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! 

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.

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!

Also Also

I noticed that all three plastic magazines (Orlite, PMAG and Thermold) I have around here have a constant curve profile inside the magazine.

It's a lot easier to pull off making the inside and outside follow different contours than sheet metal.

Now I want to get more examples of plastic fantastic magazines to see if they do it too.  I bet they do.

I don't have them here already because PMAG has been working for me since... 2013?  2017 at the latest.

I tend to settle on something that works and stick to it.

What I'd been using was USGI aluminum bodies with Gen 2 Magpul anti-tilt followers.

The sand colored PMAGs is where I made my first big purchase of them and they've been working.

I still have all those aluminum bodied mags.

I think FuzzyGeff is the only person I've surrendered a magazine to since 1994...  And that was just to standardize on the M3 PMAG.  He got all the OG, Rev-M, MOE and M2 mags.  Many of them color matched his carbine, so it was serendipitous.

But there's reasons to be cautious about adopting new.

Working just fine at the range is one thing, working in a match is another and working after coming in contact with a private is yet another.

The Army tested a bunch of magazines and resolutely refuses to tell us which letter is what brand!

I've slogged through much of

ATEC Project Number: 2014-DT-ATC-M4CAR-F9278

Report Number: ATC-11684

on Scribd's free portion of their site.and "Golf", which is rumored to be Lancer, has a lot of failures, but they're nearly all a failure to lock open on an empty magazine.  I'd love to get a copy that didn't interrupt every 20 seconds to make me watch a counter run down.

Before Its Time

I noticed that the Orlite magazine is a constant curve design.

This was something of a Holy Grail item for the M16 which didn't end up working in Aluminum because several dimensions of the magazine well weren't critical and were, essentially, toleranced by other dimensions.

That meant that the constant curve magazines developed by Colt would work in most M16's, but not all of them.  You can't issue that to troops and the "not all of them" is a large enough number that you can't do a recall of the guns that didn't work just so the magazine would fit.

So, we dealt with many iterations of the straight then curved 30-round USGI magazine with various followers to address the issues.

But back in 1982, Orlite Engineering took a crack at making a, not only, constant curve magazine that worked in the IDF's M16A1's, but also was made from polymer.

Sadly, they don't appear to have worked very well.  Well enough to stay in production for ten years, but still...

Idle Hands, Pawn Shops And Good Light

Got good afternoon light to take the official picture of Dissipator Dottie:

 One of the local pawn shops had a Primary Arms 5x36 SLx Gen III Prism scope marked down about $130 from new.  Harvey said, "we need it!"

So I put it on the M1956A2:

 

As far as I can tell, it's unused.  It had the kill-flash in it, a $30 value, and I think those don't come with the scopes any more.

Though it's a fixed 5-power instead of a variable 3-9, I like the reticle and I think it just looks better.

I should probably get a QD mount for it...  Or carry the tools in the buttstock. 

Actions

There's some who're not getting this gun ownership is a right thing about carrying and protesting.

It's not owning a gun that's a problem.

It's not carrying a gun that's a problem.

It's what is done with that gun that could be a problem.

If someone is screaming about their grievances while their gun stays in its holster, no problem.

Waving that gun around while screaming...  Problem.

In fact, let's put an etiquette tag on it:  If you're protesting or at a rally with a firearm, keep your hands completely off the gun.  If you cannot carry it without touching it, don't bring it!

That's just manners. 

New vs Used

A while back, I bought a used Orlite magazine for the express purpose of recreating the picture from the Twilight: 2000 Small Arms Guide.

The ribs on the body of the magazine had been ground off, conventional wisdom says that this is because those ribs prevent the magazine from fully locking.

Except I bought a brand new one to check this and it fits in ALL of the AR-15's at my disposal.

Now I am not certain why they were ground off.

I found an old, archived, thread from Arfcom that warned against grinding them off because the feed lips would rid too high and cause the bolt to chew up the none-too-sturdy feed lips.

I bought it for the LOLs, not for serious use so I can give that a check!

EmCon

CVN-72 and her battle group have gone EmCon.

Somehow I don't think it's for practice.

Trying To Stack Them Deep

A problem with having a modern gun for carry is the original manufacturer is the sole supplier of magazines for them because the place you normally get them cheaper is the actual manufacturer!

Pistol mags are hovering around $43ish for our M&P 9 2.0 Compacts.  Based on the markings, Mecgar makes them and they'd be about $30 each... but S&W appears to have a no-compete clause in the contract.

Having gotten accustomed to $15 magazines for AR's, it's a bit of sticker shock.

Most of the handguns around here get by on three or four magazines per gun because they don't get out much.  Some as few as two magazines!

I think I should have more available for the guns that get shot more regular like. 

We will endeavor to persevere! 

Incessant Beeping

The recent, brief, power outage has convinced me that consumer level uninterruptible power sources do not need to beep to inform me that they have lost mains power.

A beep or alarm to warn me that they're about to go dead would be fine, but an alert that the power is out in a home is superfluous.

Power out in a home is VERY noticeable!

But thanks, UPS, for beeping!  I totally missed the lights going out, the fan shutting off and the TV going blank.

The beeps are the real hero! 

Oh Well

This morning, about 0137, the power went out.

Right in the middle of an Anime I was watching too!

The text from the power company predicted restoration at 0345, so I grabbed my Ryobi flexi light, burrowed under the covers and read a book.

Two hours without power in a hurricane ready house?

Bitch, please!

