Music

Wandering the library on the hard drive...

I am once again struck by the variety.

This harkens back to the "jeebus, high school is OVER" post...

Back then I was notable in the school for traveling in about fifteen social circles.  I was the confluence of the Venn diagram.

And in many cases it was music.

I did punk, Brit nouveau, more than one flavor of metal, a dabble of country and most especially the blues.

There's never a more awkward moment than being in a gay bar with a false ID to catch a blues act and bumping into the music teacher from school.

PS, in 1986 Iowa, if you were white and wanted blues and didn't want a beating, you were in a gay bar (whether you knew it or not).

There's even some disco and rap on the disk.  Not for regular consumption, but there's individual songs.

I like complex guitar and piano.  I like interleaved free-time.

Oh, and if anyone out there has a picture of me in my blue mohawk...  I'd like a copy.  Mom destroyed all the pics of it she could find.

Even more fun, how many of you, my oldest friends, knew that there was a blue mohawk under that hat?

Where Are They

I intend to get a Glock 17 sometime in the next year.

I used to have a 1st Gen, so that's got some appeal.

I can't find one for sale.  I can find a few 2nd gens.  Lots of 3rd and 4th.

This has me thrown for a loop, you can find just about anything readily on the internet and the older Glock 17's just aren't for sale?

Wow.

Are they so good that people are hanging on to them hard, or are they not aging well?

I dunno because I don't see one for sale.

I'd really prefer a 2nd gen gun because I don't care for the finger swells that start with 3rd gen.  1st gen is the nostalgia favorite since I've owned two of those.

Spoke too soon.

Search Fu Hint: Search for "Gen n" not "nth Gen"

Filling The Tactical Purse

I have a 5.11 Bail-Out Bag.

It was originally going to be my range bag, but I rediscovered the Tumbuk2 bag that Aunt Bat gave me, and it's more than large enough for my range supplies since my rifle case has huge storage compartments for ammo and magazines.

So I now have a shoulder bag with three magazine pouches, a generous main compartment and two end compartments.

I am at a loss as to what use to put it towards.

If I stuff the mag pouches with loaded mags, that means I need to keep a matching gun with the bag.  If this is my trunk bag, it means a trunk rifle.  I love my Vette, but that'd be very un-secure.

If I make it the home grab-it bag it's next to the rifles already.  Besides ammo, what needs to go in there?

Food seems ridiculous.  Maybe some snacks and a bottle of water?  The shelf life on the Nestle's water we get delivered is years.

Medical supplies seem more reasonable.  A blow-out kit is already in the range bag, I should invest in a couple more.  (This makes me realize that I don't have one in each car already).  Oh, blow-out kits are stupid cheap when you know registered nurses (even when there's no theft involved).

What says the hive?  What use can I put this thing towards?

Bad Design

The battery compartment on the EOTech 552 might be the worst I've ever encountered.

The bridge that connects the two batteries in the front of the cover often becomes pressed down so far as to allow the battery to shake loose.  That breaks contact and lets the sight shut off.

This movement further pounds the bridge down so that it won't make a connection at all after time.

The Lovely Harvey loves the reticule, so I keep crutching it along.

Today's fix involved putting two little round rubber pads under the contacts of the bridge and taking away some of the slack in the compartment.  I hope that this holds up better than the previous repair of bending the bridge up a bit.

It makes me wonder how many of these things you see for sale used have some sort of intermittent problem like this related to the battery compartment.

Tabitha Returns

Took one of the spare bolts and borrowed a bolt carrier from another gun to zero Tabitha.  This is my 10-shot confirmation group.

I think I might just keep this one!

I think my retro guns challenge some of the conventional wisdom.  The 20" 1:12 rifled barrel and surplus M193 ammo are plenty accurate from both Charlotte and Tabitha.

Plus she's a mere 7.5 lb. loaded with 20 rounds.  That'd be 7.9 with 30 rounds.  That's the same weight as an M4gry with a 16" M4/SOCOM profile barrel.

All in all I think these older AR's are under appreciated.

No longer Tabitha Sparkle since The Lovely Harvey stole the purple furniture set for Valentine; which is OK because I stole the bolt-carrier from her!

Next Project

A friend has an idea.

They have $100 a month.

They want an AR.

So we're going to (pending spousal approval which he might not get) make him an AR (meaning I am going to do all the research, shoot him links and hold his hand while he puts the parts together).

