Kel-Tec RDB Rifle

I did some trading last night at Surplus City and came home with a Kel-Tec RDB 5.56mm bullpup rifle. (I actually went there with the intention of ordering an FN PS90. Maybe next time.)  SC was asking $950. I traded in my CZ-52, Bulgarian Makarov, Ruger SP101, Pietta SAA, and Springfield XD-9, none of which I'd fired in years. He gave me $1000 trade in value, so I also got 500 rounds of CCI .22 Short HV to run through my Remington 550-1.

Kel-Tec gives the OAL as 27.3" with its 17.3" barrel. The weight unloaded is 6.7 lbs. The barrel is 1:7" twist. There's a long, T-marked M-1913 Picatinny rail on top but it comes without any sights. I am debating what kind of optic to mount, but it will probably be something along the lines of a 1-4x variable, not just a red dot.


The RDB is a new design, although the bolt itself is very Stoner-ish and it takes AR15 magazines. It came with one 20-round MagPul P-Mag, an owner's manual, and a sling.

There are numerous sling mounting points for the hook-style attachments. In the pic above I had it mounted as a 2-point sling but I later switched it to a single-point using the swivel located in front of the middle takedown pin.

It's a long-stroke, gas piston design. The gas is adjustable to account for variations in ammo or the amount of crud in the gun. However, reviews I've seen state that very little fouling gets into the action. Empties eject out the bottom, through a port behind the magazine well.

The action is very simple and breaks down with only something to drive out the takedown pins. (They may loosen up over time.)

As a southpaw, the best part to me is that it's totally ambidextrous except for the HK MP5-ish charging handle. It can be reversed without tools. All I had to do was field strip the rifle and then put it in the other way when I reassembled. My initial impression of the rifle is that the ergonomics are outstanding.

Because of the long linkage between the trigger and the rest of the firing mechanism, most bullpups have lackluster trigger pulls. Not so in the case of the RDP. It's actually pretty good with some takeup but it's only around 5 pounds.

Between the adjustable gas system, the lack of fouling in the action, and having the ejection port on the bottom of the rifle so gas gets vented downward, it's supposed to be an awesome suppressor host.

In typical Kel-Tec fashion, they are scarce as hen's teeth, though. Kel-Tec announced it a few years ago but they just started shipping in 2016. They are still really hard to find in shops although there are a bunch on Gunbroker.

MAC posted a nice, in-depth review of a pre-production sample on YouTube in 2015:

I should be able to take it out in the next week or two and will post a follow up after I am able to shoot it.

Nazis vs. Communists: Who's Worse?

In the wake of the protest/riot last week in Charlottesville, I am seeing a lot of condemnation of the Nazis and people denying that the Antifa counter-protesters are just as bad.

How about we look at some history and numbers?

First of all, we need to understand that Antifa are avowed communists. Let me repeat that, they are COMMUNISTS. You know, the people we fought the Cold War against. We allied with the Soviet Union during World War 2 against a common enemy, but let's not delude outselves that they were any better than the Nazis. The numbers doesn't lie.

The top five murdering governments of the 20th Century were:

1. People's Republic of China (1949 - 87): 76,702,000
2. USSR: (1917 - 87): 61,911,000
3. Colonialism (1900 - ?): 50,000,000
4. Nazi Germany (1933 - 45): 20,946,000
5. China under the Kuomintang (1928 - 49): 10,075,000

So yeah, communists are not just as bad as Nazis when it comes to people killed, they are actually worse.

But, the Nazis are racist!!!!! No shit. So were a lot of communists. Google "Holodomor," the Soviet genocide of Ukrainians in 1932 - 33.

If you're wearing your hipster cool Che shirt, you're wearing the face of a racist, homophobic, murderer who helped establish a dictatorship on your chest. Knock that shit off.

Look, does it really matter if you were murdered because you were Jewish or gay or if you were a member of the bourgeoisie? YOU'RE STILL DEAD.

Nazis are scum. Communists are scum. When they are fighting, stand back and avoid aligning yourself with assholes on either side.

Here's the source for my numbers above: https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

Mossberg 500 Super Bantam Shotgun

My 13 year old daughter wants to come hunting with me this year and needed a suitable shotgun. Today, we went to the local Dick's Sporting Goods and picked up this 20 gauge Mossberg 500 Super Bantam for ~$325 + PA's 6% sales tax.

I actually had her try out the Mossberg 510 youth model in .410 bore but she's already outgrown it. That's good because the 20 gauge will throw significantly more shot and 20 gauge slugs are adequate for deer.

Both the stock and forearm are synthetic. The stock is currently setup with a 12" length of pull but it included a spacer to increase it to 13". If she needs a longer LOP it will accept adult-sized stocks. The stock has a good, thick recoil pad on it.

The 22" barrel is threaded for choke tubes. It came with the modified tube in place. Using the included wrench, I swapped that out for improved cylinder. It also comes with a full choke tube. The barrel is topped with a white bead up front and a brass middle bead.

At 5.25 lbs. unloaded it won't be hard for her to carry afield. Heck, that weighs less than her school bag on most days. The stock has a place to attach a sling swivel but the gun didn't come with a stud for the front. So, I found one on eBay and it should hopefully be here by the end of the week. It will thread into an existing hole on the barrel mounting screw. I also ordered an inexpensive sling with swivels and an Outers cleaning kit.

The magazine came plugged so that the only way to load it was singly through the ejection port. The manual states that once your new shooter learns gun safety you can shorten the plug (a dowel) to 9", to allow up to two shells in the magazine. I did so, since my kid is not new to shooting. (Frankly, if they aren't safe to handle a manually operated gun with 3 shells in it, they aren't safe to handle a single shot.)

The unplugged magazine capacity is six 2-3/4" shells. I have some Federal 20 gauge #3 buckshot with which I'll pattern it. It would make a nice home defense shotgun.

Aside from hunting, this will be a good shotgun to introduce my daughter to trap and sporting clays.

Of note, Mossberg has a similar gun in their economy-oriented Maverick line. However, spending more money on the 500 was worth it to us because the Maverick uses a right-handed cross-bolt safety instead of the Mossberg's ambidextrous tang safety. I'm a lefty and my kid is left-eye dominant, and hence shoots portside.

I'll post a follow up after we get the chance to shoot it.

Did A Little Air Rifle Shooting Yesterday

Yesterday I went to my friend Nick's place, outside of Pottstown, PA to do some shooting. Nick owns about 8 acres and we're able to shoot pistols, shotguns, .22s, and airguns without disturbing the neighbors.

After running some buckshot and slugs through my home defense Mossberg 500 Mariner, we changed over to air rifles. Nick has an RWS Diana Model 50 .177 underlever that he bought when we were in high school or college, 30 - 35 years ago.

The Diana Model 50 is a really nice shooter. It cocks via an underlever and you load the pellets via a rotating tap at the breech. Nick used to have a peep sight on it, but now that we're both closing in on 50 irons aren't nearly as easy to use as a scope, so he put a Hammers airgun rated scope on it. It has a mildot reticle and the optics seem decent, but as a cheap scope I'll be interested in seeing how well it holds up. I shot the Model 50 a little and once I determined where it was hitting for me, I was able to plink empty 12 gauge hulls from a rest at about 30 yards.

