Tempest In A Teapot

There's a product that's raised the ire and delight of several folks.

The Pew Pew Holster.

It's a box you bolt to the inside of a shitter to keep your gun off the floor.

The downsides to the concept are additional administrative handling increases the chance for negligent discharges and likelihood that someone forgets their gun in the stall.

The upside is the gun isn't laying on the floor by your feet, visible to all under the door and perhaps more in reach of an outsider than you.  It also keeps the weight of the gun dragging your gun, belt and waistband down to the potentially very nasty floor.

Here in Florida, that kind of exposure under the door could be construed to be open carrying, there's no exception for laying brown trout as there is for catching rainbow trout.

I love this thing for a reason I have not seen mentioned yet.

If this thing is in every stall that means we've got the battle all but won.  It's a statement that the people packing are everywhere and worth providing special considerations for.  Especially if the business is willing to invest $50 to $75 per stall for us.

Products like this are an indication we're winning the culture war, not losing it.

Stamping our hooves and being assholes about condemning ideas like this are why we never get anywhere in the legislative environment, we're too willing to prefragment.

The bitter irony is the people who are most apt to demand that everyone spend thousands on training don't see that the solution to accidental discharges and forgetting your gun in the stall stemming from this device is, in fact, training.

I often wonder if they think that owning and carrying a gun is some sort of hair-shirt which makes them more penitent than the person who seeks convenience and comfort as well as protection.

Different Situation

Trump Considers Banning Suppressors

Before we panic and shred our NRA/ILA membership cards (again) and pledge our undying allegiance to the Pratts...

Suppressors aren't occupying a gray area in the NFA.

There are zero products on the market that have or are attempting to circumvent the "arduous" task of filing a Form 1 or Form 4 to possess and own a suppressor.

This is not like bump stocks, which were an attempt to get a machine gun and bypass both the NFA and FOPA.

ATF has ruled, repeatedly, that any device which lowers the sound level of a firearm even so much as one decibel is a suppressor and thus requiring registration.  Just ask the people who'd bought Colt's commercial model of the XM177 series and having to register their moderators.  That was in the early 1970's.

There's nothing here for The President to order the reclassification to that keeps them from being regulated exactly as they presently are.  To get them banned, he's going to need Congress to do it.

Not that it would be difficult to get the present Congress to do so, but...

It wasn't all that long ago that suppressors were nearly made over the counter legal, eliminating the need to register at all.  There's still a lot of voter demand for such deregulation, that's because there's a lot more suppressors out there than bump stocks.

A move to legislate a ban on new suppressors could have repercussions at the ballot box, and I think that Congress knows it.  There's enough legislators who aren't willing to lose their cushy seat for such idealism that I think that it won't pass.

If it does and we get those repercussions, I think the new members of Congress will have a different voice than now and the tone will be set differently than the change in 1994.

ATF= Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives
FOPA = Firearms Owners Protection Act
NFA = National Firearms Act
NRA/ILA = National Rifle Association Institute of Legislative Action

Knot Head

Reading my book on the Savage 99.

The lion's share of the things are in .300 Savage.  .250 Savage is the next most common.

With the Winchester 94 and Marlin 336 being mostly in .30-30 and .30-30 being so ubiquitous; I wondered why the .30-30 version of the Savage wasn't more popular.

It's probably knotheads.

The people who find a small advantage of one round over the other and then insisting on it, regardless if the advantage is real.  Or if the advantage is outweighed by other liabilities.

.300 Savage does have some advantages over .30-30; especially in the Savage, where you can use spitzer bullets.  Same bullet weight, higher velocity, better ballistic shape to the bullet, better sectional density...  It's all win!

At the end of the day, can the deer tell the difference?  The knothead says, without hesitation, "YES! Absolutely!"

Knotheads also like .270 Winchester.

Knotheads will fight about the relative superiority of 6.8 SPC vs 6.5 Grendel while ignoring both rounds slow fade into obscurity against .300 Blackout.

Knotheads, the truth be told, will also insist that there was no reason for .300 Savage when .250 Savage had already been Divinely Revealed to Charles Newton.

PS: .300 Savage is more available now than when I was first introduced to it.  I think it is because of a large number of 99's coming out of closets for sale as the original owners are being moved to Retirement Homes and The Great Beyond.

