Women like guns? Who knew?

An article on the book "Chicks with Guns," with a few illustrations. The mom holding her baby son on her left hip with an heirloom double barrel shotgun in her right hand is particularly striking.

"Help! Help! I need you!"

Troops in contact in Afghanistan calling for gun runs from an A-10 pilot. You can hear the seriousness in their voices, the chatter of machine guns in the background, and the pilot's ground proximity warning system telling him "Altitude, altitude". . . "Pull up! Pull up" as he's walking 30mm rounds from the GAU-8 Avenger gun in the nose onto the target while calmly plummeting straight towards the ground. Simply awesome.




The video doesn't include the aftermath, or whether the fires effectively stopped the fight or not, but it does give you an idea of how much caution goes into using such a weapon system on the ground. Nobody wants HE rounds hitting the wrong target.

M14 in service photos

Check out this picture thread from theBrigade showing off the M14 Service Rifle throughout its history. My fav is the two suppressed rifles with early nightvision scopes held by two Vietnam war era Soldiers wearing indigenous sandals. That's just sick!

Zombie Ammo from Hornady

Hornady ZMAX is the official ammo for the Apocalypse.

Hospital blogging

***Update: Thanks to all for your comments. Wife is home and well; during all of this three of my kids were sick with fevers. When it rains it pours. I'll be at the Modern Day Marine Convention this morning, and hopefully will have some pics of the latest and greatest military grade hardware. Stay tuned.


Sorry about the lack of posting. I've been out of town on travel only to rush home to the hospital to be with my wife. Everything is going to be fine, but I'm growing a bit tired of this place. My family has a permanent timeshare at the hospital.

Gun show scores

I met up with Andy on Saturday for some gun show goodness, and we did well. Andy picked up a piece of history that will no doubt be very useful; 7.62x54R will take down anything on this continent, and head shots on zombies should be easy at ranges out to 300 yards or so with irons. Good stuff.

My score included a box of 95 grain Winchester Ranger-T for the Kel-Tec; I'm going to run them through the paces to see if they're worthy of being a carry load. Until then I'll stick with the 100 grain Buffalo Bore Hard Cast. At one of the tables I picked up a used Lee single stage press in good condition for $20. Can't have too many of those. I've already cleaned it up, greased it, and found a place for it to work on my reloading bench.

Both Andy and I brought sons along for the show. When I was a kid, the gun show was held at the local National Guard armory, and I still remember my dad and grandad carrying me around to look at all the guns. I don't think my son will remember this particular trip; he was as unbehaved as he could possibly be, at one point screaming at me red-faced "I'M MAD AT YOU" for no reason that I'm aware of, and at another time tipping over a fifty round MTM box full of 8mm tracer rounds at a dollar a piece, spilling them all over the concrete floor. I didn't find out until I got home that he had a fever, so he has an alibi for his recalcitrance.

I like big knives, and I can not lie

Waiting for me when I got home yesterday was a package from KnifeCenter.com that contained two of Cold Steel's new extra-large Voyagers; one for me, and one for my homie (snicker!). I ordered them back in like April, but Cold Steel hadn't released them for sale yet for some reason or another. I'm glad they're here now.



For scale:



That's a 1st generation Cold Steel Recon-1 with a 4" blade, and a 2 liter of Coke at the top.

This is a massive knife, which most people are not accustomed to or don't see the need for that much blade. Most folks stick with 3" - 3 1/2" blades for EDC, but I've always preferred a 4" folder. I don't consider folding knives to be weapons; they are convenient utility tools that I put to use every single day for mundane tasks like cutting up boxes or getting rid of irish pennants (Google is your friend). The more blade you have, the more you can get accomplished.

To be honest, the Voyager won't be my EDC unless I'm going to be doing work outside. It's niche is probably in a backpack or clipped to a belt when you go down into the woods. For the moment though, it's in my pocket so that I can get a feel for how it carries. With Grivory grips with aluminum liners, it's not all that heavy for its size. The handles have iron cross-like texturing that provide excellent grip, and the contour is such that you can grab up close to the blade for more control, or down towards the hook at the bottom of the handle for chopping. The Voyager would be great for camping.

Here's another picture for scale:



The 5 1/2" blade is still not in Ka-Bar territory, but it dwarfs the Benchmade Rukus' 4 1/4" blade. The Voyager weighs in at 7.2 oz., which is lighter than the Rukus at 7.7 oz. The S30V steel in the Rukus is also a bitch to sharpen, but the Voyager's AUS-8A should be easy to take care of. Overall I'm impressed with the quality: the lockup is very tight and everything feels very well made. It came shaving sharp, but as always I can do better. It's a good knife to have around, and I'm sure I can find a proper career for it somewhere.

Semper Fidelis

On Thursday, President Obama will award the Medal of Honor to retired Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer.

Yuuuuuuut!!!