Marv was a little more adventurous and he wandered out into the cold.  He discovered that Steak N Shake is no longer a 24/7 concern.  He also found the power company's trucks around a sub-station nearby.

We're speculating it was planned maintenance.

By the way, the power company lied.  Power was restored at 0245. 

AWB Non-Compliance

I'm slipping in my old age.

Once again I've noticed that there's a dearth of "assault weapons" in the safe that are in full non-compliance with the '94 Assault Weapon Ban.

Jeebus!  That was more than 30 years ago!

I only have one AR that's got all the features.  Both of the AK's do.

Technically two more AR's have all of them, but are disqualified from being registered with the government.

But AWB non-compliance is why all of the AR's, except two, have bayonet lugs.  Dissipator Dottie can't even mount a bayonet!

The XM177E2 clone doesn't have one because, historically, they didn't.

Harvey wanted her light mount where the bayonet goes.

The place where it really shows I'm slipping is the stocks.  I've gone fixed stocks for most of them now.

Practical and comfortable over defiant.

However, even the fixed stock guns will be banned the next time they manage it.  They've said so.

Compliance is just a matter of timing it would seem. 

SNOW? But I Live In Florida!

Overnight Saturday, more than one model is predicting some kind of snow here on the Suncoast.

Up to a 1/4 inch!

Which will melt almost as fast as it drops.

I want a picture so I can say I saw it in person.

And to refute Al Gore who said that my house would be under water by now from all the glaciers melting and how snow was a thing of the past... 

Look For The Union Label

I keep bumping into this.

Every industry that is mostly offshored also appears to have been unionized prior to its departure.

That sure makes it look like unions caused our industries to leave.

There's a parallel with some factories moving from a state where the union controls the factory to a state where it doesn't.

But no politician appears willing to check on this. 

Challenger

40 Years Ago some engineers put on their manager hats and seven Astronauts died.

I was in the lunch line at school buying my breakfast.

They announced it over the PA.

Not more than 10 seconds later someone made the "what's this button do?" joke.

Just after I'd finished eating I joked that the student liberation organization claimed credit for the bombing and no teacher would be safe until our demands were met.

Just after that I was waiting for my mom to come pick me up for my three day out of school suspension.

Apparently a teacher was right behind me when I made my joke.

Zero appreciation, or tolerance, for gallows humor at Ames High School.

I've long supported manned spaceflight.

I've long been critical of the shuttle program.

I've loved planes as long as I can remember and from reading about military programs I gleaned that the time to start the replacement is during the first flight.

If NASA had used that rule of thumb then Challenger wouldn't have been on the pad that morning 40 years ago.  She would have been in a museum.

But I remember what the original plan for the orbiters was and we never even once flew them that way.  Hauling modules for the ISS is as close as we got.

So a replacement never got made, we killed 14 astronauts with it, and the jobs program it had become finally died.

The replacement for the replacement would probably have been flying before Columbia's accident too...  But we were never serious about it.

We made a jobs program and science research toy out of a cargo truck and were surprised it was expensive.  So we cut funding for follow-on programs. 

Honey Where ARE All the Magazines?

I have a spreadsheet that tells me how many of what kind of magazine we own.

That doesn't tell us where we left them.

Harvey complained about constantly downloading one of her carry magazines to load at the gun range.

That's just extra wear and tear, so I said to use one of the other M&P magazines we had laying around.

Turns out, she already had the only one not in actual use in her range bag already.

We have a "pesky" number of them scattered about in case of boarding action and all but one of the 17 round magazines is loaded and prepped.  All of the 15 round 2.0 Compact (distinct from the 12 round 1.0 Compact mags which are now 2.0 SUBcompact mags) magazines are in use from us carrying them.

Well.

Looks like we're going magazine shopping soon! 

Purses

Women conceal carry too!

Many of them carry off body because women's clothing lacks pockets and often hugs curves that prevent effective concealment.

You could find clothes that have pockets and don't accentuate your bod, but, sometimes, MAN you feel like a WOMAN! 

That means purses.

Harvey has been an enthusiastic user of Gun Tote'n Mamas' wares since we discovered them.

Her current bag is wearing out because she uses it.

SEO doesn't take you to GTM's web page, it takes you to Hiding Hilda.  Hiding Hilda doesn't do a good job of showing the customer who will actually use the purse to carry a firearm what firearms fit and how it will carry....

That led us to check the locals stores.

Carry purses are thin on the ground at the gun shops, and it's important to be able to touch and feel the items to see if they're gonna work.

But we did find two she liked at Shooter's World on Fletcher in Tampa. 

All Without Nukes Too

Silver And Minimum Wage

There's a meme going around about how the federal minimum wage was $1 an hour in 1960 and how that could be paid with four quarters and how much richer someone on minimum wage was in 1960 compared to now and why Boomers are so rich...

Let's look at the official inflation numbers:

$1 in 1960 is $10.53 in today's dollars. 

A 1960 quarter has 0.1808 ounces of silver in it.  Silver was approximately $0.92 per ounce in 1960.

So a quarter was worth 16.6336 cents in 1960.  If you paid in quarters silver, the minimum wage is 66.5344 cents an hour.

But, how much is  0.7232 ounces of silver worth today?  Inflation suggests it should be $7.

Silver is $110.30 per ounce at the time of writing.  So our four 1960 quarters are now worth $79.77 in bullion.  The quarters are still worth $1.

The meme goes that our worker did 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at $1 an hour and made $2,080 and because you could get that in silver then that wage was equivalent to $165,921.60 year.

