Guns and Guts

Moving Day!

2008-10-15T11:09:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone. I have set up a new blog at http://gunsandguts.com. Please come check out the new home of Guns and Guts. This blog, and it's content will remain here for as long as Blogger will host it.

My 401k's Theme Song

2008-10-10T08:54:00.001-05:00

Finally

2008-10-09T12:31:00.001-05:00

McCain is pushing the Obama / Ayers connection. I guess they wanted to save it as on October surprise, or didn't want to have to go there if they didn't need to.

Sobering

2008-10-07T09:48:00.001-05:00

This was a video response to the recent Obama-worship videos popping up on YouTube.

Barney Frank's Lover Worked for Fannie Mae

2008-10-07T09:18:00.003-05:00

This isn't new news, but it is especially interesting considering the financial crisis we are now dealing with. Barney Frank's gay lover, was the assistant director for product initiatives for seven years!

Read it and weep.

Story

Train Ride

2008-10-06T15:11:00.003-05:00

Friday I am going to take the Amtrak from Fort Worth, down to San Antonio. How exciting! I have never been on a train before, and am looking forward to it. My little roomette should be plenty of room for just me. Hopefully I will be able to get some good reading done. They have a lounge and dining car as well, that should be interesting. There will be about four stops, so it will take about three hours longer than driving would have.

It isn't much of an adventure of course, but it is mine. I was thinking of trying to get one of my old laptops working, and creating a blogpost about it. That would probably be very boring, but if I can breathe life into one of the old girls, it might happen.

There is something romantic about trains. The garden variety Amtrak rolling along through flat Texas won't capture the glamour and excitement of riding in an old lavishly appointed private car through the wild west or in the far east of course, but it will be a small taste.

I wish my wife and baby were coming with me, but they can't this time, so I will adventure alone. Frankenstein and Wise Blood (the first two books at the bottom of my reading list) will be with me however.

More Creepy Obama

2008-10-06T09:00:00.004-05:00

As I am sure you have all seen the uber-creepy kiddos singing for Obama video I will not post it. This one is much creepier however.

It is eerily reminiscent of videos like this one.

Politics Free Weekend

2008-10-03T16:13:00.004-05:00

Well once I saw that Bush signed the abomination, that shall not be named, my brain made a decision. No more politics this weekend. I am not going to think about the election, read any political postings, talk about anything political in the least, or anything else of the sort.

I am done for now. My level of confidence in my fellow citizens to govern is very low, so why dwell on it.

Besides I am going to the lake house on beautiful Possum Kingdom Lake tomorrow with my wife, baby girl, and my best bud and his family. We are going to do some fishin', eatin', maybe a little beer drinkin', and definitely some domino playin'.

Screw it boys, have a good weekend, and moon any politicians if ya see 'em!

Naval Retirement

2008-10-03T16:03:00.001-05:00

The wife and I took the day off Friday (09/12/08) to attend the retirement ceremony of my best friend, HM2 Kirk Blakesley. He spent the most of his career as a Corpsman, and did two tours in Iraq with his marines. His first tour was in Ramadi in OIF II, and he spent the second stretch at Camp Taqqadum, with HMLA-169(Vipers).

Having not ever served our great country, the retirement ceremony was a humbling experience for me. The entire family, in addition to the serviceperson, sacrifice a lot when the father and husband is a career sailor. There were lots of long deployments, and as I said, two combat tours mixed in those 20 years of service. The entire family was honored individually during the ceremony. His wife and all five children received certificates of recognition from the Navy. It isn't nearly enough for what they have done for this country, but it was a nice gesture to be sure. They were all very happy to be escorted to the stage to receive their awards.

It was a very moving scene. Kirk was dressed in his white uniform. Several people including a retired marine that is a good friend of Kirk's and the commanding officer of the station's medical clinic spoke after the colors were presented. After that all of Kirk's various awards were presented to him. There is a myriad of items presented to the retiree and his family. The most interesting one was an awesome shadow box that contained his individual awards from throughout his carrier, a photo from when he enlisted and one from his time in Iraq, and an American and Texas flag. Very neat deal for sure. There were also proclomations for he and his wife from Governor Rick Perry.

One of the most emotional parts of the ceremony included "Old Glory" being recited, during the passing of the flag. That is something I will never forget. The recital of "The Watch" was another highlight. The neat thing about the navy retirement ceremony is that it is carried out as if it is on a ship whether it is or not. The retiree and several of the officers are given permission to come aboard or to go ashore during the ceremony, culminating with Kirk and his family going ashore for the last time.

I am a better person for having attended such an event. It was an honor and a priveledge to be invited and to attend. Kirk is my best friend in the world(except for my wife of course), and I am so glad to know him. He is a truely an awesome guy.

There was a lot more to this deal, than just the ceremony and such. I saw Kirk sitting up on the stage in his uniform, and he had the biggest smile on his face the entire time. The only thing was you could tell that he totally had mixed emotions about the whole thing. He was proud of his service, excited to be able to spend more time with his family, scared about the transition, wondering what it was going to be like not to be a sailor anymore, and probably one hundred other things. The emotion on his face looked like a guy that was very proud, happy, and sad all at the same time.

Towards the end of the ceremony it was his turn to speak. I don't remember a lot of what he said, but I do remember this. He said, "I love my flag, and I love my uniform." He barely got it out. It took everything I had not to bawl like a baby at that point. Here is a man, like many before him and after him, that served his country for a very long time. He is proud of what he has done, and he is proud of his country, and he loved being a sailor.

Afterwards we all had a bite to eat, and left the facility. We met up with Kirk later that evening, and I was able to present him with a small token of our appreciation for his service. I gave him a Springfield XD-40, which he liked a lot. We were able to go shoot it a couple of weeks ago, and it shot very well. I may just have to get me one at some point. :) I hope to be lucky enough to spend many more afternoons with Kirk and his boys at the shooting range. It sure is cool having such a good guy and family as our friends.

Reading

2008-10-02T16:45:00.004-05:00

I am a pretty voracious reader and have been throughout most of my life. There, unfortunately has not been a lot of reason behind my choices of reading, and I feel like some order would not be a bad thing. My choices have always been for entertainment, or to acquire knowledge on a specific subject. So basically I want to broaden my horizons a bit. This line of thought has brought me to the conclusion that reading a Top 100 novel list sounds like fun. After searching through several lists, I have decided on the one at this blog.

Best Books of All Time

It is not a perfect list, as it is heavily weighed to the last century, and the English language, but it looks like a good start for me. I have ordered the bottom two books on the list, and will be starting on them after I finish reading The Chronicles of Narnia again, which should be in a couple of weeks. Incidentally The Chronicles have been fun to read again, as it has been twenty years since I last read the collection.

Anyway, here is the list:

Here is the list followed by the number of times it appeared in the above lists. How many have you read?

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
ULYSSES by James Joyce
1984 by George Orwell
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens
EMMA by Jane Austen
TESS Of The D’URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy
THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne
WUTHERING HEIGHTS by Emily Bronte
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
ANNA KAREINA by Leo Tolstoy
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
HERZOG by Saul Bellow
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
THE WOMAN IN WHITE by Wilkie Collins
THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes
TOM JONES by Henry Fielding
WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy
MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville
MADAME BOVARY by Gustave Flaubert
WINNIE THE POOH by A(lan) A(lexander) Milne
GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Feodor Dostoevsky
TRISTAM SHANDY by Laurence Sterne
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa M. Alcott
VANITY FAIR by William Makepeace Thackeray
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Marcel Proust
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon
THE AWAKENING by Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
DUNE by Frank Herbert
A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute
ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson
THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexandre Dumas
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James
OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck
ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
CHARLOTE’S WEB by E. B. White
ROBINSON CRUSOE by Daniel Defoe
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Feodor Dostoevsky
THE STAND by Stephen King
REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens
ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
AUSTERLITZ by W. G. Sebald
THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O’Connor - Completed - Review
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
~ Compiled by Leisa L. Watkins

I will mark these as I complete them, and offer short reviews of them as they are completed.

Goofy Arabs

2008-10-02T15:36:00.002-05:00

Arabs acting like morons is always funny.

Mags Came In

2008-10-02T09:24:00.002-05:00

Woot, my twenty C-Products mags with Magpul followers came in last night. They look to be excellent mags from what I can tell. Nice and stiff construction. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. Should I leave them in their plastic wrappers up on a shelf, or load them all up with ammo, and store them in my ammo locker (otherwise known as my closet)?

Epic Fail

2008-10-01T13:56:00.002-05:00

Soldier’s Jeep Vandalized at DBU!

2008-10-01T11:00:00.004-05:00

It has come to my attention that one of our fine Army veterans has had his pride and joy destroyed by some scumsucking worthless piece of hippie garbage. This shockingly occurred at Dallas Baptist University, where he is a student. The damage is very extensive, and thankfully the university is picking up the tab to repair it, even though it isn’t their fault. This is a fine organization. Both of my wife’s parents were professors there. The complete asshat of a soulless perpetrator slashed all his tires, spray painted the entire Jeep, destroyed his lights, cut up his seats and carpet, keyed the exterior, and sprayed “Soldiers are Murderers” on the hood. Hopefully whoever did this will be found out by angry citizens, instead of the cops.

Here is a link to the NBC news story.

Story

The Pirate 4x4 Forum is working with vendors and members to get him some nice new parts to trick out the Jeep. This group of individuals are patriotic off-roaders that do not take kindly to one of our heroes being mistreated in this way. Here is a link to the post on PBB.

Link to PBB post

The soldier’s name is Viktor Whitlow. He apparently has served two tours in Iraq. Here is a link to pics he took of all the damage.

Viktor’s Pics

If you are interested in helping out the cause, Viktor has set up a PayPal account for donations. I will be keeping up with this, so hopefully we will all be able to see the results of the buildup of his redone Jeep.

Viktor’s Paypal Account

Update: Apparently Bluetorch Fabworks has taken the lead on this project! Check out the PBB post about that.

BlueTorch PBB Post

Wow! They are going to be making a weekend event out of this with a possible concert, chili cookin', and a wheeling excursion. Here is a short list of what they already have planned. Looks like our soldier is going to have one bad ass Jeep after all is said and done!

Here is a short list of what I am looking at doing to the Jeep while here:

1. Tube Fenders to replace the damaged fenders
2. new windshield
3. New Hood
4. New Seats front and rear
5. new interior parts (console, and other items needed)
6. New Wheels
7. New Tires (Interco Tires commited to the event)
8. Long Arm Suspension Kit
9. BTF Bumpers
10. BTF Rocker Guards
11. BTF Diff Covers
12. Possibly do a Front half cage
13. and a few other things I think may be very interesting.. (EVIL SMILE)

Outstanding! More to come as this story develops.

Update 2:

It looks like Lone Star Jeep Club is involved as well in helping out Viktor. Here is their post about it on their forum.

LSJC Post

Update 10/02/08:

NBC 5 has done an update on Viktor's story. You can find it here. There is video of Viktor, and it talks about all the support he has gotten. Pirate 4x4 and Bluetorch Fab were featured in the included video! This has turned from a disgusting story of some sick-minded individual's depravity, into a wonderful human interest story of fellow Americans doing what is right for our soldiers. With everything that is wrong with the country at the moment, this shows that we are still the best country in the world, and that we will come together to support those who defend us.

It is all About Control

2008-09-30T12:58:00.005-05:00

We all, or at least we all should, know that leftists want to control us. They seek power over the stupid unwashed masses(us), so they can show us how to live properly according to their beliefs. The ironic thing about this, is the fact that they usually charge social conservatives as being the group who wants to put their boot on your neck.

The left wants to do it through government regulation. You see, we all are just not smart enough to handle this freedom thing, so we need to be shown how to do what is right for the collective. Personal freedom isn’t as important as saving us from ourselves.

This reasoning has been used for one hundred years to justify the murder of millions upon millions of people, who just would not fall in line. As I first said in my epiphany, from over a year ago, global warming is the new communism. Please read that post if you have not before. That theory is a tad bit inaccurate though. It is better stated to say that environmentalism is the latest cause du jour of the totalitarian communista hordes.

The left has been very, very successful using environmental totalitarianism to further their goals. We should be very well aware of this. They use the EPA to deny requests to build things we need like nuclear power plants, housing, and oil platforms. All too often their objections are purely political and not based on any real evidence or science.

I must say, that not all environmentalism is wrong. On the contrary. As stewards of the earth, we are responsible for its wellbeing. We ought to preserve the natural world as best we can. Radical environmentalism is of course no good to anyone, except those seeking power.

Global warming is of course the jewel in the crown of the environazi. Their Great Leader Al Gore, is seen as a prophet, and a rock star. They rely on false data, or no data at all in making their claims. No matter how many times their models are refuted, they will always come up with excuses as to why they are correct. We are always on the precipous of disaster. We must act right now or it will be to late.

The goal of all of this, as I stated, is control. They want to control what and how you do things. That want to make it "fair" for all. Of course as the poor Soviets found, "fairness" isn't really the same for everyone. It sucks for the overwhelming majority. Fairness is a gulag, or a work camp in Siberia. That is of course assuming you were lucky enough to actually make it to the gulag, instead of being shot like a dog in the street.

This post was precipitated by this "study" being reported on in the Guardian.

Story

Tara Garnett, the report's author, warned that campaigns encouraging people to change their habits voluntarily were doomed to fail and urged the government to use caps on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pricing to ensure changes were made. "Food is important to us in a great many cultural and symbolic ways, and our food choices are affected by cost, time, habit and other influences," the report says. "Study upon study has shown that awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it comes to more difficult changes."

Please read the whole thing.

So now they are ready to get government to force us to change our eating habits! Forget downsizing your house or car, they aim to actually force us to eat how they want us to eat! The article goes on to explain that this is a moderate approach as opposed to outlawing meat-eating altogether. They know that even the rubes would never agree with that. So they want to start with just slowly limiting how much meat we are allowed to have.

