Bucky is clairvoyant on the Olympics

As you know, I'm no fan of cats, but sometimes cartoon cats get it right. See what Bucky has to say about the Limpics:

Denver Cops on the Ball

This is too great not to post to my little corner of the Intardweb. Speaking of Intards...don't dare the fine officer to "do it again". NSFW for some dirty, nasty, scumbag hippie profanity.

Goin' Home

After stopping by the Messican food place yesterday after the range, I came to the conclusion that I have to go home to get some real grub. There's no real Messican food here, and fresh seafood is non-existent. That is a no-go at this station. I got a round trip ticket on Southwest, non-stops both ways, for $325. I thought that was pretty good. Apparently, San Diego is far enough away that $130-something is about as cheap as it gets. I've yet to find a $49 fare from here to there.

I've flown Southwest for several years, and only once had a flight delayed. Unfortunately, that one delayed flight was going to Vegas for SHOT, so I missed the opening night meet-n-greet. That was a loss, because of my Intardweb celebrity. Its not for me; its a tradgedy for those people that don't get to meet the famous Haji. There will be a next year, though, at SHOT 09 in Orlando. Yeah, Vegas is better.

I like the people here, because so few of them are from here. Its like San Diego in that respect: military towns have people from all over, so it has less of a small-town feel. In most other ways, though, this is definitely small town, and that's not how I grew up. I need to get back to the big city, and San Diego is big enough. Nashville, which is about an hour from here, is about the size of one of SD's suburbs. Its a nice city, though. I just happen to like San Diego a lot better.

As you might imagine, Mom is pretty happy to hear that I'm coming home, and so are my brother and sisters. I gotta make time for SoCal LF'ers, too, and some friends from all over SoCal. I really need about a month off, instead of 11 days. lol!

How come I can't do this all the time?

Did this at a little over seven yards, left handed. The drill we were doing simulated getting shot and losing the use of one arm, and having to clear a stoppage before being able to use it again. Since you will likely have no use of the affected limb, the gun is retrieved from the ground. Since an spent cartridge is in the chamber, when the gun is sighted in, it goes "click" when one attempts to use it. The stoppage must be cleared, one handed (using the belt as a place to push the gun against to cycle the action is my favorite), reloaded, and fired at the target. Apparently, I was concentrating quite intently on the clearing, so I just brought the gun up in my left, hand, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger squeeze, follow through...and a center punch hit. I gotta work on doing that more often. Maybe I just need to shoot with my non-dominant hand with everything I fire. Who's got a 416?

The Limpics

I'm a big time sports nut. I love watching competition. Football, basketball, hockey, MMA, motor sports, competitive shooting...its all great. Baseball sucks bad, but there's gotta be something that sucks, so baseball wins. With that kind of a background, you'd think I'd be lovin' the Olympics.

The thing is...I've been horribly disappointed. Every time I get home from work, I turn on the TV and hope to see an interesting sport in Bay Jing. I'm dyin' with this coverage; gymnastics isn't sport, and the other stuff they're showing couldn't be more boring. Where's the shooting? I cought a bit of air rifle, and that was all I could find. Of course, the swimming events, with the amazing Michael Phelps, have been great, but few and far between. The Redeem Team has been straight smokin' opposition, beating them by more than 30 points a game. But I haven't seen any games in the past week! We're in the dang medal round, and I can't catch a game! I'm staying home tomorrow night to try to catch the game; IIRC, its the gold medal contest.

On top of all that, I'm still blown away that the IOC allowed China to have the games. True to Commie form, they didn't do the things they said they'd do: the smog is still horrible, the Intardweb access is not unfettered. They're not allowing their people to see the games, because they don't want them to assemble and protest.

The whole dang thing is sickitating. That the IOC was gullible enough to believe them calls their judgement into question, at the very least. Here's a news flash: Communists lie. All the damn time. If you were wondering why Russia is still in Georgia when they said they were pulling out, you haven't been paying attention. Commies lie. Make no mistake: when the former president and current "prime minister" of your country is former KGB, you're a commie country. Commies lie. I know, its a hard thing to fathom. Here, I'll repeat it again: Commies lie. Get it? Got it? Good!

I needed another reason to be hated

I stopped by a surplus store on the way back to work from lunch at the New Korea Buffet (mackin'!) that usually has some interesting stuff. I came across one of the best scores I've gotten in a while. Amidst all the stuff I didn't want, was something I did: a pair of Peltor Comtac I's.

They're used, but appear to be quite well taken care of, and are in better shape than the pair I already own. "WHAT!" I hear you exclaim. Yeah, you're loud enough to be heard over the Intardweb. Keep it down or the neighbors are gonna call the cops. But, since you're incredulous, you go on to exclaim "You already have one! What do you need another pair for?" Well, the reason for that is simple. They don't make the Comtac I's anymore. They've been replaced with the Comtac II's, which are, in many respects, a superior headset, especially if you wear them under a helmet. Ask Matt or The Big Johnson how good I look in a helmet. They gonna testify! LOL!

Where they fall down, and fall down badly in comparison, is in the way the battery doors attach. On the C-I's, the cover for the batteries is a screw-down lid. on the C-II's, its a friction fit "plug", which has been said to come loose at inopportune times.

