10:35 – Barbara’s dad is in the hospital again, but she’s expecting him to be released today or tomorrow. Dutch had a follow-up doctor visit yesterday, and the doctor was concerned about the amount of water-weight Dutch had gained. So they did a direct-admit to the hospital so they can put Dutch on IV diuretics to get some of the fluid gone. As Barbara said last night, this’ll probably be a regular thing every couple of months for the rest of Dutch’s life. He’s doing what he’s supposed to in terms of limiting fluid intake, salt, and so on, but eventually the fluid builds up anyway. Barbara said the good news was that the blood tests showed Dutch was otherwise doing well, including kidney function.
Barbara already had plans for last night with her friend Bonnie to attend a concert. She decided that Dutch’s condition wasn’t an emergency, so she went ahead with her plans. Frances and Sankie went to the hospital with Dutch. Sankie, who is apparently doing very well mentally, stayed with Frances last night, so presumably they’ll go over to the hospital today. We’re hoping Dutch will be dried out and ready to go home this afternoon.
One of the downsides to our increasing kit sales volume is that we’re ordering in a lot of components, which have to be stored somewhere. Storing one case of 1,100 or 1,500 bottles or 60 test tube racks, for example, is no big deal. Storing a dozen or two dozen cases of bottles and 600 test tube racks is a different thing entirely. So one of my high-priority projects for this weekend–especially since I have cases and cases of more stuff on order–is to get the downstairs finished and unfinished areas better organized. I need space to store all this stuff, and I need to be able to find it quickly.
First up is to get the half dozen or so cases of bottles that are currently lining one wall of the garage area in the basement moved over into the finished area and sorted out by type. There are more cases in the library upstairs that we’ll also move down to the finished area of the basement, along with some of the stuff that’s currently in my upstairs workroom.
Then I want to convert my work/storage area in the unfinished part of the basement into a pure storage area. That means moving out the two 6X2.5 foot work tables in that area and installing floor-to-ceiling 12-inch shelves where the tables were. Those tables will go out into the garage area, where the cases of bottles were.
You gotta be tough to be 90 years old. And have a good support system. Barbara and her sister are doing a yeoman service.
I just tried to order Comcast cable modem serice for my new home. My Clear Wimax modem is not working very well at all even though I put it in the outside garage rafters and use power line ethernet to get it into the house. I get one bar out of five in the house and I get two bars of out of 5 in the detached garage. Apparently I am in a Wimax dead zone and am continually getting timeouts.
AT&T wants $56/month for a 18 mbps DSL line. Plus $199 for a modem and install fee. I gotta think about this for a while.
Anyway, the Comcast people will not let me order service since the previous home owner has not canceled service. I have been trying to order this for two weeks now. Same old sucky cable company that I remember from the 1990s. On to AT&T to get a a DSL line for now!
Over the thirteen-year membership I’ve had with the Greater New Hampshire LUG, where Comcast has a monopoly, I’ve heard nothing but complaints. Lousy service, lousy attitudes, etc. We had a choice of that, a local yokel operation or continuing with Fairpoint here, and decided to stick with the devil we know, which, truth to tell, has been pretty good for seven years now at two different locations.
Until recently; the landline will all of a sudden not call out anywhere. And meanwhile my cell, on Verizon, will not let me hear it ringing anywhere that I call or anyone talking on the other end. Nor can I check my vm with it. So off to Verizon this next week for a new cell and calling Fairpoint to find out WTF is up with our landline. Can’t be the billing with them because we are paid up; I went about bill paying here a coupla weeks ago with RUTHLESS attention and got almost everything up to date finally.
What you need is the now mandatory three garage. However I do not know of anyone that has three cars in one.
I have a two car garage with a ten foot extension. Same square footage as the three car but missing the single door. I would have love to have gotten the rare and elusive three car garage with the 20 ft extension. Now that is a garage!
Yup, they do not call Comcast Comcrap for nothing. I am still perplexed that they cannot install a cable modem here because the previous tenant (that is the word that they used) has not cancelled their service yet. I wonder how long the moron will continue to pay his bill?
He may not have cancelled his service because he is or has already been transferring it to his new place. But Comcast hasn’t updated their stuff yet, is my guess. When we were first looking at ComCrap as an alternative here when we first moved, they gave us a complete runaround as to when, how, etc. they *might* be able to install our service, and were charging beaucoups piastres for it, too, always pushing the cable tee-vee paht of it, which we in no shape, manner or form want, ever. Local yokel sounded OK but we figured, again, the devil we know. Other than the landline issue recently, no problems with internet service.
I’m a long time Comcast customer. The original service provider was Adelphia, which were the pits but since Comcast took over some seven years ago the service has been rock solid. The few issues I’ve had were quickly resolved. I note that when I initially signed up for service over ten years ago I had the 1.5mbs/down 256mbs up tier. I’m now on the 12mb/down and 2mbs up tier but my speed tests from multiple locations show 25mbs down and 4mbs up. Other then the costs I’m a happy camper.
