31 October 2021

Sabers And... Snippet 13

These horse-monsters were different.

The gathered in flocks like the killer-birds and worked together to hunt.

Like the other horse-monsters with feathers in their hair, they possessed the metal sticks of death.

The Wolf Tribe needed to know more about them if they were to drive them away.

They needed to be driven away before they found a place where their magic worked and the tribe's didn't like the other horse-monsters had in the dead mountains.

Lion's Bane would be honored around the fire for leading one of the new horse-monsters into the trap... an honor he would only attend in spirit.

Fleetfoot would be honored for catching the top half of the new horse monster.

Assuming his sling had not killed it.  They might be more fragile than the feather hair tops.

Sabers And... Snippet 12

"Corporal Allen!  After him!"

The Googoo was running flat out away from the scouting party.

The purpose of the scout was to find the Googoo, not to be found out by them.

Allen wheeled his horse around and gave her the spurs.

He knew from experience that the mare needed to get settled on her gallop before he had even half a chance at a shot.

He let go of the reins, steering with leg pressure and brought his carbine up and grabbed a round out of the magic loop in his ammo belt.

He'd closed within 20 yards as he chambered the round and put a bead on the back of the Googoo.

"Roll with the rhythm of the horse, don't fight the bouncing..." he thought as the sights aligned...

BANG!

A small puff of dust came off the leather shirt the Googoo wore and it tumbled to the ground almost as Allen got even with it.

Allen dropped the carbine on its sling and recovered his reins.

He never saw the Googoo that hit him in the back of the head with sling-stone...

Lanyard All The Things

Finally found a good version of the lanyard Israel used on their police pistols.

This one is genuine Beretta.  Or it's genuine Royal Army issue.  It's kind of hard to tell, who'd write a book about lanyards?

It's much higher quality than the Israeli made copy.


Happy Halloween!

It's our favoritest holiday!

30 October 2021

That's Not Quite Right

The Second Amendment didn't protect your right to own a gun until 2008.

The idea that it only protected the militia's right to guns originates in 1939 with the Miller v US ruling. 

Prior to Miller, the Supreme Court ruled that the 2nd's meaning was self evident and its meaning was the same as what is known today in Constitutional Scholarship as the "standard model".

So, really, the 2nd Amendment didn't protect an individual right to own a firearm from 1939 to 2008.  Sixty-nine years out of 230.

Subject Before The Predicate Put

I've started reading "The War" over at Chant du Départ.

Because I didn't start reading the serial as it came, I'm in the odd position of scrolling down to the bottom, back to the top of the entry, reading it to the bottom then scrolling back up to the next entry.

That will learn me to get over there more often and actually read the fiction section!

And Another Thing!

One of the drives on the Mac Pro has died.

It was a mirror of another drive with data I want to keep, so I'm backing it up on an external and waiting for Amazon to deliver two new, bigger, drives.

Ugh!

The good news is I have a tertiary place to store the data just in case the second drive goes tits up as long as it doesn't do it in the next four hours...

Eyes crossed!

29 October 2021

Another Sign?

I think I noticed another symptom of a bad BCM now that it's not presenting after putting the original one back in.

The chime would sound as if I'd left it in accessory mode when I opened the door to get in quite often.

All of the switches and sensors for the doors, lights and power go through the BCM before heading to the instrument panel to generate the chime.

I think I simply got a bad BCM back in August of '18 and it's been slowly degenerating over the past 28 thousand miles.  I blame removing lead from solder.

I wonder if tin whiskers are all up inside that thing.

Cold Front

Jeans and Hawaiian shirt weather means shoulder holsters!

Packing like a Miami Vice secondary cast member today with the Model 59 hidden in my armpit!

So far, there's no real drama to it.

It's lighter than the 1911 or Gov't model.

It's a little shorter than the M&P 9.

It's between both extremes I've packed at length before.  Winning all around!

Plus it's FUN!

I am so tired of everything about guns being so dour and serious all the time.

Mutter Mutter Grumble Mutter

On the way back from the store today the "Service Active Handling" light lit on The Precious' dash.

No cruise control, brake lights lit reflected in the grill of the tailgating F150...

Get home read the codes, C0161.  Again.

I've tried everything else, so in goes the original, take-out, body control module I kept when the HVAC fuse holder had gotten loose.  Happily I'd found a guide to cracking it open and getting access to the pins for the fuses to bend them back into shape.

Cleared the codes and the test drive gives no failures.

Fingers crossed that this was it.

Bagna Cauda

Every time I rewatch Babylon 5, I run across the episode where Garibaldi defies medical orders and makes bagna cauda.

It's a pint of extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 cup of butter, 10 cloves of minced garlic and 4 ounces of drained anchovies heated up and used like a fondu.

Dipping bread is the traditional thing.

Literally greasy WOP food.

Before I make it, I'd want to make sure I had someone who liked anchovies on hand.

I don't know if I like them, but I hear how overpowering they can be for a dish (prolly overwhelmed by the garlic)...

What If

I've always been fascinated with the idea of "what if?"

The 3-generation comparison of the Smiths made me think...

What if the 1954 pistol trial had resulted in the X100 being adopted as the Pistol, 9mm, Semiautomatic M4?

That would make Smith and Wesson an insider come the next competition.  The Model 459 could be the Pistol M9!

As a long time defense contractor, the M17 competition could have gone to the M&P 9.

What if?

In truth, the last military contract that S&W really tried for was the one where the Beretta 92FS was adopted as the M9.

They tested the waters as request for proposals came in from time to time, but never really made changes to a commercial model to conform to the specifications of the RFP.

I lost count of the number of times after the M9 competition where the military acted like they were going to be replacing it only to cancel the competition just after the competitors had done the requisite changes to meet the RFP, and this isn't just changes to the gun.  There were requirements for production capacity, workforce compliance issues... etc.

I wish I could find Reed Knight's rant about it.  He wanted to submit his and Stoner's LMG design, but Knight's was disqualified for lack of production space.

I noticed that the domestic gun makers flat stopped submitting designs to the things.  You can't hardly blame them, the US civilian market dwarfs the US military one.

28 October 2021

Too Soon?


 

I'll Be The Dick To Say It

Are the "Americans" trapped in Afghanistan actually Americans or are they foreigners with some sort of approved immigration status like a green card?

Because if it's the latter I have a lot of trouble summoning much give a shit for their plight.

The latter group is just more Afghanis and I don't really want anyone from that fucked up culture here until we're allowed to go full on melting pot on them.

That goes for any immigrant, really, but they're going to take a lot more work than, say, Mexicans.  Mexicans, and other South Americans, aren't really too far removed from being Americans because they're, more or less, part of Western Civ being from nations influenced by Portugal and Spain.

Latinos pick up being American right quick when they have to.  The problem, really, is they don't have to at present and they're like 80% of the way there already.

A culture that's not even 10% of the way there isn't going to blend at all unless forced and for some reason we don't seem to acknowledge that America has a culture and that people who want to live here should adopt it or go elsewhere.

When Was That Again

A long long time ago...

Marv sold a S&W model 659 to a friend.

That friend got that gun taken away because he was acting all suicidal.

He got it back, but...

He got arrested on a domestic abuse charge and the gun was taken again.

While the charges were dropped, we don't know if he recovered the gun.

