How to properly use the Mosin Nagant stripper clip

If you've ever tried to load a Mosin-Nagant rifle using stripper clips, you you know that it can be frustrating. Here's how to do it correctly:



Note that because of the cartridge interruptor in the Mosin-Nagant's magazine, rim position should be irrelevant. In my experience with several M-N rifles reality diverged from theory. I tested the method with my Ishevsk M1938 carbine and VKT m/1939 rifle, and it works with both.

Bread, Circuses, and Vaginas

Well, it’s now official. The Free Shit Army is in control of this country, and as time goes on its numbers will only grow. It’s only a matter of time before this country is Greece on meth.

Last night’s results pretty much confirmed Romney’s statement that about half the country is more interested in receiving government than in any kind of fiscal responsibility.

We have a government that’s made it too easy to not work, and instead live off the public dole. It used to be that if you couldn’t find work in one part of the country you’d move to where the work is. Moreover, there is no longer any shame in being on the dole. Hell, plenty of people revel in it. Instead, the long term unemployed sit on their bums collecting unemployment, then disability, then welfare, and work that Americans used to do is performed by illegal immigrants grateful to have any chance at a better life.

The election also confirmed that if the Republicans ever want to win a national election, opposition to abortion needs to be dropped from the party’s platform. Dems and the mainstream media masterfully injected the issue into an election that should have been about the economic and foreign policy failures of the Obama administration. But GOP candidates can’t help but offer up juicy sound bites like “legitimate rape” to the MSM when asked about abortion. Most people aren’t political wonks and don’t analyze issues in depth.

If you can shout loud enough at women that Republican men are gonna be all up in their vaginas, the GOP will lose. Like it or not, that drove enough women into voting for big government Democrats to help clinch Obama’s second term.

Likewise, dump the institutional opposition to gay marriage. Why in the hell is this being pushed as a Federal issue to begin with? While gays may be a minority, they are very vocal, over-represented in the media, and have a lot of straight people who agree with them on this issue.

It didn’t help things that the GOP further fucked itself by pandering to Latinos by not enforcing immigration laws. Yeah, Latinos are social conservatives who will vote on those lines. How did that work out?

Compounding all this is a media that with one hand feeds us meaningless pap to distract us from the real issues, and then with the other hand fails to cover the real issues. People are so concerned with bullshit like American Idol that even if they are informed of scandals like Fast and Furious or the Benghazi cover up, they soon lose interest. Forget about justice for our murdered Border Patrol agents, several hundred murdered Mexicans, and the Americans killed in Libya while Obama and his cabinet denied them help in real time.

Welcome to the United Socialist States of America.

Backup Power

Over on Survival & Emergency Preparedness, I've put up a post about my plans for backup power for my home.

Read it here.

Short Range Day

Today I was able to make a quick trip to the range with my Ruger 22/45 Lite and my Springfield XD-9.

I started out with the Ruger. Unfortunately, I accidentally left the Bushnell TRS-25 on the last time I had the gun out of its case, so the battery was dead. I didn't have a spare with me. Annoying, to say the least, especially since my primary reason for going to the range today was to zero the Bushnell.

Anyway, I was able to do some function testing with Remington Golden Bullet .22s by aiming through the dot sight, using only the pistol's front sight. Doing so I was shooting very high, so I aimed at the bottom of my target at 15 yards. I was able to put about 60 rounds of the Remingtons through the gun without any malfunctions. The Golden Bullets weren't very accurate in the other .22s I've fired them in, so once I get back to the range with a functional dot sight, it'll be interesting to see how well they group in the Ruger.

Of note, the GBs have a larger hollow point than most other bulk pack .22 LR loads, so they might be useful for varmint control at close range. (In my other .22s. Semiauto pistols are illegal for hunting in PA.)

My experience today with the Springfield XD-9 was more positive. I brought along 150 rounds -- 100 Brown Bear 115 grain FMJ and 50 PMC 115 grain FMJ. I shot 130 of them at 25 yards, and kept almost all my shots inside the -1 zone on my IDPA target. About half of them were in the -0 zone.