Advantage 21st Century

In the process of adding a period correct sight to my Savage 99 it occurs to me that I have something that some users of these sights didn't.

Loctite.

All you had to hold a screw in place in 1951 was torque.  With the tiny 8-40 screws which attach a peep sight to the tang of a Savage 99... that's not much torque before something strips.

Insufficient torque to prevent the shock of firing from loosening things.

There are stories from WW1 of marksmen using acid on the threads of the screws holding their scopes to the rifle to prevent them from walking loose.

Kudos

Recently a deputy took a round to his femoral artery.

This is not a trivial place to get shot.

Even more so because the femoral, if the hit is high enough, has an alarming tendency to retract up towards the pelvis and be positioned so it's near impossible to stop the bleeding.

Kudos to the deputies' training and getting that bleed under control in time to save his life, because without it the evac wouldn't have happened in time.

Third Most Popular

The most popular centerfire, rifle cartridge, lever action is the Winchester 94.  Over 7.5 million made and still in production.

Next most is the Marlin 336 and relatives.  Over 4.5 million made and still in production.

Third place is the Savage 99.  Approximately 2 million made from 1899 to 2003.  Savage's change in how they serialized their guns in 1968 makes it a nightmare to figure out precise production...

You Picked The Place

Tried to get some sight accessories from a seller on Florida Gun Trader.

I agreed to his price and asked where he wanted to meet and what time.

He told me and I gave him my physical description and headed out the door.

He said he'd see me there.

Except he didn't.

And didn't give me any means to get hold of him without him being at home on his computer.

I could have looked right at him ten times and not known it.

I sent several messages to have him tell me he hadn't seen me and waited an hour with a view of the door.  He then asked if I was in the right place in the correct town.

I offered to make a second attempt.  He declined and pulled his ad.

Clearly he didn't really want to sell his parts.

F-Word

All four of these images can be described with a single word.  In only once case is it derogatory and hateful.

Using this word in any context can get your account locked or deleted from any of several social media platforms.

Period Correctness

My curio and relic interest is along the lines of recreating a snapshot of the old gun in use in a way that I find useful as well.

That's why I want aperture sights instead of buckhorns.

Here's an interesting pdf pitching why you'd want one.

The quest to sight the Savage 99EG is... lengthy.

Despite being the third most popular lever action hunting rifle in America and made for decades...  It's a distant third compared to number two, the Marlin.

That means accessories are out there, but can be difficult to suss out.

If it were me in 1951, I'd have bought the 99RS because it came with the #70LH sight.

But...  That's a pretty high end gun.  The budget, and lion's share of 99's made, is the EG.  If you were on a budget, wanted a new gun, and aperture sights you bought the EG and went in for a Lyman No. 1 or No. 2 tang sight.

This is where we are heading.

Why not get a No. 30-1/2?  Because they start at $200 and end at $500 when bidding commences.

Eventually my Sportified Krag will be growing an aperture sight as well.  A Lyman No. 57 K, I think.

Wrong Number

The Savage 99RS in the '30's came with a Lyman 30-1/2 SA.

It's windage adjustable.

The Lyman sight I've been calling a 30-1/2 isn't.  It's a Lyman so it will be No. (number) and (letter).

Being for a Savage 99 it'll have the Suffix SA, but the number...

It appears to be a No. 2A SA.  It was made until 1955 and is thus perfectly vintage for my 99EG!  HUZZAH!  The No. 1 SA would not have threads in the aperture.

If only there was a book about these things one could use to look it up.

This might be it.  But I don't know if it is.  $75 is a lot of dough for such a triviality, but the question keeps coming up for me.

I Wonder

The story, "A Message to Garcia," where Rowan simply takes the message and skippers off to find Garcia...

I wonder if Rowan was thinking, "I could take two years to get it to the bastard and nobody would know; and it will be TDY the entire time!"

The Main Reason To Not Carry A Luger

The main reason you should not carry a Luger in its normal holster is if you have to use it, you cannot say your actions were not premeditated.

Looks Like Lyman

Despite Herculean efforts, the bots won the day in last second bidding and $120 didn't carry the day.

So we're looking at the Lyman because there's no other Redfields for sale.

