The Lovely Bride threatened to move some of my crap off the kitchen island so I started doing some early spring cleaning in the reloading room lest she start piling my crap up in there indiscriminately. I happen to be very discriminating about how my crap gets piled up and I wasn't going to let her do the piling.
The day wore on and I found myself in a full-blown project involving a broom, a dust pan, a cordless drill, shelving, a new tool box on wheels and I forget what else. There was a lot of crap piled in that room and a lot of the piling hadn't been done by me.
Along the way, I found a couple of primed .22 CCM cases and I also found a can of .22 caliber air gun pellets. Sometimes events just overtake us.
The pellets measured about .219 so they went into the cases pretty easily. I didn't know whether the primer by itself would get the pellet all the way out of the barrel but I knew how to find out. At fifteen yards they were a couple of inches below my point of aim but dead on left to right. The really impressive thing was the sound. There almost wasn't any. Less than a CB cap. Less than a pellet gun. Somewhere between a pellet gun and a gnat fart.
The Lovely Bride wasn't watching the target at the first shot and it was so quiet she asked if the pellet had gotten out of the barrel. If I hadn't seen it strike the target I would have wondered too.
When I'm done with the cleaning and re-piling in the reloading room, I'll have to prime a few cases and do some more shooting to see how they penetrate cans (and whether a few tenths of a grain of powder is desirable without making it too loud) but I think I have stumbled onto what just might be the ultimate suburban squirrel gun.
Nobody in their right mind is going to go buy a Cooper in 22 CCM just to shoot pellets out of it but the thing is that its case is just a tad smaller than a 22 Hornet so the same thing ought to be do-able in a Hornet; probably even a .223. Being able to use something like a .223 to quietly take small game without altering the rifle might come in handy.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Karl Rove Could Learn A Lot from Phil Robertson and A&E
In the broader scheme of things, the ginned-up controversy over what Phil Robertson said in the GQ interview was really insignificant. It was just another attempt to create a boogey man for the left to point at and say "see, everybody is so mean to me..."
That being said, anybody with their eyes open ought to be able to see that the reaction of ordinary Americans was telling.
Anybody that might be wondering what kind of candidate to run for political office ought to look at the groundswell of support for Mr. Robertson and look for a someone that could generate that kind of grass roots support in the face of a media blitz to discredit them.
Somebody who's real. Somebody who isn't embarrassed to tell you what they think. Somebody who has convictions that don't change with every new poll. Somebody grounded in American values.
I could go on but what's the point. If there is such a candidate, the establishment RINOS aren't going to let a candidate like that get past the primaries. They prefer to lose elections and the whole Country to running a candidate the unwashed peasantry actually wants.
That being said, anybody with their eyes open ought to be able to see that the reaction of ordinary Americans was telling.
Anybody that might be wondering what kind of candidate to run for political office ought to look at the groundswell of support for Mr. Robertson and look for a someone that could generate that kind of grass roots support in the face of a media blitz to discredit them.
Somebody who's real. Somebody who isn't embarrassed to tell you what they think. Somebody who has convictions that don't change with every new poll. Somebody grounded in American values.
I could go on but what's the point. If there is such a candidate, the establishment RINOS aren't going to let a candidate like that get past the primaries. They prefer to lose elections and the whole Country to running a candidate the unwashed peasantry actually wants.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Santa's Workshop
Having nothing particular planned to do on Christmas Day, I slept in and was just getting around to deciding what stress-free and relaxing things would occupy my day when the in-laws called. A dinner invitation; not twelve hours after we left their house last night. If you don't make plans for Christmas Day, plans will be made for you.
That one phone call eliminated all the possible big projects and all the jobs that couldn't be left incomplete without dire consequences. I thought about loading some of this or some of that but just wasn't in the mood and finally settled on tackling a small job that I had left undone more than fifteen years ago. It hadn't made a difference so far so if I didn't get it done by dinner it probably wouldn't be a big deal.
Sometime back in the mid-1990s, Precision Small Parts started making a clone of the Baby Browning. They called theirs the PSP 25. Later the name changed to Precision Small Arms and PSA 25. Mine is the PSP rendition. It had a terrible trigger and the extractor had a sharp edge that was causing it mis-feed when I got it. I had taken it apart to clean up the rough spots. I just couldn't get the danged thing back together again.
The problem wasn't that I didn't know how it went back together. I just couldn't get my fat fingers to maneuver one particular spring back into place. I didn't have the right tools and couldn't decide what the right tool would be so I put the whole mess in a zip lock sandwich bag and stuck it in the back of a drawer in the reloading room. It just sat there until today.
Everything went back together just fine until I got to the troublesome spring again. I had my fifty-cent set of forceps and was confident that I could get it back in place but enough years have passed that I didn't remember how it went back in anymore.
This is part of a diagram at Numrich Gun Parts Corp's site. That squirelly, double-coiled spring identified as "19" was the tricky part. The diagram showed me the proper orientation but there's still a problem. It looks like pin #18 goes through the sear (#17) and then through the top coil of the spring. I put it back together that way and it didn't work. The free end on the top part of the spring stuck out past the sear into the magazine well. The magazine wouldn't seat and the sear wouldn't move when I tried the trigger. A closer examination of the gun made it obvious that the spring needed to go on a pin that is part of the safety lever (#16). It is built into the back end of safety lever and you can't see it on the diagram.
It was a little harder to get the spring into the right place but the forceps did the trick. I added a snazzy set of white grips that made it about twice as fat as its supposed to be. Seriously. With those grips on it, its fatter than my Kahr PM 40. Its not something that I carry anymore so it doesn't really matter but its a LOT fatter.
My brother in law found a range close to his home so I may load up a pile of .25 ACP and join him there one day soon. I've never seen anyone shooting a .25 ACP at a range before. I'll be able to tell my brass apart from everybody else's.
Christmas dinner was good. The in-laws were watching some movie about the birth of Jesus and that sparked conversation about which actors played which roles in which movies. Father-in-Law was trying to think of a Western with Steve McQueen and Yule Brenner but didn't think it was The Magnificent Seven. The Lovely Bride said "not that war movie with Clint Eastwood and the tank." I said "that was Kelly's Heroes and the bald guy was Don Rickles." She says "no, the big guy." I said "Telly Savalas" and she said "yes, that's him." I agreed that Don Rickles and Telly Savalas are both bald but also suggested that although being bald was necessary, it wasn't sufficient to make either of them Yule Brenner. Somehow, that ended the conversation and Father-in-Law and I found ourselves wiring a set of air horns under the hood of his truck.
