In A Small, Secure Room

Somewhere in Iran there's a shrinking group of people playing the nation-state version of musical chairs; last man standing gets to be the Supreme Leader.

Or they're all shouting, "NOT IT!"

It also reminds me of this:

It's True

"When you study history you realize people have been this stupid for thousands of years."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Taken from Bob Boze's site. 

While I Enjoy Them

While I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, I don't indulge in them.

I also don't much tolerate the theorists either.

I will smile politely while they spew, occasionally grunting or nodding, but mostly I'm waiting for them to run down and talk to someone else for a while.

It has been so for me since I discovered Occam's Razor.

So, using the barometer of "the simplest explanation that fits all of the known facts is likely the truth."

The holocaust happened.

Lee Harvey Oswald, working alone, shot and killed president Kennedy.

The United States, in six separate missions, landed 12 men on the moon and returned them safely to earth.

The white cloud behind an airplane at high altitude is just the water vapor from the exhaust freezing.

All helicopters are black under the paint.

Every train full of armored vehicles is on a rail line that leads to or from a depot or training center. 

Not every time US and Israeli interests align means that Israel controls Washington DC.

It's almost never "The Jews."  Antisemitic conspiracy theories have their own section in many lists.  I've covered USS Liberty before.

Near as I can tell, enthusiasts for such theories don't read history or pay much attention to politics.

I Can't Be The Only One

Am I the only person who's a little disappointed that Jimmy Carter didn't live to see Iran toppled?

I am pleased to see that Obama did. 

I Know Why

 

Why didn't POTUS tell Congress?

So they wouldn't tell Iran the exact moment it was going to start.

But, OK, Tom, the president needs Congress to approve of a war.  What are you waiting for?  Tehran to get nukes and make a parking lot out of NYC?

Iran has been pushing for this fight for nearly 40 years, where have you been on stopping it?

Go on, Tom, tell me you would have authorized these strikes if you'd been asked.

But we both know better, don't we?

You've a stated position that the US should do nothing militarily until Congress votes.  Regardless of how timely that vote might be.

I read your bill.

The bill that failed.

Stop acting like it passed and was signed into law. 

A Little Nervous

 Tampa is the home of MacDill Air Force Base.

MacDill is the home of CENTCOM, which is the command that's responsible for the Middle East and, therefore, Iran.

I worry that, thanks to some idiots on the blue side of the aisle, we've let in cells of sappers and saboteurs who will attack the base and its surrounds.

Controlling the border is important.

Getting Mexico to stop being a sieve for every foreign national on the planet looking to get into America would be good too. 

It's On

Israel and the US are attacking Iran as I type this.

Ain't really sure how I want to feel, but I do feel that we've owed them a couple since they attacked our embassy.

It'd be great if the Iranian people got rid of their theocracy and resumed being our friends.

Chasing The Zero

Went shooting with The Lovely Harvey today.

We did rifles again and she's learning where to put the stock into her RoboShoulder® on her AR and her groups are about half what they were last time we took out her AR.

Huzzah!

I decided to bring Dottie to get the SPARC AR zeroed.

It seemed as if I'd done so at 25 yards, but it was massively high and left at 50 yards.

No problem, just dial the knobs a bit...

I then proceeded to send the group back and forth past the point of aim for another 20 rounds.

The adjustment on the SPARC is coarser than I thought and I was cranking the knobs too far.

The last ten rounds actually went where I wanted, but I was getting irritated and I vertically string when I'm irritated.

It's a known problem and I'm working on it.  Most of the time, I'm successful.

It Was The Bulb!

My OG MX-991/U flashlight wasn't working right.

It sure appeared to be the switch, and that would mean it's dead.

There's no access to the guts of the switch to fix it because of rivets and waterproofing.

I was somewhat inconsolable about this, especially after electrical wizard Marv wasn't able to improve its functioning.

While expressing my sadness to FuzzyGeff, I decided that if it wasn't going to work, it was time to toss it.

Noticing that it had a replacement LED bulb in it, I decided to swap it out for an incandescent in one of the brand new examples I bought.

The new light now has a switch problem.

This, troubleshooters, is what we call an indicator.

So I put an incandescent bulb into the old light and, viola!  It works fine.

So I try an LED bulb from a, different, physically broken example I've been saving for parts...  Works fine.

Happy dance!

The LED module in the bulb on the OG light appears to have failed in a way that mimics a bad switch.

Said It Before

Being free of the shackles of USGI issue cleaning gear makes owning an AR so much more fun.

Break-Free CLP and paper towels just doesn't do the job efficiently.

Yes, I need both a solvent AND a lubricant, but...

Oh, and I really prefer a boresnake to a cleaning rod.

How's This For An Exonym

Ever since known Canadian Sean "Kromm" Punch ticked me off toeing the Party line of inclusion and fairy dust at SJG Forums, particularly about exonyms...

Then all the bitching about getting silver in Hockey...

"Syrupean."

This handily takes the place of "Snow Mexican."

Going Dutch

Again, you can't go too far wrong saying, $35, 3 lb.; DR 4 for any 20th century steel helmet.

The Dutch M34 is a decent example.  It's 2.8 lb. (2.2 to 3.3 lb. depending on the size, actually).

There's about five versions of almost the same steel with different means of sitting it on your noggin.

In GURPS terms... all the same!

The M34 ($35, 2.8 lb.; DR 4 skull) is an M23/27 ($30, 2.8 lb.; DR 4 skull) with different suspension and later versions have no crest.

The M38 KNIL is the tropical version of the M34 with a leather nape drape ($40, 3.4 lb.; DR 4 skull, DR 2* head and neck (rear)).

Romania bought the M34 as the md.39.

In 1953 The Dutch adopted the US M1 helmet with fiberglass liner as the M53.

Things Are Going Swimmingly

 

I am not going to say, one way or the other, but the YouTube recommended channels that are covering the war in Ukraine are sure upbeat that the end is near for Russia and Putin.

Call me cynical, but I seem to remember this kind of upbeat messaging before.

But this time there's an interesting side thread from the guys who are keeping track of Russia's tank storage depots.  They're getting pretty damn empty.

Production of new tanks, recovery and repair of damaged tanks and refurbishment of stored tanks isn't keeping up with losses, it seems.

And it isn't just tanks disappearing from these depots.  Infantry combat vehicles and self propelled guns are being consumed as well.

It's a war of attrition and Russia seems to be suffering more attrition, or at least looks to be running out of stuff fast enough that they will run out before Ukraine does.

This will be really bad for Russia, they have more than one enemy across their vast borders who might just take advantage of their inability to defend them. 

Or it's Ukrainian propaganda... 

Need A Better Way To Say It

If you're rolling on the random hit location, the head is divided into two hit locations.

If you roll 3-4, that's the skull and you use the special rules for the damage.

If you roll a 5, that's the head and it's not much different from a hit to the body.

The front of area 5 is the face.  The back is...

"Head (rear)"?  "Back of the head"?  "Head not face"?

I'd like a short way to say it for the helmet table because a lot of modern helmets protect the back of the head and the nape of the neck.

It kind of amuses me that, technically, I can buy head protection that doesn't protect the CPU. 

It's Already On The Gun

When I was dithering about buying a retro set of handguards for Dottie, I had put them in the cart then closed the window.

This triggered Brownell's to start sending me emails asking if I was still interested in the item.

Obviously, I was because...

I checked out, paid, waited for shipping, and installed them.

I'm still getting emails asking if I am still interested and to hurry because stock is getting low.

Glitch in their matrix. 

Blurring Together

You will not go far wrong saying that a 20th century steel helmet is about 3 lb and gives DR 4.

But...

GURPS normally likes to put stuff in chronological order, alphabetical is better for when you're getting it organized.

I'm not sure how many more I need.

But I've found some interesting things.  The British Helmet, Combat, General Service, Mk 6 is not made from Kevlar.  It's made from ballistic nylon and barely gives better protection than an M1 steel pot from the same era.  It's barely lighter, but a lot more comfortable.

There's no "comfort" stat in GURPS. 

