ND's

OldNFO posts his story of a negligent discharge.

Others observe in comments that there are those who have, and those who will. I agree with that to a point. If you're a five-rounds-a-year deer hunter, your odds are slim. Those of us who dump a case or ten a year and handle guns hundreds if not thousands of times annually* are a bit higher on the probability chart.

I haven't had one, yet. I do everything I can to avoid it. As long as I'm following the rules, I should be relatively OK when it happens. Always remember: things can be replaced, people can't. Stay safe.

* - think about it. I handle my carry gun at least twice a day; when I put it on in the morning and when I take it off at bedtime. That, alone, is north of 700 instances in a year. Go to a gun show (like yesterday) and I probably picked up 30 or 40 guns. Hunting season is another 40 to 100. Gun shop? Six to ten each visit. Blogshoot? Hell, probably 100-plus in six hours. I'm betting I pick up and handle a firearm somewhere on the order of 2,500 times a year. More than 3/4 of the time that firearm is or is about to be loaded.

Running out of time...

Ladies, if you haven't entered the phenomenally generous give-away being run by A Girl, do so now! The cutoff is Friday at midnight...

Here's the prize list, as posted on her site:

$300 toward any reputable basic self defense shooting course in the United States of America-provided by A Girl and Her Gun.

200 rounds of Ammo in either 9mm, 10mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP or .38 spl provided by the very cool ZerCool

100 additional rounds provided by the generous North

150 additional rounds provided by the generous and competitive Tango Juliet

If you are in the Metro Charlotte area of North Carolina a basic pistol class and Conceal Carry Handgun Class or if you are not in the area a $50 gift certificate for gear(ie eyes, ears, range bag) provided by the generous and very competitive Keads

100 Rounds provided by the nicest of nice Scott McCray

250 rounds provided by the incredibly supportive The Calm Gun

200 more rounds by the extremely kind Old NFO

A $50 gift certificate provide by the goddess of all Gun Goddesses

Electric ear muffs and if you live near Northern Virgina, a personal consultant to take you holster shopping or an hour of one-on-one range time provided by talented and knowledgeable Female and Armed

A pistol class for the winner and a friend if she lives in the state of Iowa(or is willing to travel)provided by yet another generous blogger,known as Bill

A fabulous holster provided by the good folks at Remora

An 18th century reproduction, St. Barbara's medallion. She is the patron saint of artillerists, and of things that go "boom". Provided by one of my sweet new friends Nancy R

The package will contain three cans (one of each size we make) of Steelgard Firearm Protector - a cleaner, lubricant and rust prevention product for all types of weapons provide by the fine folks at Firearm Protector

THE GIFT OF FEAR by Gavin de Becker provided by the brave GunDiva

Dragon hits the big time

... Shooting Illustrated has put up a review of Dennis's work.

It seems they agree with the rest of us that have reviewed his art. Fancy that!

(Side note, this is very timely, as my new Talon from the WWP fundraiser auction this past fall should be here any day!)

House o' Mouse

Attention House-of-Mousers: MrsZ and I will be visiting your area in March. For obvious reasons I'd like to catch up with as many of you as possible while down there.

I mean you, Lissa. And you, UJ (and of course Dixie and -let). And even you, Robb. Ping me at gmail for further!

Report from the Fun Show

Small local semi-annual show this morning. 120 tables according to the flyers.

A good friend and I went down to check it out. (I convinced her not to wear her "O**** 2012" shirt, at least.) She was half-looking for a decent .22 with nothing specific in mind.

We got there late morning, paid the six bucks to get in, and started making the rounds. It was busy but not overly crowded, and prices ranged the gamut from "market" to "you're funny!" (Case in point: S&W M&P15 Sport. Dealer 1: $685 (market). Dealer 2: $779 ($40 OVER list).)

She wandered around and poked at a few .22s, and very nearly bit on a Remington 341 which was in mostly-good shape... but then we did some quick research and found that parts are likely a nightmare to find and it was priced a touch high. If parts had been more available, I think she'd have taken it home. No denying it was a good-looking rifle. There were a few others that caught her eye - a few Savages and Marlins - but nothing that really screamed "take me home".

