Bolt Gun Comparison Photo

Top: Savage 110XP Trophy Hunter in .270 Win.
Bottom: Weatherby Vanguard in .243 Win.

Lots of the same and lots of difference.

I even found an old Uncle Mike's sling in my holster and sling box, complete with QD swivels.  I think I used to keep it on my Remington 870 when it was still wood-stocked.

Arrival

I finally have a wooden stocked, scoped bolt action in a non-military caliber.

It might just be something of a collector's item since it's from the last year of the old logo.  Savage dumped poor Chief Lame Deer's likeness for a some modern art masterpiece (denying that political correctness had anything to do with the decision).

I've been buying C&R and used and building guns from parts, I forgot that new guns came in boxes!

This is not how it arrived at the FFL.  It was wrapped in the plastic and the magazine was with the bolt in the "Bolt and Kit Enclosed" section.

It's your basic cock-on-open sporting rifle.

Claw extractor and plunger ejector with your basic two locking lugs on the floaty Savage bolt head.

It's got an Accutrigger®.  That extension on the front of the trigger guard is the bolt release.  Savage takes a breeches and belt approach to bolt removal.  Pull and hold the trigger, open the bolt, pull bolt to the rear and pull the bolt release (while still holding the trigger).  You're never going to accidentally remove the bolt.

I will have to take Marv's trigger scale to it, but it seems lighter and smoother than even FuzzyGeff's Weatherby Vanguard!  It's making me consider changing over to one on my 93F.

Update:  It measured 2 lb. 8 oz. out of the box, the Weatherby measured 4 lb. 6 oz.

A three position safety with a position that locks the bolt.

The detachable magazine is of the newer centerfeed design with a Stevens/Savage Axis style latch.  Presumably this is to keep the price point on the package rifles down.

This magazine is much maligned, but I don't think it's going to be an issue.

Although it is not marked "Prostaff" anywhere, the Nikon scope matches it in every particular I've been able to find.

I would like to thank the Veteran's Administration for making my disability payments on time and Willard for the generous bribes that made this purchase possible.

To the range!

Monkey At The Wheel

Out For Delivery

Since it had to ship to an FFL, I am safe from Fedex's normal methodology of waiting until I go out for a second to make the adult signature required delivery!

Hah!

Just 545 Problems With The Plan

Read this!

It's the most succinct essay on why voting has become useless I've ever seen.

Bullet's Rear View

Marv bought a bore-scope!

It's Hard To Not Take It Personal

http://www.ammoland.com/2016/08/atf-reclassifies-wetted-nitrocellulose-as-explosive-materials-under-federal-laws/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork#axzz

Let the next ammo panic begin!

And if you voted for Obama and own a gun.  Shoot yourself.  Stop stealing our oxygen.

Likewise, if you own a gun and are considering voting for Hillary.

Update:

The above is exactly the kind of shit I was talking about in this post.

You know, our forefathers rioted over smaller slights.

Proof Of Purchase

Here she is!

My second ever new FUDD rifle purchase, and the first I've actually taken home!  5.2 lb. of iron sighted, five-plus-one-shot glory.  Cocks on open.  Two position safety that does not lock the bolt.  Hecho en Canada.

This is also my second rimfire rifle.

.22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire is a wee bit longer than .22 Long Rifle though.

Locking lugs?  We don't need no stinking locking lugs!  Actually, there's the bolt handle... and that's it.  The silver part of the bolt is non-rotating, the blue rotates.  The firing pin stays at the 12:00 position.

There are two extractors, one each at 3:00 and 9:00.

And a single fixed ejector blade.

The magazine slides up a sheet-metal blade and is held with two ears on its rear.

The latch hooks under the ears when the magazine is inserted.

And that's all there is.  It's a super simple rifle built to a super low price point.  It can be upgraded with a wood stock and the accutrigger can even be added, two features Wal Mart ordered special from Savage to undercut the normal 93F (98100) by $60 on most shelves.

One local store is asking $309 for a synthetic stocked, heavy-barreled, accutrigger version of this same gun I got for $99.  For a $210 savings, I can cope with the loss!

Oh, the conventional trigger isn't that bad!  I need to get some snap caps to protect the firing pin and chamber so I can do some dry firing, but the few test pulls so far have gotten better each time as the parts are wearing into each other.  Still some initial grit when it first moves, but past that it's clean.  And it's consistent about where the grit starts and ends, so it should be something you could get used to.  Or have drive you insane and have to fix!

I just noticed that I paid more for my Gamo Big Cat 1200, a .177 pellet rifle, than I did for a real firearm.  Just wow.

It's A Madhouse!

PPU has recalled ALL of their 6.5 Grendel ammo!

They're citing differences in chamber specs causing excessive pressures.

This is interesting to me because 6.5 is SAAMI spec'd and was touted as a reason that 6.5 is superior to the non-SAAMI 6.8 SPCII "standard".

Well, a spec is only as good as how well it's adhered to.

It looks like at least one manufacturer of rifles is making the chambers tighter than specified (and it would have to be a manufacturer who makes a non-trivial number of guns).

This is also does not appear to be a flaw in 6.5 Grendel or the SAAMI specification of it.

Either PPU ammo is out of spec or some chambers are.  I hope we get a definitive answer soon.

What if...

Got some CCI "TNT® Green™" .22 WMR for the new hotness.

It's a .30gr "lead-free hollow point" chucking along at 2,050 fps.

That comes to 2d+2 pi in GURPS.  But is it really pi or pi-?

I don't have good guidance from the rules as written.

.22 LR is pi-.  As is .25 ACP and .32 ACP.  Those are the examples from the 3e rules.

The thing is I am reading about .22 Mag being used on Coyotes.

A 'yote has a ST of 7, so 7 HP.

2d+2 does 4-14 raw damage with an average of 9.

pi- would clock in at 2-7 with an average of 4.  That seems iffy on something with 7 HP.

Using a hollow point ups pi- to pi.  9 would get consciousness rolls for a body hit and 14 would get a death roll.  Vitals doesn't care about the pi or pi- and is x3 raw damage.  So 12-42 average of 27.  That's multiple death rolls for most hits and almost a death roll for minimum damage.

So I think I will call it 2d+2 pi- with the standard ball ammo since I am seeing some ballistics gel results with hollow-points that look a lot like 9mm ball (which is 2d+2 pi).

Multiple Savages

Following Marv's fine example, Willard I trekked to Wal Mart to confirm at a store with the 93F in stock had them at the desired low price.

They almost didn't.

The sporting goods person said, "no," when we asked if the rumors of some sort of unadvertised secret sale were true.

His co-worker whipped out the price scanner on the bar-code and with great relish said, "yup!"

$99 even marked down from $197.99.  Willard found six boxes of .45-70 marked down from $45 to $20, so he actually got ammo with a free gun from the savings!

"Huzzah!" we cried and demanded to be sold one example, each, of this fine American Canadian rimfire rifle.

Alas!  They needed to finish in-processing ammo and stocking the shelves before any firearms could be sold that day.  Two hours was the time told us.

So we fittered about another gun shop for the requisite time and returned.

Where we repeated Marv's sad tale of, "there's no reason, it's just our policy".  The store manager made a command decision to walk both guns out together rather than separately as is required by Wal Mart Policy.

We even managed to find some ammo at the local Guntry Club.  Win Win.

Even more fun is there's a $25 rebate from Savage for these things.  $74 dollars for a pretty decent little rifle is pretty darn good!

If You're Paying For It

Hot on the heels of Worldcon and the SJW Science Fiction Awards (formerly known as The Hugos)...

Check this out!

Remember, if you're paying organizations and companies who've been taken over or kowtow to the social justice warriors; you are financially supporting the social justice war.

If you disagree with the SJW's and still pay them, you're a fool.

By the way, if you think your favorite con isn't already subverted, go ahead and check out the attendee code of conduct.  If there's verbiage about ejecting you for any or no reason with no refund or recourse for violations of an unstated code of conduct; SJW took it over.

Friends In Low Places

The place where I heard the rumor of $99 Savage 93F's says that they "talked to the guy behind the counter" and they looked up the rifle and got the price and location of stores with it in stock.

I happen to know someone who works at Wally World...  He's a guy.  He's been spotted behind the counter there a time or two.

