footballs, short for F'n Retarded Explosive Delivery System. They've released the name of the guy, but from there it's real confusing.
There's a pretty good rundown of the information currently available at Wizbang. What information is available seems to confirm that the explosive was a type often used by various jihadi groups; the guy seems to have had quite a bit of stuff in his apartment that the LE folks have carried off and disposed of. From there, ?.
Possibly a depressed student who decided to go out with a bang, possibly someone with an intention to set off a number of bombs where they'd kill other people. Take your pick. Until more information is released, your guess is as good as mine. World Net Daily had two articles (here and here) on it. Yeah, it's WWD, but a lot of what's there is also what's been on local news. One thing that makes me think there's a lot more than a suicide here is the FBI pretty much taking over the investigation; they don't do that for suicides. And the amount of stuff being hauled out of the home is worrisome.
All in all, a very nice mess. We'll see.
There's a pretty good rundown of the information currently available at Wizbang. What information is available seems to confirm that the explosive was a type often used by various jihadi groups; the guy seems to have had quite a bit of stuff in his apartment that the LE folks have carried off and disposed of. From there, ?.
Possibly a depressed student who decided to go out with a bang, possibly someone with an intention to set off a number of bombs where they'd kill other people. Take your pick. Until more information is released, your guess is as good as mine. World Net Daily had two articles (here and here) on it. Yeah, it's WWD, but a lot of what's there is also what's been on local news. One thing that makes me think there's a lot more than a suicide here is the FBI pretty much taking over the investigation; they don't do that for suicides. And the amount of stuff being hauled out of the home is worrisome.
All in all, a very nice mess. We'll see.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Tattoos and piercings, and overdoing it
Quite some time ago a guy named Kim did a post about the fad for body decoration with tattoos and piercings. Overall I tend to agree with him; a lot of people shouldn't get the damn things at all, and too many who do get them overdo it(he thought it was a stupid damn thing to do to yourself, period).
What brought this up was a memory. A while back, in desire of getting out of the house and around some noise and people, I went to a local place of adult entertainment(POAE hereafter). No, I didn't want a lap dance; I decided a long time ago that if I was going to have a pretty lady wiggling in my lap I wanted it to be because she chose to be there, not as part of a business deal. I didn't want to go to a bar and try to pick someone up, either. I wanted loud music and a crowd and to lean there and drink a beer. Or maybe two.
In any case. Several of the dancers had tattoos, mostly small ones; the popular small of the back and so forth. Then a dancer got up on the main stage, a very good-looking woman. Then the dress came off, and after a minute I realized that the mottling on her belly was a tattoo. Not just a little one, no, this was words and patterns that stretched from the bottom of her rib cage to her thong. And it grossed me out. Not just the coverage, but her being black, at a distance the damn thing looked like a skin condition of some kind. Here was this lovely woman with this crap imbedded in her skin, and it really messed her up. I'm sure she thought/thinks it was just wonderful(she'd better), but it pissed me off. I flat hate it when I see someone do something like that to themselves. A pretty girl with enough metal embedded in her face to endanger her if she walks near a strong magnet. A guy who looks like an idiot with crap hanging all over his face and a chain between his nipples. Strictly speaking, none of my business, but it still pisses me off.
An awful lot of tattoos, it's not the current state that may be a problem, it's what they'll look like in later years. There's a lady who operates a booth at Med-Fair whose whole back is covered with a phoenix, and it does look good on her; but what'll it be like in later years? Maybe still good, but maybe bloody awful.
Oh, well. End of bitching for the night.
What brought this up was a memory. A while back, in desire of getting out of the house and around some noise and people, I went to a local place of adult entertainment(POAE hereafter). No, I didn't want a lap dance; I decided a long time ago that if I was going to have a pretty lady wiggling in my lap I wanted it to be because she chose to be there, not as part of a business deal. I didn't want to go to a bar and try to pick someone up, either. I wanted loud music and a crowd and to lean there and drink a beer. Or maybe two.
In any case. Several of the dancers had tattoos, mostly small ones; the popular small of the back and so forth. Then a dancer got up on the main stage, a very good-looking woman. Then the dress came off, and after a minute I realized that the mottling on her belly was a tattoo. Not just a little one, no, this was words and patterns that stretched from the bottom of her rib cage to her thong. And it grossed me out. Not just the coverage, but her being black, at a distance the damn thing looked like a skin condition of some kind. Here was this lovely woman with this crap imbedded in her skin, and it really messed her up. I'm sure she thought/thinks it was just wonderful(she'd better), but it pissed me off. I flat hate it when I see someone do something like that to themselves. A pretty girl with enough metal embedded in her face to endanger her if she walks near a strong magnet. A guy who looks like an idiot with crap hanging all over his face and a chain between his nipples. Strictly speaking, none of my business, but it still pisses me off.
An awful lot of tattoos, it's not the current state that may be a problem, it's what they'll look like in later years. There's a lady who operates a booth at Med-Fair whose whole back is covered with a phoenix, and it does look good on her; but what'll it be like in later years? Maybe still good, but maybe bloody awful.
Oh, well. End of bitching for the night.
Just because...
"Watch out! She's got a gun!"
"WHERE?!?"
Found I can't remember where.
And she looks a little like Ann Coulter, doesn't she?
"WHERE?!?"
Found I can't remember where.
And she looks a little like Ann Coulter, doesn't she?
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Why so many cops bitch at the public
And vice versa. Things like this. And the crap turning up with NOPD that I posted before(along with a lot of other people).
Said up front: there are a lot of good cops out there, good cops being defined as those who don't use their position to bully people and break laws and basically steal just because they can. They do good work, and deserve to be praised for it. I've known a number of them in my life that I would, without hesitation, have trusted with my kid's lives.
I have also known a number that I wouldn't trust to guard an empty dog house, let alone one with anything valuable inside. I've known some and dealt with some whose attitude was enough to piss off the Good Humor man, who must have had letters of complaint and formal complaints an inch thick in their files. And they were still cops. They might get yelled at, but fired? Uh-uh. And then they just went out mad and took it out on someone else. Those are some of the idiots I'm speaking of tonight, along with those like the clowns from NJ who felt it was their privilege, maybe their right, to ignore laws just because they were in a hurry. And developed a case of righteous anger when called on it.
