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| Benz G-Wagen out on a good day for it. |
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Saturday, March 21, 2015
Automotif LXX...
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Friday, March 20, 2015
The Safety Dance
So, the table we got at the gun show butted up against several others that were unused because their usual tenant, a medical supplies vendor, had gotten hurt in a wreck and couldn't make the show. The morning of the second day, we spread out a little, moving some holsters over to the empty table behind us to keep that end of the aisle from looking deserted.
Among the stuff I had over there was a Safariland Glock 17/22/31 paddle holster, on the diagram below in position "H":
Mike and I were sitting in the chairs marked "M" and "T", facing in the directions indicated. Mike was talking to someone on his end of the table when I hear a voice behind me asking "What's this holster fit? Glock?"
I glanced over my shoulder and nodded at the person asking the question, a uniformed police officer; not an IMPD guy, some other local department. "Yep, it's for full-size Glocks."
He nodded thoughtfully while turning it over in his hands, "How much?"
"I dunno... Twenty bucks sound cool?"
He mulled that over for a second as I turned away to see what was going on down Mike's way when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the cop unholster his sidearm. I got a real good look at the muzzle in my peripheral vision, and also took extremely good note of the fact that, even if his lack of muzzle discipline was appalling, at least his trigger finger was in register against the frame. Thank heavens.
I stood up in as casual and non-startling a manner as possible as he stuffed the gun into the holster, sliding his off-hand down until it was cradling the muzzle end of the Safariland rig. Then he nodded, pulled his heater out and stuffed it back into his duty rig and reached for his wallet.
I would venture that a solid plurality, if not a majority, of negligent discharges at gun shows happen when some special snowflake decides they have to test the fit of their loaded sidearm in a holster. If such had happened here, I wouldn't have been able to tell y'all about it because they'd have been cleaning my brains off the next row over and hopefully the .40 slug wouldn't have gone through anybody else on its way to embedding itself in the back wall of the corn dog stand three aisles away.
I don't want the last fleeting thought going through my mind to have been "Boy, you sure are the only one qualified enough..."
Folks, I don't care if you flout the show rules and don't unload your concealed carry piece and have it zip tied at the door; that's none of my business. But if you're gonna carry a loaded gat around the show, it needs to stay in the $&#@^$ing holster, &^%^ it!
Don't pull it out to show your friends, and don't give me that "I had to pull it out to check the holster fit!" because we're in a giant room where there are hundreds of guns for sale just like yours, and we can use one of them instead.
Stop touching it. And especially stop touching it while it's pointed at my head.
Among the stuff I had over there was a Safariland Glock 17/22/31 paddle holster, on the diagram below in position "H":
I glanced over my shoulder and nodded at the person asking the question, a uniformed police officer; not an IMPD guy, some other local department. "Yep, it's for full-size Glocks."
He nodded thoughtfully while turning it over in his hands, "How much?"
"I dunno... Twenty bucks sound cool?"
He mulled that over for a second as I turned away to see what was going on down Mike's way when, out of the corner of my eye, I see the cop unholster his sidearm. I got a real good look at the muzzle in my peripheral vision, and also took extremely good note of the fact that, even if his lack of muzzle discipline was appalling, at least his trigger finger was in register against the frame. Thank heavens.
I stood up in as casual and non-startling a manner as possible as he stuffed the gun into the holster, sliding his off-hand down until it was cradling the muzzle end of the Safariland rig. Then he nodded, pulled his heater out and stuffed it back into his duty rig and reached for his wallet.
I would venture that a solid plurality, if not a majority, of negligent discharges at gun shows happen when some special snowflake decides they have to test the fit of their loaded sidearm in a holster. If such had happened here, I wouldn't have been able to tell y'all about it because they'd have been cleaning my brains off the next row over and hopefully the .40 slug wouldn't have gone through anybody else on its way to embedding itself in the back wall of the corn dog stand three aisles away.
I don't want the last fleeting thought going through my mind to have been "Boy, you sure are the only one qualified enough..."