Our friend at Ramblings From Oz, has come up with the ultimate unfortunate solution for these fascists. Ultimately force most be counteracted with force.

One last note on this topic today. The radical environuts and the radical PETA types are in this together. They have a mental disorder that makes them think eating animals is wrong. They see animals as better than humans. That is the important distinction we must all realize. They would just as soon see you and your family dead, if it saves the animals from your BBQ pit. All of them think humanity is blight on nature for some reason. It probably has a lot to do with all the liberal guilt they have been taught at the universities for years.

AR Mags

2008-09-26T15:06:00.003-05:00

I am not going to get stuck paying $50 for a 30 round magazine again! While I am fairly confident John McCain is going to defeat Obama in a landslide, it is better to be safe than very sorry later. I remember the price of mags during the hellish AWB years.

Yesterday I got permission from the CFO to order 20 C Products AR mags with magpul followers. They are on sale at AIM Surplus for $9.95 each. I have a couple C Products mags currently and have been very happy with them. Now I just need to order 500 rounds of ammo to fill them with. Hopefully I can do that in the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, I also ordered a brass catcher for the AR from AIM. I will report on it as soon as I get to take it to the range.

New Arsenal Additions

2008-09-17T13:12:00.004-05:00

Yea! I gots new guns.

The family arsenal has appreciated in size by three recently. This of course is anticipation of zombie hordes / Obama is elected / hadron collider black holes. There will hopefully be some more EBR goodness added before the election due to the Messiah's possible enshrinement, as none of the recent additions are of that persuasion.

The first purchase was made about a month ago. I purchased a nice looking MN 1891/30 to go along with his shorter cousin. Neither of these have been cleaned up or shot as of yet. Hopefully that will be accomplished sometime this winter. I need to find a place to shoot this surplus FMJ stuff, as the ranges around here are all scared of it for some reason. This example is a round receivered 1943 variant if I remember correctly.

Secondly, while buying a retiring Naval buddy a new XD-40 for his retirement last week (story to come later), I found that Cheaper Than Dirt had some neat little S&W 22a pistols on sale for $199. The evil dealer of death behind the counter informed me that this was the last example at that price. Bastard! So, after oohing and aahing over it's integral rail mount, and neato looking death sights I bought it. "It would be easy to put this on the same 4473.", he says. "Just tell the wife the XDs went up $200." I of course did not lie to the wife, as she has a keen eye for new guns entering the house, and lying to my better half is just something I don't do. She can smell new guns like a beagle on a rabbit trail anyway.

We already have a 22/45, but how can you have too many cheap plinker pistols? The answer of course is that you can't ever have to many. Rimfire rifles and pistols are a household good that should be plentiful in every home. If you don't own at least one of each, you should, and soon. While looking at the 22a I spied a S&W 41. Oh my, what a lovely pistol with a lovely price tag that one is. Maybe someday. It is hard to justify a $1000 plinker pistol.

At any rate, the 22a should be getting a workout this weekend with a few hundred rounds of Mini Mags. I am also going to shoot my latest addition for the second time. I bought Louise, as I have named her, yesterday and headed directly for the range. She gleefully chewed through a box of WWB .45 ACP, like it was nothing. I have never owned a more accurate pistol. I am a fairly lousy shot, and this new gun actually put up some nice groups for me. There is no doubt that it is far more accurate than I am.

So what did I get? Well, I got a brand new Kimber Custom CDP II. What a thing of beauty she is too. After looking at some lesser 1911s, some AKs, a DPMS .308 AR, I ended up picking Louise out of the group. The CDP stands for Custom Defense Package if my memory is working correctly. It is a very nice 1911 designed for concealed carrying, and that is exactly what it will be used for when I am legally able to do so. This pistol has all kinds of bells and whistles. Ambi-safety, match barrel, checkered grip, polished this and that, AL frame, adjustable trigger, night sights, and some othe features I probably didn't have to have. It is very sexy for sure, and in my brief testing shoots very, very well. I am in love. Louise is my favorite gun at the moment.

Pics of all three to come in the next couple of days.

Sarah on Energy Production

2008-09-05T16:35:00.001-05:00

Found this on YouTube. Pretty good stuff from Sarah Palin a few months ago. Maybe she can knock some sense into McCain on the global warming issue.

Sarah Palin Tonight

2008-09-03T13:49:00.004-05:00

Well it has been five days since McCain announced Palin as his VP pick. Five days of the most dispicalbe display of depraved attacks from the leftie media. It is hard to recall anything even similar to this in my life experience.

Unfortunately the left's typical hypocrasy is on full display. It somehow is OK to make fun of a woman's looks, insinuate that she tried to kill her down's syndrome baby, and call a 17 year old daughter a whore as long as the women in question, is against the "right" to kill an unborn child.

What is really pathetic is their apparent glee that Bristol Palin is pregnant. They are glad that this stupid fundie Sarah Palin, has been shown that abstinence doesn't work. This of course is a completely stupid argument. Of course abstinence works. I don't see anyone wondering if Bristol and Levi did not actually have sex.

They have villified this woman for wanting to serve her country, and have a beautiful family. Another thing that should never be questioned unless you are a conservative.

These morons pretend to know how we conservatives will react to the news that Bristol Palin is pregnant, and has decided to have her baby, and marry the father of her child. We of course are proud of her and her mother's choice to both respect their children's right to live no matter the circumstances. We empathize with the family, and understand that everyone makes mistakes.

This doesn't fit in with the left's twisted synacism. They claim to be the tolerant non-judgemental elites. They of course are anything buy non-judgemental.

At any rate, Sarah Palin is having her coming out party tonight, and the left is terrified. She represents everything they hate, and everything people like myself love. To quote Uncle, "Beyond that, what scares the left is that Palin is guns, God and babies. Bitter and clingy Americans love that.". Tonight we will get to know her better, and my prediction is that she will totally make the fears of the left come to pass.

Obama is an Idiot

2008-08-29T12:20:00.002-05:00

He has already come out and said Sarah Palin doesn't have enough executive experience. Um, hello Urkel? You have absolutely none jackass!

She on the other hand has actually run a business before, has been a mayor, and a governor. She is the commander of the Alaska National Guard, so she already has more experience dealing with the military than you, and she is only running for VP, not POTUS.

Attack away Obama. It will only make your campaign look like the joke that it is.

Master Stroke!

2008-08-29T12:08:00.003-05:00

Well it looks like John McCain may have just locked up the Presidency. He has picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. She gave a great speach in Ohio accepting the slot, and I will post a video of it when I can find one.

The plusses for Palin and McCain seem almost unending:

1. She is solidly pro-life.
2. She is a Lifetime NRA member.
3. She is a hunter.
4. She is a mother of five children.
5. She is a woman. (duh)
6. Her husband is a working class guy, and union member.
7. She is a reformer.
8. She is a real conservative.
9. She is a fiscal conservative and has fought for her constituents money.
10. She has appointed the best people for the job, regardless of their party affiliation.
11. She has fought big oil companies.
12. She is a strong supporter of drilling here, and drilling now.
13. She is against gay marriage, but supports gay rights.
14. She is young.
15. She is tough, but still feminine.

Those are few things I like about her off the top of my head. This changes everything. I am no longer going to be voting against Obama. I am going to be voting for McCain!

Stupid Moonbats

2008-08-27T16:20:00.000-05:00

Pure Evil

2008-08-27T15:09:00.004-05:00

The video posted below does not contain any graphic images. It does contain graphic descriptions of how babies are sometimes treated in hospitals after they have been born alive through a process known as an induced abortion. You have been warned.

The video is very important in my opinion. All of us have probably heard about Obama's deception on the Illinois Infant Born Alive Protection Act, but this really illustrates it well.

Whether you believe that abortion is wrong or not is not the issue here. I know that some of you probably are pro choice. This is a position I strongly disagree with, but this goes beyond that argument. This is about infanticide and Obama's willingness to go along with it for political gain. This man is unfit to lead such a country as ours.

He has lied recently in saying that he did not do what the video alleges. This link illustrates otherwise very well.

I urge you all to watch the video, but warn you that you may feel anger and/or sadness afterwards. I will be honest in saying that I nearly bawled like a child while watching it.

My granddaughter Brooke, has solidified my pro life position forever.

Biden Wrong on Iraq

2008-08-25T16:08:00.001-05:00

He couldn't have been more wrong on Iraq. If it was up to Obama / Biden we would have already lost the war, and Al Qaeda would be running Iraq.

Biden?

2008-08-25T13:18:00.003-05:00

Yet another reason to oppose Obama and support John McCain. This may just be the most antigun ticket every to run. We have Obama, a former board member for the Joyce foundation, and Biden "I wrote the assault weapons ban". Scary.

HT: Michael Bane

Saturday Range Trip

2008-08-25T08:34:00.003-05:00

I finally made it out to the range Saturday for some casual shooting. It had been several months since I last went. My best friend Kirk and his two sons went as well. I took out my AR, 10-22, and my lovely stainless .357 Blackhawk. Kirk brought his 10-22, and a neat Savage 99 in 22-250.

We got out to Quail Creek Range about 1:00 I am guessing. It is a good little range, although they don't allow any FMJ rifle ammo, fast fire, or anything else like drawing from a holster, etc. We utilized both the pistol/rimfire range, and the 100 yard rifle range.

Kirk's son, Kenton is a crack shot with his 10-22. He spent the entire time destroying the center of his target with magazine after magazine of Federal Bulk ammo. Kirk, Aaron, and I spent our time with my 10-22, blackhawk, his Savage, and the AR.

It was a very hot day out there for sure. We are all looking forward to fall and winter here in Texas. The last month has been pretty brutal. The most fun I had was shooting the AR on the 100 yard range. I need to get some glasses however, as I can see the target at that range, but I can not make out any details. We also need a spotting scope. Our rifle scopes just aren't strong enough to make out those little 22 caliber holes that far away. Shooting the AR was a bit of a joke as we could not really tell where we were hitting, but it was fun as always. We all put a magazine or so down the tube.

I was using up the rest of my Wolf HP. I don't really like shooting it in my black rifle, but I needed to use it up, and I did.

We shot the Blackhawk at 25 yards and it is shooting very high. I bottomed out the adjustment, and still had to hold under the target to hit it at all. I am thinking this might be a problem with the cheap ammo I was using. Further testing is needed on this pistol. I may just put a scope on it eventually however, so making that decision will dictate how to move forward with it.

The 10-22 just shot as good as always. It shoots great for a stock rifle. I am guessing that I have put three or four thousand rounds down range with this little rifle, so it should be getting good and broke in now.

Kirk managed to shoot a real nice group with his 22-250. It is a great gun that he inherited from his father. It has a nice old Redfield scope on it, that still looks great, and obviously has held it's accuracy, as the gun has over the years.

All in all, we had a great time. I am looking forward to going back out there once it cools off a bit.

A Blogpost I Never Made

2008-08-21T09:37:00.002-05:00

While perusing my few forum entries on the now defunct gunthing.com forums, I found this story that I never posted here for some reason. It is from last November, hence the Thanksgiving references.

Dad get's all the deals!

For some reason my old man always finds deals when he isn’t looking.

After eating our share, and then some, of Thanksgiving dinner, Dad and I, were looking at his gun cabinet. We were remembering old hunting trips with certain guns and such.

After a few minutes I notice an unmistakable shape. It looks like a Winchester 94. So I pick it up and ask him where he got this, as I had never seen it before. He proceeds to tell me a story that just makes me sick with envy. Apparently a friend of his was trying to sell him the gun for $100 about two years ago. Dad, being very practical, kept telling him no. He already has a 30-06, so why should he buy a 30/30? Finally his buddy says, “Just give me fifty bucks for the dang thing!”. Not being a complete fool, Dad goes for it. He proceeds to shoot it once at the range and puts it in the cabinet.

For fifty bucks Dad figures it will make a good back up rifle for himself or someone else if need be. I asked him if he liked the gun, and he says yeah it’s ok, but he likes his beat up M77 better. I then told him that it was probably worth a bit more than fifty bucks. I figure it is a recent production model. Even these are of course going up in value after Winchester died off.

This peaks his interest so we go and do a serial number search. Lo and behold, it is a freaking pre 64 piece! I just sat there shaking my head. Leave it to my old man to pick up a pristine pre 64 for $50. It turns out to be one of the last of the guns made before the switch.

This thing is pretty. It has a very small dent in the forearm, and a slight bluing rub under the magazine tube. The action is tight as can be, and all the visible internals look new. After he found out what it is worth, he showed it off to everyone that came over for the rest of the weekend.

Pretty Simple

2008-08-20T15:44:00.002-05:00

Buffalo Police JBTs

2008-08-18T10:17:00.003-05:00

Wow, only a couple of days since my last JBT post, and the Buffalo Police Department has already shown a perfect example of why the militarization of our police is a bad idea.

Story

Armed with a battering ram and shotguns, Buffalo police looking for heroin broke down the door and stormed the lower apartment of a West Side family of eight.

The problem is that the Wednesday evening raid should have occurred at an apartment upstairs.

And, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, according to Schavon Pennyamon, who lives at the mistakenly raided apartment on Sherwood Street with her husband, Terrell, and six children.

Pennyamon alleges that after wrongly breaking into her apartment, police proceeded to strike her epileptic husband in the head with the butt end of a shotgun and point shotguns at her young children before admitting their mistake and then raiding the right apartment.

She says she’s left with a broken door, an injured husband, jittery children and — what bothers her most — still no apology from police.

“They know they did something wrong and they were still ignorant,” said the 29-year-old Pennyamon. “At first, I just wanted an apology. Now, because they want[ed] to be ignorant and rude, I have to take it to the next level.”

I hope she sues their ass off. A spokesmen apologized eventually, but why aren't the police at least fixing her door, and checking on the innocent citizen they beat in the head?

“It appears to be an honest mistake and we certainly apologize to all involved,” added Michael J. DeGeorge, Buffalo police spokesman.

An honest mistake? Luckily no innocent CITIZENS were killed this time.