I brought along my RWS Model 34 .177 that I got in the mid-90s. It came as a combo kit with a POS 4x32mm RWS scope. I had replaced that with a Bushnell Trophy 6-18x50mm scope but was never really pleased with the combination. With the big Bushnell installed it's a heavy beast. A year or two ago I'd zeroed the rig for about 28 yards, the distance to my back fence when shooting out the window from my dining room table. (I had a problem with birds eating the grass seed on a bare patch in my yard. They needed discouragement.)

Anyway, when shooting yesterday my rifle was shooting really low and when I tried to raise elevation it didn't seem to work, so I'm thinking the scope may have bit the dust.

Last night I went to Amazon and ordered a UTG 3-9x32mm Bugbuster compact, air rifle rated scope, along with a UTG 11mm rail to Weaver adapter that compensates for barrel droop. The rail is intended for the RWS 34 and has a part that hangs over the front of the factory rail, to prevent rearward movement.

From reading reviews of the scope on Amazon and Pyramid Air it looks like it'll work out well, and the rifle will handle a lot better without the ginormous Bushnell mounted on it.

I should have them this week and hope to go back out to Nick's to try it next weekend.

Restored Knight Kit Ocean Hopper Radio

I posted a few years ago about this receiver originally built by my father in 1967.

A co-worker of mine with better soldering skills than me replaced the main capacitor and brought it back to life.

The round white thing with wire wrapped around it is a tuning coil. To switch bands you swap out the coils. I currently have one for 40M in the radio but have others around here somewhere that I need to find.

I fired it up tonight for the first time since getting it back and was able to pull in a shortwave station from South Carolina, some Spanish language broadcasts, what must've been distant AM stations (judging by them playing Phil Collins and Manfred Mann), and finally, China Plus News from Beijing. Tuning in a station required you to futz with all the knobs on the front. It makes you appreciate modern digital tuning. Heck, it makes you appreciate superheterodyne receivers!

The antenna I have it connected to the Ultimax-100 40-6M end fed on my roof, which is setup as a N-S sloper. I cut a piece of lamp cord, stripped the ends, and put an alligator clip on one end. I connected the bare end to the Fahnestock clip on the radio and the alligator clip to the center conductor of my antenna feed coax.

Fun stuff.

Saturday Night Range Report

Last night I hit the range with Dad and put some more rounds through the Ruger SR22 along with my CZ P-09.

I put around 75 Remington Golden Bullet hollow points, 100 Golden Bullet solids, and about 60 Federal 550 bulk pack hollow points through the Ruger. The gun didn't have any malfunctions that weren't related to ammo. To wit:

--Four of the Golden Bullets required a second hit to ignite.
--Three of the Federals required second hits.
--One of the Golden Bullet cases split and needed to be pushed out with a cleaning rod.

This batch of Golden Bullets seems especially bad. Previous range trips in which I've shot a couple hundred rounds of it had no more than one misfire per trip.

That's the most problems I've ever experienced in one range session with .22 ammo. When folks point to the unreliability of rimfire ammo as one reason .22s aren't suitable for defense (ballistics aside), this is what they're referring to.

In contrast, I've experienced exactly one misfire with CCI .22 rimfire ammo, among thousands fired.

The Remingtons seemed loaded hotter than the Federals, something I've noticed before. They also spit a lot more -- after virtually every shot I felt unburned powder granules on my face. I won't be using it when teaching my daughter to shoot.

I continue to be pleased with the Ruger SR22. The SA trigger is smoothing out, although the DA pull remains long, heavy, and has a lot of creep.

My round count through the CZ was much lower. I ran one 50-round box of Speer 124 grain Gold Dot JHPs through it as a function check. My dad also put 30 rounds of Fiocchi 9mm 115 grain ball through it. As expected, it worked fine. The pistol has over 500 rounds through it so far without any issues.

Dad brought his S&W Model 67 with some .38 Special 158 grain LSWC handloads and his S&W SW9VE, aka the "Smegma." The SW9VE is an economy gun but gets a bad rap because it isn't as refined as the M&P. Dad's has been trouble free for over 1,000 rounds.

More Range Time with the Ruger SR22

My daughter and I hit the range yesterday and brought along "her" Ruger SR22. I put 20 CCI SV rounds through it.  She shot it unsuppressed, so I had her use Remington Golden Bullet high speed brass-plated hollow points.

Golden Bullets don't have a very good reputation for quality but as of a couple years ago Remington seems to have improved them. They run well and give good accuracy in my Remington Nylon 77 and 550-1, so I wanted to see how the Ruger would handle them.

My kid put at least 150 Golden Bullets through the Ruger. We had one failure to go into battery that was resolved by bumping the back of the slide, and one misfire. After trying a second hit, then ejecting the misfire and rotating it 180 degrees, it went off. This isn't unusual with cheap bulk .22 ammo.

I'm happy to see the Ruger function well with the Golden Bullets. They were one of the few types of .22 ammo I was able to lay in a good supply of during the 0bama years.

Ruger SR22

I've recently been considering acquiring a second compact .22 autoloading pistol. A few years ago I picked up an Israeli surplus Beretta Model 71 Jaguar, which is a really nice shooter. However, factory magazines are unobtanium and if something breaks, I'm probably SOL.

This Father's Day I was given $100 in Cabela's gift cards, which I used last week towards the purchase of a Ruger SR22. The specific model I got is the 3604, which sports 3.5" threaded barrel.

About 5 or 6 years ago, Ruger introduced the SR22 which is a small DA/SA .22 semiauto pistol styled much like the Walther P22 (which in turn looks like a scaled-down P99). The Ruger has a much better reputation for reliability and durability, according to what I've seen online.

First some stats, then shooting impressions.

• Action: Semiautomatic, blowback, with double action/single action trigger.
• Safety: Combination safety/decocker
• Hammer: External
• Barrel: Stainless steel, 3.5" long with muzzle threaded to accept a 1/2x28 coupler*.
• Sights: Three-dot dovetailed into the slide. Rear is adjustable for windage and elevation.
• Weight: 17.5 oz.
• OAL: 6.4"
• Height" 4.9"
• Width: 0.97"
• Frame: Polymer with interchangeable grip sleeves.
• Slide material: Aircraft aluminum, anodized black.

From Ruger's North Carolina factory, the pistol shipped with a chamber flag in place, two 10-round magazines, two extra magazine baseplates to replace the pinky rests installed on the mags, a lock, the thread coupler, and a wrench for the coupler. A thread protector was screwed onto the barrel. It came off with moderate force using the wrench.

It also shipped with two interchangeable grip sleeves. Mine was fitted with the one that has a palm swell. I have fairly small hands and it fits me well. My 13 year old daughter also liked how the gun felt.

And of course, it came with an owner's manual, literature about the NRA, and a couple Ruger stickers.

Before shooting the Ruger I field stripped and lubricated it with some FP-10, since it was bone dry.

