RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - DECEMBER 2006

During a normal weekday workday I'm left pretty much alone. The other two people typically in my work cell sometimes chatter in Russian, but I can tune that out. I take a shop order from the stack, fetch the parts, read the instructions on the company intranet, put the thingies together, move it to the next area, and get the next order. I can do that all day and usually do. During regular hours, my cell is a place of relative calm and organization, as the other two are doing much the same thing I am. Sometimes I team with one on a big order, we blow it out, then we go back to solo work. Nothing to it (except for the long commute and unholy starting time).

But when I work overtime, I'm subjected to an additional two hours, now with the same work cell crammed with swing-shift people who enjoy loud music, low humor, and spreading their "work" all over the available space. And on Saturday, it's a full eight hours of cackling hens, babbling ignorami, and stumbling incompetents whose mere proximity feels like it's boiling off my IQ points.

Adding insult, this is the first temp job I've ever had where neither the supervisor nor employee is allowed to fax the timecard to the temp service. I have to do it at my own time and expense.

GRUMP!

8am Thursday 23 November, charge up a very wet I-5 after a brief stop in Vancouver for fuel. (I've since replaced a wiper blade.) Thanksgiving dinner with family.

On Friday, sis & I hit the road again on a tour of Seattle-area arms shops. I don't recall now which we stopped at in what order, but I think it was at Top Guns Inc., 18002 15th Ave. NE, Suite F, Shoreline, that we found this - and some of you had best brace yourselves, especially for the third pic:

That's a tipping scope mount, by the way, allowing full access for loading. Fully-enclosed op rod, and someone put a lot of work into that stock, not least in selecting a beautifully-figured blank. Counter-guy says, "Special orders! Full-time gunsmith! Blueing! Parkerizing!"

Among other places we stopped at that day was Bull's Eye shop & indoor range in Tacoma, only a couple blocks from the Dome. Upstairs is the range, with a very respectable selection of rental arms - one that caught my eye was a Kahr T9, their full-size, single-column, DAO service pistol and a possible candidate for design rip-off for my still-vaporware VolksPistole. I must rent and try that pistol on a future visit. Downstairs is the shop, and a well-stocked one it is, with everything from pocket pistols to .50BMG rifles (a Barrett M82 and a Steyr on display). The counterfolk were up to speed politically too, which not all arms shops in my experience can claim.

Also was Stan Baker Sports in Seattle, where the counter-guy was some old dude who might have had breakfast tea with Saint John and knew More Than Me about firearms, especially older ones. Bullseye pistol folks might be interested to know that I sighted a S&W M52 in his case. Antique afficionados can spend hours chatting with the guy - he showed me one I'd never heard of, a .69 Plymouth Whitney, and now I can't even recall if it was rifle or musket, but he can.

Somewhere in there was Mary's Pistols, also in Tacoma, a kinda friendly, if perhaps incongruous, little place, with FM Argentine P35s, NIB with two 13rnd magazines, for $300! And the Philippine-made Rock Island M1911A1s for $350! Among many other things. I think they have some of those Rock Islands in .38 Super as well, but I'm not sure.

Somewhere along the way I got business cards for Bullet Stop Tactical/Point of Impact, Bremerton, advanced instruction; and Bolle-Tammaro Gunsmithing, Tacoma.

Saturday we made another tour, including some surplus stores. One that didn't disappoint was Ed's Surplus, 5911 196th St. SW, Lynwood, which according to this is making contributions to support military families. But it's hard to find a really good surplus store anymore, those days seem to be gone.

Also on Saturday's tour was Adventure Sports in Edmonds and, just up the highway, Lynnwood Gun & Ammunition, where I hit the clearance bin for a partial box of Rainier 148gr .358 jacketed double-ended wadcutters for subversion loads.

In the very bowels of downtown Seattle is Central Gun Exchange, 1016 First Ave., where "Doc" behind the counter was impressively politically astute and far more politically active than I ever had the stomach for at half his age. Go spend money there, he's a warrior for our Cause. And I expect you'll find plenty to spend it on.

And, I think finally on the way back, we struck DJ's Loan & Sport Inc., 10412 Beardslee Blvd., Bothell. They don't have a clearance bin, they have a clearance section, where I scored an almost complete Lee Pro 1000 (it's missing the link thingie for the case feeder, but the one a reader donated has one, the Really Good Hardware Store is only six blocks from the hovel, and I have bench vise, Dremel, and vise-grip pliers to just make one) with 9x19mm dies and the other Auto-Disk powder measure from the one that got donated, for $35! Not sure where I'll put the thing.... Oh gods, I'm turning into Cruffler, but with a much smaller budget and even less space!

One of the evenings, we watched a couple DVDs - Cars, the animation, which was entertaining, and Spielberg's War of the Worlds starring wingnut Tom Cruise, which was variously lame and an insult to the 1950-something version (by George Pal?), the 1939 Orson Welles radio broadcast (which I did in a grade-school play long ago), and the original H. G. Wells novel from a hundred-odd years ago. Even the ('80s? '90s? I can't even remember) TV series had its moments compared to this socialist/Hamiltonian/"The people are a great beast" crap. But the gunfolk forums and email lists whacked the film thoroughly when it was released, for the same reasons.

