“Dear Federal Ammunition”

To whom it may concern:

re:  This stuff

Contrary to what it says on the box, this “target grade performance” .22 ammo, supposedly “ideal for semi-auto” actually isn’t any of those things, as I discovered at my favorite (indoor) range yesterday.

Out of the 325 rounds contained in said box, I experienced no fewer than 28 failures to fire (FTF) — all, it should be said, did fire the second time around — and to be frank, the “target grade” accuracy wasn’t anything to write home about, either (more on that in a bit).

Now I know what comes next:  “Your rifle isn’t working properly!  Check the firing pin!”

Ahem.  I fired 100 rounds through each of the following (same range session, btw):

By rifle (top to bottom):

Taurus Mod 63 (Winchester ’63 clone):  7 FTF
Marlin Mod 60:  8 FTF
Ruger 10/22:  9 FTF

All three were meticulously maintained and cleaned, all are either fresh out of the box or nearly so, and none has had more than 100-odd rounds fired through them.  Sorry, but a 7-9% failure rate in ammo which is supposedly “target grade” sucks dick worse than Madonna on her last Saturday night drunken pub crawl.  Honestly, I get better results from the awful Remington Gold 500-round bulk ammo.

And by the way, all the rounds fed flawlessly, whether through a tube mag or the 10/22 magazine — the rifles, in other words, were without fault.

Now for that accuracy thing.

I will frankly admit that my old eyes do not engender the best accuracy in the world with iron sights, but I’ll also suggest that a 2.5″ (best) grouping at 20 yards is not really acceptable off the bench — at least, not to me it isn’t.

So I fired off the last 25 rounds (4 FTF, FFS) through something a little more accurate — a rifle which usually gets sub-1″ groups at the same distance.  Here’s a full picture of the rifles I took to the range:

I would humbly suggest that in my shaking old hands, that Marlin 880SQ (top) is as good as any “target” rifle for the price, and better than just about any other of that type that I’ve fired before.

The result:  1.75″ (best 5-round grouping of the five strings, the others were over 2″).  So I popped off five rounds of its usual feed (CCI MiniMag 40gr), and got a 0.72″ group with a called marginal “flier” — excluding that, it was a 0.5″ single hole.  Now that’s what I call “target grade” performance.

You guys need to step up your game.  And fix your frigging priming compound.

Let Africa

…do without U.S. aid dollars?  The very thought!

In all fairness, it should be said that the “former Kenyan president” has more money than Bill Gates, earned quite honestly, promise.

Nevertheless, his point is valid;  I recall someone saying something quite similar about, oh, twenty years ago.

Bad-Mannered Guests

Speaking as one who was once and “admitted alien” myself, let me say that until I became a U.S. citizen I was very aware that I was a guest in this country, and you’d better believe that I was on my very best behavior.

“What’s this ‘admitted alien’ thing, Kim?”

Glad you asked.  Here’s POTUS on the topic:

The new executive order from President Trump specifies that the United States “must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”

You know what?  Even though there’s a First Amendment covering this stuff, I never thought it applied to me as a non-citizen.  Ditto the Second, by the way:  only after the swearing-in ceremony did I visit a local Merchant Of Death (only to be confronted by the hated Illinois Firearm Owner’s Card — FOID — restriction, which meant I had to wait until the People’s Revolutionary Council had okayed me to own a gun aaaaargh).

Anyway, I was always conscious that as a non-citizen, I was in essence a guest in this lovely country — a guest, by the way, who was already paying an obscene amount of taxes despite having no citizen’s rights, but I just considered it a fair payment in return for being able to live here.

And as a guest, I had to mind my Ps and Qs, because if I didn’t, there was always a chance (I feared) that America would decide that I wasn’t worth the trouble, and kick my ass back across the Atlantic.

Which is what POTUS apparently plans to do, an action which I support wholeheartedly.  If these foreigners can’t behave themselves, send them back to Shitholia without hesitation.

Paternal Impulse

As reported to me on WhatsApp:

Conversation in Doc Russia’s kitchen:
Doc’s teenage daughter: ”so, my friend told me that this kid that sat next to me in homeroom last semester has a huge crush on me”
Wife: “oh, do you like him?”
Daughter: “NO! He’s a total creeper!”
Wife: “well, I’m sorry that the first guy to have a crush on you is a creeper”
Daughter: “oh, he’s not the first boy to have a crush on me, so it’s fine”
Wife: “well, don’t worry; he won’t be the last creeper in your life”
Daughter: “oh, I’m sure.”
Wife: “can you take the garbage out”
Daughter: “Sure!” [exits stage left]
Doc: …
Wife: “are you thinking about murder?”
Doc: …
Wife: “you are, aren’t you?”
Doc: “…yes.”

We’ve all been there.

Righting Wrongs, So To Speak

The hits just keep on coming:

President Trump will sign an executive order to reinstate thousands of troops kicked out of the military by Joe Biden for refusing the Covid vaccine.

Trump vowed to reinstate the troops “unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate” during his inauguration speech last week.

Approximately 8,000 troops were discharged because of Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate. Some troops sued over the mandate and faced backlash.

The troops will be reinstated with full back pay and benefits.

Welcome back, boys and girls.