Saturday, April 30, 2011

Real Man's Workstation...

...well, that is what my friend, who sent the pic to me in an email, called it (click it to big it). I don't care if it is a workstation, a Man Cave, a Woman's Lair, an Executive's office, a Geek Retreat, the Bat Cave or whatever you want to call it, it is plain out and out wrong! Why? Because it is not mine. I am jealous. I don't know where the pic came from, it was not credited, but if the guy or gal who owns it ever reads this post, please tell me all the names and models of the rifles, and explain the computer set-up too.
I am not poor by a long shot, but doubt I could afford a room like that with all the accessories let alone the AC costs just for keeping the one room cool enough. It must be nice to have lots of cash to spend, that is why I play the lottery! Nice set-up.

All the best,
Glenn B

Revisiting Knappogue Castle 12 Year Old Irish Whiskey and Wishing for the 1995 Labeled Batch

I am now on my 2nd bottle of Knappogue castle 12 Year Old irish Whiskey. I wrote a review of my first bottle not too long ago. As for this 2nd bottle, there I was sititng in the basement a week or two ago and was talking about it with my son. He either asked for a taste or I asked him if he wanted one. He took it, grimaced, said it tasted like burnt wood and recommended something else to me. I have to agree. I don't know why but this bottle of the same whiskey tastes awful. It tastes just like peated Scotch. That is a taste I can stand sometimes but when want it I buy an excellent Scotch. I buy Irish Whiskey, especially single malt Irish whiskey, triple distilled, when I am not in the mood for the peaty, over oaky, taste of Scotch. I am hopeful this bottle is a fluke because the first bottle was somewhat mellower and more like that labelled 1995. Then again, neither of these bottles of the 12 year old have been the same or as good as was Knappogue Castle Irish Whiskey dated 1995.

That by far was my favorite of any whiskey I have ever enjoyed. It was crisp and as clean as a a young lad's whistle when he spies a pretty lass on a Spring morn. I miss it, I canot find it on the shelves at liquor stores, I am guessing it has run out of stock. I wish now I would have bought more of it than the one bottle I did buy and now have stashed away for whenever temptation wins out over patient anticipation. Then again it was the last bottle I ever saw for sale. If anyone knows where I might find myself a bottle or three of the Knappogue Castle Irish Whiskey dated 1995, still for sale in a liquor store, in the greater NY metropolitan area, I would appreciate the tip.

Thanks,
Glenn B

REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Personal Opinion On The Change We Need:

I am sick of inept politicians and government officials and ordinary citizens who want to create a nanny state. That goes for those from every political party you can mention. I think, we need to start to revolt now before it is too late. We need to throw out the bums and put in folks who will realize they are the servants of the people. We need to make certain that our Constitution is the law of the land instead of having our presidents, congress people and judges disregard what was meant to be The Supreme Law of the Land! We need to make sure we secure our borders and throw out illegal aliens and alien overstays so that our nation remains the United States of America. We need to encourage legal immigration only and give rewards to those who legally immigrate here while we severely punish those who continue to come here illegally. We need to make sure that 'Made In America' is seen on most products sold in this country once again and that United States Citizens and Legal Immigrants are the ones who made them! We need to see government waste curtailed and cut back so far as to allow us to balance the nation's budget and pay off what we owe as soon as possible. We need to have a single tax rate on all for income, no more than 15%. We need to eliminate Social Security and medicare but first let's get rid of the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, The Environmental Protection Agency, The Department of Homeland Security (especially the TSA and ICE) and other federal departments and agencies that are little more than a drain on the tax payer. We need to bring back the United States Customs Service (not settle for Customs & Border Protection because it is nowhere nearly as effective) as a protector of the revenue and as a collector of Customs Duties and we need to reinstate Customs Duties on everything imported into the country and all technology exported out of the country - no exceptions. We need to create not only tax incentives for American businesses but other incentives as well such as less regulation on industry. We need to remember that we, as The People, have rights under our constitution and that those rights have been perverted and whittled away and we need to get them back in order. We need a well armed People to assure a polite society and a safe and secure nation and to secure all of our other rights. We and our politicians need to remember that our nation was born of violent revolution in response to tyranny and we need to try to avoid that but remember it is always a possibility in the face of tyrannts whether they come at us with force or from behind the veil of progress, or security, needing to reign in our rights a bit here and a bit there.


We need a lot more than all of that but those surely would be a start in the right direction. The thing is, we cannot wait for this to happen, we need it to happen now - right away. So, I think, we also need to get rid of those who give every excuse as to why it is not possible right away. It is possible, just as Bush created Homeland Security and did away with the Immigration Service by act of Congress all in the blink of an eye with overwhelming support from Congress. Government officials can act very fast when they want to, the thing is we have to make them want to do it and do it now. I think that the only way to accomplish that, short of shooting every damned politician in this country (and no I do not think that is the way to go) and starting from scratch, would be to hold a nonviolent revolution to overthrow the establishment within the borders of legality (yes I think that is the way to go) by way of the vote. That means getting rid of all of them or almost all of them in the next elections as far as I see it.

The elections are over a year away but I believe we need to start to plan for the change now. We need to start working on it now. We need to get our acts together as one strong force, an overwhelming force, so that we can retake America and return it to being a nation of We The People. Many say it is too late and have given in to the politicians we have had in government now and in recent years. I firmly believe what we have now are inept managers, what we need are strong leaders. If you do not wake up to the reality of it now, it may come down to guns & ammo and revolutionaries later, or worse yet to all of us speaking Chinese or Arabic. I hope not, I hope that America being the best and strongest nation on the face of the earth is something that my children and grand children will enjoy for their lifetimes.

Would it take a revolution of sorts to accomplish all that - you can bet it will - a revolution in how the American Citizen as voter thinks and votes. I cannot tell you for whom to vote or how to vote but I can tell you what I think and for what type of candidates I will vote in upcoming elections. It will be those who remember they are servants of the people, not those who think they are masters of them and it will be for those who remember that it is America who got them to where they are and they owe everything to this nation. I used to be an independent, then registered as a Republican but now and pretty sure I will go back to being an Independent once again. About the only parties I would seriously think of registering for now would be as a Libertarian or, if they were an actual political party, The Tea Party. No, I am not campaiging for them or telling you to join them, I am just saying that they are who I might join. I think, we need to get back to what made this country great, as far as I am concerned we can let countries like China, North Korea, Syria, and Russia keep the change.

All the best,
Glenn B

Blue Skies, Yellow Columbine & Very Dirty Hands

I just picked up a load of flowers for the garden yesterday at Home Despot. One of them was a nice potted Yellow Columbine (click the pic). The Yellow variety, that I bought, has a lot less contrast to it than the Pink (that Cap'n Bob & The Damsel have up on their site) but is a beautiful flower nonetheless. Both are very nice though I think the Pink wins out by just a bit. Had I seen pink ones, would have gotten at least one pot full of them too.

Today was a great day for garden work. A cool, clear, blue skied late morning and early afternoon. It clouded up a bit but not much and I think the sun is back out again now. My wife planted some flowers and other plants today but held off on the Columbine waiting to find the perfect spot for it. Today she worked with Impatiens, Petunias and Geraniums mostly and maybe the one Dahlia I got for her. She still has the Columbine, more Petunias and Geraniums, some herbs and others waiting.

I planted a Rhododendron (lost one last year when a neighbor apparently sprayed defoliant). I also planted some of the vegetable garden, only: eggplants, peppers and tomatoes but better than nothing. Man did I get get dirty. I plan to plant some radishes, green beans, cucumbers, squash and more tomatoes and peppers. I wonder if it is too late for lettuce?

Plants are more expensive than last year and Home Despot was not selling small sized veggies in the flats of 8 or so that they usually have on sale. They only had individually potted vegetables which wind up being much more expensive. Oh well, with gas as high as it is, I saw regular for $4.599 yesterday (sky high even around here), I figured it would balance out if bought them at HD instead of wasting gas to find another place. Next year I may try some from seeds. I tried some this year but was too early with them and they all died. Better luck next time.

Now that I got some planting done, I think I may clean my new AK-47. If get that done, it could mean a range trip tomorrow. None of that before ordering out for Chinese. I offered to fire up the BBQ but the wife and kids have a hankering for some cuisine of the Asian persuasion. When I think about it, some Moo Shoo Pork General Tso's Chicken (extra spicy, no broccoli), Wonton Soup and some other delectables like fried dumplings are on the menu and don't sound bad at all.

