1 Of 57 Um 50

Tennessee did a solid for the law-abiding and passed a bill making it legal to defend property with deadly force.

While it might only be stuff, it's MY stuff.

It's not a case of me valuing my stuff over someone's life.  It's them not valuing their life over my stuff.

It wasn't that long ago we put the heads of thieves on pikes to warn others of the price of stealing.

That's extremely unsanitary, but it underscores that Western Civilization didn't always condemn the idea of defending hearth and home by any and all means at hand.

Perhaps if the police embraced Peelian principles more, it would not have come to this, but they appear to have reneged on the deal that they would handle thieves if we surrendered shooting them in the back when they were fleeing with our property.

Well, Officers, how many burglaries have you solved?

Does your state have a "good faith" clause that lets pawn shops out of being charged with dealing in stolen goods?

If the answer to that first question is, "not many," or, "a very small percentage of burglaries reported;" and the answer to the second question is, "yes." then it's time to let the honest citizen waste some criminals.

Remember, a dead criminal has a 0% recidivism rate.  Also, liberal judges and district attorneys can't release a dead criminal to commit more crimes while they fail to appear for trial, no matter how much money George Soros spends on electing them!

Being able to legally shoot criminals is a solid win for society!

Wanna know a secret?

I doubt we're going to see more than a handful of criminals shot stealing from a home.

For the same reasons that conceal carry liberalization had a chilling effect on assault, rape and robbery.

Thieves don't want to get shot committing crimes.

It Shoots

For some reason I'm better with the Gen 1 Classic than the P80 Classic.

Two mags at 7 yards.

The factory Glock sights still suck for me trying to go fast on a 3x3 set of rings though.  Lack of practice, I am sure.

The Gen 1 Classic's slide doesn't scrape the top of my hand like the P80 Classic.  Odd.

Retention

Lots of gunwriters extol the virtues of pistol retention and gush about holsters that will help with the task.

But I appear to be the only pro-gun advocate even talking about lanyards.

Strange

Facebook is far more likely to suggest someone I know in meatspace from long ago under my blog name than it is under my real name.

That's very odd.

Also interesting is a search for those suggested "friends" from my realname account often gives no results.  That means those folks have blocked me under my real name.

I didn't think they remembered me, but it seems that they regarded me poorly enough to preemptively make sure I wouldn't find them.

I guess I should feel bad about that, but it wasn't until Facebook recommended them to my blogname account that I even remembered them. 

Who Has To Die?

There was a story that went around the gun sphere a while ago where someone asked a Glock rep at a convention, "Who has to die to get a single stack Glock?"

The reply was, "Gaston."

IYKYK

Glock has recently recognized that metal magazines without a plastic sheath are durable enough for everyday use after... um... more than a century.

Apparently they have contracted with MecGar for new magazines for the 43x and 48 which ups the round count from 10 to 15.

I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.

Panzer Guy, in the comments, asked for my thoughts about it and I think that it's Glock finally admitting that the customers deserve a vote about what Glock should make because the customers decide what they are going to buy.

If Glock fails to make something they want to purchase, they will buy from a vendor that does.

Someone like S&W and their Shield Plus that packs 13 rounds in about the same profile as Glock pack 10...

The new all metal magazines pack 15 in the space that used to hold 10 and that's 2 more than Smith...  That's a good look.

I also think the Gen6 guns are a response to customer feedback that's been accumulating since Gen3.  I also note that Gaston Glock did, indeed, die between Gen3 and Gen6 (he died after Gen5 came out).

Personally I've felt that every generation of Glock has been a good progression since the beginning, except for the finger bulges on 3 and 4.  I have to admit wanting the bulges when they came out and later deciding they were for someone else's hand.

Not every generation has had a smooth rollout.  I remember when the 4th gen hit and people were wondering where the reliability had gone.  Quickly fixed, but a hiccup.

I've no hands-on experience with the Gen6, but have been hearing good things.

Marv needs a Gen6 Glock 19, I think. 

The Story ™ That's In The Regimental History

I keep telling this story and then losing where I put it so I can't link to it when I say, "I've told this story before!"

