RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - JULY 2005

Crawl back to hovel on I-205, bailing out to surface streets which also crawled. ...Recycling bin left exactly in my way to park. Spoke with the lady of the hovel yesterday about the stroller and bicycle, she seemed resentful that anyone would suggest that anyone other than her has any rights at all. My knee-jerk suspicion is that someone's got a case of "The-World-Owes-Me-Everything-‘Cause-I'm-Black-and-All-Whites-are-Racists"-itis. Objectively, insufficient data.

Screeching brats. Three. Wyoming....

Loaded 20 rounds each for Mauser and Mosin. 45.1gr IMR4064 is near case capacity in Federal "8mm Mauser" brass, but still not a compressed charge with a 150gr Sierra Pro Hunter at 3.00" COL. More capacity in the S&B 7.62x54R case, 46.1gr leaves even more room. 125gr Pro Hunter is stubby, gripped by rather less than half the neck at a COL of 2.85". (Sierra says 2.80 for that bullet. Hungarian yellow-tip FMJ is 3.01. Worried about accuracy suffering with the presumed long jump to the rifling. Well, I still have 100-odd rounds of Albanian.)

No paycheck in mail, hm. Should arrive tomorrow. Unless direct-deposit has finally started but I'm too wasted to go out again tonight just to check the ATM.

Finished Laumer's Imperium, tasty, starting Gingrich & Forstchen's Never Call Retreat, even tastier.

Fireworks shopping tomorrow maybe, rifle practice Sunday I hope.

874 - Saturday, 2 July 2005: Got some pyro, will assemble strings presently.

Neighbor reports that the recycling bin was left in my parking space by one of the remodeling crew, known for sloppy work. Good thing I didn't take it out on the new neighbors. OTOH, same neighbor reports that the newcomers are over-occupying that unit (compared to what the property owners think live there), are calling blueshirts on each other, and have been issued a nuisance warning by the owners. Exact number of screeching brats not confirmed, either two or three. It's a one-bedroom not much larger than my studio hovel. Also, in one of the hollering matches, I believe I heard the "man" of the hovel say something like "until I get a job," meaning of course he doesn't have one.

Mailed my rent check this morning, right after the paycheck came in the mail.

At freeway speeds, Corolla's wheel imbalance vibrates so much the radio shakes out of the dashboard, but at least it's not getting worse. Hope to have that addressed within the month. Likewise a spare. Braking is okay but the slightly-damaged rotor, and its relatively undamaged mate, should probably be replaced on principle. At least it gets me to work and back. Probably just as well I didn't try the 200-mile trek to Everett this holiday though.

875 - Sunday, 3 July 2005: Zzzz....

Vegging some, listening to GunTalk. Printing the letter from the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center/Folsom Shooting Club to the California DOJ, refusing official use of the range by DOJ personnel, will leave in clubhouse.

On the lists, big disarmament move in Zimbabwe. Not that I'd visit there anyway. I wonder which tribe will exterminate which with machetes this time?

Bob Morrison of Taurus on GunTalk, making nice RKBA sounds - but Taurus was involved in a "smart-gun" project with the New Jersey Institute of Technology - but Taurus did pull out of that project some months ago. Hm, they also are working on a 1911 (who isn't? Not that it's a bad thing). Previously heard of their Thunderbolt, a derivative of the old Colt Lightning slide-action. They also have an SAA clone.

2pm - actually, wimping out today after all. That's bad, I should fire something on Independence Day weekend, especially a fighting rifle, but I do have errands to run down here and I have to prepare my show for tomorrow night. At least the range bag and hard cases are packed and ready and I'm finally loading my own Mosin rounds. (C'mon, gimme a break, I've been unemployed most of the year and then my car died, I'm still scraping the ATM for groceries here!) I'll go after Barberton next weekend, really. Maybe I'll take a percussion revolver to Cruffler's and fire blanks (maybe the Remington .44). Also I have some factory .38 blanks that should work in the GP100.

Speaking of Barberton, I'll be there all day, as Cruffler, left alone as the sole Officer of the group this month, has asked my help setting up and running the show. But that's fine ‘cause then I'll be halfway to the range already. -Maybe. I'll go to Barberton anyway but Cruffler's not sure when or if he'll be running the show or even if he can get keys to the building because no one is telling him. He'll email. Shrug.

876 - Monday, Independence Day, 4 July 2005: Blew up lots of stuff at Cruffler's, my biggest linked-fireworks show yet. Not everything went perfectly but it was still pretty good and I gained valuable data for my next show. (Will research pyrotechnics on net.) Snurfled by dog, ate burgers, got surplus hot dogs (I'm still in no position to turn down free protein). Returned without incident (revenuers or otherwise), Corolla's lights working okay even though the fuse is twice the amperage it's supposed to be. (Unfortunately, last time the radio shook loose from the wheel imbalance, the radio's wiring shorted against it's cage and it's probably fried. Eh, there's a shady-hole-in-the-wall place down the street, I'll get something cheap from them and wire it in, all I really need is the AM. Meanwhile I'll use a portable for traffic and such.)

Ugh, work tomorrow, that's gonna suck.

877 - Tuesday, 5 July 2005: True suckiness: I'm unemployed again. A corporate decision, the higher-ups want someone who will stick with the box-stuffing and are bringing someone else in. Manager (who is also leaving and has already given notice) advises me to not tell anyone about other job prospects. And she gave a good recommendation to the temp service.

In hindsight, it's a good thing I didn't bring those frozen chicken breasts to contribute to the grill. I'm gonna need that protein.

Back to hovel, phone cable company - voice mail. Phone temp services - nothing.

>:-O

>:-[

>:-O

In brighter news, a reader has very generously donated a lead-melting pot! On the way in snailmail. It may be months before I get it running, waiting for me to build a ventilation system (and to just make room for it) and to accumulate lead, but at least it will be in-hand. Will start eyeing used molds at shows. Might end up in those Cast Bullet matches after all.

Cruffler says I can get one of my rifles back from his garage for helping with the Barberton show, cool. I'll get the Hungarian M44 carbine, on which I made my first real progress in learning to shoot highpower and with which I won my first award in my first match.

Maybe I'll get that rifle practice tomorrow.

Full-page Olympic ad in Shotgun News, Wolverine .22 pistol $279.50 MSRP. That's... not uncompetitive....

Catching up on email, finally. A couple law-enforcement officers have emailed after my condemnation of the greenshirts who shook me down, protesting my critisim, by extension, of that entire class. One reminds me of LEAA. Okay, there are still some good cops who believe in limited government and individual rights. ...But I haven't run into any here. One of these readers points out how destructive another civil war would be, and how our many enemies around the world would take advantage of our national weakness in such a case. And that puts us republitarians between the scylla of bloated government and the charibdis of a pack of international hyenas licking their chops. I am Not Happy.

(Still haven't actually read Lt. Col. Kratman's A State of Disobedience (set after the War on Terror), the lefty library system seems to avoid getting That Kind of Book and now I'm incomeless again and can't just order a copy. Hmm, Baen, et. al., are slipping a lot of commentary through disguised as "robots and spaceships and monsters, oh my." I suspect no one on the Multnomah County Library acquisition committee actually read Ringo & Evans' The Road to Damascus.)

