Getting Ready....

As you may know I am spending my vacation this year at the evil Blackwater unicorns and rainbows USA Training center. I need at least 1200 rounds of .45 ACP for my stay. Brigid has an excellent primer on reloading. (Groan, no pun intended) I chose to go large and got a progressive press. I have been reloading for about a year. Looks like this tonight (click on pics to enbiggen):

Loading .45 ACP. B. notes that the Blue Press catalog looks like a Frederick's of Hollywood calender. The calender above the press is for research only! My photographer friend over at The Sweeter Image is interested in doing a theme calendar (really).

Close up of what is going on:

A progressive press is on the surface pretty simple. Stick a piece of brass in one station, put a bullet in another and pull the handle. In reality, it does require attention to detail. You also need to be a bit mechanically inclined. I check the powder load and case gauge every 10th round.

I chose a Hornady press over the Dillon. I trust Hornady cartridges. If they make live ammunition, I would assume the reloading press would reflect their experience. Cheaper too.

Several comments on B.s post were of the "if you can follow a recipe out of a book you can reload". I disagree. I am the consummate book reader and that will not replace practical experience in my opinion. Good friends showed me how they reload. It was very valuable!     

   

Perhaps it is time

If the only thing you can say about a relationship with another human is that you lament the loss of this creature, then truly the relationship was doomed. 

Her name was Wasabi. A noble creature and we "clicked". She stayed with me during the awkward time when things were breaking up, yet she supposedly belonged to the other person. I still miss her.  I remember the four legs sticking out from under the futon. She injured herself on a hind leg with a rock and although cut deeply she let me attend to the wound. She would patrol the perimeter of the house and report back "all clear" with a sigh as she layed back down late at night.

Perhaps it is time to find another four legged companion?

Oxymoron

So I ran out of paper sheet protectors. I love them. I put house documentation, firearm instructions, entertainment product info and just about anything else deemed important around one. I then stick that into a loose leaf binder. I noticed I ran out and absently picked some up at the Bookstore at the Campus I teach at. I got home and noticed this:

You are kidding right?!?!? BIODEGRADABLE sheet protectors? Like I am going to put a Colt Historian letter like this that costs 100 bucks in one of these?

Sigh.....

Oh, To my new friends in Texas!

A little Bluegrass for you.

Bloggerness....

First the QOTD-

In life's small things be resolute and great
To keep they muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee,
"I find thee worthy; do this deed for me?"

James Russel Lowell- "Epigram"

I do not possess the snark of Tam, nor the historical knowledge she possesses about old firearms. I do not have command of the written word, photography, or general vast Bloggerness knowledge of Brigid . I do not make posts that make people think on the depth of North, nor do I possess his skills with a camera. I do not have the experiences of Old NFO.  I do not have the general posting acumen of Borepatch, GFA, and others I probably missed in this post.  I do not posses the skills of a talented artist like Just an Artist.

I am humbled that anyone wanders by here to see what is going on in my simple life. For those that do, Thanks!

I look forward to meeting all that I can in person!

A new friend on the Blogroll and a Retro Repost!

Guffaw in AZ is new to the Blogging scene, but has an innate skill for it. Good information, a dose of humor, and some pleasing graphics! He recently posted about the "mouse guns". 

Here is a repost on the Colt .25!

The Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket .25 semi-auto was designed by John Moses Browning and was manufactured from 1908 to 1948. Mr. Browning also developed the cartridge the .25ACP. A magazine disconnect safety was added in 1916. Around 420,000 were made.

The Colt Junior Pocket Model was introduced in 1958 and made by Astra in Spain for Colt chambered in .25ACP. A .22 version was introduced one year later. The Gun Control Act of 1968 made the import of this handgun  illegal, so production shifted to the USA and was was reintroduced in 1970 and produced until 1972.

 

Bottom a Model 1908 produced around 1920, above a Pocket Model in the last year of production in the US. They are both fun to shoot and very reliable. Although considered too weak a cartridge now for self defense, these are wonderful handguns!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Product reviews

You may have seen these before, but.....