The first line of the article Geek links to tells it all: "A speeding New Jersey police convoy should not have been warned to slow down here, its superiors say, despite numerous 911 calls from motorists claiming they were forced off Interstate 81." Think about the attitude behind that. It rots the respect the public should have for LE officers, and it leads to(sometimes follows) the arrogance of someone who believes he's above the law.
"The news of the Augusta County stop incensed Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale, who, in a taped telephone conversation with Roane, lambasted the deputy for stopping his officers.
Said up front: there are a lot of good cops out there, good cops being defined as those who don't use their position to bully people and break laws and basically steal just because they can. They do good work, and deserve to be praised for it. I've known a number of them in my life that I would, without hesitation, have trusted with my kid's lives.
I have also known a number that I wouldn't trust to guard an empty dog house, let alone one with anything valuable inside. I've known some and dealt with some whose attitude was enough to piss off the Good Humor man, who must have had letters of complaint and formal complaints an inch thick in their files. And they were still cops. They might get yelled at, but fired? Uh-uh. And then they just went out mad and took it out on someone else. Those are some of the idiots I'm speaking of tonight, along with those like the clowns from NJ who felt it was their privilege, maybe their right, to ignore laws just because they were in a hurry. And developed a case of righteous anger when called on it.
The first line of the article Geek links to tells it all: "A speeding New Jersey police convoy should not have been warned to slow down here, its superiors say, despite numerous 911 calls from motorists claiming they were forced off Interstate 81." Think about the attitude behind that. It rots the respect the public should have for LE officers, and it leads to(sometimes follows) the arrogance of someone who believes he's above the law.
"The news of the Augusta County stop incensed Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale, who, in a taped telephone conversation with Roane, lambasted the deputy for stopping his officers.
"If you think that that's not a disgrace, you should take that badge off your shirt and throw it in the garbage," Speziale said. "This is unacceptable, and I'll tell you what, I hope I get the opportunity to show you the same courtesy up here in New Jersey."
Speziale told Roane that "law enforcement is all about supporting each other" and said he was reporting the Augusta County stop to the National Sheriffs' Association."
This clown is the Sheriff, the chief LE officer of that county, and he not only told another officer he was a disgrace, and his conduct 'unacceptable', but he would report him to the NSA for daring to make his deputies slow down and stop running people off the road. This kind of crap is the disgrace, and this sheriff has his head so far up his backside he thinks it's the 'proper' attitude to have.
Sheriff, I have news for you; once your officers leave their jurisdiction, they no longer have the same powers they have when in it. They're not entitled to use lights and siren just because they're in a hurry at any time, let alone when in another state. They're not entitled to carry a gun in other places because they're a deputy in one county. Yeah, a lot of cops let them, and it kind of pisses me off. They don't know if the guy they're talking to is a fine officer or a disgrace to the badge, but because he does have a badge they let him get away with it. When they'd throw you or I into a cell without hesitation.
This is why I had ambivalent feelings about the proposed law to allow current and retired LE officers carry concealed nationwide; I don't generally have a problem with any law-abiding citazen carrying, but this makes one more point of separation betweel LE and the public, a privilege given to cops and denied to the rest of us. Why should an officer from Yazoo City MS be allowed to carry concealed anywhere, and an honest citazen be denied that? Publicola and Smallest Minority have written about this before, probably more eloquently than I could. It strikes me as being related to the attitude of people like Sen. Schumer and Feinstein and Rep. Boxer, who whine endlessly that guns should be banned and people shouldn't be allowed to carry concealed, while they have carry permits; sometimes for the types of firearm they insist should be banned. "You peasants can't be trusted with this, but WE are important/rich/special and so it's different for US". Which also helps lead to the mindset that allows cops who're supposed to be helping people after a natural disaster to point guns at honest citazens, in some cases beat up on them, so as to take the firearms those people were using to protect themselves; "You're not one of us, so I've got no problem following an illegal order". In fact, it probably never entered the minds of at least some of them that it COULD be an illegal order; they got it from Authority, and that's all that counted.
Some of the information from Kevin indicated that some National Guard and LE refused to perform that act, and "By Sunday, Sheriff's offices in Texas are looking for evidence of systematic intent to confiscate arms, vowing to pull their men out if that is in fact what is going on.", which helps point out that there are a lot of LE personnel out there who remember their oath, and who don't look on the honest citazen as either an enemy or a sub-human.
Part of the trouble is that LE has much the same attitude as doctors and lawyers, in that they'll too often cover up for and defend members of their profession that, personally, they wish would take a long dive in a shallow well. That Us vs. Them attitude that gets out of control and leads to people who should be thrown out of the profession, who sometimes should be jailed, instead being protected.
I'm starting to ramble on a bit, but this situation both pisses me off and worries me. Pisses me off for the obvious reasons; worries me because every time crap like this comes out, it pushes LE and the public further apart. Which is good for neither.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
And as to the tolerant, 'progressive', caring Left...
Check this out. Ace found it so you don't have to browse through the flowing sewage to find out about it. A Kos contributor says:
"We need terror. We need horror. We need the streets running awash in rivers of blood of these thugs and criminals and zealots. Activism didn't prevent 60,000 deaths in Vietnam. All the activism of the Civil Rights era has gotten African Americans precisely nowhere. Segregation may not be the law of the land anymore, but it's still the de facto state of America."
Isn't that just SO caring, SO wonderful, SO progressive?
And where does this 'segregation is still the de facto state' crap come from? Apparently this idiot doesn't consider no segregated schools, or jobs, or neighborhoods to be any kind of progress from the past. Probably the same kind of idiot who says Condi Rice isn't really 'black' anymore, or at least not black enough to count.
This is why I very rarely look over at Democratic Underground or Kos; I see crap like this, and the rhetorical pissing on the grave of Scalia, and shut it off. I probably should look more often, just to see what kind of utter stupidity is going on, but it's depressing.
