And from Our Lady of the Thong:

Islamist child-abuserearing

















Thank you, oh Lady

Looking for a bullet mold

I've been told that Lyman used to make a mold for a .45-caliber hollow-base wadcutter, about 250 grains. I can't find a number on the bullet mold charts I can find, anyone have any idea? This sounds like it would almost duplicate the Webley Man-Stopper bullet for the .455 Webley.

On books, you'll be happy to know

you can fit 18 paperbacks into one of the large flat-rate boxes without it bulging too much. Got those sent off last week, mix of Drake, Ringo, a Heinlein(my copy of Starship Troopers) and some others. They should be arriving sometime this week.

Got a call from him Sunday: amazingly enough, this time I wasn't on the phone at work or away from the phone at the house. Highs are down to the low 100's but the humidity is up(yuck), their area is still pretty quiet. I get the feeling between their patrols and the Iraqi National Police and Army, the bad guys have had the living crap kicked out of them, which is all to the good.

This has to be noted as the "You can't have it both ways"

reminder:
So, if I understand this correctly, here’s the reasoning: Police want to raid alleged drug dealer. Police get no knock warrant. Police conduct raid late at night so that they can catch them off guard. The plan worked and they were off guard. So, being off guard, person at the house opens fire. Now, the police say that she should have known they were police.

It makes no sense to me.

Me neither, Unc.

Followup to the 'poor babies' post

here. Article is here,

The first group of criminal enablersconcerned people had their suit thrown out of court because, basically, 'you are legal citizens and this doesn't affect you, so you have no standing to sue'. As I understand it, anyway. So they "refiled Thursday in federal court with additional plaintiffs who say they are facing eviction because of the measure. The plaintiffs are the National Coalition of Latino Clergy, two churches, a restaurant group and several anonymous individuals." Which is a fancy way of saying "We found some dirtbag illegals who snuck into the country undocumented workers who will be evicted if this law takes effect, and we are with them!"

I'm not going to say much, as I don't need to clean up the mess afterward. I'll just repeat: Screw you. You want to help people break our laws and act like you're entitled to make your own laws. Fuck you and get the hell out. You like these illegals so much? Go back to wherever with them. And we need to find the name of the 'restaurant group' and send them letters saying "We ain't eating at your places no more. No more money for you!"

I'm not sure whether to call this 'The Idiot Reporter Saga'

or 'Dumbass Journalist Blows It'. It seems a jerk reporter showed up at a checkpoint in Iraq without his proper id, acted like a jackass to the troop dealing with him, and posted about it. Then, when comments seemed to run to the, ah, 'negative' side, the whole blog disappeared. Except for a blogger who thought, considering past history, decided to preserve the whole post. Definitely worth reading, and do NOT forget the comments. They'll make you smile.

Then Doc Weasel got a e-mail from a coworker of the jerk saying basically "He's not so bad". He also adds at the end that the original site by the jerk is back. I tried, but couldn't get it to show up; maybe busy.

Well, now Little Green Footballs has found out some information on another piece the jerk did, and it does not make him look good. And Reihl has some background on the jerk.

You know, some of these people seem to be living in that "I think this, therefore it is the truth!" world. And now, thanks to this here innernet, it does tend to come back and bite them. Thankfully.

BSA Sportsman-Five

Here's the rifle I picked up in Tulsa









They made these in a single-shot(Sportsman, I'm guessing), this five-shot that feeds from a box magazine, and the Sportsman-15 that uses a tube mag under the barrel. Fairly basic .22 rifle, 'basic' including no butt pad, just grooves across the butt, with a couple of nice touches.

To start with, take a look at the trigger:

















It's a double-lever trigger. That is, the sear and trigger act as two levers: the sear catches the cocking piece and holds it, and the trigger levers the sear down to release. This setup gives a very nice two-stage trigger*. AND it's adjustable. See that spring and nut in front of the trigger? The threaded rod is screwed into the bottom of the receiver and fits through the sear; adjusting the nut up or down increases or decreases the weight needed to release the sear. A very nice design. As a side note, the action is a 'cock on closing' design: instead of the mainspring being compressed when you open the bolt, the sear catches the cocking piece and the spring is compressed when you push the bolt forward to close it, just like the Enfield rifles.

The other thing I really like is the front sight. Instead of the bead most U.S.-made rifles use, this used a blade that give a flat-top post to sight with, which I prefer to a bead. And from the side you can see that the section just below the top is slightly undercut


















so as to prevent any reflection back toward you when the light is behind or to the side. The rear is a blade with a not-very-deep flat-bottom notch. The receiver- also those of the other two the guy had- is drilled and tapped for a receiver sight, and I suspect most of these wound up with one at some point. Being British, probably a Parker Hale. And yes, I'd like to find one for it.

I mentioned that some troglodyte stole the magazines the guy had for them, so for the time being it's a single shot. I had the chance to hit the range today and try this little beast out, and I like it. Very nice trigger, no misfires or other problems. I think that part of the ejection design on these includes the next round in the magazine- or the follower- pushing the empty up, as all the fired cases pulled out of the chamber and fell down through the mag well before they could hit the ejector.

Since this was an indoor range without a solid bench to rest on and lighting was a touch low, I didn't shoot for groups. I just wanted to make sure everything worked as it should, check sights and try some different ammo. It showed a bit of a preference for Eley Sport, which seems appropriate. When I can get to the outdoor range with a solid bench I'll try different ammo for accuracy and post on it.

Overall, if you run across one of these I'd suggest you grab it if you can. Damn good rifle. Now I just need to find a magazine for mine.


*If you're not familiar with the term, a two-stage trigger is the kind almost always found on older military rifles. You pull the trigger, and it comes to a point and stops: that's the first stage, which- in a good one- takes up much of the pressure needed to fire. The stop is the second stage, the point at which you press a little harder and the gun fires. Since most military arms have somewhat heavy pulls, the first stage could be said to 'partly' pull the trigger, reducing the amount of pressure needed for the second stage to release and fire. For people with wet or cold or muddy hands, not a bad thing. And it was used, may still be, on a lot of target rifles.

Aww, poor babies!

A while back a law was passed in OK that "will make it a felony to transport, conceal or shelter an undocumented immigrant from detection and also prevents illegal immigrants from getting jobs and public assistance." So of course the 'protect the illegals' groups are filing lawsuits. Apparently they think there's something unconstitutional about trying to catch illegal aliens and send them back to wherever. Or preventing them from looting the public purse for their health care and for welfare benefits.

KTOK just had a blurb on their news about having interviewed the head clown in charge of a local hispanic group who whined about how many illegals have left this state before the law goes into effect, and how many others are 'hiding out' and wanting to leave. He thinks this is a bad, nasty, unfeeling thing for us to cause. I think you can probably guess my thoughts on this, but just in case:
Attention, sir:
Despite your not seeming to care about this, I will say it plainly: they are NOT 'undocumented workers', they are illegal aliens. That means they came here illegally. That means they broke the law to get here, they broke the law staying here, and they should leave. While you're whining about how horrible it is for people to want to do something about the illegals causing all kinds of problems, it's just amazing that you seem to have no words for the countries- Mexico being a big offender here- that are so screwed up that their governments would rather see their people coming here illegally so they can send U.S. money back home, than try to fix their own damn country. So screw you.

That is all.

I'd forgotten how hard it is to find some books at the used store

Son wants some sci-fi, so I figured get paperbacks(more will fit in the box) and hit the used stores(more books for the money). Fat chance. A few Drake, no Eric Flint, no David Weber, no Lois McMaster Bujold, a couple of Heinlein. And that was it.

So, raiding the shelves for mine to send. Hopefully he'll be able to send them back later, but if they get passed around and worn out I'm not going to gripe; they are for reading, after all.

If you'll excuse me, I've got shelves to go through and a box to pack.

Gun show report

I'm home, it's over- until April, at least- and I'm glad. I'm beat. That show covers 14 acres, and I have no idea how far I walked over the last two days(many sections twice). And all on concrete floors, just to make things fluffy-bunny-level happy.