While at Sportsman's Warehouse yesterday getting cannon fuse for the show (G.I. Joe's was sold out, and wanted more anyway), fondled a Bushmaster 20" AR, 1:9" HBAR, A2 everything, bayonet lug, closed-bottom flash hider, exactly like an M16A2 without the burst setting, $769. Just observing; it's still a mousegun with a troublesome gas system.

Also in SGN, this raffle for the Special Forces Association, Portland chapter, for an M3HB (Browning M2HB semi-auto) or some other nice things.

Another reader suggests wax bullets for practice loads, as an alternative to the Speer plastic/plastic things, I'll look into that and document the process (which the reader detailed nicely) if-and-when.

Speaking of police - it's not just me. Examine the Mallard Fillmore cartoon for 24 June and the Timothy Kelly cartoon for 27 June. Police have a Problem. Too many are hooked on authority (and the revenue that comes with it). (...Hm, Authoritarians Anonymous...? Not bloody likely.)

878 - Wednesday, 6 July 2005: Zzzz.... (There's that at least.)

No response from cable company.

To the range, with MojoVZ, MojoMosin, and double. Arrive ~11:45. Shotgun first, just testing - no problem, except I grabbed the Pyrodex loads instead of smokeless so it's a messy cleanup. Down to the rifle line, four MR31 centers at 100 yards, benchrest, sandbags, Mosin first - mild, at least compared to the surplus stuff. Aaaand, all twenty rounds in the black on the more-challenging MR31 target, at the same point of impact (or darn well close enough) as the Albanian light ball I zeroed for! Solid 4MOA, finally. Coooool. Next session, get 200- (and maybe 300-) yard settings on the MicroClick, and the Mosin will be ready for the match. 46.1gr IMR4064, WLR primer, S&B case, .311" 125gr Sierra Pro Hunter #2305, 2.85" COL, no crimp, starting load right out of Sierra's 2003 book, that's my Mosin load. Filling the rest of the Mosin brass. Pending income, will order smaller aperture(s) for MicroClick sight. I bet this is a 2MOA combination in the right hands. This is also the load sis gets to try next time, instead of the full-power Hungarian or Albanian. Now she can really try highpower.

Now the VZ. Heavier recoil than my new Mosin load but still manageable, still less than military stuff. Whoa, way low and left! Little hex wrench for the Mojo sight carried in wallet, adjust - some fine-tuning required in future sessions but I think this load will work too, 45.1gr IMR4064, WLR primer, Federal case, .323" 150gr Sierra Pro Hunter #2400, 3.0" COL, no crimp, also a published starting load from Sierra. Reprocessing those twenty cases (the once-fired discovered months ago during a hovel excavation), will get them up to four or five times fired and mix them in with the other 200-something. Not as accurate as the Mosin (but still crowding Fred's 4MOA - in fact my last string of five, on a fresh target, was right at four inches), but one theory for that is that the Lee powder measure was acting funny when I tried to get 46.1gr for the Mosin, so I ended up weighing each charge for the Mosin by hand, after I threw the Mauser batch with the measure, so the Mauser's charges may have been less consistent and the Mosin's may have been more. Someday I'll get one of those ~$250 electronic measure/scale things (chronograph first). And a smaller aperture for the VZ's MicroClick too.

Back to hovel, new Cabela's Shooting catalog in mail, sigh. Page 15, RCBS ChargeMaster 1500 combo, $294.99. Page 18, Lyman 1200 DPS II, $219.99. And there's used ones at shows.

Hm, I'll be needing sizing dies and lube and such for bullet casting too. Eventually. First I have to get income again.

For home- and landowners rightfully freaking out about the recent SCOTUS decree that there is no more private property, the Castle Coalition should be of interest.

879 - Thursday, 7 July 2005: Still jobless.

Multiple bombings in London, subways and a bus. ~40 killed, hundreds wounded. Two duds also found. Blair trying to sound like Churchill, not succeeding IMO. Sixty years ago, Brits had balls and hairy ones they were, but the last decade or two of socialism have, I fear, castrated that Lion (self-defense is already outlawed there, with Kubrick-esque results; socialist health care has patients waiting so long for appointments that they outlive their doctors). My armchair analysis is that this is a cusp for Britain; like Spain after the Madrid bombing, they could slide further into collectivism and statism and national cowardice, or they could boot the Labour Party and try to live like Men again.

Gods, I hate living in a city. At least Portland isn't as glamorous a target as others. OTOH, maybe Mayor Potter's bucking the JTTF really will entice an attack instead of the city becoming a safe haven for planning and staging - radical Islam will crap where they eat, one of the London bombings was in a Muslim neighborhood. (Actually no one's claimed responsibility, last I heard.)

Lefty media (a redundancy) all but accusing Bush of setting the timers, of course. The primary (and nearly the only) reason I support Bush is because the Left hates him so much.

(British!) caller to Larry Elder "can't see how the war can be won." [glower] It's easy: grow a spine and drop more bombs. Stop worrying about "offending" the people who want to cut our heads off and blow up our children, and exterminate what another caller rightly calls "vermin."

American mass-transit systems on "orange" alert. Boy am I glad I have a car. How long until city busses have as much intrusive, degrading, and ultimately ineffective security as airports? They're already wand-raping passengers on Greyhound and Amtrak.

More tips from readers, on cars, bullet casting, handloading, etc. One, from whom I got the big reloading-stuff score at English Pit, says that facility is closed as the range officer quit. I didn't really like English Pit, but the old R/O was part of the reason (as many at Clark Rifles agree), and any shooting facility that still exists in our increasingly-urbanized world should be defended, so those interested in the job should contact Larry Snyder of the Vancouver Wildlife League - there's a phone number on the sign at the place, I'll swing by and copy it probably this weekend when I get more rifle practice.

Once in a while, Sierra still puts an extra bullet in the box - I have six #2305s left, I've reprocessed the twenty S&B Mosin cases I used yesterday, and I might have just barely enough IMR4064 left to load those six - but then I'd have once-fired and twice-fired mixed and I don't wanna. 40 rounds for the match, plus sighters, call it 50 rounds per relay; I went ahead and loaded the rest of the once-fired Mosin (75 rounds) because it worked so well yesterday and it's already zeroed at 100 yards, but now I have only one session's worth left (20 rounds) for the VZ, unless I blow another $16 or so on powder. Otherwise I might end up shooting only one relay, with the Mosin.

If I can even scrape up the range fee. Paycheck tomorrow - car insurance and ISP bill first.

Again I say these dirt-cheap surplus Mosins are greatly underrated. Ammunition can be a problem, but handloading isn't that hard and after the capital investment (which cost can be greatly reduced with used stuff at shows) really saves a lot of money (~30¢/round vs. ~75¢); Winchester is already offering one load (supposedly there's also a 180gr SP, but I can't find it on the site) and with so many Mosins being imported the other makers should follow suit soon, as they did decades ago for the bring-back Mauser. The military sights are less than perfect but Mojo addresses that problem - also, sis's friend up north, who recently got his own 91/30, sends this link to a scope mount which fits the Mosin's rear sight base, using medium-eye-relief scopes, leaving the charger guide open, and not requiring changes to the bolt handle. Synthetic aftermarket stocks have been around for years already. Yet another reader just sent some pictures of a very respectable sporter conversion of an M44 (personally I like my rifles in fighting clothes, but if something gets more people using more rifles, I'm fer it):

SurplusRifle.com has lots of articles and products and links for Mosin stuff (and most other surplus rifles). Target triggers are now available too (though they cost as much as a whole 91/30 bundled with accessories). I got lucky by juggling trigger parts between my three Mosins, and my 91/30 has a nice trigger.

