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Tam Posts

Gun laws may now be as lax as they have ever been in my lifetime.

Being a December baby I just missed being able to mail order a Solothurn from my crib.  Oddly, I had the money from the baby shower...

However, even if the gun laws have never been more lax in my lifetime, I don't really have to look back all that far to see that they aren't as lax as they've ever been.

Prior to 1968, to order that Star Modelo B I would have just mailed them the check and they'd have mailed me the gun.  Today I have to use an FFL and a common carrier.  The only reason that I could have it shipped straight to me is that I am an FFL and it was a Curio and Relic eligible gun.

I collect .25 ACP pistols.  This sort of gun has never really been much made inside the US.  There were many designs from several nations all importing their wares into the US market until 1968.  Many of those pistols remained in production for decades more.

Did you know about the Glock 25 and 28?  Not sporting enough for importation.

However gun laws STILL aren't as lax as they've ever been in my life, I can also remember when you could get complete parts kits from overseas for any number of military arms less the serialed receiver.  You didn't need to worry about how many parts were foreign made as long as it wasn't an NFA item of some kind when you were done and that your receiver was US made.

I can remember when you could take that parts kit and make yourself a genuine selective fire gun from them.

Until I moved to Florida, the gun laws were heading basically one direction with just the occasional holding action but never a reversal.  And moving to Florida was merely going someplace the ratchet hadn't advanced as far as Iowa.

FOPA was the only reduction in Federal gun control in my lifetime for about two thirds of it.  Although I can't readily think of a single repeal of any Federal gun law outside of FOPA.  AWB expired and I'm pretty sure that if it hadn't had a sunset clause it would still be law today.

But...  The states have been reducing gun control in leap and bounds in the past ten years.  The courts are ruling, in our favor and using the standard model for the second amendment while also generally applying strict scrutiny.  That's a huge positive!

I have hope that by the time I die there will be considerably laxer gun laws in this nation, I even have hope I will live to enjoy it.

Operator Hotline

Useless Information

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I have the flight manual for the USAF F-4C, F-4D and F-4E (10Jan70).

Interesting read.

The odds that I will ever be able to put this information to use are exceedingly slim.

What it will probably be used for is to apply limits to my simulator flying which aren't imposed by the game.

For example, on the F-4C you can jettison the centerline 600 gallon fuel tank if it's got less than 60 gallons in it.  You can jettison it if there's more than 450 gallons in it.  You cannot jettison it if there's between 60 and 450 gallons remaining.

I also learned that there are two different models of centerline tanks.  McDonnell's can be carried at any airspeed the airframe can take.  Royal Jet's is limited to 600 knots indicated airspeed or mach 1.8.

The manual also answers a question about loadouts I'd had before.

The 370 gallon wing tanks are more limited in airspeed and g than the McDonnell centerline.  The USMC and Navy preferred the centerline tank to two wing tanks because of this.  Interestingly, the USAF F-4C had stability problems with the centerline tank that didn't seem to be present with the 85% similar F-4B.

I am starting to wonder if the USAF invested heavily in the Royal Jet tank and the USN in the McDonnell.  Have to find contracts for that information and that requires an IV drip of energy drink while chewing a teabag.

Good News!

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Looks like the trigger on a Spanish M-1916 Carbine is the same part as on an M-1893 Rifle.

This is good because Numrich doesn't list a trigger for the 1916...

A Ponder

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Getting licensed to drive a car, which everyone says is a privilege, is cheap and easy.  Driving the car is subject to simple and easy rules and regulations.

Getting licensed to carry a firearm, which is widely regarded as a right, is affordable rather than cheap and moderately difficult because of the paperwork and classes in even "shall issue" jurisdictions.  Carrying the gun is subject to complicated, capricious and confusing laws and regulations.

I am SO ready to treat guns like cars!

Precipitate

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Because I am not part of the solution...

Got some XM855 ammo and SS109 from Wal Mart via Willard and added it to my existing pile.

This effectively prevents someone without ammo from getting some...

Someone Hook A Generator To P.L. Travers' and Walt Disney's Feet

Ye Olde Calibre Warres

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I once read that a chambering is not really successful until you can buy it off the shelf at Wal Mart.

I bought two boxes of Federal Fusion 110gr 6.8 SPC at Wal Mart last night!

They'd had the SKU on the empty shelf for about a year, and last night actually had some.  I am not unhappy.  Giddy is more the emotion.

I predict that a SKU for .300 Blackout is coming.  Probably soon.

