Happy Blogiversery!

To Tam!

As my largest source of traffic outside of Google, I felt I should give some happy thoughts.

New Pistolette

New pistol arrived today.  Radom P-64 through AIM Surplus.

On top of the Eee PC for scale.

First impressions; for a gun built in 1976 it's in great shape, just a very little bit of holster wear.  The double action trigger pull is actually worse than the Nagant revolvers... so I'll be most likely picking up a Wolff hammer spring a few pounds lighter.  The single action pull on the other hand is quite nice, some take up, and a nice light crisp break.

The safety/decocker is the typical European "up for fire/down for decock/safe," and the mag release is the European heal setup, but the mag slides out nice and smooth.  I'm not a huge fan of those types of controls, but the double action pull is more than heavy enough for safe hammer-down carry, and should still be plenty after the spring change.

The size is comparable to the current flood of "pocket nines" like the Ruger LC-9, and the 9x18mm cartridge is right between .380acp and 9x19, so I'll be looking for a decent pocket holster that this little guy can ride in.

I should have a longer post in a few days with more photos, and possibly an initial range report.  If there's anything in particular you guys want to know about it, just drop a line down in the comments.

MD - Art of the Precision Rifle

Full trailer has been released.




Looks pretty good.

I love the shot of the bullet trace at about the 20 second mark too... quite sweet.

Not sure on price, but it's a 5 disc set.  If you're doing any precision long range shooting it's probably going to be well worth thinking about.

7 out of 10 Students Skip Buying Texts Due to Costs

I read stories like this and I'm very glad that the school I'm going back to in a couple weeks has a text rental program.  I think the most I've ever dropped on books in one semester was about $120, which is apparently the cost of just one "normal" text book, and the worst of which was a self published professor who infamously changed it every semester, and charged $80 for something that looked like it came from the copy center at Staples.

Legitimate Sporting Purposes

Don't exist in Great Britain.  Shooting at pictures of concentric circles is even too violent for the kiddies.

If I had kids that were getting some of those tickets, I think I'd just tell Mr. Johnson to fold them up until they're all corners, and then...

Dear Smith & Wesson;

Look at what this gentleman did, and start making them.

Failing that, if somebody can mass produce the thingy he replaced the take-down tool with, I may just track down an M&P9 Pro and do the above to my current M&P...

MSM Don't Tread On Me shirt

Looks freakin' sweet.

Gonna have to get me one.

Zoo Animals

More photos from the zoo in no particular order.

Be Prepared

The girl (Fern) wrote a short explanation of why she's going to get her CCW permit come November.

A Fine Brew(ery)

Last Friday night Fern and I headed out to Amherst to stop in at Central Waters Brewery.  They've pretty much stuck a bar on the side of the brew floor, and you can stop in on Friday evenings to sample their brews.

Central Waters has been around for a little over 10 years, they started out in Junction City, WI (about 15 miles down the road to the West of us,) and relocated to Amherst, WI (about 15 miles East of Point...)  They're a typical Wisconsin Microbrewery with a decent range of offerings, and Friday they had the first batch of their annual Octoberfest brew on tap.  I also had a pint of their Mudpuppy Porter with Nitro rather than CO2, and it had the smoothest, creamiest head I've ever had on a beer.  It was wonderful.

If you see some in your local cooler, it's worth checking out.

20GA Buckshot?

I need some... any suggestions?  Cannot find any local sources...

Found in Madison

Not sure if it's for or against... but it was stuck to the top of an Onion newspaper box, so take that as you may.

 

Nobody Told Me...

Apparently there's a "gunblog blacklist" out there somewhere.  Nobody told me about it...

Regardless of how true it is, there's now one posted.  (It's really just another list of gunblogs worth reading, but they're always to good to scroll through and kill time on.)

On the Hunt

Much better... all cleaned up and pert'ified.

Triple Americano Kind of Day

Heading to Madison for the day, primarily to go the the zoo (lions, including a cub, tigers, and several forms of bears. Oh my!) Behind a night of sleep, hence the post title. Should be fun.

I think we may just get enough to the circus, er capital building, to laugh at the hippies but I'm sure the smell will prove too much. I'm rocking a Magpul hat for good measure though.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Grr.

Was going to do stuff, but I spent the last two hours fighting with the Eee PC trying to convince it that the slot in the side is not a cooling vent, but an SD Card reader.

It still won't budge on its opinion.

(It's running Windows 7... anybody have any idea what the deal is?)

Second Wind...

The downside of random overnight shifts is that while I'm crashing all night, once I get out and stumble my way home at 7am, I usually feel pretty awake yet.

I think it'll lead to a relaxing roll down to the coffee house on the park bike to enjoy some coffee, some reading, and some light blogging.  The ol' Specialized P.1 really doesn't get enough use.

Shh...

Both the noise and recoil suppression are impressive.

From AAC's blog.

Wausau dentist opens gun shop downtown

Seeing as I'm in need of a local(ish) dealer that doesn't suck and is willing to return phone calls (two down...) I see this as welcome news.  This doesn't hurt either-

The "Don't Tread on Me" flag symbolizes those views, Prehn said. "It's like, don't even think of taking that right (to own and carry guns) away from me."