880 - Friday, 8 July 2005: Jobless still. Cruffler says there are opportunities in Vancouver, maybe I can network through him.

Crap! Dry-firing the VZ, the Timney trigger stopped working! Won't release the sear. Remove stock - ah, the locknut for one of the adjustment screws has come loose and the Timney's internal sear engagement has drifted, fixed it.

"Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe" claiming responsibility for London bombings.

Hex wrench for Mojo sight tucked into the sleeve of the rubber slip-on recoil pad on both VZ and Mosin.

A couple days ago, Multnomah County finally got around to mailing a bill for the rest of the county thievery (income tax), $136. "If payment in full is not received immediately, penalty and interest will be assessed." "Please do not include other correspondence with your payment."

Unfortunately I'm out of color ink for the printer.... Eh, it's not too bad in greyscale. But they're going to have to wait for that anyway, most of my paycheck will be gone a day after I get it.

Rumors that Rehnquist will resign from SCOTUS presently, that makes two appointments Bush can make that will affect the future of America, and therefore the world, for decades. Frankly I'm not optimistic.

No paycheck in mail.

881 - Saturday, 9 July 2005: 6:45am, Cruffler calls, no one's at the grange hall but the door's unlocked so he's running the show - out of bed, shower, dress, start packing for the range trip after.

7:10am, Cruffler calls, the other officer of the group shows up after all so I can take my time. Well, it's not like I have work in the morning and will really miss the sleep. :( And I can make sure I don't forget anything when packing the car. (Last time I forgot my earmuffs (the clubhouse has loaners), and the printouts of the Folsom club letter.) MojoMauser, 20 rounds, MojoMosin, 25 rounds, spotting scope, etc.; MR31 centers for the 100-yard stage of the PIG, SR42 centers for 200 - still haven't learned exactly which targets will be used. No 300-yard stage this year according to the official event copy (website is out-of-date).

Vegging, online, reading Never Call Retreat, something resembling breakfast. Arrive Barberton ~10am, the usual. I have absolutely no money. Cruffler makes mute strangling gestures in the general direction of certain individuals who gave him absolutely no information as to whether they would even be in this time zone to run the show.

To the range, ~11:15. Rain yesterday and early this morning, clearing and drying. Not too crowded, lingering overcast kept the heat down. Set up MR31 centers at 100 yards, SR42s at 200, sandbags, benchrest. Mosin first. Five rounds, not too good but the pattern is roughly centered where I left it last time. A bit of windage - another string and if you discount one called flyer (to the right, fourth round in the string), that's a pretty good group for a 1939 Soviet-surplus rifle! Been a while since I had a target worth scanning:

So the MojoMosin is zeroed at 100, and shows genuine promise with handloads, or at least this load I pulled right out of Sierra's book. Now 200. Guessing, up 4 on the MicroClick - can't see through cheap 45x Tasco. Wait - is that - could it be - a hit in the X ring on my first shot at 200 with this load! Holy smoke! Another shot - can't see. Target break, hike down there, high and right in the 8 ring, hm. March back, third shot, can't see. :-/ Need more powerful scope. Maybe that astronomy scope I splurged on a while back, in storage. Fourth shot - cease fire! An antlerless blacktail deer has wandered onto the range about 30 yards out. Line goes cold and I, being closest, chase it off - or try to, it just stands there staring at me! I coulda tackled the thing. Eventually it gets the idea that I am the most successful predator species on my world and bounds (er, moseys) away.

Now the fourth round at 200. (Shoulda used different targets, like the flourescent white/orange styrofoam I still have. Too wrapped up in simulating the upcoming match.) Now I see another hole, 9 ring, 1 o'clock, but was that this shot or the last one? Another - CAN'T SEE. Check w/R/O - the only loaner scopes in the clubhouse are 20x, no help there. Stare - can't see.

Hmm. Down two clicks, five more rounds. Ah, a couple holes almost touching the X ring, a 9 at 3 o'clock, another at ~1:30, and an 8 at 12:00. I'll stop there.

Now the VZ, back to 100. Crap, it's all over. Remove bayonet - still all over. And I even weighed every charge this time! Maybe the VZ just doesn't like this load (though it certainly liked the same Sierra bullet with Accurate 2230 powder). Still have some H380, BL-C(2), and W748 in useful quantities, will seek data. Another string - crap. No VZ progress today. Burn up the rest to free the brass. At least the Mosin is cooperating. ($80 rifles! Lee reloading dies $25 delivered from Cabela's! Winchester factory ammo and, any day now, virgin brass!)

Chatted with a new M44 owner, gave tips, gave him my five leftover Mosin loads - much better results than he was getting with copper-steel-case yellow-tip. Gave website/email card, will send him links to Mosin stuff. Packed up ~1:15.

Cruffler usually packs up his hot dog cart at the Barberton show about 1pm, so I stopped at his place, between the range and the freeway, first - yup, he's back. And then I learn that an Agent of the Almighty State has shut him down for operating without a permit. But it's not that simple: he let his regular permit expire because he had no other events scheduled except the monthly Barberton shows, and he's operating under the grange hall's paperwork (they have regular pancake breakfasts and such, it's a common arrangement). And they go looking for the thing on the bulletin board inside and... it's not there. "You must stop operating immediately!" At least he wasn't fined, and I still got the surplus (even more surplus, since he couldn't sell what he usually would), but still, insulting. Remember last year or so, some state shutting down a kid's lemonade stand? Government sucks. Self-important bureaucratic %$#@ throwing their weight around just to prove they can, dirty worthless *^!%#$%.... (When the grange hall rustles up the King's Marque he'll be back in business for next month's show, but still. Private property is gone, private enterprise too, what's next? For that matter, what's left?) And then, in the misery-loves-company department, the county sends him a notice of foreclosure because - get your scorecards out - some mortgage company Cruffler paid on time, three years ago, declined to pass on one of those payments to the government, and it's been accruing interest and penalties ever since. Not that anyone told him, of course, while the account was sold to another company, and another, and more, and those companies continued to rake in all the other payments he made for the following three years. So now he's $1,200 down and the company responsible for putting him there may not even exist anymore (he's looking, yay internet). -While sharing all this with me, Cruffler's wife comes in and says he's trying to make me feel better about my crappy life. ...Actually, it's kinda working, a little.

On a lighter note, Cruffler then shows me a recent acquisition: for $400-something, an M1868 Springfield Trapdoor conversion, .50-70... with curious three-groove rifling, a shockingly shiny bore, and a spine-chill-inducing 1863 lockplate. If it could only speak! Missing a couple small parts which he's happily tracking down.

Back to hovel. Again with the neighbors' stroller in the driveway. Hollering fights last night (and most nights) too. ...And another right now in fact. :-\ At this rate they'll be evicted soon. But then more mirror-shaded greenshirts will be nosing around. :-/ (Okay, they weren't mirror shades, but they were both wearing them. Boosts the intimidation factor I guess.)

Finally my paycheck. Not enough for rent of course, but I still have a couple weeks to land a job. Gas prices up again, into the $2.20s, except for a couple-three ARCOs I've discovered that trend a few cents cheaper - fuel, car insurance, ISP bill, storage rent, groceries, not much left.

