When a half-hour, two-county chase initiated by Greenfield, IN police on Saturday ended by deploying the stop sticks, officers rushing up to the fugitive vehicle got a surprise: The vehicle hadn't been swerving all over the road at 80mph because the driver was too 'faced to drive; it had been swerving all over the road because the operator couldn't see over the dashboard and hadn't ever driven anything but a video game before.
He was nine years old and peeved about his 8PM curfew, so he stole his mom's cell phone, a dollar "for clothes", and the keys to the family bus and ran away from home and into the next season of America's Scariest Police Chases.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Blog Days of Summer?
So, August this year seems to have hit an annual low for me as far as sheer number of posts goes.
On the other hand, it looks like a banner month for hits, since I'll wind up within spitting distance of 90k...
On the other hand, it looks like a banner month for hits, since I'll wind up within spitting distance of 90k...
Gun School: 1911 Geek Post
So there were seven 1911's in our class; just less than a third of the shooters. Interestingly, all seven were full-size, 5”, steel-framed guns. The deputy carried his in his duty gear; Shootin' Buddy, myself, and one other shooter carried in our street CCW rigs; the three remaining students used “range/training”-type holsters.
There were two Kimbers: A stainless Gold Combat and one of the new “SIS” guns. I used my Springfield Pro on Day One and switched to my '66 Colt Government Model for the two subsequent days. Shootin' Buddy had his newest Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special; unlike his other TRS's, this one hadn't been to school yet and was still pristine, and I didn't miss a chance to tease him about his “Minnie Pearl Gun”.
The other guy using his street rig was using a 5” Colt, and was having serious issues with the standard grip safety. Like many with adult-male-size hands and the traditional grip safety, when he used a high grip, he wasn't reliably depressing the safety. He solved this with electrical tape. Nobody else had this issue,but almost all the other guns used a safety with some form or another of “speed bump”, or raised pad at the bottom of the safety, to ensure that the meat of the firing hand depressed it completely.
The deputy was using what appeared to be a “Franken-1911”, a common sight amongst Boone County cops, since the sheriff is an adjunct instructor at Gunsite and managed to acquire a bunch of ex-military pistols from the .gov and set them up as Gunsite-esque duty guns. As a matter of fact, the sheriff's son was in the class and shot a beat-to-hell early Yost-era Gunsite Service Pistol, which is, to a modern 1911 buff, about the dead-sexiest thing you could see on a Gun School firing line. There's nothing sadder than seeing a bucks-up fighting 1911 like a GSP, Baer TRS, Springer Pro, Wilson CQB or what-have-you that is all pristine because the owner is too scared of dinging up their precious 'combat' handgun by actually carrying it or using it. Conversely, there's a certain cachet to a gun like the kid's GSP or Shootin' Buddy's older Thunder Ranch Specials that show a lot of good, hard use.
The only gun that seemed to experience mechanical issues was that belonging to the deputy; its slide locked back prematurely a few times. While this malfunction could almost certainly be traced to the aftermarket “extended” slide stop on his gun, its exact source could have been any one of three things...
I only experienced one malf with my Colt. During one exercise, we started with a round in the chamber and no magazine in the weapon, and had to engage the target with two shots. We could either fire off the round in the pistol, juice up the gun and engage with the second round, or slap in a full mag and then fire twice. I went with the option that would put steel on target the fastest, despite Louis warning us that sometimes firing a pistol with no magazine can cause a failure-to-eject malfunction that looks like an inverted “stovepipe”, with the spent case dangling into the mag well instead of poking out the ejection port.
I fired and, like magic, there was the spent case, showing base-first out of the ejection port, aided (no doubt) by the stock, stubby, GI ejector in my gun. I locked the slide to the rear and popped in a new mag and fired off my second shot. It wasn't till after that string that I really realized what happened, when one of the RO's said “You got lucky there...” It turns out that I locked the slide back and my weak hand came up with the fresh mag fast enough that the spent case hadn't had time to fall free from the mag well; the new mag forced the empty out the ejection port. I'd been so fixated on the target that I hadn't noticed the mechanical drama.
There were two Kimbers: A stainless Gold Combat and one of the new “SIS” guns. I used my Springfield Pro on Day One and switched to my '66 Colt Government Model for the two subsequent days. Shootin' Buddy had his newest Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special; unlike his other TRS's, this one hadn't been to school yet and was still pristine, and I didn't miss a chance to tease him about his “Minnie Pearl Gun”.
