Author Archives: Lyle

Public Servants

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The term has often been one that garners respect, as though the public servant is someone donating his or her time out of a sense of duty and purpose.  “Serving” the public and milking the public are somewhat different concepts though.  Someone who makes over $100K in a small town public school, for example, with a nice medical insurance policy and a nice pension is a “servant” while someone doing much the same thing in the private sector for half the pay and no pension, supporting himself while paying the taxes to support the Public Servant, is not a servant at all.  The private entrepreneur is “greedy”.  Right?  Greed and the profit motive are one in the same thing, right?  That’s what you’ve been taught, I bet.


What do you call a group of public servants, coercively funded, that has been organized, has huge political influence, and is currently helping to bankrupt several states?  Is that public service, or is it something else?


Some state governments are starting to realize that the gravy train for the selfless public servants is running dry– that something major needs to change.  The response from the selfless servants is that they’re taking to the streets.


I’ve been saying for years that public education, by its very nature and structure, was destined to become a de facto political party (which of course it is) with one of its goals being the indoctrination of the students to a certain political and world view amenable to the desires of the government/education complex.  It’s a given.  It’s an inevitability.  A guarantee.  A system based on coercive funding, that would teach and promote the principles of liberty, and the protection of property rights that are fundamental to liberty, would be in a perpetual conflict of interest.  That cannot last.  I did not last.


That has been considered an ultra-extremist point of view by many.  You just don’t say those things in mixed company.  I’ve also pointed out that the fastest way to lose a friend who’s complaining about his “small budget” or “low pay” in a public position, is to tell him he can always quit, get a job in the private sector and find out exactly what he’s worth.  You’d better step back before you say something like that, because violence will be on his mind.  Who’s more “extreme”; the person stating a simple truth, which is obvious to anyone who’s operated a business, or the person who wants to punch you in the face for saying it?  If a simple truth is now to be considered extreme, what does that say about the current state of our culture?


So it has came to pass, that the teachers have taken to the streets, bringing their students with them (and you said public education was never about indoctrination.  No; couldn’t be.  That would be bad, and we all know that teachers are saints) to demand more goodies from a state that they helped bankrupt.  To hell with the state government.  To hell with the governor who’s trying to keep the state out of bankruptcy.  To hell with everything and everyone; we want more goodies!  To hell with the public!  (Look at the signs they’re carrying)


These are our sefess “servants” who care about nothing in the world but the common good, and we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing from them.  It is an inevitability, where ever and when ever we have the arrogance to believe that WE can get away with having a coercion-based system, because WE can afford it, because WE are so very, very smart and compassionate.  This is going to keep happening as sure as you are reading this, and it is going to escalate.  This is the result of our “Compassion“.

Headspace

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Headspace is simple.  It’s the distance from the gun’s bolt face to the surface inside the chamber that stops the forward motion of the cartridge as it’s inserted.  In a bottleneck cartridge, the case headspaces on the shoulder.


Many shooters, and all reloaders, know that.  But I think there’s a misunderstanding of case length (maybe it’s just my misunderstanding).  We’re told in all the manuals to carefully check the length of our cases before reloading, and to trim them if they’re beyond a certain specified length.


Actually there are two important case lengths to a bottlenecked case.  The distance from the head to the shoulder, and the distance from the shoulder to the case mouth.


My Winchester has what I regard to be excessive headspace, which means that if I fire a factory load, the case will stretch backward, to fill the extra space.  I suspect most of the stretching is between the shoulder and the bolt face.  If I neck size the case, or size it so the shoulder is pushed back only a thousandth or two, the case is now “too long” and I am told, in all the loading manuals, to trim it.  That would be shortening the neck in response to stretching behind the shoulder, and it would accomplish nothing.


Sure; the cases being loaded should all be the same length so they’re crimped equally, but I won’t know how far the case’s neck extends into the chamber by just measuring the overall length of the case.  Once I have a case that’s fire-formed to my rifle’s chamber, the neck may or may not need trimming.


Are there case gauges that make it easy to take a measurement of the mouth-to-shoulder length as well as the headspace?  Should I just shut up and full-length size all my cases, trim them to spec, and wait for the cases to deteriorate from excessive stretching and sizing? (the rifle was checked by a “gunsmith” and declared to be within spec, BTW)

Conspiracy

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Have you noticed that the very word “conspiracy”, like so many words, no longer means what it means?


Last night as I was listening to a conservative talk show, the host demonstrated this by saying; “This isn’t a conspiracy– it really happened”.


I may have to add an entry to the Left-Speak Dictionary.  Conspiracy – that which does not exist.  Something unreal.  Any irrational assertion.


The transformation is so advanced that even mostly rational, well-educated people are using it in the left-speak form.