Info line number for English Pit, closed pending a new Range Officer, is 360-892-7119.

Fetched 100x astronomy scope from storage, will try that again.

Okay, more 7.92x57mm 150gr load data. Hodgdon's 2002 booklet (bundled with Lee Load-All II shotshell press) lists maximums of 54.0gr H380 for 2,778fps and 46.0gr BL-C(2) for 2,553fps; minus 10% gives starting charges of 48.6 and 41.4, but the BL load would be really wimpy, hm. Might not even make a good gas seal in the chamber, I've seen that with some of my starting .308 loads. Sierra 2003 starts at 49.5gr H380 for 2,500fps, maximum 55.2/2,800, BL not listed at all, W748 only for 175gr. Winchester .PDF only lists 170gr. Onto the search engines... not much out there, not for W748 anyway. Okay, after reprocessing those twenty pieces of Mauser brass, will make ten rounds each at calculated Hodgdon starting charges of H380 and BL-C(2), just to see if they group. Switching back to the RCBS measure for these easy-metering ball powders (H380 flows like water almost).

One of the regular vendors at the Barberton show has some blackpowder stuff, including a Thompson/Center .36 Maxi Ball mold still in the factory package. Which package says, "Not for sale in California." So you can't buy a bullet mold in Commiefornia now?

882 - Sunday, 10 July 2005: Zzzz....

Gun Talk - a caller asks what would be a good piece for home-defense for his wife, a revolver is other callers' consensus and I agree; with all the stuff I have(n't hocked to Cruffler's garage), my Ruger GP100 is the one I keep where I can reach it from bed. Modern double-action revolvers in the general Colt/S&W/Ruger/Taurus/etc. pattern are extremely reliable and more important, simple and intuitive to operate. The .357 Magnum chambering is also highly versatile, capable of using everything from cushy wadcutter subversion loads to heavy JSP anti-velociraptor rounds. Thought: get extra hammer for GP, Dremel off spur and single-action sear, make mine DAO, reversible with the original hammer. (The GP has been loaned out to individuals at need more than once, and is also high on the list of subversion tools; a reversible DAO conversion might make it even more useful for both roles.)

Yesterday's rifle brass resized, in tumbler while I run Sunday errands (library, Big 5, etc.). Loaded twenty rounds Mauser, ten each 48.6gr H380 and 41.4gr BL-C(2). Maybe Wednesday if I don't get employed by then. Maybe Bi-Mart will have reloading supplies on sale again soon and I can get more powder.

More PayPal donations coming in, thank you all!

Observation: the bullet-centering guide on my Hornady New Dimension 8mm Mauser seating die is nice, but the long-taper expander on my Lee PaceSetter 7.62x54R sizing die lets me get away with not lubing the inside of the case neck, which may be nicer. My RCBS .308 dies have neither advantage.

Man, that H380 flows nice in the RCBS measure. And no tap-tapping the side to get the last few granules out like the Lee unit. BL-C(2) is almost as good. 48.6gr H380 comes up to the middle of the shoulder in a Federal 8mm Mauser case, 41.4 BL uses way less capacity.

Neighbor calls me over for a shocking program on Showtime: Penn & Teller doing a half-hour of blatant libertarian anti-government RKBA stuff! (I knew they were libertarians but jeez!) Some of it was campy and too comic, lacked polish, etc. (I'm very nit-picky about what I read and view, I'm a wannabe writer dammit!), but to get anything at all of that kind on Showtime (wasn't it Showtime that produced that miniseries vilifying the Reagans?) is a respectable accomplishment. Look for it! (Warning, adult language.) "Sure, Mr. Smug [some anti-self-defense nitwit] can call a cop against a gang-banger, but who's he gonna call against the cops?" An increasingly-pertinent question. Of course in Mr. Smug's case he'd be a willing and enthusiastic lackey of the New Order, bragging about his low-digit Party Membership Number.

883 - Monday, 11 June 2005: Still unemployed. Possibility of work in a chainsaw chain manufacturing plant, but that may be as low as $8/hour, which after taxes is pretty lame. Reapplying online for cable-installer jobs.

Hole-in-the-wall place - no car radios at this time. (I was figuring like five bucks just to get some AM stations.) But they should have a spare wheel for the Corolla, I'll check again later.

Got the melting pot! Plug in briefly, gets warm, unplug. Now I'll hit tire shops for wheelweights (actually, thinking ahead, I picked up a few on the street back when I was still bicycle-bound) and keep an eye out for molds, ingot trays, a dipper, etc. Another thought is to cast roundball for my blackpowder handguns, but wheelweights would be too hard for that I think, will also look for a source of plain lead. Must remember to hit building-supply stores' "FREE WOOD" bins to build a window plug for a ventilation system; a bit of clothes-dryer hose, a small fan and some duct tape should do it.

A reader sends this report of greenshirts harassing families camping with their children in motorhomes... because they happen to ride motorcycles. Like my brother down in Arizona. Meanwhile, on Yahoo's Concealed Carry list (and others), a dissection of LAPD's disposal of a psycho... and a 19-month-old baby. Fer cryin' out loud, after the North Hollywood shootout the LA blueshirts were issued AR15s, and where was their much-vaunted SWAT team? One redneck with a .30-30 Marlin could have ended this in less time that it took to uncase and load the rifle, and the baby would barely be bruised when the corpse dropped her. Cops can't shoot. No wonder they're afraid of "civilians" with guns, there's probably so many bullet holes in the walls of their locker rooms that they wet themselves every time they have to strap on their issue sidearms. Reportedly as many as 300 rounds fired, what, are they trying to set a new record after Compton? Larry Elder sticking up for LAPD, "What more could they have done?" Some libertarian he is.

One of the LEO readers who emailed was obviously trying to dissuade me from fighting against the government of the United States, rightfully pointing out that terrorists and foreign powers would strike while we were internally occupied, also rightfully pointing out that our system is still the best anyone's ever come up with. And like I said in the entry page to this journal, my side won't start it. But a time is coming when we'll have no choice but to shoot back. I would hope that members of the law-enforcement community who are still dedicated to freedom would heed this warning, talk to their fellows, and try to put the brakes on this runaway paddy wagon, for your own sakes, ‘cause we're mostly better shots than you.

Poverty sucks, I really want to get more practice with the Mosin and that handload. I really think, if I do my part, that I can crowd 2MOA with that combination, which would win maybe half the rifle matches at my club besides giving me unprecedentedly warm fuzzies.

Nearest tire store - "Some guy picks up our wheelweights, he's been doing it six years." There are other tire stores. While there, asked, $10 per wheel to balance, that'd be fine if I had income.

Tomorrow I may trek out to Beaverton to a temp service's office and fill out an application for the saw chain job.

Examining last weekend's 200-yard Mosin target - just a bit under six inches, which is just a bit under 3MOA, which, at 200 yards, is real progress for me:

11pm: neighbor, having just returned from swing shift, phones, a Suspicious Vehicle is in the cul-de-sac. By the time I get out of bed and get dressed she's stared at them from under her porch light long enough to scare them away, but this is not the first, or even the fifth, time something like this has happened here. I hate cities.

884 - Tuesday, 12 July 2005: Tomorrow for the saw-chain job I think, not much else to choose from at present. One temp service offered another warehouse job at $8.25/hour and that's just not enough and I am so sick of warehouse work. Hopefully I can get at least $9.

