I Know This Tune

I see Midway is rapidly running out of primers for reloading. I've just picked up 13,000 of various types, which isn't much if one is seriously paranoid, but is probably more than enough if not planning for the full Mad Max scenario.

Shades of 2008.

More!

Got out yesterday and put some rounds downrange. Sadly, it was all .22 rimfire. While any shooting is better than none, and .22 rimfire is good for training and the pocketbook, it lacks something. Namely, recoil.
Guess it's time to start getting the loading gear out the moving boxes. The Dillon 450 was the first one I dug out, and since it has the .38 Special dies in it.............Looking at it, I think I'll tear it down and detail clean it. Don't know it's ever been done, as I bought it used at a gun show, where it wasn't much cleaner than it is at the moment. Carb cleaner, WD-40, and axle grease. Because I'm all about the expensive custom cleaning stuff.

Even the bayonet............

Responsibility: A Problem For Other People

After reading this article in the local paper, it strikes me that if those interviewed are actually representative of the area, we have some significant problems.

It appears to me that most of these people have no concept of how our political system was designed to work, that political parties differ because not everyone thinks as they do, and that a government that can rapidly enforce change and ensure full employment will be totalitarian, which will bring an end to this whole notion of speaking your mind in public.

But most of all, there is overwhelming desire to have someone else take care of problems. And that never ends well although most people seem to forget government's actual response to disasters as soon as normality returns and are shocked when the same performance occurs in the next response.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Not that Webleys were objets d'art to start with, but there's something about a snub version that makes it worse. That said, a few Webleys in .455 are on the wish list.

A Brief Reply....

 that must seem utterly irrational to a large segment of the population Which is disappointing. I thought the outcome rather appropriate.

 My comments on the matter:

1) If someone has forcibly entered my house, they've established their disregard for the law in breaking and entering. 

2) If someone has no regard for the law regarding breaking and entering, I must consider for my family's sake that there may be no regard for the law in respect to battery, assault, or homicide. 

3) My life and the lives of others have value to me; I will not risk them on behalf of someone who has displayed malicious intent, and has chosen to place himself at risk for illegal and unethical gain at a cost to me and mine. 

4) Some people are malicious, and no amount of hand-wringing and happy thoughts changes the fact that there will always be individuals who regard other people as things to be used and thrown away. I have no regrets when these people come to a bad end, as it's a lesser evil compared to what they would go on to do to others if not stopped.

One has to wonder, what kind of dysfunctional mental process is going on where a family doesn't really mind one of their own being a chancre on society's body, but has idea that they should confront the individuals who were wronged? These are the type of people that you definitely don't want to be near when civil order isn't being actively enforced.

 H/t to Days of Our Trailers, who seems to have the same opinion on this matter.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Snert snort sniggle

It is immensely difficult to sit through a presentation in which a major medical equipment manufacturer is attempting to sell a piece of medical equipment, costing around 1.5 million dollars installed, when said vendor continually refers to testimonials of the equipment's performance by an individual named "Dr. Poon".

Yeah, I'm Done Listening

I've had all of the debate I can take, and I'm switching it off. I loathe Obama. The mere sound of him speaking sickens me. And that's when he's not actively lying. I'd even vote for John McCain compared  to Obama, and I think John McCain is a self-centered, egotistical, pompous old hack who hasn't done anything worthwhile since 1975. Romney isn't my ideal candidate, but he's way ahead of the ass occupying the White House currently, and he's probably not overly enamored with trying to turn the US into a giant version of Venezuela.

I can't believe we've sunk so low.

Ugly Gun Sunday

I'm fairly confident I have everything in my basement that I would need to make one of these in a weekend, excepting a rifled barrel, and I'm not a machinist.

 Also, as I sit writing this, there is an arrogant crow strutting back and forth in my rural backyard at almost the exact distance my benchrest Winchester 52B is sighted in at. Sadly, I believe there's a season for them in NC, I don't have a hunting license and I'd rather not have a visit from the local DNR. This must be what it feels like for a cat watching from behind a window located next to a bird feeder.

Not A One..........

Went for an hour-plus, random-direction ride on the bike this afternoon. Saw lots of local election yard signs, several Romney/Ryan signs, and not one Obama sign. I'm starting to wonder if anyone would even admit to voting for him the last time.

Cracker Cabinetry

Got the day off today, which means I should finish the current house project: Fitting a modern refrigerator under cabinetry designed to fit the fridges a la 1961. Which were apparently four inches shorter than today's models. Making this less unpleasant than it might be otherwise, the cabinetry is the original pine installed in '61, with at least three coats of paint on it. All of which had been applied after the hinges were mounted. I hope, in year or two, to use it as bonfire material. Also making it less unpleasant was The Wife reminding me that I own a Sawzall, when I was thinking aloud how long it would take to cut the cabinetry by hand. Given that I'd normally used it to lop off tree limbs and cut pipe, it hadn't occurred to me to use it as a woodworking tool. I now know that a 6" metal cutting blade on a speed setting of 2 out of 10 lets one follow the pencil lines quite nicely, and will take the bottom off a mounted cabinet in less than five minutes. Today's project: Chopping four inches of the cabinet doors, routing the new edge, and moving the lower hinges. If it weren't for the rain coming down, I'd really be irritated I'm doing this instead of riding my bike...... (side note; I think I'd like a set of those targets.)