I am also finding that many GURPS books simply got the weights wrong.  I noticed this when I weighed my Finnish M1916 helmet.  Now that I'm actively checking, I'm finding lots of disparities.

But some of these books predate the internet.  Nerds and geeks are weighing their militaria and putting their measurements online now!

Even so, I have averaged a couple weights because they come in several sizes...

Armour

You get a bonus 'u' in the title for armor because so many of my reference books are British!

I've got a little project going where I'm trying to make GURPS stats for armor from the early 20th century to today.

I decided to do this because of my "Steel Helmet" listing in my T2K conversion.

While the stats are, generally, the same between all steel helmets, they are not all the same.

Just like the only difference between 9mm pistols in GURPS is the number of shots and the weight.

Should be fun, and repetitive.

Probably going to limit to major versions and not sweat the minutia like the differences in the rim on M1 helmets. 

I will also endeavor to use brigandine correctly and not let spell checker trick me into saying brigantine again. 

Gun Shopping

A buddy of mine has, mostly, decided to get his first gun.

He's got a degenerative neurological disorder, so his grip strength can vary a lot.

So I suggested the S&W M&P 2.0 Shield EZ in 380.

It's got several features that are designed to make it easier to operate and load.

We found one in stock for $500 at the store that has one of those handgun "petting zoos" where you can rack the slide and pull the triggers on guns that have been defanged and are tethered to a display.

He felt that was a bit much, so I suggested the store I normally shoot at.

They had it for $450 and he almost dropped the money on the counter.

A major snag was the stupid waiting period.  If he'd bought Tuesday, he'd have had to schlep back down here from Ocala on Saturday to get it.

This might be a blessing in disguise!

Marv has found several on Gunbroker for $400 buy it now and a few even lower.

The problem is shipping and the transfer fee.  It's easy to add the money you saved right back onto the purchase.

PLUS!  He's a first time buyer who's not familiar with how us long-time owners do things.  Though, he's a wheeler-dealer with other things, he's prolly familiar enough with how it works in a different context that he wouldn't be totally confused by it.

The FFL closest to him wants $40.  That means that shipping would have to beat $10 to be better than my local range.  Or the price needs to be lower than $400...

I can see him shopping hard and bidding on the cheaper guns until he got lucky.

I Was Today Years Old

Today I learned that the M88 tank recovery vehicle is based on the M48, not off the M60 as I'd assumed.

It's an easy mistake to make, I think.  Especially with the M88A1 that got a lot of stuff from the M60 series, like the M48A3 did.

Wikipedia makes the same error.

PASGT v ISAPO v 6B3 v OTV

The PASGT vest is DR 10/5*.  It's flexible armor where you get better protection against pi and cut.  It's 9 lb.

The ISAPO adds a DR 25 ceramic plate to the front and back, making it DR 35.  It's 25.5 lb. total.

The 6B3TM is DR 23/12* flexible armor that gives better protection against pi and cut.  If you get get hit from the front or back, the titanium plates make it DR 40.  It's 26.9 lb.

The 6B3TM-01 is an improved version has thinner rear plates, giving just DR 26.  So DR 40 from the front, 26 from the rear and 23/12* from the sides.  It's 18.1 lb.

The OTV (Interceptor) is a 12/5* flexible vest that you can add ceramic plates to.  DR 35 with SAPI plates installed.  8.4 lb. by itself.  12.4 lb. with just the front plate, 16.4 lb, with front and back plates, 25.6 lb with front, back and side plates (but DR 35 all around!).

E-SAPI plates make the DR 47 with one level of hardened which drops the armor divisor one step, but there's no side plate.  So 13.9 with just the front plate, 19.4 lb. with front and back and 28.6 lb. with E-SAPI front and back and SAPI sides.  17.9 lb, with E-SAPI in front and SAPI in back...  Modular armor is tedious!

Body Armor

I've got notes about GURPS armor all over the place.

I'm getting it compiled.

Getting all the liners for the M1 helmet in a file rather than on this blog is a good idea I think.

It's resulting in, further, changes to my T2K conversion.

Isn't it odd that research always results in changes?

The 6BZT is replaced by the 6B2 and supplemented with the 6B3T and 6BTM-01.

Got to really have a think about a, relatively, thick aramid vest with titanium plates.

It's kinda brigandine in construction.  <-- Fixed.  Spell checker thinks I meant ships.

Nail Biter

Damn, that was a Hell of a game!

Glad I managed to avoid seeing who'd won before I watched the rebroadcast.

U!

S!

A!

Happy hockey dance!

Cooling

At our last AC service I asked what speed the air handler's fan was set to and they told me "Medium."

They'd moved it down from "High" when they installed our spiffy new non-leaking ducts and the main bedroom has had abysmal air flow ever since.

This has pissed us off since the install because, despite dumping half the cooled air into the attic, the bedroom was never uncomfortable with the old duct work.  Even with the door closed

The manager/owner's only suggestion was to leave the door open or to get an additional air return installed in the bedroom.

I don't see where they'd put it, and I'm not rearranging the stuff I have against the walls to suit this additional charge to fix what I feel they broke.

In the meantime, I have baby gates over the bedroom door to keep Beeper and Shadow separated.

I've also had a fan on the floor blowing into the bedroom, hoping to pull the correct temperature air from the rest of the house into the bedroom.  Which does work, but the bedroom is always closer to the outside temp than the rest of the house.  Usually warmer.

Today, thinking about that air return idea, I turned the fan around.

That little extra flow out of the room has really helped air come out of the duct and keep it at the proper temp.  Though I fretted a but because that triggered the AC to run more often for a little while as things in the bedroom shed heat.

Eyes crossed that this will work. 

0800 EST

Team USA and Team Canada will be playing for the gold medal in men's hockey this morning at 0800EST.

I will not be getting up to watch it.

I don't get over the air NBC and I'm not paying for the Peacock channel.

USA, which we do get, is rebroadcasting the game at 1630.

I will have my head buried in the sand until then so the outcome of the game isn't spoiled.

We are somewhat conflicted about whom to root for.

Team Canada is being coached by the coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Team USA is the HOME TEAM.

We like coach Cooper a lot, but...

I think we will be rooting for USA.

Old Ass Guns

My Colt Pocket-Hammerless .380 turns 100 this year.  I carried it, appropriately, in my pocket for a couple of years.  It's still a perfectly viable option.

It's not the oldest gun I've ever carried.  That honor goes to my Grampa's old H&R revolver, which is 135 years old this year.  It's obsolete, but I still wouldn't want to get shot with it.

I think this also underscores a huge problem with gun control.

Guns don't really have an expiration date.

If they miss even one 100 year old pistol, someone could put the idea behind the old Liberator or Deer Gun into practice.

More Lancer L5 AWM30 Information

Internally it's a constant curve design.

Accepts USGI stripper clip spoons and any compatible system (like a StripLULA). 

The spring is a bog-standard USGI spring.*

The baseplate comes off to the rear, which means that if the gun lands on it; it is not forced forward off the gun, like PMAG Gen M2 MOE and earlier.

While it does not drop free from any aluminum lower I own, it does drop freely from a KP-15 lower. 

It's got an excellent set of grippy nubbins along the bottom half that helps you get and keep a hold on the magazine should it not fall free. 

You read how many rounds are left by looking at the round that's next to the number instead of a painted section of the spring.

25 rounds lines up with a rib between the 20 and 30 marks.

Compare with the markings and photos of the TMAG-30 in this post.

How it compares to the TMAG-30.

 * It should be noted that the current USGI spring is not the bog-standard USGI spring.  With the tan and blue followers they changed the top loop of the spring and where it passes through the follower.  See this post for details.

Breaking News

This is an epic backpedal!

 DAYUM!

And It's Tommy This And Tommy That

Thanks Obama Trump!

In the ever expanding web of, "how can we break promises and fuck over veterans," traditions of the VA, your disability will be rated on how well treatment is working instead of how bad you're broken.

This is going to set off another round of veterans avoiding care so as to keep their disability ratings.

Even worse is the, apparently, illegal skipping of the comment period before implementation.

Get on the phone to your local congress creature.  Especially the ones who keep telling you they're for the vets. 