Pennyamon remains unconvinced it was a mistake. She says officers told her they had “raided the house before” and she believes they felt entitled to do it again — warrant or not.

“The way they make it seem is ‘we can do whatever we want,’ ” she said.

Pennyamon’s troubled by what she says is an arrogance by police officers and an unwillingness to “serve and protect” those who need it.

“It’s a sad situation. I’ve always looked up to the police. I’ve always expected them to be on my side.”

How sad.

The Difference is Clear

2008-08-18T08:42:00.002-05:00

Obama is a clearly pro abortion, while McCain is not. While many claim that both parties are the same now, this video shows a very clear difference, and it is an important difference for me.

Edited to add: I forgot the main thing this video said to me.:)

Obama's lame answer was that the question was "above his pay grade". That is quite a comment coming from a United States senator. He is to have us believe that such a simple question is beyond his ability to answer. Beyond that, he is applying for the most powerful position in the world, but admits he is to stupid to amswer a simple question about one of the most important issues to many people.

JBTs

2008-08-15T15:51:00.002-05:00

There is a label on the right that is entitled "JBTs". This stands for Jack Booted Thugs. This wikipedia entry should explain the reference rather well for anyone who does not understand it.

I am not here to claim that every cop doing their job is an authoritarian fascist maniac. I don't believe that, nor do I respect that opinion in the least. It is the position of a leftard antiwar marcher, a lazy parrot that is most likely a drain on society.

There are however many officers that abuse their power, swat teams that think they are in Fallujah, and plenty of administrators that see us "civilians" as cattle to be herded.

The militarization of police forces across the country is quite alarming. We see SWAT teams dressed out in tactical gear, with assault rifles and subguns at the ready, all the time on our television sets. We have grown accustomed to seeing such things. A police SWAT team is not necessarily a bad thing at all. The overuse of one is however.

We shouldn't be using them any more than is absolutely necessary. No knock entries by a large group of heavily armed police creates an inherently dangerous situation. Sometimes this may be warranted, but most often it is not. Storming a guys house that sells a few dime bags of weed on the weekends does not warrant special treatment for example. Maybe if there is evidence that he has weapons in the house, AND has a known violent temperment, such force is appropriate. Otherwise it isn't.

This reference also can be used for federal forces, as Wayne LaPierre did, which caused quite the controversy. The events at Ruby Ridge, and Mount Carmel illustrate the danger very well. I am not supporting what David Koresh or Randy Weaver did in the least, but both of these situations could have worked out very differently if the authorities involved had thought out a better plan before going in like ninjas.

This is nothing new to most people who read my blog or people that have similar blogs. I am not the first person, by a long shot, to study this phenomena. I do however think it is appropriate to put up this post to clarify why that topic will be getting some more posts in the future, after containing only one prior to now.

We must fight to preserve our liberty. A police state is an inherently safe state generally, but it is not a free state. We must resist turning over our free will to the government.

Never Talk to the Police

2008-08-15T09:41:00.004-05:00

Everyone needs to watch the following two videos. As much as we like to believe the police are our friends, they are not. It is very easy to get convicted and sent to prison for a crime you did not commit. Whether the police know you were innocent or not does not matter. You are still sitting in a cell wondering how the hell this happened to you.

Obama Wants to Take My Grandpa's Gun

2008-08-13T10:08:00.002-05:00

This guy illustrates very well why anyone who cares about the RKBA can't vote for Obama.

HT: Sportsmen for Obama?

Book Review: Trigger Men

2008-08-11T10:56:00.006-05:00

Trigger Men: Shadow Team, Spider-Man, the Magnificent Bastards, and the American Combat Sniper (Hardcover)
Author: Hans Halberstadt
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (March 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312354568
ISBN-13: 978-0312354565

Amazon Link

This book was purchased after reading a positive review from a member of the gunthing.com forums. I would post a link to his review, however that site unfortunately will be taken down soon.

Trigger Men is a book about killing people. It contains stories detailing the killing of insurgents mainly in Iraq, by Marine and Army snipers. This book is unapologetic about the subject matter it contains. There are graphic details about what bullets do to humans within this volume's pages. If that is something you are not interested in reading about, this book is not for you.

This book does provide a no bullshit look at modern sniper training, tactics, weapons, and results. A majority of the book is taken directly from the shooter's accounts of events themselves.

Trigger Men was a very quick read for me. I was very interested in the subject matter, of course, but it was also a very accessible and fairly entertaining read. The book contains a mix of first hand accounts, as well as background technical information about modern sniper warfare.

The first chapter is a walk through of sniper mission basics. It covers topics such as moral aspects of the sniper mission, the differences between police and military snipers, and a brief history of the art.

Chapter two is a short chapter based on a USMC sniper's experiences. The third chapter talks about sniper selection and training. The rest of the book primarily deals with individual accounts from the battlefield. There are however sections on ballistics, and sniper weapons.

The flow of the book switching between technical detail and commentary is very good. A lot of the information presented in the documentary chapters is reinforced by the individual accounts. This unfortunately brings up the only thing I did not like about this book. It tends to repeat itself. Many of the snipers tell the same story about a particular weapon for example. This was not overly distracting at all though, and often I was able to glean more details about the particular event or implement from the different viewpoints. Several of the snipers were operating in and around Ramadi, so some of the things they experienced were very similar.

The book does provide a great insight into the sniper's art, as it is being applied in Iraq, that I have not seen elsewhere. It's technical detail, while limited, is a great primer. The stories told by the soldiers and marines were very interesting and really give you a glimpse into their world.

If this subject is interesting to you, I would urge you to purchase and read this one. You won't be disappointed.

The Olympics

2008-08-11T08:28:00.002-05:00

I watch the Olympics every chance I get when they are going on. Winter or Summer it doesn't matter.

For some reason the games have always held my interest. I don't know if it is the international competition, the uniqueness of the sports, the constant improvement in most of the sports, or the infrequency of the events that holds the most intrigue for me.

For now I will fore go the needed China bashing while the games are occurring. There is much that needs to change in that country, of which we are all aware.

The opening ceremony can only be described as an epic spectacle. It was completely amazing. The scale and precision were breathtaking to be sure. I have never witnessed anything even close to it. There were over 15,000 different performers involved.

As for the sports themselves my personal highlight so far was the amazing victory the American swimming team had in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay. They were not supposed to win, and it looked like they would not until the very end of the race. Michael Phelps swam the first leg, and the team was behind the favored French team until the last 10 meters or so.

This was one of the greatest sporting events I have ever seen. The French apparently said they were going to "smash" the Americans. Of course our boys were totally classy afterwards, and showed great sportsmanship in their win.

I also enjoyed our basketball team's smashing of China of course. This team is showing a lot of class thankfully after what had gone on in the previous two Olympics. I also watched a few volleyball matches, some gymnastics, and a very little bit of diving over the weekend.

Our house will be glued to the boob tube every night most likely.

More Global Fry Monster Hysteria

2008-08-11T08:26:00.004-05:00

The Guardian tells us we are all going to die!

Story

I Want a Garand

2008-08-05T09:10:00.004-05:00

Who doesn't right? Well, I can thank DirtCrashr for starting this. He graciously sent me several hundred pieces of Lake City '06 brass. It was very nice of him to do, and I am going to make use of it.

I do have access to a properly chambered rifle currently. It is an older Remington 7600 pump gun. It belongs to my grandfather, and I can use it whenever I want. It is a great rifle, and it will be used as a benchmark for my eventual Garand purchase.

If they are still available, when the time comes, the purchase of milsurp loveliness will be made through the Civilian Marksmanship Program. There are certain requirements one must go through to be allowed to purchase from them. One of these is a certification of various types that you are able to safely handle a firearm. A CHL license is one way to fulfill this requirement.

The wife and I have neglected getting our CHLs for a long time. This is a good motivator to getting it done. We also have a child to think about now. I would hate to have something happen to her because I was unarmed. It would be bad enough for one of us to not be able to defend ourselves, but Brooke is a totally defenseless child who relies on us for her safety.

The leering spectre of an Obama Presidency also looms. He has supported a federal ban on concealed carry before, so getting mine before then adds to the number of potentially disenfranchised citizens ready to hit the reset switch.

Ultimately I want both of us to be able to legally exercise our right to bear arms, and the perpetual delay is over. I plan to get us signed up for a class within the next month. Kim will most likely use her LadySmith revolver to qualify, and I will use my XD-45.

Once that is complete I will work out the rest of my paperwork and get a Garand ordered hopefully. They are such neat old guns, with such a rich history. I also think they make a good affordable battle rifle with PLENTY of punch on the other end so to speak.

Sure they don't have a large magazine capacity, but through training, loading clips is a fast process. Sure I would love to get a Springfield M1, but I don't see being able to afford a $1,500-2,000 rifle any time soon. For what they cost I can buy a Garand, and a DPMS .308 AR.

I am going to use the brass that Dirtcrsher sent me to build up the most accurate loads I can. Then I will shoot both the Remington and the Garand to see how they compare. From there I should be able to customize a good load for either gun or both.

Gallup Now has McCain/Obama Tied

2008-08-02T15:53:00.001-05:00

Maybe that World Tour didn't go over as well as Obama thought.

Link

Henry Repeating Arms Moves to New Jersey

2008-08-02T15:16:00.003-05:00

Story

The link includes an audio interview with Anthony Imperato. This is one of my favorite little gun companies, and it is nice to know they now own their own building in New Jersey. The make some fabulous little lever action .22s, and several other nice guns including a new 30/30 and some handgun cartridge levers.

Here is a link to their site.

Henry Repeating Arms

Daley Realizing His Beloved Ban is Screwed

2008-08-01T16:46:00.004-05:00

Story

Looks like the Heller decision is about to claim it's biggest unconstitutional gun ban so far.

Read the article. It is replete with stupid GFW insanity.

“We’re talking about putting first-responders in a very, very delicate position of people being armed without being notified how many guns they have in their homes…What is a handgun? Can you have unlimited handguns, unlimited ammunition?…What is a home? Is it the front porch. Is it the back porch? Is it the attached garage? Is it the garage in back? Is it their front and back yard?” Daley said.

“A lot of questions are gonna be asked in this legislation that we look at…We have to be able to fashion a law that truly protects first-responders and protects the citizens,” he said.

As for the fourth-annual gun turn-in, the lure of a $100 pre-paid Master Card was enough to draw 6,848 guns, 109 of them assault weapons. More than 1,100 of them were BB guns and replicas.

“This is a wonderful day, but it’s a tragic day for America,” Daley told a news conference at the Chicago Police Department’s Homan Square Facility, where the bought-back weapons were on display.

Squirm, you fascist weasel!

Democrats Think $10 Gas is OK

2008-08-01T08:43:00.003-05:00

So Ken Salazar would not even allow us to drill our own resources if gas was $10 a gallon. So much for that Democrat promise to lower gas prices in 2006.

Bear Warning

2008-07-30T16:23:00.002-05:00

Marlin 1894 Cowboy

2008-07-30T09:37:00.008-05:00

My Marline 1894 Cowboy, chambered in .45 Long Colt, was a gift from my wife last Christmas. It is an exceedingly beautiful rifle, that I will cherish forever. As of this writing, I have not shot it yet, but look forward to doing so in the near future.

The fit and finish of the rifle are excellent, and the action is tight and smooth. The gun points well. It has a good heft, while not being overly heavy, and the skinny forearm is perfect for my smaller hands.

The stock sites are very nice as well. They should allow for rather fine target acquisition. I will most likely have a tang peep sight installed in the future however.

Manufacturer's Website:
Marlin Firearms

Pics:

Links:
Marlin Owners
Chuck Hawk's Article
Kim du Toit's Article

Specs:
Caliber: 45 Colt
Capacity: 10-shot tubular magazine
Action: Lever action with squared finger lever; side ejection; deeply blued metal surfaces; solid top receiver; hammer block safety.
Stock: American black walnut straight-grip stock; hard rubber butt plate; tough Mar-Shield® finish; blued steel fore-end cap.
Barrel: Tapered octagon with deep-cut Ballard-type rifling (6 grooves).
Twist Rate: 1:16" r.h
Sights: Adjustable Marble semi-buckhorn rear, Marble carbine front sight. Solid top receiver tapped for scope mount; offset hammer spur (right or left hand) for scope use. Serial number is on left side of receiver instead of tang, allowing custom installation of a tang sight by a competent gunsmith.
Overall Length: 37.5"
Weight: 6.5 lbs.

Remember This?

2008-07-29T16:55:00.002-05:00

Harry Reid at his finest.

Oops!

Whites Keeping Black People Down with Global Warming

2008-07-29T14:46:00.002-05:00

This has got to be a joke.

Story

Now Global Warming is racist too!

This is yet another hint that this is a political issue and not a scientific one.

From My Beautiful Wife

2008-07-29T13:16:00.001-05:00

My wife wrote this to me in an email. I thought I would share it, and hope that I can live up to it. Thank you honey. I love you.

To My Wonderful Husband

How do I begin to tell you how lucky I am to have you in my life?
I'll start by saying what a gift you gave me the day you asked me to be your wife.

You're my best friend in the good times and my rock in times of sorrow.
You're the reason for sweet yesterdays and my promise for tomorrow.

I never thought I could feel this loved until I became your wife.
You make my year, and every year the best ones of my life.

You’re more than I could have ever dreamed, more than I could have hoped for.
Each morning I wake to see your sweet face, I love you more and more.

This is NOT How You Do It

2008-07-29T08:35:00.004-05:00

All to often we see videos posted on YouTube like the one below.

This one shows a small lady shooting either a .44 Magnum or perhaps a .500 S&W revolver. She almost kills herself in the process. The first shot sends the barrel straight up, and she apparently squeezes off another round accidentally. The poor girl is not at fault in anyway, and is damn lucky she was not shot in the head.

