Wet and Dreary and Smeary

It's wet and rainy and cold. You can just make-out the pink from the plum-blossoms that burst open during the mini Globular-Warmering heat-event a week ago. Over the weekend it chilled and dumped, we even got snow up on Hamilton and Skyline. Today would be a great day to take the KTM down to Hollister and just let her rip for a while - I haven't been out on her since I fixed the stator and she loves the rain.

During the Cowbell Enduro up at Upper Lake it rained heavily and we got soaked terribly (probably contributing to the stator-expiration factor), and we houred-out - but she ran like a long-legged champ through the slop and applesauce mud on the way back to camp, and only dumped me a few times in the slippery rocks. With her light weight and horses she get's up on top of the mud and goes, the long-wheelbase helps to prevent 360° spin-outs.

Meanwhile I have chores to do, and sitting in front of me are fundraising appeals to support the Gun Owners of California and and the California Rifle and Pistol Association. I'm a life-member of the CRPA so they expect me to do my duty, the GOC is more of an ongoing ad-hoc request and because I have supported them in the past. We used to have an active NRA Member's Council with a big yearly fundraising banquet and other stuff - but seems to have dissolved in this locality's sea of Leftwing tidey-bowl blue. I have a couple of those "Sponsor" statues that are given-out, but during this current period of disemployment and financial instability I had to curtail my giving-level.
I don't believe I caused them to collapse because there are a lot of hunters around here, guys with all the gear - the big trucks and RV's and stuff, and the gun-shops that remain hereabouts have a big inventory of hunting-rifles. It makes me wonder about all the Leftards who belabor the NRA as some kind of right-wing partisan gorilla - I only wish that it were true because they have a few of their own, like the Sierra Club and The Center for Biological Diversity (an oxymoronic name if there ever was one).
With with all the disappointing flim-flam recently between hunters and shooters what is left revealed to me is this. The 2nd Amendment doesn't mean the same thing to many of them, so long as they get theirs. Some so-called gun-experts really don't even appear to know the difference between an assault-rifle and the phony made-up Brady-Bunch term "assault weapon" - and others don't seem to know that a .270 can zip through armor. About all I have left to say reflects the dismal wretchedness of the weather outside, Welcome to California!
Come here you mighty (and wealthy) hunters and hunt where those nasty-ugly black-rifles are outlawed - and so are Saturday-night specials! Nope, nobody down in Compton or over at Hunter's Point, in South-Central or Oaktown has those nasty-ugly cheap-o guns anymore because they're illegal! You have nothing to fear, really, it's ok! Don't worry about a thing, after we ban lead-ammo you can still shoot your stuff with those fancy copper-solids, and the microstamping on the bullets is a benefit, it's there to help to identify which deer is really yours! No more arguments, really! And you won't need to handload either since factory ammo is so precise nowdays - as long as you like the one or two calibers we let you shoot. Really, it's gonna be fine! And since this is a High-Technology and Hollywood-effects State, you'll love your new hobby when it all goes all-digital too - it'll be just like being there - widescreen and all - but without the discomfort of actually gettin' out of your loungers!!
Thank you for your support.

UPDATE: As an adjunct here's an Premier-Grade Excellent post by David Hardy at Of Arms and the Law, titled Falling for False Flag Operations, that describes the lengths and twist to which The Others are already spinning the affair.

Rudy Guilizumbo

From Fatwhiteman we get an old Rudy quote:

"We need a federal law that bans all assault weapons..." -Rudy Giuliani

Yeh thanks pal, that's gonna get my vote.

Hunting is the Sport of Kings?