As expected, the Springfield ran like a top. In fact, since I've owned it I probably have close to 1,000 rounds through it and as far as I can remember, I have not experienced any malfunctions. Most of the rounds through it have been ball, but about 100 were Speer 124 grain Gold Dot JHPs. I used it in the 2009 zombie shoot at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club, where it got soaked because it rained all day. No problems there, either.

After I got home and cleaned the pistols, I installed a Tandem Kross stainless steel hammer bushing in the Ruger. In doing so, I removed the magazine disconnector, which prevents the hammer from dropping if you pull the trigger with no magazine in the gun. This make field stripping and reassembly more of a PITA, because you have to drop the hammer at various stages of these processes. It also allows the magazine to drop free when you press the mag catch.

While I had the hammer out of the gun I also lightly stoned the sear engagement notch on the hammer to smooth the trigger pull.

Overall, it was a productive day, even if I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do.

We Lucked Out

We lucked out in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Our power went out last night but was restored after about two hours. This morning I went outside to check the house and yard for damage. Except for a torn snowblower cover, we came through unscathed.

One of my neighbors has some tree branches down.

We’re still getting 20 – 30 MPH gusts, it’s raining, and temperatures are in the mid-40s. About 1.3M people in PA are still without power, 2.3M in NJ, and who knows how many in MD, DE, NY, and New England.

Of course, many others weren’t so lucky. NJ and NY got slammed especially hard. The Jersey Shore got trashed and Manhattan looks post-apocalyptic, from some of the photos I’ve seen.

Hurricane Sandy Updates

FYI, I will be posting Hurricane Sandy updates via Twitter.

https://twitter.com/davemarkowitz

Waiting for Sandy

Last night over on Survival Preps I put up a post about my last minute preparations for Hurricane Sandy. There's not much more to be done but wait.

Stay safe, people.

Improving the Ruger 22/45 Lite

Last night I started the process of modding the Ruger 22/45 Lite to better meet my needs, by mounting a Bushnell TRS-25 red dot sight using the rail which came with the pistol.

The TRS-25 was on my Century NDS-2 AK-74, but I hadn't yet zeroed it, so moving it to the Ruger didn't lose me anything on the AK. I had a spare Bushnell Trophy red dot sight that will go on the AK, using a BP-02 low mount.

Anyway, I think it looks pretty spiffy:

I'm hoping to get it zeroed this weekend.

This afternoon I ordered two Tandemkross replacement hammer bushings, which will allow me to get rid of the magazine disconnect. The second bushing is for the 22/45 Mark III that I bought several years ago. This will make field stripping and reassembly easier because it will allow me to drop the hammer with no magazine in the gun. I disklike magazine disconnects; IMHO they provide a false sense of safety.

Next up may be a Volquartsen hammer, sear, and/or trigger. But I first want to put a couple hundred more rounds through it to see if the trigger slicks up enough for my taste.

And of course, the final accessory will be a sound suppressor. I'm still researching which suppressor I want to buy, and have to get an NFA trust in place first.

Ruger .22 Autoloader Reassembly

Today I field stripped the Ruger 22/45 Lite that I bought yesterday and fired last night. It’s always a good idea to strip a gun, clean and lubricate before your first range trip with it. This helps you get familiar with the gun and if there are any metal shavings left over from the factory you can clean them out.

That said, all I did yesterday before shooting the Ruger was to run a couple patches through the bore and put some automatic transmission fluid on the bolt.

Today I disassembled it per the instruction manual. After giving it a good cleaning and lube I went to put it back together. I noticed that with some ATF on the internals, the trigger pull is better.

The reassembly process is why I didn’t do it yesterday – in my experience reassembling Ruger .22 semiauto pistols is a major pain in the ass. You have to do things in the exact correct order and it also helps to keep the piece oriented correctly, as described in the manual.

One thing that helps is that nowadays, you can go to YouTube and find disassembly/reassembly videos for many guns, especially if they are popular. The Rugers are no exception. This one and this one are pretty good.