It’s no longer necessary to include the “theory” afterward, either.  You use “conspiracy” by itself and it means the same thing; “Oh, that’s just a conspiracy” is now proper English in some quarters, for describing a ridiculous theory.  What are we to call a collaboration between two or more people then?  How about “fred”?  “It’s a fred, I tell you!  A fred!”  What are we to call an assertion that there may be a collaboration between two or more people?  A fred blop.  “I do not subscribe to your fred blop, Mr. Wilson, for the following reasons….”


Insurance against financial hardship in the event of an expensive medical emergency is how “healthcare”.  “Yeeahh; it’s a bummerrr, Dude– I don’t have healthcare.”  If healthcare is now insurance, what do we call insurance?


Make that two new entries.


I’d like to have a lot more gay (formerly cheerful and/or exuberant) intercourse (formerly any interaction, often especially conversation) with you here, but sometimes it’s difficult to get in the mood.  All the hope (formerly communist revolution) that’s been breaking out is getting me down.  I believe the evidence suggests that there is a greater-than-zero probability that it is the result of a collaboration between two or more people.  Does that make me “paranoid”?


Make that three.

Inception

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I watched the movie the other night.  It’s silly in a lot of ways, but it is interesting, not least because I once woke up from a dream after I realized I was dreaming, but it then turned out I was still dreaming.  I “awoke” right where I should be– right there on the couch where I’d fallen asleep, looked around, and got up.  “Wow, that was a weird dream” I thought.  What tipped me off was that I started floating up from the floor after I got up to go to the bathroom.  That’s a dead giveaway right there, see.  I could identify with the story in a way.  But this post isn’t about that.


An inception the way it was used in the movie, is the seed of an idea that, once it’s planted, cannot be stopped.  It sprouts, takes root, grows and eventually bears fruit.


I remember quite clearly an inception experience I had during my dark days of believing in leftist garbage.  I had what I’ve since referred to as the “Default Mentality”.  It was natural.  Everyone had it.  It was just the way things were.  School teachers, professors, friends, the talking heads on NPR and PBS– everyone thought that way but for a few idiots dredged up and brought in just to make the discussion more interesting and prove to us that we were the smart ones.  I was listening to a crazy, extremist right wing talk show (to see just how stupid it was, and gloat over it) and one of the callers gave his definition of a “liberal”; “The kind of person who will give you the shirt off of someone else’s back.”  I could not refute that.  Hmm.  That set the snowball in motion, though it had already been building on top of the hill by that time.


There was another one that happened long before.  A girl (yes, girl– we were in our tweens) I was dating just set it out there all by itself; “About the only things the federal government should be doing are commanding the military and maintaining the interstates.”  I guffawed, naturally, and she let it be, but that inception of an idea never left me.  Now I question why they should be involved in the interstates (if we need some way to get around, we’ll come up with the solution without being forced by someone else).  Obviously she was a Progressive.


The left has used seed planting for generations.  It’s why they’ve always used “rights” to describe coercive redistribution, “regulation” to describe coercive restrictions, “democracy” as though it is synonymous with freedom, “hope and change” to describe communist revolution, and so on, redefining all the important words and concepts.  Just the misuse of one little word– one single word over here, another little word slipped in over there while you weren’t paying attention, to reverse the meaning of life itself.  Eventually the students are rioting in the streets and taking over the campus, and the Jonestown inhabitants are all dead– men, women and children.  The untimate in “shared sacrifice”.  Why, don’t the good Christians believe in sharing?  Don’t they believe in sacrifice?  Of course they do.  Shared sacrifice can be wonderful.  But see how it was turned around into something ghastly.


We have it much better though, because we have reality on our side.  My challenge to you who advocate the American Principles of Liberty is to plant seeds of your own.  It’s very easy.  Seeds are very small, light, and very compact.  Here’s one that I think just qualifies;


Gun restrictions are not only an affront to the ideal of liberty; they are counterproductive in practice.


Simpler yet; substitute “gun restrictions” with “prohibitions”.  Same thing, you see, but it’s a bit lighter.


Redistribution and restriction do not equal freedom.


Freedom means one thing– the protection of rights.


It isn’t a right if it demands something of someone else.


You know? People, when left alone, are capable of some really cool things…


Try to take it from there if you like.  This is somewhat new to me, and I’m sure others can do better at it.  There are perhaps thousands of them you could come up with– Simple, very small, resilient ideas that can sit around until the conditions are right.  Find some soil and plant them.  Scatter them to the wind and they’ll sprout if they find the right conditions.  Too often we’re tempted to try to convert someone with a protracted back and forth argument until we’re out of breath.  If the conditions for that little seed aren’t right, don’t flood it with more and more water and wash it away.  Just plant it and let it sit there.  You don’t pound seeds into the ground.  You just sort of drop them there, and wait.  When things warm up after the snow melts, when the next rain comes in springtime, they will germinate.

Hmm

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When I heard of “ghost cities” I first thought of places like Detroit– a city essentially bombed out by leftist policies.  Instead there are all these stories of empty cities being built in China.