Money is too tight for presents at our house but I still got a Baby Browning (clone) for Christmas and got to spend time with good folks. Many a Christmas has been worse.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Go South Carolina!
South Carolina declares war on Obamacare
Bruce Parker reports for The Daily Caller, Dec. 9, 2013, that a bill set for fast-track passage in the South Carolina Senate in January aims to eliminate Obamacare in the state. The law could become a model for other states fed up with the federal health-care law.
Read the article at Fellowship of the Minds
Brrrrrrrrrr
The blizzard finally got here this afternoon. 40 or 50 degrees colder and it might be snowing.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Monday, December 2, 2013
The Writer Makes Some Very Good Points
From Straight Forward in a Crooked World
I came across this quote today.
"While there is some concern of overpenetration with a handgun cartridge, your primary concern should be that your defensive round of choice will have sufficient penetration to reach vital organs and cause incapacitating blood loss in an attacker."
On the surface the statement is clearly logical enough, provided we remove one aspect of it.
"... your primary concern should be ...."
Lest you ever find yourself in a lethal use of force encounter...or potential lethal use of force encounter, sufficient penetration of your ammo is far from the primary concern.
Your primary concern is to make sure that what you are seeing is in fact accurate, ala use exemplary judgement.
And I mean it. THAT is your primary concern.
Read the rest at the link. The comments are good too.
I came across this quote today.
"While there is some concern of overpenetration with a handgun cartridge, your primary concern should be that your defensive round of choice will have sufficient penetration to reach vital organs and cause incapacitating blood loss in an attacker."
On the surface the statement is clearly logical enough, provided we remove one aspect of it.
"... your primary concern should be ...."
Lest you ever find yourself in a lethal use of force encounter...or potential lethal use of force encounter, sufficient penetration of your ammo is far from the primary concern.
Your primary concern is to make sure that what you are seeing is in fact accurate, ala use exemplary judgement.
And I mean it. THAT is your primary concern.
Read the rest at the link. The comments are good too.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Lazy Weekend
A bad yoke on the transfer case delayed the Jeep's maiden voyage as my portable reloading bench. The one on my $5.00 spare transfer case is also bad. In this case, one is none and two is also none.
I did get the brother in law's 9mm cases reloaded. Fifty with 125 grain lead bullets and fifty with 147 grain Gold Dots. I wanted to use Vihtavuori 3N38 for the Gold Dots and it's not listed on any of the Little Dandy rotor charts that I found so I wound up testing one rotor after another to see which would throw an appropriate charge.
With the Little Dandy, you have to take the whole rotor out of the measure and put a different one in to "adjust" the charge. They may come with some kind of cap when they are new but I got mine second hand and they don't have any way to close off the top of the hopper. That means that you have to pour the powder out of the measure and pour it back in when you change rotors. Not a huge deal if your powder is on the chart so you have a place that's close to start with but a PITA if you don't.
I told The Lovely Bride that I wanted to get a rubber stopper or a cork to fit the top of the measure the next time we went to the hardware store and she reached into a box of odds and ends, pulls something black out and says "would this work?"
What she had was one of those plastic flippy doors that you put on the ends of your scope to keep crud out. It was a Butler Creek L11 for the ocular end of a scope. It slid on kind of loose but tightened up nice and snug at about the last 1/4." It snaps shut tight enough to hold the powder in the hopper so I can turn the measure over to change the rotor without having to dump out the powder first. Leave it to her to find a better solution that didn't cost me anything.
With the 9mm done, I loaded a few 250-3000 Savages and a few 25-35 Winchesters. My particular 250 was built with a 1 in 14" twist barrel. Sometimes those will stabilize pointy bullets and sometimes they won't. Mine was key-holing 100 grain factory ammo so something shorter was needed.
I had a few boxes of 75 grain Barnes original X bullets so I loaded some of them to try. Stabilization is a function of rpm and bullet length and rpm is determined by twist rate and velocity. Despite being mono-metal hollow points, the little 75 rainers are considerably shorter than the 100 grain bullets that I had tried. Being lighter, they will go faster too. They ought to stabilize well enough. If it won't shoot them, it will be for some other reason.
I loaded the same bullets in the 25-35 but for a different reason. I really liked the way the 117 grain round nose bullets penetrated the pine logs we used as a our first back stop but they shot so high I couldn't lower the sights enough to get it on the target I was shooting at. The lighter, faster bullet ought to help with that. If its not enough difference, I'll make a new, taller front sight blade but I want to try this before I start taking original parts off the barrel.
I did get the brother in law's 9mm cases reloaded. Fifty with 125 grain lead bullets and fifty with 147 grain Gold Dots. I wanted to use Vihtavuori 3N38 for the Gold Dots and it's not listed on any of the Little Dandy rotor charts that I found so I wound up testing one rotor after another to see which would throw an appropriate charge.
With the Little Dandy, you have to take the whole rotor out of the measure and put a different one in to "adjust" the charge. They may come with some kind of cap when they are new but I got mine second hand and they don't have any way to close off the top of the hopper. That means that you have to pour the powder out of the measure and pour it back in when you change rotors. Not a huge deal if your powder is on the chart so you have a place that's close to start with but a PITA if you don't.
I told The Lovely Bride that I wanted to get a rubber stopper or a cork to fit the top of the measure the next time we went to the hardware store and she reached into a box of odds and ends, pulls something black out and says "would this work?"
What she had was one of those plastic flippy doors that you put on the ends of your scope to keep crud out. It was a Butler Creek L11 for the ocular end of a scope. It slid on kind of loose but tightened up nice and snug at about the last 1/4." It snaps shut tight enough to hold the powder in the hopper so I can turn the measure over to change the rotor without having to dump out the powder first. Leave it to her to find a better solution that didn't cost me anything.
With the 9mm done, I loaded a few 250-3000 Savages and a few 25-35 Winchesters. My particular 250 was built with a 1 in 14" twist barrel. Sometimes those will stabilize pointy bullets and sometimes they won't. Mine was key-holing 100 grain factory ammo so something shorter was needed.
