Only you can prevent forest

Posted on by

It is unbearably smokey today. The winds picked up and it’s blowing out there pretty strongly. The Lolo fire, which is the one making things so fun to breathe around here, apparently flared back up and we are now in the smokiest air I have seen since the great fires of ’01. In short, it’s some really bad air out there. I’m hiding in my house with all the doors closed to try and mitigate the situation. My basement is the only place with relatively clean air since there’s no access to the outside down there.

There is virtually no vehicle traffic nor pedestrian traffic outside. Its like this place was neutron bombed or something.

=================

Reminder: Paratus is in about two weeks!

Bang, bang, click

Posted on by

Took my DMR-style AR to the range today. Fired about 10 rounds through it and started having problems. Failure to extract/eject. In fact, in many cases the bolt didnt even unlock. Hmmm.

Ok, unload and let’s see whats going on. Pulled the bolt carrier and thought that, since it was new, I hadn’t really lubed it up. So, a quick couple of sprays of CLP and put it back in the gun. No joy.

Disassemble bolt. Aha! Gas rings!

20170903_130229Stagger them properly, re-assemble, no joy.

Alright, now I’m really curious. My buddy is shooting an AR that is also virtually new (less than 50 rounds) so we went ahead and swapped bolt carriers and bolts (yeah, yeah, I know….) Same result. My carrier/bolt worked fine in his gun. Ok, try the ammo. His ammo failed in my gun, my ammo worked fine in his.

Ok, clearly the issue is not in the receiver (upper or lower). It’s gotta be something in the gas system. Couldn’t really do much at the range without proper tools. Came back to the house and took off the forend. Please note this:

20170903_154204Those two screws keep the gas block in place. See how that one is backed out? The other one is also loose. How loose?

20170903_154115.That loose.

“Well there’s yer problem!”

:::sigh::: You know, I have been shooting AR rifles for over thirty years and this is the first time I have ever had anything like this happen. Solution? A dose of Loctite and some torque.

And, really, if I had the proper hex wrenches with me at the range I could have taken care of this right there…so, lesson learned. I’ll head to the range tomorrow to confirm that, indeed, was the problem.

 

Social Security numbers on your arm and those Cold War memories

Posted on by

I’m sure that by now you have read about this little jewel of disaster planning:

A local leader in one coastal Texas community is advising residents who are not evacuating ahead of Hurricane Harvey to mark their names and Social Security numbers on their arms.

The mayor pro tem of Rockport, Texas, said that grim step is necessary to prepare for the worst in case of deaths among people who remain in the area.

“We’re suggesting if people are going to stay here, mark their arm with a Sharpie pen with their name and Social Security number,” Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios said at a news conference this morning.

It’s  a lovely little bit of dramatic hyperbole meant to terrify citizens into heading to the Superdome other locations. Rescuers, he implies, will discover your water-logged corpse and make the identification by the social security number you had the foresight to Sharpie onto your forearms. Which raises an interesting question: why wouldn’t you just write your damn name instead? Do they really think a grieving mom will come down to the makeshift morgue and wail “Where’s my baby? Where’s my sweet 409-52-2002?” Of course not. So, while not as famously stupid as the last southern hurricane mayor’s statement, this one is still pretty silly.

Or…is it?

Did you know that at the height of the Cold War, some school districts issued dogtags to children to make their identification easier in case of that big atomic war that we were all expecting? True story. The fine folks at the NYC Board of Edumacation spent $159,000 (in 1952 money) to tag kids like they were elk. But, apparently, dogtags weren’t the only option.

430D639800000578-4776328-image-a-98_1502309278977At some point, someone suggested tattooing as a means of providing identification for citizens (adult and child) who might get caught up in the blast zone. While dogtags were probably not an easy sell, you can imagine the howling that would have followed if a government actor suggested tattooing the population…especially since this was about ten years after a buncha people already tried that sort of thing. (Trivia: as a kid growing up in Brooklyn in the late 70’s it was not unheard of in the summer to see faded tattoos on the bare arms of older men of certain cultural/religious backgrounds. I specifically recall a barber I went to once who had what was clearly a number tattooed on his forearm.)

All the articles I found on the subject were aghast at the concept of issuing dogtags to kids for the purpose of identifying their bodies. Apparently the snowflakes at Slate and similar venues feel that a better choice is for a parent to be denied closure and the comfort of knowing the final disposition of their child.

Nowadays, people take the tattooing thing way too far. There was a point in my lifetime where only a certain kind of woman had a tattoo, and if a man had a tattoo he probably also had a military career behind it. Now kids get tattooed to the point of looking like a comic book.

Even a decade after Katrina, there were still a couple dozen bodies that were unidentified….a big improvement from the 1000 that they started with.

For me, the issue of identification is a non-starter. Even in my day-to-day life I refuse to carry ID. If I die, I’m sure there will be plenty of evidence laying around to let people know who I was (or am, i suppose). But, back in the Cold War days it was a different story, I suppose.

 

Ruger bolt gun that takes Mini-30 mags

Posted on by

Ruger announced today that they will be adding a new chambering to their Ruger American Ranch line up – 7.62×39! The new Ruger American Rifle Ranch 7.62×39 will feature the same 16.12″ medium contour, threaded, hammer forged barrel found other American Rifle Ranch offerings. It feeds from Mini-30 magazines and weighs in at under 6 pounds.

