Nuff said…
Nuff said…
First an update from yesterday’s post- David Codrea chimes in HERE on the Peacemaker Range suit.
Then, I missed this one completely… Good article from Motley Fool on gun manufacturing in the US.
The landing has been hard for the firearms industry as it adjusts to the new environment of lower firearms demand after several years of white-hot sales. Although the gunmakers themselves are still reporting robust numbers, the outlook they share is disappointing as it returns to more modest levels, even if gun sales remain above historical trends.
Full article, HERE.
And it’s coming up on that time of year… NRA Annual Meeting! It’s in Atlanta, GA 27-30 April. Based on the above article, I’m going to be talking to some of the ‘little’ folks in the manufacturing side and see what they are seeing…
With the cuts going on at both Colt and Remington lately, are we seeing the tip of the iceberg? Are more cuts on the horizon for S&W now that they are American Outdoor Brands and are ‘supposedly’ deemphasizing their firearms?
I don’t have good answers to ANY of the questions I’ve posed, and I’m not smart enough to start trying to guess…
Lastly, a question for the readers- If you ‘finally’ got your suppressor delivered to the local FFL, would you do the Form 4 and pay the $200, and assume the position of waiting up to six + months or bet on the come of the Hearing Protection Act being signed in August, as some people are thinking???
My answer is below the fold…
And one last one to think about. From Glenn Reynolds in USA Today- The Suicide of Expertise, not specifically about guns, but worth the read, considering how many ‘experts’ there are in the gun/weapons field…
h/t JP
If you’ve EVER shot at Peacemaker National Training Center in West Virginia, this heads up is for you…
PNTC Members and Customers,
We would like to thank each of you for being members and customers of PNTC and we look forward to your continued support and use of the complex. We cannot stress enough how much we appreciate and need your continued support.
We feel compelled inform our members and customers regarding a recent court ruling related to PNTC’s private customer information. Specifically, a resident of Virginia has filed a nuisance complaint against PNTC alleging that noise from operation of the shooting range is a nuisance, and therefore interferes with his property rights. This complaint was filed in Berkeley County Circuit Court and is before Circuit Court Judge Grey Silver, styled Ben and Diane Goldstein v. Peacemaker Properties, LLC and Peacemaker National Training Center, LLC, Civil Action No. 15- C-520. Court documents filed in the case are public record and may be reviewed through the Circuit Clerk’s office.
Although our legal team pointed out that Berkeley County, WV specifically exempts shooting ranges from their noise ordinance and prevents nuisance claims against shooting ranges, the complaint was filed and not dismissed by the court. You may also access the Berkeley County Noise Ordinance at this link: http://www.berkeleycountycomm.org/docs/ordinances/amendnoiseord0409.pdf
Despite numerous motions and requests to reconsider, and numerous mediation efforts with the plaintiff, the court has ordered PNTC to produce the below documents and other private records under a “Protective Order.” Under this order, the plaintiffs and their counsel are legally permitted to access the following information:
– All member files
– All waivers from any person who has accessed PNTC, to include all law enforcement, federal agency personnel, military personnel and foreign military personnel names
– All shooting competition files and lists
– All training information and lists
– All customer waivers
– Identities of all persons who have used PNTC ranges
– All ATF & NFA records (to include Forms 4473 and ATF bound book information)
Unfortunately, PNTC is unable to answer additional questions or comment on this matter at this time. Please know that we have done everything in our power to protect your private information, but we must comply with the court order.
Again, we look forward to seeing you soon and thank you for your support and understanding. Thank You,
Cole McCulloch – President
Peacemaker National Training Center
This is NOT good, as there is no telling how that information will be used or disseminated… And if I remember correctly, they will have name, address, phone number and caliber of weapon fired… Dammit…
Paintings… And space operations…
Artists were usually aboard the ships that performed the water recoveries of the US space capsules, which landed in the water, as opposed to the Russian ones which land on the ground.
A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Class of 1944, Alan Shepard became a pilot and served as a test pilot at Patuxent Naval Air Station, later becoming an instructor. In 1959, he was one of the first seven astronauts selected for Project Mercury. In May 1961, he became the first American in space – the second human after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin achieved that feat a month earlier. He returned to space in Apollo 14 and in that mission became the fifth person to walk on the moon and first to hit a golf ball on the moon.
U.S. Navy bureau of Ships – Official U.S. Navy photo 88-161-zi from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command. Raymond Kintsler, artist.
