Whore d'oeuvres

The ideological insanity that is the climate change argument has long since gone off the tracks, but I found this to be just hilarious:

The effects of climate change have driven women in communities in coastal areas in poor countries like the Philippines into dangerous work, and sometimes even the flesh trade, a United Nations official said.

The "flesh trade?" That's where you're going with this? This UN guy sounds pretty creepy; definitely the guy that sits in the cubicle down the hall that everyone thinks is a pedophile.

This whole article is chock full of contradictions and wild speculation. My intent of pointing out this article, which I found on Drudge, is that the climate change people have gone absolutely out of their minds with this stuff, and have resorted to just saying random-assed crazy things to get people to buy into it. If I were trying to convince a group of people that my brand of Koolaid is the brand to buy, I sure wouldn't be telling them about how the recipe was delivered to me by piebald alien gnomes it while wearing a lampshade on my head because everyone would think I was nuts.

"Aside from their household chores and participation in fishing activity, they have to find additional sources of income like working as domestic helpers in affluent families," she said.

So if I'm reading this right, climate change -- the earth heating, cooling, or not at all, whatever it's not important -- is impacting the harvest of coastal resources, so in turn women are going to the coast in droves to help collect shellfish that are no longer there so their family can make a living, and, not finding these shellfish, or just giving up because collecting these non-existent shellfish is so exhausting, instead resort to humping HIV riddled "transient seafarers" that live on cargo ships and come from affluent families. Gotcha. It's so obvious now.

So why are we not doing our part to stop prostitution? Disregard the part about brothels popping up along the coast as a normal part of the economic equation in the Philippines, as poorer countries are not at all known for this sort of thing. We're talking about HIV, women forced, FORCED into the "flesh trade" by global warming/cooling, and human rights. Something must be done. Just check out their list of stuff that you can do! Here's an example:

Prioritize research and date collection to improve the understanding of gender and population dynamics in climate change mitigation and adaptation;

What does that even mean? Date collection is the responsibility of all of us? OK then! Do your part!

Rule number four applies to poachers too

What a tragedy.

I have always wondered how someone could mistake a human for a deer. Seems to me that if your sense of perception is that skewed, than you have a responsibility to pick something different to do with your time.

I've been in the woods hunting before and seen kids, teens, dogs, and what not flash by, but never did I think about shooting at them. When it comes to the whitetailed deer, hunters are usually keen to pick up on the subtle white flashes of their tail, or the white insides of their ears. A child or such running through brush with a white T-shirt, or a biology student with a white hat slowly looking for frogs will no doubt attract the attention of a hunter for a moment, but you have to be sure of your target and what is beyond it. People look totally different than animals, so there is no excuse for this guy.

Now before the animal activists start throwing rocks at hunters, be advised that there are tens of thousands of hunters in the woods in those parts, and accidents and deaths are rare. One moron doesn't represent the millions of responsible hunters that are in the woods right now.

Dude, you might just want to change your name

Both arrests referred to in the lawsuit occurred when police were really looking for Rodney Lee Morton, a local man with a long criminal record.

Rodney Maurice Morton works for a national security agency of the federal government, has a security clearance and no criminal record, court records state.

On Dec. 4, 2007, Morton was arrested in Fredericksburg on an assault charge.

Read the rest.

It's pretty unfortunate that all the screwups have led to this much damage to this guy's life. While I'm not defending the problems within the various counties that have cause havoc to this man, if I were him I would seriously consider a name change or something. At this point it has to be better than to be perpetually arrested because various locales can't get their shit together and catch a lowlife scumbag.

This has to suck.

A case for suppressor ownership

It was not these private individuals but rather law enforcement groups--sometimes using automatic weapons--that concerned neighbors.

A shooting range built for youth to be able to shoot skeet is getting bad press because cops are firing automatic weapons. That's about the gist of the article. I would be willing to bet that the machine gun fire is rare, but the neighbors' real complaint lies with all the .223 Remington madness that gets fired from AR type semi-auto rifles. Fair enough.

How about a push for taking suppressors out of the NFA? That would settle the problem pretty quickly, don't you think? It would also prevent hearing loss.

Safety first, I always say.

Gun Ownership Reform

So if health insurance is supposedly required of every American, why not firearms ownership?

A responsibility to be healthy and a responsibility to be able to protect yourself. I dig it!

Armed defense against machinegun toting pirates?

Blasphemy you say?

Try again.

Light those bastards up!!!

No more Microsoft for me, thanks

So this is the first time in over a week that I've been able to log into my blogger account. My last running PC at home wouldn't let me log into anything anymore: yahoo, blogger, my bank account - and so I finally lost my temper.

That computer, as well as an older PC that used to run Windows before it started having problems, got Space Maced.



Click on it to see the whole thing.

Feel my wrath bitches!!!

The last piece of electronic garbage that got the Space Mace treatment was an X-Box that I had years ago. Yet another one of Microsoft's shit products. Too bad the Space Mace didn't make it through this one, but I doubt I will ever need it again. There are no more Microsoft purchases in my future considering that I've been through like five computers in the last three years. Not good investments.

I have spent the week backing up my work computer so that I could recover the damn thing yesterday in what was the last attempt to get rid of malware. Not really sure why we bother paying for Norton. It worked, but I've got a ways to go before I will be up to speed, and even as I write this I'm having problems posting images from Photobucket on this post (notice I can't re-size the picture), as well as getting the Windows pop-ups telling me to restart my computer. I just fired the thing up ten minutes ago. I mean, the thing is basically factory new and I'm already fighting with it.

I am now looking for a computer that will last me a minimum of five years with minimal maintenance, that will let me websurf, blog, do Movie Guns posts, check my bank account, save pictures, and print up range cards. That's all I'm going to ask of it, and Windows shit is obviously not fucking capable of fulfilling my requirements. You guys working there should be ashamed.

When I was in the construction biz, I prided myself on building stuff that would last lifetimes, and I never got called back to fix what I had done. I built it right from the start because I'm not a douchebag. I had a two year old Gateway running Vista and I had to fight the thing to check my Yahoo account. The servers at work are running Windows and it's everything anyone can do to print something or receive an email. Microsoft people build shit products that don't last, and you guys suck for using your clever marketing to basically paint the entire market into a corner and give consumers the option of only buying your stuff and live a life of frustrating hell.

I'm not sure how good Mac stuff is, but I'm going to try it. Friends and family have mentioned that I don't want Mac products because all of the latest and greatest sexy software and games won't work with it, and I'll have problems hooking up multiple printers and stuff. Well, I've got multiple printers hooked up to my work laptop, and I can't print more times than I can. And I don't want to have to buy new software every fucking month just to maintain some sort of cool status with my friends. I might buy a program once every three years, and when I do drop $100 on it I sure as hell don't want it in obsolescence within six months to where I have to spend $120 more dollars on some service pack upgrade just to keep it working with Windows latest bi-annual OS release, or fix all the bugs just to make it run. From what I've seen of ITunes, they are suffering from the same problems. And while we're on the subject, condoning the use of this stuff because "well, everyone else is using it", or "you just have to learn to mess with it until it works" makes you complicit in this little goatrope. You should be ashamed too.

So I will be shopping for something right after the new year as right now I am committed to fixing my wife's brand new Asus laptop that I bought her in April of this year. Yes, fixing it. Shitty piece of Windows Vista shit.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Big boomers

No, not the dreaded five pound revolvers that make the Violence Policy Center pee in terror, but the really cool substances that combine to make tannerite.


To watch the videos, you're going to have to clicky the linky as Photobucket sucks pretty horribly.

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh284/CTone03/Shooting/?action=view&current=MVI_0259.flv

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh284/CTone03/Shooting/?action=view&current=MVI_0265.flv


Fun stuff!!