Don't mistake me, it's a good show. Lots and LOTS of stuff, guns and parts and ammo and accessories and tools and materials and knives and... you get the idea. From cheap to "There are how many zeros after that number?!?" Like the Holland & Holland double rifle in .470 Nitro Express, for only $28k. Or the J.P. Sauer & Son drillings(double-barrel side-by-side shotgun with a rifle barrel below the shotgun), the really pretty one, 16 gauge and 9.3x74mm, was, as I recall, $32k. And so on.

I found a bunch of stuff, replacement screwdriver bits, cannon fuse(for smoke bombs; no cannon as yet), etc. And some somewhat beat-up Carbine magazines. Northridge had a box of them 2 for $5, all had some kind of damage and they decided they didn't want to mess with them. I found a few I think are repairable, and if they're not I've got spare springs & followers. The main thing I picked up was a lovely little BSA bolt-action .22 rifle, a "Sportsman Five", so named for the five-round box magazine. Which wasn't there, of course: some subhuman piece of crap had stolen the mags for both of these the guy had, so the rifles went at a discount. Perfect bores, tight actions, good sights, slightly beat-up stocks. I picked out one. I'd have been tempted even without some information from two people, a gunsmith and a friend. The smith has done a lot of business with companies in Britain and says the magazines are not hard to find, but businesses- due to the idiot laws stomping on them- don't want to export them. Friend knows some people over there, and thinks they may be able to find a magazine if I can't locate one here. I'll post a picture of the rifle later.

I almost bought an Iver Johnson top-break revolver in .32S&W. Lovely little thing, very good bore and chambers, tight barrel/frame fit. The owner named a very good price and while I was thinking "I need to work the action and check it" the guy next to me laid down money(Gee, thanks, Dad).

I have to observe, in case you haven't noticed, people have gone insane on prices on firearms of many kinds. I looked a a nice Webley Mark II, in what we call .38S&W and the Brits called .380/200, and was very interested until the guy said $695. Eeep. Try a Mark VI Webley, .455, with a cut cylinder, asking price- depending on which one you saw- $795-995. Except for a couple in quite good shape with uncut cylinders, $1700 to 1900. I repeat, eeep. Same for a lot of rifles, too. Just about anything connected with M1 Carbines and Garands has gone through the roof. Some parts aren't too bad, but some... barrels starting at $200, and the least expensive Carbine I saw was $700; every other one ran about $800 and up. We're not talking all-original and correct here, we're talking standard GI rifles. Least expensive Garand was $900 as I recall. A lot of people were asking "You've got to be kidding" prices for Mosin Nagant rifles and other milsurp stuff, too.

And ammo, let's not forget ammo. A can of 7.62x54r Hungarian light ball, 440 rounds, that I bought late last year for $38 is now going for $72. If you shoot you're aware of this stuff. A bag of 140 rounds of South African .308 that used to go for $26 is not selling for anywhere from $62 to $75. And Lithuanian .308, 200-round battle pack, anywhere from $115 to 140. Makes me very damn glad I already handload. Components have gone up, but it still beats paying the going prices for a lot of stuff.

Prices and all, this is still a damn good show. Lots to see, lots of people to meet(next time some idiots starts talking about guns and 'white suburban males', they need to be dragged to a good-size show), and at this one good food at the snack bars. Well worth attending if you can, they run one show in April(which I can't make) and one in October.

I'm for a shower, a drink and bed.

If further proof were needed that Sen. Reid is a slimy little

politician, this is it. After Reid, Buttmonkeys & Co. abused their authority to try and silence Limbaugh, he took the letter to Clear Channel- with all their signatures- and put it up for auction, with all funds going to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. Obviously Reid & Co. never thought of anything like this happening, and now, after all the laughter and contempt directed at them, they're trying to claim credit for the auction and the money.

Reid, you suck. Like a Hoover with a turbocharger.

Notes from the front

Got hold of my son yesterday, and found out some things:
Sometimes the biggest problem with the Iraqi kids is keeping them off the vehicles.

Highs are down to low 100's.

Everybody who can is playing Halo 3, but he wants some books.

He wants the Shiloh Arms 1874 Sharps. I told him he'll have to buy it himself, especially if he's thinking of the Quigley model. Though it would get him into handloading, as he wants it chambered in .45/110.

They've helped the locals get their irrigation system working, which made them very happy.

And the commander gets downright upset when the front brakes fail on his humvee. No, the son hadn't worked on them; the guy who had became very, very unhappy.

The sector he's in has been very quiet, between the Iraqi forces and the constant patrolling AQI and JAM have been having very bad times.

So it continues.

Information on the New Orleans Gun Grab

over at the Geek's place. Check it out. I'm going to have to order this, assuming I have any money left after Tulsa.

A while back I noted that Chris Muir had received no threats

about his cartoon. Things are not nearly as good in some places. Particularly Sweden.

Another in the "Idiots who make it hard for good cops" series

This one from Oregon:
Police officers followed a police dog onto the property during a search for a fleeing suspect. After the dog keyed on a car, officers broke out a window. Upset residents, insisting no one had run onto their property, started to videotape the police search.

When one woman was told to stop recording, she gave the videocamera to Waterhouse. He walked to the edge of the property, climbed up a dirt embankment and continued to record. At one point, he yelled to his friend, "Yes, I got it all on film. They had no right to come on this property."

He says in the suit that police immediately came after him, and yelled at him "put it down." Officers moved towards him, and he said, "Don't come after me." Waterhouse said seconds later he was shot with a bean bag gun and a Taser and fell to the ground.

And you'll just love the reason for the bean bag and Taser:
Officers wrote in their reports that Waterhouse ran off, they chased and then bean-bagged and Tasered him. One officer wrote, "He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon."

I tell you, Barney Fife was a Pro compared to these clowns.

AK vs. AR vs. MN

Theo reminded me of it, go take a look.

In regard to the current attempt by Pelosi & Co. to

screw the troops, I'm reminded of a quote from Ronald Reagan:
"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

Damn AIM Surplus, anyway

Just a few days 'till the Wanenmacher Show in Tulsa, and AIM does this.

I do NOT need temptation like this right now.

Box o' Truth tries out bullet deflection through brush

right here.

Taking a break from being ticked off at various government officials,

I'd like to take note of some more 'education' officials, and a truly insane-level of moral equivalence.

First, the 'education' matter, from George Will:
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the national accreditor of social work education programs, encourages -- not that encouragement is required -- the ideological permeation of the curricula, including mandatory student advocacy. The CSWE says students must demonstrate an ability to "understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination."

At Arizona State University, social work students must "demonstrate compliance with the NASW Code of Ethics." Berkeley requires compliance as proof of "suitability for the profession." Students at the University of Central Florida "must comply" with the NASW code. At the University of Houston, students must sign a pledge of adherence. At the University of Michigan, failure to comply with the code may be deemed "academic misconduct."

Got that? 'Compliance', 'must comply', 'must sign', 'MANDATORY student advocacy'. And as an example of what these socialist workers clowns do to people:
In 2005, Emily Brooker, a social-work student at Missouri State University, was enrolled in a class taught by a professor who advertised himself as a liberal and insisted that social work is a liberal profession. At first, a mandatory assignment for his class was to advocate homosexual foster homes and adoption, with all students required to sign an advocacy letter, on university stationery, to the state legislature.

When Brooker objected on religious grounds, the project was made optional. But shortly before the final exam she was charged with a "Level 3," the most serious, violation of professional standards. In a 2 1/2 -hour hearing -- which she was forbidden to record and which her parents were barred from attending -- the primary subject was her refusal to sign the letter. She was ordered to write a paper ("Written Response about My Awareness") explaining how she could "lessen the gap" between her ethics and those of the social-work profession. When she sued the university, it dropped the charges and made financial and other restitution.

This sounds like the show trials and 'self-criticism' garbage the communist party used to control people. As Glenn Beck said after talking to the jerk from Hofstra, "When you send your kids off to college, here's some of what your money is paying for."

Now to the moral equivalence. Over at Classical Values he had a link to this lady's blog, which linked to this garbage:
Can it be true? Did a woman anthropologist actually compare the ceremony at which young Masai girls are genitally mutilated to "a white wedding"?

