Trailrider #896

Where DID a bunch of 14-17 year olds in Aurora, Colorado, get the guns that were involved in two different shootings? They certainly didn't walk into a gun store and fill out Form 4473's! The Aurora police chief says the parents need to "get involved"! In the Columbine, Colorado, massacre, the parents weren't aware that the two perps had been building bombs in their garage! Something has changed radically in this country in the last fifty years. I wish I had an answer. But it appears nobody has one...except defund the police!

"I didn't know the gun was loaded! I didn't know the gun was loaded! I didn't know the gun was loaded... And I'm so, so sorry, my friend!" And, of course, he didn't pull the trigger. IF the sear contact surfaces can be found to have excessive wear, or some other mechanical defect, then that might be right. OTOH, if not... then he ought to get an academy award for playing the biggest bullswatter in history! As Bugs Bunny used to say, "What a maroon!"

Amen! Happy Hannukah!

Nail polish remover with acetone. (Ask permission from wife or other females before "borrowing". Agree to pay it back.)

According to recent research by Dr. (PhD) & retired Army LTC, Sewell Menzel, in his book "Pearl Harbor Secret", not only did Naval Intelligence have a lot of info indicating the Japanese were up to something, but Roosevelt had initiated several actions in the Pacific designed to provoke the Japanese into attacking our naval forces. They did NOT bite! In addition, several junior intel officers wanted to send warnings to Adm. Kimmel and Gen. Short, but they were not allowed to send the intel they had about some of the codes they had broken (not IIRC JN-25) to Rochefort's code-breaking group at Pearl! (Rochefort's code-brakers did break JN-25 that told Nimitz about the coming attack on Midway.) Churchill wanted America in the fight against Hitler, but FDR knew the isolationists in the U.S. would never permit it...unless Japan attacked us. At Dawn...the tail wagged the dog! Remember Pearl Harbor!

Jimmy Doolittle flew one of these in competition. He survived. Others did not!

And notoriously unstable!

And the Space Force is still trying to figure it out!

+1

I wonder if he will be sued for "wrongful death" and or "wrongful injury" by members of the victims' families, or the wounded individual? Regardless, he is going to be something he will have to live with for the rest of his life. As "Wyatt Earp" said in "Tombstone", "I killed a man, boy. I took his life, and you don't ever want to do that!" (Or words to that effect.) Hope the kid can get off with his life.

Third from the bottom. Prices listed have changed somewhat, but not too bad.

I don't remember which one it was, but one of the NASA pilots was flying into St. Louis in a T-38. He took a goose hit that smashed the windscreen and...took his head off! Might have been Ted Freeman. CRS. You also might recall that Capt. Sully had bird impacts to both engines of his airliner, that resulted in his skilled landing in the East (?) River! The formula is 1/2mv^2. Which is why we are so upset over the Russians blowing up one of their own dead satellites with their ASAT! That debris could destroy anything it hits, and the impact energy would depend on the mass of the particle and the combined velocities of the particle and the object struck! The International Space Station is travelling about 17,500 mph. If a one gram particle going in the opposite direction at the same velocity were to impact the station, the combined velocities would be 35,000 mph! I'll leave it to you to figure out the impact energy! The effect if it hit a pressurized module would be disastrous, which is why they had the astronaut/cosmonaut crews take cover in their respective spacecraft. Of course if the debris hit one of them...

