Gun Fun - Basic Pistol

SIL has signed up for an NRA basic pistol course. This should be a fun time if all goes well. She has no gun herself but the instructor says she has a 9mm she can loan. SIL has been calling around to find ammo, and has discovered..... There isn't any.

I also found out she had not noted how much would be required.

I have offered her the choice of several pistols from .22 to .38 to 9x18. Her instructor is suggesting she bring both the .22 and the 9mm which is what I would have recommended. Of course if she had come out with me, I'd have brought them all.

Sportsmans has .40 S&W ammo in 250 round bulk pack at $100 which I would split with SIL but the instructor has no .40 loaner.

The instructor reminded SIL that the ammo quantity for the range part is 150 rounds, and suggested that this could be split 100 rounds of .22 and 50 rounds of 9mm. The instructor is less than impressed with revolvers I guess.

Range day is the 25th. Film at 11, as they used to say.

Gun Law - It Could Be Worse

In Cali anyway, SB-53 requires anyone selling ammo to have an ammo sellers license, and anyone buying said ammo to have an ammo buyers license. So far it looks like either one of these will cost $50. The hoops one must then jump through extend to include collecting enough info on the buyer and the buyers guns to constitute a universal gun registry as an added bonus.

The bill has passed the Senate, been amended there, and the House which it's going back to to affirm the latest amendments. The government of course is exempted from all this:

(b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to or affect the sale, delivery, or transfer of ammunition to any of the following:

(1) An authorized law enforcement representative of a city, county, city and county, or state or federal government, if the sale, delivery, or transfer is for exclusive use by that government agency and, prior to the sale, delivery, or transfer of the ammunition, written authorization from the head of the agency employing the purchaser or transferee is obtained, identifying the employee as an individual authorized to conduct the transaction, and authorizing the transaction for the exclusive use of the agency employing the individual.

(2) A sworn peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2 who is authorized to carry a firearm in the course and scope of the officer’s duties.

If Ammo suppliers decided that this all seems a bit much, they could immediately alleviate the ammo shortage in the rest of the country by refusing to sell ammo to anyone in California including the above mentioned  authorities.

Colorado Gun Law - 30 Round Mags

Imagine if you will, a modern Sporting Rifle with a 10 round magazine. Now notice the minute difference switching to a 30 round mag makes:

Now I ask you, unless you're her boyfriend dragging your ass in at 6 AM, does this look scarey? Under those circumstances and at this distance would a 10 round mag look less scarey?

Found the pic at Power Line.

Gun Blogger Rendevous

I'm going this year, having been regaled by Kevin of Smallest Minority, and being otherwise unoccupied and having not had a vacation in mumble mumble years. This is turning into an interesting proposition.

Going by rail is the lowest cost and probably the slowest. OTOH I get to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and other scenic stuff going both ways. Colorado going and Nevada and Utah coming back. If 2 or 3 of us were going, it would be cheaper to drive if slightly slower. 1600 mi round trip x 21 mpg x $3.50/gal. Maybe next year.

For a while there I thought it might be marginally less undignified to bypass the TSA at the airport, but it looks like they might be at the train station as well, plus branching out to random gropings on the streets. Baggage restrictions are somewhat less than on the airplanes. Weight and size restrictions apply, but are somewhat more generous than Southwest Air Lines.

The Rendevous seems to be 3 days of speakers, presentations by industry reps, socializing and 3 range trips so luggage will include guns and ammo.Amtrak doesn't have a problem with guns in checked luggage, but disapproves of black powder and hand loaded ammo.

The hotel assures me that they do not have a courtesy car, probably because Nevada is a solidly union state. The good news is that it's only about 3 blocks from the train station.

Full details on the event are here.

Gun Fun - Marlin

I ordered a Marlin 795 .22 plinker back in Late April. The gun was difficult to obtain, being out of stock in most places, but Bass Pro came through. I got a scope and rings from Wal Mart which were delivered in under a week. I bought ammo at Wal Mart which turned out to be in stock just 2 weeks ago. I've been waiting ever since to get some spare mags for the gun which seem to be out of stock everywhere including the factory.

