Archive for the ‘Guns’ Category

Sorry, not sorry.

Thursday, November 7th, 2024

Part of me thinks I should apologize for not posting yesterday. The other part of me doesn’t.

I got about 3.5 hours of sleep Tuesday night, though I did nap some on Lawrence’s dog couch. So I was pretty worn out yesterday and still had to put in a full day at work. Plus, as I’ve said before, I am not a politics or geo-politics person. I have some things I could say about politics and gun politics, like what I’m hoping for out of the new boss (same as the old boss) but I’d just be stirring the metaphorical pot with a metaphorical stick.

There are plenty of other people who are smarter about politics than I am. I’d suggest Lawrence and Borepatch to start with. I’d also recommend the folks on Lawrence’s sidebar.

At least I can stop muting political ads, and continue muting Medicare supplement ads and lawyer ads.

In other news, I wanted to bookmark this article from American Handgunner, “Sixguns To The Rescue: The M1917 In World War One” about the M1917 revolvers. (Previously on WCD.)

From the obit front: Geoff Capes. I’d never heard of him, but he was hugely popular in the United Kingdom. He was a multiple time winner of the World’s Strongest Man competition, a six-time winner of the Highland Games, and won the “U.K. Truck-Pulling Championship” in 1986.

At 6-foot-6 and 365 pounds, Mr. Capes was a crushing Adonis whose daily diet consisted of seven pints of milk, two loaves of bread, a dozen eggs, two steaks, a jar of baked beans, two tins of sardines, a pound of butter and a leg of lamb.
His gargantuan caloric intake powered his extraordinary feats in strongman competitions: pulling 12-ton trucks uphill, flipping cars, tearing London phone books in half and tossing five-pound bricks as if they were Kleenex boxes. He could run 200 meters — nearly the length of two American football fields — in under 25 seconds.

His physical prowess made him a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II, who howled in laughter after her glove stuck to his sweaty, sticky hands when she congratulated him on winning the Braemar Games, another Scottish skills competition, in 1982. Prince Charles and Princess Diana stood nearby having a giggle.

He was also a world-class breeder of budgies.

He competed in budgerigar shows throughout Europe, winning a world championship in 1995. He was named president of the Budgerigar Society in 2008 and frequently judged competitions.
“There’s something about their color and beauty that fascinates me,” Mr. Capes told The Sunday People. “They bring out my gentler side.”

This is one that I’ve been a little behind on: Richard A. Cash, big damn hero.

One of the things that people don’t understand until they’ve read at least a little bit about medicine is: dehydration will kill you. And there are lots of diseases, such as cholera and dysentery, that trigger fatal dehydration.

Patients could go “from a grape to a raisin” within hours, Dr. Cash often said.

Dr. Cash and Dr. David Nalin were working in Pakistan in 1967, and together developed an experimental oral rehydration therapy. It worked exceptionally well in trials.

Their approach was put to the test in 1971, when Bangladesh’s war of independence drove tens of thousands of refugees into camps across the border in India. Cholera and other diseases soon spread rapidly.
An Indian pediatrician helping with the response, Dilip Mahalanabis, made oral rehydration a cornerstone of his strategy, with astounding success — proof for all the world that a simple solution could be brought to bear against one of the world’s greatest killers.

The World Health Organization estimates that oral hydration therapy has saved more than 50 million lives, a majority of them children. In 1978, the British medical journal The Lancet called their innovation “potentially the most important medical advance this century.”

Please to remember…

Tuesday, November 5th, 2024

Happy Guy Fawkes Day to all my peeps everywhere!

(Still busy as all get out running around with Mike the Musicologist. I did accomplish something yesterday, though: I managed to get one of the Lipsey’s/S&W Ultimate Carry guns. Mine is a 442 in .38 Special: Cabela’s, it turns out, had a few and I think I got the last non-display one. They had no .32 Magnums. I hope to be able to post at least a brief range report, maybe even with chronograph data, once my eye doctor clears me to shoot.)

Random gun book crankery, plus Leadership Secrets of Non-Fictional Characters.

Friday, October 25th, 2024

Just going to take a deep breath and jump here. These are pretty much new books, mostly from Amazon, so I’m going to spare you photos and just insert affiliate links. If you buy anything, I get a small kickback.

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Norts spews.

Friday, October 25th, 2024

I ran across a story on ESPN last night that, for me, raised more questions than it answered. I even ran it past Mike the Musicologist (who is very much not a sportsball person) because it just seemed so odd.

Josh Reynolds, wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, was shot last Friday.

Police documents indicate Reynolds and another man were located, after multiple 911 calls to report two people had been shot, near South Quebec Street and East Union Avenue in Denver. Reynolds had been shot twice — once in the left arm and once in the back of his head.
Team sources said Thursday that Reynolds was treated and released from a Denver-area hospital hours after the shooting.

So he was shot in the back of the head, treated, and released? That’s the kind of thing that should make you get down on your knees three times a day and thank God. It is also the kind of thing that makes you wonder what caliber he was shot with, and whether something slowed down the bullet on the way.

Police said Reynolds and two others had reported they were at Shotgun Willie’s, a strip club in Glendale, Colorado, and left at 2:45 a.m. Friday morning. Reynolds and one of the men left the club in an SUV and later told police they were followed by multiple vehicles and shots were fired.

Strippers. Always with the strippers. Also, nothing good happens after midnight. Also, Shotgun Willie’s is where Ja Morant got into trouble. Maybe teams should be telling their players “Shotgun Willie’s is off-limits.”

