RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - MARCH 2008
By this time I still had, um, lots of cash still in my wallet, and we very adventurously went to Sportsman's Warehouse, where I used my Oregon ID to escape Washington's sales tax while buying, while they had it, a 500-piece box of 200gr (not 230) Xtreme .45 plated LRN (they didn't have .358/158 and I passed on the 125gr) - and that was $61.99. :-O Also grabbed a brick of Magtech #2½ Large Pistol primers, $24.99, as opposed to CCI or Winchester at $3-$4 more - range report to follow eventually. Also grabbed a 2-pack of A-Zoom .30-06 snap/dummies, against future subversion with the Garand; and finally a box of 100 .54/60gr Pyrodex pellets for Hawken Science. The box specifically says "IN LINE" but we'll see. Instructions disrecommend use in sidelocks like my Hawken, hm, and I further note that the pellet, in the box marked 54, measures about .50, hm. The use of a wad between pellet and projectile is also recommended, and it specifies conicals or sabots, saying nothing about PRB. Furthermore I note a black substance on one end of the pellet, which is also beveled, and the instructions indicate that end should be toward the breech for proper ignition. -A year or so ago someone at my club had a container of these pellets open on the bench beside him, and cap fragments or somesuch reached that black part, which is probably actual blackpowder as opposed to Pyrodex, and the whole tin went voosh, IIRC causing some superficial burns and of course much excitement. I might use some cannon fuse for pyromaniacal experiments with a few of these.... While at SW I also noted that 2F 777 was a) singificantly more expensive than Pyrodex RS and b) out of stock, though they did have 3F (which was also more expensive than Pyrodex P).
No shooting today, didn't pack anything even, and just as well as the radio was saying "active weather day" as I started the morning errands (as indeed it was). Next weekend, after the Barberton show, is planned a Mosin experiment with Yuri: my M44, his 91/30, and a batch of 50.5gr H380 under Sierra's 125gr .311, which I'll be making next week; and I'll also be trying my 1911 again (didn't find a new extractor at either show today!) and maybe the Witness too. I might even take the Hawken if the weather forecast is good.
Fuel, bleh. Local ARCO $3.19, and that's contaminated with ethanol; Vancouver-area ARCO $3.25 and everyone else on both sides of the river into the $3.30s.
Yuri sends chilling tale of collectivist indoctrination in tax-paid public schools.
Cruffler, a certifiable masochist, sends a graphic illustration (short enough even for dialup) of his affliction. He was working on having an 8-bore built but last I heard that's been indefinitely postponed.
Interesting, some Good Cops standing up for RKBA. I'd begun to doubt there were any such. Based on the evidence.
Based on thumbnail gouges in the new ingots and the one I already had (oh, I grabbed a couple partial boxes of roundball, to melt down, at the Fairgrounds, so I did buy something there), the lead I just received will be suitable for muzzleloading. I'll probably get the small (donated!) designated-lead-only pot going tomorrow and make more Miniés; I will need Hawken practice for the Big Bore shoot this summer.
New club newsletter, someone's having a bit of fun with the pictures. :) And, eyeing the writeup for the Big Bore shoot, I think the Hawken - with practice of course - can be quite competitive indeed, in its division. Too bad Miniés are prohibited in that event but as stated, the Hawken doesn't seem to mind PRB. -More experimentation is in order, different thickness of patches, .535 roundball as opposed to .530, different powders and amounts thereof, etc. I have near 4½ months to get that sorted out.... Dayum, now that the Washougal show is going monthly I'm going to have something firearm-related happening nearly every weekend for the forseeable future. Most of it involving getting out of bed far earlier than I'd otherwise choose. Hmm....
Heh. Niven & Pournelle had this much figured out with Lucifer's Hammer way back in 1977.
1761 - Sunday, 2 March 2008: Zzz....
That WND article yesterday on the LEAA brief in Heller - doubts remain. For the umpteenth time I ask, What law would you not enforce? What order would you not obey? What would you choose, pitching the badge or cashing the paycheck? "Never trust a cop of any kind." Prove me wrong.
Quote o' the Day, from Patriot Post: "The massively cruel and ruinous communistic experiment of the Soviet Empire would not have been necessary if philosophers and intellectuals had not ignored a basic truth about human nature: Human beings, as a derivative of the instinct to survive, are innately driven to act in their own self interest. Notwithstanding propaganda, conditioning or brute force, any government or institution which runs head on against the grain of this basic human drive is doomed to fail. We seem not to have learned a basic lesson of history: Capitalism harnesses human self interest; socialism exhausts itself trying to kill it. The bureaucrats, who seize and dole out other people's assets, initially see themselves as humanitarians. Eventually, they conclude they are indeed superior to others, and treat themselves accordingly. They make laws to which they are not subject; they vote themselves and their wards privileges and benefits. Then, they no longer serve---they rule a nation of the government, by the government and for the government." ---Linda Bowles
From the lists, machine shop stuff, hmm. Want milling machine. With this microstamping nonsense coming out, I could make a fortune in black-market firing pins alone....
Lest we forget, BATFE abuse of Richmond, VA, gun shows back in '05.
Sucks to be British. Sink the island and start over.
Barack HUSSEIN Obama.... How can someone so sensitive about his own name, someone whose would-be First Lady hates America, be trusted with the leadership of the greatest and most powerful nation in human history?
Making Miniés, melting eee-vill lead to make eee-vill bullets for my eee-vill .54-caliber rifle. First, melting down the .570 roundball I grabbed for way below retail at the show yesterday; I might hang onto the .440 I grabbed at the same time, since I could actually use that in my flintlock pistol(s) (I really need to set up that Chicom drill press someday and work on fixing the second pistol...). Once that's gone I'll switch to the new ingots - aaand a bite-test indicates this is the good stuff, yay. It may be a wee bit harder, difficult to say without proper testing equipment, but if anything the new stuff comes out cleaner than the melted roundball I've been using. Used up the melted roundball and got 39 good results; only made 11 from the new stuff so far, for testing - will apply Lee Liquid Alox later, taking care to keep the batches separate. -Hm, .45-ish Miniés for the flintlocks, hmm....
