RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - NOVEMBER 2005

Work. Nuts. Bolts. Bag. Repeat. Argh.

Back to hovel - message waiting from owners, return call - they are receptive to my complaint, which is the latest in a long list started by cable-company neighbor (who was on the other side of a thin wall from them and is now 30-odd blocks away), and wanted any details I could give, to "build a case." (In the current social climate, certain minorities are presumed innocent even after proven guilty - and whitey is guilty after proven innocent, of course. Grump.) So not all the gods hate me.

Pretty sure the Corolla has a slow coolant leak, but I've long since carried a gallon or two of tap water in apple-juice jugs for emergencies, either engine coolant or drinking. Presently I'm just keeping an eye on the temperature gauge and inspecting the coolant reservoir every few days or when the needle passes a certain point. Cold (and wet) season now though, will be less of a problem.

Rifle practice, hm. Kinda hafta, with the AvA coming up on the 19th. VZ, obviously, with Timney and Mojo, but it still kicks harder than the Mosin even with handloads (couldn't find 125gr .323" bullets at SW last time but I'm pretty sure Hornady makes one) - and sis now has the Mojo91/30 (but rightly so). 56 rounds handloads ready for the VZ, and lots of brass, okay, but out of powder (for the current load) and 68 projectiles left, hm. Mosin carbine - annoying step in the trigger, must examine and attempt to address; crummy old military sights, not easily adjustable; no Mosin brass left to reload (all 123 pieces with sis). Might shoot just the Axis side this year. Hm. Well, I'll take the Hungarian and some Albanian and see what happens.

Wouldn't mind another set of Foul Weather matches, to update my official NRA classification under Sporting Rifle rules. I'll ask at the clubhouse this weekend.

Starting to reprocess large mound of .357 brass, again. Must find way to accurately and reliably dispense powder with the progressive press to speed this up. D'oh! Shoulda got scrap 2x4s from the cripple-or-kill-me job, to build that powder measure stand which is as I type sketched on a Post-It beside the monitor. Eh, will look in the Mega-Lo-Home-Mart "free wood" bins again. At least the sizing/decapping/expanding time is still slashed with the donated Pro 1000.

Ah - modification, make height adjustable so I can kiss the open mouth of the case with the measure's output funnel to avoid spillage and not have to fiddle with a powder-through-expander die, since I'm already expanding the .357 brass before tumbling. Pictures when. (I've said that before, but really, this time! Now that I have this cool real digital camera.)

989 - Thursday, 3 November 2005: More nuts, more bolts, more bags, more argh.

For the last few days another temp service has been phone-tagging me about another possible position, so this evening I charged across most of the metro sprawl to the temp office to fill out forms for it. Icky drive, in rush-hour traffic (fortunately I was going the opposite way from the usual clogs and got there before the office closed) and rainy dark. 12hr shifts and alternating weekend days as well, I dunno if it'll be worth it. But, the big company meeting today made me wonder what I had to lose, with talk of health-insurance costs rising and those costs being passed on to employees, fluctuations in orders that may lead to summary dismissal of herds of temps like myself, etc. And they wanted me to work Saturday (which I won't - I need practice dangit).

Gaaah, west-side traffic. Didn't blow up the Corolla's engine anyway, though the stopping and creeping did raise the temperature needle to a disconcerting level. Cooled off once I got up to speed and got airflow though.

Plaid Pantry station near work now $2.27, the 76 next to it $2.31. Many other stations now under $2.40.

News: more Democrat racism; Paris is Burning, and has been for the last week.

Inbox: a Constitutional Quiz.

Still don't trust the P35 - but a quick fix might be the drop-on "Detective" upper, just slap it on and replace everything above the slide rails, worrying about the original slide and barrel some other day, or just adding them to the spares pile, hm. Shorter sight radius, but the missing inch would make it easier to carry, hm. And, dovetailed front & rear sights, that's an unmitigated improvement. Another advantage is that legally it's just parts and doesn't have to go through an FFL - the rest of the P35 already has, in my name, so I have a legal frame to fiddle with. I could mail-order the upper (if I had an extra $200-odd, which of course I don't) and slap it on in about eight seconds and off I go; if, as I suspect, the problem is a barrel-to-slide fit, with little if anything to do with frame-to-slide, this might fix the accuracy problem I've been having. I wanted to leave it full-length, for a longer sight radius and greater theoretical accuracy, and those extra few ounces out front to soak up that much more recoil, but if a "Commander-length" P35 shoots reliably and accurately why would I complain? -Shot in the dark though, and a rather expensive one, betting the better part of a month's rent on it. Eh, don't have the money anyway, it'll take a couple months to dig myself out (again). But it's definitely a thinker. As is a .22 conversion kit - but I'd like to get the 9mm version to a useful condition first.

990 - Friday, 4 November 2005: Gaaah. See, yesterday was when the on-site temp rep had the paychecks, and the big meeting was at the same time and place these were usually distributed, and in the confusion I never got my check. Therefore I have to drive across town again to pick it up at yet another temp office, this one in Milwaukee (southern-central sprawl). Fortunately I carry maps in the car and know how to read them (and that's another pet peeve, how can anyone not read a map for gods' sakes?). But I made it. (Having to water the engine on the way however. Reader points out that Now Would Be A Good Time to replace hoses and such, as opposed to Later with snow and ice and numb fingers. And if I had more than about $30 to live on for the next week, I'd be getting right on that. Another reader suggests the engine may have head damage, $igh. At least I topped off fuel, at $2.27, though the reserve got used.) And the rent is on the way.

Tired, bleah. Storms apparently standing in line to hit the area, might not shoot tomorrow after all. I'll see how I feel in the morning, and whether the I-205 bridge is still standing.

Figuring: 27% taxation through this temp service, which means my next check will be in the neighborhood of $248, hm. So about a grand a month at this job. Which really ain't much, sigh. Message waiting from other service but by the time I got back from fetching my check their office was closed.

Shrimp ring, ‘cause I deserve it dammit.

Got kids? In public school? If you're not freaked out, you're not paying attention. (And here's another report.) Yeek, I'm glad I never bred. This is right out of The Road to Damascus!

Hey, you know what I did at work today? After I sorted the nuts and bolts and put them in bags, I made boxes. Then I put stuff into the boxes. Then I stacked the boxes on a pallet. Heh. Hehehaheha. Ahaha. Ahaheha! Hah!! HAHAAAHAAAAAIIIAIAIIAIIEEEE!!!!

Crap. I made more money at the shampoo warehouse. I used to be in charge of a roomful of expensive precision machinery (even if it was in downtown Dilbertville), now I'm sorting screws and making boxes. Sis says I should look into becoming a firearms instructor, to which I traditionally respond, "But I don't like people." OTOH, I like gunfolk (which in my more cynical moments (like sitting next to a public-school product attempting to do what used to be 3rd-grade math, in the temp service office) I view as a separate species), hm.

991 - Saturday, 5 November 2005: Zzz. Vegging, and some .357 reloading. Shooting tomorrow I think.

Raining later anyway.

Websurfing, found this interesting examination of one of the first books I ever read on purpose, and which left a dent, Heinlein's Starship Troopers (including commentary on Verhoeven's 1997 atrocity-of-an-adaptation).

November 1st Shotgun News and I learn something: you know those new Beretta pistols with the rotating barrel for lockup, instead of the old Walther P.38 wedge system, or the almost-universal Browning tilting-barrel system (which even Glock and SIG use, conceptually)? The rotating barrel is a New Thing, right? Huh-uh. The Steyr-Hahn had it in 1912. How ‘bout that? Also, Clayton Cramer column on New Orleans:

I note that Ciener now ships their P35 .22 conversion (I'll take the Plus model with adjustable sights, and an extra magazine) with a 14-round magazine, which would give me a tactical advantage over the 10-shot Rugers & Smiths & Brownings in the .22 division of the local plate match, heh. But I want the 9x19mm working first. But then, heh, I could compete in all three divisions with two weapons (since I know the GP100 doesn't need any help).

JOY! Troublesome neighbor knocks on my door - asking for property owner's number so he can give 30 days' notice! They're leaving!

Mail, beg-for-money from two outfits I would send it to if I had any: OFF (actually OFFPAC) and The Minutemen.

Library, Against the Tide and Man-Kzin Wars XI waiting, Watch on the Rhine on the way, and the latter two at least probably have waiting lists. I've got some reading ahead of me.

More car tips from readers - possibly the Corolla's thermostat is bad, which would be a less expensive problem than the head. Also the fan may simply not be running.

992 - Sunday, 6 November 2005: Eh, vegging again, wimping out on shooting this weekend. Should poke and prod the car some anyway.

Heh, new product. And they donate to military charities.

