Pin-Ups

It must've been via View from the Porch that I came across Pin-Ups for Vets.  There isn't much info on the lady running the charity, Gina Elise, but I do like those old-style pin-up photos.  Occasional Dillon model Cathy Rankin (featured in the Blue Press) also has her own similar calendar.  I rather prefer brunettes, myself.

Cooper CS4 Touring Tires

Well, the car needed new tires.  I'd let the rears get down to 1/32 tread, and with the weather the way it is, there's no avoiding getting new ones.  The dealer recommended Cooper CS4 tires.  I was skeptical because they're not what I would've considered a major brand.  Plus, they were asking an arm and a leg.  So I did a little reading, both on consumerreports.org and other review sites, and found out that the tires are actually made in the U.S.  Furthermore, the online prices for the tire discount stores for comparable products were actually more than what the dealer was asking: Tires Plus wanted over 6 benjamins for Bridgestone Turanzas, and those aren't as highly rated in CR as the CS4s.  Given that, I went with the CS4s.  Unfortunately that means I won't be getting myself a Christmas present this year...damn, I was hoping to get a Garand or an AK-47.

We'll see how they perform in this wonderful weather.  I'm gonna have to break out the snowblower (doesn't that sound like a term for a cokehead?) when I get home to clear out the driveway before I can pull into the garage!

WECSOG

The Wile E. Coyote School of Gunsmithin'.  Interesting how-to on building a FAL out of a parts kit.  Maybe after I build an AR-15 upper I'll try that one next.

Pietta Black Powder Revolvers

Lately I've taken notice of black powder revolvers made by Pietta in the Midway and Cabela's catalogs.  I've thought it'd be interesting to have a black powder gun, since you can fairly easily craft powder for them, and they're fairly inexpensive.  Plus, one can get .45 Long Colt conversion cylinders, although those cost almost as much as the revolver itself.  That presents an interesting concept: for less than $500 you can get a pistol that shoots metallic cartridges and is completely under the radar, i.e. no 4473 and no background check.  I'm surprised that the anti-gunners haven't blown up over this one.  Granted, the .45LC cylinders are only for cowboy loads, not smokeless powder, but still.

Low-tech Magazine

I posted this to my other blog (or should I say blag), but via the Woodpile Report I came across Low-tech Magazine and an article on historic electric cars.

My response to a Facebook comment on my post:

My beef isn't with car companies per se. It's with our mentality in general that says "oh this is new and glorious" when it's really older than grandma. And technology evolves quickly in some ways and unexpectedly slowly in others, usually determined by our focus as a society.

The rest of my response degenerated into a rant against unions, but I suppose I can't help from veering off when all the subjects are interrelated.

FFT Zero Padding

The fairly new guy in the RIL department (which I just was moved to) has a master's in signal processing.  Since I didn't have an even number of samples for the Fourier transform, I was using the DFT, but he claimed that zero padding to power-of-2 FFT lengths is legit.  Apparently it is.  However, there are bin shift concerns [ni.com] when doing so because the bin number and size are determined by the number of samples used.

HK. Because you suck. And we hate you.

Larry Correia is a funny guy.  Mention of the HK rant has crossed my screen before, but I'd never read the whole thing.  It's hilarious!  I say that as a guy who likes his HK91 clone.  I'd dearly love to get an MP5 submachinegun or even a G3, but I'm a civilian and I'm too poor.  I'd even like to get a real semi-auto 91, but for 3 grand, it's probably more practical to get an M1A and some training.  I'm also pissed off about their piston AR-15 that doesn't take standard lowers.  Ah, HK does have an Apple-like aura about them, except they're not as ergonomic.

As an aside, you can tell a real HK fanboy from a poseur because the former knows how to pronounce 'Koch' in English (it's 'Coke', as is Koch Industries).  I'm kind of a fanboy, but I'm also a realist.

Jicama

Last week a coworker told me about jicama (pronounced "hicama"), an edible root.  Funky.  If I can get ahold of some, it'd be interesting to try.  (And what's up with that scientific name, "Pachyrhizus erosus" ?! Sounds...cool.)

Much Ado

I'd commented on a post by David Codrea regarding the ATF open-bolt decision and the recent semi-furor that one of the "Threepers" is trying to stir up.  To be honest, I still don't get what the big deal is all of a sudden, as we've lived with this ruling for like 20 years.  Well, other than as Mr. Codrea states, the discussion of "shall not be infringed" being chucked out the window.  But I felt special that Mr. Codrea responded to my scrawl!

Hi, I also commented on Mr. Vanderboegh's blog post in a similar vein to note that it seems that the critical distinction is that the disconnector and "trip" must be modified. From the ATF ruling that you quote:

"The disconnector and trip are designed in the SM10 and SM11A1 pistols and in the SAC carbine (firearms) in such a way that a simple modification to them, such as cutting, filing, or grinding, allows the firearms to operate automatically. Thus, this simple modification to the disconnector or trip together with the configuration of the above design features (blowback operation, firing from the open bolt position, and fixed firing pin) in the SM10 and SM11A1pistols and in the SAC carbine, permits the firearms to shoot automatically, more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. The above combination of design features as employed in the SM10 and SM11A1 pistols and the SAC carbine are normally not found in the typical sporting firearm."

So the guns in question aren't MGs out of the box any more than an AR-15. I mean, I can easily REMOVE the disconnector from my AR-15 and I'd have an unregistered MG according to the ATF: with one pull of the trigger, it'd dump the mag. (And poor engagement surfaces on the disconnector is what screwed David Olofson and landed him in the pen.) Now I'm not one of the prags arguing for compromise or restraint. However, with regard to the last statement of the ruling ("The above combination of design features as employed...are normally not found in the typical sporting firearm."), I could see the Brady bunch using the existing ATF ruling to attack semi-automatic weapons of any kind, particularly "evil" black rifles. Or is forcing their hand what Mr. Vanderboegh had in mind?

Someone else had posted this excellent quote from Frederick Douglass. The dude knew what he was talking about.

"FIND OUT JUST WHAT THE PEOPLE WILL SUBMIT TO AND YOU HAVE FOUND OUT THE EXACT AMOUNT OF INJUSTICE AND WRONG WHICH WILL BE IMPOSED UPON THEM; AND THESE WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THEY ARE RESISTED WITH EITHER WORDS OR BLOWS, OR WITH BOTH. THE LIMITS OF TYRANTS ARE PRESCRIBED BY THE ENDURANCE OF THOSE WHOM THEY OPPRESS." — FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AUG. 4, 1857

Claire Wolfe

I don't know why I didn't find this sooner, but Claire Wolfe has a blog.  At Backwoods Home, no less.

I'd searched a year ago.  Apparently she only started that particular blog this year.

Emergency Funds vs. Debt Payoff

This doesn't really apply to me per se, since I have a cash cushion, but some folks I know would do well to consider the points in the article.  I would argue for building up an emergency fund at the same time as paying off debt.  True, there is an impact due to the cost of the loaned money that's not being paid off, but there's no guarantee that the credit line won't be cut off, so the emergency allocation needs to be there.  Similarly, it doesn't make sense to put all your available capital into payments on a house loan because there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get a home equity line of credit when you need it.  "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush," as they say.

Barry isn't a lawyer?

An article came up in my reader about Sarah Palin considering a run for president in 2012 (ugh).  One of the comments was the following:

Consider this:

1. President Barack Obama, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, is no longer a "lawyer". He surrendered his license back in 2008 in order to escape charges he lied on his bar application. A "Voluntary Surrender" is not something where you decide "Gee, a license is not really something I need anymore, is it?" and forget to renew your license. No, a "Voluntary Surrender" is something you do when you've been accused of something, and you "voluntarily surrender" your license five seconds before the state suspends you.

2. Michelle Obama "voluntarily surrendered" her law license in 1993.

3. So, we have the first black President and First Lady - who don't actually have licenses to practice law. Facts. Source: http://jdlong.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/pres-barack-obama-editor-of-the-Harvard-law-review-has-no-law-license/

4. A senior lecturer is one thing. A fully ranked law professor is another. Barack Obama was NOT a Constitutional Law professor at the University of Chicago.

5. The University of Chicago released a statement in March, 2008 saying Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) "served as a professor" in the law school-but that is a title Obama, who taught courses there part-time, never held, a spokesman for the school confirmed in 2008.

6. "He did not hold the title of professor of law," said Marsha Ferziger Nagorsky, an Assistant Dean for Communications and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago School of Law. Source: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/03/sweet_obama_did_hold_the_title.html ;

7. The former Constitutional senior lecturer cited the US Constitution the other night during his State of the Union Address. Unfortunately, the quote he cited was from the Declaration of Independence . not the Constitution.

