Snubbie From Gehenna

Went to the range yesterday and practiced with the carry gun.


That's Willard shooting so I could capture the muzzle blast.

This is about seven yards.  A decent social distance for a pocket gun.  It shoots low.  I remain impressed with the Apex trigger I installed.

I also put some of my precious .22LR down-range from the Ruger Standard.  Willard's .357 shots are the big holes on this target.  There's nothing like practice to improve ones groups and I feel like I am getting better with more shooting.

Something else I noticed using these turkey targets is my groups widen out a bit without a grid pattern on the target like I'd been using.  The grid is a wonderful aid for zeroing, but I think that it gives references that won't be present in a real shooting situation.  If that's true, I can't be the first person to notice it, and I wonder if anyone else has.

Why Finland

I prefer Finnish Mosins over Soviet.

I think it has a lot to do with never having a Finnish soldier aim his rifle at me.  I can't say that about Soviets or Czechoslovakians.

Then there's the sympathy towards a nation that seceded from totalitarianism.

Finn Mosins tend to come from two main sources for the receivers.  Guns they had when they said no to the revolution and guns they captured from those who said yes to the revolution.... ;)

They're also responsible for about half the Mosin variants!  Kiv/24, Kiv/27, Kiv/28, Kiv/28-30 and Kiv/39 are uniquely Finn.  Mauserized Mosin is how I've heard it coined.  Plus those new made guns on existing receivers are in addition to the original Model 1891 (Kiv/91) that they continued to make (remake) up to the end of World War Two.

Then there's the split between the Army and Civil Guard.  It makes me pine for an American version.  Even with the association the Civil Guard was given to the National Socialists after the war by the victorious Communists.

A Finn marked gun is probably a been there done that gun.  I like the chance that history clings to them.

This is yet another facet of guns that was influenced by gaming and sims.  GURPS: WW2's supplement for the Winter and Continuation Wars, "Frozen Hell" and the Finnish campaigns for IL2 Sturmovik made me aware of this theatre.

Incomplete

A problem with Mosins is nearly every single one has been through an arsenal refinish (or two).

A good example could be this rifle (link could be dead since they're only active for a limited time at Gunbroker)

That's a Remington Mosin-Nagant M-1891 a'ight.

Looks to be in fine shape too!

But what's this?  That looks like a Sako stock, hard to tell.

And this?  That's an Izhevsk bolt.

The numbers matching at this point is a clear clue that it's an arsenal rework, the Imperial crests being intact on both the shank and barrel kind of point at it being a Finn.

To be fair, the seller did show us these pics so he's not trying to pull a fast one.  It does illustrate how hard it is to get a "real" Remington.

It's Tam's Fault

Yes.  Let's blame Tam.

She posted a pic of a Finn NEW Mosin M91 and it reawakened my desire to own a 91...

So I've got a bid in that's sure to lose, but hope is still uncrushed.

It's a Tikka barreled gun with a multi-piece Finnish stock and not a super rare collectable.

Fingers crossed!

T Shirt

Linoge is offering another shirt for us to wear out completely...

I hope he doesn't mind me swiping his pic.

I B SRSLY

Giza In The Rear View Mirror

In any of the Israeli campaigns in SF2 it is obligatory to buzz the pyramids if you have a mission anywhere near Giza.

From the front office of an F-4C (with the 1967 RHAW upgrade) from the 45th Tactical Fighter Squadron "Hoosier Hogs" in a Six Day War "what-if" stationed at Ramat David.

Stuff You Did Not Know You Needed

Marv's M&P 9 has a rail.

I suppose that one could put something useful, such as a light or bottle opener on it.

But why?

Plus Tea Cup!

Why on earth would you want something useful when you can have a zombie green LaserLyte pistol bayonet?

Tremble in fear, Palm Tree!

The hilarious thing about the tree shot is the bayonet popped off when he stabbed the trunk.  It stayed in the tree, but the pistol came loose.

I should give some credit to Jay G for his extensive product testing of these things.

Rules

There are two rules to surviving in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Don't get married.

