reasonablenut

You almost have to feel sorry for the dumb bitch. If DailyKos had his hand up my ass, I'd probably be waiting for nobody at a card table in TX as well. Maybe she will learn. 

This is about to start pissing me off. I've tried to stay off politics as a subject for awhile, but when it gets to stupid...well, it is all the time?...I just try to stay away as much as possible.

This Sheehan bitch drives me wild though. Not because of her stunning, yet subtle beauty, but because of the deranged message she sends.

I know people who have lost children to all kinds of things, including car and helicoptor crashes, which are more senseless than anything somebody agrees to do. In other words, our troops, including Casey, agree to fight wars for us for certain benefits and because they are patriotic Americans. There are a lot of jobs that might result in being dead as well, but Cindy doesn't give a shit about that, just like she didn't give a shit about the hurricanes.

Here's the link to her lonely booksigning.

Picture posted above.

I'm going to bed, disgusted.

Relatively, I'm a newbie to reloading. There are great blog and written materials out there and, to date, I have produced a pretty decent .308 round. That's not to say there isn't a lot of room for improvement, but I've been satisfied with the progress I've made.

This weekend 2 things happened that pissed me off. First off, I had a retainer ring crossthread on a die. That sucks, and is probably rare, but it couldn't have been forseen.

On the other hand, I had my first batch of .300 WSM cases ready to load, only to realize that the fucking funnel doesn't fit.

Then I look at the Midway catalogue, as far as funnels go. Everyone says it will fit ".22-.45" "rifle or pistol." I think OK. Then I read further and all of them say that they won't work on any short magnum.

The question being: WTF will work on a WSM, as far as getting the fucking charge into the case?

I'm sitting on a whole loading tray of brass that is expensive but worthless.

I had a good day and ate a lot of food. Now I'm drinking some beer, which is something our troops can't do. God give them strength and I will buy any of them a beer.

I give thanks that they are serving, and our showing more spine than any of us can muster.

God bless them.

The Old Man brought it to my attention that the photographs below suck as bad as a homeless guy under a highway overpass working for Malt Liquor.

He has a new improved camera, from which most of the pictures have been from lately. I will be utilizing this hardware (and maybe something classier than my sheets as background) shortly.

Leupold M4 MR/T Mil-Dot scope 

Barrel 

Muzzle brake 

Overview 

I have to admit that after last year's Boomershoot, I was seriously considering building a ground-up rifle. As the remembrance receded, I decided on a bog-standard Remington 700 in .308 as next year's primary weapon. That rifle is coming along well and will definitely be making the trip to Idaho, come Spring.

In the mean time, I have a buddy who has always touted the superiority of a Sako action. As much as I looked in stores and online, I've never run into a LH Sako, even though I know they are produced.

Several weeks back, I was shopping for a Mini-14, but was looking at everything else as well, obviously. I found what the clerk referred to as a Magnum Research rifle. Upon inspection, I realized that these are the people that import Sakos. It was a long barrel, synthetic stock, with a muzzle break on its Krieger barrel. I started thinking that whatever poor bastard sold it must have been in some deep shit to let go of it. The barrel is glass bedded, as well.

What weirded me out was the freaky caliber I had never heard of: a .340 Weatherby Magnum.

I didn't buy it right then, but fucked about debating it for a week until I broke down and forked out. The tag said $1,400.00, but a buddy of mine used to work at this shop so after some obvious name dropping, it was more like $1,250.00 to $1,300.00.

Then I looked at the ammo. All ammo online looks the same. This shit cost $42.00 for a box of 20. I went ahead and ordered 40 rounds to begin, as I was doubtful if I could shoot a cartridge this large. I was even learier when the ammo showed up and I held it next to a .308 cartridge.

I went through all 40 rounds the first range day out, and the thing is a tack-driver. It is one of 3 candidates for Boomershoot back up now.

Pics above.

Also, I'm not the only Weatherby convert of late. Dave (The Kid's co-blogger) appears to be about to make the jump as well.

The rifling process. 

The rifling lathe. 

Williamsburg gun shop 

The Williamsburg gunshop 

Recently took a trip out east for a family reunion - mother's grandmother's husband who died in the flu epidemic of 1919 (I think) and was named Savage. As we were in the neighborhood, we spent one afternoon in Williamsburg, VA. Seeking some kind of refuge from "family" I was the only one to purchase a pass which actually got you into buidings and shops. Being a Sunday, they were not nearly as active as they would have been on a weekday.

The obvious first stop for me was the gun shop. (1st picture)

From what I could tell, they emply about five or six smiths. They make flintlock rifles, black powder, slightly over .50 caliber. But with a difference... Each rifle is made completely on the premises, that means that every part that goes into the rifle is forged, machined, fitted and finished on site, including stocks and barrels. A standard rifle takes about 400 hours to make - they make about eight a year. Needless to say, I did not ask about prices. They will also take on custom jobs for matched set dueling pistols for instance, or custom flint lock pistols. I admit that I am not a black powder afficianado - but these guns were beautiful! (I even got to heist one of the finished rifles as they were not very busy).

