Monday Meanderings
Marko's again having problems with people stealing his work. If you're a member of either the Appleseed or IL Gun News organizations, perhaps you can contact the appropriate people and get Marko the recognition he deserves.
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The cleanup from the winter storm continues. I spent the weekend on the dull end of a chainsaw, taking care of the downed trees that litter our property. I've barely made a dent in the mess; I foresee another six months of work, and that's if the rest of the winter is mild.
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Ed Harris wrote a great comment to my post about Dow-Corning grease. Since he brought it up, I should disclose that it was his recommendation of food-grade greases - made to me perhaps a decade or more ago - that lead me to find Lubriplate SFL. Ed pointed me in that direction, and all I did was look for the very best example I could find. Pity they won't sell it in reasonable packaging!
(Oddly enough, Ed and I have corresponded for many years - starting on the old FidoNet system - about a variety of mutual interests but have yet to meet in person. I keep saying I'll get to the east coast one of these days and look him up, but still haven't done it. In the meantime, he continues to be one of the very best sources of technical information in the whole shooting community.)
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Speaking of Ed Harris, he's perhaps best known for his bore cleaner formula, called Ed's Red. It's a mix-it-yourself affair that works like a charm. I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but it has been my cleaner of choice for a very long time. You should try it.
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-=[ Grant ]=-
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FRIDAY SURPRISE: Hair of the dog.
Happy New Year!
Having just dug out of a nasty winter storm, it may seem odd that I'd be fascinated by things in an even colder place. You'd think I'd want instead to look at pretty pictures of warmer climes, and forget all about our recent cold weather mess.
Call me a masochist, but I can't help myself! Antarctica is full of abandoned structures, some commercial and some scientific - and all just begging to be explored. (Not that I'm looking to do so myself, you understand.)
Have a look at a few of the more accessible examples.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Greasing the skids.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Gunsmithing
If you've read my Lubrication 101 article, you know that I'm a big fan of the Lubriplate SFL series of greases. Unfortunately, they are hard to get; there are no consumer-quantity online sources that I know of, and even the company that once supplied me is no longer.
There is another good choice: the Lubriplate FGL line of greases, which are available in more consumer-friendly packaging - but still hard to find in anything less than case quantity. I remain amazed that Lubriplate makes such terrific products, then makes it so hard to buy them!
Reader Chris S. sent me an email regarding an alternative: Dow-Corning G-0050. It looks good; while technically not quite as robust as the SFL or FGL products, it's a close second - and is still head and shoulders above any lithium-based product that you'll find on the shelves at your local gun store. It's available in single tubes from McMaster-Carr - who have one of those annoying sites that won't let you link directly to an item, but their catalog number is 1445K41.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Am I glad that's over with!
Monday, December 29, 2008 Filed in:
Blog
stuff, My Life
I'm back!
Last Monday, both our power and phone/DSL lines were severed by falling trees, which themselves were the result of the tremendous winter storm that had blanketed Oregon. We were quite literally trapped in our house for the better part of a week, the road having been blocked by a dozen of those damnable trees that cut us off from our blessed utilities:
Power came back on last Friday, we made it to town on Saturday (after spending a couple days with the chainsaw), and the phone company fixed their lines this morning. Hooray!
When the 'net connection first went away, I kept up with the email flood on my iPhone. That lasted until sometime Tuesday, when the AT&T wireless internet service disappeared, followed soon after by the cell service itself. (I suspect that the nearest cell tower - actually, the only tower - simply depleted it's backup batteries after being deprived of mains electricity.) Cell service came back on late Thursday, but by then my mailbox was so full that managing it on the iPhone was just futile.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 429 emails to process (plus a whole week of Tam, Ahab, Uncle, and Marko to catch up on!)
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday Meanderings
The snow continues to pile up at the farm. This morning we had 16 inches on the ground, and we've been thoroughly covered for a week now. In Oregon, this is a highly unusual occurrence and I'm ready for it to be over!
