Moar Mold

Using Lavender Linda Lovelace's lower, we attacked the "why is the take-down so fucking tight?"

We sanded the top of the lower to make it all even, it didn't leave the mold flat.

Then we removed a lot more material in the radius from the top of the lower to the front of the receiver extension boss (see pointer).

Now the take down pin can be pushed in with finger pressure and pushed out if you have a tool to push on the recessed end, but you no longer need to tap it out with a hammer.

AR15 Mold Update

Marv's Blueberry Muffin has suffered our first failure with the Freedom-15 lower.

I don't think this from the stress of firing.  I think this is from the mold maker putting the rear holes so they're too fucking tight on the upper and you have to hammer the take-down pin in and out.

The good news is the thread spacer method of capturing the buffer retainer worked flawlessly.

As you can see from combining these three shots is the crack is almost all the way through and the stock is about to come off.

We decided to see how much effort it would take to finish it off.  Marv says "moderate" effort from cracked to this:

The take down pin, detent and spring all went flying!  Amazingly we were able to find all three parts after a short search.

No matter the precautions we've taken, there is no avoiding bubbles and voids with this material and mold.  The set time doesn't allow for the bubbles to escape before they're permanently part of the part, and the route the material has to take to fill the mold is not simple, so there's lots of places for air to get trapped too.

Flash

The goggles flash-hider, do nothing!

Test firing Marv's 10.5" upper on my registered SBR lower while he awaits his Form 1.  Alles en ordnung!

Full load M193 is no where near done burning by the time it leaves a half a barrel.

All Zastava All The Time

The Yugoslavian version of the SKS with the Yugoslavian version of the K.98k.

Long And Short

On top is a brand-spanking-new DSArms SA58 Voyager with a 16" barrel.

On bottom is Jasmine, a FNified SA58 Standard with a 21" barrel.

There are many detail differences, some even apparent in this photo.

Losing 5" of barrel and using aluminum for the lower and top cover saves over a pound of weight (10.9 vs 9.8 loaded).

In GURPS terms, though the 16" barrel costs you damage and range.  6d pi and 800/3,500 for the 16" barrel vs 7d and 1,000/4,200 for the 21" barrel.  For the record, 18" gives 7d-1 pi and 900/3,900 (no word on weight).

Endurance Testing

2,000 round torture test?

This POS Glock didn't even survive firing a single round.



JMB forever!

Weighted Average

A stripped AR15 lower is 8.4 oz.

A stripped 80% lower is 12.1 oz.

A Freedom-15 resin lower is 4.5 oz.

Now you can sleep at night.

I know it was bugging you.

More Tiny Italian Guns

A. Soc. It. F. Ili. Galesi-Brescia Model 504 in 6.35mm aka .25 ACP.

It's your typical striker fired mousegun on the Browning pattern.  The striker also serves as the ejector, so be careful with the dry-cycling.

You can tell from the XXIV proof that it's a 1968 made gun, perhaps one of many made just before the gun control act's cut-off on importation off so-called non-sporting guns.

The 504 is the chrome version of the 503/A.

It seems well made, far better than RG or BryjeneoixCo.

How Can It Be A Carbine If It's Not A Shorter Version Of A Rifle?

New to Willard, Red River Army Depot refurbished, February 1943 made Carbine, Cal .30, M1.

Mitten das stickeren die sweinen.

It's clean, intact and all Inland Div of GM, including the barrel.  Got it for a fair deal too.

Ted?

Did Hornady hire the unibomber to pose for their boxes?

Long Term

On of the downfalls to living in a college town is your friends all end up being 18-24 as you get ever older.  They leave when they graduate and are replaced by those fresh out of high school.

Occasionally you will reconnect with one and find you don't recognize them anymore as they've changed over the years.

An even smaller group is the ones you didn't lose track of and stayed something of friends with.  They change too, but it seems more slowly as you adapt to each other because there's communication.  However there's often a moment where you suddenly stop recognizing your friend and start seeing their spouse.

It's a moment of punctuated equilibrium where you suddenly notice the difference made in your friend's likes and dislikes that are the product of close association with their significant other.

What's also astonishing is that they never seem to notice (or admit to noticing) how much change has occurred.

AIM-9B

The first issue iteration of the venerable Sidewinder was designed to shoot unmaneuverable bombers.

Get in trail behind the lumbering things and let fly.

They do work when employed against bombers.

Against nimble fighters, not so well.

You have to hope to pull a Richthofen and sneak up on them unawares and flying straight and level.

In my flight sim, Strike Fighters 2, the main use of the AIM-9B on fighters (when I have a gun) is to force the gomer into a break turn to bleed off some speed and give me a better chance of getting a shot in.  This is an especially valuable tactic when you're given missions where the play time is severely limited by the infernal distances you've got to traverse.

Every once and a while, you get a lucky shot with this tactic, though.

Tonight it was an East German MiG-21F-13.

The mission was a CAP over the next friendly base over from our home base, Twenthe.

Four Soviet MiG-21F-13 were our assigned target and we met them as they got close.  Wingman did a good job of distracting them so I could get four kills with the gun in my F-104C (Project Grindstone modded).  I fired two sidewinders to get the effect I described above in the process.

I break off the last Fishbed, point the nose in Wingman's direction and ask his status.  He replies that he still has guns and three missiles, then not a second later screams, "I'm taking damage!"  He ejected safely, but that still left me with two on one the hard way.