The other guy using his street rig was using a 5” Colt, and was having serious issues with the standard grip safety. Like many with adult-male-size hands and the traditional grip safety, when he used a high grip, he wasn't reliably depressing the safety. He solved this with electrical tape. Nobody else had this issue,but almost all the other guns used a safety with some form or another of “speed bump”, or raised pad at the bottom of the safety, to ensure that the meat of the firing hand depressed it completely.
The deputy was using what appeared to be a “Franken-1911”, a common sight amongst Boone County cops, since the sheriff is an adjunct instructor at Gunsite and managed to acquire a bunch of ex-military pistols from the .gov and set them up as Gunsite-esque duty guns. As a matter of fact, the sheriff's son was in the class and shot a beat-to-hell early Yost-era Gunsite Service Pistol, which is, to a modern 1911 buff, about the dead-sexiest thing you could see on a Gun School firing line. There's nothing sadder than seeing a bucks-up fighting 1911 like a GSP, Baer TRS, Springer Pro, Wilson CQB or what-have-you that is all pristine because the owner is too scared of dinging up their precious 'combat' handgun by actually carrying it or using it. Conversely, there's a certain cachet to a gun like the kid's GSP or Shootin' Buddy's older Thunder Ranch Specials that show a lot of good, hard use.
The only gun that seemed to experience mechanical issues was that belonging to the deputy; its slide locked back prematurely a few times. While this malfunction could almost certainly be traced to the aftermarket “extended” slide stop on his gun, its exact source could have been any one of three things...
- His hand could have been contacting it under recoil. This is the least likely reason, however, as he was a southpaw and this malf usually happens to right-handers shooting high-thumbs.
- The interior part of the aftermarket slide stop could have been incorrectly dimensioned and was being contacted by the nose of the next bullet in the magazine, especially if it had been jarred forward slightly under recoil.
- The additional mass of the extended stop may have occasionally bounced up under its own inertia when the gun recoiled. This will be familiar to any Glock shooter who's had the fussy little spring on their slide catch fail.
I only experienced one malf with my Colt. During one exercise, we started with a round in the chamber and no magazine in the weapon, and had to engage the target with two shots. We could either fire off the round in the pistol, juice up the gun and engage with the second round, or slap in a full mag and then fire twice. I went with the option that would put steel on target the fastest, despite Louis warning us that sometimes firing a pistol with no magazine can cause a failure-to-eject malfunction that looks like an inverted “stovepipe”, with the spent case dangling into the mag well instead of poking out the ejection port.
I fired and, like magic, there was the spent case, showing base-first out of the ejection port, aided (no doubt) by the stock, stubby, GI ejector in my gun. I locked the slide to the rear and popped in a new mag and fired off my second shot. It wasn't till after that string that I really realized what happened, when one of the RO's said “You got lucky there...” It turns out that I locked the slide back and my weak hand came up with the fresh mag fast enough that the spent case hadn't had time to fall free from the mag well; the new mag forced the empty out the ejection port. I'd been so fixated on the target that I hadn't noticed the mechanical drama.
Today In History: An earthquake where?
On this date in 1886, Charleston, South Carolina was rocked by a brief and vicious tremor that killed about a hundred and did six million dollars in property damage (back when $24 million would have bought you the whole city.)
We visited Charleston a few times when I was young and it's hard to say which sticks in my mind more firmly: the USS Yorktown, or the "earthquake bolts" that protruded from the walls of stately old Georgian houses like the hardware from the neck of Frankenstein's monster.
We visited Charleston a few times when I was young and it's hard to say which sticks in my mind more firmly: the USS Yorktown, or the "earthquake bolts" that protruded from the walls of stately old Georgian houses like the hardware from the neck of Frankenstein's monster.
Quote of the Day: Keystone Kongress Edition.
"Thing is, I wouldn't put it past the guys who gave us the Consumer Safety Product Improvement Act to write something that accidentally regulated every mother making sandwiches for her kids under the same system as the folks who run Mickey D's and KFC." -Karrde
Seen in comments here.
We the uncaring, governed by the incompetent, asked to pay the unimaginable and adhere to the indecipherable...
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Korean Cabbage Crackdown...
