Gun Show, Pockets

Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn't I?

Here's what's in my pockets, all the time:



Wallet, cash, 642 with a speed strip, Leatherman tool, phone of one form or another, Fisher Space Pen, Burt's Bees lip balm, CRKT Point Guard knife, Leatherman S2 light, keys.

If I had JayG's scale, I'd tell you how much it all weighs!

Now that the formalities are done with, on to the gun show report.

In one sentence: What a waste of time.

I got there just before 4pm, and the parking lot was starting to thin out. Went in, lady at the door zip-tied my trade fodder, took my money, stamped my hand, and I started browsing.

I'd gone in without much in the way of hard goals. I was kind of looking for an LCP, and had my Bersa with accessories as trade fodder. If a nice wheelie showed up, I had my 647 along but wasn't real eager to part with that. I did notice the blue S&W briefcase getting more than a few glances, but only one dealer asked what was in it.

Worked my way down the aisles, eying the various milsurp gear, a table of "nazi" stuff, reloaded ammo, some milsurp rifles ($1400 for a Garand? SRSLY?), plenty of hunting rifles in various flavors, a few ARs (prices are back to near-pre-0-days), and a few cases of pistols. Some were sorta-fair priced, some were ... uh ... optimistically so.

For example:
Ruger Speed Six, 90%: $350 (tempting, actually)
Glock 19: $580
Glock 19C: $630
Ruger LCP: $350-360
S&W Model 60, 90%: $600

Now, the 19C was a fair price. The rest of that? GMAFB. I offered a dealer my Bersa with two magazines and two holsters, box and docs, straight across for an LCP. He said he'd need $20 cash on top for "paperwork fees". I told him no thanks - I'm willing to take a hit on the Bersa because it is now a used gun, but I can buy them on the auctions all day long for $280, or get one from my dealer for $290. Straight across for the LCP with no accessories would've been more than fair; the dealer got greedy. His loss.

Other things that caught my eye ... a (BADLY) sporterized Springfield 1903 for $700... a set of Crimson Trace grips for the 642, but no price on them and no one around the table to ask ... some various flavors of Contenders for reasonable prices (the .223 with peep sights intrigued me)...

But nothing to really make the show worth the trip or the money. Dealers ignoring people looking through cases, signs everywhere "DON'T TOUCH" ... meh. Just not the atmosphere I'd hoped for. Bits of conversation indicated the opening hours had been insane, so maybe the attitude was just exhaustion. I dunno. Just re-confirms my feeling that gun shows around here aren't the home of great deals and steals.

The Pad

In another lifetime, I was a Geek. Yes, with a capital "G". Belt full of gadgets, laptop bags stuffed with widgets. I could discuss networking protocols enough to be functional, understood the wiring, routing, switching, etc. Some of it still hangs in the background, and I don't have to call tech support, but I gave the vast majority of it up and have been happy to re-assign the brain-space it was taking.

Now I still consider myself a bit of a geek, but no more capital "G". Certainly not a hardware geek. No longer is the latest-greatest that interesting. To wit: I have been thinking about a new iPod Nano, since my 1st-generation Shuffle (the white pack'o'gum style, 512MB) is starting to frustrate me. I wandered over to the Apple site and looked things over, and was startled to see that the Nano has a camera, and microphone, and speaker, and zOMG! I exclaimed about such to a friend, who said something along the lines of, "They announced that last fall. It's not new."

My desktop is nearly nine years old (PowerMac G4/667, purchased in spring 2001), my Mac laptop is approaching five years (iBook G4/1.2), and my two previous systems are still floating around - functional if somewhat long in the tooth. (Mom and Dad have my 8600/200, which was upgraded with a G3/375, and my iBook SE/366 is in a box in the house.) In other words, I've become the user that wants it to "just work" - but I'm able to get under the hood when it doesn't.