Women.... What is it with the piercings and the tattoos and the green hair? Some of the women I see would have been really attractive, before they mutilated themselves. Now they're just repulsive. Especially considering these visual cues usually indicate a follower of the Cult of Set. (That thing ain't coming off, you know....)
1762 - Tuesday, 4 March 2008: Ugh, bed way early last night and still barely dragged myself out of it this morning. But I've had worse jobs. And I'm having a hard time recalling one that netted this much.
So I'm in line at the supermarket yesterday, getting my chocolate chip cookie dough - with my own money which I worked for - and what do I see in line ahead of me but a big fat (I mean Eddie-Murphy-comedy-film fat) woman wearing gold jewelry and designer clothes, one of those fashionable ski-type jackets that cost more than my Corolla, paying for high-end national-brand groceries with... an Oregon Trail welfare card. Uh huh. I may have to get a cell phone with a camera, so I can sneak pics of this sort of parasitism.
Errands to run all over town, bleh. Still need to get this year's plate match trophies made too, and get laundry done sometime, bleh.
Developing a habit of refueling in the Vancouver area, since I cross the river nearly every weekend now and Oregon fuel has corrosive ethanol. Effing eco-freaks won't be happy 'til we're all living in caves, wearing loincloths (woven (by hand!) from natural fibers of course!) and dying of the common cold at age 30.
George W. Bush.... If some unwashed multiply-pierced dreadlock-wearing hippie spills her $13 latté during unprotected group sex, it's his fault. Now there are many things conservatives should long since have taken him to task for, like runaway illegal immigration, bloated government power and government spending, the creation of a Homeland Security department practically guaranteed to become an American gestapo with a change of administrations... but he did cut taxes (a little), and he is at least trying to fight the war for the survival of the only culture noticeably worth the effort. Failing, arguably miserably so, but he's trying. The other side would be taxing us to build mosques in Montana, and jailing for "hate speech" anyone who objected to having a family member's head cut off.
Maybe I'd better take the Queen along for practice this Saturday....
And another Orwellian tidbit: on the drive today I noticed a sticker in a taxi's window saying "All passengers will be photographed". Bear that in mind, fellow curmudgeons.
Yes! First in the hold queue for Ringo's The Last Centurion! And for Weber's By Schism Rent Asunder, sequel to Off Armageddon Reef!
1763 - Wednesday, 5 March 2008: Chilling first-hand account of the importance of the right to keep and bear arms.
Eyeing the Nikon Coolpix L15, on clearance at Bi-Mart, hm. Saves video in .MOV, as opposed to obsolete .AVI, and QuickTime is a free download - Yuri has the L11 and you can see how that worked. Might get it next paycheck if it's still there. Big honking LCD; this time I'll fit it with a neck strap so I don't drop it. This camera uses SD cards, as opposed to the xD my FinePix uses, but the cards get cheaper - and higher capacity - every day. Reading a downloaded manual, it looks like most of the functions and operations are the same as my FinePix A345, good.
Uh oh, more Firefly/Serenity content.
Poo. Another end-of-shift call, with a customer who sounded Under the Influence though I wouldn't guess of what. Finally got the laundry done and returned to the hovel, good thing I got that cookie dough.
Finished Anvil/Flint's The Trouble With Humans, entertaining. Now starting Drake's The Complete Hammer's Slammers, Vol. 3, consisting of two novels, at least one of which I think I've read before, and a novella I probably haven't. When the Tide Rises, his latest RCN volume, has been in my hold queue for months.
Passive resistance and nonresistance, "lockdowns" in schools, "violence begets violence" - these are all signs of a depraved and destructive mental illness. Let me spell it out for you.
So it's McCain. Now I have to decide exactly how I'm going to vote against HillBama, and whether, as Charles Bronson said to Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West, "[T]hat's not the same thing." :(
1764 - Thursday, 6 March 2008: Good gods I hate Vista. I'm told SP1 will be out any week now. I still wouldn't touch the stuff for another month or three. -Also I think I heard something about SP3 for XP?
Then I get the IT guy who has "installed thousands of these". Uh huh. Use yer imagination for how that call went. Here's a hint.
Then I get a wireless call, but a different model from the one I can do in my sleep. So I dive in and blunder about trying mostly the same things, which are the same mostly, and at the end the customer tells me I did in 20 minutes what India couldn't do in 2 hours.
:)
Then I get a call coaching with a 95% rating, the highest that manager has ever given. "Please maintain this level of service."
:)
Cruffler, and at least one reader (Cruffler doesn't read this much anymore, grumping about "SCI FI KRAP"), are commenting that I should end up running this place... but that is a kind of ambition I've never had. I don't like giving orders much more than I like taking them. I am, for the moment, content to sit in my cube and not be heaving-boxes-for-less-money. Especially considering I spent most of 2007 unemployed - relatively speaking, I'm taking it easy for a while.
Big Honking Range Day planned for Saturday (after Barberton), with Yuri. I'll be taking my Mosin, probably the Hawken, maybe the Queen, the 1911 to see if the re-tensioned extractor holds which I expect it won't, probably the Witness 'cause I haven't fired it for months, and maybe even my P35. Yuri will bring his Mosin, his Simonov for one final set of experiments (with some Winchester ammunition we found at the Washougal show last weekend) before maybe liquidating it, and I dunno what-all else.
In Arizona, some folks pulling their heads out of the sand.
Made 60 Mosin rounds, Winchester brass & primers, 50.5gr H380 weighed every ten rounds, Sierra #2305 125gr, COL 2.85", Lee crimp die, for Science Saturday. -Damn, still don't have chronograph. -The club does. -But I've already chrono'd this load, a bit over 2,500fps last I checked, and I don't dare use someone else's chrono for handgun testing. Shrug, more concerned with function and accuracy at this point.
The horror... the horror. WHAT in the NINE BILLION NAMES of GOD is WITH the STONED, UNFOCUSED, UNSKILLED, ILLITERATE CUSTOMERS who are COMPLETELY UNPREPARED TO DO THE SIMPLEST AND MOST BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING?
Hmph. McCain flew Skyhawks, not Phantoms.
Encore l'uh huh.