I ended up placed perfectly for a nice snap shot on the East German lead and a gentle stroking of 20mm ended his day.  His wingman broke and ran.

The Fishbed C is pretty fast and I'd have a fuel situation if I tried to run him down for a guns kill.  Falling into trail I get a good tone and lob a 'winder in his general direction.  He starts a turn to the left and I figure that will slow him down enough to close to gun range.  However, KABOOM, today the Ford-Aerospace seeker actually followed the intended target and hit!

I flew the 35 miles back to Twenthe and landed with a mere 500 pounds of gas left on board.

Black Sails

It's an entertaining original show on Starz.

It's a prequel for Treasure Island.

Obviously, the story arc can only go so far before they have to leave the playing pieces poised at the end of Black Sails for the beginning of Treasure Island.

What I think they should pitch is filming Treasure Island with the same production crew and cast (at least of the people who live to appear in the Robert Louis Stephens novel.

Conflict Of Interest

This is the beginning of a thought...

It's not a full thought...

Public services are things that the citizenry want done that they can't do economically on their own as individuals so they grant permission to their government to do it collectively.

Thus the entire reason for the jobs in the public service is literally to serve the needs of the community.

Unions entire reason for existence is to further the wants and needs of their members (or cynically their leadership).

Public sector unionization has created a situation where the public service employees no longer care about the reason their jobs exist in the first place and create ever increasing financial pressure on the community's coffers while return ever decreasing service.

Remember the opening here, getting something done that they cannot economically do on their own.

It is getting to the point that the expense of going it on your own is more economical than having your government do it.

You might also notice that public services dominated by unions also often have laws, ordinances and regulations forbidding the individual from providing these services for themselves.

The sense of entitlement from these unionized public workers puts even the most brazen welfare parasite to shame as well.  The community OWES them for doing their job as agreed.  Not just owes them the agreed upon compensation, but the compensation they "were screwed out of" during the last contract negotiations.

Meanwhile the work they were hired to do doesn't get done as the number of employees climbs and the salaries and benefits increase.

Survival Susan Or Orange Julia

Which is the better name for Willard's survival carbine?

AR15 Mold Freedom 15 lower.  Delton M4gry kit.  Cavalry Manufacturing furniture set.  Tacticool22 bayonet adapter.  Echo sling.

Cav forgot to send a pistol grip with the set.  Ooops.

All told there's now four different hues of orange on the gun now.  With more coming since paint is planned!

The Echo sling, by the way, is blinding in daylight.

A problem we encountered using rifle stocks with the Freedom 15 lower was they can't be screwed far enough in to catch the buffer retainer.

Marv and I brainstormed a solution and cut apart an old carbine receiver extension into thin rings that make up the gap from the front of the rifle extension to the buffer retainer (and I forgot to take a picture of it installed).

It's got the extension butted up against its back so it's kind of like a jamb nut.

Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take A Joke

Over on Arfcom...

A "local" (meaning in Florida) AR maker posted:

Tampa Gun Show.  Come See Us!

If your local to Tampa come out to the gun show, were cuttin deals!!
We love meeting our AR15.com brothers! 

The post date-stamp is 1021 24Apr16, but it didn't actually appear until the morning of the 25th my bad for not seeing the date stamp.  There was a gun show in Tampa on the 23-24.

I asked:

Does that translate to...

Originally Posted By [his account name]:
If you are local to Tampa; come out to the gun show: we are cutting deals!!

We love meeting our AR15.com brothers!

If so, which gun show? Because the fairground show was the day before your (not you're or yore) post. 

In the world of grammar nazi, my little chiding was very minor.

I got three responses to that.

First from him in the thread:

Funny, I posted that from inside the show. Pretty sure I had the day and date correct. Glad I didn't meet you though because you seem like you're a real dick

Then a moderator locked the thread.  Calling me a dick is a personal attack and forbidden by the code of conduct.

Then he emailed me:

Please Reply To: [his email] ([his account name])
---------------------------------------------------------

Hey what was up with that post you made in my Tampa gun show thread? You felt the need to correct my punctuation and do it like an asshole? Whats your problem? Issue with my company? Just an issue with everyone in general? Are you one of those type of people?

Also I had the date exactly right, I posted it while standing at my booth. 
Sometimes its better to keep your mouth shut rather than making yourself look like a complete asshole (which you obviously are) so it makes sense to me  actually...nevermind

OK, I'm an asshole.  Fine.

The company he is representing here reviews well, but this interaction makes me believe that they bury bad reviews.  No proof, but it matches the personality.

Besides, if you can't handle (or bother) finding the apostrophe on your phone to make a post, should you be using contractions in your speech?  Plus what does that attention to detail say about your ability to actually make a quality product?

Plus his response to my reply is extremely unprofessional.

Me?  I'm a blogger, I am not a professional at all.

UPDATE:

I did find a couple of negative reviews.  It seems that their go-to response is to accuse the customer of lying about the deficiency rather than making it good when something is wrong.  Bad sign that. 

Want Don't Want

Nostalgia is an odd thing.

The Beretta M9 does not fit my hand well, as such I don't really want one.

"So don't buy one!" you're screaming at the screen no doubt.

Yet, I was issued one.

I have a clone of my M1911A1.  I have a clone of my M16A2.  I even have a clone of the M16A1 I was very briefly issued in OSUT.

I do not have an M9, so I want one to complete the Issued to Thag set.

Mutter mutter.  Mumble mumble.

