As Predicted By GURPS

In GURPS, .270 Win does 7d pi.  .30-06 does 7d+1 pi.

Essentially identical, with a very slim edge to '06.

I Got It Then

 

What I remember most about the first time I saw this movie was all my friends staring at me and whispering, "Oh, that's exactly how Angus is going to respond to this shit someday."

Martel De Fer

 Do you have a pick with a hammer face?

I do!

2.2 lb. of 1055 steel and American straight grain hickory...  Sold by Midway, marketed by Cold Steel, made by an American Tomahawk Co. manufactured in Taiwan...  It doesn't appear to be THE American Tomahawk Co. either.

Not ATC's logo...

If I had a nickel for every California cancer warning about nickel...

The langettes are sheet metal and installation is DIY.  The included screws are cheap as all fuck.  Pilot holes are your friend.

It's fun, though.  Especially since it was on sale for almost 43% off.  I can feature a $46 mertel de fer, I can't feature an $80 one.

A couple of whacks on our chopping stump shows that it works.  The hammer face leaves an impression, the pick side gets stuck, like it's supposed...

If I have statted myself correctly with a ST of 11...  It should do 1d+2 imp on the pick side and 1d+2 cr on the hammer side.

I Blame Al Gore

Love bug season has been surprisingly light this year.

Good!

There were reports a few years ago that some species of dragonfly had adapted to handle eating the acidic things, that could explain a lot of their absence because they're clearly unused to predation.

With A Cute Little BRRRRRT

The XM214 is a gun from Twilight: 2000 that turned out to be a solution in search of a problem.

Seems an ideal PC weapon, though.

OG T2K included it, but my GURPS conversion doesn't.  But I couldn't resist making the stats.

Troof

 "The most oppressed people in America are the law-abiding individuals."

- sloanmagnum5009

Will It GURPS - Does The M1 shoot Faster Than The M14

When the M14 being a disaster comes up, someone always says that the M1 Garand could akshually fire faster.

Does it GURPS?

Both are semi-automatic.  One by design, one by modification.

The Garand has a magazine capacity of 8 and reload time of 3 (grab, load, ready).  Basic load 104 rounds.  3 seconds of shooting, then 3 seconds of reloading.  3x13 for the shooting and 3x12 for the reloading.  75 seconds.

The M14 has a magazine capacity of 20+1 and a reload time of 3.  Basic load 100 rounds.  7 seconds of shooting, then 3 seconds of reloading.  7x5 for the shooting and 3x4 for the reloading.  47 seconds.

GURPS busted!

Even if we say that the M14's reload time should be longer because you have to drop the magazine before reloading it only adds 4 seconds to the time.  51 is still shorter than 75 seconds.

Ian Sure Can Stir Up The Hornet's Nest

 

Reading about the reaction to the video and it's clear that so many people didn't watch it before they commented. 

Regurgitated is the common refrain that they know someone who carried one in 'Nam and they loved it!

Watch the vid!  Ian covers that.  The issue isn't that the M14 that was issued to the troops was a bad gun.  The issue is only 2/3 of the guns made actually passed inspection to be issued and that all three contractors making them were losing money making them to spec.

It's astonishing that Winchester and H&R both made Garands which are thought of as better than the Springfield made guns.

The design changed enough from the M1 that new processes had to be implemented to make the M14, contrary to what Springfield told the DOD.

It's still embarrassing that Italy and Beretta did what Springfield claimed they'd done, made a 7.62x51mm NATO rifle derived from the Garand that used tooling and processes from the original gun.

Humiliating is they did it in two years, not 17 and did it for far less money.

The BM59 is a better gun in many, perhaps most, ways than the M14.

Another thing that keeps coming up is defenders of the M14 citing their M1A.  They're not the same gun at all.  The detail differences add up fast and do a great deal to explain how Springfield Armory (no relation) can economically make them.

It's A Good Question

Second City Cop asks, where's the outrage?  Here too.

If you're going to have any chance of convincing us that black lives matter, then you're going to have to start acting like they actually matter.

At present, it seems they only matter if they were career criminals who finally came to a predictable end by the hands of an officer attempting to arrest them.

Then we recount all the wonderful things they might have been if they had not been prevented from turning their lives around... by getting killed resisting arrest.

So, race baiters, why don't you get pissed off at a birthday party being sprayed with gunfire and innocent children being murdered?

I'll suggest a real reason, just in case they have a justification to ignore the violence unless it's cops.