I departed rather early Sunday morning, making it back to Portland in time to tune into Gun Talk & chat. And it was good that I did, ‘cause the snow was right behind me halfway down the I-5 corridor. This was at an ARCO station on Everett Mall Way, within rifle range (the Queen's anyway) of sis' place:

Sis emailed that evening saying they had half a foot of the stuff. News reports of power outages, but I don't think sis got hit. Back down here in Portland it was just damp. (Today was actually nice & clear, though a little windy. Not that I got to enjoy it any....)

And that was my Thanksgiving holiday weekend! I had a big fat overtime pay-period direct-deposited the morning I left, so I didn't freak out about the various expenses, and the lame short-week pay this Thursday combined with what was left to easily cover the rent. The pay is good at this job, but I'm beginning to Dislike some of the officecritters' attitudes, as described above.

Meanwhile, finished Transgalactic, the vintage van Vogt from Baen via Flint & Drake. Didn't suck, especially the two Ezwal stories, but I liked Anvil's The Trouble With Aliens much better. Now I'm on Weber & Linda Evans (The Road to Damascus with Ringo)'s Hell's Gate, which tastes like a direct response to the criticisms I've been ‘blogging about Turtledove's wussy Crosstime Traffic series! Just as Flint's Grantville could be a slap in S. M. Stirling's socialist face for the latter's Island in the Sea of Time. Yay Baen!

Email still way backed up.

1337 - Sunday, 3 December 2006: Zz.

Hitting email. Oh crap, SurplusRifle.com is closing! I may have to buy their big CDs.

Brits Share Blueshirt Problem (see also).

Robert A. Heinlein Centennial Celebration! Cooper read Heinlein, okay?

D.C. Sucks.

Too cool for words.

Plymouth Pilgrims Tried, Rejected Socialism. How ‘bout that!

92YO Granny Killed by Police (see also and also). In related news, Libertarianism is in Trouble. But I knew that. At least someone's thinking about it.

Here's a film I saw plugged on a Fox News special while at sis' house. We're gonna have to nuke everything between Israel and India.

Sucks to be Aussie (also).

From Indiana, a little bit of justice.

KABA needs money!

Reader sends long rant from Mrs. Kim duToit on public schools, government, etc. Worth the bandwidth, really.

Hmm, ArmaLite offers their own CZ75 derivative. (Or one made in Turkey with ArmaLite's logo.) .45 model too. Hmmm. Few details yet though. How will the price compare to the genuine Czech, or the EAA Witness?

1338 - Monday, 4 December 2006: Second sis emails that her house got over a foot of snow, and her workplace lost power. She reports there were even downed power lines, "live and sparking on the road."

Still a lot of email to hack through.

How in the hell does someone in my chronic financial straits still get pre-approved credit card applications in the mail? At least I have the sense to have never had a credit card. If I had I'd probably be eBaying a kidney by now.

A bit of nose-and-throat bug, hm. ‘Tis the season.

1339 - Tuesday, 5 December 2006: Gah.

It was on sale. And I wasn't completely broke. And I'm getting a big fat direct-deposit on Thursday.

A Lowrance iFinder GO² mapping GPS receiver. $69.99. Tiny little thing. Probably be up all night playing with it. -Or I would be if it could receive a signal inside the hovel. Too cold to stand in the driveway with it. Eh, I can tell it'll be worth the seventy bucks. It follows me around henceforth, like multitool and pocketknife. I've wanted one of these for a long time.

1340 - Wednesday, 6 December 2006: The nose-and-throat bug worsens. Breaking out cough drops and dollar-store decongestant.

Trying to hit the email again.

From Reason magazine, Sucks to be British, redux.

From the lists:

Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

Reader sends More Stupid Cop Tricks. "Only Ones" my poor departed kitty's fuzzy butt.

Another reader, considering an LEO career, takes offense at my cop-bashing. Now, the LEO community could use more gunfolk - there certainly don't seem to be many in it now. But would gunfolk even be welcome in today's police forces? Or would they, too, be distrusted as "right-wing anti-government gun nuts"? Again the questions: What law would not be enforced? What order would not be obeyed? Evidence continues to mount that cops and gunfolk are on opposite sides of the culture war.

Speaking of cops, NYPD kills a groom on his wedding night: mainstream media and less-mainstream but still AP source.

Gross Overreaction in Public Schools.

Cruffler sends link to JPFO interview with death-camp survivor.

Recently I watched The Great Escape on special-edition DVD from the library, and on the second disc was an interview with the man on whom Steve McQueen's character, Hilts, was based: David M. Jones. What a life this guy has had! Piloted a B-25 on the Doolittle Raid! Shot down over Europe and imprisoned, aided in (though did not join, contrary to the needs of Hollywood scripting) the escape on which the film was based! After the war stayed in what became the USAF, flew jets, even did some work with the space program, retired with two stars! Recommended viewing. And that's just one of several featurettes and documentaries, the largest of which covers the war crime where 50 recaptured escapees were executed by the Reich.

1341 - Thursday, 7 December 2006: Pearl Harbor Day.

One hour overtime, tired. And now I have an actual cold.

1342 - Friday, 8 December 2006: Bleah. Shoulda called in sick.

