Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Trailrider #896

Members
  • Posts

    8,569
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Trailrider #896

  1. It has been 4 weeks since our 15 year-old Cockapoo Lucy decided she was tired of fighting cancer and left us for Rainbow Bridge on her own.  Needless tp say, we were deeply saddened. Her kennelmate, Jeffery, a 3-1/2 year cocker spaniel, who had known Lucy from the time we brought him home to keep her company, after we had to put Chichi down,  was used to her being around, although she hadn't played with him for almost a year.  My wife "happened" to visit the pet store where we got Jeffery as a puppy, to find a new toy for him to play with. There just happened to be a strange-looking puppy who was in a pen with several female dogs who had just been spayed. He was paying no attention to them. Very calm doggy. Wife thought he'd be just the thing for Jeffery.  After I saw him, I agreed to adopting him. When we got him home....surprise, surprise, surprise... he is a very active puppy, now six-months old. He and Jeffery get along okay, although no matter who has the toy, the other dog wants it, and they trade back and forth. In other words, "Buddy" was sandbagged us about his personality. But that's okay.  Jeffery is much happier to have a playmate again. Do we forget Lucy? No way! But we know she is playing with my childhood dogs, and Charlie-the-Poodle, and Chester, and Skippy and Chichi and Lucy, at the Rainbow Bridge.

     

    It still hurts when we lose our furry friends, but we have loved them and will always remember them. Have to excuse me...I need to defog my comfuser screen. :(

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 2
  2. Can't recall what grade (maybe 2nd or 3rd), but we had to copy the multiplication tables to the 12's. Also taught to write in cursive in 3rd grade. Some schools starting to teach cursive again as kids can't read stuff written in cursive, much less write in it!. Granddaughter was taught how to use a dial telephone when she was 3. I ask her every once in a while if she remembers how to use one...just in case. She says she does. Even I didn't know how to drive a stick shift vehicle until one of my sergeants showed me on an Air Force truck! That was in my 20's. Haven't had to in the last 60+ years, but probably could in an emergency.  One of these days I will have to buy a smart phone and learn to use it! 

    • Like 4
  3. At one point, Congress mandated we switch to the metric system. In point of fact, NASA, SpaceX, et al, show velocities and distances using both metric and English. But, except for European import vehicles, there was/is too much "inertia" in our manufacturing system to change over. The cost would have been enormous! 

  4. And within days many troops received orders to get ready to transit to the Pacific, to prepare for the invasion of Japan, with over a million casualties expected. Fortunately, President Truman made a different decision. Saved a lot of lives on both sides! :FlagAm:

    • Like 2
  5. Years ago, when the first OMV's came out in .44-40, the first one I bought had a bunch of bad chambers.  I contacted Ruger, but they stalled a bit, so I had a gunsmith fit a .44 Mangle-em cylinder to the gun. The Ruger said to send it back and they replaced the .44-40 cylinder. The magnum cylinder still worked fine, so it gave me a convertible. When SASS went to two gun scenarios, I bought a second OMV with a .44 Magnum cylinder. I happened to find a .44-40 cylinder, and had my 'smith fit that, which gave me a pair of convertibles, one with a 7-1/2" and one with a 5-1/2" barrel, which became my main guns.  Now, both .44-40 cylinders had the tight throats. Of course, everyone knows that is no good, and I should have the throats reamed out to .430.  Well, I left them alone! With hard-cast .430" bullets, both guns will shoot 1-3/8" 5-round groups, shooting with my elbow resting on the bench!  How can that be? Apparently, the bullets swage down going through the throats, but because the dwell time is so short, the compressive stresses built up in the metal doesn't disipate in the form of heat, so the bullets re-expand into the rifling. Loads consist of 8.0 gr. Universal, which gives 950 ft/sec from the 7-1/2" barrel. From a 22" barrel rifle (Rossi M92) the MV is about 1185 ft/sec.  With Universal no longer available, you could substitute Unique. 

     

    • Like 2
  6. A little boy asked his father where he came from. The father, thinking the kid was wondering about the facts of life, started to explain all about where babies come from. The boy looked at his dad and shook his head. "No, Daddy," he said, "Jack next door comes from Philadelphia. Where do I come from?" :P
     

    • Like 1
  7. 10 minutes ago, Stump Water said:

     

    Yo mean they didn't have flex track back then?