"We need terror. We need horror. We need the streets running awash in rivers of blood of these thugs and criminals and zealots. Activism didn't prevent 60,000 deaths in Vietnam. All the activism of the Civil Rights era has gotten African Americans precisely nowhere. Segregation may not be the law of the land anymore, but it's still the de facto state of America."
Isn't that just SO caring, SO wonderful, SO progressive?
And where does this 'segregation is still the de facto state' crap come from? Apparently this idiot doesn't consider no segregated schools, or jobs, or neighborhoods to be any kind of progress from the past. Probably the same kind of idiot who says Condi Rice isn't really 'black' anymore, or at least not black enough to count.
This is why I very rarely look over at Democratic Underground or Kos; I see crap like this, and the rhetorical pissing on the grave of Scalia, and shut it off. I probably should look more often, just to see what kind of utter stupidity is going on, but it's depressing.
Just to add to the mix in NO,
over at Mark in Mexico found this: ""Someone had told me, 'We saw the police driving your cars,' and then when we got here the dealership was in total disarray, totally smashed up, every door was kicked in and we were looted," he said."
Cadillacs and Corvettes and a tractor, oh my. And this gives a good example of what it's been like in NO: "Nevertheless, Stead stressed that neither he nor any other Sewell employee requested a formal investigation from any law enforcement agency.
"The attorney general's office contacted us, we did not contact them," he said. "Please make that clear because I have to live here, you know."
Think about that. Dealership cleaned out, trashed, and he didn't contact law enforcement because "I have to live here, you know". Tells you all you need to know about how NOPD has operated.
Let's talk about rebuilding NO. A: NO local/state politician gets to control money, B: NO local contractor/agency gets to approve work that's been done, C: NO police officer who ran off the job, looted, etc., has a job any more. Period. Screw any noise about 'stress', or 'you have to understand'; fired, and for the looters preferably a jail cell.
Can you imagine what it must be like for the real, HONEST police officers there? Year after year, surrounded by this kind of crap?
Cadillacs and Corvettes and a tractor, oh my. And this gives a good example of what it's been like in NO: "Nevertheless, Stead stressed that neither he nor any other Sewell employee requested a formal investigation from any law enforcement agency.
"The attorney general's office contacted us, we did not contact them," he said. "Please make that clear because I have to live here, you know."
Think about that. Dealership cleaned out, trashed, and he didn't contact law enforcement because "I have to live here, you know". Tells you all you need to know about how NOPD has operated.
Let's talk about rebuilding NO. A: NO local/state politician gets to control money, B: NO local contractor/agency gets to approve work that's been done, C: NO police officer who ran off the job, looted, etc., has a job any more. Period. Screw any noise about 'stress', or 'you have to understand'; fired, and for the looters preferably a jail cell.
Can you imagine what it must be like for the real, HONEST police officers there? Year after year, surrounded by this kind of crap?
Friday, September 30, 2005
Damn, Microlon is good stuff!
I've written about it in bores and in my bike. I've used it on trigger parts and slide rails. And a while back I decided to treat my loading dies with it. Take them apart, clean thoroughly, and then give them the five-coat treatment. Made a noticable difference in the force needed to run cases through.
After range day, between what I shot and picked up, I had over a hundred .30-06 cases to resize/deprime. Yesterday I lubed them(I've been using Lee lube), and tonight I ran them through. About halfway through I noticed that several cases took more effort than the others to run into and back out of the die. Then I really looked at the one I'd just resized. Then I looked at the rest of that group. Yeah, I'd missed lubing about ten cases, and six of these I resized before I noticed it. And none stuck.
If you don't reload, let me tell you this is a wonderful thing! Usually, if you forget to lube one case it gets stuck in the die(exception is made for carbide or titanium nitride dies), and you have to do some nastiness and swearing to get it out. And it usually ruins the case. Yet I ran a half-dozen cases through, one after the other, and none stuck.
This stuff ain't cheap, but for gun stuff at least it's worth every penny.
After range day, between what I shot and picked up, I had over a hundred .30-06 cases to resize/deprime. Yesterday I lubed them(I've been using Lee lube), and tonight I ran them through. About halfway through I noticed that several cases took more effort than the others to run into and back out of the die. Then I really looked at the one I'd just resized. Then I looked at the rest of that group. Yeah, I'd missed lubing about ten cases, and six of these I resized before I noticed it. And none stuck.
If you don't reload, let me tell you this is a wonderful thing! Usually, if you forget to lube one case it gets stuck in the die(exception is made for carbide or titanium nitride dies), and you have to do some nastiness and swearing to get it out. And it usually ruins the case. Yet I ran a half-dozen cases through, one after the other, and none stuck.
This stuff ain't cheap, but for gun stuff at least it's worth every penny.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Books that'd make good movies, if...
That's a big 'if'. If the Hollywood crap machine wouldn't ruin it. If the writers wouldn't screw with a perfectly good story. If the producers wouldn't throw in a bunch of extra explosions and/or gunfights and/or special effects crap just because "it's a good idea" or "we can do this!". And so forth.
I've mentioned this before, the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories Fritz Leiber wrote. Monsters, wizards, beautiful women(often scantily clad), swords and battles, the whole nine yards. CGI- used properly- would bring Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face to life; various critters and magic could show before us in all their glory. Damn, those are movies I'd pay to see!
More modern? Check out the Matt Helm books by Donald Hamilton. Spy stories that do NOT depend on more explosions and car chases instead of a plot, and a protagonist who's believable as a human being. Warts, scars and all. One of my favorite passages involved rescuing a girl from kidnappers. As they're preparing to break out, he explains to her that 'escaping is easy, escaping is no problem. As long as anybody who can stop us is dead'. Works for me.
A little less modern? The 'SPQR' series by John Maddox Roberts. Murder mysteries set in ancient Rome, with characters both historical and made up, backed by lots of research and believable portrayals of the people and places, with enough explanations worked in so the historical references make sense.
