Nailed it

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From Saturday’s post:

Its just a matter of time before the left starts saying how it was ‘an inside job’ by a Trump stooge to ‘near miss’ the the former President to make him look tough.

and today:

News website Semafor reported that Mehlhorn, in an email to some sympathetic journalists and supporters, said there was a possibility “that this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash.”

If you really wanna go for the double-layer of tinfoil, wrap your head around this: it, in fact, was a ploy by the Trump team to make their guy look tough. They were gonna pull some patsy out of the woodwork, give him a rifle with blanks, have him take a shot, get popped by snipers, and Trump would look like a hero as he clutches his ear with a hidden razor blade in his palm to draw some blood. BUT….one of Trumps team was working for the other side and at the last  minute they switched out the blanks for live ammo and it became the real deal.

Yeah, I don’t believe that either. But I’ll bet someone, somewhere does.

Range day

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Aesop over at Raconteurs Report throws out a Chuck Norris-like joke about yesterdays event…

A sniper shoots at Trumps head, and its the snipers head that explodes.

Thats actually a pretty good one.

I put yesterday’s events behind me because a) the next President is still alive (see what I did there?) and b) I’m the pebble in this avalanche…nothing for me to see or do.

So…off to the range.

The Mini-14 has always had a reputation for AK-like accuracy. That is to say, there’s a reason the A-Team never hit anything. The Mini-14 was notoriously inaccurate and that was that…go buy an AR.

Ruger did a bit of product improving to the Mini-14 a while back and the reports are that they are now much more accurate than they used to be. I took this re-issue of the GB model to the range today to sight it in and see what sorta accuracy could be wrung out of it. TL;DR – much better accuracy than the old models.

I’m getting to be an old man, and open rifle sights aren’t as ideal for me to use as they used to be. Nonetheless, at 50 yards I could keep everything in a group about the size of a playing card. At 100 yards it was easy enough to ring the steel plates. I think with nicer sights the gun would benefit greatly. And, yes, I’m aware of the aftermarket options. In reality, I’ll probably throw a little red dot on this thing and go with that.

Considering I have something like three dozen AR’s tucked away around here it’s a curiosity to have anything in .223 that isn’t an AR. But you know what? Everyone has an AR, and they’re all over the place…..sometimes I like to try other stuff. So…the Mini-14, the JAKL, the BRN-180, and at some point probably an AUG and whatever .223 PTR is gonna come out with. And I’ve been toying with the idea of a 5.56 AK as well, although that itch is scratched by the JAKL.

The Mini-14 is about as rugged as any other Ruger gun, which is pretty impressive….good thing because Ruger, unless things have changed recently, has been notorious for not sending parts out to customers who wanted them. If a part needed replacing you had to send your gun to them, they weren’t just gonna drop a new bolt or trigger in the mail to you.

With the demise of Tapco (which, in itself, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing) the one trustworthy aftermarket magazine (Intrafuse Gen II Mini-14 mag) on the market is now unavailable. And, honestly, I’ve had some negative experiences with recent factory Ruger 30-rd mags although the 20’s seem to work just fine.

By the by, I have the Mini-14 and the other non-AR’s because I have enough AR’s for my preparedness needs and thus I can move on to having some ‘fun’ guns. But, for a .223 carbine for the sake of preparedness? You’d be a fool to go with anything other than an AR. Price, logistics, adaptability….can’t beat the AR.

Never let a crisis go to waste

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Some events are so big that they cause even the most disparate political forces to agree. After the 9/11 attacks there was a ‘honeymoon’ period where both sides agreed on various things that they normally would not agree upon. These periods always eventually dissipate into the usual partisanship, but not before the newly-discovered-common-ground crowd has done their damage (cough*PatriotAct*cough).

Early reports are saying this kid used an AR-platform of some kind…I’m betting .223 and not something with more zip like a .308 or Creedmoor). And, if it was an AR platform, this might be the impetus that gets us back into Assault Weapons Ban II.

No one condones assassination as a form of remediation in domestic politics. At least, not officially. And no one is going to come out and support that sort of nonsense (well, maybe a few people here and there). So, when some schmuck like Schumer, or one of his fellow travelers, starts clamoring about how ‘both sides must unite to stop this terrible threat’…there might be that ‘unity across the aisle’ moment. After all, if you couch the whole thing in the idea of ‘preserving democracy’ by getting rid of these ‘assassination weapons’ and you don’t support the program…well, then the terrorists assassins have won.