The last issues I had the other year turned out to be with an old Motorola Cable Modem, which I own. I quickly replaced the modem with a new one and speeds and stability have been great.
Steve
(If you voted Obama/Biden, you voted Socialism)
We had Adelphia years ago up here and then they became PowerShift or something, around the same time the top brass got indicted for various things.
OFD in Retroville
(If you voted at all, you participated in an ongoing charade that enables and validates the continuation of the corporate fascist oligarchy that rules this country now, and maintains the national security state begun in earnest in 1947 by Truman and Dulles.)
(this has been a Public Service Announcement from OFD in Retroville)
Part of my chat session with Comcrap:
…
Jamila: We will now check for the serviceability of your address, check for the packages and then set an appointment for the installation of your services. Please stay on line as we go through the process, alright?
Guest: And, I only want internet service. No TV (I have direct TV) and no phone.
Jamila: Alright. That is noted.
Jamila: Thank you for waiting, Michael. I have checked on your new address and it seems that the current/previous tenant must’ve forgotten to disconnect their service with us. I know that this is quite an inconvenience on your part. No worries,I’ll create a ticket here on my end for you so we can contact the current/previous tenants for the disconnection of their services, that way, we can finalize the service transfer, okay?
Guest: OK. I bought this house on Jan 30 so that service is long gone.
Jamila: I see. Thank you for that information.
Jamila: Can I have a good number to call and the best time for you to receive call from Monday to Friday between 8am to 9pm?
Guest: If this holds up my install then I am not interested in Comcast internet. This is my home, not someone else.
Guest: XXXXXXXXX
Jamila: I understand, Michael. We will contact you the soonest possible time.
Jamila: Aside from this concern, is there anything else that I can assist you further with? I will be more than willing to help you further if there’s one.
Guest: Are you seriously going to holdup my install because the previous owner forgot to cancel?
Guest: If there is a holdup then I am going to get a DSL line from AT&T.
Jamila: For now, we couldn’t yet set up an account since there is an active account, we should first disconnect that, through contacting the previous tenant and after the disconnection, we can set up a new account under your name.
Jamila: As we couldn’t set two active account in the same address, Michael.
Jamila: I apologize for the inconvenience.
Guest: OK, please forget my order then. I am going to AT&T.
Jamila: Okay, I understand, Michael.
Jamila: You have a great day!
Jamila: Just in case you need further assistance, you can chat with one of our Customer Support Specialists 24×7 at http://www.comcastsupport.com or call our hotline number at 18009346489.
I have no idea what AT&T net service is like but there are stories about their cell phone stuff that is similar to the ones about ComCrap’s internet. Between the two of them, they suck.
And maybe this week I will have a similar comment about Fairpoint’s landline service, we shall see. Or Verizon’s current cell phone service.
Hook your cable up to 110 and tell ’em it was the previous owner.
I have two AT&T 10/1 dsl lines at my office bonded together using a peplink load balancer. Works just fine and quite well to be honest. No one person (me usually) can monopolize the uplink while loading large files to our website.
Hook your cable up to 110 and tell ‘em it was the previous owner.
I am very tempted to do that. But, what comes around goes around and it is best to stop it here.
I have comcast and they are OK for the most. I really have no other choice.
Comcast had their lines run on the power poles for which the electric company has an easement. Most of the power lines run in the public utility ROW but one small section crosses my property and there is an easement on the deed.
Comcast kept running more lines and bundling them together until the line got to be less than 10 feet from the ground over my property. I asked Comcast to move the line up and they tried but could not get the line much higher because of the seperation that must be maintained between cable and power lines.
One day I come home and a contractor is installing another cable to the bundle. I tell them to stop as they are not allowed to cross my property. They said tough they were going to continue so I called the police. The police told the contractor that the contractor could not cross my property and if they did they would be charged with criminal trespass. The contractor was pissed mightily as they were running a 15 mile unbroken fiber and were going to have to remove what they installed and reroute.
I next contacted Comcast and told them I wanted their line off my property. They said they could use the electric company ROW and easements. I called the electric company and was told that the electric company leases the pole space to Comcast but cannot by law sub lease any easements. Comcast was violating my property by using the easement.
I then sent Comcast a certified, return receipt letter demanding removal of their cable. In 30 days from receipt of the letter I was legally able to cut the cable to remove it from my property.
Comcast said they would just stick an new pole in the public easement directly in front of my house. I called the city and the city said Comcast cannot do that without the permission of the city. The city controlled the location of the poles. Comcast would not be allowed to put a pole where they threatened.
I offered Comcast the an easement in exchange for free service, everything they offered, for as long as I owned the property. Comcast refused.
Comcast countered that they would reroute the cable so the it was beyond their distance to service my house and if I wanted service it would cost me dearly. Another trip to the city revealed that Comcast cannot reroute service and cause and existing user to be denied the service. It was a franchise violation subject to severe penalties. When I informed Comcast they could not terminate my service by rerouting they said “maybe”.