He's thinking dissipator.

The hard part of this project will be finding a barrel that's a) in stock and b) isn't a rifle length gas system.

He might manage to get all of the money together before we buy part-one.

Looks to be about $650-700 before optics and standard furniture.  About $75 more for Magpul, which he might do.  He's not sure if he wants an A2 upper or flat-top.  I'd lean towards the flat-top.

Saving

For years I was an "deposited in the bank on Friday, spent on Saturday" type.

Despite my mothers impassioned entreaties, I never really learned to save.

I figured out that access is what allows me to go, "oh shiny" and spend money.

First it was checks, then ATM and now debit.  Putting the money in the bank is not a barrier.  It's barely a speed bump.

Cash in my pocket isn't a deterrence while I am out and about, but it does keep me from buying online.

Cash in a jar in the gun safe...  Can't spend it at the store if I don't have it on me.  Can't spend it online because it's not accessible electronically.

The mind game is the hard part.

Forcing myself to explain why I am removing the money from the jar and for what purpose.  I have a post-it in the jar with a short list of why I am saving the money.

It works for me.

It's especially helpful for me that to spend those funds to buy some things, I have to pull the cash, go to the bank, deposit it, then order the item online.  The more tedious I make the process, the less likely I will be to spend it.

Progression

The progression from M16 (early R604) to M16A1 (late R603) to M16A2 (R645)...

How many differences can you spot?

M16A1 (Clone) on $100 a month...

Got the barrel today.  Tabitha now looks like what she'll be.  This is officially a BAG day preview.

Next $100 goes for a bolt carrier group.  Well, $125.

This gun is my answer to the mosin customizers tinkerers who are spending about $100 a month and complaining that they can't afford an AR; because a retro gun is the most expensive path to owning an 5.56 AR there is before you add optics.  Yes, you spend $400 more and it takes four months longer.  But it's achievable in the same manner as the changes to the Mosin that took it from a $150 surplus gun to a $600 sporter.

The No-Dak lower is more expensive than a matched A2 lower and flat-top upper from Aero-Precision.

The Lovely Harvey took the same approach to Valentine.  In nine months each we went from want to gun (technically I'm on month 8).

Cost Effective

With my discovery that I actually like the MIAD in its thinest configuration, there's just no reason at all to buy a $35 pistol grip.

The $20 MOE grip is identical to a MIAD with the middle thickness back strap, so it's out too on form alone.

Luckily, the bog standard A2 grip is available in a literal rainbow of colors, for $5-7 each.  It's even easy to color match Magpul's colors!

One has to decide if storage in the grip is worth $30 plus $15 for what the grip-core you need runs.

This is another full-circle moment for me; a double loop really.  I really thought the A2 grip was the way to go when I changed from the M16A1 to the M16A2 in the service.  When I started building AR's from parts kits to make retro clones, the A2 just felt wrong compared to the older smooth front ones.  The modern guns got Magpul because the thicker grip seemed to feel better by comparison.

I put the thinner section on to see if it'd fit in the rack.  I told myself I'd just accept it.  But it turns out that if I don't play with them back to back; the thinner section DOES feel more natural.

I'll bet there's a doctorate dissertation on why the thicker one felt better back to back with the thin; but the thin puts the hand more naturally where I want it when I am not consciously attempting to compare them.

Watch Me Soar

In my flight sim...

It is December 1956.

I am a pilot in the Royal Air Force flying a Hunter F.5.

I have four 30mm cannon with 150 rounds per gun.

This is a within visual range only plane and the only electronic aid is a ranging radar and lead computing gun sight that lies.

Tonight I killed ten.  Five MiG-15bis, two MiG-17 and three MiG-17PF.

But I told you that so I can tell you this.

I have the headphones on.

After ten kills that just seemed to set themselves up, I was excited...

Last one down and I yell jubilantly, "I am a leaf on the wind!"

Luckily, I am not in the Whedonverse!

The Fifth

I think we need a change to the 5th that makes it so appointees and employees of the government are barred from further employment with the government from their evocation of the right until they are cleared of all charges in a full jury trial.

Five Guns I'll Never Own

Numerous hat-tips; but I found it here.

Never say never!

And I am not really sure if this is supposed to be a list of guns that I'd refuse to own or a list of guns that I'd merely be unlikely to own.

Let's go with refuse.