Gun Talk, interview with Larry Elder, who was at this year's GRPC. Of course the library doesn't have Michael & Me.

Finished Whiting's America's Forgotten Army, informative and balanced but not very exciting. Man-Kzin Wars next I think.

Slacking on email again.

Meanwhile, sis sends this article about a massive range complex under construction in... Illinois?! Land of Daley and Blagowhatshisname? Oh, southern Illinois. Like eastern Oregon & Washington, or northern (I mean above Sacramento) California, that makes sense.

Sis plans another visit, on the 27th, wanting to do better than 3rd in the plate match (she is so hooked - a Hogue MonoGrip was added to the Taurus 66 she uses, and she's been getting lots of dry practice and reloading drills with some A-Zoom snap caps and some dummies I made for her, and it shows). Now that she has the 91/30 it occurs to me that I should make up some dummy Mosin rounds, and I think I know how; after my own practice next weekend I'll have some spent Berdan-primed brass Albanian cases, and I still have some disappointing Speer .308 FMJ bullets (wandering ogive, inconsistent COL), and a Dremel for knocking holes in the side of the cartridges to make them obviously inert. The Lee dies also came with the "Factory Crimp" die and once I get that figured out I can crimp the .308s nice and tight so they'll stay put when being cycled through the Mosin. Yeah, that's how I'll do it. And removing the decapping pin & expander ball will leave the neck tighter, but the boat-tail Speer FMJs will still seat easily. Okay then.

993 - Monday, 7 November 2005: Nuts, bolts, bags, gaaah. Other temp service - nope.

It takes half an hour to get thirty-odd blocks from work to the freeway, because of traffic. During which time the car's temperature needle passes the halfway point and rainwater steams from the hood. Then I finally hit the freeway and in a couple minutes the needle's down below 1/4 again. Non-stop to hovel today, no errands, and the gauge says it's cooled off by the time I get there - open hood with engine running, fan is not running but the gauge implies it doesn't have to at this point. Hm. Must thoroughly inspect hoses anyway though, all that coolant's going somewhere.

Getting cold. Something that looked like snow, judging by the splat it made on the windshield, leaving work this afternoon. Reports of mountain passes already in trouble. Eh, I have cable-chains (and an entrenching tool) in the trunk and the chart on the box says they'll fit the Corolla's tires, and I already know I can get around in ice and snow with a front-wheel-drive car. Hm, another icemare this year?

994 - Tuesday, 8 November 2005: Ice on the car windows this morning, and black ice in the parking lot at work. (Sunshine later though.)

Nuts, bolts, etc.

Alternate route back - if I hadn't stopped at Bi-Mart (and to water the car) I'd've got back to the hovel before I would've even reached the freeway going the other way. Anyway temperature needle went dangerously high, pulled over, opened hood, engine fan is not running, so there's something to follow up. I'm guessing the water pump is still okay ‘cause the engine cools down when I'm going fast enough, long enough, to get airflow; this observation also leads me to believe the radiator and (aside from presumed leakage) hoses are functional (i.e. no blockages). Car smokes when accelerating when hot, but not when cooler. Oil level also looks good.

Reader points out I should be using anti-freeze instead of straight water. Yes I should. And I'll do something about that Friday afternoon-i$h.

Local ARCO now $2.29. Plaid Pantry near work $2.23 (!) this morning.

Decompress a bit, examine Haynes manual, poke about under hood - fuses and fusible links look good - and then it got cold and dark outside, but at least I'm looking. Next step, test fan motor with "fusible jumper cables" which I don't have but I imagine I can figure something out.

Man-Kzin Wars XI, Colebatch's three stories in front, tasty. The first, "Three at Table", is touching, about healing the wounds, physical and otherwise, of war; the next, "Grossgeister Swamp" (not done yet), is good action, and also some nice (and ongoing) depth of character. I like the picture Colebatch paints of Wunderland, which I believe was the first extrasolar colony in Niven's Known Space universe (a low-gravity world at Alpha Centauri), as fiercely independent and self-sufficient after being liberated from kzin occupation. I also like how he contrasts it with the weak, useless, pre-wars human societies under Niven's Long Peace (which contrast Niven also made, when he introduced the kzinti decades ago, all the way back to the ramscoop Angel's Pencil and first contact; but, as I recall, in the start of this very series of books, Niven explained that, having never seen the elephant himself, he felt unqualified to write about battle, and thus invited others to step in). Culture War relevance on a bumper sticker.

More car and gunsmithing tips from readers. To answer one (how bad is the peening on the P35's locking lugs), I played with the close-up features on the Canon A345, which is still the Coolest Birthday Gift Evar:

So now I can do detailed close-up pictures too, useful. (Next, examine manual to see if I can override autofocus so I can photo the slide's locking lugs as opposed to the slide rails.) Anyway the consensus is that the FM Detective upper would not be a bad decision.

And the radical Islamist fires lit in Paris are spreading throughout Europe. Tell me again why we bailed out their worthless old-world backsides three times? (Actually some of the eastern European, that is, former-Soviet, nations aren't bad at all. The Czech Republic comes to mind (want CZ75 and/or 97), with their vigorous adoption of capitalism. They know who won the Cold War, and what was at stake in it (namely them).)

995 - Wednesday, 9 November 2005: No ice to speak of today. Sunshine later, almost warm. Driving alternate route, keeping in motion, temperature gauge did not pass ¼. Back at hovel, fiddle with scrap wire, connect fan motor directly to battery - whirrrr, something else is wrong. Thermostat? Hope to do a coolant change (and hose inspection, and thermostat replacement) this weekend. On the brighter side, reader-described symptoms of cracked head, blown gasket, oil in water or water in oil, are not present.

Enjoying more Colebatch, "Catspaws" is action, though the context of Niven's extensive Known Space writings is kinda required - but who would be reading this who hadn't read at least some of that? Picked up Ringo & Kratman's Watch on the Rhine, into the queue - seems to be part action/adventure novel, part historical novel, part historical study. Endnotes even.

Oooo, a piece of gunfolk history: in SGN, Rock Island Auction Company advertises "The original Winchester '73' used in the movie Winchester 73 starring James Stewart. Fully factory documented." Pictures of other mouth-watering rarities, like an Arisaka sniper rifle with scope, an SVT40 sniper, and a G43 sniper. ...Personally I wouldn't own such valuable originals, 'cause I'd want to take them out and play with them and that would be a Crime Against History, or something. Fortunately reproductions of most of the Winchesters are available.... Occasionally in this journal I've expressed a desire for a G43, but one reader says they're not known for accuracy, oh well. Once in a great while I see one at shows around here - ~$1,000 of course. You could get a dozen 91/30 or M44 Mosins for that much.

But wouldn't it be cool? Shooting the Allies vs. Axis match with an SVT and a G43, just to be different....

And the repulsive sheeple of San Francisco vote to make the city a risk-free work environment for any thug with a pocketknife (by banning all handguns in the city, like D.C.). It's against the state Constitution of course (pre-emption), but when did the commiefornians ever let "that constitution thingy," at any level, get in their way? So now, if the ban isn't struck down as it should be, we can expect SF to turn into another non-stop bloodbath like D.C. and Chicago. -SF also votes to ban military recruiters at universities and schools, as far as they can without forfeiting our federal tax dollars. ...So, if an immigrant population starts rioting and burning and such in SF, as they are in Paris and throughout Europe (which activities are being actively censored by French and other European media), would the California National Guard be very enthusiastic if called to step in? -And there we are, not far removed from Kratman's A State of Disobedience. Crap.

996 - Thursday, 10 November 2005: On this day in 1775, the United States Marine Corps was formed. From the lists:

No car problems today.

Payday, my estimate was accurate. Bi-Mart for car stuff tomorrow I think.

Reader says the smoke from the Corolla is due to worn piston rings. Looking through the old firearm periodicals salvaged from cable-company neighbor's share of the hovel, I see an advertisement for Restore engine restorer, hm. Wonder if Bi-Mart carries it?

Kinda tired, not much done after work today. Bed early in fact. Maybe it's a seasonal hibernation instinct.

997 - Friday, Veteran's Day, 11 November 2005: A lot of the people in this nation are not worthy of the men and women who defend them. The United States of America is the best country ever, and the people who wear the uniform of service to this nation are better than the rest of us deserve. It is on Veteran's Day that I most regret never having served.

Today I worked on the powder-coat line and, as has happened numerous times throughout my work history, I was the one doing most of the work (specifically taking coated items off the traveling hooks, as they came out of the curing oven, and packaging them) while most other people wandered to and fro or simply stood around talking. Grump. And this was after a morning meeting about "we don't want to use the word ‘mandatory' when referring to overtime...." (But they didn't ask me this weekend.)

Eight lousy dollars and fifty crappy cents an hour.

