Mox Nix

All the war materiel we left behind in Kabul?

Mox nix.

A bunch of small arms?  So what.

Some light artillery?  So what.

Some common aircraft?  Big deal.

We export this shit to just as scummy people every day under damn near the same financing terms.

It's not going to make any difference than if we'd managed to pack it all up and bring it home.

It's not like anyone here in the states would ever see any good from it.

We're not allowed to own such things as common, everyday modern small arms.  We're only allowed defanged versions.

If this kind of detritus was brought back and once declared surplus was sold back to the people who originally paid for it; I'd be upset we abandoned it there.

But if it'd been brought home, it would have either been given to the next tinpot dictator or destroyed.

I'm a mind to write my congress-creatures and tell them that maybe we don't need to buy the military new stuff if they're going to be so wasteful.

WIthout Words

You're getting GURPS minutia because I am pissed off beyond words about what happened with our withdrawal from Afghanistan and what's going to be happening here because of the unvetted importation of people who've no wish, let alone ability, to become Americans once they arrive.

I had hope for 20 years that we could create the conditions that would allow them to remain Afghans and in Afghanistan.

It was a vain hope.  I didn't really expect it to work, and I often thought that it didn't even have a chance because we kept making the assumption that there was an American in the Afghan trying to get out.

There wasn't.  There isn't.

We kept trying to impose stupid shit on them that doesn't even fly HERE, and we're a lot more open to such ideas.

I fear that a lot of good people are going to be eating a barrel soon because the question "What did I fight for, what did my friends die for?" is going to be paramount in their minds.  The answer is going to come back, "Less than we started with; because we imported a lot of them here."

How do I know bringing Afghans here to remain Afghans will be a clusterfuck?

Ethiopians remain Ethiopian in Minnesota, and it's a clusterfuck.

I am sick of America being the dumping ground for this shit and not being able to impose MY culture on these new immigrants colonists and having to tolerate them outside their little, ever expanding, enclaves while they impose their cultural norms on me.

My anger does not extend to any immigrant who learned our ways and has joined us as an American.

My Italian forbears were such.  Italians had to endure conditions not far removed from racial bigotry to become accepted as just another funny last-name in America, but they did it by melting into the crucible and joining the alloy which makes America great while discarding the slag which would weaken it.

Everyone forgets that the melting pot is a crucible and not a stew-pot.

But What About Leather?

The biggest change from 3e to 4e Low Tech is in the leather armors.

The leather jacket from the 3e Basic Set.

A leather jacket covered the arms, torso and vitals (6, 8-11, 17-18) with PD 1 DR 1 for $50, 4 lb.

It's pretty much the same for 4e (8-12, 17-18) with DR 1*, $50, 4 lb.

There's no such thing as DR 1 leather in Low Tech.

Your choices for flexible leather is:

Light leather for DR 0/1* (higher for cutting), $270, 5 lb. or:

Medium leather for DR 2/1* (lower for impaling), $150, 18 lb.

Light leather is the closer match.

Traditional cuir bouilli leather for the torso (9-11, 17-18):

3e Leather armor, PD 2 DR 2, $100, 10 lb.

4e Basic Set Leather armor, DR 2, $100, 10 lb.

4e Low Tech hardened medium leather, DR 2, $63, 7.5 lb. (lighter AND cheaper!) or hardened heavy leather, DR 3, $125, 12.5 lb.

Armor Comparison

Let's compare the some various versions of low-tech armor in GURPS.

Note, coverage of 9-10 also covers the vitals (17-18) in all editions.

3e Basic Set and Low Tech.

Bronze breastplate, covers areas 9-11 front only (torso are 9-10, groin is 11) with PD 4 DR 4; $400; 20 lb.

Steel breastplate, covers 9-11 front only, PD 4 DR 5, $500, 18 lb.

4e Basic Set, PD is dropped.

Bronze breastplate, covers 9-10, DR 4F (F meaning front only), $400, 20 lb.

Steel breastplate, 9-10, DR 5F, $500, 18 lb.

4e Low Tech

Bronze breastplate for torso (9-11) is medium plate, DR 6F, $10,000, 10 lb.