The person that needs to be beaten severely, with the butt of this revolver, is her presumed boyfriend/friend shown in the video. He knew for a fact that she could not handle that gun so he braces her shoulders. This is probably what caused the accidental discharge of the second round. The recoil could not be absorbed by her body, so the gun went straight up. She was not in control of the firearm, and his bracing probably made it much worse. Hopefully she didn't receive any damage to her wrists from this fiasco. Luckily for all involved no one was shot and/or killed.

Why some douchebag men think it is funny to scare and possibly injure females or young boys with firearms is beyond me. It is immature, and ruins the persons possible enjoyment of shooting. If it is their first time with a gun, they will often times never shoot again.

Congratulations asshole. You have just ruined the best ability your girlfriend could have had in defending herself in the future. You are a disgrace of a man, and should be beaten to knock some sense into you. I have seen several of these videos. Another infuriating example showed a small woman shooting a large caliber rifle with a scope. Her asshat in charge, decided to brace her back as well. The result was a very nasty scope injury to her forehead. Smooth move moron.

I must admit that I made a smaller version of the same mistake with my wife when I took her shooting for the first time. We started with my 10/22 rifle, and she loved it. Great, I thought, let's try a pistol. So I handed her my 1911 with some standard practice loads. She shot it a couple of times and did not like it at all! It hurt her wrist a bit, and was to loud. Now my wife is not a little five foot pipsqueak, she is right at six feet tall, and I mind my manners for the most part, so she doesn't whip my butt. :) She did not like the recoil from the .45 though, so we stopped shooting it.

Unfortunately, my mistake with the 1911 took a while to fix, and we are still working on that one to a certain extent. Live and learn. My solution was to buy her, a Ruger 22/45. This is Ruger's .22 LR semiauto pistol, with a 1911 grip angle. My thought process was to get her used to the .22, and then work up to the 1911.

This was good and bad. Her little .22 is a joy to shoot. It is easily as accurate as my 10/22, and points beautifully with that heavy barrel. She loved it, and sent clip after clip full of Mini-Mags downrange with glee. My progression back to the .45 never materialized however. She decided to just stick with the .22.

Crap, this wasn't good. I was overjoyed that she liked shooting, but I can't let her try to defend herself in the future with an anemic .22. Sure it would be better than nothing, but only marginally so.

My fiasco with the .45 also made her shy to shoot rifles. I took her to the range to shoot my AR-15, and had similar results. "It is too loud and I don't like it. Can't we just shoot the .22", she said. I noticed we were in a range that had 20' concrete walls on each side, magnifying the sound. She was of course wearing proper hearing protection, but the concussion from the .223 round going off was amplified by the barriers. She also did not like the recoil from the AR. Anyone who has shot centerfire rifles knows that, an AR has about the lightest recoil you will find. It is almost nonexistant.

Well it wasn't to her. I don't think it hurt her at all, but was more violent than she expected, and she was not comfortable with it. So, strike two on me.

Luckily for us, she fell in love with a nice little .38 Special LadySmith revolver at the gun store one day. It really is a sweet shooting little gun. She loves it, and will straight out kill someone with it if need be. She is quite the marksmen with that little 3" barreled jewel. It's small grip fits her hand perfectly. She feels in control, when she shoots it, and has enjoyed the satisfaction of shooting it well.

She is now open to shooting the AR again in the open, out in the woods, so I look forward to doing that in the future with her. Hopefully we can get her to liking semiauto handguns that are a larger caliber than .22 as well at some point. My ultimate goal is to get her used to some recoil so she can shoot a .243 or 30/30 with no worries.

I type all this to illustrate how easy it is to scare someone away from guns, if you are not careful. I, unlike the douchebags in the videos, had the best intentions and still screwed up a bit.

Guns are not something to use to scare your wife or kid. You can cripple their ability and desire to shoot irrevocably if you are not careful. Any gun fan wants nothing more than to have his wife, and kids, enjoy shooting with him. Don't be the guy that makes that permanently impossible with one stupid stunt.

Remington .17 Fireball

2008-07-24T14:06:00.003-05:00

Wow. I totally missed this cartridge release. From some brief research it shoots a 20 grain projectile at over 4,000 fps! That is really moving. I bet it is hell on varmints. This would be a neat little hot rod round to play with. Gunbroker has some Remington bolt actions listed for it for around $500.

Remington designed the round based on the .17 Mach IV, which was based on the .221 Fireball. The neat thing is the round uses less powder, and burns much cleaner. The Mach IV is a very dirty load apparently. From what I have read, you have to totally clean the barrel after 15 rounds or so. No thanks.

I love tiny bullets, I have a .17 HMR, so this little ball of fire is right up my alley. Hmm, may be a candidate for my first modern bolt action.

Info From Remington

McCain '08!

2008-07-23T09:04:00.003-05:00

I am getting ready to make a small donation to the McCain campaign. It will be the first donation I have ever given to a politician. He is not my ideal candidate, none of them ever are. He is however our only choice now.

John McCain does have some very good aspects that have swayed me away from just jumping off the cliff and not voting at all. Here are ten reasons I will be voting for McCain in November.

1. He is not Obama. Enough said for now. I will contrast their positions in the future.

2. He is about as good as we can hope for as an RKBA guy. The only thing that I disagree with him on is required background checks for all sales at gun shows. This is a minor disagreement really in light of his other positions. Here is a link to his "Protecting Second Amendment Rights" page. Link

Read it.

It makes a lot of sense, and I agree with just about all of it. McCain opposes stupid gun manufacturer lawsuits, opposes renewing the Assault Weapons Ban, opposes banning foreign hi-cap mags, requires manufacturers to include trigger locks in their packaging (which I support), opposes ammunition bans, tried lifting the handgun ban in DC, supports quick background checks, opposes waiting periods, opposes illegal seizure of weapons after a disaster, and wants stiffer penalties for criminals who commit crimes with a gun.

That is a pretty good list there. Again I disagree with his position on checks for all gun show sales, but it is a small thing compared to some of these others.

3. He is very pro life.

4. He promises to send good constructionist judges to the SCOTUS.

5. He understands the Islamofascist threat, supports the military, and will defend us.

6. He believes lower taxes help stimulate the economy, and he is fiscally conservative.

7. He wants to expand oil exploration, and find other ways to reduce and / or eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

8. He seems to have some common sense approaches to fixing health care.

9. He is a war hero and supports our veterans.

10. He is a supporter of NASA.

These are just ten reasons that McCain is a better choice than Obama. There are more I am sure, but I have not gotten beyond this really. I will have another post later that lists out some of what I disagree with McCain about.

Many of us did not want McCain as our nominee. We have sworn not to support him, said he is no different than Obama, and vowed to take our ball and go home. I am asking all of you to look at this list, peruse the issues section of his website, and then think about what an Obama presidency would look like. We have no choice, but to elect this man.

The Media has Betrayed Us

2008-07-23T08:45:00.004-05:00

This of course is not news at all, but this little video from Senator McCain illustrates it perfectly. There is no objective reporting going on as far as Obama is concerned. I am starting to think he will have to slap an old lady, or drop a baby before the media focuses on his negatives.

HT: Anarchangel

Gore Has Completely Lost His Mind

2008-07-18T10:01:00.002-05:00

In Father Gore's speech yesterday he said we should commit to generating all our electricity with green energy sources within ten years. A certain senator had the perfect comment for that.

Ridiculous!

I heard yesterday that it would cost about three trillion dollars. I am sure that is just a wild-assed guess, if such a thing would even be possible. Idiot.

Gitmo Lawyer Drops His Pants

2008-07-18T08:45:00.002-05:00

So a lawyer for a bunch of Yemeni terrorists we have locked up in Gitmo dropped his pants during a press conference to illustrate, supposedly, how prisoners are searched at Gitmo. Personally I think the searches, if they are indeed happening, are just fine. American prisoners all over the country are subjected to worse.

At any rate, this guy is a piece of work. He should be drug out into the street, beaten by our citizenry, and locked up in the stocks for a couple of weeks. Here is his quote to the WSJ from their story here.

“I’d been to Guantanamo in mid-June,” explained Remes, “and there’s a certain amount of normalcy that has settled over the normal miserable conditions of confinement, which amount to solitary confinement without sleep and without sunlight and without anyone to talk to. So at the news conference, I said that, in addition to this torment, which has become so typical that we don’t even talk about it anymore, now the torment also consists of constant body searches in which the men are required to pull their shirts up to their chest, drop their pants, and then the corn-fed U.S. military sticks their thumbs under the prisoner’s underwear band and circles the prisoner’s torsos.” Remes said these searches can take place several times in the course of a day.

This is completely infuriating. This guy is trying to free terrorists that want to slice babies heads off, simply because they are not Muslim babies, and he is worried that a simple search procedure offends them. I am sick of these weak-minded fools. They are the scum of the earth as far as I am concerned.

His backhanded snipe at our military is another problem with these prick elitist communist bastards. They look down their nose at the very people that protect them. It is disgusting, and should not be tolerated.

This is Tacticool Right?!

2008-07-15T14:58:00.001-05:00

Good to be Back

2008-07-14T10:13:00.006-05:00

My two week vacation is now over, and I am glad. It was a good time for the most part, but it will be good to get back in my routine.

The Independence Day fireworks show went off without a hitch, and my mortar racks functioned flawlessly.

The entire vacation was a mixed blessing however. We have taken on the responsibility of raising our three month granddaughter. It wasn't really a voluntary thing, she was pretty much dumped on us. We love her so, so much, and just want what is best for her, so we hope to be raising her for the duration now, with no insane interruptions. We are financially able to handle her thankfully, so the only sacrifice is our freedom to some extent.

The vacation turned into a mourning period of the loss of our ability to come and go as we please, and a period of time to deal with our new situation. We have gotten through the emotional turmoil for the most part now, and are enjoying our little Brooke as if she were our own. She is such a sweet, sweet baby girl.

It is a sobering experience to realize that you are all another life has in the world. This precious life is totally dependant on you for all it's needs. I think it may be a bit easier when you are expecting such a thing, but to have it suddenly thrust upon you without warning takes a bit of getting used to.

Besides who could refuse such an angel?

Hmm, maybe it is time to go look at those pink Cricket rifles now!

Yes! We are Still Free Men

2008-06-26T09:22:00.002-05:00

Supreme Court a Constitutional Right to a Gun

More to come later.

Edit: Quotes from the majority opinion.

“Logic demands that there be a link between the stated purpose and the command.”

“We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans.”

“the most natural reading of ‘keep Arms’ in the Second Amendment is to “have weapons.”

“The term was applied, then as now, to weapons that were not specifically designed for military use and were not employed in a military capacity.”

“Putting all of these textual elements together, we find that they guarantee the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.“

Link to Opinion

HT: ScotusBlog

Fireworks Rack Update

2008-06-13T11:01:00.003-05:00

All of the individual ten shot racks are complete now. I ended up with eighteen of the little beauties. I am going to create three racks of forty shots, and two racks of angled thirty shots.

Here is a crappy picture of one of the fourty shot racks completed.

All the racks will be chain fused together, so that I only have to light one fuse to fire all 180 guns. It should be awesome.

Election Tiredhead

2008-06-09T13:35:00.002-05:00

What a let down. Now that Hillary is gone, and the frontrunners are Obama and McCain, I find myself not giving a damn.

Don't get me wrong, I think an Obama presidency would be uniquely disasterous for the country, but McCain promises to piss me off on an all to regular basis as well. McCain just is not an inspiring candidate. If he happened to be conservative there would be more excitement probably. When you have a moderate liberal Republican running against a complete commutard leftist, what is the fun in defending the liberal Republican.

We have had enough liberal RINOs. Now we are set to run another out there. Sure he is right on many very important things that Obama is completely wrong on, but this just isn't enough to care about currently.

Meh. Maybe once they start sniping at each other, or one of them says something incredibly stupid, I will be enamored by the process once again. If not, I plan to be supremely bored by the whole affair at least until September.

Workforce 98" Straight Edge.

2008-06-06T09:19:00.001-05:00

I must admit that I can not find this thing on Home Depot's website, so I can't post a link or picture. It is a straight edge designed to allow you to rip things like plywood with a circular saw. The kit comes with 2 49" aluminum straight edges, a screw plate for joining them together, and two small c-clamps to secure the assembly to your work piece. It cost about $20.

After opening up the kit I was not very excited. The two aluminum extrusions are OK as individual pieces. I attached them together with the screw plate, and the assembly was not straight at all. I adjusted it and got it as straight as I could.

The little c-clamps are nearly worthless. They tear up the aluminum surface of the extrusions when you tighten them down, and are barely big enough to be of any use.

After fighting with this thing for about 10 minutes I got it attached to my plywood and made a pass. The middle of the assembly bends easily inward if you put any pressure up against it. I managed to rip two sheets of plywood down with this kit, but it wasn't real accurate.

Overall this is something I would never buy again. I feel like I threw $20 at a bum in a liquor store parking lot. This thing is a total piece of crap.

I will keep the two aluminum extrusions, as they might serve a purpose some day. The rest of it is going in a trash can.

I rank this thing a solid 1.5 out of 10.

Looks Like Obama Has It

2008-06-04T08:31:00.001-05:00

BHO wrapped up the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States last night.

This is a historical moment, whether we like Barry or not. He is the first black man to ever win such a nomination. The funny thing about this is that it kind of squashes the notions of his former pastor a bit. America has just selected a black man to potentially lead our country. That doesn't sound like something a racist AmeriKKKa would do.

Many people have said that Barry is only in the position he is because he is black. I don't think that is totally true. It is definitely a large factor. He is also a great motivational speaker. When he is spewing rhetoric, he does it with style, and warmth. He is a very empathetic character.

I am proud that we have come so far as to be able to select a black man for a major party nominee for the most important job in the country. Unfortunately we could not have selected much worse of a person to actually do the job. A BHO presidency would be a disaster for this country and the world. We must do what we can to prevent him from winning. This means that however unsavory he is, McCain must be our man.

Makita LCT200W Compact Lithium 2 Pc Set

2008-06-03T14:46:00.001-05:00

This was the first purchase in my new tool collection.