My unit had a bit of a hiccup in the supply lines.

We'd turned in our M1911A1's and all the .45 ACP and drawn 9mm in anticipation of being issued new M9's.  Except the M9 was having some sort of production stoppage and there were no pistols to issue us.

Normally that'd mean we'd just wait, without pistols, until it was sorted out.

We were scheduled to leave for the West German-Czech border, "any moment now," to cover a unit there that was going to Graf for training.

We got permission to hit the rod-and-gun club's gun shop and order, "anything that shoots 9mm," I remember that we were supposed to be compensated for the purchase up to some amount I don't recall.  I don't think we ever were.  We were also allowed to purchase if we were under 21 (like me) and accompanied by a senior NCO.  If you were under 21, you could only visit your purchase under the same conditions as an issue weapon.  Over 21 could sign them out almost at will.

I bought a Glock 17.  My first gun! 

I chose it because it held 17 rounds, that's more than a Beretta so better!

Someplace in here is where I learned 17+1 too.

Pistol qualification was hilarious with, seemingly, no two guns alike.  Thinking back, most of us snagged either a Beretta 92 or a S&W x39 or x59.  One guy even snagged an H&K94!

I was still 20 when I injured myself in a fall from a tank and had to sell the gun before returning home, had to be 21 to bring a handgun back with you from Germany in those days.  Technically I WAS 21 when I ETS'd, but there were painkillers and alcohol involved in my disorderly medical separation from service.

Just To Be Complete

Most of my service with tanks, I carried an M1911A1, not a Glock 17.

When we got back from the Czech border, we finally got our M9's to go with our 9x19mm ammo.

But I never carried my Beretta like this:

We had the Bianchi M13 shoulder holsters based on the UM-84.  Those things sucked.  Lots of guys used their old M7 holsters as I have pictured above.

It Makes A Slight Difference

A Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic loaded with 17 rounds of S&B 115gr FMJ weighs 1 lb. 15.9 oz.

A Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic loaded with 17 rounds of Hornady 135gr Critical Duty JHP weighs 2 lb. 0.6 oz.

Both of which round to 2 lb. for GURPS.

The loaded magazines are 9.8 oz. for the ball ammo and 10.5 oz. for the hollow-points.

0.6 lb. and 0.7 lb. when you get done rounding.

So you can take a 0.1 lb. heavier magazine and not change the weight of the pistol!

Remember pi is 3.00 in GURPS...

I tend to not bother accounting for the heavier ammo and just use the ammo table exemplar for all rounds; though I do have different weights listed for .223 Rem and 5.56x45mm NATO...  Because they have two listings on the ammo table!

They Keep Breaking This Feature

Blogger keeps breaking the post picture by URL feature and I have now idea what could be the cause.

It's not because the URL is broken, because if you manually enter the html for the hot linked pic, it appears correctly.

It's their interface that's busted and keeps getting busted after they fix it.

Feedback has been sent to whomever keeps track of such things and it will prolly start working again tomorrow for a few weeks. 

Nostalgia Rig

How I toted on the Czech-West German border.

If I had not disregarded the future collectors, this picture would be impossible for lack of a lanyard.

Hunting Over Bait

While entrapment is illegal, arresting people for breaking the law in response to someone else being arrested is not.

If we had a properly function justice system, any protests that fell to being a riot would result in scads and scads of people being arrested and the fomenters who changed it from a protest to a riot would suffer heavy charges.

Without bail.

Someone who (allegedly) instigates a riot is clearly a threat to the community and too dangerous to be at large while their innocence is proven.  Though if they're at the center of a second riot because of their arrest...  What a great piece of damning evidence!

For example, (Only) Black Lives Matter protests that turned to violence, destruction and arson because a career criminal's life long arc led to it's logical conclusion to police gun fire should be welcomed as probable cause to get professional agitators locked away for a good long time.

Florida has a good example of doing it right, actually.

Saint Petersburg had a race riot in 1996.

"What do we do next time?" loomed big in everyone's mind.

