Cast Offs

Do you want the parts we're discarding from the M1956A2 project?

Click here to see our quite reasonable prices!

M1956A2

Got the Krylon Fusion paint for the buttstock.

All put back together, just waiting for the hour cure time to handle.

It's amazing how much handier this gun is without the bull barrel and 4-rail handguard.  Just a bit under 10.8 pounds loaded instead of 12.6 lb.!

Two Of Five

Two of the five for our upcoming 7.62 NATO comparison study.

VG.56/17 M1956A2 on top and G3A3 on bottom.

Not Mocking You

The VG.56/17 M1955A2 has a pinned front sight base now!

The #31 cobalt drills went right through the QPQ nitride coating.  You could feel it, but the resistance was very brief.

The gas tube gave me more grief than drilling and reaming the holes.  The rear hole could probably use another 1/16" of reaming for aesthetic reasons.

Identity

What's all the drama about?

I just realized (thanks FuzzyGeff) that President Trump did not forbid transgender folks from identifying as being in the military.

Salving Post

Four years ago, those $80 BM-59 magazines we were looking at were $135 magazines.

The $1,200 rifle was $3,000.

For a niche collector item like this, prices coming down is somewhat unusual.

Scotch Eggs

If The Boy will let me actually get anything done tomorrow, I think I will gather the stuff for scotch eggs.

They're just divine!

And maybe, just maybe, try my hand at Frittata Spagnola (Or as Miguel styles it, tortilla).

I'm in a cooking mood!

How Could This Ever Happen In A Socialist Utopia

Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma, opposition figures in Venezuela, have been arrested.

Who could have predicted that something like this would occur in a socialist dictatorship?

It's not like it's never happened before...

Except in every nation that's succumbed to the siren song of Marx and the descended flavors thereof.

Naming Conundrum

I've tended to call the AR platform "The People's Carbine".

I've even gotten silly about it and dubbed a couple of guns in a Germanic VKb naming structure.

VKb.08 for the 6.8 guns, for example.

I've also dubbed a couple of the guns with the old M(year) system.

XM1994E3 for The Lovely Harvey's M4gery, for example.

Which system should apply to Willard's AR-10 descendant?

I equally like VG.56/17 and M1956A2 (A nothing would be the original, A1 would be an M16A2 style handle, A2 is the flat-top).

What say the hive?

Poing

Poing is not a noise you want to hear when attempting to delete the National Match rear sight on an M1A and install a normal USGI aperture.

The little wire retainer for the split-nut in the windage knob that is threaded for the elevation knob shaft went poing.  This is supposed to be an insuperable assembly...  Then the clicker ball bearing for the windage went flying.

Everything was located and has been reinstalled.

Grumble.

Edit, fixed parts names.

Meanwhile In Islam

LGBT means Loft Gravity Bounce Thud.

Another Day In Paradise

Another day with The Boy screaming obscenities and breaking his own stuff.

There's no apparent reason for it, it's just how he is.

Something has to give soon or I fear for my sanity.

Put The Voodoo Doll Down

Another one for Willard.

A 9x20mm barrel for his m/07 pistol.

Ever Do This

Start doing the calculations to prove a point, get it almost ready to SLAM the other guy's argument into the dirt like it deserves...

Only to discover you've overlooked an important variable or portion of the equation?

Thank goodness I had not hit publish...

The Rest Of The Story

This Is It We're All Gonna Die

The brutal storm clouds of Tropical Storm Emily.

I Have A Solution

Pilot Shortage On The Horizon.

I know why I'm not a pilot.  I cannot afford it.

Yet, I have food on the table and a roof over my head.

How is it that I manage the second, but not the first?

I don't need to be a pilot, but I do need food and shelter.

When it comes to something I need, I will find a way to fund it.

Seems to me the folks what need pilots are the airlines.  With this looming on their horizon, why is it still the prospective hire's job to pay the whole cost for licensing and training?

They need pilots, why don't they have training academies?

Why aren't there contracts where our newly winged fledgling has to either work for the airline what brought him up for a fixed number of years or recompense them for their costs?

I've said the same thing about shortages in other places.

Want to weld?  You have to show up already knowing how with certifications.

Same for machinists.

Same for mechanics.

I hear crying from businesses that need these people who can't find applicants.

Write a contract, train them!

It Doesn't Mean What You Apparently Think It Does

Minority rights does not mean rights that only minorities have.

Minority rights means giving minorities the same rights as everyone that are being, or have been, denied them.

It's not a zero-sum game.

Old Story But Told Well

Mock Up

As soon as replacement parts and tools arrive, this is what the AR-10 project will look like.

This configuration is a full 26 ounces lighter than how the original rifle came!

Update:

Here's what we're trying to evoke, a modernization of this:

Pic from James Julia Acution http://weaponsman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Julia-AR-10-38-right.jpg

Oh Marv....

He is officially out of places to hang stuff.

Mystery Solved

There isn't a single G3 bayonet.

There isn't a single means for a G3 bayonet to attach to the rifle.

There's at least three main variations.

Early with the straight cocking tube.

10mm with adaptor and the tapered cocking tube.

20mm without adaptor and the tapered cocking tube.

Inside these variations are SUBvariations!

The Danish bayonet Willard bought is of the 10mm variety.

He'd bought an adaptor for a 10mm bayonet.

NOW we discover there's four subvariations of the 10mm depending on how the latch is clocked.

1 and 1A clock at 9.
2 clocks at 1:30.
3 clocks at 10:30.