I brought along my AR and the Dragoon to fish for sales or trades. Lots of nibbles on the AR - but no one reached for their wallet either. A dealer made me a sort-of fair offer on the Dragoon but wouldn't move the last thirty bucks it'd have taken to come up with a deal. (Dragoon with ammo and some cash for an M&P15-22.)

And then ... my friend found the rack of Mosins. She looked them over, accepted that they were priced a little higher than she might otherwise find, but decided she wanted one.

So, for $130 out the door she has a 1943 Izhvesk 91/30 - in pretty good shape. The bore is clean and the rifling is sharp, and it came with the standard accessories. Not what I'd have picked for a first rifle, but not a bad choice, either!

There she is, Mosin in hand. Next step: ammo and a range trip.

Fascinating

I got to spend a few hours yesterday observing "live-fire" (Simunition) training with several area police departments.

For what should be obvious reasons I can't get into details, but I saw the entire range of actions and reactions. Some good, some bad. Some made *me* cringe.

I'm no ninja, but you know what? I didn't see any yesterday.


I saw a lot of cops put in tough scenarios and having to make split-second decisions on level of force, shoot/no-shoot, and everything else we talk about.

I wish I could have played too.

DSL: Denouement

As mentioned in previous entries, the DSL we had installed was having ... issues.

Weather and light conspired to let me re-do the run from the demarc to the punchdown today. It went more easily than I'd expected, actually. I drilled a new hole in the sill plate for the wire, ran a fish tape through the crawlspace, and taped on the new Cat5 line. Pulled that through and connected both ends, then checked the phone.

Dial tone is a good sign.

Turned on the DSL modem, waited for it to boot up, and it had a connection in about 2 minutes. I buttoned things back up, turned on the wireless router, and tested connection. Working.

Speedtest.net gave me a 41ms ping, 2.6Mb down, and 0.5Mb up. Not bad.

Punched up Netflix on the PS3 and started watching "The Expendables". A few pixelated frames in the first few minutes but it smoothed right out.

MrsZ's laptop connected fine.

It's been a few hours with data going on and off, browsing and chatting and so forth, and the connection has remained steady.

I think this MAY be a win.

(The old wire I pulled out was just plain hideous. Kinks, bends, weird turns, and the insulation was stiff/crackly in places. Pretty clearly the base issue.)

DSL Update, Again

I opened the demarc yesterday afternoon and connected the DSL modem directly to the test jack therein.

Solid stable connection (and 50% faster) than via the house wiring.

Guess I'm re-pulling the line from the demarc to the junction block in the cellar. If I'm careful this won't be too bad - I just have to be sure I have the new wire solidly connected to the old one and pull gently.

KobaMaru products

Trying again via CafePress.

DSL Adventures

When we bought our house, it was listed with "high speed internet available". We neglected to ask just what the source of that internet was. Turns out it was satellite. Given the reviews I've seen, that was a non-starter.

We tried dial-up for a while, and it was so frustrating (25-28k connections) that I preferred to have NO internet than a horribly unreliable connection.

Verizon had spotty service but we tried a mobile hotspot via cellular. The Palm phone I had worked sometimes. The tablet I have now works better but still isn't 100%; certainly not enough for streaming anything and high ping times.

At the end of December the phone company sent us a letter saying DSL would be available soon. I called and put my name on a list for notification. They called earlier this month and we got on the install list...

This past Saturday, the tech arrived, asked where we wanted the modem, and plugged in the filter and modem. It took a minute but did connect. The wireless router I had (a Belkin product) flatly refused to work properly.

I took the router back to BestBuy and came home with a Netgear, which connects to the laptop and modem with no issues... but the modem won't stay connected.

Given that we've had some issues with static on the phone lines, I decided that the first step would be running a clean line from the Demarcation Point to the jack we're using. It's been a while, but phone wiring is pretty easy - just match colors. Whoever ran the lines in the house in the past had done some funky stuff, but it was easy to drop all but the one run I needed. That wire was verging on antique, so I pulled it out and ran a fresh piece of Cat5e with a new jack on the end. (I wasn't able to get to the DMP, as the wire to it runs in a crawlspace too small for Kate Moss - but the junction block it feeds is easy to get to and the wire looked good.)

Plugged in the modem and router and it connected almost instantly and stayed connected for a solid 30 minutes. I thought I was home-free. Cleaned up, put away my tools, and found that the modem had dropped connection and wouldn't reconnect.

