New toy.

http://www.scangauge.com

Frankly, it's AWESOME. That is, if I can avoid killing myself playing with it while driving.

Maybe more later, I'm having a busy day.

Also...

Did a microbatch last night, just to get back into the swing of things. I'd just cleared off the bench and organized everything that was stacked high, and also gotten some "accessories" like the stainless measuring cups and the plastic trays.

Load's .38 special, 148gr Hornady HBWC, 4.0gr Trail Boss, and I do mean point zero, every charge was hand measured with a mid-batch verification. Yeah, takes me forever to load but dammit, they're going to be consistent :)

What I tell people?

Ok, look... I only work at the gunshop ~three hours a day, four days a week, and sundays which I despise doing. But, I still have plenty of opportunities to talk to new shooters and steer them, right or wrong, down some path to carrydom.

Reading over ColtCCO's post, I had to think about what I was doing. No, I wasn't the co-worker in question, but I do recall the guy and his tenacity to a flawed model.

What do I tell people?

1. Try them out. See what you can shoot. Practice makes better (nobody's perfect).
2. A carry gun is a compromise amongst a slew of variables. Nobody's the same as anybody else, you'll just have to find what works.
3. Within reason, shoot the largest caliber that's comfortable to you. If you can put 50 rounds through a Clickenbanger .50 bulldog derringer and keep hitting the target, even though it leaves you bruised, consider yourself comfortable with it. That doesn't mean carrying a .22 short is acceptable, you need to train to get up to something larger*.
4. Stopping power is a myth. There, I said it. If the situation arises, you shoot, make it count, keep shooting till they stop doing whatever it was that got them shot. Running away can also be the difference between going home later or someone's bud clocking you in the back of the head and making you a statistic.

I try to keep it simple and common sense. I don't dive into the caliber comparison BS until someone's had some experience and can follow along with memories of what they *feel* like. Some people "get it" once they've been told the basics of how and why projectiles work. Some never get it. Doesn't matter. Have gun, will travel.

*Personally, I consider .32acp to be an utter minimum, and only with hot loads. .380 is eminently preferable and comes in a large enough variety of weapons that there's little need to go below unless there's recoil mitigation or package size to consider, and Keltec nullified the latter argument. That little number is also almost meaningless... I carry a .32 Magnum every day and to use a tired phrase, I trust it with my life. 100gr at 1000fps should be just fine.

Should be, meaning NEVER TRUST A PISTOL TO BE THE FINAL WORD. There are steps to take after shots are fired, if you trap yourself into thinking that "Ok, he's down, it's over" you may be sorry.

And that's about that. Warning: thoughts may have been muddied since it's monday and I'm operating below minimum levels of sleep and caffeine.

So I got tagged.

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123.
3. Find the first five sentences.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

"Visualize seating a bullet 1/16" deeper in the 45 acp and 270 Winchester. The useable volume of a 270 in 4.238cc and the 45 acp is 1.14cc. Seating bullets 1/16" deeper in the 270 reduces the volume 0.06cc and 0.16cc for the 45 acp."

From "Modern Reloading: Second Edition", Richard Lee. No, there was no cheating, this book lives on my computer desk.

I am cheating, however, because I'm breaking rule 5. Salut!

Mug Shot.

There it be. And there be it like all the others; 11oz shiny black ceramic of which I bought almost a dozen of for $0.75 a piece a few years back. Mold-made, so the surface is like a mirror, perfectly smooth.

Tam, Breda, and Uncle were doing it, I figured hey why not :)

I did get called "the most relentlessly pragmatic person I know" or something close to that, I suppose it shows in places...

=====

In other news, a decision was made in how to make the "strange" AK. There will be some experimentation first, to see if I can devise a magazine that will fit through an unmodified AK magwell that will be "easy" to make and feed .357 magnum/.38 special; if such can be done, then I'll be making a pump-action .38/.357 AK.

Why?

Because!

Things.

Thing 1: A couple of boxes of .416 Barrett found their way to the store the other night. Wicked looking cartridge; of course, I took photos, which I don't have here to post.

Thing 2: I'm now the proud owner of two CD Industries NODAK SPUD AK lowers.

What will I do with such beasts?

Reciever one, which I picked from the case due to it's serial number (451... thank you Mr. Bradbury) will be a standard 7.62x39 AK, with some exceptions; I want to find good looking metal furniture, and it will be coated in various shades of ash grey.

Reciever two, I'll either make a "stock" rifle, or do something completely wierd with it. Various ideas I've pondered; pistol caliber conversions, wildcat cartridges, "bolt action" conversions for use with "whisperized" 7.62 and a suppressor. I ran across a manufacturer supplying cut-and-weld kits for using Suomi drums. I've heard whisperings of using Ppsh43 magazines (and a 7.62x25 lightweight AK would completely kick ass). I do believe that if I block the mag well and use a single stack 5.45 magazine, I could persuade the action to feed something like .32 magnum. 9mm, .357 magnum, .45acp, ".400 Russian", .30 carbine, 6.8SPC... nothing's completely out of the question.

Or it could end up with a WASR-10 parts kit on it, sanded and filled with red shellac and polished bluing. I won't know for a while... I have to sit on these recievers till august when I'm done with my financial wrangling and honestly, I shouldn't have bought these under my own rules. But, it would have been completely stupid of me to pass up the deal I got; I'm not even in these for 2 bills yet.

A fragment of underdone potato...

Have I shrugged? Am I being content with living a merely comfortable life instead of an exceptional one because I've decided it's not worth the hassle or the effort?

I was reading comments to an article on Digg and actually felt despondent that the people showing their dire ignorance and shortsightedness *are The People*.

I get into funks like this and make it worse by feeling guilty because I've always been trained to consider this line of thought arrogant and conceited. I suppose I have Bergeron syndrome... an inadvertent conscript to Jante law.

I *hate* it. And it's even compounded because I have a legitimate handicap on my skills; for the most part, I cannot grok higher maths. It's just not there; autodidaction never worked for that, and classical training was an utter failure.

So I think I stop trying. And then I do stop trying. And that's not laziness; it's total, pyrrhic defeat. When the soul sleeps and the brain dies, a dibrach full of fail.

1000 words.

I'll just let the photos do the speaking. This is at CCA.