Good news it these tend to go cheaper.  It's starting at $99 with a buy it now of $150.

Frustrating is the 10 days left.

The Lyman is less "period" than the Redfield for my gun's birthday, but they were still around.

Willard is thinking, due to the scarcity of any tang sights for the Savage 99, that the sights we're seeing for sale are all take-off items from 99RS and 99R target models which have been bubbafied with scopes.

Sigh Mustangs

If ever there were a marque that brings out the absolute worst in a driver it's got to be the Mustang.

It's not universal, there's some people who can resist.

But...

First off, if my car was that loud and obviously running wide open, it'd be farther away by now.  Just sayin'.

Second, no I do not want to race.  I know how big my dick is and don't care how big yours is.

Third, while I don't want to race you are occupying the lane that I need to be in to turn in a bit and your matching speed and revving is blocking.

Fourth, I love that "oh shit!" look when I drop two gears and goose my bone fucking stock Vette just a little and you can't match my little throttle blip and keep me from getting into the lane I needed.

Fifth, we weren't racing so the Patented Ricer Fly By didn't prove anything.

Sixth, I live for The Boy rolling down his window and yelling, "HA HA!" at you.

D+ 27,394

75 year ago...  This very minute.

The Normandy landings began.

D-Day.

The paratroopers had been at it for five hours already, but this is when Utah came under attack.

Bidding

Willard is bidding on the Redfield sight for the Savage 99.

If one of you readers is as well...  You're bidding against each other to the same end.

If You're Already Having A Panic Attack

I get random panic attacks.

There are also a couple of activities that trigger them.

I've noticed that doing those activities during a random attack doesn't make the attack worse.

Thank Heaven for small favors?

Can We Get A Genpop Sentence For Him

Scot Peterson arrested!

Peterson on Tuesday was arrested for neglect of duty, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony announced.

I hope he's convicted, I hope he gets the max sentence, I hope it's general population.

He's had more than a year to exercise the honorable option.

h/t Erin's Facebook

Venn Diagram Overlap Of Space Nerd And Lego Maniac

Eagle, aka LM-5, is available in Lego Minifig scale.

This is a nice companion for the Saturn V stack... that I own but have not assembled for a lack of display space.

Well Phrased

Would be carjacker shot and killed.

The Sheriff says, "Thank God no one here in the great community of Sun City Center was injured.”

I am proud of him, one should never count the criminal as one of the dead or injured.

Flag Choices

The flagpole has a second set of hooks...

That means I can fly two flags!

There's all manner of things I can fly there.

Is it wrong of me to want a Kekistani flag?

Auction Fever

My strategy on Ebay and Gunbroker is to bid the most I would ever pay (or can afford at the moment) and let it ride.

I miss out on a lot of things I want this way because auction fever grabs the other bidders and drives the price through the ceiling.

I learned about auction fever at a bankruptcy auction of a small gun shop in Iowa where two bidders blood got up and they bid a bone-stock, plain-Jane Ruger 10/22 up to $500... In 1993.  They just couldn't let the other guy "win" despite paying five times the going rate for the gun at the time.

I experienced the fever when I bought The Biscayne at a police auction.

I was there to buy an ex-Iowa State Patrol Caprice 9C1 because I wanted a 350 not a 305.  I bid on several and sensibly quit as the price slipped past what I had in my account.

There's banks at those auctions with kiosks describing their easy loan terms...

As the day wore on I got increasingly desperate to take something home.

So I bid up the Caprice Classic to about 50% over what I could have bought it for from a used car lot and took out a loan for what I didn't have in my pocket.

This adventure also taught me that I wasn't grown-up enough yet to handle the responsibility of loans and the requisite payments.  But that's another story.

100 Years

It's been 100 years since the US Senate passed the 19th Amendment.

Ratification would wait until August the next year and adoption a few days later.

White men did most of the passage of this.  Remember that when you're on a tear condemning us dudes.

Flag Flying

The telescopic nature of the kit makes it seem to not level.

Animated Monitor

The artist at Archer are constantly surprising in their attention to details.

OK I'm Obsessed

This is a Lyman No. 2A SA rear peep.