As expected, no word from the arrogant elitist DDA on the results of the settlement hearing. So much for that "created equal... unalienable rights" stuff. We retain the illusion that we are free and sovereign citizens, but increasingly it just ain't so. A couple more legislative sessions and we'll be right back at 1775.

Except with metallic-cartridge repeaters....

Busy weekend ahead, email will be delayed!

1343 - Saturday, 9 December 2006: Victory at the Turkey Shoot! I won the metallic-sight category of the rifle event, with a score of 140/6T (for Turkey - see photo below) of a possible 150. Prize is a whole smoked turkey from an area meat processor! The targets were kinda arbitrary, but fun. A small red turkey decal was stuck on the X ring; it overlapped a bit, and any hit on the turkey was counted as an X. Shooters were given four targets, three with the turkey and one without. The latter was used for sighters, as many as desired, while the others were for score, five shots each.

The Queen has spoken again!

On the handgun side, I had some doubts about shooting a 2x4 through, mainly for the time it would take, but it worked out better than I expected and I'd do it again. Got whupped though, as the club's activities director, whose idea this whole event was, educated the masses with a .44 Super Redhawk firing .44 Special. I... really miss my GP100. That weapon was accurate.

And I'm still sick. Exposure to December weather probably didn't help. At least I can veg tomorrow, but it's back to work Monday and talk of mandatory overtime for the week, bleh. A little shopping with sis after the event, but she left this evening. Dunno if I'm going up for Christmas; with the job shutting down for a whole week, I may need the time to just recuperate from all this work and travel.

Okay readers, any S&W experts in my audience? I have been asked to identify this piece:

I think it's a K-frame, i.e. M&P or M10. But, there's no model number inside the yoke. What there is, is a 6-digit serial number - 115xxx - on the butt, the underside of the barrel concealed by the ejector rod, on the rear surface of the cylinder, and stamped loosely inside the starboard stock panel. Additionally, there's a five-digit number inside the yoke, 20xxx, on both frame and yoke. On the frame, above this number is a larger "U", and a small "7". It's a four-screw sideplate, the fourth screw concealed by the stock. Caliber is ".38 S. & W. SPECIAL CTG.", and the ampersand is rather elongated. I can't seem to find it in the Krause Standard Catalog (2003), though it might be the ".38 Hand Ejector Model of 1905, 1st Change" but I don't think it's that old. Cruffler seems pretty sure it's an M&P, okay, but how old? And would it be safe to fire with, say, UMC green-box FMJ or Federal "low recoil" Hydra-Shok?

1344 - Sunday, 10 December 2006: Recovering from the bug.

Download Jeff Cooper's collected commentaries.

One of my favorite shooting accessories is the Mantis magazine loading tool. One tool fits most magazines (except Glock and reportedly some H&K), it's simple, lightweight, compact, and affordable. And they seem to be out of business. But, my sister hunted down not one but three places offering them on the web: SaveSomeBucks, Firingpin.com, and The Tactical Store.

In mail yesterday, finally results for the Veteran's Day Garand Match at the Lone Oak club! My 259/1X was third of seven! Second was my club's CMP guy at 271/2X (the exact score I got on 9 September at Clark Rifles), and first was Mr. R. with 273/6X. I was using CMP/GI ammo, hm. Anyway another CMP certificate to add to the wall, and placing in the top three makes me feel justified in claiming it as a prize! (Way back in September ‘05 I claimed my first (of four to date) CMP certificates as a prize, though I placed 4th of 11 in that match, my first Garand match and the first time I'd fired any Garand (a club loaner at that time).)

1345 - Monday, 11 December 2006: Mandatory overtime all week. Which will be great for my finances but crappy for my life. Expect delays in email replies and site updates.

And hey! The DDA still hasn't called (as she promised to) regarding the settlement hearing on Friday! What a shocker! She'd probably rather be prosecuting me. "Evil Right-Wing Militia Gun-Nut, and Did We Mention He's White, Convicted of Exercising Constitutional Rights!" I'm sure that's the kind of thing her kind wants on her prosecutorial scorecard.

Reader reinforces the notion that the S&W in question, above, was in fact made c.1908.

And then my computer dies. Drat, curses, etc. Fortunately I got the drives into the old slow Compaq, and got that running again, and even back online, but the software's a mess and I'm up past my work-adjusted bedtime. In a couple pay periods I'll just buy a *&^%#$ new machine, with a fresh OS (suggestions encouraged but I need to easily keep and use Windows-based data and some applications, so I'm slightly leery of Linux; in any case my techno-geek credentials have long since expired). Other thing$ happening just now.

Observations: In my experience, revolvers are more accurate than autoloaders. The weapon of choice in a 2x4 shoot is therefore a large-bore revolver capable of being used in single-action, and with the reload-handicap rule we used, a swing-out cylinder is preferred over the SAA-style loading gate. (The winner of the 2x4 event used a Super Redhawk, with target sights, firing .44 Special.) Ya know what I'd like to see? And I'm not the first to have this idea: a Ruger GP100 as a large-bore five-shot, like the Taurus Tracker. Hmm. Well, some of us are still boycotting Ruger over Bill Sr.'s betrayal. Hm. But Taurus has that insulting built-in lock, hm. And pre-HUD-sellout S&Ws, especially the large-bores, are way spendy. It sure would be cool to have a proper six-shot N-Frame in .45 Colt though. (Moon-clip revolvers, i.e. .45ACP, excite me not.)

