I have fallen into the internet, reading a 119-page forum thread. I have work I need to be doing, but first I must finish the thread. I am compelled.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Gun Glut
It's a buyer's market right now.
On this day last year, I was on my Facebook timeline touting a new de-contented Colt entry-level AR carbine with an MSRP in the low $700 range. Today, CDNN is selling brand new Colt LE6920's, pretty much the benchmark AR-pattern carbine, for $799.99 and throwing in a 30-round Pmag and some other stuff to sweeten the deal.
Walther is offering hundred dollar rebates on the PPQ and HK is throwing in bundles of magazines with new pistol purchases, meaning that in real terms you're getting a Walther or Heckler & Koch for the price of a base model G-lock.
Smith & Wesson is slashing prices and offering rebates. Shields are priced at impulse-buy levels these days.
Why is all this happening? Well, while most firearms companies are privately held and therefore inscrutable on matters fiscal, the goings-on at a few are public knowledge because they are publicly traded.
The news from American Outdoor Brands Corporation (neé Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation) tells a tale that is probably all too common in the industry right now: Shelves groaning under unsold inventory that was churned out in expectation of the mother of all gun panics following a Hillary Clinton victory.
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On this day last year, I was on my Facebook timeline touting a new de-contented Colt entry-level AR carbine with an MSRP in the low $700 range. Today, CDNN is selling brand new Colt LE6920's, pretty much the benchmark AR-pattern carbine, for $799.99 and throwing in a 30-round Pmag and some other stuff to sweeten the deal.
Walther is offering hundred dollar rebates on the PPQ and HK is throwing in bundles of magazines with new pistol purchases, meaning that in real terms you're getting a Walther or Heckler & Koch for the price of a base model G-lock.
Smith & Wesson is slashing prices and offering rebates. Shields are priced at impulse-buy levels these days.
Why is all this happening? Well, while most firearms companies are privately held and therefore inscrutable on matters fiscal, the goings-on at a few are public knowledge because they are publicly traded.
The news from American Outdoor Brands Corporation (neé Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation) tells a tale that is probably all too common in the industry right now: Shelves groaning under unsold inventory that was churned out in expectation of the mother of all gun panics following a Hillary Clinton victory.
Saturday, July 29, 2017
That Old-Time Religion...
So, in Georgia...the country, not the place with the big airport...there's this rock formation called the Katskhi pillar.
And on top of this pillar are the ruins (now reconstructed) of a dinky little church dating back to the 9th or 10th Century. There were three hermit cells for if you wanted to get your asceticism on and a little wine cellar carved out of the rock if you didn't, and one can only imagine the hair-raising process of getting up to and down from the place.
Inscriptions indicate the place was still a going concern as recently as the 13th Century, but by then Georgia was a pretty exciting corner of the world, what with Mongols and Khwarazmian Persians and so many varieties of Turkomans that they had to be color-coded. Oh, and then the Black Death came to Georgia, probably brought by the returning troops of King George the Brilliant, and killed literally half of everybody. No doubt peaceful monasteries accessible only by primitive dumbwaiter were on the decline in such an environment.
Anyhow, that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the place is dedicated to a dude named Maximus the Confessor. For those of you not hip to your saintly terminology, a "Confessor" is different from a "Martyr" in that they weren't directly killed for their faith, but probably wished they had been.
So, this Maximus dude was a bureaucrat in the Byzantine Empire who apparently had religion as a hobby, as did everybody in Constantinople back then. All the Byzantines did was watch chariot races, debate arcane theological matters, and riot and/or kill each other over differences of opinion on chariot races or arcane theological matters. (Oh, and they engaged in so much intra-governmental intrigue that they went in the dictionary for it.)
At some point, Maximus dropped out of government service and took up religion as a full-time occupation, leaving the city of Constantinople for a monastery in Anatolia. Skipping town ahead of the invading Persians, he landed in Carthage, in Eastern Roman hands for the nonce, thanks to Justinian and Belisarius's ruinously expensive Mediterranean campaigns. It was in Carthage that he rose to theological prominence, after understudying with some of the philosophical heavyweights of the time.
The big argument in the Church (there was just the one, back then) in those days was between guys who thought Jesus had two natures, human and divine, but only one divine will, and other guys who thought that Jesus had not only two natures, but also a human will and a divine will. Seriously. This was a very big deal and dudes were killing each other over it.
Well, the first view, Monothelitism, was the official view at the time, but Maximus was a believer in the second, or Dyothelitism. And he and the new Pope, Martin I, called a religious council in Rome to debate on the matter without bothering to ask the Emperor's permission, which was a pretty serious faux pas. When the council turned out a Dyotheletic verdict, Emperor Constans II (a Monotheletist) had both Pope Martin I and Maximus arrested.
The Pope got de-Poped and banished to the Crimea, where he died. Maximus was tried and sentenced to exile. However, he would not shut up about Dyothelitism and wound up having a great big show trial a few years later, following which he got his tongue cut out and his right hand cut off so he couldn't tell people that Jesus had two wills anymore or even write it very legibly. Then he got banished to Georgia. (The one on the Black Sea, not the one you drive through on the way to Florida.)