That the cops came up with was:

1. Identify the leaders.

2. Swiftly arrest them.

3. Hold them incommunicado for as long as the law allows.  24 hours.

4. Hold them for the maximum amount of time allowed without charging them.  30 days, 40 with good cause.

5.Turn them loose, uncharged.

Number three derails the third parties who provide bail money.  In 24 hours the momentum for most riots dissipates without these leaders.

Number four, once a threat to the community is expressed by the arresting department, means they get to stew and be ineffective at foment.

Number 5 kills their ability to use their incarceration as a form of martyrdom.

It works!

It worked in St Pete while Minneapolis burned.

Easy Fix

The Father In Law's tailgate refused to open today.

Troubleshooting was complicated by a tonneau cover.

We could tell that the passenger side was unlatching, but the driver's wasn't.

Happily we figured out how to get past the cover and get it out the way without breaking anything.

Four screws to get the latch plate off and get at the guts.

What had failed was the little plastic retainer that holds the latch-rod to the latch, allowing said rod to fall off and not be actuated by the latch.

Marv had donated a spare latch back when he had the same model truck, so we swiped a retainer from that latch to replace the broken one and all is now well.

Half the time working with The FiL's truck I come back in cussing and Harvey was very confused that I was back in the house ten minutes after starting the project and all done without even screaming.

I think you can buy the little plastic retainers at AutoZone, but I've tasked Bubba to do it.

Détente

I keep Shadow and Beeper separated because Beeper is VERY aggressive towards Shadow and Shadow is very meek.

Today they showed no signs of wanting to swap out of the bedroom, but Beeper had zonked out in a sunbeam on the back porch.

So I, gently, grabbed Shadow and took her back there.

She was tense when she spotted Beeper, but stayed in my lap for a while, slowly relaxing.

Then she hopped down and did her normal rounds of exploring the porch while Beeper continued to sleep.

Eventually, though, Beeper became aware of Shadow and she started to try to start something, which I prevented by blocking her.

Shadow walked back into the house instead of slinking and Beeper did a fairly prompt, "out of sight, out of mind," bit and went back to her sunbeam.

It's progress.

In the past once Shadow had become aware that Beeper had spotted her would have been hours under the bed in the bedroom.

Today she was in the bedroom window watching the birds.

That's progress too!

At Every Brewery

The mouth breathing morons were standing in rapt attention watching the National Felon League select their newest players this evening.

That this "needed" to be televised is extremely confusing to me.

Hockey manages to have a draft every year and you can read about it on the NHL web page if you care, without forcing anyone who doesn't to endure it.

Hockey is so much better than Football in so many ways.

By the way, the NHL is currently running their playoffs, it's more important than who might be playing football months from now and I am getting sick of the NFL stepping on other sports.

That Was A Near Thing

The Boy has a stuffed animal, Mr Sloth.

Mr Sloth is his constant companion and he helps keep The Boy calm.

The special needs kids group did a sunset cruise to see the dolphins...

Mr Sloth went overboard while The Boy was helping him dance to the music they were piping in.

Happily, "SLOTH OVERBOARD!" is a valid cry to the crew of the boat (who had warned people that they would NOT be turning back for lost glasses or hats).

Mr Sloth was recovered, soaked through and smelling of The Sea®.

What he required is what we call a "Spa Day."

A spa day could be as simple as tossing him in the washer and treating him like laundry.

Often it means gutting him and replacing his stuffing.

Occasionally, we replace him with a different Mr Sloth.  This time he's been replaced with a spare from the attic.

If The Boy is aware we're doing this, he isn't letting on.

They were originally available from Wal Mart, and we bought several.  We bought all we could find one year.  We still have a few.

You can find them on ebay.  LINK TO AN EXAMPLE.

Classic Glock 17

The P80 Classic did not fill the void.

So I've kept hunting for either a real steal on an actual Gen1 or a decent deal on a Gen 1 Classic.

I found the Classic because the seller listed it as a real Gen1 and that wouldn't attract someone who wanted a Classic.

Without regards to future collectors, I decided to make it a clone of my actual first Glock 17.

This means I can put the lanyard on it!