Later for you, I have to go make my selections on the menu. (By the way, one week and one day have passed and I have stuck to my snack free diet. I don't know if any pounds have been shed but have been sleeping somewhat better and feeling better.)

All the best,
Glenn B

Milton Wolf, The Wolf Files - A Must Read Blog...

...written by Milton R. Wolf, cousin of President Barack Hussein Obama and also a Tea Party member. He has an excellent piece on Newt Gingrich and Gingrichcare versus Obamacare here.

His blog also contains many other interesting articles. The main blog page can be found here: http://wolffiles.blogspot.com/
.

I think this one may become a frequent read for me, maybe even a daily one.

All the best,
GB

Friday, April 29, 2011

Pansy Planting or Going To The Gun Show at Middletown, NY Tomorrow & Sunday...

...and sadly, or is it gladly, the choice is I will not be there. Nor will I be at the NRA's annual meeting in Pittsburgh. Instead, I will be out in the garden, crawling around in the dirt, getting the undersides of my fingernails dirty, in fact probably getting most of me pretty filthy, as I plant tomato plants, pepper plants, string beans, cucumbers, eggplants, a few different herbs, a bunch of annuals including geraniums, petunias, columbine, pansies, dahlias, some vines and a few others. When I think about the choice I have made to stay home this weekend and get this done, it really is not all all that bad, in fact it is pretty good. Even though I would prefer being at the gun show, it will probably be a lot of fun as long as I remember to take an aspirin or two before I start to keep the back from getting sore and tight. I mean, I don't mind digging holes in the dirt, finding worms for my turtle, tortoises, fish, salamanders & newts. I also don't mind planting the garden and getting about as dirty as any 9 year old who decides to explore the backyard. Yep, I am looking forward to a day of downright dirty fun - for what more could I ask!

All the best,
Glenn B

Thursday, April 28, 2011

NRA Annual Meeting

Regardless of my last post, I am still a Life member of the NRA. I still think that they are doing a great job overall. All that considered, I would love to hop in my car tomorrow afternoon and drive the 7 or 8 hours to Pittsburgh, PA to attend the NRA Annual Meeting this weekend (it actually commenced this evening). I would only be able to stay for Saturday but that would be enough. I have never been to one of these before. It would be, I think, very enjoyable. While I am envious of those who can and will attend, I truly hope they have a wonderful time there.

All the best,
Glenn B

Is The NRA Is Way Out Of Line When It Comes To The Sexes?

I think the idea of a national organization that supports our right to keep & bear firearms is a good thing. I think the work that the NRA has been doing to support our 2nd Amendment right has been excellent overall. I have been a member of the NRA for a long time. I used to pay my dues annually but because I thought they were doing a good job of protecting and promoting our rights, I became a Life Member of the NRA. I thought it was the best organization to join in order to support our right to keep & bear arms, so much so that I also paid for my son's life membership in the NRA.

In the years that I have been a member, I have taken a couple of NRA Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor Training Courses. With what I learned at those courses, I trained many other people to shoot. I did so without regard to gender, race, creed, (and so on). I repeatedly have encouraged others to join the NRA and to utilize NRA programs such as firearms training courses and instructor training courses, I think they offer excellent training.

Sometimes though, I think the NRA is out of line, that they seemingly begin to, or even completely, forget the best interests of their overall membership. A case in point is, what I believe to be, their practice of discriminating between the sexes when it comes to some of their programs. In all the years that I have been an NRA Member, I do not recall ever seeing them offer programs geared specifically toward men. Yet, they offer courses and programs that are geared specifically toward women and some, in fact, exclude men. Here is how they describe the course they are offering at the annual NRA meeting this year: "It is a 17-hour NRA Pistol Instructor Training Course offered by Women - For Women Only!" (It is an exact quote and yes they capitalized the words for women only. It can be seen at this web address, it is the first seminar shown on the page:


http://www.nraam.org/events/seminars.html.

I think that is outlandish. Correct me if I am wrong, but women in the shooting world often complain about how shooters and non-shooters alike, all too regularly, see women as different when it comes to firearms ownership, possession, carry and use. I most certainly have seen articles both in print and online, and have heard many a discussion that women resent such treatment, that they want to be treated as equals instead. Is that all just so much exaggerated nonsense? I ask this last because it seems when some women are actually treated that way, as different, they flock toward such treatment. They actually seem to promote what they have rallied against by attending seminars and courses such as the these offered by the NRA. Me, I have absolutely no problem with treating women as equal to men when it comes to firearms training. I have trained both men and women alike. I have treated each and every shooter whom I have ever trained with the respect that is due to them regardless of their natural state of gender. Can each shooter have special needs in training? Sure they can but, as it seems to me, not based upon gender. So I trained students of both sexes the same. It seems to me that it would, or should, be an insult to women or to men if I had done otherwise and it should be an insult to every one of the NRA membership when the NRA does otherwise.

Don't know what Women's Only Programs I am talking about. Click on the link and you can see which they are:
http://www.nrahq.org/women/2011-am.asp

Want to see the respective Men's Programs offered by the NRA. Just do what I did and run a search of their site for Men's Program's. Or if you trust me, I can save you the trouble by posting the search results here:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEARCH NRAHQ

Search Results
Request: men's programs
(0 document(s) retrieved)

Your search did not match any documents.

Search again
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you do not trust me, go ahead, search away on the NRA's site for the ever elusive NRA men's programs.

Now, don't get me wrong. If women want to get together with themselves to enjoy shooting events, that is all well and fine. Same goes for men. If the NRA wants to give women's shooting courses just for women, again - fine by me. The thing is though, there really ought to be equal treatment when it comes to this, so why not offer men's only programs too! Or is it that the NRA is saying that women have special needs when it comes to firearms, that they are not equal to men in the shooting world? Along the lines of what I have heard from women, they want to be treated equally with men in the world of firearms. If that is true, and I believe that is true when it comes to all things firearms, then why on earth would the NRA apparently discriminate against men by having programs set up exclusively for women? Are they saying that women are so vastly different than men in their abilities and training needs, when it comes to shooting or to self defense, that they need to be sequestered from men for the training purposes? Apparently, the NRA doesn't want to come right out and make a public statement to that effect, yet they have these women's programs and are pushing a totally exclusive of men gender biased seminar at their annual meeting this year.

Why aren't men receiving the same attention for their gender group from the NRA? Why doesn't the NRA offer men's programs exclusive of women? Why would the NRA offer shooting programs exclusively geared toward women and not toward men? I think it comes down to one thing and one thing only, the almighty dollar. I think they found a way to make a buck by catering to one gender over the other. If that is correct, they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Women and men should be treated equally when it comes to firearms and shooting and the NRA should not exploit one group over another using gender based stereotypes to make a buck. The 2nd Amendment, of our Constitution, within our Bill of Rights, does not say one gender has more or less of a right than the other to keep and bear firearms. I'd like to keep it that way.

All the best,
Glenn B

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ballseye's Gun Shots 132: Trusting Someone Is Safe With Firearms, The Trust Should Be Earned Not Blind

I was working the 4x12 shift on a hot muggy night, back in my Border Patrol days, and thankfully I had just been relieved by another agent so I could take a break. I threw the Ramcharger in gear and headed into downtown Calexico to get myself something icy cold to drink. It was just about all I could think of, I mean it was hot, muggy,and I was sweaty and thirsty - Calexico summer nights can be like that. I had just pulled up to 7-Eleven and was opening the door when I heard the brief whoop of a siren from behind me. I turned around to see a sheriff's deputy pulling up. He waved me over and when I got to him he told me he had one in the back for me. He insisted take the guy before I could buy my icy cold beverage because he had just gotten another more important call. I reluctantly said okay and he escorted the guy around to the back of my vehicle. The illegal was handcuffed, and when I asked the officer why he told me because the guy had been a jerk and sort of resisted but was being okay now. I through my set of cuffs onto him and took off the deputy's. Then I started to pat the guy down. The deputy got all sort of huffy and asked why I was doing that because he had already done it. I kept at it. Then he said the magic words: "Don't you trust me?" Almost at the exact moment that the last word left his lips, I pulled a pair of about 8" to 10" scissors out of the illegal immigrunt's groin area. He had had them hidden where most men are a bit squeamish about searching. The deputy stood there with his mouth hanging open - dumbfounded. I learned that night, trust is something that you should not give freely relative to some things, it should be earned by the person to whom you give it. So when it comes to things that could be the difference between life and death and I can exert control over them, I make sure to err on the safe side. If it hurts some one's feelings - too bad. That attitude may just have saved my life that night - you see the illegal alien who had those shears down his draws had not been headed to a sewing class and he was not a tailor, so why do you think he had them?

