The Pistol I Am Least Likely To Shoot

The pistol I'm least likely to shoot is the one that's in my pocket all the time.

Ironic, isn't it.

The range rules prevent me from pulling it out of my pocket to shoot it, so it tends to stay there, lest I be unarmed to and from the range.

Today I planned better and packed different heat.

Two 13-round and one 10-round magazine at seven yards.

I am reminded that the Shield Plus is louder than the 9-Compact.

It's a little harder to control and shoot fast, but I think that's a decent minute of bad-guy group.

Even better, it fired just fine caked in pocket lint.

Back In Black

Queue AC/DC

I had a black Fencer and Mk IV in my big box.  The Mk I and Mk II came with an earlybird special of a Mk III and Mk V.

Ogre I Through VI

 

With an M1A1 for scale.

I'd intended to do them all in glow-in-the-dark, but SJGames didn't offer I, II and VI in anything but black.

I have a black III and V.

I have a glow in the dark Fencer, but a black Dopplesnolder.

It Wasn't 96

I watched all five of the body cam videos of the officers involved in the shooting of Mr Reed.

Just two reloaded.  One was done shooting when they noticed they were slide locked and put in a fresh magazine.

One officer never fired a shot because he'd dropped his pistol when he reacted to being shot.

Four officers shooting.  One firing more than one magazine's worth.

Assuming the full load of 16 at the start and another 15 in the reload who kept firing.

79 shots, max.

If 96 rounds were fired, 17 belong to Mr Reed.

Two officers spend much of the fight running around not doing much constructive.  One of these is the reload after noticing slide lock after the fight.

The officer who reloaded and kept firing seems most focused on being in the fight.

The fourth firing officer spends a portion of the fight noticing he's down range from his partners, so loses some shooting time deconflicting.

It's likely less than 79 shots fired.  Especially since many cops I've talked to don't top up after chambering a round.  15 in the magazine, drop the slide, 1 in the pipe, 14 in the hole.

We're probably talking 50 shots.  I suppose I could go back and count.

Update:

Hey, there's reports in that big dump CPD put out.  Not the 15+1 Glock 22's that Not-The-Bee says.

Officer 1: Glock 17, 12 shots fired.  17+1 capacity.

Officer 2: Glock 19, 16 shots fired.  15+1 capacity.  This is the slide lock reloader, the video shows the 15 shot magazine clearly during the reload.

Officer 3: Glock 45, 34 shots fired.  17+1 capacity.

Officer 4: Glock 17, 17 shots fired.  17+1 capacity.

Officer 5 (the injured one): No shots fired.

79 rounds!  Yet every single media report is saying 96 rounds.

2011

The 2011 is just another "modern" re-imagining of the Browning Hi Power.

Change my mind!

Plain Clothes

Something alluded to in the Not-The-Bee article is, "why were plain clothes officers doing a traffic stop?"

It seems very odd for plain clothes to be working traffic.

I'm speculating that they were looking for the deceased and the seatbelt violation was the excuse to pull him over and check for what they wanted to look for.

Not that they could see that he wasn't wearing his belt through that tint.

But, let us speculate further about the deceased.

Illegal tint.

I am going to guess that he doesn't have a FOID.

He had prior arrests for weapons charges, he was out on bond for one of them.

Link to all the body cam footage.  Content warning for the squeamish.  Real guns being fired at real people who will be leaking on camera.

Not Even Full RoF

Police fire 96 shots in 41 seconds.

Five cops, each firing one pistol each.  15+1 capacity.

So, five seconds to empty.  3 to reload.  Five more to empty...

41/8 = 5.125 magazines.

Let's call it five each.  15*5 is 75 shots per officer.  Five officers is 375 shots.

So they fired just more than 25% the full rate of fire.

That means that they were pausing to assess or move to and from cover.

It wasn't a panicky mag dump.

Real panic would have been every one of them firing 15 and cowering someplace.

One cop didn't even get off a shot before he was wounded.

So 15*5*4 for 300 shots at max rate.  So about 1/3 the potential ammo dump.

But 96/4 is 24 shots per cop.  Or almost 2 magazines each.

American Society of Magic Negroes

Meh.

It's not a horrible movie, the premise seemed like it could have been fun.