1346 - Wednesday, 13 December 2006: Overtime, blech. Poking at the backed-up email like a kid with a plateful of veggies. No overtime tomorrow or Friday, will try blowing it out then.

Of course, still no word from the DDA on the results of the settlement hearing. The subpoenas will probably come on the 6th for the trial on the 8th. -Hey, is that even legal?

1347 - Thursday, 14 December 2006: Ahh, that's better:

A year minus a day after it was stolen and just in time for Christmas, I acquired in private sale (which is still legal in Oregon) a replacement GP100! Since it was a private sale I wouldn't otherwise speak of it, on principle, but I'm very happy to have one of my most prized possessions replaced, and I intend to win things with it in competition so I can't very well hide it.

So all that overtime pay was worth the effort after all (though I won't be buying any shrimp rings for the next couple pay periods). The replacement is, by the serial number, a couple-few years older than the other, but in fine shape - VG+, crowding Excellent. (Needed a very thorough scrubbing of course - and a Lewis Lead Remover is already on the way from Brownell's, on principle.) $400, which is more than I paid for the last one NIB, but that was ten years ago and retail prices at this writing are crowding $500. Earlier, when I knew the deal would go through, I ordered a replacement front sight; a Millett this time, of different construction (a painted strip instead of a plastic insert) and of different contour (reportedly for easier holstering) from the Ruger Redhawk sight my other GP100 has. Hope it arrives in time for practice this weekend. -And yes, that other GP100 is still mine, whether it's in some gangster's crib in LA, at the bottom of a Portland-area river, or in some sticky-fingered blueshirt's closet. Now, off to the range to sight-in, then to the plate match!

1348 - Friday, Bill of Rights Day, 15 December 2006: Snow in Portland! City government entering Official Panic Mode! Started hitting my elevation during my commute back, and was largely melted by the time I had my first bacon sandwich. Wusses. I drove to Beaverton in worse.

Post-it from UPS, first delivery failed, second... presently I hope. I want that front sight for practice tomorrow (...if the Corolla can make it up the hill in this weather, hm - well, this time I have chains) and don't want to have to go down to their Swan Island facility in this weather on a Friday afternoon.

Not working next Friday, temps not welcome during inventory. So a short week and a seven-working-day shutdown (through the 1st). Things will be tight, but the six hours overtime this week will cover rent, the bills are caught up for a change, I should be fine.

Drat, according to UPS' site the package is rescheduled for Monday. Now I'll have to sight-in this weekend, and compete next, with the factory black front sight.

1349 - Saturday, 16 December 2006: Zz.

A satisfactory practice session at the range. The GP100 is sighted-in with my plate loads, with the factory front sight, though I'm disappointed that I couldn't install the red replacement. Now I have to shoot the match, if there is one, with the hard-to-see black, since replacing the front sight naturally requires sighting-in all over again. From the bench, single-action, at about 15 yards on a one-inch-grid:

I notice that the rear sight recess is a bit off-center in the frame, but it's within the blade's adjustment range.

Got my club membership renewed with the last of my otherwise-unallocated assets, and also, for $25, initiated a payment plan through the club for NRA life membership - $500 in $25 quarterly installments. Yes, NRA is imperfect and has been, with some justification, described as the oldest and largest gun-control organization in the country if not the world. But once in a while they actually accomplish something in favor of the Cause, and membership greases many wheels in competition and other facets of the Culture.

1350 - Monday, 18 December 2006: Bleh. Email still backed up.

Again with the UPS. Rescheduling delivery for Friday, when I have the day off. Meanwhile the Lewis Lead Remover arrives from Brownell's. Shoulda had one of these long ago. Haven't tried it yet (the GP100 doesn't seem to need it yet) but glad I've added it to the kit. I expect to be using it on other revolvers in my circle.

1351 - Tuesday, 19 December 2006: Sorry folks, still haven't answered email. Holiday errands, lethargy, etc.

Finished Weber & Evans' Hell's Gate, sequel already on hold. Weber remains wordy - his dialogue in particular can annoy - but at least he's saying something with all that data-dumping. Readers disappointed as I am with Turtledove should enjoy this. It's a whole new multiverse, seclorum rasa; geographically this planet (multiplied), and populated by humans, but with completely original histories and millennia-old technologies to play with. And a big honking war of course. One nitpick: the continual misuse of the term "fire" when applied to non-firearms like crossbows. That's bothered me for years, from numerous print and screen sources. Now trying to finish Franks' American Soldier.

1352 - Wednesday, 20 December 2006:

Subpoenas for the 8th. At least they managed more than one business day this time, but I begin to wonder if they even care about prosecuting Willie Johnson anymore and are just jerking around the subject who thinks he's a citizen. Eyuh, I feel like I should wash my hands after opening the envelopes.

Actually hitting the email. Sis sends, Cops Accused of Skipping Line to Buy PS3s; Yuri sends foiled carjacking in Utah, with MSM-requisite anti-self-defense propaganda; reader sends this steaming heap of crap from the Los Angeles Times from the Clinton era; from the lists, yet another link to the JPFO-initiated psychiatric examination of the anti-gun mind.