Yes she did. It's true. The anthropologist's name is (or was) Melissa Llewellyn-Davies MFA. In case you're wondering, the initials do not stand for Master of Fine Arts; they stand for Marxist Feminist Anthropologist. Ms Llewellyn-Davies compared genital mutilation to a white wedding in her chillingly misleading narration for the film Masai Women, a Disappearing World production.

I won't quote anything else from this piece, you really need to read it yourself. As Kim says, preferably after moving breakable objects out of reach.

Since so many legislators seem to be unwilling to listen

to the people back home(something about D.C. living seems to cause a kind of 'pattern' deafness), I have an idea on how to get their attention. Since he has a incredibly hugelyslightly larger reach to people than I do, I sent it to Glenn Beck:

Since they keep doing things we've already made known we don't want them to do- like trying to sneak the illegal alien amnesty through AGAIN- maybe they're just not really paying attention.

So, to get their attention, might I suggest some gift boxes for some legislators. They should contain:

A piece of wood to represent a rail,

A small bag of feathers,

A piece of tar.

If they're truly too stupid to understand the reference to being tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail, then they can have someone explain it to them.

What do you think?

I must confess

I've never been to Larry Correia's site before. If you haven't, correct that error. Soon. Or you're missing things like this:
To put this in perspective, when you shoot somebody in self defense, the goal isn’t necessarily to kill them, it is to stop them. You want the bad guy to stop doing whatever it is they are doing that caused you go pull a gun in the first place. Live or die is really irrelevant. You want them to leave you alone. Sadly, the best way to make somebody leave you alone is to shoot them in their vital organs, and that often results in the bad guy’s death. But that’s his problem, not yours.

And this:
Went shooting. I fired three shots through my tactical shotgun. All of the stuff from Elite Ninja Force Tactical Systems.com broke. And I think I broke my wrist. It’s like really swollen, and I’m having a hard time typing. Jimbo saw me crying and totally made fun of me. Jerk. I didn’t hit anything either, but you can’t miss inside your house, so it don’t matter. My vest split four seams and all the Dragonbreath rounds fell out. I’ll have mom sew it. The Deagle totally ruled. I didn’t shoot it because the ammo was too expensive, but with the gold plating, it was like totally the most awesome gun at the range.
On Gear Whores, if you’re going to buy stuff, please go shoot it. If you buy stuff that you don’t know how to use, it makes Baby John Moses Browning cry. If you haven’t actually used something, please don’t tell the rest of us that have used it, how awesome it is, because that makes us want to beat you up and take your lunch money.(this applies especially to everybody on the internet that keeps telling me how great certain obscure guns are, because only seven people in America have actually shot one, and if you ain’t one of them, shut the hell up.)

Reason #397 why so many people are thinking of lampposts and ropes

Or just building multiple gallows

Two things have been preying on my mind the last week or so. The oldest is the invitation of that treasonous slutconvicted felon Lynne Stewart to be on an ethics panel at Hofstra Law School. Besides all the other crap spewed by the school and her enablersdefenders to try and cover for this, I had the nauseating experience a few days ago of catching the Glenn Beck show on CNN. He had a clownofficial from the school on to talk about this. First thing, the contempt and disgust practically dripping off the screen from this jerk was amazing. You could see it running through his mind: "You're not even a lawyer from some state school, how DARE you question our actions?" That's strike one.

Strike two was that his answer to almost everything was to quote the defense at this post(read the comments). Repeatedly. When questioned as to why there was nothing in the information on the conference noting her disbarment, felony convictions, etc., and why- if she was a 'cautionary example'- basically everyone on the panel supported her in her actions, he went into the quote again.

Strike three was when Beck- seriously pissed off at this point- asked if he would condemn her and her actions; he said "I agree with that." Beck asked again would he say that? And here came the quote again. Beck finally asked "Do you think she was innocent?" and dipstick started the lawyerly "I did not sit in on the trial, I haven't reviewed the transcript," etc. Overall, enough to make you wish for some tar, feathers and a rail. For him and his 'panel'.


The other thing, which pisses me off even more, is the current hearings at the Supreme Court over that raping, murdering piece of walking shit Medellin. If you haven't heard about this mess, you've spent even more time in a hole than I have. If you're not familiar with it, look it up. The level of, not 'pissed off', but flat out rage this has caused is huge. And I wonder if some of the idiots pushing this have really thought it through?

Let's say the Supremes have a 5-4 decision in favor of the President and foreign court position: murdering dirtbag gets off the death sentence, and a bunch of other illegal aliens facing death for murders get the same, plus all the add-ons that will be connected to this. What happens then? A whole variety of things.

The attitude toward the Supremes goes down the toilet, and I'd agree. I think that any Justice- for that matter any politician- who says that foreign law trumps our Constitution, our laws in this country, has betrayed their oath of office, and should be treated appropriately. At least they should be thrown out of that office(preferably into the aforementioned tar), at most prosecuted(if possible, I don't know if you can and I'm too sick of this to search around for it) for it as well as being kicked out of office. If you think there's a lot of anger toward D.C. now, just wait for the announcement "The Constitution doesn't mean crap anymore."

Second, you think people are pissed at Mexico now? Bad enough having that corrupt government encouraging their people to violate our laws and then spitting on us for daring to object; here they're demanding that WE roll over for the sake of a raping, torturing murderer BECAUSE he's from Mexico.

Third, connected to the last, just what starts happening to some of these criminals in the future. Right now you've got people in border areas who have to go armed on their own ranches and farms because of the illegals and smugglers, while the border patrol and politicians play games so as not to offend Mexico. Just what the hell do these idiots think(if they bother) is going to start happening when people are faced with threats from illegals? Does the phrase 'shoot, shovel and shut up' ring a bell?

All kinds of consequences if the court makes this decision for foreign authority over our laws, these are just the big ones that come to mind right now.

Couple of days ago I heard somebody on a news show say that they think Mexico made a mistake pushing this issue for this particular murderer because the crime committed by he and his little friends was so nasty. Got a question: does anyone think it would be somehow better if Mexico had chosen a slightly less disgusting rapist/murderer for their poster boy? I don't. I think Mexico doesn't care about anything except destroying our border and our laws so they can keep using the U.S. as a safety valve to bleed off people and keep foreign money coming in. They've fucked up their own country so bad that despite huge resources people think it worth it to walk across a desert hoping for a $3/hour job, because that's better than they can get back home. Not to mention getting free health care because of our idiot politicians.

You think this is messy now? Just wait. If this comes down on the bad side, just wait until people start acting on the idea that "If the government won't do the job, we will!"

And it will happen.

While our damn-near useless, bigoted media

plays games, they just can't find time for some reason to mention someone like Lt. Michael P. Murphy.

But they don't have an agenda, noooo........


Added: here's more on some of the people most of the media prefer to ignore. Click on some of the links. It's worth the time.

An experiment with Microlon

Yes, I do go on a bit about this stuff. No, they're not paying me*.

One of the things the stuff is often supposed to result in is a bit higher velocity due to the slicker bore. In the past I didn't have a chronograph to test it with, and since I got one I didn't have anything I hadn't already used it on. However, remember that Sears .22 rifle I wrote about? It hadn't been treated, so I borrowed it to test out.

This thing has basic iron sights only and I didn't have a scope that would fit on it(note to self: 1" rings for grooved receiver, buy). Yeah, would have been better to wait 'till I did, but considering time and other factors I didn't know when I could do this next. So iron sights it was. I picked the Eley Sport .22lr ammo, simply because it shot well out of this rifle before and I had a box handy. Testing was done at 25 yards off a solid rest.

First I fired ten rounds to get a baseline. Velocities were
1161
1139
1106
1113
1103
1102
1127
1103
1114
1122

Average velocity 1119fps, standard deviation works out to 19.1. And here's the target.



















Group is about 1.72".