Got some car stuff (a filter for the next oil change, Restore engine treatment, STP smoke treatment - but I'm getting the impression the engine needs a ring job) at Bi-Mart but the coolant in the sale flyer was sold out (of course). However the hardware store near the hovel has some on sale, pre-mixed even.

Nasty weather is forecast for the weekend, hm. Must get rifle practice though. Dunno about coolant service for the car right now.

Return to hovel and there's Burnsy, the large orange neighbor-cat (I read his tag at a previous encounter). (Fuji doesn't like him (but Fuji's probably not going outside again ‘til June).) "Waowl. Waaoowl." Left a dish of food, gave him a stroke while he dug in - "Wa(munch)ao(crunch)owl."

998 - Saturday, 12 November 2005: Zzzzzzzzzz.

Huh, sunshine. Up to the range noonish with MojoVZ, W748 loads, Hungarian M44, Albanian, and prone mat. Dumped the can of Restore into the engine first. Also, examining Mosin bits - the sear-engagement surface on the Hungarian's cocking piece is really rather rough. Stoning a bit - improvement, seem to have got rid of the annoying "step" or "bump" in the trigger pull, though still longer and heavier than the 91/30. Now if I only had a Mojo for the M44 I'd be fine, but I can't afford it now and it wouldn't arrive in time for the match anyway. Most of my hopes for this match are on the VZ.

Crap, forgot Barberton! Still a few people there, including Cruffler who, as president of ACSW, kinda has to be. At least half the tables are empty by this point but Cruffler reports it was a good, full show. Yakked, no tremendous deals to report. Sighted M39A, $285, Ruger Security Six, 6" blue, $275 (it would do for subversion), a couple ~$200 M10s still there; fondled, discussed and theorized on the Starr breechloading percussion carbine (1858 patent date), what kind of cartridges did it use? Cruffler thought copper, but how would they be extracted after firing? I'm thinking combustible, paper or linen.

To the range, arrive ~1:20. Upper line, 25 yards, sandbags, VZ, with and without bayonet, just to get in the neighborhood - huh, somewhat better than I expected.

Bonus brass, more .30-06, some .300 Winchester Magnum (some nickle-plated Winchester) (I can barter that someday perhaps), some PMC 7.62x39mm (large primers).

M44, Albanian - not promising with current sights and Albanian surplus ammunition, will stick with the VZ in the match. I should still get one of the three Axis category medals just by showing up.

Lower range - target break in progress, scramble for targets and jog out to 200 and back, gasp pant. ...Adequate I guess, zeroed at 100 with bayonet, up two clicks on the Mojo for 200, I hit the paper a couple times on purpose. This old VZ probably isn't going to give me really good accuracy; when I slugged the bore the grooves measured .328" (lands .309"), and I'm using .323" jacketed bullets. Eventually I'll recover the other four VZs from Cruffler's garage, and eventually I'll rebarrel at least those four.

2:30, rain and sudden cold. Target break a few minutes later, wimping out for the day. But at least I got out of the hovel and checked my sights. Now I need to load more (17 rounds left, 40+ needed for match) - will get a jug of W748 next payday, still plenty of prepped brass left, all I have to do is set and check the powder measure and slap the seating die and shellholder into the press.

999 - Sunday, 13 November 2005: Gun Talk, mention of this cool animation of 1911 guts.

Finished Man-Kzin Wars XI, tasty, Niven's own entry ("The Hunting Park") shows him becoming aware of, if not actually taking part in, the Culture War - also, like Clarke's "Rescue Party" if I recall correctly, I liked it a lot all of a sudden at the end. Matthew Joseph Harrington's two entries are Large Scale, if you've read most of Niven's Known Space and if you can keep up with Harrington.

Starting Watch on the Rhine, sucks one right in from the start. ...There is something... deeply charismatic about the Third Reich. Let us admit this. One cannot dismiss the crimes, the horrors, but if one looks beyond them one finds honor and glory on the field of battle and in the cause of German patriotism. And Ringo and Kratman are launching a Culture War pincer attack. "...to my mind a Red fanatic and a Green fanatic are indistinguishable." Yep.

In the news - holy crap, that's no ordinary politician! Ones that trust us to be armed are few and far between - ones that encourage us are fewer and farther! (Still stuck on Wyoming though - Alabama strikes me as kinda full.) And this one is getting printed and left in the clubhouse on my next visit.

Speaking of the club, grabbed hardcopy newsletter yesterday, calendar page through January - no Foul Weather rifle matches listed, nor a Plate Match for January, hm. In fact the November plate match is the last match of any kind listed.

Charging through WotR, damn tasty. Ringo's Ghost (Clancy-esque) and Weber's Old Soldiers (Bolo) waiting for me at the library.

1000 - Monday, 14 November 2005: Absolutely nothing exciting to report for the 1,000th entry in this journal. Nuts & bolts at work, stupid drivers on the road, political blinders firmly in place on talk radio, sigh.

On a brighter note, I have New Data on the car's engine fan - in the Haynes manual, and in reader tips, one of the things to check is the fan switch or relay, which in this case is a sensor stuck in the side of one of the coolant lines, which completes a circuit at a certain temperature. After staring at the still-unfamiliar mechanical landscape for some time I located the appropriate plug and wire, unplugged it with the engine running - and the fan went whirrr. So now I think that if I replace that thingie (which may require draining the coolant, ‘cause it's in a hole in the line) the car should better cool itself. Alternatively, from reader tips, I can hotwire the fan to a switch on the dashboard and turn it on or off manually. Alt-alternatively, is there any reason I can't or shouldn't leave the thingie unplugged and let the fan run all the time?

Catching up on email - and I learn from a reader that Argentina made both Sistema Colts and Ballester Molinas in .22! How 'bout that? He has one of the Sistemas and talks it up pretty, but he's concerned about a source for parts should the need arise - apparently in this case everything above the slide rails is proprietary, Colt Ace parts won't do.

Another reader sends this article on France and their "youths".

Continuing WotR, page-turner (up late last night with it in fact, snrk), terrific action and not a little philosohpy - both authors are US Army veterans, Kratman at least of combat. Ringo's & Kratman's respective writing styles are frequently distinguishable, and comparing this with A State of Disobedience, I get the impression Kratman is particularly enamored of the Siege of the Alamo. (Got the John Wayne version on DVD from the library the other day, hadn't seen it in years....) And we seem to be seeing more of the Posleen side of things, in this volume of the saga, interesting. -And up late again, finishing. In the Afterword, hints of a series by these authors - and this paragraph:

We cannot afford to lose.

(Note that you will then have to track down the rest of the series. The first is Ringo's own A Hymn Before Battle.)

Against the Tide (Ringo again), third in the Council Wars series, is next.

1001 - Tuesday, 15 November 2005: Oh look, "I Am da Law(less)".

New bumper sticker:

It's starting to look like the plant will be shut down all of next week for Thanksgiving, so on the one hand I can get some sleep and maybe some practice on the 23rd, but OTOH I'll have no income for a week, hm. Lemme see, I get another $250-odd Thursday, then another the following week, and I paid the car insurance yesterday, then I go back to work on the 28th but don't get paid again 'til the 9th. Hmm. Electric and phone (and now ISP) bills still somewhat behind, and I need to rejoin NRA soon in order to renew club membership without having to pay the initiation fee again, hmm. Better cut back on the shrimp rings again.

1002 - Wednesday, 16 November 2005: Work, bleah, etc.

Getting colder, dipping below freezing at nights according to radio news. Three of the little heater-fans can handle it though, and enough blankets. (Still haven't found that butane stove for in case of power failure - I should be able to just buy another in a couple-few weeks. Enough water stored for a couple days' emergency I think, and some canned food and ramen.)

Ringo's Against the Tide is also an action page-turner, more than half through already. This one's mainly naval, with much military-historical content, naval and otherwise. I'm proud to say I can follow most of it.

Car... is at least not getting worse. The Restore treatment appears to have no effect, shrug. Probably the idea is to use it at every oil change, for Some Time, but at six bucks a can I dunno. I'll try the STP Smoke Treatment presently. ...It's a $500 car, I'm gonna spend how much getting new piston rings installed and what-all else? Nuh-uh. I'll just try not to blow it up like the last one, and by the time the tags expire (in summer ‘07) I hope to have somehow saved enough for another car, that sucks less. At least I have income for the time being, such as it is.

Speaking of blowing up cars, it looks like I might be heading north again around Christmas to reciprocate for all the visits sis makes down here.

No reconstruction of cable-ex-neighbor's part of the hovel yet - since the Troublesomes are in the other unit of the same building (Veteran and I are in the other, uh, "structure"), maybe they're waiting for them to move out so they can do (or do in...) the whole thing at once.

