Sad Day Or Happy Day

Depending on how you look at it, it's a sad happy day.

I'm packing the Colt Gov't Model in .38 Super instead of the Springfield GI in .45.

This is the first time since I started packing that my full size pistol wasn't .45 ACP.

.38 Super JHP from Cor-Bon should do it, the extra two round per mag doesn't hurt (me) either.

What's A Brony To Do

Hasbro finally noticed that someone was posting the MLP FIM episodes and issued a take-down for at least season 2.

Dangit.

Fuck The Cold War Guys!

My leg is getting worse.

I took the several days of repeated visits to the VA clinic to see what may be done.

Have I tried ibuprofen?

GRRRRR

What the VA seems to have forgotten is they all day waits to be seen give me ample time to talk to my fellow veterans.

I found out that a similar disability level if I were a Vietnam era, Desert Storm era or War on Noun era veteran that I'd be up for far better care and service.  In fact, I watch them come in after me and get called before me.

I've had a doctor say, twice now, "I shouldn't admit this but..."  Pain management meds, they aren't allowed to write scrips for non-war era vets under 75% disability.

Did you know that service connected disabilities that get worse are routinely bumped to a higher percentage if you're war era?  But not if you're cold-war.

Why might this be?  I guarantee you I was not doing anything in Germany during my service that someone in Germany between August 5, 1964 and May 7, 1975 didn't.

I think the huge difference in my service and theirs is we Cold War schmucks don't have The American Legion or VFW lobbying for us.  We're not even supposed to be able to join those organizations.

I've yet to meet a vet that felt that the war era veterans deserved a better standard than non-war for the same conditions, so why don't those organizations lobby for ALL veterans?

Judo

Listening to the Squirrel Report for the very first time.

They're talking about the suggestion to use judo against a rapist.

My karate instructor once told us, after he was asked, "what is this stuff good for in a REAL fight?"

He replied, "You use this to get distance on your assailant.  Enough distance to get a weapon out."

"What kind of weapon?"

"I'd use a gun."

Flip

End of world is bright. [FLIP] Is better.

Impossible

Liberals have a problem with the idea that something is impossible.

They've an even bigger problem with making something impossible.

Let's walk possible backwards.

Rounding up everyone and making death camps.  Possible when only the government has guns.

Confiscating up all the guns.  Possible only when the government knows where all the guns are.

Find all the guns.  Possible when the only legal means of owning a firearm or getting ammo are tied to registering them.

Three steps between me and the death camps and by keeping registration from happening, we make it impossible to have them.

I am not saying that registration guarantees confiscation.  I am not saying that confiscation guarantees death camps.

I am saying that both those things make death camps POSSIBLE; and that death camps are scary enough that we should do nothing that makes it possible to have them.

This is coupled with a very cynical observation.

What do governments do?  Anything they can.  Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but eventually.

If they can register the guns, they probably will.
If they can confiscate the guns, they probably will.
If they can make death camps...

I may be mocked because the possible is unlikely.  I am reminded of a paper I read in college.  People were polled about "the Jewish question" in Europe and America.  The place people considered most likely to do something like what Hitler later did was the United States, Germany was a long ways down that list.  I doubt that it was considered unlikely ten years earlier was much consolation to those people stuffed into the train cars.

Hollywood

The film makers insist that their product has no effect on crime.

They're forgetting something.

Gangster films in the 20's and 30's and The Godfather had a noticeable effect on the Mafia.

They began dressing like the film characters and adopted the mannerisms from those roles.

One wonders what else changed that was depicted on screen that was added to their repertoire.

Post MOE Illumination

Got the Magpul MOE Illumination Kit from Brownell's in today.

This little piece of P-Rail replaces covers one of the slots in the handguard.

My Surefire X300 Weaponlight clicks right onto it.

Zero loss of functionality over the 4-rail, still six ounces lighter.  Actually the light is slightly better placed now than before.

Gotta Love Being A Packrat

The cost of my furniture upgrade to Dottie was entirely compensated for by selling her original YHM 4-rail handguard.

That means I get the bonus round of selling the LaRue!