I had a few boxes of 75 grain Barnes original X bullets so I loaded some of them to try. Stabilization is a function of rpm and bullet length and rpm is determined by twist rate and velocity. Despite being mono-metal hollow points, the little 75 rainers are considerably shorter than the 100 grain bullets that I had tried. Being lighter, they will go faster too. They ought to stabilize well enough. If it won't shoot them, it will be for some other reason.
I loaded the same bullets in the 25-35 but for a different reason. I really liked the way the 117 grain round nose bullets penetrated the pine logs we used as a our first back stop but they shot so high I couldn't lower the sights enough to get it on the target I was shooting at. The lighter, faster bullet ought to help with that. If its not enough difference, I'll make a new, taller front sight blade but I want to try this before I start taking original parts off the barrel.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Decking the Halls and All That
Got the tree up and properly trimmed. Its a major upgrade over last year. This year its set on the Edison. Last year it was just on a book case.
The Lovely Bride put it on Facebook and a friend retaliated with this:
Yes. That's a Cartridge in a Bare Tree.
The Lovely Bride put it on Facebook and a friend retaliated with this:
Yes. That's a Cartridge in a Bare Tree.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Portable Reloading Setup Part 2
Finished the little stand for the reloading scale. Not a big deal but it works. Thumb screws will compensate for whatever angle the Jeep winds up parked at and the levels are glued in place so there's one less thing to forget when I head to the shooting place.
Nothing about it is particularly interesting or fancy. About the only thing unusual about it is the wood. Its plain old yellow Poplar from Lowes but I stained it with stain that I made from walnuts that came from a tree that my Great Grandmother planted on the old family farm well over a hundred years ago.
If you've never messed with walnuts in the wild, they are sort of like cocoanuts in that the nut is surrounded by a tough, fibrous husk. I used vise grip type pliers to pinch the husks off a little bit at a time. When I had about five or six walnuts cleaned that way, I put the husks in a mason jar and poured ammonia into it. Screwed the lid on loosely to let the ammonia evaporate and let it sit for a few weeks. The ammonia evaporates before the water so you wind up with a thick soup. Strain it through some cheese cloth or whatever you have for straining stuff and you have a dark water based stain. The hardest part of the whole process was finding a place that had ammonia that wasn't sudsy or lemon scented.
Nothing about it is particularly interesting or fancy. About the only thing unusual about it is the wood. Its plain old yellow Poplar from Lowes but I stained it with stain that I made from walnuts that came from a tree that my Great Grandmother planted on the old family farm well over a hundred years ago.
If you've never messed with walnuts in the wild, they are sort of like cocoanuts in that the nut is surrounded by a tough, fibrous husk. I used vise grip type pliers to pinch the husks off a little bit at a time. When I had about five or six walnuts cleaned that way, I put the husks in a mason jar and poured ammonia into it. Screwed the lid on loosely to let the ammonia evaporate and let it sit for a few weeks. The ammonia evaporates before the water so you wind up with a thick soup. Strain it through some cheese cloth or whatever you have for straining stuff and you have a dark water based stain. The hardest part of the whole process was finding a place that had ammonia that wasn't sudsy or lemon scented.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Well, How DO you act like a Christian while holding a gun to someone's face?
In these days when it seems more and more that Police Officers must be getting taught that shooting is their first option, that civilians are the enemy and that they are above the law, "Christian Soldier How do you act like a Christian while a gun in someone's face" " will give the reader cause to think that there are still some good apples left in the barrel after all. You'll wind up thinking about a lot more too.
Ben Adams is a Marine, a Veteran of the Iraq War as an MP with the USAR and currently a Sheriff's Deputy on their SWAT Team. If I heard correctly when he was introduced as a speaker at a meeting the other day, he's also interim Pastor of a small church.
The book has a lot about his life but it is really about his struggle to actually do what Christ would have him do in daily life. For an LEO, that can obviously be difficult. While you are thinking about how Jesus would want you to handle the guy with the tire iron, the guy with the tire iron just might start bashing your head in.
Its really uplifting to read an LEO's writing about the time that he could have justifiably killed a man but helped him instead. That's a small part of the book but its in there.
Christian Soldier doesn't read like something you'd expect a Pastor to write. Its written like something a soldier would write. Its real. If you are sick of reading about the unconstitutional road blocks collecting DNA, how many tanks your local PD now has it its disposal to better protect and serve you and how the 230 pound cop was "in fear for his life" so he shot somebody's Pomeranian, read this book. It will show you that there are still some good guys out there. More than that, it will challenge you to spend time thinking about how you might really act like a Christian while doing whatever it is that you do every day.
Its $3.03 on Kindle at Amazon. Kindle for PC is free.
Portable Loading Setup
This really wasn't much of a project but I have to do something besides post pictures of pretty girls once in a while so what the heck.
When we moved out of the dilapidated, spider-filled old farmhouse some twenty years ago, we wound up in a house in a subdivision of half-acre lots. They frown on shooting off your back porch in such places but that wasn't particularly troublesome at first because there was so much undeveloped land around that finding a place to shoot wasn't difficult. Unfortunately, that changed.
I don't do as much loading or shooting as I'd like because Its a pain in the butt to load up a bunch of different combinations of components, drive an hour to my shooting place and hope one of them turns out to be a decent load. What I needed was a way to take the loading bench to the shooting place. I got around to making that possible today.
Ruth, the old Jeep, has become my portable reloading bench. Big surprise.
I have a few different presses and most are mounted on pieces of 2 x 6 that are drilled in a common three hole pattern so I can put any press I want on my loading table. The length of the 2 x 6 varies with how much overhang the specific press needs but the hole pattern is always the same. That gave me a starting place. All I had to do was adapt the 2 x 6 to the Jeep and I'd have a portable loading bench.
What I came up with was pretty simple. A piece of angle iron bolts to the back end of the 2 x 6. It anchors the back of the 2 x 6 to the winch.
This positions the board cantilevered over the top of the bumper. The U-bolts secure the board to the bumper. Wing nuts make it all easy to remove or install.
When its all installed, it places the press at a comfortable height.
The press itself is an old C-H press that I got at aDeath Bazaar Gun Show several years ago for fifteen bucks. Despite its age, its in good condition and is still nice and tight. It was one of those deals that was too good to pass up even though I had no need for it at the time. Stuff like that usually comes in handy down the road.