1353 - Friday, 22 December 2006: Zzz.

Huh, even Rush Limbaugh doing a little second-hand cop-bashing now, in relation to the North Carolina lacrosse rape case (charges being dropped), mildly denouncing the tendency to believe whatever law enforcement says. -Backpedaling a few minutes later of course.

Finished Franks' American Soldier. Slanted of course, it's an autobiography, but gave some insight to modern warfare generally and Iraq particularly. Starting another paperback from first sis' husband, Dan Brown's Deception Point, some kind of politico-techno-thriller.

A while ago I splurged on a DVD of McLintock! and finally watched it. -And while it was quite entertaining, I felt it was rather shallow plotwise, with a weak finish, again plotwise. Too many conflicts between characters unresolved, all these Baen works are spoiling me for story and character-depth. But this film wasn't really intended to be that kind of work and I should take it as it is. And hey, it's John By-God Wayne.

Waiting for UPS to deliver the GP100's replacement front sight. Website says "in transit" and radio news describes holiday-weekend traffic, hm. So about 5:30 I start tearing apart the computer to juggle hard drives to get the printer working so I can print the prize certificates for the match tomorrow, and naturally UPS arrives about 15 minutes later.

Therefore I stop fiddling with the computer and examine the Millet front sight. Upon close examination, it appears to be the same height as the original Ruger, so I'm taking a chance and replacing it now to use in the match, without an opportunity to confirm my rear sight setting on paper. But, Some Fitting Required. -The GP100, Redhawk, and Super Redhawk all use the same front sight, which is retained by a plunger just above the muzzle and is easily interchanged. Years ago, on my original GP100, the Ruger red-insert sight was a drop-in, but I found I had to take a Dremel to the Millet to get it to fit the recess atop the barrel.

So that's done and I go back to the computer. I still can't get the printer working with either hard drive, so I drag out a third drive with a relatively fresh copy of Win98 on it and that makes the printer respond. (The USB card reader continues to work and the card from the digital camera is more convenient than a floppy, to carry the files to be printed, and IrfanView to appropriately orient them.) But by this time the cartridges have dried up and a test print is very ugly. So, into the Corolla and off to the office-supply store for new cartridges. Those work, but are still slightly streaky; I suspect the printer was damaged at some point (probably when it fell...) and now ain't right. (Probably would have been simpler, and about the same cost, to just get another @#$%^ printer.) But finally, about 7:30, I get the prize certificates for the match printed and framed.

Then, minutes later I get a phone call from another club member wanting to join the match, bringing friends, good, we should have enough shooters. Then back online to belatedly post the match on the SW-WA-GUNS email list. Then a while after that, email from the plate match director who may be delayed by morning errands! But, knowing for a couple months now that he wants to step down, I've been thinking of stepping up to run the plate match, and I've been the executive vice-director for the last half year or so anyway. All I need to know is where they keep the electronic shot timer for the qualifying runs.

I need a new computer. And faster. (And a high-$peed ¢onnection....) Sniffed over some at the office store while I was getting the ink cartridges, pricey, hm. Maybe a used machine, or assemble one. (Maybe post-holiday pricing, hm.) Around here I have Office Depot, Office Max, Circuit City, CompUSA, Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, and dozens of shady holes-in-the-wall like I worked at years ago. I have a full install for Win95, and upgrade CDs for Win98 and WinXP Home Edition ("Version 2002"). New machines in the Christmas ads come with "Windows XP Media Center Edition", which a reader tells me is a less-than-full version of XP. Another reader, and an R/O at the club, wants to discuss the virtues of Linux with me - I'll get to that next week.

Oh, and remember the burst barrel from September? The emailed photos have gone all the way up to Alaska and been sent back to the club president. Lots o' mileage. If something like this happens again, I'll put my URL in a corner of the photos.

1354 - Tuesday, 26 December 2006: Oh yes:

2nd Place! Jim Breen 1st again, with the red-dot .22 again (Colt Model 22, BTW), and Brandon Comfort in 3rd with a current-production S&W M629 (with Zit). His brass said "Magnum" but I suspect they were reduced handloads like mine. The gamble on the red front sight paid off, though another session of paper-punching is in order. The targets are visible in the background - four 8" disks flanked on either end by bowling pin shapes, at about 12 yards. In the qualifying runs, revolvers must hit any five, autoloaders all six. (The smaller .22 targets can be seen in the center.) One of my qualifying runs was 3.75 seconds. There were nine actual people shooting and that run, I think, alarmed them all. :) Next month I'm pretty much guaranteed to place and I have a real chance to win. (The P35 just isn't as accurate as the GP100.) In the final round, I might have had Jim, but I think the chambers on this revolver are a little looser than the last one, and they fouled some, slowing my reload. I would have double-entered, with the P35, but I was heading north right after the match for Christmas weekend with the family, and I forgot to pack the 9x19mm ammunition! But it was just as well, ‘cause the regular match director, who emailed that he would be delayed, never made it, and I ended up running the whole match myself - and being entered twice would have slowed things down even more.

Then, Christmas dinner with family. The smoked turkey I won from Butcher Boys on the 9th was Really Good. Just unwrap it, warm it up, and start bringing out the side-dishes. (I took an entire pumpkin pie, baked by first sis, back with me.) I'll have to win another such turkey next year. :)

Relaxing now after the long drive, email tomorrow.

