29 April 2015

Cop Dash

The instrument cluster from an Olds Custom Cruiser I'd put in my car finally stopped giving even a hint of accuracy about the speed plus negative function on both the trip and odometers.

Before


On a shelf in the garage I had a cluster out of a '92 Police Caprice.

Rewired the connectors, added a ground and viola!

After

Installed and almost entirely functional.  The tach is reading hilariously high.  We think it might be expecting a 4 cylinder signal and it's getting pulses right off the coil.  I need to get it someplace where I can get a steady state cruise in lock-up to see if it's a fixed ratio.

Note the mileage!  That's accurate (and a pain to make so).

By the way, GM, the connectors are the same for the Chevy 9C1, Olds Custom Cruiser and Buick Roadmaster 91-93.  The placement of the gauges is the same for all three.  Why don't they share pin-outs?

I had to move 13 wires from one pin to another, plus add a ground to change from Oldsmobile to Chevrolet.  The Olds and Buick share the same circuit board, but rearrange the lights so there's like 8 wires that are either relocated or omitted.

A Couple Of Things

From Weer'ds talking on the FAL and AK...

In normal operation AR the only time you should be using the charging handle is to open the action to to load that first round or to clear it once you're done shooting.  Then you use the bolt stop to chamber a round.  If nothing goes wrong you keep using the bolt stop; if something does go wrong, then you shouldn't have the thing up in a firing position because you now have to fix what went wrong and it's almost never cured by racking the charging handle blindly.

If you're using the thing for magazine changes, what idiot taught you that?

On the FAL, however, there's a known problem with the foot of the bolt stop popping off when you push down on it to release the bolt.  Some are pressed onto their shaft and repeated use slowly pushes it off; so with the FAL, use the charging handle when changing magazines.

The reciprocating bolt handle is on the SCAR because of literally decades of people writing for magazines and defense journals bitching about the charging handle's lack of movement.  It's rather ironic that they change that and new complaints began immediately.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

I'm going to have to drag Willard, kicking and screaming, into this general discussion about fighting with your rifle because he's done so much more of it, but I don't think he'll agree that beating the shit out of your magazine to gain at most 1/4 second on reloads is worth it because such gems of time just don't matter in real fights where the appropriate weapon is a rifle.

There's a shit ton of pistol gaming infecting the proper use of a battle rifle that's frankly detrimental to the employment of said rifle.  The reason things like this matter with pistols is the likelihood that someone can knife you by the time you get the task done.

Some of the fast reloading techniques I've seen advocated for rifles has me asking again and again, "Why the fuck are you standing there in the fucking open doing your reload under fire?"  The first step of reloading is COVER!

28 April 2015

Of Tartans

MacTavish and Thompson are often shown as the same plaid.

I have found a "Thompson" Sport Kilt.

But that's not the MacTavish (modern) I am looking for.  It's close to the "hunting" or "dress", but it's hard to tell from small swatches.

But I'm not about to drop $500+ on a kilt.  Near $150 is bad enough.

I Know What To Do

We have this.

Shall we save time?

Last time the Iranians took over something we were supposed to protect when we had a Democrat president we flew out into the middle of their desert, destroyed some of our aircraft and killed some of our own troops doing so.

Let's save time, money and lives and just go out to the flight line and burn a C-130 and six CH-53's.

What we should be doing is a repeat of what we'd done when that Democrat got replaced and the Iranians got stroppy.

With Great Umbrage

"Military handgun training is laughable."

I will have you know, Tam, in 1987 we spent WEEKS and WEEKS on the M1911A1 in 19K One Station Unit Training.

We learned how it worked, we were quizzed and tested on statistics such as its weight, mass (drop! if you don't know the difference!) maximum range, maximum effective range, etc...

We learned how to take it apart.

We learned how to put it back together.

We learned to do that blindfolded then blindfolded in the dark.

We learned to clean them so that they'd pass a white glove inspection using only a t-shirt and 2oz of Break-Free® CLP.

We even shot them once!

Do not sit there in whatever kind of chair that serves as your throne and say that we weren't TRAINED!


You Go To Jail

If your religion says you cannot marry homosexuals, and that will land you in jail, then you should go to jail.

It's called standing by your convictions and showing that you really believe in them.

And it shouldn't be illegal to fail to perform marriages outside the strictures of your faith.

This shit right here is what is at the core of religious freedom guaranteed by the first amendment, not some nebulous penumbra of separation.

27 April 2015

Computer Fun Time

I'd forgotten how much "fun" it was to get a Mac and a PC chatting amicably with each other.

It's not amicable, yet, more of a grudging acceptance of each other.

25 April 2015

Understandable

Which is worse?

The world does not understand you and it never will.

OR

The world understands you and always has.

OR

The world understands you, always has; but you think that it doesn't and never will.

OR

The world doesn't understand you, never will; but you think that it does and always has.

27APR15, edited to add fourth option based on Aurictech's comment.

The Backwards Brain Bicycle - Smarter Every Day 133

I don't think I've watched a single one of Destin's videos where I didn't learn something.



Again

On Wednesday we had to take Shi Shu back in to be further treated for this nasty shit the neighbor's dog shares along the fence line.

Another $200 down the hole that I wouldn't have had to spend if they would simply do what's right by their dog.  Their miserable and obviously suffering dog.

I do not grok this behavior.

Sheesh gnaws on his ass when this stuff starts to take hold and the longest he has to wait is a few days for an appointment to open up, most often it's same day.  Knowing our pup, though, he's been feeling it about a week before he starts being obvious about it.

Yes, a visit to the vet is $100 - $200.  Yes, quite often we'd rather have spent that money on something else.

The thing is, we accepted responsibility for him the day we paid the pet store.  A lifetime commitment.  It's not a small thing and it's a very serious thing.

I simply cannot abide someone who shirks that responsibility.

Onyx next door is an abandoned dog in her own home.  This crud is curable, I know this because we cure it annually.  If they'd cure it we could both be rid of it.  If they're not going to cure it, why don't they let the poor thing out of her misery?

I know it's hard to take a pet on that last walk.  I cannot say I've lost count of the number of times I've had to, because I still feel each and every loss as if it happened a moment ago.

I question, though, if it would really be hard for these scumbags.  They clearly don't care about their dog.

24 April 2015

Look It's Not A Mac

Let us welcome Crispy, the Lenovo ThinkPad to the fold.


He's a lease-return refurb generously sold on time by reader JT.

Crispy replaces the Hybrid-MacBook Pro I'd made from the best parts of a Late 2007 and Early 2008 15" machines which finally succumbed to what kills all MacBook Pros of that generation, heat unsolders the video card from the logic board.

