Remember that car wreck...

I mentioned on Saturday that I was in a car wreck. Apparently I was not as uninjured as I thought.

I spent today in various doctors offices. It turns out I have a ruptured bicep tendon.

Joy.

Basically, When I clenched the wheel and stiffened up just prior to impact I broke a main cable in my arm.

My wife says I now have a Popeye arm!

--Good thing it ain't my shootin arm!

I met my new neighbors!

The house on the left was sold a few weeks ago and the new owners started moving in!

I went up and introduced myself to Donna who was proudly, safely, open carrying.

I really enjoyed the "No Big Thing" feel of the entire encounter. I met her four kids and her husband.

While we were talking several other neighbors came over to say hello as well.

It was a classic American scene.

I love Virginia.

--Odd thing is, I didn't notice any blood in the streets at all.

Life Intrudes

Driving my wonderful wife to the hospital, in a few minutes, for surgery to get her Gall Bladder out.

Sometimes I hate the Internet.

I made the mistake of doing a bit of research regarding the problem and procedure. Sometimes you just can't unsee all the things.

Just don't do it. Especially the helpful, informative and detailed Youtube videos.

--BTW, the hospital is a Gun Free Zone. Sigh...

Situational Awareness

Risograph print / by Jamie Jones

I really like my iPhone. Not because it's an iPhone, it could be an Android. I really like the fact that I have the Internet handy when I need it.

Last night I was waiting at Ray's Hell Burger to meet a friend for dinner. I was watching for him out the window and it seemed like 8 of 10 people walking by the window had no idea what was happening around them.

I even saw someone that seemed to be actively following a woman, staring at her ass, and she was completely unaware. She was staring at her phone, headphones on, completely clueless of everything.

Carrying a gun is only a single piece of the whole when it comes to self defense. Being aware of your surrounding is a key component.

--Don't be that guy.

Gun Free Zones

The Church I attend is debating becoming a Gun Free Zone.

They had a a Town Hall meeting to discuss the issue.

I made my opinions clear:

• GFZs in no way make us safer.
• GFZs may in fact advertise a soft target victim zone.
• Only the honorable, law abiding, citizens will comply.
• I will resign my membership and withdraw my pledges, if this policy is adopted.

--The measure will be decided next week.

Running Late

Last night I took my kids to a concert. It was really great to spend the time with them.

The band and the crowd were interesting but it was kind of weird for me.

The Event was in Washington DC.

What that means is that I had to leave my guns at home. My favorite knives as well.

At one point I had gone to take a leak and I walked out of the bathroom right into a crowd of cops that were searching the place. Probably 20 cops. Hands on guns. Walking through the crowd systematically looking for someone specific.

Apparently someone took a cab to the 9:30 Club and in stead of paying, robbed the cabby at gun point. Then calmly entered the club.

-I felt so naked.

What I have been up to lately

This really isn't a post about guns it's about the shooters health. I have been offline so much of late because I have been recovering from back surgery. To be perfectly honest, going in I didn't think it was going to be this big a deal. But as my friend Breda put it, "I lived."

Lumbar Fusion of L4, L5 and S1

Hopefully this will allow me to take to the field again for some deer hunting before the season is over.

--I still may make TBolt do all the heavy lifting!

TSA and Me

I happened across an old X-Ray of my knee this week.

All those screws and the plate are still in there. The staples are not. All told it is way more metal than a box cutter.

I usually wear shorts when I travel so when I fail the metal detectors they can wand me and see the scars.

What worries me is that 60% of the time the metal detectors don't go off.

--Security theater at work.

ZOMG! That's Illegal!

So I got a phone call from the gunsmith yesterday. One of my AR15s is in there for a mod.

The thing is that AR15 is my SBR (post about that soon) and one of the managers saw it on the bench and made a panic call to me, "Sir, do you know it is illegal to build a rifle with a barrel that short without doing a mountain of paperwork getting permission from the ATF as an official Manufacturer?"

"Yes. I know. I showed the smith my approved ATF Form 1 when I dropped it off."