He died in exile there in 662 AD. Nineteen years later, at the Third Council of Constantinople, the Church (still just the one) decided that maybe Jesus did have two wills after all. Maximus received a posthumous pardon, sort of a more official version of "Whoops! Hey, sorry about the tongue and the hand and the whole exile-and-dying-in-prison thing. No hard feelings, okay? Here, have a feast day."
I told you they took their religion seriously in Constantinople, didn't I?
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 |
| By G.N. - Katskhi stone column, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link |
Inscriptions indicate the place was still a going concern as recently as the 13th Century, but by then Georgia was a pretty exciting corner of the world, what with Mongols and Khwarazmian Persians and so many varieties of Turkomans that they had to be color-coded. Oh, and then the Black Death came to Georgia, probably brought by the returning troops of King George the Brilliant, and killed literally half of everybody. No doubt peaceful monasteries accessible only by primitive dumbwaiter were on the decline in such an environment.
Anyhow, that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the place is dedicated to a dude named Maximus the Confessor. For those of you not hip to your saintly terminology, a "Confessor" is different from a "Martyr" in that they weren't directly killed for their faith, but probably wished they had been.
So, this Maximus dude was a bureaucrat in the Byzantine Empire who apparently had religion as a hobby, as did everybody in Constantinople back then. All the Byzantines did was watch chariot races, debate arcane theological matters, and riot and/or kill each other over differences of opinion on chariot races or arcane theological matters. (Oh, and they engaged in so much intra-governmental intrigue that they went in the dictionary for it.)
At some point, Maximus dropped out of government service and took up religion as a full-time occupation, leaving the city of Constantinople for a monastery in Anatolia. Skipping town ahead of the invading Persians, he landed in Carthage, in Eastern Roman hands for the nonce, thanks to Justinian and Belisarius's ruinously expensive Mediterranean campaigns. It was in Carthage that he rose to theological prominence, after understudying with some of the philosophical heavyweights of the time.
The big argument in the Church (there was just the one, back then) in those days was between guys who thought Jesus had two natures, human and divine, but only one divine will, and other guys who thought that Jesus had not only two natures, but also a human will and a divine will. Seriously. This was a very big deal and dudes were killing each other over it.
Well, the first view, Monothelitism, was the official view at the time, but Maximus was a believer in the second, or Dyothelitism. And he and the new Pope, Martin I, called a religious council in Rome to debate on the matter without bothering to ask the Emperor's permission, which was a pretty serious faux pas. When the council turned out a Dyotheletic verdict, Emperor Constans II (a Monotheletist) had both Pope Martin I and Maximus arrested.
The Pope got de-Poped and banished to the Crimea, where he died. Maximus was tried and sentenced to exile. However, he would not shut up about Dyothelitism and wound up having a great big show trial a few years later, following which he got his tongue cut out and his right hand cut off so he couldn't tell people that Jesus had two wills anymore or even write it very legibly. Then he got banished to Georgia. (The one on the Black Sea, not the one you drive through on the way to Florida.)
He died in exile there in 662 AD. Nineteen years later, at the Third Council of Constantinople, the Church (still just the one) decided that maybe Jesus did have two wills after all. Maximus received a posthumous pardon, sort of a more official version of "Whoops! Hey, sorry about the tongue and the hand and the whole exile-and-dying-in-prison thing. No hard feelings, okay? Here, have a feast day."
I told you they took their religion seriously in Constantinople, didn't I?
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Friday, July 28, 2017
Derp Signaling
In the dystopian future, the Department of PreCrime will use online purchase data and BATFE records to note that you have bought:
- A zombie-motif AR pistol lower
- A crappy airsoft-grade red dot and light/laser
- A knockoff AFG
- And a Taurus pistol
Because nothing says "I should not be left unsupervised with sharp objects or permanent markers" like the gun in that picture.
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Atomic!
In the Future of the Fifties, everything was going to be pointy, finned, polyester, and atomic, even the US Merchant Marine.
In 1959 we launched the NS Savannah, a nuclear-powered technology demonstrator that was a cargo ship that also carried ninety passengers in space-age comfort.
Named for the SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic (in 1819!), she had a checkered career. Her cargo holds were apparently a bear to load, and her operating costs sky high compared to conventional oil-powered ships, and she was eventually taken out of service in 1971...two years before the Arab Oil Embargo sent the price of fuel oil to the moon.
Ars Technica has a photo essay on it. Look at those cool accommodations, especially the bar. It was a harbinger of a future when groovy astro-couples could zip across the ocean in luxury, sitting at the poolside bar and washing filet mignon tablets down with space martinis.
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Named for the SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic (in 1819!), she had a checkered career. Her cargo holds were apparently a bear to load, and her operating costs sky high compared to conventional oil-powered ships, and she was eventually taken out of service in 1971...two years before the Arab Oil Embargo sent the price of fuel oil to the moon.
Ars Technica has a photo essay on it. Look at those cool accommodations, especially the bar. It was a harbinger of a future when groovy astro-couples could zip across the ocean in luxury, sitting at the poolside bar and washing filet mignon tablets down with space martinis.
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Wednesday, July 26, 2017
This deck chair would look better over there.