Steel breastplate for torso (9-11) is medium plate, DR 6F, $2,500, 10 lb; but is TL4 which should double the price for a TL3 character.

Bronze medium plate covering just the chest (9-10) is DR 6F, $3,750, 7.5 lb.

Steel medium plate covering the chest is DR 6F, $937.50, 7.5 lb.; which, again, should be double price at TL3 if such advanced metal is available.

3e calls mail "chainmail"

A complete shirt, covering the arms and torso (6, 8-11) PD 3 DR 4 is $300, 34 lb. including the padding.  Chainmail is PD 1 DR 2 vs impaling weapons.

4e Basic Set 

Mail hauberk and sleeves (8-12) DR 4/2* (lower DR vs crushing, * means flexible) is $300, 34 lb. 

4e Low Tech

Fine mail covering arms and torso (8-12) DR 4/2* (lower vs crushing) is $1,350, 22.5 lb.  Adding padding is a matching shirt of padded cloth armor for another DR 1*, $60, 7.2 lb. for a total of DR5/3*, $1,410, 29.7 lb.; but DX -1!

Going with Low Tech is a significant saver of encumbrance, but harder on the wallet.  The GM is the arbiter of which list the player uses.

Considering that the players almost always want an esoteric weapon only found in Low Tech, they kind of open up that can of worms themselves.

The biggest drawback of using Low Tech is you have to sit down and figure out what kind of armor you want over what hit location, and it can get VERY detailed.  It can also be quite simple.

Low Tech's big advantage, in addition to weight being better, is you can configure your armor exactly how you'd want it.

For example, a short sleeved mail shirt is very common.  This covers the chest, shoulders and upper arms (8-10, 12) but the armor only protects the arm if a 5 or 6 is rolled on 1d.  The heavy mail version is DR 5/2*, $1,140, 17.1 lb. (DR 6/3*, $1,188, 22.8 lb., DX -1, with padding)   Fine mail drops to DR 4/2*, $855, 14.3 lb. (DR 5/3*, $903, 20 lb., DX -1, with padding).

Scale armor was about the best bang for your buck in 3e.

Torso coverage (9-11) is PD 3 DR 4, $420, 35 lb.  Plus arms is $630, 49 lb.

4e Basic Set is DR 4, $420, 35 lb as well.  Plus arms is $630, 49 lb.

4e Low Tech medium scale DR 4 is $550, 28 lb.  Adding arm coverage comes to $875, 42 lb.

A short sleeve medium scale shirt similar to the mail shirt above is DR 4, $523, 26.6 lb.

You can't make the short sleeved, short shirt with the 3e or Basic Set rules!

Conversion

The characters I converted from 3e to 4e and then updated their armor from Basic Set to Low Tech were straight conversions.

If the 3e character had x then the 4e character got it too.

Even if the change in point or G$ cost would make the character impossible or illegal if made new by exceeding the starting points or starting wealth.

Looking at a couple of them, I'd definitely not make the same armor choices due to costs because the starting wealth would have meant not being able to afford it.

In some cases, there's a better option for less money and, thanks to Basic Set armor being unrealistic, less weight.

The armor in Low Tech is very well researched against historical examples and you really begin to understand why some armors are so well represented in the archaeological history.  You also see why some armors are only found in Royal collections...

Still, it's great fun!

Well That's Done

Went through all my 4e characters and updated what Low Tech armor there was to the new edition's standards.

Anachronistic TL4 plate is on a couple of them at TL3, but they're from magic worlds.  With the heat spell, getting large enough blooms to make plate armor probably happens a lot earlier.

There were fewer characters that needed it than I feared.

It's Not Supply And Demand It's A Conspiracy

Yes, you Facebook Chowderhead, the ammunition companies are deliberately choking production to reduce supply JUST to fuck you over.

 

It's people like you that prove, every day, that economics isn't being taught in schools.

 

What's worse, you fucking asked what incentive the ammo makers had in expanding production. I tried to explain.

 

But I'll do it in more detail here.

 

When supply goes down against demand, prices go up.

 

If the supply is exhausted before the demand is satisfied, you can increase the supply without affecting the price much.