A worker making a buck an hour in 1960 did NOT have as much money as middle management does today. 

The official inflation number is closer.   $21,902.40 is about right.

Gold was $35.50 an ounce in 1960, our worker was making 0.028169014 ounces of gold an hour.

Gold is now $5,064.10 an ounce so our worker should be getting $296,713.46

Gold was 38.59 times the price of silver per ounce in 1960.

Today gold is 45.91 times the price of silver.

There was once a time when the value of a dollar was a fixed fraction of the value of gold.  There was once a time when the value of silver was a fixed fraction of gold.

X dollars bought Y ounces of gold.  Z ounces of silver bought Y ounces of gold and X dollars.

The three things are no longer tied together.

While the dollar inflated 1,053%, gold inflated 14,265% and silver 11,989%. <- See what I did there?

There's gobs of exceptions to the inflation numbers that goldbugs like to point out, but the dollar did pretty well even so.  Energy, cars and housing ARE more expensive than they used to be.

BUT!

An IBM 7030 was $7,780,000 in 1961.  A brand new laptop from Wal Mart for $500 will outperform it on any metric you'd care to throw at it.  A $1,200 smart phone, likewise will embarrass it.  Considering that I don't have $81,041,666.67 for a computer, I will accept that some things get cheaper and somethings get more expensive.

I did a gallon of gas not that long ago.  Gas was $0.31 per gallon, on average, in the US in 1960.  Gas is $2.91 right now ($2.78 locally).  It's not the $3.25 inflation predicts.  Again, I'll take it.

A Colt 1911 was $17.50 in 1960 (according to AI) and will set you back $1,049 today.  Inflation says that they should cost $184.28...

Prices don't go up evenly and everything is traded separately.

Retroesque

Dottie now has repop Brownell's triangle handguards to go with her vintage A1 pistol grip and stock.

Brand new Orlite magazine for looks.

The Brownell's Retro handguards are a bit crude in the heat shields, but they fit well.

No issue with the Orlite's ribs in getting the magazine locked and the bolt-stop working on any of the AR's here.  Will they affect feed?  Dunno.  Gonna have to put it in the rifle case and put a few rounds through each gun as I shoot them.  Going to be a long term project to test against all of them. 

Then Stop Paying Them

The courts, again, have ruled that the police don't have to do the job that the public thinks they should be doing.

The police in question, this time from Ulvade, Texas, again, have shown that they like the power that authority gives as long as they don't have to run towards the sound of gunfire and actually be the heroes they often claim title to.

I'm watching video of the police not doing their jobs when riots rage and property is destroyed.

Once again, I am asking, "why are we paying them?"

At least twice I've seen parents being held at a perimeter while their children were being murdered while the police did nothing but maintain that perimeter.

What good were those cops?

Yes, I am aware of police who do live up to the title of hero and represent the ideal.

Because it's becoming very apparent that they are a minority, laws need to be changed to force the majority to adhere to the expectations of their employers, The People.

The court's rulings might be valid if one small thing was different about becoming a cop.

If they were conscripted, perhaps, there would be a point that we couldn't expect them to enter a dangerous situation where they could be killed in the course of saving the citizens they swore to defend.

But they weren't involuntarily conscripted to the job.

They volunteered.  They actively sought the education and training to become cops.

THEY WANTED THE JOB!

Until the moment comes where the reason they have medical and pension plans far in excess to the people surrounding them hoves into view.

Then they refuse.

The military, something that lots of cops like to emulate, has a term: dereliction of duty.

What happened at so many school massacres is a dereliction of duty.

A duty they swore to do, refused to do, and then begged the courts to get out of the consequences of that dereliction.

Well, fellow citizens, I think we should start getting our congresses to stop sucking cop cock so damn hard and to remember who THEY work for.

Get of your asses. 

Loophole Gunshow Attended

It has been a very long time since I've gone to a gun show in Tampa.

The Lovely Harvey expressed an interest and a buddy wanted to go too, so we went!

Meh.

Gun shows, at least in Tampa, are soulless things now.

The same guns at the same prices as you can get at any local gun shop.

For the most part, the same ammo at the same prices you can get at any local gun shop.

Not much for interesting stuff.

Buddy got to coon-finger a lot of stuff and since he's no longer living with a felon after his divorce, he can own a gun!

He's only fired a grand total of 100 rounds from Marv and my pistol collection.

Because long arms are easier and he's got some disabilities, I suggested a pistol caliber carbine over a shotgun, or an AR.

A 9mm S&W FPC seems to fit his needs in his new, tiny, home.

He needs to safe a couple weeks to get the scratch together and I've aimed him at Gunbroker for to get a sense of what things are worth. 

Found On Facebook

 

Uber Day

Today is the 4th anniversary of me plowing The Precious into a tree.

I am forbidden to operate vehicles on this day.

I am especially forbidden to go to Publix to buy subs.

Not that we're superstitious or anything. 

Maps

Neither FuzzyGeff nor Marv's characters bought a map.

That meant they got the map that came with the T2K game to navigate from.

I was using Google Maps.

This raises some problems and questions.

They were traveling down an "interstate" that, in all likelihood, did not exist in 2000 and wouldn't have been built by the Communist government anyway.

I've decided to just relax and let the hooks do their work.

It's an alt-history already, using an inaccurate map isn't going to change things all that much.

Though it is really neat to hit Streetview, rotate the screen so the players can see it and say, "this is what you can see." 