8. The B-Cast posted the video: http://www.breitbart.tv/did-obama-confuse-the-constitution-with-the-declaration-of-independence/

9. Free Republic: In the State of the Union Address, President Obama said: "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal..

10. Um, wrong citing, wrong founding document there Champ, I mean Mr. President. By the way, the promises are not a notion, our founders named them unalienable rights. The document is our Declaration of Independence and it reads: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

11. And this is the same guy who lectured the Supreme Court moments later in the same speech??? When you are a phony it's hard to keep facts straight. The only ones that haven't seen through this clown and the band of idiots that surrounds him are those that are fleecing this Country for all it's worth. I hope and pray that common sense will prevail in the next election or this great Nation is finished! This is amazing! I checked the Illinois Bar site and this is absolutely true. Both voluntarily gave up their licenses. How in the HADES did the media not report on this?

Other than the goofy numbering of the points, whoa. I'm not at all surprised that the media didn't report on his surrendered law license.

Edit: Ah, it sounded too good to be true.

Dot Torture and Reasons to Own Guns

Tamara's blog had a couple interesting posts yesterday.  One was a pointer [her blog] to a pointer [Guns & Coffee?!] to a funky course of fire called "Dot Torture".  3 yards, 50 shots, some one-handed including some weak-hand, some from the holster.  I'd love to try it, but my range doesn't allow presentation from the holster (argh).

Then there was a vector to a thread, circa 2000, on The Firing Line that lists 23 reasons to own guns.  I'll reproduce the list here, 'cause it's awesome!

1. So that you can call yourself a "collector" instead of a gun nut.

2. Because the notion of "the right gun for the job" can be interpreted any way you see fit.

3. Because each of your great-great-great-great-grandchildren should have something to remember you by.

4. Because when Armaggedon strikes, and you rush to the gunstore, and the only box of ammo they have left is 6.5 x 55 mm, and you have nothing to shoot it out of… well, aren't you going to feel pretty darn foolish.

5. Because diversity is our greatest strength.

6. Because you owe it to your fellow gun nuts to make them look reasonable by comparison.

7. Because every gun teaches you something.

8. Because you can.

9. Because every time you buy a gun, you're keeping it out of the hands of a bad person.

10. Because you want to be able to identify with the hero in any action flick.

11. Because Elvis would.

12. Because if time travel is ever perfected, and you can bring all of them back to the Alamo, Davy Crockett, Bill Travis and Jim Bowie are going to think YOU THE MAN!

13. Because one day, when you're famous, every gun you ever owned will be worth a fortune.

14. Because when the government makes a list of every kind of gun you're not allowed to own anymore, you'll have a few that they never even thought of.

15. Because when the cops lay all your stuff out on a sheet, take a picture of it, and publish it in the local paper, you want all the other gun nuts to be envious.

16. Because .25 autos need love too.

17. Because owning at least one of everything is the only known cure for that woozy feeling you get when you stare into the cases at the gun store.

18. Because the more guns you keep in your safe, the harder it'll be for a crackhead to load it onto a handtruck and cart it out the door.

19. Because your dot-com stocks may crater but you'll always be able to swap a Glock for airfare out of any Third World hellhole on the face of the earth.

20. Because unlike computers, the guns you buy now are not going to be available cheaper and more powerful in six months.

21. Because "number of deadly weapons owned" is an extra credit question on the entrance examination to Valhalla.

22. Because you don't want to be "out of it" when the merits of the Nambu Type 14 are discussed on the API list.

23. Because Bill Clinton doesn't want you to.

I'm rather partial to 5, 18, 19, and 20.  As for 4, well, I've got that covered....

Uncalled For

Brent at work sent me a link to a Post-Bulletin article detailing an exchange from one of the councilmen who I despise and a builder.  Since the P-B flushes articles over a certain age, here's the text:

A testy exchange between a Rochester City Council member and a spokesman for the Rochester Area Builders organization at a recent public hearing prompted a demand for a public apology.

"I feel that was uncalled for," said Jay Burke of the Nov. 1 exchange between council member Michael Wojcik and Tony Lehrman, who represents the builders group.

Lehrman had told the city council about the builders group's opposition to a proposed ordinance requiring streetside trees be planted in new developments. Wojcik peppered Lehrman with pointed questions for a few minutes before council President Dennis Hanson put a stop to the exchange. The ordinance eventually passed on a 4-3 council vote.

Burke, who owns a building company, Heartwood Homes, and has served on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission and Energy Commission, described Wojcik's actions as violating "proper decorum" for public officials. He sent a letter to the city Friday and spoke to the city council Monday.

Burke said the exchange left several audience members, and even a few city council members he said confided in him, feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed. Read about it in Tuesday's print edition.

Shooting Liability

In looking up info on police training, I came across a page that mentions two legal cases that shaped thinking on police training.  The cases were Popow v. City of Margate and Zuchel v. Denver.

EMS response time as reported by USA Today ("call-to-shock") was pretty lousy.  Rochester is mentioned in conjunction with a study of the survival rates based on "call-to-shock".  That's something of a guide to how long the cops would take to arrive.  Minneapolis apparently had an 8-minute police response time to 911 calls.

ATF Form 4590

I'd read that although Glock offers a pistol in .380 ACP that due to some law they can't import it into the U.S.  Well, apparently the limiting factor is an idiotic point system shown on ATF Form 4590.

Rhino .357

Guns & Ammo has an issue featuring the Chiappa Firearms Rhino revolver.  I skimmed the article at Wally World when I went to buy some ammo, but it had very little on the gun itself, particularly pricing.  So I did a search online and found a press release that mentions the U.S. distributor, MKS Supply.  Apparently they're based out of Dayton, Ohio.  Go figure!

The designer is the guy who came up with the Mateba autorevolver, Emilio Ghisoni.

Edit [2010.12.18]: There are some pictures on a thread on GlockTalk's forums.

LCP Upgrades

I found a forum thread discussing improved sights for the Ruger LCP, from an outfit called Innovative Arms.  The sights are raised, with the front sight being a Tritium dot and the rear sight being a plain notch with cocking serrations on the front.  $140 + $8 S&H.  They also make a .32 NAA barrel for $270 (almost as much as the LCP itself).  Apparently there's a .32 NAA barrel available for Makarovs as well.

There's also a dedicated LCP site called Elsie Pea Forum.  Cute.

At Elsie Pea there's a thread about a +1 mag extension from Impact Guns.  Sounds like the Wolff +10% spring for the Kel-Tec P3AT is a good idea for the larger capacity.

Rejection Therapy

Twittered by Ray G.:

"We are all stopping ourselves from great opportunities when we're too afraid to ask for what we want." http://ow.ly/37W2y

I could've used "rejection therapy" way back in high school! [article] [site]

お米の保存法

嫁は米を保存する方法を探してリンクを送ってくれた。だいたい当たり前のことなんだけど。

Grain Mills

I found a couple of human-powered grain mills, for grinding grain into flour without the benefit of electricity.

One is the Wonder Junior Deluxe, which has the benefit of coming with both stainless steel burr heads and stone heads.  This sells for about $200; unfortunately, the place of manufacture isn't listed.

The other is the Country Living grain mill, which supposedly requires less work to grind grains, but only comes with stainless steel heads.  While it costs $400, it's also made in the USA.

I'll probably go with the cheaper solution, but if it turns out we use it a lot, I may upgrade.  The Ready Store and USA Emergency Supply carry various useful items.


Additions [11/13]: SG pointed me to the Family Grain Mill, which is a modular unit that has grain mill, flaker, food processor, and meat grinder attachments on interchangeable hand-grind and electric bases.  Apparently the base is Lexan, however.  I also couldn't find a website for the manufacturer, which is apparently German.  Pleasant Hill Grain also sells the Country Living mill.

Lehman's also sells the FGM and Country Living mills, as well as another hand mill made in Ohio.  Their made in USA page is interesting as well.

為せば成る

昨日の朝、「にほんごであそぼ」を見ていたらこの詩をやっていた：

為せば成る
為さねば成らぬ
何事も
成らぬは人の
為さぬなりけり

調べたら上杉治憲が書いたことが分かった。大名の時から、名前を上杉鷹山に変えたらしい。しかし、他の人がそれより早く、似たような詩を書いたようだ：

為せば成る
為さねば成らぬ
成る業を
成らぬと捨つる
人の儚き

鷹山がぱくったか、別で同じ発想をもったか。調べようがないね。

Why the gun is civilization

I found a great pro-gun essay at random on the interwebz titled, "Why the gun is civilization".  Apparently it was used and mis-attributed in an email advertisement from Front Sight at some point.  Sheesh.  The author, Marko Kloos, has a few other essays as well.