When it comes to firearms and ammunition, I have much the same mindset. I had a guy hand me a semi-automatic pistol when I was a firearms instructor. I was inspecting the pistols before qualifications as we always do. I asked him if it was unloaded and he explained that because he was late, he had taken it upon himself to go to the range where we clear weapons, before each inspection, to clear it himself. I asked him to hand me the weapon, action closed, as is our set procedure in the classroom (the range officer opens it to check it, we don‘t want anyone but an instructor operating a gun in the classroom). He handed it to me and I opened it and out flew the cartridge that was in the chamber. He swore he had unloaded it but the proof was there in that shell casing that he had not. I went over his actions with him. He then realized what he did was to open the action and remove the round from the chamber, let the action go forward, then took out the magazine. So he actually had just reloaded one into the chamber because he did things sort of backwards. Normally, after taking the pistol we run it through an operational check that includes dry firing it. Should I have trusted him enough that the weapon was empty. Maybe you would say that based upon my trust for other agents who have received the same training as I, then yes I should have. The truth is, yes I did trust he was being truthful and accurate about having reloaded but that does not mean that I should not, for safety’s sake, have verified it. So I followed procedure and did just that and avoided an accidental discharge. Had I not done what I did, then it could well have been to late for someone had I sent a round down the barrel. I know of a firearms instructor, in fact a primary firearms instructor, who put a round through a wall in the classroom, in a situation almost identical to the one I just described, essentially because he trusted and did not verify. Luckily nothing but his pride was hurt.

As Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes used to say: "Trust no one". It is good advice up to a point but let me change that just a little bit for firearms safety purposes. When it comes to firearms and ammunition, trust only those who have earned your trust and only to the degree to which they have earned it. In all cases, even with folks you trust to the greatest extent, you can take another step. There is an old saying: Trust but verify. It is a good one indeed, especially as related to firearms safety and it comes to play or should come to play often when handling firearms and ammunition. It is a mindset I choose to live by when around firearms. Will a mindset like that prevent all accidents or incidents caused by negligence with firearms or ammo? No it will not but what it will do is reduce the chances for something to go wrong. So how do you do this? How do you achieve trust or how does someone else earn it from you, and how do you verify that your trust was well founded without you seeming like totally anal wanna be dictator? Pretty much the same way you do anything else wherein you do not appear to be an arrogant tyrant. You do it with a cool head and with respect toward those with whom you are dealing and you do things by example in as much as if you require it of others you also require it of yourself. Will that prevent every person, with whom you have interactions while handling firearms, from becoming offended if you point out a safety issue to them or if you double check something? No it will not, but being polite and respectful, even if being direct and to the point will go a long way to keep people from taking offense - especially if what you are saying is correct. It will also go a long way toward building up trust on both ends.

The thing is though, developing trust between firearms folks it is not just a pointing out safety infractions issue. In fact, that is not even the most important issue. The more important issue is that you trust yourself first. So, to start, learn how to safely handle firearms before judging anyone else to determine if they are trustworthy with them. You learn, not only by reading rules, but by practicing safe firearms handling each time you use firearms. When others see you handling firearms safely, or hear you talking about them in a knowledgeable manner, they will develop a sense of trust toward you. It works the same with you developing trust for them. What you are doing, is taking in information given off by others, comparing it to information you already have stored in memory and determining, by using judgment and verification, whether or not the other guy is trustworthy. If you are a good judge of yourself, when it comes to firearms safety issues, then you will be more likely to be good judge of others. So what does this mean in the real world of firearms and ammunition handling? I will give some more real examples to answer that question.

I have several firearms. They are only infrequently unsecured; sometimes loaded, sometimes not. I live with my wife and 2 children. Well, they are not really children an longer, they are both young adults. When it comes to my son, he is allowed to handle all of my rifles and shotgun but not my pistols, unless absolutely necessary. As for my wife and daughter, I trust them not to pick up and handle any of my firearms without my express permission except unless absolutely necessary. I then trust them all to handle the firearms in a safe manner if they do need, for some reason, to handle one. Maybe they need to move it because a plumber is coming over on an emergency call and they want to make sure it has been secured, or something like that. Why do I trust them all? Well, over the years that I have been married with children, I have taught all three of them about basic firearms safety and my son shoots (my daughter used to shoot and my wife went once). The most important thing I taught them was never to mess around with them but if they are curious about them, then to ask me to show them. I started that with my wife probably before we were married, and with my kids almost from as soon as they could understand - probably around age 3 or 4. I have kept at it all these years and still give them a reminder now and again. In all that time, I have never seen my wife, daughter or son do anything really unsafe with one of my firearms in the home. They have earned my trust but as I said, I still give them reminders now and then.

As for my son, he has earned the most trust from me because he also handles and shoots firearms with fair regularity. He handles them safely, and is very safety conscious while doing so. I trust him so much I allow him to handle my rifles at his own discretion and I have allowed him to bring his own rifles and ammunition into our home. That trust though did not come freely, it was earned by him sticking to the rules, by him exhibiting responsibility with firearms and ammunition, and by him being safe with them over the course of several years. That trust is not taken fro granted either. He must keep on earning it from me. One way to check on that is by observation, just seeing how he does things when I am with him and he is handling firearms. While you can often verify trust through observation, sometimes what you are hoping to observe just does not take place. So what to do then? The answer is easy - give a test. Remember trust is earned, it is not blind faith.

When he was first learning to shoot, I used to go over the firearms safety, each time, before we handled guns or started shooting. I would start by asking him to tell me the rules I had taught him. If he forgot something, I just reminded him, then I supervised his shooting within easy arms reach. As he developed into a safe and responsible shooter, I started to drop off on the supervision thing and started to leave of the testing of the rules thing. He would shoot at his point and me at mine. Every now and then I would check on him though with a subtle test of one sort or another. I would take a rifle out and place it on the bench, from which he would be shooting, with the action closed (after I checked it first to make sure it was not loaded). Then I would see what he would do. Invariably when he picked it up, he would keep it pointed downrange, then open the action (usually he would first remove the source of ammo, such as taking out the magazine). If he did that, he passed. If not, then he was reminded to check first. What he would be checking for was not only to see if it was loaded, but if it had been loaded then to check to see if it had the right ammo in it.

I don't just check on my family regarding firearms safety, I make sure to verify others exhibit it before I fully trust them around me with firearms. Now, I am not saying I will not allow someone wearing a holstered firearm to get in my car, or that every time a cased gun is in my car it has to be in a locked case or have a safety lock on the gun itself. Nor am I saying, I will not allow someone to show me a gun, or me to show them a gun, at the range or at a gun show unless I first interrogate them about firearms safety rules or have them demonstrate proper firearms handling techniques. What I am saying is that I will not give them unearned full trust. If I get into a car with a coworker, I trust them not to pull out a firearm and start fiddling with it in my car. Why do I give that person such trust. Only because I know that he or she has gotten a lot of the same training as have I and that they have passed an awful lot of firearms testing before being trusted with the firearm by my agency.

If, on the other hand, I have someone who is fairly new to shooting getting into my car while wearing a holstered handgun, or while carrying a cased rifle or shotgun, and who is eager to go shooting, you can bet I will have checked them first to make sure they are trustworthy. If I get into my car with someone about whom have little or no knowledge about their gun safety mindset, you can bet I will try to figure it out first, or that the guns will go into the trunk or that I will remind them "no gun handling in the car". It does not have to be that blatant, there are subtle ways of doing it but if subtlety does not work then coming right out and saying something is just fine. I am not about to let someone like that into my home, my vehicle, come with me to the range or just handle firearms around me unless they have earned my trust to some extent. Why not? Because of the fatality factor. I'd have to be bonkers to allow someone I did not trust at all to have unrestrained access to firearms and ammunition around me and my loved ones unless I could keep them under supervision. Did you catch that - unless they were supervised? So yeah, I will let a new shooter hop into my car for a trip to the range with his brand new Remington 870 and several boxes of slugs. I'll even let him ride with the cased gun across his lap if he wants once I verify it isn't loaded and once I make sure to tell him that he is absolutely not to handle the firearm or ammo in my car. If he reacts like a jerk, guess what - no ride from me. If he seems to be responsible, well he is already beginning to earn my trust but not enough to allow him to be unsupervised yet. The supervision thing does not mean I am watching over him like a prison guard, just that I made sure to remind him not to handle the guns or ammo while in the car (remember he is new to all this) and then keeping an eye on him now and then, or having someone else do it, during he drive. Of course, it could be a bit more than that, I could insist that the case be locked and the ammo be kept in a separate locked container or better yet just put it all into the trunk. Heck, my guns and ammo are almost always in separate containers when I travel with them and the guns are most often locked with gun-locks. I trust myself, so why do I do that? is it paranoia? Is it nonsense? No, it is neither, it is simply following the firearms safety rules that I learned long ago.