I remember the suicidal part as being before the friend's second divorce.

Marv doesn't remember being without a 9mm but there's a 4 year discrepancy between the first seizure and his next 9mm.

Now we're scouring our photo albums looking for a firm date...

Proper Security Sucks

What good are the locks if you never lock them?

I can tell why I got out of the habit of locking them.

When I want to take a picture, I have to get through my own security to get to the subject, then secure it again when I am done.

That takes time.

It's a slight delay.

It's inconvenient.

As it should be.

It should be a much larger impediment to a thief.  That's the goal.

27 October 2021

Family Circus Focus

If you're familiar with The Family Circus then you've seen the "I came straight home!" strips with the kid's path meandering all over the known universe between the two points.

I am presently upset with someone's pattern of discussion over on Facebook and I can't get my thoughts to gel at all.

What is nice is seeing others confronting them there where I would have expected them to defer.

The someone has been blogging for a long time and tends to get such deference in blog comments.

Apparently Facebook is now more Wild West than Blogger and more people feel they can confront them.

A Skim Of S&W Generation Differences

L - R: Model 59, Model 459, Model 915

 

In a nutshell, the differences between the 39/59 series pistols is:

1st no firing pin block.

2nd gets the firing pin block and has the option for an ambi-safety.

Otherwise the 1st and 2nd gens are the same.

3rd gen deletes the half-cock notch and revises the frame for a wrap-around back-strap/grip made from space age polymer instead of screwed on nylon stocks.  The barrel bushing is deleted and sights are changed to dove-tails front and rear.

The 1st gen frame has the ejector/magazine safety arm (on our left) and the blade the safety presses to drop the hammer.

The magazine safety feature is actuated by a spring loaded plunger in the slide (on our right) which pushes down on the ejector and disconnects the trigger.  The magazine pushes it back up to allow the trigger to engage.

 

The safety drum pushes down on the safety blade, tripping the sear and disconnecting the trigger.  The drum also rotates into the path of the hammer, preventing the hammer from striking the firing pin.

The 2nd gen adds a firing pin block which is a spring loaded plunger in the slide which is pushed up by a blade just outside the safety blade.


 

The 3rd gen changes the magazine disconnect plunger from metal to plastic.



2nd Gen Smiff

Marvyn's 459 arrived today!


Target sights and ambidextrous safety, but no lanyard ring.

"I will remember to not use it from horseback," Marvyn says.

Judging from the holster wear around the muzzle end of the slide, it's been carried a bunch and fired a bit.

26 October 2021

While I Understand The Sentiment

Beans has me wondering how one opens a container of yogurt UNsafely.

 


 

25 October 2021

Arts And Crafts

I am making little paracord skeletons!

The Lovely Harvey is gifting them to her co-workers.



Connection

I just figured out what is so damn galling about Aesop's position on firearm safety.

He thinks there should be an exception to personal responsibility with a firearm.

I don't.

That's the essential conflict here.

Expanded on this my rejection that there should be special laws for people above a certain income level or in certain jobs.

Both rejections are at play here.

Yes, Hollywood created a procedure that allows dancing monkeys to hold a firearm and point it at others in a way that's resulted in damn few injuries and even fewer deaths.

But I disagree that absolves the person with the gun in their hand from responsibility for the harm done when that procedure fails.

But why did that procedure fail on the set of "Rust?"

Because there really isn't an industry wide standard with accreditation with regards to becoming an armorer.

It's a master and apprentice model.  A model that breaks over and over in history when family is involved and skills turn out to not be hereditary.

The set was clearly not following the strictest guidelines with regards to firearms because there were live rounds on set, they were not segregated from dummy and blank ammunition and the cast and crew had access to both live ammunition and the firearm in question.  They were plinking with it during down time.

More than a few actors have been railing on the goings on at that set.  Many of them outlining what the correct procedures should have been.

My contact in Orlando (who asks not to be named because they like their job) spells out the basics:

No live ammo on set.  Period

Everyone on set will be briefed about the shot and the presence of the firearm.  Anyone on set during the shot can call a halt for a safety violation and the briefing informs everyone of that.  Everyone knows what the rules are from this and if they don't attend the brief, they are not allowed on set.  Safety is everyone's responsibility.

No live guns in actor's hands until the shot.

No blank ammo loaded until the actual shot.

The live gun with blank ammo will spend the absolute minimum amount of time in the actor's hands.

The actor does not operate the firearm unless directed to do so and only at the designated point in the script.

Blocking, rehearsals and run-throughs are done with the rubber or resin look-alikes both for safety and expense.

With modern cameras, there is no reason for anyone to be downrange of a "down the barrel" shot.

Because cameras suck at depth perception, there's no reason for the actor to have to point a firearm at anyone directly.  A little to the side doesn't show on camera.

Now, how many of those rules were broken in New Mexico that day?

There's proper ways to do things when playing with dangerous items.  Ways that mitigate the dangers.

At the end of the day, the person on the trigger is the one who decides that they are OK with how well the procedures have been followed and they pull the trigger, or refuse.  Making them responsible for what happens in the end because they are the last go/no-go in the chain.

If, as Aesop claims, actors are too stupid or uneducated to make that decision, they should not be allowed anything sharper than a marble or harder than meringue.

If they really are that incompetent, we shouldn't be making excuses for them, we should be getting actors who know what they're doing.  Actors who care about their co-workers.

Something else to consider, when you're trying absolve the dancing monkey of the responsibility of shooting someone, you're creating a situation where they don't have to care about safety.  They will not suffer consequences, why should they bother with making sure it's safe?

You're guaranteeing that someone else will get killed by an actor, maybe even the same one.

The Rumors Were Correct

 

Probably a Tisas rebranding.

MSRP of $700 is decent.

 

59 Toting

The Model 59 got its debut at the theater when we went to see Dune.

As expected, it was no different from any other pistol I've carried in a Miami Classic.

It stayed concealed like it was supposed to.

I've got three Miami Classic rigs.

The Miami Classic II for the 1911 which has carried both a Springfield 1911 GI in .45 and a Colt Gov't Model in .38 Super.

The first Miami Classic is for the plastic fantastic M&P series.  This one has hidden an M&P 9 and an M&P 45C.

The second Miami Class is the one I'm using for the 59 and the first one I've bought used.

I think, sometimes, that I'm obsessed with shoulder holsters.

First there was the Army and the M9 holster and M1911A1.

I tried several nylon Uncle Mike's holster for various pistols (packing illegally in Iowa).  They were bulky and awkward.

My first Galco shoulder holster was The Executive for my P232.  It was a very comfortable rig, but no provision for extra ammo.

Then came all the Miami Classic variations.

Loom Num

Reading up on the difference between the 59 and 459 leads to noticing the differences between the 459 and 659.

Steel slide and aluminum frame on the 459, stainless steel all around for the 659.

That makes the 659 a tubby girl.

An entire loaded magazine heavier than the 459.

2.3 vs 2.9 pounds.

I would express concerns over aluminum's durability here, but there's model 39's running around doing just fine.  Some of them are quite long in the tooth too.

Thinking about materials always gets me wondering about changing the perfectly cromulant nylon stocks on my 59 over to something pretty like walnut.

Commitment

Marvyn will soon be the proud owner of a S&W Model 459.

