Making room

Posted on by

I’ve another Ruger P95DC coming in and, honestly, I need to make some room for it in my wallet and gun safe by retiring out one of the other Rugers. So…if you want a Ruger P89 that was owned and shot by yours truly, there’s an auction up on GunBroker as we speak. Condition is good, with some bluing wear and some scuffing and whatnot around the triggerguard where some idiot put a wire hang tag on it. But, I’ve shot this thing and it’s as reliable a sunrise. I’ve taken it apart, cleaned and oiled everything, function checked it, and generally made sure it would be ready for that big day when all that stands between you making history and you becoming history is a reliable 9mm pistol.

Go. Bid. And know that your selfless actions will translate into a greater good for..well…me.

Politics and volcanoes

Posted on by

In typical fashion, Montana pretty much skipped spring and dove straight into summer. Summer means time to do some outdoorsy things like shoot, fish, shoot, hike, shoot, hunt, and maybe shoot some more.

Unfortunately, I am busier than I care to be. I’ve three jobs/business concerns going on and an educational obligation that takes time. But I really, really want to just spend an entire day being lazy at the range and shooting rifles.

Midterm elections are coming up and I was discussing them with someone. We both agreed that the notion that the midterm elections will be a weathervane on national mood. I wonder if political polsters and pundits will have learned their lesson from the last election. I am of the opinion that the people in the last election who went to the polls quietly and avoided/lied to pollsters will be out in even larger numbers. My track record for political predictions is pretty awful, but I think the left whines about their ‘resistance’ but isn’t as motivated to actually get out there and vote as the right. We shall see.

I watched Trump’s speech the other day on pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. While watching that, I also watched a monitor showing live market and metals prices. A few twitches here and there but no real big changes. Either no one was surprised by his actions, or no one really thinks it was a bad idea.

This has been an utterly fascinating presidency so far. There are things I don’t like about Trump but it’s hard to disagree that he really does make stuff happen. He’s not my ideal president, but he’s a lot closer to it than that entitled harpie he ran against.

. =============

Talking about politics is a guaranteed way for me to get frustrated. Swithcing gears…

You see Hawaii is having a little episode at the moment? Here’s a question that I never knew the answer to until recently. Lets say you own a piece of beachfront property in Hawaii. A flow of lava rolls across your property to the sea. As it rolls into the sea it cools and, bsically, becomes new land. Who owns that land? First person to go file a claim or stick a flag in it? Nope. As it turns out, it belongs to the state. I suppose I should have expected that given Hawaii’s fabulously left-leaning policies.

Volcanoes are fascinating players in disaster planning…while you know where the volcano is sitting, you usually don’t know when it’s going to go off. Oh, sure, there are signs but sometimes they go off like a nuke and no one was really expecting it. The Yellowstone supervolcano is always a topic of conversation and speculation when you talk about this sort of thing. I suppose if there’s a volcano anywhere in the continental US that’s likely to go, it’ll be there.

Other than a full tank of gas and a map showing three alternate routes, I’m not sure how you’d best prepare for a volcano. Staying put is probably out of the question. I suppose splitting up your supplies and being ready to completely abandon your location on a few hours notice is all you can do.

 

Thunderboomers

Posted on by

We had quite the blow yesterday. I was lounging in the yard on my laptop, trying to get some academic nonsense sorted, and enjoying the over cast weather. It got a bit windy and I saw those clouds. The kind that look like theyre cascading over each other like water. Either way, it was time to pack it up and head inside. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later the wind picks up and starts doing its thing.

We had a really nasty blow come through in August of 2015. This wasn’t as bad but I sat on the porchand watched the rain come down and could hear a couple transformers pop off in the distance. Fully expected the power to go out but it stayed on. At least, on my side of the street it did. The guy across the street had a tree come down in his yard and land on the powerline. That side of the street is without power until the power company works it’s chainsaw magic.

Me, I was content to listen to the police radio and watch the tree limbs come tumbling down. Why should I worry? Loss of electricity is only a minor inconvenience in this household. But thats what preparedness is about – being able to not be exposed to as much risk as might otherwise occur.

