27 February 2019

Downgraded

The first non Service Grade pistol from CMP has been reported at the 3400ish number level.

They say they were offered a Field Grade or nothin'.

As late as 3250, Service was the only grade offered.

We eagerly await photos to see what $100 buys you for Service vs Field.

Unpossible!

Shots fired at Riviera Beach VA Hospital.

Suspect is in custody.

Perhaps he didn't see the numerous signs prohibiting the possession of weapons on the hospital campus.

I am puzzled at how he was able to pass the magic barriers like they didn't exist.

Background Check Fail

Apparently, there's a bunch of cops in California who shouldn't be because they're convicts... but the system that's supposed to flag them doesn't.

And that's not even close to the biggest controversy with it.

When I search my name I find my arrest.  I find the charge.  I see my mugshot.

Those charges were dropped.  It's a not insignificant effort to get those records expunged.  Then once I have them expunged, I have to one-at-a-time demand a take-down from every police blotter web page that has posted those public records.

But if I had a badge!

Even though they're convicted of the crimes, their arrest and conviction is kept from public record?

So secret that the convicted cop, despite being disqualified by the conviction, can slip into a new law enforcement job?

Gee, Officer, wonder why normal people don't trust you?  Every time we look hard there's another carve out for your ever-so-special ass.

Production

Remington-Rand, in three years of production, almost doubles the number of M1911A1 pistols made by Colt in more than 20.

Ithaca, in two years of M1911A1 production, almost ties Colt's 21 year number.

Remington-Rand very nearly tied Colt's total M1911 and M1911A1 production which spanned 33 years.

All M1911A1 were made to a "throw the parts in a pillow case, shake vigorously, don't worry about which gun they came from interchangeability standard.  Ithaca and Remington-Rand tooled up in less than a year each to this high standard.

Remington-Rand's entire initial production run was scrapped because their parts wouldn't interchange with Colt's, despite the guns being fully functional and there being a war on.

There are more, rare and valuable, Union Switch and Signal M1911A1's made than Springfield made M1911's.  There are even fewer Remington-UMC M1911's.

26 February 2019

364,511 + 13 = $0.00

The bill is paid.

The ledger is balanced.

It was a gift, enjoy it.

You want more, earn it.

Keep pushing and we might just see fit to charge your ungrateful asses for the original bill plus interest.


7th BIrthday

Seven years ago a new ethnic group was discovered; "white-hispanic".

Cast The First Stone

I've followed the police blotter long enough to notice that your community's absence from Live PD or COPS doesn't mean you've got lower crime.

It just means you don't have your crime on camera.

My county is on Live PD every Friday and Saturday evening.

Domestic dispute, DUI and public intoxication are 99% of what ends up on the air.

Pasco is light on the drug bust from a traffic stop.

It's reassuring, in a way, that the crime that's most airworthy is pretty petty shit in the grand scheme of things.

It's especially reassuring comparing the Floridaman Ghetto of Pasco to places like Nye County, Nevada.  Property maintenance is still a thing here, not so much there.

25 February 2019

Tales From New Floridamanlandtown

Mayor of Port Richey shoots at the SWAT team?

Residents of New Port Richey, "Hold my beer!"

It's nice to live down closer to Tarpon Springs with the meth labs and coke houses.

Quiet and efficient the dealers are.

Remember When The Democrats Told Us Being Catholic Didn't Matter?

"When Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) reversed her prior support last year for a Trump nominee when his strongly traditional Catholic beliefs on marriage were publicized, she may have set in motion a series of events that culminate in the loss of another venerable Senate tradition."

Linky h/t Instapundit

I remember reading about the controversy over JFK's religion and how it was the Democrats who insisted that someone could separate their faith as a Catholic from their duties as an elected official.

Is there nothing that isn't conditional about WHOM is a given this or that?

Rhetorical question.  Everything is situational for them.

PCC

Marv's SUB-2000 is back from KelTec and it's recall servicing.

Whole new barrel and front-end.



Filled with all the goodness one can get from Mcarbo too!

It's great fun, but it's no sniper rifle.

Plinking at 50 yards gets Marv minute of badguy though.

The irons are particularly aggravating.  The shape of the space that makes the ears protecting the front sight matches the rear sight perfectly.  That means your mind wants to line up the circles and not align with the post, thus cancelling the entire point of a rear peep.