Mix it together and shoot it with a rifle. That's it. The neighbors didn't even call the po-po this time, which is odd since they call them on us for shooting all the time. This being rural Virginia, there's nothing that can be done as we are legal beagles. Private property can be a bitch.

Afterwords I fired off about fifty of my zombie rounds to see if they still sucked as bad as I remembered, and they did. Groups were about three inches at 121 yards, which will work just fine for the zombie apocalypse, and served us well being minute of tannerite jar. I do have some well made 52 grain Sierra Match King rounds that will shoot five rounds into a half an inch at 100 yards, but I didn't bring them.

I'm still having various technical difficulties with an array of shitty computers. Yesterday I tried to run a DVD on this very computer because I had a couple of hours to capture some frames on the big ass monitor, but alas, the DVD player is dead. I am trying folks, but PCs and me do not mix well. After Christmas I am going to have to get this one fixed so I can start cranking out Movie Guns posts again.

Technical difficulties

My wife's laptop is down, my laptop is down, my work laptop is down, but my home PC is running. . . barely. I did manage to get the big ass monitor fixed though, by soldering a new capacitor on the power supply. When I have time, I'll give a shout out to the guy who posted directions on the internet. Right now I'm at the Nissan dealership blogging on my blackberry because the starter on my truck let go this morning. I'm pretty tired of shit breaking all the time. Whatever happened to people building stuff that lasts?

Kinda interested to see where this is going

University spokesman Mark Owczarski says the school's president and about a dozen administrators had a teleconference with miltitary officials Friday.

He says Pentagon officials asked for guidance on how to respond to the shooting spree at the Texas military base. The discussion ranged from how to help victims' families to accommodating large numbers of news media.

Well, Virginia Tech would be the ones to ask. Unfortunately, the yahoos at the head shed in Fort Hood would have been better off calling VT a month ago and asking what sort of policies encourage this type of behaviour so that it can be fixed. Why nobody thought of asking that is the question of the day.

Now, Lt General Cone made the remark the other day that "we don't go armed around here," which I thought was not only laughable from a sheer nonsensical standpoint, but also rather dangerous. Tam at View From The Porch sums it up better than anyone can, and I'll quote this piece as it's spot on:

"I know Texans on the internets are always bragging about how it's legal for them to shoot someone stealing their hubcaps after dark, so I'm pretty sure a guy Allahu Akhbar-ing his way through a hospital waiting room gets the green light in the target selection sweepstakes. If they had been allowed to carry their damn guns, maybe somebody could have smoked Hasan before he rolled up a body count like an NCAA basketball score. Even the most ardent gun banners are always shooting off at the mouth about how "only the police and the military are qualified to carry guns" so how come they were unarmed and defenseless by edict here?"

That my friends, is perfection.

I have been on more military bases than I care to -- both on active duty and as a civilian -- and it has always grated on me that I have been deemed too untrustworthy to carry a sidearm while on a base in the US. I have been trusted to carry an automatic weapon on a post overseas, so why not here? Policies that disarm are disgusting enough, but disarming our Soldiers and Marines at home is pathetic.

People lauded the Soldiers at Fort Hood for stepping up in the face of the massacre, helping one another, passing on medical treatment in the hospital to allow a more severely injured Soldier to get treatment instead, and overall for just doing what Soldiers do. It is remarkable, but what is not being said is that this is not something they do just because something bad happens, it's what they do 24/7. These same remarkable Soldiers are also thought of as too untrustworthy to be armed if they want to?

There needs to be change.

That's some serious incompetence

Dude, how screwed up do these two lions have to be to not be able to catch a deer inside of their confinement zone?

I guess captivity has a way with animals. Funny thing is that I watched Madagascar with my kids this weekend.

Some thoughts

Everybody is talking about the tragedy on Ft Hood, and there are a few things I'd like to point out that I haven't seen mentioned.

First is that the public at large is entirely clueless as to how military bases work in regards to weapons possession. Despite what you may think, these bases are "Gun Free Zones" in every sense of the term. A news anchor asked a Senator or Congressman yesterday if all Soldiers just walked around armed, and was under the impression that that is policy. To clear things up, weapons are stored in armories that are very much secure, and ammunition is stored in fortified bunkers at a different location on the base. Personnel, which includes active duty uniformed individuals stationed on the base, are not allowed to carry any weapon -- personal or government owned -- on base in any way they please. The only time Soldiers or Marines will be wandering around with weapons is during training.

I stress though, that this policy will not stop a shooter from buying ammo at Wal-Mart, loading up their personal weapon, and bringing it on the base. To think so is fantasy.

If you live in base housing, sometimes you are allowed to register personal weapons with the base Provost Marshal's office and keep them in your residence, but I don't believe that every base allows this. If you live in the barracks, personal weapons must be stored in the armory, and cannot be carried about freely on post. There are procedures and regulations for bringing firearms onto base for shooting events or hunting, but again, the gun(s) cannot be carried around freely.

I'm not advocating these rules, mind you. It's just the way it is. I have engaged in conversation with many people over the years who defend these rules because, it is argued, that Soldiers or Marines cannot be trusted with firearms. Firefights will break out at the drop of a hat, and there will be negligent discharges every day in the chow halls. To anyone who has spent any time in combat, these arguments are largely false.

On forward operating bases (FOBs), civilian contractors and military personnel alike are armed and in possession of ammunition at all times, and shootings --negligent or intentional -- are rare. There is a high level of stress, exhaustion, and complacency on FOBs, and while many have seen some dumbass officer fire a live round into the clearing barrel at the chow hall, NDs are not an every day occurrence. The main thing missing from a FOB that would be present on a mainside post would be alcohol, and that would no doubt cause problems. I am convinced it is an American issue. Americans are stupid when it comes to the drink, but there are other nations that do not share in our stupidity. Alcohol is a constant safety issue on bases despite the weapons policy, and our culture is to blame for it.

For those who do not understand what a readiness center is, let me fill you in. These are large buildings that usually have some sort of gymnasium or other open space in them. Soldiers, Marines, and personnel are jammed into these buildings by the hundreds in order to do all of the administrative stuff that they need to complete before heading overseas into combat, or coming back from combat. There are processing stations/booths set up for all sorts of things, like, for instance, a dental booth where a Soldier's dental records will be looked at to see if their fangs are in good enough shape to not cause any problems while they kill people in a foreign land. There will be a station where medical records will be checked and shots will be given. The chaplain station will be where a Soldier can express their concerns about Susie cheating on them in their absence, and the legal station is where your will and power of attorney will be closely monitored to make sure the stripper that you just married will be able to access every dime you make while at war. Personnel going through this hell are stacked ass to nuts in a maze of hallways while they wait for their chance to get to the open area where all the stations are. These are not nice places to be to begin with. To be gunned down in one by a scumbag wannabe hajji is the epitome of shitty.

Now you know.

For closure, if you think that the weapons policy on bases will stop a killer, just look at the news this morning. It doesn't. I am not under the belief that my fellow man cannot be trusted with a personal weapon at all times. To have been where I have been, with every swinging dick on a FOB tired, pissed off, dirty, stressed beyond all belief, and homesick after a day of being shot at; armed with automatic weapons, handguns and live ammunition; heading into a long line of people that are waiting to get into the chow hall, with nothing eventful happening day after day - tends to make me think that it's no big deal to let them keep arms on a mainside base if they want to. The alcohol thing would have to be looked into, but it could be done, and events like mass shootings would be far less painful.

The new 90%

Here again, the ATF is talking about the number of guns confiscated in Mexico from the cartels, and how many of them are traced to the US. Originally the press had touted the 90% of guns canard, until it was pointed out to them that that was not so.

Now the ATF is at least being a little more clear by emphasizing that the percentage is a result of the number of guns submitted for trace by Mexico, and not by the amount confiscated. There's a huge difference.