Although I haven't shot it for quite a while, my Spencer was an original M1860 carbine in .56-56. It has the blade extractor on the left side of the barrel. I made cartridges using .50-70 brass from some outfit and from Dixie Gun Works. Never had a failure to extract. The original bullets where of the heel type, but I finally settled on the old Lyman 533476AX and had a reamer made for the inside of the cutdown brass, which allowed the straight-sided bullet to fit with about .002-.003" interference with the inside of the case. I also annealed the brass half-way down. The bullet is hollow-based, and I cast them from Lyman #2 equivalent, medium hard. Coincidentally, the interior volume of the brass with the bullet seated, and the Relative Sectional Density of the bullet is identical to that of a .45LC with a 250 gr. bullet. Loads I tried included 8.3 gr. Unique producing 869 ft/sec; 24.2 gr (by weight) Pyrodex "P" which gave 802 ft/sec @ 45deg. F; and 18.6 gr IMR4227 for 929 ft/sec @ 70 deg. F (850 ft/sec @ 20 deg. F), which gave 3-5/8 to 4-1/8" 7-round groups at 50 yds. NOTE: THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS FOR GENERAL INTEREST ONLY! I NEITHER RECOMMEND NOR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OF THE ABOVE IN ANY SPENCER, ESPECIALLY ORIGINALS. I HAVE DISCONTINUED SHOOTING MY CARBINE IN DEFERENCE TO ITS 161 YEAR AGE! Interestingly, the rifling in these M1860 carbines tapers from breech to muzzle. Just ahead of the chamber, the groove diameters run .545, tapering to .535" at the muzzle! I sized the bullets to .538", which might account for some loss of accuracy. OTOH, the combination of the sights and aging eyes might also have had something to do with the group sizes. A ball to shoot, though by no means competitive with SASS rifles.

You know, they used to condemn the late Mayor Richard J. Daley for corruption and I don't know what all. But this sort of...ah...stuff never went on back in that day! The only good thing left about Chicago might be the museums. But then, I haven't been back there in 8 years, since my mother passed away. This sort of thing won't go away until/unless the citizens get together and vote the bums out!

A veteran is anyone who has served or is currently serving, from the lowest E-1 to the 4-star Chief of Staff. Whether in peacetime, or when the stuff hits the fan, when "they" said, "Who shall we send to do the job?", the vet stands up and says, "Here I am. Send me!"

"Then I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I' free, And I won't forget those who died to give that right to me!"

Semper Fi!

Have you ever seen/had a chocolate moose?

Does he plan to use it for hunting or just shooting? If the former, I'd recommend finding a good supply of jacketed flat soft point bullets....if he can find some. Hornady used to make a great 200 gr. .338" JFSP bullet, but sadly discontinued it a number of years ago! Definitely need flat points with a meplat of .250" in diameter. It is possible to cast or buy lead alloy bullets. At the velocities in the 2000 -2200 ft/sec range, you need hardcast. If you can find any, a mould that uses gas checks will work well. Great cartridge! Can do a real number on wild boar, with jacketed bullets!

Early 1960's, M-1 Garands were $79.95 at Klein's Sporting Goods on Wabash Street in Downtown Chicago! Found a Lend-Lease return SA in great shape. Had British proof marks on the barrel!

Perhaps she could have checked the Dash-1 (Owner's Manual). Except that the owner's manuals of a lot of cars are so poorly written or written so generically, to include multiple models, that it is just about impossible to figure out what applies to what. I have a 2018 Ford Flex. The owner's manual doesn't even describe where the spare (dinky) tire is! (It is under the third seats, which is danged inconvenient if you have a back deck (third seats folded down) full of stuff!) My wife's Lincoln sedan has similar inconsistencies in its manual. The other thing that is annoying with some of the vehicles is having the gas fill port on the right side of the vehicle. Makes it harder to pull up to the pump, and you invariably find yourself facing other cars/trucks that have the port on the driver's side. "Th' more they overthink th' plumbing, the easier it is to stop up th' drain!" Star Trek engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott

It wouldn't have happened if they had consulted famous aerodynamicist Dr. Theodore von Karmen. Consulted afterward he told them that the way it was designed there was no way for the wind to pass through parts of the structure. He was often heard to say, "I schudy der wint!" His work was responsible for a lot of aerospace design work. The line recognized as the division between the atmosphere and space at 62 miles (100km) is known as the "Karmen line"!

Arizona doesn't change, so when DST is in effect, they are on the same time as California. And when we fall back, they are on the same time as Denver. There is a movement in Colorado to abolish Daylight time, or stay on it. I don't know which or whether it will get passed. Anyway, I started turning some of the clocks back (primarily in the basement). I'll turn the rest back before bedtime. No way I'm getting up at 2:00 AM!

Eh? I thought we'd already been "invaded" by a bunch of Canadian-born actors & actresses. Some pretty good ones at that!

The Colorado Rockies have signed Charlie Blackmon to a pretty good contract through at least 2022! Don't know how the rest of the team will shake out, but at least Chuck will be back in right field...unless the National League goes to the DH.