Happy days! CTD notified me today that they have some in stock. I've ordered 3 and should have them by next Friday, which will complete the order. Total elapsed time = 4 months.

Julie, who lives in heavily regulated Perth, Down Under, also bought a rifle, and with all the required paperwork, had to wait 3 months to actually lay hands on it. Now I'm happy to have had to deposit only one form with our government to get my rifle, and I certainly sympathize with Julie on the wait, but she did get a complete gun with the same accessories I got in that length of time. See? It's much more efficient when government agencies can share data. One filing, and your personal information goes to the ATF who puts it in a common database shared by the IRS, the FEC, the NSA, the FBI, HHS, and a collection of hackers from China, Russia, and North Korea. Gotta love it.

Tweet, Tweet

I'm not on Twitter or Facebook, but some of the people who are continue to provide great entertainment. Here, for example is Debbi Wasserman-Schultz, DNC Chairperson:

Note that the Dems don't have any trouble attracting women who apparently enjoy the abuse (B.Clinton, Filner), in most cases, or the trade, in the case of E. Spitzer and others.

Whatever turn you on lady.

A Comedy Of Errors

Here come the Libertarians again, pissing in the soup and highlighting the lack of forethought that went into the election law whooped through the Dem-controlled legislature earlier this year. First the law:

At issue is a July 22 emergency rule concerning recall successor candidates for Senate District 11 (Colorado Springs) and Senate District 3 (Pueblo), requiring a 10 day deadline for nominating petitions in a recall election. The purpose of the short deadline was to allow time for printing and mailing of ballots in advance of the September 10 election date. That meant the last day to submit completed petitions was July 29.

The law changed our elections from walk in and vote to all mail-in. This means the candidate list must be complete early enough to print and mail all the ballots. This includes ballots to the military overseas.

However, Article XXI, Section 3 of the Colorado Constitution allows any qualified candidate the right to submit completed nominating petitions up to 15 days in advance of the election date.

After submitting the petitions, the signatures need to be verified. Creates a bit of a dilemma for the printers.

The other pisser is the Libertarians desire to get on the ballot. In Dist 3, there are no Dems currently on the ballot as none were able to get the required signatures in time. Extending the deadline may change this. In Dist 11 a Dem is on the ballot. In Dist 11 the electorate is closely divided favoring conservatives by about 13.5/12. Sen Morse got the job when a Libertarian took about 10% of the conservative vote. Now they want to do it again.

Libertarians: Electing Democrats from the beginning.

The Future of Humanity - Obsolescence

So there you are, the ink dripping off that advanced degree in Liberal Arts with a major in Pre-Cambrian Sonnets, and out you go looking for work. Start right out with the obvious choices: Order taker for the drive-through line or burger flipper at any fast food outlet within walking distance of your parents basement, and what do you find?

This. In the case of burger flippers, you have been replaced by an automated line that produced (allegedly) perfect custom burgers at a rate of up to 350/hour for less than minimum wage, and of course no health care benefits. We'll talk about the service contract later.

The order taker will be replaced with a touch screen replete with drop-down menus, allowing you to customize your order to the last detail. Ordering from McBurgers has become as efficient as ordering from Amazon. If you have a wireless mouse on your cars center console, you won't even have to reach out the window and actually touch anything until you pull forward to the delivery window to retrieve your order.

The only human behind the counter will be the tech support person, so unless your degree included advanced Windows trouble shooting, you won't find a job there.

The Future Of Transportation - Hackneys

A local judge has ruled that drivers for Uber, the iPhone based limo company, would be allowed to have a clock on board, but not a calculating device. This is primary aimed at the use of the iPhone to calculate the fare, but:

"A luxury limousine may not contain a taxicab meter or other device for calculating any component of rates charged based upon time and mileage, other than a clock," states a proposed amendment from Administrative Law Judge Harris Adams.

The judges proposed rule making would forbid even the use of a pad of paper and a pencil by my reading. Since the iPhone is used to summon the vehicle, the ruling would remove that as well unless the calculator app was removed from the phone.

I guess if you're a member of the taxicab cartel, it's good to have a judge or two on retainers.

Timing Is Everything

Heard on the radio just now:

D.J.: And now this...(Opening bars of "Don't Fear The Reaper"...

