and I don't give a rats ass what it does to either party, they should be thrown the hell out of Congress. Period.
And I think this needs to get messy. Because we've got two things feeding this mess:
People who are so worried about harming Their Party by kicking out someone who may be good at pushing The Partys' view of things.
Too damn many people who both want to make being in Congress their lifes work, and who give other such people a pass even on conduct such as this.
Just maybe, if it gets messy and loud enough, there might be enough pressure on some of these clowns to do something. I'm not counting on it, but it would be nice.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Somewhat oldie range test
Marlin Model 81-DL
One of the nice things about what John Ross labeled the 'gun culture' is that people tend to have neat boomsticks, like to talk about firearms and are generally friendly. And if a friend has something new/unusual/they just like, if youleave a testicle as security ask nicely they'll let you take out to the range and try it out. Which brings us to this piece.
Marlin has made a lot of different firearms over time, this one being a bolt-action target rifle with a tube magazine. Bolt handle is long and runs straight down, then turns out into a large round knob. The stock is a hardwood with a red stain, nicely fitted to the action and barrel. It widens in front of the trigger guard and has a flat bottom, sling swivels mounted at the factory. It has an aperture sight on the receiver
with an unusual adjustment system. The elevation you loosen a locking knob and turn a snail adjuster that moves it up or down; for windage there's a locking arm you push to the left to loosen and then push the aperture left or right. Front sight is a gold bead.
The trigger is a two-lever type(yes,I took the action out of the stock to look) that breaks at about 4-5 pounds with a touch of creep.
From what I can find the original model was the 81-B. The 81-DL was manufactured from 1941, then stopped turing WWII. It resumed in 1945 and ran 'till 1964. Stocks on those made before WWII had a forend like this one, postwar rifles a more standard shape and those after 1957 a walnut stock in a Monte Carlo style.
I started off with Federal Champion ammo to zero and generally shake it out, then tried some Eley Sport and some of the S&B that's floating around. It liked the Fed & Eley best, giving groups like this:
For 30 yards with a not overly steady rest, not shabby at all.
Overall a nice rifle, well worth having. I think the trigger could easily be polished to 2-3 pounds and clean, and that's all it would need. If you ran across one it'd be well worth making yours. Or the kids. And if they're a bit small for it, then you can use it till they grow up.
One of the nice things about what John Ross labeled the 'gun culture' is that people tend to have neat boomsticks, like to talk about firearms and are generally friendly. And if a friend has something new/unusual/they just like, if you
Marlin has made a lot of different firearms over time, this one being a bolt-action target rifle with a tube magazine. Bolt handle is long and runs straight down, then turns out into a large round knob. The stock is a hardwood with a red stain, nicely fitted to the action and barrel. It widens in front of the trigger guard and has a flat bottom, sling swivels mounted at the factory. It has an aperture sight on the receiver
with an unusual adjustment system. The elevation you loosen a locking knob and turn a snail adjuster that moves it up or down; for windage there's a locking arm you push to the left to loosen and then push the aperture left or right. Front sight is a gold bead.
The trigger is a two-lever type(yes,I took the action out of the stock to look) that breaks at about 4-5 pounds with a touch of creep.
From what I can find the original model was the 81-B. The 81-DL was manufactured from 1941, then stopped turing WWII. It resumed in 1945 and ran 'till 1964. Stocks on those made before WWII had a forend like this one, postwar rifles a more standard shape and those after 1957 a walnut stock in a Monte Carlo style.
I started off with Federal Champion ammo to zero and generally shake it out, then tried some Eley Sport and some of the S&B that's floating around. It liked the Fed & Eley best, giving groups like this:
For 30 yards with a not overly steady rest, not shabby at all.
Overall a nice rifle, well worth having. I think the trigger could easily be polished to 2-3 pounds and clean, and that's all it would need. If you ran across one it'd be well worth making yours. Or the kids. And if they're a bit small for it, then you can use it till they grow up.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Among the problems with the militarization of police
is the same problem when mistakes happen in regular policing: all to often the officers and agency involved basically stonewall. No apology, no "We screwed up", basically pay for property damage- if they can't get around it- and continue on.
What brought this on was looking over at The Agitator earlier today. This particular section is on
SWAT-type raids on either the wrong address, or due to bad information from an informant. Get a chance, go read through it. It'll really, really piss you off. Both the idiocy of some of these raids('economic in nature' for God's sake), and the amount of money going into armored cars and APCs for law enforcement agencies.
It's bad enough when there's only property damage. How the hell do you tell kids to trust the police when, in a botched raid, they kill the dog? Or, using a SWAT team to arrest a guy on gambling charges, you kill him through negligence? And then cover it up with "A mistake was made" or "Normal procedures for a raid were used, so no charges will be filed"?
More of the cops that don't like this crap any more than we do need to start speaking out about this and doing what they can, because every time one of these idiocies happens, it makes their job that much harder.
What brought this on was looking over at The Agitator earlier today. This particular section is on
SWAT-type raids on either the wrong address, or due to bad information from an informant. Get a chance, go read through it. It'll really, really piss you off. Both the idiocy of some of these raids('economic in nature' for God's sake), and the amount of money going into armored cars and APCs for law enforcement agencies.
It's bad enough when there's only property damage. How the hell do you tell kids to trust the police when, in a botched raid, they kill the dog? Or, using a SWAT team to arrest a guy on gambling charges, you kill him through negligence? And then cover it up with "A mistake was made" or "Normal procedures for a raid were used, so no charges will be filed"?
More of the cops that don't like this crap any more than we do need to start speaking out about this and doing what they can, because every time one of these idiocies happens, it makes their job that much harder.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Basic update: it's almost over
In a few days my son graduates from Basic Training. They've apparently done all the basic for those who are ready to graduate, and a few are trying to make up enough to graduate now; some others will have to stay over and do it again.
This past week was some various live fire practices, building clearing, etc. I think I'll call this one "Avon Calling"
In a few days I'll be heading to lovely Fort Sill to attend. Looks like the boy's done good.
This past week was some various live fire practices, building clearing, etc. I think I'll call this one "Avon Calling"
In a few days I'll be heading to lovely Fort Sill to attend. Looks like the boy's done good.
Friday, September 29, 2006
About the current spitting match
If you've been reading Michelle Malkin or Dean Esmay you'll know what I'm talking about. Short version, Esmay accused Malkin of calling all muslims the enemy and Malkin told Esmay he's an idiot(no, I'm not linking to them, you can find it if you want to wade through it.
I read some of the stuff at Esmays' place this started from, and it's kind of unnerving. I used to read his posts almost every day; in the beginning time kept me from going there as often as before and then the increasingly, I'd have to call it shrill, words and attitude toward most anyone who disagreed with his view on muslims made me stop going almost completely. At this point I doubt I'll go back at all.
Place called Classical Values has this I'll link because I think it's a very damn good piece on the subject. Simply, there are muslims out there who are in the truest sense the enemy. Period. The open enemy is not the problem in this; the problem is all the muslims who, whether out of "I won't criticize another muslim" or being scared to speak up or, in the case of all too many for comfort, secretly hope the enemy wins and destroys the west. These last are too chickenshit to openly say it so they make excuses for the murderering fascists they don't have the balls to openly be; and they make it that much harder for a lot of people to have faith in the (some say mythical) moderate muslims who like living in western society, who like being part of a free country, who hate the idea of the fascists taking over.
Here's the enemy, the open want's-us-dead enemy:
The Gaza imam said the only Christian-Muslim dialogue that is acceptable is one in which "all religions agree to convert to Islam."
Makes it plain, doesn't he?
How about this one?
A leading Muslim spokesman in Germany explained that he was all for free speech, as long as it didn't offend Muslims. The Germans' all-too-typical appeasement of terrorism no doubt makes them "safer" and "creates" fewer terrorists.
There's been far too much of this crap; this "We can call you anything, but if you offend us in any way we'll riot and burn and kill you" attitude from far too damn many muslims. It makes them the enemy: both the open enemy who strikes at us and the secret enemy who stays in the shadows and assists the open enemy.
I don't give a rats ass how you worship or who you worship. As Thomas Jefferson put it, "It matters not whether my neighbor worships one God or twenty; it neither breaks my leg or picks my pocket". But when their method of worship starts breaking legs and picking pockets and killing people...
I read some of the stuff at Esmays' place this started from, and it's kind of unnerving. I used to read his posts almost every day; in the beginning time kept me from going there as often as before and then the increasingly, I'd have to call it shrill, words and attitude toward most anyone who disagreed with his view on muslims made me stop going almost completely. At this point I doubt I'll go back at all.
Place called Classical Values has this I'll link because I think it's a very damn good piece on the subject. Simply, there are muslims out there who are in the truest sense the enemy. Period. The open enemy is not the problem in this; the problem is all the muslims who, whether out of "I won't criticize another muslim" or being scared to speak up or, in the case of all too many for comfort, secretly hope the enemy wins and destroys the west. These last are too chickenshit to openly say it so they make excuses for the murderering fascists they don't have the balls to openly be; and they make it that much harder for a lot of people to have faith in the (some say mythical) moderate muslims who like living in western society, who like being part of a free country, who hate the idea of the fascists taking over.
Here's the enemy, the open want's-us-dead enemy:
The Gaza imam said the only Christian-Muslim dialogue that is acceptable is one in which "all religions agree to convert to Islam."
Makes it plain, doesn't he?
How about this one?
A leading Muslim spokesman in Germany explained that he was all for free speech, as long as it didn't offend Muslims. The Germans' all-too-typical appeasement of terrorism no doubt makes them "safer" and "creates" fewer terrorists.
There's been far too much of this crap; this "We can call you anything, but if you offend us in any way we'll riot and burn and kill you" attitude from far too damn many muslims. It makes them the enemy: both the open enemy who strikes at us and the secret enemy who stays in the shadows and assists the open enemy.
I don't give a rats ass how you worship or who you worship. As Thomas Jefferson put it, "It matters not whether my neighbor worships one God or twenty; it neither breaks my leg or picks my pocket". But when their method of worship starts breaking legs and picking pockets and killing people...
The squirrels are revolting!
In more ways than one
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- An aggressive squirrel pounced on a 4-year-old boy in an attack last week in Cuesta Park in Mountain View, Calif.
Ok, a couple of weeks ago it was racoons whacking cats; now the squirrels are getting nasty.
as many as six people have been bitten or scratched by squirrels since May, and that the attacks have become more ferocious in the last month.
Mind you, the little bastards can bite the tax reform act out of you, clawing the while. But have no fear, the standard responses are up:
Officials say they'll trap and kill the nasties, and
Wildlife advocates also oppose the unusual measure of killing the animals and said it won't solve the problem.
"The squirrels will be back," South Bay wildlife rehabilitator Norma Campbell said. "For every one you take out, two more will come in. It could be a never-ending project that isn't going to accomplish anything."
Two back for every one? Sounds to me like a way to feed the homeless.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- An aggressive squirrel pounced on a 4-year-old boy in an attack last week in Cuesta Park in Mountain View, Calif.
Ok, a couple of weeks ago it was racoons whacking cats; now the squirrels are getting nasty.
as many as six people have been bitten or scratched by squirrels since May, and that the attacks have become more ferocious in the last month.
Mind you, the little bastards can bite the tax reform act out of you, clawing the while. But have no fear, the standard responses are up:
Officials say they'll trap and kill the nasties, and
Wildlife advocates also oppose the unusual measure of killing the animals and said it won't solve the problem.
"The squirrels will be back," South Bay wildlife rehabilitator Norma Campbell said. "For every one you take out, two more will come in. It could be a never-ending project that isn't going to accomplish anything."
Two back for every one? Sounds to me like a way to feed the homeless.
About the lack of forging posts,
sorry 'bout that. Reasons are time(I could always throw something else out and make some time) and physical problems. Specifically, my elbow. I've got a persistant problem, possibly caused/aggravated by lots and lots of heavy hammering over time.
Which really sucks. The stuff I most like to make, namely blades, requires lots of hammering for the bigger ones. On some, depending on the stock you start with, LOTS of hammering with a big hammer. Which I flat cannot do; after a couple of minutes that joint says "I don't want to anymore" and that's that. If I plan ahead and start taking naproxyn the day before I can get some done with no problem, but I dislike taking stuff like that long-term. Which is what it would take to do very much of it.
This is why I can't do some exercising either. Chris at Anarchangel has mentioned his joint problems, and that he has to eat naproxyn like candy to keep things working with a minimum of pain, and it affects how much exercise he can do. I used to do sets of twenty pushups; now I can get three at best before the elbow gives out, and weights or sword practice is equally touchy(though I can do light weights fairly well).
So I do plan to do more forging posts, but it will take a while to do much of it.
Which really sucks. The stuff I most like to make, namely blades, requires lots of hammering for the bigger ones. On some, depending on the stock you start with, LOTS of hammering with a big hammer. Which I flat cannot do; after a couple of minutes that joint says "I don't want to anymore" and that's that. If I plan ahead and start taking naproxyn the day before I can get some done with no problem, but I dislike taking stuff like that long-term. Which is what it would take to do very much of it.
This is why I can't do some exercising either. Chris at Anarchangel has mentioned his joint problems, and that he has to eat naproxyn like candy to keep things working with a minimum of pain, and it affects how much exercise he can do. I used to do sets of twenty pushups; now I can get three at best before the elbow gives out, and weights or sword practice is equally touchy(though I can do light weights fairly well).
So I do plan to do more forging posts, but it will take a while to do much of it.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Carrying Condition One
Or, if you're more traditional, cocked & locked. Most specifically on the 1911-design pistols. I'd been thinking about this a while, and Kim posted this on it, linking to Tam.
If you're not familiar with these, you've got three carry modes:
3. Loaded magazine, chamber empty & hammer down
2. Loaded mag, chamber loaded, hammer on half-cock & safety on(on those pistols that allow it)
1. Loaded mag, chamber loaded, hammer cocked & safety on.
From what I've read, J.M. Browning designed the 1911 to be carried cocked & locked, and unless there's something mechanically wrong with a pistol, it's about as safe as you can get. Short of being unloaded.
On half-cock, in my opinion, NEVER!!! On some, you cannot carry that way, my Kimber for instance will not go on safety if the hammer's on half-cock. And the manual specifically states 'Do not', the design wasn't intended for that. The half-cock notch is supposed to be a safety notch; if the cocked hammer slips or gets jarred off the sear, this notch will catch it before it can strike the firing pin. Plus, there's a story.
There used to be a gentleman named Dan Combs who was firearms instructor for the OK Highway Patrol. Fine man, and one of the damndest shots you'd ever hope to see. One day he was at a range with a Colt Gold Cup match pistol doing some shooting. He fired a shot, put the hammer on half-cock and set the safety, stuck it in his belt(something, from what I've heard, he never did except this time) and reached for binoculars to check the target. And the hammer slipped off the sear and fired the pistol, which sent a 200 grain match bullet and a bunch of hot gasses into his abdomen. He lived through it, but hearing about this as a kid made me decide that when I got a .45(yeah, wanted one even then) I would not carry it that way. Turned out to be a defective sear or hammer notch, can't remember which; when he leaned forward it pushed the hammer forward a bit and... Later on this was reported to the commander at Vance Air Force Base and they had the post inventory of pistols checked; they found two that would do the same thing, for the same reason.
When I carry this pistol, it's cocked & locked for two reasons:
It's the safest way to carry, and
What if you don't have both hands free to charge it in time of trouble?