It's not a high priority though.

Pragmatic Leadership

Conversing with Willard about "back when" always reconnects synapses long dormant.

We were talking about effective leadership and an anecdote popped back up.

One my morning NCO responsibilities was to make sure the bathroom shitter toilet latrine was cleaned up before first formation.

Normally this is done quickly and efficiently, but we'd hit two snags.

First was the smokers putting out their butts in the urinals.  This had led to clogged pipes and misery for everyone.

Second was the lint trap on the dryer never being cleaned between uses.

I solved the first problem by putting one of those sand-bowl ashtrays outside the bathroom shitter toilet latrine door, with a sign "BUTTS GO HERE" in red letters on a white sign.  Then with a tongue in cheek, "Smoking not permitted in this area without permission of the Installation Commander.  Use of deadly force authorized," under that in much smaller letters.  They noticed, they laughed, they used the sand instead of the urinals.

The second problem got a sign as well.  I explained that it was a fire hazard to leave the lint in there and if our dryer caught fire, it'd be gone and unlikely to be replaced because the powers that be would cite negligence on our part in its loss; so unless you wanted to use the base coin laundromat, clear out the lint.  Logic actually worked when I treated them like adults and the lint trap got cleaned.

For about a week.

My fellow barracks dwellers didn't suddenly stop obeying the signs.

My platoon sergeant saw them and asked, "what happens if you catch someone disobeying?"

I said that I'd council them first time and article 15 them second time.

"You don't need signs for that.  Take them down."

A week later at oh-my-fucking-God-thirty the shitters backed up so bad that the first floor of the barracks was rendered uninhabitable for days.  I don't know how much of the battalion budget went into fixing it, but it was definitely a clog caused by cigarette filters.

I cannot definitely say if it was MY bathroom shitter toilet latrine that caused the clog, we were on the fourth floor of four, but the timing was perfect.

The sign went back up.

This Is Taking Green Energy Too Far

Although an electrically powered, and inflight recharged 747 is pretty cool.

The March Of Technology

When I first put together my Mac Pro I used Dell 2408WFP monitors.

24" diagonal, 1960x1200 with built in card readers and USB hub.

$600 each.

Eight years is apparently their lifespan.  They'd been warning me with vertical lines of solid color until they'd warmed up for about a year.

The first thing I learned is 1960x1200 is rare very expensive if you insist on it.  1960x1080 is far more available.

The second thing I learned is monitors have plummeted in price since my last search.  I'd intended to replace the one monitor that'd died completely but the local Best Buy was having a spot sale on Acer S271HL 27" monitors.  $100 instead of the "normal sale price" of $150 (Regular price $250).

So I bought two.  (Sorry about that FuzzyGeff, but I couldn't beat their price online).

There's now no money in my poor VA stipend account... =(

A cheap USB hub replaces the hub functionality from the old monitors and the printer has always had a card reader, so no net loss there.

I am surprised to see while playing Strike Fighters 2 that I can see better.  The size change from 24 to 27 inches is apparently just enough to make some of the instruments more legible.

Other things that fascinate me about modern monitors is I remember having to install software to make things like monitors and keyboards function at more than the most basic of levels.  Now they just handshake when plugged in and start running.

Almost A Gun

80% of a gun...

There's no hollow space for the trigger and associated bits to go in, or holes in the side for the pins.

I'd intended to take this pic with an upper on it, but there's not enough material taken out around the rear take-down for the rear lug to seat.

Definitely need to think of something creative to put on it for engraving.  Perhaps even the correct markings for M16A2 5.56 Cal Auto Rifle, 1005-01-178-9936, Serial # 6300574...  That'd be hilarious to me to make a really accurate clone of the gun rifle issued to my tank.

Whiz Bang Is The Proper Order

No Good

It just occurred to me that the reason I never seem to have a good day is that I don't own an AK.

Without an AK I lack a barometer of whether today was a good day or not.

How can I tell if I have to use my AK if I don't have one?

The White Donkey

Just got done reading it.

Nicely done.

Not Terminal Lance at all.

Feel Better Sound Worse

I have a cold.

Not a death's door kind of cold, just a runny nose and sneezing fits cold.

A bit of a sore throat from the drainage and while I could talk coarsely yesterday...

I have no voice at all today.

But I feel much better!

Tomorrow I will likely be right as rain, but for now I am mute.

Grim

Have you ever noticed that the survival rates for major organ transplants often give numbers out to five years, but rarely beyond that?

I sometimes wonder if the quality of life is worth it.  You're going to start pretty damned sick or you wouldn't be looking at a transplant; then the time post-op is also very miserable and recovery is often stated in terms of years.

Like half of the rest of your life if five years is often the limit.

Patients getting much past five years must be remarkable because the positive and upbeat sites advocating transplants never remark on it.  "Needing a transplant must be depressing enough, so let's not dash their hopes."

A factor in this could easily be that really young people don't often need transplants.  Young people (on motorcycles) provide transplants...

Is This Your Goat?

Because I have gotten your goat, Mr Marine.

Teh horrors!  Troops laugh when equipment is negligently and/or wantonly destroyed.



Thanks to XBradTC for the vid!

I posited in the comments that it wasn't funny to other commenters because they weren't combat arms or had gotten too high in enlisted rank.  Officers all seem to think this is hilarious.

Where I was wrong was the break-off point for that rank.  Typically it's about E-6 for the Army.  Apparently the USMC surgically removes your sense of humor far earlier.