Criminals committing violence doesn't lead to a payout to the families of the victims or the race baiters.  Likewise, stopping criminals from committing violence reduces the power the race baiter wields rather than enhancing it.

Much the same way equal rights and meritocracy is anathema to them.

Preliminary Prototype

We have a mock-up of the shift box.

LED to show that it's on.

Momentary switch to turn it on.

Momentary on-off-on switch to change gears.  Up for upshift, down for downshift.

We have a preliminary wiring diagram.

I have parts on the way to measure to make a box that has a useful cupholder in it that will also be able to hold the switches.

Refer To...

Marv and I are researching what it takes to add tap-up/down shifting to The Beast.

We could buy one of three nearly plug-and-play boxes, but they're all the same format and I don't care for how they did it.

In a word, cheaply.

Maybe $15 of components for $125 to $150.

I have the factory service manual and can see how the wiring for the shifter SHOULD run.

These shift box vendors have proven the BCM already has the programming to respond to the inputs once you run a wire between X1-17 and X1-20 on the BCM.

X1-20 shows a voltage drop from X1-17's 12v and that tells the BCM to ask the TCM to shift up or down.

What we've been trying to find is if X1-17 was hot all the time or just when the ignition is on.  We want the shift box we're making to open the switch when the ignition is off.  The factory shifter can't be in manual when you start the car because the switch can't be closed when the car is in Park or Neutral.  The aftermarket boxes are a simple switch you can forget in the 'on' position.  While nobody is reporting any problems, I don't like sending a "I'm in gear AND in park" signal to the, expensive to replace, BCM.

X1-17 also provides 12v to the cruise control switch which sends a voltage drop back to X1-3.

That sentence above took way longer to find than it should have because the table of contents and index don't include the words, "cruise control."

Happily, GM is a creature of habit and my other service manuals show that cruise control troubleshooting is at the beginning of section 9.  The Caprice, Impala SS, Custom Cruiser and Corvette manuals all have "cruise control" in their indices.

Grrrrrrrr.

Pop Smoke

Got me a new travel tumbler!

16oz, but it's held a 20oz coffee already.  Kept it warm until it was gone.

If the 32oz had come with a red cap, I might have upsized.

The lid does something I've never had in a travel tumbler.  It seals.

Good job Mission First!  Amusing and functional!

Bad Joke

If a group of Rabbis supported William III of England, would that make them Orange Jews?

Someone Might Have Gotten Hurt

Australia, famously, put heavy restrictions on who could own and carry a gun and what types of guns could be carried and owned.

Good thing, otherwise someone might have been killed in a massacre in a mall.

Oh... wait...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's the crazy (or evil) more than the guns what causes shit like this, especially since it was crazy (or evil) with a knife.

It's a pretty beefy limb to say that, if this had happened in Tampa, the stabber would have been ventilated much faster and long before a cop arrived.  With many fewer injuries and deaths.

Another Round

Have you missed out on the four previous rounds of M1911 sales from CMP?

Are you pleased with the gun you'd gotten in one of the first three rounds and want another?

It appears that good news is on the horizon!

M1911 Pistol Options:  A couple of months ago, we received the fiscal year 2024 tranche of surplus M1911s from the Department of the Army – 10,000 of them, which is fantastic. In terms of orders and availability, we are still in the process of filling M1911 orders for Round 4. We expect to announce Round Five this fall, once Round 4 starts winding down. And, I’ll give you a status update on that in October in my next update. While we are still assessing the pistols we just received, it looks like the quality is pretty good.  

From here.

I've got my single example, but I know of a couple of people who didn't already and might just be swayed to get one this time.

I'll Say It Again

May I continue to gush at the effects of modern gun cleaning chemicals and tools?

It's in distinct contrast to the stuff I had to deal back in the Army.

We got paper towels, Break-Free CLP, a well worn toothbrush and a bore brush.

Something I noticed was we needed to clean the guns several times and it was primarily because Break-Free CLP was really good at loosening things up once it had sat, but sucked for immediate effect.

I think we should have soaked them down with the stuff and come back in a few days.

But that's unthinkable to the Army, so we had to clean off all we could, then do it again when they were no longer clean thanks to the CLP dissolving stuff from unseen areas.

The amusing thing is I'm not really using much different equipment, just different chemicals.

My toothbrush gets replaced regularly.

I'm still loving Boresnakes.