Oh. My. GAWD. Call. From. HELL. Simple wireless install with the usual model, done a bazillion of them... until we reach the point of inputting the WEP key. Which the customer doesn't have. So the customer calls the internet service provider... and gets INDIA!!! Now at this point I'm doing the remote-access thing on the customer's machine and perking right along, and the India agent wants to do the same thing, just to fetch the *&^% WEP KEY FROM THE $%^&* ROUTER. So the India agent walks me through accessing the router's embedded web server (gonna remember that process...) and I fetch the WEP and plug it into the EWS for the device I support and we finally finish... except then the customer wants to add the same device to another computer on the same network and that computer is a total ratsnest taking umpty times as long for the same install process which eventually fails, poo.
Gah.
Et toujours l'uh huh.
So I'm in Bi-Mart grabbing snacks for tomorrow's big range day, and some T/C lubed .015" patches for the Hawken, and I go to checkout and the patches beep in the register asking for date-of-birth. The clerk looks at the gooshy cloth disks, looks at me, and I explain, "It's a weapons law. It's not supposed to make sense."
1766 - Saturday, 8 March 2008: Znrk. Range day! Barberton first, and a Sighting:
$2k. I held it in my hand. I read the original Mack Bolan series actually by Don Pendleton, and gave up on the later hack-work. For $6, bought another 1911 extractor; for $10 (marked $12) yet another 1911 trigger, grooved and adjustable - what the heck, I can barter stuff if necessary, and maybe I'll end up with more 1911s someday, perhaps some needing work. Also got a subdued black-and-OD Gadsden rattlesnake shoulder patch, Velcro'd, trés cool.
To the range! Met Yuri and performed a Mosin experiment, both of us trying both our handloads in both our Mosins. The conclusion was eventually reached that Yuri Must Not Sell His Mosin:
That was me from sandbags at 100 yards with stuff he made with surplus Prvi Partizan 150gr .311" projectiles. My Leatherman Sideclip is exactly four inches long. This rifle shoots way high and right, even with the (original Soviet) rear sight all the way down, but obviously it's worth working on. No, the socket bayonet was not fixed, yes, that may change POI. We weren't worrying so much about POI as actually getting things to group. Earlier the same rifle, in my hands again, did this with my handloads:
That's two in the middle, just about the same spread as with his stuff. This is gratifying to me, as I used a rifle that a) wasn't mine, b) had relatively-crummy Sov-issue sights (compared to the totally-spoiling-me Queen), and c) was of a type I really haven't used much lately despite owning a variant - and I shot just a bit over 2MOA, twice, with different loads. I have skill with a rifle. Or at least the potential to develop said skill (I still rarely reach 200 yards, and more rarely 300; never been farther; essentially no experience with wind and such).
Yuri's Simonov continues to frustrate, though some progress was made; the Queen spoke briefly and Yuri also tried her, proving that we can both hit stuff with a Garand (CMP match, with loaners, on 3 May, gettin' him schooled).
With assorted delays, and some experiments taking longer than expected, I didn't get to do any Hawken work today - OTOH I don't have to clean a blackpowder rifle. Finally I did try the 1911 again and it's working. It still doesn't like the Xtreme plated SWC I made way back when, but that batch, among the first .45ACP I ever made, may just suck; later batches of other types, including a different LSWC of unknown origin I grabbed at Expo, all finally functioned perfectly; UMC factory FMJ, Remington factory JHP, Hornady XTP JHP handloads, and even LRN I cast and sized. And that's with the original extractor which I "cranked". I must have fired at least 50 rounds and the only failures I had were with the old original batch of plated SWC, which would not feed right; the bullets would set back in the case and the cartridge would halt, at an angle, about halfway into the chamber - obviously a handload problem on my end since all the factory stuff and my other, later handloads, all worked fine. A couple things I learned: the Mec-Gar 8-round magazine with finger-rest floorplate, one of two the pistol came with, will not seat with the magazine well funnel in place, though the 8-round McCormicks I ordered will (and I almost have the third one of those dropping free); and the 10-round McCormick will not seat with a closed slide when fully loaded. Maybe it's just this one, maybe the spring isn't stacked quite right, will investigate. The McCormick 8s don't have that problem. Anyway accuracy was quite acceptable and I expect it will improve as I become more comfortable with the weapon; now comes practice and more practice. One potential problem: the ambidextrous safety I'm using is the, uh, tongue-in-groove type I guess, where the two sides meet to form the complete shaft on which the grip safety pivots, and I fear a tendency to separate.
Email backed up of course.
1767 - Sunday, 9 March 2008: Zz. &^%$# Daylight Savings Time.
From the Handloading list I see that the variations in ogive, bullet length, and cannelure placement, and therefore variations in seating depth and COL, I noted a few years ago with Speer .308 FMJBT, when I was loading for the Ishapore and FR8 I've since liquidated, are also present with Speer's .224. I use Hornady for the Queen, and also used Hornady .224 for the .223/5.56 experimental batch I made a while back. Sometimes I might use some Speer handgun bullets, if I got them on sale, but I'm not pleased with Speer generally and especially their rifle bullets, an opinion I formed way back when I first started handloading for my Mauser. Hornady FMJBTs (in the obvious sizes/weights, .224/55gr and .308/150gr) can be ordered in quantities of 500 or 1,000 from Midway, and do not give me these problems. I use Sierra hunting types when I can afford them, and especially in Mosins and Mausers where I won't be shooting them as much, compared to a superior rifle like the Queen, which I may be using in competition up to eight times this year; I only brought the Mosin out for this experiment with Yuri yesterday, and I might use the Mauser in the AvA this November; having a Garand deflects one's interest from most other rifles. Once I get a chronograph again I'm going to try those Nosler Ballistic Tips in the Queen again too.