It is not the 459 he was bidding on these past five days.

He was outbid at the last moment.

I pointed out that he'd been watching one with a buy-it-now price set the same as his max-bid and he should do it!

JT and I were ribbing him a bit, but he appeared to be stoic and resigned to his loss.

But, as it turned out, he had already stabbed the buy-it-now button.

Was he possessed of a furor to own a 2nd Generation Smith and Wesson auto born of nostalgia from the Model 659 he used to own?

No.

His bid had stood long enough that confidence in winning had taken hold and he ordered spare magazines.

I suppose it was cheaper than tracking down a Marlin Camp Carbine for them.

24 October 2021

Prepare To Mount!

 

The lower, quick-detach mount for Willard's Romeo-MSR has arrived!

Now he needs to bring the rifle and scope over to get it installed.

Special Moderation

I've found that I'm far from alone in my opinion about Mr Baldwin having a large portion of the responsibility for shooting his assistant director, Ms Hutchins, dead.

And I notice that my problem commenters aren't commenting at those sites.

I've even noticed one blogger disagreeing with one of my problem children and openly quoting him and saying he's wrong.

I am thinking that he's not allowed to comment at a lot of these places any more.

I do know he's worn his welcome VERY thin here.

23 October 2021

I Deleted Them

The two commentors who're insisting that Alec Baldwin did nothing wrong or illegal, and being VERY verbose about it have had their comments deleted.

They want there to be an exception for the dancing monkeys to be careless with firearms and be immune to the consequences so bad they're dismissing a genuine legal analysis of someone who's and acknowledged expert in firearms law.

And using specious arguments to do so.

One of you has already been warned about trying to hijack my blog.

I acknowledge that you disagree, but I've decided to not subject others to your disagreement because you're arguing your points so damn poorly.

I can get it out in a (long) sentence instead of a massive wall of text:

It's OK for dancing monkeys to be careless with guns because they're not supposed to know any better therefore it's the responsibility of the organ grinder to make sure they don't kill anyone while being careless.

You want them to be indemnified from the consequences of their actions as long as there's at least one other person who touched the gun before them and assured their tiny simian brains that it was OK.

It's a parallel of an argument I've disallowed here for a long time, Cops being held to a different standard because they followed procedures and training which lead to people being shot unnecessarily because the procedures and training don't lead to any kind of restraint about shooting someone.  The only thing that matters in these procedures is the cops don't get hurt, so they can merrily fire away in situations where us common folk will get a murder rap.

"I followed departmental procedures and training" is a get out of jail free for cops.  Well, it was, that's starting to change because people like me have been bitching about it.

The same goes for dancing monkeys.  I hand you a gun and say, "It's OK, it's unloaded," and you shoot someone; YOU are going to jail for being stupid enough to believe me.  I'm going too, but on a lesser charge.

"I didn't know it was loaded," is absolutely NOT a positive defense for shooting someone.

Why do you want it to be a defense for an actor who hates you?

Andrew Branca Agrees With Me!

Well, considering the vast difference in legal expertise, what I thought of the situation as I'd heard it agrees with Mr Branca's assessment.

 Check it out here.

There doesn't appear to be, "but it's fantasy and he's a dancing monkey," exception that has been put forth in the comments.

22 October 2021

I'll Take "Four Rules" For $1,000

The clue is, "The person responsible."

Who is, "The person who pulled the trigger while pointing it at someone else?"

Alec, you don't get to dissemble and blame the props guy for what you did.

If you'd been following any of the four rules the person you killed wouldn't even be injured today.  Neither would the person you injured.

How do I know this?

Because I have a loaded, chambered gun on me right now.  And I have had for the most part of 15 years.  Not once have I shot someone in those years.

How can this be true?

Because, unlike you, I learned the rules.

Also unlike you, when I broke them, I got lucky.

I've had a negligent discharge.  I got the wall.


 

I was taking apart my Glock21.  Because I wasn't pointing it at anything I cared about destroying and something that could stop the round, my fucking up treating it like it was loaded and pulling the trigger didn't hurt anyone.

There's redundancy built into those rules for a reason.

But, by several reports, you pointed a gun right at the departed and pulled the trigger.  That also injured someone else standing behind them.

You broke all four rules.

It does not matter if you were handed a live, hot gun or a bar of soap carved into a gun shape.

YOU acted as if it wasn't loaded.

YOU put your finger on the trigger and pulled it.

YOU pointed the gun at something you didn't wish to destroy.

YOU didn't make sure that it was safe to point in that direction.

The property manager didn't do those things, you did.

I know you don't understand because you've been blaming the deodand for years, but it's what we've been trying to explain to you for those same years.

That gun didn't kill her.  The property master didn't kill her.  You killed her.

I honestly hope that you get what's coming to you.

Lurking Under The Bed

Ever move a box and say, "that's heavier than expected?"

Here's what was in the box:





Kicking And Screaming

Willard stopped by today to have me mount a DSA p-rail top cover and SIG Romeo-MSR sight to his FAL Voyager.

Damn OEM eyeballs being as old as the rest of us sucks, and optics are a way around the problem.

We tried it in several locations on the rail and Willard settled on putting it to the rear rather than the front as shown in the pics.

The DSA railed cover is a solid optics mount for an FAL, but it's kind a pain to get on.  Simple but fiddly.  Once it's on, it stays put though.

10/22 Day

Here's a pic of my 10/22!

I don't actually own an example of the most ubiquitous .22 LR ever made.

The Lovely Harvey has one, but the idea is to post a pic of your own, so...

Dune!

 Marv and I went to see Dune this evening.

The Lovely Harvey bought the tickets using The Boy's app so he got the points.

I hope that Dune does well enough in the box office to make the second part because the director has done the book justice.

I noticed a couple of small changes from the book because I'd just read it recently.

The only one that glared was Chani saying, "Paul," instead of, "Usul," in his vision/dreams.

The rest were really unremarkable.

Except making Vladimir Harkonnen a fairly conventional bad guy.  I guess we can't have the bad guy be gay in today's woke Hollywood.

It'll be a while before we can have gay villains again.  Too easy for some bigots to equate gay = evil when Harkonnen was an evil person who happens to be gay not someone who is evil because they are gay.

The woke and the bigots can't see that distinction, let alone make it.

21 October 2021

My Curiousity Is Piqued


 

Even if I wouldn't buy whatever it is after they threw Illinois gun dealers under the bus...

...but it's rumored to be a High Power clone.

After Watching All Six And A Half Hours

The words out of Eugene Stoner's own mouth only support about half of what Karl Kasarda of InRange claims it does.

Part 1:


Part 2:

Part 3:

 


Part 4:



Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:


Part 8:

Karl also omits the role of Jim Sullivan in shrinking the AR-10 to the AR-15, the AR-16 to the AR-18 and the Stoner 62 to the Stoner 63 from 7.62x51mm NATO to 5.56x45mm.

What I get from these interviews is not an iconoclast but an innovator and team player who worked with others to further the goals of the company and meet the needs of the customer.


14

Stoner Interview On The XM274

Some of the details I'd read about this gun were just wrong.


 

14

Is Your Privacy An Illusion? (Taking on Big Tech) - Smarter Every Day 263

 

14

Unmet Demand

I keep reading the news and stories about people creating hoaxes about racism.

