Aww...

It seems like I just sat down, and somebody already drank all my coffee.  Guess I need more.

(ok... I think I drank it all...)

I like Border Collies

Solders and Marines to Get New Helmet

The new ECH will be rated for rifle rounds.  Pretty cool.  Maybe I'll even see one before I hit 20 years in service!

VZ Grips (J-Frame) Range Report

Put 50 rounds through the other day while we were at the range.  To me, it seemed like there was more felt recoil, but it was more controllable.  The new grips are just a little bigger, a little grippier, and the finger groove all do a much better job of keeping the gun firmly planted where it belongs. 

Also, despite the grips being more efficient at transferring the recoil energy, my hands still felt better than they did after the 40 rounds a few days before with the factory rubber.

These are definitely worth looking into if you have a J-frame.

Hehee...

I love the fact that I just picked this up at a local retailer...

Muscle Memory

Winter can be a bitch.  The temptation to stay on the couch covered in furry space heaters can really put a damper on your skills.  Muscles have memory, and like most memories, sometimes they're about as effective as a sieve.

Yesterday was the first solid "Spring is... well... mostly here.  It is Wisconsin dude" day of the year, with record setting high temperatures well into the 70s.  This of course led to the motivation to put on silly looking biking clothes and break out the XC bike.  The one with the clipless pedals.

For those of you not up on your bicycle lingo, "clipless" pedals are the sort that, despite the name, have a mechanism that a cleat on your shoe clips into (the term "clipless" comes from the older style that have straps that your foot slides into, and those straps have been known as "toe-clips" for decades.  The new mechanical ones give you the same advantages (your foot's locked into the pedal) without the toe-clips, so they're "clipless.")

This winter MandaFern and I started up gym memberships at a local gym, and due to Uncle Sam's insistence, throughout the winter, we did many miles on the treadmill.  I never once swapped out the knobby on the back of my bike and put it up on the trainer, meaning I never strapped on my biking shoes and clipped in to my pedals since some point in October.

Clipless pedals have a certain amount of "float" built in to them (about 7 degrees the way I have mine set up) that you can pivot your foot left or right before they release.  This keeps your ankle from getting jacked up and stiff without constantly releasing your cleat and letting your foot come off the pedal.  Yesterday, I must have only gotten the front of my cleat in the pedal, and suddenly felt that I was lacking in this float after about a block.  Right as I started to really hammer on my pedals.  No float = very early release, which leads to my ankle bouncing off the pedal.  Much to my surprise, I don't have a giant purple bruise (sure feels like it though) but it is rather stiff.

Earlier in the day, Cro and I hit up the range (benefits of having your "weekend" in the middle of the week) and spent a good amount of time working on rifle marksmanship.  I had the Anshutz, and Cro was rocking his CZ-452, and we were mainly working on prone and sitting at 100 yards (yes, .22lr open sight, bolt action rifles at 100. It's a challenge, and a fun one.)  

Shooting prone and bike riding suffer the same issue in Wisconsin during the winter, nobody wants to do it.  Proning out in the snow on the frozen ground sucks.  Thankfully bulk 22 is cheap, and my Anshutz works "good enough" with Federal bulk packs (apparently at 100 yards it yields 4-5" groups for the crappy ones.)  It probably took the better part of 100 rounds to actually warm the muscles back up to remembering what they need to do to make a sling loop work right.  By the end I was back to cursing my heartbeat for messing with my sight picture, but there were quite a few called flyers leading up to that (not to mention how small a 600 yard reduced target looks through peeps at 100...)

Thankfully, I'm not planning on racing or going to Camp Perry this year, so I'm not behind the curve.  I'm heading to Afghanistan towards the end of the year, so I've been working on other skills this winter.  Prioritizing is pretty important too.

(To end on a good note, it was a beautiful day, and the route back from the range goes right past the cheese factory... so the grill came out, and the burgers had slices of the freshest Co-jack melted to perfection on top. Those were served up with some of the great offerings from New Glarus to wash them down.)

Trucker's Friend

Via Breda on facebook-

You might drive a Prius, but that doesn't mean you should be rolling down the road without the Trucker's Friend ($50). This all-purpose, all-in-one tool incorporates an axe, spanner, hammer, nail puller, tire chain hook, pry bar, and lever into a single, rugged 21-inch body. Mesh hat and Big Gulp not included.

That should take care of some zombies.

Too Nice Out

First warm warm day of the year, already hit the range, now to break out bikes.  Come back later.

Grip Therapy - OMG IT SPINS!! Edition

I finally got around to picking up some VZ Grips for the snubby, and I'm glad I did.  I got a set of the Hyena Brown 320s in G10 laminate, because I like that they look like wood. The texture is smooth, but grippy enough, and with the finger grooves and general boot grip shape, they feel nice and secure.

They feel slightly wider than the factory rubber, but the relief behind the cylinder release is a bit deeper, and and the G10 is less grabby than the rubber, so I can actually use HKS and Safariland speedloaders now.  I'm hoping they'll snag on my shirt a lot less now too.

Between these and the Apex kit, I'm really really liking my little J-frame.

Irish Coffee and J-frame

Another "Guns & Coffee" photo.

Got a new Irish Coffee Mug (from the dollar store, and made in the USA!) and new grips on the J-frame.  Half a pan of mint frosted brownies to complete the picture.  It is March after all!  Also a 5 round Tuff Quickstrip.  The new grips work a lot better with traditional Speedloaders, but the strips lay in a pocket a lot better.