Field stripping and reassembly is straightforward. Certainly a lot easier than my Mark III 22/45 Lite. To field strip, unload the pistol, drop the hammer using the decocker, and then open the takedown latch in front of the trigger. The slide can then be pulled up and to the rear, off the frame rails, and then slipped forward over the muzzle. Note that the thread coupler has a flange around it that will prevent the slide from slipping forward over the barrel. If the coupler is installed it must be removed prior to field stripping.

The magazines are easy to load. Each has a thumb button to aid depressing the follower.

I haven't shot it for groups yet but did get a couple hundred rounds through it while plinking at a few old hard drives and a self-healing rubber target. The first 95 were CCI Standard Velocity rounds shot through my Form 1 suppressor. I also put a lone CCI CB Long through the can, which as you'd imagine was very quiet. The remainder were Federal Automatch high speeds shot unsuppressed. The gun had no malfunctions.

A primary reason for buying the Ruger was to get a pistol that my 13 year old daughter could comfortably hold and shoot. It excels at that and she's trying to claim it as her own after shooting it this weekend. Even with my silencer she's able to hold it steady and frequently hit our plinking targets. My next step will be to get her shooting at paper.

Incidentally, being able to shoot it suppressed is a major advantage when training a new shooter. My can is hearing safe when fired outdoors with standard velocity ammo. Being able to give instruction in a normal conversational voice instead of having to shout to be heard is damn nice. Contact your reps and let's get the Hearing Protection Act passed!

My initial impression, along with my daughter's and that of my friend who shot the SR22 are all extremely favorable. I hope to run a few more different kinds of ammo through it soon, and shoot it on paper to check group size and fine tune the zero (which is pretty much on already).
















*Most modern shooters insist that they be referred to as "suppressors." Their inventor, Hiram Maxim, named them "silencers." Under the National Firearms Act, they are "silencers," even if "suppressor" is a more technically accurate term.

Pi-Top Raspberry Pi Laptop

Earlier this year I learned about the Pi-Top, a kit for turning a Raspberry Pi single board computer into a laptop, from a friend's post on Facebook. A portable RPi-based system is something I've been interested in for awhile, because if it has enough horsepower to run Fldigi, it would make a neat, relatively inexpensive system to run digital modes on ham radio while in the field with low electrical power requirements.

Last weekend I was down at Microcenter in St. David's, PA to return a cell phone car mount that didn't work out for me*, when I wander over into the DIY section. A few years ago, Microcenter decided to cater to the maker movement and has been carrying a lot of neat stuff. Its what Radio Shack should've done instead of trying to be another cell phone hawker.

Anyway, I saw that they had the Pi-Top kits for sale so I decided to get one. The Pi-Top kit does not include an RPi, so I also got a RPi 3 Model B, which included onboard Bluetooth and WiFi.

The Pi-Top was about $265, while the RPi 3 was on sale for $30.

Laptop guts on my dining room table:

The kit was well packaged in a cleverly designed box and came with an 8 GB microSD card pre-loaded with a version of Raspbian customized for the Pi-Top hardware. The instruction booklet that came with it was pretty good but lacked any info about the OS, except a pointer to the Pi-Top website. It didn't even include the default login info.

Closeup of the USB hub (left) and the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B:

The Pi-Top case is molded from plastic and feels about like what you'd expect from a $250 laptop. Assembly was pretty straightforward except that I initially mounted the RPi too far to the right in the case. The cables that link the RPi and the USB hub aren't long enough. This results in the RPi being inset to the left inside the case, which makes using the USB ports inconvenient. The case also blocks access to the Pi's onboard Fast Ethernet port.

Click on any of the pics to embiggen.

Boards mounted in the case:

The Pi-Tops 13.3" screen is decent. It's nothing to write home about, especially after one is used to a MacBook Pro with Retina display, but it ain't bad.

The keyboard is OK. I wouldn't want to do any extended writing or coding on it, however.

The shiny plastic cover at the top of the keyboard slides in and out from the right side of the computer. This helps when trying to connect something to the USB ports.

Side-by-side with my mid-2009 15" MacBook Pro:

Because of the plastic construction and a lot of empty space within the case, it's very lightweight.

The Pi-Top doesn't ship with a speaker, so as it comes there's no audio unless you buy the $20 add-on speaker, or run a cable from the RPi's audio jack to a set of external speakers.

After getting it up and running I naturally ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to bring the system up-to-date. Normally this wouldn't cause any issues but something related to dpkg got munged and I had to do about an hour's worth of troubleshooting to fix it and restore the ability to install or upgrade packages. Unfortunately I don't recall the specifics and didn't take notes.

Last weekend was ARRL Field Day, so I dragged my Icom 7200 and the Pi-Top out back on Sunday to see how it would fair as a portable digital mode laptop. It decoded PSK31 well, but the screen wasn't bright enough to use without a lot more shade than I had available, so I kept losing the cursor.

There are buttons on the keyboard to adjust screen brightness but they aren't working. I'm not sure if they would have worked pre-update, but they aren't post-update. Such is desktop Linux. Flakiness like that is why I normally run macOS as my desktop UNIX.

The manufacturer claims a 10+ hour battery life and from my testing so far, it sips power.

So, would I recommend the Pi-Top? It depends. If you're an experienced Linux user in search of a portable machine with low electrical power requirements, it's worth considering. Keep in mind that it's also a low computing power device. Web pages render relatively slowly. The OS includes Libre Office. I have not putzed with it yet but based on prior experience with that suite, it's going to run slowly on this hardware.



* Don't try to use a magnetic mount with an iPhone 7+ in a MagPul Field Case. The first bump in the road that you hit, and the phone will fall.

Some Job Updates

Back when I started blogging, first at Building-Tux.com and then here on Blogger, I wrote a lot about my job. For the first few years I wrote about supporting my employer's commercial cable modem customers and our optical transport network. After that I blogged some about doing ongoing engineering related to the cable modem service. After that, my focus shifted, in part because I didn't feel that I had much of interest to write about.

Seventeen years later, I'm still with the same company but several jobs later. For the past few years I managed the product engineering lab at our corporate headquarters in downtown Philadelphia. That was good data center management experience but I got burned out by the end of last year. Towards the end of 2016 we underwent yet another reorganization and I found myself in a new group with some opportunity for advancement.

As of a few weeks ago I'm no longer a lab manager. I'm now Service Operations Lead for our lab operations team. A big part of this is to help craft our new operations model in compliance with the ITIL best practices. I also have a supervisory role over a few very talented senior-level engineers. So far, I've been extremely busy and I've been enjoying it.

One thing I like in particular about the new position is its location. From 2004 up until earlier this month I commuted into Center City Philadelphia. Now I'm going to our office in Downingtown, PA, about a 25 mile drive. Yeah, I have to drive, but I'm not dependent on the SEPTA Regional Rail lines. And I never have to sit next to some fat guy who smells like cheese, or listen to obnoxious obliviots prattling on their cell phones while riding the "quiet" car during my commute.

Also, back in April I got my fourth US Patent, which was a nice feather in my cap. (I'm a co-inventor on all four.)