Ugly Gun Sunday

An illustration that if one understands the overall concept, and has enough drive, the basic object can be constructed. Fit and finish are nice, but the ability to make a tool that will enable you to acquire a nicer, more reliable tool is more important.

Off-Road Adventures

Narrow blacktop country road
+
50 mph speed limit
+
young woman driving a car that looks like she's going to make a left in front of me but doesn't +
accelerating to get past her before she makes the intersection
+
sharp left curve right after intersection
=
exciting ride through somebody's front yard, splitting the difference between a pine tree on the left and a telephone pole on the right, and a gentle curving left back onto the blacktop so as to avoid sinking my bike into said landowner's pond.


Bet that looked interesting if anybody was looking out the front window of the house.

Ugly Gun Sunday

I'd estimate the total cost at under $10.

Ugly Gun Sunday

If they made it in .44 Mag..............

Ugly Gun Sunday

The B-VI-307.

When Things Go Right............

We'll be hearing about Aurora for a long time yet, along with the calls for and end to civilian body armor sales, no internet sales of ammunition, registration of buying ammo, and limits on possessed amounts subject to inspection by local authorities working for the Feds.

What we probably won't be seeing or hearing about at the national level is things like this.

Thanks for the Image Boost

Normally, I'd say this is great. I'm glad they got the guy. I'm happy no one has an extra orifice.

Except..........

1) Firing a shot in the air to stop the burglar. Compared to Iowa, this place is populated. Popping a .44 Magnum into the air in a random direction is bad. Not AK-47 discharged into the air at an Arab wedding bad, but still bad.

2) Allowing the television reporter to see the western-style revolvers used to stop the criminal is good; pointing the revolver into the camera, where you can plainly see rounds in the cylinder? Bad.

3) Telling the television reporter how you fired a round into the air? Not something I'd mention. Flipping the muzzle into the air and cranking a round off to who knows where while talking to the interviewer? Not bad; criminally stupid.

Thanks for reinforcing that "Gun Owner = Dangerous Redneck" meme.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Reduces muzzle flash, noise, and great for clearing clogged toilets.

Yeah, I've Been Working in Healthcare Too Long

Seen on the bumper in front of me on the way home from work:

"We Support the DNR Club"

To which my internal response was:

"There's a support association for Do Not Resuscitate orders?"

This is what happens when you spend far too much time in the hospital, and not near enough in the woods where the Department of Natural Resources rules.

 Few things are quite as aggravating as having a bundle of documents returned from the Great Hall of Administration, due to the documents "unacceptable appearance.......these are going to the head of the Administrative Region you know!", when it is those same functionaries who used white-out over 50% of a document in an improper and incorrect attempt to alter who should be signing the document. Oh, and the having to retype those same areas, on the same document, because two-thirds of the needed signatures were already there.

Leaving unanswered one major underlying question: why, in this age of electronic documents, do I have to physically run packets of documents from building to building for signatures like it's 1935?

Ugly Gun Sunday

Just Shut Up And Be The Eye Candy

 
 As I shuffled through a stack of mail this morning, the Fox morning news show was on. The standard format of two male anchors and one female. This morning, it appears the usual Fox Morning Blonde is on vacation or some such thing, as there's a relatively young and unfamiliar young lady on the couch today discussing the new DHS training involving Border Patrol Agents. Said training saying if there's a workplace shooter, everyone needs to run away, or throw things at them if cornered.

This, of course, is both pathetic, and another reason for me to loathe the current administration. As if I needed any more. But what adds a final bit of stroke-inducing anger comes next. Demonstrating her vast understanding of civil rights, Eye-Candy-In-Training comes up with this (paraphrased as my memory is middle-aged these days):

"What's the point of being a Border Patrol Agent if you can't defend yourself? That's what I call a civilian!"

You. Ignorant. Twit.

I suggest Miss ECIT be sent off to do some deep-cover investigative reporting somewhere where civilians do defend themselves, and then somewhere they don't (say, Chicago) and look at the difference. Perhaps she could learn the difference between citizens and subjects.

Relief In Sight

Haven't been able to shoot since we moved to North Carolina. Which made me very happy to receive a key, membership card, and rule book to the local range. Initial membership for the first year was five times my annual membership back in Iowa, which was not pleasant. But membership in the indoor range 20 miles down the road, where the NASCAR drivers, lawyers, and doctors live was even more than that, and that would be the same or more every year. And what's the fun of not being able to shoot full-power milsurp rounds?