That last is the one that gives me shivers. There are drills for working the action with only one hand; generally intended for someone who's been injured or otherwise has only one hand available and has to clear a jam or misfeed or reload; they're not something I want to plan on doing when a situation happens. Accounts I've read & heard generally break down to you either have plenty of time to pick up/draw a weapon and ready it, or you have no time at all. In the latter, I damn sure don't want to have to try to fight off some clown with one hand while trying to work the slide with the other because I didn't have the piece charged.
The last reason some say carry Condition 3 is that, if you're attacked and have to shoot, some prosecutor could take the fact that you were cocked & locked as evidence that 'you were just waiting to shoot someone', or try to use that in court to show such bullshit. I agree it's a concern. I also think that if you're dealing with a prosecutor of such idiot mindset, it really doesn't matter how you were carrying, he'll try to use it against you. Hell, he'll try to use anything against you. I'd rather have to deal with that in a hearing than try to work the action one-handed when everything goes to hell.
If you're not familiar with these, you've got three carry modes:
3. Loaded magazine, chamber empty & hammer down
2. Loaded mag, chamber loaded, hammer on half-cock & safety on(on those pistols that allow it)
1. Loaded mag, chamber loaded, hammer cocked & safety on.
From what I've read, J.M. Browning designed the 1911 to be carried cocked & locked, and unless there's something mechanically wrong with a pistol, it's about as safe as you can get. Short of being unloaded.
On half-cock, in my opinion, NEVER!!! On some, you cannot carry that way, my Kimber for instance will not go on safety if the hammer's on half-cock. And the manual specifically states 'Do not', the design wasn't intended for that. The half-cock notch is supposed to be a safety notch; if the cocked hammer slips or gets jarred off the sear, this notch will catch it before it can strike the firing pin. Plus, there's a story.
There used to be a gentleman named Dan Combs who was firearms instructor for the OK Highway Patrol. Fine man, and one of the damndest shots you'd ever hope to see. One day he was at a range with a Colt Gold Cup match pistol doing some shooting. He fired a shot, put the hammer on half-cock and set the safety, stuck it in his belt(something, from what I've heard, he never did except this time) and reached for binoculars to check the target. And the hammer slipped off the sear and fired the pistol, which sent a 200 grain match bullet and a bunch of hot gasses into his abdomen. He lived through it, but hearing about this as a kid made me decide that when I got a .45(yeah, wanted one even then) I would not carry it that way. Turned out to be a defective sear or hammer notch, can't remember which; when he leaned forward it pushed the hammer forward a bit and... Later on this was reported to the commander at Vance Air Force Base and they had the post inventory of pistols checked; they found two that would do the same thing, for the same reason.
When I carry this pistol, it's cocked & locked for two reasons:
It's the safest way to carry, and
What if you don't have both hands free to charge it in time of trouble?
That last is the one that gives me shivers. There are drills for working the action with only one hand; generally intended for someone who's been injured or otherwise has only one hand available and has to clear a jam or misfeed or reload; they're not something I want to plan on doing when a situation happens. Accounts I've read & heard generally break down to you either have plenty of time to pick up/draw a weapon and ready it, or you have no time at all. In the latter, I damn sure don't want to have to try to fight off some clown with one hand while trying to work the slide with the other because I didn't have the piece charged.
The last reason some say carry Condition 3 is that, if you're attacked and have to shoot, some prosecutor could take the fact that you were cocked & locked as evidence that 'you were just waiting to shoot someone', or try to use that in court to show such bullshit. I agree it's a concern. I also think that if you're dealing with a prosecutor of such idiot mindset, it really doesn't matter how you were carrying, he'll try to use it against you. Hell, he'll try to use anything against you. I'd rather have to deal with that in a hearing than try to work the action one-handed when everything goes to hell.
That AZ 'memorial' to 9/11?
It seems the screaming and yelling has gotten some attention. As to whether the commission reviewing it will actually change some things or not(I hope it does), at least the people involved in that mess are feeling some heat, including the governor.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
THIS I wasn't expecting
Couple of weeks ago SOG advertised they were getting in some M1 Carbine receivers at a pretty good price, so I called & asked some questions and ordered one. It came in yesterday.
Mostly it's what I did expect. They were advertised as 'very good' condition, and it is; the only marks other than to the finish are a couple of small dings on one edge of the rear sight dovetail. What was the surprise was the serial number; 9000(correction, my eyes are crossed or something; 90k series) series. Which makes it very early production. I'm not sure how early, I can't find a list anywhere indicating what serial numbers were produced in what year, but considering there were about 6.5 million of them produced in total, it's very early. Which is really cool.
It's the first time I've gotten hold of something like this, where I wondered whether to build it up or keep the thing because of possible collector value. I think I will go ahead and build it, and if I can do it without spending a fortune I'll try to use Inland parts as much as possible; only seems right for something like this.
Additional: I just talked to a guy locally who's something of a carbine expert. He advised me that unless I had an open line of credit, putting it together as a 'correct' Inland isn't a good idea and recited various prices to me. Yikes! Mixed parts it'll be.
Mostly it's what I did expect. They were advertised as 'very good' condition, and it is; the only marks other than to the finish are a couple of small dings on one edge of the rear sight dovetail. What was the surprise was the serial number; 9000(correction, my eyes are crossed or something; 90k series) series. Which makes it very early production. I'm not sure how early, I can't find a list anywhere indicating what serial numbers were produced in what year, but considering there were about 6.5 million of them produced in total, it's very early. Which is really cool.
It's the first time I've gotten hold of something like this, where I wondered whether to build it up or keep the thing because of possible collector value. I think I will go ahead and build it, and if I can do it without spending a fortune I'll try to use Inland parts as much as possible; only seems right for something like this.
Additional: I just talked to a guy locally who's something of a carbine expert. He advised me that unless I had an open line of credit, putting it together as a 'correct' Inland isn't a good idea and recited various prices to me. Yikes! Mixed parts it'll be.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
"Foxes Given Keys To Henhouse,
Film at 11". Or something like that.
Saw this the other day, can't remember where I found the link:
POLICE have agreed to consult a panel of Muslim leaders before mounting counter-terrorist raids or arrests. Members of the panel will offer their assessment of whether information police have on a suspect is too flimsy and will also consider the consequences on community relations of a raid.
Yes, because we've seen how supportive 'Muslim leaders' are of the government grabbing terrorists and making raids, haven't we?
I don't know whether to call this political correctness taken to insane levels or just plain stupidity.
Members will be security vetted and will have to promise not to reveal any intelligence they are shown. They will not have to sign the Official Secrets Act.
'Cause they'd NEVER let word out, would they?
I'm sure there are people out there who think this is a good idea; I think they're either naive or, stupid or on the other side.
Saw this the other day, can't remember where I found the link:
POLICE have agreed to consult a panel of Muslim leaders before mounting counter-terrorist raids or arrests. Members of the panel will offer their assessment of whether information police have on a suspect is too flimsy and will also consider the consequences on community relations of a raid.
Yes, because we've seen how supportive 'Muslim leaders' are of the government grabbing terrorists and making raids, haven't we?
I don't know whether to call this political correctness taken to insane levels or just plain stupidity.
Members will be security vetted and will have to promise not to reveal any intelligence they are shown. They will not have to sign the Official Secrets Act.
'Cause they'd NEVER let word out, would they?
I'm sure there are people out there who think this is a good idea; I think they're either naive or, stupid or on the other side.
R.I.P, Col. Cooper
I first saw this late last night, Jeff Cooper has died.
I guess I actually did my remembrance the other day, and it covers it.
I guess I actually did my remembrance the other day, and it covers it.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
If you never saw how ordering a gun was in the 60's,
take a look at this and weep
These are pages from the January '65 issue of Guns & Ammo. It lists, among other things, a M1 Carbine in a new-made paratrooper stock for $99.95, with standard stock $89.95. M1 Garand for $77.99. An Enfield Jungle Carbine for $34.78, 1903-A3 Springfield or a 1903(High numbers only) for $39.78 with 120 rounds of ammo for $7.20 extra.
Let's see, there's a U.S. Model 1917 for $29.78, 98K Mauser for $32.95, a Walther P.38 for $39.95. And on, and on. And the worst part? You could mail-order them and they'd be delivered to you. Not to an FFL holder for some bloody paperwork, to you.
So thank you GFW politicians. Thank you, GFW nannies and socialists. Thank you so much for making it be assumed that anyone buying a gun is a criminal to be checked out.
Bastards.
Additional: James' comment showed me that I'd not said this as clearly as I should. I don't blame the GFWs for the price rises; inflation does hit on all things. It's the fact that instead of being able to order a firearm from a company, I HAVE to have a license and/or HAVE to have it shipped to a dealer to do the bloody paperwork. Because of the GFWs wanting to order a firearm is looked on as "You're up to something, and we have to check you out before you get permission(aye, there's the rub) to buy it". That's what I blame them for.
These are pages from the January '65 issue of Guns & Ammo. It lists, among other things, a M1 Carbine in a new-made paratrooper stock for $99.95, with standard stock $89.95. M1 Garand for $77.99. An Enfield Jungle Carbine for $34.78, 1903-A3 Springfield or a 1903(High numbers only) for $39.78 with 120 rounds of ammo for $7.20 extra.
Let's see, there's a U.S. Model 1917 for $29.78, 98K Mauser for $32.95, a Walther P.38 for $39.95. And on, and on. And the worst part? You could mail-order them and they'd be delivered to you. Not to an FFL holder for some bloody paperwork, to you.
So thank you GFW politicians. Thank you, GFW nannies and socialists. Thank you so much for making it be assumed that anyone buying a gun is a criminal to be checked out.
Bastards.
Additional: James' comment showed me that I'd not said this as clearly as I should. I don't blame the GFWs for the price rises; inflation does hit on all things. It's the fact that instead of being able to order a firearm from a company, I HAVE to have a license and/or HAVE to have it shipped to a dealer to do the bloody paperwork. Because of the GFWs wanting to order a firearm is looked on as "You're up to something, and we have to check you out before you get permission(aye, there's the rub) to buy it". That's what I blame them for.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Col. Jeff Cooper in bad shape
At Random Nuclear Strikes found a link to this: "Jeff Cooper is in extremely grave condition at this hour. Previously hospitalized for possible surgery, he suffered a heart attack and was revived in the hospital. The heart muscle suffered serious damage. I hope you all can spare a moment of your day for him and his family in your thoughts and prayers...Rob"
I'd heard his health was failing, but didn't know about this. I've written about the man before, partly through disagreeing with something he wrote. Doesn't change that I have tremendous respect for him; he's truly been and done and has done a world of good for shooters of all stripes.
May it go well for him; he's damn well earned it.
I'd heard his health was failing, but didn't know about this. I've written about the man before, partly through disagreeing with something he wrote. Doesn't change that I have tremendous respect for him; he's truly been and done and has done a world of good for shooters of all stripes.
May it go well for him; he's damn well earned it.
Damn, I'd forgotten about these!
And a flea market/garage sale report
A couple of years ago my kids gave me this package, along with a couple of others, for Christmas, which is not only cool but covers parts of my "I would like" list:
Yes, the drum comes off the Thompson. Yes the bayonet comes off and fits in the sheath. The other packages have a Lebel, a #4 Mk1, a sporran, a 1873 Colt, an '03, cutlass, Fairbairn dagger, a kukri & sheath, a PPSH smg and some other stuff. I remember putting it away so I wouldn't lose it when I moved, and ran across it while organizing today.
Which brings up the report. Couple of weeks ago at the market found some books, today found a 2-drawer filing cabinet for $5(filling it involved the organizing). But the biggie is the garage sale, and I didn't find it; Dad did. He called me and said he'd found some stuff at a garage sale, and did I want it. Description followed, and I said yes! So I'm now the owner of the following:
Nice steel desk, small.
MEC progressive shotgun press.
Somewhere between 500 and 1k wads.
About a dozen charge bars.
Two bricks of primers.
About 25 lbs. each of #6, 7.5 and 8 shot
About 4 lbs of powders.
And some assorted parts and pieces.
And you're just gonna love this: $75.
So now I have to learn how to use this, which is pretty straightforward, except for the primer feed. You advance the cases manually, and there's a feeder that's supposed to drop the primer in place. I can put in in place on the press, but I flat cannot figure out how to connect the chain that pulls the arm that drops the primer into the tube.
Screw more organizing for now, I'm going to go buy a bag of buckshot and see if I can find a load for them.
A couple of years ago my kids gave me this package, along with a couple of others, for Christmas, which is not only cool but covers parts of my "I would like" list:
Yes, the drum comes off the Thompson. Yes the bayonet comes off and fits in the sheath. The other packages have a Lebel, a #4 Mk1, a sporran, a 1873 Colt, an '03, cutlass, Fairbairn dagger, a kukri & sheath, a PPSH smg and some other stuff. I remember putting it away so I wouldn't lose it when I moved, and ran across it while organizing today.
Which brings up the report. Couple of weeks ago at the market found some books, today found a 2-drawer filing cabinet for $5(filling it involved the organizing). But the biggie is the garage sale, and I didn't find it; Dad did. He called me and said he'd found some stuff at a garage sale, and did I want it. Description followed, and I said yes! So I'm now the owner of the following:
Nice steel desk, small.
MEC progressive shotgun press.
Somewhere between 500 and 1k wads.
About a dozen charge bars.
Two bricks of primers.
About 25 lbs. each of #6, 7.5 and 8 shot
About 4 lbs of powders.
And some assorted parts and pieces.
And you're just gonna love this: $75.
So now I have to learn how to use this, which is pretty straightforward, except for the primer feed. You advance the cases manually, and there's a feeder that's supposed to drop the primer in place. I can put in in place on the press, but I flat cannot figure out how to connect the chain that pulls the arm that drops the primer into the tube.
Screw more organizing for now, I'm going to go buy a bag of buckshot and see if I can find a load for them.
Just some general notes
The North Carolina 'justice' system needs an overhaul. And a bunch of members need a barbed wire enema from the sound of it.
Mayor Bloomberg(Dumbass-Socialist-D) just can't stand the idea of not controlling peoples' lives.
Why so many Jews still hew to the Democrat party is a mystery.
And the people running the Air Marshall program are, by the evidence, still idiots.
Mayor Bloomberg(Dumbass-Socialist-D) just can't stand the idea of not controlling peoples' lives.
Why so many Jews still hew to the Democrat party is a mystery.
And the people running the Air Marshall program are, by the evidence, still idiots.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Crowning
Gun barrels, that is.
The crown is the very end of the barrel where the rifling ends. It's the last place where the barrel affects the bullet, and if damaged accuracy tends to go to hell. Even tiny burrs or dents where the rifling ends can either damage the bullet slightly or let gas leak out at that spot, throwing the bullet off-balance by just a fraction.
Yes, this is one of my patented, "you can do it yourself but don't yell at me if it don't work" posts. Cleaning up the crown is actually fairly simple, and can be done without a lathe or other fancy(read 'expensive') tooling.
The most basic is you find that, after being dropped, the crown has a little ding in the corner of the bore. Or you find that someone cleaning from the muzzle(and some rifles and pistols have to be) let a steel rod ding the crown. Assuming that's all you have to repair, you've got two ways.