Over the weekend it was decreed from lofty heights by his Royal High-Hunting Master the Mighty Zumbo that black-rifles need not apply for a tag or permission to hunt, at least not alongside the lovely figured walnut and other wooden stocked and blue-steel belted magnum rifle versions costing thousands more - and such a wild-hair did erupt upon that statement as to get His Holy Hunterness excoriated from one end of the blogosphere to the other, and have his own blog removed in flames and his mea-culpa dashed against the ground.
Meanwhile with this utterance the Evil Brady Ones with long slinky fingers and dull creepy eyes have taken this schism and declared in their own words, "Look See!" - that even the use of a scope makes a hunter nothing more than an animal-sniper.
Back to the hunt though, in his ancient time my Grandfather hunted with the poor-man's ex-military "schawartz-shooter" of his day, an M1898 Krag-Jorgenson and also an ex-military M1917 Remington in .30-06 with a scope. Cheap actions he got for a few dollars and put into a stock. Oooh no he didn't know anybody with a fancy gun back in 1930's Nebraska nor were there any fancy people with elegant Purdey's and Holland & Holland rifles living out in the sandhills off the North Platte. Twenty-odd years later in life during the mid 1950's and before I was born he achieved a level of affluence unheard of prior to that, and got all fancy-pants with an honest-to-God Browning Light-Twelve. He passsed away at the age of 98 in 2000, and now I have the Browning and the old Krag - but I don't know anybody who hunts and I have not yet even fired it.
I admire the black-rifle shooters at my club who print finer targets than myself and wish I could get one, but it's fraught with difficulty here in California because basically they have been banned. Those who have them still were "grandfathered" through The System, and a few clever (and in my mind very brave) individuals have sought out gray-market receivers upon which to build a gun that potentially can have them thrown in jail and at a minimum cost them a lawyer induced financial bleed-out.
I'm not that brave, maybe if I was a hunter I would be braver but I don't know anybody who hunts. Actually I do, my cousin takes off with his dog and shotgun into the marshes of the North Bay at the butt-crack of pre-dawn - but that's also never really been an invitation on the table and the logistics of it is terrible.
I'm an old-fart now, balding and past middle age and probably unable to learn many new tricks. I don't foresee hunting as being in my future and I understand that this great American tradition is faltering, that fewer kids are taking it up and opportunities are dwindling - the pressure is mounting and the demographics are shifting to the Urban-dwellers who only hunt each other - and since they do that the Brady's and the other Anti-Gunners have more examples to say, "Ban Them All."
When that happens only the political elites will have fine shotguns and spotted dogs and fields to roam, and guys like John Kerry will not be made to look foolish because nobody will see how poorly he handles his $31,000 Rizini-engraved Italian over-under, because they will not be allowed near. America is unique in that the Sport of Kings was practiced and enjoyed by the common man, but perhaps that is changing as a new class of political Royalty ascends to power - because if you can't afford it you really shouldn't even ask.

FINAL XUMBO UPDATE: As I posted in a few comments including at Oscar Poppa, Hallelujah I have seen the light! This experience and exposure, the rock turned-over as it were, 'sprain it to me 'Rucy: it is how we can have all these great hunters and outdoorsmen here in California, AND yet still have a ban on AR’s and AK's, including the long-range shooter-favorite .50BMG, and also a Nationally-Known Clowndome, an almost surreally-incompetent Bozo-Legislature - but one with no fear of a gunowner backlash...I get it now - we’re Zumbofied.

John Edwards Campaign Ad

Ok this video crap is new to me, but I have to give all credit and inspiration to Milblogger Chapomatic.

Go Silky Pony! Go! The fluffy bunnies and rainbow clouds are truly the promises of an ice-cream and kool-aid future as projected by the Matrix-Democrats. Your tax-dollars at work.

Ok I can only stand a bit of it - turn it off as you please.

Victory Caucus

In real life I'm not much of a joiner and base that on personal reticence and the old self-deprecating Groucho Marx quip, "I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member" - not that I'm as clever or creative as Groucho.
But Blogitopia is a different kind of place and collected in my sidebar are a few blogrolls among which I am happy to be included, and so this too - and to quote Groucho again, "Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."

But more to the point I'm deeply saddened at the shameless workings and traitorous acts of those working undermine our soldiers and who seek a cheap, personal political advantage rather than victory. For that reason I also signed the NRSC pledge and joined the 32,937 people who decided to say:

If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution. Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.

UPDATE: Resolution in favor of DEFEAT passes in the House. Final vote: 246-182. Seventeen weasely wannabee-popular Republicans join the White Flag Caucus, and two Democrats did the Right Damn Thing: Georgia's Jim Marshall and Mississippi's Gene Taylor - Thank You, Gentlemen.
Now for the stuck-on-stupids:

New York Representative James T. Walsh
North Carolina Representative Walter Jones
Maryland Representative Wayne Gilchrest
Delaware Representative Michael Castle
Florida Representative Richard "Lawnboy" Keller
Pennsylvania Representative Philip Sheridan English
Texas Representative Ronald Ernest Paul
Michigan Representative Frederick Stephen Upton
Virginia Representative Thomas M. Davis
Illinois Representative Mark Kirk
North Carolina Representative Howard Coble
Tennessee Representative John J. Duncan Jr.
Minnesota Representative James Ramstad
Ohio Representative Steven C. LaTourette
South Carolina Representative Robert Inglis
Illinois Representative Timothy V. Johnson
Wisconsin Representative Thomas Petri

new additions to my gunbloggers blogroll

I have added weapons-loving Jay.Mac of the Eire-Anglosphere at Cryptic Subterranean who teases us with the vicious and salty rumor of a new Broomhandle Mauser, OMG is it too much to ask in the cool-gun reproduction wars?
Also along comes FATWHITEMAN who shows us he really does appreciate the difference between American and Italian TV - it's quite a telling difference! Also his D*pSh*t Of The Week feature informs us of anti-gun lunatics and hoplophobic (thank you Col. Cooper for that term) mangled-brains who seek to curtail all our liberties, including in this case one who would make it a felony to use a firearm to stop a crime. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!
And not the least at all, Mulliga at Shangrila Towers who introduced me to a fabulous beer stout called Old Rasputin, and brought to mind a huge gap in my armory: I have no Europellet 9mm, none, zip, nada. It's cheaper than most other stuff - maybe that's what I need to get for Buy-A-Gun-Day.