Picked up the phone and sure enough, heavy static on the line. By this time it was dark and windy and going outside to fiddle with the DMP seemed like a bad idea. I'll poke at it again this afternoon. Once I know I've got clean lines from the DMP to my jack, it becomes the phone company's problem. If the DMP has a test jack, I'll plug the modem in directly...

While it was working, results were favorable - a solid 1.5-1.7Mb download speed, and Hulu worked fine.

(Also noted some reviews indicating heat issues with the modem they provided, so that's worth considering as well...)

It's been a while since I've done this stuff professionally, but it all comes back. ;-)

No bumper stickers...

Zazzle claims that the previously posted design violates intellectual property rights. (And claims that they were contacted by the holder of said rights. I find the idea of Paramount jumping on it THAT fast to be unlikely.)

I believe it arguably falls under fair use, but it's not a fight I'm going to get into.

Sorry, kids.

I've made my decision

I've watched debates, read the pundits, examined the platforms, and I've decided.

Want the bumper sticker? Maybe here?

Pain is...

... watching the counter clerk at Dick's try to explain the difference between steel cased, brass cased, and remanufactured brass case...

Through a language barrier.

That's a conversation I wasn't going to touch.

Thanks, BobS

Bob knocks this one out of the park.

The walls, much to the neighbors regret, never could contain the Retro Family  Intercom system “HEY KIDS, GET DOWN HERE FOR SUPPER NOW”, “MOM, WHERE ARE MY SHOES”, etc.

Things lately have made me re-evaluate portions of my life, and one thing has become evident: a house is four walls and a roof. A home is made by the people in it.

Mom has a piece of needlepoint framed and hanging on the wall at their house:
"Home is where you hang your heart."


Amen.

Low-traffic "blogger" here

I'm behind the curve on linking to this on my blog. Must be part of the reason I have low traffic. (And I do. Unless I get an Unclelanche or AGirlLanche I average 40-50 unique visits a day.)

I originally found this mess from a link at Uncle's place.

I put a few comments in there, and I stand by them. I actually do acknowledge both sides of the argument: there's doubtless people who DO put up a domain and then register for a media pass and start begging for T&E stuff.

And there are a lot of us who don't do that. I have a domain (http://www.zercool.com) - it points right back here - and have had that same domain registered for eight or ten years now. I've been blogging in one form or another since 1999. Yes, for serious. The old archives are long gone from the internet as hosts have collapsed and my machines have been sidelined. I could probably dredge up the old posts if I really wanted to, but most of it is early-20-something drama and angst and re-reading it makes me cringe.

I launched this blog back in May of 2009 after a short hiatus from writing. It's not all-guns-all-the-time. I write about what's going on in my life. My opinions of damn near anything. Goofy shit our goats or chickens or cats do. And yes, guns, ammo, gear, survival, and all the other stuff that keeps people coming back.

Guess how much I get paid doing it?

I got three boxes of ammo from the guys at LG in exchange for a review... and then told them I wasn't interested in doing more reviews, for multiple reasons. One was their duplicitous business model, and the other was perhaps more important: I didn't enjoy it*.

I got two holsters from Dennis at Dragon Leatherworks in exchange for a review. (One of them was never reviewed here, but was discussed extensively with Dennis as he tried to perfect his designs.)

I took a check from Sportsmans Guide for a year of a link as they did some SEO stuff - and that is since gone from the sidebar as the year I agreed to is up.

I am just ROLLING in the dough, obviously.

I'm not out there asking for T&E guns, because (a) my readership isn't that big, (b) NY's gun laws suck, and (c) as mentioned above, I don't enjoy it.

Farmer Frank has a pretty good write-up on how things work in the publishing world. And I accept that. If I was being sent a gun to review and I shredded it, I wouldn't expect that manufacturer to be real happy with me or want to send me another one. If I was being ad-supported, yes, they may well yank ad revenue.

At the same time, I take issue with a point he makes:

You don't suffer a thing for pissing off that manufacturer or his public relations manager and you go merrily on your way thinking you are the next great Col. Askins, Elmer Keith or whomever of gun reviews.  

...  the poor (literally) blogger types with the end result being they are "Holier than thou" as to their objective-ness and fairness in terms of their product reviews on their respective blogs.   

