Post 200.

And I'm using it for a Pic of the Day (or so)

I know it comes up like every six months...

But the Secretary of the Army thinks it'll be a whole new carbine, not the supposed upgrades or retrofit of the M4.  I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but he does have quite a bit of weight to throw around.

Ha!

I still can't believe they went with that name... And the obligatory mention of the actual name iPad.  Gotta get on those search engine radars.

I Made a Painting.

Playing with the pen tablet and the included software, made a pretty. At least I think so.

Another Victory for Freedom Loving Coffee Drinkers.

Man, acquitted of Indecent Exposure in his own home.  I remember when that story first broke, and thought it stupid then. Glad to see some people have Come to their senses.  I still think the guy should press for charges against the "lady" for peeping (or whatever the technical term is...)

(h/t Say Uncle)

New Toy!

Got a Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet today. It's fun, mainly got it for photo editing, but I'm actually writing this Post with it.   It's neat, but I definitely can type faster than I can write with a pen and paper, especially since I'm one of those people who usually writes in all caps, but it is a good way to get used to using it.  It came with a copy of Corel Painter Essentials 4.0 as well, but I have noexperience with that program, but I'll probably install it and play around with it at some point.

Although I do have to wonder, if April showers bring May flowers, what does April snow bring?   A week ago it was over 80°, and today it didn't get over 38° . My state is broken.

More on Army weapons painting.

Soldier Systems has more up, I'm too sleepy to go into more detail at the moment, so there will probably be some tweaking of this post in a few (12 or so) hours.  Anyway, here's the gist of it.

-And now I'm awake and done with stuff for the day, so I'ma talk.

Looks like the Army has chosen to go with Rust-Oleum Camouflage Spray, which isn't all that bad in my personal experience.  I have an AK I did with their green and black a couple years ago and it's holding up pretty well.  I'm sure it's much easier to remove down the road as compared to Duracoat or something, which is good if you ever find yourself not fighting in a desert or something, and especially since the memo says they must be stripped after two coats or before turn in.

I'm also glad to see that they finally realized that black guns get freakin' hot when you have them out in the sun, and that a tan and brown gun will be much cooler.

Subject: Maintenance Information (MI) Message, TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, (TACOM LCMC) Control No. MI 10-040, Camouflaging Specific Small Arms, Items Affected: M16A2 Rifle, NSN 1005-01-128-9936, LIN R95035; M16A4 Rifle, NSN 1005-01-383-2872, LIN R97175; M4 Carbine, NSN 1005-01-231-0973, LIN R97234; M4A1 Carbine, NSN 1005-01-382-0953, LIN C06935.

Issue: This MIM supersedes the information as stated in 2.d.(5) of GPA (Ground Precautionary Action (GPA) Message which put the kybosh on commercial parts and accessories) 09-010 and 2.b.(4) of GPM 07-016 for the specific weapons listed in the subject of this message. The purpose of this message is to authorize at commander’s discretion the application of specific spray paint to be applied to specific small arms to aid in the camouflaging of our warfighters. The only small arms authorized to be camouflaged in accordance with this message are listed in the subject of the message. Additional weapons may be authorized in subsequent messages. Painting of weapons WILL NOT be conducted without the consent of the unit commander. Weapons MUST be stripped of paint prior to turn-in. Only two complete coatings of paint are authorized before weapon needs to be completely stripped.

3. Rationale: Warfighters must be able to conduct tactical operations while reducing/limiting detection by the threat. Camouflage paints provide for reduced visual detection and enhanced Warfighter survivability via neutral, non-reflective, and predominantly non-black colors. Weapon signature reduction (i.e., outline, and contrast with background, texture and color) aids in limiting Warfighters’ battlefield visual signature and makes it more difficult for the enemy to detect the Warfighter’s position. The color, black, is highly infra red reflective and black-colored weapons provide a high degree of visual contrast when carried by camouflaged uniformed Warfighters. Not only is the weapon itself more visible, but the type of weapon and type of accessories are more easily identified providing indicators to the Warfighter’s capabilities and position. Additionally, black color is more conducive to solar-loading (heat retention) than earth-tone colors. Some limited black color in irregular black shapes/patterns does provide for weapon outline breakup.”

