Shorthair The Outcast

Way back in the mists of time...

I was hired at no pay to play AD&D 2e.

The reason I say that is the group had a very rigid schedule and you were not to be late.

They met at the GM's house, 35 miles from my place.

Looking back I think I was primarily invited to show the bottom-dog in the pack that he could be replaced.  It made things a bit tense.

Being wedged into an existing party is always a headache at the best of times and this time was made worse by two giant elephants in the room.

First: I'd never played 2e before.

Second: I would be making a cleric.

The first wasn't so bad, AD&D is similar enough to AD&D2e that I could muddle through.

The second, though, was a lot harder.

I was totally out of my comfort zone.  I had not played any form of D&D for years at that point and wasn't even remotely familiar with the spell list.  I cannot remember why I was a cleric of a lawful-good deity, but it's on the character sheet.

I feel like the only actual choice I made during character creation was race.

Remember that set of Wemic stats I put up a few days ago?  That's because I'd run into the character sheet from...  1994?

Shorthair the Outcast is a Wemic who's been exiled from his tribe.  He cuts his mane to show that exile status.

Now that I've rediscovered this sheet, I'm setting myself to making a GURPS conversion.  I've even shelled out for the AD&D2e main books and a copy of Forgotten Realms at Drive Thru RPG to facilitate the transition.

There are notes in the margin, that I assume are restrictions on spells, but I can't remember if they're because the party didn't want me to take them or if it's some restriction of my character's faith.  Torm the True is what I have listed.

Nothing in the Forgotten Realms or Faiths and Avatars books say anything about spell restrictions for clerics of Torm.

I have now, officially, done more research on this character than I did when I was playing him.

Having the books helps a lot.  The DM didn't share the books and meted out knowledge as a means to keep us under his control.

Glitch

Small points of language sometimes glare.

In the movie, "The Prestige" Hugh Jackman's character says they will, "phase it out"...  It being a part of their act.

That phrase is out of place in Victorian England.

The movie takes place in 1906 at the latest based on him dealing with Tesla in Colorado Springs.

The thing is, "phase out" dates from 1940 at the earliest.  It didn't really become common until they made it one word, "phaseout," in 1951.

You'd Think

I use Thunderbird to retrieve my email from the server.  I have several email accounts to manage.

On the 12th... that stopped working.

This is because I used to have Verizon FIOS.  When that became Frontier FIOS, Verizon punted my main email account over to AOL.

AOL, with no notice, changed their security protocol and my login quit.

They took two weeks to put out the work-around for people who want to use something besides their browser to get their email.  I only know about the work-around because I submitted a suggestion to fix the problem.

Note I didn't report the problem to AOL.  They have a message on their help landing page that says reporting by email is down because of COVID.

You'd think that a company that's primarily centered on email would have an email option...

Suboptical

I have cured the blurry reticle on the FACOG!

Just need to use the reading portion of my bifocals.

That just tells me that I need new glasses again.  Ugh!

This time around I'm going to take my optician's advice and get the reading prescription up in the inside top corner of the lenses too.

Getting old ain't for sissies!

Excitement

The sheriff had at least two of their JetRanger/Kiowas, flying in relays, circling my neighborhood this afternoon looking for a felon who'd escaped from a work camp in the county to the south.

Looks like they caught him, but there sure were a shit-ton of deputies around here for a while.

Moar FACOG

The fake ACOG I ordered, literally, months ago has arrived.

There are no tender mercies from the USPS.

I didn't expect to start the durability tests before the unboxing, but here we are anyways.

Happily, damage seems to be limited to a gouge in the windage turret cap.  I sure hope that nothing internal was messed up.

Unlike Marv, I am opting for carry handle mounting on Lavender Linda.  I had to get the mounting screw from Ebay.

I also opted for the chevron instead of the cross.

If you ever wondered why there's a hole drilled through the length of an ACOG's base:

It's so you can still use the iron sights!

The Bear First Of His Name

 Ruler of all he surveys.  Chaser of lizards.  Etc. etc. etc.

The back porch is a hotly contested piece of kitty territory here.