Update: The American Legion has found the comment site.

Link: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/VA-2026-VBA-0067-0001

A Brief History Of .38 Super

 

Not That Shocked

Reason magazine reporting on ATF's back door gun registry made from digitizing out of business FFL's 4473's.

The only way to keep ATF, or others, from accumulating the information and making a registration database from it is to outlaw the collecting of it in the first place.

They'll NEVER do that. 

Department Of Redundancy Department

I've been posting about things I'm doing and updating and bringing forward old posts that relate to the things I've been doing...

Which puts two very similar posts right next to each other...

For now.

Many of them will be updated again and brought forward, putting distance between the posts later.

I makes me wonder how many of my readers delved into the archive from the beginning.

I look back from time to time and see that my position has changed on a couple things, and not at all on others.

Some things without changes have gotten new posts where I try to better mean what I am saying.  Sometimes I do a better job with successive iterations.  Other times... 

History of Dottie

Dottie has seen almost as many changes as Kaylee.

Dottie's name derives from a line in the movie, "Armageddon". The amateur astronomer who discovers the planet killing asteroid wants to be able to name it after his wife, Dottie, because she's a life sucking bitch from which there is no escape.

Dottie is a "franken AR", her parts are from everywhere. The lower is Spike's Tactical, the lower parts kit is CMMG. The upper is a mid-length Dissipator upper from Palmetto State Armory.  Handguards are Brownell's Retro.  Optic is a Vortex SPARC AR.

SPARCly

It would appear that Vortex is either discontinuing the SPARC AR or is getting ready to replace it in the lineup.

Either way Palmetto State had them marked down from $270 to $70.

I already had an American Defense mount that's compatible with it laying around, so...

Dottie gets a red dot!

That, of course, means the fixed rear sight needed replaced with a Magpul MBUS3.

Still quite handy at 9 lb. with the optic.

USGI 30-Round M16 Series Magazine Comparo Part One

51 years of magazine history here.

Left to Right:

Colt p/n 62667 gray aluminum body, emerald green 62665A follower
NSN 1005-00-921-5004 gray aluminum body, black follower
NSN 1005-00-921-5004 gray aluminum body, light green follower
NSN 1005-00-561-7200 gray aluminum body, tan follower
NSN 1005-01-615-5169 black, windowed PMAG-30 M3
NSN 1005-01-630-9508 tan aluminum body, sky-blue follower
NSN 1005-01-659-7086 medium coyote tan, windowed PMAG-30 M3

As you can see, the Colt design from 1967 is really still in service.

The original has a plain steel spring and a very dark green follower.

62665A follower on left.

It's stamped with Colt's part number.

The first 30-rounder to rate a National NATO Stock Number (NSN), in 1972, is very much the same magazine as the Colt 62667.  The coating changes from a plain, clear anodizing to a light-gray anodizing with a dry-film lubricant both inside and out.

The, now black, follower is virtually identical to the dark green Colt.

NSN 1005-00-921-5004 on right.

The spring was changed from plain steel to a coated/plated steel:

Colt on left, black-follower on right.

Desert Storm showed there was something wrong with our magazines.  There are several theories as to what exactly was the reason for failure, but the Army decided that it was because the black follower allowed too much tilt and that allowed it to bind up inside the magazine.

So the light green follower was issued under the same NSN.

Service in Iraq and Afghanistan show that the green follower wasn't fully solving the problem.

A teeny start-up in Colorado, Magpul, adds a product to their line-up in 2004.  A replacement follower that fits in a standard USGI 30-rounder and uses the standard spring.  It's use is both banned or grudgingly accepted (sometimes both) depending on unit and commands.

Magpul enters the magazine market in 2007.  Their original PMAG was marketed as a cheap, training magazine and not sold as a "bet your life on it" service magazine.  Many of them find their way into Soldier's and Marines' ammo pouches.  The troops appear to love them.  Several models of PMAG are given an NSN, but none are actually considered issue.  The NSN simply allows unit funds to make purchases without breaking regulations.  Despite the sanctifying NSN, the use of Magpul's baby is banned more than once by various levels of command, and these bans are rescinded several times as well.

The popularity of the plastic magazines from Magpul and a strong feeling of "Not Invented Here!" along with noting that the Self-Leveling-Followers appeared to fix the problems with 1005-00-921-5004 causes the Army to adopt NSN 1005-00-561-7200 in 2009.

The big change is a tan follower with stronger anti-tilt features.

They changed which side the stagger starts on too.

The new tan follower has a very strong resemblance to Magpul's...

The spring is also changed because it goes through the follower nearer the center.

Light Green on left, Tan on right.

Magpul keeps updating and upgrading their PMAG as well, resulting in the Gen M3 in 2013.  This magazine, depending on color and features, is also issued an NSN.

Citing problems with the new M855A1 ammunition's steel tip striking the aluminum lower portion of the feed ramps, yet another change to the magazine is made in 2016, given NSN 1005-01-630-9508 and dubbed the "Enhanced Performance Magazine" or EPM.

The body changes color from an anodized gray to a painted tan.  It appears, to me, that this paint is applied over the top of gray anodizing...  The mouth of the magazine is altered slightly to present the noses of the rounds slightly higher so they miss the aluminum below the steel barrel extension.

The follower appears to be the same as before, but now in sky-blue.

The EPM did not prove to be the panacea it was hoped to be.  Some troops complained it didn't really work any better than the old tan-follower mags, it was just easier on the guns.

Several sources noted that the new feed angle was identical to what Magpul had been using since 2007!  Magpul's goal was similar, avoid hitting the aluminum below the barrel extension; but for a different reason.  The M4 carbine had introduced extended feed ramps that went down into the aluminum of the upper receiver because the bolt-speed of the M4 was causing the noses of the rounds to hit the front of the receiver.  Magpul was trying to make a reliable magazine for a market which had not fully embraced the so-called M4 feed ramp.

The EPM caused problems in particular with the Marines' M27 IAR.

So they adopted the PMAG Gen M3, with maglevel window, in both black and medium coyote tan using NSN 1005-01-615-5169 and 1005-01-659-7086 respectively.  They reportedly would have been happy to keep using the green or tan follower magazines, but orders made under those NSN's would start receiving EPM magazines as soon as stocks of the older magazines had been depleted.

The PMAG uses the same spring as the old NSN 1005-00-921-5004 and its follower has no relation to any aluminum body magazine.

EPM on left, Gen M3 on right.

This is because the PMAG doesn't have a curved to straight transition inside, it's a constant curve the entire length.  Colt tried to do a constant curve as early as 1965 but was confounded by their own sloppy dimensional tolerances in the M16's magazine well.

At the time of this writing, it appears that The Army might even be considering following in the USMC's footsteps and adopting the PMAG.  Stay tuned!

USGI 30-Round M16 Series Magazine Comparo Part Two

Now for some measuring.

We're going to check the tilt, and if we can jam up the follower.

We're going to measure from a known point on the gun to the tip of a bullet to see if the feed angles are different.  With four rounds loaded, from the top of the lower to the center of the round with the magazine hanging naturally seems fair.

We're going to assume that the vintage magazines are in good enough shape to get honest measurements.

Kaylee has a typical magwell for a modern AR.  Sabrina is known to be tight.

Colt p/n 62667 gray aluminum body, emerald green 62665A follower
Measures 0.214"
Falls free from both test guns.
Readily tilts and binds.

NSN 1005-00-921-5004 gray aluminum body, black follower
Measures 0.249"
Falls free from both test guns.
Readily tilts and binds.

NSN 1005-00-921-5004 gray aluminum body, light green follower
Measures 0.263"
Falls free from both test guns.
Readily tilts but difficult to bind.

NSN 1005-00-921-5004 gray aluminum body, with light green follower replaced with Gen II Magpul Self Leveling Follower
Measures 0.222"
Falls free from both test guns.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind.

NSN 1005-00-561-7200 gray aluminum body, tan follower
Measures 0.227"
Falls free from both test guns.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind.

NSN 1005-01-615-5169 black, windowed PMAG-30 M3
Measures 0.260"
Falls free from both test guns.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind.

