Whoo.

Army hasn't changed much, still lots of sitting around and waiting to do something.  I gather it's not quite like that for the higher ranking guys (like E6+) but still lots of that for us enlisted pukes.

But between standing around doing maintainence on humvees and taking the kayak out again, I seemed to have burned the back of my neck and arms/shoulders a little... stings a little now, but I usually tend to burn once pretty good early in the summer, and then not much after that.  Glad I'm getting it out of the way earlier than usual this year.

Of course, now that school's out for summer, hopefully I'll get some more range time, especially on the weekdays when regular people are working and I've got the range to myself.  I guess I'm saying look for a little bit of an increase in gun content in a few days or so.

So cold........

Finals are done, so that's great, but I've gotta be in the Army tomorrow, so I shaved for the first time since... August?  And it was over a year before that time... So yeah, second time clean shaven in as many years.  Feels weird.  And shaving still sucks massively.

Self Portrait

A doodle/photo deally I made last night during Rogue Trader...

Feels kinda self portrait-y, with finals week and all. High school senior year was so much more fun.

Brady update:

Been a few weeks now... still at $20.  Simply beautiful.

More about Army approved rifle painting.

I mentioned the other day that there's a pdf out about painting rifles, looks like Soldier Systems has a few good comments about the process.  I put up my post late at night/early morning, and didn't really put too much thought into things, but I do have my doubt as well as to CLP's paint stripping abilities.  Of course it wouldn't be the first time The Army has put out some not quite right info on stuff.

Good point.

Did you know that there is no prize for being the first person with their gun back in the holster? It's true.

Not only does Tam's trademark snark make me giggle, she's got a really good point.  It's rarely a life and death situation anymore when you decide to put the gun back in the holster, so take your time.

It's kind of a fresh issue in my mind too, since I've switched from the Blackhawk! Serpa to a Raven Concealment Phantom for the Sig.  It's great since I can carry with my light attached, but that's a lot more stuff hanging off the front end of the gun, and the light's bezel sticks out well past the muzzle on my 2022.  Just more stuff to get hung up on the holster when you're putting the gun back.  Not a big deal, just need to practice more so I can do it without looking at the holster so much.

It's going around...

But it's a pretty good quote:

When 13 year old kids are afraid to play outside, the gun controllers don't protest in front of the gang and drug houses. They protest in front of gun stores, Starbucks, and NRA meetings.

And that is why I will forever question the motives of the gun controllers. They claim to be working to prevent gun violence, but you never see them anywhere near those who are committing the violence.

Lens cups...

Well, coffee cups that look like lenses (and thermoses too.)  A bit pricey, but very fitting for me.

Granted they're styled after Canon lenses and I'm a Nikon kind'a guy, but I guess that would keep me from trying to screw a coffee cup into my camera...

Rifle painting - Army Style

PEO Soldier has up a pdf showing the "proper" way of doing things, including plenty of pictures of the masking procedure.  Looks like they put a lot of thought into where you should sacrifice some camo for ease of stripping when it's time to turn it in.

Arithmagic

I was typing up my notes sheet for my Stats in Geography final tomorrow, and somehow mistyped "arithmetic" and ended up with "arithmagic," thus fitting an entire semester of stats into one single word.

Woot.

Took the boat out.  Then went for a bike ride.  I'm sore... pretty much everywhere... but pretty content.

GSG 1911

Maddened Fowl has a good pic up of a production one from the NRA gathering.  Looks great. (Tons better than the Colt/Umarex... could just be the grips though... still want some wood for my 1911.)  I know what my next .22 is.

$700 belt...

Via Soldier Systems... No, it's not some super rare machine gun belt, or even something made out of platinum.  Simply a leather and metal belt.  But, it folds up!

Yup, 580€, or about $736 at the moment.  Sometimes I wonder what l'm doing making maps. I could knock out a belt like that in like five minutes... well, if I had leather working tools...

Lonnnnnnng day.

For you 40k fans that occasionally swing by (I'm sure there's a couple of you...)you'll probably know that today was the first round of the 'Ard Boyz tournament. Well, despite my burning hatred of tournaments, the fact that 'Ard Boyz is free, and that the weird missions and massive point limit tend to knock down the competitive lists in favor of "because I can" lists. In theory it's a more "fun" tournament. (Of course there's almost always somebody who just macks out their army list instead of building one that's "fun" and fluffy(fitting in the fiction.) Of course I fought him first game...)