1003 - Thursday, 17 November 2005: Hm, perhaps the coolant isn't leaking after all, but simply boiling off through the overflow. It is mostly water at this point, which I'm told has a lower boiling point than glyco-whatever. So maybe I have one less thing to worry about on the car. Now, the sensor thingie in the coolant line - web search says at least $17 at the parts stores, and they're not a regular stock item; one from U-Pull-It might be burned out or nearly so already.

Work still nuts and bolts, except for a brief interval of grinding metal, which was at least different. A supervisor says the powder-coat line I was disgusted with last week was pleased with my work.

Paid, to Sportsman's Warehouse - zit-faced counter-boy seemed somewhat disappointed to have to put down the laser-sighted Beretta and do his job by going in the back for a jug of W748 powder - "We're out." I wonder. -This is not typical service for SW, but the sentient beings were busy with other customers and zit-boy was all that was available.

And the CZ75 they had is gone.

Bi-Mart stocks W748 but they want about a buck more - but I need it. Also got a gallon of antifreeze finally - since the Corolla's cooling system is nearly all water by now, I'll add the glycowhosis straight for a while instead of mixing it. Really truly getting a 9-day weekend (note with check says I can pick up next week's check at a relatively nearby office on the 25th), that should give me enough time to do a full coolant replacement and inspection.

Gas prices are creeping down. Many local stations are now under $2.30, and a couple near work are at $2.17.

Ah, this may explain a few things, where blueshirts are concerned anyway.

Nearly done with Against the Tide. Quote o' the day: "...every Agincourt requires the French." (For those afflicted with public education, Agincourt was a whopping military upset in 1415, wherein about 5,000 British under Henry V, mostly Welsh archers, and mostly tired, sick, and hungry, wrecked a fresh French force between two and four times their number, including heavy cavalry. The battle was the climax of Shakespeare's play. There's also a good film adaptation with and by Kenneth Branagh.)

(I just thought it was a funny bit of French-bashing. You kinda have to be at least an amateur military historian to get it. What the heck did Ringo do in the 82nd Airborne, anyway? He could probably land a job at a war college or military academy in about two minutes, except I imagine Baen is paying him several times as much, in both money and job satisfaction... and what the heck, Baen donates books to the military, so maybe Ringo is doing both jobs, heh.)

1004 - Friday, 18 November 2005: Nine-day weekend begins. Topped off fuel at $2.17. After decompressing from work and the drive back (and warming up the hovel a little), loading the last of the Mauser projectiles.

New SGN, EAA ad on back cover, Witness Match, $579 MSRP, hmm. 9x19mm, .38 Super, .40, .45, and 10mm. And a cool two-tone finish. Polygonal rifling though, that means jacketed bullets only - word is many of the Glock blowups were caused by using lead in polygonal bores. What about plated...? Elsewhere, I suppose it had to happen, someone is offering a bullpup kit for the AR. Every bullpup I've tried struck me as tail-heavy and ergonomically incorrect. And how the heck are you supposed to do bayonet drill with something like that? Cover article, Cobb Manufacturing is making some Changes to the AR, specifically a removable magazine well so that one (serially-numbered) lower receiver can be converted to several different calibers, like .30-06 (BAR magazines I would guess - but still direct-impingment gas? Aw c'mon!) and .50BMG (a bolt-action repeater). And an article on the Ruger Alaskan, a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull with a 2.75" barrel. "...muzzle blast caved in the backed-up cardboard target and collapsed the target stand." Sounds like it's right up Cruffler's alley.

Finished Against the Tide, yum, can't possibly be the end of the series. Starting Weber's Old Soldiers, me Bolo junkie.

Kids heading to college? Think it over.

1005 - Saturday, 19 November 2005: Match day! Arrive ~8:50, sign in, I get lane 18 in the first relay, all the way down at the end. No Mosin, only one relay for me this year. Field of 16, four Axis. Later, learn there are only three medals this year, overall winner and winner of each side, hm. Results and awards if any to be mailed.

Garands of course, at least three '03s, two of them -A3s and one rather older. A #4 SMLE (with target sight, or at least a bit fat target disk on it), a P.1917, one Arisaka (missed another 5 bonus points for longest bayonet by about 1/8 inch, vs. that - speaking of which, that Arisaka was very complete, even with the fold-down wings on the rear sight for antiaircraft use). And someone was using a Schmidt-Rubin - Switzerland was neutral of course, but I think the match director put it on the Axis side just to even things out. And someone else had a Mosin M44 carbine, unaltered with surplus ammunition. Mine will be getting a Mojo, some trigger work, and handloads when I can secure more brass. If it'd had just the Mojo I'd'a tried it anyway.

Did not do as well as last year, but examining how well I did do I can't blame the rifle or the ammunition - I just needed more practice.

Sighters, five rounds each at 100 and 200, then go down to check and patch. 100-yard zero is fine, 200 looks okay but I later discover it isn't. Maybe the barrel drooped with that huge WWI bayonet on it after it warmed up.

First stage, slow-prone at 200 yards, 10 rounds in 10 minutes, and I had a really nice group going - way down in the bottom of the 7 ring. Fortunately I checked in the spotting scope in time to add a few clicks to the Mojo and put the rest of the stage in the black. 80/0X. If I'd'a practiced I'd'a broke 90 easy. At least windage is good. Score and patch targets.

Second stage, rapid-prone at 200, 5 shots in 30 seconds, twice, starting in position and loading off the clock - 92/1X, after I added elevation. Uh-huh. More practice! I usually simulate the entire course of fire the weekend before the match, and get more sighting-in and load development besides, but I just couldn't $wing it this year.

Third stage, slow-standing at 100 yards, 10 in 10 minutes, always the worst. (Remember to dial the sight back down to the 100-yard zero.) And I didn't get any offhand .22 practice either, like I did in a previous match. But still, I'm improving there - 82/1X, pleasantly surprising.

Last stage, rapid-sitting (or -kneeling - but everyone used some kind of sitting position) at 100, 5 in 30 seconds twice - a little worse than I might have expected, 75/0X. Total 329/2X, 82.25% (officially 349 with bonus points). With the limited medals this year I don't know if that's good enough for something to hang on my wall. If I'd'a practiced more and had a good 200-yard elevation setting I'd feel much more confident.

Mr. R. probably took the match overall, with a Garand.

Stay after, help a bit with spotting sighters in the second relay, take some pictures with the supercool digital camera, like this one:

That's Mr. R. in front, crossing rifles with me. (Two delay features on the camera, and it fits standard tripods. Very cool.)

Woulda stayed after for a little .22 practice too but it was crowded with the overflow from the lower line being closed for the match. Planning on going Wednesday. I'll need some .357 practice for the plate match on the 27th too.

1006 - Sunday, 20 November 2005: Zzzzz.

Slapped together some 7.62x54R dummy cartridges - remove decapping pin from Lee sizing die, size spent Albanian surplus cases, discard ones with split necks, seat inconsistent Speer .308 150gr FMJBT (boattail seats easily in unexpanded neck), Dremel holes in sides of case so they won't hold powder. They might look a little funny with the neck bulged a bit around the bullet, since the neck was not expanded after sizing, but they work fine, and now sis can practice loading, cycling, and charger-drill without having to handle live rounds. Test in my M44, work great. Left Berdan primers in place - dry-firing does not seem to harm the Mosin anyway. Eventually the primers may be deformed so much they'll fall out, or not, shrug. -From the back of the Dixie Gun Works catalog is a technique for removing Berdan primers without special tools - fill the case with water, set the base over a small hole, take a wooden dowel that fits the case mouth snugly, and whack it with a mallet; hydraulic pressure through the flash holes pops out the primer. Haven't tried it, shouldn't have to for dummy rounds anyway, but it's something to keep in mind.

Ah - drill the holes before seating the bullet, otherwise it'll dribble brass shavings for days.

About halfway through Old Soldiers already. Weber... is wordy. Reeeeally wordy. Ringo is easier to read. But Weber does tell a good story with depth of character and satisfying action (when he gets around to it), and it's Bolos after all.

Firing up online banking, now I can access months' worth of transaction history free - and a mystery is solved, in that the $30-odd extra in my account I couldn't account for happens to have been two ISP checks I sent months ago, finally clearing just the other day. Fortunately the timing (relative to income) was cool or I'd've been overdrawn and lost another $20-odd. But I'm okay. Somewhat freaked, but okay.... (And now the ISP is in no position to complain about last month's payment being a couple weeks late.)

Speaking of Ringo, he already has a sequel to Ghost (Kildar) and I haven't even read the first one yet. Ack - thumbing through Ghost, Ringo is a lot easier to read. I get the impression it's going to be something like Clancy's Without Remorse and/or The Teeth of the Tiger, which are my two favorites in the Jack Ryan universe.