I had the top of the front bead at the middle of the bull. After this ten, I pulled the bolt and after shaking hell out of the bottle(please note the stylish recycling of small booze container)























I wet one patch and swabbed the bore out thoroughly to clean it, then a couple of dry patches. Then I shook it again and ran a damp patch through the bore, replaced the bolt, loaded and fired(new target), and recorded the velocity. At which point I realized I'd held the bull on top of the bead on this shot. After practicing the use of several words, I decided to keep this sight/target alignment for the treatment target, and for the final ten went back to the 'bead in the middle' aiming point.

After each shot I pulled the bolt, shook the bottle, damped a patch with Gun Juice and pushed it through the bore, replaced the bolt, fired and recorded velocity. Velocities were
1131
1160
1123
1101
1157
1155
1131
1096
1141
1140

Average velocity 1133.5fps, standard deviation is 22.1,and here's the treatment target:













Group .875", discounting the first shot which hit way low.




After checking it, letting the rifle sit with the bolt open to cool a bit, I went to the third target and fired ten rounds. Velocities
1132
1136
1125
1126
1131
1121
1114
1123
1125
1109

Average 1124.2, standard deviation 8.15, and target:








Group about 1.1".










By the time I finished this, after the earlier shooting, I was about done for trying precision so I stopped here. It's interesting that the group was tightest during the treatment, slightly larger after, and both were tighter than from the untreated barrel(I do have to say that some of the growth in the last may be due to me. Next time I'm able to do this test I'll make sure it's on a scoped rifle to remove as much error factor as possible). Velocity was highest during the treatment, post-treatment was higher than the original.
The deviation going up during the treatment isn't surprising really, considering the stuff that'd just been wiped onto the bore before each shot and possible variations caused by that. Deviation on the post treatment group was WAY down from the original.

Now that I think about it, my daughter's .22 rifle hasn't been treated. And it has a scope...



*Attention manufacturers: I am available for briberytesting of firearms and accessories. Somebody take note, please.

Does anyone else have the urge

to stuff a smelly old sock in Jimmy Carter's mouth? Arguably one of the worst Presidents in our history- possibly the worst- and the bastard just can't keep his damn mouth shut. Ever. Had a friend who thought he was one of the best presidents we'd had and I asked why: "He signed all those international agreements!"

"You mean like the ones with North Korea and the Soviets that they broke before the ink was dry?"

"But he did sign agreements with a number of countries!"

Didn't care that the 'agreements' were worth less than a good crap, the fact that he 'signed agreements with many countries' was all that counted. I guess if you judge by a bar that low, you might think he wasn't so bad. But I think he sucked rocks as President, and he's down to sucking sewage now.

I let yesterday's anniversary pass unremembered

Happily, Val didn't

On that World Council of Churches crap

The questions over that have been rattling 'round in my mind the last couple of days. I said before, I just cannot understand these people. Nobody I've ever met actually wants to kill someone else or even hurt them severely(though consideration of a kick in the ass is common); that doesn't mean that they won't pull the trigger or swing the bat or whatever and it doesn't mean they think doing so would be bad in those circumstances. Protection of yourself, your family and friends, your home, your country, these are not bad things. but we're dealing with people who've decided there's no such thing as violent and protective, that all violence is equally bad even in potential. Which I think is flat idiotic.

Anyone who actually believes that it's evil for a woman to use violence to protect herself from a rapist is freakin' insane. But they're out there. And they get a lot of latitude from people because 'their heart is in the right place' and such, or 'non-violence is not a bad idea'. I disagree on both points. 'Peace at any price' is NOT having your heart in the right place, and when it's used to excuse taking no action against evil then non-violence IS a bad idea. If you don't like calling it bad, then it's a much less good idea.

The thinking that to protect your family from an attacker is bad- actually evil in their minds- is insane. That protecting your country by force, or the threat of, is bad is equally so. But I've known a few people who otherwise seem quite intelligent who think so.

These people like to bring up Gandhi a lot. They don't like the quote I remember. He was being interviewed by someone and stated flatly that the only reason his non-violent methods worked was that he was dealing with a people as basically fair and civilized as the British; that if he'd tried it with the Soviets he, anyone else in a leadership role and quite a lot of followers would have disappeared into camps. Forever.

RobC wrote in comments "The WCC is filled with communists and athiests that deny God exists cloaked as Clergy." Which reminded me of one of the 'peace' people I've known. Back when I used to go to that folk dance group, it usually met in a Unitarian church. One night I said something about God and was told by the lady that I shouldn't say God here. I thought about that a moment and said "I can't say 'God' in a church?" "Some people don't worship God and it might make them uncomfortable for you to say that."

I might make them uncomfortable. Hearing the word 'God' said in a church.

I'll bet she just loves the WCC.

It's a new children's book!

Read all the pages!

Found thanks to the gentleman with the new license plate.

Journalists should be trusted;

they don't let their personal opinions intrude on reporting the news.

I'm not going to excerpt from this garbage, I'm too pissed off by it. Read it. And remember it the next time these clowns tell us that we can trust them.

More on the al Dura blood libel

from Augean Stables and ShrinkWrapped.

I don't think it's any mystery why the major media doesn't want to break this. A: Some of them have a lot of personal emotion tied up in this. "Israel is to blame!" for pretty much everything, and showing what dirtbags and liars many of the palestinians are just goes against what they want to push. And B: they've got a lot of personal 'integrity' tied up in this story: if they break it, all the questions on why and why not start hammering them:
Indeed, when this story breaks, one of the great scandals will be the profound negligence and neglect of the MSM, which never asked a hard question, never followed up on the story… indeed, did their best to bury it. (The fellow at WGBH that Fallows sent me to as someone who might be interested in the story, even as he admitted the evidence was convincing, told me he couldn’t do “just this” story, he’d need to do something about Israeli cameramen staging news.) When you read the comments of Clément Weill Raynal on how everyone in the MSM does it and knows it’s done, combined with the responses of France2 higher ups to the three journalists who saw Talal’s tapes, and Enderlin’s to me — it happens all the time — you begin to realize that this kind of staging, editing, and presenting as news is a public secret among the MSM as well.

To put it crudely, the shitstorm that will fall on them will be wonderful to behold. So even those uncomfortable with what they've done and why, will try to prevent it. They'd rather not have to deal with it than do the painful work to clean up their trade.

Quote of the whatever

"I just want to point out that here at MArooned we do not advocate the shooting of hippies, smelly or otherwise.


...


...


...


Ammo's expensive. Think Louisville Slugger..."

This is interesting

My son got a large envelope in the mail today.

The Marines want him to join.

I'm split between:
Sticking an address label on it and sending it to him.
Sending it to his wife and asking why he's sending out applications.
Sending it back to the Corps with a note: "He's rather occupied at this time, but I will bring this to his attention the next time he's back in-country."

If there was any doubt, the World Council of Churches

is the enemy. Not just of gun owners, of anyone who loves freedom.

I'd heard of these people before, they're part of the 'peace at any price' clowns. If you're attacked, it's at least as morally wrong for you to use violence in self-defense as it is for your attacker to rape or kill you, and so forth. You're supposed to try to understand how other people think, but in this case it's a waste of time, I just cannot understand this attitude.

More revealingly, Everitt insisted that “the government must have a monopoly on force,” according to an account by my assistant Rebekah Sharpe, who attended the meeting. He identified the obstacles to fuller gun control as “hardcore gun owners” who have a “profoundly, virulently anti-government attitude.” Many of these hardcore zealots adhere to the National Rifle Association’s ostensible belief that “if our government becomes tyrannical they have a right to take over that government, our democratically elected government!”

Mr. Everitt, since you're a citizen of this country, I'd strongly suggest you actually bother to read the Declaration of Independence. If you do, you'll see that the founder of this country noted that if a government does become tyrannical and words and voting won't fix it, we DO have the right to take it back from the tyrants and their buttmonkeys. It's not the NRA's 'ostensible belief': it's the right of a free people.

Of course, you don't seem to care much for the idea of 'free people' if it involves people not doing what you tell them to. Or them being willing to fight in self-defense.