Folks, I don't care if you flout the show rules and don't unload your concealed carry piece and have it zip tied at the door; that's none of my business. But if you're gonna carry a loaded gat around the show, it needs to stay in the $&#@^$ing holster, &^%^ it!
Don't pull it out to show your friends, and don't give me that "I had to pull it out to check the holster fit!" because we're in a giant room where there are hundreds of guns for sale just like yours, and we can use one of them instead.
Stop touching it. And especially stop touching it while it's pointed at my head.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Important Safety Tip!
Brownells just sent an email inviting me to Bullet Proof My Shotgun! which is an idea I heartily endorse.
However it's important for you to learn from my mistakes: Test-fire it after you've bullet-proofed it, because only a fortuitous pair of nail clippers kept me from having to prison file an 870 extractor on the concrete outside my motel room door...
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However it's important for you to learn from my mistakes: Test-fire it after you've bullet-proofed it, because only a fortuitous pair of nail clippers kept me from having to prison file an 870 extractor on the concrete outside my motel room door...
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"Hello and/or Duh."
Hey, has anybody thought to ask the #NSA for #HillaryClinton's missing emails?
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) March 19, 2015
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Holster Flap...
Not too long ago, I was at a gun show with a couple of friends. At the clearing barrel, one of them cleared his heater and went to reholster it, but the holster had collapsed somewhat. The gun wouldn't seat and so he tried again, causing the holster to collapse a little more.
With the rest of us standing there watching, he kept trying to force the muzzle of the gun into the holster in what had to be an intensely frustrating exercise. Being able to stow the gat without looking is a fundamental skill if you carry the holster behind the point of the hip, and with people standing there watching as your gear defeats your attempts at performing this task, it's easy to get flustered.
Thing is, this was no novice; far from it. He'd been shooting pistols since he was big enough to hold them and had many hundreds of hours of formal gun school. And this wasn't crappy gear, either; it was a horsehide Mitch Rosen rig that had just apparently decided to give up the ghost after probably well more than a decade of carry.
That leads me to this post (which also harshes on the holster type I love to hate most.) I've personally come around to carrying kydex holsters IWB. Some folks argue that "Kydex doesn't bend to conform to your body!" I don't really get that, because my holster is only about as wide as the gun that's in it, and the gun itself doesn't bend to conform to your body, either, no matter what you wrap it in.
Quality gear is important. Regularly checking that the quality gear is still in good shape is important. Do the important stuff.
With the rest of us standing there watching, he kept trying to force the muzzle of the gun into the holster in what had to be an intensely frustrating exercise. Being able to stow the gat without looking is a fundamental skill if you carry the holster behind the point of the hip, and with people standing there watching as your gear defeats your attempts at performing this task, it's easy to get flustered.
Thing is, this was no novice; far from it. He'd been shooting pistols since he was big enough to hold them and had many hundreds of hours of formal gun school. And this wasn't crappy gear, either; it was a horsehide Mitch Rosen rig that had just apparently decided to give up the ghost after probably well more than a decade of carry.
That leads me to this post (which also harshes on the holster type I love to hate most.) I've personally come around to carrying kydex holsters IWB. Some folks argue that "Kydex doesn't bend to conform to your body!" I don't really get that, because my holster is only about as wide as the gun that's in it, and the gun itself doesn't bend to conform to your body, either, no matter what you wrap it in.
Quality gear is important. Regularly checking that the quality gear is still in good shape is important. Do the important stuff.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Ricoh Suave
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| Ricoh GR1 |
It's the only camera I've ever used that "prewinds". When you insert a new roll of film, the camera motors it all onto the takeup spool. Then as you take each shot, it goes back into the canister. So at the end of a roll of film, instead of a long bit of motor whirr as it rewinds, there's only a little "vwipp" as it reels in the leader. As a bonus, should the back get opened in mid-roll, the pictures you've taken are already safely inside the film canister.