Stated Goal

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I endeavor to live only places where the winter temperatures are expressed in destructive devices calibers in inches with summer temperatures that would make good tank guns in millimeters.

Why Do You Even Have A Web Page

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Dear Vendor...

The internet is an amazing tool that allows you to reach your customers in amazing ways.

Stop treating it as an electrified paper catalog!

Potential Customer


How many times have you run into a web page where you have to call during business hours to get a price?  Or worse, have to call to actually order the item?  I won't even discuss the places that expect me to print out their order form and then mail them a check.

It is not 1979 anymore!

This business model is only one step above a web page listing the address and telling me to stop by the brick and mortar location...

OK, when you're open at 3am, when I'm shopping, I will.

PS: That other vendor who has a web page that tells me the price and lets me order with my debit card or paypal?  They got the sale.

Hyperbole

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"I am going to take this gun and kill all of them!"

"What if you can't get ammo?"

"Then it will take longer!!!"

That'd be a great throw-away line in an action film.

Just put a "Special Thanks to Angus McThag" in the credits if you use it.

It's A Super B Super B

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It's Super Beaky, YEAH!

I got aB, Willard got a Star B. Echeverria Modelo B Super in 9x19mm.


He paid less and got a gun in far nicer shape!  Mine's C&R, he paid an FFL for a transfer.



Inside too!
The Model B Super is an evolution of the Model B, so they basically work the same.  The big-huge differences is the 1911 style swinging link has been replaced with a High-Power style locking ramp...


A loaded chamber indicator...

Empty

Loaded
Magazine disconnect... (US Patent)

The magazine pushes that little bar in and that unblocks the trigger.  That bar also locks the take-down latch from swinging while there is a magazine present.
...And it uses a swinging take-down latch instead of pulling the slide stop out like a 1911. (US Patent)

Locked.
Unlocked.
Update: links to some interesting patent information added.  Thanks Dan!

OMG They TOUCHED

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I met a friend at the range.  While we were loading magazines one of my 6.8 rounds rolled over and touched one of his 6.5 Grendel rounds...



Dammit Again

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Just saw Interstellar.

When Cooper gets his faceplate cracked and is disabled by the in-rush of ammonia atmosphere my suspension of disbelief broke.

Why?

Because for a small leak in a poisonous atmosphere you turn up suit pressure to above ambient.  In fact it's a good plan to have your suit set slightly above ambient pressure just in case there is a puncture.

NASA's A7L had controls for suit pressure and it was intended for vacuum only.

Stock Exchange

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The stocks on the B and Super B are interchangeable!  That's nice to know since there's damn few places that have B stocks and several places that have Super B.

I figured it had to be so since the stocks on the Super have the cut for the slide stop post from the B, but the Super lacks the post.

As a bonus I think the wood looks and feels better on the Super B, likewise the plastic on the B.  I wonder if Willard will want to swap.

Directional

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The Angry Beavers™ at Century missed something on the Star B.

The extractor pin is directional.  The round end goes up and the flat end is flush with the bottom of the slide.

Guess how they had it.

If you put it in upside down like they did, it walks up and out of the slide.

PSA: Owning A Gun

Feel

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Erin's reworking of the Skdkai class makes me notice feel.

Way back in the original Classic Traveller (CT) rules you couldn't mount 4x 50 ton missile bays (why do they only displace 30 tons on the spreadsheet?) and 16 turrets on a 2,000 ton ship.  You couldn't mount particle accelerators or fusion guns three to a turret either.

You got one turret hardpoint for every 100 dTon not given over to weapons.  You were allowed one bay per 1,000 dTon of ship and that tonnage couldn't be used for hardpoints.  In effect, one bay eliminated ten turrets.

So a 2,000 dTon ship could mount two bays and no other weapons.  It could mount a single bay and have ten turrets.

Major weaponry (also known as a spinal mount) were limited to one per vessel and eliminated their own tonnage from the equation.

In theory you could mount a Type E meson gun (1,000 dTon) on our 2,000 ton ship and have either one bay or ten turrets.  However it would need at least a power plant rating of 35 to fire the spinal mount and that would be 1,400 dTon for the plant and fuel...  Illegal for such a small ship to mount.

Then back to turrets...

Book 2 and Book 5 disagree...

Book 2 lists four turret weapons and single, double and triple turrets.  You can mix and match to your heart's desire.

Book 5 allows up to three each of Missile, Beam Laser, Pulse Laser or Sandcaster per turret, two each of Plasma Gun or Fusion Gun or one each of Particle Accelerator.