Apparently uninformed about the political thought behind America’s founding, Everitt cluelessly asked: “If we love to say that we’re the freest country, then why [do]… our elected representatives… talk about getting government out of people’s lives? If you’re so proud of democracy then acknowledge that government had some role in that.” Undoubtedly, the “Living Letters” must have been nodding their heads. The South Africa “Letter” responded: “Yes… the right wing out there wants to de-legitimize government… [If we give in to them] we are playing into the hands of the forces of chaos.”

This idiot actually believes that we can't be 'free' unless the government is directing our lives in every possible way. I repeat, I just cannot understand this mindset. And "...the forces of chaos.", yet. This may be hard for you to understand, Mr. South African letter, but freedom is messy. It's loud and obnoxious and it means people do things they choose to, not what you choose for them. You think this is chaos? Things are very orderly in the life of a slave, and it's very 'peaceful', which must have some attraction for you. I much prefer the mess, thank you very much.

I repeat, these people are the enemy. And I'm glad, because I'd hate for them to be my ally.

A real good piece on annealing

is found here.

Thanks to Guy for putting the link in comments.

Apparently pediatricians have everything so wrapped-up

disease-wise, they have time to snoop into your life. And rat you out to the cops:
But when a friend in law enforcement let Debbie know that her doctor had filed a report with the police about her family’s (entirely legal) gun ownership, she got mad.

How about a nice billboard: "Doctor Jackass will snoop into your life. And report you to the police. And charge you for it."

I would also suggest a swift kick in the ass. I'd say balls, but it seems this clown probably doesn't have any. Any integrity, either.

Annealing

Cartridge cases, in this case. In comments on the post about reforming .284 to 7.5 Swiss Chris mentioned this. I should have covered it in the same post, but got in a hurry and didn't want to put off posting it.

As in steel, annealing brass is to reduce the hardness of it. If you look at most military rifle ammo with brass cases, you'll see that the case neck, usually going down into the shoulders, is discolored; that's from annealing. Commercial ammo they do this and then polish the cases so they're nice & shiny all over, but most military contracts(so I'm told) specify that the annealing colors be there to prove the cases have so been treated, so they're polished, then annealed, then cleaned- not polished- and loaded.

When you reform a case you work-harden the brass, sometimes a lot. This leaves it stiff enough that when it flexes under the pressure of firing it can crack, so after forming or, as Chris notes, after the first firing it should be annealed.

I searched through various gun boards and found a lot of opinions and methods. This is the one I used on these cases. In my case, I formed the cases, cleaned off the case lube and then annealed them.

You need a propane torch, preferably one with a narrow flame, a pan or bowl for water and something to hold the cases with. This is done in a dim room as you have to be able to see it when the brass starts showing red.

Take the cleaned cases(burning case lube makes nasty smoke) and start the torch, bowl of water standing close. I sanded a piece of steel wire to fit into the flash hole of the primer pocket to hold the case. Stick it in the hole and hold the case neck in the flame, just ahead of the blue center, with the case angled so the flame is pointing toward the case mouth, not the body. Ideally the point of the flame should be hitting at or just ahead of the angle where neck joins shoulder. Turn the case constantly as you have to heat it evenly all the way around. As soon as you see the case neck showing red, drop it in the water. With steel the quench would harden it, with brass it keeps it from hardening a bit as it cools.

I'd suggest that as soon as the first few cases are cool enough, put them under a good light and look them over closely. You want to see the color difference caused by the process running into the shoulders, down to where shoulders meet body is fine, but not way down into the case body, and it should be even all around as to how far down it goes. When you've got it right, run the rest of the cases through.

That's it. This should relieve enough of the stress set up by the forming to leave the brass with enough spring to hold the bullet securely but not so stiff that it'll crack.

Notes
I've read some people saying to hold the case at the base, and even if you don't see color to quench as soon as it gets too hot to hold. I like something to hold the hot case with.

Whatever else you may do, DO NOT anneal way down into the body, or at the base and the 'web' above it. Those areas need to be stiffer, so leave them alone. If the annealing color runs down that far, you're better off trashing it.

There are a couple of companies that make machines specifically do anneal cases. If you were going to do a lot of them on a fairly regular basis one of these would be the way to go.

You might be Taliban IF:

...You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.

...You own a $300 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't
afford shoes.

...You have more wives than teeth.

...You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.

...You've ever opened a can of falafel with a mortar round.

...You used a Stinger missile given to you by George Bush Sr. to shoot at
a helicopter sent by George Bush Jr.

...You've ever had your camel repossessed.

...You can't think of anyone you HAVEN'T declared Jihad against.

...You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry ammunition in
your robe.

...You've ever been asked, "Does this burka make my ass look fat?"

...You've felt the urge to rub one out after seeing a woman's exposed
ankle.

...You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than
setting off roadside bombs.

...You've ever uttered the phrase, "I love what you've done with your
cave."

...You wipe your ass with your bare left hand, but consider bacon
"unclean."


Thanks to Theo

In case you're wondering how the Gun Juice is working out

for son, got this from him:
The microlon is working great, my M4 stays a lot cleaner with it than it did with the CLP. Works pretty good on the 240 as well, but its a dust magnet no matter what.

Reading 'Nanny State' by David Harsanyi

And found a couple of good quotes. For instance:
In an ideal world, karma would decree that these irritating and dangerous activists be taken behind the woodshed by a dozen minutemen reenactors for a momentous ass-kicking- with a post-beating lecture on the Founding Fathers, of course. But the world is far from perfect. Instead, these wardens of well-being are endlessly trotted out on morning and cable news programs, issuing distraught statements about the societal catastrophes that are ice cream and Girl Scout Cookies.

Forming cases

Something I wrote about before as a benefit of reloading is being able to form cases from one cartridge to fit another. That time it was pretty involved, but in some cases it's very simple. The one I'm thinking of right now is 7.5mm Swiss.

When the K31 rifles started getting popular, one problem was that the only ammo available was either the Swiss surplus(damn good ammo) or stuff from Norma(damn good and expensive). Usual fix for this is to handload, but you have to have reloadable brass for it. The Swiss surplus is Berdan primed, and those primers are hard to find. Norma is reloadable, but the expense discouraged most from buying their cases(see here). So the next thought is "Is there any similar case that I can form to 7.5 Swiss?" Answer, thanks to pointers from some people at The High Road, is yes.

In this case the answer was .284 Winchester. The case head is a bit different, but close enough to fit the bolt head and extractor, the body is very similar. The case neck is sized for a much smaller diameter bullet(.284 vs. .308), but that's fixable. Some cases require multiple sizing operations with different dies when you're drastically changing the dimensions. In this case all you need is a set of 7.5 Swiss dies, a .284 Win. shell holder and a case trimmer.

Put the .284 shell holder in the press and run the ram all the way up. Screw the 7.5 Swiss sizing die down until it touches the shell holder, then about 1/4 turn further: when you resize, you want to be sure the die goes all the way down. Lube the case well, and make sure some goes inside the case neck. Then put a case in the holder and run it all the way into the die and back down. It'll take some pressure, you're reshaping the body and expanding the neck quite a bit. When it comes out, trim it to length and you've now got 7.5 Swiss cases.

That's the quick & dirty of how to make these.

Now, as the Graf's site shows, there are more affordable 7.5 Swiss cases available, at least when they're not sold out. I've got 100 of the .284 cases I resized and they'll take care of me for quite a while on this cartridge.

Tried the Lee Lube & alcohol idea the other day

Sprayed a couple of .30-06 cases as I mentioned. After it dried I thought might be just a touch too little lube so I added another dollop of lube to the alcohol and shook it up and tried it. Much better. So I stood up about 50 more, ten .30 Carbine and a few 8mm and spritzed them, then let them sit a few minutes. All looked nicely lubed so I started sizing. All went through perfectly, couldn't have asked for a more even coat or smoother operation.

The Code of the West

vs. the Code of the Left:

* Never order anything weaker than whiskey.

* Never order anything stronger than a decaf double latte made with soy milk. Yes, that drink will shrink your testicles and/or ovaries to the size of peas, but you weren't using them anyway. Make it a double.