Envision a plan: If you have not chosen how you are going to camouflage your weapon, decide at this time. Always start with a plan. Remember, most great camouflage is not pretty. The goal is to blend your weapon in with the environment in which you are operating. If you are operating in an environment that just has light tan sand, then just paint your weapon tan with limited black breakup. If you are operating in a jungle environment using brown and olive drab with limited black breakup may be appropriate for that environment. This procedure’s purpose is not to impress. Its purpose is to provide safety and another tool in defeating the enemy.

NOTE: Allow paint to dry before applying another color. DO NOT spray the paint on heavy. Test the paint on cardboard or a paper towel before painting the weapon so you know how much pressure you need to apply to get a thin coat.

TIPS: Good camouflage can be achieved many ways. Some may want to place netting or foliage such as grass or leaves on the weapon and paint around it to better blend into the environment.

Others may just want to use a blending technique. When using the blending technique coat the weapon with the lightest color you will be using. Next take a darker shade that blends with your environment and paint stripes about 4 inches apart at a 45 degree angle. You can do this with 1 to 2 colors. Next you need to blend it in. Take a dark color like green or brown and from about 6 to 8 inches away from the weapon lightly dust the gun. After that take a lighter color (khaki, or tan) and lightly dust the gun from 6 to 8 inches away. This will blend everything together and dull the finish. Colors will depend on operational environment.

Spray Paint - order spray paint through GSA using the below part numbers:

Part Number

1916830 Black

1917830 Khaki

1918830 Earth Brown

1919830 Deep Forest Green

1920830 Army Green

Slow Postage

After the combo blow of a link from Tam and another from Say Uncle, I've definitely had an increase in readers the last few days (last Friday had as many visitors as I usually get in a month alone...) It's tapered off a bit, but today still had twice as many visits as has been the norm for a while, and I wouldn't mind keeping some of you guys around.  It is nice to see people actually reading and passing my rambling pseudo-nonsense around the interwebs.

Tuesdays however, are almost always my day off.  Classes in the morning, and the weekly game day at the local comic/gaming shop.  Gotta push the little army men around the table and throw dice at each other (and a bit of 40k roleplaying later in the evening.)  Lots of fun, my Angels of Vengeance once again dropped from the sky and slaughtered, and my Guardsman sniper for Dark Heresy somehow managed to get an auxiliary grenade launcher for his close range gun.  Kinda the 40k equivalent of an M4 with a 203 at this point.  I think it cool.

Anyways... the whole point of this mess.... if you're new around these parts, Tuesdays are like my Sundays as far as posting goes, so don't be alarmed.

Obligatory 40k pic... still can't get the highlights on the armor to photograph right though, it's not that strong in person. Sandolphon, Master of the Deathwing, Angels of Vengeance Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.

More '03A3 pics

Not too many words, but plenty of pictures. (Clicky to make biggy)

Today...

I woke up bright and early, got in my car, picked up a friend (who's never gone to a big-ish gun show before) and drove across the state to a giant convention center, where 400 tables were spilling over with guns, ammo, knives, and all sorts of fun stuff.  There I bought an old military rifle that would be the envy of any Afghan herdsman, yet the gov't has deemed to be outdated, and instead of melting down, sold off to us lowly civilians.  Afterwards, we went across the street to a restaurant where I ordered a big thick chunk of undercooked meat, topped off with a second meat, just to "enhance the flavor."  The only things missing were fireworks and a 4th of July parade.

Despite the current economy, state of affairs in Washington, and all the bad things going around, sometimes is nice to remember exactly why America is &%#@ing awesome.

Just to show...

I'm not just into the newest tacticoolest rail farm rigs.  Went to the show in Madison this morning, and could not pass this up for the price.

Remington built, '43 barrel date.  It fills in the American void in my surplus collection quite nicely.

Sorry

Won't happen again.