Shooter's Choice (or Hoppe's) has an immediate effect on the crud and I sacrifice t-shirts to the cleaning.  Most of the time I use cloth patches to apply the solvent.

There's probably better stuff out there, but I'm happy with what I have.

 

The Pistol I Am Least Likely To Shoot

The pistol I'm least likely to shoot is the one that's in my pocket all the time.

Ironic, isn't it.

The range rules prevent me from pulling it out of my pocket to shoot it, so it tends to stay there, lest I be unarmed to and from the range.

Today I planned better and packed different heat.

Two 13-round and one 10-round magazine at seven yards.

I am reminded that the Shield Plus is louder than the 9-Compact.

It's a little harder to control and shoot fast, but I think that's a decent minute of bad-guy group.

Even better, it fired just fine caked in pocket lint.

Back In Black

Queue AC/DC

I had a black Fencer and Mk IV in my big box.  The Mk I and Mk II came with an earlybird special of a Mk III and Mk V.

Ogre I Through VI

 

With an M1A1 for scale.

I'd intended to do them all in glow-in-the-dark, but SJGames didn't offer I, II and VI in anything but black.

I have a black III and V.

I have a glow in the dark Fencer, but a black Dopplesnolder.

It Wasn't 96

I watched all five of the body cam videos of the officers involved in the shooting of Mr Reed.

Just two reloaded.  One was done shooting when they noticed they were slide locked and put in a fresh magazine.

One officer never fired a shot because he'd dropped his pistol when he reacted to being shot.

Four officers shooting.  One firing more than one magazine's worth.

Assuming the full load of 16 at the start and another 15 in the reload who kept firing.

79 shots, max.

If 96 rounds were fired, 17 belong to Mr Reed.

Two officers spend much of the fight running around not doing much constructive.  One of these is the reload after noticing slide lock after the fight.

The officer who reloaded and kept firing seems most focused on being in the fight.

The fourth firing officer spends a portion of the fight noticing he's down range from his partners, so loses some shooting time deconflicting.

It's likely less than 79 shots fired.  Especially since many cops I've talked to don't top up after chambering a round.  15 in the magazine, drop the slide, 1 in the pipe, 14 in the hole.

We're probably talking 50 shots.  I suppose I could go back and count.

Update:

Hey, there's reports in that big dump CPD put out.  Not the 15+1 Glock 22's that Not-The-Bee says.

Officer 1: Glock 17, 12 shots fired.  17+1 capacity.

Officer 2: Glock 19, 16 shots fired.  15+1 capacity.  This is the slide lock reloader, the video shows the 15 shot magazine clearly during the reload.

Officer 3: Glock 45, 34 shots fired.  17+1 capacity.

Officer 4: Glock 17, 17 shots fired.  17+1 capacity.

Officer 5 (the injured one): No shots fired.

79 rounds!  Yet every single media report is saying 96 rounds.

2011

The 2011 is just another "modern" re-imagining of the Browning Hi Power.

Change my mind!

Plain Clothes

Something alluded to in the Not-The-Bee article is, "why were plain clothes officers doing a traffic stop?"

It seems very odd for plain clothes to be working traffic.

I'm speculating that they were looking for the deceased and the seatbelt violation was the excuse to pull him over and check for what they wanted to look for.

Not that they could see that he wasn't wearing his belt through that tint.

But, let us speculate further about the deceased.

Illegal tint.

I am going to guess that he doesn't have a FOID.

He had prior arrests for weapons charges, he was out on bond for one of them.

Link to all the body cam footage.  Content warning for the squeamish.  Real guns being fired at real people who will be leaking on camera.

Not Even Full RoF

Police fire 96 shots in 41 seconds.

Five cops, each firing one pistol each.  15+1 capacity.

So, five seconds to empty.  3 to reload.  Five more to empty...

41/8 = 5.125 magazines.

Let's call it five each.  15*5 is 75 shots per officer.  Five officers is 375 shots.

So they fired just more than 25% the full rate of fire.

That means that they were pausing to assess or move to and from cover.

It wasn't a panicky mag dump.

Real panic would have been every one of them firing 15 and cowering someplace.

One cop didn't even get off a shot before he was wounded.

So 15*5*4 for 300 shots at max rate.  So about 1/3 the potential ammo dump.

But 96/4 is 24 shots per cop.  Or almost 2 magazines each.

American Society of Magic Negroes

Meh.

It's not a horrible movie, the premise seemed like it could have been fun.

