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1033

August 25, 2014, 3:02 pm
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Among the things that piss me off about the 1033 program is the fact the Federal Government is giving the material away.

Material that would surely sell would that an exception in 18 USC §922(o) be carved out for CMP.

For some things, they don't even need that exception.  There's a passle of folks who'd love to lay hands on unmolested M16A1 uppers for their retro builds.  Double infuriating here since many 1033 recipients are tossing that upper into the corner while they make an M4 out of the 1033 gun.

Unrelated to guns, my county nabbed five surplus OH-58C from this program because Bell 206 parts are relatively available only to discover that there's significant differences between the OH-58 and 206 in many important parts.  They also found that the idea of cannibalizing parts might get them in trouble because they might not be able to readily restore the parts-birds to "as given" condition.
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Teppuo-Do

August 25, 2014, 11:40 pm
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Not teppuo-jitsu.

Sorry Colonel Cooper.
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#gunvoter

August 26, 2014, 11:38 am
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What If

August 27, 2014, 2:43 am
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Click To Embiggen Open In New Tab For Full Size

I'd imagine there'd be hasta vs pilum and gladius vs spatha debates on ARXV.com and MIV.net...

Special thanks to Willard for the inspired artwork!
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How Things Work FAL Edition

August 27, 2014, 3:38 am
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Because Weer'ds comment section is malfunctioning...

Photos taken of pages from Small Arms of the World 12th Edition, Ezell (1990).



How this all works...  In semi the trigger rotates, taking the sear with it and that releases the hammer.  The sear pivots on the same pin as the trigger, but is slotted.  When the nose of the sear is caught by the hammer, it's pushed back and the tail of the sear rests above a shelf on the trigger.  It's this shelf that raises the tail of the sear, thus lowering the nose and releasing the hammer.  As soon as the hammer is flying, the sear moves forward and the tail drops down into a groove in the trigger and raises the nose to catch the hammer as the bolt-carrier resets it; which shoves the sear back into the groove so you have to release the trigger to let it slide on its slot and put the tail over the shelf again.

The safety sear tries to catch the hammer every shot.  When the bolt carrier locks the bolt, the rest of its movement pivots the safety sear and releases the hammer.  In semi-auto mode, that lets the sear grab it, but in auto, the trigger can pivot a bit more and the nose of the sear is held too low for it to grab the hammer; it's the safety sear releasing that sets off the next round.

Military FALs which were "semi-auto-only" have a block on the selector on the outside of the gun.  Inch pattern guns have a lobe that will hit the upper receiver preventing it from rotating all the way to the auto position.

Metric guns have a hook that engages a pin on the lower that prevents the same movement.

The shaft of the selector in both cases is still cut with the extra depth that lets the trigger move the nose of the sear below the notch of the hammer.  As you can see, a couple of minutes with a grinder or Dremel will restore the auto-mode.

In the US, having the safety sear, or even having the upper cut to accept it, makes your FAL a machine-gun unless you have one of the very few "sear-cut" guns FN imported under the Browning imprint.
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The Way .38 Super Should Be

August 27, 2014, 12:35 pm
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Because .38 Super was introduced in 1929, the guns were always 1911A1 pattern.  Scalloped frame, arched mainspring housing and short trigger.

My gun has the scallops, but it's presently stylish to put the long trigger and flat mainspring housings on them.  Which makes the gun feel wrong in my hand.

So I fixed it!  I had it in my head that this was going to be hard.  Not even a little bit difficult, even lining up the series 80 linkage was a non-event.

At last, my hand is complete!

As she left the Colt factory.
Obviously, I've corrected the "problem" by changing some parts around.

I'm kind of bemused at myself here.  Purist enough to want it fully in an A1 configuration; but leaving the better, taller sights and not having any sort of kittens about the plastic polymer mainspring housings.  Even the series 80 part doesn't bother me.
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Cracked

August 28, 2014, 12:40 am
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Tam made a post a while back talking about the 10mm's propensity to crack the frame right above the slide stop cut-out.

Colt's solution was to open up the cut-out all the way.

What I noticed today was that 10mm isn't the only place they've done it.  My .38 Super came with an open cut-out too.



By way of contrast, my 2006 Springfield USGI in .45 is thus:


Marv's 1983 made .45 is from before the change.


It makes me wonder if .38 Super had the same cracking problem as 10mm or if Colt just made the change to the cut-out on all of their 1911s.
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Worshipping Milspec

August 28, 2014, 12:47 am
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On one hand, milspec is something that's passed stringent testing and made to a very tight tolerance.