Saint Valentine's Day

Roses are red, violets are blue
Rudy doesn't care about the 2nd Amendment
as it pertains to me and you.

Rhubarb is Red and the damn Grass is Green
McCain doesn't mind trampling free-speech,
WTF did he gang-up with the traitor Feingold?!

Rutabagas are green, fungus-spores are black
Obama said our soldier's lives have been wasted
and wants to bring them all in defeat back.



Happy-happy-joy-joy.

NRA Voting

Ok so I'm a bit behind on the curve collecting input for my ballot choices, but here it is - or at least what I've deduced are solid, valid choices with help from Bitter and Of Arms and the Law. Starting with my earlier post we have:

Sandy Froman
Carol Bambery
Susan Howard
Ted Nugent - Man, he is what he is.
Rep. Curtis Jenkins - CCW supprter and author of the first law in the Nation prohibiting frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers.
H. Joaquin Jackson - I gotta believe a Texas Ranger on the NRA Board is a good thing.
Tom King - We need New Yorker's in the Fight agains Bloomberg.
Bob Barr - Former Congressman is suing The Bloomster's ass! Right on!
Steve Schreiner - recommended by Col. Brown of Soldier of Fortune, he's President of the Firearms Coalition of Colorado, and winner of the Bronze and Silver Stars in 'Nam. With all the rich, Ultra Liberals in Boulder dancing in the Eco-Weenie Tent, Colorado is an At-Risk state that needs help and representation.
Jim Supica - I have "The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson," and I just think he's a totally for-real gun-guy.
    This is where David Hardy's Of Arms and the Law list stops, and Bitter's continues - and mine goes Tierra Incognita...:
Bill Brewster - A former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma he is now a lobbyist and Bitter sees him as important keeping that hand in the Game.
James Dark - Texas State Rifle Association Executive Director, he’s an outspoken activist.
Larry Craig - Idaho Senator who also sometimes keeps the organization’s name in the news.
Harold Volkmer - One of the primary sponsors of the 1986 McClure-Volkmer Act known as The Firearm Owners Protection Act. The VPC hates him so he must be cool!
Ok that's all I know.

Warts and Blemishes - a Scale of Values

I was a bit disappointed by the pictures (in the Monday post) below, mainly because the bottom one is harsh and flat and it's difficult to determine the details, and because I also didn't make them "clickable" into larger images.
Yesterday afternoon a fine light was coming in the window and I was responding to a post on the CSP M1 Carbine message board about a bayonet, and seeing that my bayo pictures had the same bad, flat light decided to try a re-shoot. First-up the Aerial Cutlery Co. bayonet:


You can see the blade detail and it isn't that pretty, I'm wondering where to find a scale against which to grade the bayonet's surface finish, 0-to-10 - poor-to-best. As it is I rate it around a 4, which is ok with me - but maybe it's not even that good either.
UPDATE QUESTION: What's the best method for cleaning this up while not screwing the blade's parkerizing?

As for the old 1911A1 it's got even more warts, at least on the right side:

You can see the thumbprint and the smudge and the drip-line - either somebody messed up trying to re-finish it or somebody messed-up while shooting it.

I can't tell if it's been re-parkerized or not, but one of the tell-tale's is the Colt Verified Proof mark, a little VP stamp in the triggerguard which appears pretty indistinguishable and filled-in. Also the inspector's mark, GHD (for Guy H. Drewry, Brig. Gen. of Springfield Ordnance District) is filled-in and it should be bright since it was suposed to have been struck following finishing. (Clawson, 3rd Ed. p.103)

Anyhow that's what I came-up with.


UPDATE PIC:

Here's the view from above with the drip-line running from the forward part of the ejection port down the left side to the muzzle - all the smudges and stuff connect together, so I think Hammer is right in his comment.
Also in this view you can see the wide-spur short hammer, and both the slide-stop and thumb-safety checkering, and the small rear sight. All the small parts on this unit are "correct" for the serial numbering and sequence, of around February 1943. Hey, Happy 64th Birthday!! :-)

Go Colts!

With a temperature hovering around 102° and a throat on fire and unable to speak beyond a croak I sat through the memorial service and then we drove home. We left the flowers and the rest of the relatives and drove away, and I went to bed for another day and a half.
I didn't see one minute of the Super-Bowl spectacle, however today the outcome had me thinking positive thoughts despite all the grindingly bad news and events of the past two months. Despite these facts; that I still can't even taste beer, and that my nose is painfully swollen red from blowing snot, and that I had no real interest or stake in the game's outcome - there is one, single, grandly unifying element that until now I had not the slightest recognition, and please forgive me but Go Colts!