 Hopefully working close with the local PD and the amount of security will keep him from falling victim to the typical fate of small gun shops in Central Wisconsin.

I'll probably duck up there next week at some point to scope it out.

Do they even bother with Alcohol and Tobacco anymore?

ATF Guns Traced to 12 US Crime Sites

I mean they're sucking at the Firearms part...

Shift Gears

Travis Haley hasn't slacked off since parting with Magpul Dynamics.  He's got some good exercises up on his site's blog, including the "Shift Gears Drill" below.



The target is a free download here.  It looks pretty simple and .22lr friendly to boot.  I'll probably give it a try next time I'm at the range.

Beretta Micro-9

Baretta introduces the ugliest handgun ever to grace the face of the earth their take on the tiny 9mm pocket pistol.

Personally, I'll pass. That thing is too ugly.

Industrial Flow

I've posted some of Danny Macaskill's videos before, but it's always a treat to watch him play on his bike.  He's got a new one out now.



Would love to be able to ride like that...

Speaking of Books

"Spellbound", the second book of the Grimnior Chronicles, is available as an eARC for you 21st Century electric book peoples.

Shameless Book Suggestions

Tam started reading a new book, and I agree with her roomie.  The only times I've been let down by Gaiman are a couple short stories, and the bulk of those books made up for it.  That being said, American Gods is one of my all-time favorite books, and I recently snagged a copy of the 10th Anniversary Edition, purely because it's a gorgeous book.  Neverwhere is also one of the greatest things I've ever read (a few times.)

(I say these are shameless plugs, seeing as if you guys click one of those Amazon links and actually buy something, I get a cut of the action.  And I thank you for it.)

Case of the Mondays

32 oz. of wonderful coffee later and I'm still not feeling it.  Been a long weekend.

No Peepee for Gunnies

Sadly I'm sure this will only be the first of many.  Thankfully I don't spend much time in that area of the state.

(h/t Uncle)

Underwater Gunplay

If you're not watching Smarter Every Day on youtube, you need to fix that.



Destin risked a Ruger auto and a small frame revolver of some sort to show us where the gasses are coming out and where they're going by firing them in a tank of water and filming with a high speed camera.  Then he explains what happened.  Cool stuff.

Charter Arms Rimless Revolver

Is actually a real thing, and actually for sale, and TFB has a review.  The .40S&W chambering itself doesn't really excite me, but the idea of a revolver firing rimless cartridges without using moon clips is pretty cool.  Hopefully they'll do one in 9mm or .45acp before too long.

Pastafarianism in the Military

I'm kind of breaking one of my self-imposed rules of life, and talking about religion.  Normally I avoid it (well, sober anyway,) because one of my biggest pet peeves is people forcing theirs on you, and one of the 8 I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts specifically says that's one of them.


However over at Venganza.org (the official site for the Church of the FSM,)

Here’s a guest post by Justin Griffith.  Justin is well known for his fight against the idea that “there are no Atheists in Foxholes”.  He was recently profiled in the New York Times for his activism.

Justin goes on to talk about how he actually managed to get a Drill Sergeant to smile in basic when he tried to confiscate his Holy book and his struggle to get the Big Army to realize there are honest to goodness Atheists in the ranks.


I have run into similar situations.  My current paperwork simply says "No religious preference," however as many have noted, just about everybody assumes that's just the same as Christian non-denominational.  My dog tags tell a different tale however-

However this last June I went through Soldier Readiness Processing.  This is basically a day when they go through all your records and see how squared away it is in the event you get called up for active duty.  Part of that is making sure you've got all your stuff in order in case you buy the farm, including you have the correct religious preference listed so they know what to do with you.


So I go in to talk to the Chaplain, and he looks at my form, looks at his list of "approved" religions, and says "I don't see this on my list.  Is it some sort of joke?"
"No. I'm Pastafarian."
"Well this is a serious thing.  If you die we want to make sure we don't upset your family.  You have to be serious about this."
"I am serious."
"Well, it's not on my list."
"Fine, just leave it No Preference.  Close freakin' enough." (It had been a long day, and it was my last station.)


It still does tend to be an issue.  It overwhelmingly feels like the leadership can't wrap their heads around the idea that some people simply are not religious(or fictitious Drill Instructors...)  At the same time, if you are one of those people, you don't really seem to get equal treatment to those who are.  Throughout Basic those that regularly attend a religious service basically get a couple hours off every week to go to their chosen service.  In my experience those that didn't go got to have a barracks party (cleaning for you civies. Due to this, I usually would go to the Catholic service, just for the time off.)


Maybe more Atheist soldiers will step forward and claim Pastafarian for their religion and we can get the Army to actually recognize it as a "religion."  It could be the simplest way to finally get some form of (non)religious equality for not having a religion.  There's definitely the numbers...

Defense Department statistics show that about 9,400 of the nation’s 1.4 million active-duty military personnel identify themselves as atheists or agnostics, making them a larger subpopulation than Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists in the military.

Speaking of all this, I'm hoping to be officially ordained in the Church of the FSM, but I'm tight for cash, and it's $46.  There is, however, a Tip Jar over on the left... maybe I can get commissioned as a Chaplain...