On the other, should a genuine improvement in process or material or dimension come along; mil-spec is an inflexible barrier to change.

One need not look farther for an example than the extractor spring on the M16 series.  Colt had identified a solution to the problems encountered on many rifles but the DoD determined that it wasn't happening on enough rifles to justify making a change to the supply chain.  At least not for a very long time.  Even so, further improvement has been made in the civilian sector, and is not (officially) allowed on the mil's guns.

It's especially amusing to watch someone extoll the virtues of mil-spec on their rifle while shunning the very much mil-spec USGI 30-round magazine.
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Free Insurance

August 28, 2014, 4:59 am
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I remember when the $2,500 the NRA offers for insurance on your guns was enough to cover everything I owned...

Now...

The steady accumulation over the past 20 years really shows.
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That Whole 1911 v 1911A1 Thing

August 28, 2014, 7:41 am
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I was looking at past posts and notice that I mentioned liking the feel of the flat mainspring housing and long trigger.

My how quickly that feeling faded into a desire for it to feel familiar in my hand.

I blame my acquisition of the Hi-Power for the change.

It's kind of illustrative how fickle "feel" can be.

The constant swapping of furniture on the AR's is another indicator.

Even though there's a constant quest to get the perfect feel, it's also amazing how adaptive we can be towards ergonomics we cannot so readily change.
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May Day (US)

August 29, 2014, 7:07 am
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It is labor day weekend! One of the few national holidays where I say get out there and SHOP! Why? Because it's a Marxist/Leninist/Socialist holiday. The rest of the world does it on May 1st, but our native commies tried to hide its origins.

So, stick it to the working man and indulge in crass capitalistic behavior! Triple word score if you can force a union worker to work Monday.
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To Put It Another Way

August 29, 2014, 11:40 am
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About resurrection-cloning.

There will be a person whose perspective is they went to sleep/blacked out and then woke up.

How they feel about who they are NOW is mostly determined by how they felt about it BEFORE.

I suspect that the people who feel strongly that the clone isn't, and can't be, them won't avail themselves of the service.

If such a service becomes even somewhat widely available I also suspect that the perspective that the clone cannot be you will be lost.  Dying and waking up in a new body will simply become how things are and there won't be a philosophical divide about it.
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Scale

August 29, 2014, 2:31 pm
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If .25 ACP were brand new today it'd be called 6.35mm Kolibri Magnum.
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OMG

August 31, 2014, 10:49 am
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It's sometimes remarkable what gets you to give up going to a forum.

Buh bye arfcom!

Incestual rape isn't funny and isn't a joking matter.

If the site staff isn't even going to give the asshole a time out for it, I don't think I want to be associated with the place any longer.

Which is a shame because there is some good stuff there in some of the more technically focused forums.  Losing the retro section as a resource is going to suck.
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KTKC '14 Is ON!

September 1, 2014, 7:22 am
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Click on the pic to your right, don't forget to click the box for "This donation is made as part of a Fundraising Team" then select "team McThag" from the drop down menu that will appear.

I'd be pleased as punch to have $1,000 channeled through my name this year.  I'd be nearly as thrilled to have just $20, but that doesn't do near as much good for the recipients.

We hit $500 and I'll do the "dunk your junk" bit!

The Dog might have to translate anything I say after that though...
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Oddities

September 1, 2014, 9:44 am
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I was just reading that the flight of a bullet gives of an rf signal that a radio can pick up.

That's neat!

I guess the copper of the round passing through the earth's magnetic field is responsible.

Attempts to Google more information have hit the typical wall...
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Not Invited

September 1, 2014, 8:33 pm
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Clicked on Tam's blog and got...

This blog is open to invited readers only
http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.
You're signed in as mcthag - Sign in with a different account

I'd been on my best behavior lately too! Took showers, used deodorant, chewed with my mouth closed...
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Testing a GE J79 with afterburner

September 2, 2014, 4:53 am
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I Just Bleeping Stabbed Myself

September 2, 2014, 3:58 pm
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Bought me a spiffy kopis style Cold Steel machete.


Hacked at an unwanted tree limb in the back yard, because that's why I bought the thing.  It effortlessly sliced right through the limb and because it didn't slow down even a bit, I wasn't prepared to stop it before it hit my poorly placed foot.

In a flip flop...


This could have been so much worse!

Hi, my name is Thag and I am stupid.
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Figured It Out

September 3, 2014, 7:29 am
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The reason that President Obama can't come to a decision about ISIS...

Thanks to Bill Clinton they no longer know what 'IS' means and it's in ISIS twice!
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