#5 A Mossberg pump shotgun.  I already have a Remington 870 gathering dust for the most part; why would I want another pump taking up space?

#4 Springfield Armory XD.  They don't fit me.

#3 Another Mini-14.  I've gotten this gun out of my system thoroughly.

#2 A plastic revolver.  They don't look how I want a revolver to look while remaining uninterestingly conventional.

#1 Anything from H&K.  This is mostly because of the rabid fans than any particular failing of any particular model.  Mostly they don't fit my hand, but there are exceptions.  The G3 variations are actually OK fitting, but I prefer the FAL so that niche is filled.

There's a large list of guns that I'd never buy for myself (even if I could afford some of them), but would accept as gifts.

Rack 'Em

Got the M12 rack!

Kaylee's Aimpoint has to be removed to fit it.  Olga might fit without the bipod, but doesn't need to.  Cheyenne is pictured just to fill things in a bit and Kevina isn't because her EOTech is not easy to remove (but it'd hold zero).

Not bad for $50 for the rack plus gas and lunch for JT.

Also not shown is it's final location, gotta leave some mystery for the thieves. ;)

When I started building AR's I'd have never have thought that I'd have enough to fill an entire M12 rack, let alone having so many guns I out grew a locking cabinet.

I should fire-proof the room their in!

Update:

The middle-thick back strap for the MIAD keeps the bar from lowering on the rifle properly.  The thin one works perfectly.  That means that a MOE grip won't work with this rack either.  Happily, the thin strap doesn't feel awful now like it did when I first got into AR's.

Firearm Friday

Valentine is zeroed.  Reetta and Tatyana were shot too.  All shots were hasty sling at 25 yards.

Top Left is initial zeroing of Valentine.  Top right is finishing the box off.
Center is Reetta.
Bottom Left is Tatyana w/o bayonet.  Bottom Right is Tatyana with bayonet.  Typical 91/30 trick of tightening up with it attached.

Tatyana has an odd trigger that gives kind of a double click before going bang.  It tricks you into thinking that you've broke the sear, but you haven't yet.  This is not exhibited with dry fire.

Reeta is the typical SA Finnish kiv/39 trigger.  Long pull that does nothing, then it stops a moment then breaks clean.  The three rounds on the bottom were learning the trigger.  The two in the center are a better example of how she shoots.

Willard took out his Vz-58 um...  Vz-2008!  The trigger is light and crisp.  Ejection is just barely to the right of vertical.  The folding stock iz teh suxxor.  He's already looking for a fixed stock.  The sights are near identical to an AK in use and precision, so it groups exactly like the Yugo AK clone he brought along for comparison (ie fill the 8-ring with 30 rounds).  When you're shooting it instead of coon-fingering it, all of the controls actually fall right to your hand and everything seems natural, except the safety.  Even so, it's not THAT hard, no harder than an AR safety for a lefty.  Just don't think of it as a thumb control and it makes more sense.

Either it needs some break in or he's got a bad magazine.  Towards the bottom of the mag, the left feed position would jam up in the feed way.  Ah, the joys of surplus!

Valentine gave no surprises.  She's an AR.  I am still astounded at how accurate the Kotonics barrel is and saddened that things ended the way they did for poor Tim.

Presented As Opinion

I often label myself an autodidactic polymath; but my first formal higher education was in mechanical drafting, which is engineering lite.  All the math, none of the humanities!

I am constantly encountering this truth:

My best friend is a lawyer, bright, gifted, ... PhD in law; bored with his job, he decided to study engineering. After his first quarter, he came to me and said that the two "C"s he'd achieved in Engineering Calculus 101 and Engineering Physics 101 were the first two non-A grades he'd ever gotten in college, and that he had had to study harder for them than for any other dozen classes he'd had. "I now understand", he said, "why engineers and their like are so hard to examine, whether on the stand or in a deposition. When they say a thing is possible, they KNOW it is possible, and when they say a thing is not possible, they KNOW it is not. Most people don't understand know in that way; what they know is what we can persuade them to believe. You engineers live in the same world as the rest of us, but you understand that world in a way we never will."
I don't think that you have to love math to be an engineer, but you are going to have to learn it. That means that you're going to have to do the homework, correctly. Mistakes and "close enough" are the ways to build bridges that fail.

Many times I've said stated something flat-out.  Time and again I encounter someone who won't understand the answer because they don't do math.

