Or I will when I finally get my own Garand. Looters, terrorists, and enemies of Liberty, Beware! -Of course I don't know how this Federal stuff will perform. I note that the cannelures don't always line up with the case mouth, like they were using the Speer bullets I was disappointed with for giving inconsistent seating depths. If I load FMJBT again I'll try Sierra's #2115 GameKing, I've been hooked on the green box since I started loading and experimenting with different brands.

1144 - Tuesday, 2 May 2006: Znrk. Bleah, back again to the Unarmed Victim Zone and the Temple of the Almighty State. At least the rally's over. And it's early so most of the street-loons haven't crawled out of their cardboard boxes yet. (Except this one guy who was standing on the sidewalk zoning out as I hiked toward the courthouse before 9am, and was still there when I hiked back toward my car after 10.)

A pox on all cities. ...A pox IS all cities.

Well that's over, for now. As expected, the defense attorney cherry-picked this journal for race-baiting statements - but I stand by everything I've said, and I've heard hotter from Michael Savage and he's got his fourth best-selling book out of it, so whose opinion is mainstream, really? And of course the attorney didn't cherry-pick the part where I was begging Condi to run for President (which coincidentally was one paragraph after I ranted on Willie & co. shortly after they moved in). Or the bits from Larry Elder and Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell.

As I departed I actually found myself briefly chatting with certain Portland Police officers who implied that they were Conservatives. I hereby take back... some... of the things I've said about them. -But I still have an instinctive, arguably Sioux/Cherokee genetic, distrust of government and authority. Wyoming for me. And if they secede they can count on my rifle.

Back to hovel 11ish (Bi-Mart doesn't stock that Federal red-box M80- & M2-equivalent battle-rifle stuff either, though they do have (also usually UMC and Win/USA) M193 equivalent), decompress... by processing the last of the Mauser brass and setting up for .308. As long as I'm sitting around the hovel waiting for an employer to call back I can get something useful done.

To their credit, one of the leading talk stations here, 750KXL, in their regular newscasts consistently referred to yesterday's rally as on behalf of "illegal" immigrants or aliens. And Lars is bashing all four local broadcast TV stations (even the Fox affiliate and his former station, KPTV12) for spinning it as "immigrant rights."

Later, U-Pull-It for Corolla bits, specifically a hose that goes between the air cleaner intake and the engine block for... some reason.

Email, readers: tout the WarRifles.com forums; send links to the Gun Control Hall of Fame, commentary and information on illegal immigrants. Elsewhere, W Ketchup donates to The Minutemen.

1145 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006: Zzzzz.

In e-alerts last night and on Lars this morning, big new victim-disarmament push in Washington state - "gun show loophole", "assault weapons", mandatory "safe storage", etc. Hsss.

Work on car. Install replacement hose, clamp firmly, test drive - I dunno. Reader says this hose is to take heat from the exhaust and prevent, in cold weather, icing of the carburetor or throttle-body. Anyway it's back on now (the old one was flopping around loose, and partly missing, when I checked fluids on Sunday before trekking down to Canby for the job intrerview Monday). Then, cash from savings (sigh), new spark plugs (cheap) and, long overdue, new spark plug wires (less cheap, but the Corolla hasn't had the right wires since I bought it). While I'm there, pricing for suspected blown head gasket for Escort - replacement bolt set ("required") $30, gasket $25, that will wait.

Local ARCO $2.87. One Shell near library $2.86, filled.

Back to hovel, process brass (all Mauser done) while letting engine cool, change plugs & wires - and they're the wrong *#!% wires! The boots on both ends are way too big and won't mate with either the distributor or the plug until I cut them down - and then the socket on the plug end is too small for the standard spark plug! The new plugs are the same size and shape as the old. At least the car still runs with the old wires, but now I have to take these wires back and try to get them exchanged even though I've cut the boots on one of them.