I was looking around today for a Layer 3 switch. A Layer 3 switch is a marketing term for a multiport router in my opinion, but I need one. Saw one on Amazon and the review was hilarious! Here is an excerpt:

"I used to hate network uptime. When the LAN was up for more than a few days at a time, I would get angry and punchy.

That has all changed, friends.

Now that I have the Netgear GSM7324, I don't have to worry about the network being up for too long; it automatically kills the LAN on it's own.

The best part is, it is totally unpredictable, so each time my users yell "Hey, I can't get to wiki" or "Is there something wrong with the Internet?", it's like a special surprise for everybody.

I mean really, do you really _need_ access to your gateway while trying to commit CVS at the end of the day? And who wants to be able to read email while at work? It's much better to pay a bunch of software engineers and marketing consultants to sit idle while the IT guy is power cycling all the switches on the network trying to clear up whatever happy fun issue is taking down LAGs and VLANs one by one.

Sure, I could have bought a Cisco, but that drab bluegreygreen color totally clashes with my server room. Also, there is my hatred of a stable network to consider."  Link.

Then my old standby the Denon A/V cable ($9000.00 cable):

"Transmission of music data at rates faster than the speed of light seemed convenient, until I realized I was hearing the music before I actually wanted to play it. Apparently Denon forgot how accustomed most of us are to unidirectional time and the general laws of physics. I tried to get used to this effect but hearing songs play before I even realized I was in the mood for them just really screwed up my preconceptions of choice and free will. I'm still having a major existential hangover. " Link.

Tuscan Whole Milk: " With Tuscan, you feel the love of every dairyperson involved -- from the somewhat sad and deranged farmhand shovelling steaming cowpies to the bored union milk maiden dreaming of leaving this soul crushing life behind for a job waiting tables for obnoxious American tourists in Siena. But not too fast -- sip gently, slowly, or one is in danger of not only missing the subtleties of the milk's texture and its terroir, but -- if chilled too long -- also of giving oneself a blinding ice cream headache." Link.

Why I carry

Brigid points out with the usual skill and acumen with the written word on why she carries. I now present another reason. I lament the loss of this person even though I don't personally know him. I thank him for his service to the country and am simply appalled by these events. At least he did tell his assailant his last words, "Damn you"! 

Clues.....

I am normally very discreet within my home except for several rooms when it comes to being a "Firearm enthusiast". There are many reasons to do so, the occasional cable tech, tradesman, or others would not be able to casually glance around to gather that there may be firearms about.

I am preparing for class the first week in June, and the semester at the community college is in the final two weeks. I am getting sloppy! First exhibit:

Foyer table and floor. A typo on my part for a student on CCH. A new certificate for him awaits. A box of brass from the range this weekend The talented B. article for my class on open display as soon as you open the front door!

My office desk.A great recipe for Wedding cookies and some factory ammo with personal defense stuff mixed in, left around for the unloading of pistols for the class last week. Yes, students get to learn on my Firearms for administrative tasks with dummy ammunition.

Bedroom dresser. Nipper and Chipper are here as well as new personal defense rounds to replace the GASP! 20 year old .45 ACP frangible rounds I carried. Tam pointed out the dangers of bullet setback. They shot fine however!

New t shirt from the Range. Draped over a living room chair.


It has spread everywhere! Kitchen counter:

Even next to the kitchen sink. Brass cleaning underway:

I am really getting behind!

Fireplace hearth looks like this:

Happy Easter!

I am preparing to enjoy my day off tomorrow. Sometime this weekend however I will watch this as I have always done as long as I can remember:

Hint: If you start it before 10AM tomorrow you should be done watching it by lunch Monday!

From IMDB comes some trivia for this movie:

According to Charlton Heston's autobiography, the filming of the orgy scenes was so grueling, it prompted one female extra to exclaim, "Who do I have to f**k to get OUT of this movie?"

