Edumacation…

Posted on by November 1, 2016

Seems like a lot of folks are now dipping a toe into the reloading world…

You can flat drive yourself nuts if you haven’t done it before, or have a good guide…

This is an example of the difference in burn rates. Which is for rifles, and which is for pistols???

If you said pistol on the left and rifle on the right, you’d be correct…

Wideners provided the video above, and has a good primer of the various smokeless powders HERE.

And the next step is reloading manuals… Lots of choices out there, but THIS blog link to AmmoLand gives their opinion of the top five manuals.

You can go any number of places for brass, primers, your choice of bullets or cast your own (YMMV, and it CAN be dangerous playing with molten lead).

And then there is the cost of a good reloading bench… Dillon, Lyman and the list goes on. According to folks I know that reload (a lot), the ‘break even’ on paying for everything, plus brass, bullets, primers and powder is around 5000 rounds. This is regardless of the caliber one reloads.

Two side notes- Yes, you can reload shotgun shells and no, you can’t reload .22 (or any other rimfire shells. Apparently you CAN now reload .22s.  Didn’t know that. Thanks to Jeremy for pointing out the capability, HERE.

When in doubt, ask someone who is experienced. Cast Boolits is one online reference for people who cast bullets and reload.

YMMV, I got nothin’ from nobody for this post… So there! 😛

Interesting…

Posted on by October 30, 2016

It appears the Dems are now desperate enough to resort to ‘Congress’ to pile on to Comey…

FBI Director James Comey may have violated federal law when he told lawmakers that his office was pursuing new evidence related to Hillary Clinton‘s use of a private email server, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is charging.

“Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another.”

Full article HERE from The Hill.com

But it’s very interesting that in 1992, the Friday before the election, George Bush was accused of prior knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair…

Whispers of “payback” are being directed at Hillary Clinton after she decried as “unprecedented” the surprise FBI revival of its probe of her email scandal.

That’s because 24 years ago, as former President George H.W. Bush was surging back against challenger Bill Clinton, a special prosecutor raised new charges against Bush in the Iran-Contra probe, prompting Clinton to claim he was running against a “culture of corruption.”

The full article is HERE, from the Washington Examiner.

That charge, in all probability, allowed Bill Clinton to win the election, considering he was losing at the time…

Depending on whom you listen to, it appears the metadata from the Weiner computer spit out somewhere between 300 and 650,000 ‘hits’ for state.gov and various clinton’s emails and server. Note- This is NOT the number of emails, contrary to what some of the media are reporting… You can get 8-10 or more ‘hits’ from one email, if it’s a string of emails embedded.

 

Aviation Art…

Posted on by October 29, 2016

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The Channel Dash (officially known as Operation Cerberus) was one of three operations during the Second World War for which the Fairey Swordfish was to become the most famous. Heavily outgunned in the Straits of Dover on this day, February 11, 1942 by the German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen, with their accompanying flotilla of destroyers and motor torpedo boats, and with top cover provided by deadly fighter aircraft of the Luftwaffe, all six Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish were shot down. Only five of the eighteen aircrew survived.

Here we see the Swordfish flown by Sub. Lt. Kingsmill and Sub. Lt. Samples with PO Bunce in the rear, fighting for their lives with his machine gun.The bravery of the Fairey Swordfish aircrew in this and all other operations is a matter of history and must never be forgotten.

Old School…

Posted on by October 28, 2016

Well, at least for the rifles…

1942 as issued Remington 03 on the left, 1940 Model 70 on the right, also in 30.06…

An old 2X7 Redfield up top, original Pachmayr recoil pad (I still have the steel butt plate), 1907 slings on both of them. The sling on the 03 is the original one!

I only needed one round to check zero on the Model 70, as it’s going to be used next month for a deer hunt.

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Now the funny thing is, everybody’s ‘eye’ is slightly different when it comes to scopes…

Lawdog and Thing 1 were both at the range, and they each put a round through it. They stacked rounds 1 in low and 1 in right of my shot (2.1 in high dead center so good zero for 200 yards).

On the pistol side, ran 150 rounds through the G19, still getting used to it. Everything went in a centered 4 inch circle at 10 yards, so I’ll take that.

Thing 1 wore the Muppet holster today, but not in front of the Sheriff (yet)…

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And it fits that Glock 19 perfectly 🙂

SCOTUS…

Posted on by October 27, 2016

If you’re a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, the Supreme Court is really what this election is all about…

The 60-second spot explains that the late justice, Antonin Scalia, was the deciding vote in affirming that the Second Amendment protects the right of an individual to keep a firearm in their home.  Scalia authored the majority decision in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008.

Hillary Clinton has twice said she disagrees with the Heller ruling. At the third presidential debate, she said she, “disagreed with the way the court applied the Second Amendment in that case.” Earlier in her campaign, Clinton was recorded at a private event saying, “The Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment, and I am going to make that case every chance I get.”

Whoever wins the presidency on Nov. 8 will appoint at least one Supreme Court justice, and possibly as many as three or more additional justices. Americans cannot afford to elect a president who will stack the court with justices hostile to the Second Amendment.

“This election will determine the fate of the Second Amendment in America for the next 40 years. Law-abiding gun owners cannot afford to put someone in office who will eliminate their rights.” Chris Cox- NRA-ILA

h/t NRA Media

TBT…

Posted on by October 26, 2016

And we’re back to the car ads…

This one is pretty interesting, in that there were TWO versions of the Plymouth GTX advertising…

The first one was the ‘generic’ one

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This one, however, was the one that was in all the car magazines… 🙂67-gtx

I’d call that pretty damn smart marketing!!!

Posted in TBT

It just gets…

Posted on by October 25, 2016

‘Better and better’, for some forms of better… Sigh…

The latest dump as published by the NYT contains this ‘gem’.