Willard's adaptor is a 1, his bayonet is a 3.

Since the bayonets have become a $65 collector's item, I drilled the $15 adaptor for a new hole at 10:30.

Huzzah!

That Went Better

The latch hole for the bayonet was wrong for the Danish bayonet Willard scored for his G3.

Fixed!

Now I wonder if the German and Danish bayonet latches are clocked differently or if this one is made wrong.

Chatter Chatter BANG

Trying to drill front sight base for Willard's AR10 project.

Using a 3mm carbide end mill to do the initial hole because of the nitride coating on the barrel.

It's some brittle ass shit and when it went it took out the boss I was drilling into.

The barrel is unmarred.

Because I'm Geek And Nerdy

Marv's looking for holsters for the local 2-gun.

I comment that his choice doesn't allow for a light.

He asks, "You're going to use the light during 2-gun?"

I reply, "The night is dark and full of terrors!"

He says, "Not in the indoor range it's not."

My Reader Rocks!

Terrapod donated a nice 30gb iPod Classic to The Boy!

He officially rocks!

Note To YouTube

If you're not going to let a given channel monetize, then I will not sit through YOUR ads.

Reflexively stabbing refresh will eventually bypass the ad...

Blogging Is Dead

Long live the blog!

I guess the resemblance to a Norwegian Blue depends a great deal on what you're hoping to accomplish by blogging.

Me?

I need to say what I'm saying, someplace, or I go more nuts.

I'm not expecting to change anyone's mind about anything.  If someone is moved by what I've argued and changes their mind, so much the better; but I'm not ranting to get people to change their minds.

I'm ranting to save my mind.

I will rant, and have, when I knew there was nobody reading.  That was Livejournal...

Weer'd got me to come to Blogger.

My audience is small.  About 1,000 people a day stop by, with 240 or so being from France.

I don't get much for comments.

But I am not going away until Google nukes the platform, and even that won't nuke me completely.

Sooner or later the photo-hosting thing is going to drive me to host my own pictures.  That will likely drive me to spend the money on setting up my own server.  Once I've done that, why depend on Google for hosting the blog?

Or What Lindsey?

If Trump fires Sessions you're going to what?

Obstruct the bills that support his campaign promises?

Delay his appointments?

What are you going to do that you're not already doing?

2,000 Of 400

Five times the rated time on the battery.

OK, I'm impressed.

Perhaps Expected

I know that when I am punished for something I did not do, I have a strong temptation to immediately start doing it.

For how many months have we been hearing about how anti-LGBT President Trump is?

Perhaps he's just decided that if he's going to be treated like a bigot, he's nothing to loose by acting the part.

Besides, while the press is all focused on this "outrage" what's he slipping behind their backs?

If you can panic them by rearranging deck chairs, will they notice what you did in the engine room?

Oh Noes!

Hollywood is going to hate President Trump now?

Now?

Now?

Now?

NOW?!?

What was it before?

Edit.

Now we get treated to another round of LGBT bullying from Hollywood.

SIGH

Remember, if you're not stealing from Hollywood, you're paying them for this.

Identity

The problem isn't that LGBT people want to serve in the military.

The problem is far too few are identifying primarily as SOLDIERS.

When you identify as something else, you're not going to be a good soldier and that is a huge problem.

It's also not helped that the defacto spokesperson for transgender in the military is Chelsea Manning.  A traitor.

Look, LGBT people, you want to serve, then be a soldier first and everything else second.  Make it a distant second.

You want to know something odd, we military types honor personal sacrifice for honorable service.  Think on that.

For the record, the military has had crackdowns on Catholics for being adherents to their religion before their oaths as soldiers; don't feel too put out at being singled out here.

A Thought Occurs

With Eric Holder complaining that elections are rigged by Republicans...

I am starting to wonder if the Democrats were expecting a different outcome and their rigging failed.

Like they hired a veterinarian to dope the horse and got a placebo instead.

It fits the pattern of complaint.

This Hasn't Happened In A While

More than one B-29 in the air at the same time.

You Just Know He's Seething

I found that BM-59 and had nothing but silence from Willard today.

This is how he gets when he's checking magazine prices and availability.

Also, I have pains in the normal places from him sticking pins in his voodoo doll of me.

Information Bleg

Is there an A2 style upper receiver for a DPMS 308 AR out there?

I recall there once being such things, but cannot google my way to them.

I'll Be The One To Say It

Wouldn't it be better for everyone if Senator McCain were to succumb to his illness, rather than continuing on?

I would have said "to resign" but the DIABN just can't bring himself to do the right thing.

With a Republican Governor in Arizona, it won't even upset the numbers.  But it will upset the votes as a reliable traitor to his party would be eliminated.

Practice

Hard to get the tripod to settle down to get a centered shot at max magnification.

7.62x51mm Magazine Massathon

Well, weight because 'Mercia!

FAL 8.6 oz.

CETME 9.8 oz.

G3 (Steel) 9.9 oz.
G3 (Aluminum) 5.1 oz.

M14 (USGI) 8.3 oz.
M14 (Aftermarket) 7.5 oz.

AR10 (DPMS LR308) 7.5 oz.
AR10 (Magpul PMAG-20 LR/SR Gen M3) 5 oz.

The weight of 20 rounds of 7.62x51mm NATO is 17.6 oz.

Anyone got a BM-59 or a Type 64 magazine and a scale?

How about a real AR-10 magazine?