Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Minutiae




If anyone's interested, I finally got my pocket camera and my 'puter to talk to each other, so I added target pics from the last range forays with the PC 9, here and here.

My next adventure will be cracking the code for (scripting and) shooting and (editing and) uploading YouTube videos. (YouTube doofusii, nota bene those two parenthetical steps all y'all keep skipping like they were unimportant. They're not.)

Memes and pics now, and then I'm Warner Brothers.

I look forward to finding a way to get banned from everything on the Internet shortly after that.

Addendum:
For those that wondered, here is furball that watches the place, named Isis partly because of the resemblance to a StarTrek TOS character (sadly, not to April Tatro) in the episode entitled Assignment: Earth, but mostly because she's a little terrorist who takes over all space she can absorb.

If I'd left the eyes red, it would have conveyed her attitude better.

Monday, April 29, 2019

"You're Killing Me, Smalls!"













Frequent comment AB Prosper offers the following, in comments to Off The Cuff:
To the topic at hand I'd say your latent Civ Nat is out its cage again.

Hollywood for good or ill however disproportionately Jewish at the top and sometimes the cultural differences can be very grating especially when they are unconscious or concealed. The funny thing there , openly Jewish movies like the Princess Bride or TV like the O. C. with a Jewish lawyer as a lead no less can be really great.

I might broadly disagree with more than a few of your points,

A: is just wrong I'm afraid, saying "pass" on movies and TV just means you are just as entertained doing something else, probably cheaper. You lose nothing

B: I can't speak to this and while its true enough for the Marvel movies I did see, I simply don't like them for the most part , caveat Logan and do not wish to watch them. I saw the remake of Death Wish though and it was decent

C:True but there is little good culture in Hollywood

D: I think not, Few people can remember movies from the 60's and 70's and they made a lot of good ones. The medium will also die faster than books and I suspect in a hundred years or so, none of them will be remembered and the medium dead. Books will go on and on though only some will be remembered

E: So? Its a dead nation now and the medium that it created can go with it for all I care.

F: Not our jobs to spread our values and its folly to do so in this age as we can see from the actions of people in charge have spent decades doing just that and fucking everything up. American values as seen in the Constitution and all that barely work for us and won't work for anyone else anyway. They were meant for a very specific people and a very specific time and didn't survive industrialization or the first European immigration wave

G: Too late for the most part I think though its will be tempered by the fact most moves going forward have to be international and get past Chinese and Indian censors as the market there combined is like 8x that of the US . The only way around that is for the Right to build its own infrastructure with things like what Vox Day is doing and for us to support them

I also strikingly doubt Hollywood is promulgating by message of nationalism for all and to each people its own culture traditions and ways . A few movies do promote Americanism but that isn't my ideology at all.

That said your last point about culture is spot on.

Broadly though, its not bad to simply avoid media and find something better to do with you time than watch TV or waste ,money at the movies, YMM as they say very

Once again, we remonstrate, not with AB, but with the unvoiced thousands his response represents:

A. That's just gainsaying. And books vs. movies is a false dilemma. Neither need exclude the other.
By not going, you lose the most important, visible, and influential cultural medium, in return for nothing. No one is saying sit in the cinema 24/7/365. But going to the few good flicks every year is as inconsequential as voting. Ask our current president if voting matters. Then ask the criminal shrew he defeated.

B. It's a free country, but the underlying point remains, and actions (as well as inactions) have consequences. See A and H.

C. All the more reason to support the few pearls there are.

D. Last week's box office, for any value from 1925-present, shows that's not so.
If you're depending on the apocalypse to wipe out the medium, that becomes a self-fulfilling curse. Plays have been around for 3000 years; but now, we see them digitally for the most part. And the worst-produced TV show you ever saw was better than the best local theatre you'll ever get. It's just the nature of the beast.

E. See D, above. Cultural nihilism is a poor excuse for ennui.

F. Another self-fulfilling curse. It's exactly your job to fertilize the ground, till the soil, and plant the trees, both culturally and actually, for the next generation and beyond, even if you'll never sit in their shade nor eat their fruit. You've let the civilizational poisoners do that for 50+ years; how's your current everyday going now after that monumental error starting probably before you were born?
People who won't man the pumps of civilization deserve to be adrift at sea without hope when the boat sinks, but for the millions they'll condemn to a similar fate through laziness and indifference they deserve to die a thousand deaths. And they're going to get both.

G. The market in China and India is a fraction of the US market and always will be; it's about dollars, not bodies. They aren't paying $10-15@ there to see flicks, and in China, they simply steal them outright for nothing. This is why Hollyweird is nailing itself into its own coffin. Americans won't see 95% of their tripe, and the Chinese won't pay for what they make, even the good stuff, but they'll happily bootleg it and laugh about that.
For reference, this Avengers movie was already pirated in China before I saw it, at midday on the day it nominally opened.

You get the culture you build and nurture, and that's what gets you the civilization amidst which you (and generations yet unborn) will live.
TANSTAAFL.
Anyone cheering pulling down the Parthenon and burning Notre Dame is a Visigoth, no matter how they dress it up.

Anyone who can't find $10 once in a blue moon to see a good flick is sure as hell not going to man the barricades and put their own life on the line when a cultural conflagration opens up in earnest. It's like saying I won't pay for a seawall now, but come the day, I'll take a sandbag down to the shore to stop the tsunami.

And not doing the easy things to wait for the hard things instead is, as noted, myopic and self-defeating.

I don't care if no one wants to see this particular pic.
I don't care if you see it via DVD/BD/streaming service, in the comfort of your home theatre lashup.
But someone who won't see any flick, ever, is cutting his own throat.
And a lot of other peoples'.
For no valid reasons, but just a plethora of excuses.