1007 - Monday, 21 November 2005: Zzzz.

Another sunny day, now would be a good time to do the coolant thing. Laundromat first, ick. Bi-Mart for a catch-pan and another jug of glycol.

Gaaah, sis sends money again. But the timing is fortuitous, with a week without income....

Back to hovel, car up on ramps. Read Haynes manual. Remove radiator cap. Wrassle with underside cardboardy splash guard - wrong one. Put that one back on, start removing other side. Realize that the conveniently-located hole will allow me to attach a small hose, which I happen to have, to the drain spigot without removing splash guard. Replace those splash guard screws. Fix hose to drain, position catch bin, open valve - drainage! Dribble, done. Reposition pan, spend five minutes trying to get a grip on the block coolant drain thing next to the oil filter, more drainage.

Back inside to warm up, yeek.

Hovel's remodeled garden hose spigot is incomplete, will not mate with the hose I have - dump gallon jug of tap water into radiator to flush. More drainage. Dribble, close drain plugs, tuck small hose up inside splash guard. Mix 50/50 water and glycol, pour into radiator - looks full. Start engine, idle for a few minutes, looks full. Upper radiator hose gets warm, indicating thermostat is "open" according to the Haynes manual. I think I'm done.

Catch-basin has handy pour-spout, recovered drained coolant, greener with glycol than I thought it would be, stored in trunk for emergency use. Still haven't replaced temperature sensor but it's winter now and I think it can wait a while. (Reader says leaving sensor unplugged, and therefore leaving fan running constantly, can have adverse affects.) At least now I've got more glycol in the system so it's not as likely to freeze overnight and burst hoses, or even the engine block according to one reader. Test drive - all seems well.

Now, I should have replaced the sensor (and possibly the thermostat, on principle) while the coolant was drained, but now that I've done it once it'll go faster and easier next time, and the $10 catch-pan allows me to easily recover and re-use the coolant. Shopping around for the sensor, it doesn't seem to be stocked anywhere local and has to be ordered - I'll inquire at Schuck's tomorrow I think.

And then there's still the damaged brake rotor. Can I just grab a pair at U-Pull-It and get new brake pads? Cruffler's not sure, thinks it may be a caliper problem instead. I'll have to see what the rotors would cost.

Ooo, I just learned that 1Gb memory cards (xD, for FujiFilm and Olympus cameras (interchangeable)) are now available, and 8Gb is theoretically possible. 1Gb, in my FujiFilm A345 (which came with 16Mb), would work out to a full hour of 320x420 video with sound, or four hours at 160x120, and gobs of stills, on a little chunk of plastic about the size of a 25¢ piece. (Of course a 1Gb card is something over $100, but still, they're out there.) And I've previously determined it can be used like a hard drive to store ordinary files. Niiiiftyyyy. Furthermore the briefest web search turns up many sources of lower-capacity cards (128Mb) well within my price range ($29). Meanwhile I've emailed 17 ~half-Mb (1600x1200) .JPGs to the AvA match director for probable inclusion in the club newsletter and/or website, and I reckon I'll be taking more pictures at the plate match on Sunday, so I may be on my way to freelance photographer status, heh. (Actually there was a really impressive mist-shrouded sunlit field on the way up to the club in the morning, I shoulda pulled over and got a couple frames of that....) Hm, better track down that AC adapter. Well, need to buy more car stuff first. Priorities.

Sis emails she's coming down Friday. The range will be closed then, as they're going to winter hours (according to the calendar), but I'm sure we'll find things to do.

And speaking of photography....

1008 - Tuesday, 22 November 2005: Zzzz.

Match results in mail - I won the Axis side again! Without using bonus points. Arisaka was 45 points behind on paper but took second for the Axis side with bayonet points; the K31 was 37 points behind me and had no bayonet, as it would probably cost more than the rifle if it could be found. Match winner shot 374/6X with an ‘03A3, Mr. R. was right behind with 371/6X with a Garand. Hm, looks like someone's missing, only a field of 15 recorded, 3 Axis. I placed 7th overall not counting bonus points, and I'm sure I would've done much better with more preparation and a better initial 200-yard elevation setting. But what the heck, I'll take it. -I note the medal is exactly the same as the one I got in the PIG, shrug, it's still shiny. That makes 7 actual awards in 12 matches, not counting the Certificate of Achievement in September's Garand Match (where I missed a medal by only 7 points out of 500). Now I have to get my M44 tuned up for the PIG.

Oh, almost certainly no Foul Weather matches this year. I think I'll start pestering someone up there to have regular Sporting Rifle matches under NRA rules, ideally monthly like the Plate Matches, that would be cool (though I'd be spending a lot more on handloading components...). At this point I'd use the Mojo-sighted, Timney-triggered VZ for that, but if I can bring the M44 up to the same level as sis' 91/30....

Hm, have to rejoin NRA soon too. Club gets five bucks if I go through them, will inquire tomorrow when I go up for practice. Or at the meeting Sunday evening.

Researching car stuff online - new brake rotors are as low as $15, interesting, but are also not a regular stock item for this car. New pads as low as $18, also not stocked. Down to U-Pull-It, get price list - $10 for a used rotor, plus $1 "core", what core, it's a chunk of metal! But if I can find the new ones at the price I found on the net I'd probably just go with those. Got the temperature sensor, $16. Thermostat priced at $8, will do all that Thursday I think.

...Ooorrr, it may just be an unbalanced wheel, which I never did get taken care of. Pop off the wheel in question, examine rotor and brake pads - nothing frightening there after all. Replace wheel, off to Les Schwab - and they balanced the wheel free. So there's another plug for their service. Drive back, seems to be an improvement, which means there's that much less money I have to spend.

Bi-Mart carries a 128Mb xD card for $25, except they're out at the moment. But I'll be getting myself one of those soon, probably before the Christmas trek. And Circuit City has the 1Gb cards on the shelf, right around $100.

Up late finishing Weber's Old Soldiers, good. Up later starting Ringo's Ghost, gyyaaaahhh, buckle up and hang on to something! ...Weber sometimes takes a couple pages to convey a few moments' thought processes. Ringo can describe a 15-year career in the US Navy SEALs, an entire campus socio-politico-cultural environment (including fashion trends), and a man's hard-fought inner demons, in... not much more space. Note to SF-bashing Cruffler: Ghost is not science fiction. Maybe if you imagine Tom Clancy on speed... and before Paramount got their filthy hands on it....

1009 - Wednesday, 23 November 2005: Zzz.

Up to the range about noonish, some .22 practice just because, 100 rounds .357 on paper and plates, checking sights and practicing. Bonus brass, and an observation thereof: lots of .223, I could be rolling in .40 if I cared to, little or no .45, some .38 Special.

Car not-quite-overheats on the way up (pull over, unplug sensor, engine fans (there are two) running - not much help), and on the way back down, even on the freeway where I thought airflow compensated. Huh? Back to hovel without quite blowing anything up (I hope), examine - radiator takes about another quart of coolant. Did it boil off, did it leak (there's no puddle or stream anywhere to indicate that), or was it working the air bubbles out or suchlike? It didn't heat up so much, according to the temperature gauge, yesterday, the day after changing coolant, in city traffic. Grumble.

And the temperature sensor I bought doesn't match the plug I have. (Kept receipt, duh.) Ah - another use for the digital camera (equipped with LCD screen), take picture and show on-screen to counter-creatures. Zooming in even. This thing is so cool. Thanks sis! -But with everything closing for the holiday, and the dreadfully attendant traffic, it may be next week before I do the sensor, and the thermostat I still don't have. At least now I know my way around the drain plugs. Another tip, add a new radiator cap to the list, to better seal that point of the system and make supposed hose leaks show up better.

Wheel balance helped some, but I'll probably replace the rotors, and get new pads again, on principle, hopefully before the Christmas trek north.

Back around 2pm, heavy get-out-of-town traffic, yeck. Let car cool, walk to hardware store, get fitting for hovel's hose spigot, now my end of the hovelplex is garden-hose-capable, not least so I can better flush the radiator next time.

Holidays, and political correctness. Recently a reader, noting my agnosticism, inquired what one uses for a moral compass if not religion. That's not a bad question. I recall Michael Savage asking it on his show a month or two ago. Now, I was raised protestant Christian (Nazarene) as a child, and the younger of my sisters (I'm the youngest of five siblings) remains, with her own family, quite religious. ...This matter is deserving of thought. What does keep one from doing bad things if one does not believe in a supreme being dispensing justice? There's a body of secular law of course, and a swarm of Officers to harass the people and eat out their subst- oops, got sidetracked. So society itself exerts pressure to deter people from committing crimes. (Of course we could raise the question of what is "crime," or "bad," and says who... but that's the Enemy's game, in the Culture War, and I've already chosen my side.)

