31 May 2021

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon

Today is not about sales. It is not about summer starting. It is not about grandma.

It's is about those who served and have passed beyond the vale.

I want them all back.

To:

Bernie Canniff (Korea, in a car club together).
Carol LeFon aka Neptunus Lex (patiently explained both real world and flight sim military aviation to this tanker).
Davy McGuire (COB USS Whale, originally a friend of my Dad's, later me).
Fred Gabow (we served together, his wife hired someone to murder him).
Ian Gates (Comrade in arms to Willard).
Jerry Pournelle (you do read, don't you? Willing to be wrong and listened to my correction!).
Kevin O'Brian aka Hognose (our beloved Weaponsman).
Rabbi (Uncle Ben, another friend of Dad who got me a ride in an F-14A).
Rich Sickels (brother of my Father in law).
Robert Smith (uncle by marriage to Mom's sister).
Standing Bear aka William Dawkins (WW2 and Korea, who taught me gaming).


The world is better that you were in it and worse that you have left. 

30 May 2021

ARtsy

The Lovely Harvey took a pic of my 57 year layout.  She's finally warming up to her Canon M3!



For Those Who Contributed!

The 2021 bike season is going well!  He's still got State coming too.



Photography by The Lovely Harvey!


57 Years 3 Services

M16, M16A1, M16A2, M16A4 and M4:



29 May 2021

M5 RAS

Valentine got her M5 RAS today.  It does add a bit of mass to the front end.

USGI A2 handguards are 8.6 oz.

Brownell's A2 handguards are 7.3 oz.

M5 RAS upper rail is 9.1 oz., lower rail is 5.2 oz.  14.3 oz. total, or 5.7 oz. heavier than the USGI handguards.

11-rib panels are 0.8 oz. (2.4 oz. total as shown here).

5-rib panels are 0.5 oz. each.

I don't have an example of the 9 or 6 ribbers.

Valentine with M5 RAS and 3x 11-rib panels is 8 lb. 15.8 oz. with a loaded M3 PMAG, no sling, no optic.  0.6 lb. heavier than with the Brownell's handguards.

Update: If you can get to the full size pics you will be able to see I'd made the rookie mistake and gotten the little spring tab up front outside the handguard cap.

Full Size Tail Section Take Two

 

We're hoping that the increase facet resolution and the support buttresses will let us get to the end this time!  This is four hours of printing, much quicker than the first attempt too.

It Hurts To Watch

Are we actually training the 88 drivers any more?

Looking at all the herky-jerky with this driver moving and shifting the T28 is painful.


I know the crews of our recovery vehicles were much smoother back 88-89 than what I'm watching here.

Not Complete

The fins are giving us agita!

The print got up to them and it started getting all wobbly on JT!

Revised srt with support buttresses and FACETRES set from 0.5 to 10.

We're getting there and learning as we go!  Many of the comments have been helpful, I am not sure this is still the internet.

I also revised the fuse to make the angles look better.



28 May 2021

Nearing Completion

A finish time of 0100 is predicted.


Fuse Tip


 Just eyeballing the dimensions from the EOD manual...



They Don't Even Make These Anymore

I am watching a series of videos on the restoration of a Ferrari 512 BBi.

He's exclaimed a couple of times that they don't make a component any more.

He's recently gushed about a type of hose clamp where the worm screw is a separate part from the band and one end of the band has a T on it.

Yeah, there's a reason they're not made any more.

Chuck the NCRS um Ferrari concourse points and get a less failure prone clamp on there.  Especially since you're Hell bent on reusing the take-off clamps.  Yes, blasting and replating them has them looking spiffy, but that doesn't mean they're not waiting to fail on you.

M16A3 Flat Or Not

I am old enough to remember when, according to TM 9-1005-319-23&P (October 1, 1998), the M16A3 was simply an M16A2 but with full-auto instead of a 3-round burst.

Now, according to TM 9-1005-319-23&P (November 28, 2008), an M16A3 is an M16A4 with full-auto instead of a 3-round burst.

UGH!

Why have a designation system if you're not going to bother using it?

Optics And Crafts

The little rubber turret cap retainers on my Primary Arms PAC5X have disintegrated.

They were a dual function figure-8 deal where one ring was the gasket for the turret cap and the other was the retainer for the cap.

