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.

NSTT & Getting Shot At

So Indigen Armor released some video of their new truck looking armored truck, the Non-Standard Tactical Truck, and it's pretty cool, in my opinion.  It looks more like a light pick-up than anything armored, so it'll blend well when you want to keep a low profile, yet is proof against at least small arms.

Here be the vid:



So around the 1:09 mark, there's a couple guys inside and they're shooting it with an AK of some sort.  A few people around the interwebs think that's a stupid idea, and yeah, if you decide to test it that way, then it is.  But I doubt that's the first time they ever shot at it.  It's a pretty dang effective marketing tool, just ask the people over at Second Chance.  But if it's been tested, and proofed positive against that particular threat, then there should be damn near zero chance of injury to the vehicle's occupants.  That's the whole point of the thing.


Back to the truck, it's small enough that you can internally load it in a Pavehook, looks to be pretty mobile, and as stated, is low-profile in appearance.  Having rolled through downtown Kabul in one of these, I can guess how welcome something with armor could be in a similar situation.  I doubt it's too great against a large IED, but in theory you would avoid most of them by simply not looking like a target.  It probably wouldn't be all that bad against indirect fire such as mortars and rockets either, so it would make for a pretty decent truck for tooling around inside the wire in a combat zone.

Wonder how much they go for.....

(H/T ENDO)

XM-25 to be deployed.

Albeit in limited numbers at the moment.  Looks like SF teams will get them for evaluation purposes.
I wonder how long till I get to play with one? Hehe.

(H/T SayUncle)

I guess there's still some good in the system.

Third SEAL found not guilty.

Zombie Awareness Month

May is Zombie Awareness Month.  Fitting, what with the weather finally getting warm, they'll be moving faster (although there's a chance of snow tomorrow night around here... my state's broken.)  A good excuse to get to the range and verify your zero if nothing else.

(H/T to Tam)

THIRTEEN THINGS YOUR BURGLAR WON'T TELL YOU:

Posted over at Military Firearm:

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.

2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.

3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste ... and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.

4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it..

5. If it snows while you're out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway.

6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don't let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it's set. That makes it too easy.

7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom-and your jewelry. It's not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.

8. It's raining, you're fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door-understandable. But understand this: I don't take a day off because of bad weather.

9. I always knock first. If you answer, I'll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don't take me up on it.)

10. Do you really think I won't look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.

11. Here's a helpful hint: I almost never go into kids' rooms.

12. You're right: I won't have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it's not bolted down, I'll take it with me.

13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you're reluctant to leave your TV on while you're out of town, you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television. (faketv.com.) It's real, I checked.

8 MORE THINGS A BURGLAR WON'T TELL YOU:

1. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook. 

2. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosey neighbors.

3. I'll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he'll stop what he's doing and wait to hear it again. 

If he doesn't hear it again, he'll just go back to what he was doing. It's human nature.

4. I'm not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?

5. I love looking in your windows. I'm looking for signs that you're home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I'd like. I'll drive or walk through your

neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.

6. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It's easier than you think to look up your address.

7. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it's an invitation.

8. If you don't answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in.

Sources: Convicted burglars in North Carolina , Oregon , California , andKentucky ; security consultant Chris McGoey, who runs crimedoctor.com; and Richard T. Wright, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who interviewed 105 burglars for his book Burglars on the Job

First Doyle...

Now Dave.  Seems that with all the people tripping over each other to run against him, he's just calling it quits.

Hopefully the people of the state don't waste it come November.

Still the best coffee jingle ever.