Fun Turns to Tragedy!!!

The Skinny

I am a gun enthusiast trapped in the People's Republic of Maryland. My political affiliation is Independent, as the Ruling parties are both full of crap, and long ago stopped representing the common man. If the Libertarians weren't such freaks I would probably be one. I am a member of the Nation of Riflemen and damn proud of it. I once took an oath that I would support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As far as I know I never broke that oath, and will continue to follow it. I am not Politically Correct and will NEVER be Politically Correct. If you need to know more, feel free, Ask.

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well this slacker needs to do some updating on his blogroll. 

Say Uncle touches on a lot of subjects and has tipped me off to more than one MD related issue,  Say Uncle is a pro 2A site.

Cowboy Blog is another Arizona blogger who is into ferrets and firearms.  He put together a list of Pro 2A gun bloggers and I made it onto that list.  Cool…

TFS Magnum who’s Blog tagline says it all “357 Magnum - maximum stopping power (well, almost)—Taking pot shots at the lunacy on both sides of the political divide. Supporting the 2nd Amendment, and rational debate”.  I think that stands on its own.

Heads Bunker who is hosting a gun bloggers shoot with a twist.  you have to have a team with a non shooter.  I have a non shooter lined up, Canadian even.  I don’t have the right type of rifle since my only evil assault weapon is scoped, and you can’t have a scoped weapon.  But I have an old pre WWII K31 which I will be using (we will probably be disqualified since it is not a semi-auto but I just want to get B out shooting). 

Hell in a handbasket runs a pro 2A blog with tons of angst.  James also hits on a lot of other subjects.

Freedomsight is prodominatly a 2A blogger who has linked to me.  Not to be insulting, but is that your real picture???

Individ is a pro individualism blogger and his tag-line is thus, The Blog for “Rugged Anti-Collectivists”.  Which I find myself becoming more and more.

Texican Tattler is where I first stumbled across the Tactical Tommy article, go check it out for a good laugh (grrrr I can’t find the link).  I am adding this site (which is a multi contributor site) since they added me to their blogroll and I really don’t want any Catfish poo…

I think that wraps up the bloggers that have linked to me, who I enjoy reading, and who are pro gun bloggers.  I should be caught up with the blogroll for a while.  I will be classing these under both of my blogrolls as some are more Gun based than others.

Well there is never a dull moment on the little street outside of our house.  We have a endless stream of stupid, inattentive, and generally clueless drivers.  We have been here for four plus years now, and have seen many accidents (until we got the sign posted on the street at the far end of our yard, they were usually in our yard).  We have a traffic light near the end of our property, it is an idiot magnet.  People who want to beat the light, fall asleep, not pay attention, etc.  So yesterdays installment of lets dial 911 was actually a surprise, I for once did not hear the impact of two cars.  But Liz got home and told me to look out the window. 

Seems someone had forgotten to break and had hit the back of a pickup truck.  I would have taken a shot of the pickup but the bumper was hardly tweaked.

So the fun never ends…  Unfortunately I had to go to the vet with Liz and Max so I could not take any pics of the car once the fire truck had arrived. 

On a side note they are building a fire station about half a mile from my house but it is not finished…

I seem to have a lack of inspiration lately. 

I think I have one brewing, I certainly got a pic that is worthy of posting.

I also need to get the blogroll updated as I have quite a few entries that need to be made…

As my faithful reader may have noticed I will be heading out to Boomershoot in just 69 days.  I had earlier posted up a list of things that needed doing before I got on the plane.  Well here is an update of that list

Boomershoot checklist

1) Rifle:

(Check, Barrel break-in half done)
2) .308 Brass: Check, 400 pieces of new Lapua Brass
3) 20 MOA scope base: Check, Nice Ken Farrell scope base
4) Scope:

(Check)
5) Scope rings:

(Check: Installed and Lapped)
5) Spotting scope:

(should be in my hands today)
6) Shooting Mat:

(Check)
7) Hotel reservation: Check, 2 bedroom Suite at the Helgeson Hotel (for 65 bucks how can you go wrong)
8) Airplane tickets:

(Check)
9) Rental Car: Up in the air. I may have a ride. (now that my tickets are booked I will check with Ben)
10) Load Development:  In Progress ( I will be picking up powder and primers today)
11) New Stock: On Order (the factory stock is really flexible, which is really bad)

I will probably go finish breaking in the barrel this saturday (even though I will probably freeze may butt off in the process)  I have been shooting 168 grain remmington ammo through it during this period,  The groups have been getting tighter but with this ammo I don’t expect to get much below 1 MOA (which is where it is shooting right now). 