Damn Governments

Someone at SHOT Show has spoken to the folks at SNT Motiv about when the K2 clones would be hitting the US market.

End of 2026 at the soonest, if at all.

It seems that a major hurdle isn't US law, but South Korean laws about unwashed civilians having "military" weapons.

They're optimistic, but it's a maze to negotiate.

Gives me longer to save up, I guess. 

I Can Quit Whenever I Want

The Orlite magazines I bought a bit ago both have the rib ground off.

That was commonly done because of interference with some magwells.

So, of course, I need one that still has the rib to check for interference in MY magwells.

Hello, my name is Angus and it's been three days since I bought a vintage magazine of questionable reliability just to have one to play with. 

The Indian Wars Ended

It's apt that we call the hundred years of constant fighting with the American Indian "The Indian Wars."

It was just the last battles of a conflict involving every tribe in every location on the continent that had been bouncing from coast to coast for as long as humans had been here.

After the 1890's those wars were over.

Western Civ won and not only did we stop them from fighting us, we forced them to stop fighting each other.

It was a victory for women's rights.  It was a victory over slavery.  It was a victory over racism and genocide.  It stopped kidnapping, murder, torture and rape.

Noble savages my shiny pate.

Maybe, if we'd never come one tribe might have eventually conquered the continent.

Without horses from our coming, though, it might not be the tribe or nation you think. 

But we ended the wars.

Like all wars, it was not clean or neat.  But that's the nature of war.

War is messy and uneven.

What people are complaining about is akin to bitching the sun comes up in the east and it'd be better if it came up in the west.  It isn't and it won't. 

And Then Europeans Showed Up

European colonists just continued the work done by rebounding waves of humanity that had come over from Aisa over the Bering Land Bridge millennia before.

Dehumanization is part of EVERY American Indian language.  Their name for themselves always translates to "human being" and they never use that word for anyone else.

Never mind this is a quote from a Somali colonist trying to white guilt us into thinking we need to let her run things and make us pay for perceived slights to a people she's not a member of without any shared history or culture. 

Missed My Chance

Darn.

The special commemorative Vietnam editions of the 1911, Vietnam Tribute to Valor and Vietnam War Golden Anniversary Tribute, are no longer available.

Because the web page is dead.

But fear not!

There's a new web page!

A different company.

And a new commemorative 1911...

Only making 500, ten for each of the 50 American states!

How much?  Sign up for their mailing list and they will, most assuredly, let you know!

I Voted!

 

I have fired off my ballot for the NRA board of directors.

Eyes firmly crossed that the reformers get firm control and actually manage to reform the place.

I'd happily see it changed from a lifetime magazine subscription to a powerhouse gun-rights organization.

Partially related, it came in my first issue of American Rifleman since Shooting Illustrated is kaput.

Chili Recipe

What you're gonna need:

1 lb. ground beef.

1 lb. Jimmy Dean sage sausage.

2 med yellow onions, diced

2 jalapeno peppers, minced

3 poblano peppers, roasted, de-skinned, chopped

28 oz. diced stewed tomatoes (one big can)

12 oz. tomato paste (one big or two little cans)

29 oz. tomato sauce (one big can)

48 oz. Bush's med chili beans (these are pintos) (3 cans)

27 oz. red kidney beans (one big can)

4 tablespoons of your favorite chili powder

3 tablespoons of ground cumin

salt to taste.

Roast the peppers first!  I put them on the top rack set to broil until the skin is black.  Set them aside to cool while you do the rest of the chopping.

In a stock pot saute the onions until clear, add meat, onion, chili powder, cumin and peppers.

When the meat is cooked, dump in the tomatoes and beans.

Bring to a bit of a bubble, I think that called "simmer".

Put in bowl and eat!  I like oyster crackers best but you can add cheese and chopped onions to your heart's content. 

My Body Is Ready

 

I really miss my ban era DR-200.

For My Funny New Guys Players

 

It IS Kinda Creepy

Apparently ICE agents are running the plates of protestors who are following them around.

Then, at the end of the day, the agents drive to the address the car following them is registered at.

The protestors are kinda upset by that.

While it's a bit creepy, I'm not really seeing anything illegal about it.

The worst I can come up with is wasting resources.

I'm, again, caught between wanting the liberty where the cops can't tell where I live from reading my car's tax stamp and wanting people who are actively trying to intimidate and thwart the enforcement of a reasonable law to be punished for it.

Oh, I forgot, yeah that license plate is just supposed to be proof of tax paid and it was promised that it would never be used for other purposes.

When government lies like they do about that kind of stuff, it's no wonder so many people like me are conflicted between the wanting more liberty and the wanting the laws enforced. 

Corollary

I have long held that once someone has served their sentence they should be returned all of their rights without prejudice.

Successfully completing that sentence is predicated on them being SAFE to be among the rest of society.

Here's what happens when no real sentence is applied and the perpetrator is not safe to be among us.

Douglas Kraft, 68, and James Puchan, 68, of Columbus and Galena, respectively, were fatally shot Jan. 17 near Kissimmee, Florida, in what families said in a statement was a "random, tragic act." Kraft's brother – Douglas Kraft, 70, of Holland, Michigan – was also killed in the shooting.

Authorities arrested Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, 29, on three counts of murder, Dispatch news partner NBC4/WCMH-TV reported.

The three men were staying in an Airbnb to attend Kissimmee's Mecum Car Show, according to the families' statement. While they were waiting for help after "rental car trouble" and preparing to travel home, they were "being observed from a distance by an unknown individual who was well-known to local law enforcement."