The gasket part is doing fine, happily.

Primary Arms doesn't stock or sell the little retainers.

That's fine, I have this!  It's left over from my repair of an Izzy carry handle SUIT mount.


 

 

It's essentially the same method that Trijicon uses with their ACOG.


 

You can still lose the caps if you take them both off at the same time, but that's relatively unlikely.



Looking Conical

 

We're uncertain why it's ended up polygonal instead of round.

Fixed!

 

 Google appears to have fixed the picture issue!

This was once a picture of ALL my rifles.  I think I still have two of them.

27 May 2021

Afternoon Update

About 1/3 the length done, I think.

Blogger's photo insertion system is still on the blink.

President McThag Would SO Start A War

One of my first acts would be to finally acknowledge that there's only ONE China and move all diplomatic missions to the capitol; Taipei.

That's Bullshit

Say you wanted a clone of the H&K G36.

H&K doesn't make a full clone for sale to us unwashed commoners.  The promised HK293 never materialized.

Enter a company called Tommy Built Tactical.

They made a receiver, based on the SL8, which you could use to build (or have built) a G36 clone and everyone is happy for all time!

Notsofast!

ATF looked at the design, licked their finger, held it up to see which way the wind was blowing, flipped a coin, read some tea leaves and shook a magic 8-ball to decide that only H&K could get away with the features found on the SL8 to avoid a determination of "readily convertible" and that the Tommy Built T36 receiver was henceforth a machine gun receiver.

From Tommy Built's web page:

Dear TommyBuilt Tactical T36 Owner:

Greetings.  We hope that you are enjoying your TommyBuilt Tactical T36, and want to thank you for your patronage.

With that said, we have received the unfortunate news that the receiver of the T36 will now be classified by ATF as a machinegun receiver.  ATF has recently determined that the blocks and restrictions manufactured into our semi-automatic receiver (which are a replica of the SL8 prevention method) are not sufficient and now require an auto sear block on this platform. We disagree with this position but do not make the regulatory decisions. 

To this end, we at TommyBuilt Tactical are eager to work with our T36 owners and with the ATF to comply with the newly mandated requirements for this platform. Our counsel and team have met with our regulator to make attempts to resolve this issue.  TommyBuilt Tactical has made and had approved by the ATF an upgraded semi-automatic receiver including more restrictive blocks, the newly required auto sear block, and other various upgrades. 

So we are clear, there is no current intent by ATF to criminally charge any TommyBuilt Tactical T36 owner for the possession of contraband, or to prosecute TommyBuilt Tactical for any wrongdoing.  To this end, my team and I have been authorized by ATF to replace the existing T36 receivers with an upgraded “TG36” receiver.  There will be a minimal cost to you of $225 to upgrade to the new TG36.  It is critical that you send your receiver to me for an upgrade.  The ATF has made it clear that if your T36 is not returned for an upgrade to the TG36, it will be considered contraband and subject to seizure.  

Once seized you will lose your entire T36 assembly.  The resolution that we are offering will allow you to keep ALL of your components in an upgraded state at a minimal cost.

We are a small business and already overwhelmed. This unexpected determination is a substantial financial hardship for us all. Please refer to our website (www.tommybuilttactical.com) for more details on this situation and instructions on exactly how to send in your receiver for replacement. 

Again, we appreciate your patience and understanding.

  

Thank you for your support,

TommyBuilt Tactical LLC

The first layer of bullshit is that you cannot figure out what ATF is going to do without sending them a sample to chew on for however long they like.

Tommy Built, apparently, did (based on what I'm reading on the internet) and ATF changed their minds!

The second layer of bullshit is charging the affected customers to correct the situation.

Way to stand behind your product, guys!

They might not be financially able to stand behind their product, and that is also bullshit but is at least understandable for a small business to be in that bullshit position.

On the gripping hand; there's nothing cheap about a G36 clone and an extra $225 isn't going to be much more than a small percentage of what's already invested.

But none of this is the customer's fault and it would appear that Tommy Built isn't getting punished, just the customers with a minimum $225 fine payable to Tommy Built or a much larger fine in the form of confiscation by ATF.

By the way, if you think we don't have near-universal gun registration already just wait for stories from people who've just had ATF show up on their doorstep demanding the surrender of their T36.  If you bought new from an FFL, you're registered.