NSN 1005-01-630-9508 tan aluminum body, sky-blue follower "Enhanced Performance Magazine"
Measures 0.327".
Falls free from Kaylee, not from Sabrina.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind.

NSN 1005-01-659-7086 medium coyote tan, windowed PMAG-30 M3
Measures 0.260"
Falls free from both test guns.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind.

Based on tilt and binding issues, Magpul had the problem solved in 2004.  I wonder if it was royalties or not-invented-here that caused the Army to spend taxpayer money recreating the Magpul follower's performance.

UPDATE 18Feb26: I'm consolidating some commercial magazines below from future posts.

Lancer L5 AWM30
Measures 0.265" 
Doesn't fall free from either gun.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind.  Pushing down on the back of the follower will bind going down, but not going up so we're just going to note that and keep an eye on it.

Magpul TMAG-30
Measures 0.262"
Falls free from both test guns.
Cannot be made to tilt or bind. 

Orlite 30-round magazine
Measures 0.210"
Falls free from neither test gun.
Readily tilts and binds.

2012 made Thermold 30-round magazine
Measures 0.159"
Falls free from neither test gun.
Readily tilts and binds.

Brownell's 20-round Retro Steel Waffle Magazine
Measures 0.265"
Falls free from both test guns.
Readily tilts and binds.

Brownell's 25-round Retro Steel Magazine
Measures 0.315"
Falls free from Kaylee, not from Sabrina.
Readily tilts and binds. 

 

 

Bravo

Remember this post?

Based on weight, Bravo is the Lancer L5.

Make your plans for use accordingly. 

Plastic See Thru Magazine

Picked up a Lancer L5 30-rounder today.

Holds 30 rounds?  Yes.

Weighs 3.8 oz. empty and 16.6 oz. loaded with ADI F1A1 ball.

It's got marks so you can see how many rounds you have left.

Plus it's in eye catching translucent green that glows under a black light!

This might be the perfect Zombie Apocalypse™ magazine!

Using the same measuring criteria from this post:

Measures 0.265" 

Doesn't fall free from either gun.

Can't be made to tilt or bind.  Pushing down on the back of the follower will bind going down, but not going up so we're just going to note that and keep an eye on it.

Prolly Quite Warm Where He Is

Depending on the model you use for Hell, Reverend Jackson might be quite warm now.

Though in the Dante model he might be VERY cold because his self enrichment while representing other causes might be considered a betrayal of the public trust and he's frozen in Lake Cocytus.

Still time to repent, Al. 

Deep Stacking

While I don't have the proverbial "ammo fort" made from crates and ammo-boxes, I do have a fair amount of ammo here.

Some of it is from the wild variety of chamberings in the safe.

A thread about the prices of 5.45x39mm made me think about how deep one should stack their ammo supply.

I am happy with how I am doing it.

For the seldom shot guns, a couple of boxes gets me by.

The stuff we shoot a lot, we stock more.

And run out of more...

And it is segregated into what I, jokingly, call training and warshot.

For 9mm the price difference between the carry ammo and the practice ammo is significant.

So we don't shoot that carry ammo as often, just blast through the ammo we'd been carrying occasionally and replace it with fresh.  Not that it's mattered to get fresh ammo, the lint stained stuff has always fired. 

But I would say that if the news were to report on all the ammo here, they'd call it an arsenal or something of the sort. 

There Goes My Vacation Plan

Nepal is poised to pass legislation putting some experience requirements up before someone can tackle Mount Everest.

Apparently, the place is overrun with people who want to climb the mountain, regardless of whether they are able to make it to the top.

The crowds have kept people from making the summit who otherwise would have made it...  easily?  Handily?  I don't know the correct adverb here.

This is news that doesn't affect me a whit.

Despite the lack of crowds, I don't think I can summit Florida's highest peak.

Britton Hill is a lofty 105m above mean sea level and nearly 50 feet from the base camp (the parking lot).

Someday!  Someday... 

"Tanker" Guns

I've seen several "tanker" versions of otherwise normal firearms.

Not a single one, so far, has actually been issued to tank crews.

The primary tanker small arm is a pistol.

In my short few years as a tanker that was an M1911A1 and an M9 (with a sidetrack to Glock 17).

The tank might also have some extra guns too, but they're not special versions.

I learned how to shoot the M3A1 "greasegun" on the off chance I was assigned to a unit that still had M60's because that tank was issued a couple for the crew.

The loader was assigned an M16 in the Abrams.  Trained on the M16A1 in OSUT and issued an M16A2 in Germany.

Lots of photos of M48A3's in Vietnam show greaseguns and M16's laying on top of the turret near the hatches.

I am not sure if Thompsons were issued to tank crews in WW2, but the grease gun was issued both there and Korea.

But all of the weapons you find with tankers from WW2 on have been something issue and nothing created special for armored crew use. 

Then Why Are Democrats Against It?

If requiring voter ID is Jim Crow 2.0, then why do Democrats oppose it?

They're the authors of OG Jim Crow, after all.

A Thought Occurs

We used the M16A1 in Granada.

Remember, the M16A1 that was garbage and got everyone killed in Vietnam?

Odd.

Of course, the M16A1 of 1983 wasn't quite the same weapon as in 1964.

The barrel and chamber had gotten chrome lining.

The buffer was completely redesigned.

The troops were better trained in how to clean and maintain them.

But the M193 ammunition was the same, just in case you were still blaming the powder for the problems in Vietnam.

The product improvements were real.

But Is It

Apex Gun Parts has M219 parts available.

The question is: "Is the M219 a machine gun?"

Because the definition of a machine gun is, "A machine gun is defined as any weapon that shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger."

I've seen the M219 in action and it fails the shoot and readily restored to shoot more than one round per trigger pull.

I guess because it was intended to be a machine gun, it legally is one...

The scariest thing is the old silverback tankers insisted it was a huge improvement over the M73.

They all loved the M240. 

Nation Of Riflemen My Ass

I am, once again, watching the US suck hind tit at biathlon.

I can't even say it's because we suck at skiing because the penalties (misses) speak for themselves.

Hey, CMP, weren't you supposed to fix this?

Wait, CMP teaches high-power, which is scientifically designed to suck all the fun out of shooting and biathlon is fun.  Not their wheelhouse.

Speaking of...

Why the Hell isn't XTC / High Power Rifle an Olympic sport?

For that matter, why don't any Olympic shooting sports use "real" guns? 

Everything Old Is New Again

I was just reading about how the USMC is adding the capability to fire the new laser guided APKWS II rockets to their F/A-18C/D fleet.

Rocket?  No, rockets aren't guided.

The AGR-20A is guided, therefore, missile.

The neat thing is it's a standard 2.75" rocket in format, so it can be fired from any 2.75"/70mm launcher in the inventory.  Just need a laser designator to guide it with.

That's a 7-shot launcher for the Marines.  Up to 8 such launchers can be carried on a legacy Hornet.

It makes me wonder where the old LAU-3/A's go.  Those hold 19 rounds each.

The more modern, and probably more compatible LAU-69D/A also holds 19 rounds.

The bigger launchers have more drag, of course, but it'd mean 152 shots instead of 56 if 8 launchers were carried.

I know the USMC and Navy don't like triple ejector racks any more, but that'd add four more launchers to the plane and 28 more missiles in the 7-shot launchers.

But the part that tickled my fancy is how many planes used to have 2.75" unguided folding fin rockets built into them.  The  FFAR becomes the Hydra...

And an F-8 Crusader gets 32 laser guided missiles fired from the belly tray...  If we had any Crusaders that still had the tray and were flyable.

But laser guidance would have made the concept viable in a way that the unguided mighty mouse wasn't. 

Shut Up Clippy

Amazon has rolled out an AI helper named "Rufus".

Rufus pops up in the way with helpful stuff like, "I see that you're looking at the thing you searched for, would you like help with that?"

Why, no, Rufus, I don't want help with looking at the thing I am looking at.

Rufus can be dismissed, but if you use the back button to navigate away, Rufus returns.

Rufus only stays the fuck gone if you use buttons on the Amazon site to navigate around.