Engineering types, when they state opinion, will qualify the shit out of the statement.

"I prefer the FAL to the G3."

But statements of fact aren't.

"The FAL fires a 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge."

Am I wrong?  Well, then refute it with fact.

Often times these statements of fact don't include proofs for even laymen because you've either done the work and understand it already or no amount of explaining will bring you up to speed because you didn't learn math.

There's an entire universe closed to you because of it and it's something to be ashamed of, not proud.

How Dare You Wear That Hat While In Uniform?

It's spring, sir!

A New Dimension

Dimensioning a part is a perishable skill.

I am knocking the rust off now.

Luckily, the parts for the silencer are actually very simple.

While figuring out how to dimension some features I am reconsidering them because it'd be simpler to machine them with a different process and that changes the shape of the feature slightly.

A good example is the slots in a flash-hider.  They are tapered because the cutter is tapered, a square cutter was found to get caught as the work flexed.

Rantings

I just had a moment of clarity.

If this topic pisses me off so much, why keep writing raging screeds on it?

CLUNK as the mental transmission finally catches a gear.

I really don't care about the topic as much as the anger would seem to indicate.  It's like the seeming of caring from putting pixel to screen angers me.

So I shan't touch upon it again.  Would that I realized it sooner.

Broke

Broke 200,000 page views, that is.

And it's a ho-hum moment.

I get about 200-250 a day so it eventually adds up and I'm flattered that people swing by and have a read.

Still, I'd do this if there were zero page views a day.

Weer'd Beerd is why I am on Blogger at all.  I was happily spinning my wheels on LiveJournal with around ten page views a day for years.

The blogroll's gotten bigger and smaller as I gained and lost interest.

I've made friends and lost them.

I've been a jester and an ass.

An expert and a fool.

And I'll do it again.

Term Limits

One of the big problems with term limits is the fuckweasil knows that they will not have to face the voters again.

That lets them get up to all sorts of mischief.

The unlimited reelection system gives us career fuckweasils who have an intimate knowledge of the system and how to manipulate it.

I wonder if there's a middle ground solution.

No consecutive terms.  You do your two years as a representative or six as a senator and you've got to sit out the next election.

They can't go career so easily, and since they might want to run again they have to temper their behavior because they could easily be facing the voters again time after next.

Design Finished

Got some better dimensions of the HEL E4A so I modified my drawing accordingly.

I'll be breaking the parts out (they're on different layers here) and dimensioning them so someone (me with some supervision) could make them, then printing the drawings to attach to my Form 1 and a $200 check...  In a couple of months anyways.

The new information I got was really interesting.

The rear support (tapered end) has a slot cut into it that engages on the bayonet lug.  You slide the rear support on, screw on the body down over the rear support.  There are six equidistant 8-32 holes in the support and three plain holes in the body.  Screw the body down tight, then back off to the nearest set of aligned holes.  Then you put some cap screws into the three aligned holes to hold the body to the support.  The slot in the support keeps it from unscrewing!

Ingenious!

The front cap is flush with the front of the body and has a big slot in it so you can remove the baffle stack.

This, by all accounts, will not be near as good as a modern suppressor for sound reduction, just 26 dB.  I think a similarly sized modern unit gets close to 40 dB.  But the point of this retro stuff isn't to make the best design possible, it's to recreate what was vintage.

The Bolt Gun

A Fudd rifle...

I want a scoped bolt action.

Not because I need one or have any use I'd put one to that I'd actually do.

I just think that every shooter should have one before they can say they've got the minimums covered.

But there's always something shinier or something that needs fixing.

Then there's conflicting emotions.

Because I don't have a use for one, a cheap one will suffice as well as an expensive one.  A $400 Axis package with scope sits in the safe and collects dust just as well as a mega-buck minute-of-subatomic-particle gun.

But if I finally break down, save my pennies, and buy one; I want a nice one!  Luxurious bluing, polished walnut...  That's more expensive, but less than what a couple of the AR's have run.

Some features I have no doubts on.  I do not want a blind magazine well.  I don't think it's safe to unload by cycling the action repeatedly.  I don't know if I care if the magazine is detachable or not.

I am ambivalent about iron sights.

I am uncertain what the ideal caliber for me is too.  I've already got .308 and .30-06 in the house.  Do I go with those or something like .270 Winchester or .280 Remington?  .270 has appeal since it's the same bullet diameter in my beloved 6.8.  If I reloaded I've have a stronger opinion, I am sure.