"There were no known interactions between the men and this individual prior to the event; they were then approached and senselessly murdered," the families' statement reads. "This was a random, tragic act."

Deputies were called around noon on Jan. 17 to reports of shots fired in the Indian Point subdivision near Kissimmee, NBC4/WCMH-TV reported. Authorities found the three men dead from gunshot wounds in front of a residence in the 200 block of Indian Point Circle.

Not long after, law enforcement detained Bojeh, who lives nearby. Investigators said deputies reported seeing the suspect flee toward his home, later finding two firearms in Bojeh's residence after obtaining and serving a search warrant, according to NBC4/WCMH-TV.

In May 2021, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bojeh for shooting at random into cars at a Wawa gas station in Kissimmee

While Bojeh faced attempted murder and aggravated battery charges, court records show a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity.

The court ordered Bojeh to undergo mental health treatment, to live at his parents’ home on Indian Point Circle, and he “shall NOT own, possess or have access to firearms or any other illegal weapons."

 A judge found him...  Not a jury.

Well, the suspect was known to law enforcement, who did nothing to prevent it.

He was arrested and found to be too insane to understand his actions and was put back among us.

I think it might just be time to apply some damned liability to judges who let dangerous people loose in society when those dangerously insane people go on to hurt someone.

Shocked! Shocked! I Say

An experimental all‑female nightclub concept made headlines this week after industry insiders revealed it shut its doors shortly after its first official night, with organizers blaming a complete lack of bottle purchases as the main reason for the abrupt closure. The venue, marketed as a space dedicated exclusively to women and designed to create a safer, inclusive nightlife environment, opened with much fanfare in a major city — but according to reports circulating on social platforms and nightlife forums, the night ended without a single champagne or bottle service sale, a revenue stream most clubs rely on to stay afloat.

 

Nightclubs often depend heavily on bottle service and high‑margin alcohol purchases to cover staffing, entertainment, rent, and overhead costs, so an evening with no bottle sales would put severe financial strain on any venue’s business model — especially one trying to establish itself in a competitive nightlife market where drink revenue typically accounts for a large share of profit. Industry observers have pointed out that even innovative or niche nightclub concepts can struggle to attract patrons willing to spend on premium services, particularly in an era when many young adults are cutting back on expensive nights out due to cost‑of‑living pressures and shifting entertainment preferences.

 

Despite this early setback, some nightlife analysts say the closure doesn’t reflect a lack of appetite for women‑centric spaces overall. Successful women‑only or women‑focused venues in other regions have shown that with the right location, pricing, and community support, specialized clubs can thrive and offer social alternatives free from typical nightclub pressures. The all‑female concept may still evolve — and perhaps resurface in new forms — as venues experiment with different ways to attract crowds and sustain business in a rapidly changing nightlife landscape.
- Lauren Chen

First, my shocked face is shocked.

Second, "safer, inclusive nightlife environment," my chaffed hairy ass.

If you're excluding someone you're not being inclusive.

It's like saying a Klan meeting is creating a safer and more inclusive cross burning environment.

I seem to recall lawsuits about all men's country clubs.

But it's hilarious that these women went to an all women's nightclub and seemed to still expect men to buy them expensive drinks.

Food Costs

This batch of chili was $42 for the ingredients.

It fills my stock pot.

The last time I made chili, it was $55 for the ingredients.

From my chili making perspective, the economy is doing fine.

Chili Day

Made a batch of my award winning chili today!

Nummy!

Really Sad

Got this message on Facebook:

This is a gun range.

No open carry.

Blink blink blink

Sooner or later, a gun range has to trust you with a loaded firearm that is not concealed.

But I am fed the fuck up with gun shops, shows and ranges who don't seem to trust anyone with a gun that's not sanctified with a badge while they simultaneously pander for your money to sell guns, ammunition and

HOLSTERS THAT ARE FOR OPEN CARRY! 

For fucks sake.

Tank Test Bed Autoloader

Living in the future rocks!

The System Is Broken

Take the sights and charging handle off your M1919A4 and put a cable-pull charger on it and it becomes an M37.

Do the same to an M2HB and it becomes an M48.

At one time small changes totally changed the designation system.

Take an M240, ditch the pull-cable, add sights, pistol grip, bipod and normal charging handle; it becomes an M240G.  Why not M240A1?  Why does changing the bipod and flash hider and changing the muzzle device make it an M240B and not M240A2?

WHY?

Dunno.

Used to be an M4 was a 14.5", flat-top with a 3-round burst.  The M4A1 was the same with full-auto.

There used to be a heavier barrel that SOCOM used in their M4A1's...  But that didn't change the designation at all.

Now that heavier barrel is standard and...  It's an M4A1.

Then there's M16A3.  It used to be an M16A2 that exchanged the 3-round burst for full auto.

The M16A4 was an M16A2 with a flat-top.

Now the M16A3 is an M16A4 with full auto.

So the M16A3 is both an A2 carry handle version AND a flat-top version with full-auto.

Shouldn't an M16A4 with full auto be an M16A5?

I've heard that it's because the parts are interchangeable and configuration can be changed readily.

Then explain why the parts swappable M17 and M18 pistols have different designations!

They're actively not using any system for designating the guns.  It will bite them someday.

Updates To The Updates (Updated)

The base Abrams in my T2K conversion is now the M1A2.

Yesterday it was the M1A1(HA).

History did not stand still while I polished other cannon balls.

Now I need to find out how much an M240 and M240D weigh, because it's different from the commonly found weights for the ground guns.