This is exactly the same as a sales-drone hovering while you try to make a decision between brands suggesting the item in general.

Most of the charm of shopping online was not dealing with people.

Adding an AI shopping assistant is forcing me to deal with a fake person, with an additional down side of when I tell them to fuck off they don't even look hurt and cry.

¡Que se queme ese cabrón!

¡Fuego!
¡Fuego!
¡La refinería está en llamas!
No necesitamos agua.
¡Que se queme ese cabrón!
¡Que se queme!
¡Cabrón!
¡Que se queme!

It would appear that a refinery in Cuba has caught fire.  One of just three on the whole island.

Loss Leader

I have now purchased Dire Straight's "Brothers In Arms" album three times.

SIGH

First on cassette, then on CD then on mp3.

I have, however, had mp3 prior to buying it from Amazon today.

But my CD rip wasn't a good copy.

C'est la vie.

Measure Twice Cut Thrice

I have baby gates across the bedroom door to keep Shadow separated from Beeper.

The bottom two gates are swing-out style and have two lugs on the door-frame that accept pins on the door.

The top gate has always been difficult to get closed, but the bottom one has always been fine.

I used the provided template to place the lugs, so I assumed it was some kind of tolerance stack-up problem with the gates themselves.

Swapping them top to bottom helped a lot.  The bottom one was noticeably tighter, but still worked correctly.  The top one got looser, but still bound up on the top lug.

So I measured the fit between the lugs and pins on the bottom gate and replicated that on the top.

It amounted to lowering the top lug about 1/8".

Then I measured between the lugs and they now match!

Somehow I got the top lug 1/8" too high when I mounted them initially.

Worse, I replicated this mistake when I lowered the top gate to narrow the gap to allow it to become the middle gate.

Good!

Trump removed a keystone item in preventing life at TL7+ by eliminating the regulations that measured some gas emissions.

Good!

Now, do refrigerants!

The only thing "wrong" with R-134 and R-410 is Dupont's patents have expired.

Well No Shit

It seems that California and Georgia are worried about the costs of tariffs.

The extra cost is being passed on to customers!  That's causing them to either find a vendor not so encumbered or to pass on the purchase.

This is literally Econ 101.

Increasing the price reduces demand.

If the price only increases from a single vendor, but the good is still available elsewhere, the demand shifts vendors.

Which is the intent of the tariff in this case.  To onshore the supply and choke the importers.

So, no shit, the importers are seeing a drop in sales as domestic manufacturers step up.

Or customers are realizing they didn't really need what the importers were selling...

PS:  Did everyone catch how the media suddenly understands how taxes are just added to the price the consumer is paying?  Another TDS miracle!

Bring The Mafia Back

I was never a potential customer, but...

Disney has been going this same way for a while too.

The idea that they can make the same money from charging more from fewer customers does have some merit.

The question still stands whether that's sustainable.

Disney appears to be at a tipping point.

Suggested By Marv

We've begun making a list of the pharmaceuticals ads and going to ask our doctors if each and every one is "right for me."

Should be fun.

Oh Canada

It seems that all that gun control they have up in The Great White North didn't keep someone from shooting up a school and murdering a bunch of people.

And here I thought that just happened in places with lots of guns, like Florida and Texas.

And another shooter who's trans.

Ugh.

Though I am tempted to dust off the old textbooks and see what they say about gender dysphoria and compare it to the "standards" of care today.

I'm going to go out on a limb that looks pretty damn strong and speculate that we're not seeing any genuine cases of dysphoria but we're seeing a the results of brains broken by being convinced they do have a malady that needs to be "treated."

Almost as if emotions took over for science.

That NEVER happens...  Oh, wait.

Well, not that often...  Dammit!

Maybe some science will return to things like medicine.

I Wish We Had Some Grenades

So many role playing games made explosions so complicated we never bothered learning the rules.

Or, it was such a chore we never used them enough to remember them well enough to want to use them.

So in Top Secret or Twilight: 2000 we just didn't buy grenades.

At least, that's how I remember it.

I just checked T2K and the rules aren't so bad, but we had scars from some poor piece of game design.

Top Secret doesn't seem that hard either...

Wait...  Some game had a rule about when an explosion was confined it was greatly multiplied and we always remembered that rule and it got applied to every game!  This is just another reason we all agreed to change to GURPS.

No matter where our aversion came from, we didn't often use grenades.

The GURPS rules for explosions are generally clear.

So I am more willing to add grenades to the equipment list of my characters.

But something I failed to internalize until watching a movie tonight was fragmentation grenades have 4-5 second fuses.

A turn is a second long in GURPS.

That means throw grenade and it doesn't go boom for another 3-4 turns.

I can't wait to see how that turns out in play.

Ackshullally

 

My college degree didn't mess it up.

It was the stuff I learned auto-didactically between getting my high school diploma and my college degree.

Just sayin'.

I would also like to point out to any poor maintenance technician who worked on my designs that I always made sure of tool clearance and that there was space for the fastener to be removed.

It never made sense to me to make a wear item hard to access either.

As Obsolete As Infantry

Chant Du Depart is having a tank obsolescence debate.

But as an armchair armor historian and former 19K...

How many times has the tank been declared obsolete?

Airplanes made them obsolete during WW2.

HEAT rounds made them obsolete.

ATGM made them obsolete.

Fuel consumption made them obsolete.

Inability to cross bridges made them obsolete.

Inability to be quickly transported to the battlefield made them obsolete.

And now drones have made them obsolete.

Oh and nuclear warfare made all other kinds of war obsolete, taking tanks with them.

Every time the tank goes obsolete, we get the end of horse cavalry trotted out as an example.  And they bring up Poland v Nazi Germany every-single-time.  That was a unique case and it really doesn't illustrate what they think it does.

Horse cavalry persisted for decades after WW2.  It lasted until light vehicles became reliable enough to supplant them and was finally replaced when the logistics support got good enough to support vehicles that far forward.

It is of note that while the US Armor Branch harkens back to Cavalry, they never really were cavalry.  Jokes to the contrary aside.  ie "Death before dismount!"

Armor does serve the same role as heavy cavalry did, as a shocking force, but it's got other roles too.

A tank is a wonderful mobile machine gun post in support of infantry that can engage with that machine gun without the distraction of being killed by small-arms fire or shell splinters.

To be obsolete, you need to have been replaced.

Almost all of the claims of obsolescence come from it being more dangerous to be a tanker than it had been.

Is war.  Is dangerous.

Every time someone has come up with a clever new way to kill tanks, it's not that long before a clever way of negating or, at least, mitigating that threat appears.

Drones are commonly mentioned and the Ukraine v Russia war cited.

Like horse cavalry and Poland v Germany wasn't representative of cavalry, drones in Ukraine v Russia isn't representative of tank warfare.

Neither side is using their tanks like we would.

Lots of evidence of a lack of combined arms from over there and it's really surprising to me because I was led to believe the Russians knew about it and used it.  I guess that was just the USSR...

We'd be doing this war differently.  First off, we'd not be hamstrung by the inability to do deep penetration strikes into Russia.  There wouldn't be a functioning rail network by the end of the first week and without that Russia's log-train collapses.  Our air force isn't Ukraine's.

Our tank doctrine is not theirs either.  We emphasize mutual support and combined arms.  We coordinate and communicate better, and we own our own over-the-horizon comms.

Anti-drone weapons, both electronic and kinetic, are coming if they haven't already started being fielded.  The near boredom exhibited by Armor officers when replying to queries about drones makes me think we've got a solution to the drone problem we're actually keeping secret for a change.

It is especially obvious reading these threads that my decision to no longer offer one commenter a soapbox to sound smarter than they are was wise.

I'm far more concerned that the helicopter has become useless in war than the tank.

Governing Least

"The government isn't best which governs least -- it's the best government that needs to govern least."

From Slovotsky's laws via Joel Rosenberg (RIP).

America, as designed, is supposed to be self governing.

The people of America did self govern for most of a century and a half.

But something changed.

It wasn't really that long ago, but it's approaching a century.

The urge to make other people do what we wanted them to do instead of doing what they wanted to do.