I mailed my rent check on the 2nd, from an official USPS blue box. Last time I hit the ATM, on the 11th, the check hadn't cleared. :-/ They better not hit me with late fees again.

In Shotgun News I see one distributor offering Remington "patrol rifles", based on the 7600 slide-action; .308 in matte and synthetic, .223 the same plus adapted to take AR magazines. ...A couple things. The slide-action design doesn't allow rapid fire while using the sling as a shooting aid; and, Remington doesn't sell these models to us peasants through their regular dealers. Grump.

Speaking of hating cities, yesterday in NW Portland a man was, apparently randomly, stabbed in the back with a butcher knife while entering a restaurant. (What was that about Condition White...?) I don't go anywhere near downtown or that NW area with all the shops and such, the hovel's area is too dense for me already.

You know another thing I miss, not having income? Long drives, just to see where a road goes. End up way out in the sticks where it's quiet.

Only two clicks, about 1½MOA, from 100 to 200 yards with that Mosin load, a nice flat trajectory. Only fifty rounds left though, just enough for the match, can't spare any to try at 300. Forgot about wanting to use the FR for the match, hope to drag it along with some Portuguese surplus next trip. Still don't know where it goes with the bayonet fixed.

WorldNetDaily reports that Al Qaida may already have smuggled "at least 40" nuclear weapons (purchased from ex-Soviet, now-Muslim Chechnya) across our wide-open southern border, aided by MS13 and other Mexican gangs. Also a suggestion that they'll dig up Soviet nukes planted here during the Cold War. (I really must make a proper bugout bag. -And get a second (and perhaps third or fifth) reserve fuel can, I gave one (of two I usually carry) to sis for her birthday.) In the article, Bush is bashed about the border, and the Minutemen are planning a Big Event this fall to shut down the entire border after their 23-mile technology-demonstrator this spring. Leader Simcox calls for immediate military presence on the borders, and I might have to grimace and agree, ‘cause posse comitatus may be less important than a nuked city. [Groan] These are Bad Times.

Shuttle Discovery scheduled for launch tomorrow, weather pending, first launch since Columbia was lost. When I had cable, one of the local cable-access channels carried NASA TV during missions, I miss that too.

Finished Never Call Retreat. Damn good. Starting Interstellar Patrol II.

885 - Wednesday, 13 July 2005: Lethargy. Dragged self out of bed, trimmed beard, drove to Beaverton, filled out application for saw-chain job, sigh. Bought lottery tickets, sigh.

Local super-supermarket, WinCo, formerly cash/check/state-socialism-card only, finally accepting debit cards, spent a little too much on groceries.

Observation: on any list of the greatest inventions in human history, the personal automobile and the microwave oven belong near the top.

Interstellar Patrol II is, as I feared, in the overwhelming-technology category, and besides they're cop stories, really, and I'm not much in the mood for that lately. Still, well-enough written I'll finish it.

Discovery launch scrubbed, sensor failures. A reader sends this link for online viewing.

Rent check still hasn't cleared. Phoned property manager the other day, left message, no response.

Hundreds of postcards delivered to mayor protesting proposed cell-phone tax:

Taxpayer Association of Oregon

MyWireless.org (Oregon page)

Later, temp service phones, interview tomorrow afternoon. Gaaaaahhhhh. At least I don't have to get up early. Yet.

Neighbors having another hollering match. Neighbor's brats having regular screeching matches.

Primedia, publisher of Shotgun News, Guns & Ammo, Shooting Times, etc., running Subscriptions for Soldiers program - donate a subscription to any soldier or to a particular soldier.

Finally viewed the entire Cowboy Bebop series (except for the feature film, which the library doesn't have). A lot of anime turns me off with the constant preaching of pacifism, globalism, praise of the UN, etc. This show... isn't like that. Also got third season of 24.

886 - Thursday, 14 July 2005: Zzzz....

Interview at 2pm in Milwaukee, southern-central sprawl. At least it would be a shorter commute.

Gaaaaahhhh. The interview lasted about two minutes! "What did you like most about job X, what did you like least about job Y." Gaaahhhhh.

Another reader from the Vancouver area sends further information on English Pit:

http://www.ci.vancouver.wa.us/parks-recreation/about/staff_location.htm

On rec.guns, I just learned that EAA Witness .45 magazines are interchangeable with the CZ97. Both are on the wi$h list. Actually I'm leaning toward the Witness ‘cause it's available with many more options, and EAA will sell parts to convert between several calibers, depending which frame is used (i.e. if you have the large .45/10mm frame you can get the whole list; if you have the smaller 9mm frame I think you can only get a .22 conversion). All reviews of the CZ97 I've seen so far are favorable, BTW, except for the big fat double-column .45 grip.

887 - Friday, 15 July 2005: Temp service calls, the same one from the saw-chain job - no response yet from them, but another position in Lake Oswego ("Lake Ego," another Kerry-voting Lexus-driving suburb bordering West Linn), fiberoptic cable job at $9/hour. Still less than I want but I need something. Back to temp office for details this afternoon. Icky Friday traffic both ways. -Okay, start Monday, I have a job. Unfortunately it's production drudgery for which I am, really, overqualified. (I wonder if any of the subliterate subsentient drones from the last cable job will be there...?) I'll wave a resumé in their face and point out that I can, like, read.

(Whew.) Celebrated with a can of IMR4064 ('cause I'm inclined to stick with that Mosin load for the forseeable future) at Bi-Mart ($17.69), but couldn't justify handgun ammunition or makings therefor, no plate match this month. (Unleeeess I throw together something with the last 150-odd 125gr .358 projectiles and run in the revolver division, I have the cases primed and everything already... no, can't spare the match fee either, I'll have enough trouble scraping up the fee for the PIG. Eh, there's a plate match every month.) Maybe $7 for my last less-than-an-hour of box-stuffing, then no income 'til the 29th - should be able to squeeze rent out of that, I hope. (Still no response from property owners about my check. Phoned again - message again.)

Speaking of guns for grannies, in the latest Shotgun News (and the last several issues, really) I see J&G Sales listing a 3" S&W M10 for $189.95, dealer price. That should still be well under $250 retail. Classic K-frame .38, been around over a hundred years. If I hit the lottery I'd order ten, just for loaners.

888 - Saturday, 16 July 2005: Zzzz....

Wimping on practice this weekend after all, need to conserve fuel.

More PayPal donations! Definitely going to the rifle match for at least one relay.

Thinking of the plate match, and the unplated bullets taking up space on the dangerously-unorganized reloading table - but the only loads I can find for the components I have, I've already tried, and had ignition problems with all of them in the spacious .357 Magnum case, unless I increased the powder charges to the point where recoil exceeds subversion levels and the purpose is defeated, and the velocity goes up to where I'm no longer shooting "smokeless" with these unplated projectiles. Eh, there's always next month. IMR has data online for their new Trail Boss powder, possibly perfect for subversion loads, including data for 125gr (& 158gr) lead in .357 Magnum (& .38 Special). Revolver loads only, Cowboy or Cowboy-esque calibers (four lead bullets listed for .44 Magnum). Still haven't actually asked about it at Sportsman's Warehouse, kinda waiting ‘til I can actually afford some. Very bulky powder, they sell only 9oz. in a standard 1lb. can according to the American Rifleman article.