Loaded 50 Mauser, 150gr Sierra #2400, 49.0gr W748, CCI primers for testing - all other Mauser brass has the usual WLR primers. Not quite enough powder left for another batch of 50 for comparison. Much more of this and I'll have to start buying the 4lb jugs or the 8lb kegs. Poverty sucks!

1146 - Thursday, 4 May 2006: Zzzzz. Catching up on sleep while I can, the job I expect to be hired at starts at 6am a half-hour drive away. (OTOH it lets out at 2:30, which will help with traffic.)

Back to the parts store, expecting to have to eat $21.99 for the wires, one of which I cut down. But, it turned out that the young counter-guy read the computer wrong and handed me the wrong box yesterday, so the old counter-guy gave me the correct box and said "we take care of our customers." So, plug: Schuck's, 555 NE 122nd (just north of Glisan), Portland, OR. These wires certainly look right....

Local ARCO Regular now $2.93.

New wires fit and none too soon, ‘cause one of the old ones separated as I took it off. And I detect an Improvement, specifically less hesitation when accelerating. I suspect the old wires, which were way too long, may have been cross-firing through induction, causing timing problems and loss of power (and doing gods-know-what to fuel efficiency).

Summery weather, though some nights still go below 40F.

Practice this Saturday, use up the last 24 Mosin rounds (.310" Hornady) and test the Olympic FMJ. Maybe some pistol practice, maybe dig out the Romanian .22 and get reacquainted.

Still have some IMR4064, loading more Mosin for sis.

On the lists, McCain Says Government Trumps Free Speech. And my favorite Founder said:

So I have some Federal red-box .30-06 to use in the club's loaner rifle in the Garand match. And the back of the box says 2,910fps at the muzzle. So I look up the original GI M2 Ball and it's 2,700fps. Search... this forum discussion suggests it'll be cool, but emailed club CMP guy anyway.

1147 - Friday, 5 May 2006: Zzzz. Up really late finishing The Sword of Knowledge, which is a pretty darn good story, though the ending may be somewhat lacking in my opinion. Maybe they have a sequel planned? At least it was no pacifist ivory-tower diatribe and indeed had a few unequivocal RKBA and self-defense-is-a-natural-right tidbits.

Cinco de Mayo, phooey. If 1 May was a "day without gringos" this can be a "day without gringo dollars." Mexican food doesn't agree with me anyway.

Saxton on Lars - against amnesty (okay), against restrictions on cougar hunting (okay), very brief lip-service to RKBA (answered NRA's survey), "no new taxes" (heard that before and more than once), denying allegations in negative ads (duh - and one of those allegations is that he was partly responsible for the county income tax, and helped defeat its repeal). Lars has already picked him and may have softballed some. Voter apathy I have. There appear to be two other "republicans" on the ticket but I haven't had the stomach to open the Voter's Pamphlet yet. -As partial consolation, pollsters and analysts imply that our current commie, Kulongoski, will likely win the Democrat primary but only by default, meaning a weaker presence in the general election. Shrug, I already know what I'm voting against.

Next book, What Might Have Been, Vol. 3: Alternate Wars, an alternate-history anthology featuring Turtledove, Poul Anderson, several others, and... Winston Churchill, an essay titled "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg": "-we meditate for a spell upon the debt we owe to those Confederate soldiers who by a deathless feat of arms broke the Union front at Gettysburg and laid open a fair future for the world."

All .308/NATO sized, I dunno, something over a hundred. Mostly Hirtenberger and CAVIM surplus, some Federal, a little Winchester and Remington. Plus I have 50 or 90 or something loaded for testing the last time I was interested in the FR8. ...Or did Willie steal that too? It would match my estimate of his intelligence - it wouldn't fit any of the weapons he stole. Yeah, I can't find it. Eh, so I start all over with load development, I hadn't got far with this cartridge anyway.

