Larry writes good, and not just about killing monsters.

Building Pure Awesome

First MC-130J in production.

Deployment Blog

Report tomorrow to start the deployment.  Less than excited, but it is what it is.

I decided to start up a secondary blog primarily for the deployment.  I'll still be dropping stuff here, and will stick with the ol' G&C when I get back to civilization, but I felt I needed a different place for this whole adventure.  Please bare with the growing pains and rough start I'm sure it'll have in formatting, the last few weeks slipped by far too fast and I didn't get a lot of things done I intended to (hanging out with Manda seemed to be more important than most other things...)

In the meantime, Cro will likely be slipping in some content as well, so keep checking here too.

For now, I'll see you at Dirt Pusher's Journal!

About Time...

Now to see how long before we'll actually see Female Cut IOTVs for the rest of the Army...

Eyepro!!

Always a good idea.  LuckyGunner's Labs did some tests to see how stuff stacks up.

Some Styrofoam may have been injured in the test. 

Well worth the read.

Lost Some Wisdom This Morning

And gained the knowledge that three hours of tattoo work with no anesthesia is still preferable to even an hour of oral surgery, even fully sedated.  Well, I suppose it's the aftereffects really.  Been able to get down half a cup of yogurt since this morning, not really feeling like much else (still, thank his Noodly Appendages for Yoplait's lactose-free yogurt.)

My BRD is Spreading...

It's gotten to my leg...

My leg looks funny all shaved...

We powered through a three hour session to get the outline and shading done, and colors will come later (the reds you see is simply my body being angry at getting stabbed a lot...)  I guess now I've got more incentive to bring the leg back with me from Afghanistan.

Tattoo Needles...

...Still don't tickle. Gotta earn it.

One Week...

...Until I report for Active Duty.  Damn it's coming up fast.

Speaking of, that's why it's been kinda quiet around here lately, lots of crap to get together and a lot of "non-blog" stuff on my mind.  Deployments take up a lot of your time...

Content Warning

This video may contain copious amounts of violence, blood, and adult language; but that's what makes it good.  (It's a Short Film from ComiCon)



I always did like Thomas Jane as Punisher.

Plastic AR Carbine Lower

I say "carbine" because it can take any buffer tube.

ATI Omni Polymer lower reciever.  Cheap, and I think it'd hold up fine.  I may look into picking one up when I get back just to see how "cheap" I can build an AR.

GucciFlage Nightmare Camo

Heh. I see what you did there.

Garmin Fenix

Good looking, compact, wrist mounted GPS that you can sync with a computer, or another Fenix (like your team leader's as Gear Scout suggests.)

Yes Please.  Garmin, if you're reading, I would love to beat one up in Afghanistan over the next year.

Bleg.

Off to McCoy for a few days for another class.  Mob is coming up fast, feels faster than I thought.

Mmm...

Garlic crusted steak.

It's ok to be jealous.

Recoil (Issue 3)

Just a first flip through, but so far it's on par with the last two.

Go figure, I know that there's an article on both the guns featured on the cover,
but I can't help but think if you're rocking a Kriss for your primary,
a .45acp Glock would make a lot more sense than a 9mm FN.

Some good stuff on working with Kydex, home defense thoughts, and lots of pretty pictures.  Worth picking up.

Reach out and touch someone...

Marines set new Artillery range record.

Golf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., dropped the 155mm M982 Excalibur round on insurgents 36 kilometers away — more than 22 miles — in Helmand province. The strike was launched Feb. 12 from an M777 howitzer on a mountainside at Forward Operating Base Zeebrugge, in Kajaki, to neighboring Musa Qala district, Marines said.


It marks the longest operational artillery shot in history for the Marine Corps, said Capt. Joshua Kling, the battery commander.

Google Reverses

Gun stuff is back up in shopping.

Happy Blow Sh*t Up Day!

Sorry... my Engineer is showing.

But hey, happy birthday America!

More Range Photos

Got some edited before the big lappy got too hot and froze before crashing hard (and a heat advisory was issued about 30 seconds later... heh.)  I've got a few more from my camera, so hopefully I'll get those edited later and save them for another post.

Anywho, as I said before, a friend from my Scout Camp days was in town for the day, and wanted to try some of the modern hardware out.  So we brought out the 1911, M&P pistols (9mm and .22lr,) Lightweight AR, and the LCP to run some more rounds through it.

So, on to the photos!

 Neat action sequence-

I advise "right click, open in new tab."

Manda tried out the LCP

She fired two shots, and declared it less than great... too long of a trigger and hard to control.  Not surprising.  She then put a magazine through the 1911, and while it bugged her shoulder, she still preferred it over the LCP.  More in detail about that in a later post.

Cleaned up yesterday's photo too...

Of course the AR was a crowd pleaser as usual, what with its light weight and low recoil.  Andy was bouncing a bottle around on the berm in a couple shots and was in love.

After getting back in town, we headed over to O'So Brewing's taproom as Andy is a huge beer fan.  40 taps of Wisconsin beer is always a good time.

I need a new camera...

A friend from camp came into town for the day, and we dropped my fast prime lens on his D90 body...

That's straight off the camera there...  A few more I need to crop and tweek colors on, but damn. I am jealous.

Multicam...

...for everyone?  That's the word on the street for the Army.  Makes the most sense to me, there's already a good chunk of gear in the system and heraldry in place for the colors.

Contempt...

The 255-67 vote marked the first time in American history that the head of the Justice Department has been held in contempt by Congress.

Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

Google Pulling Gun Products

At least from shopping results.  Hmm....

While the Idea is Cool...

...bipedal armored fighting machines are not really a good idea.  I'm fairly certain any unit of modern main battle tank would hand their shiny metal asses to them.  However I do kind of hope they follow through on it, I'd love to see one.

You keep using that word....

...I don't think it means what you think it means.



Hardly "supporting" there, Elks...

I've seen numerous "no guns" signs around now that we have ccw laws (really never were many when we only had open carry...) but this one really made me wonder more than just about any around.

Productivity...

Will most likely be shot.  Top Gear (the real one) is on Amazon Prime, and there's an app for that on the Xbox 360 now...

Reasuring

The fact that whenever I've left the house the last few days with a bruised up side, I've had one of my little pistols tucked into my waistband.  This has easily been the most "debilitated" I've felt in just about ever, and there's no way in hell I'm running away from anything, so it's nice to know I've got a better option available.

Range Photos

Fun times.  Went out to the range with Dan and another coworker yesterday to try out the micro-pistol and Dan's new toy.  It was good, aside from the sore everything.

Dan picked up a Saiga-12 (he may or may not be in the middle of reading the Monster Hunter series...)

It'll be getting a new stock sooner than later.  In the meantime, not quite my cup of tea but it still a bit of fun, and quite giggle inducing.

Dan also brought out the S&W .44mag (I'm wondering about his fascination with self punishment...)

And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the tiny little thing pretending to be a pistol worked too.  Surprisingly accurate, despite its lack of sights (one of the few times I'm probably going to put a laser on something.)

I did come to the conclusion that with my hands, the tiny bit of concealability I loose is a worthwhile trade-off for the controlability of the finger rest extension.

Light Range Trip

The LCP works, so that's cool.  Snappy little gun though.

Bruised ribs do not make for very dynamic movements though... at least not with any long guns.  Photos later, need to caffeinate and clean house first, guests inbound.