ASW helicopters usually got tapped to be the primary rescue ‘vehicle’ along with their crews. Helicopter 58 was a Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, was one of those used for Gemini 5’s recovery aboard the USS Lake Champlain in 1965.
U.S. Navy bureau of Ships – Official U.S. Navy photo 88-162-CR from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command. Luis Llorente, artist.
Wearing biological isolation garments, the crew of Apollo 11 is escorted directly from the helicopter that was lowered to the hangar deck then pulled in next to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) to ensure that they did not bring back any contaminants back from the moon. The Airstream trailer would be their home for the next 65 hours while it was transferred from USS Hornet to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
U.S. Navy bureau of Ships – Official U.S. Navy photo 88-163-AN from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command. Cliff Young, artist.
About 200 miles east of Pago Pago in the South Pacific, USSTiconderoga picked up the astronauts and command module of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon.
U.S. Navy bureau of Ships – Official U.S. Navy photo 88-162-PA from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, Paul Ortlip, artist.
The UDT team stands on the flotation collar in order to secure the towline to hoist the Mercury 9 spacecraft onto the deck of a ship. This was the last Mercury shot, L. Gordon Cooper was the astronaut on board. When the automatic systems malfunctioned, Cooper drew lines on the capsule window with a grease pencil to help him check his orientation before firing the re-entry rockets. “So I used my wrist watch for time,” he later recalled, “my eyeballs out the window for attitude. Then I fired my retrorockets at the right time and landed right by the carrier.” Test pilots… What can you say! 🙂
U.S. Navy bureau of Ships – Official U.S. Navy photo 88-170-al from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, Robert J. Benson, artist.
U.S. Navy bureau of Ships – Official U.S. Navy photo 88-162-of from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, Paul Ortlip, artist.
Quite a few of these are displayed in the Navy Museum in Pensacola, others are in Houston and other NASA locations.
But more good news for Vets…
| House Passes Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act | |
| Legislation Protects Due Process Rights for Veterans | |
| Fairfax, Va.— The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) applauds the House of Representatives today for passing The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act (H.R. 1181), a bill that protects the due process rights of veterans, in a 240-175 vote.
“The constitutional rights of our veterans must be strongly protected,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA-ILA. “The House vote today is a step forward in ensuring our veterans’ rights are not infringed upon.”
The VA has been effectively banning veterans who receive disability benefits and use a fiduciary to help manage those benefits from gun ownership. These individuals are being stripped of their Second Amendment rights by a bureaucratic rule that denies them due process.
There is no data indicating a correlation between needing help managing money and being a danger to oneself or others – the criterion the government must meet before denying a person their Second Amendment rights.
If enacted into law, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act would ensure that going forward, veterans who use a fiduciary would not be stripped of their constitutional rights unless a judicial authority first finds they pose a danger to themselves or others. This ensures due process rights for all veterans.
“Needing help managing your money does not make you a danger to society. The NRA is pleased with the House vote today and we look forward to the Senate taking action soon,” concluded Cox.
The NRA thanks Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy , Majority Whip Steve Scalise and Chairman Phil Roe for their leadership on this matter.
|
h/t NRA Media
But before I start, a couple of links- Alma for her comments on record keeping while we were fondling examining the various guns (Next time she will probably run screaming into New Mexico). And Peter for his take on the trip…
And now…
COLTS!!! 🙂 Not that I’m biased or anything… Nope, not a bit… 😀
These aren’t on display, but still ‘classic’ Colts. Bottom Colt 1851, top 1860 Army. All matching numbers on both pistols. There were another four 1860s in one of the drawers, of those three were matching serial numbers and the last one was a parts gun, probably assembled by a troop armorer somewhere…
Right sides of the same pistols. Of note, you can see the modifications between the 1851 and 1860 clearly here. On the 1860 (top), note the notch in the bottom of the round behind the cylinder, and the trough in the feed toward the percussion caps. The trough feeds directly to the cap nipple, allowing one to simply slide the cap on without having to fiddle with it.
It’s for the ‘first’ Shoulder thingie that goes up!!! 🙂 It’s called a shoulder stock (Picture is common use from the net, not a piece in the museum).
Next up are a pair of Gen 1 SAAs, the top one had some beautiful original case hardening, both of these are from the early 1900s and show a bit of the difference between a daily carry/well used old Colt and one that was more of a Sunday-go-to-meeting old Colt. The stag grips were excellent fit and easily allowed one to grip the butt firmly.
