Jul 2009
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Honey, where'd I put the city?
The only area in which I feel inferior to Europeans is in the history of our respective lands. I once worked with a fellow who grew up in England, who told me the house in which his family lived was the newest on the block - and it was built in the mid-18th century. Here in the U.S., we just don't have century after century of defined habitation to study. Given my love of old and abandoned buildings, it's torture learning about the great ruins the Europeans get to explore!
The latest involves the high-tech rediscovery of the ancient Italian city of Altinum. I'll have to get the latest issue of Science and read up on it!
-=[ Grant ]=-
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My week so far.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Filed in:
My Life
Oregon is in the throes of an extreme heatwave. Temps at my house have been running 106 to 109 for the last several days; our low temperature last night was 79. We're projected to hit 110 today, with little relief until at least next week.
To those in certain parts of the south, such temperatures are normal for the season. You have to remember, though, that this is the Pacific Northwest, where anything above 85 is "hot", and triple digits are quite unusual. To have more than a couple of days of such weather is rare, and thankfully so - we natives do not handle high heat well at all.
Sadly, my shop is not air conditioned and the ventilation is not good. When I walked in yesterday morning, it was still 85 in there and hit 95 long before lunch. I shudder to think what I'll find this morning!
I'd love to tell you that I'm toughing it out, but frankly I've pretty much taken this week off. Anyone got some cool, rainy weather they want to trade?
-=[ Grant ]=-
So, just what is the .357 Magnum like in a confined space?
Monday, July 27, 2009 Filed in:
General gun
stuff
A number of years back my wife and I served as coordinators for the defensive pistol matches at our gun club. Our matches were somewhat similar to IDPA, but without the endless rules to make everything "fair." We enjoyed a cadre of participants that were very involved, and loved to build sets for stages.
(Some of them got a little carried away; one particular gentleman once designed a stage that featured cardboard cows. Yes, cows, complete with udders. He's a very creative sort.)
We held our matches on our club's metallic silhouette range, so we had only a large open field in which to set up stages. We'd usually set up four "open" stages (you could see the entire thing), but also liked to set up one secret stage - the participants couldn't see anything until they were actually in it. The way we usually accomplished this was to hang large tarps on portable stakes to block the view, but there were other approaches.
One particular match several guys got together and constructed a dark tunnel. The premise was that you were walking down an alley at night, and targets would swing out or come charging toward you. It was a technical marvel, and all contained in a narrow structure made of wood and black plastic ("visqueen.") As I recall, it was about 8 feet wide, 8 feet tall, and perhaps 30 feet long.
Since the premise was darkness, the entire thing was sheathed in that black plastic - including the roof. It took quite some time to build, so the guys had been on the range the day before to do the construction. When we arrived the next morning to start the match, we found that it had rained overnight. That wasn't a problem, because the black plastic roof had kept everything dry. What we didn't think about were the large puddles of water on that plastic.
Since I was the match director, I got to shoot first. I was using a Ruger SP101 with the 2-1/8" barrel and fire-breathing 125grain JHP magnums. The range officer and I entered the structure, closed the door, and the buzzer went off.
I saw the first target and put two rounds into it, and immediately heard peals of laughter behind me. Outside of the enclosure, the other shooters were becoming hysterical.
I finished the stage (as I recall, there were three more targets) and exited the enclosure to find the laughter had diminished only slightly. People in the crowd told me that my first shot had created such a large amount of pressure in the enclosure that the sides were pushed out and the pooled water on the roof had been thrown twenty feet into the air. The effect, they said, looked like a Looney Toons cartoon of a stick of dynamite exploding in a barrel.
In the heat of the moment I didn't really notice the concussion, but the range officer mentioned that he didn't want to follow me so closely any more!
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Flagged for inspection.
I'm no vexillologist, nor do I play one on TV. I am, however, fascinated by historical flags. The synthesis of design, color, and history make them irresistible (to me, at least.)
Take the flags of the American Revolution, for example. Everyone knows the Gadsen flag:
Far fewer are familiar with the Fort Moultrie flag:
Only serious history buffs, however, will recognize the flag of the First Continental Regiment:
See more flags of the American Revolution.
Flags of the world (don't click unless you have lots of spare time to burn!)
-=[ Grant ]=-
A violent reaction.
Thursday, July 23, 2009 Filed in:
Self defense
First I must apologize for this entry being a day out of sync. My normal routine has been altered this week, and those things I normally do on Thursdays were bumped to Wednesday which means that I'm doing yesterday's stuff today. (At least I remembered to take the trash out this morning; thank you, iCal!)