A second part of the plan is to make a little platform with adjustable feet for a powder scale. I can use a powder scale because Ruth has a hard top and wind won't be much of a problem. The adjustable feet will make it possible to level the platform as long as the Jeep isn't parked on too much of a slope. I looked at electronic reloading scales but I don't really need one to make this work. I'd be done with the little platform by now but I bought two different sizes of the nuts that make the feet adjustable so it only has two feet right now. I 'm not going to make a special trip to get the right ones so finishing that will have to wait for tomorrow.
In the mean time, I suspect that I have the only reloading bench in town that gets eleven miles to the gallon.
When we moved out of the dilapidated, spider-filled old farmhouse some twenty years ago, we wound up in a house in a subdivision of half-acre lots. They frown on shooting off your back porch in such places but that wasn't particularly troublesome at first because there was so much undeveloped land around that finding a place to shoot wasn't difficult. Unfortunately, that changed.
I don't do as much loading or shooting as I'd like because Its a pain in the butt to load up a bunch of different combinations of components, drive an hour to my shooting place and hope one of them turns out to be a decent load. What I needed was a way to take the loading bench to the shooting place. I got around to making that possible today.
Ruth, the old Jeep, has become my portable reloading bench. Big surprise.
I have a few different presses and most are mounted on pieces of 2 x 6 that are drilled in a common three hole pattern so I can put any press I want on my loading table. The length of the 2 x 6 varies with how much overhang the specific press needs but the hole pattern is always the same. That gave me a starting place. All I had to do was adapt the 2 x 6 to the Jeep and I'd have a portable loading bench.
What I came up with was pretty simple. A piece of angle iron bolts to the back end of the 2 x 6. It anchors the back of the 2 x 6 to the winch.
This positions the board cantilevered over the top of the bumper. The U-bolts secure the board to the bumper. Wing nuts make it all easy to remove or install.
When its all installed, it places the press at a comfortable height.
The press itself is an old C-H press that I got at a
A second part of the plan is to make a little platform with adjustable feet for a powder scale. I can use a powder scale because Ruth has a hard top and wind won't be much of a problem. The adjustable feet will make it possible to level the platform as long as the Jeep isn't parked on too much of a slope. I looked at electronic reloading scales but I don't really need one to make this work. I'd be done with the little platform by now but I bought two different sizes of the nuts that make the feet adjustable so it only has two feet right now. I 'm not going to make a special trip to get the right ones so finishing that will have to wait for tomorrow.
In the mean time, I suspect that I have the only reloading bench in town that gets eleven miles to the gallon.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
Blue Monday Again
That last one Came from Oleg Volk. I suspect that most of the better Pro-2A posters that you see on the internet are done by him. He really has exceptional talent.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Better Late Than Never
I had planned to post this for the opening day of General Gun Season but just plain forgot. I always liked Calvin and Hobbes and this is one of my favorites. The site where I got it was touting it as some masterful denunciation of hunting. I never saw it as anything but more of Calvin's uninhibited imagination. People see what they want to see. Calvin did the same thing with politicians, TV commercials and a whole lot of other things. Heck, the deer know we are out there. Frank didn't suspect a thing.
Maybe I just like it because Frank looks like a certain foul-mouthed, abusive, egotistical liberal that, for a short time, ran a company that I worked for back in the mid-1990s.
Either way, its funny. Funnier on opening day but still funny.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Range Report of a Sort
One of my brothers in law called last week. He has kids in Little League Baseball and frequently finds himself driving through unfamiliar cities with the whole family going to the games and then playoffs. It goes on for a good part of the year. He was never particularly a gunny sort but had decided it would be wise to have something in the car besides baseball bats in case trouble found them while on the road.
He had just sent of the paperwork for his CWP and had been doing his homework on the internet. He had narrowed his choices down to a Glock 19 or a Springfield XD 9mm and wanted to know what I thought of them. I told him that either would be an excellent choice. We met at Gander Mtn. the next morning and he picked the Springfield.
Not having his carry permit yet, he had the three day wait. With his schedule and distance from the store, that meant a six day wait so it was Friday evening before he picked it up. We headed to the Hernando Sportsmans Club Saturday Morning to see how the new gun met his expectations.
This particular brother in law hasn't done much shooting. The XD is actually his first gun. His first shot was high and left. His second shot was dead center. Most of his following shots were pretty dang close to the second one. The targets were pretty close so its not like he was ringing steel at a hundred yards with it but he shot as well or better than I did with my .45 or my .40.
Eventually, I was given a turn behind the wheel and I liked the thing. I've barely evolved enough to accept that guns without cylinders are worth having but I liked the thing. A 1911 is about as modern as I get except in special cases like something smaller for concealment but I really liked the XD. It shot well. The top-mounted extractor made a nice loaded chamber indicator. The ergonomics were perfect and even with ten rounds in the magazine it didn't seem to weigh much at all. (He didn't know what the loading gizmo was and left it at home so it was difficult to get more than ten in the magazines) . I honestly caught myself thinking "well, John Moses Browning (PBUH) couldn't think of everything." I did eventually come to my senses and decide that he would have designed the XD if the polymers had existed back in his day.
Bro-in-law talked about maybe getting something smaller for actual concealed carry and possibly becoming hooked on guns. The younger of his two sons remarked that he could have stayed at the range shooting all day. We talked guns and ammo all the way back to his house. He raved about the gun to his wife. She will go the next time. I wound up with 100 shiny new 9mm empties to reload for them. Even my sucky shooting worked out well because it made them feel that much better about their gun.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday Morning.
He had just sent of the paperwork for his CWP and had been doing his homework on the internet. He had narrowed his choices down to a Glock 19 or a Springfield XD 9mm and wanted to know what I thought of them. I told him that either would be an excellent choice. We met at Gander Mtn. the next morning and he picked the Springfield.
Not having his carry permit yet, he had the three day wait. With his schedule and distance from the store, that meant a six day wait so it was Friday evening before he picked it up. We headed to the Hernando Sportsmans Club Saturday Morning to see how the new gun met his expectations.
This particular brother in law hasn't done much shooting. The XD is actually his first gun. His first shot was high and left. His second shot was dead center. Most of his following shots were pretty dang close to the second one. The targets were pretty close so its not like he was ringing steel at a hundred yards with it but he shot as well or better than I did with my .45 or my .40.