If your last name is Stark, change it.

If at all possible, don't attend weddings.

Weer'd Comment

His comment system seems to have barfed, or he's blocked me.  Sad face if the latter.

My comment to his post would have been:

Actually the measurements for a selective fire or even full-auto AR make a needlessly complicated plumbing fixtures SMG.

I've got the plans for a STEN around here someplace from when I was considering making a semi-auto clone.  95% of the bother with the design was ATF compliance and my intention of it looking the part.  If you don't care if your Home Depot SMG LOOKS like a STEN or has even a single part that interchanges you're in business for less than $100 and a day (assuming you have cartridges).
The HDSMG is not going to last long because they don't sell the quality steels that a "real" gun would need; but mild steel stock would certainly last long enough to be a full-auto Liberator.  Or a throw-away spring gun.

WW2 era submachine guns are brutally simple and cheap.  Even doing one up right like my on again-off again scheme is a lot cheaper than a "real" gun.  The most expensive part, hands-down bar-none is the barrel.  A rifled barrel is probably the hardest thing about a gun for someone sourcing the whole thing at Home Depot.

The thing is...  I've seen all the barrels you'd ever need for the project at a gun show where they'll take cash...  Replacement barrels for all manner of popular pistols are readily available, as are magazines in various capacities.  All you have to do is be willing to break the law.  Because making any SMG without licenses and approvals is breaking the law.

Scale

There are approximately 700,000 police officers in the US.

There are also between 117,000,000 and 150,000,000 gun owners in the US (approximately and depending on the source).

If everyone only owned one gun, the police market is a whopping half percent of it at best.

But let's say the cops are being sensible and have their main pistol and a back up on them plus a shotgun and patrol [sic] rifle in the car.

If every cop has four guns and everyone else has one, they're still just 2% of the market!

The thing is, I don't think they're even the half percent of the market I mentioned earlier.  Most gun owners I know own substantially more than one gun.  Even the most casual ones I know own at least two guns.

What all this adds up to...

Gun makers.  You can tell any and every department in the nation who makes any sort of demand about releasing your records to try their hand at the local gun shops for weapons procurement.

Order of Deneb

I've been granted a patent of nobility!  I'm a Knight!

Apparently the Third Imperium sells titles of nobility through their agent, Marc W Miller.

This is a cute bonus item that came with my purchase of the CD-ROMS of the LBB Traveller.

Registration

I don't know why I'm even remotely paranoid about registration when I freely post pics of my guns here.

Heck, two of my guns ARE registered with the Federales.  Kaylee and Sabrina.  They are both short barreled rifles.

Then I've got that C&R FFL which is slowly accumulating a list of guns and ATF can come examine my book any time they feel the need.

Magpul Delete

I've been doing a love-hate thing with the Magpul MIAD pistol grip for as long as I've been accumulating AR's.

The retro builds, which mandate normal pistol grips, have never felt wrong.  The MIAD with the medium back strap always felt "OK".  With the small backstrap they felt pretty good, and will fit in the M12 rack.

On a lark, I put one of the numerous left-over A2 grips on Dottie and did some shooting for comparison purposes.  I prefer the A2 over the MIAD.  I think it's a matter of experience and the guys who originally designed it doing a good job.  Easing the decision process is the A2 grip is a full two ounces lighter than the MIAD!  Ounces matter when you lug it around a lot.  I am slowly gimping my way into the three gun fun-matches up Hernando way.  (My times suck because I can't run, but I am having a blast!  I need a Winchester Model 12 or Stevens shotgun in a 'Nam configuration to do a retro 3-gun with a 1911A1 and M16A1 clone.)

The $20 for two grips including shipping also makes them much cheaper than one MIAD and about the same price as a single MOE.

Because color coordination is important for Barbies...  I ordered the appropriate matches from Damage Industries.  Now they are fabulous!

Aversion

I've had people avoid me before, this feels like it.

Sign In

Safari 5.1.10 is on its last legs.

