Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Tippmann M4-22 review
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A suspicious child
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Another review posted.
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Before Olympic air guns — Zimmerstutzen: new on AllOutdoor
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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A Real Hot Rod caption contest
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Chapa, the new kitten.
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
After Gremlin died, I felt widowed. A few weeks later, a model from eight years ago reached out to me to offer “Drifter”, a little abandoned kitten found by her friend and bottle-fed by Kirsten.
I wasn’t sure about taking on a new kitten, so Chapa returned for another visit.
Having made up my mind, I adopted the kitten, naming him Chapa after a toy bear I had as a child. The little furball resembled a clumsy bear in form and movements.
Since then, the beast has grown a bit. He commands my attention and that of everyone else. Chapa is a remarkably friendly cat, heavily imprinted on humans.
Sometimes, he purrs and cuddles. Other times, chews on fingers, but never to draw blood. He is remarkably good about keeping claws sheathed when playing with people.
He’s rather less restrained with mice. He’s an indoor cat, but the one mouse that managed to get into the house died quickly.
Chapa is a great companion. I still miss Gremlin.
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Philosopher’s Bullet.
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
Amusing myself with writing vignettes. Here’s one. Constructive criticism is welcome.
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Philosopher’s Bullet.
“We can try to fight our way out with just swords in hand and die. Sixty eight men, even in better armor than the savages, won’t get through the thousand waiting for us at the foot of this hill. They only reason they haven’t come up to get us is they don’t know we can’t shoot. Or we can sit here and try to eat that damn gold idol!”
The situation was dire. Yesterday, the five mules that remained of our once-ample supply train fell to the arrows and javelins of the pursuing locals. With them, perished all of our meat and wine, and most of our lead. The gunners burned through the handful of shots they still had in bandoleers to break us out of the ambush. We did get to the hilltop temple, finding the biggest gold idol we’ve ever seen right when we could not shake off its riled-up worshipers.
“Captain, we have just six halberds in the ranks. Everyone else carries arquebuses. What are we supposed to load in them, pebbles?” My second in command was panicking himself into a demotion, but he could hardly be expected to care about rank when our very survival looked so unlikely. “There’s no pebbles here, and they won’t fly straight anyway.”
We had tried pebbles before: at thirty paces, the wood and fabric armor of our foes turned them, whereas a proper bullet went through both the shield and the savage at seventy. In any case, we had no pebbles at the top of this God-forsaken volcanic rock. Without lead, our men had but their dirks to wield against spears and arrows of the painted red men awaiting us on the way out of this trap.
The irony of it all! The gold idol must be eighty pounds of almost pure metal that we can’t bring home. We can’t stay here long either: we have no food, and what water and wine we still have shall run out by morning. Our one full keg of powder holds a dozen charges for every man, and we even have fabric for wads…just no lead. Europe is full of alchemists seeking to turn lead into gold, and here we are, in need of the reverse miracle.
Night is coming, and the mountain cold with it. We are still dressed for the jungle below. I tell the sergeant to make camp around the temple, and to build two fires. One by the wall, leeward, the other on the narrow path going to the top. If out pursuers attack in the night, we would at least see them. Our own fire should keep us warm and give flame for slowmatch or fuse. I fuse the powder keg in case we are overrun.
There’s little vegetation here, so we make fire with the lacquered wood from around the idol. As the splinters catch and flare, we all must draw back from the flames that are hotter than hellfire. Whatever they used on the wood burns hotter than charcoal without even a bellows.
“Cut it!” I shout. “Cut the idol!”
The troops look at me with incomprehension. A captain will get replaced if he cracks under pressure.
“Bring the bullet molds,” I tell them “Put the gold in them.”
The men obey, some nodding their heads at my madness. Wine mixed in with water in a morion quenches the reddish ball. After it cools, I heft it in open hand: it feels much heavier than lead and somehow more significant. I wad the ball with a piece of cloth cut from my own shirt and roll it into an arquebus barrel, over a charge cut by a third. Tamp it in place with the rod, replace the rod. Prime the pan, close it, then light slowmatch.
“Pace something out to thirty steps” I say, and one of the men settles a badly dented breastplate against a rock.