But there may be a simpler explanation. Possibly the Ten Commandments have been around so long, and spread so widely, that they simply rubbed off on nearly everyone, whether some of us want to admit it or not. And objectively, there are worse codes to live by. As I've said before, Christians and Christianity generally don't freak me out near as much as people who are freaked out by them. And just from the culturally-tactical point of view, when someone says "Happy Holidays" I usually find myself responding "Merry Christmas." Just to tick off the moonbats.

(Hm - does Islam have anything like the Commandments? It sure doesn't look like they have "Thou Shalt Not Kill", even though it's supposed to be the same God with a different bureaucracy....)

Phone and especially electric bills (little heater fans beat the heck out of the old dead baseboard) not as bad as I feared, paid 'em while I could. For once Qwest's website didn't barf before I got a confirmation number.

Reader reports that Islam and the Koran do have a prohibition against killing people, similar to what was delivered to Moses, but that they don't consider anyone not of the Faith to be "people." And then there's Ghost by John Ringo, Baen Books 2005, wherein the "Religion of Peace" gets its collective ass properly whupped. Gyyaaaahhhh. DANGER. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK IN BED 'cause you'll be up way too effing late with it. Clancy, on speed, without the sugarcoating. And maximum un-PC. And anyone... disappointed... by our allegedly-conservative administration should find this book quite entertaining. And the sequel, Kildar, will be out presently.

1010 - Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 2005: Zzz.

A while ago I posted a long thing about allegedly first-hand experiences with weapons and tactics in Iraq. Then word went ‘round the lists that it was a hoax full of misinformation and errors, so I removed it. Now comes this discussion dissecting the original. Just so you know. Also, about a year and a half ago IIRC, I posted this link to a far-more-credible-looking report, which is also referred to in the above discussion.

Cold engine, check coolant - looks full. Drive around some - temperature needle starts going up. Stop, check coolant - takes another quart. Still no evidence of leaks, on the ground anyway. Drive around more - needle stays down, stop, check coolant, looks full. Back to hovel, needle still down, check coolant, looks full. I dunno.

"Clean" hovel.

Load .357 plate rounds.

1011 - Friday, 25 November 2005: Zz.

Reconstruction of the other end of the hovelplex has begun, joy. See back around August ‘04 for commentary. Well, I can probably get scrap lumber to build that powder-measure stand now.

No sis yet, not sure when she'll get down here. Off to laundromat. (Ugh, going back to work on Monday.) Engine heating again, losing coolant again. Can't this thing make up it's mind? Sis waiting when I return.

Hovel water is shut off during reconstruction. ~1pm, the crew appears to have left but the water is still off. Huh? They'd better just be gone for lunch. Nice of them to say something to the people who actually still live here....

Out to pick up my paycheck, do some fabric shopping with sis at Large Fabric Store, late lunch, back around 3:30 - reconstruction crew still gone, water still off. Phone landlord office - recording. Phone landlord cell - recording. Phone office-lady cell - recording. >:-[ Fortunately I have some tap water set aside to at least wash (and make hot chocolate and hot cider) with, but I'm going to be very unhappy if I can't have my hot 15-minute shower in the morning. 5pm, call again - leave messages. 6pm - no response. Snarl.

Sit & yak, do some stuff on the web. Check with Veteran neighbor, no one's returned his call either. He & I go out & find the water meter, I get vise-grips from the car and turn it back on - and, as expected, there's water spraying around in the gutted ruin of cable-ex-neighbor's place. Turn it back off, grumble venomously. Sis drives me over to her motel room and I fill jugs there.

And that's a story unto itself. She checks in earlier and finds that the door to the adjoining room will not lock. I, having experienced similar problems at the hovel, examine and disassemble the deadbolt (if you don't own a multitool, go buy one right now - if you already have one, carry it with you everywhere, all the time) - the lever has been forced and has jumped off the little metal bar that engages the cam that throws the bolt. I fix that, but then discover that this adjoining door has been forced at least once in the past and the plate, into which the deadbolt protrudes, has been sloppily screwed back into what little wood was remaining in that part of the jamb, and the bolt no longer lines up with the hole, which may be how the lever got forced. So the door is still not secure. However, on discovering the problem sis already notified the desk and received a promise that the adjoining room would be marked "OUT OF ORDER" and not rented while she was there.

Then I use the restroom and that door won't close, jamming against the threshold plate. The place is kinda like the hovel, except with running water (and, in fairness, fewer spiders). "Hauling water like the pioneers," quips sis, "in a major metropolitan city in the 21st Century." Veteran and I will be pressing for Discounts on next month's rent. (Which would be a good thing ‘cause with the car trouble and overdue bills and food and such I couldn't quite make rent anyway, even with the latest paycheck, which is my last until the 9th.)

Gawd. Sick car, no water in the hovel, no income for a week, what's next?

1012 - Saturday, 26 November 2005: Get up, get dressed, hike over to sis' motel and have a nice hot shower there. I note the room's toilet seat is loose too, almost as bad as the one Fuji broke in the hovel.

Phone landlord cells - recordings. Again. Snarl.

Out to breakfast. Come back, start packing for a range trip - phone! Office-lady, appropriately freaked out and contrite and I don't have the heart to press for a rent discount. She was truly upset and will be taking it out on the contractors, reportedly filing a formal complaint with the city. A little phone tag, and shortly after noon finally the water is back on. Sigh.

Up to the range about 1pm. Mosin 91/30, last of the IMR4064 handloads - nifty, sis shooting 9s and 10s and even a few Xs on the SR1 at 100 yards from the bench. Used up the IMR, switched to H380 - disappointing. It wasn't sis, and it wasn't me, and it wasn't the rifle, ‘cause all of the above were doing well with the IMR, so it must be the H380. Which is grumpifying ‘cause I want sis (and myself) to have good ammunition for the Mosin but the IMR sticks are such a hassle to process. Oh well, back to the blue can. Then, a little .357 practice, determining that both revolvers are still sighted in and we both still know what to do with them.

Back to hovel, dump stuff. This was all in sis' Cadillac. Now we go shopping around town, in my car, keeping a careful eye on the temperature gauge. To a going-out-of-business surplus store, sis got another 5-liter reserve fuel can; temperature needle didn't get above 1/3, check coolant, still looks full. To grocery outlet, sis gets stuff she can't find around Everett, coolant ditto. To Sportsman's Warehouse, on the freeway now, still ditto on coolant - get more Sierra #2305 and more IMR4064, and packaging change on the IMR, now it's in Hodgdon's black plastic jugs ‘cause Hodgdon bought IMR! I think I heard about that but had forgotten. Check coolant, still looks full. Back to hovel, on freeway - needle climbs to ½, and it takes another pint or so. The thing can't make up its mind. Very Soon next week will track down thermostat, temperature sensor, and radiator cap. Still carrying extra coolant & water, & recovered coolant from earlier, in trunk, so if it overheats I'm not completely helpless. (Furthermore sis relates experiences with Toyotas surviving such abuse.) Unfortunately, after several dry & sunny, if cold, days, now it's raining again and the driveway won't be dry again ‘til, like, May. Well, that's why I have the M65 field jacket - same one I crawled under houses with, when I worked for the plumber.

Talk a while at the hovel, clean weapons, and sis cooks dinner of assorted delicacies she found at the grocery outlet (the hovel does have a (mostly-)functioning stove). Early start tomorrow, planning on the OAC show before the plate match. Up a little late sizing the Mosin brass sis expended today; juggling loads around, I'll get the remainder of the H380 loads to dispose of, and will load 63 rounds for her with the IMR recipe that worked so well earlier in today's session and in the ‘05 PIG - except she'll get matching S&B cases, just to remove another variable, and I'll get a mix of S&B, Winchester, one Norma, and maybe some Prvi Partizan after the match.

No, I repeat no reading Ringo in bed tonight, need sleep! (But he's chasing an ex-Soviet nuke from Siberia through Chechnya to Bosnia to... argh!)

1013 - Sunday, 27 November 2005: Match day! OAC show first. Lots of cool old stuff, and some cool not-old stuff. Sis wants a Walther PPK, and there was a stainless PPK/S there for which the vendor was asking $450. Not today though. Bought nothing myself. Still got in free with ACSW card. Some Trapdoors, Cruffler's all funny about those.

To the range! Arrive about 9:30 - R/O mixup, match director is the only R/O on site and has to do that job until another shows up; apparently the regular flaked out. Help set up targets, benches, etc. Get signed in. Match director pulls me aside, "Hey, I looked at your website entry for last month's match, do you think you could do something like that again and maybe contribute it to the newsletter?" Way ahead of him. (Later this evening, at the club meeting, I learn December's newsletter is already out, so I have some time to pretty it up and edit it up or down for size, but here comes the ‘blog for it.) Field of ten, including two father/son entries. Seven revolvers, three .22s, no centerfire autoloaders this month! Again not divided into divisions, everyone lumped together by time trials. ~10:15, start qualifying.