Most recently a black woman posing as a klansman and leaving messages in mailboxes.

I am thinking that the repeated instances of fake hate and the utter lack of real hate says everything that needs to be said about the topic.

Racism only exists in the minds of people who wish to remain "victims" of it.

I put victims in quotes because they don't want to actually be victims, but rather want the moral high ground that a genuinely oppressed person would have in the face of that oppression.

In many ways it's like a virgin claiming to have been raped because someone described having sex to them.


14

Sorry Karl, But

Why is Eugene Stoner thought of as a ".308 guy"?

The AR-3, AR-10, AR-12 and AR-16 are in 7.62x51mm.  That's almost half the Armalite guns he was responsible for.

His first design after leaving Armalite was the 7.62x51mm Stoner 62 for Cadillac Gage.  James Sullivan had more to do with scaling it down to 5.56 and the Stoner 63.

He wasn't involved in scaling the AR-16 down to the AR-18 and doesn't appear to have been involved with converting the AR-3 to the AR-10's gas system for the AR-11.

Whenever he was left to his own devices, he always returned to the 7.62x51mm.

Being a team player, he was perfectly OK with developing things for other rounds, but...

Showing a clip of Mr Stoner talking about helping develop what becomes 5.56x45mm doesn't mean that he preferred 5.56, it just means he wasn't a monomaniac about the round he preferred.


14

Another Day Another Curb

Coming up on six years since last contact with a friend.

I stopped making contact with him because I needed to take a break from his need to "devil's advocate" everything we talked about.

I figured it'd be a few days, tops.

Then I realized that he'd not bothered trying to talk to me altogether.

I've been waiting for the "are you OK?" call for six motherfucking years.

I guess it's not happening.

Oh well, Anglave the Sealion made his decision.  I'm only a little bummed.

I strongly suspect that it was his girlfriend at the time and his being ingratiated with her college student aged circle of friends for his sudden change of political affiliation.

Checking his Facebook page shows that she's long gone.  I wonder if she's more of the same or if he's just embarrassed about being a sealion.


14

20 October 2021

Oh By The Way

Florida has, arguably, done the least with regards to forcing people to do something about Wu Ping Cough.

You'd think with our lack of mandates and wide open businesses there'd be bodies stacked like cord wood outside every funeral home and a severe shortage of grave sites...

Yeah, about that.

We did get a spike of the "delta variant" that came back down as fast as it went up.

We're doing second best with regards to cases in the nation, after basically doing "nothing."  Where "nothing" is defined by forcing people to shut down businesses, hide in their homes and become vaccinated.

Notice, though, that Florida didn't forbid anyone from getting vaccinated.  Florida did a great deal towards getting people tested and making sure vaccines were available.  Lots of people did get vaccinated.  My son is.  Marvyn is.  My in laws are.  The Lovely Harvey and I likely will.

I'm skeptical of the need and the efficacy of the vaccines, but we also seem to be outside the groups that have adverse reactions to it.

I also, voluntarily, get a flu shot every year.

I'm generally very pro-vax.  Though I'm a bit skeptical of that flu shot because they have guessed which variation of the flu will be the prevailing one quite a bit.

My objection to the vaccine mandates is the extortion aspect.  "It's a nice job you have here, it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it..."


13

The Tyranny Of The Minority And Power Of Fear

Something I've been seeing a lot more of now that the Federal Government is trying to create an underclass of people via vaccine mandate is the people who are most affected by Wu Ping Cough because of comorbidities demanding that we make them feel safe by submitting to the vaccination.

While story after story of someone dying fully vaccinated piles up.

Oh, and they always have comorbidities.

There doesn't appear to be an analog with other "forced" vaccination programs cited in their fearful screeds.

People vaccinated from smallpox just don't die from smallpox.

People vaccinated from polio just don't become disabled from polio.

People vaccinated from mumps or measles just don't catch mumps or measles.

Yet people vaccinated from Wu Ping Cough die from it in noticeable numbers.

A number that I am not sure we're ever going to be able to quantify is how many people have caught the disease and never knew it because it's just not very severe.  It's the coup de grace for many with an existing health problem, but doesn't seem to be very severe to most others.

I'm thinking the real problem is the vaccine is completely ineffective and they're terrified that they can still catch it.

Kids, if the vaccine is completely ineffective, then forcing others to get vaccinated won't save you either.

Perhaps, the people who are most terrified should be the ones isolated and marginalized.

Their behavior reminds me a lot of people who are terrified of crime, so the law abiding must be restricted in ever increasing amounts for them to feel safe.

It's especially odd to see formerly libertarian and pro-gun people falling down the rabbit hole of tyranny to others for their personal feeling of safety.


13

That Didn't Take Much Research

Yes, the government mandating that everyone be vaccinated or be forced to the sidelines of society is controversial and unprecedented.

Federal mandates for vaccinations do not appear until the 1960's and are attached to earmark education spending and only mandated that children must be inoculated to attend a government funded school.

Their parents could still work.  They could attend private schooling.  They could play on public playgrounds.  They could go to restaurants and movie theaters.

The historic and uncontroversial government response to epidemics is quarantine.  The people with the highly contagious and deadly disease are the only ones affected by the government edict.

Even so, it was a power rarely wielded.

There is considerable disagreement that the Federal government even has the power to do this.  The general welfare clause does not specifically mention sickness or disease, the preamble is not regarded to grant any powers and Article I Section 8 is about taxing and spending.  The "general Welfare of the United States" is the same sort of phrase as "A well regulated militia..."

If you're quoting Article I Section 8 as the grant of power to force vaccines on people, you're a fascist and you are the one who should be shunned and marginalized from society.

 

13

Falsifiable Hypothesis

This is getting old.

For anything you find out there in firearms, there's someone who says that it sucks and you should buy a different version.

Because.

Today's burr under the saddle is the Magpul AK and AK-74 PMAG.


"Don't buy them, they have problems."

OK, what problems?

Don't fit into the gun?

Don't feed?

Don't come back out?

Fall apart while firing?

"Commie surplus steel is best!"

Um, you do know that the Russians ditched steel for the AKM way back in the sixties, right?

Alongside the people who say that surplus steel is the only magazine you should be buying are many reviews saying they had no problems with the PMAGs.

No problems is a quantifiable statement.

Unspecified problems is not.

 

13

I Like Beer And Pizza

 

LOL!


13

Wait What?

"NOTE this product is restricted in Canada and the following states: CT."

What product could this be that's restricted in Canada and Connecticut? 

A four (that's 4) round magazine for a bolt-action rifle.

I was unaware that both Canada and Connecticut had laws concerning magazine capacity for such guns.


13

19 October 2021

Replacing Older Guns

While it's not quite cool enough to wear the 59 outside yet, I've been wearing it around the house.

It occurs to me that since the Model 59 is a proven, reliable design that if you already had one, you didn't need to be buying a different gun to replace it.

With new magazines, it's not giving up capacity against a Glock 17 or M&P 9.

It's actually a bit smaller than a Glock 17 though it's heavier.

And I say this with a gun safe that's bulging with 9mm pistols...

If you had a Browning High Power, you weren't unarmed when the S&W 59 came out.

If you had a S&W 59 you weren't unarmed when the Glock hit the streets.

Et cetera.

But there's a strong urge to leap to the next greatest thing.  That's why my safe is full...