The Joe Leaphorn mysteries by Tony Hillerman. A Navajo Tribal Police officer investigating odd occurrances on the Big Rez. They made one of them into a movie for PBS with Robert effin' Redford directing, and mucked it up good.
Lord, there's a LOT of books and short stories out there that would make marvelous movies. Take the first Nero Wolf novel 'Fer de Lance' for one. The list goes on and on, mysteries and sci-fi and historical and... They all run into the same problem, though. When in college a friend and I decided that Fafhrd and the Mouser would be amazing on the big screen, but we didn't know if we wanted it to happen because Hollywood would probably screw it up.
I just wish they'd do it right, and prove us wrong.
I've mentioned this before, the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories Fritz Leiber wrote. Monsters, wizards, beautiful women(often scantily clad), swords and battles, the whole nine yards. CGI- used properly- would bring Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face to life; various critters and magic could show before us in all their glory. Damn, those are movies I'd pay to see!
More modern? Check out the Matt Helm books by Donald Hamilton. Spy stories that do NOT depend on more explosions and car chases instead of a plot, and a protagonist who's believable as a human being. Warts, scars and all. One of my favorite passages involved rescuing a girl from kidnappers. As they're preparing to break out, he explains to her that 'escaping is easy, escaping is no problem. As long as anybody who can stop us is dead'. Works for me.
A little less modern? The 'SPQR' series by John Maddox Roberts. Murder mysteries set in ancient Rome, with characters both historical and made up, backed by lots of research and believable portrayals of the people and places, with enough explanations worked in so the historical references make sense.
The Joe Leaphorn mysteries by Tony Hillerman. A Navajo Tribal Police officer investigating odd occurrances on the Big Rez. They made one of them into a movie for PBS with Robert effin' Redford directing, and mucked it up good.
Lord, there's a LOT of books and short stories out there that would make marvelous movies. Take the first Nero Wolf novel 'Fer de Lance' for one. The list goes on and on, mysteries and sci-fi and historical and... They all run into the same problem, though. When in college a friend and I decided that Fafhrd and the Mouser would be amazing on the big screen, but we didn't know if we wanted it to happen because Hollywood would probably screw it up.
I just wish they'd do it right, and prove us wrong.
Yard critters, and a change in the weather
One of the things that occasionally catches you by surprise is the amount of wildlife in this city. I've seen coyote crossing a major street at night, possums and raccoons galore(usually dead in the road), and squirrels everywhere. A few nights back when I came home from work I saw a dead squirrel in the street in front of my house. I figured I'd pick it up later and put it in the trash; it was after dark before I remembered, and when I stepped outside I heard a crunch, and found this in the yard:
It had pulled the squirrel well away from the road and proceeded to dine. Notice the paw over it, the "It's mine, you can't have it!" expression? I talked to it a bit, and it didn't run away, and when I came back out to take this it didn't spook at the flash. In the morning all trace of the squirrel was gone, either eaten or carried away.
Speaking of squirrels, this relative of the deceased was in the back the next day:
Yeah, I feed them. Not daily, every two or three days I put a bit out. I enjoy watching them, and the dogs like chasing them. Have you ever noticed that some of the little beasts like to play with dogs? They'll cross the yard in plain sight when they could go by fence or wires, then lead a chase. I saw one do this, and not five minutes later go back the other way. That time he damn near didn't make it, sailing through the fence maybe an inch in front of one of the dogs.
At the house I used to live in, one night the dogs were having fits, in that "Boss! Boss! There's something here!" way, so I went out with a flashlight. I couldn't see anything, until the light hit the top of a fence post, and the friggin' enormous possom perched there. Three directions he could have gone to get away, but there he sat, driving the dogs nuts. I finally put the dogs in the garage for a while and it left.
You'll see a lot of rabbits at times, too. I keep waiting for a wallaby or something to show up some evening.
It had pulled the squirrel well away from the road and proceeded to dine. Notice the paw over it, the "It's mine, you can't have it!" expression? I talked to it a bit, and it didn't run away, and when I came back out to take this it didn't spook at the flash. In the morning all trace of the squirrel was gone, either eaten or carried away.
Speaking of squirrels, this relative of the deceased was in the back the next day:
Yeah, I feed them. Not daily, every two or three days I put a bit out. I enjoy watching them, and the dogs like chasing them. Have you ever noticed that some of the little beasts like to play with dogs? They'll cross the yard in plain sight when they could go by fence or wires, then lead a chase. I saw one do this, and not five minutes later go back the other way. That time he damn near didn't make it, sailing through the fence maybe an inch in front of one of the dogs.
At the house I used to live in, one night the dogs were having fits, in that "Boss! Boss! There's something here!" way, so I went out with a flashlight. I couldn't see anything, until the light hit the top of a fence post, and the friggin' enormous possom perched there. Three directions he could have gone to get away, but there he sat, driving the dogs nuts. I finally put the dogs in the garage for a while and it left.
You'll see a lot of rabbits at times, too. I keep waiting for a wallaby or something to show up some evening.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
More from range day
I've mentioned before the M1 Garand. It's one of my favorite rifles, both to contemplate and to shoot. When I got this one it was standard GI, with a barrel installed in the 1950's that had seen better days. I found a good barrel and had it installed(I don't have headspace guages, the the gunsmith gave me a very good price on the work). It shot better, but the trigger was a little heavy and gritty, and the front sight was just a tad loose.
The trigger I cleaned up with the directions I found through Fulton Armory. Look down the left side to 'M1 Garand pages', which will, among others, get you to the 'Garand Info Place', and there is the 'How-To Guides', including how to improve the trigger. Which, by the way, is a wonderful piece of design and engineering. Strong, reliable, and still in use. One of the nice things about it is that when you engage the safety, it actually locks the hammer in place; if you do something so bad it'll break the hammer loose, you've probably trashed the rifle itself. And it's fairly simple to smooth up. I will take a moment to remind you of what I wrote in a post on trigger work: If you don't have the knowledge to mess with the trigger mechanism on a firearm, DON'T! If you have any doubt of your ability to look it over and follow the directions exactly, leave the damn thing alone.