We got a small dose of ice in between show showers, just enough to lock the snow onto tree branches and provide a means for more snow to pile up. Result: lots of damaged trees. If I were to go outside right now, the branches breaking and trees snapping sound like a firing range!
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I haven't been able to make it to the range to test the guns I've finished, let alone make it into town to ship them. Sadly, unless we get a major thaw it's entirely likely that I won't get anything shipped before the holiday.
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Plastic guns and ovens don't mix. (Obligatory jab at the French omitted, though I'm sure my British friends can fill in the blanks.)
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As if the miserable weather weren't enough, I'm down with a nasty cold. I don't know how I caught it, as I haven't been able to get out to be in contact with a carrier!
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SayUncle alerted me to this little bit of racism. (My thought: someone who assumes that you would want to kill her because of her skin color does so because - deep down - she harbors the fantasy of killing you because of your skin color.)
"Projection", it's called.
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: I do not recall.
Recognize this?
How about now?
Well, you're not alone. This blob of corroded bronze was discovered off the Greek isle of Antikythera in 1900. In the decades since, archaeologists have been baffled by (and no doubt argued about) just what the thing was - let alone what it did.
The Antikythera Mechanism, as it came to be known, remained an enigma until the 21st century - when advanced imaging techniques allowed researchers to see into the amorphous blob, identifying gears and inscriptions. As it turns out, the Mechanism is a mechanical computer to predict astronomical data - the solunar cycle, eclipses, and even Olympic years and the intersection of all of those.
From those images, a British gentleman - one Michael Wright - was able to build a working replica of the Mechanism. Here, for the first time in over 2,000 years, you can see what it actually did:
The Mechanism is exciting in two ways: first, and most obvious, is that is shows a level of mechanical design and workmanship that is a full millennia ahead of what we thought was possible. Scientists date the mechanism to about 100 B.C.E, and comparable clockwork mechanisms don't show up again until more than a thousand years later.
Second, it suggests that the people who constructed it had an understanding of the concepts of a heliocentric (sun-centered) universe, which would not become accepted for nearly 1,500 years after the Mechanism had been built.
What is interesting to me is the idea that knowledge - in this case, mechanical and astronomical - can be forgotten, at least in a cultural sense. In this age of abundant and ubiquitous information, it is hard to accept it as a perishable commodity. It makes one wonder: what else have we forgotten?
-=[ Grant ]=-
And it's not even winter yet.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 Filed in:
Current
Events, Blog stuff
Since Monday, we've not gotten much snow - but the cold persists. Up at our place, we've received a total of about 15 inches, which might not impress anyone in North Dakota but is a LOT of snow for Oregon.
I did manage to get into the shop yesterday, and got some work done. Today we're supposed to get a thaw before another big snowstorm, so I'm hoping to finish some more work.
In other news, Tam admits to a practicality infection.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday Meanderings
If you live anywhere west of the Mississippi, you know all about this arctic air mass which has come to roost over our little slice of heaven. It's resulted in a good foot of snow in my front yard, along with temperatures more common to the Midwest than the Northwest.
I'm not even trying to get out of my driveway, and I'm sorry to say that I definitely will not be making the shipping schedule for this week. On the plus side, I'll finally have time to clear out my email inbox.
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To my friends in northern Florida: don't even think of sending me pictures of sunny vistas from your 79 degree paradise, lest you wind up with a large box of the finest Al Gore Global Warming Snowballs. As mentioned above, I have a nearly inexhaustible supply of the stuff sitting around, and am none too happy with the situation. You have been warned.
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Someone sent me this over the weekend:
Aside from the error in nomenclature (since when is a miniature revolver a "derringer"?), it really doesn't look all that different from the guns you can find gracing the cover of Mall Ninja Magazine!
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My little blurb on the lever action rifle generated a greater than normal amount of commentary and email. It seems that there are a lot of fans of the humble "deer rifle" out there! Someday, when I get caught up on all the revolvers needing work, perhaps I'll turn my attention to the lever action.