Of course, being the low speed nobody that I am, that's never happened to me. However, it has been said by considerably more high speed somebodies that the issue exists. So, even though I'm highly unlikely to ever see that matter-at the range or in a class is as close as I would ever get without the Zombpocalypse-I gotta look like I'm "in the know" by being one of the old school guys. "Yeah, I really like the Comtac I's better. Can't believe they were ever discontinued"...as I stand there lookin' Tactically Delicious with a custom 1911 or lightly modified Glock 19 and high speed lookin' carbine with expensive parts on it, decked out in the latest in fashionable tactical nylon gear (from ATS, of course. Gotta pimp the company ride!).

Also, notice the sexy new Magpul trigger guard! I like that part a LOT.


Oh, yeah. I got the Comtacs for $40.

Zombie hordes: where to find 'em

I've been dabbling in the arena of the Zombpocalypse for a while now, from movies to books to Intardweb activity. That being the case, I've managed to find a few forums on the topic, which have been occasionally helpful and occasionally a source of frustration (just ask Top how many times his hair has been on fire. LOL!). Overall, though, there is quite a bit to be gained on a variety of topics...and its fun. Here's some of my regular haunts:
Zombie Squad

Hotel 23

All Things Zombie

There are some others out there, but I haven't visited them all...yet. Takes time, since I have other forums of interest to attend to. I can't put off washing the dishes forever.

Courage, strength, and perseverence. I gotta warn you, this will be humbling.

Mark Campbell is an officer in the Canadian Army. Recently, he was WIA in Afghanistan, The following is copied from his post at Lightfighter.net explaining what happened and what is happening now. I have to say, this post humbled me, and at the same time, confirmed that I have a lot of work to do on myself. His attitude in amazing and inspiring. This is the quality of service personnel we have in this fight. We owe them all a debt I fear we will never fully understand, much less ever be able to repay.

Howdy Fellow LFers,

First and foremost, I'm still alive and kicking so no "memorial" stuff is required at this point. Second, many thanks for all of your well-wishes and associated kind words. All is as well with me as can be expected under the circumstances. I had a "bad day" in Siah Choy (Zhari District) back on 01 Jun, but it certainly wasn't the end of the world. Indeed, I am quite thankful that aside from the loss of both legs above the knees, I am 100% good to go. In other words, the same old me - for better or for worse!

To satisfy any natural curiosity, I was hit by a comd-detonated AP mine that initiated a complex ambush against the ANA coy that I was accompanying on a village clearance op. The blast threw me straight up and slightly backwards such that I landed just behind the blast seat on my back. I did a crunch and saw that both legs were gone below the knees. I yelled for assistance and managed to get a CAT around my left stump before attending troops took over my care under fire. Both legs were tourniquetted and I was extracted under fire to a secure location while the coy engaged the enemy under the very capable guidance of one of my coy mentoring teams. I remained conscious throughout, which turned out to be a PITA due to the incredible degree of pain I was in.

Three other members of my HQ were evacced with me, including my Med Sgt, who provided life-saving treatment to me while simultaneously treating himself for blast-related concussion. There was a running gun battle back to the designated HLS that lasted about an hour, followed by a 25-minute helo ride to KAF and 30 minutes of in-processing at the Role 3 Forward Surgical Hospital. By that point I was literally begging to be rendered unconscious via anesthetic, as the pain was totally out of control. That was by far the worst part of the entire episode - feeling every single second of the 2 hours it took to finally get some pain relief.

I underwent intial surgery at the Role 3 in KAF, and was then air-evacced to Landstuhl Germany. Once I was anethesized at the Role 3, I was kept unconscious for the better part of a week aside from a couple of occasions where they woke me up for various assessments and phone calls. I was intubated and kept in intensive care due to blast damage to my lung tissue which compromised oxygen processing. Once I regained consciousness, I remained in the Landstuhl ICU for a further 5 days before being placed in the general ward. My repat to Canada was delayed as a result of the lung damage, which impacted my ability to fly at altitude under normal pressurization. Eventually all was well, and I flew from Germany to Edmonton via Airbus and Challenger.

I have been in the Isolation Ward of the U of Alberta Hospital for just over two weeks now, where my wounds have undergone follow-on treatment. Initially the treatment consisted of debriding and irrigating the wounds every 2 days IOT ensure the presence of healthy tissue suitable for skin grafting. I still had a lot of dead tissue in and around my wounds as a result of the blast and the Afghan "super-bug" that I contracted. After a week of dressing changes and cleanings the surgeons were able to conduct the initial skin-grafts required to create suitable stumps for prosthetic legs. The donor tissue came from my upper thighs, which added a whole new level of discomfort. Morphine, Dilaudid, OxyContin, etc, have become my new bestest friends! Anyhow, as of today the docs assess that the graft on my right leg is 100% successful. The graft on my left leg is only 85% healthy, due to the fact that my left thigh took the worst of the blast damage and therefore requires the most reconstruction. If all goes according to plan, one more surgery this coming weekend will sort out the graft on my left stump and put both at 100% so that I can get on with healing and rehab.

I will remain at the U of A Hospital for a few more weeks to let my stumps heal, then transition to the Glenrose Hospital (still in Edmonton) for 3 to 6 months of in-patient amputee rehab. The length of my stay in rehab will depend entirely upon my personal rate of progress through the recovery programme. The good news is that the Glenrose provides cutting-edge/state of the art amputee treatment. There will be plenty of hard work, but | can expect to see maximum return on my rehab efforts.