Living In The Future

I've been curious to read the original Robert E Howard Conan stories for a long time.

My dad read them and got me a subscription to the comics from Marvel.  Both Conan and Savage Sword of Conan.

I've always liked the world and setting.

The problem is there's a lot of copycat material out there (like the comics).

There's also ton of books labeled "Robert E Howard's" but are by another author and it's sometimes hard to tell if it's his or simply his world and characters.

But Amazon has the complete Robert E Howard Conan: The Barbarian for a mere 99¢ if you are willing to have it on Kindle.

Shut up and take my money.

I Know Where I Can Be Despised

Where can I go to hear what a monster I am because I am white, male and straight?

Never mind the bigotry inherent in the assumptions that being white, male and straight makes me a monster who is racist, sexist and homophobic.

Where can I go to hear how evil I am because I reject socialism and embrace capitalism?

Where can I go to be called a terrorist because I think the whole Bill of Rights is applicable, as written, and not just selected parts or things which aren't in the text.

Where can I go to be belittled and despised for exercising my sovereign franchise for the illiberal candidate.

Where can I go to be dehumanized for being critical of judges and justices whom create law from the bench and being supportive of judges and justices who adhere to the actual written words of The Constitution?

EVERYWHERE is the answer. I am sick of it.

Now. Where can YOU go to FUCK RIGHT OFF?

Because you're not funny. You're mean and nasty and bitter not clever and witty.

24 February 2019

New Home

Marv's quest to find the perfect red-dot for his KelTec SUB-2000 has given me a Vortex Sparc-AR.


It sits rather fetchingly on top of Valentine, no?

Because Marv had raided the spacer shim for his Crossfire, I wrote to Vortex to buy a replacement.

Vortex said, "we'll call it a warranty claim end send one right out!"

I'm the second owner.  Dayum!

What arrived was the spacer, the longer screws to use it, the shorter screws I was already using, a new cross-bolt screw, instructions, two stickers, a lens cloth and a hat!

Because I wanted to buy a replacement spacer and screws.

I have to say, this is some damn fine customer service.

The spacer is the difference between absolute and lower 1/3 co-witness.

With the spacer in and showing the lower 1/3, it aligns correctly with the LaRue Po'Boy 2.5x magnifier and finally gives it a good home.

I Think He Believed Him

Pasco Sheriff's deputies are investigating the shooting death of a Port Richey man by his neighbor. We received the call last night at approximately 11pm.
An individual was at his residence on County Lake Dr arguing with a woman when his neighbor heard the commotion and came out of his house to see what was going on.
The neighbor was on his property when the individual approached him stating he was going to kill him. The neighbor fired one shot into the individual's chest with a 9mm handgun. The individual was pronounced deceased at a local hospital.
No arrests have been made and the case remains under investigation.

 I'm thinking that the police and the neighbor believed the deceased.

Gonna be sporty in Pasco for a while.

23 February 2019

Is Nae Easy Bein' Scottish!

Degaussed

On this very day the crew of USS Eldridge (DE-173), berthed in Philadelphia, in an experimental procedure finally exorcised the ship of the ghost of Carl Frederick Gauss.

Reports of this procedure rendering the ship invisible have not been confirmed.

A Speculation

I wonder if part of the reason that the backlash to Benchmade helping the Oregon City PD cut up guns isn't so much about gun control than it is about wanton wastefulness.

We gun owners trend conservative.  We hate waste.

Destroying an intact $400 SKS instead of selling it is wasteful.  Stripping it for parts and just destroying the serialized part is also wasteful, but at least gives a positive return.

So it's a double whammy.

We hate waste and we hate seeing perfectly good guns being destroyed.

There's no amount of mea culpa that fixes the affront.

Never mind police departments who have policies of destroying firearms that come into their custody.

In many cases there's a rightful owner out there wanting their gun back.  Their gun was used in a murder?  Since the gun has no agency, why does that matter?  Trying to make an inanimate object less valuable to its rightful owner by citing how it was last used is trying evoke the deodand.

Fun fact for people who demand destruction of deodands:  The deodand was supposed to sold and the proceeds put to pious use.  Even the people who invented the deodand hated waste.