    Guess not, but I've seen a bunch of full size Atlas Snap Track, ties and all sitting at places near the BNSF/UP Joint LIne. 

    • Like 1
  8. Most of the track work is now done by machines, especially where continuously welded track is used. Back in the day, they must have used some sort of gage to get the distance between the heads of the rails correct. I doubt if it was a giant National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) track gage, say 87.1 x that of an HO scale gage.

    • Like 1
  9. I would expect he wears a vest under his outside clothes.  A vest apparently saved the life of the Secret Service officer. The problem with a vest is it doesn't protect you from a head shot, as witness the first attempt on Trump, which would have succeeded had he not turned his head at that moment! Not sure what practical solution would be. :unsure:

    • Like 1
  10. The Key West Agreement needs updating with relevance to close air support! Give the A-10's and pilots and support personnel (although I doubt those troops would like having to change dress uniforms), like the Marines do. Won't happen, but it should have...a long time ago.

    • Like 1
  11. 1 hour ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

    I have every confidence that well before the 2030 extension is up, the Air Force will once again try to retire the A-10. It's not new, it's not fast, and it's not sexy. They'll try to say that some other aircraft can do its job. Until the next time they need it, and remember that nothing else we have CAN do the job.

    The fighter Mafia will continue lurking, just as the bomber Mafia contended heavily armed bombers wouldn't need longrange fighter escorts.

    • Like 2
  12. My late uncle, who served in the Navy in WWII told me a boat was small enough to be lifted out of the water onto a ship. I guess that applied to the WWII Fleet-type subs. I think, because of the lousy living conditions in the German Kriegsmarine, their subs were often called "scheinbooten", i.e., pig boats. Don't know if any of this was true, but it's what I heard. :unsure:

  13. Note: The Air Force just graduated its last A-10 transition class, pending retirement of that bird. Maybe they ought to reconsider. 

    2 hours ago, Doc Shapiro said:

     

    I have a strong suspicion that we will see bridge and power plant day in the not too distant future.  The zebra isn't going to change it's stripes.

    Hey, Iran, any of you hear about an old American radio program called, "Lights Out!"?  Wanna play multiple hands of "bridge"? :o 

    • Like 3
  14. 12 minutes ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

    Naval gunnery, historically, is incredibly accurate!

    There is one account that during the Korean War, a U.S. Marine platoon leader was facing a bunch of enemy troops. They were close enough to the coast that a U.S. destroyer was visible. The American shouted at the enemy commander to surrender or he would order the destroyer to shoot at them. In reality, he had no communication with the ship, but the reputation for pinpoint naval gunfire was such that the enemy commander ordered his men to surrender! Don't know if it is true or not, but it is believable. :unsure:

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 1
  15. Iran now demanding modification to "agreement" to hand over nukes. Wonder how much more patience Trump will have with these lyin', cheatin' varmints? Just widen the straits by bombing Kharg Island below sealevel! If there weren't so many innocent Iranian people, I'd say turn Tehran into a Trinitite parking lot! :angry:

    29 minutes ago, Alpo said:

    Either that or they did not want to be real close in case the other ship blew up when it was shot. Same reason you don't shoot your steel targets from 5 ft away. Don't want to be hit by anything coming back at you.

    "Quartermaster, hard left rudder! Gunnery, let me know when the range is one-five-double-oh. Target ship's engine room, above the waterline. Three rounds 5 inch 38. Commence firing!" ;)

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 1
  16. 24 gr. IMR4198 behind a 362 gr. Montana Bullet Works hardcast bullet sized .409"  yields 1354 ft/sec from a 30" Navy Arms HiWall.  I've also used IMR3031, but it burns a little dirty. Never tried Unique. (Usual disclaimer: Not responsible for the use of this data in guns other than my own.)

  17. We still "dial" a number using pushbutton phones. The knowledge of how to use a true dial phone is becoming a lost art. When we visited the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago, my SIL lifted our 3-year-old granddaughter up and showed her how to dial the wallphone in the exhibit. She is now in college, but every once-in-a-while I ask her if she remembers how to use a dial phone. She says she does. Why bother? Because you never know when she might find herself in a situation where it might be necessary to use one in an emergency. :unsure:

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.