Not dead yet, and an update on my newest Mac

Tonight I pulled ye olde blog and realized that I haven't posted anything here since February. Yikes. I have posted over on Survival and Emergency Preparedness, which if you don't read you should check it out. (I might be a bit biased in that regard.)

Anyhoo, in my last post I mentioned that I had a new 15" MacBook Pro on the way. I've been living with it now for several months so I thought I'd offer some subjective impressions:

• It's fast as hell, even with several large applications open, e.g., Excel, Outlook, Chrome, Slack, and Skype for Business.
• The screen is beautiful.
• The keyboard is different from earlier Macs but I got used to it quickly.
• I love the huge trackpad when I'm not connected to an external keyboard and mouse.
• With 16 GB of RAM I am able to allocate 8 GB to a Windows 10 VM running in Parallels, and have decent performance in the VM. I most commonly use Windows to run the vSphere Client (still a better UI than VMware's web client) or Visio 2013.
• Having only USB-C AKA Thunderbolt 3 ports is a pain in the ass. I have to use an adapter to connect to my 27" Thunderbolt display, or connect most common USB drives, or to Ethernet if I'm not using the Thunderbolt display with its integrated Gig-E port.
• I got one of these Anker USB C to USB 3.0 and Gig-E hubs. It has worked well for me although I haven't tried pounding on an external USB drive with it, just flash drives and Ethernet.
• The Anker hub worked with my FTDI chipset USB to Cisco console cable. (And of course the point of buying the latter was to minimize the number of dongles attached to my laptop. Grr.)
• The Touch Bar is a gimmick. Most of the time I don't even see it because I run an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard, so the machine's lid is closed anyway.
• Battery life is very good.
• It's super thin and not too heavy.
• Apple no longer includes the power cord extension with the machine. Just the wall wart and a single USB C cable. The older power cord extensions are compatible with the new power supply, however.
• I fucking hate that it doesn't have a MagSafe power connection. The MagSafe connection on my other Mac laptops, and my daughters' MacBook Airs, has prevented damage more times than I can count. This is a massive step back.

Overall I am happy with it but would have preferred the retention of at least one USB 3.0 port and I want my damn MagSafe connector back. (Griffin sells a USB C to MagSafe adapter but it's rated for only up to about 60W. The 15" MBP uses an 87W power supply.)

Solution for Broken Time Machine Backups and a New Laptop on the Way

At work I use a late 2013 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display. Most of my files are kept in our corporate Box.com account, which is a handy way to ensure that they are backed up. However, I was using Time Machine to ensure application settings were also backed up, and in general for a "belt and suspenders" approach.

Unfortunately, Time Machine stopped functioning back in October. I kept running into this problem.

I tried all sorts of fixes, including disabling application throttling for it, to no avail.

I have a new 15" MacBook Pro on the way and want to be able to move all my old settings over to it, so I revisited the issue yesterday. After trying several of the fixes I found online, again with no positive results, I decided to upgrade from OS 10.11 El Capitan to 10.12 Sierra. That fixed it.

My laptop is bound to our NT domain and I found that after the upgrade my NT account was locked. It turns out that there was a known bug with Sierra causing this. Applying the OS 10.12.3 update fixed that. I also had to upgrade to the later versions of the Symantec VIP soft token app and the Pulse Secure VPN client. The older versions I had weren't compatible with Sierra.

Other than fixing my Time Machine backup and requiring a couple application updates, Sierra isn't dramatically different from El Capitan. I deleted the Siri icon from my dock -- I don't use it even on my iPhone.

Hopefully, I'll have the new MBP by the end of the week, but at the rate our IT department is working it may not be until next week.

Some More Range Time With the C96 Broomhandle

Yesterday I took my Mauser C96 Broomhandle out to a friend's place and we put another 50 rounds through it. As with the first 100 rounds it ran flawlessly with the Prvi Partizan 7.63 Mauser ammo.

Our target was an 8" steel gong from about 15 - 20 yards and it wasn't any problem keeping the rounds on it. We shot it both without and with the stock. I'm not sure if was the natural lighting or that my eyes weren't as tired, but I found it easier to focus on the front sight this time when it was stocked, vs. the first trip when I shot it indoors under florescent lighting.

Compared with a lot of other semiautos, recovering the brass was easy because it ejects the cases almost straight up. By laying out a tarp on the ground we didn't have to do much searching for them.

New Router

A couple years ago I installed an Asus RT-AC66U 802.11ac router at home. A few weeks ago it started acting flaky, requiring frequent reboots, and finally crapped out entirely yesterday. To get our home network back online I took my Comcast XB2 Arris TM862G gateway out of bridge mode, enabling routing and WiFi.

The performance stunk, largely because it's 2.4GHz only and I'm in a subdivision, so I get a lot of interference on that band. The fastest I could get on speedtest.net was about 20 Mbps down, totally unacceptable for what should be ~100 Mbps service.

So, yesterday afternoon I ordered a Linksys WRT1900ACS router from Amazon, selected one day delivery (I have Prime), and it was dropped off this morning while I was eating my oatmeal.

My initial impressions are generally favorable and setup was straightforward. Performance is plenty acceptable. After installing it I ran a test and got about 96 Mbps down. I just ran a test and got this:

I can certainly live with that.

The Linksys offers some features I'm unlikely to take advantage of, e.g., USB ports to serve files or a printer. However, it does support DynDNS and NoIP, so I may setup OpenVPN on it for remote access and possible as a private VPN for when I travel.

Mauser C96 Broomhandle Range Report

Saturday night after dinner I went along with my dad to his club's indoor range and had the place to ourselves. We put 100 rounds of PPU 7.63x25 through the Broomhandle and it ran perfectly.

My first 15 shots, fired at 7 yards:

My point of aim was 6 o'clock on the black. The flyer was my first shot, fired one handed. I switched to a two-hand hold for the remainder.

Shooting impressions:

• Loading a pistol with a stripper clip definitely isn't as handy as a detachable box magazine. In the case of the this pistol and these clips, you need to wiggle the clips down into the charging slot. They are a tight fit.
• At ~40 oz. empty, the recoil is pretty mild but after awhile the edges of the frame start to dig into the web of your hand. When shot as a carbine it recoils like a .22.
• The trigger is similar to that of a Mauser rifle. I.e., it is a two-stage trigger. It's a bit heavy but not at all unmanageable. There's little to no creep and not much overtravel.
• The barleycorn front sight is hard to see with 48 year old eyes. It's worse when you shoot it as a carbine, because it's closer.
• Muzzle blast and flash is definitely more noticeable when shot as a carbine, since the muzzle is closer to your face, but isn't too bad. I noticed the amount of flash varied. Some rounds had little visible flash but others had a nice fireball. However, the rounds without much flash had just as much recoil and blast as the flashier rounds.
• Cases ejected straight up towards the front and then bounced all over the place with most landing in front of the firing line.
• When I did my part it shot into about a 2" group at 7 yards when shot with two hands. Mean POI was about 1.5" to 2" high.