Alloy Of What?


These words you've used on your rim, I don't think they go together like that.

22 February 2019

Feels Like A Colt Works Like A S&W

Astra 357 Magnum.










Double-action at 10 yards.
Meh.

Single-action at 7.

The lockwork and appearance are very Smith and Wesson, but the handling feels more like a Python.

It's something ineffable.

There's some surprisingly good guns out there at quite reasonable prices if one is willing to look.

Alarming

Have you ever removed your pistol from its holster for maintenance or to store it and discovered the magazine has been released and dropped down a bit?

That'd ruin your day in a fight!

It's a vote against squishy holsters.

Gun Strings

If a holster is to a pistol; as a sling is to a rifle...

What's a lanyard?


These things are getting hard to track down.  I've had one for years, but decided I needed some dedicated ones for the CMP gun and M9.

The M&P?  It amuses me that you can replace the butt-tool thing with one that's also a lanyard loop.

Who Knew

It turns out that you CAN give away 10-round magazines in Florida.



Marv's KelTec Sub-2000 2gen is back from its recall service.  New barrel and front sight and a gratis 10-round Pro-Mag M&P pattern magazine.

Just the other day I was quipping that you couldn't give them away.  I stand corrected.

21 February 2019

Live Fire

Took the Ithaca to the range.



Close up of that target:

Moved it out to 21 yards:


There's been guns where I've been happy with this group at 7 yards!

I do not, in any way, feel cheated by The CMP.

Knife Maker With Democrat Donating Owner Cuts Up Guns



Good evening,
We understand some of our followers are upset with Benchmade knives because of a recent post we put out. The post did not give everyone the full story on why the guns were required to be destroyed.
We receive guns that are turned in from community members that they no longer want the guns and want them destroyed. We also have guns that are evidence and when a case is adjudicated the guns are ordered by the court to be destroyed.
These guns were required to be destroyed. We reached out to Benchmade to do us a favor at our request. Benchmade is a strong supporter of law enforcement and the Oregon City community. We were present when the guns were cut and we took them for final destruction.
We apologize for not informing everyone on the initial post. Benchmade is an excellent company and we urge everyone that had said they no longer support Benchmade to reconsider once they have all the information. Again, we apologize for not informing everyone with our recent post.
Respectfully,
Chief Jim Band and Mayor Dan Holladay

 The post the photo came from doesn't come up for me on Facebook.

People are a bit ticked off at Benchmade about this and asking about alternative knives.

Related:



You get the impression that Benchmade doesn't like us anyway.

Glad With Sympathies

People being informed of their place in the CMP 1911 lottery are now receiving the message:

This email is to notify you that your order has been received and you have been assigned a number through the random number generating process. You will find your number listed below. At this time, we do not have enough 1911 type pistols to complete your order. Should the Army send us another shipment of sufficient quantity, we will use those 1911 type pistols to fill the next orders in line. Please do not contact us or reply to this email at this time.

The lowest number reporting this on the CMP forums is 8008.

Since the first number is apparently 1000, that means somewhat fewer than 7000 guns were good enough to sell out of the 8000 delivered.

There were 19,000 packets sent in, so there could be 12,000 people waiting for their chance with a maximum of 10,000 guns in the second disbursement for FY2019.  The law funding the disbursements required the Secretary of the Army to disburse "up to" 10,000 pistols for each year of FY2018 and FY2019.  That could be a very small number, but he MUST disburse some.

It's very doubtful that the Pelosi House will authorize any guns for FY2020 or FY2021.

I am thankful I got mine and rooting for those still waiting for theirs.

You Trusted The USPS

Ballots arrived too late to count.

I simply can't find a give-a-fuck for these people.

Voting is your exercise of your sovereign franchise and you leave it to someone else to deliver it?

That's on you.

Nearly all mailed in ballots are from people who are too damn wrapped up in their own selfish world that they won't take the time to vote in person.

I've long been of the opinion that voting in person should be the only voting.  Photo ID to prove you're you and an indelible mark on your person to show you've voted.

The only absentee votes are for the military and foreign service stationed overseas.  Full stop.

The sovereign franchise is the most important thing a citizen can do in a democratic republic and if it's not important enough to apply for some time off...  I don't want you voting.