Ahem. That done, their method did a wonderful job of smoothing out my trigger, which made it nicer to shoot. I've mentioned before shimming the trigger assembly to tighten the lockup of trigger, receiver and stock, which helped. The last thing I did I'd read of before, and that was tightening up the sight/gas cylinder assembly. In the M1 the front sight is mounted on the top of the gas cylinder, and it slides onto the barrel as a unit. There are splines in the assembly and on the barrel that lock it into alignment and keep it from wobbling. However, it's not unusual for them to be a little loose. Tolerances in mass-manufacturing, you know. So after reading some advise on the subject from Publicola, I took a flat-nose punch and my 2oz. hammer and very lightly peened the corners of the splines on the barrel. I emphasize VERY LIGHTLY. From what I've read/been told, match rifles are set up tight enough you have to use a mallet and wood block to drive the assembly into place on the barrel. You don't have to get it that tight, but you need it to be tight enough that the assembly has zero wobble on the barrel; it only takes a couple of thousandths to move the point of impact at a distance. When I was done, mine takes tapping with a block to set it into place. Cleaning, you ask? From what I know of both M1 and M1A rifles, you take the assembly off only when necessary, and unless you're using corrosive primed ammo, you can clean the bore and action without removing it.
How did it work? Originally, I could get 4-6" groups. After the trigger and shimming the action, cut that by about half. After the sight work, I got this at 100 yards:
That's 1 3/4" for the three-shot group. I had one problem today; I'd noticed that I seemed to be stringing shots vertically a bit. I thought it was my fault(it was, but not in the way I thought), until I did some other things, came back to the Garand and found that the group fired was about 5" low. Upon which I found that the locking screw for the elevation adjustment was loose, which had let recoil bump the rear sight elevation. That got tightened down, the sight was readjusted, and with my last clip I shot this. I stopped at three because that only left 5 rounds, and I don't like to be out of ammo for whatever I have along. By the way, does anybody else do that? Or and I the only one that weird?
Never mind.
In any case, a few simple things really improved the accuracy of this rifle. The ammo, by the way, was some of the Korean M2 ball that's on the market Standard GI ball. I'm tempted to get some match ammo and try it out. Although with this performance, I'll damn sure try to get some more of this stuff.
I shot my postal match entries, and the other thing I wanted to check out was this:
It's an Enfield revolver chambered in .38 S&W. NOT .38 Special, the cartridge that preceeded it. Double-action only, break-top. See the lever in front of the hammer? Push it down and the barrel/cylinder assembly swings down, and the ejector kicks out the empties. Drop in fresh cartridges, close the action and you're ready. These things were originally designed for a load firing a 200 grain lead bullet at about 650-700 feet per second. Later, to comply with the Geneva Convention(I believe) they switched to a 170 grain jacketed bullet. The original load had a good reputation as a fight-stopper, the later load not nearly as good. The big reason we wanted to get to the original load was accuracy. You may know that a pistol sighted in for a heavy bullet load, when fired with a light bullet, tends to hit low. With 125 grain bullets in this one, about 6" low at ten yards. With 165 grain semi-wadcutters, accuracy was quite good but still low. Then I found a Lyman mold that throws a 195 grain round-nose bullet that looks almost identical to the original. I cast some bullets, and since the .38 S&W has a larger bullet diameter than .38 Special I didn't size them; just lubed with Lee Liquid Alox and loaded them up.
Shooting it was a pleasure. Still mild recoil, but you could feel a definate difference between this and the light-bullet loads. And, more to the point, point of impact seems to be up with point of aim, as it should be. Makes it a lot nicer to shoot. I'm thinking of getting hold of one for myself, and maybe making some grips that fit my hand better- the factory ones are kind of squared-off. And with this load, I think it'd make a pretty good defense weapon if you had to grab it.
Ah, range day. It almost always improves things.
The trigger I cleaned up with the directions I found through Fulton Armory. Look down the left side to 'M1 Garand pages', which will, among others, get you to the 'Garand Info Place', and there is the 'How-To Guides', including how to improve the trigger. Which, by the way, is a wonderful piece of design and engineering. Strong, reliable, and still in use. One of the nice things about it is that when you engage the safety, it actually locks the hammer in place; if you do something so bad it'll break the hammer loose, you've probably trashed the rifle itself. And it's fairly simple to smooth up. I will take a moment to remind you of what I wrote in a post on trigger work: If you don't have the knowledge to mess with the trigger mechanism on a firearm, DON'T! If you have any doubt of your ability to look it over and follow the directions exactly, leave the damn thing alone.
Ahem. That done, their method did a wonderful job of smoothing out my trigger, which made it nicer to shoot. I've mentioned before shimming the trigger assembly to tighten the lockup of trigger, receiver and stock, which helped. The last thing I did I'd read of before, and that was tightening up the sight/gas cylinder assembly. In the M1 the front sight is mounted on the top of the gas cylinder, and it slides onto the barrel as a unit. There are splines in the assembly and on the barrel that lock it into alignment and keep it from wobbling. However, it's not unusual for them to be a little loose. Tolerances in mass-manufacturing, you know. So after reading some advise on the subject from Publicola, I took a flat-nose punch and my 2oz. hammer and very lightly peened the corners of the splines on the barrel. I emphasize VERY LIGHTLY. From what I've read/been told, match rifles are set up tight enough you have to use a mallet and wood block to drive the assembly into place on the barrel. You don't have to get it that tight, but you need it to be tight enough that the assembly has zero wobble on the barrel; it only takes a couple of thousandths to move the point of impact at a distance. When I was done, mine takes tapping with a block to set it into place. Cleaning, you ask? From what I know of both M1 and M1A rifles, you take the assembly off only when necessary, and unless you're using corrosive primed ammo, you can clean the bore and action without removing it.