Things are on track and all systems are GO…

Well it looks like the first of the MD AWB related bills is dead dead dead.  There was quite the showing at the state house.  The public came out and roundly thumped a certain public representative for the sneaky method of trying to create a list of “Assault Weapons”.  The point that was driven through to the representatives, is that use of these sneaky tactics is no longer going to be tolerated by the people.  Additionally the prevailing opinion that the people are no longer going to trust a legislative body that tries these tricks and back door legislative shenanigans was clearly evident, even to the Sheriff of Montgomery County who was there as one of the two people to testify in it favor.  His telling remark was that the people standing behind him were not anti crime, but just did not trust the bill at face value. 

I have already reserved the 9th of March as a day in Annapolis, as that is the day that the full AWB bill will be heard.  My O My there will be a crowd in Annapolis that day.

A regular return to posting will commence now that I am not quite so peeved about all of this…

Recently I was reading a thread at The High Road that covers the first part of the AWB mess that is happening in MD this year. 

Norton posted a very insightful letter about the actions of certain representatives, he also notes that they are not scheduling the hearings firearms related bills in a timely fashion.  I just thought that was the politicians normal operating procedure.  Seems it might not be that way all the time. 

Norton is sending this letter to the Baltimore

Sun, which is so biased in favor of gun control that they can’t get gun stories even close to factual.  Norton later posts that he doubts that the Sun will publish it before the hearing.  He surmises (probably correctly) that they will post it after the hearing by a week or two, just to have the appearance of being fair and balanced. 

Here is Norton’s letter in its entirety…

State Senator Frosh demonstrates the lengths to which he and the anti-gun lobby will go to force their agenda upon the lawful firearms owners of Maryland. By scheduling a hearing on less than a week’s notice, Senator Frosh and his backers hope to prevent firearms owners from organizing and being able to make an appearance in Annapolis. Furthermore, by spreading hearings on bills out over several days it is the hope that those in opposition to his bill will not be able to take multiple days off from work to testify before the committee, therefore diluting the effect of their testimony against his proposed legislation.

“Norton”

I heartily agree with Norton,  These laws are nothing more than a bit of smoke and mirrors, an attempt to cover up the real problem.  The criminal.

The short notice has made it so that I will not be able to be in Annapolis this coming Wednesday.  You can bet your ass I will be at the capitol when the Citizens protection act of 2005 comes up for hearings.  I will also not miss the opportunity to be at the capitol to voice my displeasure when the

Assault Weapons Ban of 2005 comes up for a hearing.

The more people that we have packing the room and spilling into the halls the better.  Lets make sure that they can’t ignore law abiding citizens.

Hat tip to the Geek for pointing this thread out to me.

This should be it as far as Bills in the Peoples Republic of Maryland for this session.  Here is a quick recap of the gun related bills in committee right now.

First, The Good:

HOUSE BILL 1211
Citizens’ Protection Act of 2005
Synopsis:

Altering the requirements and procedures for application for, and issuance of, a handgun permit; altering and eliminating specified fees; eliminating modified and limited handgun permits; eliminating the requirement that the holder have a good and substantial reason to carry a handgun; requiring an applicant to meet specified criteria and conditions to obtain a permit; requiring the Secretary of State Police to approve or reject an application for a handgun permit within a specified period of time; etc.

All that legal speak boils down to trying to turn the PRoMD into a shall issue instead of a

may issue state.

Second up in The Good category:

SENATE BILL 424
Public Safety - Handgun Identification Requirements - Repeal
Synopsis:

Repealing a provision that establishes a procedure for the collection and reporting of handgun shell casing information; etc.

