There is very little to be gained by engaging them. Point out the absurdities of their claims on our own and public turf then let them fade away into the dustbin of history.

Joe Huffman – Quote of the Day – Sebastian

January 17, 2012

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[This is a twofer for a reason since it’s all closely related.  I did exactly what Joe says above right here for the rest of the world to see.  Some have implied I wasted my time* and that there is no point arguing with Joan.  They’re right, and as I said here there is no point arguing with Joan.  So was it a waste of time?]

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No, Joan’s comments didn’t have any adverse effect on me, but they might have on someone that’s had similar experiences to mine.  I put my experiences out there for those who have not yet gotten to a place where they can.  You didn’t just cover my six; you showed them you’ve got theirs too.

Jennifer – Reply to Well That Was Unexpected

January 17, 2012

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[As I said yesterday,

If I have one actual weakness it’s that I have a nasty habit of standing up to defend my friends.  Even if that means I need to drop kick a pig that wants to roll in the mud.  If that’s a weakness though, I find it a good one to have.

Yeah, I can live with that as a weakness.

I did not waste time arguing with Joan on her own site.  I did not waste time trying to jump through her hoops for approval.  I walked out in to the middle of the street and called her out for all to see, I did it here on my own site.  I exposed her hypocrisy, attitudes, and her actions that prove how horrible her and her position is.  I did it where the comments were open for anyone to participate.  While doing so I was also stepping up and  to help some friends.  It helped one more than I realized it would at the time I wrote it.

I often say I do this for me.  Well I do, if I don’t give out free ice cream well so what.  I don’t get paid, I pay hosting fees out of pocket, so why would I waste my time arguing with the likes of Joan Peterson?  I wouldn’t and never have.  What I have done is step up to tell my friends I have their back and help expose to the world the evil that she is. 

Honestly I don’t know if anyone like Jennifer talks about has been or will be helped by my post.  I have to to yield to Jennifer’s experience which is far beyond my own in this realm.  I would like to think it would and I can certainly see how.  Ultimately though Jennifer’s point is irrelevant.  It’s irrelevant because it did help a friend, and it helped her through the healing process of her own story.

Waste of time?  I think not, it was absolutely worth every second spent. –B]

*He actually hated both the post and the video so much he closed the thread.

As one of the thirteen original colonies, North Carolina maintains the moral and legal concept that the right to keep and bear sporting arms is one of the fundamental privileges granted by our American Democracy.

This privilege should be infringed upon only when deemed necessary, through the will of the people in a democratic nation, to insure public safety or to prescribe the manner of taking game. We do not anticipate any legislation abrogating these premises.

Terry Sanford, Governor of North Carolina – Guns Magazine, February Issue 1962, Page 4

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[Oh that whole statement is full of so many different individual falsehoods it’s not even funny.  First this is “history” as this article is out of 1962, however it’s recent history.  Doubly so since this statement was given just prior to the GCA of 1968.  This whole statement remains relevant because this is how many of our opponents view the Second Amendment.

Lets start off with the fact he considers the right to arms a privilege.  It isn’t a privilege, it’s a fundamental right that is specifically enumerated by the bill of rights for protection from the state.  Second we don’t live in a Democracy, we live in a Constitutional Republic where the law serves to protect everyone equally, not just the mob. 

If you’re confused by the difference, watch this, I’ll even embed it below just to make it even easier.   Seriously, it is worth the 10 minutes.  

Our constitution exists to protect the rights from the people.  With the fact he considers the right a privilege his disrespect dissolves further into the classic claim used to infringe upon a right. That claim is necessity.  He uses necessity as the validation for infringing on a right.  Necessity however does not allow or expunge the fact that inalienable rights are not for the government to take or a mob of people to take.  Even when the people are tricked into thinking that it is better for them to surrender that right for the greater good, that right cannot be surrendered.

These two complaints are also independent of the fact that his being elected governor of one of the original thirteen colonies makes him think that some how his argument carries further weight in establishing it as a privilege not a right.

