RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - JANUARY 2005

(Found the proper AC adapter for the scanner buried in the hovel yesterday....)

(New Lexmark Z515 printer is not only cheaper, and cheaper to feed, but faster than old Lexmark Z22, at least in black-and-white.)

I have since learned that the Garand shooter, who beat me by 14 and 17 real points (of possible 300) in the Allies vs. Axis match, placed 4th of 75 in an international blackpowder shoot held in the midwestern US this last summer. Which means, if I got that close to someone that good, that I'm getting good. Warmfuzzy.

Now I learn from my sister that I may be 1/8 Native American! Dunno which tribe though. And I always thought I was Teutonic and/or Scandinavian (which may also be true). Hey, maybe I can get out of income tax...! Reportedly my eldest brother is looking into that.

Off to Clark Rifles, phoning ahead first to make sure they're open. She did very respectably with the Stevens single shot and Romanian repeater .22 rifles, and low-power .38 target wadcutters in the .357. More contemplated tomorrow, I hope to subvert her fully into the Gun Culture, muuahahaha. Though I brought it along, I didn't test the Hi-Power's new front sight, didn't want my mood marred by having it fly off into the range debris for the fourth time, especially since she was doing so well.

719 - Sunday, 2 January 2005: Instead of more shooting, went gun-shopping with sis at Sportsman's Warehouse, talked and talked, had more Mongolian grill, then she had to hie back to Everett. Oops! She forgot the targets she shot, to post on the ‘fridge for husband-intimidation! :) Into snail-mail with them. Hopefully the new job will work out and I can do some catching-up and finally take a look at these big Puyallup & Monroe shows Cruffler tells of, also returning her visit.

Big 5 is now offering a Taurus slide-action rifle, their copy of the Winchester M62, which is cool - except this one is in .17HMR, which is cool I guess but the ammunition is about seven times the cost of .22LR. Still bummed about missing that Marlin M39M last summer. CDNN having a closeout on Rossi single-shots (same design as H&R/NEF), $80 dealer price for a blue/wood .22LR, $100 for a .22LR/12ga combo. Well, have to get caught up on bills and rebuild savings first. Want at least $400 in savings again, and a better motor vehicle, before I buy another firearm.

Ugh, up ungodsly early for a new job tomorrow. At least I'm not crawling around under houses. No shooting next weekend (ga$) but the 14th/15th with the FM and the FR I think. New calendar up in the clubhouse yesterday, no plate matches through March, a couple Cast Bullet Association matches coming up but I don't do that (yet...). Furthermore these folks sometimes decide their matches by the X counts, and truck in from Idaho and Montana and camp at the range to do it - I'm not that good.

Speaking of casting bullets, my Utah reader suggests I might get into production casting for side income, hmm. Also dissuades me from getting a truck, with rear-wheel drive and reduced traction with an empty cargo bed, and a small securable cargo area (the cab), considering typical Pacific Northwest weather - advises another small front-wheel-drive like the smogmobile.

720 - Monday, 3 January 2005: New job! Somewhere I read that starting a new job is one of the most stressful life experiences. Yeah, probably. At least the car started (Saturday night I left the dome light on and drained the battery and sis and my neighbor had to help me push-start it - advantages of a manual transmission). Heh - I'm reminded of Quigley Down Under, when Crazy Cora says to Quigley, after they've been dumped in the outback to die by Quigley's employer, "Don't worry; on a new job it's common for things not to go well at first."

Not a very strenuous work environment. Can take half-hour lunch and leave at 3:30, avoiding (some) traffic. No fixed schedule for breaks or lunch, so I can avoid break-room crowds. Work is much the same as at the electronic-cable place in Beaverton, where I was working during last winter's ice storm, but with more primitive tools and equipment and less of it, which they get away with by also being lower volume and less rushed. Today, after fiddling in the stockroom receiving shipments and pulling kits, which takes only a couple hours a day apparently, I was doing production work, cutting and stripping and solder-tinning wires. I asked one of the higher-ups how I was doing with the tinning (‘cause I actually haven't done much before, and most of that was with a solder pot and flux instead of a soldering iron and plain solder like here), and he peered at one and said, "I hate to tell you this, but you're hired." Okay.

The United States, privately or governmentally, is already blowing the rest of the world's doors off in aid for tsunami victims in south Asia, like sending the supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln with all its helicopters and medical corpsmen, and the cooks (for a floating city of ~3,000) baking bread in overdrive before they're even in the same ocean. The helicopters are proving particularly valuable as the roads are wrecked and stuff is piling up at the airports with no way to get it anywhere else. Most USN ships, and the carriers especially, for the last fifty years or so, when they pull into most ports around the world, instantly become the best-staffed and -equipped hospital in the entire time zone, and proceed to prove it, for free. "Stingy" my cat's fuzzy butt.

On the other hand... a lot of the money and humanitarian aid being sent to the tsunami victims is in fact going to Islamic nations, where official and unofficial authorities are already exhorting recipients to ensure that they only accept aid from nations that have no "infidels" and that the aid is only disbursed to Muslims. So when someone pesters you to donate, remember the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Shanksville, the mutilated Americans hanging from a bridge in Fallujah, and umpty-steen brutal decapitations of defenseless hostages.

(And what the murderous Muslims don't get will likely end up in the pockets of another of Kofi Annan's sons, or one of a thousand other despots that might as well be. Man, we're it. The United States is the last island of decency and sanity in the world. Which, considering what's on our TV and in our newspapers these days, means the rest of the world is somewhere in Dante's fifth or sixth circle. Why is it always our job to bail out the savages who any other day of the decade would praise Allah while slitting our throats? Replace the words "white man" with "yankee" in Kipling's poem and it's right up-to-date, never mind it was written a century ago. -Huh, he wrote that in reference to our experience, as a result of the Spanish-American War, in the Philippine Islands. Where we also tangled with murderous Muslims. Again, spooky.)

721 - Tuesday, 4 January 2005: Extra-super-cold last night! Left trickle running in shower - no stalagmicicle this time.... Clear skies at present but potential for another icemare if some moisture moves in (which is expected later this week). Meanwhile, strong east wind down the Columbia Gorge, wind chill, power outages, etc.

Work, eh. Relaxed pace which hasn't yet become frustrating. No blatant displays of incompetence, though the management is taking frugality a little far where tools and equipment are concerned (but I'm used to that). Only a couple dozen people in the whole place, about a half-dozen in production, which I'm doing usually. I've already impressed everyone with my soldering and I've hardly ever done any. I might get drafted to the lab for reworks and such. My second day and the higher-ups and long-timers are already telling each other, in my presence, "keep him." (Is the labor force really that bad...? Cruffler has previously said "Yes." -Larry Elder was flogging government schools on his radio show today, coincidentally.) Long commute though, twenty-odd miles on The Freeway (I-205 and briefly on I-5).

