Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967

Estrada's finest "cop" role was undoubtedly as DEA Agen Carlos Seguin, in.... Chupacabra vs The Alamo~!!

And there's no "g" at the end of a pirate's "Arrrr...."

My relatively inexpensive ROKU TV has a socket for a flash drive. It'll give me up to two hours of "rewind" ability. I'll often start a program, pause it for a while (make a sandwich?), then fast-forward through the commercials. It connects wireless to my router, so internet viewing is simple. Oh ~ and I do not have cable nor any other subscription service. I watch YouTube, Prime, or other "free" internet stuff... but I get a ridiculous number of stations or channels with a simple antenna. Free TV~!!

Dogonnit, Joe ~ thassit!! How'd you do that? I looked for days with no luck. But that's it... although mine does not have the fancy-schmancy micrometer adjustement, and it does not have the long drop tube. Evidently the measure itself is still sold by Forster (for a mere $168.75 - I think I paid five or ten bucks for this thing at a swap meet). And even cooler is finding that the appropriate powder hoppers are still available! Well done ~ thankee!!

And just in time~!! G-Blast Your Guide to our Top Deals

I recently came upon an interesting old powder measure. Needs some cleaning up, but it's kinda cool. It's missing the powder hopper, but the inlet appears to be a simple 5/8" hole. Shoudn't be too great a challenge to come up with something that'll fit. But I cannot find a makers mark on the thing. Might it look familiar to anyone?

I know, I know... "roll" is mis-spelled. But the message is pure art!

No, not that kind - THIS kind: Bud's Gun Shop. De facto sponsor of Hickock 45. And evidently a source of all sorts of wonderful things related to our sport. Any of y'all familiar with 'em? I somehow got on their list. Receive regular email notices of sales and available products. But golly gee, guys... lighten up awreddy! I can see and appreciate an occasional email. Daily email is borderline excessive, in my opinion... but dang! Minimum of three, average of four, and as many as EIGHT in a day?? Sheesh!!

Good lord~!!

Still the best presentation!

Ya know, there are a few established, enjoyable, more easily understood comics out there....

Pat, I went to one something like 30 years ago - there were thousands of us on the Capital grounds. Excellent speeches and presentations, the crowd was extremely well behaved and civil, and when we left, the place was sparkling clean. I recall Willie Brown peeking around his curtains at us from his office. That night the news reports barely covered the event; according to them, there was a "small gathering" in Sacramento. We were portrayed as little more than a handful of whiny rednecks.

That's a very long article. Worth reading while keeping in mind that it's presented by KQED, the Bay Area's PBS station - and accordingly with a strong left lean. Some of the stuff presented is real heartburn material - specifically the Prop 47* arguments - most of which seems to be utter nonsense: *Prop 47 - Intentionally mis-named The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act Brings to mind that old saying I used to hear growing up in Texas back in the 50's and 60's - "Don't be peein' down my neck and tell me it's rainin'!"

Good thing it wasn't a pinecone.

Exactly. Hence my observation about older rifles. Designed to shoot heavier lead or lead core bullets and rifled accordingly.

Welcome to california. Bottom line, they don't work so well, at least in older rifles. Minute-of-angle rifles shooting lead core jacketed bullets might shoot minute-of-pie plate. If you're lucky.

I'm wondering what the 250 hours of communty service will be.... Golly gee - almost seven hours a month of community service for three years! Such an inconvenience! Why, that just might be considered a violation of the poor miscreant's 8th amendment rights!

Prayers on the way from the Central Valley. Keep us updated!

Summer of '75 I was hunting up in @Subdeacon Joe country, a few miles north of Clearlake Oaks. As I was glassing an opposite hillside across a valley, arroyo, or whatever it was, my eye caught a glimmer of a reflection. I mentioned it to a buddy, and he said that he'd heard that a P-51 had crashed in the area a couple years before. Hmm... I'd been "buzzed" by a blue Mustang a couple years earlier while hiking not far from there. At the time I'd been torn between being pissed at the jerk or appreciative of seeing that gorgeous blue and gold craft. Two or three weeks later I returned to the area and hiked in to the site with a backpack containing a few tools. If indeed there was a crashed Mustang, I would've loved to harvest the brass Rolls Royce placard from the engine - I'd seen examples at air shows. Well... it indeed was a '51. And it appeared to be the same plane I'd seen earlier. But instead of a brass RR, I discovered a rocker cover with "PACKARD" pressed into the sheet metal. Merlin engine, built by Packard under license from Rolls Royce. I did take home a couple of souvenir pieces; the wreck site had been visited by rescue personnel, but no salvage had been attempted. Indeed, some sort of tracked equipment had evidently been used to access the site. However, there wasn't much left of the pilot and passenger to rescue. Indeed, the plane - and its occupants - had fairly exploded on impact. The concussion was so great it literally cleared an area seemingly at least half the size of a football field. No fire, just pure concussion from the impact. At the time of my "visit," grasses had grown to maybe shin height; otherwise, it almost looked like a bulldozer had scraped the manzanita and scrub oak into a roughly horseshoe shaped boundary. It truly was a mess. A couple of very interesting reads below ~ I suspect the accounts of the incident are still questionable. Background Story The Pilot The Plane There were 12 of these; this was the only one that wasn't buried, broken, bent, or crushed to some extent. It was a simple matter to remove the circlip and drift the wrist pin from a totally mangled con rod. The piston then sat on my desks at work for over thirty years. Packard V-1650 Merlin engine