Gestating Well

We're getting there!  This is from 8am.

Also, it pays to know some html when Blogger's interface for posting a pic barfs.

The Epidemic Is OVER

An epidemic is 15 new or more cases per 100,000 population per day for two weeks or longer.

For Florida that means 3,090 new cases per day.

On May 10 we dropped below 3,090 for the first time since March.  All but six days since have been under the threshold.

By the definition of epidemic, it's over.

For realsies.

26 May 2021

If You Can't Repeat The Experiment...

...And get the same results then it's not science.

Replication Crisis.

When I was learning scientific method it was made clear that any experiment that had not been duplicated made suspect any theory stemming from it, and any experiment which could not be duplicated was an invalid hypothesis.

Full stop.

I wonder just how much settled, and accepted, science falls into these two categories.

Just Keep Swimming

We're into the taper to the tail support tube!



On Account Of The Incompetence

Had a clunking that matched the speed with Moxie yesterday.

From the same foot as the wheel bearing I just replaced.

String of evil curses spread from my area, compounded with frustration with Home Depot's plumbing section.

While waiting for Marvyn to pick me up for the weekly trip to the brewery...  I checked the lug nuts.

One was loose enough to spin with my fingers!

While I am sure I torqued them down, I am not sure I set the wrench to the right spec.  Marv thinks I said I had it at 90 ft-lb.  Mistakes happen.

It's at 125 ft-lb now!

An Unending Stream Of Success

For successes with sufficient resemblance to failure.

Another mass shooting in gun-control paradise, California.

I keep being told that once we get the gun control that California has, all this kind of mayhem will cease immediately.

Yet it never does in California...

It underscores that the point of gun control is not to save lives or prevent crime, but something else.

The least cynical something else is simple tyranny.

Fusing

I found the EOD manual on the M28 rifle grenade and it has enough drawings to make a detailed model of the fuse!


 


Even better, a decent image of the shipping cap.


 To the CAD program!

Happily, the fuse is a teeny thing and a relatively quick print.

Thanks to relentless searching on the various engines...

I now know what is supposed to be painted on it.

Dark green overall.

Red stripe about where the nose cone meets the cylinder portion.

Yellow letters saying:

GRENADE RIFLE 75mm

HEAT R1M1

RDX/WAX               95/5

B21            A            3/72

The 95/5 is the percentages of RDX to wax.  B21 and A are ordnance codes.  3/72 is the manufacturing date.

Prolly going to end up making two Energas, one with the South African ringed tail, the other with a six fins.  I think I'll see if I can find the markings for an M28 HEAT round.

25 May 2021

It's Getting Taller

Schrodinger's Rifle Grenade is making progress!



Sinking Feeling

Replaced the kitchen faucet at the in-law's.

Much harder than it needed to be because of the multiple jury rigs to get from a 5/8" OD (1/2 nominal) stub in the wall to a 1/2" MIP at the faucet.

Only the cold side had a shut off.

Ace came through where Home Depot did not.  Again.

They've every variation of shut-off you can think of, but the most common 90° 5/8 compression to 3/8 compression...

3/8 compression to 1/2 FIP is the most common braided hook-up for a sink too.

Ugh!

Being a slum lord is taxing.

Full Scale Production

JT has begun printing the warhead/tail section of the Energa in 1:1 scale.

Here we are at eleven hours into the print:

Just 3-1/2 days to go!

Fingers crossed!


The Full Monty

Someone has, helpfully, done the heavy lifting and made a build sheet for an M16A4 for us...

M16A4 OIF Edition

Weeeeeee!

Little Did I Know

You can also file this under Government Waste.

Every M5 RAS shipped to the marines came with:

1x Upper Rail.

1x Lower Rail.

3x 11 rib rail covers.

2x 9 rib rail covers.

1x 6 rib rail cover.

2x 5 rib rail covers.

1x vertical grip.

Sourcing this from KAC commercially gives a grand total of... $456.49.

And I've seen this package on Gunbroker and Arfcom's EE for $250.

But why is it a waste?

Start looking for pictures of them in the field.  Most of those spiffy rail covers are left in some supply or arms room.

24 May 2021

The Compleate Klone

If you're going to be making an M16A4 clone, you're going to need an AN/PEQ-2 or AN/PEQ-15.