And all of that ignores the brand!

I've always had a soft spot for the Browning A-Bolt.  But they're made by Miroku in Japan.  That bugs me for some ephemeral reason I can't put my finger on while I wouldn't think twice about buying a Weatherby made in Japan by Howa.

I don't own a Winchester anything, so a Model 70 has an appeal.  This creates its own sub-debate about pre-64, post-64 and post-post-64.

Savage makes good guns that have a reputation for being more accurate than their price would suggest.

Ruger renamed their line-up and I don't know which is the entry level and which is the high end.  Browning's X-Bolt caused the same confusion for me.

Not sure I'd buy a Howa branded gun, even if I'd happily own a Weatherby Vanguard.

Confusion and indecision reigns!

Alternate State

Every so often I check to see how healthy the alternate calibers market is for the AR based on variety and availability from Midway...

6.8x43mm SPC: 26 loadings listed from 8 makers.  5 available from 3.

6.5 Grendel: 7 loadings listed from 3 makers.  Just one available.

.300 AAC Blackout: 30 loadings listed from 11 makers.  4 available from 3.

.300 Whisper: 5 loadings from 2 makers.  Just one available.

.30 Remington AR: 5 loadings from 1 maker:  2 available.

6.8 is down a bit from last year; .300 AAC is up a bit.  And you can actually buy some ammo this year!

It's really pretty stable even compared with 2012.

Why You Need A Garand

Patton called it the finest battle implement ever devised.

It's the weapon used to kill the shark at the end of Jaws.  You've prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse™ but are you prepared for a Sharkanado?

Not only did the same model rifle fight in both World War Two and Korea, in many cases it was the actual same rifles!

It's lighter than a fully loaded AK! (I know!)

You get to tell the story about the noise the clip makes when it ejects!

AS-47?

I parroted that Hugo Schmisser might have had a hand in the development of the AK.

I was roundly informed that Soviet Records indicated that to not be the case.

You mean the SEALED TOP SECRET Soviet Records?  You couldn't mean those, since they are well... unavailable.  If you claim to have read them, we have a term for that...  Please extinguish your slacks.

What that really means is nobody knows for certain.

Considering that the USSR routinely lied about things, it makes it easy to believe that it's an Avtomat Schmisser model of 1947.

There's solid enough evidence about the state of the art of Soviet engineering at the time that it could honestly be entirely home grown.

That the Soviets effectively abducted several prominent German gun designers coupled with a long history of lying to make themselves look more capable than they were lends weight to the argument that they didn't do the designing.

Lurning Kerve

I've bumped against a wall in learning physical skills more than once.

I am definitely doing something wrong, I cannot identify exactly what and thus cannot change anything specific about what I am doing to correct for it.

The end result is a whole lot of flailing around until something clicks and I can do it.

It's why I cannot throw a frisbee or play golf.  I've not had the time or inclination to put in the flailing.

Instructions consisted of a lot of frustrating time listening to someone explain in some alien grunting language what I was doing wrong.  "Then with your mouth tendrils..." is how it felt.  I felt like I could not learn to do it correctly because I lacked the hideous non-human anatomy granted them that made this task simple and they could never explain it to my any more than I could convince someone who is color blind that the top and bottom lights in a traffic signal are different colors.

Grunts like, "let go of it sooner!"  Throw  "No, SOONER!  That was LATER!"

It definitely made a huge number of "fun" activities "work" and since I was no good at them, I was not asked to participate, because the team I was on would lose.  This in turn made them no fun at all, so after a bit it stopped being worth it to put in the work.

This led me to an affinity to mechanical things.  Being a mechanic is dealing with readily definable and repeatable things.  Turn the wrench to the left, bolt loosens; go the other way it tightens.  EVERY TIME!

Yet I help friends out on their cars and it's like I was grunting with the aliens...

I changed the timing belt on The Lovely Harvey's Civic.  Her friends act like I'm some sort of wizard.  There was nothing complicated about it, just some things were hard to reach.

There are members of the car club I'm in who are flat out lost when you say, "did you check the ground?"  They actually look at their feet!

I know how they feel.

Disappoint

I'm a brony, I admit it.

Sadly, the latest season is really not very good.