There are cutters made just for this, like this one from Brownell's:
It's a tool steel body with a handle that screws on. Pilots are made for different bore diameters and held in place with a set screw. They make one that's about 3/4" wide and square, for making sure a newly-cut muzzle is true, and a couple of smaller diameter ones with the cutting flutes at different angles, depending on what crown you want. This one is 79 degrees, and that's a .311 pilot for a .303 British rifle. The first step with either of the methods I'm using is make sure the damn gun is unloaded; it'll really, REALLY ruin your day/week/life if it's not and it fires while you're doing this. Then put a tight patch on a cleaning jag and run it up to about 2" below the bore with this cutter and leave it there. With a clean-from-the-muzzle arm, I run the jag in the appropriate amount, then unscrew the rod from it; in either case it'll keep shavings, cutting oil, whatever from falling down the bore and into the action.
With this cutter/guide setup, use a small paintbrush to coat the cutting flutes and crown with oil, actual cutting oil being the best but just plain oil will do, it helps the cutter turn and cut smoothly. Ease the pilot in until the flutes contact the crown and then, with light, even pressure turn it. ALWAYS CLOCKWISE. If you turn it in reverse it can cause a burr to be rolled up on the cutting edge which pretty much ruins it until it can be honed to remove it. Turn it two turns, then take it out. Wipe off the shavings from both pieces and inspect. If you need to cut a bit deeper, oil and repeat.
When this is done, you may be able to use it as is, but you'll generally need to polish the new crown to get rid of the tiny burrs the cutter leaves. Which brings me to the next method, which can be used all by itself to clean up a crown. This high-tech method is
Yep, that's a round-head screw in a drill. Brownell's makes a brass piece just for this, or you can use a small carriage bolt(make sure the head is smooth) or round-head machine screw of steel or brass. I read of one gunsmith who takes steel ball bearings, anneals them, drills a hole in and solders in a piece of drill rod for a shank; he thinks the hard ball works better than a softer metal. Some swear by one with a screwdriver slot, as it'll hold some of the abrasive. They all work, as long as the curve of the head fits into the muzzle properly; small enough diameter & curve to contact the crown, large enough to not be able to slip into the bore. Power can be a cordless drill like this- as long as it is variable speed- or a crank-type hand drill. And you'll need some abrasive compound. I'm using some valve-grinding paste from a tool or auto parts store, this kind comes in a two-sided can with one side coarse and one fine. I've never needed any but the fine stuff.
If you're polishing after using a cutter, pull/push the patch out to clean oil & shavings out of the bore, clean it out then put in a fresh patch. If just using this method, put your patch in. Secure the gun or barrel so it's vertical. Dip the head of the screw or whatever into the compound. Gently set it into the crown and start it turning slowly. I repeat, SLOWLY. You'll be able to feel the compound grinding at first; when you stop feeling that, remove and dip the head again.
No, it's not vertical here; I'm holding with one hand and shooting with the other, so shut up.
Don't just hold the drill vertically, after the first bit start moving the drill in a small circle. After the second time I coat the head I put it in reverse and continue for a minute. The idea is to make sure the cutting occurs evenly around the crown and polishes both sides of the lands and grooves to get rid of any burrs or roughness.
Take your time. After running it both ways, set the rig aside and clean the crown off and inspect it. I use some cotton swabs, put the end in the bore, preferably without touching the compound, and use it to swab the stuff out of the bore. When it's done you'll have a clean, bright ring where the rifling ends, nice and smooth. Use a bright light and a magnifier of some kind to check it out. Remember, if you just had some small dings or a touch of wear it may only take a minute or two of this to completely remove the damaged section, so check often.
When it's done to your satisfaction, use more swabs and patches to wipe off all the compound you can, then pull the patch out to remove anything it caught. Clean the bore thoroughly to make sure you don't leave any trace of the abrasive, and oil. The mechanical part is done.
At this point you can use a bit of cold blue to get rid of the shine, or leave it as is and the next shooting you do will take care of most of that.
That's pretty much it for the basic crowning. The Serious Recrowning would be with, for instance, an old military rifle that was often cleaned without a guide, and the rifling for the last inch or two of the bore may be ruined. The only fixes for that are to either counterbore- basically cutting a cone out of the bore from the muzzle back for a couple of inches, lathe required- or cut an inch or two off the barrel and recrown. Which would ruin it as far as collectibility and authenticity and require putting the front sight back on. If you've got one like that you'll have to decide what you want to do.
Years ago I bought an old Turkish Mauser to turn into a hunting rifle. When I first shot it the best groups it would get were about 6-8" at 100 yards. I cut the barrel off right in front of the front sight, which only removed about 1/2", squared and crowned it and with the same ammo groups shrunk by half. In the end I took five inches off that 29" barrel, which removed all the damaged bore and that rifle will shoot 1" groups or a touch better, depending on ammo and if I'm doing my part that day.
This is one of those "It's simple, but it has to be done right" things. Most gunsmiths don't charge too much to cut & crown a barrel, so if you're worried about keeping things square that may be the way to go. If all you need to do is clean up or recut the crown itself, it is something you can do.
The crown is the very end of the barrel where the rifling ends. It's the last place where the barrel affects the bullet, and if damaged accuracy tends to go to hell. Even tiny burrs or dents where the rifling ends can either damage the bullet slightly or let gas leak out at that spot, throwing the bullet off-balance by just a fraction.
Yes, this is one of my patented, "you can do it yourself but don't yell at me if it don't work" posts. Cleaning up the crown is actually fairly simple, and can be done without a lathe or other fancy(read 'expensive') tooling.
The most basic is you find that, after being dropped, the crown has a little ding in the corner of the bore. Or you find that someone cleaning from the muzzle(and some rifles and pistols have to be) let a steel rod ding the crown. Assuming that's all you have to repair, you've got two ways.
There are cutters made just for this, like this one from Brownell's:
It's a tool steel body with a handle that screws on. Pilots are made for different bore diameters and held in place with a set screw. They make one that's about 3/4" wide and square, for making sure a newly-cut muzzle is true, and a couple of smaller diameter ones with the cutting flutes at different angles, depending on what crown you want. This one is 79 degrees, and that's a .311 pilot for a .303 British rifle. The first step with either of the methods I'm using is make sure the damn gun is unloaded; it'll really, REALLY ruin your day/week/life if it's not and it fires while you're doing this. Then put a tight patch on a cleaning jag and run it up to about 2" below the bore with this cutter and leave it there. With a clean-from-the-muzzle arm, I run the jag in the appropriate amount, then unscrew the rod from it; in either case it'll keep shavings, cutting oil, whatever from falling down the bore and into the action.
With this cutter/guide setup, use a small paintbrush to coat the cutting flutes and crown with oil, actual cutting oil being the best but just plain oil will do, it helps the cutter turn and cut smoothly. Ease the pilot in until the flutes contact the crown and then, with light, even pressure turn it. ALWAYS CLOCKWISE. If you turn it in reverse it can cause a burr to be rolled up on the cutting edge which pretty much ruins it until it can be honed to remove it. Turn it two turns, then take it out. Wipe off the shavings from both pieces and inspect. If you need to cut a bit deeper, oil and repeat.
When this is done, you may be able to use it as is, but you'll generally need to polish the new crown to get rid of the tiny burrs the cutter leaves. Which brings me to the next method, which can be used all by itself to clean up a crown. This high-tech method is
Yep, that's a round-head screw in a drill. Brownell's makes a brass piece just for this, or you can use a small carriage bolt(make sure the head is smooth) or round-head machine screw of steel or brass. I read of one gunsmith who takes steel ball bearings, anneals them, drills a hole in and solders in a piece of drill rod for a shank; he thinks the hard ball works better than a softer metal. Some swear by one with a screwdriver slot, as it'll hold some of the abrasive. They all work, as long as the curve of the head fits into the muzzle properly; small enough diameter & curve to contact the crown, large enough to not be able to slip into the bore. Power can be a cordless drill like this- as long as it is variable speed- or a crank-type hand drill. And you'll need some abrasive compound. I'm using some valve-grinding paste from a tool or auto parts store, this kind comes in a two-sided can with one side coarse and one fine. I've never needed any but the fine stuff.
If you're polishing after using a cutter, pull/push the patch out to clean oil & shavings out of the bore, clean it out then put in a fresh patch. If just using this method, put your patch in. Secure the gun or barrel so it's vertical. Dip the head of the screw or whatever into the compound. Gently set it into the crown and start it turning slowly. I repeat, SLOWLY. You'll be able to feel the compound grinding at first; when you stop feeling that, remove and dip the head again.
No, it's not vertical here; I'm holding with one hand and shooting with the other, so shut up.
Don't just hold the drill vertically, after the first bit start moving the drill in a small circle. After the second time I coat the head I put it in reverse and continue for a minute. The idea is to make sure the cutting occurs evenly around the crown and polishes both sides of the lands and grooves to get rid of any burrs or roughness.
Take your time. After running it both ways, set the rig aside and clean the crown off and inspect it. I use some cotton swabs, put the end in the bore, preferably without touching the compound, and use it to swab the stuff out of the bore. When it's done you'll have a clean, bright ring where the rifling ends, nice and smooth. Use a bright light and a magnifier of some kind to check it out. Remember, if you just had some small dings or a touch of wear it may only take a minute or two of this to completely remove the damaged section, so check often.
When it's done to your satisfaction, use more swabs and patches to wipe off all the compound you can, then pull the patch out to remove anything it caught. Clean the bore thoroughly to make sure you don't leave any trace of the abrasive, and oil. The mechanical part is done.
At this point you can use a bit of cold blue to get rid of the shine, or leave it as is and the next shooting you do will take care of most of that.
That's pretty much it for the basic crowning. The Serious Recrowning would be with, for instance, an old military rifle that was often cleaned without a guide, and the rifling for the last inch or two of the bore may be ruined. The only fixes for that are to either counterbore- basically cutting a cone out of the bore from the muzzle back for a couple of inches, lathe required- or cut an inch or two off the barrel and recrown. Which would ruin it as far as collectibility and authenticity and require putting the front sight back on. If you've got one like that you'll have to decide what you want to do.
Years ago I bought an old Turkish Mauser to turn into a hunting rifle. When I first shot it the best groups it would get were about 6-8" at 100 yards. I cut the barrel off right in front of the front sight, which only removed about 1/2", squared and crowned it and with the same ammo groups shrunk by half. In the end I took five inches off that 29" barrel, which removed all the damaged bore and that rifle will shoot 1" groups or a touch better, depending on ammo and if I'm doing my part that day.
This is one of those "It's simple, but it has to be done right" things. Most gunsmiths don't charge too much to cut & crown a barrel, so if you're worried about keeping things square that may be the way to go. If all you need to do is clean up or recut the crown itself, it is something you can do.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Mosin Nagant chargers
If you've ever used the things to charge your rifle, you know what a pain they can be. It's not simply that they're for a rimmed cartridge; the .303 British slicks right through theirs. It seems to be two things:
Different rifles will or will not work well with them, and
Most of those available are crap.
As to the rimmed part, you have to load them in so that the rim of one is under the rim of the one before, and then charge the rifle with them so aligned. No big deal, the .303 has to be loaded into the chargers in a proper pattern, too. But even with that done, a lot of the chargers/rifles just don't work well. A while back I saw a picture somewhere of a charger with a slot cut in it, don't know if it was original or modified. So I got the jewelers saw and cut a 1/4" slot in the ends of a couple of chargers that worked so-so and gave them a try. Big improvement. Then, at the gun show a couple of weeks ago a guy had some actual Russian-made chargers, Izhevsk marked and all. On the left is one I modified, on the right the Izzy:
I just tried the new ones out, and they work well.
So if you've got some of the reproductions that don't work well, you might try cutting a slot in one and see if it helps.
Different rifles will or will not work well with them, and
Most of those available are crap.
As to the rimmed part, you have to load them in so that the rim of one is under the rim of the one before, and then charge the rifle with them so aligned. No big deal, the .303 has to be loaded into the chargers in a proper pattern, too. But even with that done, a lot of the chargers/rifles just don't work well. A while back I saw a picture somewhere of a charger with a slot cut in it, don't know if it was original or modified. So I got the jewelers saw and cut a 1/4" slot in the ends of a couple of chargers that worked so-so and gave them a try. Big improvement. Then, at the gun show a couple of weeks ago a guy had some actual Russian-made chargers, Izhevsk marked and all. On the left is one I modified, on the right the Izzy:
I just tried the new ones out, and they work well.
So if you've got some of the reproductions that don't work well, you might try cutting a slot in one and see if it helps.
And on the subject of appeasement-minded fools,
remember Van Gogh? The Dutch filmmaker who was murdered because he didn't kiss the prophets ass?
Well, his son is being harassed by BPMs, and it seems the Dutch police don't want to do much about it.
I think Churchill called this 'feeding the crocodile in the hopes that he'll eat you last'.
Well, his son is being harassed by BPMs, and it seems the Dutch police don't want to do much about it.
I think Churchill called this 'feeding the crocodile in the hopes that he'll eat you last'.
The Governor of Arizona is an Idiot
Looking over at Ace of Spades found this: Gov. Janet Napolitano said she hopes the memorial becomes a “place to come and think about what happened'’ and what the United States needs to do in response to that.” We want it to be an educational tool for children grades k-12.” She's speaking of the AZ memorial for 9/11. Which goes back to take in, among other things, the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
In a 9/11 memorial.
Which, of course, also has wise statements like “You don’t win battles of terrorism with more battles,” …..”Congress questions why CIA & FBI didn’t prevent attacks.”……”FBI agent issued July 2001 warning in ‘Phoenix Memo’ “…..”Erroneous US air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians’……”Middle East violence motivates attacks in US”….
Is there some actual reason why so many people can't stand the idea of a memorial that says "We were attacked. Many died. Many acted with great courage during this mess."? Instead they have to use it to push their idiot political opinions on others. Remember the statue of the firefighters in NYC? The politically correct couldn't stand that it actually be a statue made from the picture taken because -gasp!horror!- all the firefighters in it were white! Oh, the humanity! So not only did they try to change the statue to be more 'inclusive', they gave all kinds of idiot excuses and implied- hell, flatly stated- that anyone who didn't agree with them was a bigot.
Well, Arizona, you gave us Sen. McCain(the gift that keeps peeing on your leg) and now Gov. Napolitano. You've got some serious making-up to do.
In a 9/11 memorial.
Which, of course, also has wise statements like “You don’t win battles of terrorism with more battles,” …..”Congress questions why CIA & FBI didn’t prevent attacks.”……”FBI agent issued July 2001 warning in ‘Phoenix Memo’ “…..”Erroneous US air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians’……”Middle East violence motivates attacks in US”….
Is there some actual reason why so many people can't stand the idea of a memorial that says "We were attacked. Many died. Many acted with great courage during this mess."? Instead they have to use it to push their idiot political opinions on others. Remember the statue of the firefighters in NYC? The politically correct couldn't stand that it actually be a statue made from the picture taken because -gasp!horror!- all the firefighters in it were white! Oh, the humanity! So not only did they try to change the statue to be more 'inclusive', they gave all kinds of idiot excuses and implied- hell, flatly stated- that anyone who didn't agree with them was a bigot.
Well, Arizona, you gave us Sen. McCain(the gift that keeps peeing on your leg) and now Gov. Napolitano. You've got some serious making-up to do.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
George Fraziers' words
While back in this post on Britain, Windy commented "And my parents' generation sacrificed so much and so many dead to -- what? Make the UK safe for yobs? Safe from sardonic garden gnomes? At the expense of women and children? Anyone who works for a living in that country is a fool. Band together and bust some heads, and claim a youth in which the country did not provide what you needed. " Which reminded me of this passage from Quartered Safe Out Here, speaking of what Frazier thought they were fighting for:
...They wanted jobs, and security, and a better future for their children than they had had- and they got that, and were thankful for it. It was what they had fought for, over and beyond the pressing need of ensuring that Britain did not become a Nazi slave state.
