Owie of the day

Back story:

Honduran soldier shooting 1982-vintage .50BMG machine gun ammunition in a Barret M82A1. This of course violates a major rule of firearms safety, ie don't shoot $0.10 ammunition in a $9,000 gun.

All is well until the 7th round in the magazine. Dude pulls the trigger, gets a muffled pop.


Hang fire. Primer goes off, powder fizzles away.


Soldier waits what he thinks is long enough, then reaches up, grabs the charging handle, and yanks it backwards to clear the round out.


Not quite long enough. With the bolt about an inch of battery, the powder decides it's time to go bang.


Bad things subsequently happen.


This just makes my wallet hurt looking at it.


On the plus side, the scope is probably still in great shape. If Barret didn't make their rifles like the proverbial tank, there'd probably be a headless Honduran at the end of that story.

RIP, my friend

Mike Haynes was a friend of a friend, someone who I never met directly but about whom I had heard enough that I almost felt like I knew him. Veteran, husband, and father.

Mike was on duty as a Montana Highway Patrol Trooper on March 23rd when his cruiser was hit head-on by a drunk driver. Mike was hurt badly and spent four tough days in the hospital before passing away yesterday.

Rest in Peace, Mike. You've done well in your time on earth, we'll take it from here.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/19885-trooper-mike-haynes

Tales of the dork side

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008836592_webspeed10m.html

Speeding driver tells State Patrol he was rushing to bid on eBay
By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times staff reporter

So maybe it's not an exact case of life imitating art, but a Fall City man may have been channeling the character played by Steve Carrell in the 2005 film, "The 40 Year Old Virgin."

In the film, Carrell plays a socially-challenged, middle-aged man who falls in love with a woman who makes a mint selling his collection of actionfigures on eBay. According to the State patrol, action figures and eBay also figure in the arrest of James Garrett Monday night on suspicion of reckless driving.

Just after 9 p.m., a State Patrol trooper patrolling Interstate 90 saw a speeding 2004 Volkswagen R32 passing other vehicles in the express lane inthe Mount Baker Tunnel. As the Volkswagen came out of the tunnel, the trooper clocked it going 110 mph as it continued across the floating bridge.

With the trooper behind him, the driver eventually pulled over on Mercer Island.The driver, who was identified as Garrett, told the trooper he had to get home to Fall City because he was late bidding on a coveted item and eBay was about to close the auction, said Trooper Dan McDonald, a spokesman for the State Patrol in Bellevue.

According to McDonald, Garrett "didn't say what he was bidding on but the trooper said his car was filled with Star Wars stuff."Garett's car was impounded — with all his Star Wars collectibles inside —and Garrett was booked into the King County Jail on suspicion of reckless driving.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com

Dichotomy of the day

The short version: a Florida book store customer puts a book on chimpanzees in the middle of a display featuring President Obama, and snaps a picture. Predictable outrage ensues.

http://www.inquisitr.com/19550/barnes-and-noble-obama-display/

OK, folks, I will acknowledge a few things here. First, I voted for John McCain in 2008 and am not a big fan of the current occupant of the White House. Second, even as non-PC and insensitive as I am, I know putting primates in something like that is generally in very poor taste.

Two thoughts:
1. Between 2001 and 2009, it was perfectly acceptable, and encouraged by the mass media, to call President Bush every name in the book, simian labels included. The President changes, through a peaceful democratic process that is the envy of the world, and suddenly it's heresy?
2. When the misguided B&N founder caterwauls about charging the prankster with a federal hate crime, exactly which one is he referring to? I find it hugely ironic that a company that literally makes its money on the First Amendment would suddenly desire to persecute someone for exercising that same protected right.

Lighten up and get over yourselves. Books-A-Million it is.

Why I like Garands

Swiped 3rd hand from somewhere on the internet.

Get one here: http://www.thecmp.org/m1garand.htm
-------------------

Why I like Garands

It satisfies the eyes. It looks warm, robust, serious, and capable. It looks like victory, freedom and liberation. It looks friendly. It does not look evil. It does not look delicate. It does not look cheap.