Well, now that we got the wall built, Obamacare repealed, unfavorable
trade agreements re-negotiated, ISIS defeated, the DPRK's nuke program
defanged, and the US pulled out of all the little brushfire
entanglements it's involved in, I guess the White House has the free
time to worry about the 3,718th most important thing on its agenda...
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EXTENDO!
Numrich had twenty-round mags in stock for the vz61 Skorpion. Rock me like a very tiny hurricane.
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Parrot Squawks
Every time there's an internet post mentioning that skulls, lightning bolts, coiled rattlesnakes, and crap like that are bad things to have engraved on a carry gun, some knob always comes along and squawks "Show me the case law! Show me the case law!"
It's like they're trying to show off the fact that they know there's a thing called "case law", as opposed to "statutory law" or "regulatory law".
Basically, we all know that no legislature has enacted a law making it a Class Z Misdemeanor to shoot somebody while you have a Punisher skull slide cover plate on your Glock (statutory) and the BATFE has not held that a Punisher skull slide cover plate renders your Glock an AOW (regulatory) and so they want to see case law.
In other words, they want you to find the case of State of West Dakota v. Cletus Johnson and show them in the black letter text of the verdict where Cletus was held guilty because he had a Punisher skull slide cover plate on his Glock.
But that's not how trials work.
A lawyer friend on the intertubes likes to point out that, once you're in the courtroom, it's all about selling your side of the story to the judge and jury. You don't want to make it harder for your attorney to sell that story.
Nowhere in the black letter print of case law is it going to say "The jury found Cletus Johnson guilty because he was a thoroughly unlikeable asshole," but you'd better cool believe his unlikeable assholishness influenced how the judge viewed his side of the story and affected the deliberations in the jury room.
Do you think your lawyer will want you to wear a Punisher skull t-shirt in the courtroom? Why not? It's not against the statutory law.
Do you know what else will be in the courtroom and visible to the jury as "Exhibit A"? Do you think your future hypothetical defense attorney would like the jury to see a Punisher skull slide cover plate on "Exhibit A"? Why not? There's no case law!
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It's like they're trying to show off the fact that they know there's a thing called "case law", as opposed to "statutory law" or "regulatory law".
Basically, we all know that no legislature has enacted a law making it a Class Z Misdemeanor to shoot somebody while you have a Punisher skull slide cover plate on your Glock (statutory) and the BATFE has not held that a Punisher skull slide cover plate renders your Glock an AOW (regulatory) and so they want to see case law.
In other words, they want you to find the case of State of West Dakota v. Cletus Johnson and show them in the black letter text of the verdict where Cletus was held guilty because he had a Punisher skull slide cover plate on his Glock.
But that's not how trials work.
A lawyer friend on the intertubes likes to point out that, once you're in the courtroom, it's all about selling your side of the story to the judge and jury. You don't want to make it harder for your attorney to sell that story.
Nowhere in the black letter print of case law is it going to say "The jury found Cletus Johnson guilty because he was a thoroughly unlikeable asshole," but you'd better cool believe his unlikeable assholishness influenced how the judge viewed his side of the story and affected the deliberations in the jury room.
Do you think your lawyer will want you to wear a Punisher skull t-shirt in the courtroom? Why not? It's not against the statutory law.
Do you know what else will be in the courtroom and visible to the jury as "Exhibit A"? Do you think your future hypothetical defense attorney would like the jury to see a Punisher skull slide cover plate on "Exhibit A"? Why not? There's no case law!
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Monday, July 24, 2017
Vintage Swamp Water
Like a dog returning to its sick, Jeff Sessions is returning to those favorite themes from the Nineties: "Pot Is Bad" and "Asset Forfeiture Is Cool".
In a letter to Congress, Sessions asked for a ban on using federal funds to go after medical marijuana distributors in states that have legalized medical weed to be overturned. Quoth the Jeff:
He couldn't be any more out of touch if he were to rant about "we need to ban that marijuana because it makes decent white girls want to take up with colored jazz musicians" although, given his bio, that might not be such a stretch for Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. This is, after all, a guy who once joked that he thought the Klan was "OK, until [he] found out they smoked pot."
Appointing Sessions was the opposite of "draining the swamp"; it was basically pumping in a whole bunch of vintage swamp water.
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In a letter to Congress, Sessions asked for a ban on using federal funds to go after medical marijuana distributors in states that have legalized medical weed to be overturned. Quoth the Jeff:
"I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime."So people in Huntington, WV and Columbus, OH are overdosing on imported Chinese Fentanyl and the way to nip it in the bud is to go after medical Mary Jane outfits in Portland, OR. That makes sense, I guess...or at least it does if you think Reefer Madness was a hard-hitting, serious documentary.
He couldn't be any more out of touch if he were to rant about "we need to ban that marijuana because it makes decent white girls want to take up with colored jazz musicians" although, given his bio, that might not be such a stretch for Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. This is, after all, a guy who once joked that he thought the Klan was "OK, until [he] found out they smoked pot."
Appointing Sessions was the opposite of "draining the swamp"; it was basically pumping in a whole bunch of vintage swamp water.