OSX 10.6.8 can't upgrade Safari any further.  I could update to OSX 10.9.2 for free, but I can't get an answer about how it will affect performance on my ancient MacBook Pro 15" (Mid 2007).

I tried Chrome 34.0.1847.131, and overall I'm happy but it won't stay logged into Blogger.  Linking the Blog to Google+ did nothing.

Update:

It was third party cookies.  If you want Blogger to remember you, you have to allow third party cookies.

Update Two:

Flickr is remarkable browser dependent on how it behaves and what features work.  A right click from Safari does not elicit the same response with Chrome.  I've noticed that Marv has had great frustration using it with Internet Explorer as well.

Skeptical

I am skeptical to the point of derision about prepping.

Why?

Because while the cold war raged, I was a survivalist!

Was?

You know the old adage about amateurs studying tactics and professionals studying logistics?

I studied logistics.  I studied macro and micro economics.

It shattered a lot of illusions about an individual's ability to survive should society collapse around your ears.

You can prep for small disruptions in the supply chain.  A couple months at most.

To go longer you have to be self sufficient.  To be self sufficient, you have to be off the grid before the disaster that eliminates the supply chain happens.

That's a depressing thing to calculate.  The math is cold equations stuff.  Sustenance farming is bleak and basic.  Your homestead will be overrun by those who made zero preparations.

Why?

Because you will have no idea if this is the Final Collapse™ or a temporary disruption of supply until it's far too late.  For Final Collapse™ shooting anyone and everyone who comes into sight is the correct choice.  It's legally indefensible if society comes back after a few months.  Decide which, you have about a minute to read the tea leaves.  Be destroyed by the locusts, or be destroyed by the reestablished law.

The sheer numbers competing for suddenly obviously scarce resources is astounding.  The insanely large population density concentrated in Montana is only possible through an intricate system of overlapping supply and transportation systems.  Montana.  Not New York Fucking (spit) City.  Montana.  Let that sink in for a sec.

If it collapses everywhere and for good...  You're fucked.  We all are.  It's particularly telling that someone who was pretty hard-core survivalist in the '80's, Jerry Pournelle, quit by the '90's.

Going low profile to survive a localized disaster is possible, and my hurricane box is proof that I do take prepping seriously to an extent.  But it's a plan for a temporary disruption with an expected return of civilization.  There is not a single colander in the kit.

If you're serious about this, convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Not only are they preparing for a total disruption that lasts forever, they are prepared to step in and substitute a new community where the old one fell.

Communities survive where individuals starve.  Divide and conquer works, and Americans are perforated to be divided like stamps; doing a conqueror's work for them.

Headspace And Timing

There are gauges for this.

They are fool-proof because the Army deals in fools privates.

If your fifty is firing out of phase it's because you either used the wrong timing gauge or one of the cheats to set the timing.

You can dial the timing on an M2HB all the way to the 1,200 rounds per minute setting of the AN/M3; but you're going to have problems with feed and barrel life.

If you used one of the cheats to set the timing, you don't have any way to tell what phase you're in without loading some ammo.

A professional gunsmith should not volunteer to work on a fifty without the correct gauges for the model gun he's going to be working on.

Slippery Stuff

For the two people who read my blog who don't read Joe's...

A comparison of lubrication and rust prevention of lots of products we use on our guns.

Frog-Lube did very well.

I was paying attention for it because I've been using Frog-Lube on account that it's minty aroma doesn't put me in the dog house like Hoppe's or Shooter's Choice when I clean in the house instead of the back porch or garage.

Changing From Think To Know

Getting a stout lesson in how things really work from Tam and Robert!  Both of whom have worked or are working in retail gun sales.

Good.

I had a professor once who said that you don't really know if you've reached a sound conclusion until you've expressed it to someone else.

I was almost kinda close about the 4473 being registration.

I forgot a key part:  ATF has to start with a serial number, make and model.  You might be able to infer a make and model from the serial alone since there's some pattern to how some makers assign them; but it's no guarantee.