This flick grossed $357M, just here in the US, in 3 days.
That means they had an audience of 36M people for 3 hours, sitting there, and absorbing messages willingly, in rapt attention.
And 2-5 times that overseas, not counting the ones who watched it pirated for nothing.
$1.2 billion. $1,200,000,000.
And that's only in the first 3 days.
In a week this movie could buy and sell Donald Trump. In a year, you could add Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, George Soros, and dozens of lesser lights.
And half that audience is young, impressionable kids.

There isn't a producer in Hollywood anywhere, movies, TV, or commercials, who wouldn't kill his mother and yours and all their children but himself for a fraction of that audience, since 1900.

There isn't a president or candidate for the office going back to George Washington who's every had that kind of audience turnout. Not one.

Now, anyone, tell me why it's a waste of time and doesn't matter.
Anybody, call that kind of clout - financial, rhetorical, and cultural, combined - "just a comic book movie". (If you do, you're an absolute moron.)

People not getting this obvious common sense without being beaten over the head with a cluebat is why we're where we are right now, and why a cultural war is about to become a civil one, with all the trimmings.

POLITICS IS DOWNSTREAM FROM CULTURE.
Write it on the blackboard 10,000 times, until it penetrates your skull.

Andrew Breitbart shouted that from the rooftops, and still people don't get it.
People are setting their own houses on fire, and crapping in their own wells, and wondering why things aren't looking very rosy.

Nothing personal, and that's not aimed just at the original commenter.
But it's inarguably the way it is, and why.

And I'll drive the point home yet again with another flick moment of cultural history:

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Sunday Music: Take Five



In case 61M(!) YouTube hits on just this version didn't let you know it, this is the quintessential modern jazz track.

Everything in Jazz can be divided into BT5, and AT5, for before and after this modern classic piece.
One item on my bucket list before I die is to be able to play the drum part of this flawlessly, at least once.

Enjoy.
Over and over and over...

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Off The Cuff














"Piss on Hollywood, all of 'em. Haven't spent a cent on movies in decades, will never again. Money wasted better spent on mags and ammo. Why give your money to people who hate you?"
Good question. How about this answer:

A) Because that's myopic and self-defeating.
B) Because the underlying themes in most of the Marvel flicks have been root conservative themes.
C) Because good culture drives out bad culture.
D) Because one movie will outlast a hundred documentaries, a thousand books and essays, and ten thousand blogposts, penetrate straight to the roots of memory and consciousness, and wear furrows there.
E) Because movies are the uniquely American art form of the last century.
F) Because they penetrate into parts of the world where reading the Declaration of Independence or Bill of Rights out loud would get you shot or jailed.
G) Because yielding the medium to the lunatic communists is a recipe for losing it forever, and then the culture, and finally society and civilization itself.
How's doing just that been working for you for the last 50 years?
H) Because (say it with me): politics is downstream from culture.

You give your money to people who hate you because they're distributing your message to the ends of the world, and making it hip and cool.

And because your mags and ammo haven't killed any communists, have they?

Shall I go on, or is that Baby Harp Seal of an isolationist argument dead enough for you already?

None of this should be news to anyone.

Cutting off your own nose to spite your face never kills the giant.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Movie Review: Avengers - Endgame



WATCH THIS SPACE.

Not a tease.
I went to catch a late night premiere, so I could have something up early Friday. No dice.
Ten different screenings between 10PM and 12:30AM were completely sold out, except for 2-3 seats in the frontmost row.

Not desiring to spend two hours in back-killing contortions just to look up Ironman's nose, I'll catch an early show tomorrow.

If tonight's audience turn-out is any indication, after a months-long drought of craptastic offerings, this weekend's box office for this flick is going to be yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.

I should have an after-viewing write-up between noon and 1PM PDT Friday, early enough for anyone thinking about it to make a decision for the weekend.

And no, I'm not giving you any spoilers.

---
Friday Afterwards:

So, it turned out the first 10 showings in the morning were sold out as well.
I can count sold out shows in the last 10 years on my thumbs.
Go long on Disney stock this season. Between this, and StarWarsLand (or whatever they're calling it) opening at Disneyland just before Memorial Day (nice going bozos: you had three years' lead time, and you still couldn't get your crap together for a 5/4/2019 May The Fourth Be With You opening?!?), the Mouse is going to be rolling in acres of cash like Scrooge McDuck by the 4th of July.

First, a couple of tips:

Eat, and take a potty break, before you go. And don't buy the bladder buster-sized drink. This flick is every bit of 3 hours, start to finish.

Second, when the credits roll, split. No, really.
There are no teasers, no easter eggs, no nothing. Unless you want to see the crawl of the 4000 people it took to make a $300M movie. Don't worry about those folks; their checks all cleared 6 weeks to 6 months ago, when it was done in post-. When this one is over, it's over. Which is likely true for the franchise as well.

Stan Lee gets in his last cameo. (R.I.P., maestro.)
Everyone else is in this. Everyone.


They won't all be back. Which ones? Go see the movie.

If you've never seen one of the Avengers pics, don't start with this one. You're already twelve movies behind the curve.
If you have seen them, this one will be vastly more satisfying than the wholesale slaughter of characters at the end of Infinity War, which was nothing but an elaborate set-up for this slam dunk-fest. They had a lot of ground to cover with this one, and they only got caught milking it for pathos a few times. You will enjoy nearly every minute of this one.

So go see it, and enjoy the last good ride you're going to get.

If they make any more, rest assured some of your favorites are outta here permanently.
And Stan Lee is dead.

