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Self-Indulgence

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

Does anyone else have a gun or two that you could just call “pure self-indulgence”?  My definition thereof is a gun that doesn’t necessarily serve a purpose — self-defense, hunting, etc. — but that is just plain fun to have and to shoot, when you’re sick and tired of doing your drills and you just want to bang away for the fun of it.  (And I’m specifically excluding .22 guns because plinking is just plinking.)

The other day I was rooting around in Ye Olde Gunne Clossette when I came across an aluminum handgun case, and for the life of me I couldn’t remember what I’d put in it.  So here it is:

Okay, that’s a little cluttered with the ammo.  Here it is sans the clutter:

The top gun is my much-loved Ruger Super Blackhawk 7″ barrel, in .30 Carbine, and the lower is the late Layabout Sailor’s S&W Model 15 6″ barrel in .38 Special.

I don’t know why I’ve held onto the Blackhawk for as long as I have.  It’s single action, chambered for an expensive and occasionally hard-to-find cartridge, and that lo-o-o-ong barrel makes it unwieldy.  But:  OMG when you touch off that trigger and are rewarded with a massive thunderclap and a 16″ jet of flame out the muzzle… like I said, there’s no reason to keep it, it’s pure self-indulgence.

And apart from sentimental reasons, there’s no reason to keep that battered old S&W revolver either.  It’s .38 Spec-only, I have gawd knows how many .357/.38 revolvers already, and I surely don’t need another one that’s just taking up space in the locker.  But:  the trigger is silky-smooth, made such by an uncountable number of rounds fired through it;  the gun is, to say the least, about 5x more accurate than I can ever shoot it;  and loaded with those 158gr. wadcutters as pictured, I can just shoot that thing all day — and I have, both with its previous owner (who was so generous in sharing), and by myself, when I just want to shoot something good and hard and for a long time.  In fact, it’s my “I don’t feel like plinking away with a .22, I want to shoot something bigger”  gun.  I think that every range session I’ve had with this gun has involved at least fifty rounds, and a few others a lot more.

So the two quite different guns each fill a very specific need, but both are undoubtedly an indulgence on my part.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I am so going off to the range.  Just talking about them has got me more excited than Christmas.

Multi-Tasking

Food & Drink, Tools

In a world which has become singularly devoted to specialization and its narrowing functions besides, this picture at C.W.’s place* made me hoot with joy.

Let’s look at this beauty from the perspective of Mom preparing Thanksgiving Dinner:  a cooktop with six burners, five ovens and three warming drawers.  In other words, you can prepare simultaneously your turkey, vegetables, pies and anything else you desire, plus you’re keeping pre-cooked dishes warm for the table, and have maybe a spare warmer for the plates.  None of this time-juggling nonsense that modern tiny and inadequate ranges force you into.

Now let’s consider all the things that Make Kim Happy:  not a single electronic doodad to be found anywhere, which means that any failures over time (if any) can be repaired by a competent mechanic or electrician, or else by replacement of the failed part installed also either by the homeowner or either of the above technicians.  You’d have none of this “Oh, one of the electronic switches has failed so you have to replace the entire panel” or even worse, “It would be cheaper just to replace the entire range than to fix this one thing” (a comment which always has me reaching for my 1911).

Oh, and did I mention that appliances such as this one would probably last for fifty years (or even longer)?

And yes I know that this Hulk-y thing of beauty is bigger than most modern kitchens, all by itself.  [20,000-word rant against modern interior design omitted]

To me, the tipping point of this piece was New Wife’s reaction to the above, which was awe and wonder, coupled with envy that someone somewhere has this lovely beast and she does not.

It’s wonderful, fantastic, and every home should have one.  Yes, it’s no doubt Too Much for the modern generation, whose idea of home cooking is a call to DoorDash or some such foulness.  I don’t care about them and nor should anyone else.  I just know that if I were younger and the head of a decent-sized family (as I once was), this appliance would make my wife’s life far easier, and that’s all I care about.

Feel free to argue the point with me, but you’d be wrong.