A local-vittles market in the Knoxville area was told to stop selling a spicy homemade Korean cabbage dish or they'd be in deep kimchi.
Books...
At the Fun Show yesterday I picked up a couple of useful volumes, one of which I'd been meaning to buy and one of which was a complete surprise...
I didn't even know that Hank Reinhardt's The Book of Swords
was in print yet, but Michael Z. Williamson had several on his table, and I had to pick one up. Hank was one of the key figures in modern study of the sword as an historical fighting tool, rather than an archaeological curiosity or fantasy wallhanger. I'm about halfway through the book, and it's an enjoyable, rambling excursion through the history of... well, mostly swords, of course, but it bounces off metallurgy, touches down on armor, glances off axes, and generally has the feel of someone who is not only very knowledgeable about a topic but also passionate about it vomiting the contents of their mind onto the page. I consider myself fairly well-read on the topic, but I've already learned a few new things. It will sit comfortably on my shelf next to Burton
and Oakeshott
.
The other was a reference volume that I've been meaning to add for a while now: Bolt Action Military Rifles of the World
. It's a general overview that's light on text, instead being crammed from cover to cover with lavish, full-color illustrations: Closeups of various markings, details on how to field-strip various rifles, pictures of bayonets and charger clips and various other peripheral doohickeys. The book runs more towards captions than paragraphs, but includes bunches of useful tables of maker's marks and translations of foreign numbering systems often encountered on these strange rifles from exotic lands. It makes for a nice bridge between the typical pretty-but-error-ridden volumes found on the clearance table at Border's and the excruciatingly detailed type-specific For Collectors Only volumes that contain things like the genealogical tables of the man who redesigned the rear triggerguard screw on the M1892 variant of the Model of 188...ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I didn't even know that Hank Reinhardt's The Book of Swords
was in print yet, but Michael Z. Williamson had several on his table, and I had to pick one up. Hank was one of the key figures in modern study of the sword as an historical fighting tool, rather than an archaeological curiosity or fantasy wallhanger. I'm about halfway through the book, and it's an enjoyable, rambling excursion through the history of... well, mostly swords, of course, but it bounces off metallurgy, touches down on armor, glances off axes, and generally has the feel of someone who is not only very knowledgeable about a topic but also passionate about it vomiting the contents of their mind onto the page. I consider myself fairly well-read on the topic, but I've already learned a few new things. It will sit comfortably on my shelf next to Burton and Oakeshott.The other was a reference volume that I've been meaning to add for a while now: Bolt Action Military Rifles of the World
. It's a general overview that's light on text, instead being crammed from cover to cover with lavish, full-color illustrations: Closeups of various markings, details on how to field-strip various rifles, pictures of bayonets and charger clips and various other peripheral doohickeys. The book runs more towards captions than paragraphs, but includes bunches of useful tables of maker's marks and translations of foreign numbering systems often encountered on these strange rifles from exotic lands. It makes for a nice bridge between the typical pretty-but-error-ridden volumes found on the clearance table at Border's and the excruciatingly detailed type-specific For Collectors Only volumes that contain things like the genealogical tables of the man who redesigned the rear triggerguard screw on the M1892 variant of the Model of 188...ZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Hope and Change!
Remember: It's only overreaching and intrusive when the other guys do it!
The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.Meanwhile, the Democrats have controlled the legislative branch for coming up on three years now, and the oft-derided USA-PATRIOT Act is still with us. I guess they only hate it during election season.
"I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. "It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill."
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
I wondered where I'd left that...
100,000 rounds of my ammunition were unearthed in Serbia; I'd appreciate it if they'd pick up the shipping tab for returning it to me. The anti-tank mines aren't mine, however. I don't know who put those in there.
I must say that the Serbian po-po have laid out the most impressive junk-on-the-bunk display I've seen in a while.
I must say that the Serbian po-po have laid out the most impressive junk-on-the-bunk display I've seen in a while.
Gun School: Post #4. Hardware.
Twenty-four students.
Seven 1911's, three Springfield XD's, a Browning High Power, a CZ-75 Compact, a DAO Beretta PX-4 Storm, a Beretta 9000S, a Walther PPS, a Bersa Thunder .380, a SIG P-239, two S&W M&P Compacts, and the balance were using Glocks of one sort or another.
The student using the Bersa dropped out after the first day, and the student using the 9000S switched to her dad's backup M&P Compact on Day Two because the Beretta had been all ate up with function issues on the first day.