I don't think I'm any of those things. I'm just some guy who pounds out his thoughts on a keyboard, with no editor looking over my shoulder, and writes what he feels. I'm not a great marksman, or a competitive shooter of note, or even much of a great photographer.

 Poor? Perhaps. Holier-than-thou? No, not really. What I am is Everyman. When I buy a new piece of equipment, I read reviews. Amazon. Midway. Tam. Jay. And everyone else I can find. Because my poor ass can't afford to waste money on products that suck. If I buy something and it sucks, I'm not afraid to say so. I don't want someone making the same mistake I did. I'll tell you why I made that evaluation, too. (See laserlyte.)

I'd like to think I'm pretty objective about things. Sure, I get biased about stuff; it's human nature. But I'll use Glocks as an example. I hate strongly dislike don't care for them. Why? Because they don't fit my hand right. Mechanically, they're a hell of a gun. There's a reason they are so popular. If someone asks me for a gun recommendation, I won't hesitate to say that Glock makes a good gun. But I will qualify it with a sidenote that I personally don't care for them.

I don't think Frank W. James or Jeff Quinn are whores. I think they're guys making a living (or at least some money) doing something that's pretty damn cool. At the same time, I take what they say with a grain of salt, because they are making money on it. And I balance their opinions against the other bloggers I know, who, like me, are spending their own money on products.

Should I be at a trade show like SHOT? Good question. If I were invited/approved to go, I'd certainly try to make it. I think Jay and the rest of the 600 bloggers they approved this year will come back with some nifty news from a unique perspective.

Unfortunately, Paul Helinski over at GunsAmerica thinks there's no-way, no-how those pesky New Media types should be allowed in to his holy-of-holies trade show. And he said so in comments on that above-linked post. And late last night, he double-downed with this gem:

Alas, I have to get on a plane in the morning and will be working 16 hour days for the next week, so I will not be able to be as lively in this discussion as I would like. But please understand that I didn't mean any disrespect for the couple dozen real bloggers out there who have been hard charging for many years out there, nor was I suggesting that just us and Jeff Quinn be allowed into media day. Some of the comments about this post came up in my google notifications, and some of the people whining about what I said are just the people who would be included in what I suggested, because they have been blogging for many years and have thousands of readers per month, they attend the blogger conventions and have been active in the gun blogger community.  I was talking about the guys who installed wordpress and registered a domain a month before the show, or "blog" three times per year for a print magazine website that has 16 people visiting it every month, and who **will not** post anything about media day or the show. Jeff knows what I am talking about and I am surprised you don't.  I suggested at the end of last year that NSSF google around and see who actually did post blog stuff about the show to qualify them for media day next year.
Please say Hi if you are going to media day, or stop by the booth.   If you mention this post you get a t-shirt you can burn in efigy for a youtube video due to your outrage at my inflammatory and just plain not nice comments.  We are booth 1925.  -ph

Got that? He didn't mean you real bloggers, he meant those other bloggers who don't really blog.

 I have never done business with GunsAmerica before. I had clicked in to their site a few times and found it awkward and overly busy. The unbelievable arrogance Paul has displayed in this thread merely guarantees that I will never spend a dime with GunsAmerica.

Congratulations, Paul. You've changed a neutral observer into a vocal detractor.



* - I didn't like doing the ammo review because it wasn't writing for me. I had those boxes of .223 sitting on a shelf staring at me for a couple months before I found free time to get to the range and do something resembling a real test. I'd rather write what I feel like, without any kind of deadline (even a self-imposed one) looming over me. I run this ice cream shop because it entertains me.

I need a hand

In talking with MrsZ over the past few days, one thing has become crystal clear: I've sidelined most of the things I used to really love. And I'm not entirely sure why.

I can point at some things and name a cause. I got thoroughly burned out in the fire service, and then we moved to an area that has a less-active department. I'm still a member but not really active.

I don't have the passion for guns that I used to. Or hunting. Making the time for either seems like an effort.

And... photography.

And that's where I need help.

I haven't picked up my DSLR in months, maybe even years. I'm no Oleg but I used to be a pretty fair shot.

So here's what I want: ask for pictures. Toss it in comments and I'll see what I can do. Any subject. I'll see what I can do.