Same thing applies at the shooting range. When I go shooting, there are often other shooters at points next to me at the range. Do I trust them to be safe with firearms? Yes, up to a point. Why trust them. Well, first of all, they are not at home shooting out of their windows down toward a crowded street with reckless abandon. They have come to the proper place, in my area a range is the only proper place available, to shoot. Is that enough, nope not really. When I enter the range area, I observe the other shooters. As I set up my gear, I continue to do so. I am looking for shooters who are not being safe. One day, while I was at the range with my son, having a nice day shooting, another guy showed up with his two young sons. I am guessing the dad was about 35 and his sons about 9 to 12 years old, only about a year between their ages. They were shooting a Marlin 22 rifle, one with a tubular magazine. I don't know what it was that made me turn around and look over my left shoulder, I guess because every now and then I just look around me to be aware of what is going on, but when I did, there was the dad standing behind the firing line by a few feet. He was shaking the rifle violently, apparently it had malfunctioned, and it was pointed right at my son. He got it working again and before I could say anything a range officer had gone over to set him straight and did so politely. The dad seemed to get it, even though it was kind of obvious that he was not all that into shooting, and went back to one of his sons who had stayed at the firing bench and they started shooting again.

Now, you may have trusted him after that, because he was an adult and had just been told by the range officer how to do it right and do it safely but I follow that little rule, trust but verify. I trusted him enough not to do it again or would have left the range. I did not trust him enough not to keep checking on him. Several minutes later, I took another look around. Once again, the guy was behind the line fiddling with the rifle while it was pointed at another shooter, this time at me! It was only for a second or two but it was very unsafe. I went over to a range officer and politely told him about the guy being unsafe again. The range officer did his thing and very politely but sternly told the guy the rules once again. The dad seemed very embarrassed and apologetic. He went back to the bench and the firing line. All seemed well but guess what, my son and I took a break. I did not tell my son why right at that moment but it was because I did not trust the guy. We went and got some sodas at the other end of the range. When we got back, it was not 5 or 10 minutes later, I saw him at it again - dangerously pointing the gun in the direction of other shooters, this time if I remember right, at his own son. I was about to explode and tell him off myself this time but luckily the range officer saw him first and reamed him out big-time. They threw him off of the range. Then we ended our break and went back to shooting. I really hope that did not ruin shooting for that guy and his kids; I hope he went to a hunter safety course or went back to the range by himself to seek out instructions on how to do it right. Something tells me though that was the last day he ever went shooting with his sons.

So sure, I give a certain amount of trust to people at the range but not blind or complete trust. I can say, without a doubt, that the range officer who caught the guy unsafely handling the rifle earned some trust from me that day, I just wish he had made him leave the second time he saw him doing it. On the other hand, others lose my trust, what little I may have had in them before knowing them well enough to develop more of it. If I see someone screwing up, I'll either get a range officer or tell them myself. If the guy is an ass about it, I can always leave the range but you can bet I will let a range officer know about it then. I am not about to get in to a pissing match with a stranger, who has exhibited bad gun etiquette at a range if only because he is armed. If the guy seems to accept what I have pointed out, then I will trust him enough for me to stay but I will keep an eye him just like I did on that dad. Mind you, when I speak to someone about a safety violation at the range, or anywhere, I am not talking about a guy who picks up his obviously unloaded weapon from the bench, momentarily covers another person with it, apparently realizes his mistake and corrects. I am talking about people who exhibit piss poor and unsafe firearms handling by blatantly violating a safety rule or rules and/or by repeatedly violating them.

I do the same with new shooters I take to the range and even with experienced shooters. I trust to an extent but verify. Just because you shoot a lot or handle firearms and ammunition often, and have never had an accident with a firearm or ammo, does not necessarily mean you are safe with guns and ammo so with experienced shooters, I trust but verify. With new shooters, I tell them the rules before they even see a gun. Then I go over firearms nomenclature with them while showing them the gun they will be shooting that day. I never assume that someone even knows what is something as basic as a trigger. To assume things when it comes to firearms and handling them safely, to blindly trust that someone will handle guns or ammo in a safe manner, is simply asking begging for trouble of the kind where there are no do-overs. To build up earned trust and respect is something all together different and it goes a long way to assure safety. Remember, just because someone has earned your trust, or you their's, it is not going to guarantee that an accident or tragic incident will not take place. While it does go a long way to make things a lot safer, that is only so if you base your trust on a good foundation. That foundation needs to be set on the bedrock of the rules of firearms safety and how well you follow them yourself. That is why I expect other shooters to correct me if I am caught violating the safety rules and I take it and learn from it. That earned trust thing works both ways and to earn it we have to realize we are or should be responsible for one another, to a reasonable extent, when it comes to firearms safety.

Safe shooting,
Glenn B

Gun Maintenance & Cleaning Tonight

I qualified for my agency on Monday and need to clean my guns since I neglected to do it at the range. Shame on me for not getting it done sooner.

For the last hour or so though, I have been fiddling with a tactical 2 point sling that was given to me for my Remington 870 shotgun. There were no instructions with it, the sheet that did come with it said to go to the company's website to see the instructions. At the site, they had a lot of links to instructional videos but while a media player type screen popped up, for each link, and said "ready" each time, nothing would play for any of the 'how to attach to this or that gun' videos, likewise for the 'how to use' videos. I sent them an email and hope they will reply by sending me instructions. I figure I have attached it properly but do not want to take a chance that I have not gotten it right.

As for the pistol cleaning, have to clean the Glock 26 and the SIG 229. Not much time for anything else before I hit the hay.

All the best,
GB

Monday, April 25, 2011

Ballseye's Gun Shots 131: Glock 26 & Light, Off Center, Primer Hits

The last time I went out to shoot my Glock 26, I noted with just a small amount of dismay that I was getting a misfire about every 10th to 20th round. I examined the pistol with a quick once over and saw nothing wrong, though I knew it was dirty -m very dirty. I am guessing I had fired about 750 or more (probably closer to a thousand) rounds through it, over the course of 2 or 3 range trips, without a cleaning. After taking a look at the Glock 26, I gathered up some of the spent shell casings and gave them the once over. Ah,there was the problem. The primers were being struck by the firing pin off center on the rounds that failed to fire. A closer look and it seemed the hits were also lighter than usual. Being the trained and certified Glock Armorer that I am, I immediately realized that the problem was probably caused by the pistol being as dirty as it was and more specifically that the locking lug was dirty thus preventing the pistol from going perfectly into battery but still enough to operate the trigger and firing pin.

Being that I was at the XXXXXXX County Rifle & Pistol Range, I could not clean it there, then try firing it again to see if that was the problem. They do not allow gun cleaning at the range though I am willing to bet there is someplace in there where it could be done safely. That really did not matter too much, as I recall, I was pretty much out of ammo anyway. So off to home I went and the Glock was cleaned up and put away. That was weeks ago. Last night I gave it another light cleaning in anticipation of going to the range for work today to qualify. I can happily say, the cleaning did the trick. The Glock went into battery perfectly for every shot of the qualification course, all shots fired. I did not check any of the shell casings to determine if they were still being struck off center but am pretty satisfied that the problem has been solved. next time I am at the indoor range I will check the shell casings, there just was not time today during the quals.

If you wind up ever having the same problem, I recommend that you field strip the Glock and do a thorough cleaning. Then take it for a test firing. If the problem has been solved after the cleaning, then things are probably well and good. If not, get it to an armorer for inspection. By the way, this is something that can happen with Glocks such as the Glock 17, 19, 26, 22, 23, 27 and so on. I do not recall if this applies to Glocks of the Gen 4 design or not.