I don’t know what to think.  On one hand the stories could be a hoax, but then I realize that communists do the stupidest things imaginable already, over and over, and they never seem to learn anything.  Why not build an empty city?


That’s always the problem, isn’t it?  It’s hard to tell when a leftist is making fun of himself or being serious, or when someone parodying leftists or telling the truth about them.  There really isn’t any clearly definable difference.

Shotgun Import Restrictions and the Federal Bureau of Sport

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F-Troop wants to “study” the “sporting purposes” of some popular shotguns.  Maybe they’re desperate to justify their existence.  Maybe they’re just bored, or maybe they hate certain liberties enumerated in the constitution.  I don’t know, but it’s about time for Congress to look for ways to clamp down on F-Troop, and question the legitimacy of the Gun Control Act of 1968.  F-Troop, and federal gun restrictions, are relics of the 1920s Prohibition era, and it’s about time we explore ways to rid ourselves of that ugly legacy once and for all.  Short of that, we should at least be able to keep it from growing until we have the votes in Congress to eliminate it.


ETA; Hat tip to Uncle for pointing to the NSSF article.

Help Heller Holler Harder

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Oleg Volk is trying;



I am trying to help Dick Heller with raising funds for more legal mischief in DC.


I may be a good idea to assist Heller in piling on, as you are able.  The more the anti rights bigots, cowards, liars and charlatans in Washington have to contend with, the better.  They are getting desperate now, seeing their Big Chance slipping away after so many generations of careful plotting and planning to spoil this great experiment that is America.  The more these kinds of straight-up contests (the Heller kind) are made public, the more the forces of evil lose their control, and they know it.  They are afraid, and they will do some very stupid things as a result.


See; right here– This is why the beast hates the internet and lusts for control of it.

‘My Gunsmith Says…’

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I’ve put off saying this for about ten years, but it’s gotten to be too much.  “Sorry” to you good gunsmiths.  I know you’re out there.  I’d say that you know who you are, and I’m sure you do, but the problem is; the bad ones also think they’re the good ones.  They’re super good, even.  That’s always the way it works.  I began to realize this some time in the 1970s when I was in the early stages of my career as a musical instrument mechanic with an alternate career as a live sound mixer (“technician” or “engineer”, respectively, for those who feel it needs to sound exciting and hard to reach).


The really smart sound engineers could quote you all the specs of every piece of gear they had.  They could recite from memory the center frequencies of all 31 bands of a graphic equalizer, for example.  After they had everything all set up and the system response tweaked using the pink noise generator with the front-of-house EQs, monitor EQs and active crossovers, when the performance actually started (which is when the real job of actually making it all sound good actually begins) they’d turn around satisfied, sit down, and have a sandwich and a little chat about sweet nothings.  Man, those guys were really smart, and they often made sure everyone around them understood that they were smart.  Why, they went to college, and stuff, don’t you know?


It seems we get an inordinate proportion of failed or stalled UltiMAK mount installations, an inordinate number of misunderstandings of how the system works, from, you guessed it– gunsmiths.


Apparently, they know and understand far too much to be bothered with reading and following the instructions.  Even when they contact me about this or that perceived problem, they are too smart to accept my explanations.  They, you see, understand mechanics better than the person who designed the system, built the first prototypes using hand tools and common power tools in a musical instrument shop, did the majority of testing, wrote most of the patent claims, and used the system for over ten years.  They tell me all the reasons why it can’t possibly, ever work, why my hands-on experience is wrong, why the experience of over ten thousand users of a single model is all wrong, and how I’m being a dumb jerk for suggesting they might just go ahead and follow the simple instructions to the letter anyway and then see how it goes.


Since an inordinate number of damaged mounts have come from such gunsmiths also (again, because they are smarter and more experienced) I have to wonder how many of them go on to become politicians, city administrators, professors, or left wing community organizers.  There is an uncanny set of parallels.

The Smart People Should be Running Everything

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That’s the assertion of all leftists (communists, socialists, Fascists, Nazis, the KKK, Progressives, or whatever it is they prefer to be called this week).  Here’s one of the super duper smart people (Chuck Schumer) discussing the horrible things (naturally) that will ensue if the socialists don’t get their way, and the Three Branches of Government that all have to get along.  Rather than imbed the video, I link to Schumer’s comment here, to show that Reasoned DiscourseTM has broken out on YouTube (at the time of the this post, comments are turned off there).


To summarize the ultrasmart senator’s comments; our creditors want us to go farther in debt, and the three branches of government are the House, Senate, and the President.  Oh; and we have to “…pay the debt ceiling…”  Well it’s good to know that the smart people are in charge of ordering us around.  I’d hate to be pushed around by a fool.


This, says I, is why we can’t allow the smart people the power to make our decisions for us.  Don’t tell anyone (it may be too uncomfortable for some of the sensitive types) but some people are so stupid that they actually believe they’re smarter than most everyone else.  What is it that’s said of those who have such problems– that they’re usually the last to know?