I could see someone upgrading from a S&W 39 to a 59, moar dakka is nice.  It's what made me change from an M&P9 Shield to an M&P9 Shield Plus.

If one model didn't fit your hand and one with near identical specs did... change over.

But...

I know, marketing hates this idea.

If you're armed with a pistol you shoot well in a round that will get the job done you don't need to change horses.

Need.

This does NOT address want.  You want to have a safe full of 9mm pistols?  Go for it!

I am in no position to call you on it.

I filled a safe Grokking to its fullness the small differences between many models of gun.  I don't NEED to do this, I want to.  I enjoy the process of discovering it and sharing it with all y'all.


12

Johnson M1941 Cutaway Video

Just for you, Technomad!


Super simple rotary magazine setup.

Plus, how to take it apart!



12

All Better

Got my chicago screws in today.

Installation went as expected, this holster is officially repaired and the magazine carrier I cannibalized is restored.

Factory parts that were still with the holster.

Chicago screw from Amazon to replace the missing part.

A little dab of Loctite and she's good to go!


12

18 October 2021

The Next Parkland Prevented

Idiot teen waving airsoft "assault rifle" (looks like an M14 replica) around downtown Tarpon shot and killed by police for being an idiot teen waving around what looked to be a real gun.

 

Said idiot teen was no stranger to the criminal justice system and had, like the Parkland shooter, never actually been punished for their lawlessness.


11

Birthday Rifle Calibre .30 Semiautomatic

Today, in 1926, is the day Mr Garand patented what was to become the M1 rifle.

John Pederson and Melvin Johnson most affected.


11

Charmed

Something I've noticed more than once is that I don't seem to have problems with guns which others scream are garbage.

Case in point is my PSA PSAK.

Mollie Bean has never failed to function despite being a PSAK blem kit where I had to buy furniture separately.

That's not to say that ownership of Mollie has been trouble free.  The front sight post was a trial and the gas tube and magazine latch needed some massaging.

But it has always gone bang and groups well enough.


The problems that I've had are not the problems I've seen the most complaints about.  My bolt is not deforming.  My trunion is not stretching.  My extractor has not fallen out.  My firing pin has not broken.

You would think, from reading some forums, that any PSA AK is hot garbage and can't be fired.

Those forums also have a camp of people who've decided that only AK's from formerly Godless Commie nations are worth buying and give dire predictions about how many rounds it will fire before being shot out.

Battlefield Vegas has a PSA AK that they put 17k rounds through full-auto before the nitrided barrel started showing signs of being shot out.

I'm old enough to remember when 10k rounds was the expected barrel life of a bolt action in something like a .30-06.  The US Army says 5-6k rounds for a chrome lined M4 barrel.

I think that 17k is fine.

Notice that I gave a list of things that had been reported by owners of the PSAK?

The Commie Guns Is Best Guns don't tell you what fails.  They just say that Commies Make Best and drop the mic like it's self evident.

Quantify your argument so you can make a falsifiable hypothesis or shut the fuck up!


11

That's Not A "Today's Headline"

The local Fox affiliate's web page has a "Today's Headlines" box with what's supposed to be the top five headlines from the past 24 hours in it.

Today it showed "Broward Sheriff: 17 dead in South Florida school shooting."

"FUCK! Not again!" I think as I click the link.

It's not from today.  It's Parkland.

Is it any wonder that the low information people think that gun crime is up?

The news is showing more than three year old stories on their home pages as current news.


11

I Am Old Enough To Remember Most Of These Predictions

 https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/50-years-of-failed-doomsday-eco-pocalyptic-predictions-the-so-called-experts-are-0-50/?fbclid=IwAR1aSNvCDJ8BSGBDUFoQ5LMH3mZKsMw8qAcIdwYO7ZHU_d6Z3Z4Ke_591tQ

List from article quoted below:

Below are the 41 failed doomsday, eco-pocalyptic predictions (with links):

1. 1967: Dire Famine Forecast By 1975
2. 1969: Everyone Will Disappear In a Cloud Of Blue Steam By 1989 (1969)
3. 1970: Ice Age By 2000
4. 1970: America Subject to Water Rationing By 1974 and Food Rationing By 1980
5. 1971: New Ice Age Coming By 2020 or 2030 (still time for this one)
6. 1972: New Ice Age By 2070 (still time for this one)
7. 1974: Space Satellites Show New Ice Age Coming Fast
8. 1974: Another Ice Age?
9. 1974: Ozone Depletion a ‘Great Peril to Life (data and graph)
10. 1976: Scientific Consensus Planet Cooling, Famines imminent
11. 1980: Acid Rain Kills Life In Lakes (additional link)
12. 1978: No End in Sight to 30-Year Cooling Trend (additional link)
13. 1988: Regional Droughts (that never happened) in 1990s
14. 1988: Temperatures in DC Will Hit Record Highs
15. 1988: Maldive Islands will Be Underwater by 2018 (they’re not)
16. 1989: Rising Sea Levels will Obliterate Nations if Nothing Done by 2000
17. 1989: New York City’s West Side Highway Underwater by 2019 (it’s not)
18. 2000: Children Won’t Know what Snow Is
19. 2002: Famine In 10 Years If We Don’t Give Up Eating Fish, Meat, and Dairy
20. 2004: Britain will Be Siberia by 2024
21. 2008: Arctic will Be Ice Free by 2018
22. 2008: Climate Genius Al Gore Predicts Ice-Free Arctic by 2013
23. 2009: Climate Genius Prince Charles Says we Have 96 Months to Save World
24. 2009: UK Prime Minister Says 50 Days to ‘Save The Planet From Catastrophe’
25. 2009: Climate Genius Al Gore Moves 2013 Prediction of Ice-Free Arctic to 2014
26. 2013: Arctic Ice-Free by 2015 (additional link)
27. 2014: Only 500 Days Before ‘Climate Chaos’
28. 1968: Overpopulation Will Spread Worldwide
29. 1970: World Will Use Up All its Natural Resources
30. 1966: Oil Gone in Ten Years
31. 1972: Oil Depleted in 20 Years
32. 1977: Department of Energy Says Oil will Peak in 1990s
33. 1980: Peak Oil In 2000
34. 1996: Peak Oil in 2020
35. 2002: Peak Oil in 2010
36. 2006: Super Hurricanes!
37. 2005 : Manhattan Underwater by 2015
38. 1970: Urban Citizens Will Require Gas Masks by 1985
39. 1970: Nitrogen buildup Will Make All Land Unusable
40. 1970: Decaying Pollution Will Kill all the Fish
41. 1970s: Killer Bees!

Update: I’ve added 9 additional failed predictions (via Real Climate Science) below to make it an even 50 for the number of failed eco-pocalyptic doomsday predictions over the last 50 years.