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Speaking of lever actions...I managed to get out to a gunshow this last weekend, where I was sorely tempted by a Marlin Model 62 in .30 Carbine. To the best of my knowledge it's the only levergun ever to be chambered in that cartridge, of which I'm a fan. It was only sheer willpower (and the fact that I've made several other large, non-firearms acquisitions lately) that kept me from putting my money on the table.
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Which reminds me...does anyone know of a bolt-action ever made in .30 Carbine?
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-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Hey, buddy, gotta light?
Friday, December 12, 2008 Filed in:
Friday
Surprise!, Completely
irrelevant
Over 400 years ago, Tycho Brahe (great astronomer, bad swordsman) observed a bright light in the sky. He watched it for a fortnight, coined the term "nova", wrote his first book about it, and decided to go into astronomy full time.
It wasn't a good way to make a living in those days - telescopes not having been invented yet, which made it a little like deciding to become a rock star before the electric guitar and LSD were available - but luckily enough his family was rich and he could afford such silliness.
His observations, though, were far from fanciful. Modern technology gives us a peek at what he saw in 1572:
Read more about it.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Working hard.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 Filed in:
General gun
stuff
But I think I see light at the end of the tunnel!
I need to keep digging, though, so I'm going to take just a moment to tell you to look at the comments on this article from last week. Scroll down and read Ed Harris' excellent (as usual) point of view.
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday Meanderings
Monday, December 08, 2008 Filed in:
Current
Events, General gun
stuff
Local gun stores continue to report strong sales. A weekend trip to a large sporting goods establishment saw a handgun selection that was, quite literally, nothing but an empty wall.
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A buddy who runs a commercial reloading operation tells me that reloading components are getting scarce as well. He deals with the kind of component wholesalers that only sell to firms with ammunition loading licenses, and even at that level things like primers and bullets are being rationed.
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Someone asked me what I thought about the Plaxico Burress situation. Short version: I agree with Xavier.
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I'm hearing that the Ruger SP101 in .327 Federal is hard to find. I'm not sure why (my thoughts having been previously stated), but it seems I've been out-voted!
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Blogging for the next couple of weeks will be a little on the light side, as in "more linky, less thinky". I'm working to get a lot of projects out the door before Christmas, just like last year. And the year before. And...well, you get the picture.
(Last year, a few days before the holiday, I had the largest FedEx shipping bill yet. I expect to beat it this year by a comfortable margin.)
-=[ Grant ]=-
FRIDAY SURPRISE: Not much of a surprise. Sorry.
Friday, December 05, 2008 Filed in:
Friday
Surprise!, Completely
irrelevant
I just couldn't come up with anything that really tickled my fancy this week, so I'm going to leave you with this story about an ancient chariot recently unearthed in Bulgaria.
It's not much, but it's the thought that counts!
-=[ Grant ]=-
Paranoia, shortages, and a blast from the past.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Rifles
Welcome to Post-Election 2008, where any rifle with a detachable magazine is selling like Haagen-Dazs in Hades. Prices are up (sometimes WAY up), supply is down, and demand appears downright insatiable.
There's no doubt that most of the rifles being sold are destined to be plinkers, used for nothing more than unstructured play time at the range. There is that small group of purchasers, however, that desires to have a rifle for defensive purposes, be it for home or farm. The magazine-fed autoloading rifle is superb in that role, but the current market is such that many people will not be able to find (or perhaps even afford) one.
What's a shooting enthusiast to do in such inhospitable circumstances?
Allow me to suggest an alternative: the lever-action rifle. Yes, the all-American lever action rifle, the gun with which your Dad (or perhaps Grand-Dad) hunted deer. The lever action has been serving Americans quite nicely for more than a century, and it has a lot to offer as a defensive tool even today.