Yes we wasted 2.5 million dollars on a

ballistic finger printing program that did not solve a single crime, and yes even the state police want to kill the program.

Now we move on to The Bad:

SENATE BILL 116
Assault Weapons Criminal Penalty Enhancement Act of 2005
Synopsis:

Designating specified firearms as assault weapons; designating assault rifles and copycat weapons as types of assault weapons; making it a misdemeanor to use an assault rifle or a copycat weapon in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence; etc.

Um no, they are not really here to try and reduce crime, they want to make a list of evil looking guns so they can ban them later.  Our representatives seem to think we are stupid.

Now we move on to The Ugly:

HOUSE BILL 948
Maryland Assault Weapons Ban of 2005
Synopsis:

Designating specified firearms as assault weapons; prohibiting with specified exceptions a person from transporting an assault weapon into the State or possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, purchasing, or receiving an assault weapon; requiring the Handgun Roster Board to compile and maintain a roster of prohibited assault weapons; etc.

Yep here is where they try to ban the scary looking guns, and they have quite an impressive list of guns that scare them.  Additionally they are taking a page from the Sara Brady gun bigot group in trying to keep any cosmetic changes from reclassifying the firearm into a legal firearm by calling them “Copycat Guns”.  The gun bigots will stop at nothing to ban all guns. 

Now there are 31 bills in the hopper that deal with firearms for this legislative session.  Most of them deal with trying to make the penalties for commission of a crime with a firearm stiffer.  The problem with all these laws is that they do absolutely nothing, criminals could care less about the law.  Until they pass a law, and fund a law enforcement effort that enables us to put anyone using any firearm in the commission of a crime behind bars for a very long time the criminals will carry on just as they do now.  Until they make it very public that criminals will be punished to the fullest extent of the law the criminals will just continue with business as usual.  I ask again, our the politicians really this stupid???

Now here is the last bill of the 31 that I am going to put up.  The redundancy department…

SENATE BILL 553
Criminal Law - Use of a Firearm in the Commission of a Crime of Violence or a Felony
Synopsis:

Prohibiting the use of specified firearms in the commission of specified crimes of violence or felonies.

I don’t even know how to caption this one.  Maybe under criminally stupid?

More details to come on the PRoMD 2005 AWB when I can talk semi rationally about the issue, as I now have a PDF of the text of the bill.  Frankly right now I am just too pissed off, even after a trip to the range to post about the AWB abomination.  As I will be writing letters to my representatives, I need to remain calm, Liz will be editing them to keep me from appearing like I am a foaming at the mouth gun nut until calm down.

Well they did it.  Introduced the MD assault weapons ban.

they slunk in like the dogs that they are and introduced it last night.  It was posted to the MD legislative site at 1:16 this morning.

No details besides this

HOUSE BILL 948

“Designating specified firearms as assault weapons; prohibiting with specified exceptions a person from transporting an assault weapon into the State or possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, purchasing, or receiving an assault weapon; requiring the Handgun Roster Board to compile and maintain a roster of prohibited assault weapons; etc.“

The have yet to post the PDF but you can be assured that I will post it as soon as I see it…

More to follow…

Thanks Say Uncle

UPDATE:  I have the bills text in PDF form now so I will be posting it up along with the list of

Well the rings came last night and I did a test fit with everything. 

Now there is a thing of beauty.  I can’t wait to put some rounds down range on sunday (if I can get mark to go to the range).  I will be shooting some factory match ammo while I break in the barrel.  Once I have the barrel broken in I will work up the loads that this thing will be shooting on a regular basis.  I am going with 175 grain Sierra match king bullets on top of Varget powder with Federal 210 match primers.  I will be replacing the factory stock early next month after I get the barrel all broken in…

I am a bit concerned about the height of the scope off of the barrel.

the measurement is .374 inches.  It is probably nothing to worry about but as this is my first bolt gun I am trying to be meticulous in setup of the rifle as that is what it takes to shoot out at a long distance accurately.

Boomershoot is rapidly approaching and now that I have my rifle and scope all together I am sure that Ben is sweating it less now.