42. 1975: The Cooling World and a Drastic Decline in Food Production
43. 1969: Worldwide Plague, Overwhelming Pollution, Ecological Catastrophe, Virtual Collapse of UK by End of 20th Century
44. 1972: Pending Depletion and Shortages of Gold, Tin, Oil, Natural Gas, Copper, Aluminum
45. 1970: Oceans Dead in a Decade, US Water Rationing by 1974, Food Rationing by 1980
46. 1988: World’s Leading Climate Expert Predicts Lower Manhattan Underwater by 2018
47. 2005: Fifty Million Climate Refugees by the Year 2020 (only if Islam is a climate)
48. 2000: Snowfalls Are Now a Thing of the Past
49.1989: UN Warns That Entire Nations Wiped Off the Face of the Earth by 2000 From Global Warming
50. 2011: Washington Post Predicted Cherry Blossoms Blooming in Winter

 

 

11

Burn In Hell You RINO Son Of A Bitch

Colin Powell is dead.

Good.


11

Doing Story Right Compared With Doing It Wrong

 It's long, but worth your time.




11

17 October 2021

She's 18 Now And This Is The Next Logical Step

Greta Thunberg to begin pole-dancing at local strip club to raise awareness about climate change.

Lap dances include free lecture of how to create a sustainable and renewable environment for sex workers.

Hell, she's been a whore for years, this would just be honest about it.


10

Bitching About A Manicure

I am officially old, because I am now old enough to remember when a general had to, at least, be an adult.

I'm not saying that we should never have opened up command ranks to women, but I do note that the present bullshit with that reserve 2-star would be impossible prior to said opening.

I even said it while I was in.

If women want equality, why all the special rules?

Lower standards for PT.

Completely different standards for grooming.

Able to get a medical discharge under honorable conditions for a self-inflicted condition.  <-- Look that one up!

Not required to register for or be subject to the draft.

They never wanted equality, and they sure get mad when you point it out.

By the way, many of the requirements loosened for women were established by lessons learned in blood.  This standard or people will die is why they were put at the male levels.


10

That Took Less Time Than Hoped

I decided to extrapolate the ship design system in GURPS: Traveller Interstellar Wars up to the 3rd Imperium.

I expected it to take a couple hours, minimum.

Nope.

Less than half an hour.

Cue up Styx...


10

POC To The Future!

The one thing that didn't bug me about Foundation is the number of POC cast.

It's more than ten thousand years in the future with people living under diverse suns, more melanin is a survival trait if your star and planet combine to let more UV in.

I got a mild freak-out from my players once in a Not-Traveller campaign I ran on the topic of race.

We didn't have any canon information why the Solomani Rim war started, so I made it a race war.

Imperial policy had embraced the Homogeneous Humaniti Project, the Sol descended people objected to the idea strongly enough to start a war about it.

What the Homogeneous Humaniti project was is simply to spread the genes of everyone as widely as possible with the idea that eventually there is no such thing as "race" and we all get along Kumbaya...  The idea was lifted from the Hiver.

What the HHP would have done, eventually, is pretty much eliminate recessive traits and that would lead to darker hair, eyes and skin tones.

So a POC in the future, especially one a few thousand years from now?  Not even noteworthy.

I see, now, that the HHP would never have gotten traction in The Imperium.  The major races of Humaniti can't interbreed with a few of the minor races and in a universe that has that sort of racial divide shit like hair, eye and skin color stops mattering really fast.

Especially since you need a gene sequencer to tell Solomani apart from Vilani and thanks to The Rule of Man and enthusiastic interbreeding, most Imperial and Solomani major race humans are really Terrani.  Oh, except for the nobility, they were Terran descended and kept it that way.

During the Rule of Man, it was advantageous for a common Vilani to marry with Sol-stock because of political power.  A Terran having kids from a Vilani spouse gets that longer lifespan dominate gene.  Everybody wins!

The Terran bloodlines dominating politics is what leads to the Solomani movement and first a civil war, then an autonomous region then a secession then a real war.

If you want the complicated details, you're going to have to read the books.


10

Not Sure I Can Keep Going

Apple TV's series "Foundation" is interesting.  It's well shot, excellent special effects, decent acting.

I'm getting sick of how they're telling the story.

Even worse, it's starting to be clear that TV series has as much to do with the books as Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers."

After Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Expanse; I thought we were done making up our own story wearing the skin of a respected property.

Alas.

I read the original three Foundation books a long time ago, and expected that many things would be unfamiliar because of how long it'd been.

What I wasn't prepared for was how little of what is in the series appeared in the books.

This is a whole new story, it's a whole new setting as well!

I'm not sure I want to keep going because I hate the practice of gutting a sci-fi classic and having the filmed version wear it like a skin demanding that same respect the classic earned.


10

16 October 2021

Stupid Global Warmering

Danged weather.

By mid October I should be two weeks into the clear top on The Precious and wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a shoulder holster.

Well, it might start tomorrow, but I think summer has another week left in her despite the expected cold front tomorrow.

It's keeping me from starting my experiment with the S&W 59 and the Miami Classic.


9

Sabers And... Snippet 11

The land of Not-Dakota was lovely.

A man could lose his soul just gazing at it.

The blue-gray of the distant mountains and odd black-green of the pine forests.

The seemingly endless waist-high grass... there must be an end, there's the mountains there after all.

It would seem a paradise if it weren't for the uncountable gulleys, streams and rivers.

Even if there was no water, there was still a steep walled eight to ten foot deep trench to cross.  Always just a bit too wide to jump.

Maybe if one was a farmer, this wouldn't matter.

But Major Beasley was moving troops and wagons.

The old hands grumbled about such things hiding entire tribes of murderous red-skins back before the treaty and the spookholes.

Then there was those giant long-horn buffalo...  You just wouldn't expect a bovine that large to be, well, sneaky.

You'd be minding your own business tending to getting a wagon over a ravine and suddenly there's fifty of the damnable things wandering right up to the pickets and being angry at human intrusion into their path.

The men were eating well, at least.


9

Sex Bolt

AKA Chicago Screw.

The holster for the model 59 was missing the Chicago screw that tensions the draw.

This is a style of fastener that I know, but can NEVER remember the name of when I'm looking to get one.

So I recreate the search again and again to figure out the name and get one ordered.

At present I've cannibalized the female portion of the screw from the magazine pouch from my Miami Classic II for my 1911.

I've ordered 10 sets of the appropriate size from Amazon because Galco didn't reply to my contact form.

They're 8-32x3/8" for those shopping at home.


9

15 October 2021

Fruit Fruit Tits Tits Plant Plant

These are very similar guns in GURPS terms.  The M1 Carbine loses to the XM177E2 in range, but similar weights, capacities and damage.

Post title reference.

 

8

I want a recount! And no matter how it turns out, I want my old job back!

The report is worthless because it didn't hew to our preconceived notions about what the Supreme Court should be.

I love how they claim that having a court that doesn't rubber stamp progressive stuff is harmful to our Constitutional rights when a liberal controlled court has ignored the 2nd Amendment in a meaningful way for decades.

They live in abject terror of the Constitution being read the way it was written.

The Federal Government would be smaller than the city government of Tampa if the Constitution was interpreted in the plain language it is written in.

Freedom is some scary shit, most people don't want it at all.  Even conservatives.


8

I Feel A Bit Better

The electrician was baffled by the problem at The Rents as well.

The proximate failure the GFI tripping in the small bathroom.

That entire loop ran through that single GFI in the bathroom.

The loop no longer does so.

Bonus!  The baffling three-way switch has been sorted and works properly.

One breaker is identified as GNDN.

Now I can get back to installing that fan.


8

Systemic Racism

If the Western Civilization standards and institutions are the cause of systemic racism and all we need to do is get the white people out of the way...