One of the 1911's was the duty sidearm of a cop, who ran it in his duty gear. Of the other twenty-three students, just under half were using the methods of carry they'd use on the street, while the remainder used bulkier “range/training
” type holsters.
I found this to be a little odd, as Louis Awerbuck was more than willing to work with students who were using their CCW rigs: I saw him adapt the traditional “four-count” draw to students using a fanny pack, a carry purse, and appendix carry. Other than those three students, everybody else was using some variation of strong-side belt carry, whether inside or outside the waistband, on or behind the point of the hip.
The student using the Walther only brought the two mags that came with the gun. This was something of a drawback, given their low capacity, and he was sometimes caught flat-footed, needing to thumb rounds into a magazine to keep up with the pace of the drills.
The students with the Bersa and the Beretta Storm still had metaphorical price tags hanging from their guns. While this was, nominally, a Level One defensive handgun course, they probably would have gotten more out of it if they had a little more confidence in the basic manipulation of their firearms; running the slide, operating the controls, and so forth. Louis and his assistants displayed great patience, but it was frustrating enough for the Bersa-toting pupil that she dropped out after the first day. To be fair, I'm not entirely sure that attending the class was her idea.
One of the Glock toters had constant issues with Type I malfunctions, as did the Beretta 9000 on Day One. The Beretta shooter was fortunate in that her dad had brought a spare gun. The cop with the 1911 has a couple of incidences of the slide prematurely locking to the rear, which I am nearly certain could be attributed to the aftermarket “extended” slide stop on his sidearm.
Observations I took away from all this:
Seven 1911's, three Springfield XD's, a Browning High Power, a CZ-75 Compact, a DAO Beretta PX-4 Storm, a Beretta 9000S, a Walther PPS, a Bersa Thunder .380, a SIG P-239, two S&W M&P Compacts, and the balance were using Glocks of one sort or another.
The student using the Bersa dropped out after the first day, and the student using the 9000S switched to her dad's backup M&P Compact on Day Two because the Beretta had been all ate up with function issues on the first day.
One of the 1911's was the duty sidearm of a cop, who ran it in his duty gear. Of the other twenty-three students, just under half were using the methods of carry they'd use on the street, while the remainder used bulkier “range/training
” type holsters.I found this to be a little odd, as Louis Awerbuck was more than willing to work with students who were using their CCW rigs: I saw him adapt the traditional “four-count” draw to students using a fanny pack, a carry purse, and appendix carry. Other than those three students, everybody else was using some variation of strong-side belt carry, whether inside or outside the waistband, on or behind the point of the hip.
The student using the Walther only brought the two mags that came with the gun. This was something of a drawback, given their low capacity, and he was sometimes caught flat-footed, needing to thumb rounds into a magazine to keep up with the pace of the drills.
The students with the Bersa and the Beretta Storm still had metaphorical price tags hanging from their guns. While this was, nominally, a Level One defensive handgun course, they probably would have gotten more out of it if they had a little more confidence in the basic manipulation of their firearms; running the slide, operating the controls, and so forth. Louis and his assistants displayed great patience, but it was frustrating enough for the Bersa-toting pupil that she dropped out after the first day. To be fair, I'm not entirely sure that attending the class was her idea.
One of the Glock toters had constant issues with Type I malfunctions, as did the Beretta 9000 on Day One. The Beretta shooter was fortunate in that her dad had brought a spare gun. The cop with the 1911 has a couple of incidences of the slide prematurely locking to the rear, which I am nearly certain could be attributed to the aftermarket “extended” slide stop on his sidearm.
Observations I took away from all this:
- Even a “Defensive Handgun I” course is not the same as “Your Gun: How To Work It”. In most locales, it is easy to find a couple-hour-long Basic Pistol course. This will help give enough familiarity with the basic operation of your weapon that you can concentrate on the “defensive” aspects of the course and not spend your time trying to remember how to load the blamed thing.
- The middle of an expensive class is not the time to find out that your gun is a lemon. Take it to the range the weekend before class and put a hundred rounds or so through it. Make certain it's thoroughly cleaned and oiled before class starts. If at all possible, have an identical backup gun just in case your primary pukes halfway into Day Two.