*Ol’ C.W.’s (misnamed) Daily TimeWaster website has been a longtime staple of weekend viewing for New Wife and I, as we spend every Saturday morning in bed with cups of tea and coffee respectively as we catch up with a week’s worth of his brilliant pics.  I know that he features a lot of links (ads) to Amazon, but I also know that the stuff he features is mostly very desirable to a lot of people — to me no less than anyone.  I have probably followed an Amazon link and subsequently purchased no fewer than four or five of the products per year of reading his website for the past decade (or longer).

And no, it’s not a waste of time.  Looking at the various things of beauty and enjoying his occasional dry commentary could never be a waste of time.

Keep it up, buddy.

Shooting Bags & Contents

Shooting Sports, The Gun Thing

Via Insty, I saw this article (What to Bring to the Gun Range) and was immediately drawn to read it because guns.

Sheesh.  What a disappointment.  Hearing protection, eye protection and a couple other okay but sometimes silly suggestions.  In other words, duh.

So as it was time to tidy out my own range bag, I thought I’d share what it carries, more or less permanently (with some other stuff that I’ll get into in a moment).

Here’s the bag:

Alert Readers will spot that it’s not yer typical 5.11 tacticool range bag, but a humble tool bag available from any hardware store.  Reasons:  I want tough, and tool bags are tougher than they need to be;  and cheap:  this one cost about $15, compared to the typical range bag’s $50 (or more).  You can use a cheaper tote bag (I have), but they wear out pretty quickly.  Also, the Husky bags come in all sizes.  This one is a medium — I could have gone smaller, but I’ll give the reasons for that decision anon.  Also, note that little outside pocket, because its contents come next.

Now for the permanent contents.  In that outside pocket:

1 – Band-Aids, 2 – blood coagulant, 3 – eye drops, 4 – lens wipes, 5 – spare batteries for scopes, 6 – pen and marker, 7 – ear plugs, 8 – aspirin (for minor pains or those sudden heart issues), and 9 – Swiss Army Champ.

It’s by no means a comprehensive collection, but anything requiring more than that means a different set of circumstances.  (The coagulant, by the way, is for minor scrapes and scratches, because nothing screws up good bluing like blood.  Ask me how I know this.)

Now for the main body of the bag — and let me remind you that these are just the permanent contents:

1 – tape (for targets); 2 – Wheeler gunsmith’s screwdrivers, 3 – ratcheting screwdriver set, 4 – borelight tube, 5 – Loc-Tite, 6 – adhesive targets (familiar to those who’ve seen my ammo/accuracy tests), 7 – spare .45 ACP ammo, 8 – eye pro which fits over my glasses, 9 – hearing pro with volume control, 10 – cleaning rags, 11 – shooting gloves.

Okay, a few explanations:  the .45 ammo is in case the other guns I’m taking that day have a problem, in which case I can always just pull out the 1911 (which as you all know never leaves my side).  I generally don’t use the shooting gloves unless I’m doing shotguns and need a little heat insulation.  Finally, I don’t take any cleaning gear to the range because I do my cleaning at home.

All that, however, could fit into a smaller range bag.  Now here’s the reason why I got the bigger one:  regardless of what guns I’ll be shooting that day, I like to take a .22 (pistol or revolver) plus a bag of ammo with me every time I go, so I’ll just drop those in the bag.  That’s just in case I have something go badly wrong with the other guns, I’ll always have something else to shoot.  Obviously, those other guns will have their own case, and if for example I’m playing with the Frankenpoodleshooter, I’ll drop the spare mags into the Husky.  Also, I always add a can of Ballistol to the bag (it wasn’t pictured because I’d just finished cleaning my guns when I wrote this).

By the time I get to the range, that Husky is plenty full, as you can imagine.

Anyway, that’s my range bag.  Feel free to comment and add criticism or suggestions, as always.

New Name For An Old Thing

Crime, Grammar Nazism

Sent to me by Combat Controller, this description of a Diversity Bollard:

A recent innovation of installing bollards outside festivals, events, concerts etc. with a high volume of foot traffic to protect the common citizen from diversity-driven cars, vans and trucks.

Of course, nowadays one has to be extremely careful when leaving a house because of the above phenomenon.

I really like the term “diversities” because it’s an all-encompassing term for all sorts of dangerous scrotes like ghetto dwellers, muezzin groupies, mescal swillers and so on.

Consider it part of my lexicon from now on.