 

What that means is choking the supply in the face of unmet demand is leaving money on the table, giving an incentive to stop choking the supply and make more money meeting the demand.

 

The real reason that ammo makers aren't rushing to expand production is the demand bubbles last just long enough to fuck anyone who's expanded production to meet an artificial demand spike. It's happened before.

 

But I think we've moved to a place where there's a large enough increase in the demand that it will remain much higher than the historical norms and expanding production will be justified.

Nightmare?

Ida is going to bring a nightmare scenario for gas prices according to FoxNews.

Prices could go up 5 to 10 cents per gallon!

Bitch, please!

The nightmare scenario was when it went up 75 to 90 cents when Biden took office.

Oh, another dime?

That's within the normal monthly fluctuation.

A Good Socialist At Last

Ed Asner, a known dancing monkey, has finally died.

Good.

A pity he hadn't died younger, when he was just an actor rather than a socialist piece of shit.

Fuck him.

Tinker Tinker Tinker

Marv, being someone who hates the motherfucker in the next lane and their goddamned AR pistol and it's muzzle blast, has decided to retaliate with a muzzle brake on his BEBoG carbine.

What that did was give us a take-off A2 flash-hider for ME to steal to replace the A1 hider on Lavender Linda.

I'd originally planned to use the A2 I have lying around, but...

One of the dangers of surplus parts is getting a part that was DX'd.  It is a lot more smushed than my photography can capture.

Better

A retiarius fought with a net and a trident.  Mine didn't come with a net.

Lego makes a web that will do, for now.

WTF PSA

When you would slowly close the bolt on Brenda the BEBoG carbine, it'd hang up just as the gas tube entered the gas key.

That's a symptom of a misaligned barrel nut.

This sort of thing can cause stoppages once the gun gets good an warm.

Luckily, I have the tools to properly align the barrel nut.

What I did not expect is for the barrel nut to be so overtorqued.  They went almost a full tooth past where they needed to go with it.

It's fixed now, and doesn't appear to have lost zero comparing the co-witness of the red-dot with the irons.

I will have to hit the range to confirm that, of course.

Pistol, .45 Calibre, Semi-Automatic, Saddle

The CZ97 B is the new king of the horse-pistols!

Pictured with a 50¢ piece.

Actually a dime :)

It's like a classic CZ75, but bigger.

You get ten plus one shots of .45 ACP in a "svelte" 2 lb. 15.2 oz. package.

Oddly, it fits my hand very well.  It feels smaller than it appears in person; in pictures it looks a LOT smaller than it is.  The trigger is quite nice in both double and single action dry firing it.  The safety is located well and easy to manipulate.

There's a little nubbin that protrudes out the top of the chamber when there's a round in there.

Range report coming soon!

Quote Of The Random Interval

4chan should let /pol/ be read into the congressional record on condition that it’s during a joint session and we all get to watch.

— Moley Russell’s Wart (@_BuckMelanoma_) August 27, 2021

Hitting The Zero Target

Aiming for one second between shots, at 25m I consistently hit a 4" target under range conditions with irons.

All-Out Attack (Determined) +1

No risk to self +1

No risk to others +1

Braced +1

Well lit indoor range +3

Known distance +3

Acc +5

Range -7

Target size -8

Net skill penalty -0

Out of 18 shots, one missed the 4" target.

That's a 17/18 hit percentage, 94%.

That means I had a 15 or less to hit the target.

That should translate to a Guns/TL8 (Rifle) of about 15.  I'm impressed!

Another Treatise On Manners

 

Classic.

Beating The 9mm With Super Powers

GURPS 3e 9x19mm stats are: 2d+2 crushing, RoF 3, Acc 3, 1/2D 150, Max 1,900

GURPS 4e 9x19mm stats are: 2d+2 pi, RoF 3, Acc 2 Range 160/1,800

GURPS: Supers (for third edition, 4th printing) gives range stats of 10 * power for the max range and 1/2D is half that.

So power 1 gives Max of 10, power 2 Max of 20, etc...

Each power level of the crushing attack Stone Missile costs 6 points.  So a base of 12 points to get to 2d crushing, Acc 1, 1/2D 10, Max 20.