Hot in more ways than one in the summer and they love to bask in the screened in safety of the "wild outdoors".

Bear chased Beeper and Dingus off the porch and held court while we were outside sweating over the drafting table.

Thanks again to everyone who donated to his health!

Table Pics

 

I think it looks great.

Hamilton brand, for those scoring at home.

Like A Butcher Block

Pretty groady at the start.

 Then we started sanding...

Our kitchen table is an old drafting table my dad gave me back in 1985.

To say that it's seen some miles would be an understatement.

Dad got it from his workplace when they started changing from pen and paper to CAD.

Most of its life it was my desk/work bench.  It was not pampered.

The Lovely Harvey has been after us to sand and refinish the top for a while, the old linseed finish had gotten sticky and it was attracting everything.

So I kidnapped Marvyn and we attacked it with the random orbital sanders.  80 then 150 then 220 then 400 then a few coats of clear satin polyurethane.

Harvey took more pics than I did, but I'll get more posted once everything has dried and there's good light.

I think it looks great!

Faux Pas

There's nothing quite so embarrassing as to hear from a friend you'd assumed was dead after you'd listed the guns they'd left at your house on GunBroker.

Years And Years

Way back when I asked, "what are you trying to prove by firing thousands of rounds without cleaning or lubrication?"

I got a lot of shit for asking that.

But the question still stands.

We know the testing protocol, and the results of the test.  What we don't know is the provable hypothesis which leads to the test itself.

I took more shit when I stated that it doesn't matter if the gun chokes on the +1 round past the ammo I am willing to carry because I will be out of ammo and very worried if the fight is still ongoing.

Here's the deal, though:

I have yet to encounter the gun which cannot fire the basic load.

Can an M1911A1 fire the 7+1 in the gun and two spare 7 round magazines without cleaning?

Yes.

I've asked before, "How many rounds are you lugging around?"

I've rarely encountered the person who's carrying more than one reload.  Most commonly, the people who respond are carrying ZERO reloads.

It's a very rare, and very crappy, gun which can't fire a single magazine without a malfunction.  And we tend to know which guns those are before firing a shot now.

Most new made guns, even the cheapest anymore, can pass this test.

It comes down to risk assessment.

I don't plan on getting into a firefight.  If I did, I am not carrying concealed and I am not carrying a pistol as my primary arm.

A firefight might find me, but it's not the way to bet.

Nearly all armed interactions don't involve firing a shot.  Most don't even require you actually have a firearm, you just need to warn the potential assailant that you are armed and they back down.  Look it up!  It's about 90% of the interactions.

90% of the remaining 10% require you have a gun, or something that is believably a gun.  Brandishing will end the interaction and you can depart unmolested.

Now we're into the small numbers.  90% of the 10% of the 10% (0.1%) of the time you're going to have to fire a shot.  You don't even need to hit your assailant!

90% of the remainder (0.01%) of the time you're going to have to hit them.

The rest of the time your hits are going to have to hit something vital and NOW which gun, how reliable it is, how well does your ammunition perform and did you bring enough ammo will actually matter to the equation.

So?  What gun and how much ammo are you bringing to the 0.001% chance you're in a real firefight with your carry gun?

Think hard on that.

I don't carry an armored briefcase on the off chance I hit the big number on a scratch-off lottery ticket to carry my winnings.

I don't take classes on money management to deal with the vast fortunes from winning the powerball either.

The truth is, I'm very unlikely to end up needing a gun at all.

But...

It is also true that it's far better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.

You just need to learn to assess the odds.

By the way, you're far better served buying some concealable body armor than carrying a gun if you're really worried about the 0.001% scenario; but I so rarely see gunwriters advocating for that.

I wonder why?

Is it because they can't shill for classes on how to wear a vest?

Serious Case Of Unrequited Want

The FN Grand Browning will never be economically made, if it is ever produced.

Tis a pity.  I bet there's a small market for such a gun, but it'd be at least a grand.

He did the Colt 1910 too:

Double

For clarity's sake:

The CZ-75 P-01 did not have a malfunction and fire two rounds.