Which portends, if other franchise experiences are anything to judge by, with their usual hamfisted deft touch, the PC warriors at Disney are going to beat you over the head with Diversity! and GurlPower! from here on out. They mercifully kept it to a couple of token shots this time out. The next time around (and Hollyweird will milk a franchise until it's a dry husk, and then double down for half the budget), they will do to this what they did for Star Wars: i.e. destroy every tenet that made it great, and watchable, pee on your head, wipe their backsides with prior scripts, and then tell you it's what you have coming.

So enjoy what's probably going to be the last great ride in the Marvel-verse in forever, before Kathleeen Kennedy and the Disney tone-deaf SJWs get their moldy little fangs into this franchise, rip the guts out of it, and make it sound like a script brainstorming session between Ellen, Oprah, and TheSpew, because they can.

This is your last chance.

My rating: One Last Hurrah, No Encores

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Oh.



We just looked up and noticed the blog bodycount means someone yesterday was our 4,000,000 visitor. That's 6 months since #3M.

For that one, and the other 3,999,999 visitors, linkers, and commenters who continue to show an interest in things here since we started, sincere and humble thanks.

We'll try to do better.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Assinus Politicus - Assclown Of The Year



It has come as a rudely unpleasant shock to WA state senator and walking braindead jackhole Maureen  Moron Walsh [R - Retardia] that nurses do not, in fact, "play cards for a considerable amount of the day". Only someone who's never performed worthwhile labor in their adult life, and/or has a resting IQ in the low teens, somewhere just north of fungus, could managed to get both feet thusly inserted in their own gaping mouths, with their empty head simultaneously shoved so far up their own hindquarters so as to choke off the passage of light or oxygen. But it always cheers my heart when some elected functional moron's political turkey timer pops up to let us know they're done.

Someone on the Twaddleverse helpfully added her WA office number:
(360) 786-7630.
Have fun.

I will personally pledge to contribute to every opponent she faces in her next primary, and every other party's candidate from opposing parties in the general election, the next time this sorry sack of sh*t is up for a vote. She needs to be kicked RTF out of the state house for being that egregiously stupid in public, and based on her speech, we're guessing this is one of her brighter and more coherent stupid utterances. The rest certainly have to sound like she's having a stroke, every time she squawks and squeals.If she has the good grace to quit now, quickly, I'll contribute a like amount to Alzheimer's research and money to care for actual retarded people.

Were I in WA state, I would be gathering signatures for her immediate recall, as being too stupid to suck air and a waste of skin has to be a disqualifying factor in holding office, even in a community like Walla Walla.

But in true form, the memes and Twittterlanche on her head have been properly brutal.
“Nurses … probably play cards for a considerable amount of the day” is in the running for most inane, indefensible, disgraceful thing said by a legislator this year (even though the competition is really fierce). — Ajai Dandekar (@ajai_dandekar) April 20, 2019
When world-class retards tell you you're retarded, YOU'RE REALLY RETARDED. - A.















(And yes, I made that, but Kathy absolutely tweeted it.)
More here.

I'm also pretty sure Joy Behar ( "Why is she wearing a doctor's stethoscope?") could send along a few tips on coping with being the biggest jackass in America today to state senator Walsh.

I'll be dog-goned if I'm not piling on to this monumental level of stupidity.















And a personal benediction to Sen. Moron Walsh:

Don't worry, Sh*t-For-Brains. No nurse would ever treat you like you just treated a few millions of us.
Or...would they?
Sleep tight. Take your vitamins.
And may God have mercy on you when (not if) you end up in a hospital needing care.
No one else will.
You might want to think about getting some gold-plated Costa Rican medical policy.
For the rest of your life.
And for pity's sake, do the world a favor: Change parties.
You're already overqualified to be a Democrat socialist, so by all means, run down and sign up today. You'll increase the IQ of both Republicans and Democrats in WA state the minute you do that.

But walk tall, sweetheart.
Earning Assclown of The Year honors in April has to be some sort of record, even for a politician who's overmatched by celery bunches at the grocery store in a contest of wits.

You might have thought someone who'd had a heart attack and gotten two cardiac stents a couple of years back would have been a wee bit more circumspect, but remember, this is a politician we're talking about, not someone with a functional brain, let alone one connected to their mouth.



















Jesus rose from the dead today. But, you, Bright Light, should invest in a shroud and a cemetery plot.
Hey...is that a fork sticking out of your back?
Yeah, you're done.

Sunday Music: Happy Easter



Even if you're familiar with the later pure instrumental works of Celtic synth musician Jeff Johnson, you might not know that when he was but a youngster starting out, he regularly rocked a simple piano keyboard or an Ovation acoustic/electric up and down the West Coast.

With a theme apropos of the day, enjoy.

For something in a similar vein, something from a small family group from just down the street from where I grew up, another one you may have heard somewhere or other before.




If, perchance, you find yourself in a more secular frame of mind, try something else a bit more in keeping with your proclivities, but nonetheless appropriate fare today:


If you don't own this one, rectify that oversight, and collect one of the classic performances of American cinema, by a master of the craft.

 
And for those who think Hollywood is garbage, and there's nothing worth watching, and who have forgotten that film is the quintessential American art form, three movies on which you cannot lose today:
From 1956
From 1959
And from 2004

Enjoy your pursuits of the day.
 

Saturday, April 20, 2019

This Is Going To End Well...

h/t I Hate The Media

Because, well...the cartels pay better. Viva capitalismo!