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Sunday, July 23, 2017
Changing up...
From '01 to '07, my bedside gun was a Beretta 96D. The big double-action-only horse pistol functioned essentially like an eleven-shot .40S&W-caliber revolver.
From '07 until now, the job has belonged to a 2"-barreled S&W Model 64, a stainless steel snubbie K-frame in .38 Special.
I'm in the process of auditioning a replacement for the 64...
From '07 until now, the job has belonged to a 2"-barreled S&W Model 64, a stainless steel snubbie K-frame in .38 Special.
I'm in the process of auditioning a replacement for the 64...
Saturday, July 22, 2017
That's cool, but it's dark for more than an hour.
A German power company is looking at using salt caverns currently used to store natural gas into a gigantic flow battery that could power the entire city of Berlin for an hour.
Which, you know, handily illustrates the problems of trying to scale up the sort of solar/wind/battery setup that's ideal for running an off-grid hermitage to powering an entire industrial society.
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Which, you know, handily illustrates the problems of trying to scale up the sort of solar/wind/battery setup that's ideal for running an off-grid hermitage to powering an entire industrial society.
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Friday, July 21, 2017
It's like hippie Jade Helm...
I swear on the bones of Mises that this is the most schadenfreudelicious thing ever: https://t.co/EVxpHoUrGm— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) July 21, 2017
Thursday, July 20, 2017
I Aten't Ded
However I was busy yesterday and am semi-bereft of easy blogging topics today.
In the interim...well, the internet likes gun pictures, right?
If one Czech is good, then two must be better, right? I decided to drag the CZ52 to the range along with the Skorpion. I hadn't fired the 52 in eons, so I might as well exercise it.
Jebus, the trigger on the CZ52 is eight or nine pounds if it's an ounce. I'd forgotten how much muzzle blast the things have, and also how the ejected brass is moving fast enough to make major. A lot of fun to shoot, though, godawful trigger and all.
Both are fifty rounds at seven yards, just casually dirt-shooting, but the Skorpion was shooting a lot faster than the 52. It's so massive for a .32, and the trigger is light enough (if sponge-like), that it's easy to just rail away with it and still get reasonable results.
In the interim...well, the internet likes gun pictures, right?
Both are fifty rounds at seven yards, just casually dirt-shooting, but the Skorpion was shooting a lot faster than the 52. It's so massive for a .32, and the trigger is light enough (if sponge-like), that it's easy to just rail away with it and still get reasonable results.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Sad But True
The First Rule of Dunning-Kruger Club is you don't know you're in Dunning-Kruger Club.— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) July 18, 2017
Czech it out!
You know, I have, like...eighteen? nineteen?...pistols chambered in .32ACP and this is the only Czech one? That borders on statistically improbable. I'm glad I never had to confess that to Hognose over at WeaponsMan. He would have considered that a personal failing.
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Warning Sign
So, about the glaring red flag in the recent Minneapolis police shooting...
No, not the fact that the cop was a Somali-American. Some people are all "zomg he was Somali and named Mohammed! Terr'ism!" Settle your ass down. If it were terrorism, he'd have shot the other cop and then all the responding cops until somebody shot him. It wasn't terrorism.
No, big red flag is that he was a grown man with a college degree and an apparently reasonably successful career in property management who decided, in his thirties, to drop it all to go be the police. There are two kinds of people who do that, and one is a disaster waiting to happen.
As one LEO put it on Facebook:
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No, not the fact that the cop was a Somali-American. Some people are all "zomg he was Somali and named Mohammed! Terr'ism!" Settle your ass down. If it were terrorism, he'd have shot the other cop and then all the responding cops until somebody shot him. It wasn't terrorism.
No, big red flag is that he was a grown man with a college degree and an apparently reasonably successful career in property management who decided, in his thirties, to drop it all to go be the police. There are two kinds of people who do that, and one is a disaster waiting to happen.
As one LEO put it on Facebook:
"I question the fuck out of people who have the ability to work a cush ass white collar job but instead make 38K starting pay to referee people's marriages."Policing is generally something folks get into because they knew they always wanted to as a kid, or because it's a reasonably easy gig to land getting out of the military. It's the ones who suddenly decided in their thirties that they wanted to drop everything and be Batman and a Force For Good that worry me.
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Monday, July 17, 2017
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #166...
The two things I nerd over:
- Machine pistols. I mean, the only airsoft guns I have left are a 93R, MP5K, and MP7. Oh, and a BB-firing Schnellfeuer.
- .32A...well, .32 anything, but especially .32ACP.
I'm gonna go out to the garage, sit on the pillion of Bobbi's Indian Vespa clone, and cosplay '80s Red Brigade hits in Italy...
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Saturday, July 15, 2017
Isn't it Ironic?
Now, in the Ameriglo's defense, a wise Glock shooter will always check a new sight install after the first box or so of ammo to see if the threadlocker took or if the sight has loosened any in its mount. Glock front sights are easy on/off, but the tradeoff for that is that if they're loose, they'll shear in a heartbeat, especially the heavier ones like suppressor-height sights or XS Big Dots or the larger Tru-Glo TFOs...
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Style Points...