I kept tabs on the concealed carry reciprocity bill that failed to clear the Senate this week, and the debates brought to mind comments I heard years ago regarding concealed carry proponents: "intelligent people have no need for violence." "We need to reduce the violence in this world, not increase it."
This reveals a fundamental ignorance regarding the place of violence in a civilized society. Violence, which is usually defined as an exertion of physical force against a living being, is a necessary part of human behavior. CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver are quite violent acts, and I doubt that even the most lily-white member of the intelligentsia would ever decree those lifesaving actions to be repugnant. Yet violent they most assuredly are, and a necessity if our species is to survive and thrive.
The same is true of violence used to save one's own life from the actions of another. If you carry a firearm for personal defense, understand this: you will be perpetrating violence on another. He will have already done that to you, and your actions will be in response to his, but it's still violence. Get used to that word, and become comfortable with it. If you recoil at the thought of being violent, if that word shocks and bewilders you, a necessary part of your preparations has been missed.
Violence is nothing more a tool, one that can be used for both good and evil. It's up to you to use violence for proper, useful and legal purposes, but also to remember that it's still violence - and there's nothing wrong with that. Don't let the misconceptions of others convince you otherwise.
-=[ Grant ]=-
A crowning achievement.
Monday, July 20, 2009 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Gunsmithing
Occasionally someone will ask me if the muzzle crown is all that important. In the past I'd probably say something like "only if you want the bullet to go where you're aiming!", but I'm trying to reduce my percentage of flippant answers. Today I'd put it more lawyer-like: "it depends..."
The crown is the edge of the bore at the muzzle. It's important to point that out, because it's not unlike the edge of a cliff. Once you've fallen over the edge, you have no chance to change your path (unless you're Icarus, in which case I'd really like to talk to you.) The edge of the bore, where the rifling ends, is likewise the last chance for the barrel to properly direct the path of the bullet.
The edge needs to be perfectly perpendicular to the axis of the bore; if it's not, as the bullet leaves the barrel one side might be clear of the barrel, but the opposite side will still be touching. This can introduce instability to the bullet, reducing the accuracy of the shot.
Even when correctly squared, a crown with a nicked edge can have the same effect. If the last thing that touches the bullet imparts any directional friction, like a nick or burr, the bullet path will be compromised.
It's amazing now small an imperfection can affect the accuracy of a barrel. I recently had a battle of wills with a Mossberg M44US rifle. This was a target .22 that Mossberg sold on contract to the U.S. military back in the late 1940s. They have a reputation for being quite accurate, and every example I've ever shot held up that reputation - except this one.
I could not get a decent 5-shot group out of the gun to save myself. I tested 15 different loads in the gun, went over it with a fine-tooth comb, and still got flyers in every group. I looked at the crown, and it seemed perfectly fine, but still the gun wasn't accurate. After exhausting every other possibility, I decided to recrown the barrel.
The edges of the bore seemed fine, but the first pass with the crowning reamer told the story: the crown was ever so slightly crooked. We're talking perhaps a couple of thousandths of an inch, which isn't a lot. I cut a perpendicular crown, and took the gun to the range.
Night and day.
The gun now shot like a 44US is supposed to! Beautiful groups from Wolf Match Target (aka SK Standard Plus, aka Lapua SC), which had shot no better than cheap Remington bulk prior to the recrowning. The crown had seemed to be a non-issue, even under magnification, but before and after targets proved that even tiny imperfections can make a huge difference.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: If it quacks like a duck, it might not be a duck.
An acquaintance of mine once experienced a burglary of his house. They got away with some valuable items, but I wondered just how the thieves were planning to profit from them. They couldn't pawn them, and if they tried to sell them on the street they'd be laughed to the curb. I couldn't imagine a thief stupid enough to steal this guy's stuff.
You see, this acquaintance was an electrical engineer who collected weird pseudo-medical devices. He'd found a surprising number over the years, and apparently he's not alone - there are a lot of quackery collectors who have put their finds on the net.
One of my favorite items is the The Neu-Vita Oculizer:
From www.americanartifacts.com, it is supposed to fix your eyes so that you no longer need glasses. It has two sets of eye cups; the soft rubber ones use a crank and pulley system to rotate them against your eyes, while the other side carries hard rubber eyecups. They have a concave faced plunger to poke the eye when the rubber bulbs are squeezed, and vacuum can also be applied by covering the air intake hole and releasing the bulb.
Yeah, just what I want to do to my eyes! Anyhow, that's just one of the many places on the net that you can find the history of quackery. (Sadly, most of the sites have designs that seem stuck in the mid-1990s and a surprising lack of decent images.)
One of the best is the Museum of Quackery. Tons of links. (Quackery, as you'll learn, is alive and well in the 21st century!)
Museum of Quack Electrotherapy Instruments.