Marines are still putting the smack down on our enemies.

With ten plus years of war for our country, I expected more of our warriors to receive the nation's highest medals. They earned it; pay up.

Coming or going?

MCALLEN, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Border Patrol agents found a rocket launcher, assault rifles and explosives near the Rio Grande river in Texas, the agency said on Wednesday, a discovery that suggests a link to Mexico's drug wars.

[snip]

Officials theorized that the guns were waiting to be smuggled across the border into Mexico, but said that was just speculation.

It's good to put blind speculation in a news article and present it to the world as fact. No big deal.

So a cache of weapons including grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and C-4 explosives were "intended to go South" based on aforementioned speculation and past cases? Whatever. No doubt these items were bought at the local gunshow for next to nothing with no background check.

If these weapons weren't being transported North by cartel members who got them from the Mexican government, then they had to have been provided by a US government entity that has the ability to acquire them. Wonder who that could be.

How did he do it?!?!?

How in the world was a heavily armored gunman able to gain access to a secure facility that clearly had signs preventing said gunman from the premises?

The apparent ease with which James Ray Palmer entered the building -- straight through the front door -- has raised questions about safety even in small county courthouses and prompted a reexamination of security measures there.

Oh. I'm thinking that the Gun Free Zone signs should now be made large enough to completely block access to the front door of courthouses, and should be made out of 1/2" steel plate so that armed madmen cannot wander in and shoot up people in the hallway unchallenged for eight full minutes. That would work in the interim.

A full time solution to prevent armed attacks like this in the future it would probably be to pass laws making it illegal to shoot up courthouses, or to even carry guns in there, and to have armed cops screen and disarm all those who enter the building. . . . . .hmmmmm. Maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

I did note to that he had a CCW and no prior history of violence. It happens.

So harlots may live

I find this story to be very odd, not because I begrudge the porn industry of preparedness from their stated fear of radioactive zombies, but because of all ideas to build a haven from worldly disaster they decided on building a bunker underground near one of the most active fault lines in the world. I think I would build a single-story hardened structure right on the surface, but then again I'm not an earthquake expert. I would also put the Sliding Gun Rack Compartments next to the Security Insertion Checkpoint. That's just me though.

To be fair to the porn industry, at least they are finally planning for the inevitable fact that they will miss the rapture. That's being prepared!

What cartridge?

If you're looking for a rifle for something in particular, one of the age-old problems is choosing a cartridge that will perform for your intended purpose. We live in a shooter's heyday right now in that the selection of bullets and rifles is getting close to the peak of what man can possibly do, so there is literally a cartridge and rifle platform that will fit perfectly for what you want to do.

If you want to know the particulars of specific cartridges, this thread on the topic at Sniper's Hide is the place to start. I also highly suggest using JBM Ballistics as a means of calculating the range and power of different cartridges that you may be interested in.

In my youth, the unchallenged answer to getting more range for hunting was to go bigger bigger bigger bigger with a side of as-fast-as-possible. In those days, hunters didn't use rifle scopes with turrets or rangefinding reticles to compensate for distance; duplex reticles were the most popular by far, so in order to get a gain in Point Blank Range, you had to have lots and lots of velocity. This is why there are cartridges like the .220 Swift and .300 Weatherby Magnum. What cracks me up is that even today I know plenty of people who still subscribe to this mindset, and have seriously overbored cartridges for shooting little Virginia deer at ranges that seldom go beyond 80 yards.

To each their own, I guess.

If you're not into being way overgunned, than a little bit of research combined with JBM Ballistics will lead you to the proper hunting/target/tactical cartridge that won't break your shoulder or your wallet. Why feed a barrel burning .338 Thorhammerlighningdragonslayer when you could accomplish the same job with a .270 Winchester?

The Beast that will not sleep

In the dark of night, the Beast is angry and restless; he writhes about in red faced fury. The Beast has a need, a deep want, a desire that burns bright within his belly, that he does not himself know and will not reveal to you, yet you must find it and provide remedy or you shall surely be punished. Like Nebakanezer's dreams, without any clues you must know what will please the Beast and give it swiftly; your timing must be perfect, or it shall not work. Fail at this task and you will find yourself cast into the Sea of Exhaustion of which there will be suffering beyond anything you can imagine.

And so it was at three ay-ehm, in the year of our Lord, two thousand eleven, I, CTone, was sitting in the Recliner of Squeakiness trying to please the Beast with gifts of the finest plastic binkys and soft blankets woven from the manes of unicorn foals. Finally, when the sun crested on yonder hill, the Beast found satisfaction from a magic potion made of Formula from the distant land of Enfamil; but only after the Beast's portion of the elixir was tripled did he slumber in sweet Formula induced coma. The Beast was then strapped gently into the Swing of Peace, so as to not awaken him, and then once he was temporarily bound in the Swing was there silence in the land.