NRA membership lapsed, BTW, can't afford to renew right now. I can still read the magazine at the library.

Finished third season of 24 on DVD. Last episode, with the lockdown of the subway station and a hundred-odd citizens being given the guilty-until-proven-innocent routine, inspires me to yet again praise the automobile - and the whole season, and the whole series, makes me hate even more living in a city.

889 - Sunday, 17 July 2005: Zzzz....

Rereading Trail Boss article in July ‘05 AR - "Using conventional smokeless powder, especially with very light loadings, can sometimes cause ignition issues due to a lack of powder volume." No kidding. And magnum primers don't help, or don't help enough. Hm, author says Trail Boss meters well through an RCBS measure, I hope so.

Gun Talk: in Fresno, CA, a girl was being attacked by several boys with water balloons and threw a rock to defend herself - and was descended upon by three squad cars and a police-state helicopter, then charged with felony assault for exercising her natural human right to self-defense. Now that's just sick. Any LEO readers inclined to defend this kind of behavior? Never mind the race issue, how in the name of Reason do you justify TREATING AN 11-YEAR-OLD-GIRL LIKE A VIOLENT GANG MEMBER? This is sick, SICK, SICK! This is blatant abuse of power for power's own sake! And speaking of blueshirts, here's an update on the LA shootout where the 19-month-old girl was killed - by a single head shot from an LAPD rifle. I will never set foot on Californian soil except as a soldier in an army of liberation. (Unless North California succeeds in seceding from the South. Sure, it's unConstitutional, but that didn't stop Lincoln from creating West Virginia....)

Also on GunTalk, interviews with William R. Tonso, author of the new book Gun Control = People Control; Debbie Ferns, author of Babes with Bullets; and Alan Korwin, author of several gun law books (who also accompanied the Minutemen this spring and offers this report).

Surfing, found this. Niiiiifftyyy. BTW, FlagLine.com has Gadsden and Betsy Ross window decals.

A reader sends this cool picture.

On the lists, Dave Kopel's newsletter has this story of a WV court affirming the right to self defense and ruling against the 7-Eleven convenience store chain who fired a woman for exercising that right. (Pizza Hut, take note.) Furthermore, in Indiana, police have stolen, from an 84-year-old man, a revolver used in a self-defense shooting that has already been ruled justifiable. They won't give it back. So this is in both the private-property and the 2nd-Amendment-means-what-it-says categories. And, there's a law requiring federal ranges to be opened to us tax-paying peasants who paid to have them built. Naturally the bureaucrats don't want us peasants anywhere near their sacred Federal Property. (As a secondary consideration, most of us "civilian" hoplophiles can shoot way-embarrassingly-better than most G-men and I bet they don't want their uptilted noses rubbed in it.)

Later, surfing, here's a recent SCOTUS ruling that we the peasants are not entitled to police protection. (Nor should we be - I don't trust police to handle weapons in a safe, mature, and responsible manner, and demonstrably, they have a lot of trouble discerning guilty from innocent, if they even care.) (Here are some other such rulings - dig the rest of the site too, like this big collection of quotes.) Here's commentary on the blueshirts working hand-in-hand with the Huxleyesque public schools to persecute, and reprogram, children - it's not just for little Latino girls in LA.

Rent check still hasn't cleared, property owners still haven't responded.

890 - Monday, 18 July 2005: Signs and Portents Dept.: First day on the job and they run out of parts and send me and two other temps home at lunchtime. Asked to return Wednesday morning. Phoned temp service, gave heads-up. :-/

Reader says cool picture, linked above, distributed by TexasMinutemen.org, "our kind of people."

891 - Tuesday, 19 July 2005: Zzzz....

Up late last night finishing the first half of Interstellar Patrol II, containing the novel Warlord's World (originally DAW 1975), which is the sort of thing that got me into the SCA long ago before that organization went all lefty and amoral. Second half of the book is Christopher Anvil's other works, more-or-less in the same universe and experimenting with various ideas.

Fuji, my poor arthritic old cat, enjoying the summer heat; stays out all day, somewhere, comes in to eat in the evening, goes out again all night. Last night he did something I feared his poor old kitty joints were no longer capable of, a straight leap from the kitchen floor to the countertop. Or maybe he's been eating spiders again.

No work today - to DMV for new tags for the Corolla. $54, couldn't'a without the donations. So now, whatever else happens, I'm street-legal for two more years. Unless I blow this one up; hatchback, with $uspected blown head gasket, collecting spiderwebs and pawprints but at least it's out of the way.

Probably not getting paid for the last less-than-an-hour of box-stuffing since the assignment was supposed to be over.

$5 fuel, $2.23 even at the "cheaper" ARCO.

Postcard - Clark Rifles picnic, on the 31st, cancelled due to lack of interest.

GOA mailing, preprinted postcards for federal Representative and Senators to remedy the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act. Of the three, I have two commies and a RINO - but what the heck, I already have the stamps.

Temp service phones, making sure I'm going back to the fiberoptic place tomorrow.

Rent check still hasn't cleared, property owner still hasn't returned my calls. I'll probably have to have the bank kill it and then write another.

Saaaay, NRA shows some testicular fortitude! For a change!

Hmmm, some of the short stories in Interstellar Patrol II, specifically "Cantor's War" (1974) and "Uplift the Savage" (1968), chop up liberal ivory-tower academia into at least as many small quivering pieces as, say, Ringo & Evans' The Road to Damascus does with the political side. That's Entertainment! Glad I slogged through the indistiguishable-from-magic cop stories to get to them:

She let her breath out slowly. Finally, in a low voice, she said, "No. I'm not qualified."

...That's a very important point that I think many of our kind have trouble wrapping our minds around: Liberals Aren't Stupid. Ignorant, depraved, twisted, arguably evil, demonstrably wrong, but not stupid. We must take care not to underestimate them. There's too much at stake: a recent USA Today headline was "Can Hillary be Commander in Chief?" (Shudder....)

892 - Wednesday, 20 July 2005: No work tomorrow. This could be a Problem. Back Friday.

Still no rent check progress, but no late charge in the mail yet either. Will phone for the third time tomorrow.

Slacked a bit on email again, catching up again: a reader sends this article on the rise of the police state, and notice of J&G Sales specials, particularly ammunition at present. Also expresses customer satisfaction with that company over four years.

From the lists, here's a page about Brian Chontosh, Captain, United States by-God Marine Corps. -In related news, ongoing email with Michigan, not least about rifles, battle- and otherwise, I learn that Marines still use the standard M16A2 with iron sights and bayonets, and what's more still know how to use them - Michigan relates that in ‘03 at Um Qasr a small unit of our Marines, outnumbered something like five-to-one, "cut a bloody swath" through some terrorists, largely hand-to-hand, killing twice their own number outright and suffering no Marine casualties. HOO-effing-YAH.

893 - Thursday, 21 July 2005: Zzzz....

More bombings on London subways, but only one injury reported this time. Local mass-transit on "orange alert." Car. Good.

Phone hovel owners again - message again. :-\

Ick, laundromat. Upon return, finally a message from the hovel owners, go ahead and stop the last check and send another and there will be no late fees. -Done. $25 fee to stop a check, but the teller saw my balance on the screen and took pity and waived the fee. (It might have helped that I had all the necessary information for the process either in my head or in-hand. I imagine bank tellers can get rather frustrated with today's products of public education.)