All without ammo or slings.

M240 - 22.2 lb.

M240C - 22.2 lb.

M240B - 27.1 lb.

M240D - 22.9 lb.

M240E1 - 25.7 lb.

M240G - 25.8 lb.

M240N - 24.1 lb.

From TM 9-1005-313-10 (Nov 2002).

Astonishingly hard to find this information considering where I found it.

Completist

I have GURPS stats for all of the M1 Abrams tank variants I can find.

I have not, yet, done the non-tank versions.

It was interesting to see just how similar the M60A3 and M1(IP) are in protection from KE rounds.

The Chobham armor is a huge upgrade against HEAT rounds though.

GURPS, where pi is three, doesn't distinguish between a lot of the real improvements in thermal imagers or computer systems.  I've given them bonuses to the computer and electronics operations rolls where the systems are intuitive.

Classified

No shit, there I was...

We were finished with gunnery at Graf and were loading the tanks onto the tank transporters.

This is the most nerve wracking thing I've ever done with a tank because you cannot see where you're going.

The nose of the tank is WAY up in the air and all you can see of the ground-guide* is their hands as you creep past the center of gravity and the bow falls back down to normal.

I hear they replaced the trailers we used with better designs that take more weight and have a shallower angle so you can see what the ground-guide is telling you better.

So...

With the nose in the air, hands just barely peeking above the bow, sliding back in the seat...  There's a strong temptation to pull oneself up to see better.

The only thing to pull on is the steering bar.

Me?  I'd listened to the pre-load brief and adjusted my seat so I didn't slide back and could still see.

But someone from 1st platoon didn't.

They pulled themselves up on the steering bar and managed to gun it AND steer hard to the left!  Now there's an M1(IP) on its side next to the tank transporter trailer.

Worse, the impact tore open the front skirt section and the Chobham armor within was exposed for all to see.

I seen't it!

We all got rounded up, once a tarp was put over the exposed, and classified, armor, and got briefed on how we never saw that.

Everyone in the battalion knew 1st platoon had dumped a tank and exposed the armor.  So, of course, everyone asked, "what'd you see?"

We were sworn to secrecy and we kept the secret!  It did not stop us from making shit up. 

Our favorite story was how there was a pink, toothpaste-like material in there and that was the secret.  "I saw the pink goo oozing out!"

Or we mentioned that it was just sand in there.

One guy said it was Styrofoam with black flecks.

I sure hope we messed with the Soviet espionage efforts! 

* A ground-guide is a person on the ground giving the driver hand signals to maneuver the tank in tight spaces or with precision because the driver cannot see where they are going. 

How Thick

The protection of the Abrams has gone up more than once.

The M1 has the thinnest.

M1(IP) and M1A1 have the first upgrade.

M1A1(HA) gets 1st gen DU added.  Without adding mass, I note.

The heavy common gets 2nd gen DU.

M1A2 SEP v1 gets 3rd gen DU.

The line of sight thickness gets thicker from M1 to M1(IP) on the turret.  We noticed because it was harder to get out of the driver's hole.

The question is, how much protection does the line of sight protection provide?

Because this is for a game, I'm not actually looking for the real numbers.

There's a War Thunder page that seems to say that OG Chobham armor is 3x LOS thickness for KE rounds and about 5x for HEAT.

That same War Thunder page misses that the LOS thickness of the IP and A1 turret front changed.

Selecting from more than one online source...  The turret face has:

M1 should have 400mm RHAe from KE and 700mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,100L.

M1(IP) and M1A1 should have 450mm RHAe from KE and 900mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,240L.

M1A1 (HA) should have 610mm RHAe from KE and 1,050mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,680L.

M1A1 (HC) should have 940mm RHAe from HE and 1,320mm from RHAe from HEAT.  DR 2,590L.

M1A2 SEP v1 should have 960mm RHAe from KE and 1,620mm from HEAT.  DR 2,645L.

I might have to make some changes to my T2K conversion in light of this!

How Many Of These Myths Are There?

Widner's did an article about how shooting out the tires doesn't work like Hollywood, and thus not like how most people think it should.

Linky dinky.

Anyone who's watched a live cop show has seen how long it takes spike strips to flatten a tire and seen that it will still run on the rims for a bit.

But the rims don't give a lot of traction or control...

Shooting out the tires could cause a car to do far more damage than the driver is trying to inflict.

Artwork Differs

In the US Army Vehicle Guide the "M1A2 Abrams III 'Giraffe'" turret is clearly inspired by the Teledyne armored gun system.

This is not at all the direction the Tank Test Bed was heading, but it was probably still classified when GDW wrote the original game so they went with what the Army Green Book was speculating.

But the remote turret in the artwork of the NATO Vehicle Guide's "Leopard III" looks a lot more like what the TTB had, if a bit taller.

The M1 TTB:

Teledyne Armored Gun System:

Yes, that looks familiar, it's the same turret and gun as the Stryker MGS.

Abrams This Time

The mighty M1!

There's a lot of sub-variants.

1979: The OG M1 with the 105mm gun.  58 tons.

1983: M1 Tank Test Bed.  3-man crew in hull.  Unmanned, remote, 120mm turret.  45 tons.

1984: The M1(IP) "improved performance" which got thicker turret armor and a bustle rack.  60 tons.

1985: M1A1 with the 120mm gun.  This is often called the M1A1(RA) for regular armor.  63 tons.