The support and assistance that I have received throughout every stage of my injury, evacuation and treatment to date has been superb. As you can appreciate, there are still many unanswered questions that need to be addressed, but for the most part my immediate requirements have all been met. My family, friends, co-workers and the various institutional representatives have all been incredibly supportive thus far. My Wife of 18 years has been a rock-solid port in some pretty stormy seas of late. My friends, spanning 27 years of military service, have rallied around my family and shown their true colours. One could not hope for better friends, and I consider myself a very rich man for their company. Likewise, the various military institutions that affect me have been tremendous in their support, starting with a personal visit by the Canadian Forces Chief of Defence Staff (Gen Rick Hillier) and working down the chain through the Army, my Regiment (the PPCLI), and my unit (3rd Bn, PPCLI). I honestly couldn't ask for more in terms of assistance and support in dealing with my current challenges.

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that I am doing fine despite my recent set-back. Yeah, the Taliban bastards managed to wing me. They didn't kill me though - just slowed me down a bit. I'm a partial mobility kill, nothing worse. My injuries will heal and my mobility will eventually improve. I am pleased to say that this is much more than a large number of former Taliban can boast. We did some very good killing on the ops immediately preceeding and during my injury with an extremely high "exchange rate". No doubt the lop-sided killing has continued in my absence....

Life has thrown some new challenges in my path, but at the same time there are new opportunities to be exploited. I just need to figure out what those opportunities are and how they apply to me in order to chart a suitable way ahead for myself and my family. First things first though - for now I need to focus on mending and regaining my mobility. I'll worry about the long-term stuff later.

That is about all I have to report for now. Many thanks again for your concern and your individual well-wishes! That means a lot to me coming from such a distinguished group of BTDT fellow warriors.

Soldier on, no regrets!

Mark Campbell (aka "Stumpy") :Smile:

PS. Here's a link to a recent article with embedded video featuring my mentoring team on ops. The op occurred way back in April before the campaign season really ramped up. As a result, there isn't any kinetic contact. Still, the reporter manages to pretty accurately capture the typical mix of friction-induced stupidity and tactical success. A good intro for those not familiar with ongoing NATO efforts to professionalize the ANA. Enjoy!

http://www.legionmagazine.com/en/index.php/2008/07/assi...teesh-bazi/#more-994

The Zombie Mythos: distilling the suspension of disbelief

My bro Top and I have been on a quest of late to catch up on the Zombie movies we've missed. I've seen a few more of them than he has because our schedules for study (in a semi-reclined position, which is, of course, tactical because we typically have a carbine around) haven't matched up all that well of late. That will happen when one member of the team is married and the other is a slob bachelor. lol

Most of what we've been watching, re-watching, and studying have been Romero films. He's clearly one of, if not the, preeminent authorities on this topic. I think he's probably got more time invested in the whole theme than just about anybody else. There are others, of course, but some just don't make any sense. Part of the appeal is the ability to suspend one's disbelief, and if the mythos doesn't jibe with the physical laws and accepted norms, then suspension of disbelief becomes quite difficult.

That said, I've come to some conclusions as to the world of the mobile undead. I tend to dismiss the concept of voodoo zombies out of hand, mostly because they don't fit the definition very well. To be a zombie, one must die and be reanimated, while voodoo zombies are made through various non-physical means. They're created by some other nefarious force, typically an individual or group of individuals. That precludes the overtaking of the world with zombies: there simply won't be enough of them to do much more than to have their evil overlords overtake an island or other smaller geographic area.

There are a couple other theories that make a modicum of sense, but that will make this entry far longer than I intend for it to be. I'm trying to document my thoughts and not bore the hell out of the two people that read my musings.

So what does make sense? The virus idea holds the most merit, both in how it starts and how it is transferred between infected and non-infected. There seems to be equal credibility for both the most common theories: that the virus was man-made and a mistake that got loose, or that it is an exotic virus transferred through pests like bot flies. I was told by a medic friend of mine that the "bot" in bot fly is short for "botulism". If you've ever seen video of bot flies being removed from a person or critter (search You Tube), its pretty easy to see how bugs could be the original culprit. From there, a virus could easily be spread by way of the accepted means: the bite.

Which brings us to the most asked and debated question about zombies that there is: high speed, or slow and shambling? While I appreciate the emotional elements that high speed zombies bring to a film, the idea doesn't hold up to scrutiny in light of the subject being a migratory dis-exanimate. Because the virus is causing the re-animation, the body is not living in the accepted sense of the word. Therefore, there will be atrophy and decay, which would preclude the ability of the musculature and infrastructure of the locomotive partially-deceased to support high speed movement. Also, a virus always affects a body negatively. Ever had a cold or viral infection that made you feel better? High speed zombies, after a short while, must have failure of their sustentacular tissues. (Go ahead and look it up, its a real word.:))

To sum up, the mythos of the zombie appears to be best described by George Romero's conception of them. While he doesn't go into much detail as to how they become the ambulatory unresting, his conceptions of how they would move the actions they would take appear to have a basis in science. Along the lines of the T-Virus from The Resident Evil series, that they feed appears to be a deep rooted instinct, not a requirement. That, too, seems to be at least within the realm of possibility.

I may decide to delve into this further in the future, as there are a couple more things that I think need to be expressed. My mind is wandering a little too much right now to continue.

Holy cow, I can't stop myself!

I can't seem to stop myself. Granted, I stated I was going to do this, but...dang! Hello, my name is Haji and I have a gun parts addiction. lol!

