Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967

Not to mess with @Buckshot Bear's "spinning ice bullet" thread, but.... Have any of y'all ever wondered or given an idle thought to how fast bullets really do spin? Danged fast, that's how fast! Here's the formula.... A bullet that matches the rifling of the firing barrel will exit that barrel with a spin: S=υ0Lwhere υ0 is the muzzle velocity and L is the twist rate. For example, an M4 Carbine with a twist rate of 1 in 7 inches (177.8 mm) and a muzzle velocity of 3,050 feet per second (930 m/s) will give the bullet a spin of 930 m/s / 0.1778 m = 5.2 kHz (314,000 rpm). I don't care who ya are, three-hundred-fourteen-thousand RPM's is danged fast! Evidently, improperly designed bullets have been known to disintegrate in flight due to centrifugal force.

In these parts SW is about as good as it gets. Which is saying, not as bad as most - and the universal drawbacks to SW, BassPro, and any others is compliance with the stoopid state regs. Ammunition is locked up. You have to wait in line for an attendant to accompany you to the glass-fronted cabints and retrieve what you want for you (or fetch from behind the counter). Want to buy a gun? Or even just look at one? Take a number. Waits can be up to or over an hour. Faster to order online - then, you just go in and add your name to the "online order pickup list" and wait to be called. Line might be a bit shorter. Oh... and make sure you have your Real ID or passport with you! Oh... and don't forget, you have to pay for a background check for ammo purchases. Hopefully the system isn't bogged down. Otherwise, service is good.

I don't travel internationally, but would like to visit Canada again one day. Mebbe next year. Last two times I was there all I needed was my drivers license; no more. That said, I do use my passport frequently in lieu of a "Real ID" drivers license. In california one of the two is required to buy firearms and ammunition. And supposedly, at some point one, or the other will be reqired to board airplanes, enter federal buildings, and other ridiculous stuff. So in my case, the name on my birth certificate is not the one I grew up with and have used all my life. As it turns out, it was a LOT easier and far less expensive to get a passport with the name I've always used than to correct the birth certificate issue. Ironically, getting a "Real ID" requires a birth certificate with your real name, or... a passport.

Tree stump question: So, Ms Helen Brimstone had a huge Ornamental Pear tree removed from her back yard a few months ago. It was healthy, but the roots were beginning to damage her flagstone patio. Anyway, there was a gorgeous stump left that she's using as a base for a piece of statuary. But there's a problem.... That danged thing is sending up a literal forest of shoots from the roots! Might anyone have any suggestions on preventing those shoots while hopefully preserving the stump itself - at least for a while? Thankee!

A young relative of mine just bought a Remington 700 Sendero .300 Win Mag. Still choosing a scope, but in the meanwhile ~ which rings will mate with the base?

After they've had a chance to find all those "misplaced" boxes of ballots... 🗳 😕

Vote. Vote hard. Pray. Pray harder!

Aw, shux... they were kinda popular just a mere forty-seven years ago.

Blinker fluid needs changin'....

Tim ~ Tim Allen, "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" Undoubtedly he'd use a turbocharged Q-Tip. If it was Mike Baxter he wouldn't be painting his house ~ he'd go fishing.

There... fixed it for ya, Alps....

Izzat why they're now green? And kudos to that "enterprising nut smuggler!!"