Makita's latest lithium ion battery is a wonderful generation step forward from the old NiCad batteries most are familiar with. They weigh less, recharge in minutes, and don't start to die after 10 minutes of use once they are six months old. They actually have a chip inside them that communicates with the charger to prevent memory problems. This is the heart of these tools. I would recommend that if you are interested in really investing in this tool family that you save up a little more and get one of the bigger packages that include the reciprocating saw or the circular trim saw. You may also want to look at the bigger batteries and/or the hammer drill kit. More on the batteries later.

At any rate, I can not say enough good things about this kit. It comes with a driver/drill and a wonderful impact driver. The kit also includes two batteries, Makita's outstanding charger, and a great soft case that contains it all.

Let's start with the driver/drill. Anyone that has used a decent cordless drill will be right at home once they start using this one. It has all the standard features. This drill is very well balanced, and is just a joy to use. It has good hand feel. The hand operated chuck is a good one. This chuck has some sort of positive locking mechanism. You can feel some slight clicks when you tighten a bit down in it. If you do it correctly, it offers a very good grip. The torque clutch works well. It is easy to quickly adjust the unit for the proper amount of torque if you are using it to drive screws for example. The drill also has two speeds and a good amount of torque. Overall this is without a doubt the best cordless drill I have ever used. It is not a top of the line drill however. If you are looking for that Makita has a better one. If you are looking for a good package deal though, it is a very good choice. I only use it to drill holes since I have the impact driver.

The other tool included in the kit is the impact driver. I bought the kit for the drill, as it was just $50 more for the impact driver and the extra battery. Extra batteries were $60, so it was obviously to good a deal to pass up.

The impact driver is completely awesome. I used it to drive probably 300 screws last weekend, and it works flawlessly. The impact action keeps the bit from caming out of the screw, and make driving 3 1/2" screws without pilot holes a trivial task. Anyone can drive screws with this driver. It is very light, compact, and well balanced. It is plenty powerful as well. It will drive a screw completely through a pressure treated 2x6 if you let it.

The charger is great. It charges the batteries in 15 minutes and is computer controlled. It works very well.

The soft case is excellent as well. It holds both tools, the charger, and a couple of boxes of bits easily. It also has a padded shoulder carry strap that makes it easy to carry the kit around.

Now for the only negative. The battery life is not the greatest in this kit. The batteries it comes with are 1.5 Ah batteries. Makita also sells 3 Ah batteries. They will of course last a lot longer on a single charge. If you use both batteries at the same time you will have some down time. The impact driver goes through the charge on one of these smaller batteries pretty quick. So if you like this kit I would recommend buying an extra battery.

Amazon is the place to buy this. I bought it at Home Depot for $279. Amazon sells it for $200 or so. You can also get extra batteries for a better price at Amazon.

I will buy more products in this line for Makita.

I rank this kit 8.5 out of 10, and 9.5 out of 10 at the Amazon price point.

Tools

2008-06-03T10:59:00.002-05:00

I love tools. What man doesn't? My interest in woodworking has been accelerating over the last year, and necessity has caused some purchases recently to head in that direction.

Between the racks I am building for my fireworks, and the new porch we built at our lake house, they have gotten a bit of a work out.

This will be yet another topic for this blog. Tool reviews! Undoubtedly they will always be grossly behind my actual purchases, but that will give me time to actually use them. This post will serve as an index for my tool reviews.

My tool purchases run on the expensive side most of the time. I try my hardest not to buy junk. At the same time I won't waste money on things that I don't think are necessary or useful. Of course expensive to one guy might be paying more than $30 for a corded drill, while for someone else $200 might be considered expensive.

Usually my thought process is to look for the sweet spot. I want to get the most bang for my buck. There are several factors I look at when purchasing any item that is of significant cost.

Quality - Is this item a piece of crap? Will it be usable for a very long time? How long do I need it to last?

2. Features - Does it do everything I want it to? If not, does it do enough? If it does more, will I ever use those features?

3. Cost - I am looking for good value of course, but you can get great value sometimes, and still not be able to afford something.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my tool reviews.

Tool Reviews

Makita LCT200W Compact Lithium 2 Pc Set

Workforce 98" Straight Edge

Blog Update

2008-06-02T12:49:00.000-05:00

I am hoping to finally getting around to updating my "Guns I Have" section soon. I need to get decent pics of the guns that are already profiled, and add articles and pictures for the ones that are not. There will likely be little progress before July, but one can hope.

Now that the horrifyingly long Presidential primary season is almost over, I plan to start commenting on the upcoming election fairly soon as well. While I can't really stand McCain, I will be voting for him against either Obama or Clinton for a myriad of reasons. More on that later.

Edit: Here is a taste from last year about Obama's socialist gun grabbing ways.

Obama is a Total Gun Grabber

I have been on one of my blog sabaticals for several months. For some reason this is an ebb and flow thing for me.

Fireworks Racks

2008-06-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

Independence Day is steadily approaching, and I am busier than a two peckered goat trying to get ready for it! :)

My big project for this year is creating racks of guns to shoot artillery shells with. Anyone who is familiar with consumer fireworks shells knows they usually come with one gun to shoot the 6-12 shells that come in a box. For years this was enough for me. We would have a few boxes to shoot, and would light them one at a time.

Last year, I ordered my first wholesale fireworks. I bought a case of shells. There was 144 shells in this case, and I knew that lighting them one at a time would get old pretty quick. Combining a few of the guns that came in the case allowed me to fuse and light four at a time. This was pretty neat, but I knew that more could be done this year.

This year's order included about 800 shells, so I decided to build racks to shoot them out of.

The racks are made of wood, and the guns are HDPE(High Denstity Polyethelene) pipe. HDPE is the ideal material to use for shooting these shells. It is tough, fairly cheap, and not dangerous in a catostraphic failure. Materials such as PVC are not suitable. If a shell explodes inside a PVC gun, the PVC will break apart and create very dangerous pieces of flying shrapnel. HDPE will burst open in this scenario, but it will not create shrapnel.

Each of the tubes is cut to 12" and plugged with a 1.5" thick wooden plug. The plug is hammered into one end of the tube, and stapled through the sidewall of the tube into the plug with 1.5" long staples.

The rack's frame consists of 2x3 lumber. The two end pieces are fastened to the bottom rail with 3" screws. The 2x3 is the perfect width for the HDPE tubes. The bottom side supports of the rack are OSB, and are stapled to the 2x3 frame. These pieces are used to strengthen the frame, hold the tubes in the rack, and supply a place to fasten the spacers in the bottom of the rack. Additionally the OSB will give way in the case of a gun failuer. Only the portion around the exploding gun will break off, leaving the rest of the support intact, and the rest of the guns pointed up.

The top side supports are 3/4" plywood. In between each gun is a piece of 1x2 stock. These are used as spacers. The spacers should allow any released gases from a failed gun to dissipate without harming the guns around it. The spacers also provide a lot of support to the top and bottom rails.

The racks are very solid, and have been designed to keep all the tubes pointed up in case of a failure. That is the most important aspect of the design of these racks in my opinion. Having a rack that fails to accomplish this could be disasterous to say the least. Imagine 8 or so guns pointed every direction with lit shells in them. That could get ugly quick.

So, I should end up with about 20 of these. Four of five of them will be joined together with plywood end pieces. This will make them self-supporting, and allow me to fuse quite a few shells together.

Here are a few pics I took of one of the racks.

Ungrateful Twits

2008-02-01T09:32:00.001-06:00

Story

So the Berkeley city council doesn't like the Marines, and has encouraged the stinky patchouli-drenched dykes of Code Pink to protest the recruiting office. They have also given them a free parking pass and a noise permit so they can protest ad naseum.

Hey-hey, ho-ho, the Marines in Berkeley have got to go.

That's the message from the Berkeley City Council, which voted 6-3 Tuesday night to tell the U.S. Marines that its Shattuck Avenue recruiting station "is not welcome in the city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

This is shameful and should not be tolerated. Personally I think the National Guard should be sent in, and the council be arrested for interfering with government business. They should herd up all those gross Pink Coder hags and throw them in prison as well.

An employee of a nearby business who asked not to be identified said Wednesday the elderly Code Pink protesters are aggressive, take up parking spaces, block the sidewalk with their yoga moves, smoke in the doorways, and are noisy.

How completely typical of the baby boomer Communistas. Loud mouthed, rude, inconsiderate jackals of the worst sort.

No federal money should ever be spent in Berkeleyistan again.

The Next Best Thing

2008-01-31T10:45:00.002-06:00

What attracts us to guns?

There are many aspects to collecting and shooting guns that are very enjoyable. You have the fine craftsmanship in well made arms to admire, the intellectual aspect involved in reloading, the thrill of finding that special rare firearm, the camaraderie you share with fellow gun owners, the knowledge that you can protect yourself and your family if need be, the history of firearms, the pride of improving your skills, and countless other aspects of our hobby that makes it so fulfilling. We see guns as more than tools. They are objects of affection for many of us.

I feel the most primal aspects of guns are the most appealing to us. They make fire, light, and loud noise. This is the biggest attraction for me. I love the feel of the controlled chaos that firing a gun represents. The power contained in these wonderful little packages we call ammo, is manipulated and put to work for us. We control this large force. There is something very attractive about that.

Now, the next best thing to this rush of firing of a gun is lighting fireworks. I love it, and have loved it since I was probably 7 years old. It is the same thrill for me really. My Dad would give me a coffee can full of Black Cat firecrackers to play with. I could spend hours blowing up stuff with them. I was the scourge of the ant mounds that were anywhere near my area of operations. Coke cans cringed at the thought of me finding them. They would be subjected to repeated lit explosive charges being shoved into their mouths if I found them. I had ways of dealing with these insurgent aluminum fiends!

This addiction, I mean pastime, was engrained in me from that young age. Independence Day is my second favorite holiday, after Christmas. I love the 4th of July so much, that I start thinking about it in the winter. The rocket's red glare has a very different meaning to me than what Mr. Key wrote about. :)

I love shooting fireworks on the 4th. I have done it my entire life, and have spent small fortunes on these mystical creations. Last year I discovered wholesale fireworks. For anyone that spends a decent amount of money on fireworks, let's say $300 or more, this is the way to go. You get deep discounts. Really good discounts. You can, for example, get an entire case of firecrackers for less than $50. The case would contain 16,000 crackers. Other typical examples are the popular artillery shell assortments. A premium assortment at a fireworks stand can cost upwards of $150. You can get six of them in a case for less than that wholesale.

Now this is not going to save you money. The effect of cheap fireworks, lets you do what you have always wanted to do. Put on a giant show! It is kind of like reloading. Freeloaders don't save money on ammo, because they generally shoot a lot more than the poor guy buying his stuff at the gun store. The discount on pyrotechnics is much vaster than ammunition however. Seasonal stands sell their explosive wares for a tremendous markup usually. You can' blame them really. In Texas, for example, they are only open three weeks a year.

I am already planning my shoot for this year, and am hoping to place my first order this month. I can already smell the powder burning!

Time for Some Trout

2008-01-23T14:16:00.001-06:00

I am going to be a ripe old 32 this Friday, and the lovely wife and I have decided to spend the weekend at our cabin on Possum Kingdom lake. I plan to fart around with all my tackle and respool my rods for spring. The boat also needs a little preventative maintanence and such. It should be a nice leasurely weekend away from town. The TPWD releases trout into several rivers and ponds every winter, and they just happened to release several thousand last week below the dam of the lake.

Hopefully there are still some there. It sure would be fun to catch a few with the wife on our ultralight equipment. These guys are generally very small, a 14" fish would be a monster, but they put up a nice fight on a very light rod with 2# test line. I have not really fished much in the last two years, but I am very much looking forward to this year, and hope to get quite a few weekends in at the lake.

Back in the Saddle

2008-01-04T09:55:00.000-06:00

Well my vacation is now over and I am back at work. My first day was yesterday. This two day week is the perfect slide back into the every day grind I needed. While I enjoyed my vacation and the holiday's immensely, I was ready to get back by the time it was over.

My lovely wife blessed me with much firearm goodness for Christmas. I could not have asked for more, and probably deserved much less.

The first wonderful firearm she gave me is a beautiful Ruger Vaquero Montado in the tried and true .45 Long Colt caliber. This is a very handy gun. It was made by Ruger for the mounted shooting games that have become so popular recently. The gun has several unique features that make it perfect for this activity. It has a short 3" barrel, along with a lowered Bisleyesque hammer. The gun is wonderfully polished stainless steel, and has Ruger's standard black hard rubber grips. I plan to replace them at some point with some custom elk horn grips or some such.

The second firearm I opened Christmas morning was a very nice surprise that my dear wife picked out on her own. She scored well. She purchased a 6.5" stainless Blackhawk in .357 Magnum. What a lovely gun. It is a huge revolver, but it balances nicely, and shoots very nicely. I love it. I put two boxes through the tube at the range last weekend and it shot all the rounds into about a 4" area at 15 yards when I did my part. I am new to single action revolvers so I suspect that these results will of course improve with practice. I need to adjust the sights on it just a bit to the left and down. The revolver tamed the recoil from the standard .357 cartridges I was shooting very well.

Finally my favorite present was opened next. It is such a beautiful gun. She found me a Marlin 1894CB Limited in again, .45 Long Colt. Wow, just wow. What a pretty lever action. I have yet to shoot this one, but am going to try to sneak in some range time in the next week or two with it. The octagon barrel, skinny forearm, and all the other "Cowboy" touches make it such a winner. It points exceedingly well, and the sight picture is just awesome. I am so looking forward to shooting it.

I plan to get a longer barreled Vaquero and a SxS coach gun in the future to round out my "cowboy" guns. I figure the Montado will be an excellent weak side gun, and my wonderful little .32 H&R Single Six is the perfect old school CCW piece. Wow, I can totally see getting sucked into the CAS thing. I love these old style guns, and just know playing dress up as some kind of Old West character would be so cool. It looks like an awesome past time.