1988: M1A1(HA) "heavy armor" with DU plates inside the not-actually-Chobham-anymore armor.  63 tons.

1990: M1A1(HC) "heavy common" 2nd gen DU plates.  69.5 tons.

1992: M1A2 an M1A1(HC) with commander's independent thermal sight (CITS), new commander's weapon station, many electronic upgrades.  69.5 tons.

1995: M1A3 fictional development of the TTB speculated for Twilight: 2000.  Called M1A2 Abrams III "Giraffe" in game.  60.6 tons.

***Twilight: 2000 Cutoff Date***

1999: M1A2 SEP Upgraded gunner's sight, 3rd gen DU.  69.5 tons.

1999: M1A1(D) "digital" M1A1(HC) with new electronics from the M1A2 SEP, only 2 battalions worth made.  63 tons.

2006: M1A1 (AIM v1) M1A1 refurbished and significantly upgraded.  Most sold to Australia and later given to Ukraine.  63 tons.

2006: M1A1 (SA) or (AIM v2) Morrocan export version, similar to the AIM v1.  Also M1A1 (SA-UKR) for Ukraine export.  67.6 tons.

2006: M1A1 (FEP) "firepower enhancement package" AIM v2 for USMC M1A1(HC).  69.5 tons.

M1A1 (M) Iraqi standard armor variant.

2008: M1A2 SEPv2 Commander's weapon station replaced with CROWS, electronic upgrades, air conditioning, upgraded thermal optics.  71.2 tons.

2017: M1A2 SEPv3 Massive electronics and comms upgrade.  Many changes to make maintenance easier.  Better armor.  APU.  Reactive armor capable.  Airburst ammo.  M1A2T, M1A2R and M1A2K regular armor versions for Taiwan, Romania and Kuwait.  73.6 tons.

2025: M1A2 SEPv4 Cancelled upgrade to Gen3 FLIR for CITS and gunner.  Better sensors for fire control.  Laser detector sensors.  New smoke grenade launchers.

2026: M1E3 3-man crew in hull.  Unmanned, remote, 120mm turret.  Remote weapons station on turret roof.  SEPv4 levels of electronics and defensive countermeasures.  Goal of 60 tons.

Done With Going Out Today

The Snowbirds are heeeeeerrrrrrrre!

But what's made me decide that today is a good day to stay in now that my errands are done was the Tesla minivan that cut across three lanes of traffic, plus a right hand turn lane, to get into a left hand turn lane without any regard to traffic and caused a three car pile up behind me.  I was lucky that I was in the middle lane and the person right behind me was paying attention when I had to stab the brakes.

The left lane, though, wasn't so lucky because the Tesla driver slammed her brakes HARD to get into the turn lane and the car she cut off got rear ended for their trouble.  And the car that rear-ended them got sandwiched.

Then there's the old people at the shopping center who appear to be trying to commit suicide by waiting until I'm almost there to jump in front of the car from the curb.  Suck it old people!  I'm on to you!

I managed to make it home despite it all, but man are the emergency vehicles out in force this afternoon.

PS:  Heard a rapid string of gunfire from somewhere south of the house...  No sirens yet.

Suffering Fan

It's gonna be very cold for Florida tonight.

The only TV that has an antenna that gets the station playing the hockey game is on the back porch.

We're gonna be sitting back there, bundled up, watching.

It'll be like going to a live game up north!

Well Said

 

There Are Two Times

If you're pissing off the US military there's two clear things to look for.

First, if you're in an active firefight and the US troops pull way back and start filming your position.

Second is when every single plane in the air shuts off their ADS-B transponder.

These are signs that things are about to go south for you.

If the phones still work, it's an EXCELLENT time to surrender. 

Marketing Fail?

I'm on Atlantic Firearms email list.

They frequently send me links to items I might like.

They are never in stock.

Not even if I click the link the moment the email arrives.

To say that this makes it hard to make a purchase is a gross understatement.

On the plus side, it's sure easy to fight temptation this way. 

I Had No Idea

A long, long, time ago: I borrowed a book from Gerb.  <-- He is missed every day.

I don't remember what about it made me ask to borrow it, but I did.

I remember enjoying it then returning it and, basically, forgetting all about it.

Only to be reminded of it in the comments at a political blog.

The book was "Tuf Voyaging" by George RR Martin.

Yes, THAT George RR Martin.

I can now say that I've read a GRRM book and enjoyed it.

This had been true for... uh... decades.  I think I borrowed it before I went into the Army.  I just didn't realize it because I never made note of whom wrote the book and I'd even forgot the title. 

Almost

I am nearly in this picture!  I took a picture of the picture in my copy of Tankograd American Special No. 3044 "REFORGER 88: Certain Challenge."

That's my tank on the right edge of this photo.  I was standing on the turret watching 1/4 Cav pass through during REFORGER '88.

The photographer took pictures of me standing there, but I didn't make the book...

Coincidence

Shooting News Weekly posted an article about shoulder holsters yesterday too.

I didn't find out until after I'd posted and saw a link to the article from Instapundit.

Great minds and all.

Lemme Say It Another Way

They recorded over $700 million in cash being taken from the US to Somalia.

And didn't even ask where the money came from.

But a guy who can prove that his business did just less than $10k a day got legally harassed for years for "structuring" withdrawals?

Anarcho-Tyranny.

It's Intergovernmental Not Interscientific

Lots of scientists saying that not only isn't the science settled, but the IPCC has been corrupt and lying for years about what the scientists involved have been saying about their studies.