For them to figure out that I owned a SIG P238 they have to get to the 4473 I filled out at the gun show, or they need to see it in my possession.  The path to that 4473 is swift, but unlikely.

There might be some legitimate concern about the records from folded gun shops that have to be turned into ATF.  Nobody seems to know firmly what happens to them.  If those turned in records are computerized then they have a shitty ersatz and incomplete registration of gun owners (or at least of gun buyers).  I dimly recall a rash of violations where the ATF took the license of a shop and its attendant records while nearly simultaneously approving a new license.  Dim enough that I can't recall if it's be debunked or confirmed.

In all likelihood the reporter's phrasing that got the bee under my bonnet was the reported thinking "traced to" and "registered to" were synonymous.

Tempest In A Teapot

THAT was what all this drama was about?

Really?

REALLY?

REALLY?

I'd suggest someone grow a thicker skin if it was advice I could follow myself.

Registration

First.  The 4473 is so close to registration as makes no difference.  If you still own the gun you bought from an FFL and still live at the same address "they" know you have a particular gun.

The loophole is you can still sell the gun without telling anyone in most places and you don't have to tell the gunshop you've moved.

Second.  The speed that a trace happens with stunned me.  With ATF being prohibited from keeping computerized records I pictured a days long search for paper records.  Nope.  Cops call ATF, ATF calls SIG, SIG calls their distributor, distributor calls dealer, dealer calls ATF is the SLOWEST progression.  What really happens is cops call ATF with the serial, ATF calls everyone in the chain starting with the manufacturer and working down to the dealer.  Each link in the chain checks their computerized records and tells ATF whom they passed the gun to.  It probably takes less than an hour from the police initiating the trace!

Third.  I recall reading that unless we got a new law (that failed in Congress) that doing traces like this would be impossible for law enforcement.  Clearly that was a lie (which we said at the time and was instrumental in getting Congress to kill the bill).

All of this is in reference to a murder-suicide locally.  Guy shot his family, soaked his rented house in gasoline, lit $600 worth of fire-works then shot himself.

Praise Satan!

Look, Bible thumpers...

If you have something to say, say it.  Posting a wall of text that consists of misquotations from the Bible doesn't say fuck all.

My mentioning support of the LGBT community seems to have triggered it.

I am fascinated by that since the only line in the Bible about faggotry is Old Testament and it's not about homosexuals it's about pederasty.  Have you even read it?  Having read it, did you understand what you were reading?

The wall of text in the spam file says you didn't do one or the other.

If you bother to read this blog you're going to note I've been rather respectful towards Christians as a whole.  It's just that I don't believe your imaginary friend exists; so quoting Him doesn't sway me.

Interesting

This Story had an odd tidbit in earlier iterations.

Most every news site was reporting that a gun registered to Darrin Campbell was found at the scene.

Investigators also said all four family members had been shot and that they had recovered a gun in the home registered in the name of Darrin Campbell, who had been renting the home with his wife and two teenage children.

This is interesting because Florida doesn't have gun registration.

The time from the fire to announcing it was his gun seems entirely too short for an ATF trace to have occurred.

It makes me wonder if Hillsborough County has a back-door registration scheme in place, their sheriff is no friend to gun owners.  I don't know who one would contact to find out what was meant by "registered to".

Odd Florida Fact

The "Evil Twin Defense" doesn't work as often as you think it would.

Sympathy Not Antipathy

I mentioned it before...

As a gamer I was treated horribly by bullies in school.

The only group that got treated worse were the few kids who were openly gay.

They were the only group in school who treated us gamers like fellow humans, so we returned the favor.

That made me at least speak up for the bent folk once I got to college.  It also exposed me to the full panoply of the LGBT community.

They're still people.

Strange, colorful, confused, confident... just like everyone.

It is unfortunate that bullies get older without growing up.  It is unfortunate that conservative commonly means closed minded.  There's a picture down there below the blog-rolls; it goes triple now.

Fucking bigots, just shoot yourselves.

Remarkably Affordable

For just $40 Marc W Miller will sell you the entire LBB Traveller aka "Classic" on CDROM.