Still, the Britain they see in their old age is hardly "the land fit for heroes" that they envisaged- if that land existed in their imaginations, it was probably a place where the pre-war values co-existed with decent wages and housing. It was a reasonable, perfectly possible dream, and for a time it existed, more or less. And then it changed, in the name of progress and improvement and enlightenment, which meant the destruction of much that they had fought for and held dear, and the betrayal of familiar things that they had loved. Some of them, to superficial minds, will seem terribly trivial, even ludicrously so- things like county names, and shillings and pence, and the King James Version, and yards and feet and inches- yet they matter to a nation.
They did not fight for a Britain which would be dishonestly railroaded into Europe against the people's will;; they did not fight for a Britain where successive governments, by their weakness and folly, would encourage crime and violence on an unprecedented scale; they did not fight for a Britain where thugs and psychopaths could murder and maim and torture and never have a finger laid on them for it; they did not fight for a Britain whose leaders would be too cowardly to declare war on terrorism; they did not fight for a Britain whose Parliament would, time and again, betray its trust by legislating against the wishes of the country; they did not fight for a Britain where children could be snatched from their homes and parents by night on nothing more than the good old Inquisition principle of secret information; they did not fight for a Britain whose Churches and schools would be undermined by fashionable reformers; they did not fight for a Britain where free choice could be anathematised as "discriminisation"; they did not fight for a Britain where to hold by truths and values which have been thought good and worthy for a thousand years would be to run the risk of being called "fascist"- that, really , is the greatest and most pitiful irony of all.
No, it is not what they fought for- but being realists they accept what they cannot alter, and reserve their protests for the noise pollution of modern music in their pubs.
In a way that bit in the last sentance is the worst of them all: "they accept what they cannot alter". Which seems to be where it is now; they can protest and yell, but the government ignores them, or worse, tells them they can't be expected to understand why things are actually good.
Maybe what we really need to send to Britain is some tar, feathers and a few rails.
...They wanted jobs, and security, and a better future for their children than they had had- and they got that, and were thankful for it. It was what they had fought for, over and beyond the pressing need of ensuring that Britain did not become a Nazi slave state.
Still, the Britain they see in their old age is hardly "the land fit for heroes" that they envisaged- if that land existed in their imaginations, it was probably a place where the pre-war values co-existed with decent wages and housing. It was a reasonable, perfectly possible dream, and for a time it existed, more or less. And then it changed, in the name of progress and improvement and enlightenment, which meant the destruction of much that they had fought for and held dear, and the betrayal of familiar things that they had loved. Some of them, to superficial minds, will seem terribly trivial, even ludicrously so- things like county names, and shillings and pence, and the King James Version, and yards and feet and inches- yet they matter to a nation.
They did not fight for a Britain which would be dishonestly railroaded into Europe against the people's will;; they did not fight for a Britain where successive governments, by their weakness and folly, would encourage crime and violence on an unprecedented scale; they did not fight for a Britain where thugs and psychopaths could murder and maim and torture and never have a finger laid on them for it; they did not fight for a Britain whose leaders would be too cowardly to declare war on terrorism; they did not fight for a Britain whose Parliament would, time and again, betray its trust by legislating against the wishes of the country; they did not fight for a Britain where children could be snatched from their homes and parents by night on nothing more than the good old Inquisition principle of secret information; they did not fight for a Britain whose Churches and schools would be undermined by fashionable reformers; they did not fight for a Britain where free choice could be anathematised as "discriminisation"; they did not fight for a Britain where to hold by truths and values which have been thought good and worthy for a thousand years would be to run the risk of being called "fascist"- that, really , is the greatest and most pitiful irony of all.
No, it is not what they fought for- but being realists they accept what they cannot alter, and reserve their protests for the noise pollution of modern music in their pubs.
In a way that bit in the last sentance is the worst of them all: "they accept what they cannot alter". Which seems to be where it is now; they can protest and yell, but the government ignores them, or worse, tells them they can't be expected to understand why things are actually good.
Maybe what we really need to send to Britain is some tar, feathers and a few rails.
I've got to second the man from mAss Backwards on this one:
Senator McCain, fuck you. This oath-breaking, Constitution-trashing idiot wants to be President?
No way in hell.
No way in hell.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Camera's back! Photo updates
to the earlier range reports.
Went to visit my parents the last couple of days, only borrowing their pc long enough to post my pissed-off post at the nun-murderers. While I was gone my daughter got back from her trip and I now have my camera back, so here's the shots.
First off, I mentioned the Federal Tactical low-recoil slugs, here's that five-shot group at 30 yards:
The one low left was my fault, I felt things shift just as I squeezed off. That's not a bad group a'tall, for resting the left hand only. I need to hit a range where I can try some of these at 50 and 100.
Second, the M1 Carbine with the scope, first trial, shot at 30 yards. The group on the right was shot with some GI-spec ammo, the left with some handloads using 2400 powder:
A few days later I had a chance to shoot at 100, and was having a lot of trouble, not grouping well at all. I'd bumped the scope loading it into the truck and wondered if I'd damaged it. That mystery was solved when I started to adjust it and realized the thing was moving. Not the reticle, the scope. AND the base. Note to self: it really, really helps if you make sure the screws holding the base on are kind of tight. I'd run out of time at this point, just had time to dismount the scope, tighten things up, remount it and try a couple of groups. Not bad, about 2.5" as I recall. I'll test it again next time I go out, this time with all screws tight since after I got home I took it down and put threadlocker on the screws.
Last, when I was ordering the carbine bullets from GI Brass, they had some 173 grain boattail match bullets for a good price, so I got 100 to try out in the M1 Garand. Loaded up ten, five in some military WRA brass and five in commercial Federal cases with the 'most accurate' load of IMR4895 shown in the Lyman manual to try them out. The WRA-brass loads produced a group about an inch tall and a little less than 2" across,
the Federal-brass load close to an inch larger. Two things here, first that while a single group with each is not a real test, it's very encouraging; second, some of the horizontal spread could very well have been my fault. Which means more testing is in order. Oh, the drudgery.
And the "Dammit!", because when I got home and checked the site to order more of the bullets, they were, of course, out of them. So I'll either have to find more somewhere else, or a commercial bullet that matches up. Good commercial match bullets are out there, just not at nearly as good a price.
I think with a bit of tweaking this loading is capable of very good accuracy. I think I'll tweak it a bit the next day or two.
Went to visit my parents the last couple of days, only borrowing their pc long enough to post my pissed-off post at the nun-murderers. While I was gone my daughter got back from her trip and I now have my camera back, so here's the shots.
First off, I mentioned the Federal Tactical low-recoil slugs, here's that five-shot group at 30 yards:
The one low left was my fault, I felt things shift just as I squeezed off. That's not a bad group a'tall, for resting the left hand only. I need to hit a range where I can try some of these at 50 and 100.
Second, the M1 Carbine with the scope, first trial, shot at 30 yards. The group on the right was shot with some GI-spec ammo, the left with some handloads using 2400 powder:
A few days later I had a chance to shoot at 100, and was having a lot of trouble, not grouping well at all. I'd bumped the scope loading it into the truck and wondered if I'd damaged it. That mystery was solved when I started to adjust it and realized the thing was moving. Not the reticle, the scope. AND the base. Note to self: it really, really helps if you make sure the screws holding the base on are kind of tight. I'd run out of time at this point, just had time to dismount the scope, tighten things up, remount it and try a couple of groups. Not bad, about 2.5" as I recall. I'll test it again next time I go out, this time with all screws tight since after I got home I took it down and put threadlocker on the screws.
Last, when I was ordering the carbine bullets from GI Brass, they had some 173 grain boattail match bullets for a good price, so I got 100 to try out in the M1 Garand. Loaded up ten, five in some military WRA brass and five in commercial Federal cases with the 'most accurate' load of IMR4895 shown in the Lyman manual to try them out. The WRA-brass loads produced a group about an inch tall and a little less than 2" across,
the Federal-brass load close to an inch larger. Two things here, first that while a single group with each is not a real test, it's very encouraging; second, some of the horizontal spread could very well have been my fault. Which means more testing is in order. Oh, the drudgery.
And the "Dammit!", because when I got home and checked the site to order more of the bullets, they were, of course, out of them. So I'll either have to find more somewhere else, or a commercial bullet that matches up. Good commercial match bullets are out there, just not at nearly as good a price.
I think with a bit of tweaking this loading is capable of very good accuracy. I think I'll tweak it a bit the next day or two.
Basic Training update
Damn, the toys tools they get to play withtrain with!
Let's see, AT-6, M203, couple of machine guns, automatic grenade launcher and a M2 .50 caliber simulator. Would(to an extent, anyway) make up for getting up at 0h-dark-thirty to get yelled at and exercise.
Only about three weeks left, and so far he's doing well. I've got the day off to make his graduation("Well, I can take a leave day or retire, but one way or the other...") and I'm looking forward to it.
Let's see, AT-6, M203, couple of machine guns, automatic grenade launcher and a M2 .50 caliber simulator. Would(to an extent, anyway) make up for getting up at 0h-dark-thirty to get yelled at and exercise.
Only about three weeks left, and so far he's doing well. I've got the day off to make his graduation("Well, I can take a leave day or retire, but one way or the other...") and I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Solution to the illegal immigrant problem
Lets begin by bringing our troops home from Iraq to guard the border. When they catch an illegal immigrant crossing the border, hand him a canteen, rifle and some ammo and ship him to Iraq. Tell him if he wants to come to America then he must serve a tour in the military.
Give him a soldier's pay while he's there and tax him on it.
After his tour, he will be allowed to apply to become a citizen since he defended this country. He will also be registered to be taxed and he'll be a patriot.
After his tour, he will be allowed to apply to become a citizen since he defended this country. He will also be registered to be taxed and he'll be a patriot.
This option will probably deter illegal immigration and provide a solution for the troops in Iraq and the aliens trying to make a better life for themselves.
If they refuse to serve, ship them to Iraq anyway.........
...........without the canteen, rifle or ammo.
Problem solved.
Sent by a friend
Some further thoughts on eventual reactions to the RoP
A comment from said the following:
Oh yes, it will be very good for everyone if we get the British, Germans, Japanese, Russians and Chinese back to a killer philosophy. Even better if they all go crazy at once.
Very clever of these muslims to ecourage an attack by today's equivalent of her majesty's Regiments, the Wehrmacht and SS, the Imperial Japanese Army and the Red Armies. Not to mention the Americans. All at the same time.
One problem is that after the 15 minutes it took to destroy all the muslims in the universe the lads might turn on each other.
For the moment overlook the bit about the Chinese and Russians; I think they're already willing to kill anybody anywhere(their governments are) if it'll advance their position. If the Russians had a government that wasn't spending a lot of energy trying to bring back the Soviet state and could properly direct actions against the islamists, there'd be a lot less trouble in that part of the world. But when the Soviet Union fell apart, and the Soviet army fell apart with it, too many people were too busy grabbing power and/or money to actually care about building up Russia. Which is why the mess in Chechnya & assoc. has dragged on so long and been so bad. If the Russians had actually worked to build their military on a modern design as the Russian Army, I think that would've been mostly settled down a long time ago. The Chinese are busy using the islamist states and groups as customers for weapons and to generally cause trouble for everyone else, and between that and knowing exactly how the Chicoms would react to terrorist incidents on their soil, the nutcases have shown restraint there.
All those other countries? Look back through history, and(it's been pointed out before, this is not original to me) every country in Europe has a long history of war and, very often, being highly effective at it. Poland did not survive between two hostile powers for centuries by being weak. In fact, if I remember right the Poles were a large contingent of the forces that stopped the Ottomans cold at Austria. Hungary produced fine officers and shooters, and so on through the countries. For that matter, remember where the Dracula legends began? And why?(hint: 'fighting the Ottomans'). Britain we know about, the problem there being the same as the other countries; EU-suckup 'elites' screwing the nation over in the name of their ideal 'European Union'.
So the islamists finally, somewhere- or several somewheres at once- finally do something so big and/or horrific that the people in a lot of places kick the 'elites' in the ass and out the door and say "Enough". Does anyone except the islamists really think they can't begin kicking ass on a major level? The Poles sent some of their best spec-ops troops to Iraq, and from what I read they're damn good troops, for one instance; what happens when the Polish army and LE forces, for one, get the order to clean house? Or the Brits have enough and decide to remember that overall they were once the best and most respected military forces in the world, and the Brit police are told "Enough with the PC bullshit, time to round up the terrorists; already-trained officers pick up your arms, everyone else we have time for cycles through training, and then Tally-ho!"
So far the Japanese have mostly been concerned with the Chicoms and Norks, happily for them. Tell the truth, unless some idiot decides the old "we need resources so let's conquer Asia" attitude is a good idea(not bloody likely) then a Japanese Self-Defense Force with some serious muscle sounds like a good idea. Among other things, having the Norks worried that a Japanese knockoff development of a EMP bomb will be dropped and fry Dear Leaders' genital stimulation equipment( you don't think the little bastard actually reproduced without help, did you?) seems to be a Good Thing(which would cause damn little harm to the common people there, since electric lights- let alone anything else- are mostly a stranger to them).
Problem with thinking about the good side of this is you have to consider the bad side, and that would be very bad indeed. First in the islamists getting tired of murdering nuns and priests and defiling bodies and committing the aforementioned atrocity at the level that brings this about, then the mess that happens because of it. And I'm very afraid both will happen. Someone wrote about how we can't take it as a given that most of the moslem world actually supports the 'behead those who insult Islam' and murdering people as a part of it attitude, that many may simply be going along with it because they don't want to be a target of the nutcases.
Unfortunately, the answer to that is "So what?" Put a nation in fear of its very survival and it's not going to give a rats ass about how many are supposedly 'our friends we just don't know yet', it's going to say "Time to play whack-a-mole with multiple BIG hammers". At which time they'll have the options of A: help whack the islamic fascists, or B: be taken out with them. And history has shown that lots of innocents WILL be killed, in this case not simply because of the 'fog of war', but because the damned fascists will be using them as shields.
And yeah, in some cases there damn well would be problems after the islamic fascists are whacked; old slights and wars and border disputes might get, let us say, a bit heated. Overall, though, I'm hopeful that in most of the world that wouldn't amount to more than some noise. Some places, like Africa? THAT could get really, really messy.
Oh yes, it will be very good for everyone if we get the British, Germans, Japanese, Russians and Chinese back to a killer philosophy. Even better if they all go crazy at once.
Very clever of these muslims to ecourage an attack by today's equivalent of her majesty's Regiments, the Wehrmacht and SS, the Imperial Japanese Army and the Red Armies. Not to mention the Americans. All at the same time.
One problem is that after the 15 minutes it took to destroy all the muslims in the universe the lads might turn on each other.
For the moment overlook the bit about the Chinese and Russians; I think they're already willing to kill anybody anywhere(their governments are) if it'll advance their position. If the Russians had a government that wasn't spending a lot of energy trying to bring back the Soviet state and could properly direct actions against the islamists, there'd be a lot less trouble in that part of the world. But when the Soviet Union fell apart, and the Soviet army fell apart with it, too many people were too busy grabbing power and/or money to actually care about building up Russia. Which is why the mess in Chechnya & assoc. has dragged on so long and been so bad. If the Russians had actually worked to build their military on a modern design as the Russian Army, I think that would've been mostly settled down a long time ago. The Chinese are busy using the islamist states and groups as customers for weapons and to generally cause trouble for everyone else, and between that and knowing exactly how the Chicoms would react to terrorist incidents on their soil, the nutcases have shown restraint there.