Well, now my sense of humor is stoked by the humorlessness of Mr Marine.  (Assuming that 0321 is some kind of Marine code for combat arms, it could be Lawn Maintenance for all I know of The Corpse Core Corps.).

Actually, even if it's infantry, how would you tell it APART from lawn maintenance?  Soldiers (and Marines) sure spend a lot of time cutting the grass.

-Angus McThag 19K20

Husqvarna m/40

Most guns start with a block of steel and you remove everything that doesn't lend itself to a general impression of pistolity.

The Lahti pistol just takes that block and removes everything that keeps the gun from functioning, regardless of if it still looks like an anvil when you're done.

The Husqvarna m/40 is based on the Finnish L-35 designed by Almo Lahti and it served Sweden well into the 1980's before being replaced by the Glock 17 and 19 (Pistol 88 and Pistol 88B).

It only looks a bit like a Luger, it doesn't work the same way at all.

It's a short-recoil gun with a bolt.

It comes apart easily.  Drop the magazine, rack the bolt, rotate the latch on the front, slide the slide off the front.

The bolt is locked by a block that slides up and down on tracks in the frame.

Tracks that you cannot see behind the recoil spring and hammer.

Locked

Unlocked

Bolt open

The block is U shaped and engages a slot in the top of the bolt and grooves in the side of the slide to lock.

The block is directional, the arrow points towards the muzzle.

Unusual for a pistol, the Lahti design has a bolt accelerator (but no brake or clutch).

This little lever hits a bar in the frame and...

...swings against the front of the bolt, accelerating it to the rear.

This pistol was designed to be frozen solid with lubricants taking on the consistency of putty.

The holster fully encapsulates the thing, protecting it from all environmental hazards, such as mud, snow, rain and being drawn.

The complete, issued, rig comes with two spare magazines, cleaning rod, a loading tool / screwdriver and a leather thong lanyard.

Thanks to Willard for the loan of your gun to take pics of!

Even More Single Stack

S&W 39-2, Beretta M1951, Star Super B, Husqvarna m/40, Walther P.1, Star B.

All 9x19mm single stacks.  All post dating the Browning Hi-Power...

Dept Of Silly Hats

I've thought of a solution to the Cops Look Like Soldiers thing that bothers me.

Hats.

The uniform hat that goes with the OD green coverall and MOLLE webbing is a pith helmet with a shiny silver shield with the department logo.

A ball-cap with embroidered logo is the uniform hat for the "cop looking" uniform of slacks, shirt and gun-belt.

The officer may chose either uniform.

Going without your hat is not authorized.

Wearing of the ball cap is not authorized with any other uniform.

Do not lose your hat!

Titanically Long Titanic Animation

More On Toilets

"...Drill noticed three doors in the background marked EMITTERS, OOZERS and SQUIRTERS.  Sagely, he deduced those must be the bathrooms and decided that no matter how much he drank tonight, he could hold it until they returned to the shuttle."

P. Foglio and N. Pollotta
Illegal Aliens

This could be where we're headed for restroom labeling.

Are you ready?

Happy Birthday Asshole

Today is the 70th consecutive birthday that Adolf Hitler has been too dead to enjoy.

A pity that it's not the 100th.

To Work!

I've been working on drawings for the HEL E4A clone that I recently got permission to build.

Simple things really.

 You can almost tell I used to do this for a living...

I need to do some further calculations and figure out what kind of geometric tolerances I need for this.

Regimental History

It's kind of a thrill to see someone you know mentioned in a Wikipedia entry.

Willard is in this one.

He points out several inaccuracies (like his name being typoed), but goes along with the flow of the narrative.

This is also the engagement where the Battle of the BTR-152 occurred.

It's People!

Is a troupe of cannibalistic acrobats from France called the Circe de Soylent?

Government Approved

My ATF Form 1 was approved today!

<happy dance>

And what a pregnant day to be dealing with the ATF...

Single Stack 9mm

S&W 39-2, Beretta M1951, Star B.

The wondernine take-over kind of eliminated this as a breed, but they're still kind of neat.

There's certainly a niche out there for a slightly narrower gun, isn't there?

They've Chosen A Side

The Florida Sheriffs Association has chosen state Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla as its “2016 Legislator of the Year.”

- Lee Williams.

Quote Of The Random Interval

“At least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come from policemen, that 'news' is not something that happens to other people. He might learn how his ancestors lived and that he himself is no different--in the crunch his life depends on his agility, alertness, and personal resourcefulness.”

― Robert A. Heinlein

'Splain It To Me

If the science is so damn settled, why do they feel they have to resort to concentration reeducation camps prison time to make sure there's no dissent.

We don't jail the flat-earthers.
We don't jail the anti-vaxxers.

We don't even jail the Christian Scientists.

Their willingness to make dissent illegal says more about the validity of their supposed science than any reasoned piece of research I could ever find.

George Bushitler didn't even round up dissenters about 9/11.

Once again we see who the real facists are.

I am fascinated to a degree because there were a lot of us who said that it would come to this all the way back when Bill Clinton was president.  The more vocal of us were off by several years, but I called it at about a generation or two, to let their dominance of the schools and universities do its work.

History doesn't repeat, it rhymes.

Thai

Every once and a while, one just needs some yellow curry chicken.

Click Delete

A while back I tried a new sear to fix the "click test".  It wasn't really any better.  So I ordered a new safety from Midway (and these things sell out fast!).