As designed, we shouldn't be able to do that as long as what they're wanting to do isn't doing us any harm.

Even if they are harming themselves.

But we got busybodied about it.

Once you start down the path of being a busybody, nothing is off limits.  Plus you get the moral righteousness of saving the benighted souls for their own good.

THEN!

You get an "industry" of people who grift off of saving their fellow man from themselves.

Suddenly you no longer have a government that governs least because you have a people that need governed more.

Unami

Watching "Poker Face" and a character offers another some demerara sugar.

He said it added an unami tone to the coffee.

A bag of it is just $5 on Amazon, so we said, "what the Hell?"

I added a tablespoon to my coffee and...  mildly sweet with unami.

Who the Hell knew?

I don't normally take sugar with my coffee either.

This will be the second time we've tried something from a show we watched that worked out great.

Smash burgers from "The Menu" being the first. 

An-Dissipation

If you've been enjoying reading about my Dissipator project, Palmetto State Armory has them on sale again.  In OD or FDE.

You'll need to find a bolt carrier group and charging handle, but if you're buying uppers from PSA, you know where to get those!

If you're reading this months or years after the initial post, those links will likely be dead.

Not Even Once

While I have been at parties centered around the Stupor Bowel, I cannot say I have ever watched it.

Not even the one time.

The closest I've come was when Janet Jackson flashed the crowd during the half time show and I was on the phone with FuzzyGeff at the time.

So I have continued the long tradition of not watching the Stupor Bowel, and the National Felon League in general.

It's really my dad, who played in high school and watched avidly, who made me apathetic towards football in general.  Often hostile, really.

My dad, and his friends, coupled with the jocks in high school and living in a college town soured me on sportsball in general.  I don't get the allure, I don't grasp the fans.

Yet I really enjoy Hockey.

BUT!

If the local team loses, it doesn't harm me.  If they win, I gain nothing.  I don't structure my life around being able to watch it, though I do make time to watch.

It might be because I was the third string goalie in my sophmore year of high school.

Something I only set out to become because of the two sports rule in Anoka-Hennepin School District and I wanted to do biathlon.  You had to try out for and be accepted for two sports or you didn't get to play any.  You could not be in more than three.  Hockey was short many of the school's jocks because they went out for track, football and basketball.

Biathlon was also unpopular because of the time requirements.  You needed to be able to get to the local range very often in addition to skiing.

I still giggle about signing out my rifle and taking it home on the bus to go shooting over the weekend.

Oddly, I'd become a jock because of being successful at biathlon.

I am sure my bullies noted, after I blacked out and beat the worst one, how good a shot I was and they were an easy shot from where the bus dropped us at school to where they hung out before home-room.

Having a reputation among the bullies for being crazy AND a reputation among the jocks as a wicked shot does have its advantages. 

Retention

Got my retainer washers in.

First, there don't seem to be SAE retainer washers.  All I could find was metric for the Ø0.180" tube...

I figured 4 or 5 mm would do, and ended up with a 750 piece set with retainer washers from 2mm to 12mm.

The Ø5mm x 14mm OD was too big.  The flange caught on the barrel and it bent in such a way as to stop being a retainer washer.

Ø5mm x 12mm OD is just right!

Now I have a 748 piece set that I will probably never use again!

Update:  I have tried the Brownell's Retro triangle, vintage triangle, USGI A2, Palmetto's more oval A2 style and Magpul's MOE handguards.  All of them fit just fine!  Though vintage triangle handguards are just a little longer than the other types, requiring a LOT more effort on the slip-ring to get them off and on; but that's true of the M16A1 clone they live on too!

Flap Flap Drip Drip

When it gets cold, my toilet starts dripping.

It's no surprise that this will be visible on the water bill.

So I, finally, replaced the flapper.

The new one is soft and pliable.

The old one was misshapen, hard and brittle.

Procrastination...

I had the replacement part for months.

It Bears Mentioning

I went to check the private messages at the SJGames forum where I'd confronted Sean "Kromm" Punch.

I got one message from the thread starter thanking me for speaking truth to power.

That makes it worth it to me.

Ewwww But...

So, you've found yourself face down and drowning in an unflushed toilet.

Whomever is drowning you, pulls the handle and flushes the toilet.

Well, at least you're going to drown in clean water after catching a breath...

Then you feel the hot sensation of piss on the back of your head.

Nope.  Today is NOT your day.

Who Separated Them

 When we got back from shooting, Harvey decided that we needed to rearrange things so that she could get at HER gun safe.

It's a fair cop.  It's been behind the corner-of-clutter in the bedroom for a while.

So we moved the pile of clutter and then moved her safe to a better location.

In the process of sorting through the clutter, we found many things that could be discarded.

Of note is a sandal.

She asked if I even wore that pair any more.  I replied that I did not.

But there was only ONE sandal.

Hours later, I encountered the other one.  In the opposite corner of the room from where the one she had found.

I blame the cats.

Triumphant Return

The Lovely Harvey has overcome her fear of damaging her robo-shoulder and taken Kevina to the range!

Considering she has not had this carbine to the range in more than a decade...  Not too bad a group.

I got the M1956A2 zeroed with the new 5x scope too!

 Gotta say, that Faxon barrel is pretty sweet.

So Different

I am so enamored with Dottie's current configuration that I grabbed Tabitha to see how they compared...

They both have early furniture, but the slightly heavier Dottie points so much better.

I'm at a loss.  Dottie just feels better than Tabitha.

There's so many ineffable gun things.

I Figured Out Why *I* Was Offended

The "inclusion" and "sensitivity" changes for GURPS 4th Edition Revised could have been made silently.

They could have just gone through and eliminated the so-called offensive references without making an announcement they were making sensitivity changes.

They virtue signaled.

I'm part of a weird, in between, where I'm OK with not offending people, even fringe folks, but am getting sick and tired of the announcements that they are making changes to be less offensive...

While missing that the announcement is what's offending me.

I know, "straight white male, who cares if you're offended?"

My wallet cares.

What really pisses me off is that SJGames used to be the different gaming company.

They stood up against The Man and didn't do things like everyone else.

And here they are, in lockstep with all the other game publishers.

I kinda feared this when the theater kids took over gaming after Critical Role started their show.

In hindsight, that almost guaranteed we'd get a more "Hollywood Safe" crowd, or at least the companies would aim at this much smaller and more vocal market.

It was their market share to keep.

I'm gonna just keep playing with my version of the game with the racially insensitive references.

They don't bother me.

My four main worlds are an alternate WW2 with magic and LITERAL Nazis, an alternate history where magic became real after Trinity, an alternate history where WW3 started in 1997 and a conversion of Traveller.

All have bigots in them.  All of them don't care about the sensitivities of the groups being oppressed by the bad guys.

Nazis murdered people by the, literal, box car.

Racism and bigotry is a core part of Funny New Guys!

The Soviets don't love their children too in Twilight: 2000.

Traveller is so casually racist that there's hundreds of intelligent species that are called "minor races."

The move to inclusivity and sensitivity is a move away from dramatic conflict.

Without such conflict, the story is stale and boring.

A Reminder

The goal of any business is to appeal to everyone who wants to purchase the product.

By selecting one group of customers over another you are automatically refusing their money.

Alienating existing customers for this other group means your are refusing future sales to an established customer.

If you publish a role playing game, you're saying that you don't need them any more: but they can reply, "I can play the game with what I already have, forever, without spending another nickel.  Can you keep the doors open and the lights on if I stop buying stuff from you?"

In fact, if they go out of business tomorrow I still have enough stuff to keep playing.

I did not have to buy anything more to play this last time when FuzzyGeff came to visit.

Game Designer's Workshop has been out of business since 1996 and I am still playing two of their flagship world settings using GURPS.

Does SJGames really think I still need them?

I really don't.

They've gone woke and if you read Sean "Kromm" Punch's reply to why they're doing this, they cannot see that the sensitivity bullshit is offending people.  They don't care about us, but I suspect that they will miss us soon enough.

Just look at the shambles NASCAR is in after they chased the inclusive chimera.

Just To Be Clear

It is always OK to offend National Socialists.