The last, and possibly most useful gunny gift the wife bought me was a RCBS reloading kit. She also purchased die sets for both .45 ACP, and .32 H&R Magnum. It will be a couple of months before I get it set up and rolling, but expect plenty of posts on the subject as I get it set up. I have a lot to learn. While the basic process is understood, the details are still a bit fuzzy.

In closing, I am so thankful for the blessings God has given me. My wonderful new bride and I had a great first Christmas together. The gifts were of course wonderful, but the real treasure is the love I have and receive for and from her. A good wife is a rare treasure, and I am so blessed to have one.

Oh yeah, I will be posting some more detailed blog entries on each of the new additions fairly soon.

I Feel Like a Kid!

2007-12-18T09:26:00.001-06:00

Well it is officially one week until Christmas. All my shopping is done, and the gifts for my wonderful wife are under the tree.

Now I am ready to find out what goodies my wife has purchased for me! The anticipation has already set in, and I am so happy that I have such a wonderful companion to spend the holiday with. I am of course hoping for some gun related gifts, as that is all I asked for. : ) I look forward to updating this blog next week with the news of any additions to my collection, and will try to get them out to the range for reports next week as well. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!

The Clash of Supposed Civilizations

2007-11-30T10:56:00.001-06:00

We have all been told that we are in a clash of civilizations with the Islamic world. I bought that line of reasoning for quite some time. The truth is a bit different than this now cliché phrase would have us believe. We are in a clash between civilization and non-civility. Our enemies would plunge the world back into the dark ages if they were allowed to realize their goals.

This post is not about a sudden realization on my part that Islamofascism is in fact evil. The evidence for this case is overwhelming. The myriad of hijackings, bombings, 9/11, disgusting beheadings, suicide bombings, murdering of children, and systematic torture of anyone and everyone, is more than a damning case. Only the lunatic fringe tries to excuse the tactics of the hardened terrorist. The story I read this morning about the protests in The Sudan, story, awakened me to the fact that Islam itself is in fact evil and far from anything that can be called civilized. It was not some sort of epiphany however. I have believed that Islam was a backwards despotic nightmare of a religion and political system for some time. This story just confirms that I guess.

The image of hundreds of people calling for the death of this teacher while moving about with sticks and swords in their hands is what got me. This is civilization? It is reminiscent of a band of European peasants coming after an innocent supposed witch with their wooden pitchforks, scythes, and flaming torches. "Burn her!", they scream. Well, this imams proclamation is not much different.

Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion.

The thirst of Muslims? What kind of depraved death cult are we dealing with here? They are bloodthirsty savages. This woman did nothing wrong. Her children named a damned teddy bear Mohammed, and all hell broke loose. Who gives a crap if Muslims are offended anymore? When are they not? They have offended me dozens of times. Of course I am not likely to chop off someone's head for offending me or my religion. They however knee jerk to death to the infidel at any perceived slight.

As Sir Winston would say, we are better than these people. Our western, and specifically English-speaking civilization is the greatest the world has ever known. We must defend it against these mongrel hordes of savages, and those who seek to appease them.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a barbaric political system that is used to concrete power for the few, by brutalizing the many.

Ultimak Scout Rail for Mini 14

2007-11-29T08:57:00.000-06:00

This is a mod post for my Ruger Mini 14 Ranch Rifle. The parent post can be found here.

The Ultimak Scout Rail replaces the hand guard on the mini 14, and allows for the forward mounting of many different optical systems. It is attached using 6 machine screws. Two hold an apron around the barrel, and the other four attach were the upper half of the gas block assembly is located. This piece is replaced as well by the Ultimak.

The rail is of very high quality. The cheap red dot I bought for it died, so it currently does not have an optics platform mounted.

Installation should be straight forward, but it sometimes is not. In my case the screws that held on the old gas block cover were staked in place by Ruger. Thanks Bill! The heads all stripped out before I could get them loose. This cost me about $50 at the gunsmith. He drilled out the heads, and installed the rail for me. My drill press would have made easy work of this, but my shop was not set up at the time.

I plan to mount a decent red dot on this rifle at some point. Even without a sight, the Ultimak was well worth the money I spent on it. It has transformed the gun. It shoots much better than it ever did before. Whether or not this is always the case I do not know. In my gun though it made a world of difference. The mini is still not a tack driver by any means, but I would not be worried about taking chest shots on humans at 100+ yards with it now. Before the rail was installed that might have been an iffy situation.

I would reccomend this item to anyone with a Mini 14. One thing to note. The rail is only designed to work with stock profile barrels.

Merry Christmas!

2007-11-28T15:50:00.000-06:00

The wife and I are certified Christmas geeks. We just love it so much. It is definitely our favorite holiday and time of year. The Christmas music has been playing since the 15th, and we are watching our favorite Christmas movies already. There is a new darkness that has raised it's ugly head this year however. Last weekend we purchased a fake tree! Oh, the horror! :)

It is a very nice looking fake tree. The wife has put the lights on, so decorating will commence tonight. This weekend promises to be especially treacherous for me. I am to illuminate the house. Hopefully I won't kill myself while on the ladder stringing up the C9s. These bastards suck up some juice. Three separate circuits will have to be used for what I have planned most likely. A nice quiet generator sure would be nice to have for this purpose. It isn't that I am pulling a Clark Griswald, the C9 strands just suck up the power. Only 200 lights should be used on any circuit. This leaves about 3 amps to spare on a 15 amp breaker. Of course, this assumes that nothing else is running on the circuit. The usual M.O. is to use a cord from the garage, one from the front room, and one from the back of the house. That worked last year, so it should not be a problem this time. As the strands start to crap out in the next few years, I will go with LEDs probably.

We are spending Christmas Day at home, and most likely traveling to San Antonio to see my parents for a couple of days after that. I don't want to be away from home for to long, as we really enjoy our time at home during the holidays.

New Interest

2007-11-28T15:36:00.001-06:00

As we often do, Dad and I were discussing various things at random a few months ago, and I brought up "ham" radio. Amateur radio has always held a vague interest for me, and apparently it has for him as well. After mulling it over for a while, we decided that it would be something fun for us to do together. That was the end of the conversation, and I thought that some time in the next couple of years we would figure it out.

Apparently Dad, was VERY interested. Within the month he got his license, bought and installed a mobile 2m/70cm transceiver in his truck, and purchased a neat-as-hell handheld model. He has gone nuts on it, and is expecting me to do the same. So, while I was visiting in San Antonio this weekend, much of my time was occupied with trying to help him figure out some things. One interesting aspect that he had me figure out is something called EchoLink. This is a piece of software that uses VoIP to act as a tunnel basically for radio communication. It is a very neat concept. Our eventual plan is to use it to create a tunnel between our base stations at our homes. We should be able to talk to each other around town that way on our mobiles, since I live in Fort Worth, and he is in San Antonio. You basically hook up your base to the computer, and it acts as a link between your mobile radio, and whoever is on the other end of the VoIP link. There is quite a bit of delay, so they advise keying your mic and waiting a few seconds before broadcasting.

The technician class license allows only certain frequencies to be used. These bands are not good for long distance communication, like some of the other bands that are available to higher licensed operators. We have decided to stick to these for a while, before pursuing anything else. I am studying right now for my technician exam and hope to take it within the month. A mobile unit will probably be my first purchase as well. Hopefully we can just talk to each other on EchoLink for now, even though there will be no actual radios involved at first.

I have no idea how deep this hobby will go. Part of me thinks not very, as I have several interests that already occupy my free time. The other part can see a future of talking to exotic places and constructing homebrewed radios and antennas. We shall see were it leads. The biggest motivation is doing something with the old man. He is only in his 50s, but as I get older I become all to familiar with the concept that he will not be around forever. The most interesting thing so far, is the sheer depth of activities that are available through amateur radio. There are data networks, TV, old school Morse code stuff, bouncing signals off the moon, satellites, atmosphere, and meteor trails even. There is a whole world of stuff going on in amateur radio that I never knew existed.

This Disgusts Me

2007-11-15T09:52:00.001-06:00

Companies in Puerto Rico are cruelly disposing of unwanted pets. They are supposed to euthanize them humanely, but instead have been throwing them off bridges, burying them alive, and other horrors.

Story

I am so disturbed by this story. These people should be hung. You don't treat animals like this.

I am no animal rights activist by any means. Stray animal population control is necessary. There are proper ways to do this however. Throwing them off a bridge were they hit branches on the way down, are crippled, and slowly die is NOT the correct way. The thought of some animal doing this makes me sick. This is an outrage and must be stopped. Poor pups. :(

More on This Later

2007-11-14T09:34:00.001-06:00

The King of Spain, and Hugo Chavez got in a little spat recently. All the details can be found here, and I plan to comment on it in a later post.

Story

This quote is a separate issue however.

"I think the day before he had a long and intense workday," adding that he may have got tired "of hearing things, not only from me, but from Evo (Bolivian President Evo Morales) and Daniel (Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega) and other revolutionary comrades."

Why are these men in power? Am I the only one who still sees communism as a dark specter that can rise up into the nightmare it once was quite easily? Hopefully the CIA is at work to undermine these evil bastards, and we just don't know it. Unfortunately, I think that is probably not the case. Have we given up on wiping out this black mark on humanity?

It was Eighteen Years Ago

2007-11-09T13:53:00.001-06:00

It surely does not seem that long ago. On this day in 1989 the East German govenment announced that anyone that wanted to could leave the country. Thousands did so, and over a few weeks time they tore down the greatest symbol of the Soviet's horrible oppression of millions. I was only 13 at the time, but I vividly remember sitting in my parents living room, and watching the news coverage as it happened. It was such a joyous occasion. Even at such a young age, I knew what it meant. I had heard the stories of the brave people that had tried to cross the wall to freedom, only to be gunned down.

I will never forget the raw emotion we saw acted out on our glowing televisions as the people attacked the wall. Some with sledgehammers wailed against it as the cried with joy and relief. Families that had not seen each other in decades were reunited. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.

Now as we fight our new enemy, we can look back to our old one, and see the similarities. The Islamofascists wish simply to do as the Stalinists did. They wish to control us, and make us all conform to their will. If we allow them to overpower us, we will have the same fate as the millions that died to fight off the communists did. We will die, and leave our children beholden to evil.

This is Shocking, or Not

2007-11-09T11:21:00.000-06:00

Apparently Pat Robertson has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

This has to be one of the strangest things I have ever seen. As a Christian I have several severe problems with Rudy. Even leaving my religion out of the mix, Rudy just does not represent my morals and ideology as a conservative. He is for gay marriage, for government funded abortion, and is a gun grabber. These are extremely repugnant positions to me.

As a Christian I believe that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman only. There is no wiggle room here. God's plan is for a man and woman to leave their parents, marry, become one, and reproduce. It is no coincidence that children raised in this situation are much more likely to become responsible contributing citizens, compared to those who are not. There, of course, are cases when this is not true. No serious argument that contradicts the value of traditional families is valid. This is of course a very mainstream conservative ideal. Actually, it is beyond that. Most of the laws that would ban gay marriage that have been presented to the voters, have been passed with healthy majorities all over the country. This is a mainstream issue for most Americans, regardless of party affiliation. The reason for this is quite simple. It is engineered into us by God. It is instinct to marry your spouse and pro-create.

The abortion issue is the main issue many Christians point towards when considering a candidate. The sanctity of human life is very important to us. We view all human life as sacred. Innocent babies certainly don't deserve to be killed. They deserve a chance to live and grow old. Abortion is antithema to my morals. It is the depraved murder of the unborn. The only time I see it as appropriate is if the mother's life is truly in danger. Please notice I did not say her health. That is a bogus term that leftists always throw around when they discuss limiting abortion. Any abortionist doctor can claim the woman's health is at risk. Pregnancy itself is a health risk.

Rudy is one of the most egregious attackers of the RKBA. He always has been, and always will be. It should not come as a shock to anyone that reads this blog, that I have a very serious problem with that. He has banned guns in NYC, sued gun manufacturers, and tried to take away our rights with the Brady crew. He may as well be Barbara Boxer on this issue.

These are the main reasons that I was shocked that Robertson endorsed him. Don't get me wrong here. I think Robertson is a kooky charlatan of a minister, but he claims to be a Christian. His nuttery has indeed crossed the line several times. Between his 9/11 and Katrina comments, his "word from God" about the elder Bush winning re-election, and his despicable support for Charles Taylor in Liberia, Robertson definitely does not represent me. I guess my shock at his endorsement should not come as much surprise after all of the stunts he has pulled in the past after all.

Talo Inc. Advertisement for The Last Cowboy

2007-11-06T09:35:00.000-06:00

Apparently around 1,000 of these were made. Mine is the one with the white handles and gold markings.

Totally Unexpected

2007-11-06T09:04:00.000-06:00

Well, I have something to admit. Something I never thought would happen, has happened. This is like a Ford lover, buying a Chevy and liking it. It's like a charcoal user embracing propane. I have become totally enamored with revolvers, especially single action revolvers. As you all know, my wife bought a nice .38 Spl LadySmith last week. Somehow her revolver lust has infected me.

My trip to get the SKS took a surprising turn of events last week. I looked at it for a while, and decided against buying it. It was missing it's bayonet. After looking around for a while, I had the helpful gun clerk show me two guns. The first was the 6" Security Six Kim had looked at, and the second was the Ruger Single Six special edition "The Last Cowboy". The Security Six was soon eliminated. It was pretty beat up. Lots of scrub marks, scratches, and the rear sight was beat to hell. This gun had been shot a whole lot, and I felt the price of $329 was just to high for it. So I held "The Last Cowboy". Oh my! What a gun this was. It was not only beautiful, it felt wonderful to hold. The grip was perfect. Pulling the hammer back, and forth felt completely natural.