Greater Aztlan Two U.S. soldiers were stopped and questioned by Mexican troops, while conducting a surveillance operation on the U.S. side of the border. According to officials, two soldiers were sitting in an unmarked vehicle north of the Rio Grande last week, when six Mexican troops approached with the guns drawn.
The troops reportedly approached the vehicle and confiscated a gun from one of the American soldiers.
One of the U.S. troops spoke Spanish and was able to talk to the group, explaining they were on U.S. territory.
The Mexican military personal allegedly thought the U.S. troops were on Mexican territory, as that part of the border is unmarked.

 
Firstly, by custom and formal agreement, until recent US ANG deployments in support of the current crisis, both nations' troops are limited to staying well back from the border, to prevent exactly this sort of "accidental" contact.
 
Secondly, the border's location isn't in dispute, nor has been for any time in 171 years. Their troops and ours know where it is, and which side they're on.
 
Thirdly, I've watched Mexican troops, and police, violate the border where they can without penalty, time and again. Whilst armed. Invariably, anyone on their side at the border isn't there to enforce the border, or anything else, except at the wishes of, and to the benefit of, the drug/smuggling cartels, which have controlled all movement across it for 10+ years. I have photographed and listened to, from rock-throwing distance, off-duty Mexican law enforcement scouting the border for passing drug and personnel shipments over it, and calling it in to their narco-jefes. I have witnessed them deciding, in the absence of US presence, to violate US sovereignty time and again, while armed, and not up to anything good. (The technical term this goes by in State Department conference rooms is "cassus belli".)
 
One of the border ranches I worked on, our host had a couple of pictures on his wall of a full squad of pickle-suited Mexican soldiers in the mid-1980s posed in front of his garage, a mile, three fenclines, and one set of PG&E electrical lines overhead NORTH of the international border, and their G3 military rifles at stack arms, which is where there were placed when found by rapidly arrived Border Patrol agents, summoned in the nick of time when the uniformed Mexican troops came north under orders onto his property to kidnap him, take him back to Mexican territory, and execute him. This was a couple of days after he reported a drug cooking lab house just over the international fenceline to US DEA authorities, and it subsequently blew up "unexplainedly", the night before crooked Mexican drug enforcement police were to raid it the next day. They claimed they "got lost" in broad daylight, were escorted back to Mexico at an international port of entry, given back their weapons, and the would-be victim told in no uncertain terms the attempt never happened, or he would be in court every day for the rest of his life testifying, contrary to the wishes of the US Gov. Under Reagan, FFS. The fix has been in forever.
 
I furthermore watched in real time as two Mexican cops patrolling the fenceline (which they didn't do routinely in that area) shot at two attempted crossers, not for trying to get across, which happened in that area with tedious regularity, but for trying it on their own, without a coyote on the cartel payroll, nor paying the $1-2K cartel "fee" for such exploits, which meant those cops weren't getting their cut from them either. And there was no "Alto! Manos arriba!" Mexican Miranda pretense, either. Those cops jumped out shooting, doing full mag dumps on sight when they glimpsed the two would-be crossers. I suspect they killed them, as we didn't see them re-attempt the crossing, and never saw the Mexican po-po hauling anyone off to jail afterwards. This is not a playground, kids. Big Boy Rules apply in full force. This is just what happens there.
 
Enforcing cartel business is what the Mexican military and police in the border regions do, going back decades. There are honest police and military forces there. They can usually be recognized by the bullet holes in their foreheads, or the fact that their heads are not found co-located contiguous to their torsos, in about 99% of cases. There are no other honest ones within 20-50 miles of the US-Mexican border, inclusive, from Tijuana to Brownsville. Write this on your hands with laundry marker, lest ye forget. Plomo o plata is the operating rule.
 
So if a small group of Mexican soldiers was on, or in this case, over the border, they were
a) dirty (and I'm not talking about their personal hygiene, though that probably applies as well)
b) working for someone other than the Mexican government at the time
to a 100% metaphysically true certainty.
 
And let's call this like it went down: They didn't "question" US troops. They captured them, disarmed them, robbed them, kidnapped them, and let these two world-class dumbphucks go, alive, because they didn't have any idea they would be there, and they were momentarily confused, and reverted to theft and criminality because it's their default mode.
 
Sleep tight, America. Big Green is keeping you safe with fucking idiots like this, and officers and NCOs who sent them there.
Note the deafening lack of details on who these two jet-fuel military geniuses were, who their NCOIC and OIC were, and what military intelligence bunch of stumblefucks sent them down there to wave their dicks, with less situational awareness, common sense, ROE, or live ammunition and the will to use it than we routinely gave PFCs on a routine DMZ patrol along the Nork border forty effing years ago.
 
The only reason those two US military personnel are both alive, and free, is because someone wasn't expecting to find them there, and didn't know what to do with them, but wasn't willing to risk an international incident over killing or kidnapping them.
Unlike, for instance, clueless jet ski tourists on the wrong part of a reservoir on the Texas border.
 
Maybe after a few NG dickheads are found strung up to trees with their genitals in their mouth etc., the general dumphuckery level of the average NG squaddie deployed there will move from imagining they're in some magical bubble of safety because "Muh military cammies", and the survivors will cross over into IQ levels higher than agave cactus. Time will tell, but I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
 
This is why whenever I ventured south, it was in company with friends, following Murphy's Laws of Combat ("Bring a gun. A long gun. Bring all of your friends with long guns..."), we carried a Basic Load and more of ammunition, and we were perfectly happy to expend it all rather than fall into the hands of anyone we encountered not driving a marked US official vehicle. The border, for 300 years, is bandit country.
 
These two clueless squaddies just learned that the hard way, and very nearly won the Second Place Award for Combat, with Cluelessness Clusters.
 
 
This nonsense is going to continue until someone lights up a squad of troops, from one side or the other, and possibly both ways. Or somebody just disappears.
 