Combat Shotgunnin'

So I'm about halfway through Stressfire II: Advanced Combat Shotgun by Massad Ayoob, and so far, I'm liking it.  I haven't read Stressfire I yet, but it's on the list.  II is all about shotguns though, and I is only referred to in passing once or twice.

Like I said, I'm about halfway through it right now, but the book is set up with the first half being about gear and ammo and the various hard technical aspects, and the second half concentrates on technique, so it's a good spot to pause, and I need some content anyway.  One of the things I'm liking is it seems that Mr. Ayoob's thoughts on semi versus pump seem to mirror my previous, less educated thoughts on the subject.  The biggest thing being where I only have my mediocre common sense and limited personal experience, he has a massive background and can dig up the numbers to back it up.  He mentions that one department he worked with switched from pump action Ithicas to Benelli autos, and the qual scores went through the roof, and has noticed it in other places as well. (pg47)  As for other action types, "two shot guns are for users with two digit IQs."

One word of caution, Chapter 3 is not for the squeamish.  On the other hand, if you want some good looks at what you can accomplish with a shotgun against human flesh, you won't be disappointed.

He also goes into the various chamberings available, and of course challenging the proliferation of the 12 gauge.  Turns out a 20 gauge loaded with #3 buck is damn impressive, 20 some projectiles, similar velocity to the same out of a 12, yet lower recoil.  (Downside being that your 000, 00, and #1 balls don't stack well in a 20 gauge shell.)  .410, conversely, even with a slug, gives you at best the same terminal ballistics as a decent .44mag or .45acp, so why hinder yourself with a long gun to get pistol effects?  (Let alone out of a handgun... but that's another subject all on it's own.)

The book is getting a little dated, the newest coolest semi talked about is the Benelli Super 90, albeit with much praise, but I can't help but wonder how he would compare it to the M4 (I'm sure there's an article out there somewhere.)  And nothing whatsoever about the newest Mossbergs (no semi's from them at all at the time of writing.)

Overall though, so far I'd say it's possibly the best practical shotgun book I've read to date.  Give it a few weeks and hopefully I'll have re-read Tactical Shotgun: The Best Techniques And Tactics For Employing The Shotgun In Personal Combat and get into Defensive Shotgun, the Techniques and Tactics and see how they stack up, plus some range time to try out some of the techniques.

Part of me wants to laugh...

But the geographer/geologist in me wants to cry...



I'm sure most of you have seen it, but... wow... just....... wow.  Although it would be interesting to see an island capsize.

That time of year.

In true Wisconsin style, April was flung upon us with a beautiful day with a high of 81F.  So of course I was in classes most of the day.  Hooray.

Anyway, got home, and drug out the hard tail, my trusty Trek 6500,

dusted off the proverbial cobwebs, lubed up the chain and cables and pedals, and went for a short re-familiarization ride.  The standard "there's a pedal around there somewhere, clip dang it!" ride mixed with a touch of "crap am I'm out of shape."

The other fun thing is not only remembering which gear lever does what, but getting over the muscle memory of my usual commuter's brakes.  I easily put the most miles on my beat up old pseudo-track bike;

BIG track ring in front (55 tooth I think...) and a little 16t cog in back, and only a brake up front.  The way to get this rig to stop fast is to slide off the saddle and get your crotch like two inches away from the stem, putting all your weight into that front wheel.  Brakes on the rear make things a bit different to say the least...

I also was thinking about how the price/use relationship on these two bikes is so unlike my guns.  With the exception of .22lr, I easily put more rounds through my most expensive centerfire guns than my cheaper ones.  The bikes, on the other hand, are a completely inverse relationship.  The Trek is by far the most expensive of the bikes I own, but probably gets the least amount of use, where the Kabuki cost me maybe $150 (I put new wheels on it last year) and I use it nearly everyday, as you can tell by the shape of the steel frame.  Three Wisconsin winters have been hard on the girl.  One of these days I'll take it apart as much as I can and give it a good sanding and paint job...