I avoid using names on this site, but since the following names may be ending up in the club newsletter, which is available for public download, I'll break the pattern. Entries are:

Me, Ruger GP100, stainless heavy 4", box-stock except for the red-insert front sight
Welcoming new shooters Brandon (son) and Jeff (father) Comfort, who observed last month's match and are now sharing a sa-weet 1969 Colt Python, blue 6" with Hogue exotic wood (unfortunately they were pressed for time and had to depart after the first head-to-head round) - classiest piece I've yet seen in competition
Jack White, 1975 Dan Wesson .357 fitted with 6" barrel today
Margo White, Ruger Security Six .38, stainless 4", adjustable rear sight
Ron Booker, Ruger 22/45 with red-dot scope
Ron's son Tom, 12 years old, with S&W M22A, blue 4", also with red-dot
Sis, old Taurus M66 blue 6" with Hogue Monogrip
Garth Thompson, Browning Buck Mark with red-dot
Match director Jim Irion, S&W 686, 6", looks stock but probably isn't - he's given up on the red-dot for now.

Conditions are cold and a little overcast, with sunbreaks later - but really cold, under 40F according to sis' Cadillac. Qualifying begins - me first. Five decent runs, one reload, one perfect.

Next is Brandon Comfort, very respectable for a newcomer. Likewise his father Jeff.

Jack White has some trouble with his Dan Wesson - looks like his sights are off. I provide the B-Square gunsmithing screwdriver set I carry in the range bag - some improvement. Wife Margo starts off slow but picks up speed in her later runs.

Jim Irion has trouble with his handloads, apparently poor ignition like I was having. Says he switched from Bullseye, ‘cause it was dirty (it does spray the gunk around), to one of the Dot powders. That load may need more development. I think I'll stick with 4.5gr Bullseye under 125gr RN/FPL, for now. (Had no problems with my ammunition in either my Ruger or sis' Taurus, throughout the match. Not mucking with it. Except I may need something hotter, to knock the plates over more authoritatively. Will try some other powder for that. Hm, still have about 2½ pounds of W231... but now I'm out of projectiles 'til at least the 9th.)

Young Tom Booker with his M22A, and this is the same young man who made such an impression back in April. I have got to get my P35 running, the high-capacity magazine may be the only way I can beat him.

Sis starts off flinching (and who hasn't had a case of The Flinches?) but settles down.

Mr. Thompson is the senior gentleman who also made an impression back in April, and makes one again today. I hope I'm still shooting that well at his age.

Finally Ron Booker does almost as well as his son.

Crap! My camera froze to death in this cold. Or rather the spare batteries I was carrying had been sitting on a shelf too long. (Back at hovel, fresh batteries, all is well, but crap. Well, I got some good "stock" images last month, and the camera let sis take a couple good ones before it got hypothermia. More batteries in the camera's belt pouch, and more again in the range bag, henceforth.)

.22s are required to hit five targets total, any five in qualifying, four plus the little duckie stop plate in competition (see October for photos of the plates). Revolvers, the same, on the larger and heavier centerfire targets. Centerfire autoloaders, not represented this month, six total, the full centerfire rack in qualifying and any five plus a Popper in competition. For qualifying, the best and worst times of five runs are discarded, the remaining three totaled, and competitors arranged by that time. I didn't get the sheet that had these times on it but I did note what order people ended up in, and that my time was 16.something seconds. Runs max out at 30 seconds for our purposes, so if you shoot, say, 35 seconds, you get 30. Qualifying results, lowest time first:

Me
Garth
Ron
Tom
(...And there's maybe a two-second spread between those first four competitors. Now I'm up against real competition.)
Jeff
Brandon
Jim
Margo
Sis
Jack

Sis insists that I'm some kind of wonderful shooting coach for women. Brags to Margo about it. I end up giving Margo some tips - "Squeeze the trigger, smoothly, don't pull it. Don't anticipate the shot, let it surprise you. Practice acquiring your sight picture - lower the weapon, select your target, raise the weapon and get your sights on it, then lower the weapon and repeat." Personally I find myself staring at the target, and on the command I bring my weapon up into my sight line; I practice this a lot, dry-firing in the hovel and live-practicing on the little plates at the club, and my muscles and hand/eye coordination have thus been trained to bring this shape and weight into this position. It's not magic, but sometimes it feels like it. I describe my method to Margo, but also note that I used to stare at my sights and get my sight picture first, then steer the sight picture onto the target, and that she should use the method that works best for her. And in her very next run Margo goes something more than twice as fast and as accurate as she usually does. Hmm.

On to the real competition. Reiterating, each pairing of shooters is best-two-of-three for the whole field, followed by a single-elimination loser's bracket, followed by a final two-of-three to determine the overall winner. First, the Comforts, Brandon using the Python and Jeff being loaned Jim's 686. Brandon wins in two runs, but they both had a long drive north and had to leave.

Next, sis vs. Jack - sis wins in two! Last month she was knocked out in the first round. She continues to improve.

Margo vs. Jim, Jim in two but the second was close (due to my coaching...?).

Ron and Tom, father vs. son, .22 vs. .22. First run to Ron, but on the second he DQs by hitting his stop plate before the required number of regular plates and Tom takes that run by default. Third run, Tom defeats his father. I'm in trouble now.

My first round, crap, I'm against Garth. I take the first, he takes the second, I take the third and go "Whew". I earned that one!

With the Comforts departing the field is now eight, four having advanced to the second round. Sis and Jim - and it's close, but Jim wins in two. (Don't feel bad, sis, Jim can beat me (once in a while).) Me and Tom - and our first run, me on the centerfire plates and Tom on the .22 plates, Popper vs. Duckie, is so close nobody can call it! That run is thrown out and we shoot for two-of-three again! Tom beats me in the next run, and in the run after that but I made him work for it. Kid's good. I'm pretty sure I could beat him if I had more than six rounds though - in the second run he finished while I was reloading, while I had only the Popper to go. Except then I'd be shooting 5+1 and he'd have 4+1, hm. Practice. More.

(Another project - document the rules for this match, which tend to "bend" some from one month to the next. Will get with the match director about that. He probably wouldn't mind having his safety briefing typed up either.)

Third round, Tom vs. Jim - Jim wins in two but the second was very close, both having to reload. Jim uses straight-line push-plunger speedloaders (Safariland I think) (as opposed to my twist-knob HKS) and of course Tom's M22 (I used to have one - the magazine catch is in the front strap, actuated by the middle finger) uses 10-round detachable boxes. After reloading, Tom sprays-and-prays his Duckie while Jim coolly knocks over his Popper, but it was still close. And that's it for the regular field, now on to the Loser's Bracket.

The only autoloaders this month were .22s, and they all seemed to behave well. Jim's ignition problems seemed to go away, while Jack's DW needs some fine-tuning on the sights I reckon. I did not notice any other malfunctions.

Single-elimination, Loser's Bracket First Round, Jack vs. sis again - sis wins again! Tom, well, whups on poor Margo but now we all know she can do better than she has been ‘cause we saw her do it earlier (after I coached her for, like, 20 seconds - hmm). Garth beats Ron, catching up from behind when Ron couldn't quite get the Duckie. I get the Bye in this round.

Loser's Bracket Second Round, Garth whups on me and Tom whups on sis.

Loser's Bracket Final Round, as in April a very close and crowd-pleasing run between Garth and Tom, with the youngster beating a guy maybe six times his age, said distinguished gentlemen having knocked me, who won August and October, right out in the previous round.

Match Final, vs. Jim Irion, 12-year-old Tom Booker wins the match in another close run! And not for the first time; he took March as I recall. He whupped on me and everybody else fair and square.

Really only a couple good pictures, of me by sis during qualifying, before the camera curled up and whimpered:

Put away targets and benches. Sis and I stay after on the upper, 25-100yd line, getting some .22 rifle practice, some improvement there too. Back to hovel, dump stuff, out to eat.

Sis gives me more money, sigh. I'm cutting her off! Or cutting me off, or whatever. A man's gotta live on his own income! She says she's paying for coaching, aw shucks.