So 28 days after they received the letter Comcast was busy rerouting the cable to remove it from my property. They had to stretch the cable to go across the road and that involved doing a couple of splices. Comcast installers angrily told me that it cost Comcast $75,000 to relocate that cable because I was being an asshole. I just smiled while clicking my wire cutters.
I since found out that had I cut the cable service to about 50K customers would have been affected as the cable bundle was the main service line for a large area.
Ray you are a very bad man. The nerve of you.
I wonder, though, if they would have caved if there hadn’t been those 50k potential customer losses. But man, talk about assholes! Their lawyers tried everything to mess you up and cause you to back down.
Now we need a vid on YouTube of Ray clicking his wire-cutters.
Another one of SteveF (with face blurred, of course) assassinating criminals.
A video of Lynn blasting targets in Nevada.
And someone ought to do the photoshop equivalent of Bob blowing up half his neighborhood and firing AA at Santa during Xmas.
Hey, now. First off, killing criminals in the act is not “assassination”. It’s not any kind of crime in and of itself, I think. So far as I know, all of my killings of muggers and such have been perfectly legal, so far as the killing goes.
Second, I’ve always been careful about witnesses* and of late have been improving my anti-camera measures.
* More out of concern about friends and associates of the dead muggers than concern about police. Push come to shove, if the police came in numbers such that I couldn’t escape or beat them all, I’m pretty sure my actions were legal. The muggers’ friends might not be so discerning. And, sure, I’m tough, but a bear can be brought down by rats if there are enough of them.
You’d have to be tough if only for the potential anxiety and worry about friends and associates of muggers, plus the cops being jealous of their territory and coming after you in the numbers that they do nowadays; not bragging or anything, but in my day I was a de facto Buford Pusser, answering all kinds of calls and situations alone, because we just didn’t have the manpower, plus certain parties would go hide somewhere and study for the sergeants’ exams. Now they send in SWAT platoons, each cop and copchick loaded up with armor and weaponry and electronics gear, while overhead there is close-air support. And this is just for overdue library cards and the wrong addresses given out by the narcos and intel jackasses.
I’m old now and way outta shape and rickety and do not intend to get into wrestling on the pavement with drunks and attackers, tactical firefights with multiple assailants coming outta the woodwork, and suchlike; I have other plans for various circumstances, out of sheer necessity.
So assassinations would be more in my line, probably. I’ll have a business card drawn up with my motto: “Sic Semper Tyrannis.”
All reasonable, what you say, OFD. The difference is that you’d go out day after day for an 8- or 12-hour shift, whether you were feeling tip-top or like total shit. I’d go out only when I felt like it and felt up to it and typically only when I had some pressure to bleed off. And usually only for an hour or two; if the little fishies were taking the bait, it usually didn’t take long. Er, in case I never mentioned it, I saw that crappy Charles Bronson movie (as if there were any other kind) Death Wish when I was about 21 and thought, what a great idea! Furthermore, you were in uniform and hence an easy target for those so inclined. I was just another guy in blue jeans and a hoodie.
“…you were in uniform and hence an easy target for those so inclined. ”
That’s for sure! At my height and weight with about thirty pounds of gear hanging off me; and at one time my partner was 6’6″ and 410 pounds. They called us the Twin Towers, and I imagine that nowadays we’d probably go down as fast as the actual twin towers. It worked great for bah fights and wrestling drunks and maniacs and other such fun, plus terrorizing motorists, who would look out their driver’s side window and see a belt buckle. But in Today’s Modern Law Enforcement circles there ain’t no room for old dinosaurs like we were. Imagine: carrying clubs and revolvers. And no copchicks in sight anywhere.
And if by some wild and wacky chance or fate or whatever, I end up doing cop work again in an environment like we have up here, my sidearm would still be a large-bore revolver and I’d carry my old Monadnock Prosecutor PR-24 baton, with which I had three days of intensive training thirty years ago at Camp Curtis Guild, Wakefield, Maffachufetts. I’d also have, in my patrol truck, a Remington 870 suitably modified and either one of my new favorite semi-auto rifles, the Colt or the Rock River Arms.
For extra fun, in light of Today’s Modern Law Enforcement challenges, some grenades and throwaway pieces. And a surprise or two up my sleeve.
Well, I really would not give them the old 110VAC solution. However, in the parkway in front of the house next door is one of their below ground surface junction boxes. Now, where do I green earth deposit for composting back to nature this week’s dog pickup?
BTW, at my pistol training course, there were 39 semi autos and 1 revolver. And mr. revolver only had one speed loader for his .357.
With the number of misfeeds that I had, I may go back to a revolver. Since I have carpal tunnel in both wrists from 40 years of programming 10+ hours per day, I have trouble holding my XDM after 50 or 60 shots. And, I never figured out how to do the isometric grip hold properly. They showed me several times and I understand what they are doing but had trouble implementing it. My son claims that I have misfeeds due to bad holding of the weapon and the recoil going all over the place.
Press! Reset! Press! Reset! … Head shot!