As previously noted, I dig the Buffer Tech Battlegrip, but its too thin for my bear paw type hands. To solve that problem, I replaced it with a Magpul MIAD. I got the full set, which comes with the front strap that has the built in trigger guard. Problem is, it still has a finger rest on it, which I hate more than the thought of an Obama/Clinton ticket. So, I slapped the flat front strap on the MIAD. Now, though, I have a gap between the grip and the trigger guard. That was problematic, so I added the Magpul aluminum trigger guard. It fills the gap, which is what I wanted most of all, but it has the added benefit of lookin' cool. Since I don't have all that much ammo for the carbine, if I can't shoot it, I can make it look cool!

This isn't my rifle; the pics belong to Magpul. Take a look at that rifle. Does it look like the roll pin hasn't been put in the trigger guard yet?

July 4th: some perspective

I'm half watching, half listening to the History Channel's The Revolution as I write this. Taken in total, that our nation was ever able to be formed, much less succeed and prosper is an amazing thing, and shows divine intervention over and over again. In school, we get the textbook information of dates and names, which is boring. If I had been taught the truths of what was really going on, I would probably have a much, much different view of history in those days, and I would not have taken all these years to understand what was at stake.

The English felt that they were treating the Colonies fairly, and had just spent a whole bunch of money defending them by whuppin' the French in the French and Indian War. The Colonists, obviously, felt quite differently about it. They were being taxed without any representation in England for their concerns, problems, or grievances. The Colonists came to a place where they knew they were not going to have things getting better under the King of England, and they were being oppressed. They decided it was time to throw off that tyranny. As a kid, I remembered thinking, "Well, yeah. Of course they would. That's an easy choice". What they were really facing was much more grave than I was able to understand for a long, long time.

Simply by signing the Declaration of Independence, our Founders took their lives in their hands. Think about what was going on there: John Hancock, the first signer, put his name at the top, literally defiance writ large. The King will know his name and he's made himself a target. That doesn't just mean he can be arrested, although it includes that. No Miranda rights, no civil liberties being recognized. In addition to risking being killed, he also risked his family and friends. Mr. Hancock could have been tortured and maimed. Being declared guilty of sedition didn't mean they'd just haul you out and hang you or shoot you. Being executed didn't have to be quick and painless. It could be much worse than that. Given the rights we now enjoy because of the Framer's work, it's easy to neglect what a big deal that is. Try to imagine the consequences of what he was facing. If you don't at least think "wow", you're not grasping he situation.

But because he and the rest of the Founding Fathers knew what they were getting into and stood to anyway, we have the nation that we have now, the best place in the world to be. Don't let July 4th pass as just a day you grill some food and don't have to go to work. It is that, and I have cherished memories of celebrating the 4th with friends and family, but it is so much more. It is a day in which we must, as American citizens, citizens of the greatest nation ever to exist on the planet, reflect on what we've been given and what was risked to make it happen.

God Bless America.

Wanted: another of the patented quick reviews

Went to see "Wanted" this evening with Top and JAG, since JAG is PCS-ing to Virginia and I'm unlikely to see him anytime soon. The word is: don't. Despite a couple funny lines and a nice butt shot of Angelina Jolie, the gun stuff was stupid and the movie sucks overall. If you're into guns at all, don't bother. It'll piss you off on so many levels, I can't even count 'em all.

Latest pics of Schwaggie: new stuff installed again!

I have generous friends; I am truly a blessed individual. As I posted about in regards to the last range session a couple posts down from this one, I've found that I shoot better without my vertical grip. That created a need not to get burned by my rail, which is known to get hot. Enter my bro M4Guru, who schwagged me the Knight's rail panels you see in the new pics. Now I have good rail coverage to keep from getting burned, and I can still use the rail against barricades and such without undue damage. Yeah, it makes me happy.

In terms of tekneek, what worked, and worked noticeably better for me, was to grasp the fore end just behind where the front sight tower is. My thumb wraps around the top of the rail running pretty much parallel to where the cut for the FSP is on my rail. My index and middle fingers are reaching forward a little bit; I've messed with using my index finger to point towards the target, but I need to experiment with that some more to see if there's any merit or improved performance from it. The one thing I'm trying to do, though, is to grab as much rail as I can, so the gun can be pulled into my shoulder. What I'm talking about is really getting behind and on top of the gun as I can; I find that when I aggressively pull that thing into my shoulder and lean into it, the muzzle hardly moves at all, and I'm getting nice, tight groups with adequate speed. I say adequate because I've never been, in my mind, a fast shooter. Matt E. has a timer that I think I gotta do some work with.

I also added a Magpul MIAD, set up in the fattiest fat fat configuration available. I love the Tango Down Battle Grip; its one of the best designs available. However, I have giant bear paw hands, and that grip is just a little too skinny front to back for me. I set up the MIAD as much like a fat ass Battlegrip as I could. I got the full kit, and would have used the trigger guard option if it didn't have that damnable finger rest on it. At first glance, the nublet on that part is hollow, so if I shaved it or filed it off, it'd probably leave a hole. I'm considering filling it with epoxy or something and shaving it, but it seems more likely that I'll pick up the Magpul aluminum trigger guard, which will solve the problem of the gap at the trigger guard, too. Getting a Gapper would be a less expensive solution, but this is a carbine we're talkin' about. If you don't have a boat, and I don't, the rule is that you spend all that disposable income on the gun. Its just the law.

Another new part is the Viking Tactics padded VTAC sling. I just put that on there, and don't have enough experience with it yet to make a real determination on it yet. It appears that the padding is set back further than it should have been, but I think I still need to mess with the adjustments a little before I decide if that's the case. I like the extra travel due to the longer straps; that seems to be solving my problem rather handily. It adjusts a little faster than my VCAS, but I'm not sure that's as much of an advantage as it appears to be at first blush.