The club CMP guy says the 2,910fps Federal stuff may be too hot (pressure-curve, op-rod-wise) for the Garand and informs me of another match on the 21st in Longview, where CMP ammunition should be for sale. And Cruffler, cur$e him, tricked I say, tricked me into going to $port$man'$ Warehou$e for .30-06 components to load my own - IMR4895 and, cheaper than Sierra but still not disappointing Speer (actually that's mostly what Willie stole I think, Speer FMJ that wouldn't always seat to the same depth in the same die, and some Sierra Pro Hunters), Hornady #3037 150gr .308" FMJBT. (Bi-Mart didn't have either Sierra or Hornady FMJ in this size/weight, and their powder was priced, like, three cents cheaper, shrug.) Still gathering load data. Some sources say M2 Ball is 2,700fps, some 2,800. Either of the 4895 powders (IMR or Hodgdon, not interchangeable) are recommended but on the shelf at SW were open manuals from Speer, Hornady, and the Sierra 5th Edition I already have, and I couldn't find a 150gr H4895 load so I bought the IMR, which was the same price anyway. And as long as I was there spending money, a jug of W748 for the VZ. Probably I'll buy some CMP stuff at Longview but if that falls through I'll still have time to whip some up - but I don't like the idea of using a load I haven't tested, in someone else's rifle. Eh, I'll have my own M1 someday, and these FMJs will also work in the FR8.

Gods, the trial, the defense attorney. Typical "liberal" race-baiting and hatemongering, trying to make it sound like I forced Willie to break into my home and steal my property, that I "had it coming" or something just for being white. Or George W. Bush made him do it, I'm sure. See Dr. Savage for further and more eloquent rants on "loi-yuhs".

And first sis reports licensing hijinks and bureaucratic blackmail over her repaired Cadillac. I'm sick of this whole time zone. ...From a free newsletter thing in the store I learn that there's a Sportsman's Warehouse in Casper, Wyoming....

And there's one opening this June in Federal Way, WA (which is what, a borough of Seattle?), which should be easier for sis to reach than the one already in Silverdale. Careful, sis! Lock your checkbook and ATM card in the gun cabinet before you go!

At the Canby show last weekend I grabbed a flyer for the Albany Machine Gun Shoot which I've been meaning to go to, at least to watch, for years - and it's on the 20th & 21st. On the 21st I'll be in Longview looking for Garand rounds and on the 20th... I can't afford the fuel to go to Albany and back, nor the $8 spectator day fee. Well, there should be another later this year, and there's always next year. Aw crap! I can see myself getting sucked into all sorts of expensive new shooting disciplines down there.

1148 - Saturday, 6 May 2006: Off to the range! A little light rain. Members-only day, uncrowded. Arrive about 11:30.

Emptied 24 S&B Mosin cases from the bench at 25 yards. The Hornady bullets sometimes gave a ~2MOA string, sometimes ~5-6MOA. I reckon I'll stick with the Sierras. The Olympic 180gr FMJ a) is Berdan primed, b) was way low and left and seemed even less accurate than the Hornady, and c) kicked so hard, compared to my 125gr handloads, I only fired half the box. But now I can make more dummy rounds for sis.

Not much bonus brass, looks like someone went through ahead of me. A couple handfuls of .223, some 20ga hulls, a couple pieces of 7.62x39mm and of .45ACP. Departed about 12:45. No-show for the guy with sis' prize from the Vintage shoot, another time. Sighting: full-custom full-benchrest .338 Lapua.

While I was up there, stopped at L-L Guns in Battleground and the proprietor, seeing my Clark Rifles membership badge, Expressed Displeasure at the recent membership rules change (Fridays and Saturdays members-only, walk-in fee increased from $10 to $15 ($5 guest fee unchanged)). One of the shooters at the last Plate Match did the same. -The members asked for it. I'm not one that did, but it doesn't upset me, especially after some of the things I've seen there since English Pit closed. Proprietor counters that the club will drive itself out of business. If I'd thought of it at the time I might have mentioned that the latest newsletter reports a record 22 new members last month, which even when prorated quarterly is $60 each, and I think there's an initiation fee for new members too (I paid one). And the Plate Match remains the most, and most consistently, profitable event on the club's books.