So I asked.

While he didn't know the procedure to find this information, a handy co-worker there did!

All we needed was a pic of Marv's UPC from his recent purchase mentioned in the open letter below.

She looked up three locations that claim to have it in stock and the price in the national system is, indeed, $99.

That's well below the "what the heck?" gun purchase price point.  Even with the lack of .22 WMR ammo.

Low Price Leader

Found it!

I think...

The Savage 93F in .22WMR from Wal Mart is model 91803.

The Savage 93F in .22 WMR listed virtually every where else is model 91800.

The MSRP of the 91800 is $265.  Vendors on gunbroker have them as low as $250.

The actual price of the 91803 is $165.

The other difference?  The 91800 has the Accutrigger, the 91803 doesn't.

I guess your personal evaluation of the Accutrigger will decide if the price difference is worth it.

I am presently on the fence.

Can't Kick Me Out

"If you cannot say what you mean; you cannot mean what you say."

"If the reader cannot understand what you've written, it's your writing that's to blame not their reading."

I am not a good writer, nor am I paid to write.  I would write here if I had zero readers (and I did too!).

I don't ask you to keep reading if you don't like what you're reading.

I occasionally worry about saying something that will make me unpopular with the cool kids.

Then I realize; I'm already unpopular with the cool kids.

I can't be kicked out of a club I was never allowed to join.

I don't go to the exclusive summer camps.

I am not deferred to because I can name drop the elbows I've rubbed.

I am not a member of the instructorate (instructorati?), the ring-knockers of gun owners.

What I do recognize is a dismissive tone backed by popularity and an accustomed expectation of deferment.

I also recognize my mistake in giving that deferment in the hopes of being liked.  That was stupid in high school and nothing has happened in the intervening time since that changed it.

So, oh noes!  The football team and the cheerleaders won't invite me to their parties!

It's not actually me that has the problem.

Open Letter To Wal Mart

Dear Wal Mart; Department of There's No Reason It's Just Our Policy,

Making sure there was a trigger lock on the gun before you'd let me handle it was overcautious.

Having the manager stand there to remove that lock before they packed the gun into its box, then taping the box shut is touching on paranoia.

The escort out to the car and insisting on placing the boxed gun into the trunk...

I have a pistol in my pocket.  You know I have a carry permit because you needed to let me walk out the same day.

I have one for you: If I was going to go on a killing spree at Wal Mart, don't you think I would have done it with the gun I already have on me BEFORE I told you who I was?

-- Marv

ORLY

There's rumor that Wal Mart has Savage rimfires for $99...

Even guns that MSRP at $260.

Best I've seen was $168 when I hit the couple Wal Marts near here that sell guns.

Even $168 is near $100 off...  Plus there's a $25 rebate on bolt-action rimfires too.

Plus since it always swings back to GURPS...

The 93F in .22 Mag; 3d-1 pi- damage, 130/1,500 range.

Entered Into The Fray

Now that I am a disciple of Jack O'Connor I am reading and watching everything I can find about .270 Winchester Centerfire.

I'm reminded of why I didn't get interested in hunting rifles in the first place.

People start with their preconceived conclusion and work backwards from there to "prove" it.

It's 6.5 v 6.8 all over again.  Except it's not.  6.5 v 6.8 is THIS all over again.

A good example is a hunter who says that .270 sucks and .308 rocks because he's gotten consistent one-shot kills with .308 in otherwise identical rifles.  If you watch the entire 25 minute video you'll find out that his choice of bullets is constrained by no-lead laws where he's located and the rounds he's chosen work better with a larger diameter.  He's married to a brand of bullet and he sticks to whatever they offer religiously.  He's also making his own ammo, so of course it's nothing HE did wrong in making the lower performance round...

You've probably seen this before as well.

I strive to be objective.  I fail a lot, but I strive.

Near as I can tell in the debate between .30-06 and .270 Win; the only practical difference is .270 shoots flatter and the 130gr bullets make up for mass with velocity.  The rest becomes theoretical to 95% of the shooting public because we simply don't have the skill to make the differences apparent.

As Willard sagely notes, "The deer can't tell the difference."

But we just cannot stand that someone is happy with something different than what we like.

Now I am really tempted to get a .30-06 rifle to have both sides of the debate; like I have a .45 1911 and a Glock 17.

Need to save a couple of months of my VA stipend before I do that.

Pro Gun?

Dear Mr Politician Man.

Owning a single shotgun and/or a single bolt gun does not establish your pro-gun bonafides.

I wanna see your carry permit, not your hunting license.

I want you to own more guns than my wife.

I wanna see your AR and hear if you have a position on picatinny v M-LOK v Keymod.

I want you to be one of us, not one of them putting on airs.

The S&W Model 329PD

Surely this is the proverbial gun you load on Sunday and make excuses to not shoot it all week long.

Doesn't it look all sweet and innocent?  No outward appearance of what lurks beneath.  Scandium.

Satanium is more like it!



First he tried it with .44 Special.  "That wasn't so bad," he said.



Then came .44 Magnum.

Then he offered it to me.  I fired six special and three magnums before my thumb started making the same noises it'd made before dislocating with Skeezer's .45 Colt Derringer.

So we switched over to the rubber grips.

I fired two this way, Willard fired one.  It's definitely better with the rubber than the wood, but I wouldn't grade it enjoyable!  We only encountered one failure with the gun rather than flesh, the action locked up!  At first I suspected the silly locking flag, but I now think it's just the plunger at the rear of the cylinder not depressing and releasing the action when we close the cylinder.

Never let it be said that Willard does not suffer for my art!  He's bled for this post!

Now that I've had my say, here's Willard's guest commentary!

Deep Thoughts concerning the S&W 329. 

This is an absurd firearm.  Not a silly one, that would involve gold plating, jewel encrustment, and Stag at Bay® engraving.  But its absurd on it's face.  So, why would you buy the damn thing anyhow?  Let's see: 

A) "Nobody else has one."  (And for damn good reason, as it turns out.) 

B) "It will be like an airweight .38 compared to an all steel .38."  Nice thought, not, as it turns out, a correct one, but a nice thought.  It's actually like an airweight .357 Magnum, only worse. 

C) The big one.  "It can put down a BEAR!"  I'm absolutely sure this is true.  But I have to say, the literature is really pretty fuzzy on the most critical point.  Just how do you trick the bear into shooting it anyway?  Tell him you it's only got .44 Spl. in it?  Claim the plastic grips make All The Difference? Challenge his manhood?  You'd think they'd provide a little more detail in the owners manual. 

Of course if you can get over that hurdle the you're home free.  I'm sure once the bear is curled up in a ball, cradling his broken wrist, bleeding from one or both ears, whimpering for his bear mommy, you will be able to re-holster your 329 and walk away at your leisure. 

So. anybody need a bear gun?  I've got one, almost unfired with the box and everything.  And I'm willing to dicker!

Спасибо!

Thanks to the Russians hitting Blogger but hard a few weeks ago; my lowly blog crossed a half million views!

Woot!

I noticed while cleaning out the sidebar the other day that I'm getting to be one of the old bloggers.

So many others have closed up shop.

I imagine Tam and I glaring across at table muttering, "You quit first!" "No, YOU quit first!" with our laptops open and beers half drunk as the last two gun bloggers standing.

I'm a bottom feeder compared to some, but I've outlasted some pretty big fish.  More than eleven years since I started my LiveJournal and almost six since I moved to Blogger.

The Agony Is Over

Long Live The Agony!

I just stabbed the "buy it now" button on a Savage 110XP in .270 Winchester.

Wood stock, accutrigger®, Nikon Prostaff glass, cheap plastic Axis style magazine.

Willard talking about how .30-06 is God's Own Caliber got me to notice that the gun for sale had a serial number ending in 666.  .270 is now Satan's Own Caliber!

I now own a Fudd rifle.  I now have a complete set of guns that everyone should own...

It's a rather nebulous and silly list.  It changes moment to moment.

But basically you should have:

Something "modern," black, and military, like an AR, AK or FAL.

Something in a pump action shotgun, 20ga or bigger.

Something in a service pistol 9mm or bigger.

Something in a CCW handgun, .380 or bigger.