BTW, got to see what happens when you fire a .40 through a 1911. The shooter was next to me so I got a ringside view and hearing test. First you get a supposed misfeed as the .40 scoots down the barrel. Then the shooter cusses, taps the mag and racks the 1911. The shooter then fires the weapon and the .45 fires into the .40 with a very rapid boom-boom sound. In fact, it overwhelmed my electronic ear muffs. Then the gun slide, spring and other artifacts went forward into the target. Both the .45 and .40 bullets were lodged in the barrel. The shooter was very lucky as nothing went backwards into his hands or face. The 1911 was toast.
“Steve
(If you voted Obama/Biden, you voted Socialism)”
Miles_Teg says:
8 November 2011 at 21:37
A guy goes into a New York bar and there’s a robot bartender.
The robot says, “What will you have?” The guy says, “Martini”.
The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, “What’s your IQ?”
The guy says, “168.”
The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, pure mathematics and medical technology.
The guy leaves, but he’s curious – so, he goes back into the bar.
The robot bartender says, “What will you have?”
The guy says, “Martini.”
Again, the robot makes a great martini gives it to the man and says, “What’s your IQ?”
The guy says “100.”
The robot then starts to talk about Gridiron, Coors Beer and SUVs.
The guy leaves, but having found it very interesting, decides he’ll try it one last time. He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, “What will you have?”
Again the guy says, “Martini” – and the robot brings him another great one.
The robot then says, “What’s your IQ?”
The guy says, “Uh, about 40 …”
The robot leans in real close and says,
“So, you people still happy you voted for Obama?”
Lynn, you could take your son down to the local range and see if he has the mis-feed problem.
Ray you are a very bad man. The nerve of you.
This had not been my first run-in with Comcast over their cable. A couple of years earlier they were stringing a new cable to attach to the exiting bundle. The new cable was hanging on pulleys. During the night someone had stolen several of the pulleys. Now the cable was hanging so low as to block my driveway. My wife had to hold the cable up while I backed out. I was pissed.
I went to the local Comcast office and beat on the door. Comcast said they were closed. I said they better open up or they were going to lose a major cable. I informed the person at the door that I was heading back home. If the cable was still hanging over my driveway when I got home I was going to ram the cable with my truck and rip the cable out. Comcast would also be responsible for paying for the damage to my truck as their cable was causing the hazard on my property.
By the time I got home there were three Comcast trucks at my place and they had the cable out of the way.
I had been fighting Comcast over that cable that was hanging way too low for years. I had finally had enough when they started running another cable. I put a stop to that and demanded the removal. Comcast was taking advantage of the situation and it was time to put a stop to it.
“With the number of misfeeds that I had, I may go back to a revolver. Since I have carpal tunnel in both wrists from 40 years of programming 10+ hours per day, I have trouble holding my XDM after 50 or 60 shots.”
Fah be it from me to tell ya what to do; but first of all unless we are heading directly into an apocalyptic battle royale nightmare anytime soon, we probably won’t need to be firing 50 or 60 shots at multiple armed assailants. Nor are we NYC cops taking down the wrong poor bastard who was pulling out his cell phone. And Mr. Revolver out there needed to have at least three or four speedloaders for that course and be very proficient in their rapid and effective use. I know that for many years now everyone has jumped on the semi-auto handgun bandwagon, and the late Colonel Cooper’s sidearm was likewise, but at least it was, and he recommended, as did the late Mel Tappan, the 1911 .45 ACP, a proven battlefield workhorse for over a century now.
Besides my own experiences and the foibles I witnessed over the years with semi-autos, there is also the plain fact that if you own one, and want it to be reliable all the time, you need to baby it *daily* and be absolutely RUTHLESS about keeping it maintained and also keep an eye on the ammo and magazines.
A revolver goes off every time and hits what you aim it at and can be handled by anybody and will take a fair amount of abuse. I recommend .357 Mag and up, but .44 Mag is probably most folks’ upper limit anyway. With the .357 you can also fire .38+P, regular ol’ .38s, and shotshells, or what rural huckleberries call “snake loads.” There are several speedloader manufacturers, a whole slew of gun makers for this caliber, and the ammo is very common and not among the calibers that Leviathan is busily scooping up or contracting for. (Mas Ayoob sez it is no big conspiracy, just the Feds making sure in advance they have enough for training and the amounts don’t mean anything in particular and those numbers will change as contracts get filled.)
“…what happens when you fire a .40 through a 1911.”
Jesus wept. Was anyone in charge of that frigging range out there? Shooters should not even have any different ammo on their persons when they’re firing on the line. And not only could Bozo have mangled hisself, you and the person on the other side could have caught some collateral shrapnel.
Note to self: Never ever buy anything whatsoever from ComCrap.
Yeah, Barbara is a big fan of revolvers. When she was learning to shoot, I let her use my Ruger Police Service Six .357. I never was able to get it back. Nothing fancy. Fixed sights–the rear sight is a groove in the cylinder strap–but she can pretty much hit what she aims at at any reasonable pistol range, and she can handle the recoil with full-bore loads.