How did it work? Originally, I could get 4-6" groups. After the trigger and shimming the action, cut that by about half. After the sight work, I got this at 100 yards:
That's 1 3/4" for the three-shot group. I had one problem today; I'd noticed that I seemed to be stringing shots vertically a bit. I thought it was my fault(it was, but not in the way I thought), until I did some other things, came back to the Garand and found that the group fired was about 5" low. Upon which I found that the locking screw for the elevation adjustment was loose, which had let recoil bump the rear sight elevation. That got tightened down, the sight was readjusted, and with my last clip I shot this. I stopped at three because that only left 5 rounds, and I don't like to be out of ammo for whatever I have along. By the way, does anybody else do that? Or and I the only one that weird?
Never mind.
In any case, a few simple things really improved the accuracy of this rifle. The ammo, by the way, was some of the Korean M2 ball that's on the market Standard GI ball. I'm tempted to get some match ammo and try it out. Although with this performance, I'll damn sure try to get some more of this stuff.
I shot my postal match entries, and the other thing I wanted to check out was this:
It's an Enfield revolver chambered in .38 S&W. NOT .38 Special, the cartridge that preceeded it. Double-action only, break-top. See the lever in front of the hammer? Push it down and the barrel/cylinder assembly swings down, and the ejector kicks out the empties. Drop in fresh cartridges, close the action and you're ready. These things were originally designed for a load firing a 200 grain lead bullet at about 650-700 feet per second. Later, to comply with the Geneva Convention(I believe) they switched to a 170 grain jacketed bullet. The original load had a good reputation as a fight-stopper, the later load not nearly as good. The big reason we wanted to get to the original load was accuracy. You may know that a pistol sighted in for a heavy bullet load, when fired with a light bullet, tends to hit low. With 125 grain bullets in this one, about 6" low at ten yards. With 165 grain semi-wadcutters, accuracy was quite good but still low. Then I found a Lyman mold that throws a 195 grain round-nose bullet that looks almost identical to the original. I cast some bullets, and since the .38 S&W has a larger bullet diameter than .38 Special I didn't size them; just lubed with Lee Liquid Alox and loaded them up.
Shooting it was a pleasure. Still mild recoil, but you could feel a definate difference between this and the light-bullet loads. And, more to the point, point of impact seems to be up with point of aim, as it should be. Makes it a lot nicer to shoot. I'm thinking of getting hold of one for myself, and maybe making some grips that fit my hand better- the factory ones are kind of squared-off. And with this load, I think it'd make a pretty good defense weapon if you had to grab it.
Ah, range day. It almost always improves things.
One thing for sure, and more questions in NO
From Say Uncle we hear that Compass, head of the NOPD has resigned. He also notes that the mayor and Compass are both denying that any confications of guns took place, despite videotaped incidents and some guns being returned.
Now another thing. I heard a report on the radio today that the FBI was investigating the NOPD officers who 'disappeared' during/after Katrina, and discovered that many of them did not exist. I've read that the British army used to have a problem with officers keeping men killed/invalided out on the rolls and keeping their pay; if this is true in NO, then someone has been keeping the pay and benefits of the nonexistent officers. That's a damn lot of money over time, and I wonder what may turn out to be Compass' part in this? He may not be involved, but the sudden retirement makes me wonder. Combine this with the large pile of excrement falling on him and the mayor and the PD over the lousy response to Katrina and the confiscations... Someone is in a heap of trouble.
Just found these: in light of the information in the second link following, even if it wasn't someone in a position of authority pocketing money from the pay of nonexistent officers, the question(along with the fraud involved) is, were any of these retired and reserve officers collecting active-duty officer pay? Michelle Malkin has more information on the retirement here, and links to this. Money quote: "Fox News' Tony Snow has said that of the 1700 police working for New Orleans, maybe only 1000 really exist."
Now another thing. I heard a report on the radio today that the FBI was investigating the NOPD officers who 'disappeared' during/after Katrina, and discovered that many of them did not exist. I've read that the British army used to have a problem with officers keeping men killed/invalided out on the rolls and keeping their pay; if this is true in NO, then someone has been keeping the pay and benefits of the nonexistent officers. That's a damn lot of money over time, and I wonder what may turn out to be Compass' part in this? He may not be involved, but the sudden retirement makes me wonder. Combine this with the large pile of excrement falling on him and the mayor and the PD over the lousy response to Katrina and the confiscations... Someone is in a heap of trouble.
Just found these: in light of the information in the second link following, even if it wasn't someone in a position of authority pocketing money from the pay of nonexistent officers, the question(along with the fraud involved) is, were any of these retired and reserve officers collecting active-duty officer pay? Michelle Malkin has more information on the retirement here, and links to this. Money quote: "Fox News' Tony Snow has said that of the 1700 police working for New Orleans, maybe only 1000 really exist."
Rifle postal match entries
Had a chance to get to the range today, and was able to shoot entries for the Looter Shooter match. Just to get the heart pumping a bit, I went to the frame and set up a target, walked back putting in my earplugs as I went, picked up the rifle and loaded, then dropped to kneeling behind the bench and fired, except for the 25 yard target; the range doesn't allow rifles on the 25 yard line, so I set it up at 50, walked back 25 paces, loaded and fired from kneeling First is with my SKS at 25 yards:
I make it 89 points.
Next, SKS at 50. I actually shot this one first:
89 points. I didn't notice until after I got home that I only loaded 9 rounds on this one. This was explained by the loose cartridge in the pouch, having slipped out of the stripper when I pulled it out. Dammit.
Last is the M1 at 50 yards:
91 points. On it I loaded, fired off the 8-round clip, reloaded and fired two more. I really like shooting this rifle, and it just seems to get better with time.
Lastly, just for fun, I set one up at 10 yards and hit it with an Enfield .38 revolver with some loads I was testing, shooting from behind a post:
I pulled two high, just outside the scoring ring.
Oh, Mr. Analog Kid? At 50 yards your !(*&*#$^% little duckie is a small, yellow blur.
I don't think I'm winning any prizes with these, but the looters are DRT.
I make it 89 points.
