The inspiration I needed

From this post this morning, I got a comment from Nancy R. from Excels at Nothing about shooting a little airsoft while stuck in the house. While I don't have any airsoft, that comment did spark an interest in the ol' Daisy PowerLine 880 that sits in the corner of the man cave.

The wife and I had decided that since the kids had stopped coughing this morning, and that the noses weren't running after nap, we would go to the mall to let them unwind for awhile. Walking around there I got the comment on my BlackBerry, and the chain reaction in my several brain cells told me that I needed some 1" rings so that I can replace that crappy no-powered plastic thing on top of the Daisy referred to as an "optic," and in its place put the crappy Daisy PowerLine 3-9 that I had laying around.

The difference is tremendous. It's like putting a freakin' Nightforce on the thing.

Here's a before and after:




I shoot the thing in my basement, and my backstop is the PASGT vest from my Ballistic Vest Live Fire Test; but that's just to stop pellets from hitting the drywall. Behind that is eight inches of concrete and fifty feet of dirt:



The distance is 33':



Once I got the beast sighted in with BBs (2nd dot from the bottom), I fired one pellet at full power at the 2nd dot from the top, and then clicked the crosshairs over to the shot hole. The best 5-shot group I had with the plastic optic like tube was 1.053" CTC, and after the swap the first and only 5-shot group measured .740", all inside the 2nd dot from the top. The top dot was me fiddling around with the clicks:



So I basically trimmed a quarter of an inch or better off a ten yard group by buying a $7.99 pair of Simmons airgun rings. Can't beat that!

Next up is to Pimp my Pellet Gun! I've been wanting to Duracoat the 308 for some time now, and I'm not about to test my artistic skills on it until I know what I'm doing. Haven't used an airbrush for awhile, but I intend to get ahold of one soon. Some paint on the Daisy should work great to test it out. Then the neighborhood starlings won't see me coming!

The People Coop

We got about ten inches of mother nature's finest this weekend, and we've been stuck in the house for days. The kids are especially miserable since they've been sick with the flu, and then a nasty sinus cold, since the day after Christmas. They haven't been outside of the house for days, and they're starting to tear the walls down.

I've been reluctant to take them anywhere in public because I don't want to be the jackass who gets thirty other kids sick. This sinus cold is super contagious. Some douchbag gave it to me like the day after I kicked the flu, and I'm still fighting it three weeks later. Unfortunately, I gave it to everyone in the house. It's a terrible thing to see little children fight something that gives an adult a tough time. They don't understand what's going on.

On top of that, giving little kids medicine right before cleaning their noses out can equal what can only be described as mild torture. My son's nose is raw and chapped, and he fights tooth and nail when we hold him down and suck his nose out with the blue, snot sucking bulb of doom, which comes after a blast of saline up the snout. Horrible stuff.

Last weekend I couldn't take it any longer and took the kids to the Bass Pro Shops in Ashland. They loved it. I highly recommend it for the little ones as there is so much stuff to look at. I pointed out to them every cute and cuddly little perfectly preserved critter, and everyone in earshot got a chuckle when they pointed out the ones they knew - screaming "daddy, daddy, daddy. . .wook, wook. . . . it's a kyooooodddddiieeeeee!" If you're heading there, be advised that Bass Pro Shops does not take kindly to people who care to arm themselves for personal defense. This is the reason why I tend to throw my money to their competition right down the road at Green Top; but I will gladly let my kids shout at their stuffed creatures.

Anyways, morale here is pretty low - the cable box in the wreck room where the kids play has gone TU; the snow is too deep for the kids to play in; it's 19 degrees outside, which is too cold to take the kids for a walk in the wagon; can't take the kids to the mall because of the moral issue of passing The Sickness on to other kids; and I can't justify slipping out for a little shooting as that would make me a dick.

Today is just not going to be much fun.

Rant of the week

Ace of Spades is a daily read of mine, and man can that guy throw down an awesome rant! Language warning, by the way.

Assault thingy violence

Someone needs to inform DA Nola Foulston that the words "sniper" and "SKS" do not belong in the same sentence. Or the word "assault weapon" for that matter as the SKS is not one. Oil and water - you can't make them mix.