(Local Walgreens and Amazon sell 24-exposure rolls of 200 and 400 ISO Fuji in 4-packs
. I've been using the 200 just to see if a camera runs okay or not.)
Legislative Alert...
This just over the transom:
It's past time for the silly Hoosier ban on SBS's to make with the go-aways.
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"Senator Tomes' SB 433 (bringing Indiana's regulations on short-barreled shotguns into conformity with Federal rules) will be heard in the House Public Policy Committee (Tom Dermody is chairman) Wednesday, March 18, in room l56B starting at 9:00 AM."It's pretty certain to pass without trouble, but it never hurts to show the flag. If you're in the area and want to comb your hair nice and go show some support for Second Amendment rights in Indiana, it'd be cool.
It's past time for the silly Hoosier ban on SBS's to make with the go-aways.
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Monday, March 16, 2015
A reminder:
Ambulance Driver will be presenting his awesome Shooter Self-Care class at the NRA Annual Meeting again this year. If you're going to be in Nashville, you should definitely think about attending.
If you've been to three or five shooting classes and have never been to a class on immediate treatment for a gunshot wound, I would submit that you're doing it wrong. If you're carrying around a "blowout kit" in your range bag and have never taken a class on how to use the contents, you're doing it wrong.
And don't mistake my meaning: I don't recommend this kind of training so you can patch yourself up after the big gun battle with ninjas you're likely never going to have; I recommend a shooter self-care class because if you carry a loaded gun every day or participate in action pistol sports, the most likely person to put a bullet hole in you is you. You want to know what to do if that happens.
If you've been to three or five shooting classes and have never been to a class on immediate treatment for a gunshot wound, I would submit that you're doing it wrong. If you're carrying around a "blowout kit" in your range bag and have never taken a class on how to use the contents, you're doing it wrong.
And don't mistake my meaning: I don't recommend this kind of training so you can patch yourself up after the big gun battle with ninjas you're likely never going to have; I recommend a shooter self-care class because if you carry a loaded gun every day or participate in action pistol sports, the most likely person to put a bullet hole in you is you. You want to know what to do if that happens.
Duality
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| Canon Photura, Kodak Gold 200 |
3/15/2015: "Oh, thank heavens it's finally warming up. This winter like to have killed me. I am so glad spring is here..."It's beautiful out there right now; a perfect sunny seventy degrees. I'll give Indiana this: You get your money's worth out of each and every one of the four seasons.
8/15/2015: "Jebus, I'm melting. It's so humid my sweat won't even evaporate! I would murder people in their beds to be shoveling a snowy sidewalk right now."
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Overheard at the Fun Show...
From a guy looking at the CZ Scorpion:
From a guy explaining to his wife the great bargain he got from a fellow attendee in the middle of the aisle:
"What caliber is this 9mm Evo 3? .22?"From an older gentleman perusing the wares at another table:
"Do they have to do background checks on .22s?"To be fair it was within his lifetime that .22s didn't need serial numbers and could be mail ordered. They were hardly considered guns in much of the country, and he probably got his first one about the time the training wheels came off his bicycle.
From a guy explaining to his wife the great bargain he got from a fellow attendee in the middle of the aisle:
"No, you don't have to do paperwork on long guns, only firearms."Favorite nickname bestowed on a guy roaming the aisles: "Biker Gandalf".
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Fun Show Time!
Let's sing the Fun Show Song!
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Flintlocks and Flop-topsI''ve got half a table at this one, because if you're going to pay to get in for a few days, you might as well pay to sit down. Come say hi!
And Number Three Russians
Black-powder Mausers
From jackbooted Prussians,
Shiny Smith PC's from limited runs
These are a few of my favorite guns.
Socketed bay'nets
On Zulu War rifles,
Engraved, iv'ried Lugers
That make quite an eyefull
Mosin tomato stakes sold by the ton
These are a few of my favorite guns.
Rusty top-breaks!
Smallbore Schuetzens!
And all of Browning's spawn
I just keep on browsing my favorite guns
Until all my money's gone.