I suppose New Yorkers like Schumer because he brings them lots of booty.  Or they think he does.

Wild-eyed Extremist Enters Public School with Four Shotguns!

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No arrests were made.


And he was thanked for doing so.


Once again it’s trap shooting season at our kids’ high school (now I suppose I have to qualify; by “our kids” I do NOT mean kids in general as though they’re all “ours” and “We” are all responsible for raising them and feeding them, etc., but instead I refer to the actual offspring of my wife and me) and I was invited to teach the required gun safety class again this year.  The FFA shooting team consists of 9th through 12th graders, and we had around 13 show up for the class.


I had to get special permission just to bring the guns into the school (with no live ammo of course) and even then I could not have the students physically touch them.  I had to use the guns only as props, to explain some of the different action types.  A friend even loaned me a 16 gauge, bolt-action shotgun– a Mossberg 190– detachable box magazine, ported barrel and adjustable choke, and kids thought it was cool, which of course it is.  Smart kids.


The NRA safety courses have each student, in turn, demonstrate their ability to safely load and unload each action type, using inert ammunition, while also demonstrating proper muzzle and trigger discipline.  That of course gives the student the far better understanding that only comes from hands-on experience, but it was meant not to be.  The one condition placed on my being allowed to bring guns in was that only I could touch them.  A good and proper safety class would be too dangerous, I suppose, yet they allow bicycles (and even automobiles!) on campus.  Go figure.


Still and all; there was more appreciation showed this year, both from the students and their parents, and I saw more gleams in more eyes than before as parents made a point of coming over and thanking me before leaving.  In the past they’ve been more interested in simply getting home.  It may be my imagination, or wishful thinking, but I’m sensing a change in attitudes, as more people are talking amongst the community.

‘Our Progressive Health Care Bill is Better Than Theirs’

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Maybe you thought the newly elected Republicans would move to get government’s meddling, grubby hands out of the health care industry.


Think again, suckers.


How many times must we be treated to silver hairspray dude trying to act as though he genuinely believes what he’s saying?  That guy didn’t make it two and a half minutes without an edit, and he was reading from a prompter.  This is our leadership?  It’s an insult.


The least they could do is get these phonies a few more acting lessons, so when they’re bullshitting us to death, at least they’d do a good job of it.  I really wonder who it is they think will find that video appealing.  I think that guy came right off the set of the Lawrence Welk Show.


If you’re figuring on politics to help reverse this encroaching socialism, you’d better be working more locally, because the national-level Republicans are up to the same old Progressive tricks.

It Took About 70 Years…

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…or so (I wasn’t counting but for the last few) but the correct optic mount for the U.S. Rifle, Caliber 30, M1, also known as the Garand Rifle, is now available for sale.  We’re waiting to ship until next week, when I’m supposed to have the illustrated  instructions ready, but the product is all ready to go.  In addition to making bullets, I’ll be burning the oil all weekend editing images – we try to make the illustrations serve as a more or less stand-alone picture storybook, for them that gets their information better if it’s visual.



Pretty, methinks, though I may be slightly prejudiced.


Use any IER (Scout) scope, reflex or holographic sight.  Pistol scopes may be used also, but need more eye relief and you’ll be mounting them as far forward as they’ll go.  The scout scopes are a perfect match, as is the Aimpoint Micro, Comp, et al, which also allow co witnessing.


If the rifle is good with its iron sights, it’s just as good, only faster and in a far wider range of lighting conditions, with a good optic, even a good 1x optic.


There has been a general assumption that a dot sight is a close quarters sight.  That is true, in the same sense that iron sights are for close quarters, except of course that the dot sight is a vastly superior system.  The dot sight still has its advantages on the longer shots, out to your iron sight maximum range.  More in-depth info on electronic sights here.



That’s the T1 on the new UltiMAK M12.  Now you can punch more holes, in more things, faster, under more lighting conditions, with more confidence.


The weight of the mount body, clamps and screws is 6.16 ounces.  The walnut handguard with retainer clip, that the mount replaces, weighs about 2.24 ounces, so the net installed weight is 3.92 ounces.  Your figure may vary depending on your handguard.  The mount clamps to a tapered barrel, so just like our M8 mount for the M-14, it needs a recoil lug to prevent the mount “falling off the taper”.  The M1 has that rear barrel band right there, pinned to the barrel, hence the M12’s front clamp has been extended a few thousandths beyond the front of the mount body, to engage the barrel band.  It uses two discreet clamping positions, like all our mounts, so there is never an issue with minor variations in barrel profiles.  In this case, as with our M6 for the 30 Carbine, it is cantilevered for some distance behind the rear clamp.


Mention this post in checkout at UltiMAK and you’ll get a 10% early adopters, The-View-From-North-Central-Idaho discount.  Good through Jan, 2011 – see update below.  Then send the difference to the Second Amendment Foundation.