1355 - Wednesday, 27 December 2006: Zzzz.

Got a really nice databank wristwatch from first sis, to replace the ratty old one I've been using. Over 70 pages of instructions, ohhh yeah. :) Casio, this one, and more features than the previous Timex. Also, "MADE IN THAILAND" as opposed to China, bonus.

A leisurely morning, and then I start sizing some rifle brass from a few matches ago. And as I'm fiddling with the goopy rag and the cotton swab, it occurs to me that when I ordered the GP100's replacement front sight from Midway, I also ordered a can of Hornady One-Shot spray case lube, and there it is on my dangerously-disorganized loading table. So I read the instructions and I try it on some Mauser brass. Prep the sizing die as instructed on the can - disassemble, thoroughly clean, lightly spray inside. Then, I use the back side of the MTM plastic loading block, the shallower holes meant for handgun cases, to give maximum exposure to the spray for the rifle cases. Spray at an angle so the lube also enters the case mouths. Dries in about a minute. Insert, ram into sizing die - good gods a'mighty why haven't I been using this stuff for the past year or more? I just slashed time and effort from the sizing stage. Reloading pages updated accordingly. It's expensive but I think the time & elbow grease thus saved is worth it. No more fiddling with inside neck lube either! Just hose the block full of cases, wait a minute, and away you go! Depending on the particular press and how much clearance you have, this should also make it possible to size rifle brass on a progressive press, speeding things up more yet. The stuff stays on the case if the cases are otherwise undisturbed, so it should be feasible to run them through a case feeder even. More experiments on this in future - I have over two gallons of .223/5.56mm brass but no dies yet. (Nor a weapon for that cartridge, but the international-standardness of it makes me pick it up at the club.) Now some TW5 surplus .30-06, and civilian brass too - oh yeah. Not going back. -The stuff eventually builds up on the loading block, but I imagine a trip through a dishwasher would fix that.

Now (some of) the email. Cruffler forwards email that circulates the photos I took on Thanksgiving weekend of the sporterized Garand, with appropriate wailing and gnashing of teeth - and within the forwarded mail a link to this photo album of a magnificently restored M1. From an old SCA acquaintence, medieval armor for cats (and mice). From the lists, rust prevention for firearms; more trouble on the border; Nazi quote on disarming Europe, especially Jews - unconfirmed, but I would expect activists to have learned about proper sourcing by now; Big Brother is in Your Passport. Reader sends White House press release on new law allowing USPS to open anyone's mail (see next-to-last paragraph). Sis sends this page of what Kim du Toit would call "gun porn".

Additionally I'm processing a sack of 500 pieces of assorted .357 brass I got at the last OAC show for $20 (marked $25). So now I'll have enough for myself and my sisters. (I have a big heap of assorted .38 too.) -It has been suggested that I change from Bullseye to another powder to reduce chamber fouling - and I'm out of Bullseye anyway. I think I have a plate load using Unique tested and recorded somewhere... no, I guess not. Nothing in my accumulated print manuals... to the web! And Winchester (now owned by Hodgdon, BTW) lists a starting charge of 4.6gr W231 under a 125gr LRNFP for 1,052fps, and that sounds just about right - and I still have a pound of W231 left. Test batch presently.

Ahh, for those who really want to test themselves, here's the official USMC rifle qualification course of fire. The Marines are, so I hear, the last branch to teach and practice real riflery.

1356 - Thursday, 28 December 2006: Zzz. Heap o' .357 brass tumbling, I think I overloaded the tumbler.

Man, that Hornady One-Shot spray lube is good stuff. Shoulda tried it long ago.

One of the things I received for Christmas was a big whopping gift card from Powell's Books, the famous city-block-o'-books and of course a lefty enclave but they do carry some firearm books and I can just order online instead of going there and getting contaminated (and besides, the place is downtown). Getting The Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly/Disassembly, Part 2: Revolvers & Part 3: Rimfire Rifles (already have centerfire rifles, automatic pistols, and shotguns); a paperback copy of Kratman's A State of Disobedience, just so I have one (I forget who I gave my last one to); and Cartridges of the World, 11th edition. All that's more than the card was for, but now I'll have some really useful books. (Alas, they were out of Roland Green's Great King's War, the (first) sequel to Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.)

One of the books I wanted to get was the Krause Standard Catalog of Firearms, 2007. They have it, but the cover photo is for the 2003 edition and the page is unclear whether they're really talking about the 2007. So I did a separate web search for other vendors and cross-referenced the ISBN to determine it was in fact the new 2007 edition published this month. But, in the course of this search I discovered that Wal-Mart.com carries this book for $22.17 with 97¢ shipping for a total of $23.14, much less than Powell's! Furthermore I had a $5 Wal-Mart card from a car-dealer promo, so I'm (eventually) getting a ~$35 book for $18.14! (I think first sis will get my 2003 copy. Maybe my 7th ed. CotW too.)

A bit of rational commentary.

This new watch is so nice I might not dare wear it at work....