Package from my New Hampshire reader - the Mosin brass and Lee progressive loader he offered! He warned me the press was in some disrepair but there's no beating the price. His idea was that I sell it for gas money, but even before I got the new job I figured on refurbishing it and using it instead (‘cause when could I expect to afford one on my own?). It may take a while to figure it all out (he even included the manuals!) and get any necessary parts (there's plenty of stuff in the box, detailed examination later) but I expect it to be worth the effort, and a cool learning experience besides. Must rearrange loading "bench"... and visit the "FREE WOOD" bin at the mega-home-mart, for something to mount the press to, so I can C-clamp it to the table in turn without drilling holes. Hm, spent primer disposal may require a slightly more involved arrangement, with more wood - the plan drawings are painting themselves inside my forehead now and I don't even know how the press works yet.

Jeez, he paid twenty-five bucks to ship the thing! And included a $20 bill with the brass, which means I might just barely not have to hock another rifle to Cruffler before my first paycheck, maybe. This is incredible, the kindness and generosity of gunfolk. I am humbled.

722 - Wednesday, 5 January 2005: Yawn - hard to drag oneself out of a warm soft bed on a cold hard morning, especially when one has been up late fiddling with various bits of a progressive reloading press. Back to work - back to the daily grind, less time for anything else like ‘blogging and email and reloading, sigh. But it beats the alternatives. ...Though I can see Frustrations looming on the horizon. Well, at least I have steady income for the winter, I can stick it out that long at least.

Now an inventory of the Pro 1000. Lots of stuff. The press appears complete, if in some disarray as the sender described, nothing obviously missing but considering the low price of Lee stuff and parts therefor, I wouldn't whine if it were. (And it's free! This thing retails new for $200!) Auto-Disk powder measure, with two bushing disks, one of which includes (according to the chart in the manual) the one I need to dispense 4.0gr W231 for my 9x19mm 124gr RNL loads, the very thing I'll use this for first and foreseeably most. Two complete shell carrier assemblies, and a third carrier plate besides, which the charts say will let me do .38/.357 (check), .45ACP (on the wish list), and 9x19mm (check), the latter also including .40S&W and 10x25mm. Several case-feeder tubes, and the big bowl-type case collator to feed them. Three, 3-place die turrets, so I can set up for three cartridges and just swap the plates with dies pre-installed and -adjusted (carrier assemblies slightly more involved, big whoop). Complete primer-feed apparatus for large and small primers. Some apparently extra or spare small parts too. And side dishes: a complete bench-mount micrometer-style powder measure, that makes two counting the old RCBS - now I can leave a Perfect or Favorite Setting alone and still load something else. 95 pieces reloadable Sellier & Bellot 7.62x54mmR Mosin brass. Lee case-trim cutter with ball grip, and the shaft for .223 Remington, others available for a couple bucks each at Sportsman's Warehouse or from the usual net/mail suppliers - and even though I have the Forster I might very well get use out of that, as neither of the two collets I have for the Forster appear to fit the big fat Mosin rims. Power-drill adapter for, and yet another, case-trim cutter, this one with a proprietary shellholder for .223, others again a couple bucks at SW (included with shafts I think) - hmm, examining that and how it works, it's about as efficient as the Forster, maybe moreso, or at least more comfortable, with the ball grip on one side and a motor on the other - and no fiddling with hex wrenches to adjust it, just change shafts and shellholders. What. A. Score. Still humbled. Wrote wholly inadequate thank-you email to the sender.

Very very cold. All three heater-fans running, risking tripping a breaker with the hovel's prehistoric wiring. Poor old cat must be hoisted from (warm) lap with block & tackle. "Rain" expected tomorrow - got chains.

Bright spot: about half my latest phone bill appears to have been "adjusted" away by the phone company. And another: ARCO Regular now under $1.70 in Portland, which means it's closer to $1.60 in Vancouver.

723 - Thursday, 6 January 2005: Dry commute in the morning, but raining on the way back. Cue ominous music. Got number to call if I'm iced in or delayed.

And now the reader who sent me the Pro 1000 emails detailed instructions and tips for its setup and use. ...Speechless I am.

Almost. New bumper sticker:

724 - Friday, 7 January 2005: More rain, but nothing freezing yet - but actual snow falling on the way back, though still not enough to stick. Could get interesting down here.... Sister reports mid-twenties in her area, and 9 degrees F in Issaquah, WA.

There's frequently a country station playing on the radio at work, and I'm actually starting to like it (except when the Dixie Chicks come on of course). You can understand the lyrics; you can repeat the lyrics in mixed company; the songs tell interesting stories; they have moral content (as opposed to immoral like much of the rest of the music industry). And there's Charlie Daniels of course. Red-State rednecks, okay.

Barberton tomorrow, may hock Ishapore to Cruffler, can't squeeze through without after all. Shooting tomorrow? I dunno, cold, wet, tired, etc. Will start fiddling with Pro 1000 in earnest this weekend - d'oh! Forgot free scrap lumber from work!

725 - Saturday, 8 January 2005: Zzzzzzzz....

Off to Barberton with Ishapore about 11am - and taking both .22 rifles and the Hi-Power too, ‘cause my sister emails that my other sister wants to come down and learn to shoot as well, and I want the .22s better-tuned for the next subversion session (sights of both are still a little off but first sis was grouping very respectably using the same POA - and then, apparently, instinctively grasped the notion of Kentucky Windage). First sis also appears to be my first convert, going on about building a gun rack in the walk-in closet, net-shopping for various pieces, etc. Muuahahahaaa.

Met Cruffler, got a week's worth of gas- and grocery-money for the Ishapore, which I can buy back later. $7 for 2005 membership in SW Washington Arms Collectors. Saw some mildly appetizing things, like a 20ga Mossberg M500 with wood and ~26" sporting barrel, $175, VG+ (a 20 is on the list, for mildness compared to the 12s, and another Load-All to make it even milder); rare Remington M600 carbine in .243 Winchester, $300, with iron sights, also VG+, if I made as much money as Cruffler seems to I'd've got that. Lee plastic die cases like the Mosin dies came in, empty, "FREE" - got one for my old .38/.357 dies (which will eventually end up in one of the Pro 1000's turrets).

Off to Clark Rifles. Some ground-snow at that elevation, but thin, and roads clear. Crowded! Upper rifle range (25-100yds) and handgun range packed. Lower (100-300) wide open but I didn't bring anything that can realistically reach that far. D'oh! Forgot sight-adjustment tools (hammer, punch) for .22s anyway. Finally the steel-plate end of the handgun line opens up and I put some 124gr RNL through the FM. -And after eight rounds the front sight disappears again. SIGH. (OTOH, I hit the plate every time.) Pack up, charge back to Barberton, Cruffler's hot-dog wagon just pulling out as I was pulling in, delivered slide to Hobbyist again, he'll have another go. More deliberate rifle session next weekend, with the .22s, and the FR with another four batches of handloads.

Regular gas $1.65 at Vancouver and selected Portland ARCOs, topped off.

726 - Sunday, 9 January 2005: Zzzz....

Slacking on email from my readers.

Pro 1000 fiddling postponed pending scrap lumber to make a stand for it.

Washington Governor's race still not decided, being contested. See also my cartoon on the subject. Both sisters live up there.

