It's Back!!!

Wow! Long day after working the two jobs. I teach part time in IT for a local community college two nights a week in addition to the day job.

Anyway, I owe Brigid over at her blog the story of my Kel-Tek P3-AT.

I purchased it new and proceeded to do the "at least 200 rounds before you carry it" thing. I put many more rounds through it and noticed that the recoil spring guide was deforming where it met the lower half of the pistol. OK no big deal I thought, I will just get another guide. That worked for a month. More of the same and now that the guide no longer seated flush, it started to deform the hole in the slide up front. E-mail to Kel-Tek simply said return it. I did in mid January and it wintered in Coca FL. and showed up last week.

What did they do? According  to the work order:

Replace slide
Polished feed ramp
I love this one: "Replaced internal parts"
Replaced recoil rod
Replaced trigger bar and trigger assembly
Test fired

My thoughts? They spent much more time on this slide, it was not as roughly milled as the original. The feed ramp was beautiful. Trigger seems much smoother. The barrel was also polished.

I have only put 50 rounds through it after repairs, but I cannot say that Kel-Tek has let me down yet.

I have researched the Interwebs and there are people saying that QA/QC at Kel-Tek could be better and that they do stand by the product. I think maybe Kel-Tec is playing the odds. Average person throws down 275 bucks, fires 50 or 100 rounds to qualify for concealed carry and never fires it again. Kel-Tek wins in that scenario.

So, I can have this for about 525 bucks (plus 50 bucks shipping back):

 Yes it does have a laser on it. The sight picture is lets say marginal at best.

Or for a 100 bucks or so less, I can get one of these:

Colt Detective Special used (duh). To paraphrase Tam: "I can put my buggerhook on the boom switch and I know this will go bang" . Not so much the Kel-Tek right now. 

Hey Grandpa, what's for supper?

Brass! I have not purchased anything to clean brass with yet, so I found a wet solution on the Interwebs supposedly from an NRA 1957 article. Tried it and although a PITA, I am pleased with the results. Anyone have an opinion on wet vs dry cleaning media?  Anyone, class, Bueller?

Very Impressive!

From Fatale Abstraction comes this!

Retro Sundays!

My previous post today has motivated me to start a regular feature for my legion of followers on the intertubes. RETRO SUNDAY'S!!
I will grab something around here that qualifies for the Retro tag and comment on it. I am sure that it will be enjoyable and cheaper than therapy! Stay Tuned!

A Solution....

In search of a problem. On the weekends I like to take the time to shave using "old school" tools like this:

It works, and works well.

But during the week it's a bit more modern:

The new stuff seems to be getting out of hand. How many blades do you need to scrape the stubble off of your face? The commercials are especially funny in light of the old tech I use. "The first blade scares the hair, the second makes it stand up, the third actually cuts it off, and the fourth is there just in case. The lubricating strip insures that an attractive female will want to rub your face." Or something like that. They have added so many blades on some models they had to put one on the back so you can accurately trim at the sideburns!  Don't even get me started on the battery powered vibrating ones.

While I admire the marketing model of King Camp Gillette, I wonder how much further it can go. And while I am at it, here is the obligatory "GET OFF MY LAWN".  I might get a strop and straight razor next.
 

Tin Foil Hat Time!

Ok, I am proud to have worked for the Bell System when it was "Ma Bell". Although there has been a proliferation of competition to date after the breakup, I still wonder about things such as this:

This is an ATT "Project Office" built in the '60's and still in use today. Unfortunately, no one can tell you what it does or why it is still in operation. But I have to say "Go Ma Bell"!  Link to more info is here.

Oh, I do love the fact that the road got plowed in the winter for the people that do something to something that we don't know about!

Oh, just in case you thought you could run up and check on it: "HGTWMDQ0010 is still an active, secure AT&T facility, and unofficial visitors are not permitted." So there! 

Wow..

How much can you twist the facts? An article on of all places msn takes on the Concealed Carry Issue. And fails.... I went through more hoops and cash to get a CCW permit than any thug running the streets with a Glock  .40. Yet I am the problem? This is all a front to "Get the person that owns 15 guns to purchase another?" I think not. I am certified to teach basic pistol and hold RSO certification. I am going to certify to teach CCW in this state in May. I am simply stunned that I am held to "A higher degree of care" simply because I choose to legally own and carry a firearm. I guess I should be a thug, life is simpler for them!

If it does not feel right....

it probably is not. A good first rule for reloading. Perhaps life as well. Here is my latest happiness:

I seem to have really cranked down on a cartridge not properly seated in the shell plate during decap/resizing. Bent the spindle, broke the holder for the decap pin, destroyed the pin itself, and generally made a mess. I have visually inspected the die body and it appears to be ok. Ran some cartridges through it and they size ok and are not scratched. They are carbide dies and I used case lube on the cartridges.