Something in a Fudd rifle, no intermediate rounds!  Preferably bolt-action.

Something in an obsolete military pattern rifle.  Preferably with expensive or hard to find ammo!

Something that shoots .22LR.

Something in a wheelgun.  Preferably large bore, preferably impractical.  6" .45 Colt Anaconda is where you're aiming not a J-Frame for your pocket!

Responsible

There comes a time in every adult's life when they accept responsibility for their own actions and life.

To do so means to leave the child behind and be a full member of society.

While some things are the fault of others, a constant and endless stream of things that "aren't your fault" means that it probably is your fault.

Own up to it.

Your problems are yours to solve, not someone else's.  Others may help if they wish, but they don't owe you that assistance.  You don't get to be butt hurt that they may refuse to give you any assistance with your problems should they chose to withhold their help.

You Can Just Buy One?

I mentioned previously that when scopes caught on and many older guns with irons were drilled and tapped, that the Lyman peep sights they often sported were discarded.

It was a Lyman W48 (or maybe 48WJS).

Lyman still makes a peep that should work, the 57WJS.

Songs To Mow The Lawn To

In tropical climes there are certain times of day
When all the citizens retire,
     to tear their clothes off and perspire.
It's one of those rules that the biggest fools obey,
Because the sun is much too sultry and one must avoid
     its ultry-violet ray --
Papalaka-papalaka-papalaka-boo. (Repeat)
Digariga-digariga-digariga-doo. (Repeat)
The natives grieve when the white men leave their huts,
Because they're obviously, absolutely nuts --

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.
The Japanese don't care to, the Chinese wouldn't dare to,
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one,
But Englishmen detest a siesta,
In the Philippines there are lovely screens,
     to protect you from the glare,
In the Malay states there are hats like plates,
     which the Britishers won't wear,
At twelve noon the natives swoon, and
     no further work is done -
But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

It's such a surprise for the Eastern eyes to see,
That though the British are effete,
     they're quite impervious to heat,
When the white man rides, every native hides in glee,
Because the simple creatures hope he will
     impale his solar topee on a tree.
Bolyboly-bolyboly-bolyboly-baa. (Repeat)
Habaninny-habaninny-habaninny-haa. (Repeat)
It seems such a shame that when the English claim the earth
That they give rise to such hilarity and mirth -

Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.
The toughest Burmese bandit can never understand it.
In Rangoon the heat of noon is just what the natives shun.
They put their scotch or rye down, and lie down.
In the jungle town where the sun beats down,
     to the rage of man or beast,
The English garb of the English sahib merely gets a bit more creased.
In Bangkok, at twelve o'clock, they foam at the mouth and run,
But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen, go out in the midday sun.
The smallest Malay rabbit deplores this stupid habit.
In Hong Kong, they strike a gong, and fire off a noonday gun.
To reprimand each inmate, who's in late.
In the mangrove swamps where the python romps
     there is peace from twelve till two.
Even caribous lie down and snooze, for there's nothing else to do.
In Bengal, to move at all, is seldom if ever done,
But mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

Stay Tuned

Scandium frame.

Titanium cylinder.

.44 Magnum.

Less than two pounds loaded.

What could go wrong?

Tune in tomorrow for pictures and video (if we wake up in time to hit the range) of the S&W 329PD.  Correction!  It is not a 369.

You Are What You Eat

I had Chinese food for lunch.

Does that make me a pussy?

Kipling Corner

The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon

It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.

They were not easily moved,
They were icy -- willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.

Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.

Measure Twice Cut Once

Took a second look at the Savage 111FCNS the pawn shop has marked at $325.

Weaver bases installed, nice shiny bore, no magazine.

Considering the price of the rifle and adding a scope and rings came in just under the price of a brand new 110XP, it was tempting.

No magazine is a substantial hurdle.  Savage has too many different magazines to select from and you really can't tell which one you're supposed to have on a top-bolt-release gun until you run the serial number...  Something that you really can't do until you've already bought the gun.

Willard keeps telling me that I should get my FUDD rifle in an AMERICAN caliber, like .30-06, and be a man about it.  He's even bribing me.

My objection that .270 is an American caliber doesn't make an impact.  To be honest, the two main reasons I've fixated on .270 are kinda silly.  It never stopped being available during the ammo panic is the first, and my picking the mutually wrong caliber in the .30-06 vs .280 war my uncles have going on.  The silliest reason is that it's the same .277 bore as my beloved 6.8 SPC.

With his bribe, I am easily able to get the 110XP and change out the magazine.  Or get the pawn-shop 111FCNS and get a magazine and optics mounted.

With difficulty, I could stretch into that Remington 700.

If I abandoned .270 I could easily get that Winchester 670 in 30-06 we saw while Willard was topping JayG's "Snubby from Hell" purchase.

Also in .30-06 is a Winchester Model 54 up at another pawn shop, though I hesitate to jump through all the stupid hoops that place has up for buying a gun when the 54 is a C&R and I'm a Cruffler.  I could get a similar gun for about the same price delivered to the door.

Used Market

In another chapter of McThag's Bolt Gun Agony we find a Savage 111FCNS in .270 Winchester for $325 at a local pawn shop.

I can probably talk them down some.

The only wrinkle is there's no scope at all, so I'd need that and rings.

On the positive side of the ledger is it's already set up for the better magazine.  On the negative, I kinda wanted a wood stock.

Willard says that while a white tail deer can tell the difference, an elk cannot.

A different shop has a Remington 700 in the favored .270 with a Bushnell Banner on it and iron sights.  Walnut and blue with a telepathic trigger.  Just $700, and this shop has shown no give on gun prices before, so that's probably firm (and out of budget).

Losing Sight Of Rights

While Tam's advice is solid and takes into account the facts on the ground.

We should be outraged that it IS good advice!

I should never be in fear for my life from the police for doing something I have every right to do...

ie: Be on my own property with a gun.

We should all be opposed to this shoot first ask questions later attitude that our law enforcement has developed.  We should demand the head of any department management who uses the "in accordance with our training" excuse.

You may notice that the people who are the staunchest advocates of "let the courts settle it" are the ones who are certain to get a pass from those courts.  That's because shit that will land us in jail will cause them, at worst, to seek a job in another department.

Oppose the training excuse.

Demand that the police be held to the same standard as the communities they serve.  Note, I am totally cool with being elevated to their weapons free status when it comes to thinking that someone might have looked at me cross eyed with virtually anything in their hand.

I am totally cool to take a time-out and get a month or more to decide what I am going to say to a non-judicial investigator before making a statement.  Then if it goes against me, I am cool to have an arbitrator force the ruling back in my favor and never face criminal charges.

I am completely cool with the default assumption being that I had every reason to shoot and every effort should be expended to show my innocence by the police department, prosecutor and government.

I don't get that now, but my employees do...

But they're not employees.  I am their vassal and they don't ever want me to forget it.

Hugo

Stop paying them!

Don't buy the books, don't attend the con.

They want to be an exclusive club of incestuous group-think, let them.

Let them do it without your money.

"But I voted the sad/rabid puppy tranche!" and paid the people you oppose to do so.

Never support the livelihood of someone who hates you and wishes to destroy you.

I hate to say it, but fiction authors are a form of dancing monkey.

People who attend fan conventions are the monkeys who dance for the dancing monkeys.

Opportunity Cost

Although it appears to be the most difficult topic in all economics to teach... it's actually very simple.

Money you spend on one thing, cannot also be spent on another.  By buying the first thing, you give up the opportunity to buy the second.  Likewise, buying the second item costs you the opportunity to purchase the first item.

I remember the first time I noticed it.  I'd spent my allowance on a 1/72 scale SPAD XIII.  I came across another model I wanted more at the flea market, but had already spent my money.  No Star Trek 3-ship set for Thag the Younger.

Something I noticed about the event is how I got no sympathy from my elders about not having the money anymore.  The most sympathetic voice was my grampa and it was limited to, "it would be nice to have enough to buy both, but you never do."

Mom was harshest.  "In the story of the ant and the grasshopper, the ant is the one you emulate," because she felt that I should have saved my allowance.

Gun Rights Policy Conference

Submitted my registration.

I figure since they're going to all the trouble of having one in Tampa, I should attend.

What I save in hotels offsets the relatively short travel time.