I sit and take careful aim, wishing for a fork rest. In the shifting light of the campfires, the target seems too far away for a true shot. As glowing red dot dips towards the priming powder, I close my eyes and listen to the hiss of ignition. The boom from the muzzle sounds deeper, the push against the spaulder harder than I expected. The smoke drifts off with the breeze, revealing the armor unbreached but caved in as if with an iron fist. Gold wash covers the entire front of the plate.
“Start melting,” I say “Don’t quit while you have the food for the fire.”
By morning, every arquebusier has an even dozen shots. The idol is gone, with mere specs of metal marking the spot. None of the lacquered wood remains in the temple. The ground around the fires is thick with shiny black soot. We light matches, form up, and march slowly and orderly down the narrow path.
Our foes do not wait for us, but climb the narrow path with every kind of sharp and pointy thing in hand. Fortunately, their bows are feeble and carry but thirty paces. We pause at fifty and let loose the first volley. The lieutenant and I stand higher on the path and see yellow streaks appear from the smoke to smite the first rank…and the second. Some in the third fall too. Our bullets arrive streaking gold and leave splashing red. The second volley follows as the smoke lifts. After the third, the path is clear of the living. The dead don’t bother us.
By noon, we reach the grassy plain and march for the cover where our ship awaits. The savages pursue, we reform into ranks when they get too close. They charge, we volley, they recoil, we march again. By the time we reach the water’s edge, all ammunition is gone but what’s in the bores. Our ship rides close, but the enemy swarm is closer. The shipboard cannon can’t reach them without hitting us too. We see the solid shield wall and let loose with everything we’ve got. The last of the golden streaks arced away. Firelocks on the ground, swords out, polearms to the fore!
We broke them. Sixty one of us, most wounded, boarded longboats. Back on deck, the crew wanted to know if we found gold…
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Usefulness of handheld automatic weapons.
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
When I lived in the Soviet Union, I heard people say that they didn’t need or want capitalist excesses of choices or resources. The notion that being poor but proud conferred an intellectual superiority is held by a few in America as well. It manifests itself often during discussions of automatic firearms. “Full auto is inaccurate and wasteful of ammunition”, people say. I say: “Stop trying to rationalize the lack of access to modern technology as a benefit of some sort!”
The rifle above is a CMMG M47 Mutant, an AR15 designed to work with an AK47 magazine. In select-fire form, it has a cyclic rate of around 500 shots per minute. This means that a quick trigger press yields single shots. A slightly longer press gives a 2-3 round burst with excellent control. The idea that automatic weapons are uncontrollable comes mainly from 50 year old examples with drop stocks and high-power calibers, or from machine pistols that were designed to work specifically with sound suppressors for balance and recoil moderation. A 1940s STG44 is fairly controllable in automatic mode. A 2015 M47 or Keltec RDB, also with cyclic rate around 500rpm, are both very steady shooters. Due to the restrictions on automatic arms, we are in the position of estimating their usefulness by the performance of obsolete examples, a bit like saying that digital cameras are worthless because 1997 examples were very limited in capability.
The distance between her and the door to the room can be covered in half a second by a motivated home invader. Subtracting roughly 1/6s for the defender’s reaction time, that’s time for a 6–7 round burst at distances diminishing from about 7 yards to 1 yard. Hard to miss at this distance, and the lack of match accuracy doesn’t matter. Rapid incapacitation of the threat with multiple hits does matter.
Let’s talk about accuracy first. From 15 yards standing with 5.56mm RDB, I get three shot dispersion of about two inches. With M47, it was about four inches the first time I handled the rifle. My experience with it was limited to firing ten rounds, and yet I was able to control it adequately for the purpose of self-defense. Plus-minus two inches from the point of aim is quite adequate for the purpose of self-defense inside a home. The longest firing distance in my home is about that far. Some people could, after extensive training, shoot almost as fast in semi-auto — but it’s a great deal better if the defender can concentrate on other aspects, such as taking cover, minding other family members and watching the invader actions instead of having to pay attention to the trigger reset under stress.