I cry out now from the Sea of Exhaustion where I must perform my duties with diligence under much gnashing of teeth. Tonight I shall not fail to please the Beast.

The news isn't fun to read anymore

It's too depressing. This morning I open Yahoo! News to find that Andy Whitfield has died. I enjoyed Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and somehow hoped that Whitfield would return to the part because he played the character so well. His character was re-cast, and the new season starts early next year.

The first news article that caught my eye this morning though was the headline/quote from president Obama stating that "America does not give in to fear," which made me snort just a little bit. The news has been awash with stories fear for eleven days, pondering the next terrorist strike that is bound to happen at any moment. Any minute now. . . .

We have uniformed government workers sexually assaulting random Americans at airports and bus stops, F16 fighters escorting air planes to the ground, bomb scares in Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and D.C. ; and in New York:

New York police amassed a display of force on Friday including checkpoints that snarled traffic in response to intelligence about a car or truck bomb plot linked to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Officers armed with automatic weapons were stationed at city landmarks including Wall Street, Times Square and the September 11 memorial site where the Twin Towers once stood.

[snip]

New Yorkers who have grown accustomed to bag searches at subway stations and random displays of police presence encountered increased vigilance after the threat, which prompted President Barack Obama to order a redoubling of U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

Yeah, we sure don't give in to fear not one little bit. Nothing tells me that the republic is at ease like amassed police with automatic weapons in major cities. My favorite, sweet little truffle from yesterday morning's news:

Mejia now is close to marking her fourth year as a TSA security officer. She has worked every September 11, she said. "It's somewhat an honor to be here today, to watch, to say that people are not afraid to fly, and we are here to help," Mejia said.

This is from an article titled "Travelers feel fear, resolve about flying on September 11." Someone should probably tell her that thousands, if not millions of Americans fear flying the other 364 days out of the year because of the fear of having their intimate body parts rigorously fondled by blue-glove wearing tyrants who work for the TSA.

"Nearing the end of this violation, I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR
TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia. She really got up there. Four times. Back right and left, and
front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked -- utterly
unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault."

I know I always feel safer about travel knowing that when I get to the airport, there is a high likelyhood that some disgusting stranger in a dirty blue shirt will painfully grab ahold of my satchel; but it's awesome though and totally worth it because some spineless wimp of a man behind me will feel like these good hearted goverment agents are dilligently keeping everyone safe. Even though they're not.

Fear not, muslim friends, we're here to find terrorists. I'm clearing your minds of all anxiety." - Sarah; Team America: World Police

Have a safe day!!

I sense a disturbance in the internets

No bloggy today. It seems that the internet wherever I happen to be is spotty, and I have no reasonable excuse to offer except that it must be the super-magnet in my head jacking with the computer. At work, home, or on my phone in a restaurant, I can't keep a connection long enough to do anything worthwhile.

Range day

I got to spend a day (half of one; thanks a lot Mother Nature) at an undisclosed location shooting steel with Andy this weekend. I've never shot steel targets before, not steel that didn't have tracks anyways, but I'm now a firm believer in AR500 targets. You get instant feedback on your hits, which is handy if you don't have a spotting scope. I'm going to have to make an investment in some of those in the near future.

Like Andy, I learned some valuable lessons from the trip: 1) rifles don't shoot all that great when you forget to bring the ammunition that goes with them; 2) iron sights will get you hits when your scope will not; 3) I need to shoot more with Andy.

We had a blast. At the last minute I packed the shorty Mosin Nagant with some corrosive commie ammo, and it turned out to be a hit. Shooting the blasty little rifle at a hanging bucket at 100 yards offhand is fun, and should be done more often. Andy got his AR sighted in at 100 yards and was making hits at 200 on 4 power, while I couldn't hit jack with my AR on 7 power at any range. My shiny new MK12 sat on the bench like a goon because all the ammo I spent loading was left at home on my bench. I got to shoot a Ruger 10/22, which I hadn't got to do in years, and was so impressed that I got it in my head to acquire one as quickly as possible; that turned out to be last night when I got an almost brand new one on a trade.

Our fun came to an end when my nemesis reared her ugly head from out of nowhere and started slaying trees all around us. We still had a lot of fun.

Marine Corps Snipers

A photo gallery of USMC Snipers. Super cool, but a head's up: do know that intermingled within the gallery are safe for work pictures of scantily clad women (nothing you can't see in an old Sears catalog, though in better resolution).


***ETA: Link fixed. Sleep deprivation and all that!

Future weapon violence

I clicked over to this backyard brawl video from Ace of Spades, and being honest I was flim-flammed. Well played, fellas; you got me. ***NSFW - language***

Don't knock it before you watched the whole thing through.

Tell the Air Force to kill it with a tactical nuke

A video about a family's home that was taken over by bees. I'm going to have nightmares tonight. . .