Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Trailrider #896

Members
  • Posts

    7,658
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Trailrider #896

  1. My freshman year at a major university, I was enrolled in AFROTC. They had all three service ROTC, and a tri-service band, commanded by a senior AF cadet (music major!). At the end of the year they had a tri-service parade and review. Before the actual parade, they held a practice, with the band in the lead, and one of the tac officers standing in as reviewing officer. As the band passed the reviewing stand, the band struck up the Mickey Mouse song. We though the tac officer was going to have a cerebral hemmerhoid. Now everyone knows you don't laugh in formation, but there sure were a bunch of snickers coming from the ranks.
  2. In "Paint Your Wagon", Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin)) bids on the wife of a Morman and wins. One of his compatriots says, "You got a woman for money?" Mad Jack (Ray Walston) replies, "You try and get one without it!" or words to that effect. (After 57 years, I oughta know!)
  3. "Speed's fine. Accuracy's final! There's no second place winner in a gunfight!" - Bill Jordan. "Take your time...fast!" Wyatt Earp.
  4. The worst thing would be if municipalities start charging rent for spaces underneath highway overpasses!
  5. Made belt holsters for several with Walkers or Dragoons. One customer was about 5-feet tall and couldn't have weighed more than 110 lbs. He had virtually no hips. I wonder how he kept his pants up, especially if he sneezed!
  6. Also in the M1886, .50-100-450?. Same cartridge case, but with a heavier bullet and possibly faster twist rifling. Pretty rare.
  7. Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I don't go many places where I would need one anymore... But I think I gotta have one for my Swiss Army Knife! Thanks for posting!
  8. The "problem" with the 7 x 57 Mauser in the rolling blocks is that the European standard for the cartridge makes headspacing longer than American. The solution is to simply fireform with new brass and a lightly lubricated chamber, that will allow the case to back up and the shoulder to expand forward. Then just back the sizing die off until the resized case will just chamber with a little "feel". If you reload for other 7 x 57mm rifles, you may want to separate the brass fired in other rifles from ones fired in the M1902 rolling blocks.
  9. I remember driving by Chicago Vocational School sometime after WWII, when there were a plethera of Navy fighters and maybe dive bombers inside the barbed wire fencing,. They were apparently there to train aircraft mechanics. Don' know what ever happened to them all. Maybe dumped in Lake Michigan?
  10. Having never been in combat, and having a LOT of respect for those with big ones, I see there is a good sized codpiece as part of the equipment!
  11. Back in the day, a cartridge that was the same as an original one was sometimes referred to as "long". For example, there was a .38 Short Colt's and the longer cased version called .38 Long Colt's. By the same token, the .44 Special could properly have been called ".44 Long Russian", and the .44 Magnum called ".44 Extra Long Russian". Rim and base diameter ahead of the rim are basically the same; the only difference being the case length (and hence the OAL being different, when using the same bullet). Just for grins, you will sometimes see me refer to the .44 Magnum as ".44 Extra Long Russian" or ".44 XLR". The only thing you may have to do if you shoot a bunch of the shorter cartridge in the magnum chamber is to clean out the chamber thoroughly or you might have trouble chambering the longer cartridge.
  12. One word of caution: DO NOT LOAD LIGHTER THAN THE MINIMUM LOADS LISTED IN RELOADING MANUALS! This can cause delayed shotstart, that can result in a bullet jumping out of the case and lodging in the barrel forcing cone, and then much higher pressures. Best thing is to use the middle loads listed, regardless of powder, unless you are trying to get higher velocities.
  13. I can recall two Naval officers who were passed over twice for promotion. One was Adm. Hyman Rickover, who the Navy tried to get rid of, but Congress promoted him anyway. The other was Navy Capt. Levering Smith, who was engineering chief for Adm Red Rayburn's Special Projects Office (Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile). The AllNav (promotion list) came out on Friday and Smith's name wasn't on it for the second time, meaning he would have to retire. I was a summer hire intern on Polaris in 1961, at Cape Canaveral. The story we got was that Rayburn picked up the red phone that connected him directly to President Kennedy, and said, "Mr. President, if you want Polaris, I need Levering Smith." Monday morning an amended AllNav came out with Smith's name on it for promotion to Rear Admiral (lower half). In 1971, when I was working for Lockheed Missiles & Space, Adm. Smith was now in charge of he entire program (SP). By that time, Polaris had progressed to Poseidon and Trident I, with Trident II on the way.