Looks like the french are marching in the streets (or will be soon).  They all seem to be a bit miffed that reality has set in over there.  Yes folk it looks like their work week will get a bit longer.  Seems that the government has figured out that the 35 hour work week is killing their economy and they want to increase the work week.  Additionally they are miffed about shrinking welfare benefits. Poor Poor france. 

Here is the article about the poor french people…

Seems the former

socialist governments prime legacy is about to go the way of the dodo bird…

Maybe they will be able to compete with other countries since now their employees will be able to work longer and harder to make more money just like we do over here.  (ok, maybe we only work longer and harder…)

Well the screaming has started.  The president has proposed budget cuts and people are upset.  Guess what, Too Damn Bad.

It is long past time to start cutting the federal government, and it bloated programs down (in half would be really nice but that will never happen).  It is far past time that the politicians realize that the money that they pork barrel away is not theirs to do with as they see fit.  The politicians have an horrid track record and a shitty ROI.  Unfortunately the politicians don’t have the spine to do the right thing, it is no longer about serving the people as much as it is getting reelected. 

Our politicians need to be slapped a bit (ok a LOT).  Unless there is some money tree that they found and are not telling us about, we are going to get bent over to pay for their follies.  Frankly after just having done my taxes, any politician that even suggests raising taxes so they can support their pet projects (or even worse send even more money abroad) can go strait to hell.  They need to learn to make do with what they have.

It is time that we spend our money at home. Lets let the EU and the UN save the world for a while.  In fact, lets bring our troops home from where they are no longer needed (i.e. the EU).  We can use them to secure our borders since the mexican government feels that it is ok to send their people across illegally.  The UN and EU are big boys and girls that don’t need our help.

My Night Force scope arrived today. 

Even the Cat approves.  The Triangular box was unique, most scopes come in small compact square boxes. 

Very nice piece of glass.  I should have the rings tomorrow night.  There is nothing sadder than having a rifle and a scope but no rings…

Boomershoot in 78 days…

You will all bow before my Nerdiness…

I blame this on Kim du Toit, Joe Huffman, and the AnalogKid.  I had read Kim’s passionate post on the Schmidt-Rubin rifle and thought that would be a cool gun to own but had no need for a bolt action gun.  Enter Joe Huffman’s boomershoot, now I had a need for a bolt action gun.  I was busy putting together a gun for boomershoot and all the guys at my gun club went out and bought M1A rifles, now as I had already shot my wad on on a boomershoot rifle there was no way I was going to buy an M14 this year.  But I felt that shooting a scoped rifle against a non scoped M14 would just be cheating.  AnalogKid just happened to put up his post about the Schmidt-Rubin rifle and how cheap they are currently.  So off to the gun show I went. 

I was getting pretty bummed, as the gun show that we went to was pretty small.  I looked through the top floor and no one seemed to be selling any WWII guns.  I had just about given up hope when I came across an old guy selling a few guns, he had an Enfield, Mauser, and three Schmidt-Rubin K31 rifles.  I haggled, hemmed and hawed, and finally bought the nicest one of the bunch, along with 70 rounds of ammo.

The Swiss rifle seems to be all about fine fit and finish, everything is well put together, tolerances are very tight all around this rifle.  The Swiss also have a good bit of pride in their weapons as they have taken the time to put a swiss flag on the top of the receiver.

In researching about the K31 rifle I was able to find out that my rifle was manufactured in 1937, the K31 was first introduced into service in 1933. The rifle had 3 years of improvements ending in 1936.  So it looks like I have a fine specimen with all of the improvements and built just before WWII.  They were manufacturing between 11 and 15 thousand of the K31s before the war and in 1940 (the first full year of WWII) they manufactured 33 thousand.  The number of K31s manufactured during the war was in the 50 thousand range for the rest of the war.  We have all seen wartime production rifles cut corners on quality so I am glad I got a pre war rifle.

I also came across a note during my research that many Swiss rifles have an identification tag under the butt plate.  So during the inspection strip of the rifle I took the butt plate off and low and behold there was a tag.