1984

This is loco.  If I were to find such a device on my vehicle, I'd leave it there till trash day and then chuck it in.  The Fubby can have fun chasing the garbage truck.  If they bill me I'll counter that it must've fallen off, and someone else disposed of it.  After all, I can't be held responsible for the whereabouts of their clandestine surveillance devices.  One judge's remarks on the case:

The needs of law enforcement, to which my colleagues seem inclined to refuse nothing, are quickly making personal privacy a distant memory. 1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it’s here at last.

I'm the Only One Professional Enough

Apparently the origin for the "Only Ones" referred to in David Codrea's War on Guns blog is a video of Lee Paige, a DEA agent who shoots himself during a safety demonstration at a school, right after he says he's "the only one professional enough" in the room to carry a Glock .40.  Brilliant.

Property Concerns

FEMA has a map service that lists areas at-risk for flooding, which should be checked prior to acquiring property.

Subdivision of property seems to entail: verifying the abstract to verify the absence of encumbrances (judgments, liens, back taxes, etc.), researching subdivision requirements and zoning, having the property surveyed, and filing the plats at the county records office.  Depending on the area, utilities to each lot may need to be provided.  One would need to involve a title abstract service, surveyor, the county records office, and potentially a civil engineer.  Then there's reading up on local laws and news, attending county meetings, and talking to people in the area.

Fillmore County has some property records online, as well as zoning ordinances.

Winona County also has property records online.  Apparently they're called "GIS".

Funky Eyeglasses

WSJ ran an article on some funky glasses that the wearer can change the focus on.  The company's now called Super Focus.  It'll be interesting to see how the market accepts their product.  If the glasses could correct for slight changes in vision, they'd make a good item to tuck away for emergency use....

Tab Dump

I have way too many windows open in Firefox, some of which have been open for multiple months.  Hence this "tab dump".

• Obama gives Interpol free hand in U.S. [Washington Examiner], which I probably found on the War on Guns blog
• Signing sub-key cross-certification [GPG]: a sub-key needs to sign the primary key
• Berdan primers - large rifle [Sniper's Hide]: a forum thread on reloading Berdan-primed cases
• Griffon Industries produces a girls-with-guns calendar (er, it was linked off of Sniper's Hide) 
• Berdan primer suppliers and dimensions [Dave Cushman's] has a ton of useful info Berdan primers, especially the types and dimensions
• Reloading Berdan-primed brass [Surplus Rifle]
• Southern Minnesota Sportsman's Club Civilian Marksmanship Program (SMS CMP) group
• Neal Knox - The Gun Rights War: often referred to in Shotgun News
• Mad Ogre, a gun-blogger who seems to be pretty cool

M10

In looking for information regarding head-separation in pistol rounds, one forum's discussion contained a reference to "Lage uppers", apparently an upper for M10 (aka MAC-10) and M11 machine pistols.  Those guns are some of the cheapest MGs one can get, probably because of the cheap sheetmetal construction and the high rate-of-fire that makes them difficult to control.  The strength of the Lage uppers, then, is that they reduce the ROF from over 1000 RPM to 600 RPM.

I hadn't realized that the M10s had "upper" and "lower" halves, like an AR-15—that has me wondering if the registered part is the lower.  If so, that would make the gun more attractive, since the non-firing part is unlikely to wear out (except for the mount points of the upper).  Very interesting, except that those aren't C&R yet, and thus aren't legal in MN.  The only cheap C&R MG that I've found is the H&R Reising.

Modern Valiance

An ATF agent off-duty caps a guy armed with a flashlight for having an intoxicated argument with his girlfriend.  Brilliant use of force, Agent Clark.  I hope they burn you.

Crucify this "agent". Shooting a guy armed with a flashlight 5 times is justifiable force? What a tough guy. Why not just drive away, since he was in his car? Why didn't he have a non-lethal weapon like OC/CS to use instead? A regular citizen with a permit to carry would be in deep guano if he were in this situation. Why should Clark receive special treatment? Because he's a "federal" agent? Of the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), not the FBI! A thug with a badge is still a thug.

Shove It

Apparently a Rhode Island Democratic candidate who failed to receive Obama's endorsement has said that Obama can "shove it".  Nice.

My comment:

Mr. Jones: Since WSJ was acquired, I've noticed that a number of more liberal viewpoints have been added. I don't particularly favor this change, but that's the way it goes. And I can't help wishing that WSJ would ditch their pervasive hoplophobic biases.

The comment under discussion was crass and definitely is a case of sour grapes. Funny? Yes. Newsworthy? Marginal.

 Is this the fable behind the expression "sour grapes"?  That's good to know....

Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked, ‘Oh, you aren’t even ripe yet! I don’t need any sour grapes.’

The Original Instructor Belt

At the Front Sight Pro Shop they were selling instructor belts, which unfortunately were made in China.  While flipping through a recent Blue Press catalog (the cover model, Mallory, was pretty hot!), they listed a belt from The Wilderness.  I looked it up to see where it was made and indeed it's made in the USA!  Hallelujah!  It's actually cheaper to order it from Dillon than from the manufacturer's site, at least for the black 1.75" 5-stitch belt.  Plus, that way I'll receive 6 months of girls with guns on the cover of the Blue Press, which is definitely a factor!

The Sonoran shirts by The Wilderness are also made in the USA.  They're a bit spendy, though.  The Ching Sling looks interesting.

Ruslana Korshunova

I happened to see a page with pictures of model Ruslana Korshunova, who had some amazing hair.  I'd seen some of her ads before, but never knew who it was.  Too bad she was killed.  (Suicide my ass!  Sounds like she was thrown out of the building.)

Ring on the Sun

A guy at work mentioned something he'd seen in the news—a ring developing on the sun.  Dunno what it is, and to someone who generally ignores sunspots and flares, I have no comment.  Weird, though.

Pistol Training

On Tamara K.'s blog (in my Google Reader) she mentions taking a pistol training class by Todd Green.  Looks interesting, and there's one class in Ohio in the middle of next year.  Hmm.  It'd be good to train with various instructors and pick out what works for me, like mixed martial arts only with handguns, haha!

Bi-Metal Jackets

So I have some Brown Bear .223 that have steel lacquered cases.  I fired nearly 500 through my M4gery with no cleaning and it kept running.  The only downside was a bit of carbon buildup on the tang of the bolt.

Well, I found out that BB also has bi-metal jackets.  That is, a thin steel jacket plated with copper (to about 0.005", or so it says on the interwebz).  This was something a concern for me, although with the AR-15 platform, changing the barrel is relatively easy, so it's better than hosing the barrel on my .308, which requires a hydraulic press.  A post on XDTalk has a couple links to Arfcom: a ComBloc ammo FAQ and people's experience with Wolf black box.

In general, it sounds like the steel used in the jacket is extremely mild, so the additional barrel wear would be negligible relative to the wear from firing.  For expensive rifles, then, it'd be best to not use el cheapo bi-metal jacketed ammo, but for typical plinking purposes it's fine.  Kind of what you'd expect.

Nagant Revolver

Turns out that my first C&R gun will be a novel revolver, the Nagant M1895.  I had been kicking myself for not getting one when they were available a year or two ago, and then several shops, such as AIM Surplus and J&G Sales, got shipments in again.  Sweet!  One of the tricky things is the ammo, 7.62 Nagant, aka 7.62x38R.  The bullet is completely seated in the brass, since the mouth of the cartridge forms a gas seal with the chamber, eliminating loss of gas in the cylinder gap.  Since ammo is in relatively low supply, and is thus expensive (200 rds of ammo costs as much as the gun), reloading is a must.  One site has a few loads for the 7.62 Nagant reformed from .32-20 brass using Lee dies, and .32 ACP for use with the replacement cylinder that Century sells.

Of course Surplus Rifle has some useful pictures on how to remove the cylinder.  Yet another site remarks that .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R Magnums can be fed through the revolver.  That'd be interesting to try out—if I can find those cartridges (and have faith enough to hazard it)!  The site also presents this bit of poetry:

I know, with certainty
that in that lacquered purse of yours
nestled against powder case and mirror
sleeps a black stone; seven deaths

Vladimir Nabokov,
in a poem to his fiancee, Vera Slonim

Brings a tear to the eye.