Thankfully, aside from the gyrations you need to go through to put a Ruger .22 autoloader back together, they are really well designed pistols. They are very reliable and it is not necessary to field strip them after every range trip. What I do is clean the bore, especially the chamber, clean the breech face, bolt face, and under the extractor.

I also make sure it’s well lubricated, probably more so than recommended in Ruger’s manual. .22 rimfire ammo is dirty and keeping the gun well lubed will help flush out unburned powder and fouling.

Note that if you live in a dusty environment like the southwestern US, keeping the gun slathered in oil may not be an option. I’d be interested in hearing from readers who have experience keeping Ruger .22 autopistols running in such locales. Please leave a comment.

Saturday Night Range Report

This afternoon I went over to Surplus City in Feasterville, PA and sold my PSL and Norinco Type 84 AK. Both are nice rifles but have been gathering dust and taking up space. With some of the money from the rifles I picked up a Ruger 22/45 Lite.

The Lite version of the 22/45 has a thin 4.4” steel barrel surrounded by an aluminum shroud. Combined with the Zytel grip frame, it weighs only 22.8 oz. But what’s perhaps most interesting is that the end of the barrel is threaded 1/2”x28, for the express purpose of mounting a sound suppressor (AKA silencer). From the factory, the threads are protected with a knurled aluminum nut with the same diameter as the barrel shroud.

The Ruger came with two 10-round magazines and a optics rail which allows you to mount a scope or a red dot on the gun. It also comes with a padlock so you can lock the bolt open to prevent unauthorized, and a pistol rug. Overall, it’s a nice package.

After getting the Ruger home I ran a couple patches through the bore, and lubricated it with a generous amount of Castrol automatic transmission fluid. (ATF makes a great gun oil and is a decent cleaner in a pinch.)

Along with my dad I took the Ruger to the range tonight. We put 150 rounds through it. The first 100 were CCI Mini-Mag 40 grain solids. In our experience if a .22 autoloader won’t run on Mini-Mags, it has problems. As expected, it ran perfectly with them.

We also put 50 rounds of CCI subsonic hollowpoints through the Ruger. We experienced two failures of the gun to fully go into battery with the subsonic loads. I’m hoping that if I run a couple hundred more high speed rounds through it, it’ll be sufficiently broken in to offer similar reliability with the slower, quieter ammo.

I noticed after about 50 rounds the the front sight blade on the Ruger, which is held on with one screw, came loose. I noticed before it fell off and tightened it back up with the small screwdriver on my Swiss Army Knife, but tomorrow when I clean the gun I’ll put a drop of Loctite on the screw to keep it in place.

The one thing needs attention is the trigger pull. It’s heavy, with some slack and take up. I’m going to look into something like a Volquartsen trigger to reduce the weight and make the pull more crisp. Aside from the trigger, I’m pleased with the Ruger 22/45 Lite.

Of course, the other accessory I am seriously considering is getting a suppressor for it. My first step with be to form an NFA gun trust, then decide which can I want to buy. For more information on such trusts, check out David Goldman’s blog.

Dad mostly shot his Ruger 1911. He’s had it since shortly after they came out but this was my first chance to shoot it. I have to say that if I was looking to buy a 1911 the Ruger would be right near the top of the list. It is very reliable, has a good sights, a great trigger and if you aren’t shooting one-hole groups at 7 yards with it, it’s your fault. The only modification I’d make to it if it was mine would be to add an ambidextrous safety, because I am left handed.

We also put a 50 round box of PMC 9mm 115 grain FMJ through my Radom VIS-35. Dad bought it when a batch came in from Russia several years ago, and last year he gave it to me. What a neat pistol. If spare parts weren’t uncommon and expensive, and original mags over $100 a pop, I’d shoot it a lot more. (Several years ago Dad bought an aftermarket mag at a gun show but it didn’t work. Luckily, when he took it back the next day he was able to get his money back.)