Considering the price to repair or replace that logic board is about what I am on the hook here for, it's not that hard of a decision.

Changed from a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo to a 2.5 GHz i5.  Same size RAM.

Changed from OSX 10.6.8 to Win 7 Pro 64.

Changed from a back-lit keyboard to a little LED in the brow.

Lots of little changes and some things change not at all.

PS:  I authorized the fresh install of the OS at about 1330 and I am only just getting done with installing updates!  Microsoft really should streamline this process because there's lots of people in my situation.

That Lady In The Back Of The Room, Ms. Genovese, Has Raised Her Hand. I Believe She Has A Question.

This is a guest post by W. Fleetwood.  (C. V. below.)   (McThag will, under oath, deny all knowledge of, or responsibility for, its content)

This is in response to some of the responses to a video that made the rounds recently.  The video showed an unidentified veteran bracing a bum ("homeless man" is newspeak for bum) and making him remove a jacket because it had an (unidentified) patch on it.  There are several things about this event that caused comment, Bums, Stolen Valor, Stolen Valor Bums, etc, etc, but the ones I'm responding to here are the many firearms and self defense trainers who took pains to explain why one should  Never Do This--NeverEver, or anything else.  Ever!  

The received wisdom of the Trainerfolk, when rendered into plain English, is: keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, avoid eye contact, walk away as quickly as you can and leave everything to the Proper Authorities.  Be a good German.  Oh, and if you feel like it, call 911 on your phone, that will absolve you of any and all moral responsibility.  Yes people, be a good German, like the folks in Kew Gardens back in 1964.

Really?  Let me get this straight Mr Trainerman., after spending thousands of dollars on superguns and superammo and spending hours and days mastering the XYZ Drill (157 rounds, eight tactical reloads, the last stage fired weak hand from a trapeze) which qualifies you to shoot it out with the entire James-Younger gang, and their horses, and a squad of Soviet era Spetsnaz to boot, when you hear the sounds of a rape/murder under your own damn  window you're going to call 911 and..............What?  Close the window, turn the sound on the flatscreen up to eight, and polish your IPSC trophy while you wait for the screams to stop?  I will grant you that one of the grim lessons of the last half century is that if you wait long enough the screams will always stop. True, but still..........Really?

And that brings us to the thing that really chapps me about all this. Y'see........I don't believe the Trainerguyz.  I really don't.  I'll bet you a real silver dollar (Morgan, Circulated not Mint, let's not get carried away here.)  that if they actually faced the actual screams of an actual woman being hacked and raped they would, after,  yes, making the phone call, take a deep breath and, with all due caution, and all tactical skill, wade in.  This  I do believe.

So why the good German advice?  I think I know.  Over the years I've trained about two dozen people on a personal basis but I've never taken any money for it, not a dime.  In fact, at the end I would give the students a five dollar bill as a start on their further exploration of the wide world of guns.  Now, why would I do that?  Simple, to avoid becoming the target of the terrorist group that has brought the former USA to its knees. You know, the Plaintiffs Bar. Yes, people who I have no doubt would face the reality of Winston Moseley and his stinking switchblade with a clear eye and grim resolve are reduced by Fear Of Lawyer to "eyes down, mouth shut, walk away and keep going, kid" or at least the public parroting of it.

Of course all the above begs the question: okay smartguy what's your answer?   Well, I don't have a perfect one, but Florida has at least a partial one with the Hold Harmless statute.  It ain't perfect, far from it, but (sort of like Floridas' CWP law) its a good start.  Frankly, while superguns and superammo and superdrills, and yes, even open carry are certainly great and good things until the Fear Of Lawyer gets hammered down, and hopefully  eliminated, all those things will be great hardware badly  crippled by defective software.


W. Fleetwood, Curricula Vitae, (Latin for "Who is this clown anyway?):  Born and raised in rural Oregon, US Army, Korea {the place not the war} and the Second Ranger Battalion out of Ft. LewisWa.  Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, First Bn. The Rhodesian African Rifles.  Namibia/Southwest Africa, 701 Bn. SWATF.  El Salvador, Commandos de Marina.  Nicaragua, FDN.  Merchant seaman, Captain 1600 tons steam or power, any ocean.  Florida Highway Patrol,  Crash Investigator.  Widower and Grandparent.  And yes, I personally think e. e. cummings was a great poet.


23 April 2015

Paring It Down A Mite

Here are the Republicans that didn't stop it.


Alphabetical by Senator Name

Ayotte (R-NH), Yea
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Cruz (R-TX), Not Voting
Nay Flake (R-AZ), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Johnson (R-WI), Yea
Kirk (R-IL), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Portman (R-OH), Yea

Seems a list of the usual suspects, doesn't it?




Um Teddy...

Gun Owners of America sent me this...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz excoriated the Senate Republican leadership on the floor today for the way they rammed this nomination through: 
"The Republican majority, if it so chose, could defeat this nomination, but the Republican majority has chosen to go forward and allow Loretta Lynch to be confirmed. I would note there are more than a few voters back home that are asking what exactly is the difference between a Democratic and Republican majority when the exact same individual gets confirmed as Attorney General, promising the exact same lawlessness, what's the difference?"

OK, Ted.

After that rant one would have expected you to, I dunno, HAVE FUCKING VOTED!  For fuck's sake that's YOUR GODS BE DAMNED JOB!  Voting on things that come to a vote in the Senate.

Alphabetical by Senator Name
Alexander (R-TN), Nay
Ayotte (R-NH), Yea
Baldwin (D-WI), Yea
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Bennet (D-CO), Yea
Blumenthal (D-CT), Yea
Blunt (R-MO), Nay
Booker (D-NJ), Yea
Boozman (R-AR), Nay
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Capito (R-WV), Nay
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Cassidy (R-LA), Nay
Coats (R-IN), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Coons (D-DE), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Cotton (R-AR), Nay
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
Cruz (R-TX), Not Voting
Daines (R-MT), Nay
Donnelly (D-IN), Yea
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Ernst (R-IA), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Fischer (R-NE), Nay 
Flake (R-AZ), Yea
Franken (D-MN), Yea
Gardner (R-CO), Nay
Gillibrand (D-NY), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Heinrich (D-NM), Yea
Heitkamp (D-ND), Yea
Heller (R-NV), Nay
Hirono (D-HI), Yea
Hoeven (R-ND), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Johnson (R-WI), Yea
Kaine (D-VA), Yea
King (I-ME), Yea
Kirk (R-IL), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Lankford (R-OK), Nay
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Lee (R-UT), Nay
Manchin (D-WV), Yea
Markey (D-MA), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Nay
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Merkley (D-OR), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Moran (R-KS), Nay
Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Murphy (D-CT), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Yea 
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Paul (R-KY), Nay
Perdue (R-GA), Nay
Peters (D-MI), Yea
Portman (R-OH), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Risch (R-ID), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rounds (R-SD), Nay
Rubio (R-FL), Nay
Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Sasse (R-NE), Nay
Schatz (D-HI), Yea
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Scott (R-SC), Nay
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shaheen (D-NH), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Sullivan (R-AK), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Tillis (R-NC), Nay
Toomey (R-PA), Nay
Udall (D-NM), Yea
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Warner (D-VA), Yea
Warren (D-MA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
Wicker (R-MS), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Yea 

Maybe it's just me and I don't understand how this feral gubmint shit works...