But I did not care about the main character, Aren.

It's a writing fail.

The white dude he's supposed to be magicking up, Jason, is unlikeable; that part succeeded.  He didn't deserve the assistance the ASMN was giving him with his job and certainly didn't deserve to win the heart of the girl.

But the main character didn't really do the needful about earning her love either.

She likes him because the script says she should.

Justice Smith is playing the same basic character he portrayed in D&D Honor Among Thieves.

I dunno if he lacks range or the director said do like you did before.

The big speech that's supposed to evoke white guilt fails to land.  What it really gets me thinking is Aren has been attributing how he's felt about himself to outside forces when it was from within all along.   The way he explains it to Jason underscores it and Jason's reaction to it pounds it home.

In the end, it's not bad, but it's also not good.

I'd skip it; but I already watched it.

Yikes

They don't throw grenades or do land nav anymore?

Even my tanker ass threw two live grenades in the grenade course.

It's an interesting read and I've long held that spending money on ammo in training was superior to gadgets.

The 3-round burst on the M16A2 and M4 was a work-around to teaching the troops how to properly use the happy setting on the rifle.

I said, at the time, and I was a wee young waif then, "full auto is something you don't need in your service rifle very often, but when you need it, you NEED it."

The 3-round burst is an example of where you might NEED full auto, and ain't got it.

I notice it was dropped and all the M4's were converted to M4A1's with the SOCOM heavy barrel.  Really shoulda called that an M4A2.

Looking For The Real Killers In New Places

OJ Simpson has succumbed to age.

I'd forgotten him until Marv mentioned his death.

I watched the moderate speed pursuit live.

I paid attention to the trial.

I listened to conspiracy theories.

I was pissed at our "justice" system essentially trying him twice and was baffled at a civil trial could commence on the question of wrongful death when the criminal trial said, "he didn't kill anyone."

I found out that our system would still hang you with the lower standard of evidence required in a civil suit, where "eh, maybe?" is enough to get a conviction.

Pour A Big Glass Of "Told You So"

Streets fail to run in blood AGAIN after gun laws loosened.

I doubt that this will cause anyone in Tallahassee to change their minds and legalize campus and open carry.

I want campus way more than open because of where The Lovely Harvey works.

Open carry would be nice because then I could stop worrying about accidental exposure in the summer when I have to down-grade my carry gun to survive the heat and humidity.

Open carry would give me what I think of as "mostly" or "partially" conceal carry.

The problem with this method is the chance of the shirt riding up and over the gun.

The police in several jurisdictions have decided that the brief and accidental exposure law doesn't mean what it says and any exposure is illegal open carry.

They tend to be the same places where open carry fishing makes the news.

 

Feline Integration

We have three cats.

Bear, Beeper and Shadow.

Shadow is the newest and we found her just after she'd been kicked out of the nest.

She is terrified of Beeper, who will pounce on her when she runs.

We'd let it sort itself out, but Shadow panic pees when Beeper catches her.

For the past two months we've been doing "prisoner exchanges" and letting Shadow out of my room and locking Beeper in.

For about a week we've been leaving all the doors open and holding Shadow while we watch a movie or Hockey on the back porch in the evenings.

Beeper is becoming less interested in Shadow and Shadow is getting less terrified.

We're making steady, if slow, progress.

At first, when Beeper would "attack" (we think she's just asserting too hard) Shadow would disappear for hours and would have to be coaxed out of hiding.

Now she's good mere moments after we separate them.

Progress!

What's interesting about Shadow is Beeper is the only thing she's afraid of.  She uses Bear like a jungle gym, he's grudgingly tolerant of this.

Bear is also a, belated, protector.  After Beeper goes after Shadow and she screams bloody murder; Bear will go after Beeper.

Bear is a BIG cat.  17 pounds of not much fat.  He's 15 when he's totally slim.  Beeper just barely breaks 10 pounds.

When Bear is done, he's DONE.  He'd knock his brother, the dear departed Dingus, to submission and Dingus was 20 pounds without fat.  Dingus was HUGE.

I've been through cat introductions before and this has been the hardest one I've dealt with, but we're getting there.

Another Day Another Round

It's 4/10!

Bracing, don't you think?

Hold Your Breath

Many of the fundamentals of shooting guns apply to photography.