So the story is still "about 90%", which is just what the press is going to state over and over again anyways. My concerns are not just with the amount of guns now being stopped at the border that would have gone to the cartels -- I mean, buying up rifles and sending them south has got to be jacking up the prices here in the states; I would rather some productive citizen get one vice some dirty thug -- but also to the amount of illegal firepower being carried from Mexico into the US for nefarious purposes. I'm worried the focus of the ATF may be to only Mexico's advantage, and not enough of our own.

It's not too far of a stretch to think that if these guys are brazen enough to engage the Mexican army in an open shooting war on some idle Tuesday, that they would be just as brazen to cross into the US and shoot it out with some of our guys. Some ATF and Border Patrol agents may not mind a little action, but my concern also extends to some poor rancher or land owner who may run across some of these crazies.

So I guess my question is whether or not we're stopping any of this mess from coming North?

I would also like to point out that the picture in this article of the agent "inspect[ing] a 50(sic) caliber rifle", that he is actually inspecting an AK type weapon. And yes, I do see the buttstock of what looks like may be a .50, but still, the caption is wrong.

Don't inject me bro!!

Funny, I don't recall Dean Meyers getting to ask for a reprieve from his execution.

Perhaps James Martin, Sonny Buchanan, Premkumar Walekar, Sarah Ramos, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, Pascal Charlot, Kenneth Bridges, Linda Franklin, and Conrad Johnson should have pleaded for clemency from their executioner by any means necessary; maybe by saying that they were too mentally ill to receive a fatal bullet.

I get the anti-death sentence arguments. I really do, and I agree with them 99%. This, however, if carried out, will be righteous justice.

Using children as a shield

The 2nd Amendment Foundation, the National Rifle Association, and The Pink Pistols are getting their activism on by challenging a gun ban by the city of Seattle.

Good on them.

The city is taking the line that their ban, which is against state law, is still legal because they say it is. As for some of the reasons Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is citing for keeping the ban, we have these gems:

In June, a group of teen boys flashed a gun at several girls outside of the Alki Community Center. - In 2004, a woman was shot dead at a Red Cross shelter set up in the Miller Community Center on Capitol Hill. - Last year a man pulled out a gun at the Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center. Three people were injured when he opened fire.

Let me break this down to show you how jacked up the mayor's logic is with these examples.

In the first one, we have a group of teen boys committing a crime by first having the gun to begin with, and then by flashing or brandishing the thing. So they committed two crimes, but by the mayor's account they would be deterred by a law that says they couldn't bring the gun that they illegally possess to the Community Center to start with, and so logically they wouldn't also commit a crime by brandishing it there because it's already illegal. What they did was illegal without the gun ban in place, but Nickels wants to make it super illegal to keep kids safe. Common sense, right?

Next example has a woman murdered outside a shelter. She was presumably gunned down by some scumbag who no doubt would have just stayed at home if he knew that carrying his gun outside the shelter would be illegal. "Damn! You mean it's illegal to carry my weapon there? I guess I won't be killing anyone today! Gun Free Zone!!! Not Again!!"

And last, there's no telling what to think of this example. If the guy just pulled a gun at random and started shooting, then that's illegal without the ban. Nickels is saying that with the ban in place, the guy wouldn't have shown up to begin with. Sounds absurd to me.

Nickels is using kids as a shield for his illegal gun ban. There is no dispute in this article that the ban runs counter to state law, and the "common sense" logic that is used, as well as the examples given, noticeably lack anything that resembles sense. Gun bans don't stop killers from killing, and they don't stop scumbags from being scumbags. They do keep law abiding citizens away, which in my experience with state and national parks is really the entire goal anyways.

Concealed carry madness!

I'm all about carrying concealed, but come on, who really needs to carry fourteen pythons?

Range Report

So, I got in my order from MidwayUSA containing a beautiful new Streamlight TRL-1 light for my Kimber, as well as a box of 175grain Federal Gold Medal Match.

Last week I outshot the 168gr FGMM rounds at 285 yards with my handloads, but I wanted to see if my barrel likes 175 grain rounds. I originally thought my barrel was a 1:10 inch twist, but a quick check shows it to be a 1:12, so in theory it should favor bullets in the 155 - 168 grain range. It seems to be a pretty fast barrel, so I figured what the hell.

My results were astonishing to say the least. The range was 100 yards on private property. I started out by shooting five rounds of my handloads to warm and foul the barrel, and then followed up with a 5-shot group of the 168gr FGMM after a minute or two to allow the barrel to cool. That last part is pretty pointless since it takes about twenty rounds to get the 20" Fulton Armory Titan barrel to get warm. After about five minutes, I touched off five rounds of the 175gr FGMM, and couldn't believe my eyes:


The top group is the 168 grain FGMM, which measures 1.142" center to center. The flyer in the center diamond was my last shot. Out of those five rounds, I had three blown primers, as well as some really obvious extractor wipe on the case heads. The fourth round was one that blew a primer, which caused a jam. I had to loose my cheekweld while I dealt with the jam, and I attribute my group growing from .586" CTC to the 1.142" group to that loose primer keeping the bolt from closing. Now we know why the military insists on crimped primers.

As for the bottom target, the one shot hole at 9 o'clock just outside of the orange is from a Browning BAR in .300 Winchester Magnum, and is not from my DPMS LR-308. That .331" group by the calipers is five rounds of the 175 grain FGMM that I got from MidwayUSA. It could be a fluke group, as things like that are relatively common. However, I have never had that happen on the first string. Unfortunately, I didn't get to print another group of those as I didn't have any more time. I will buy some more and give them another shot in the near future. You can count on that.

When stuff warms up in the spring, I'm gonna do my best to duplicate those 175 grain rounds. I didn't shoot them over the chronograph, but will when I get some time.

Open carry righteousness

I love open carry. I could care less about whether or not it gives up some sort of advantage over concealment; whether it scares people, or whether it is smart or not. Open carry is comfortable.

In Virginia it's pretty common, and is probably the best example of any state on how it's not a big deal. There is more to it than that, and SailorCurt runs it aground with this post on a comment that he made on the subject. It's a quick read that fleshes out precisely how I feel about the rest.

That's common sense violence prevention!

So a DC citizen is enjoying a drink at a bar, and a fight breaks out resulting in the citizen getting stabbed. Unfortunate? Yes, but how do you prevent scumbags from stabbing citizens in the future?

If you said "Shut down the bar!" then you need to either run for office in DC, or join the metro PD.

Seriously, who's side are these clueless bureaucrats on? This retarded way of "protecting the public" is so breathtakingly stupid it makes my head spin. Let's not protect DC residents by locking up violent scumbags, let's punish the bar owner.

Because banning dead end streets, bars, high school football, and pizza shops will surely do the trick this time.

There's no way that this is even legal. It can't be. Why oh why we stopped dragging morons like Lanier, Norton, and Graham out into the street for a good ol' fashioned tarring and feathering is the question of the day. It makes me wish they would do something not quite as destructive of society, like putting up crime cameras or something.

New gun owners in Chicago

I'm not sure of the legalities of Chicago gun ownership beyond the fact that it's harder to buy or own them there than in most other cities, but good on Chicago women looking for ways to protect themselves.

Shootout with store owner

In Ohio.

The video is way more clear than most security camera footage. The store owner got shot in the process, but his wound is not life threatening.

I can't see how he could have missed the scumbags at such a close range. Maybe he didn't fire. One things for sure, those two morons ran like hell when they realised that they weren't going to get the money without a fight.

GUARDIAN angel

CNN) -- An off-duty security guard Tuesday fatally shot a psychiatric patient who had stabbed a doctor at a medical building in Boston, Massachusetts, police said.

It is a good thing he was there, armed, and able to stop the threat. Still, this being Boston we're talking about, and also being in a hospital which is no doubt a victim disarmament zone, one has to wonder how much more out of hand things would have gotten if there wasn't an armed person in the building. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to have armed good guys around considering how easily a crazy person can do harm with whatever is at hand.