Build the goddam wall, and put an end to this silly nonsense.
 

Be Careful What You Wish For...












Someone once asked how many men were needed to start a revolution.
Apparently, 77 is enough to get the ball rolling.
"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." - Captain John Parker, Lexington militia

"Throw down your arms, you damned rebels!" - British officer, 4th Regiment of Foot, on Lexington Common 
And then the F**k-Up Fairy landed, someone pulled a trigger, and the genie was out of the bottle.

Tally at the end of the day:

Colonials:
49 killed
39 wounded
5 missing

British troops:
73 dead
174 wounded
53 missing

The British troops, formed of disparate clumps of men and officers from a dozen regiments (which made command and control even more tenuous throughout the day) after brushing aside what was always intended as token resistance at Lexington (the colonial militia was on the common, not blocking the road at all, and made no move to impede the far superior British forces, all the colonial leaders and stores of weapons having been removed or hidden long before the Redcoats' arrival), marched on to Concord bridge, where they searched the town for weapons until noon, mostly to no great effect, but upon their attempted return to Boston got a much different greeting than at Lexington, and then began an all-day long fighting retreat that left every British officer from the original expedition injured or wounded and unhorsed, all of them exhausted, nearly out of ammunition, and all but surrounded and captured as they straggled back to the safety of Boston city limits. The British in Boston were subsequently surrounded and besieged by tens of thousands of enraged colonial militiamen, which troops then formed the seed of what became the Continental Army.

And with blood shed in strength by both sides, no way any longer to put back the cork to the genie's bottle.

Lesser lights in modern times, agitating for both gun control and confiscations, and shilling for an open conflict in the midst of civil society, should learn a lesson or three about being careful for what you wish.



 

Friday, April 19, 2019

Range Report II: Ruger PC9 Carbine









Having played with this indoors, and gotten it sighted in at home defense range, it was time to take it outside.


The carbine as tested. Note the charging handle on the left side.
And yes, that's the finest piece of Chinese glass $39 will buy. 









It was a perfect day. 75°, sunny, 1/10 clouds, with a 0-10MPH variable crosswind in the canyon varying from 3 o'clock to 8 o'clock.

And if you're keeping score at home, indoors was with Federal 115gr FMJ. Outdoors was with Winchester white box 115gr FMJ.

Shooting it this time off a sandbag on a concrete shooting bench, the 20Y zero proved to be low and right at 100Y.

I made similarly bold dope corrections to the previous settings, but at a more normal zero distance, they were overmuch. The next group was all high and left. Having some wee life experience with bracketing a target (with howitzers), I took off half the original change, and achieved everything in the black inside a 4" circle.

Which reminded me why I like going to the range.

Then I settled down, and focused on slow, steady groups. The variable wind made this a small challenge.
So did the jackhole who decided, on a 75% empty range with 50+ stations, to settle in right next to me and begin rapid-fire strings of turning money into noise with his AR.

Which reminded me why I hate going to the range.

(Which is why a priority for Castle Anthrax is outside-city-limits ability to shoot on the property, WheneverTH I feel like it, consistent with safety and neighborliness.)

After relocating away from Slob A$$hole, re-arranging my gear, and setting up my target 3/4ths of the way to the other end, things were much more agreeable.

The wind died down for awhile, I took my time, and the groups tightened up to where I was moving the centers 1 click at a time.

The final adjustment was 2 3/4" L, and 3 1/2" Up, from the 20Y zero.
I then put the best part of two 10-round strings into the same fist-sized group I'd achieved the other day at 20Y, with a couple of fliers that were me jerking a trigger that is anything but a smooth precision rifle example, and lets off when it feels like it at nearly 5 lbs. of pull. And I think Ruger was using Soviet trigger pull gauges when they made that claim.

Nonetheless, you won't shoot yourself in the foot with it if your aren't an idiot, and I didn't buy it to shoot precision marksmanship. But as I'm not alone in my estimation, there are several after-market drop-in trigger groups on the market, one of which may find its way into my carbine.

According to comments elsewhere, a carbine that will put pistol rounds into minute of chest pocket at 100Y is no improvement over a Glock pistol, for a penalty of 5-5.5 pounds.
Elmer Keith being dead, I will shoot any non-professional using their stock Glock pistol against my Ruger rifle as described, for $1/point at 100Y and farther, and we'll see whether the 5 pounds is worth it.

It was windy, and yes, I rushed a couple.
Just to rub it in, I had 25 rounds left over from the 100 round box I started with.
I was originally going to sight-in at 200Y, but as it was both late in the day, and not worth the walk, I opted for some fun instead, with a bit of serious effort.

The range has metal gongs set up out to 600Y.
Including a 15" circle, and a 14" tall pig silhouette at 200Y.

Standing offhand, and using Kentucky windage, I used the duplex reticle to address the problem. After 2 "overs", it turned out the part of the reticle where the crosshair fattens up to a post at 6 o'clock is the exact bullseye for 200Y, with no farther sight manipulation whatsoever.

Just the way it worked out.
























So I then proceeded to clang both the chest-width circle, and piggy, 23 times in a row.
Bang-clang. Bang-clang. Lather, rinse, repeat. Bang-clang.
Like I said after dialing it in indoors: tedious regularity.
Standing.
Offhand.
200Y.

{Next time I get back there, I'll shoot a video of that, too, and post the YouTube of it. -A.}

Come show me you can do that with your pistol at 200Y, and when you fail, ask me what the extra 5 pounds gets you. More importantly, anyone with minimal training could do the same thing, which cannot be said of pistol shooting at that range, ever.