Take That Gaea

Watch the gas gauge.



Ultimate

The Hughes H-4 is the ultimate anti-hippie vehicle.

Not just eight gas guzzling engines, but literally an entire forest went into building it.

Old Gun Cleaning Methods

Because the Army issued inadequate cleaning solvents for the task we'd often steal acquire take borrow the immersion heaters from the mess and boil our guns.

With the guns completely field stripped...

First barrel was literally boiling water.

Second was nearly boiling soapy water.

Cold water rinse.

Third barrel of boiling water.

Then a blast of compressed air while it was still hot.

Then a wipedown with a tiny amount of Break-Free® CLP.

It made the guns inspection ready.  Where just Break-Free® CLP, old t-shirts, toothbrushes and elbow grease would get them less dirty, they'd never pass inspection unless you dedicated a week to cleaning them.

The reason it took a week is because the C part of CLP attacks the carbon very slowly, and three application and scrubbings over a week typically got it done.

Or one day of making gun soup.

I wonder today if we were damaging the guns doing what we were doing to make inspection.  If we'd missed some tiny amount of water some place and the guns were rusting from the inside out.

Inversion

I was reading Michael Bane's Blog...

Ruger has jumped on the bandwagon and is making a Mini-14 in .300 Blackout.

The thing that jumped out for me about it wasn't the new caliber but that a Mini is now a kilobuck rifle.

I remember a time when a new Mini was about $400 and a new AR was at least $600 (and that was Bushmaster not Colt).

I've been aware that the relative prices have reversed somewhat over the years, but this time it really stuck.

I've read that the newer Mini's are greatly improved over my old gun, and that could be why the price went up.  The near ubiquity of the AR greatly aids in keeping its prices down.  It makes sense that the trend lines would eventually cross and considering that newer entrants to the field of 5.56 rifles cost at least twice as much the Mini is still something of a bargain.

The role it used to fill as the "cheaper than an AR, entry level 5.56 gun", I think, been taken up by the KelTec SU-16 (but it's MSRP is nipping at the heels of $1,000 too).

Earth Day

For Earth Day the 30 mpg 2008 Corvette sat in the garage and the Biscayne SS got the nod.

Just for Earth Day I eschewed overdrive and drove it in D instead of OD.

That makes the in-town mileage something atrocious!

Sounds GREAT at close to three grand at sixty though!

Just for Earth Day I had every light in the house on all day and cracked the AC down to 70 with an empty oven set to broil at 500˚.

Why?  Because the drug war is a well known trampler of our rights and it's a very distant second to the Environmental Protection Act in that regard.

22 April 2015

Spring Cleaning Sale

Where our prices will be reduced from way too expensive to merely too expensive!

Wait, where are you going?

Car Control Ramble

An implication of the car makers being successful in locking out tuners and independent shops is also being able to force death on your car.

A good example might be tire pressure monitoring systems.

There's a little pressure transducer and radio transmitter attached to the valve stem.  It transmits to a receiver in the fender and that information is given to a computer to use for traction control information and to display on the dash.

Why is this luxury item on my car?  Because there's a law mandating it because of fallout from the Ford SUV rollovers.

Because a few idiots who couldn't drive had a blowout and died, we have to have these sensors on all of our cars.

No biggie, you say?

Well this is where the aftermarket versus OEM comes in.  General Motors wants $150 each for the sensors in my Corvette.  Rock-Auto can get the, GM approved, AC-Delco equivalent for $63 or I can pick a Dorman for less than $40 with Airtex and Denso also offering alternatives.  That's for a 2008 Vette, there are two other incompatible sensors for the 6th generation Corvette depending on what your model year is.

The reason I pick on this part is that it's what is called a "wear item".  The battery in them only lasts for so long, 5-8 years.  When the battery dies, you have to replace the entire sensor.

OK, have to have them by law, wear out by design, and the aftermarket isn't allowed to make replacements...  First they're going to be $150 and only available at the stealership (where you will also pay $100 each for installation).  Why $100, because they'll have the only sensor activation tool.

Let's take an aside...

On a 5th generation Corvette the sensors are not required by law, they're there because there's no spare so that the driver is alerted to when he's running zero pressure on his run-flat tires.  When the day comes to replace them, any tire shop can to the swap and he can follow simple procedure built into the car to let the computer know which sensor is in what position.

All of the cars under the mandate require some sort of sensor activation tool to program the location.

Guess what one of the lawsuits filed against the aftermarket is about...

The OEM's are correct that the electronics in the cars are complex and intertwined.  But most of the conflicts at present aren't about hot-rodders and tuners eeking out a couple more tenths at the track, but over maintenance and longevity issues.

NOW, what happens, if they succeed, when they stop making the part you're mandated to have on your car?  By present law they're only required to provide parts support for ten years from the date of manufacture.  What if they refuse to grant a license to the aftermarket to make parts to keep your car running after that?

What they want you to do is buy a new car.

People like me will not have the option to keep their car running.

It's already happened to Corvettes.  The optional monitoring system on the 4th gen is out of production from GM and there's no aftermarket for them.  GM, in this case, simply never published how the system worked and because it's a very rare option there wasn't a huge demand to make replacement parts.  The active suspension option is also in this boat.

The Lovely Harvey's Civic would now be an auto-corpse because it's needed two engine sensors replaced and it's a 2002.

I can always fall back on the Biscayne SS.  It's a '91 Caprice with a '96 Impala SS engine in it.  The basic car turned 25 this year (made on March 18, 1990!) and has 250k miles on it...

I spell M

Pulp Fiction postulated that there were just two kinds of people.  Elvis people and Beatles people.

I disagree.

There are Rolling Stones people and Led Zeppelin people.

And which one you prefer is entirely dependent on where you stand between Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters.

All I Want

All I want is a burrow-owl, just like my old man!