Dunno why he doesn't just sell the files, but...

I'd a huge hole in my LBB collection where the adventures were concerned.  Since those adventures contain a large amount of Traveller canon, they're essential for playing in the Third Imperium.

Perhaps next month I'll drop another $40 on the complete GDW editions of The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society.  Scads and scads of good information in those.

It's a pity that the actual rules for LBB are atrociously dated and clunky.  It's fortunate that they use real units for most things, allowing a seamless conversion to GURPS even if there wasn't a GURPS: Traveller for 3e and GURPS: Traveller - Interstellar Wars for 4e.  It's a conversion I've done home-grown twice before SJGames finally hired Loren K Wiseman and licensed the property.  In fact, GT is one of only two sub-forum in the GURPS section at the SJ Games Forum that gets enough traffic to get its own section (Transhuman Space being the other).

It's also a pity what Mongoose did to the LBB rules set when they made their update.  It's kind of AD&D vs AD&D 2e; they're eerily similar, but still very different.  Also; each set of rules has people who like one or the other and it's very polarizing concerning which is better.   I hear that they ask "Do you play Mongoose Traveller?" and "Have you ever played Classic Traveller?" before they issue an entrance visa to The United Kingdom now to keep violence from returning to the levels the IRA maintained.

Personally, I don't think there's a native Traveller rule set that does what I want it to do; which is how I keep defaulting to GURPS for Traveller.

The less said about T5, the better...  At least the current edition of Dungeons and Dragons is an objective improvement over what came before it in game design.

Supersize Me

McDonalds does a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic toy annually for their girl's Happy Meal.

I get the 6-Nugget meal.

The Rack, Small Arms, Rifle, M12 has a just the perfect space for storing the complete 2014 collection.  I took them out of their wrappers!  True collectors can faint now.  I am still a bit perplexed that Applejack keeps being skipped by the toy makers.  It's like she's not in the Mane Six at all!

Seven Years

It's been seven years since my mom passed.

I will be touchy and cranky to the nth order today.

Bacon and ice cream administered in large doses might make me feel better.

That she died just before mother's day makes it even more bitter.

Archaic

I hate the conceit of the third person that still clings to gun writing.

Mike "Duke" Venturino is the one who bugs me the most...

Look, "Duke", you wrote the article, you and your wife took the pictures; I can tell from the by-line and credits.  Writing it as if you were visiting yourself is archaic enough but the awed by "Duke's" collection of guns in your tone is just aggravating and makes reading about an otherwise interesting old gun a teeth gritting exercise in gutting through your writing style to get the content.

And, yes, I've complained about him before.  A note to Guns magazine, as long as he's employed by you; not one more dime from me.  He's that bad.

Appropriate

I am reading "Phantom from the Cockpit: Flying The Legend" by Peter Caygill.

I am also flying a Phantom FGR.2 (80) in my game.

Buying A New Computer

Not me.  You.

There are only two situations where buying a brand name PC makes sense.

1.  If you don't know a damn thing about computers, refuse to learn more and have used up all of the patience of your friends who've been doing your tech support.

2.  If you are buying more than ten.

3.  If you can make a decision on rational self interest that the time and effort it takes to build your own exceeds the value and just say, "screw it," and buy a pre-made machine.  The people in this category tend not to use up all the patience of friends because when the proprietary parts blow they shrug and solve the problem themselves (#3 added because of commentary by Tam).

Otherwise bribe (dinner works most often) a friend who knows what they're doing to show you how to gather and assemble the required parts.  You may be stunned to see how easy it is and how much you saved.

The reason I say this is because I know several people who've bought a brand name machine and had the power supply fail.  They are now stuck with buying a new one from the original company for a hundred or so bucks where a generic would have been about $30-50.

Even worse is the guy who's done this pattern about five times now.  $128 for a proprietary power supply is STILL cheaper than a whole new HP.  But he's going to buy another HP...  And he's rapidly becoming the person described in situation 1.