Wrapping up Interstellar Patrol II, enjoying Anvil's other work more than the title series. The last section, "The Trouble with Colonies," could be used as a textbook for interplanetary pioneers. It's impossible to cover every possible problem or situation of course, but Anvil lays out basic rules - some bluntly ruthless - that should be widely adaptable. These last seven short stories are the kind of work that makes people think, as opposed to the ivy-league, ivory-tower stuff designed to turn citizens into unimaginative automatons. (-And Anvil really had it in for Ph.D.s.)

Starting Weber & White's The Stars at War II, first part a reprint of The Shiva Option which I read in the previous omnibus and will skip, the rest Insurrection ("The first COMPLETE and UNCUT publication") which I don't recall. Baen, again, and more commentary:

...For all the time and effort they spent plotting and planning, they were even blinder than the insulated Heart Worlders, for they saw Fringers only as obstacles, not as people, and certainly not as fellow citizens. They saw them as pawns, dupes - cartoon caricatures cruelly drawn by habitual contempt and denigration. As things, not people... and things were made to be broken and trampled underfoot if they got in the way.

894 - Friday, 22 July 2005: Snrk. Back to work. Good thing I carry reserve fuel.

On the technical side, I'm getting the hang of working with fiberoptic cable and rapidly gaining speed. OTOH... Monday off. Limited income while they get their act together. Fer cryin' out loud, every tech job I've ever had has either been Dilbertized into the ground or I personally have been Dilbertized right out of it. (But it beats crawling around under houses....)

Weber & White's Insurrection is comparable, in some ways and on a vastly larger scale, to Ringo & Evans' The Road to Damascus. The latter, however, is more chilling, and more applicable to today's troubled times.

895 - Saturday, 23 July 2005: Zzzz....

Out of fuel, out of money. OAC show tomorrow morning, maybe just enough fuel to get there and back and try to sell the Marlin.

Fuji making leaps I feared his poor old kitty bones no longer could. On the one hand I'm pleased he's more active in the summer heat, and getting exercise, so I don't want to discourage him; on the other, he's jumping on my reloading table....

Ripping through Insurrection, big tasty interstellar-civil-war story. Wide-open for sequels.

896 - Sunday, 24 July 2005: Snrk. No sale at the OAC show. Saw several frustrating items I would've bought, like a S&W M67 and a Rossi .22 in the same format, great subversion pieces; old RCBS single-stage press, $10; powder; etc.

Veteran neighbor now has car trouble, his is in Eugene (halfway to California) with assorted problems. He gave me the idea to get gas out of the hatchback; I'd previously determined that the filler neck was inimical to syphon hoses but he suggested I try to access the fuel lines - no go, can't get there from here, the lines are between the fuel tank and the rest of the car. Might fiddle with it more later.

Oh look, London blueshirts can't tell guilty from innocent either. Dissection on the American Gun Owners list.

Here's a link to some SCOTUS cases on the 2nd Amendment.

Loaned by neighbor, starting Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett.

News items I found interesting: In Britain, the kind of indoctrination Huxley tried to warn us about; something rational actually coming from a university study (the "just give them what they want" crowd can take a flying one - but we knew that); speaking of blueshirts, don't miss the Whack ‘em & Stack ‘em files at Sierra Times (though it seems they haven't been updated for about four months - anyway be sure to read the White Paper, Tactical Guide for Young Officers, and Response to Readers); and, as I predicted, New York subways are now a police-state cesspit.

897 - Monday, 25 July 2005: Zzzz....

Borrowed $20 from neighbor, argh. I hate doing that. At least my first fiberoptic paycheck is already in the pipeline so I know I can pay it back. Got gas (still $2.23 - radio news reports prices may have peaked) and a little groceries.

Library - crap, the latest Clive Cussler/Dirk Pitt novel, Black Wind, leapt right at me from the New Books shelves. I was trying to quit....

Temp service calls - Tuesday off too, back Wednesday. Sigh. Well, less fuel consumption.

Discovery set for launch tomorrow morning, 10:39am Eastern if I heard correctly. Might have to plug in the TV and try to get some reception.

Hannity taking the side of the totalitarians on the subway-search issue. Elder taking the side of British blueshirts who shoot first and identify their target later. Sigh. These so-called conservatives don't get it. Ben Franklin knew what I'm talking about.

Multnomah County Income Tax set to expire next year... and politicians are now proposing a metro-sprawl "regional" tax. SIGH.

Hmm, labor unions are showing a few gaps in their vaunted solidarity. Personally I think unions outlived their usefulness at least a generation ago. There was a time when they served a purpose, but now they serve mainly themselves. And of course one must note how they vote.

898 - Tuesday, 26 July 2005: Snrk. Yay Discovery! Boo broadcast TV, the Ken-and-Barbie gang consists of the most unutterable doofuses ever to land paying jobs. "I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear."

Here's Fred Reed's current rant on blueshirts.

Guest host for Rush Limbaugh calling for profiling in transit security, denouncing non-profile random searches. That's (a little) more like it.

Veteran neighbor gets his car back, mostly. At least it still runs and it's here instead of a hundred-odd miles away in Communist-occupied Eugene. (What was he doing there? Coming back from a road trip. It's on the interstate, and that's where the hood latch, damaged in previous collision, failed. That must have been Interesting....)

Great Big Warm Fuzzy: sis emails she's quit smoking! Hooray! And now think of all that money she can spend on ammunition instead.

Some of the cool History Channel programs I missed, not having cable, are on DVD at the library; presently viewing The War of 1812 (including bonus programs like The Great Ships: The Ironclads, a Jackson bio, and a day-in-the-life thing on a reproduction American warship of the period, with Roger Daltrey (!) firing solid shot at a floating target from a 24-pounder I guess - live fire, at sea, from a tall ship's main battery while under sail, how cool is that?). And yet again it seems as if God Himself reached down and whacked the redcoats while laying His other hand upon figures such as Madison and Stricker and Jackson. Hurricane? Tornado? Bloody British blunders? Somebody up there likes us. Or at least has a Reason for keeping us around. (And I'm agnostic fer cryin' out loud.)

899 - Wednesday, 27 July 2005: Back to work, finally. Well yecchh! Cleanup of a junk-stuffed extension to the building for future expansion, I spent the whole day heaving stuff! AGAIN! And off an hour early too (which OTOH helped with traffic). Supposedly actual technology-production the rest of the week.

Hot, approaching 90F.

900 - Thursday, 28 July 2005: Ow. Sore and stiff from yesterday's junk-heaving. Actual fiberoptic cable production today though.

Cross-town westside traffic to pick up check at temp service today, ‘cause Friday will be even worse, then cross-city traffic back to the hovel, total commute a bit over two hours. Check dated for tomorrow, and awful skinny with half the week's hours absent. And next week's won't be much more; rent could be difficult again.

Mail - sis sends money. Not so embarrassingly much as before, and the timing is such that I will swallow my pride and take it (so I'll have something else to swallow, like food). Together, just barely enough for rent if I don't eat or drive for the next eight days, hmm. Apparently I have ten days' grace on the rent, and the next check is on the 5th, I think I can juggle things from here, making a partial payment presently and enclosing a note.