Also, note to all of you people in those big four-wheeled driving contraptions: on your steering column's left side (as you look at it from your seat) is a stick.  It's pointing to your left, and can move up and down.  Moving it up will let those around your machine know you plan to turn right, and down signifies left.  If you would like to avoid bicycle shaped dents in your side panels, try using them.  If your turn signal is on I'm much less likely to try to cut past you as you linger, seemingly lost in thought, at an intersection.

Monster Hunting

Wouldn't feel too under gunned with this one.

It was only a matter of time...

(found in the Keep Your Laws Off My Guns group on facebook... lots of fun stuff)

Sig E2 update

I keep getting lots of search hits for the Sig E2 pistols, so I'ma toss up more info for those people.

Sig has them up on their site now (P226 E2 & P229 E2) (not sure how long they've been up, but they're there) with a MSRP of $1,149 for either, around $150 more than the base models.  The E2s do come with night sites (optional on the plain ones for about $75) and short reset triggers though, so about the same as a comparable non-E2.  And I'm sure the street price will be a bit less, at least if you have a dealer that isn't trying to screw you or in a corporate owned giant box.

Amazon.com

Just added a new feature, so playing a bit.  Currently reading this for at least the 5th time:














 (It's a once a year at least read)
My copy is holding up pretty well though, unlike Starship Troopers, I'm on my third copy of that one...

Bring it on James...

"That's right," Cameron said. "I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads."

Why is it that the most liberal anti-gun hippy jack@sses always go straight to violence?

The Women and High Caliber Recoil Fallacy

So I took some less experienced shooters out to the range today, and it was the first time ever handling pistols for a few of them.  One of the shooters was my coworker Trescha.  When planning for the trip her request was "something cool, that's not too big and is going to hurt me," so we started out with the little P22 to get down the basics.

(Note, if you wear glasses, it's pretty easy to forget eye pro for those that don't.  I'm just used to it always being on my face.  Need to make a checklist one of these days.  There were plenty of earplugs though.)

So we put a couple mags through, and she feels pretty good. So I ask if she wants to try something with a little more bang.  After getting her a good solid thumbs forward grip, and reassuring her that the slide's not gonna bite her with the nice wide beaver-tail grip safety, she proceeds to send big fat bullets downrange, and score some pretty good hits.  No limp wristing, no flinching, no problem depressing the grip safety, just mighty fine shooting for the first time ever shooting handguns, let alone a full-size Kimber 1911.

Notice the brass still hanging in the air, and the gun already back on target.

Case just exiting the chamber...

...and back on target before the brass hits the grass.

It never fails, somebody walks into a gun shop, or logs on to a gun forum, and asks what kind of gun would be good for their wife/girlfriend/daughter/mom, someone will always say that a small frame, small caliber, and probably pink gripped auto or revolver is what they want.  There's some misconception that girls can't handle the recoil of a large bore auto, or that there's just too much gun for them to handle.

It's not a miracle, and Trescha's not endowed with super human strength.  It's simply a case of nobody told her she couldn't.  I simply said it's going to buck a bit more than the Walther did, but it's not going to hurt her, and made sure she had a good grip with plenty of meat on the gun and good stance.  By the end of the day, the 1911 was easily her favorite gun out of the dozen or so we had out there, and was asking how much they go for.

Anyway, just a proud teacher rambling.

Mmm... two of my favorite things.

Machineguns and bacon.

(H/T: ENDO)

Back down on Tuesday...

Grumbles.  Paperwork was misread and I need to go back Tuesday/Wednesday for the physical and everything.  Blah.  I strongly dislike Milwaukee.

ETA: To the couple in the room next door last night; I'm glad you were able to get over the argument earlier in the evening and shared in some very enthusiastic prayer later in the night.  At least I assume it was prayer, as the female half was quite positive and loud in her appeals to the most popular of deities, and my frail, heavily sleep deprived mind refuses to imagine it was anything else.  It was just a little rough on those of us who had 4am wake-up calls.

Sitting in Milwaukee

At the hotel.  And MEPS is still a bunch of sitting around and waiting.