Getting pulled over for an OWI in a Chevy is for plebs. Getting pulled over for OWI in a Jet Ranger is baller.https://t.co/MvdUrildcr— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) July 15, 2017
Clipazine...
Sometimes the "Inside Baseball" can get a little carried away.
Someone sent me an email with the header "Layers and layers of editorial oversight", which is a now hoary meme in the gunblogging world.
It linked to a story where one of the Busch clan (the filthy rich booze-making Busches, not the filthy rich race-car-driving ones) had been busted for helicoptering while intoxicated and carrying guns, or some sort of crazy millionaire crime like that. The key grafs are quoted here:
You know, considering how good the rest of the terminology was, pointing and laughing at the reporter for basically reading the side of the gun just makes us look like a pack of Aspie gatekeepers...
Someone sent me an email with the header "Layers and layers of editorial oversight", which is a now hoary meme in the gunblogging world.
It linked to a story where one of the Busch clan (the filthy rich booze-making Busches, not the filthy rich race-car-driving ones) had been busted for helicoptering while intoxicated and carrying guns, or some sort of crazy millionaire crime like that. The key grafs are quoted here:
Busch told officers that he had a conceal carry license and had a Rohrbaugh R9 9mm in the front pocket of his pants. He told them that the weapon was, "hot." The removed the gun from his pocket. Police also found Dexamethasone in his pocket. The prescription was for August's wife.The gist being "LOLOL @ 'a loaded Glock Austria .357 with one round in the chamber'."
At that point, Busch told officers that he was about to have a panic attack. He began jumping and running sprints saying that he needed more oxygen to deal with the attack.
A search of the helicopter turned up several weapons. Police discovered a loaded Ruger LCR 22 LR revolver, a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum revolver with four live rounds, and a loaded Glock Austria .357 with one round in the chamber.
Friday, July 14, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
You'll never read the sign the same again.
Shootin' Buddy did it to me, and now I'm doing it to you:
I really like that Catholic chicken fast food joint, Pope Yes.— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) July 13, 2017
Trials and Tribulations...
So, despite the test being called for Sig Sauer's P320 in January, the Army's XM17 Modular Handgun System trials are still generating discussion and even butthurt on the internet.
I'd like to think I'm reasonably familiar with most of the serious contenders. Glock, for example... Sure, they sent a variant that was basically a 19 slide on a 17 frame with thumb safeties retrofitted, but a Glock is a Glock is a Glock, for the most part. I've owned, like, twenty of the things since 1994 and still have eleven, in assorted sizes and flavors. This time around, I've been carrying one for nineteen months and have shot it in plenty of classes and a couple matches. I grok Glocks.
Sig P320's? I had that full-size one that I did the 2,000-round test with, and now I have a P320 Compact, and I just wrapped up a P320 X-Carry test for Shooting Illustrated, and am planning on buying that gun from Sig and maybe an X-Five in the future. If I switch away from carrying Glocks in the next couple years, just for the sake of change, it'll most likely be to the P320.
The M&P M2.0? I just finished testing one of those for Shooting Illustrated, too. On top of that, the basic M&P 9 is what I carried for years before switching to the Glock, and I still have two of those and would have no qualms going back to toting them.
Lastly, I literally just wrapped up a test of the FN 509 for SI. When I say "just", I mean that I dropped the gun off at FedEx to go get its glamor shots in Fairfax about three hours ago and the review article is in another window open on my desktop as I type this.
I say all this to establish that I'm not talking out my ass when I say that I have passing familiarity with the guns in question
I really have to agree with Nathaniel F at The Firearms Blog when he writes:
It's not like any of the companies here are inexperienced in making functional firearms or servicing large institutional orders. The presented entries are all slight variants on guns that have established track records. Frickin' pick one and move on.
(Oh, and as to Steyr's suit, my first question for them would be "Where were you during the P250 launch and its subsequent trials and tribulations? It uses the same sort of removable chassis, yet only now when the 320 lands some huge and glitzy contracts do you suddenly remember you have a patent to defend. I'd say that your actions from 2010-2016 indicate your true opinion of the viability of that patent defense and you're only sticking a bowl out the window now because Sig finally made it rain gravy and you want some of it.")
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I'd like to think I'm reasonably familiar with most of the serious contenders. Glock, for example... Sure, they sent a variant that was basically a 19 slide on a 17 frame with thumb safeties retrofitted, but a Glock is a Glock is a Glock, for the most part. I've owned, like, twenty of the things since 1994 and still have eleven, in assorted sizes and flavors. This time around, I've been carrying one for nineteen months and have shot it in plenty of classes and a couple matches. I grok Glocks.
I say all this to establish that I'm not talking out my ass when I say that I have passing familiarity with the guns in question
I really have to agree with Nathaniel F at The Firearms Blog when he writes:
"...I am going to have to come down against the side that believes the competition should be retried. Doing so, I believe, would be a risky waste of time and money on what is essentially known quantity. Re-opening the problem would extend an already shamefully long effort to find a successor to the Beretta M9 handgun, as well as make the program vulnerable to a significant risk of cancellation."I would take it a step further and say that, from a standpoint of their actual utility as weapons, the entire testing process could have been done for $1.07:
- Paper grocery sack: $0.07
- Bandanna for blindfold: $1.00
- First E-4 that walks past looking like he's not doing something: $0.00 (already on the clock)
It's not like any of the companies here are inexperienced in making functional firearms or servicing large institutional orders. The presented entries are all slight variants on guns that have established track records. Frickin' pick one and move on.