On the way to L-L I passed a larger-than-usual Garage Sale sign. "Fishing tackle, Tools, GUNS" - screech. -And the only firearm I saw was a Kessler bolt-action 12 gauge marked $100. Finally got a pair of jack stands though, five bucks.

Then I went through Battleground, still on my way to L-L, and saw "Old Town Battleground Saturday Market" - which was, like, four stalls of niche-market produce and a fundraising book sale for the local library. For one dollar, Starbound, Time-Life 1991, on what was then the future of space exploration; and for $2.50, General Tommy Franks' American Soldier. The lady behind the table seemed pleased with that.

Reader alerts me that Dunn's Conundrum, reviewed January, was in fact written by the same Stan Lee of comic-book fame.

Email, OFF officially endorses Atkinson for Governor. I dunno, the amnesty thing....

Also, National Match site. And from there I surfed to the Oregon State Shooting Association and signed up for their email alerts.

1149 - Sunday, 7 May 2006: Zzzz.

Email: looks like New Hampshire is also moving toward Stand-Your-Ground, as only befits a state whose motto is "Live Free or Die". Also Oklahoma, on a different kind of Ground, commentary with yet another jab at New Orleans. (Folks, get weapons in private-sale, don't let them into the database. And then don't talk about them! This could be important.) A rather tragic (though less than it could have been) object lesson on the need for both physical and mental preparedness.

Gun Talk, more Wal-Mart discussion; old cop caller, comparison of "Law Enforcement Officers" versus "Peace Officers" in light of the growing Blueshirt Problem.

Got new Taurus catalog at L-L and now they have the 24/7 Pro, with the single-action/double-action trigger I thought that all the 24/7 models had. Looks like second sis has a DAO model? I'll have to take a look at hers again. Anyway she's accurate with it. -I see they're offering the PT58, a Beretta 92 derivative (Taurus/Browning three-position safety) in 9x17mm, 19 rounds! But it looks like a full-size frame so what's the advantage over a 9x19mm or a .40 that would fit the same hands? I'd rather have fewer of a more-powerful cartridge if the package is going to be the same size. Well, maybe they shrunk it. Commander-size 1911s, Government-size with equipment rails. And the Forty-Five/410 is no longer listed for .44-40. :)

Email and surfing - photo tour of Rock Island Arsenal Museum! Note the plaque to St. John.

1150 - Monday, 8 May 2006: Zzzz.

Reader sends:

All .308 & 7.62x51mm brass processed except for primers. All Mosin cases loaded. All Mauser projectiles loaded, 50 each with Winchester and CCI primers. Starting .30-06. Ancient Wells sizing die works fine, I chronically don't use enough lube is all. (Though from web research I learn that I might need a small-base sizing die for proper function in an autoloader like the Garand.) Screw the decapping pin down further for positive removal of crimped military primers.

Here's a little bit I've been wanting to ‘blog for a while, on the subject of political moderates, but my big old Kipling book is up north with first sis and I wanted to get the transcription right. So I finally looked it up and here it is, from "The Drums of the Fore and Aft":

Man, a bear in most relations - worm and savage otherwise,
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

1151 - Tuesday, 9 May 2006: Zzzzz.

Email, our own government appears to be betraying the Minutemen. Hannity mentions it on his radio show; later Savage interviews Simcox, who confirms it and blasts nearly our entire government. I feel... sick.

Made nifty certificate for sis for the Vintage Shoot. Also making certificates for 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the Plate Match. 1st gets a dollar-store frame, the others get a manila envelope:

Later, Willie's prosecutor phones with disappointing and frustrating news - he was found guilty of the burglary but not of stealing my property, and sentenced to only 3 years probation, the one month he's already spent in jail (he remains in custody on other charges), and to pay $850 restitution, which is barely a third of the value he stole from me and which I doubt I'll ever see. I feel... sicker. One of the statements used by the defense was this, from 1 November 2005, before the burglary: In the current social climate, certain minorities are presumed innocent even after proven guilty - and whitey is guilty after proven innocent, of course. And didn't our system of so-called justice just prove me right? Well, juries & judges, phooey. See yesterday's entry. Kipling wrote that in 1911. Some things never change.

