The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
Robb Allen sent me a link today that, along with a column from Thomas Sowell, should have inspired me to an extended post, but I’m just not feelin’ it today. Wasn’t yesterday either.
It’s 7:45. I think I’m going to bed. And tonight I’m locking the damned cat OUT of the bedroom.
The people on JournoList claim they were just social networking, so let’s start calling it SociaList — Jim Treacher, Daily Caller
(Other than that, I got nothin’ for you today. I’m working 6:30AM to 6:00PM, and when I get home I read the blogs and the ‘toons, and I go to bed.)
Saturday I made a trip to the range with the M25 and the 5R, and today was my 15th wedding anniversary.
The reloading problem is taken care of, as is the scope mounting issue, but my first handloads for the M25 weren’t all that stellar. I also tried out some new handloads for the .38 Super. Berry’s 124 grain hollowpoints don’t work very well with the feedramp on the Witness. 1,300fps though, and nice, tight little groups when it did feed.
I did Vicious Circle Thursday night, and got all gun-geeky afterward with Aepilotjim discussing handloads. I’m a little concerned that the loads I’m testing are a bit too stressful for the M25. I started off with 45.5 grains of Reloder 15 in a Lake City “LR” case – the case used for the M118LR round – under the Lapua Scenar 155 grain BTHP, touched off by a CCI #34 military primer. It’s a very slightly compressed load, and if my chronograph is to be believed it yielded an average velocity of 2890fps and a standard deviation of 16.4 out of the M25, and 2920fps and a standard deviation of 10.8 out of the 5R.
My standard load for the 5R is 46.4 grains of RL-15, same bullet, Lapua case and CCI benchrest primers. THAT load over the same chronograph, produces 2790fps out of the 5R with a Sd of less than 10fps. The difference being that the latter load out of the 5R typically groups well under 1MOA at 200 yards. (I busted some rocks out at a laser-measured 650 yards just for fun with that load.) The Lake City-cased load grouped about 1.75MOA. Out of the M25, a bit over 2MOA.
Part of the performance difference, both velocity and accuracy, may be reduced case volume due to the use of a small-base sizing die and military brass (the M118LR brass is not supposed to be as thick as standard Lake City 7.62 brass, but still). The smaller case dimensions after sizing may also adversely affect bore concentricity out of the 5R, too. The military “magnum” primer probably has some effect as well. However, Jim pointed out that Reloder 15 is a much slower powder than is normally recommended for the Garand/M-14 gas piston design. I did a little research previously, and the standard powder for the M118LR load is Reloder 15, but in the Sandbox they discovered that high temperatures were causing the standard load to be too hot for the M-14 based rifles, and this resulted in bent op-rods. The correction was to reduce the powder charge. The M118LR uses a 175 grain Sierra Matchking bullet. I’m using a 155 grain bullet, and pushing it a LOT faster. Hmmm….
The plan is to try to find one load that both rifles like. That might not be possible, I acknowledge, but it’s my intention to try.
I got to work today at my standard 6:30AM starting time. (Normal work-week is 7-4:30 M-Th, 7-11 on Friday. I generally work 6:30-5:00 M-Th, 6:30-11:30 on Friday.) At 9:30 AM we started a vendor meeting. I didn’t get out of it until 5:30. We even had lunch delivered and kept on working.
I’m burned out. No blog for you.
One of the things the Gun Blogger’s Rendezvous does is raise money for a very deserving charity – Project Valour-IT. For today’s quote of the day, some words from the founder of that charity, Maj. Chuck Zeigenfuss, who does not care for journalist Michael Yon all that much:
You recently said you couldn’t adopt a kid because you couldn’t return to war. Guess what, Mikey? I go to war because of my family, because I want them to live in a better world. This is me after 34 reconstructive surgeries (and more to go.) Guess what else, Mikey, I am going back to war, Again. I am going to go back to Iraq right before Christmas. How do you think the kids will enjoy that, considering last time daddy went away, he died several times before coming home? I know sacrifice, but not like they do. You, mikey, have no idea what personal sacrifice means. If you write her a nice letter, maybe my 7-year old daughter could explain it to you.
THAT left a mark! There’s very much more, along with some pretty graphic graphics, but I strongly recommend the entire piece. I’ve met the Major at GBRs II, III and IV. He is a very no-bullshit guy. He and his family are currently stationed in Hawaii as he prepares for his upcoming deployment to Iraq, living in insufficient housing, and unable to get sufficient housing before he ships out. Anybody over there able to help him out?
. . . this blog will record its two millionth site hit. As of 9:30 this evening:
Thanks, y’all!
Since I’m not currently holding up my end of the bargain here: The Best Blog Post and Comment Thread EVER.
It’s a classic.
Disgraced ‘Historian’ Michael Bellesiles’ Fishy War Story
In his Chronicle of Higher Education article he reports teaching a course in U.S. military history last semester, 18th century to the present, and the disturbing traumatic suffering of a student he calls Ernesto. Ernesto’s brother, Javier, had recently enlisted in the Army, and as the semester progressed was sent to Iraq, saw combat, was shot in the head by a sniper (too seriously to be evacuated to the Army’s medical facilities in Germany), and after some weeks died.
Wait, I thought it was Javier that was crying . . .
(For those who don’t get it, you don’t read the comments enough.)
Read the whole peice. Bellesiles really does have a teaching position at Central Connecticut State University, but the rest of the article is … interesting.
UPDATE 7/7: Jim Lindgren follows up over at The Volokh Conspiracy
Work and allergies are kicking my @$$. I get up tired, and I come home tired, and blogging is suffering thereby. I’ve added to the upcoming Überpost, but it’s still a long way from finished. (Remember when I said that James couldn’t be a better opponent? How little did I understand how right I was. But the consequence of that is the sheer volume of stuff I have to work through and the research I have to do.)
Anyway, don’t expect to see much here for a bit. The free ice cream machine is on the fritz. Again.
Sturgeon’s Law says that “90% of everything is crap.” It can be said that “crap is in the eye of the beholder,” but I’d agree that Sturgeon’s law is pretty much undeniable, especially when it comes to the Blogosphere. Technorati, for example, tracks well over 50 million blogs, and says that only about 4% of those are “professional” – the rest being run by people as a hobby rather than a business. Still, ten percent of a million is 100,000, so there’s a lot of good content out there.
But, as with everything, there are some far-edge-of-the-bell-curve extraordinary flawless gems.
Gerard Van der Leun’s American Digest is one of those. His blog has been at the top of my “True Excellence” blogroll since I first stumbled upon it several years ago. AD just turned seven, which is (as I’ve said) like 49 in blog years. Here’s an example of the reason Gerard’s site is one of the best in the ‘sphere: PUDDY: The Gift. Go read. Have some Kleenex handy. And read the comments, especially. All the way to the bottom.