I prefer the Colt Combat Commander in .45 ACP, and have since I got my first one back in the mid 70’s, before I’d ever heard of Jeff Cooper. I’d read the Thompson-LaGarde report and became a convert to the “flying ashtray” school–large-caliber, heavy bullets moving at moderate velocity.
And while I generally agree with OFD about reliability problems with autopistols, the Colt 1911’s were designed “sloppy” with just that in mind. I’ve seen problems with 1911 Gold Cup pistols and ones that had been “tuned” by a gunsmith for higher accuracy, but problems are few with a stock 1911. The reason there’s so much slop in them is to make them reliable. You can drop a stock 1911 in a mud puddle, run over it with your truck, pick it up, and it’ll fire. The last time I had mine on a machine rest, it fired 4″ to 6″ groups at 50 yards, which is plenty good for me. Yeah, I could replace the barrel bushing with a tighter one, and it’d probably shoot 2″ groups. So what? It’d also be a lot less reliable.
Another point about revolvers: they don’t fling brass around. In certain circumstances, let’s just lump them under the rubric “evidence”, that can be an advantage.
It’s kinda funny: I put a fair amount of thought and effort into concealed carry, thinking about what to carry when and the circumstances under which I’d shoot and which I wouldn’t, and so on. But, outside of the military, I’ve never shot at anyone. I’ve pointed a firearm at someone a fair number of times, with the willingness to shoot if they didn’t calm down or let my partner handcuff them or whatever, but I’ve never actually fired. And I don’t go stomping around bad neighborhoods looking for muggers anymore. I hate to admit it, but I’ve become a middle-class, middle-aged family man. Blech.
I’m shattered Steve! You’ll become a liberal next.
Hardly. Hospitals don’t do lobotomies anymore.
I’m glad to hear that everyone has figured out a new normal. Or at least I guess that’s what it is called. Maybe it’s called making the best out of life. Anyway, my congratulations to Barbara with having the backbone to tell her mother the way things are and what her choices are. That and figuring out what’s an emergency and what isn’t. I have first hand experience with how difficult that can be. Realizing that level of firmness is required is the best thing one can do when your elderly parents require it.
Agreed, on the standard-issue Gummint-model 1911, Bob. They will fire under all kinds of crappy conditions and are designed for that, like AK-47s. And true also that once you start fancying it up, you will likely also start running into reliability issues.
I had mentioned stovepipes and suchlike in regahd to semi-autos but also there is, as SteveF mentions, the flying brass all over the landscape, which normally you have to hunt around for and police up accordingly. With a revolver you have to manually dump it out and stow it nicely away in a pocket or bag or whatever.
OFD has what I like to think of as my service sidearm; a 4″ barrel stainless .357 by Taurus, with orange-ramp front sight and adjustable rear; solid, reliable and inexpensive. And a CC Taurus snubby in the same caliber, blued, shrouded hammer.
These will hopefully allow me to get to a shotgun and/or rifle or whatever if attacked.
Otherwise, I’m screwed.
What kind of a lunatic knowingly feeds incompatible ammo into any type of firearm? It sounds to me like that schmuck was a Darwin Candidate wanna be who managed to walk away. 🙁
If he did it deliberately, he should be suspended from range activities for a very long time, until he’s had suitable remedial training. I suspect, however, that he may or may not have been stressed, wasn’t paying close attention, and just loaded a mag with the wrong round or more than one round, or grabbed a handful out of his pocket.
My one anecdote of accidental ammo in a revolver was thirty years ago when my next-younger brother fired his S&W .41 MAG and the round stopped halfway out the muzzle of the barrel. I was standing a couple of yahds away and heard the distinctive dull pop as opposed to the usual blast, and he still had his finger on the trigger. I yelled at him to stop right there and we found we had a dud/squib round that had malfunctioned. Never seen that sorta thing since in any revolvers, but if I had a nickel for every malfunction in a semi-auto I’ve witnessed I wouldn’t need to go back to work tomorrow morning.
Lynn, you could take your son down to the local range and see if he has the mis-feed problem.
We went together to Nevada. And my Dad also. Three Michael L. McGuires in the same place, the saints preserve us!
My son has the same XDM .40 pistol. I have serial number XXXX84. He has serial number XXXX88. Both gifts from my father. My son was having the same double feed problem that I was and then he started listening to the range instructors and stopped having the misfeeds. The XDM is a fine precision instrument that requires proper usage. I’m old and broke down, he is young and ending his commitment to the USMC at the end of this month.
BTW, “RMS 45” stands for “Real Men Shoot 45s”.
BTW, the senior range instructor advises Glock 22 in .40 cal. He likes to clean his in the dishwasher unless the wife catches him. His wife, also a senior range instructor (her class was next to ours), shoots a Glock 23 for the compactness.