BLEAH!

1152 - Wednesday, 10 May 2006: All .30-06 sized.

Radio news, Yamhill County parole and probation officers are now authorized to carry firearms. "These officers work with some of our worst criminals...." If they're the worst, why are they out on probation or parole? Now I'll accept the logic that people dealing with such criminals should be armed for their own defense - I believe that everyone should be so armed as a natural human right. But how much training, or should I say "training," are these officers going to get? How often will they practice? And how often will they look down their authoritarian noses at us peasants who believe in the 2nd Amendment, and declare that they should be armed and we should not?

In the wake of some boating accident in which alcohol was involved, the city of Bend plans to prohibit the mere possession of alcohol on the Deschutes River in city limits. This is the same twisted, totalitarian mentality as the prohibition of firearms: if some minuscule minority misuses a thing, that thing should be prohibited to everyone. I hope Bend has a really crappy tourist revenue this summer. And I don't even use alcohol, nor am I a boater or a water enthusiast. Principles dammit! LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE! Of course the local police chief is among the plan's supporters.... The knee-jerk libertarian in me wants to get about 5,000 people together, with 5,000 float tubes and 10,000 bottles of beer, and do the obvious. Fangs Out!

All .30-06 done, no primers, unsorted. The hard part's done, now if I have to slap some together for the match it won't take as long. Now I guess I'll make some 12 gauge superlight for the double on loan to first sis.

Library - The Great SF Stories: 1964, and jumping off the New Books shelves, a new release of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. I've seen the Gary Cooper film (which was good) but I've never read the actual book.

Seen on an email list: "I used to believe that everyone should at least theoretically be as well armed as the government. Since Ruby Ridge and Waco, I believe that the people should be better armed than the government." While I agree wholeheartedly with this statement and the context in which it was made, I think it can be spun a little; a skilled and determined individual with a 60-plus-year-old 5-shot Mauser or Mosin or 8-shot Garand, and a clear field of fire, might be said to be better armed than an entire SWAT team with MP5s and ARs. -There's that line from Patton where General Bradley says to General Patton, "I do this job because I'm trained to do it. You do it because you love it." And that is why, if this nation ever again reaches a point comparable to 19 April 1775, I still have hope that the adherents to the cause of Liberty will prevail - ‘cause gunfolk train, and the government ninjaboys have been trained. The Patriots who won the War of Independence fought for home, family, and freedom, with weapons that they knew intimately and doubtless in some cases even built themselves, against redcoat conscripts who had been drilled into automatons and Hessian mercenaries who fought only for pay. The good guys won, and will again.

[/rant] Now everybody go buy another copy of John Ross' Unintended Consequences. And Lt. Col. Tom Kratman's A State of Disobedience while you're at it.

Speaking of Kratman, here is his eloquent and scholarly rant on the 2nd Amendment. I especially liked footnote #8.

From the Kopel Newsletter: a psychological examination of the anti-gun mind (this has been around for some time, first from JPFO); a bad case of hoplophobia in Canada; More Bad Cops; and as bad as our "justice" system is here, there are worse places.

And Veteran has another wood spirit done.

1153 - Thursday, 11 May 2006: So I'm in the hardware store getting a fresh drill bit for making dummy Mosin rounds for sis and one of the checkers turns and asks the one I'm at, "Three-quarters of a pound, is that .75?"

[speechless]

"Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house." - Robert Heinlein

According to talk radio, the Oregon public school system spends $12,500 per student per year, which is near if not at the top of the nation, and teachers make $75,000 for nine months' work. And all the politicians can think of is to spend even more. Disgust.