All those other countries? Look back through history, and(it's been pointed out before, this is not original to me) every country in Europe has a long history of war and, very often, being highly effective at it. Poland did not survive between two hostile powers for centuries by being weak. In fact, if I remember right the Poles were a large contingent of the forces that stopped the Ottomans cold at Austria. Hungary produced fine officers and shooters, and so on through the countries. For that matter, remember where the Dracula legends began? And why?(hint: 'fighting the Ottomans'). Britain we know about, the problem there being the same as the other countries; EU-suckup 'elites' screwing the nation over in the name of their ideal 'European Union'.
So the islamists finally, somewhere- or several somewheres at once- finally do something so big and/or horrific that the people in a lot of places kick the 'elites' in the ass and out the door and say "Enough". Does anyone except the islamists really think they can't begin kicking ass on a major level? The Poles sent some of their best spec-ops troops to Iraq, and from what I read they're damn good troops, for one instance; what happens when the Polish army and LE forces, for one, get the order to clean house? Or the Brits have enough and decide to remember that overall they were once the best and most respected military forces in the world, and the Brit police are told "Enough with the PC bullshit, time to round up the terrorists; already-trained officers pick up your arms, everyone else we have time for cycles through training, and then Tally-ho!"
So far the Japanese have mostly been concerned with the Chicoms and Norks, happily for them. Tell the truth, unless some idiot decides the old "we need resources so let's conquer Asia" attitude is a good idea(not bloody likely) then a Japanese Self-Defense Force with some serious muscle sounds like a good idea. Among other things, having the Norks worried that a Japanese knockoff development of a EMP bomb will be dropped and fry Dear Leaders' genital stimulation equipment( you don't think the little bastard actually reproduced without help, did you?) seems to be a Good Thing(which would cause damn little harm to the common people there, since electric lights- let alone anything else- are mostly a stranger to them).
Problem with thinking about the good side of this is you have to consider the bad side, and that would be very bad indeed. First in the islamists getting tired of murdering nuns and priests and defiling bodies and committing the aforementioned atrocity at the level that brings this about, then the mess that happens because of it. And I'm very afraid both will happen. Someone wrote about how we can't take it as a given that most of the moslem world actually supports the 'behead those who insult Islam' and murdering people as a part of it attitude, that many may simply be going along with it because they don't want to be a target of the nutcases.
Unfortunately, the answer to that is "So what?" Put a nation in fear of its very survival and it's not going to give a rats ass about how many are supposedly 'our friends we just don't know yet', it's going to say "Time to play whack-a-mole with multiple BIG hammers". At which time they'll have the options of A: help whack the islamic fascists, or B: be taken out with them. And history has shown that lots of innocents WILL be killed, in this case not simply because of the 'fog of war', but because the damned fascists will be using them as shields.
And yeah, in some cases there damn well would be problems after the islamic fascists are whacked; old slights and wars and border disputes might get, let us say, a bit heated. Overall, though, I'm hopeful that in most of the world that wouldn't amount to more than some noise. Some places, like Africa? THAT could get really, really messy.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Oh, brave muslims!
Murdering old women and hospital workers. Burning churches. Threatening to level the Vatican. Because you don't have the balls to listen to a speech where a prince said a bad thing about islam six hundred freakin' years ago. Oh yeah, these are just WONDERFUL ways to show how peaceful and accepting Islam is.
I repeat what I said before, we've got a bunch of bloody-handed idiots who are in CHARGE of millions of moslems threatening death and blood and fire once again because somebody dared to say something they don't like. And the same idiots will whine and moan that people are prejudiced against them, therefore they DESERVE to die. Moslems are ENTITLED to act like the bunch of seventh-century barbarians they still are, according to them.
I'm sick to death of this crap. I referred to these as acting like spoiled brats; that was in error, and an insult to brats. The BPMs are exactly what I said above, seventh-century barbarians who, it seems, will only understand force.
You know what's going to happen. They'll do something so bad that even most of the nanny-state socialists in various governments will shut up(they'll whine about it, of course) and, as the guy said in the move, hell will come to breakfast. And afterward the surviving idiots will whine about being mistreated(of course) and the dumbass types here will whine about how mean we were(of course), but the threat from these clowns will be stomped. Maybe not forever, but for a long time.
No, I'm not looking forward to it. Yes, I think it'll happen. Among other things, before they turned into the modern incarnation, Italians produced the Roman soldiers that conquered a large part of the world. Various other nations currently playing games(directed by their betters, or course-as the 'betters' see it)have a warrior past that the islamist murderers would do well to consider. Because for the people- not the Euroweenies, the people- WILL hit a limit, and it will get nasty.
And at this point, I think it will happen simply because the dumbass people in various governments and the useful idiots in many countries have gotten the islamist murderers and whiners used to being catered to. "Oh, you're offended! How may we make it up to you?", etc., so they think they can do it forever. I don't think so. I think there are lots of people ready to tell them to go to hell now, but their governments don't listen to them("Listen to the peasants? Surely you jest!"). Piss them off enough, and their governments will be given no choice.
And it'll get messy. And at that point, there will be no other choice.
Oh, excuse me, for the multicultural fools the choice of becoming dhimmi would probably be considered acceptable, and I invite them to move their sorry asses to some of the barbarian parts of the world now; it'll be easier to get there now than it will after.
I repeat what I said before, we've got a bunch of bloody-handed idiots who are in CHARGE of millions of moslems threatening death and blood and fire once again because somebody dared to say something they don't like. And the same idiots will whine and moan that people are prejudiced against them, therefore they DESERVE to die. Moslems are ENTITLED to act like the bunch of seventh-century barbarians they still are, according to them.
I'm sick to death of this crap. I referred to these as acting like spoiled brats; that was in error, and an insult to brats. The BPMs are exactly what I said above, seventh-century barbarians who, it seems, will only understand force.
You know what's going to happen. They'll do something so bad that even most of the nanny-state socialists in various governments will shut up(they'll whine about it, of course) and, as the guy said in the move, hell will come to breakfast. And afterward the surviving idiots will whine about being mistreated(of course) and the dumbass types here will whine about how mean we were(of course), but the threat from these clowns will be stomped. Maybe not forever, but for a long time.
No, I'm not looking forward to it. Yes, I think it'll happen. Among other things, before they turned into the modern incarnation, Italians produced the Roman soldiers that conquered a large part of the world. Various other nations currently playing games(directed by their betters, or course-as the 'betters' see it)have a warrior past that the islamist murderers would do well to consider. Because for the people- not the Euroweenies, the people- WILL hit a limit, and it will get nasty.
And at this point, I think it will happen simply because the dumbass people in various governments and the useful idiots in many countries have gotten the islamist murderers and whiners used to being catered to. "Oh, you're offended! How may we make it up to you?", etc., so they think they can do it forever. I don't think so. I think there are lots of people ready to tell them to go to hell now, but their governments don't listen to them("Listen to the peasants? Surely you jest!"). Piss them off enough, and their governments will be given no choice.
And it'll get messy. And at that point, there will be no other choice.
Oh, excuse me, for the multicultural fools the choice of becoming dhimmi would probably be considered acceptable, and I invite them to move their sorry asses to some of the barbarian parts of the world now; it'll be easier to get there now than it will after.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
I am getting pretty damn tired of the 'Religeon of Peace',
seeing as how if anyone says anything that they don't like- for whatever reason- it's an 'attack on Islam' and an excuse to riot and scream and make more death threats.
Guys? I'm sure people more noticeable than I have pointed this out, but if you react to any criticism of your actions or beliefs by threatening to kill everybody in sight, you're not exactly being very peaceful. And you're ruining your supposed reputation as a 'peaceful religeon'. Instead, you're acting like a bunch of spoiled brats who see everything short of falling on knees and converting as an 'attack on Islam' and use it as an excuse to declare jihad and kill people and burn things.
Religeon of peace my ass. If it actually was, you'd have marches by muslims calling suicide bombers and the murderers in Iraq the beasts they are and condemning them. If you disagreed with what the Pope said in the above link, you'd be arguing the point in an intelligent manner, not saying things like "
Benedict would go down in history "in the same category as leaders such as (Benito) Mussolini and (Adolf) Hitler.", and burning people in effigy, etc.
I've been reading Londonistan, and one of the things she points out is that the radicals(whether they actually believe it or not) and the hysterics(who do) claim anything as an 'attack on Islam' and reason for suicide bombings and terrorism in general and so forth. Do anything except fall on your knees before them, and it's an attack.
And I'm really tired of the supposed 'moderate' muslims at least silently going along with it.
Guys? I'm sure people more noticeable than I have pointed this out, but if you react to any criticism of your actions or beliefs by threatening to kill everybody in sight, you're not exactly being very peaceful. And you're ruining your supposed reputation as a 'peaceful religeon'. Instead, you're acting like a bunch of spoiled brats who see everything short of falling on knees and converting as an 'attack on Islam' and use it as an excuse to declare jihad and kill people and burn things.
Religeon of peace my ass. If it actually was, you'd have marches by muslims calling suicide bombers and the murderers in Iraq the beasts they are and condemning them. If you disagreed with what the Pope said in the above link, you'd be arguing the point in an intelligent manner, not saying things like "
Benedict would go down in history "in the same category as leaders such as (Benito) Mussolini and (Adolf) Hitler.", and burning people in effigy, etc.
I've been reading Londonistan, and one of the things she points out is that the radicals(whether they actually believe it or not) and the hysterics(who do) claim anything as an 'attack on Islam' and reason for suicide bombings and terrorism in general and so forth. Do anything except fall on your knees before them, and it's an attack.
And I'm really tired of the supposed 'moderate' muslims at least silently going along with it.
Friday, September 15, 2006
More on the UN 'There Is No Right Of Self-Defense' BS
Looking over at Volokh.com(something I need to do more) I found this by Dave Kopel:UN's New Attack on Law-Abiding American Gun Owners . It's about a particular question on a 'Human Rights Law Exam, as follows:
Advanced Topics in Human Rights Law. Exam, Spring 2010. Question 4: One day, a woman goes to a gun store in Florida. She provides picture identification to the store owner, who then, pursuant to the National Instant Check System, uses his telephone to contact law enforcement, and ensure that the woman has no criminal record. The woman then purchases an expensive double-barreled shotgun, manufactured in the United Kingdom. She plans to use the gun for all lawful purposes, but primarily for sporting clays. In accordance with Florida law, she did not need to obtain a government license to possess the gun.
Two years later, a man breaks into her home at night. The woman reasonably (and correctly) believes that the man intends to rape and torture her. She also, correctly, believes that there is absolutely no possibility that the man will kill her. She shoots the man and kills him.
Summarize the human rights violations
They find three, the Brits for exporting 'small arms' to the U.S.; the U.S. and Florida for 'permitting' the woman to buy the gun without a license; and Finally, the woman's use of gun violence against the man was also a human rights violation.
Overall, it's a fairly standard piece of UN crap. But read it all the way through; to me, the biggest red flag in the thing is right at the end:
If the victim's human rights lawsuit were brought before a judge who was sympathetic to such manufacturers or organizations, it is unlikely that the suit would succeed. However, there are many judges who do not have such sympathies. Thanks to the flexibility of international law, and the evolving practice in U.S. constitutional interpretation of using international law guidelines, it would be possible for the lawsuits to result not only in monetary damages, but also in injunctive relief, and the judicial negation of the state and federal laws on self-defense and gun control which violate international human rights.(emphasis mine)
If there was ever a a blunt warning as to what the international GFWs and 'human rights' clowns want to happen here, this is it. It's why, anytime some judge decides to base his ruling on 'international law' instead of the Constitution, he out to be tarred and feathered. These people PLAN on using such judges to trash our Constitution; they're looking forward to it and planning on it.
One more reason why that damn building should be torn down and the sorry excuses for humans in it set up in Botswana or someplace in Europe.
Advanced Topics in Human Rights Law. Exam, Spring 2010. Question 4: One day, a woman goes to a gun store in Florida. She provides picture identification to the store owner, who then, pursuant to the National Instant Check System, uses his telephone to contact law enforcement, and ensure that the woman has no criminal record. The woman then purchases an expensive double-barreled shotgun, manufactured in the United Kingdom. She plans to use the gun for all lawful purposes, but primarily for sporting clays. In accordance with Florida law, she did not need to obtain a government license to possess the gun.
Two years later, a man breaks into her home at night. The woman reasonably (and correctly) believes that the man intends to rape and torture her. She also, correctly, believes that there is absolutely no possibility that the man will kill her. She shoots the man and kills him.
Summarize the human rights violations
They find three, the Brits for exporting 'small arms' to the U.S.; the U.S. and Florida for 'permitting' the woman to buy the gun without a license; and Finally, the woman's use of gun violence against the man was also a human rights violation.
Overall, it's a fairly standard piece of UN crap. But read it all the way through; to me, the biggest red flag in the thing is right at the end:
If the victim's human rights lawsuit were brought before a judge who was sympathetic to such manufacturers or organizations, it is unlikely that the suit would succeed. However, there are many judges who do not have such sympathies. Thanks to the flexibility of international law, and the evolving practice in U.S. constitutional interpretation of using international law guidelines, it would be possible for the lawsuits to result not only in monetary damages, but also in injunctive relief, and the judicial negation of the state and federal laws on self-defense and gun control which violate international human rights.(emphasis mine)
If there was ever a a blunt warning as to what the international GFWs and 'human rights' clowns want to happen here, this is it. It's why, anytime some judge decides to base his ruling on 'international law' instead of the Constitution, he out to be tarred and feathered. These people PLAN on using such judges to trash our Constitution; they're looking forward to it and planning on it.
One more reason why that damn building should be torn down and the sorry excuses for humans in it set up in Botswana or someplace in Europe.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
If you need a shooting rest,
take a look at this:
They're being made by a girl who's raising money for a .204 Encore, information is posted at Mad Ogre. He had a post on it yesterday, now has the pics and a link for ordering.
What more can you ask? A solid rest, a kid raising money for a boomstick, and it'll seriously twist the hinges of the GFWs out there. Go take a look.
They're being made by a girl who's raising money for a .204 Encore, information is posted at Mad Ogre. He had a post on it yesterday, now has the pics and a link for ordering.
What more can you ask? A solid rest, a kid raising money for a boomstick, and it'll seriously twist the hinges of the GFWs out there. Go take a look.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Carbine followup
Yesterday I went to the range, but a little differently. No chrono, no loads to test, just a couple of rifles and a pistol, some targets and ammo. Just shooting for fun, which I hadn't done in a while. I also couldn't stand all the 9/11 stuff on radio and tv, so went out.
That little Model 8 Martini is a really nice plinking rifle. It lets you break a clay pigeon at 50 yards, and then break up the pieces. It's a bit heavy for the purpose, but with fine sights and- especially with sub-sonic ammo virtually no recoil and very low noise it's a good rifle to let a kid shoot.