“Never let a crisis go to waste” is the mantra over there. You watch…it won’t be long before this event is used as the impetus to push for some sort of gun/magazine ban. As more details about this event come out you’ll see the pointless questions like “where did the shooter get the gun” and that sort of thing. Then it’ll be a shift into ‘gun safety’ measures with laws being proposed that no politician will be able to oppose without looking like they’re condoning this behavior.

Or maybe not. I’ve been wrong before. But what Im not wrong about is that there are going to be people in Washington who are going to grab this opportunity and public outrage to try and push forward an agenda that might otherwise have not gotten much traction.Probably about guns, but other things are possible too.

I’ll be curious to see what gun/mag vendors pricing and inventory looks like over the next weeks.

Government through attrition

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Its just a matter of time for the left starts saying how it was ‘an inside job’ by a Trump stooge to ‘near miss’ the the former President to make him look tough.

or

They’ll trot out that Trump is so evil that even the people on the right want him off the planet

or

They’l say this was an inside job to discredit the Left

Buckle up, its gonna be an interesting news cycle.

The Riddle of Steel

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Just to show that guns aren’t the only things I spend my money on stupidly.

Lovin’ from Zombie Tools. Belmont, Field Utility Knife, and the wickedly vicious Mauler. I do believe I’d rather get shot than have someone rake me across the belly with that thing.

Unless they come out with some new designs, I think I’m done for a while. Got my gladius and falcata a couple months ago. I took this photo of the cugine (genuine NJ Italian boy) in accounting holding the new ZT swords when I picked them up on my lunch hour.

My boss has been cool with weapons at work, but I suspect that even he is starting to wonder what the hell that guy in office #3 is up to.

If the world ever turns into an SM Stirling novel, I reckon I’ll be ahead of the curve. Or if I wind up living a life without boomtoys like the simps and cucks in the UK.

That final epic loot drop

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Friend of The Blog ™, Tam, had a post that linked to an article about that day when you finally stop being a going concern and what happens to your stuff afterwards. From “Where Will Your Guns Go When You Die?”….

Regardless, both guys leave behind a tremendous legacy, family, friends — and a sizable firearms collection. While it might seem a trivial matter when locked in the throes of grief, the proper disposition of a gun collection is actually an important task which will dramatically help the survivors in the long run. However, meticulously liquidating a collection to get maximum value requires some planning and forethought, which is where we all stumble.

Another sad fact is many of our families aren’t interested in our guns. Despite their intrinsic and sentimental value, to some family members, guns are considered no more valuable than old kitchen appliances and are generally handled the same when it comes time to liquidate an estate.

Here are five steps that can help solve what will be an eventual problem for nearly every shooting enthusiast. Don’t put these important tasks off because you never know when the final bell will ring! I could give you a couple of recent examples …

I paid a hot little Charlize Theron lookalike attorney a buncha money a couple years ago to crank out a will for me. Pretty simple stuff…house/property goes here, money goes there, guns go over here. That was it.

Whats interesting is that, as of late, I’ve been privy to a couple estates from families that lost someone who was into guns. In every case it was scene where various family members ‘got first dibs’ and whatever was left afterwards was sold. I’m fine with that. I like a Smith Model 21 as much as the next guy, but if grandson wants it because grandad taught him to shoot with it…I’m not gonna get bent outta shape.

But I’ve also been to a few estates where no one in the family was interested. And some very nice and hard-to-find guns wound up leaving the family.

It’s easy to give the old saw about how ‘when you die, we’re splitting up your gear’ but it isn’t always that easy. Heck, I know at least one guy who never even told his wife the combination to his gun safe. Pretty good bet she doesnt have a solid grasp of whats gonna be laying around when he shuffles off.

I’ve some interesting stuff, but I’ve told my friends that if there’s something of mine they like, let me know…I’ll make sure that the executors know it goes to them. I’ll tell you what I dont want, though….under no circumstances does any of my property or wealth go the state. None. Burn it all down before that happens.

Scope arrival

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Well, I guess I’m out of excuses for not getting this .338 Lapua project done.