Incidentally, that mark that looks like blue paint on my LaRue M68 mount, is in fact blue paint on my LaRue M68 mount, and the upper receiver. I marked the Troy Battlesight the same way, although the mounting screw is on the other side of the gun, so the mark on the receiver for it is, too. The purpose is twofold: first, it is a quick visual reference to see that everything is still tight, and secondly, if either of the sights get removed for whatever reason, they can be put back in the same place easily. Yet another jewel gleaned from Black Eyes and Green Rifles.

Unfortunately, The Big Johnson is on leave and Top's wife's B-day was today, so we didn't go to the range like we normally would have. I thought about just going and shooting for a bit, but I end up using up more ammo than I intend to when I do that, and I don't have the added benefit of being pushed out of my comfort zone by shooting with guys who are better than me. Instead, I did some more work on building my Intardweb Celebrity. It is a never ending task. Such is the lot of the Online Famous.

The Happening: The Quick Review

Just got back home after watching The Happening with Top and JAG. I could have saved eight bucks. I hear about Global Warming all day long, on the radio, in the news, and everywhere else I turn. I didn't need M. Night Shamalyan to make a movie about it.

The thing that's not scary about this flick is that nobody gets murdered. Suicide is not all that scary, and it should have started in Europe, rather than ended there. They're figuring out that Global Warming is hogwash (HA! When was the last time you saw that word on a blog?), since they've been taxed to death over it already, and its getting worse, according to those who make money on it. Recent polls show they've had enough of it. The movie shoulda killed them all off first, before America finally understands that its all hooey and people like Algore (who's mansion in TN is using 10% more power with all his eco-friendly upgrades and replacements than it was originally) are making BIG MONEY off of it.

Save your money; skip the latest Global Warming Movie.

Another myth: the lining up of the gas rings.

The gas leak from "the aligning of the gas rings" on an AR bolt thing is an old wive's tale that's been going around and around, and repeated by gun writers to the point that it's become fact without proof. Seems to be more proof that most gun writers don't know as much about guns as you do.

The gas rings act a bit like an "o" ring would if one could be used in that location. When the bolt is in the retracted position, or is out of the bolt carrier, the rings are relaxed, and as such, have gaps in them. The reason for that is that the rings need to compress as the firing cycle takes place. They couldn't do that very well if they couldn't be collapsed, could they? Think about it. When the rings are working, THERE'S NO DAMN GAP!!! Alignment of the gas ring's gaps, in that case, don't mean anything, because they're not there when the rings are working.

What you need to know about gas rings is that if one of them is working properly, the gun will work. If all three are worn to the point that they don't work, the gun will choke, even with a proper amount of oil on it. The test is to push the bolt into the "closed" position in the carrier, and hold the bolt inverted. If the bolt moves to the "open" position under the weight of the bolt, your gas rings are worn and need to be replaced. Install some new ones and test. If the bolt doesn't move to the open position, your rings are good and you need to get on with wearing another set out.

Do yourself a favor and take what gun writers say with a grain, on up to a brick, on up to a shipping container, of salt.

Hey! More parts to test at the range today!

Since I can't afford 5.56 ammo anymore, I apparently just buy parts for the gun instead of shooting the heck out of it. ;) I just can't shoot that carbine as much as I'd like, given the price of ammo, but I'd rather shoot 20 or 40 rounds at the range than none at all. I shot through almost all the ammo I had on hand, though. Luckily I still have about 400 rounds of the case of 9mm I picked up a while back. I can get a hook up on PMC, which seems to work pretty good...but it still ain't free.

I had a few new parts to verify: a Magpul MIAD, Buffer Tech extractor upgrade kit, sand paper grip tape for my G-Lock 19, and a VTAC sling. Short answer: they all worked, and a couple were exemplary.

The decision for the MIAD was because the Battle Grip I was running was just too thin for my big hands. Problem solved. I just wish the "trigger guard" front strap piece didn't have the finger rest. I would have used it if it didn't have it. I'm not sure I can shave it off, but I might try that later. If there's one thing I'd change about the MIAD, its that I would have the front strap modified to cover "the gap" between the grip and the trigger guard, which the Battle Grip does by design. If that proves to be a big deal, I'll pick up a Gapper for it, but I kinda doubt it'll be an issue.


The extractor upgrade kit seems to work as advertised; all the cases extracted and appeared to be going about 400% further than they had been. I dunno if that's the truth or not, but that's what the description at Brownell's said. At any rate, they were going a bit further, although the extractor was never a problem before. I just didn't like having the stock buffer insert being blue when it should have been black. I don't think it really mattered, but I have piece of mind, and new parts. Its the journey, not the destination, I guess. :)

The sand paper grips made a huge, huge difference. As both the readers of my blog probably already know, my hands are large. Glock 19's aren't large. I needed something to be able to hang onto that thing without constantly readjusting my grip, and that was the ticket. The kit comes with a couple pieces for the slide; one for the front of the slide, and one for behind the grasping grooves. I took the smaller one and put it on the frame as a leverage point for my support thumb, now that I have adopted (or am adopting; I'm still not 100% there) the "even more modern than modern technique" of thumbs forward isoceles. I'm sold; its faster and steadier.