Back to hovel again, sis cleans hers but I let the GP slide for now (it'll run dirty and is back on bedside-duty now) while I whip out 50 rounds for her Mosin, back to the load I know is good, 46.1gr IMR4064 under a Sierra 125gr .311" Pro Hunter in an S&B case with WLR primer. That leaves her with only 50 rounds, since I took back the rest to dispose of the disappointing H380 recipe (and to reclaim some of the brass for my own use), but I expect to be in her guest room a month from now and I should have more made up for her. Did not get a chance to evaluate the Prvi Partizan - she has one box each of 150gr FMJ and 180gr SP; the FMJ has green primer sealant, the SP doesn't, though it looks like exactly the same brass. Some dings and tool-marks on the brass but not as bad as the Albanian surplus, which is often wrinkled. Also whipped up a couple more Mosin dummies on spent Berdan-primed Albanian, ‘cause when you work a Mosin's bolt the way Jeff Cooper says you should, a dummy round with a 150gr FMJ on top will spin quite some distance, and possibly put someone's eye out in the process. Pressed for time, sis has to hit the road, I stopped at only 50 rounds for her, feel kinda bad about shorting her like that - but then I realize she's still new to highpower and I'm thinking in terms of maintaining my recoil tolerance with 80- or 100-round sessions and cosmoline bubbling out of the handguard. She's not there yet. So 50 should last her long enough for me to make more. At least I really have toned down the Mosin's recoil with these 125gr loads, compared to military fodder.

Hm, have I tried W748 in the Mosin yet? Yes, and I wasn't impressed. Darn. Weighing each charge of IMR4064 gives good accuracy but takes forever. Will seek more options in the load books. Hm - chatting with a vendor at the OAC show this morning, while eyeing an old powder measure (which I decided would give no advantage over what I already had), he said IMR4064 is a "very forgiving" powder and he just crunches right through the little sticks with a conventional measure. After disposing of the H380 loads, will perform an experiment (though I'll probably have to buy another jug of powder to do it): three batches of 20 rounds, one weighed as I've been doing, one dispensed without weighing each charge after setting from the Lee measure, and one crunchy from the RCBS - test for groups, see how much difference a ~.3-.5gr variance, from a target of 46.1, really makes.

Not long after, hit the road again, for the club meeting. Get with club secretary, write check to restart expired NRA membership via the club (which gets a $5 kickback), get another copy of club membership renewal form, should make it before the deadline. At the meeting (and in the November newsletter), mention of safety problems arising from ex-English Pit shooters who are not accustomed to the much cleaner operation at Clark Rifles. And I've seen some of them. Also some talk of expanding the range, at least adding more lanes and opening the other building on site for more use as a warming hut and classroom. And it looks like the next plate match isn't until March.

Cold. Frost, thick stubborn frost, on the windshield only a couple hours after sunset, and again after the hour-long meeting. Carefully watching temperature needle - barely moved, didn't even reach ¼, during the whole round trip. Check coolant level, still looks full. Thought: can it take days for all the trapped air to work itself out of the system? Meanwhile, still no symptoms of oil-in-water or vice-versa. Five or so gallons of water and/or coolant in the trunk.

Argh, work tomorrow, must crash.

Aw crap, somehow the leftover .357, 291 rounds, didn't make it into sis' luggage! I'll take it up there next month. Likewise one of my two open-bolt indicators, for range etiquette with her Mosin.

1014 - Monday, 28 November 2005: AaarrrGGHH. Dragged self out of bed, scraped ice from car windows, barely clocked in on time at work. No heating on the freeway run down there, but the needle quickly climbed to about ½ after the off-ramp, sitting through the usual industrial-district snarl. Dropped a little with airflow by the time I got there. Quitting time, check level - another pint or so. Drive back on surface streets, no heating except a very little rise in the needle on a particular hill, dropped down again even in city traffic. Check level at hovel, seems full. Plenty of extra fluid in the trunk.

But now the Big Remodeling Dumpster is firmly astride the hovel's driveway and neither I nor Veteran can get our cars in - we're both parking on the street. Right where all the vagrant alcoholic meth-addicted street scum march past on their way to the convenience store and transit center. Argh. And the scavengers, sniffing over the wreckage of cable-neighbor's apartment which is now strewn across the only "yard" in the hovelplex. (Hm, I should email her a couple pictures of that for her amusement....)

Talk of snow and/or ice inbound. Got chains?

Tonight, search for Corolla bits on web, tomorrow, go buy some. At this rate I may have to go the whole week before putting them in - can't exactly do a coolant flush ‘way out there on the sidewalk 50-odd meters from the hovel. And considering how the last crew worked (this appears to be a different tribe), the dumpster may be in the way for a month.

If I can $queeze through ‘til the 9th I should be okay. Probably send the rent tomorrow. No shrimp rings ‘til further notice!

Typing up plate match newsletter blurb, based on yesterday's ‘blog entry. I'll have to email the newsletter guy and see how big or small he wants it.

1015 - Tuesday, 29 November 2005: AaarrrGGHH! One of the officecritters screwed up and some orders for bags of nuts and bolts are now overdue and I've been asked to come in at 5am the rest of the week. And I need the overtime pay. Argh.

Car temperature needle did not pass 1/4 all day, even with a couple stops and city traffic after work. Coolant level appears to be holding. Shrug, mutter. Procrastinated on parts search last night, doing it now.

Finished Ringo's Ghost, Clancy on speed, though some segments were truly disturbing. Sequel already in the library hold queue but it probably won't be out ‘til Spring. Starting Turtledove's Settling Accounts: Drive to the East, latest in his whopping alternate Confederate series - 1942 and it's Rebs vs. Damnyankees, Round Four.

Rent on the way.

So young Tom Booker won the plate match, Jim Irion was Second overall, Garth Thompson Third, and Sis and I are tied at fourth or so depending how you figure it. Yes, this match needs its rules written down, not least to straighten that out.

Looks like the Troublesomes have finally departed, leaving much refuse behind. Which means the crew will be renovating that bit of the hovelplex and the dumpster will be blocking the driveway that much longer.

Parts search - this may take a while, determining exactly which part to get, then having it ordered. One reader says it may be possible for it to take this long for trapped air to leave the coolant system. Further data: radiator cap (the whole radiator for that matter) doesn't get particularly warm, nor seem to hold much pressure - when I stop a warm engine to check the fluid level I get a faint "whuff," if anything, when I remove the cap. Hmm.

1016 - Wednesday, 30 November 2005: Car seemed fine on the way to work. Check coolant before returning, add about a pint. Drive back, over the hill, fine, until I get in some city traffic, then the needle quickly climbs to about ½. This happened to be near a stop I wanted to make, where there's a Schuck's and an Auto Zone across the street from each other. Park, examine - coolant still seems full, but pouring plain water over the engine gets sizzling and steam.

Walk over to Schuck's, return incorrect temperature sensor, money refunded to debit card. Walk to Auto Zone, explain situation, show digital picture on camera screen (useful! Get one!), mention that I was told the engine was changed - they can't find one that matches. Walk back, temperature gauge is back down and does not climb on the (relatively short) drive to the hovel.

The temperature sensor is, really, a small concern; I can hotwire the engine fans if I have to. It now strikes me that the thermostat is bad, perhaps intermittent, sometimes allowing coolant flow when it should and sometimes not. Or maybe gunk is stuck in it, what do I know? But, if the engine has been changed and is no longer the one the parts stores' computers spit up for an ‘87 Corolla, I'll need to take the thermostat out and photograph it thoroughly - and that requires draining the coolant and probably a good thorough flush - and that requires waiting for the dumpster to get out of the driveway, ‘cause my bit of hovel and where I'm now parking are not in line-of-sight, and in this neighborhood that's not good (and the blueshirt revenuers would probably strain themselves in their enthusiasm to cite me). Hopefully I can nurse it along for a while.

Still, Never Giving Up Car. The freedom and independence of having personal motorized transportation is just too good. And dig this for another data point. Someday I'll have a car that doesn't suck....

Meanwhile the Troublesomes, or at least one of them, isn't quite gone yet, or at least I saw that particular car this morning as I dragged the garbage cans to the curb.

I forgot to mention, The Rimfire Kid's father bragged that "he sent a sheriff's deputy home crying" in a contest of marksmanship. Not, in hindsight, that this would be a particularly difficult task; sis passed that level months ago (not least ‘cause she actually goes out to, like, practice). But I found it very amusing at the time.

Looking at the above photo of me qualifying... my stance sucks. Lame. Weak. Not aggressive enough. Gotta work on that. Lean forward more, something different with the feet, try again on getting a Weaver stance or something like it.

Part of me is somewhat disappointed with Turtledove's alternate Confederacy; certain facets lack originality, in my opinion. OTOH he's obviously done a lot of research, he has created a very different world which seems internally consistent, and I imagine it's a lot of work for a writer to plan, execute, and then entertainingly record battles of fire-and-maneuver, with WWII-level equipment, on ground that hasn't seen a shot fired in anger since 1865. At least his writing style seems to have benefitted from some editing.

Email backed up again, no time! Having to crash earlier with this 5am thing.

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