Speaking of which, Lars has on his show both Republican frontrunners for governor, Saxton and Mannix, RINOs both in various ways, taking turns bragging about all the ways they're going to spend my money. Sigh.

Cruffler sends, and later one of the lists gives another link, to a story on a polar/grizzly bear crossbreed found in the wild. And apparently some zoos have done this on purpose. Two of the most dangerous land animals on this planet and someone gets the bright idea to combine them? Probably spent tax money doing it, too....

1154 - Friday, 12 May 2006: Up late tearing through the first third of the latest Ringo.

Lars is too friendly toward blueshirts for my taste, but in response to a new push to enforce seat-belt laws, even he is denouncing a blatant revenue scheme as having no real benefit to public safety. (And to his credit, he philosophically opposes seat-belt laws, as a republitarian should.)

Potential problem: looking at .30-06 loads and examining the WWII and Korean M2 Ball that I have, the Hornady FMJBT I have has a cannelure in the wrong place for use with .30-06 mil-spec loads. (Well, I already said I could also use them in .308/NATO loads for the FR8.) The Sierra #2115 has a cannelure further toward the base and would, I guess (looking at the Sierra poster and illustrations in the manual - I don't have any and am trying to conserve what money I have left at this point), work much better in .30-06. Likewise the Speer but I wasn't pleased with their inconsistent seating depth last time I tried them. But now look at this:

Left to right, KA73 Korean surplus, TW5 WWII surplus (DEN42 the same), one of my Mosin dummies with a Speer .308" bullet seated to the cannelure, a new Federal red-box .30-06 FMJ, and a loose Hornady 150gr .308" FMJBT, all with case mouths or cannelures aligned. So it looks like the Federal loads (which don't appear to be crimped at all...) might be using Hornady bullets. What the heck? -I have a handful of DEN42 that were corroded to the point I wasn't comfortable keeping them, but I hadn't quite thrown them out yet. Pulling one (crimped really well) - 46.something grains of powder that looks like one of the 4895s and burned much slower and less cleanly than the same amount of H4895 (dregs from a jug used a couple years ago for the .308 loads Willie apparently stole), and a sort-of-boattail bullet, alarmingly corroded at the base, that weighs 150.something grains, but the cannelure on this one is way back there:

So at least I've got the right bullet weight. Incidentally, 61 years later, Sierra's 5th Edition manual says 46.3gr IMR4895 (H4895 not listed) under 150gr jacketed for 2,700fps, which is the load I intend to use if I can't acquire CMP rounds and have to make some. Sierra's manual says 3.250" COL for their FMJBT; the surplus stuff measures 3.325 and the new Federal, 3.173. Looks like if I used the Speer in .30-06 (which I'm not inclined to, and I've used them all up for Mosin dummies now anyway) and seated to the cannelure it would be the same COL as the Sierra.

Hmmm.

Random bit of Kipling, which I think I got via Jeff Cooper:

"No proposition Euclid wrote,
No formula the text books know,
Will turn a bullet from your coat,
Or ward a tulwar's downward blow.
Strike hard who cares! Shoot straight who can!
The odds are on the cheaper man."

Now get off your butt, go to the range, and get some practice!

In the news, Animal Rights Freaks Desecrate Grave. The freaks in downtown Portland, picketing a furrier, might get ideas. >:-[ Duelling should never have been outlawed.

Cruffler sends, via a list I don't subscribe to:

This claim is consistent with eyewitness accounts, on both sides, from throughout the Revolution, that riflemen were consistently capable of groups of several inches at distances of 100 yards, with some capable of comparable accuracy at distances of 300 yards.

1155 - Saturday, 13 May 2006: Up late tearing through the second third of the latest Ringo.

Barberton, the usual. But, I ran an errand for Cruffler and he paid me by returning the Ishapore from hock! Then, to the range for an abbreviated session of rifle practice - the M44 is rather disappointing. I know the loads are good, sis is crowding 2MOA with them. It's the aforementioned sight-picture problem and the heavy trigger, I think. The VZ... will do I guess. No great difference between Winchester and CCI primers. Planning on more practice after the Garand match, and I should probably get another box of Sierra #2400 before the PIG and whip up a surplus of Mauser rounds.