You saw it here first (unless you were on the UltiMAK site within the last 24 hours).  This is the numero uno press release, right nghyaw!


{shameless self promotion = “off”}


Update, Jan 11, 2011; I posted this before we’d had a chance at a meeting to determine price.  We’re changing the price to $185.00.  No on-line orders have been charged as yet, so all orders will be automatically charged at the lower price, and those who mentioned, or mention, this post will receive the discount from the lower price.  Discount offer good through January, 2011.  Any walk-ins that occured before this notice, let us know and we’ll refund the balance.  Thanks, everyone, for the big response!

(Mostly) First Shots

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I met Rose through Oleg (who met her through Mike and Laurel last Spring) who got her into modeling.  She’d told Oleg she wanted to learn more about shooting, so he got her and me talking.  It took a while, but we got to the range this Monday.  It was cold, with several inches of snow on the ground, but we managed to get in a couple hours of trigger time.


We went through the safety rules, loading and unloading, manipulating the controls on a Ruger Mark II and a Daewoo DP-51 9 mm, stance, grip, sight picture, trigger control, some thoughts on anticipation (flinching), and follow-through.


Rose explained that since she is a boxer, she knows all about flinching and that it would not be a problem.  When you’re looking at getting punched in the face, you learn self control or it’s over quickly.  Good.  Shooting is very much a mental exercise.  I said that flinching is a problem for everyone, even experienced competitive shooters, and that I’ve seen a new shooter hit the ground halfway to a 10 yard target because of anticipation.


Well, her first ten rounds from the 22 auto all hit the 12″ square target, with one right in the center, from about 10 yards.  Pretty good for someone who’d only fired a pistol once, more than ten years ago.  It doesn’t always happen that way.  Usually we don’t even look at the first target, concentrating more on stance, grip and muzzle control.


She was pretty happy afterward, having hit all the 14 ounce vegetable cans with the 9 mm pistol.  We finished up with an UltiMAK equipped M1 30 Carbine, so she got introduced to the laser transmission hologram (this one had an Old Bushnell Holosight that we’d used for many years of testing at UltiMAK). 


Those vegetable cans didn’t stand a chance.


It was a pretty brief run-through, and Rose was visibly shivering from the cold, but she done good.  Though it is good practice in general, one would be well advised to treat her, especially, with respect.


I failed to tell her that she could be doing about as well at two and a half times the distance, with some more coaching and practice.  25 yards is the minimum distance in the pistol bays at the Kenmore Shooting Range, where I took my instructor training.  They teach beginners there too, and do well with it by all accounts.

If You’re Clueless, Take a Poll

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The NRSC sent out a mass e-mail this week, linking to a web-site poll they have going.  Seriously, guys; you haven’t been listening all year?


It may just be that poll-taking is a pet peeve of mine, but really; if you came into the field (any field) not knowing what you want do and why you want to do it, why are you there at all?  You ran for office, in this case, and really, really wanted to win.  You spent tons of money and long hours getting elected, and now you don’t know why you’re there?  Whiskey…Tango…Foxtrot?


As usual, the poll questions are multiple choice, and as usual the answers could be easily interpreted in opposite ways, depending on the observer.  Unlike many polls however, there are places to enter comments.


They start with; “What do you think should be the first legislation addressed by the new Congress?”


There are four choices, plus “Other”.


I left them all blank and then entered this comment;



It’s really quite simple; if you understood the American Principles of Liberty, you wouldn’t need to take a poll.  The fact that you’re asking tells me you’re fishing for a position, trying to figure out what it is you should PRETEND to believe.  Crack a history book or two and figure it out, then run on those principles, actually stand for them in practice, and win big.


Then came; “Please rank in order of importance to you personally, the following issues” and there were nine choices, starting with abortion (really?) plus “other”.  I left them all blank, and filled in the next comment box;



Regarding #4; See, there you go again.  I don’t see liberty on the ballot.  Never have.  Hence the problem.  This isn’t rocket science, people.  Defeat the left.  Go for the jugular and drive them and their programs into political extinction.  Get Progressivism out of the Republican Party so we can win more elections, shrink the federal government (I mean real, meaningful contractions, and closure of departments) and “promote the general welfare” BY  PROMOTING LIBERTY.  It doesn’t work any other way.


Do we demand perfection immediately?  Of course not.  1; There is no such thing as perfection, and 2; things take time.  The point is; if you have the Ideals, you naturally trend toward them.  If you don’t have the Ideals, stand aside and make room for someone who does.


But after you submit the poll, you’re taken directly to a donation form.  Chances are, no one’s interested in the poll (it’s a piece of jr. high school crap anyway) so much as they’re interested in the raising of funds.