Left sides of the same pistols. Note the difference in wear of the left and right rubber grips on the bottom Colt. Based on wear patterns, the shooter was right handed.
And I’ll take drawer number 3, Alex… 🙂 A bunch of Colts and that one beat up S&W 22 from yesterday and a S&W with MoP grips. The reason I took this was we were laughing at how much Ray would have loved the mother of pearl grips!
And one I need y’alls help on…
This pic is a Bisley and two SAAs, each with a different grip material. The top one is the one we can’t figure out. It’s either bone or horn from ‘something’, but nothing we recognized. As you can see, it’s deeply ridged, 1/16th to 1/8th inch deep. No cracks show on either side of the grips. Any help/ideas appreciated!!!
The middle on is a beat up set of plain wooden (issue) grips, and the bottom is some beautiful white ivory grips.
Sigh… I really needed more time to go through the Lightnings and Thunderers in that drawer. One oddity we did come across is on one of the display weapons, according to the Colt serial number list, there were either one each of a Lightning and/or a Thunderer, with the same serial number built in 1890… Wierd…
More pics tomorrow from other places! Thanks for stopping by and the comments!
Many thanks to the fine folks at Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum for hosting us yesterday and allowing us access for some research for upcoming novels.
A few pictures…
S&W Americans and a Schofield-
A pair of S&W Americans. The top one is engraved and probably plated after modification, it’s an original ‘American’. The bottom one is a ‘New American’, later production. Both have ivory grips. Notice the difference in the humpbacks above the grips.
The engraved one has had the barrel cut two inches and a new sight installed…
AND the engraved one was converted from what appeared to be .44 caliber to a .22 with sleeves that were (we think) welded in!!!
This is a military Schofield, last patent date 1873. Left and right views.
And the stamping on the left grip, 1876 and a set of fine script initials. The initials belong to LT James Rockwell Jr a government inspector from 1874-76. (h/t Not Clausewitz)
Lastly, one in ‘slightly’ worse shape…
This is one of those “I gotta have a gun” guns… Farm/ranch ‘fixing’ at it’s best…
Currently missing trigger and pin, carved wooden grip, overwrap with old telephone wire, barrel is held on by nut/bolt from somewhere, and it’s fired some ‘hot’ rounds based on the gas marks on the barrel in front of the cylinder…
In answer to an emailed question, yes you could have fired it by simply pulling the hammer back and dropping it.
Again, thanks for the access and extending your expertise!
The surround of the main entrance to the Panhandle Plains Museum…
And before you ask, no, I DON’T have a list of them (working on it)…
Pictures coming after I get back…
Doing that museum thingie again…
Panhandle Plains in Canyon, TX. Go read the folks on the sidebar, maybe I’ll get some pics up later, depending.
But I’ll leave you this one- Red sky at night, sailor’s delight!
THOUGHTS ON AGING
-You’re getting old when you’re sitting in a rocker and you can’t get it started.
-You’re getting old when you wake up with that morning-after feeling and you didn’t do anything the night before.
-The cardiologist’s diet: if it tastes good, spit it out.
-Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you are not a hypochondriac.
-It’s hard to be nostalgic when you can’t remember anything.
-You know you’re getting old when you stop buying green bananas.
-Last Will and Testament: Being of sound mind, I spent all my money.
-When you lean over to pick something up off the floor, you ask yourself if there is anything else you need to do while you are down there.
-You find yourself in the middle of the stairway, and you can’t remember if you were downstairs going up or upstairs going down.
-Maybe it’s true that life begins at fifty. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.
-There are three signs of old age. The first is your loss of memory. I forget the other two.
-You’re getting old when you don’t care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don’t have to go along.
-The aging process could be slowed down if it had to work its way through Congress.
-Middle age is when work is a lot less fun and fun is a lot more work.
-Statistics show that at the age of seventy, there are five women to every man. Isn’t that a bad time for a guy to get those odds?
-You know you’re getting on in years when the girls at the office start confiding in you.
-Middle age is when it takes longer to rest than to get tired.
-By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he’s too old to go anywhere.
-Middle age is when you have stopped growing at both ends, and have begun to grow in the middle.
-A man has reached middle age when he is cautioned to slow down by his doctor instead of by the police.
-You know you’re into middle age when you realise that caution is the only thing you care to exercise.
YMMV, IANAL, I don’t know where I was going with this…