Sadly, much of my collection is in secured storage in another state. But I have a few items with me, and .22 RF is fun and cheap.

Bullshit

Tax, penalty, it's all the same now. Is there anything that can't penalized, excuse me, taxed as much as a congress in compliance with a president now wishes? Maybe a nice annual "tax" on owning guns, say 1% of your income or $500 per year? How about a little obesity tax per year? Or a carbon-emission/road wear/environmental mining impact tax for anyone not using the approved "green" vehicles.

My personal thanks to all those Americans that helped elect this Marxist turd in their hopes to be part of something historic. You've certainly achieved that.

Old Bikes

Antique bike show up in Gold Hill, NC this past weekend. Gold Hill is a neat little town with some interesting historic buildings, and a very nice park for this sort of gathering. Unfortunately, the gathering was fairly small, and these represent probably half of the antique bikes present:

Never seen an Indian police bike before, wouldn't mind having one.

Interesting engine arrangement; doesn't look particularly comfortable though.

Sharp-looking bike, but.....

seat technology has come long way; bet it would be tough riding for a full day on that.

Sweet; I'm partial to baggers myself. Handy having rain gear, 'cause sooner or later you're going to hit some serious weather.

Ugly Gun Sunday

It's like a Liberator for the fashion-conscious........

A day in the Life of a Talk Radio Blogger: The Most Arrogant Man in America

A day in the Life of a Talk Radio Blogger: The Most Arrogant Man in America: Swiped from The Gateway Pundit

Ugly Gun Sunday

Happy Birthday Army!

The US Army, stomping enemies flat since 1775; 237 years! I'm proud to have served with you through three different overseas deployments, you young pup.



 Best Wishes, The Organized Militia, fighting at home and overseas since 1636 (Go Guard!)

FU, Big Gov

For the last four-plus months, we have tried to buy a foreclosed home. It had land, but needed to be gutted. With past houses, I've done plumbing, electrical, sheet rock, hard-wood floors, and concrete. I've redone vintage window weights, glass, and wood. I've replaced weight-bearing pillars, and redone siding.

But thanks to Fed Gov, I'm told that I Must Have A Contractor to do ANY repairs to a foreclosed home. Oh, and pay for 3 different inspections/appraisals out of pocket. Because, obviously, I can't be trusted to do any of this for myself, as I'm a simple serf. Which is why, after the last hurdle thrown in front of me by the FHA, requiring an FHA inspector to oversee our improvements (e.g. the contractor's work we are not allowed to do) we said fuck it. Take your clapped-out house, which I could have increased in value by by at least 40%, with its attendant property taxes, and let it rot. Fuck you, Fed Gov. Is there anything you touch that isn't instantly massively more complicated and irrational?

Two weeks after ditching it, we looked at a private sale. One week later, we have an accepted offer. Government method. Private method. Which one works better? Yeah.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Friday Night Bluegrass

 Spent Friday evening in Gold Hill, NC at the E.H. Montgomery General Store listening to local musicians playing bluegrass. It's elbow-room only, with open doors for ventilation and limited seating, but the music is certainly fine if you enjoy hearing plain old bluegrass played by musicians who do it for love of the music.

 

Ugly Gun Sunday

"Here’s proof you can’t put the genie back into the bottle, so to speak. This home made gun fires iron rod sections and is powered by match heads. Here are some photos (same source) of weapons and other implements made in a German prison. Where there’s a will, there’s a way." From The Real Gun Guys website. As several commentators have mentioned, all you need is one good shot to get a high-quality weapon.

Anyone Surprised By This?

Class act

Another Treasure Gone

I was at the most recent Merlefest; sadly, I didn't know enough to appreciate some of the history and talent around me.

Ugly Gun Sunday

We still have these? I thought that was dead....Jeez, get a life.

Ugly Gun Sunday

You Know What's Depressing?

Flipping channels and I see recent (relatively) recorded live footage of a band I saw live-in-person in 1985. There's something deeply disturbing about seeing a guitarist who looks like a present-day Anthony Perkins, in full "retired banker who's strapped on a guitar three-piece suit" mode. Or worse, changing into granda-wearing-grunge mode after a break. At a certain point, rock stars either need to evolve to something better suited to their age, or retire.

Side note: Geddy Lee is one of the few who can carry his age well; unfortunately this is due to the fact that he has always looked like someone's grandma since his twenties. Let the hate begin.

Local Color

More images from Salisbury, NC during the "Friday Night Out" event. This mural is one of the local high points. It's very detailed, and as you can see be comparing the vehicles in front of it, impressive in size.

First place I've ever been where the curbs are made of quarried stone; imagine the cost of doing that today.

Noted right next to the real door on a local restaurant; how many people got pissed off before they had to put this sign up?