And THR has a forum post detailing quite a handloading ritual for brass made out of .32-20:

I have joined the ranks of those who use the re-sized .32-20 brass homebrews in my Nagants, albeit after a bit of a ritual. I obtained 200 new Starline .32-20 cases and first sanded ~ 10 thousandths off the headstamp with 320-600 grit Si/C paper on a flat. This permits the thicker rims to work well with a stock breech block in all Nagants. I then turn ~ 24 thousandths off the rim diameter, using a Taig micro-lathe, to permit self-centering of the rounds in the chamber bores when loading. I size the brass through a Lee carbide M1 Carbine size, then bell and drop powder with an M1 Carbine powder funnel, and seat and crimp with a .32-20 Lee die from the special 'Nagant' set made by Lee for Midway & Graf's (It uses .32-20 brass...). I hold the cases with a .32-20 shellplate in my Dillon 550B. With Meister 100gr DEWC .312" lead over 2.3gr TiteGroup, I get better results than with either the yellow boxed Russian target or the $50/box Fiocchi ammo. I have just started experimenting with the Berry's clad 85gr .311" DEWC's.

Well, one would really have to like handloading to go through all that!

Update [2010.12.14]: Since the Lee/Midway dies are for re-forming .32-20 brass, an RCBS shell holder is necessary for using the dies with original 7.62 Nagant brass.

Delta Fare Classes

Looking up the meaning of "Y-fare" on Delta, I found a chart showing a complete list of fare classes.

LDS Preparedness Manual

I found a link to the manual while searching to see if Front Sight has a public key (predictably, no).

Turns out author James Wesley, Rawles has attended Front Sight and has some interesting things to say about their future viability.  Just the same, I came to the same conclusion he did—get the training while it's good.  Plus, even though I'd like to train at Thunder Ranch and Gunsite, I'd hate to go as a newbie.  Some basic prep ought to go a long way.

Anyway, I'm always looking for preparedness guides, since preparedness seems to be something I perpetually lack.  Those LDS folks seem to have it together.

CTK Precision

I turned up CTK Precision while looking for alternate monopods for the Magpul PRS.  (The primary one being the Accu-Shot PRM.)  They make an AR-50 carrying handle / pintle mount as well as a steel gun vise and a QD sling replacement for the rear sling loop on an AR-15.

The gun vise looks interesting, since the adjustable plastic Tipton gun vise costs about as much.  Wonder if the QD thing would work on an M4 collapsible stock.

Minnesota Salary Data

Awhile back I found a site that shows some employment / salary data for regions across Minnesota.  However, I have to doubt the veracity of the information, since the claim is that there're only 30 electrical engineers in Rochester.  The preceding excludes computer hardware engineers, but that number too seems abysmally low.  As with all the surveys of this sort, I have to doubt whether the classification for job and industry are always correctly made.

Best Choices for Self Defense Ammo

Another informative article on Arfcom, this one pertaining to wound profiles of various pistol and rifle cartridges.

Japanese Gardens in Minnesota

A few 日本庭園 located in MN:

• Normandale College's Japanese Garden
• Carlton College's Japanese Garden, 静聆園
• Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 清水庭 (not sure if I guessed at the kanji for "seisuitei" correctly...)
• Como Park Zoo & Conservatory's Japanese Garden

Apparently there's also a landscaping company, Niwa Design Studio, that specializes in Japanese-style design.

Chinese Multiplication

Joel sent me a link to a YT video, which demonstrates a visual method of multiplication that is purportedly used by the Chinese.  Pretty funky.  I need an explanation of why it works....

Zilok

Wired may've been where I saw this, but apparently there's a site that looks to hook up people who are in need of equipment to rent with local people who have such equipment.  Zilok is the site—there must be a dearth of good domain names these days....  Unfortunately I don't see much in my area, but I like the idea.

SGN Classifieds

Yesterday I checked out a couple sites advertised in the back of Shotgun News.  One was by Battle Arms Development, featuring their "BAD-ASS" ambidextrous safety selector.  Pretty sweet, there's just the matter of $60.  The other ad was by Kitanica, the copy of which advertised tactical clothing made in the USA.  Of course I had to look.  They have the most bad-ass cargo pants I've ever seen, the PNT X.A.  $160 is pretty spendy for a pair, but high-end brand-name jeans can go for close to that, and they're certainly less functional.  (The downside is that they only come in inseam 34, but at least the pant cuffs have drawstrings.)  I'm contemplating trying out a set for potential use in my upcoming training.  In searching for reviews of Kitanica gear, I found the Tactical Pants Blog, which does reviews of this sort of thing.  Perhaps I'll try out a couple less expensive pairs of pants as well.

AR-15 Lower Manufacturers

You know, I could've sworn that I saved the link, I think it was on Arfcom, showing the various lower brands with their actual manufacturers.  For some reason, I can't find it in my links.  So here's another list I found:

Lewis Machine & Tool

• LMT
• Lauer
• DS Arms
• PWA
• Eagle
• Armalite
• Knights Armament
• Barrett

Continental Machine Tool

• Stag
• Rock River Arms
• High Standard
• Noveske
• Century (New)
• Global Tactical
• CLE
• S&W
• MGI
• Wilson Tactical
• Grenadier Precision
• Colt

LAR Manufacturing

• LAR
• Bushmaster
• Ameetec
• DPMS
• CMMG
• Double Star
• Fulton Armory
• Spike's Tactical

JVP

• Double Star
• LRB
• Charles Daly

Mega Machine Shop

• Mega
• GSE
• Dalphon
• POF
• Alexander Arms

Olympic

• Olympic
• SGW
• Tromix
• Palmetto
• Dalphon
• Frankford
• Century (Old)

Sun Devil

• Sun Devil forged billet receivers

Superior

• Superior Arms
• Lauer (New)

Aero Precision

• Aero Precision

Ruger 22/45 Mark III Field & Detail Strip

Ruger .22s are a bit of a pain to disassemble.  I found a site that not only details the field strip procedure better than the factory manual, but also has detail strip information.

HK Builds

Since I'm getting more interested in gunsmithing and was in a superfluous meeting, I went on HKPro looking for interesting stuff and, in particular, build info.

G3 DMR kit from Bravo 5
Sexy jig for bending receiver flats
...a few more build links on Calguns
HKParts' contract barrels are POF, huh?  Shit...

FH Workbench Designs

• Folding workbench
• Modular workbench
• 4 knockdown designs

OS X Burning Software

Alternatives to Roxio Toast 10, which has horrid reviews on Amazon, include Burn and LiquidCD.  I downloaded the latter two, but haven't tried burning anything with them yet.  I discovered I hadn't upgraded to the last version of Toast 7 (7.1.3) yet.

Kye Kye Kule

最近ジアダがアンパンマンのDVDを毎日見て俺は頻繁に「チェッチェッコリ」の歌を聞いてしまって頭の中で回る。歌詞の意味を調べたところ、別に意味がないと分かった。「ぴっとんへべへべ」みたいなもんだな。

Arfcom's Guide to Assembling an AR-15 Lower

AR-15.com has a detailed guide on how to assemble an AR-15 lower.  I guess I didn't have to buy a book and two videos on AR-15 builds, but it sure helps a rank novice to the art of gunsmithing.  Seems simple, but hey, most gun owners can't even detail strip their guns, so....

George Bernard Shaw

Found an old (2009.01.22) note to myself regarding some excellent sayings by George Bernard Shaw:

Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

Brilliant!

Plane Food

So I went searching for info on food poisoning from in-flight meals and found an article from last month that USA Today ran, noting that FDA inspectors found problems with the catering services that the airlines use.

I emailed a complaint to Delta regarding my food poisoning incident, but predictably haven't received a reply.  The FDA only has contact numbers by state, so I'd have to burn Skype creds to make the call from Japan.  Maybe when I get home....

rec.guns

FAQs from the old rec.guns Usenet group have been archived on recguns.com.  Of particular interest is the Class 3 FAQ.  Amusingly enough, I ran into a Class 2 SOT last weekend who claimed that the Class 3, etc., names didn't exist.  I knew that I'd seen them in the law before, but since he's an SOT and ought to know his business I didn't argue.  The terms are defined in 27CFR179.32.  The Government Printing Office (GPO) has online versions of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), which describe how the laws in the United States Code (USC) are to be carried out.  CFR Title 27, Chapter I, Part 179 details regulations pertaining to NFA weapons.

In the past, I've thought of studying law and becoming a pro-gun lawyer like Alan Gura, but 1) I'm of the ponderous thinking type, not the quick thinking type, and 2) I lack the faculties to memorize all that case law.  Still, it'd be worth studying law a bit, since my primary hobby is heavily regulated.

A couple other interesting rec.guns FAQs were the ones [1, 2] written by a couple of Japanese guys.  That's by far the most descriptive information on Japan's gun laws that I've seen.  Attempting to read the original text for someone who's barely competent in the language much less in their different legal system is an exercise in futility, so the summaries are a good background.  Presuming they're still accurate after 15+ years, that is!