Why is every place in Africa that has rid itself of those standards, institutions and white people a shit hole?

With the elimination of those standards, institutions and white people; shouldn't they now be economic paradises and bastions of freedom to be held as shining examples to the rest of the world about how to do things correctly?


8

Channeling My Inner Douglas Adams

People are gluing themselves to the road in England.

"Sir, do you have any idea how much damage this steamroller would sustain if I were to allow it to roll right over you?"

"No.  How much damage?"

"None, whatsoever."

One thing you can be sure of when you let the steamroller roll; they will not be doing that again.

Just sayin'.


8

Day Two

Learning to love the M16A4.

The LED upgrade to the M951 Sure-Fire is worth it.

It lights up the night and the tape-switch is definitely handier than the X300's rocker.

The Primary Arms 5x is proven to me after surviving all those years on Dottie.

The mass hasn't been a problem toting it to the shitter and back.

The length is something I need to get used to after using Kaylee for the home-defense role for so long.

The 20" barrel might pay off in extra velocity if someone is stupid enough to break down my door.

I have noticed that the Brownell's tube is more consistent than the Palmetto State offerings on a couple of guns.  Kaylee's 14.5 is wonderful.  Lavender Linda... the groups are kinda big.  I need to get back to the range with her and Tonya.

One feature of the A4 I just can't seem to embrace is the vertical fore-grip.  It just doesn't suit me.  There's no unit mandate forcing me to have one, so I can skip it if I want.


8

Paid For By Readers Like You

Well, a couple of you.  You know who you are.  THANKS!

Galco shoulder holster of the Miami Classic style, but I am not sure if it's a pre-Miami Classic vintage.

Definitely not early enough to be a Jackass.

4 lb. 6.4 oz. with 52 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense FTX.  Compare it to other guns in similar holsters here.

Just a little heavier than the M&P 9's 4 lb. 3.4 oz. and the same number of rounds.  Heavier than the M&P 45C's 4 lb. 2.9 oz., but many more shots than the 29 .45 ACP rounds. 


8

What Does Baffled Mean?

The ceiling fan in Mother-in-law's room developed a sheet-metal tinging noise once per rotation.

We just put that thing in on Friday!

But we had one still in the box, so I went to swap the motor housing from the tinging fan to the new one.

Wired it up and turned on the power to test the connection, the motor moved a bit and all the lights in both bedrooms, and all the outlets on the front wall, her bedroom wall (which affects the other bedroom too) and the outlets in the garage ceiling all went out too.

What it did not do was pop the breaker.

We tried to trace wires, in the dark, and nothing obvious showed up.

There's two breakers that don't change the state of affairs, those are now shut off.

Electrician will be called in the morning, this has gone above our pay grade.


8

14 October 2021

I Could Listen All Day

I love the note of this motor, and I've been in love with the styling for 40 years.


"I would argue that fuel economy in this thing blows not because of the displacement of the engine, but because you constantly want to downshift to hear the revs of the engine." 

I had the Matchbox and it got the wheels worn off.  It started out blue, but was bare metal by the end.  I might even have painted it myself once or twice.

Looking at ebay, I most likely had a Corgi brand toy, not Matchbox.


7

Aaaaaaand It's....


 

The "Danish" bow murderer was a recent convert to Islam.

We await the FBI's statement that it was definitely not terrorism to confirm that it was.


7

Being Obstinate

 

I have set myself to liking Valentine, my M16A4 clone.

She's the heaviest AR I own, by far.  But all but 0.6 lb. over the next heaviest is from the optics and light.

There's a lot to like about her, I did use quality parts.

It's mostly the mass that's putting me off, I am sure.

It is, however, lighter than the FAL with 10 more shots, a light and magnifying optics.


7

How Can You Tell A Pandemic Is Over?

Because we're not talking about people getting sick.

We're talking about the political divide about what we did about it while it was a pandemic.

I note that Florida did about the least invasive response in the US and the numbers are so low the media stopped reporting them as soon as the last wave of cases fell off a cliff in numbers.

Sweden is kicking everyone's ass with new cases with their "just ignore it" strategy.

Israel is getting pummeled despite high vaccination rates.

How long did the "Spanish" flu last?


7

13 October 2021

Global Stilling?

One thing that's certain about a planet getting warmer, there's more energy in the atmosphere.

More energy means more and stronger winds, not weaker less common wind.

Global warming should be GOOD for wind farms.

I am constantly amazed at how versatile Global Warming is!

It makes hurricanes more intense and frequent.

It makes winters colder and longer.

It make summers hotter and longer.

It makes more precipitation.

It causes droughts.

It stops the wind from blowing where there are wind farms.


6

Not Just Che

The M1 Carbine is the murder weapon of Benjamin "don't call him Bugsy" Siegel.

For such an ineffectual round, it sure manages to get the job done.


6

I Find That I'm A Bit Short

 CF-104D for sale for under a million bucks.

If we're going to be buying this for the blog, y'all are going to have to hit that tip jar a LOT harder...

GRIN


6

Adventure! Excitement!

The browser was slow to open on the Bootcamp side of things.

So I did what one does and check the resource monitor to see what was using all the smoke.

And didn't notice that I was looking at the disk access log...

That makes it seem as if there's hundreds of copies of the same file accessing every corner of the drive.

This led to something of a panic because the two apps that were doing all the accessing were listed as names that trojans used to disguise themselves.

If you find them outside the system32 folder, you've got a trojan.

So I slogged through all the folders looking for the culprits.

Nope, just the ones in System32.

Then I noticed I was looking at disk access and those two programs normally do what I saw.

One of them is an invasive MicroSoft "quality assurance" reporting program and JT managed to talk me through disabling it.

Win7 boots faster now!


6

12 October 2021

A Suspicion

I suspect that Southwest Airlines is every bit as good at giving medical advice as far too many doctors have been at flying.


5

And Now For Something Completely Different

 


5

Can't Sleep Clown Will Eat Me

I just love the burning tank nightmare.

It's my favorite.

It's cost me so many nights of sleep.


5

11 October 2021

Arbiet Mach Frei

 

I am wondering if they used the original Nazi plans for Ozwitz?


4

Compliance Is Mandatory Troubleshooter

 


4

T2K Budgets

It is important to remember that the world of Twilight 2000 is one where the Soviet Union was not a hollowed out shell of a nation bled dry by matching the Reagan defense spending spree.

If the USSR could keep afloat for an additional decade, then it stands to reason we could too!

It's also important to remember this is an alternate history where West Germany had the money to fund the completion and fielding of the H&K G11 as its general issue infantry rifle.

Clearly economics don't work the same here as there!

But we must accept these things as given and relax and enjoy the game.


4

Whether The M60

Digging around for information on the LAV-75, I gots to wondering what programs for modernizing the M60 MBT were slain in their cribs when the Berlin Wall came down.

There were two of note that might have come to fruition had the money taps of defense spending kept flowing with The Soviet Union still a going concern.  Both were a bit more ambitious than adding skirts and reactive armor as shown with the M60A4 in the US Army Vehicle Guide.