I especially don't want to hear you crying that the post office didn't deliver your package in a timely manner.  I've seen how unreliable they are.  So have you.

20 February 2019

Man Bites Dog!!!

Updated the title.  They finally found a racist, anti-Democrat with plans to murder him some "traitors".

Coast Guard LT busted for drug and weapons charges apparently had "hit-list" of Dem lawmakers and reporters.

But I thought we could trust the police and the military...

His junk on the bunk?

Photo taken from Fox News website and article.
Mediocre.

I don't think I'll lose any sleep over a bigot going to jail.

Alleged bigot, innocent until proven and all.  But dayum...  Officers are supposed to know better than this!

A Difficult Bar?

The normal chance of a malfunction with a modern firearm in GURPS is a roll of 17 or higher when you make your "to hit" roll.

This has a 1.85% chance of occurring.

This means that in the notorious 2,000 round test a normal everyday firearm should have 37 malfunctions.

Some guns are "very reliable" which means they require two rolls of 17 or higher to have a malfunction.  Some guns are inherently like this, some need modified to fine (reliable) or very fine (reliable).

This has a 0.034225% chance of happening.

That's less than one malfunctions in 2,000 rounds; one if we round up the 0.6845.

A case can be made that any TL8+ firearm has fine (reliable) built into it.

Update: Fixed the math and that altered the conclusion somewhat.

19 February 2019

Fatigue

Miguel is concerned that we Florida gun owners don't seem too fired up about the slew of bullshit anti-gun crap going on in Tallahassee.

I'm fired up.

I'm definitely on my senator and representative's "it's THAT guy again!" list for emailing and calling.

The representative's... uh... representative even seems to finally grasp that what happened last year really was gun control and seems amiable to not making the same mistake twice.

The senator is very gung-ho and pro-gun.

I guess we will see come voting time.

Screaming here never seems to actually DO anything, so I've been slacking off it.

Some of the fatigue setting in is because I've been fighting this fight for 25 freaking years.

On the verge of victory, we snatched defeat out of its jaws by demanding purity and no compromise in getting conceal carry reciprocity and not bothering to read the fix-NICS portion of the bill which would have greased it right to The President's desk.  No compromise nearly always means no wins.

Look at all the progress no compromise has gotten either Mr Paul.

I am sick of knowing that one party is the enemy and the other cannot be trusted.

I am sick of Marion Hammer claiming to be doing oh so much, but never actually accomplishing anything.  I'm still smarting from her outright lie about killing off campus and open carry back in 2011.  The moment the Unified Sportsman of Florida stopped being the driving force behind the bill and things we unwashed peasant gun owners wanted got added; she pulled the USF and NRA support from it.  WE WATCHED HER DO IT!  Then she lied about doing it and blamed us.

As long as she's the spokesperson the Florida Congress looks to for what we want, we're dead.

I cannot find where I can join the USF as a member so that I might obtain a vote to steer their position.  I paid up a life membership with the NRA to get that vote, and I have now gotten to vote twice.

I donated some small amount to The Second Amendment Foundation.  They fight, they win.

I don't donate to Gunowners of America.  They're vocal, but they don't have anything in the win column that wasn't won by others.

For good or bad, this is no longer a legislative fight.  We're going to have to win it in court.

I would also like to point out that if we'd given up on the legislature in 2011 and gotten a ballot initiative going when we were all fired up and frisky: we'd be open carrying on campus these past seven years.

But we had to be pure.

We had to be no compromise.

We had to condemn each other for not liking what we liked or liking what we didn't.

Parts Applied

Applied the bolt upgrade and repair kit to Willard's "modern" AR-10.

New extractor and "spring".  The spring is actually a rubber mushroom.

New ejector and spring.

New firing pin.

New cam pin.

New firing pin retainer.

New gas rings.

Checked the gas-key, tight.

Checked the alignment of the gas tube against the key.  Good.

Bolt got cleaned incidentally while I was doing all this part swapping.

Hopefully this cures its ills.

It worked fine for a couple hundred rounds in the .308 comparo we did, ain't been right since.

18 February 2019

Veddy Insteristamine



What 1911 doesn't rattle?

Tonight's beer is New Belgium's Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA.