I did have some trepidation about buying this gun though. First of all, I had dedicated myself to only spend the $179 that the Norinco was going to cost. This little pretty revolver was twice that cost. Hmmm, what to do? On one hand, I would be buying yet another expensive firearm that I could afford, but maybe the money would be better spent elsewhere. I also had not asked my lovely new bride about purchasing it. On the other hand, this was an exceptional piece in my mind. It handled so well. It was a somewhat rare revolver as well, and it WAS so pretty. The latter argument won out and I bought the pistol. I called Kim and told her, half expecting a mild rebuke. I got a rebuke alright, but it wasn't what was expected in the least. She said, "What are you doing buying MY gun?!?!?!?". She was mad because I beat her to it. :)

This gun was made by Ruger back in 2002 apparently. Talo Inc. got a hold of a bunch of them and gave them the special treatment. I believe it was released in 2006. I will get some pics up this weekend. There are several differences between it and a regular single six. The cylinder has a gold ring around it, the imitation ivory grips have the LC initials, and there is a little gold picture on the top of the grip of the cowboy emblem.

I bought this gun as a collector's piece. I fully intended never to fire it. That did not last long however. I found a 20 round box of the very expensive ammo it takes, and fired all twenty rounds through it. What an accurate and sweet shooting little gun this is. It is easily my new favorite. I am looking into reloading ammo for it now. This thing is a shooter, and it may be a bit unfortunate to shoot it, but I did buy it to enjoy it. Oh yeah, it also came with a nice crossdraw leather holster.

To Buy or Not to Buy...

2007-11-01T09:14:00.001-05:00

Well, as all of us gun enthusiasts often do, I am wondering whether or not I should buy a certain gun I saw for sale at my local gun shop. It was a Norinco SKS for $179. I did not notice if it was matching numbers or not. It appeared to use the standard 10 shot SKS clip, which would be fine. I have an assload of stripper clips and quite a bit of Wolf commie ammo. The gun looked to be in good working order, and felt nice in my hands, which is more than I can say for my Yugo 59/66 that is still in pieces all over the place. It was a fairly clean looking rifle as well. Hmm...

I think I will post on the Gun Thing Forum, and see what the guys think.

Wife's First Gun

2007-10-31T14:09:00.001-05:00

Kim spent part of our wedding gift money on her first gun Monday. She bought a very nice used Smith and Wesson LadySmith 4" in .38 Special. It is a nice little gun. The finish is some kind of satin coating I think. I will get some pics of it tonight. She loves it, and we plan to test it out this weekend at the local range. This will be her carry piece once we get our CHLs. While I had no idea, she is apparently quite the revolver fan! Before finding the one she chose, she eyeballed a Ruger Security Six 6" .357 in stainless, a Uberti .45 Long Colt, and a nice little Ruger "Last Cowboy" in .32 H&R.

Her thoughtfulness at picking out the gun she selected is quite amazing for a new gunnie really. She eliminated the Security Six because it would be nearly impossible to conceal, even though she just loved the way it handled and looked. Her big concern with the .32 was the relative lack of ammo availability and she was concerned with the finish holding up. She chose the LadySmith for it's concealability, fit to her hand, and it's durable looking finish. She is more rational than I when it comes to picking out guns! :)

Kim also let me know that she is a revolver fanatic apparently. She also is a bit of a snob, as she said she "wants to collect Smith and Wessons only". What can I say the girl has good taste! Am I a lucky guy or what?

I am a Married Man!

2007-10-31T13:21:00.000-05:00

Kimberly and I finally tied the knot this weekend! Our ceremony was at her mother's house, and was attended by our immediate families. It was wonderful. There is no doubt that it was the happiest day of my life. The feelings I experienced during the ceremony itself are indescribable. There is something surreal about committing oneself to a life long covenant with your wife and God.

After the ceremony, cake cutting, and all of that we left for our honeymoon. We stayed at the wonderful Hideaway Ranch outside of Glenrose, TX. The owners are a family that runs longhorn cattle on the ranch. They are some of the nicest people we have ever met, and really make you feel welcome. Our cabin was named the Yellastone, and is decorated accordingly. All of their cabins are in secluded spots on the ranch, and have a hot tub on the back deck. It is a very romantic setting really. I would recommend them highly to any couple that lives close enough.

On Sunday morning we took a trip to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. This place is completely awesome. It takes about three hours to drive through the park. The various animals come up to your car, begging for a little feed. The closeness of these amazing creatures is something everyone should experience. It is quite entertaining to have an ostriche, zebra, fallow deer, and numerous other species stick their head in your car window looking for a handout. Some of them are quite aggressive about it! We even got to hand feed a giraffe! What an awesome way to see some exotic animals. They have multiple species of antelope, deer, and oryx. You can also see cheetah, bison, rhino, and ocelots. The tour was a very enjoyable excursion to be sure.

There are pictures of the animals and our cabin here.

Concealed Carry on Campus

2007-10-25T16:32:00.003-05:00

The Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, had their national protest today and Fox News has a modicum of coverage at least. CNN appears to be ignoring it.

The Story

"You don't like the fact that you can't have a gun on your college campus? Drop out of school," said Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
When someone pulls out a gun and starts firing in a crowded environment, it's more likely that additional victims will be harmed, Hamm said.
"Let's be grateful that those holsters are empty," he said.

Ah how typical. What a snide attitude this gun grabber has. I bet if he had been scared senseless hiding behind a desk at Virginia Tech, his ignorant dismissal would have been a little different. Hamm is obviously a complete idiot. How would having a trained person with a gun in the vicinity at VT caused more deaths exactly? It would have more than likely stopped the rampage and saved lives. It is kind of hard to continue a murderous rampage when you are dead, or lying on the floor bleeding to death. This stupid rhetoric passes no common sense judgment.

Here is a nice quote from a campus police officer at Penn State.

"We think this would create more of a hazard if anyone could carry a firearm on campus," Parham said. "When you shoot the weapon, you have to be mindful of what's behind the person two miles down. What happens if you miss your target? Where does that round go?"

Link

This reminds me of the genius that shot himself in the leg, while claiming only the police are smart enough to have weapons. It shows his complete ignorance of firearms as well. His "two miles down" comment is a perfect illustration of this. These are the people protecting are young men and women on college campuses. They don't know their butts from a hole in the ground when it comes to personal defense.

The encouraging thing is that this protest will bring awareness to the problem. It is a good step in the right direction. When all you can come up with are these kind of specious arguments against concealed carry on campus, there is obviously a shortage of valid reasons not to change the policy.

Disarmed people are lambs waiting for slaughter. The murderers know exactly where to go to find loads of unarmed people to kill. It is like shooting fish in a barrel for them. Maybe less of our best and brightest would have been killed on that day at VT had some of us "responsible adults" pulled our heads out of our butts, and allowed them to defend themselves.

No More Iraqis!

2007-10-25T15:16:00.000-05:00

This is getting ridiculous. I swear every day I hear another commutard making some idiotic claim about the number of Iraqis our boys have "murdered" in Iraq. The common figure today from the unhinged fringe seems to be 400,000. I have heard them claim 600,000, 1,200,000, and the freak that tried to attack Secretary Rice said that Condi was responsible for "murdering millions of Iraqis".

What the hell is wrong with these people? The truth is we don't have an exact number. The UN said it was around 34,000 for 2006, which was the most violent year so far. Any number of course would include all the terrorists, insurgents, innocent collateral damage numbers, Iraqi security and police force fatalities, and the biggest group of dead. This is of course the number of people that have truly been murdered. The innocents that have been killed by the terrorists and the innocents that have been killed by the various internal groups murdering their fellow countrymen.

Somehow they blame Bush for the overwhelming number of dead Muslims that have been killed by Muslims. Every time a market gets blown up and 150 people die, it is not the work of the evil fascist stormtrooper American soldiers! This is like blacks blaming the white man for black on black violence.

If we are to believe the numbers of the commutards, Iraqis should in fact be getting hard to find in Iraq. We have already killed them all!

Cheney Nods Off During Wild Fire Meeting

2007-10-25T14:11:00.001-05:00

Make the Bad Woman Stop Mommy

2007-10-25T09:07:00.000-05:00

There isn't many women who instantly induce bile to build up in my throat more than Hillary Clinton. Susan Estrich is, in fact, one of those women however. I can't stand her. Seriously. This woman causes my soul to wretch with agony when I hear her voice, or see her stupid smarmy face on Fox News. She is right up there with Babs, and Barbara WaWa. The only satisfaction I ever felt after seeing her was during the last POTUS election. As the bogus exit polls started proclaiming Kerry as the victor, she was beaming with joy. She was so stuck on herself and her new CIC, Lurch, that she could not contain it. She had to take the opportunity to get some snipes in on all the stupid conservatives. I don't remember her exact words, but they did irritate the hell out of me. Once we found out the truth, however, I was overjoyed at the prospect of her finding out Lurch had indeed lost.

It isn't just the fact that she is a liberal that gets to me. Her voice is about as annoying as they come. It is a gravely mixture of Stalin, and Chomsky rolled into one onerous nightmare of noise. She is also a lawyer that headed up the abysmal Dukakis campaign, and has been a professor of law at Harvard and USC. Enough said, eh?

She now has a book out deriding Ann Coulter apparently. Here is the cover. I like Ann's better.

I suppose the premise is that Ann is a meany. We all know conservative speech is really just hate speech that should be illegal.

Why is it, by the way, that libtards always have to write books about conservative books? They rip off the cover concept, and write a supposed refutation of the original work. They can't come up with anything on their own I suppose.

Senator Shmuck

2007-10-24T16:56:00.000-05:00

“One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.

Moments later, when asked by a reporter if he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster.

Leave it to Dingy Harry to open his mouth without thinking. What a stupid statement. I swear this guy gets dumber every time he opens his mouth. It is almost enough to make one feel sorry for the guy, but not quite.

Additionally, I have heard various Californistan officials blame the fires on Bush and the Iraq War. Let's make sure we don't mention their lunatic fringe environmental policies that make all of our forest lands giant tinder boxes.

Story

Neat Emergency Headlamp

2007-10-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

I was perusing some camping sites and saw this little jewel.

It is the Petzl e Lite Emergency Headlamp. It is a waterproof, explosion proof, long lasting emergency headlamp. The batteries apparently last for up to 10 years in it's little storage case. Pretty versatile little gadget really. I think I will order a couple. One for the boat, and one for the SHTF bag. Of course, actually having a SHTF bag would probably be a good idea as well. :(

Edited to add: This is a french company. Here is a goofy video that describes the device. It is cooler than I thought.

Video

Fun Range Trip

2007-10-22T14:14:00.000-05:00

The stepson and I went to the range Saturday for a little plinking fun. We took the 10/22, the new XD-45, the new Hi Point 9mm Carbine, and my Marlin 917vs. I had not taken that many guns out there in quite some time, as it tends to be a PITA. The range was surprisingly empty Saturday, so we were able to spread out comfortably and take up about 4 lanes of bench space with no worries. I, of course, would have consolidated had it gotten busy. We spent about 3 hours throwing lead downrange. Christian focused on the 10/22. He ended up shooting a whole box of Federal bulk with no problems. He also sent a couple clips through the XD and the Hi Point.

This was the first range trip for the XD, Hi Point, and the Marlin. I was pleased with all three. We shot at 30 yards all morning. The Hi Point is an ugly utilitarian weapon. It's beauty lies in it's functionality to be sure. There is nothing attractive aesthetically about this cheap carbine. It was purchased Friday night at Cheaper Than Dirt's retail store. After we figured out it was actually shooting a foot over the target, I was able to dial it in after about 20 rounds. What a crude exercise this was. The "rough" adjustment involves loosening the front post with a box wrench and sliding it up or down. I ended up moving it about an inch, and then dialed it in with the rear peep sight's screw adjustment. The sights are crude, but very serviceable. They provide a nice sight picture at just the right height. The gun's light plastic stock and giant bolt make it quite a recoil monster for it's cartridge. It actually started bothering me after about 150 rounds. I am not ashamed to admit that for whatever reason, I am quite sensitive to recoil. I don't know why that is, as I used to shoot high brass 12 gauge bird loads all day with no worries. I have not developed a flinch or anything, but it does get on my nerves after a few hours. At any rate the carbine functioned flawlessly through 200 rounds of WWB. It did smell quite bad for about the first 100 rounds or so. Probably just oil burning off. For $179 I am more than happy with this ugly little space gun. I managed to put 50+ rounds in about a 4" group freehand at 30 yards, which is about the limit of my eyes and skills.

I also put about 100 rounds through the XD. It functioned perfectly as well. I need some more practice to get back into the rhythm of shooting it. My "groups" were about 10" in size at 30 yards. That will improve with some more practice. I was routinely shooting 5" groups at this range with my previous XD before it was stolen.

The most fun of the day goes to the Marlin. After adjusting the scope, I was sniping thumbtacks at 30 yards easily. I can not wait to get this thing on the 100 yard range with a decent rest, to see what it can do. The scope is a bit eye relief sensitive at 14.5x, but not horribly so. I am happy with it so far. I only put one box of ammo through her, as I want to reserve the rest of my meager 17 HMR stockpile for longer range work. This stuff is fairly expensive.

Overall it was a great morning of shooting. I will post some detailed entries of each new gun in a few days for my "Guns That I Have" section.

Sheila Set To Return

2007-10-15T16:01:00.000-05:00

As some of you may remember, my beloved XD-45, named Sheila, was stolen some time ago. I am finally able to purchase her replacement. Hopefully this will happen within the week. I am so excited! I loved that pistol!

Oh yeah. I got my BKL mount for the Marlin .17 this weekend as well. More on that later...

Sad Day

2007-10-09T11:12:00.000-05:00

My sister's little Boston Terrier died last night. His name was Rock, and he was one of the sweetest dogs I have ever been around. She only had him for six years, but they went through a lot together. Rock was her child, and my parent's grandchild really. It is amazing how close we humans get to our pets. Rock was an especially good friend.

R.I.P Rock. You will be missed.

New Rig

2007-10-09T08:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I got a new truck this weekend. New to me anyway.