So...  On our 2,000 dTon ship we could have 16 turrets.  Using Erin's mix of type we'd end up with 4x single particle accelerator, 4x double fusion gun, 4x triple pulse laser and 4x triple sandcaster.  We should mount four more turrets because the CT rules don't allow us to mount a bay now.

GURPS: Traveller (GT) preserves the feel of CT with its ship design system (You get 1 hardpoint per 100dTon of ship minus tonnage of spinal mounts.  Turrets take up one hard point, bays take up ten.)

Megatraveller (MT) Lost the Traveller feel by being overcomplicated just for complexities sake.

Mongoose Traveller (MgT) tried.  I am given to understand that the reason that Erin's ship is so out of whack with the feel of CT is Mongoose screwed up, if you have the errata you have limitations akin to CT imposed on you.  By the time Erin gained access to those errata, Murder Hobo Gmbh was loose with a ship that violated them.

She chose to leave it be.

But what's she's deliberately changed is the feel of the game.

This doesn't make me right and her wrong.  It doesn't even mean I'd hate playing in her world.  It doesn't mean I am a purist who opposes changing the feel, because I have done it more than once myself.

Aside:  The original ship had 16x triple missile organized into 16 batteries and 4x triple beam lasers organized into 4 batteries.  So 16x FP 2 for the missiles and 4x FP 3 for the lasers.  Not really well distributed...  I'd put the lasers in two turret batteries so 2x 4 FP instead of 4x 3FP; then I'd break the missile turrets into four batteries of 4 FP.

Ideally I think I'd mount a 50t missile bay (FP 9), 6x triple beam lasers in three batteries (FP 4 each batt) and 4x double fusion guns in two batteries (FP 5 each batt).

GT let's you put the weapons into batteries in an ad hoc manner.

Not sure how Erin has her batteries organized.

GURPS Version

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A Straight Conversion of the Sydkai...

Subassemblies: SL Hull +10, 20x Turret +5.
Powertrain: Engineering, 200 Maneuver, 80 Jump Drive.
Fuel: 600 Jump Fuel Tank.
Occ: 11 Staterooms, 83 Bunks, 16 Low          Cargo: 43.44 dtons

Armor:
Hull: 500 all facings.
Turrets: 500 all facings.

Weaponry:
16 Turrets with 48x 500mm Turret Missile Racks (3 per Turret)
4 Turrets with 12x 405-MJ Turret Lasers (3 per Turret)
Nuclear Damper 25 mile range.

Equipment:
All: Basic IR and Emission Cloaking, Basic Stealth.  Hull: Genius Hardened Command Bridge, Hardened Basic Bridge, Electronic Warfare, 2 Military Sickbay (10 beds), 18 Drop Capsule Launcher, 18 Drop Capsule Ready Rack, 54 spare Drop Capsules, 1 Brig, 1 Armory, 1 Safe, 1 Complete Workshop, 210 dTon Spacedock (for 1x 60t Fast Cutter, 1x 50 Modular Cutter, 4x Astrin APC and 3x spare cutter modules), 2 Contragravity

Statistics:
Size: 
Payload: 217.2 stons.
Lwt: 6,545.93 stons.
Volume: 2,000 dtons.
Maint: 124.04 mh/day
Price: MCr 667.69

HT: 12
HPs: 90,000 [Hull], 1,200 [each Turret]
sAccel: 3.06 Gs/3.16 Gs empty
Jump: 3

Ammo Notes

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GURPS Traveller missile racks hold a certain amount of ammunition each.

GT missile come in two sizes: 250mm and 500mm.  500mm is restricted to the Imperial Navy.  The other races have missiles of similar size and are similarly restricted.

250mm Turret Missile Racks hold
   70 missiles at TL7
   75 missiles at TL8
   76 missiles at TL9
   77 missiles at TL10+

500mm Turret Missile Racks hold
   8 missiles at TL7
   10 missiles at TL8+

The 50 ton missile bay uses 250mm missiles and holds
   3,500 missiles at TL7
   3,700 missiles at TL8
   3,800 missiles at TL9+

The 100 ton missile bay uses 500mm missiles and holds
   800 missiles at TL7
   1,000 missiles at TL8-9
   1,100 missiles at TL10+

The 500mm missiles do, on average, twice as much explosive damage or three times as much kinetic damage per missile.  Because GT RoF is 1 missile every 20 minutes and each rack can only control one missile, and a missile can run for up to an hour, this matters a lot.

The 50 ton bay can fire and control up to 50 missiles.  The 100 ton bay can fire and control up to 100 missiles.
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