The hole for the lanyard is not on the initial issue of the P80 or G17, and it appears erratically in production until all guns after a certain point have it.  The one I bought at the Patch Rod and Gun Club had the hole, as did the one I bought later at Jacobson's Gun Center.  The gun I bought stateside also had adjustable sights for ATF import points.

Here's what's wrong with the P80:

And here's why the Gen 1 Classic is acceptable:

And except for the serial number range, that's all the differences between them!

 I think I, very quietly, crossed the line to being a Glock collector without noticing.

FedExSux

In my locale, there is no worse shipper than FedEx.

Especially if it's gun stuff.

Even DHL is better around here.

Read that again.

I've even had to threaten to call ATF on them because they claimed it was delivered on the web page and the driver had not even gotten within a mile of my house yet.

That was a fun call while they claimed they couldn't contact the driver and had no way of knowing exactly where he was.  Yet, ten minutes after issuing my threat the driver screeched to a halt in front of my house and a driver with a "I just got my ass chewed but good," look on their face delivered my return from S&W. 

Today I am watching a tracking number that left Tampa at 0720 with an expected delivery between 1045 and 1445.

It is now 1530 and expected delivery has changed to "before 1700" to a business that closes at 1700...

I loathe FedEx so much. 

Progressive

The road from high-trust to low-trust societies follows a predictable path.

One of the first steps is the entities that have been entrusted with keeping order, refusing to do so or being selective about what order they keep.

Anarchotyranny is the result.

The classic example is a homeowner who has suffered through repeated thefts and burglaries and receiving no justice who decides enough is enough and administers some on their own.

The people who are supposed to be investigating the crimes that led to this, enforcing the law and meting out punishment...  Come down hard on the homeowner.

The homeowner did, assuredly, break the law; but the motives matter.

What was the government doing to keep them from losing their property?

Had they arrested anyone?

Had they secured a conviction?

Did they even bother to actually investigate past taking a vague description or logging the video of the crime?

The government and police have failed in their duties and since they are given powers delegated from The People, it is the right of The People to reclaim those powers from the government and police.

But there's a simple solution:  Just make it legal to shoot burglars and thieves in the act of stealing AND/OR running from the scene of the crime.

Fuck 'em.

Because if the cops don't start arresting people and the district attorney doesn't start getting convictions:  People are going to start killing criminals on their own and will shortly thereafter start shooting the police who try to stop them.

It's a place we, as a society, do not want to be; but the first step back from the brink is the hardest and it's on Leviathan to make it. 

Signal Strength

We've been watching hockey via one of the secondary broadcast channels on the back porch.

Which is fine as long as the weather cooperates.

Lately, though, reception has been a bit choppy and we have neighbors who turn up their music too loud.

So I ordered a bigger antenna!

I clamped it to the mount that used to hold our abandoned in place Dish Network dish.

There was some bother with aiming because my phone's compass wasn't calibrated properly.  I was off like 13° south of where the transmitters were!

Bonus: since we were using abandoned Dish Network stuff anyways, we now have broadcast TV in the living room too!

It just took me a bit to find which of the coax cables in the attic led to the wall-jack nearest to the TV.

I owe Marv dinner for his help.
 

Good Timing

Remember a couple days back when I talked about replacing the Amazon Basics UPS with a unit I'd put a new battery in?

Yesterday the clock on the microwave said 0:00 for the time and the garage clock was short a few hours.

The power had gone out while I was sleeping and there was nothing else to make us notice.

It cannot have been out for very long because the coffee pot's clock was still right.  It'll recover after a short outage because unplugging it briefly is how you reset the "clean the pot" notice. 

Like Um Wow Man

Today is pot culture day.  Toke 'em if you got 'em.

Hitler's brain, in a jar in the Nazi moonbase on the far side of the Moon, is 137.

Wednesday will be Urf Dae.  I would burn some waste oil, but we're under a burn ban from our near-record drought. 

G Loading

Crispy decided that having a functioning 'G' key was too much today.

If there wasn't a 'g' in the password to unlock the screen, that would have been OK...