If I talk Marv into going, then travel is even shorter since he lives within three miles of the host hotel.

Since it's in September, I should wear my kilt, tactical type, one each.

Good Bad Advice

I hang with an older than me crowd quite a bit.

Something that kind of bugs me about the non-gun side of that hanging is the practical advice.

"Why don't you just do [something no longer legal] to..."

"You should have [something impossible today] to..."

The past is another country.  The nation where they started a business from nothing or worked their way through college is gone.

I can start to see why the occupy people are bitter.  The only way to get past a certain line in the income class structure is to assume massive debts, which just create an illusion you've crossed that line.

The people just ten years older than me grew up where that wasn't true and most of them are debt free except for a small credit card balance.

Rather than demand the oldsters be punished, I'd prefer some sound fiscal policy and maybe some damn deflation for a change.

Of course the start of that will be making borrowing expensive again and letting the lenders only loan to people who can pay them back.

Just Like The Magazine

Ever notice you're reading a periodical out of habit and not enjoyment?

That in addition to not enjoying it anymore, you're not learning anything from it either?

I'm there with some of the things I read now.

Disappointed In A Different Way

I wanted the G3 clone to fail as bad as the FAL.  I really did.

I ran an FAL in parched dusty lands, and it worked fine.  I didn't have mud to test it in.

Willard ran an FAL in southern Africa and expresses no love for the G3.

This is why, when you go to adopt a new service rifle, you test in all the conditions you expect to see.

G3 for the Somme, FAL for Rhodesia...

Play Stupid Games Win Stupid Prizes

Riding a bike is dangerous enough when you've got your head on a swivel and are paying attention to your surroundings.

The cherry on top is asking the driver they hit while running the red light if they'd seen the bikes coming.

Bikers, in case you were curious, riders like this are why nobody likes us you.  I gave up the 'us' title when I sold my last motorcycle in '96.  Rural Iowa was getting a bit scary for riding, let alone a burg with driver's heads firmly up rectal orifices like Ames.

Update:

JOPLIN POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORT 
V1 WAS TRAVELING EASTBOUND ON CST 44TH ST APPROACHING LP 49. V1 HAD A GREEN LIGHT AT THE INTERSECTION OF CST 44TH ST AND LP 49. V2 WAS TRAVELING NORTHBOUND ON LP 49 IN THE INSIDELANE AND RAN THE RED LIGHT AT THE INTERSECTION OF CST 44TH ST AND LP 49 CAUSING V1 TO CRASH INTO V2. D2 JUMPED OFF OF V2 AND P2 WAS EJECTED OFF OF V2. V1 ATTEMPTED TO SWERVE TO AVOID CRASHING INTO V2 BUT DID NOT HAVE TIME TO AVOID V2.

D1 ADVISED THAT SHE WAS TRAVELING EASTBOUND ON CST 44TH ST AND HAD A GREEN LIGHT AT THEINTERSECTION OF CST 44TH ST AND LP 49. D1 ADVISED THAT ONE MOTORCYCLE RAN THE RED LIGHT AT THE SAME INTERSECTION AND V2 WAS BEHIND THAT MOTORCYCLE AND ATTEMPTED TO RUN THE RED LIGHT AS WELL. D1 ADVISED THAT SHE ATTEMPTED TO SWERVE TO AVOID CRASHING INTO V2, BUT DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO AVOID THE CRASH. D1 ADVISED THAT D2 JUMPED OFF THE MOTORCYCLE AND FELL ON HIS SIDE AND P2 GOT EJECTED OFF OF THE MOTORCYLCE AND FELL ONTO THE ASPHALT. D1ADVISED THAT SHE WENT TO THE NEAREST PARKING LOT, PARKED HER VEHICLE AND CALLED THE POLICE.

D2 ADVISED THAT HE WAS TRAVELING NORTHBOUND ON LP 49 IN THE INSIDE LANE FOLLOWING TWO MOTORCYCLES THAT WERE IN FRONT OF HIM. D2 ADVISED THAT WHEN HE GOT TO THE INTERSECTION HE DID NOT LOOK AT THE LIGHT TO SEE IF IT WAS GREEN, YELLOW, OR RED. D2 ADVISED THAT HE WAS JUST LOOKING AT THE MOTORCYCLES IN FRONT. D2 ADVISED THAT HE THEN SAW V1 TRAVELING TOWARDS HIM. D2 ADVISED THAT HE ALREADY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN SO HE JUMPED OFF OF THE MOTORCYLCE AND FELL ON HIS SIDE ON THE ASPHALT. D2 ADVISED THAT WHEN HE GOT BACK UP HE SAW P2 ON THE GROUND AND SAW THAT SHE HAD A BROKEN ANKLE. 

W1 AND W2 ADVISED THAT THEY WERE AT 43RD ST AND LP49 AND SAW THE WHOLE CRASH. THEY ADVISED THAT V1 WAS TRAVELIING EASTBOUND ON 44TH ST AND HAD A GREEN LIGHT AT THE INTERSECTION OF CST 44TH ST AND LP 49. THEY ADVISED THAT V2 WAS TRAVELING NORTHBOUND ON LP 49 AND RAN THERED LIGHT AT THE INTERSECTION. THEY ADVISED THAT V1 CRASHED INTO V2 AT AND ANGLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION. THEY ADVISED THAT V2 WAS TRAVELING IN THE INSIDE LANE. THEY ADVISED THAT V1 DID NOT HAVE TIME TO AVOID THE CRASH. 

MEDICAL STAFF ADVISED THAT D2 TOLD THEM THAT HE WAS NOT GOING TO LIE AND STATED THAT HE WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE LIGHT SIGNAL. THEY ADVISED THAT D2 STATED THAT HE WAS FOLLOWING TWO MOTORCYLCES IN FRONT OF HIM AND WHEN HE WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION HE SAW V1 OUT OF THE CORNER OF HIS EYE COMING TOWARDS HIM, THEN HE LOOKED UPAND SAW THE RED LIGHT. D2 ADVISED THAT THEN THE CRASH HAPPENED. 

I CHECKED THE ROADWAY FOR SKID MARKS AND DID NOT LOCATE ANY FROM EITHER VEHICLE. P2 WAS TRANSPORTED TO ******** HOSPITAL BY METS FOR A BROKEN ANKLE. THERE WAS DAMAGE TO THE FRONT PASSENGER SIDE OF V1. THERE WAS DAMAGE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF V2. PICTURES WERE TAKEN OF THE VEHICLES AND INJURIES AND WERE ENTERED INTO EVIDENCE ACCORDINGLY.

Prussian Fashion

Yes, the US Army issued these things!

Linky.

How Do You Know If...

How do you know that someone...

...does crossfit...

...is a vegan...

...is gluten sensitive...

...has a peanut allergy...

...runs Linux...

...?

Don't worry, they'll tell you when ever anything remotely tangential to the above topics comes up.

Polygamy

The McThag household runs a variety...

Three Macs, running three different versions of OSX.

Three PC's, running two different versions of Win7(64).

I've discovered something odd...

We're very vested in iTunes.  Spent a lot of money there because we'd flat run out of storage space for CD's and DVD's.

To play your iTunes purchases, in many cases (like movies), that requires you have an iTunes install on the computer.

Apple makes iTunes for their OS and for Windows since XP.

Chrome is the same between OS's.  Thunderbird is the same between OS's.  Open Office is the same between OS's.  Firefox is the same between OS's.

iTunes is different.  I have five different OS's and five different iTunes.  On two of the Macs you could excuse it because they're older and unsupported versions.  But Harvey's MacBook Pro is running the latest and greatest OSX and the PC's are all fully updated.

And it's not just the commands being moved around or renamed.  It's functions flat don't exist on one version and do on another.  Importing your library of media is completely different between platforms.

Oh, and that cloud thing they advertised?  Barely scratches the files we bought, so now we've learned to not count on it.

Reconcile

If a dog can be made an officer of the law and someone can be charged with assaulting an officer for injuring a police dog...

How is it that my dog cannot be made a family member and the police likewise charged when they casually shoot them?

A dog is either a piece of property, or it's not.

The response that they were only doing as they were trained is exactly as much of an excuse as it sounds.  Right up there with, "he started it."