I have, very loosely, kept a half-eye on the news from Cupertino, because when Apple does something new and different, they tend to do it VERY well. Sure, there have been a few resounding thuds along the way (20th Anniversary Mac, Mac Cube, Newton), but so many of their products have literally revolutionized the information world. The Macintosh. The iMac (OMG NO FLOPPIES!). The iPod (in all its incarnations). The iPhone.

Now, the iPad.

There has been some VERY loud screeching from various corners, and some of it is understandable. One of the largest arguments against the iPad is the tightly controlled software stream: it comes from the iTunes Store, and that's IT. Monopolistic? Well, yes and no. Yes, because that allows Apple to control what goes to your machine, but it allows developers to make a profit, clearly reduces piracy issues, and also provides a cleaner support process for Apple. Easy, clean installations; software has to go through SOME kind of vetting process before release... Is it ideal? Probably not, but it's the system in place for now.

Other people have said that Apple released it without having a clear market in mind. On the contrary, I think Apple had a very clear idea of who they were aiming this at: users who want it to "just work", and users who have lightweight overall computing needs OR lightweight mobile needs and have access to heavy-duty hardware at home or work. By combining a reasonable screen size and proven simple interface with either a WiFi or 3G data connection, I believe they've got another home-run here.

For example: the 60-something retiree who wants to read the news, write some emails, and poke around in his fishing forums. Or the mid-level executive in his 30s who needs a mobile data connection, more than an iPhone or Blackberry, but doesn't need a full-fledged laptop or even netbook. Or me. A gen-X'er who wants mobile data but is thrifty and doesn't need a "smart" phone.

Let's look at the specs real quick: 8x10", half an inch thick, with a 9.7" HD screen. Weighs 1.5lb, battery life is 8-10 hours. Light as a paperback, smaller than a purse. A 3G data connection is $15/month for 250MB or $30/month for unlimited data - and no contract. Thirty bucks a month for unlimited data? Baby, sign me up. I can cancel my dial-up internet at home ($21/month) and have a better connection, and be able to take it with me.

Netbooks are nice, but have small screens and keyboards, and are generally underpowered for what they're doing. Smartphones are slick, but the postage-stamp screen is a real pain, and the three-inch-wide keyboard is just unrealistic for some of us. Laptops can be a nuisance to lug around everywhere, and a data card is an expensive luxury for most users.

The final noise against the iPad is the Apple fanatics. Yes, those who line up, wallets in hand, for ANYTHING to ship from 1 Infinite Loop. They are saying that Apple "owes them" more. That Apple has "betrayed their expectations". Bucko, you can only have expectations of Apple if you own stock, and they sure aren't disappointing there. (AAPL 2/6/09: 99.72. AAPL 2/5/10: 195.29. Any questions?) Don't like it? DON'T BUY IT. It's that simple.

Of course, the iPad is pure vaporware right now - but Apple has a pretty clean history of a product matching the hype, and I think this will be another feather in their cap. I look forward to putting my hands on one, and this may well be my next major technology purchase.

Winter sounds

I opened the front door this evening, and was greeted by a world gradually blurring to white. A light snow was falling out of the dark sky, hiding the world beyond the spill of our porch lights. As I walked to the driveway with a bucket of ashes to dump, I was greeted by the sharp squeal of an animal learning to appreciate the food chain... and then the yipping song of coyotes on the hunt.

It's an eerie but beautiful sound. Tonight, it sounded like they were in the field directly across the road from the house. My first instinct, given how loud they were, was that I was hearing a hunter's recorded call. As I listened and looked, though, I realized that they were moving - quickly. Most likely they had found a rabbit browsing the hedges and didn't quite kill it.

I stood and looked and listened in the cold for a moment, ash bucket in one hand and the other twitching toward the revolver on my belt. I've never heard coyotes that close, and they are not a predator to be trifled with around here - in truth, they are the only large-ish predator we have. A record coyote was taken about an hour from us three or four years ago; it weighed in at 85lbs, if memory serves. Talking with other hunters, the usual is more in the 50-60lb range. For perspective, an average German Shepherd male will top out right around 90lbs.