Dad took a short video of me shooting the Broom with the stock on*:

Having fired a stocked pistol now, I'm even more annoyed with the NFA. A modern stocked pistol with a micro dot sight would be the tits as a traveling gun, a real pocket carbine. Especially in a hot, flat shooting round like 7.63 Mauser or 7.62 Tokarev.

I have wanted a shootable Broomhandle for 40 years and now I finally have one.



* A reminder for those late to the show: According to the BATFE an original Mauser C96 with an original German stock is not considered a Short Barreled Rifle under the NFA.

Field Stripped the C-96 Broomhandle

So, as a follow up, I field stripped the Broomhandle tonight after dinner. Getting it apart was difficult, because the old grease or oil had congealed and glued the floorplate on, and the lock work into the receiver. I dribbled some FP-10 on and let it soak it for a few minutes and was able to get it apart. I spent some time tonight scrubbing congealed goo off the metal parts with a copper Chore-Boy. I'd love to know how many decades it's been since the last time this pistol was taken apart.

The floorplate and grip serial numbers don't match the frame, but at least the floorplate is an old replacement. The grips probably are, too. They are correct for the pistol.

Now that I am able to look through the bore from breech to muzzle, I am amazed. It looks new.

I currently have the lock work soaking in Hoppe's No.9 and FP-10. I'll disassemble it all the way to get out the remaining grease tomorrow. It's hard to tell from the pic but the bolt stop and safety still have a lot of the fire blue left. You can see some of the fire blue on the rear sight's elevation slide. It's almost the same color as blue Dykem layout fluid.

Wartime Commercial Mauser C-96 Broomhandle

Two years ago I came into a Mauser C-96 Broomhandle pistol, which has long been one of my Grail guns. The pistol is in fair condition externally but the bore is shot out. I also posted pictures of the gun taken down to its constituent parts.

In early 2015 I sent the barrel and bolt to Redman's to have the barrel relined for 7.63 Mauser but he returned it to me because it wasn't a good candidate for such work. Specifically, he uses a piloted reamer to enlarge the bore enough for the liner, and my gun's bore was already too large for the pilot. He was concerned that the reamer would wander and I'd end up with an off-center bore. Worse, it appears that the barrel had already been relined once, which made it unsafe to do again.

At this point the only way to restore that pistol to shooting condition would be to cut the barrel off, bore out the barrel extension, and weld on a new barrel. This was sometimes done back when these guns were in service. See here and scroll down to where the discussion of "hashed barrels." I'm not aware of anyone currently offering this service, and it would be awfully expensive.

Naturally, this didn't sate my desire for a functional Broomhandle, that I've had since I was a kid in the '70s, even before seeing Han Solo wax Greedo in Star Wars.

Well, this weekend I went to a gun show in Oaks, PA and came home with this:

It's another Wartime Commercial with a serial number about 20K lower than my other C-96, which is in far worse shape.

The caliber is 7.63x25 Mauser. It was supposedly a WW2 bring back and came from a high-end York, PA collection. Given the condition, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a World War One bring back. Either way, it appears to have spent the past century being well-cared for.

The original blueing is in excellent shape and the serial numbers on the barrel extension, frame, and bolt match. The bore is excellent. There is still some of the original fire blueing on the rear sight leaf and it's basically intact on the extractor.

There is still some old grease visible in the bolt and the hammer recess. I haven't taken it down yet.

The stock which is in excellent shape is original, but not matching. Since it's an original German stock, BATFE doesn't consider the gun to be an SBR when it's attached. (I have an email to this effect from Tech Branch, addressed to me. See my post from December 16, 2014.) The stock has some pretty nice grain on the left side and it's even visible inside the stock where it's cutout to hold the pistol.

The attachment of the stock to the grip frame is solid, with no wobble. Out of curiosity I attached it to my other C-96, and the fit on that gun is sloppy.

I have some original stripper clips and a few hundred rounds of Prvi Partisan 7.63 Mauser ammo that I bought after I got the first Broom. Damn skippy I'm going to shoot it after I verify that the locking block is in good shape. On my other C96 I replaced all the springs and this one is still more difficult to cock. Because it appears that the gun has seen very little use I'm going to hold off on replacing any springs.

Without getting into specifics, the cost was reasonable for the condition of the gun and stock.

After I shoot it, I will post a range report.

New Pedals and Lights

I'm liking the Nishiki Maricopa road bike that I got a couple weeks ago but the pedals that came with it pretty muck suck. They are on the small size and not very grippy. So, after doing a lot of reading on Bikeforums.net, I decided to stick with platform pedals but ones that would be larger and grippier. I got a set of Wellgo MG-1 magnesium platform pedals this week and installed them today.

The reviews on Amazon were generally very favorable for the Wellgos, but mentioned that the painted versions tended to flake. So, I ordered the natural colored pedals. I tried them with sneakers and my Shimano cycling shoes, and they are definite improvement. The pins that protrude provide a nice grip on my shoes. I'll have to see how I like them compared to pedals with toe clips.

To make swapping the pedals easier I bought this Sunlite pedal wrench. A Crescent wrench would probably have worked, but the dedicated tool made it easier. E.g., it's about a foot long and gave me lots of leverage. The ends are slightly offset, which helps you from banging your knuckles.

Aside from the better pedals, the bike needed front and rear blinkies in case I get caught out near dusk. I put a Planet Bike Spok white light on the handlebar and a Stupidbright on the seatpost, pointing to the rear. (I picked up the Spok at REI while I already had the red light from a previous Amazon order.) Both mount with a stretchy rubber band and feel secure. I already did one ride with the taillight in place.

The reflectors will remain as passive backups.

Finally, I picked up a Blackburn Air Tower 4 floor pump on sale at my local bike shop last week. I needed a pump that would work with Presta valves. I have a Topeak Joe Blow floor pump from the 90s but it's setup for Schrader valves and the Presta adapter is long gone. This way I can have a pump setup for both, with no fidddling.

Nishiki Maricopa Bike

That deal for the '86 Nishiki Olympic road bike fell through. The seller kept discovering things wrong with the bike and offered me a discount or a refund. I chose a refund. Oh well.

So, today I bought this Nishiki Maricopa at Dick's:

It weighs about 24# in the small frame size that I bought. Frame and fork are 6061 aluminum. Three chainrings up front with 8 in back. The modern "brifter" shift levers are neat. I.e., the gear shifters are part of the brake levers.

I took it for a 6-1/4 mile shakedown on the Schuykill River Trail this afternoon. It rides well, much livelier than my Trek 820 mountain bike, even with narrow slicks.

The one upgrade I plan is to replace the pedals. They are pretty crappy and don't have toe clips (I'm not going to get clip-ins, but want toe clips). I'll add lights and probably a kickstand.

BTW, Nishiki is now a Dick's in-house brand. They bought the rights to the name for US distribution in 2010.

New Bike on the Way, and a Ride

Since getting back into cycling a few months ago, I've been kicking myself for putting my old Nishiki road bike out by the curb last year. Although my Trek 820 mountain bike with 1.5" wide slicks is good for the local multi-use paths, even Forbidden Drive, a road bike would allow me to ride further and faster. So, I started looking around on Craigslist and eBay for older road bikes with steel frames.