What kind of a lunatic knowingly feeds incompatible ammo into any type of firearm? It sounds to me like that schmuck was a Darwin Candidate wanna be who managed to walk away.
We were training on four different types of semi auto failures and dropping rounds all over the place on the gravel range when clearing those. When we got the clear we would pick up our mags and rounds and clean the gravel dust off. Some of the “older” guys would not use their reading glasses and there you go. Me, after I tried to load a .45 in my .40, checked each round individually that I picked up. Easy to screw up when the class is moving ninety miles an hour. And everyone brought their favorite gun so there were about a dozen gun types. Mr. Revolver had an eight inch python and a two inch snubby.
Types of failures or actions that we trained for:
1. mag failed to insert fully (tap the mag and rack)
2. brass high (brass caught in ejection port)
3. brass low (double feed)
4. mag empty (drop your mag and insert new mag)
5. tactical reload (check for a new mag in a lull and if present then pocket your current mag for a full mag for the next gun battle)
Of course, the first action in all of these events is finger straight. The second action is look at the gun ejection while gun high and not at the ready. I found out why the hard way and put a round over the berm (finger on the trigger when I tapped the mag).
Excellent course. It was like turning a fire hose on a person though. The amount of information and training was immense.
Based on my own training for combat and other stressful situations, I think that if the trainees don’t start making dumb mistakes, then you’re not pushing them hard enough.
That said, I’m not quite sure that the firing range is where you want people to be pushed into making mistakes. Considering the purpose and nature of the training, I don’t know a better way to do it.
Number of the five failure scenarios that were trained for at that course in Nevada that can occur with a revolver:
0
But that said, Mr. Revolver was a bad representative of the combat revolver school of shooting; one speedloader, evidently, and he brings an 8″ and a 2″ to the place. Kind of a bozo if you ask me. I would have brought my 4″, probably a pair of them, with four speedloaders apiece. I probably would not be as fast as the semi-auto nimrods but I also wouldn’t be frantically fiddling with fucking failures all the time, either. (how’s that for Anglo-Saxon alliteration, homies?)
Fantastic!
The thing about a jam in an autopistol is that it’s almost always trivial to clear. At Gunsite, trainees got very good and very quick at clearing jams by slapping the slide back. Usually, it didn’t even disturb their tempo noticeably.
A revolver jam, on the other hand, is often a shop job. I’ve seen two of them. In both cases, recoil loosened a bullet and allowed it to move forward, preventing the cylinder from rotating. The first time I was shooting with a buddy of mine with our .44 Magnums. He was shooting heavy handloads, and I attributed that one to a faulty crimp. But the second time I saw this happen was with a .357 firing factory loads.
As I either stated or implied; I’ve seen one revolver “jam” in over thirty years; many dozens and dozens of semi-auto jams alone, not counting the other malfunctions. To be fair, I put it down most often to lack of RUTHLESS daily babying of them. Too many nimrods take too much for granted and in a real-life situation would end up totally screwed.
One other point I should not need to make here but will anyway, because I’m an old battered cuss and am so entitled: there is a world of difference between the ranges and even great courses like Gunsite’s or the T-Ranch or Mas Ayoob’s, and having to return fire while under fire yourself and bleeding profusely, for example. And in a real-life event, one has to have the willingness to kill or get killed, the title of an old Rex Applegate book from long ago, wonder if it’s still in print…yep…well, a reprint, anyway…
…http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Get-Killed-Rex-Applegate/dp/1581605587/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362966394&sr=1-1&keywords=kill+or+be+killed+applegate
…not a light decision and made in a nanosecond.
(Reverend OFD sermon over)
And speaking of life and death stuff; ain’t it nice we’re still in The Suck and The Sandbox. In the former, we have the choice of backing up a skeevy criminal scumbag and his cronies and family, or the maniacal fanatic hadji fucktards still living in the 8th-Century desert sand.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-10/karzai-accuses-u-s-of-taliban-collusion-as-hagel-visits.html
The criminal scum must be so bad that we’re now willing once again to suck off the Taliban, give them money and support and send our kids to get mangled and killed there while we stall on any withdrawal. Same deal, sort of, in Iraq, where the choice is between murderous fanatic hadji slave-and-death cult factions that have been slicing and dicing each other for centuries.
Sad thing here is that after we in this generation (most of the old fahts on this board) are dead and gone, our kids and grandkids will most likely have some other goddamned useless clusterfuck foreign war to fight somewhere. Shit never ends. Depressing.
OK, off to the sack now, read some more medieval Scottish poetry or something…pax vobiscum…
Number of the five failure scenarios that were trained for at that course in Nevada that can occur with a revolver:
0
How about #4 and #5 for a revolver?
4. mag empty (drop your mag and insert new mag)
5. tactical reload (check for a new mag in a lull and if present then pocket your current mag for a full mag for the next gun battle)
Only #4 is a failure. #5 is a decision, especially acute possibly for a revolver.
I know what you’re thinking: “Did he fire six shots, or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well do ya, punk?