'07 Springfield-Style Sling Use

I'd posted one link on how to use the '07 sling before, but I came across an article by Walt Kuleck, who co-wrote the assembly guide for the AR-15 that I have.  I found the vintage instruction manual pictures used to be more illustrative than the pictures in the previous link.

Magazine Storage

Need a place to put your explosives?  Check out U.S. Explosive Storage!  Funky that they fabricate such containers, but somebody's gotta do it, eh?

Other Lowers

Found a couple AR-15 lowers of interest.  Still can't find any made out of steel, except the 80% ones that you have to finish yourself, or the $1k Spider Firearms one.

Aero Precision (I think they make the AR-57 as well)
Stubborn Mule Outdoor Supply (slick looking single-shot lower, except I prefer the standard trigger guard)

Another BMG

Another .50 BMG rifle is available, from Desert Tactical Arms.  Ronnie Barrett created a monster!

Ballistic Coefficient

The subject of ballistic coefficients has become of interest to me lately.  I found a site with information on bullets and their BCs with downloadable spreadsheets.

Blasphemy

The Old Testament is badass.

Large Caliber Miscellany

So I was searching for information on loading large caliber projectiles.  Though I haven't even gotten my .50 yet, I'm already looking at larger bores....  Having found a source for 20mm Vulcan brass, I was curious about what it takes to load the monster.  That led me to a site on THR that has a bunch of links that are useful, as well as information from a guy who shoots PTRD and PTRS rifles.

The useful links:

• Reloading the .50 BMG - Good info on how it's done!
• CH4D - Reloading equipment for eccentric calibers such as 20mm Vulcan, Solothurn, and Lahti.
• The Gatling Gun - History from an Army website.
• Bartlett Reloaders - For once-fired brass.
• Pat's Reloading - .50 BMG projectiles.
• Hi-Tech Ammunition - .50 BMG projectiles.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

We had to take the MBTI test at work.  Interestingly enough, the Wikipedia entry has this to say:

Voluntary
It is considered unethical to compel anyone to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It should always be taken voluntarily.

Confidentiality
The result of the MBTI Reported and Best Fit type are confidential between the individual and administrator and, ethically, not for disclosure without permission.

We were compelled to take it, and the results will probably be aggregated at the manager level.

Anyhow, I mentioned it to the wife, and she wanted to know more about it, so I dug up a test for her in Japanese.  I found a second source as well.  She was exactly what I had her pegged as.

20mm Ammo

I found a place to get 20mm Vulcan ammo online: Brashco Specialty Ammo!!  $6 for sized brass, and $0.85 for training bullets (probably hollow).  Might be cool to get a live round just to have!  I've got some dummy rounds, but those aren't nearly as interesting.

Article on Appleseed

Washington Post ran an almost-fair article on the Appleseed Project.

About Firearms Cleaning

In pursuit of .50 BMG action, I was looking for more advice on cleaning for accuracy.  A site called 6mmBR.com has information on bore cleaning as well as words of advice regarding brushing, as in whether it's necessary or not, from various shooting luminaries.

Henshold-Wetzlar

The Hensoldt-Wetzlar scope for the G3 is nice, but the lens covers are annoying to open.  I've been looking for a replacement, but it seems like the Butler Creek ones aren't quite the right size for the bells.  A discussion on HKPro claims that the #3 covers should work.  Midway's chart, however, says #3 is 35.3mm, whereas I measured 32mm using a ruler.  I'm going to have to break out the calipers.  In further searching, I found a site that details the 3 generations of H-W scopes.  I have the 3rd gen scope, it seems.

How Asians Desecrated the Peace Sign

Pretty hilarious stuff.

Amateur Radio w/o a License

I can't remember what I was looking for, but this link has been open for a while and I needed to get it off my tab stack.  Useful links were: Nets registered with ARRL (moved relative to the article) and searchable airport frequencies.

ウェブ飲み会

ヒトはまじでこういうことするのか？

「ネット飲み会」、「オンライン飲み会」とも。わざわざ出かけるのではなく、自分の部屋で1人でパソコンの前に酒とつまみをもってきて、ネットで会話を交わしながら飲むバーチャル飲み会。あるウェブ飲み会のたった1つの約束事は、自分の酒とつまみを申告すること。「水割りと柿の種」とか「焼酎とスルメ」といった風に自分が飲んでいる酒とつまみをパソコンに打ち込むだけである。そうした後は、パソコンのモニターの画面に好きな話題を打ち込んで行くと次々とそれについての話題がほかの参加者から打ち込まれ、酒を飲みながら楽しむことができる。ウェブ飲み会の特徴は、いつでも、どこでも、何かをしながらでも参加できること。「外に飲みに出かけるとお金がかかる」「会社の友人や上司との飲み会では、説教を聞かされたり、いつも同じ話題になってしまう」といったことから、こうしたウェブ飲み会を好む若者が増えているという。サントリーの開設した「ほろよい.com」は会員制だが、自分のアバター（サイト上の分身）を決めて、テーマごとの小部屋で好きなように話すことができる。実際に会って飲み会をすると、バーチャルとリアルのギャップが出てしまうので、あまりオフ会をすることはないとか。

Proper Use of a Rifle Sling

Great tutorial on how to use a sling with a rifle, with pictures.  I was wondering how the hell to use my Brownells sling!

Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun

While looking for information on sling use for the Appleseed Project shoot this weekend, I came across a brilliant piece, "Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun," by Eric Raymond, the Cathedral and the Bazaar guy.  Maybe I knew that he was a kindred geek with guns, but I don't think I'd read this particular piece before.

Indeed, consequence-avoidance has been the anathema of American society for the past 40 years at least.  Real choices, real actions, real responsibility.  For the flavor of this alone, I'd own a gun—never mind that it's fun to shoot!

Fouling of DI Actions

There's an interesting article in Defense Review that discusses the effect of fouling on direct-impingement M4s.  The claim of the author is that the problem is fouling of the bolt carrier group, but weak springs and light buffer weights.  Perhaps I need to look into those reliability mods, although the O-ring seems to be more for automatic fire.

xkcd on Freedom

You know, I've actually thought about this before.  What would it take to completely change your life for the better?  I'm not sure what the hell I'd do if I could "fix" everything.

How to Make Brass

Having started handloading, I was curious as to how metallic cartridge brass is made.  A quick search brought up an informative link. One poster made a few interesting comments:

The necking operation on cases is done with an external forming die, not unlike a resizing die. It generally takes two to three progressive steps, with the incoming parts prelubricated and dried. Before the necking operation, the cases body has to be annealed and pickled (washing in dilute acid to clean the anneal carbon and to etch the surface), then washed in a lubricant and dried.

There is no internal profile mandrel for the shoulder and neck angle, but there is a sizing mandrel which is pulled out through the mouth of the case after necking to make sure the ID of the case mouth is correct. Some processes pull the sizing mandrel out of the case mouth while the case is still in the necking die, as this gives a much more precise ID and OD of the case mouth, but the amount of metal working required results in very low tool life and further work hardening of the case mouth.

In any case, the case goes through “neck and mouth” annealing after the tapering operation to relieve the stress built up from the necking operation, to soften the neck so it can “obdurate” or seal the chamber against blow back, and to soften the mouth so when it is crimped to the bullet, stress cracks do not develop.

In the US military production, the neck and mouth anneal “corona” or annealing mark must be left as proof that the anneal was performed. For commercial brass and most other countries’ military brass, this proof is not required, so the brass is pickled after the necking operation. That is the main reason US military brass is normally not as pretty as everyone elses, but it is generally much better structurally.

Just a few clarifications of how ammunition cases are made. First, almost all brass cased ammo, if not all, is made by the drawing process. The only extrusion process I am aware of is for the aluminum cases made by the boys in Idaho, and that is a very special process. The cases are formed at very high speed so the metal does not have time to work harden. Special presses and special knowledge are required.

As to brass case making equipment, it is readily available. Most of the major manufacturers in the USA us surplus ordnance factory equipment from WWII. This machinery was very heavily built and lasts forever. Even the US Army plant LCAAP still uses a lot of this equipment, though they have spent a great deal of money in the past 10 years on new machinery and new processes.

If you want to go into the case making business, let me know. We have quite a bit of machinery available, and we are constantly getting more in. The basis process is start from a purchases cup, draw it to length through two to four draws, trim is, head it once or twice, turn the head and extractor groove, anneal the body, taper for rifle cases, and final trim. Depending on what caliber you are making, the process is either simpler of much more complicated.

It’s not cheap to get into this business, and we are at the peak of the market now. If you start making cases now, you could be bankrupt in a year if the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down. There will be a lot of surplus capacity on the market when that happens. That said, if you have the money, we will sell you the equipment and the know how.

