Be it noted, whoever designed the battery cable clamps on some Fiats

is a bleeping idiot.  If he's dead, he was a bleeping idiot.  

Due to exhaustion I didn't think to take a picture, and I can't find an illustration right now, but imagine this:

Instead of a simple clamp where you tighten a bolt, you have a body that includes a sliding piece that has to be held tight while the locking bolt is tightened.  There's no screw to tension it or good place to, say, put a screwdriver in place to lever it tight and then tighten that bolt, oh no; you have to find something like some channel-lock pliers that has jaws narrow enough to hold the clamp tight while not being in the way of the socket to tighten the locking bolt.  Because if you can manage to just pry it tight, the negative in particular wants to turn as you tighten and really pulls on the wires...

It's telling that every auto parts place that carries replacement cables shows the nice, simple clamps.

I can literally say I would never have imagined such an idiot way to design a clamp.

About that subsonic load Updated

in .300 Blackout, a little more work was done.  The original was five Federal and five Sig nickel brass.  Loaded ten more Federal, and five Sig nickel and five brass, same load.

I have no pictures due to an error on my part, I'll try to recover them.  I can say that at 30 yards, I did my part, we're talking one little-bit ragged hole territory.  Very promising.  At some point I'll be able to get to a longer range to try them.

It's nice, I got these bullets just as inexpensive practice stuff, if it stays this tight at longer distances I'll be wishing for a lot more of them.

Update:

I was able to get the pictures.

This is five rounds using Sig cases, 10.5 grains H4198, and the factory second 190-grain bullets:

Oh, baby.

This is five using the same load in Federal cases

Four in one hole, and #3 was a called flyer.  At least at 30 yards identical performance.  I really want to put these over a chronograph as well as try them at longer range.  

Twitter files, Part 4

is out.

Seems a mountain lion has been confirmed in northeast Oklahoma

Which doesn't surprise me: after being called extinct in the state for a long time they were found in the west, so why spreading out east would surprise anyone, I don't know.

Happily this is a state where, if you go into the woods, you can carry a gun just in case.  Chances of needing it for a lion, low.  Probably very low.  Illegal aliens, drugrunners and such, considerably higher.

Well, this might explain some of the old Twitter hysteria about the word Groomer...

This guy was the head of 'Trust & Safety' at Twitter, and he's screamed "NAZI!", etc., at anyone to the right of Stalin, and seems he had a secret account that's gone now, but- as they say- the Interwebs is Forever!

Yeah, that might explain some of the sensitivity about that word.  Especially if he had friends of the same leanings.

Which makes you wonder, how much of the contact with the EffingBI and others was he involved in?  And were they aware of this account, or any others like it?

Californicated has some wildlife problems,

and until they decide to teach them to leave humans, and things around them, alone, it's going to get worse.

And the last words said before tripping the switch were

"Let us see what happens."

Time for the seventh eve stuff, and

as the current chilly/cold & damp is making both my knees ache, I'm done for the night.

The next release of the Twitter Files is out. (updated)

First is here.

Second here.

Third here.

Update: Fourth here.

And more to come.

Yes, a bunch of Twitter execs were actively working with the Democrats and some LE agencies to decide who would be allowed to say what.  Yes, they lied about it.  And yes, most of the MSM is trying hard as it can to either say Trump was to blame or that "This doesn't actually say anything!"

It did indeed start raining again, so

maybe some pictures from sunny climes will distract

Remember the murder of Daniel Shaver in Airzona?

By sorry cops who, instead of handcuffing him, decided to play 'Simon Says' with his life?  The city of Mesa is paying the widow, but the sorry excuse for a peace officer who killed him?
A former Mesa, Arizona, police officer who was acquitted two years ago in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man seen on video pleading “please do not shoot me” was temporarily rehired by his department last year so he could apply for an accidental disability pension.

Philip Mitchell Brailsford, 28, is now retired from the force with a tax-free pension worth $31,000 a year for life — and his attorney confirmed Friday that the settlement was a result of him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the shooting involving Daniel Shaver of Texas…

I have no words.

Why so many people are yelling at the school boards, teachers, and admin clowns:

They leave morons like this in the classroom.

Hey, if you're worried about being a 'white savior' for teaching kids how to use the language properly,

Quit.

Get the hell out.  That way there are two goods: you won't feel that way, and you won't be screwing up kids lives by refusing to teach them to use the language properly.