Base profit!

Bwahahahahahaha!

The Post Office

I've read lots and lots about how the USPS needs to go away because it loses money.

One of the few things the government does that's actually authorized by The Constitution and people want it gone?

Because it doesn't turn a profit?

Which government agency besides the IRS does?

To FedEx and UPS, whom I think were instrumental in the push to privatize the post office, you decided to compete with them knowing they were government backed, you've no right to complain it's not working out because you were wrong about your ability to compete with them.

Pollution

One area of pollution reduction I don't think the automakers get enough credit for is how cars no longer routinely drip oil out of every seam.

I was watching old episodes of Miami Vice and you see the black path in the center of every lane.

A path that's not on the roads down here any more.

Gone

I was updating my OCD list of AR mods and noticed that a fair number of the vendors I've used since I started with the AR in 2007 simply don't exist anymore.

Surprising considering the growth of the market.

Well, not really.  The biggest hurdle in any small business is growth.  You figure you're going to sell ten a week and get orders for 100...

Or a supplier screws you.

Or hundreds of things.

New Clothes For Dottie

Replaced the LaRue LT15-9 with a Magpul MOE handguard today.  (Like I said I would).

Before:

After:

It's astonishing how taking those 6 ounces off the front make it feel like it weighs nothing up front.

Nekkid:

With bayonet:

Won't Work

Via Breibart.

Yet if someone indeed runs as a third-party candidate in 2016, that would be a bombshell, because depending on one’s point of view, it would a) doom the GOP’s hopes to regain the White House, or b) teach the Republican Establishment a lesson.

It's A.  They either refuse to learn or cannot be taught.

Put The Heat On

Read this first (dead link).

It's only-ones banding together.

Update October 19, 2016: You can't read it because when only-ones band together they also lock out the common citizen from seeing it.  Way to build transparancy and trust!

I can't have, cop can't have, Mr Westrom.

I don't care who bought the guns the people violating my rights carry.  I do care who sold them though.

You have a chance to draw a line in the sand FOR the people you swore to protect, Mr Former Cop Westrom.

But you don't care.  Your response boiled down to, "we sell to anyone it is legal to sell to; and if there's a large block of people who can't, so what?"

So what?

York Arms is so what.

Spikes Tactical is so what.

They make ARs too.

Well, Mr Westrom, I remember when your company was Eagle Arms.  You bought the Armalite name.  I suspect it may soon be for sale again.  I hope so.  For the template about how this works, just ask Ruger and S&W about how gun owners will vote with their wallets.

Pay attention to the answer, unlike Ruger and S&W you don't make a product that is unique.

You may also pay attention to Colt.  Colt did some serious pandering to avoid the legal axes and ended up in bankruptcy over it.  Look how close to death they always are because their life-blood is government contracts and not commercial sales.  Look at the panic in their eyes now that the TDP for the M16 and M4 is available to Remington and FN without paying them their blood money.

Wait, you don't have an open ended contract like they do, do you?

I'll have fries with my order, Mark.

h/t NC Gunblog

Things That Don't Cost More

I order a lot online.

I get a lot of tracking numbers.

I've noticed something.

The five day shipping takes exactly the same amount of time and follows the exact same route as the overnight shipping, if you remove the time where the package just sits at one location.

What that really means is actually costs MORE to deliver it "ground" because they have to pay to warehouse it for a couple of days instead of just keeping it moving.

They are most certainly using the same vehicles to transport both packages.

Am I pissed about this?  Absolutely not.  I'm just amused that the cheaper service is delayed deliberately rather than the method of transportation being slower.

Darn It

The purple stocks are only available in commercial diameter.

All of my receiver extensions are mil-spec diameter.

I guess we'll just wait until the next time they make another batch and see if they make some mil.

Of course, this is liable to end up being a complete gun if we wait long enough.

Truism

A lynching is where a large group of people murders.

When a large group of people steals, it's a taxing.

I Have Been Challenged!

Tabitha is one of my AR's with a MLP roll mark.

I have been challenged to put this furniture set on her.