Lo and behold, after a couple weeks of looking, this popped up on eBay:

(Picture from the eBay auction.)

It's a mid-80s (probably an '86) Nishiki Olympic with the same frame size and color scheme of my HS graduation present. The Mavic wheelset isn't original, however. After a few minutes hemming and hawing, I bought it.

The 1986 Nishiki Olympic was a 4130 chrome-moly steel framed bike with Araya aluminum wheels, Diacompe brakes, Shimano derailleurs, downtube shifters, and a Sugino VP crankset. Assuming the Mavics on this bike weigh about the same as the originals, it'll come in at about 23 pounds. It should be a fast bike. While riding my old one with a friend who's Trek 520 tourer was fitted with a cycle computer, he clocked us going about 50 MPH on one extended downhill run.

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for it. I got a message from the seller who found that one of the crank arms was stripped, where the pedal is attached. He discovered this when he began to prep it for shipping. He offered to either knock $25 off the price, or replace it with an original part. I opted for the latter, so I'm hoping it'll ship early next week.

After I get it I plan to rewrap the handlebars, replace the toe clips (one is broken), and of course verify that the derailleurs and brakes work properly.

In the meantime, I picked up a couple items to help me maintain my family's bikes. First, a copy of Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance. In conjunction with YouTube videos, this should help me learn how to work on them. The second item was a Bikehand Pro Mechanic Bicycle Repair Rack Stand.

I tried out the repair stand for the first time this morning, before I went on a ride. I used it to hold the Trek while I cleaned the chain. It worked well. The stand feels fairly robust and folds up, so that it doesn't take up too much space in my shed.

After cleaning and lubing the chain, I went on my longest ride this year, 12.23 miles, at an average speed of 10.9 MPH and a max speed of 16.1 MPH. Considering I'm riding a mountain bike with aerodynamics slightly better than a brick, I'm happy.

Digital QRP with a Mac and SignaLink USB

Operating QRP PSK31 using a Mac, Fldigi, and a SignaLink USB interface. In the video I provide details on my antenna, physical connections between the radio and rig, and about configuring Fldigi.

More info on the antenna can be found in this older post.

Tap-O-Cap Reborn

It looks like the same folks who came out a couple years ago with a .22LR reloading tool set have introduced a tool to make #11 caps.

http://sharpshooter-22lr-reloader.myshopify.com/products/11-percussion-cap-maker

Thought I'd pass this along since every so often somebody brings up the old Tap-O-Cap. I have no connection with the company.

WSPR on a Mac

I did some WSPR work out back today using my MacBook Pro, WSJT-X, Yaesu FT-817ND, SignalinkUSB, and my 20M vertical antenna.

Hopefully you find this useful.

Out of Sync Audio with .MOV Files on a Windows PC

I was editing a video using Windows Live Movie Maker on my Windows 7 PC today. I'd recorded an introductory clip using the built-in camera on my MacBook Pro, saved as a QuickTime .mov file. For some reason when viewing the file on the PC, the audio was out of sync with the video when viewed in WLMM.

A workaround was to convert the .mov file to .mp4 format using Handbrake. WLMM was then able to import the file with the audio in sync and I was able to finish editing the video.

(Yes, I'm primarly a Mac user but I like the user interface in WLMM better than iMovie. So, when I edit videos for my YouTube channel, I gravitate towards the PC. I need to find a better video editor for the Mac.)

Reenabling Back with the Backspace Key in Chrome

Chrome on my MacBook Pro was automatically updated this morning, after which I noticed that the backspace key no longer worked to go back a page. Apparently this was implemented a little while ago but didn't manifest itself on my machine until today. This matches the default behavior on Linux, which I detest, since I use backspace to return to a previous page constantly.

After some searching, I discovered that Google made the change to prevent people from accidentally deleting data in a form. Initially, there was no way to reenable the backspace key.

However, enough people bitched about the change to get Google to create an extension to restore the previous behaving. You can get it here.

A plea to developers: Please do not change the behavior of your program's user interface without giving the end user a choice.

How to Remove the Cylinder and Side Plate of a Smith & Wesson Double Action Revolver

In this video I demonstrate how to properly remove the cylinder and side plate from a S&W revolver, including a discussion of the tools required. Using the proper technique when removing the side plate will prevent damage to the gun and preserve its value.

The demonstration piece is a S&W Model 10-5 chambered for the .38 Special cartridge.

The Weaver Deluxe Gunsmith Tool Kit I used in the video can be seen and purchased here.

Day Camp and Gear Discussion Video

On Friday I took a day trip up to the Conrad Weiser State Forest near Port Clinton, PA. In the video I demonstrate making a poncho lean-to shelter, discuss knife selection, provide a brief overview of the Hill People Gear Recon Kit Bag and Tarahumara pack, and make some coffee in an Esbit cookset.

I am trying to make and post more videos to my YouTube channel as I have time. Please hit the Like button and subscribe.

Geezer Concert

Last night the wife unit and I went over to the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, NJ to see Cheap Trick, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and Heart. Our seats were in the 19th row, to the left when facing the stage.

Cheap Trick went on first. They were good but so loud their sound was very distorted. If they'd turned it down a bit they would have been great.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts went on next. I saw them open for The Who last year so I was expecting a great performance. I was not disappointed.

Heart was the headliner. Nancy Wilson is an excellent guitarist. Her intros to Straight On For You, Crazy on You, and Barracuda stood out. Anne Wilson can still blow most people young enough to be her grand daughter off the stage with her vocals. Amazing pipes.

Cheap Trick:

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts:

Heart:

Heart's encore was a Led Zeppelin tribute consisting of Immigrant Song and Stairway to Heaven. Few bands should cover Zep. Heart is one of them.

Link to more pictures.

An Astute Observation On Obama's Reaction to Dallas

As usual, in the aftermath of a mass shooting, Obama shot his mouth off.

Posted by "sloth" on AR15.com:

... Obama, is first and foremost, a community organizer. What do community organizers do...they cultivate a grievance in a community into anger and direct that associated rage to motivate people to accomplish a political goal. That is what he is doing. He's a social justice warrior at heart, that is what motivates him to get up in the morning. He believes that inflaming a certain community into action is going to allow him to accomplish his goals as a SJW. He has no use for peace and people coming together, you don't accomplish radical change unless people are properly motivated to push for that change.

Look at how he responds to diverse incidents. If it is advantageous to his goals and fits the template, he's out within hours making statements to reinforce his social justice narrative. If the incident is counter productive to his goals as a SJW, (Orlando, this Dallas shooting) he urges great restraint and caution until an investigation can determine a motive. It's not random, you fan the flames to help your cause and you depress sentiment that is counter to you cause.

Link.

Bontrager H2 Inaugural Ride

I took the Bontrager H2 semi-slicks for an inaugural ride late this morning in Valley Green.  My ride today was only 6.13 miles, because it was hot and humid as balls. However, it was long enough to get a feeling for how the new tires perform on the kinds of surfaces that I ride on.