Eventually, I was given a turn behind the wheel and I liked the thing. I've barely evolved enough to accept that guns without cylinders are worth having but I liked the thing. A 1911 is about as modern as I get except in special cases like something smaller for concealment but I really liked the XD. It shot well. The top-mounted extractor made a nice loaded chamber indicator. The ergonomics were perfect and even with ten rounds in the magazine it didn't seem to weigh much at all. (He didn't know what the loading gizmo was and left it at home so it was difficult to get more than ten in the magazines) . I honestly caught myself thinking "well, John Moses Browning (PBUH) couldn't think of everything." I did eventually come to my senses and decide that he would have designed the XD if the polymers had existed back in his day.
Bro-in-law talked about maybe getting something smaller for actual concealed carry and possibly becoming hooked on guns. The younger of his two sons remarked that he could have stayed at the range shooting all day. We talked guns and ammo all the way back to his house. He raved about the gun to his wife. She will go the next time. I wound up with 100 shiny new 9mm empties to reload for them. Even my sucky shooting worked out well because it made them feel that much better about their gun.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday Morning.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
The Danger of Shopping At Home
The Lovely Bride has gotten hooked on QVC. She doesn't buy a lot of stuff from them so I guess the disease hasn't reached the terminal stage yet but she follows some of the QVC sales people on Twitter and is always talking about this or that being on "Easy Pay."
One thing she did just buy is some high dollar shampoo for the dog. The guy that makes it has dogs. We know this because he puts pictures of them on Facebook. Dogs plus Facebook plus QVC means it must be good. Its supposed to do all sorts of great stuff and has none of the ingredients that hurt dogs that you find in regular dog shampoo. I don't know how much it cost but it was on Easy Pay so it couldn't have been cheap. I didn't say anything. Dogs plus Facebook plus QVC plus Easy Pay was just too much for her. I understand. Gunbroker has gotten to me before. We all have our weaknesses.
She gave the dog a bath a couple of days ago. It seems to be good stuff. He's clean and isn't scratching. There's just one little problem. The stuff is Maple-scented. It smells like Maple syrup. I go to pet my dog and he smells like this:
I'm not kidding.
Maybe I should invent a dog shampoo that smells like Hoppes No. 9.
One thing she did just buy is some high dollar shampoo for the dog. The guy that makes it has dogs. We know this because he puts pictures of them on Facebook. Dogs plus Facebook plus QVC means it must be good. Its supposed to do all sorts of great stuff and has none of the ingredients that hurt dogs that you find in regular dog shampoo. I don't know how much it cost but it was on Easy Pay so it couldn't have been cheap. I didn't say anything. Dogs plus Facebook plus QVC plus Easy Pay was just too much for her. I understand. Gunbroker has gotten to me before. We all have our weaknesses.
She gave the dog a bath a couple of days ago. It seems to be good stuff. He's clean and isn't scratching. There's just one little problem. The stuff is Maple-scented. It smells like Maple syrup. I go to pet my dog and he smells like this:
I'm not kidding.
Maybe I should invent a dog shampoo that smells like Hoppes No. 9.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders 'Armed Citizenry'
Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest
of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last
month's deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya – and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Noble said there are really
only two choices for protecting open societies from attacks like the one
on Westgate mall where so-called "soft targets" are hit: either create
secure perimeters around the locations or allow civilians to carry their
own guns to protect themselves.
The article is about a week old but I hadn't heard about it before.
Got it in an email from the JFPO
Friday, October 25, 2013
Nice Colt Walker Holster
Ah - No.
A little flimsy
I suppose that is a Little closer
That will almost work
WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Oh yeah. That's the one!
I've been looking for a holster for a Colt Walker replica off and on for a few years. It was never really a priority but I'd check around every now and then, occasionally, once in a while, when I'd think about it and the mood struck me.
While looking for spring stock at Dixie Gun Works a few weeks ago, I tried to order their better quality Walker holster but they were out of stock and weren't going to get any more. The reviews on their cheaper one were not particularly good so I decided to look elsewhere. Track of the Wolf had one that was modern-looking and also out of stock so I just Googled it and found this one.
Bought it from a place called s_comfort_mercantile on ebay. The stitching looks good and it fits the gun well.
S_comfort_mercantile makes a lot of leather goods and they have a lot of stuff for reenactors. This holster was a little over $40 with the shipping. I just told them whether I wanted the barrel to stick out and what kind of belt loop I wanted and they made it the next day. It was delivered so fast I didn't know what had arrived until I read the return address.
They didn't pay me to say any of this. Just seemed like I ought to say something since I am so pleased with the holster. Sorry there's no link to their store. My track ball mouse isn't speaking to my laptop and I'm not going to try to copy and paste using the built in pad-mouse-thing-from-hell on the computer.
Governing the Internet so its Easier to Govern You
Partnership between Facebook and police could make planning protests impossible
A high-ranking official from the Chicago Police Department told attendees at a law enforcement conference on Monday that his agency has been working with a security chief at Facebook to block certain users from the site “if it is determined they have posted what is deemed criminal content,” reports Kenneth Lipp, an independent journalist who attended the lecture.Read the whole article.here
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
He Must Have Thought it Was Somebody's Dog
Police Officer Fired After Shooting and Pepper Spraying Squirrel
MOUNTAIN CITY, TN (WBIR) - A Tennessee police officer has been fired after displaying heavy force in an attempt to rid a Dollar General Store of a squirrel. The incident occurred last Thursday in Mountain City, when according to police documents, now-former Officer Jody Putnam found himself at the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place at the wrong time. Documents state that Putnam happened to be inside the Dollar General Store at the same time employees noticed a squirrel. That's when Putnam sprang into action, discharging his firearm at the squirrel inside the store. Unsuccessful, he moved on to option 2: pepper spray.
Read the Rest Here
Monday, October 21, 2013
Health Care Rant (Non-Obama Care)
Last Thursday my dad mentioned that he was feeling bad. Nothing specific. Just generally felt bad and tired. When he said he was too tired to get up to go to the bathroom, my mother diagnosed him as having a heart attack. (All vines are poison ivy. All dogs have rabies. All fatigue and pain above the belt and below the neck is a heart attack). She gave him a nitroglycerine tablet and called the ambulance.