It fired two rounds because I was attempting to only release the trigger just past the reset point to speed up my shooting times.  But doing so while bringing the gun back on target rather than waiting until the sights were lined up again.

While that part succeeded, the gun did not fire intentionally.  A negligent discharge under the best case conditions if you drill down all the way.

Happily, I wasn't very far off target when absorbing the recoil and got the "bonus" round.

I've amended how I shoot DA/SA guns and it doesn't seem to really slow me down that much, but definitely changes if I fire the next round intentionally.

To What End Exactly

I've noticed that every place Mr Soros drops a lot of money and is successful in getting the candidate he paid for sworn in, that place turns into a shit-hole in rapid order.

I also notice that the avowed socialist branch of the Democrat Party are advancing a decidedly Fascisti solution to the shit-hole problem.

Considering what shoulders Mr Soros used to rub, it makes you wonder if fascism is the goal he's trying to achieve.

A small group of entrepreneurs got very wealthy in Nationalist Socialist Germany after all.

I Wasn't Busy That's For Sure

Ever just get so wrapped up in doing nothing that you totally forget to come up with something to post on your blog?

That's where I've been!

Just a whole lotta nothin going on.

The Bear is doing well, starting to assert himself in our little pride a bit more; and getting the expected feedback for doing it.  But he's healthy as he tries to move from the #3 bottom spot to #2.

The Boy is doing bowling for Special Olympics.  Not doing as well as bikes, but we've gotten no word from Special Olympics about the state level games...  Bowling has been taking up bike practice time, so he's not prepared anyway.

Got yelled at for keying some bitch's Jeep.  Wasn't me, didn't do it.  But she should learn to park between the lines rather than more than a foot over into the next spot.  The last spot, as it happened.  I fell on my face trying to squeeze out of Moxie and my left shin still hurts from her running boards.  I will give her detective skills a boost and suggest that the person who keyed her car couldn't get their car into that space and after walking from the back 40 to the business, keyed her precious Jeep.  But thanks for blaming ME.

Mr Fleetwood, who used to respond to such calls in his past life as a State Trooper, says all the cops are going to do is let her run down, give her some crayons to color a standardized report and tell her to call her insurance.

She joins me in finding damage to their car and not really having a recourse to fix it.  But she should look inward as to why someone might have been angry with her.  I was none too thrilled falling on my face because she didn't leave me enough room to get out!

MBT

Marvyn has installed a LaRue MBT trigger in his tan plastic pal who's fun to be with.

4 lb. 8 oz. pull with a very clean break.

I say this for LaRue, they're consistent.  That's the same trigger pull I have on Dottie.

Devil's Advocate

This video analyzes JUST the New York (SPIT) Times article and Evan Hafer's response to the response generated from it.

It doesn't address his multiple donations to Actblue nor several employees of BRCC's donations to Actblue which predate the NY(S)T article.

It doesn't address BRCC linking to the article in the same manner as a business happy with what was published.

The donations to Democrats was discovered once people had kneejerked from the NY(S)T article.

No No NO!

Looking around just to test the air about prices on the "missing" early Wonder-9; the CZ75.

I discovered that Tanfoglio made a copy of the Cz in .38 Super.

Darn it.

I like my .38 Super 1911.  It'd be fun to have a second pistol in the caliber.

Early Wonder Nines

No CZ-75... but anyway.

I'm fascinated with the features they have in common.

The FN and Smith have magazine disconnects.

The Smith and Beretta are double-action, and have a decocking slide-mounted safety.  They also share the use of an aluminum alloy in the frame.

They all have lanyard rings, as befits full size service pistols.

I'm The Weirdo

My interest in firearms came from tabletop role play gaming.

Not hunting or any other form of actually shooting them.

Hmmmmm...

That's not quite right, but it is...

Learning about guns came from me and my friends interest in everything WW2 when we were kids and using what we'd learned to play war.

Being possessed of vivid imagination, even a stick could be an MG.34 and we played on that basis.  Mostly recreating the most recent re-run of COMBAT! (in color!) or Rat Patrol.