My VIS was made after the Germans conquered Poland but before they started cutting quality in the latter days of WW2. It was probably made around 1943 or so. It has a good trigger pull but the sights are atrocious – typical for the period. Still, it’s really nice to shoot and if I had to go back in time and go behind German lines, it would be my second choice in a sidearm, second only to a Browning High power.

All in all, a fun night.

Echoes of 1979

History doesn't always repeat itself, but it frequently echoes.

Back when it seemed inevitable that Obama would win the 2008 election, I commented to several people I know that Jimmy Carter, Part II would be a best case scenario. It's looking more like 1979 than ever but even though I think Romney has a decent chance of winning, I don't believe he'll be as good a president as Ronald Reagan.

During the past four years we've seen significant inflation, energy shortages, and a worldwide decrease in national prestige. (Yes, it started under Bush, just like for Carter it started under the previous presidents. But it accelerated under both.)

On top of that we've seen Obama exhibiting weakness towards radical Muslims, and ever worse, outright antipathy towards Israel. At least Carter met with the Israeli prime minister and saved his anti-Israel vitriol until after he left office. Instead, Obama snubbed the Israeli PM at a time when Israel is in far more peril, due to the Iranian nuclear program. If we are serious about preventing a second Holocaust, it must be stopped.

Now, on the anniversary of 9/11, radical Muslims -- probably with ties to Iran -- have attacked two American embassies in Arab countries. This time four Americans are dead, including an ambassador. If you believe that two such attacks in different countries on 9/11 are coincidental, I have a bridge for sale.

Note that the proximate reason the radicals have free reign in Libya and Egypt is American and Western European intervention in the "Arab Spring." Mubarak and Qaddafi were totalitarian scum, but they were secular totalitarian scum, with whom we could deal. As usual, Western attempts at nation building, in the form of regime change, have resulted in outcomes that the proponents didn't foresee because of their rose colored glassed. Now we're dealing with savage religious zealots and the only way we can deal with them is to kill them, or forever be plagued by them.

And what was Obama's response to these attacks on American sovereignty? A "strong condemnation" polluted with an apology, AN APOLOGY!?!, for an American who exercised his First Amendment rights. The US government should never apologize to anyone for allowing an American citizen to voice his opinion, as offensive as it might be.

The film which allegedly precipitated these attacks has been seen by hardly anyone, let alone the savage mobs which carried them out. But the fact that Obama saw the need to apologize for it demonstrates his own anti-American worldview.

Imagine the sorry state this country would have been in had Carter been reelected in 1980. Now imagine what this country will look like in 2016 if Obama gets reelected.

Scary indeed.

Quest Rogue Compound Bow

I was considering getting a crossbow for deer hunting on some private land that I have access to. A friend owns the land and bought one last year from Cabela’s Bargain Cave. I got the chance to shoot it earlier this year and was impressed with how rifle-like shooting one is.

As an aside, my friend’s property is packed with deer and they get into his garden. So, he and his wife want the population kept in check. It’s almost a culling operation but I won’t say that I’m guaranteed a deer. Frankly, I’ll be perfectly happy with a doe. I love venison chili, and you can’t eat antlers.

So anyway, on Wednesday night I went to French Creek Outfitters in Phoenixville, PA, and handled an Excalibur Axiom SMF crossbow. It turns out that I didn't like how it felt. So, I asked the salesman at the archery counter if he had any compound bow packages in the $500 range. I wound up coming home with a 2012 Quest Rogue.

Per the specs on Quest’s website, the bow should be capable of launching an arrow at around 300 FPS. I’m getting less than that because I have a short draw length, only 26” to 26.5”. The shorter your draw length, the shorter the power stroke, resulting in lower velocity. With that said, it is by far the fastest bow I’ve ever shot.

It came as a package which included the bow, Limbsaver stabilizer, kisser button, Trophy Taker drop-away rest, sights, D-loop already installed on the string, sling, and a quiver. I also got a hat. The package was $499. I added a half dozen Gold Tip 5575 arrows with 100 grain field points, and a Tru-Ball Stinger release. After the arrows, release, and PA sales tax, it worked out to $614.