New poster:

727 - Monday, 10 January 2005: So I'm at the library and they have these graphic novels, and there's a four-volume set of Flash Gordon reprinted from the ‘40s and ‘50s and I think, eh, what the heck. And here's a little tidbit, from 24 December 1950, about a planet where "wizards" have outlawed all metal:

"The wizards hate civilization," [Queen] Sunni [of planet Zeta] explains. "[Chief Wizard] Kurzo said he'd end poverty and war by destroying metal. Yet my poor people work all day and night just to eat - and they still fight with arrows and sharp sticks, while savage beasts roam my land...."

(Of course the wizards don't suffer their own restrictions....) That's sticking it to the eco-freaks, before they existed as a distinct species. And the "redistribution of wealth" socialists and the peaceniks too, both of which (remember Neville Chamberlain) did exist back then. Script by Don Moore - I think I can guess which side of the Culture War he'd be on today.

Now where can I find a quick-thinking, ass-kicking, ray-gun-toting woman like Dale...?

At the new job, turns out one of the bosses is an IPSC shooter and bulk reloader, uses Dillon's progressive presses. Another boss' bookshelf contains a Rush Limbaugh book (The Way Things Ought to Be). This bodes well.

Other sis & husband, who sent me the Target gift card (#713), have apparently been reading this and have now followed up with Gibson's The Patriot on DVD. C'mon, folks, enough a'ready, it's getting embarrassing! I'll have you know I'm keeping track of all this....

Meanwhile: "Start with the officers and work your way down." "A shepherd must tend his flock - and at times, fight off the wolves!" "Aim small, miss small."

728 - Thursday, 13 January 2005: Yawn. Work sucks. I hate work. I never get enough sleep. I'm lazy, I want to zonk out ‘til noon and stay up all night netsurfing or reading or reloading or watching videos. (This from a man who used to ride a bicycle twenty miles for rifle practice - and would again.)

At least I do have a job. My putative official duty, stockroom and receiving, is neither challenging nor laborious, but the company is in a period of growth that might be called explosive and, well, they haven't been there before. I have observed an appalling lack of production experience - little or no notion of efficient movement, use of tools, use of space, product flow, etc. I appear to be one of the best three solderers they've ever seen - the other two work in the Lab. "Can he solder? Hey, you can solder, that's great!" Eek.

Still slacking on email, haven't even looked at the Pro 1000 for days. My feet hurt - cement floors again. But, three-day weekend (King's birthday) coming. Ahhh, Zzzz. Finally brought some scrap lumber back, to make a riser for the Pro 1000 before clamping it to the table, for primer disposal - now have to dig out the old handsaw, get some screws from the hardware store, etc.

Will catch up on email this weekend. Really.

729 - Friday, 14 January 2005: Ugh. Long commute, cement floors, widespread inefficiency. Definitely sleeping in this three-day weekend. (And then jury duty Wednesday, sigh....)

Long-anticipated ice-storm expected overnight-ish. Sunshine earlier, and some wind. High temperature forecast 28F tomorrow. Might not go shooting this weekend after all....

Turtledove's Homeward Bound at library, latest in the Worldwar/Colonization saga. Halfway through Ketchum's Saratoga, finding less time to read with the new job and all, setting it aside for now.

730 - Saturday, 15 January 2005: Zzzz....

Ice. Shower pipes half-frozen - out with the garden hose and sprayer and duct tape, hot shower via bathroom sink as before.

Later, still coming down, it's raining ice. Gravel driveway frozen solid and slick. Car under thin but solid sheet of ice. Shoulda got those groceries last night after all but was too tired from work and fed up with traffic. Bundle up, step (carefully!) outside, examine road conditions - on with the chains, won't get out of the driveway without ‘em anyway.

No, I don't think I'm going shooting ‘way up in the SW Washington hills this weekend after all.

Charging- er, creeping off to supermarket, arrived without incident, even stopping for some fuel on the way (Portland ARCO holding at $1.67). Windows iced up again by the time I get out of the store - icing up again on one side as I work my way around to the other. Wind blowing tiny flying icicles into my ears. Well, now I've enough stuff I can veg completely tomorrow, and it's supposed to melt off by Monday. And I still know how to drive (and walk) in ice, etc (unlike others...).

Starting Homeward Bound. Iiinnnteresting, Turtledove paraphrases Reagan on page 42, and not in a derogatory way... and the (sublight, but still) starship visiting the Lizards' homeworld is purely American, no globalist multinational nonsense (though the Soviets and Nazis and Imperial Japanese are reportedly each building their own, as of ~2130AD). Pg. 70: "The Admiral Peary was armed. A ship that went to strange places had to be." Dunno how Turtledove votes, but he does seem to Get at least part of It.

731 - Sunday, 16 January 2005: Zzzz....

Shower pipes still frozen. More ice overnight, but some parts of the city already melting. At least it seems to have stopped coming down.

Not driving anywhere today; boy am I glad I have tomorrow off. Slip-staggering down to the convenience store for the Big 5 flyer from the Sunday newspaper. Uh-oh, #4 SMLEs on sale again - $165.00 with coupon. Down-payment for layaway would be $41.25. Umm. These are the better ones, with heavier barrels and closer-to-proper sights. Ummm. If the ice clears tomorrow I'll take it as a sign from the Crufflegods (or are they Cruffledemons?). Direct-deposit still working, but no statement in the mail yet so I can't (precisely) balance my account. Phone and car insurance bills paid. Ummmm.

Noonish, shower pipes unfrozen (faucet left open, gurglechuggoosh). ~3pm, roads clearing, chains no longer needed to leave driveway. Moderate temperatures forecast overnight, possibly 50s later in the week.

Okay, I'm driving today after all. Now this is just $illy - I have five rifles in hock and I'm heading off to look at buying another. Well, Cruffler hasn't a right to comment, he's got literally hundreds and he doesn't even go shooting anymore. Hmph. Besides the price on the SMLE has come down some and there's no telling when more will be in, and I can put it on layaway and do $20 a week, with weekly paychecks, and still (eventually) reclaim the VZs and the Ishapore. So there, and so off with the tire chains. -Looked at three SMLEs at two stores, all wartime production, two-aperture flip rear sight marked "300" and "600", two of the three had two-groove rifling, all had more-or-less loose handguards, wartime (that is, sloppy) fit & finish, and even some rust. Passed, which is ju$t as well. The only factory code I could find on any of them was "ROF", "5/43" - and that looked to have been done with an electropencil (did they have those back then?). I'll hold out for the micrometer sight.

Tearing through Turtledove. Annoying writing, good story.

732 - Monday, 17 January 2005: Zzzz....

After rush hour, hop across the river for cheaper Washington state fuel - $1.63.

Gun shows? Next weekend in Centralia and Salem, too far and/or small; following weekend at Expo Center, too big, and admission now $8! Not counting $6-$7 for on-site parking. Planning on going up to a WAC show in Monroe, WA, in mid-March, to provide native guide for freshly-subverted sister's first shopping trip. Other sister and brother-in-law expressing interest.