Next, SKS at 50. I actually shot this one first:
89 points. I didn't notice until after I got home that I only loaded 9 rounds on this one. This was explained by the loose cartridge in the pouch, having slipped out of the stripper when I pulled it out. Dammit.
Last is the M1 at 50 yards:
91 points. On it I loaded, fired off the 8-round clip, reloaded and fired two more. I really like shooting this rifle, and it just seems to get better with time.
Lastly, just for fun, I set one up at 10 yards and hit it with an Enfield .38 revolver with some loads I was testing, shooting from behind a post:
I pulled two high, just outside the scoring ring.
Oh, Mr. Analog Kid? At 50 yards your !(*&*#$^% little duckie is a small, yellow blur.
I don't think I'm winning any prizes with these, but the looters are DRT.
It's been a busy few days
This started last Saturday. My son called to inform me his transportation had crapped out. Not that simply, oh no. First, his started died. A pain, but no big deal. Taking the starter off, one bolt stripped. So he push-started it so he could get something to take the bolt out, and could barely get out of the parking lot. He though alternator, but further checking showed it to be in the wiring harness from the alternator on out(as an aside, I'd like to find who came up with the idea of fusable links instead of fuses and shoot him). You know what Ford wants for the harness? $400. No, no used ones available anywhere around. There were several things he'd planned to fix over the next couple of months, but this added on caused him to decide to look for a new vehicle. Better to make payments for something that'll keep you moving than to be pecked to death by ducks.
So he spent the next few days looking for a vehicle. Happily he's licensed for motorcycles and could ride my bike, otherwise it would've been me getting off work and driving him around. And him begging rides to and from work.
One of the things this brought back is how he's come to hate most car salesmen. In particular, there's a Ford dealer on May Avenue that had a truck that seemed what he was looking for. Only the salesman a: treated him like a nuisance, b: wouldn't let him take a test drive, c: didn't want to tell him the price because "we don't like to give prices until we know you qualify for financing", and d: kept trying to push him into a two years newer one. By telling him that he was about to walk inside and ask the manager, he finally got a price: the '03 he was looking at, he was told, cost several hundred more than the '05 the guy was pushing. Son left, and advised me later that even if they'd later come up with a better price, no way in hell he'd buy from them. So they lost a customer. Happily, another dealer had a truck that would work nicely, at a better price, and they treated him decently. Guess who just got a check from the credit union?
As an aside, son went to OSU for a year as an engineering student, then decided that wasn't what he wanted to do after all and didn't return. He's been paying ever since on the student loans he had to take out to finish the year, and due to a mess-up with that, his credit is not good. So I had to cosign on the loan. Looking at the costs of books, and tuition, and fees, and going into debt to pay for all this, God knows why so many people are willing to go. Yes, education is generally a good thing. But when a lot of what you're required to take is bullshit, for which you have to pay large prices, it ain't worth it. Mind you, the hard sciences like engineering are a lot less affected by the bull than others, but check this out to see some of the ways those are being made less attractive. Yeah, yeah, if you're determined you won't mind. Sounds good, but it's bullshit. When people damn near go out of their way to make it more difficult for you to get what you need, people are more likely to say to hell with it and walk out. End of bitching.
A few years ago, the idiot dealership is the one where I went 'round & 'round with a salesman who had no problem giving prices, but kept pushing me to buy something other than what I wanted. That idiot finally called me and said he had 'just what I was looking for'. A couple of days later I went to look, just on the off-chance that he might have finally paid attention to what I'd said. He drove up a truck that- let's say that he took a list of what I did not want, and put it all on one truck and told me it was "just what I wanted". And then, after I'd said no, he came out with his big phrase: "What would I have to do to get your business today?" I have never in my life come closer to putting on my radio voice and bellowing "Try f'ing LISTENING to me!" Instead, I just walked out. This place has changed management since then, but apparently they've still got the attitude problem. I have no idea how they'll pay for the new building they just moved into.
I hate looking for a car.
So he spent the next few days looking for a vehicle. Happily he's licensed for motorcycles and could ride my bike, otherwise it would've been me getting off work and driving him around. And him begging rides to and from work.
One of the things this brought back is how he's come to hate most car salesmen. In particular, there's a Ford dealer on May Avenue that had a truck that seemed what he was looking for. Only the salesman a: treated him like a nuisance, b: wouldn't let him take a test drive, c: didn't want to tell him the price because "we don't like to give prices until we know you qualify for financing", and d: kept trying to push him into a two years newer one. By telling him that he was about to walk inside and ask the manager, he finally got a price: the '03 he was looking at, he was told, cost several hundred more than the '05 the guy was pushing. Son left, and advised me later that even if they'd later come up with a better price, no way in hell he'd buy from them. So they lost a customer. Happily, another dealer had a truck that would work nicely, at a better price, and they treated him decently. Guess who just got a check from the credit union?
As an aside, son went to OSU for a year as an engineering student, then decided that wasn't what he wanted to do after all and didn't return. He's been paying ever since on the student loans he had to take out to finish the year, and due to a mess-up with that, his credit is not good. So I had to cosign on the loan. Looking at the costs of books, and tuition, and fees, and going into debt to pay for all this, God knows why so many people are willing to go. Yes, education is generally a good thing. But when a lot of what you're required to take is bullshit, for which you have to pay large prices, it ain't worth it. Mind you, the hard sciences like engineering are a lot less affected by the bull than others, but check this out to see some of the ways those are being made less attractive. Yeah, yeah, if you're determined you won't mind. Sounds good, but it's bullshit. When people damn near go out of their way to make it more difficult for you to get what you need, people are more likely to say to hell with it and walk out. End of bitching.
A few years ago, the idiot dealership is the one where I went 'round & 'round with a salesman who had no problem giving prices, but kept pushing me to buy something other than what I wanted. That idiot finally called me and said he had 'just what I was looking for'. A couple of days later I went to look, just on the off-chance that he might have finally paid attention to what I'd said. He drove up a truck that- let's say that he took a list of what I did not want, and put it all on one truck and told me it was "just what I wanted". And then, after I'd said no, he came out with his big phrase: "What would I have to do to get your business today?" I have never in my life come closer to putting on my radio voice and bellowing "Try f'ing LISTENING to me!" Instead, I just walked out. This place has changed management since then, but apparently they've still got the attitude problem. I have no idea how they'll pay for the new building they just moved into.