A bit more on the Lee Hand Press and case lube

In comments on this post it was asked if the Hand Press actually had enough leverage to full-length resize bottleneck rifle cases. On the stuff I did with it, it did. At that time the only rifle stuff I had/reloaded was .303 and .30-30. The latter was definitely easier, but it did indeed run the .303 full-length into the RCBS sizing die. Took a real push and pull to run it in and pull it out, but it did it. Heavier or longer cases, neck-sizing would definitely be the way to go with it, though. Something like .30-06 would be a pain.

On case lube in this post Guy mentioned dissolving Lee lube in alcohol and using a spray bottle to lube cases. Honest, I'd wondered about this once, but with water instead of alcohol and- critical thing- I never got around to trying it. He did. So while grocery shopping yesterday I got a small spray bottle and once home poured some rubbing alcohol in, then squeezed in a dollop of lube and shook hell out of it. Then set up some .30-06 cases in a row and hit them with one spritz on each side and left them alone for a while. Damn, that works! Very light coat of lube left behind, just about perfect. And if you angle the spray down a touch, it'll get some inside the case necks to ease the passage of the expander button. I will be using this in the future.

A bit more on handloading

Remember that .30 Carbine load I mentioned? With all the reloading stuff being put out right now, herein I will lay out how I worked that load up.

The general rule is that when switching to a new powder or bullet, and sometimes brass, you start low and work your way up. Powders have different burning rates, bullets have more or less weight and/or bearing surface and, depending on composition, can be harder or softer, and cases can have thicker or thinner walls(among other things). All of which means that changing any of those factors can make pressure go up or down, and can affect accuracy. And things that affect pressure can cause anything from less recoil to more to a semi-auto not functioning correctly to something failing. Sometimes catastrophically.

For instance, I’ve got a Turk Mauser in 8x57mm that I modified as a hunting/target rifle. Very solid, very strong and capable of good accuracy. While I was working up loads for it, I discovered that in 170-grain factory loads Federal shot very well; Remington just as well but hit about an inch higher at 100 yards; Winchester gave much worse groups that hit higher and to the right. I saved the brass to work up some 150-grain bullet loads. I hit a charge of IMR4064 that shot very well in the Federal cases with a Hornady bullet. The Remington cases gave equal accuracy with the same load, but- same as the factory loads- hit about an inch higher than the Federal. And the Winchester cases gave lousy groups that hit high and right. There’s nothing wrong with the quality of Winchester brass that I know of: that rifle just doesn’t like it. You run into that sometimes.

With the Carbine I was using the same brass, Lake City GI, and the same powder and primer but switching bullets. The Sierra Varminter weighs the same as the GI ball- 110 grains- but has a different shape and length. Measuring lengths showed that the Sierra would have to be seated deeper than the ball so as to keep the overall length within the maximum*. Being seated deeper means less space for powder. Some loads in some cartridges will compress the powder somewhat, and with some it causes them to burn more efficiently. In others it can cause dangerous pressure spikes. Which are Bad Things, which I would like to avoid. So I did some measuring. The bearing surface of the two bullets- the area where it actually bears on the bore surface- looked to be about the same length. I had no way to measure the comparative hardness of the jackets, so that was guesswork. Which I really don’t like, but I couldn’t find any ‘official’ information on this. It looked like dropping the powder charge one grain from what I’d used with ball for full-power loads would place the bullet base and the top of the powder column in the same relative position as the full charge to ball, so I decided to give that a try. So I loaded ten rounds and tried them next time I went to the range.

No chronograph as it turned out due to the dead battery, so I fired five on a 50 yard target. Accuracy** and where they hit on the target were same as ball, and the cases showed no signs of excessive pressure. The action cycled normally, and the empties flew out at the same angle and distance as ball. So I moved to 100 yards and tried the other five. Again the bullets hit about identically to ball and the other things were stable as well. So next time I set up the press I loaded ten more and made damn sure I had a good battery in the chrono. As noted a few days ago, velocity was just a touch above the nominal velocity for ball, and that combined with the other factors tells me pressure should be just about right for full-power loads.

No, this is not quite how they do it at the factory, or by the people who work up loads for a living. They’ve got universal receivers into which they can mount different barrels for different cartridges and/or strain gauges to indicate pressures, and a setup called a copper crusher(it uses a slug of copper of exact size and shape and alloy, how much it’s deformed tells you the pressure of the shot) that fits on barrels in the universal receiver; now there are electronic setups that do the same but without the copper being crushed. I don’t have any of those, so it was check around for loads others have tried, compare different factors, decide what should be workable and try it. Be very aware that when you step outside what’s in the manuals, you’re on your own. Screw it up(wrong powder, inappropriate bullet, too much or- in some odd cases- too little powder) and you can have a slight problem. As in ‘boom’. Resulting in anything from slight damage to failure of the action, anything from “Damn, that was loud!” to “Oh my, I think I’m bleeding.” No kidding, do not screw around with loads outside the manual unless you have the experience or equipment to deal with it. And experience doesn’t always count for crap.


*OAL, overall length, is important for a couple of reasons. One is simply that if a cartridge is too long it won’t feed through the action. Not a big factor with single-shot firearms, big deal with repeaters. Second is that there should generally be a short distance between the bullet position when chambered and where the rifling begins(called ‘freebore’ if I remember right). If you don’t have that space, it can cause the bullet to be delayed in leaving the case, which can cause a really bad pressure spike: Bad Thing. Third thing, if a bullet is long enough and seated far enough out it can hit the rifling and keep the action from closing and locking completely. VERY bad thing. On a bolt or a single-shot it will generally let you know there’s a problem, either the action will not close completely or is very difficult to close, both warning signs. On a semi-auto, if this happens and you don’t notice it and pull the trigger you have an ‘out of battery’ fire. Also known as a ‘kaboom’. It generally means a destroyed action and often means some level of injury to you.

**Accuracy in this case doesn’t mean ‘in the bullseye’, it refers to how tightly the bullets group. Different components in a load can cause the point of impact to vary, sometimes by a fair amount. That’s not a problem in testing, because when you find a load that’s good(tight groups, reliable, within specs for pressure and so forth) you adjust the sights to place it exactly.

Starting handloading

Kevin did a long very longdetailed post the other day on getting started on handloading(take it easy, at least I didn't say 'verbose'. Oops, sorry) that covers just about everything, from a full startup set of equipment to the basics of 'how'. In the spirit of tagging along on a good post'if you're thinking of becoming an alchemist'(as Kim used to call us) I thought I'd add in how I got started.

I had a head start on a lot of people in that Dad handloads, and when I was a kid I was allowed to get in the way help out, so I had a fair idea of what I was getting into. He started for the same reason a lot of people do: expense. The Highway Patrol pay wasn't real good at the time and they provided no practice ammo(or rifle, but that's another story), so if he wanted to practice(let alone feeding my growing habit) he pretty much had to. A friend of his had the gear, including a bullet mold and sizing/lubing press*, so they'd both gather lead and cast a bunch of .38 wadcutters, split the cost on primers and powder, then load a batch. It was a couple of years before Dad was able to put enough free cash together to buy a used Herter's loading press and dies(which he still has), and he still had to do the casting work with the friend; there was no place nearby that carried bullets. When he started loading .30-30, bullets involved a trip to a city to buy a box.

Jump forward a few decadesyears. I was newly divorced, two little kids, getting back into shooting and knew I'd have to start handloading if I wanted to shoot much. At that time I had three cartridges to load: .38 Special/.357 Mag, .30-30 and .303 British. I was at a local flea market with the kids and a guy had a Lee Hand Press and priming fitting set out. I got it, local stores had dies, primers, bullets, a powder scale that happened to be on sale, case lube and powder. I started out with IMR3031 because the Lyman manual showed it as good for both .30-30 and .303, and Bullseye for the pistol. Took about a month before I had it all. And for the first while I only had dies for .38/.357 and .303, all I could afford, loading .30-30 was done when visiting my folks.