But it was our play which led me to read any book on the topic I could get my hands on, and it was the lavishly illustrated tomes that got my first interest.

Which gets us to where I was playing games with rules someone I'd never met had written.

Top Secret from TSR.

Although I'd never fired anything heavier than a .22 by this point in my life, it was nearly instantly obvious that I knew more about guns than the gamemaster administrator.

My character had ended up in the bottom of an elevator shaft which was flooded.  The less than a minute's immersion was ruled to have rusted my Uzi solid.

"Nope!" I protested.  Though rust never sleeps, it also doesn't move that fast.

The administrator was genuinely surprised that guns weren't instantly destroyed by exposure to water.

Let's just ignore that I was playing a spy armed for war rather than espionage.

Interactions like this led me to being "the gun guy" in our groups.

I was deferred to if I said that a gun could or couldn't do something.  I was astonishingly honest about it too, for any ruling I made in someone else's game would come back to haunt me in my world later.

Knowing all this real-world gun stuff didn't do me a lot of good in Top Secret or Twilight: 2000.  The gun rules aren't terribly realistic.

The weirdo thing gets traction with our brief dalliance with Boot Hill.  I made a case for higher rates of fire from some historical guns which weren't on the weapons list and that set off a never ending quest for moar dakka.  I was the only kid on my block who'd even heard of a Merwin and Hulbert...

Moar dakka is why that character with the Uzi carried a Browning High Power.  13 shots is more than every other pistol in the entire game.  I have a lot of characters with that HP in their equipment.

When GURPS came along using real world measurements for things instead of game defined units...  My geekery lost bounding.

It's easy to stat an unlisted gun from comparing it to something we do have stats on and subbing the weights.

It's not difficult to make stats for completely new guns once you notice the relationship between muzzle energy and damage.  It's a bit more nuanced than that and Douglas Cole figured out the equation for us.

What this did was let me make stats for period guns at a lower TL than expected.

You want an FAL, but it's 1943?  FG.42!

Need an M1A during prohibition?  ZH-29 or Mondragon!

What about an AK at (3e) TL6 instead of TL7?   MKb.42(H)!

Owning and shooting have improved the geekery, but alas, the opportunity to use my knowledge has been reduced to making a line of stats for every gun me or my friends own.

Doing other-than-12-gauge shotguns was a lot of fun!

It's still fun to do the research even if, at the end of the day, the only difference between a Luger P.08, Browning HP, S&W 59 and Glock 17 are the number of shots and the weights.

Remember, in GURPS, π = 3.00!

Impressions

The S&W 59 is the second oldest high-cap 9mm design I own.

The oldest is the oldest and that's the High Power.

Both designs have new-made magazines which add to the puissance with extra capacity than when they were first introduced.

Mec-Gar makes a 15 rounder for the High Power and a 17 rounder for 59 series Smiths.

It was testing those 17-rounders to see if they worked at all that gave me my first real shooting impression of the Model 59.

I like it!

The grip angle feels a little clunky and square in casual handling, but causes no issues in firing.  In learning the trigger and where it resets, I let off a couple of unintended shots.  You can't tell which ones on the target.

That tells me that the grip shape is working and that it is aiding me in keeping the pistol pointed at where I want to hit.

I was a bit surprised at the aluminum frame getting warm at the dust cover.  Not hot, but warm.

Aluminum transmits heat efficiently, so this shouldn't have been a shock.

In about 100 rounds fired I've had a single stoppage.  One failure to eject which was easily cleared.  Have to keep an eye on that.

But is it viable in the modern world?

It's a little heavier than a Glock or M&P9 with the same capacity.

The sights are slower, but precise.

I'm not sure.  You are not unarmed if you're carrying one.  It certainly appears to function correctly.  Next round of shooting, hopefully, will be with some modern hollow points; we'll see if it keeps its 1% malfunction rate up.

Gratuitous Tantal Pic

I know two things that Ian didn't mention in his video on the wz.88.

The lower handguard came in more colors than the orange he mentions.  You can see the orange on my bayonet and a more wine color on my handguard.