A lever action chambered in a Magnum pistol cartridge is a serious combination. The .357 fired from a long barrel is a decidedly different beast than when limited to a handgun; it's an honest 100-yard deer cartridge, which means that it would make a dandy 100-yard defense tool. The .44 Magnum version gives you another 50-some yards of "edge."
Today's improved ammo in the traditional rifle cartridges (like the venerable .30WCF, aka "30-30") takes that range out well beyond 200 yards. The centerfire lever action, in any caliber, is a superb mid-range protection tool.
The lever action is easy to use; the manual of arms is simple and well-known. They have a streamlined design free of protrusions which can interfere with smooth deployment, and are seen as less threatening to the general public who consider it merely a "deer rifle."
They're light, fast into use, reliable, and that they're relatively cheap to buy is icing on the cake. In practiced hands, the lever action can be accurately fired at a surprisingly rapid pace, and those chambered in the handgun cartridges often boast magazine capacities of 10 rounds. You'd be hard pressed to conceive a defensive scenario where the lever gun wouldn't be a good choice.
Besides, the lever action is the perfect compliment to a good revolver!
-=[ Grant ]=-
Monday Meanderings
Monday, December 01, 2008 Filed in:
General gun
stuff, Current
Events
Massad Ayoob sent me a note the other day, asking if I'd heard about the Python clone to be made in Turkey. HUH???
According to Magnum Magazine (a highly respected journal out of South Africa), the Turkish arms factory MKEK will be bringing out a Colt clone, presumably sometime in 2009. Magnum's reporters may have seen it at the IWA show in Germany last March, so maybe we'll see it at SHOT this January.
I have my doubts, not because MKEK doesn't have the capability of precision manufacture - they most assuredly do - but because purely sporting arms have not been one of their product lines. Could this be an opening salvo in a move to take on Cerberus?
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From the land that used to be Great Britain, we learn that there is a push underway to reduce alcohol-related injuries. The mechanism? Police will station themselves outside of pubs, and offer flip-flops to those intoxicated patrons wearing high heels. No, they're not kidding.
How far the Empire has fallen...
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I'm not usually much for single actions, but I am a sucker for .44 Specials - and next year, Ruger will be making a limited run of flattop Blackhawks in that caliber. Boy, is that ever tempting!
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The post-election rush continues: Hunter Dan reports that his store received a shipment of five AR-15s just in time for Black Friday. The doors opened that morning, a literal foot race to the gun counter ensued, and less than 120 seconds later they'd all been sold.
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Over the weekend came the report that police in Mumbai cowered as gunmen raged unmolested. Pay particular attention to the coordination of the shooters - a sign of things to come?
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-=[ Grant ]=-
You'd think they'd learn from the mistakes of others.
Where are all these stupid people coming from?
I'm planning a new rifle build. In recent years I've been playing around with the hyper-performance 6.5-284, and while I like the round it's time for something a little more mainstream. After careful consideration of all my options, I decided that my next competition/target rifle needed to be a .308. (I've never had a bolt gun in .308; as strange as that sounds, to me the round has always been an autoloading cartridge.)
An important part of any customized rifle is the selection of a stock. Two of the leading contenders for my "perfect" rifle were H-S Precision and McMillan. That was, however, before the story broke that H-S Precision had used a quote from infamous FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi in their latest catalog.
My first thought was the same as when I heard the owner of a high-end rifle company had ignorantly and publicly endorsed an avowed anti-gunner for President: "you've got to be kidding! No one would be that stupid."
Guess I was wrong.
A couple of bloggers actually called H-S to find out if the story was true. (After all, the purported catalog page making the rounds could have been photoshopped.) Turns out that it is, in fact, true - two separate confirmations from H-S employees, one of whom says that Horiuchi "knows" the owner of H-S.
My father told me that the quickest way to judge a person's character is to look at the kinds of friends he/she collects. Guess I know all I need to about H-S Precision.
Looks like McMillan just made another sale.
-=[ Grant ]=-