All the best,
Glenn B

Ballseye's Gun Shots 130: Blued Steel Snub-Nosed Revolver - A Real Man's Gun

Average women: moms, housewives, teachers, police women, barmaids, accountants, truck drivers, nurses, old ladies and even most librarians (I can think of one who probably would be the librarian exception) would not stand much of a chance at hitting their targets with one of them. I mean it when I call it a real man's gun because I think a snub-nose revolver in .38 special, or larger caliber, is just too much for most women to handle. What with the heavy double action trigger pull and the whamo effect of the recoil out of that small of a package, you get the picture, cracked fingernails and a ruined manicure at the very least. Oh my goodness, did I just write that for all to see. Yes I did, so if it got your panties all in a wad, get over it because I am not changing a word of it.

Now, getting back to reality, the truth is, it is not only women who have problems with them. Wimpy men (as in girlie-men or sissies), metro-sexuals, and most average Joe's of all types cannot handle one either regardless of profession. So who can handle them? Really huge he-man types can do okay with them. You know the type, those guys with hairy barrel like chests, thickset uni-brows, big burly hands with pudgy sausage like fingers and the strength of Hercules. Sure they can handle them but many of them cannot get their fingers through the trigger guards. Those few who can get their fingers in there are usually able to just about hit the broad side of a barn with one of them. There is one other small group, an elite group at that, who can do well with them - but more on them later. For now, let me point out that thousands of these small revolvers are sold every year and it surely must make one wonder, if all I just said is true regardless of it being said tongue in cheek, then why would anyone buy one of them. I mean, I wold think them pretty stupid to keep on buying them if all the above was true. For some reason though, people keeping do just that - buying snubbies, so tell me - are they being that stupid? I don't think so, at least not if they have made an educated choice.

There has been a lot said about these small revolvers, over the years, that makes them seem like the perfect gun for concealed carry or for home defense. There has also been a lot said about what a poor choice of pistol they are for self defense. Which you choose to believe may determine how you feel about snub-nose revolvers and whether or not you would choose one as a primary, or even a back-up, self defense weapon. It may turn out being a decision on which your life may someday depend, so make it wisely.

Personally, I do not carry one. Not because I am not a manly man mind you. I am no sissy-boy (the classic meaning as in not a wimp and not anything to do with alternate sexual preference though I am not of that ilk either) by a long shot. It is also not so much because of how I shoot with one of them. Heck, I know I used to be able to regularly hit steel man sized torso targets at about 90 yards with one but now that my eyes are not as good as they once were, I am guessing I could still accomplish that at 50 yards and that is good enough for me. Nor is it due to the fact that when shooting them I have torn up my knuckles, the webbing between my thumb and index finger and my both thumbs as the recoil propelled gun metal slammed back into my less than Herculean hands. After all, being a somewhat manly man, I consider it a sort of a rite right of snubby carry to be allowed this honor. It is certainly not due to the fact that they are not easily concealed because if anything, ease of concealment is one of their better qualities, at least with the smaller models. Add to that speed of draw. Not having more than a 2 or 2.5 barrel, means they clear leather (or Kydex if you prefer), pockets, attache cases, handbags and belly bands quite rapidly. If they have a hammer shroud then there is no need to worry about the hammer getting caught up either. Despite that short barrel and their overall small size, they are not wimpy guns. I mean just look at the rounds they fire. Depending on model, they can handle anything from the mid-power level .38 Special to the pretty darned powerful .357 Magnum, to the chest deflating .44 Magnum to the... whatever. Of course, they are also pretty easy to operate so no that is not one of the reasons I do not carry one now.

Now that I think of it, those are most of the reasons that I did carry them back once upon a time when I had the opportunity. One of the other main reasons I carried them is that they often were issued back-up guns for my job. Truth be told though, I have owned at least a few myself. I can think of the Charter Arms .38, and two S&W Model 66s, I have owned, all with snub-nosed barrels. I liked them but will admit I am not that partial to them now.

Why did I change. I much prefer the higher round capacity of the semi-automatic pistols. Being restricted to only 5 or 6 shots (remember I am talking snubbies in .38 or higher caliber, not 22s) makes me feel somewhat unprepared for the type of shootout you usually only see in the movies. Note, I just said usually. The fact is that criminals, and in today's world terrorists, are not lone wolves. That might be enough said, for some, about why to carry a gun that holds more ammo but lest I be anything other than honest allow me to cover all the targets on this one.

The other reason to carry a gun holding more than 5 or 6 rounds is the pucker factor. If you have read my stuff regularly, then you may well know what I mean. If not, then let me explain it this way. The pucker factor is a bodily phenomenon that allows you to keep your pants seat clean when in the face great danger. You know the type of danger am talking about, the kind that literally can scare the shit doody out of you. The thing about the pucker factor is that the higher the stress level the more difficult it is to maintain the necessary amount of force within the sphincter muscle and in trying to maintain it the body can actually begin to sort of convulse with mini spasms or should I say you begin to shake with fear. This can be an impediment to a shooter who is trying to hit his or her target. Then too, loosing control of the pucker factor can also cause a shooter to become concerned with that warm gushy feeling and may lead him or her to worry about something other than shooting accuracy until bullets whizzing by your head bring you back to reality. Control of or loss of control of the pucker factor may cause a shooter to shoot less accurately than say, when shooting at a paper target in a nice climate controlled range during your leisure time. In other words, being scared shitless badly can adversely effect your accuracy and that is something to consider if you are debating carrying a 5 or 6 shot revolver as your primary carry piece. (That all may or may not seem funny to you but truth be told, you should think about things like being extremely scared, shaking from nervousness, crying, an overwhelming feeling of wanting to make it go away, the pucker factor, wetting or dirtying yourself, being wounded and in essence prepare for those possibilities under the extreme duress of combat even if it only lasts a few moments, then think about how to ignore them and/or overcome them. Think about them now, in the comfort of your living room or den. If and when you are fighting for your life, sometimes the best thing to do is to ignore them completely and fight on. Letting them bother you can be all too distracting from the fight for your life that you are facing and such a distraction could get you killed.)

So, there are a lot of things in a real gunfight that can effect accuracy, the pucker factor not the least nor biggest concern among them but a real one. The others could be: moving targets, multiple targets, being nervous, being terrified, being caught off guard or surprised, your heart pounding at super-normal speeds, adrenaline flowing, tunnel vision, your having been wounded and other things that can take a toll on your ability to hit your target. Of course, you may overcome all of those things and hit your target, the bad evil doer who was intent on killing you, with one shot dead center to his chest. Good for you but hey, wait a second, is he still up and attacking? Holy cow, you just fired another 4 or 5 shots into him and he is still coming - is he on drugs or something? Maybe he is. Maybe you need to reload now that you fired all your revolver will spit out. More bullets = more chances. I like the odds with more of them in my gun in the event I might need them and I am or was no slouch in reloading a revolver. I could reload a revolver to capacity faster than about 80 or 85 percent of the other shooters, with whom I shot (on my job) at the range, could reload a semi-auto. Still though, if a bad guy is still presenting a threat, that is not the time I would choose to be reloading so I choose a gun with more bullets in most instances.

There are reasons though, other than round count, to make some folks consider not carrying a snub-nose revolver regardless of their good points. The knuckle and thumb bloodying recoil of the snub-nose revolvers is infamous, at least for smaller models that have small grips on them. Those small grips give less purchase to your hands and thus allow the recoil to cause the snubbies to jump a lot more than would a pistol with larger grips and or less recoil. Snub-nose revolvers, the smaller ones, are usually very light weight. Even all steel models, using regular steel as opposed to something even lighter weight like titanium, are pretty light. Light weight guns tend to recoil more, it is just a fact of physics. Those that recoil more are harder to hold, harder to handle, harder to get back on target quickly. Sure, you can watch an expert fire off 6 shots in the blink of an eye or two but bear in mind the same person could shoot a semi-auto, with less recoil, just as fast or faster. I am talking about the average shooter, and for the average shooter, snubbies are usually harder to handle due to recoil than are many semi-autos of comparable size. Of course their is a difference in caliber between something like a .38 special and a 9mm but not enough to make me want to change from a semi in 9 to a snub-nose in .38.

So why not just use larger grip on the snub-nose. You can do that and I think it helps improve gun handling immensely. In fact, when I used to carry a S&W Model 60 or Model 36 (I carried both for my job) I used Pachmayr grips on them. Leaving in place the tiny little grip panels that came with those guns was asking for trouble as far as I was concerned. Putting on those larger grips took away from concealability somewhat but not enough to be of concern to me. The truth is though, even with larger grips, snubbies are often too much for some shooters to handle because they do not like the recoil and are squeamish about adjusting to it and learning to shoot them well. I am confident though, while most shooters may never like the amount of kick they can inflict, they could learn to shoot them well if they have the right mindset and are instructed properly.