21 April 2015

Exercise

A buddy and me have decided that we are sick of being as tubby as we are and we need some exercise.

Today is our second outing on bikes and we did five and a half miles in just under a half hour.  Our first outing was the same distance in just over half and hour.

It's really nice we have a nearby bike trail to hit.

But <gasp> it <gasp> sure <gasp> sucks <gasp> when <gasp> the <gasp> shape <gasp> you're <gasp> in <gasp> is <gasp> round.

20 April 2015

Go Right Ahead

Go ahead and copyright your shit, automakers.

I've got a multitude of choices to eliminate you from my car if need be.

Not least of which is Mega-Squirt.

Mismemory

Why do I remember the Ruby Ridge Standoff as a Clinton Administration thing?

That was on George H Bush's watch.

Four Thousand

This is published post #4000!

I sure do yap a lot!

Background

I'm having so much fun taking pictures in sepia mode, that I decided to change the background image here.


A clip of the "rare" and deadly M855.

Repeat Suggestion

I don't like police officers shooting dogs.

I don't want police to be unable to defend themselves should they need to.

I have a suggestion to make sure that they will only shoot a dog if it's necessary.

One month unpaid suspension for shooting a dog.  Per dog.

What's more valuable, a month's pay or your life?

GRUMBLE

Additionally if it's determined that it was unnecessary to harm the animal, they're fired.

Ideally "DOG KILLER" is tattooed on their forehead, but that's prolly taking it too far.

The above "fantasy" is really a reaction to there being absolutely no disincentives to a cop shooting anything and donning the cloak of officer safety to justify it.

I might let it slide if their chiefs would stop lobbying against my interests at the capitol and generally manipulating statistics to their own ends instead of the community's.

Getting Kicked Out

The Lovely Harvey has noticed that she loses like 80 hours of vacation time if she doesn't take some time off before the end of June.

Since she's planning on having her mom down and doing the staycation thing... and I complain that when she takes vacation I rarely get to go anywhere or see anyone...

She's kicking me out at the end of June.

So from June 20th through June 27th I am evicted and ordered to have some fun.

Normally I'd hit the old home-town in Iowa and get in some GURPS time.

Can't find a place to crash, can't afford a week of hotel.  Isn't it amazing how when we get older and settle down having a friend on the couch for a week isn't all that alluring?  Especially to significant others with whom you've no connection besides your friend?

OK, maybe not so amazing.

Possibly your friends are way happier with you at a distance and the spouse/sig-other is a handy excuse too.

Oddly if I stay east of the Mississippi there might be more vacation fun.

I've got at least two friends who moved from around here to the Indianapolis area.  If I go up by a very circuitous route I can run The Tail of the Dragon, hit the National Corvette Museum and Sinkhole, check out the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum and maybe more!  Lots of car stuff along this route.  Maybe even check out The Patton Museum of Leadership now that Ft Knox isn't the Armor Training Center any more.

I have friends West along I-10ish.  Sadly several phone numbers aren't responding.

Casually WHAT?

Watching the Tyndall F-22A flight demo.

They are not demonstrating "post stall maneuvering", they are demonstrating "post departure maneuvering"!

The pilot just casually puts it in a falling leaf departure for the crowd and powers out of it.

That thud you heard was my jaw hitting the tarmac.

And we stopped building them.  We dismantled the assembly line.

The people in charge of that decision should be punished in a painful and humiliating way.  Prolly the same breed of moron that wants to kill off the A-10.  It's like the Air Force is afraid of planes that are proven good at their jobs if they have fewer than four engines and more than one.

Jaded

My how jaded I've become.

I actually looked for a better upload on Youtube for MLP: FiM s5 e4 ...

Because I can't be troubled to get up at the crack of dawn to watch it on Discovery Family I watch on Youtube, now I am demanding a GOOD copy from the unsanctioned uploaders.

SCN Mode

There's a color substitution mode.

You aim the camera at one color, select, then at the color you want to replace it with and select again.

It's not perfect, and ISO is locked at 250.


But you can kind of change the red lacquer of the bullet sealant to zombie green... if you accept a shit-ton of noise in the process.

19 April 2015

Desktop

I'm happy with the sepia pic of the clip.

So happy I made it my desktop.


Camera Play

I got a little tripod so I'm experimenting with taking super-macro pics.

Using a pocket computer, that is also a phone, to take a picture of my camera...  The future is amazing!


The subject is a 5 round clip of 7.62x54mmR ammo.

The mode I normally use (Program).  f/2.7, ISO 80, 6.0mm focal length, shutter 1/6 sec.

Manual mode.  f/2.7, ISO 80, 6.0mm focal length, shutter 1/4 sec.
Color accent mode.  f/2.7, ISO 250, 6.0mm focal length, shutter 1/20 sec.
Program mode set to black and white.  f/2.7, ISO 80, 6.0mm focal length, shutter 1/5 sec.
Program mode set to sepia.  f/2.7, ISO 80, 6.0mm focal length, shutter 1/5 sec.

18 April 2015

SAG Day

I have a former neighbor who wanted to participate in BAG day by buying my B-Barrel Kiv/39.

That would make it Sell A Gun day for me.

We're off to a bad start.

She said she wanted to buy it based on pics I put on Facebook.

Because she'd agreed to buy it and we'd hammered out a price, I took down my Gunbroker auction.

That was way back on March 24th.

Today was the day that we'd agreed upon to come up and make the exchange of money for the rifle.

Well, she scheduled something else for today in the mean time, can we do it Sunday?

SIGH.  Sure.

If she don't show tomorrow she can't buy it from me.  There's not enough money in the world for her to pry it out of my hands after making me wait three weeks then changing the meeting time at the last minute.

Here's some pics.  For $400 (plus shipping and handling) you can own it because if someone pays me before she shows, too bad.

17 April 2015

Repeat

I've done this pic almost before.

The difference is these are my M&P's.


I am continually fascinated and impressed with the advances of technology.

They're of similar weight and size but the M&P 9 carries three times the beans with a loaded chamber.

Does anyone have that expensive S&W book to tell us when the 5-screw was made?  Serial is S 835xxx

I Hate That!

I've got a large vocabulary, most of the time.

What's maddening is when you know you knew a word for something, the perfect word to use, and you can't remember the word itself, just that the word exists.

Today's word is Deodand.

Special thanks to Erin for knowing that word from my vague clue.

First Past The Post

The author of that condemnation of "first past the post" voting clearly wants to do away with it.

A practical impossibility, and I am pretty sure that there's constitutional barriers to changing the voting system to one of the alternatives he suggests.