And I'll have to try the Ishapore again, still have adequate amounts of Australian and Portuguese surplus. Last time I tried the Ishapore I gave up because it was shooting high with NATO loads with the rear sight all the way down, which is how I could bear to hock it. But I've never fired it with the bayonet fixed, and I now tend to sight in that way, for the bonus points in my club's matches, and bayonets - especially the whopping long ones I prefer - tend to lower the point of impact. So I must try that. Unfortunately I can't justify the expense of a Mojo for it right now, though Mojo finally is offering one for the SMLE.

Pretty good on the bonus brass today, but almost entirely for barter or future acquisitions: one piece of .30-06, 13 of what appears to be .30-06 Ackley Improved, about a dozen 20-gauge hulls, a pile of .223, and a rather larger pile of .45ACP.

Oh, and I picked up first sis' prize for the Vintage Shoot: a club patch and a percentage of the pot which worked out to $2.40!

One of the vendors at the show, from whom I almo$t bought .223 dies, recommends Hornady case-lube spray for easier sizing, will investigate. I got the impression you can let it dry, which would make processing .223 on the progressive press more feasible, by which I mean less messy.

The Miroku .45 percussion rifle is still there, marked $115. Sigh. Oh! I saw, but did not get a chance to photograph or closely examine, the M1917 Enfield that burst during the Vintage Shoot! The vendor who purchased it may bring it back next month as a conversation piece, dunno.

The Ishapore is none the worse for it's prolonged incarceration in Cruffler's garage. All I should have left there now is four VZ24s, all with wretched bores, bought mainly for the actions. Cruffler did pay me for them and they are his but he very kindly chooses not to see it that way.

It seems I have about a gallon of assorted .223 brass, something over a gallon of 9x19mm, and at least a quart of .45ACP. Okey-doke.... I don't have a .223 or a .45, and with MegaPacks on the shelves reloading 9mm is more trouble than it's worth - but in a societal breakdown or civil war I could barter the stuff for all kinds of goodies. And I intend to get a .45 someday, and if I win the lottery I'll probably break down and get a government-pattern mousegun on principle.

Now why couldn't RFI have made the 7.62mm 2A1 on the #4 SMLE, instead of the #1MkIII? Heavier barrel, decent sights, longer sight radius, I'd be all happy then. (Except for the comic little bayonets the #4 has.) I probably would have gone back to selling blood plasma to avoid hocking that. -There is room for a proper receiver sight on the #1 SMLE....

1156 - Sunday, Mother's Day, 14 May 2006: Zzzz. Up late almost-finishing East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

So there's no "conspiracy" by police to take firearms away from ordinary citizens, eh? And I'm some kind of racist, eh? How about this (source):

Done with the Ringo, good stuff. There should be at least one more volume to this. Already waiting on the hold shelf, Suprynowicz' Black Arrow.

On Gun Talk, Gresham takes a pleasantly libertarian view on proficiency requirements for concealed-carry licenses, comparing them to the literacy or other tests required of blacks registering to vote in the immediately-post-segregation era. That's a really good analogy and it illustrates the bigotry gunfolk are increasingly subjected to. Of course most real gunfolk could probably ace most police requirements, but it's the principle of the thing. Do you have to pass a reading test before they let you into a library? A writing test before you're allowed to buy a pencil? (Yeah, I know, give it a few more legislative sessions....)

Ah, I finally figured out how a Lee crimp die works. I haven't felt a need for it in 7.62x54R, which is the only cartridge I have such a die for, but Sportsman's Warehouse carries the Lee crimp die separately (~$10) for popular cartridges and I'm under the impression Garand loads need to be crimped. Now I understand how it works. I tried this one before, on a couple stray surplus Mosin rounds, and buckled the shoulders, but now I've got it working with the dummy rounds I make for sis, so I can (if necessary, and/or later) get one for .30-06 if I need to make my own rounds for the CMP matches.