Here's the rub about the police, Mr Gilette reminded me...

If it is wrong for me to do something, it is also wrong for me to hire someone else to do it for me.

Can I shoot the neighbor's dog?  Under what circumstances?

To account for the hiring morality, the circumstances must be identical for the officer and me.  The same goes for carrying a gun, self-defense, ect...

If it's wrong for me to possess a machinegun made after 1986, then it's wrong for me to hire people with machineguns made after 1986.  If it's right that I pay a $200 tax to acquire such an item, then likewise so should the people I hire pay it.

If police dogs are people, so is my dog.  The hirelings cannot be morally elevated past the morals of the citizens who hired them.

So if it's OK to waste a dog for barking "because training" then all I need to do is find a trainer who will teach me that and voila!  Get out of jail free!

I can see you sitting there with a wrinkled brow, thinking, "no that's not right..."  Because you almost see it.  You just haven't connected that "I followed my training" is the echo of another invalidated excuse of a government worker "I was just following orders."

The citizens being subjected to these imbalances in morality certainly sense the wrongness, even if they can't express it.

Not Getting Worse

Looking at CATO's freedom indices.

Florida has dropped relative to other states.

Florida didn't get worse, it simply didn't get better.

It's actually great news!  The rest of the nation is faring pretty well!

Interesting Speech

BASE Jumper Dies In Freak Accident

That's the headline.

To me the proper headline that would actually be news is "BASE Jumper survives unscathed after breaking no laws."

Because that's the occurrence that's rare.

These guys making meat-waffles is pretty routine.

Bubba Eats FUDD Too

The bolt gun agony combined with a C&R leads me to look for older guns.

The Winchester Model 54 is such a gun.  My obsession with .270 Win. led me to it because it was introduced with the Mod. 54.

In those way-back days, rifles did not come ready for scopes for the most part.  They came with iron sights.  The opposite of today.

Winchester offered sight upgrades, though, in the form of a Lyman peep sight from the factory.  The receiver is drilled and tapped and the stock inletted.  Sometimes the tangent sight is retained with a folding notch, sometimes a block is set into the barrel dovetail.

Why do I mention Bubba?

Years later, Bubba decided that his deer assassinating bullet projection device needed a scope.  Off the Lyman comes and into the trash it goes.  The receiver is drilled and tapped for scope mounts and he's set!

Now, fifty years on, the C part of C&R sees the gaping hole in the stock and the corroded screw holes in the receiver and thinks, "well there went a lot of the original value."  Changes it from a $1,500 gun to a $600 gun!

Even worse is when the pictures show the peep sight threads in perfect shape and the brand and model of scope mount is obviously recent...  Bubba doesn't do research before he starts drilling.

.270 Winchester

.270 Winchester is clearly superior to .30-06 and .280 Remington.

Why?

Because even during the great ammo panics of 2008 and 2012 it was still on the shelves at Wal Mart.

.30-06 disappeared.

.280 doesn't appear to be stocked by Wal Mart at all.

Disappointed

But I'm not really shocked.

The only real objection I have here is he didn't even try to thumb the bolt carrier forward.

I'm now curious how a standard bolt carrier would do, I've always felt the sand cuts were just a means for crud to enter the system.

Go Nikon!

The Savage 110 Trophy Hunter XP that I am manfully resisting buying comes with a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 scope with BDC reticle.

Because it's a second-focal-plane scope, the reticle stays the same size regardless of magnification, thus the range markings are only good at a single range for a given magnification.

And for a single loading of a single chambering...

So they made a web page so you can determine the ranges!

Pick your scope, your round and adjust other settings and you're set!

Sure beats doing the math!

Fuel Economy

I remember over and over criticism of the M1 Abrams fuel economy.

About 0.6 miles per gallon.

The critics condemned the turbine engine for this abysmal fuel consumption.

They failed to tell us what other tanks got for mileage.

The British Centurion, very much in service at the time the M1 was being developed just barely broke 0.5 miles per gallon on road and was around 0.25 mpg cross country.  But that was a gas engine.

The M60, which the M1 replaced does get better mileage with its diesel engine, but not a lot better; 0.78 miles per gallon.

Pine Ear

The platoon sergeant at my first line unit referred to the shovel, axe and pick as "pine ear" tools.

It took me months to decipher his accent to realize that he was saying "pioneer".

Taxation Without Representation?

No idea if this is true, but if it is...

Important Safety Tip

After watching several of Forgotten Weapon's mud tests...

I have come to the conclusion that you should not take cover in a wheelbarrow full of mud.

I hope this has been of assistance.

I Stand Corrected

Trans-fats are not the byproduct of liposuction from a transsexual.

I stand corrected.

Not Since

I love pithy little statements that start, "Not since..."

Especially when they go Godwin.

But sometimes there's a clear ring of truth that sends chills...

"Not since before Fort Sumter has the nation been so divided," does get used a lot.

I think I'll add, "Not since Joseph Goebbels has the media been so aligned with a single party."

Fucking Pravda had more dissent than todays "mainstream" press.  Why do we still call them mainstream?

Death Of A Thousand Cuts

Where we should begin expending our political capital is to deregulate guns.

Start reading the gun laws and you rapidly discover that many of the things we comply with aren't illegal at all.

They're violations of regulations created by the agency in charge of enforcing the laws we aren't breaking.

The ATF Form 4473 is one we've all dealt with.  What law requires this?  18 USC § 923 (g) (1) (a) requires that records be kept and 18 USC § 923 (g) (1) (b) and 18 USC § 923 (g) (1) (c) let the attorney general inspect them without a warrant and specifies when.

The 4473 is from a regulation standardizing the records.  The law is satisfied by records being kept and doesn't require them to be standardized at all.

How much trouble stems from this standardized form?  How many licenses revoked?  How many arrests?  For filling out a form wrong.

I'm learning NFA laws too.

Did you know there's no distinction in the law between a maker and a manufacturer?  Did you know that ATF has never officially determined there's a difference?  Did you know that they already treat them differently with regards to repairing a suppressor?

Most everyone has heard of 922 (r) compliance.  The law doesn't mention parts counts or define parts kits or really much at all.  Taken one way it can be read to mean that you can't use imported parts at all to make a firearm banned from importation in 18 USC § 925 (d) (3).  Taken another way is the serialized part (ie the receiver) determines if it's a US made gun or not.

Heck, that serialized part bit is also a regulatory item.  Go on, convince a person who's not into guns that your stripped lower is a gun.  Go on.  Try it.  Now, once you've convinced them of that, convince them that an 80% lower isn't a gun.

"Once an MG always an MG" is an ATF determination too.

All of this stuff was just decided by members of the executive branch, who've been granted no legislative power by The Constitution.

We should demand that Congress take back the power they've unconstitutionally ceded to these agencies and render those regulations void.

Recursive

Kahr car gun on a car.

What if your car gun is a Kahr gun?

Do you need a Kahrry permit too?  Is it stored in the Kahrgo compartment?

Or do you even Kahre?

Mosin Price Update

High-wall, round receiver, 1944 Izhevsk 91/30, refurb markings, billboard import mark:  $259 at a local pawn shop.

No accessories, no bayonet, no sling.

Firm price.

All Better

There's a Confederate War Memorial near where I-75 and I-4 meet just east of Tampa.

It's purported to be the "World's Largest Confederate Flag Memorial".

Until recently it flew the Confederate Battle Flag.

Now it sports the Confederate States of America national flag.

You know, the flag that represents the actual nation that was all about slavery?  Not the flag that stood for an army in the field.

I'll bet the ignorant social justice savages are mollified by it too.  Hell, it worked on the Georgia flag for years!

Sweeten The Pot

Looking on Gunbroker tells us that the Savage 10/110 Trophy Hunter XP can be had for $528.24 from a couple stocking vendors.  Free shipping!  Plus a $25 FFL and background check brings a scoped, detachable magazine bolt action for a mere $553.24 out the door.  $115.15 cheaper than Bass Pro and still eligible for the $75 rebate.

$478.24 total.

Non Potable

Watching the diving at the Olympics while drinking for charity...

Wow that's some turbid water!

I wonder if that is really waterinated chlorine rather than chlorinated water.