For a mere $30, shipped from China, you can get an airsoft battery box that looks the part, right down to markings.

That's a savings of over $1,700!

Since the -2 is all IR all the time, who's gonna know it's not?

The -15 clone even has a white light.

Since this is about looks and not about function, I don't need me no real-deal box for it.

I do, however, take donations.

If you've got a real-deal AN/PEQ-2 I will gladly accept it.  Amusingly, it doesn't even have to work... I don't have any night vision gear.

Interesting

 

This was running in the background of an American Gods episode.

Not As "Out Of Stock" As Originally Thought

KAC shows an M5 RAS, with 3 11-rib panels, in stock for $311.59 shipped!

Odd that it didn't come up searching for "M5 RAS".  Duck-Duck-Go lets me down occasionally.

Gunbroker has a used, but well loved one for $252.95 shipped with no bids yet.  Downside is needing to schlep to the post office for a money order ends in the wee hours tomorrow morning.

Gunbroker also has a very "salty" (as the Marines are wont to say) example that's missing the 10-32x3/16 screw for the clamp for $120 plus shipping.  Waiting on this would mean letting the one above go because it ends in four days.

KAC lists the screw and the clamp kit for about $30...

Being A Decendant Of Monkeys From A Long Line Of Monkeys

The M16A4 project has, of course, turned into obsession.

I keep bumping into wildly different accounts of the mass of the M5 RAS compared to the pedistrian round A2 handguards.

Now I want one to weigh.

And all the panels.  And the vertical grip...

They're out there.  $220 with a couple of panels.

$350 to $400 complete.

Every once and a while, $250 for the whole thing but you need to MOVE or you miss them.

I sometimes wish I was addicted to something cheap and easy, like cocaine.

Forgotten Incentive

Everyone knows that the "3/5 solution" was racist.

It literally made blacks less than whites.

Wait...

Scratch that.

It made black slaves less than whites and free blacks.

This was done to keep the slave states from dominating the House of Representatives with their large non-voting, non-property owning populations.

But everyone forgets the incentive built into the systemic reduction in representation.

Free those slaves and they become 5/5 citizens.

That the incentive didn't work isn't a commentary on the attempt.

23 May 2021

Good!

Some worthless piece of shit spammer in the comments informs me that bankruptcy lawyers in Arizona are experiencing hard times and that their families are suffering.

Great Post! Many bankruptcy lawyers in az (<- that was a link) are currently facing financial instability. For these families, the stress associated with such financial concerns comes in many forms can be debilitating. 
Good.

Not sure what I'm supposed to do about it, but I am damn sure not clicking that link they embedded in their comment.

Re Reads

"The Star Fox" by Poul Anderson was not what I remembered from being in 7th grade.

Moving on to "Dune" which I read in 10th.

I am greatly afeared of the Fafnard and the Gray Mouser books.  I really liked them when I was a tween and playing AD&D.

Too many things have failed to survive childhood nostalgia.

22 May 2021

I Need To See If They Will Let Me Take Pictures

At one of our favorite gun shops is an M1911.

Note the lack of an A1.

It's most certainly been refinished, it's parkerized, as were many pistols that the Army owned after WW1.

The interesting thing is the X1000 serial number.

Chuck says he's got the letter from Colt telling its history, which is something I need to get repeated to me to get the details right.

I'm hoping to get back down there Monday with my camera to get some detailed pics.

I offered $200 and a box of .270 in exchange for it.  They declined.

21 May 2021

Perfect! Ship It!

 

This was an attempt at printing the tail, fins up.

JT is disappointed but noticed that this filament is not behaving as well as the original brand he had.

It would appear that the Creality CR-10 doesn't care for Hatchbox filament but does like Overture brand.

A couple of reviewers agree with this assessment, especially with recent purchases; they indicate that something has changed at Hatchbox in the past few years.

Mission Accomplished!

I ended up reading a thread that was titled "Another Show Bites The Dust" and realized that I didn't recognize the title of ANY of the shows people were discussing.

I, literally, have no idea what's on TV any more.

I'm not sure I made a conscious decision to stop watching, but I did.

I'm probably a lot happier this way too.

