Sunday, August 26, 2007

Thumb Drive!

I was ordered by my Writing II teacher to get a thumb drive, so I went looking around for a suitable unit. I ended up with a Sandisk Cruzer Micro, because its cheap, but I really like this one:


Its stupid expensive at $90 (yeah, you read that right) but its cool. Sometimes cool is all you need.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sun can hurt

Man, hot sucks. Hot and humid is even worse. Its no wonder nobody is out and about during the day this past week. Hot to the point of unpleasantness.
“Let’s check in the field now. Hi, can you help me? What’s your name?”
“My name is Roosevelt Lee Roosevelt.”
“Roosevelt, what town are you stationed in?”
“I’m stationed in Poon Tang.”
“Well… thank you, Roosevelt. What’s the weather like out there?”
“It’s HOT! DAMN hot. Real hot. Hot as things in my shorts, I could cook things in it, a little crotch pot cookin’.”
“Well, could you tell me what it feels like?”
“Fool, it’s hot, I told you again! Were you born on the SUN? It’s damn hot. You don’t believe me, I saw one of those little guys in an orange robe burst into flames. It’s that hot, you know what I’m talking about?”

Yeah, it was hot like that. And Top, Sarn't Henderson and I went to the range. I even applied some allegedly waterproof sunscreen. Turns out that not only did I sweat off at least some of the sunscreen, and not only did I get myself a case of heat frustration, and not only did I burn the sides of my neck and the tops of my ears, but I also shot very, very poorly. I guess the lesson learned is to hydrate more vigorously (or perhaps to lose my extra insulation), and to get to the range more often, because my carbine shooting was craptastic. I did OK with the Man Gun (my custom 1911), but my carbine shoosting...not good. More practice will be needed! Back to the range to suffer in the heat some more!

Sunday, August 05, 2007

More reasons why Frankenguns choke

Top hipped me to some more info as to why TDP (Technical Data Package) guns work and parts guns don't when pushed hard. LAV (if you don't know who that is, you don't belong on my blog. Go away) is, as far as I know, the one who coined this term: tolerance stack.

Tolerance stack can probably be best defined in a comparison. Guns made to the TDP, or as close as can be, don't have it. The guns are made to the blueprints, so the parts are made to a specific spec and of specific materials. Parts guns don't have that. So, when you use a commercial spec receiever with a different brand of parts kit and whatever other parts, you're creating tolerance stack. Say your receiver doesn't exactly work completely and totally as it should with the parts kit. That's one little piece of the tolerance stack. Add the cheapest BCG you can get. Non-MPI'd bolt, unknown brand of pins. Every one of those CAN add to the tolerance stack. Eventually, all these things add up, and the result is the TS. Push the gun hard, as in a thousand rounds a day in a class over a few days, and you'll see failures. It happens with non-Mil Spec factory guns. Its definitely gonna happen with a parts gun made by somebody who doesn't build guns for a living. Its a statistical fact.

What can be done about it? Not much. Get a gun made with, or as close as can be, to the TDP. That means Colt, FN (good luck finding one) or LMT. That probably means Noveske and a few others, too. Fact is, the commercial tier three guns are probably going to fail when pushed hard. It may not, but tolerance stack is why they do. Check out what LAV, Pat Rogers, and others of that ilk have to say about how those guns perform. They'll almost all say that the Colt 6920 is where its at. When the gun has to run, they're just not all that expensive. If you can't float what the Colt costs, LMT can be had for a little less than a grand. Its pretty clear, with some study and research, that the commercial guns are OK for casual use, but aren't going to stand up to heavy use. I don't wanna hear it either, cuz I don't have $1300 to put into a rifle, but facts is facts.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Sumpin' gotsta give!

I'd like to apologize to both the readers of my blog for not having more to post here. School has kept me so busy that I pretty much come home from work and go right to doing school stuff...instead of vacuuming, doing my dishes and like that. I'm finishing up my Corporate Finance course, which is beating me like a Roman task master with a cat o nine tails, and I still have to get more done in my Metaphysics class. I'll hopefully finish up Metaphysics by the end of the month, at which time I'll be starting at Hopkinsville Community College to pick up my last three classes: pre-whenever American History, post-pre-whenever American History, and Writing II. Once those are done, I will have a degree in Binnis Manglement, as well as having spent almost all of 2007 in school. I'm looking forward to February, when I'll be in Vegas celebrating both my degree and my birthday at SHOT. I told some of the reg'lars at Lightfighter.net that I would be there, so the party may be epic. Ellis Island and Freakin' Frog, here I come!