Rangeless

The range I shoot at had their annual membership/organizational meeting this past Saturday. Annual dues are collected, new keys are issued (the locks change annually), and so forth.

I missed the meeting.

It's not an expensive club to join ($60/yr) and the facilities are spartan but functional: 250yd outdoor range, covered firing line, movable benches, and a 50-foot indoor rimfire range.

It needs some TLC (new roof, some glazing, etc), and there had been some talk of doing just that. No word on whether it's going forward or not.

Right now, however, I'm not sure I'm going to re-up. I only got to the range about eight times in the last year, and that's ... criminal. At the same time, if I don't re-join and want to go ... well, I can't.

Hrmph. I don't care for being rangeless.

With friends like you...

I find strength. Thanks to everyone who commented, emailed, and checked in otherwise last night and today. Things aren't as bleak as they were last night, but there's a long way to go. Thanks again.

Prayers, please

I can't/won't get into details, but I'll take any and all thoughts, prayers, whatever. Thanks.

Safe staring

If you stare too long into the safe, the safe will soon stare back into you...

Or something like that.

I look at the contents of my safe and for the most part I'm happy with them. I've bought a few that didn't really have a purpose outside "that's kinda neat" and I've sold a few that I wish I hadn't (a Mini-14 and the Remington 572 come to mind), but overall I'm pretty happy with what's in there.

That said, there's a few I'd like to shuffle along for things more interesting to me.

For now, it's the Virginian Dragoon. .44Mag, 7-1/2" barrel, stainless, with box, in pretty good condition. Several of you shot this at the Northeast Blogshoot (Dragon, I'm looking at you). It's an accurate gun, and arguably as strong as a Ruger.

But I'm not looking to sell... no, I want trades. Of particular interest:
- ban-compliant AR uppers (or a pre-ban lower)
- M&P compacts, any caliber except .357Sig
- M&P15-22 (ban compliant)

I'm open to any other suggestions, of course. I'm going to be pretty picky about it because I don't HAVE to move things.

Light a ... pipe?

I forgot to take a candle picture last night, and I don't know if I'll have a chance to this afternoon. So instead, you'll have to suffer with this one, which I *did* take last night:



Thanks for the idea, Weerd.

(Connemara 12, M&P9, and a pinch of Ashton's "Smooth Sailing". It was a good night.)

Truck Repairs, again

Last time I had the truck in for an oil change, the tech mentioned that my radiator was low. I'd occasionally gotten a small sniff of hot antifreeze, but never noticed anything obvious. I topped off the radiator, and shortly thereafter noticed a small drip of antifreeze under the truck. Not consistent, not huge, just enough to be terribly annoying. I was adding about a gallon every two weeks. I did check the hoses and connections, and those were all tight.

I finally crawled under the truck and pulled the skid plate (which involved removing the front air dam as well) so I could try to track down the leak. "Somewhere on the radiator" is the best I could come up with. I priced out radiators from the local parts shops and OEM. $250-300 for aftermarket and over $400 for OEM. Ouch.

I dropped a note on ClubFrontier.org looking for advice and someone suggested checking RadiatorBarn.com ... so I did. A lifetime-warranty aftermarket radiator was shortly on its way to my door for about $120. Including shipping. Awesome customer service from those folks and I'd gladly recommend them.

It arrived towards the end of hunting season, and was shuffled to the back of the to-do list. Then the weather got cold and snotty. I have a garage so I can at least be dry while working, but above freezing sounded good too. In the meantime I read what I could find, watched videos on YouTube, and re-read the appropriate sections of the Hayne's manual.

Yesterday afternoon the weather was fine (High 40s and sunny. Sold.) so I decided to jump in. I dragged my tools out to the garage, put the truck up on ramps, and started taking things apart.

Let me tell you this now: the videos on YouTube and the Hayne's book are misleading. And the factory tech manual, which I had the correct chapter of, is written in Engrish and uses circular references. "Section 2: To remove X, see Section 4." *flipflipflip* "Section 4: To remove Y, first remove X." ... and "With lifting and pulling radiator in a rear direction, disassemble lower mount from radiator core support center." (That second one's a verbatim copy/paste, btw.)

That turned into the biggest clusterfuck of a repair project I have experienced in a very long time.