Just a little more on how cartridge cases are manufactured. Worldwide, there are two similar but distinctive processes used to make most of the small caliber brass cased ammo. I am leaving out the aluminum case manufacturing as that is a unique process developed and used by only one major company, and it wouldn’t be fair to them to tell the little that I do know about the process.

What I refer to as the US process starts from coiled 70%cu/30%zn brass (cartridge brass) that is annealed, then fed into a double acting press where a round blank is cut, then a cupping punch pushes the blank into and through a forming die. The formed cup pops out the other side, where it is collected, washed, annealed, pickled, lubricated, and dried.

Cups are generally formed in multiple tooled die sets, with each stroke making five or more cups. The more cups made per stroke, the less percentage of scrap generated and the higher the production rate.

The cups are fed into the initial draw press, where a punch pushes them through a die stack, typically three dies high. The dies are normally lubricated with a constant flow, and it is common to put spacers between the dies with channels to allow the lube to flow to all of the dies during the forming. At the bottom of the die stack is a stripper made up of steel jaws and a spring to hold it together. The stripper generally mates into a conical stripper ring to add a bit of closing force as the drawn case component is pulled from the punch.

Additional draws are performed as required to reach the final o.d. and length, and in some cases, an interdraw anneal is performed to relieve the stress built up by the cold working in the draws. Generally, the components are washed before anneal to prevent the lubricant being baked onto the surface, and after the anneal, the components are pickled in a mild acid bath, then washed and dried. The acid bath can remove the carbon that would be on the component if it had not been washed prior to the anneal, but the pickling bath gets dirty quick as a result, and a carbon residue will often be left in and on the cup. Draws do not like dirty cups!

The pickling wash is a very critical step in the process. After the annealing, the grain size of the brass has grown, and the pickling etches out between the fully formed grains, leaving a microscopically rough surface. This rough surface helps to carry the drawing lubricant through the draws, reducing the surface friction between the brass and the draw dies.

On the subject of draw tooling, most high production operations use carbide dies for the forming operations. Punches are mostly steel, though you will find some unique metals being used in the heading operation, especially for the stem, or internal mandrel. When using steel, brass tends to load up on the surface during cold working, even with a flood of lubricant. The loading of brass onto the working surface of punches and steel dies will cause case scratching, high draw loads, and host of other undesirable problems. The loading can be reduced or eliminated by flash chroming the draw punches. Dies are not typically chrome plated as they are frequently polished or otherwise reworked (it is common practice to take the third die in a die stack, once it has worn our or become scratched, and rework it to the dimensions of the second die in the stack, and so on. This reduces the tooling costs and inventory required to support a production operation).

In modern production, such as for 5.56mm cases, the interdraw anneal has been eliminated. For 7.62mm, an interdraw anneal is still in general use.

After the final draw, the component is trimmed to length. Historically the trim is made on dedicated lathes, using either a pointed tool or a rolling cutter wheel. The use of pinch trimming has become much more common in the process as it can be combined into a drawing operation, eliminating a machine and a process step.

Following final draw and trim, the component is washed and dried. Some processes apply a light lubricant prior to heading, or the component is not washed after draw and the draw lube dries on the case. Generally, the drawn part needs to be dry when it goes into heading as moisture on the heading bunter can cause distortion in the primer pocket during the heading operation.

Heading is generally performed on a horizontal toggle press, and most heading presses head one part per stroke. In the past, heads were formed in two steps, with a first step partially forming the primer pocket and also flattening the base of the draw component. This step is called by many names including bunting, pocketing, flattening, pre-pocket, etc. The second step forms the finished primer pocket and stamps on the headstamp, which can indicate the manufacturer, plant, year, and a host of other info. The US 5.56mm ammo from LCAAP made on the high speed equipment for years displayed a series of dots that were binary code for the station number the case was made on.

This second step is called heading, pocketing, bunting, etc., so it is not always clear what is being discussed unless you clarify the terms. The heading bunters can be made as one piece or two pieces where the pocket punch and the headstamp section can be separated. The headstamp can be formed on the bunter face by engraving (not easy or pretty), EDM (easy and pretty), or by a process called hobbing where a hobbing punch is used to form the bunter using a hydraulic press. Hobbing has the advantage of workhardening the bunter during the forming process, but EDM’s advantages have pretty much displaced hobbing.

The typical US heading operation forms a flange on around the head of the case as a result of the metal flow during the heading. Metal flow is critical to the internal hardening of the head of the case, and without proper flow, the primers have a tendency to fall out with regularity when fired. If you section a case head after heading, polish the surface, and etch it with acid, you can see the flow lines of the metal grains resulting from the heading. If the closed bottom of the drawn component is not fairly flat internally, the heading bunter can displace a plug of metal from the bottom before impacting the internal heading stem or mandrel, and little or no cold work of the head material will occur, and the head’s internal hardness will be too low to hold the primer or prevent other distortions during firing. To prevent this from occurring, the cupping tooling can be changed to reduce the crowning of the cup, or a flattening step can be used prior to final heading.

Internally the case is supported during heading using a mandrel or stem that has a profile that matches the internal profile of the post headed case. The stems can be of hardened steel or other dense, non-ductile metal. Ferrotic has been used with some success for these parts.

After heading is complete, the case is headturned on a dedicated lathe using a formed cutting tool that replicates the finished head form, including the chamber on the case head rim, the head diameter, the extractor groove, and the angle leading up to the case body. The cutting tools can be profiles ground into straight tool steel or profiles ground into round washers of tool steel. The round style cutters have the advantage of being easily resharpened, and they can be resharpened numerous times.

Following head turn, the cases are washed, body annealed, pickled, lubricated, and dried. The tapering of the case and the forming of the shoulder and neck can be done on horizontal taper presses, which are not common in large manufacturing operations, or on vertical presses with indexing table. The indexing table allows for multiple tapering steps on one press, and can include high speed milling spindles to trim the cases to final length before they are ejected from the press.

Following the tapering operation, the cases are washed, then neck and mouth annealed. For US military cases, the anneal corona is left in place as proof.

The flash hole in the primer pocket is typically pierced using a punch and mandrel die. In military operations and high volume commercial production, this is done at the primer inserting machine, but for case only manufacturers or for component sales, the cases can be pierced on dedicated punch presses. Failure to pierce a case is a critical defect in military ammunition, so redundant inspections are performed to assure that the flash hole is present.

The prior piece on US manufacturing process did not address the 5.56mm manufacturing at LCAAP. Back during the early 1970’s, a program called SCAMP (small caliber ammunition modernization program) was finally put into production. The basis model for case, bullet, priming, and loading was 24 station rotary turrets turning at 50 rpm for theoretical outputs of 1200 parts per minute. LCAAP has multiples lines for each component.

In order to reduce both capital cost and complexity, the SCAMP case making systems had some shortcuts in the process. Only two draws are used, with no interdraw anneal, and the final draw includes a pinch trim for the drawn part. The components are carried through the system in silicon bronze clips mounted on RC60 chain, and each process step (1st draw, 2nd draw, heading, headturn, piercing, 1st taper, 2nd taper, and final trim) are 24 station presses. A cup entering first draw at Station 1 will exit final trim from Station 1, and station identity is maintained through all the process steps including the washes and anneals.

Following the headturning and piercing, the cases are washed, annealed, and lubricated before going through tapering and final trimming. After final trim, the cases are washed, then neck and mouth annealed. A high speed gaging system is used to gage all critical dimensions and some surface flaws before the cases are ejected from the manufacturing system.

The truncated 5.56mm process operates very close to the theoretical limits of cold drawing from brass, and it took some time to fine tune the process to ensure that the cases produced were acceptable. That said, there is no competing system in the world that can produce 5.56mm at the rate produced at LCAAP.

As mentioned at the start, the other process commonly found is what I call the European Process. Manufacturing plants around the world use either the US Process or the European Process, depending on the sphere of influence under which that country falls. Reflecting the rather fluid states of influence, it is not uncommon to find both processes in use making different calibers of ammunition reflecting the real politic of the era the lines were installed.

I was raised on the US Process, and I have spent most of my life working with systems based on this process, but I honestly feel the the European Process is the better of the two. It flows more logically and is metallurgically more sound. Both processes make good or bad parts, but I have found the Eurpoean approach to be much more forgiving.

As in the US approach, most of the European Process is based on blanked and drawn cups as the input material. Through this step, the process is the same as the US Process.

That said, there are several systems in use around the world that cut and form cups from wire, using a multiple die, multiple blow header to form a cup, rather than forming the cup from coiled strip.