Scott Roeder is really freakin creepy though.

We interupt this blog to bring you breaking news. . .

Hungry coyotes are feeding on timid hippies in the Greenburgh, NY area. Be on the lookout.

The motive in the attack has not been confirmed, but the empathetic hippie victim believes that the coyote was angry over an alleged robbery that happened some time ago.

Brave local police advise that when hiking in the woods, make sure that you are armed with at least one rat-tailed comb to fend off the beast, and perhaps a rape whistle to ensure the other coyotes know the exact location of the kill attempt in order to discourage them from approaching.

This little boy needs some guidance, badly. .

Hey, I hate it when my neighbors dog barks 23 1/2 hours every day too; but kid, seriously, knock on the door and tell the guy to shut his dog up.

Tough love for thieves

Wow. I did not know that stealing $200 worth of stuff in Virginia could land you a felony conviction. I don't reckon most thieves get their conviction overturned though. I bet now that he served his time, he'll re-think petty thievery next time he's out shopping.

Your daily dose of stupid

Haven't done one of these in awhile, but this morning I did a face palm when I read this:

“There should be one standard for applying for what is a constitutional right,” Timilty said.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this sentence?

At issue here is the licensing of human beings who have unalienable rights by police chiefs in order for those human beings to exercise said rights to own, carry, and operate private property in the form of a firearm. Simple, no?

So by this douchebag's confession, it's yippy skippy for some police chief, endowed with powers privileged upon him or her from citizens, to issue unalienable rights with a new law? Exactly how does a police chief have the authority to give rights to citizens, when those citizens are the ones who give the authority to the police chiefs?

When I buy groceries, I own them. The groceries are my property. When I feed those groceries to my kids, I sure don't ask them for permission to own the groceries. Now I would never deny my kids food, that's not what I'm saying, but I don't ask permission to own things that I already know I own. It's simple commerce.

It's become very obvious that people in today's America no longer understand Common Law, nor the simple laws of commerce hewn from thousands and thousands of years of human interaction. When you own things, you do not ask permission to use those things - unless of course you have trusted them to someone else for whatever reason. I guess if people don't understand how they own things in the first place -- in this case rights -- then there is no way they could possibly understand trust. Somehow in the naked simplicity of all of this, where 5,000 years ago a caveman, literally, could do it, modern "advanced" society forgot what the hell was going on.

So now that people in the most powerful country on earth don't understand property and the ownership associated with it, I can't see where this knowledge will ever return unless a big ass meteor wipes out like 99% of the population and things start over. We're very happy these days that we don't live in mud huts and hunt with clubs like our ancient ancestors, but at least they knew what the hell was theirs.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge

Hosea 4:6 and many other Bible verses warn against willful ignorance. This is an encouragement to read The Word so that you can be informed of the Truth; a call to arm yourself with facts so to speak.

This has other applications, because how can you be a good spokesman if you are uninformed?

With that in mind, I encourage you to take a look at Gun Facts - a very informative website to arm yourself with quick and to the point facts on gun issues. This is an excellent resource of information covering just about every political hot point on gun control.

Go check it out!

Hmmmm. . . .DC locals are Thrilled about Maryland reciprocity

The poll at NBC 4 Washington is at 93% right now.

Maryland carry

Don't get your hopes up, but Maryland of all places may soon have reciprocity with Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

It's a start.

The mistake of a lifetime

Literally.

Scumbag beats the death penalty in VA Supreme Court for killing a girl and raping her sister, but then gets put back on death row for basically the same charges because he bragged about the details of the murder in a nasty confession letter sent to the prosecutor.

Ooops.

His execution date has not yet been set.

Wanted: the rest of the freakin story

Update at the bottom.

A Virginia man was arrested in New Jersey yesterday on weapons charges. The NBC 4 Washington article goes well out of its way to paint this in the most harrowing light possible, but something smells fishy; notably, the absence of any important details, and the overwhelming amount of journalistic accoutrements.