And then we have these bastards:
Fracis W. Parker School in Chicago, IL - where the Dean of Students Joseph Bruno was caught on video talking about giving students butt plugs and dildos- sent out this email to parents saying that they stand in full support of the Dean.
Of course they do.

And they wonder why people are private or home schooling.

December 7, 1941

Ever messed with the shotgun mini shells?

I once had a box of the Aguila buckshot and tried it, they wouldn't feed reliably in my scattergun.  From someone with a lot more experimenting we have this article.

Right now the things are just as rare as anything else, and I plan no more messing with them.

When I had the first knee done I wondered,

since they said it takes a year for it to fully heal, how winter would be.

It sucks.

I figure part of it is because the left is taking up some of the stress on the right, plus the 'still healing'.  Whatever the cause, yuck.  And the newly-repaired, of course, is informing me of how it hates the cold fronts and warm fronts fighting it out.

Question answered. 

Wirecutter had a real interesting gif about flintlocks,

and I'm passing it on

About that ammo tryout,

I wanted to mess with some subsonic loads in .300 Blackout without spending a fortune on suitable bullets.  Midway came to the rescue: they're having one of their blemished bullets sales, and had some 190 grain boattail hollowpoint match bullets for a very good price.  So I got some.

190-grain because that's the same weight as the Hornady Sub-X bullets I tried before, so figured could use the same load data.  I think these are Sierra, and in very good shape.  So I started with the same load using H4198, with the overall length a couple of thousandths below max.

First shot was just to make sure the bullet made a nice round hole(I worry).  Then fired four.  Only 30 yards, but

I'd say that's promising.  Velocity, if comparable to the Sub-X, should be around 1050, so it should suppress nicely.  Opportunity arises, I'll try it.

As to bullets, Berry's makes some 220-grain plated just for .300 Blackout, and I'm told they shoot very well.  Just happens that getting the blemished from Midway gave me the weight I wanted to stick with and a bit better price.

When have time and am able to sit that long I'll load some more.  I'd like to put some over the Chrony to find out the actual velocity, and try at 50 and 100 yards.  Which will have to wait a while for three reasons:

I can only drive about 30 miles or so right now before the leg starts really aching,

thus carrying gear from truck to bench, etc., ain't happening right now,

the weather keeps going up and down.  

Yeah, I'm being chicken.  The knee is improving, and I don't want to push it too far.  When I shot handgun a few days back, the stance annoyed it, so all the loading/unloading/carrying/loading etc. I'm not doing right now.

But I do have some experimenting to do when I can.

About the release of Twitter information, the MSM has their standard line set:

"It's terrible that Matt Taibbi has sold out to do PR work for the richest man in the world."  Over and over, the words vary a bit but that's what they're all saying.  Here's some examples.

Or, as someone drew it,

Because the people saying this are SO trustworthy...

I have to tell a story I just remembered, it involves buffalo

Girl I knew in college came into class looking terrible.
"You ok?"
"I got woke up at 2am by a phone call.  Friend said "A BUFFALO SHIT ALL OVER MY HOOD!"
"What?"
Repeat.
Seems the fried was out on the Wildlife Refuge near Lawton driving around.  Remember two things: no lights except around the rare building, and pre-cellphone days.  Came around a curve to see a buffalo standing in the road facing the other way.

Stood on the brakes way too late, and that little car knocked its hind legs out from under it; this caused it to 
sit on the hood, HARD,

pop both front tires and damage the suspension,

and shit all over the hood and windshield.

Asked about the buffalo, "It slid off the hood, snorted some and shook itself, and walked away."  I tend to think snorting "How damned rude!" as it went.

She then had to walk close to two miles to get to the visitor center, which had a light in front and a pay phone.  My friend called a wrecker, and tried to get back to sleep.

Nobody found a badly injured or dead buffalo that I ever heard of, the car required two tires and some expensive repairs- after washing the buffalo crap off- and the lady wasn't injured.

I'm really surprised I'd forgotten that.

Ever heard of Filthy 14?

I had, I'd forgotten, ran across it again the other day.  It's a Bravo Company AR15, that has been cleaned once over many thousands of rounds.  Oil added as needed, parts replaced as needed, that's it,  and it kept running.

Ran into the link in a thread about people overcleaning guns, and glad I saw it.  I admit to being one of those "I shot it, I ought to clean it" types.  I've gotten better over time, but the urge is still there.