My entirely-too-generous sister, sigh. I have got to get this woman into competitive shooting. There's no warmfuzzy like the warmfuzzy of measuring yourself against real live opponents. A couple-few actual paychecks from now I intend to make up a whole mess o' that Mosin load - except I only have 95 (Sellier & Bellot) cases, and at least one of those (as the donor warned at the time) is now showing neck fatigue. Well, there's always Graf's or Huntington's or other such places. .38/.357 brass, OTOH, is not a problem; must remember a brick of Small Pistol primers next time I allow myself to visit Sportsman's Warehouse, or next time Bi-Mart has a reloading sale. Sis has shown real potential with a .357 (and most everything else she's laid hands on), might get her into plate matches. An indoor club on her end of the interstate has regular bowling pin matches too. Must acquire Trail Boss powder (though of course subversion loads are not proper for plates or pins). Will visit SW and inquire on or about the 12th, I think.

Gaaahh, decompress from filthy disgusting commute, back out to bank, burger joint dammit, and groceries. Gaaahh, filthy disgusting brat flinging its filthy disgusting sandals onto the grocery store checkout conveyor belt - and the indulgent mother-creature bends over and kisses it on the head. There's what's wrong with America. -Didn't the Jews (pre-1948) used to say, "Next year in Jerusalem"? I'll say "Next year in Wyoming." Or Montana, or East (not eastern) Washington, whatever. (And what was that about the state of Jefferson?)

If I can just get 40 hours a week for a couple months in a row! Jeez! Now you watch, the fiberoptic place will be struck by a meteor over the weekend. Or the driveway will open up and swallow my car, whatever. Gaaahh.

Fuji hasn't been inside the hovel for about two days, but he's still hanging around the driveway and being traditionally neurotic. Veteran neighbor puts out food and water for his cat and mine steals some; I put out a bigger water bowl; and the Big Litter Box is available to all.

Inspection of Discovery finds no significant damage from foam which fell from the External Tank during launch, but NASA is grounding the shuttle fleet again after this mission anyway. Bring back DC/X! ..."Grounding the shuttle fleet." For years now there has been no "fleet," they've been playing a shell game, shuffling the few still-flyable guts back and forth between the hulls, or so it's been said. I demand separation of exploration and state! These bureaucrats couldn't launch a riot at a South American soccer match, get them the hell out of the private sector's way!

901 - Friday, 29 July 2005: Bleah, Friday traffic. 20 minutes to get from work, within pistol range of I-5, to I-205, three miles away.

Emergency electric payment. Partial rent payment.

PIG tomorrow!

902 - Saturday, 30 July 2005: Snrk. Match day! Make sure I have everything - range bag; ammunition; notebook; rifle; ground mat; hearing protection; spotting scope; astronomical scope to try once again to see something at 200 yards; stop at ATM on the way up for cash for match fee.

Sis is here! Her big silver Cadillac is at the range waiting, she's come down to surprise me!

Okay, get signed in an all... only five shooters! The PIG is dying! Fifteen in ‘03, seven last year. Uh-oh, one of the five is Mr. R., one of the best rifle shots I've ever encountered.

Course of fire: after 10-minute sighting period, slow prone, 10 shots in 10 minutes on SR target at 200 yards; rapid prone, two 5-shot strings in 30 seconds each on SR at 200; slow standing, 10 in 10 minutes on MR52 at 100; rapid sitting or kneeling, 2x5 in 30 seconds each on MR52 at 100.

Sis getting more and more interested in competitive shooting, I point out gear, rules, tips, etc. Previously sent back with her Fred's Guide, she's catching on.

Two sighters each at 100 and 200, saving six rounds for Sis after the match - I'm on the paper, though lower than I thought I should be at 200. Up another click.

[Details omitted] ...No bragging rights from this match, despite the shiny medal; of 100 points per stage, 85 in slow-prone, 80 in rapid-prone, a dismal but not unexpected 62 in slow-standing (two misses, jerked right under the paper), and 71 in rapid-sitting, 298/0X, 74.5%. 1st of one in the Military Bolt Action category (one shooter brought an Enfield, probably a ‘17 in .30-06, but brought the wrong ammunition and borrowed an AR from another shooter - with which he placed 2nd overall with 366/1X), 5th of five overall, dead last in the (admittedly-tiny) field. Got my medal by default. (Also I had the only bayonet, for an official score of 318/0X.) But I had no practice! I'd barely even developed the load, on the bench! Normally I do a full live-fire simulation of the entire match at least once before match day, and much more load development and fine-tuning from the bench besides. Expect to do much better at the AvA in November (and expect to have Sis shooting for score by then). Overall winner, as expected, was Mr. R. with 386/7X of a possible 400 (91/1X in standing) (!), with a Remington 700 (.308 probably) dressed up all tactical. But he's been doing it forever and has All the Stuff - he changed shooting jackets between stages. (Personally my goal is to shoot as well as Mr. R., whether in t-shirt & jeans or in threadbare surplus BDUs & web gear. Obviously I need to shoot more.)

Anyway I got another shiny to hang on my wall, six for ten now. And bonus brass! Someone abandoned a pile of R-P .223 Remington, and about another box worth of FC .308 Winchester. Also saw a few pieces of .300 Winchester Magnum which I left for someone else.

After the match, Sis tries the milder handloads in the Mosin and... doesn't do too well. But she's still quite new to highpower and the Mosin can be quite a handful even with starting loads and a recoil pad. Then, another shooter offers the use of a modern rifle, a Browning A-Bolt (Varmint I think) in .243 Winchester Super Short Magnum with Leupold scope... and Sis puts all three rounds in 1½ inches from the bench at 100 yards. I dunno about y'all, but I'd be happy with that kind of shooting any day of the decade. (Rifle's owner claims it is capable of ½MOA.) Obviously equipment matters, but so does talent, and she's got some. That kind of shooting will put venison on the table, or a jackbooted thug in the mud, every time. I wonder, not for the first time, what I could do with a modern rifle...?

Ah, this year I got a copy of the competitors' photo! Generously taken by my sister (who's a good shot with a camera too). I'm second from the right, with the formidable Mr. R. on the right end. We're standing just a couple yards downrange of the lower firing line at Clark Rifles, a very nice club. In the background are the 100- and 200-yard targets, and very faintly in the far background can be seen the target positions at 300 yards.

The deer from my last trip, BTW, was right behind Mr. R. and just on the other side of the gravel road. That reminds me, during the rapid-prone stage as I recall, a squirrel was running right-to-left across the roof baffle over the 100-yard backstop, with Sierras and Noslers and what-all whistling right over his bushy tail.

903 - Sunday, 31 July 2005: Zzzz....

Yesterday at Clark Rifles, when I left a stack of printouts describing the situation at English Pit, one of the officers of the club said the county does not want to reopen the range and that development plans for the land are already underway.

Gun Talk, guest host Alan Gottlieb. Discussion of S.397, protecting the firearm industry against frivolous politically-driven lawsuits but tainted with the Kohl amendment requiring a trigger lock to be sold with every handgun. Now going to the House of Representatives. (Much discussion of this on the lists, gunfolk of varying degrees of self-proclaimed purity snarling over NRA, GOA, GOP, and those entities' relative performance and compromises.) Interviews with John Lott; David Kenik of Armed Response; and Wayne LaPierre.

Browning A-Bolt Varmint Stalker, I believe that rifle was yesterday. Matte finish, synthetic stock.

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