Chat and show. Discussion of the Heller case, going to SCOTUS on the 18th. A clear decision in either direction may trigger open hostilities. My guess is SCOTUS will go weasel in a clumsy attempt to maintain the status quo, and that it won't work. -The only thing keeping America from becoming just another third world despotocracy is the fact that we are the only nation to ever have widespread private ownership of small arms equivalent to those of the military and police. Try to take that away and the Tree of Liberty will get more manure than it knows what to do with. Succeed in taking it away and it will be generations, if not centuries, before the common man can raise himself out of the mud again. The problem for me is, at this location I'm tactically screwed - urban environment, only one door, no clear fields of fire, no practical escape route. My only feasible option at present is to take some of the bastards with me. Now, since I've been shooting plates every month and pins most months, and I keep that same GP100 at bedside, I can probably make at least a couple headshots between helmet and armor before they empty their tax-funded MP5s at me - but that is a suboptimal solution to be sure. I mean, I could start keeping the Queen in a ready state, and she'll punch through most of what the local JBTs have available, but that only runs up my score before the same conclusion. For the bazillionth time I say, I need to move.
Okay, I also run the site for Arms Collectors of SW Washington, and the honcho thereof has asked me to create a password-protected members-only page and I don't know that much about HTML. In web searches I'm seeing all this .htaccess stuff but can't figure it out - I can create the files but probably I'm not getting the paths right (or putting them in the correct directories). The domain name is from Dotster and the server space is from GoDaddy. Any suggestions?
Interesting, low-cost solar power cells. Get off the power grid! And you know, if you have enough of these, my understanding is that most states require the power companies to buy surplus electicity from you.
Reader sends (partly) free online file converter. Useful.
Toys!
Photo tour (brief) of SHOT 2008.
Remember when Israel bombed something in Syria about half a year ago? Reader sends possibly-related news item.
So if I understand correctly, some of the microstamping nonsense is to put tracking numbers on the projectiles themselves, in NIB cartridges on the store shelves. Which if fully implemented in the obvious fashion would destroy the entire handloading industry. Fortunately I'm already set up for bullet casting, and for the modern weapons at least I can use straight wheelweights if necessary (and I can pick those up walking down the street). The people behind this stuff are - well first they're evil of course, but they're also delusional. I imagine they believe that no one in America ever had a drink while the Volstead Act was in force. Lemme tell ya, Sarah & co., lots of us peasants are still going to have guns - and ammunition - no matter what law you pass. And if you go too far - which arguably you've already done - well, you wouldn't like us when we're angry. -Hmph, microstamping on the firing pin. 30 seconds with a 99¢ Chicom file from Harbor Freight fixes that. Doofuses.
1911.... Recoil with factory 230gr FMJ was more than I was expecting, but my handloads were milder. The extractor appears to be holding but I have a spare in the range bag now - actually, installing that now anyway, seems all right with A-Zooms. Alarmingly though, I'm now seeing pronounced peening on the engagement lug of the barrel bushing! This is the replacement, tighter, bushing that the seller installed. I have the original as well but it is of course looser. Well, as repeatedly stated, 1911 parts are everywhere. Anyway the second bushing is so badly peened I'm not putting it back in, and I'm switching to the original. No evident wear to the slide at that point, guess it's just another badly-heat-treated part.
The button for the extended magazine release keeps working loose, and when I tighten it, it goes further in on its threads every time. I have the original to replace that with too, if necessary. Worried about the ambidextrous safety lever separating despite the flange on the starboard piece under the cutout in that grip panel - might just go back to a single, though of course the original had its own problem of not engaging the plunger. Drat, the trigger I bought at Washougal is bent so it won't fit the frame, and the one I bought yesterday has exactly the same problem as the one I ordered from CDNN. Back to the original.
1768 - Monday, 10 March 2008: The customers. Are getting. Dumber. Spell something five times, using the same phonetic alphabet, and they hear it seven different ways, none of which are right of course. Whimper.
Is this the man responsible for the destruction of analytical thought in America?
Getting closer to refreshing the Tree. >:-[
Via Yuri, Oleg Volk strikes again.
Cruffler sends. If only.
Cruffler also sends, Not Seen on MSM.
They knew Vista sucked. And released it anyway. -Um, from the New York Times - I seem to have missed the part where it's all George Bush's fault? And the reader who sent me the story points out the global warming implications are also conspicuously absent.
Laboriously disassembling and reclaiming the sucky plated LSWC .45. Except it's not all that laborious because one good strike with the kinetic puller will release the bullet. My dies have been more finely adjusted since then.... Good bullets, badly loaded by me.
Taxes.
Free electronic online filing is now available for most states. This makes it easier, but no more palatable. Sure, I get refunds, but it's the principle of the thing.
1769 - Tuesday, 11 March 2008: I've done it! I found a functioning web-page-password-protection solution! It took some fiddling, and some careful reading of the instructions, but it works!
Reader sends news item on RateMyCop.com, which of course is not presently available 'cause, no doubt, a coalition of jack-booted thugs with no respect for the 1st Amendment rights of the citizens whose taxes pay their obviously excessive salaries, have intimidated the owner into shutting it down, or fabricated some kind of "criminal" charges. -It's... getting so close to that Mencken bit about spitting on one's hands.
It's getting so I loathe going to the supermarket, for all the third-worlders and domestic parasites loading up on the spendy stuff with their Oregon Trail SocialistCards, sneering at me for buying food with my own money. Also, some of the clerks are now subtly indicating that they Don't Like White People. What's that Ayn Rand bit about the dregs of society looking down at their betters, because we are better? Ringo & Evans touched on that too, in The Road to Damascus.
1770 - Wednesday, 12 March 2008: Man, I'm not sure how many more of these stoned customers I can take. I mean it's not far removed from "mumblemutterCOLORSmumble". I know, the ones who sound sober don't have to call tech support... but c'mon, how far gone are we, as a society? Was Kornbluth right?
Recoil in the full-size steel-frame 1911 with factory 230gr FMJ is significant, but not painful; it's more the distraction of the muzzle flip and the pound-or-so of slide and barrel whacking back and forth, compared to the GP100 I'm used to. Most of my handgun shooting has been with that revolver, or its identical predecessor (which the local revenuers still have...), and I just don't have the right ROMs for autoloaders yet. But I'll burn 'em in. (Relatively) mild handloads will help; I expect I can bring it down to 9x19mm levels of recoil while maintaining function. That and lots of practice. I saw a compensator bushing at Barberton this weekend, $40, and if I'd had it on me I probably would've; maybe next time.