American Artifacts (neat site; medical quackery is only a part of their collection, and they have items for sale.)
-=[ Grant ]=-
Still more about testing .22 long rifle ammunition.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 Filed in:
Ammunition, General gun
stuff
A recent email asked about an old article, wherein I talked about the problems with residual lube in a .22 rimfire barrel. Is it really a problem, the email asked, and if so how do I go about eliminating that variable in testing?
Yes, the effects are real. I never believed in the residual lube theory until I saw the results for myself, and to this day I can repeat them at will with that rifle and ammo.
My test protocol now is to use a standard smallbore target, the type with 6 bullseyes on a sheet. The upper left corner is used to fire 25 seasoning rounds, without regard for group size. This both burns off any residual lubricant and allows me to make any sight adjustments to bring the rounds fairly close to center. I then fire a 5-round group at each remaining bullseye, which gives a good average of the groups that ammunition will deliver. If you're counting, that's one single box of ammunition on one sheet of paper.
Rimfire purists will point out that this is not a sufficient number of rounds to really ascertain the true performance of any specific load, and I'll admit that subsequent testing will sometimes show small differences in group size (better or worse) than this. If you're a serious rimfire match shooter, you'll need to fire hundreds of rounds to truly judge what the ammunition will do. Of course, if you are that person you also won't be looking here for advice!
I've found my test procedure to be the easiest, fastest, most reliable method to obtain a decent (field-grade) indicator of relative performance of rimfire ammunition.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Mommy says I can't come out to play today.
Monday, July 13, 2009 Filed in:
Gunsmithing
It's only Monday, and I'm already two days behind!
Quick response to a recent comment about the Cylinder & Slide XL firing pins: no, I haven't found them to be fragile. In fact, I have yet to see one break. That isn't to say they can't, or that perhaps that some folks haven't had issues, but in the I-lost-count-a-long-time-ago number I've installed I haven't seen or heard of any failures.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Smashing!
Friday, July 10, 2009 Filed in:
Friday
Surprise!, Technology
Heard of the Large Hadron Collider? It's the world's largest particle accelerator, located on the French/Swiss border. A particle accelerator, colloquially termed an 'atom smasher', is a device that uses electric fields to propel electrically-charged particles to high speeds. By colliding particles together - sort of a subatomic head-on crash - we can do all kinds of things. A low-energy accelerator forms the viewable image on a cathode-ray tube (CRT), medium-sized units are used to create isotopes for medical research, and the biggest, highest energy installations help scientists learn about the fundamental structure of the universe.
Long before the LHA was even conceived, the United States boasted the largest particle accelerator: the Bevatron at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. Built in the early 1950s, it had a nearly 50-year career before it was finally deemed too expensive to maintain. Mothballed in 1993, the decision was recently made to dismantle the gigantic machine to make room for new research facilities on the crowded campus.
Wired has a great article, with many pictures, on the continuing demolition.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Hump Day Blues.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Filed in:
Completely
irrelevant, Current Events
It's a rare thing when I make social commentary, as Tam and Marko cover such things far better than I ever could. I hope you'll forgive me, however, for this brief interlude from the technical chatter.
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The rest of the world (meaning everything outside of the gun culture) is just now finding out about our ammunition supply issues. I found this column from Maine's Morning Sentinel to be quite interesting. When people who live their lives wholly apart from the concept of self reliance start paying attention to stuff like this, you know something is about to reach critical mass.
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It is my habit to sit down with my lunch and watch the midday news. (The internet, sadly, is still lacking in quality resources for local news coverage, at least here in Oregon.) Much to my surprise, the local network affiliate was running not the news, but the memorial service for a has-been singer/odd duck. ABC, CBS, NBC - all had preempted the news for continuous, live coverage of what amounted to a freak show.
Surely, I thought, the serious news outlets would not fall to this madness. How wrong I was. CNN, FOX, and MSNBC were all covering, not the imploding economy or the federal takeover of private industry or the all-time record deficits or North Korea's saber rattling, but the funeral of a mere pop star.
I've often said that being a pessimist is great, because you can never be disappointed. I guess I just wasn't pessimistic enough.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday meanderings: "back to the grind" edition.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Independence Day holiday! I've been burning the candle at both ends lately, so I took a long weekend, during which I managed to overexpose myself to the sun. (The weekend was hot by Oregon standards - we hit 100 degrees at our house on Friday, and only slightly cooler on Thursday & Saturday.) What's that line - "feel the burn?"