Then there is the sight radius and the sights. The sight radius is basically the distance between the front and rear sight. In general, the longer that distance the easier it is to accurately aim. The shorter the distance, the more difficult to aim. This is one of the reasons that most people would not consider shooting a snub-nose pistol at beyond 10 to 15 yards. Let's face it, the snub-nose revolver was not designed to be a long range firearm, virtually no combat or self defense pistol was designed for such. Pistols are generally meant for close in work. As I explained above, you can reliably hit stationary targets, at a firearms range, at much further distances with a pistol, even a snub-nose, but it takes good shooting skills and lots of practice. While it is easier to shoot at greater distances with a pistol having a 4" barrel, and even easier with ones with 6" and 8" barrels you are giving up concealabilty for accuracy. You need to weigh one against the other when choosing your carry firearm and truth be told, there are enough small frame semi-autos out there with longer sight radii that fit the bill. So remember, if you do choose to carry a snub-nose, you may find yourself in a situation demanding that you use it to defend yourself at longer than desirable distances for a snub-nose. That is another thing to consider before carrying one as a primary defensive firearm.

While you may never overcome not liking the amount of kick these little revolvers can pack, you almost always can overcome it and adjust to them enough to shoot them well. Some people just do not want to be bothered with learning how to shoot them well by overcoming the recoil, grip size and sight radius, and some will seemingly never learn how to reload them fast enough for most situations that require a reload. For those people - snubbies are a poor choice of carry gun. For those who still are considering them, let me cover a few more of the positives and negatives about them.

As I already mentioned above, some folks consider revolvers easy to operate, at least when it comes to shooting them. basically you get a grip, aim or point and squeeze the trigger. That is pretty much what you do with a semi-auto too. The thing that is different is this, if the semi auto has a loaded magazine but not a loaded chamber, then no matter how many times you squeeze the trigger, without first loading one into the chamber, the gun will not go off. With a revolver, if the chamber that first aligns itself with the forcing cone or breech end of the barrel is empty, all you need to do is to keep pulling the trigger until one that is loaded falls in line with the barrel. Of course if it is not loaded at all - shame on you but that goes for both a semi-auto and a revolver. While it may seem like a no brainer to have your carry gun loaded and ready, look at it this way. You are in a gun fight, you need to reload because the bad guy is still shooting and your gun has gone empty. You throw a mag into your semi auto and action the slide but your hands are sweaty and you do not realize it never is drawn fully back, never strips a bullet from the mag to load it into the chamber and you go to fire because the bad guy is almost on top of you. Click, click, tap, rack, reassess, reengage, fire as necessary - oh no did you run out of time - did he get you. With the revolver, under the same circumstances, you come up empty, you go to reload, you are sweaty and nervous and you only get a round or two into the cylinder and drop all the others. What to do, the bad guy is almost at point blank range, you close the cylinder, reassess as you come back on target and click, click, click, bang, bang, click and if you were very lucky the bad guy falls at your feet. It usually takes longer to do the tap, rack, reengage than it does the click, click, click bang. Yes, I know, depending on how each situation unfolds, it can happen that a semi-auto is a better choice in a self defense incident, by speed of reloading and by how many rounds it can hold. I am just giving you some points to consider.

One other set of points and I will leave it at that. These will do with inherent reliability of function in both semi-autos and revolvers. For years many have claimed that the revolver is inherently much more likely to function properly than is a semi-automatic pistol. I have been shooting both, with some frequency, for over 31 years now. I was a firearms instructor for 14 of those years. I have seen a lot of people fire both. I can say without a doubt that I do not know if one is inherently more reliable than the other. Revolvers are probably somewhat more reliable when speaking about getting them to shoot. That is when you consider shooter error in the equation. It is a bit more difficult to screw up when shooting a revolver in as much as getting it to fire goes. Note, I am not talking about getting it to fire accurately, just making it go bang. A semi-auto is probably a bit more likely to fail to fire due to shooter error than is a revolver.

If, however, a semi-automatic fails due to shooter error, ammo defect, or mechanical problem, the shooter is, based on my experience, much more likely to be able to overcome the problem with the semi-auto than would be the case with a revolver that fails for similar reasons. Many people cannot even envision a revolver failing during combat unless it is something like a spring breaking. That would probably be catastrophic with either style of pistol. There are other ways in which revolvers fail and they are much more commonplace than some folks think. I have seen bullets caught under the star extractor, unburned powder under the star extractor not allowing the cylinder to be closed, the cylinder going out of time when shooting, the cylinder falling out of a revolver while firing and other problems. Sure, bad things can also happen to a semi auto but if you have ever tried to get a bullet out from under the star extractor you probably realize the gun is good as little more than a paperweight or small club at that point in a gun fight. In addition, it is usually much easier to properly maintain a semi-automatic pistol than it is to maintain a revolver. The secret here though should be no secret. Buy high quality firearms, maintain them well, use proper high quality ammo and the handgun, whether revolver or semi-auto, hopefully will last a lifetime without such problems - just remember shit bad stuff happens so take that into your considerations as well.

All in all, I am not trying to sell you one way or the other here. I am not telling you one is definitely better than the other. I am not saying, that because I now choose one over the other, so too should you choose likewise. I am giving you some considerations so as to make you able to make a more intelligent decision about which to choose. If you are considering carrying a snub-nose revolver as a primary or secondary firearm, then why not go to a range and shoot one before buying. You may also want to consider getting some good training too. I do not mean from Uncle Joe, or Aunt Mitzi, or your buddy Bubba from work, or from your local library or the Internet but rather from someone who has some credentials to be a handgun instructor and who is well experienced with giving firearms instruction with the type of weapon you have under consideration. One of the best ways to find qualified instructors is by way of the NRA. They have been training firearms instructors, who go on then train others in the basic and advanced use of firearms, for many a year now. In other words, don't go off half cocked - get your facts together, learn the pros and cons of each type handgun, and when you decide on one over the other, get some training in how to use it safely and properly - and definitely know how to shoot it safely before you ever attempt to do so. If you choose a snub-nose revolver - good for you - you are among a smaller group. If you learn to shoot them well, you are among a group smaller still but certainly also among an elite group in the shooting world, that of they who carry and shoot well with a Real Man's Gun. ;)

Now, that I've written all that, I've got to go clean my Glock 26. Later 4 U.

All the best,
Glenn B

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter

To all my Christian friends and readers, I wish you a happy Easter. I hope the upcoming days are filled with hope, happiness and peace for you, your families and your loved ones.

All the best,
Glenn B

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Klavan on Proper Behavior During Islamic Attacks

This guy is great and makes an awful lot of sense. I imagine that libs ought to be watching his videos more than cons, they might wake up!



All the best,
GB

New Blog Added to My Blog Roll

The latest addition to my blog roll is Gunchick's Blog which can be found at http://janada-oakley.blogspot.com/.

All the best,
GB

A New Diet Attempt...

...is under way for me starting yesterday. It is basically the same one I went on while in Tucson 2 years ago and that one had me drop about 25 pounds. The diet was, in essence, one that had me cut back greatly on carbs. Nope, not even close to the Atkins diet but I shed pound anyway by cutting out almost all junk food (meaning processed snacks) and by limiting my bread intake to no more than 3 slices per day, less than that in the beginning, I think I kept it at one slice. I still ate things like potatoes (frequently) and corn and lots of fruit and the pounds came off. I guess cutting out all the pretzels, beer, cookies, candies, cakes, ice cream and soda had a lot to do with the pounds being shed.

Of course, that diet was augmented by a hike or two per week for a couple of months, and those hikes were anywhere from 4 to 10 miles long, all with a 20 to 30 pound pack on my back. I do not have the luxury of mountains anywhere near my home, not even in my state, when it comes to mountains with inclines or elevations like those in ad around Tucson. I would have to drive about an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half to get to some really nice hiking terrain in NY, so that is pretty much out. I think that tonight, I am going to join a local gym and will use the treadmills. I will set em on a good incline, put the same pack on my back, and have at it. It is nowhere nearly the same as actually hiking up and down trails but will have to do for now. If I am lucky, I will get in at least two workouts a week, maybe 3. They have a pool, so after I have regained some strength and endurance from the treadmills, I will hit the pool too. I am so disgusted with myself and how flabby I have gotten as to quite possibly be determined enough to get it done right this time, even while being at home. I added that 'even while being at home thing' because loosing weight for me is much harder to do while I am in my regular places subject to my regular stresses and habits. Getting away always makes it easier for me to accomplish overcoming bad habits, I went away for over a week to quit smoking. it worked and I have not had a puff in over 21 years. Dieting is a bit more difficult since we do not have to smoke but we do have to eat. I think though that I have the motivation, I just look in the mirror at the wattles of flesh under my chin and on my neck and I want to get it done.