I shivered and shook myself out of my cautious reverie, and walked back in to the house - where both cats were standing in the hallway staring directly at the door, and looking like a stiff breeze would send them flying up the stairs. When I went out the back door to the garage, I said goodnight to the goats - both of whom were standing outside their hut and staring into the field across the road. I looked again, but couldn't see anything through snow and brush.

I think I need to talk to the neighbor about permission to hunt there, soon.


Off topic amusement: topic in the ARFCOM "AR Discussion" forum: "End of the world scenario: What color furniture for AR15". ... because damnit, if the world is ending, I want to make sure I look GOOD!

Search Term Roundup

I haven't been tracking these as closely lately, but here's the search terms from the last week of visits:

history of plumbum
Plumbum is latin for lead. It doesn't have a history. It's a malleable, dense metal, silver-gray in color, and frequently used for projectiles. What more do you want?


craigslist winchester 30-30 pre 64
I've seen this go through in various forms more than once. Suggestion: search in your local city, not via google, and keep in mind that Craigslist specifically forbids firearms and related items in its terms of use. Not that this stops people from posting them - just look for posts titled "hunting items" and asking you to email for details.


"s&w 647"" performance center"
The Performance Center is S&W's in-house custom shop. They do some very slick work. The 647 PC is a .17HMR DA/SA revolver, 12" barrel, picatinny rail, sling studs, and bipod mount. It's supposed to be a hell of a varmint and bench pistol. I don't have exact numbers off-hand, but anecdotally, total production was under 500. Expect to cough up big bucks, IF you can find one.


"s&w 28" exploded view
The 28, also known as the Highway Patrolman, is a lesser-polished version of the Model 27. That is, a DA/SA revolver in .357Magnum. The internal workings are essentially identical to those of ANY 3-screw pre-lock S&W revolver, so any disassembled view should point you in the right direction. A word of caution: DA revolvers are some of the most complex firearms out there and should not be tinkered with lightly.


superstitious day
Well, the post *I* wrote was about a Friday the 13th. Other good options are All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, your wedding day, birthday, the Ides of March, St. Patrick's Day ... the list is long.


"smith & wesson 647"
Go read this entry. That's all I have to say about that.


broken shell wolf .223
Most Wolf-branded ammo is steel-cased. Steel is less ductile than brass, and doesn't do as well under the stresses of firing. It tends to become work-brittle very easily, and can either blow the head off the case or allow the rim to be torn off. When it happened to me, the extractor ripped the rim off the case and dropping a brass rod down the bore cleared the chamber easily. There are numerous broken-shell extraction tools out there as well. If you're planning to shoot lots of cheap ammo, it would behoove you to buy one or more of these for the range bag. Better yet - shoot better ammo. Wolf will almost certainly never occupy my ammo shelf again.

Bit brisk...

Driving home this morning at 7, the time-n-temp on the bank downtown said 2. This is in the "warmer valley" with a large body of water to help moderate temperature.

When I got home, I checked the thermometer. I didn't get a picture then, but here's what it looked like before work this evening:



Forgive the crappy cell-camera picture, but that shows "Today's high: 24. Today's low: 1."

One.

One ABOVE zero. If you're a metric geek, that's -17C.

It's cold enough that my tires lost a couple pounds of pressure and the idiot light for pressure came on.

So cold that you don't even get to see your breath - it's crystallized and gone before it's in front of you.

Smoke rises from chimneys in a solid cloud and just hangs there; no drift or rise to it.

Some of the valleys on the way home had the remnants of hoarfrost on the brush and trees - but the rising sun had already kissed most of it away.

The goats were nestled together in their hut, both heads sticking out the door, frost on whiskers.

Sometimes driving home in the raw hours is a nice treat.