But what it does show is how we ended up with a two party system and how nearly impossible it is to supplant them once we're down to two.

It takes a big issue to get a third party to supplant and replace one of the entrenched two.

Way back 150 years ago or so, that was slavery.  You might notice that the demise of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party also harbingers The Civil War.  That's how big the issue at hand needs to be before a third party is anything but a spoiler.

Ross Perot was such a spoiler.  The Green Party is often a spoiler on the Democrat Party.

The Tea Party would be a spoiler on the Republicans if they went out on their own as a party in and of themselves, but they've so far been content with slowly infecting and taking over the Republicans much as the Socialist Party infiltrated and absorbed the Democrats.

It's a catch 22.  Vote your conscience, hand the election to the greater evil.  Vote to stop the greater evil, you're voting for the lesser evil and that's not much better.

One Little Word

I keep waiting for a candidate to use one word, particularly if they're a veteran.

Unfuck.

I pledge my vote to the candidate who seriously states that they're going to unfuck the economy or foreign policy.

Can you imagine how the talking heads would explode at this small piece of vulgarity?

What You Gonna Do, Owl Voter?

16 April 2015

In GURPS Terms

Honesty is a disadvantage in GURPS.  In a nutshell, it means you're law abiding.

You will obey the local laws, and if there are no laws you will still follow the rules of your own society.

I often feel I have this disad and that I am out among the lawless and following the rules of my own more civilized culture.

My people's lives are not nasty brutish and short and my conscience won't let me stand by and do nothing.  Lords know I've tried to do nothing.

15 April 2015

Helping Out

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Smarter Every Day.

He's sponsored by Harry's.

I said, "what the heck" and ordered a starter set because I killed the edge on my straight razor and can't find someone to sharpen it.

The Truman.

OK, I'm sold.  This is a much better razor and blade than my old Gillette Fusion.

And that's just on the face, tomorrow we test on the pate.

17APR15 Update:

Shaves head as well as face.  I'm quite pleased with the purchase.  I guess I am going to have to get on a monthly plan with them now.

Two Things

Girls.  Don't drink until you pass out on the beach.  During spring break most especially.

Guys.  A passed out girl is not in any way a "come hither" pose.

I'd say savages here, but I'd be called a racist.  Race is incidental to the behavior.

The onus of blame is entirely on the guys.  A civilized man would have sought aid and protected the incapacitated girl.  The worst that girl should have experienced was an epic sunburn and crippling hangover from being so stupid to pass out on a sunny beach.

Focus George Focus

"George R. R. Martin has been in a semi-polite back-and-forth blog argument with the Larry Correia for days. That’s thousands and thousands of words that Mr. Martin has written about this that he could have spent, you know, finishing up the next Game of Thrones book. I think we can officially declare at this point that we have a national crisis."

Yeah, that's the money quote right there.

The Bravest Of All

British submariners are bravest.

Once a boat is submerged, everything is running on electricity.

Think about it...

Missed Greatness By Just A Wee Little Bit

Brian Johnson was apparently at the same car show I won my trophy.

Ever wish you'd taken a picture?  Me too.  I sometimes have trouble remembering my hand-comp is a camera in addition to being a phone.

Picture from http://www.carspottingsarasota.com/20120923/old-thunderguts-on-st-armands-circle/
Well, that's the car Marv and I were geeking on.

Mr Johnson was lounging behind the car.  Minding his own business.

It wasn't until hours later that Marv says, "wasn't that the car that was on Top Gear when they raced a Fisker at Bradenton?"

"Shit!" I replied, "then that guy behind the car was Brian Johnson!"

"Yeah that guy from that band..." Marv says.

"AC DC!"

It's funny, we were there as car people and we'd have happily nattered on about cars with him if we'd even considered talking to him.

14 April 2015

Just A Little Short

With FN's announcement that they're going to be selling the M249 in a civilian guise, I find myself just a little bit short on the MSRP.

Just a reminder that there is a paypal donation button over there that can be used to help me get past the mere $6,950 I find myself lacking at the moment...

Or should I hold out until they announce an M240GS?

...With The Whole Trailer Park

Hey, Taurus, think bloggers hated you before?

WOW!

13 April 2015

Never Mind The Real World

Combat rifles and GURPS!  Weights and loadouts assume a loaded rifle; ammo weight is the spare ammo.

Let's start with the Civil War.

The M1861 Rifle Musket fires a .58 caliber minie ball round doing 3d+2 pi+; weighs 9.3 lb. and the basic load of 60 rounds added 5.2 lb.  Being a muzzle-loading caplock the RoF is a slow 1(20) giving us 3 shots per minute.  The average shot does 18 to the torso and a mere 54 per minute; 1,080 per loadout.

With the M1860 Spencer you sling a .56-56 rimfire round doing same damage from an 8.8 lb. gun.  With a 10 tube Blakeslee loader box you add 7.2 lb. for ammunition and get 70 rounds.  RoF is 1 and reloading with the Blakeslee loader takes 5 seconds so you can dump five magazines per minute, or 35 rounds.  Thats a minute average of 630!  Shooting all your ammo averages 1,386 points.

Now to The Indian Wars.

An M1873 trapdoor carbine firing .45-55 does 4d-1 pi+; the gun weighs 8 lb. and the 41 round basic load is 3.3 lb.  RoF is a typical for a single shot breechloader 1(3).  So you get 20 shots a minute.  A torso hit will, on average, do 19 points of damage; so 380 points per minute!  A basic load will do 798 points.

Heading up San Juan Kettle Hill...

...With our M1896 Krag-Jørgensen carbine firing .30-40 doing 5d+2 pi.  The gun is 7.8 lb. and 100 rounds are 6 lb.  RoF is 1 and the five round magazine takes 10 seconds to reload; so 20 shots a minute.  Average damage is 19 points to the torso and 380 per minute or 1,900 with what's on your belt.

To the trenches

The M1903 Springfield firing the .30-06 round does 7d+1 pi, weighs 8.8 lb. and the 105 rounds on five shot clips weigh 6.3 lbs.  RoF is still 1, but the five round magazine can be reloaded in 3 seconds so 37.5 shots can be fired per minute.  The average hit is 25 and the average minute deals 937 points of damage down-range.  Exhausting your ammo sends 2,750 points towards the Huns.

On D-Day.

The M1 Garand does the same damage as the M1903, because it's the same round.  The tubby M1 weighs 10.1 lb. and the basic load of 104 rounds is 6 lb.  RoF is 3 and the magazine can be loaded in 3 seconds: 80 shots per minute; 2,000 points of damage per minute for the average torso smack.  2,600 points of damage tends to spew out for the basic load.