Blatant Racism

Bigotry was on display in response to Jussie Smollett's claim of being assaulted.

Bigotry against straight white men.

Mr. Smollett's accusations were taken as proven truth and condemnations were made towards straight white men as if every straight white man had personally beaten Mr Smollett and tied the noose around his neck themselves.

That's as bigoted and wrong as, "you know how they all are."

Until the liberals in Hollywood can see that they are, in fact, bigots; there will be no change for the better.

I'd also like to point out that the response around here was a hope that whomever did this to Mr Smollett would be punished to the fullest extent of the law...

A hope that doesn't change when it appears that he mostly made it up and had his neighbors beat on him.

The Plot Thickens

The Aurora shooter's timeline.

In 1994 he plead guilty to domestic battery.

Sentenced to five years serves less than three.

Moves to Aurora.

Aurora Police arrest him six times between his move and 2008.  Apparently no convictions, but since at least one arrest is for violating a restraining order; it appears he didn't learn to stop hitting the people he lives with.

January 2014 he applies for and receives an Illinois FOID card.

6 March 2014, applies to purchase the S&W .40 used in the crime.

11 March 2014, approved, he picks up the gun.

16 March 2014, applies for a CCW permit.

It is discovered that he's a felon and the Illinois State Police write to tell him to surrender the gun.

2017 arrested by Oswego (Illinois) Police for disorderly conduct and criminal property damage.

This last arrest, I think, should have fired off dozens of flags.  "Where's the gun you were ordered to surrender?" colored flags.

I also want to hear why he kept getting arrested but never convicted.  At his income level, it's not like he had a crack dream-team of lawyers.

Information from this really treacherous link.

The Butthurt Doth Flow

I've been noticing a trend around the CMP M1911A1's.

People seem compelled to virtue signal why they're not buying one.

It's kind of funny because if they haven't already submitted a packet, they're not allowed to buy one from CMP at the $1,050 price they think is too much.

Gunbroker has listed a couple for $1,400+, so if $1,050 is too much...

I remember when I objected to that price.  Then I did my due diligence.  $1,050, shipped, is actually a deal.  It includes $90 of overnight shipping, $5 of NICS check, $50 worth of "Pelican" case and $10 of USGI cleaning rod.  So, $895 for the actual gun.

Again and again when assigning value to something I find that people must attribute their personal evaluation to others.  When someone else is buying something, what you would pay (or not) is irrelevant.

A genuine USGI M1911A1's value is a very personal thing.

Personally I wouldn't have paid $1,050 (or a lot more) for a near perfect M1911A1 that left military service in someone's duffel in 1945 because that's not like the gun I was issued.

The CMP gun is.

My nostalgia values the mixmaster refurbished gun over the "more collectible" version.

I am happy and will not stop liking things that they don't.

17 February 2019

Have A Drink!

86 years ago, with the passage of the Blaine Act, Prohibition ended.

Have a drink!

Consume a libation!

Slam a shot!

Daytona

I remember when I used to be excited when the race was on.

I made time to watch NASCAR whenever it was on.

Then, and quite suddenly, I no longer gave a fuck.

The constant rule changes just kept sucking the Stock out of the S in NASCAR.

The cars on the track bear no relation at all to the cars on the road.  That makes me sad.

There's lots of other kinds of car racing that don't even pretend to have this relationship to real cars that are just as interesting... well MORE interesting now.

The constant rule changes to make the racing more "exciting" to people who aren't race fans or car people served only to drive the race fans and car people elsewhere.

Somewhere they forgot that accessible is not the same as pandering.  They pandered to the new crowd and alienated the core group of fans.

NASCAR has not yet figured out that the people attracted by the "exciting" rule changes are not long term fan material and the ratings show it.  The core constituency is gone and not coming back and the excitement fans are wandering to the next thing that attracts their short attention spans.

Most of us old fans have ideas to make the racing more interesting and would draw the old fans back in.  But we're not near the huge group the sport was at its peak.  There will be no getting that number back, no matter what.  Sorry NASCAR.

Like Minded And All That

I love how many times I'm yapping on a political topic, hit post and look at my sidebar and see someone else has posted on the same topic and come to substantially the same conclusion.

You might think that we're reading each others posts, but I know for a fact I didn't read theirs before doing mine.