Oh I know, I know. He was a SECURITY GUARD, with special SECURITY GUARD skills. This SECURITY GUARD was OFF-DUTY. I'm sure he even had a badge of some type that credentials his GUARD skills and appeases the ever fearful mind of the quivering masses. A citizen can't possess the special powers needed to determine whether or not to shoot a man who just stabbed a doctor with a knife unless they have some sort of uniform or shiny thing to display to unarmed folk:

The security guard interceded, revealing a weapon and ordering the patient to drop a knife, Davis said.

"When the suspect did not comply, he shot the suspect," Davis said.

Well, that sounds difficult, doesn't it? How can you or I ever hope to make a split decision like that without the "gun going off?" If this were a case of citizen intervention, no doubt it would be publicly noted by the local police chief/appointed bureaucrat how unwise it is to attempt to stop a madman because he will simply take your gun away and use it against you.

On another note, it is believed that the SECURITY GUARD didn't manage to kill fellow citizens in road ragey madness while on the way to the hospital because he was a SECURITY GUARD. It solves the problem. Also, because he was a SECURITY GUARD, the potential victims that were no doubt saved by his actions are happy that he intervened for their defenseless asses:

"We're happy he was here," she said about the guard, who was taken to Boston police headquarters for questioning.

Who knows how pissed off these people would have been had the guy not been a SECURITY GUARD with the skills that kills and pays the bills.

The lesson to take away from this article is that if you're ever involved in a shooting, especially one that saves a ton of lives, make sure that you shout out to all the citizens around you that you're an OFF-DUTY SECURITY GUARD so that their mind is put at ease. The press will quickly show up and make it official record -- mentioning nine times on the page -- what your confessed profession is, and then all will be good.

Kalashnikov has regrets

"It is painful for me to see when criminal elements of all kinds fire from my weapon," Mikhail Kalashnikov said in a videotaped address to a conference of Russian arms traders and designers at a top-secret Soviet-era arms testing facility outside Moscow.

Hard feelings Mr. Kalashnikov? Well, the alternative is that criminal elements could go back to using edged weapons. That seems way more civilized.

Unfortunately, I am just finding out about the gas powered rifle that Kalashnikov built:

Designed just after World War Two to work in the harsh conditions in which Soviet troops operate, the gas-powered Kalashnikov, which is cheap to build and easy to maintain, became one of the most successful weapons ever produced.

Who knew? I bet those are collectors items which will no doubt go up in value after Cap & Trade gets passed! In other news, it seems that Russia really didn't sell off millions of AKs after the Soviet Union fell:

Anatoly Isaikin, the chief of the arms trading monopoly Rosoboronexport, said counterfeit Kalashnikovs "tarnish the brand because these weapons are sold in conflict regions."

Whew! At least none of those Russian AKs were sold across the globe to nasty countries only to be used in genocide or anything. We all know now that Russia kept it's massive weapons stockpiles under lock & key the whole time. And knowing is half the battle!

This last bit has me thinking:

"We first need to create a civilized Kalashnikov market. Only then can we boost the price," Grodetsky sighed.

I know of a very civilized country that is chock full of good hearted folks who would love to have a Kalashnikov rifle of their very own. Too bad said country has a government agency that arbitrarily blocks their import. What to do, what to do.

Found at Hot Air.

Oh, is that what it is?

I was a little confused. I thought that people like myself were turning to FOX News because they seem to be the only network actually covering stuff these days, instead of sucking up to The One's loins.

When news events are not being intensely followed, CNN executives acknowledge, viewers seem to be looking for partisan views more than objective coverage.

Objective. It seems that CNN, as well as other networks like NBC, MSNBC, ABC, interprets that word different than I do.

Objective:

5. not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased: an objective opinion.

This is what I've always thought when I consider what objective means, but there is another meaning:

4. being the object or goal of one's efforts or actions.

The object or goal of these networks of course being to make The One seem majestical, and not hold him accountable for anything.

I'm not overly fond of FOX News either, as they can get their stupid on just like the rest of em', but the blatant BS being put up by other news agencies is just startling. If only they could see the forest from all the trees.

Found via Drudge.

Delicious self defense

Gunblogger style!

(H/T SayUncle)

Range Report

Today I took off to try to shoot something beyond 100 yards. A friend had invited me to shoot long range - 800+ yards - but a combination of rain, kids, and pumpkin patches cut that off. I made a hell of an effort to get all I could out of these handloads, so I headed to a friends property in BF Virginia and had a good time.

The property used to have a pond on it that I have fished from childhood, but the damned beavers destroyed it. We killed piles of them over the years to try to keep them from ruining the place, but it was in vain. I can remember years ago when I got in a nasty scrap with a family of six beavers there in that pond late one night. It was me and my trusty Mossberg 835 and Mag light. When the smoke cleared, two of them were dead outright, and two were struggling for their lives in the spatter dots that covered the pond. The other two made it out alive, and two years later breached a thirty foot hole in the dam, which drained the pond. Today it is an aspiring forest.

I had to hack away with a machete for an hour and a half to get a shooting lane, but in the end I had an honest 285 yards from the muzzle to see what my handloads could do.

To give me a bit of a bar to gauge the quality of my loads, I picked up a box of 168 grain Federal Gold Medal Match at the local funshow. If my loads could beat those, then I know that I'm in the right ballpark.

Here is a look at the mess that I had to deal with. I was ass deep in weeds and brush with my micro Gerber machete trying to make a lane. When I got done my hands were shaking. In the back you can barely make out my target:



I had to shoot off the hood of my truck, which isn't ideal. I had sandbags, but the things kept slippin' and sliddin' on my not-so-waxed hood. To top that, I had to walk to the target and back in between groups, which meant a 600 yard walk around the pond total for every five shots. Not such a great thing when you're trying to shoot tiny groups. Here's my spread:




The yellow chair caught my ejected brass.

Some may look at my evil black gun and wonder what the hell I need such an animal for, and my answer would be that I built the thing to hunt critters with. That's right, rails and all were specifically bought to make a world class hunting gun. To give a better understanding, here is a glance at today's target through the H-425 reticule of the 3-12x50mm Horus Vision Hawk scope:



That reticule was designed for hunters. The range of an animal can be accurately gauged with it, and the Mil tree can be used to shoot at distance. It's perfect!

Here is my target that explains my shooting. To answer the obvious question: I did better the Federal Gold Medal Match rounds that I bought today. I do have to add that my groups opened up noticeably with every trip down to the target, which isn't surprising. I'm not too far out of shape, but a brisk 600 yard walk gets my blood pumping, and I didn't have time to relax in between strings of shots. More shooting will have to be conducted before I can claim that my rounds are more accurate.



The horizontal spread of my groups is all me. There was no wind to speak of, and the temperature today was 63 degrees and partly cloudy. Sometimes the light was tricky, and I had problems keeping focus on the orange dots. I had a borrowed Barska 15-40x50 spotting scope that a friend lent to me, and I have to say that there's a reason he got it for free from some Cabela's order. I could make out the shot holes with my scope, but could barely make out the target with the spotting scope.

All in all, my handloads shoot into 4" or less at almost 300 yards, and I can't complain with that. If I had a solid rest and all day to shoot, I think these rounds will easily shoot under MOA if I do my part. Either way, it sure is fun!

Reloading tip of the day

I'm all about getting the most out of things like tools and equipment, and that makes me a utilitarian. Using tools for purposes that they were never designed for is what my vocational school electrical teacher affectionately called Primitive Pete.

Primitive Pete is your friend.