An M1 Carbine fires .30 Carbine tritely enough doing a whopping 4d+1 pi.  The gun weighs 5.8 lb., a full load of ammo of just 75 rounds weighs an extra 2.4 lb.  RoF is 3 and the 15 round magazine can be replaced in just 3 seconds.  This load out doesn't support a minute's worth of shooting!  The whole loadout doing an average of 15 per shot does 1,125 points in 37 seconds.

Freezing at Chosin...

The Garand stays the same, but the M2 Carbine comes along.  Now the gun weighs 6.3 lb. and the 8 spare 30-round "banana clips" add 8.8 pounds.  If we fire semi-automatically we can send around 138 rounds (of 270 carried) towards the enemy in a minute for 2,070 points.  If we rock and roll we can can be rid of all the ammo in 51 seconds and do 4,050 points (assuming we hit with all of them which we won't)

Running through the jungle

The M14 firing 7.62x51mm from a 20 round detachable box magazine does 7d pi per bang.  The rifle is 10.9 pounds and four spare magazines are 6.4.  Semi-auto would send 120 rounds down-range, but we only have 100...  The average hit is 24 so 2,400 is what we get from a basic load and 50 seconds.  If we conned the armorer to leave the selector installed, we could be rid of all that ammo in a mere 22 seconds; and probably doing less damage because of more misses.

The M16A1 spits the 5.56x45mm M193 round from a 20 18 round magazine and does 5d pi per shot.  The gun is 7.2 lb. and 8 spare magazines are 5.6 lb.  With a RoF of 13 the entire 162 rounds carried can be discarded in 51 seconds.  Semi-automatically we run through 120 rounds in a minute.  A minute at RoF 3 does 2,040 points and the whole load does 2,754 from an average of 17 each.

Blood for oil.

The M16A2 fires a different 5.56x45mm round, M855, that does the same damage.  The magazines are now larger and hold 30 28 rounds.  A basic load of six spare magazines weighs 6 lb. and the weapon 8.9 lb.  Semi-automatically it's 129 rounds a minute for 2,193.  The RoF 9 bursts can dump the whole 196 rounds carried in 46 seconds for an average of 3,332.

Watch me while I endure this freedom!

The M4, being a shorter optic equipped M16A2 fires the same number of rounds, but only does 4d+2 pi for an average hit of 16 per shot.  It's lighter 7.3 pounds even adding the pound for the M68 CCO.  129 rounds in semi does 2,064 and tearing through the full load 3,136.

Spraying and praying with the RoF 15 M4A1 empties the pouches in 32 seconds and doesn't do even a pip more potential damage.

In the Zombie Apocalypse®.

An AR in 6.8x43mm SPC (like Dottie) does 6d pi.  It's 8.5 lb. plus 0.8 for the M4s optic and carrying 6 spare 25 round magazines for 7.8 lb. more (175 rounds total).  Semi-automatically it can shed 125 rounds a minute doing an average of 21 each for 2,625.  If it's really an apocalypse, then let's rock and roll baby!  RoF is 12 so the ammo only lasts 39 seconds but spits 3,675 points at the zombies.

The Grip Of Nostalgia

Willard is making a retro carbine similar to when he was in the Ragnars.

Baby pictures!

Obviously it's got a ways to go.  From nose to tail, what's left to buy:  A 16", carbine gas, pencil barrel assembly; delta ring assembly; bolt carrier group; charging handle; lower parts kit; mil-spec carbine receiver extension; H carbine buffer and spring.

The upper is a vintage Colt slick-side.

I changed the rear aperture over to the large ring style from an M16A2 because it's easier on older eyes.

11 April 2015

What I Did Today


I was a little stunned to hear my name called, actually.  The Precious is as stock as stock can be.  I guess it's a reward for taking good care of her.

Unless they really liked my bears...


It was not a small show, I was car 236 and they were trying to close registration when I pulled in.


Two cars down from me was this:  '41 Wiley's according to the placard.


09 April 2015

Dissipate

Willard's been dragged, kicking and screaming, into Black Rifle Disease.


That's a Spike's Tactical middy dissapator (16" 1:7 chrome-lined) upper with Anderson lower, Del Ton lower parts kit and UTG A2 stock and 5/14 rear sight.

Dissapator compared to an M16A2 clone:




The A2 clone comes in at 8 lb. 6.2 oz. loaded.  The Dissy is 8 lb. 6.0 oz.  While mass is lost by taking off 4" of heavy barrel, the dissy adds it back on with the under-handguard gas block and the Magpul MOE rifle handguards are heavier than USGI (12.3 oz. vs 8.7 oz.).

The reason that he's got BRD is AIM Surplus was selling Anderson lowers for $40 each.

Now we know why they were so cheap:


And this is with an 80% sized pistol grip that's so common in LPK nowadays.  It was worse with the properly sized mil-surp on I was going to give him.  Also note how the stock doesn't match the contour.

Here's how it's supposed to look.



It functions like it should hand-feeding and dry-firing, it just looks a little off and there might be some blisters in Willard's future from where it rubs wrong.

Try Again

While the law is carefully written to not create any special carve-outs for any particularly aggrieved party, I think we can be honest and admit that the application of that law is uneven at best.

I think we should admit that some aggrieved parties will receive free and sympathetic press regardless of how frivolous their claim and that other aggrieved parties will receive negative and hostile press regardless of how righteous and obvious their claim.

I believe that my right of freedom of association includes in its penumbra a right to refuse to do business with anyone for any reason.

A right.

It also seems a short trip from forcing me to sell to someone over my religious objections to forcing me to buy something over my religious objections.  A trip that, if it hasn't made its first steps with Obamacare, we're at least packed and ready to go.

Tuesday is bacon day and Friday is steak day.  Get to the restaurant and dig in!  Clean your plate, it's mandatory and for the good of the meat and food service industries!

Reciprocal

Does the right to buy create a right to sell?

A lot of the present unpleasantness about refusing to sell to someone is because there were laws requiring them to sell to anyone who walks into the shop.

Does this create a reciprocal right to demand that anyone who walks in buy something?

Don't answer that, I'm being silly.  What's the fallacy for this?  Reductio ad absurdum?

Long Climb To Get Back On The Horse

I am not proud of the previous post.

Two someones poked sticks into my cage at Facebook and I reverted to an angry child.

Fucking stupid on my part.

The rage was really induced by the lead in to what they were berating me, "[Popular Blogger] says you're wrong, [insult]."

The hurt was really, "But [Popular Blogger] is my friend they wouldn't sic their flying monkeys on me like that.  <small voice> Would they?"