A: From the top of the hammer notch to the top of the sear when fully cocked and engaged.
B: From the top of the hammer notch to the top of the sear after the trigger was pulled with the safety on.
The difference between these measurements is how far the sear moves.

C: From the top of the sear to the top of the hammer notch with the sear released.  This plus the first measurement gives the total travel required for the gun to fire.

Old Sear / Old Safety:    A: 0.014"; B: -0.006"; C: 0.031".  0.020" click movement, 0.045" to release (0.025").
New Sear / Old Safety:  A: 0.013"; B: -0.010"; C: 0.038".  0.023" click movement, 0.051" to release (0.028").
Old Sear / New Safety:  A: 0.014"; B: 0.014"; C: 0.031".  0.000" click movement, 0.045" to release (0.045").
New Sear / New Safety:  A: 0.013"; B: 0.009"; C: 0.046".  0.004" click movement, 0.059" to release (0.055").



The new safety with the new sear would be better than the gun came, but it's not as good as the old sear with the new safety.  You only find this kind of stuff out by measuring.

The only downside is the new safety is matte blue instead of parkerized.  I hear that naval jelly will gray it up some.

Wimmins In Combat Arms

I think we need a return to an old idea if we're adding women to the combat side of things.

No living off post, no getting married until at least E-5.  No accepting married recruits for enlistment unless there's a special skill they're bringing to the table to compensate for the fucking bother.

And it is a bother.

Next, getting knocked up is no longer an honorable-medical discharge.  Classify it for what it is, a self inflicted medical disability and treat it accordingly.  The girls have been using getting pregnant as a means of escape when they want out since when I was in, we can't afford this BS with combat formations.

What about your right to have a family?  You waived that with your freedom of speech and a couple of others when you signed up.  Read that contract again Kid.  But so having a family isn't a complete career wrecker, once you're E-5 we can talk about your getting hitched and getting some time off to breed.

Most importantly, if you're equal YOU ARE EQUAL.  No more gender norming the tests on anything.  Starting with the ASVAB, but most importantly including PT.

Maybe It's Just Me

Reading this.

The only threat she'd have had to have used to keep me in line when I was 16 was that she'd stop having sex with me.

The moving around a lot, in addition to being "the other" and fair game for the bullies, meant you were also not considered eligible for female companionship.

Raging hormones being what they are, my 16 year old ass would have happily and willingly jumped into some 38 year old's bed so fast there'd be a vapor trail behind me.

I know this because at Sturgis 1985 said vapor trail was formed when a very nice, but definitely in her 30's, woman invited me into her tent.

You will never convince me I was raped.

And for fuck's sake, my FATHER had me at Sturgis three years running when I was 14-16.  I'd seen the golden calf, ankle, thigh and upper half already and yearned to embrace them.

Quote Of The Week

"[I]f you're stupid enough to let politicians get involved you'd still somehow wind up running a loss from a $25 rub 'n tug shop completely staffed by Swedish nymphomaniacs right outside the front gates of Camp Pendleton."

Occasionally You're Not Being Paranoid

You think you know someone, then one day they forget that you can read what they've posted.

Then you learn what they really think about you.

Barely tolerated probably best describes how they felt about me based on how they were talking to their other friends about "people like him".

I'm not the "him" they're talking about, but the pure hate expressed for traits I share with this person is illustrative.  They hate people like him and me.

Well, don't trouble your pretty head over people like me, I'll just not bother staying in touch from now on.  To make it even simpler, we'll set the phone to dump your ass straight to voicemail and block Hangouts as well.

There.  Now you don't have to be troubled by this evil prick anymore.

Assuming you even notice that I've stopped talking to you.

Monodirectional

If I say what I think on Facebook...

I should choke myself for it.

I am a shitty person.

I should kill myself.

I deserve to be hated.

I should apologize for ever having thought it, let alone saying it.

When others say what they think on facebook...

I should be understanding.

I should respect their opinion.

I should defer to their hardships.

I should ignore them insulting me.

I should apologize that they said it.

Something Lighter

Headed Off At The Pass

Mr Whittle made this video so I don't have to make a substantially similar, and less well researched version.

I quibble about the inventor of the jet engine though.  Nobody uses centrifugal flow engines anymore.  Axial flow is predominant and was invented by Maxime Guillaume, though he never built one.  The inventor cited by Mr Whittle definitely owns the "first flown" trophy.

Support

I will support your rights and fight for them with you.

I demand the same in return.

If you demand that I sacrifice my rights for yours, we're at war.

Especially if there's ways so that we both have our rights.

Plumbing

The present debate about bathrooms is because of cowardice.

There's nobody brave enough to say that the division on the rooms is based on the user's plumbing and if you have an outie instead of an innie use Door A.

This boldly skips the entire gender identification debate and sidesteps the trap/quagmire of it.

Why does it take courage to actually say this?

Because the present trend from LGBT is to be raving fuckball punitive lunatics when they don't get their way.

We can also take it to it's "logical" conclusion... There was a person at gaming at ISU whom was a sexual offender because he took a piss in the woods and someone saw his penis.  He'd be a child sex offender if the reporting mother had managed to get her daughter to say she'd seen it too.

Fine, girls with male plumbing; you wanna use the women's room, then you're subject to the above if someone sees your junk.  Didn't think of that, did you?