Accuracy enhancement for Acc 3(+10%).

Rapid Fire enhancement for RoF 3 (+80%).

And no means of increasing the range without increasing the damage too...

To get the 150 1/2D of a Glock, you need 30 levels and will now do 30d and cost 405 points.  The max range still falls way short at 300.  Yes, that's more than twice what a .50 BMG does for damage... at the same range as a pistol...

Since halving the range is a -5% limitation, one could argue that doubling the range is, likewise, a 5% enhancement.  To get from a 1/2D of 10 to 150ish... needs to be doubled four times or +20% to (mostly) match a 9mm pistol.  Still short some damage.  +2 is a half die, so... 2.5 levels of Stone Missile?

32 points and the 1/2D range is slightly better than a 9mm.  2d+2 crushing, Acc 3, 1/2D 200, Max 400.

How about 4th edition?

You start with Inate Attack - Piercing.  5 pts/level (1d pi per level).  Acc 3, RoF 1, 10/100.

2.5 levels for 2d+2 pi.  13 points, base.

Increased Range at 10% per level needs 4 levels, or +40% to get 200/2,000 (close enough to 9mm).

Rapid fire for RoF 3 is +50%.

Accuracy will be reduced by 1 for a -5% limitation.

23 points for 2d+2 pi, Acc 2, RoF 3, Range 200/2,000.

Unlimited ammo in both the 3e and 4e cases, as a super should have.

Once again, 4th edition is MUCH simpler to work out what I wanted to do and it really underscores why we stopped trying to use GURPS 3eR for supers and went back to Champions/Hero.

Blind Persistence

Iron sights are increasingly blurry in my dotage.  BUT!

I can still get in the ballpark.

Took Lavender Linda to the range for her first 5.56 shots.

Did the 80's milspec zero at 25m with Aussie F1A1 ball.  First shot wasn't even on the paper, it went WAAAAAY to the right.  It also failed to extract.  The next two I moved my point of aim left and got it on paper, and had another failure to fully extract (got out of the chamber this time).

It was then he realized that he'd never put even a drop of lubrication on the bolt carrier group.

The remaining 27 rounds fired reliably with a few drops of LSA to ease the way.

Considering how blurry the front sight was, I'm fairly happy with it.  That's either 18 or 21 rounds at 25m just to confirm that the zero took and the gun was running acceptably.

Thanks to my anonymous donor for the barrel!

Ugh

I dropped the $8 to get 3e GURPS: Supers.

It's not the 3e GURPS: Supers I used to make the 3e character with the pathetic range.

They sell you both the 4th and 5th printings which are substantially different from the 1st printing we were playing.

This is going to take some time to relearn.

One thing that didn't change from the first printing to the fifth was the shitty organization.

So Much For That Idea

I was going to do a little comparison between 3eR and 4e GURPS and Supers to show how many points it took to equal a 9mm pistol.

But I don't seem to have a copy of the 3e version of Supers.

I ain't so sure I wanna drop $8 on a pdf just for the sake of a post.

I do remember how poorly laid out the 3e book was and how hard it was to get anywhere with powers design.

Didn't Get Much Done

It seems like it takes me more time to change from task to task than to accomplish any given thing.

But getting things done is the important part, right?

I know I'm falling behind with the free ice cream.

Interesting Times

Is ordering a soldier to take a vaccine a lawful or unlawful order?

Especially a vaccine that increasingly appears to offer little to no benefit with regards to the current strains.

Especially a vaccine which has a non-zero chance of serious health complications which exceed the risks of young, fit troops catching the actual disease.

I think there's going to be some lawyers with the ability to book a trip with Space-X when this is done.

OK Doc, HOW?

 

Worse than death?

Unvaccinated patients burst into flames or something?  Explode?  Become zombies?  Register Democrat?  Learn something about the Clintons?

Help me out here, I mean I just have a business admin bachelors and associates in machine design, we didn't cover worse outcomes than death.

Lego Gladiators

Lego retiarius and either a hoplomachus, mirmillo or thracian.

Religious Objection

I've often claimed Atheism just to get people to shut up and leave me alone.

That's not entirely true.