Tomorrow will be cleanup since there;s dead branches everywhere, but all in all, a quiet  little non-disaster. These summery thunderboomers sure leave a mess behind. Reminds me, I need to get the generator out and run it for a little while. It’s been several months since the last run so I really should get that taken care of.

Words have meanings

Posted on by

Listening to late-night talk radio, especially some of the more…offbeat…programs (looking at you, Geo. Noory) can really mess with your head. On the one hand, the forecast is for economic depression or massive hyperinflation and if you don’t move your money out of currency and into metals you are doomed…doomed! And then there’s an upcoming global disaster that will lead to famine…unless you stock up on food now! But not before the powers that be decide to enact a scheme to repeal your second amendment rights….so get out here and buy guns and ammo!

I don’t know which is worse, the emotional whiplash or the financial whiplash.

I was having a discussion with a classmate today. He said that todays generation will be less successful than the previous one.  I said that without establishing a baseline of what ‘successful’ meant, the conversation was pointless. His grandfather fled the Nazis and got out of Europe with just the clothes on his bank and not a penny to his name. We both agreed that would probably, to him, qualify as ‘success’. The generation after that? Probably saw raising good kids and having a job as success. That led to the question – what did we think success was?

I can’t speak for anyone else but me….to me, success is safety and security. Having constructed a system , or series of systems, to minimize my exposure to risk and harm and having those systems in place and effective…thats success to me. What does that system look like? It looks like a life without debt, some marketable skills, a paid house, with cash in the bank, gold in the safe, guns on the wall, food in the pantry, fuel in the cans, heat in the winter, and good health. I would say I’m a success if I could stop what I’m doing right this second and not have to worry about any of my needs being met for a year.

It’s different for everybody, of course….folks with kids might say that success is raising your kids to adulthood and having them turn out to be fine adults. Or some folks (notably Gyno-Americans) might judge success by how their relationships with other people are. And, of course, a lot of folks figure success is measured by your bottom line.

I’m not saying any of that is true or not. I’m simply pointing out that when you say ‘success’ it’s pretty good odds that what you think of as ‘success’ may be different than someone (or everyone) else. Nothing wrong with that, though.

Speaking of words having meanings, we throw around terms like ‘collapse’ or ‘end of the world’ but we never really specify what constitutes that sort of thing. Here’s a very interesting piece on how we define ‘collapse’:

And that’s why I hate using the words “civil war” and “collapse”, because they’re not specific. Whenever I read the words “societal collapse” or “economic collapse”, I wonder: collapse to what level? 100% collapse? 50% collapse? (Even a 25% collapse in employment and living standards is going to cause significant problems.) One could argue that we’re witnessing a societal collapse right now — a collapse of established, normative sociopolitical behavior and attitudes. It might be more accurate and specific to say that we’ve entered into a period of societal decline, but it only goes to show just how vague the word “collapse” actually is.

RTWT, it’s quite interesting. Words have meanings, and when you talk to someone about something as important as preparedness it’s a good idea to make sure that you both know exactly what you mean when you say things like ‘collapse’.
==========================

Fun ‘gotta share this’ .jpg for the day:

 

Watergun: parts arrival

Posted on by

As best I can tell, the missing parts to get the gun ‘shootable’ were a sear, sear pin, and firing pin retaining plate. In other words, these:

I am not a gunsmith by any stretch of the imagination…thats one of the reasons I shoot Glocks – you don’t ‘smith them, you just swap parts. At this point it looks like nothing needs fitting, which is good. But..the proof is in the function. We’ll get to that later. Alright…lets grab a punch, YouTube some disassembly/assembly videos, and get crackin’.

And once thats done…lets hand-cycle it, check the safety and trigger, and just generally play with it. It may look like the slide is a bit stiff but whats actually happening is that I’m trying to rack the slide without moving the gun or my hands out of the frame. Think its easy? Try it sometime.

Yeah, that rear sight is flopping around like Obama on a foreign policy question….but that’s a low priority at the moment. Next step is to take it to the range, tie it down, put a string to the trigger, and shoot the bloody thing.

