I make no comment.
Latest Posts
Comeback Of The Year
Longtime Friend And One-Time Bandmate Knob owns a BMW i3 because he lives in Monaco (ergo no long distances to drive) and in Monaco, recharges are free at the city-supplied charging stations if you have Monaco license plates (ergo free electricity AND a free parking place — the latter not found anywhere else in Monaco).
So of course I had to send this this email:
…whereupon he responded:
I LOL’d.
Pretty Much Forever
I’m going to add my two cents to this opinion (found via Insty, thankee) about keeping your magazines loaded:
Even when kept fully compressed, a magazine spring will retain its energy long past the operational life of the ammunition.
Here’s my take. I own dozens of magazines, of all types and calibers, fitting all sorts of guns, and I’ve owned most of my Chip McCormick (CMC) 1911 PowerMags for close to twenty years. I keep all of them loaded, all the time. When I was cleaning out my house, I found a box of what I first thought was junk (but wasn’t). At the very bottom, underneath all sorts of stuff like photos and old papers were two 10-round CMC Powermags, loaded. Judging from the other stuff in the box, I packed it when we lived in suburban Chicago back in the late 1990s, and had never fired the two mags — for twenty years.
With some trepidation, I unloaded them, expecting to find that the last couple of rounds were loose in the magazines — i.e. that the springs had “taken a set” when loaded to capacity and lost their tension. In both mags, the bottom cartridges were held as tightly against the mag lips as the first round. So I reloaded them.
The next time I went to the range, I fired off both mags through the Springfield 1911. Both mags and ammo functioned flawlessly. I put another ten loads of “new” .45 ACP through each (200 rounds in total) and the mags again worked as though I’d just unwrapped them.
The same has been true of every single magazine I’ve ever owned. The only time I’ve ever had an issue with a magazine was a cheap one that came with a Taurus .380 pistol — the “second” mag, not the one actually in the gun — and I think it was broken from the start. Magazine, say hello to Mr. Hammer.
As I said earlier: all my magazines are loaded, all the time. An unloaded magazine is just a box with a spring inside, just as an unloaded gun is just a heavy (and expensive) cosh. Whether they’re .22 LR mags for my Marlin 880SQ rifle, the Mec-Gars for the Browning Hi-Power or the many CMC PowerMags, if I pick one up or take it out of the bag, it’s ready to go. Even the several AK-47 mags that were tragically lost along with the gun in that canoeing accident were kept loaded. (As an aside, the mags that absolutely MUST be kept loaded are those that would be needed for your carry- or SHTF guns.)
That has been my experience, and that is my advice. YMMV.
More Places I Have Seen
In alphabetical order:
Ahrweil, Germany
Heidelberg, Germany
Ludgate, London
Pie Town, NM (near the Continental Divide, temperature: -2F)
Silverton, CO
Trastevere, Rome
Zwettl, Austria
As with all these pics, right-click to enlarge, and feel free to use as wallpaper etc.
Gratuitous Gun Pic – Mauser Sporter (7x57mm)
Looking over the posts for the past week or so, it occurs to me that there are far too few entries which conform to the original premise of the GGP series, namely, providing pics of guns that we gun-lovers can drool over, for whatever reason. Allow me to remedy the situation forthwith.
Here’s one being offered by Collectors Firearms: a pre-WWII Mauser 98K Sporter in one of my favorite calibers, the venerable 7x57mm.
Good grief… this gun rings just about every single one of my rifleman bells: Mannlicher-style full stock, “butterknife” bolt lever, and a double set trigger?
The only way this rifle could be more beautiful is if it had breasts.
I know that modern-day shooters look askance at the old-style scope front claw mount (which grips the bell rather than the barrel), but there’s nothing wrong with the concept — having two barrel grips just simplifies the production process and therefore the cost thereof.
Okay, it’s expensive, because a) rare and b) Collectors. But like I said about the Colt 1903 pistol, this is not a “first gun”, at least if you wanted to go hunting: other more modern guns might be a tad better. But in a pinch, this gun could be your go-to hunting rifle, and I very much doubt that it would let you down, whether in its operation, accuracy, reliability or chambering. And for a hunting rifle, that’s pretty much all you can ask for, isn’t it? The fact that it is more beautiful than 90% of modern hunting rifles is just a bonus.
Speaking for myself: if I won the lottery, I’d buy this gun in a heartbeat.
Naïveté On Display
At some highbrow website or other, the question is asked:
Why Isn’t AOC Taking Blame For Violent Attacks On ICE?
Seriously?
FFS: the Communists haven’t yet taken the blame for the policies which killed millions of Ukranians in the famine of the 1930s — what makes you think they’re going to accept blame for their inflammatory speech now?