Here’s another (bonus) message for you Senate Republicans;



I’ll consider sending you money after I see some results.  I’m tired of supporting mushy, confused Republicans who can’t decide what it is they should pretend to stand for.  Been there, done that, and I’m never doing it again.


You know about all those eligible voters who sit out election after election?  Yeah; maybe that’s a clue you’re still not getting, and maybe, just maybe, it’s a sign that there are millions of votes available to someone who will, for once, actually stand for American ideals rather than simply jabbering about them during campaign season and hoping we’re still dumb enough to fall for it.  Time is running out.


Really?  You guys didn’t see the spontaneity and scale of the tea party movement?  You really didn’t understand a bit of it?

Making Your Own Ammo – Cheap?

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I started casting bullets last winter for my percussion guns, and since it’s been going well I recently started looking at bullet molds for the .30-30.  I don’t use the Winchester much, but if I could make ammo for a few pennies per round, I might use it more often.  I already have loading dies for that cartridge.

 

I figured a bullet mold would be a good investment, but then I figure for the .30-30 I need a bullet sizer (maybe a lubrisizer while we’re at it, ‘cause lead bullets need lubed), a .309” sizing die, top punch, gas checks, gas check seater plug, some good lube, handles for the mold.  Then I’ll need some different powder…

 

That’s several hundred dollars to start loading “cheap” ammo for a rifle I probably haven’t fired 100s of dollars of commercial ammo through in all the years I’ve owned it.  But then I figure I could also cast 9 mm and .357” bullets, but that’s more molds, sizing dies, and punches.

 

I don’t know; do any of you have all this extra hardware and cast a lot of bullets, and do you find it’s paid for itself?  Sure it depends on how much you shoot, but there’s also the independence factor – you’re making your own bullets.  Or is it just a big drag on your time, such that you find yourself buying more bullets or loaded ammo than you make?

 

Hmm.  The percussion revolvers’ chambers act as their own sizing die, the loading ram acts as it’s own “top punch”, I can lube the bullets by dipping them in the tallow I get as a byproduct from hunting, they don’t need gas checks or special lead alloys, or loading dies, punches, et al.  I already have the ~20 dollar conical bullet mold and the ~20 dollar ball mold and the ~60 dollar furnace.  That’s an investment of about 100 dollars.  After that it’s mostly just lead, powder and caps, and there’s no recovering of spent brass, no cleaning of brass, and no decapping, sizing or crimping the brass.  The drawbacks though are obvious in that we’re back to the mid 19th century.

 

I see that Lee is soon to come out with an eighteen cavity 00 buckshot mold.  It’s near the bottom of the page here.

Instant Incapacitation

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Apparently it’s not possible to tell a hunting story in under 1,000 words.  Something about the laws of rhetorical physics.  You’ve been warned.


 


I choose Late Muzzleloader season in Eastern Washington because it allows the harvest of almost any deer – three point minimum or antlerless.  We see few bucks around here, and since I hunt for the table I don’t care about old, tough bucks with big racks.  They’re chewy and don’t taste as good.  All that and there are very few other hunters out this late.  It’s win win.


 


Late Muzzleloader lasts one week, so I’ve been out twice a day since last Wednesday.  The below zero temp Wednesday morning was hard to take, but it was beautiful and I remember sitting up in the tree thinking, “This is definitely worth it even if I don’t get a deer.  Wow!”


 


The tree I sit in is on a steep slope, with deer tracks crisscrossing all below and behind me, with a few tracks in front along the top of the ridge overlooking the Palouse River.  I’ve seen at least six deer by Sunday (or two deer three times) but no clear shots.  Mostly I’ve seen them on the run or behind tens of yards of thick brush as I walk to the stand, or after legal hours.  One of them got stuck in a snow drift.  We usually think of deer as graceful and poised at all times, but this fellow was flailing all over the place, feet in the air even, trying to get away from me.  I was a little bit embarrassed for him.  By the time I’d stumbled out of the brush to get a clear shot though, he was gone.  That’s how it went for several days.  Several shots I could’ve taken, but no.


 


Sunday evening I was going to stay in and rest up, by my son convinced me go out again.  Good thing.  I see no deer on the way up to the tree.  That’s good.  Infiltration without detection means I have a better chance of sniping one unawares.


 


I’d been up there for no more than half an hour, mostly looking around behind me where most of the tracks were, trying to spot a deer before it got to me.  Therefore I failed to spot the nice three pointer walking casually along the ridge above, silent as a ghost in the powder snow, until he was right in front of me and already walking away.


 


It’s a sharp quartering away shot, 20 yards or less at eye level.  Good backstop with several miles of empty farm fields behind.  The time for the ideal shot was spent with my back turned.  Hurry with getting the mitten open so the trigger finger is exposed.  Silently cock the sidelock.  He’s oblivious.  He’s going to be out of view in a few seconds.  I have to duck so I can sight under some hanging pine boughs.  Aim for the heart.  That means hitting behind the rib cage at this angle.  Since I’m bending way down to see under the boughs, my glasses frame is in the way of the rifle sights.  Crap.  Have to dismount and push the glasses farther on.  Take aim again.  Time’s up.