The M1 Carbine experiment continues. After the last time I used it, I'd taken it down for a thorough cleaning, so this time would tell how well it held zero after being dis- and reassembled. Answer is very well, I didn't have to make any adjustment; it hit right where it'd been hitting before. Be it said that this will depend a LOT on how good & tight the stock/handguard/barrel band assembly is. This one is pretty tight and goes back the same way every time, one that was any looser you'd have to do some work to tighten things up so it'd lock back up the same way every time. I do think the clamp-onto-the-barrel mounts out there are probably superior to this because they'd be lower to the barrel and would stay clamped on in the same position through disassembly. However, if you want to put this together and do some tweaking(if necessary) it's a worthy project. I'm going to see what are the lowest rings I can lay hands on and see how much they'd lower the scope compared to those I have now. The only other way I can see to lower it would be to inlet the scope base down into the handguard, and I have doubts how well that'd work; you'd be thinning the wood enough to seriously reduce the strength unless you also used epoxy or something to permanently fix it in as part of the guard.
And, if it's going to take all that to make it workable for you, you'd be adding in enough time that, unless you like messing with things, it'd probably be more cost-effective to just buy a good barrel-clamp mount.
The scope works nicely on it. As for a SHTF rifle or home-defense, I think the red-dot sight would be the way to go, without question. Fast and plenty accurate for the use.
Looked at the SOG site yesterday, and they show they're getting in some M1 Carbine receivers, listed as 'very good' condition. Tempting to see if could get one, then start collecting parts. Pretty much everything is available except receivers, and you can find those from some dealers; problem is, the receivers are around $350 everywhere I looked. Add parts to that, and you're paying as much or more than a ready-to-use carbine.
And I actually got some things done at home before had to shut down. Amazing.
That little Model 8 Martini is a really nice plinking rifle. It lets you break a clay pigeon at 50 yards, and then break up the pieces. It's a bit heavy for the purpose, but with fine sights and- especially with sub-sonic ammo virtually no recoil and very low noise it's a good rifle to let a kid shoot.
The M1 Carbine experiment continues. After the last time I used it, I'd taken it down for a thorough cleaning, so this time would tell how well it held zero after being dis- and reassembled. Answer is very well, I didn't have to make any adjustment; it hit right where it'd been hitting before. Be it said that this will depend a LOT on how good & tight the stock/handguard/barrel band assembly is. This one is pretty tight and goes back the same way every time, one that was any looser you'd have to do some work to tighten things up so it'd lock back up the same way every time. I do think the clamp-onto-the-barrel mounts out there are probably superior to this because they'd be lower to the barrel and would stay clamped on in the same position through disassembly. However, if you want to put this together and do some tweaking(if necessary) it's a worthy project. I'm going to see what are the lowest rings I can lay hands on and see how much they'd lower the scope compared to those I have now. The only other way I can see to lower it would be to inlet the scope base down into the handguard, and I have doubts how well that'd work; you'd be thinning the wood enough to seriously reduce the strength unless you also used epoxy or something to permanently fix it in as part of the guard.
And, if it's going to take all that to make it workable for you, you'd be adding in enough time that, unless you like messing with things, it'd probably be more cost-effective to just buy a good barrel-clamp mount.
The scope works nicely on it. As for a SHTF rifle or home-defense, I think the red-dot sight would be the way to go, without question. Fast and plenty accurate for the use.
Looked at the SOG site yesterday, and they show they're getting in some M1 Carbine receivers, listed as 'very good' condition. Tempting to see if could get one, then start collecting parts. Pretty much everything is available except receivers, and you can find those from some dealers; problem is, the receivers are around $350 everywhere I looked. Add parts to that, and you're paying as much or more than a ready-to-use carbine.
And I actually got some things done at home before had to shut down. Amazing.
Monday, September 11, 2006
To Andrew Sullivan and all the other clowns
who said the abuses at Abu Ghraib under U.S. control were torture:
Then:Abu Ghraib became synonymous with abuse after shocking pictures were published in 2004 showing prisoners being tortured and humiliated, galvanising opposition to the US presence in Iraq.
and now:
The witness said that even in the thieves' section prisoners were being treated badly. "Someone was shouting 'Please help us, we want the human rights officers, we want the Americans to come back'," he said.
Well, well, it seems that being led around on a leash and having panties on your head wasn't so bad after all. I said at the time- along with a lot of other people- that these were indeed abuses, but there ain't no way that comes in under the heading of 'torture'.
I'm not excusing this. I am pointing out that a: what happened at the prison when under U.S. control was not good, but wasn't anywhere near this and b: what did anyone think was going to happen to some of the terrorists- and unfortunately some accused of being terrorists- when someone who's had friends or family killed while at a store or applying for a job gets hold of them? In a culture that's been treated this way for a couple of generations?
Article here; I'd seen it the other day but lost the link, found it from Sondra K
Then:Abu Ghraib became synonymous with abuse after shocking pictures were published in 2004 showing prisoners being tortured and humiliated, galvanising opposition to the US presence in Iraq.
and now:
The witness said that even in the thieves' section prisoners were being treated badly. "Someone was shouting 'Please help us, we want the human rights officers, we want the Americans to come back'," he said.
Well, well, it seems that being led around on a leash and having panties on your head wasn't so bad after all. I said at the time- along with a lot of other people- that these were indeed abuses, but there ain't no way that comes in under the heading of 'torture'.
I'm not excusing this. I am pointing out that a: what happened at the prison when under U.S. control was not good, but wasn't anywhere near this and b: what did anyone think was going to happen to some of the terrorists- and unfortunately some accused of being terrorists- when someone who's had friends or family killed while at a store or applying for a job gets hold of them? In a culture that's been treated this way for a couple of generations?
Article here; I'd seen it the other day but lost the link, found it from Sondra K
9/11
Lots of people doing memory pieces, what they were doing, how it happened. I may do something on that later. For now...
I'm still pissed. Every time I think of it, REALLY pissed. At the vile excuses for men who committed these acts, those who gave them money and intelligence and places to train. At those who make plans to kill us in stores and restaurants and offices and schools.
And I don't forget the idiots who help them here out of stupidity and PC blindness. The CIA bastards who didn't do their damn jobs. The FBI bastards who wouldn't seek a warrant for that laptop, who were more worried about being seen as 'insensitive' than in getting their damn job done.
Maybe more later.
Later:
Not really anything to add. I wrote once before about that morning. About going from "Terrible accident" to "Crap, we've been attacked". The anger at the incompetents who helped it happen and the sorry offspring of rabid dogs and syphilitic camels who helped the murderers train and hide and gave them money. And the rage at the idiot broadcasters who kept talking about 'terror striking into the hearts of America' over and over. The disgust at the 'peace at any cost' idiots came later, when they started marching with their "don't hurt them, understand them" bullshit.
Just, overall, sick and tired.
Additional: Kevin at Smallest Minority had a link to this piece by Steven den Beste; I'd strongly suggest reading it.
I'm still pissed. Every time I think of it, REALLY pissed. At the vile excuses for men who committed these acts, those who gave them money and intelligence and places to train. At those who make plans to kill us in stores and restaurants and offices and schools.
And I don't forget the idiots who help them here out of stupidity and PC blindness. The CIA bastards who didn't do their damn jobs. The FBI bastards who wouldn't seek a warrant for that laptop, who were more worried about being seen as 'insensitive' than in getting their damn job done.
Maybe more later.
Later:
Not really anything to add. I wrote once before about that morning. About going from "Terrible accident" to "Crap, we've been attacked". The anger at the incompetents who helped it happen and the sorry offspring of rabid dogs and syphilitic camels who helped the murderers train and hide and gave them money. And the rage at the idiot broadcasters who kept talking about 'terror striking into the hearts of America' over and over. The disgust at the 'peace at any cost' idiots came later, when they started marching with their "don't hurt them, understand them" bullshit.
Just, overall, sick and tired.
Additional: Kevin at Smallest Minority had a link to this piece by Steven den Beste; I'd strongly suggest reading it.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
How far down the drain would you say England is?
Getting pretty far, I'd say.
At Cam Edwards place, found a link to this story:
A man vowed to keep a glowing garden gnome on display today in defiance of a police notice. Gordon MacKillop even faces possible prosecution over the offending ornament.
He was woken in the night by two police officers who warned him that the solar-powered gnome, dressed in full police uniform, was offensive to his neighbours.
They served him with a notice under the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 for "placing a garden gnome with intent to cause harassment to Mr John McLean".
For a garden gnome?!?
"When you hear a knock at the door at quarter to midnight you don't expect to be served with that," said Mr MacKillop, a marine surveyor at Devonport Dockyard.
No, you wouldn't think so. After reading this I checked the front page. You would think, instead of busting 'harassing' gnomes they'd be dealing with things like this:
A 15-year-old boy gunned down in a city park was an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time, police have said.
Schoolboy Jessie James was shot three times in the early hours of Saturday morning in a public park in Manchester's notorious Moss Side district.
He was shot with a semi-automatic pistol suffering two wounds to his torso and one near his appendix, police said.
He died at the scene.
And, by the way, since handguns are pretty much banned in Britain, how'd the gang weenies get hold of this semi-auto pistol, anyway? Of course, instead of chasing gang-bangers with guns, the police are pretty tied up dealing with dangerous characters like this miscreant:
A mother-of-two faces a possible prison sentence after swearing at yobs who have made her life a living hell.
For more than two years a large group of teenage thugs have hounded desperate Donna Appleyard who has had to endure relentless abuse, threats and vandalism.
But unbelievably, when the 32-year-old finally "snapped" over the constant intimidation and swore at one of her bullies she was arrested by police and now faces a possible prison sentence if she refuses to pay a fine.
A fine, you say? Nay, it should not be! She should be put in the stocks for a day at least!
Donna, who had lived on the estate for the last 14 years, said the problems with kids had grown progressively worse over the last two years until it is now unlivable.
On a daily basis Donna claims her and her two children, James 14, and Holly, 12, have to put up with a 15 strong group of kids aged between 12 and 17 hanging around outside their three-bedroom semi-detached home.
Donna and her neighbours have had to endure paint been thrown on their walls, plants ruined from their gardens, and late night noise from the gang who stay up drinking on the streets.
Those poor little kids are just trying so have some fun! And you put your safety and privacy and home above that?!? You bigot! You hatemonger! You, you swearer!
Things finally came to a head on March 30 when a desperate Donna finally lost her temper and told her tormentors to "please, just f*** off."
The youths ignored her but two weeks later officers called at her home. She was told a 13-year-old girl had made a complaint against her.
Donna was arrested and charged under public order offences.
I should think so! She must have hurt the feelings of the littlebastards kids something terrible with that language!
She was handed an £80 fixed penalty notice but refused to pay and was taken to court last month. Magistrates then upped the sum to £120 pounds which Donna must now pay or face a possible jail term.
All funny off. This is a marvelous example of the idiocy that is destroying Britain. The police won't act against the hoodlums, but they will charge you with yelling at them. God forbid you hurt a burglar who attacks you in your home, you'll go to prison for that. An honest subject of the Crown who owns a firearm is treated like a criminal who just hasn't been caught yet, but people who commit a whole range of offenses, including violent ones, now get a damned ticket. And if you're arrested for a variety of charges, the British Government has taken away your right to a trial by jury. You get 'caught' with a bloody pocketknife, and you'll go to jail unless you can show 'need' for posession of it.
And a bunch of jihadi assholes can parade through a city calling for death and destruction, but if you dare to object to what they're saying, you get threatened with arrest for disturbing the peace.
Barring a miracle-level turnaround in the near future, once-Great Britain is gone.
At Cam Edwards place, found a link to this story:
A man vowed to keep a glowing garden gnome on display today in defiance of a police notice. Gordon MacKillop even faces possible prosecution over the offending ornament.
He was woken in the night by two police officers who warned him that the solar-powered gnome, dressed in full police uniform, was offensive to his neighbours.
They served him with a notice under the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 for "placing a garden gnome with intent to cause harassment to Mr John McLean".
For a garden gnome?!?
"When you hear a knock at the door at quarter to midnight you don't expect to be served with that," said Mr MacKillop, a marine surveyor at Devonport Dockyard.
No, you wouldn't think so. After reading this I checked the front page. You would think, instead of busting 'harassing' gnomes they'd be dealing with things like this:
A 15-year-old boy gunned down in a city park was an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time, police have said.
Schoolboy Jessie James was shot three times in the early hours of Saturday morning in a public park in Manchester's notorious Moss Side district.
He was shot with a semi-automatic pistol suffering two wounds to his torso and one near his appendix, police said.
He died at the scene.
And, by the way, since handguns are pretty much banned in Britain, how'd the gang weenies get hold of this semi-auto pistol, anyway? Of course, instead of chasing gang-bangers with guns, the police are pretty tied up dealing with dangerous characters like this miscreant:
A mother-of-two faces a possible prison sentence after swearing at yobs who have made her life a living hell.
For more than two years a large group of teenage thugs have hounded desperate Donna Appleyard who has had to endure relentless abuse, threats and vandalism.
But unbelievably, when the 32-year-old finally "snapped" over the constant intimidation and swore at one of her bullies she was arrested by police and now faces a possible prison sentence if she refuses to pay a fine.
A fine, you say? Nay, it should not be! She should be put in the stocks for a day at least!
Donna, who had lived on the estate for the last 14 years, said the problems with kids had grown progressively worse over the last two years until it is now unlivable.
On a daily basis Donna claims her and her two children, James 14, and Holly, 12, have to put up with a 15 strong group of kids aged between 12 and 17 hanging around outside their three-bedroom semi-detached home.
Donna and her neighbours have had to endure paint been thrown on their walls, plants ruined from their gardens, and late night noise from the gang who stay up drinking on the streets.
Those poor little kids are just trying so have some fun! And you put your safety and privacy and home above that?!? You bigot! You hatemonger! You, you swearer!
Things finally came to a head on March 30 when a desperate Donna finally lost her temper and told her tormentors to "please, just f*** off."
The youths ignored her but two weeks later officers called at her home. She was told a 13-year-old girl had made a complaint against her.
Donna was arrested and charged under public order offences.
I should think so! She must have hurt the feelings of the little
She was handed an £80 fixed penalty notice but refused to pay and was taken to court last month. Magistrates then upped the sum to £120 pounds which Donna must now pay or face a possible jail term.
All funny off. This is a marvelous example of the idiocy that is destroying Britain. The police won't act against the hoodlums, but they will charge you with yelling at them. God forbid you hurt a burglar who attacks you in your home, you'll go to prison for that. An honest subject of the Crown who owns a firearm is treated like a criminal who just hasn't been caught yet, but people who commit a whole range of offenses, including violent ones, now get a damned ticket. And if you're arrested for a variety of charges, the British Government has taken away your right to a trial by jury. You get 'caught' with a bloody pocketknife, and you'll go to jail unless you can show 'need' for posession of it.
And a bunch of jihadi assholes can parade through a city calling for death and destruction, but if you dare to object to what they're saying, you get threatened with arrest for disturbing the peace.
Barring a miracle-level turnaround in the near future, once-Great Britain is gone.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Ah, yes, freedom of speech
Unless you piss off the Clintons. And their suckups.
I've been listening to the noise about the 9/11 show ABC put together. And the screaming and, now, flat-out threats by the Clintons and their buttmonkeys for DARING to hint that, just maybe, they might not have exactly done a really good job of whacking terrorists.
Ace of Spades has this roundup, including this quote:
"The Path to 9/11" is a conservative attempt to rewrite the history of September 11th to blame Democrats.
'Conservative attempt'. From ABC/Disney. Snort. Choke. Hahahahahahahaha!. These people are out of their freakin' minds.
And at Wizbang, Bill Clinton has his lawyers writing letters to ABC demanding the show not be shown at all. That's on top of various Democrats threatening ABC's broadcast license.