The big advantage of using brass wire as the input material is the lower cost of manufacture of the wire versus the strip, and the much lower scrap percentage of wire based cups versus strip bases cups. In the end, though, the main concern is producibility, and I have been in several plants in various parts of the world that had the machinery to make cups from wire, but they could not buy wire of sufficient quality to make ammunition. As a result, there are several heading machines to produce cups from wire sitting idle in plants from South America to the Middle East.

The case making process starts with cups, either blanked & cupped, or headed, which had been annealed and pickled, and passes them through a series of draws. The early European processes tended to dedicate one machine to one step, which resulted in a lot more machines and a lot slower production rate. Over the past thirty years or so, the Euro process has been refined and speeded up, so today, they are the best source of new machinery in the world.

Current technology would see the case cup enter a press where the draws and pinch trim were performed, the cases removed, cleaned, annealed, pickled, and dried, then re-fed into the same press but in later stations, where they would be headed, tapered, and pierced. For higher output rates, the process would be split, with the drawing and pinch trimming performed on a duplex tooled press so that two parts were made per stroke on that press, and then the annealed parts would be fed into a heading, tapering, and piercing press that made two parts per stroke. The “standard” stroke rate for new presses is 120 strokes per minute, so you could either make 120 or 240 ppm, depending on which approach was taken.

Note that by annealing the parts after the final draw and before the heading and tapering, a process step has been removed. Body anneal is not required, as the whole drawn case was annealed before the heading. The heading can now cold work the case head without effecting the anneal of the body of the case which will be subsequently tapered.

After exiting the press following the heading, piercing, and tapering, the parts are washed and dried, then fed into a combination headturning and trimming to length machine. This is the pivot point where the Euro and the US processes diverge. In the US process, the headturning is performed before the body anneal, while the Euro process waits until after the body anneal and taper to do the headturning. The US process uses the headturned extractor groove to hold the case during the tapering operation, while the Euro process does not rely upon this.

In addition, the US process uses an “open die” for the heading operations, which results in a flange being formed during the heading. Typically, the flange is a 45 degree angle out from the body of the case, allowing room for the metal to flow so that the cold working will harden the internal areas of the head surrounding the primer pocket.

The Euro process has depended much more on a two blow heading process, so they typically use a “closed die” for the heading operations. Very little or no flange is formed during the heading operations, but rather they depend on a back and forth style of material flow, where the pre-pocket forms some of the primer pocket but also pushes the face of the head up. The following final pocket forms the finished primer pocket and the headstamp.

The origins of the difference in the processes probably relates to the use of “Boxer” style primers in US type ammo, and “Berdan” type primers in Euro ammo. That the Berdan in Berdan primers was a New York native and Boxer was an Englishman only adds to the confusion.

Most Euro processed ammo has the flash hole drilled, rather than pierced. This originally was due to the very small diameter of the Berdan type flash holes, which could not be reliably pierced due to the ratio of the hole diameter to web thickness. Skinny punch, thick metal, not good. Only the later machinery, tooled to produce the Boxer type primer pockets, can use the piercing method described above.

Now, the Euro cases are exiting the tapering operation without a headturn and without a final trim. The next step, following a wash operation, is the headturning and trimming, which is performed in a dedicated lathe. As the component is now tapered, it can be pushed into a fixed conical collet, and turned. Cutters for the headturn approach straight in to form the extractor groove and head form, while a single point cutter is introduced at the mouth end to trim the case to length. Many of the mouth trim cutters operate on two axes, so they can cut the case to length, then chamfer the inside of the case mouth to make inserting the bullet easier.

Following the headturn and trim, the cases are washed and a mouth and neck anneal is performed. Euro process cases are often washed after these steps, but it is not uncommon to see NATO homologated countries leave the anneal corona in place like the US military ammo.

All of the above commentary has been related primarily to the manufacture of rimless, necked rifle cases, with an emphasis on the military types, and all relating to brass. I have no experience, but I have been told the steel case manufacturing process is very similar, but a bit more strenuous. Additionally, steel cases must be either treated after manufacture, using lacquer, phosphate coating, copper washing, or some other sealant, or the case cups must be made from “clad steel”. Clad steel is steel that has a brass layer plated to both sides prior to the cupping operation. The cladding operation can be anything from explosively clad brass to electrochemical plating. The brass cladding acts both as a seal to prevent moisture reaching the steel, and as a sacrificial element to minimize corrosion.

Pistol case manufacturing is generally much simpler, but of similar process. Making rimmed cases of any type (.38 Special for example) is a bit more difficult as the case head must be formed out much further than a rimless type head, but it is easily done on available surplus machinery.

If you have any comments, corrections, or questions, let me know.

Edit: The link to Demsey MFG has a couple of good animations on punch operation and the draw process.  Also, cartridge brass is 70% copper and 30% zinc.

Gun Control Commentary

I should really quit reading CNN.  My remarks:

To all the mental midgets who want to ban guns, fine: I'll destroy mine when the police and military destroy all of theirs. After all, if guns only exist to kill people, then morally speaking police and military shouldn't have them either. Or does that badge or uniform somehow magically make them better than everyone else? Oh, I know, you wanted someone to protect you so you don't have to think about doing it yourself. Now that's sheer, irresponsible laziness.

"Benevolent law enforcement" is every bit as much an idyllic myth as "benevolent government." Gun-haters are typically the naive sort who think that trusting in a class of people with special power over everyone else is actually a desirable thing. Abuse of privilege is a truism: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

C&R Discounters

Some online sales places offer discounts to Crufflers.  I found a couple lists, one on The Gun Wiki and a more comprehensive one on 7.62x54r.net.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

The artist has some serious issues with religion, but it's pretty funny stuff.  I blame Joel for pointing me at this web comic.

Curling Guide

Meant to post this graphic while the Winter Olympics were going on:

Flash for iPhone Camera

The iPhone's camera really needs a flash. Since there's no external trigger for one, there are several aftermarket devices that emulate flash capability.

Howto to build your own "flash" (actually a light) add-on for the iPhone.
FastMac iV battery pack and light

The Role of Ron Paul

Comments on RP winning the CPAC straw poll:

Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, who's Iranian, said it best: "that president-elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one." The President's job as head of the executive branch is to see that the law as put into effect by the legislative branch is carried out, not to directly wield authority over the citizenry. The administration may suggest direction to Congress, but ultimately they are the lawmakers, not the President. Legislating from the Oval Office (via executive orders and other less overt action) should be abhorred even more than Supreme Court justices legislating from the bench.

Ron Paul makes sense, and the guy is on the money on just about everything. There are two issues: 1) he's too old to take office in 2012 (Reagan was the oldest to be inaugurated at 69) and 2) he's eminently un-electable, as evidenced by censorship of his 2008 campaign, not only by the liberal media, but the neo-con media, including Fox News and the NRA.

Make no mistake, if he got on the ballot, I'd vote for him. However, my take is that Dr. Paul's role is not to become President, but to reform U.S. politics, get the right kind of people in Congress, and to pave the way for when someone like him can actually get elected.

Save the Whales but Not the Universe

I've been posting too many CNN comments lately. On the idiot activist who boarded a Japanese whaler to affect a "citizen's arrest":

Treat these "activists" for what they are: pirates and/or terrorists! Shoot 'em and dump 'em!

And:

@Guest: Way to comment, anonymous coward! Like it or not, "terrorist" is a political term. The activists have no business harassing Japanese whalers. If they don't like the law, pursue changing it in a court of law. If they don't, they're operating outside the law (by definition) and are vigilantes (if the whalers can be considered objectively criminal, which is doubtful) or terrorists (the term used against people on the wrong side of the law). They've been watching Star Trek IV too much.

Chubs on Planes

Comment on a CNN article—I'm sure I'm gonna get some hate over this one ;-)

As a frequent international traveler, I admit that I dread being seated next to a person whose girth spills over into my space. On the other hand, I can appreciate that the seats are generally too small, both in width and in depth. I'm 6' tall, of average build, so I always have my knees in the seat in front of me. As such, perhaps the available width is unreasonable as well. (Furthermore, why are the armrests so narrow?! They're barely wide enough to put one person's arm on, much less share between two people! If the adjacent passenger is large, then by default you lose the armrest....) Thus both the airlines and passengers are culpable to some degree.

Personally, I advocate charging by weight of the passenger plus luggage. (I say this as a 195-lb male who tends to take a lot in luggage.) A 90-pound woman carrying only her 5-lb handbag shouldn't pay as much as a 300-lb man with 50-lbs of luggage. Clearly they contribute differently toward the fuel usage. (All eco-activists should be for this one, since it's clearly an incentive to be greener!) Granted other public transportation like buses and trains don't do this, but they're short hop (using less fuel) and have the need to quickly board and unboard passengers, making pay-by-weight impractical. For airplanes you already have to check in, and people already seem to be willing to give in to cavity searches to board planes, so why not step on the scale? Could it be that some people fear being weighed more than being rectally probed?! ;-)

Keep Tube

I was using TubeSock to download YouTube videos, but it doesn't handle the high-resolution MP4 versions. Thus I found a site called Keep Tube that acts as a gateway to pick up the MP4 stream. The direct URL is:

http://keep-tube.com/?url=XXX

XXX should be the YouTube "watch" URL.