Can anyone tell me different? I think this happens frequently as Hornady sells a "Die Maintenance Kit"  that includes 2 spindles, 2 decap holders, 5 decap pins and a handful of retaining springs for the rest of the dies for about 8 bucks. At least the cartridge came out of the die, it was pretty done!  And Hornady is running the free bullet promo for dies so I get some bullets out of the purchase anyway.

I think that the shellplate spring is going to be the weak link in this system. But never fear! In my supreme anal state in all things reloading as a newbie, I have ordered a new .380 die set, the maintenance kit, and five shellplate springs. So, if things work out with simply replacing the stuff broke, anyone need a 3 die set for .380's?

Now with 50% more shooty goodness!

OK, went to the range today to test my .380 reloads. Started with 5 rounds in a Colt Mustang PlusII and everything worked great! No exploding gun, no bullets stuck in the barrel, no FTF. Then stuck 5 in a Kel-Tek P3AT. Same result! So, off to the races I am (props to Yoda) ! I just hope I do not wind up looking like a bad genetic experiment with a huge right arm from cranking the handle on the press and a small but precise left hand due to seating bullets!

A Friend

I have just added a long time friend to my blog list. Go check it! Good stuff! Link is http://arsmensmentis.blogspot.com I am always amazed by either the BS or actual knowledge this man has (perhaps a balance of both, or the fact he can do equally well with both in extreme).

Well some days are like this.....

My faithful daily driver car (1994 Mustang) got me home from work and threw up coolant in the driveway. Sigh.... Looks like the water pump! But, the water pump lasted for ten years and the car got me home, so it could have been worse. The car has been through a lot, a Honda committed suicide by blowing a stop sign in front of me and I of course T-boned the little coffee can mufflered thing into the junkyard, and yet my ride is still among the rolling. I guess I shouldn't be too bent!

Paging Captain Obvious!

From my new friends at Hornady comes this vital secret information! It was stuck inside my assembly manual for my spankin' new reloading press. I'm sorta thinking that if you did not know the basic function of primers going into reloading, you may be in the running for the Darwin awards soon! OTOH, I am sure the lawyers had something to do with this!

This....

is my bullet...There are many like it (wait, it's a .380 there aren't) but this one is mine. This is the first bullet I made. I have shot for many years and bullets in the past were something you just buy. Well the days of 8 bucks for a box of .45ACP is long gone. The continuing shortage of .380 ammo was the tipping point. And the pistol manufacturers continue to crank out .380 models! S&W just announced one at the SHOT show.

I think I will enjoy this part of the shooting sports just as much as shooting!

I love it!

Just got a letter from the US Census Bureau. Addressed to "Resident". What did it say you may ask? It informed me that in about a week I will be getting a Census form! OK, I have some problems with this. "resident"? I have a Social Security card, a valid passport and have payed Federal taxes for over 30 years. I would think that the U.S. Government should be able to figure out who is at stately abode. And another thing, how much did it cost to send the warning? Just send the freaking Census!

It's going to be a model of speed and efficiency when the Feds run health care!!!

At the range

Conversation: "we carry black plastic people poppers, you carry history." I guess there may be a plus to getting old?

Treehugging 101

OK, my power coop here in suburbia has sent me 4 compact florescent lights. Wheeeee! I'm going green! NOT!!! CFL's look stupid in a decorative fixture and you cannot dim them (I look better in low lighting.) The majority of my most used fixtures (kitchen, hallway, garage, office) are already florescent. CFL's also have a small problem called mercury. Even State controlled media outlet NPR reports on the problem here Reminds me of the OMG!!!! Stop using paper grocery bags and go plastic! Save the environment! Save the trees! Uh.... Trees are a renewable resource! Now I am supposed to bring my own bag?!?!? I love the irony that the actual printed newspaper here touts all of the treehugging crap except the most obvious and wasteful one: stop printing and delivering the paper! LOL!

Anyway in honour of my "free" lights tonight I am going home, cut on every light in the house, all the tv's, cut the stereo to "11" and idle all three cars for 30 minutes or so or until the throbbing in my head goes away! Oh and two of the cars are so old there are no emission controls on them Yey!

Today....

The maiden flight of the British Spitfire took place 1936. Pretty good timing huh? (if you were an Allied power that is)

What's above enthusiast?

An excerpt from an article in the Orlando Sentinel "Ritz estimated that about 1 percent of permit holders actually carry their guns daily. Those tend to be shooting enthusiasts, who fire at least 50 bullets in practice each month. Perhaps 25 percent of his students occasionally go armed and the rest almost never do, he said."

So, let me get this straight. 50 bullets a month make you an "enthusiast"? Hell, 100 rounds a week is slow for me, so am I a zealot? fanatic? right wing nut job? have no life?

Sheesh!

This says it all:

If you ever see this on an Material Safety Data Sheet: "Suitable extinguishing media: None." I suggest you get another line of work! Stuff