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Since it was so warm, I drank a huge amount of water. Having been in the ER more than once for severe dehydration (and accompanying heat exhaustion), I'm a little more attentive to this detail than most. For several years, my choice of liquid container has been the classic Nalgene bottle - the translucent white variety, made of #2 HDPE, free of those nasty plasticizers currently suspected of causing cancer. A side benefit is that HDPE is flexible, making it more suitable to hard use than the much more rigid clear varieties. This proved beneficial this weekend, when I ran over my Nalgene with a tractor. Smashed it nearly flat, and collapsed the bottom inward. I managed to squeeze the walls back into roughly cylindrical form, but wasn't able to fix the floor. I filled it with water, threw it in the freezer, and in a couple of hours the expanding ice did the trick! Good as new (more or less), and none the worse for wear.
I just wish they'd make the things in "earth colors" - OD, coyote tan, etc. Nalgene, are you listening?
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The S&W "J" frame is a generally reliable piece, but lately I've gotten reports of ignition issues with newer examples. S&W has transitioned to a new firing pin, which is much lighter and much shorter than the previous varieties. (This may be their solution to the drop testing standards in California.) They seem to be the source of the problem.To insure reliability, I replace all those I encounter with the Cylinder & Slide Extra Length firing pin. Highly recommended, and an easy "do it yourself" modification for those so inclined.
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The supply chain is finally starting to recover; AR-15 rifles are becoming a common sight in the stores again, and I'm receiving reports of ammo shelves being restocked. Shortages of certain products (most notably .380ACP ammunition) can be expected to continue for the next few months, but by and large we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Special Notice.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 Filed in:
Techniques &
Training
You've no doubt seen mention in this blog of Mr. Georges Rahbani, "The Best Rifle Instructor You've Never Heard Of." That title isn't flippant; Georges is truly the best rifle teacher I've encountered (and I've encountered more than a few.) He speaks from the heart - and hard experience - about using the rifle to defend home, family, and community.
He's holding his Urban/Defensive RIfle class in the Salem, Oregon area on July 11 & 12, and he has a number of spots still open. Seems that people are hoarding their rifle ammo rather than getting the training they need to learn how to use it properly! That's short-sided, in my view - better to use that fodder building serious shooting skills, rather than just blowing it in another plinking session at the local rock pit.
This class, held under the auspices of The Jacobe Group, is subtitled "Controlling the Rifle", and is the first in his triad. It is a two day, intermediate level course of 800 rounds designed for the dedicated shooter who wants a good grounding in rifle technique for self-defense. This class concentrates on the finer points of platforms, manipulation, sighting, and trajectory from which all "tactical" shooting is done. This isn't a beginning or introductory class - it is a foundational course focusing on the skills that must be mastered by all serious shooters. Novice or veteran, you will learn some "new tricks"!
Hey, if that's not enough you may just get a chance to meet me - in person! How cool is that?!?
My silly ego aside, you really shouldn't miss this opportunity. If you're interested, contact Jim Jacobe ( jimjacobe@comcast.net ) and tell him you want to sign up. If you'd like more information on the class itself, feel free to drop me a note.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Wednesday wanderings.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 Filed in:
Ammunition, General gun
stuff, History, Rifles, Political
Action, Self defense
I've been collecting conspiracy theories for the ammo shortage, and I recently heard a great one that supposedly came from a local gun store: FEMA has been buying ammunition companies, then shutting them down to eliminate all civilian ammunition sources.
One needs an awful lot of foil for a tin hat that big...
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Uncle and I have something in common: here in Oregon, our legislature also passed a "no texting" law. We went further, though - we added that you couldn't use a handheld cel phone at all. Then we enacted $2 billion of new taxes and spending in the state with the second-highest unemployment in the nation. We're number 49! We're number 49! Go team!
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I'm really excited about the rifles Savage has been introducing lately. I like this concept, though I'm not at all wild about the buttstock:
I'm more intrigued by this one:
If it's as accurate as expected, I may have to own one. (Sure, I could build one myself, but I'm too busy doing guns for other people. Remember the parable about the shoemaker's children?)
Now, if we could just get them to cease doing business with H-S Precision...
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Dr. Helen brings us the story of a woman who fought back against her knife-wielding rapist. Read the comments - some insightful, and some very amusing (in a train wreck sort of way.)
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From the Irish Times comes news that the powers-that-be want to ban "practical" shooting (i.e. IPSC, IDPA.) The Irish Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, had this to say:
“It’s simply not in the public interest to tolerate the development of a subculture predicated on a shooting activity which by the liberal standards of the US is regarded as an extreme shooting activity." He said any cursory research on the internet showed that these activities were marketed as being at the “extreme end” of handgun ownership and were “anathema to the tradition of Irish sporting clubs”.
Hmmm...such preoccupation with America leads me to suspect his national pride is still smarting from the shellacking his team took back in 1874.
-=[ Grant ]=-