Fortunately, the keyboard on a Lenovo T420S is easily replaced and I had a spare already.  It's the same keyboard as the T410 The Boy rocks, so we laid spares in deep against his inadvertent destruction.  A cover membrane has prevented his eating over the board from taking one out for a long while...  Eyes crossed. 

Ineffective

Study finds that cannabis ineffective in the treatment of PTSD.

I think these kind of studies are looking to see if they cure the disease or lead to a lessening of symptoms over time.

Booze is also ineffective in the treatment of PTSD, but that has not stopped veterans from self-medicating with it for... as long as I can remember being around veterans.

What booze and weed let you do is not give a fuck about it for a while.

Addressing a symptom while ignoring the cause. 

Self medication leads to lots of worse problems, so getting at the cause is a better plan. 

Yesterday's News

"Boston Herald" - Todd Peterson

BREAKING NEWS: Seventy-Two Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation In Massachusetts. 

A National Guard task-force detailed to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault-style weapons, was ambushed by elements of an anti-Government, para-military extremist faction. 

Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.

Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “treasonous criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.

The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault-style weapons.  Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.

One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”  Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition.  However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.

During a tense standoff in the Lexington town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists. Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.

Ironically, the local citizenry blamed the government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the National Guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.

Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.
Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.

And this fellow Americans, is exactly how the American Revolution began, April 19, 1775. 

History. Learn it, or repeat it.

I found the above on Facebook, posted by Todd Peterson. 

This is also pretty much how it would be reported today too. 

Unremarkable

Got my results, by mail, of my 24 hour heart monitor.

"Unremarkable."

Excellent news.

I remain suspiciously healthy for a man of my lifestyle.

Aside

A standard, everyday, FAL is 10.9 lb. loaded.  No optics, no lasers, no suppressor.

With a 100 round basic load it's 17.3 lb.

The, strangely, beloved M14 is the same.

If we upped the spare magazine count from four to six, like the M7, we get 140 rounds and that increases the load to 20.5 lb.

0.7 lb. lighter than the M7 with it's basic load and without the capabilities of the optics, lasers and suppressor.

The thing is, it was nearly universally agreed that the 7.62 battle rifles were too heavy and you got insufficient dakka.

The "amusing" thing is we could add a 5.56 calibrated M157 optic to a suppressed M4A1+ and have a loadout of 17.1 lb.  Saves 4.2 lb. and has 50% more shots.  We'd be sacrificing the theoretical benefit of the 6.8x51mm round.

If only someone had written a book 76 years ago explaining how piling on pound after pound on the troops was a bad plan...

Remember, the folks lugging an FAL or M14 around weren't also encumbered with body armor past a steel helmet.

Gaming The Optics

The Aimpoint M4 aka M68 Close Combat Optic is a Collimating Sight (HT p. 156).  It gives a +1 to Guns/TL skill out to 300 yards and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties.  $1,100; 0.8 lb.

The Trijicon TA31RCO is a 4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155).  It gives, up to, +2 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties.  $1,300; 0.9 lb.

The Elcan M145 is a fixed 3.4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155).  It gives +1 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties.  $1,450; 1.5 lb.

The Vortex Optics M157 is a TL8 Computer Sight (HT p. 157) giving a +1 to Guns/TL skill and a +3 to hit with an aimed attack out to 4,000 yards using the laser rangefinder, but without the Night Vision or Infravision in the description; however it has both a visible and IR Integral Targeting Laser (Shoulder Arm) (HT p. 156-157). It is also a 1 to 8 power Telescopic Sight (High Tech, p. 155) that gives up to +3 to Accuracy with an Illuminated Reticle, which cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties (High Tech, p. 155).  $5,400; 1.9 lb.

"Whoopty doo, Basil, what does it all mean?"  A Powers IMMoM

The M4 is simplest.  If you're inside 300 yards, you get a +1 to your skill.  In the real world, we'd call it "aiming" but GURPS doesn't think of using the sights as "aiming."

Telescopic sights require a turn of the aiming action per point of bonus.  So to get your +2 bonus with the ACOG, you have to spend 2 actions aiming.  The variable power of the M157 means you take a second to dial it to the bonus you want then spend the requisite number of actions aiming, zero to three.