So the Angels of Vengeance made an appearance.

(There's 2500 points of the Emperor's finest to fall from the heavens)

So waking up way too early for a Saturday (reason #1 I hate tournaments... they never start at reasonable hour...) and not expecting to really accomplish much (reason #2, I hate competitive lists and will make fluffy lists, quite often to a fault.  But damn it, it's a game. Fluffy lists are more fun.) and still swimming in glue fumes from slapping together stuff at the last minute (one good point of 'Ard Boyz, stuff doesn't have to be painted) I stumble into the store at 10am and start pulling out stuff.

3 games, do pretty mediocre the first round (remember the uber competitive expletive?) flat out draw the second, and somehow manage to squeeze in a major victory in the third (just barely), pushing nearly 8pm. Long day.

Somehow, I came in 3rd.  Still not sure how.

Hopefully the weather sticks and I can get the boat out tomorrow.

Things to do with sheep...

...that probably won't get you arrested.



Probably...

But dang does it look cool.

Why Military Firearm rocks.

Military Firearm's predecessor forum, CETME Rifles, was the forum that really sucked me into the internet/gun world.  Even it's newest form it is possibly the best source of information regarding the CETME and G3 type rifle.  It's populated by quite a few outstanding and knowledgeable members, and trolls never last long.  It's easily the friendliest forum I have ever been a member of, and I'm pretty proud to have been a member of MF from the start all those years ago after the fatal hacking of CETME Rifles.


It's a free forum, anybody can sign up to access the full content, which there's an awesome wealth of regarding tons of modern military guns.  So to help pay for things and keep it running, there's occasional group buys.  We've done t-shirts and the like in the past, but this time around, custom engraved AR15 dustcovers.  And boy are they sweet.


The front has "MILITARY FIREARM.COM" engraved in nice military stencil typeface-

Once it flips open you get the site's logo and an American flag-

And overall it makes for a pretty sweet custom-cool look-

All that plus the fact that they were engraved by forum member bladeworks123, who graciously donated his own time to play with his new toy (a fancy laser engraving machine) they're just all sorts of cool.

(and before the safety Nazis, it's hammer down on an empty chamber)

Nice Rack!

Finally got all the parts and set it all up.  No guns with the tax refund this year, just an easier time playing outside.
Got a good deal on the Thule setup, and I'm pretty impressed.  The hardware that came with the J-tubes for the boat are pretty cool/innovative, the bow and stern tie-downs have little ratcheting pullies, and the straps in the middle have rubber covers over the metal parts to keep from scratching up the kayak.  The bike tray also beats the living crap out of the old trunk rack setup, I got my XC rig up and locked down in a matter of seconds.  Hopefully this is just more motivation to go out and do more stuff.

NRA Annual Convention

Is going on right now, and I know a few bloggers are there.  Anybody know if anybody's covering the new shiny (and I guess matte) offerings being shown?  I know it's not quite as insane as SHOT, but there usually is a good amount of new coolness revealed at this one too.

Ruger LCR .357mag

The Firearm Blog reports that the highly anticipated Ruger LCR 357 will be available in June with an MSRP of $575.

Weighing in at a 17.1 oz, I'd guess it'll have a pretty snappy recoil.

That point of the semester...

Finals next week, so horribly underslept at this point, woke up feeling quite blah, and I swear I haven't seen blue sky going on two weeks now.  I don't know how people can take it up in the Pacific Northwest.

Anyway, I'll try to get some stuff  up tomorrow.

Military proposes medal for showing restraint...

Not sure how I feel about this one... but then again, I do have several awards for simply doing my job.  It seems like a great idea, and it is well thought out, but there just seems to be something wrong with the concept.

New holster!

Possibly the most awkward angle I've taken a picture at yet... eventually I'll get a decent lightweight point and shoot...

Review to come, along with comparisons with some other kydex.

MicroSights

New "breakthrough technology" from Idaho National Laboratories.  Looks like a pretty sweet idea.  If they make some that'll fit the Lyman sights I just put on the Anschutz, I may need to look into them.  It would cut down one at least one of the repeating mantras going through my head when bullseye shooting.
(H/T to The Firearm Blog)

You may not be able to get the Magpul FMG9...

But Nerf's got your back.

I may need to get one for when I need to fight my way back to the Vulcan.

"My religion's better than yours!"