But I did not care about the main character, Aren.

It's a writing fail.

The white dude he's supposed to be magicking up, Jason, is unlikeable; that part succeeded.  He didn't deserve the assistance the ASMN was giving him with his job and certainly didn't deserve to win the heart of the girl.

But the main character didn't really do the needful about earning her love either.

She likes him because the script says she should.

Justice Smith is playing the same basic character he portrayed in D&D Honor Among Thieves.

I dunno if he lacks range or the director said do like you did before.

The big speech that's supposed to evoke white guilt fails to land.  What it really gets me thinking is Aren has been attributing how he's felt about himself to outside forces when it was from within all along.   The way he explains it to Jason underscores it and Jason's reaction to it pounds it home.

In the end, it's not bad, but it's also not good.

I'd skip it; but I already watched it.

Yikes

They don't throw grenades or do land nav anymore?

Even my tanker ass threw two live grenades in the grenade course.

It's an interesting read and I've long held that spending money on ammo in training was superior to gadgets.

The 3-round burst on the M16A2 and M4 was a work-around to teaching the troops how to properly use the happy setting on the rifle.

I said, at the time, and I was a wee young waif then, "full auto is something you don't need in your service rifle very often, but when you need it, you NEED it."

The 3-round burst is an example of where you might NEED full auto, and ain't got it.

I notice it was dropped and all the M4's were converted to M4A1's with the SOCOM heavy barrel.  Really shoulda called that an M4A2.

Looking For The Real Killers In New Places

OJ Simpson has succumbed to age.

I'd forgotten him until Marv mentioned his death.

I watched the moderate speed pursuit live.

I paid attention to the trial.

I listened to conspiracy theories.

I was pissed at our "justice" system essentially trying him twice and was baffled at a civil trial could commence on the question of wrongful death when the criminal trial said, "he didn't kill anyone."

I found out that our system would still hang you with the lower standard of evidence required in a civil suit, where "eh, maybe?" is enough to get a conviction.

Pour A Big Glass Of "Told You So"

Streets fail to run in blood AGAIN after gun laws loosened.

I doubt that this will cause anyone in Tallahassee to change their minds and legalize campus and open carry.

I want campus way more than open because of where The Lovely Harvey works.

Open carry would be nice because then I could stop worrying about accidental exposure in the summer when I have to down-grade my carry gun to survive the heat and humidity.

Open carry would give me what I think of as "mostly" or "partially" conceal carry.

The problem with this method is the chance of the shirt riding up and over the gun.

The police in several jurisdictions have decided that the brief and accidental exposure law doesn't mean what it says and any exposure is illegal open carry.

They tend to be the same places where open carry fishing makes the news.

 

Feline Integration

We have three cats.

Bear, Beeper and Shadow.

Shadow is the newest and we found her just after she'd been kicked out of the nest.

She is terrified of Beeper, who will pounce on her when she runs.

We'd let it sort itself out, but Shadow panic pees when Beeper catches her.

For the past two months we've been doing "prisoner exchanges" and letting Shadow out of my room and locking Beeper in.

For about a week we've been leaving all the doors open and holding Shadow while we watch a movie or Hockey on the back porch in the evenings.

Beeper is becoming less interested in Shadow and Shadow is getting less terrified.

We're making steady, if slow, progress.

At first, when Beeper would "attack" (we think she's just asserting too hard) Shadow would disappear for hours and would have to be coaxed out of hiding.

Now she's good mere moments after we separate them.

Progress!

What's interesting about Shadow is Beeper is the only thing she's afraid of.  She uses Bear like a jungle gym, he's grudgingly tolerant of this.

Bear is also a, belated, protector.  After Beeper goes after Shadow and she screams bloody murder; Bear will go after Beeper.

Bear is a BIG cat.  17 pounds of not much fat.  He's 15 when he's totally slim.  Beeper just barely breaks 10 pounds.

When Bear is done, he's DONE.  He'd knock his brother, the dear departed Dingus, to submission and Dingus was 20 pounds without fat.  Dingus was HUGE.

I've been through cat introductions before and this has been the hardest one I've dealt with, but we're getting there.

Another Day Another Round

It's 4/10!

Bracing, don't you think?

Hold Your Breath

Many of the fundamentals of shooting guns apply to photography.

Like holding steady for 2 seconds while the camera takes an unexpectedly good pic with the sun filter on.

I was expecting just the bright reflections off Moxie, not a sepia tone image.