(Oh, and as to Steyr's suit, my first question for them would be "Where were you during the P250 launch and its subsequent trials and tribulations? It uses the same sort of removable chassis, yet only now when the 320 lands some huge and glitzy contracts do you suddenly remember you have a patent to defend. I'd say that your actions from 2010-2016 indicate your true opinion of the viability of that patent defense and you're only sticking a bowl out the window now because Sig finally made it rain gravy and you want some of it.")
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Wednesday, July 12, 2017
I wish I'd wrote that...
I think it's very nice of Mr. Burge to let the rest of us play on his internet...
turns out it was a time share seminar at the Ramada— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 12, 2017
I can barely keep up with this anymore...
This just in: Joe Scarborough says he's leaving the Republican party:
In other news: Apparently Joe Scarborough was a member of the Republican party.
Also, MSNBC is apparently unhappy with the way Trump tweeted at their talking heads:
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.@JoeNBC announced that he's leaving #GOP to become an Independent. @StephenAtHome's full interview with Joe and @morningmika airs tonight! pic.twitter.com/OhLgXvYakH— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) July 11, 2017
In other news: Apparently Joe Scarborough was a member of the Republican party.
Also, MSNBC is apparently unhappy with the way Trump tweeted at their talking heads:
MSNBC responded to that incident with a statement: "It's a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job."To hear their clucking disapproval, you'd think that Trump had hoisted Scarborough up off the ground by his ears and then showed Mika his gallbladder scar.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Here's something...
I have some stuff I want to natter about, but first I have to go bust caps at the range so I can put this FN 509 review to bed for Shooting Illustrated and then I have a couple errands to run, but there will be bloggery committed later.
In the meantime, in lieu of thinky, have some linky: Go check out this dude's blog.
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In the meantime, in lieu of thinky, have some linky: Go check out this dude's blog.
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Christmas in July!
Amazon wants us to spend a lot of money on Prime Day. I need to check to see if there's anything I can't live without.
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...and Sunday's shooting...
Overheard in the Kitchen...
I come wandering into the kitchen, singing the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air...
Me: "♫...I got in one little fight and my mom got scared, and said 'You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air'♫... I have no idea how I remembered all that. It's not like I ever watched the show."
RX: "It's your lifelong secret crush on Will Smith."
Me: "Stuff White People Like: Will Smith."
Monday, July 10, 2017
Saturday, Caturday, Gaturday...
The weather was glorious, with temps in the mid-70s and low humidity. A few puffy white clouds to add some texture to a mostly clear blue sky... It's weather such as this that makes one mighty happy to be able to drop the top on a roadster.
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This modern world...
You can be pondering the infinite in The Smallest Room and ask your phone what year Jeff Cooper was born, and it will answer you.
What a fascinating modern world in which we live!
What a fascinating modern world in which we live!
Ugh.
After not walking on Friday, and generally wasting the day in a funk (other than that range trip) I had a pretty productive weekend. Got some writing done, went out to lunch with Bobbi, got the lawn mowed, and got to bed shortly after ten last night with the intention of bouncing out of bed on a Monday morning and doing my walking first thing.
Instead I sprang wide awake at 3:30AM and could not get back to sleep for the life of me. I lay in bed reading as the hands on the clock spooled steadily toward the 6AM alarms.
I wrote off this morning as a bad idea and went back to sleep and finally got a couple (mostly) solid hours from eight to ten.
Have to go to the range now. More later.
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Instead I sprang wide awake at 3:30AM and could not get back to sleep for the life of me. I lay in bed reading as the hands on the clock spooled steadily toward the 6AM alarms.
I wrote off this morning as a bad idea and went back to sleep and finally got a couple (mostly) solid hours from eight to ten.
Have to go to the range now. More later.
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Sunday, July 09, 2017
Friday...
Finally was the P320 Compact at the 8" circle at seven yards, trying to work on some speed. It was hot on the range, since it was muggy and rainy outside and there's no way that the HVAC unit could keep ahead of the rate of air exchange. The Boresight Solutions frame made a big difference in controllability in my sweaty paws, relative to the stock Gen3 Glock frame, which is pretty bar-of-soap-y in wet hands. The Grayguns trigger is a delight. The Dawson sights are making me think about skinnier front sights on all the things...
Saturday, July 08, 2017
A money-saving proposal!
So, with a good chunk of my adopted home state lying athwart the area of the country known as "The Rust Belt", it's probably no surprise that Indiana punches slightly above its weight in drug overdose deaths.
From 2011 to 2013, Indiana had the fifteenth highest rate of deaths from drug overdoses among U.S. states, at sixteen per hundred thousand Hoosiers. We're only the seventeenth most populous state, and hardly a hotbed of hedonism and other assorted whoop-te-do, but the nation's overdose center of gravity seems to have shifted.