When you're prepping cases for reloading them, one of the steps is to clean all the soot out of the primer pockets. Sometimes the little tools and brushes that were designed for such a task do not remove that soot, and occasionally the flash holes will be blocked by a stray piece of brass that can't be removed. Also, if you're the kind of reloader that runs your deprimed brass through a tumbler, whether it's the first cleaning the cases get, or you want to re-clean them to get rid of the sizing lubricant, you've no doubt had the tumbler media get hung up in the flash hole in the primer pocket. That stuff can be a pain in the ass to get out.

Well, there is just the tool to remove all that soot, brass, and carbon:



That is a standard one inch paddle bit designed to drill holes in wood. You probably have one rusting in the bottom of that tool box that you never use, so drag that thing out and get your Primitive Pete on.

A word of caution: paddle bits are semi-hardened steel, so it can gouge brass very easily. Be gentle. If you look close, the pointy tip actually has a flat cutting edge that is great at scraping carbon from the bottom of the pocket, and you can also get the inside edge of the pocket to allow the primer to seat all the way down. It's the best tool I've found for picking out the tumbler media from the flash holes, and if you have a stray finger of brass blocking the hole than use the long cutting edges on the tip by spinning it to unblock it.

Now go forth and make some ammo!

Illuminating the problem

A few days ago I posted about a high school student who was suspended for having a 1 1/2 inch knife in his glovebox, and that some Americans - and educators especially - can't seem to differentiate between a simple object that is harmless, and someone who would use a simple object to do harm.

The parents of the student, who is now a Soldier in the US Army, are appealing the school board's ridiculous decision to maintain the suspension; and now we are getting into the weeds on what kind of thought goes into making zero tolerance policies:

But the school's rule book brands possession of a knife to be "violent" conduct, and leaves it to the discretion of the superintendent to determine the proper punishment.

And there you have it folks. It's about the Thing, and not the person. The Thing, the Object, is the monster to loose the hounds of policy on; and you better not be the one in possession of The Thing, or you will be punished. Gun owners see this object focus mentality all the time. Clueless people assume that a firearm is in itself capable of evil, or is evil, and if you are in possession of one then you are a part of that evil. They see no distinction between the person and The Thing.

Humans are born with some inherent mental programming that may be partially to blame, but an adult should have a rational mind that can determine between one or another. When rational people see thuggish looking teens wearing colors, bandannas, chains, and throwing dice behind the mall, they don't go asking them for directions. While the teens may not be dangerous, there is no way to determine that at a glance. The rational person is actually focusing on the teens behaviour, or at least they should be, as they are the ones capable of evil. If those same teens have their dice, colors, bandannas, baggy clothes, and whatever visibly on the top of their car, would that be something to give a rational person alarm? Would a man walking into WaWa with a pistol visibly holstered on his belt cause a rational person to be alarmed? It shouldn't. He is in possession of a Thing. The Thing is not what the rational person should be looking at. If the man walks into the WaWa with the pistol in his hand, then a rational person should be sensing that he is evil; not because of The Thing, but by his actions.

Those examples are simple. What this student is going through is a no brainer; but the school superintendent is so far into hippy land that he can't tell The Thing from the man. The superintendent has discretion, but he has decided that mere possession of The Thing makes a man evil.

Oh noes! I need to register my SKS!!

Apparently they are machine guns:

The drama began unfolding about 3:30 p.m. on Powder Mill Road near Evans Trail. A Dunbar armored car guard called police after a man in a car first followed the armored vehicle, and then cut it off.

Armed with an SKS automatic rifle, the gunman began firing into the armored car. Just then, a lone police officer arrived, and there is a shootout.

Damn! He must not have bought the compliance kit.

This trash brought to you by FOX DC associate, Roz Plater.

Good on the responding officer for taking on the guy; although I would have credited him with saving the lives of Maryland citizens, and not so much the guards in the armored car. Unless the gunman had his fully automatic SKS death machine loaded to the max with hundreds of armor piercing anti-material rounds. Then they might have been in danger.

In the nick of time

What a close call!

Intolerance

SPRINGFIELD, Va. - A Springfield, Virginia man is facing an indecent exposure charge after a passerby spotted the man naked in his kitchen and reported it to police.

If I were the responding officer, I would have been putting the cuffs on the caller, and asking just what was she doing looking into the man's window.

Is this what things have come down to? Really? People looking into your window get to have you arrested because they take offense at the sight of your junk?

Had it been the cops at my door, I would have gone all Matthew McConaughey, and made them take me in stark strip naked. Then I would sue the department for making such an absurd arrest, as well as the peeping woman.

Airman march for their fallen

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) -- After walking over 800 miles through five states, 12 special tactics Airmen arrived here Oct. 16, officially completing a memorial march for their fallen comrades.

The marchers, made up of several combat controllers and pararescuemen and one combat weatherman, split up into six two-man teams and walked day and night to honor 12 special tactics Airmen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

****

"This walk shows that with Air Force special operations, you are never forgotten," said Master Sgt. Ken Huhman, one of the event's coordinators and a marcher from the 342nd Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

On the news this morning was the mother of a fallen Airman special operator who's son's name is on one of the batons. She was very thankful for these guys taking the time to honor him.

The Air Force special operations community is very small. Good on these warriors for completing such a march.

It's always the good ones

This one is too close to home.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - The Stafford County Sheriff's Office is investigating the murder of a shop keeper found dead Thursday morning. The victim is a well-known businessman and respected father and husband, 66-year-old Jimmy LeRose.

Murders around here are very rare, but they do happen from time to time.

YYYUUUUUUUUUUTTT!!!

A super bad-ass Marine Corps photo thread at MilitaryPhotos.net.

Range Report

Better late than never. I was able to snap a couple of pics this morning, and here is some evidence of my efforts to find some loads for my 308 AR:


Click to enlarge.

For a blow by blow recount of each shot on these targets, head on over to my thread on Practical Riflery Forums. For a recap, just keep reading.

I started out this spring to try and develop two loads for this rifle: one for slaying dog sized Virginia deer, and one for general purpose shooting on targets and small critters like groundhogs. For the deer load I chose 165 grain Sierra Game Kings; and for the target load I got duped into buying 155 grain Nosler Custom Competition bullets. Not that there's anything wrong with the Noslers, it's just that Gander Mountain had them marked at twice what they are worth. But hey, I bought them.

My load development quest ended up getting skewed because of the magazine issue I posted about earlier, which I have since solved. For the rest of this year, I have decided to abandon the 165 grain effort and will start again in the spring. They are putting out 5-shot groups just over an inch at 100 yards, which is nothing to scoff at, but I'm positive that I can squeeze out more. One reason for my decision is that factory 150 grain Remington Core-Lokt rounds are shooting into an inch through this gun:


The target on the left with the three 2" dots are the 165 grain loads that I made. The bottom dot with two shots in it are sighters; the dot on the left is a 5-shot group of 1.2"; and the dot on the right is a 5-shot group of .91". The target on the right that looks like it was hit with buckshot is actually an old target that I had left behind on the range, so it had shot holes already in it. They are the ones marked with an X. This target has groups of the factory Remingtons, which are the groups circled in pencil. Most of the groups on there were skewed from the rifle bouncing on the bi-pod legs on the sandbags. I have found out that bi-pods are great on the ground, but skew your groups when fired from the bench, even when you fold the legs down. As you shoot, the recoil rocks the gun back which allows the bi-pod attachment point to grab a little of the sandbag with every shot. By your 4th or 5th shot the end of the bi-pod legs are what the gun is resting on, and those are always the shots that open your groups up. Every stray round in a group on this target was the 4th or 5th shot. I took the bi-pods off the gun and shot the group on the 2nd dot from the left - the one marked as being 1.177". The 6th shot at 6 o'clock on that dot was fired a month or so before, and is not a part of that group.