The VTAC really needs no introduction; not having heard of it at least in passing means that black rifles aren't your thing. Besides, this sling will probably be getting swapped off tomorrow. My bro Jon told me he's got a padded one to give me. I need to weasel some rail panels out of him, too, because I found out one more thing today: I shoot better without the vertical grip. This was not a revelation that I wanted to come to; I like the vert grip. I had to give a solid shot (so to speak) to working without it, and found that I can control the carbine better, meaning its more steady and my groups are smaller. We were doing some non standard response drills (any number of rounds between, say, 3 and 7, or some other numbers) and I was just ragging a hole in the target. I can get a grip on more gun and really get behind it. Like I said, I didn't want to come to that conclusion, but the proof is in the...something other than pudding. The proof is in the peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, which I'm going to get right after I finish this.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my progress. I think I'll go into some particulars of the drills we did at a later date; they were excellent for a couple of reasons. First, we weren't just shooting bullseye targets, which I find a good way to "break the tunnel vision" of just shooting ten rings. It changes your mindset, and gets you to thinking about shooting something other than paper...i.e., critters, humans, and zombies. Second, any time you can move around and shoot, that's a huge plus. There's limited value in standing in front of your target from a known distance and doing the same thing over and over. I heard an interesting comment at the range, too-what can I say? Comtacs rule! The range is split into a pistol range and a rifle range. The rifle shooter was talking about distance combat shooting, saying something along the lines of "when are you going to have a long range shot (I think he was talking about a hundred yards) in a tactical situation?" I looked over after he said that to see him shooting his AR off the bench. I just chuckled and continued on my way.

So, to finish up this post-I didn't mean for it to get so long, but it did-I'm gonna show some more current pics of Schwaggie. I'm gonna have to shoot some more in a day or two, since the Ace sling mount will likely be further out, probably at the end of the rail, and it should have some new KAC rail panels and a padded VTAC sling. In the end, its all about supplying more fodder to post about. Here's some more pics! I hadda add the one of Top because its such a great shot of the "more modern than modern technique".lol

Another twist on the Nigerian 419 Scam

Got yet another variation in my e-mail. They're definitely branching out with their attempts to find suckers. When I thought about it a bit, I came to the conclusion that it seems as though the scammers have been a little slow on the uptake to hit up the religious folks, since most, if not all, of the world's major religions call for giving and taking care of the less fortunate. At any rate, here's the latest:

"

From Mrs Susan Morgan

N�[38 Rue Des Martyrs Cocody
Abidjan,Cote d'Ivoire

ATTN
DEAREST ONE OF GOD

I am the above named person from Kuwait. I am married to Mr.Abram Morgan, who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year 2004. We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days.

Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of $2. 5 Million (Two Million Five Hundred U.S. Dollars) in the bank here in Abidjan in suspense account.

Presently, the fund is still with the bank. Recently, my Doctor told me that i have serious sickness which is cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to a church or individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church that will use this fund for orphanages, widows, propagating the word of God and to endeavour that the house of God is maintained.

The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don’t have any child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are not Christians and I don’t want my husband’s efforts to be used by unbelievers. I don’t want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly way. This is why I am taking this decision. I am not afraid of death hence i know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the Lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.

I don’t need any telephone communication in this regard because of my health hence the presence of my husband’s relatives is around me always I don't want them to know about this development. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the bank here in Abidjan. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the Lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I lived a life of a worthy Christian. Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and Truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life.

Contact me on the above e-mail address for more information’s, any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another church or individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I Stated herein. Hoping to receive your
reply.

Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ,
Mrs susan morgan"

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull..uh...what?

Just got back from seeing Innyanna Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well....it was corny, but at least it didn't make a lot of sense.

A Need For The Perfect Target

Paul J. and I went to the range again yesterday. He was zeroing his new custom built Remington 700 sniper rifle. I wish I had my camera with me; that gun is really impressive. He has, by far, the largest diameter barrel on that rig that I've seen. Its gotta be at least .900, and might be thicker than that. I'll find out and get some photos. Paul really can shoot, and was getting sub-MOA groups out at around 250 or 300 yards. Without an electronic range finder, I couldn't tell, but it was further by quite a bit than I typically shoot.

One thing Paul and I are on the Quest for is the perfect target. This perfect target needs to have some specific characteristics, though:

• needs to be a free download
• black and white is better
• Must be realistic

Now, there are plenty of free targets out there that fit the bill, and quite a few more that have two of the three. Plus, there's one more that is critical: its gotta be a Zombie target. We may see civil unrest as gas prices continue to rise, and we may see another terrorist attack on these shores. However, the threat posed by Zombies is clearly the soft white underbelly of America. That being the case, the perfect Zombie target is needed. It has not yet been located.

We've been using the headshot target from Zombie Hunters and it's worked quite well. However, we agree that we'd like it even better if it were more realistic looking, and would be a better training aid if we had some forward-facing and full body shots as well. The advantage of the full body shot is that it acts as a long range, unknown distance target. Since headshots are all that count, shooting at the rest of the body is little more than a waste of ammunition. You might be able to knock one off its pins, but that doesn't stop it. I'm sure you all remember the aftermath of the hyperbaric bombing run at Yonkers in World War Z. What would completely destroy the living does just about nothing to the ambulatory un-living.

But I digress. I think what I'd like to see, and what I don't have the computer art skills to do, is a series of targets. We need headshots of a few different angles, some full body images, and one or two of what I'd call the bum's rush target: a representation of a group (or gaggle, herd, or stick) of Zombies that you can yell "They're comin' right for us!!" before you start surgically picking them off. That may be the best training aid of all: proof to the shooter that carbines are individual projectile weapons, not room brooms or spray and pray ammo-wasting units.