It's just we're thinking along the same lines.

I like the confluence.

That's Some Mighty Fine Police Work

The Aurora shooter, despite having been convicted of a felony in Mississippi in 1995, had successfully passed the background check to obtain a Firearms Owner ID (FOID) card in Illinois.

He then managed to pass a second background check run by the Illinois State Police, Illinois is a Full Point of Contact state with an:
"[agency] acting on behalf of the NICS in a full Point-of-Contact (POC) capacity. These POC states, which have agreed to implement and maintain their own Brady NICS Program, conduct firearm background checks for FFLs’ transactions in their respective states by electronically accessing the NICS. Upon completion of the required ATF Form 4473, the FFLs conducting business in the POC states contact a designated state agency to initiate a NICS background check in lieu of contacting the NICS Section."
Florida is also a full POC state.  It just means they (we) keep our own database on who's ineligible and it almost certainly contains the NICS data.

I'm going to bet that Mississippi didn't report the conviction correctly and it was misplaced in the database or absent.  At first anyway.

The shooter, in 2014, tried to get a conceal carry permit.  This is where his past finally caught up and the background check noticed his conviction and felon status.

The Illinois State Police also notice his FOID and gun purchase (tell me again about how FOID and universal background checks aren't registration) at this time and write him a firmly worded request that he surrender the gun.

Five years later... he uses that same gun to murder five people and wound some cops trying to stop him.

Another mass shooter that could have been stopped if the police and law enforcement agencies had just done their jobs?

Shocked face not found.

If ever there was a narrative that more clearly illustrated that gun control isn't about stopping criminals but making the lives of the law abiding needlessly more difficult; this is it.

16 February 2019

Tubby Tanker Totin'




The M7 holster doesn't quite fit under-arm or sit out front.  It's kind of 3/4 under the armpit.

What it definitely is, is comfortable.  You would wear it all day, everyday for weeks; and I have.

It's also, definitely, not a fast draw rig.

Link to the assembly instructions (and more pics).

Not An Exaggeration

Calling the CMP M1911A1's 'survivors' isn't hyperbole.

Six months after the Clinton Administration ordered them destroyed in 1993, 110,000 M1911A1's had been fed through Cap'n Crunch.

That was 1/3 of the 300,000 guns destroyed by this stupid policy.

The rate of destruction slowed somewhat because just 600,000 guns had been crunched up by 1995.

History wantonly destroyed.

Never mind that the parts were worth far more than the scrap value even if you destroyed the serialized part.

People talk about government waste in procurement, but seldom do we talk about it in disposal.

It's A Mystery

In a state with complete firearms owner registration (FOID).

With universal background checks.

In a building where guns are banned.

A felon who is prohibited from possessing a gun.

Murdered five innocent people.

That's five laws broken already. Pray tell how more laws will prevent this?

While you're at it, why are there never mass shootings at gun shows?

Open Message

Dear News Reporter...

What celebrities say isn't important.

No, not even then.

Or then.

Or then.

What they say is never important.

You can stop publishing what they say.

Especially YOU Breitbart.

15 February 2019

Someone's Worst Nightmare


If Only

Reading about the shooting in Aurora, IL.

Last I heard, Illinois has a lot of gun control.

Yet...

It still wasn't me or any of MY guns what shot anyone.

But I will still be subjected to punishment, or at least the attempt to punish me for it.

Familiarity


THIS! is how you tote an M1911A1!

This is also how I carried one when I wore Nomex®.

Survivors

Side by side with Marv's Remington Rand (his is on top).


We're kind of comparing what we got and are each jealous of something the other got.

I kind of wanted the wide hammer.

He really wants the Pelican style case.

14 February 2019

Multiplication

It only seems like they're breeding sometimes.


Mix Master

My "new" M1911A1 consists of the following

1943 Ithaca frame
1943+ Remington-Rand slide
Type 5 narrow Colt hammer
44-45 Remington-Rand mainspring housing
Remington-Rand safety
High Standard barrel
Keyes Fiber 5564062 left grip
Keyes Star-K 3 right grip
Late, punched spring plug
Late spring guide
Rev-5 Rear Sight
Remington-Rand stamped trigger
Ithaca grip safety
Type-3 magazine release
43-45 Remington-Rand slide stop

Without Further Adieu

What's in the box?