In a March 2015 interview, President Obama said that he had learned about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.”

But that assertion concerned aides of Mrs. Clinton, who knew that the president himself had received emails from the private address, according to a hacked email made public on Tuesday by WikiLeaks.

“We need to clean this up — he has emails from her — they do not saystate.gov,” Cheryl D. Mills, a top aide, wrote to John D. Podesta, another senior adviser, on March 7, 2015.

Full article HERE, at NYT.com

So once again BO is caught lying…

So much for the most ‘transparent’ administration ever, and yet the Dems continue to say that Trump is attacking democracy!

Seems to me the only ‘attack’ that is taking place is on the status quo…

I don’t know about anyone else but I, for one, am tired of the political elites pandering every election about what they are going to do for ‘us’ (insert definition of us here), then once the voting is done, it’s back to business as usual, playing political games…

Whether it’s local, state or national, it seems that all of the pols are treading the PC line, afraid to actually make a decision, or anything approaching a decision, must less countering the White House, because it ‘might’ cause some heartburn back home… Sigh…

There is truly sad news on the aviation front today, R.A. “Bob” Hoover passed away this morning at age 94.

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One of the greats of aviation. RIP sir, RIP.

Break, break—-

In the ‘good’ news category, the ELOH, Larry Correia has another redshirt campaign up.

It is Charity Red Shirt time again!

That is where if you donate enough money to a specific cause, I will use your name in a book. Details are below.

This time we are helping my friend Mitch with his medical bills. I’ve known him for about 20 years. Mitch suffers from spina bifida and has gone through a bunch of surgeries. This is to help him climb out of the hole. Here is the link.

https://www.gofundme.com/2m664f98

Larry goes on to detail why it’s being done, and how long he’s known the recipient, HERE. Well worth a donation, even if you don’t want to be redshirted…

And a few more pics from the road trip…

Posted on by October 24, 2016

Some early S&W revolvers, and yes the top one of those grips are Ivory. The others are Mother of Pearl. And engraved guns were NOT usual in the late 1800s…

The O.T. Nicholson guns are part of a large collection containing over 200 rifles, pistols and shotguns. Mr. Nicholson was a banker in Shamrock, TX, about 40 miles east of Amarillo. Born in 1880, he died in 1955.dsc01832 dsc01833 dsc01834 dsc01835

Three generations of Dragoons! 🙂dsc01850 dsc01851

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You might call this one an early BBQ gun… 🙂

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Road trip, now with pictures…

Posted on by October 23, 2016

This weekend we (BRM, Lawdog and myself) took in the Panhandle and Plains Museum in Canyon, TX and Palo Duro Canyon State Park, also just outside Canyon, TX. Both of them are just South of Amarillo. Sadly, the museum is placarded 30.06 and 30.07.

We saw about half the museum in the time we had, but I have to say I’m VERY impressed with it for three reasons- 1. It’s run/maintained by folks that lived there. 2. A lot of the ‘donations’ came with stories, and they are reflected in the displays. 3. They didn’t crowd things together so that you are looking at massive amounts of things…

Lots of local history, fossils, oil, ranches, vehicles fabrics, etc. Oh yeah, and GUNS!!!

The office of one of the Texas landmen that worked to procure oil leases, circa 1970. Who knows how many millions of dollars of deals were made in this very office…

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The drilling floor of a 1920s-1930s oil rig. To the right is the ‘drill’ which was at the end of the cable and repeatedly dropped by the walking beam (out of picture top), and on a good day could do five feet an hour. The 12x12s with cross pieces to the left were called the headache rig, and designed to ‘stop’ the 14000lb walking beam if it broke or fell. My dad worked on this type of rig in the Borger field in the late 20s early 30s…dsc01775

V-16 Caddy, owned by the local tax collector… nuff said… 🙂dsc01797

Military rifle collection- The bottom German Model 98 rifle has a ‘history’ so to speak…dsc01804

And this is it… Local color…dsc01805

Colts in those days weren’t safe queens… Even if they were engraved!dsc01853

And yes, bailing wire IS used for everything… When you need a shotgun in the middle of an Indian fight, you fix it with whatever is available…dsc01855

Another ‘local’ car. It was restored in 2005 and donated to the museum.dsc01880

And then there was Palo Duro…

This is a panoramic shot from the head of the canyon, looking southeast from the park. It’s narrow, probably a mile-maybe two miles wide and 500 feet deep here. It runs 120+ miles, gradually widening to almost 30 miles wide as it goes further south. Most of the canyon is actually in private ranch hands.

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We went down into the canyon, about to where McKenzie attacked the winter camp of the Indians in 1874. I will honestly say you could ‘feel’ something down there…

The wiki for that battle is HERE.

This break in the rim is probably one that the Cavalry actually used to sneak up on the Indian encampment. It is a zoom shot from the location of the historical marker.

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Many thanks to Alma for the education, time and willingness to be badgered with questions for the last couple of days…

Road Trip!!!

Posted on by October 22, 2016

I’m taking a mini road trip, we ran over to Amarillo to go to the Panhandle-Plains museum and down to Palo Duro to do some research for upcoming novels. Peter, myself, and LawDog met Alma (all links on sidebar) at the museum and covered the first two floors in about 4 hours. Peter took a break, and Lawdog and I hit the Discovery Museum an AQHA museums in the afternoon.

Anyone that has ever ridden a cutting horse can identify with this one!!! Point the horse and hang on!

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And this one is a much smaller statue inside the museum, I call it topping off, but I can’t remember the actual name of the statue… It’s that kick start in the morning that every cowboy ‘loves’… NOT!

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There will be more pics next week of the museums…

Tomorrow is Palo Duro, then back home…