Here's a link to the parts.

I will accept this challenge; you buy 'em, I'll mount them and leave them on for a least a year.  Milspec stock, tapered mid-length handguards.  I will make the purchase if money for them is sent.

There's a side motive, purple is The Boy's favorite color.  He's never going to own a gun, being severely retarded, but he'd be delighted to see one of Daddy's guns in his favorite color.

Loadout

Remember that 266 rounds in a minute with a StG.44?

The Germans issued seven 30-round magazines per gun, for a basic load of 210 rounds.  Which is 13.2 pounds of loaded gun and an additional 12 pounds of ammo.  Every extra magazine adds another two pounds.  It adds up fast.

If you spray and pray you're out of ammo in less than a minute.

At A Loss

How the hell do you explain something to someone who, when they are called a "yankee", is proud of it?

High Capacity Assault Weapons

Let's dial up the way back engine, shall we?

Let's talk about the FIRST high capacity, rapid fire gun.  We'll just the GURPS numbers for RoF and reload times.

It happened almost as soon as there were guns.  Someone added extra barrels.  Heck, on a wheel-lock that meant adding a whole extra gun, lock and all to a single stock.

Then they developed means to load shots one behind another and have multiple locks firing the muzzle-most charge first.  This didn't work very well, but shoot more shots faster has been part of gun development since the beginning.

The pepper box is our next stop on this journey.  Many of them are even double action!

Colt's revolver is simply a very refined pepperbox.

Let's look at it.  If you're really good at it and have paper cartridges ready it takes about 20 seconds to reload a muzzle loading pistol.  So you get less than three shots a minute (2.86).

A pepperbox will take about the same amount of time per barrel to load, but you can empty it in about two seconds!  It's a slight reduction in rate because the loading is more fiddly, just less than two rounds per minute (1.98), but you get a flurry of six right off the bat!  And you have to carry a single 1.8 lb gun instead of six THREE pound guns to get that flurry.

A caplock revolver takes less time to reload per cylinder because the rammer is built into the gun.  A single action gun is slower to fire than a double action pepperbox, but almost six shots a minute now (5.45)!

Now we introduce cartridges.

A gate loaded revolver like a Colt Peacemaker can get about 10 rounds a minute.  Break-open guns like a Schofield can get 15.

There were two goals in the development of the ammunition from matchlock to wheellock to flintlock to caplock to cartridge.  First was improving reliability second was improving rate of fire.  And since a gun that doesn't go bang has a rate of zero, reliability has an effect on rate.

The next big change comes when we start harnessing the wasted energy of the shot to perform functions that muscles used to do.

That's how we can get a 1911 with about 78 shots per minute (78.75).

All of the above are NY legal.

A Glock 17 ups the rate to just under 118 rounds per minute (117.69).

Now, let's talk about rifles.

The same pattern evolves here.

The muzzle loading guns pretty much parallel pistols.

A Brown Bess can put less than one round a minute down-range (0.68).
A P.1853 can get almost 4 (3.75).

But then we get the German Prussian Zündnadelgewehr in 1841.  This is our first bolt action gun and it could sling 15 shots per minute.  This increase in firepower is why the French lost that war.  But it was a single shot gun firing paper cartridges.

Then we get metallic cartridges.  A Spencer carbine upped it slightly to 18 or so (18.26) and had seven on tap before you needed to reload.

Remember the French?  They came up with the Kropatschek which got the same 15 shots per minute as the Prussian gun, but had 8 shots in 8 seconds before you had to start loading.

Not to be outdone the Germans came up with clips to speed up the reloading process.  A five shot Mauser can get off 37.5 shots per minute.

Then we harness the waste energy and get the Garand which can propel almost 85 rounds per minute (84.71).  But the Garand isn't NY legal...  OK, how about a Remington Model 8?  It's a five shot, clip loaded, magazine fed semi-auto: 64.29 shots per minute.

With the advent and adoption of detachable box magazines for rifles we get guns like the FAL which were almost always shipped as semi-automatic only and can get a rate of fire around 124 rounds per minute (124.14).