Here's how it went:
- remove the air dam and skid foil
- drain the old radiator
- disconnect the hoses
- remove the top clips on the radiator
- remove the bolts connecting the condenser to the radiator
- remove the bottom bolts on the radiator
- remove the bolts holding the fan shroud on the radiator

At that point it should have been a lift-out, drop-in, reconnect, and done. At least according to everything I read and saw. They all lied to me.

I can't even begin to describe all the steps, but it was resolved by:
- removing the air filter box
- removing the intake tube (clean side of the filter)
- removing the lower fan shroud
- removing the condenser fan
- removing the engine fan blade
- removing the top fan shroud (Yes, AFTER removing both fans inside it. Fun trick and it shredded my arm.)
- wiggling the radiator until it came out
- wiggling the radiator back in
- multiple bouts of swearing at the A/C condenser while trying to line it back up
- get condenser back in, and lose lineup of the radiator in the meantime
- rinse, repeat
- install bolts for radiator to support bracket and condenser to radiator
- put upper fan shroud in place
- reinstall engine fan - blind lining up four bolts
- reinstall condenser fan
- bolt in shroud
- reinstall lower shrow
- reattach top clips, grill clips
- reinstall intake tube
- reinstall air filter box

Make sure there's no leftover screws... nope.
- reconnect upper and lower hoses
- fill
- turn on and run to temp

In all, with a break mid-afternoon for me to swear at things for a while and calm down playing video games, I spent SEVEN HOURS working on this project.

If I ever have to do it again I will be asking a garage what their quote is. A couple hours of shop labor may well be worth the money to NOT do it myself. I managed not to throw tools, break down in tears, or simply light the truck on fire and get something new ... barely.

LaserLyte Followup

I had kind of let this slide by the wayside. In early December I posted an email I'd sent to LaserLyte about their Rear Sight Laser.

A combination of my schedule, the gun shop hours, and them being closed for inventory led to my not retrieving the slide for my M&P until last night - and the defective laser along with it. I'll be sending that off to LaserLyte today, but I wanted to post the reply they gave me last month:

Thank you for your e-mail.  I am very sorry to hear that you have had these issues. You have a one year limited warranty.  I can assure you that all of our lasers go through extensive testing to withstand recoil before released on the market and we do back our product 100%.   We have discontinued all of our Rear Sight Lasers except for our best selling units.  You may send the laser in and we can evaluate it.

I'm no psychic, but "discontinued all..." doesn't have a good ring to it. I checked their site, and the only rear sight lasers they have continued are for Glocks and Springfield XD-series.

Further outcomes will be posted as available...

Ladies, get trained

AGirlAndHerGun is offering up a chance at free training for the ladies out there.

There are reputable gun schools all over the US and she's willing to kick in $300 towards your tuition. For the price of a comment. How hard is that? Can the deal get any sweeter?

...

Actually, it can. I'll sweeten it up if she'll agree (and I'll put this offer in comments over there):
I'll throw in 200 rounds of factory ammo in any one of the following calibers:
9mm
10mm
.40S&W
.45ACP
.38Spl

I'll ship it to the winner in adequate time for the class she chooses to attend. No cash substitution, local laws apply, etc.

Tuition and free ammo. Tough to beat, kids. Go enter.

(Qualifier on the ammo: this will be range-quality FMJ (or lead, if you choose .38) of my choice. If your range/class requires frangible rounds, you're on your own - I'll still send the 200 rounds, but you may not be able to use them for class.)

PS3/GT5

I got a PS3 a few weeks back, and I've been enjoying it. I've never been a huge console gamer, but there are a few games I really enjoy. The Ratchet & Clank series in particular has been a long-standing favorite. Unfortunately, it won't install and/or hangs up during the first level. Emails to Insomniac are thus far unproductive.

So I've been spending my time on Gran Turismo 5. It's billed as one of the most complete racing simulators out there, and I would tend to (mostly) agree with that. The one thing it doesn't have is damage modeling, which means you can smash into the wall at 140mph, hit reverse, and be back up to speed in a tick. But I can overlook that.

Then I ran across the following video from Sony, comparing the Nurburgring simulation to the real thing:


Damn. (Click through and watch it high-def/full-screen.)

(I'd love to get a good force-feedback wheel-and-pedals setup, but have no place to put it.)