And, if you carry a revolver as an officer, you should really carry a backup snubby. As a good backup, I like the S&W bodyguard 38+p.
The Suck and The Sandbox
Just read Fred’s latest. He’s right, imho, that the US never should have gone into Iraq – that was the Shrub wanting to show up his daddy. Afghanistan should have been limited to the initial Al Queda hunt; there never was any reason to get sucked into a larger action.
Fred is also not wrong about how the US is perceived by many people abroad. Not everyone, but many. There is a big distinction, though, between the perception of the American *government* vs. individual *Americans*. Basically: how can a country full of basically nice, friendly people put up with a government like that? I am reminded of an interview of a woman in New York who was being screwed over by FEMA in the aftermath of the storm. She said the one thing she couldn’t get over was that each and every individual within the organization was so friendly, and yet so utterly helpless to change the direction of the behemoth.
I spent three weeks in the US in 2003, and apart from a rude bus driver and the beggars outside the Smithsonian Metro station in DC, didn’t meet a Yank (or a southern boy or girl) I didn’t like. Lots of people I know like Americans in general but dislike or are fearful of the US government.
I supported the invasion of Afghanistan but not Iraq. I can see now that getting into Afghanistan was a mistake, we should just have done a few surgical strikes and continued to make life unpleasant for the Taliban.
I’m inclined to think a hostile power is rigging the ballots in the US. I mean, 90% of American politicians should be lined up against the wall and shot.
Agreed with Fred, Brad and Greg.
Now put the shoe on the other foot; most foreigners I’ve met are regular people from all walks of life who are polite and friendly with a sense of humor, but some of them live in countries where their governments truly suck rocks. Persians, for example. Russians for another. We all need to distinguish between people and their lousy governments. I would tell people in other countries that nothing lasts forever; our State is crumbling and we’re gonna see a lot of pain and suffering again before we can rebuild, but our corporate fascist oligarchy and its generals and Wall Street potentates are riding for a very hard fall.
I mean, 90% of American politicians should be lined up against the wall and shot.
That still leave 10% too many.
Ray beat me to it; 90% is too low a threshold for the firing squads. Closer to 99.99%; there may be one- or two-dozen worth saving for re-education, and those mostly in the South and Mountain states. I have written off the Northeast Megalopolis entirely, along with the Left Coast and all major metro areas.
The aftermath of our next civil war will be very interesting. Retribution and violent justice? Or forgiveness and let bygones be bygones?
Greg,
As you are aware I’ve been to OZ on several occasions and found the locals to be every bit as friendly and out going as anywhere else. Always had a great time.
I’ve been to Europe once, Asia multiple times as well as the land of Kiwi (great people there as well). I prefer Asia to Europe though, more genuine and honest.
Steve
(I didn’t vote for the Socialist Dynamic Duo Obummer/Biden)
On the subject of handguns and failures, I’ve found modern semi-auto pistols to be every bit as reliable as revolvers. I’m 59, I grew up with revolvers and have several now, from 38SPL, through 44 Magnums to 45LC’s. I also own and enjoy semi-auto pistols, 45ACP of course, but 10MM, 40 Short&Weak, .357SIG, 9MM and 22LR
My experience with semi-auto failures can be generally be traced to:
1. Limp Wrist. That is the shooter doesn’t have a proper grip on the pistol allowing the pistol to rest limply in the hand. Glocks will miss fire if not held firmly in the hands.
2. Magazines. Quality well maintained magazines are a must. I’ve seen many failure to feed/failure to eject issues traced to a faulty magazine.
3. Ammo, if you reload like I do you need to ensure you maintain proper OAL or over all length and along with this is a proper crimp. Still I’ve seen some commercial cheap ammo work in some semi-auto’s but not in others.
4. Cleanliness, if your chamber becomes clogged with spent powder kernels this will eventually lead to feeding problems, this is especially true in handguns with tight chambers.
Most semi-auto feeding and ejection issues are cleared fairly quickly, either tapping the slide or cycling the slide, ejecting the culprit and feeding a new round. I’ve seen revolvers that became non-operational because of a round that was too long by a hair locking up the cylinder.
Thanks
Steve in Colorado
Just a bit curious about the rationale behind reloading ammo, and if such ammo is as reliable as that comming from a good factory.
Ray and Dave, I don’t favour executing all politicians because some of them are libertarians or might be able to be converted.
Just because someone is a “libertarian” may not exclude them from a firing squad wall; plenty of them are pseudo-statists or have other serious impurities and sins counted against them. This is also true for hordes of sons of bitches who call themselves “conservatives,” and are actually neocon chickenhawk warmongers and suchlike, and who care not a fig for the natural environment that we all live in, among many other drawbacks and phoniness.
The firing squads will be busy.
Greg,
I rarely buy commercial ammo preferring to load my “own”. My Dillon RL550B progressive loader produces ammo every bit as reliable commercial ammo. I collect the spent brass at the range and load it up again. I also cast lead bullets, I sometimes shoot these in my basement, collect the lead, recast and shoot again.