[Popular Blogger] didn't sic any flying monkeys on me, the uncivilized things took it upon themselves to confront my wrongness.  Then I responded like a spoiled three year old.

The shit spewing forth almost definitely splashed on [Popular Blogger] and I apologize for my behavior to them.

05 April 2015

Barney Style

Since The Heathers are dumb as fucking posts and need it explained more fully than the dog would to program a VCR.

So fucking what that there's a law.

The "Great Protected Classes™®" are the classes worthy of special mention by the media when something bad™ happens to one of them but nary a mention of when the same bit of discrimination occurs to someone outside that class.

But I really don't think I needed to explain that.  The Heathers deliberately mistook what I said so that they could gang up and bully on someone who disagreed with them about the reasons for a recent change to a law.

They're perfectly happy with the state forcing people to do business contrary to their morals and religion; when they claim to be full on wookie suited libertarians; they are lying.  They are frauds.

Not that my complaining about it here will have even the slightest effect.

The Heathers are the popular "in-crowd" and I had the temerity to speak as a peer, I had to be forcefully reminded that I wasn't actually a member, but a hanger on they tolerated as long as I was amusing.

PS:

Bullies rarely recognize that they are bullies.  They normally respond with variations of "I didn't do anything wrong" or "well they shouldn't have..."  If they respond at all, since it's always the person bullied who's somehow at fault and they don't deserve the dignity of a response.

04 April 2015

Cannibals

I swear that too many "conservative" and "libertarian" bloggers are far more interested in scoring own goals to make themselves look clever and smart than they are in fixing something.

The deliberate changing the subject being discussed at reply's notice is causing me whiplash.

It's always OK when they do it to their side, but it's never OK when it's done to them.  They're also always the special popular snowflake and the clique never calls them on it.

It's fucking high school.  Worse, it's Heathers.

Curse me for thinking that I'd find adults once I'd graduated.

Damn me for thinking people would leave that bullshit behind once they "grew up."

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead

03 April 2015

It Is Wrong To Speak Ill Of The Dead

I don't wanna be right!

Toodles, Sarah!  I can't say you'll be missed by many people I know.

Wages Of Min

McDonalds operates on a 32% food cost model. What that means is a properly managed Mac Shack should see the price of the food be 32% of the gross receipts. If there were no other expenses, that'd be 212.5% profit. But that's not the only expense. Overhead is scheduled at 30% and labor at 35%. So every dollar taken in gives the owner of the location 3 cents. So about 3.1% profit. A super well run and operated MacHouse can get food costs down to 25% and overhead down to about 27%. Most franchise owners actually reward their employees with a bigger chunk of the pie at this point and keep their end at about 3%. They understand that the food costs and utilities savings are from diligent hard work from the minions.

Now, going from $8 an hour to $15 an hour...

There's a bunch of ways to do this.

Increasing wages, without changing anything else, makes labor 51.42% of costs, dropping food to 25% and overhead to 23.51%.  But it now costs 27.63 cents per dollar of income.  To keep that 3.1% margin the owner has to raise prices 31.58%.

That takes a $4.80 Big Mac to $6.32.

The problem is that it doesn't end there.  Food costs will go up by about the same percentage, for the same reasons.  It raises prices about 42% from before to keep the same margin.  With food now at 29.65%, overhead at 21.13% (because these rates change more slowly they're almost the same in absolute dollars) and labor is now 44%.

And a Big Mac is $6.82.

They could decide that 35% is what the percentage of labor should be.  Since the cost per employee hour has a bottom cap on it, the only way to reduce labor costs is to reduce employees.  A ten employee store will fall to a five employee store.  So five people make almost double and five people make nothing.

It's already happened!

When I was a kid the back of a MacDonalds had a freezer, a fridge, a griddle and a fryer.

Been in the back lately?

Where the griddle used to be are racks of steamer/heaters.  These take frozen items and reconstitute them into a semblance of something prepared fresh.  They don't buy eggs to make McMuffins, they have egg patties.

There's no reason a person has to take the patties out of the freezer and into the proper bin of the rack.  That can be automated.

The really sad thing is the McDonalds of my childhood had already gone through one round of this, the patties came frozen when I was kid.  When my dad was a teen those patties were made on site from locally sourced ground beef.  The first rounds of minimum wages caused the supplies to become centralized and increasing so until it became cheaper to make the reheatable pre-cooked patties we have now than to pay someone at the restaurant to make them from raw meat.

I don't know why nobody learns the lessons from history here, since it's happened in living memory.

Flashback Friday





I remember these videos.

Good Friday

Being an atheist, you'd think that I'd have no reason to celebrate Good Friday.

I am a Floridian atheist, and Good Friday marks the traditional return of snowbirds and damnyankees back to their spawning grounds.

02 April 2015

Gun Rights Harm The Rule Of Law

WHAT?!?!

I hate to break it to The Atlantic, but we're the ones actually adhering to all of the laws about guns and all of the process to reverse years decades of infringement.

This is especially galling since we're really going way out of our way to do it all proper and legal when the tradition in the Western Hemisphere is to gun up and overthrow the local junta.

Perhaps its because we're also the only ones who grok to our cores that shooting our way to victory will not recover what we seek and the successor to the present situation would be as bad or worse.

Phyrrhus was an optimist.

Observed

I've noticed, again, that I seem to have some sort of miraculous ability to get a rifle zeroed.

Ten rounds each for two trips for Tabitha yesterday.  And it would have been nine each, but there's ten rounds on a clip...

Ten rounds each trip to confirm the zero.

40 rounds total.

I've watched people have to go back to the sales counter at the range and buy more ammo because they're not getting anywhere.  They flail at the knobs and never seem to move the group meaningfully in the direction they want to go.

I've asked if I could help a couple of times and gotten them straightened out in less than ten rounds too.

Is turning the dial in the direction of "UP" to make the group move up that hard?

I do know that many people don't grasp that 1/4" at 100 yards per click means that you're going to have to make 4x as many clicks if you zero at 25 yards.  Yes, 16 clicks to an inch seems like a lot, but those are fine clicks.

Everyone Should

Since there's surplus guns that every American should own...

If you're going to own an AR there's a variation that every AR owner should shoot.

A full-on retro 20" barrel 1:12 twist rifle shooting the original 55gr FMJ.

It shows the design as originally intended and how KISS it can get.

The 1:12 with XM193 (or most 55gr ammo) is accurate, sometimes more so than 1:9 or 1:7 with XM855.

It's impressive how light the gun can be without all of the add-on doohickies and geegaws; despite having four extra inches of barrel compared to the more common M4gery.