 


Crack!  I hadn’t thought to worry about the powder charge that had been in the barrel for several days.  After that morning in below zero temperature, the barrel had frosted over when I came inside, and it had been snowing every time after, such that I’d take the barrel out of the stock to dry things out each day.  No problem.  120 grains of FFG under a patched soft lead 50 caliber ball with a #11 percussion cap.  Perfect ignition.  This newfangled percussion system you kids have been using just might catch on.


 


There’s always a moment of uncertainty for me, especially with black powder because you’re peering through a smoke cloud trying to see what happened to the target.


 


I’ve heard of “anchoring” the animal in its tracks, but was beginning to think the phenomenon a myth.  My son and I have killed around 9 deer and this has never happened, even with both lungs, and the heart, obliterated they always run some distance.  This time the ball must have upset the central nervous system because the fellow went straight down.  Zap! And he only twitched for a short while.


 


Some sense of reverence comes upon me when I approach the animal.  It’s happened every time.  They are very beautiful, strong, sleek, and delicious with new potatoes, turkey gravy, fresh fruit and red wine.


 


The ball had gone in at the back of the ribcage on the right side and exited through the base of the neck under the spine on the left.  ~21.5 inches of penetration, and though you could fit your thumb in the entry wound, I couldn’t get but the tip of my little finger through the skin at the exit wound.  The ball had just barely pooped out of the skin.  Though it’s what we would call a short range prospect, I’m beginning to trust the 50 caliber patched ball load.


 


It was a good day.  I’m happy, and the freezer will soon be full.


 


I’m still puzzled.  That pure lead ball leaves the muzzle at around 1920 fps according to my CED chronograph, or a little more ’cause that’s averaged at 15 feet.  Last year I shot a deer at 85 yards and the ball penetrated 25 inches with almost no deformation.  We here concluded that the velocity at impact had been subsonic due to the very poor BC, hence a lower pressure at impact, hence the pristine ball (I recovered it from just under the skin and thought it was probably good enough to load again).  This shot Sunday was at no more than 20 yards, maybe more like 15, yet I see no sign of ball deformation so far (I’ll check it out more closely upon butchering in a few days).  You’d think with all the talk about bullet integrity, hard alloys and such, that a pure lead ball at that velocity would obliterate, giving shallow penetration.  So what gives?

The Science is Settled

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As we all now know, if you want to answer a question scientifically, you take a poll.  That’s the New Scientific Method.  Scientific American magazine took such a poll regarding anthropogenic Gluball Worming (that’s Kim Du Toit’s term, IIRC) and since they didn’t like the results, it would seem Reasoned DiscourseTM has kicked in.  I suppose the New Scientific Method will have to be amended – you take a poll of Open Society socialists only.  Then you’ll get the right results.

This from Hockey Schtick, which has ostensibly maintained a link to the unwanted results.  Take it for what you will.  Do your own investigation.  Myself, I find it hard to believe even though I know the left like the back of my hand and therefore such things should come as no surprise.  I heard of this poll on the Dennis Prager show last week, and figured I should share.

I used to subscribe to Scientific American, until I received the impression that desperate academics were using it merely as a vehicle for getting published.  I got tired of wading through so much evidence of non-inspiration, just to find the few interesting tidbits.  Still I’ll give them credit for being the only place I’d heard of superfluids, pre internet.

To me it’s not terribly important one way or the other.  The left has been crying “Wolf!” for generations now and it has worn thin, and worn out, for me decades ago.  The planet Earth was supposed to run out of oil in the 1980s, and so we were supposed to adopt more socialism.  The “Population Time Bomb” was going to get us by then too, we were told as elementary school students, and so we were supposed to adopt more socialism including forced population controls.  The planet was going to freeze up in a new ice age, we were told back in the 1960s, and then it became Glueball Worming, and now it’s “Climate Change”.  Those are just a few highlights, but this crap has been non-stop for what – about 150 years?  They’ve lost control of the narrative now.  What will happen as a result?

I figure it’ll have to get more down to the point – It’ll have to be plain old threats from the left at some point.  When the spoiled child’s attempts at lying and manipulation fall flat, the all-out tantrums come next.  The best we can do I suppose is ignore them, but when they start breaking things it gets difficult.

If You Have to Ask…

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…you clearly haven’t been paying attention.


The Political Insider (requires registration for e-mail alerts) is fielding a poll, trying to find out who we want for the next Republican presidential candidate.  It’s all multiple choice, with the usual suspects.  There are some general opinion questions too.  The one that really got me is; “Do you think the tea party represents the Republican Party?”


Oh boy.  First; No, or I sure hope not.  But that’s not the proper question.  The proper question would be; “Do you think the Republican Party represents the tea party?”  The answer is; “Hell No, that’s why the tea party exists.  Get it?”