Processing much brass - .357, .38, Mauser, Mosin, .30-06. (I need more dollar-store buckets to sort it in....) If I can afford projectiles, powder & primers, I might end up with more live rounds on-hand than the Portland Police Bureau's yearly training allotment - and unlike the blueshirts, I actually practice once in a while. (There is in fact a recent news story on a Portland cop firing at someone who (allegedly...) pointed a weapon at him - and, of course, missing the suspect. A lot. Hey, fellas? Those little bumpy things on top? They're called sights. You use them to aim. The challenge still stands....) -I need to rearrange my awards wall too (and then update the photo, which at present doesn't show the last two). Since I've acquired the Queen and replaced the GP100, I'll be needing more room there....

Hm: I should build a stockpile of Winchester Q4204 factory 110gr JHP .357 Magnum, and try a plate match with it, instead of my reduced handloads. Just to see what happens. Reduced loads are fine for gaming but one should also be skilled & experienced with "business" loads. (There's also the psychological effect of great balls of fire from the next lane, heh. Oh, Federal's red-box 158gr JSP, that was a hot factory round last time I tried it!) -With the Queen's gas system's requirements that difference doesn't exist, my .30-06 loads simulate M2 Ball; furthermore the Lone Oak Garand matches provide and require GI rounds, and the same stuff is now being sold at my own club, so I'm already accustomed to "business" loads for my battle rifle, and the CMP Garand matches give me at least an inkling of field positions and time constraints.

Tuscon Tom sends, Police Officers Indicted in New Orleans. "The victims were Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally retarded man, and James Barsett, 19. The coroner said Madison was shot seven times, with five wounds in the back."

Finishing up the email, at least the personal stuff. (Or most of it - David W., your iinet address is bouncing!) Reader sends:

So, there is some winning going on.

1357 - Friday, 29 December 2006: Zzzz.

The P35 (or rather, my beat-up old FrankenPistole) is just not accurate enough to win the plate match, I'm afraid (though I did somehow manage it once) - but the GP100 surely is. If I'm going to end up running the match, double-entering would be too much trouble and take too much time away from the other shooters and my responsibilities to them, so I'd stick with the revolver. Maybe if I get enough help running it I'll use both. Or maybe I'll alternate months, that would keep me familiar with both.

Jeff Cooper's books.

Surfing, I find this:

Of course the 1911 is an outdated design. It came from an era when weapons were designed to win fights, not to avoid product liability lawsuits. It came from an era where it was the norm to learn how your weapon operated and to practice that operation until it became second nature [emphasis added], not to design the piece to the lowest common denominator [have I mentioned I hate Glocks (which also happen to be Portland Police issue...)?]. It came from an era in which our country tried to supply its fighting men with the best tools possible, unlike today, when our fighting men and women are issued hardware that was adopted because of international deal-making or the fact that the factory is in some well-connected congressman's district. Yes, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the 1911 IS an outdated design....and that's exactly what I love about it.

Breaking news this evening, Saddam Hussein has been hung by the neck until dead! And that's a good thing! Now what they oughta do is like with Eichmann, cremate him and spread the ashes over international waters, so his bones don't become unholy relics.

Update from Ohio:

SECOND modification ole Governor Boob Shaft (Bob Taft) didn't want. He only has about a week left in office. He is coming to understand that he will NEVER catch up to his Daddy (major fixer and Congresscritter during WW II) or Granddaddy (President for a while) and will be damned lucky if he ever gets elected to anything (even dog catcher) again.

1358 - Saturday, 30 December 2006: Zz.

To the range for a little handgun practice! Fine-tuning the GP100 with the new front sight, and some P35 practice while I'm there. Thought about some rifle practice, but the fog was severe even at my elevation, and then I'd have to clean the rifle....

Well. Not the best session, more practice is in order. (-Also I'll need to fortify myself, with live-fire, against the courtroom humiliation on the 8th, and to recover from it after.) I did learn that the Winchester factory JHP has about the same POI, at about 15yds (my club's regular handgun line), as my handloads, and with the GP100's modular grip recoil is controllable (but I knew that last part already). Hm, Expo show on the 26th-28th, right before the match, Miwall will be there and they usually stock that load - Bi-Mart is phasing out their Winchester stock in favor of Remington, they used to have the white-box in their coupon books. And I need to make a couple test batches using something other than Bullseye. On the P35 side, I think the 20rnd magazine, which came with my Marlin Camp Carbine, which I cut a new catch slot for, is working. Overall it was a short session ‘cause it's just so cussed cold out. Got another heap of .223 brass though.

After, drove around and browsed large-bore revolvers. I'm not sure exactly what I want. Not one of the new supermagnums; not even the .44 Magnum chambering, I think. I'm leaning toward Being Different, i.e. .45 Colt or .41 Magnum. Not a five-shot medium-frame like the Taurus Tracker, I'd want to use it in plate matches too, under six-shot revolver rules. I did see a Redhawk, 7.5", in .41, and the chamber wall thickness was quite impressive, though the old Redhawk has a conventional grip frame, unlike the Super Redhawk and GP100, so I expect it would transmit more recoil to the hand. Also I don't want a barrel that long - if I ever escape to Wyoming, parts of which are reportedly still open-carry (and there was a recent effort to get Vermont Carry there), I'd want something that could still be reasonably holstered. Original Redhawks were made in 5.5", and one of those in .45 would I think be swell. Though the grips would need replacement, not least to clear speedloaders. -But I'm broke, right? I work for a living, instead of living off other people's work (like a certain elitist hypocritical DDA I could name). Maybe later this year, if I stay employed. And I have to get that 1911 by September.