Oh yeah, they'd just DIE to protect THEIR freedom of speech. Screw yours.
I've been listening to the noise about the 9/11 show ABC put together. And the screaming and, now, flat-out threats by the Clintons and their buttmonkeys for DARING to hint that, just maybe, they might not have exactly done a really good job of whacking terrorists.
Ace of Spades has this roundup, including this quote:
"The Path to 9/11" is a conservative attempt to rewrite the history of September 11th to blame Democrats.
'Conservative attempt'. From ABC/Disney. Snort. Choke. Hahahahahahahaha!. These people are out of their freakin' minds.
And at Wizbang, Bill Clinton has his lawyers writing letters to ABC demanding the show not be shown at all. That's on top of various Democrats threatening ABC's broadcast license.
Oh yeah, they'd just DIE to protect THEIR freedom of speech. Screw yours.
Just how nutty and threatened are some by the very concept
of self-defense?
Take a look here:
But make no mistake, they continue to fight such legislation. Their latest tactic? Identifying the death of any armed home invader or rapist at the hands of his intended victim as a "murder," they have launched a Web site opposed to these new self-defense laws, dubbed www.licensetomurder.com.
"It's Not a Movie. It's the Law," says the Web site. "The NRA is working to pass a law that makes murder legal in the United States. It's been called the 'Shoot First,' 'Make My Day,' or 'Deadly Force' law, but call it what you want, it's a License to Murder. ... One killer has already been set free, and other criminals and their lawyers are already drooling at the thought of using the NRA's 'Shoot First' law as a legal defense."
I can tell you who's drooling, and it's not lawyers; it's the friggin' morons who wrote and buy this crap.
Take a look here:
But make no mistake, they continue to fight such legislation. Their latest tactic? Identifying the death of any armed home invader or rapist at the hands of his intended victim as a "murder," they have launched a Web site opposed to these new self-defense laws, dubbed www.licensetomurder.com.
"It's Not a Movie. It's the Law," says the Web site. "The NRA is working to pass a law that makes murder legal in the United States. It's been called the 'Shoot First,' 'Make My Day,' or 'Deadly Force' law, but call it what you want, it's a License to Murder. ... One killer has already been set free, and other criminals and their lawyers are already drooling at the thought of using the NRA's 'Shoot First' law as a legal defense."
I can tell you who's drooling, and it's not lawyers; it's the friggin' morons who wrote and buy this crap.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Practical vs. 'best' accuracy
Was thinking about this in relation to the M1 Carbine, but it holds for a lot of firearms. There are two types of accuracy, which can depend on the firearm itself or the user or both.
Best accuracy is what you can get under ideal conditions; the best possible load for accuracy under the best possible firing conditions with the best possible aiming system.
Practical is what you can get with the best ammo for THAT USE with standard sights under field conditions. That's how I put it, anyway.
You can set a rifle up to get the finest possible accuracy; match sights or scope, load tailored for accuracy, solid bench with solid rests fore & aft, etc. It may be accurate as hell, but not much use for hunting or, if things go to hell, fighting. That's 'best' accuracy.
Practical is what you can get with, call it 'working' loads and sights and a stock you'd actually carry around, working from either a field expedient rest or shooting position.
The sights on the M1 Garand and Carbine both are NOT designed for match shooting; the front blades are thick to be easier to see in bad light and faster to line up, the rear aperture sized for the same(though for field use it could actually be a bit larger with no problem). They can deliver very good accuracy, but there's a reason people trying to wring the best out of a Garand use different sights; to get a more precise sight picture on targets.
I like shooting iron sights, especially on something like the M1's. I decided to try out the scope idea for two reasons: to get a better sight for testing loads, and to see how the idea would work out for field shooting. And fact is that on some indoor ranges the light makes it a bit difficult at times for me to shoot a rifle well; harder to hold a good sight picture in dim light. So far, I think this setup would work quite well for field use, the mount- with a tight-fitting handguard- doesn't shift, fast pickup, same things that have the military using lots of optical sights now.
I don't think this mount idea would work as well on an M1 Garand. The rear handguard, for best accuracy, HAS to have a bit of fore & aft play, maybe 1/10 of an inch, and that is not a good thing to mount a scope on. Especially on a hard-recoiling rifle like this. So I think the type that mounts directly to the barrel, replacing the handguard, would be better. I'll have to see how taking the handguard off & replacing on the carbine affects things, I think it should hold zero pretty well.
We'll see.
Best accuracy is what you can get under ideal conditions; the best possible load for accuracy under the best possible firing conditions with the best possible aiming system.
Practical is what you can get with the best ammo for THAT USE with standard sights under field conditions. That's how I put it, anyway.
You can set a rifle up to get the finest possible accuracy; match sights or scope, load tailored for accuracy, solid bench with solid rests fore & aft, etc. It may be accurate as hell, but not much use for hunting or, if things go to hell, fighting. That's 'best' accuracy.
Practical is what you can get with, call it 'working' loads and sights and a stock you'd actually carry around, working from either a field expedient rest or shooting position.
The sights on the M1 Garand and Carbine both are NOT designed for match shooting; the front blades are thick to be easier to see in bad light and faster to line up, the rear aperture sized for the same(though for field use it could actually be a bit larger with no problem). They can deliver very good accuracy, but there's a reason people trying to wring the best out of a Garand use different sights; to get a more precise sight picture on targets.
I like shooting iron sights, especially on something like the M1's. I decided to try out the scope idea for two reasons: to get a better sight for testing loads, and to see how the idea would work out for field shooting. And fact is that on some indoor ranges the light makes it a bit difficult at times for me to shoot a rifle well; harder to hold a good sight picture in dim light. So far, I think this setup would work quite well for field use, the mount- with a tight-fitting handguard- doesn't shift, fast pickup, same things that have the military using lots of optical sights now.
I don't think this mount idea would work as well on an M1 Garand. The rear handguard, for best accuracy, HAS to have a bit of fore & aft play, maybe 1/10 of an inch, and that is not a good thing to mount a scope on. Especially on a hard-recoiling rifle like this. So I think the type that mounts directly to the barrel, replacing the handguard, would be better. I'll have to see how taking the handguard off & replacing on the carbine affects things, I think it should hold zero pretty well.
We'll see.
I love it when an idea actually works
the way it was supposed to. Also, an ammo report.
Note: no pictures, as my daughter has borrowed my camera for the next week or so. I'll either update this or do a new post with pics when possible.
In this case, the homemade scout mount for the M1 Carbine. I took it to the range today to try out. Indoor range, so it's only 30 yards, but enough for a trial. And it worked nicely. I'd wondered if the handguard would be stable enough for a solid mount, but over about fifty rounds nothing shifted. Started off way high & right(no surprise) and a little trial & adjust put it on point of aim, after which tried for accuracy. I was using- in effect- three different loads. Main was some GI-spec I bought from GI Brass, the rest some reloads I put together using Lake City brass and 110-grain FMJ bullets. First group of five with the GI stuff produced one long hole less than 3/4" long and about one bullet-width wide; not what I expected from this little rifle. The reloads were made up of
(DISCLAIMER: These are loads I got from the Lyman manual. They worked in MY rifle; that's no guarantee they'll work in yours or with your reloading style. As with any loads, START at the minimum and work up from there. What you do with load info and the results you get are NOT under my control.)
Lake City brass and bullets, Winchester small rifle primers and 2400 powder. There are several recommended for this cartridge, 2400 being one of them, and since I already use it I started with it. The minimum load functioned with no problems, but the next step up I used both functioned perfectly and gave accuracy equal to the GI stuff. I'll need to try both the GI and handloads at 50 and 100 from a solid bench, I think both will give good accuracy.
So far, the only problem with the mount is what I mentioned before, that the scope sits higher than I like. I could either find/make a lace-on cheekpad, or find the lowest-rise scope rings I can and put those on. I think the low rings would make a big difference. This setup would also work very well with a red-dot sight, and a good one would make the not-so-good cheek weld less of a factor if it sits a bit high.
As to ammo, a while back I bought one of the cans of .30 Carbine from GI Brass; it's made with Lake City components, and of the two hundred or so I've fired there have been zero problems and- as noted above- good accuracy. And as I fire it it gives me good-quality reloadable brass. I used some of their bullets for the reloads, and they are of fine quality and worked beautifully.
The other ammo was with the Benelli, some Federal Tactical Low Recoil slugs I picked up at the gun show. They throw a 1oz. slug, no velocity listed on the box. I fired five rounds at 30 yards, just resting my left hand on the bench. Four produced one big hole a little less than 1.75" long and a little under 1" wide, measuring center-to-center; one called flyer landed an inch or so left of the bottom of the group and a little low. Recoil was noticeably less than the S&B 00 buck I fired before this. I want to try this stuff off a bench at 50 and 100, too; if this is any indication this Federal stuff is a winner.
Now, about the light. I tried a suggestion; painted the inside of the mounting clamp with contact cement, let it dry thoroughly and then clamped the light in. This is why I started the shotgun with the S&B buck, to try this out, and the idea didn't work. After five rounds the light had shifted a long ways forward, so on to the next idea. I'm thinking take a Dremel and cutoff wheel(got to get a new Dremel, mine died) and cut some grooves in the inside of the mount, then put something like a piece of bicycle inner tube between mount & light; that might grab on both enough to hold it in place. For home defense this shouldn't be a real big factor, but I don't like having a setup that I don't KNOW will hold steady however many rounds I fire. The light itself, by the way, still works perfectly.
Note: no pictures, as my daughter has borrowed my camera for the next week or so. I'll either update this or do a new post with pics when possible.
In this case, the homemade scout mount for the M1 Carbine. I took it to the range today to try out. Indoor range, so it's only 30 yards, but enough for a trial. And it worked nicely. I'd wondered if the handguard would be stable enough for a solid mount, but over about fifty rounds nothing shifted. Started off way high & right(no surprise) and a little trial & adjust put it on point of aim, after which tried for accuracy. I was using- in effect- three different loads. Main was some GI-spec I bought from GI Brass, the rest some reloads I put together using Lake City brass and 110-grain FMJ bullets. First group of five with the GI stuff produced one long hole less than 3/4" long and about one bullet-width wide; not what I expected from this little rifle. The reloads were made up of
(DISCLAIMER: These are loads I got from the Lyman manual. They worked in MY rifle; that's no guarantee they'll work in yours or with your reloading style. As with any loads, START at the minimum and work up from there. What you do with load info and the results you get are NOT under my control.)
Lake City brass and bullets, Winchester small rifle primers and 2400 powder. There are several recommended for this cartridge, 2400 being one of them, and since I already use it I started with it. The minimum load functioned with no problems, but the next step up I used both functioned perfectly and gave accuracy equal to the GI stuff. I'll need to try both the GI and handloads at 50 and 100 from a solid bench, I think both will give good accuracy.
So far, the only problem with the mount is what I mentioned before, that the scope sits higher than I like. I could either find/make a lace-on cheekpad, or find the lowest-rise scope rings I can and put those on. I think the low rings would make a big difference. This setup would also work very well with a red-dot sight, and a good one would make the not-so-good cheek weld less of a factor if it sits a bit high.
As to ammo, a while back I bought one of the cans of .30 Carbine from GI Brass; it's made with Lake City components, and of the two hundred or so I've fired there have been zero problems and- as noted above- good accuracy. And as I fire it it gives me good-quality reloadable brass. I used some of their bullets for the reloads, and they are of fine quality and worked beautifully.
The other ammo was with the Benelli, some Federal Tactical Low Recoil slugs I picked up at the gun show. They throw a 1oz. slug, no velocity listed on the box. I fired five rounds at 30 yards, just resting my left hand on the bench. Four produced one big hole a little less than 1.75" long and a little under 1" wide, measuring center-to-center; one called flyer landed an inch or so left of the bottom of the group and a little low. Recoil was noticeably less than the S&B 00 buck I fired before this. I want to try this stuff off a bench at 50 and 100, too; if this is any indication this Federal stuff is a winner.
Now, about the light. I tried a suggestion; painted the inside of the mounting clamp with contact cement, let it dry thoroughly and then clamped the light in. This is why I started the shotgun with the S&B buck, to try this out, and the idea didn't work. After five rounds the light had shifted a long ways forward, so on to the next idea. I'm thinking take a Dremel and cutoff wheel(got to get a new Dremel, mine died) and cut some grooves in the inside of the mount, then put something like a piece of bicycle inner tube between mount & light; that might grab on both enough to hold it in place. For home defense this shouldn't be a real big factor, but I don't like having a setup that I don't KNOW will hold steady however many rounds I fire. The light itself, by the way, still works perfectly.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
An experiment
Ever since Jeff Cooper started the scout rifle noise, you've been able to go to any gunboard and write "What do you think of this?" and start a fight. Responses will range from "Greatest thing ever!" to "Idiotic idea".
I'm in the middle. Not the best of all worlds, but it definately has its uses. A red-dot is very nice, but at a distance some magnification can be good, and I think, despite what Kim says, a low-power scope out front on a .30-30 is a wonderful idea for hunting.
While back had a chance to shoot a M1 Carbine, and- despite expectations- fell in love with the damn thing. And had a chance to buy one a while later, and grabbed it(seeing what prices have done lately, I'm damn glad I did). So I've got a batch of ball ammo for it, and I've been enjoying shooting it, and I had the thought this would be a fine rifle for the scout-mount concept. You could use the same mount for either a scope or red-dot depending on which suits you.
Looking around I found Sportsmans's Guide has this Carbine Tactical Tri-Rail Forearm Mount,
which replaces the handguard and clamps directly to the barrel. That was the only one I saw; it would do, but a: I don't need the tri-rail setup, just wanted one on top and b: being cheap I didn't want to spend that much without knowing if I'd like it. So, the experiment.
At the gun show over the weekend I found an old carbine handguard. Took a piece of walnut(it's hard, and I had a scrap piece) and rounded one side to match the groove in the handguard top, then sanded it so the top would be level. I had a short piece of scope base, so put this guard on the rifle and marked the centerline, then took it off and drilled two mounting holes. Screwed the base on, stuck on a scope I had on a .22 pistol with some rings I'd picked up a while back(nice to have spares), and here 'tis:
It sits a bit high; lower rings would make a big difference there. And there's the possibility the mount being on the handguard as opposed to the barrel may not be as solid as I'd need, it only taking a tiny bit of shifting to make a big difference. However, this is not a 200-300 yard rifle, it a 150 at most(no matter what the sight says). In any case, it's a good testbed for this. If I really like it, I can do things to sit it lower or lock it a bit more solidly, or if the concept is good but I need a mount on the barrel, I can get one of the units from SG, idiot side rails and all.
Times like this I wish I had some machinist training and access to a milling machine, I could make a base that locked solidly to the barrel and mounted the scope nice and low. Maybe later, for now I'll have to see how this works.
I'm in the middle. Not the best of all worlds, but it definately has its uses. A red-dot is very nice, but at a distance some magnification can be good, and I think, despite what Kim says, a low-power scope out front on a .30-30 is a wonderful idea for hunting.
While back had a chance to shoot a M1 Carbine, and- despite expectations- fell in love with the damn thing. And had a chance to buy one a while later, and grabbed it(seeing what prices have done lately, I'm damn glad I did). So I've got a batch of ball ammo for it, and I've been enjoying shooting it, and I had the thought this would be a fine rifle for the scout-mount concept. You could use the same mount for either a scope or red-dot depending on which suits you.