Luckily, for me, I stopped drinking beer about a month ago. Just cut back on drinking and stuck with whiskey and wine instead of beer. I figure that will be a big help as a cold one can lead to one or two more on a weekend and that can lead to another pound all too easily.

Well, if this diet works, the bigger trick will be making sure I keep off the pounds. That may actually be easier done while dieting at home than when away. I can can start and stick to the diet while at home, and take off a good number of pounds, I figure I will be more likely to keep them off because there will be less of a change in my situation than if I was away. Yes, being away makes it easier to start my diet and to lose pounds, but then come home and when all the old habits, stresses and everything hit me, well I cave in. Dieting at home may be harder to start and maintain at first because I am surrounded by those things but if I get it started here, then stick to it for awhile, there will be no sudden change of immersing back into those stresses, as when i returned home from Tucson, because I have been surrounded by them all along and was dieting all along. I hope that makes sense, hell I hope I stick to it this time. I think I will and I intend to do so. Damn the pretzels, chips and the beer, hello lower carbs and lower weight. I have to tell ya, I like eating junk so much that just thinking and writing about it has been stressful Oh well, time to exchange one addiction with another, a more healthy alternative.

I am pretty sure most of you do not want to be bored by my attempt at dieting this time around, so I will keep any progress reports to a minimum. If I am successful though, you can anticipate before and after pics sometime in the next few to several months.

All the best,
Glenn B

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Are Ammo Prices About To Soar

I am not saying they are or they are not but with the price of gasoline going through the stratosphere one would expect that prices will go up. As a matter of fact, and reported on here for your information, SG AMMO expects ammo prices to rise in the next few weeks:

"04-17-2011 - Hello SGAmmo.com customers,

I consider it my duty to inform our customer base that significant price increases on various brands of ammunition will go into effect in the next few weeks, We will hold back on raising prices on certain items that are currently in good supply, however it appears inevitable that a broad line of commercial ammunition products will rise in price, so please consider that when evaluating your ammo needs. We will continue to search for special purchase items of better than average value and offer the best prices we can on our entire product line.

Thank you
SG"


The above quote is from their homepage at:
http://www.sgammo.com/.

I may have to check my recent inventory to see what I may be low on and then stock up on some of that. I recently ordered a 440 tin of 7.62x54R, from
MilitaryShooters.com that should arrive tomorrow. That went for $92.14 shipped. Tonight, I ordered a case of 500 rounds of Federal® 9 mm 147 - gr. JHP Ammo from the SportsmansGuide.com. That set me back $159.21 shipped (with club membership discount and a $5 off online coupon). I also was thinking of getting some more 7.62x39 and .223 since I have still have some money left over in my guns ammo money fund. I had $1,200 for the gun show last week ans spent nowhere near that much. Since then though I spent most of what was left over on regular expenses and these two ammo orders. Still though, there is some left over, so I am tempted to at least pick up anything of which I may be in short supply or that .223 or 7.62x39. Decisions, decisions, decisions - tough as they are, they need to be made! I guess my next order should come from SG Ammo since ghey were nice enough to give the warning about the expected price increases (and they have pretty good prices and pretty good service too).

All the best,
Glenn B

Pres. Obama: No Wonder He Won't Show His Birth Certificate

The sovereignty of the United States of America apparently means nothing to him after what he said today:

“No matter who you are. No matter where you come from. No matter what you look like. No matter whether your ancestors landed here on Ellis Island or came here on slave ships or came across the Rio Grande, we are all connected. We will rise and fall together. That’s the vision of America I’ve got, that’s the idea of the heart of America...” President Obama said at a fundraiser in San Francisco. (see:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/04/21/obama_we_are_all_connected_whether_you_crossed_the_rio_grande_or_not.html)

I find that absolutely disgusting. I think (in my personal opinion) that he should be removed from office as soon as possible by way of impeachment or any other legal means. Did I spend over 31 years of my career enforcing border laws of one sort or another, working hard, being a good citizen, paying taxes, raising my family as American citizens so that he just waves everyone in and lumps us all together no matter who.

"No matter who you are"!!! So is he saying that every motherfucking MS-13 gang banging murderous scumbag who is here, every cocaine smuggling dirtbag, everyone who came here illegally then proceeded to bleed us dry then go back to their own countries when they have had enough, is that whom he is saying is part of his vision of America. Whatever happened to rewarding the hard working, good people of the nation and trying to root out and rid ourselves of the ones who soak the system dry or who out and out commit crime with no regard for the law or for the good of our country.

I love the United States of America and I love a way that seems to now be that of a bygone era, one that I long to see again. So, what to do in hopes of seeing it again? God damn, well I declare, I am going to have to buy some more guns, ammo and maybe even a bible. I think I will also start voting straight conservative (not for RINOS or Libertarians) on all issues (even though I do not agree with all of them) and give more money to conservative political candidates (not to RINOS).

We are, I think (personal opinion again), doomed if this man continues to ruin run the U.S. of America. I plan to do my best by legal and ethical means to see someone else in the Oval office next time around. I cannot wait until I am retired at the end of the year to say plainly what I really want to say, and to actually be able to campaign for candidates. For now, I cannot violate laws that restrict me from saying it since I still work for the government and cannot afford to lose my job.

All the best,
Glenn B

Is Your Krummlauf Complete

Okay, maybe you spell it Krummerlauf, but if you know what it is then it does not matter how you spell it. The one I saw was said to be complete. While I was at the gun show, up in Syracuse, NY, last Saturday, I saw one of the most unusual rifles I have ever seen. Well, truth be told, the rifle - a German MP44 - was not all that unusual except for the attachments added to it. Those attachments were a grenade launcher, a prismatic sighting device and a bent barrel. At first glance, I had thought the barrel had been damaged and wondered why this particular rifle was on display. Then I spoke to the woman displaying it and read the info sheet she had available on her table. The devices were actually used by the Germans during the last year of WWII on the Russian front.

In a moment of pure noxious brain fart attack, I did not immediately pull my camera out of my pocket and take pictures of the whole magilla, as a matter of fact I did not take any pictures inside this gun show, shame on me but I was too busy gawking. I can assure you, if I am again at a gun show, with my camera handy, and see one of these, I will take plenty of pictures. There is a paucity of pictures available on the Internet from what I could find and most are terrible quality and small in size. Nonetheless, I was able to find a couple of pics to put into this post and am quite grateful that someone posted them online and that someone took them in the first place. While the ones in the pics do not appear to be exactly the same as the one I saw at the gun show, they are close to it and will give a good idea of what it looked like.

Much to my surprise, in my 5th or 6th attempt to find better pics, I ran across this video of them in action.



It sure looks like you could have fun with one of these but I am not too sure than any range personnel would appreciate me bringing one of these to a local range. Of course, it might get the same kind of looks as the guy in the above pic is giving the one he is holding, and there would be lots of conversation sure to ensue.

All the best,
Glenn B

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Anyone Celebrate Adolf Hitler's Birthday Yesterday?

If you did, then just allow me to tell you - Go Screw Yourself Asshole!

To my readers who know well enough to consider Hitler a vile and despicable creature who was only worthy of miserable death, I applaud you.

All the best (to those who did not celebrate),
Glenn

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

April 19 - Today In History - Oh What A Day

April 19th has been of very special signifigance for me for many years. It is just another day but I think it is a day, as far as history is concerned, that is very special indeed. I imagine you could look at almost any other day and selectively find things of historic merit that took place but today is a bit more special as I see it. Let me tell you a bit about today by giving a brief rundown of some of the most things that have happened on it throughout history, then maybe you will understand why I see it as so special:

2005 Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, becomes the 265th pope

2000 Air Philippines flight 541 crashes into a hill near Davao, killing 131

1995 Truck bomb at Federal Building in Oklahoma City, kills 168

1994 Rodney King award $3,800,000 in compensation of police beating

1994 Supreme Court outlaws excluding people from juries because of gender

1993 Fire in psychiatric institute in South Korea, kills 40\

1993 The Branch Davidian Compound near Waco, Texas, is destroyed in a fire after 51-day stand-off; 76 people die, including 24 British nationals and 20 children

1991 Evander Holyfield beats George Foreman in 12 for heavywgt boxing title

1991 Greyhound Bus posts $195 million loss for 1990

1989 Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors

1987 Gregory Robertson does 200-mph free fall to save unconscious skydiver (wow, all I can say is, what a man)

1987 Jacqueline Blanc, sets women's downhill ski speed record, 124.9 mph

1987 Last wild condor captured on California wildlife reserve

1987 U.S.S.R. performs underground nuclear test

1986 Michael Spinks beats Larry Holmes in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

1985 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan U.S.S.R.