I know my handguard is a proper wz.88 handguard because it's number matched to the other parts in my kit.

Next, he uses a steel magazine.  While this was unique to the Poles, it's not the definitive wz.88 magazine.  Poland went in with Bulgaria and developed the black plastic one shown here.

That got them out of paying either The USSR or East Germany for the "bakelite" magazines and it was a definite upgrade from the steel one.

Bonus third thing!  Any single-hook AK trigger will work in the Tantal if you're making a semi-auto, with a small modification for the trigger return spring.

The scope mount wasn't intended to just be an early item.  Some small percentage were meant to be made continuously for the issue and mounting of night vision.  The ending of The Cold War and the transition to the Beryl nixed that idea.

If you happen to have an old PZO NSP-3 or PCO PCS-5 optic you're sick of owning...  Drop me an email.  They don't even have to be functional, I just want them for pictures!

Ya Done Fucked Up

You know you done fucked up your customer base when the normally not-very-political The Lovely Harvey noticed you done fucked up your customer base.

I went to mention the bruhaha over Black Rifle Coffee company going woke and she said she'd already heard.

We're going to give Stocking Mill a try.  They appear to be actually walking the walk their talking talks.

Besides, pirate and Revolutionary themes.  ARRRRR!

Um He's The Bad Guy

Cobra Commander's hood is now problematic?

Why?

He's the fucking baddie!

Make him a white supremacist!  Go for it!

HE'S THE FUCKING BAD GUY IN CHARGE OF THE TERRORIST ORGANIZATION BENT ON TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!!

You're not supposed to like him!

He's supposed to be evil, and the hood is supposed to evoke a dislike.

If you think he's problematic, then the imagery worked and was effective.

Wemic For GURPS 4e

Wemic (Lion Centaur) (AD&D Monster Manual II p.126, AD&D 2e(r) Monstrous Manual p.357)

136 Points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 (Size -10%) [54]; DX+3 [60]; HT+1 [10].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+2 [10]; SM+1 (2 hexes).

Advantages: Catfall [10]; Claws (Sharp) [5]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin -40%) [3]; Enhanced Move (9) (Ground x1.5, Costs Fatigue 6 -30%) [7]; Extra Legs (4 Legs) [5]; Night Vision (5) [5]; Teeth (Sharp Teeth) [1]; Temperature Tolerance (1) [1].

Disadvantages: Bloodlust (15) [-5]; Claustrophobia (15) [-7]; Easy To Read [-10]; Increased Consumption 1 [-10]; Low TL -3 [-15]; Overconfidence (12) [-5]; Sleepy (1/2 time) [-8]; Thalassophobia (12) [-10].

Features: Short Fur; Tail.

Racial Skills: Brawling (E) DX+2 [4]-15; Jumping (E) DX+2 [4]-15; Running (A) HT+2 [8]-13; Stealth (A) DX [2]-13; Survival (Plains) (A) Per [2]-12.

If you know what a wemic is, then you have the rest of the racial information needed to make one past the stats.

Miami Vice Gun Miami Vice Theme

 

You really do shoot the Model 59 better with the theme song running in your head.

Even though the 659 was what Zito carried.

Real 59 action comes with Starsky... much earlier.  But I didn't remember that until I got song-virused.

 

 

 

Shooting The Chomps Collection

First out the chute:

CZ75 P-O1

Both magazines functioned flawlessly.

I was worried about shooting this one.  The people who like the CZ75 have a near religious-like devotion and a fervent need to convert you to the CZ way.

I did not feel the magic:

The trigger doubles a lot with my shooting style.  There's not a lot of signal that you're pulling against the sear before you go bang again.

Next up:

The Stoeger Cougar 8040.  It too was reliable for all time after eating two whole magazines of .40 S&W.

Everything I dislike about the Beretta 92, plus the snap of .40.  I couldn't get it to settle to where I was shooting smaller than I did.

Finally, there's a High Standard Sport King.

Legend has it that if you're not grouping small with a High Standard, it's you and not the gun.