This interests me on several levels. Even though the days of $100 cases of 7.62×39 are long gone, there’s still plenty of 7.62 AK ammo to be had. Ruger used to offer the 77 in this caliber and I really would like one, but a bolt fun that takes a (somewhat) readily available magazine? Yes please.

Purpose? Well, you can hunt with an AK or SKS, of course…I’ve seen it done. But a nice bolt action with a decent scope would probably serve better, and if you’re already stocking the AK round why not streamline logistics?

I’ll be getting one (or three) of these as soon as my vendors have them.

Sonny Landham of “Predator” fame passes at 76.

Posted on by

I just found out that Sonny Landham died about a week or so ago.

Who, you ask? Why, ‘Billy’ from Predator. You know, the guy who “wouldn’t wish that on a broke dick dog” and “We’re all gonna die.”

Sonny Landham, the Native American actor who costarred in action films Predator and 48 Hrs., has died at the age of 76.

According to his sister, Landham died from congestive heart failure in a hospital in Lexington, KY, the AP reports.

Beginning his career in adult films and stunt work, Landham transitioned into acting work in the late 1970s, often drawing on his Cherokee and Seminole ancestry to portray characters of Native American descent.

His mainstream movie debut was a minor role as a subway policeman in Walter Hill’s 1979 film, The Warriors. Based on that performance, Hill cast him in his first major role as Billy Bear, one of the criminals being tracked by Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. 

Landham’s most memorable role came opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, portraying another Billy — Billy Sole, the Native American tracker in Predator.

There’s a handful of action movies that are so over the top that they are classics. “Predator” was easily one of them.

Article – Bomb shelter business booms as Trump and North Korea posture

Posted on by

The showdown that pits North Korea’s Kim Jong Un against Donald Trump has once again raised the specter of nuclear annihilation. And that has done wonders for the bomb shelter industry.

Sales and inquiries have spiked, according to several of the U.S. companies that make money from doomsday fears.

“The increase in demand is everywhere. We are getting hundreds of calls,” said Ron Hubbard, president of Atlas Survival Shelters, a firm based in Montebello, California. Inquiries have slowed down as tensions have eased over the last week, but Hubbard said he still expects to have a banner year, selling 1,000 shelters at an average price of $25,000 each.

Man, the guy that runs that shelter company gets interviewed on a regular basis every few years. it seems. Next up will be some ‘news’ article about old missile silos being repurposed or something about that Vivos outfit.

I Kinda like the cylindrical shelters, but if it were me I’d put them above ground, build a crib around it, and surround it with concrete…underground shelters just seem like a recipe for headaches with water and sanitation issues. I’d rather have an aboveground shelter, cage it in a couple feet of concrete, and then slap some earth over it to blend it into the landscape.

Katrina II?

Posted on by

So there’s a hurricane beating on Texas that is sparking all sortsa comparisons to Katrina. Anyone remember that? I remember thinking that Katrina was going to be the paradigm by which disaster responses (and disasters themselves) were benchmarked by for the next few decades. And, so far, I’ve been right.

I expect the AAR’s from people to start showing up on the usual forums soon. I’m especially curious to see if local governments have learned anything since then regarding these huge events. To be fair, Texas actually has some pretty decent emergency management, and Louisiana isn’t exactly known for its ‘can do’ attitude.

Of course, there’ll also be the footage of people sitting on rooftops and being roped out of flooded cars as they ask why officials don’t “do something”.

Two kindsa people…the prepared and the unprepared. No surprise which camp will fare better in this thing.

Paratus reminder

Posted on by

Don’t forget, guys…,.This year Paratus falls on September 15th. You’ve got about three weeks to get your gifts lined up.

Also, this is, I think, the third or fourth year of Paratus. Let’s get it some recognition. Ask your online vendors if they’re having Paratus Day sales. Mention it in your blog. Start nagging Hallmark to make cards. Get your friends (and me) something nice.

It’s a fine holiday, with noble intentions, in need of more acceptance among the masses.

Article – Hurricane Harvey Hysteria: Customers Fight as Stores Sell out of Water

Posted on by

I can’t believe I’m linking to an Alex Jones article, but…

U.S. residents living on the Gulf Coast are hitting grocery stores searching for water and other essentials before a potentially life-threatening hurricane makes landfall.

The National Weather Service forecasts Tropical Storm Harvey will be upgraded to a major hurricane by Friday, “bringing life-threatening storm surge, rainfall, and wind hazards to portions of the Texas coast.”

A photo from a Sam’s Club in Corpus Christi depicts a long check-out line full of people, with a caption reading, “Waiting to buy water for #Harvey.“

Here’s the part Im having a hard time with: why are you buying water? Does the tap in your house no longer work? I mean, I recognize the convenience of 20-oz bottles of water, but whats the big deal if the stores are out of it? Fill some five-gallon jerry cans from your tap and call it good. Then fill your empty bottles from that if you need to.

And if you live in hurricane country why don’t you already have a large chunk of this taken care of?

At the moment, I’ve got something like 50 gallons of treated water set back, and a couple flats of bottled water. My need to go stand in line with the panicked creatures of WalMart? Zero.