I've been shooting a lot of traditional archery this year. The last time I shot a compound was probably sometime in the '90s, before I sold off my old Bear Whitetail II. Going from one of my horsebows or my longbow to this is like going from a flintlock to an AR-15. Holy cow.

Here's a closeup of the riser with goodies:

The cylinder sticking out of the sight is an LED illuminator for the pins.

I put 30 shots through it last night, starting at 10 yards then moving back to 15. This is my final group of 6. (Point of aim was the black dot over the deer's back.)

Once again, holy cow.

I shot it again tonight at the same 15 yards and got similar accuracy. Tonight, however, I picked different spots on the target for about half my shots, to minimize the chances of hitting my arrows.

This morning I bought an archery tag, because with this level of accuracy I feel confident that I can take it into the woods and make a good shot for a humane kill. Aside from the tag, I also ordered from Amazon a half dozen Muzzy broadheads, practice blades, a broadhead wrench, and storage box.

Finally, I placed an order with Gold Tip for another dozen arrows, which should hopefully last me awhile.

The only downside to all this is that I’m now planning to put up for sale one of my rifles to pay for it.

Chinese Horsebow, Part 2

I was able to shoot the Chinese horsebow again yesterday. I used the same arrows but this time was at a friend’s house, and his “yard” is about 8 acres, so we were able to shoot at about 28 yards. I am even more impressed with the bow now. We put about 50 shots through it at his crossbow target that’s about 3 feet square.

Twenty eight yards is further than I’ve shot a bow in over a decade, and I was able to keep about 2/3 of my shots on the target. The bow shoots very flat out to that range and hit with a pretty authoritative thump. Arrows which missed the target but hit the ground next to it skidded 10 yards or more up the hill behind it.

If I get to 1,000 shots with the bow without it showing any damage, I’m going to consider it to be a heck of a bargain.

New Chinese Horsebow

Ever since I got back into archery at the end of 2011, one class of bows which has fascinated me has been the Asian composite bow, AKA "horsebow." The first bow I bought upon resuming the hobby was a 40# Magyar-style horsebow made by Istvan Toth in Hungary. I purchased it online from Seven Meadows Archery. The modest draw weight of the Toth bow allowed me to get back into archery and eventually make my way up to heavier bows.

In April I picked up a 50# Samick SLB-II longbow at Lancaster Archery Supply. This has been the bow I've shot the most in the past few months.

Recently, I became intrigued with horsebows made in China and available at low prices on eBay. After hemming and hawing, I decided to give one of these a try. So, I purchased a 50# Chinese-style horsebow from eBayer "handmadebow". It seemed appropriate to buy a Chinese-style bow from a Chinese bowyer.

For what I guess are marketing reasons, the auction was titled as "USA Handmade Flagella MAGYAR Reiterbogen Recurve Horsebow 50 lbs". It's certainly not a Magyar-type bow. It's more of a Manchu, Chinese, or later Mongol style. For example, Magyar bows and early Mongol bows did not employ string bridges like this bow is fitted with. the I clicked the "buy now" button on 8/16/12, it was shipped from Anhui, China the next day, and it arrived today, 8/24/12. The cost was only $109.99, which included shipping.

The bow arrived in good condition. The packaging could have been better, had it been roughly handled the bow might have been damaged. As it was, the bow came packed inside a well made black nylon bow sock, with some newspaper taped around the ends, and inside of a cardboard box.

My initial impressions were favorable, especially given the very low price of the bow. The overall fit and finish is OK but definitely not as nice as my Toth or Samick bows. The pigskin covering seem to be glued on securely, and the twine wraps are neatly executed, with the ends tucked under and doubly secured with glue. The wood has some kind of a varnish or oil finish.

Some specs:

• Draw weight: 50# at 28"
• Bow length: 148 cm or 58.26"
• String length: 142 cm or 55.9"
• Construction: Fiberglass, pigskin leather, beech wood, nylon (?) twine wrapping the joints, and a multi-strand nylon string. (The auction listed a "tendon" string which may or may not be a translation error.)