The Hand Press is so called because it doesn't mount on a bench, you hold it. I loaded a lot of .303 and .38's on that thing. And yes, resizing .303 cases on it is good exercise. It was actually quite handy, I could sit in the living room watching a show and resize cases, neck expand the .38's and prime. Once, when a lady I was going out with was feeling under the weather I went over to keep her company and took it and a bag of brass along. She was laying on the couch and I sat on the floor by the couch sizing and belling cases and talking. It put her to sleep, which either means it was relaxing or I'm boring. Shut up, I didn't ask for commentary. About a year after the Lee I picked up a used RCBS Junior press at a gun show, and bought a Lee hand-priming tool, both of which really sped things up. I also wound up with an 8mm Turk Mauser, so of course I needed dies, and there was IMR4064 recommended for it, and if I could start casting bullets I'd save some there... It kind of grows.

Kevin covered things very well. If you know someone with experience, they can help you get started. Whether you do or start on your lonesome, READ THE DIRECTIONS. AND pay attention to them. Pulling the trigger and hearing 'snap' instead of 'bang' is bad; pulling the trigger and hearing 'BOOM', accompanied by pieces of what used to be a working firearm flying around, is worse by far.


*Some cast bullets can be used as they come out of the mold, just put some lube on them and load. The bullets I cast for .38S&W and .455 Webley come out of standard .38 Special and .45acp molds; lubed with Lee Liquid Alox they work perfectly. But a lot of bullets need to be sized- squeezed to proper diameter- and lubed before use. A sizing/lubing press has a die that's bored to the diameter you need, and nose punch that fits the bullet you're sizing, and a reservoir that holds lube. You take the cast bullet and place it in the die, pull the lever and the punch forces the bullet into the die, forming it to exact diameter. Then you pull a small lever that puts pressure on the lube and forces it through passages into the die and from there it fills the lube grooves on the bullet. If you're putting a gas check on the base(only works on bullets designed for it) you put the check on the bullet base and then size & lube.

Generally speaking, a bullet with a gas check(short copper cup) on the base can be driven to higher velocities without propellant gas melting or cutting into the base.

When an organization is screwed up

this bad, how can anyone expect good things from it? Or efficiency, or anything else worth having?

Apparently, we're costing Putin and the Russkies

a considerable amount of business.
The September 6 Israeli air raid in Syria has been a major setback for Russian arms sales. The Syrians had invested heavily in new Russian air defense systems, and the Israelis apparently brushed right by them.

Back in the First Gulf War, or the First Battle of Iraq, you may remember that on Day 1, the F117 bombers flew right through the Soviet-made air defense radars and all the AAA and blew the crap out of their targets. And kept doing so. The Russians, in the aftermath, were very wordy about "Well, we didn't sell them our VERY top-of-the-line equipment; if they'd had that stuff, the Americans would have been shot down left and right!" Uh huh. Right. And, as I recall, it turned out the Russians had sent a couple of generals to 'advise' Saddam's forces on using the stuff.

Now the Israelis waltz through the stuff and wipe out a tippy-top-secret installation. If the Russians say "Well, we didn't sell them the Very Best Stuff", Assad will be having some words with them, I'd think. And I doubt anybody would believe them.

Yeah, the Israeli and American, and I don't doubt some other countries intel and air forces are enjoying the hell out of this.

Gun Juice and loading dies

I've written before on Microlon Gun Juice*, mostly about using it on firearms. I think I've mentioned it being useful for other things, too. Had a comment the other day: ...I understand that you used micro lon on your reloading dies. I would like to know how you did and what you found. I have never had a stuck case, but he said that you were not even oiling and were having no problems.... so I thought I'd expand on that particular use.

If you handload, you know that the only place you can normally resize cases without lubing them is with straightwall cases such as .45acp, .38 Special/.357 Mag and such when using either carbide or titanium nitride(TiN)-coated sizing dies; those dies are hard and slick enough to get by without it. And even then a touch of lube is suggested for some cases such as .30 Carbine(I have read that people doing LARGE numbers of cases suggest a light bit of lube, carbide or no). In just about any other case and die, running a case in without lube means the case gets stuck. BAD stuck. As I put it before, "teenage girls on Orlando Bloom-level stuck". This usually requires a stuck case removal kit, and sometimes a trip for the die back to the manufacturer to get it out without damaging the die.

Having had good results from Gun Juice, I decided to try it on my dies. I took my Lee .30-06 dies apart and cleaned the sizing die and the neck expander plug with solvent and made sure there were no traces of lube left behind. Then, it being a hot, sunny day, I put them in the sun for a while to get hot and then gave them a coat, putting them back in the sun for the volatiles to evaporate**. I did this five times, then reassembled.

I'm paranoid enough that I did not intend to use the dies dry, I was looking for both a way to need as little lube as possible, and a safety factor. I didn't use a scale when pulling the press handle down, but after the treatment I did notice that it took less pressure to run the cases in. So I treated all my sizing dies except the carbide and TiN with it, and also treated the neck-expander plugs of the dies that have them. Good results with all.

This went happily along until a few months later when I was resizing a BUNCH of .30-06 cases(I'd had a good day picking up once-fired stuff at the range). I usually lube a whole bunch of cases- using Lee Resizing Lube at the time- setting each handful aside while I do the next, then when done with all of them start sizing with the first batch***. I was merrily sizing away, when I noticed that the case I'd just run through had seemed a bit more difficult. So did the next. And now that I think about it, so did the previous few. I grabbed that last few and the rest of that handful and found that I'd missed them: not a trace of lube. So I'd done eight before I noticed a problem, and even the last two(total of ten) went in & out with no problem. Something that would normally have left me with a stuck case on the first one became a "Damn, that's neat!" moment.

Like I say, I'd mostly been looking for a bit less effort in sizing and a safety factor, and I got both. Now, when I buy a new set of dies the first thing I do is degrease them and hit them with at least five coats of Gun Juice. A little goes a long way, and the stuff is worth every penny.


*They also make the stuff for engines. Tried it in my bike and liked the results. Going to do my truck when I can.

**I now have a heat gun and use it to warm things up. However, a warm day and outside does keep the aroma down. They do warn you to use in a well-ventilated area.

***I tried something with the Lee Lube. It's a thick white cream that's water soluble. So I put a dab on my palm, added a few drops of water and rubbed my palms together, then laid a half-dozen cases in one hand and rubbed them together again. I found I could get about a dozen or more rifle cases at a time this way with a very thin coat, and by the time I finished the whole bunch the first handful were dry. Or I could leave them a while and size them later, just like the undiluted lube.

Gee, and why would we want to pick on poor ol' Bashar

and poor little Syria? And some of those poor little people in Pakistan?
Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s interior minister, revealed last week that the three arrested men had acquired detonators that originated from Syria and had received direct orders to act from operatives in Pakistan. “We know that there is a clear network, highly conspiratorial,” he said after two days of meetings in Washington with US security officials. “The demand came from Pakistan [saying], ‘You should go on for action. Do not go on preparing for months and months and months, but now is the time to take action in the first half of September’ and they did.”

Stardust

The movie that is. Daughter got hold of me last night and said "It's still showing, want to see it after work?" So we caught the show.

I'll both borrow from Chris, and add to:
From Chris: See it.
Added: and anyone who doesn't like it is a filthy commie.

"Mr. Murtha, bend over."

Oh, isn't it wonderful? His ass must have puckered something terrible when the judge ruled.

High Standard M100

High Standard made rifles, shotguns and handguns for years, sometimes under their own name and sometimes as store brands or another maker's name. This one a friend picked up a while back.
















4.5" barrel, ten-round magazine, 22lr. These had a couple of unusual features. For one, this model has no slide lock, so it does not lock back after the last shot. No idea why. Second, see that triangular piece in the front of the trigger guard? That's a spring-loaded barrel lock: pull the slide back a bit, push the lever up and the barrel slides forward off the frame. For cleaning, and for changing: they made barrels in several different lengths for these*. You could use a long 6" for target, the 4.5" for general use and the 2 or 2.5" for easier packing when hiking. I used to know a guy who had one with all three he'd inherited from his father, always thought it was a very nice pistol.