Of course, you could help (for a change) and try to get that asinine set of laws changed.  Seeing a penis taking a piss is not a sexual display by the pisser.  Speaking of, ever notice that there never seems to be a man who's offended that a woman has to use impromptu facilities?  We might as well declare beverages a sexual display because if someone drinks, they're going to be urinating.

I am fully aware that gender identity is a tough row to hoe.

The fights being picked by the LGBT community aren't opening doors, they're closing minds.  It's petty shit and there will be a backlash.

In all of this tiresome debate something else stands out: Why are there two bathrooms in the first place?  There must have been a reason.  Even if it was a stupid reason, there once was one.  I ask this because it's not mentioned.  If the reason for dividing the bathrooms is no longer valid or appropriate, then why not address THAT?

Is it because bullies can't think rationally?  I think so.

Extra Punitive

Why such a harsh knee-jerk reaction in the previous post?

Because if Saudi funded the 9/11 attacks, we were attacked by an ally.

Someone who claimed was our friend and on our side.

Someone who lied.

Someone who betrayed.

I guess on the plus side, we don't need to salt the ground to keep anything from growing there.

Go Ahead And Sell

If the 28 pages of 9/11 documents does show that Saudi Arabia funded the assholes who perpetrated the attack, that's casus belli.

If they paid for it, then fuck 'em.  Go ahead and sell those assets, Al Saud.

I want war.

I want invasion.

I want punitive occupation.

I want Disneyland Mecca with a pulled pork Texas BBQ stand on top of the Black Mosque.

I want to make the place a territory then a state and NEVER give it back.

I want Tyson to be the largest employer in the 51st state!

Combine this with sealing our borders against people from terror supporting nations and hardly a single person can do The Hajj.

We're already at war with Islam, so doing this doesn't change that score except we'd finally be fighting back.

Much of the world would condemn our actions, but it's time to go to the UN and say, "You know what, fuck you all.  We tried being nice about this shit and look what it gets us."

PS: In about a hundred years we can all enjoy a nice strong drink at a Bedouin casino on one of the numerous tribal reservations.

Don't Wanna Give Them Ideas But...

Marv sends me the following:

"A while ago a gunship refused to sell a handgun to a guy because he seemed upset and agitated.  The shop counter guy was hailed as a hero when it was discovered the guy was a mental case and would have likely shot up he's former workplace."

"What happens with the [pro] gay law where you are not allowed to refuse service to anyone for any reason?"

My snarky reply was, "The client appeared agitated, I had no idea what they would do with that cake. They might have gone out and hurt someone."

But it's a serious question Marv has asked.

A gun shop follows the law and declines to sell to a member of a protected class, are they now liable for a discrimination suit for obeying the law?

I only ask because we needed special protections from this sort of BS before and that's why we have the PLCAA now.

Fanboi

One nice thing about being the kind of geek that I am is I can tell if the furor comes from someone who's read the source material or not.

Scarlett Johansson is just fine to play Major Kusanagi Motoko.

Why?

Because The Major is fully cyberized.  She can look like anyone.  She looks specifically like a generic and popular female model precisely so she'll blend in.  In manga and anime it's often very difficult to get racial cues from the facial structures, but in the manga she's got blue eyes.

How many Japanese have natural blue eyes?

In the anime she's got purple eyes.

Well, I guess we need to fire Scarlett and hire a Targaryen, huh?  Wait hair color is all wrong.

It's pretty clear from the anime that the fully cyberized members of Section 9 don't look a thing like they did when they were still baseline human.  The manga is less certain because the character "bible" is less rigid.

I'm actually a lot more concerned about the actor they've named to play Batou.  He seems way too scrawny.

And another thing... WHICH Ghost in the Shell are we talking about?  There's at least four independent GITS universes.  It appears that they're doing The Laughing Man from Stand Alone Complex and not the original Puppeteer or Arise storylines.

Symbiology

You know you've become a connoisseur when you're reading the symbiology on the HUD, position of control surfaces or what's in the mirrors in vids instead of looking at the scenery.

Turn Up The Volume

It's not new.



But if the soundtrack don't give you chills, I don't think you're a car person.

Counter Productive

Talking with Harvey about the present presidential line-up.

What amazes me is how every single candidate has correctly identified a problem, and has a proposal that will not solve it.

Different problems for each candidate, of course.

A specific example is Bernie Sanders talking about how our children are leaving high school without much actual knowledge.  His solution seems to be the typical socialist "more but harder" that isn't going to actually impart any learning on the students.

Why?  Because the schools are already religiously following the mandated programs from Washington (if they don't they lose funding).

He cites "No Child Gets Ahead Left Behind" as where it all went wrong; but forgets that "No Child Gets Ahead Left Behind" was an attempt to address the exact same problem he just correctly identified.

Both sides in this debate flat refuse to look at things as they are, and consider returning to the last known working state.

That might be as recently as the Carter administration's creation of the Department of Education, but may date back to FDR and the 1939 Federal Security Agency's Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Education with the top level of government control being the County actually worked.

Jerry Pournelle has put forth that another gigantic problem we have is the elimination of a vocational track from our schools.  Everything is college-prepatory and that's just not suitable for a large hunk of students whom are never going to attend a college for a four-year degree.  Related to this is Mike Rowe's lectures.  Why do we have a shortage of welders?

Suddenly All Was Realigned And Well

Nothing like a good day at the range to shake off a solid funk.

Survival Sarah got her first shots in...

That's the "out of the box" first group.  Five click and it's centered (mostly) for Willard, and WAY left for me still.

