20ga Fun

Had the day off, and the weather was as close to 32 degrees as it gets these days, so despite the rain, we hit up the range for some shooting.  Thankfully the rain apparently went north, so we only had to deal with the quarter mile visibility thanks to the fog.

On the upside, the little 20ga 870 is just as much fun as I hoped.  Slugs aren't too bad out of it either.

Pistol is a S&W .45acp of some form... I forget what.

Still air makes for pretty pictures too.

As always, click to embiggenate.

Chamelioline Cloaks? For the Realz?

Hardcore 40k fans will have no doubt read Dan Abnett's fantastic Gaunt's Ghosts series, and will know the Tanith First and Only are famous for their scouting and stealth abilities, the later of course being strongly augmented by their use of one of the Imperium's most underused technologies, Chamelioline.  While never really explained, Chamelioline seems to be a sort of fiber interwoven into their camouflage cloaks that changes color and blends with their surrounding environment.  I can only assume it's a type of fiber, as it is only used in cloth uniforms utilized by certain elite Imperial Guard units, some Assassins, and some Astartes chapters for their scouts.

All cool and whatnot for the geeky 40k fan like me, but it turns out that there's a company, Hyperstealth, looking to make what they call SMARTCAMO, an adaptive camouflage material that blends in with the surrounding terrain colors.

Guy Cramer, the CEO of Hyperstealth, gave a presentation at the International Camouflage Symposium in Brussels back in October featuring a video of the stuff.

The video was of an actual camouflage cloth around his arm, which could change colors between Desert and Woodland and anything in-between, the colors also showed the ability to become brighter than the desert colors for use in a late fall climate or even snow. Cramer announced at the end of the presentation that the video was to be released on the HyperStealth web site after the conference.

 Apparently since the presentation he has been asked not to release said video by the US Military.

However the release goes on to mention that the material was developed using "fractals" to create feedback loops in the pattern and nanotechnology.

Some seriously cool stuff being worked out.  They also apparently have developed a system for vehicles that not only works as a visual camo, but stealths it out from a large chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum, something the Imperium apparently never figured out (stupid religious views...)

But if all that isn't Science Fictiony enough for you, SSD is tossing some more conspiracy level fodder into the mix.

Then, we find out that Dr. Joseph Resnick, Lt. Col. Timothy R. O’Neill, Ph.D (U.S. Army, Ret.) and Guy Cramer (of Hyperstealth fame) have owned mineral rights for 95% of the side of the moon that faces Earth, the polar regions and 50% of the far side of the Moon since 2007. And that isn’t to mention their mineral rights onMars!

So this has got to be it, they have found some rare mineral on the Moon that makes SMARTCAMO™ work. Now the question is, how did they get it back to Earth?

Taurus Poly Revolver

Taurus looks to be getting into the plastic wheelgun game with a polymer framed .38+P 5 shot compact.

It's actually not too bad looking, and I do like the user accessible hammer (allowing you to manually cock for single action shots.)  The grips are just printed to look like wood, but it's a nice touch and keeps the weight down to a minimal 18.2 oz.

(H/T - The Duck)