The tenets of my religion cannot be discussed with outsiders.

Either you're a member with me, or you're not and if you are you know how to open the conversation so I know you're a fellow.

This creates constant difficulties explaining my 1st Amendment right to pursue my Faith.

But since it's a right I'm not supposed to HAVE to explain it to heathen non-believers... I am often very pissed off that explanations are expected.

But I'm prohibited by the tenets of my beliefs to explain shit to outsiders.

Broke The Paradigm

There was once a time when I played Champions regular like.

In fact, I started playing THE Super Hero Role Playing Game before I became an avid comic book reader.

Because GURPS 3e, like Champions (which the Hero system is based on) is points based, and since the GURPS tool-box has all the stuff you need to make a super-hero... PLUS a Supers supplement...

It was a no-brainer to make Supers campaigns.

But...

It was very expensive to buy a ranged attack that could out-range a 9mm pistol.  48 points got you a pretty epic 7d(3) impaling attack that only did full damage to 17 yards and was maxed out at 34!  Rof 2.  Oh and you can't use it in high magnetic fields or underwater the way I bought it.  And it needed to be coupled with 72 point gravity power.

120 points and someone with a Glock can shoot at you with impunity from 50 yards.  Not that I was scared of Glocks with 74 points of hardened DR

With the default 500 points in hand, it occurred to me that I could go very dark and not break any rules.

Make a normal 100 point character who's a sniper and toss 400 points into wealth.

Buy a bespoke .50 Cal rifle (13d(2) crushing and 2,200 for 1/2D range with a max of 7,100 yards) and pop villains as they cross into the line of fire.  Fire your shot, relocate while the round was still in flight and set up in a new location.

This made me the target of the heroes!  You didn't just KILL the bad guys.

But taking one action a week isn't fun for long.  My character escaped justice because I stopped playing him.

Then I noticed that I could make a normal 100 point character with 100 points of wealth and 300 points of Advanced and have nigh invincible technology.  And have a weapon that certainly out-ranged a 9mm pistol.

Quote

“The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct. A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them a law and the force that stands behind it. The Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.”

Noted Philosopher G. Danzig

 

No More Ammo From Russia

So, who else makes Soviet/Warsaw Pact ammo?

I can see an export opportunity for Serbia, Czech Republic and Poland here.

I'm getting sick of these ammo bans, but I'm also OK with not sending money to nations to hate us just for the sake of cheap goods.

I'm conflicted, but I'm more upset about executive fiat bans on legal goods.

F-15 Fullly Featured And Festively Hued

 

Linda is now 5.56x45mm NATO and has a bayonet lug.  It is now in full violation of the (expired) 1994 (So Called) Assault Weapon (But Not Really) Ban.

I managed to break three of the four #31 HSS bits I had cutting through the nitride finish.  What a bother!

But, it's on and it appears to be straight.  Blowing through the chamber with the muzzle plugged causes air to come out the gas block, so there's that!

As you can tell from the color, this is not intended to be a serious use gun, so it can be a really crappy one for fun's sake.

However, there's nothing that leads me to believe that there's anything wrong with it.

The Assault Victim Is Home

Marv is now known to the local medical professionals as, "the turtle guy".

It was a comminuted break of the left humerus.

We think he might have rolled over the damn tortoise to get the break to go like it did.

He's got metal parts holding it together and has a plan to follow to recovery.

Plus good friends to help him out.

Caliber Conversion Kit

 

All I needed to order was a barrel nut, handguard cap and barrel.  Everything else was in the bins.

I think I will wait for the puddle of lead in the garage to solidify before drilling the front sight base for the taper pins.

That's Not Piss In Your Pocket

The internet went out in my entire neighborhood for my carrier.

The lengths the online chat person took to deny that it was more than just my house was actually impressive.

I got a text at 0804 this morning indicating that the outage the chat-bot denied existed had been resolved.

I learned that I can exist without the internet, but I've got some real habits about using it that I kept trying to activate while watching videos.

Like compulsively checking IMDB and IMFDB.

On the gripping hand, I'm finally watching the complete collection of The Rockford Files.

Jim Rockford's adventures, by the way, have aged pretty well.