A few days before, I fired one of these rounds at a different target to give myself something to aim at, and then shot six more of them into almost three quarters of and inch from sandbags:


In the end, the factory Remingtons shoot as well as my handloads, so I will stick with them and start my handloading effort next year.

My 155 grain loads are a different story.

Here I have three 5-shot groups: one - at the bottom - of the factory Remingtons fired by me prone off the bi-pods that groups around an inch and three quarters from a cold clean bore; one on the top right fired by me from a fouled lukewarm bore with a called flyer; and one on the top left fired by a friend from a warm fouled barrel with a called flyer. Without the flyers, the two top groups are a tad over a half an inch. I had noted that the Remingtons would probably have grouped better if I had fired two or three sighters to warm and foul the bore, instead of just clicking off five of them in a row. I was right:


I have yet to be able to stretch the gun out to a few hundred yards or more. Every time I try to arrange a day to shoot, something comes up. When I get the chance I'll post more. For right now, I am as happy as can be that I have a rifle capable of shooting anything I put into it into an inch or better. How cool is that?

For next year, I will not have one of the major problems that I had this year, which is availability of primers. I ended up using three different types of primers, and that is the reason why I think they did not turn out to be as good as when I started. I think I will also give the 175 grain Sierra Match Kings a try as well. The 155 grain Noslers are my baseline, and I will try to improve on them next year as well.

SWEET! I've got to get ready for BOA SEASON!!

State wildlife managers recently allowed hunters to kill invasive snakes. Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to ban the importation of some constrictors and the Humane Society of the United States recently said it supported laws to stop the importation of and trade in large reptiles.

I've read articles about this before, warning about large constricting snakes being released into the wild by pet owners. The snakes grow and breed as they find that the environment in the US is fully capable of supporting them.

And that's really cool!

Here all this time I thought I had to go to the zoo, or South America, just to see an anaconda in real life, and here they're saying that I can go to the everglades and actually hunt them!

Sounds like I will need to do another special purpose AR build. . . .

This zero tolerance stuff is fantasic!

Whalen was suspended from Lansingburgh High School last month after administrators found the 11/2-inch key-chain knife in his glove compartment, an infraction of the district's zero-tolerance policy for weapons on school grounds. It was a gift from his grandfather, Robert Whalen, chief of the Hoosick Falls Police Department.

Thank goodness the little blade from the survival kit in his car was turned over to the proper authorities! Someone could have been hurt!

You must understand that zero tolerance policies are designed to insulate staff from any sort of blame or backlash; like a sort of strawman to hold up when parents or whomever show up to complain. "Don't blame us, blame the policy. We just enforce the policy as it's written." In effect, zero tolerance policies are a machine that's built, activated, and then allowed to wander around doing its thing while officials/employees/management can sit back confident that some ingenious lawyer has to get through the machine before it can get to them.

The error in this is that zero tolerance policies are started in what's regarded as an effort to stop or prevent some sort of crime, but the policies cannot determine whether or not a crime was committed because they are not designed to establish the elements of a crime; they are only designed to punish based on an individual violating some sort of rule or regulation.

An extreme example would be for a mental hospital to make it a violation of internal policy to be out of bed between the hours of 10pm and 5am, with a punishment of a refusal to give treatment, and then enforce the policy against a patient who was out of bed because they were on the floor thrashing around in a seizure. The policy's intent would be to keep patients from wandering the halls or getting into trouble in their rooms, but the result could very well be to punish someone for something entirely different. Sure, the patient was out of bed which violated policy, and it's unfortunate that they are going to be punished for something out of their control, but hey, don't blame me. Blame the policy. That poor guy got hung up in the machine. It's not my fault.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the guy's authoritarian grandfather who gave him the knife condones zero tolerance policies - with a blatant but reasonable exception for his grandson, of course - because he used to apply them for DUIs. And DUI laws are well known as being a fantastic policy.

Ultimately, I place the blame on lawyers since I believe that just about all of America's problems can be traced back to them, but it's high time we start holding educators responsible again, instead of allowing them to craft regulations that can ultimately destroy a child's future.

I need to buy some time

No shooty pictures to show yet. One day I will get home at a reasonable time and take care of that.

For those who are thinking of supporting Bob McDonnell

There is a compelling reason to reconsider your vote for Virginia's governor.

I'm not advocating voting for Creigh Deeds, but I am spreading the word.

I'm not voting for either one.

(H/T War on Guns)

Moron safe schools

Catch that title? Good; I'm clever like that.

Anyways, yesterday I posted about the six year old who was suspended from school with a recommendation for 45 days in a reform school (Phenomenal. Maybe they planned on strapping him in a chair, then taping his eyes open while he watched a flicker show running old Trinity test footage and bounding kittens, or some shit. One can only imagine.) for bringing a Cub Scout tool to his school.

Fortunately, the school board reversed this asinine punishment and dropped the whole thing. Unfortunately, there are still clueless moonbat educators in his school that are still willing and able to destroy a child over something as trivial as this:

Jennifer Jankowski, who runs the special education programs at Jennie Smith Elementary in Newark, said schools need to be vigilant about protecting students. If Zachary or another student had been hurt by the knife, she said, the district would have taken the blame.

"If we can't punish him, then what about kids that did bring (a weapon) for bad things?" Jankowski said. "There's more to the school's side than just us being mean and not taking this child's interests into account."

Hey, stupid! How exactly do you "protect students" by punishing them over the possession of an object? If a child brings or improvises something as weapon, and has intent to use it as a weapon, or attacks another student with a weapon, then the kid will still get punished. I don't see that that's in question.

What is in question is your sanity. What you're saying is that in order to justly punish one kid for actually committing violence, you have to have a history of proactively punishing every kid who crosses an arbitrary line that they're not even aware of regardless of their intent.

It is astounding to me that people focus so intently on the object instead of the person; as if the there is something inherently evil about a thing and the thing alone, with nothing at all to do with the mentality of the person controlling the thing.

A sharpened pencil in and of itself is not a weapon. It can become a weapon if the student uses it as such. A knife is not in and of itself a weapon, but the intent of the person controlling it can make it one.

Are educators really so irresponsible and/or stupid that they can't wield some discretion? "Too bad that we have to throw little Johnny out of school over that plastic knife; but, ya' know, the law is the law. It's out of our hands, see. It's The Law. -- The. Law."

It's ignorant teachers like Jankowski that are the reason why I won't send my kids to public school. If teachers are so focused on destroying kids over something that they should have a better grasp of, instead of what they're supposed to be teaching, then count me out.

More on safe schools

Suspending six year olds for having a Cub Scout knife/fork/spoon tool is just a small price to pay for having outrageously awesome "Zero Tolerance" weapon laws in schools. Bureaucratic, bullshit weapon laws only catch the low hanging fruit.

Still feeling safe about having armed security at your school? Highly trained guardians of society are the Only Ones professional enough to be armed? Is this the guy you would want keeping you safe in school? Didn't think so.

A shiny thing on the shirt does not magically make someone competent to have a firearm.

Also, here is a blinding example of why the "guns in bars" argument is stupid. Scumbags are going to be armed regardless of signs or laws. They will be armed in bars, schools, or anywhere else they happen to be. Barring non-criminals who are not violent from carrying where alcohol is served is pointless, as there will still be criminals armed there.

(H/T The Agitator)

This mentality has to stop

I'm going to step into the line of fire regarding the healthcare debate by opining about this:

"There is just something absurd about denying an infant."

What's absurd is expecting someone else to pay for your child's care. That's what he is saying. The evil health insurance company denied taking his claim because they saw a risk. Even if they didn't see a risk, who the hell is this guy to expect a service from anyone? Does he have a right to demand coverage from a private company, or does a private company have the right to deny anyone for anything?

Don't get me wrong, I think all insurance companies are scumbags, but you can't fault them for not providing you a voluntary service when they don't think they will get something of equal or greater value. That's not them being greedy; that's pure and simple commerce.