If you spend an action using the laser rangefinder, it gives a +3 to the built-in +1 for a total of +4...  Spending an additional three second aiming gets a total of +7 with it dialed to 8x!

Getting All Modern?

The USMC has declined to participate in the M7 and XM8 programs.  They stuck to their M27 IAR.

I just found out that the 27 comes from the first unit to field them and isn't in sequence with ANY of the nomenclature systems the military has ever used.  The stubby M38 version is, likewise, named after the first unit that used it.

Is this a good plan?

Let's add up the weights!

Loaded M16A4 (30 rounds) 9.1 lb.

With ACOG 10 lb.

Add an AN/PEQ-16 10.6 lb.

Plus basic load 16.6 lb.

Loaded M27 (30 rounds) 9 lb.

With ACOG 9.9 lb.

Add an AN/PEQ-16 10.5 lb.

Add a NT4 QDSS suppressor 11.9 lb.

Plus basic load 18.5 lb.

Loaded M4A1+ (with the heavier SOCCOM style barrel) (30 rounds) 7.8 lb.

With M68 8.6 lb.

Add an AN/PEQ-16 9.2 lb.

Add a NT4 QDSS suppressor 10.6 lb.

Plust basic load 16.6 lb.

Loaded M7 (20 rounds) 9.8 lb.

With M157 optic 11.7 lb.

Add the proprietary suppressor 13.2 lb.

Plus basic load 21.2 lb.

Loaded XM8 (25 rounds) 8.9 lb.

With M157 optic 10.8 lb.

Add the proprietary suppressor 12.1 lb.

Plus basic load 21.1 lb.

I think less mass is better than more if you're lugging it around.

I think that more beans is better than fewer.

I think the Marines got a shorter barreled version of the M16A4 for just 0.1 lb. of weight savings and lose the shorter length by adding a suppressor.

They're still at 210 rounds combat load compared to 140 for the M7 and save 1.3 lb.  They're only ahead of the XM8 by 0.2 lb. but the 175 round basic load still looms large.

There's a distinct lack of reporting on if the problems with the M157 have been fixed.

I still think it's VERY telling that SIG proposed the XM8 so soon after the M7 was accepted and complaints started rolling in about various features.

Compare those "plus basic load" weights.  More weight, fewer beans...  No sir, I don't like it.

I still don't really see what the Marines are getting for the extra mass on their gun compared to the M4A1+.

Capitalism For The Win

Watch this:

If you're skeptical, remember that the plastics industry is the result of finding a use for the crud left over from refining oil into fuel.

If allowed to do so, Humanity is good at solving problems.

A Moment

Yesterday, doing the test loop that has all the speeds I needed to check for vibration, I had a moment at a stop light.

The sun was just in the right spot.  The music was on point.

I was happy and it felt like cruising did back when I had the '79 Camaro.

It was kinda like deja vu.

Harvey, driving around somewhere else, with a friend, felt the same feeling.

It was neat.

Measure Once Cut Twice!

Or is it cut then measure?

At any rate, I keep cutting and it's still too short.

GRIN

Just to be paranoid, I checked the torque of the lug nuts.

Still at 140 ft-lb.

That's an insane value, but that's what the book says.

I didn't go that far on Moxie once and ended up with finger loose lugs and clunking coming from a wheel.

Coming home from the grocery store today sure underscored how "accustomed" to the vibration I'd become.  I goosed it to 45 and was already bracing... for something that didn't happen.

I think I have PTSD.

Better

I am not saying I would be good at it.

I don't think I would do a good job at all. 

What I am saying I would be better at it than the people currently doing it. 

This is why shit's fucked up. 

Low Maintenance Rifle

Ian has long had the manual and some of the story about the 5.56 version of the TRW LMR on his site.

He recently posted about the 5.6x44mm flechette version.

The 5.6x44mm XM216 round is a refugee from the SPIW program.

66.9mm

The hub-centric rings arrived today!

I learned two things.

First, my hubs are definitely 66.9mm.

Second, my rims have a 66.9mm center bore.