1984 Nemesis, death star of dinosaurs 1st appears in Nature magazine

1983 France performs nuclear test

1982 Guinon Bluford announced as 1st black astronaut

1982 Sally Ride announced as 1st woman astronaut

1982 U.S.S.R. Salyut 7 space station put into orbit

1975 India launches 1st satellite with help of U.S.S.R.

1973 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan U.S.S.R.

1972 "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" opens at Playhouse New York City for 1,065 performances

1972 Bangladesh becomes a member of British Commonwealth

1972 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1971 Charles Manson sentenced to life (Sharon Tate murder) [to bad he was not executed]

1971 U.S.S.R. Salyut 1 launched; 1st manned lab in orbit

1967 "Casino Royale" premieres (one of my favorite movies)

1967 Beatles sign a contract to stay together for 10 years (but they did not stay together)

1967 U.S. Surveyor III lands on Moon

1965 At a cost of $20,000, the outer Astrodome ceiling is painted because of sun's glare, this causes the grass to die (dah)

1962 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker takes X-15 to 46,900m (my favorite aircraft when was a child, I had at least one toy and one model of it, and I wanted to fly it)

1960 Comiskey Park's famed "exploding" scoreboard begins operating enough with explosions already)

1956 U.S. actress Grace Kelly marries Monaco's Prince Rainier III (what a loss for the rest of us, she was an excellent actress)

1955 59th Boston Marathon won by Hideo Hamamura of Japan in 2:18:22 (I mention this one only because that is the year I was born, there were many - many - many Boston Marathons held on April 19th)

1951 General Douglas MacArthur ends his military career

1949 Yankees dedicate a plaque for Babe Ruth (there were many baseball feats that took place on this date, I mention this because he was one of the greats)

1948 Chiang Kai-shek elected president of Nationalist

1947 French ship explodes in Texas City harbor, kills about 522

1945 U.S. aircraft carrier Franklin heavy damaged in Japanese air raid

1943 Revolt in Warsaw Ghetto under Mordechai Anielewicz (I left out quite a few other events of WWII)

1940 "Lake Shore Ltd" derails speed killing 34 near Little Falls

1939 Connecticut finally approves Bill of Rights (148 years late and always makes me wonder why)

1936 Anti-Jewish riots break out in Palestine

1934 Shirley Temple appears in her 1st movie, Stand Up and Cheer

1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt announces U.S. will leave gold standard (commie socialist destroyer of America who created Social Security the biggest lie of the 20th century)

1932 President Herbert Hoover suggests 5 day work week (I can live with that but 4 would have been better)

1928 Japanese troops occupies Sjantung-schiereiland

1921 Funeral of last German Empress, Augusta Victoria

1919 Leslie Irvin of U.S. makes 1st parachute jump and free fall

1910 Halley's comet seen by naked eye 1st time this trip (as if one comet sighting on this day was not portent enough for me, it was also seen in the year 607)

1904 Much of Toronto destroyed by fire

1897 1st American Marathon ran, John J McDermott wins in 2:55:10 (Yep, you guessed it - in Boston)

1897 1st Boston Marathon won by John McDermott of New York in 2:55:10

1892 Charles Duryea takes 1st American-made auto out for a spin (Mass)

1874 Barracks on Alcatraz Island destroyed in fire

1864 Naval Engagement at Cherbourg, FR: USS Kearsage vs. CSS Alabama

1863 Union troops/fleet occupy For Huger, Virginia

1861 Baltimore riots-4 soldiers, 9 civilians killed

1861 Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports (Civil War)

1782 Netherlands recognizes U.S

1775 Minutemen and Lexington Militia Leader Captain John Parker orders his men: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." at Lexington Common and soon after The Shot Heard Round The World was fired and the War For Independence had begun in the American Colonies. (This has always been one of, if not the most, significant historical event of this day for me, well sort of, you will see what I mean below.)

1770 Captain James Cook 1st sees Australia (the land down under or the 18th century version of Land Of The Lost)

1587 Sir Frances Drake sails into Cadiz Spain and sinks Spanish fleet

607 Comet 1P/607 H1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0898 AUs of Earth

There were lots of other events that took place on April 19th throughout the history of the world. This day is also significant, not so much for an event per se, but because, in 1889, it was the last day that the people of the earth would not know one of our worst nightmares. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889. So, today is significant because it is the anniversary of the last day of his nonexistence.)

As you can see from all of the above, this day in history has been one of tremendous importance, probably a lot like any other day but then again, there are a lot of rather catastrophic events that happened on April 19th and they seem to overshadow the good things that happened on this day.

Still though, all of those things don’t make it as important to me as one rather small, insignificant (for the rest of the world) only slightly historical but very happy event that also took place today in 1986. I married the most beautiful woman in the world - Linda - now my wife of 25 years! It has not all been days of wine and roses, nor a bowl of cherries. We have surely had our ups and down, and just like history has shown that this or any other day can be tumultuous there are also good things that can come of any given day. I have to say - she made me a happy man when we were married and 25 years later I can say: Life, with her, is just another day in Paradise. I love you dear!

All the best,
Glenn B


Reference:

http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/april_19.html


http://todayinhistory.com/m04-19-event-results.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_hitler


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parker_(captain)

Opening A Russian (or other Communist Bloc) 'Spam' Ammo Can Without The Can Opener

Have you ever bought Russian, or other Com-Bloc, military surplus ammo, such as 7.62x54R, that comes in the so called spam can, then found yourself without the specialty can opener made for the job of opening those cans? If you have, then you know those cans can be darned difficult to open and you may also have learned that there are plenty of ways not to open them. Prying them open with the wrong tool, in the wrong way, can result in damage to the ammo. Worse yet, you could get cut in the process.

I just ordered 440 rounds of this ammo sealed in a spam can. It will not be coming with the opener so, tonight, I looked around online for one for sale. I am not about to pay the $15.00 plus shipping at which I found one available. Not satisfied with doing that, continued my search and wound up on YouTube where I found a very informative video that was posted there by Oldcarjunkie. The video shows, what I think is, a pretty good looking way to open these cans with a hammer and screwdriver when you don't have the proper can opener. About the only things I might do differently would be to wear work gloves while doing it, especially when pulling the lid off of the can. I also suggest being very careful when taking out the packets of ammo because the cut edges of the can are sure to be pointy or sharp in places. Of course, I'd also be careful not to hit my foot with the hammer. Safety glasses are also a good idea.

Here is the video, enjoy and please leave a nice comment at YouTube for Oldcarjunkie cheeverracing89, whose video replaces that of oldcarjunkie who seems to have closed his YouTube account:



Simple, but apparently effective.

All the best,
Glenn B

Monday, April 18, 2011

Happy Pesach (Passover)

And if your son asks you in the future, saying, What are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, that the LORD our God commanded you? You will say to your son, We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The LORD gave signs and wonders, great and harmful, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out of there to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised our fathers. -Deuteronomy 6:20-23

To all my Jewish friends and readers, I wish you a happy Pesach (Passover). I hope the upcoming days are filled with hope, happiness and peace for you, your families and your loved ones. Pesach Shalom.

All the best,
Glenn B

Today In History - The Last Day of Peace In The Colonies & A Ride For History

April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren instructs two men to ride and it was a ride that would go down in history as one of the most famous ever. Those two men were William Dawes and Paul Revere. They were to ride from Boston to Lexington, MA to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the movements of the British Army who it was believed would march on Concord, MA to seize arms stored there by the colonists' militia. Though called the midnight ride, it actually began late on the night of the 18th at about 11PM just after the British crossed the Charles River headed toward Lexington & Concord. Because of Revere and Dawes, many other riders took up the call: "The regulars are coming out". The next morning, at the battles of Lexington & Concord, the colonists were ready. The first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington where the militia fell back but the British troops were repulsed at Concord by the militia though outnumbered by the Brits. After a fierce battle the British retreated back toward Boston and the war was on in full force.

More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere#The_Midnight_Ride_of_Paul_Revere

All the best,
Glenn B