Staying Organized

Swapping AR parts around means moving pictures of those parts from one album to another in Flickr.

This way I will be able to actually FIND the picture I'm thinking of later.

'Tis a pain in the rear though.

Ersatz A4


 

Easier to get together than originally anticipated.

Retro shit has gotten hellishly expensive, and for a change, I have a lot of it in the AR parts bin.

My Type C stock, for example, paid for the gov't profile barrel from Brownell's.  I was never going to make an XM16E1 R602, so I had no need of it.

I hear that my 1966 "MP 12" fetches about a grand nowadays.  The 1969 "C MP C" barrel just slightly less.  There's a serious temptation to sell the vintage stuff and replace them with 1:12 barrels from Brownell's and pocket the difference.

I'm not going to go with the RAS or ACOG unless either the items or the money falls in my lap.

Until then, the Primary Arms PAC5X will suffice.


Shadow And Bone

I've been watching Netflix's "Shadow and Bone".

If this is wildly popular, you think prices on Mosins will skyrocket?

I remember what TNT's "The Rough Riders" did to Krag carbines, and it was pretty obscure.

The Mosins in the show are mostly 91/30's, but there's a few long 91's in there too.

20 May 2021

Go Bananas

Be like Bananaman.

With your Bananamag!

And musical accompaniment!

 


 

Gotten To Like

I've become accustomed to the late M4 stock over the Fiberlite® and the longer A2 stock over the original M16 and M16A1 stocks.

There was a time when the finger bump on the A2 grip was something I HAD to have, the came to loathe and now I'm fine with it.

Interestingly, I still like the A1 stock and grip, I just no longer hate the later stuff.

Odd how things work out.

It's also telling how little these things matter in the long run.

Fewer Holes Than When I Left

Ugh!  The dentist.

Finding a new one is such a chore I waited like 14 years...

Good news!  My current dentist is also a friend.

He even takes Harvey's insurance, so we're going to get me back on that (in December).

My teefers are in surprisingly good shape for how I'd abused them my entire life.  Just a single cavity to fill.

Fingers crossed that we caught it in time and no root-canal is needed.

19 May 2021

Ease Of Manufacture

The 3D printed Energa is getting ever more authentic with regards to assembly.

The warhead section is just too tippy to be made in one go.  Breaking it into two sections (just like the real one) allows the widest part to be the base while printing.

Depending on what photo you find and which nationality the thing is, either of the two fuses is correct.

The pointy one is more common, though.

Fall Back And Punt

As predicted by Ratus...

The test print got tippy and fell over about as soon as the head started the warhead portion.

So I've redrawn it in segments and we're going to try again as soon as JT wakes up in the morning...

OK, maybe not that early, but as soon as he can get around to it.

18 May 2021

Arrow?

I think this is the rifle grenade that Willard has been calling "the arrow"...  The Yugoslavian M60P1 anti-personnel rifle grenade.


STL file made and transmitted!

I modeled it with the safety cap installed.  I'll have to drill and tap for the safety pin and ring after printing.

17 May 2021

Reverse B-Wing

NEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRD!

Remember how I said that the Lego B-Wing was landing upside down as compared to its appearances in the movie?

I fixed that.

Compared to how it was:

Nearly all the parts you need to do the mirroring are already there, just needed three parts from the bin to do it.

It really surprises me how ALL Lego and nearly all models and toys don't match the scene from the film.  Geeks generally get this stuff right.

Scaled Test Run

JT has started to print a reduced size version to see how well his printer takes to my srt file.

Here's the work in progress!


So far, so good!

Got to get a 3D model made of the Yugoslavian M60P1 AP grenade which Willard calls an "arrow".

He says that SWAPO was entirely too professional in their employment.

Are You Smarter Than An NFL Player?

 A fun little test.

You get 14.4 seconds per question, so don't take too much time figuring things out.

I got a 22 while doing other things, like eating dinner, and timed out.

I retook it and got a 32 while going as fast as I could.

Nine Zip

It turns out you DO need a warrant to confiscate someone's guns.

Anyone wanna speculate what this does to red flag laws?

Ohm

 The contaminated trace is 302 ohms between any two points on the inner trace which are on the same side of the contamination.

Resistance is almost 3k ohms across it.

Yup, that's the failure point.