Then the Rossi R92...

And finally the Ruger Model 44 Deerstalker Carbine...

We agree that buckhorn sights suck, but we did OK with them.  The Ruger hits under my cheekbone in an uncomfortable way when I get down on the sights like you need to be.

Overpressure

Nice visual demonstration of what shooting full-up .30-06 can do in a Garand.

Again

Rankin and Bass, much reviled for the musical interludes, is, I am afraid, still the most faithful version of Lord of the Rings made.



Eowyn in the Jackson version is terrified and acts as if she is fighting The Witch King of Angmar because she cannot flee rather than because she's stern and brave.

Rankin and Bass also matches the physical description of the Chief Nazgul correctly.

We won't even get into how Jackson made the Hobbits into near bit parts in their own movie.

Baby Steps

Willard's AR15 Mold "survival carbine" is now a completed firearm thanks to a DelTon 16" M4gery kit.

1:9 barrel, no chrome.

Coming is orange furniture from Cavalry Manufacturing, as soon as he can get them on the phone to take his filthy lucre.

Also coming is a safety orange sling from Echo Sling, whom can't get mentioned enough!

Define "Good"

A problem we have today is a most 1911's have about as much in common with an M1911A1 as a Remington 700 does with a K98k.
A problem we don't have is people taking classes on Remington 700's and making direct comparisons with a 98k without actually knowing how far the 700 has diverged from the German.

Is an M1911A1 is a dog, decent or good?
Most people who've become captivated by $3,000 custom-shop guns have already consigned it to the dog category with their other descriptions of what constitutes a decent gun.

1911's are so far gone from what was issued they're hardly worthy of being called by the same name as JMB's design.

Remember an M1911A1 has no-fitting 100% parts interchange with ANY other M1911A1 regardless of which contractor made the parts.  In 1943, with a war on, an entire years production from Remington-Rand was rejected because, while the guns worked just fine, you couldn't use their parts in a Colt and vice-versa.

Show me a two $3,000 1911s from two different vendors that can do that.  Now, if you found two, can either company make 800 a day?

Will a $3,000 gun be more accurate than an issue M1911A1?  Almost certainly.  More reliable?  Maybe.  More durable?  Unlikely.

It's frustrating because a great many of us don't want an heirloom expensive gun.  We just want the same gun as was issued in 1944.  Or 1987.

The problem is that nobody makes that gun.  Or a gun that will interchange parts with it.

No, it's not going to be as cheap as a Glock.  I get that.

Religious Freedom Laws

It would appear that your state passing a religious freedom law will prevent dancing monkeys.

Bruce Springsteen won't play North Carolina.

Bryan Adams won't play Mississippi.

Really guys, way to create conflict!

My desire to be supportive of the LGBT people is being seriously challenged by a desire to free of dancing monkeys.

Because Of Whom Is Refused

Jay brings up a good point.

The reason it's OK for Mr Springsteen to refuse service to the people of North Carolina and not for a baker to refuse service to a homosexual is because of double standard.

Because of the narrative.

Because you cannot allow consistency or fairness.

Betcha money that if it was consistent and fair, there'd have been no push-back to pass that "religious freedom" law that's bunched up Mr Springsteen's panties.

But it's inconsistent, unfair and always going one direction.

Don't Be A Dick

Reversion to draft for breaking that rule.

It'll be back after a rewrite.

We now return you to your regular blog, already in progress.

Ain't Dead

Despite depression, I've not eaten a bullet.

I marvel at my stubbornness sometimes though.

Dick Size

I've been reading "Curse of the High IQ."

Well, that certainly explains a lot.

Among my friends I tend to be the "stupid" one.  My IQ is a mere 139.

Tasty chess club brained Marv is 152 (almost literally nobody is smarter than Marv).

I don't remember what Geff's is, but smarter than me anyways.

Reading this book had me do something I'd never done before.  See how many people are below me and above me on the curve.  0.47% of people are smarter, 99.53% aren't.

I've mentioned before that my brain doesn't appear to work like everyone else.

Reading this book, I can see that the way I think is a coping mechanism.  It's no good for making me happy or successful.  It's a survival mode.  I can tread water.  Having a boat would make me happy and having boat with a motor would make me successful.

This book also brings understanding to another friend's situation.  He never seems to get anywhere with his life and also seems to be the author of his own failures.  Smarter than me, to be sure, but I can see WHY this is true now.

Some of my relative success by comparison might be exactly because I'm the stupid one, and thus closer to the mass of savages our societies are built around.

Sadness

There's something really depressing about walking out of the party and nobody noticing for more than an hour.

More than an hour and counting.

Like you're not missed at all.

Someone remind me why I'm not eating that bullet again.

Wisdom

“Before some audiences not even the possession of the exactest knowledge will make it easy for what we say to produce conviction. For argument based on knowledge implies instruction, and there are people whom one cannot instruct.”

Aristotle

Excessive

Is the excessive and blinding muzzle flash from .22 Long Rifle in your Ruger Mk II too much to handle?

Then MarvCoIncLLCGmbh has the solution!

No more will you be blinded by the muzzle flash of your .22 pistol!

Marv's making a suppressor and this is an adapter for its mounting on his Ruger.

Overall Length

As I sit here waiting for my Form 1 approval...

I polish the cannonballs to a mirror sheen.

While the HEL E4A clone I've planned is designed for the M16A1, and thus the rifle I already have...

