Widener’s has a web page and video Guide to Smokeless Powder (via email from Anne Taylor at Widener’s where I buy some of my reloading supplies). The basics are explained at a superficial but useful level:
Smokeless powder may be the most important component for any shooter who is reloading ammo and it’s probably the most complicated as well. With different characteristics and a ton of variables, gunpowder needs to be fully understood before you attempt to reload ammunition.
This guide will take you through the basics of reloading powder, show how all smokeless powder is not the same and demonstrate how the different characteristics of powder can make your reloads more effective depending upon your intended purpose.
I liked the video in particular (but check out the web page as well) because I have had people insist smokeless powder in open air will go up in a flash from a spark. My experience attempting to use it for recreational purposes in such a fashion was quite disappointing. This video is consistent with my experience. It’s tough to even ignite smokeless powder and, in open air, it burns slowly.
This isn’t quite an example of Markley’s Law because it doesn’t appear in the context of a debate about gun owner rights. But it’s close enough to be on topic:
Via email from Jeff on Saturday who said:
Saw this on a car today in Kitsap county…
Kitsap county is just across Puget Sound west of Seattle.
That they think hunting has anything to do with male genitalia conclusively demonstrates they have crap for brains.
I find it very telling that we have tens of millions of people exercising their specific, enumerated, right to keep and bear arms, supported by SCOTUS decisions, and our opponents are fixated on their delusions regarding genitalia.—Joe]
A North Carolina Republican Party office was firebombed overnight and threatening words painted nearby, party officials reported Sunday.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the attack occurred in the party’s Orange County office in Hillsborough. An explosive device was thrown through a window of the office, causing some damage. The words “Nazi Republicans, leave town or else” were also painted on a nearby building.
An online campaign reportedly set up by a group of Democrats to help rebuild the firebombed Republican Party headquarters in Orange County met and surpassed its $10,000 goal in only 40 minutes.
The GoFundMe account had raised $13,117 as of Monday morning.
It was set up by a group of Democrats who said they hoped to make a statement against such tactics, which the state’s GOP leaders have called “political terrorism.” Leaders of both parties nationwide have condemned the burning.
…
Democrats behind the GoFundMe page referred to the spray-painted message as “an abhorrent threat.” The group said its online campaign is aimed at helping the office reopen as soon as possible. The campaign is not an official effort of the Democratic Party, but rather the work of a group of supportive Democrats.
Of particular note is an October 4, 2015 email written by Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon, which detailed the campaign’s intent to share with reporters the types of gun control proposals a President Clinton would support. The email stated:
Circling back around on guns as a follow up to the Friday morning discussion: the Today show has indicated they definitely plan to ask bout guns, and so to have the discussion be more of a news event than her previous times discussing guns, we are going to background reporters tonight on a few of the specific proposals she would support as President – universal background checks of course, but also closing the gun show loophole by executive order and imposing manufacturer liability.
I also find it “interesting” how the media works with Hillary Clinton in preparation for their encounters. It’s all orchestrated. There are no surprises or challenges to her position. Glenn Reynolds says, “Just think of the MSM as Democratic operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.”
Women who sell their sexuality for money are regarded as whores, while women who give their sexuality for free are sluts.
…
In order to be considered a “nice girl,” women are more likely to understate the number of people they have slept with, whereas men typically boast and exaggerate their sexual history. Indeed, embedded in our culture and language are opposing attitudes to women and men who have had sexual relationships with many people. Thus, while the term “slut” is defined as “an insulting word for a woman whose sexual behavior is considered immoral,” the corresponding male term “stud” is defined as “a man who is admired for being sexually attractive and good at sex”
..
The difference may well be due to the man having to risk rejection by females, thus his ‘success’ is valued by other females as social proof of his value as a sex partner. In contrast, the vast majority of females risk very little when propositioning a man, yet even so that same vast majority of females actively disguise their intentions so as to maintain plausible deniability of their interest in a man, thus risking less than nothing. Thus there’s nothing to value (and much to disvalue) in such female behavior and the connotations of the word ‘slut’ reflect that.
This speeds up the gauge testing and allows me to count the rounds easily by organizing them into groups of 20 before I put them loose into an ammo can.