I hate looking for a car.
Monday, September 26, 2005
New on the blogroll
The Nation of Riflemen Forums. Since the loss of the much-missed K & family, it's been taken over lock, stock & archives. If you were already a member, logon is the same.
If you're not a member, why not? Great stuff, Maynard.
If you're not a member, why not? Great stuff, Maynard.
Oh, how well it works in Canada!
Their gun registration program, that is. The one that was supposed to cost a few million, and at last audit- in which the information had to be dragged out kicking and screaming- was up to five hundred million dollars? And that doesn't work? I was looking at Captain's Quarters and found this post on the matter, which links to this article in the Winnipeg Sun.
"Originally expected to be self-financing by 1999-2000, Fraser and her auditors discovered the target for the firearms program to break even was pushed to 2013 -- an assumption that the program collect $419 million in fees in 2002-03 and about $828 million by 2007-08." Don't you just love that? The 'assumption' that it will break even in eight years, at hundreds of times the cost it was estimated for?
The previous audit? "The last time her office attempted to look into gun registry spending was 2002 and the results were explosive. In fact, her team was forced to abandon its attempts to follow the spending on the gun registry because of the absence of records." Nice, transparent government up there, wouldn't you say? And about as honest as, oh, Louisiana levee boards?
But it makes them safer, you say? "Worse than that, he added, it doesn't work. "No one has ever connected it to public safety. If you put the equivalent money or resources into front-line policing, into training, public awareness and general policing resources that, to me, would be a far more effective means of addressing firearms-related violence," MacKay said."
And the Captain points out something else: the program has drained a huge amount of money and resources from the RCMP, which is the only LE agency up there that can investigate the Canadian executive branch. Considering what's turned up the last few months in the form of corruption, he may be right that that was one of the aims behind pushing this waste of resources.
Ain't it just a wonderful example of how well crap like this works?
"Originally expected to be self-financing by 1999-2000, Fraser and her auditors discovered the target for the firearms program to break even was pushed to 2013 -- an assumption that the program collect $419 million in fees in 2002-03 and about $828 million by 2007-08." Don't you just love that? The 'assumption' that it will break even in eight years, at hundreds of times the cost it was estimated for?
The previous audit? "The last time her office attempted to look into gun registry spending was 2002 and the results were explosive. In fact, her team was forced to abandon its attempts to follow the spending on the gun registry because of the absence of records." Nice, transparent government up there, wouldn't you say? And about as honest as, oh, Louisiana levee boards?
But it makes them safer, you say? "Worse than that, he added, it doesn't work. "No one has ever connected it to public safety. If you put the equivalent money or resources into front-line policing, into training, public awareness and general policing resources that, to me, would be a far more effective means of addressing firearms-related violence," MacKay said."
And the Captain points out something else: the program has drained a huge amount of money and resources from the RCMP, which is the only LE agency up there that can investigate the Canadian executive branch. Considering what's turned up the last few months in the form of corruption, he may be right that that was one of the aims behind pushing this waste of resources.
Ain't it just a wonderful example of how well crap like this works?
Sunday, September 25, 2005
General stuff
Gullyborg has an onion soup recipe that looks damn good. The sandwiches I don't know about; I've never even heard of fontina cheese before.
I want Uncle to take that rifle to the range and try it out with the new mount. I've read reports from some people that accuracy has improved with the Ultimak; I'd like to know if it works that way for him.
A place I don't look at often enough is the Dog Snot Diaries. Yes, despite the name. He's got a very nice Democrat Party symbol here; he got it from the Ex-Donkey, who I'd never heard of before. Don't you just love the way this works?
Snotty also has this up, you really should take a look. Michelle Malkin's blog is a place I usually check daily, and she's posted some of her hate mail a time or two; the crap listed here are a step beyond some of her hate mail, but not by much. This is pretty bloody awful stuff, and the clowns are proud of it.
The Ex-Donk has this on the mindset of the enemy. Not the enemy listed above, the Islamist enemy. Worth taking note of. The last time we fought an enemy with this general mindset it was the Japanese, and it took all-out war and several years to defeat them; when you've got an enemy who(in the case of the true believers) doesn't care about living, it makes the usual method of defeating an enemy less useful.
Steve, in a few days, has told us all about people who die on boats, positive and negative ions, points out Walter Cronkite is/was an asshole, got tickets to Serenity, and keeps us up on various aspects of cooking and beer guzzling. Oh, and sex, reproduction and the Catholic Church and Andrew Sullivan. In one post. Such value, for such a low price!
I want Uncle to take that rifle to the range and try it out with the new mount. I've read reports from some people that accuracy has improved with the Ultimak; I'd like to know if it works that way for him.
A place I don't look at often enough is the Dog Snot Diaries. Yes, despite the name. He's got a very nice Democrat Party symbol here; he got it from the Ex-Donkey, who I'd never heard of before. Don't you just love the way this works?
Snotty also has this up, you really should take a look. Michelle Malkin's blog is a place I usually check daily, and she's posted some of her hate mail a time or two; the crap listed here are a step beyond some of her hate mail, but not by much. This is pretty bloody awful stuff, and the clowns are proud of it.
The Ex-Donk has this on the mindset of the enemy. Not the enemy listed above, the Islamist enemy. Worth taking note of. The last time we fought an enemy with this general mindset it was the Japanese, and it took all-out war and several years to defeat them; when you've got an enemy who(in the case of the true believers) doesn't care about living, it makes the usual method of defeating an enemy less useful.
Steve, in a few days, has told us all about people who die on boats, positive and negative ions, points out Walter Cronkite is/was an asshole, got tickets to Serenity, and keeps us up on various aspects of cooking and beer guzzling. Oh, and sex, reproduction and the Catholic Church and Andrew Sullivan. In one post. Such value, for such a low price!
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