More Shit

Further commentary on the shit thread of Demian's:

Finally getting back to this. What else am I gonna do when I'm down with a cold....

I was throwing the charity thing out there to counteract Demian's assertion that conservatives are cold-hearted SOBs. I've heard of a study (but haven't seen it myself) that indicates that conservatives, particularly midwestern ones, donate in much higher percentages than liberals, particularly the ones in California.

Charity for business may be, and I quote, "fucking bullshit", but it's not like that for me and, I'd wager, for most individuals. I feel like it's a social imperative: I am able to make a decent living developing HDDs because the social structures exist to support my specialization. As such, I can afford to donate from my salary to help as I see fit. On the other hand, much of my donations go to cancer research organizations.

The problem with sending aid to third world countries is that usually the dictator or whatever corrupt government is running things takes the spoils. How would you expect to "end poverty", though? There will always be poor people (despite what socialists will have one believe), and poor people beget more poor people. It's an unending cause, and to expect otherwise is purely unrealistic. Charity could be a means of preserving the status quo -- or it could be a good element to balance the tendency of things to go to shit. Your call. I prefer to believe that some good can be done. That said, some is never enough.

Part Two:

Your argument about Venezuelan gun possession is bogus, by the way. Check your facts -- most of those 6M guns are illegal. Right now only law enforcement can legally buy guns there. They just don't have the gestapo environment that the U.S. has. Americans are in general too cowardly to revolt, otherwise we would've had a new government after the Waco massacre.

If you're talking "socialism" like Chavez and dictators like him -- might as well be Hitler or Stalin -- then you're really nuts. Democratic socialism is at least plausible in that they believe that non-totalitarian government can help the underprivilieged. Communist socialism has been completely discredited. Communism itself is an ideal that unfortunately cannot be implemented practically: anyone with a modicum of logical thinking can appreciate that in order to administer things fairly a class must exist that decides those matters, and such an administration is prone to corruption. Plus, a populace that puts themselves in a position of servitude deserve whatever they get.

Small-time tyrant socialists like Castro (who vehemently denied being a communist before rising to power...now he's unabashed about it) and Chavez needed their backers to be armed in order to execute their "revolutions". When they're in power, though, they aim to crack down on access to weapons of resistance so as to enforce their monopoly of force. That's precisely why the people shouldn't trust a government that disbars the use of arms: it's the first step down the road to totalitarianism.

Part Three:

You're right about Jefferson's support of public education. I think his heart was in the right place, but the problem with government involvement in education is that they then gain the ability to brainwash future generations. In this regard, homeschooling is a vitally important option to maintain. I don't see myself doing it (my kids will go to a private school if I can afford it, otherwise I'll shoot for a charter school) but it's every right of a parent to avoid government-mandated crap. Regarding private versus public, I went to a Montessori for a year in elementary and learned more in that one year than in any other two years in the public school system. (This coming from a kid who's been an honors student since 3rd grade.) Regardless of the availability of public education, private will always be superior because of less red tape and the presence of a business mandate (if the kids don't do well, parents quit paying for it).

In any case, the mandatory public systems instantiated by the government, regardless of good intent, are villainous. People shouldn't be forced to comply with someone else's idea of how they should spend their income.

As for the infallibility of icons such as Jefferson, of course he was human and had his failings, such as keeping slaves. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, eh. Abraham Lincoln, however, revered, was not as great as some make him out to be: he was the first to make extensive use of Executive Orders, which are used for vile purposes today. I'm a bit torn on the Civil War: while slavery was definitely a bad thing, the right of the states to secede should have been inviolate. (Yes, I'm solidly in the camp of the Anti-Federalists.) Slavery was an institution at the time, and while now it seems very antiquated, the whole colonial "white man's burden" was at a time the prevailing thinking. Kind of like smoking used to be atarimae, a sharp contrast to how it is villified today. Then there's that piece of shit Franklin Roosevelt who devalued the dollar, outlawed private gold ownership, created a raft of socialist programs including Social Security, and managed to get us embroiled in WWII, which set the stage for the U.S.'s interventionist foreign policy in the 70 years since. (Yes the Japanese attacked the U.S., but not until after we embargoed them, basically cutting off the lifeline to an island nation, to limit their aggression. The embargo itself was tantamount to an act of war. I'm not an apologist for what happened, but it's important to look at the entire context of the conflict. Plus, we had intelligence that the Japanese were planning an attack. Just clarifying my views on WWII -- basically one that pisses off both Americans and Japanese!).

Information on Venezuelan gun laws is hard to find, but the sources I've been able to find indicate that private ownership isn't legal (for example). From the link, dated 2006.11.25:

However, the Chavez government has tightened gun laws. Once it was easier to take out a gun licence than a driving licence, but now only police officers can buy guns legally. In spite of this, there are a number of gun shops nationwide and the evident levels of gun ownership would suggest that the law is not being implemented effectively.

Augmented Reality Wi-Fi Helicopter

Russ sent me a link to the Parrot AR.Drone site. I want. Of course the salient question is: how much does the damn thing cost?!

News Dump

Well, it's not news when it gets old. Maybe I should call my lingering browser windows "olds"....

Product review: Vibram Five-Fingers Classic [barefootrunner.com]
Why a Big Meal Makes You Hungry [WSJ]
Newly-Found Windows Bug Affects All Versions Since NT [Slashdot]
Why do we give to disaster relief? [CNN]
Boogie Board writing tablet [CrunchGear]
Understanding Race - Human Variation

Plastic Port Buffer

Just found a non-marring port buffer for the HK-91. I've heard that the metal ones scratch the receiver when removed, which is undesirable. Might have to get one of these to try out.

Shit

One of Demian's scatological rants on FB turned political, prompted me to respond, which led to him questioning the manhood of gun owners and me to retort with the following piece of eloquence:

You can joke about gun owners compensating all you want, it's bullshit. We got more inches and testosterone than the pussy anti-gunners. We'll screw your girl and her friend and they'll be back in a week for more when they can walk again. =D

Wouldn't be surprised if he unfriends me this time, haha. That's ok, we weren't butt buddies anyhow.

Organic Homemade Ketchup

This showed up in my Facebook stream because Marigold commented on the author's wall picture. The recipe looks pretty simple:

INGREDIENTS

1 x 28 oz. Can Tomato Puree

1 x 6 oz Can Tomato Paste

1 Tbsp Vinegar (I like Unfiltered Raw Apple Cider)

1/4 Cup Water

1/6 tsp each Garlic & Onion Powder

1 pinch each Secret Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice

1 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

1/4 tsp Stevia Extract Powder

1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum (optional natural thickener)

DIRECTIONS

In a large saucepan, pour in the 1st 4 ingredients. Stir, and bring to a simmer.

Add in the rest of the ingredients, and stir them in using a whisk.

Simmer for 10-20 minutes. The longer you simmer it, the thicker and more rich it will become.

Let cool,and pour into glass jar(s).

Well, that wasn’t too bad now was it.

You should have been making your own this whole time!

Will keep in the refrigerator for 7-10 days.

If you like tangier ketchup, add a little more vinegar. Sweeter? Add more sweetener.

You can play with the spices & seasonings to develop your own signature ketchup. Spicy sounds good, too.

What’s you’re favorite ketchup accompaniment to have with you’re new recipe?

How will you tweak it? I’d love to know how it goes for you :)

ENJOY!

Be Well,

-Maximillian Barry

Hmm, it uses Stevia. Did the FDA accept that finally...?

GI Joe Codenames

This is fucking hilarious if you grew up with GI Joe.

"Common Sense" Politics

Rebuttal to a stooge in CNN commentary:

Moron! The President has to "battle" for his stated policies because a large percentage of the population thinks the policies are stupid! Certainly you're not in any position to comment on anyone else's intelligence. This administration spent more in 2009 ($1.6T) than any single year of any prior administration, and they want to spend even more? You're not even smart enough to realize that no one knows whether the varied proposed solutions will work or not -- in every piece of legislation there are unintended consequences (as well as a mountain of pork). I don't trust the stooges in Congress, Democrat or Republican, to get it right. The solution? Quit monkeying with the economy, passing so much stupid legislation, and spending money we don't have. Pretty simple, but so many "smart" people don't seem to get it!