At any rate, the search continues.

The Sling War may have been won!

I've posted before, both here and all over the Intardweb, that there are only two slings: the VCAS from Blue Force Gear and the VTAC from Viking Tactics. I think I narrowed down which one is the sling for me. When Matt and I were working on doing reloads today, I found that the VCAS is just not quite long enough for use on my carbine where I want to have the sling mounting points. I couldn't get it adjusted quite long enough.

The biggest part of that issue is that I'm a big, big dude. I'm 6'6" tall, and I weigh a lot. Turns out that the VTAC can adjust a whole lot longer. Naturally, the one I got handed to me is the skinny one rather than the cool padded wide one. LOL! I don't mind that much; its not like I have to haul that rifle and a ton of gear around the world. I've already started to think about designing a pad that would be simple to make and integrate with the sling. I have a couple ideas that I need to explore some more.

I think the next range session will be the proof of concept. At least it'll give me something else to blog about; I've been posting rather sparsely of late!

Range time: learning some things

Went to the range again today with Matt E. and his trained chimp, Sar'nt Johnson, or as we sometimes call him, The Big Johnson. Don't let the name calling fool you, though. TBJ is a gunfighter. He's who you want on your side in a fight to be sure.

I didn't shoot a whole lot of rounds, but I got some good training out of the ones I did fire.
Matt taught me some of the things he's been taught via several different classes. He's studied under the Magpul Dynamics guys, Larry Vickers, Pat Rogers, and has been to Midsouth as well. He's pretty dang good with his standard techniques. We went over clearing a couple of the most common malfunctions, speed and tactical reloads, and reinforced sight offset. Most of my rounds were low because I kept sighting into the middle and upper middle of the target, instead of holding on Osama Bin Laden's turban to drill 'em into his face.

I think I'm still in the Kyle Lamb school on the topic of tactical reloads. He uses the tactical reload when there's time to take out a partially used magazine, put it away, and reload with a fresh magazine, and rearrange the gear as necessary. Matt showed me a simple, quick way to do it that involves handling both mags at once. Basically, you have a magazine in the gun. You then make an "L" with a fresh mag against the bottom of the one in the gun, and grab both. Then you release the one in the gun and turn the hand 90 degrees to replace with the new one. Then you put the old one away, or in a pocket, or whatever ya gotta do. Its somewhat more simple than it sounds, and its fast. As I said, I'm not sure I want to use that method, but its another tool in the toolbox.

There's a vid of Matt at the Magpul Dynamics class at Camp Ares (we really need a separate website for the training facility, but I have no control over that) doing a speed reload. He's smoother than the vid makes him appear due to low resolution.


I did some more work on my Glock 19, too. I've been transitioning to more of an isosceles stance and away from the Weaver I've been using for a hundred years or so, and to a thumbs-forward grip. That's been difficult for me, since my hands are pretty dang big for a small-ish gun like the 19. I'm not as fast and accurate as I'd like to be yet, but I'm getting much better. If you wanna get good at shooting, actually bustin' primers is the best way to do it...and the most expensive. LOL!

Choosing taxes. Could be an eye opener!

Over the past couple of months or so, I've been getting increasingly more aggravated by what I'm hearing coming out of Washington DC. I'm not one of those that's screaming "The sky is falling! We're in a RECESSION!!", because by definition that's not where we are. I am, however, seeing rising prices as the dollar loses value, which is not happy, happy fun times. What's really driving me crazy about all this is that the people that We the People elected to represent their interests seem to be so out of touch that I can't quantify how wacky they are. They seem to think that there's no end to the money they can spend and that earmarks are Constitutionally protected. They don't seem to understand that what they're spending is OUR MONEY. Its not theirs, first last or ever, and yet their actions lead me to believe that they don't have any idea that its not theirs to spend with impunity. I don't understand how they account for that in their own heads. When I spend more than I have, it causes real trouble and has real retributions attached to it. How its any different for a government defies explanation.

It's gotten me to thinking, though. Part of the problem that Americans seem to have with taxation, besides that there's so doggone much of it and that its my money taken against my will, is that money is just being pissed away on some ridiculous projects-you've heard of them; I thought about listing some here, but all it was doing was raising my blood pressure-that could be going to pay off our massive debt. Make no mistake: debt is not a good thing. We cannot continue to refinance our debt with more debt indefinitely. Sooner or later, that bill comes due.

Since earmarks seem to be the fun thing for the Legislature to do, I got to thinkin'. What if we had that power? What if Americans got to choose where their money went? It wouldn't be that tough to do. Add a page to the tax forms we already file. What, like another page would make any difference? It would be a basic survey, with categories to choose from. Perhaps one thinks, mistakenly, that welfare is where money needs to be spent. That person could choose that box, and his tax money would be applied to that budget. If one was interested in funding defense, one would check that box, and probably a few others. Of course, there would be a write in slot, or slots, in case somebody felt passionately that their tax money needed to go somewhere else.

Of course, this system has some holes. The progressive system we have now, where there are a ton of people not paying tax, and the highest earning 1% of Americans pay something like 65% of the total tax bill, would concentrate the funding wherever they want it. That might lead to disenfranchisement. Perhaps going to a simple flat tax system would solve that. Oddly enough, new Republics that have gone to flat taxes, and found their economies booming. The only loser seems to be IRS employees, but if more companies can keep more of what they earn, chances are there would be no problem in finding jobs for those displaced people. I don't advocate somebody keeping a job over what's best for the rest of the country, even if its my job. I'll find another.