- Bring enough magazines. Every time you get a break, reload all of them that you can. You'll be much more likely to get your money's worth from the class if you're paying attention to the instructor and not frantically trying to top up the only two mags for your pistol. Bring good, tested magazines, not a bunch of aftermarket South Korean junk you picked up at a gun show the weekend before so you'd have lots of magazines for class. Number your magazines. If your gun starts puking on day two, it would be handy to know that all those Type I malfs are only happening with Mag #7.
- Use your street gear and gun. If your daily carry is a Glock 26 in a bellyband and you take the course with an XD in an IPSC race holster, how many of these skill drills will be directly translatable to your daily life? I took great satisfaction at the end of the day, when so many of the students were stripping off their Gunsite holsters and triple mag carriers, that all I had to do when I left the range was pull my Shoot Me vest
back on.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Taxman Cometh...
The city tax cops in New Haven, CT, have contracted with a private company to drive a vehicle around the city, using a fantastic computerized and infrared-equipped R2D2 unit to take pictures of everybody's license plates, lest someone be holding back dough from the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Lacking a cool state motto, armed Nutmegger villagers are notably not assembling on the village green.
(H/T to Unc.)
Lacking a cool state motto, armed Nutmegger villagers are notably not assembling on the village green.
(H/T to Unc.)
I'm THIS many!
VFTP turns four today. That's, like 80 in blog years.
Funny, it doesn't feel like I've been doing this for four years.
Funny, it doesn't feel like I've been doing this for four years.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Yum.
Roomie just ginned up some pseudo-psalsa using grape tomatoes and serrano peppers from the garden and some black olives from Fresh Market.
It was tasty, and all the more so for mostly coming from the bounty of our lawn & garden...
It was tasty, and all the more so for mostly coming from the bounty of our lawn & garden...
I'm not sure what to make of this one...
My roommate is a psychic.
Here's proof:
At 8:37AM, a dripping wet, towel-wrapped Bobbi sprang from the shower at Roseholme Cottage like Archimedes from the fabled jacuzzi and said "Oh my gawd, you just know they're going to want to rename the Socialized Medicine Bill after Kennedy!"
At 10:20AM we read this on The Hill's Blog: Byrd wants health bill renamed for Kennedy
I will rent her out to Super Bowl bettors and inveterate pony players for a 20% take of the winnings.
PS: This is the first ever time Sen. Byrd has asked for anything to be named after anyone other than Sen. Byrd.
PPS: If we're going to be naming something after Ted, how about a law concerning nepotism in federal government, or tighter USCG regulations on personal flotation devices in Oldsmobiles?
At 8:37AM, a dripping wet, towel-wrapped Bobbi sprang from the shower at Roseholme Cottage like Archimedes from the fabled jacuzzi and said "Oh my gawd, you just know they're going to want to rename the Socialized Medicine Bill after Kennedy!"
At 10:20AM we read this on The Hill's Blog: Byrd wants health bill renamed for Kennedy
I will rent her out to Super Bowl bettors and inveterate pony players for a 20% take of the winnings.
PS: This is the first ever time Sen. Byrd has asked for anything to be named after anyone other than Sen. Byrd.
PPS: If we're going to be naming something after Ted, how about a law concerning nepotism in federal government, or tighter USCG regulations on personal flotation devices in Oldsmobiles?
Worst. Dope Smuggling Plan. Evar.
Investigators in Colorado say they have broken up a massive methamphetamine ring in the Denver area that distributed pounds of the dangerous drug every week and laundered the profits using collectible comic books.The case was broken open when a detective noticed Jeremy Blascowicz grinding his teeth, constantly tugging at his neck beard, and talking at a high rate of speed for three hours straight about why Secret Wars was, like, a million billion times better than Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Mary Jo Kopechne's killer finally called to account.
It is with a less-than-heavy heart that I awakened to the news that the Evel Knievel of Chappaquiddick, longtime foeman of my freedoms, and last withered fruit of a particularly bad crop of jumped-up Yankee wannabe-aristocrats that infested our government, has finally gone on to whatever reward awaits him.
As an added bonus, I will probably not have to hear anything about Michael Jackson for at least a week.
As an added bonus, I will probably not have to hear anything about Michael Jackson for at least a week.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Guns in Parks in K-Town...
Back in my old 'hood, the Knoxville city council will be meeting tonight to vote on allowing CCW permit holders to carry their guns in parks: Rock The Vote.
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