Like holding steady for 2 seconds while the camera takes an unexpectedly good pic with the sun filter on.

I was expecting just the bright reflections off Moxie, not a sepia tone image.

Running Gag

Willard and I have a little skit that amuses us to no end.

We have Antonin of the Czechoslovakian Army Armaments board and Yuri from the Soviet Union Warsaw Pact Standardization Liaison Mission.

A: (Holding a Cz.52 pistol) Is Tokarev.

Y: Is not!

A: See, uses same ammo.  Is Tokarev.

Y: It is not!  The magazine is different and it doesn't even look the same!

A: I don't understand.  Is same.

Y: They don't even work the same way!

A: But same ammo.  You said same ammo important, that is why we change SKS (referring to vz.52 and vz.52/57).

Y: THAT WASN'T AN SKS!

A: Well, at least this is good AK! (Holding vz.58)

Y: That overgrown Walther P.38 is not an AK!

A: Sure it is,  30 round magazine, uses ammo you say to use, pistol grip.  Is same.

Y: That's not the right magazine...

A: We had to change when you said to stop using our better round...

Y: (taking big swig of vodka) You didn't even use our bayonet.  And the muzzle threads are backwards so you can't even use our blank adapter.  Not one gun you've shown me is the same as what everyone else is using.

A: (Holding vz.59 MG) Then you don't want to see our PKM?

Y: (SCREAMS) Even the fucking Poles got this right!  The Gods forsaken Germans fell right into line, but you!

 A: I don't understand why you are so upset, we do what you say, we just fix.

So when I call the Cz.52 pistol a Tokarev, I am riffing off this bit of humor.

Idle Hands

The M1956A2 is now modeling a Primary Arms SLx 5x36 Prism Scope and a Magpul MBUS Gen3 rear sight.

The scope usually rides on Olive, but I wanted to see how it'd look on the AR-10.

The MBUS I got for the occasion, since I'm always short one when I want one.

It's a lot slimmer than the original MBUS and the aperture flip is very cool.  It's also a full three ounces lighter than the aluminum A2 stub!

Small aperture:

Big aperture:

Pretty cunning and easier to flip than the older model.

I know the Kewl Kids eschew the presence of back up irons, given the massive improvement in reliability and durability of optics; I'm just paranoid enough to want them.

M7/M9 Universality Check (Continued Some More)

Czech TT-33 Tokarev fits!

The Czechs call their Tokarevs Cz-52.

Ruger P95 fits!

I continue to be impressed with this holster!

Other entries in this series here and here.

Peak

The Sun God handily defeated the Moon God in Florida.

That's peak eclipse here.

We had high level haze, robbing the shot of things like sunspots.

If They Did What They Said

We got people in Dearborn, Michigan chanting, "Death to America."

They're all of a particular religion and are likely recent immigrants.

OK, Department of Homeland Security, founded while the ruins of the World Trade Center were still smoldering...

Do something to make us more secure.

Expel this dangerous element back to the homelands they love; because they are vocally declaring they don't like it here.

More Information

A different theory on the Battle of Tolense.

I'd never heard of this archaeological site a month ago, now I've read two references since.

I posted about finding flint amongst the bronze.

Did You Know

There was once a time when it was considered wrong to mutilate children.

Castrado was banned.

Interesting is the health problems noted from castrating young boys and the parallels with puberty blockers today.

This is distinct from an adult making decisions for themselves.

They're adults, they're allowed to.

A gigantic problem is how permanent the blockers are and how temporary gender confusion often is in children.

While they may earnestly believe they're trapped in the wrong body, oftentimes this goes away with the simple application of a little compassion and allowing things to run their course without intervention.

I'll Bet They Learned

Breitbart reports:

The White House tried to slow the Israeli war effort — partly out of concern for Palestinian civilians, but also out of concern that if Israel won too quickly, the U.S. would not have leverage to force Israel to accept a Palestinian state.

I don't think the Biden admin and the pro-Hamas people are teaching the lesson they think they are.

The lesson is to win it quicker next time.

Oh, and there's going to be a next time as sure as a dog returns to its vomit.

To be quicker will require abandoning the niceties of worrying about civilian casualties and collateral damage.  Things Israel was only doing to mollify our delicate sensibilities about war.