Appropriately on Bill of Rights Day, the United States Knife & Tool Assoc. changed its name to Knife Rights. Same URL (for now), same mission, new logo. Wake up folks, they're already banning knives in the UK. And you know, there was no "gun lobby" until the self-soiling cowardly freaks started banning them. All we want is to be left alone! (One genuine No-Prize to the first reader who knows who said that historically, and can provide a convenient URL for it....)

Vermont Carry.... Alaska surprised even gunfolk by adopting it in August ‘03. The great Susanna Hupp, a true champion of the Cause, introduced it in Texas in ‘99, but I expect we would've heard if it passed. Wyoming tried it more recently, but ditto.

While surfing for VTC stuff I found this pro-RKBA anti-NRA site. Yes, I recently initiated life membership in NRA. But bashed them too, at the time, right here. They're big, they're everywhere, they do some good things, but they gots warts.

Speaking of Wyoming....

In the news and from the lists: Philadelphia Sucks but other parts of PA suck less (with commentary & analysis); Thailand begins to pull its collective head out, a little; commentary on the recent NYPD killing of a groom shortly before his wedding, and again I say any cop who thinks cops don't want to take guns away from citizens is astonishingly naive; speaking of blueshirts, Vin Suprynowicz Vents; Another English Civil War? I hope so, for their sake; commentary on RKBA and Iraq.

Elsewhere, CMP expects more Carbines and M1903s in 2007, but especially for the ‘03s, get ‘em now; reader sends a bit of fun with Saddam's hanging; not the first connection made between the Oklahoma City bombing and Muslim terrorists.

And everybody remember Gun Talk and chat tomorrow! (Though I bet it'll be a rerun.)

Finished Dan Brown's Deception Point. Fast-paced, certainly, didn't mind the (pseudo-)science, but kind of a clumsy twist at the end, and the politics offended me. What's next, nothing at the library... I still have a stack of such paperbacks from first sis' husband, but many of them are parts of series and of course the other volumes aren't included. Furthermore most are spy thrillers or political thrillers or the occasional courtroom drama, none of which particularly excite me, and the last category, considering the last year of insults from our system of so-called "justice," turns my stomach. There's one apparent standalone, Allan Folsom's The Day After Tomorrow (having nothing to do with the global-warming propaganda piece), but I made the mistake of glancing at the last page months ago and I know what it's about - so that's out. Hmm. Maybe the second-hand store a couple blocks away will be open tomorrow and I can grab some SF there. Maybe I'll just watch Braveheart again.

1359 - Sunday, 31 December 2006: Zz.

Software troubles continue. I used to know this stuff....

Gun Talk is live on New Year's Eve! Tom Gresham giving away 1st-year NRA memberships to juniors, while the conversation occasionally swings all the way over to black helicopters. Lots of ticked-off Americans out there. And we're the ones who know how to shoot.

Sis alerts me to the existence of the Elmer Keith Museum in Boise! Supposedly it's here but the page doesn't mention it. Also it seems to have opened very recently so maybe they just haven't updated yet.

This bothers me: National Guard claims to have been founded in 1636. Revisionist history to support the collective interpretation of the 2nd Amendment?

Hm, article on the .41 Magnum. Hah: Bill Jordan said, "Go to the Model 19 and train with .38s and issue .357s for duty. A group of officers so far out of training as SAPD has no business with .41- or .44-caliber pistols." And that was 30 years ago. These days some of the blueshirts, particularly the copettes, probably need counseling after firing their qualification. "Eww, I had to touch an icky guuunnn!"

More on Elmer.

Yuri made an attempt at the No-Prize but I can't find consistent sources for it. Now I've found two sources giving approximate or extrapolable (double word score?) dates & places, but different ones.

Cruffler sends link to completely neutral NPR (!) story on the .30-06's 100th anniversary. Okay, Wyoming NPR. (Wyoming again, hmm....) But still!

After gun chat, went to library - yes it was open, but not tomorrow - and grabbed Barrett Tillman's Heroes: U.S. Army Medal of Honor Recipients, 'cause I'll need something to read at work next week and there's no Baen stuff coming through hold yet. He also has a volume on WWII aviation MoHs. This Army volume highlights 100 recipients, from the first in 1861 through Vietnam. Of interest is an entire chapter, "The Perennial Weapon", on MoHs won through the use of the M1911 pistol! In its own way, the 1911 provides a concise history of the medal. And that's why we call him Saint John. Tillman also refers to "Browning's masterpiece", suggesting he is One Of Us. -Oh yeah, I think I read something of his before, in a collection of aviation shorts and novelettes - "Skyhawks Forever" I think it was, and I liked it.

See also.

For those of you living frugally, my local Dollar Tree (where I get the frames for the prize certificates I print for my club's plate match) now has a refrigerated/frozen food section. Usually WinCo can beat their prices, true, but there it is. Less money on groceries, more on ammunition. More ammunition, more practice. More practice, more skill. More skill, more live patriots, more dead JBTs! It is coming to that.

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