It's a 1943 Ithaca frame and Remington Rand slide.  Refurbished by Anniston Army Depot in February 1976.

Many more pics below the cut!

With Nothing Else To Do...

I hate waiting.

So I cut down the quarterdeck to something closer to historical.


Everything Else Has A Name

If your ship has three masts, a jib out front, square sails on the first mast and a gaff sail aft on all three; it's called a barquentine.

If your ship has two masts, a jib out front, square sales on the first mast and a gaff aft on both; it's called a brigantine.

But if you have a single mast, jib out front, square sails and a gaff...

Nothing.  No special name.

Pictures!

13 February 2019

It's A Process

A repeated pattern in my life that makes me wonder if I'm on The Truman Show starring as Truman...

Try to get something accomplished.

It fails.

Get angry at it.

Scream to the numerous and malicious Gods.

Give up.

It works.

Over and over again.

CMP just emailed that my rusty rattle-trap will be delivered tomorrow.

But I had to perform the ritual before...

It's almost enough to give one religion.

Staring At The Full Moon Like A Lover

Got my artist's canvas today.

Hit AutoCAD.


Print!


This was frustrating because I had to cut the 9x12 sheet of canvas down to 8-1/2x12 so it would fit... then tell AutoCAD about the custom size... then set six or seven other parameters so it would print full size on the sheet oriented correctly...  Then the printer would fuck up and I'd have to cut another sheet, reset the parameters...

THREE FUCKING TIMES!  But I'm all better now.


I don't have a hole-punch small enough for the 5mm balls that hold it to the rigging, so I just cut an X in the circle with an X-Acto® knife.

Et Voila!


Update: 30 years ago, this ship looked liked this:


I converted the rigging to a single mast and a spanker almost immeadiately, but it took me a LONG time to finally get good research on what to make the sail from.  Using a computer just made it easier once I got there.

Probably Not Getting An M1911A1

My stupid arrest from two years ago is likely creating an NICS delay situation with CMP.

That's as good as a denied as far as they are concerned.

I guess the good news is once they refund the money, I can pay back those who loaned me money for this.

I am depressed and furious beyond my ability to express it.

Finally Someone Who Works For Broward Schools Who's Worth A Fuck

I'm not sure it rises to hero status, but when the time came, he did his job.

Not everyone who works in that district can say that.

Maybe he should run for school board or sheriff?

12 February 2019

There's A Whole Series Of Them!

OH My Gods!


Lucky Bastard!

This guy got a WW2 refinished M1911 instead of a mixmaster M1911A1.

I will just let the hate flow through me.










I Think I Got Skipped

I am number 2764.

I was called for payment information on 01FEB19.

Number 2927 reports being called on 06FEB19 and got his shipping notification today.

Shit!

I think I will wander over to the bank and ask if they took the money out and if so, when.

Interesting Summary Of The "Spanish" Flu















These guys started out researching the history of video games and game development oh so long ago.

If It Weren't For Bad Luck

I'd have no luck at all.

The person three ahead of me in line got their gun in seven calendar days.

This is also the last person to report getting an M1911A1 from CMP.

Marv speculates that it's Chinese New Year there... in Alabama... the heart of Chinese-American culture and Anniston's famed Chinatown?

Quoted For Truth

"Liberals. Proving every day that Pinochet did nothing wrong."

Michael Z Williamson

11 February 2019

Or Is It Mizzen?

The triangular sail on the front of my cutter is a jib.

Are the two square sails in front of the mast the mainsails or is that the gaff sail behind?

I think my gaff is actually a spanker.

The terminology is confusing and contradictory.

I Beg To Differ

"Parkland would never have happened if Florida had a red flag law," Linda Beigel Schulman said during a recent news conference with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is expected to sign his state's new law any day. Her son, Scott Beigel, was a teacher and coach killed during the Parkland attack.

She's assuming that the red-flag law would have been enforced in BrCoward County.

The reason I differ is the existing laws weren't enforced.  Enforcement of even ONE of the extant laws would have put the shooter in jail instead of letting him be free to plan.

I think it's probable that the lack of enforcement of the more serious than the red-flag laws encouraged the shooter.