The ergonomics of the fixed stock and how gentle the recoil stroke gets from the rifle gas system and buffer really shine.

Every AR variation descended from THIS and you should know where you've been so that you can properly see where you ARE.

Bonus points if you select a Colt SP-1 or a pre-XM16E1 clone because they don't have the forward assist mucking up the works.


Shooting an earlier variation also gives an appreciation of everything old is new again with the three prong flash-hider.

Chuckle

Or should that be chuckle head.

I hadn't read anyone else's blog when I ranted below, I was just going off about what someone had said.

I can see that they were reading ahead and that there's a couple blogs on the same topic.

God Says Don't

That there are things which are forbidden to the followers of a religion seems lost on many commenters.

It's only that it's Christians speaking up and refusing to do something they feel is contraindicated by their religion and that refusal affects one of the Great Protected Classes™ that we're hearing about it.

I recall, not that long ago in fact, that it was WRONG for a minority to completely dominate politics and to deny and disparage the majority...

Where was that?

It was a whole nation...  Perhaps even more than one...

Oh yeah, ALL OF FUCKING POST-COLONIAL AFRICA!

"But it's not like that here," you say?

Perhaps not, but if it's wrong for 15% of the population to call the shots about everything because of their skin color; it's just as wrong, if not more wrong, for 4% to have everything their way because of their sexual orientation.  This comparison is even more apt if homosexuality is a matter of birth not choice (science is still crunching on it, jury not in yet).

However, let's invert it and say that the minority SHOULD be in charge.  Suits me, I'm a man.  Women outnumber us 3 to 2...  Lemme guess, "that's different"?

Sure it is.  But only because you don't want to have things to be equal.  You only want to pay lip service to that freedom of religion, freedom of association, and created equal stuff.

The last thing you want is for people to actually be free.

Probably because liberty is ugly and disorganized.  You want things to be pretty and neat.

Insecurity

There's something kind of interesting in your local fire-codes.

You're basically required to compromise security to grant easy access to firemen and rescuers.

Your bedroom windows have to be larger a certain size, interior doors have to be x fragile...

The list goes on.

01 April 2015

Why Not AK?

Most of my reasons for not owning an AK are pretty darned ephemeral.

Foremost is it's not dirt simple to build one from a parts kit like an AR and it was assembling AR's from pieces that got me into them.

Most AK variations don't fit me well, which meant I'd have to have forced myself to get used to it or be very selective about what gun I bought.

I prefer aperture sights to open.

My choice has nothing to do with how inherently accurate an AK is, how reliable it can be when you deliberately abuse it, how hard hitting the round is or that it's of Soviet origin.

My choice doesn't make yours wrong, by the way since I'm stating a preference here.

I'd probably own one, but there's always something a little shinier to buy, like Finnish Mosins!

This is also why I don't have an SKS, but I'm closer to finally getting one of those than an AK at present.  They're both in line behind a Swiss Schmidt-Rubin of some kind.

OCD AR

Or should that be ACDOR?

The process of zeroing Tabitha put the rear sight all the way to the left.

A sure sign of a canted front sight; or in this case an over generous slot for the barrel indexing pin.  More than a full bubble off level with the rear sight ears level.

Pulled the barrel nut, held the barrel agains the nut's rotation as I retorqued it.  Now there's only a small difference in their levels.  But that means going back to the range...

Hey, they're open until nine!

The Boy is home and engrossed in his video games, bet I could sneak out...

UPDATE:

Yes, I can sneak out.  Turns out once you've paid you can come and go all you want all day!  That's handy!

Un-canting the front sight base allowed me to reclaim seven clicks from the rear sight.


NI!

On the top is an N-Frame.  Highway Patrolman Model 28-2.  .357 Magnum, six shooter.

On the bottom is an I-Frame.  Terrier Model 32.  .38 S&W, five popper.

Quite a difference in scale, no?


The Highway Patrolman shoots quite well.  I forgot my phone so I don't have a picture of the target.

Also took Tabitha and Sabrina out to get reacquainted.  Willard says that I pass at this station, and that I may advance to the next one.  At the limited range we have at the local indoor, 25 yards, I can make a 3/8" with ten rounds of Federal XM193 from Tabitha and about an inch with ZQ1 SS109 from Sabrina.

Me Too

Read the "7 Military Surplus Guns Every American Should Own" and Tam's follow-up.

I actually have some of those!  I used to own the Garand and 1903.

The shine on the Garand and 1903 faded as I grokked them in their fullness.  Familiarity didn't breed contempt so much as eradicate romance.

They are illustrative of one of the problems with mil-surp.  The prices.  Sure, when a new batch of guns hits the market from the armories, the prices are cheap; but a decade or two of bubba will apply attrition, as will people not taking proper care of a cheapo rifle and pretty soon the $5 a barrel full becomes $700 each.

My $70 SMLE isn't worth $70 anymore; and it didn't depreciate.

We're seeing this on the still cheap Mosin 91/30 too.  It's been and gone for the Mosin 38 carbine.  Finns are climbing while you watch, so hurry to get #4 on the list!

SKS's used to be a lot cheaper as well.

The days of cheap milsurp is fast passing us by.  Since the days when 7.62 NATO was brand new, all the new infantry rifles have been select fire.  There once was a day when those surplus guns could be broken into a parts kit and then reconstructed into a semi-automatic clone, a day now gone.  Now the legal climate will have those guns completely destroyed or the parts be impossible to import.

Unless someone stumbles across a find like the one in Nepal, everything that can be brought to our shores is here.

Which is so very sad.  Especially since I've read about a couple of collectors in Italy who, because of their different laws, have genuine surplus, US issued, M16A1's... from Vietnam.

For the most part I agree with both Tam and Matt.

I'd add that everyone should get a Star B or Super B and a S&W M&P variation of some sort (especially a Victory model).

Massive

For those scoring at home...

The milspec CTR stock from Kaylee trips the scales at 9.1 oz.

Out of the box the milspec MOE Fixed Carbine with a QD socket is 10.0 oz.  Adding the PRS extended buttpad increases that to 11.1 oz.

Overall weight of the lower with the stock, buttpad and QD socket (with 3.5 oz. H buffer) installed is 2 lb. 6.2 oz.

Doing the complicated math...  Going with the too-short buttpad reduces that to 2 lb. 5.1 oz and changing back to the CTR would be 2 lb. 4.2 oz.

Contrast that with Dottie's MOE Rifle equipped lower at 2 lb. 10.1 oz. or an A2 lower at 2 lb. 9.5 oz.

However I've been told that I shouldn't count ounces because I can't do calisthenics in my aged crippled state.