The most statistically common place to go on a final nod these days is not a trendy loft in Soho, but rather in a split-level midwestern ranch a few blocks down from the shuttered wheel bearing factory, or a single-wide in the mobile home park across the tracks from the defunct curtain rod plant.
Anyway, Indiana has decided to open five more Opioid Addiction Treatment Centers in various small cities around the state.
One of these small cities is Lafayette, which is a city I'd think was doing pretty good, economically speaking. They've got the Subaru plant, Caterpillar, TRW, and others, as well as being right across the river from the sprawling Purdue University campus.
Another reason I'd think they were doing pretty good is that they apparently want to build a new $16M dollar home for their Lafayette Aviators, a Prospect League team.
Funding for this new pine tar cathedral is supposed to come from the local Economic Development Income Tax. I think this shows a lack of imagination. Why not glom onto some of that sweet state payola for the Opioid Addiction Treatment Center and build a dual-purpose facility? You could employ the inpatient addicts to hawk peanuts and take tickets during game times, and as groundskeepers between games, as long as nobody tried to snort the third base line.
The junkies could learn a trade and the ball park gets cheap labor. You could bunk them down in the press box or the visiting team's clubhouse.
Multi-use developments are all the rage these days, anyway.
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From 2011 to 2013, Indiana had the fifteenth highest rate of deaths from drug overdoses among U.S. states, at sixteen per hundred thousand Hoosiers. We're only the seventeenth most populous state, and hardly a hotbed of hedonism and other assorted whoop-te-do, but the nation's overdose center of gravity seems to have shifted.
The most statistically common place to go on a final nod these days is not a trendy loft in Soho, but rather in a split-level midwestern ranch a few blocks down from the shuttered wheel bearing factory, or a single-wide in the mobile home park across the tracks from the defunct curtain rod plant.
Anyway, Indiana has decided to open five more Opioid Addiction Treatment Centers in various small cities around the state.
One of these small cities is Lafayette, which is a city I'd think was doing pretty good, economically speaking. They've got the Subaru plant, Caterpillar, TRW, and others, as well as being right across the river from the sprawling Purdue University campus.
Another reason I'd think they were doing pretty good is that they apparently want to build a new $16M dollar home for their Lafayette Aviators, a Prospect League team.
Funding for this new pine tar cathedral is supposed to come from the local Economic Development Income Tax. I think this shows a lack of imagination. Why not glom onto some of that sweet state payola for the Opioid Addiction Treatment Center and build a dual-purpose facility? You could employ the inpatient addicts to hawk peanuts and take tickets during game times, and as groundskeepers between games, as long as nobody tried to snort the third base line.
The junkies could learn a trade and the ball park gets cheap labor. You could bunk them down in the press box or the visiting team's clubhouse.
Multi-use developments are all the rage these days, anyway.
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Friday, July 07, 2017
Thursday, July 06, 2017
Knight's Fork
So, a new piece of legislation has been introduced in Congress: The Silencers Help Us Save Hearing Act ("SHUSH", get it?) that would move to completely deregulate suppressors at the federal level. This would make cans just another firearms accessory as far as the feds were concerned, which is of little consolation to those in states with their own suppressor laws, but a big deal for the rest of us.
This is the more radical fork of the Hearing Protection Act, which has now been rolled into the broader SHARE bill. Personally, I'd love it if they both passed, but if I had to pick one, I'd hope that the new SHUSH act draws all the heated opposition away from SHARE, and here's why: Which would you rather have:
So now we have SHUSH playing the heavy, making SHARE look reasonable. Knight's fork.
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- Suppressors completely de-regulated and the Sporting Purposes Clause of GCA '68 left intact? Or...
- Suppressors moved to Title I (treated as regular firearms, w/a 4473) and the Sporting Purposes Clause of GCA '68 repealed? Remember that the Sporting Purposes Clause is the underpinnings for everything from the ridiculous BATFE "Points System" for imported handguns to the hated 922(r) regulations.
So now we have SHUSH playing the heavy, making SHARE look reasonable. Knight's fork.
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Tuesday, July 04, 2017
Well...
The MP5K-PDW is a Tokyo Marui airsoft electric gun, and the "grenade" is a lighter... But the rockets are real rockets, so there's that.
In case you're not feeling very rebellious...
...the following .pdf link contains the instructions for my fellow Hoosiers to pop off fireworks today while avoiding any imperial entanglements.
Note that today's hours, like those on New Year's Eve, Memorial Day, and Labor Day, run an extra hour.
We had enough bottle rockets, small fountains, and sparklers left over from last year to make a pretty good fifteen minutes of fun on the front walk, but I went ahead and picked up some 8-oz. rockets and colored sparklers from the local gypsy fireworks joint just in case.
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Note that today's hours, like those on New Year's Eve, Memorial Day, and Labor Day, run an extra hour.
We had enough bottle rockets, small fountains, and sparklers left over from last year to make a pretty good fifteen minutes of fun on the front walk, but I went ahead and picked up some 8-oz. rockets and colored sparklers from the local gypsy fireworks joint just in case.
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Hey, Look!
I have a new piece up at Breach Bang Clear!