Another commenter asked why a carbine for 9mm now weighs 2-3 pounds more than an M1 from 1943.
1) a heavier barrel, that takes down in about a second
2) a non-locking straight blowback action
3) which includes a molded tungsten firing block weight inside the PC9 bolt group, to keep the rifle from doing what Marlin's Camp guns did: battering themselves to pieces, even with hot +P 9mm rounds.

Words fail to convey how happy I am not to have to clean any part of a gas system on this thing. A quick spray-down of the bore with Break Free CLP, and half a dozen patches wrapped around a bronze bore brush, and the barrel is clean.

Word to the wise: blowback means the charging handle is coming all the way back, each and every time, whichever side you have it on. I watched to know this, I did not experiment by putting my mitt in the way, but if you do it the hard way, well, look up Mark Twain's comment about the man who carries a cat by the tail.

Tomorrow, I'll crack open the manual again, and take the action apart for a proper cleaning.
All I did between Range Days 1 and 2 was Q-tips and a few wet patches inside the open action, to get the worst of the crud out from around the bolt and such.

The down side of a blowback action is that everything does, in fact, blow back into the action, so everything from the ejected brass to the working parts get dirty. Coal miner's face dirty, in fact.

Tomorrow is cleaning day.

When I get the camera and card reader sorted out, I'll start posting my own pics, instead of web grabs. (Maybe even crank out short YouTube snippets.) But that's something for another day.

And the fact that I did two weapons-related posts (which happen around here randomly, at best) on the day before and the day after the anniversary of Weaponsman's passing: pure serendipitous happenstance. I think. (Cue spooky music.)

Next project is upping my Vaughn hammer-hatchet to something close to what PJF did with his:

 

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Absent Friends



Never got to meet the guy in person, or shake his hand.
Still miss him, his blog (which has evidently bitten the big one as well, but mirrored here), and the commentariat it produced. (Those that drop by, say 'Hi.')

 




Range Report I: Ruger PC9 Carbine









As noted a few days back, I picked up one of these recently, and today was time to try it out, and do some sight adjustment.

The Good:
Ruger. I.e. built like Russian tank.
It feels solid, sturdy, and compact.
6# 13oz stock, and mine was about 8 pounds as tested, with scope and sling.
Points well.
Aperture ring rear and protected front blade iron sights, on barrel assembly, adjustable for windage and elevation.
Picatinny top rail built into receiver.
Comes with multiple stock spacers to adjust length of pull.
Breaks into two pieces for compact storage.
(With weapon unloaded, draw bolt slightly back, pull up on takedown plunger, rotate 1/8th turn counterclockwise, then slide barrel assy. out of receiver. That fast and easy.)

















Charging handle and mag release are ambidextrous.
Ruger OEM mag well swaps out with one that takes Glock 17/19/26 mags.
Threaded 1/2-28 muzzle w/thread protector, for flash hiders, and/or SHHH! cans, if you've got the federal tax stamp.

The first thing I did was use one of the three included Allen wrenches, remove the factory Ruger mag well, and swap in the included Glock block instead. I already have the above models, and have no desire to buy OEM Ruger mags at whatever the market price is, for something that's been Californicated to hold only 10 rounds. (Hopefully if Duncan v. Becerra is finalized, that'll sunset that nonsense hereabouts.) Meanwhile, since I'm going to be round-limited, I opted to use G26 mags, for minimum profile.
Provided one seats a loaded magazine firmly into place, they work just fine.
(So do G19 and G17 mags.)
If you don't check it, you'll find the magazine now with nine rounds sitting under the weapon after your first shot jiggles it loose.

The second thing I did was swap the charging handle to the left side of the receiver, where it belongs for right-handed shooters with two hands. That leaves your dominant hand on the stock grip, which works just fine. The changeover took about 90 seconds, 20 of which were reading the manual to see how to do it. If you can screw in a light bulb, you can change the charging handle over.

As presbyopia means never having to worry about your iron sights, I acquired an optical sight to make this fully useful. (If I wear my readers, I can see the sights, but not the target. With naked eyes, I can see the target, but not the sights. I still have better than 20/15 vision. It's just that after a certain number of birthdays, it now starts 4' from my face, rather than at the tip of my nose. And my arms aren't that long. So optics.) Given what the weapon costs, I couldn't see blowing $300 or more on optics for a short-range carbine. This is not an M40A3, it's a truck and brushwhacking gun.

So, instead of a spendy red dot, I bought the $39 Chinese-made Barska 3-9X w/duplex at WallyWorld. (No, I don't ever expect to need more than 3X, but fixed magnification wasn't an option.) But, true to form, the Barska came with rings made to mount that thing on top of a 10/22 or Marlin .22, not full-sized Picatinny rail. So I bought a pair of Leupold 1" rings, for as much as the scope cost, and mounted the whole assembly on top.


The carbine as tested. Note charging handle is on the left side.
And yes, that's the finest piece of Chinese glass $39 will buy.

 












Thus prepared, it was time to head to the range.


It took about 40 rounds to get it centered, shooting 5-shot groups, and at an indoor range with about a 20Y max range.

Recoil?
What recoil?!?
It's a 9mm carbine. Your 10 year old daughter could shoot this all day long.
One-handed.

I started about 2" right and 2" high, but given the relatively short range, the scope corrections were rather bold. By the 40th round, the rifle was more accurate off-hand than I was capable of, and keeping 10 round mag strings all in not just the 10 ring, but the middle of the 10 ring at 20Y became child's play.


To the point that I was able to Have A Nice Day on the last string.


The Bad:
I have the takedown 10/22, which comes with a nice backpack carrying case to stow and tote the weapon broken down, with space for ammo, additional mags, cleaning gear, survival supplies, etc.
The PC 9 does not include such a case. Pity. It should, even if it's sold as an after-market accessory.