Yes, they're hinting at advancement opportunities at the job. I dunno. The giving/taking orders thing. I once spent three misguided months in Air Force ROTC, discovering that uniforms don't fit me; the current position is less uncomfortable.
More RateMyCop info. Uh huh. Like Google helping communist China track dissidents. >:-[ Man, I don't wanna have to change hosting services.... Anyhow if this page does suddenly disappear, I have the whole thing duplicated locally, so the only thing I need to restore it is new server space and bandwidth, and a simple search for "Rifleman's Journal" or the like should find it. But in that case, gimme a few days, or maybe a pay period. And check the Yahoo lists like SW-WA-GUNS.
Speaking of censorship....
1771 - Thursday, 13 March 2008: Drake's The Sharp End (which I haven't read before), first novel in The Complete Hammer's Slammers: Volume Three, appears to be another Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars, with some Seven Samurai thrown in. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Effing Vista.
Looking like the neighbors with the big truck are vacating, which means yet another gods-know-what will be coming to the Cursed Unit at the hovelplex. Sigh.
I find myself scrolling back through this journal to stare at that AutoMag pr0n. Sigh. I wonder if it'll still be there next month... so I can hold it again....
Effing India.
Great Jefferson's Ghost! This Fascist Crap Must Stop! And cops wonder why we hate them!
1772 - Friday, 14 March 2008: Pins tomorrow! Long drive at these fuel prices (Portland ARCO ethanol $3.33, dunno about Vancouver yet; I'll fuel there on the way up in the morning). At least I'll get direct deposit that morning. Much of that will go to bills; I really must control my spending and build a real emergency/relocation fund. I can do this if I don't blow this job, and if I'm not randomly (or not-so-randomly) accosted by the thieves-with-badges. (There was that Beaverton cruiser that suddenly turned around and followed me briefly the other day - is there a BOLO for me...?)
Whoa. While looking for the above link I discovered a Good Cop. ...in Illinois. ...Whoa.
I am spending HALF MY TIME ON THE COMPUTER cleaning up after other people's mistakes, from misspelled names to improperly-linked records. Getting sick of it! FILL STUFF OUT RIGHT DANGIT!
On company internal email this morning, I got one about "Green Awareness Day". Which I eventually figured out meant St. Patrick's Day. I guess. But you watch, that day'll be usurped for some eco-freak nonsense, somewhere, by someone. Unchecked, a hundred years from now no one will know there was a St. Patrick. What was that bit in Watch on the Rhine? "To my mind a red fanatic and a green fanatic are indistinguishable."
Yep, Kornbluth was right. My poor cubemate has, as I type, spent the last hour or so trying to help the customer put the consumable thingie into the brand-new unit. Which is only slightly more complex than inserting a standard 10-round rotary magazine into a Ruger 10/22. And my other cubemate has spent a comparable amount of time trying to give her customer a URL over the phone. Not the spelling, the punctuation. "No, that should be 'dot com', not '.,'...." Ye. Gods.
Finishing The Sharp End, with obvious parallels to Leone and Kurosawa. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Next in the volume is Paying the Piper, which I'm pretty sure I have read before but it's been a while.
1773 - Saturday, 15 March 2008: Pins with Yuri! 1st Major Revolver of four, 6th overall of 15, 40 rounds fired (perfect is 27) - I've done worse. Got a little bonus brass (.38 Special) and a little bonus lead. Kydex holsters rock, and the Safariland speedloaders - I think they're the Comp I model - work very well indeed, not least because they're less likely to be released unintentionally than the HKS. I only have two of the Safariland but if I see any more at shows I'll grab them.
Contemplating upcoming rifle matches. 17 May is a conflict between a CMP Garand match at Lone Oak and the pin shoot at Wolverton, as is 15 November. It pleases me to help run the pin shoot by calculating scores on my laptop, and the pin shoot director certainly seems to appreciate it - also I'm printing little prize certificates for it, as I do for my own plate match - but this is a rifleman's journal and I have at long last a proper fighting rifle to use.
9x19mm Triplex round. Ain't never seen wunna them before. And next to it the Van Hee Rocket, ditto.
1774 - Sunday, 16 March 2008: Zz....
Neither laundromat nor supermarket are quite so bad, parasite-wise, earlier in the morning.
Show and chat every Sunday morning! Except when I have a match, and most of those are on Saturdays. More Heller talk. We approach a cusp.
Hitting the email. Flying rocket belt!
Sucks to be British, parts umpty-seven and umpty-eight. Sink! The! Island! And! Start! Over!
Heresy! Burrrrnn hiiimmmm!!!
Cleaning my GP100, I'm reminded of something I noticed on Yuri's: the Millet rear sight installed by the previous owner overhangs the rear of the frame and prevents the removal of the hammer during normal field-stripping, as opposed to the factory original rear sight mine has. Wow, lead buildup. The flakes are almost big enough to be worth collecting and putting back in the pot. This is with the Silver State unplated 158gr RNFP, at something near 1,100fps. Some of this will have been left over from last month's plate match, after which I did not use this product which you-all should buy right the heck now. (I'll need another in .45, on principle.)
Hey, is there a remote-control adapter for conventional digital cameras? Is there a reasonably-priced model that can be remotely triggered?
1775 - Monday, St. Patrick's Day, 17 March 2008: At the pin shoot, one of the plates regulars - vying for the intramural this Saturday - had several McCormick Power 10 magazines, just like mine, for his 1911, so I asked him if his would seat fully loaded with the slide closed, and he said they would. Last night I fiddled and finally got mine to do so, probably the spring didn't stack quite right before; maybe these things need a little breaking in. I'll probably order more next time CDNN has a sale. Presently I have three live-fire-proven drop-free magazines, the McCormick 10 and two McCormick 8s; a Mec-Gar 8 I can't use because the floorplate is blocked by the magazine well funnel; another McCormick 8 that won't drop free; and some no-name 8 that won't drop either. Those last two I can use to get my +1s when loading before a competition run, rather than taking more time to top off a magazine after chambering the first round. (I'm a match director, I think about such things.) My 1911 still needs a replacement slide lock too, as the existing one will be pushed left to bind with the slide if holstered, so while I might try it on plates in a month or three I won't be taking it to pins - where I draw from holsters - until I get that fixed. And that thumb safety still bugs me.