"Ummmm... Let me call you back."

I ended up going back with the form so they could make a copy of the tax stamp to staple to the work order.

Are SBRs so rare that it causes this kind of confusion?

--Anyway, I should get it back this week.

Finger Prints

Went down to the Sheriffs office last week to get some fingerprints done for another SBR paperwork effort.

I usually go to the courthouse admin office where they actually maintain a digital print system for administrative use in non-criminal processing.  Their system was down so I had to go to the main booking facility. 

It was a nice little tour. Lots of  bullet resistant glass, airlocks, and lines on the floor you have to stand behind. The mug shot camera station.

Turns out it brightens their day when you bring your own forms and Ten Cards already filled out for the Sheriff to sign for the ATF.

The Deputy that printed me was the tiniest Officer I have ever met. She was 5 feet nothin and might have weighted 100 pounds soaking wet. She liked printing cooperative people. She was a talker too. She carried a Glock 17 with 4 spare mags. The great equalizer. She also knew all about Roni Conversion Kits and would love one if she made more money.

--I enjoy interacting with polite, professional, friendly representatives of Law Enforcement.

Ammo Shortage

One of the guys at work is one of the millions of people that ran out and bought an AR15 after Sandy Hook when DiFi started making all the noise about Gun Control. He only has the two 20 round mags that came with it. He is going nuts having never fired it yet.

That was just after Christmas and he still has not been able to find a single 30 round magazine or a box of ammo to buy.

He has been daily attempting to bribe a box of ammo out of me.  Today I am taking in two boxes of ammo so he can at least keep his mags loaded in case the Zombie Apocalypse hits.

--I will bet money that he hops up and down like a little girl...

Went Hunting Today

I went deer hunting with TBolt this morning.

Got into my tree stand about an hour before sunrise. I didn't have to wait too long.

At about 7:45am I was taking a break and had just quietly opened an energy bar. The crunching in my ears was so loud I almost didn't hear the footsteps.

I stopped chewing and turned toward the sound. I saw it moving through the trees. 

I got a bead on it while I was holding my energy bar on my teeth. It paused about 30 yards away. I shot and it dropped where it stood.

A second later a second one ran out and paused in the clearing as well. Dropped that one too.

The pic on the right is of the inside of the chest and clearly shows four entry and one exit wound. If you have a strong constitution, click on the photo for a closer look.

TBolt cleaned one and I cleaned the other.

--It was a good day.

Vacation is sooo over

There is nothing like the end of a vacation being punctuated by 2 hours in a dentist chair.

I had a Titanium implant installed a few months ago. It finally healed up enough, so I went in and got two new crowns installed.

What does this have to do with guns?

The new teeth were made, on site with a 3D printer. I have read several things regarding the creation of firearm parts using 3D printers.

The material is durable enough for my major molars. This tells me that it may work fine for many firearm components.

While waiting for my face to numb up we talked about it. The device he has can only create items 1 inch in diameter, a cylinder shape. Not big enough to build a lower.

--Time to go buy some steaks...

Independence Day

I woke up this morning thinking about all the July 4th days of my life. I was sure I would come up with a flag waving feel good post.

Wrong.

I kept thinking that on July 4th, 1982 was the day I got married for the first time. 30 years ago today.

Don't go congratulating me in the comments. The marriage didn't last long. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. We are still friends. She reminded me recently of an event that happened while we were married.

When we first were married we lived above a pizzeria in a tiny loft apartment. You can see the dormer window in the photo on the right. The pizzeria is closed now. Back then it was owned by her family and run by her brother. Two ovens, take out only.

One warm summer night I walked in the propped open front door while they were being robbed. One man had a gun and another had a knife.

I quietly backed out unobserved. I was unarmed in those days. (It was in upstate New York.) All I could do was call 911, but how do I get to the phone? No cell phones yet. Access to my apartment was in view of the robbers.

Without thinking I ran around to the alley rapidly "Spidermaned" to the roof by placing my feet on one side of the alley and my hands on the other and "walking up".  I got on the roof, climbed up and into my apartment window and called 911.