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Overheard in the Office...
Me: "Well, Spamis real popular in the South Pacific..."
RX: "Oh, yes! Well, it tastes like people."
Friday, March 13, 2015
Just In Time!
For several years, my route from Indianapolis to Knoxville has been I-65 to Louisville, where I'd pick up I-64 and head east toward Lexington and jump on I-75 south to K-ville. Unfortunately, this is happening:
However, the main reason I headed out of Indy on I-65 South instead of I-74 East no longer applies as of the 23rd of this month!
There was minimal difference in actual mileage between the two routes, but the southward one was often more inconvenient for me, going square through the heart of Indy and then right into the thick of the never-ending construction in the Louisville spaghetti bowl. I generally put up with those hassles rather than risking becoming the next Jeffrey Jordan while clipping through about ten or fifteen miles of southwestern Ohio.
Remember when Ohio didn't even have concealed carry? And then it did, but it was all messed up and riddled with local exemptions and you couldn't CCW in a car? And then they fixed that but only recognized a handful of out-of-state permits?
Everybody wants to throw a "Hail Mary" instead of grinding away with "off-tackle left on three", like Ohio did.
Three yards and a cloud of dust. It's the Buckeye way.
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"If your vacation plans take you south this year, be prepared for some slow downs before you really get out of town.Festive.
Groundbreaking on a major construction project on I-65 was Tuesday. Work begins Sunday.
Southsiders just made it through one major construction project at Southport Road, which added lanes in the area.
Now a whole new project will do the same, going south.
It will impact not only those who drive I-65 everyday, but those of you planning road trips south this year."
However, the main reason I headed out of Indy on I-65 South instead of I-74 East no longer applies as of the 23rd of this month!
"Non-Ohio residents with a valid concealed handgun license from another state, regardless of whether the other state has entered into a reciprocity agreement with Ohio, will have their license recognized in the state during the period that the person is temporarily in Ohio."Hooray!
There was minimal difference in actual mileage between the two routes, but the southward one was often more inconvenient for me, going square through the heart of Indy and then right into the thick of the never-ending construction in the Louisville spaghetti bowl. I generally put up with those hassles rather than risking becoming the next Jeffrey Jordan while clipping through about ten or fifteen miles of southwestern Ohio.
Remember when Ohio didn't even have concealed carry? And then it did, but it was all messed up and riddled with local exemptions and you couldn't CCW in a car? And then they fixed that but only recognized a handful of out-of-state permits?
Everybody wants to throw a "Hail Mary" instead of grinding away with "off-tackle left on three", like Ohio did.
Three yards and a cloud of dust. It's the Buckeye way.
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Painfully twee...
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| Leica R4, Ilford FP4 Plus |
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Another blown chance to use wiener in a headline!
Via email comes this suicidally geeky and totally-don't-try-this-at-home-kids way to cook a hot dog.
(Here at Roseholme Cottage, we just use a handy little pop-up hot dog toaster
that toasts two buns while cooking the hot dogs.)
(Here at Roseholme Cottage, we just use a handy little pop-up hot dog toaster
that toasts two buns while cooking the hot dogs.)
Say what, now?
The FAA says no posting of drone footage on YouTube?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
That's a good one, Canute. Have fun with that.
Anyone want to start a betting pool on how long before we have a drone footage on YouTube of another drone hovering along with a Guy Fawkes mask over its camera?
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
That's a good one, Canute. Have fun with that.
Anyone want to start a betting pool on how long before we have a drone footage on YouTube of another drone hovering along with a Guy Fawkes mask over its camera?
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Thursday, March 12, 2015
This is interesting...
Indiana's "Castle Doctrine Against The Cops" law just had its first legal test...
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"And we hold that, on the facts of this case, Cupello exercised reasonable force under Indiana Code Section 35-41-3-2(i)(2) to prevent or terminate an unlawful entry by a public servant into his home. Thus, we reverse Cupello’s conviction.".pdf of the decision here.
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