OK, so this guy is wearing body armor and runs from the cops, who then tackle him and find a rifle on him? Were these uniformed cops? If they were plain cloths, I can see how someone would run from them. How many cops have you met that would tackle a guy with a rifle? They had to have seen it on him. More likely they would surround him with weapons drawn, and then shoot him if he grabbed the rifle. These are New Jersey cops we're talking about, and the article says that the guy was acting suspicious, whatever that means these days.

The central part of the story is that the guy had a map of a military installation on him. Whoopty do. Perhaps he had an AAFES map, of even worse, a Google satellite image. I mean, this could mean just about anything; that he had an easily acquired map of a military base doesn't automatically make him Al-Qaeda, despite how desperate the media would like it to be so. If I turn out to be wrong, well, I've eaten plenty of crow in my day.

Next, we have positive confirmation that the onslaught of emails correcting news monkeys on the differences between semi-auto and full-auto weapons seems to be sinking in, but we still have some work to do with that childish "assault thingy" term that they sit around all day waiting to use. And apparently it now only takes two weapons to equal a "cache," or otherwise known as a "host" of weapons. One of these dreaded beasts is what's reported to be a M240 grenade launcher, but that can't be verified right now because a) it's being reported by a goon who works in a news organization that is using a picture of a M240 found on the internet, and b) because cops in New Jersey generally don't know the make and model of any firearm that is not issued to them.

Man arrested in possession of Winchester Model 70, and Ruger 10/22. What the cops report - "Man, I'm tellin' youse right now that this is the same gun used in dat movie Eraser!"

How the news reports it - "Cops tonight report that they caught a dangerous, sex offending, transvestite "teabagger" with a massively large cache of what appears to be two of those R2D2 lazer thingies used in the movie Under Siege 2. Here's Tom with the weather."

Also of interest, our esteemed bad guy had "high power ammunition," which probably means WWB ammo from Wal-Mart. Let's hope he didn't have any of that super deadly Extreme Shock ammo, because things could have really gotten out of hand. Note that he was charged with having "armor penetrating bullets," which I'm guessing that in NJ means that it was ball ammo, but I could be wrong. It really doesn't matter, as any .223 Remington ammunition, or centerfire rifle cartridges for that matter, can penetrate a bullet resistant vest. That's a fact.

The only thing that points to him being a possible scumbag is the defaced serial number. I'm sure that there's still more to that than meets the eye.

Again, he may turn out to be a bona fide scumbag, but I'm just not seeing it. That cops in general, and reporters specifically, don't know jack about what type of firearm is which, and adding the fact that both parties are well known for pouring on USDA Grade A+ awesomesauce onto anything they do, I have to have doubt. When there is a documented effort to accurately report the facts as they really are, then I will start to give merit to stories like this.

I'll post more on this if I can get it.

Update: The FBI is saying that the guy is not a terrorist. The press goes into full blown BS mode and is saying the guy had an anti-tank rifle because it was chambered in .50 caliber - meaning it was chambered in the .50 Beowulf cartridge from Alexander Arms. The other rifle is a 308, and the grenade launcher is a Cobray 37mm, which to my knowledge only launches flares. So much for that. Also, tremble in your boots knowing that this guy had a "middle eastern head scarf." Hopefully the cops don't find any more of his deadly stash.

Oh say can you Sea

I'm not sure why, but I've always admired the look of old warships.

Cool stuff!

Rust proof blades

You can get them!

Highlighted at Sharp, Bright, and Tactical WebMagazine, Spyderco and Benchmade both have rustproof knives for those sea faring individuals who work around or in salt water.

I have always wondered about the merits of the corrosion resistant steels, which leads me to question why firearm manufacturers don't use them for military weapons. I would think Marines and SEALs would love to have to have a rifle that doesn't need to have oil applied ten minutes after hitting the beach, and perhaps Soldiers wouldn't mind skipping out on slathering their rifle with CLP every now and then.

Hmmmm.

Jury nullification

I am completely surprised that a DC jury acquitted a man for carrying a loaded handgun in the district via nullification.

Good on em'!

This is a clear cut case where the law caught the wrong guy, but the citizens rightfully turned things around. Had they not interfered in this Marine's case, the wheels of justice would have crushed an innocent man.