According to Hollywood lore, while filming the orgy sequence which precedes Moses' descent from Mount Horeb with the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments engraved, Cecil B. DeMille was perched on top of a ladder delivering his customarily long-winded directions through a megaphone to the hundreds of extras involved in the scene. After droning on to the extras for several minutes, DeMille was distracted by one young woman who was persistently talking to the woman standing next to her. DeMille stopped his speech and addressed everyone's attention to the young woman. "Here," DeMille said, "We have a young woman whose conversation with her friend is apparently more important than listening to her instructions from her director while we are all engaged in making motion picture history. Perhaps the young woman would care to enlighten us all, and tell us what the devil is so important that it cannot wait until after we make this shot." After a moment, of silence and temporary fright, she spoke up and boldly confessed, "I was just saying to my friend, 'I wonder when that bald-headed old fart is gonna call 'Lunch!'" DeMille stared at her for a moment, paused, then lifted his megaphone, and then shouted, "Lunch!"

The orgy sequence took 3 weeks to film.

Animation was employed to create the hail as it was falling from the sky in the background, but popcorn that had been spray-painted white fell as "hail" onto the pavilion of Rameses' palace. It was light so it could not hurt the actors, it bounced like real hail; and it could be swept up and used again for additional takes of the scene. The fire that burned from the hail was created by animation.

The last line of the film "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof" was taken from Leviticus 25:10 of The Bible. The verse is also printed, on the Liberty Bell.


Not so much any more on the liberty throughout all the land huh?

Never let it be said that Cecil B. DeMille let the newfangled "sound" thing crimp his style, huh? 

I hope everyone has a great Easter!

I have to chime in on this...

The NRA Annual Convention is in Pittsburgh this year. I'm not going. So just as here last year the local fish wrapper posts some articles portraying the attendees as neanderthals or worse. This guy however takes the cake.

How many sexist and shortsighted (and minded) comments can he make in a newspaper article? A LOT! Mr. Heyl, please come talk to my CCH students that are female and get a clue! Better yet TAKE the class before you sound off on something you know nothing about.

Several Women in my classes have decided after life altering events to take control of their continued well being for themselves and/or children and elderly family members. Some of the stories are truly heart wrenching and horrific and I will not replay their motivations or life stories here for public display. They do not tell them in class, they tell them to me afterward.

I do not care if they show up at the NRA Convention Sir. I can assure you though that they are not worried if the Firearm they carry "makes them look fat". Make no mistake though, they ARE carrying now!

This is why I teach concealed carry handgun classes. I am humbled by my efforts when faced with people that want to be responsible for their own safety for the first time.     

Range Review- The Colt M-4 .22LR

Remember this? I took it to the range and this is what I learned:

It comes apart easily but a few things to remember. The bolt release does not function and is here for cosmetics only. Same with the forward assist, but there is a spring in it and it does move. Be careful as the bolt release will simply fall out when you drive the two pins out to disassemble. There seems to be some late updates to the documentation. There are three separate sheets of paper in with the manual telling you to back off of the suppressor two rounds with the supplied wrench before attempting to remove the pins forward and rear.    

You are NOT going to be able to swap uppers and lowers with a normally chambered AR platform.

Removable rear sight (upper left) should be familiar to anyone accustomed to the platform. Dual aperture and markings for windage and elevation adjustments. The markings are for the correct caliber for this rifle though, not the .22LR. Thirty round magazine with really helpful duel follower assist to facilitate loading.

Weight, trigger pull and sights are really great and Walther paid attention to detail in these matters. The OPS model is equipped with a full RIS so you can bolt just about anything to it you could with the AR.

The only complaint I have is the safety. It must be rotated 180 degrees from rear to front to fire. The S&W M&P gets this right with a 90 degree rotation.

I fired 300 rounds with CCI .22LR and had no FTF or failure to fire out of the box. That was impressive in my opinion. So although I am not a MOA shooter, (more of a MOB: Minute of Barn) here is a target at 25 yards with the factory sights:

This is a FUN rifle to shoot! I am waiting on the tactical cup holder and fuzzy dice to hang from the RIS! I believe that Colt and Walther did an excellent job on this one!