That, you Insiders, is the problem, and so the tea party is trying to overrun the Republican Party, co opt it, and bring it into line.  The other question I did not see is; “What should be the primary goal of the Republican Party over the next several years?”


The one, simple answer is; “Get rid of socialism and purge the socialists from American government payrolls.  All of it.  All of them.”  We’ve had enough.


They didn’t give us the opportunity to answer in our own words, so I deleted the message.

Quote of the Day – Bill Whittle

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…just because something is fun, and scares away weenies, doesn’t mean that it’s stupid.


Bill Whittle
November 4, 2010
What We Believe, Part 5: Gun Rights
[Freedom is scary for a lot of people, and it means that people who hate you can’t tell you what to do or how to do it, just because they hate you.  It sucks for them, and it makes them angry.  Hence, freedom pisses people off.  Hence, if you love freedom, you have to come to grips with the fact that people are going to hate you.  Embrace it, Little Grasshopper.  Or as Zaphod Beeblebrox said after having a nuclear missile attack launched against his ship; “Man, This is Great!  It means we’re really on to something if they’re trying kill us!”–Lyle]

Neighbors

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My son and a neighbor kid got into some trouble last Spring.  A minor property crime against the local grange– a stupid, boyish stunt.  That’s the first big mistake in this series.


John Law got involved and came down HARD on the two kids.  Really serious shit, as if they were career, hard-core gang leaders or something.  Second big mistake.  No one’s really responsible either– things go largely according to a pre-ordained plan in a largely manditory system.  I would have thought this could be settled better, more efficiently and with more focus on restitution and correction, by neighbors talking to neighbors, but John Law has to get his piece of the action or he feels all left out and stuff.  Instead, my first news of this came after the kids had been arrested.  Watching the excitement on Hawaii 5-O and hardly ever even getting to slap the cuffs on some kids in a small town can be a bitch I guess.  Maybe we’re all bitches now.  Some people seem to think so, or wish it were so.


Fast-forward several months.  My son’s “partner in crime” from last Spring was found dead this Saturday morning.  Someone spotted his body near a bridge a few blocks away and made an anonymous call (who does that?) to 911.  I still don’t know the cause of death and it would be irresponsible to speculate.  All we know right now is; it has been reported that foul play is not suspected.


While making a huge pot of soup from our garden vegetables, duck eggs and yearling elk heart (which is tender and wonderful– thank you, Chris) this weekend, I thought back to 1977 which is when my sister and niece were killed.  Some of our neighbors brought over prepared food for us, and it was very well received.  It’s so simple, yet it makes a lot of sense.  When you’re tragedy-struck, you probably have less, or no, appetite and you sure don’t want to fix meals or go shopping when you have all the aftermath to deal with, and the grief.  But you have to eat, so I thought of bringing the parents and surviving son some of the soup and some other things this last Sunday.


Then the doubt kicked in.  Third big mistake.  “I don’t even really know these people, and for all I know they might hate the very idea of elk heart (Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies offering ‘possum-n-grits, chicken fried skunk, or some such, comes to mind), they might be offended, or maybe they’d blame my son for what happened or something.  Maybe they don’t eat meat or these other things.”  All this stupid, inane garbage prevented me from going down there straight away.  The wife was out of town at a rehearsal, the kids need to stay on their homework—all the regular stuff adds up too.


An offer of help can always be refused, but at least you’re giving them the option and asking nothing, which is the whole point.  Isn’t it?  I’ve gone stupid and wobbly in my old age.  Yakkity yacking more and doing less, maybe.


A few days later I finally got around to going over there with some home-made sweet cider and some fresh duck eggs.  The grandmother answered the door, and I spoke to her and the mother.  They were extremely gracious, appreciative and talkative, almost fawning, but that’s not the point.  I’d decided in advance that if they slammed the door in my face I’d be OK with that.  They informed me that the kids’ father is now in the hospital in intensive care for, among other things, not eating. (sigh)


If you think someone might need a little gesture of help, and even if you think your offer is dumb, maybe you should just offer the damn help.  Git ‘er done.  But I’m not finished here;


A community social network of some kind can be a precious thing, and whether you’re an atheist, agnostic, or haven’t thought much about it, your local church organizations can and do offer that sort of network.  So long as they don’t go all hell-fire and brimstone on people, they are potentially a great value to society.  I’ve harshly questioned organized religion, and I think with good reason.  Some of them are downright evil, some have fallen in with the Tides Foundation or other global leftist organizations, but the argument isn’t all one-sided.


Time was when churches, the Rotary Club, Elks, Moose Lodge, Eagles, Granges and so on were THE centers of local community action.  Now it’s a coercive, increasingly centralized government in concert with what can only be described as communist agitators and punks (such that now even the very term “community action” connotes leftist agitation).  Which would you rather?