Here are some pictures of the bow. As you can see in the first pic, the siyahs point almost directly away from the belly when unstrung, and the limbs also arc away. (You can see full-size versions of these pics here.)



Safely stringing the bow requires either the use of a stringer or an assistant. I don’t have a stringer that will fit this bow, so I had my daughter Amanda help me. While I bent the bow against my knees, she strung and unstrung it for me.



Here are some closeups of the upper siyah. The first shows how the string bridges hold the string away from the belly of the bow. When shooting, the bridges give the string a little “pop” at the end of the power stroke, improving speed.





Here are the only markings on the bow:



My initial shooting impressions are also very favorable. The only thing I did before shooting was wax the bowstring. The draw is smooth, and the pull weight feels constant throughout the draw, without feeling like it's stacking at my draw length, about 26" to 27". It feels lighter than my 50# longbow but part of this is due to the presence of the siyahs, which act as levers to give the archer some mechanical advantage. It almost feels like there's a slight letoff when the siyahs reach a certain point in their arc.

As shown in the accompanying pictures, there is no arrow rest so you must shoot off the knuckle. I find doing so without a glove is painful, so I use a leather shooting glove which covers my right thumb and index finger (I shoot left handed). To protect the fingers on my left hand I use a leather shooting glove rather than a tab. Originally, these bows were shot with a thumb release using a horn or metal thumb ring. That is a skill I haven't even begun yet to master, however.

I shot the bow 48 times tonight using the same Port Orford Cedar arrows I shoot in my longbow. They have three 5" helical fletches and are tipped with 125 grain bodkin points. ('Cause you never know when you'll need to take down a marauding armored knight.)

The bow does have some hand shock and vibration but it's really not too bad. It's a bit noisier than the Toth horsebow but that's not unexpected, since it has string bridges. I'm planning to add string silencers which should reduce both the noise and hand shock.

I was impressed with the speed of the bow. Since I don't have a chronograph I can't say just how fast it shoots, but it's much faster than the lighter Toth bow and on par with the Samick. The arrows zip downrange and make a satisfying "thump" on impact. For a good archer this bow should have plenty of power to bring down a whitetail.

I'm going to try to keep records of how many arrows I shoot with this bow and see how it holds up. Initially, the only thing I plan to do is add a nocking point to the string to ensure that I'm nocking arrows consistently. If this bow holds up to use, it’ll be a real bargain.

Voter ID and the Real Racists

Opponents of voter ID laws claim that they are intended to disenfranchise poor and minority voters by imposing unduly burdensome requirements on them.

Bullshit.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of common activities that adults of voting age engage in and for which government issued ID is required.

1. Buy booze.
2. Open a bank account.
3. Cash a check or money order.
4. Board a commercial airplane (heck, you need it to just get past the TSA).
5. Get a loan from a bank.
6. Apply for welfare.
7. Buy a gun from a licensed dealer.
8. Buying pseudophedrine.
9. Securing employment.
10. Renting a place to live.
11. Buying a home.
12. Buying tobacco products (if you look like you may be under 21 years old).
13. Driving a motor vehicle.
14. Buying a hunting or fishing license.
15. Rent tools from a place like Lowe's or Home Depot.
16. Attend college.

Democrats don't seem to find the ID requirement unduly burdensome to minorities for these activities. Why all of a sudden is it such a burden then when voter ID laws are enacted? Do they really believe that poor minorities don't engage in any of these activities and have ID?

If so, then they are the real racists.

Solar Walk for iOS

Yesterday when I had iTunes open I ran across the iOs app Solar Walk by ViTO Technology as a recommendation. It looked neat and was on sale for only $0.99, so I grabbed it. I'm glad I did.