Arsenal Double 1911...

I'll just get this out of the way, my official opinion is that it's pretty stupid and I'm still wondering how it's not a "machine gun."

No desire for this thing.

John Carter

I'll just start with this to get it out of the way; this was the first film I've seen in 3D, and I am solidly in the "meh, you can keep that crap off my screen" camp.  It was kind of neat for some of the scenes (aerial battles,) but I'm very glad they didn't do any gimmicky crap and the movie will be just as good on my plain ol' "flat" tv when it's out on DVD (and yes, I'll be getting it.)  Maybe if they actually considered those of us that wear glasses normally it wouldn't be so bad, but I wish the fad would pass.

As far as the movie itself goes, there were some big differences from the book, but they didn't detract from the story.  Just like nearly any book-to-film, it's bound to happen.  Thankfully it wasn't a full out abortion like Starship Troopers or something.

The Green Men were pretty much spot on, and the airships were even cooler than I even imagined them in my head reading the books.  I do wish they would have explained a bit more about how Barsoomian technology actually works though.

Overall, I'm glad we went to an afternoon matinee, so only ended up paying $1 more than standard ticket price.  The movie was good, but the "premium" for 3D almost stopped us from even going.  If you're not worried about that, or have the option to see it on a regular screen for the normal price, I'd definitely go for it.

Astros Will Keep Guns

Good.


(h/t Uncle)

Post-Birthday Range Trip

To celebrate MandaFern catching up to me in the birthday count, we hit up the range.  Here's a few pics... more as the weekend goes by and I get around to editing.

Doc says the range is safe.

Doc also brought his M&P9c for the two of us to try out.
Consensus, need one with safeties for me, one without for her.

Manda also stepped it up in the recoil department.  She braved the 20ga,
and stepped it up with the 12ga 930 (sadly the camera battery died by then...)
I'm very proud of her stepping up and pushing past her trepidation with the
noise and thump of the shotties.

I decided to beat the crap out of my hands and put 40 rounds of fmj through
the J-frame.  It was enough for today.

Cowboy up!

New M&P?

Looks like it's coming (I think that's the date for the big NRA deal.)  Hubbub around the webs is that it's possibly a single-stack .45acp, but I have to agree with Uncle, a single-stack 9mm would be awesome.  Hopefully this means the XD-S lit a fire under somebody's butt.

Manda's Birthday

So I've been busy getting things ready for that and whatnot (which means I slept in so I can be up late tonight...)

Overheard Locker Room Questions

Manda and I started a gym membership a few months ago, and like any locker room full of semi-strangers sometimes you hear things and want to jump into the conversation.

So, random college sportsball player, khaki shorts are never "a go" for team dinner function, no matter how casual, especially if it's no jeans. Invest in some khaki pants.

Putting Weird Things in Coffee

Manda just forwarded me this link, and it's... intriguing.

I'll let them continue the experiments, and stick with putting coffee in weird things myself.

Suppressed 9mm Bolt Action

I more than kind of want.

Monthly Gun Contest

Round-up from Aaron at Weapon Blog.

SureFire Push Dagger

I like the looks and the idea.



I may have to snag one for the deployment.  Would make for a good offhand backup for CCW I'd imagine as well.

Coffee!

Infographic from Daily Shot-
(click to make big)

I need to go get some...

Should Start a Petition...

To replace all the "World's Deadliest Ice Logger Swamp Fish Jousting" with classic ""Modern Marvels" and "Tales of the Gun."

Paperwork!

Loads and loads of paperwork... one more day of drill weekend.

Grumbles

Rather mediocre sleep last night, so the snooze button was thoroughly abused.  Apparently one of the cats also retaliated against my rolling around and flinging them off the bed when they started to fight on top of my legs, so one of my Kiowa Warriors that was sitting on the table is MIA.  Found the main rotor and sensor mast busted off and laying on the kitchen floor, but the rest of the tiny 1:285 helicopter is nowhere to be seen.

On top of that, I have to get rolling to get to drill in a few hours.

Is it ever going to be spring?

At least everybody stayed inside most of the night...

Got about 4 inches or so of snow, then it turned to rain around 1am.  Nice, heavy, driving, pouring rain.  Now the roads are effectively flooded since the storm drains are packed full of ice and snow, and it's hovering right around 32 degrees.

I'll be very glad to get home in about a half hour and just go to sleep until Skaldi stops throwing up all over the world.

Really MLB?

Astros remove Revolver from throwback jersey to make MLB happy.

Now they look stupid, and I hope any living player that wore those jerseys get nice and vocal about how disrespectful MLB's decision is.

(h/t SayUncle)

Never Snowing Again

Since Manda's new skis weren't enough, there's now a brand new snowblower in the garage.  Supposedly we're getting anywhere from 4 to 14 inches in the next couple days, but this should solidly assure the storm will dissipate just before hitting Central Wisconsin.

Skiing

All told, we probably only did a little over 10k of XC skiing over the weekend, but it was the first time we were able to get out this year.  None of the snow has stuck around long enough to even think about grooming trails around here, so we had to go 4 hours north.

It was fun (especially with the stops at White Winter Winery and South Shore Brewery...) but I came back to an overnight shift and I'm dead tired.  There's a good two hours before I can go to bed yet...

OOB Dets Suck...

FN-57 KB... ouch.