To heck with the lumber, unclamping the Load-All from the table and setting it aside, starting to fiddle with the Pro 1000 finally. Examining sender's detailed email instructions - he didn't use it precisely as designed, would size/deprime & expand, prime separately with Auto-Prime as I do, then run them through again for powder and seating. First problem: Lee powder-through-expander dies required for use of included Auto-Disk powder measure. Second problem: locking rings on RCBS 9mm dies fat enough to block each other in the turret. Well, even if I have to use the Pro 1000 as a single-stage, the hopper-feed still gives a tremendous advantage over the RCBS JR2 when sizing and expanding, and I can use the RCBS powder measure, loading block, and JR2 with seating die the old-fashioned way to finish the rounds. Using oddball picked-up 9mm brass for testing and setup; will also setup for .38/.357 later. Lee dies are cheap, might get some after all. As for the locking rings interfering with each other, Sportsman's Warehouse sells Hornady rings and someone at the last several Barberton shows had a little box of assorted rings; also I can scavenge some from the old damaged Herters .308 and 9mm dies, that should work. -Don't actually have a proper .38/.357 expander die, the Herters 9mm expander might work if I set it just right.

Tweak here, bend there, feed cases through, okay, this thing will work, if incompletely. But not tonight, yawn. At least I have the thing clamped to a table and largely reassembled now. Later this week I'll keep fiddling, set the 9mm dies and maybe finally start some processing. At future shows, will hunt for .38 and/or .357 expanding dies. Michigan, noting my use of .38 wadcutters in a .357 to subvert my sister into the Gun Culture, sends a recipe for loading such in full-length .357 cases over a little Bullseye; this would keep the chamber fouling down. He warns of blow-through with hollow-base wadcutters, but Midway lists a few offerings of double-ended solid wadcutters, i.e. Rainier plated 148gr, 1,000 for $49.99. Dunno if SW carries any, I haven't dared go back there yet ($).

City mostly melted today.

A reader sends these:

Finishing Homeward Bound. Interesting, a touch, or more than a touch, of American nationalism from Turtledove. But a good story even without my litmus-testing and despite the imperfect writing. Back to Ketchum's Saratoga.

Later, fiddling - 9mm sizing/decapping and expander dies set! Ohhh yeah. Fill the bowl, jiggle to fill the feed tubes, size and expand in one operation - I could even rig a chute out of cardboard or something to dump the cases right into the tumbler. Made a dummy cartridge with the one leftover 115RNL, seating with the JR2 single-stage - drops right into, and out of, the P35's chamber (Hobbyist has only the slide, I think he deliberately avoids taking legally-serial-numbered parts (frames/receivers) into possession so he doesn't have to get a Federal license). I've just saved at least a third of the time for reloading 9mm, and now have fewer excuses to not load .357 (and seeing how well the low-power target loads in the beefy Ruger work for subversion, more excuses to load it). If I ignored cleaning the primer pockets, tumbled the cases before depriming, got the powder-through-expander die so I could mount the Auto-Disk, and refurbished the primer-feed attachment (it seems to be all there), I think this press will run at full design capacity. According to the manual there's even an optional bullet-feed attachment. But it's a great leap forward as-is.

On the cheapshooting list, I learn that the flip sight on the #4 SMLE can be easily replaced with the micrometer, which is available for $15 from Springfield Sporters. Ummmmm.

733 - Tuesday, 18 January 2005: Ack - Bi-Mart having $2 off powder and projectiles through tomorrow. Blew money on a pound of Bullseye, and a box each of Sierra 150gr .308" Pro Hunters and Speer 148gr .358" HBWC. Curse their sinister Lucky-Number-Tuesday marketing ploy! (Well, no, not really....)

Jury duty tomorrow, bleah. Well, I think I can get an extra hour's sleep at least.

No reloading today, lethargic again.

Never did get an award from the Allies vs. Axis match, I think they just flaked, not even a cheesy clipart certificate. Maybe I'll cook one up, and make others for the other winners while I'm at it - the new printer came with a pack of photo paper and some graphic software. OTOH I'll pester someone at the club's annual meeting this Saturday.

Neal Knox, a true champion of the Cause, has succumbed to a long struggle against cancer. Damn.

734 - Wednesday, 19 January 2005: Robert E. Lee's birthday! There was a great American:

"He was a foe without hate, a friend without treachery, a soldier without cruelty, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices, a private citizen without wrong, a neighgbor without reproach, a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guilt. He was Caesar without his ambition, Frederick without his tyranny, Napoleon without his selfishness, and Washington without his reward."
Tribute to Robert E. Lee
January 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870
by Benjamin H. Hill

Jury duty, icky downtown people, sigh. Another several unproductive hours in cheap institutional plastic seats, another backache - and I didn't get chosen again. Add to this the wholly insulting security screening (the metal detectors were turned up all the way, and tripped on the foil-wrapped pack of chewing gum in my coat pocket), more icky downtown people, icky mass-transit people from and to my off-site parking (I am not parking downtown)... bleah.

Finally back to hovel, and finally processing some 9mm brass with the Pro 1000 - ohhh yeah. Even as a two-stage press with only sizing and expanding dies, and with some jiggling frequently required to get the turret and case to line up, and the occasional upside-down case that must be plucked out, this is still saving me bunches of time over the single-stage. Into the tumbler, bbzzzzz. Priming later. Fiddling with another turret and shell carrier for .357 - probably want a real .357 expanding die. -Waaaiit a minute, I have another set of RCBS 9mm dies, with a long-taper expander instead of the sharper-stepped Herters piece... yeeess, that will work nicely, use the locking ring to seat the die higher in the turret to get more operating length for the longer cases, then adjust the actual expander cone normally. Testing with oddball unsorted brass - now I'm processing .357! (Old CH carbide sizer.) Cooool. Interesting, a hundredth here, a thousandth there, the .357 brass is going through much smoother than the stubby 9x19mm, little or no jiggling required. [rummagerummage] Goodness! I've stockpiled a lot of .38 and .357 brass, mostly unplated Winchester Magnum, and some nickel-plated too (the white-box 110JHP used to be plated, and switched to plain brass, for the same catalog number, some years ago). Most of the Special is oddballs from reloads from show vendors.

In the news - reports that new Attorney General Gonzalez will seek to reinstate the "assault weapons" ban. Thanks ever so much, Dubya! [snarl!] Just days after the mini- (compared to last year's) icemare, record high temperatures, into the 60s. Threats of a "dirty bomb" attack in Boston linked to (gasp!) illegal immigrants from Mexico (Chinese and Iraqis - "OTMs", Other Than Mexicans). At least three Bush-bashing protest marches planned in Portland for tomorrow's Inauguration, "non-violent"ly blocking traffic and disrupting services and flinging garbage and breaking windows and.... Dr. Rice's Senate confirmation hearing for her appointment as SecState is the stuff duels are made of, especially from Commiefornian arch-anti Boxer. NewsMax says Al Gore and John Kerry may both run again in 2008.

Another cool thing about the Pro 1000, or presumably other progressive reloaders, is that one can put in only the dies one needs, like the expander, so I can run through all that other .357 brass, already sized and primed but not expanded back when I was just starting reloading and didn't quite Get all of It - and still use the case feeder and save bunches of time. A little adjustment of the case feeder and I could probably run live rounds through, i.e. for the much-touted (by Lee anyway) Lee factory crimp die.