As expected the rolling resistance is a lot less. I was able to push one or two gears higher than previously and didn't run into any traction problems on the hard-pack gravel Forbidden Drive. They performed fine even in looser gravel, though they didn't float over it as well as my original 1.95" wide tires.

My average speed increased by about 1 or 2 MPH, compared with previous rides. To see how they'd do, I did take the bike off the gravel onto a dirt trail for about 100 yards. As expected, it was a bit skittish on wet dirt, and the ride isn't as soft as the MTB tires, but it's a good tradeoff for my riding.

New Bike Tires

This morning I put another 8.52 miles on my old Trek 820, along Forbidden Drive in Fairmount Park. Since I'm doing my riding on paved trails or packed gravel, I've been thinking about either replacing the knobby tires on the bike with something with less rolling resistance, or even getting a second set of wheels with faster rolling tires.

This afternoon I took a drive up to Indian Valley Bikeworks in Harleysville. At their recommendation I bought a pair of 26" x 1.5" Bontrager H2 semi-slick tires and suitable tubes.

I was able to remove the old rubber with one tire lever, and the new tires and tubes went on easily. They are rated for 60 to 90 PSI. I have them pumped up to about 65 PSI, to provide some cushioning.

In my old cycling days I sometimes took my 1986 Nishiki road bike with slick 700c x 25 tires at 100 PSI down to Forbidden Drive and as long as I was careful, didn't run into problems. I should be OK with the new Bontragers, which are a lot beefier. Of course, I'll need to be more careful than with the knobby MTB tires, but converting the Trek into a pseudo-hybrid with these tires should suit my current riding well.

I'm still tempted to get a spare wheel set and mount the knobbies on it, though.

Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

I am disgusted that FBI Director Comey did not recommend charges be filed against Hillary Clinton. When leaders flout the law, respect for the rule of law by the people soon vanishes. When George Orwell wrote that some animals are more equal than others he may as well have been writing about the USA in 2016, rather than Stalinist Russia.

That aside, consider what the FBI did go on record as saying:

1. She had unauthorized classified intelligence on her unsecured server. (General Petraeus lost his career over far less.)
2. She deleted evidence during the investigation. (That's spoliation of evidence or obstruction of justice. )
3. Anyone else who did this would be reprimanded and stripped of security clearance by their department, if not criminally charged. 
4. She mishandled classified intelligence and jeopardized national security. 
5. She lied about the nature of the investigation (claiming it was a security review, not a criminal investigation).

Consider the nature of her actions. She willfully, recklessly engaged in conduct which is statutorily proscribed for good reasons. As someone who's worked with telecom, computer networks, and mail servers since the late 90s, and practiced law before that, I'd be willing to bet my house that at a minimum the Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies hacked her server.

That means not only did she compromise national secrets, she is almost certainly vulnerable to blackmail by foreign powers due to the contents of her server. In other words, if she gets elected in November, Putin and others will have the President of the United States by the balls.

And yet half the voters in this country are willing to ignore this and cast their ballot for her, just because she is female.

About 10 Miles Yesterday

Yesterday morning I drove over to Spring Mill and hopped on the Schuykill River Trail again towards Philly. This time I rode in all the way to the edge of Manayunk, a hair less than 5 miles.

The first three miles or so are flat, then at Shawmont the trail descends, crosses the SEPTA Norristown/Manayunk tracks, and then runs along the river through a wooded area. The trail through the woods is mostly hard packed gravel with a few paved sections, and several wood plank bridges. This part of the trail has some small hills and nice rock formations to look at.

Since it was a nice day there were a lot of people on the trail so I got good practice at weaving among the pedestrians and a few slower riders. Likewise, I had several riders pass me.

The return trip was easy except for Shawmont, where I had to drop onto my smallest front chainring to get up the hill.

My old Trek 820 is performing well, but I need to adjust my front brakes a little and I think the front wheel needs to be trued. I'm getting a little rubbing.

I'm seriously considering replacing the knobby MTB tires with some kind of  hybrid tire, for a smoother ride with less rolling resistance.

After several rides on Forbidden Drive and the gravel part of the SRT, the Trek was filthy. So, after getting home I wheeled it into the back yard and used a citrus spray degreaser to blow the crud off the chain and derailleurs, then relubed with White Lightning Epic Ride chain lube. It's a "semi dry" lube, so I'm hoping that it'll retain less grit, but be better than a dry lube if I get caught in the rain.

Short Ride Tonight

Amanda and I took a short bike ride tonight, my first since I put the bike down last Tuesday. Last Wednesday and Thursday the weather was crummy, and then we went camping from Friday through Sunday. I didn't have time for any after work rides this Monday or Tuesday.

I really wanted to get a ride in because I've already noticed improved stamina and didn't want to have to start all over. So, after dinner we parked at the SEPTA Spring Mill train station in the same spot where I normally park during the week, and did about four miles on the Schuykill River Trail, down to the Miquon station and back.

The SRT in this section is paved in asphalt and flat, so it was an easy ride. You could really fly on a road bike. The weather was beautiful so there were a lot of joggers and cyclists out. I think sometime in the near future we'll bike down to Manayunk for lunch.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the SRT.

Ouch

Well, tonight I had my first fall since taking up cycling again.

Amanda and I were returning from REI and I took a sharp turn that I should have dismounted for. I clipped my left handlebar on a railing and down I went. Let me tell you, hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes when you're 48 and out of shape sucks.

I wasn't going fast and stopped my fall with my hands. Thankfully I was wearing my cycling gloves, which helped absorb the impact and prevented my palms from getting shredded. I then rolled over and flopped on my right side. I'm expecting that I'll be sore for a day or two from my right hip up to my shoulder. Ibuprofen is going to be my good friend.

I was wearing my helmet but thankfully it wasn't needed because I managed to avoid hitting my head.

The bike is OK. The handlebar end that got clipped suffered some minor damage but it's purely cosmetic.

On reflection, it's funny. In all the miles I ever rode on a bike I never had a high speed crash. Like tonight's fall, they've all been the result of a misjudgment at low speed.

Wear your gloves and helmet.

Updated Bike

A few items I ordered from Amazon arrived today and I installed them on my Trek 820:

• Outerdo Bike Rack Bag
• BV front and rear LED lights
• BV kickstand
• RAM mount for my Garmin 62stc GPS
• BV saddle bag for my daughter's bike

The Outerdo bike rack bag is held to the rack with four Velcro straps. It seems secure but if that changes after being loaded I'l wrap a bungie cord around it.

The bag should be able to hold a spare tube, snacks, at least one extra water bottle, and a windshirt or light jacket. I moved my tire levers, bike tool, and patch kit to it so that I can reserve the front bag for my keys, wallet, and iPhone. The bag seems pretty well made for a sub $20 item. It's a little floppy but so what. The main compartment has some minimal padding but I wouldn't trust it to protect or insulate much. The outer compartments (one large on the left side and two on the right) lack any padding.

There's a shallow water bottle pocket on the back of the bag with a drawstring. I'm probably going to put some kind of a better retention strap/bungie on there to prevent a bottle from coming out. On the back of the bottle pocket there is a small strap for clipping an LED light to. To be on the safe side I put some superglue on the stitching to prevent it from unraveling.