And the sharp eyed viewer will notice that someone took the magazine safety out. Well, not really….it appears someone welded it to the trigger to deactivate it. :::SMH::: Whatever. Shooting this weekend. Hopefully the slide won’t go sailing through my brainpan.

For those keeping track:

Assuming everything works, and nothing cracks/breaks/explodes/flies off, I’ll send it down the valley for a coating of some kind and then, as the years go by, slowly start replacing parts with premium parts. Kinda make a sweet custom gun with a crappy, but interesting, finish. I’m pleased with how quickly this is coming together. :::Knocksonwood:::

Watergun update

Posted on by

Needs sear, sear pin, firing pin retaining plate, grips screw, rear sight spring, rear sight elevation screw.

That looks like about it. However, that does not mean some of the extant parts shouldn’t be replaced. The ejector should probably get replaced, and I should play it safe and replace all springs. Let’s see if we can just get the bloody thing assembled first. Interestingly, I can buy entire complete top ends for this thing for about $200 and just use the frame. But…I rather like the Been There Done That look.

So far I’ve got the plate, sear, and sear pin on the way for about $67 total so far.

In the meantime, the recoil assembly works, the magazine release works, the slide stop works, and the mainspring/hammer assembly work. Still looks like The Last Browning Out Of Pompeii though.

Article – Missing Oregon trucker emerges from wilderness after 4 days

Posted on by

GPS = Gets People Stranded

LA GRANDE, Ore. — A trucker who was missing for four days in a snow-covered part of Oregon after his GPS mapping device sent him up the wrong road walked 36 miles (58 kilometers) and emerged safely Saturday from a remote and rugged region of the state.

Im an advocate of Stay With The Vehicle… especially when the vehicle has 48′ of pallets of junk food to keep you fed. But…this guy marched out on his own, without taking any of the potato chips he was hauling, makes it back to his freaking house, and is sitting on the couch relaxing when his wife comes home from the sheriffs office where theyre coordinating a search-and-rescue.

Glad it worked out for him, but I’ll stay with the vehicle.

 

Codename: Watergun

Posted on by

A friend came by today to show me something interesting and slightly upsetting:

Ooohhh, thats not right! Nooo…..


It’s a Belgian P35 (or ‘Hipower’ to you), circa 1971, that was retrieved from the waters of Lake Michigan. The lake it is said, never gives up her dead….but guns are a totally different matter. Anyway..it’s mine now.

Condition is about what you’d expect but…the internal surfaces are surprisingly good. Barrel isn’t bad, and the deep pitting is mostly on non-critical surfaces. I think…I might try getting the missing the parts and getting this thing up and running. (And shooting it from a tire with a long string.)

First thing I need to do is make up a spreadhseet of all the parts necessary to make a P35 and then see what I have and what I’m going to have to find. Once thats done, if it proves safe to shoot, I’ll send it off and cerakote the holy crap out of it.

The story, I am told fourth-hand, is that this gun and the mags came out of a diving episode in Lake Michigan a few years ago. The gun ‘had the rust removed’ which, judging by the lack of wire brush marks and the thoroughness, must have been done using electrolysis. The gun was disassembled, apparently, for the process and some parts are clearly missing. I managed to put the recoil assembly together, get it into the slide and , after  applying a tablespoon of CLP to the whole mess, got it sliding on to the frame, and then it seemed to cycle by hand just fine. Promising.

It also came with three what-used-to-be magazines. Now, thats a bit odd. See, if someone dropped this thing over the side off the boat doesn’t it seem a bit odd that there’s two spare magazines that fell over with it and made it all the way to the bottom lying next to it? Way I see it, the mags come with the gun for only two reasons: they were all in the same backpack/duffel when it was lost/tossed over the side or it was all on the same Sam Browne of whatever poor schmuck decided to breathe water. The mags will, I think, with new springs and some beadblast be just fine.

So….interesting project that I anticipate will take a year or two to wrap up since I’m going to try and do this with used parts inexpensively sourced off GunBroker and eBay. If it works out, it’ll be a gun with a great story.