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.)