Noting that it did them no good in the end, they will dispense with such pleasantries in the future.

Betcha.

Never Got To Try It

My players weren't really interested in playing a Scarlet Pimpernel campaign, so I missed my chance to slip in a reference to see if any of them got it.

One of the nobles I was going to have them rescue would have been Raphaël Danceny.

IYKYK.

Twas Another Time

Looking something up in my copy of GURPS: Scarlet Pimpernel and I noticed:

For those of who have computers, SJ Games operates a BBS with discussion areas for several games, including GURPS. Much of the playtest feedback for new products comes from the BBS. It's up 24 hours a day at 512-447-4449, at 300, 1200 or 24M) baud. Give us a call!

For those of us who have computers...

Copyright 1991.

I didn't own a computer then.  I didn't own a computer until after I moved to Florida in 1997.

I was barely online in 1996 with a terminal and 900 baud connection!  And if my roomie picked up the phone, I was done with the bulletin boards that day.

I kinda miss talk.politics.guns.

I Know What Gun The Players Will Choose

Is the Long Land Pattern Musket aka Brown Bess superior or inferior to the French Mle 1777 musket, aka Charleville?

In the real world, the French gun is lighter, stronger, more durable and has a better chance of having parts interchange.  The British gun is easier manufacture and cheaper.

But the real world doesn't matter to MY readers!  They want the GURPS numbers.

The French gun is lighter.  9.3 v 10.2 lb.

The British gun does more damage, but not much more.  4d+2 pi++ v 4d+1 pi++.

The British gun is cheaper.  G$100 v G$150.

The French gun has more reach.  110/1,200 v 100/1,100.

You need to be stronger to use the British gun.  ST 11† v ST 10†.

The French gun is bulkier.  -7 v -6.

The British gun is more reliable.  Malf 16 v 15.  <-- This rarely comes up.

The players are going to buy the Brown Bess.  It's cheaper, does more damage and is more reliable.

Put The M Back In M&P

Even though the assembly line is here in the US, it bothers me that all three of our primary infantry weapons are made by a foreign nation.

The M17 pistol, M7 Carbine and M250 LMG are all made by SIG, a German company.

Our other machine gun, the M240 is made by FN, a Belgian company.

FN has been making our M4 carbines and M16A4 rifles for a while now.  At least they're domestic designs?

H&K, a German company, makes the Marine's M27 rifle.

I cannot help but think this is because American's aren't readily allowed to tinker with full-auto like we used to.

The pistol thing really rankles.  Beretta is Italian.

America has viable pistols and it's military value is so nugatory that we could have taken any US company's handgun off the shelf and been fine.

I am thinking that the European nations have a leg up on us because they swim in markets that are restrictive and they have trouble surviving without government red tape.

US guns typically go to American gun owners with no more specification than what ammo it will eat and if they can convince us that it's kewl and hawt.  They don't need military contracts to stay open because the American consumer outbuys NATO.

Basic Load

Some of this is repeated, but given for some context.

M1 "Garand".  104 rounds in 13 8-shot clips: 16.1 lb.

M14.  100 rounds in 5 20-shot magazines: 17.3 lb.

M16A1 (Vietnam).  162 rounds in 9 20-shot magazines (downloaded 2 rounds each): 12.8 lb.

M16A2.  210 rounds in 7 30-shot magazines: 14.9 lb.

M4 with M68.  210 rounds in 7 30-shot magazines: 15.3 lb.

M4A1 (PIP) with M68.  210 rounds in 7 30-shot magazines: 16.6 lb.

M16A4 with AN/PVQ-31. 210 rounds in 7 30-shot magazines: 16.5 lb.

XM7 with XM157 optic and suppressor.  140 rounds in 7 20-shot magazines: 21 lb.

There's a lot of forgetting some items and remembering to include others in the press gushing about the new gun.

Optics are always included with the M4A1 and M16A4; the XM157 is normally forgotten and the mass of the ammo loaded in the gun is often skipped.

Anal retentive Gamemasters keep track of this shit, because players try to sneak it past you.

Punching Armor

Armor and barriers is the justification for a lot of our ammo changes.

Let's shoot some stuff in GURPS!

7d pi M80 ball.  7-42 raw damage.   24.5 average.