The swiftness the divers in rinsing off after their dives seems to say that it's unpleasant to have on their skins.  One even had a, "It burns!  It BURNS!" expression on her face while rinsing from the hot-tub placed for such purpose.

Sweet And Sour

That Savage Trophy Hunter package deal is not perfect.

The package series has the Axis style magazine, which is all plastic and several people have noted that the $45 $40 magazines breaking off their locking tab and some reports of the plastic rear peg wearing out prematurely.

On the plus side, the Trophy Hunter has a $75 rebate if you buy soon.

I've been doing some reading on it and it appears that you can retrofit the all-metal magazine system from a normal 11/110 to the XP.  Research continues.

To change the magazine system from a plastic latch on the magazine to a metal latch on the "frame" you need:

Frame Assembly Long, Matte NBR (DBM) p/n 106706; $78

Trigger Guard Assembly, Matte RI p/n 107217; $26

Magazine Box - 110FC/ 111FC (25-06 Rem, 270 Win, 30-06, 7x57mm Mauser) Bottom Release Latch, Matte Blued p/n 55117; $52

Or plus $156 and shipping.

Bringing the tinkered cost of the rifle to $749.39 plus shipping on the parts.

OR for even more you can convert to AICS magazines with a Pacific Tool and Gauge trigger guard, just $152.75 for the guard and another $40 for a Magpul AICS compatible magazine.

OR for even more you can make a similar conversion using CDI Precision Gunworks (just down the road in Sarasota, FL!)  $209 plus installation (free if you ship them your rifle).  Hmmmm, I wonder if they'd let a blogger bring down a rifle for conversion and let him take pictures and ask questions as if he were the media or something...

Here's Your Chance To Get On One Of Those Lists!

Click on over to https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-gunsmithing-itar

Sign it and click the confirm email when it comes.

Now you're on one of those lists they keep talking about.

C'mon, make The White House respond to us!

Taking odds on the response being, "fuck off."

Keyless Entry Anti-Theft Device

I was reading this article.

I don't know if my Corvette's keyless entry system is vulnerable to this attack or not.

Luckily, my car came with an anti-theft device from the factory:

I am just old enough to remember when this kind of transmission was called "standard" and when it changed to being "a stick" to the present "manual".

I learned to drive on a '76 Vega wagon with the iron lung inline four and a five speed manual.

I was one of only three people I knew who could drive a friend's '64 Valiant with three-on-the-tree.

Now I am one of those car-guy snobs who bought the stick because it's a better experience...  Being in control of the gear changes is more fun!  It's also a real pain in the knee in stop and go traffic.

Happily, with almost all the torque in the world available from idle, I don't often find myself praying for gears between gears, like I did with my old 4-speed '86 Civic.  The Civic needed a first-and-a-half and second-and-a-half gears quite often in traffic.

Feet to the fire though, if I were buying a brand new Vette today, I think I'd opt for the auto.  The paddles offer the control of a manual and the gear changes are blindingly quick.

Something Interesting

My Mac's OS is out of date, 10.6.8.

My install of Chrome is unsupported, Version 49.0.2623.112 (64-bit), because of it.

I use ScriptSafe to keep unwanted scripts from ruining my browsing experience.

I noticed something going from the fully updated Win7 Pro 64 laptop to my ancient Mac Pro...

There's sites that work with just a few allowed items on ScriptSafe on the Mac, but need to allow almost everything on the PC.

Some sites load very quickly on the Mac and drag on and on on the PC.

Near Rhetorical

How is it that the ATF can process a C&R FFL renewal in fewer than 30 calendar days but can't get an NFA item approved in more than 90?

I know the real answer is "by design"...

Principled Stand

I don't do business with people who hate me if I can, at all, help it.

All it does it give them funding to better hate on me.

Time and again, though, they relent in their hate and I can do business with them.

I forgave S&W.  I've forgiven Ruger.

Smith Enterprise, Troy Industries and anyone associated with NFATCA are yet unforgiven because they have yet to relent.  And relent they must to be forgiven.

They have to say they're sorry and mean it.

Smith and Troy doubled down.

The board of NFATCA is laying low, hoping we don't notice they're whom they are and that we won't do anything about it.

Belittling me will not change that they hate on you.

Um Actually

I'm not even a DC reader and I knew that The Enchantress would be the main villain and not The Joker.

So an article about "fans" complaining about a lack of Joker screen time really says they're not comic book readers.

To put it in Marvel terms, it's like complaining that Magneto wasn't in the film much when Galactus is present.

Trump Polling

The same people who said that Scotland would surely secede from Great Britain and that Great Britain would never leave the EU are telling me that Trump has no chance of winning the election.

Are they thinking, "third time's the charm"?

Incidental Items

"CBS All Access' 'Star Trek: Discovery' to Be Captained By a Woman, Feature Gay Character"

That headline tells me everything I need to know about this series.

If the new show isn't ABOUT the captain being a woman and her crewmanperson being gay then it's irrelevant information.

But it's presented as important information, so it must be about the captain being a woman and her crewmanperson being gay, huh?

That doesn't interest me.

Good science fiction where characters, even high ranking ones, happen to be female or gay?  I'm interested and I'll watch.

Social justice warfare cloaked in Star Trek (which by the fucking way was never actually science fiction); nope.

For fuck's sake Hollywierd, stop selling and start closing.  Gender and sexual orientation are already neutral to me and a lot of sci-fi nerds, we don't need to be hit over the head about it again.

Didn't you notice how we reacted to the gorram'd Hugo?  We want science fiction back without the indoctrinational lectures.

For fuck's sake, if we can accept Nessus and Chmeee as PEOPLE then it's no stretch to accept some dude who likes sex with other dudes as a person too.

It really is starting to feel like sci-fi-ish shows are the justicesplaining soapboxes they like best because they get to show their utopia fully realized.

Why No McThag Podcast?

Favorite word is "Uh..."
Second favorite word is some variation of F-bomb.

The main reason is I have a face for radio and a voice for silent film.

Disagree

It is not self depreciation or false modesty if you really are as incompetent as you claim.

And I am.

Craftiness Of The Willard

By not stopping by early in the morning, he's saved himself from having to make the hour long drive down to Bass Pro to look at Savage Package rifles.

We'd never get there and back in time to unlock the door for The Boy.

He's not worried about being tempted by the rifles.  No sir, Mongolians are used to hardship they are.

He fears that they have .300 Savage or .30-40 in stock.

He's an addict and I am an enabler.

Modernity

It has me a little gobstopped that .44 Magnum from a Ruger carbine is nearly the same in ballistics as a much longer Trapdoor rifle firing .45-70-300.

Hey I Know That Gun

When you start collecting a certain niche, you start seeing the same guns offered for sale over and over.

I'm something of a Finn Mosin collector, and I've not got a Kiv/27.  I keep seeing the same three guns come up for sale over and over from different sellers.

Isn't that interesting?

Just Can't Look Away

It's Only Fair

If Christian bakers have to make wedding cakes for homosexuals, then Muslim flight attendants have to serve alcohol to passengers.

Otherwise it's not equal treatment.

Related, hey Ms Special Snowflake, the job has serving drinks among the list of your duties.  You're in the wrong for refusing to do your job and you got fired for it.  That your religion forbade you to serve drinks was something you knew before you applied for the position, so you accepted the position under false pretenses.

GURPS It's Always GURPS

With the Mosin conversion we get...

7.62x54mmR.  7d pi damage, 5+3 Acc, 1,000/4,200 range and either 5(2i) or 10+1(3) shots.

With the savage package we get...

.243 Win.  7d-1 pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 840/4,300 range and 4+1(3) shots.  8.5/0.2 lb.
.270 Win.  7d+2 pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 950/4,100 range and 4+1(3) shots.  9.3/0.3 lb.
.280 Rem. 7d pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 910/4,500 range and 4+1(3) shots.  9.3/0.3 lb.
.308 Win.  7d pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 1,000/4,200 range and 4+1(3) shots.  8.7/0.3 lb.
.30-06.  7d+1 pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 1,100/4,300 range and 4+1(3) shots.  9.3/0.3 lb.

All that's left to compare would be the weights.  The Savages are 8.3 lb. empty in .243 and .308; and 9.05 lb. in .270 and .30-06.