Also also: situational awareness. Maybe teams should be hiring the Left of Bang guys (more on this to come).

Reynolds and the other man got out of the SUV they were in when it would no longer drive on Interstate 25, the highway that bisects Denver north to south. The SUV was later found by police with multiple bullet holes in it.

Sounds like the car was shot up enough to where it wasn’t mechanically functional, which is another reason why I’m wondering if Mr. Reynolds was hit by a bullet or fragment that was slowed down by glass or auto body.

I don’t know that this worth the amount of thought I’ve been putting into it. It just seems like a curious thing.

By the way, the police have arrested two suspects. And while Mr. Reynolds was treated and released, he won’t be playing this week: he’s been on injured reserve for a finger injury. (Carolina plays in Denver Sunday afternoon.)

Smoking hyenas update.

Thursday, September 12th, 2024

I haven’t had a lot of time today, but before I turn in, I wanted to note: NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned today. (Previously.)

Part of the reason I want to get this up is rumor control. The interim commissioner is not this guy:

though he does have NYPD and leadership experience. The interim commissioner is also not this guy:

though in my humble opinion, the NYPD would be vastly improved by a commissioner who carries an old-school Fitz Special.

(I’m sure you were expecting the second one, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to make a reference to the Fitz Special.)

Bob and Jack and Julian and John.

Friday, September 6th, 2024

It was a busy weekend. There’s a new gun show near Leander that a bunch of us ended up going to, and I found quite a bit of stuff. Including .220 Swift and – believe it or not – .22 Remington Jet ammo.

Then I ate something that disagreed with me on Tuesday and haven’t been feeling great. Things are looking up, but all of this is to say that I’ve been behind the curve, so I’m only now getting to more gun book blogging.

I think I’m going to try to knock off the last five books that are down here on the kitchen table so I can move those upstairs. And bring some more down later, but don’t tell anybody I said that. This is going to be a long one, so I’m putting a jump here.

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Obit watch: September 4, 2024.

Wednesday, September 4th, 2024

Paul Harrell, noted gun YouTuber. (Hattip: Lawrence.) McThag.

Edited to add: The Firearm Blog. NYPost, which kind of makes me want to go “!!!!”. On the other hand, the NYP ran an article yesterday about a heron eating a rat, so running an obit for a popular YouTuber, even if he was a gun guy, is probably closer to news.

Rob “Rabbit” Pitt, car guy. Sacramento Bee. (Hattip: FotB RoadRich.)

Archived NYT obit for James Darren, which did not go up until after I posted yesterday.

“…he thought he was good.” (Random gun crankery.)

Thursday, August 29th, 2024

I have an impression that the Colt Woodsman looms large in American popular culture.

Chandler, in one of his stories (“Trouble Is My Business“), had two gunmen come through the door, one armed with “a Colt Woodsman with a long barrel and the front sight filed off. That meant he thought he was good.”

(Sorry. Just wanted to break the wall of text up a bit.)

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Duke, Duke, Duke…

Friday, August 23rd, 2024

…not of Earl, Earl, Earl. I have two books by the late Mike “Duke” Venturino I want to get cataloged. And while I’m at it, I want to also hit another Samworth and another O’Connor. So why don’t we get started?

I think, before I insert the jump, that I do want to note: I know there are some people (including one reader here) who don’t care for Duke’s writing. I’m 100% okay with that. While I enjoyed reading him, I understand tastes differ. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that crap. Plus I don’t have a personal investment in people sharing my tastes. I remember having this discussion with one of my nephews once upon a time: I don’t want you to like the same things I do just because I like them, but I would like for you to be able to articulate why you do or don’t like things. (Again, that was one of my nephews. That’s not an issue with anyone here.)

Anyway, if you didn’t care for Mr. Venturino’s writings, you’re welcome to skip over the last two entries. Deal?

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Short random gun crankery.

Friday, August 16th, 2024

I am hoping to be able to get back to gun crankery (and gun book crankery) next week. I expect things to be a little less busy (famous last words). And I have a hysterical historical letter coming from Colt about another old gun (though not quite as old as the last one) so I want to put up a post about it.

In the meantime, I wanted to highlight this: “Killing Lincoln: John Wilkes Booth’s Philadelphia Deringer” by Dr. Dabbs. Greg Ellifritz had this in his weekend link dump (which you should really be reading: I resisted for a long time, even though Karl regularly linked to it, and now I regret not reading it) but I probably would have gotten to it eventually since I subscribe to American Handgunner.

I note this for two reasons:

1) The blog’s ongoing interest in presidential assassination weapons, which appears to be shared by Dr. Dabbs.

B) “The tiny little pistol pushes a 143-grain lead ball to around 250 feet per second when charged atop 25 grains of FFFG black powder. I used mine to shoot an eggplant, because I hate eggplant.”

Why don’t we have a party?

Monday, July 29th, 2024

Since I’ve been blogging for 15 years, why not?

And what better kind of party to throw than…a gun book party! Because a gun book party don’t stop until we’re out of gun books, and I don’t see that happening. But I did run out of time to get this post up on Sunday, so I’m moving the party to Monday night instead.

Also, I’d like to get some more gun books off the kitchen table and reduce the stack before Someone Who Isn’t Me (SWIM) gets sprung from durance vile and returns home. After the jump…

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Sunday is my gun book day…

Sunday, July 21st, 2024

…and given the breaking news today, I suspect it’s going to be a manic Monday. (Also, I have to go to the eye doctor tomorrow.) So how about a little distraction?

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