4d+2 pi+ M855A1 ball.  6-26 raw damage.  16 average.

7d pi+ M1186 ball.  7-42 raw damage.  24.5 average.

First, the lowly sandbag.  About a foot of sand between the firer and the target.

DR 36.

All three rounds will fail to penetrate, on average.  5.56 will never penetrate.

Cinder blocks!

DR 16*.  * - Ablative, after a few shots, it stops having DR.

5.56 fails to penetrate on average.  M80 and M1186 get 8.5 through.  M80 will do 8 points of damage to the person hiding there, M1186 will do 12.

Wallboard.

DR 1* per inch; so around DR 3 for a complete wall.

Just about every round works inside the house through the walls.

Windshield.

DR 6 (brittle).

M80 gets 18 in, 18 to the target.  M855A1 gets 10 in, 15 to the target.  M1186 gets 18 in and 27 to the target.

Level II armor.

DR 10 (flexible).

M80; 14 penetrates, 14 damage.  M855A1; 6 penetrates, 9 damage.  M1186; 14 penetrates, 21 damage.

Level IIIA armor.

DR 12 (flexible)

M80; 12 penetrates, 12 damage.  M855A1; 4 penetrates, 6 damage.  M1186; 12 penetrates, 18 damage.

Level III and IV armor.

DR 25 and 35

No penetration on average.  Some penetration with really good rolls.

Both M855A1 and M1186 are assuming my enhanced performance ball house rule is true.  Otherwise it's just pi and no 50% bonus to damage that penetrates the DR.  That makes M1186 no better than M80.

Also note: M80A1 has the same construction as M855A1, so it should get a pi+ modifier too; making it the same performance as M1186.  What M1186 has going for it is getting it done from a 13" barrel; but that comes with attendant high chamber pressures.

Moar Weight Less Dakka

To quote from Wikipedia:

The proposed combat ammunition load for each soldier will be 140 total rounds, distributed across seven 20-round magazines, in total weighing 9.8 lb (4.4 kg). Compared to the M4A1 carbine weighing 6.34 lb (2.88 kg) unsuppressed, with a basic combat load of 210 rounds in seven 30-round magazines, in total weighing 7.4 lb (3.4 kg), the XM7 rifle weighs about 2 lb (0.91 kg) more and each soldier carries roughly a 4 lb (1.8 kg) heavier load with 70 fewer rounds.

We can GURPS the damage too!

The M4A1 does 4d+2 pi damage with M855 ammo.  M855A1 does 4d+2 pi+.

I'm showing M855 because there's a debate about M855A1 not really performing any better...

Per round is 6-26 for M855 and 9-39 for M855A1, averaging 16 and 24 respectively.

Basic load for an M4 is 210 rounds.  Average damage per basic load is 3,360 for M855 and 5,040 for M855A1.

6.8x51mm M1186 should be doing 7d+2 pi.  They're quoting 3,000 fps for the carbine, but I think it should be 2,850 with the short barrel.  3,000 is what the SAW has.  Drop damage to 7d pi if so.

Per round is 9-44 with an average of 26 (26.5 actually).  7-42 and 24.5 if lower velocity.

Basic load for an M7 will be 140 rounds.  Average damage per basic load is 3,710.  3,430 with the lower velocity.  That's not a huge improvement considering the extra weight.

It does get a bit more range, and the optic should mean the troops can take advantage of it.

The rub is...  4 extra pounds is 4 30 round magazines for an M4.  That adds 1,920 points of damage, on average, for a load of M855 and 2,880 for M855A1.

With the proposed loadouts:

3,360 M855 < 3,430 < 3,710 M1186 < 5,040 M855A1

Matching the weight of the new proposal.

3,430 < 3,710 M1186 < 5,280 M855 < 7,920 M855A1

Again, I ask, "What four pounds of gear the soldier is currently carrying will be discarded to carry this new weapon and ammo?"

It's an obvious question because we're at our limit of how much they can carry now.

Update:  It's entirely possible that the M1186 will have a composite structure that's a bit like the M855A1.  That would change to pi+ in GURPS terms; so 7d pi+

3,360 M855 < 5,040 M855A1 < 5,145 M1186  Still not a massive improvement overall.