Examining load data - Winchester's .PDF lists 3.4gr W231 under an actual 148gr WC for full-length Magnum cases, for 880fps and under 20,000cup. Listed as maximum, no starting charge listed, but we've established (and I've been told by other gunfolk too) that Winchester's data is wimpy, and this is for revolvers where having enough recoil impulse doesn't matter, and besides that it's going into a Ruger which will digest loads that would burst most other brands. And the actual Magnum loads they list have mostly twice the pressure, i.e. 110JHP at 1,575fps and 42,500cup. So the 148WC is just the kind of mild, presumably-accurate user-friendly subversion load I'm looking for, and I still have well over three pounds of W231. I have 200 cases already primed with Federal #100s, and still well over 2,000 WSP. -Ah, Speer #10, 1979, lists the exact same load, 3.4gr W231 under Speer 148gr HBWC... as a starting load, at more than 100fps less than Winchester's data (747 vs. 880). Huh? Well, 3.4 it shall be (Speer #10 maxes at 3.8, warns against hollow-base blow-through). Speer says CCI-500 primer, Winchester... doesn't. Really must get a chronograph one of these days....

Uh-oh: Sportsman's Guide, in their Shooting catalog, lists a Traditions "Springfield Hawken" .50 percussion rifle for $120, plus $14 shipping. Of course after watching The Patriot (again) I (still) want a flintlock rifle (to go with my 1½ pistols) - percussion didn't exist ‘til about twenty years after our victory at Yorktown, and then it was invented by an Englishman. But still, low price, authentic styling (as opposed to anachronistic adjustable sights).... That price is actually competitive with the CVA Bobcat I was looking at, and with better styling too (like, no plastic). Ummm. Possibly I could get a replacement lock and make it a convertible, hmm (Traditions' website FAQ says "NO", phooey... but they do offer flintlocks, maybe they're just being liability-shy...). 28", 1:48 twist, fixed but dovetailed sights, single trigger, no patchbox. In Fred's Guide to Becoming a Rifleman, one of the photocopiable targets geometrically simulates the 250-yard head shots that Daniel Morgan's Virginia riflemen stunned spectators with. With flintlock rifles. Whack... whoosh... bang. Now that's good shooting. Percussion kinda takes the challenge out of it! (And, noting the decades-long delay before Britain officially switched over, it seems that was a biiig gene pool of "prize dunderheads".) But a muzzleloading long gun Of Some Kind would be an overdue addition to the collection.

Of course there have been concerns, among the net's gunfolk, about Sportsman's Guide being too loose with customer information. I've never ordered from them, I just get their catalogs.

And I haven't even opened the latest Cabelas Shooting catalog that came the same day. What Perils Await, $hudder.

New Shotgun News too, feature article on holsters including for the Browning P35. And of course advertisements - I still kinda sorta want one of those delightfully-penetrative, mechanically-interesting, seductively-affordable CZ52s....

Cruffler, a certifiable masochist, tells of acquiring an NEF single-shot - in ten gauge. With a short barrel of course (did I mention his 16½" Mosin? Or his Savage 110/.416 Something project? Or his .375 fetish, both H&H and Winchester?). I guess he ain't having fun unless he's simultaneously dislocating his shoulder and singing his eyebrows. Now he's talking .50 (now it occurs to him to get a .50?).

Downloaded and printed instructions for Lee Perfect Powder Measure, included in the manna-from-New Hampshire. Interesting, the micrometer has, like, numbers on it, and they actually have meaning, referencing a chart in the instructions for Most Powders - even Pyrodex! I'll remember that when gumption strikes and I resume development of combustible paper cartridges. (The RCBS measure has numbers on it too, but I have no documentation and I've been too lazy to simply write down a setting for any given powder/weight.)

Back to work tomorrow, sigh.

735 - Thursday, 20 January 2005: Work, ugh.

Moonbats marching downtown, blocking streets and bridges, protesting the Inauguration. No violence here yet but some at DC, garbage flung at blueshirts. Talk shows playing moonbat sound effects, "Bush stole the election on the backs of black people" - where do they get this stuff? Objective demographic analysis reveals that Bush gained in the black vote (and the gay vote and the Latino vote and...), and there's Powell and Rice of course. I mean, c'mon, "Islam is peaceful, Bush is a terrorist" - 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual! Good thing my commute doesn't take me near there, but I fully hate this city and constantly dream of leaving. -Ugh, off with the radio, I can't listen to another moonbatty syllable.

Decompressing with barbecue chicken pizza (incidentally thereby sticking it to the Vegans)... then deliberately offending treasonous racist violent hateful lying intolerant "liberals" by MAKING MY VERY OWN HANDGUN AMMUNITION. And bragging about it right here on my very own personal instrument of Free Speech. Ya don't like it, move ta *&^$# Cuba ya commie filth. Fifty rounds .357 "Magnum", Winchester brass, Federal #100 primer (from way back before the English Pit score), 3.4gr W231, Speer 148gr hollow base wadcutter seated flush and crimped. Subversion loads, intended to be accurate, low-recoil, pleasant and gratifying to fire, to lure others into the Gun Culture. Hope to try them this weekend, then decide what to put under the other fifty projectiles. Will stop at SW tomorrow after work, looking for other bullet choices (and scouting 10 gauge factory loads for Cruffler).

736 - Friday, 21 January 2005: Ugh, work. You ever notice how some people are just no good with their hands?

Presuming a direct deposit, I dared to visit Sportsman's Warehouse, and escaped with only a box of 1,000 Winchester Large Rifle primers ($15.50). Noticed a couple more bayonet lugs appearing, on M4-lookalike ARs. Also noted the new Bushmaster .308 AR (without lug), as reviewed in latest (Feb. 05) American Rifleman - didn't note the exact price but it was probably in the neighborhood of the $1,800 MSRP. Anyway this is the new one which takes dirt-cheap, widely-available FAL magazines - a step in the right direction, AR-wise. (No mention of the gas system, but looking at the article's pictures I think it still uses the direct impingement system which sprays powder-gunk everywhere, phooey. Meanwhile, latest (20 Jan.) Shotgun News has cover article on DSA's new gas-piston AR.) SW does carry three 10 gauge "fighting" loads, a Federal 1¾oz. slug, and Federal & Winchester 18-pellet OO, all for something over a dollar per round. Also reviewed .311-ish bullet choices (still haven't slugged Mosin; I should be able to use a single piece of OO buckshot, eh?), and shopped for handgun bullets: 9mm 147gr RNL, 500/$31ish; no target wadcutters, hollow-base or solid, not even on the big-name plastic-box shelves. A .358 125gr RN/FP, probably meant for Cowboy but which might make a good subversion load, 500/$27.

New Clark Rifles membership card in mail.

More barbecue chicken pizza.

Gas prices climbing again, in the $1.70s in Portland.

737 - Saturday, 22 January 2005: Zzzz....