Dad has dementia. By the time the ambulance got to the house, he had forgotten why they were there. They hooked him up to their machines and decided to take him to the hospital. After several hours, the doctor decided that he was dehydrated. Its common with dementia. The doctor kept him for a few days while they pumped him full of fluids. Dad has a temper and a vocabulary and didn't like being there so they also gave him some sort of happy pills too. Combined with the dementia, those always send him off to fantasy land.
Some time during his stay, a "social worker" stopped by and asked him questions. Why a social worker was there asking questions is beyond me but one did. In his slightly drugged and more than slightly senile state of mind, he told the social worker that he was homeless and all his children were deceased.
He was supposed to come home early this afternoon but was overdue so my mother called to find out what was going on. Care to guess what was going on? The social worker had gotten to a computer and put in dad's record that he was homeless and all his children were deceased so the hospital was keeping him until they could find some kind of indigent shelter to send him to.
Seriously. Those ass-wipes were about to send him to some homeless shelter because some blithering idiot of a "social worker" took a statement from a drugged and senile old man and didn't bother to check to see if he was, oh, I don't know, maybe drugged or maybe senile. Didn't bother to look at his record that showed the ambulance picked him up at his house, that his wife was the one that called the ambulance and that his daughter had Power of Attorney to make medical decisions for him at the hospital. Nope. This highly trained professional just said "he's homeless and his family is dead. Find a shelter that will take him." The social worker didn't bother to find out if what my dad said was true and nobody at the hospital bothered to check either.
Dad finally made it home this evening despite the best efforts of the social worker and the hospital staff. I wonder where he'd be if mother hadn't gotten worried and made that call.
Dad has dementia. By the time the ambulance got to the house, he had forgotten why they were there. They hooked him up to their machines and decided to take him to the hospital. After several hours, the doctor decided that he was dehydrated. Its common with dementia. The doctor kept him for a few days while they pumped him full of fluids. Dad has a temper and a vocabulary and didn't like being there so they also gave him some sort of happy pills too. Combined with the dementia, those always send him off to fantasy land.
Some time during his stay, a "social worker" stopped by and asked him questions. Why a social worker was there asking questions is beyond me but one did. In his slightly drugged and more than slightly senile state of mind, he told the social worker that he was homeless and all his children were deceased.
He was supposed to come home early this afternoon but was overdue so my mother called to find out what was going on. Care to guess what was going on? The social worker had gotten to a computer and put in dad's record that he was homeless and all his children were deceased so the hospital was keeping him until they could find some kind of indigent shelter to send him to.
Seriously. Those ass-wipes were about to send him to some homeless shelter because some blithering idiot of a "social worker" took a statement from a drugged and senile old man and didn't bother to check to see if he was, oh, I don't know, maybe drugged or maybe senile. Didn't bother to look at his record that showed the ambulance picked him up at his house, that his wife was the one that called the ambulance and that his daughter had Power of Attorney to make medical decisions for him at the hospital. Nope. This highly trained professional just said "he's homeless and his family is dead. Find a shelter that will take him." The social worker didn't bother to find out if what my dad said was true and nobody at the hospital bothered to check either.
Dad finally made it home this evening despite the best efforts of the social worker and the hospital staff. I wonder where he'd be if mother hadn't gotten worried and made that call.
A Real American Hero
From Life In The Backwoods
You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in
The jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .
It's November 11, 1967.
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
Go. Read the rest of the story.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Workplace Violence
The elevator stopped and when the doors opened, in stepped the most beautiful brunette I've ever seen. Perfect figure, fantastic smile and just the right amount of cleavage showing.
I was dumbstruck and trying not to stare at that beautiful cleavage when she smiled, and in the most charming Georgia accent you ever imagined, said "would you please press 1?"
The doctor said I was out for over six hours.
I was dumbstruck and trying not to stare at that beautiful cleavage when she smiled, and in the most charming Georgia accent you ever imagined, said "would you please press 1?"
The doctor said I was out for over six hours.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
Duly Noted or Dually-Noted?
Saw this at Life In The Back Woods
Hey. I'm all for encouraging community involvement in a worthy cause.
Thank you for your support (or lack thereof)!
Hey. I'm all for encouraging community involvement in a worthy cause.
Thank you for your support (or lack thereof)!
Monday, October 7, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
A Real Leader
From Defending-the-Heritage Facebook Page
LEE'S COMPASSION FOR A SOLDIER’S DIFFICULT DECISION
A.C. Battle of the Confederate army presided over a court martial of the Army of Northern Virginia. Case after case was disposed of and then the case of Edward Cooper was called; a young artilleryman charged with desertion. The prisoner pleaded not guilty and the judge advocate was beginning for the prosecution when the court interposed to ask the accused who his counsel was.
I have no counsel was the reply. The specifications against him were all sustained by the evidence and he was told to introduce his witnesses. “I have no witnesses,” he answered.
The president of the court astonished at the prisoner's calmness said, “Have you no defense? Is it possible that you abandoned your comrades and deserted your colors without any reason?”
“There was a reason,” said the young man. “But it will not avail me before a military court.”
“You may be mistaken.”
“The prisoner trembled and for the first time tears filled his eyes. He stepped up to Colonel Battle and handed him a letter. “There, Colonel, is what did it.”
The president read the letter and in a moment his eyes too were moist. The paper was passed from hand to hand and soon the whole court was in tears. This was the letter as Colonel Battle read it in the prisoner's defense: “My Dear Edward, I have always been proud of you and since your connection with the Confederate Army I have been prouder of you than ever. I would not have you do anything wrong for the world, but before God, Edward, unless you come home we must die. Last night I was roused by little Eddie crying I called and said, ‘What's the matter, Eddie?’ and he said. ‘O, mamma, I am so hungry.’ I and Lucy, your darling Lucy, she never complains, but she is growing thinner every day and I repeat; unless you come home we must all die, Your Mary.”
“What did you do when you received this letter?” asked Colonel Battle.