The Mark Of Zorro

I just watched the 1940 and 1974 versions of the film.

The older version holds up better, despite the newer one being an almost word for word, shot for shot remake in color using the same music.

All the newer version has going for it is Ricardo Montalban as Captain Esteban.

It reminded me how much I love swashbuckler films.

Tyrone Power's fight against Basil Rathbone as Zorro and Capt. Pasquale in the 1940 version is a masterpiece.  Jill Bearup does a great breakdown of it.

Zoon

 

Mox Nix

It would seem they're remaking Romeo and Juliet as a movie again.  Nope, it's a stage production.

And they're casting a black woman as Juliet!

Meh.

I really only care if she can act and do the part justice.

Why am I blase about it?

Because I've seen Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves cast as brothers in a film version of "Much Ado About Nothing" and it's excellent.

If we really want to get twisted about Shakespeare, we should demand that all female roles be portrayed by men; as they were when his plays were first performed.

My personal preference is still for the '68 Zeferelli version.

So far, I don't think I've seen Juliet portrayed as described in the play unless you count Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.

But I am braced for being told that I will not like it because they've cast a black woman as Juliet.

What I demand is the entire Capulet clan be cast with black actors!  They're blood relatives, after all.

RIP Funimation

Funimation has merged with CrunchyRoll.

Funimation "sold" content to its members.

Those members may or may not get access to the content they've paid for.

This just underscores that if you don't have a local copy, you don't own shit.

It Happens

The IDF blew up a convoy of aid vehicles.

Unless they specifically set out to kill the aid workers, this is in the same category as friendly fire.

You don't want it to happen, you do what you can to keep it from happening, but it's gonna happen.

When you go wandering in an active war zone, you run the risk of getting killed by one side or the other if they mistake you for the enemy.

Even if you sought and got permission from both sides to be where you were.

Communication breaks down and the dudes on the triggers might not have gotten the word.

Quite a propaganda coup for Hamas, though.

Who'da Thunk

Reading stories from California and the response to the increase of the minimum wage from $15 an hour to $20 an hour.

Price increases and business closures.

Mostly closures as increasing the price of many things exceeds the price elasticity of the customer who will stop buying it at the new, higher, price.

The minimum wage is, and always has been, $0 an hour.

The price of many things is tied to minimum wage and when it goes up, the prices of those goods goes up too.

Putting the buying power of minimum wage right back where it started.

I Learned A Lot

The bare patch on Harvey's car is now the factory color.

The surrounding clear coat did not respond to the wet sanding well.

A sure sign of dead clear coat.

I need to strip down the whole brow and try again.

The new paint looks pretty darn good, though.

All Modern Like

Willard's M1956A2 in modern furniture with a more minimalist rear sight:

It tips the scales at 10.7 lb. loaded.

With retro furniture.

Same weight with the PMAG.  A bit heavier with steel.

Donut Run!

 

Because Krispy Kreme is, apparently, owned by some kind of evil Zionist according to some Hamas boot-licker...

I drove the 114 miles to Gainsville and their 24-hour store instead of waiting until 0600 for the nearest location to open and snagged me a dozen donuts.  6-Kreme filled and 6 chocolate covered.

It was actually secondary to testing the mileage of The Beast with DOD disabled.

25 mpg.

Not too shabby for a two-ton car and a V8.

Can't Afford Not To

Turns out that handguard I thought I had laying around here was never actually purchased.

There was once a plan to use it on what became the M16A4 clone when I moved from having two 6.8 guns to one.

I got the KAS M5 handguard instead and did USGI A2 stock and grip instead of the Magpul rifle stuff in OD.

Well, Brownell's has the handguard on sale, so...

Should be here Friday.

LuRnInG

A huge flake of paint came off of Harvey's car, just above the windshield.

The bare patch promptly started to rust while I waited for supplies to arrive.

Body work is a skill I don't have.

But I am making a game attempt.

I sanded the rust down to bare metal and removed a larger area of paint that appeared to have been compromised.

Couple more passes with finer sandpaper, 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of color, 3 coats of clear.

Going to try wet sanding next to smooth out my clumsy work.

This shit is a skill and I'm rolling on the default.

Worst comes to worst, I can redo it.

An abject fail just means hiring someone.