Self-defense usually happens up close and fast. Even at full cyclic rate, a standard 30-round magazine would last about two seconds — a very long time in close quarters combat. Used more realistically, in 2-3 round bursts, one single magazine would give about ten seconds of fire superiority over a typical violent criminal looking for easy prey. There’s a good reason why presidential bodyguards have automatic rifles and submachine guns. Those are precisely the tools that enable effective close-range stopping of threats.
Properly designed automatic weapons are controllable at ranges of interest to civilian self-defense. Further out, past 25 or so yards, automatic fire still has a use: suppressing an ambush in order to provide safe exit for family members or to stop a rioting mob from overrunning a disabled vehicle. If automatic fire is not needed, almost all weapons have a semi-auto mode. The few guns lacking it have such slow firing rates that single shots are available by releasing the trigger. Automatic capability doesn’t mean that people shoot at unidentified noises. It doesn’t mean hosing down areas. It only means not having to concentrate on trigger manipulation when dealing with a short-range self-defense event. Most such events happen at under ten steps and within two-three seconds, exactly the area where rapid fire is needed and would be effective.
Another benefit of automatic mode is that open bolt design submachine guns have far less recoil than closed bolt carbines. That is especially pronounced with advanced ignition designs like the Uzi. That means slightly built or fragile defenders, precisely the kind of victim sought out by criminals for victimization, can defend themselves more effectively. With closed bolt designs, smaller caliber may be used with multiple hits to compensate for each individual bullet being smaller and slower.
Please stop carrying the water for our enemies, the government regulators. Every imposition, even if it involves a technology you consider useless, weakens us in the long run. And some technologies are not nearly as useless as we’ve been led to believe.
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Gentleman Jack
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
One of my favorite recent portraits from Dragoncon.
The young lady playing this character is also a talented costume designer.
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Three CMMG Rifles: new on CTD Blog
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Paleolithic Britain
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
The recent terrorist event in the zoo previously known as Great Britain illustrated the unfortunate decline of that people. On the one hand, brave residents went after the perpetrator of violence with all available tools. On the other, the sole available weapon was a narwhal tusk in its original shape, not even fashioned into a proper spear. That’s Paleolith-level tool, no better than those available to Neanderthals.
It’s symptomatic that the would-be mass murderer continued the rampage until the zoo-keepers known as “bobbies” showed up with German submachine guns and Austrian pistols to shoot him. Good for the British subjects for taking the fight to the foe. My sympathy to them for having to do that with completely inadequate tools, for having been stripped even of bronze age implements like knives and even of paleolithic tools like non-metallic blades.
Kipling’s book “The Light That Failed” set around 1880 shows even ten-year-old kids of very modest means able to buy and carry modern firearms. A hundred and forty years later, even the adult specimens of the British herd have no such right or ability.
As with other island species that evolved away from the ability to defend themselves, or even to recognize newly imported predators upon encounter, the residents of the British Isles are in trouble. The trouble doesn’t come as much from the imported terrorists, for their depredations are opportunistic and not statistically significant yet, as from the domestic zoo-keepers using the specter of the Islamic hobgoblins to keep the proles scared, clamoring for more surveillance, for more restrictions on tools and behavior, for tighter and more constricting bondage. People elsewhere should learn from their example and pick a more constructive path.
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Felony by inaction.
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
The original definition of felony was “a serious crime punishable by over a year in prison”. In theory, felonies are actively committed. Prison or death are supposed to be reasonable punishments for misdeeds wilfully perpetrated. Two problems arise in practice.
The first problem, the more widespread of the two, is that the definition of “felonious misdeed” has grown to encompass such horrible actions as filling in a small runoff pond on a farm, possession of a feather from particular bird species, or making a true statement to police that they think to be false.
The second problem has been with us for almost as long. In 1933, F.D. Roosevelt’s executive order prohibited simple possession of gold coins, bullion or certificates. In 1934, simple possession of many kinds of firearms and their accessories was effectively prohibited through punitive taxes amounting to the cost of a car per item. To keep a $2 rimfire sound muffler, a person was supposed to by a $200 tax stamp. Every one of those laws made people into felons overnight, with no action required by the newly appointed criminal. A person ignorant of the new law or executive order would still be subject to imprisonment with no regard for the lack of ill intent.