That '.,' thing from Friday? I just checked and she said her customer was actually typing .comma. ...Sigh. Okay the customer was a Sweet Little Old LadyTM, but still, how many bazillion "DOT COM!"s are there on TV and radio and in newspapers and on city busses and how can anyone not be aware of that international standard by now? Huh?
While fueling in Vancouver before and after pins Saturday, I noticed the big label on the pump saying "Contains 10% Ethanol". Sigh.
Now here's one: you go to an ATM machine, right? Why does it ask for the language before it asks for the PIN? Eh? Think that one through.
Yes, I know about Barack HUSSEIN Obama's treasonous racist spiritual advisor. Keep those rifles handy folks; if Obama takes the White House you can expect pogroms against White People.
From the brown supremacists, see also. And they call me a racist.
1776 - Tuesday, 18 March 2008: Off early today due to low call volume! That'll dent my paycheck but won't harm my attendance bonuses. Eh, errands, library, lots of brass to process.
And as I depart the onramp what do I see but a tag-team of revenuers waving their radars around. Child molesters? Serial rapists? Burglars and car theives and stabbings at transit centers? Nooooo, no, the top priority for their resources, so limited that they constantly whine for more of our taxes, is to steal money, with the implied threat of violence, from citizens who are just trying to get to work on time so they can pay those same taxes! AND YOU WONDER WHY WE HATE YOU!
Barack HUSSEIN Obama (no, I'm not getting tired of that) speechifies on his racist reverend, boiling down to "pay no attention to the treasonous racist filth I've listened to for the last twenty years behind the curtain, or you're a racist." And they call us divisive. -What really disturbs me is the cheering crowds that guy slings his hash to. Like a Nuremberg Rally, but with less grammar.
It's pure coincidence that entry #1776 in this journal is made on the day the Supreme Court examines the 2nd Amendment for the first time in decades. But a spooky coincidence.
At the library... the usual crowd of third-worlders and domestic cityfolk dropping their screeching brats off for de-facto day care (no urine smell this time), but a new feature: automated pickup of DVDs on hold. Login at the terminal, select your item, get the printed barcode, wave it under the scanner and the indicated numbered cell unlocks. But some people can't handle technology....
And you know there will be a zillion little barcode slips all over the floor, and the lobby, and the parking lot, and the sidewalk, and the lightrail station, and....
Finally finished reclaiming the badly-made SWC rounds - some of the cases still show mouth expansion. As stated, I've adjusted my dies since I made that batch. Ran the primed cases through the sizer again, after removing the decapping pin of course, and now Pro 1000 #2 is all set to load a live batch of .45ACP, lacking only powder and the chosen projectiles.
New American Rifleman and on the cover, the Ruger SP101 in .327 Federal Magnum. Which is not uninteresting. I'd like to see that in a 4" barrel with sights like my GP100, but with the same frame size. Reportedly Taurus is working on something in this chambering.
Hey... a break-barrel air rifle with a receiver-mounted scope. Like, no? Like a dust-cover scope mount for a Simonov? (Yuri's is a scout mount, in the original rear sight base (and he recently discovered that the red dot scope was shifting in the rings, which probably has something to do with the not-hitting-ness...).)
1777 - Wednesday, 19 March 2008: Yuri 'blogs something we discussed on the way up to pins last Saturday.
Comes word that Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. Some of his work was, really, too PC and gloablist for my taste, but he was one of the Founders of speculative fiction, and invented much of the stuff we take for granted today. I'm pretty sure I named a science ship after him in my story, but the database file of ship names and classes I created was unfortunately lost in the last system crash. Rather, I still have it, in MSAccess I think, but for some reason I can't open it with Open Office. I suppose I can view it in a text editor and laboriously pick out the names and notes for reconstruction....
Vista Service Pack 1! Finally!
I like shirts with pockets. Usually in neutral colors. But this is dangerously appealing.
And this could get someone's throat cut.
And this is pretty damn clever.
'Nother 'blog.
Browsing 1911 triggers I see that some appear to be deliberately shaped so as not to engage the grip safety. Interesting. I do have one grooved & stop-adjustable trigger functioning except for that - I think I'll put it back in.
1778 - Friday, 21 March 2008: Work grunt.
Wrapping up Hammer's Slammers III. Last in the volume is "The Darkness", a novella I think I have read before but it's been long enough I can read it again. Ditto Paying the Piper. All of it's good. In the back is a reprint of Drake's obituary of Jim Baen. Next will be Ringo & Taylor's Manxome Foe, sequel to Vorpal Blade and Into the Looking Glass.
Barack HUSSEIN Obama rallies the Cult of Set in Oregon, phooey. And yesterday the moonbats swarmed on the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. While on the other hand I'm tediously (on dialup) downloading Cox & Forkum's four volumes of Black and White World from Wowio, which makes an effective, if perhaps temporary, antidote. What I'm really waiting for is the next installment in Kratman's Carerra saga, describing a war fought as it should be.
Plates... still no tournament tree board but I'll get by with the clipboards, which people can look at while I'm not actually using them. No idea what the turnout will be this month but the pins guy says some of his people will be along. -I'm quite deep in the Culture now, as stated, doing something or other arms-related nearly every weekend. Looks like I can veg for a change on the 29th though. -But that might turn out to be a range day, I do want more Hawken work and should practice with the Queen as well, and I still need to work with the 1911.
Comes now an internal email that all bags will be searched entering and exiting the building, because someone in a whole other department got caught swiping something. Just like prohibition of alcohol (or drugs, or tobacco, or self-defense tools), the age-old bureaucratic reaction is to punish everyone who didn't do it.
AMENDMENT IV: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
>:-[
I hope my Midway flyer and CDNN catalog give them coronaries. Rent-a-thugs. What kind of person do you have to be to have a job like that? I'd sooner go back to box-heaving. At least I could look at myself in the mirror. -Like they'd do any good anyway. Most of 'em can't even make it up the stairs. The sheeple are fortunate that those inclined to murder lack the skills and knowledge of Our Kind. Sociopaths like Cho have the tools, but don't know how to use them.