Solar Walk is a 3D virtual tour of the solar system. The graphics are simply gorgeous, the user interface is very intuitive, and it presents a lot of information in an easy to digest format. I showed my 9 year old daughter the app and she almost immediately grabbed my iPad away from me and started playing with it. She has the UI down pat in a couple of minutes and had I not told her to shut it off around 9:00 PM, she probably would have been up until midnight playing with it. I've never seen her so excited about a computer program or website.

Solar Walk will run on iPhones and iPod Touches, not just iPads, so we'll be getting it for the girls' iPods.

ViTO Technology has a couple of other interesting looking iOS apps, such as Star Walk and Geo Walk, which I'll check out as well.

If any reader knows of a comparable application that will run on Android tablets, please post a link in the comments.

Linux Mint 13 - Not So Fast

Last night after my previous post about Linux Mint 13 I started having problems streaming YouTube videos again. This seems related to the Flash plugin. While Flash seems to work fine on Windows or OS X, it's buggy in Linux.

What a PITA. I'll be glad when Flash dies.

Linux Mint 13 XFCE Edition

Last week in a fit of geekiness, I setup my PC at home to dual boot Linux Mint 13 XFCE Edition alongside Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Although I've had various Linux distros running inside VirtualBox VMs, I wanted to run Linux natively.

I selected Mint since based on prior experiments, it's easy to install and provides a good selection of apps. I specifically chose the XFCE version because I like it as a desktop environment, being stable and light on resources. (The PC has a Core i5 and 8 gigs of RAM, so it's got plenty of horsepower, but I prefer simpler desktops anyway.) Ubuntu is most commonly suggested when Linux noobs are looking at potential distros to try, but IMO its current desktop is horrid. Unity is an ugly POS better suited to tablets than PCs, and I didn't want to mess with changing it. There are official variants of Ubuntu with other desktops (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.) but I wound up with Mint.

Overall the install went smoothly and everything works, after a little tweaking to fix a problem streaming media. Specifically, the audio would frequently stutter when I streamed YouTube video -- something I do a lot. After doing some googling, I discovered that it's due to a bug in how PulseAudio interacts with some drivers, including the one for my RealTek sound card. I found the fix here.

The fix requires a slight config chance in the file /etc/pulse/default.pa. As root or using the sudo command, open the file in a text editor.

Then, find the line which reads:

load-module module-udev-detect

and modify it to read like this:

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

Save and quit the file. You then need to restart the pulseaudio service. You can do this either via a reboot or finding the process via ps ax | grep pulseaudio, killing it, then restarting it.

This was kind of annoying. The sound card I'm using is built into my PC's Intel motherboard, so it is a very common sound card and this sort of thing should be found before software is released.

Aside from the sound issue I haven't run into any other problems, and Linux Mint 13 XFCE Edition has been pleasant to use.

Romney, Ryan, and Churchill

So on Saturday Mitt Romney announced that he's picked Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan for his running mate. Of the available choices I think he was a good one. Ryan is known for his work as the chairman of the House Budget Committee, and this signals that Romney wants to focus the campaign on out of control Federal spending.

I've seen plenty of posts online over the past couple of days lamenting the choice, however. E.g., this will lose Florida for him, or basically that it didn't pander to some demographic -- women, Hispanics, or 3-legged paraplegic black lesbian transexuals. Whatever.

The Obama campaign has dossiers on all of the people who might have gotten the nod. I have zero doubt that regardless of who Romney picked, Zero's minions would have unleashed a torrent of hateful, mendacious invective.

One of the first rules of a fight -- whether a gunfight or a political campaign -- is that you have to "run with what ya brung." Just as a general on the field of battle has to fight with the army he has, not the army he wishes he had, we have to run with the candidates we have. The time for bemoaning the Republican choice of nominee is over. Now is the time to gather together as one and focus on firing Obama and Biden in November.

For those of you dismayed by our choices, I commend to you some of Sir Winston Churchill's wisdom:

Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Churchill uttered these lines in 1941 when Britain still faced the very real threat of Nazi victory and all the horrors that entailed.

The Fat Lady hasn't sung and it ain't over.