 

The War on Dust!

Remember this? It looks like this now:

I like it better already!

Retro..... CCH!

Sorry about Retro Sunday! There are still plenty of old things around here that will get their day, but more importantly this occurred over the weekend:

 

The largest class I have taught. 15 people took a beautiful Sunday out of their lives to do this. This state mandates a minimum of 8 hours of classroom instruction followed by live fire qualification. A full day!  

Congratulations are in order for my 15 students today!

From a Grandmother worried about protecting the 3 Grandchildren to a student barely of legal age to purchase a handgun I say well done!

Yesterday's Basic Pistol class was interesting. Got to grip and trigger control and a student said that I might find him a bit challenging. His strong hand index finger was gone from the first joint up. 

Yep, that was challenging!   


We adapted and overcame the issue. Middle finger worked fine for him with the index finger resting on the frame. Dry fire in class made a world of difference! 


I am exhausted! Wipe the pistols down, take a shower and I am going to bed!



Responsible, legally armed and trained Citizens I am all about! h/t to B. for her ancillary information, it was a hit with the class! Tam points out today that some people need to understand the target audience (no pun intended).
    

As I will say tomorrow....

Not every problem......

Is a gun problem....

Kimber Pepper Blaster II. If I can use that and run I will, even though I have the Colt. Wish me luck for tomorrow! A big class for CCH!

Motivation.....

The only thing that will make me iron a shirt or shine shoes is coming this weekend. Appearance matters in this arena:

Basic Pistol class tomorrow with new shooters and Concealed Carry Handgun class Sunday. Wish me luck!

HA!

You have to love this headline: Earth Day festivities postponed due to mother earth doing its thing? Priceless!

I'm Back!

Sorry! I had a house guest for the past four days. I have a lot to do right now so I will leave you with this teaser and promise a full range report later:

Retro Sunday.. The LP

Christina felt the need for some Heart today. I really thought about it and decided to whip this out. One of the more obscure songs from them. A great cover!

I really enjoyed the fact that the Direct TV feed was sending me the song "Love stinks" in the background. Such a dichotomy, but one I really understand!

If anyone cares that was a Grado cartridge and a Denon DP-31L direct drive turntable.

Busy week ahead! Talk to y'all later!

Oh hurry! Got another warning from YouTube. Sheesh! Look at it! Its a album! 

Its Here!

My new toy!

Busy weekend! Flooring installation and I MUST get some rounds through this! Full range report later if anyone is interested. Have a great weekend and stay safe!

Oh, the Rampant pony on this one looks like one found on a 25 cent ride outside the wally mart, but I am still open minded!

News from DD-724 USS Laffey

Again a hero has passed:

"It is my sad duty to inform you of the passing of another hero.
William "Bill" Schmidt MM2, Plankowner and survivor of Okinawa passed away on March 13, 2011.
Our sympathy goes out to Rita and her family. 
Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Sonny Walker
President"

Fair winds and following seas Sailor. Your service will always be remembered.  

Geek Test Guess where?

The commentary on this still is still true today.

Bonus points if you call out the movie! The book is out of print where this came from but is a great read with many pictures captured during filming. 

Signs of Spring!

"Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

And so it has! I am reminded once again of a quote from a movie that I happen to like: "How do you feel? ------ I feel young!"

The previous owners of stately manor really planted the yard up. Behold the proud statements of Spring (click to enbiggen):

So once again I feel renewed and reawakened after a long slumber. New opportunities and adventures await! 

GSSF Event

The only question I have is so you have to shoot a Glock? I only have one. 

