Wow

The traffic on this blog, in the six short months of existence, has today surpassed the total traffic count of my previous effort that was up for 5 1/2 years. A good portion of those views were caused by bot activity hammering it. The same goes for the frequency of comments. Since I moderate all comments, I look at every one and approve 99.99% of all comments. I write this mostly for myself as a place to vent and to keep my writing skills sharp. The fact so many of you take the time to read it never ceases to amaze me. Thanks so much.

This Is So "Tornado Alley"

While Kommiecticut is no stranger to tornadoes, they typically occur in the heat of the day in late afternoon. Not in the dark of night or wee hours of the morning. They are also usually EF0 or EF1 and don't get very large or travel very far due to the terrain. At 03:50 this morning, my weather radio went off for a tornado warning. I grabbed my phone to check the radar and there was an emergency alert on the lock screen. It didn't go off with the sound because I keep my phone face down on the nightstand by my gun and silenced. I don't care to hear boops and beeps all night long from emails and such or see my screen lighting up either. It is there for me to call 911 only.

A screenshot of both warnings. First at 03:50 and updated at 04:13

I hit the bathroom and woke up my wife. We roused the dogs and all headed for the basement. I put the TV on (yes we have our satellite TV extended to the basement) for the Hartford news and sure enough, doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm with rotation, and we were in the warning area. The TV went out because of the storm and I grabbed a couple of flashlights in case power went out. We both had our phones on us in case it all went south we could call for help. Thankfully it was short lived, and the storm passed to the south of us and was a nothing burger. If nothing else, it was a good drill. At this time there have been no reports of damage from the area.

Snerk!

 

More fun with General Pinochet

UPDATE: About the song in the video "Mi General Augusto Pinochet" with lyrics and translation.

Finally... A #TwoWheelTuesday

On this first day after the unofficial end of summer, I finally get to ride "The Beast" in to work. All summer long, it has been either rainy in the morning, rained all day long, or thunderstorms in the afternoon. On the one or two days I might have been able to ride, I needed to go somewhere after work and needed my truck. My shift partner has not ridden in since back in the spring.

This Saturday September 11th is the 5th annual "Ride For Gage" to benefit the Jordan Porco Foundation for mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Gage Rondeau was a 15 year old motorcycle enthusiast that committed suicide. It will be my third time on this ride, which is police escorted and goes for 45 uninterrupted miles through Tolland and Windham county. It ends at the Rockville Elks Club for a BBQ and band. The weather is supposed to be fantastic and wifey is supposed to come along again this year. She actually had a good time. Because of Chink-Bug, last year the ride group was smaller, and the BBQ at the end was limited in attendance. The gang I rode with broke off in Rockville before the Elks Club and we had a nice lunch together at the famous Rein's Deli.

On the 25th is a poker run for the CT Citizens Defense League. I had such fun at my first ever poker run earlier this summer I'm gonna do it again. 

For a long time, I had little use for the CCDL, because like the NRA (Negotiating our Rights Away) they were a toothless organization under the old leadership. I abandoned them after the former president, Scott Wilson, told me directly he did not believe in the existence of or the participation in the ARMED CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE OF NON-COMPLIANCE against the unconstitutional/intolerable acts passed in 2013. They were all too happy to let gun rights in this state slip away, and IMHO to keep them all employed while at the same time supposedly "fighting real hard." You know, just like the minority poverty pimps need to keep the minority poor... poor. The new president, Holly Sullivan must have Scott Wilson's balls in a locked box so she can use them since he never did. CCDL recently sued all the Demon-crap controlled shithole large cities in the state, for purposely drawing out the permit application process from the statutorily defined 60 days to 7 or 8 months. Poor New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker was on TV crying about have to expend resources to defend the city. Meanwhile, he is on board with the whole de-funding the police movement and his city has an almost nightly body count. In that press conference, he tried to allude to the application for permits as a contributing factor in the violent crime on the streets. Hey Asshole... it's not permit holders shooting up your city, it's the thugs and street vermin you and your ilk coddle.

Finally... A Day At The Range

Ah yes, a range day on a beautiful sunny Friday that I am off and no one else is at the range. As usual, I carry a firearm that I will not shoot, but for protection of myself and my firearms. I call it my "fuck around and find out" gun. For Friday's outing, I chose my Ruger GP-161 openly carried in my "*Wyoming Deputy Sheriff rig." Ammo was Hornady Critical Defense 125 grain .357 Magnum and included a pair of HKS speedloaders. I will describe the firearms in vague descriptions so no one has access to an actual "list" of what I may or may not own, or perhaps I just borrowed for the day.

A semi-auto .22:LR

This particular rifle was the first real gun I bought over 40 years ago at age 18 from KMart (remember those days when stores like KMart had an entire gun department in Sporting Goods?) I think I paid $59.95 for it. It has consumed thousands of rounds and the only problem was a broken extractor. The manufacturer (back when they were a stand-alone manufacturer not a subsidiary) sent me a new extractor AND and new style bolt. That was at least 25 years ago and the gun has been fine ever since, just not shot as much as it used to. I had put a Fiberforce skeleton stock on it, but wanted to go back to original. The eye relief on the scope changed, so I wanted to re-zero it. I sight in all my .22's for 50 yards which IMHO is practical. Sure, I can lob rounds out to 100 yards, but I normally don't.

My best effort. Minute of squirrel, minus the 6 o'clock flyer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this is a forty one year old rifle, it has the original magazine capacity of 18. But for my purposes on this outing I only loaded 10 each time. The trigger pull is more than I remember, and with a little work on trigger control I could really tighten up that group. Also, I need to go for an eye exam and new glasses as you'll see on the next evolution.

A bolt-action .22LR

This was a 1947 vintage single shot bolt action rifle fitted with a Williams peep sight. It has a 25" long barrel and has a split in the stock. The gun was a mess the first time I saw it but it cleaned up really well. The split is minor in the butt stock on the right side, but does not affect the way it shoots. And it shoots way better than I can make it until I get new glasses. This would be a fun gun for silhouette shooting.

 

 

Since the Williams sight is kind of a pain to adjust, I will wait until I get new glasses before fine tuning it. The stringing across once again is trigger control on my part.

 

A semi-auto U.S. mil-surp

Oh yeah! A 30 caliber WWII battle rifle that now is properly sighted for 200 yards. The basic procedure is to shoot a group at 25 yards to "get on paper at 200." Pictured below is at 25 yards.  Once zeroed at 200 I whacked the 12" steel gong consistently.

The low one was the first shot. One click up and I was in the red.

 

I have spent more time at my new club since December, shooting, pulling work details, and working events than I did in the last five years of my previous club. Of course, the main reason is the facility is only a few miles from home, not 20.

*My "Wyoming Deputy Sheriff Rig" consists of a Bianchi thumb-break holster, a Bianchi dual speedloader carrier, a carabiner for my keys, all carried on a Wilderness Tactical 1.75" belt. I think it is pretty bad-ass, is very comfortable, and works really well for such a large handgun.

This is what I normally wear hiking in the woods or out walking the dog. I use a different ammo, Federal 158 grain JFP for bear or other creatures. It will certainly fuck up the two-legged kind as well.