It satisfies the ears. The clocklike schnick when you pull the bolt back. The warning click as you shove home another 8 round clip. The massive solid slam as the bolt rams another round into the chamber. The deep throated bark of the muzzle as you fire away. The final Ka-Ting as the empty clip is ejected. The horrifying scream of agony as the guy four benches down learns never to hesitate when removing his thumb from a freshly loaded clip.

It satisfies the touch. The warm sculpted wood. The curve of the stock.The curl of the bolt lug. The take-up of the trigger. The robust, solid, yet unsharp push of the kick.

It satisfies the soul. It is the defender of liberty. It is the champion of victory. It is the guarantor of freedom. It will not be used to rob banks. No terrorist will unleash it on a crowd of unarmed victims. No gangster will use it to shoot little girls while missing his imagined gangster enemies. It is the good guy's weapon.

It is just the ticket to liberate a country. It opens the doors of concentration camps. It saves people from tyranny. It topples dictators. It squashes fascists. It pushes communists behind their walls. It defends the homeland. It provides for the common defense. It is necessary for the security of a free state. It brings joy to women and children as they fire it. It strikes fear in the hearts of those that oppose freedom. It makes friends at the shooting range.

It reminds us of the cost of freedom. Its lavish expense is appropriately justified. It is your duty as an American to own one. Get one now. Buy ammo. Use it. Never mind the price, find the best one you can. You have no excuse. The time is now!!!!!!

Progress

Worked on the 1903 this week. As mentioned earlier, I'm going to leave the metal as is, but clean the stock up.

First off, degrease it. When the 1903 first left the factory, the stock wasn't finished. Instead it was dunked in cosmoline, a brownish petroleum-based goo that's a close cousin to vaseline. Cosmoline is one of the most widely used and despised preservatives, and as much as gun owners may hate it, the very reason that their prized rifle isn't a pile of sawdust and rust.


Thankfully, and unlike a Russian Moisin-Nagant my dad picked up last year, the 1903 only has a light coating. The metal was easy enough to degrease, half an hour and a healthy splashing of bore cleaner took it all of. The stock, on the other hand, needs some work.

First, out comes the action. Slide the handguard band up, pop out the handguard, then remove three screws. Below, the action and stock. The handguard band and barrel band have both slid back towards the 1903's famously complicated rear sight. You can also start to see some of the wood grain on stock near the wrist.







The upper handguard has several very prominent cracks running longitudinally, and in all honesty I'm a little worried about cracking it all the way through. Caution, as they say, is the order of the day.




Next, off with the butt plate, held on with two sizeable wood screws. Notice the Remington stamp on the rear sling swivel.




There's several schools of thought on cosmoline removal. One goes for heat, another advocates chemical stripping, and another favors elbow grease and soap.


I'm using a combination of the three. More next time.

RIP, Paul Harvey

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,502645,00.html

America's loss, dead at age 90. No more, "Stand by for news!".

1903

In mid-November 2008, I ordered a 1903 Springfield from the Civilian Marksmanship Program http://www.odcmp.com/. Two and a half months later, I got home from work to see a FedEx door tag on my screen door.



I jumped back in the truck, scooted to the FedEx hub in town, and picked it up.



Later that evening, once I had stopped jumping up and down in excitement I opened it.



Molly, my Boston Terrier, wonders what the fuss is all about.








I cut open the box, and here it is. CMP, bless their collective hearts, packs rifles in very sturdy cardboard boxes with waffle foam. Also included are the requisite paperwork and manuals, and a range safety flag (the yellow thing in the corner).

Close up of the receiver. It's a MarkI, which is a 1903 modified to take the Pedersen device (more on that later). Forgive my paranoia and blotting out the last part of the serial number. I would have preferred a straight 1903 without the modification, but that's all that CMP had in stock at the time and I'm somewhat impatient. Functionally a 1903 and 1903 MarkI are identical, and in all honesty the Pedersen cut-out is a neat historical side note. More on that later.

Later on, I'll detail my efforts to refinish the stock. The metal is staying as is, but the stock is getting a little cleaning up.