Front

Back

I found the information to decode this tag at the Swiss Rifle site.  I am still trying to finish the decode of the tag.  It appears that the soldier that last used this rifle was attached to the headquarters detachment territorial company 20, possibly of Zurich, and he lived at 193 Fellenberg street.  This tag looks like the second variation that is listed on the Swiss Rifle site and I am not sure of the year in which Jakob Pfister was born.  It may be on the back of the tag but I am unsure on just how to interpret that code.  It may be his National Insurance Code or service serial number.

All in all pretty cool.  The rifle has matching serial numbers on each piece, including the stock pieces.  I am unsure if this is common with swiss rifles but I know it is very uncommon on german and american rifles of the same period.  The swiss rifles may have matching numbers since they did not really go to war and get used as heavily as the german and american weapons.

Ok off to the range for a bit of shooting…

UPDATE:

Ok I am back from the range. Wow, the K31 is a real shooter.  I was able to keep 3 of 5 rounds in the X ring and only just dropped the other two.  This was easily repeatable,  Mark and I shot 30 rounds out of the 70 that I had picked up.  The strait pull action was a real hoot to shoot.  I could operate the bolt with the left hand easily, and the brass ejected with no issues for the lefty shooter.  I would definitely recommend this rifle to anyone wanting an inexpensive, very well made, fun to shoot rifle.  I hear that Ben will be getting one as soon as he can…

Well that time of year has come and gone, the Steve note presentation was a nice one.  Nothing earth shattering like a G5 laptop,  the Headless iMac has finally come true (after 4 years of rumors), and is getting rave reviews from all the PC magazines.  Apple is also about to kick the crap out of all of the other flash based mp3 players on the market with the iPod Shuffle.  The MacWorld expo always makes me feel invigorated about the state of Apple, especially when they put out so many cool things.  But on to the meat of things.

Tiger. 

Well Apple just expensed the R&D for Tiger (10.4) which came in at 19.3 Million.  Makes you wonder just how much money microsloth has dumped down the rat hole they call Longhorn (we all call it shorthorn in honor of all the features that they have had to dump in order to get it to market in 2006).  I listened to all of the microserfs crying about how Apple ripped of microsquish when Steve announced the spotlight feature.  Microsoft had announced a feature much like spotlight a few months before Steve demoed it at the World Wide Developer conference.  I thought to myself there is no way that microsloth beat apple to a revolutionary new feature, turns out that once again they did not.  Seems that Apple has been awarded a patent on the new spotlight feature that they started to work on way back in 2000, a whole 3 years before microsloth announced their feature.  Sorry microserfs you lose again.  You can take solace in the fact that microsquish is finally taking some actions to make their OS less sieve like, because when it comes to security, there is nothing like Microsoft security.

The Dashboard applications also look cool.  It looks as if Apple took this idea from the Konfabulator application.  I never really liked Konfabulator much as it never felt finished, and the apps were either very intrusive or very hard to find. 

The other big improvements will be Quicktime 7 which will use the industry standard H.264 codec.  This will be a boon as more and more SIP clients become available for the VOIP soft switches out there.  Also since the industry settled on H.264 for the new DVD and HD technologies, I see big things on the computer based DVR front because of the codec.

iChat AV is just plain smoking.  The ability to have multiple people in conference will be pretty cool for the average user.  Now if only AOL would fix its piece o crap windows client we would have interoperability.

Mail will also be a huge improvement.  I tried entourage for the mac and went right back to the Mail app.  It has undergone huge improvements since its inception.  I have found that it just keeps getting better.  I would love for the animated gifs to work in the Mail app and it looks like it will happen in Tiger.  I have long liked its search features as it beats the pants off of Outlook’s search feature, especially in the speed department.

I am sure that there will be many more features in Tiger that I am leaving out but I am short on time tonight…

iLife

The suite of applications just continues to get better and better as time passes.  I can’t say enough about the tight integration of the applications in the suite, they all work very well together.  No other applications can touch the fit and finish that Apple has achieved and continues to build upon.  Even though there are really no consumer HD camcorders available yet Apple is ready when they appear.