Remember, even now there are those who believe that the enumerated right to “Keep and Bear Arms” as affirmed by Heller and McDonald is still just a privilege.  Not only is it just a privilege, but one that could be revoked if they could just get rid of that pesky Second Amendment.  -B

h/t David Codrea]

So Joe and I started off this morning with heading out for the Action Pistol match in Moscow.  I have no clue how I did.  I think I did reasonably well.  I’m obviously a little more rusty than I’d like to be, especially when it comes to steel which there was a lot of today.  I screwed the pooch a few times but recovered.  I didn’t shoot a single no shoot, shot every last piece of steel, and I don’t believe I had any misses either.

After that we headed out to the Boomershoot site. 

If you remember about a month ago, Joe and I started investigating a problem with the Boomerite.  Through our testing we discovered the KClO₃ was the wrong size, which was confirmed by Ry.  Joe got a blender and we were going to confirm we could grind the current KClO3 two weeks ago.  Mother nature intervened and stopped our trek 10 yards in.

Today we planned ahead, more specifically remembered half way to the range, and brought the snowshoes this time.  That was a good thing for me, Joe escaped by without them.  The crust buckled under me about every 3rd or 4th step.  After 100 yards I just put them on and trudged on, I remember doing this stuff while I was active in Scouts and going like gang busters.  Sitting behind a desk is killing me.

 

But I made it.  We quickly made up the first batch of explosives.  This made two 7 inch targets and then we went out to test them.

We were showered in dirt.  Hopefully Joe will post the video he took.  Both of them went bang just as we expected and wanted.  Now 2 isn’t the largest sample size, and my stat teacher would kill me for thinking it’s statistically relevant, though we had a second experiment.  It is worth noting, during the previous test we had a 100% failure rate with this rifle and ammunition.  Now we had 2 detonations with the new mix with the same rifle and ammo as previously used.

We mixed up a second batch using what we had already blended.  Filled the boxes without using baggies.  Again both detonated, eventually.  The 4th target took two shots because there was “technical miss”.  Let’s just say I shot a Delta instead of an Alpha.  So, that’s 4 for 4 with the blended KClO₃ mix.

So we don’t need the baggies, possibly.  There’s some other experimentation that needs to be done.  Joe had a previous experiment along these lines, however we had trouble getting to them previously.  Due to the longer storage it confirmed one of my concerns.

The ethylene glycol absorbs out of the mixture and into the cardboard.  This could affect the sensitivity of the target.  There is a second issue that will have to be tested as well.  When filling boxes in this manner we wrap them with Saran wrap.  My concern is that this is not nearly as solid of a vapor barrier as the Ziploc baggies.  Further testing is required.

The sun was setting and Joe and I needed to get the hell out of dodge.  The temperature was dropping pretty fast, we had to hike back out, and there was a minor issue with the vehicle that needed to be fixed before heading home. 

Joe lit the older targets on fire and we began our hike back out.  We headed over to his brothers place, Joe set me up with the necessary tools for the job and went into visit his parents.  He came back out to a fixed rear hatch.  No longer do you have to do the weird bump game to get the latch mechanism to work.  At some point the latch shifted and was no longer lifting the lock enough.  I popped the shaft out of its clamp and moved the clamp further down.  Joe kept testing it and I said, “Let’s not tempt fate and have it get stuck open again.”

Got back to Moscow, had dinner with Joe and his family since he was already running late and needed to save some time.  IT’s been a long, yet productive day.

*As an aside, all the pictures above were with my new phone.  The bottom one was cropped heavily since I was so far from Joe.

Update: Here’s the video from Joe and his report.

I prefer the smile lines over the worry ones. These guns have given me one and relieved me of the other.

A Girl and Her Gun – Comment to Ain’t that Garand

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[I think those of us who have some semblance of rational thought understand why smile lines are better than worry lies.  Even more than that, those of us that spend our time smiling do our best to spread it around.  Guns and gunnies helped relieve the weight and burden that were causing worry lines.

Smile lines are a good problem to have if you ask me.  Thanks Robb for spotting that one. -B]

Dot Torture that is!