Wish I'd said this to Anglave all those years ago when he was attacking me from the liberal bubble of Iowa State University. 

Oh, wait, I did.

Got me mad enough that I closed comms for a week.

When I opened them back up...

Let's just say he did not, and has not, reached out.

That was ten years ago.

RIP

Crazy man, commentator and cartoonist Scott Adams has succumbed to cancer.

I've been missing Dilbert since the scolds went after him.

Gun Bras

I've been toting in a shoulder holster since I was in the Army.

The M9 holster and the M1911A1 were my first jam.

I toted, illegally, a Glock in a Uncle Mike's nylon holster in Iowa for a while too.  No pics.  That holster was not very good and it has long since been discarded.

When I came back to gun bras, it was Galco Miami Classic II and a Springfield 1911.

This same holster carried a Colt Gov't Model in .38 Super too.

But then the siren call of 9mm hit me...  All the best Gunwriters insisted it was best.

A full size S&W M&P 9 went in a Galco Miami Classic here.

This same holster ran an M&P 45C

And currently totes my M&P 2.0 9 Compact:

But wait!  There's more!  How much would you pay?

I tracked down what might be a Galco Jackass or very early Miami Classic to see if I was disarmed carrying a mid-70's S&W Model 59.

I was not unarmed.

I find this manner of carry comfortable and easy to conceal if I can wear a Hawaiian shirt, or more over it.  Not always possible in Florida.

They're handy riding in the car because the gun is presented where it's readily accessible.

Getting Familiar

Software Janitor is not familiar with S&W latest offerings.

This is an M&P 2.0 9 Compact.

It's about Glock 19 size and is distinct from the M&P 9C in capacity.  The 9C only holds 12 rounds, this one takes 15.

As far as I can tell from trying to find spare magazines anyways.

The grip shape fits my hand a bit better than a Glock 19 and I like having a manual safety even if I shouldn't need one.  Old.  Set in ways.

This is my Goldilocks gun.  It just fits my hand and I shoot it better than any other 9mm I've ever owned with the possible exception of the Browning HP.

It totes wonderfully in a gun-bra under a Hawaiian or flannel shirt when it's not unseasonably warm here in Florida in the late fall, winter and early spring.

I need to get a workable IWB holster to see if under an untucked t-shirt works.

Interesting Claim

This video:

He says the Super outsold the .45 from its inception to the early '70's.

That's interesting.

Judging by the used guns available, I don't think so.

Turret Swaps

At one time there was a plan to up-gun the M48 by putting a complete M60 turret on it.

It would have been the M48A4.

Only a couple were made when the M60A2 program collapsed and there wasn't surplus M60 turret production available for the M48 idea.

But in the lead up to T2K...

We have an M60 upgrade that gets an M1A1 turret, freeing up an M60A3(TTS) turret.

We have M48's and M60's getting the Teledyne remote gun system, freeing up both M48 and M60 turrets.

It stands to reason that the M48A4 idea gets resurrected because there's more M48 hulls than Teledyne turrets and it's faster and easier than the M48A5 conversion.

I really need to get this organized. 

Moar Pig

Something I just realized...

The M48A5 MBT.

The coax in the M48 series goes from a .30-06 M1919A4E1 M37 to a 7.62 NATO M73 to M219 to M240 as it progressed from A1 to A5.

What I just noticed is the A5 conversion deleted the Ma Deuce and the commander's cupola and replaced it with a complex articulated pintle and added a pintle to the loader's hatch...

 

 

For a couple of M60D machine guns.

One nice thing about the M1 was the loader's MG was the same gun as the coax and they could be swapped if something went wrong with one of them. 

Of Tanks And Floating Bridges

From the comments by Well Seasoned Fool at Chant du Départ. 

One shining, cloudy, cold, rainy day in West Germany, someone decided to make a pontoon bridge across a river.

Because they were a general, or something, their decision meant that engineers were ordered to gather the components and assemble a floating bridge across a river in West Germany.

"What good is a bridge if nobody uses it to cross the river," The General thought.

So this same, shiny, cloudy, cold, rainy day my tank battalion was ordered to drive down to this new bridge and cross it.

Then, having crossed it, go back the way we came and cross it again, then return home.

Me, having been "promoted" from loader to driver got to pilot my M1(IP) across the bridge.  Twice!

No shit, there I was! 

From my vantage, it was narrower than the tank (it wasn't) and it sank underwater under the weight (it didn't).

Once on the thing, it didn't seem so narrow.  But it still seemed like we were gonna sink to the bottom if we didn't haul ass.  Something the engineers begged us not to do.

The feeling is... odd.  The weight of the tank pushes the bridge sections down and where the pontoon/boat/floaty part is it sinks less than the joints between the road sections so there's this constant slow up down rocking motion as you cross.  It makes you feel like the tank is trying to turn when it's going straight and you really can't see where you are.  You just have to trust that you're sitting in the center and that by aiming at the middle you have the tank centered.

Wracks the nerves it does.  And I didn't even sign for anything! 

Tanks are not finesse machines, they're clumsy things and they casually and inadvertently break these bridges.  Pivot steering is hard on the planking and causes engineers to use rough language and pry bars to straighten it.

Pivot steering is often required because the nature of these bridges often means that the approach is just a little off the angle the tank can accomplish just driving up.

At the end of the day, I did not go swimming and I don't think we broke the bridge so bad it could not be used again.

I apologize for any damage my lack of driving skill might have done to the bridge and offer one beer on me to any combat engineer who had to deal with that damage.  Payable in person only!