It took them almost 15 minutes to get there.

The robbers were long gone. We were lucky. No one was hurt. They never caught the guys. My greatest worry, looking back, is that those bastards went on to do more crimes and someone after that night was not so lucky. Today, I am sure that things would have played out differently.

--Have a great holiday where you are. Be safe.

Family Fun

I believe that one of the reasons the tide has turned on attitudes toward guns is that shooters are including their kids in shooting sports.

Safety training, fun shoots, hunting and other shooting sports are all coming back.

It's like swimming. Pools are dangerous. They use to be a leading killer of children. What did we do? We taught our kids how to be safe around pools and taught them to swim. It turned out it's fun too.

I am the Great Uncle of the kids in this pic.

--I need to visit them soon!!

The K-31 Refit

My nephew just finished installing a Boyd's stock on his K-31 Swiss rifle. Lots of fitting, sanding and painting on lacquer . Well worth it. The rifle looks great.

The K-31 is a very interesting design.


The Karabiner Model 1931 (K31) is a magazine-fed, straight-pull bolt-action rifle. It was the standard issue rifle of the Swiss armed forces from 1933 until 1958, though examples remained in service into the 1970s. It has a 6-round removable magazine, and is chambered for the 7.5x55mm Swiss (also known as Gewehrpatrone 1911, GP11, or unofficially 7.5x55mm Schmidt Rubin), a cartridge with ballistic qualities similar to the .308 Winchester cartridge. Each rifle included a 6 round detachable box magazine with matching engraved serial number. A stripper clip loads the magazine from the top of the receiver.

Many collectors of the K31 have removed the butt plate and recovered a small tag of plasticized paper from beneath it. This slip contains the name and address of the Swiss citizen to whom the rifle was issued. In some cases, collectors have used the information to contact the previous owners, and have recounted the details of those encounters on a variety of collector's web forums.

My nephew actually found the Swiss citizen name slip. He has been trying to figure out how to find the guy or his heirs. Cool stuff.


--It's the straight pull back bolt that I find interesting.

Yard Sale Score

My wife loves me.

While she was out "yard sailing" yesterday she scored for me an excellent plinker target for just $1!

I love it when wives clean out the garage and have yard sales while husbands are off playing golf to keep from being put to work.

Perfect for plinking with suppressed .22s!

--She loves me! Loves me!!

American Indian Museum

I mentioned that I was doing the tourist thing with my friend Tom, my old college buddy.

He brings his family to visit every year for a vacation. We usually hit DC and check out a couple more museums.

This time we went to the American Indian Museum.

Much to my surprise, right in the very first display case we encounter, we find a bunch of UZIs and other modern firearms.

I took this pic with my cell phone. Frankly I am still kinda scratching my head over the whole thing. Make me wonder about all the great stuff still in the museum attic collecting dust so they could display these.

Below is what the inscription says:

--They seem all about them UZIs!!

My New iPhone

I got my first iPhone this week.

Every time I turn around I find another cool thing, like the fact that it can plug directly into my range ear muffs so I can listen to music!

I remember reading on someones blog that there were cool iPhone apps for shooters.

Searching for them I found apps to help log competition scoring, inventory, log books and other small things.

I swear someone said there was an app that computed ballistic drop by caliber and distance.

Instead I found a ton of cool Zombie apps.Including Zombie Booth, a zombie creator tool.

--Going to have to use it to make some targets for the range!!

Injuries

Last week I dislocated the ring finger of my right hand. My shooting hand.

I had plans and went to the range two days later my with my Glock 21 and my 1911. Both .45s.

I started with my Glock 21. I could not close my finger all the way around the grip. My shot brought tears to my eyes even though it was almost a bulls eye.

The rest of my shots were all over the place. Anticipation of the pain was destroying my shots. I only managed about 10 shots with that hand. I didn't bother trying the 1911 right handed.

--I spent the rest of the session shooting lefty. Good practice.