M&P 15-22 for Home Defense

I've noticed this search phrase pop up on the sitetracker a couple times today, so I think I'll be a nice guy and give my thoughts towards the subject.

In short, only if you don't have any other guns.  Or your only other gun is a bolt action .22lr, and even then, you may be better off with that one.

On one hand, .22lr is cheap, and cheaper ammo makes for more range time.  They are also low recoil, so gun-shy people tend to flinch less, and follow up shots can be made much faster.  And the S&W has all sort of rail-estate to throw lights and lasers on, which are good in a midnight home-defense situation, and is endowed with all the ergonomic goodness of the AR platform.

On the other hand... Gun savvy people know that the .22lr is far from a fight stopper.  It can work, and yes, people have been killed by the little 22, but like many other things, why settle for "maybe" when better is available?  The small diameter, 40 grains at most, often just barely super-sonic bullet just doesn't deliver much energy to your target.

More importantly, .22lr is notorious for mediocre quality control.  It's pretty much a given that in any given bulk pack of .22lr, you'll have a handful of rounds with poor primer distribution and fail to go bang.  .22lr semi-autos also tend to be very dirty little guns, leading to more reliability issues, and rimmed cartridges are always an issue with semis.  Every semi-auto 22 I've used has jammed at some point, from the venerable 10/22 to the cheapest Remchester Walmart special.  It's the nature of .22lr semi-autos.  The last thing you want during a home defense scenario you'd want would be any sort off failure.

All that being said, for generally less than the cost of an M&P15-22, you can pick up a decent pump shotgun of some shape or form, load it up with 00 buck, and have a much more reliable fight stopper than you'll find with any .22lr semi.  Just my $.02, and YMMV.  My go to home defense set-up is my Sigpro 2022 with an attached light.  Gives me a hand free to grab my cell phone so they can get there faster and clean things up so I can go back to bed.

Squee!

Had to get it out of my system.  Got a few packages today, Mr. Ayoob's shotgun book, some cool model bases from Kiwi-land, and these:

Mr. Correia's blog is on the list to the left, and from there you can order yourself some patches and paperbacked awesome.  If you're into guns and enjoy sci-fi/fantasy, and haven't read his book yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

Should help kill time at MEPS the next couple days...

Pic of the Day, Kool-aid Edition

Gear-gasm

Soldier Systems posted a new camera from Olympus, their new Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 14MP Digital Camera.

Crushproof up to 220lbs, shockproof up to 6.6ft, waterproof to 33ft...
My first ever digital was an Olympus of some sort, and it was a combat casualty in Afghanistan. Had it on my vest, and it ended up bouncing off the butt of my rifle during a convoy down to Kabul.  The camera still worked, but the LCD screen was shattered, so you couldn't really change the settings or know if the card was full.
My replacement was another little Olympus, and that one took a hit one day biking.  Took a spill on a hilly road doing about 20mph, landed on the camera in it's little cloth case, slide about 15 feet down the road on top of it... no damage.  Not even a scratch.  It's served me well for quite some time, and I still take it kayaking and stuff, but the 4.1 megapixel sensor is just pushing it for me these days, and I know it's not waterproofed for more than a light rain.
Needless to say, I've been pretty impressed with the durability of the little Olympus point and shoots, so one that's reinforced and built to take abuse is simply a fantastic prospect.  Plus it comes in black for the tacticool points.
Of course, I need another camera like I need another gun.........................

Tactical Shotgun Application

I'm quickly realizing that there doesn't seem to be much material on the subject produced in the last 20 years, especially with the AR platform gaining so much favor.  I've got a couple books (Gabriel Suarez's and Massad Ayoob's is on the way) and I will probably do a write up of them when I have time to go through them in detail, but if you know of any others out there let me know.

A-10s over Kandahar

A pretty cool article about A-10s with plenty of pictures.  I spent lots of time around them during my time at Bagram (we essentially built their parking lot) so a few memories were stirred (good ones though, I love those ugly birds).