I noticed a distinct flinch changing from the 9's to the High Standard that took me a couple of magazines to get over.  It is not reliable with nine rounds in the magazine, but does fine loaded to 8.

I think I prefer my Colt Challenger.  Sacrilege, I know!  At least the sights point to the center for me.

Model 59 Redux

Dialed the rear sight over to compensate for the tendency to shoot right.

I'm still blind, but my groups are improving as I hit the range more often.

Ian Does The Tantal

Nice to see that I did a good job with my clone!

I did a lot of research making my wz.88N (N because mine has the scope rail).

Hit the 'Tantal' tag to see the story of my rifle once you watch the video!

Twist

 What rifling for a 6' long, 18,900,000 grain projectile over 770,000 grains of D839?

1:25 RH!

Oh, forgot the bore is 16" and the barrel length is 67 feet.

How Thick Is Your Beer?

 

Mine stopped a bullet!

Gaaaaaaay

YouTube is subjecting me to a lot of advertising for a show on Hulu with two guys frantically making out.

I am not objecting to the ad, or being subjected to the sexual mores of the homosexual male.

To be honest, gay people have been stuck watching the sex sells ads of straight people for a very long time.

What I am objecting to is the complete disappearance of ads aimed at me.

I am not a target demographic for anyone, despite being an actual or potential customer for what's being sold.

I feel like there's room in the ad space for an add aimed at the straight white guy every once and a while, even one who has a straight white wife and a couple of kids.

When was the last time you saw a mono-racial family in an ad that wasn't a minority family?

Also, have you noticed how often the token Asian in ads with a large group picture is in a wheelchair?

Some of this is bitter grapes.  Ads seldom affect my buying decision.

But I am worried that the exclusion of people like me from advertising is a subtle form of othering.

One never wants to be The Other.  NEVER!

Being The Other leads to bad places.

You Don't Need Order Of Operations In Simple Counting

Some Maricopa hack has taken to explaining the difference in the number of votes counted in the audit differing from the number of votes certified by citing a common math puzzle that gets different answers depending on the order of operations you used.

Update: Found the quote!

Maricopa County: Why might the Cyber Ninjas’ ballot count differ from Maricopa Vote numbers?

For the same reason people might get different answers to this problem: (6 x 5) ÷ 3 + 11

If you don’t know the order of operations, you don’t know the answer.

Counting doesn't work that way.

But let's humor them and apply PEDMAS to the equation, shall we?

1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=?

No parenthesis.

No exponents.

No division.

No multiplication.

Lots of addition.

No subtraction.

Order of operations only matters if there more than one operation.

The answer for the above is 30.  It's 30 even if you count backwards because addition can be taken in any order.

What the audit is finding isn't a problem with math.  It's finding that votes were counted and certified that don't exist.  At best they've discovered that votes have been lost or destroyed which had been previously counted.

At best.

That alone should be enough to nuke the Maricopa Board of Elections and get them fitted for orange.  Those missing votes, if they actually existed, were supposed to be saved with all the others.

Occam's Razor, however, says that the "missing" votes didn't exist except as creations of compromised software.

Buckle up, it's likely to get sporty.

An Abundance Of Logos

I first noticed this with my M&P9.

Vortex appears to be following S&W's lead.

Here are all the logos on my Strikefire II, cantilever mount and ARD.

Let's start with the ARD.  It's got two logos on it, 180° apart.

When it's screwed in, you can't even see them!

The mount is downright vague about who made it.  Just the one.

The scope itself has four.  Three 120° apart on the objective hood and one on the battery compartment cap.

It's embossed on the flippy caps too:

Front:

Back:

 

And the name is etched onto the battery compartment, just in case the logos weren't enough:

 

 At least they use their own name...  The FACOG's try to pass themselves off as something Trijicon made.

It's A Small Thing

One nice thing about being the owner of the blog is when I spot a spelling error or grammatical error I didn't intend to make in a comment, I can just fix it.

It's something the commenters can't do for themselves, but a message that you'd like to make an edit to a comment will generally find me affable.