Looking around I found Sportsmans's Guide has this Carbine Tactical Tri-Rail Forearm Mount,
which replaces the handguard and clamps directly to the barrel. That was the only one I saw; it would do, but a: I don't need the tri-rail setup, just wanted one on top and b: being cheap I didn't want to spend that much without knowing if I'd like it. So, the experiment.
At the gun show over the weekend I found an old carbine handguard. Took a piece of walnut(it's hard, and I had a scrap piece) and rounded one side to match the groove in the handguard top, then sanded it so the top would be level. I had a short piece of scope base, so put this guard on the rifle and marked the centerline, then took it off and drilled two mounting holes. Screwed the base on, stuck on a scope I had on a .22 pistol with some rings I'd picked up a while back(nice to have spares), and here 'tis:
It sits a bit high; lower rings would make a big difference there. And there's the possibility the mount being on the handguard as opposed to the barrel may not be as solid as I'd need, it only taking a tiny bit of shifting to make a big difference. However, this is not a 200-300 yard rifle, it a 150 at most(no matter what the sight says). In any case, it's a good testbed for this. If I really like it, I can do things to sit it lower or lock it a bit more solidly, or if the concept is good but I need a mount on the barrel, I can get one of the units from SG, idiot side rails and all.
Times like this I wish I had some machinist training and access to a milling machine, I could make a base that locked solidly to the barrel and mounted the scope nice and low. Maybe later, for now I'll have to see how this works.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Basic Training update
They qualified with their M16s, and he missed Expert by one point. Which I'm confident he'll make up next time. Training with night-vision sights and CCO(Close Combat Optics).
Speaking of CCO, anybody recognize which one this is?
I know I've seen it before, but can't think of the name/maker to save my ass.
From what he's said, the worst day so far- no including the gas chamber- was the day on the range when, at 112 degrees, the odd late-summer storm blew through and soaked everyone; the next few hours in soaked clothes and armor in 100+ temps were fairly miserable.
Apparently big advances have been made in military cooking, as he says the food is pretty good.
No sick call, no "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!?" reported, I'd have to say so far, so good. Whether from his preparation and expectations or their having toned it down, he still says Basic is a lot easier than expected, which is a bit worrisome. It SHOULD be tough; if it's not tough enough, will it get the training through to the class?
In any case, life continues.
Speaking of CCO, anybody recognize which one this is?
I know I've seen it before, but can't think of the name/maker to save my ass.
From what he's said, the worst day so far- no including the gas chamber- was the day on the range when, at 112 degrees, the odd late-summer storm blew through and soaked everyone; the next few hours in soaked clothes and armor in 100+ temps were fairly miserable.
Apparently big advances have been made in military cooking, as he says the food is pretty good.
No sick call, no "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!?" reported, I'd have to say so far, so good. Whether from his preparation and expectations or their having toned it down, he still says Basic is a lot easier than expected, which is a bit worrisome. It SHOULD be tough; if it's not tough enough, will it get the training through to the class?
In any case, life continues.
The Crocodile Hunter bites the big one
in a truly strange fashion.
A stingray barb through the heart? How the hell do you manage that? At the risk of being overly insensitive, considering some of the crap he's done it was pretty obvious when he bought it it would be messing with some animal; it just caught up with him.
If by some chance a member of his family reads this, you have my condolences. No strings, no exceptions. Losing a family member almost always sucks.
I can't help it, though; can anyone think of a more oddball way for a guy who works with animals to buy it?
A stingray barb through the heart? How the hell do you manage that? At the risk of being overly insensitive, considering some of the crap he's done it was pretty obvious when he bought it it would be messing with some animal; it just caught up with him.
If by some chance a member of his family reads this, you have my condolences. No strings, no exceptions. Losing a family member almost always sucks.
I can't help it, though; can anyone think of a more oddball way for a guy who works with animals to buy it?
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Gun show
Had a nice one at the fairgrounds this weekend. Lots of stuff to look at and people to talk to. Picked up some ammo and parts, and courageously walked away from some things I really, really wanted... dammit.
One man had a National Match M1 Garand, that on closer inspection turned out to have a Krieger match barrel. And he wanted $1000 for it. Let's see, the barrel alone costs $400, and a rifle with the match sights, trigger, etc... damn, I need more money.
At least they didn't have one thing. Few days ago I went by H&H range to look around and take another drool at the S&W 1911PD I mentioned before. And Will, the bastard, had to show me something. They make a full-size 1911 with the Scandium frame. Heavier than the compact size but not by much, and that extra weight out front would be real nice when shooting heavy loads, and it only cost a few dollars more than the compact. Will is an evil man, I must warn you: "Who can afford anything? Since when is that an excuse not to buy it?" So I didn't have to look at one of those again, at least until I go shooting at H&H again.
One thing I've noticed is that the shortage of 7.62x39 is well and truly over, and so are the prices that you used to find. Best I saw worked out to about $3/box and a lot of it was higher. Made me glad I bought some when I did. A while back Sportsman's Guide had some listed for a decent price, and I had a $10 off coupon, so I ordered. And at the checkout they had a deal: join the Guide Club and get double the usual discount a member gets AND free shipping. I'd been thinking about joining for a while, so went ahead, and it wound up with the cost of the ammo being about $2.40/box. By the way, one thing I've noticed about their shipping: on a case of 1000 rounds it's listed as a 'heavy/bulky' item they tack an extra shipping charge onto, but ordering two cases of 500 did NOT have that added on. Odd, but handy.
One thing I've noticed at shows is a lot fewer shotguns with pistol grips on the tables. Never really understood why the damn things were popular. I don't mean the pistol grip on a stock, I mean a pistol grip only with no shoulder stock. Recoil on a 12 guage being what it is, I cannot imagine wanting to fire one of them. Chris at Anarchangel has written on them and notes that as big as he is, he can't handle more than one or two rounds with one. I guess a few of the people who bought them told friends how they wound up with their wrist in a brace and word got around.
All in all, a good show.
One man had a National Match M1 Garand, that on closer inspection turned out to have a Krieger match barrel. And he wanted $1000 for it. Let's see, the barrel alone costs $400, and a rifle with the match sights, trigger, etc... damn, I need more money.
At least they didn't have one thing. Few days ago I went by H&H range to look around and take another drool at the S&W 1911PD I mentioned before. And Will, the bastard, had to show me something. They make a full-size 1911 with the Scandium frame. Heavier than the compact size but not by much, and that extra weight out front would be real nice when shooting heavy loads, and it only cost a few dollars more than the compact. Will is an evil man, I must warn you: "Who can afford anything? Since when is that an excuse not to buy it?" So I didn't have to look at one of those again, at least until I go shooting at H&H again.
One thing I've noticed is that the shortage of 7.62x39 is well and truly over, and so are the prices that you used to find. Best I saw worked out to about $3/box and a lot of it was higher. Made me glad I bought some when I did. A while back Sportsman's Guide had some listed for a decent price, and I had a $10 off coupon, so I ordered. And at the checkout they had a deal: join the Guide Club and get double the usual discount a member gets AND free shipping. I'd been thinking about joining for a while, so went ahead, and it wound up with the cost of the ammo being about $2.40/box. By the way, one thing I've noticed about their shipping: on a case of 1000 rounds it's listed as a 'heavy/bulky' item they tack an extra shipping charge onto, but ordering two cases of 500 did NOT have that added on. Odd, but handy.
One thing I've noticed at shows is a lot fewer shotguns with pistol grips on the tables. Never really understood why the damn things were popular. I don't mean the pistol grip on a stock, I mean a pistol grip only with no shoulder stock. Recoil on a 12 guage being what it is, I cannot imagine wanting to fire one of them. Chris at Anarchangel has written on them and notes that as big as he is, he can't handle more than one or two rounds with one. I guess a few of the people who bought them told friends how they wound up with their wrist in a brace and word got around.
All in all, a good show.
Forced conversions
There's been a lot of stuff written and said over the forced conversion of the two Fox news people. It really seems to point out that the 'Religeon of Peace' noise is just exactly that: noise.
Here you have people being told "You will convert- on camera so we can broadcast it- or we will kill you". So they do the 'conversion' and(may have been the idea the whole time, who knows?) are released. Guess what? The fact that they were forced into it doesn't matter, by not living up to it they are now considered apostates and subject to being killed for it.
Christianity has had its share of idiots who thought forcing people to convert was a good thing. There was a book written a few years ago about how it used to be a somewhat common thing in Italy for a housekeeper or some other christian working in a Jewish household would tell a priest that they had 'baptized' a baby or child, upon which the authorities would take the child to be raised as a Christian; I believe it was actually illegal for a 'Christian' child to be raised in a Jewish home. Well, that crap ended a long time ago. Oh yeah, there are those who still think it's a good idea, and they are a small minority that everyone else looks on as a retarded fool. A 'conversion' attained by force means NOTHING. Lots of Jews were put in that position during the Inquisition, and those who chose 'conversion' were watched closely for years because they were not trusted. The bastards who did this knew that most didn't mean it, they just didn't want to die in some horrible manner; and the vile excuses for men figured that if they kept parents acting like Christians out of fear, their kids would be raised as Christians so it didn't matter that the parents were doomed to hell for lying about converting; a few less 'official' Jews and some more kids raised in the church. A more contemptable, disgusting mindset is hard to imagine. And this was at a time when many, in many places, had written specifically that forcing someone to convert was a travesty, meant nothing, and was to be condemned. Zealots aren't known for seeing the holes in their thoughts, or caring about them when pointed out.
So what we're dealing with is an attitude the civilized world dumped a long time ago(barring the few idiots) that is the reigning attitude for much of Islam. They have the attitude of the bad guy in The Shadow: "Join me; or die". Don't care if you were forced; hell, that's part of the rules for them! If you say you are/act as moslem for any reason, that's it. If you ever then say you're not, that the conversion was not true, you're under a death sentance. Which is one reason so many people are pissed at places like that CA school that had students dressing and acting like muslims for classes; according to the idiots, that makes them muslim and subject to sharia law. Period.
I've given up on the 'moderate muslims' of the world. With a few exceptions they won't speak out against it. They either believe that's the way it should be, or defend it because "Hey, they're of the umma(sp?) so I won't say anything against them", or are in fear of other muslims. So we've got muslims in the U.S. who know people planning terror operations, raising money for terrorists, etc., who won't report them because "they may be jihadi assholes, but they're our jihadi assholes". Which means, for all practical purposes, they are the enemy.
That's about as blunt as you can put it, and I'm sure it would piss various people, especially the usual suspects, off. I don't care. I'm sick of it being avoided at all costs by the major media, I'm sick of politicians who care for nothing but sucking up to some group who might get him votes actively ignoring it, and I'm tired of being called a racist or bigot for saying it. By the way, 'muslim' is not a race, it's a religeon. And I won't plead guilty to being a bigot for recognizing a threat to our civilization. I really don't give a rats ass what religeon someone practices unless their practice of it makes it- and them- a threat to me and mine. At which point my tolerance goes out the window. Whena religeon sees forced conversions as a good thing, and wants everyone who won't convert dead(dhimmi will do in some cases, but death is better according to the BPMs), and their sincere belief says they have to conquer the world for their religeon, they are a threat. And those members of that religeon who really don't agree with it but won't speak against it, well, they're part of the threat.
This has teh potential to get monumentally more ugly than it is now, and I'm afraid the only thing that would prevent it is naked violence; taking Syria or Iran, maybe both, and stomping the place flat. Figuratively speaking would be better; decapitate the governments and stomp the armed forces that enforce their rule. The aftermath would be messy as hell. But not nearly som messy as having President Tom(as Glenn Beck calls him) of Iran getting nukes to hasten the return of the 12th Imam.
Additional: Malkin points to this by Diane West on the subject, well worth reading
Here you have people being told "You will convert- on camera so we can broadcast it- or we will kill you". So they do the 'conversion' and(may have been the idea the whole time, who knows?) are released. Guess what? The fact that they were forced into it doesn't matter, by not living up to it they are now considered apostates and subject to being killed for it.
Christianity has had its share of idiots who thought forcing people to convert was a good thing. There was a book written a few years ago about how it used to be a somewhat common thing in Italy for a housekeeper or some other christian working in a Jewish household would tell a priest that they had 'baptized' a baby or child, upon which the authorities would take the child to be raised as a Christian; I believe it was actually illegal for a 'Christian' child to be raised in a Jewish home. Well, that crap ended a long time ago. Oh yeah, there are those who still think it's a good idea, and they are a small minority that everyone else looks on as a retarded fool. A 'conversion' attained by force means NOTHING. Lots of Jews were put in that position during the Inquisition, and those who chose 'conversion' were watched closely for years because they were not trusted. The bastards who did this knew that most didn't mean it, they just didn't want to die in some horrible manner; and the vile excuses for men figured that if they kept parents acting like Christians out of fear, their kids would be raised as Christians so it didn't matter that the parents were doomed to hell for lying about converting; a few less 'official' Jews and some more kids raised in the church. A more contemptable, disgusting mindset is hard to imagine. And this was at a time when many, in many places, had written specifically that forcing someone to convert was a travesty, meant nothing, and was to be condemned. Zealots aren't known for seeing the holes in their thoughts, or caring about them when pointed out.
So what we're dealing with is an attitude the civilized world dumped a long time ago(barring the few idiots) that is the reigning attitude for much of Islam. They have the attitude of the bad guy in The Shadow: "Join me; or die". Don't care if you were forced; hell, that's part of the rules for them! If you say you are/act as moslem for any reason, that's it. If you ever then say you're not, that the conversion was not true, you're under a death sentance. Which is one reason so many people are pissed at places like that CA school that had students dressing and acting like muslims for classes; according to the idiots, that makes them muslim and subject to sharia law. Period.
I've given up on the 'moderate muslims' of the world. With a few exceptions they won't speak out against it. They either believe that's the way it should be, or defend it because "Hey, they're of the umma(sp?) so I won't say anything against them", or are in fear of other muslims. So we've got muslims in the U.S. who know people planning terror operations, raising money for terrorists, etc., who won't report them because "they may be jihadi assholes, but they're our jihadi assholes". Which means, for all practical purposes, they are the enemy.
That's about as blunt as you can put it, and I'm sure it would piss various people, especially the usual suspects, off. I don't care. I'm sick of it being avoided at all costs by the major media, I'm sick of politicians who care for nothing but sucking up to some group who might get him votes actively ignoring it, and I'm tired of being called a racist or bigot for saying it. By the way, 'muslim' is not a race, it's a religeon. And I won't plead guilty to being a bigot for recognizing a threat to our civilization. I really don't give a rats ass what religeon someone practices unless their practice of it makes it- and them- a threat to me and mine. At which point my tolerance goes out the window. Whena religeon sees forced conversions as a good thing, and wants everyone who won't convert dead(dhimmi will do in some cases, but death is better according to the BPMs), and their sincere belief says they have to conquer the world for their religeon, they are a threat. And those members of that religeon who really don't agree with it but won't speak against it, well, they're part of the threat.
This has teh potential to get monumentally more ugly than it is now, and I'm afraid the only thing that would prevent it is naked violence; taking Syria or Iran, maybe both, and stomping the place flat. Figuratively speaking would be better; decapitate the governments and stomp the armed forces that enforce their rule. The aftermath would be messy as hell. But not nearly som messy as having President Tom(as Glenn Beck calls him) of Iran getting nukes to hasten the return of the 12th Imam.
Additional: Malkin points to this by Diane West on the subject, well worth reading
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