The 16×56 optic (w. rings) arrived today. While I was tinkering, I swapped out the questionable Ruger factory stock for a Magpul PRS which seems like a good idea.

I picked a heck of a time to start shooting magnum rifle…my plans were never predicated around it, so while I have plenty of large rifle primers, my supply of large rifle magnum primers is only a brick or two. Then again, that would be 2000 rounds of .338 and I’m not sure anyone wants to subject themselves to that much fun.

I was tempted to drop this scope on the Barrett instead, but realistically the Barret is a potentially less accurate platform…long recoil and all. The Barret has a very particular purpose…it’s an anti-materiel gun that can, under certain circumstances, do double duty in another role. But it’s primarily for busting up stuff. The .338 Lapua is a bit easier to feed, slightly more portable, and is probably more accurate at range.

Anyway…that happened.

Article – 2 California sisters in ICU with botulism amid outbreak traced to home-canned nopales

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Initially, the first two people who felt sick after the party were diagnosed with vertigo and sent home from the hospital, said Sanchez. It was only after a full-scale investigation, which included examining the family’s trash and interviewing party attendees, that the botulism was traced back to the home-canned nopales.

Sanchez learned from the cook that she had canned the nopales herself in May. As the incident was confined to family members and the homemade food, health officials did not need to remove any nopales from grocery shelves.

In the same press briefing, interim health officer Dr. Rais Vohra warned community members about the risks of home-canned foods, noting that this practice is common in families looking to preserve tradition.

Home canning is not something you can just half-ass and do while youre watching videos on YouTube in your kitchen. You’ve absolutely got to pay attention because, just like reloading your own ammo, if you goof it up the whole thing gun blow up in your face.

I don’t have the full story on what happened here, but I’m guessing it was water bath canning and someone either didnt bring things up the proper temperature long enough, didnt clear out all the air bubbles in the liquid, or didn’t check the seals on the jar. Regardless, if you follow directions and inspect your finished product…perfectly safe.

Food poisoning is not something you want to screw around with. Aesop has a great post about it here if you want to read a detailed explanation of the misery that you’ll undergo…assuming you don’t just die.

Does that mean you shouldn’t ‘get into’ canning your own food? Of course not. Everything is dangerous if you do it wrong. Canning has been around for a couple hundred years and it has been done by people far stupider and with worse equipment than you and I. Just do your reading and pay attention.

My go-to resources on the subject:

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Canning & Preserving For Dummies

Scoping it out

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Twenty years ago, I picked up a CZ .308 for my ‘long range’ gun. It’s been a wonderful rifle and my best day was a .512″ group at 200 yards. I put an IOR fixed 10x scope on it and have not regretted that choice. Why a fixed power? Honestly, because its just one less thing to go wrong. I figured 10x was about right for the distances I imagined I might need to shoot at.

A few years back, I wanted to bridge the gap between .308 ranges and .50 BMG ranges and decided to get a .338 Lapua. After some thought, I went with the Ruger Precision Rifle in .338 Lapua. And….its been sitting on my gun cabinet for the last several years. Why? Because putting a piece of appropriate glass on the thing was gonna cost as much as the bloody gun…and the gun wasn’t cheap to start with.

Eventually, I had to just bite the bullet and spend the moolah. Theyre a bit of an ‘off the beaten path’ brand, but I’ve been very pleased with my IOR fixed 10x and my IOR M2 4x. So, I decided that for my needs I wanted a fixed power scope again, but with a bit more magnification to go with the .338 Lapua’s extended range over the .308.

Do you know how hard it is to source decent fixed power scopes these days? Everything was either too much magnification (25x and up) or too little (4x, 6x, 10x). And, really, anything below 20x in a fixed power was a toughie. So…back to IOR. They had a 16×56 with the reticle (MP8) that I used on my .308. The 56mm objective is enormous but lets in plenty of light. I figure 16x is about the right magnification to cover the range of distances I’d be shooting the .338 at, so let’s get that puppy ordered. It’s a 35mm tube (light transmission, baby!) so rings aren’t just going to grow on trees…better order up a set of those too.

When it’s all said and done, it cost slightly more than the bloody rifle itself. But, at least I’ll be able to shoot the thing now. Pics when its all put together.