Each year about this time Barb and I go hunting for chanterelle mushrooms. Today we came home with the biggest haul yet:
It wasn’t without some minor obstacles. There were weather warnings about high winds and heavy rains and as of yesterday we had mostly talked ourselves out of going today. But Barb looked out the window after getting up and said she wanted to go. There wasn’t much wind or rain at the time so we were on the road by 8:50. We had our rain gear and although the trees and branches we had to step on and over were slick we made it in and out of the woods by 10:30 with no injuries and only minor cold and dampness.
I understand the desire for some sort of justice in the wake of an atrocity like the Sandy Hook massacre. But it’s not justice when people and companies who had nothing to do with the actions of the criminal are punished. That is what the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was to prevent. And that is what it did:
In her decision granting the company’s motion to strike the case, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis invoked a federal statute known as PLCAA, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
The law prohibits lawsuits against gun manufacturers and distributors if their firearms were used in the commission of a criminal act.
The families had sought an exemption through a claim of “negligent entrustment,” arguing the maker knowingly marketed and sold the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to civilians despite knowing it posed a risk when used outside “highly regulated institutions” such as law enforcement or the military. Remington is the parent company of Bushmaster.
Bellis said the “criminal misuse of a weapon” by Adam Lanza means the action “falls squarely within the broad immunity provided by PLCAA,” adding that the arguments presented by the families do not fit within the definition of negligent entrustment.
Joshua Koskoff, an attorney for the families, said in a statement that his clients plan to appeal.
Those who need to know already know what the following means. If it’s not crystal clear to you then don’t worry about it. It’s not for you. It’s more fun and games for the NSA:
Hillary is a lit match in a room of dynamite. She, like many of the self-important, thinks her very existence is a favor to the rest of us. She epitomizes the absolute worst of what America has become. Above the law, wealthy not through accomplishment, but through influence peddling only, and a bull in a china shop in terms of her effect on both the country and the world.
It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes. I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.
As Margret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” But this bimbo can’t seem to comprehend this even when she is the one running out of money.
The big picture is that people this stupid shouldn’t be allowed to vote.—Joe]
In order to continue to exist and to prosper, life on Earth needs one more trick, the one thing that not one of the marvelous inventions of all the eons past had ever been able to accomplish. There has to be some way,somehow, to wrench the locked carbon up out of the earth, to throw it back into the air.
We are that way. We make the keys that unlock the carbon from the stone and return it to the world. We are the solution to the impending extinction of life and this is the most important story ever heard.
The use of the lefts term “gun control” is completely wrong. It infers that guns are somehow out of control and need to be curtailed. Clearly this is not the case, but every time we use that term we subtly reinforce the idea that controlling guns has anything to do with something except a nice tight grouping.
It’s a restriction of our constitutional right or an infringement of our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Every time you feel the urge to type or say “gun control” replace it with what’s really happening.
So, the average resident of the United States is about three times more likely to die from an unintentional fall, motor vehicle traffic accident, or unintentional poisoning than to be killed, including JUSTIFIABLE homicide, by someone with a firearm.
Hence, the science is settled. If Bloomberg, Hillary Clinton, and others were really interested in saving lives they would spend their money and political capital on banning ladders, stairs, cars, and household chemicals instead of guns. And since they are not their real objective is something other than saving lives.
So, what is the real reason they continue to advocate for infringing upon our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms? And what are we going to do about it?
You are wasting your time if you try to make someone see reason when reason is not influencing the decision. If you’ve ever had a frustrating political debate with your friend who refuses to see the logic in your argument you know what I mean. But keep in mind that the friend sees you exactly the same way.
When politicians tell lies they know the press will call them out. They also know it doesn’t matter. Politicians understand that reason will never have much of a role in voting decisions. A lie that makes a voter feel good is more effective than a hundred rational arguments. That’s even true when the voter knows the lie is a lie.
If you’re perplexed at how society can tolerate politicians who lie so blatantly you are thinking of people as rational beings. That world view is frustrating and limiting. People who study hypnosis start to view humans as moist machines that are simply responding to inputs with programed outputs. No reasoning is involved beyond eliminating the most absurd options. Your reasoning can prevent you from voting for a total imbecile but it won’t stop you from supporting a half-wit with a great haircut. If your view of the world is that people use reason for their important decisions you are setting yourself up for a life of frustration and confusing. You will find yourself continually debating people and never wining except in your own mind.