It's had good episodes, but it's fallen into the same pattern as season 3.  Formulaic children's wheel of morality pap.



Dang it.

Still, the good episodes this season have been excellent, but the wheat:chaff ratio is getting bad.

Put A Bid On

The proliferation of all things AR (not to mention Mosin) has caused the gun safe to swell.

I've put a bid down on an M12 rifle rack.

Normally I don't bother bidding on them because shipping is a killer for a 42x36x10 steel frame.

This one is an easy jaunt for pick-up.

Professional

The line between professional and amateur is whether or not you are paid.

It does not always carry any indication of expertise.

Of course, is it better to be a knowledgable slut or an inept whore?

Single Issue

There's a problem with being a single issue voter.

The fuckweasils we elect aren't single issue fuckweasils.

They have a panoply of things they want to vote on and implement that have nothing whatsoever to do with the one issue you voted for (or against) them on.

Harry Ried might be an excellent example.  While he was pro-gun and having someone pro-gun as senate majority leader would be good for gun owners; what about the rest of him?  I really didn't know much about him then, since he's in Nevada not Florida.

Well, it turns out that like all fuckweasils he'll toe the party line and his party is pretty much opposed to most everything that most gun owners support that aren't gun related.

Florida has Bill Nelson.  He's anti-gun.  He's hard-core Democrat.  He's gotten the vote of a lot of conservative woman.  Why?  Single issue.  Abortion.

Why would a conservative woman vote for a liberal over the abortion issue?  Because to them it's not about murdering babies, it's about their right to make their own decision and not be reduced to breeding kine.  Do they agree with any other position?  Nope.  But, "abortion is murder" reads as "bitches WILL breed!"

There are slews of other issues too.  Immigration.  Welfare.  Military spending.  Environmental issues.  Taxes.  Tariffs.

If you pick one, and only one, to vote about you're going to get that fuckweasil's position on everything else too; regardless of that one thing you care a lot about.

The really depressing thing is that once you start looking past your single issue, you start finding there's no candidates who don't have a massive disqualifier in their stance.

I am reminded, again, that the only reason any of this matters is because the government has gotten so much larger than its mandate and sent its tendrils into every aspect of our lives.  If the government wasn't actively involved in, say, the bacteria content of milk; I would not need to consider a fuckweasil's position on the matter.

Over A Barrel

One of the places that sells repop 20" pencil barrels has sent out their email saying that tonight is the night they have them in stock!

Money at the ready.

Fingers poised over the keyboard...

Just two hours to go!

They only have these things twice a year and my selling off everything in the parts bin is facilitating the purchase.

The waiting is all.

Now that The Lovely Harvey has finished Valentine the purple AR, I can restore Tabitha to being an M16A1 (late pattern).  In addition to the barrel mentioned above, I need a complete bolt carrier group, weld spring and snap ring.

Don't Be Like Mike

On top is a Century Arms Vz-2008, a commercial adaptation of the Czechoslovakian Vz.58.  On the bottom is a Zastava AK clone.

Both are 7.62x39mm.  Both have 30 round capacities.  Both are piston gas operated and air cooled.  Other than looking similar that's about the end of how they're alike.

It's almost as if the team in Brno said, "no matter what, make it different than the AK."

I'd say the succeeded.

It's LIGHT.  Really light.  And this is with the steel receiver that Century makes, the originals were aluminum.

It's a hair under 8 lb. loaded with 1.45 lb. magazines.

The Yugo came in at 9.3 lb. loaded with 1.8 lb magazines.

The folding stock is teh suxxor for consistent cheek welds.

Willard is laying on the pressure for me to adopt something in 7.62x39mm, that's why I had these here to take pictures of.  Going to the range with them and an SKS sometime next week for a more detailed comparison.

Smaller Army

The Army is shrinking.

I am not entirely sure that it's completely bad.

We've definitely got our noses in a lot of things that aren't our damn business and should butt out.  A smaller Army would facilitate that since we'd be unable to butt-in.

In days long past...

One of the ways you could tell the US was serious about something was we sent the Army.  We'd send the Marines at the drop of a hat, but if the Army was there; it was warre and it ended with your nation's name being amended to Territory of...

Long before double ewe double ewe eye.

Our present state is amazingly impotent for as capable as it is.  At least a smaller military will scale the capability down to its actual ability...