BZZT>>>BZZZT>BZZZT This is the National weather service. A tornado warning is issued for central Elbert county. Should an actual tornado touch down, extensive damage would occur to mobile homes, vehicles, etc, take cover immediately!

BZZT>>>BZZZT>BZZZT  Flash flood warnings are in effect for central Weld county. Torrential rains have been reported in several locations. Several roads are reported under water. Use caution!

BZZT>>>BZZZT>BZZZT

Resumes playing  "Don't Fear The Reaper".


The NWS really knows how to make a weather alert edgy don't they?

Bloomberg's Minions Complain

About funding for the recall efforts coming from as far away as... gasp...Denver. Funding to keep them in office of course is coming from New York City, practically in their own back yards. The ads sing the miscreants praises while conveniently never mentioning the gun and tax issues that got them there in the first place. Even the local media is calling B.S. on this.

Notwithstanding the occasional tourist who asks the park ranger if one can see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from the continental divide in Rocky Mountain Nat'l. park, it would seem you can see the New York Times building from either Pueblo or Colorado Springs.

Who knows? From the top of Pikes Peak one can suffer enough oxygen deprivation to see a lot of things.

It's Good To Be The King

When you're king, the law doesn't apply to you. When you're connected to the king, selected laws don't apply to you.

Obamacare, for example. Or conventional labor laws.

The Lonely Lives Of Mathematicians

When all other mathematica have been solved:

I'll take their word for it.And I don't want to know about the research that went into this either.

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

August E-Postal

Carteach has the August match up and it's vaguely similar to mine, only possibly worse since overlapping areas don't count for anything special.

Don't print this one. Go here and get the real thing. Carteach's link has the rules. Bring a calculator, math is hard.

As an exercise, see if you can figure out how to get 63 points out of this target without popping over to read the rules. Come on, not reading instructions is manly as hell and adds to the fun and entertainment value of any project.

Update: Scoring instructions on the target are correct. The original perfect score was imperfect.
E-Postal Limited Vickers: The rules call for 18 shots. If you're having a caffeinated day and your buddies are calling you "Shakey Jake" remember that shots missing the paper completely don't count. I've had a couple like that where some of the bullseyes were close to the edge of the paper and having fired the requisite number of shots, I count the holes and discover that I seem to still owe the target another round or two.

July E-Postal - Results

For a while there I was worried that this contest might be too easy, but I guess not. Here are the results. If I get any more in the next day or two, I'll add them in.

Billlls Venn Diagram – Results

Shooter           Gun                                           Score

Class 1
TBS                 Ruger Mk 3, Scoped                24
Billll                Ruger Mk 1                               23
Mike B           S&W 612                                   21
TBS                Ruger Single 6                            12
Pat B             S&W 617                                     19
Paula B          Browning Buckmark                 15
Danno            Ruger .22/45                             12
TBS               1911-22                                        9
Danno           Ruger Single 6                             9
Mr CCBCC     Ruger .22/45                             6
Mr. CCBCC     Ruger Single 6                          2

Class 2
Mike B         .22 rifle, Scoped                         23
Billll                Rem. Nyl66, scoped                22

Class 3
Pat B              Browning Hi Power                 15
C. Johnson     XDM .45                                  12
Mr. CCBCC    CZ (.40 cal)                               3
Danno            CZ (.40 cal)                                 2




Congrats to True Blue Sam for taking first in Class 1. He has a video of how he did it here. He's obviously been taking lessons from Mr. C.

I think Mike B used a 10/22, but it didn't get written down. I would have liked to have used my new Marlin, but forgot to move it to the right gun case before leaving for the range. The rather stiff trigger probably would have put me further down though.
Also Congrats to Pat B on his win in Class 3, edging out C. Johnson, who is True Blue Sams brother.

I apologize for not including a place to put in your data. Next time.

As a suggestion, when you scan targets, put a piece of yellow paper such as a yellow ruled tablet behind your target. This provides contrast for the holes. Oddly, black doesn't work as well. Go figure.

I have modeled up some targets based on the trick shots done on Top Shot. We may be seeing them on some of the later e-postals.