No Internet

 The whole area is down.

Emergency Room Observation

The hospital Marv went to was understaffed, critically.

One of the nurses mentioned that they went from 5 people to cover 3 shifts to just 2 because of people quitting.

Another mentioned the endless overtime and stupid "safety" mandates for their former co-worker's departures.  Implied was "meh" pay.

What we didn't see was people coming in for COVID-21 (let's be honest about designating a new mutation of COVID-19 shall we?).

Mostly it was the normal, everyday, Florida peeps.  Homeless and elderly coming in for the types of injuries that they normally incur.

Plus a salting of prisoners from Pasco County Jail for spice.

It was pretty clear that the crisis here is from a lack of staff and not a lack of space to put patients.

Visiting Marv in his room confirms this impression.  There's lots of beds, there's a lack of people to cover them properly.

Something that really made all of the medical professionals day was thanking them.  Too many people, and we watched them, treat nurses like "the help".

At The Vet With The Bear

 Our problem child, The Bear, has decided to chew a hole in his tail.

Some people's cats! 

UPDATE: The Bear is back and wearing the cone-of-shame.  What probably happened was, while fleeing from his asshole brother and the kitten, he snagged his tail on something sharp under the furniture.  That got infected and formed an abscess.  Once that started hurting, he chewed on it until the pressure relieved.

The Tortoise Is Fine

 

Marv discovered this little rascal on its back in his garage.

Attempting to rescue it, Marv snagged his foot on a loop of coax and fell.

While the tortoise was unharmed, Marv broke his arm.

Prayers for his swift recover.

I followed the ambulance up at 8pm.  At 0100 he was still stuck on a bed in the hall,but he'd gotten x-rayed and CAT scanned.

There Go Half My "Readers"

I looked at the stats and noticed a sharp decline in page views.

Just like I looked a while ago and noticed a sharp increase.

Something or someone in Sweden, using Firefox and a Mac (many someones according to the stats) was hitting the blog pretty hard.

Today... no hits from Sweden at all.

I'm guessing that it's just people actually reading remaining.

Dry Fire Ruminations

My love affair with the S&W Model 59 begins long before I could even own a firearm legally.

I bought a Daisy Soft-Air Model 59 from K-Mart.

I had a lot of fun with that toy gun.

Daisy did an excellent job of making an homolog of the S&W.

Every time I handle it, I am taken back to The Memorial Union and hanging with FuzzyGeff and Gerber.

The Daisy is the "gun" we used to walk Ben from The Union to the ISU library, in broad daylight.  Nobody even batted an eye, not even the campus security who sped away.

The safeties are different.  The real gun's safety is cosmetic and replaced by a sliding stud on the frame of the airsoft.

But...

The whole point of this post is my getting familiar with DA/SA pistols.

Doing dry fire drills I've managed to find a grip where the sights don't meander when I pull the double-action pull and isn't different from a good single-action pull.

I'm really liking this old gun!

Enough to carry it?

Prolly not.

But I could.  Especially if Florida ever got open carry.

Mec-Gar makes 17-round magazines for it that work splendidly, making it just a little heavier than a Glock 17 or 45 or a S&W M&P-9 with the same number of shots.

There's nothing wrong with the design at all, beyond it being complicated and expensive to make today.

Obviously, it's survived since 1975, it's durable.

Still...

Blame Game

Bush II put us in Afghanistan.

Obama didn't get us out.

Trump didn't get us out.

Biden still hasn't gotten us out.

Regardless of how we got there and whatever we accomplished or failed to accomplish:  All four of these presidents DEMANDED the job.

They were not begged to take it on.

They were not forced to take it on.

They fought to get the job.  Scrabbling over all competitors to attain the position.

That means when it all goes wrong, it belongs to the current holder of the title.

Congratulations, President Biden!  You earned it.

None of this says that Mumbly Joe didn't by act and deed make the situation far worse than it could or should have been.

But he wanted to hold this position and he's getting it in spades, more so because he isn't very good at it.

Someone Call Antifa

If someone is willing to cling to the landing gear of a nation's military aircraft to get to that nation, it is NOT a fascist state.

Just sayin'...