Off to Clark Rifles' annual meeting, at the Fisher's Landing transit center where I used to get off the bus with a bikeful of rifles and ammunition when I still shot at English Pit. Relatively uneventful. Cruffler absent, phoned him, didn't want to sit and "listen to the old ladies," eh. New board of directors elected largely without rancor. Monthly meeting tomorrow night, hm. Member-at-Large is apparently the person I would gripe to about not getting an award for winning the AvA, but at the meeting, speechifying before being elected unopposed to the same office he'd de-facto held for a couple years already, he wanted to beg off tomorrow's meeting to watch a couple "really good bowl games." I think he has an e-dress on their website.

While votes were being counted, outgoing acting president and other senior members related entertaining or educational anecdotes - there was a recent mishap when someone ignored safe handling procedures for muzzleloading propellant, specifically Pyrodex pellets; the container was open on the bench and a spark from firing got in there. I learned that ordinary, i.e. Goex, blackpowder ignites around 325F, while Pyrodex and Triple Seven need roughly twice the heat - hence the modern substitutes don't work well, if at all, in flintlocks, which is why, with 1½ flintlock pistols on-hand, a flintlock rifle on the wish list, and genuine blackpowder legislated into retail extinction in this area, I blew $140 on 19 pounds of Goex FFFg last year. Anyway what I heard was that the black substance on either end of a Pyrodex pellet is actual blackpowder, to aid ignition, and the theory is that this is what ignited from the stray spark on the firing bench. (No permanent injuries resulted from the uncontained conflagration, but it was a good thing the shooter was wearing glasses, and he won't be using that hand for a while.) Of more interest, I also heard that Pyrodex has a corrosive salt added to its formula, to better simulate real blackpowder I guess - but that Triple Seven is "sugar based" and not, or substantially less, corrosive. With four percussion revolvers and the possibility of a percussion rifle, I'll have to look into this... as I recall, Triple Seven is significantly more expensive than Pyrodex.

Vancouver gas $1.69, up six cents in about as many days. ¿Que?

Sis emails, suggests both sisters come down for President's Day weekend. There's a holiday list on the bulletin board at work but I don't recall if that's a three-day weekend for me - I suspect it is, as I never had MLK Day off before but this place observes it. Cast Bullet match on the 19th, so long-range stuff is out, but one sis hasn't begun to develop a recoil tolerance for highpower rifles and the other sis has never fired a round (! What's the country coming to? "...ye said of Strife, ‘What is it?' of the Sword, ‘It is far from our ken....'" Well, I can make up the deficiency for at least two women, and likely one brother-in-law and two nephews too. Hah! I fulfill my gunfolkly duty! "...each man born in the Island broke to the matter of war") so the preemption of the 300-yard line on that day is moot. Gun show in Canby that weekend too.

Hm, could be a busy day tomorrow, OAC show in the morning, maybe some shooting after that, then the monthly meeting at 5pm, hmm. Might skip shooting this weekend after all, I dunno. ...Yeah, I think I'll load the other 50 wadcutters over Speer #10's starting load of 3.0gr Bullseye (733fps), tomorrow between the show (if I'm up early enough) and the meeting, and take two subversion loads for testing on the 29th/30th. And another 80 rounds (four batches) for the FR8, and the .22 rifles again, this time with the hammer and punch to finer-tune the sights.

Ack - on the way to the laundromat, stopped at Really Good Hardware Store and spent money on propane torch and "Hobby Solder", "96% Tin, 4% Silver", tube of paste flux included. Specifically to fix the second flintlock pistol (#678, #710), but as Cruffler points out it's past time I had such. My brother-in-law might be coming down with my sisters and if not I'll probably meet him at/for the WAC show in March, and I think he has an interest in blackpowder: he describes The Patriot as his favorite film.

Earlier, Cruffler says WAC's ~monthly Puyallup shows better than Monroe. Later, emails that Hobbyist has (again) finished the P35's front sight! (And chopped Cruffler's Mag-10's barrel.)

738 - Sunday, 23 January 2005: So I'm laying awake in bed at night, as usual, and I'm thinking. And I've just watched The Patriot again and I'm thinking. And I'm thinking, "Free men own guns, slaves don't." And I'm thinking of something from Flint/Weber/Baen/et.al.'s 1632 saga, "These people have had a functioning republic for over two hundred years, with only one civil war." And I'm thinking of L. Neil Smith's Pallas and Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and the Ngu Departure pistol and Avi's HEAP gun. And I'm thinking of a bin full of pulled Makarov barrels I saw at a show, and I'm thinking of a commie Chinese slave-labor-produced mill/drill for ~$500 at Harbor Freight Tools.

And I'm thinking.

And I get out of bed at 1:30am and do a little typing, just so I don't lose my place.

And then I go back to bed.

Zzzz....

Saint John's birthday! How better to celebrate than by attending a gun show? Charging off to OAC show ~9:30, still free admission with ACSW membership. Monthly theme, "Single Actions & Single Shots," lots and lots of SAAs, one or two tables might each have been worth as much as my sister's house. Rare old genuine Browning designs, i.e. 1905 service pistols, original 1911 and 1911A1 pistols. Ack - blew $45 on six boxes, 300 rounds, of Winchester factory 115gr JHP 9x19mm - that's $7.50/box (wanted $8) or 15¢/round. Bi-Mart presently has it on sale for $8.99/box. Sighted: for Cruffler, "1877 Trapdoor", $750, not much finish left but otherwise Good condition, seemed complete; genuine Browning Hi-Power, .30 Luger, two magazines, $875 (if I want a .30 barrel for the FM I'll probably have to have it made ($omeday)); Springfield P9, CZ75/EAA Witness clone, 9x19mm, four magazines, $425.

Loaded the other fifty wadcutters over 3.0gr Bullseye.

Attended Clark Rifles monthly meeting, first with new BoD - yak yak, blah blah. Aside from the Board I was about the only person there. Eh.

At meeting's end, outgoing acting pres attempts to get me interested in CBA shooting. It would be more rifle matches to shoot in.... I have no casting equipment whatsoever but I have been thinking about it.

739 - Monday, 24 January 2005: Yawn. Work sucks. Slacking on email again.

In a fit of Cause-driven altruism I proposed hosting a page for the Southwest Washington Arms Collectors - the Barberton show - to Cruffler, who is an officer of that group and who jumped at it. It's thin, but it's up.

No, I don't get a 3-day weekend for Presidents' Day, but still planning on both sisters and probably brother-in-law coming down to shoot and maybe visit the Canby show. I wonder if I can (very fiscally irresponsibly) squeeze in that Sportsman's Guide percussion rifle by then?

Should make rent easily (enough) with next week's paycheck. Actually have a little back in savings from the first check, and it's actually still there.

Cruffler hasn't yet visited Hobbyist to retrieve his shotgun barrel and my pistol slide, sometime this week. Planning on FR (with .308 handloads), FM (still a couple hundred rounds RNL left) and GP (with subversion loads) this weekend.