The Mosin started at 8.7 empty.  The wood is 3.1 lb.  The ATI stock is 2.9; Archangel is 3.8.

So 8.5 and 9.4 empty.

The trigger is a net zero change.

The scope mount is 0.1 lb.

The scope and rings are a pound.  Bringing the Mosin project to 9.6 or 10.5 lb empty depending on stock.

GURPS uses loaded weight so 9.9/0.3 and 11.1/0.7 for the ATI and Archangel respectively.

Bubba Math

A Savage 10/110 XP Trophy Hunter Package is $619.99 plus tax ($43.40 in FL) and and background ($5) from Bass Pro.  That gets you a scoped rifle with a match trigger and detachable magazine for $668.39 in your choice of calibers.

We're going to approach ordering the Mosin one thing at a time because that's been presented as a budgetary concern as opposed to saving a bit on shipping by ordering all at once (which I will also show).

A bog-standard Mosin-Nagant M91/30 from AIM surplus is $269.95, plus shipping ($18.47), background ($5) and FFL fee ($35 average).  That gets you a long, heavy milsurp rifle for $328.42.

The cheapest stock Midway has is an Advanced Technology monte-carlo for $79.99 plus $10.79 shipping.

The more desirable Archangel stock is $169.99 and $13.19 shipping.

The Timney match trigger runs $99.99 and $4.99 shipping.

A scope mount (with bent bolt handle kit) is $27.99 plus $4.99 shipping.

The Nikon ProStaff 3-9x40 that the Savage comes with is $179.95 with free shipping!

The cheapest 1" rings from Midway are Tasco for $5.99 and we'll order them with the scope.

Our money saving Mosin-Nagant is now a $743.10 rifle in a monte-carlo stock or $835.30 in an Archangel.

That drops to $3.20 shipping total ($17.57 savings) or $725.53 if you order the monte-carlo option all at once and $6.50 for the Archangel ($16.67 saved) or $818.63.

This values your labor and time at $0, because the bolt kit requires some sawing and tapping.

To skip drilling and tapping, a scope mount that replaces the rear sight is $14.99 plus $5.99 shipping from Sportsman's Guide.

A couple places offer doing the bolt for you for $50 or so.

That changes the final price to $781.10 or $873.30.

I've also noticed that this time around doing this exercise that a lot of the people who were doing Mosin parts have vanished.  It's a rough market.

I will add the caveat that if you're doing a Mosin to make a good FUDD rifle, this is a bad plan.  If you're doing it for the fun of gathering and assembling parts, then it's your fun, ENJOY!

Just don't stand there and tell me you saved money by starting on a Mosin.

Assuming that all that gets you as good a gun as the Savage, the break even price point on the host Mosin is $212.81 with the cheapest upgrade package.  You can also shave money by getting cheap on the glass, but it's another false economy.

War On Poodles

I think some folks need to accept that 5.56x45mm isn't going anywhere.

It's been around for more than 50 years and it's been thoroughly vetted by real fighting.

The flaws and virtues have been extensively explored and it's sufficient.  It's killed effectively from war to mass shootings to self defense to hunting.

So adequate, that even with the known flaws, that nations are replacing rifle designs but keeping the cartridge.  If it were a completely useless clusterfuck we'd see these new rifles in a new round and NATO standardization of that new round.

This sufficiency is predicated on the weapon fitting into its proper place in a combined arms military.  Your survivalist/prepper needs may vary due to the lack of artillery and air support.

Although, it may be just fine for social purposes because of the legalities of shooting a looter WAY down the street should society return to normal rather than going Wetdream Omega Man®.

I say all this as an owner of ARs in 6.8x43mm and an FAL in 7.62x51mm.

The replacement of the rifle rather than the cartridge might bring to light the real reason ol' two-twenty-three is so hated.  There's some who just cannot stand the rifle that introduced them to the round.  Those scars run deep.

There's also an undercurrent of what constitutes the best rifle.  The best rifle ever designed is virtually always the first rifle that worked when you absolutely needed it to and never didn't.  The worst rifle ever designed is virtually always the first rifle that failed when you absolutely needed it, if even only once.

There's certainly a body of people who went to war for the first time with an M14 or an FAL, cementing those as the BEST rifle for all time.  Likewise, someone stuck with an M16 when it was in its birthing problems stage or an L85A1 is, forever, going to hate those rifles.

Of Note

You never hear anyone bitching about a post-66 Savage.

I find that interesting.

(Nothing But) Flowers

There was a rack of Mosins
Now there are AR's and Savages.
You got it, you got it.

There's not a single Mosin-Nagant of any stripe on a rack in a gun or pawn shop for a 15 mile radius of McThag Haus.

They're all gone.

AIM still lists them for near $300, and it will top that after shipping and FFL fees.

It is official, it is now foolish to put any money into upgrading one.

There's all manner of used bolt guns for less than $400 that come already scoped and in monte-carlo stock.  Yes, some are converted milsurps themselves, but their value is only as shooting guns now and not increasing.

Never mind that Savage will sell you a NEW rifle package for about what a Mosin and Archangel stock cost when you add in the scope too.

Hmmmm, $620 to Bass Pro for a brand new rifle doesn't sound too bad at all...

Revolver Mode

Took Willard's Browning BDSM out to the range to see if it works.  75 rounds later, we think that it does.

The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.

I really feel I should mention that at least once.  You could learn it, but you risk unlearning it on other guns where the safety works correctly.

I tried out "revolver mode" and it was surprisingly easy.  The trick is the hammer never rests all the way down, it rests at a half-cock which means you have to lift it a lot less than in a revolver or other DAO pistol I've tried.  The 12 shot group in the picture is my third magazine through the gun fired relatively quickly at 7ish yards.

It happily ate Perfecta 115gr FMJ and Freedom Munitions 115gr JHP.  No malfunctions of any kind in our 105 round fam-fire.

Equivalence Testing

Willard has a 1948 made Winchester Model 70.  He also has a ??? made Winchester Model 670A.

The 670 is the cheapened down version of the post-64 Model 70, which was itself so cheapened down that the whining has never stopped from bolt-gun aficionados for the past 52 years.

Both are in .30-06 and both wear a Bushnell Sportview 3-9x32 scopes.

The Winchester is on top... OK, the 70 is on top 670A on bottom.

 The big difference is the feed system, with the old gun having the Mauser style "controlled" feed and the new gun having a simple push feed.

70 on the left.

There's lots of small differences as well, but the feed is the one panties are most bunched over.

And we have to be honest with ourselves.  In 1962 Winchester faced real competition and lost market-share to Remington's Model 700.  They couldn't just keep on keeping on with the old gun and expect to stay in business.  Maybe if Remington hadn't already eaten them alive with the Model 12 being supplanted by the 870, they might have weathered it.  But losing the market to Remington on two guns; too much.

Apparently the post-64 Mod 70 wasn't cheap enough for some buyers, thus we get the 670 shortly after.

Which brings us to today...

With a Model 670 or 670A running about $400, often including a decent scope and a pre-64 Model 70 running at least four times that, is the extra money really worth it?

So we went shooting today to find out.

No.  The extra money is not worth it.

These guns shot nearly identically.

That's the bottom line, they shoot the same.  The only reason to spend more is for things that aren't about accuracy and you'd have to make that call for yourself.

I Know I Am

Are you thankful there's a 22nd Amendment?

Of note, Massachusetts is one of only two states to reject this amendment, Oklahoma being the other.

Geek Slog

Still cranking away at converting the GURPS: Traveller character templates over to GURPS 4th Edition.

It's just tedious.

Lots of advantages, disadvantages and skills have been renamed.  Some even eliminated.

Some advantages have become secondary stats.

It's going faster and faster as I knock the cobwebs off the synapses, but it's a slog.

The good news is I've managed to get the main GT book, Far Trader, and Starports converted.

The bad news is there's still four Alien Races books, First In, Ground Forces, Humaniti, Nobles, Psionics Institutes, Star Mercs and Starships.

UGH!

Mutable Prediction

Now that the Gadsen Flag is a symbol of racism I predict that any symbol used to spread the ideas of liberty will likewise be "discovered" to be racist or its weaker cousin sexist.

If we're to be treated as racists, what have we to lose by actually being racists?  That's an honest question.

