Since it is hot and sticky outside today and the grass is not drying out from the storms early this morning, there will be no mowing today. I will hit it after my 18 hour FD shift tomorrow evening. Today makes 40 years of wedded bliss for us, so we are going out to Foxwood's for an awesome dinner, just the two of us. When we get home I have to don a duty uniform, prepare my bunk duffel, and food for the day tomorrow because I go in for midnight. I am usually at the firehouse by 22:30, stow my food, make up my bunk, and catch the last of the late news turning in before 23:00. If there is an earlier call and I respond I go on the clock right then. I'll set an alarm and get up at 06:00 if there are no overnight calls and there is a shift change. Otherwise I will sleep in to make up for getting woken up in the middle of the night.
So, in anticipation of an upcoming range day, I spent some time in the nice cool basement de-linking some more of the Turkish M2 Ball ammo I got from Tacticalshit.com The cardboard case is divided into three partitions, so I figured I would finish the first partition and use the space to store the Ziploc bag of machine gun links. In my previous post I described how easy it is to accomplish. I grabbed a piece of scrap PT deck board and clamped it in place on one of my Stanley Workmates. I placed a small bucket on the floor to my right to toss the links in. The .30 cal ammo can I have my M1 target ammo and accessories in was in front of me for the M2 Ball rounds to go into, and the pile of 4 round assemblies are sitting on the end of the board by the ammo can.
Below is a closeup of the end of the board where I dimpled it with a punch to keep the bullet point from sliding away as I pressed down.
Rather than taking a chance on chewing up my hands and fingers I wore a pair of gripper gloves to perform the de-linking operation.
Each 4 round assembly took only seconds to take apart. Links tossed in the bucket, rounds in the ammo can. Being dissimilar metals (steel links and brass cases) there was no electrolytic caused corrosion that made the components stick together or have to be cleaned. IMHO this ammo was properly stored in a dry environment. When I was done, this is what was left for the future; two partitions of ammo with the bag of links.
I sealed up the cardboard box with packing tape and labeled it with a Sharpie. Hmmmm.... a dilemma; where am I going to store a cardboard box of ammo? While my basement is nice and dry, all of my ammo in my large steel storage box is stored inside individual sealed 30 and 50 caliber ammo cans. So I made room in my super fortified and alarmed gun closet in the living area above grade. I just had to move some hard handgun cases around. As for the ammo can full of M2 Ball...
It already had a spot in the ammo box. Without counting I should now have about 132 loose rounds. The 6 loaded clips with cardboard covers are the Greek ammo that is going to be used for comparison. The white box are M1999 blanks and lying on the cover is the blank adapter. Years ago, we had a miniature poodle that my wife had trained to retrieve ducks. We would train him in the yard where my wife would throw the dummy duck high in the air, I would fire a blank, and as the duck fell she would yell "GET IT!" and he would get it and drag it back. The yellow device allows me to shoot my M1 as a single shot rifle. It locks down the bullet follower and allows the bolt to move freely to manually load a round and then automatically eject the brass. To remove it from the rifle you simply hold the bolt back and press the clip ejection button on the left side of the receiver and it pops out.
I put a tape label on top differentiating the Turkish and Greek ammo head stamps. When I uploaded this picture I realized I incorrectly put "MKE 82" instead of the actual "MKE 83". I'll fix it at a later date.
Stay tuned for the upcoming range report on how this ammo functions and performs. When I get a range day depends on weather, work, and family obligations. I should have multiple opportunities before Labor Day.
The following post is actually a comment I left at Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated about my US Army basic training Drill Sargents the other day.
My Army basic training Drill Sargent’s at Fort Dix both made such an impression on 18 year old me I remember their names, faces, and voices clearly 42 years later. Sgt. Cupp was white and built like a human fire hydrant. He took no guff but had a quirky sense of humor. One day, we came out of noon chow and began loosely forming up behind our web gear and steel pots. He hollered out “Smoke ’em if you got ’em, and if you don’t then simulate! I began simulating toking on a bone. Sgt. Cupp sees me and come straight over to where I am standing and gives me a sideways stinkeye. “Get on the ground and give me 20, then ask for 20 more!” I drop into the front leaning rest position and knock them out, then ask for 20 more. “Knock ’em out! he says which I do. This repeated until I was at 100 and he told me to recover.
Sgt. Cumberbatch was black, a handsome guy with a great mustache, and he was cut. He was only a little taller than Sgt. Cupp but the guy was super fit. He had a great voice for calling cadence and shouting commands. I didn’t have a whole lot of personal interaction with him. Although I believe it was he that taught us the Claymore. We were all sitting in a classroom as he demonstrates setting one up and explaining the steps as he does. “THIS SIDE TOWARDS ENEMY” was facing us recruits on the front table. He sticks in the blasting cap and starts uncoiling the wires walking backwards away from the Claymore still explaining the steps as he connects the wires to the trigger. Everyone is visibly looking around nervously. “Bye-bye boys!” he yells out and hits the trigger. The blasting cap goes off with a loud pop and everyone jumps and he laughs himself silly. I’m sure that is a gag that was pulled on many recruit classes before and after. Near the end of boot camp, we are out on bivouac. After camp was setup, evening chow was done, and well after dark, a fire was lit and the boombox came out. For the next two hours, Sgt. Cumberbatch oversaw a breakdance party of both black and white participants. I just watched, but it was a heckuva stress reliever for everyone.
Until writing this, I haven’t thought about those guys in years. Thanks for triggering the memories.
The Claymore was obviously a dummy training aid, but the blasting cap and trigger were the real deal. To this day I have a similar type gag I use on fire service newbies. We have to do initial and then annual SCBA mask fitting. This is done using a USB connected device on a dedicated desktop computer. The device then connects to our SCBA mask with a filter assembly and hoses. The person being tested puts on and seals their mask. Then I attach and lock on the filter assembly and start the test program. Whenever I have a first timer, just as I lock the filter onto their mask, I say, "I will give you a wave just before the poison gas comes on" to which I get the dinner plate sized eyes and look of fear. Then I bust out laughing and they breathe a sigh of relief.
The only photo I have of my Drill Sargents is this platoon graduation group photo for Fort Dix A-2-3-2 on May 1, 1981. For those never in the military, A-2-3-2 stood for Alpha Company, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Platoon. Sgt. Cupp on the left, Sgt. Cumberbatch on the right. They are flanked by our squad leaders who were all older and more mature than us 18 year old punks. The squad leader all the way to the right was our platoon PT champion, Pvt. Greggory Heiney. The back of the photos were signed by everyone there. I only remember a handful of faces to go with the names. I am between Mazzarela on the left and Neff on the right. The guy 3 over from me to the right is Edward "Morris the Cat" Morris from Washington state. My family and girlfriend drove down for graduation and he had the hots for my sister. The black guy on the right in the middle of the top row was my friend from Mississippi Carlvet Lee. We were like Forrest Gump and Bubba. He was larger than me and I once carried him just like Forrest carried Bubba for practice for 100 yards. I have a whole story about him and I that took place Memorial Day weekend 1981 and involved me getting fucked on KP. I'll save it for another post.