Did Not Happen

There was no collapse of portions of an under-construction overpass today in California over Interstate 15.

Reports of the collapse failed to account for the FACT that fire cannot melt steel.

Cinco De Mosin!

I wish I'd thought of this while there were still five mosins in the house!

Happy Birthday Sergei Ivanovich!

Downsizing

For me, literally.

My ancient Victorinox Champion is really underutilized.  I use about three of the tools regularly and the rest not at all.  So I got a Super Tinker.

All I'd been using was the scissors, bottle opener and the screw-drivers and that's pretty much all the Super Tinker has.

Marv made an attempt to downsize that turned into an upsize.

Our friend Willard is a big fan of the Browning Hi Power.  He's cast an envious eye at Marv's FÈG clone a couple of times and Marv decided that he'd gift it to him.

Willard's sense of obligation was cross wired by Marv's refusal to accept money, so...

1943 Izhevsk M91/30

Willard gave him one of his Mosins.  What could Marv do but accept after we'd declared it, "Nondenominational Give A Gun To A Friend Day" as a means of dodging payment for the gift Hi-Power?

Time Out

If we have to stop talking about Benghazi because it was two years ago, and therefore ancient history; then certain parties can just shut the fuck up about slavery and civil rights any damn time now.  Those events were most assuredly more than two years ago.

Pacing

Among the things that drive me batty about "Sons of Guns" is the fifteen minutes crammed into an hour (including commercials; which are a significant portion of what can be considered actual content).

This is not the first reality show to have this problem.  "American Hot Rod" was much the same.

Artificially short deadlines, contrived drama, forced drama.

At least American Hot Rod was making a product that had a market, half of what they show them "selling" on Sons of Guns can't be transferred because of the Hughes Amendment.

This show also emphasizes something I've noticed before about some gun smiths I've met.  They are craftsmen but no two things they make are the same.  Yes, the part they make works, but it works because they hand fitted it.  Never mind that there are probably drawings of that part out there...

The show also raises some uncomfortable questions.  Because of the Hughes amendment, to make a lot of what they make; they need a letter from a law enforcement agency asking for it.  The cops in Louisiana seem to have need for a lot of oddball machineguns and armored vehicles, don't they?

I am still not sure what the purpose of a suppressed .308 AR sniper rig mounted in a gyro-stabilized remote controlled mount in the back of an ATV is...

What Else

The answer is something that is in a tone that cannot be heard by some.

Let us accept, as a given, that everything asked for by gun control will have exactly the effect he claims that it will.  Remember: this is a given.

What else spills forth from his solution?

What that is impossible now becomes possible once the gun control is in effect?

Are those things worse than the crime we have at present?

We have lots of data from history.  Notice that we had to make "gun control works to reduce crime" as a given?  That's because the data doesn't bear out that hypothesis.

Further, the historical data shows that places that get gun control, that aren't homogenous societies, also tend to get fascism and genocide.

What I am apparently expected to accept is prohibitions that have never done what the banners claim will somehow not lead to industrial murder in America's decidedly heterogenous state.

I can't claim that it definitely will lead to industrial murder, but I do claim to see what happens with crime with regards to gun control.  It's not what the gun control people say will happen.

Sales Tax

When I buy from Amazon, I will now be charged sales tax on the purchase.

Will this affect my purchases?

Well, it's going to make them cost a bit more.

But I don't tend to buy from Amazon with an eye on avoiding taxes, or even getting the item at the cheapest price.  I buy from them when they're cheapest and I don't mind waiting for a week or so to get my item.  Or I buy from them when they're the only vendor who has what I want to purchase.

I'd spend more to buy from Brownell's or Midway on most gun related things because I don't think Amazon spends a penny to support my rights.

I don't see the addition of sales taxes changing my pattern of purchasing.

Deadline

And it's passed.

Dammit.

AHOOOOGAH AHOOOOOOGAH AHOOOOOOOOGAH

MAY DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY

Go out and spend some money in a mutually beneficial transaction out of informed self interest.

Because FUCK COMMUNISM!