It's not until we back off the "effectiveness" of the cartridge that we can get a rifle that can utilize automatic fire and the StG.44 can get 266 1/3 rounds per minute.

It seems like I am making the gun-grabber's point here, doesn't it?

What these numbers are is pulling the trigger as fast as you can and stuffing in new rounds as quickly as possible.  This is not aimed fire!  Hardly any of the 266 rounds your SturmGewehr sprays will hit what you were looking at.  If I slow down and AIM with that Remington, I am down to 23 shots a minute, but I am also up to very close to 23 HITS.  Spraying with an assault rifle is less than half as likely to hit a person at 50 yards per second of fire and is dumping eight rounds a second in their general vicinity.  Basically 32 times as many shots per hit.

Slowing down and carefully aiming with our StG.44 like with our Remington?  28 shots per minute.  Despite having SIX TIMES the ammunition capacity!

That's why the size of the magazine doesn't matter.  Especially since there's fewer than 10,000 assault rifles registered in civilian hands.

Supplies

Got new Boresnakes for 5.56 and 6.8.  Copper solvents dissolve bronze bristles and storing the snake wet in a tight coil just gives the solvent more contact area...

Got a Boresnake for Fuzzy Geff's .243 because I was buying Boresnakes...

They should be here Tuesday along with the MOE handguard conversion for Dottie.

Went to the gun show in Plant City just for laughs and that's what I got!  Marv got some .22LR ammo, $85 for a brick of 500 Eley Match rounds.

A vendor surprised me by having all the parts I would have needed for the MOE conversion, in the OD I prefer too!  If I had known that there was a vendor with those parts and known I was going to the show, I would have saved myself the shipping charges.

C'est la vie.

DIY Gun Project

What you need is a fine point Sharpie, some zip-ties, AR magazines and ammo.

Put a round in the mag, slide the zip tie in the back of the mag, make a mark on the zip tie along the top of the round.  Add a round, make a mark, lather, rinse, repeat until you're at the listed capacity of the mag.

I saw this on Arfcom and Marv made a couple sets, one each of 5.56 and 6.8 for the both of us.

Works on green follower USGI and 'Nam era 20 rounders in 5.56.  Doesn't work on a Gen 2 PMAG because the zip ties Marv chose are too wide.

Works on C-Products 25 rounders and Barrett 30 rounders in 6.8.

Pax Americana

There's going to be a lot of really upset people when they discover that Pax Americana is over and that there are bellicose people out there who will no longer be cowed because we've departed the area.

We could likely have gotten by with a much smaller military and stepped on many fewer toes in the process had our "allies" actually paid for some military of their own that could do the duty.  Well, we broke ourselves on it.

Next war of conquest in Europe is going to mean we're only going to have one embassy in DC to deal with instead of a memorial.

Local Variation

I lost the tab I had open to give credit, if someone knows where I got this, leave me a comment so I can give it.

Gun rights are civil rights.  I just read (paraphrasing) we didn't worry about local variations and traditions when we were talking about the civil rights of blacks, did we?  We went national with that!

Particularly since the main problem was precisely one of regional tradition.

I recall that a fellow gun blogger was chastising us because we weren't Rosa Parks and gun-owners weren't near so bad off as the victims of racism?

I have to admit that's true, I don't think I've heard of any lynchings of gun owners.  That violence thing is kinda contraindicated by the whole victim having a gun, ain't it.  Proves one of our points too.

But we do have all manner of things that are similar to the separate but equal bullshit.

How many places is it OK to be for everyone BUT someone legally carrying?

How many places is it virtually impossible to buy a gun even if it's not outright banned?

We're not allowed on the bus at all.  There was at least someplace for Rosa to sit legally, wasn't there?  In that respect we're worse off.  I notice that I don't see many folks taking the position that because she could have moved to the back of the bus that she shouldn't have made her stand (no pun intended).

I do get this attitude from other gun owners.  Especially about the very idea of open carry.

So, let's boil this down and be simplistic.