So I’ve got with Joe to the past couple action pistol and steel matches and come in middle of the pack.  I don’t always let my type A personality take over, but middle of the pack just isn’t acceptable.  I know I’m going to be there for a while, it’s going to take time and practice.

Today was the first time in a while I actually spent some time at the range for some serious practice.  I started off with just some standard target shooting at 7 yards eventually pushing it to 17 yards.  Then I switched to the 1911 with the .22 LR conversion kit.

About 2 years ago I bought a Kimber .22 LR conversion kit for my 1911 with the statement I can practice more.  Well, I have practiced more, with anything other than my pistol.  So I finally broke it out yesterday and figured I’d review it as well.

The case is solid, makes storage easy and protects it especially if you do your conversion at the range.

Initial thoughts were that the construction was solid, the overall finish was extremely nice.  Though with such a nice conversion kit, it was disappointing they shipped it with a polymer magazine.  We’ll see how long it lasts.

There was a nice coating of cosmoline on everything so I fully stripped it down and cleaned it before assembling it on my 1911 frame.

Parts and pieces are the same as the standard 1911 frame and slide. If you know how that goes together you can disassemble a conversion kit and put it back together.  Seriously, not hard.  Pop out the the slide lock, pull off the old slide, put on the new one and reinsert slide lock!

The finished product after being cleaned and mounted on the 1911 frame.

It came to my attention as I started writing this I didn’t take a picture of any of the targets I shot slow fire at 7 yards for practice and familiarization with how it shoots.  I do however have another picture which I will get to later.  I ran approximately 150 rounds through the conversion kit with no issues.  I actually borrowed a 22 mag from the shop gunsmith who I happened to know from the LPC Action Pistol matches.  I do not remember the brand off hand, however the kit ran just fine with the third party mag as well.  Only complaint is that the slide doesn’t lock back on the last round thus making slide lock reload practice impossible on the conversion kit. I haven’t found any magazines that allow the slide lock to function yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop looking.

So, thus far this .22 conversion kit is getting the thumbs up from me, however I haven’t looked at the prices lately but I’m sure they’ve gone up.  This was listed at Cabela’s when I got it for $300, though I snagged it on sale for $275 at the local store.  They currently list for $330.

So,  I ran a bunch of simple drills with my 1911 at 7 yards getting comfortable with the conversion kit.  Then I decided it was time for some torture.  I ran it first with the 1911 with the conversion kit at 3 yards, pushing my comfort zone since it was 22.

It was pretty bad though it was obvious I was pushing.  Those 5 shots at the top I was walking up to find the correct position for the sight picture that close.  I then moved on to my XD and moved into something with some recoil.

As I was shooting the string I became very concerned when it game to dot 4.  I couldn’t see any fliers in the cardboard though that were new, it was all pre-existing holes.  Before bringing the target back after shooting the string I did a little experiment.  I closed my eyes and pointed straight out to find my natural point of aim.  It was at dot 4, my body was triggering off the natural point of aim to break the shot.  I didn’t push far beyond my comfort zone with this one, I was pushing but I wanted good solid hits.

Reviewing the target though it shows I need to work on shooting with my weak hand more.  It’s pretty clear I’m pushing and having recoil problems off hand. 

I’ll be going back for more practice in during the next off weekend from action/steel shooting and I am going to increase the distance for dot torture.  I need to send out an email to some friends in the interim to see what can be done to help my 45 supplies for matches as well as some for practice too.  Joe’s offered me time on his reloader, which eventually I’ll probably take him up on, but I’ve need to solve the problem in the interim.

In closing today I was able to get a picture of just pure win.

The little girl informed me she also got a BB gun for Christmas.  At least that’s what I think I heard through the hearing protection and gunfire.  As she was leaving I smiled at her and asked if she had fun.  She grinned back and said, “Yup, it was a blast.”  Sarah Brady must be crying in a corner somewhere.

*A note to the FTC, FUCK YOU!  No one paid me shit to write this review.  I paid out of my own pocket for the conversion kit, firearm(gift from dad so yeah…), ammunition, and range fees.  No even just sent me hardware to review, I bought all of it.**

**If you would like me to review some product of yours, feel free to contact me.