I had one stovepipe, which annoyed me, but it's still getting broken in.
As it gets dirty, you may need to assist the bolt to close home on a new mag, due to residue fouling.

I went through 100 rounds in less than an hour, slow-fired. The barrel is fluted, which aids cooling. Which is fortunate, because even that modest amount of firing got things h-o-t.

And though I may or may not have some legally-obtained higher cap pre-ban Glock mags, what this thing wants is the 33-round happy sticks, or better yet, the 50 rd. drum or the 100-round Beta-C mag.

And a place to shoot outdoors where you can practice rapid fire.
On pumpkins, watermelons, and old plastic milk jugs filled with water.
Wear gloves. (Be careful: the piece is hot!)

The worst thing about this weapon is that they aren't yet making it in .45ACP (they have evidently announced a .40S&W version for next year), and capable of accepting M1911 mags. I would buy twelve of those. (I have no idea if Ruger will figure this out on their own and add that choice, or whether it will take them another 20 years to clue in, if ever. But it should be a slam-dunk business decision.)

The Ugly:
This thing comes from the factory with a front sling swivel, and a molded swivel loop at the butt as part of the plastic molded stock.
Ruger was 0-2 on this.
The front sling swivel was 20° out of whack, because some flunky was too lazy to put it on straight. So I had to fix that.
And then the mold job on the rear sling swivel leaves the loop too wide to put on standard QD sling swivels, necessitating some Bubba gunsmithing on one side of it with a mill bastard file, to get the sling ring profile to accommodate the QD swivel and close properly. This tells me that Ruger either didn't check, or doesn't care. Sloppy.

That's it.
I have nothing else to complain about regarding the weapon.
IMHO, Ruger has another winner, and a worthy successor to the discontinued Marlin Camp carbines.
This thing is the poor man's Tommy gun, esp. if you slap 33-50-100 round magazines into it.
If you have a 9MM Glock pistol, you should get one of these to make it a matched set.


Sometime in the next couple of days, I'll take it to an outdoor range, and get it dialed in for 100Y. I may even see about learning its 200Y zero for the scope mounted on it, just because I can. When I do that, Range Report II will follow.

Addendum in re: Comments:
Boys and girls, there are limits to what I'll do.
Putting a $300 (or more) sight on a $600 pistol-caliber carbine is one of them.
No matter how quick and nifty it would be.
Even with just the irons and my eyes, I could still point and hit minute of bad guy out to 100Y, just from muscle memory.
At this point, just on 3X with the cheapie Barksa, it holds minute of X-ring at house and yard-width distances. My group at 20Y slow-fired offhand would fit under a teacup. Tomorrow (probably), at longer range, I suspect it'll be dialed in even farther out, and I'll see what the overs and unders are for intermediate ranges.

At that point, lacking the legal ability to add the can it wants on those threads, and the drum mags I want (yet), the only thing I'm adding is a thumb-buster loading block to make reloading the 10-rd G26 mags even quicker and easier, and probably another handful (6-8) of those, and a pouch or two on the gun case to hold them in.

And in case anyone at 5.11, Maxpedition, Fox, Voodoo, Condor, etc. are listening/reading this, WTF don't any of you guys sell MOLLE pouches cut to hold
a) Californicated 10-rd standard rifle mags for things like ARs, AKs, M1-As, etc.
b) 10/22 mags by the triple or more
(currently I use MOLLE grenade pouches instead, lacking a steady supply of M67 frags)
(Hint: a bandolier that had 10-12 pouches for them? GENIUS!)
c) G26 mags 4-, 6-, or 10 across, on a belt or MOLLE grid???

When Ruger's PC9 case becomes a reality, I'll probably get one of those too, if it stores it broken down.

The only reason now to get an Inland M1 Carbine is nostalgia.
(Which doesn't mean I won't acquire one, or a WWII original, at some point.)
This thing does everything the M1 would do, cheaper, and with far more utility.
I still have a Camp .45 around somewhere in vintage shape, which wants the after-market recoil springs, buffer blocks and such, but the day Ruger does a PC45, that old Marlin is going on the sale block, to help pay for the dozen PC45s I'll want in a ready rack.

And the Ruger PC wants three, maybe four, after market stocks:
One in solid wood. Birch, walnut, whatever.
(That may be a weekend/retirement project someday.)
A wood one with the M1 carbine sling cut and profile.
A plastic one like they make, but with a sliding/folding adjustable length.
A plastic one, with a pistol grip.
I suspect in a year or two CM&T, Magpul, and a dozen other companies etc. will get hot on those last two. If not, they're fools.

Follow-Up: Range Report II: Ruger PC 9 Carbine

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Cathedral - by David Macaulay



Fire and cathedrals are nothing new.
This 1986 PBS documentary, based on the Caldecott Medal-winning book by David Macaulay, should give you a bit more insight into the topic.
Enthusiastically recommended.

Borepatch yesterday, in the same vein .

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Sunday Music: Kool & The Gang - Summer Madness



Original cut released in 1974, extended cut a year later.
Either 40+ years ahead of its time, or timeless. Take your pick.

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Long Past Time To Get A Net


 
 
In my travels, I was in a department store the other day. As I made my way to where what I wanted was located, I could hear someone loudly mother-effing everyone from 50 feet away, over the buzz and throng of shoppers. He proceeded to circle the entire store, shouting, cursing, carrying on, pacing, and slamming items as he passed them. He was clearly and undeniably out of control. And most of the store staff, with the wits of hamsters, wasn't sure if this was a problem. No, jackass, having someone so out of control he's flinging heavy items onto the floor and yelling and cursing at the top of his lungs is everyday behavior, everywhere. Of  COURSE he's a problem, dipshit, so either deal with it or call the cops! Well, dozens of school shootings having taught people nothing, they had to ask an assistant manager if calling the po-po for out-of-control lunatic publicly trashing the store was allowed. I sh*t you not.
 