They're always pissed off anyway, it's like it's their job or something. 

Speaking Of Exonyms

Nazi is an appellation to members of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  or National Socialist German Worker's Party.

It was intended to be derogatory.

So, if you set out to strip all offensive exonyms you need to stop using the word Nazi.

Or you need to start defending why it's OK to offend some people and not others.

If you manage to do that, you will find that you didn't need to strip exonyms from your writings.

Some people do live up to the stereotype.  Even if you go out of your way to not offend them. 

Shiny Let's Be Bad Guys

The descent into woke at Steve Jackson Games continues apace.

"Sensitivity reading" is the process of editing a manuscript to replace privileged wording – phrasing favored by majorities, the powerful, or the elite, whether in the region of publication or globally – that is offensive to, reinforces negative stereotypes of, or erases the less privileged. Examples include calling a physically disabled person a "cripple," calling a mentally ill individual "nuts," referring to a minority group using a disrespectful exonym, dismissing the contributions of a group, or implying or outright stating that everyone in a certain group is a criminal or less intelligent. The goal of the procedure is to remove negative overtones that target ability, ethnicity, gender, geographical origin, religion, sexual orientation, wealth, etc., rendering the writing more inclusive and equitable without loss of meaning or clarity.

Kromm, GURPS Line Editor

Considering that the people making those sensitivity changes are the epitome of powerful and elite...

But it's an effort doomed to fail.

You cannot make something completely non-offensive to everyone.  The fact that the attempt is offending so many people in the hobby is a sure clue to that truth.

A lot of noise is being made about "exonyms" and how they offend the people so labeled.

Gypsy and Eskimo come up most often.

Sioux and Commanche...  Those are not the words those tribes called themselves.  Those are the, deliberately, offensive labels their neighbors applied to them.

But if I say Oceti Sakowin, or Numunuu, will you know whom I speak of?

The Blackfoot don't call themselves that.  They call themselves Siksikáí'tsitapi.  You will not find my wife being offended by the name of Blackfoot.  Me?  I'm saying Blackfoot because I will BUTCHER their name in their language.

I know where Gypsy comes from.  The Roma people, living according to their own rules, are not good neighbors.  Having earned that reputation, they really haven't earned a lot of right to complain when the stories grew a bit past the truth.  And by the way, the only Roma I've met who are offended by the term Gypsy are exactly the same kind of race-grifter you'd expect them to be.

Eskimo vs Inuit is the same thing as Sioux vs Oceti Sakowin.  Someone else's name for them.  The Inuit are insulted by how Eskimo was used.  Fine.

Give English some time, though, and your preferred name will be used in exactly the same way.

Remember, English, despite not being a tonal language, can magically change the word "Sir" to mean CENSORED.  I seen't it! 

PS: While working for the Tavrchedl', Mr Punch has engaged in something that's extremely offensive to the people of Florida: Being a fucking Canadian telling us that we're doing everything wrong.

Uniformity

Something kind of dull about making soldiers for gaming is the uniformity.

They all, basically, use the same gear so there's not a lot of personalization to do.

Well, there's some, but...

If one takes the personalization too far one ends up looking like the crew from an action film where no two characters use the same weapon, cartridge or magazines.

My T2K conversion gives a price break for buying weapons that are issued to the character's home nation.  That encourages them to use the standard weapons.  That discourages personalization...

C'est la vie!

Technologically Improved

Making GURPS characters is greatly aided with a spreadsheet.

It does the math for you and that means it's super simple to do things like checking to see if raising a stat by a point and lowering the points spent on skills, but retaining their levels, is more or fewer points in total.

Most of the time this kind of min-maxxing doesn't, quite, pay off.

Sometimes, though, it does!

Somewhat belatedly, I am making the three NPCs that FuzzyGeff and Marv have linked up with in my Twilight: 2000 game.

It's something of a playtest for my T2K to GURPS conversion too.

We've found a couple three mistakes that are simple to fix thanks to the same technology that let me type it out and make a pdf file to share with people.

Comrades

I've found about five people I've served with on Facebook.

We're mostly Gen-X, so spotty about getting on social media.

Some of them have even replied after so many years of not being in contact.

Kinda neat.

A Good Run

Ed Iskenderian has passed on at the ripe old age of 104.

If you know who he was, then I don't have to explain.

Fake Tube

Palmetto State Armory used a screw they epoxy'd into the gas tube hole of the front sight base to hold the handguard cap.

Because it interfered with triangle handguards, I tried removing it and created a "would not screw back in" condition.

So I ordered a pistol gas tube and cut it down to provide a block to rotation at the handguard cap.

A longer gas tube would have been better because it would have been straight here.

No matter!  Thag have hammer!

Now there's a stub of a gas tube to help hold the cap steady.  There's a washer-like slip on fastener that I cannot recall the name of that would be perfect for holding the cap forward...  As soon as I remember what they're called I will order some.

Update: Retaining washer!

Kinda neat looking in the cooling holes and seeing gastubisinterruptus.

Wile E Coyote school of gunsmithing for the win!

Since I Have Magazines On The Brain

MSG Jeff Gurwitch (SF soldier type) did a review of his personal experience with several AR mags.

and

I'm still trying to figure out what magazines were what in that ATEC report, I noticed that both Mission First and Daniel Defense have shape that would preclude them being used in an M27 magwell...

Unsafe Storage

A Florida woman is in trouble because her kid showed up at school with her Lorcin L-25.

Her five year old kid.

The child doesn't seem to have had much nefarious intent, no ammunition was found with the gun.

She's being charged with violating the safe storage laws and child neglect.

Oops!

I've got mixed feelings about the laws about safe storage.  I think you should make every reasonable attempt to keep the kids and guns separated while there's no adult present as a matter of being a responsible parent.

I don't like making it illegal to fail in that effort.  At least not criminal.

I guess the neglect charge is a, "well if you'd been paying attention the child would never have gotten to the poorly stored gun."

I really hate blanket charges like that.  Vague laws make for bad arrests.

Crossing The Aisle

I still say that the cops are a bit too quick to employ deadly force.

Especially if it turns out that Pretti got shot because the officer that disarmed him had a negligent discharge from Pretti's gun after disarming him.

He deserved to get arrested for what he was doing, but if he was a threat with that dogpile on top of him...

Officers, learn to dogpile better!

If he had a second firearm and was trying to get it out to shoot the dogpile, then good shoot.

But where's that second gun?

I've long maintained that the cops should be held to the same standard as any other citizen when it comes to shooting someone.

The main complaint is that would make it too difficult for cops to do their jobs.

I says that letting us non-cops use the same, looser, rules as the cops wouldn't make it harder for THEM at all.

Just sayin'.

Gasparilla Lacking

Tampa has an annual festival honoring a pirate.

I realized that I don't even own a cutlass.

Then, thinking of pirates, I realized that I also don't own a rapier.

I tended to take a point and edge rapier for my pirate characters because fencing weapons got bonuses in GURPS 3e that were worth having.  They're not as unbalancing in 4e.

Not that I even have the first clue about how to wield either properly.

Well, maybe the first clue.

I was a fair hand with an epee once.

Once.  Long ago.  When I was very young.

I've never used a short sword past a wakizashi.  Prolly similar enough to a cutlass, but I'd never claim to have been proficient.

Come to think on it, I don't have a proper piratical flint-lock either!

Probably not fill any of these empty slots, I don't cosplay any more.

Works Fine For Me

Something that comes up again and again when talking about whether a given product works or not is whether the reader's experience is different from the author's.

I own several things that are working correctly that got massive negative reviews, for example.

I also have a Magpul 17-round magazine for a Glock that doesn't work well in my G17.2; despite rave reviews and people constantly assuring me that they work in their gun.  Yet they never offer to buy mine...

But the biggest case of "works fine for me" is when the military tests their fav and it comes up wanting.

I will clue you into why there's such a disparity.

That thing you bought:  You paid for it.  You expended time and effort to get it.  It is yours.  You assign value to it.  You will not deliberately try to destroy it.