“I applied for a furlough.” was the prisoner's answer. “The application was rejected. Again and again I made application and it was rejected. Then one night, as I wandered back and forth in the camp with Lucy's eyes on me and her mother's words burning into my brain. I was no longer the Confederate soldier. I was the father of Lucy and the husband of Mary. And I would have passed those lines if every gun in the battery had fired upon me. I went home. Mary ran out to meet me. Her arms were round me as she whispered, ‘0, Edward, I am so happy. I am so glad you got your furlough.’ She must have felt me shudder. She turned pale as death and catching her breath at every word, ‘0, Edward, Edward, go back, go back. Let me and the children go down to the grave, but save the honor of your name.’ And here I am; not brought here by military power, but in obedience to Mary's command to abide the sentence of your court.”
Moved as the officers of the court martial were, they did their duty as they understood it and each in turn pronounced the same sentenced. Guilty.
Fortunately, the proceedings of the court were reviewed by the commanding general. He endorsed the record thus: Headquarter Army Northern Virginia. The finding of the court is approved. The prisoner is pardoned and will report to his company. RE Lee, General.
Source: The Confederate Veteran Magazine, Volume 3
Link to ebook: http://books.google.com/
From Defending-the-Heritage Facebook Page
LEE'S COMPASSION FOR A SOLDIER’S DIFFICULT DECISION
A.C. Battle of the Confederate army presided over a court martial of the Army of Northern Virginia. Case after case was disposed of and then the case of Edward Cooper was called; a young artilleryman charged with desertion. The prisoner pleaded not guilty and the judge advocate was beginning for the prosecution when the court interposed to ask the accused who his counsel was.
I have no counsel was the reply. The specifications against him were all sustained by the evidence and he was told to introduce his witnesses. “I have no witnesses,” he answered.
The president of the court astonished at the prisoner's calmness said, “Have you no defense? Is it possible that you abandoned your comrades and deserted your colors without any reason?”
“There was a reason,” said the young man. “But it will not avail me before a military court.”
“You may be mistaken.”
“The prisoner trembled and for the first time tears filled his eyes. He stepped up to Colonel Battle and handed him a letter. “There, Colonel, is what did it.”
The president read the letter and in a moment his eyes too were moist. The paper was passed from hand to hand and soon the whole court was in tears. This was the letter as Colonel Battle read it in the prisoner's defense: “My Dear Edward, I have always been proud of you and since your connection with the Confederate Army I have been prouder of you than ever. I would not have you do anything wrong for the world, but before God, Edward, unless you come home we must die. Last night I was roused by little Eddie crying I called and said, ‘What's the matter, Eddie?’ and he said. ‘O, mamma, I am so hungry.’ I and Lucy, your darling Lucy, she never complains, but she is growing thinner every day and I repeat; unless you come home we must all die, Your Mary.”
“What did you do when you received this letter?” asked Colonel Battle.
“I applied for a furlough.” was the prisoner's answer. “The application was rejected. Again and again I made application and it was rejected. Then one night, as I wandered back and forth in the camp with Lucy's eyes on me and her mother's words burning into my brain. I was no longer the Confederate soldier. I was the father of Lucy and the husband of Mary. And I would have passed those lines if every gun in the battery had fired upon me. I went home. Mary ran out to meet me. Her arms were round me as she whispered, ‘0, Edward, I am so happy. I am so glad you got your furlough.’ She must have felt me shudder. She turned pale as death and catching her breath at every word, ‘0, Edward, Edward, go back, go back. Let me and the children go down to the grave, but save the honor of your name.’ And here I am; not brought here by military power, but in obedience to Mary's command to abide the sentence of your court.”
Moved as the officers of the court martial were, they did their duty as they understood it and each in turn pronounced the same sentenced. Guilty.
Fortunately, the proceedings of the court were reviewed by the commanding general. He endorsed the record thus: Headquarter Army Northern Virginia. The finding of the court is approved. The prisoner is pardoned and will report to his company. RE Lee, General.
Source: The Confederate Veteran Magazine, Volume 3
Link to ebook: http://books.google.com/
From Defending-the-Heritage Facebook Page
Free Shotgun Project Progress
Having given the epoxy plenty of time to cure, I decided to put the barrels back on the Hapgood just to see what would be needed next. Its already starting to resemble a shotgun.
The barrels wobbled around quite a bit so I tightened up the mortise a little so the barrel wedge would go in snugly. That took almost all of the slop out of it. The metal to wood fit isn't so good in the breech / tang area. I think some Glass Bed may be the next thing on the work order.
The book on making springs arrived. I don't want to get into that until I have decided that I'm definitely going to fire it. Its not that I'm scared. It just looks like a pretty tedious thing to shape with a claw on one end, a peg in the middle and a bend or two. It also has to be tapered. Then I have to learn the heat treating part of it. Even with a perfectly sculpted masterpiece of a spring, it will all be to do over again if I get the heat treating wrong and it breaks.
I may finish the reassembly and test fire the left barrel. If the wood holds together, I'll know its worth learning how to make a spring. If it doesn't hold together, there will be another round of epoxy and a home over the fireplace.
The barrels wobbled around quite a bit so I tightened up the mortise a little so the barrel wedge would go in snugly. That took almost all of the slop out of it. The metal to wood fit isn't so good in the breech / tang area. I think some Glass Bed may be the next thing on the work order.
The book on making springs arrived. I don't want to get into that until I have decided that I'm definitely going to fire it. Its not that I'm scared. It just looks like a pretty tedious thing to shape with a claw on one end, a peg in the middle and a bend or two. It also has to be tapered. Then I have to learn the heat treating part of it. Even with a perfectly sculpted masterpiece of a spring, it will all be to do over again if I get the heat treating wrong and it breaks.
I may finish the reassembly and test fire the left barrel. If the wood holds together, I'll know its worth learning how to make a spring. If it doesn't hold together, there will be another round of epoxy and a home over the fireplace.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
At Least They Aren't Blaming Bush per se
The Obama Care roll out is so bad, Carney is trying to say it was designed by Republicans.
- See more at: http://thedailysmug.blogspot.com/2013/10/jay-joseph-goebbels-carney-lies-again.html#sthash.zvgRtt77.dpuf
Read the Whole Thing at The Daily Smug
JAY (Joseph Goebbels) CARNEY LIES AGAIN: SAYS REPUBLICANS DESIGNED OBAMACARE
 |
| Jay Carney |
Via-TPNN
“A lot
of the affordable care act is designed…it’s essential elements were
designed by republicans. healthcare law was designed by republicans,” said Obama mouthpiece Jay Carney, in today’s press conference (see video below). If that were true, then one would think that at least republican would have voted for Obamacare (they didn’t).