The solution is to take the user of a symbol at their word for its meaning.  You can tell them that the symbol means something else to you, but your usage does not predict or predicate theirs.

Never mind that the Gadsen flags display is deliberate political speech on the part of the person displaying it.  The stated reason we have the 1st amendment is about such speech, all the other reasons for freedom of speech are from the penumbras that virtually any speech or expression can be political so we allow everything.

Fine Then

I identify as a lesbian who found herself trapped in a woman's body and has successfully completed gender transition to male.

It wasn't me that made being "merely" a man untenable, so this is what you get.

And yes, making me go through such circumlocutions to shut your ass up DOES belittle the struggle of people who actually have mismatched plumbing and wiring.  I was happy not going there, but you insisted.

Why aren't you happy for me?

Inner Struggle

Yes, I totally understand what you're talking about and where it happened.

I was there before you were.

Almost 13 years before, but there none the less.

Nope, I don't wanna go back either.

Dissonance

The splits are starting at one of the local cop shops.

There's starting to be two camps and it's looking to get ugly.

One side is "Blue Lives Matter, OUR safety is paramount to all other considerations."

The other is on the more traditional side where the community is paramount.

Interestingly to me, it's the younger officers who're less "the only thing that matters is I come home safe at night," group.

We've got a couple of cops from this department who help with The Boy's bowling league and they're very interesting to chat with on some of these issues.

Of note was a comment the older one (still a kid to me) made about trainers and training with the blue lives matter thing so many were putting out.  "They're presenting it to a class in a very positive way because there's non-cops in the class.  The same class with the same instructors often give a more severe presentation when it's cops only."  This "kid" hates that kind of thing.

He wants everyone to come home alive, and thinks there's ways to do it.  He's proud that his department, despite having a large black community, isn't having riotous breakouts over cop behavior.  Of course, he admits, such riots happened in the early '90's and the department changed its policies on policing to good effect.  Crime and racial tension are way down since then.

The younger one coined a funny too, "SWAT stands for Steroids, Whisky And Testosterone."  They're both of the opinion that SWAT has a role, but it's a tool designed for a specific job.  "We don't use a hammer to tighten a bolt, unless it's a SWAT team."

Only

Every time you see "X" lives matter, prefix it with "Only" and you have the true meaning of the statement.

Gun Day

Took faithful reader CorvetteCadillacMinivanJohn to his first gun show!

He looked like he had fun.

Marv got the stuff to reload 5.56.  One of the vendors kept trying to press him into buying a powder that burns WAY too fast for an AR.  Marv walked away from that.

The show was a lot more crowded than the previous show, which we're attributing to the spectre of the election looming.  No shortages of things like in '08, but there also seems to be a lot more arts & crafts and jerky than before Shoot Straight bought this circuit.

Back at Marv's we attacked his 16ga Winchester Model 12.  It's been unreliable feeding for a while and my time with the 12ga version has me grokking how it works.

First off.  His bolt latch lever is worn down.  What this does, primarily, is hold the bolt in the closed and locked position when you take the barrel off and the action bar no longer holds it.  The action bar doesn't rock the lever far enough when it comes out to securely lock the bolt.  If the bolt doesn't lock, then getting it back together is problematic.

Secondly.  The magazine was rotated 180˚ from where it was supposed to be.  What is it with Model 12 owners and doing this?

Third.  The shell stop was letting the rounds in the magazine go before the shell elevator could lift the ready round.  This creates a jam.  Marv bent the hook just a little bit on the end of the thing and now it blocks the magazine from dumping when it's supposed to.

I confirmed that 11 1-3/4" 12ga shells can be loaded into a Model 12 as well.

Forget It Jake, It's Bahstahn

There are times I wonder if we should bother fighting the stupidity in places like Massivetwoshits.

Expending political capital to get their attorney general to actually follow the law seems a wasted effort because at the end of the day, the fine folks of Massachusetts still have an assault weapons ban.

What do we gain by fighting there?

Time and again I feel like advances in freer places are being put on hold to fight the same losing battles in the same loser places to no avail.

It's easy to take an attitude that if they're stupid enough to live there, then they can just eat up the shit sandwich that being a gun owner there brings.

Will getting Massachusetts to go back to status quo antehealy cause an expansion to gun rights elsewhere?

Will it have an effect like Florida going from no CCW to shall-issue and shine as an example for other states to follow?

Will it set the bar so we go from almost no states following the law as written to nearly all of them?

Will it inspire other states to surpass this example of liberty and become even more free?

Or will it just reset to the way it was and we have to constantly fight to keep the most anti-gun state in the nation in line while not advancing anywhere else even a whit?

My real fear is something I see way too often in Florida.

Pro-gun libtards from all those anti-gun Atlantic seaboard states bailing and moving here.

Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut...  I hear that Virginia isn't even in The South anymore with North Carolina wavering because of it.

We've got to make the rest of the nation proofed against their political tendencies or it won't matter how the AWB in Boston is being enforced.

Colorado got fucked by this kind of migration from California.  Arizona and Texas are feeling it as well.

Did You Ever Notice

That the parking place for someone who's handicapped has to be right near the door...

...but the back of the store can be as far from that door as you want?

It makes you wonder if they're all that disabled if they can get all the way back to the far corner of a Wal Mart but can't go more than 50 yards from the car.

Kermie Cam - General Motors FM-2 Wildcat - Part 2

Cranking up the Wildcat.

This plane is located just down the road from here too!

It's not a Grumman!  A Grumman Wildcat would be an F4F not an FM.

The FM-2 is a variant that wasn't built by Grumman in production, being based on the XF4F-8.

An FM-1 is the same plane as an F4F-4 except for where it was made though!

Resemblance

To me, the Browning BDSM BDM looks a lot more like an S&M S&W Auto than a Browning.

Just sayin'.

Feeling Unwanted

Amusement parks and science fiction conventions are designated gun-free zones by signage here in Florida.

The only force of law to those signs is the property can tell you to leave if they figure out you're carrying in violation of that sign.  If you refuse to leave, or take too long doing it, they can have you busted for trespassing.

Legalities aside, what they are really telling us with these signs is they don't want us there.

Some take that to mean, "they don't want us there with our guns."  I don't.

You don't want me to carry, you don't want me there at all and that means you don't want my money.

This decision is made even easier by how stupidly overpriced amusement parks are.

Yes, this is something of a boycott.

I figure that it's only a matter of time before some ISIS kook manages to get into a gun-free victim zone like DisneyWorld and amass a substantial body count due to a lack of shooting back thanks to the disarmament policies of The Mouse.

I'd rather not be there when that happens and especially not be there disarmed by a policy that exists merely to mollify the concerns about ME to hoplophobes from New York, New Jersey and Europe vacationing here in The Gunshine State.

Flip Side

If I were a business owner...

I don't want my employees free-speechin' when they should be workin'.

While they're being paid, it's MY interests they're supposed to be dedicated towards; not their own.

It's one of the reasons they're being paid, after all.

I watched a business get put out of business because it hired someone as a welder right out of welding school.

They'd done it before without problems, what was different about this?

The newest welder was a special snowflake who didn't know that welders cussed to a degree that made sailors request the language be toned down a mite.

The newest welder was always in the offices complaining about their co-worker's language and, it seemed, rarely out on the shop floor welding.

Because they didn't do much welding, they never learned more than they'd got from school.

Because of the language complaints to HR and the PC hammer coming down on it, the most experienced welders, literally, said, "fuck this!" and moved on.  To the point where there was not a single welder with the knowledge to weld up the pressure vessels which were the high-margin keep the doors open product the business used to get through seasonal variations in orders.

Can't sell a pressure tank that fails inspection.

Special Snowflake's complaints and HR policy had also given the place a reputation as someplace a welder didn't want to work, so they couldn't hire someone who could do the pressure welds.

Less than a year after Snowflake was hired, the 60 year old local company was sold to a 5 year old national concern.  For its patents and sales network.  Not for its manufacturing.

To me it's especially galling that there's a stated right to speech, and no stated right to be protected from being offended by someone's speech.

We're running it backwards.

If the shop cusses, and you tell new-hires there's cussing, then it's part of the job; if you accept the position you're accepting exposure to the cussing.  Yes, I am saying the ruling on "shop rules" was wrongly decided.