That thing PV1 Snuffy was issued:  He did not pay for it.  He expended no real time and zero effort to be issued it.  He didn't sign for it.  He's not really responsible for it.  If it breaks he will get a new one without repercussion.  He will deliberately try to destroy it during testing; he's been ordered to.

An item that performs at a match or on the range but dies when Snuffy gets it...  Not a good choice for Army or Marine issue.

Failure to survive Snuffy doesn't make something bad, it just means it's more fragile than an anvil.

Which brings us to that report I (poorly) sampled earlier.

What seems to be wrong with most of the magazines in the test with lots of failures is weak springs.

Bolt over base attributed to the mag is the shot column not moving up quickly enough to get the next round into the path of the bolt.

The pecking of the bullet tips into the aluminum portion of the feed-ramps is the same sort of thing.  The round is high enough for the bolt to grab it, but not high enough to miss the "M4 ramp" in the upper receiver.

Failing to lock to the rear is either weak spring, poor follower design or both.

The test recorded how many rounds had been fired, how many rounds were in the magazine when the failure occurred, how many times the magazine had been used...  It's pretty exhaustive.

If only they'd told us which vendor was which letter...

At this time I am thinking the rumor that 'Golf' was a Gen 1 Lancer might be suspect.  What I need to refute it is whether you can get a Gen 1 Lancer to fit and feed in an H&K M27 aka HK416.

Doubts About The Rumors

I happen to have all five variations of the 30-round USGI magazine!

Wondering if the 'India' magazine could be an EPM, I decided to weigh them.

OG 1969 emerald green follower: 4.1 oz.

Black follower: 3.8 oz.

Light green follower: 4.0 oz.

Tan follower: 4.4 oz.

EPM: 4.3 oz.

A window PMAG M3 is: 5 oz., 5.3 oz. with the dust cover.  'Foxtrot' matches!

The lightest 'India' magazine in the report is 4.97 oz.  I don't think 'India' is a USGI 30-rounder.

'Golf', 'Juliet' and 'Kilo' are in the correct range.  UPDATE:  'Kilo' is the tan follower "legacy" magazine.  'Lima' is the EPM.

Further, the USMC released a report to National Review which TFB linked to that says that they tested the EPM in the M4, M16A4 and M27.  The ATEC report says that 'Golf' and 'India' didn't fit in the M27.

They also mention that they tested against the legacy magazine, which I think is the tan follower mag.

I think that 'Juliet' is the EPM and 'Kilo' is the tan follower.

Deciphering ATEC Project Number: 2014-DT-ATC-M4CAR-F9278 Report Number: ATC-11684 (Poorly)

The magazine makers are labeled A-L.

Alpha is 8.45 oz.  Bravo is 3.86 oz.  Charlie is 5.41 oz.  Delta is 8.92 oz.  Echo is 4.45 oz.  Foxtrot is 4.97 oz.  Golf is 4.34 oz.  Hotel is 3.94 oz.  India is 4.98 oz.  Juliet is 4.32 oz.  Kilo is 4.30 oz.  Lima is 4.23 oz.

Tested in M4A1, M16A4 and M27 weapons. 

Alpha is heavier than the others, prolly a steel magazine.

Delta is heavier than the others and works well in the M27, making me think that it's the H&K High Reliability Magazine.

Foxtrot is a Magpul windowed PMAG M3.  We know that because Magpul pointed it out.

Golf is rumored to be a Lancer Gen1 L5.  Based on weight, Bravo is the more likely candidate for a Lancer L5.

India is rumored to be a USGI Enhanced Performance Magazine (EPM).  Debunked!

Kilo is the legacy tan-follower USGI magazine.

Lima is the Enhanced Performance Magazine.

No rumors as to what Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Echo, Hotel, India and Juliet are. 

Golf and India did not fit in the M27.

Class I failures can be corrected by the user within 10 seconds with tools on hand.  Class III failures require an armorer.

M4A1 results:

Alpha: 4 failures.  3 weapon, 1 system.

Class I: 1 system.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Bravo: 10 failures.  8 magazine, 2 weapon.

Class I magazine: 8 bolt over base M4A1.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Charlie: 10 failures.  5 magazine, 5 weapon.

Class I magazine 3 double feed, 1 bolt over base, 1 OTH; weapon 3 bolt over base.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Delta: 2 failures.  2 weapon.

Class I weapon 1 bolt over base.

Echo: 2 failures.  2 weapon.

Class I no failures.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Foxtrot: 2 failures.  2 weapon.

Class I no failures. 
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Golf: 29 failures.  1 ammunition, 28 magazine.

Class I 1 ammunition, magazine 22 failure to lock to the rear, 1 BLE.
Class III magazine 2 OTH.

Hotel: 5 failures.  1 magazine, 4 weapon.

Class I magazine 1 bolt over base.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

India: 19 failures.  16 magazine, 3 weapon.

Class I magazine 16 failure to lock to the rear.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA, 1 OTH.

Juliet: 2 failures.  2 weapon.

Class I no failures.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Kilo: 2 failures.  2 weapon.

Class I  no failures.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Lima: 4 failures.  4 weapon.

Class I  weapon 2 failure to eject, 1 failure to extract.

M16A4 results:

Alpha: No failures.

Bravo: 2 failures.  2 weapon.

Class I: weapon 2 bolt over base.

Charlie: No failures.

Delta: No failures.

Echo: No failures.

Foxtrot: No failures.

Golf: 3 failures.  1 magazine, 2 weapon.

Class I: magazine 1 failure to lock to the rear; weapon 1 bolt over base.

Hotel: 1 failure.  1 magazine.

Class I: magazine 1 double feed.

India: 1 failure.  1 magazine.

Class I: magazine 1 failure to lock to the rear.

Juliet: No failures.

Kilo: No failures.

Lima: 1 failures.  1 weapon.

Class I: weapon 1 BLE.

M27 results:

Alpha: 5 failures.  1 magazine, 4 weapon.

Class I: magazine 1 bolt over base; weapon 2 bolt over base.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Bravo: 79 failures.  36 magazine, 30 weapon, 13 system.

Class I: magazine 1 double feed, 25 bolt over base, 1 stuck round; weapon 29 bolt over base, 1 BLE; system 12 bolt over base, 1 BLE.
Class III: magazine 2 OTH.

Charlie: 51 failures.  19 magazine, 32 weapon.

Class I: magazine 3 double feed, 13 bolt over base, 1 FSR; weapon 29 bolt over base.
Class III: magazine 1 OTH; weapon 1 FRA

Delta: 1 failure.  1 weapon.

Class I: weapon 1 bolt over base.

Echo: 1 failure.  1 weapon.

Class I: 1 bolt over base.

Foxtrot: 4 failures.  1 ammunition, 3 weapon.

Class I: ammunition 1 failure to fire; weapon BLE.
Class III: weapon 1 FRA.

Golf: Did not fit in magazine well.

Hotel: 1 failure.  1 weapon.

Class I: 1 bolt over base.

India: Did not fit in magazine well.

Juliet: 15 failures.  3 ammunition, 4 magazine, 7 weapon, 1 system.

Class I: ammunition 3 failure to fire, magazine 3 bolt over base, 1 stuck round; weapon 7 bolt over base; system 1 failed to chamber BLE.

Kilo: 6 failures.  6 weapon.

Class I: weapon 3 bolt over base, 2 fail to fire, 1 stuck round, light strike.

Lima: 17 failures.  1 ammunition, 8 magazine, 8 weapon.

Class I: ammunition 1 failure to fire; magazine 4 bolt over base; weapon 8 bolt over base.
Class III: magazine 1 OTH.

Considering the number of weapon failures with the M27 compared to the M4A1 and M16A4, I think we can put to bed the whole "pistons are better than direct impingement" argument.

"System" stoppages don't have an identifiable source.  BLE is associated with the bolt breaking and/or the nose of the round getting stuck on the feed ramp, OTH seems to be a generic "other" cause.  FRA is some kind of feed ramp failure.

The most common failure, overall, was failure to feed because of bolt over base.

Golf's most common failure mode was to fail to lock to the rear.

Again, if anyone has a list of who was what vendor, or even which 11 vendors were tested, drop a comment!