It's cases like these that make gun owners so opposed to gun laws. Considering that armed scumbags run DC streets with impunity, and that when they're caught they get treated pretty well compared to anywhere else, one can only conclude that these laws don't prevent any sort of violent behavior.

At any rate, barring a Marine from having a loaded weapon should be a crime.

Found via The Agitator.

HS Student will not be expelled for not having firearm on school property

What a waste of time, money and effort.

Gary Tudesko, 16, was thrown out of Willows High School after a shotgun, shells and hunting knife were found in his truck which he says was parked off campus.

Today, the Glenn County School Board overturned that expulsion saying he was 'not afforded a fair hearing'.

Ah, it's not because the school board would get their ass handed to them in court, it's really just about a technicality. Ok then.

The kid obeyed the "Gun Free School Zone" farce and parked his truck outside of it, but that's not good enough because some other student could hit a tennis ball outside of the school grounds force field of safety.

I guess 1,000 feet is not enough. Perhaps we should expand the force field by doing a simple test where a student hits a tennis ball as far as he can from the edge of the zone. But then what happens when a student hits a tennis ball from the edge of the new force field?

The solution here is to ban tennis. That way some clumsy kid doesn't hit his ball outside of the school grounds force field of safety and into the danger zone. Wouldn't want to hit a truck with a shotgun and some birdshot in it. Or even have the ball land in the yard of a dreaded sex offender.

This sort of nuttiness reminds me of that commercial, Chucky Cheese perhaps?, where the mom lovingly wraps her sons in bubble wrap before letting them go outside.

Hey buddy. . . got a light?

In spades, my friend.

Last night a friend and I decided to do an equipment check for a foray into the wild world of hunting predators. I bought an el-cheapo WorkForce 1Mil candlepower spotlight and spiced it up with a little red brake-light tape, and then bolted on some picatinney mounts that I had lying around. Llllllllllllllike a Glove!!!!

The rigged spotlight works perfect, and before I put the red tape on the lens I did a side-by-side comparison against my Surefire 6P and Streamlight TLR-1, with 65 and 135 lumens, respectively. The tactical lights held their own. I was particularly impressed with the TLR-1; it cast a long perfectly white beam out to the 120 yards that I could see, and it had a nice bright cone for searching that lit up anything inside of fifty yards. The 6P was quite nice as well, although I need to get the 120 lumen head for it.

We sound checked the various calls that my friend had, and we managed to call in a huge owl. That thing just about scared my heart out of my chest; he came in all stealth-ninja and landed in a tree about ten yards away. How they can soar through the woods with a five foot wingspan and not make a freakin sound is downright amazing. I don't know much about owls, but this one didn't seem to appreciate the red filter on my spotlight. Does anyone out there know if they can see the red light spectrum?

We weren't at it for very long; last night was mainly about finding out if our gear worked or not. This was all on my friend's property, and he has seen an abundance of coyotes, foxes, and bobcats recently. Night time hunting works for both of us in particular - working through the week from dark to dark is the norm, and when we get home it's time to be a daddy for a few hours until the kids go to bed. I didn't get into the woods for deer season the first stinkin time this year as I didn't have the time to go; not that I had anywhere to go anyways. There is a subdivision or a Starbucks in every patch of what used to be woods that I hunted in my youth.

I have a feeling that shooting coyotes in the dark may turn out to be awesomeness. In my humble opinion, the AR platform was taylor made for the role, and I'm going to be playing around with different gear until I find out what works the best.

Why the Swiss are so freaking awesome!

Oh yeah! Government mandated ammo!

Anyone else find it weird that they put a chain on the rifles at the range? My guess is that it's to make sure that they don't switch weapons while qualifying, or something like that. I can't imagine that it would be to keep them from going buck wild with the thing since they keep them at home with gov't purchased ammunition.

Found at MilitaryPhotos.net. from poster skyeye.

Why I don't go to Disney Land

Rodney Dillon, 65, is charged with 55 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of promoting the sexual performance of a child.

Dillon is a security guard at Disney's Hollywood Studios. He checks guest's bags at the park's entrance.

That's pretty much the whole article. The guy that ensures that the peaceable people entering the park are disarmed and defenseless is also the guy who fantasizes about your child.

Awesome.

At least the park is now safe, right?