“A
lot of the affordable care act is designed…it’s essential elements were
designed by republicans. healthcare law was designed by republicans,” said Obama mouthpiece Jay Carney, in today’s press conference (see video below).
If that were true, then one would think that at least republican would
have voted for Obamacare (they didn’t). - See more at:
http://thedailysmug.blogspot.com/#sthash.czfku0WW.dpuf
“A
lot of the affordable care act is designed…it’s essential elements were
designed by republicans. healthcare law was designed by republicans,” said Obama mouthpiece Jay Carney, in today’s press conference (see video below).
If that were true, then one would think that at least republican would
have voted for Obamacare (they didn’t). - See more at:
http://thedailysmug.blogspot.com/2013/10/jay-joseph-goebbels-carney-lies-again.html#sthash.zvgRtt77.dpuf
“A
lot of the affordable care act is designed…it’s essential elements were
designed by republicans. healthcare law was designed by republicans,” said Obama mouthpiece Jay Carney, in today’s press conference (see video below).
If that were true, then one would think that at least republican would
have voted for Obamacare (they didn’t). - See more at:
http://thedailysmug.blogspot.com/2013/10/jay-joseph-goebbels-carney-lies-again.html#sthash.zvgRtt77.dpuf
JAY (Joseph Goebbels) CARNEY LIES AGAIN: SAYS REPUBLICANS DESIGNED OBAMACARE
- See more at: http://thedailysmug.blogspot.com/2013/10/jay-joseph-goebbels-carney-lies-again.html#sthash.zvgRtt77.dpuf
Read the Whole Thing at The Daily Smug
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Gander Mtn. Firearms Super Disappointment
The local Gander Mtn. recently spent some time and money remodeling the whole back of their store into something that's supposed to be some kind of a big deal. A few weeks ago, I happened to talk to one of their employees and he told me that it was going to be great. Once the construction was finished they'd move the smokeless powder cabinet back to the main floor where people can actually look for powder, they'd have a real reloading section again and the huge counter meant that they'd be able to serve customers much more quickly than ever before.
Well, they had the "Grand Opening" of their new Firearms Super Center or whatever they call it this past weekend. The smokeless powder is still in the stock room. You still have to wait 20+ minutes for your turn to ask for help and they still tell you that they don't have anything but black powder substitutes when you ask. The one exception is that they have exactly one employee who will go back and look in the cabinet and come back and tell you what they actually do have in smokeless powders. The trouble is that he doesn't work every day and you have a one in three chance of getting him after your 20+ minute wait if he does happen to be working when you are there. According to that employee, they do get smokeless powder in their orders and they have it in the cabinet by 9:00 AM on Monday.
Their reloading section is unchanged. The same seven or eight boxes of bullets (270 and 22 caliber), the same pile of Claybuster wads (12 gauge only) and the same leftovers from when they got rid of their real reloading department a couple of years ago.
The guns are all well behind the counter and its just about impossible to read the tags to see the price, caliber or gauge even if they do have the tags turned so you can read them. You have to wait your 20+ minutes for someone to help you with that. For their "Grand Opening" I counted four employees working the gun counter.
Its the same store, the same service, (if you wish to call it that) and the same basic stock as before. I saw nothing new but the counter. I certainly saw no new reason to patronize the place.
Last evening, I was looking through the 24 Hour Campfire and saw a thread on Gander Mtn. It was a thread about the exact same thing in another location. This seems to be corporate policy.
Its really a shame.
Well, they had the "Grand Opening" of their new Firearms Super Center or whatever they call it this past weekend. The smokeless powder is still in the stock room. You still have to wait 20+ minutes for your turn to ask for help and they still tell you that they don't have anything but black powder substitutes when you ask. The one exception is that they have exactly one employee who will go back and look in the cabinet and come back and tell you what they actually do have in smokeless powders. The trouble is that he doesn't work every day and you have a one in three chance of getting him after your 20+ minute wait if he does happen to be working when you are there. According to that employee, they do get smokeless powder in their orders and they have it in the cabinet by 9:00 AM on Monday.
Their reloading section is unchanged. The same seven or eight boxes of bullets (270 and 22 caliber), the same pile of Claybuster wads (12 gauge only) and the same leftovers from when they got rid of their real reloading department a couple of years ago.
The guns are all well behind the counter and its just about impossible to read the tags to see the price, caliber or gauge even if they do have the tags turned so you can read them. You have to wait your 20+ minutes for someone to help you with that. For their "Grand Opening" I counted four employees working the gun counter.
Its the same store, the same service, (if you wish to call it that) and the same basic stock as before. I saw nothing new but the counter. I certainly saw no new reason to patronize the place.
Last evening, I was looking through the 24 Hour Campfire and saw a thread on Gander Mtn. It was a thread about the exact same thing in another location. This seems to be corporate policy.
Its really a shame.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Free Hapgood Shotgun Project
The Free Shotgun Project is beginning to take shape despite the actual cost spiraling out of control. So far I am out of pocket six bucks for surgical tubing, about five for epoxy and two or three for some brass #6 wood screws. That's getting close to fifteen bucks. I bet it didn't cost that much when Joab Hapgood built it back around 1850 or so.
Since the stock was broken into three pieces that had to mesh back together all at the same time and there was really no way to clamp it in all the directions it needed to be held in while the epoxy set, I used the surgical tubing to bind it all together. Bullet approved of the process after a thorough inspection.
The wood screws went in under the tang and trigger guard metal where they won't show when its all assembled.
Well, the stock was broken at the wrist and I did put screws in it. The similarity pretty much begins and ends right there. From the outside it looks like this:
There's a third screw that comes up from the underside. With the locks on the sides and the trigger mechanism in between, there's really not much wood to work with where it broke.
With the wood back in one piece, I'll start cleaning it up and making sure the wood and barrels fit together right so it doesn't break all over again if I ever fire it. The plan right now is that I will fire it. That is going to be subject to making the replacement spring for the right side lock. I do not look for ward to the tedium and precision that will involve but I have my spring stock, my files, stones, Dremel and an assortment of vises and clamps. The book on making springs should get here in a few days.
Its a promising start.