(And I happen to be watching V for Vendetta on library DVD as I type this, back at the hovel. It offends me that "conservatives" are the villains - real conservatives want less government, and we haven't had any real conservatives for quite some time - but a few word substitutions, and a few of Obama's reverend's speeches, easily form a mental image of a more palatable antagonist.)
And then I get the caller who thinks that a third-party aftermarket consumable should be covered under the regular warranty and that we should send him a new genuine OEM replacement because someone at the store told him that store's brand of thing would work with the product. Sounded like a Democrat, actually, expecting other people to take responsibility for his stupidity and to give him free stuff at their expense. -I wonder how many times, with how many companies and how many products, he's pulled that scam? Probably the type who threw tantrums as a kid, because they worked to get stuff out of his inadequate parents.
Later I see that Black and White World holds the top four slots on Wowio's most popular downloads list. Heh.
1779 - Saturday, 22 March 2008: Match day! Nothing for me this month, I think that the grunting and cussing when dragging the Lewis Lead Remover through my GP100's bore might have caused the rear sight to shift. A more useful obsrevation is that I'm using a heavy pins load which a) kicks, costing shot-to-shot recovery, and b) generates a lot of smoke from the lube on the unplated lead, as opposed to the exact same load with plated bullets, costing me target acquisition. And I still have a couple hundred of these unplated left. Driving them near supersonic isn't helping either, as evidenced by the lead buildup. These are Silver State brand, which I'm sure are very fine at more reasonable velocities; the same company makes the Xtreme copper plated which I prefer, which are quite thickly plated indeed, not far removed from jacketed. Next time I have spare money (and they're in stock) I think I'll make up another low-recoil 125gr plated batch for plates. Nearly every revolver I see at this match is .357 (today one guy had an M625 with moon clips), and most of those are using .38 loads. Breen took everything this month, except the 2nd places of course, and he wasn't at the Intramural. Another record, 43 entries, netting $132 for the club after reimbursing myself for the prize certificates. I must be doing something right as match director. -Also the match fee was reduced from $7 to $5. Hey, that's like revenues going up when taxes go down! How 'bout that!
Dig Cool Accidental Action Photos:
Got state tax refund the other day, and after the match I replaced my chronograph, same model, Chrony F1. So now I have one again.
Portland ARCO Regular $3.29 yesterday, Vancouver $3.36 today. Will Not Give Up Driving. If I couldn't make it to the clubs or shows all these weekends I'd probably've moped myself to death by now.
Sharpshooter precision rifle match next weekend, I'm not equipped but someday a scoped Remchester might leap off a show table at me, who knows. If I do make a range day on the 29th I might try to get there early enough to take newsletter photos. The damaged Finepix does still work, if you know which facet of the optical viewfinder to squint through. It might have made more sense to have replaced the camera instead of the chronograph... or not, the old Chrony wasn't ever going to work again.
Okay, you know those tongs they want you to use to get the jerky at the convenience store? Don't. 'Cause the undisciplined brats walk up and play with them. And you can just imagine where their hands have been. -This kinda meshes with why Yuri didn't make plates today, 'cause he caught something from his kids who caught it from public school. Yech. When I read Williamson's Better to Beg Forgiveness I thought he was going a bit overboard with the antibacterial towelettes his protagonists whipped out at every pause in the action. Nuh-uh, now I've bought some for my car's emergency kit.
Cruffler sends:
Ringo & Taylor's Manxome Foe does not disappoint.
1780 - Easter Sunday, 23 March 2008: Zzzz.
Yet more Heller talk. No actual decision 'til June.
Whoa. Amazing content from a newspaper known as the "Red Guard". You can just see all the rest of the editorial staff sticking their fingers in their ears and going "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU".
43 entries. At my plate match everyone shoots at least five runs: at least two in qualifying for time, then at least three head-to-head against a live opponent, best-two-of-three in the regular bracket and sudden-death in the loser's bracket.
Even More Lead Buildup in the GP100. I'm just pushing these unplated bullets too fast. Ordered the .45 lead remover, and plenty of spare disks for both sizes. Also ordered another slide stop after browsing the bazillion Brownell's offers. Threw in the 1911 catalog as the free option. Now that I finally have this iconic design I need to learn more about it.
Yes, email's backed up. Helped a friend move tonight, might have scored some surplus RAM if it didn't get rained on too much.
1781 - Monday, 24 March 2008: muttergrumbleseethe"security"sneer.
Up late finishing Ringo & Taylor's Manxome Foe, action. Starting Inside Straight edited by Martin H. H. Greenberg, a new volume in the Wild Cards saga (remember those?).
Hey, look! Market forces! Can't kill 'em!
Trying to hit the email. Reader sends, Fake Being Illegal Alien, Get Out of Jail.
Cruffler sends AR lower receiver from simple milling operations. Wasn't JPFO doing something like this, and didn't the original maker get BATFU'd?
1782 - Wednesday, 26 March 2008: The customers are still finding pills and eating them, and so are some of the coworkers, but at least I'm not heaving boxes and I am still managing to heave myself out of bed each morning. Which is better than I've often had it.
Except for India of course.
Finishing Inside Straight, which ends with the (surviving) protagonists being recruited for... a UN Committee, grump. Some folks can't be troubled to do a little research. I'll see how the sequel is handled if any.
Quickly finishing My Own Kind of Freedom, a Firefly novel pointed out by a reader - I will have to buy the DVDs. Then starting Fleet of Worlds by Niven & Lerner, a novel of the Puppeteer exodus set before the discovery of the Ringworld.
Brownell's order arrives swiftly. "Some fitting required" on new 1911 slide stop, though it does seem to solve the targeted problem. -Hey, in the plate match, when I or my assistants instruct a competitor to clear his weapon, why is it so hard for those people to lock the slide back manually without using an empty magazine? Take them out and get used to handling them! Dammit!
1783 - Thursday, 27 March 2008: Network problems at work, it was half the day before I could even get on the phone. Which maybe isn't something I should complain about.... But then they're planning to shuffle all the cubes around again. Just when I get settled with my Grumpy Cube Decorations from last time. This adversely affects my ability to perform. :-[
Then I get the customer with the howling dog, and speaking with a mouth full of... something. And the customer is mumbling and the dog is howling and the customer is yelling at the dog and the dog is howling back at the customer and the customer has a bazillion third-party beep-honk-squeak things installed on a Vista machine, which is running AOL besides. I did finally get the thingie working to at least temporary customer satisfaction but I'm scheduled to call that one back again Monday to make sure the fixes hold. Sigh.