Please join us for the Table Rock Challenge IV hosted by the Burke County Narcotics Task Force!  You can pre-register and avoid the walk up lines by using the registration form found at 'www.gssfonline.com' and emailing or faxing it to 770-437-4719 by Noon on Wednesday, April 13th.  If you miss the deadline for pre-registration, bring this email to the Walk-Up counter and we will waive the $10 fee.  Maps to the range can be found at 'www.gssfonline.com' under the Match Schedule section.  Just click on the match link for the map!  Here's our schedule:
 Saturday, - 9:00 am - Registration opens,  Shooting begins at 9:00am, Registration closes at 3:00pm
 Sunday, - 9:00 am - Registration opens, Shooting begins at 9:00am, Registration closes at 2:00pm
GSSF announces a change to the divisions for 2011!  Major Sub is now Heavy Metal.  You can shoot any 10mm or .45 caliber GLOCK in the division.  All other rules still apply:  You can only load 7 rounds per string.  Bring out your G20s, G21s, G37s, and G38s to compete in this division along with the G29s, G30s, G36s, and G39s!
Come out and shoot with us!  Bring a new member and you and the new member will be entered in a drawing for a GLOCK pistol certificate!  For details, visit 'www.gssfonline.com'.
Don't forget to take advantage of the GLOCK Armorer's services on site as a part of your member benefits when attending the match!  Information on other membership benefits are posted at ‘www.gssfonline.com’ in the Hot Topics section.
We look forward to seeing you at the match!
GSSF

Newbie Question

Lets suppose for a minute someone acquires an evil black rifle AR-15 carbine. Like so:

And they want to mount this on it:

The sight has a Weaver mount, the AR has Picatinny rail. I'm thinking I need a Weaver to Picatinny converter?

Sigh... I am a newbie to this platform, allow me to "shine my ignorance"!  Long guns I am no stranger to, this platform though I confess to being a newbie.

PS, If any Fanbois show up and say stuff like "Hey that's not even a Colt, Umarex made it!" or  "You could have at least gotten a real one and got the conversion kit for it." or "Whats a matter, can't handle a REAL cartridge?". Three words for ya: "Lighten up Francis". I can shoot this in indoor ranges, its cheap to shoot, and looks like it will be fun. Colt has farmed out lots of things in the past as well.

Blog comment of the week!

Remember this?

Comment from that post- "Kill the carpet!! Kill it!! The color is strength-sucking and hideous, besides the evil it harbors." - DirtCrashr

LOL! So for this bathroom:

 We now have this:

Work has begun on the war against the evil lurking in the carpet (dust mites).

Spotted at the range today....

My very own Congress Critter! Congresswoman Sue Myrick. Shooting a Kahr .380. Nice enough I suppose. I was more interested in teaching my people though. Oh and playing with this:

Not mine but it came over last night for red dot sight installation. Ruger 10/22 with "evil black rifle" makeover.

Retro Sunday.. The LP and Cassette

I sold high end stereos back in the day. There was just as much over sold techno-babble then as now. 500 dollar turntable cartridges at retail that at cost were under 50 bucks. The only thing I can say was worth the money were half speed mastered LP's. Such as this one:

 

  So I recorded this album onto cassette.

The date is correct. 1996. The words and music to me are timeless however. I spun the Nakamichi CR-2A up tonight and got this:



Reminds me of someone!  Yes I can hear the scratches on the album on the cassette. So much the better.

Oh, hurry! I just got a warning from Sony that I may be violating copyright thingies! Sheesh! I bought the album and CD and so now what! 

 

New Shooter on the Line!

So we do it again. Business associate/friend for a long time asks if I can teach his 15 year old daughter and perhaps him on the art. Yea! Guess what they are going to shoot first?

S&W Model 34-1 Kit gun in .22LR. I am excited!

Congrats!

Home on the Range has turned a page. "So the paths are chosen. Only the Journey remains". Godspeed! North started a theme to celebrate. I will continue it in my humble way:

Congratulations to B.!

Oh, side note. I prefer the D-7 Klingon Battle Cruiser shown above. Just remember that if you are near the neutral zone Romulans are reported to use ships of Klingon design!

Bonus points if you pull the episode!

Yes we did!

Nice ad!



Bonus points for the unicorn and rainbow!


h/t to Snowflakes in Hell

Bacon Heaven!

You have to check this place out! Baconair?  Yes!