You should go read it and share it with the people you know who point guns at themselves. Preferably while they're eating, just to get the point across. (Yeah, there're some bloody pictures, but it's for a good cause.)
You should go read it and share it with the people you know who point guns at themselves. Preferably while they're eating, just to get the point across. (Yeah, there're some bloody pictures, but it's for a good cause.)
Happy You're Not The Boss Of Me Day!
Keep that 'Merican spirit alive and rebel a little harder today. Also, fireworks. It's a known fact that the king of England doesn't like them, so be sure to set a bunch off.
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Monday, July 03, 2017
Overheard at the Grocery Store...
Cashier: "How are you this evening, Ma'am?"
Me: "On a scale of One to Bald Eagle, how 'Merican are you feeling today?"
Sometimes the Personal isn't Political.
So, when I mentioned getting the cordless electric lawnmower, commentary on the Bookface (as well as my email inbox) trended heavily toward the "Y'all don't seem like godless vegan commie hippies. Why the electric mower instead of a 'Murrican-engined one?" sort.
Because the only reason one could possible want an electric power tool is because politics, apparently, and not because one doesn't want to mess with the vagaries of small combustion engines, rope starts, dealing with the total abortions that are currently sold as gas cans, or other pragmatic reasons.
I mean, from a pragmatic point of view, now that battery and motor tech has gotten to the point that cordless electric lawnmowers are possible, for a yard a small as ours? It's worth it to me for the convenience cost.
But when everything is viewed through the lens of politics, you get stuff like this:
First, the electric car has come of age, at least as an urban/suburban commuter. It means that never again does the city or suburban driver have to go to a gas station or convenience store, which are, let's face it, the watering holes on the Serengeti of crime.
Second, the Tesla seems to be marketed pretty well as...well, an urban commuter rocketship.
"But, Tam! You can't take roadtrips in it!" In my experience, people in the Tesla-buying bracket usually fly, anyway. And when they do take roadtrips, they do so in rented vehicles so as not to run up the miles on their POV.
Hell, some people who live in cities don't even have cars, which I find weird, but it's a (mostly) free country.
The Tesla's not the kind of car for me, but that's because I'm poor and need my own vehicle to be able to run to Texas as well as it runs to the corner store.
What I want to know is how many of the people who hold this anti-electric point of view are willing to go all the way, and replace the hippie vegan battery packs on their electric toothbrushes and razors with these? How come nobody uses gasoline-powered drills? Ya bunch of granola-smoking commies!
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Because the only reason one could possible want an electric power tool is because politics, apparently, and not because one doesn't want to mess with the vagaries of small combustion engines, rope starts, dealing with the total abortions that are currently sold as gas cans, or other pragmatic reasons.
I mean, from a pragmatic point of view, now that battery and motor tech has gotten to the point that cordless electric lawnmowers are possible, for a yard a small as ours? It's worth it to me for the convenience cost.
But when everything is viewed through the lens of politics, you get stuff like this:
"The way I look at it, wanting to buy an electric vehicle (airborne or road) is virtue signalling. Wanting to sell an electric vehicle is more like the old quote, "there's a another one born every minute." You want to spend money to feel good? We'll be more than happy to take your money!"So, the only reason somebody would want to buy an electric car is for virtue signalling? (This is kind of funny, since the comment by SiG is, in fact, virtue signalling to his own tribe...)
First, the electric car has come of age, at least as an urban/suburban commuter. It means that never again does the city or suburban driver have to go to a gas station or convenience store, which are, let's face it, the watering holes on the Serengeti of crime.
Second, the Tesla seems to be marketed pretty well as...well, an urban commuter rocketship.
"But, Tam! You can't take roadtrips in it!" In my experience, people in the Tesla-buying bracket usually fly, anyway. And when they do take roadtrips, they do so in rented vehicles so as not to run up the miles on their POV.
Hell, some people who live in cities don't even have cars, which I find weird, but it's a (mostly) free country.
The Tesla's not the kind of car for me, but that's because I'm poor and need my own vehicle to be able to run to Texas as well as it runs to the corner store.
What I want to know is how many of the people who hold this anti-electric point of view are willing to go all the way, and replace the hippie vegan battery packs on their electric toothbrushes and razors with these? How come nobody uses gasoline-powered drills? Ya bunch of granola-smoking commies!
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Sunday, July 02, 2017
Waiting...
...for the sun to get far enough in its track that the front yard is in the shade before I start mowing. It's going to be warm out, but the dew point will only be 55°F (temp in the mid 80s, humidity in the high 30% range) so it should be downright pleasant in the shade.
Grass should be dry enough to bag easily and not clog the chute.
Mowing is a chore I actually kind of like, because progress is so visible.
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Grass should be dry enough to bag easily and not clog the chute.
Mowing is a chore I actually kind of like, because progress is so visible.
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Saturday, July 01, 2017
Unconventional Glocks...
Flash Thunderworks in Knoxville did the work, which includes stippling, a high hand cut, removing the finger grooves, and a grip reduction, among other things. The gun sports an SSVi Tyr trigger and a Leupold Deltapoint Pro. I'll do a more detailed post on the gun shortly...