Today I got two separate hints at promotion. I tentatively said yes to one - the more technical choice - but the other would have me dealing with upset customers with unrealistic expectations of industry-standard warranty practices and that just ain't my bag. There's enough things to be ticked at in the world already.
Bren Ten Lives? This would make the third incarnation, after Peregrine. Of course I have a Witness, which can be converted to 10mm....
1784 - Friday, 28 March 2008: And then I get the customer who may simply be lying to me and not following my troubleshooting instructions. Sigh. No, I'm not interested in the dealing-with-irate-customers promotion path. Especially considering duelling has been outlawed.
Sleeping in this weekend, no range trip. Besides I have to change the Corolla's oil.
I... don't... like the Puppeteers. Old Pierson accidentally named them too aptly. Good story, good to be back in Known Space.
Ow. Strained something in my wrist wrestling with the 1911's slide when fitting the new slide stop. Another reason to take it easy this weekend for a change.
Last month I mentioned the possibility of making .357 Magnum blackpowder loads, for Science. Others have done this and the details I recall are that it is very important to avoid any air gap in the cartridge case, just as in a muzzleloader. I have some (old) Pyrodex P and some (old) actual Goex 3F, and some of these unplated Silver State 158s left over from the last big reloading fit - yeah, I might make some of those. So I guess I'm supposed to fill the case and have the powder compressed as it would be in a muzzleloader. Aha, load data!
Hmm, .45ACP, hmm....
Okay, getting started on the .357 blackpowder. Only twelve; six each Pyrodex and Goex, 21gr by volume. Standard primers; since the case will definitely be full, magnum ignition probably won't be needed. -Done, will test sometime. I didn't follow all the instructions in the .PDF; I used the original blue wax lube that came on the Silver State bullets and I didn't use any kind of wad. This may cause bad fouling but if the Lewis can Remove Lead it should be able to handle that kind of gunk.
1785 - Saturday, 29 March 2008: Zzzzz.
Wrist is better.
On this day in 1911, John Browning's masterwork was officially adopted by the United States military.
Contemplating proper lubes for blackpowder projectiles. This seems a reasonable source for the beeswax, and the Crisco & vegetable oil recommended in yesterday's .PDF instructions are simple supermarket items.
1786 - Sunday, 30 March 2008: Zzz.
Up late finishing Fleet of Worlds, yay humans. Wikipedia says there will be a sequel. Starting something I haven't read for years, and then in widely-separated pieces: The Prince by Jerry Pournelle (and S. M. Stirling...), the omnibus of Falkenberg's Legion in the CoDominium universe which leads up to The Mote in God's Eye. It was this work - Falkenberg, Sparta, the CoDominium - which in hindsight provided the main inspiration for my own attempt at writing. I've even got a Lermontova in there somewhere, though not in the bits I've posted so far.
Yesterday I finally bought some .54 muzzleloader speedloaders, the T/C #7029 Quick Shot. Don't know if I'll ever use them - sure I'll test them some range day, and they might be handy in the Big Bore match in July if they're not disallowed - but there, I have some.
I really must go hunting some year....
OAC show! ...Bought nothing, but several fine sightings including an apparently-complete Vickers .303 with Portuguese markings and a whole table of Lugers.
Show and chat every Sunday. More Heller talk still. My opinion is that Gura, who some have criticized for a lack of Ideological Purity for not arguing for the individual right to keep and bear main battle tanks (not that I have anything against that...), has done a good job getting a carefully and deliberately structured precedent case all the way to SCOTUS. The other side has been incrementing us to pieces for decades and I view the Heller case, and Gura's handling of it, as a well-thought-out counteroffensive. Ignoring M249s and RPGs and narrowly focusing on the underlying question, the individual RKBA, will unlock myriad opportunities to attack and hopefully repeal more infringements.
Remember the Ruger XGI? Pics.
Primers... with the chronograph replaced I can progress on the Primer Experiment, making ten rounds each .30-06 with the same 150gr Hornady FMJBT and 49.0gr BL-C(2) I've been using, but with six (so far) different primers: WLR, WLRM, CCI200, CCI250, CCI34, and Remington 9½.
Quote o' the Day, which I'm sure you-all have seen before: "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." - Richard Henry Lee, 1788
You'll note I've taken that into account.
If you haven't heard of the film Fitna, Yuri has provided a convenient link to download it. (The VLC player, which handles Most Video Formats, including factory (i.e. library) DVDs, and some other things, can be downloaded here.)
1787 - Monday, 31 March 2008: Effing Monday.
The Corolla is making Bad Sounds in the steering (whining/straining when turning; worse in cold weather, better when warm). CV joints? Power steering? I dunno. Stop buying arms long enough to raise car-replacement fund? ...Maybe.
GoDaddy, the web service provider, has urinated on the 1st Amendment by aiding in the censorship of RateMyCop.com. This site is hosted with GoDaddy, using free server space with banner ads on top. Yuri has generously offered to let me use some of his 5Gb space and has set up a subdomain for me, in which I've already installed a simple placeholder just to prove it works. Over the next few days I'll be transferring this site to that server - probably I'll just go wardriving with the wireless NEC. When done, the front page (index.html) and the front blog page (blog.html) will be replaced with redirects to the new server, and everything else will be wiped off this server. The .NAME domain name will still work, as will the email address, but this site's actual pages will be relocated, except for those two, which will redirect. So be aware.
Effing India. It's like they learned English from here. Without the cuteness. Srsly.
Then I have to call back the customer with the mouthful of... something. And the dog. 'Cause Vista still sux.
And half, or more, of what I do all day is cleaning up other people's sloppy work. 'Cause government school sux and nobody thinks about what they're doing.
Cruffler sends:
Quote o' the Day, from Falkenberg's Legion: "A battle is not a war," Wan Loo said. "And wars are not won by weapons, but the will to win them...."
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