Few things are as destructive and limiting as a world view that assumes people are mostly rational.
I keep wanting to believe, and to a great extent behaving as if, people are rational. This is despite my frequent claim that it is irrational to expect people to be rational. I know it’s not true, I get frustrated that it is not true, and I sometimes just want to retreat from contact with the general population.
I’m extremely lucky that Barb and I share nearly identical irrational views of reality and rationality.—Joe]
I’ve been saying for years that, as far as I’m concerned, clothes only have two purposes:
To protect you from the elements
To prevent your arrest (this can also be considered a special case of purpose 1).
Wearing clothes while sleeping always seemed silly to me. Now we have “experts” agreeing with what Dr. Joe has been saying for decades (I admit that I didn’t know or really think about the first three reasons):
Sleeping naked lowers your body temperature, which helps stops you from waking up in the middle of the night.
A lowered body temperature at night has also been found to help you burn calories while you sleep.
For women, it helps prevent bacterial infections such as yeast infections.
And it increases a man’s sperm production by keeping his scrotum at a specific temperature.
When couples sleep naked, the skin-to-skin contact releases oxytocin in brain, also known as the ‘love hormone’.
This strengthens their emotional bond and and increases trust within the relationship.
I first noticed the existence of Action Shooting International matches several months ago. What is this? I was perplexed. How does this differ from USPSA and/or IDPA matches?
Last Saturday, October 8th, the stars aligned sufficiently that I was willing to go to a match at Renton Fish & Game Club and find out.
The stages are far more simple than most USPSA stages. And the scoring is time based like IDPA. And there are far fewer rules you have to keep in mind as you are shooting than IDPA. It’s intended for beginners, or as one guy quipped after the match, “It’s for shooters who have aged out of USPSA.”
Here at Action Shooting International, LLC, we’re focused on giving you a chance to practice in a way that’s fun, and builds social connections with other gun owners.
We’ve put together a series of simple courses oriented on the practical use of handguns — along with a scoring system that promotes a relaxed, friendly attitude (like a bowling league). ASI shoots are competitions, but we’re more concerned about having fun and learning something along the way than fighting for every point.
From the rules we have their goals and principles.
Goals:
Maintain safety and safety awareness to the greatest extent possible.
Provide a welcoming social experience where everyone can learn and have fun. If you’re not enjoying yourself at an ASI match, you’re not doing it right!
Provide shooters with courses of fire that: – derive from practical themes – test accuracy at speed while developing dynamic gun handling skills
Emphasize the local recreational shooter. A “win at all costs” mentality is not welcome.
Emphasize gun handling, not athleticism.
Provide thought-provoking shooting experiences, training opportunities, and demonstrations of interest to the ASI community – particularly at regional and national events.
Provide shooting clubs with a turn-key program.
PRINCIPLES:
Participants at our matches shall:
Explore the skills of “gun handling,” not tactics
Treat caliber and magazine capacity as irrelevant
Seek and use concealment
Accept that as a practical matter, certain limits must be placed on equipment and conduct for reasons of safety, scoring, competitive equity, and the like.
It took me a few stages to get used to the importance of excellence in accuracy on a paper target where you can’t really see the scoring rings most of the time. I could see my shots were not as accurate as needed and at first I put as many as four shots on a targets instead of the required two. I had to slow down some and get my shots to count the first time.
I was able to use my STI DVC Limited gun without complaints by the match director. The stages were short enough or mandated a magazine change between the first and last shot that negated the benefits of 18 round magazines. And no stage required more than two 7-round magazines if you didn’t miss your target much.
Holsters are not required. You start from the low ready or with your gun on a table or on one stage inside a “briefcase”.
Here are the stages we shot:
I forgot to turn on my video glasses for one stage. Ignore my excessive shots as I try to get two good shots on each target on the first stage.
I did okay. The “main event” was four stages. I came in 8th out of 31 shooters. There were two “Bonus Stages” and I came in second out of 30 shooters in those. I was finally getting the balance of speed and accuracy required for this type of match.