To me, this adds up to a perversion of justice. To the politicians of Virginia, this is the game plan. They have not been shy about using the military to enforce his plan, either.
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Jester
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Writer David Burkhead
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Chapa updates
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
Chapa has grown into a very people-friendly cat. He spends hours daily getting petted. Unlike Gremlin, he’s very unfond of dogs.
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Infrared snapshots
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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Interesting people
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Accommodating lasers with custom holsters
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
I’ve been using a Kahr P9 since 2001. Thin form, light weight of the pistol, and the excellent design of Alessi Talon Plus holster made it one of the most comfortable carry pistols I’ve ever tried. I obtained a laser for it but held off on the installation, as I had a hard time finding a production holster that would accommodate the altered form.
Eventually, I just reached out to one of the better custom makers, James Nelson. He did not disappoint! The holster fits securely and comfortably. Full sweat guard makes it re-holstering safe, and neoprene backing keeps supper sweat off the leather and off the gun.
CTC red laser isn’t daylight-bright, and the clamshell design is a bit awkward when it comes to battery changes. However, this laser wins absolutely in the transparency of operation. With my CTC equipped M1911, I’ve lost count of how many times I drew it to point shoot only to see a dot on the target…under stress, I completely forgot about the laser, but a firm grip activated it anyway. Laser isn’t my primary sighting method, but it’s a terrific backup for shooting from odd positions, or for firing without corrective eyeglasses on.
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Savage A22 rifle review: new on CheaperThanDirt
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Recent articles
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“No civilian needs…”
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
A common statement from the fans of government monopoly on force is: “no civilian needs such weapons”, with “such weapons” being whatever they are trying to ban. Let’s look at this statement more closely.
The Secret Service staff are civilians. Police officers are civilians. All government organizations other than the five branches of the military are civilians. Secret Service agents have access to submachine guns like the P90 above, as well as much more powerful weapons. Why? Such arms are useful in protecting lives of the people they are trying to keep alive. Quite a few regular Americans — such as stalking victims — face daily risks at least as severe as those faced by the political elite.
So we have plenty of examples of civilian government employees using modern guns unavailable to the rest of the population to protect themselves. In addition to government employees, corporations (“special occupational taxpayers”) can own guns denied to the general public. These corporations are definitely civilian structures, yet they own all kinds of high-tech weaponry far exceeding mere small arms in scope. Apparently, lots of civilians have a use for modern guns. Why shouldn’t lawful individuals be able to exercise their rights the same way?
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They grow up so fast
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
Congratulations, Grace!
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Cat in repose
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
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New on Steinel blog: 45-70 staying power.
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
Why did 45-70 endure when its contemporaries went away?
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What rifle ammunition for fat polar fox?
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
“Fat polar fox” is a Russian euphemism of a euphemism of a rude expression for a persistent catastrophic situation. Things get bad and stay that way. A prudent person’s preparation list includes some weapons and training with it. Let’s say yours is chambered in 7.62×39, a very Russian answer to trouble. What ammunition to pick?
Steel-cased non-corrosive Russian ammunition of recent production, ideally hunting soft points, are a common and functional choice. This will run fine in AK, vz58, ARAK21, MM10x and (some) AR15 rifles. Accuracy is unimpressive, ranging from 3 to 8MOA.
In my experience, Federal Fusion is remarkably accurate (down to 1.25MOA) and provides good terminal performance even out of short barrels. Hornady SST is equally accurate, and provides almost as good a terminal result. PPU soft points provide a good terminal result but not the same accuracy.
In my tests, G2 Ripout loaded with Trident ( Maker Bullet projectile) came out as the top performer in this caliber. It’s accurate down to 1MOA and combines drastic expansion with good penetration.
While it’s expensive to replace an entire 5-6 magazine load-out with premium ammunition, I would look into getting at least a couple of mags worth, plus enough to zero for this load and to function test it. While AK rifles aren’t the most precise weapons, and shooting under stress isn’t the most accurate activity either, why not stack the deck just a little with better-performing ammo? Besides self-defense, the same weapon might be used for medium game like deer…and you wouldn’t want to have to track it for a mile past concerned neighbors.
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