  14. I don't know how it works now, but it used to be there were two classes of commissioned officers, regulars and reservists on active duty. Regulars had "tenure", and could plan on staying in for 20+ and possibly 30 years. Reserve officers, after fulfilling their minimum active duty commitment could elect to stay on, hoping to make 20 so as to get full retirement benefits, or go off active duty and either go active reservist or inactive reservist until the expiration of their total committment. In the event that a reservist on extended active duty gets caught in a Reduction In Force (RIF), and is forced off active duty as an officer, he/she loses retirement benefits, or, sometimes is allowed to reenlist as an NCO (E-5 or so). In my case, I was committed to four years active (non-flying) from 1965 to 1969, with an additional 3 years commitment in some capacity, either active or reserve. When Sec. of Defense MacNamera decided as an economy measure, that if you weren't going "career reserve", and your date of separation fell in a certain window, you could get a six-month "early out". There were no openings in the Air Force Reserve in my specialty, where I lived, so I went on inactiive status for the next 3-1/2 years, partially reverting to my "permanent" rank of 1LT, until just before I was released from further obligation, when I was promoted back to captain (which I had been promoted to after 3 years while on active). After the seven year total commitment was up, they "ruptured my duck" (sent me my DD214), and that was that. Of course, I wound up, by choice, in the aerospace industry, so it wasn't like I didn't work on defense projects for the next 20 years.
  15. Per 'enery 'iggins, "In America they haven't spoken it (English) for years!"
  16. The Soviets flat ran out of money to continue Buran. Pity because it had some features that Shuttle didn't have. Unfortunately, I can recall what they were right now.
  17. Rest In Peace, Ingenuity! You'll have to wait until Elon Musk lands with a replacement blade to fix you!
  18. Used to spread Kiwi on the shoes/boots, lit it with a match or Zippo lighter and then blow it out. Then spit shine!
  19. Lately, at two suburban PO's the most I've seen was two clerks for ten or twelve customers...that's if one clerk isn't looking for one customer's vacation-hold mail! At the rate the stamps for a First Class letter keep going up, they might as well charge $1.00 (currently 69 cents...or it was on Friday), and get it over with. As for shipping rates, I ordered a model railroad part on ebay and it cost about twice the cost of the item to ship it!
  20. Actually, if you are packing two sidearms, one way is with both in "crossdraw" holsters. If you happen to be configured...ah, with arms that are shorter than the reach across your abdominal projection, with the butt-forward holsters positioned along your pants seam, you can do a "cavalry" draw with either. Properly done and practiced, a cavalry draw can be very fast, without sweeping yourself! You can also reach across and crossdraw either gun. Look at the photo of Wild Bill Hickok. Those Colt's Navy's of his were too far back for crossdraw, but positioned for twist draw..
  21. Yeah, a thermonuclear hyperbole is worse than anything! Or as we used to say, back in the day, "Nuke the whales!" But seriously, folks, we need to do something significant besides saying, "Don't." We've got enough Tomahawk cruise missiles and drones to take out Kharg Island's facilities. Also, as one representative suggested, there are some Iranian combat ships that would make a nice oil slick. Though I think they could be made to serve as some new fish habitat reefs! Regardless, a significant response is needed to let Iran and the rest of our potential adversaries that we will not sit by with umbrellas like that guy who proclaimed, "Peace in our time!" back in the 1930's!
  22. Someone suggested we hit Kharg Island HARD, maybe wipe it clean. Why Kharg Island? Because that is where all their petroleum exports are sent to be taken by tanker. There are also other economic things that go through there., It would cripple their economy, and the "collateral damage" (personnel that work there) would be limited. It would be nice if the top dawgs at DOD and above were not standing/sitting around with their thumbs inserted while they figure out what to do that "won't start a wider war"!
  23. Another thing to consider: Iran just launched, apparently successfully, some satellites orbiting the Earth. Now that means they have the capability to launch an ICBM, but doesn't indicate whether they have solved the reentry problem...yet! (In point of fact, when Sputnik I was launched, it was assumed they had ICBM capability. As it turned out, after the Soviet Union went down, Korolov had NOT solved the reentry problem, but convinced Nikita Khrushev to allow him to orbit the satellite so as to scare the U.S., which it did...at least until we had solved the reentry problem and had ICBM's of our own,.) If Iran is allowed to develop a nuke, they have the capability of reaching Israel with what they have! I guarranty what would happen then. I am not seriously advocating nuking Iran, but if we could locate their leaders, perhaps using bunkerbuster bombs on them and on their nuclear development facilities, it might enable the general Iranian population to stage a coup and bring back some form of democracy. Regardless, Biden and company MUST do something significant and soon, or we will have more casualties caused by Iran-backed agents! The WH spokespersons keep saying we don't want a war with Iran, but I wonder what would happen if Congress declared war on Iran (presuming that body could agree on anything...they can't even agree on a budget). In the meantime, the death toll on U.S. forces is five, not 3. Don't forget the 2 U.S. Navy Seals! RIP | | |
  24. Instead of giving Iran $6 billion dollars for release of some hostages, we should contribute to major urban renewal. IMHO, that country needs some major land clearance. We should clear away those polluting oil refineries, and perhaps turn downtown Tehran into A TRINITITE PARKING LOT! Then turn around and go after the Houthis with as much ordnance as is available! To those three troops KIA by an Iranian-backed drone, RIP! Speedy healing to those WIA by this cowardly attack! | | |
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

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