I've long said it, if you're not willing to make the place you're sending the troops Territory of the United States; then don't send them.  Yes, I know that means a reversion to the old nation state model of international affairs, but like so many things that worked for so long; it is time tested under real-world conditions.  Present foreign policy and military use is being developed for a world that someone hopes exists.

I should add that I am not saying we should not have an Army at all or that we should never use it.  What I am saying is we should stop looking for trouble in places we have no interests.

Should a place of no-interest become a breeding ground of people who force us to notice, thus take interest; it's a territory when we're done and it's culture is reduced to Taco Bell and St Patrick's Day levels as a part of OUR culture.

Europe may be fine with never ending a war and fighting it over and over.  I'm not.  And until President Wilson, neither was America.

Laborious

I am copy-pasting my LiveJournal entries over to here.

The export feature might work, but Blogger's import just sits there for hours apparently doing nothing.

There are numerous posts that aren't going to get moved because they were based on pictures or links that no longer exist.  That's a bummer because some of them were quite good.

Some of the sites still exist, but have moved the linked content.  Most have gone dark.

It's only been since 2005 and they're just gone.  That sucks.

It's happened to me twice that places hosting my pics have just quit on me.  I hope Flickr hangs on better since I'm actually paying them for the hosting.

Definite

Took Tatyana all the way apart.

Definitely an original pre-war Model 1891/31 from Izhevsk Arsenal.

Can We

If we can agree to disagree; can we likewise disagree to agree?

Fate!

I've had a couple three Mosin-Nagant M-1891/30's...  I've sold or given all of them away for one reason or another.  The given-away have come back more than once as well.

I thought that I'd managed to get rid of the last one...  And it's still gone!

Willard presented me with a gift today.

Tatyana is a 1941 made Izhevsk 91/30 with every indication of being a pre-Barbarossa gun.

Compared to a 1942 model...

Military Weapons

While doing research on that E4A Noise Suppressor some synapses reconnected.

I noticed that for a large part of American history the populace at large actually did out-gun the Army.

Then, as now, the population vastly outnumbered it; but back then the common hunting gun was actually a better rifle in many ways than the full-power bolt action the Army issued.

First there's the lever action.  It's the 19th century assault rifle!  High capacity and rate of fire.  That led, eventually, to the .30-30.

Then there's the scoped bolt guns.  Conceptually similar to the Army rifle of the day, but lightened to the extreme and equipped with clear telescopic sights.  Far better optics than were often issued to snipers, in fact.

Those days are long gone.

Despite what the press says, the police are not outgunned by the citizen, let alone the Army.  The citizen has been slowly denied access to advances in weaponry thanks to 1934, 1968 and 1986.  This will eventually be bad for the Army too since the '86 change put the final regulatory nail in the coffin of casual experimentation.

When it was $200 to try out an idea for a new machine gun, people might risk it just to see if it worked out.  When it's around $10,000 for all the licenses just to start playing around; ah fuck it.

It should be noted that Gatling, Maxim, Lewis and Browning weren't government arsenals but private experimenters.  The well entrenched M16 is the result of such private experimentation.

We damn near owe it to ourselves to repeal these laws to drop barriers to entry on many industries simply because (the defacto) protecting the established companies stifles experimentation and creativity.

If we'd had the regulatory environment of today in 1809 we'd have the Pony Express handling the bulk of our mail.

Thag Not Grok

I immediately concede that newer designs such as Glock and the M&P are better designs.  Far simpler, easier to manufacture and made more advanced materials.

The 1911 is an old design.  It's complicated and needs lots of pay-attention and tribal-know-how to make correctly.

Mr Yam is not mistaken about today's 1911.

What I am baffled by is how none of what everyone hates about them was present in my tank battalion in 1987-89.

Our guns were shot out, but they went bang every time and cycled as long as there were bullets.  When I arrived at Panzer Kaserne, the newest of our pistols had to be at least 41 years old.  My issue gun had a Colt frame and a Remington-Rand slide!

Because I was fascinated with guns in general I volunteered to help the company arms-room sergeant in keeping the guns up.  It was 90% making sure they were turned in clean.  He replaced a couple of front sights and we replaced a lot of worn out stocks and a couple of mainspring housings that'd lost their lanyard rings.

The magazines we DX'd were obviously physically damaged, like bent damaged.  I never tuned an extractor, or saw it done.

It can't all be due to only using cartridge, caliber .45, ball, M1911 can it?