I'm willing to bet that he didn't think he'd be caught or punished because he hadn't been punished for anything yet.  His post shooting behavior kind of indicates a lack of worry about being apprehended.

Tinker Tinker Tinker

I got the mast aft four more studs!

The trick to fitting it around the guns was giving up on the relationship to the rat-lines and removing a 4x4 by two-brick block from under the mast base.

The mast-base is a 2x2 round on a 4x4 flat, so there's gun clearance!

You can't really see the mast's base, but this is a good view of the gun deck.


The gun deck gets covered by "net" covers and the ships boat.

Reversing the sails made them look like they have some wind in them.

The mast is definitely in a more realistic location for a 1700's golden age of piracy cutter.

Now I just need to hit Hobby Lobby or some such and get some material for the main-sail and maybe another jib.  Barquintine rigging is interesting.

The Right Honourable Pyrate Ship Parrot Is A Cutter


By Rama, CC BY-SA 3.0 fr, Link

French by mast arrangement, with it sitting a bit forward of midships.  I can only take my mast back so far before I interfere with the ridiculously large Minifig scale Lego cannon.


The mast is aft from the other day by 3 studs.  The next viable location aft is between the first two pair of guns and that ruins the relationship between the jib and the mast.  Legos sometimes end up exaggerated.  My boom, for example is MUCH too high, but the mounting point on the mast demands it be there.

09 February 2019

Stretched Ship


Got a spare hull section from ebay for my Lego pirate ship.  This has upgraded her from 4 to 6 guns.

The proportions are much better too.


Lego vs Anti-Lego


The dewback in the... uh... back is what I call an "anti-Lego" in that it cannot be used to be anything but what it is.  Minifigs are chock full of anti-Lego (like the guns), and I really don't mind.

Constant Source Of Confusion

Few people "have it coming" but I most certainly do.

Yet, "it" never comes.

I am baffled that "it" doesn't happen.

08 February 2019

Figures

The CMP was running 2 days after asking for payment they charged the account.

Then two days after that they shipped.

Then the day after that, you'd have your gun.

Until they got to me.

MUTTER MUTTER MUTTER.

Worse Than NFA

The CMP has said they will email me when the M1911A1 ships.

To date they have not.

They ship overnight, so... no call on Thursday means no gun Friday and they don't ship on Fridays...

So Tuesday at the earliest.

Except...

Lots of people have been reporting never getting that email, so there's still hope for tomorrow.

07 February 2019

Feeling Shifty

There was nothing wrong with the stock knob, per se...

I just wanted a traditional hot-rod ball.

It's a bog-standard Twisted ShifterZ 2-1/8" white ball with shift pattern and C6 adapter.

Literally took minutes to install once I'd found my metric allen wrenches.

Update:

Just got back from a test drive.  It shortens the throw ever so slightly and feels a bit more positive.  I'm pleased with this product!

Simple

A few observations about this.

First, even though it shouldn't be, making a drop-in auto-sear (DIAS) outside of some very narrow circumstances is illegal under Federal law.

Second, possessing a DIAS is illegal under Florida law if you don't possess it legally under Federal law.

Third, a DIAS is not complicated to make.  But to make it work you need other select-fire parts.

Fourth, the media consistently cites the wrong law to show that it's illegal.  A drop-in auto-sear is a machinegun in and of itself independent of its installation in a firearm.

790.221 is machineguns.
790.222 is bumpstock or conversion kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device used to alter the rate of fire of a firearm to mimic automatic weapon fire or which is used to increase the rate of fire to a faster rate than is possible for a person to fire such semiautomatic firearm unassisted by a kit, a tool, an accessory, or a device.

Machineguns are defined in 790.001(9) with identical language to the Federal statutes.

Fifth, because this is so damn simple this guy should have seen what was coming to him.  I seriously doubt he's attempting to overturn the laws by taking a 2nd amendment case all the way to the Supreme Court.

06 February 2019

Define Out Of Touch

Condemning the President's immigration policy when it polls at 72% approval.

Bitching about the content of a speech which has 76% approval.

Approval numbers which aren't prefaced with "among Trump supporters" or qualified by "among Republicans".

Not Cerakote

I think I will hydro-dip it instead!

Take that Miguel!

Update:

Added a lanyard.