MOAR Void

One nice thing about knowing how to do simple math is being able to calculate volumes and apply density to get mass.

I'd assumed that the 3D printer we're employing would be using some form of nylon.

Nylon is about 1.14g/cm3.

JT's uses PLA which averages 1.32g/cm3.

That means I needed to make the void in the Energa a bit bigger.  Bonus!  It shifts the CG even farther back.  Getting more accurate by the day!

16 May 2021

Is That Corrosion?

 

I tore the old sensor apart with my Dremel tool!

The inner trace appears to have some kind of corrosion on it.

Less Than 15 Minutes

Thanks to removing the bracket, installing the new sensor took less than fifteen minutes.

Half hour total including scanning, clearing latent codes and test drive.

Officially, it still needs calibrated, but everything appears to be working as it should.

15 May 2021

I Feel Like I Just Cracked The Enigma Code

I started the fight to remove the brake pedal position sensor.  1/8 turn at a time with a 7mm open end wrench reaching around the fucking steering wheel shaft because there's no tool clearance for the screw.

I noticed something while I was under there this time.

It's attached to a sheet metal bracket.

The two screws holding the bracket to the wheel and pedal are a straight shot with a socket and a 6" extension!

The service manual gives zero clue that it's this way.

Speaking Of Art Acevedo

It appears that some Miami PD officers have taken some AR's from the department armory without signing for them.

Ooops.

I think they should have published the serial numbers.

Imagine if you'd bought an AR from your cop neighbor and are now in possession of what's been reported as stolen goods.  Wouldn't you want to know?  Wouldn't you want to do the right thing and return it to its rightful owner and assist honest law enforcement in punishing the thief?

Because I am dead certain that Art won't hesitate to prosecute you for having one of his department's missing guns despite you buying it in good faith from the person who stole it.

The most likely explanation is probably someone simply forgetting to sign the rifles out.

But... The posting of this memo, to me, seems as if quieter, "if you've got a department rifle, make sure it's signed out," efforts have met with no response with regards to the missing guns.

Don't Forget The Bennies

The average police salaries map at Fox News.

I talked about this before, I looked up my local law enforcement's numbers back in January 2020.

Pasco pays $39 to $41 thousand a year for a deputy sheriff, the lowest rank.  That doesn't seem like much, does it?

Full medical, zero out of pocket.  The value of this is jello with a nail in it.  This is, on average, a $40k a year benefit.

No employee contribution pension plan which will pay the full salary and medical upon retirement in as few as 15 years.  This is a near $100k a year benefit if you try matching it with doing the same with a 401k.

So our hapless deputy is really making $179 to $181 thousand a year.

Pasco is also well known for "grossly underpaying" the officers compared to the two counties to the south and has a retention problem because of it. 

But I've grown to expect lies from Art Acevedo.  He lies about guns, so why should we expect him to suddenly be honest about salaries?

Armed Forces Day

Today is the day we celebrate those still serving!

Happy Armed Forces Day!

There should be free stuff today for people with an active ID.

But there isn't.  Veteran's day covers them for that, but this should be as big a day too.

Bad Science

The news is spreading bad science again on herd immunity.  I too was shocked.

They mention vaccination over and over, as if that's the only immunity that matters.

You also get immunity from catching and recovering from the disease (at least from the strain that you caught).

It might even be less risky...

Worth It?

An M4 is about a loaded magazine lighter than an M16A4.

14.5" of 1:7 barrel gets you 4d+2 pi.

20" of 1:7 barrel gets you 5d pi.

4d+2 pi is an average of 16.

5d pi is 17.5.

8 magazines with a 14.5" barrel averages 3,840 points of damage before armor.

7 magazines with a 20" barrel averages 3,675 points of damage before armor.

The M4 with one more magazine makes sense in GURPS.

Cousin Pan

While humans and chimpanzees have a common ancestor... it was a LONG fucking time ago.

7,002,021 years ago long fucking time ago.

About 2 million years before Ardipithecus Ramidus stepped on the stage.

Our common ancestor was a wee little thing.

It didn't resemble either future line much at all.

But you read about people thinking that Chimps and Man diverged after HS Neanderthalis and HS. Sapiens split.

They forget that the modern Chimp is the result of as many years of evolution as us.