I traded my Dad a set of used golf clubs for his '84 Ramcharger 2WD. I will try and get some pics up soon. It is a great truck. He has really taken care of it over the years.

The motor, tranny, and front end only have 42,000 miles on them! They were completely rebuilt. He also painted the truck himself at the same time. This thing is a grandpa truck for sure. It needs very little TLC really. I am already driving it daily.

I plan to put a new intake, carb, and exhaust on it. It is going to serve tow rig duty for my bass boat, and 4 wheeler. The upgrades should make it a good little tow truck. It already has tall gears and a limited slip diff.

I Can't Hardly Wait!

2007-10-05T12:34:00.000-05:00

Brought to you by Rich-Jerks.com

My Head is About to Explode

2007-09-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

So as I usually do I hit up Drudge to peruse the headlines and I read two that instantly made the pressure in my head skyrocket.

The first:

John Edwards: 'Pretty Soon' All Young African-American Men Will Be Dead or in Prison...

The second:

A BOND IN EVERY BASSINET: HILLARY PROPOSES $5,000 FOR EVERY U.S. BABY

Hillary was talking to a black group of course. Without even clicking the links these things just make me insane. Check out the Edwards link. His overwhelming stupidity is illustrated so concisely and professionally that I can add nothing to it.

Hillary's asinine idea is the real kicker for me. Where the hell are we going to get the money to pay for these bonds? I mean you would think even the stupidest socialist would see what a ridiculous ponzi scheme this would be. First of all she uses the word bonds. This is of course commutard-speak for, we will pay for it later. It is SSI with no funding, for the perfectly able bodied. The fact that a lot of Americans actually consider her a real candidate for President is beyond frightening. This class/racial warfare is going to be our undoing.

Here is a cluepon. Maybe, just maybe working American families could save up some money if you damn communists would quit taxing them to death. Maybe they could pay for college if they weren't having to subsidize all the illegal alien's in state tuition, and the myriad of asshated classes our esteemed academiticians come up with.

Between this hair-brained scheme, Hillarycare 2.0, and the myriad of other socialist programs the hyperwench has stored up in that addled brain of hers, we may as well all just quit working now. Why work when the government can pay you to sit on your butt?

Edited to add: Holy CRAP! I forgot to include this gem.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," said Rep. Stephanie Stubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who attended the event and has already endorsed Clinton. "Every child born in the United States today owes $27,000 on the national debt, why not let them come get $5,000 to grow until their 18?"

Come get? What? This is like some unintelligible morse code that I just don't comprehend! So they owe $27,000, which is a questionable statement to begin with, so let's saddle them with $5,000 more, oh yeah, plus interest! Oh the horror.

What a completely stupid idea! Whoever at Time came up with this should be fired immediately, or better yet beaten with rolled up newspapers about the head.

Marlin 917vs

2007-09-27T12:07:00.002-05:00

Man, what a wait. This gun has been nearly three years in the making, and I am finally going to be able to shoot it in a couple weeks. It is ridiculous really. My beloved fiancée bought me this rifle for Christmas '05. It is a beautiful gun really. Nice stainless bull barrel, and green laminate stock. It shoots the .17 HMR round. I have been wanting to try this round out since I first heard of it's release, and I will finally be able to.

The rifle has no sights on it. This is the main reason I have not fired it. I really wanted to put together a nice affordable shooter with this one. Kim bought me a Mueller APV for it last Christmas. This is a nice affordable scope. The users at Rimfire Central helped design it. I have heard nothing but great things about it. Kim also said their customer service was excellent.

So I have had the scope for nearly a year now. I finally found the perfect mount for it I think. A BKL 261. This piece should be shipping today, and I will hopefully get it next week. I am busy next weekend (dang it!), but I WILL be taking it out to the range the following weekend.

From everything I have seen and heard over the last couple of years, this setup ought to be one heck of a shooter for the price. I plan to hit up the 100 yard range to see what I can do with it. Undoubtedly it will outshoot me, so hopefully I can get some respectable groups going. Look for a range report in a couple of weeks.

Manufacturer's Website:
Marlin Firearms

Pics:

Mods:
Mueller APV
BKL 261 Scope Mount

Links:
Fun Range Trip

Specs:
Caliber: 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire
Capacity: 4-shot and 7-shot clip included
Action: Bolt action; thumb safety; red-cocking indicator.
Stock: Monte Carlo laminated gray / black hardwood with nickel-plated sling swivel studs; full pistol grip; rubber rifle butt pad; tough Mar-Shield® finish.
Barrel: Heavy 22" stainless steel (4 grooves)
Twist Rate: 1:9" r.h.
Sights: No sights provided, but receiver is grooved for scope mount; drilled and tapped for scope bases (scope bases included).
Overall Length: 41"
Weight: 7 lbs.

Poor Rube

2007-09-27T08:38:00.000-05:00

Well we have a soldier that has decided to return his medals to Donald Rumsfeld. I guess it is better than throwing someone else's medals over a fence, but why be picky?

I never served and I still regret it. Having said that, this guy apparently was an ammo clerk that never fired his weapon in anger. He also got booted out of the Army for doing drugs.

If he wants to return his medals, that is fine with me of course. He earned them. The fact that he was an insubordinate, dope head, ammo clerk kind of lessens the protest me thinks. This poor guy knowingly or not is being used as a pawn by the internal enemies of our country.

The Story

HatTip: Drudge

Internal Enemy

2007-09-26T08:57:00.000-05:00

While this story does not surprise me in the least, it should serve as a wakeup call for all of us.

The Story

So good ol' rich white guy turned commie George Soros funded the NASA "whistleblower" global warming guy to the tune of over $700,000. He also sponsored the supposed grass roots immigration rallies last year, and has been the funder of a lot of terrorist helping lawyers. Geez. This guy makes the Rosenberg's look downright patriotic.

Soros' "shaping public policies," as OSI calls it, is not illegal. But it's a problem for democracy because it drives issues with cash and then only lets the public know about it after it's old news.
That means the public makes decisions about issues without understanding the special agendas of groups behind them.

Without more transparency, it amounts to political manipulation. This leads to cynicism. As word of these short-term covert ops gets out, the public grows to distrust what it hears and tunes out.

The irony here is that Soros claims to be an advocate of an "open society." His OSI does just the legal minimum to disclose its activities. The public shouldn't have to wait until an annual report is out before the light is flipped on about the Open Society's political action.

This is a damn shame. I wonder if our wonderful unbiased media will report on any of this.

HatTip: Drudge

Ruger Mark II 22/45 Bull Barrel

2007-09-21T15:19:00.001-05:00

This is actually Kim's pistol. She loves it! I bought it for her as a starter pistol, so she could learn to shoot a 1911. Unfortunately she can't stand the kick of my 1911, so she is sticking with the 22/45 for now.

The gun itself functions flawlessly with CCI Mini-Mags. You can shoot it all day long with no problems. It is also a very accurate pistol. It just hits were you aim. I personally like the traditional Mark I/II/III grip angle better, but this one does simulate the 1911 very well. The plastic grip is kind of subpar IMO, but it does not affect the functioning of the pistol at all. The bull barrel, undoubtedly contributes to the accuracy, as well as making the gun a pleasure to point.

Overall I would buy it again for her. At some point I will buy a Mark II Hunter for myself.

Manufacturers Website:
Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.

Pics:

Links:

Specs:
Caliber:.22 LR
Capacity:10 Rounds
Finish:Blued
Grip:Black Synthetic
Barrel Length:5 1/2"
Groove:6
Twist:1:16" RH
Overall Length:9 1/2"
Weight:2 lbs
California Approved:Yes
Massachusetts Approved:Yes
Front Sight(s):Fixed
Rear Sight(s):Adjustable

Winchester 1200

2007-09-20T16:56:00.002-05:00

This gun means more to me than all the rest combined. It is my Grandfather's shotgun. What else needs to be said? My Pa is living in a nursing home now. I took his shotgun from his house for safekeeping, and took my Remington 870 up there so my Dad, who is staying at the house would have a shotgun around. The Wal Mart special 870 would not be a great loss. The 1200 would kill me.

I remember this gun from childhood. Back when Pa could get around and had his little farm it was a fixture. He used it to "hunt" with. I believe all he ever killed while hunting was an unfortunate jackrabbit that hopped into his path. He brought it home and told my Grandma, "Dot look! It blew it's head clean off!". Another memory involved a tarantula on the front porch. He somehow managed to miss the tarantula on the first shot, blowing a big hole in the porch. I remember yelling, "How you gonna miss from 10 feet away with a shotgun?!". A few seconds later another hole appeared where the tarantula had been. While he accomplished his goal, I think he thought better of it when he was replacing those boards on the porch and repainting the whole thing.

I was allowed to use the gun for a few rabbit/dove/shooting objects in the pond excursions once in a while when I turned 15. I must have put 30 boxes of shells through it in a couple months.

This old shotgun is nothing special. It has a decent wood stock and forearm with a few scratches. The bluing is in great shape except for a couple of small dings, and their was a few small rust spots on the barrel which I took care of. Honestly though, it may as well be a fine European model as far as I am concerned. The memories of Pa and his land, that he later lost, are some of the best of my childhood. I wish Grandma would not have had that heart attack that bankrupted him at the time. I would have loved it if he could have spent some more years out there on his beloved patch of North Texas. He had 25 acres, but to us kids it may as well have been 5,000. We roamed it, along with most of the adjacent larger properties for years. Several deer were even taken out there. None by Pa though. He was always to worried about hitting some non-existent person a mile away if he took the shot. Either that, or he just couldn't bring himself to destroy what he saw as God's creative beauty at work.

My Pa is the best man I have ever known. I have never heard him cuss, drink, or smoke. He has served God as well as he could since he was a teenager, and worked hard selling auto parts for a long time to support his family. He has a youthful innocence and sense of humor that makes me weep when I think about losing him. This old shotgun ain't much, but it is worth the world to me.

Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle

2007-09-20T16:14:00.001-05:00

Ah, the gun that started it all. This is the first gun I ever bought. That is excepting a 10/22 I got at 18 that was promptly stolen. I have had a love/hate relationship with this gun. It was purchased from a former roommate's father for $450. The price, I would find out, was probably a bit high, but it did come with extra mags, all of which were complete crap.

The rifle was a dirty, inaccurate, and a jamming PITA.

I learned how to take it apart and gave it a thorough cleaning. This took care of the first problem. It was the only easy fix.

I shot it once or twice, and could barely hit the target at 50 yards. Admittedly some of this was my poor marksmanship, but most of it was the gun. The "adjustable" peep sight was loose for one thing. Duh! So I tried to tighten it up and one of the screw's head split while I was tightening it and fell off. Doh! After a couple of months I got the screws replaced and got it adjusted. At this point I was able to put most rounds on a 12" target at fifty yards. Better, but still horrible. My latest endeavor was installing an Ultimak rail and a cheap red dot. This vastly improved the rifle's accuracy. Check out the mod section for more info on this little project. Let's just say, it followed the M.O. for the rest of the rifle.

As for jamming, it doesn't jam anymore. I quit using all the crappy mags it came with, and found a couple Ruger factory 30 rounders. These have functioned flawlessly.

The gun is now a fun gun to shoot. It is not as accurate as my AR, but it is acceptable. The Boy prefers the Mini to the AR. Go figure!

I have more in this gun than it is worth, so it will always be mine. Right now it is serving SHTF duty at the lake house.

Manufacturer's Website:
Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.

Pics:

Mods:
Ultimak Scout Rail

Links:
Perfect Union Mini 14/30 Forum

Specs:
Caliber: .223 Rem
Capacity: 5 Rounds (up to 30 with other mags)
Finish: Blued
Stock: Hardwood
Barrel Length: 18 1/2"
Groove: 6
Twist: 1:9" RH
Overall Length: 37 1/4"
Weight: 6 3/4 lbs
California Approved: N/A
Massachusetts Approved: N/A
Front Sight(s): Protected Blade
Rear Sight(s): Ghost Ring Adjustable Aperture
Other Features: Garand-Type Safety

Henry H003TM

2007-09-20T14:52:00.001-05:00

This gun is just flat out fun to shoot! I am a big fan of Henry's rifles. They are a family-owned company that makes some good quality guns at pretty affordable prices. This octagon-barreled beauty was a gift from my dear fiancée for Christmas 2006. It was an accidental purchase. I asked for a lever action .22 Mag, and Wal Mart shipped this gun instead. She must have ordered it, as it costs about $200 more than their bottom of the line lever WMR gun.

She was so upset when she realized it was not the right gun Christmas morning. We discussed taking it back, and decided to. I spent the rest of the day looking at the gun and handling it. Man this little guy sure does point nice! The short stroke on the pump is a bit weird, but it sure is comfortable! That octagon barrel, nice sights, and pretty wood sure are neat! After fondling it all day, I decided to keep it. I am so glad I did. It is a joy to plink around with.

The gun is more accurate than I am. I am fairly certain that it would do some really nice groups at 100 yards or more with a scope on it. I will never put one on it though.

Henry rifles are not fine bespoke guns by any means. They are affordable reminders of our past history however. The company has captured the nostalgia of the old American west so many of us are infatuated with. You can get into a standard lever action .22 from them for less than $250. The action they have created is incredibly smooth for the price. This is not a Marlin Golden 39a, but it is in my opinion the next best thing. My pump WMR will not be the last gun I purchase from Henry.

The company's customer service is second to none. Emails from the company president are not uncommon, and I hear he answers the phone quite a bit as well. They seem to go out of their way to make sure the customer is happy with their purchase.

Henry's trifecta of good quality, good value, and good service make them a winner.

Manufacturer's Website:
Henry Repeating Arms

Pics:

Links:

Specs:
Model: H003TM
Action Type: Pump
Caliber: .22 Magnum
Capacity: 12 rounds
Barrel Length: 20 1/2"
Length: 38 1/2" Overall
Weight: 6 lbs.
Stock: American Walnut
Sights: Fully adjustable rear, beaded front
Receiver: Grooved for scope mount
Finish: Blued barrel and receiver