Fortunately, enough bystanders had essentially cordoned fucktard to the point that his only option was out the front door, and out into the parking lot, before store mismanagement could create a mass-casualty incident. Now he's the city's problem. And then his (adoptive, and also fucktarded) mother gets in the store staffs' faces for "creating a scene" (No ma'am, Junior Fucktard did all the scene creating and loud mother-f**king...perhaps you noticed?), and tried to assure one and all that the guy, well into his majority, six feet tall, and loudly violent, was "fine, no danger to anyone" because he was autistic. To her, apparently, taking him out in public when he was completely unhinged and out of control, and a threat to anyone within reach, seemed like a good idea. The depths some people will go to define deviancy downwards is breathtakingly unbelievable until you have your nose rubbed in it.
 
Which brings us to larger realms of discussion of the same phenomenon.
 
Mind you, I'm not advocating anything here, just stating clinical facts.
Given two-plus years to adjust to the reality of a Trump presidency, and despite how unpalatable it may be for them to acknowledge that reality, the fact remains that the Left is simply incapable of maintaining a grip on reality.
 
psychosis
noun


Who, looking at the Left, as exemplified by current leadership, could seriously contend that they're merely misguided, misinformed, or sincerely but goodheartedly mistaken?
They openly advocate confiscatory levels of taxation, draconian attempts to dictate thought, word, and deed in every aspect of everyone's life, and embrace the wholesale destruction and starvation of the society to bring it into compliance with their barking mad fantasies.

Global warming, shown again and again to be nothing other than political hoax and junk science of the rankest order, still rules their thinking. They're Paul Ehrlich acolytes, stuck in 1968.

The want wide open borders, consequences to the nation be damned, purely so they can undo the realities of a majority overwhelmingly more-educated white society, in order to achieve irrevocable political power for themselves and their cronies.

They have robed lunatic acolytes who think one federal judge can re-interpret the Constitution and all federal code on account of his or her purely personal whims, and dictate national security and federal policy from one bench in the Ninth Circus.

In the nonsensical frothings of functional retards like Avocado Occasional Castro, and the knee-jerk anti-Semite death-cult mutterings of the two jihadists all recently inflicted on Congress, even professional meatheads like Chuck U Schumer and Queen Alzheimer's Pelosi have begun to see inklings of what happens when they hand the revolution over to the machete-wielding cannibal younglings.

















Do they stop any of this behavior, upon mature reflection? Censure them? Remove them from the chambers of power, for cause (as is their right)?

Hell, no!

They double down on it.

When their frothing partisan witch-hunt and attempted coup predictably explodes in their faces, they try to gaslight the once and current Attorney general, who accuses the law enforcement and intelligence communities under the illegal Kenyan president of turning the full force of governmental power against his political opponent for political reasons. They feign shocked incomprehension at how using secret intelligence courts and vague malarkey about imaginary foreign influence as carte blanche to go trolling through then-billionaire and current POTUS' entire life and business dealings is banana-republican at best. Then they turn on their attack dog for failing to manufacture fake news goods, when he and his rabid Shrillarites turn up nothing but a couple of sleazy lawyers self-sliming themselves.

And then double down, and claim there was something, rather than nothing, there, even though they had two years and millions of dollars to find something, anything, and came up empty.

These are not the actions of rational people in control of their faculties.
They are not, despite the likelihood of criminal indictments potentially all the way to the entirety of the last administration, the actions of merely evil people facing the  consequences of their crimes coming to fruition and punishment.

These are people deep in their own fürherbunker, cheerfully directing sweeping counterstrokes by armies long ago wiped out and surrendered, and waving their arms in delusional glee as they imagine their triumphant return to power and the destruction of all their enemies, real and imaginary.

Such satire pales in the face of documented reality.

One does not put delusional psychotics in charge of anything.
One does not indulge their rants.
One throws a net over them, straps them down, and medicates them into oblivious silence, until the rabid squirrels in their heads stop running the bearings off their exercise wheels, and they can once again be re-acquainted with reality.
If necessary, by electroshock therapy to the temples.

These are not sane, evil people you're dealing with.
These are insane evil people you're dealing with.
Cornered, unpredictable, unreachable, and with an army of similarly deranged flying monkeys every bit as irrationally delusional as their psychotic overlords.

They're either going to have to be put into restraints (gently or not), and then secluded and treated according to the magnitude of their psychoses; or they're going to have to be put down like rabid dogs.

There is no longer any third option. One does not let a mad man into the cockpit or onto the bridge of a jetliner or aircraft carrier, and one cannot abide them running rampant citywide, creating chaos and mayhem at every place the voices in their head so direct them.

That there is going to have to be an intervention is a given.
Whether they survive it is an open question.
But whether the insaniacs of Leftardia can be trusted with any power whatsoever, for generations at minimum, has been decided in the negative, without any other recourse.

They are going to have to be removed unless and until they can at least maintain the façade of sanity. If that's even within the realm of possibility for them.

But go they must.
That much is beyond any dispute.

The rest of the country has been patient beyond sainthood waiting for them to come back into the fold of reality.
It isn't happening, and probably never will.

The only choice that remains, for them, is whether they go quietly, or forcefully.

 
And don't think for a second, even though I didn't mention them or show faces, that the ABCNNBCBS media is off the hook in this either. They belong in the same padded wagon.