We've got Ardipithecus Ramidus, Australopithecus Anamensis, Australopithecus Afarensis, Australopithecus Africanus, Paranthropus Robustus, Paranthropus Boisei, Homo Habilis, Homo Eragaster, Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis and Homo Sapiens between us and that split.

Chimps have an equally long list of ancestors between the Homo and Pan split as us.

It needs to be mentioned.

It takes a lot of time (seven million years) and evolution to get a 2% differentiation in DNA.

I'm Frightened

Willard has read my M16A4 clone posts and has not, yet, mocked me.

He admits that he doesn't know where to begin, and that anything he adds doesn't really have any impact.

This scares me.

He's become numb to my insanity.

Pity is the next step.

That's Cool!

Putting a ø63.3x32.6mm cylindrical void in the body of the Energa print will, with a nylon density of 1.14 g/cm3 give it the correct mass of 645g!

Now, that's cool!

Putting that void up near the nose will also give it close to the correct balance.

Hopefully the fact that it's plastic, not metal, will be enough of a clue to keep someone from being so fooled by it that they feel the need to call ATF about the destructive device.

Because it's not a destructive device.

It's not even a projectile, really.  The stem will break apart if one were to put firing pressures on it.

It's a decorative muzzle cap!

Has anyone else noticed that pictures of live Energas are thin on the net, but pics of the training version abound?

14 May 2021

C0161 Again

I get to spend some quality time under my dash Sunday or Monday swapping out the brake pedal position sensor in The Precious, again.

This one has lasted since December 2016 and just about 50k miles.  The first one lasted from October 2007 and 121k miles.

C'est la vie.

The "good" news is this time the entire screw isn't covered in Loctite, so it should be easier than last time.

This is also the most likely culprit of the Service Active Handling Soon message from January.

Energa

I've long wanted an Energa rifle grenade for my FAL.

I don't think there's any real ones left, and the training versions are approaching "win the lotto" prices.

But JT has a 3D printer!

So I can take this:

And get to this:


And... dunno how to get from AutoCAD 3D model to something that his printer can use.  Surely there must be something...

13 May 2021

Viking Piss

Double of aquavit, two tablespoons of dill pickle brine, handful of olives, four or five dashes of Tabasco.


But Did You Know?

Playing around with the AR's and I noticed something:

The M4 feed ramps are entirely masked by the front of a Gen 3 PMAG, leaving just the barrel extension exposed.

What that means is if you're using a Gen 3 PMAG, you can use a barrel with rifle feed-ramps and an upper without the M4 ramps at all!

End Of An Era

The Army is retiring the M1128 Stryker Mobile Gun System.

While I don't have any feels for the loss of the vehicle itself, this will mean that the last variation of the M68 cannon will be gone from US service.

I tossed a lot of 105 rounds through an M68.

I Know What To Engrave!


 It will be hilarious!

Might have to change the selector markings.  SAFE / AWESOME / 20% MORE.


Lo Ma! No Serial Number!

Lavender Linda is, again, mostly a complete firearm.

The lower is a poured resin from AR15 Mold.

You will note the complete lack of a serial number, making this a (insert scary music) "Ghost Gun" woooooooooooo oooooooooooh!

Linda doesn't have a bolt carrier group, and the parts bin is much lighter.  I had not intended to make her a 6.8, but that's what parts I had.  Palmetto has bolt carriers on sale...  Sigh.

The lack of a serial number will not matter in the slightest unless I wanted to sell or give it away.  Or if it's stolen.

At this exact moment in time, this is perfectly legal.  There are some who are hoping to change that.

Considering that I've had the damn thing for over five years and have yet to sell it...  I think we can remove that motive from why I made it.

Marv and I did it because it's fun.

The AR15 Mold lower, by the way, is notably more fragile and less durable than a real aluminum one.  When it finally breaks, I'll smash it with a hammer and finish the 80% lower that's sitting in my gun safe.

In fact, I should scrape some money up and send it out to be engraved with something...  Dunno what.

After that comes the expense of anodizing (and the anodizing place makes me do a background check to get my lower back from them too).

I'm sure not saving any money making these things myself!

12 May 2021

B-Wing In The House

Despite my best efforts, I still forgot to get a couple parts ordered.  I had them on hand, luckily.


I have a sticker sheet for it coming soon.  From France of all places.