Wadcutters are all right I guess, but the flush seating can be a pain. I think I'll get a box of those 125gr RN/FP I saw and work up a subversion load with those. Ah, Lyman #45 (1970) has one, for 121gr cast, starting at the same 3.0gr Bullseye for 764fps (max 4.5 @ 998), right in the same neighborhood as the wadcutters but still in Magnum cases. Also noted as "Accuracy Load" (with Lyman's bullet mold anyway, a very ordinary-looking round nose in the chart in the back). That oughta do. -I note that in .38 Special, the same bullet is launched by 2.0gr Bullseye to a mere 560fps; but I've read many a warning on the net about small charges of Bullesye and forward ignition and detonation and whatnot, I dunno. Anyway I'll a) stick to the book and b) use a notoriously-strong Ruger. Of course even 3.0gr comes nowhere near capacity in a .357 Magnum case and depending on individual habits there's a severe risk of double- (or even triple-...?) charging a case - 6gr Bullseye might strain even a Ruger, and I imagine some of my readers near wet themselves at the thought of 9gr. But, I only charge 50 pieces at a time: I take each from the bucket where they're sized/expanded/primed, directly to the powder measure, then directly to the loading block, and stop when the block is full, then eyeball the entire block to make sure each case has a) powder and b) obviously the same amount of powder. Then I take them from the block to the press for seating/crimping.

OTOH, in his detailed instructions, my New Hampshire donor gave Dire Warnings and Severe Cautions about riding herd on the Auto-Disk measure for the Pro 1000, both to keep its linkage intact and to make sure it doesn't run out of powder when one gets carried away progressively reloading. Uncharged or undercharged cases can be as dangerous as overcharged - a stuck bullet can ruin more than a day. But I need actual Lee dies to use that measure anyway.

740 - Tuesday, 25 January 2005: Finally another ISP bill from Iguanasoft - for the monthly $14.95, apparently forgetting all those other months I never got a bill for. Oooookay....

For months I've been getting mail for "Michael B. Grant", probably some drug-addicted deadbeat for all I know - mortgage stuff, veterinary stuff, and just junk. And I got tired of writing NOT AT THIS ADDRESS over and over (once, I did that and dropped it in a blue box, and it came right back the next day), so I made a little sign and stuck it inside my mailbox where it can't be missed by the postal worker:

ATTENTION POSTMASTER:
"Michael B. Grant"
DOES NOT LIVE HERE.
Please STOP delivering mail for
"Michael B. Grant" to this address!

But I may have put too much faith in the literacy of Federal employees (see #556, 569-570), because today my mail, addressed to #xx40, and my neighbor's, to #xx44, the two mailboxes maybe six meters apart in direct line-of-sight with GREAT BIG BRASS NUMBERS stuck on the front of the hovel in the correctly respective positions, were found in the opposite of their intended places. Nor is this the first time that's happened.

I guess they give postal jobs to people who can't cut it in the real world.

741 - Wednesday, 26 January 2005: Work, bleah. Back trouble today, I appear to be the Designated Laborer; as I've observed with most of my recent jobs, I go two or three times as fast as most, with essentially no rejects in my work.

Still slacking on email. But I still read it. Sometimes even from work, at breaktime via mail2web, and I learn that Cruffler has braved the Black Hole of Gab, visited Hobbyist, and retrieved his chopped Mag-10 barrel and my P35 slide! Directly there from work, yakked, snurfled by dog, impressed by brightness of home-schooled kid, somewhat... disturbed by examination of short-barrel 10-gauge NEF single-shot. It really does look like a small grenade launcher. This guy was slightly disappointed when the slug loads turned out to be only 1¾oz., and he smiled when I explained that 18 pieces of OO work out to more than two. Plenty of wall thickness in the barrel - I suggested he have it milled for choke tubes, get or have made a rifled tube (I know they make them in other gauges), and have a mold made for .775" hollow-base Miniés, or something.

I mean, yeek.

Vancouver ARCO Regular $1.69 at one station, $1.71 at another nearer the freeway.

New front sight! Square back, no undercut, left in the white. A little short, ~.115, when I previously found that .125 is perfect - I'll see what it does this Saturday.

742 - Friday, 28 January 2005: Bleah, work. And, I am once again a victim of political correctness; apparently working two or three times as fast and several times as well as anyone else is by itself offensive in this benighted age, but actually pointing out the blatant incompetence of others is a firing offense. (In email a couple months ago, when I was rediscovered by my biological family, my sister-in-law in Arizona says that my eldest brother moved down there because he couldn't get work up here, for about the same reason.) The two bosses involved (one an IPSC shooter, the other lapsed (i.e. not-presently-shooting) gunfolk) expressed reluctance to let go of my skills and commiserated on the institutional disease of PC, but I'm still out of a job. See, here's the problem:

Phoned temp rep, left message, ate barbecue chicken pizza. At least the rent is covered. And that commute really sucked.

Detailed pre-re-launch cleaning and examination of FM. And the safety catch plunger retaining pin is loose! Peened it. Loading range bag - as before, will do rifleman stuff first so the trip won't be a total disappointment if the front sight comes off again. This time, with the FR8, four more batches of .308/NATO handloads, all 150gr: Speer FMJBT/42.8 W748/Hirtenberger; same w/43.4 H380; Hornady Interlock/39.1 IMR4064/CAVIM; same with Sierra Pro Hunter. In 9x19mm: 90-odd rounds 95gr FMJ/5.1gr W231; last of the 115gr RNL/4.4gr W231; 200 124gr RNL/4.0gr W231. .357: 148gr Speer HBWC, 50 each 3.4gr W231 and 3.0gr Bullseye.

Nothing immediate from temp service.

Hal Colebatch, former adviser to two Australian Federal Ministers and author of Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War (among other works), emails regarding my review of that book in September ‘03 (#304) and, responding to my concerns at that time about his politics, declares himself to be on the Right side of the international Culture War and supportive of RKBA. (But, from the story, I pretty much had that figured out by October (#308).) His latest work is Steadfast Knight, his father's biography, and he says another collection will be out soon.

743 - Saturday, 29 January 2005: Zzzz....

Sis emails to commiserate on my latest round of unemployment. Still planning on between two and five family coming down to be subverted in February. Speaking of which, off to Clark Rifles; besides the items above, also taking both .22 rifles and sight-drifting tools.

Cold, heavy overcast, some mist and drizzle. Arrived ~11.45am. Starting with FR - business (Rifleman's Journal) before recreation (saving FM for last). Sierra Pro Hunter over IMR, sandbags, 25yds, Palma five-place targets. Again shooting for groups, to evaluate potential accuracy and not to sight-in. -No pressure signs. -As expected, Sierra bullets do their part:

1 2 3 4

Now Hornady/IMR. No pressure signs. Smooth extraction, but slightly stiff chambering, probably due to the rough Spanish-surplus boltface (no, it's probably the CAVIM brass - later, the loads in Hirtenberger cases chamber and extract very smoothly - but huh? They all went through the same sizer and trimmer...). The FR likes the Hornady Interlock too, or maybe it just likes the hand-weighed IMR-4064 powder:

5 6 7 8

Now Speer FMJBT over Hodgdon 380. Not expecting as much from the Speer because of that wandering ogive and attendant wandering COL. -But, a pessimist can only be pleasantly surprised:

9 10 11 12

Speer again, over W748. Eww. And poor gas seal too, residue leaking down the chamber and the sides of the case - the other loads came out clean. Winchester's wimpy data strikes again. Yipe! What the heck happened with that fourth string? And I was rushing a little too! Hmm.