It will also fit just fine on Kaylee (a 14.5" SBR), adding a mere 2-7/8" to the overall length or 37" even (34-1/8" without the suppressor).

By way of comparison, The Lovely Harvey's tactical gun, Kevina, is 36" overall and has a 16" barrel.

Isn't it strange that 1-1/2" of barrel length is a 1-7/8" difference in length?  Kaylee and Kevina wear different flash-hiders, the Troy Medieval on Kevina is much longer than the Wilson Accu-Tac on Kaylee.

Am I High

Note to self two:

High Standard and High Point are not related concerns.

They're the polar opposites with regard to accuracy expectations.

Engage brain before mocking someone who's proud of their High Standard pistol.

I caught myself before I said anything, but it was a near thing.

Note To Self

Before working on a car, remove your wedding ring.

It always distorts it into an oblong instead of round and that pinches your ring finger.

Good thing I have a mandrel.

Joyous News

For when Willard's urge to collect gets the best of him again.

The later version of the .44 Carbine is based more along the lines of a Mini-14 and uses a detachable rotary magazine instead of a tube.

Ruger still sells the magazines!

Just $40 for a four shot magazine.

So for just $400 he will have his minimum number of magazines.

I am sure this makes him feel so "happy".

Plus!  It's the same magazine as the model 77/44!  So he gets to buy TWO rifles and have twice as many magazines!  WIN WIN!!!

Handgun Cartridge Carbine

A 1965 made Ruger .44 Carbine.

Link to Ruger's instructions.

You get 4+1 shots of .44 Magnum for all your deer murdering needs.  Ballistics by the inch says that a Federal 240gr Hydrashock round should be ripping through the air at about 1,643 fps.  That's just shy of .45-70 carbine territory!

It's 6 lb. 5 oz. with 4 rounds loaded.

More better pictures when we have more time and can do some take-apart.

Unexpectedly

Oh look, someone else noticed the models don't predict successfully.

I've said over and over in this tiresome debate.

They've made models that are supposedly predictive of climate changes for the next 100 years.

Yet if you input in data from 100 years ago, you do not arrive at the climate we have today.

Assuming the model makers allow you access to their model to run this experiment, which they've often refused to do.

Sinister Friendly

There seems to be a misunderstanding about what ambidextrous means with regards to firearms controls.

Mirrored controls where they're identical on both sides of the gun is the obviously ambi solution.

But what if I were to tell you that it's not always true that non-mirrored controls are purely dexterous leaving the poor sinisters out in the cold.

The AR is easily operated with your southpaw.  It's just not operated identically.

The selector is rotated with the base knuckle of the left index finger instead of the right thumb.

The bolt stop is operated by the left index finger instead of slapping it with your left palm.  You can also reach around the magazine well to hit it with your right hand too.

The magazine release is operated with the right thumb instead of the right index finger.

The charging handle is already ambidextrous if you use a two fingered claw-grip on it.

The charging handle is by far and beyond the most misunderstood part of this gun!  It really is just there to open up the action before you insert a magazine and load by releasing the bolt with the bolt-stop.

It's got an immediate action function too, but I've yet to see anyone take the concept of "gun not go bang", to the first step in trouble shooting being COVER rather than start tinkering while you stand there.  Why are you standing there in the open again?  I forgot.

Clearing malfunctions is important, but it won't do you a bit of good if you get perforated while you're fixing the problem.  Once you've got cover, you can take a bit more time on the problem and having a charging handle that's super fast to work one-handed left-handed while your right hand stays on the pistol grip with the rifle shouldered stops seeming so critical.  By the way, just blindly and reflexively racking the bolt makes one of the more common AR stoppages worse, not better.

SPORTS is not perfect, but the 'O' is important.

By the way, show of hands, how many times have you seen an AR malfunction where a normal charging handle wouldn't bring it back AND it could be fixed without completely taking it apart and/or replacing parts?  Those of you with your hands up, how many hundreds (if not thousands) of rounds got fired before you saw that?

It was a lot, wasn't it?

It's not broken, stop trying to fix it.

The Army Is A Bad Teacher

There's a whole slew of things that gets taught about the AR15 that's simply using the weapon in ways unintended by the designers!

I learned a lot of these bad habits in Basic, and I see these lessons repeated.

Some of it is making lemonade out of the lemons you've been given, but there's no excuse to not seek better teachers and knowledge once it's YOUR gun and YOUR hard earned money going to feed and care for it.

There's a few too many products that are geared at making better lemonade rather than avoiding the getting the lemons in the first place.

They often cost a lot and while they do almost always seem to cure the precise and narrowly defined problem they're aimed at, more often than not, they cause other problems down the road.

Fly On The Wall...

I can imagine a day in the early 1950's when the Warsaw Pact was trying to standardize things...

In Czechoslovakia...

Pact Standardization Officer (PSO): Nyet!  We are telling you to be making SKS!

Brno Firearms Engineer (BFE): (Showing a Vz52) We did!

PSO: Most certainly you did not!  Is not even right caliber!

BFE: Well, we did fix some things...

Six years later...

BFE: (Showing a Vz58)

PSO: NO!  This is NOT an AKM!

BFE: We had to fix some things.  Again.

PSO: (resigned sigh) At least you got the caliber right this time.

In Use

The Harvey Platoon carbine is one more step towards authenticity.

The "spare" vinyl-acetate stock is now part of Cheyenne.

It's really only a matter of time before we do another Form 1 and put a 14.5" barrel on her.