Oklahoma reportedly gets Castle Doctrine, which is not the same as Stand-Your-Ground but is a step toward the light.

Article (and product review) on disassembling factory rounds for reprocessing (i.e. replacing FMJ with hunting bullets), or handloads for component recovery. Korean-surplus Garand-fodder specifically mentioned, hm.

Looks like I've lost another S&B Mosin case to pending head separation. Made yet another dummy round with the bullet pulled from the corroded WWII .30-06. Waste not, etc.

Starting The Black Arrow, not sucking.

1157 - Monday, 15 May 2006: Zzz, up late falling into The Black Arrow. Some similarities to Unintended Consequences (but, duh). Several of the anecdotes - farm-and-garden supply storeowner persecuted because some of his customers were growing marijuana, a family destroyed because the government wanted their land, children murdered by gun-control laws - are based on real cases I've heard or read of, with little more than the names changed. Others are more general, illustrative of a thousand daily tragedies created by a greedy and destructive bureaucracy. Not sucking. Decent writing style, good pace, though it can seem rather sloppy chronologically. Quite good for a first novel I think.

Election tomorrow and yecchh, filling out the ballot. This is the closest I've come to not voting for some time. Just for governor, two big RINOs, a third who hasn't the guts to come on the talk-radio shows, and a handful of fringies (two of which, as usual, are on the ballot but not in the pamphlet). No candidates challenging the entrenched communists in my state and federal districts. And this is the Republican ballot for the primary, how much worse will the general election stink? What's the point? "Nonpartisan" candidates and positions like judges and councillors... without clear choices or further information, voting against incumbents, against candidates with certain endorsements, or writing in NONE. Sigh. -Voted against Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto on principle, though his opponent is probably just a different flavor of statist.

On the web, a quiz on the Declaration of Independence and another on the Presidents.

Savage interviewing Sheriff John Trumbo of Umatilla County, Oregon, a potential Good Cop who is billing Mexico (as opposed to taxpayer citizens) for the cost of incarcerating criminals who are illegal aliens. And from the lists, this on Sheriff Joe Arpaio (already famous for not coddling inmates), Maricopa Co., AZ, on the 2nd Amendment.

For sis, for the old double, whipped up 100 rounds superlight 12 gauge, half 6/OO (shut up, Cruffler, my family aren't recoil junkies) and half 7/8oz. #6.

From the lists, yet another unspeakably dumb cop:

The Black Arrow is stirring up my deepest anti-government anarcho-libertarian fanged beasties. Argh, I can't stand it. Harry's War, the infamous and allegedly-actively-suppressed anti-tax movie, appears to be out on DVD and I ordered one. Which, in my unemployed defense, is the only activity on my checking account since the 9th.

Gah, about halfway through The Black Arrow turns into an absolute 2am page-turner.

1158 - Tuesday, 16 May 2006: Finished tearing through The Black Arrow, a splendidly subversive anti-government manifesto. Highly recommended. Back to lighter fare for a while, The Great SF Stories.

1159 - Wednesday, 17 May 2006: Election results, yech. RINO Saxton for Republican candidate for governor (as opposed to RINO Atkinson or "former" Democrat Mannix); Giusto re-elected as county sheriff (and what was his involvement with Neil Goldschmidt's statutory rape of a 14-year-old?); no significant ballot measures this time; the only even-alleged conservative running for city council defeated.

I learn that in Washington state, placing a bet on internet gambling is now a felony punishable by ten years in prison and/or some thousands of dollars in fines. (Lars, again to his republitarian credit, calls for the decriminalization of all gambling.) Here in Oregon, as I've ‘blogged before, they have self-serve vending machines for (state) lottery tickets, (STATE) video poker machines in bars, and (STATE) online blackjack, but they don't let you pump your own gas. All governments suck. The one our Founders created... sucked least, historically, and isn't the one we have now.