The bag has a handle on top and came with a carry strap, so it can be used as a shoulder bag.

The BV lights are pretty cheaply made but bright enough so that you're visible to motorists. The front light takes four AAAs while the back light takes two. I mounted a set on my daughter's bike and let her take a ride around dusk, and I was able to see the blinking red LED of her back light from about 300 yards away. Both have non-blinking and a couple blinking modes, which should extend battery life. I think that if you need a headlight to actually see where you're going, you'll want to look elsewhere.

I resisted putting a kickstand on my bike for a long time because I didn't want the weight. I never had one on the Nishiki road bike that I got in 1986 and put a lot of miles on. However, I've now decided that the minor weight penalty was less important than the convenience. The BV kickstand went on easily, isn't too heavy, and it's nice not having to prop the bike up against something. It clamps to the left chainstay with three 5mm Allen screws:

The RAM GPS mount is held to the handlebar with two cable ties. It should hold up to riding on roads and developed bike trails. I'm not so sure that it would stand up to rough singletrack rides, especially in a spill. We'll see.

The BV saddle bag that I got for my daughter's bike is perfect for her. It feels sturdy and is just big enough for her to have a place to stash her key, some money, and her iPhone 6.

Finally, I also got padded cycling underwear shorts. Note that in the Amazon image they are shown inside-out. When worn correctly you don't get mandrill-butt. These will let me cycle in regular shorts while providing some additional padding for my nethers. At $15 on Amazon Prime, I'll be satisfied if I get a season from them.

Getting Back Into Cycling

At the urging of my daughters I am getting back into cycling. I cycled a lot in high school and college but have done little in the years since. My ride is a Trek 820 mountain bike that I bought back in 1996 or '97 1999. Compared with modern bikes it's rather unsophisticated. E.g., it doesn't have a front suspension, but it'll be good enough for me to get back into riding.

A few years ago I replaced the cracked saddle with a more comfortable gel seat, and replaced the tires. I may have had the local REI do a tune-up but I don't recall for sure. Even though the bike is about 20 years old it's in good shape (sadly due to lack of use).

Yesterday I bought Amanda a new bike since she'd outgrown her old one, and we also got a 4-bike rack to fit the Class III hitch on my Xterra, making it easier to take the bikes to a trail. We went back to REI today where I bought her gloves, and I got a new water bottle, a pair of Pearl Izumi cycling shoes, and a Planet Bike Eco Rack. I have cycling gloves somewhere around here but if I can't find them I'll need to get a new pair (after which no doubt I'll find my old gloves).

The rack mounted easily and should be a secure platform for a trunk in which to carry snacks and extra water. The solid rack should also act as a fender to help keep spray off my back if I ride through a puddle.

I have a set of front and rear lights on order. The reflector in the above picture has a mount that won't allow me to attach it to the rack (I tried) but I may get another reflector for the rack itself.

This afternoon we took a ride down in the Valley Green section of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. I used to ride along Forbidden Drive quite a bit and it was nice going back there. According to my phone's GPS we did about 4.62 miles. It felt good.

Circuit Trails is an effort to link many trails in the Philadelphia area together, which will create a 750 mile network of trails going from Philly out to Reading. That should provide some good riding.

New Grips for the 50th Anniversary Blackhawk

The rosewood grips that I ordered from shopruger.com arrived today. I like them a lot. Aside from being smooth they are more hand filling than the original black plastic checkered grip panels.

I'm looking forward to shooting it.

Ruger 50th Anniversary Blackhawk .357

I picked up this Ruger 50th Anniversary Blackhawk in .357 Magnum w/4.62" barrel back in 2006 from Surplus City. It was "used," still in the original red plastic box, but missing the papers. It's claimed that Ruger paid more attention to fit and finish on the 50th Anniversary Blackhawks and I believe it. The action on this one is very smooth.

I haven't shot it much, largely because the OEM grips act like cheesegraters on my hands if firing .38 +Ps or .357 Magnums. (It's not evident in these pics but the OEM plastic grips are checkered.) Last week I ordered a set of smooth rosewood replacements from Ruger that I'm hoping should make it more comfortable to shoot. Anyhoo, I just got around to taking some pics and will get some more after the new grips arrive.

.44-40 Chronograph Results

Today I went to the range with my brother, who has a Shooting Crony Beta Master chronograph. I was able to measure the velocity of three .44-40 loads. Measurements for each load was for a 10 shot string.

All shots were from my Cimarron Firearms Uberti 1873 Sporting Rifle in .44-40 WCF with a 24.25" barrel. Brass was Starline and primers in the handloads were Federal No.150 large pistol primers.

First up were 10 rounds with a ~215 grain cast bullet from my Accurate Molds 43-215C mold on top of 2.2cc (~35 grains) of Swiss 3Fg black powder.

Average velocity: 1329.4 FPS
Standard deviation: 11.6 FPS
Extreme Spread: 42 FPS
Muzzle energy: 843 foot-pounds

These grouped into about 2" at 50 yards.

Second were 10 shots loaded with a Lyman 200 grain cast bullet on top of 8.6 grains of Alliant Unique smokeless powder. The Lyman bullets were from a box I bought years ago. They are pretty good bullets but no longer available.

Average velocity: 1307.2 FPS
Standard deviation: 21.462 FPS
Extreme spread: 82.98 FPS
Muzzle energy: 758 foot-pounds

These printed a somewhat larger group, about 2.5" to 3". They gave noticeably better accuracy than rounds loaded with only 8 grains of Unique. I was not surprised at the much larger SD since I've read that .44-40s loaded with Unique can have wide variations, unless you tilt the muzzle of the rifle for each shot to get the powder back near the primer. In contrast to the largely empty case when loaded with Unique, the black powder loads have 100% loading density, and are in fact compressed loads.

That said, the rounds with Unique performed better than I expected.

Finally, I chronographed 10 Black Hills .44 WCF 200 grain cowboy action shooting loads. As expected, these were a lot slower than the first two loads.

Average velocity: 1123.1 FPS
Standard deviation: 15.358 FPS
Extreme spread: 41.78 FPS
Muzzle energy: 560 foot-pounds

Even though these were more consistent than the handloads with Unique, if you go by SD, they don't shoot nearly as accurately. Just like when I've shot them before groups were about twice as large as the full power rounds. It's also possible that the rifle doesn't like the Black Hills bullet.

I have three more loads that I want to chronograph, all using bullets cast in the 43-215 mold:

(1) 23.5 grains of Alliant Reloder 7.
(2) 2.2cc of Goex 3Fg black powder.
(3) 2.2cc of Goex Olde Eynsford black powder.

I'm expecting the Reloder 7 loads to at least equal but probably exceed the velocity of the Swiss BP loads, the Olde Eynsford to perform similarly to Swiss, and the Goex to tail behind but hopefully shoot accurately.

Rapid Fire with the Cimarron 1873 Sporting Rifle and Black Powder Handloads

A quick video taken by my friend NF last weekend while on our camping trip. The junk in the foreground was related to our ham radios.