You want something from them, but they don't think they have anything to gain by giving it to you.

When I was a teenager, I drove my car recklessly, racking up ticket after ticket, so insurance companies didn't think my $300 monthly contribution was worth the risk of insuring my reckless ass. Why would they?

I hold no allegiance to insurance companies, and as such I am always shopping for a better deal. Equal or greater value. To think that insurance companies are evil because they are doing the same thing is exactly what's absurd.

This give-me mentality has to stop.

You would think. . . .

"I'd like to think if I call 911 because I think there's an emergency that they're going to respond," Smondrowski continued.

If three burglars broke into your house, and you called 911 and nobody came, what would you do?

It happens folks.

Good question

Classmates of the victim say he's a member of the Coast Guard, and he's one of the biggest guys at school. They say he fought the attacker off, but some wonder what would have happened to someone smaller in stature and unable to fight back.

First off, the school needs to immediately plaster the campus with "Hammer Free Zone" signs to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. A solid policy discriminating against Middle Eastern men, as well as three-quarter length pants probably wouldn't hurt either.

But back to the question that most definitely needed to be asked: what would the outcome be in a similar attack where the victim was smaller, or unable to physically fight back? What could the victim possibly use to minimize the disparity of force that is presented by multiple attackers, or an attacker with a weapon? Damn, I can't think of one single thing that could be used effectively by a student.

I do note how irresponsible the school was to have buildings that don't require an ID card, or even a body cavity search for that matter; it's no wonder the Coast Guardsman "paid the price." Can't be too safe.

They did have video cameras, as the school indoctrinatees don't seem to mind being surveilled, but that seems to have had no impact whatsoever in stopping or preventing the attack; although we now know the man has poor fashion sense.

Now, before some troll comes on here bemoaning me implying that students should not be barred the use arms, do notice the youthful armed security guards manning the doors, as well as the students saying how wonderful and safe they feel having guys with guns around them.

Armed students? That's crazy talk! Someone could get hurt! Firearms are dangerous, and students are too young and stupid to use them. But put on a blue shirt with a shiny thingy on their breast, and magically everything is safe! Wow! Armed security is good-to-go!

So, the solution seems to be if you want to carry an effective tool for defense while attending college, you have to have one of these lest some emasculated schoolboy hyperventilates at the thought of you not being adequately qualified.

Technical difficulties

I have a range report to post, but this weekend the laptop died an agonizing death, which leaves me with the barely-hanging-on desktop that is duct taped together. Good times.

I will snap some pictures tonight and get them up ASAP; that is, if my ankle biters allow me the time.

DPMS Magazine remedy

Almost a month ago I wrote a post about how my 308 AR was having jammage problems, and this weekend I snapped some pics of my solution that has now been tested.

A commenter on that post, as well as others on the AR15.com forum noted to never ever ever take a Dremel to feed ramps, but it was suggested to try modifying the magazine feed lips. That's exactly what I did.

I thought about ordering a feed lips tool, but instead went with channel lock pliers because I had them right there next to me. The trick is to bring the forward edge of the feed lips up, and the rear edge of the feed lips down.



This can only be done on a level best measured in smidgens as they will contact the bottom of the bolt carrier if you raise them too much. Look on the underside of your bolt carrier and you will see the two channels that the ramps run through. Despite this, it can easily be done with channel locks, although I would recommend the feed lips tool from Brownells. To bring the rear edge of the feed lips down, I used a small brass hammer and tapped semi-gently.

To measure your progress, load a non-modified magazine with a couple of rounds to give yourself something to go off of by eye. Make a careful adjustment of one edge of a feed lip, and then load a round and give it a look:



The magazine on the left is unmodified; notice how low the round is presented in the magazine. The two on the right were modified and you can clearly see how much higher the tip of the rounds are pointing. Here's a side profile look:



Again, the magazine on the left is the unmodified one, and the round is pointing much lower. In this picture you can see where the rounds used to hit at the bottom of the feed ramps, and that gives you an idea of why tipping them up gives a smoother feed:



This picture shows where the back edge of the feed lips needs to be brought down. Both mags are modified, but the mag on the left only has the foward edges of the feed lips modified and you can see the very slight gap between the lip and rear of the case. The mag on the right does not have a gap because I tapped it down with the brass hammer ***Unload the magazine each time you decide to use the hammer.***



Now, these magazines load and unload rough from the factory, and AR15.com commenter sleepercaprice1 noted in this post to disassemble the mags and file the flashing lines off of the follower, so that is what I did. He was right.

The mags run much smoother with this simple modification. Just take a small file or some fine grit sandpaper and take down that rough edge that runs all the way around the follower. Once you assemble the magazine, you can feel the difference just by pushing down on the follower.

That's what I got folks. I have a range report that is not very promising, but I intend to shoot again today, so there will be a post about it sometime today or tommorow.

My morning laugh

I just came across this screen shot that I took from a couple of years ago when I was posting a resume on USAJobs. I did a spell check and found out that USAJobs was not very fond of the Marine Corps:


Click to make bigger.

That's funny stuff right there!

Why the long face?

Some are claiming that giving president Obama a Nobel Peace Prize cheapens it, but the formerly prestigious prize has already been tainted.

The Norwegians gave that shiny thing to such people as Yasser Arafat -- who pretty much got it because the only peaceful thing he ever accomplished in life was to stop bombing civilians long enough to fly to the US and talk to Jimmy Carter; and to Al Gore, who didn't get it for doing anything peaceful but for spreading the word on "settled science" -- instead of people who really did something great, like Irena Sendler, Winston Churchill, or, in the case of 2009, Greg Mortenson.

These awards are just political jelly beans to be handed out these days, and not at all about doing anything great for the world. A shiny golden blow-job for the political elite.

Morning roundup

Update: Via Snowflakes in Hell, in appears that there has been some well known violent friction in the Hain household for some time, and that friends of Melanie had tried to help her get out.

Update: So far it looks like Melanie's husband, who was a parole officer and prison guard, did the shooting.

First up, it's Pimp Your Galil day in Mexico! Check out some of the weapons the Mexican drug cartels acquired from US gunshows, like rifle grenades, short barreled rifles, RPGs, and 120mm terror. No, seriously, stop laughing. It's true. Really.

Next up, go over to Practical Riflery Forums to see my latest range work. I got my 308 to run perfectly, and I will be doing a write up with pics this weekend.

A tragic murder suicide in Ohio that will be making a buzz around the gun community. There's not alot of info yet, but I'll update if I find more.

Creepy NRA video promoting Bob McDonnell.

NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg blows $1.5 million taxpayer dollars 'proving' nothing during an attempt to smear gun shows. The Associated Press again asserts the incompetence of their writers by confusing "occasional sellers" (random citizen selling privately owned gun) with a gun dealer (Citizen licenced to sell guns as a business).

TSA almost, but not quite, catches a kid boarding a plane from Oregon to Illinois using his mothers ID and name. It was a good effort though; maybe next time fellas. Until then, you keep on keeping the skies safe from terrorists!

Health care politics

Time for me these days is short, as are my posts, and that is one reason why I don't usually dive into politics.

Fortunately, there are excellent minds out there that articulate political views in detail that I have to completely agree with; so go on over to The Smallest Minority for a rundown on the health care/insurance debacle.

The tide is turning

Found over at Instapundit, the latest Rasmussen polls show Americans are feeling all warm and fuzzy over gun rights; with 50% of Americans saying they oppose stricter gun controls, and 39% in favor. Also in the poll, 69% of Americans reject city handgun bans, vs 20% who favor them.

That last bit is of course because Chicago may get its ass handed to it over its handgun ban in the Supreme Court, although I could be wrong. Time will tell.

If firefighters didn't have firetrucks

Then they wouldn't be so gung-ho about running into fires, which would actually make them safer.