Here's what you do:

1. Make a comment to the post you've commented on that you'd like to change your comment.

2. Post the new comment.

Here's what I'll do:

Delete the comment where you asked to change your comment.

Moderate the new comment fresh, and if I post it; I will delete the original comment.  If nobody has replied to it, it will be as if your new comment is the only one you made!

Sure Lasted A Long Time

Every time you mention that the FAL wasn't the shittiest 7.62 NATO rifle ever made...

Someone just HAS to bring up Israel dumping it.

Guess how long the Romat was in front-line service?  We're not going to consider service in the reserves, national guard, navy or coast guard.  Nor special forces.

Has to be really short because it's the exemplar of the FAL being an epic failure.

19 years.  1955 to 1974.  Partial replacement began in 1972 with the M16A1 and was officially replaced in 1974 by the Galil.

That is not a short service life.  Production continued to 1980.

How long was the M14 the front-line US service rifle?  I mean it's so much better than the Romat after all...  5 years and production ended the same year enough M16A1's were in service to fully supplant it.

The M14 is not an inherently bad rifle.  It's a very difficult rifle to make correctly.

Don't think that because Springfield Armory is successfully making M1As that it's the same as making an M14.  SA made a LOT of changes to the parts to make them easier to make, not least of which is the cast receiver.

Quick!  How many nations adopted the M14?  Remember, this is adoption as the service rifle, not special forces, ceremonial, sniper variants or line launcher.

Now, compare that list to the number of nations who adopted the FAL.

Then look at how many years those rifles were the front line gun.  The average is 30 years.

But the FAL sucks because the IDF only used it for 19 years.

Other Impressions

The hybrid Sigma felt just fine in the hand and fired a whole magazine without issue.  That must mean it's reliable for all time!  Right?

We don't really know how reliable it is, but the first 16 went great.

It reminded me that I do like the grip on the OG Sigma series guns.  I've liked it since I first handled FuzzyGeff's .40 and it was why The Lovely Harvey got a .357 SIG; she'd intended to get a 9 or a .40 but they was all out at the gun show and we got an insanely good deal on the gun she ended up with.

This is my first run with one in 9mm and it's very comfortable.

Next run of testing will be with some self defense ammo instead of ball to see if it feeds well.

Next up:

I LIKE the Model 59.  I think my groups will keep getting smaller with it because the problems are with me and not the pistol.

It too passed the reliable for all time challenge by consuming an entire 14 rounds from the factory magazine.

Double action first shot was high and right, but that ended up just being high once the other 13 joined it down range.  Not so high that it would have missed if I'd had the rear sight dialed in.

Too Many Guns?

The Model 59 shoots about 3" to the right at 7 yards.

I made note of it and got out my brass punches and hammer when I got home to tap the rear sight the 0.06" or so it needed to go to correct for that.

Then I saw the screw.

That's right!  The Model 59 is windage adjustable.

DURRR!

JT says it's because I have too many guns.

I say it's because he doesn't have too many enough guns!

Gone Shootin'

 Took the Model 59 and the hybrid Sigma to the range.

The 59 shoots to the right:

 The mutant SW9V shoots low with a 6 o'clock hold.  Gotta remember that plastic Smiths shoot through the dot!

These groups are a definite sign that I need to get to the range more often.  Now that the fear of Wu Ping Cough is fading, perhaps ammo will be available enough to actually buy some and knock the rust completely off.

New glasses won't hurt either.

Willard tried out his ACOG on his disapator:

 

We did a 100 yard zero at 25 yards by setting the zero 0.78" low.  The fine adjustments meant a LOT of clicks to move it from the initial setting to zeroed.

For added fun, his old Doskocil carbine case's handles gave up the ghost and dropped the whole case on the ground for him.  New soft cases are stupid expensive at the Guntry Clubhouse.

Like A Kraco Stereo In A Ferarri

 This is a genuine Tenebraex Killflash™ for a Trijicon TA31 RCO.

Yes, that's an o-ring holding it on.

No, that's factory, not a kludge.

This factory level jury rig costs $40 plust $10 each for the flippy caps.

Color me unimpressed.