I have a right to own a gun; the keep part of the 2nd.
I have a right to carry a gun; the bear part of the 2nd.
They can't tell me what kind of gun; the 9th.
The states have to let me; the 14th.

We sort that out and we'll be much more free.

Trivia

I've been seeing a lot of places describing all 1911's made before the Series 80 as Series 70.

That's not right.  The series 70 did have some changes from the original Gov't Model.

The barrel bushing with the collet fingers is the main change.  That bushing was continued into the first part of Series 80 production as well.

Current "Series 70" guns from Colt don't have it.  Go figure.

I am also bemused that hardly anyone kept the arched mainspring housing and short trigger of the M1911A1 but did keep all of the other changes.

The winds of fashion blow and we must bend or we will break.  And go broke keeping in style!

Ruger Anecdotes

Marv has come to agree with me that the 6" barrel is better looking.

Magazines for pre-71 Ruger standards are very rare.  He bought two new ones that are convertible between the Mk I and Mk II.  They don't feed because they don't present the round high enough for the slide.

When we took the pictures comparing our purchases his is loaded with one of those magazines.  After we took the last pic he snagged my gun and said, "Cool, were done!"  I replied that he'd left me the gun with bullets in it.  "So what, those magazines don't work!"  Bastard!

Helping Out

Sean is compiling the list of manufacturers and suppliers who are treating the cops like people.

Supporting those companies might be a nice thing too.

Load

I have had house rules for changing between 1:12 ammo and 1:7 ammo for a long time for GURPS.

Previously it had been:

5.56x45mm and .223 Remington weapons are listed with the rifling pitch listed with their ammunition, for example 5.56x45mm 1:12 has a 1:12 barrel. 1:8 is treated as 1:7 and 1:10 is treated as 1:9.
1:7 barrel, M193 Ammo. -1 Acc.

1:7 barrel, NATO, Mk262 or 69gr SMK Ammo. No effect.

1:9 barrel, M193 or 69gr SMK Ammo. No effect.

1:9 barrel, Mk262 Ammo. -2 Acc. If the temperature is 15°F or lower, then halve ranges, -5 Acc.

1:9 barrel, NATO Ammo. No effect unless using tracer ammunition or the temperature is 10°F or lower, then halve ranges, -4 Acc.

1:12 barrel, M193 Ammo. No effect.

1:12 barrel, Mk262 or 69gr SMK Ammo. Quarter ranges, -4 Acc.

1:12 barrel, NATO Ammo. Quarter ranges, -4 Acc, change to pi-.

An additional penalty of -1 to Acc if changing between loads without zeroing the weapon.

Based on this report I think I shall change my rule to:

Ammunition 62gr or heavier will give a -5 penalty in 1:12 barrels. Ammunition 75gr or heavier will give a -3 penalty in 1:9 barrels. There is a -2 penalty to changing ammunition weight without zeroing the weapon.  If the temperature is below 10˚ F add 5gr to the effective weight of the bullet.  -2 if you change loads without rezeroing with the exception of matched ball/tracer combinations; M193 and M196 are identical in 1:12 weapons and M855 and M856 are identical in 1:7 weapons.

M193 ball and M196 tracer are 55gr.  M855 ball and M856 tracer are long for their weight so are treated as 69 and 72 grain respectively.  Mk 262 is 77gr.

Grrrrrrrr

One of the reasons I really came to loathe the NRA was the constant hitting me up for more money.

I now have the renewal packets for our less than a month old memberships.

We haven't even gotten the "welcome" letters or our first issue of the magazine.

No, I don't want to renew 11 months early.  You'd know I wanted to do that by selecting the "two year" membership option.  Which I didn't.

Grumble.

Selling!

Soon I will have a LaRue middy rail for sale.

Much of the advantage of a 4-rail system is theoretical for me.  The extra mass is reality.  Saving about 6.5 ounces doesn't seem like much, but it's a real savings.

On the bonus side, the MOE handguards can add rail sections where I need them and am actually using them.  In addition to the flexibility, they are also about an ounce lighter than standard middy handguards!

Review and photos will be posted!

Update:

Here's the break-down.

So far I've had three different rail forends for Dottie.