Jacob Sullum at Reason.com does a great job of tearing down the latest anti-gun study released on the American Journal of Public Heath.

It's quick and worth your time.

A case of handgun violence

LAKELAND, Fla. — A Tampa couple and an Irish tourist were shot at a Lakeland gun range after a handgun accidentally fired.

Dear heavens!! Has the handgun been formally charged?

I was not aware that handguns could do anything accidentally, but apparently they can indeed go berserk:

Polk County sheriff's deputies say it's not entirely clear how many times Michael and Sherri Thourot's 9mm accidentally went off Saturday, or what caused the handgun to fire.

Someone needs to alert the Associated Press that 9mm'ers are not accident prone; and that this erroneous garbage article is not only expected from AP journalists, it should be reworded thusly: it's not entirely clear how many times Michael and Sherri Thourot negligently fired their 9mm Saturday, injuring themselves and others.

My blog may be full of any number of grammatical or punctuation errors, but at least I have enough common sense to know that inanimate objects cannot do anything on their own.

But just so you know:

The pistol was a Jennings make.

There's part of the problem right there. What self respecting gun range allows idiots to fire a Jennings pistol?

Update: Another report says that the gun malfunctioned and emptied the magazine without anyone touching it. Sounds a bit far fetched to me, but if it turns out to be true, I'll eat my crow.

Something doesn't seem right with the article though. It says that the gun was brought home from Iraq, and implies that it could have been tampered with. While this could be in the realm of possibility, it's highly unlikely because it's very difficult to bring stuff home from a war these days. Customs confiscates a ton of stuff whether it poses a danger or not, and they perform several very thorough searches.

I had trouble bringing a MSR camping stove home from my second deployment. The base post office didn't bat an eye about the empty fuel bottle - just the stove. And the customs goons in Kuwait confiscated my unloaded Beretta M9 magazines. Ask anyone who's been on a deployment and they will tell you how strict those punks are, and about all the stuff on their banned list. Firearms are one of the top of that list.

They wouldn't let me fly home with empty mags in my checked baggage, so how did he bring a pistol home at all?

(H/T David Codrea at the Philly Gun Rights Examiner)

Holy Mackerel!!

Who knew that swords were so dangerous.

One day society will embrace the usage of small portable devices that would aid in stopping such attacks.

I see the camel's nose

The FTC's proposal made many bloggers anxious. They said the scrutiny would make them nervous about posting even innocent comments.

To placate such fears, Cleland said the FTC will more likely go after an advertiser instead of a blogger for violations. The exception would be a blogger who runs a "substantial" operation that violates FTC rules and already received a warning, he said.

And no doubt that will be the only exception. Because we all know how altruistic, fair and caring government regulators can be, so there's no chance that 4, 5, or 20 years down the road some random thirty something year old blogger will get his door smashed in by an over eager team of FTC SWAT officers for daring to allow an advertiser to grace his blog.

This is definitely getting filed under the "what could possibly go wrong" category. As it stands, our system of government is run by people who just can't stand to see something unregulated; and there is no shortage of Americans who are willing to give it up for some oversight.

What a shame.

Whoa, stop the press!!

Asked Sunday about criticism of the increased surveillance, Mr. Bloomberg said: “We live in a world where we have to have a balance. We can’t just say everybody can go everyplace and do anything they want.”

Really? But I thought this was the land of the free??

Apparently this man thinks that it's the home of the surveilled, and that it's totally cool to go about your day as long as there's an underpaid goon in a room somewhere suspiciously watching your every move; all while on your dime.

This form of thinking is a startling reality that has smitten one too many Americans. You can't be trusted to live in society without someone watching you suspiciously because it's just too dangerous now, as opposed to, say, anytime last century or the one before, or even five or six hundred years ago. Things are only now getting out of hand.

He added, “Do you really want to work in a building that doesn’t have security?”

Yes, douchebag, I do. I'm pretty sure that the majority of Americans feel that way too; although, admittedly, probably not as many on your end.

It's crazy to me that this guy has risen to such prominence. How do people like this get attention? Do Americans really feel like they need someone to take care of them at every step?

Morally righteous DC citizen thwarts carjackers with a firearm

I blame the NRA for this senseless violence:

In Sunday's incident, the D.C. officer, whose name was not released, had just parked his vehicle on Brooks Drive about 6:20 a.m. As he got out, he was approached by two people, county police said.

One showed a gun and demanded the officer's keys. The officer got his service weapon and fired, police said. As the two people ran, one fired back, police said.

What?? He stood his ground and used a portable hand held device created only for killing masses of innocents to ward off highly trained and armed criminals?!?! And they fled?!?

That defies all logic! Someone could have been hurt; or even worse, they could have taken his gun from him and stole his car!! Why the officer didn't wip out his rat tailed comb and vomit is anyone's guess.

Me personally, anytime someone gets a little too close to my automobile I poop my britches, vomit, and then scream "Get away!!! I'm pregnant!!" while pointing to my crotch indicating my rampant STDs. Sure, you may laugh, but nobody. . .and I mean NOBODY. . .approaches too close to my car. Can't be too safe.

Update: More police recklessness; this time in Texas! Why the officer didn't just let the robber have what he wanted. And what was he thinking using a gun against him when he was holding a hostage? YOUR COMB!!! USE YOUR RAT TAILED COMB!!!

Omaha beach today

Check out Omaha: 65 Years over at Blackfive for pictures of what the beach looks like today.

Enough of this "sniper" stuff!!

SNIPER!! It's a SNIPER!! OOOooooohh, look y'all, it's a SNIPER!!

SSSNNNNIIIPPPPEEEERR!!

I wish reporters like Stephanie Barish and Chris Glorioso weren't so childish. This business of calling any gunman or pellet gunman (remember who coined that term folks) a sniper makes me roll my eyes; even as I realize that all lowlife journalists use scare words to scare viewers into reading their trash.

Maybe it's because I respect the sniper profession and the few men and women who earn that title, or maybe it's because I admire accuracy and despise the disingenuous crap that is considered journalism these days, but man do I hate the SNIPER theme that emanates from the cesspool of big box news.

So do me a favor guys and grow the hell up. Stop insulting snipers with your silly fantasies of pellet gunman and broken glass.

With that said, shooting people with a BB gun is a serious crime that should land someone a healthy punishment. Even if they're teens, a slap on the wrist just won't cut it.

Why such urgency?

"This is one we wanted to solve with the utmost urgency!" Peskin exclaimed. According to police, the alleged thief is John Prentis.

So when crooks rob the citizens you're sworn to protect, it's not considered the "utmost urgency?" It's only when a crook steals from the king that things get serious?

That's not the best attitude.

I will hand it to the police chief though that he admits error on the police department, though not up to the point of taking personal responsibility.

And why wouldn't a scumbag want to steal from a police station? They're well known to have large amounts of cash (like here), drugs, guns, and other random stuff that has been confiscated. It's the perfect place to steal from.

What would be a better place to steal from? Target? Borders?

Second Amendment in the Supreme Court again

At issue is whether the constitutional "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applies to local gun control ordinances, or only to federal restrictions. The basic question has remained unanswered for decades, and gives the conservative majority on the high court another chance to allow individuals expanded weapon ownership rights.

Overall it's a pretty informative article on the issue, but curiously the writer notes the "larger issue" being whether gun ownership is an individual vs collective right; that of course was decided by the Supreme Court last year with the Heller case, which the article does go on to explain.

A hero's return

BOISE - After four decades, an Idaho soldier is finally home.

Chief Warrant Officer Jesse Phelps was flying a helicopter in December 1965, when it was shot down in the highlands of Vietnam.

DoD sent a team to track down the man who shot his helo down, and then confirm that it was indeed CWO Phelps remains. Now his wife and family finally find closure.

Welcome home sir!