I got to find out how nice the other day when I fired it. This one had turned out to be picky about ammo, most the owner had tried either did not reliably cycle the action far enough to eject empties or gave jams. This one just loves the Remington Golden Bullet ammo, and went through almost a hundred rounds with no problem of any kind. Shot it at ten yards, and it was no problem with a solid hold to keep all shots in a 2" bull. Amazingly, I was able to do that shooting one-handed, and a bullseye shooter I am not. A light, clean trigger definitely helped. A light, fun to shoot, accurate pistol. One more of those "Dammit, why don't they still make these?" guns.


*This one is an early model. Later and other models used a different barrel and lock system, and they are not interchangeable.

As a side note, due to age it's hard to find magazines for these. This one wouldn't feed properly, turned out there are two spring arms that are part of the feed lips that were bent outward just a touch. Owner tightened them in a bit, and the problem disappeared with the ammo it liked. Second, there's a mag that says 'for non-military grip models' that fits ok, but the feed lips are different; the one he tried would not feed reliably with anything.

Just to take the bad taste out of your mouth from the previous two posts,

Silence in Syria, Panic in Iran

Why would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about an act of war perpetrated on their soil? The first half of the answer lies in this story that appeared in the Israeli media last month (8/13): Syria's Antiaircraft System Most Advanced In World. Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree, spending vast sums on Russian systems, 'considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology.' Syria now 'possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world,' with 'more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types,' some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria 'before being introduced into Russian operation service.' While you're digesting that, take a look at the map of Syria: Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th. Nothing.

El blanko. Silence. The systems didn't even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn't even know they were blinded. Now you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless. They thought they were protected - at enormous expense - only to discover they are defenseless. As in naked. Thus the Great Iranian Freak-Out - for this means Iran is just as nakedly defenseless as Syria.

Tell the truth: doesn't that bring a smile to your face?

Among the reasons people don't like or trust lawyers

is the idiots who run the law schools. About like the idiots at universities who invite terrorists to speak and then screw around trying to look tough when they realize the stuff dripping on their head isn't rain.

There's been a lot on some blogs about this nonsense the last few days. This place seems to have a good rundown on the miserable bitch(who should be rotting in prison, not bragging about her actions at a freakin' law school). Sounding like the head of Columbia trying to cover his idiocy, a professor at the law school says the traitor is there "not as a role model but as a cautionary lesson."
Which is bullshit. "...the brochure indicates that Stewart will be a member of the final panel of the conference, the other members of which will be attorneys Ron Kuby and Richard P. Mauro." 'Cautionary Lesson' my ass.

This is how some very high-ranking law schools train lawyers. Any questions as to why we wind up wanting to hang them?

Sen. Orrin Hatch(R-UT), UPDATE!

miserable, conniving, two-faced politician.

Which is about as close as I can get without going to language I'm trying to tone down on. Day before yesterday he was interviewed on Glenn Beck's show about the NightmareDREAM Act. It was one of those times I wished I could reach through the radio and throttle someone.

According to this miserable bleep, not only should we pass this piece of crap(and he wasn't even aware of some BIG parts of it, or so he said), but we should do it(big chorus here) "For The Chilldrennn!

I'm not kidding. He kept throwing in crap like "We shouldn't blame the kids because their parents brought them here" and "They deserve a good education" and so forth. Sounded like bloody Ted Kennedy(Scumbag-MA). Excuse everything, and make the illegals and the Mexican government happy.

Bastard.



UPDATE: Just went by Kim's place and found this. Apparently even the miserable politicians like Reid(Vile Being-NV) felt enough heat on this to take it off of the Defense bill. As Kim says,

"How nice. So instead of this monstrosity being hidden inside a “must-pass” piece of legislature, it’s now out there all by itself?

“Ready on the Left? Ready on the Right...?”

Range day

Amazing how some things work when you have a fresh battery

Started out cool, humid and foggy. Clearing when I left the house, but the closer I got to the range the foggier it got. Happily, it cleared off shortly after I arrived. Unhappily, add bright sun and warming temps to that humidity and you get melting feelings by the end.

Main thing I wanted to do today was, since I had the aforementioned battery, set up the chronograph and find out what velocity I was getting with the .30 Carbine loads described here. Which information follows after this brief

DISCLAIMER

This load is not out of any loading manual: it's one I put together based on load information I read and comparing that to the bullet and powder combination I wanted to use. It works well(so far) in my rifle, it may not be safe or accurate or reliable in yours. You have been warned.

As I wrote before, I wanted to load for this cartridge with a bullet that would give better terminal performance* and hold velocity better as the range stretched out. After trying three different bullets I decided on the 110-grain Sierra Varminter. It's a nice spitzer shape, hollowpoint, and the same weight as the standard FMJ bullet. It's longer, so it has to be seated deeper into the case to reach maximum length for this cartridge. That leaves less room for the powder, so I dropped one full grain to try it. Functioned perfectly and gave good accuracy at 100 yards, but I had no way to guess at pressures due to the *!!#@)*#$ dead battery in my chrono last time I went out.

The load is 14.0 grains of W296 powder, CCI standard small rifle primer in Lake City cases. Max length for this cartridge is 1.680" according to the Lyman manual, I actually seated to 1.679", for what it's worth. I fired ten rounds in two groups of five with the chrono about ten feet in front of the muzzle, and got these velocities:

1913 1933
1926 1931
1925 1924
1930 1930
1922 1924

Average velocity works out to 1925.8, and according to the calculator I used that gives a standard deviation of 5.77, which is pretty small. That's very consistent velocity.

And since the standard velocity for ball ammo in this cartridge is 1900 fps, I'm guessing the pressure of this load is pretty close to the standard cartridge. The proper way would be to have a strain gauge to mount on the chamber or access to a test barrel, but I don't have either of those. So I'm going by velocity for a decent guess at pressure. Which is why the big DISCLAIMER up there.

So far, all's well. It cycles through the action no problem, empties eject roughly the same distance & direction as ball, and accuracy is good. So now I need to gather some milk cartons or something so I can shoot them & see how the bullet acts at this velocity. Be a pain to find out it's too low for consistent expansion, but if that's the case then this load isn't what I was looking for. According to the reviews at Midway on this bullet, one guy was getting very good results with it. So we'll see.

Sometimes-weenie politicians and all,

the Israelis still tend to get the job done.

But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.

Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.

So the commando sneaked in, got into the site and got the samples, brought them back. Then after the analysis went back in to set up the attack, all undetected. Damn.

Also from the Times article, a note about something from the past. Remember the train that blew up in North Korea three years ago?
The outlines of a long-term arms relationship between the North Koreans and the Syrians are now being reexamined by intelligence experts in several capitals. Diplomats in Pyongyang have said they believe reports that about a dozen Syrian technicians were killed in a massive explosion and railway crash in North Korea on April 22, 2004.

Teams of military personnel wearing protective suits were seen removing debris from the section of the train in which the Syrians were travelling, according to a report quoting military sources that appeared in a Japanese newspaper. Their bodies were flown home by a Syrian military cargo plane that was spotted shortly after the explosion at Pyongyang airport.

Let's see, Syrian and Iranian techs getting killed while loading chemical warheads on missiles, now this stuff. All kinds of interesting things going on.

And from a Philadelphia paper, yet!

Classical Values notes this editorial. A key bit:
"But some people are sending that message on a wider scale. Look at the 79-year-old man in Dry Ridge. Gun control would have told him, in essence:

You're going to have to let the robbers do with you as they will. You might survive their blows, and you might not. You might avoid a fatal heart attack, and you might not. In the event that you survive, you can call the police, who may or may not catch the perps. Will the courts and jails keep them off the streets? Sheesh, how naive are you?"

Speaking of Giuliani and the Joyce Foundation,

and that offshoot of the Joyce Foundation known as IACP, check this out.
For an even richer helping of irony, the event will be held in New Orleans--too bad former New Orleans Police Superintendent Edwin "we're going to take all the weapons" Compass had to resign--this sounds like just his cup of tea.

Also, a little further down he has this quote from Giuliani I hadn't heard about:
"You should know I understand that the right to bear arms is just as important a right in that Constitution as the right of free speech and the other rights ... It's not going to change, unless something dramatic has happened to make it change, and then I'll explain to you why," he said. [emphasis mine]

And we're supposed to TRUST this clown?