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.
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.
“One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”
And since 1974 we haven’t done much more than bunny-hop.
I sincerely hope that Bill Whittle is right.
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?
Some people are just outstanding parents / grandparents. (Hat tip to Daphne) Others should never breed. (Hat tip to U.S. Citizen.)
Discuss.
I get blogfodder.
Mostly Cajun posts on a weekly or biweekly basis a list of the, er, creative names he sees in the birth announcements of his local paper. Here are some baseline examples from that source:
Shane P. & Kendra S. screw up TWO names with their daughter, little Madisyn Cheyanne
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Miss Dellanisha (!) R. has a new son, little Camelo D’Sean.
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And last we have a few people who saw past the end of the alphabet as limiting to their creativity so they kept on going into punctuation:
Justin K. & Christina B bring their son, Ja’Marrick Travon.
Murphy b. & Megan M. present a little girl, Mikira Ja’Nee.
Byron & Venus D. also present a daughter, Breyah D’Nae.
I can beat that. A while back, my sister the school teacher told me about one student in her school that had everyone shaking their heads. Her name is spelled “Le-A.”
How do you pronounce that? Lee-ah?
No.
Lay-ah?
No.
Her mother was furious that her name was such a struggle. “It’s pronounced LEDASHA! The DASH AIN’T SILENT!“
But that’s not the best worst one. No, no! My sister is at a conference this week, and one of the other attendees had to tell everyone about the young boy in her school who will grow up some day to murder his mother in a particularly grisly fashion.
His name is pronounced “Sh-THed.”
It is spelled, of course, “S-H-I-T-H-E-A-D.”
I think I’d be willing to hand him the 2lb. ball-peen hammer myself.
I’m going to bed.
I know I owe one Überpost, but blame it on Torchwood. I’m almost through the series, and I can’t stop watching it, despite all the bad gun-handling and every Hollywood firearm cliché ever used.
Two episodes left!
Update: Holy sh!t.
Happy Birfday to Breda and AepilotJim (assuming they didn’t fudge when filling out their personal information on Skype.
(In case you’re wondering, the title of this post comes from The Nerds.)
Want to know what I did while I was out of town last week? Here’s a (very unflattering) shot of me standing next to a 2200Hp slurry pump. (No, I’m not that fat, it’s the way that damned safety vest hangs with my computer bag hanging off my shoulder.)
There were four of those at the site, all run on large variable-speed drives. I used to apply and sell those drives. Now I specify them, and then make sure they’re installed properly.
We were greeted at Customs by the agent singing “José, Can You See . . . ” No, I’m not kidding – and he was Hispanic. Apparently it’s a running joke between him and one of the pilots, (the José in question).
That was a LONG seven days. Mining towns are not “touristy” even in the States. In rural central Mexico, there’s no pizza, much less a Domino’s. (Considerably better than Domino’s is on its way to me right now.)
I just got off the phone with Ted Brown. My M14 is done. My LaRue Tactical rings were waiting for me when I got home – along with a LaRue Tactical hat, a ‘Dillo “Beverage Entry Tool,” a pocket edition of the Constitution of the United States, and two “God Bless Our Troops… Especially Our Snipers” bumper stickers. LaRue knows how to treat its customers! If I’m lucky I’ll have a range-ready rifle in my hands in time for the long weekend!
UPDATE: Pizza’s here! Nom nom nom . . .
Regular blogging to resume shortly.