Even my carry ammo is handcrafted. (that is if I were to have guns and ammo)
Steve in Colorado
And, hot on the heels of Fred’s latest is Paul Krugman’s most recent, confirming just about everything I noted above.
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2020518241_krugmancolumndowjonesxml.html
Miles_Teg says on 11 March 2013 at 10:38
Just a bit curious about the rationale behind reloading ammo, and if such ammo is as reliable as that comming from a good factory.
Greg, just an example of a “good factory” (really doesn’t matter, but “Winchester white box” would fit). They were making ammo, then in the stampede around the previous Obama election they couldn’t meet the demand, and decided they could make more money if they made more product, cheaper. I’m talking .22 rimfire here, where the priming compound is spun out into the cartridge rim (many more modern cartridges are rimless, with a central primer (that goes bang and sets off the whole schmeer when it gets an impact from a firing pin). Anyway, the ammo makers decided they could economise by not spinning the rimfire cartridges as long, which meant the priming compound didn’t get as reliably or evenly into the cartridge rims, and the cartridges no longer always went “BANG” when the trigger was squeezed and the firing pin dropped. Very disconcerting! Squeeze trigger, no BANG, just “tunk”, nothing more. No bullet, but a very dangerous maybe-could-go-off cartridge to be ejected and discarded.
So, no – factories don’t necessarily make the best products. GOOD manufacturers do better than average do-it-your-selfers. GOOD careful DYIers do better than average factories; because they are working carefully, checking it twice, and only putting things through one assembly line, which means more consistency.
Loading your own SHOULD give more consistency. Cutting a few tens of feet per second down to a few fps cuts group sizes way down in a good rifle. That’s the big advantage. It can also provide cheaper ammo, if you don’t count your time, but doing it at home while you would have been watching “Roaming Away” or some such has to be a gain, right?
Actually, at this point, it can be cheaper to handload even if you *do* count your time. Ammunition prices have increased across the board by at least double since Obama was re-elected, and that’s counting even rimfire. That’s assuming there’s any available to buy, which there isn’t.
Last week, I was going to order a few thousand rounds of .22 long rifle, so I went over to the Cabela’s web site to see how their price compared to Walmart. Cabela’s had nearly zero ammunition of any time in stock. And this is a place that sells ammo literally by the case. When I asked, the woman I spoke to said that they’d get in one pallet of 5.56 or .357 or whatever when they had 20 or 50 pallets on order. And that pallet would be gone in literally an hour or less. Apparently, there are people sitting there with the Cabela’s web site on their screen clicking refresh over and over again until something ends up in stock.
Same deal on firearms. If you want an AR-15 you’ll go on a waiting list and after two or three years you’ll get your chance to buy one for retail price, if you’re lucky. Even stuff like the Ruger 10/22 rimfire rifle is back-ordered to eternity at most dealers. Obama’s reelection resulted in the greatest re-arming of the American public ever.
“Obama’s reelection resulted in the greatest re-arming of the American public ever.”
Hallelujah! Firearms Salesman of the Century!
If and when he leaves office he should get a lifetime sinecure from the industry, no questions asked. I’d pay it in a nanosecond. Lesser sinecures for clowns like Cuomo and Bloomberg and Feinstein, et. al. On second thought, though, nothing for them. I can’t stand those buggers, whereas Barry is kinda funny, i.e., he at least has a sense of humor. Those others don’t.
I was lucky to find a Ruger 10-22 Takedown last year that somebody had brought back to the gun shop after not even firing it ever. $300. I am modding it now. But as Mas Ayoob points out, this is all probably temporary and we’ll be back to normal, more or less, later this year.
I hope Ayoob is right, but I suspect it’ll be longer before things return to normal, if they ever do. That said, I am glad that millions of new firearms and billions of rounds of ammunition are getting into private hands.
I’ll wait until things return closer to normal and then buy a couple lever-actions in .357 and a couple more in .44, not to mention a couple of 870 tacticals, along with a thousand or two rounds per gun. Oh, yeah, and some .22’s. I have only three or four of those. I think. I found one yesterday, a Rossi .22 revolver, that I’d forgotten I had.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention. Unfortunately, soon after I found it, I accidentally dropped it in the river.
Speaking of lever-actions, I wonder if anyone makes speed loaders for them. I guess it’d be easy enough to make up a bunch with some tubing of the correct inside-diameter and some doweling to fit.
Google is our friend. Most of the time:
http://www.alpharubicon.com/leo/rubiconspeedloader.htm
I’m saving for when things get a bit closer to normal; got my eyes on a couple of semi-auto rifles and another shotgun or two, and boxcar loads of ammo….which I will probably accidentally drop in the Lake…very awkward and clumsy in my old age lately…
Yep, that was pretty much what I was thinking, although I was thinking about using 18-inch lengths of 1/2″ ID stiff copper tubing, with the end crimped very slightly, just enough to keep rounds from sliding out if the end was pointed downwards, and a full diameter pusher rod. This guy’s design looks better.