The Super M60 gets those skirts, of course, and the M68A1 gun from the M1, allowing the hotter M900 ammo to be used.  The troublesome M73 coaxial MG is replaced by the M240.  Fire control and night vision are upgraded to M1 standards (but using different equipment).  The big changes are a bigger engine and hydropneumatic suspension, because it's getting heavier.  At this point it could be called an M60A5... but the changes to the in-game M60 hardly qualify as a new A number, particularly since the USMC went to Desert Storm with M60A3's and reactive armor without changing the designations.

So the M60A4 from the US Vehicle Guide will become M60A3(TTS+)

The Super M60 will become the M60A4.

The next stage of the Super M60 program is an add-on armor package of Chobham welded to the turret.  Tanks with the armor upgrade become M60A5.

A stranger and simpler plan, which at first blush doesn't seem to be ready by the time nukes start flying, is the M60-2000.  This is the turret of an M1A1 dropped onto a modified M60A1 RISE hull, including that sexy 120mm M256 cannon!

In the real world this didn't get going until 1999, but in T2K there's a strong demand to keep the numbers up and this program could have started earlier than it did had the funding been available.

Considering that the newest M60A3 was younger than the oldest M1... it makes sense to upgrade with the newer turret and better gun because they're still in production and offer many improvements.

So, in my T2K, the chobham add-on Super M60 doesn't happen as General Dynamics Land Systems offers their turret conversion.  M60-2000 becomes M60A5.

To recap:

Skirts and ERA added to an M60A1 RISE (USMC) or M60A3 (TTS) (Army) becomes an M60A1 RISE+ and M60A3 (TTS+).

Super M60 without the added armor is M60A4, but few are made because the engine and suspension upgrades are expensive compared to the GLDS M60-2000.

M60-2000 is the M60A5.  I might even go to the effort of figuring out the old M1 turret armor because the M1(IP) and early M1A1 have more protection and some of those old turrets would be available.


4

10 October 2021

Happy Birthday!

I've been a Corvette owner for 14 years!


Despite trials and tribulations, I still love this car.


3

Could Be A Break In Posting

I have a pile of projects that need doing.

Right rear wheel hub in Moxie because of a dead/dying wheel speed sensor.

Three (3) ceiling fans at the inlaws.

Some fun 550 cord keychains for The Lovely Harvey and her cow-orkers.

Depending on how much time all this sucks up, I might not be posting, so don't worry Beans!


3

The S&W Model 59 In The Modern Era

Since donations are starting to roll in, I guess I'd better start writing about packing a c.1975 pistol in 2021.

Thank to Mecgar, there is no loss in capacity against newer guns.

It's as close as no never mind the same size as a Glock 45.

The 59 is a bit heavier; 2.3 lb. vs 2.0 lb.  17 shot reloads are the same weight at 0.6 lb. each.

Sights on the Glock are more visible and far easier to upgrade.  The Glock, except for the magazine release is ambidextrous; and that can be swapped to the other side if needs be.

The S&W started more expensive than a Glock and has retained value well, so a new Glock is still cheaper than a used 59.

The S&W has soul.  But soul doesn't win gunfights.  Not that I expect to be able to report back on one during this experiment.

My groups with the Smith are a bit better.  But that was at the no-stress range.


3

No I Don't Think I Will

I've done several stupid things just for content on this blog.

I, very briefly, considered taking my Ruger Standard all the way apart and taking a picture of the pieces lain out on the bench.

Then I came to my senses!

If you think that normal field stripping of that thing is a fiddly, irritating job... A complete strip is ten times worse.

09 October 2021

Rumor Mongoring

Tampa International Airport has posted to Facebook that weather up north has caused cancellations and delays.

The National Weather Service shows no weather on the radar.

I can't find a NOTAM about weather.

But there is a rumor running around that the air traffic controllers in Jacksonville have all called in sick over vaccine mandates.

Interesting times.


2

Replacement Slogan

I am starting to see "Let's Go Brandon" becoming the next "Don't Tread On Me" or "Remember The Alamo."

Interesting times indeed.


2

It Confuses Me

Doing a rewatch of Deadwood.

In the opening scenes it introduces us to Seth Bullock on his last day as a marshal.

He has a prisoner, Clell Watson, who's been sentenced to death for stealing a horse from Byron Sampson and shooting Marshal Bullock.

The Sampson and a mob arrives to lynch the Watson... who's already sentenced to hang...

Um.

Why is Sampson all incensed to push up the execution a few hours?

Why doesn't Bullock just let him have Watson if Sampson is just going to do what the sentence says to do a bit early?


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Perhaps Funded By Readers Like You?

Florida weather is rapidly approaching the day where it's comfortable to wear enough clothes to hide a full sized pistol.

Because I'm on an old gun kick, I am thinking about trying to tote the S&W 59 for the duration of the cool weather.

My preferred holster is a Galco Miami Classic or Classic II under a bowling/flannel/hawaiian shirt.

Galco no longer makes this model for the 59, but you can find them readily on Ebay.

$80 to $100.

If you'd like to read about toting a Miami-Vice era gun in Florida winter, tag the donation link and I'll get the holster.


2

Shout Out

 Mr Fleetwood!

Russell Haydon Fulton and John Wynne Hopkins would like you to contact them.

Mr Hopkins says you can reach Mr Fulton through his blog.

They're discussing Entumbane II on Facebook and your name came up.


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Happy Dead Che Day!

 54 years a good commie!


2

Guns From Gaming That Didn't Betray Me

The FAL and the High Power have performed for me in real life every bit as well as they did in every game where they were available.

The SMLE works just fine, I didn't start putting this on character sheets until I owned one and noticed that it got double the rate of fire in GURPS 3e than other bolt-guns.

The Garand never let me down at the range.

I've got a rapport with the 1911.

Of late, it's more likely a real gun I own will end up on a character sheet than me buying a gun to match the sheet.


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08 October 2021

I Like Old Guns

And I cannot lie...

Because of my gaming predilections, and the quest to find a historical anachronisms and have a character with a more modern than expected gun; I've paid attention to a lot of older guns.

Games decidedly ignore the warts on many older guns in this category.

The FG.42 in the real world is oddly balanced and fragile.

The ZH.29 is bent and awkward to handle.

But there's a few before their time pistols which hold up well against their modern counterparts.

They are, of course, dismissed by the instructorati.

I ask, again, what do we need our defensive gun to do?

I says go bang until I run out of ammo and put the bullets where I'm aiming is all it needs to do.  I don't need it to keep working for five thousand rounds without maintenance because I don't tote five thousand rounds.

1" groups at 50 yards are legally indefensible, not because a small group is illegal, it's shooting someone at that range will be a uphill self defense claim.

If it shoots a fist sized group where I want it at 10 yards, I'm prolly going to be OK.  Hint, hearts and brains are fist sized.

I should confess that I've long known what the gun writers were testing when they take a gun out and put a couple thousand rounds through it without maintenance.

Durability.

Not a single gun writer seemed to be able to articulate that is what they were testing.  Everyone else was doing those torture tests, so they did too.

And they didn't know why.

Because they didn't know why, they were unable to answer the question, "What are you testing for here?"

They got angry.  They got snippy.  They got dismissive.

But they never answered, did they?

It's one of the reasons that the only gun-rag I still get is the one that came with my lifetime NRA membership.

PS: You most certainly can get better at something without measuring anything.  But you can't compare your results without them.  For a lot of people the measurement has become the goal rather than the improvement. 


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