Thoughts on Organized Shooting Ranges and the RKBA

Over at the PA Gun Blog, Sebastian put up a thougthful post regarding the state of affairs at organized shooting ranges. If you're fortunate enough to have enough land of your own to shoot on, or live out West and can go shoot on public land, you may not be familiar with the restrictions us folks who have to shoot at a club must put up with.

In particular, many clubs have restrictions on how many rounds you may load in a gun, what types of targets you can shoot at, and how fast you can fire. Some clubs even restrict you to shooting rifles from a benchrest, with something overhead limiting how far you can elevate the barrel, in order to ensure no round passes over the berm. So much for offhand practice.

One of Sebastian's laments is that clubs with onerous rules and an aging membership will die out. This may be the case with some clubs, but of the two which I currently belong, to, their is a huge number of people clamoring to get in, many of whom are new shooters.

As Sebastian has pointed out in many of his other posts, we won the culture war, at least when it came to the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. I've been actively involved with the RKBA struggle for about 20 years, and cognizant of it for many years before that. I'm 44 years old, and for the first half of my life gun owners were made to feel like pariahs. Things started changing in the mid-90s. Several things contributed to this:

1. The Clinton administration was very anti-gun and got a lot of people who otherwise may have sat on the sideline involved.
2. The general realization that gun control laws are bullshit non-solutions to violent crime, and only result in unilateral victim disarmament.
3. I can't point to any hard figures, but based on my personal observations, I believe the "Counterstrike Effect" is a contributing factor. Specifically, we've now had a generation of (mostly) guys who've been exposed to military guns and who developed a fascination with them via video gaming, and who as a result have gone out to buy AR-15s, AKs, and other military-style rifles.*

Nowadays you have shows like "Top Shot" and "Sons of Guns" on major cable networks. It's a refreshing change.

I posted a reply to Sebastian, which I'll copy here:

I belong to two clubs in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. I was on the board of directors for a year at Club #1. 

Club #1 went from about 800 memberships (a "membership" may be a family, so it may be more than 1 person) to about 1300 from 2008 to the present. At the same time, the types of rifle most predominantly seen on the ranges changed from traditional sporting rifles to military-style rifles, like AR-15s and AKs.** 

Additionally, we went from getting a handful of new members each month to getting 50 or 60, until we capped it at no more than 30 new members per month, and have since gone to requiring sponsorship. AIUI, we will not be accepting any new members after August until January at the earliest. 

Club #2 (which I recently joined) changed its membership rules in an effort to keep it from expanding beyond the range's capacity. They now require new members to be sponsored.
When both clubs were built they were in the country, but "progress" has resulted in homes being built nearby. In the case of Club #2 there are large developments of McMansions within a quarter mile. As a result, both clubs restrict rapid fire and strictly enforce shooting hours, due to noise concerns. Club #1 was actually shut down for a couple years by the township while the issue was litigated.

As I mentioned in my post, I was on the BOD at Club #1. Board membership is a pain in the neck and one of the most important duties you have as a director is handling stupid members who don't follow club rules. But if you belong to a club and are dissatisfied with some rules, don't just complain about it on the Internet. Get involved and bring about change from within.


* I hate the term "modern sporting rifle" that some shooters have bestowed upon AR-15s, et al., in seeking to come up with a politically correct euphemism. It kowtows to the belief that only sporting arms are protected by the Second Amendment, when in fact, it protects arms suitable for use by members of the militia. See United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939), and see 10 U.S.C. Section 311 for the composition of the militia. Further, some state constitutions explicitly recognize that the people have the individual right to keep and bear arms. E.g., Article I, Section 21 of the PA constitution reads, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned."

**If you go into most gun shops, significant rack space will be devoted to semiauto, military-style rifles like AR-15s and Kalashnikovs. In handguns the M-1911 semiauto -- as made by many gun manufacturers and still going strong after 101 years -- and more modern designs like the various Glocks, S&W Military & Polices, and Springfield XDs dominate. Revolvers take up a much smaller amount of valuable shelf space.