The place I'd measured 2-7/8" was a generous taper down to the requisite 66.9mm and not a bore of 73.1mm.

The centric rings did not fit at all, so I popped off the center cap, torqued the lug nuts and stuck a feeler gauge down there between the bore and the hub.  Just barely a race-fit!

With the front right foot in the air I checked to see if there was a high spot.  Nope.

It's been the damn tires all along and procrastinators are people who are WAY more ambitious than me about fixing things.

Again, I was able to put it off for so long by sticking to the back roads and not going very far from home.

I am so damned happy with the car now, it's indescribable!
 

Lug Nut Day Take Two

In July, 2024 I replaced the factory lug nuts with fancy chrome ones.

A trip to Daytona in August that year convinced me there was something wrong with them because the car was shaking violently at interstate speeds.

I commented to Harvey that something was definitely wrong, maybe tires...

Changing the lug nuts back to the factory version seemed to fix much of the problem.

I discovered that by rotating a wheel by a lug would cause the vibration to lessen significantly.

Knowing I had two tires out of round, that meant I'd managed to get them in phase with each other.

Well, new tires has eliminated the vibration, so I decided to see if the chrome lug nuts would change anything for the worse.

Please excuse the brake dust, I'm doing an experiment with the pads.

A quick jaunt, with The Boy, proves the lug nuts had nothing to do with the vibration two years ago!

Huzzah! 

 

Something To Consider

How would Spain, France or Germany know we'd overflown their countries with our B-2's?

Think about it. 

There's No Reason It's Just Our Policy

In Florida, a "permanent" handicapped parking permit is good for three years.  This requires your doctor to fill out the paperwork every three years to renew your "permanent" permit.

If your placard is lost or destroyed, you need the same paperwork from your doctor to get a permit that expires on the same date as the lost or destroyed one.

They cite abuse of the system by people who aren't handicapped as the reason for making the honest people jump through additional hoops.

I am getting sick of this paradigm.

I think the people who should be most affected by laws are the people breaking them and not additional burdens on the law abiding.

How's this one for size:  Unlawful use of a handicapped permit results in loss of license for 10 years and seizure of the vehicle used.  Forfeit of said vehicle if the owner used the permit illegally.  Hefty fine for the owner to recover their vehicle if they loaned it to the violator.

I want deterrence, by the gods! 

Humanitarian Daily Ration

Marv ordered some MRE's and got HDR's.

He gave me one and I started trying it today.

There are two entrees.  Lentil stew and pasta in tomato sauce. 

The lentil stew is BLAND even with the entire packet of red chili peppers added.

The crackers are unsalted.

The thing that sounds like it's a pop tart from the description is literally an unfrosted Pop-Tart!

There's nothing in it that I've tried that's horrible. 

I have not tried the pasta, yet, because the lentils were very filling.  I worry about how bland they're going to be based on the lentils, but I haven't used the salt and pepper packets yet.

There's a shortbread cookie, fig bars, peanut butter and strawberry jam yet to try! 

Oh Yeah The Tires

I must say that the new tires are MUCH smoother than the old tires.

It'd be a shock if they weren't, to be honest.

I did a loop of the greater area which included all the various legal limits and I cruised at all of them.  Even a couple of jaunts 10 over to check for vibrations.

Nada.

I am happy!

The tire guy says that I'd benefit from a set of hub-centric rings.  I hadn't thought of getting a set because The Beast's hubs are 66.9mm; just like a Camaro.

The rims on her are stock Camaro rims...  Yet they appear to have a center-bore of 73.1mm.

WTF?

So I ordered a set of rings that should be here tomorrow.  We'll see how they work.  Will they make any difference at all?  Who knows?

I Totally Need This!

Goodyear sent out a van to change my tires in my driveway.

I need one.

Tire machine in the back, balancer amidships.

Compressor for your air tools.

Four tanks for different grade oils and a pump to move used oil into a waste tank.

Decent amount of storage space for the tires you're bringing to your customer.

I wonder if one could make money driving such a thing behind the Hot Rod Power Tour.

It was totally cool and I spent some time geeking out about it.