Original was a YHM-9634, but it was like gripping a coffee can.

Then came a YHM-5004A, but it got a bit too warm to me.

Then the present LaRue LT15-9, but it's a lot heavier than the 5004 once you add up all the rail covers.  0.28 lb. in rail covers!

Soon will be the MOE handguards.

Weight, complete gun, loaded magazine, no optics, no lights, with rail covers if any.

YHM-9634, 8.1 lb.
YHM-5004A, 8.0 lb.
LaRue LT15-9, 8.4 lb.
Magpul MOE, 8.0 lb.
Standard Middy Handguards, 8.1 lb.

It looks like most of my weight savings will be in getting rid of the rail covers, but every ounce counts!

Hey Yuri Did You See That Shit

Wow!

Story here. And here.

Banned In NY

I've posted this pic before.

The Colt Government Model is a banned assault weapon in NY.

The Springfield Armory 1911-A1 is not.

It's because the .38 Super holds 9+1 rounds and the .45 holds 7+1.  This is even though the .45 has a military feature the .38 lacks.

A lanyard loop.

It's also done up in military style parkerization and is chambered in a military issued cartridge.

It's not how the gun operates, it's not the finish, it's not the chambering (directly), it's not the manufacturer, it's not the date of manufacture or date of design.  It's the number of rounds it holds.

RTWT

Well worth your time to read.

LINK

Threat

A character says, "Tell me what I want to know and I'll let you walk out of here with your spine in one piece."

Um...

The spine is naturally SEVERAL pieces!

I tell him what he wants to know, he's going to cripple me!

Police Militarization

Hey, cops!

You wanna be soldiers?

Really?

Well you dress like them, you're armed like them and you put on the airs.

Soldiers can be and are ordered to go die.

Soldiers don't get to say, "I'm not assaulting that beach, I'll get shot!"  See you at your Courts Martial, private.

Would I have wanted to be the first guy through the door of Dorner's last stand?  No.  I would not have wanted to be Guy #1 in Boat #1 in Wave #1 at Normandy on D-Day either.

What's the difference, Officer?

It rhymes with, "Get in the boat, hit the beach, shut up and soldier."

Officer safety is becoming synonymous with laziness and cowardice and I am getting sick to death of hearing excuses made for them.

Standard Comparison

Putting Marv's 1968 model 4 5/8" barrel Mark I next to my 1957 model 6".

It doesn't show very well, but Marv's grips are wood!  They are just really heavily used and spent literally decades in the gun cabinet of a friend whose man-cave is also his smoking room.

Personally I think the longer barrel looks better, but your mileage may vary.  Of note is the angle of the logo.  Apparently mine is the original angle, which looked right to Bill Ruger.  Marv's is the later angle which was changed due to customer comments.  Not sure that's true or not, but I heard it at a gun shop.

No I Am NOT OK With That

Lighting the building a SUSPECT has barricaded himself into on fire is not an appropriate law enforcement response.

Surround and contain and starve him out, but you don't light the place on fire.

It was CONVENIENT to let him burn.  Officer safety, AGAIN.  Can't send a SWAT team in, because he's dangerous.

Can't just wait him out because WE HAVE TO SOMETHING, AND BURNING HIM ALIVE IS SOMETHING, WE MUST DO THAT!

I am disgusted by the pro rights people who are cheering the Waco-like conclusion to this story.

If we discard our rights because it's expeditious to officer safety, they are not rights at all.

So many of you are so damn familiar with the 1st and 2nd amendments you've seem to have forgotten the 6th and 8th.  For shame.

For shame.

Update!

It's nice to see I am not alone.

Robb.
Alan.
Linoge.

Kill Ratio

He seems to have shot himself.

Two cops dead, then him.

2:1, plus two non-combatents.

Remember the math?

To win the gun owners merely have to achieve a 1:1 ratio and there will still be 77.5 million gun owners.

And this fucker was insane!

Don't push the rational past their limits, they're better because their though processes aren't compromised.

You want to be on my side, officer, deputy, trooper.

Custer had better odds.