What we'd find out real quick is what's important to Americans. If a certain program doesn't gain any funding, then it goes bye-bye. At least citizens would have a chance to say where their tax money goes. As it is, we just get to be baffled by what Congress spends money on, and how much. If they want to keep doing that, they'll have to do a much, much better job of communicating with their constituencies as to why their money should go to that stuff.

I know its not gonna happen anytime soon, if at all, but it is an interesting mental exercise. But, since it's Memorial Day, I'm gonna go make myself a mojito and toast my friends and acquaintances that are still deployed, or who gave all. There have been entirely too many of those. A big chunk of my money would go to getting that job finished right.

New Gun Parts! Ace rail sling mount

I know, I know. Another gun parts post. What can I say? I really haven't done much of anything these days that didn't have something to do with guns. Blog what ya know, I guess. The big action item on the to-do list is to watch the Laker game tomorrow and catch Iron Man when Top gets back from Flo'da in a week. The pace of life is a little slower here in KY than it is in Cali. lol!

I'm still diggin' my Blue Force Gear Vickers Combat Action Sling, but I've got a couple of VTAC's now, too, and I'm thinking about swapping them. I think the only really good course of action would be to get another rifle or two, but I'm not sure how I'm gonna pull that off with my current cash flow. I have some a'rns in th' f'ar right now, but it'll take a little while to shake out. At any rate, I'm still running the VCAS at this time, and I still dig it a lot. Highly recommended.

The problem I had with the sling really doesn't have anything to do with the sling, but rather my old-style Daniel Defense QD sling mount. As both the readers of my blog know, I'm a big fan of the DD stuff. The latest version of this mount has a limited range of rotation that my older model doesn't have. 

The reason that's significant is that if the QD swivel is free to rotate, your sling will become tangled, rolling up on itself. The newer, slimmer design doesn't spin all the way around, so that can't happen. However, the shop was sold out of 'em when I went lookin' for a mount. Several of my more gun savvy friends have been raving about a new fixed rail mounted sling design by Ace, which I decided to give a shot.

There are two versions, a 1 1/4" and a 1 1/2". I went with the smaller one. Its a nicely made part: the edges have all been broken, and the inside edge of the sling path has been radiused.

Its very slim and once its tightened down, its rock solid. I think I oughta Locktite that bad boy, but I haven't done it yet.


I think I saw one in flat dark earth, too, at one point. I could go check...but...nah. I don't care enough to do that right now. Mine's black, and it goes well with the rest of the black. Obviously I need to hook up some black ladder covers, but I haven't managed to do that yet.

The best part of this mount is the price: its only about $20. So far, I'm totally stoked with it, and its solving my problem nicely. I still have that Daniel Defense mount, so I guess that means I have to get another carbine goin'. Somewhere there's gotta be $1200 I can spend on a Colt 6920.

What the...

What's up with Blogger's wacky formatting these days? I've noticed for the past couple weeks that it'll randomly start a new line, or run off to the right of the page for about 25 meters unless I edit it myself. That's just weird. What's up with that?

I got paid for this! The SOF 3 Gun Match

I spent yesterday both having a blast and learning quite a bit. I was working a table for ATS at the 2nd Annual Special Operations Three Gun Match at Fort Campbell, which was made up of members of 5th Group and 160th SOAR. Even the guys who weren't in jobs that required shooting as part of the description-some of whom were very new to the shooting sports-did very, very well. The guys that do shoot as part of their jobs...damn. I saw some guys just absolutely RUN stages of this match. A couple of our friends from Group just blew my mind with what they could do.

Even though a lot of these guys are in a combat arms MOS, it appeared that the shotgun was the great equalizer. I think most of that had to do with ammunition. Since I don't think any of these guys use shotguns for anything other than hunting (I saw some guys running upland bird guns that they borrowed for the match) or breaching, trying to run stages well with somebody else's gear proved to be difficult for almost everyone. Additionally, at least one stage was meant to make the shooter work for it, rather than being practical in terms of tactical use of the shotgun. That said, when somebody stepped up who had time with a gun, it showed. If this proves anything, its simply that a shotgun is a niche weapon for special situations. Characteristics such as the difficult-to-manage tube magazine showed why an M4 has become preferred for so many applications.

Speaking of the M4, the Viking Tactics barricade was used in this match. I tried 
finding a decent pic of it, but came up dry. Its about a 7' sheet of plywood, with a "stair step" pattern cut from the top to about the middle of the sheet, decending right to left. There are various shaped cutouts in the sheet, from long, narrow rectangles at angles, to squares and triangles. The match had these different cuts numbered, and had to be used in numerical order. This meant that the shooter had to go from standing or crouching a little, to prone, to kneeling, to rice paddy prone variations. It became apparent that most of the shooters hadn't encountered this particular barricade before, and had interesting approaches to solving the various positions required. There were three targets downrange at about 25 yards that had to be engaged with double taps. One of those cut outs required rotating the rifle about 90 degrees to get sights on target, so we saw a lot of shooters essentially rolling their rifles through a 180 to get their sights unblocked. One thing that was universal: those guys just kept working the problem until they solved it. I've seen shooters get rattled and mad at these kinds of issues, but these professionals just kept working until they were done. That was great to see.

It was a good day for the company, but it was mostly fun and instructive for me. 
I got to hang out with some guys I usually only see in the store, met some new friends, and saw some really inspired shooting. I'm tellin' ya, I'm glad these dudes are on our side. I wouldn't want to have to fight 'em.