Apparently Swedish artist LarsVilks was attacked during a presentation on free speech at a Swedish university yesterday.  Here's the video:

Ah pepper spray, so much fun.


Vilks is the guy who drew a cartoon of Muhammad as a dog, incurring a mass of Muslim hate.


I found out about this on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's website, complete with a beautiful little chunk written by Mr. Bobby Henderson, the founder of the CoFSM:

This latest attack bugs me a lot.  Here’s the disclaimer: I’ve received tons of hatemail and many threats and had more than a couple disturbing run-ins with religious nuts, and few if any of those nuts were Muslim.  By and large all the Muslims I know are awesome and not at all nutty.  I find Christian nuts the creepiest of all the religious nuts.  But I am way more scared of nutty Muslims than nutty Christians.

Lars has become a symbol for the right to criticize religion.  That’s a right we can’t lose.  I don’t believe this is about religion or values, I think it’s about dogma.  There is nothing inherently evil or wrong with what nutty Christians or Muslims believe – what’s wrong is that it’s no longer a set of beliefs, it’s a set of Truths that can’t be questioned, and that’s a dangerous thing.  Lars is completely right that it’s important to be able to criticize religion.

He's completely correct.  The ability to criticize religion is of utmost importance, just like the right to criticize pretty much anything else in a public setting.  I'm not going to go into a church and start screaming at the priest that he's an idiot, and I even show them the utmost respect any time I happen to run into one, but that doesn't mean I agree with pretty much any organized religion, especially rights crushing backwards ones.


(My disclaimer: yup, "rights crushing backwards ones" is pretty much directed at hardcore Muslim extremism.  I like boobies, among other things.  I'm not too worried about any attacks though, I put on a couch colored uniform once a month with a certain flag on it, so I'm pretty much boned as far as that goes anyway.  Nothing new.)

Hooray!

Just got a shipping notice from The Malabar Front in regards to my Raven Concealment stuff.  Makes my day a little brighter.  Review to come.

Making Something

...Out of a crappy day.

So with the shooting excursion called off, Cro decided to bust out the molds and turn some discarded wheel weights into something more useful.  I figured it would make for a decent blog post, so I came over with the camera and ended up learning something.

The process is pretty straight forward, toss the weights into the pot, the lead melts, and the less dense steel clips float up to the top where you can scoop them out.

Plop in some bees' wax to keep things flowing and smelling a little better (it acts as a flux) and pretty soon you get some nice molten lead ready for molding.

Add enough bees' wax, and it'll flash over for a bit, which you can use to smoke the mold, depositing some carbon on it to help the bullets pop out.  Plus it makes for my favorite picture of the day:

Seriously, those are the kind of pics that motivate me to lug the thing around.

Anyway, back to the bullets.  So once you get the lead hot and melty, you can start heating the mold, basically running some lead through it till the bullets actually start looking good.

Cro uses the Lee two bullet molds, they're a good size, and pretty simple to use with the built in sprue cutter, and they heat better than the 6 bullet molds.  I wouldn't want to handle anything bigger under his little pot either.  Once they're warmed up, you get some pretty nice looking bullets.

Then we just tossed them in a bucket of water with a towel stuffed in the bottom to keep them from bouncing and getting deformed.

We found that with two guys with the two bullet molds, you can get a pretty good rhythm going.  Two hours of BSing, and we had a nice pile of .44 and 9mm bullets for the price of the electricity to heat the pot.

I think I need to pick up a .45acp mold and a beater GI barrel.  Quite a few tire places will let you have buckets of used wheel weights, so for the cost of powder and primers, I could be shooting 1911 for nearly .22 prices...

SitRep take 2

We don't mess around up here... it's currently sleeting, almost hail sized little chunks of ice.

Range trip was cancelled due to unseasonal cold and crap falling from the skies.  Probably just end up going into school and working on stuff I've been putting off.

(Image is from late last night... we currently have a freeze warning until tonight some time. Fun.)

SitRep

This is my car, 10 minutes ago.

Yes.  That is about 2 inches of fresh, white, heavy global warming all over my car, and everything else, in May.

My state is broken.

.22lr Sterling

F.LLI Pietta Mk85 (care of The Firearm Blog) is a slightly scaled down .22lr Sterling clone.  Apparently it was at SHOT, but they held back the release till next year due to all the other "black" .22lr's that came out this year.  I may have to pick one up when they come out, it's so cute one would follow me home eventually anyway.