13 14 15 16

Breaks for targets; some extended chatting, including face-to-face w/AvA match director, I'll follow up in email later with my proposal to design and print award certificates on my own. Hyped Mojo sights & shared tips with a new Mosin 91/30 owner. Light rain starting ~noonish.

Now Stevens M52, on the old 1" square with grid. Ahem: 15 rounds CCI Mini Mag, 10 rounds Federal Champion bulk-pack plated hollowpoint. I'll just leave the sights right where they are. Trigger has improved with use, too. So sis wasn't using Kentucky Windage, she was simply right on target with a proper sight picture. Good!

1 2

Now Romanian repeater, with Mini Mag - groups good, but way high and left. Adjust windage: hammer, steel punch, spent .22LR case on punch tip to prevent marring, whack whack. -That's okay but I need an SKS-style sight tool, but smaller, to adjust the front sight for elevation. Should be able to Dremel one out of an old screwdriver or such. Cold, targets getting wet, enough with rifles today - but I'm making progress; the FR is showing signs of useful accuracy, the M52 subversion rifle is zeroed and the Romanian subversion rifle is halfway there. ~2:30pm, to handgun line.

GP100, Bullseye powder. Mild recoil, no pressure signs. Curious, shooting rather high. Grouping adequately, hit some steel plates too. Now W231 powder - also high but not as much. About the same accuracy. Well, seating wadcutters is a hassle, I'll get a box of medium-to-lightweight round-nose or semiwadcutters or such for my next subversion recipe.

Here I reiterate that a medium-frame, 6- (or 7-) shot, 4"-barrel, adjustable-sight, preferably-stainless-steel .357 Magnum revolver may be the most versatile of all handguns: with factory wadcutter loads or low-power handloads it can be used for training and subversion; it's not quite too big to carry concealed; it's extremely simple and reliable, advantages for the 3pm-novice and for the 3am-home-defender; with full-power loads it's entirely adequate for fighting; with maximum loads in skilled hands it'll do for hunting up to deer (Elmer Keith's First Rule of Hunting: "Use Enough Gun"), though you'd likely want a beefy Ruger and toasty handloads for that last one.

Finally the FM. Using up the 95gr FMJ over 5.1gr W231. As I feared, it shoots high. That load is still weak, too, many stovepipes, few slide-locks. The cold may have something to do with it; months ago in warmer weather it was cycling better, and one of the cautions in... Sierra V I think is that rounds loaded in cold weather will have higher pressures when fired in warm weather, and summer (or room-temperature) loads will shoot weak in winter. Anyway it's gone and I Collected Data.

Now the RNL - not shooting so high after all! Function is perfect except for one magazine where my epoxy repair to the follower came off, resulting in only one failure to slide-lock. (The particular kind of plastic used in the follower doesn't like the epoxy I have - I suspect the pipe cement used for plumbing might work, hardware store has small cans for a couple bucks.) 115gr gone - 124gr good too, but quite smoky. Hit plates most of the time. ~150 rounds, front sight still there! ...But jiggling some, like the original Argentine piece did before it disappeared, hmm. Cruffler says Hobbyist staked this one like the original military design, no evidence of solder this time, hmm. Anyway, enough for today, good productive session: I have skill with rifles and am recovering skill with handguns; I have Instruments of Subversion ready or readying for use. Packed about 4pm.

Trying to catch up on email.

Special Michael Moore section added to Links.

[thought="random"] Could a pistol which fires .38 Super be convertible to 7.62x25mm? Looking at Cartridges of the World - cartridge overall length would be the killer, the Tokarev is seven hundredths longer, but other critical dimensions, like case (for the magazine) and rim (for the breechface and extractor) diameter, are within a couple-few thousandths, hmm. An EAA Witness perhaps, hmm.... Imagine that, sixteen or so highly-penetrative rounds! Of course the FN Five-seveN carries twenty and is probably even more penetrative - but hmm, according to EAA their .45 Witness frame can be converted, with slide/barrel/spring/magazine, to any smaller caliber they offer, i.e. 10x25mm, .40, .38 Super or 9x19mm. If a 7.62x25mm round fits in an unaltered .38 Super magazine, I'm sure someone somewhere could whip up a barrel....

Tip: use .40 bore brush to scrape .38 short-case residue from .357 revolver chambers.

744 - Sunday, 30 January 2005: Iraqis vote freely today for the first time in half a century. Some weeping, some dancing. Carrying their family elders miles to the polls. 60% turnout of registered voters, risking their lives against the possibility of terrorist attack to take back their own national destiny.

That is a good thing, and it was made possible by the military strength and political resolve of the United States of America. So naturally Democrats and the mainstream media are focusing less on the spread of self-determination and more on the lack of electricity ("counting ballots by candlelight") and the latest American casualties. &%$#@....

Listening to Tom Gresham's coverage of the SHOT Show. S&W introducing the .460 S&W cartridge, the next step past the .45 Colt/.454 Casull and downward-compatible with them. Gain-twist rifling in that, interesting. Reports of electronic rifle scopes with LCD screens - uhhh, whaddaya do when the batteries go dead? Meade buying out some other scope companies and largely re-engineering traditional scopes, junking ~century-old leaf-spring technology and going back to the drawing board (or CAD screen). Taurus offering a six-shot .410 shotshell revolver, a multicaliber .38ish revolver like the abortive Medusa from a few years ago, and a reproduction of the Colt Lightning Cowboy-era slide-action rifle (hmm...). New .17 Mach 2 caliber, a .22LR necked down like the .17HMR/.22WMR, increasingly offered: Kimber in a 1911 pistol, Marlin in a semiautomatic rifle; their subsidiary H&R/NEF introducing new shotguns, over/unders, semiautos, and a Handi-Rifle in .500 S&W. Thunder Ranch, one of the top firearm training academies, moving to Oregon, already booked through ‘05 and taking reservations for ‘06.

745 - Monday, 31 January 2005: Unemployed again. At least I can get a few zzzz....

Priming bunches of .357 and 9x19mm brass. Staring at S&B Mosin brass and Lee dies. Fiddling with clipart to make award certificates for Allies vs. Axis match.

Listening to talk radio. John Kerry almost choking on praise for the military, then saying no one should "over-hype" the Iraqi elections. Look here, Hanoi Johnny, this election cannot be over-hyped. The United States of America has set an entire nation free and bestowed self-government upon millions, ending a half-century of oppression and genocide. Our glorious troops are slaughtering terrorists wholesale and making the world a safer place with one hand, and restoring water and electricity and rebuilding roads and bridges and hospitals and schools with the other. Johnny, you and all your commie kind can take your nay-saying and "insurgent"-hugging and America-bashing, fold it until it is all sharp corners, and SHOVE IT!

Limbaugh reports that leftist hate radio is almost entirely funded by contributions from Democrat politicians - they can't sell ad time, they can't get free-market sponsors (this probably has something to do with the lack of Federal legislation requiring people to listen to their treasonous hatemongering). Then claims total financial independence for his own show - and the kinds of commercials I hear during it would tend to support his claim.

Nothing, of course, from temp service.

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