This is a Lyman 30-1/2 SA rear peep.  I misidentified it, the No. 30-1/2 SA came on the 99RS from 1932 to 1939.  The Redfield #70LH that I prefer is more period correct for my 1951 made gun; it came with 99RS from 1940 to 1958.

Savage drilled the tang for these sights until they moved the safety to the tang in 1961.

Click here to see the auction and buy the Lyman for me!
Click here to see the auction and buy the Redfield for me!
(worth a shot).

Lovely Harveys Most Affected

The Boy has been insisting on rides around the neighborhood with his new bike.

The Lovely Harvey rides alongside as a safety observer.

She has discovered, to her dismay, that the new bike is MUCH faster and The Boy does not have a throttle, he's got an off/on switch.

The three mile meandering course throughout the area is hitting her hard.

The exercise is prolly good for her.

Rarity?

According to A Collector's Guide To The Savage Model 99 Rifle, "In the early 1950's, some of the EGs in the 600,000 serial number range had case-hardened steel rotors."

Mine is a 1951 model in the 600k range with a steel rotor.

Normally this part is brass.

This is an interesting development!

T2K Was Only Off By A Couple Years

The US Army has adopted the LAV-25!

A-4-68 Armor, 1 BCT, 82 Airborne has been operating the LAV-25A2 since last October.

Monday Music!

Pre-Flag

Picked a spot.

Dug a hole and filled it with concrete.

Signed our work.

Sometime tomorrow evening, I will have a 25' flag pole installed in the yard.

Vintage Quest

I realize, now, that I have no hard data on the hole spacing for the tang on the Savage 99 beyond Marbles saying their tang mounted sight is for 1-1/8" center to center and my measuring my 99EG to 1.130".

1.125 and 1.130 are very similar...

I kind of want a vintage sight because it's a vintage gun.  Old sights will often have similar wear to the rifle.  The rifle isn't pristine, so the sight doesn't need to be.

I really like the Redfield 70 series for this gun.  It looks niftier.

Marbles and Lyman are the more traditional tang sight with a vertical tower on a spring-loaded pivot.  To me the styling is more appropriate for a Win 92 or Win 94 clone.

I'll keep trying to find one.

Ask around among your friends!  Florida is an odd gun market.

Next Victim Redfield 70LH

I should not get my hopes up that someone clicks this and buys it for me!

This one is missing one of the screws and the aperture.  It's also in less pristine shape.

I can remember when gun shops had boxes of these old things for near giving them away prices.

$70 Did Not Win The Day

The auction ended at 2:00:29 PM EDT.

I made my $70 bid at 1:43:51 PM EDT.

Three bidders ran it up to $86.50 beginning at 2:00:13 and ending at 2:00:24.

I'm not fast as a bot.

Street Rod Of Shotguns

Marv added an Mcarbo target trigger and spring kit to his KSG.

This marks the third mod to the gun without going to the range.

He's getting to be like the guy who's got a massively modded car who rarely starts it, hardly drives it and NEVER races it.

The Mcarbo trigger kit is thorough and simple to install.

Kel Tec is to blame about how fiddly the process is, but I don't think they intended the trigger to ever be accessed by the user.

There are a LOT of screws.

These kits replace all the trigger springs.

And you're done!  Right?

Well, no.

The trigger has a set screw in it that lets you adjust the take-up and reduce it to zero.  This screw cannot be accessed when the trigger group is reassembled.

Because of how the trigger group is designed you cannot test the trigger with it taken apart far enough to gain access to the screw.

This leads to repeated disassembly and reassembly and dealing with the fiddly floppy parts and introducing errors in reassembly which are not apparent until you've got the screws back in.

Marv did this process no fewer than eight times.

But did it help?

The trigger is definitely crisp now going from a mushy 5.5 lb. to 3.5 lb.

It's lost the definitive and positive 'click' at reset though.

Redfield 70LH

My Savage 99EG has buck-horn sights.

Buck-horn sights and I don't get along.

Because my rifle was made in 1951, the hole spacing on the tang is incorrect for the sights they still make.

Vintage sights go for $100+.

Every once and a while, one appears to be slipping through the cracks...

Always when I am broke or saving for something else.

Don't They Mean Mass

Saw a box watching Good Omens that had "Maximum Weight 15kg" printed on it.

Kilograms don't measure weight.