Couple of interesting things to me that I found out. Stocks are the last piece to be finished. The metal parts of the rifle are fabricated and fitted to the wood, which at that point is a squared off piece of unfinished block. One the metal parts, including trim, have been fitted and inset in the wood, they are removed and the stock is shaped and finished from there. Completely opposite of the modern practice of buying the stock formed and fitting the metal parts of the gun to the wood.

The second interesting thing was rifling the barrel. Did you ever wonder how barrels were rifled in the 1700's with no power tools or machining rigs? So did I. (picture 2)

The long wood piece you see in the picture is about 5 inches in diameter and 5 feet long. The rifling pattern is carved on the wood pattern which is then run through a gate which follows the grooves on the wood. The rifling tool is attached to the end of the wood pattern and is the diameter of the rifle barrel. As the pattern is forced through the gate by hand, it rotates the rifling tool in the same pattern. The whole assembly moves forward and the tool is forced through the barrel, rifling it as it goes. With a set up like this you could rifle a barrel in your own living room.

Looking around, all the smiths were in their fifties or sixties, I hope they have apprentices or the art will die out.

I was then off to the magazine which is basically storage for all the arms they would have to break out in the event of armed conflict or defense, but I will post on that later.

The Old Man

Today, the sentencing came down in the Chai Vang case. Fucker got what he deserved. If only Wisconsin had the death penalty, this certainly would be a most deserving case.

I didn't realize this had happened until I checked my site meter and realized that it had gone completely nuts. Then I received another email from a member of the Hmong community, who made a pointed and substantive argument that white people suck.

Hey Benjamin; i see and heard the news about deer hunting in Crow Wing County
(Brainerd, MN). Chai Vang killed another Reneck. Hahahahahaaha Why don't Whites
blame this on Chai Vang too, so he can get another life term in prison? I
believe and honestly tell you that, if Chai Vang isn't already in Whites'
custody. You White people are going to point the finger on him for this
shooting. you white racist is going to say, yeap...yeap, Chai Vang is a person
of interest in this shooting. Too BAD. White shot White. You guys say, oopssss,
it's an accident. but if Whites shoot Asian and Asian sent Whites to Hell. You
guys say, nope...nope...it's not accident. It's a murder.
hahahahahahaaha....another one down. this time White killed white. the whole
country is so quite!

This will be the last post on this topic. While it is definitely a source of hits (Say Uncle's roundup from last year is still a top 20 Google result,) the dipshit got what he had coming and I don't need the bullshit.

Contrary to much of the discussion I have had on this topic, San Francisco appears to be as nutty as they like to bill themselves.

Fuck 'em.

Gratuitous picture of the Old Man with a gun he didn't like and a shitty scope. 

Our regular haunt. It goes out to about 600-700 yards. Centered in the picture is me in my truck, heading out to hang paper at 400 yards. Bit of difference. 

WV range. More beautiful than anything in this God forsaken state, but limited to 25, 50, and 100 yard shooting. 

The Old Man recently attended a family reunion in Virginia. The virtues and pitfalls of that decision are still being discussed, but apparently I have a third cousin who needs to get married off, and her father thinks I might be the ideal choice.

On the way back, he stopped to visit some family in WEST Virginia. I have an aunt, uncle, and two cousins there. They know the only living Jew in central WV. He is also an armed Jew. The Old Man and him took some time to shoot in the interim.

What always staggers my mind is the difference in ranges countrywide. I remember when I first saw pictures of the range Jeff at Alphecca shoots at in Vermont. It seems that when you have a pretty range, you trade distance for foliage. The pictures the Old Man took depict beauty in a range I can only imagine.

The Old Man tried to explain what our range looked like. Above is the contrast.

M1A on its first day at the range. The stainless barrel and mean looking flash hider make me...well, they look cool.

This rifle was ordered back in February. After all that time, I'm pleased to say, after the first range day with it, it was well worth the wait. It was a little pricey, but the match barrel, glass bedding job, and NM sights make this just about the most accurate firearm I have ever seen out of the box.

Within 10 minutes of shooting, we had a very nice 200 yard zero on this thing. Fifteen more and the Old Man was scoring 3" groups on steel at 400 yards. By the time we'd gone through 300 rounds of .308 (which was 45 minutes to an hour) the old man was getting hits on steel at 600 yards.

The sights have 1/2 moa adjustments with the long hooded apperture having another built-in 1/2 moa adjustment.

We ordered a bunch of mazagines right after we ordered the rifle, so we don't remember where the fuck they were purchased from, but the rifle fed flawlessly without a single jam or bolt lock (like I've experienced with Garands.)

The other thing that surprised me was the broad applications it has utility-wise. I am used to configurations/calibers having a somewhat narrow application inherent in the design. This weapon would be a good mid-range zombie weapon, as well as a long-distance shooter.

We already have scope mounts for the thing, and there is a pretty good chance that this will be the Old Man's backup Boomershoot, if it doesn't surpass the Old Man's esteem for the Remington Classic and become primary.

Additionally, be being the left-handed fuck-up I am, I'm happy to report that it did not fuck with me at all as far as ejecting brass and, unlike a Garand, uses a normal box magazine instead of those weird top-ejecting clips.

A+.